The Neptune Project

by Polly Holyoke

  Please don’t look under the control board. Please don’t look here.

  He whirls around—almost as if he heard my thoughts! My heart stops when he peers under the control board. I catch a glimpse of long shaggy hair and a bearded face.

  Taking a deep breath, I raise my speargun and try to force myself to pull the trigger.

  :Nere, don’t shoot! It’s me!:

  I gaze into his eyes, and I realize I know this stranger.

  :James?:

  I lower my speargun in disbelief. With his long hair and bushy beard, my big brother looks like some sort of wild castaway.

  :I thought I saw you on the beach last week, and I’ve been looking for you ever since. I’ve got to surface now. Can you come with me?:

  :Yes, but it would be safer if I came to see you after sunset,: I say, struggling to overcome my shock. James must have been the man we saw onshore after we buried Sara. :And I have to tell the others where I’m going.:

  I swim forward and give him a hug, even though I know James isn’t big on hugs. I’m just so happy to see him. He pats my shoulder awkwardly.

  :Are there other kids from the Neptune Project here?: he asks the instant I move away from him.

  :Yes.:

  :And the transformation worked on all of you?:

  :Yes.:

  I can’t tell if it’s pain or excitement I see in his eyes before he heads out of the wheelhouse and kicks swiftly toward the surface.

  :Meet me at the Kestrel at ten o’clock tonight,: he calls to me, and then the blue water swallows him.

  So the wooden vessel anchored nearby must be James’s beloved sailboat.

  :Nere, what’s going on?: Kyel and Dai ask me impatiently at the same time.

  :You can all come out now. The free diver is my brother, James.:

  I realize I’m grinning as our group swims up to the wheelhouse. I’m so glad James is alive.

  :Can we trust your brother?: Kyel asks the moment he sees me. :Is there any chance he’s going to report us to the Marine Guard?:

  :James hates the Western Collective as much as anyone. He used to talk about going off to join a group like yours. He finally ran away a year ago, but not to fight. We’d heard he was living out here on one of the Channel Islands, but no one’s seen him for months. I…I thought maybe he was dead.:

  :Why did he run away?:

  I feel my face heat up. I’m embarrassed that I don’t know what made my brother leave us. :I’m not sure. I know he and my mother had some awful arguments. He was always getting into trouble his last year at school. The only time he was happy was when he was off sailing in his Kestrel. That’s the boat that’s anchored near us now.:

  :Was he supposed to be a part of the Neptune Project, too?: Tobin asks, his green eyes shrewd.

  I remember what Gillian told me while I was going through the transformation. :I think maybe he was supposed to be. My mother said something about their making a mistake when they altered his genes.:

  :In our group, there was a kid who didn’t survive the transformation,: Penn says somberly. :After the scientists injected him with the virus, the gill filaments in his lungs didn’t function properly, and he suffocated because he couldn’t breathe either air or water.:

  I feel myself getting angry all over again at my parents and the secrets they kept. I don’t know if my mother tried to inject James with the virus and his transformation failed, or if somehow she knew beforehand that he wouldn’t be able to transform.

  :Kyel, I have to go to the surface and talk to him. I…I need to tell him about our mother.: I see him start to protest, so I add hastily, :Plus, James may have news of other Neptune kids and what’s going on back home.:

  After a long minute, Kyel nods. :All right. You can go tonight. Just make sure no one sees you while you talk with him.:

  As our meeting breaks up, I realize I can’t wait to see James, but it’s going to be so hard to tell him about our mother. I also keep wondering…what sort of mistake did my parents make when they tried to alter my brother’s genes?

  I LEAVE THE ALICANTE to talk to my brother right before ten o’clock. James is waiting for me in the water by the stern of the Kestrel. I hug him as soon as I surface, and he actually hugs me back.

  “So, what’s it like, breathing water and living in the sea?” he asks as we tread water side by side. His gray eyes are alight with excitement. His voice sounds rusty, like maybe he hasn’t used it in a long time. His face and arms are deeply tanned, and his long brown hair is sun-bleached. His face looks thinner than I remember, and the beard makes him look much older.

  “I’ve been so busy trying to stay alive, I haven’t had much time to think about it. So far, it’s mostly been hard and dangerous.”

  “I know it will get easier, and you have such amazing adventures ahead of you. Humans have barely begun to explore the depths of the sea. Think of all the places you can go now.”

  “James, there’s something I need to tell you, and you’re not making this any easier.”

  His smile fades. My throat starts to close up. Still, somehow I manage to blurt, “Gillian’s dead. She was killed helping Lena, Robry, and me get away.”

  James’s eyes widen in surprise, and then he bows his head. They didn’t always get along, but I know he loved her.

  “How did it happen?” he asks, and I tell him about our transformation, the soldiers who came, and how she stepped in front of solar fire to save me. All the while, James looks at the water and cries silently, and I cry with him.

  “That sounds like her. She was never afraid of anything,” James says, his voice gone tight and rough.

  “At least I can give you some good news. Dad’s still alive.”

  James looks up at me at last. “I already knew that,” he says, impatiently wiping his tears away.

  “You did?”

  “I found out when I came across a coded computer message he sent to her. That was one of the reasons Gillian and I argued so much. I thought she should have trusted both of us with the truth.”

  It takes me a moment to absorb his words. Then I explode. “I can’t believe you knew that Dad was alive and you didn’t tell me!”

  “Gillian convinced me it wouldn’t be safe for you to know. You’re my little sis. I couldn’t put you in danger.”

  “You still should have told me,” I tell him fiercely. “You know I cried my eyes out for weeks and weeks after we lost Dad.” I glare at him, but he doesn’t look away. Finally my curiosity gets the better of me. “Have you heard anything from him since?”

  “A trader I trust brought me a message from him three months ago. At that time, anyway, Dad was still alive.”

  Despite my anger at my father, I feel relieved. “So, I guess we really will have to try to get to his colony.”

  “It’s not going to be an easy voyage. You’ll have to cross a thousand miles of ocean.”

  “I know. I wish you could come with us.”

  “I do too, but the Kestrel might attract too much notice. I’d much rather swim under the waves with you, but that’s not going to happen now.” His expression turns bleak.

  “Why didn’t the transformation work for you?” I ask quietly.

  “Gene splicing isn’t an exact science, and Gillian and Dad were still learning when they worked on me. I’m like their flawed prototype. They managed to give me many of the traits I assume you have. My eyes see amazingly well underwater. My telepathy is strong enough to hear the thoughts of others, across short distances, anyway. But when Gillian injected me with the virus, the gill filaments in my lungs wouldn’t activate. I’m lucky that I can still breathe air.”

  “You’re right about that.” I tell him the story of the boy who suffocated when his lungs didn’t transform completely. “So the geneticists in the Project still made mistakes years after our parents worked on you.”

  James smiles crookedly. “So, little sis, you’re still trying to keep the peace and make me feel better. Some things never change.”
Then his smile fades. “You should probably know there’s something else that went wrong with me.”

  “What?” I ask, getting goose bumps from the seriousness of his tone.

  “It has to do with my telepathy. My range is pretty limited, but I can hear every thought in every mind near me. In fact, I can’t shut those thoughts out—at all. I don’t seem to have the natural ability to shield that most telepaths have, which keeps them from going insane.”

  I draw in a breath when I realize what he’s saying. “So when you’re around people…”

  “It gets incredibly painful after a while. That’s why I’m better off out here, where there’s almost no one to bombard me with their thoughts. There’s another twist our parents didn’t expect. Remember, Gillian was an incredibly powerful telepath. Somehow they magnified and mutated her abilities in me, and I became a controller.”

  I shudder at his words. During the Eugenics Wars, geneticists accidentally produced a handful of telepaths who could implant ideas and control thoughts in others. Those “controllers,” as they came to be known, wreaked havoc until the nations of the world had them all hunted down and killed.

  “That’s what Mom and I fought about. I kept doing stupid stuff like forcing my teachers to let me skip assignments. Mom was scared someone would figure out what I was doing.”

  “Are you sure you’re a controller?”

  James looks at me steadily, and my nose itches. Then, suddenly, I have to scratch it. I raise my hand, and the compulsion disappears.

  My mouth goes dry. “Was that you?”

  James just nods his head.

  “Don’t ever do that to me again.”

  “I swear I won’t, but now you see why I have to live out here on my own.”

  It would be so tempting to make people do things. “You could end up controlling our whole government, but…maybe you’d be a good leader.”

  “But we can’t be sure. I might become a power-hungry dictator,” he says with a twisted smile, “and no one could stop me. That’s why it’s just safer for everyone that I stay away from people.”

  “There’s got to be some way to switch off your telepathy. You shouldn’t have to live out here by yourself forever.” My eyes burn with tears.

  “Yeah, maybe if I was willing to let someone perform brain surgery on me, but I’m not that desperate. Believe me, Nere, I can think of a lot worse places to end up. I’ve always loved these islands.”

  “Are you still angry with our parents?”

  James sighs and shakes his head. “I was at first. But I know they did their best.”

  I stare at him in surprise. “You’re not mad that they tried to alter you in the first place?”

  “Nere, all I’ve ever wanted to do is live in the ocean,” he admits, his gray gaze tormented. “Now the best I can do is live on it and dive in it every day.”

  Why did I end up with the life my brother desperately wanted? “I’d trade places with you in a heartbeat if I could.”

  “You’re crazy.” James shakes his head. “Down there, you can live free of the Western Collective, the Marine Guard, and all the wars, famines, and diseases humans keep inflicting on themselves. You can build something better, and someday you might even find a way to help the sea or save the whole planet.”

  “Right now we’re having a hard enough time just staying alive.” Quickly I tell him everything that’s happened to us since we left land.

  “There’s been a Marine Guard vessel anchored at Diablo Cove for a week now,” he warns me.

  “We know. Mariah and the rest of the pod have been keeping an eye on it for us.”

  “How is the old girl?”

  “She’s still going strong, and very proud of Tisi, her latest calf. But she misses Gillian.”

  I’m starting to get short of breath. I’m about to tell James that I need to duck under the water when Dai’s mental shout breaks in on my thoughts.

  :NERE, Penn’s missing! And so is one of the mines.:

  :Someone’s got to stop him. If he sinks the Defender he’s going to bring every Marine Guard vessel within fifty miles down on us!:

  :I know. Ton and I are on our way, but if we don’t catch that sponge-brain, we’re going to need to leave the Channel Islands fast. Kyel wants you back down here right away.:

  :I’m coming. And Dai, be careful.:

  :There you go, worrying about me again.:

  :Don’t be so full of yourself. I just want someone else around who can tell a mako from a great white.:

  I break off the contact to tell James what’s happening. His eyes widen as I talk.

  “That idiot’s brought you and me a world of hurt,” James says angrily. “I need to get the Kestrel back to the cove where I usually hide her. I’m toast if I don’t make it there in time. The Marine Guard will seize and sink her in a heartbeat when they realize she’s not properly registered.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry, too. I don’t want to leave you, but the Kestrel is how I survive out here. Listen, Nere, we’ve got to talk more about the Neptune Project. I’m not sure Gillian told you everything. Before you go swimming off to find Dad, there’s more you need to know.”

  “Okay, I have to go now, but I promise that I’ll come back up here as soon as we’re ready to leave. And maybe this is all a false alarm.” Although in my heart, I know it isn’t.

  “Hurry. I can’t afford to lose more than a few minutes.”

  I want to give James another hug, but he’s already scrambling up the stern ladder on his sailboat. Fighting back tears, I dive under the water and head down to the Alicante. There, I find everyone is hurriedly packing up gear and getting ready to leave. I do the same, although I don’t have much to pack except my hammock.

  After I’m organized and ready to head up to see James again, Kyel calls me. I find him in the wheelhouse poring over charts. I’m surprised when he looks relieved to see me.

  :I wanted to ask your opinion on our best route out of these islands,: he says. :I read topo maps back in the mountains all the time, but I don’t want to risk our lives by misreading these.:

  Studying the charts, I realize it probably wasn’t easy for Kyel to admit he needed help. :We’re too apt to run into rescue vessels if we head directly west,: I tell him. :We’ll still have plenty of sea room to dodge Marine Guard ships if we head north and then west.:

  :North and west it is,: Kyel says with a nod. :On our way here from San Diego we averaged twenty miles a day. If your dolphins can find us good currents, I think we can count on covering thirty miles each travel day. Which means we should be able to reach your father’s colony in five weeks or so.:

  :If we don’t run into more trouble,: I say, thinking of all the dangers we may encounter between here and there.

  :If we don’t run into more trouble,: Kyel agrees soberly. :I’m more worried about what’s going to happen to us if Penn sinks that boat. For what it’s worth, I think you were right. There are too few of us to mount any sort of effective resistance against the Marine Guard. For now, I’ve decided that survival should be our primary objective.:

  :I’m glad to hear that,: I say awkwardly, and try not to stare at the red scar on his cheek. I wonder if Kyel will always talk and think like a guerrilla.

  I’m just turning away when Dai contacts me.

  :Penn’s gone and mined the ship,: he reports with disgust. :Ton and I almost caught him, but we were too late. The vessel is sinking now, and this moron and I are on our way back to the Alicante. Tell Kyel I’m willing to execute him for disobeying the group’s orders.:

  I think he’s kidding, but he’s furious enough with Penn that I can’t be sure. Quickly, I relay Dai’s news and offer to Kyel.

  :Tell Dai not to kill him,: Kyel tells me. :But we’ll have to decide what to do with Penn later if we can get away from here safely.:

  :We could head out now and let Dai and Penn catch up to us,: I suggest to Kyel after I relay his orders. My stomach clenches when
I think of the Marine Guard vessels that will probably be converging on Santa Cruz in a few hours.

  :No,: Kyel says firmly. :We’re safer if we travel in a single group, especially at night.:

  I want to argue with him, but I can tell from his set expression that his mind is made up. :We’ll have to use the dolphins carefully,: I say instead. :They could help us out of a tough spot, but they could also lead the Marine Guard straight to us.:

  :We’ll be careful, but Nere, I hope I don’t need to remind you that humans are more important than dolphins.:

  :Right,: I say, not bothering to hide my irritation as I leave the wheelhouse. That’s one thing Dai and Kyel do have in common they both believe that dolphins are expendable.

  I kick for the Kestrel, hoping I can catch my brother before he leaves. I try calling James telepathically while I swim, but I can’t reach him. When I surface, I see at once that the Kestrel is gone, and my heart sinks like an anchor. I know his boat is the only way he can survive out here. But while I watch the silver light from a quarter moon shimmer on the waves, still I wish I could have seen my big brother one more time.

  Blinking back my tears, I dive for the Alicante.

  Dai brings Penn to the wheelhouse a half hour later. We’re all waiting for them and ready to travel. When Kyel begins to speak, his mental tone is so cold, I’m very glad I’m not Penn.

  :Penn, you defied a decision made by this group and put us all in danger. You also stole one of the mines we may need to survive an attack by the Marine Guard.:

  :But you wanted to blow—:

  :We’ll decide what to do about you later,: Kyel says, cutting him off. :Everyone, we are going to have to swim hard and fast and hope we can get away from here before the Marine Guard finds us.:

  As Kyel turns and leaves the wheelhouse, I see Tobin give Bria a quick hug. She looks as pale and shaky as I feel. Our spearguns at the ready, we follow Kyel north with Mariah and half the pod swimming protectively around our group. The Alicante soon disappears behind us, swallowed by the deep, dark ocean.