The Forgotten Shrine Page 12

  I grab the voice box. “Nice talking to you, Serena. We’ve got to go.”

  Serena still twists her muscular body and thrashes her head. Our visit seems to have really disturbed her. “Come back!” she hisses into the box. “Tell the others! They must come! They must remember!”

  Lucy pulls the box back and promises Serena that we’ll remind the Alkalinians about the shrine. I’m not sure that we will, and I’m not sure it would do much good if we did, but it’s definitely what Serena wants to hear. She settles down and rests her head on her thick black scales.

  I glance back as I crawl through the velvet curtains. Her onyx eyes are fixed on the ceiling and the image of her former home. I don’t know if snakes cry, but her eyes glisten like they’re filled with tears.

  13

  WE WIND OUR WAY THROUGH the hallways of the saucer. Since we met Serena, the place has taken on new meaning. This structure—the saucer—must be the spaceship the Alkalinians lived on when their planet was destroyed. They stayed in space for a generation, until they landed here. This planet is where the Alkalinians plan to rebuild their civilization. As Serena said, they vowed not to repeat the mistakes of their past. But have they really changed? The Alks still seem pretty greedy and dishonest.

  “How long do you think that snake has been there?” Marco says.

  “Her name’s Serena,” Lucy says.

  “Don’t mind Marco,” I say. “He’s just afraid of snakes, remember?”

  “How could I forget?” Lucy asks.

  “It’s not fear, Ace,” Marco says. “It’s hatred. I hate snakes. But as far as snakes go, Serena’s not so bad.”

  “Thank you for using her name,” Lucy says.

  “I didn’t do it for you, Pretty Face.”

  “Don’t start arguing,” Cole says. “We only have five more minutes before we need to head back. Stay focused.”

  We keep following the lit power strip until the hall we’re in dead-ends into a wall of windows. We must be on the edge of the saucer. Some of the black sea creatures we saw from the Frog swim just beyond the windows. When they spot us, they spin back and wave their long, scaly bodies to propel themselves toward the saucer, opening their cavernous mouths and baring their silver fangs. When they reach us, they lash at the windows with their tails and circle around for another pass.

  “Are we sure this place is safe?” I ask. “What if those things break the glass? Millions of liters of contaminated water would pour in. We’d be crushed from the pressure before we drowned. Marco may be afraid of snakes, but I’m afraid of that.” I point at the window. It’s not just the water. It’s everything. The water, the sense of being trapped, the low ceilings, the narrow halls, the air that feels like it hasn’t circulated in a decade.

  “I’m not afraid of snakes,” Marco says. “I hate—”

  “Shut up, Marco,” Lucy says. “I think Mira’s found something.”

  Mira stands at the next corridor, waving us on. My pod mates kick off in that direction. I try to shake off my claustrophobia and trail after them.

  Mira guides us through a few turns, until we reach another hallway. She twists the handle on the first door and leads us in. The room is filled with machinery, and much of it is working.

  “Bingo,” Marco says. “This stuff is definitely not as abandoned as the rest of this place.”

  “But how do we tell which one of these machines is the occludium tether?” Lucy asks. “I have no idea what we’re looking for.”

  “Wiki? Any thoughts?” Marco asks.

  Cole is fast at work surveying the various machines. “These are generators. It looks like most of them are redundant power sources. The Alkalinians have gone to great lengths to make sure whatever they’re powering doesn’t go offline.”

  “Breathe deep, Poddies,” Marco says. “Smell anything?”

  Aside from the must that infects the whole saucer, the air here has a faint metallic scent. That’s the giveaway: we’re definitely near occludium.

  Here. Come. Mira calls to me from across the room, somewhere behind the generators.

  Following my mind’s direction, I find her in front of a wall of windows. Her hands are pressed against the glass. Next to her is a firmly secured hatch.

  When I reach her, I see that the hatch connects to a narrow shaft barely big enough to fit one person. Wires and cables and pipes are mounted inside the shaft and trace back to this room. Looking up, I see that one of the pipes is mounted to the ceiling and stretches across to a thick metal door near the generators. I bet that’s where they store the occludium.

  The shaft extends down to the ocean floor. At the bottom, a small bubble of a building is anchored. There’s not much inside, but one of the machines looks almost exactly like the diagram of the occludium tether Admiral Eames showed us. The bubble glows silver in the water. I can just make out the shimmer of the shield radiating from the tether back toward the Alkalinian Seat and beyond.

  Fifty meters from the anchored bubble is a long tube running across the seafloor. I recognize it as the one I saw from the Frog. It also reaches back to the Alkalinian Seat. It connects here at the abandoned habitat, probably a few floors below where we stand. The water around the tube is crowded with the black sea creatures. A chill runs through me. I am not a fan of those things.

  “That’s it!” Cole says as he comes to stand by my side. He points down at the silver bubble. “That’s the tether. It makes sense that they’d anchor it. All the ones I’ve read about are on land, but they’re all anchored to the ground for additional stability. Also, water is a conductor, but the ocean floor grounds the energy. I don’t know what would happen if a bound tried to come through an unanchored underwater shield. In theory, it could produce an electrical current that would annihilate anything in a several-hundred-meter radius.”

  “Okay, Junior Einstein,” Marco says, “you said some really disturbing stuff just then. I don’t want to get a step closer to that tether.”

  “Hopefully, we won’t need to,” I say. “But just hypothetically, what would we need to do to deactivate it?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” Cole says. “There’s probably a way to power it down remotely, but I don’t know how we’d figure that out. The best bet is to descend that shaft and kill the power.”

  “And exactly how does one ‘kill the power’?” Lucy asks.

  “Flip the switch?” Cole says. “That’s how it works with most things.”

  “So you have no idea,” I say. “We go all the way down there and hope we find the big red button that turns it off?”

  “We’re not going down there,” Marco says. “The admiral told us to find the tether. We did. Mission accomplished.”

  “I hate to break up the party,” Lucy says, “but we need to get back. And we need to hurry. Steve could be here in ten minutes.”

  “But what if something happens,” I say, “and it’s up to us to deactivate the shield?”

  Marco slaps my back. “Then I nominate you to crawl down there and search for the red button. I know how much you love confined spaces.”

  My pod mates laugh, but I squirm inside. I can’t think of a place I’d like to be less than inside that shaft, except maybe in that tube with all the black sea creatures circling, or out there adrift in the contaminated water.

  When we get back to the hangar, we stack the crates to block the exit, leaving a small gap between the crates and the wall, enough room for us to slide through the next time we come. Then we toss some of the remaining crates around with our gloves, killing time until Steve arrives. While we wait, Lucy asks whether we should give the admiral the green light to bring the other Bounders to Alkalinia for the rest of their tour.

  An image of Addy fills my mind. I really don’t want her coming here. Even though we’ve located the tether, I don’t feel safe. The Alks are definitely up to something. We still don’t know why they kept us in our quarters for a week. So you could enjoy our virtual hospitality is not a good enough explanat
ion from our serpentine hosts.

  “No,” I say. “There’s something wrong here.”

  “We completed our mission,” Cole says. “Our orders are to report the information to Admiral Eames. She’ll decide whether to bring the other cadets.”

  “Maybe we should investigate some more before reporting to the admiral,” I say. “We all know there’s something fishy about them keeping us in our quarters for a week.”

  “Don’t get too hung up on that, Ace,” Marco says. “The Alks might just measure time differently than us. Ever think of that?”

  “That could be it,” Cole says. “After all, they have almost complete control over our body clocks, since we’re inside their manufactured VR environment.”

  “That’s creepy,” Lucy says.

  “Creepy,” Marco says, “but not necessarily fishy, right, J?”

  “I don’t know.” I think back to this morning and how I could have sworn I heard Mira calling out to me in the moments before she woke. I want to tell my pod mates, but I don’t know how to describe what I experienced. Maybe I imagined it, or maybe I was still half-asleep and dreaming. Still, I definitely don’t feel comfortable with Addy coming, at least not until we have more sense of what’s really going on here. “We know they bugged our quarters.”

  “So?” Marco claps me on the shoulder. “I would’ve been surprised if they hadn’t bugged our quarters. I mean, they’re sneaky snakes. But ignoring that, I figured you of all people would be psyched about the culinary improvements this tour.”

  “Of course I’m pumped about the food. But there’s something not right, something I can’t put my finger on, and it’s not just the eavesdropping.” I shake my head. “Let’s give it another day—and by day I mean twenty-four hours. If everything seems okay tomorrow, we can ask Bad Breath to contact the admiral.”

  Just then the Frog hops into the hangar, and Steve waves us on.

  “Greetingsss!” he says as we board and settle into our seats. “Sss-so, did you accomplisssh what you wissshed with your training?” He bounces the Frog over to the launch duct.

  Cole shoots me a guilty glance. Hopefully, he keeps his mouth shut about our occludium tether discovery mission and side trip to the forgotten shrine.

  Lucy rolls her eyes at Cole. “Oh, yes!” she says to Steve. “We were very rusty in the skills department after our time off since the last tour. We really needed the practice. In fact, we’ll need to come back every day for more practice. Practice makes perfect! That’s what I always say!”

  “Since when?” Marco mumbles.

  Lucy punches him in the arm.

  “Yowch!” he says. “I take that back. You’ve obviously been practicing your combat skills.”

  “And you’ve obviously been practicing your clueless skills,” she snaps, throwing a side-eye at the front of the Frog, where Steve sits. “Has Cole been giving you lessons?”

  “Lessons on what?” Cole asks.

  “Please stop yelling,” I say. “I’m not feeling well.” I close my eyes, but I can’t keep my insides from rolling all around. I’m glad I didn’t eat much this morning, or I’d probably pull a Bad Breath and puke everywhere.

  Okay? Mira asks.

  I shake my head and bend over my belly.

  She places her hand on my neck. My brain patch is implanted just beneath her fingertips. The warmth from her palm spreads down my back. Even though I feel awful, I can’t stop a smile from spreading across my lips.

  “Oh, you two,” Lucy says. “You’re talking about us, aren’t you?”

  “Quiet, Chatterbox,” Marco whispers. “Inquiring minds.”

  The Frog falls silent. Lucy must know Marco’s referring to Steve. I open my eyes and turn my gaze to the Frog’s rearview mirror. Steve stares back at me. It’s only for a second, because he quickly turns away. But it’s enough for me to understand.

  Steve knows exactly what Lucy was talking about. He knows about me and Mira.

  Now I’m certain the Alkalinians are up to something.

  “You’re sure you’ve got this?” I ask Marco. We’re trying to talk in code, since the one thing we definitely agree on is that our quarters are bugged. We knew they would be before we even left the space station.

  When we got back to the Alkalinian Seat and followed Steve to our quarters, Marco whispered that he had a way to rig our door so we could slip out without anyone noticing. He wants to pay a visit to Bad Breath.

  Nothing in me thinks talking to Bad Breath sounds like a good idea, but it’s necessary. We need to tell him about our suspicions and find out what he knows. Even more importantly, we need to get the SIMPLE from him so that we can talk without the Alkalinians eavesdropping. Gedney told us we can activate the SIMPLE even if we’re not making a transmission. And Cole swears he knows how to do it.

  The plan is that Mira, Marco, and I will sneak out of our quarters and trek to Bad Breath’s room. Mira claims she remembers how to get there. Lucy and Cole will stay behind in case Steve or any of his buddies show up. If they ask, Lucy will say we’re taking a nap.

  Marco grasps the door handle. “Don’t you trust me, Ace?”

  I shrug. “Sort of.”

  “You of little faith, watch and be impressed.” He slowly twists the handle and pulls. The door edges open. No lock. No alarm. He lifts a finger to his lips and points to where the lock engages. It’s stuffed with some crumpled paper he lifted from the saucer earlier today.

  Clever, Mira thinks.

  Old-school. I like it. I give him a thumbs-up, and we set out with Mira in the lead, Marco and me close on her heels.

  “You sure you know the way?” I ask. This whole place is like a maze to me.

  Mira shoots me an annoyed glance and keeps on.

  “Assuming we get into his room,” I whisper, “don’t tell him we found the tether. We need to make sure the admiral holds off bringing the other cadets to Alkalinia until we’re sure it’s safe. Stick to the script. Don’t make him mad.”

  “Who, me?” Marco asks. “Why do you think I would make him mad?”

  Mira gives a second annoyed glance over her shoulder, this time at Marco.

  “Okay, fine, so I’m not always the best at kissing butt,” Marco says, “but back up a second. Did we actually agree that the admiral delaying her trip was a good idea, Ace?”

  Not exactly, but I need to find a way to keep Addy as far away from Alkalinia as possible, at least until we know what’s going on. “You know it’s the right call,” I say. “Just let me do the talking.”

  Mira pulls up short in front of a door that looks exactly the same as every other door we’ve passed.

  “You’re sure this is it?” I ask.

  This time Mira gives a full-on eye roll and gestures at the door. See for yourself.

  Marco nods. I rap on the door.

  Nothing happens. Why isn’t he responding? What if he’s not even here?

  Marco shoves me aside and pounds on the door.

  Seconds later there’s a grumbling noise from the other side. Then: “I’m coming, I’m coming.”

  The door flies open, and there stands Bad Breath. He has red stuff smeared on his face, and his robe is half-open on top, revealing a gross, hairy chest. He sticks his head out into the hall, looks both ways, then slams the door.

  “Jerk,” Marco mumbles, then pounds on the door. He keeps on pounding, right up until the moment Bad Breath swings the door open again.

  “What do you want?” he grunts.

  Marco shoves his arm into the room to block the door from closing. “Nice to see you, too, Officer Johnson. We need to talk. Now.”

  “I’m busy. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

  “This won’t wait until tomorrow.” Marco pushes by Bad Breath, and we slide in behind him. “Oh, I see you have company again.”

  This time there are two VR females and one VR male in the room. One of the females is dressed in a cat costume, the male is dressed like one of the superheroes from Stellar Rangers, and th
en there’s the tuxedoed butler from this morning. On Bad Breath’s sideboard, right next to his elaborate spread of meat and cheeses, I spy his tablet with the SIMPLE attached.

  My brain sparkles with Mira’s laughter.

  “Stellar Rangers?” Marco asks, barely holding back his own laughter. “Really?”

  “Shut up, Romero.” Bad Breath turns to the VRs. “Get lost!”

  Once they exit, he spins on us, backing Marco right up against the wall. “What on earth do you want, B-wads?”

  “We need to activate the SIMPLE.” I head for the sideboard.

  “Don’t you dare touch that!” he shouts at me. “It’s not like I’ll let you use it.”

  “Relax,” Marco says. “We just came to talk.”

  “So talk.” Bad Breath cinches his robe and slices a chunk of rare meat. He takes it to his bed, reclines on his satin sheets, and tears off a bite with his teeth. Bloody juice drips from the corner of his mouth as he chews.

  “It would be better if we could activate the SIMPLE.” I gesture toward the ceiling, hoping that he’ll catch on about the room being bugged.

  “If you’ve got something to say, say it. Then leave before I decide to teach you a lesson for invading my privacy.”

  Mira’s words take shape in my brain. Distract him. I’ll grab the SIMPLE.

  Steal it?

  Borrow it.

  I position myself between Bad Breath’s bed and the door, so he has to turn to face me. Now that I have his attention, I’m not sure what to say. It’s clear Bad Breath isn’t going to be any help. I suppose we have no choice but to report our suspicions directly to Admiral Eames. “We want to contact the admiral.”

  “Already done,” Bad Breath says. “She’s escorting the rest of the cadets here tomorrow.”

  Wait . . . what? Did he just say the other cadets are coming tomorrow?

  “What do you mean you already contacted her?” Marco asks. “You were supposed to talk with us first. You don’t even know whether we found . . .” He throws up his hands. The last thing we want the Alkalinians to know is that we were searching for the occludium tether. “Whether we found the you-know-what.”