by Holly Hook
"It's Matt. I have a friend who helped me on the scouting mission."
Fabric rustled as someone moved in the dark ahead. "We can't be too careful," the man said. A shadowy form walked toward us. A skinny, middle-aged man checked me over. He was just as green as the others, with locks of gray hair spilling around his thick eyebrows. "Earther, huh?" He laughed as if I were the butt of some joke.
I crossed my arms again. Mom could tell me to remember who I was all she wanted. She wasn't here, dealing with this.
Here, we had no respect.
"I just came here," I said, quiet and sheepish.
"I can see," the man said. "The nanobots haven't taken effect yet. They will, soon." He eyed my fake bandage.
"Leave Tess alone," Matt said. "You remember how I was when I first got here."
The man turned his attention to Matt. "You still are that way, always yearning sunward."
"You sound like an Identity guy. Are you sure you aren't one?" Matt asked. He asked that question like he had a million times before.
"Oh, I'm sure," the man said with a smile. "I want to get back to Earth as much as you do. You have to stand back and appreciate the irony of this situation sometimes."
Matt turned away from the man and waved me around him. "I'll show you the works," he said. "Don't mind Nevin. He'll pick on you."
"I can see that," I said.
Matt led me through a door with a faint yellow bulb hanging above it.
"Hey," Nevin said. "Why are you bringing strange people to the base, anyway? We're not running a museum."
The door closed before the old man could say more. We stood in a lit hallway with pipes for the ceiling. Something hummed. We kept walking.
"I'm going to get you in trouble, aren't I?" I asked.
"Maybe," Matt said.
"Then why did you bring me here?"
He didn't say anything at first. Then he spoke. "You deserve to see the plan after how much you helped me. Without you, I wouldn't have planted the tracking capsule where it needed to go." His words came fast like he was fabricating his story.
"Okay," I said, face heating. I had the sense there was more to it than that.
We came to another steel door, which Matt opened with his pass card. We walked into the biggest room I had seen in the colonies so far.
“Whoa,” I said.
“It's impressive, isn't it?” Matt asked.
That was saying the least. We stood in a hangar full of metal cylinders, each one tall and wide enough to house three old-fashioned buses. All of them stood upright on large platforms, mounted on three stands each. I could see huge laser guns underneath each cylinder, ready to fire when these people got the word. The room smelled like antiseptic and dust. It was a strange combination that I'd remember for the rest of my life.
“I know. Weird ships,” Matt said. “Want to know where I got the idea?”
“Where?” I asked. Matt was gushing with pride. Right now, I couldn't blame him. His drawings had led to this. The cylinders didn't have sails, but the concept was close enough.
“An old story someone wrote about Mars a long time ago,” Matt said.
“I think I know the one,” I said, turning my thoughts back to the Mars Exhibit way back in the Solar System museum. “They had the radio program playing. The one that made people panic and drive across the country centuries ago.”
Matt grinned. “That's the one. The Grounders like to remind us that—well, never mind. Anyway, I got the inspiration, and Fiona saw a way to turn the concept into something real.”
“Where is this Fiona?” I asked. I eyed the top of the hangar. Were those giant doors in the ceiling?
“Right here,” an enthusiastic woman said from the other side of the room.
I turned.
She was the first person who wasn't green that I'd seen in a while, and she looked healthy, as in her ribs must not be visible. Fiona had brown skin, and her curly black hair spilled over her cheeks. For someone living in the colonies, she was fashionable with bright eyes. I guessed that she must only be in her upper thirties or lower forties. I had been expecting someone older.
This woman had a purpose.
“An Earther!” Fiona said, opening her arms.
It was a welcome relief. I let the scientist hug me. Already, she had a way of not making me feel welcome.
“Hey,” I said. “You're not green.”
She let me breathe, standing back to study me. “Neither are you,” she said. “You don't look like you're turning yet. The nanobots are defective, or you tricked them into not giving you the injection.”
“Wish I'd done that,” Matt said.
“Well,” Fiona told him. “With your father, you couldn't have avoided it for long.”
“It was thanks to Matt,” I said. “Dr. Komorowski was scary.”
“She's a Mars Identity woman,” Fiona said. “I'm all for making Mars a better place to live like they are, but it's not our only future. That's the difference between them and us. We've been on Earth for billions of years, so we have the right to live there. I know you agree with me.” Fiona nodded.
I nodded. Just being in the presence of this scientist made me feel more like myself again. It gave me hope. It was no wonder Matt liked to come here. “So, you took Matt's drawings to heart.”
“He's a creative, brilliant mind,” Fiona said with pride. “I'm so glad that he's back.” She hugged Matt as if she were his mother. I had the sense that emotionally, she might be. His dad sure wasn't in the picture much, if Matt could go on two-month trips to his aunt's without question. Then Fiona released him. “I wasn't exactly crazy about letting him go on the scouting mission, but he wouldn't stop bothering me. He's the first scout to return. Did you plant the tracking capsule?”
“I gave it to someone who will,” Matt said. “She's going to open the dome to the park and let us land.”
“Us?” Fiona asked. “You are not going to this next part of the mission, young man. Your part is over.”
“What's in these cylinders?” I asked.
“The most amazing nanobots that you can imagine,” Fiona said. “I borrowed some from the doctors, to tell you the truth, and my team programmed them to build the machines we'll need to defeat the Grounders. Each cylinder has room for five passengers."
“Matt used one,” I said. I thought of those burned blobs on the necks of the Task Force in that hallway and the glowing gun that Matt had. The image would never leave my mind. I'd been wondering how the heat ray or whatever in Matt's hands had worked. It hadn't harmed my friends, even though they were lying in that same hallway with the Task Force. "That heat gun."
“That took us years to develop," Fiona said. "It took a long time to find Grounders for testing. The heat gun can only burn living things that don't have DNA.”
“The Grounders don't have DNA?” I asked.
“And neither does that red weed,” Matt said.
I could see where this was going. Fiona and her team—whoever they were—had a plan to eradicate the Grounders' form of life or at least bring it under control. “What about landing in the park?” I asked. “Why is that needed for the plan?”
“Our bots are going to farm and spread our plants,” Fiona said. “Creating weapons is not their only purpose. They will also make facilities to scrub the atmosphere of the smog that the Grounders have created.”
I thought about the soupy atmosphere back home. An image of the blue skies above the Rockville farms filled my mind, along with the mooing of the cows and the fields of fresh crops.
I liked Fiona's plan. It was an Earther's dream come true.
It was no wonder these people had sought us out. I thought of how lucky it was that Matt ran into me in the hallway.
And the more I thought about this, the better I felt.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked.
“It sounds like you've already done your part,” Fiona told me. “You need to stand aside as the adults handle th
is next part. Matt was the only teenager who went on the scouting mission, and without my permission, I might add.”
“It's not like you're going to tell my father,” Matt said.
Fiona nodded. “That might ruin things,” she said, but that didn't stop her from glaring at Matt out of the corner of her eye. She might be a fun person to be around, but I had the sense that you didn't want to cross her. The look on her face stopped me from protesting any further. Fiona had a point. No responsible adult would let anyone younger than them hop into a cylinder, get blasted into space by a laser, and land on Earth to deal with hordes of Grounders. This mission was an adult's job.
But I hated the thought of staying on this rock. What if the plan failed, and the Grounders' defenses weren't taken down? None of us could ever build regular ships to get back home. At least, not ones with engines.
“How long do you think I'll have to stay here?” I asked. All of my hope shriveled like a month old balloon. I'd lose a lot of weight and get weak. My ribs would poke out, and I'd sleep in a crate every night, hoping that Marv and that crazy woman didn't find me. I rubbed the side of my face to find a sore spot. I must have a bruise.
To survive here, I would have to give myself up and become a shell. I might even have to take the injection. I would have to lose my identity and become something else...something alien.
“I don't know,” Fiona said. “This is an untested plan. We have nothing to compare it to, other than old stories and the fact that the Grounders have some weaknesses. They're afraid of heights, and they need the pollutants they're pumping into the air to survive. That's why we're going to construct walkers once we're on the ground--”
A deafening boom sounded somewhere, sending a shock wave through the hangar. I thought that one of the lasers had fired up at first, but Nevin ran into the room and slammed the door behind him. The look on his face was anything but calm.
“Identity attack!” he shouted, running faster than I thought he could. “They found us. They've blown the door off the garage, and we're losing air!”
I froze as sheer panic screamed through me. Air. I held my breath. Was it thinner?
The cylinders reverberated and Fiona backed away. “Can we contain the breach?”
“They've bombed the pumping system. It'll take hours to fix.”
That sounded horrible. I reached out and grabbed Matt's hand, not caring about how embarrassing it was. A faint hissing filled the room, and a breeze followed, heading in the direction of the garage.
I thought of the movement behind us.
Another rover?
I thought of Marv and the woman.
I had told Matt something about leaving this planet in front of them. They must have followed us. We led them here.
Fiona turned in a circle, facing the other side of the wall. Behind a glass window, two pressurized suits hung between rows of computer screens, ready for emergency use. There were no others. This base was a place of bare essentials.
“What do we do?” I asked, unable to keep up a straight face. I was a scared animal again, not an Earther.
Fiona went blank. Then she said, “The two of you are going to Earth. Into the cylinder.”
Chapter Twelve
She couldn't be serious.
“There aren't enough pressurized suits for you!” Fiona said, casting a protective glare at Matt. “The air will be too thin to breathe in a few minutes. Get inside!” She backed up the steps and towards the control room, ready to put hers on. Nevin joined her, leaving Matt and me in the hangar.
I sucked in a breath as the wind blasted my hair into my face. It was an effort.
We had to go. Now. I had to leave Winnie and my other friends again. I hadn't even found them yet. I was abandoning them to this rock.
But I also wouldn't be any good to them dead.
“We need to open this!” Matt shouted, running under the nearest cylinder. He lay on his back, hooking his hand onto a handle. I followed, joining him in pulling. It took me a second to realize what we were doing. We were unscrewing a round door on the bottom of the cylinder, one right above the laser gun.
I dared another breath.
It was harder to expand my chest. The air was thinning. I shoved thoughts of our time limit out of my mind.
Another blast sounded, and something crashed. Even from under the cylinder, I saw two people in pressurized gray suits entering the room, guns in hand. One of them looked around. I spotted a green face behind a face mask, evil and unforgiving.
It was Marv.
The radical.
He and his girlfriend had followed us. He sure had zero intention of listening to Matt now.
The wind turned to a high whine. I couldn't hear myself think. I tried another breath, but it was useless. I could no longer expand my lungs in the dropping pressure.
Matt slugged me on the arm. It was my cue.
He had opened the door. I climbed into the opening on the bottom of the cylinder. Another lock opened for me, and I crawled up into air and safety. I took a breath as another explosion sounded in the hangar. Matt scrambled up behind me. Only small green lights glowed around us. The rest was darkness and the outlines of seats on either side of the ladder.
“We need to strap ourselves in,” Matt said. “We might pass out on takeoff. Keep your legs tense, and it might not happen.”
My eyes adjusted. The doors closed behind us, sealing us inside the cylinder. Lights came on, and I had to squint.
At least I wasn't afraid of heights.
Matt and I held onto a ladder that rose through the middle of the cylinder. Five seats, each with tons of buckles, hung on the walls, resting on small platforms. Above us, another closed hatch led to what must be the supply room. I had the sense that we were in a tiny part of the cylinder, the part closest to where the laser would hit.
“Get seated, kids!” Fiona shouted through a speaker. She sounded muffled like she was speaking through her pressurized suit. Fiona had prepared for an Identity attack. Matt was right that some of them were dangerous.
I hoped that she would survive this.
I scrambled onto the closest platform and strapped myself into the seat, fumbling with the buckles. Opposite me, Matt did the same. I felt like we were strapping ourselves into the barrel of the world's largest gun. We had nothing but open space—still enough for two buses—and flashing lights around us.
Matt and I would be the first wave of this invasion, whether we wanted it or not.
“This isn't what I expected,” Matt said, strapping himself in. He was more used to this than me. I had the sense that Fiona had let him tour the cylinders.
I could hear nothing outside. “Did I do this right?” I asked, gesturing to my buckles.
Matt grimaced. “Get--”
The takeoff hit without warning.
A loud roar filled the world, and a force like a million elephants smashed me into my seat. A black curtain spread over everything, and I forced myself to breathe. Matt had said something about tensing my legs. I tightened every muscle, expending all the effort that I could. I sucked in another breath, and another, barely staying conscious through the torture. Modern ships weren't like this. We sat in something like the first rockets that humanity created, where the passengers had to train to withstand the force of taking off.
Just when I feared that the forces would flatten me, the weight eased.
The roar ended.
I could breathe. I dared to let my leg muscles relax. Blood rushed back into my head, chasing away the black curtain.
“Matt?” I asked, turning my head.
His head rolled to the side. He was unconscious.
“Matt!” I shouted, reaching across the ladder. I could only grip his sleeve a bit. “Wake up!”
I was alone here.
We had taken off in an untested craft and Fiona was no longer communicating with us.
I felt a lot lighter now. I went to work unbuckling everything. I took a breath to make sure the ai
r was okay. I hated the thought of being in a cylinder that I couldn't steer. We had only this laser to propel us. I had no control. I wanted Matt awake to tell me how this worked and what we were supposed to do. I wanted to know that he was okay.
Matt's eyelids fluttered. “I wasn't looking forward to that part,” he muttered.
“Good,” I said. “You're alive.”
“I passed out.”
“Obviously.” I waited for Fiona to say something over the radio, but she didn't. My thoughts turned to the radicals. They had explosive guns. I wondered where they got them.
“I think we can unbuckle ourselves now,” Matt said. He lifted his head and brought his hand to his mouth. “I feel sick. Did you manage to stay conscious?”
“Barely.”
“You're fit,” Matt said. “They say women are a little bit better than guys at taking those G forces. Still having muscles sure helps.”
“I never want to feel that again.”
“Well, we're going to have the opposite now,” Matt said. “There's no artificial gravity on these things. Fiona and her team made them bare bones. She doesn't have a lot of resources.”
I watched Matt unbuckle himself.
And then he rose from his seat.
As in, floating off his seat.
I watched as he kicked himself away from the chair and did a somersault in the air. He was more graceful than I'd ever seen him. Right now, he pulled off that skinny, green look well.
“I just thought that this is like the old spaceships,” I said.
“It is,” Matt said. “There's just no rockets on this. Or any drives, for that matter. We run on solar power. Come on. Try it.”
“Aren't you worried about Fiona?” I asked.
"She'll take care of those radicals," Matt said. "We had to leave. There weren't suits for us. There were suits only for Fiona and Nevin. They have defenses set up in that place. Fiona knew she'd get discovered sooner or later. There aren't any good ways to cover up our tracks."
I thought of the tracks we'd left in the dust. Matt floated over to the wall and pushed himself away, waving as he floated past.
We were in space. Off Mars. And heading back to Earth.
