The Neptune Challenge

by Polly Holyoke

  :We just wanted to say we thought you guys did a great job,: Rohan tells me, his expression earnest. :Bottom line—we’d all go on a mission with your team in a heartbeat.:

  The Rangers want to know exactly how we fooled their sonar operators. Then they share stories of their own SPCs that didn’t go so well. During one, a team managed to sink Vival’s inflatable zode by mistake, and in another, a pair of lovesick killer whales blundered into the middle of a rescue drill. The Sea Rangers’ stories are funny, and I appreciate that Rohan and the others are trying to make us feel better about today, but I still feel like crying. I’m so scared we’ve lost our chance to go after Robry and Bria.

  When dinner’s over, the others head off to the rec cave to hang out. Tobin lingers with me by the entrance to the mess cave and studies me in his thoughtful way. :Today wasn’t your fault, you know. We all wanted you to use your telepathy and Penn’s disrupter.:

  :I know that, but I thought if I took the blame, they still might let the rest of you go. We know Bria and Robry, we know each other, and we’ve fought our way out of some really tight spots in the past.:

  :We do make a good team, and I don’t think we were wrong to use your telepathy or one of Penn’s inventions. Those are some of our strengths.:

  :I can’t believe Vival thinks we messed up today.:

  :Go talk to your dad. He didn’t look happy about what Vival said to us when we got back, and maybe you can get to him before he and the helper staff make their final decision. Bria and Robry could be running out of time.:

  :But Janni said we’re not supposed to go topside unless we’re invited.:

  Tobin sends me a rueful look. :Nere, the rest of us aren’t supposed to bother the helper staff on their off hours, but we don’t have family up there. You do.:

  :Maybe I should talk to him, and I’d like to see James.:

  Although Tobin’s one of my best friends, I don’t want to tell him how unsure I feel around my dad right now. As I swim through the cave entrance, though, I realize Tobin has made me feel a little better.

  I look back. :Hey, Tobin, thanks.:

  :Hey, you’re welcome.: He sends me a smile that lights up his face, but when it fades, I see the worry he’s trying to hide. At least I still have a father and a brother. Tobin’s parents are both dead, and his only sister is being held in a fortress full of dangerous mutates. And Tobin is the one trying to make me feel better.

  I reach out to Penn because the two of them are good friends. :Um, Penn, I think Tobin could use some company right now.:

  :Maybe we’ll go see the dolphins,: Penn replies promptly. :Being with Mali always seems to cheer him up.:

  I head for the shallow cave that leads to the buildings topside where the helper staff work and live, but Densil contacts me before I reach it.

  :I am back. the sub took the young ones to a huge building in the sea. I can show you where it is, but it is a bad place.:

  :Thank you so much. How are Robry and Bria?:

  :the young ones are very frightened and want to come home. do we go soon to get them back?:

  My eyes prickle with tears. I hate to think of Robry and Bria being scared. :We’d better go soon,: I say, :or Tobin and I are going after them ourselves.:

  :those people should not have taken them from our pod,: Densil says with great disapproval in his mental tone.

  More determined than ever to talk to my dad, I kick for the cave and climb the metal ladder bolted into the rock wall.

  Once I breathe out the last of the water in my lungs, I can smell pine trees and earth. I pause for a moment because I miss smells. My sense of taste has become sharper since my Neptune transformation. I can actually taste different conditions in seawater, but I don’t really smell them.

  At the top of the ladder, a metal walkway leads to a low wooden shed containing racks of neatly hung scuba gear. Beyond the shed, I come to a small cluster of cabins built into a hillside.

  My father told me that they tried to make sure no one from the Canadian government or the Western Collective could spot Safety Harbor from the water or air. The cabin rooftops are painted shades of green and gray to blend in with the surrounding rocks and trees. At night, the helper staff even uses blackout curtains.

  I stop by sickbay to talk to James, but the medic on duty tells me that he’s with my dad right now. As I walk quietly across the small clearing toward the tiny cabin that doubles as my dad’s office and bedroom, I hear someone playing guitar.

  I pause for a moment to listen. Live music is something else I rarely get to experience. The sea has its own music—the sound of dolphins whistling and sawing, the noisy crackle of shrimp, and the rattle of small pebbles shifted by currents. But the ocean is quieter than the surface world.

  I move on and tap at Dad’s door. There’s a fluttery sensation in my stomach. How can I be apprehensive about seeing my own father? But so much has happened in the past two years since he left us. As much as I love him, I can’t forget he’s the reason I hardly ever get to smell pine trees or hear live music anymore.

  The door opens, and my dad’s face lights up at the sight of me. An instant later, I’m engulfed in a warm hug. He’s always been a big hugger. Maybe he’s still trying to make up for my mother, Gillian, who wasn’t so good at hugs sometimes.

  “Nere, I’m so glad you’re here,” he says after he steps back from me. “Come in and have a seat.”

  He glances around his messy cabin and rakes a hand through his hair. I would take a seat, but I’m not sure where. James is sitting in the one clear space on the bed, and dive equipment, boxes of supplies, and computer gear are heaped everywhere else. I spot a framed picture of my mother on his cluttered desk and smile sadly. My mother was always the neat freak in our family. She never would have let his stuff get this disorganized.

  Dad sweeps some clothes off the end of his bed and motions to me to take a seat.

  “But I’ll get your bed all wet,” I protest, because my hair and seasuit are still dripping.

  “I’m not exactly worried about a little seawater around here.” My father smiles quizzically as he hands me a towel, and James laughs.

  I study my big brother. “You look a lot better,” I say as I towel my hair, and it’s true. He’s still far too thin, but his color is normal again. He’s wearing clean clothes, and his injured arm is in a sling. Someone even trimmed his wild, shaggy hair and beard.

  “I feel a lot better,” he admits, “except that there are too many people around here.” I almost tell him I feel the same about the underwater part of the colony. But then I notice the crease in his forehead, which makes him look like he has a headache.

  “I do have a headache,” he says, and I try not to jump. I’m still not used to my brother’s ability to hear everything I’m thinking. “I always get headaches when I’m around too many people for too long.”

  “We’ll move you out to the cabin tomorrow,” Dad says, “as long as you promise to take it easy.”

  “If you just get me out of here, I swear I’ll be a good boy,” James retorts, and I find myself grinning at him. I’ve missed my brother, sarcastic comments and all.

  “I’ve missed you, too, little sis,” he murmurs and makes space for me.

  After I sit on the foot of the bed, Dad drags his desk chair closer and sits across from us. I hardly ever get to see his whole face now, since I usually just see it through a scuba mask, and I’ve missed hearing his voice directly, instead of through an earpiece. He looks tired tonight. The light on his desk reveals strands of gray in his brown hair and wrinkles and frown lines he didn’t have two years ago. That’s the last time I saw him before my transformation.

  My parents faked his death in a sudden storm so he could come north and start building Safety Harbor for the hundreds of Neptune kids they hoped would find their way here. But my parents didn’t trust me with the truth, and a part of me is still furious at them both for that.

  “So, how are you feeling about today?” he asks
.

  “Pretty frustrated. I thought my team did a great job, but I guess Vival felt differently.”

  “For what it’s worth, I thought you and your friends did an excellent job, too, but the Sea Rangers is her program. Thanks to her military background, Vival’s brought order and discipline to the Sea Rangers, and to all of Safety Harbor, for that matter. I’m grateful for her contributions.”

  “But I’m not sure she’s right about all her Sea Ranger rules and regs.” I stand and pace around his tiny cabin. “In the sea, you have to use everything you’ve got to survive. Penn, and Robry, too, are so smart that they’re always going to come up with crazy ideas that don’t fit with Vival’s rules.” My voice thickens when I say Robry’s name. A part of me wants to go charging off this instant to get him back, no matter what my dad or Vival has to say about it.

  “So you think we’re getting a little too set in our ways here?”

  “I just don’t think my group should have gotten in trouble when we got the job done,” I say shortly and sit down again.

  “Much to my surprise, the kid’s got a point,” James drawls, and I make a face at him.

  “But you did break her rules in terms of what you could use during her test,” Dad counters, “and Vival’s got good reasons for instituting rules around here.” He leans back in his chair and sighs. “It was chaotic up here during the first six months after we started the colony. I had kids arriving every day, equipped with lethal weapons like spearguns and dive knives, and I didn’t have enough adults to supervise and train them properly. We lost a girl in the Gymnasium to a stray spear dart, and a boy died when a tidal current smashed him against a cliff.”

  He looks haunted by the memory of the kids he lost. “Since Vival took over the Sea Rangers and our survival training, we’ve had some kids hurt, but no one’s died, and I’m sure that’s thanks to her rules and regulations.”

  “So maybe you have to have some regs around here, and I’m sorry we broke them. But, Dad, we really need to go on this mission. My friends and I can do this better than anyone else because we know Bria and Robry, we work well as a team, and we can handle ourselves in a real fight.”

  “Nere, I hear what you’re saying, but there’s more to this mission than just rescuing your two friends. It’s going to be a hundred times more dangerous than you realize. I just got you back, and I don’t want you risking your life again. The three of us don’t have much family left.”

  I hear the sadness in his words, and I look past him to the picture of my smiling mother on his desk. She appears so young and carefree in that photo—not at all like the distant, self-contained scientist I remember. After my transformation, she died blocking a shot from a solar rifle meant for me. I look away from her picture, my eyes blurring with tears.

  Dad clears his throat. “I know how hard losing her must have been on you. She loved you so much, and she would have wanted you to know that.”

  Angrily, I swipe the tears away with my hand. I know she loved me, but sometimes I wonder how much I was an experiment to her and how much I was a daughter.

  “I don’t really want to talk about her right now,” I say, my voice high and tight.

  After a long, awkward moment, Dad changes the subject and starts asking me how I’m settling in. I follow his lead, but all I can really think about is whether or not he’s going to let me and my friends try to get Robry and Bria back. As we talk for a little while longer, I grow short of breath and my lungs feel dry and itchy.

  Finally, I rise to my feet. “I need to head back to the water now.”

  My father looks disappointed but stands at once. He checks his watch. “I have to meet with Vival and our helper staff in a few minutes anyway to make our final decisions about the rescue team. I promise I will share your concerns about all our rules here.”

  Then he pauses for a moment.

  “You know, I was just thinking how much I miss hearing your voice.” I guess that’s kind of like how much I miss seeing his face.

  As we look at each other, I bite my lip to keep from saying it. He’s the reason he doesn’t get to hear my voice much anymore, he and his Neptune Project.

  Maybe he can tell what I’m thinking because he’s the first to look away. I wonder if he’s ever going to say he’s sorry for what he and my mother did to me. I wonder if I’m ever going to completely forgive him.

  “I’m so glad you came,” he says instead as he opens the cabin door. “You’re welcome here any time.”

  “I—I wasn’t really sure about that. Janni made such a big deal about telling kids not to come up here and bug you guys.”

  “Yes, well, we had to get strict about enforcing that rule because all the girls coming to see Dav were driving us crazy.” He smiles. “But the rule certainly doesn’t apply to you.”

  “I’m glad to know that,” I say, and Dad gives me another big hug.

  “I’ll walk you back to the ladder,” James offers and gets to his feet. “I gotta get back to sickbay. Doc Iharu is about to come looking for me anyway.”

  We say good night to Dad and start across the clearing. “How are you really doing with so many people around?” I ask James.

  “I can’t wait to move out to that cabin,” he admits. “There are only twenty helpers, but twenty people sure can generate a lot of psychic noise.”

  “Could you like living up here?”

  “Yeah, I think I could. It’s so pretty and wild; this area reminds me of the Channel Islands. Dad wants to get a team doing research on ocean acidification, and I’d like to help them out.”

  “I’m glad. I was really hoping you’d stay.”

  “Only now you may be the one leaving me behind. I don’t like your going off to this Atlantea place any more than Dad does, but if they’d taken my friends, I’d feel the way you do.”

  “Thanks.” It means a lot that he understands.

  At the top of the ladder, James gives me an awkward hug. I’m panting hard now, and I’m so hot that I’m dying to plunge back into the cool sea.

  “Good luck tomorrow, little sis,” he says. “I hope they do choose you and your friends to go on the rescue mission.”

  I send him a grateful smile before I hurry down the ladder. At last the cold water washes over my legs, and then my body. I breathe in deeply, and the seawater rushes down into my dry lungs.

  As I swim back toward the dorm caves, I decide I’m glad I went to see my dad. Even though it’s complicated between us now, he was happy to see me and I was happy to see him. But I can’t help wondering about what he said concerning the mission.

  How could it possibly be a hundred times more dangerous than we expect?

  THE NEXT MORNING, my friends and I head to breakfast together. Everyone looks even more tense than yesterday. After we go through the food line, my dad and Vival enter the mess cave, and I promptly lose what little appetite I had.

  “We’re here to announce our choices for the rescue mission to Kuron’s fortress,” Dad says.

  Vival glances down at the computer pad in her hands. I hold my breath as I wait for her to read out the list. “Thom, Lena, Tobin, Penn, Kalli, Ree, Rohan, Janni, Seth, and Nere, please report to the briefing cave right after you’ve eaten,” she announces crisply.

  My friends and I smile and hug one another. But I can also see the nervousness in their smiles. Soon, we’ll hear exactly how my father and his helpers plan for us to sneak into Kuron’s Atlantea and bring Robry and Bria back home.

  We head straight to the briefing cave after breakfast. I’m not surprised to see that my dad, Vival, and several helpers are already there. Janni looks just as anxious as the rest of us.

  My father’s expression is serious as he begins to speak. “Rohan, Janni, and Seth, Vival has chosen you as candidates because you are some of our most responsible and experienced Sea Rangers.”

  Then he looks at my friends and me. “Nere, yesterday you and your team demonstrated your sea skills and resourcefulness. Before you com
mit to this mission, however, you need to know what you’re getting into.”

  I feel my father’s eyes on me as he speaks, and I can sense how much he doesn’t want me to be a part of this.

  “We wouldn’t let you go at all, but there’s more at stake here than two lives. It’s time we told you about the full scope and purpose of the Neptune Project.”

  I shift uneasily. I thought its purpose was pretty straightforward.

  “I know your Neptune mentors told you that we were trying to create a new species of human that could survive in the sea,” my father continues. “In case humankind is doomed on land, we hoped our species could flourish in the oceans that cover more than five-sixths of our world. But we had an even more vital goal when we devised the Project.”

  He pauses to look at each of us in turn. “We came up with a plan to save life on the entire planet from global warming.”

  Kalli and I exchange startled glances before I focus on his words again.

  “One scientist who joined the Project was a brilliant young geneticist named Idaine Campbell. You all know the upper levels of the sea are filled with tiny one-celled plant life called phytoplankton that create oxygen and capture carbon dioxide throughout their life cycle. Idaine devised a kind of supercharged phytoplankton she called ‘c-plankton’ that could absorb a hundred times more carbon dioxide. When this c-plankton dies, it sinks and takes with it to the ocean floor all the carbon dioxide molecules it has absorbed in its lifetime. We planned to establish Neptune colonies around the world to grow and spread this c-plankton throughout the seas.”

  So you want us to turn the oceans into a massive carbon sink? Kalli keys into the computer, her face alight with enthusiasm.

  “That’s exactly what we hope to do. If we can sow enough of this c-plankton in our oceans, we could significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and finally start cooling our planet.”

  So what does this c-plankton have to do with getting my sister back? Tobin keys in, his impatience obvious.