by Ryan Kinzy
“Awesome!” Julia shrieked as it blew up.
“You can fire freely by pulling the trigger, but the tracking lets you fire lots of times at the same place.”
For the four hours it took to get back to Cielo Prime, the girls practiced flying and shooting. By the time they got back, Julia had shot 30 asteroids and Lauren had succeeded in making the rest of them sick.
Cielo Prime got closer and they slowed down almost to a crawl.
“OK, now that we’re back at the station, tap on the map again” Ankit said to Lauren.
She tapped on the map pad and, the map of the station appeared.
Redicons circled the docks hidden around the station.
“All around the station, there are secret docks where you can land and store your ship safely,” Ankit said, pointing to the dock at Grid 2, where they were headed. “Go to that one.”
Ankit touched one of the docks circled in the holographic image on the windshield. The circle turned red.
Lauren guided the ship toward the dock circled in red. As she got closer, she decelerated. The doors opened when the ship approached the dock, allowing Lauren to pull the ship in. She carefully moved the ship in but nudged it too far, putting a small dent in the wall as she bumped it.
“Oops!” she said.
Ankit laughed. “Just pull it back a little.”
Lauren nudged back a little and set the ship down. The doors closed behind them and the dock pressurized with air. The events of the past day and a half came crashing back, and the gravity of the situation almost paralyzed the girls. Lauren sat with her hands on the controls, staring at the wall in front of her. She shuddered.
Julia sat bleary eyed in the seat beside her. She patted Lauren on the arm. “Come on, we need to go make some more of the treatment.”
Chapter 21
A New Plan
Lauren looked at her phone. “10 missed calls. Uh, oh. Looks like Mom is in panic mode,” she said to her sister.
“What do we tell her?” Julia asked.
“Leave it to us,” Ankit said. “But first, we need to get the treatment going.”
They got out of the ship and Raja grabbed a cart. He started unloading the biological accelerators onto the cart, plus the other provisions. The four of them then headed to Ankit and Raja’s apartment.
“What are we going to do about our mother?” Lauren asked Ankit.
“Whatever we do, it will be temporary. We just need to distract her for a few days. After that, if we’re not successful, it’s not going to matter,” Ankit said.
“What can you do?” Julia asked.
“We can inject her with that serum that makes you somewhat catatonic,” Ankit said. “She’d be functional, more agreeable, and not know why.”
“You want to drug our mother?” Lauren said, looking at Ankit with raised eyebrows.
He paused and then said, “No, no, it’s not a drug. It’s not permanent. It’s just a temporary microorganism that makes humans easier to control. They forget what happens during that period of time.”
“We’re not talking in generalities. We’re talking about our mother,” Lauren said.
“I don’t see any other way of getting out of this,” Julia said.
“I don’t like it, but I guess we’ll have to do it.” Lauren frowned.
Back at the apartment, Raja quickly set up the equipment. They all transferred the current growing crystals into the accelerators with several new crystals. Ankit punched some buttons on them, and they appeared to work.
“All right, let’s get you two back home. It will still be a couple of days before this is ready,” Ankit said.
Ankit picked up a device from one of the boxes that Raja got from the ship, and they all headed out the door. The ride back to the girls’ apartment was somber. The girls couldn’t quit thinking about their dad and wondering if he was OK. All Ankit and Raja could do was console the girls.
They walked up to the girls’ apartment and the door opened. Their mother stood in the kitchen. Her face crumbled when she saw the girls.
“Oh, God! There you are,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “Where have you been?”
Before she got any further, Ankit reached over and tapped their mother on the back of her arm with the device. Almost immediately, her demeanor changed.
“Hello, girls, how are you?” She straightened her back, wiping the tears away. A fake-looking smile appeared on her face.
“Yuck. How Stepford is that?” Lauren said. “I hope this doesn’t last very long. Reminds me of when Dad was like that on New Cielo.”
“I’m sorry, girls. What is wrong?” Their mother’s weird smile persisted.
“Nothing, Mom. We just want to go to bed,” Julia said.
“And who are these nice men here?” she asked.
“We’re no one,” Ankit said, turning to leave.
“OK, well, thank you,” their mom said, waving to them as they left.
The girls went to their room, fell on their beds, and went straight to sleep without changing their clothes.
The next day, the girls didn’t go to school. They told their mother they were sick. With the serum, she didn’t care and let them stay home. Mostly they tried to distract themselves throughout the day, but they couldn’t. It was pure torture sitting and wondering what fate awaited their father. They hadn’t heard anything about him or his ship.
In the morning, they went back to Ankit and Raja’s apartment early. In a day and a half, the ooze had quadrupled. Julia was amazed at how quickly the ooze formed in the new chambers.
Peering into one of the new boxes, she spoke to the ooze as it were her friend, “Come on, little guys. You can do it, just a little more.”
“Who are you talking to?” Lauren asked, glaring at her sister.
“It helps if you talk to the ooze,” Julia said, smiling.
Ankit sat in the corner looking at a screen. He had been working on hiding their footprints within the Zeb system and had successfully covered most of their tracks.
Just then, the front door opened. Raja came in carrying a small bag he set on the counter. Lauren presumed it was food because it made the room stink.
Julia looked up. “That smells worse than the ooze!”
Raja chuckled deeply.
Ankit finished what he was doing, then turned to talk to the group. “Now that the ooze is coming along, we need to figure out the plan to help your father.”
Lauren looked at him with a somber face. “Once again, we already know the answer. Julia and I have to go.”
Julia shivered thinking about it.
“I don’t like it one bit,” Ankit said, “and I won’t allow it. Not this time.”
He took a deep breath. “I think the only option is for both Raja and me to go.”
Raja spoke in a gruff voice, “We’ve run some simulations with the treatment and think that it will harm the Gr-awl-toltz pretty quickly. It looks like it envelops the crystals, and when it does that, the Gr-awl-toltz can’t feed on them. The Gr-awl-toltz absorbs an astonishing amount, so it should affect it very quickly.”
“Yes, it seems that the treatment will almost neutralize the crystals … BUT it must be applied directly to them, and they’re in the same place as its brain,” Ankit added.
“I don’t like ‘should’. And, how are you going to get this whole batch of treatment that close?” Lauren asked with her arms folded in front of her.
“There’s a flaw in security. These masking devices we use to conceal our identity and voice to the human population can be used to hide us from it and the rest of the Zebs,” Raja said.
“What do you mean?” Julia asked.
Ankit showed her the device he was wearing on his arm. “We gave these to you earlier … the signature modifiers. This tricks your brain to make you think we are human in the same way the Gr-awl-tolz influences you. We Zebs are suceptable, too, but no one ever thought that any of us would turn on the Gr-awl-toltz, so we didn’t p
rotect against someone using it on us.”
“So we can use that to hide from the Zebs?” Julia asked.
“Yes, it can change your appearance in a hologram or it can make you disappear entirely,” Ankit said.
“That’s cool! So we could just walk around and they wouldn’t notice us?” Lauren said. “How does it work?”
Ankit showed Lauren a sequence of buttons to push on the wristband.
“Since we all have the treatment, though, you wouldn’t really know if it was working or not.” Ankit pointed to an extra wristband sitting on the table. “But this is too dangerous for you two. We’re going to do this alone.”
“There’s a supply ship that leaves every morning at 8 AM from the headquarters on New Cielo. We can hide on the ship with these devices, then board the Gr-awl-toltz and go up to it.” Raja added.
“We have to go! They have our dad!” Julia objected.
“No! And that’s final. I will not have your blood on my hands,” Ankit said, staring at her.
“It’s going to be challenging … but with these signature modifiers, we can trick their sensors into thinking we’re friendly,” Raja said.
Lauren had already checked out and wasn’t paying attention anymore. She didn’t want to delegate this and wanted to be there for their dad. He was their dad, she thought, and they should be there.
“Well … we need to go,” Lauren said grabbing her bag, heading for the door.
Ankit looked at her, surprised, but just assuming they were disappointed about not being involved. “OK … well, we will head out tomorrow morning to get there.”
Julia looked up, frowning. Lauren shot her a glance to be quiet.
Julia got up to join her sister walking out the door. She questioned her sister, “Why did you want to leave?”
“We have to go,” Lauren said in a quiet voice, looking back at the apartment door while she walked.
“What are you talking about?” Julia asked.
“Ankit and Raja shouldn’t do this. This is our dad!” she said.
“So what are you saying?” Julia asked.
“We have to go. We have to save dad!”
“What? How are we going to do that? Say we do get in there. Then what?” Julia asked, stopping and wrapping her arms around her waist.
“Just like they said, to them we’d be invisible. And, with those canisters, we can take the treatment right up to that thing and release it out all over it.”
“OK, suppose that works, how would we ever get in there in the first place?”
“Well, just like Ankit said. I guess we can stow away on one of the supply ships. We already have the signature modifiers, we just need the treatment.”
“The more I hear about this plan, the less I like it!” Julia said, shaking her head and starting to walk again.
Lauren followed, slightly behind her sister.
“The ooze is almost ready. Tomorrow there will be enough to fill the canister,” Julia said.
“So tomorrow, we just come here early when they’re not there, take the treatment, and head to New Cielo,” Lauren said, catching up to her sister.
Back at their apartment in the safety of their room, Julia lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling. “I’m not sure I like this plan.”
“I’m a little worried about it, too. Who knows what will happen to us if they find us,” Lauren thought out loud.
Julia winced. “I don’t like the sound of that, but you’re right.”
“So the plan is, we tell Mom we’re going to school early, but then we go to Grid 2 instead. We’ll call in sick, then collect the treatment and head directly for New Cielo. Once there, we’ll stow away on the supply ship to get on the Gr-awl-toltz, then we’ll release the treatment and wait to see what happens. Then we’ll go find Dad.” Lauren walked through the steps counting them off on her fingers.
She hesitated on the last step. She knew the plan was shaky, but she had no idea what else to do. She hoped that her insecurity wasn’t obvious to Julia.
“Sounds right. We’d better get some sleep. We’ve got a big day tomorrow,” Julia said, rolling over.
Neither of them slept very well that night. Both tossed and turned. By morning, they were ready to get the day over with.
The girls joined their family in the living room. Their mom and siblings were already up.
“You two are up early,” their mom said. “What’s going on?”
They didn’t hear their mom, or pretended not to. They sat down next to their brother and sister on the floor.
Lauren sat staring off into space thinking about all the things they had to do that day. She suddenly realized she might not ever see any of them again. The stress was almost overwhelming. She looked around, then up to her mom.
“I love you, Mom,” she said, and got up to hug her.
“Well, what’s that for?” Her mom hugged her back.
Lauren sat back down, looking at her brother and sister and trying not to cry.
“Your dad called, by the way. He said he’d be another few days out there.”
Lauren looked confused, then realized the Zebs must have fabricated the message so no alarms were raised.
“What’s wrong with Mom?” Evan asked his sisters. “She’s acting weird.”
“How should we know?” Julia snapped.
“She’s fine,” Lauren said.
Julia was clearly agitated, fidgeting on the floor next to her brother. She scowled at the TV. “I don’t want to watch that right now. Change it!”
“I was here first,” Evan said, kicking his sister.
“Ow! Evan, I hate you!” Julia said, getting up from the floor.
She marched off to her room to grab some things and brush her teeth.
Lauren did the same. A moment later, they were at the door. Lauren yelled to her mom, “We’re going early to do some things. We’ll see you after school.”
“OK. Love you!” their mom said, sitting down to join the two younger kids. Apparently, the serum was wearing down a bit, as she didn’t seem so creepily cheerful this morning.
Both girls paused for a second, looking back. Lauren sniffled as the feelings swirled in her head. Julia grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out the door.
The plan was unfolding as expected. When they arrived at Ankit and Raja’s hideout, they stood far enough away from the apartment so that Ankit and Raja wouldn’t see them when they went out for breakfast.
After a 10-minute wait, Ankit and Raja emerged engrossed in conversation, oblivious to everything. They passed by and walked out to where the local food court was.
“Now, let’s go,” Lauren said, rushing over to their door. She waved her hand in front of the door and it opened.
Lauren rushed in. “We need to hurry.”
Julia grabbed the canister and threw open the first box. Like a vacuum cleaner, the canister sucked up all the ooze. Then she went to the next box. She worked around the room, gathering all of the treatment.
“There, done. I can’t believe it compresses so much,” she said, flipping the top back on the canister and stuffing it into her fanny pack.
“Good, let’s get out of here,” Lauren said running for the door.
The two sprinted down the hall to the hidden dock. They stopped for a second to catch their breath and looked back behind them. Ankit and Raja were returning to their hideout, still talking.
“Come on, let’s go,” Lauren said.
The two weaved in and out of the crowd, eventually ending up at the small dock. Again, Lauren waved her hand in front of the camouflaged door, which opened immediately.
The two climbed in the ship, scanning the controls.
“Start engines,” Lauren said aloud.
The doors shut and the engine started.
Behind the ship, the bay doors opened, exposing space.
Lauren grabbed the joystick with her left hand, backed the ship out, then twisted it clockwise. The ship did the same in unison with her moveme
nt. With her right hand, she nudged the accelerator slightly. The ship moved forward into space, hovering outside the space station.
“OK, let’s go,” Lauren said, accelerating and pointing the ship toward New Cielo.
“Head to the construction zone,” Julia said.
“Yep, that’s where I was going,” her sister answered.
The trip over there was quick in this ship, only a few minutes. The ferries took 30 minutes.
Julia looked at her phone. “It’s 8:00. We need to hurry.”
Once there, Lauren tapped the map pad and the image overlaid a couple of dock icons around the construction zone.
“There,” Julia pointed. “Go to that one! It looks smaller. Then I bet that larger one is where the supply ship leaves from.”
Lauren rolled her left hand and accelerated with her right, whipping the ship around to the dock.
“Whoa! You’re getting pretty good at that,” Julia said.
Lauren didn’t answer, instead concentrating on landing the ship. The bay doors of the hidden dock opened, and she pulled the ship in and set it down.
“Here we go … are you ready?” she asked her sister.
Julia shivered. “I guess I have to be.”
“OK, turn on the signature modifier.” Lauren said, tapping the wristband.
“How can we make it so no one else can see us, again?” Julia asked staring at her wristband. There were six buttons in rows of three on the top of the band.
Lauren looked at hers, too. “I think it was this,” she tapping two of the buttons, then another.
Julia did the same, but nothing seemed to happen.
“Did it work?” Julia asked.
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to find someone to see,” Lauren said.
The two ventured forth into the construction area. They knew exactly where to find the Zebs and headed for the main hall they congregated in.
The two walked as quickly as they could, navigating the labyrinth, getting closer and closer to the hidden port. No one was around, so they didn’t know if the signature modifier was working.
Finally, they saw a human man walking toward them. The two pretended to casually walk by. The man didn’t notice them.
