I shrugged. “How am I supposed to know?”
“Your CodeX,” Eve murmured. “Ask your CodeX.”
“Oh, right.” I cleared my throat. “CodeX, translate.”
“Biendo,” the father said. “Beindo gra rachat. Who are you?”
The CodeX told me using flashes of images—Ancampi texts, scrolls, and carved writing. Although their language had evolved from hundreds of years before, CodeX could still understand well enough.
“Friends,” I said, surprised that my word came out in their language, even though I’d uttered it in English. It projected out of a speaker in my helmet.
The father and son exchanged looks.
Skylar took a step toward them, fists balled.
Our two alien friends jumped back.
“Wait,” Eve said. “You’re frightening them.”
I was about to agree and suggest Skylar step away and let me take over the questioning when she took another step toward the Ancampi. “Where’s the signal blocker?”
Eve grabbed Skylar, pulling her back. A split second later came a loud pop. A ball of purple smoke shot from the barrel of the gun. As if in slow motion, Skylar cartwheeled out of the way, avoiding it with ease, but the blast caught Eve in the chest and she flew ten feet through the air, hitting the dirt like a rag doll.
“No,” I shouted at the farmer. “We’re no threat to you.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s not supposed to happen.”
Kelvin rushed to Eve and knelt beside her. Her eyes were closed and her body still.
Kelvin checked the readout on Eve’s phase-band, and after a few seconds, he looked up, his cheeks draining of colour. “She’s dead.”
Forty
The world turned grey as I stood, helpless, staring at Eve’s motionless body.
How could she be dead?
“You piece of—” Skylar rushed at the Ancampi again, but Mason grabbed her arms this time.
“You’ll get us all killed,” he said.
I staggered over to Eve and knelt beside her.
Can I reset the game somehow?
Is there a way for me to undo this?
Grandpa John mentioned he’d tried some levels several times over. Could I do the same?
A slow, juddering breath escaped my lips. I knew in my heart that there was no going back, no do-over. I struggled to swallow the lump in my throat as I gazed at Eve’s still form.
If only there was a way to save her.
A flood of images and information made me recoil. They flowed from the CodeX implant, programming my brain in rapid fits and starts.
I leaned over Eve, checking her phase-band’s display for vitals and not finding any. I interlocked my hands, elbows straight, and compressed her breastbone in fast rhythm.
Thirty chest compressions later, I went to retract Eve’s helmet, but Kelvin gripped my arm.
“Wait.” He gestured with his phase-band and studied the display.
“What are you doing?”
“Their atmosphere is breathable,” Kelvin said, “but I don’t recommend doing it for too long. Oxygen content is way higher than we’re used to, and the nitrogen lower. No pathogens detected, but—” He looked up at Mason. “Keep the Ancampi away from us. We don’t want to pass on anything to them.”
Mason turned, raising his hands. “Stay away, guys.”
I pressed my collar, lowered my helmet, and did the same to Eve’s. I tilted her head back, made sure her airway was clear, pinched her nose, and gave her two rescue breaths.
I turned my ear to her mouth.
No movement of air, so I repeated the process.
Skylar stood next to me, asking whether I knew what I was doing, but I carried on working with Eve—thirty compressions, two breaths, repeat.
After the third try, Kelvin stared at Eve’s phase-band and shook his head.
Mason rested a hand on my shoulder. “She’s gone, bud.”
I shrugged him off. I’ll spend the rest of my life doing this if I have to, even if there’s only the slightest chance . . .
More compressions.
More breaths.
On and on.
The Ancampi farmer approached, his gun aimed at us, smoke drifting from the barrel.
I didn’t care.
He’ll have to kill me too.
Two more breaths, and I was about to restart chest compressions when she gasped and coughed.
Raising my hands, I sat up, stunned, hardly daring to believe.
Eve shuddered and opened her eyes.
A wave of relief flooded through every fibre of my being, and I slumped. “Hey.”
“Hi.” Eve screwed up her face and clutched at her chest as she regarded us. “What happened? You guys look like someone died.”
I pressed Eve’s collar, raising her helmet again, did the same to mine, then glared at Skylar. Because of her recklessness, Eve had almost died. If Skylar had let me continue talking to the Ancampi and not been so impatient, this wouldn’t have happened.
Skylar hurried to Eve’s side and took her hand. “I’m sorry.” She looked up at us. “I’m so, so sorry.” Tears tumbled down her cheeks.
She was reckless, but I blamed myself too. I should have gone down to the Ancampi world alone, not suggested we all climb into that damn powerless alien craft. I cursed my stupidity.
Eve gave an awkward smile to Skylar, then turned to me again. She opened her mouth to say something, but her head rolled to the side and she fell unconscious.
“We need to get her to the Last Horizon,” Kelvin said. “The medical bay will take care of her.”
Mason scooped Eve up into his arms, and we turned to the Ancampi. “How do we get back?” he asked them.
The farmer kept his weapon raised, threatening another blast of energy as I translated. His son shuffled from one foot to another, half hiding behind his dad.
Kelvin pointed at the ship. “We want to go home.” He pointed at Eve in Mason’s arms. “You hurt our friend.”
Something moved on the game map, and I tensed as a line of red dots streamed toward us.
The sky rumbled as flying trucks and cars swooped in our direction. Each was painted a dark green and left trails of magical smoke behind their spinning, ball-like wheels.
As they landed in the floating field, I didn’t require the CodeX’s help to figure out these new arrivals were military. I backed away and motioned the others to do the same, sensing a lot more trouble was about to befall us. My health meter hadn’t budged from forty percent, but it wouldn’t take much for it to drop to zero.
“CodeX?” I breathed. “A little help? What do we do? Please get us out of here.”
Silence.
Twenty uniformed Ancampi jumped out of the trucks, each holding weapons similar to the farmer’s. They surrounded Mason, Eve, Skylar, Kelvin, and me, giving us no doubt as to their intentions.
“CodeX?” I hissed. “Seriously? Nothing?”
The lead officer—an Ancampi I assumed was a general, he wore a uniform with golden badges across each lapel—barked orders, telling his men to load us into the trucks.
His soldiers removed the others’ phase-bands along with Kelvin’s scanner, then jabbed us in the backs with their weapons, corralling us to the vehicles. Mason scooped Eve into his arms, and reluctantly we climbed in one truck, Kelvin and Skylar in another.
Several soldiers kept their guns trained on us. For the briefest of moments, I considered trying to overpower them, but staring at the magical smoke swirling inside the glass jars, I decided it was not a good idea.
Looking away, I muttered under my breath to the CodeX, asking for any tips on escaping and not being murdered—anything that could help us—but it remained silent.
Useless bloody thing.
As the trucks lumbered across the field and lifted off the ground in a smooth motion, the remaining soldiers finished loading the crashed silver craft onto a flatbed, quickly covering it in a tarp, then followed us into the sky.
I
gazed at the buildings in the distance, wondering how the Ancampi kept all the hundreds of moving skyscrapers from banging into one another. I thought we were heading over there, but the procession banked to the left.
Three colossal towers touched the clouds above, while giant cranes fixed with tubes vacuumed the magical smoke, sucking it into jars and lowering them to the ground.
A minute later we touched down on a floating slab of land, then drove through a set of iron gates with a guard station, and on between warehouse buildings.
I looked over at Kelvin. “How long before the Leviathan enters the solar system?”
He shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe an hour.”
I winced.
“Jaroon,” the nearest guard snarled, waving his gun at my face. I didn’t need a translator to know he wanted us to shut the hell up.
Our alien motorcade swung into an empty warehouse building, its walls and ceiling lined with smoke-filled glass pipes. As the main door closed, the soldiers ordered us to climb out with a few barked words and gun gestures.
Mason carried Eve. She seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness.
“Is she okay?” I asked him as the Ancampi herded us to the far end of the building.
“She’s still alive,” Mason replied in a low tone. “We must get her back to the ship so we can check out the damage.”
I nodded, but I had the distinct impression our new friends would not let us leave anytime soon.
Sure enough, they led us into a connecting warehouse and forced us inside a concrete room with one glass wall and a heavy iron door.
Mason laid Eve on the ground and turned to me. “Shall I smash my way out of here?” He indicated the shirt area where the crystal was mounted into the top of his arm. “We can overpower them.”
“Not yet,” I muttered, watching through the glass as the general addressed his underlings. They set the phase-bands and scanner on a desk in the corner, while other soldiers kept an eye on us, their guns ready. I guessed we must have looked imposing with our space suits and helmets.
Another soldier, this one with fewer gold insignia across his lapels, stormed over and saluted the general with a clenched fist, jabbering in an animated tone.
The general gave a single nod, straightened his jacket, and walked over to the glass.
His gaze moved from Eve, unconscious on the floor, to Mason crouching beside her, then to Skylar. He glared at their robotic limbs, scrutinised Kelvin’s unusual appearance, and finally stopped at me.
“Chakron fianto malood?” he said, his voice transmitting through an air vent. The CodeX translated. “What is your faction?”
I shook my head.
A brief frown crossed the general’s features. “What is your faction?” he repeated.
“They’re Hatarn,” his second-in-command snarled.
“We’re not,” I said in their language, even though I had no clue what the hell a Hatarn was.
The second-in-command ground his teeth, but the general waved him away. He bowed and stepped back, still sneering.
“If only we could phase,” Mason breathed to his sister. “Then we’d shift through the walls without them even knowing.”
“We’re not doing anything impulsive.” I glared at Skylar. “I don’t want anyone else getting shot.” I beckoned to the general, hoping I could talk our way out of this nightmare, and fast.
Forty-One
The alien general advanced to the glass wall, staring at me. “Who are you?” he said. “Where are you from?”
I wondered how relevant the Ancampi’s ancient religious beliefs still were. They had come a long way from their distant nomadic ancestors, and they were more sophisticated than the small amount of information the CodeX had on them.
I tried to think it through.
Judging by their hidden world, the Ancampi either had no idea they were under a giant roof, a protective ice-covered bubble orbiting a star in a solar system in a galaxy among billions of others, or they didn’t care. My instincts told me it was the former, so I needed to tread carefully.
“They must be Flireons.” The second-in-command flung out an accusatory finger at us.
The CodeX flooded my mind with snippets of information. Flireons were a mythological race of beings said to have invaded Ancampi lands, killing half their people and stealing their food, then retreating across the ocean. Not a good people to be associated with.
“We’re not Flireons,” I said. “We are human. A small tribe from an island in the Alkar Sea.”
For the record, the Alkar Sea was the biggest body of water on their planet and mostly unexplored. At least, it used to be.
I held my breath as I waited for the response.
The officer’s eyes narrowed.
“Why are you here?” the general demanded.
I clenched my fists behind my back. “We are explorers.” That was true. More than they’d ever know.
“He’s lying,” the first officer snarled. “They’re a scouting party, planning an invasion.”
I spread my hands out. “General, please let us go. We came here by accident. We mean you no harm and only want to return to our home.” I pointed at Eve. “Our friend is hurt. You can see she requires medical attention.”
The officer leaned toward the general. “We must inform Premiere Goratorin. Decisions of this magnitude need approval.”
Much to my astonishment, the general barked at his men, “Stand guard. Shoot if any of them try to escape.” He marched from the room, his second-in-command hard on his heels.
I sighed and turned from the glass wall. “Damn it.”
“So,” Mason said with raised eyebrows, “how did it go?”
“Not great.” I shrugged. “I don’t think they believed my story.”
The two red dots on my game map headed for a cluster of buildings on the other side of the floating compound.
“This is all my fault,” Skylar said. “I want to be a pilot. I should have known it wasn’t a boat.” She shook her head. “How could I be so stupid?”
I spun around to agree with her, but Mason stepped between us, hands raised. “Hey, we’re a team. No one’s blaming anyone else, right?”
Skylar turned away, and I bit my tongue. Mason was right. Blaming each other wouldn’t get us out of this mess. Besides, it was more my fault than hers. The only reason they wanted me with them was because I had the CodeX, which I couldn’t use properly, and my lack of control had placed us in mortal jeopardy. If I’d acted faster and used the CodeX to its full potential, Eve wouldn’t have been hurt.
I hesitated.
But what if my lack of control isn’t a weakness, but a strength? Perhaps the game was set up that way—deliberately wanting me to lead from the front and take charge.
In that case, there was nothing else for it. Now was the time for me to get us out of this mess, with or without the CodeX’s help. Maybe I didn’t even need it.
“We’re going with your plan,” I said to Mason. “We bust our way out.”
Nothing like a bit of brute force to solve a tricky problem.
Mason peered through the glass at the guards. “I can take them. Easy.”
“Good.” I nodded at the desk in the corner. “We get our stuff back, then fly the hell out of here.”
Mason frowned. “Fly in what?”
“The craft we came down in.” I looked over at Kelvin. “Will it still work?”
“I think so. Skylar should be able to work the controls now we know how to fire up the engine.”
Mason raised his eyebrows. “You mean that piece of junk we crashed in?”
I understood his skepticism, but now wasn’t the time. We needed to act. I knew I couldn’t control the CodeX and the game world on my own, but together, united, we stood a chance.
“You up for the challenge?” I asked Skylar.
She grimaced. “Leo . . .”
“What did Mason say about us being in this together?” I said before she could retreat in
to self-pity. “Well, we’re gonna get out of it together too.” Like a united family, I thought. “You’re our best hope at flying out of this crazy place before they execute us or something. I know we can escape, but it’ll take all of us.” I eyed Eve’s motionless body. “I’ll carry Eve, and you guys do your thing.” A twinge of self-doubt stabbed me as I eyed the guards outside, but I did my best to push it aside. “We have to plan this carefully.”
“We don’t have time for carefully,” Mason said.
“Getting out of here won’t be a problem,” Kelvin said. “Avoiding hurting them will be.”
I pursed my lips. “I’m not so sure . . .” I turned to the others and kept my voice low. “I think their guns are designed to stun.”
“Stun?” Mason repeated, his voice rising. “They almost murdered Eve.”
“I know,” I said. “But do you remember how shocked the farmer was? He said that wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m certain their guns aren’t meant to have that much impact. That means we can use their weapons against them, but we need to avoid getting hit.”
Mason rolled his eyes. “Sounds fair.”
“You break open the door,” I said to him. “Skylar, can you move fast enough to avoid their blasts?”
“Sure, she can.” Mason slapped his sister on the back. “She did it before, didn’t she?”
Skylar grimaced.
I raced over to Eve, feeling more determined and positive than ever, and lifted her into my arms. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”
“Wait.” Kelvin held up a hand. “I’ll take her.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he said. “You get our phase-bands and scanner.”
I shifted my weight and carefully passed Eve over to him. I turned back to the door.
Mason flexed his arms and looked at his sister. “Ready?”
She hunched down. “Ready.”
Mason roared and ran full pelt at the cell door, slamming into the metal surface.
The hinges popped free, and the door flew outward, knocking the first guard back against the far wall. A split-second later, a blur that could only have been Skylar raced past.
Bolts of energy shot into our prison cell, and I pulled Eve and Kelvin aside, shielding them behind the wall.
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