by Adam Holt
Trackman didn’t come back. We waited a while, all huddled together in the cage saying nothing, but exhaustion took me more quickly than I expected.
Once asleep I began to dream, and my dreams became a Red Vision. The feeling was becoming more familiar now. It wasn’t like sleeping. I felt conscious of my surroundings. They were encased in the red fog that slowly opened to show a new world around me, and this world included The Adversity, the Lion’s Mane, and the purple tentacle connecting them. I noticed an astronaut on a spacewalk outside of our ship. He stood on the side of the ship and looked into space. Without warning, he leaped into space! Why would he do that? I wondered, but it seemed he had a target in mind…the Lion’s Mane.
Tell me who it is, I demanded of the Red Vision. No response at first. I concentrated like mad, and the Vision granted my request. I began to fly through space toward the jumper and as I did, two other jumpers passed me. Who are they? Tell me! I demanded. Just before I caught up to them, the vision faded.
Another Vision took shape. It pulled me into the space lab, and it seemed like a battle was raging. Two combatants attacked each other. Purple sparks were exploding like fireworks all around them. It was too much to take in all at once. No, not yet! Back to the jumper! Show me. Please. The lab flew out of my mind and I returned to space. I finally reached the first jumper as he was about to land on the side of the Lion’s Mane. His hands began to glow. Then I understood.
CLEAN
The Vision of the space jumpers filled my mind. I opened my eyes, feeling calmer than earlier. I took in our situation in the cage. Buckshot was still unconscious beside the sleeping Queen Envy. Sunjay was by me near the skylight, Tabitha far below. She stirred and looked up at me. She must have sensed that I was back in my right mind—as right as my mind gets.
“Well, what now, Scrubbles?” said Tabitha, smiling and wincing at the same time.
“Would you believe me if I told you?”
“Tully, I’ll believe anything you say.”
“That would be a nice change.”
Tabitha floated toward the skylight and took my hand. She gently ran her fingers along the lightning flowers. I tried to pull away, but she held on. “No. You’ve been holding something back from me this entire trip. That’s the same thing as lying to a friend. Don’t you get that? You’re a hard guy to trust.”
It made me angry. I yanked my hand away. “What are you talking about? I did what?”
“You heard me. Look at what you just did. You keep pulling away. Now don’t make me say it again.” She stared right through me.
A hard guy to trust? I wanted to be angry with her for doubting me, but looking into her sharp green eyes, I knew exactly what she meant. I had held back the truth from her. Then, when I finally had the truth to tell, she didn’t believe me. I had no right to be angry with her. I had been hiding secrets for so long, and finally I couldn’t hide any longer. I didn’t want to. At that moment, I started talking as honestly as I could—
“You’re right. I held things back from you, and that’s just as bad as a lie. I thought it would make things easier for us, but it only made them worse. I don’t even know why I did it. You’re the smartest person I know.”
“Save your compliments for another time,” she said.
“It’s not a compliment, Tabitha. It’s the truth. We’d be lost without you. Anyway, enough. I’m about to change, if I can. I have an idea of what to do next, but first you need to hear some things about me. I don’t care if you think I’m nuts. It just doesn’t matter.”
“No, it doesn’t. And no, I won’t think you’re nuts.”
“We’ll see. Let me tell you about the Red Vision I just had…”
“You had a Vision?”
“I’ve had lots.”
She was listening. I shared everything: starting with last Vision, then all the previous ones, even the one in which she disappeared into the mist. She wanted to know more about the weird song that she sang in that Vision.
“Well, sing it for me,” she said.
“No way. I can’t sing.”
“Yes, you can.”
“Dangit. Okay. Here’s the first verse.” So I sang, quietly:
Boy who doesn’t know his gifts
Girl who flies into the mist
Cassandra cries to the skies
but no one listens anymore.
“I’m so getting you into the musical next year,” she said. “So I guess you were Cassandra, huh? We didn’t listen to you. Who’s the girl that flies into the mist? Me? That doesn’t sound so great. So what’s the second verse?”
Blue-eyed demon, green-eyed girl
Man with a plan that changes the world
The hand that holds open the door
will have to let it close.
I stopped singing and explained. “The demon must be Sawyer, and the green-eyed girl is you. I don’t know about the last two lines though.”
“The man with a plan. That could be Trackman. Or you. And the hand that closes the door? That’s definitely you.” Her face seemed to darken for a moment. She stared out the skylight, repeating the words.
“Are you okay?
“Just thinking. So the Visions are like bits advice or something,” she explained. “They are clues to the future. I’ll keep that in mind.”
We moved on. I told her about my complicated “friendship” with Lincoln Sawyer and how it started on Earth. All the secrets poured out of me. The truth poured out of me. As guilty as I felt about hiding it, she just nodded her head and listened patiently.
When I finished, she said, “And that’s all of it?”
“Except for one secret between me and my dad, that’s it,” I said. And it was true.
“I trust you,” she said. “I’m still hurt, but I trust you.”
“Would you have thought I was crazy earlier?”
“Maybe. It doesn’t matter now,” she said. “You came clean. Friends have to do that for each other. I never want anybody but the real Tully that’s right in front of me, even if he is insane. That’s the only way to be us. This is the real us, the us that plays Cave-In! and sneaks into space and figures out how to survive and stands up for each other. I love this us—forever and for all time.”
Then she hugged me tight. I could feel myself relax. She released me and her green eyes looked soft for the first time in a while.
“Tully, I’ll always be your friend. You better be mine.”
“I will.”
“Even if I pop up in your dreams and sing weird songs.”
I laughed and wiped away a tear. I had my friend back. That was it. I don’t know if telling the truth always goes that well, but this time it was awesome. I felt like I had taken some sort of bath, like I was clean for the first time in so long. I wasn’t wearing any more disguises, not an orangutan space suit or a bunch of lies either. I was just me in a t-shirt and jeans, and Tabitha was herself again, and apparently Sunjay was listening in, because he cut short all my deep thoughts. He swooped in and hugged us both. We didn’t have much time for a hugfest though. Tabitha was already thinking a step ahead of us. Sunjay, for once, just listened.
“So the jellyfish in your Red Vision was the Lion’s Mane,” she said. “Trackman must have killed Redshirt with his ring, like he knocked out Buckshot.”
“Right, and Sawyer covered for him,” I said. “He’s the doctor.”
“Now, it sounds like we’re supposed to make a spacejump from The Adversity to the Lion’s Mane. Do you think you should use your powers to do that or what?”
Sunjay and I both looked at Tabitha.
“Who has powers?” I asked. “I have Visions and glowing hands.”
“You have more than that. The Ascendant Lord thought so.”
“I knew he was examining me,” I said, “but I thought he just wanted to know if I touched the Harper Device.”
“No, think about it. He said that the small things could do great harm, sort of like David took down Goliath.
Something like that. He wanted to know if you were a threat to him. You are, but you hid it. Good job.”
“So Tully has powers?” asked Sunjay.
“Of course. Sunjay, when you two fought in the Hamster Wheel, Tully was so fast you couldn’t kick him, right?”
“Uh, yeah. That was like magic.”
“And remember how Tully’s hands glowed red?”
“Wait,” I said, “you noticed that?”
She nodded. “Yep. You stuck your hands in your pockets, but you weren’t fast enough.”
“Yeah, but how are Tully’s super-fast hands going to help us jump through space without dying?” asked Sunjay.
Tabitha twirled her scarf. “I’m not sure, but first we have to escape the cage. Tully, here’s a test. Break us out of here. Then we can do the spacejump and save everyone else.”
“Oooor maybe we should stay here and not die,” said Sunjay. “A spacewalk is hard for an astronaut. How are the three of us going to do a spacejump? We’ll be spacejunk unless someone rescues us. What if the Lion’s Mane just takes off or something and—whoosh!—there goes our target? Who’s going to save us? We’ll be space popsicles before you know it.”
“No risk, no reward,” I said. “It’s either take our chances in space or take them with Gallant Trackman. We have to make the spacejump. The Vision says so. We’ve got to save my dad, and he’s over there.”
“Yep, let’s jump to the jelly,” said Tabitha. “He’s not looking for little minnows. Anyway, the Ascendant won’t go anywhere without their big prize.” She pointed across the garden to the Harper Device. We couldn’t see it because of the vines, but it glowed a steady, dim red.
We looked out the skylight. A quarter mile stood between the two ships. That’s the emptiest place I’ve ever seen, and we have to cross it by ourselves. There was nothing there. No air, light, or life. Nothing except for the tentacle, full of dark spots moving toward our ship.
“Something’s coming,” I said, floating toward the bars.
A PRESENCE IN THE HALLWAY
In a matter of minutes the hatch opened at the far end of the storage area. We peered down the corridor to see what was coming. Our hopes jumped immediately when we saw who it was.
“Moreline!” Tabitha said, “Get us out of here!” Sylvia Moreline floated down the corridor slowly, with a grim look on her face. She shook her head. Our hope turned to fear. Behind her floated Sawyer and Trackman, who grinned like a thief after a robbery. That was bad, but it got worse.
Behind Trackman and Sawyer I felt another presence—something that seemed to make the space lab darker. The presence became a shadow; the shadow became a form; the form took on flesh, which bulged with muscle and crawled with tattoos. For the first time we saw an Ascendant warrior in person. He didn’t float like the rest of us. He walked into the space lab—in zero gravity. How? Who knows?
He was a tower of muscle. Black and purple armor covered his chest but not his arms—they were covered with tattoos. I recognized one of his tattoos—our solar system. Each of the planets was in motion, spinning at different speeds. Unlike the Ascendant Lord, this warrior’s tattoos were heavenly bodies—spinning galaxies, shooting stars, and ringed planets. An open-faced black helmet hid most of his features. He wore a tunic like a gladiator, and his legs, like his arms, rippled with every step. However, the thing that terrified me most was in his right hand, something that sucked the very light out of the space lab and obscured the features I just described—a black staff as tall as he was, covered in strange writing, glowing purple at each end.
“What is that?” whispered Sunjay.
We watched the Ascendant warrior looming in the dark. We all backed away from the bars of the cage. Sawyer opened the cage and pushed Moreline inside. Trackman had obviously made her enter the lab first on purpose.
“‘Oooh, come save us!’” he mocked us. “Help us, Moreline, you’re our only hope!”
Moreline grunted in pain and struggled to catch her breath. She had a black eye and bruises around her neck.
“What happened? Is he an Ascendant, too?” Sunjay asked.
“Wrong time to talk,” she wheezed.
“Wrong time indeed!” Trackman turned his gaze on Sunjay and sucked air through his teeth. “Question boy, I have a question for you. Would you like to find out what happened to Moreline?”
“Uh, no, I’m okay. I can ask her later, really. No problem. Sorry,” he said.
Trackman turned toward the Ascendant, said something, and the warrior’s black staff lit up with purple flame. He flicked his wrist. That’s all it took. Sunjay flew forward and stuck to the bars of the cage, like a magnet on a refrigerator. I can’t imagine how bad that hurt, but Sunjay didn’t yell.
“You get the idea now, boy? Any more questions for the Ascendant warrior? You’ll find that they prefer action to speech.” The Ascendant flicked his black staff again, which sent Sunjay smashing to the back of the cage. He couldn’t catch his breath for a minute but waved us away.
Trackman continued. The darkness behind him drew the light out of the room. Even the Harper Device seemed dimmer than usual. “Well, I hope you all slept wonderfully well in your cage. It looks like Buckshot is still in never-never land. The rest of us should get down to business.”
“What kind of business is that, Trackman? Selling out your friends, maybe the whole world?”
We all turned and looked at the owner of the voice, who looked equal parts scared and angry, flipping her lucky scarf, which turned bright green.
“Tabitha, are you crazy?” I whispered.
“Yes,” Trackman said, “I think she is. And, yes, that about sums it up. I sold you out. All for the price of the Harper Device.”
“Well, aren’t you a good dog?” she continued, “Did the Ascendant tell you to fetch the Device like you’re a sweet little poodle? Little poodle labroodle give a dog a bone.”
We’re all about to die. I should have clamped a hand over her mouth. The Ascendant’s black staff glowed. Somewhere under his helmet his eyes lit up with a purple light, too. I don’t know if he knew English, too, but he knew one thing: this girl insulted Commander Trackman. Trackman kept those teeth shining and put up a hand to stop the Ascendant from tossing Tabitha into the bars. “Say all the rhymes you want, girl. You’re in a cage. I’ll be on a throne soon.”
“I doubt that,” she said. “They’ll give you a doghouse.”
Sawyer floated forward. “Would you like me to eliminate the girl now, Commander Trackman?”
That cooled Tabitha down. She pushed away from the bars. My fear gave way to anger, and I started to see the world through the red mist again.
“Ha, no. Such a clever girl,” Trackman told Sawyer. “I may retain her as a servant in my mansion, if she can tame that nasty tongue. Yes, I’m going to build a mansion on Liberty Island, right in front of the Statue of Liberty. What a great lawn ornament that would make.”
“Generally lawn ornaments are more diminutive,” said Sawyer, “such as rabbits or gnomes.”
“Don’t interrupt me when I’m picturing my life of luxury, you mechanical misfit!”
“And how are you going to get this big mansion? By fetching the Harper Device?” Tabitha asked, gripping the cage bars.
“The Harper Device. Yes, that’s what you call it,” he said. “You named it after the great Commander Harper. How arrogant! The Ascendant know its real name, and its real purpose—to claim the Earth for their own.” He floated back over to the cage and eyed me. “Your father had no idea what he found on Mars, Tully Harper. But now I’m giving it back to its rightful owners, and they have plans far beyond building my dream house. Now, where is that prize?” Trackman and Sawyer struggled through the vines in the space lab on their way toward the dim, red glow. They didn’t struggle for long. A flick of the black staff and the vines parted for them.
In the meantime, Sunjay looked at Tabitha and me. “Didn’t you see what he did to me? Why did you say all that?”
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“It was worth the risk,” Tabitha said. “We know more about his plans now, more about the Device. That could be helpful if—”
But she was interrupted by Trackman.
MELT
“What? What is this? Where is it?” He shouted from across the jungle. He crawled back through the vines tangling him with every movement. The Android followed. “You did this!”
We all jumped back as he approached. Trackman’s face glowed red and his eyes twitched. In his hand he held an LED light covered with a red cloth. No wonder the Device had seemed dim. It wasn’t just the presence of the Ascendant warrior. The Harper Device wasn’t there at all. Trackman reached through the bars and pulled me up to his sweaty red face.
“Where have you hidden the Sacred? Where?”
One part of me was thrilled. Someone had foiled his plan. But another side of me was petrified. A vein of Trackman’s forehead thumped like a bass drum. Lincoln Sawyer stood beside him, calmly observing me with his cold, blue gaze. In the background the Ascendant warrior’s tattoos glowed and swirled.
“Boy, you did this,” he sputtered. “You give me that thing or I swear…I will make you feel pain you can hardly imagine.”
The black staff glowed. I lurched forward. The Ascendant stuck me to the bars of the cage. It felt like a heavy weight was rolling up and down my body, crushing my legs, then my pelvis, then my chest and head. I wished that I could just melt through the bars because they were pressing deep into my skin. Everyone yelled for the Ascendant to stop, but Trackman would not relent. My ears started to ring. And just when I thought I would black out, the Android saved me.
“Uh, sir, if I may,” said Sawyer, calmly, “I checked on the Harper Device just an hour ago, as you suggested, before I deployed with the away team. Everyone else on board was in the Flight Deck. The boy couldn’t have taken it.”
“Oh, yes he did. He’s a sneaky one. Look at him!” yelled Trackman.
“Sir, be reasonable. Only one person could have taken the Harper Device, which, by the way, we should continue using that nomenclature until the Ascendant Lord allows us to use its real name.”
