“Thanks.” As I stepped toward the displays, trying to make out what they showed, another seat rose from the floor.
Grateful, I went to sit down, but Skylar gripped my arm. “Hey, what are you playing at?” she said. “That’s the captain’s chair.”
“So what?” Mason said. “The crew abandoned us.” He waved a dismissive hand. “Leo can sit where he likes. Anyway, it’s not as if the ship will bond with him, will it?”
Skylar hesitated, glared at me, then let go.
I sat down, relieved to rest my aching muscles, and studied the display.
It showed a general overview of Horizon Eighteen’s operations, complete with an outline of the ship itself. Large sections of it were missing, highlighted in red, along with a bewildering array of stats scrolling down their respective boxes. A few details I recognised, including power consumption, oxygen levels, and repair priorities . . . the rest I couldn’t comprehend.
I stared at it all, then my attention moved to a message box in the bottom corner of the screen. I leaned in, wondering if there was a way I could contact Ayesha and tell her what was happening to me. If she didn’t already know.
I scratched my chin.
If I was in a game inside the CodeX—which was sat on my bed in Colorado—perhaps I could send a text to the outside world. Maybe it would appear on the nearest phone or a computer somewhere.
I reached toward the screen, but Eve cleared her throat, making me start. On her display was a set of frequency ranges, with several highlighted in purple.
“Command ship Leviathan,” she said in a loud, clear voice, “this is Horizon Eighteen. We require emergency assistance. Do you copy? Over.” Eve studied her readout, but a horizontal line remained static. “Leviathan, this is Horizon Eighteen. Please respond. Over.”
“How far away is the Leviathan?” I said.
“I’m not picking it up on the long-range scanners,” Mason said. “That’s weird. It should be nine hours behind the main fleet.”
“Then why aren’t they talking?” Skylar dropped into a chair next to him. “Their own scans would have picked up the attack. They should be calling for survivors.”
“You think the Kraythons destroyed them too?” I asked, hoping I was wrong.
Eve shrugged. “It’s not impossible.”
“No,” Skylar said with a vehement shake of her head. “The Leviathan is indestructible.”
“The entire fleet was supposed to be indestructible,” Mason muttered, his eyes downcast. “Look how that turned out.”
“Command ship Leviathan, this is—” Eve gazed at the debris field outside. “This is the last Horizon. Do you copy? Over.”
Still nothing.
She sat back. “It’s not working. It’s like we’re being blocked or something.”
My mouth dropped open.
Hold on.
The CodeX game was starting to make sense. A rush of excitement coursed through me. It was saying that in order to find my grandmother, I needed to speak to Admiral Floyd, and the admiral was on the Leviathan, which was currently blocked from scans and communications.
That couldn’t be a coincidence.
Whatever jammed those signals was likely also linked to whatever had devastated the indestructible Antarian fleet, and the person Mason believed knew the answer to that question was kid tech-genius Kelvin.
Therefore Kelvin would know what blocked the radio signals and how to overcome it.
I pursed my lips. The path was clear.
Find Kelvin, solve the problem, contact Leviathan, and—bish, bash, bosh—I’d get to take my grandmother home to the real world and build a loving Cooper family.
Easy peasy.
It sounded so simple when I thought about it.
Ha.
“Command ship Leviathan,” Desperation crept into Eve’s voice. “This is the last Horizon. Please respond. Over.”
“Wait, I’ve got something.” Mason leaned in, squinting at his screen.
“The Leviathan?” Skylar said.
“No.” Mason turned to us and grinned. “Kelvin.”
I smiled too. Bingo.
Skylar’s eyes went wide “Kelvin’s alive?”
Eve let out a puff of air. “Thank the Monolith.”
Mason’s cheesy grin remained in place. “You will not believe where he is.”
Twenty-Four
Ten minutes later, thrilled we’d located Kelvin, I felt more confident about completing the game and finding my grandmother. We left Mason on the bridge, and I followed Skylar and Eve through another door at the back of the gallery area—unlocked, thanks to yours truly and his magical all-access implant—and stood in a room I could only describe as an alien space garage.
In it was a ship similar to the taxi in Grandpa John’s basement, but made from wood and iron like the rest of the fleet, with grooves down each side of the bodywork and a clear front screen. The spacecraft was around the size of a Mini Cooper. Painted on the hull in six-inch white letters was the name STAR CHASER.
I blinked.
Star Chaser?
Seriously?
I couldn’t imagine the lunchbox chasing anything.
Skylar touched the side, the door swung open, and she climbed into the pilot’s seat.
“Are you sure you want to come with us?” Eve asked me quietly as we hung back, watching Skylar use her phase-band magic to work the controls.
To myself I would admit I was having second thoughts, but I wasn’t about to let the others know. Besides, I was positive that the game wanted me to complete the tasks—with help from my new friends, of course.
“You heard what Mason said,” I replied. “I’m the only person who can get Kelvin out of there.” I was a human door key, after all, though the thought of an implant with a magical crystal lodged deep in my brain still made me cringe.
What happens if it malfunctions?
Will it burst out of my head in a shower of crimson? Brain matter and bits of skull splattering the walls?
I shuddered.
“But the Kraythons,” Eve persisted. “If they catch you, they’ll kill you. They’ll kill all of us.”
Okay, I took the hint about how dangerous these Kraython pirate guys were, but Skylar had already explained that, even if they were around, they’d be unlikely to detect such a small spacecraft flying through trillions of tonnes of debris. Besides, Mason had volunteered to stay at the ship to try and signal to the Leviathan. He’d also watch out for baddies and warn us if he spotted any.
Eve’s anxious expression mirrored what I felt on the inside. I countered with what I hoped was a confident smile, not an awkward grimace. By her reaction, though, I guessed my look fell closer to the latter.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, not believing my own words for a nanosecond. “We’ll all be fine. Besides,” I gestured at her X-ray sunglasses, “you’ll see trouble coming.”
Eve adjusted the comms band on my head. I’d forgotten I was still wearing the damn thing. My cheeks heated up.
“That reminds me,” I said when she’d finished. “Thank you.”
A flicker of confusion crossed Eve’s face. “For what?”
I thrust a thumb over my shoulder at Skylar and lowered my voice to a whisper. “For when we first met and you stopped her breaking my neck and flushing me out of the airlock.”
Eve tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. “You’re welcome.”
I strode over to Star Chaser and peered inside.
In front of Skylar, a single, narrow display console swept from one side of the cockpit to the other, and she controlled various buttons and sliders with motions from her phase-band.
“How’s it going?” I said.
She didn’t look at me. “Get in.”
Glancing at Eve, I waggled my eyebrows. She chuckled, and we clambered into the rear seats. I leapt back out of mine as the upholstery shifted.
“Reactomer,” Eve said. “They mould to your body for a comfortable fit.”
“Great.” I plonked myself down and screwed up my face as padding clamped my buttocks. Couldn’t anything in this world be bloody normal?
“You’ll want to strap in too,” Skylar said.
Even better.
With Eve’s guidance, I found the parts of a five-point harness, and after a minute or two of mucking about and swearing, I secured myself in the seat and looked up. “Where are the flight controls?”
Skylar tapped her temple, sat back in her chair, and rested her hands on her knees. The door swung into position, sealing us inside.
“You fly using mind power?” I took several deep breaths, trying to slow my racing heart, but it was no use. I gripped the edges of my seat and hoped Skylar knew what the hell she was doing.
Why have I volunteered for this ridiculous mission?
Then I pictured my grandfather’s face when he saw his wife again, and my mum’s reaction too. Grandma Alice had better be on the Leviathan, and I’d also better complete this level without dying.
Jumping into a spacecraft with at least one person who hated my guts was not the best idea in the universe, but I had little choice.
Besides, it’s not as if the CodeX had popped up and given any objectives or pointers, so I could only hope I was heading in the right direction. Otherwise, all this would be a waste of time.
Star Chaser lurched into the air, leaving my stomach several feet below, and the wall opposite slid aside.
“Be warned,” Skylar said over her shoulder, “I’m moving us fast through the debris. This ship only has a weak refracting gravity field, so we’ll feel the effects.”
I looked at Eve. “A weak what?”
“Also,” Skylar added, focused on the door ahead, “we don’t know if Kraythons are out there or not.”
My hands started sweating, so I wiped them on my suit.
“We’ll be fine,” Eve whispered.
Before I had time to ask whether the girls thought we should reconsider this crazy plan, Star Chaser lurched forward, pressing us into our seats, and we punched into open space.
I redoubled my grip on the edges of the chair, already in fear for my life, while Eve seemed relaxed.
Skylar kept her hands on her knees as she concentrated, piloting the ship.
We shot up, over and around chunks of floating wreckage, darting, rotating, spiralling, then diving.
I loosened my grip temporarily to hunt for a sick bag.
There wasn’t one.
I had to admit Skylar was a master at flying—the way she pulled off impossible moves, swooping through the debris field, avoiding one object after another . . . my Dad would’ve loved her.
Eve gasped and pointed through the cockpit window. A massive section of a ship swung into view, as big as a tower block. For one horrifying moment, I thought we would slam into it.
Instead, Skylar flew through a gap in the hull and across a giant cargo hangar, weaving in and out of racks and crates, only to then plunge through another ragged hole and back into space.
Now I understood why she’d picked such a small spacecraft—anything even an inch or two larger would have been smashed to atoms by now.
Another gigantic spaceship loomed before the three of us, many magnitudes bigger than a Horizon vessel. This one was in the shape of a diamond fixed to a cube, but with the whole front section torn off and large gouges spanning several decks, exposing rooms and corridors to the vacuum of space.
The ship’s name was one of the few things left intact.
* * *
SCIENCE VESSEL DISCOVERY
* * *
Skylar directed Star Chaser to the rear of the ship, then through a hangar door. We glided to a halt, touching down on the inner deck.
Sweat poured from my forehead, and I had trouble releasing the edges of my seat. I fumbled with the harness until Eve took pity on me and unfastened the clasp.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as the door outside sealed shut and the cargo bay pressurised.
Skylar opened the side of Star Chaser and stepped out.
Next went Eve, and I scrambled after them, my knees shaking.
The ship groaned around us, rending and creaking steel. The floor trembled, and I threw out my arms to steady myself like the world’s worst high-wire performer.
Eve’s brow furrowed, and she turned, looking about her.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered, eyes darting round the hangar bay.
“It’s metal,” she said, gesturing. “All of it. The whole ship. No wood.”
“Meaning you can’t see through the walls?” I said.
Eve sighed. “No.”
“Well, that’s just brilliant,” Skylar huffed. She held her phase-band in front of her, squinting at a holographic display projected into the air, which showed an outline of the ship. “Something doesn’t feel right.” Her eyes narrowed, and she adjusted the scanner’s sensitivity.
Unnerved by this proclamation, I considered climbing back into Star Chaser. However, apart from the vast hangar bay feeling a few degrees colder than normal and a metallic smell in the air, I couldn’t see a problem—only a large, plain, mostly grey room.
“How do we know Kelvin is definitely here?” I asked.
Skylar nodded at her phase-band. “This can locate any Bluestone artifact apart from a Class One. According to the scans, Kelvin’s this way.” She strode to a door in the back wall, tried the lock, then moved aside and motioned for me to have a go.
No sooner had I stepped toward it than the door slid open with a low grinding sound. Beaming, proud I was useful, I bowed and waved Skylar and Eve through.
Skylar scowled at me, lifted her nose into the air, and stormed past.
“Thanks,” Eve muttered, giving me an uneasy look.
I tensed as I followed, somehow knowing I’d regret going with them.
Twenty-Five
Eve, Skylar, and I made our way along a narrow corridor. The only light came from feeble orange emergency lighting that barely illuminated a few feet ahead of us.
A shiver ran down my spine as we peered through open doors into rooms full of benches, odd machines with black displays, and racks of tools.
It was like being on a ghost submarine crossed with Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory, and it gave me the creeps. As far as I was concerned, the sooner we found Kelvin and got the hell out of there, the better.
“What is this place?” I said as we moved down the corridor, searching one room after another.
“Science Vessel,” came Skylar’s curt reply.
I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, got that by the giant letters on the side of the hull, but why do treasure hunters have a science vessel?”
This place was the polar opposite of the spacious Horizon ship, with stark grey decor and cramped interiors full of pipes and shadows.
Skylar glared at me. “We’re not treasure hunters.”
I blinked. “You’re not?”
That’s how Ayesha had explained Antarians to me.
At least, I think that’s what she said.
“Technically, we’re privateers,” Eve said.
My eyebrows lifted. “What’s the difference?”
“The Antarian fleet’s backed by our home-world Senate,” Eve said in a soft tone, counteracting Skylar’s glare. “We track down and retrieve Bluestone artifacts, and we stop anyone who tries to use them for bad purposes.”
I grinned. “Who died and made you guys the space police?”
Skylar tensed as if to throw a punch.
I swallowed and we continued deeper into the ship. “So, why a science vessel? What do they do here?”
“They research everything from advanced medicine, through botany, to creature study,” Eve said.
Skylar twisted her fingers, and blue energy pulsated from the tips, enlarging the holographic screen on her arm.
“Creature study?” I said. “What creatures?”
Skylar peered into another room. “Our scientists pick up animals to study whene
ver hunting Bluestone artifacts brings us to a new world.”
“Okay.” I imagined a weird zoo packed full of abducted aliens. “So what do you think Kelvin’s doing here?”
Skylar consulted her phase-band’s screen again. “No idea.”
Eve peered through another open door. “Must be something important.”
We turned the corner, squeezed past a thick bulkhead, and continued through an open area filled with . . . trees.
“What the—?”
At first I found it hard to believe what I was looking at—an entire forest crammed inside a spaceship. Towering redwoods, oaks, pines, and the dense foliage beneath them were all bathed in the same muted orange glow.
How big is this place?
“Why visit Colorado when Colorado can come to you?” I said in a poor attempt at an American accent.
Eve and Skylar circled the outer edge of the woodland, muttering to each other, and I followed like an obedient dog.
Envy swelled within me. It was clear they cared for each other a great deal. I was an outsider—that was the way I had felt even with my own family recently—and I wanted to find my grandmother as soon as possible. Perhaps, through Grandma Alice, I could have that love and familial respect too.
“You don’t like me, do you?” I said to Skylar.
“No.”
I offered her a radiant smile. “Say what you really mean.” I blew out a puff of air and peered into the forest before turning back to her. “So . . . why don’t you like me?”
Skylar’s jaw clenched. “I don’t trust you.”
“Skylar.” Eve frowned at her. “Be nice.”
Skylar gestured toward a door, and we stepped into another hallway packed full of pipework running along the walls and ceiling, barely wide enough to walk along.
“Why not?” I persisted, deciding that if Skylar already hated my guts, a little bit of nagging couldn’t make things much worse. “What is it you don’t like about me?”
I wanted to know. I was the new boy n’ all, pushing my luck, but I didn’t like all the unnecessary tension.
As we reached a T-junction, Skylar peered down each corridor, checked the scanner display, then took a left.
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