Diggers: The Sharp Edge of the Universe (11 page)

“There we go,” Finn sighed.

“Now what?”
Mikayla said.

“I say we follow the glass surface through the water and figure out what the heck is going on,” Finn said. “What’s with the bright light?”

“And how in the universe did we come from space, dig through glass, and end up in water?” Mikayla added.

“
Time to explore,” Reggie said.

Chapter 16: Attack of the Blobs

The water, thick and heavy, seemed similar to the Depec Ocean on Galahad Odorine. Finn’s family had taken a vacation there once, and Finn had been one of the few cousins willing to swim in the ocean because it smelled like baked bean farts and had the deep yellow color of urine. The warm temperature of the water didn’t help. None of the adults would touch the water. Hook and
Vice
were the only cousins to join Finn in chasing the Pygmy fish. They were two years younger and twins, but at least a head taller than Finn. He couldn’t remember their birth names. They’d always been Hook and
Vice
, just like Finn would always be known as Noodle.

Mikayla hadn’t called him Tank since she had given him the nickname, but at least she didn't call him Noodle either. “Let’s stop here and have ELAINA scan the space outside before we go out there,” Mikayla said.

“Good idea, Mik.” Finn slapped her on the back.

Mikayla flew forward and barely caught herself before smashing into the navigational screens. Instantly, Reggie grabbed her by both arms and stood her upright.

“Okay?” He kept his hand on her shoulders and stood a lot closer than Finn ever thought he’d want to stand next to a girl.

Mikayla
blushed
a deep, blood red and looked at Reggie's hands.
“Yeah.
Thanks.”

Finn had the familiar queasiness he’d felt over the past couple of weeks every time he’d been forced to stomach the blossoming love affair between Reggie and Mikayla. The few times he'd been honest with himself, he had to admit he felt jealous.

Reggie was his best friend and Finn didn’t like thinking about Reggie getting cozy with the enemy. And Mikayla
was
the enemy in a lot of ways. She’d proven to be invaluable because of her strong science background, but that also had been the problem. She harbored science information, and until now, Finn had only been able to dream about the information Mikayla took for granted. She didn’t even seem to like science.

When Finn allowed himself, he had to admit she’d become a friend—the other part of the problem. He didn’t want to lose his best friend to his new friend, or worse, lose them both.

“ELAINA,” Finn almost screamed. This new anger surprised him, but it also felt satisfying because at the sound of his sharp tone, Reggie and Mikayla sprang apart. “Scan the area on the other side of the water!”

“Scanners show the air contains 25 percent oxygen, plus large amounts of H2O and other unknown gases, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly,” ELAINA said. “There is a 98 percent likelihood the air is breathable for humanoids.”

“Gosh.” Mikayla looked out the window. “Sounds like the humid rain forests on Earth.”

The boys nodded, even though none of them had ever been to Earth. Exploration and extraction stations like
Vortex
hadn’t been anywhere near Earth or any planet like it in the Milky Way for hundreds of years. The different Space Stations provided the only homes known to thousands of families for generations—like the eleven generations of the O’Reilly family Finn had been forced to read about. Finn's family had come from the Colony on Gortun Major. He wasn’t even sure how his family had come to live there, but his parents were proud to be 100 percent Earth descendants.

Of course, they all knew every current and historical detail about Earth because it and the other Earth communities in the Milky Way relied on the Space Stations for new forms of fuel. Because of Mikayla’s dad, or maybe because of the Diggers—maybe even because of the inventions by Finn’s family—
Vortex
had always been well ahead of the other Space Stations in
exploration. They’d been stationed farther out in space and had discovered the glass edge of the universe because of the Space Station's stellar crew. The
Vortex
discoveries had catapulted the different Earth-heritage planetary communities toward becoming some of the more advanced civilizations in all of the Milky Way.

“Well?” Finn pushed his fingers through his thick hair. “Are we ready?”

“Yep.”
Reggie's hand hovered poised above START.

Mikayla heaved a great sigh. “Okay. Let’s get it over with.”

Finn marveled again at Mikayla’s complete lack of any sense of adventure and discovery, at least outside the safety of a Science Lab.

He nodded toward Reggie and the DUMP heaved out of the water and dropped hard onto the glass. As the DUMP hit, they toppled over each other and landed in a pile at the front of the DUMP.

“Oooh!”
Mikayla knocked the back of her head on the deck.

Finn helped her up while Reggie grabbed his chair and yanked himself into it.

“Sorry,” Reggie said.
“Forgot to transform the DUMP back to normal.”

A few moments later they were traveling through space again.

“What in the universe is this place?” Mikayla stared out the portal.

Finn didn't know what he’d expected to see once they left the massive water bubble, but he definitely hadn't expected the immense shapes and random bright colors surrounding them.

Most annoying were the constant, unexpected slips from air back into massive blobs of water. Each time they encountered a bubble, Reggie had to transform the DUMP into its submersible counterpart and steer them out. It felt like a terrifying roller coaster ride, like the ones Finn had heard about on Feintus Qui. The minimal gravity on Feintus made the roller coasters at the amusements parks float and easily reach speeds faster than Mach 2. Just like on those rides, the sudden drop every time the submersible DUMP whooshed out of a water blob caused them all to scream.

“We’re going to die,” Mikayla wailed and covered her eyes.

After around the twentieth time it happened, Reggie had learned to prepare for the extreme change. He locked himself tightly in his chair and flew his hands over the navigational screen, quickly transforming the DUMP back to flying mode. They even started to giggle each time they hoisted themselves off the floor.

“Water blobs.
Air.
Water blobs. Air,” Mikayla repeated. “What does it mean?”

“No idea,” Finn admitted.

“Reg?”
Mikayla made her way over to Reggie and put her hand on his shoulder, “Is there a way, the next time we get stuck in a water droplet, to use it to move around?"

“What are you thinking?” Finn interrupted the lovebirds.

“I’m just wondering if we could move around better in one of the droplets,” Mikayla said. “In Dad’s, I mean, in the Science Lab, we used water in lots of different ways to extract gases from some of the discoveries. I wonder if while inside a water blob we might warm it up. Maybe the whole thing would rise and we could get a better look at all these shapes beyond the glass. It might be faster than this constant back and forth from flying to swimming.”

“Sounds good.”
Reggie nodded and smiled at Mikayla.

Finn wanted to tell them both they were crazy, but he had to admit her idea might work. Mikayla had already proven she knew a lot. She just hated everything she knew.

“Okay.” Finn couldn’t keep the frustration from his voice. “It’s worth a try. I guess.”

It didn’t take long to get stuck in another water droplet. The blobs seemed more abundant than air, even though every time Finn asked ELAINA to reanalyze the findings she told him the opposite was true.

“Okay,” Mikayla said when they suddenly found themselves unable to move.
“Looks like we’re in another one.
Some of these droplets must be as big as moons! Let’s try warming up the water and see what happens.”

Reggie sent the heated engine exhaust directly into the water droplet instead of running it through the air purifier. Every couple of minutes Mikayla asked ELAINA to analyze the temp and CO2 content of the droplet. Sure enough, both the temp and the carbon dioxide began to rise.

“We better put on the oxygen masks.” Finn dug in the closet and pulled out three oxygen masks.

Oxygen masks cinched to their heads, they watched and watched, but nothing happened.

“Well, space dust. I thought for sure it would work.” Mikayla frowned.

Before Finn had a chance to gloat, the droplet began to rise. Higher and higher they climbed. They all ran to the windows to get a better view of their surroundings.

“Nothing.”
Reggie searched out one porthole.

“I can’t see anything either!” Finn gave a frustrated kick at the closest chair. “Geez, it’s like looking through my Grandma Obernina’s glasses, and she was almost blind.”

“I’ve got it,” Mikayla yelled, and the boys almost fell over each other. “Reggie, move us out of the water droplet.”

Reggie scrambled to his back to his chair. “'Kay.”

His fingers flew over the navigational screen, and the DUMP slowly made its way out of the bubble. Finn pushed his face against the porthole, ready for the first sight of an object he could actually make out.

“Well,” Finn squinted out the porthole, “I can see more things now, but still can’t make—Ahhhhhhh!”

Something slammed into the DUMP, tossing it end over end. It rolled in and out of water droplets,
then
suddenly lodged into something hard. Mikayla and Finn flew all over the cabin. Reggie flipped and lurched in every direction, and when the DUMP finally came to a stop on a deep slant, Reggie’s face had turned a scary, pea soup shade of green.

Finn scrambled over Mikayla and pulled himself up to where Reggie hung like a freaky rag doll. “Reg, you okay?”

“Nuh-uh.”
Reggie unstrapped the restraints and fell to the floor.

Mikayla staggered up to the front and punched Finn hard, “You stepped on my head you, you….”

“Hey, no physical violence.
You can’t hit me!” Finn yelled. “It’s not allowed.”

“For your information, we’re not
in
the Milky Way anymore, genius!” She propped herself against the wall and made another fist. “If you ever step on me, or touch me, or breathe on me again, I’ll flatten y—”

Reggie moaned, and Mikayla and Finn ceased their arguing.

“Reggie, what’s wrong?” Mikayla grabbed onto his seat to steady
herself
.

Reggie gave Finn a long, knowing stare, “Just like Belch,” he said, and he threw up all over Mikayla.

Chapter 17: Microscopic Problem

Finn laughed until his sides threatened to burst open. Mikayla and Reggie sat at an odd angle across from each other in the back of the DUMP and stared at the floor. Every once in a while one of them threw Finn the crustiest glare they could muster, but it only succeeded in sending Finn into another fit of giggles. He laughed until drool seeped out of his mouth. He laughed when Mikayla tried to flip her hair and pieces of Reggie’s lunch fell to the floor.

After a while, Reggie and Mikayla couldn’t help themselves, and they started laughing too. They laughed at the DUMP still wedged into…whatever…at an uncomfortable slant. They laughed at the dried vomit on Mikayla’s red uniform, and at Reggie’s random motion sickness. They talked about Belch and they giggled about his armpits that smelled like old hamburgers and how his nickname was perfect in so many ways.

“Feels…good…to…laugh.”
Mikayla wiped away tears.

“We need to figure out what we’re stuck into,” Finn said as the last of his gut-wrenching laughter subsided, “and how to see
better
.
And where we are.”

Mikayla pulled herself up to the navigational screen. “That’s why I wanted to get out of the water droplet. I think I know a way to help us see our surroundings better. If we—”

Whatever they were wedged into began to move. “Whoa. What’s going on?” Mikayla screeched.

The DUMP bumped and jostled and the kids, once again, went flying in every direction.

Reggie had almost made it to the captain’s chair when the DUMP began to rock and pitch. He barely managed to hang onto the seat and strap in, then within seconds, the DUMP took flight.

“ELAINA.” Finn struggled to right himself. “We need a damage report on the DUMP.”

“Two sensor arrays sustained minimal damage, most likely due to the DUMP being stuck in the anomaly,” ELAINA sweetly explained. “Three deflector shields sustained minimal damage on the port side.”

“We’ve got to figure out how to navigate better or we’re gonna get killed.” Finn tossed away a pair of goggles that had smacked him in the face during the turbulence.

“I’ve been trying to tell you,” Mikayla yelled. “I have an idea to help us see our surroundings
and
navigate.”