But I could already see that was going to be a problem. The current had pulled me around the side of the Serpent’s head. I thrashed toward the rock, but I couldn’t fight it. For just a second, I thought I felt the side of the sandbar beneath my furiously kicking feet, but then it was gone. I was being swept away from the Serpent’s head, away from our island chain and out to sea, and as soon as my muscles tired, the weight of my suit was going to pull me under.…
Just then, I heard a humming sound on the wind. It was hard to place at first—it sounded electric—now a glint of light.
There was the chariot, churning its way across the twisting Serpent’s back, wheels spraying water. It skidded to a stop at a cockeyed angle. The door flew open and a helmeted figure popped out. Penny!
“Need a ride?” She leaped up to the rock, holding a grappling gun.
“Hey!” I shouted, trying to wave my arm, but that just made me dunk under again. I pushed back to the surface and there was a crack and the magnetized dart on the end of the grappling rope whizzed by my head. I grabbed the line from the water, dragged the dart toward me, and stuck it to my belt. Penny retracted the line, pulling me to the rock, and I clambered up and onto dry land.
“Jeez, that was close,” said Penny, helping me to my feet. “Just think what would have happened if I hadn’t come along!” She clapped me on the back, smiling.
“I would have died,” I said breathlessly.
Penny’s face fell. “True. I guess that’s a little more serious than I’m making it sound. In that case”—she slapped my shoulder—“what were you thinking?!”
“I lost track of time, I—thanks for coming.”
“Well, don’t thank me yet,” said Penny, looking over her shoulder at the rising tide between us and the Jupiter. She detached the dart from my belt and hurried back to the driver’s door. “Get in!”
Penny peeled out before I’d even buckled in, and we careened along the Serpent’s back. The chariot was wider than the twisting sandbar, and we ended up driving at a steep angle, which threw me against the door. I looked out the side window; the right two wheels of the chariot were totally submerged, the waves lapping at the step just below the door. The chariot’s engine revved, and I could feel the tires slipping as we churned along.
“Think this thing has a submarine mode?” Penny asked, gripping the wheel.
“No,” I said queasily.
She sighed. “Where’s James Bond when you need him?”
“Who?”
Despite the death-defying nature of our drive, Penny still managed to scowl at me. “Seriously? Whoa!”
The chariot slid sideways and a wave sprayed over the windshield.
“No problem,” said Penny, breathing hard. “Okay, hang on. Here comes the fun part.”
“There’s a fun part?”
The chariot started to level out, and Penny gunned it just as we reached the Pools. The tires slammed into the first of the big rocks and we popped up. For a moment, it felt like we were going to flip over backward, but the chariot revved and lunged ahead.
We bounced through the tide pools; my shoulders ached as I was slammed back and forth between the door and my restraints.
I looked at Penny, bent over the wheel, her face grim with intensity. “You’re doing great,” I said.
“And yet, I’m sure Dad will be mad at me anyway. Especially if I total the chariot.”
We crossed the Whaleback and then circled around past Mom’s office. Penny gunned it again, and finally we were churning our way out of the water completely, onto the dry sand beside the Jupiter.
Penny skidded to a stop by the solar panels and sat back, breathing hard. Her eyes were wide, her expression terrified, but a smile slowly spread across her face, and she burst out laughing. “Yeah!” She slammed the steering wheel with her palms. “Still got it.”
“Not bad,” I agreed, sharing her smile. Now that we were stopped, I noticed a pair of binoculars on the floor by my feet. “What were you doing out there just now?”
“Looking for you, duh,” she said. “I saw the tide coming in and you weren’t back yet. What the heck were you doing out there?”
“I just found a cool spot and was hanging out,” I said immediately.
Penny raised an eyebrow at me. “Uh-huh. What were you really doing?”
Tell her, I thought. “I was helping Clare.”
“Clare,” said Penny. She glanced back out toward the Serpent. “Just now?”
“Yeah,” I said, “didn’t you see her, sitting on those new rocks?”
“No. I saw the new rocks, but no girlfriend of yours sitting on them.”
“She’s not my—she must not have been up there yet when you looked. I know you guys didn’t believe me, but she’s real, and remember that power surge that happened yesterday? Same thing is happening to their ship. I think it connects our two locations. And it looks bad.”
“What do you mean looks bad?”
“Like what it did to her ship looks bad.”
“You’ve seen her spaceship.”
“Yeah, she showed me.”
“Will…” Penny shook her head, a strange smile on her face.
“What?”
“Do you realize how you sound right now?”
“Maybe, but as someone who traveled with me across the galaxy from the cave on our last planet, you know this kind of thing is possible.”
“True,” Penny said, but she kept peering at me. “Possible, yes. But…” She trailed off.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Fine,” I said. “I need to go inside and see if I can figure out how to help their ship. And I have to figure it out before tonight’s low tide.”
“Why is that?” Penny asked.
“Because that’s the next time I can get out there to meet up with Clare.”
“Wait, you want to go back out to that death-defying spot that I just rescued you from… tonight? In the dark?”
“I have to,” I said, opening the chariot door and sliding out. “She’s running out of time. Promise you won’t tell anyone?”
Penny threw up her hands. “Oh, sure. Why would I tell anyone that you want to secretly go and get yourself killed?”
“Unless you want to come with me? You could meet her.”
Penny waved me away. “Just go do your thing if you’re in such a hurry.”
“Thanks. And thanks again, you know, for—”
“Saving your life? I’d say you owe me, but… I did kinda owe you one for the candy incident. But we’re even now, got it? My debt is paid.”
“Cool.”
Penny got out of the chariot but started off in the other direction.
“You’re not coming in?”
“Oh.” Penny cocked her thumb at Mom’s office. “I was just gonna see what Mom’s up to. Smith refuses to come out of her air lock cell for her normal afternoon walk, for whatever weirdo reason, so I’ve got some free time.” She pointed at me and made a circle with her finger. “You should probably get cleaned off.”
Inside, I took care of my gear and suit. As I peeled off my suit, my neck flared up. I’d almost gotten used to the burning sensation, but this felt worse than ever. I just stood there scratching for a second before I took my suit to the ionizer.
It was as I was hanging up my suit that I saw the rash marks on my wrists. I pulled up the sleeve of my thermals. Those same white dots were there, too, surrounded by red skin, and they went halfway up both my arms. Okay, that was definitely not good.
Before I headed upstairs, I looked into the engine compartment. Sure enough, Don was there, checking out the oxygen unit.
“Who’s a good element exchanger?” he was saying as he patted the machine. “Yes, you are.”
“Hey,” I said.
“Oh!” Don bumped his head as he pulled out of the unit’s little compartment. “Will. Nice to see you, right there, hearing me whisper sweet nothings to a machine.… Don’t tell anybody about
that, okay?”
“No problem.”
“What’s up? Thought you’d be with everyone else at the big meeting.”
“Wait, what meeting?”
Don shrugged. “I didn’t ask. Judy said she and your dad were going out to your mom’s office. Sounded serious.”
“It sounded serious, but you didn’t ask?”
Don wagged his finger at me. “I have a strict policy to avoid all serious matters unless they directly relate to me or the workings of this ship, or involve vast sums of money… for me.”
“Penny said she was going up there, too,” I said. “Mom must have made a new discovery.” It seemed weird that she hadn’t told me—honestly, that she hadn’t told me first. Wasn’t I still her favorite person to bounce scientific theories off of? And, Penny hadn’t mentioned any kind of meeting at all.…
“Personally,” said Don, “I’m enjoying the peace and quiet.”
I looked past him at the oxygen unit. “How’s everything going?”
“If by everything you mean surges in mysterious energy fields, there hasn’t been another one. Which is good from the point of view of, you know, our survival, but I have to say it’s a bit disappointing in terms of testing out your nifty battery solution.”
“Survival is probably better,” I agreed.
“So they tell me.” Don’s eyes narrowed at me. Before I had a chance to ask what, he made a motion toward his nose.
I wiped my upper lip and was surprised to find wetness there. My hand came away with a line of what looked like thin snot, except a little greenish. “Sorry.” I wiped it quickly on my pants with a surge of embarrassment.
“Got a cold or something?” Don asked. “Can we even get colds here? You look pale.”
Hearing him say that seemed to make the rash on my neck and arms flare up. “I think I’m just tired.”
“Yeah, maybe go lie down. But please don’t touch me, the controls to the hatch, or anything, really, on your way.”
“Right. I’ll, um, see you later.”
I had to wipe my nose over and over on my way through the ship, so I stopped in the hub for some tissues. Add this to my arms and my neck, and I was definitely starting to wonder: What was going on with me? Was it possible that I’d picked up some kind of infection from this planet? And what if it was something that the human immune system couldn’t handle?
I was nearing my compartment when I heard a voice: “There he is.”
I was beside the door to Smith’s air lock prison, and there was her face, grinning at me through the small window. Don’t respond to her, I thought, and moved on—
“Everybody’s talking about your new friend,” she said.
I paused. How was it that she always knew the one thing to say to get your attention? Don’t! I thought, but then I was turning and talking to her, just like I’d promised myself I wouldn’t. “I know this is going to be a trick, but it’s not going to work. There’s no way I’m letting you out.”
“Who says I want out?” said Smith. “At least, not today. Today feels like a very good day to stay safely quarantined.” Smith made that sad face that I knew all too well. “And anyway, why would I want out while everyone thinks I’m such a bad person? All I want is to prove that I’m trustworthy, so maybe your mother will decide to let me be part of the team again.”
“Whatever,” I said, turning to go.
“For what it’s worth, I believe you. About Clare.”
I spun back to her. “What do you even know?”
Smith held up her hands. “Settle down. I told you I heard them talking. They’re all worried that you’re making her up, that this is some weird reaction to losing the Robot, and they don’t know whether to give you space or spend more time with you or put you through the Jupiter’s cognitive evaluation program.”
“I don’t need a brain scan!” I shouted.
“Of course not!” Smith rolled her eyes. “That’s what I’m saying; I believe you. With all we’ve seen, a girl from the future sounds like just another day in deep space. And if it were up to me, I’d be saying we should help her so that she might be able to help us get off this soggy cereal bowl of a planet.”
“Maybe,” I said, “but she’s a friend. Not just someone we can use.”
“Oh stop. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yes, you did!” I said. “That’s how you always think.”
“You mean about how to survive?” Smith shrugged theatrically. “Yes, yes I do, Will. Who can blame me? But listen: I don’t know what they’re going to decide out there in their big meeting, but I want you to know that I’m on your side, if you need me. If you and Clare need me.”
“Is the meeting about Clare?” I asked, a wave of nervousness flashing through me.
“They didn’t say, but…” Smith nodded solemnly. “That would be my hunch.”
I glanced down the hall. Should I go out there? See what they are doing, just to be sure? But no, this was just Smith riling me up like she always did! And besides, my itching and runny nose were both out of control and I felt exhausted from the whole near-drowning thing.
“I’m not listening to you,” I said, and marched on toward my room.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my hunches are basically always right.”
I hummed to myself to drown her out.
“I’m going to hate it when I have to say I told you so!”
Back in my compartment, I lay down for a while. I felt drowsy, and the itching and runny nose started to calm down, but then I was way too wired to actually sleep. The view of Clare’s ship kept playing behind my closed eyes, all those red corridors, the sight of the quantum rift, her parents going into those pods.…
I sat up and got out the circuit board we’d brought back, laying it on the floor. I ran my finger over its strange black tubing, dark and silent now. I went to the hub to get supplies, making sure to avoid Smith’s door, and I started working on connecting a battery to the circuit board. The first step was to see if I could actually get it to accept a charge. Did future human technology even use our version of electricity anymore? I did a bunch of different tests, connecting the battery to different parts of the board, and finally I found two spots that worked, and the little glass tubes lit up and began to flow with colorful packets of light.
After a few more experiments, I was able to get it set up the same way Don and I had configured things on the Jupiter. Now all I had to do was wait for that next low tide.
I went and got a snack, and when I returned to my compartment, another wave of drowsiness washed over me. I lay down and, this time, fell asleep.
When I woke up, my head was pounding, and I was shocked to see that it was early evening and dark outside. My nose felt completely blocked up, and when I blew it, the tissue filled with more green-tinted snot. This was not good. I folded the tissue and put it in my pocket, figuring Judy would probably want to see it. Which made me realize: It still sounded quiet in the Jupiter; was it possible everyone was still meeting out at Mom’s office? I should probably go up there, as the next low tide was still a couple of hours away—
There was a knock on my door. “Will?” Penny called from outside.
I got up and opened it. “Hey,” I said, rubbing my eyes.
“Hey.” She looked around me into the room. “Didn’t you hear us calling?”
“What do you mean?” I could hear how stuffy my voice sounded. My head felt lost in fog, and a wave of lightheadedness made me lean against the wall.
“Over the comm,” said Penny. “We called you like four times.”
“No, I had, like, the longest, deepest nap I’ve had in a while.”
Penny peered at me. “You don’t look so good.”
The itching flared on my neck, and I wiped at my nose. “Yeah, I think my cold or whatever is getting worse.”
Penny moved back into the hall. “Come to the hub, okay?”
“Sure. What’s up?”
She took a step
and spoke half over her shoulder. “I, um, want to show you something.”
“Okay.” This was weird. I could just tell. “Can I get my pack ready? I have to head back out soon, for the next low tide.”
“Can you just come take a look first?” Penny met my eyes, her gaze serious. “It’s important.”
A chill passed through me. Maybe I was getting a fever, but I didn’t think so.
“Sure.” I fell into step behind her, following her down the corridor to the hub doorway—
To find everyone standing there: Mom, Dad, Judy, even Don. Penny walked over and joined them.
“Hey, Will.” Mom was eyeing me seriously.
I froze and my nerves spiked, and I had an immediate urge to run, like I’d done something wrong, but then I told myself to calm down because that was ridiculous. “What’s going on?”
“Sit down,” Dad said quietly. He motioned to a chair at the center table.
I moved to it, shivering, and sat. I wiped at my nose, getting fresh snot on my hand.
Everyone was standing across from me, like I was on trial. “What is this?”
They all glanced around uncomfortably.
“We have to talk,” said Mom. “About Clare.”
CHAPTER
I pushed the chair back and started to get up. “Actually, I have some stuff to do, I—”
“Will, sit,” said Dad, and though he was still quiet, his tone was so serious that I slumped back down in the chair.
“Show him,” Mom said, motioning to Penny.
Penny looked at me like she was ill, and then stepped to the table. She placed a tablet in front of me and tapped it. A video began to play. I knew immediately what I was seeing: the view of the ocean, the Serpent’s head, and, in the distance, the triangle rocks of our fort. The tide was at its lowest, the spine that led to the fort completely out of the water. The view zoomed in, like it was being recorded from far off, until the triangle rocks took up the center of the screen. You could see little movements from inside them, probably me and Clare.
Lost in Space--Infinity's Edge Page 8
