“Fourteen…”
Fig must have been worried about the same thing, because she pulled a laser out of her boot and fired it at the shuttle. I recognized it as the same weapon she had used to blow up my galley—the one I’d insisted she hand over to me.
“Hey!” I shouted. “You said that was lost in space.”
“Are you seriously complaining right now?” she yelled back, taking another shot at Corpse and Cadaver’s shuttle. The pirates were forced to shield their heads, giving us a few moments to make it inside our ship.
“Point taken,” I panted.
I punched the button to seal the Whirlwind’s door shut behind me.
“Twelve…”
Pumping my legs, I took the stairs two at a time, yelling, “Computer, ignite the main engine and prepare for emergency takeoff!”
“Affirmative,” she replied. “Preparing for rapid launch.”
“Eleven…”
The engine hummed to life. That was a good start, but we still needed to make it out of the hangar, travel through the force-field chute, and fly far enough away from the barge to avoid the blast. Or rather the objects that the blast would shoot at us like bullets from a loaded gun. Because when it came to explosions, the rules were different in space. It wasn’t the heat and flames I was worried about. The lack of oxygen outside would choke a fire before it could spread. But at great speeds, heavy shrapnel—hunks of metal hull and framework from the barge—could slice my ship in half like a knife through warm cheddar.
“Ten…”
“Faster,” Fig yelled, passing me. She skidded sideways across the floor and landed upright in the pilot’s seat. As much as I wanted to revoke her crew status, she was the better pilot, so I sat in the other chair. She strapped into the seat harness and told me, “Buckle up. This’ll get bumpy enough to scramble your eggs.”
“Nine…”
I strapped into my seat.
“Eight…”
Fig grabbed the wheel and lifted off, bringing the ship around to face the main hatch. Corpse and Cadaver must have already signaled the hangar door to open, because the air had depressurized, and the massive hatch was halfway ajar. The two of them wasted no time zipping out of the hatch in their small shuttle.
“They already dropped the force field,” Fig said, pointing.
“Good,” I said. “That’s one less obstacle in our way.”
We approached the exit, but the Whirlwind was a full-size sedan, not a shuttle, and way too big to fit through the gap. So we lost two more seconds waiting for the door to open fully before Fig could punch the thrusters.
With six seconds to go, we rocketed out of the hangar so fast my body was practically welded to the seat. The force of acceleration must’ve made Fig tug harder on the wheel, which in turn drove the thrusters harder. The engines roared and whined, propelling us at speeds high enough to time-travel. (That’s an exaggeration. But we were going RFF: Really Friggin’ Fast.) And before I knew what had happened, we’d shot past the entire Galaxy Guard convoy.
Which reminded me…
“We should warn them,” I said. As quickly as I could, I entered the Galaxy Guard call code on my transmission screen. “Maybe they’ll have enough time to—”
I was interrupted by a thundering boom, followed by another and another. On and on it went, until the distance between our ship and the barge grew wide enough to dull the noise to distant thuds. I chewed the inside of my cheek and tried not to think about the Galaxy Guards on those ships. Whatever Quasar had paid them, it wasn’t worth dying for. Quasar wouldn’t care about the loss. People were disposable to him. He would just hire more minions and go about his day. But the guards weren’t replaceable to their families back home.
Home.
My heart leaped with fresh panic. I’d been so focused on escaping from the barge that I’d forgotten about the star it had been towing. I glanced out the windshield, looking for the man-made sun and seeing only debris.
“Where’s the star?” I asked.
Fig pulled up the navigation screen. I saw the Whirlwind represented as a tiny flashing dot, and a few klicks away, a larger circle was sailing toward Earth. I didn’t want to believe my eyes, so I closed and reopened them twice. But the truth didn’t change. In their rush to drop the shield and escape, Corpse and Cadaver must’ve freed the star from its tether.
As terror sank in, it became clear that not only had I failed to save my family, I’d doomed them. Because without a barge to anchor the miniature star, it was going to gravitate toward a mass larger than itself, namely a planet of more than six billion people.
The star was on a collision course with my home planet.
With no way to slow it down or stop it.
The only hope was to evacuate Earth during the time we had left, to save as many lives as possible…and pray that my family could escape, because I had taken away their only ship when I’d stolen the Whirlwind.
I released a shaky sigh and wiped my cold, clammy palms on my pants. The last time I’d tried to call home, the connection had failed. “I have to try again,” I heard myself say in an empty voice. “I have to warn my parents.”
Have you ever been to a big holiday dinner where there wasn’t enough room at the table, so some of the guests, usually kids, got stuck eating in a reject place like the living room, where the grown-ups could ignore them? Well, for me, being around humans was kind of like being one of those extra kids. There was never a seat for me at the table. Usually that didn’t bother me. I had always taken pride in my weirdness because it made me special. Most days I didn’t give a rat’s furry backside about fitting in, or being included.
But today wasn’t one of those days.
Today I would’ve given my right arm to be a part of something bigger than myself, a part of a unit. After three attempts, Kyler had finally reached his family. And I’d never felt more like a mutant than I did right then, standing next to Cabe in the hallway, one finger pressed to my lips in a message for him to be quiet so I could listen to the conversation. I was literally on the outside looking in.
And I won’t lie. It sucked.
On tiptoes, I leaned through the pilothouse doorway and snuck a peek at the transmission screen, where a blond woman was smiling at Kyler with one slender hand resting over her heart. Tears shimmered in her eyes, but they seemed like the happy kind of tears. She had a soft, round face that most people would probably consider more kind than pretty, but to me, that made her more beautiful than a hundred fashion models. I wanted to keep gazing at her. It’s probably going to sound stupid, but Kyler’s mom had the sort of face that made me think of warm things like fuzzy blankets and chicken noodle soup and curling up on the sofa with a good book on a dark day.
Yeah, that definitely sounded stupid.
Still, I couldn’t look away from her. I held my breath and focused on the conversation, as if I could live Kyler’s life if I tried hard enough.
“Mom, I need you to listen to me,” Kyler said. “You’re all in—”
“Kyler Gregory Centaurus,” she interrupted. “I’m going to kill you!” In the very next breath, she broke down in fresh tears and added, “Thank goodness you’re all right, baby. I love you so much!”
“Me too, Mom,” he said. “But listen—”
“You’re grounded for eternity,” Mrs. Centaurus snapped, immediately followed by “I promise we’ll take you on more trips, honey, wherever you want to go. Museums too. We’re sorry we didn’t pay attention to you. We didn’t know you felt so trapped at home.”
She kept doing that, contradicting herself. Next there was “You’re so brave and smart, surviving out there all alone,” and then “What were you thinking, doing something so selfish and idiotic as flying away in our ship? I’m surprised you can walk and chew gum at the same time!” After that, she threatened to murder him again, restart his heart, and then hug him for a thousand years. Kyler tried to talk the whole time, but it was as though she couldn’t hear him over
the noise of her emotions.
It made me smile…and it made my chest burn with jealousy. My mother used to love me like that, fierce enough to lose her mind.
“I didn’t know what to think when I got your message,” Mrs. Centaurus said. “The writing didn’t sound anything like you. I almost thought someone was holding you for ransom, but they didn’t ask for any money.”
“What message?” Kyler asked, but then his dad poked his head into the frame. Mr. Centaurus was also fair-haired and dark-eyed. His image was followed onto the screen by four boys who looked like various size clones of him. Relief washed over the dad’s face, relaxing his jaw and easing down his shoulders. Meanwhile, four grins sprang to the boys’ mouths.
“Hey, it’s Ky,” said two boys simultaneously. They looked like twins.
“He’s not dead,” added the oldest boy, judging by his gargantuan size. “Who would’ve guessed?”
A shorter boy extended a hand to his big brother, palm up. “Score! You owe me ten bucks, loser.”
His demand for payment went ignored. “Dude,” the large boy said to Kyler. “Running away to another planet? Seriously uncool. There’s nothing you won’t do to get out of playing laser hockey.”
“Yeah, there’s no I in team,” one of the twins said.
“But there’s a u in Ky’s grounded,” the other twin added with a snicker.
The shortest boy elbowed the largest. “Hey, for real. Pay up, bro. Ten bucks.”
The larger boy made a fist. “How about I give you a knuckle sandwich instead? I’ll even supersize it for free.”
At that, the younger boy shifted his hips toward the older brother and farted loud enough to break glass. Which resulted in a sucker punch to the upper arm that knocked the younger boy into the twins, who bonked their heads together and glared at the other two. From there it descended into a brawl that moved offscreen.
I grimaced. I never thought Kyler would be the normal kid in his family.
“Um, guys,” Kyler said, folding his arms and cocking his head to the side as if this sort of thing happened all the time. “Mom? Dad? I have to tell you something. Could you try to focus on me for longer than ten seconds?”
His parents were only half listening, distracted by the thuds and thwacks that were taking place out of view. I could tell from their wrinkled foreheads that they weren’t sure whether to intervene or let the boys fight it out and establish dominance like a litter of wolf pups.
“Hey,” Ky said, waving a hand to get their attention. “Long-lost son over here.…Remember me? I didn’t call just to say hello. There’s an emergency I have to tell you about.”
The word emergency got his mother’s attention. It also got Cabe’s attention. Cabe’s inner reel hummed with panic, and I had to whisper, “It’s all right. We’re not in mortal danger.” He calmed down just as Mrs. Centaurus whipped her gaze to the screen.
“An emergency? What’s wrong? Are you—”
“I’m fine,” Kyler told her. “You’re the ones in danger. Remember that stolen star from Fasti?”
She and her husband nodded.
“It’s headed for Earth,” Kyler said. “And fast. It should be there by morning. You guys have to find a ship and get off the world as fast as you can.”
His mom tipped her head in confusion. “Last I heard, the Galaxy Guard had the barge surrounded and was bringing it to a stop.”
“It was announced a few minutes ago,” Mr. Centaurus said. “I’m sure if we were in danger, we would know. It would be all over the news.”
“But who spins the news?” Ky asked. “Who pays off the people who report the stories? Who controls the airwaves and the worldwide network?”
Mr. Centaurus peered at Kyler as though he didn’t understand the question. “You mean Quasar Niatrix?” For a moment, I thought I saw his eye twitch.
“Exactly,” Ky said.
“Since when do you believe me about Quasar manipulating the media?”
Kyler flapped a hand. “Doesn’t matter. I get it now. What matters is that Quasar is the one who stole the star, not a crew of Wanderers. I think he had help from someone on Fasti, and he hired two pirates to steal the star barge. Now the star is headed for Earth, and it can’t be stopped.”
“That doesn’t add up,” Kyler’s dad said. “Listen, you know I hate Quasar, but I can’t believe he would destroy Earth. That’s his customer base. There’d be no one to buy property on his colony planets. He’d be shooting himself in the foot.” Mr. Centaurus delivered a stern look. “Where did you get your information, Kyler? You know you can’t believe everything you read. I told you how important it is to check your sources before—”
“I’m the source,” Ky interrupted. “I know it’s true because I lived it.”
He told his family a brief version of everything that had happened…except for meeting me and finding out I had been working for the pirates. I didn’t know why Kyler was protecting me, or even if that was what he meant to do, but it caught me by surprise.
“No way,” the large boy said to Ky after the story was done. “Did pirates really try to kill you? Because that’s completely bogus.”
“Yeah,” one of the twins said. “Pirates can’t kill our brother.”
“Only we can kill our brother,” the other twin finished.
“It’s our God-given right,” the first twin agreed.
Kyler’s mom and dad shared a hesitant glance that said they weren’t sure what to believe. I couldn’t blame them. Even to my ears, the story sounded too wild to be true, and I had been there for most of it.
“But why?” asked Ky’s dad. “What’s Quasar’s motive in all this?”
“To control Earth,” Kyler said. “He wanted to convince everyone that Wanderers were trying to destroy the planet. His plan was to tow the star close enough to Earth to make voters panic, then save the day and look like the hero. But it backfired. Now the star is loose, and there’s no stopping it.”
His parents went quiet. They still didn’t seem convinced.
“Aw, come on.” Kyler threw his hands in the air. “If you never listen to me again, just trust me this one time. You need to evacuate. Find a ship and go visit Nana. What do you have to lose?”
During the exchange, I saw Cabe working himself into a lather again, his inner reel buzzing and his bendy legs creaking as he tried holding back his worries. I pressed a calming hand to his chest, but it was no use. He lurched into the pilothouse waving his cable arms around wildly and crying, “Mortal danger! The Centaurus family is in mortal danger!”
Kyler spun around. “Whoa, whoa. Stand down, Cabe. That’s an order.”
Cabe let his arms go slack and reeled them inside his body until they were only long enough to clasp together at the ends.
Kyler thumbed at him. “I activated him; he’s been a big help. You can believe Cabe. You are in…” Ky hid his lower face behind one hand and mouthed the words mortal danger so Cabe wouldn’t hear him and lose his marbles again.
“Uh-huh,” said Mr. Centaurus flatly. “I’d like to point out that Cabe also thought my beard trimmer was an instrument of death. Remember when he snatched it out of my hand and chucked it out the airlock?”
Kyler heaved a sigh. He wasn’t getting through to anyone. I could finally see that he wasn’t the only person to blame for the problems in his family. His parents didn’t seem to have much faith in him.
I gripped the edge of the doorway, hesitating to come forward. I knew Kyler didn’t want me around, not after what I’d done. Besides, I felt like I didn’t deserve to talk to his family. I was part of the reason they might die, along with billions of other innocent people. But in the end, I swallowed my fear and my shame, and I walked into the room. The least I could do was make Ky’s mom and dad believe him.
“He’s telling the truth,” I said. “My name is Figerella Jammeslot, and I was hired by two pirates to blow up the Fasti star.”
“Whoa,” the youngest boy breathed. “A mutant!”
/>
Ky’s mom elbowed the boy, and he corrected, “A Wanderer, I mean.”
She made an apologetic face and nodded for me to go on.
“The star is filled with dark matter,” I told them. “The pirates said that if I hit it at dead center, it would explode. Or implode. They weren’t quite sure which way it would go.” I bit my lip and peeked at Kyler, who stood rigidly beside me, refusing to meet my eyes. I wanted so badly for him to know I wasn’t a monster. “I had no idea what they were really planning. If I had, I never would’ve taken the job. Please believe me.”
He folded his arms.
“I needed the money,” I told him. “But after I found out what Quasar Niatrix was up to, I tried to stop him. I still want to stop him.” I shifted in place. “I’m not a bad person.”
Kyler’s dad pointed back and forth between us. “How did you two end up on the Whirlwind together?”
“Long story,” Ky said. “But do you believe me now?”
His father scratched his head in thought. “Let’s say a star really is coming—”
A series of beeps interrupted him, and a voice in the background of the Centaurus house said, “This is an emergency alert from the Earth Link Broadcast Network. This is not a test. I repeat, this is not a test. The following message will be translated into all known languages.”
Kyler pointed behind his parents. “Move the camera so I can see.”
His mother adjusted the lens, bringing the family telescreen into view. The screen flashed with the face of a handsome man with tanned skin and waves of glossy brown hair that touched his shoulders. His blue eyes were solemn, his mouth unsmiling as he sat behind a mahogany table with both hands folded atop it. A flag representing Earth stood behind him.
Quasar Niatrix.
“My fellow citizens,” Quasar said in the velvety voice of a Hollywood actor. “The Earth Link Network has provided me with this airtime because our planet is in danger, and the government can’t help us. And why can’t they help us? Because they’re too busy helping the enemy. While the United Nations was negotiating with Wanderers for the right to take away our land and our jobs, a group of mutants destroyed the Fasti star barge, killing hundreds of Galaxy Guards in the process. And that’s not the worst of it. Before the explosion, the mutants launched the stolen star at Earth, and it’s traveling toward us at an alarming speed. The estimated time of impact is in ten hours.”
Blastaway Page 18
