The Neptune Challenge

by Polly Holyoke

  :It was all a setup, right from the start, wasn’t it?: Kalli says, shaking her head as she studies Dai. :I can’t believe we trusted you.:

  :We thought you were one of us. We fought together, and then you broke our trust. You are worse than a coyote,: Ree says and starts yelling at him in Spanish.

  :Dai didn’t have any choice,: Shadow interrupts with such quiet authority that Ree shuts up. Shadow addresses our whole group, but she’s looking at me. :Kuron never gives us any choices. You’ll learn that soon enough.: The hopeless look in her eyes fills me with dread.

  :Well, I hate to break up this party, but I’ve had enough fun for tonight,: Wasp declares with a yawn. :Sham, you can let Ice go. I’m pretty sure he won’t do anything stupid now. Whitey, you can let Robry loose, too.:

  I can’t help looking at Dai again. Sham lets go of his arms, but he still doesn’t make a move toward me.

  :Dai, don’t you have anything to say to us?: I ask him.

  He meets my gaze at last. His face is set, but his eyes are stormy.

  :Nere, I’m so sor—: he starts to say, but then it’s like his next word is cut off, muffled so completely that I can’t hear it at all.

  Wasp smiles at him. :I don’t think it’s a good idea for the two of you to talk right now.:

  Murder in his face, Dai starts for her. Looking unconcerned, Wasp raises her ungloved hand. She’s floating close enough to us that I can see the small, clear tentacles sprouting from her fingers. Sham grabs Dai’s arms again.

  :Ice, you already got stung by her once tonight,: Sham tells him. :She gets you another time and you’ll end up in the infirmary for sure.:

  :Shadow, you and Rad show our new friends to their quarters,: Wasp orders them, and sends us a final cold smile that makes it very clear she doesn’t feel the least bit friendly toward us.

  Rad starts out the door first, and Robry darts to my side. My team looks to me. After a moment, I nod. We were supposed to become prisoners. Now we are going to find out what that really entails in this horrible, cold place.

  I don’t look at Dai again. Instead, I square my shoulders and follow Rad through the door, and Tobin, Ree, Robry, and Kalli follow me.

  :Nice job you did on our door, by the way,: Rad says to me as he starts swimming down the corridor. :And you did a sweet job of blowing up those sharkheads, but I guess that means we’ll need to keep your packs overnight and make sure you don’t have anything else in them that goes bang.:

  I can’t think of anything to say in reply, but that doesn’t seem to faze Rad as he leads us through a maze of gray corridors. Shadow doesn’t say a word, but I’m very aware of her quiet presence as she follows behind us.

  :Are you okay?: I ask Robry as we swim along.

  :Yeah. Dai, Ocho, and Shadow looked out for Bria and me, but you gotta be really careful around Whitey, Mako, and Sham. And Wasp is nasty pretty much all of the time.:

  :I’m so sorry we didn’t get you out of here with Bria.:

  :I’m glad she got away,: Robry says, looking fierce. :This place was harder on her than it is on me. There’s so much primo tech around here, it’s amazing exploring it. But I’m sorry they caught you, too.:

  :I promise we’ll find a way to get us all out of here.: Until I learn which of these kids are the strongest telepaths, I decide not to risk telling Robry about the c-plankton yet.

  :I know this place is pretty scary, but it’s not all bad,: I overhear Rad say to Ree. :Our skimmers are way cool. Ocho and me’ll get them running again, and maybe we’ll take you on a ride tomorrow.:

  All he gets from Ree is a scathing look in reply. Tobin stays right beside me as we swim deeper and deeper into the fortress. I’m trying to keep track of the turns we’ve taken, but already I’m completely lost.

  :Here’s our first stop,: Rad announces. :Nere, this is where you’ll be staying.:

  He’s floating in front of a door with a big deadbolt above the handle. A plaque reads SLEEPING COMPARTMENT 255, which doesn’t exactly sound warm or welcoming.

  Rad pulls the door open and gestures to the room beyond. My stomach twists. I hope it’s not too small. If I go into a small space and I can’t get out, I panic. You were dumb enough to volunteer for this, remember?

  Knowing they’re all watching me, I lift my chin and swim forward into the room. It reminds me of Bria’s chamber, with a hammock slung in one corner and a large porthole looking out into the sea. I’m super relieved that I’ll be able to see outside.

  Rad follows me into the room and shows me how to lower and brighten the lights. Then he opens the door to a small bathroom and sea toilet. He even demonstrates how to activate the computer at a workstation built into one side of the room.

  :So, yeah, that’s about it, ’cept I’d better take your pack now,: Rad finishes awkwardly. Without a word, I hand it to him.

  :Thanks. Well, g’night, Nere,: he says and swims from the room. I look past him and meet the worried gazes of my friends, and then the door closes them off from me. With a thud, the bolt outside slides home.

  I’m now officially a prisoner.

  Taking a deep breath, I tell myself that the room isn’t too small. So what if I can’t get out? They’ll probably let me out in the morning. I hope.

  I swim to the window, trying to fight my uneasiness over being shut in. Thanks to the bright lights on the fortress supports, I can see forty feet out into the milky-green sea. A school of lingcod swims near the supports, attracted by the light, but there’s no sign of the dolphins.

  :Densil?:

  :we are near. you are well?:

  His mental touch makes me feel a little better. :I’m okay,: I reply, and it’s true. At least I didn’t get torn apart by shredders. But my thoughts are whirling like a waterspout. I tell him good night, and then strip off my travel fins and sink down into the hammock.

  I stare at the cold steel beams above my head, but in my mind all I can see is Dai back in that control room. It’s so unfair. He looked even more amazing than I remembered, with his long black hair caught back in braids, his strong cheekbones, and his dark eyes.

  Clearly those rough boys cared enough about Dai to keep him from being stung by Wasp again. No matter how much I wish it weren’t true, he really is one of them. Since he left us, I’d been hoping there’d been some terrible mistake, but now I know there wasn’t.

  Dai, how could you have lied to me? How could you have lied to all of us?

  I turn my face into the side of the hammock and burst into tears.

  I wake to someone pounding on the door. For a moment, I wonder why I’m lying in a hammock in a stark gray room with steel beams over my head instead of black cave rock. All at once, I remember where I am. Cold fear floods through me. I glance at the door and reach for my speargun. Then it hits me that I don’t have it anymore.

  The door bolt slides back. I slip from my hammock and glance frantically around. There’s nothing I can use as a weapon.

  The blond skinny girl pokes her head in my room.

  :Hi, I’m Sunny,: she says with a guarded smile. Her bright blue eyes and turned-up nose make her look a lot less frightening than Sham or Whitey, and my panic eases a little.

  :Hi,: I reply cautiously. :I’m Nere, but you probably know that already.:

  :Yeah. Ice told us all about you. Sorry to wake you up, but you wanna be on time for meals around here, and breakfast will be up in ten minutes.:

  :Okay,: I say. I don’t want to know, for the moment anyway, what happens to people who are late for meals.

  I follow Sunny out the door. Kalli and Robry are waiting in the corridor. I peer past them uneasily, searching up and down the hallway.

  :Um, do we need to worry about running into any shredders?: I ask as I swim after Sunny.

  :Nah, they only patrol the corridors after nine at night. You don’t want to be outside your room without permission then, or the sharkheads will tear you to pieces.:

  The matter-of-fact way she talks about the shredders creeps me
out. :Why didn’t we run into them when we were with you guys last night?:

  :Partitions are built into these corridors that can drop down and close the sharkheads out of certain areas. We contact the keeper staff and let them know where we’re going, and they keep the sharkheads away from us.:

  :I hope those keepers never make any mistakes,: Kalli says.

  :Once in a while they do, and then it gets interesting,: Sunny replies, and this time I sense anger in her.

  :Hey, your tattoo’s cool. Does it mean something?: I ask, looking at the sun design with spiraling lines on her right cheek. We need to find out all we can about our captors if we’re going to locate the c-plankton and escape from here.

  :I’ve always loved the sun and I’m bioluminescent,: Sunny replies and holds out her hand. It begins to glow so brightly, I have to squint to keep looking at it.

  :That’s so amazing,: Kalli says, and seconds later, the light Sunny’s generating winks out.

  :I’d rather be able to shock people like Rad can,: Sunny admits. :You’ll figure out pretty quickly that around here, it’s nice to be able to protect yourself.:

  The bleakness in her tone gives me another shiver. I realize she’s studying me just as carefully as I’m studying her.

  A few minutes later, Sunny leads us into a large room with a long oval table. :We call this room the mess hall,: she tells us. :You’ll see why in a few minutes.:

  I gulp when I see Whitey, Sham, and Mako horsing around at the far end of the room. Even as I watch, Sham slams Mako into a wall, but Mako doesn’t seem to mind too much. He just darts away and then jumps right back into the wild wrestling match.

  Sham and Whitey look even stronger and tougher than they did last night. Now I see Sham has the outline of a killer whale tattooed on his right cheek in the midst of curling lines that extend up to his hair. Whitey has the swirling outlines of dozens of triangular shark teeth and fins tattooed on his. I wonder if Whitey’s buzzed flattop is naturally that white, and if Sham dyed the dramatic light streaks in his black hair.

  :Does everybody eat at the same time?: I ask Sunny. I notice she’s staying well away from Whitey and the rest.

  :The bossman likes us to eat together at meals. He says it’s more civilized,: Sunny says with a shrug.

  :But there’s nothing civilized about the way they eat.: Shadow seems to appear out of nowhere again and jerks her head toward the boys.

  :How does she do that?: Kalli asks me in a private send. :I’d swear she wasn’t in this room a moment ago. Somehow her skin and her seasuit must change color.:

  Before I can answer Kalli, Ree appears with Rad beside her.

  :Dios save me from this idiot,: she fumes. :He swam into my room and woke me up with a shock from an electric eel.:

  :I thought you’d like Sparky,: Rad says, looking like a scolded puppy. :He’s just a little eel and he’s, like, one of the coolest pets we have around here.:

  :Don’t come in my room again unless I say so, and don’t you dare bring anything else alive, comprendes?:

  Rad nods quickly.

  A diver enters the room carrying a large Chinook salmon. From the big stream of bubbles leaving his regulator, I can tell he’s breathing hard as he swims carefully around Sham and Whitey. I reach out to touch the diver’s mind. He’s scared and angry, and he hates all of us.

  Startled, I try to look at his face through his scuba mask, but the diver’s too busy watching the three boys to glance our way. He barely has a chance to shove the salmon on the table before the boys tear the fish to pieces with their hands and teeth. The diver flashes back the way he came, his legs kicking swiftly.

  Sham and Whitey have long, pointed fingernails that remind me of the shredders’ claws. Whitey bites off a huge piece of salmon, shiny gray skin and all, and gulps it down in a single swallow just the way sharks do.

  :I think I just lost my appetite,: Kalli says faintly.

  I know I just lost mine.

  :YOU’LL GET used to them after a while,: Shadow says with a shrug, catching me staring at the feeding frenzy at the end of our breakfast table. :And in the meantime, welcome to our mess hall.:

  The diver returns carrying a box full of square white containers and places it on our end of the table.

  I look into his scuba mask as he backs away. He has a livid scar over his right eye and his face is tight with dislike as he glances at Kalli and me. The boss better get these new freaks collared up soon, or I’m quitting, he’s thinking bitterly.

  I bite my lip as the man swims away. He just looked at me the same way my old classmates did. Most of the kids at my school thought I was weird because of my weak eyes and lungs, and I hated the looks they gave me. And what did the man mean about the boss getting us “collared up” soon?

  After a moment, I follow Sunny’s example and pick up one of the white containers. It’s filled with a raw fillet of fish and a bowl of wakame mash that look a lot like a meal back at Safety Harbor. A pang of homesickness hits me.

  :I wish we were back in our own mess cave,: Kalli says, glancing at me across the table.

  :I do, too.: I didn’t think I’d been there long enough to miss it, but now I realize I felt at home at Safety Harbor. There the helper staff actually liked us, and I felt safe.

  I’ve just started in on the mash when Tobin appears in the doorway followed by Wasp. I’m relieved to see she’s wearing her gloves.

  :Are you all right?: I ask Tobin on a private send, even though I know Wasp is probably listening.

  :I’m okay. You?:

  :Okay.:

  Dai shows up last, followed by the boy with the round face and six arms. That guy looks sleepy and doesn’t say anything, but he does fist-bump Rad with all six of his hands. Dai has shadows under his eyes, and the welt on his cheek still appears sore and red. He doesn’t even look at me as he takes a place halfway down the table.

  :So, Ocho, what are we supposed to do with them today?: Rad asks the boy with six arms.

  I try not to stare, but it’s just so freaky when he uses two hands to open his breakfast and a third to scratch his ear.

  :The bossman wants them to take some computer tests in the school room,: Ocho replies. I try to focus on his face instead of his arms. I see he has a series of eights tattooed on his right cheek, and his short, light brown hair is so thick, it almost looks like he’s wearing a rug.

  :I got two more of the skimmers working again,: Rad says. :Maybe we could take the newbies outside later.:

  :Nope. The bossman’s orders were clear. They can’t leave the fortress unless they’re collared.:

  :What do you mean?: Tobin asks sharply.

  Shadow pulls down the neck of her seasuit. A black metal band about an inch wide circles her neck. :This is a collar, and, trust me, you don’t want to wear one,: she says, loathing in her tone.

  :Why not?: Kalli’s brave enough to ask.

  :Because they’re the main way the bossman punishes us,: Shadow replies resentfully.

  :How do they work?:

  :We get shocked every time we do something against the rules or something the bossman doesn’t like.: Sunny answers Kalli this time. :The bigger the infraction, the bigger the shock.:

  :But that’s incredibly cruel,: I protest.

  :Hey, everyone, you hear that?: Whitey smiles coldly, baring strange triangular teeth. :The Neptune princess here thinks we’re all incredibly cruel.:

  :No, I think these collars are cruel,: I shoot back. :Do you all have to wear them?:

  :Everyone but Ice,: Mako chimes in.

  I’m not going to ask a single question about Dai. I don’t even want to think about him right now, but Ocho says, :The bossman has his own ways of making Ice do what he wants.:

  It’s the first time Ocho’s looked at me directly. His eyes are as black and unblinking as Shadow’s, but I think I see a kindness in his gaze that reminds me of Tobin.

  :We’re not going to collar them,: Dai says. He doesn’t glance up from his food, but suddenl
y, all of Kuron’s kids are looking at him.

  :That isn’t fair. If we gotta wear ’em, they should have to wear them, too,: Sham blusters.

  :And the bossman is going to be furious if we don’t collar them.: Wasp almost seems happy at the prospect. I’m starting to wonder if this girl’s brain is wired wrong.

  :Fine.: Dai glances up from his food. :Tell him I said not to.:

  :On your head, bro,: Whitey says with a shrug.

  Nobody says much after that, and I’m puzzled by the tension in the room.

  :Dai?: I reach out to him on a private send, but instead of touching his mind, I encounter the same strange muffled emptiness I’m starting to recognize as Wasp’s telepathic barrier.

  When she sends me a triumphant smile, I know she’s blocking us. Seething, I stifle an urge to hit her.

  After breakfast, we follow Wasp to the “school room,” which is really just a big computer lab with more than thirty terminals. The plasma screens and workstations are all primo tech for sure.

  Wasp calls up some sort of testing program on our screens and says we have to work through several levels today. Kuron’s kids take their places at computer stations, too. Dai chooses one across the room, and Mako picks the one next to his.

  :So, what are you guys doing on the computers this morning?: I ask Rad because he’s next to me, and he seems a little less scary than some of the others.

  :The bossman wants us to develop our ‘natural intellectual gifts,’ as he calls them,: Rad replies readily.

  :Like you have any, sparkhead.: Ocho rolls his eyes at Rad.

  :Hey, at least I don’t have to spend an hour each week cutting my thirty fingernails,: Rad zings Ocho before he turns back to me. :We all studied math, English, and science until we reached a basic level together, and then about a year ago, we were allowed to start studying stuff we liked.:

  :Like what?:

  :Like Ocho, Shadow, and Ice are our resident brainiacs,: Rad replies, :and they study everything from philosophy to foreign languages and physics. Ice is nuts about deep-water marine biology, Shadow and Ocho love music, Sunny’s into art, and I really like engineering and electronics. Ocho and me are always building and inventing stuff.: