Starbounders (24 page)

While inside, he felt as if he was in between the fabric of space and time, where distance was nothing and time may or may not have been passing. Whether he was traveling through the hole for a fraction of a second or thousands of years, once he came out the other side, he was back with his friends.

Loren was at the sealed door in an instant, pounding his fists on the thick glass. But Zachary and the others turned their backs on him as he desperately started firing photon bolts at the reinforced door.

“The only way to get back to the pitchforks is the same way we came,” Quee said.

Zachary pushed off, gliding through the long, white hallway that he had once run down. Ryic and Kaylee were having no problems keeping pace, but Quee was lagging behind, struggling to maneuver herself in zero gravity. Ryic stretched his arm and took hold of Quee's hand.

“Come on,” he said. “I'll help you.”

Wall panels were breaking loose and cracks were forming in the floor and ceiling below and above them. Tools and equipment from the neighboring rooms were now drifting through the thin air. Zachary spied a box of bio regulators moving past them in slow motion. He swam toward it and reached inside, pulling four masks out from the box. He kept one for himself and passed the other three to Ryic, Kaylee, and Quee. Zachary inserted his immediately and felt a rush of air reenergize him. Soon all four had the breathing apparatuses in their mouths.

Zachary reached the junction at the top of the staircase. The group was about to soar down the three flights of steps when they heard a loud crash. The far wall exploded open. A Clipsian slicer had smashed through the Callisto Space Station, tearing apart everything in its path: the walls, the stairs, the floors. Zachary and the others were just lucky they hadn't been crossing sooner, or they would have been in pieces, too.

The Clipsian ship went straight out the other side, leaving rubble and wreckage in its wake. Zachary could now see everything that was happening outside the space station. Pitchforks and battle-axes were annihilating the enemy fleet, facing down Nibiru's ships with superior speed and weaponry.

Quee pointed to the white circular hallway that led to the Callisto space hangar. To get there, they would have to cross a wide expanse littered with debris. There were chunks of staircase spiraling upside down, hovering platforms, and even metal rings floating in every direction. This was like the Qube's zero-gravity obstacle course times a thousand. But this was no race. Everyone had to get to the finish line.

Zachary gave a nod and pushed off, soaring past halogen tubes and pieces of dislodged banister. Springboarding off one of the staircases, Zachary propelled himself forward, leading the group to their destination. Or at least he thought he was, until Kaylee zipped past him. She gave him a satisfied smile. Ryic pulled Quee along behind them.

As they neared the other side, another slicer whizzed overhead, rolling to avoid the particle blasts coming from the pitchfork right on its tail. The Clipsian battleship's blades seemed so close, Zachary was surprised he didn't get a permanent haircut.

The group reached the circular hallway and raced all the way to the hangar, where they found their pitchforks, like everything else, beginning to drift away. Zachary and Ryic flew for their cockpit entrances. Kaylee and Quee did the same. They all took their seats and sealed themselves inside.

Without any power, the hangar doors weren't going to automatically open for them as they had when they arrived. Luckily, they had debris cannons. Zachary flipped a switch and fired, blasting the doors clear off.

Zachary removed the bio regulator from his mouth and activated the lang-link.

“Let's go back to Indigo 8,” he said.

The two pitchforks zoomed out of the space station in time to see Nibiru's armada fleeing, heading away from Earth as fast as it could.

Zachary waved his gloved hand before the Kepler cartograph, setting the waypoints for the fold between Io and Europa, the one that would take them back to the runway beneath the Ulam.

Once again his eye caught sight of the warp glove. This time as he looked at it, he couldn't help but think: while the glove had always fit him, now he fit the glove.

Z
achary was being led out of a debriefing room deep in the bowels of the Ulam. DiSalvo ushered him into the hallway, where Kaylee, Ryic, and Quee sat waiting on wooden chairs.

“I know that was a lot of questions in there,” DiSalvo assured Zachary. “You must be exhausted.”

It had been a whirlwind since they got back, filled more with precautionary procedures than fanfare or congratulatory hugs. As soon as Zachary and the others had landed their pitchforks in Indigo 8's starship hangar, they were met by a special team of IPDL officers dressed head to toe in protective suits. They were immediately taken to decontamination vaults to ensure there were no dangerous microbes on them, brought back from other parts of the galaxy. After being cleared, the next stop was the Ulam's infirmary, where Indigo 8's emergency-medical-assistance team injected Zachary and Kaylee with doses of vitamin serum and placed them in warm baths of gelatinous liquid. Ryic and Quee were sequestered in separate rooms to be given special treatments unique to their off-planet physiology.

The only permanent injury Zachary had received was an oddly shaped pattern of burns branded into the skin on his arm where Professor Olari had grabbed him. The medical team had tried to treat it with salves and ointments, but it seemed Zachary would be living with it for the near future.

Once all their vitals were checked and rechecked, the four of them were brought to the debriefing room, where they were individually questioned by a committee of IPDL intelligence officers about their time in the outerverse. Zachary had been the last to sit before the committee. Now he was rejoining his friends in the hall.

“Not exactly the hero's welcome I was expecting,” Zachary said.

“Was it just me, or did that guy who wouldn't come out of the shadows give you the creeps, too?” Kaylee asked.

“Definitely not just you,” Zachary said.

One of the inquisitors had remained hidden in the corner of the room. It was the same masked figure they had seen exiting Madsen's office before he punished them with freighter duty.

“And what was with all those questions about the Black Atom Society?” Ryic asked. “I've never even heard of it.”

“After all the talk about Nibiru and how he got away, the only thing they really seemed to want to know about was the perpetual energy generator,” Quee said.

“You're right,” Zachary said. “I even got the feeling they thought we were working with Skold.”

“The whole thing was weird if you ask me,” Kaylee said.

Henry Madsen approached from the other side of the hall, looking relieved. It was the first time they had seen him since their return.

“I want you to know that I take full responsibility for what happened to you,” Madsen said. “We're still trying to figure out how Loren sabotaged the dreadnought's starbox and got those felons onto the ship. You must know that this was not the punishment I had intended when I sent you on that freighter. But with the way things turned out, I guess it was most fortunate that I did.”

Zachary couldn't help grinning with pride.

“Humankind will never know that it was on the brink of destruction today,” Madsen continued. “And they'll never know that if it weren't for you, this planet we call Earth would be gone.”

Madsen led the group down the hall to the large open platform, and they all stepped inside. It began rising up.

“Professor Olari gave his life to save us,” Zachary said.

“I would have expected nothing less from him,” Madsen replied. “Did he give you anything before he passed? Anything at all?”

“No, sir,” Kaylee said.

Zachary and Ryic concurred. But then Zachary glanced down at the burn marks on his arm. It almost appeared as if they had formed a grid of blackened squares, just like the tattoos he'd seen on the knuckles of Quee's hacking hands. Zachary thought perhaps Professor Olari
had
given him something before he died. He was about to tell Director Madsen when he remembered what Olari had said: not to share this information with anyone.

Sputnik peeked his head out from Kaylee's pocket.

“I hope you're not planning on bringing that to any bonfires,” Madsen said.

“I thought maybe he could live with me,” Kaylee said. “You know, as the Lightwing girls SQ's pet.”

“I'll see what I can do.”

The platform arrived at the ground floor of the Ulam. Zachary saw his mom and dad sitting on a bench waiting for him. He was running into their arms as they stood up.

“Mom, Dad,” Zachary said.

“Thank God you're alive,” Zachary's mom said.

Through their tight squeeze, Zachary could see that Ryic and Quee were standing off to the side with Madsen, while a plainly dressed, sweet-looking woman held Kaylee close. He couldn't help overhearing.

“I know your dad wanted to be here,” Kaylee's mom said. “He got stuck doing some business in the Tranquil Galaxies.”

“That's okay, Mom,” Kaylee said. “I understand.”

Kaylee's mom looked at her, surprised.

“Wait,” she said. “That's it? You're not upset?”

“No. In fact, I have a whole new appreciation for what Dad does.”

Zachary's dad stepped back and got his first good look at the cuts and bruises on Zachary's face. His mom finally released her grip on him.

“If I had lost you, I don't know what I would have done,” she said.

“I'm okay,” Zachary said. “Really.”

Zachary's mom gave him a soft smile that seemed to say she was okay, too.

“You should see what I can do with this glove now. I've gotten pretty good at it.”

“Just like your brother,” Zachary's dad said. “A warp-glove whiz.”

“I think I'm finally worthy of the Night name,” said Zachary.

Zachary's mom looked into his eyes and put her hands on his shoulders.

“Zachary, you didn't need to do something heroic to be a Night. You just needed to be yourself.”

Suddenly Zachary felt a weight lift off his shoulders. It was as if he were floating in space.

Zachary tugged on the rudder of a solar sailboat, causing it to tilt on its side. Ryic clung to the railing for dear life as the boat zipped across the windless lake. Zachary eyed the enormous translucent sail catching the rays of sunlight that powered the boat forward at breakneck speed.

“Watch out, crossing your bow!” Kaylee called out from another boat.

She and Quee were cutting them off, blocking their light and scraping alongside them as they passed.

“I never should have let you guys talk me into this,” Ryic said.

“Relax,” Zachary said. “Quee hacked the doppelform generator. Anyone looking will find the four of us studying in the Skyterium. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Madsen sends us all off on custodial duty again?”

Zachary tacked, flipping the sail to the opposite side of the boat and turning the rudder. Now he was charging toward the final buoy, just a length behind Kaylee.

“What do you say we make this extra interesting?” Kaylee shouted back at Zachary. “Not only does the loser do the winner's Celestial Physics homework for the week, but let's throw in that Outerverse Languages report, too.”

“You're on,” Zachary said.

The two solar sailboats raced for the finish line, nose to nose.

“Aw, come on,” Ryic cried. “No more bets!”

“Get used to it, buddy,” Zachary said with a smile. “The year's just getting started.”

asteroid prison:
a remote location used to house the most dangerous intergalactic felons in the outerverse.

aux-bot:
a maintenance robot used for planetary and off-planet repairs.

battle axe:
a large IPDL starship named for the sharpened metal blades protruding from its hull.

Battle of Siarnaq:
a famed intergalactic battle in which a small Starbounder battalion defeated over a thousand Clipsians under Gerald Night's (Zachary Night's grandfather) command.

Binary Colonies:
outerverse settlements inhabited by sentient robots.

Black Atom Society:
a secret scientific organization with ties to the Callisto Space Station.

buckler:
a small, defensive starship used by IPDL security forces.

Callisto Space Station:
an IPDL research facility hidden among the moons of Jupiter.

Cerebella:
the hyperintelligent mainframe computer that runs all of Indigo 8.

Chameleon:
a Capture the Flag–style game played at Indigo 8.

charc:
a slang for Clipsians in reference to their charcoal-colored skin.

clairvoyant:
a star vessel used for galactic safaris, optimal for sightseeing due to its external glass pods.