Star Seekers

by Gloria Gage

  “I bet I know what happened,” Josh suggested. “I bet the crook dropped the drive on the floor, then when the office cleaner came in to vacuum, she bumped against the Cheetah and the drawer popped open. Then she saw the drive on the floor and got scared. So she picked it up and dropped it in the drawer, afraid she’d get in trouble.”

  “Maybe that’s what happened. I don’t have a better idea,” I admitted.

  Amy was ready to get to work. “Whatever is on that drive might explain everything. Maybe we can help. What do you know about Mr. Barnes—his family, or his pets? I’ve heard that most people use the names of their children or their pets as passwords.”

  "Well, I know Mr. Barnes has a son who’s grown, but I don’t know his name. I don’t know if he has a pet, but I know he loves Africa, but I tried that, even Cheetah, Elephant, Tiger, and Zebra.

  “Logically, it’s probably the name of a project they’re working on in the lab,” Josh suggested thoughtfully. My friends all know that McKenna Labs develops specialized robotic equipment for NASA. We all think my dad has a pretty amazing job.

  “Has your dad mentioned the names of any recent projects?”

  “Gosh, I don’t know,” I admitted.

  “C’mon, Logan. Think!” Amy encouraged. “I bet you know some of them. You and your dad spend a lot of time together. He must talk about his work sometimes.”

  “I remember some of the photos on the wall at the office had names on them. I guess maybe they’re project names…”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Josh said, getting excited. “Give me some names, and I’ll try them.” Josh pulled the keyboard over so he could type in some possible passwords.

  “Okay. I think some of them are names of constellations like Andromeda or Orion. And some are stars like Antares or Polaris, but there are millions of those. How would we ever guess the right one!”

  “We can try. Come on, Logan!” Chris urged.

  “How about Pegasus and Hercules? They’re constellations,” Amy offered.

  Josh tried each one we named with no luck. “Keep going,” he said. We tried the names of every star we could think of with no success. I was beginning to think we’d never find out what was on the drive.

  “We’ll never guess the right one,” Josh sighed, sounding as discouraged as I was. “It could be anything!”

  “Maybe…” I said, rubbing my head, straining to remember. “Some of the photos I saw on the office wall are mock-ups of landing vehicles. I can’t remember all of them, but I think there was one called Atlas Search, Moon-Seeker…or maybe Star-Seeker, something like that.”

  “Hey, that might be it. Look, it’s opening—I think it’s a game! It’s called Star Seekers!”

  “Wow!” Chris exclaimed. “That’s amazing!”

  “But what does a game have to do with McKenna Labs?” Amy asked. “Logan, are you sure you heard those guys right? Maybe they’re just hackers trying to steal ideas for a computer game?”

  I rubbed my forehead again trying to remember the exact words I heard the two men say. “Yeah, I know what I heard. They said it was a portal—I think they were spying on the lab all right. They said something about a treasure, and that anyone who caught them wouldn’t be around to tell about it. They mentioned something about another galaxy too, but I have no idea what they meant.”

  “Maybe this isn’t what they were looking for at all?” Amy offered shyly.

  “That’s possible,” I admitted. “Why don’t we try out the game and see where it takes us.”

  “Good idea,” Josh agreed.

  Chapter Four

  The game, called ‘Star Seekers’, opened with two tough-looking characters making their way down the street of a very futuristic-looking city. The men wore shiny black jumpsuits as they walked boldly down a city street, but the buildings appeared to be constructed of some highly reflective chrome-like metal in brilliant colors, one red, another bright blue. Each building towered above the street stretching up into the clouds, while sleek two-wheeled vehicles zipped past, flying about ten feet above the pavement.

  Josh looked confused. “I can’t figure out how you play it. The keyboard doesn’t seem to control the character’s movements—they’re just moving on their own.”

  “It’s more like a video than a game,” I said.

  As we watched, we noticed a few other people walking along the street. One man was standing on the corner just looking at some papers in his hand. The two men in jumpsuits approached and deliberately pushed him. “Get out of the way! Don’t you know better than to stand on our street?” The poor man cowered and mumbled an apology. But they weren’t satisfied. They laughed, and then one of them shoved him to the ground. “See that you stay out of our way from now on,” he said, shaking his fist at the poor man lying on the walkway almost shaking in fear.

  “Look!” I shouted, staring at one of the attackers. “Look at his arm!”

  “He has a tattoo,” Josh said. “Looks like a rat or something!”

  “Yeah—a rat! That’s the very same tattoo as the guy at Dad’s office. When I was hiding in Mr. Barnes’ bathroom, the man that reached past me—he had a tattoo exactly like that one! What do you think that means?”

  “That’s weird!” Josh said, “You know, I bet this game, or whatever it is, is what those guys were looking for.”

  Amy was getting freaked out. “Logan, you have to tell your dad. These guys may be real. And they look really bad. They might actually be planning to kill someone.”

  “I know…I guess I’ll have to talk to him. But I’ll probably be grounded forever!”

  Suddenly, Marty spoke up. “It’s Saturday, Logan. No school on Saturday.”

  “That’s right,” I told him. “We can play games all day today, right, buddy!”

  Marty had finished his puzzle, so I let him try the Star Seekers game. Actually, Marty is very good at computer games, and we all thought he might see something we were missing.

  The same two men were still roaming the streets of the city when, suddenly, the game seemed to bring them in much closer. In fact, the two ‘crooks’ appeared to be looking right at us through the computer screen.

  “This is creepy,” Amy said.

  “I think so too,” I said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were watching us, instead of the other way around. Marty, what do you think?”

  “It’s the ‘Rats Gang’,” Marty said calmly.

  “What was that?”

  “Here,” Marty pointed to the tallest building on the screen. It had a name printed in giant letters across the top, ‘STAR Inc.’."

  “That’s not so unusual,” Amy said.

  “I see it!” Chris said, getting excited. “Look at the mirrored reflection in the building across from it. STAR spelled backwards is RATS!”

  “Marty may be right. It could be a gang, and that building is somehow connected. And that’s why they have the rat tattoo on their arms.”

  Now we all began to get excited. I grabbed a tablet, and began to sketch the entire tattoo as I remembered it, while Josh offered suggestions. Amy and Chris were deep in a conversation about the RATS gang, and what they could be up to. We were all so excited that I guess we had ignored Marty and the computer for a minute, when we were startled by the sound of a loud ‘PING’. We all looked up quickly to see a blank PC screen flashing ‘Ctrl 5…Ctrl 5’ over and over again…

  And Marty was nowhere to be seen!

  Chapter Five

  “Marty?” I called out anxiously. “Hey, buddy, where’d you go?”

  “He can’t have just disappeared,” Chris said.

  “He would never leave without me,” I whispered.

  “Besides,” Josh declared, “He’d have to practically crawl over me to get to the door.”

  Amy was watching the screen as it still flashed ‘Ctrl 5’, and with hardly a thought, she pressed the keys ‘Control’ and ‘5’.

  “Look!” she screamed. We all turned to watch
in horror. The game was back on the screen, and there were the two crooks in their shiny jumpsuits, with a confused-looking Marty standing between them. All three of them appeared to be looking up—right at us.

  “Logan?” Marty asked in confusion.

  Then one of the men leaned forward and spoke, “Welcome to STAR Galaxy, Logan! You have something that belongs to us. And we want it back!”

  “You send my brother back right now! Whatever you want, you can have it. Just don’t hurt Marty!”

  The man speaking wore a wicked grin. “Bring us all six keys, by three o’clock today—if you want your brother back in one piece. And if you tell anyone else about this, you’ll never see the kid again!” With that, the screen instantly went dark.

  I felt as if I had been struck by lightning. My mouth dropped open. No! It can’t be. It’s some kind of weird nightmare. This can’t be real! I need to wake up… My heart was beating fast and hard, so hard it made my chest hurt.

  Then it really hit me. I’m responsible. Mom and Dad will never forgive me if anything bad happens to Marty. He’s ‘special’. He has to be protected. They trusted me to look out for my brother. Why did I ever touch that Cheetah? What have I done? It’s all my fault! Me and my stupid curiosity!

  The clubhouse was quiet. We were all so shocked that no one knew what to say. Finally, Josh said, “Did that really just happen? Did you see Marty too? Or, am I going nuts?”

  Amy began to cry. “Oh, poor Marty! Logan, we have to do something!”

  I closed my eyes as tightly as I could. I’m just having a nightmare, I thought. A million thoughts raced through my mind like fast-forward on our DVR. Maybe somewhere deep in my subconscious mind, I wanted my brother to disappear and I’ve willed him to be taken away. But no! That’s not true! Maybe he’s not like everyone else, but he’s my brother. He’s a part of me… I opened my eyes but Marty still wasn’t there. He’s really gone. I realized my friends were all staring at me. They couldn’t believe it either. How? How can this be? I felt like a heavy weight was crushing down on me.

  “This is all my fault,” I stammered at last. “I have to do something. I can’t let them hurt my brother! I have to get him back!”

  They all stared at me in disbelief. “What should we do?” Josh asked. “Maybe you should get your dad anyway. He’d know what to do. And what are those keys they were talking about?”

  “I have no idea,” I admitted at last. “But I have to do something. I’ve got to get Marty back. He’s my responsibility. And you heard what they said. We can’t risk telling anyone about this. We’ve got to figure out how to get me into the game.”

  “That sounds too dangerous,” Amy said. “Are you sure?”

  “I have to,” I said, realizing that I was the only one who could do this. I had to find a way to bring my brother home.

  “It must be something you press on the keyboard,” Josh suggested.

  “Maybe if you press ‘Control 5’ it sort of ‘takes’ you? I think we should try it…but I want to go with you,” Chris added quickly.

  “Me too,” Josh and Amy added at the same time.

  “Look, guys, I really appreciate you wanting to help. But this could be really bad. And we don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

  “Okay,” Josh agreed. “Then first let’s figure out how this thing works.”

  “All right,” I said. “This is not even possible, but it’s happening! First, we have to find a way to get into the game and back out again, right? Then we can talk about who goes and what we do when we get there. And we’ve got to hurry—right now Marty’s life depends on us!”

  I moved over in front of the computer. I had to open the game all over again. It took a couple of minutes to load, and then once again, the city of the future appeared with its sleek buildings and flying cars. This time, there were a few people moving about the streets, but no crooks to be seen.

  “This is good,” I said. “Maybe we can try getting in and out before we run into the ‘Rats’. Everybody move back a little and I’m going to press ‘Ctrl 5’ to see what happens.”

  “Logan, please be careful!” Amy said tearfully.

  I smiled at her, hoping it was a look of encouragement, and not the total panic I was feeling. “I will. Josh, if this works, let’s see if we can talk to each other. If not, give me five minutes, then press ‘Ctrl 5’ to try to get me back, okay?”

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “Yeah, I have to try. Okay? Here we go…” I took a deep breath, and pressed ‘Ctrl 5’, but nothing happened. “Well, now what?”

  Chris had an idea. “Why don’t you try some other numbers with Control?”

  “Okay, I’ll try ‘Ctrl 6’.” Still nothing happened. “Let’s go with ‘Ctrl 4’.”

  Once again, there was a loud PING, like a tightly wound spring releasing. Everything went black for a second. I think I blinked a couple of times, and then I was there—standing on the street of the strangest city I’d ever seen.

  Back in the Clubhouse, the screen was flashing ‘Ctrl 5, Ctrl 5, Ctrl 5’.

  Josh moved in front of the PC and pressed ‘Ctrl 5’ again. “Look, it worked! I can see you. Logan, can you hear me?”

  I was looking around in amazement. But at the sound of Josh’s voice, I looked up. “Yes! I can hear you. There’s…a sort of window floating above me, and I can see you through it. Let’s see if you can follow me if I move around.” I started moving down the street, and the window in the air seemed to follow right with me.

  “We’re still with you, Logan,” Josh said.

  Amy was getting anxious. “Come on back now, Logan!”

  “Yeah, you better,” Josh agreed.

  I couldn’t stop staring in amazement at the sleek vehicles flying by, at least ten feet above the street, and the buildings so tall their highest floors were shrouded in cloud. And most amazing, there were two suns side-by-side peeking through thin clouds high in the sky above me. There were people walking by, but they all seemed to ignore me, hurrying past as if I wasn’t there. I wonder if they can even see me. Deliberately, I stepped right in front of a man passing by, and said, “Hello.” The man looked me in the eye, and then pushed past me without a word. Strange, I thought. Yet, I was convinced that the man had seen me but was afraid to talk to me.

  “Logan?” Josh called again.

  “Okay! Yeah, I guess it’s time to bring me back.” Everything was so fascinating, I really wanted to stay, but I knew it would be safer to be sure we had an exit method before I explored any further.

  “I’m pressing ‘Ctrl 5’ now, Logan.”

  But nothing happened.

  Chapter Six

  “Okay, we’ll try ‘Ctrl 6’.” Still nothing!

  They tried several numbers, and when they pressed Ctrl 9, they heard the now familiar PING, and instantly, I was back in the clubhouse, practically in Josh’s lap.

  “Geesh! You’re squashing me,” Josh complained as we all struggled to move over in the small space, finally making room between the girls.

  “Wow—that was something!” Then, before I could stop them, the girls reached out, and hugged me, causing my neck to get all hot with embarrassment.

  Josh had a speech ready. “Listen, Logan. We all want to get Marty back, and you’re going to need all the help you can get with this gang. Why don’t you and I go back together? The girls can stay here to monitor the computer, or go for help if we need it.”

  “Wait a second!” Chris grabbed my arm. “You’re not going without me! We only need one person here. And Amy is better on the computer than me anyway.”

  Now everyone was talking at once, all pushing their ideas of the best plan. I broke in at last. “Hold it, guys! We don’t have time to argue. If anyone is going with me, you first have to agree on a few rules: First, we have to be very careful. We have to get my brother back safely, and us too! Marty is my responsibility, so while I really appreciate your help, it’s up to me to make the final decisions. Do you all
agree with this?”

  “Yeah…sure,” they all agreed.

  “Okay, then here’s the plan. Amy, you’re the best on the computer. We need you to be here. I’m sure you can help us find our way around. We don’t have any instructions for this weird game, so we’re counting on you to find ways to help us. And remember—we can’t get back without you! If we can’t find Marty and get him out by—say 4:00—then we come back, no matter what! And I’ll go get my dad. Sound okay with everyone?”

  They nodded grimly. We were all wondering for a minute if we could really do this.

  I thought about Marty again. He’s such a great kid. I’m supposed to protect him and I let him down. I can’t believe it! Maybe he’s not like everyone else. It’s hard for him to handle some of the little things that I do, without even thinking about them, like tying my shoes, and counting change at the ice cream store. But I truly love that he tries so hard.

  That’s because my brother, Martin…he’s two years younger than me, and he’s, well, Marty’s different. He has Autism. Most people don’t understand, but kids like Marty are usually pretty smart. His brain just works differently than ours. He knows where nearly every country in the world is on a map—even places like Ecuador or Madagascar. You’d see what a cool kid he is, if you got to know him.

  Having Marty for a brother has taught me a lot about disabilities. My friend, Jeff, has Muscular Dystrophy and uses a wheelchair to get around at school, but his mind works just like everyone else.

  It’s different with Marty, and sometimes, kids make fun of him. I wish they could understand and know Marty as I do. Oh, I get impatient too sometimes. It isn’t easy at all, but I know he’s a good kid and real smart about some things. The way I figure it, if a person’s legs don’t work like everyone else’s, you should still treat him the same, and include him in any of your activities where he can participate.

  It should work just the same for kids whose minds work differently. You can still be kind and thoughtful. But today—today, I really messed up. Well, I have to fix it. That’s all there is to it!