Colonization (20 page)

“Then what were—”

Before I could finish my sentence, a glimmer of silver caught my eye. I raised the binoculars and focused on the spot, adjusting the range of the lens. A Corsair’s wing poked through the horrific garden like a broken and discarded toy. My insides squeezed so hard I couldn’t take in another breath.

Corvus put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll get them out.”

I’m glad he didn’t add
if anyone is alive in there
.

The Corsair must have gone straight down because no tracks cut into the blossoms. The hilly terrain provided no runway. The ship must have crashed. So did my heart. I’d sent him there.

Corvus kept his cool, assessing the situation. “I see a path down the ridge toward the east. We’ll have no trouble getting down there. The only problem is reaching it through all the poisonous plants.”

I tried to settle down and think about how long it took them to explode in the greenhouse. I picked up the binoculars and focused on the blossoms. It looked like most of them were in what Mom called phase two of the growth cycle. The pods were still forming.

“If I’m right, we have a few days before they become dangerous.”

“What about our masks?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure they’ll help, but I’m keeping mine on just in case.”

“Okay.” Corvus tightened the straps of his. “Let’s kick some plant butt.”

We climbed down the incline toward the valley floor. The closer I got to the flowers, the more I wanted to hold my breath. I had to remind myself the microbes couldn’t get to me until they splattered and became airborne. The faster we went in, the faster we’d get out. I plunged ahead, each step a large leap.

The stems towered over our heads, and the plants weren’t even finished growing. They had another few days, which meant they could possibly rise up out of the gorge and blow down the ridge toward the colony.

“How are we going to get through?”

Corvus took out his wire cutter and hacked the first few down, making a path. I remembered the way he’d confronted the Trillium Bisonate without fear. “We’ll cut our way through.”

I reached in my pocket and took out the wire cutters he’d given me.

“You kept them?”

“Of course I did.”

What did he expect me to do with such an expensive tool? Still, his happiness made me blush. I hacked at the first plant in my way, and it fell in a limp arc to the ground. I wished I could have cut them all to shreds, but time was against us, and we had to get to the ship and get everyone out before the pods started to explode.

It took us an hour to hack a path through. My arms dripped in plant ooze by the time we reached the ship. The Corsair had struck the ground at a side angle, gouging into the turf. I ran around the half-sunken wing to the side where the numbers were painted. There it was: 747.

“Hello!” I pounded my hands on the metal. “Is anyone in there?”

The silence stung my body and shattered my soul. I tried again. “Hello?”

A muffled banging came from inside. I squeezed my ear against the metal and heard it again, this time with what I thought might be voices.

“Corvus, I heard a noise. Someone’s alive.”

“Where’s the door?” Corvus circled the ship.

“Oh no. It’s crushed underneath the turf.”

Just as I spoke, a popping sound erupted behind us, sending a sickening jolt of energy through my veins. I’d heard it once before in Mom’s lab. “No, no, no.”

“What is it?”

I whipped my head around, but all of the pods near us were still intact. “The plants. Some of them have blossomed early.” I looked at Corvus. “What should we do?”

“Dig.” He threw himself onto his knees and tore through the turf. “Hurry.”

I’d never seen him move so fast. In a delayed reaction, I knelt beside him and began to pull the long strands of vines from the Corsair’s belly. As we dug, another pod exploded, and another. I thought microbes squirmed all over me. I slapped at my skin, but nothing was there. I couldn’t see them anyway.

“They haven’t exploded near us.” Corvus put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Keep digging.”

“Okay.”

The top of the hatch poked out through the turf, and I clawed at the frame. “There it is!”

Corvus spoke through clenched teeth as he dug. “It won’t open until we unearth the bottom.”

Turf piled up around us in heaps. I didn’t think it could grow so deep into the black crystals. At least the vines had cushioned the Corsair as it went down. I couldn’t imagine how the hull would have looked if it hit the sharp crystals instead.

We reached the bottom of the hatch and I had to swipe away dead flowers, my hands touching pods with microbes writhing around inside. I couldn’t imagine what Mom would say. Shrugging it off, I wiped my hands on my pants and slapped the door panel.

“Stand back.” Corvus pulled me away just as the hatch rose.

I held my breath. The moment hung in the air for an eternity. The only sound was the buzzing of the motors lifting the hatch.

The first face I saw was the last person I ever wanted to see. I almost stepped back and gagged.

Corvus spoke from behind me. “Nova, are you all right?”

She ignored him and stared straight at me with a mix of disgust and surprise. “You’re part of the search and rescue team?”

“We’ve come to help.” Corvus offered his hand.

Nova hesitated, then slipped her hand in his.

“Nova, we have to hurry. Is everyone else inside?”

Nova’s ravishing auburn hair looked greasy and flat. “Yes. Everyone’s okay, but we’ve been stuck for days. Lyra has a broken leg, but she’ll live.”

“I’ll help carry her out.” Corvus jumped inside, and Nova turned to me. “Where’s the rest of the team?”

Was it so hard for her to believe Corvus and I could get this far on our own? “This is it. It’s just us.”

“What?” Her eyes flared like emeralds under firelight. “Where’s the rescue ship? How are we supposed to get back?”

“We have to climb back over the ridge. There’s a Landrover parked at the edge of the turf.” I neglected to tell her about the state it was in. I didn’t think it would improve her already nasty mood.

“Climb over the ridge?” Her face contorted so much her mask scrunched up.

“Enough complaining,” Corvus yelled from the hatch. “Help me get Lyra out.”

I ran to him, leaving Nova to gripe. As I stuck my head inside the ship, Sirius lifted Lyra’s leg. The others put their arms underneath her body.

Sirius locked eyes with me, and I gushed with a mix of emotions.

“Annie, I can’t believe you found us.”

I didn’t want to have this conversation with everyone around, but there was no time for it otherwise. The pods were exploding, and I didn’t think we’d have the chance again. “Sirius, I’m sorry I sent you over the ridge. I didn’t know about the dangerous winds.”

“I’m glad you did.” He waved his arm around. “Have you taken a look around? Nova says the flower she gave you matches the plants surrounding us. We’ve found the source. You’re going to save the whole colony.”

“That’s if we can get out alive,” Corvus interrupted Sirius’s syrupy tone. “The red pods are already exploding around us, sending small microbes into the air. Put on your masks and keep them on. We have to hurry.”

Lyra moaned. “It hurts to move.”

“Be gentle,” Alcor instructed as Corvus and Sirius brought her up out of the hatch. I noticed he had a bandage wrapped around his head. Blood stained the white cotton above his right eye. Just looking at it gave me a headache. I remembered my dream and wondered how traumatizing the crash must’ve been.

We slipped on our masks as Alcor pulled a fold-up stretcher out from the medic closet onboard the crashed hovercraft. He secured Lyra as best he could. Alcor and Sirius carried either side while Corvus and I led the way back through the path we’d carved out of the plant husks. Nova trailed behind.

Popping noises followed us as we hustled through the plants. I winced, scrunching up my eyes.

Corvus took my hand and pulled me forward. “Come on.”

I stumbled a few times, and each time I fell I thought I’d die right there, covered in microbes. Corvus always pulled me up. I cast my eyes ahead to see if any of the pods were swelled in stage three of the life cycle, but I realized the majority of early bloomers must have blossomed where the valley mist was the thickest, at the center. We were lucky in at least that much.

We made it to the ridge’s edge and started to climb. Lyra’s stretcher slowed us down, and we had to take turns grabbing a side and hauling her up.

“How tall do these plants grow?” Alcor took up the stretcher by my side.

Should I tell them the truth?
I figured I owed them as much. “In another few days, they might rise up out of the valley.”

He put a finger up and tested the wind. “I’m not a weather analyst or anything, but the way the wind is blowing, I’d say the entire colony is downwind of this valley. A storm’s brewing on the horizon.”

I looked up to where he gestured and my breath caught in my throat. Black-purple storm clouds hung in the distance. “We need to move faster.” I hoisted up Lyra’s stretcher and pushed forward, ignoring my aching muscles. “Now.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Race

“Why didn’t you notify Lieutenant Crophaven of our coordinates?”

It had only been a few hours and already Nova grated on my nerves. As we crested the ridge, Corvus had taken my place holding Lyra’s stretcher, leaving Nova and me to find the best way down. Not the ideal pairing, if you asked me.

“I tried to, but he ignored me.” I jumped from one incline to another, then turned to glare at Nova.

She snarled. “What about the search parties?”

“They were all headed in the opposite direction.” I tried to explain, but I felt as though I talked to a mis-programmed computer.

“That’s because Sirius deviated from course.” Nova’s voice seeped with disgust. “He endangered all of our lives for a whim.”

“Nova, he was right. If you haven’t already noticed, an entire valley of that awful plant is behind us. It’s very likely that oncoming storm will blow the microbes right down onto our colony and kill everyone.”

My voice rose as I spoke, and I took a deep breath to try to calm myself before I started to punch some sense into her.

Nova’s eyes narrowed. “You asked him to scout here all on speculation. You’re not even sure it will affect the colony.”

“Look behind you. I think a field of those red flowers is proof enough.”

“We’ll see what Lieutenant Crophaven thinks.” Nova stuck her nose up in the air. “I’m not going to support you on this. I was dragged along against my will, with no knowledge we defied orders, and that’s how it will stay.”

“Fine. You don’t want to take responsibility, then you don’t have to.” I jumped down onto another slab.

“You don’t have an excellent reputation to waste.” Nova jabbed her thumb against her large breasts. “I do.”

Her words stung. My reputation wasn’t as good as hers, but she didn’t have to stick it in my face. I stood, unable to move, as if she’d thrown a dart into my back.

“If you were so intent on seeing what was behind the ridge, you should have gone instead of asking him to do it for you.” Nova spat her words out and pushed ahead of me.

“Not all of us are team expedition leaders, Nova. We’re not all as successful as you. It’s not easy to get here without a Corsair.”

I stopped on the ledge and clutched an outcropping of crystal. Frustration and anger welled up inside me, boiling until I thought my head would explode like one of those pods. As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. I didn’t need Sirius to go after the ridge. I could have done it myself. I just didn’t have the nerve.

A hard coil formed inside my stomach, and I straightened up. Somewhere along the way, I’d found the strength inside myself. Now I needed it more than ever.

Nova was headed for a dead end. She hadn’t come up the ridge in the first place, and so her navigational skills were only guesswork. I’d climbed this ridge and knew just where to go.

I yelled at her, “Nova, you’re going the wrong way.”

She froze and I pushed past her, taking up the lead.

“You’re right. I should have gone myself. I’m just as capable as a stuffy-nosed team expedition leader who thinks she’s better than someone who expected the commander to just dump a high position on her. Maybe you were right then, but you’re not now. I’m gonna get us out of here.”

Her lips formed a thin line as I turned away. Smiling to myself, I called out to the others. “Over here. It’s the best way.”

***

Night fell in a cold hush of lavender twilight. Every muscle in my body told me to stop while every neuron in my brain screamed to push on. We reached the bottom of the ridge, but we still had to find the Landrover and plow our way back through the jungle.

The ridge blocked any vision of the oncoming storm, but static friction sizzled in the air behind us as if Paradise 21 concocted the maelstrom to rid itself of us all.

“Can’t we stop for the night?” Lyra complained. “All this bumping up and down is making me sick.”

“No,” I snapped. “Absolutely not.”

“Annie’s right.” Corvus said as Alcor handed him his half of the stretcher from the last outcropping of the ridge. “We have to keep going to warn the others in time before the storm hits.”

I wished again for our locators to work and checked mine. The screen remained blank, even when I ejected and reinserted the energy cell. If only we could get help and alert the colony at the same time. Life wasn’t that easy. It never was.

As I slipped the locator back into my pocket, Corvus approached and whispered under his breath, “Annie, do you remember where the Landrover is?”

I scanned the horizon, trying to spot landmarks. The crystal field sprawled out before us in a monotonous prickle of shards. Panic rose inside me. What if we couldn’t find it? I whipped my head around.

Focus. I can do this.

The alien ship lay behind us to the right. I traced our journey back from there. “I can find it.”