He took a ragged breath. He needed to keep it together, keep his mind clear. “Besides, I work at NASA. Dev is in capable hands with my colleagues. I trust them.”
Unfortunately, this wasn’t entirely true anymore, and Mohan felt a deep stab of guilt.
“Dev was anxious at first. You know how he hates the dark. But he thought about what you told him this morning. Remember? About facing his fears?”
Mina Khatri studied her husband’s face. “Yes, I remember.”
“It’s just one night. Tomorrow is Saturday, so he’s not missing any school. His teachers agreed it was a valuable learning experience. He may even get extra credit.”
“I just worry about him, all alone.”
“He’s not alone. He’s with his friends from marching band. I met them today. A nice group. Kind, smart, resourceful kids. A little goofy, but that’s good for him. He needs to loosen up a little.”
Mina sighed. “Well, I am happy to hear he’s making some connections. I know this move has been difficult for him.” She looked up, her eyes sharp and clear. “But I want him home tomorrow.”
“Absolutely, dear.” Mohan gave her a peck on the cheek.
He shut the door to his office and exhaled a heavy breath. Then he began sorting through his files again, madly searching for evidence of a natural portal. One that he and Dr. Scopes could reach quickly, before it was too late.
44
STATION LIMINUS
“We’ve been at this for over an hour, and all we’ve made is a gigantic mess,” said Tessa miserably.
Virri peered over Dev’s shoulder, watching intently as he worked to rebuild the disassembled electronics. “You have to make a mess before you make a masterpiece,” Dev said, undeterred.
“More like a messterpiece,” said Maeve, holding up a frayed wire.
“Lucky for us, I won first place in the Junior Electrical Engineering Challenge back in San Francisco.” Dev wasn’t normally one to brag, but his nerd skills were coming in pretty handy. “I think we’re getting close. We just need to connect these last two circuits,” he said. He looked around. “But we don’t have the right tools. I need a soldering iron and some alligator clips, or something similar. See if you can find anything that might work.”
Isaiah searched under the sofa, and Lewis rummaged through the catering cart. Virri’s face lit up. She moved swiftly across the room, unscrewed a floor grate, and disappeared. A second later, her head popped back up. She waved.
“I think she wants us to follow her,” Dev said, hoping Virri might lead them to the tools they needed.
“Down there?” Tessa was not a fan of small, dark spaces. Especially ones that led into the deepest recesses of an unfamiliar space station.
“Um, guys, maybe Tessa and I should hang back?” Maeve suggested. “In case Duna comes to check on us, or give an update about the trisk.”
Tessa felt a surge of gratitude.
“Okay,” Dev said. “That makes sense. Hopefully we won’t be too long. We’ll just grab some supplies and dash back here.”
“Good luck,” Tessa said. “And be careful, okay?”
“What is there to be afraid of?” Lewis asked with a nervous laugh.
As soon as Virri and the boys were gone, Tessa turned to Maeve.
“So.” She rocked back on her heels.
“So,” replied Maeve. “What now?”
“We wait, I guess.”
There was a tension in the air, an awkwardness that Tessa needed to address. “Listen, I don’t know what happened between my sister and you, but I know she still cares about you. A lot.”
Maeve tried to keep her face stony and unreadable, but it was hard to put on a mask all the time. “She has a funny way of showing it.”
“What did happen? I mean, if you don’t want to talk about it, I get it …”
Maeve blinked. “She really didn’t tell you?”
Tessa shook her head. “Nope. She and I used to talk about everything, but we’ve sort of drifted since middle school started. Plus, she’s good at keeping secrets. She’s like a vault that way. Sometimes it makes me so frustrated, especially when I want her to spill juicy gossip.” Tessa walked over and sat on the sofa, sinking into its cushions. Maeve joined her, sitting a few feet away. “Twelve hours ago, I wanted to rip her head off. I guess that’s just how sisters are sometimes. Now, I’d do anything to see her. To hug her.” Tessa shrugged, refusing to let herself cry.
Maeve had never seen Tessa Hawthorne-Scott so vulnerable. She felt like maybe it was safe to open up to her. “Zoey ran into my mom and me at the pharmacy one day after school. My mom was making a scene, demanding more pills. The pharmacist said she’d maxed out her refills. My mom got … a little out of control. She’s usually not that bad in public. But she’s had a tough time since we lost the farm, and my stepdad left, and my bratty half sister moved in with us …”
“That sounds hard.”
“It was.” She paused, then corrected herself. “It is.”
“I’m sorry you’re dealing with all that.”
“Well, it’s not like I really have a choice, do I?” she said, feeling an ache in her chest. “Zoey’s the only one who really knew what was going on. I told her some stuff, but not everything. When we left the pharmacy that day, Mom lost it in the parking lot. She was screaming at me, like the whole thing was my fault. Zoey saw and she was really upset. I was so embarrassed.
“She said she was worried my mom might hurt me, or someone else. I told her I could handle it. Calling the cops just brings more attention to the problem, and makes Mom angrier. But Zoey wouldn’t listen to me. Since then, life at home has been even rougher than usual.
“I know Zoey was just trying to help, but I couldn’t help blame her a little. And when we both went out for drum major, and I got it over her, I figured it was the end of our friendship for good.” She sighed. “I’m not sure how to get back to a good place with her, to be honest.”
Tessa nodded. “She can be stubborn.”
“You got that right.”
“And she’s so righteous about everything,” Tessa said. “She gets that from our mom. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It comes from a good place, it’s just …”
They fell quiet, thinking.
“You should try talking to her,” they both said at the same time, then laughed.
“Seriously though,” Tessa said. “You shouldn’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for help. If you need it.”
“Thanks,” Maeve said softly.
“If my watch worked, I’d send Zo a message right now. She’d lose her mind if she knew you and I were, like, bonding,” Tessa said, smiling.
“Is that what we’re doing here?” Maeve asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Yeah.” Tessa nodded. “I think it is. And you know what? It’s nice.”
Maeve smiled, hugging her arms around herself, rubbing the fading bruises. Maybe Tessa was right. It was okay to ask for help now and then. Maybe she didn’t need to carry everything on her shoulders all the time.
45
STATION LIMINUS
Isaiah, Dev, and Lewis navigated the bowels of Station Liminus, following Virri through the dark passages until they arrived at the repairworks. From their view under a large floor grate, they could see that the room above them was filled with equipment, spare parts, and machinery. It was empty except for a lone watchman, who was eating a green sandwich and scrolling through his lynk instead of watching the surveillance camera footage projected on one wall.
“See that?” Dev whispered, pointing at a rack lined with tools and dense clusters of colored wire. “Everything we need is up there.”
“We’ll have to create a diversion, distract the watchman so that we can pop up and grab the supplies,” Isaiah said.
“Oh my gosh,” Lewis breathed. “Easiest prank ever.”
“ Really?” Isaiah and Dev asked skeptically.
“Yeah. I’ll crawl through a little farther and pop up in the ha
llway. Then … ding, dong, dash!”
“What if someone sees you?”
“It’s quiet now, seems like everyone in the Station is sleeping. I’ll knock on the door. Big guy will get up to answer it. In that time, you two grab everything we need and slip back under the floor. I’ll meet you back at the suite.”
“You really think you can dash that quick?”
Lewis looked insulted. “I’m a Wynner. And I’m on the track team, duh.”
“I thought you quit.”
“I did. But whatever. I’m still pretty fast. I got this. No worries, okay? This is a basic prank. Amateur hour.”
“Let’s hope so,” Isaiah said, not exactly sharing Lewis’s confidence.
Lewis climbed deeper into the underfloor duct until he found a grate leading up to the hallway. Virri carefully unscrewed the bolts holding it in place, then returned to the others.
In the chamber beneath the repairworks, Dev and Isaiah waited for the sound of Lewis’s knock. The room above them was filled with the faint ambient hum of motors buzzing and machines grinding away within the Station’s nearby core. Thankfully, these noises drowned out the sounds of Virri gently unscrewing the grate overhead.
“Where is he?” Isaiah hissed, listening for Lewis’s signal. “It shouldn’t be taking this long …”
“Any minute now,” Dev said, watching the door.
Then, right on cue, knock knock knock! The night watchman put down his sandwich and went to the door. He opened it.
“Wait a minute,” Isaiah whispered, grabbing Dev’s sleeve before he popped up like a gopher. “That’s not Lewis.”
Dev slunk back down, his heart beating wildly. “What? Who else could it be?”
“Look. It’s Shro.”
They stayed as still and silent as possible, their breath coming fast and shallow. They had a hunch that the general would not be pleased to find them “borrowing” tools and sneaking around in the middle of the night.
“What’s he doing?” Isaiah said quietly.
“I don’t know. He’s speaking in another language. I can’t understand.”
The watchman clomped across the room and adjusted one of the projections on the wall. He flicked through a reel of footage. Shro waved his hand. Barked some sort of order. The watchman paused the frame.
“That’s Kor,” Dev said. “That video was recorded in the holding cell earlier today. Look. We’re there, too.”
Shro leaned over and tapped the screen. He enlarged the image, zooming in on a blurry figure beside Tessa. The resolution wasn’t great, but Dev and Isaiah knew it was Virri. Shro’s face reddened to an even deeper shade. Beside them, Virri trembled. Dev turned to comfort her. Her eyes were wide and fearful. She slipped noiselessly away, disappearing into the dark labyrinthine ducts.
Dev wanted to call out for her, but they couldn’t risk getting caught. On a separate screen, they caught a glimpse of Lewis ducking down a hallway, heading away from the repair room. Luckily, Shro and the watchman were too busy inspecting the holding cell footage to notice the live feed.
“Where is he going?” Dev frowned. The whole plan was unraveling. In his frustration, Dev bumped his knee on the side of the narrow duct.
Shro bristled and cocked his head, his ears pricking. Dev and Isaiah froze, barely daring to breathe. Finally, Shro turned and strode back toward the door. The watchman followed. The two of them conversed in that unfamiliar language before Shro departed. In the split second they turned their backs, Dev reached up and grabbed whatever supplies were within arm’s reach, then ducked back down beneath the floor as fast as possible.
He pulled the grate back over his head and secured it just as the watchman returned to his seat. The man looked around the room, his eyes roving the walls and floors, then he shrugged and went back to eating his green sandwich and scrolling through his lynk.
Isaiah exhaled. “That was a close one.”
“Tell me about it. I don’t even know if I got the right stuff,” Dev said, shocked by his own bravery. He wasn’t one to act so impulsively, but something had compelled him to move. His fingers were still tingling with the thrill of it.
“You have got to be kidding me! Look,” Isaiah whispered, pointing to one of the surveillance monitors. On its screen they spotted Lewis rummaging around in a refreshment cart and stuffing something into his pockets. He jogged out of view.
“If he seriously ditched us for snacks, I’m gonna kill him,” Dev said, fuming.
They retraced their path and reemerged in the suite.
“You made it back alive!” Tessa cheered.
“Was there some doubt that that was going to occur?” Dev asked.
Tessa bit her lip. “No, but Virri came racing back here with panic in her eyes, so we worried something bad happened.”
“Virri? She’s here?”
Virri peeked out from her pearlescent shell and gave a small, frightened nod.
“Something really spooked her,” Tessa said.
“Shro, that’s what,” Isaiah said.
Maeve rushed over to them. “What? You ran into him? Did he catch you?”
“No, but we saw him. He was reviewing security camera footage from the holding cell. He seemed really curious and kind of upset about Virri. We couldn’t understand what he was saying, but maybe it has something to do with her breaking quarantine.”
“Um, guys, where’s Lewis?” Dev asked, placing the tools on the floor beside the partially constructed radio.
Tessa frowned. “What do you mean? He’s not with you?”
“He was supposed to create a diversion, but he disappeared. And then we caught him on camera nabbing a midnight bite from a refreshment cat,” Dev said, tinkering with the new tools and parts.
“Go figure!”
Maeve looked worried. “We’ve gotta go look for him. The Station is huge. He could be lost.”
Just then, there was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it,” Maeve said. She opened it, but no one was there. “What the—?” She craned her neck around the corner.
Then Lewis jumped out from behind the door. Maeve screamed.
“Got ya, suckers!” He wiggled obnoxiously. “Ding, dong, dash!”
“Grrr, where have you been?” Maeve snapped. “We were getting worried!”
Lewis clutched a hand to his chest. “Wait, was Maeve Greene worried about moi?”
“We’re a team, Wynner. Of course I was worried. Especially when you nearly jeopardize our plans to save the whole frickin’ world. Now get in here.” She pulled him inside.
He flopped onto the sofa. “Sorry, dudes. I had to abort the mission.”
“Yeah, we noticed,” Dev said, irritated that they hadn’t been able to get all the supplies they needed.
“I saw Shro coming down the hall and had to hide. But I did take a little pit stop on my way back to the room,” Lewis said, grinning mischievously. “I figured there had to be a kitchen on the Station since they cooked up that feast for us. I broke in and grabbed us some potatoes.”
“You did what? You heard what they did to that Oolg who stole seeds!” Dev and Lewis had never fought before, but Dev was furious. “You want to get us thrown in jail over potato chips, just because you have the munchies?” he yelled.
Lewis made a face. “Listen, I was in full stealth mode. No one saw me.”
“We saw you,” Dev said. “On camera actually.”
“Huh? Oh, well, whatever. I didn’t get caught, okay? And you won’t be mad for long, once you see these. Check ’em out.” He pulled two potatoes from his pockets. “Ta-da!”
Tessa stuck out her tongue. “You want us to eat raw potatoes?”
“No. Gross.” He shook his head. “A potato contains sugar, water, and acid. Certain types of metals—particularly zinc and copper—react with the potato, effectively becoming electrodes, one positive and the other negative. Electrons flow between the metals inside the potato, making a small electric current. Don’t you remember that experiment we did
in science class last year?”
The cadets stared at Lewis in disbelief.
“What?” he said, expecting a slightly more excited reaction. “Contrary to popular belief, I actually pay attention in class from time to time.”
“Dude, you are a genius.” Dev instantly forgave his friend, delivering a palm-smacking high five.
Maeve snorted. “Okay, let’s not get too carried away. But yes, Lewis, you did good. Now let’s see if those spuds actually work.”
Dev took the electrical wires they had stripped from the gaming system and attached them to the rudimentary transmission panel and oscillator board he’d built with the other materials. He flicked a metal tab, practicing the series of dits and dahs, testing out the Morse code message they had agreed to transmit back to Earth. He ran the wires through the potatoes and twisted the ends together to close the circuit. He tuned the makeshift capacitators.
“Okay. Ready to go,” Dev said, preparing the main switch. “Tessa, on my signal, flip the brass lever.”
“Got it,” she said.
“Three … two … one … Go.”
Nothing happened.
“It’s not working,” Dev grumbled. “Even with the potatoes.”
“Let’s try again,” Tessa said.
Dev reconnected the circuit and adjusted the oscillator, watching as bright green light flickered along the copper path, then died out. “The circuit’s messed up. The wiring must be wrong. I need to fuse the joint, I think, but I don’t have a soldering iron.”
Lewis leaned over. “We can’t give up that easily. We just need a little extra oomph.”
“Ah yes,” Maeve laughed. “That highly technical unit of measurement … the oomph.”
Virri came closer, intrigued by what they were doing. Dev rewired the radio again, realigning the knobs. He switched it on.
“Three … two … one …”
Virri closed her eyes, as if sensing the electrical current. Just as Tessa pulled the lever, Virri tapped a finger to the problematic wire. A spark shot out, crackling and flaring with fluorescence. The wires sizzled. The panel cleaved. A puff of smoke rose into the air. Dev coughed and waved a hand in front of his face. He looked down. The whole contraption was singed, cracked right down the middle.
Mission Multiverse Page 18
