Where am I?
Hisses and clicks sound behind me, and then an Alk comes into view.
What’s going on?
Words press against my throat, but I can’t get them out. What are you doing? I want to scream. What’s going on?
The Alk wheels a cart filled with strange metal tools next to my bed. He lifts a silver paddle from the cart. It looks like a hammer with a wide, flat disk on top.
What is he going to do with that?
He waves it across my body from head to toe. Then he reaches for another device. It kind of looks like a glow stick.
My body feels different. I wriggle a finger. It actually wriggles! That paddle must have unfrozen me. Or maybe Lucy was right, and I can move because I barely had any dinner.
I can’t let the Alk know I’m awake.
I stay as still as possible as he scans my body with the glow stick. He steers his hover over to a screen against the wall. He plugs in the stick and inputs data.
His back is to me. Here’s my chance.
I take a deep, silent breath and hoist myself off the table. My plan is to take off running, but I’m so groggy I nearly fall flat on my face.
The Alk must have heard me get up, because a riot of clicks and hisses erupts behind me.
I quickly take in my surroundings. I’m in an orange room that looks like a medical facility. There are five beds, spaced far apart, three of them filled, but I can’t make out faces. At the end of the room is a door. I run for it.
An alarm sounds. I keep running. I grab the door handle and stumble into the hall. I’ve never been in this part of the Alkalinian Seat. I propel myself down the hall until I reach the corner. Up ahead is a tube that leads to another structure. I rush in that direction.
When I step into the tube, the ocean bears down on me, and I fall to my knees. Water is everywhere. I crawl. The alarm is sounding. Someone’s coming.
Four Alks rush me. One is the guy with the glow stick. He inserts the stick in his pocket and withdraws a vial filled with yellow liquid. In his other hand he holds a syringe. He plunges it into the vial, then steers it toward my neck as the other Alks hold me down.
The needle pierces my skin.
I’m fading.
“Jasper!”
Someone’s calling for me.
“Jasper!”
Mira?
No, it’s not in my brain, it’s . . .
“Jasper, wake up!”
I shoot up in bed. What’s happening?
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Someone’s pounding at my door. I need to get up.
I pull back my covers and flip on my light. My quarters are exactly as I left them before I went to sleep.
I rub my hand against my neck. Was I dreaming?
“Jasper!”
BAM! BAM! BAM!
That’s no dream. Someone’s pounding on my door.
“Coming!” I haul myself out of bed and almost collapse on weak knees. I stagger for the door and manage to grab the handle. I pull back, supporting my weight against the doorframe.
“Oh, thank goodness!” Lucy throws her arms around me, which almost sends both of us tumbling to the ground.
“Lucy? What’s going on?”
The orange room and the Alks fade into my dream memory.
No! I have to hold on to those images. Something tells me they’re very important.
“Are you okay?” she asks. “You look awful.” She helps me out into the common room and settles me on the sofa.
“What’s happening?” My words are slow and slurred. I’m so tired. Why did I get out of bed?
“Hold on!” she says. She grabs her tablet from the side table and activates the SIMPLE, just as Cole showed her last night. Then she starts talking a mile a minute. “I knew there was something wrong! I just knew those slimy snakes were up to no good! After all of you went to bed, I waited, and I was about to fall asleep myself when I heard this noise, kind of like an alarm, and when I got up, there was bright light under all of your doors, like you were up and had turned your lights on, and then I tried to get in and see what was going on, but all of your doors were locked. So I tried to wake you up, and next thing—”
“Wait! Stop talking! Did you say you heard an alarm?”
“Yes! And the lights were on in your rooms! They just went out moments before I managed to wake you up.”
“Whoa,” I say. “Maybe it wasn’t a dream.”
“What wasn’t a dream?” Lucy asks.
I tell her what happened, or at least what I can remember of it—my brain is super fuzzy. The orange room, the examining table, the Alks, my escape attempt.
Lucy’s eyes go wide as I describe what happened. “Oh my God. What do you think they’re doing?”
“I’m not sure. Running some sort of tests, maybe?” I wish I could remember more. I’m just so tired. “They injected a vial filled with yellow liquid into my neck. I think they’re drugging us.” I rest my head against the arm of the sofa. If I could just close my eyes for a minute . . .
Lucy jumps to her feet. “That’s it! That must be what the food is all about! It works as a drug to get you groggy, and then once you’re asleep, they give you even more drugs so you’re knocked out for all those tests.”
I lift my head. “Maybe. I’m not sure.” I grip the armrest and try to stand. “We’d better wake the others.”
“Not so fast,” Lucy says, pushing me back down.
“Why? Whatever happened to me is probably happening to them. You said so yourself.”
“I know,” Lucy says, “but if we wake everyone up, the Alks will know we’re onto them. This has been going on every night, right? And we’re still okay in the morning. One more night of testing won’t kill anyone. Plus, they’re probably done with the testing for tonight. The lights are off.”
I sure hope she’s right, because I’m feeling way too out of it to argue.
“What should we do?” I ask.
“Take a nap? I’m pretty sure whatever happens in the rooms doesn’t happen out here. Hopefully, the Alks will just think we fell asleep in the common room.”
I’m not sure that’s the best idea, but I’m in no shape to protest. I’m already slipping back into sleep. “Lucy? Help me remember, okay?”
“I will, Jasper. Good night. And this time I really hope it is a good night.”
I drift to sleep. There aren’t any light or needles or Alks chasing me, but there are nightmares.
When I wake up the next morning, Steve is hovering in the common room.
Lucy is already on her feet. “Good morning, Steve! How are you this lovely day?”
“Is everything sss-satisss-factory?” He flies around the room, eyeing things up and down. “Is there a rea-ssson you are sss-sleeping on the sss-sofa and not in your bed, Jasss-per?”
I shake my head, still trying to wake up. “Ummm . . .”
“He had a nightmare!” Lucy interjects. “I fell asleep reading a magazine on the sofa, and he stumbled out in the middle of the night. He woke me up because he wasn’t feeling well and he wanted to tell me about this terrible dream he had about the battle at the intragalactic summit. You know all about that, right? Anyway, he had this dream that we were caught and taken hostage on the Youli ship, and his sister was there, too, and they shot her out the air lock and she died instantly and it was absolutely horrible. Jasper didn’t want to be alone, so I sat with him, and we both must have nodded off for the rest of the night.” She punctuates this awesome lie with a huge smile and a bat of her eyelashes.
As the person who supposedly had the nightmare, I try to look distraught, which isn’t too hard, since Lucy just painted a dramatic picture of Addy’s death, even though it was totally made up.
Still, thank goodness for Lucy. Her monologue seems to have successfully sidetracked Steve.
“Wake the othersss,” he says. “We are sss-shuttling groupsss of cadetsss to the sss-sau-ssser in twenty minutesss.”
He presses a button
on the wall panel, and our pod mates’ doors swing open. Seconds later a breakfast buffet pushes out from the wall. Steve gives the room one last look, then leaves.
“Good morning, Super Friends!” Marco says. He stretches his arms above his head as he walks into the common room. “Time for breakfast?”
“Do you think he was onto us?” Lucy asks me about Steve.
I shrug. “Maybe. He was acting pretty suspicious.”
“Onto us about what?” Marco asks as Mira and Cole emerge from their rooms.
“Nothing.” Lucy lifts her thumb and pointer finger to her lips and makes a zipping motion.
I raise my eyebrows. Nothing? Really? That’s very unlike Lucy not to want to run her mouth, especially because she was right last night about the food. Although she’s also right that we shouldn’t talk about any of this stuff without the SIMPLE activated.
“There’s not enough time to get into it,” she continues.
Marco stops in his tracks and looks at me. “No time to get into what?”
“How did your spying mission go last night?” Cole asks.
Lucy slaps her forehead and glares at Cole. She climbs over me, grabs her tablet with the SIMPLE, and waves everyone over.
Marco sets down his plate of Belgian waffles and huddles with the rest of us next to Lucy on the couch.
She fills everyone in on our night—the lights in the rooms, the alarm, Lucy waking me up, my report about the Alks and the testing, and our decision to wait until the morning to tell the others.
“If they’re testing all of us, how come Fly Guy is the only one who remembers?” Marco asks.
I shrug. “I’m not sure. I’ve always had trouble sleeping. Maybe I just wake up easier than the rest of you. Or maybe it has something to do with my brain patch. Do you remember anything, Mira?”
Mira’s thoughts are jumbled. Not memories, but memories of memories. She closes her eyes and shares that she has a colossal headache.
Cole looks particularly disturbed. He rubs his hand against his neck. “Why on earth didn’t you wake me?”
“It was too risky,” I say. “We can’t let the Alks know we’re onto them. Until we understand what they’re up to and how to stop them, we need to go along with it.”
“Let them keep testing us?” Cole says. “No way. I’m not doing it.”
“No one said that,” Lucy says. “We’re talking with the admiral today, remember? She’ll know what to do.”
“Does that mean we can’t eat?” Marco stares longingly at his Belgian waffles, heavy with butter and maple syrup.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Lucy says. “Breakfast must be okay. Or at least not as bad. It doesn’t make us sleepy like dinner. And I think that’s because the Alks do the testing at night. I hope I’m right, because I didn’t eat anything last night, and I’m starving.”
“Me, too,” I say. “And I definitely don’t have the willpower to stay away from those waffles.”
After breakfast I quickly change into my training uniform. The Alks aren’t the only thing on my mind this morning. I have to talk to Addy. I rush from our room and knock at her quarters.
The door swings back. Desmond stands there staring at me.
“Can I come in?” I ask.
He keeps staring. “I’m not sure. Is that against the rules?”
I shake my head. “Just move, Desmond. I need to talk to my sister.”
He doesn’t budge, so I squeeze around him into their quarters. Desmond could teach Addy a thing or two about following rules.
Their common room is roughly the same size as ours, but it looks entirely different. It has four distinct corners, with an awesome circular couch in the center. In one corner there are detailed drawings of dragons, wizards, and elfin warriors hanging on the walls. There’s a stand-up drafting table, where Minjae stands drawing a new picture with oil pastels.
Another corner is decked out with Earth Force signs and slogans. A metal table and chair are pushed against the wall. My guess is that’s Desmond’s space.
In the back, part of the wall is covered in rainbow posters with unicorns and winged ponies. There are matching pink poufs on the floor, kind of like the one Lucy has. There’s no sign of the twins, but it’s clear that’s their corner.
The twins’ space kind of bleeds into the far corner of the room, which looks like a carbon copy of Addy’s bedroom at home. She’s perched on her bed writing in a journal. A bookshelf lines the wall behind her. She smiles and waves me over.
“You guys heading out on an early shuttle, too?” she asks as I plop onto her bed.
“Yeah, we’ll be on one of the first Frogs.”
“Frogs?”
“That’s what they look like,” I tell her. “You’ll see. By the way, your quarters are pretty great.”
“Aren’t they amazing? I’ll have to visit yours later.”
I glance at the bookshelf behind her bed and at the violin on the desk. “You could have anything in the galaxy, and you choose your room in Americana East?”
Addy shrugs. “There’s not much I need. My journal, my books, my computer. It’s not like I can connect to the webs from here, but I like the symbolism of it.”
There’s no longer a poster of Maximilian Sheek above her desk. Instead Captain Malaina Suarez stares back from the inside of a quantum ship.
“New poster,” I say.
Addy laughs. “Yeah, you were right, Sheek got old fast.”
“I think Lucy was the one who said that.”
Addy rolls her eyes. “I’ll give you the credit.”
I’m not sure what the issue is between Addy and Lucy, but I don’t have time for it now. “We haven’t had a chance to talk. How were things at the space station?”
“The food sucks,” she says, sliding her journal into a bedside drawer.
I laugh. “How many times did they serve tofu dogs?”
“Too many.” Addy tucks her legs beneath her on the bed. “Most of the other cadets are pretty great, and I love Gedney. We went back to the sensory gym a few times. That place is awesome!”
“Have you tried the gloves?” I ask.
Addy nods. “You were right, Jasper. They’re amazing. The way they bind with my brain—I’ve never felt that kind of connection before.”
“Have you practiced bounding or building ports?”
“Not yet,” she says. “Gedney showed us, and he said we’d start working up to it once we got here, but we weren’t ready yet. He collected our gloves before we left the space station. I think we’re supposed to get them back this morning.”
Addy sounds really good. She seems like she’s enjoying the EarthBound Academy, just like I’d hoped she would once she connected with other Bounders.
We don’t have much time before the Frog leaves. I have to get to the main reason I came to talk with her this morning. I need to bring up what Meggi told me yesterday. “Addy, I heard that Earth Force didn’t say much to the new cadets about the Youli, but that you filled in a lot of the blanks.”
Addy looks at me with an air of defiance I’ve seen a million times at home. “So? You said I couldn’t tell my friends back home. I didn’t. You also said no more secrets—that you were loyal to me, to your pod mates, to the other Bounders. Well, guess what? So am I.”
It’s not that I disagree with her—I think the juniors have a right to know now that they’re part of the Force, too—but how do I make Addy understand that her actions have consequences? The admiral would not be pleased that Addy was sharing information with other cadets that the Force wants under wraps.
And since Addy isn’t supposed to know that stuff herself, the admiral would definitely not be pleased with me.
There’s a knock at the door, and Desmond opens it. He starts to give the same speech about how it might be against the rules to admit guests. Marco just shoves past him.
“Good morning, Adeline.” Marco crosses to their breakfast buffet and snags a cinnamon roll.
Ad
dy’s face brightens. “Good morning yourself.” She slides off her bed and hops onto the circular couch in the center of the room next to Marco, grabbing her own cinnamon roll on the way.
There’s something funny about the two of them. I should pay attention, but I can’t focus. I cross the room and look at Minjae’s awesome art. While he tells me about the character sketches, I keep thinking about what Addy said, how she’s loyal to the Bounders, how she’s loyal to me.
Something else is bothering me. I know cluing Addy in on our suspicions about the Alks would be a mistake. That makes me uncomfortable, because that means I’m back to keeping secrets.
Marco claps a hand on my shoulder. “Time to go, Ace.” He turns back to my sister. “See you on the Frog, Adeline!”
“Not if I see you first!” she says.
“Hey, Addy,” I call from the door. “You know what we talked about? I think you’re right. Just be careful, that’s all.”
Addy nods at me and grins at Marco. “Always.”
17
GEDNEY’S PODS, BOTH JUNIOR AND senior, are assigned to one of the first Frogs over to the saucer. I’m crammed in the back at a window seat with Mira at my side. Steve hops us over to the launch duct and—POP!—out we shoot into the water.
I close my eyes and tip my head against the glass. At least when we’re in our quarters or in the siphon port or over at the hangar in the saucer, I can trick my brain into forgetting that we’re stuck hundreds of meters underwater in the middle of a contaminated sea. Now, as we bob in the current, not so much.
I wrap my arms around my chest and try to stay calm, even though the waffles and bacon I gorged on this morning are threatening to make a repeat appearance. Every time I’m out here, I feel like it will be my last, like maybe those nasty black sea creatures will manage to rip the Frog apart with their tiny arms and powerful tails and cast me out into the ocean. Who knows what will kill me first? The contaminated water? Or the sea creatures’ razor teeth? I fix my gaze on the tube on the seabed that stretches from the Alkalinian Seat all the way to the saucer, hoping that will keep me grounded. The sea creatures swarm around the tube, maybe attracted to its yellow glare.
The Forgotten Shrine Page 15