by Kekla Magoon
“Yeah.” Dash’s tone was flat, the word but a short puff of breath.
Piper was familiar with the frustration of being left behind, and the desire to plunge in and help the team. Such impulsiveness had gotten the best of her on the last planet. This time, she was prepared to stay calm and levelheaded.
Dash came away from the screen, still with a troubled look on his face. He plopped into the seat closest to Piper’s air chair. “Do you think Chris told us everything?”
Piper lowered her gaze. Her lips parted as her mind warred between speaking the truth and keeping the peace. “No, actually, I don’t.”
—
The Saw was headed straight toward Carly and Gabriel, and it was blocking the mouth of the tunnel that led back into the Jackal compound. The eel was so large that their flashlight beams couldn’t illuminate its whole face. Not that they wanted to see its whole face.
“Run!” Carly grabbed Gabriel’s arm as they spun around and dashed deeper into the dark. The Saw chomped and slithered after them.
They ran past the place where Carly had discovered the flower. Soon the cave tunnel split into a Y. They stopped running, uncertain.
“Which way?” Gabriel blurted out. “I haven’t studied the maps yet.”
Carly looked back over her shoulder. As frightening and deadly as the thing behind them was, it wasn’t moving all that fast. Outrunning it might not really be their biggest problem.
“We can’t get lost in here,” Carly said. “If we get mixed up, we might never get back.”
“It’s coming,” Gabriel said.
They couldn’t turn around. There would be no way to get past the Saw. Its massive body nearly filled the width of the tunnel. And it was close now.
“Pick a lane!” Carly cried. “You’re the navigator.”
Gabriel darted into the right-hand arm of the tunnel. “If we turn right at every fork going in, then we’ll know to always turn left on the way back.”
Carly followed. “Will that work?”
Gabriel’s voice echoed in the widening tunnel. “I hope so.”
The Saw took the right-hand turn too.
“Dang,” Gabriel said. “That was some luck.”
“It’s like flipping a coin,” Carly said. “It has to come up in our favor eventually.”
The next right they came to was a smaller side tunnel that must have led to another set of caves. It was pitch-black but for the small beads of their flashlights. It didn’t seem possible that the dark could get any darker, and yet it did. Their lights appeared to shine less and less distance ahead of them.
“No,” Gabriel said, stopping suddenly. Carly bumped into him from behind.
“Go, go,” she urged him.
“Uh…” Gabriel had his hand stretched out in front of him, pressing against a wall of stone. The tunnel was a dead end. The “always turn right” plan had seemed smart a minute ago. Now Gabriel feared he had signed their death warrant.
The Saw had already reached the crossroads behind them. No going back.
“Now what?” Carly asked.
“Hope it doesn’t turn?” Gabriel offered.
“Great.”
They inched backward into the space and waited. There was nothing else to do. They had a fifty-fifty shot of being eaten alive.
The Saw made the right turn, which was, in this case, entirely the wrong turn.
Carly’s stomach practically dropped into her shoes.
They were dead.
They’d failed.
The mission was over.
“I’m sorry,” Gabriel said. Over and over he said it, grasping desperately at the stones as if feeling for some possible exit to materialize. “I’m so sorry, Carly.”
Carly felt the strange flower move against her finger. She shone her flashlight at it. If she was going to die, at least she could take one last look at something pretty. The flower tendrils tightened around her finger. She wasn’t imagining it, was she? They pulled her arm to the side. Repeatedly. Insistently. Tugging.
“Um, there’s something…” She relaxed her hand and let the flower take over. Her arm raised in front of her as if of its own accord. She followed the tugging sensation. The flower was pulling her forward in the tunnel—back toward the Saw!
It took all the courage Carly had to follow it. She felt with her hand along the stone wall until…the wall wasn’t there anymore. Carly nearly stumbled as her hand slid into a gap in the stone. It was barely a foot wide, but deeper than her arm was long. A fissure in the rock.
“Gabe, get over here,” Carly shouted. She waved her flashlight back toward him. He appeared at her side as she pressed herself into the gap. Gabriel smashed himself in behind her.
“Think thin,” Carly whispered.
Up close, the Saw’s gnashing teeth looked like icicles of steel. The Saw bit and snapped at the edges of the tunnel, widening the walls as it moved through. Its cool breath smelled like a cloud of construction-site dust.
“Whoa!” Gabriel yelped as it chewed the rocks right beside his shoulder.
The Saw’s tapered tail slithered past their hiding spot. It chewed its way forward. Soon the tunnel would no longer be a dead end. This was an exact example of how navigation could be impossible down here, Gabriel realized. How many Saws were out there, chewing and changing the tunnels right this minute? Any maps the Jackals had were bound to be outdated within minutes.
Carly and Gabriel squeezed out of the crevice. “Two left turns,” Gabriel recalled. They darted through the tunnels. Everything looked different, coming from the other way. The tunnel actually was different now, Carly knew. The Saw’s chomping path had changed the contours of it.
“We are in so much trouble,” Carly commented as they ran. “We might never get out of here next time.”
“I’m going to handle it,” Gabriel said, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice. He had to solve the tunnels. It was his job.
Luckily for now, the two left turns did the trick. They caught sight of the entrance to the Jackal compound. As they approached, the string of red lights flickered on.
“I think red means stop,” Gabriel said. “Or proceed at your own risk.”
Carly nodded. They’d missed that clue the first time. It wouldn’t happen again.
—
“This is way too dark,” Ravi commented as the Omega crew ventured farther into the tunnel system. “Not cool. Not cool.”
Suddenly a burst of red light lit the darkness ahead of them.
“We must be near the Jackal compound,” Niko commented. “Those lights are not a natural phenomenon.”
“We are in outer space,” Siena reminded him. “We don’t know what ‘natural phenomena’ we might encounter out here.”
They crept closer. The gigantic bulbous lights did appear to be man-made. Creature-made. Handcrafted. Something. Niko wasn’t sure what the right term would be for alien lighting installations.
“Colin says avoid the Jackals,” Niko said.
“Do you see any Jackals?” Ravi countered. “Avoiding them doesn’t mean we can’t take some advantage of their stuff.”
They maneuvered through the corridor faster now that there was better light. They were working blind, otherwise. The map Colin had given them only showed how to access the tunnels from the planet surface. Inside, he’d told them, the tunnel layout was constantly changing. Even the Jackals hadn’t figured out how to properly map the tunnels, though they were forever trying.
Niko spent a minute trying to take one of the lights from the wall. Siena hung by him, while Ravi wandered farther into the darkness.
“Yeah, this is not going to work,” Niko determined. “They’re all plugged in and attached.”
“Not loving this planet so far,” Siena said. “Let’s all hope we have enough extra flashlight batteries to get back out.”
“Hang on,” Ravi said, reappearing suddenly from the black cave. “Forget about the light thing. I found something way better.”
Gabriel and Carly returned to the hall of labs and resumed looking for Chris. Rather than retrace their steps, they headed in a different direction, following a string of yellow lights this time. The rooms in this section of the compound did not have glass walls. They were more like the study stations in a library, with carpeted half-height walls enclosing the different sections. The walls did not reach the ceiling, but were too tall to look over.
“Chris!” they shouted, but their voices only echoed off the compound’s eerie walls.
They passed more and more cubicles, still deserted. They walked down either side of the hallway, poking their heads into each cubicle. Most contained a desk and some file cabinets. Very few had any more interesting items.
Carly prodded at her MTB, messaging Chris. “He’s not answering.”
“Maybe we’re too deep,” Gabriel suggested. It still wasn’t working to contact the Cloud Leopard either.
“Or else he’s too far away,” Carly mused.
Gabriel found a neon-yellow-handled flashlight lying on a desk in one room. He brought it into the hall and flicked the switch a couple of times.
“It kinda looks like a black light,” he said. “But it’s broken.”
“There was one of those in the lab with the safe,” Carly said. “It didn’t work either.” Several more of the cubicles had them. None seemed to work.
Gabriel kept his anyway. It gave him something to do with his hands. He felt himself getting fidgety, itching to get on with the mission. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed. It was probably still mid-morning, but between the dim lighting in the compound and the dark of the caves, it no longer felt like daytime.
“I’m getting worried,” Carly said. “If we don’t find Chris soon, we’ll have to continue without him.”
“It’s weird that he just wandered off,” Gabriel agreed. “Do you think he’s okay?”
Carly shrugged. Who ever knew with Chris? This mission might be up to her and Gabriel alone. She had known it the minute Chris vanished—he was still keeping secrets. He had his own agenda, and Carly wasn’t sure which priority would come first for him—the Voyager team’s interests or his own mysterious intentions. Carly wanted to trust him—they had to! But it was hard when he was acting suspiciously.
At the end of the last row of cubicles was a large office. Carly’s gaze zeroed in on a clear glass cabinet with stacked trays of syringes. They were all full, capped for individual use, and ready for injection. The glass doors had the slanted writing of the Jackal language etched on them.
“Ooh, interesting.” Carly approached the cabinet and raised her MTB to access the translator.
Gabriel set the Jackal flashlight down on the desk. His hand brushed against the top. “Whoa.” The bulb had grown warm to the touch. It didn’t look like it was on, but something was clearly happening. An idea lit up in his mind—one that had been slowly heating along with that lightbulb.
“I wonder if…I’ll be right back,” Gabriel said.
“Where—” Carly started, but Gabriel was long gone into the hallway. She rolled her eyes.
Carly put the translator on to scan the words and translate them. She watched her wrist as the images scattered and turned from Jackal to English. Carly grinned excitedly as the translation came up.
Gabriel darted back into the room. “Hey, Carly, I have to show you what I found,” he said.
“Whatever it is, this is better,” she answered. “It’s an anti-Stinger serum!”
“Excellent,” Gabriel said. He rushed up beside her, and they opened the cabinet. “We’d better grab some of this for the road.”
Carly reached in to extract a few vials of the serum.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” said a voice behind them.
The voice sounded like a combination of a dog’s bark and a cement mixer, low-pitched and grainy. Carly and Gabriel whirled around at the sound. A very tall, very thin, gray-skinned man stood in the lab doorway. Chris was beside him.
Carly glanced at the translator, already running on her armband, interpreting what the man had said. “I wouldn’t try that if I were you,” the gray man continued. “That serum has only been tested on Jackals.”
Chris stepped forward, speaking the Jackal language fluently. “Carly and Gabriel, this is Colonel Ramos, of the Jackal Expedition and Research Contingent, also known as JERC.” It was strange to hear the garbled words coming out of Chris’s mouth and being picked up by the translator. “Colonel, these are the young humans I was telling you about. Carly Diamond and Gabriel Parker.”
Colonel Ramos stared intensely at them. Carly felt like they were under a microscope, as if the man’s eyes could zoom in and out to capture every detail.
There was nothing to do but stand there and examine him in return. It seemed almost polite, under the circumstances. The man’s features appeared to be a cross between a human and canine. Perhaps a rottweiler. He had those piercing eyes; a dark-tipped nose; long, sleek jowls; and a pointed chin. His hair was many shades of gray, streaked with black and white. His skin was gray and firm, not a wrinkle in sight.
“Take them away,” Colonel Ramos told Chris. “I can’t accept them.”
“Accept us?” Gabriel echoed.
Colonel Ramos turned and spoke only to Chris. “They are truly intriguing, so you have me there. I’m happy to have given them a look, but it seems they would require significant care and feeding.”
“Oh, no, sir,” Chris hurried to explain. “You misunderstand. No care or feeding required.”
“Really?” Colonel Ramos perked up. “Astonishing.”
The colonel flared the tails of his jacket. He wore a suit made of Sawtooth leather, styled similar to a white-tie tuxedo. A “penguin coat,” Gabriel recalled his father joking when they each had to wear one for his uncle’s wedding. Colonel Ramos’s lapels were decorated with what looked like Weaver feathers.
“Colonel Ramos is a busy man,” Chris said, motioning the Voyagers toward the door. “We needn’t bother him further.”
Carly and Gabriel exchanged glances. What was Chris talking about? They needed the colonel’s expertise for navigating the tunnels.
“Are you a military colonel?” Gabriel asked. He’d always thought it was a funny title for such a high-ranking officer—it always made him think of a kernel of corn. “Where’s your army?”
Carly shot him a look that meant hush up. Gabriel shrugged. It was a reasonable question. The whole outpost seemed deserted.
“My colleagues have returned to our home planet.”
“But you stayed?” Gabriel asked.
“I had nothing to go back to,” Colonel Ramos said bitterly. “My work is here. My life is here. My purpose. The Jackal high command pulled our funding, ripped us all from our vital ongoing work.”
“That’s terrible,” Carly said. “That happened on our planet too. Many rich countries pulled money from science research, even though our planet’s in trouble. They sent us here to help solve the energy crisis. So we understand.”
Maybe Colonel Ramos heard her; maybe he didn’t. He stared through the empty glass cases, into the distance. “We had four dozen labs at our peak,” he said. “Alone, I am able to maintain only six.”
Carly wondered if the labs had once housed cutting-edge researchers. She could imagine the excitement and energy the place must once have held. It helped explain the feeling of sorrow radiating from the empty rooms, knowing they had once been vibrant hubs of activity.
“I’m sorry,” she told him.
“It doesn’t matter,” the Jackal said, but even the electronic translation couldn’t conceal the sorrow in his voice.
“So, you’re really all alone here?” Carly couldn’t imagine. It was hard enough being gone from Earth for a single year. The idea of never returning, ever, felt unbearable. “What about your family?”
Colonel Ramos glared at her. “Do not pity me. I chose this life.” He stomped to a file cabinet
and extracted a clipboard with a thick sheaf of papers attached to it.
He approached Gabriel. “Fine. I’ll start with this one. Now, if you would, please.” He indicated that Gabriel should stand with his arms up and imitate his own movements.
“What…?” Gabriel wondered aloud as he followed the directions.
“This won’t take long,” Ramos assured him. “Range of motion, check. Language skills, check. General appearance…”
He circled Gabriel, examining him closely. Finally he turned to Chris. “Does this race have a name?”
“I’m African American,” Gabriel said.
“They are called human,” Chris said. “From a planet called Earth.”
“One male, one female?” Colonel Ramos made a notation on his clipboard. Then he brought out a tape measure. He took down Gabriel’s height and the length of his arms and legs. He measured the circumference of Carly’s head and the distance between her nose and chin, and the span of her palm from thumb to pinkie. When he reached for the other hand, he gasped.
Carly looked down. She had almost forgotten about the plant tendrils curled around her fingers.
“A mossflower.” Colonel Ramos studied her closely. “Quite improbable.”
“We found it in the tunnel,” she told him. “Pretty cool, eh?”
“You do not find a mossflower,” the colonel informed her sharply. “A mossflower finds you.”
“I can’t get it off,” Carly said, nodding. “It’s twisted itself onto me pretty tight.”
Colonel Ramos looked at her for a long moment, as if he was trying to make a decision. Finally he spoke. “Some of my colleagues, the Jackal women…,” he began. Then he cleared his throat and shook his head.
“Just put it next to your face,” he said gruffly. “Run your fingers through your hair.”
Carly scooped the side curtain of her hair back over her ear. “Oh,” she cried as the mossflower tendrils unwrapped from her fingers and twined themselves in her hair. The flower rested just above her ear.