Diggers: The Sharp Edge of the Universe (12 page)

The boys stared at her, blank-faced.

“Well, do you want to hear my idea or not?” Mikayla’s cheeks began to turn crimson.

“Yes,” Finn blurted, unable to comprehend what in the universe she was waiting for. She was, after all, a girl, and girls were harder to understand than any alien life form he’d ever met.

Mikayla flattened out the wrinkles in her red suit and knocked off a couple of barf chunks. “I think we should have ELAINA change the view on the main view finder, like you do on a microscope, until we can see everything.”

Finn’s anger rose again. Mikayla, with her all-important red Science suit and her Science rock star dad, could think up a great idea like this, yet she didn’t even like being a Scientist.

It just wasn’t fair.

“Sounds good.”
Reggie nodded his head too vigorously.

“ELAINA,” Finn
growled,
his anger about to get the best of him. “We need you to adjust the view finder slowly. We’ll tell you when to stop.”

“Starting now, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly,” ELAINA purred.

They watched the screen as the massive, blurry blobs became even blurrier.

“No,” Finn yelled. “Go the other way, ELAINA.”

“Okay, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly.” Her silky voice made Finn
more angry
.

Minutes passed and the blobs still looked like blobs. Then the minutes slowly, painfully, turned into hours. Dozens of times the DUMP popped into a water droplet, which meant they had to start from the beginning. To make matters worse, the moment they thought they finally could see defined outlines the light in the new world died out.

“So, it’s night time here?” Mikayla said.
“Wherever
here
is.”

“Must be.”
Reggie took her hand, and Finn had to stomach another googley-eye episode.

“There’s still a little bit of light.” Finn said. “We might be able to make out shapes.” He turned away from the love-fest and searched the screen for anything identifiable.

“We might as well get some sleep,” Mikayla yawned.

Discouraged, Finn reluctantly agreed. He slumped onto one of the sets of connecting seats at the back of the DUMP and grabbed a blanket. Reggie plopped his feet on the captain’s chair and leaned back. Mikayla took the other set of connecting seats across from Finn.

Finn rolled his eyes at the disgusting scene. For almost two weeks they’d woken up next to each other, well sort of. Finn usually woke to find Reggie on the ground next to Mikayla, who’d probably tucked the other blanket around him, and they were always holding hands. He just couldn’t figure out what those two saw in each other. Reggie was his very best friend and the best guy he knew. Unlike Mikayla, he seemed to feel words and speaking weren’t all that necessary. Mikayla, on the other hand, proved annoying in every possible form. Sure, he considered her a friend now, but that didn’t stop him from feeling completely frustrated with her almost every single minute of the day.

They were so opposite from each other. Reggie, tall and muscled but still thin compared to most Diggers, had inherited the flaming red hair of his Irish ancestors. His ginger hair was his most Digger-like trait, because 90 percent of the Diggers had some shade of red hair. Mikayla was short—well, the same height as Finn, which didn’t say much—and had thick, bouncy blond hair, which she used as an extension of her feelings. She’d throw it over her shoulder when she felt mad, happy, frustrated, sad—everything. She managed to chatter more than both boys put together. She always had to discuss things to exhaustion. Though the daughter of
the
Lee Fishborne, she hated science and Finn couldn’t help but despise her a little for that particular detail. If she loved science, Finn could just be jealous of her and everything would be fine. But her complete lack of excitement for everything scientific turned Finn’s jealousy into a loathing he couldn’t quite explain.

He pretended to be asleep, but watched them out of a cracked-open eyelid. Reggie tiptoed over to Mikayla, whose hand lay outstretched. She gave him a pillow and a blanket and he lay on the floor awkwardly, not wanting to lose her hand.

Finn
feinted
a loud snore and turned away.

# # #

The morning alarm clock—a head-over-heels tumble and a death dive toward the floor—garnered screams and yells from all of them. The DUMP had spun and bumped into something hard, sending Reggie careening toward the front windshield. Instead of his usual passing out or throwing up, Reggie pushed the flight button,
then
fell face-first onto the navigational screen.

“Oh gosh.”
Mikayla flipped hair out of her face,
then
settled in the captain’s chair where she’d landed after her tumble around the DUMP. “We have
got
to set up some kind of sensor to warn us about obstacles.”

“On it.”
Reggie belted himself into the navigator chair and went to work.

“ELAINA,” Finn yelled as he fell out of the maintenance closet he’d been slammed into. “Start focusing the view finder again.”

“Do you always have to yell?” Mikayla gave him a dirty look. “ELAINA’s only a bot, but I, for one, am so tired of listening to you yell all the time.”

Finn felt a rage like he’d never felt before. Furious, he rounded on Mikayla. “Well,
I
, for one, am sick and tired of you! I’ve had to watch your little
love affair
with my best friend for weeks. I’ve had to listen to you because of your background in science even though you hate the subject. I’ve had to listen to you complain about this entire trip, but no one
asked
you to come. We would’ve been
fine
without you.
Better than fine.
You’ve been a total waste of a person on this mission.”

Mikayla looked like she might cry, but she didn’t. Instead, she went off on her own snotty, frustrated tirade. “I wish I hadn’t come, either. I’ve had to endure your, your…substandard science skills. You treat everyone around you like dirt. You
never
acknowledge when Reggie and I come up with good ideas. Instead, you just get mad and pretend like the idea was yours. I may not…like science, but I know better than you what makes a good Scientist, and you aren’t one. Pathetic! You never listen to other people’s ideas. You think you’re the only one who should discover anything. You…you’re just like my father! He’s the reason why I hate science.”

Mikayla might as well have just punched Finn in the gut. Worse, Reggie quit his sensor reconfiguration to stand next to Mikayla and slip his arm around her. She’d succeeded in cutting him to the core. Finn had doubted himself since the moment they’d lost communication with
Vortex
, and Mikayla had just confirmed his doubts.

Reggie gave a heavy sigh, then stepped between them and took the captain’s chair. “Both wrong.”

Finn wanted to yell at him, but he still reeled from Mikayla’s words.

“Both right.” Reggie refused to look at anything but the screen.

Mikayla slumped in the chair next to Reggie and grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry, Reg. I shouldn’t have gotten mad.”

“Wrong person,” Reggie said. “Apologize to each other.”

Mikayla looked up at Finn and started to say something, but he turned away to stare at water blobs out the porthole. No way was he going to apologize to her, and he knew any apology she gave would be for Reggie, not him.

“Whoa!” Reggie said, still holding Mikayla’s hand.

Finn turned to see what Reggie was talking about.

“Looks like…a table,” Reggie said.

Chapter 18: Bearings

“Oh. My. Gosh,” Mikayla yelled so loudly that Finn had to slap his hands over his ears. They all moved together toward the main screen.
“ELAINA, stop right there.”

Finn snorted. “Oh, yeah, and
I’m
the yeller.”

She ignored him and searched the screen. “Look. That's definitely a chair.”

“Trash can.” Reggie pointed next to the table. “It’s a room.”

“ELAINA.” Finn forced calm into his voice. He wouldn’t give Mikayla the satisfaction of saying he mistreated ELAINA ever again, even if ELAINA was just a bot and had no feelings. “Can you widen the view but still keep the images this sharp?”

“Yes, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly,” ELAINA purred. “And thank you, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly, for not yelling.”

Mikayla fell into a fit of giggles.

A long black counter top that featured oval-shaped sinks without faucets circled the room. The group of tables in the center of the room circled a massive set of shelves filled with books. Other black tables ran in rows up to the front of the room, and on each table were two…

“Microscopes!”
Finn and Mikayla yelled together.

“Science Lab,” Reggie nodded.

“No way.”
Relief washed over Finn at the realization of this incredible discovery. “This is so cool.”

“Wait a minute.” Mikayla the buzz-buster frowned. “How the heck did we get here?”

“Uh, hello,” Finn said. “Were you not just with us for the past two weeks?
While.
We.
Were.
Cutting.
Through.
Glass?”

“And exactly where did we come from?
Hmm?”
Mikayla said.

“Stop it.” Reggie took them both by the arm and shoved them into the captain and navigator seats. “No more fighting.”

The two stared at each other, daring the other to speak. After a few minutes of the silent treatment, Finn grew bored. He surveyed the screen for any clue as to where they’d broken into this colossal new world, having left the vast reaches of space to end up in a Science Lab. He quickly decided this didn't look like a classroom, but actually more of a discovery room because of all the unnamed samples at different stages of being cataloged.

“ELAINA,” Finn made sure he didn’t have a hint of anger in his voice, “move the DUMP slowly around in a circle so we can see the entire room.”

“Yes, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly,” she purred.

“Wowww…” Mikayla whispered as the DUMP rotated. The room looked much bigger than they first thought. The rows of tables seemed to go on forever, and the other end of the room couldn't be seen from their current vantage point.

“What’s below us?” Finn asked. “ELAINA, show us the area below the DUMP.”

The view shifted to a field of light gray.

“Hmm.
Maybe we’re too close.” Mikayla leaned over the screen on the captain's side to get a better look. “ELAINA, can you navigate the area now? Can you take us up without getting us stuck in a water droplet or bumped by anything?”

“Yes, Ms. Mikayla Fishborne,” ELAINA said in her usual sweet voice.

ELAINA lifted the DUMP higher, but they still hit something that jarred and rocked them nearly senseless. So many water droplets hindered their progress, their slow ascent felt like
an
bumper car ride.

“Stop here,” Finn said. “Now slowly let us see the entire room.”

They stopped in one upper corner of the room. Below them they could see a single black table with two humongous boxes full of something shiny. They were alone in the room, but Finn doubted they would be for long.

“What kind of…being…would be found in a place like this?” Mikayla asked.

“A Science being,” Finn exclaimed. “ELAINA, can you navigate us to some of the tables?”

“Yes, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly. Where would you like to start?”

“Let’s just go down and see what’s on the table below us,” Mikayla said.

“Good place to start,” Reggie agreed.

Finn wasn’t surprised by Mikayla’s complete lack of adventure. But they had to start somewhere, and the boring boxes would be just as good a place as any.

ELAINA dodged water droplets on the descent and finally hovered just above the table.

“ELAINA,” Finn said, “
modify
the view so we can see everything on the table.”

The items slowly moved in and out of focus until two boxes appeared, clearly made out of some kind of metal Finn didn’t recognize. The boxes were filled with microscope slides arranged neatly in rows. A microscope sat next to them with a slide still in it. Symbols on the boxes must have been words of some kind, but it was a language none of them had ever seen.

“ELAINA,” Mikayla said. “Can you translate the markings on those boxes?”

ELAINA fell silent for a moment, “I have no record of the language in my system, Ms. Mikayla Fishborne.”

“Do you have anything in your data banks close to it?” Finn asked.

“Old Earth Hebrew is not unlike the markings, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly. The symbol language used on Vacuous Four is also similar,” ELAINA cooed. “I will need more reference material to make a full translation.”

“Need a book,” Reggie said.