Carly elbowed Chris. “Sarcasm suits you.”
The group smiled. It was a short-lived moment of amusement, but it was better than nothing. They split up and got to work.
Gabriel and Ravi began investigating the engines of the Cloud Kitten, convinced they could get it to work on less fuel than it had been using. STEAM and SUMI calculated how much material would be needed to give them even the shortest of bursts.
It occurred to Carly that now that they had so many of the elements just sitting in the Element Fuser, couldn’t they use some of them to reenter Gamma Speed? After all, if the fuel was made from chemicals that were supposed to mimic the elements, why not use the real deal?
But when she asked him, Chris shook his head. “Those all need to go into making the Source. We can’t afford to dip into any of them. Clearly, they are not replaceable at this point.” He had spent the last few decades of his life working toward collecting those elements; he would never risk anything happening to them.
“But if we can’t get to Dargon, there won’t be a Source to make,” Carly pointed out.
“I’m sorry, the answer’s no,” he said, and went back to fiddling with the communication system. He hadn’t given up on trying to reach Shawn, even though he knew that radio waves could never reach that far, not in time to help them, anyway.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Anna whispered to Carly.
—
Carly knew Chris was right when he said they’d need all the elements to create the Source in the end. Still, she had determined that only three elements with even the tiniest amount to spare might help. When combined, the elements wouldn’t get them into Gamma Speed, but it could give them a boost so the Cloud Leopard could fly faster.
With Anna and Siena’s help, Carly collected a centigram of Rapident Powder, 1/230 of an ounce of liquid metal from TULIP’s belly (which made the slogger giggle as it was extracted), and a milligram of the zero crystals from Tundra. “So that’s what those were supposed to look like,” Anna murmured, admiring the shiny crystals. Siena brought them all to the lab, where she scanned them in to identify their chemical compositions, then carefully carried everything down to the Cloud Kitten.
Gabriel’s eyes lit up when he saw the three elements and the results of Siena’s analysis. He entered the data into the ship’s ancient computer, then fed the elements into the engine. He ran back to the control panel and checked the gauges. The needles wobbled but quickly fell back to zero. They really needed more solid material. “Almost there,” he said, trying to sound more optimistic than he felt.
“Maybe Niko can send some of his magic energy into the engine,” Ravi said, only half joking.
“Where is Niko, anyway?” Siena said, looking around. “I haven’t seen him in hours.”
“Here I am!” Niko said, running into the room. Panting, he held out his hand to reveal a box of playing cards.
“Pretty sure we don’t have time for a game of Go Fish,” Gabriel said.
Niko shook his head. “It’s my Stinger spore! I mean, the one that hit me. Days later, I found it wedged into the lining of the shirt I’d worn on the Infinity mission.”
Gabriel reached out for it excitedly. “And you kept it?”
Niko nodded. “I thought it would make a perfect good-luck charm.”
“It didn’t give us much luck on the Light Blade,” Anna reminded him, “but everything deserves a second chance, right?” And everyone, she thought.
“This is perfect,” Gabriel said, tipping the box over until the tiny pellet dropped into a narrow tube that snaked around into the engine. It clinked as it hit the sides and then was heard no more. “The only thing we need now is a catalyst,” he said, eyes red with exhaustion. “Some kind of liquid that will fuse the molecular bonds of the different elements.”
After a few seconds of silence, Piper took a deep breath. “What about Dash’s serum?”
Everyone turned to her expectantly.
She wished she didn’t have to say it. Saying it would make it real. But she heard Chris’s voice in her head lecturing them about risk versus reward. Which was greater here? How could she choose? In a voice barely above a whisper, she said, “Dash’s serum. It could be your catalyst. You’d only need one vial of it.”
“But that would mean he’d lose one more day,” Carly said, her stomach twisting into a knot. “He only has three left.”
Piper closed her eyes. “I know.”
“You ask him,” Anna urged Piper. “You two have always had a special bond or whatever. Since back at the base.”
Piper shook her head. “I can’t do it. Carly, you ask. You’re his second-in-command.”
“No way.” She turned to Gabriel. “How about you?” she asked him. “You know, man to man.”
Gabriel shifted his weight and looked around the room. “I vote for Niko. He has that calm, Zen thing going for him. Dash would—”
“No one needs to ask me.” Dash’s voice came out of nowhere. “I’ll do it.” The group collectively jumped and whirled around before realizing the voice was coming from Siena’s arm.
“Guys?” he repeated when no one spoke. “Can you hear me? I’m on an open channel on Siena’s MTB.”
Carly cleared her throat, embarrassed. “Guess you heard our conversation?”
“Yup,” the voice said.
They all looked at Siena accusingly. “Sorry!” she whispered, shaking the arm with the MTB. “Still haven’t gotten the hang of this thing.”
“Dash,” Piper said, “you don’t have to do this. We can find another way.” She looked over at Gabriel hopefully.
He shook his head and mouthed the word no.
Piper grimaced. “Well, maybe we can’t, but that doesn’t mean you have to—”
“Yes,” Dash interrupted. “It does. Remember you said that as bad as it was, you were supposed to be on the Light Blade in order to save their whole crew when the ship started to burn?”
Piper looked down. “Yes, but—”
“This is just like that,” Dash said firmly. “This is something only I can do. If I wasn’t on board, if I didn’t need the serum, we’d be stuck here.”
Piper didn’t reply. What more could she say?
A ZRK flew down with Dash’s injection a minute later. Gabriel emptied the fluid into the funnel, sealed the lid to the engine tight, and said, “Step back.”
“What now?” Piper asked, zooming backward.
“Now it has to heat nearly as high as the surface of the sun.”
—
While the crew worked to get the ship moving again, Colin paced the small space of Chris’s room. He’d had a small victory when he pulled the ship out of Gamma Speed. The plan wasn’t to sabotage the mission completely, only to delay it long enough to weaken the crew completely. Then Colin could return to Earth the sole champion. He’d get all the glory. And he’d figure out what to do about Chris later.
For now, though, Colin was trapped, and he hated being trapped. He tore some ancient-looking books off a shelf and sat down with the intention of ripping the pages out—anything so long as it was destructive. But when he flipped the largest tome open, a picture caught his eye. It was an illustration of a plant, something called the Walla-nika plant. Colin recognized it. He’d seen a small sample of its leaves stored in a trunk in Chris’s room. The leaves were kept in a large glass bottle with what looked like a warning label slapped on the front. Without reading, Colin knew the plant came from the shallow waters of a planet called Flora. And that it could be deadly. But how did he know that? Colin felt the tug of a smile at the corner of his lips.
Sharing Chris’s memories had been a blessing and a curse. But this memory was by far Colin’s favorite.
—
Fifteen minutes later, all eight members of the crew converged on the flight deck. When Chris had learned they had enhanced the fuel, his face at first showed no expression, which for him wasn’t out of the ordinary. His eyes opened wide, and he finally brok
e out of the daze he’d been in. “How?”
The crew exchanged glances, and then Carly spilled out the whole story. Chris’s face darkened when he heard the part about using the elements. Carly assured him they would still have enough to make the Source. Finally, Chris relaxed. He went to Dash’s seat and grasped him on the shoulder. “I’m reminded why Shawn put you in charge instead of me. I’m sorry for doubting you. All of you. I haven’t handled the Colin problem very well. I should have taken him off-line when he first came on board. I just…it felt…confusing.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Ravi said. “If we all had evil clones, I’m sure we would have handled it a lot worse.”
“So this means we’ll arrive at the planet just one day behind schedule?” Chris asked.
“According to my calculations, yes,” Gabriel confirmed.
Chris nodded. “I’m beyond proud of all of you. Your actions will go down in history.” He paused. “But now we’ve got to focus on the mission.”
“Of course,” Dash said, hopping up from his seat. “We’re all packed and as prepared as we’re ever gonna be.”
“And the Cloud Cat is juiced up and ready to go,” Gabriel added. “We can leave as soon as we arrive in orbit.”
“Only if it’s daytime on the planet,” Chris replied.
“Shouldn’t they go no matter when it is?” Anna asked. “We’ve lost so much time already.”
Chris shook his head. “You wouldn’t want to approach the elves while they’re sleeping, or the ogres either, for sure. We’ve lost a full day on the planet, so at the end of the third day, we’ll have to have the Source ready or else Dash will not get back in time.”
Piper took a deep breath and said, “Actually…we’ll only have two days there. We had to use one of Dash’s vials to bond the elements we used.”
Chris winced, like the news physically hurt him. He shut his eyes. Piper and Dash exchanged a concerned look. When he opened them again, he wouldn’t meet Dash’s gaze.
“I’ll work on a new plan,” he said in an even tone, “and will load it to your Mobile Tech Bands by morning. You should know that when the horn on Dargon was blared, the sound waves continuously circled the planet. This is what keeps the ogres asleep, but it will keep our radio signals from getting through. We will be on our own down there for a while. For now, you should all get much needed sleep, and I will wake you when we arrive. Good night.” He quickly left the flight deck with Rocket trotting obediently after him.
“Is it just me,” Ravi said, “or did he seem mad?”
“Not just you,” Carly said.
“At least he’s not in zombie mode anymore,” Dash said. “That was pretty creepy.”
Piper glided toward the door. “We better do what he said.”
No one felt much like sleeping, but as soon as their heads hit the pillows, they were out. The next thing they knew, they were being flung to the floor.
“What’s going on?” Dash shouted into his MTB. It took all his strength to hold on to the leg of his bed as his own legs flew up behind him. The metal box with the last two injections slid out from under the bed. It barely missed Dash’s head and slammed into his shoulder instead. Gabriel and Niko had been tossed from their upper bunks and were grasping the carpet with all their strength. Ravi had managed to crawl back up onto his bed and gripped the sides with both hands.
“Hold tight!” Chris’s voice boomed through the intercom system. “The ship wasn’t programmed for the extra burst we had to give it. I thought it would tell us when we arrived in orbit but obviously not. Ten more seconds.”
The ship stopped bucking and swaying as suddenly as it started.
Dash sat up, rubbing his shoulder. “Everyone okay?”
“Still in one piece,” Niko replied, rolling over onto his back in the carpet.
“Well, that’s one way to get us out of bed,” said Gabriel.
Ravi groaned and sat up. “I think I prefer my alarm clock.”
“I’m going to check on the girls,” Dash said. When he reached the hall, he heard what sounded like crying and knocked hard on the door.
“Come in!” Anna called.
He quickly pushed the button, and the door slid open. He’d expected to find the girls in similar positions to how he’d left the boys. Instead, they were all hanging on to Piper’s chair, hovering three feet off the floor! What had sounded to him like crying was actually laughing!
“Did it stop?” Carly asked, spotting him. “We can’t feel it in the air.”
Dash shook his head in astonishment. “Yes, it stopped.”
Piper lowered the chair, and the three girls hopped off.
“Glad to see someone was having fun,” Dash said. “I didn’t even know your chair could hold that much weight.”
“SUMI made some modifications,” Piper explained. “It also does this.” She turned a knob on the arm of the chair. LED lights flashed on and off around her head, and a Beyoncé song that had been popular when they’d left Earth blared out of speakers by each shoulder blade.
“Nice!” Dash shouted above the noise.
The other boys ran in at that point. “You guys having a party in here and didn’t invite us?” Ravi asked.
Chris walked in at that moment, took in the scene, and quickly assessed there were no broken bones. He cleared his throat. “We have arrived in Dargon’s orbit,” he said. “We are fortunate in that it is still early morning on the planet below, so you can get down there right away. Your updated instructions have been uploaded. You should know that the crews have been adjusted slightly.” Everyone looked at each other. What did that mean?
“Needless to say,” Chris continued, “you will now have much less time to gain the elves’ trust and much less time setting the plan into action once the ogres wake up. I’d advise everyone get dressed.”
Chris turned around and left the room.
“Wait. You’re not going with us now, are you?” Dash asked, following Chris down the hall.
Chris looked away and shook his head. “It’s Colin.”
“What about him? Isn’t he locked in your room?”
Chris bit his lip. “He’s not.”
“Then where is he?” Dash asked.
“That’s just it. I don’t know.”
Dash didn’t know what to say. How could Chris not know where Colin was? This was bad. Really bad.
“How did he escape?” Dash asked.
“I think he had help.”
“Help? From who?” Everyone had been working together, even Anna. Dash couldn’t think of anyone that might want to help Colin.
Chris didn’t answer. Instead, he said, “I think Anna may need to join you as part of the ground crew—at least until I find Colin.”
“You think Anna helped him?” Dash was shocked. Then again, this was Anna they were talking about. She had done some pretty sneaky things in the past.
“Don’t tell the others,” Chris said. “I’m not sure. I just need a little time. Tell everyone they’re going in the Cloud Cat to see the ground crew off. It should be enough time for me to find him.”
Dash looked Chris directly in the eyes. “I hope so,” he said. “Or we’re done for.”
—
After wolfing down breakfast, the Voyagers sped through the tubes to the engine room. Dash had the final syringe tucked away in his backpack and was doing his best not to think about it. He chose instead to think about how the inhabitants of the planet below them had no idea their lives were about to change.
Chris made it seem that he was agreeing to let everyone accompany the ground team down to the planet. Dargon would be the last planet the crew would ever visit, he explained. It had a special significance that the other planets hadn’t. Only Dash knew the truth.
“I have one more surprise for you,” Chris said once they were all assembled in the engine room.
“You promised no more surprises,” Dash reminded him.
“You’ll like this one.” Chris led them thro
ugh the cavernous engine room, past the Element Fuser and the area where the planetary vehicles used to sit, most of them abandoned on different planets. None of the crew had a reason to come down to this end of the room since they’d left Tundra.
“Meet your new planetary vehicle.” Chris dramatically pulled a sheet off what looked like a steel box with small windows and thick wheels. Dash rapped his knuckles on the side of the vehicle. “This looks like a tank.”
“It is a tank,” Chris said. “But without the turret and guns. The ZRKs have been working on it the past two months.”
“Couldn’t they have built another hovercraft?” Gabriel asked. “I was hoping to race Piper.”
“It wouldn’t help you down there,” Chris said. “You can’t outrun the elves in a hovercraft. And you can’t outmaneuver the ogres. This tank will protect you at nighttime, and if you find yourself in danger.”
Chris pulled Dash to the side as the others headed back to the Cloud Cat. “Be careful down there,” he warned him. “No one is likely to take kindly to strangers appearing from the sky. Remember the order—elves first, then ogres, dragons.”
“We got this,” Dash promised. “And I feel good, so don’t worry about me.”
“I’m going to worry anyway,” Chris said, sticking out his hand.
Dash shook it. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He started to pull his hand away when Chris said, “The elves, they may not let—”
“C’mon, Dash,” Gabriel said, sticking his head out of the back of the transport ship. “Clock’s ticking.”
“Coming,” Dash said, hesitating one more second to give Chris a chance to finish what he’d been saying. But Chris just stepped back and waved, as though relieved he had gotten interrupted.
If felt a little strange for Gabriel to hand the controls of the Cloud Cat to someone else, but he knew his replacement was more than capable. For his part, Ravi wanted to impress Gabriel and worked really hard to make sure the ride was smooth. Ravi let out a breath of relief when he set the ship down only a few feet from where Chris had instructed. “Nice,” Gabriel said, high-fiving him.