The Forgotten Shrine

by Monica Tesler

  His smile fades. “I won’t lie. It’s a very dangerous time in the galaxy. Soon you kids might again be in the line of fire. But if there’s one person working to prevent that, it’s Jon Waters. In that respect he’s very much okay. He’s made mistakes, I don’t deny it. If I were to talk to him, though, I know he’d say that he cares about you very much.”

  He lets his words sink in before adding, “Now run along! I’ll see you soon on Alkalinia. You’ll need to help me teach the new cadets how to use their bounding gloves.”

  When we arrive at the dormitory, I quickly realize we’ve miscalculated. While we got to have our little adventure, we completely missed out on bunk selection. Belongings are stacked on each bunk. I can’t even spy a free spot.

  The cadets form a line between the bunks and the center table. Ridders stands in front, while two lower-ranking officers walk the length of the line.

  As soon as we enter, Ridders points at the door and marches toward us. “Hallway. Now.”

  We backpedal into the hall and out of earshot of the other cadets.

  “Where have you been?” Ridders shouts. “We’re in there counting the line, trying to determine who’s unaccounted for. I should have known it was you three.”

  Marco lifts his hands. “We were with Gedney in our pod room, prepping for our advance mission to Alkalinia.”

  Ridders raises an eyebrow. “I wasn’t told that a visit to your pod room was part of the prep.”

  Marco’s such a great liar, he doesn’t even blink under Ridders’s cold stare. And his story is just plausible enough to make Ridders doubt himself.

  “Very well,” Ridders says, “grab a bunk. There should be three left. But I’ll warn you, it’s slim pickings.”

  We dart inside, calling a jumble of “Yes, sirs” over our shoulders.

  I end up in a middle bunk, sandwiched between juniors—the top is occupied by a guy from Africa who has barely said a word, and the bottom was claimed by Desmond, the kid we met earlier. He won’t shut up about Earth Force regulations. He talks at me from the moment I arrive at the bunk until Ridders returns for lights-out. Good thing I’m here only one night before leaving for Alkalinia, or this bunk-selection debacle would be a major problem.

  I wait until thirty minutes after lights-out and slide off my bunk. When my feet hit the floor, Desmond shifts in his bed. I’m worried he’s about to start talking again or bust me for sneaking out (which definitely violates Earth Force regulations), but he flips over and starts snoring. I slip across the floor and out the door into the hallway.

  The trip to the sensory gym is smooth. I have to duck into a spare room only once, when I nearly turn a corner into Captain Edgar Han and a group of officers leaving the mess hall. I make it to the gym with a few minutes to spare.

  The room is dark. I can just see the outline of the ball pit and row of trampolines. I take off my shoes and let my feet sink into the cushioned floor. Then I cross to the closest trampoline and hoist myself up.

  Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. I close my eyes, push off with my feet, and leap into the ball pit. In the millisecond before my body hits the beads, I feel like I’m flying. I haven’t felt that way in months. I’ve missed it. I can’t wait until I’m reunited with my blast pack, and more importantly, my gloves.

  Mira presses against my brain. Coming.

  Then seconds later, “Jasper!”

  “Shhh! Over here.”

  Mira leads my sister across the gym to the trampolines. I climb out of the ball pit.

  Addy greets me with a big hug. “That was fun in a Let’s break the rules on day one kind of way. You know I’m always up for that.”

  “Did you run into anyone?” I ask Mira. Her blond hair seems to glow in the faint light of the room.

  No. She follows this up with notes from a familiar song and walks toward the piano room, leaving us alone.

  Thank you for bringing my sister, I tell her.

  Mira lifts a hand in the air and twirls her fingers.

  “Wait a second,” Addy says, looking from me to Mira and back again. “Are you two communicating?”

  Of course Addy would pick up on that immediately. It took my pod mates a whole tour of duty, but my sister knows me better than anyone.

  “It’s complicated,” I say. “And confidential like everything else. But yes, we were communicating. You have to keep it between us, Addy.”

  “I don’t understand. Is it telepathy?”

  “Not really. I mean, Mira and I definitely have a connection that makes it easier to communicate—kind of like you and me, actually—”

  “Eww! Gross! Don’t say that! It’s nothing like you and me!”

  Here we go with the girlfriend talk. “I didn’t mean it that way, Ads. I just mean we’re pretty in tune with each other. Anyhow, Mira and I can communicate because we have Youli skin patches implanted in our brain stems.”

  Addy steps back. “What? You’re kidding, right?”

  “No. It’s a long story, and we don’t have much time.”

  She lowers her voice. “Are they going to do that to me?”

  “No, Mira and I are the only ones.”

  Addy paces the length of the trampolines. “Look, J, I’ll admit it. I’m kind of freaked. Everything you told me is sinking in now. I saw those gunner ships when we arrived at the space station. And now you’re telling me you have alien cells implanted in your brain! I get it. This is real.” She takes a deep breath and slowly exhales. “I’m really glad you’re with me.”

  “Well, that’s the thing.” I grab Addy’s hand as she paces by. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning. My pod is part of a diplomatic mission to Alkalinia.”

  Addy pulls away and puts her hands on her hips. “What on earth is Alkalinia? I’m starting to think there’s a lot you didn’t tell me.”

  “That’s not fair. I told you the big stuff. Listen, you won’t be alone. Gedney will be here. I found out tonight that you’re assigned to his pod. He’s the best teacher here. Plus, the admiral plans to bring the rest of the Academy to Alkalinia for training later in the tour. So we’ll see each other soon. But don’t tell anyone!”

  “More secrets to keep? Come on, Jasper! You’re the one who’s not being fair!”

  I shake my head. “I’m not worried about fairness, Addy. I’m trying to keep you safe.”

  The notes of a song drift into the sensory gym. It starts quiet and builds, like a lullaby swept up in a thunderstorm. I sink down on the edge of the ball pit and close my eyes, imagining my clarinet is in my hands.

  A moment later Addy sits beside me. “Is this how you first communicated with Mira? Through music?”

  I nod.

  “I’m sorry I said those mean things about her earlier,” she whispers. “Mira’s different, but that’s okay. I’ve lived my whole life feeling different, although I’ve tried pretty hard to hide it.”

  “Yeah, Mom made sure of that.” I circle my arm around Addy’s back, and she tips her head against my shoulder. Our breath rises and falls together in time to Mira’s music. I remember the night before I first left for the Academy, when Addy sneaked into my room with her rosewood violin. Right now I know Addy is reliving the moment, too. In the room down the hall, Mira hovers on the edge of our shared memory—not intruding, simply observing.

  “I never really give you credit as a big brother,” Addy says when the song ends. “You know, the kind that’s supposed to take care of you.”

  “We take care of each other,” I say.

  “Yeah,” she says, “but you need to know you’re pretty great.”

  “Thanks. You’re pretty great, too, even if you don’t always follow my brotherly advice.”

  My eyes are closed, but I know Addy is smiling. I also know that just behind her smile, anger and fear are lurking.

  When I open my eyes, Mira is standing in front of us.

  Time to go.

  7

  “YOU SURE YOU CONFIRMED THE mapping?” Bad Breath says with a shaky voice
.

  “You’ve already asked five times,” Captain Edgar Han responds. He’s trying to finish the prep sequence so we can bound to our rendezvous with the Alks, and Bad Breath keeps interrupting with questions.

  “Recalibrated for the extra passengers?” Bad Breath’s face is glossy white. I can hear him breathing from the other side of the bounding ship.

  “Triple-checked.” Han’s impatience is obvious.

  “What about the bound coordinates?”

  “Take a deep breath, Wade,” Han says.

  “Don’t tell me what to—”

  “Quiet!” Admiral Eames says. “Captain Han, proceed with the bound.”

  Geez. Bad Breath is freaked. No wonder he wasn’t promoted to captain. If he can barely keep it together as a passenger in a bounding ship, there’s no way the Force would want him piloting one.

  Once the gear check is complete, Han counts down the launch. “Three . . . two . . . one . . . bound.”

  Slammed.

  Puffed.

  Double stuffed.

  “And destination confirmed,” Han says.

  I exhale.

  And Bad Breath barfs.

  “Gross!” Lucy shouts as the smell of vomit fills the now extra-claustrophobic bounding ship.

  “Really, Wade?” Han says. “You’re cleaning this up!”

  He pukes again.

  “Get that hatch open,” the admiral says. “Now!”

  Being on a bounding ship with Admiral Eames is surreal to begin with. Being on a bounding ship with the admiral and a barfing Bad Breath is so strange I have to bite my lips to keep from laughing.

  The admiral is in no mood for a laugh attack. Plans with the Alks are already off to a rough start. From what we can gather, since the moment the oath ceremony ended last night, the admiral has been arguing with Seelok, the Alkalinian regent, about how we’ll get to the planet. Despite a prior agreement, Seelok refused to provide bound coordinates. Apparently, the exact location of their settlement is still a secret.

  Early this morning the admiral gave in to Seelok’s demands. She agreed to meet up with the Alks at a bounding base. From there our pod will travel with Bad Breath on board an Alkalinian vessel to their planet. The admiral is along for the ride to rendezvous, because she wants to have words with Seelok.

  We unload from the bounding ship and head into the base. Our pod is directed to a small dining hall to wait for the Alkalinian vessel. You’d think I wouldn’t have much of an appetite after watching Bad Breath barf, but I’m starving.

  “I can’t believe he puked,” Lucy says as we find a table. “It’s going to take him ages to clean it all up.”

  “I can’t believe Admiral Eames came with us,” Cole says. “I wish I’d had a chance to talk with her about the recent mapping of quadrant 516.”

  “Do you think we can get something to eat?” I ask.

  “Are you kidding me?” Lucy says. “I can’t even think about food without feeling nauseous.”

  “Never seen anyone puke before, Drama Queen?” Marco asks.

  “Shut up, Marco.” Lucy pokes Marco in the ribs. He slaps her away.

  I ignore them. This is probably our last chance to eat real food before we’re in the land of reptilian nastiness. I head over to the serving line and ask the cook for a few scoops of the fried potatoes, which have probably been roasting under the heat lamp since yesterday. They look and smell a thousand times better than the slimy tofu dogs next to them that are rolling on a silver warmer like miniature logs on a river.

  I pump ketchup onto my tray and return to the table. As soon as I sit down, Marco grabs a handful of my taters.

  “Get your own,” I say.

  “Yours taste better,” he says.

  I don’t argue. I share my taters with the table and go back for seconds. When we’re on our third plate, Bad Breath walks in. His face is green, and he’s got a huge wet spot on his shirt, probably from washing off the barf.

  “Let’s go!” he barks at us.

  When we don’t move instantly, he shoves my shoulder. I pitch forward, and my nose almost lands in the dollop of ketchup.

  This trip is going to be delightful. Just delightful. At least I have a full belly. For now.

  When we return to the flight deck, the Alkalinian craft is docked. Our duffels are stacked in a pile near the loading ramp. Captain Han informs us that the admiral is still on board talking with the Alks. Bad Breath runs back inside the base. I bet he has to puke again.

  A minute later the admiral exits the craft and greets us on the flight deck.

  “You’ll be departing momentarily,” she says. “I can’t understate the importance of this alliance. I’m counting on you kids to be excellent ambassadors for Earth Force. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” we say together.

  “Good. You must use the utmost caution. Be prepared for questioning. I suspect they’ll interrogate you.”

  Lucy shoots me a glance. Interrogate us? That doesn’t sound like something allies do.

  “And carry your gloves with you at all times,” the admiral continues. “In the event of an emergency, get yourselves outside the range of the occludium tether and bound back to the space station. Although, I must stress that’s an absolute last resort. We mustn’t do anything to jeopardize relations with the Alkalinians. Are we clear?”

  I nod and pull the straps of my blast pack tight around my shoulders. Just this morning they distributed our gloves and packs as we stowed our belongings for the mission. My gloves are now safely zipped inside the side pockets.

  “What about Officer Johnson?” Lucy asks.

  Admiral Eames tips her head, signaling she didn’t consider this weakness in her emergency evacuation plan. Bad Breath can’t bound. She finally says, “Officer Johnson can take care of himself. Now, if all goes as planned, I will escort the other cadets to Alkalinia later in the tour. Until then, best of luck, cadets.”

  We salute the admiral before turning our attention to the Alk vessel and a very scary mission. At the door of the craft, two reptilian aliens hover on flying thrones covered in crimson velvet with gold tassel trim. Their black, scaly skin shines under the lights of the flight deck, and their tapered tails wave behind them in lazy S shapes. As much as they look like snakes, their heads remind me more of the dragons that lived in the scary bedtime stories Dad read to Addy and me when we were little. They have large ebony eyes and enormous mouths that jut forward, with silver hooked teeth on the sides that hang beneath their lips even when their mouths are closed. Both of them have a metal cyborg arm like the Alks we saw on Gulaga. They wait for us at the top of the ramp to their ship, ready to escort us to whatever awaits on Alkalinia.

  Boarding the Alkalinian ship was extremely anticlimactic. The two Alks led us onto the vessel, pointed at a row of seats, and disappeared with Bad Breath down a back hall. We sat down, strapped in, and waited for whatever came next. A few minutes later the ship departed, and now we’re on our way to Alkalinia.

  I keep thinking how weird it is that the Alkalinian ship looks just like an Earth Force passenger craft, until I realize it is one of our passenger crafts. The Alkalinians must have bought, stolen, or traded for one of our old crafts and then outfitted it for their own purposes. That’s why most of the seats have been removed. The Alkalinians can zoom around on their little flying thrones and anchor directly into the floor. They’ve installed some temporary flight seats for us, but they don’t look particularly stable. I hope we don’t fly through the cabin when the craft shifts to FTL.

  Although, it’s kind of a funny image. While we’re airborne, we’ll look like the Alks on their flying thrones. Once we crash, not so much.

  “Jasper!” Lucy leans across Marco and Cole and slaps me on the arm.

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, nothing, just that I’ve been trying to get your attention for five minutes.”

  “Try five seconds,” Marco says.

  She bashes Marco in the arm before asking, “Do you
think the admiral knows about the . . .” She stops talking and points to her head.

  “About the what?” Cole asks beside me.

  Lucy rolls her eyes and points at her head again, then at me and Mira.

  “I don’t get it,” Cole says.

  I lean over and whisper in his ear. “Brain patches.”

  “Oh, your brain patches!” Cole says. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

  Lucy throws up her hands.

  Marco shakes his head. “I’m changing your nickname, Wiki. From now on it’s Clueless.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “For goodness’ sake,” Lucy interjects. “Can you shut up and let Jasper answer!”

  The admiral knows. Mira sounds confident.

  I’m not sure. Probably. But why hasn’t the admiral said anything about the patches? And if she knows, who else does?

  “I definitely hinted at it before the Youli attacked the Gulagan space dock when I was trying to warn her. And I’m sure she gave Gedney the third degree.”

  “She must know,” Lucy says. “That means she’s free to use the patches to her advantage. So watch out.”

  The craft grumbles and then jerks forward. We made the shift to FTL. Fortunately, our seats are still anchored to the floor.

  “It also means that Waters is on the outs for good,” Marco says. “Eames would never let him come back after that breach of trust, especially since those patches led the Youli to our doorstep.”

  “Waters couldn’t have known that would happen,” I say, even as the knife of guilt twists in my gut. I’m not sure why I’m coming to his defense.

  Not our fault!

  Even Mira can’t convince me we’re not to blame.

  “True,” Marco says. “But facts are facts. I hope Waters stays holed up on Gulaga with his buddy Barrick and the rest of the rebels. He can do a lot more good from there than locked up in an Earth Force cell somewhere.”

  Is that what the admiral would do? Lock Waters up in a cell like the one that held the alien prisoner at the space station during our first tour? I wonder if that guy is still there? It didn’t even occur to me when we were at the space station yesterday. I’ve been thinking of Barrick and the Gulagan rebels, though, ever since Addy shared stories with me about the protests on Earth. Something about them feels connected.