Project Alpha

by D. J. MacHale

  “Whoa, look at that!” Gabriel exclaimed, leaning forward.

  “I see it,” Carly said through speakers. “That’s different from the video.”

  Scattered across the valley floor were several tall, thick palm trees.

  “They must have grown since the lander came through,” Dash said.

  “Yeah, well, the navigation system doesn’t know that,” Gabriel declared nervously. “We’re going to hit those things.”

  He reached out to put his hand on the control pad, then glanced at Dash.

  Dash reached for his flight glasses. He was about to put them on but stopped and looked at Gabriel.

  Their eyes locked.

  Dash pulled his hand back and commanded, “Go for it!”

  Gabriel didn’t have to be told twice. He threw on his glasses and slapped his hand onto the control pad.

  “Taking over manual control,” he declared.

  They were headed straight for the largest tree.

  Gabriel quickly and expertly banked the craft into a tight right turn, barely missing the tree that would have destroyed the craft.

  “Yeow!” Piper exclaimed.

  “I got it,” Gabriel said calmly.

  The Cloud Cat instantly gained altitude, rising above the tops of the palm trees.

  “I see a window,” Gabriel announced. “Hang on, I’m hitting the brakes.”

  The Cloud Cat flashed over a stand of palm trees, beyond which was a clear stretch of grass. Farther ahead were more trees.

  Gabriel hit the air brakes and the deceleration was so dramatic, all three were thrown forward against their straps. Gabriel stayed focused and hit the retro-thrusters, dropping the Cloud Cat quickly.

  “Hold tight, it might be a rough…”

  The craft shuddered as it hit the ground.

  “…landing,” Gabriel said. “Manual shutdown. System dormant and armed, ready for restart.”

  He looked at Dash, then at Piper, and added, “We’re here.”

  Dash and Piper applauded. Dash leaned over for a fist bump that Gabriel returned triumphantly.

  “Now that was some serious flying!” Dash exclaimed.

  Gabriel beamed.

  “That tells us something,” Carly said over the radio.

  “You mean that I can fly better than the computer?” Gabriel said cockily.

  “Yeah, that,” Carly replied. “And we can’t totally rely on the info that was sent back from the unmanned probe.”

  Chris added, “The probe landed four years ago. There could have been many changes since then.”

  “Let’s go out and see,” Dash said.

  The three unstrapped and Piper slid into her air chair. When they were set to go, they all waited in front of the hatch that would lower and become the ramp.

  “We’re about to step onto an alien planet,” Dash said. “Except for our moon, no human beings have ever done this before.”

  “We should think of something historical to say,” Piper offered.

  “Yikes, no pressure,” Gabriel said.

  Dash hit the switch, and with a steady hum, the ramp lowered, settling into a grassy spot under the Cloud Cat.

  “You’re the skipper,” Gabriel said. “After you.”

  Dash walked cautiously down the ramp and stopped at the bottom. He glanced back at the other two, who gave him nods of encouragement. Dash took a deep nervous breath and stepped onto the soft grass of planet J-16.

  “This may be one small step for a man,” Dash said. “But it’s a heck of a long trip for a bunch of kids who are trying to save planet Earth.”

  Piper giggled.

  Gabriel clapped. “Not bad. I wouldn’t engrave it on your statue, but not bad.”

  Dash stepped away from the Cloud Cat to get his first good look at J-16.

  “Wow” was all he could say.

  The valley was green and lush, just as they had seen in the transmission. But unlike the images that had been beamed back and stored for years, the actual colors were so vivid it almost hurt to look at them. The blue-green grass was knee-deep and gently swayed in the warm breeze. The palm trees that had been a dangerous obstruction moments before towered high above them with cascading yellow-and-red flowers that flowed from the tops like silken rivers. The distant mountains on either side of the valley were blanketed with mossy green growth and dotted with majestic waterfalls that created a constant but distant roar. It was all crowned by a deep blue, cloudless sky that was only broken up by the occasional flock of soaring birds.

  A mile behind them were the thick trees of the rain forest they had flown in over. It looked like a dark and foreboding place, compared to the bright sun-washed valley.

  “It’s like paradise,” Piper said as she drifted up next to Dash.

  “It’s like Hawaii,” said Dash.

  “Yeah, Hawaii through a kaleidoscope,” Gabriel said. “And look, we’re right on the money.”

  He pointed off to their right, where the unmanned probe sat quietly. Vines had grown around its silver legs and wrapped themselves around the upper boxlike section that held the camera.

  Dash’s Mobile Tech Band flashed to life with Carly’s image.

  “You’d better start assembling the trap,” she said. “And put on your chest cam.”

  It was decided that Dash would wear a camera to beam live pictures and sound back up to the Cloud Leopard.

  “All right, let’s get to work,” Dash declared.

  The first business was to unload the hovercraft from the Cloud Cat. It was a simple process with Dash controlling the vehicle while Gabriel released the clamps from inside the shuttle. The hovercraft looked like a raft ride from an amusement park. It was round and had no roof or doors. Boarding was done by climbing over the waist-high rail. Inside were three seats and a spot for Piper’s air chair.

  While they worked, Piper scouted for a good spot to set the trap. She had barely gone thirty yards when she heard something skitter through the tall grass. She stopped, looked around, but saw nothing. She continued on until she saw the grass to her right shake quickly. Another rustling came from her left. Then another. And another. All around her the grass began to boil with activity.

  Piper’s heart raced and she turned the air chair around to head back to the Cloud Cat…when the chair was bumped from underneath. It rocked so sharply that she almost fell out. The assault continued and she had to fight to keep her balance.

  “Hey!” she yelled. “Help!”

  Dash and Gabriel came running, lifting their knees high to sprint through the tall grass. By the time they arrived, the attack was over.

  “What’s the matter?” Dash asked.

  “There’s something in the grass,” Piper said, breathless. “It was trying to knock me out of the chair and—”

  “Ow!” Gabriel screamed. “Something bit me on the ankle.”

  “Yeow!” Dash yelled. “Me too. What is down there?”

  The grass rustled by Dash’s foot. He saw a dark outline of something moving at his feet and instinctively stepped on it.

  “I got it!” Dash screamed.

  Without thinking, he reached down, grabbed it, and lifted it to eye level.

  “It’s a varmint!” Piper exclaimed.

  Its snout was only inches from Dash’s nose as it opened its jaws and hissed, staring him down with beady red eyes.

  “Yaaa!” Dash screamed, and dropped the creature.

  It hit the ground, squealed, and skittered off.

  “They’re all over the place!” Piper shouted.

  “Back to the Cat!” Gabriel exclaimed, and started running.

  Piper was right behind him and Dash behind her. The grass shook all around them as the creatures circled.

  “The place is infested!” Gabriel yelled.

  They made it to the hovercraft and dove in, headfirst. Piper swooped in and settled the air chair down onto the deck.

  “Go away!” she screamed at the varmints, and hit the warning buzzer on her contr
ol pad. A loud electronic horn sounded. It was a simple device to let others know she was flying by, but it had a dramatic effect on the varmints. The creatures squealed in surprise and leapt into the air, clearing the top of the grass like popping kernels of corn.

  “What the heck?” Gabriel exclaimed, trying to catch his breath.

  “Again!” Dash commanded.

  Piper hit the buzzer again and the creatures fled, running scared through the tall grass.

  “Wow,” Piper said. “Sensitive ears.”

  “I’m gonna enjoy serving up those little creeps to the dinosaur,” Gabriel said.

  “What’s going on?” Carly asked through the MTB. “Any trouble?”

  Gabriel said, “Nah, just getting to know the natives.”

  “Say again?” Carly asked, confused.

  “Everything’s cool,” Dash said. “We’re going to build the trap now.”

  Piper cracked open her medical kit and used antiseptic cream to clean the bites on the boys’ legs before bandaging them up.

  That done, the next task was to find stakes they could use to create the chute of the trap. Gabriel flew the hovercraft over the grassy plain to the stand of dense trees they had flown over on the way in.

  “There’s a lot of growth in there,” Dash said. “That’s where we’ll find what we need.”

  When they floated into the trees and underneath the canopy, the temperature suddenly dropped ten degrees and the humidity rose dramatically.

  “It’s like a whole different ecosystem under here,” Piper said.

  Massive trees towered hundreds of feet above them, creating a dense ceiling of foliage that blocked much of the daylight. There was a constant chorus of shrieks, whistles, and coos from the birds that made their home in the tangle of branches. Thick vegetation was everywhere, either growing up from the ground or hanging down from above. Everything dripped with moisture.

  “Hold up!” Dash called out.

  Gabriel stopped the hovercraft. Dash grabbed a hatchet from the tool kit, leaned out over the side, and snagged a young tree. With a few quick whacks, he pulled in a five-foot-long branch.

  “We’ll need a dozen like this to build the chute,” he said.

  Gabriel guided the hovercraft in search of the raw material, Dash leaned out and hacked them off, and Piper used a work knife to slice off smaller branches and whittle the ends into points. After only three hours, they had what they needed…twelve long, straight poles.

  “Now what?” Gabriel asked.

  “Now we build,” Dash said.

  Gabriel flew them out from under the jungle canopy and back toward the Cloud Cat.

  “Let’s go deeper into the valley,” Dash said. “We don’t want to set up anywhere near the Cloud Cat.”

  They shot past the shuttle and sped into the valley.

  “How’s this?” Gabriel asked as they passed a stand of palms that guarded a wide open field.

  “Perfect,” Dash said.

  Gabriel released the clamps that dropped the folded-up steel cage to the ground. He then landed the hovercraft and the task of assembling the trap began. Dash and Gabriel erected the cage, unfolding the car-sized trap and placing it with the hatch near the ground.

  Piper set the stakes for the chute. She started at the hatch, hammering one stake into the soft ground to either side of the opening. She set the next two stakes five yards away from the cage and farther apart from each other. She repeated the process with the rest of the stakes until she created the frame of the V shape that Carly had designed. Dash and Gabriel then unrolled the lightweight silver space-blanket material and stretched it between the stakes creating two walls, one to either side of the trap. Piper used a staple gun to attach the thin material to the poles.

  After a couple of hours of work in the hot sun, the trap was complete. They had created a silver funnel with five-foot-high walls that led directly to the hatch, and the trap.

  “Now it’s round-up time,” Gabriel said.

  “I haven’t seen any varmints since I scared them away,” Piper said.

  “We need bait,” Dash said. He lifted his arm and spoke into his MTB. “Carly, what do those varmints eat?”

  “Stand by,” Carly said. After a few minutes, she came back to say, “Roots and vegetables.”

  “And ankles,” Gabriel said.

  “All right, then,” Dash said to the others. “Let’s make a salad.”

  They spread out through the valley, gathering whatever vegetation they could find that looked appetizing. They picked rainbow-colored fruit from trees and pulled blue mushroom-looking growths up from the ground. Piper flew up high to gather juicy-looking leaves and round, pink, coconut-type fruit from the palm trees. Carly double-checked each item against her database to ensure everything they collected was edible and interesting to a varmint. Once they had enough, they placed the entire stock inside of the trap.

  “Now what?” Dash asked.

  “We should get out of here and let them find it,” Piper suggested. “Let’s come back in a couple of hours.”

  “What do we do in the meantime?” Gabriel asked.

  Dash scanned the alien surroundings. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve never been to another planet before. I’d like to take a look around.”

  “Yeah!” Piper said with glee.

  “Now we’re talking!” Gabriel exclaimed.

  He flew the hovercraft deeper into the valley and closer to the base of the cliffs that towered over them. Cool mist from the waterfalls fell on their faces, taking the edge off the viciously hot tropical afternoon.

  “Look at that!” Piper exclaimed.

  Gabriel slowed the hovercraft in front of a giant vertical cleft in the rock face.

  “It’s a cave,” Gabriel said.

  Dash lifted his Mobile Tech Band and said, “Carly, scan the area around us. Are there any heat traces that could be a Raptogon?”

  “Checking,” Carly said. It only took a few seconds for her to come back and say, “Yes! There’s a huge heat source coming from a spot due west of you. Get out of there!”

  “It’s in there,” Dash said. “Go!”

  Gabriel hit the throttle and the hovercraft took off.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t bring the energy cannon,” Dash said.

  “No foul,” Gabriel said. “Those bad boys don’t come out until nightfall.”

  Gabriel headed all the way back to the trees that created the rain forest and flew in. Once again, they experienced the sudden change from light to darkness, from hot to cool.

  “It’s magical in here,” Piper said.

  “I never thought I’d ever see something like this,” Gabriel said in awe. “Especially on the other side of the universe—”

  “Look out!” Dash screamed.

  Gabriel instinctively turned the hovercraft hard, barely missing a huge, moss-covered rock…that moved.

  “Whoa!” Gabriel exclaimed, and backed the vehicle away.

  The “rock” was alive. It was twenty feet high with a bear-like head and thick arms that were covered in green moss. Beneath the moss were patches of gray fur and reptilian skin. It stood up on two legs and raised its arms toward the sky.

  “It’s stretching,” Piper said.

  The creature shook like a dog drying off, then looked at the ground.

  “Oh my gosh,” Piper gasped.

  At its feet were two identical moss creatures that were three feet tall. They wrestled with one another while playfully growling.

  “It’s a mother!” Piper exclaimed.

  The mother reached up to an overhead branch with its massive paws and plucked a bunch of ruby-red fruit. It gently brought the food down and lovingly dropped it in front of her babies. The two hungry kids grabbed them and swallowed them whole. The mother reached up for more, but the branch was empty.

  “They’re hungry,” Piper said.

  She grabbed a plastic container holding snacks they’d brought from the ship and flew the air cha
ir off the hovercraft.

  “Whoa!” Dash yelled. “Don’t!”

  Dash and Gabriel watched with fear as Piper slowly floated closer to the moss family.

  “Hey there,” Piper called out. “I’ve got something for you.”

  The mother locked her gaze on Piper and put her arms protectively around her children.

  “I’m serious, Piper,” Dash called. “Don’t go any closer.”

  Piper tossed a few apples to the creatures, then flew back into the hovercraft.

  “You are nuts,” Gabriel said.

  “Why not make friends while we’re here?” Piper said.

  The mother looked down at the apples and lumbered forward, making the ground shake with her heavy footfalls.

  “Get ready to blast out of here,” Dash whispered to Gabriel.

  “My hand’s on the throttle,” Gabriel replied.

  The mother picked up one of the apples, raised it to her snout, and gave it a huge, sucking sniff. Satisfied, she lowered it to her kids. The bigger one got it, ate quickly, and gave off a satisfied squeak.

  “I guess he likes it,” Piper said, chuckling.

  The mother scooped the other apples to her children, who ate them hungrily. The last apple the mother saved for herself. She popped it into her mouth, downed it, let out a satisfied growl…and a booming belch that shook the trees.

  “Ew, gross,” Piper said.

  “In some cultures, that’s a compliment,” Gabriel said, laughing.

  “I think you just made an alien friend, Piper,” Dash said. “But let’s not push our luck.”

  Gabriel throttled up and flew away from the moss beasts.

  Piper waved as they moved past.

  “That was awesome,” she said.

  “Yeah, it was,” Dash admitted.

  Gabriel flew deeper into the rain forest, now more wary of other beasts that might pop up and surprise them.

  “There’s light ahead,” Gabriel announced. “We’re coming to the far side of the canopy.”

  They emerged from the trees to see an incredible vista of yet another valley before them.

  “Whoa, stop!” Dash exclaimed.

  Gabriel instantly throttled down and came to a stop no more than twenty yards from the edge of the enormous cliff they had flown over on the way in.

  “Yikes, that was close,” Gabriel said. “This thing hovers. It doesn’t fly.”