Diggers: The Sharp Edge of the Universe (17 page)

“And you’ll be able to do this with every slide?” Mikayla asked.

“Yes, Mikayla.”

“Wow.” She sat in navigator's chair. “We could make
real
discoveries.”

“I’m in,” Finn said.

“Me too,” Reggie said.

Mikayla stared at nothing for a long time. Finally, Finn had to nudge her hard.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I want to go, but this feels like too much responsibility for a bunch of kids.”

“No,” Reggie said.

“Reggie’s right,” Finn said. “We’d have help from Manuaar, and I bet there are some people on
Vortex
who’d go along with us.”

“No,” Mikayla said. “I don’t want…my Dad would…I won’t go if we have to bring….”

“We’ll pick,” Reggie said.

“Manuaar,” Finn said to the alien, “can we select our crew? Can we be in charge of who gets to come along and who doesn’t?”

Manuaar stepped away from the microscope and had a whispered conversation with the Leader Council. Returning to the microscope in his fish-like fashion, he peered into the viewfinder. Finn hated that he couldn’t read the emotions on any of the aliens' faces.

“The Leader Council agrees you should be able to select the crew, but they ask that you choose wisely,” Manuaar said. “They are concerned some of your kind will not be fit for our type of travel. We’ve observed that many of your people spend most of their time fighting and scavenging the other planets. We will not allow that to happen. Nothing will be taken from any of the galaxies.”

Mikayla gave a huge sigh of relief. “As long as we don’t pick my dad, I’m in.”

“I’m happy you all are willing.” Manuaar said.

Finn grinned, thinking that there couldn’t be anything cooler than making new discoveries among hundreds of new galaxies.

Chapter 25: The Scout

Finn shoved the blast shield off his face and wiped the sweat off his brow.

Diggers were practically born with sonic torches and titanium hammers in their hands. If it was a tool of any kind, they knew how to use it and use it well. Tools and creating things were the only aspects about Digging that Finn had ever really liked.

The extra delicate work required them to stop every few minutes to examine the specs Manuaar had drawn up. The robots had to be assembled just right, which meant this prototype robot had to be perfect since it would be used to replicate the rest.

Reg stopped welding the robotic arm to the shoulder casing. “Doesn’t fit,” he said.

Manuaar stood at the giant view screen the aliens had synced up in the Science Lab. They all still had to wear their makeshift headgear for speaking, but Finn liked being able to see all of Manuaar and his surroundings a lot better than just staring into Manuaar’s eyeball all day long.

“Reggie,” Manuaar said. “I believe the shoulder arm connection should be a half…centimeter, I believe you call it, lower.”

Reggie checked the specs.
“Yep.”

“Yeah, looks like a half centimeter to me,” Mikayla said.

She seemed completely out of her element. Sonic torches, photon hammers, micro-optic wiring, and sensor arrays—all were completely foreign to her. She did her best to keep up with the bot-building and not get in the way or irritate Reg or Finn, but really, the only thing left for her to do was try to manage the build.

It had driven him nuts at first, but Finn had spent a few weeks learning how to ignore Mikayla when she tried to manage things. He even thought her efforts were kind of funny sometimes.

Reggie’s skill at building stuff seemed to raise him to a higher level of “cute” in Mikayla’s mind. More than once, Finn had caught her staring at his muscled arms. It didn’t look like their relationship would end anytime soon. Well, as long as it didn’t jeopardize their new jobs, they could swap slobber all day long, for all he cared.

“I think we’re finally ready to attach the hea-Whoa! What’s going on?” Finn shouted.

The blank microscope slide they’d taken up residence on shook and waved violently. “Manuaar, what’s happening?”

The scene outside the ship looked just as confusing. All they could see when they looked at Manuaar through the viewfinder were blurry colors, and pitching and jarring.

“I will not let you take it!” Manuaar’s raised voice sent chills through Finn. He’d never seen Manuaar show this much emotion. “I will not let you!”

“We’re outta here.” Reggie pressed the controls and they flew off toward the ceiling in one corner of the room.

The scuffle between Manuaar and the stranger lasted for at least fifteen minutes. The two aliens rolled on the ground and cursed each other’s families. Their screeches and yells sounded more like two wild animals fighting over a fresh kill. Finn couldn’t help but to laugh, even though he didn’t like seeing Manuaar fighting. The stranger finally ripped the microscope slide out of Manuaar’s hands and raced out the door.

“Are you still here?” Manuaar struggled to stand and searched the room. “Young ones, are you still in this room? I heard Reggie say you were ‘outta here.’ Did you fly away, or did Mallaur take you?”

“We’re still in the room,” Mikayla said. “Reggie flew us up to the ceiling in the corner.”

“What in the galaxies just happened?” Finn said.

“As you could probably see, he was a scout.” Manuaar had a definite hint of irritation in his voice as he stood and straightened his clothing.

“Uhh…” Finn said. “Okay. And a scout is?”

“He was hired by a competing Science Lab to appropriate your ship and all of you.” Manuaar said.

“He wanted to steal us?” Mikayla’s jaw dropped.

“Well,” Manuaar said, “in simple terms, yes. He wanted to steal you. But, thanks to Reggie’s quick thinking, he only managed to take the empty slide your space vehicle sat on.”

“
Soooo,
let me get this straight.” Finn rubbed his hairless chin. “Your people think violence is bad, but stealing is okay?”

“
Some
of my people think stealing is okay,” Manuaar said.

“What would you have done if he’d gotten away with us?” Mikayla asked.

“I would have gotten you back.” Manuaar said.

“You would’ve
stolen
us back,” Finn said.

“Yes, Finn.”
Manuaar looked straight into the viewing screen and didn’t blink. “I would’ve stolen you back.”

“What would the Leader Council have done to him, if they found out he’d stolen us?” Mikayla asked.

Finn imagined all kinds of tortures Manuaar's people probably would’ve justified and deemed nonviolent. Maybe they’d take the scout’s family away, or maybe he would have to eat dirt or clean toilets.

“Nothing,” Manuaar said.

“What do you mean ‘nothing’?” Finn said.

“The Leader Council does not involve itself with silly disagreements. Its members do not care who is in charge of you and your expeditions. If my attempt to retrieve you proved unsuccessful, they would have appointed someone else from the other science team's group to take charge of your expeditions,” Manuaar said.

“That’s heartless,” Reggie said.

“It is our way.” Manuaar was back to his emotionless self. “I will contact the head of our Science Lab and inform him of the recent events. He will render our lab completely secure by the end of this day.”

“Somehow, I don’t feel safer,” Mikayla said.

“Please do not bother yourselves with this. Go ahead and continue building the prototype bot,” Manuaar said.

With no better ideas to pursue, Reggie and Finn mounted the bot's head and finished the wiring while Manuaar disappeared for a few hours. Just as they were installing the sensor arrays into the eye sockets, Manuaar showed up with four aliens wearing gray uniforms.

“Who are they?” Finn asked when Manuaar didn’t offer any information.

“They are guards,” Manuaar said. “By the end of the week we will have a new Science Lab constructed that will be safe for all of us.”

“You all can build an entire building in less than a week?” Finn couldn’t believe it. Entire buildings could be built very fast in the Milky Way, but not in less than a week.

“No,” Manuaar said. “We will have a small campus built by the end of this week. Please do not worry. It will be completely secure.”

Reggie gave a low whistle. “Impressive.”

“The bot is almost ready,” Finn said. “We’re installing the sensor arrays now, and then we’ll test it.”

“Very good news,” Manuaar said. “When you are finished, we will replicate the bot and begin construction on the ship.”

“Will you have the ship ready by the end of the week too?” Finn laughed at his own joke.

“Possibly,” Manuaar said.

Chapter 26: A Blast of a Family Reunion

“Wwwooowww….” Finn surveyed his surroundings.

They’d taken part in every moment of its construction, but, still, to be standing on their very own ship overwhelmed him.

“Yeah,” Mikayla whispered.

“Smells new,” Reggie said.

The
Scout
, the name Mikayla had chosen during construction, was even more advanced than some of ships the Quiglarians used. Finn hated that Mikayla got to name the ship, but she was, after all, a girl. The aliens seemed to only really listen to her, like everything she said couldn't be anything else but final and correct.

Manuaar didn’t like the name “Scout” at first, but when Mikayla told him to think of it as a jab against the other Science group for trying to steal them, he seemed all for it.

Finn came up with the acronym “United Galaxy Scout,” or UGS-1, and Mikayla didn’t scoff at it, so he felt the name was at least a fifty-fifty deal.

Finn watched as Mikayla and Reggie fell into a fit of giggles. They stood inside their new massive spaceship—at least it seemed massive to them. The aliens, now known as Quiglarians—which made Finn happy because although it was technically the closest translation ELAINA could come up with, it fulfilled his promise to his fish Quigley—had managed to build a perfect pico-sized spaceship after they'd replicated thousands of bots from Finn and Reggie’s prototype.

The ship, one thousandth the size of a Quiglarian nano, had taken less than a week to build. Mikayla had pointed out that building something so small would of course take much less time than building a giant ship to house the aliens, which sparked a rather heated debate over size relativity and whether a microscopic ship or an enormous ship would be easier or faster to build.

Reggie ended the debate by saying, “Both are hard.”

The Quiglarians even included their own incredibly advanced technologies. The bathrooms no longer flushed by verbal command because the Quiglarian water infuser used special water-flow sensors. Water also powered the ship's power source and the Quiglarians assured the Three—their name for Mikayla, Finn, and Reggie—that a water power core could draw vapor straight out of space if needed. If vapor wasn't present, the ship had a backup system that could run by burning space dust and debris. The sleek navigational deck housed computers that were highly sensitive to the slightest command. The Quiglarians were even able to integrate ELAINA into the ship’s computer system, which gave the
Three
access to all of the records housed in her memory banks.

The ship, a hundredth the size of the
SS Vortex
, traveled at least a hundred times faster. Best of all, Finn marveled, they would never have to go into stasis again. The water-based system maintained
a space
/time equilibrium throughout the entire spaceship, never before achieved in their galaxy.

“This has got to be the coolest ship ever made.” Finn ran his hand along the Captain’s computer console.

“Yep.”
Reggie sat in the Navigator's chair and began to test the super-fast computer.

“Manuaar?”
Mikayla swiveled her Science station chair around and faced the wall-sized screen. “Thank you for all of this.”

“I am glad it meets your needs, Mikayla,” Manuaar said. “Well, are you all ready for your first expedition?”

The Three sighed and nodded. None of them felt truly prepared for what was about to happen.

Manuaar pulled out a long dropper, aimed it at the spaceship, and sucked it in. Finn felt a pulling sensation, much like riding his favorite roller coaster on the amusement park deck of the
SS Vortex
.

The force pushed Finn into the Captain’s chair, a seat he hadn’t wanted to try. Mikayla and Reggie decided unanimously to make Finn captain, and Mikayla said Manuaar seemed pleased with their decision. Finn had to take her word for it. The only time Manuaar came close to showing true emotion—besides his scuffle with Mallaur—was on Mikayla Day when the parade ended and everyone had stopped chanting Mikayla's name. When the Quiglarians honored Manuaar with a medal, Finn thought he might have seen the smallest hint of a tear in the alien's eye.