The Tundra Trials Read online

  Waters clears his throat. “Thanks for coming.”

  Did we have a choice?

  “It is great to see all of you,” he continues, “and, selfishly, I’m happy for the chance to reconnect as a pod without all the distraction of the Academy. There is, however, a practical reason why you’re here and not there. It boils down to this: Gedney and I have been working on a new technology that has been fast-tracked by Earth Force. We need to finish preliminary testing before heading to space. We also need some test subjects. Since the timing coincided with the first week of your tour, when pods are supposed to come together for refresher training, we were able to reroute your travels here.”

  “Let me guess,” Marco says. “We’re your test subjects?”

  3

  WATERS PUSHES BACK HIS PLATE and folds his hands neatly on the table. “Yes, Mr. Romero. You kids are the test subjects.”

  New technology? And we’re the test subjects? I’m not sure how I feel about that. “What exactly are we testing, Mr. Waters?”

  “More on that later,” he says.

  “Excuse me for offering an unpopular opinion,” Lucy says, “although in all honesty I’m sure my opinion is the popular one. Don’t get me wrong, I love my pod mates, but I have lots of other friends at the Academy, Mr. Waters, and missing out on the first few days is a real disappointment. What will everyone think? They’ll probably guess I’m sick. Or dead.”

  “I’m fairly sure they’ll figure out you’re not dead once they notice our entire pod is missing,” Cole says.

  “Don’t take her seriously, Wiki,” Marco says. “She’s the Drama Queen, remember?”

  Lucy flashes her most innocent face at Waters. “I’m just saying the first few days are mega important for catching up on the goings-on.”

  “Lucy, your feelings are noted, but we had no choice. The order came from the admiral.”

  And it looks like that’s the final word.

  “While we’re talking about Earth Force, Mr. Waters,” Marco starts, “I missed some stuff at the end of last tour while cooped up in the med room with my broken leg, so maybe you can fill me in now. The Youli . . . Who are they anyway? And why are we fighting them?”

  Way to cut to the chase, Marco.

  Waters and Gedney exchange a glance. Gedney nods.

  “The Youli are a highly advanced alien race,” Waters says. “Our conflict with them is largely a territory and policy dispute.”

  Huh?

  “You must know by now that there are strict constraints on how much I can say about this,” Waters continues. “Someday you’ll learn more, but keep this in mind: not everything is as black and white as Earth Force . . .”

  “Jon,” Gedney interrupts. “The time. We must continue with the testing.”

  “Right, then.” Waters rises from the table. “Gedney and I are back to the labs, kids. We’ll be working into the night. Tomorrow we’ll meet as a pod, but the rest of today is yours. I’ve asked our cook to prepare a picnic for your supper. I highly recommend a hike into the mountains. I doubt you get to enjoy much of Earth’s natural beauty where you’re from.”

  Waters and Gedney leave the kitchen together. Once they’re gone, I replay Waters’s words in my mind. Something seems wrong.

  “What do you think he was going to say about Earth Force?” I whisper to my pod mates. “And what about the testing? Doesn’t all this feel strange?” I know that’s like the world’s vaguest question, but I’m not sure how to put what I’m feeling into words.

  “Strange?” Marco asks. “As in do you think it’s strange that Earth Force transported a group of kids halfway across the continent to test secret technology before shipping them out to space for more training? Our whole life is strange, Ace!”

  Cole shrugs. “I suppose it’s within the range of expected variables.”

  “Really?” I ask. Just yesterday he was pacing in my bedroom about having to leave a day early, and now he thinks this is expected?

  “Don’t worry, Jasper,” Lucy says. “Waters just feels bad about keeping us from our other friends. Speaking of which, if we have to miss the beginning of the tour, we might as well have as much fun as possible. Let’s get going on that hike! I have the perfect outfit!”

  Lucy drags Mira back to the girls’ bedroom, and Marco and Cole take off for our bunks to change out of our uncomfortable dress formals.

  I sit at the table, puzzling out what everyone said. They’re probably right. We’re all adjusting to being back together. Everything will be fine.

  We follow Marco through the forest until rocks dot the landscape and the trees fade. I scamper up the last stretch and turn around. We’re nowhere near the top of the mountain, but we’re definitely high. The ridge stretches for kilometers in either direction. Below, I can just make out Waters’s labs between the trees.

  I plop down at the foot of a boulder. Marco is stretched out on top, pretending to snooze. A minute later, Cole and Mira arrive.

  Lucy finally hauls herself across the rock face, dragging her feet with full drama. “I’m so hot.” She rests her hands on her thighs and breathes heavily in her diamond-stitched pink coat with faux-fur collar. Matching pink ribbons flutter in the breeze.

  “Why don’t you take that coat off?” Marco asks.

  “This coat is high-fashion alpine wear! New this season! It was made for the mountains.”

  “In the snow !” Marco says. “For skiing ! Or at least retro-pretend-you’re-going-skiing. I don’t think anyone skis anymore. My point is, it’s hot, take your coat off  !” He straightens his short-sleeved Amazonas futbol jersey as if to emphasize that he should get the blue ribbon in the alpine-wear category.

  Lucy scrunches up her eyes and glares at Marco. Without acknowledging his obvious victory, she shrugs off her coat and compresses the poufy thing into her backpack. She slumps onto a rock. “Who’s carrying the food?”

  Marco hops down and tosses everybody a sesame and jelly sandwich, and I’m happy to pass out the apples weighing down my pack.

  As we finish our sandwiches, Lucy asks about our birthdays. “Who’s the oldest? Who gets to be a teenager first?”

  “I’m already thirteen,” Cole says. “My birthday was ten days ago.”

  “How did we not know this?” Lucy asks, scooting right into Cole’s space.

  “Right before you came to my house?” I ask. “Why didn’t you say something? My mom would have thrown you a party and everything.”

  “I think you answered your own question, Jasper.” Cole crosses to the other side of the boulder, away from Lucy.

  “Oh, come on,” Lucy says. “Everyone loves a party! Let’s have one tonight!”

  “No,” Cole says.

  “I’m with Wiki,” Marco says. “No party for me, either.”

  “When’s your birthday?” Lucy asks.

  “No comment.” Marco picks up a handful of small stones and hurls them down the rocky ridge.

  “Fine. But just in case you’re wondering, mine is October twelfth, and I love parties!”

  “Big shocker,” I say.

  Marco climbs back on the boulder. “Okay, pod, since we managed to ditch the adults, there are things we need to talk about before we blast off. Sure, Earth Force has huge plans for us. But what are our plans? If we’re going to fight the Youli, I say we do it on our own terms.”

  I laugh. “That’s easy to say.”

  “And impossible to do,” Cole says. “How did you get here? Their cars. Their copters. Their spaceships. Their technology.”

  “Their war,” Marco says. “Not ours.”

  “Now, wait a minute,” Lucy says. “I don’t exactly agree with that. It’s our war, too. The Youli attacked us on the Paleo Planet. They flung you into a herd of wildeboars, Marco.”

  “That’s just because they wanted us to leave,” I say.

  Mira lifts her head and locks eyes with mine. If there was ever a question whether Mira heard the aliens’ message, that doubt was just
erased.

  “What do you mean, Ace?” Marco asks. “Why are you two looking at each other like that?”

  “It’s nothing . . . I mean, maybe I should have told you sooner, but—”

  Cole narrows his eyes. “Told us what?”

  Great. The last time Cole was mad at me for keeping secrets, he didn’t talk to me for almost a week. That is not the way to kick off our second tour.

  “Well,” I start, “how do I say this . . .” I glance at Mira, as if maybe she’ll choose this exact moment to start talking. Yeah, right. This explanation is up to me. Turning back to Marco, I take a deep breath. “Remember how I told you guys that I thought Mira communicated with the alien in the cell block and none of you believed me? Well, I’m pretty sure it’s true, because on the Paleo Planet, the Youli gave me a message.”

  “What?” Lucy shouts.

  “Keep it down, Drama Queen,” Marco says.

  “Stop calling me that!”

  “Fine, Miss Melodrama.” Marco turns to me. “Seriously, J, I can’t believe you didn’t tell us this.”

  “When was I supposed to tell you? You were hurt, remember? And then the tour was over and—”

  “But how did they give you a message?” Lucy asks in a whisper-yell.

  “I know this will sound strange, but the message just appeared in my brain. I guess it’s their way of communication.”

  “You’re saying the Youli communicated with you brain to brain? And you’re just telling us this today?” Now Marco’s shouting, too.

  “Oh my god!” Lucy says. “That is just too freaky! I can’t deal with this. I can’t let those aliens into my brain! And I can’t believe they were in your brain! And Mira’s, too? Is that right, sweetie? How come you—”

  “Shut up! All of you just shut up!” Cole jumps to his feet. His hands are balled into fists, and he looks like he might explode. “What was the message?”

  “Oh,” I say. Of course Cole would focus on what really matters: the facts. “Leave.”

  “Leave?” Lucy asks.

  “What do you mean leave?” Marco asks.

  “Just that. Leave. I told Waters about it, and he said it made sense. He said the Youli aren’t happy that we’ve been interfering with the native humanoid population on the Paleo Planet, and they probably want us to leave—stop the tourism initiative, cease mining operations, leave the humanoids alone, just leave.”

  “Why would the Youli care about the humanoids?” Cole asks.

  “You told Waters and not us?” Lucy asks.

  “They’re concerned about the humanoids, so they throw flaming light balls at them?” Marco asks. “How does that make sense?”

  Mira shakes her head and stands. She walks along the ridgeline, away from our group.

  “What’s with her?” Lucy asks.

  “I’m not sure. She probably knows more than me—more than anyone, really. Waters says there’s a lot we don’t know about the Youli. He also said the battle lines are a bit blurred.”

  “See!” Marco says. “That proves it! It’s just like he started to say at lunch. Not everything is as black and white as they want us to believe. We can’t just go along blindly following orders. We need to stay alert. We’ve only scratched the surface of the Earth Force secrets. And I, for one, am not signing on to be their pawn.”

  “I think your parents signed you up a long time ago,” I say, brushing bread crumbs from my pants and pushing myself up to my feet. “We should go back. We don’t want to be heading down in the dark.”

  “I’ll get Mira,” Lucy says.

  When the girls return, Marco hops up. “First things first, we need a pact and a plan. As for the pact, it’s all about the pod now. Right?”

  When we agree, he continues, “That means no more secrets, Mr. Hush Hush!” Marco points at me as he talks. “If you tell something to Waters, you tell it to the pod! And as for the plan, we need to do some digging. We have to uncover as much as we can about what Earth Force is really up to. Information is power.”

  “I don’t know how much power our pod is going to wield over Earth Force,” I say. “But sure.”

  “Don’t undersell us, Ace. We’re their secret weapon, remember?”

  “That’s true,” Cole says. “They need our cooperation, so we do have some power.”

  “It’s settled, then,” Marco says. “Hands to the center.”

  He shoves his hand straight into the middle of our group. I place my palm on top, and the rest of the pod stacks their hands over mine.

  “It’s all about the pod!” Marco shouts.

  “It’s all about the pod!” we echo, and our voices ring out across the valley below.

  After we break, Mira places a thick, flat rock on the ridge. She gathers more rocks, and together we stack them, building a cairn. No one talks as we work, but we all know the message. Our strength comes from our pod. Our pod is our power.

  By the time we make it down from the ridge and out of the forest, the sun has nearly slipped beneath the horizon. When we reach the labs, Marco buzzes security, and the gate swings open. Cole and Lucy follow Marco into the compound. I glance around for Mira, expecting her to be right behind me. Instead, she’s waltzing across a field of wildflowers that borders the labs. Just as she’s about to fade into the dusk, she glances back at me and smiles.

  “You coming?” Cole asks, holding the lab door open for me.

  “In a minute—you go ahead.”

  I wait until the door closes, and then jog across the wildflowers. I can barely see three meters in front of me. It’s like the night sky sucked up the last light from the end of day and drowned the world in its darkness. Finding Mira in this field is a lost cause, unless she wants to be found.

  I’m about to give up when something brushes my ankle.

  My eyes focus, and I can just make out an arm stretching out of the grass.

  Mira is there, lying on the ground. She twirls her fingers in the air. I place my palm in hers and kneel. When she shows no sign of sitting up, I stretch out long beside her, careful not to let go of her hand. I don’t want to come up with an excuse for grabbing it again.

  We lie still for a long time, breathing the sweet smell of violets and listening to insects scuttle between blades of grass. Above us, the night wields its glitter paintbrush. Before long, the sky is filled with a million pinpricks of light.

  I squeeze her hand. Hi, Mira. I was such a moron when I first saw her in the hovercar, but now we’ve kind of settled in, and I’m happy for a quiet moment to connect.

  I wish a whole string of words like Oh, Jasper, I’m happy to see you! or I missed you so much this summer! would magically appear in my brain, but the only things in my mind are my own fantasies. My disappointment only lasts a moment, though, because Mira squeezes back.

  When she tightens her fingers around my hand, I’m filled with a tingly warmth like a cross between a cup of hot chocolate and that weird sensation you get when your leg falls asleep, but in a good way.

  I don’t know what to expect tomorrow—who knows what will happen with the tech testing or the second tour—but this moment is close to perfect.

  4

  WHEN MIRA AND I ENTER the lab building around midnight, most of the lights are out. I don’t want to wake anyone, so I don’t bother flipping any switches as we open the door and slowly make our way down the dark hall toward the bunk rooms.

  When someone speaks my name, Mira flinches, and I nearly jump out of my skin.

  “Who’s there?” I whisper.

  A tiny light turns on. It’s attached to the end of a stylus. And the stylus is in Waters’s hand. “Relax,” he says. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  A dozen thoughts rush through my brain. Are we in trouble? Is he mad that I was alone with Mira? Were we out too late?

  “This way,” he says. He leads us down a small staircase and through a heavy metal door armed with a security system. With the only light the tip of his stylus, I can hardly see a thing.
r />   My heart races. I’m not sure why I’m so nervous, but I feel like something huge is about to happen. And I’m not too sure it’s something good. Right now, Waters is a man with a mission. I tighten my grip on Mira’s hand. I wish I knew what she was thinking.

  “Here we are.” Waters stops in front of another metal door with a security panel. He punches in a code and the door latch disengages. He walks into the room and turns on the light.

  Bright lights illuminate what can only be the heart of Waters’s and Gedney’s laboratory. The place is huge. There are rows of monitors in freestanding carrels or mounted to the walls. Large glass enclosures house petri dishes and samples. Diagrams are posted along one wall, all labeled and color-coded. The center diagrams show anatomical pictures of a Youli, both from the outside and the inside.

  I head in that direction, eager to get a closer look. I’m nearly at the diagram when Mira grabs my arm. She’s standing in front of a glass specimen box I somehow missed as I traipsed across the lab. In the box, a Youli hand and forearm are suspended on a clear pedestal. Tiny sensors and wires are attached to the skin.

  That must be the hand they used to make the gloves. My fingers run along my own forearms, and goose bumps blossom beneath my touch. I’ve known the gloves came from alien technology for a while, I just never fully processed what that meant until now, when I’m face-to-face with an alien hand.

  A second box is filled with other Youli body parts. And a third contains something that’s neither human nor Youli. If I had to guess, it looks like a reptilian arm. A robotic limb rests beside it.

  “Over here,” Waters calls from the other side of the lab.

  We follow his voice to a desk in the corner that’s walled off from the main lab. A corduroy blazer rests on the chair back. A leather blotter is barely visible beneath a mound of ragged-edged paper, fancy pens, and empty mugs. This must be Waters’s personal work space.

  Behind the desk is a table with a mounted screen hooked up to a microscope. A pair of bounding gloves lies on the table. They look exactly like our gloves, except they’re covered with hundreds of minisensors like the Youli hand in the glass case. A clear compartment about half a meter square sits on the other side of the microscope. The only thing in the compartment, suspended in the exact center without wires or gears to keep it in place, is a sphere approximately the size of a golf ball.