by Adam Holt
“That would have been a bad move,” he said, continuing his inspection. “The whole world is on high alert for any suspicious activity now. A stolen plane flying out of Space Alliance Headquarters would have drawn attention. And if they figured out that it was Buckshot and me? The Alliance would have detained us, and I needed to stay free.” Exactly, I thought. “Everyone at HQ focused on the Ascendant message, so we left while we had the chance. I figured that the Ascendant might find you, and there was only one way to get here quickly—a hypertube.”
“No way!” said Sunjay. “I’ve never ridden a hypertube! What’s it like flying underground in a vacuum tube at 800 miles per hour?”
“Hypertubes are terrible,” Buckshot said. “No windows, hundreds of feet underground, and it’s about the size of a coffin. Heck, it is a coffin!”
“But it’s quick,” my dad said. “Two hours from Geneva to Moscow and five hours from Moscow to Anchorage. Then we, uh, borrowed a truck and drove the rest of the way here. Just in time, too.”
“Ah, we could have taken ‘em,” Aunt Selma wheezed, stretched out on the bench beside me.
My dad found another symbol on the wall and a black staff appeared above my head. I ducked, half expecting to be thrown sideways.
“That looks familiar,” said my aunt.
“But it won’t get us out of here,” my dad said. He didn’t bother with the weapon. He kept searching for an ignition switch. Just our luck. We’re in a perfectly good spaceship with no set of keys. Maybe I can help.
I closed my eyes and tried to picture the Lion’s Mane, but we spent so little time on board that ship. I recalled the Ascendant Lord standing in the center of his Command Deck with his hand outstretched. Maybe that would work.
I started looking on the floor, and that was the key. Two gray footpads. I hopped up and stepped on to them, which made them glow. Then I stretched out my hand like the Ascendant Lord.
“Tully?” Dad frowned at me.
Out of nowhere into my hand fell a heavy glass ball the size of a paperweight. It had a mind of its own, pulling my hand forward, and as it did so, a holographic map appeared—a projection of the Mini-Mane and my aunt’s cabin. There was a small platform extended from the side of the glass ball. With my index finger I pushed the platform into the glass ball. As I did so, I heard a hissing sound. The Mini-Mane’s platform retracted and closed. Crystal controller, I thought. Classy!
`“Just kill me now, Tully!” yelled Aunt Selma.
“Easy, son. No sudden moves,” my dad said. I released the crystal and it hovered in mid-air, surrounded by the holographic map. Cautiously I took the crystal, cold and heavy, in my hand again. “That’s it, son. Why don’t you fly us out of here?” It was worth a shot.
“I need a bigger map,” I said, turning back to my dad.
“Try to stretch this one,” said Sunjay. “I bet that it’s intuitive, kind of like your hologlasses. Just use both hands. I can try, if you want.”
“I got it, Sunjay.” I cradled the crystal in one hand. Then I reached toward the map with the other. The map expanded out and out and out: we could see the Pacific Ocean, the curve of the Earth, then the Moon and several asteroids. The map just kept growing. It was like hearing the ocean in a shell, and then looking in the shell and seeing an actual ocean. My mind wobbled with the enormity of truth. It’s a universe map! A map bigger than our solar system was resting at my fingertips and filling this small ship, and we, we were floating in front of my aunt’s house, but we were also circling a star that was flying through outer space in a dim part of the Milky Way. Where are you hiding out there, Ascendant? Where are you, Tabitha Tirelli? Just tell me. The universe is in my hands.
“Tully, we can mess with the map later,” said my dad, snapping me back to our tiny chunk of reality. “Find a hospital for your aunt.”
“Of course, yeah. Nothing is labeled,” I said. “Why would the Ascendant label hospitals on their universe map?”
“Try the hologlasses,” said Sunjay. I put them on. The words “CONNECTED TO UNKNOWN DEVICE” flashed in front of my eyes. I blinked a few times. Suddenly the map filled with street names and locations. Even sushi restaurants with helpful reviews. From the Milky Way to sushi. Stars, I was hungry.
“That’s it!” I said. “They can play together. Hologlasses, show me hospitals in Anchorage.” The map flattened out and gave me an overview of Anchorage with a list of glowing blue crosses above several large buildings. “Here’s one.”
“Oh, I don’t need labels to read a map,” said Sunjay. “There’s the harbor. There are a bunch of restaurants down there. Here’s the medical center. I bet there’s a hospital right about here.” From his seat, Sunjay pointed to the correct location. I knew that he had a great memory for maps, but stars, this confirmed it!
“Between the two of you, I think things are under control for now. Set a course. Just start slow, keep us low, and stay off the radar. Everyone will be nervous about alien ships passing by.”
“Oh, you think?” I said, carefully lifting the crystal, and as I did so, the Mini-Mane rose into the sky just above the mountains. With the other hand, I slowly pointed toward Anchorage. Harnesses popped out of the walls and everyone strapped in. With each inch I extended my hand, our speed increased smoothly. There were no windows, so we all watched the hologram. The cabin disappeared. Our eyes turned toward the horizon.
Flying the ship wasn’t very tricky. It was just a matter of standing still and concentrating on the flight path. My feet controlled the yaw and pitch. My hand controlled up, down, side to side, sort of like that “mouse” thing that old computers used. After a few minutes my dad decided it was safe to unstrap and explore the rest of the sphere.
“I think it’s a scout ship,” he said. “Limited weapons, unknown power source and propulsion system. The Ascendant will expect contact soon.”
“Then they’ll see that we took their ship?” asked Sunjay.
“Possibly. We don’t know what they know. We need to get a step ahead of them, so we need to disable any sort of tracking or communication systems they use. Since the Earth isn’t their home world, let’s hope they can’t track us very closely. Even if they can, there will be a delay in communication. That will work in our favor but only for so long.”
Our trip from Middle of Nowhere to Anchorage was a blur of forests, roads, rivers, and snow. Sometimes the ship lurched one way or another, and moments later we would skim past a radio tower that I could never have avoided.
Finally we sailed over a ridge and saw the lights of Anchorage. The ship pushed back on my hand to slow us down. Moments later we flew over a few skyscrapers and found ourselves hovering over a rooftop. A cross with the letter “H”—it was easy to spot the hospital’s helicopter pad on the roof. I extended my index finger and the ship lowered its platform.
“This must be my stop,” Aunt Selma said, pointing down the platform. “Tully, I have something for you.” She reached into her overalls pocket and out came an envelope with my name written on it. A letter? What’s that all about? “Open it later,” she said, “when things settle down.”
“If that ever happens,” I said.
“It will, Tullboy. Just give it time.”
I took the envelope; she gave me a hug with one arm around the neck. Then my dad helped Aunt Selma down the platform and onto the rooftop.
There was one nurse in scrubs taking a smoking break and waiting for helicopters to arrive with patients. I looked down and watched as my dad handed off my aunt to him. He looked baffled for a moment.
“How did you guys get on the roof?” he said. Then he looked behind my dad and saw the Mini-Mane silently looming above him. The cigarette fell from his mouth.
“That’s a nasty habit, son,” my aunt told the nurse. “Now make yourself useful and get me downstairs. Got a bum leg that needs treatment.” She hugged my dad with tears in her eyes but didn’t say a word to him. Then she hobbled toward the roof elevator with the help of the nurse.
“Boys, it’s been fun. Go kick some alien butt!” she yelled over her shoulder as my dad jogged up the ramp to the Mini-Mane. “Especially you, Sandjack!”
It was the first time in my life that I was sorry to leave my aunt, and I felt a bit ashamed of that. As dire cranky as she could be, she put her life on the line for me at the drop of a hat. Not that we had time to reflect on her or her mystery letter then.
“Where to, Dad?”
“A few pit stops,” he said, handing me his holophone. I saw several addresses and punched the first into my hologlasses.
“And then?” I asked.
He tousled my hair. “Then we open up that universe map again and start looking for clues. It’s time we paid the Ascendant a visit.”
“It’s past time,” I said, stretching my scarred hands.
“This is our ship now, matey!” Sunjay said. “We need a pirate flag!”
“Yep, add that to the supply list,” Buckshot said. We rose into the clouds above Anchorage in darkness. My dad took my aunt’s letter from my pocket and placed it on his box of dynamite.
SHIP SHAPE AND THROWING STONES
Focus, Tully. I forgot the letter, the dynamite, and the universe map as I took control of the Mini-Mane and flew us low over the Pacific Ocean. If I held up my hand to any wall, we could see the outside through the ship’s skin. This allowed us to watch the moon shine on the peaks of the waves below us.
As we accelerated, the shape of the ship changed. It flattened from a sphere to an oval. The awkward bench angled down to the floor, which transformed the bench seating into a 360-degree couch. No cushions, but it was more comfortable than before. My dad was more impressed with the ship itself.
“It’s designed to reduce the coefficient of drag,” he explained. “It’s getting thinner and more aerodynamic so we can go faster. Tully, give it some more throttle. We already passed the sound barrier.”
“Pardon me, boys, but I’ll be taking a supersonic snooze. Wake me up if things get interesting.” Buckshot pulled his Stetson over his eyes and kicked back.
A few minutes later we crossed from water to land again. My holo-glasses indicated Oregon. Sunjay guessed our location correctly on his own. Dad and Buckshot rummaged around the Mini-Mane. Behind a black panel they located the Ascendant food supply, which was held in two giant cylinders, both half empty. A hose started in the top of the cylinder and protruded out of the top, like a giant straw. They must all drink from the same hose, I thought.
“It’s the alien smoothie of death!” Sunjay said. “You think they drink that?”
I took a whiff of the hose and almost barfed. I covered my nose with the mood scarf, which turned a nasty shady of green. “It smells like rotten seaweed. We need our own food.”
“We don’t know where their home world is yet,” said Sunjay. “How do we know how much food to get?”
“Here’s my best guess, Sunjay. The Ascendant can breathe our air, they get winded when they fight, and when I fought that last one, he began to sweat. They’re biologically a lot like us.”
Where have I heard that before? I thought. Oh, the Sacred told me that. It said, “Fight them, but do not hate. They are more like you than you know.”
“So they made the trip from their home world with this much, uh, alien death smoothie. To make a return trip, we need to match their food supply—especially the way you boys eat. I’d say two weeks’ worth.”
I was less concerned with our food supply than I was with our destination. Where in the universe could this ship take us in two weeks? What if it the Ascendant discover our plans and take control of the ship? No one could have answered those questions yet, so I asked something else. “Dad, the Ascendant are twice our size. Well, three times my size, but why are they so clumsy?”
“Based on our battle in the snow, we learned one thing about their home world today...” He let the statement hang like a question. Sunjay and I thought about it for a minute.
“Oh!” said Sunjay, knocking on the death smoothie container. “Less gravity! They must work out or put steroids in their food to keep their muscles huge—”
“—But they can’t handle Earth’s gravity,” I said. “It’s like the olds days with space station astronauts. Being weightless made them clumsy when they returned to Earth. Same with the Ascendant. They can crush you to death or toss you through the air, but they can’t balance.”
“Very good,” my dad said. “If you give them a few months here, I’m sure they will be fine—but not now. When we arrive on their home world, just be prepared for low gravity again, like in the Hamster Wheel.”
Perfect. I remembered my battles with Lincoln Sawyer in the Hamster Wheel. I always fought better in low gravity, and we needed all the advantages we could get against these muscle-bound, smoothie-drinking beasts.
My stomach growled. Stars, when was the last time we ate? Oh, yeah, a root beer float for lunch and it’s way past dinnertime.
“I’VE ALWAYS KNEW THERE WAS ALIENS”
Before we headed into space we made three pit stops. The first was a general store near Yellowstone Park. My dad had known Cooper Splintdown, the owner, for a long time. He texted Cooper our order, which seemed like a bad idea to me, but he said Cooper wouldn’t ask questions. He didn’t. We landed the Mini-Mane and found sacks full of supplies waiting for us on the dusty porch: jugs of water, beef jerky, canned fruit and vegetables.
The owner had tacked a scribbled note to the door:
Harper—after I got your text I saw the nws. Media thinks you boys are dangrous fugitives, but they r idiots. Half the world thinks this thing’s a hoax. Other half going nuts. Me, I’ve always knew there was aliens. Whatever’s going on, I figure you’re on the rt side. Pay me back some other time. Goen out fshng before the world comes to an end.—Coop”
We grabbed the bags and re-boarded with Sunjay standing at the controls. He grabbed a piece of beef jerky out of a bag before we could set it down.
Stop two was more familiar—a two-story brick house with a pool in the backyard. Our house in Houston. It was so close to stop three that my dad couldn’t say no. I “landed” the Mini-Mane directly over our pool in the backyard, the ramp lining up perfectly at our back door. I looked over at my dad and nodded, but he didn’t notice my flying skills. It’s hard to impress your dad sometimes, especially if he’s flown fighter jets and spaceships.
“Okay, gentlemen, two minutes,” he said. “Make them count.”
Sunjay and I ran upstairs and stuffed bags full of books, headphones, underwear, shoes, my journal and sketchbook, anything that lay within reach. We were halfway packed when someone rang the doorbell. The sound froze us.
“Oh, stars,” Sunjay whispered, “more Ascendant?”
“You think the Ascendant ring doorbells?” I asked. Still, my heart jumped, then jumped a bit more. Pop! Pop! Pebbles hit my window. Under cover of darkness a shadow rose from the ground, then floated forward. We were about to forget our luggage and run for the ship when we heard someone call our names.
AWAY TEAM BETA –
WE HAVE YOU NEAR SPACE ALLIANCE HOUSTON.
YOU MUST NOT BE CAPTURED ALIVE.
YOU KNOW THIS.
DO YOUR DUTY.
INITIATE DESTRUCTION SEQUENCE.
- GALLANT TRACKMAN
TEARS
“Bangers, you would do anything to get out of a group project,” the dark figure whisper-yelled as she hovered into the light on her Upthruster. Janice Chan. Her black-rimmed glasses winked in the darkness. It’s one thing to be tracked down by aliens, another thing when your overeager group partner does it. I wanted to get on board the ship and leave her hovering outside my window, but somehow, I couldn’t do it. I shrugged toward Sunjay, lifted the window, and she hopped off the Upthruster and into the room. She straightened her shoulder-length black hair and punched me in the ribs.
“Sorry. I mean ouch!” I said. Wait, what was I sorry about?
“Of all the partners!” she
said. “I get Space Freak and Bad Music Boy.”
“Queen Envy is cooler than you think,” said Sunjay, throwing extra clothes into bags.
“What are you doing here, Janice?” I asked.
“Motion sensor on your window. Hooked it up to my phone and it just beeped so I hopped on my Upthruster and, voila, here we are.”
“You’re such a stalker!” I said.
“And you’ve apparently got space rabies,” she said. “Yeah, I finally heard. So you left Tabitha in space and are on the run from aliens? That’s why you didn’t do a thing with the Three for Survival Project. Bangers! Just bangers! This pretty much kills my chances of getting into my first choice college. I bet the aliens will blow up Stanford anyway.”
“Yeah, they might,” I said. “Janice, we’ve got things to do.”
“You said you were in Alaska.”
“We were,” said Sunjay.
“Does space rabies help you teleport between Texas and Alaska and your little vacation island? You ought to be in quarantine. Now I probably have space rabies. I should text the alien hotline like Tabitha said in her message.” She wiped her hand on her sleeve and then wiped her sleeve against the wall.
“Go ahead, but we’ll be gone before they get here. And anyway, Tabitha lied about us,” I said. That was true, but it felt terrible to say. “I mean, they made her lie. But I’m fine. I just—maybe I have some powers. Those aliens, the Ascendant, are worried about me. I am dangerous—but to them, not you. So we are going off to find these aliens and rescue Tabitha. If that screws up your Science grade—well, stars, maybe Stanford will understand, but I don’t really care. Think about something besides your grades for a minute!” I was way above a whisper by the time I finished my speech to Janice. My fists were clenched.
Janice paused and caught her breath. We heard my dad whistle for us downstairs. I threw up my hands and gestured downstairs. “Go home, Janice. Forget you ever saw us, okay?”