“I’m taller than you,” I say to her with a smirk.
“Yes, you’ve been reminding me of that since you were fifteen A-years old.” She uses the patient I’m-humoring- you-because-you’re-not-feeling-well tone.
Wow, my mother’s vocal range is phenomenal. I could probably tell you her mood from just one spoken word—almost telepathy. I swallow more giggles.
My parents half carry me the endless distance to Radcliff’s unit. By the time I collapse in bed, my goofy stage of exhaustion is gone and I go right into the passed out cold stage.
When I wake, I’ve no idea if the doctor visited or not. Enjoying the comfortable warmth under the covers, I snuggle deeper. My heavy eyelids are almost shut when I spot the time. I’m on my feet without having any memory of the trip.
I’m late for soch-time!
But…this isn’t my room. And…I’m supposed to… I’ve no idea. A horrible headache pounds all the way down to my ears.
I sink back to the bed, sitting on the edge, cradling my head. A light tapping interrupts my misery.
“Come in.”
Niall enters with a bowl of soup. “Thought you might be hungry.”
Am I? Not really. I take it anyway. “Thanks.” The warmth soaks into my finger bones and the smell of chicken broth stirs my appetite. “Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”
“You’re on bed rest. Doctor’s orders.”
I’d complain, but my mouth is filled with yummy soup—guess I was hungry after all. After I suck down every last drop, I ask, “How long?”
“Two days.”
This time I groan.
“What did you expect would happen after staying up all night chasing a worm?”
“I’d get a medal and my probation would be suspended.”
He smiles. “And here I thought you were awake, but you’re still dreaming.”
“Funny,” I deadpan.
He takes my empty bowl. “Now, back to sleep.” Niall waits.
“Are you going to stand there until I lie down?”
“I don’t know why you’re unhappy. I’d love to have two days to do nothing but lie in bed all day.”
“There’s too much to do.” I flop back.
Pulling the covers over me, he brushes his lips over mine. “Let someone else do it.”
I relent…for now. “If I sleep, will you come back later with more soup?”
“I’ll go one better and bring some of my dad’s casserole. Deal?”
“Shhh, I’m sleeping.”
Two days of bed rest isn’t half bad when you have a handsome nurse/guard, bringing food and providing entertainment. Playing cards, people! We just started dating after all. Niall didn’t seem to mind the make-sure-Lyra-stays-in-bed duty. Although I think we were both very happy when the doctor said I could return to soch-time and my normal activities. Which we all knew I’d ignore.
At soch-time on that third day, one of the quartet of girls comes up to me.
She whispers in my ear, “Lyra, there’s a…message for you.”
Wait, what? “Really? Where?”
Her young face creases as if in pain. “In the game system.”
Oh boy. This can’t be good. “Ah…all right.” I unfold my legs and trail the girl to the game room.
The three others turn to us when we enter. I probably should learn their names. Nah.
“It won’t let us play,” whines the blond girl.
“And we don’t know the password,” another chimes in.
Password? I insert my tangs and see the problem. Jarren has sent me another secret missive. Such drama. I answer his question and words fill the screen. Shrinking it down quickly, I step closer to read his message.
2522:153: Lyra! Stop searching for those looters. From what I’ve been able to piece together about Xinji’s final days, they’re dangerous killers. And there’s rumors they’re hunting for a worm who got too close and they may have hired Ursy Bear. He’s one of those nuts who think the star roads should be available for everyone to access and not just DES. Please let DES do its own dirty work and stay out of it! I already erased all the Xinji files I sent you so they can’t trace those to you. I beg you to delete the research notes Lan sent you as well—your life is at stake!
If he wanted to scare me, mission accomplished. My initial reaction is to bury Lan’s research so deep even I can’t access the files. Yet, they’re the result of decades of her hard work and I’m reluctant to part with them. Plus I’m surrounded by security officers.
I send Jarren a quick note, thanking him for the warning, but I can’t lie to him and tell him I’m going to stop. Instead, I assure him I’ll cool it for a while and be extra careful. Then I reset the game system and apologize to the girls for the disruption. I return to the main area, but am unable to sit still, so I grab some of the modeling clay the little kids play with to keep my hands busy.
What if my activities bring the looters back? Would our security team be able to fight against a greater force armed with those energy wave weapons? Pulse guns are no match for those. Now my fear is not just for myself, but for everyone on the base.
The tone sounds, ending soch-time.
One of the younger kids peers over my shoulder. “Uh…that’s an…interesting looking…blob?”
“It’s a space fart,” another says. “Nature’s own propellant!”
They laugh as if it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever heard in their lives. Boys. I glance at my clay creation and…they’re right. Definitely blob-like in appearance. Although, if I tweak it here and pulled this side out just a little—I drop the clay with a small cry. It reminds me of those shadow creatures in my last dream of the General. The same ones that have been popping up in my other dreams as well.
“Something wrong?” Niall asks, striding up to us.
No longer chortling, the boys edge past him and bolt. Chickens.
I smash the creature into a ball and stuff it into the air-tight container with the rest. “My dream of becoming a famous sculptor has just died.” Another career off my list.
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m not surprised.” His tone is serious, but there’s a glint in his eyes.
“Oh? You don’t think I’m artistic enough?”
“Your creativity is more suited to another career.”
“And that would be?”
“Criminal mastermind,” Niall says matter-of-factly.
He’s teasing, but I play along and rub my hands together. “Lyra Daniels, Criminal Mastermind. I like the sound of that.”
He huffs in amusement. “You would.” He helps me to my feet.
My good humor fades as we traverse the corridors. Laughter and voices float from the open doors. Smiles of hello greet us whenever we pass others. I realize I know almost everyone in this base. Maybe not by name, but at least by profession. A sudden desire to protect them all floods through me. I wonder if this is how my parents feel about me. It would explain quite a bit— especially about all the nagging to be cautious.
“Niall, what would happen if the looters attacked the base?” I ask.
He glances at me and when he sees I’m serious, he says, “We added more sensor arrays to the outside of the base to scan the surrounding desert. We’ll spot them before they can get close and deploy outside and stop them.”
“How? Pulse weapons—”
“Are for when the threat level is low. We have others that pack more firepower, including those energy wave guns. That satellite in space has a few surprises as well. Plus there has been no sign of the looters in the solar system.”
Which, while a relief, is odd. The safest crinkle point in this area is seventy days away. Unless they’ve found another way to travel. Or another crinkle point. I like the second option the best. Then they’d be far away in space-time.
A tightness inside me eases, until… “What if they’re hiding on the planet or have control of our sensing devices or the satellite and can sneak inside the base?”
&nbs
p; “Beau—Officer Dorey—checked the security clusters for the base and satellite twice. No one has tampered with them since the storm and he’s keeping a close eye on them. We scanned the entire planet, and unless they’re hiding deep underground, they’re not here.”
“And if they’re underground and attack us again?”
“Then we scramble to the breach and fight them. In that case, there will unfortunately be some civilian casualties.”
“What if you can’t stop them?” I hug my mid-section, thinking of those poor souls on Xinji.
Niall stops and faces me. “What brought this on?”
I tell him about Jarren’s warning.
“There is a reason to be worried. But not too worried. Chief Hoshi told my father you did an expert job erasing your worm tracks. Plus our team isn’t your typical base security. An Interstellar Class ship’s security force is as well trained as a Protector Class ship’s. Trust us, we’re not letting them get the drop on us again. Okay?”
His reassurance is well…reassuring. I nod and squelch the desire to take his hand as we continue to Radcliff’s office. After a few moments, I say smugly, “Expert job eh?”
He sighs. “Out of all the stuff I said, that’s your takeaway?”
“I could focus on how the team is atypical. Is that better?”
Niall just shakes his head and mutters under his breath about me being the death of his career. I laugh.
When we reach Radcliff’s office, we interrupt a meeting. Morgan and another man sit in front of Radcliff’s desk.
Radcliff waves us in. “Lyra, this is Officer Dorey.”
Dorey stands and I recognize the spiky-haired man who slapped Niall on the back a few days ago. He’s good looking and knows it, flashing me a bright smile. His bronze skin complements his amber eyes.
“Can you show him those unsecure areas you found?” Radcliff asks.
“Sure.” They’re all waiting, expectant. “Now?”
“If you don’t mind,” Dorey says. “Unless you’d rather do homework?” He winks.
“No. Now’s fine.”
“This way.” He opens the side door that I’ve wondered about and sweeps a hand out. “After you, my lady.”
I glance at Niall. He’s scowling at Dorey. Jealous? Yeah, I’d bet he’s the jealous type. I enter the narrow room. There are rows of screens on both sides. Silent images of the base’s public areas, labs, and corridors fill them and two officers sit and watch. Ah that’s why Niall was headed here for his early morning shift. We cross through and exit into another office. It’s small, but it has a dual Q-net terminal. Sweet.
“We’ll go in together and you can show me the holes. Are there a lot?” he asks.
“Yes. And I probably won’t be able to work too long today, Officer Dorey. I’m still recovering.”
“That’s fine, we can take it slow. And call me Beau.”
“All right. Also we can’t follow the proper channels like you’re used to. Do you know how to worm?”
“Oh yes. And I’ll tell you a secret, Miss Daniels. Many of the security officers whose job also involves securing the Q-net were caught illegally worming before they turned eighteen. Those caught enough times get a choice to go to the brig or to help out.”
“And let me guess, you were one of those miscreants.” I grin at him, sensing a kinship.
“I might have had an adventurous youth.” A glint lights his eyes. “But once you get hooked on helping others…it’s not a hard choice to make.”
Ah. I suspected as much. “That means my probation is more like an internship.”
Beau beams as if proud. “That’s a positive way to look at it, Miss Daniels.”
Great. “Call me Lyra.”
“All right, Lyra. Shall we get started?”
“Yes.”
He pushes up the sleeves of his uniform, revealing spider web tattoos on both forearms. I briefly wonder what they mean before my attention is captured by his expert navigation of the Q-net.
After a couple hours my vision blurs, but I don’t want to stop. I can’t believe I’m saying this… It’s fun working with Beau. It reminds me of when Jarren taught me how to worm. Eventually, though, I can’t concentrate and we call it a day. Beau escorts me back to Radcliff’s unit.
As we near the door, Beau says, “You have a unique way of navigating the Q-net.”
“Is that good or bad?” I ask.
“It’s good. That’s why you spotted those holes. I can see all the others that are made the…traditional way for lack of a better word. It’s like you’re looking at everything from a different angle.”
I mull over his comment. “Well…I’ve had lots of practice putting broken terracotta pieces together. But no matter how well those fragments fit, there are always gaps. I think that has helped my worming the most.” I press my palm on the lock. The door opens, and my mother’s voice spills out. I lower mine so only Beau can hear. “Just don’t tell my parents that, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
He laughs. It’s a light pleasant chuckle. “Your secret is safe with me.” Winking, he strides away.
I turn in time to see Niall hide his frown. Yup, jealous. He’s sitting next to my mom with his sketchbook in his lap. She is showing him something on her portable. I debate if I want to know what they’re doing, or go nap. A heavenly scent wafts from the kitchen. Dinner first. Then nap.
Settling on the other side of Mom, I see Lan’s symbols and various Warriors on her portable. “What’s this?” I ask. “While the diggers are finishing Pit 5, I decided to analyze the groups of symbols that represent the different Warrior planets—there’s five hundred and twelve of them in all. Last time we had dinner Niall told me that he spotted some of those symbols on our Warriors. I’m trying to find their actual locations in the pits. We managed to catalog the Warriors in the first two pits before the looters attacked.”
I watch as a surface program compares each Warrior to the symbols. “Uh, Mom. The Q-net can do that in seconds.”
“I know, but I don’t want anyone to see what I’m doing.” Her frustration is evident by the tight way she holds herself.
Good point. “I can bury the results with Lan’s research. If a worm goes near, an alarm will go off.”
“But what if I need access to it?”
Hmm. Another good point. Guess she’s stuck doing it the slow way.
Niall flips to a clean page of his sketchbook. “We can make a grid on paper and mark the location of the Warriors with those symbols on the grid. After we do Yulin, we could do the other planets to see if there’s a pattern.”
Excitement pulses, energizing me. “That’s right. Lan only found the symbols, she didn’t figure out where they were in the pits.”
Mom taps her foot as her gaze turns inward. “That’s twenty-two planets with sixty-four pits each, that’s over fifteen hundred pits. Quite the task.”
“You can recruit help,” I say. “The chemists can manufacture more rice paper and one of the engineers can create a grid template for the Warriors—they’re set up the same way in all the pits. All we need to do is mark the square with a symbol.” My heart taps a fast rhythm, but I don’t know why I’m pushing for this. I’ve a ton of school work to catch up on. Perhaps it has to do with spending more time with Niall.
“I’ll discuss this with your father,” Mom says.
Radcliff pokes his head into the room and announces dinner. Mom pushes to her feet, wasting no time going to the kitchen.
Niall lowers his voice. “If that was my mom, that would be code for no.”
“My mom is never that subtle. Trust me. If she’s going to use the base’s resources she needs to consult with my dad.”
We join my mom at the table.
“Where is Dad?” I ask Mom.
“Dealing with a dispute over equipment. I swear scientists can be like a bunch of children sometimes.”
Radcliff dishes out a stew that is the best thing I ever tasted without sugar. I’m goin
g to gain a zillion grams if I keep eating like this.
At the end of the meal, Mom says, “About those symbols, let’s do Yulin since only two pits were cataloged.” Which is why after we finish, Niall and I are in Radcliff’s office. He’s drawing a grid that matches the rows and columns of the Warriors as they stand in their octagonal formation. He does this on two separate pages of his sketchbook—one for each pit. I pull my mom’s scans of the Warriors from Pit 1 deep into the Q-net and let it tear it apart and put it back together. Niall marks the grid with the location of the Warriors with those symbols. Then we do the same for Pit 2. While I’m burying and protecting the results, he finishes up.
“Amazing,” he says.
I glance over. “What is?”
“Pit 1.” He points to the page spread out on Radcliff’s desk. “Right around that square hole in the middle of the pit are twelve Warriors in a somewhat octagonal shape. The Warriors on each side of that small octagon have the same symbol. There are eight sides so there are eight different symbols.”
“Octagon equals eight, I get it. I’m not that bad in math,” I say.
He ignores me as he’s flipping through his sketchbook. Turning to a page with rows of eight symbols next to names of planets, he scans the list.
“Is that from the other night? Lan’s discovery?” I ask, surprised.
Niall glances up with a sheepish smile. “I figured the file would be locked down once your parents found out the significance of it so I spent the rest of the night making a copy.”
Oh so he can do a little worming as well. “Devious. I approve.”
“Ah, there!” He runs a finger along one of the rows. “The eight symbols in Pit 1 are the same one for planet… er…UK 23.”
UK, meaning one of the forty-two unknown planets. “What about Pit 2?”
He checks. “Planet Chaohu.”
“So each pit represents a planet?”
“Looks like it, but we’ll have to analyze the other planets to be sure.”
“That’s great, except what does it mean?”
“Not our job. Don’t you have cryptologists to decipher this?”
“Yes.” But Lan had said there were codes within codes, so there was probably another level to this discovery. “Did you know the ancient Chinese considered the number eight lucky?” I ask.
Navigating the Stars Page 20