After a few meters, the hallway dead-ended into a larger passage that ran left and right. They shined their lights down each side.
“Which way?” Tali asked.
Lucas tried to picture the layout of the bazaar and the Navy base. When he’d been down here with Elena, Rahul, and Willem, they’d been coming back from the radar station on the south side. . . . he pointed down the hallway to their left. “That way.”
“Any particular reason?”
“I’ve got a hunch,” he said. “Let’s see where it ends up.”
They passed more empty rooms and a few closed doors. Tali paused briefly to inspect a torn poster that listed safety regulations like KEEP YOUR HELMET NEARBY AT ALL TIMES and OPEN FLAMES ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED. After about ten meters, they came out into a large circular area. A few tables were arranged at the center, surrounded by faded orange plastic chairs. At the far end of the room was a long counter and what looked like a kitchen area. Three hallways led off in different directions, all identical to the one they’d come in.
His hunch was getting stronger. This was all starting to feel familiar to him. He peered down the hallways and picked the center of the three. He jogged with long, loping strides, glancing only briefly into the rooms on either side of the passage. If he was right, then they just had a little farther to go.
Abruptly, the passage ended in a set of double doors. As soon as he pulled one of the doors open, he was greeted by a rush of cool, fresh air. Lucas grinned and looked around. He was standing in a large storage area filled with boxes, containers, and shelves. “This is it!”
“This is what?” Tali asked doubtfully, coming up behind him.
Lucas shone his light on a set of overlapping boot prints on the dusty floor, following them to a ladder at the other end of the room. “That goes out to the bazaar.”
He traced the boot prints back to a passageway on the opposite wall. “And that goes out to the surface.”
Tali looked at him skeptically. “You’ve been here before?”
“It’s a long story.”
She shook her head and went over to the ladder. “We’re going to have to find some other clothes before we get to the bazaar. With these uniforms on, we may as well have ‘arrest us’ painted on our backs.”
“We’re not going to the bazaar,” Lucas said. He nodded at the passage that led up to the airlock that he’d come through with Elena, Rahul, and Willem. “We’re going back to the base.”
“Back to the base? Are you kidding me? Why would we possibly want to do that?”
“Because we’re going to rescue the other cadets.”
Tali laughed harshly. “I don’t think any of our fellow cadets are going to trust us to rescue them from a stubbed toe. As far as they’re concerned, we’re best pals with the guys who took over our ship.”
Lucas remembered the looks that the cadets had given them. She was right—it was going to be hard to persuade any of the cadets to trust them. But they had to try.
“I guess this is where we find out whether Captain Sanchez’s lessons about leadership actually taught us anything,” he said.
She looked at him for a moment with an inscrutable expression, and then she sighed. “So even assuming we decided to try this stupid idea of yours—how are we going to get into the base? And if we do manage to find the other cadets, how are we going to get them all out?”
Lucas smiled. “Don’t worry,” he said. “For that, I’ve got a plan.”
19
“YOU’RE REALLY GOING to put one of those on?” Tali asked as Lucas opened up one of the storage containers marked EMERGENCY VACUUM SUITS. “They’re older than either of us.”
She unfolded one of the suits and squinted at it dubiously. It wasn’t much more than a flimsy-looking plastic bag with tube-shaped sections for arms and legs. At the top, a collar contained the air filter and electronics. “Even when they were new, these things were only rated for thirty minutes, tops.”
“It’ll only take us ten minutes to get to the base,” Lucas said. “And they’re light enough that we can carry enough for all the cadets.”
Tali opened up a box labeled MEDICAL SUPPLIES and found two medium-sized backpacks filled with bandages. They dumped the bags out onto the floor and packed the suits inside. It took some effort to cinch the bags again, but after a minute they managed to get them closed up.
He shone his flashlight around. “We need to find the power controls for this section so we can get through the airlock.”
After a few minutes of searching, they found a room with a small sign that read ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS. Inside was a rack with rows of fist-sized switches. Lucas wiped the dust from the labels and started trying to figure out what each one controlled, but Tali pushed him aside and smacked each of the switches upward. When she reached the end of the first row, the overhead lights flickered on.
They followed the boot prints back to the stairway that led to the airlock. Once the inner door was sealed, they pulled their helmets over their heads and sealed up their suits. A warning label on the collars said Only for Use in Vacuum, and Lucas could see why: the flimsy material puffed in and out as he breathed, making him feel as if he was continually about to suffocate. Tali wrinkled her nose.
“Ugh,” she said. “It tastes like I’m breathing plastic.”
To Lucas’s relief, the airlock was now fully powered, and it ran through its normal cycle without any problems. As the pressure dropped, the helmets ballooned outward to their full size. Lucas listened carefully for any sign of an air leak, but everything seemed to be fine. It was a very strange feeling, being in a vacuum without an air tank, radios, or any kind of instrument whatsoever.
Well, that wasn’t quite true. On the inside of the collar was a small green light marked Air Filter Capacity. No gauge or estimated time until his oxygen ran out: just that little light. But it was better than nothing.
The outer doors opened, and they walked out onto the surface. Lucas pointed in the direction of the naval base and Tali nodded. They jogged in long, bouncing strides over the surface and soon found themselves running along a small trail marked by the ruts of rover tires. Lucas alternated between scanning the horizon ahead of them and watching the air quality light on his collar. Was it his imagination, or was it already starting to turn yellow?
After almost ten minutes, Lucas finally saw the gray outline of the naval base. He followed the outer wall until he reached the airlock that he’d come through with Willem and the others on their mission to replace the radar station’s power unit. As soon as they got inside, he and Tali tore off their helmets and took deep breaths.
“Remind me not to do that again unless my life depends on it,” Tali said with a shudder.
Lucas declined to point out that their only way back to the colony was by the same way they’d just come. “So now all we have to do is find the rec room, break in, and then lead everyone back the way we came.”
“That’s it?” she asked.
“That’s it.”
“And here I was hoping you had some genius insight that was going to give us a chance of actually pulling it all off.” She sighed and pointed down the hall. “If we take the second corridor on the left, we’ll end up at the back entrance for the rec room. It’s about fifty meters. Not much to do except hurry and hope that there aren’t any Belters wandering around looking for the bathroom.”
“Got it,” he said. “Let’s go.”
They hid the emergency suits in the airlock and jogged carefully down the hallway, moving as quietly as they could. Tali stopped at the first intersection and glanced down both hallways. “Clear,” she whispered.
As they continued down the passage, Lucas started to wonder whether Tali was right. Maybe this entire plan was absolutely crazy. It was hard enough getting the two of them into the naval base. How were they going to manage to get the entire class of cadets out without anyone noticing?
They ran silently around the corner of the second intersection a
nd down the hall toward the rec room. Lucas waited for a hand on his shoulder or a shout that would give everything away. But nothing came.
Tali pointed at a wide set of doors on the left side of the hall. A small placard read REC ROOM. The doors were closed, and the panel on the wall nearby glowed a dull red. Tali jabbed the button with her thumb several times.
“No good,” she whispered. “They must have locked it off via the central computer.”
“How do we get it open?”
Tali thought for a moment. “This isn’t a prison. It’s not designed for security. If I can find a computer console, I can get the doors open.” She paused. “Probably.”
“How are we going to do that?” Lucas asked.
“We aren’t going to do anything,” she replied. “You’re going to stay here. Get inside as soon as the panel for the door resets. I’ll meet you and the other cadets back at the airlock.”
Lucas opened his mouth to protest, but she was already heading down the corridor. He crouched down and pressed himself into the small space between the door and the hallway. It was one thing sneaking into the base with Tali, but it was very different being here alone. The thought of being caught suddenly seemed much more real. If they found him, the best he could hope for was to be thrown in with the other cadets. At worst, they’d shoot him on sight.
After ten minutes he began to fidget. Where was Tali? It shouldn’t be taking her this long to find a console. Had she been captured? He was trying to decide whether he was better off waiting here or going out in search of his sister when he heard footsteps coming down the hall. He froze.
“. . . and the sooner the better,” Willis was saying. “This place is already starting to drive me crazy.”
“You spend ten months out of the year in a ship that’s barely big enough to turn around in,” Stockton said. “At least here you get hot food and showers.”
“Yeah, but that ship’s mine,” Willis replied. “I like it. Down here, I can’t stop thinking there’s a muskrat around every corner.”
They were only a few meters away. Lucas looked around, but there were no better hiding places than the one he was in. He was trapped. As soon as the Belters reached the doorway to the rec room, they would find him.
“You’ll have your rotation on one of the ships, just like everyone else,” Stockton said. “If you—”
Without any warning, the overhead lights flicked off, leaving the hallway in complete blackness. “Great,” Willis said. “Now what’s going on?”
Stockton swore. “How are we going to fight a war if we can’t even manage to keep the power on?”
After only a few seconds of darkness, the lights flickered back on. The panel on the wall next to the door flashed red for a few moments and then turned to green. Lucas pressed it quickly. The door opened and he tumbled inside. He smacked the inner panel with his hand and the door slid shut.
Lucas tensed, expecting that at any moment the door would open and Stockton would find him. After a few seconds he relaxed a little and took a deep breath. Apparently they hadn’t seen him.
He turned around and saw the rest of the Orpheus’s cadets watching him with expressions that ranged from shock to disbelief to complete confusion. He stood up and brushed himself off.
“Hi,” he said, and stopped. Somehow, after all his planning, he hadn’t put any thought into what he’d actually say when he found his classmates again.
Maria strode toward him with a furious expression, followed close behind by Oliver and Hanako. Lucas tried to back away, but she grabbed him and pushed him up against the wall with her forearm across his throat.
“You’ve got five seconds to convince me why I shouldn’t just kill you now.”
“I can explain!” Lucas started to say, but his voice was cut off as Maria pushed her forearm harder against his throat.
“Please do,” she said. “Start with explaining why you and Tali are walking around free when the rest of us are locked up in here.”
“We didn’t know—we didn’t mean to—”
Maria grabbed his face, squeezing his cheekbones with her fingers. “You mean you didn’t mean to let a dozen roaches with pulse weapons onto our ship? It just kind of happened?”
“No!” he gasped. “I mean, yes. We didn’t know what they were planning to do.”
“Let him go!” Rahul said, pushing his way through the crowd of cadets, with Elena just behind him.
“He’s a traitor!” Maria shouted.
“Maybe,” Elena said. “But he’s also our friend. He deserves a chance to explain himself.”
Maria pushed Lucas away and faced Elena with her arms folded. Despite the fact that Maria was three years older and ten kilos heavier, Elena refused to budge. “You really think you’re that tough?” Maria demanded.
“Stop!” Lucas said. “We don’t have time to fight. We have to get back to the bazaar.”
“Get back to the bazaar?”
“That’s why we’re here,” he said. “Tali and I are trying to rescue you.”
“So Tali is here too?” Oliver asked. “Where is she?”
“She unlocked the rec room door so I could get in here,” Lucas said. “She’s going to meet us at the airlock.”
“Don’t believe him!” Maria said to the others. “This is some kind of trick.”
“He’s here, isn’t he?” Oliver pointed out. “Why would he have come back if he’s not telling the truth?”
Hanako turned to Elena and Rahul. “You guys know him best,” she said. “What do you think?”
In response, Elena just pursed her lips. Rahul shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor silently. Lucas’s heart ached with a feeling that was getting all too familiar: that he’d betrayed the people he cared about. Maybe Tali was right—maybe it had been stupid to come here. Some mistakes were just impossible to fix.
“He lied to us,” Elena said finally. “Multiple times.”
Rahul nodded, still not looking at Lucas. “And he helped Tali plant a virus in the ship’s computer—or at least, he covered up what she did so nobody would know.”
Maria clenched her fists. “Like I said. He’s a traitor.”
“But I think that whatever he did, he was doing it for a good reason,” Elena said. “When he says he didn’t mean for this to happen, I believe him.”
“Yeah,” Rahul said quietly. “I believe him too.”
Lucas’s breath caught in his throat. Had he just heard that right?
“Are you kidding me?” Maria asked incredulously. “After everything he did?”
“I’m a truth-sayer,” Elena said. “I don’t lie. And when I choose to trust someone, then I trust them, even when they make mistakes.”
Oliver nodded. “I’ve screwed up enough times to recognize when someone is trying to fix something. And right now I don’t think we’re in a position to reject help, no matter who it comes from.”
“I agree,” Hanako said. “When this is all over, the two of them are going to have to answer a lot of questions. But it’ll be up to Captain Sanchez to decide what happens to them, not us. Till then, I think we have to trust them.”
“So,” Oliver said, turning back to Lucas. “What’s your plan?”
Lucas blinked and looked at the expectant faces surrounding him. His mind was still trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. Rahul and Elena still trusted him, even after everything that had happened? And except for Maria, the rest of the cadets were at least ready to listen to him—that was a start. Now all he had to do was persuade them that he could get them back to the bazaar safely. He cleared his throat.
“There’s an airlock not far from here. We’ve got emergency suits for everyone. Once we get outside, there’s a tunnel a few kilometers away that leads back into the old colony underneath the bazaar.”
“That’s it?” Hanako asked. “What do we do if we run into those miners?”
“We take them down,” Oliver said darkly. “This time, no
peaceful surrender. If we have to fight, we fight.”
The thought of unarmed cadets fighting adults with pulse weapons made Lucas queasy. Was this really what he’d gotten everyone into? Nervously he turned to the door and pushed on the manual release, but it didn’t open. He tried again, pressing his shoulder against the door to try to unstick it.
“Please don’t say it’s locked again,” Katya said.
Maria pushed Lucas out of the way and tried the door. “It’s locked, all right.”
“Brilliant,” Aaron muttered. “Nice rescue plan, Lucas.”
“Hey, at least he’s here,” Rahul said, glaring at him. “At least he’s trying.”
“What we need right now is more than just trying,” Maria said. She banged her palm against the door and stomped off. “We need a plan that will actually work!”
Lucas slumped down against the wall, staring at the locked door. Maria was right. He’d been a complete idiot. How had he not planned for this? He watched as the other cadets slowly dispersed, leaving him alone with Elena and Rahul. So much for being a leader, he thought.
“So I just want to be clear about something,” Elena said, folding her arms. “Which is that I still really want to punch you.”
“Got it,” Lucas said glumly. “Looks like you’ll have plenty of time.”
“Hey, you did a million things right just getting here,” Rahul said. “Now all we need to do is find a way to unlock that door.”
Willem, hovering nearby, cleared his throat. “Actually, I think I have a solution for that.”
The three of them turned to him in surprise. “You’re telling us you can unlock that door?” Elena asked.
Willem pointed at a tiny ventilation shaft in the ceiling. “If you can get me up there, I can get out to the hallway and flip that emergency evacuation alarm. You said it would open every door in the base, right?”
Lucas looked up at the ventilation duct. It was a tiny opening, but maybe Willem would be able to fit. Certainly nobody other than Willem was going to get through.
The Orpheus Plot Page 20
