Project Emergence

by Jamie Zakian

  “I heard something about a maintenance tunnel.”

  “The lower level,” Jesse blurted. The room’s attention shifted his way, and it was his turn to fidget. “I studied the ship’s blueprints last night, just in case.”

  “In case what?” Kami asked, her brows raising high.

  “You never know. Just look at us, locked in our rooms. I could get out of here without a computer.”

  “Oh really?” Joey inched closer, one hand hiking to her hip. “How?”

  “Through the air ducts,” Jesse said, pointing at a vent in the ceiling. “Got the whole place memorized. Betcha didn’t know there were three escape pods on this bus.”

  “Well, actually,” —Rai peered up from his screen, although his fingers kept walking across the keyboard— “I did know that.” He hit the Enter key and leaned back in his chair. “I got ‘em.”

  Joey bent over Rai’s shoulder to gaze at the screen. Her hair brushed his neck, and he squirmed. She tried to lean away, but the scent of his musky cologne drew her closer.

  “You found them on video,” she said, glancing over at Rai. Her lips nearly brushed Rai’s cheek, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t move, not with his hand drifting toward her own.

  Jesse nudged her leg, and then tugged the back of her shirt. “Rai’s got this thing about personal space.”

  “Nah, it’s cool,” Rai said, waving Jesse off.

  “You lost the camera feed,” Kami grumbled.

  “What,” Rai said in more of a breath than a word. He looked at Kami, caught her fierce stare, and sat up straight. “Oh, right. Damn system keeps shutting me out.” He returned to the laptop, typing faster than before. “I divert power, sixty seconds later, jammed all over again. It’s getting tedious.”

  Kami powered up her handheld, typing on its small screen. “Did anyone see where they went?”

  Jesse walked around the desk, standing beside Kami. “They crawled into an access hatch beside the elevator.”

  “There’s no cameras in there,” Rai said while flipping through video feeds. Joey remained glued to his side. He shifted in his chair every time her elbow rubbed against his arm, which she now did on purpose since it was so fun.

  “It’s just a shaft with a ladder that runs between all decks.” Jesse plopped on the edge of his bed. “The elevators must be down too.”

  “Yeah, they are.” Kami sat beside Jesse, her gaze fixed on her handheld. “I’ve zeroed in on the jamming frequency. I can send a signal out over the speakers, totally block it.”

  “No, don’t,” Rai yelled.

  “Why, what?” Kami tossed her hand up, glaring at Rai.

  “I found something,” Rai muttered, without lifting his gaze from the monitor.

  Joey squinted as she stared at the tiny box in the corner of the computer screen. “What is that?”

  Jesse stepped beside Joey, took one look at the display, and let out a gasp. “That’s a bomb!”

  ***

  Sabrina stared down the narrow tunnels of the engineering deck. Tight passageways branched off in every direction, each lined with steel pipes and thick cables.

  Reyes jumped from the ladder beside her, and the crash of his boots on the steel grate floor eclipsed the hum of machinery.

  “We’re running out of time.” She pulled out her tablet. A red dot blinked on its display, bringing a smile to her lips. “I’ve got a reading,” she said, taking off in a sprint.

  The tight corridor twisted and turned in front of her, steam burst from the pipes to sting her cheeks, but she didn’t slow her race toward the blinky red light on her tablet’s display.

  She rounded a bend, nearly tripping to keep from plowing through a large pile of metal and wires. A three-tiered device, topped with a glowing blue sphere, sat bolted in the middle of the corridor, which vibrate from Reyes’ rushed steps. She braced, knowing Reyes would collide with—

  Reyes slammed against Sabrina’s back. His chin knocked against her head. The man’s big jaw left a massive ache in her brain, but it was far better than having her skin melted off by a bomb that got trampled.

  “What …” Reyes gripped onto Sabrina’s arm. His fingers trembled as he stared at the tiny ball of swirling light, which crackled in front of them. “What is that?”

  “That’s one hell of a bomb,” Sabrina said, straining to contain the shivers that ran along her spine.

  ***

  Shards of metal dug into his back as he wiggled beneath the floor. He lifted the edge of the grate as a voice echoed from afar. His body tensed. The grate crashed back into place as his arms jetted to his chest. Body still, throat tight, he listened. Two voices wafted down the hall, growing louder.

  “Who would be here? Why?” he whispered.

  Quickly, he slithered farther away. The sight of his precious bomb threatened to teeter from view, and he stopped. He clutched the grate. A gentle thud vibrated his hands, the thump of boots pounding metal crammed in his ears. He jerked his arms down just as feet stomped right above him. No, this can’t be. After checking his handheld once again, and finding a black screen, he sighed.

  Fury brewed deep inside him, driving him back toward the bomb. He slid between floor and grate, just a bit closer, peering through the small squares above. Her, of course. And with him. Curious. I wonder, does she know about Mr. Reyes? Doubt it, or he wouldn’t be next to her right now. Well, if she’s as good as they say, then she’ll find out.

  After one last look at his bomb, he wormed away. Around one bend, then another. “I failed,” he whispered. “We’ll never get back home now.” He removed a section of grate and climbed from beneath the floor. In every attempt to be silent, he slipped through a door then stopped to catch his jittery breath.

  The screen of his handheld remained black, inciting the urge to smash the device on the ground. “If God wanted us on Mars, he’d have put us there himself. Arrogant fools. I hope my bomb blows up in your face.” He chuckled quietly. His laugh turned to a seething gargle as rage clouded his mind. “It’s no matter. We have a plan B.”

  Chapter Five

  “I’ve never seen a bomb like this before,” Sabrina said, afraid to take even one breath. Slowly, she knelt down in front of a large stack of C-4, but that was as far as she got. She couldn’t move. The tiny electric bolts trapped within a plasma field hypnotized her in place.

  “Is that … a plasma bomb?” Reyes asked, standing frozen in the middle of the corridor.

  “Sort of.” Sabrina prowled over the contraption like a ghost, barely disturbing the air as she moved. “It’s some kind of hybrid. A C-4 base with an electro-nuclear pulse and a plasma detonator. The electronic blast mechanism is hot. That means, when my jammer dies out—Kaboom.”

  “It doesn’t look that heavy. I’ll haul it to the airlock, and we can shoot it into space.”

  “No!” Sabrina lifted her hand, which stopped Reyes midstep. She pointed to a thin sliver of metal that centered the vortex of whirling plasma. “The detonation pin dropped. If it even brushes the magnetic field—”

  “Kaboom,” he said, backing away with light steps.

  “Yeah.” Sabrina wiped the sweat from her brow, then crawled closer. Each breath blew strands of hair from her face, so she cinched her airways shut. Fear gripped her every muscle, trembling her hands, but she forced her body to calm. Two hundred and fifty-eight children were counting on her to usher them safely across the stars, and that’s exactly what she was going to do.

  “I just have to trace these wires,” she said, her fingertips grazing the smooth cords of the bomb. “If I can reboot the plasma field and disengage the nuclear charge at the same time, we can chuck the damn thing out the back door.”

  “How long ‘till it boots up again?”

  “I don’t know.” Sabrina lifted her stare, despite the heaviness trapped inside it. “Maybe five minutes, probably less.”

  “There’s an airlock on this level,” he said, his
stare bouncing off the winding passages around him. “I’m just not sure …”

  “You’re head of security,” she said, without bothering to hide her irritation. “The layout of this vessel should be etched into your brain.”

  “I’ve never needed to store the information there,” he said, with an equally short tone. “I’ve always had my handheld.”

  Sabrina looked up at Reyes, the glow of churning plasma lighting his dark eyes. “You got less than ten minutes to get sure.” Her gaze fell back to the illuminated bomb. “We both do.”

  ***

  Jesse shifted under the stares now fixed upon him. He hadn’t realized how suspicious it might seem to know what a bomb looked like, not until the statement was halfway out his mouth.

  “How do you know what a bomb looks like?” Kami asked, proving Jesse’s accidental guilt theory right.

  “He’s just into electronics and stuff,” Joey said, fidgeting with the bottom of her shirt.

  Jesse stepped in front of his sister. Her attempt to defend him was sweet, but unnecessary. He was not afraid of Kami. “I surf the Web a lot. My half of the walls back home are covered in schematics.”

  “I think he’s right, though,” Rai said from behind his screen. “That looks like a plasma sphere.” His display flashed, and a gray static replaced the chilling image. “I lost the feed.” He began typing, rattling every loose item on the desk. “Just give me a second … there. And I took a snapshot from a closer angle.”

  All three rushed to stand beside Rai, bumping and shoving each other.

  “Come on, guys,” Jesse groaned. “Can I just get a peek?”

  Joey carted Kami from Jesse’s way. Her eyes rolled, hand out to the open space.

  Jesse’s palms hit the desk, and he leaned closer to the laptop. Within his mind’s eye, the hunk of wire-laced metal broke into singular pieces. Beyond the outer shell, parts zoomed away until only two wires remained.

  “What is he doing?” Kami grabbed Jesse by the arm, pulling him from the monitor. “Are we gonna die or what?”

  Jesse shook the visual of diagrams from his brain, glimpsing frightened expressions all around him. There wasn’t an answer for Kami, not in his head. So he skipped the question and knelt beside Rai, gesturing to the computer. “Can you get back to the live feed? I gotta see what that captain lady is doing.”

  A tap of the Enter key and the monitor blinked to an overhead view of a woman manhandling an explosive.

  That woman slid her fingers along a thin black cable, and Jesse cringed. Now he had an answer to Kami’s question, but she wouldn’t like it. “The captain lady’s gonna pull the wrong wire.”

  “Oh God,” Joey shrieked, latching onto Jesse’s arm.

  Rai flew from his seat, hands driving back his long hair. “Forget that … not after everything. We got away.”

  “Just hold up a minute,” Kami shouted, her face buried in her handheld. “I hacked the speaker system.” She hit send and tossed her tech to Jesse. “Tell them,” she whispered, her eyes screaming for rescue.

  Jesse stared at the gadget as if it were a foreign object. His mouth suddenly ran dry, he couldn’t speak.

  Joey smacked his arm, pointing to the screen. He didn’t budge, so she snatched the handheld. “Don’t pull that wire,” she yelled into the mic.

  ***

  Sabrina jumped back from the bomb when a voice squawked above the low hum of machines. “What the … Who was that?” She looked at Reyes, the man wide-eyed.

  “It came from the overhead speakers,” he said.

  A camera panned toward her direction, and she slowly rose to her feet. With her hands on her hips, she stood strong before the lens. “Identify yourself,” she barked.

  Muffled voices mixed with static, and Sabrina looked at her watch. “I don’t have time for this.” She turned back to the bomb, reaching out for what she hoped was the energy disruption cord.

  “You have to pull the blue and green wires together,” a girl’s voice blasted from overhead.

  “It’s one of the kids,” Reyes whispered.

  Sabrina walked in front of the camera, slapping on a stern expression. “State your name and room number.” Another round of what sounded like arguing erupted, and her jaw clenched. “If I gotta track you down, and I will, I’m gonna be pretty ornery.”

  “You pull the black wire, and we all die,” the voice echoed. “Blue and green.”

  After a click and a burst of static, silence surrounded Sabrina once again. She rubbed her forehead but couldn’t wipe the warning from her mind. That child’s voice, with all its confidence, crept in to shatter her conviction.

  “Is she right?” Reyes asked, his glare bouncing between Sabrina and the bomb.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. This tech goes far beyond my training.” Sabrina rocked in place, her body frozen by the icy grip of doubt. Only eight minutes left, and they still had to get this bomb to the airlock.

  “It’s 50-50 either way,” she exclaimed.

  Sabrina gripped the blue wire in one hand, the green lead slipping into her other. Her trembling fingers tightened, and she whispered a silent prayer.

  ***

  Joey’s nails dug into her palm as the woman wrapped her arms around the bomb. She wanted to look away, but her gaze locked onto the screen. This could be it, the end, and she had a whole checklist of crap she still wanted to do.

  Captain Lady yanked the wires from the bomb, and its glowing blue orb dissipated to sparkly dust.

  A chuckle belted from Joey’s chest, pushed out by rolling waves of relief. The room erupted in hoots and hollers, and somehow, her arms ended up around Rai’s neck. Next thing she knew, their lips were smooshed together. She pulled back, catching a stunned leer from everybody.

  “Sorry,” Joey stammered. Coils of embarrassment twisted her smile into a frown. “I got all swept up.”

  Jesse draped his arm over Joey’s shoulder, ushering her away from Rai. He shot Kami an apologetic grin, and Rai a harsh glare.

  “That was insane,” Kami chuckled. “The bomb, not the kissing thing. That was awkward.” She turned Rai’s laptop and began typing. “All the electronics are still down.”

  “Somebody’s definitely using a jammer.” Rai slid his computer from Kami’s grasp while hurling a possessive glare. “Plasma orbs, jammers. Sounds familiar.”

  Joey watched Kami’s beige cheeks turn bright red. Rai didn’t see it though. He’d zoned into his laptop, flipping through camera feeds. “Look. They’re taking the bomb somewhere.”

  The muscleman from earlier ran across Rai’s screen. His giant body barely fit through the tight tunnels, especially while cradling a bomb in his arms.

  “I know that passage,” Jesse said. “They’re headed to the rear; there’s an airlock back there.”

  Everyone nodded, looking rather pleased, and Joey shrugged. “What’s that mean?”

  “They’re gonna shoot that bomb into space.” Kami swatted at Rai’s hands, then snatched up his laptop.

  “Hey! Not cool.” Rai jumped from his seat. He reached for the computer as Kami backed away, still typing. “Use your handheld.”

  “Gimme a sec,” Kami mumbled over the click of keys. “We shared a womb. You can’t share your tech?”

  “No!” Rai practically mowed Joey over, gripping the sides of his machine. He tugged, Kami yanked, and his eyes narrowed.

  “Guys,” Joey snickered. She glanced at her brother, who looked more confused than entertained, and the smile drained from her face. “This isn’t very productive.” A pair of identical, annoyed eyes shifted to her, and she flinched, wiggling behind Jesse.

  Rai released his clutch, along with a grumble that might have been an Asian cuss word. “Here. Do your thing.”

  Kami’s glare softened, and she handed the laptop back to Rai. “I was done anyway.”

  A low beep rang out, and Rai seized his computer. “What’d you do?”

  �
��The air lock controls,” Kami said softly. “They’re electronic.”

  Rai hurried back to his desk. “Of course.” He looked at Kami. A hint of a smile lifted his cheeks; then he zeroed back into his display. “That door isn’t gonna open.”

  While the two hovered over the laptop, Jesse shuffled Joey into a corner of the room. “There’s something off with those two,” he whispered.

  Joey peeked around her brother. Nothing unusual to see, just near identical twins hacking into a spaceship’s mainframe. Pretty normal stuff, if your life was a video game. “They seem okay to me.” She looked into Jesse’s eyes, his gaze chock-full of concern; now, that was usual. “Maybe that’s just how Asian people are.”

  “No, it’s not that.” Jesse looked back at the desk, shrinking down when Kami peered up at him. “I can’t explain it,” he said in a hushed voice. “I have a strange feeling in my gut.” He took Joey’s hand, pulling her closer. “Just, promise you’ll be careful. I can’t stand that we have separate rooms.”

  “You can’t watch over me our whole lives.”

  Jesse squinted, shaking his head. “Why not?”

  “Hey!” Kami stood up straight, crossing her arms. “What are you guys whispering about over there?”

  “Nothing.” Joey waved her hand, moseying back to the desk. “Just twin stuff, you know.”

  “Ah, no,” Rai said, actually taking time from his incessant typing to hurl a baffled stare.

  “So what horrible thing is happening now?” Joey said, attempting to avert an inquisition.

  “Those two are at the air lock, but the door isn’t gonna open.” Kami gestured for Joey to move closer, turning the computer a touch to the side.

  Joey leaned on the desk, her leg brushing against Rai’s thigh. “Is there anything we can do?”