by Ryan Kinzy
Lauren’s face flushed. She turned away, diverting her gaze out the door. Morrison didn’t notice. Julia just stared at the equipment behind the counter.
“Them?” Ankit inquired, his eyebrow lifting slightly on one side. Lauren and Julia couldn’t see what Morrison saw, since they could see through Ankit’s disguise now and hoped it was still fooling Morrison.
Morrison smiled, showing his needle-like teeth. “No matter, these creditssss are good,” he said, swiping the credits up into his hand walking to the back of his store.
Lauren and Julia looked at each other, then back to their two companions. Ankit shuffled slightly, then winked at the two.
After about 10 minutes, Morrison returned, carrying a box of equipment. “Here’ssss the first box.” He went to the back of the store again.
The next box was a little bigger than the first. Raja picked up one box, setting it on his shoulder without as much as a grunt. Ankit picked up the bigger one, then turned to leave the store.
“Now that we have this equipment, where is your hideout? We need to get started,” Julia said to Ankit.
“Hideout, huh? Never thought of it like that, but I guess it is. Yes, follow us,” he said, shifting the box on his shoulder.
They weaved through some more hallways, this time with Raja leading the way.
“It’s deeper into Grid 2—about five minutes from here,” Ankit said after a few minutes of walking.
“Can you make it carrying all that stuff?” Lauren asked.
Raja simply said, “Yes,” picking up his pace.
As they ventured deeper into Grid 2, the people’s mods got more and more spectacular. By now, the two thought they were used to just about any mod they could imagine, but they weren’t prepared for some of the stranger ones.
A large man, about six feet tall at his shoulders, turned a corner in front of them. The girls looked up, seeing a part-bull, part-human head sitting on top of the man’s shoulders, with large horns extending out from the sides of his head. Snot and mist blew from his nostrils as he made his way through the crowd. His angry eyes focused only on the direction he was going.
The two had read about the Minotaur in Greek mythology, but never had they thought they’d see one in person. They both glanced up, and the man’s eyes met theirs for a split second. Julia and Lauren hid their eyes, looking down at the ground.
The girls weaved through the crowds, following their new Zeb companions, careful not to look up again for fear of seeing another unusual mod. Raja and Ankit carried the equipment ahead of them.
As with the rest of Grid 2, dim lights flickered on and off and moisture filled the air. Lauren twitched her nose. A foul stench permeated the halls.
Julia covered her mouth gagging. “What is that smell?”
Shortly after, Raja and Ankit turned down a narrow hallway next to a large storage facility. They stopped in front of a nondescript door at the back of the alley. Lauren looked around while they waited to go inside.
Rusty metal plates covered the walls and ceilings all around them. Most of the structures in Grid 2 were like this—built out of necessity rather than with a master plan. This apartment was no exception, tucked away in this alley. Lauren supposed someone had probably needed a hideout to avoid raising suspicion, which is exactly what Ankit and Raja needed, too.
“How did you find this place?” Lauren asked, muffled, not really expecting an answer.
Ankit waved his hand in front of the door. It opened, revealing a large living room with a couple of doors in the back. A small kitchenette was off to the right of the door. Tables lined the walls, with some leftover containers they could only assume was lunch.
“Welcome to our humble apartment. This is where we will set up our workshop,” Ankit said, setting his box of equipment down.
Lauren looked around. No pictures or personal items lined the walls or furniture. It was definitely Spartan, she thought, but they hadn’t been here that long, either.
“Looks homey,” she said, forcing a smile.
“Ha ha,” Ankit chuckled. “You don’t have to be that polite. This is temporary.”
“Oh, whew, I can’t fib very well.”
“No kidding?” Raja shot a crooked grin at her.
Ankit walked over to a table bumped up against the wall where a computer screen sat. “Here’s where I get access to the system. I can see what is going on at all times here.”
“Like what?” Lauren asked, walking closer.
“Well, as Zebs, we have control of all the systems on the station. I still have access because I stole one of the other guy’s codes before we left. He doesn’t know I have access yet.”
“So you can see everything?” Lauren asked, widening her eyes.
“Yep, take a look here.” He showed the station schematics. “Show Zeb factory.” The map zoomed in where the factory was and highlighted the section that wasn’t normally visible.
“Well, let’s get this stuff set up,” Julia said, clearing some space on the tables.
There were seven chambers she furiously started to assemble. They were much more automatic than the manual chambers she had before. This time she could just put all the materials in the chambers, enter the instructions, and it would do the rest.
She pulled together the crystals, jellyfish material, and the secret crud she had from back at her home, putting them in each of the chambers. She entered the instructions, then sat back in her chair.
“All done,” she said.
“That’s it? It took a lot longer last time,” Lauren said.
“I know! This equipment is great! But it will still take another week or so to cook,” Julia answered.
“I had enough to jump start this one from the previous experiment, but these have to go from scratch,” she said motioning to the first chamber.
“All right, well, I guess that’s all we can do now,” Lauren said. She wanted to get out of there. She still didn’t trust Raja and Ankit fully yet and wanted to get back home. They grabbed their things, heading for the door.
“I guess we’ll see you in a few days. I need to come back and check them,” Julia said.
Ankit got up to see them out. He grabbed Lauren gently by the forearm. “Thank you. I’m not sure you two realize yet what you’ve done.”
“You’re right. We don’t. It’s like we’re living in a science fiction story right now,” Lauren answered. She and Julia turned to walk down the hallway and catch the train back to their apartment.
Chapter 19
Flying out to Jupiter
It had been a few days since they went to the hideout, but Julia needed to check the ooze to see how it was progressing. So after school the two girls headed down to Grid 2. As usual, they told their mother they needed something for school. They thought she was starting to get suspicious.
“We need to come up with a better excuse,” Lauren said to Julia on the way out.
“Yeah, I think Mom is catching on to us,” Julia said.
The two hopped onto the train and rode down to Grid 2. Grid 2 was certainly not a place for two young kids, but the two of them walked through it like they were pros. Avoiding eye contact, lying low, they navigated the halls and ended up in front of the storage facility hiding their new friends’ quaint home.
They walked down the alley, up to the hidden apartment. Lauren waved her hand in front of the door. They heard a faint ring in the room that must have been a doorbell. The door opened.
“Girls, we don’t have as much time as we thought,” Ankit said as they entered the apartment.
“What do you mean?” Lauren asked, setting her bag down and putting her hands on her hips.
“It’s almost done. We have to act now.”
“The gate? What could we possibly do?”
“We need to get out there and try something,” Ankit said.
“But we don’t have enough of the treatment. We won’t be able to inoculate all of them!” Julia protested.
“Tha
t’s a chance we have to take,” he said.
“Well, how are you even going to get there? You two are fugitives!”
“Yes. Yes, we are,” he said looking down at the ground.
Raja cleared his throat. “We will have to surrender.”
“What do you mean?” Julia asked.
“You’re right, Raja, that’s the only way,” Ankit confirmed. “We will surrender and hope we can release the treatment somewhere inside the gate.”
“Won’t they just shoot you out of the sky?” Julia asked.
“Again, that’s a chance we’ll have to take.”
“They wouldn’t shoot you if we were with you. They want us as prisoners,” Lauren said, staring at Ankit.
“No, no. We don’t need to do that.”
They all sat trying thinking of alternatives.
“We’re in this together,” Lauren said. “There’s no way the two of you can make it there alive. They’d blow you out of space. You know it’s true. With us, they’d want to keep us captive and wait for instructions from the Gr-awl-toltz. There’s just too much at stake to do anything less!”
“You know she’s right,” Raja said. “They would buy us enough time to get the treatment distributed to several of our people. Then we could disable the neuro-repeater.”
Ankit didn’t say anything for a moment. He just sat looking ahead.
“Fine. You can go.”
Lauren didn’t know if she should smile or get sick to her stomach. Thinking about flying in a ship out to Jupiter was amazing, but the dire circumstances were enough to make her ill.
“When do we go?” she asked.
“As soon as we can,” he said.
Julia walked over to the chambers situated throughout the room. She looked through the glass on each one, peering at the crystals and looking for the telltale ooze.
“Looks like there’s some ready in these three.” She pointed at three boxes on the far table, then went to look at the rest of the chambers on the kitchen table. “Part of these two are ready over here.”
“OK, what do we do with this now?” she asked. “I usually scrape it off and put it in vials, but there’s too much to do that now.”
“Here.” Ankit stepped toward her, holding a small canister in the palms of his hands.
“It won’t all fit in there.”
“It will compress,” he said.
He carefully opened the lid on one of the chambers and reached in with the canister. With the touch of a button, the end of the canister opened and sucked in the ooze from the crystal. He went to the next chamber, picking up the rest of the ooze that was ready, and to the next one.
Once done, he turned and handed the canister to Julia. “This canister is undetectable when they scan you. Put it in your fanny pack.” He nodded toward her pack. “Then, when I give you the signal, press this button and drop it on the floor.”
Julia took the canister and tucked it into her fanny pack, nodding.
“What do you mean it’s undetectable?” she asked.
“We can modify signatures of things. I’ve changed this so that when they scan it, it will look like a canister of water, which would not be unusual for you to carry. So they wouldn’t suspect anything.”
“We have to call Mom and tell her something,” Lauren interrupted.
“Call her and tell her we’re spending the night at Alyssa’s,” Julia said.
Lauren picked up her phone. “Call Mom.”
A second later, she spoke into it, “Mom, can we spend the night at Alyssa’s tonight? We’re at her apartment now.”
Pause.
“Yes, both of us. She went with us down to Grid 11 to pick up the stuff and wanted us to stay.”
Pause.
“Uh, let me check where she is. Hold on.” She put her hand over the phone and whispered to the group. “She’s asking for Alyssa’s mom!”
Ankit reached for the phone. “Let me speak to her.”
Lauren frowned at him, but handed the phone to him anyway.
“What is your mother’s name?” he asked.
“Kathryn.”
He put the phone to his mouth and spoke, but when he spoke it sounded like Alyssa’s mom, “Hello? Oh, hi, how are you, Kathryn?”
Pause.
“Of course it’s no problem. They can stay until tomorrow afternoon.”
He listened for a second longer. “Yes, of course. Here she is.”
Lauren grabbed the phone, covering the mouthpiece again. “You’re going to have to tell me how you did that. That was cool.” Then she spoke again to her mother.
“Yes, Mom. OK, we’ll see you tomorrow.” She slipped her phone back in her pocket. “OK, we’re ready.”
“How do we get there?” Julia asked.
Raja smiled. “Now we get to show you some real technology.”
“We have a number of hidden ports up and down the station. We have our ship at one that hasn’t been used in a while,” Ankit answered Julia.
“Ports? What do you mean ports?” Lauren asked.
“They’re small rooms we had converted to be undetected by humans, but they allow us access to fly in and out of the station whenever we want,” Ankit said.
“This, I have to see! Let’s get going,” Julia said.
The four left the apartment again, losing themselves in the Grid 2 crowd. Ankit and Raja took them to the other side of Grid 2, where they hadn’t been before. Ducking behind some garbage collection areas, they found a small steel plate that looked like a riveted patch instead of a door. Ankit waved his hand in front of it and it opened. They looked to make sure no one was watching them and walked in. A small ship occupied the space.
“Wow!” Lauren said, walking up and caressing the side of the gleaming ship.
The angular shape flared out toward the back, making the ship look like a bullet. A chiseled groove wrapped around the sides of the ship, separating the body from the windshield. Strange runes they couldn’t understand were written on the side.
“What does that say?” Julia asked.
“Nothing really, just a name and number,” Raja said in a monotone voice.
Ankit stepped up to it and the door split open, with the top swinging up and the bottom down. The four of them stepped in. There was room enough to walk in between the seats, but there were only four seats in the craft.
“OK, you two sit back here.” Ankit pointed to the seats in the back.
Julia and Lauren strapped themselves in. Ankit grabbed the controls, lifting the ship up. The dock opened behind them, and he backed it out. In a flash, they were out into space, flying toward Jupiter.
The ship was small inside. There was room enough for them to get up and stretch their legs beside their seats, but not much more. Lauren wasn’t sure what to do if she had to go to the bathroom. It didn’t look like there was one on the ship.
Ankit swung around to talk to the girls. “OK, the trip will take about four hours. We’re out in space, so if you have to get up and move around, you’re going to float. Are you OK?”
Julia had already pulled out her phone and was playing a game. Lauren stared out the window.
“Yes, we’re good,” Lauren said.
Julia just nodded.
Lauren drifted off to sleep, thinking about all that had transpired. Her eyes twitched as she recalled the harrowing experiences. Julia played her game, then went to sleep, frowning with concern. At least the ride in space was peaceful and quiet.
“Girls! We’re almost there,” Ankit said, leaning back.
The enormous planet Jupiter occupied the entire view. The vivid bands of clouds swirled and swayed on its surface, soothing the girls. Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, floated in front of them, an eerie greenish color. They could see hundreds of big volcanoes projecting from the surface. One of them fumed a yellowish gas. Over the top of Io, they saw a sliver of the star gate. Each kilometer they sped closer, the gate got bigger and bigger.
Lauren stared at it in awe, �
��My God!” Her face went white as the gate came into full view. The two sisters leaned forward to see it better.
The star gate was an enormous steel ring anchored by a base attached to the bottom. From their ship it looked complete. A few bots welded pieces of metal here and there with flashes of light around the ring, but there weren’t any major gaps or holes around it.
Floating some distance from the ring was a large structure that Lauren could only think looked like the control station. It was many times larger than the base and seemed to be the destination they were headed for.
Julia pointed to it. “Is that where we are going?”
“Yes,” was all Ankit said as he adjusted some of the controls.
The two girls settled back into their seats, looking at each other. Then, just as they started feeling comfortable, sparks gathered around the perimeter of the ring, crackling against the structure. The sparks grew more intense, reaching toward the center in a brilliant flash, surrounding a solid black core in the center.
“No! They’re in final test mode. They’re only days away!” Ankit said.
Ankit guided their ship closer to the base of the gate. As they approached a hanger, he pressed a button on the control panel in front of him, “This is Fra-si-tot requesting access to land.”
The voice on the other end responded, but Ankit had headphones on, so the girls couldn’t hear it.
Ankit turned to the girls. “They’re letting us land. They don’t yet realize this ship is compromised. Be prepared. Once we land, they will immediately know. They’ll take us into custody and lead us to the detention center. When we get there, you know what to do … Are you ready?”
The girls stared straight ahead. Their mouths clinched. Lauren glanced at their new friend, saying, “We’re ready.”
Julia’s body trembled for a moment. She shook it off, then grasped her sister’s hand.
Lauren clasped her hand over her sister’s, caressing it. She leaned over and said to her sister, “Whatever happens here …”
“No, we’re going to be fine,” Julia returned, with her eyes welling up with tears.
“All right, let’s do this,” Ankit said, and he pulled the ship into the dock.
