by LM. Preston
“Yeah, I’m ready,” Scott said as he put on his backpack.
“Damien, follow behind Dakota and me. Tacitus, stay here in the room and cover for us,” he instructed.
“I would really like to go also. I know the ship really well,” he said as he watched the other kids pack up.
“C’mon, man. It’s better to not have anyone left to snitch on us,” reasoned Damien.
“Right. Come on,” Aadi responded. They all left the room but went undetected as people were still running to and from different locations. They arrived two minutes to ten o’clock. Carter, Eirena, and Raiko waited near the elevator for them. Aadi looked around to make sure that there were no other kids around to notice them. Carter motioned for them to follow.
“Let’s take the hidden doorway to the left of the elevator. Make sure no one spots you. I have a card key to get us in, so follow close behind me, or the door may close before you get through,” he said as they walked toward the elevators. He waited until they were alone and waved his key in front of the wall. The wall had hundreds of tiny dim lights in the form of a doorway. They watched as Carter led the way by going through the wall to the other side. Carter appeared to be able walk through the wall, so they all quickly followed suit.
“Wow! How’d that happen? It looked like we walked through the wall,” said Raiko. Aadi looked around and touched the wall to see that it was solid.
“Well, they have a hologram of the wall so that when the door opens, you can go through it unnoticed,” said Carter. Then, he continued to walk down the dimly lit hallway.
“My, you do have connections. I have a new respect for you now, Carter,” said Eirena and poked him in the arm.
“Okay, follow me this way. We are going to the labs first. There is some weird stuff going on down there. Don’t touch anything. I don’t want us to get caught,” he said, puffing out his chest at Eirena’s compliment.
“Um, how do we know no one is there?” asked Scott. He glanced back at Aadi.
“I have an x-ray device that allows me to see through the wall. Also, they leave the labs at around eight at night. Seems like they are short on staff and need all staff available to get the campers secured,” Carter replied. He took a device out of his pocket as they stood in front of the door. He put the device behind his ear, and a red light came out of it the size of the door they had gone through before. They could see all the activity in the room on the other side. There was only one person in the lab, highlighted with a warm yellow and red glow.
“Okay, now. There is just one person in the lab. What now,” asked Dakota?
“Send Scott first, and then he can give us the signal to come,” said Aadi. Scott moved forward to the entrance of the lab. Carter waved a key over the pad, and Scott walked in.
“This is not a good idea. We should wait until she leaves,” said Damien in a strong, steady voice.
“No, Scott’s going in,” Aadi replied heavily and then moved between Scott and the rest of the kids. They tried to see around him, but he kept moving as he saw Scott talk to the man in the lab. The man turned around and left, and then Aadi moved out of the way.
“Follow carefully behind Carter, and I will watch the back before I come in,” he said while he watched them move forward through the entrance to the labs.
“Don’t stay out here too long,” Eirena said as she followed behind Damien.
Aadi watched them go in and whispered to this backpack. “Ebu, I want you to go in and check the place out. Also, check for surveillance devices and deactivate them. Don’t let anyone see you,” he said as he squatted on his knees and took his backpack off.
Ebu emerged as a box, untangled into full height, turned toward the hallway behind Aadi, and emitted a small sound.
“Hmm, funny. There is no surveillance down this hallway,” said Ebu.
“Okay, just go and secure the room for us,” Aadi replied and put on his backpack while he stood up. He watched Ebu crouch low and go forward, and then Aadi proceeded to follow him into the labs.
As he entered the lab, he saw the others crouched down as they walked around to separate parts of the lab. The lab was a huge square room with several rows or areas that seemed to hold lab specimens. Each row had a large screen and computer keyboard in front of its specimen area, and every wall had a specimen area except for one. The girls were poised over the touch keyboard typing furiously in search for information. Scott appeared to be keeping watch by looking up frequently for signs of someone entering. Aadi searched the room to take note of everyone’s location. He noticed the girls seemed to be looking intently at the screen, as though they were struggling to commit everything to memory. Dakota took his role of lookout seriously as he walked the perimeter around where the girls and Scott were working.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Aadi said and walked up beside them.
“We are hacking in to see what they study here. Hacking into systems is a hobby I have. My dad and I always did puzzles, and he and I would hack in to different mechanical systems to fix them. I just happen to like to take things a little further. Aha!” she said with one last stroke.
“A useful tool”, Scott said.
“Wow! Read this. ‘Subject one has DNA makeup of Sample A, Sample B, and Sample XY. Alpha,’” she said, then pointed to a picture of Aadi and the text beside his face. Suddenly, they heard a small crash, and all but Eirena and Raiko turned toward the sound in concern.
“What was that?” Aadi asked as his head turned toward the noise.
“I am okay. Everything is okay,” said Carter in the distance.
“You idiot! I ought to kick your butt right here. You are going to blow this!” Damien said, and he pointed his index finger into Carter’s head. Carter was on his knees, while he brushed the glass under a nearby table. Aadi’s eyes were drawn to the floating object in the tank across from Carter. The object looked like a deformed human with a misshapen eye with no pupil. Where another eye would have been, it was flat. Its body was multi-colored and seemed to change colors rapidly as it moved. The specimen blinked and jumped toward the glass, and Carter jumped back again.
“Get up!” Damien said to Carter and pulled him up by his collar.
“Hey, guys, come over here! This is some strange stuff,” Scott said. Aadi looked over to see Scott, Eirena, Raiko, and Dakota reading the screen in front of them. Tacitus came over to help Carter up as Damien told Tacitus and Carter to follow him to the other side of the lab. Aadi looked back at Tacitus as Tacitus stared at him and the others. He looked indecisive about which direction to go. Aadi said, “Tacitus, go keep an eye on those two! We don’t want them to give us away, do we?”
“No, we don’t,” Tacitus replied as he turned to follow Carter and Damien. Aadi had a feeling that he didn’t want Tacitus to see what he was about to see. His mother always told him to follow his gut, and today, he was going to do just that. He turned and went over to where Eirena stood.
“Look! Here are all of our names. It’s part of some experiment. Wait… I don’t see Tacitus’s or Carter’s name,” she said, her sentence cut off by a loud bang.
“Oh, my God! Move!” and they all looked around to see Carter, Damien, and Tacitus in a high-speed run toward them.
“Let’s get out of here now!” said Damien. He ran ahead of Carter with Tacitus in the rear.
“What is it?” screamed Aadi, then watched as Carter sped up and passed Damien and Tacitus. He was stunned, as he never would have expected Carter to be able to move so fast. Dakota didn’t hesitate. He took off and ran behind Damien.
“Now! Guards are coming!” said Damien as he yelled back. Aadi then spied Eirena, while the others took off behind Tacitus, and saw that she cleared the screen. Scott grabbed Raiko by the top of her shirt. She ran around Eirena and took off behind the boys. Raiko ran so fast that she was on Damien’s heels. She left Scott behind. He slowed down and yelled at Aadi, “Let’s get out of dodge, now, Aadi!”
“Ebu, let’s go,” Aadi s
aid, as Ebu shot past him in box form. Eirena grabbed his hand, and they ran through the door where they came in. Carter was waiting just outside the door as the others made it to the entrance near the elevator. Carter closed the door when Aadi came out. They ran down the hall and passed Tacitus, who seemed a bit disoriented. Aadi looked back at Tacitus, but Eirena dropped his hand and picked up speed to follow Carter out the door. They continued to run to the entrance near the elevator.
“Tacitus, hurry up!” Aadi called back as he kept running and turned around to make it through the elevator door.
They all ran out the door, past the elevators, down the corridor, and around the corner. Aadi looked back to see if Tacitus was behind him, but Tacitus had barely made it out of the elevator hall when he was snatched back by a guard dressed in a gray and black uniform.
Aadi didn’t remember seeing any guards before and wondered where this one came from. He figured he must have come through the labs. Aadi hesitated a moment, thinking he should go back to help Tacitus, but then decided against it and caught up to the others. The girls ran so fast that he lost sight of them completely. He figured they made it to their room undetected.
Aadi picked up speed and got to the room just as Scott closed the door. For a moment, he thought about using the telenex to see if Eirena and Raiko made it to their room, but his mom had told him to never tell anyone about this device. So, he figured he would just have to wait it out until the morning.
Hmm… maybe I should just put out a feeler to see what she is doing? Aadi wondered, and then put that thought away as he started to open his bedroom door. After he entered his room, he noticed everyone was there except Tacitus. They were all agitated with worried and angry expressions on their faces.
“Man, oh man. Did they get Tacitus?” asked Dakota, who was pacing the room in front of Aadi.
“Yeah, they got him. Why didn’t he keep up? Dang, he was acting like he wanted to get caught. He just sort of slowed down and got disoriented,” said Aadi. He walked around Dakota, who was pacing.
“Freaking dweeb. I knew we shouldn’t have taken him with us. How did he ever past the test to get on this ship? He acts like a retard sometimes,” said Damien, and then punched the top bunk and kicked the bedpost.
“Well, hopefully he won’t talk. My father finds out about this, and I am dead meat in so many ways,” said Carter. He sat down on the floor and hung his head. He then crossed his arms and laid his head on his hands. “I gotta get rid of this key,” Carter said.
“Where did you get it from in the first place?” asked Scott. He pushed against the top of Carter’s head.
“I got it from my dad when he volunteered to help make the key cards for the staff. It’s a card not assigned to anyone. I don’t know… I just don’t want to be the one caught with it,” Carter said and rubbed his arms while he rocked back and forth.
“Give it to Dakota. He seems to be a collector of keys and things,” Aadi said. Then he took the key from Carter’s shaking hand and gave it to Dakota.
“Yeah, I’ll keep it safe,” said Dakota. Then he put the key in his pocket as he leaned against Scott’s loft bed and crossed his leg and arms.
“Carter, get out now! Before, I decide I don’t like you anymore and I seriously hurt you,” said Damien and hit his fist on his bed.
“Yeah, I think that would be best. They may do a room check,” said Aadi.
“Fine. My room is right across the hall anyway,” Carter said. Then he opened the door and looked side to side. “The coast is clear. I’m out,” Carter said and left.
“Whew. So, what’s the plan?” said Dakota.
“The plan is to sit tight and come up with a good story,” said Aadi. He leaned on the bed and scratched the back of his head.
“Do you think they are interrogating Tacitus?” asked Scott, and then he hopped up onto Tacitus’s bed.
“I hope not. He doesn’t seem strong enough to keep his mouth shut and not sell us all out,” said Aadi.
“Okay, so what’s our story? Ideas, anyone,” said Dakota.
“I say we tell them that we left the gym late and went to the bathroom. While one of us was waiting for the elevator, that door in the wall opened up, and we went to check it out. Then we heard a noise and headed back out the door,” said Damien and scratched his chin.
“Why do we even have to admit to being the ones in the lab?” said Dakota.
Just then, the door opened, and Tacitus entered. They all looked over at him. Aadi waited for him to say something. Damien only scowled.
Tacitus stood there for a moment, as if he was thinking of what to say, then bent his head. “Um, they just asked me what I had been up to. I told them that I fell against the wall, and this door opened up. They asked me what I saw in the door, and I told them I was too scared to investigate and was running to my room when they grabbed me,” said Tacitus with his head held low.
“Hmph, likely story,” replied Damien, then looked Tacitus up and down. He mumbled to Dakota, “I don’t trust this fool.” Damien walked close to Tacitus and sniffed him, pushed at him, and walked back to the front of his bed and re-crossed his arms. Tacitus stood extremely still during Damien’s intimidation tactic.
They all seemed to relax a little.
“Well, it’s lights out for me. Now, I am definitely tired,” said Aadi. They all seemed to follow his lead and got dressed and into bed. Aadi took off his backpack, placed it under the bed, and tapped it to make sure Ebu would know it was open. He figured Ebu made it to the room before any of them and was just hiding out before he would crawl into the backpack.
The girls ran as hard as they could back to their room. Eirena opened the door and then slammed it shut. She yanked Raiko onto her bed and mouthed to her “I saw some weird crap in that database. Let’s put the blankets down, and I will tell you what I am freaked out about.” Raiko looked intently at Eirena as she read her lips and nodded. Eirena and Raiko worked together to create their fort, which would allow them to hide out on the bottom bunk.
After that night, all seemed calm at space camp. They never mentioned that night again, thinking that maybe, if they didn’t talk about it, the memory of it would disappear. Eirena and Raiko kept the knowledge about what they read in the database between the two of them, but they hadn’t completely stopped thinking about the pieces to the puzzle that they couldn’t figure out.
Chapter 12
The camp had a routine set where campers woke up, went to breakfast, then to the Simulation Class, where they simulated the piloting experience and defensive and offensive techniques in virtual environments. Aadi and the team were running a bit late for their lesson after breakfast.
“Today, Aadi, I am going to beat your sorry tail in the simulation race,” said Damien. He pushed Aadi’s shoulder on their way to Simulation Class.
“Every day you say that, and then I school your butt by beating you again and again. Give it up, Damien. You suck, and I don’t,” Aadi replied, looking back at Damien.
“Hey, cut it out, all right? Today is the day I wipe both of your butts on the floor,” said Carter. Everyone looked at him and laughed. Carter hadn’t won a simulation test yet.
“Naw, I am betting on Eirena and Raiko. We have to find away to get our respect back from those girls,” said Scott. He jogged up and smacked Carter on the back of his neck.
‘Oh, I have my respect. It’s the rest of you all that need to pay attention,” said Aadi with a crackled laugh.
“Hey, Tacitus, you seem to have learned a lot of my maneuvers, but you seem like you are holding back. This time, just go for it! We need to pull a rabbit out of the hat on these girls,” said Aadi.
“Hey, boys, plotting again? It’s not going to help, because we are just better than you at… well, um, at everything,” Eirena said and walked up alongside Aadi. Raiko was close behind Eirena and pushed passed Damien to get beside her.
Damien pushed her back as she passed. She looked back at him with a scowl while he smiled
and then tripped her.
“Eww, you are asking for it creep!” Raiko said to Damien and put her fist up to her eye.
“Yeah, right! Midget girl with the ugly hair and ghost skin. What are you going to do, say ‘boo’ and scare me to death?” Damien said cruelly.
“Do you have to be such a pain in our… beep!” they all said as they looked at Damien. It had become a group reply to Damien’s constantly surly nature that seemed to get worse as the days of camp continued.
“Hey, here we are. You know, today we find out who we pair up with for the excursions,” said Eirena.
“If there is a God in heaven, I will not - must not - get Carter or Tacitus. Please, oh please, give me Damien or Scott. Have mercy,” pleaded Dakota. He closed his eyes tightly, bent down on both knees, and held up two fists to his head.
“You better start praying harder,” said Scott as he passed by Dakota to smack him on the back of the head and raced to the simulation room. Dakota got up quickly to try to grab Scott’s shirt but just missed as Scott sidestepped him.
Chapter 13
The simulation area was a large black room which looked out to the stars with a large window horizontally in the front of the room with several smaller rooms within. The larger room was for class instruction, but the smaller simulation pod rooms were for team practice and personalized instruction. Their instructor, Mr. Faulkner, was usually always waiting for them, and today was no different.
“Hello, Cadets. Today, we will simulate a race and challenge between each of the partner teams formed today. This contest is to win the lead place in the Mars expedition. The lead driver is the one in control of the front of the ship and the steering. Remember, each craft is outfitted with a filadinum power supply that will never go out. It’s what powers the mother ship and is not an easy commodity. We have two days to prepare for our first excursion. Lastly, I know our team is the best trained and most motivated team here at camp. If you use all means necessary to take your opponents out of the game, I know we will win. Got that?” asked Mr. Faulkner with a nod.
