Before they headed out, Song-Ye went to a medical cabinet and withdrew oxygen masks, passing them to everyone. Dyl sniffed deeply again. He knew what ammonia smelled like from household cleaning chemicals, and high concentrations would have stung his eyes and burned his nose, but he knew not to argue with safety procedures.
Song-Ye, Dr. Romero, and he helped propel the patients through the Mess Module, past another node room, to the Equipment Module; the first emergency lifeboat was connected just outside. Dyl helped the Sat team members move forward. If they had been under normal gravity, several of them would have been too weak to stay on their feet.
The station lights were flickering everywhere with brownouts from the partially repaired solar-power arrays. Stationmaster Ansari’s voice came over the ISSC intercom. “Final evacuation in fifteen minutes. Everybody aboard the lifeboats. Use your oxygen masks in the meantime. Trust me, you don’t want to be left behind.”
On their way to the evacuation craft, a third air-quality alarm began to sound. Pi’s voice sounded surprised. “Strong ammonia concentrations detected in the observatory module—the highest recorded yet. Everyone, get to the lifeboats.”
When Dyl and his companions arrived with the patients, King floated in along with Security Chief Napali. The hatch to the old stripped-down lifeboat was already open, and Stationmaster Ansari remained outside the evacuation craft, her face grave, her eyes narrowed with concern. She ushered people inside. “We’ll have to crowd together. Pack yourselves in like sardines.”
Dr. Kloor was nowhere to be seen, nor was Mira, Captain Bronsky, Mr. Pi—or JJ. Dyl could only assume, and hope, that they were at the other lifeboat.
The timing of it all seemed much too convenient. This whole succession of catastrophes just didn’t seem like an accident to JJ.
She knew that in Zota’s dark version of the future, the Kylarn had taken over the ISSC, and she had to assume that was what they wanted here and now. But she had expected the aliens to do it by sheer force—not treachery.
The entire Sat team suffering from food poisoning at once, then the malfunction of the Eye in the Sky satellite even after they had checked all the systems so carefully. She couldn’t have done anything about the Kylarn scouts trying to take over the station, or the solar array damaged by their own flying bodies … but everything else made her suspicious. Now an ammonia leak? It was too much to swallow.
When the third air-quality alarm went off in the observatory module, she was convinced.
While it was possible the marauding aliens had caused damage as they swept through the station, JJ knew for a fact that neither Red Spot nor Brown Blob had made it all the way up to the astronomy module. Something, or someone, else must have caused that leak. And as she reviewed the crises in her mind, one after another, JJ realized there was one common factor.…
Even as the remaining crewmembers rushed past on their way to the second lifeboat, JJ headed in the other direction. Bronsky let out a gruff yell over his shoulder, dismayed to see that she wasn’t following. “Only ten minutes, Cadet Wren! We must get to the lifeboat.”
“I’ll be there, don’t worry,” she called back. She hadn’t seen Tony in some time.
But she wasn’t convinced of the emergency. JJ half-expected that this whole evacuation was a trick, and she intended to discover the truth before everyone abandoned Earth’s only space station and left it hanging there like ripe fruit for the aliens to pick. And someone seemed to be working with the Kylarn to make trouble for the ISSC.
Commander Zota had sent the Star Challengers into the future to train and to see what lay in store for the human race if her generation’s priorities didn’t change. Tony had shown up at the Challenger Center at the last minute, completely unprepared for this amazing adventure, but he had seen it all with his own eyes. No one could have any doubt the destructive Kylarn intended to enslave or exterminate all of humankind. It was so obvious! There was no gray area.
JJ raced hand-over-hand, grabbing a rung on the wall and launching herself forward so that she soared through one module, into a node room, and up into the next module. She touched the walls with her hands or feet, guiding herself along. JJ had no time to enjoy the grace of maneuvering without gravity. She had to hurry. The lifeboats were going to launch in only a few minutes—and she either had to be aboard, or else prevent the evacuation entirely.
Breathing hard, she grasped one more handhold and pushed herself up into the dedicated astronomy module. She was disappointed—but not surprised—when she saw who was hunched over the air-quality module tinkering with the sensors.
“I thought it would be you,” JJ said.
***
Twenty-Three
Caught red-handed, the culprit looked up from the air-sensor array, but Mira’s reaction was not at all what JJ expected to hear.
“Good, you can help me! I think I’ve already guaranteed the station evacuation, but we can’t leave anything to chance. We have to make sure Security Chief Napali can’t arrange to scuttle the ISSC before the lifeboats depart.”
JJ was taken aback, unable to believe what the other time-transplanted girl was suggesting. “Help you?” Though she didn’t understand what Mira was doing, or what her motives were, JJ knew she had to stop her.
While the other girl continued to sabotage the sensors in the observatory module, JJ kicked off from the wall and shot toward her like a battering ram. Colliding with Mira, she knocked her away from the air-quality monitor, and they both went tumbling and flailing through the air.
“What are you doing?” Mira yelped, struggling against JJ.
A gauze packet of tiny crystals left the other girl’s hand, sprinkling out to float like snowflakes in the air. JJ caught a sharp potent tang of ammonia. “Those are smelling salts!”
Mira’s kick caught JJ in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. The girls separated with the force of the blow, flying in opposite directions. Panting, the other girl explained, “Ammonium carbonate crystals—they release NH3 gas, the easiest way to trigger false emergency readings in the air sensors. Mentor Toowun said it would be a simple and elegant way to evacuate the ISSC without hurting the people or damaging any of the systems.”
“You want to give the station to the Kylarn?” JJ caught herself on a wall of the module. “You’re trying to surrender to the aliens?”
Mira seemed confused by JJ’s failure to support her. “Of course! You know what the Kylarn will do if we don’t give it over voluntarily. I was sure we all had the same mission. We’re here to save lives. Didn’t you come from the past? Aren’t you preparing, in your own time, for the arrival of the Kylarn?”
“Yes, we’re preparing—preparing defenses against them to save the human race. Not to surrender! You’re a … a collaborator with the aliens! You’re on their side!”
“Not at all. I’m on the side of surviving. I don’t like the Kylarn any more than you do, but it’s the only way to save humanity.” Mira’s hazel eyes were bitter. “Face reality—human science is too far behind, and we can never match Kylarn weapons and technology. Mentor Toowun showed me what will happen if we try to resist. He escaped from that horrible future—he’s seen it with his own eyes.
“Humans are going to lose either way, but if we fight back, we only bring more destruction on ourselves. We have to show the Kylarn that we’re no threat to them and hope for the best. If humans try to defend against the invasion, they will surely fail and invite retaliation and total disaster.” She seemed absolutely sincere.
“But millions will die if we just surrender! How can you allow that?”
“Millions, yes,” Mira said. “But if we don’t do it, billions will be massacred—a hundred times as many people. I’m trying to save whole populations. Mentor Toowun came from the future where billions did die, where all of humanity was crushed and broken. I intend to stop that from happening.”
A thought occurred to JJ. “Wait—you were working on the final checks for the Eye in the Sky sa
tellite. You sabotaged it, didn’t you?”
“Of course. If that spy satellite had been functional, Earth would have been able to launch defenses, and that would have angered the Kylarn. After I added the toxin to the sat team’s meals, I thought that the Salmonella would prevent them from completing work on the Eye in the Sky, but you and King ruined that solution. I had to take backup measures again and again. But now I can hand over an empty space station to the Kylarn, and they’ll have no need to punish us. It’s the best possible solution.”
JJ didn’t know whether to despise or pity the girl. “That’s ridiculous. Those creatures don’t think the same way we do. Helping them won’t work.”
Mira shook her head. “Fighting them won’t work. If your Commander Zota came from the same future, didn’t he say the same thing?”
“Commander Zota believes the disaster can be prevented—if we get our act together and boost Earth’s interest in science a generation or two ahead of time. That’s why my friends and I have to change the future and fight the Kylarn. We need to be ready.”
“You’re a naive little girl,” Mira said in disgust. “I can see that I’ll have to do this all by myself.”
Stationmaster Ansari’s voice came over the speakers. “Evacuation lifeboats launch in two minutes! Everyone must be aboard. Cadets Wren, Mira, and Vasquez, you must be aboard—now! There is no time to delay.”
Red-faced and panting, Tony zoomed into the observatory module. “There you are! What do you two think you’re doing? We have to go—now!”
“No, we don’t—it’s a false alarm,” JJ said. “Mira’s behind it all.”
Tony gawked at the two, then sniffed the air. “Are you crazy? I can smell the ammonia! It must be reaching lethal levels. Come on!”
“It’s just smelling salts—she sabotaged the air sensors,” JJ said. “She’s trying to hand the station over to the Kylarn!”
“Departure in one minute,” Ansari’s voice said over the speakers. “I hope you three have an alternative way home, just like at Moonbase Magellan.”
JJ pushed herself to the intercom and activated it. “Stationmaster, cancel the evacuation! It was a false alarm—sabotage! And we’ve caught the traitor. It’s Mira.”
Ansari’s voice sounded baffled. “Cancel the evacuation? Cadet Wren, please repeat. Explain yourself.”
Tony drifted toward Mira, his expression filled with questions. Before JJ could answer at the intercom, the other girl launched herself off one of the rungs and dove toward the hatch leading out of the observatory module.
Tony moved to intercept her, and they collided in mid-air. He grappled with her, but Mira fought, poked, and scratched like a panicky cat that didn’t want to go to the vet. Tony held on, swinging the other girl around, but Mira spread her palm flat and smacked Tony directly on the nose. A spurt of blood came from his nostrils and he let go. Mira planted her feet against his chest and kicked off, driving Tony backward into JJ, then Mira shot through the hatch opening and into the passageway.
Globular red drops drifted in the air, oscillating crimson spheres from Tony’s bloody nose. He pressed his sleeve against his face in an attempt to stop the bleeding. “She’s getting away!” he shouted.
Though furious, JJ shook her head. “Don’t worry, we’ll catch her. Where can she go?”
***
Twenty-Four
Now that her plot was exposed, Mira fled, and the station intercom became a shouting match of confusion and disbelief from the ISSC crewmembers who had been about to launch the lifeboats. Security Chief Napali called for explanations.
Ansari demanded silence from everyone. “I very much want to believe what you’re saying, Cadet Wren, but I saw the readings myself, and Pi verified them. Ammonia concentrations are well above maximum. That has to mean a coolant leak.”
Tony hung at the hatch, ready to go after Mira, even as he tried to stop his nosebleed, but JJ’s priority was to call off the evacuation, no matter what. “Ammonia leaks in three different modules at once, Stationmaster? It was a trick—Mira did it.”
“How did she cause the false readings?” Pi asked.
“She dumped old-fashioned smelling salts into the air detectors so that they indicated a lethal ammonia reading. Believe me, it’s not a real leak! There’s no danger. I beg you—cancel the evacuation. Mira’s on the loose.”
“We’ll find her,” Napali said. “Let’s break into teams.”
“Not so fast. I haven’t called off the evacuation yet,” Ansari said. “I need proof.”
“It makes no sense. Why would the girl do that?” asked Bronsky.
Kimbrell’s voice broke in. “We worked with her on the satellite. I thought you were all trying to help.”
“I thought she was with your group!” Lifchez said.
“So did we,” JJ said. “But we were wrong. She wants the human race to surrender to the aliens. She sabotaged the Eye in the Sky so that Earth couldn’t observe the Kylarn activities. She also put something in the Sat team’s meals to make them all sick and get them out of the way.”
“We were all eating with her at the time,” Rodgers pointed out.
“We should round up that girl if for no other reason than that,” said Kontis.
JJ was exasperated. “Stationmaster, I’m in the observatory module right now, the one with the highest ammonia concentration in the air sensors—there is nothing wrong. The air is perfectly fine!”
“I can vouch for that,” Tony said, his voice sounding nasal as he pinched the top of his nose. “I’m here, too.”
“That’s enough for me,” Ansari decided. “I hereby cancel the evacuation. Everyone, stand down.”
“Stand down? This is no time for a coffee break,” Security Chief Napali said. “We’ve got to stop that girl.”
“We know Mira’s listening, Stationmaster,” JJ said. “But we can come after her from all directions.”
“I’ll post a guard at each lifeboat,” Ansari ordered. “I won’t take the chance that she’ll slip past us and evacuate on her own. Everybody fan out. Go in pairs if you can. Clear and seal each module, and report.”
JJ and Tony warily left the observatory, heading in the direction Mira had fled. When they entered Hab 1, they took the time to open each personal sleep station, just to make sure the girl hadn’t hidden in one of them.
“Too bad we can’t use a fire extinguisher on her, like we did on those ugly alien critters,” Tony grumbled.
“I wouldn’t mind giving her a swift kick just for good measure,” JJ said. “Mira has been siding against Earth, trying to make us lose the war!”
“Equipment module clear,” King announced, and then he added in a plaintive tone, “Mira, if you can hear me, please surrender. I know you can hear me. I … thought we were friends.”
Silence hung for a few seconds on the intercom. JJ wasn’t surprised that the girl didn’t answer, and so she said, “Maybe she thought we were friends, King. Mira assumed we were on the same side. But she wants to cripple us, leave Earth helpless rather than strong.”
“But why would anyone want that?” Dyl sounded incredulous.
“She can explain that after we have her in custody,” Stationmaster Ansari said. “We have to find her first.”
“Greenhouse module clear,” Song-Ye’s voice said.
“Mess Module clear,” added Dr. Kloor.
“Kimbrell and I are staying in the Equipment Module to make sure she doesn’t try to get a suit and go outside,” Lieutenant Kontis said. “We don’t know how far this conspiracy goes. If she’s working for the aliens, maybe she found some way to arrange a pickup.”
“Maybe she’s going to fly off in the Kylarn ship!” JJ added, her alarm growing. “Better get there and make sure—”
“I already thought of that,” Napali’s voice replied. “I am at the ship, and I guarantee you she’s not getting anywhere near it.”
“Biosciences and Fitness are clear,” reported d’Almeida and Pi in unison.
“No activity at Lifeboat One,” Bronsky said.
“Lifeboat Two is clear,” said Rodgers.
JJ and Tony paused to study a station diagram, noting where they and the rest of the crew had searched. JJ and Tony looked at each other. By process of elimination, the answer was clear. “It’s got to be the CMS module.”
The two pushed forward, swimming through the air like dolphins. They shot through the node room at the same time that King and Ansari converged from another module, followed shortly by Dylan and Song-Ye. Up ahead in Chemistry and Materials Sciences, JJ caught a glimpse of the other girl pulling the mesh off of chemical storage shelves, ransacking the squirt bottles and reading the labels.
“Mira, stop! There’s no place to go!” King called out.
The girl whirled in the air, catching herself. She turned to glare at them, looking disappointed—and trapped. A small device with blinking lights was attached to Mira’s collar, but JJ didn’t recognize it. As the others converged, Mira said, “I’m not worried—I have a ride home. All I need is a smokescreen.” She turned, holding a squeeze bottle in each hand like two pistols. Pointing the nozzles at them, she squirted pulsating pools of liquid into the air, one chemical after the other. When the floating liquids collided and mixed in zero-G, they reacted in a boiling thundercloud of fumes and smoke that rapidly filled the CMS Module.
“Looks like Mira studied her chemistry,” Dyl said.
“We can’t know if that mixture is poisonous or just a nuisance,” Ansari said. “We need the air exchangers.”
JJ said, “We’ve still got our oxygen masks from the ammonia alert.” She fitted a mask over her face and eyes, while Tony did the same.
During the surprise of the smokescreen, Mira bolted toward the node room. At the far end of the CMS module, the hatch to the connecting chamber sealed shut.
“I have an override,” Ansari said. “I can lock her in there, just like we trapped the Kylarn. But what is that device she was wearing?”
Space Station Crisis: Star Challengers Book 2 Page 13
