Starbounders (6 page)

Resident advisors—including Kwan and Derek—were now wielding their warp gloves, using them to push slow-moving Starbounders-in-training out of the way of the onslaught of space slugs. Instructor Avendale and a few other trainers dashed out of a nearby equipment shed armed with what looked like high-tech fire extinguishers—metal hoses attached to handheld, frost-encrusted tanks. They sprayed blasts of freezing vapor at a pair of vreeks that were attacking the kitchen staff. Enveloped in the icy mists, the creatures let out high-pitched squeals and quickly slowed to a crawl. After another blast they were frozen solid.

Zachary turned to see a mucus-oozing vreek barrel past two of the trainers, knocking aside one of the stone benches as if it were made of balsa wood. Its gelatinous feelers seemed to be sampling the air, in hungry pursuit of human flesh. After a prolonged, deliberate sniff, the vreek honed in on Zachary. He wasn't sure if the creature was still angry from being shot with his photon bow, but it was heading straight for him and Kaylee with what definitely looked like vengeance on its primitive mind.

“I didn't shoot you,” Kaylee said, pointing at Zachary. “He did!”

Ryic stretched his malleable arms to double their length. At first, Zachary thought Ryic was coming to their aid, but then he covered his own head and curled into a ball. His skin suddenly hardened into a rock-solid exoskeleton.

“Zachary, Kaylee, follow my lead,” Ryic called out.

“Do I
look
like an armadillo?” Zachary asked.

Zachary made a running dive over the cookout table and slid up beside the ice-cream freezer. Kaylee followed behind him, taking cover nearby. Zachary could hear the still-charging vreek coming closer and he could feel his own heart beating faster. He took a breath and reminded himself that he was a Night and he was going to be okay.

Zachary pulled the cooling hose out from the back of the white tub and pointed its nozzle at the vreek. He sent a blast of freezing air at the monstrous slug, immobilizing it instantly.

More vreeks remained on the loose, and seeing their mutant siblings incapacitated only made them angrier. One was about to take out its rage on a group of Lightwing boys huddled together, when a hand encased in a warp glove emerged from a black hole in space and grabbed the creature by its tail. With a tug, the slug was pulled into the void, and Zachary watched as the vreek appeared thirty feet away in Derek's grasp. He attempted to wrestle the thrashing beast to the ground, but the vreek managed to get its mouth around Derek's other hand and bite down hard. Derek let out a scream, and with good reason. Zachary could see that three of his fingers had been swallowed up in the slug's maw. But before the vreek could eat more, an older female trainee armed with one of the extinguishers sent a blast of cold at the creature, freezing it in place.

The last of the vreeks were surrounded by a circle of trainees and resident advisors. Zachary couldn't see what was happening from where he stood beside the ice-cream freezer, but he let out a deep breath when the shrieking sounds echoing through the air finally stopped. The creatures had been subdued.

“We only have a few minutes before they thaw,” Instructor Avendale said. “Let's hurry and get them down to the cargo dock. We'll load them into the subzero freezer. Whoever's responsible for this is going to be taking a one-way trip to an asteroid prison.”

Zachary could see that she was glaring at Professor Olari.

“You should try some,” Kaylee said.

Zachary turned to see that she was holding a bowl of ice cream topped with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

“Really?” he asked. “During all of that, you decided to make a hot fudge sundae?”

“Well, I wasn't going to let perfectly good ice cream go to waste.”

I
nstructor Taylor, Indigo 8's galactic-safari guide, was standing at the front of the Ulam's briefing room. Her audience: thirty Lightwing boys and girls. They were being given one final lesson before departing on their first adventure into the outerverse. Zachary could hardly sleep the night before, and it wasn't because of all the excitement at the bonfire. He, like every other kid in his SQ, had huge hopes and expectations about this trip.

Instructor Taylor was showing them how to insert a lensicon, a contact lens with instant image recognition, allowing its user to identify whatever she or he was looking at.

“Gently rest the lens on your fingertip before placing it in your eye,” she said with a slight Southern drawl.

Instructor Taylor was joined by two others who'd accompany the Starbounders-in-training into space: Professor Olari, who would be identifying all the wondrous creatures that passed by outside the ship's viewing pods; and Dr. Carlos Rodrijo, a renowned celestial physicist who would be explaining the principles of spaceflight and galactic folds.

Zachary pried his lower eyelid open and slid his lensicon over his right eye. Immediately his vision became blurry and he thought maybe he had inserted it incorrectly. He was about to remove it when suddenly his vision cleared and a tiny set of crosshairs appeared in his sightline. Zachary reached out to touch it, but of course it wasn't there; it was a projection created by the lensicon.

“Each lens has been programmed with an encyclopedic database of every living and nonliving thing that has been discovered in the universe,” Instructor Taylor said. “To activate it, target an object within the crosshairs and blink twice.”

Zachary's eyes scanned the room, and the first object he focused on was a clear mouthpiece resting on a table behind Instructor Taylor. It looked similar to one that would be used for scuba diving, except it wasn't connected to any tanks. He oriented the tiny crosshairs so they targeted the mouthpiece, and blinked twice. As soon as he did, words appeared to float in midair; a heads-up display of information scrolled beside the mouthpiece.

THIS DEVICE, CREATED FOR OXYGEN-BREATHING LIFE-FORMS, PRODUCES A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT WHEN INSERTED INTO A SPECIES' O
₂
INTAKE HOLE.

IN ADDITION, IT GENERATES A THIN MAGNETIC REPULSIVE BARRIER AROUND THE USER'S BODY TO PROTECT IT FROM PARTICLE DEBRIS IN THE VACUUM OF SPACE.

A table of contents listing various subheadings followed, including
HISTORY, STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION, PERFORMANCE, and COMPLICATIONS
. Zachary turned his head before reading any further. This time his eyes fell on Professor Olari. He blinked twice.

THIS SPECIES HAILS FROM THE RINGED PLANETS OF TARTAROC.

FUELED BY PHYSIOLOGICAL INTERNAL COMBUSTION, THEIR ENERGY COMES FROM A SUPERHEATED CORE THAT SUSTAINS THEM FOR APPROXIMATELY ONE HUNDRED YEARS WITH NO NEED FOR FOOD, LIGHT, OR CHEMICAL INTAKE. THUS THEY ARE CAPABLE OF SURVIVING IN THE HARSHEST OF CONDITIONS.

WHILE MOST HAVE BECOME PHILOSOPHERS AND THINKERS, THE MORE AGGRESSIVE WAR TRIBES, UNDER THE COMMAND OF GENERAL NIBIRU, HAVE RAVAGED HUNDREDS OF DEFENSELESS POPULATED PLANETS.

Zachary was about to skip down to a menu subheading titled
CONFLICT WITH THE IPDL
when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see an imposing man with especially dark eyebrows standing behind him. Ryic and Kaylee were at his side.

“Mr. Night, come with me,” the man said. He directed his gaze to Kylee and Ryic. “Director Madsen would like to have a word with the three of you.”

Zachary's chest tightened. He stood up and joined his friends, and the man ushered them from the briefing room. The other Lightwings were too preoccupied with their lensicons to even notice.

Zachary, Kaylee, and Ryic kept silent on the walk to Director Madsen's office. Zachary knew they'd broken the rules by sneaking onto the starchery range, and he feared that some punishment was now coming. He tried to look relaxed, but his shoulders still felt like they were rising up to his ears.

The man with the eyebrows led them through a series of sloping corridors before arriving at a metal door. It opened, and a figure emerged, his face partially covered by a mask and his arms cloaked in long sleeves and gloves. It was impossible to tell if he was human or not. He passed the group without acknowledging them, and even the man with the eyebrows stepped out of his way.

The metal door had looked identical to any other, but Zachary was surprised by the room they found inside. The walls had been covered with wood paneling that made it look like the captain's quarters of an old-fashioned pirate ship. Sitting behind a large oak desk was an older black man with a curly gray goatee. He wore a fleece vest over a white T-shirt and a baseball cap with the Indigo 8 insignia—an infinity symbol with two ringed planets orbiting around it—on the front. A black Labrador lay on the floor beside him.

“Please,” Director Madsen said, gesturing to the chairs opposite his desk. “Let's talk about what happened last night. We're lucky no one was severely hurt. Even Derek escaped just needing a few artificial fingers.”

Zachary, Kaylee, and Ryic sat down. Zachary had the same queasy feeling he got the time he was called to the principal's office after a hallway scuffle with a bully.

“I know you were on the starchery range around the same time those vreeks got loose. Did you see anything suspicious? We know those creatures escaped from the Ulam. Notice anyone in the vicinity of the building?”

Zachary leaned forward in the hard wooden seat. His fingers nervously played with the deactivated warp glove in his pocket. He cleared his throat before speaking up.

“No. I felt something on the back of my leg and when I looked down, it was a vreek.”

“We tried to warn Kwan at the bonfire, but it was too late,” Kaylee added.

“For that, I applaud you,” Madsen said.

Zachary exchanged looks with Ryic and Kaylee. Suddenly all that tension that had built up in his shoulders released. His worry was gone.

“But you broke the rules by trespassing on the starchery range,” Madsen said, eyeing each of them in turn. “Your actions need to be punished. For your misconduct, you all just got yourself custodial duty. You'll be serving under Captain Wilcox on one of the freight ships heading out today.”

“Today?” Zachary asked, now feeling angry. “But we leave for our galactic safari in an hour.”

“Unfortunately you won't be going on that trip,” Madsen said. “You'll still get your first spaceflight. Only instead of stargazing and celestial sightseeing, you'll be mopping up lunar mold.”

Zachary's body was twisting inside. He remembered his parents and brother telling him how their first galactic safaris were the most magical experience of their lives. He wanted to snap back with another argument, but he knew it would only make things worse.

“Look on the bright side. I could have set your punishment on Saturday during the Octocentennial celebration.”

All of Indigo 8 had been buzzing about this. On Friday, every IPDL officer within 500 million light years would be gathered at Indigo 8 for the feast and ceremony. Except for the Elite Corps Starbounders, like Jacob, whose covert mission would never allow them to leave their posts.