Navigating the Stars

by Maria V. Snyder

  I’m hopeful that once he recovers from the shock, he’ll see it my way. But he’s not in our unit the next morning or in his office. Morgan’s not there either and Keir doesn’t know where he is.

  She escorts me to soch-time and waits outside while I spend the next two hours trying to figure out the best way to find those files.

  In fact, I’m so distracted, I’m halfway down the hallway before I realize Keir isn’t following me after soch-time ends.

  Huh? I return. No Keir.

  Unsure what to do, I stand there. Did she need to use the washroom? Or was she called away? Or does Radcliff finally trust me enough to let me go around unescorted? Nah. He might trust me more, but with those— Oh no! I hope it’s not another shadow-blob attack. At least the base’s lights are on.

  With anxiety churning in my stomach, I debate my next move. I figure the best thing to do is to go to the Control Center as planned. This way Keir can catch up with me there and I can ask my dad what’s going on.

  I enter the center cautiously, but there’s no tension and everyone appears calm as they perform their duties. My father isn’t there and I ask his assistant where he is.

  “He’s in the port with your mom,” Gavin says. “One of the field teams arrived an hour or so ago. They’re having some equipment trouble. That sand just gets into everything.”

  “Was there another sandstorm?” I ask. That would explain Keir’s absence.

  “No, but being out there in the desert, it’s hard to avoid.”

  True. I sit at my father’s terminal and hesitate. If I access the Q-net without supervision, I’ll be in violation of my probation. Just coming here on my own was a violation. I ask Gavin if there’s been any trouble.

  “Nope. Except for the pits being sealed off, everything else is going well.”

  Then where is Keir? Drawing in a deep breath, I worm into the cameras. If she’s in a public area, I should be able to find her. First place I check is the archaeology lab. Three bored security officers stand guard. I about wilt with relief. No problems with shadow-blobs. Too bad it’s team two. I’d like to have seen Niall.

  As I’m checking hallways, labs, and the security areas, everything appears normal. But there’s a niggle of worry scratching at the back of my mind. Something about Niall… Wait. I sit up. Team one is supposed to be on duty in the lab this afternoon. Not team two.

  I apply logic before I panic. Maybe Radcliff changed the lab schedule. I check the camera feeds twice. And the answer is the same. In fact, it’s all too much the same. Like Officer Rance scratching his nose in the same place three times in a row.

  There’s only one explanation.

  A worm has altered the camera feeds.

  Twenty

  2522:171

  Panic bubbles up my throat. The cameras have been altered to show another time. I check through and pinpoint the time to around eleven-hundred hours. So anything that has happened after that time hasn’t been recorded. Why? Obviously to hide something. Something bad. I glance around the Control Center. All still appears normal.

  Okay. Just relax. How do I see what’s going on in the base without tipping the worm off? It’ll be tricky and I can only do it for a couple cameras. I pick a camera in the archaeology lab. With the utmost care, I split the feed into two images; one goes to the monitors in security, the other to me. It takes forever. Then I remove the bogus image of team one and—

  The lab is empty. The guards are gone. I suck in a breath, trying to keep my fear to a simmer. At least the lights are still blazing. And everything looks okay— no blood stains or overturned equipment. So where is everyone? I can’t check all the cameras, that would take too much time and I’ve a terrible feeling I’m running out of it.

  Where else? I wish Radcliff had one in his office. There’s too many cameras in the hallways of the security area. Think. What happened today that’s different?

  The port! I repeat my careful manipulation of a camera in the port. The large area is empty as well. No field team working on broken equipment. But I spot a pulse gun on the ground. And a couple of large metal racks have been knocked over. I stifle a cry. No sign of my mom or dad.

  A crazy scenario plays in my mind. The field team wasn’t really one of ours, but the looters. They blocked the cameras, gained access and… What? There’s only ten rows of exposed Warriors in Pit 5. Why would they invade the base? Maybe it’s easier to take over the base and then steal the Warriors once the diggers are done uncovering Pit 5. And the first target would be the security team. And then they’d go after the people in charge.

  My parents!

  I assume the worst. The security team has been compromised. Since the looters haven’t announced their presence to the rest of the base, I’m guessing they want to keep it quiet. For now. No one in the port means they’ve taken them to another location. And they probably have my parents, too.

  A horrible thought turns my fear into a full boil. What if they and the officers are all dead? Breathing is difficult as all my blood rushes to my feet. Black and white spots swirl as a weakness flows over my arms. I rest my head in my hands. The desire to yell for help pushes against my chest, but I swallow it down. There’s nothing anyone can do until I figure out exactly what’s going on. And I can’t do that while having a panic attack.

  Get a grip, Lyra. You’re a criminal mastermind in training. You refuse to be ignored. I pull in lung-filling breaths one after another. The looters claimed no fatalities on Xinji. Don’t assume the worst. Pretend you’re a looter. You just captured the base’s security team and leaders. What do you do next?

  You’d want them out of your way. You’d put them in a secure location like— Detention!

  I find a camera in the detention center, but after an eternity to strip the fake image, I’m rewarded with a view of an empty hallway and two rows of doors on each side. I go to another camera and start the process again. Except this time, the Q-net kicks in and does it for me in a fraction of the time. Stunned, it takes me a moment to register what the camera reveals.

  There’s Keir and Menz in a detention cell. To say they appear to be upset is a vast understatement. The Q-net once again anticipates my moves and all the cameras in detention show me real images. I count. Ten security officers in five rooms. Niall is with Morgan. She’s sitting on the bunk appearing calm while he’s pacing with short agitated strides—all that’s possible in the small room. There’s a nasty cut on his cheek, bleeding. Some of my fear turns to fury. How dare they hurt him! Anger is more motivating than panic, so I instruct the Q-net to clear all the cameras. While I wait, I wonder if not seeing my parents in detention is a good or a bad thing. Radcliff is missing as well.

  When the Q-net finishes, I check the rest of the base. Strange figures are in security’s halls and in the training room. They’re all wearing gray coveralls and masks that are similar to the B-apps. Only their eyes are visible. Looters. Lots of them. I count. Ten…twenty…thirty-five…forty-eight. Oh boy.

  Breathe. Just breathe.

  They’re also armed with pulse guns and another weapon that I don’t recognize—probably lethal.

  Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

  They’re patrolling the hallways in security. A few are playing cards in the officers’ rec room. A couple are milling about the training area. What are they waiting for?

  I need to show this to an adult. “Gavin,” I say with only a slight tremor.

  “Yeah?”

  “Can I borrow your portable?”

  “Uh…aren’t you on probation or something?”

  “This is for Officer Radcliff. It’s very important. Please.”

  “Uh…okay, but—”

  I snatch it from him. “I’ll take full responsibility.” I transfer the camera feeds to the portable so I can see the looters’ location, but I can’t go deeper in the Q-net on the device. “Do you know where Dr. Jeffries or Gage is?” I ask Gavin.

  “Gage is usually in her lab at this time. If you hurry you can
catch her before dinner. Jeffries is probably in his office.”

  I bring up a map of the research base. Both are on the opposite side of the base from security. Just my luck. The geology lab is a public place, so I check the camera. Dr. Kara Gage is there talking to another scientist. I’d better run, but I pause. Do the looters have access to the real views? Why not? That worm could have easily done the same thing as I did. Plus it makes sense for them to have eyes on the base. They’ve probably been watching me in the Control Center. A creepy thought. And that also means they’ll see me running through the base.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  Think. I drum my fingers on the terminal. If I can get the real feeds and have the ability to turn them off for the looters, then I’ll control what they see or not see. Worming the worm!

  I’ve no idea if it’ll work, but I entangle with my strange…perceptive cluster in the Q-net and create a bypass for one camera, then another; by the third, the Q-net understands what I’m doing and finishes it for the rest of the cameras in seconds. I move all the feeds to the portable. I’m in the process of creating a worm hole so I can control the cameras with the portable, when a message pops up for me.

  It’s from Officer Tace Radcliff.

  2522:171: Hello, little worm, you are in violation of your probation. Please report to my office immediately.

  Ice flushes through my veins, leaving behind a numb terror. The looters know what I’m doing. I check the portable, but it appears my feeds are still good. Then I take a peek at the camera near Radcliff’s office. Someone leans out the door and waves at a couple people nearby. They disappear.

  Maybe they don’t know the extent of what I’m doing. But now I don’t have time to get to Dr. Gage or Jeffries. Although I’m not sure what they could do besides order everyone to hide—

  That’s it!

  The safest place for everyone is in their units. And the only way to get them there is to… I worm into a different part of the Q-net and trigger a base-wide sandstorm alert.

  The strident siren sounds very sweet to me. Gavin curses, but he follows the procedures. I grab the portable and head for the door. Before opening it, I tap in my route, programming the cameras through the portable to hide me from sight, using the worm hole. Hoping like hell that my actions don’t alert the looters, I leave. There’s only one person left who will know what to do.

  I check the portable frequently as I race through the crowded corridors, timing each turn to match the route I programmed. The alarm screeches overhead as I weave through the scientists and techs heading for their units. I reach the infirmary just in time to see Beau limping from his room.

  He’s buttoning his shirt and arguing with a nurse. “…have to help.”

  “I’m sure this is another false alarm. Return to your bed before you pass out,” the nurse orders.

  I grab his arm. “I’ll help Officer Dorey back to bed.”

  Beau looks at me. “You will?”

  “Yes. Radcliff sent me.”

  He pauses a beat, noting that I’m alone. “All right.”

  The nurse huffs. “You won’t have time to go to your unit, Lyra. You’ll have to stay with him. And lock the door.”

  Should I be concerned that I’m on a first name basis with the medical staff? Probably. “I will.”

  Beau lets me guide him back inside. I lock the door as promised.

  “What’s going on?” he demands.

  “You might want to sit down for this.”

  “Lyra.” His tone is dangerous.

  “Okay.” I explain as fast as possible. The words gush out of me in a torrent. Beau doesn’t say anything, but his face pales to an unhealthy color—and he wasn’t exactly in peak condition before.

  When I’m done he says, “You’re right.”

  “About what?”

  “I need to sit down.”

  I help him over to the bed. He perches on the edge and rubs a hand over his face. I shift my weight from foot to foot, silently urging him to hurry up and come up with a brilliant plan.

  “Sounding the alarm was a good move, Lyra. We need weapons. And then we need to rescue the others.”

  “Okay. Where are the weapons?”

  “In storage lockers.”

  “The looters have probably already confiscated them.”

  He smiles. “Radcliff is smarter than the average criminal. The lockers are at various locations throughout the base. Not just in security.”

  “That’s sneaky.” Color me impressed.

  “He can be. And as long as the looters haven’t changed who has access, I can open them.”

  “And if they have?”

  “There’s the master override. But only three people have that code.”

  I groan. “Let me guess, my mom, my dad, and Radcliff.”

  “Yup.”

  Huh. And they didn’t tell me. “I can worm into their accounts—”

  “It’s not in the Q-net. It’s not written down. They have to memorize it so it can’t be stolen.”

  Wonderful. “Is the override common knowledge?” In other words, would the looters know about it and change it.

  “It should be limited to security personnel and the upper levels of DES.”

  Who have a ton of security holes for worms to wiggle through. We exchange a glance.

  “Yeah, the looters probably know about it,” Beau admits.

  And all I have is a portable so I can’t check for sure. “Then let’s hope you can still open the weapon lockers.”

  On the map of the base, Beau shows me where the closest arms locker is and we plot a course. I set the cameras to hide us as we travel at a much slower speed than I’d like, but Beau, while able to stand, is still not fully recovered. The fact that he rests his hand on my shoulder for support tells me more about the state of his health than his efforts to mask his pain.

  The hallways are empty. I hold the portable out so we keep pace with the cameras. The sandstorm alarm stops in mid-shriek and we freeze. It’s a relief to my ears, but another level of anxiety twists in my guts.

  “It’s okay,” Beau says after a moment. “It’s supposed to stop when the storm arrives. As long as the all-clear signal doesn’t sound, everyone should remain in their units.”

  We reach the weapons locker after a hundred and one years. I hold my breath as Beau presses his palm to the scanner. My heart is hammering against my chest. Probably trying to escape. I don’t blame it. I’ve certainly put the poor thing through its paces.

  The lock turns green with a click. I about faint with relief. There’s a black duffle bag inside and Beau hands it to me. I hold it open as he fills it with a combination of pulse guns and other nasty stingers. When he’s done, I zip it up and sling it over my left shoulder.

  “Here.” He shoves a pulse gun into my hand, and touches a button.

  It flares to life, but I’m prepared and don’t drop it. “They have other weapons besides the pulse guns.”

  “Do you want to kill someone?”

  Ah. Good point. “What about you?” I gesture to the weapon in his hand.

  “This gives me options.”

  “Okay. What’s next?”

  “You need to plan us a route to the detention center that avoids the looters, and then sync up the cameras to hide us.”

  “Is that all?”

  “I didn’t say it would be easy.”

  “Oh yes, ’cause everything up to this point has been a breeze.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Beau says, ignoring my sarcasm. He claps me on the back.

  I long for a Q-net terminal, but I search for a safe route. And I realize we have a problem. “I can plan a route based on what I see now. But what happens when the looters move around? I can’t anticipate where they’ll be twenty minutes from now.”

  “Can you do it in stages? You know…just the next couple moves first. This way we don’t have to guess that far out.”

  “Yes, but it’ll slow us down considerably.”


  “Better than getting caught.”

  True. I keep working, but I scan ahead. When I reach the detention center, I spot yet another obstacle. “There are two guards outside.”

  Beau leans over my shoulder. “Hmmm. Are there any cross corridors nearby? Places we can hide behind until we reach that hallway?”

  “No. It’s in the middle of a long expanse.”

  He curses. “We need a way to sneak up on them.”

  My thoughts churn. Turn off the lights? No. Not with shadow-blobs in the pits. A distraction? That would announce our presence to everyone else. What did Jarren say about detention? Boring white walls. Maybe we can camouflage ourselves in white. I stifle a giggle over the image of pouring white paint over my head. What else did Jarren say?

  “The duct to nowhere.”

  “What?” Beau asks.

  “It’s one of those weird design glitches I showed to Beta team. Jarren used to complain that it’s a meter away from the ducts that cross over the detention cells. That he would have loved to use it to hide in and let the security officers panic when they saw he was gone.” Well, he used cruder language, but I didn’t think I needed to repeat it.

  “Can we access it? Is it big enough?”

  I check the base map again. Of course the duct isn’t marked, but I use it to help jog my memory. If we could get into housing unit three-oh-eight, then we can. I tell Beau, “I don’t how big it is or if there’ll be a vent to the hallway. Oh, and we need to get into that unit.” I glance at him. “I don’t suppose it’s yours?”

  “Our luck isn’t that good. Let’s just hope you have decent aim.”

  “Me?” I squeak. “I’ve never fired one of these.”

  “There’s always a first time.”

  I gape at him. That is so not comforting.

  He jabs a finger at the screen. “We don’t have any other options. Let’s get started.”

  We move slowly. I check our route and knock out the cameras as we go. Sweat soaks my shirt. The hallways are deserted—as they should be, but it’s still eerie. I jerk at every little noise. Our check-first-move-second plan alerts us to a couple looters in a corridor on our route.