by Jan Fields
a thin, clear liquid. Then Nick saw why.
The robot unfolded a work arm. At the end,
a round hole saw spun with a grinding whir.
The robot smacked the saw against the tree. It
cut into the trunk with a wet sound.
As soon as the cutting began, a low moan
rose among the trees. The trunks swayed even
though no wind passed through the woods. The
saw cut deeper, and the moaning grew louder
and louder.
Nick clamped his hands over his ears. “What’s
making that noise?”
“The only things here are us and them.” Bob
pointed to the trees. “It is not us. It must be them.”
22
Before Nick could comment, one of the
thinnest trees bent down suddenly. It smacked
Nick hard with the fluff that topped the stalk.
He thought he’d be knocked to the ground.
Instead, he stuck to the fluff. The tree hauled
him high into the air.
23
23
Chapter
4
Guess Who Is for Supper
The robot below continued to saw into the
wounded tree. More and more trees bent and
smacked at the ground. From his spot, Nick
couldn’t see where the trees struck. He hoped
they wouldn’t get Bob.
The tree where Nick hung swayed in a wide
arc. The sticky fluff held Nick tightly in place.
But the rocking made him feel sick. As the
swinging finally stopped, so did the moaning in
the trees.
Nick found that each small bit of fluff was
easy to pull off. But whenever he did, he seemed
24
to find more stuck in other places. The fluff looked so soft and light from the ground. Now
it felt like sticky glop. Nick squirmed and picked
at the fluff until he could see through the strands
to the ground below.
The robot with the saw finished its job. Then
it simply turned and stomped away on its four
legs. None of the trees touched it. The little robot
had no sense of the danger it had been in.
Bob looked up at Nick. None of the trees had
touched the tall robot either. Nick sighed in relief.
Now Bob could get him free.
“How did the trees miss you?” Nick asked.
“I stood very close to one trunk,” Bob said.
“The bending trees couldn’t reach me without
getting stuck to the trunk.”
“I wish I’d had time to think of that,” Nick
grumbled.
“I believe the trees targeted you,” Bob
said. “These plants have some kind of defense
25
mechanism against attacks by organic life. They are good at finding organic life. They do not seem
to be as good at finding robots.”
“Lucky you,” Nick said.
“Yes,” Bob agreed. “Your position looks
awkward and potentially dangerous. I am far
happier to be where I am.”
“I’m glad you’re happy.”
Suddenly angry, Nick struggled wildly to pull
himself free. But he only got more fluff stuck
to his clothes. So much fluff covered his arms
that he looked like he was turning into a stuffed
toy. Finally exhausted, Nick hung almost upside
down and panted.
Then Nick thought of the Earth plants in his
drawing. He remembered the sundew’s sticky
fibers that caught bugs. When the sundew caught
them, it ate them.
Nick looked down at his hand. Sticky ooze
from the fluff touched his skin. It tingled and
26
stung. He yelled down to Bob, “Help! It’s going to eat me!”
“What is eating you?”
“The plant. It’s like a sundew. All this sticky
stuff is going to digest me. Go get help.”
Bob shook its head. “I cannot comply with
that request.”
“What?” Nick shrieked.
“If I notify the colony, I will be blamed for
bringing you outside. I will be blamed for using
my security codes to open the door. I will be
blamed for following the other robot. Your
father will be angry. He will turn me off. He will reprogram me or take me apart.”
“No, no, it’ll be all right,” Nick said. “I’ll tell
them it’s all my fault. I promise. Dad won’t be
mad at you. He’ll be glad you went for help.
You’ll be a hero, Bob.”
“You may be right,” the robot said.
Nick sighed in relief. “Good. Go get help.”
27
“You may also be wrong. I find the risk to
be too high. I cannot inform the adults in the
colony.”
Bob turned and headed back through the
trees toward the colony, leaving Nick screaming
for help.
Chapter
5
With the Greatest of Ease
“Help!” Nick screamed as he pulled against
the fluff. He hoped a colony scientist would
hear him before the tree was done eating him.
As he grew tired, he realized the stinging
had stopped. He scraped some fluff off with
his fingernails. The skin underneath looked
normal. Maybe it wasn’t going to eat him. Or
maybe it was storing him to eat later. He started
struggling again.
Something rumbled below him. Nick wiggled
until he could see the ground. Bob clumped along
with a small robot trailing at its side.
29
“I have created a plan for getting you down,”
Bob said. Nick sighed in relief. Bob tapped the
rolling robot and a door opened. A long arm
unfolded from inside the robot. At the end, a saw
blade began spinning with a worrisome hum.
“Wait a minute,” Nick called down. “I don’t
think it’s a good idea to hurt the trees more.
That’s what started all of this trouble in the first
place.”
“Trust me,” Bob said.
“Maybe we can find a way to calm the trees
down,” Nick said. “Maybe it would put me
down.”
“Fungus-based plant life cannot be reasoned
with, Nick,” Bob said. It tapped the smaller robot
again, which made it roll toward the thin tree. It’s
saw blade began whirling.
“Wait, wait!” Nick yelled. “What happens
when you cut down the tree? I don’t want to fall
to the ground.”
30
“I will catch you,” Bob said. “I am 76 percent certain I can do so without breaking any of your
primary bones.”
“That doesn’t make me feel good.”
The slow robot finally reached a spot close to
the tree. It extended the saw blade toward the
smooth, silver trunk. The trees thrashed as if a
high wind pushed them back and forth.
“Stop, stop!” Nick yelled. The shaking made
his teeth rattle.
Then he realized something. As he was flung
around, some of the fluff actually pulled away
from his skin. He could move his arms more
freely. He could even kick one leg.
“Hey, I’m pulling free,�
�� he said. “Keep scaring
the tree, but don’t cut it.”
“I will follow that plan, Nick,” Bob shouted up
at him.
More and more of the fluff pulled away from
Nick’s skin and clothes. But the wild ride was 31
making him sick to his stomach. He pulled his arms and legs away from the fluff. He stretched
down to grab the smooth trunk. “I think I can get
free now,” he shouted.
Before Bob could respond, the tree bent
toward the ground. Nick let go of the trunk. He
hoped to drop the short way to the ground. Too
much fluff still hung to his shirt and pants. He
only dangled above the ground. “Bob, grab me!”
he yelled.
The tree snapped back straight. The quick
snap pulled the last of the fluff free. Nick sailed
high into the air. He was free! But hitting the
ground was going to be very, very bad.
“Bob!” he screamed. But before he could fall,
something snagged the back of Nick’s shirt. What
could possibly grab him that was taller than a
tree?
Nick twisted to see. He could hear a buzzing
like the saw on the small robot. Then he finally
32
caught sight of what grabbed him. He was looking
into the biggest insect eyes he’d ever seen.
3333
Chapter
6
Don’t Help Me So Much
The creature that held Nick looked a lot like
the pictures of Earth bees from his computer
tablet. But Earth didn’t grow bees this big. Earth
grew horses this big. But not bees.
The bee seemed to be having trouble carrying
Nick’s weight. It was pulled toward the ground
as it flew in a wide circle among the trees. Bits of
tree fluff smacked at Nick’s pants. The movement
slowed the bee still more.
Below Nick, Bob ran around with its
mechanical arms out. “Try to get free. When you
fall, I will catch you!”
34
“That’s a terrible idea,” Nick screamed. But he squirmed in the bee’s grip. The bee held tight. “It
won’t let go. Get Dad!”
“No!” Bob yelled back. “I will make it drop
you.” The robot scooped up a rock with one of
its long arms, and threw it hard. The rock missed
the bee. It smacked Nick in the seat of his pants.
“Ow!” Nick yelled. “No more rocks!”
Nick figured he better get free before Bob got
any more ideas. He remembered how soft the
ground felt. He hoped it felt that soft if he fell
from so high up.
He squirmed harder as a plan formed in his
head. The bee was really only holding onto his
clothes. If he could slip out of his shirt, the bee
would probably drop him. He wiggled until he
heard a ripping sound. Maybe his idea could
work. He squirmed harder.
Down below, Bob ignored Nick’s command
not to throw rocks. A jagged shard of rock barely
35
missed Nick’s head. He yelped as the rock sailed by the bee’s head too.
The insect’s buzzing grew louder, much
louder. Clearly, it didn’t like the flying rocks.
Nick could see the treetops again. They were
flying higher than Nick wanted to fall. They
were also flying too fast for Bob to keep up. Nick
stopped squirming. The ground was soft. But he
didn’t think it was that soft.
“I will find you, Nick!” Bob shouted.
“Get Dad!” Nick screamed.
Bob shouted something else. The bee had
flown too high for Nick to hear it clearly. He
suspected the robot had refused again.
Then Nick couldn’t see Bob anymore either.
They had raced too far away.
The bee’s giant, beating wings made a loud
buzzing sound. Nick could feel the buzzing in
his bones. It made his head ache. It didn’t help
that hanging below the bee wasn’t the least bit
36
comfortable. His shirt nearly choked him, but he didn’t dare try to squirm into a more comfortable
position.
Below he saw miles of treetop fluff pass by.
More and more he wondered if he’d ever see his
dad again.
Finally, the bee creature began to fly lower.
Nick hoped it was getting tired of hauling him
along. Maybe it would land to rest and Nick could
get away. But the bee didn’t land. It whizzed along
very fast. Its buzzing sounded excited somehow.
Nick worried that anything that would excite a
bee would be bad news for him.
Peering ahead, he saw the fluff trees thinning
out. They had come to the end of the fluff tree
forest. Below, he didn’t see the soft, blue-green
moss. Instead, the ground looked black and wet.
He wasn’t sure he wanted the bee to land in that.
Nick squirmed very gently to see ahead of
him. He gasped at the sight. They were flying
37
toward a giant hive. The hive was bigger than the
whole colony and much taller. The buzzing of
the bee that carried him was echoed by the buzz
of dozens of bees flying in and out of the giant
hive.
With horror, Nick wondered if this is what
happened to his mom and the other explorers.
Did the bees carry them away to this hive? Is that why she never came home?
He squirmed to see the hive better. Would
he find his mom when the bee got to the
hive? Or would he just be breakfast
for the buzzing creatures?
Before he could find
out, he heard another
ripping sound
from his
sh i r t.
38
His squirming was too much for it. Nick gave a
panicky glance downward. He was still far too
high.
Nick held as still as possible. He hoped the
last seams held together.
The fabric ripped loudly.
Nick slipped out of the tatters and fell.
Chapter
7
In the Deep Dark
Nick plummeted toward the dark ground. For
a quick moment, he wished for fluff trees below
him. Sure, they might have wanted to eat him.
But at least they were soft. That was his last
thought before he hit.
To his surprise, the darkness wasn’t hard
ground. It was black water, or something like
it and very cold. He flung his arms around and
kicked his legs. He wished he’d learned to swim
like Earth kids.
Nick opened his eyes under the black water.
No light cut through the darkness. He tried
40
waving his hand in front of his face. All he saw was black.
Under the surface of the black water, something
bumped his leg. He wasn’t alone in the water. He
tried harder to imitate the swimming strokes he
saw once in a movie. But was he swimming up or
down? Everything was confusing in the dark.
Something bumped him again. And again.
Then it stayed under Nick. He felt hard shell
under his hands. The creature was moving with
him seated on it. But was it going up to the
surface? Maybe it just wanted to drown him
faster so it could eat him.
Finally, Nick’s head popped above the black
water. He took a big breath of air. Then he looked
down at the shell.
The creature he sat on looked like a bug he had
seen in one of his Earth pictures. A shiny, black
water bug. Huge round eyes rolled near Nick’s
hands. Short antennae twitched and turned. Nick
41
jerked his hand back before one could touch his
fingers. The bug had long legs that churned like
paddles through the water. It also had glistening
sharp jaws that snapped together with a loud
clack. Was this bug saving his life or just saving
him for supper?
The creature raced across the top of the water.
The breeze on Nick’s wet clothes made him
shiver. He hunched down closer to the bug’s slick
43
back. He needed to get off before it dove back underwater. And before they reached wherever
it was going. But how? He couldn’t jump back
into the water. And the creature didn’t go close
to shore.
Ahead, Nick spotted soggy, pinkish fluff
bobbing on top of the black. A fluff tree had
fallen over into the water. The trunk was spotted
with thick, black slime. The fluff was clumped
and discolored. But the tree lay partly in the
water and partly on land. Could it be the bridge
Nick needed?
The creature headed toward the fallen tree. It
was slowly turning aside to avoid smacking into
the trunk. Nick didn’t want to miss his chance to
get to shore.
Slowly, he stood on the back of the beetle. He
wobbled and shook, but he stayed on his feet.
He remembered pictures he’d seen of people on
Earth riding surfboards on the water. Nick wasn’t
44
sure if he felt like cheering or puking. Is this how surfers feel? Then when they were as close to the
fallen tree as he could hope, he jumped.
For an instant, Nick didn’t think he’d jumped
far enough. I really should have spent more time
in the gym, he thought. Then he slammed into the side of the mushy trunk. The bug swam off
without him.
Nick hugged the squishy trunk until he
