Infinity Riders

by Kekla Magoon

  “I love it,” Gabriel said. To him, the Gamma jump was like a really awesome roller coaster ride, where his stomach felt like it flew up into his mouth for a second. It was all slightly painful, but what a rush!

  “Here we go,” said Piper, gripping the arms of her seat.

  The entire Cloud Leopard shook and rumbled. The crew pitched forward against their secured seat belts as the speeding ship slammed on its brakes.

  “Yeah!” Gabriel whooped once his stomach slowed its churning. “What a ride!” He was the crew’s pilot for a reason.

  Dash watched on the large monitor screen above the control panel as the Cloud Leopard settled into orbit around Infinity.

  The thin atmosphere supported no clouds. The air was completely clear. Dash had near perfect visibility of the harsh, rocky, grayish landscape below. He saw no water, no plants. Nothing that seemed to be moving at all.

  “You mentioned life on this planet, right?” Dash asked. He turned away from the monitor and clicked out of his flight seat. The crew gathered around the table for the planet briefing. They had been training for certain aspects of the mission during the months-long Gamma jump, but now they would learn the specific details about the tasks they must complete on Infinity.

  “There is life,” Chris said. “Underground.”

  “Underground?” Piper said nervously.

  “Yes,” Chris continued. “The planet is entirely comprised of dense rock. So dense that the gravitational force is increased. Nothing much would survive on the surface. But down below, there is a vast network of tunnels and caves.”

  “How many things live in the caves?” Gabriel asked.

  “Three creatures that I know of. And the element we need to retrieve comes from one of these life-forms.”

  On the monitor, a batlike creature appeared. The only difference was, each “bat” had a two-foot-long snaking tail that ended in a sharp arrow point.

  “These are Stingers,” Chris said. “They live in the lake caverns on Infinity.”

  “Cool,” Gabriel said. He thought the creature looked like a cross between a bat and a stingray.

  “See those barbs on their tails?” Chris explained. “When Stingers sting, they inject a spore—a small, toxic pellet—into their prey.” The screen displayed a single black sphere about the size of a BB. “The spore disintegrates into about a hundred micro-beads of the primary toxin, which then spread through the victim’s bloodstream.”

  “How toxic?” Carly asked.

  “Probably lethal to humans,” Chris said. “But Stinger spores are the element we need to gather. At least a thousand of them.”

  “A thousand?” Piper said. That sounded like a lot of lethal stinging action. As the team’s medic, she realized they had better find out for sure if the toxin would kill them.

  “Yes,” Chris said. “We need a hundred thousand units of the primary toxin, and there are one hundred per spore.”

  “How do we catch them?” Dash asked.

  “Nets,” Chris said. “You’ll need to gather enough Stingers and then carefully extract the spores.”

  “So, scoop some Stingers and don’t get stung,” Gabriel said. “We got this.”

  Chris nodded. “You could put it like that.”

  “Why do I feel like it’s not going to be that simple?” Carly asked.

  “Two other life-forms to worry about, remember?” Piper said. “What are they?”

  “Sawtooth Land Eels, for one,” Chris said. The new image that appeared on the monitor caused the crew to gasp.

  “Whoa,” Gabriel said. “That is one ugly snake.”

  The creature had a slimy gray-green body. It wasn’t scaly, but smooth and greasy-looking, from its thick head all the way to its tapered tail. Its jaws jutted forward, sporting a row of protruding top teeth, all jagged and slightly curved like fangs. In the screen simulation, the creature slithered forward, chomped, and then its jaws ground together in a side-to-side sawing motion. It didn’t appear to have eyes. Just teeth.

  “The screen doesn’t do it justice,” Chris commented. “They are large. Ten to twenty feet in diameter and up to a hundred feet in length.”

  “Ten feet? That’s as tall as a school bus,” Dash said. “Yikes.”

  “One to two school buses stacked, yes sir,” STEAM reported, whirring quickly though the calculations. “And as long as three to four buses in a row.”

  Piper gulped audibly. “Whoa.”

  But STEAM was on a roll. “Ten feet is also the height of one floor of a standard human dwelling,” he reported. “The average Saw will be the size of a one-story house, with a mouth the size of a two-car garage.”

  “We get it,” Gabriel said. “They’re big.”

  “If there’s not much other life on Infinity, what do the Saws eat?” Piper asked.

  “Rock,” Chris said. “Hence all the caves and tunnels.” He pulled up a new image, of one of the Sawtooth-made caverns.

  “Sounds like they won’t be much risk to us, then,” Carly commented.

  “Oh, I assure you they would not draw a great distinction between stone and human bone,” Chris said, a bit too cheerfully.

  “Great,” Gabriel said, clapping Chris on the shoulder. “Thanks, man. That’s comforting.”

  “They’re almost impossible to kill,” Chris continued. “They must be stabbed through all six brain nodes”—he pointed to an area on top of the Saw’s head and upper back—“before they have time to heal. Even from the worst stab wounds, they regenerate—only angrier. You really don’t want to get cornered by one of these.” The camera screen panned through the Sawtooth cavern, drawing deeper and deeper into darkness. “Luckily, the tunnel system is quite vast. There is almost always an escape route.”

  “Looks like it would be easy to get turned around down there,” Piper said, staring at the maze on the screen.

  “Yes,” Chris said.

  They waited for him to add, And here’s how we make sure we don’t get lost….But Chris didn’t say anything.

  “Avoid Saws. Check,” Dash said. “Next?”

  Chris brought up an image of a winged black horse. The midnight-colored steed reared back on its hind legs and pawed the air, unfurling its silken wings. The creature’s eyes glowed white, making it look slightly demonic. Yet, strangely, the whole crew smiled at the sight.

  “Oh,” Carly exclaimed. “They’re awesome.”

  “Yes, truly awful,” Chris said, sounding like he was agreeing with her.

  “Are they enemies?” Carly felt suddenly very disappointed. “They look so beautiful.”

  “Wild, they are neither enemy nor friend,” Chris said. “Unpredictable at best. When domesticated, Weavers become somewhat similar to Earth horses. They can be ridden. In fact, that is the best way to explore the Sawtooth caverns.”

  “So…giant eels with scissor jaws, long-tailed stinging cave bats, and flying demon horses?” Gabriel summed up. “All in a day’s work.”

  “At least there are no other people to avoid,” Piper said, trying to keep things positive. After all the wacky politics on Aqua Gen, they could use a break from the challenge of dealing with other-planet societies.

  “Well…,” said Chris.

  “Oh, great.” Gabriel slapped his forehead. “You always save the best for last.”

  “The Jackals are a friendly race,” Chris added quickly. “If a bit…regimented.”

  “That doesn’t sound too good,” Carly said.

  “But it doesn’t sound terrible,” Dash added. “If they’re friendly, then at least maybe we’ll have some locals to show us around.”

  “Infinity is not their home planet,” Chris said. “The Jackals on Infinity are explorers and scientists. Everything is documented and recorded for study.”

  “Great. So we’re about to become an entry in some mad-scientist alien’s diary?” Gabriel quipped.

  Chris looked puzzled as the others laughed. “Oh, no, I assure you the Jackals are not an angry race,” he s
aid. The crew laughed a little harder.

  “ ‘Mad scientist’ is kind of a saying,” Piper explained. Even though he looked like a human teenager, Chris was an alien through and through.

  Chris shrugged and continued. “All that’s left is to figure out who’s going.”

  “Gabriel,” Dash said. “That tunnel system sounds like it’s going to need serious navigation skills.”

  Gabriel nodded agreement. “I’m on it.”

  “And Carly,” said Piper. “She knows the most about riding horses.”

  Carly nodded eagerly too. She loved to ride. Some of her favorite memories of home involved going to the countryside, where friends of her family owned stables and a dozen horses.

  “Horselike creatures,” Chris reminded them. “Not actual horses.”

  Dash and Piper looked at each other. Usually only a team of three went to the surface. The fourth crew member stayed on board the Cloud Leopard with Chris in case of an emergency. They’d broken their rule on Aqua Gen, with nearly devastating consequences.

  “I can ride a horse, no problem,” Piper said. “It won’t be that different from being on my air chair. Or,” she added, “I can just air chair my way through the tunnels.”

  Dash nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He hesitated to say it, but between the Saws and the Stingers, it also seemed like there might be a need for Piper’s medical skills down on the surface. Much as Dash wanted to go on the adventure—because he always wanted to go—he had been along on all the planet surface trips so far. It was only fair he take a turn staying on the ship.

  Dash opened his mouth to confirm who would be going: “Great. So it’ll be Gabriel, Carly, and—”

  “Actually,” Chris said. “I’d like to go along this time.”

  Piper looked surprised and disappointed, but she took the news gracefully. “Oh,” she said. “Well, there’s probably not a need for all four of us to go.”

  Dash was surprised too. Chris always stayed on the ship, at least initially. He had a way of making an entrance onto the planets, when he needed to. “Why do you want to go along this time?”

  “I would like to smooth things over with the Jackals.” Chris stared at the surface of the table as he spoke.

  “I thought you said they were friendly,” Piper said. She hoped it didn’t sound like she was complaining about being excluded from the mission. Even though she was disappointed, she thought it was perfectly fair to let Chris have a turn. Frankly, Piper was still recovering from all the activity on Aqua Gen. Things had gotten pretty rough for her in the waters there. But she’d never admit it to the others or let it interfere with her work on the rest of the mission. No way.

  “We shouldn’t have any problems with the Jackals,” Chris said.

  Carly frowned and glanced at Piper. She wondered if the other girl was thinking the same thing she was: That “having no problems” wasn’t exactly the same as being friendly.

  “So, that’s settled,” Dash said. “Piper and I will stay here. We’ll be on hand if anything goes wrong down there.”

  “Don’t say it like that,” Carly chided. “You’ll jinx us.”

  “Yeah, ’cause that’s never happened,” Gabriel said. “Everything’s gone perfectly so far.”

  The crew grinned at one another. It felt good to laugh and joke about the seriousness of things to come. It reminded them that, in spite of the danger, they were in this together.

  Carly and Gabriel exchanged an extra glance as the crew broke out of their circle. It would be the two of them and Chris? And Dash would stay on the ship? Weird.

  The briefing broke up as the crew went their separate ways to prepare. Dash rode the tunnels down to the engine room. The ZRKs zipped industrially up and down the walls. Dash had come to help, but slowly it sank in that, this time, there was not much prep for him to do. He didn’t even need to pack a bag or anything. He stood alone there for a moment.

  In this room, more than any place else on the ship, the danger and the importance of their mission really hit home. The area was full of sounds as the ship steadied out after leaving Gamma Speed. One portion of the room was occupied by the Element Fuser, the machine that the Voyagers would use to combine the elements once they had all six in hand. The rest of the space was filled by the various smaller ships, vehicles, and watercrafts that the team used to venture out on planet. Some had taken significant damage. And there were empty spaces now too, for the ones the crew had had to leave behind.

  Dash breathed deeply, feeling the adrenaline rush still pumping through his veins. His heart was still pounding—why wouldn’t it stop? He cared for his crew, but he should feel safe himself now, shouldn’t he? Then again, the engine room held the memory of the dangers they had already faced. And it promised—or warned—of more to come.

  It was all happening again now.

  Gabriel and Carly scurried around gathering the supplies they would need for the on-planet excursion. They each stuffed their backpack with their various tool pouches, work gloves, a basic first-aid kit, some light snacks, and a water bottle. They expected to be down and back within the course of the day, but you never knew what could happen.

  Chris seemed less concerned about general preparations, but he took time to carefully advise Gabriel and Carly about the nets he had prepared for the Stinger excursion. They had a pretty neat setup, Carly thought. Each was basically a hightech butterfly net, with a metal hoop on a long pole that extended at the push of a button, like an umbrella. A big mesh net hung from the hoop. The coolest part was the drawstring lever. One tug of the trigger-like mechanism on the pole and the mouth of the net drew closed.

  “So, we’ll fly into the caverns on Weavers and catch the Stingers with these nets?” Gabriel said. He clicked open his pole and waved the net around like a flag. It was lightweight and easy to maneuver. “This is going to be awesome!”

  Carly ducked as he swung it a little too close to her head. “Hey,” she called. “You’re collecting Stingers, not crewmates.”

  “I was nowhere near you,” he said. “Chicken.”

  Carly scoffed. “Who you calling chicken, turkey?” She extended her own net, and they play-jousted for a minute. Carly tried to brush off the comment Gabriel had made. She knew he meant it as a joke. But it hit home, because Carly sometimes secretly felt like a chicken. She tried to act brave, but the idea of stepping off the Cloud Leopard scared her every time. She’d stayed on the ship for the first two planet missions, partly out of fear. She’d proved herself capable on Aqua Gen, for sure, but the old fears still lingered sometimes.

  “Take that!” Gabriel whacked her lightly with his net. Carly groaned in mock agony and staggered to the side.

  Dash strode into the chamber right then. “Stop messing around. We don’t have time to waste.” His voice was stiff. He sounded almost angry.

  “Chill out, bro,” Gabriel said. He folded the net and hooked it into place on his backpack. “We’re going.” When he shouldered the pack, the net hung neatly in place behind him.

  Carly hugged Dash. “See you soon,” she promised. She had learned that she wasn’t the only one who got scared and anxious. Her friends also needed to blow off steam sometimes before the big missions. Everyone got nervous and stressed and showed it in different ways. Gabriel’s way was goofing off a bit. Dash’s way was to get all tight and start ordering people around.

  Dash nodded as she pulled away. “Good luck down there.”

  “Can’t leave without the gifts,” Chris said, returning to the chamber. “Jackals are big on ceremony.”

  As if on cue, a small fleet of ZRKs flew in carrying the treats. They had decided upon large packages of tea and cookies as hospitality offerings. The ZRKs carried a textbook-sized wooden box of hibiscus tea and about a dozen shrink-wrapped tubes of freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies.

  “Brilliant,” Gabriel said, reaching for the cookies. He tucked them away as Carly stuffed the tea box into her own backpack.

  They all
headed through the engine room to the Cloud Cat docking bay. Carly, Gabriel, and Chris climbed into the Cloud Cat, the smaller landing craft that would fly them down to the planet’s surface.

  Carly swallowed down the nuggets of fear in her throat. She wasn’t going to chicken out. Not this time.

  Chris buckled himself into his chair with his normal expression—a slightly secretive smile—in place.

  Gabriel took the controls and fired up the engine. The cargo doors opened, and the Cloud Cat eased into the atmosphere.

  Gabriel grinned as the Cloud Cat swooped down through the cloudless sky. “To Infinity, and be—”

  “Don’t say it,” Carly interrupted, laughing.

  “Beyond!”

  Behind the Cloud Leopard, as close and as looming as a shadow, a second spaceship steamed through the night at Gamma Speed. It too slowed as it approached the planet Infinity. An arrival announcement echoed through the bridge of the Light Blade, but no one was around to hear it. The crew had all gathered downstairs in the training center.

  The room looked remarkably similar to the Cloud Leopard’s training area, with pads on the floors, and athletic equipment and training supplies scattered around the wide-open space. At the moment, the entire crew of the Light Blade was gathered around a structure somewhat resembling a mechanical bull.

  Siena Moretti’s fingers grew slick with sweat as she clung to the reins. She struggled to stay on board the metal creature as it dipped and swerved. Finally it tilted so far to the right that she slid off the saddle and onto the mat.

  Anna Turner clicked off the stopwatch. “That was nearly two minutes.”

  “Best time so far,” Niko Rodriguez chimed in. “My record was ninety-nine seconds.”

  “You might’ve beaten him, Siena,” Ravi Chavan said, reaching down to help her up off the mat. “But that record won’t stand for long. My turn again.”

  As with most things on the Light Blade, the Weaver-riding training had turned into a competition.