Lost Planet 02 - The Stolen Moon

by Searles, Rachel

  Why was she so interested in Maurus? Was it really just a news story, or was she looking for something more? His name had been cleared, and the last thing he needed was someone dredging up his role in the Trucon disaster and airing it on the galactic news all over again. “No,” Chase said harshly. “Leave him alone.”

  * * *

  When Chase went to bed that night, Parker was already in the upper bunk, turned toward the wall so Chase couldn’t tell if he was sleeping or sulking. He whispered Parker’s name a few times but got no response.

  He pulled back the thin Fleet-regulation quilt and climbed into bed. Tomorrow he would find Colonel Forquera and argue on Parker’s behalf. Together they would hunt down his microchip and bring the thief to justice. He rolled over and slid his hand under his pillow. His fingers touched something hard and crinkly, and he pulled it out. It was a piece of paper.

  Chase jumped out of bed and went to the video screen, swiping it on so he could look at the paper in the dim glow of the screen. When he saw what was written on the paper, he gasped.

  “What are you doing?” muttered Parker.

  But Chase didn’t answer, staring at the words on the slip of paper.

  Sorry about the microchip. I can tell you everything you want to know about your parents and Asa Kaplan. Meet me tomorrow at the Rostanna in Lumos.

  -A friend

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “We’re going to Lumos.” These were the first words out of Parker’s mouth when he read the note that Chase had discovered under his pillow.

  Chase set the note on the desk and stared, still not quite believing what was written on it. “We have to take this to Colonel Forquera. What’s Lumos?”

  “It’s a city on Storros.” Pulling a jacket on over his pajamas, Parker paused. “I think it’s the capital, actually. But we’re not taking this to Forquera. The captain needs to see it.”

  Chase didn’t argue. “We’re supposed to be hiding out in our quarters tomorrow. He’s never going to let us leave the ship.”

  Parker gave him a steely look. “This person has my microchip. I have no other way to pursue Asa—it’s our only chance to learn anything. Are you really going to let anyone stop you?”

  Chase knew what Parker meant. The possibility of answers, of a mysterious friend who could help them, was an opportunity he couldn’t fathom passing up.

  “We’ll make him see how important this is,” said Chase.

  Parker shrugged as he hit the exit key on the door. “And if he still says no, we’ll go anyway.”

  * * *

  Captain Lennard came to the entrance of his quarters in his shirtsleeves, collar and cuffs unbuttoned.

  “What is it, boys?” he sighed. His tired eyes were surrounded with stacks of wrinkles. His gaze rested on Parker. “Colonel Forquera told me what happened. I can’t give you back your equipment, Parker. That was a very serious—”

  “Did he tell you someone stole my microchip?” Parker interrupted.

  Chase held out the scrap of paper. “Someone was in our room. They stole Parker’s chip and left me a note.”

  Frowning, Lennard took the paper and read it for what felt like a very long time. He took a step back. “Come inside.”

  They sat across from him at his desk and explained everything that had happened that day. Parker did most of the talking, skimming over some of the details when it came to how he hacked the mainframe. When he was done, Lennard nodded gravely, rubbing his eyebrows.

  “I don’t have a lot of manpower to spare tomorrow because of the peace talks,” he began slowly. “But I’ll send a small expeditionary squad down to Lumos in the morning to see what they can find.”

  “We’re going with them,” said Chase.

  Lennard shook his head. “I can’t let you go. We don’t know who left that note. This could be a trap.”

  “You’re not letting us go?” said Parker. “What gives you the authority to keep us here? You’re not our father.”

  “I’m not, but as your self-appointed guardian, I’m certainly going to be calling the shots until you’re a little more self-reliant than fourteen,” Lennard snapped.

  “You think we’re going to get kidnapped? You know no one can catch him, right?” Parker threw his hand in Chase’s direction. “Invincible superboy, remember? What are you worried about? The person who contacted him isn’t going to come out unless he shows up anyway.”

  “If there’s something of merit to this note, the exped squad will find out. That’s what they’re trained to do. I’m not sending children after some anonymous thief.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” Chase burst out. “Sit here and wait for news? Do you remember what I went through to get here? I’ll be safe. Nobody can trap me.”

  “Chase, I understand—” the captain said gently.

  “No! Look at me.” Chase raised his hand and plunged it into the desk, phasing through wood and paper and whatever else the captain was storing in his drawers. “Do you know what it’s like to wonder every single day who my parents were and why they were killed and if there’s ever anything I’ll be able to do about it? I am trapped on this ship with this weird body and all these questions, and I know you put yourself at risk to let us stay here, but please, please don’t make me stay here and miss the only lead I’ve ever gotten and may ever get.”

  Lennard sat quietly for a minute, looking at the desk where Chase had phased through. Finally he nodded. “Chase, be at the teleport deck at five hundred hours. You’ll go down with the expeditionary force—I’ll make sure it’s Maurus’s squad. You will do exactly as you’re told by the squad leader. If you’re told to leave, you will leave. Parker, I’m sorry, but you’re right. Chase is less vulnerable than you. I can’t let you go along.”

  Parker fumed, realizing he’d set himself up to be excluded. “Whatever,” he mumbled, standing up to leave.

  He didn’t speak to Chase at all on their way back to their quarters. They turned off the lights and climbed into their bunks silently, but Chase was so wound up with the idea of going to Storros the next day, he couldn’t sleep.

  “Parker,” he whispered. “How am I going to find this person?”

  For a moment Parker didn’t answer, and Chase thought he might be asleep. “I wouldn’t worry about it,” came his tired voice. “Whoever it is, they’ll definitely be looking for you.”

  * * *

  Chase grabbed a synth croissant from the canteen on the way to the teleport chamber, wolfing it down in the elevator as he tapped his foot nervously. He’d only ever taken a teleport twice before that he could remember, and the second trip hadn’t gone so well—malfunctioning to place him a good hundred meters away from where he was supposed to appear. He tried to reassure himself by noting that that had happened a long time ago, and this was a different teleporter.

  He paused outside the chamber door, listening for voices to make sure he wouldn’t be the only one in the room with Corporal Lahey. He could hear someone laughing, so he entered.

  His heart sank when he saw who was inside. Lieutenant Derrick leaned over the console, talking to Lahey. To Chase’s surprise, she was actually smiling. They both spotted Chase at the same time, and their smiles dried up on their faces.

  Derrick stood up straight, scowling. “What are you doing here, kid?”

  Before Chase could formulate an answer, voices sounded in the hall, and a second later Maurus entered the chamber with Lieutenants Vidal and Seto.

  Maurus cast a scathing look at Derrick. “He’s not on the mission, is he?”

  “Of course not,” said Vidal in a no-nonsense tone. “Derrick, you’re here to supervise escort duty for the peace talks, right? When are the guests supposed to start arriving?”

  Pulling his glare away from Maurus, Derrick turned to Vidal and said stiffly, “Any time now.”

  “Then we should get out of your way.” Vidal approached Chase, holding out a folded piece of soft, light gray material and a tiny silver object shaped like
a horn. “You’ll need these for the mission.”

  “What are they?”

  She picked up the silver horn. “The translink goes in your ear. Hold still.” She reached out and gently tipped his head to the side, placing the silver object inside his right ear. For a moment it tickled as the device expanded and settled into his ear canal, and he squirmed.

  “It’s an automatic interpreter. You’ll need to be able to understand what anyone’s saying,” said Maurus. “Not everyone speaks the common language.” He started speaking in another language, the sharp, fluid tongue that Chase guessed was his native Lyolian. Almost simultaneously another voice rang inside his head, drowning out what he could still hear in his left ear: “This is the language I spoke growing up, and now you can understand it.”

  Chase cocked his head. “I hear two voices. It’s hard to pick out the translation.”

  “It just takes practice. Pretty soon your ear with the translink will become dominant and you won’t even hear the other voice.”

  “Everyone wears these?”

  “Fleet soldiers get them as implants. Standard issue.”

  Chase kneaded his ear, trying to rub away the phantom tickling sensation, and held up the gray cloth with his other hand. Vidal took an identical one from her pocket and shook it out. It was a tube of cloth that she pulled over her head, letting it fall into folds around her neck. “It’s a filter. Just in case you have any trouble with the atmosphere,” she said, lifting it up over her mouth to demonstrate. Chase pulled his on, as did the others.

  “Alright,” said Vidal, passing out the silver return rings that they would need to get back to the Kuyddestor. “Our mission on Lumos is to track down an unknown acquaintance of the intergalactic weapons dealer Asa Kaplan, aka Jonah Masters, for information regarding his whereabouts. Is everyone clear?”

  Derrick narrowed his eyes at Chase. “Why’s the kid coming along?”

  “That information’s classified,” said Maurus smugly. Derrick flashed him a hateful glare.

  Vidal led the group on to the teleport circles stamped into the floor. “Corporal Lahey, if you would.”

  As he watched Lahey’s hands fly over the console, Chase’s heart began thumping wildly in his chest. The sensation of teleportation began, a burning tingle that ran up his back and down all his limbs. Keep it together, keep it together, he told himself. Suddenly the feeling ratcheted up a thousand degrees, and it felt like his entire body was stretched thin and set on fire, a pain more intense than anything he’d ever felt.

  He heard himself start to scream, and the world went dark.

  * * *

  Chase awoke lying atop a cot surrounded by curtains, in a white space he recognized as the medical bay. The pain was gone. So was everyone else. Confused, he sat up and reached for a curtain.

  “Hello?” he called.

  Soft footsteps approached, and Dr. Bishallany’s shining head poked through the curtains. “There he is,” he said with a smile. “Our hero resurfaces.”

  Chase dropped his arm. “What happened?”

  Dr. Bishallany stepped inside the small space and sat on the edge of the cot. “What do you remember?”

  “We were teleporting, and … it hurt. A lot. I blacked out.”

  Dr. Bishallany nodded. “And to your great fortune, you didn’t go anywhere. According to the teleport officer, you faded out a little and snapped back together in a heap on the floor.”

  “Where’s everyone else?”

  “They’ve continued on the mission without you.”

  “What?” He looked down and saw that the return ring he’d worn was gone. The realization that he was missing the mission hit like a punch to the stomach. He couldn’t believe Maurus had left him behind.

  “Chase, you told me you’d used a teleport once before, yes? Can you tell me exactly what happened that time?”

  Chase took a deep breath. “The first time was okay. I mean, it kinda burned, but I went where I was supposed to go. The second time…” He trailed off in embarrassment, realizing he should have told the doctor this story before. But they’d never discussed teleportation.

  “Yes?”

  “The second time I knew what was coming, and I think I flinched or something. And instead of teleporting to where I was supposed to go, I ended up outside the building.” He left off the detail of the scaly Zinnjerha creatures that had swarmed over him, giving the first clue of his phasing ability when he escaped their claws unscathed.

  Dr. Bishallany pursed his lips, deep in thought. “Chase, I believe that in the time since you acquired your ability, your body has slowly developed a resistance to teleportation. In the same way that some people develop allergies, you felt only a small reaction the first time—the burning isn’t normal, you know. The only side effect of teleportation, in a very small percentage of the population, is headaches. You had a stronger reaction the second time, and then when you were fired on with a disperser, which is basically the same technology, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s a reflex you can’t control.”

  Chase looked up with a stricken expression. “You mean I’ll never be able to teleport?”

  The doctor placed a reassuring hand on Chase’s blanket-covered foot. “It’s not the end of the world—space cruisers can still get you pretty much anywhere teleportation goes.”

  “So can I take a cruiser down to join up with Maurus and the others?”

  Dr. Bishallany frowned. “The captain thinks it best you sit this one out. I’m sorry. If you’re feeling okay, you’re free to leave the medical bay whenever you like.”

  As the doctor stood and left, Chase stared at the blankets, reeling in defeat. Finally he’d been so close to making some real progress in his search, and thanks to his stupid freak body, now he was back to square one. Whoever had left the note probably wouldn’t show themselves to Maurus, and he’d never know who it was or what they wanted to tell him. What an epic screw-up. He was so deep in his thoughts, he didn’t notice anyone else around until a familiar sarcastic voice rang out.

  “Doesn’t feel good to get left behind, does it?”

  Chase looked up, expecting to see only Parker standing by his bed. His gut hitched when he saw Analora at his friend’s side, her brow creased with worry. The petty smirk on Parker’s face faded. “Oh, man, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

  Chase’s eyes flickered over to Analora. He couldn’t tell Parker the whole story in front of her. “No teleportation for me today,” he said in a tight voice.

  Parker walked around the bed and punched him lightly on the shoulder. “You know, buddy, I’ve never been a big fan of the teleport.” Of course, Parker had grown up with the knowledge that his parents were killed in a teleport accident. “At least you’re okay.”

  “I lost my only chance to find that person,” Chase said in a hoarse whisper. “To find your chip.”

  “It’s okay. If this person wants to talk to you that badly, they’ll come back. Making you go down to Storros was pretty shady anyway.”

  Analora finally spoke up. “So I still don’t understand what happened. Someone stole something from your room and wanted to meet with Chase on Storros about it? Why?”

  Parker shrugged. “It’s … complicated. Not like you couldn’t understand it,” he added hurriedly as her eyes narrowed. “Just like … we can’t tell you everything.”

  “I should be down there with Maurus,” Chase mumbled, his mind still fixed on the huge opportunity he had missed.

  Analora had gone very quiet, her brows knitting furiously. “We could still go,” she said in a barely audible tone.

  “Go where?” asked Parker. “Storros?”

  She raised a finger to her lips. “Let’s get out of here,” she whispered.

  Chase hopped off of the bed and followed Parker and Analora. Outside the curtained-off space, the medical bay was quiet, two long rows of empty beds. One nurse sat at a desk entering information at a console, but
she only glanced up briefly as they left. Dr. Bishallany was nowhere in sight.

  They slipped out the door and hurried down the metal corridor. Once they’d put some distance between themselves and the medical bay, Analora began talking. “When you came onboard, did anyone walk you through an emergency drill? Did they show you where the jump pods are?”

  “Yeah,” said Chase slowly. The jump pods were the escape shuttles for civilians and non-flight personnel. “But they only work when the emergency procedures are engaged.”

  “Well … there’s a way around that.”

  Chase stopped in the middle of the hallway. “You’re saying we steal a jump pod to go to Storros?” Even Parker looked a little wary.

  Analora stopped, tracing a finger along the wall of the corridor. “There are more than enough for everyone on the ship.”

  This was a crazy idea. She was clearly crazy. “I thought they just land on the nearest hospitable planet. Could we even make it come anywhere close to Lumos?”

  “Oh. Well, no, you can’t pilot a jump pod. There aren’t any controls,” said Analora.

  Parker finally chimed in. “But there’s got to be some sort of automated guidance system built in. I might be able to figure out how to override the automated part.”

  Chase burned a little at the admiring look Analora gave Parker. “We’d get in huge trouble,” he said. “How do you know about this, anyway?”

  Analora dropped her gaze to the floor, and her voice fell. “It’s why Dany got sent to Fleet academy.”

  Parker arched an eyebrow. “Who’s Dany?”

  “He’s my friend, Chief Kobes’s son,” she began softly. “We were orbiting Namat last year, and he really wanted to go see the Namatans, but he got in a big fight with his dad. As a punishment Chief Kobes forbid him to go, so instead he rigged a jump pod to take him down. A day later they found him there and brought him back, and Chief Kobes kicked him off the ship and sent him to Fleet academy.”

  “Sounds like the chief to me,” said Parker, a bitter note in his voice.

  “We can’t do this,” said Chase. “Parker and I have nowhere else to go.”