The Final Six

by Alexandra Monir

  Dr. Takumi strides to his perch at the front of the room and holds up his hands for silence. “I have an unfortunate announcement to make. As you may have noticed, one of our Twenty-Four is absent today. Regrettably, Suki Chuan had to be cut early, due to her suffering an adverse reaction to the RRB. She is no longer a finalist for the Europa Mission.”

  The news hits me like a blow. I turn to Naomi just as her expression crumbles. Gasps and exclamations of shock ripple through the cafeteria, and my stomach lurches at the realization that Suki is gone, her chance at a future ruined in one night.

  “Where is she?” Naomi whispers to Lark, her lower lip quivering.

  “Still at the medical center. It’ll be some time before she’s back to her old self, but don’t worry,” Lark says. “She’s getting the best care.”

  “To anyone concerned this might happen to you: the good news is that the odds of an allergic reaction to the RRB are still very slim. If you haven’t experienced symptoms yet, chances are that your body is accepting the serum. However, what happened to Suki is the precise reason we monitor your reactions before you leave Earth.” Dr. Takumi pauses, intensifying his gaze on all of us. “If you feel anything out of the ordinary, I expect you to come directly to me, or to your team leader. The last thing you want is a medical complication to arise on Europa—when you’re largely on your own.” He clears his throat. “And now, let’s try to move beyond this unfortunate circumstance and start today on the right foot.”

  He gives the signal for us to line up at the buffet counter, but no one at our table moves. Even Beckett looks uncertain.

  “Damn. One down already,” he says, breaking the silence.

  “She didn’t deserve this.” Naomi’s voice breaks as she turns back to Lark. “When can we see her? We should at least go visit.”

  “Um, I’m not sure about that,” Lark says, glancing away. “The medical center doesn’t allow visitors at this acute stage, outside of immediate family.”

  “She told me she doesn’t have any living family, though, except a stepdad she doesn’t get along with,” Katerina objects. “Naomi’s right. We have to go visit her.”

  Asher and I nod, and Lark leans forward, lowering her voice.

  “I know it’s hard, but you need to let this go. Trust me—nothing good can come from pressing the issue. You can’t do anything for Suki now, but the five of you are still in the running to make the Final Six. That has to be your focus. Nothing else.”

  She’s right, I know. None of us can afford to get distracted and lose our grasp on this opportunity, least of all me. And yet . . . why do I get the feeling that her words contain a veiled threat?

  A pall hangs over the five of us as we move through our training day a diminished team. The only one among us who seems in any way cheery is, of course, Beckett. As Lark escorts us to the diving pool for another session with Lieutenant Barnes, I glance behind me and notice Beckett walking alongside Naomi and Katerina, saying something to Naomi that makes her flinch. I slow my pace until I’m in step with them.

  “I mean, when you think about it, she was probably your biggest competition,” I hear him say. “I did my research on the Twenty-Four before I got here, and it’s obvious you were both up for one of the academic spots on the mission. Your chances just got a lot better now that she’s gone.”

  “My friend is in the hospital,” Naomi snaps. “You think I care about who beats who in the draft?”

  Beckett shrugs, unfazed.

  “She wasn’t that much of a friend, though, was she? You knew her for, like, a week.”

  Naomi shoots him a withering look.

  “She was my roommate. Maybe it’s hard for you to care about someone you’re spending nearly twenty-four/seven with, but some of us don’t have the same trouble.”

  “I’m just saying.” He gives her an appraising look. “I think you latched on to her because you missed having your sick brother to take care of.”

  Fury rises within me, and I jump between the two of them.

  “Hey, man, why don’t you shut the hell up?”

  I want to grab him by the collar and toss him against the wall; I want to make him pay for talking to Naomi that way. But before I can, she sidesteps me and seizes the back of his shirt, shoving him so roughly that he stumbles into Katerina.

  “Never talk about my brother again,” she hisses.

  “Enough!” Lark swoops down on us, yanking Naomi away from Beckett. “This team has been through plenty without you two adding to the drama. Unless you want to see what Dr. Takumi is like when he gets angry, you’ll drop this fight and start behaving like supportive teammates. Got it?”

  They both grumble their assent while refusing to look at each other. As soon as Lark’s back is turned, Naomi elbows past Beckett, and Katerina catches up with us.

  “I know he might have acted like a jerk, but Beckett’s not all bad,” she says in a hushed voice. “I’ve talked to him a few times, and, well . . . let’s just say people wouldn’t envy him if they knew the whole story with his family.”

  “I don’t care what his story is,” Naomi says flatly. “He didn’t just act like a jerk, he is one.”

  “Besides, we all came here with a past and you don’t see the rest of us making enemies,” I point out.

  “Yeah,” Katerina concedes. “I don’t know . . .”

  Our conversation cuts off as we enter the room surrounding the diving pool, with Lieutenant Barnes waiting for us at the water’s edge. As we get closer, through the water I can see what looks like a one-seater submarine, parked on the ice that blankets the bottom of the pool. A glass dome surrounds the driver’s seat of the vehicle, while the pressure hull is a bulky steel sphere attached to battery pods and thrusters. A set of dividers lines the pool, reminding me of my racing days—and despite the morning we’ve had, I feel the faint stirrings of excitement.

  “Let’s go, team!” Lieutenant Barnes beckons us toward him.

  We gather around, and I’m expecting him to start by saying something about Suki, to reassure us in some way—but he doesn’t. Instead, he delves straight into the task at hand, as though there is nothing unusual about our team of five.

  “Today’s focus is water survival,” he begins. “What you see before you at the bottom of the pool is a submersible: the same model of underwater vehicle that members of the Final Six will drive in Europa’s ocean after drilling through the ice.”

  “Amazing,” Asher murmurs, and I nod in agreement.

  “When you touch down on Europa, you will initially live in an inflatable home on the ice’s surface,” Lieutenant Barnes continues. “However, to create a habitable environment for a mass settlement of humans, we need you to drill down into the ice crust to enter the postulated subsurface ocean. With Cyb and Dot’s navigational guidance, you will locate the massive pocket between the icy surface and the ocean interior. That pocket is where you will uncover an endless stretch of rocky land, be able to produce oxygen from the nearby ocean using water electrolysis—and where you will be safe from the radiation and drastic temperatures, thanks to the ice shield overhead. And that is where you will plant your flag and establish our new human colony.” He pauses. “That’s our holy grail.”

  As I picture it in my mind, I feel a rush of certainty that this will be my legacy. This has to be the reason I survived the flood—to lead us to the next world.

  “Now, finding and building up this section of land will involve many back-and-forth trips in the submersibles, particularly for whoever is the designated underwater specialist. That’s why today you’ll be getting a crash course in how to drive these vehicles—and how to escape in an emergency.”

  We watch as the lieutenant demonstrates the challenge before us, diving into the water and swimming down to the submersible. He unlatches the glass dome and climbs into the driver’s seat before deploying the thrusters and using the foot pedals to fly across the pool floor, hands-free. As he reaches the opposite end of the pool, through the
transparent window of the glass dome we can see him fiddling with a gear box—and then the submersible shoots up through the water like a miniature rocket, breaking the surface of the pool. He climbs out of the vehicle to the sound of our applause.

  “You’ll perform the challenge one at a time, starting with a dive down to the submersible at the blow of my whistle,” he directs us. “Entering the vehicle, you’ll find a touch screen that controls the power, thrust, speed, and emergency functions. I’ve programmed the submersible so that after you complete a set of driving laps around the pool, an alarm will go off, requiring you to use the emergency thrust-booster technology to propel up to the surface. I’ll be timing each of you to see who can complete this drill in under five minutes.

  “To cap off the challenge, once you emerge from the submersible, you will swim just below the surface and attempt to hold your breath underwater for a full two minutes. It may seem counterintuitive to all the equipment you’re learning to use, but astronauts must be prepared for anything—including the unlikely event of a systems failure in Europa’s waters. In a rare case like that, the ability to hold your breath until you can reach the surface would mean the difference between life and death.”

  Lieutenant Barnes passes out wet suits, and the five of us peel off our uniforms down to the bathing suits we’re wearing underneath. At the sight of Naomi in her one-piece, my skin turns hot. I look away quickly.

  “When I call your name, line up at the diving board. This will be the order you’ll complete the challenge in.”

  My name comes last, and I watch from the end of the line as my teammates dive into the pool one by one. Naomi struggles with the submersible, but Asher and Katerina get the hang of it after a couple minutes of fumbling. To my chagrin, only Beckett achieves the one-two punch of successfully working the submersible on his first try and holding his breath the full two minutes. And then it’s my turn.

  I step up to the tallest springboard, conscious of all eyes on me as I dive off the edge. And as soon as my skin touches the water, it’s like a key clicking into place. I gasp as an electric current courses through my veins, turning my arms and legs into vibrating, tingling energy—a sensation I’ve never felt before. All I know is that my body is clamoring to move, and I follow its order, tearing into a freestyle stroke. My body zooms through the pool like a cartoon in fast-forward, and I know without seeing a stopwatch that I’m crushing all my previous times. How am I doing this? I’ve always been fast, but this is speed on another level. It’s as though my limbs are made of jets.

  In a matter of seconds, I’m in front of the submersible, lifting the lid on the glass dome and climbing inside the compact driver’s seat. A touch screen blinks from the inside of my glass window, and I reach for the Power button, pushing the foot pedal. And then the vehicle hurtles forward, zipping through the water like a thrill ride, and I laugh out loud from the sheer joy of it.

  A high-pitched alarm blares inside my driver’s seat compartment, while the touch screen lights up with urgent red letters: WARNING! O2 AT 5%. I grin, knowing this means I get to use the thrust-booster.

  My fingers fly over the touch screen, jabbing different buttons until I find ENGAGE EMERGENCY THRUST. A rumbling echoes from the engine below me, the pool water ripples around the submersible—and the vehicle shoots straight up, breaking the surface with a loud splash.

  I open the pilot’s seat hatch and climb out of the glass dome, still thrumming with adrenaline.

  “That was awesome!” I yell from the pool. No one responds, and as I glance at my teammates, I notice they are all looking at me strangely.

  “Your time is three minutes even,” Lieutenant Barnes reads from his stopwatch, raising his eyebrows.

  “Holy . . .” I trail off, taken aback by my own speed.

  “All right, when I blow the whistle, finish the drill by holding your breath underwater for two minutes. Ready?”

  I nod. This will be a cinch, after my days diving in Rome without any breathing equipment. I hear the shriek of the whistle, and I plunge back underwater, sucking in my breath. The two minutes pass effortlessly—I could always manage that—but then I hear the Lieutenant’s muffled voice shouting out, “Five minutes!” and, what feels like only seconds later, “Ten!”

  The weird thing is, I’m not even struggling. Normally by this point I’d be hungry for air, but right now, I feel like I could stay down here another ten minutes or more. Still, a nagging voice in my head tells me I’ve shown off plenty for one day. I don’t need to make this whole training period the Leo Show. So when I hear Lieutenant Barnes cheer, “Fifteen minutes!” I finally rise out of the water.

  A tall shadow looms at the edge of the pool, and as the water clears from my eyes, I see who it is. Someone must have sent for Dr. Takumi while I was underwater, because there he is, standing in front of my thunderstruck teammates.

  Dr. Takumi extends his hand as I hoist myself out of the pool, and our eyes meet. He gives me a rare smile—and I know I’ve done it.

  I’ve impressed the most important figure here.

  Twelve

  NAOMI

  WHAT I JUST SAW CAN’T BE REAL. IT’S NOT . . . HUMAN. I FEEL the blood roaring in my ears as I watch Leo shake hands with Dr. Takumi, and I wonder who he really is—what he is. But then he catches my eye across the pool, flashing me that dimpled grin, and the familiar warmth in my chest replaces my fear. Still, as soon as we’re back in uniform and leaving the diving pool, I pull Leo aside.

  “What was that? I’ve seen you swim before—I knew you were good, but holding your breath like that? It was almost like you were . . . amphibious.”

  “It was crazy, right?” Leo’s cheeks flush as he smiles, and I realize he thinks I’m simply complimenting him.

  “Crazy is a good word for it,” I say dryly. “I’m not trying to downplay how great a swimmer you actually are, but . . . was there something different going on today?”

  Before he can respond, Lark motions for the five of us to follow her to our next training session on the Mission Floor. Leo and I hang back a few paces as we follow our teammates down the long corridor to the elevator bay, keeping our voices low.

  “Well?” I press him. “What exactly happened in the water?”

  “I don’t know. But I felt something different as soon as I got in the pool,” Leo admits. “It was like a—a physical, instinctual charge. I don’t know what it was. Maybe heightened adrenaline or something?”

  I shake my head.

  “No. Adrenaline doesn’t completely alter your physicality. It doesn’t give you otherworldly speed or the ability to go without breathing.” I look into his eyes. “You know what this is, don’t you?”

  Leo folds his arms against his chest. He doesn’t want to hear it, doesn’t want me bursting his bubble. But I have no choice.

  “It’s the RRB. That has to be what caused this. You and Suki both had a reaction, only in your case, it wasn’t adverse. At least not yet.” I think quickly. “I’ve got to find a way to get a sample of the serum, so I can find out what’s in it. I just know there’s something they’re not telling us, something off—”

  “No,” he interrupts me. “I don’t want to see you get in trouble, and that’s exactly what will happen if you go poking around and try to swipe the RRB. And besides, I need this. I need to be one of the Final Six. If the serum is helping me excel and get to Europa, then I don’t care what’s in it.”

  My mouth falls open. I can’t be hearing him correctly.

  “You can honestly say that? After last night, after Suki, you can really be so—so callous?”

  He winces.

  “I’m not being callous—you know how terrible I feel about what happened to her. But if Suki were here right now, she would say the same thing. She would tell me not to jeopardize my chances when things are going well.”

  “Yeah, and it was that attitude that put her in the hospital,” I retort. “Whatever is in the RRB has proven to be both powerful and dange
rous. This isn’t just about Suki or you or me. All of us who take it are vulnerable.”

  We’re nearing the elevator bay now, just steps away from the others. Leo stops in his tracks.

  “What do you want from me? I can’t help the fact that I want this mission, that I need it. Just like I can’t help the fact that you don’t.”

  His words catch me off guard.

  “I—well, we’re friends, right?”

  A funny expression crosses his face as he nods.

  “And friends look out for each other,” I continue. “I don’t want to see you end up in a situation anywhere close to what happened to Suki. So I need to find out if what I suspect is true—and I need you to trust me.”

  Leo hesitates before replying.

  “Fine. Just as long as your sleuthing doesn’t get either of us in trouble.”

  “Come on, you two!” Lark’s voice calls out, and Leo and I quicken our pace to join the rest of the team.

  As we step into the elevator, I feel someone’s eyes on us. It’s Beckett, his expression cold and calculating as he stares at Leo. A shiver runs through me, and I wonder just how much of a target Leo has on his back . . . and if his performance today might cost him.

  Returning to the Hab after our training day, we again step into a scene of chaos. Finalists from two other teams are swarming the halls, their faces red and stricken, their bodies racked with sobs, while the team leaders try in vain to calm them. Leo and I turn to each other in fear, and I grab his hand on instinct as I brace myself. What is happening?

  Lark pushes through the crowd, trying to get answers, while I catch snippets of conversation through the pandemonium. “Callum.” “Submersible.” “ . . . went mad.” “Dead.”

  I recoil in horror. I heard wrong—I must have.

  I spot Ana Martinez from arrival day crying in Dev Khanna’s arms, and I rush toward them.

  “What’s wrong, Ana? What’s going on?”

  She breaks away from Dev and looks at me with wild, panicky eyes. “It’s Callum. He—he’s dead. It happened right in front of us. G-gone, just like that.”