Colonization (15 page)

Mom put her hands on her hips. “No, he wouldn’t, but that’s why he’s chief of operations and I’m the microbiologist.”

Mom made me proud. I was the one with space pirate in my blood, and here she was performing an illegal experiment right under the lieutenant’s nose. At least someone was doing something about the problem. I stepped over to the glass and gawked at the beautiful, deadly blossoms.

“Now what are we going to do?”

Mom leaned over my shoulder to peer into the glass beside me. Her voice was hushed. “We wait and see.”

Chapter Seventeen

Tryouts

Laser fire erupted from the beach as I exited the
New Dawn
to start another grueling day in the greenhouses. I ran from the dock, my boots thumping on the hollow metal, and jumped to the crystals below, forgetting about my bad ankle.

People crowded along the jungle line. Had someone else besides me finally seen the aliens? My heart jumped up to my throat as I reached the edge and pushed through the gathering throng.

The man in front of me whispered, “Do you think he’ll make it?”

His companion shrugged, and I slid in between them, for once glad I didn’t have Nova’s curves. Wiggling my way to the front, I heard someone utter, “I’m placing my bet on Corvus Holmes.”

No.
My body jolted and shock stole my breath away.
Not Corvus
.

Three men stood in a row, their lasers raised to the jungle. A Trisilium Bi-what’s-its-name spewed tentacles in front of them, vomiting sticky, slithering tongues over the crystal beach. The appendages writhed, searching for a suction hold.

Lieutenant Crophaven addressed the crowd. “Each applicant will have three minutes to show what he’s got. From target practice, Denneth is in the lead, followed by Corvus, and in last place, Astral.”

“What’s going on?” I whispered, tugging on the sleeve of the woman next to me.

“Tryouts,” she answered without taking her eyes off the flower.

“For what?”

“Head of security.” She finally looked me in the eye. “Ray Simmons’ old job.”

“Oh.” I was sorry I asked. For a second, my eyes traveled the length of the jungle, expecting his ghost to be standing by, watching to see who filled his boots. Only vines cluttered the jungle. Maybe Ray had passed on, and I said a silent
thank you
to the jungle for his help.

Crophaven raised his hand and slashed the air with his arm, blowing a whistle. The men dropped their lasers and circled around it.

Anxiety clutched my insides and I could barely speak. “Why aren’t they firing?”

“Can’t use lasers on this part of the test.”

What the hell could they use? Their bare hands?

Corvus took the first step forward, his boot stepping within centimeters of one of the tentacles.

Before I could stop myself, my voice screeched out of my throat. “Corvus, be careful!”

Even though everyone was shouting, he turned as if he could discern my voice from the throng. My eyes met his, and he smiled before he turned back to the man-eating flower.

“Couldn’t they just choose someone?” I pleaded to no one in particular. Astral had sneaked up behind the flower, and a tentacle swooped though the air at his head. He ducked and jumped back.

“Head of security’s a tough job.” The woman raised her eyebrow. “Crophaven wants someone who’s not afraid of this planet.”

Somehow I knew deep down Corvus was the right man for the job. His quiet calm made me feel safe. Nothing on Paradise 21 seemed to faze him, and secretly I wished more than anything he’d win.

Denneth grabbed a tentacle with his bare hands and pulled. The muscles in his arms bulged as the flower fought back. His boots skidded on the crystal as the tentacle pulled him closer to the stigma in the middle.

“Let go!” someone in the crowd shouted.

Denneth tried, but his hand stuck to the suction cups. He whipped the tentacle back and forth, trying to free himself, but it only drew him in further.

“Crophaven’s just going to let him die?”

The woman looked at me as if I didn’t know anything. I scowled back. It wasn’t my fault I hadn’t come early enough to hear the rules.

“No, they’ll cut him out if he ends up in its belly. I heard the process takes over an hour, and he’ll have acid burns on his skin.”

The thought of acid burning Corvus’s now very tan skin made me cringe inside. I bit my nails, deciding I couldn’t watch any longer, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

Corvus approached the flower swiftly. He ducked out of the way of the first few tentacles, but as he grew closer, a tentacle wrapped around his bicep and another around his calf.

What was he doing? People yelled at him from the crowd, and I joined in. He ignored our warnings and stepped forward. It was suicide.

My heart ceased to beat. Or at least that’s what it felt like: a dead wad of flesh in my chest.

Tentacle after tentacle wrapped around Corvus until he had only one free arm. As the flower drew him in, he lunged in further. His free hand grabbed the stigma and he yanked on the end, pulling it right out of the center. The flower deflated, petals withering on the crystal beach. He shrugged off all the tentacles as if they were ribbons and turned to face the crowd, yellow stigma dangling from his hand.

Cheers filled the air and I breathed in relief. He’d won, yet I was more concerned for his well-being than any accolades. I rushed toward him, but everyone pressed in, pushing me back. Men picked him up on their shoulders and paraded him around the beach.

My locator beeped and I looked down to see a message from Mom.

There’s been a change in the specimen. Come quickly.

Why now? I wanted to congratulate Corvus more than anything at that moment. Looking back once over my shoulder, I headed in the direction of the greenhouses.

Chapter Eighteen

Frequencies

I rushed into the greenhouse and Mom caught me with her arm.

“Andromeda, put your mask on.”

Her tone of voice was so serious, I did a double-take to make sure she was all right. Her eyes were full of fear.

“We can’t waste time.”

I snapped on my mask and approached the glass case with the specimens we’d grown from the first red flower. The samples in the lab had thrived until the pods in the center turned from yellow to black-purple and swelled with squiggling microbes. When I looked inside the glass, a mucus-like substance clung to the sides, dripping and oozing, reminding me of a nasty sneeze. Pieces of torn membrane lay in the center of the red petals where the pod had been. I took in a tentative breath, reminding myself the glass separated the microbes from my lungs.

“That’s the answer.” Mom secured her mask before walking to the case. She shoved her hands through two plastic gloves attached to the inside to collect a sample. “They release the microbes through the air.”

Just as she scooped up a spoonful of the goo, another pod burst open, splattering all over her gloves. The sound was sharp as an antique rifle shot, or the popping of a giant balloon. Mom flinched, despite the fact the glass separated her from the deadly substance.

“Mom, be careful!”

“I’m fine.” She didn’t look fine. Her gloved hands shook inside the glass container as she tried to steady the specimen sample to place it on a lab tray.

“These microbes can dig their way through almost anything. If they splattered in our faces, I’m not even sure the masks we have on would hold them off.”

“No wonder Ray and Amber got sick.” My imagination went wild with the thought of Sirius flying over exploding red flowers. Could they dig through the hull?

I thought about how long it would take him to reach the ridge, and if he’d wait until they’d accomplished the primary mission. Maybe I could get a message across to him in time to warn him.

“Any luck finding a strain of antibiotics that can kill them?” I watched her smear the sample on the lab tray and take a look underneath the microscope.

Mom furrowed her brow. “At this point, I can only stunt their growth.”

Even that was impressive. I never thought a microbiologist could save lives. It made me want to reach her rank someday, to help people. “What does it look like?”

“There are microbes all over this sample. Now if only I could find a cure for Amber.”

Amber.
I’d forgotten about her in the thick cloud of melancholy from Ray’s death. “How’s she doing?”

Mom sighed as if the weight of the planet rested on her shoulders. It just might. “Her body is full of them. I’ve managed to keep their population from growing, but I can’t seem to wipe them all out. At least they haven’t infected her brain.”

I swallowed a lump in my throat and forced the question out. “Is that what happened to Ray?”

Mom slid her hands out of the gloves and washed them with antibacterial soap. “I didn’t want to talk about Ray because I upset you too much last time, but yes. Ray’s infection traveled to his brain. His antibodies flooded around the microbes and his brain swelled. That’s how he died.”

I tried not to think of those little buggers eating his brain, but the image just kept sticking in my head, their pincher jaws hacking away at the pink tissue. I shivered.

“Andromeda, are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” Just like how Mom was
fine.
My insides squirmed like a thousand microbes squiggled around in my belly and I needed to breathe fresh air. Not the reek of Paradise 21, but clean recycled air from the ship. I sniffed it greedily every time I passed through the threshold.

“Maybe you should take the rest of the day off.” Mom wiped her hands on a towel.

I didn’t want Mom to think I was weak, but I also wanted to get a message to Sirius as fast as I could. Weighing the options, I chose Sirius over my pride. “Yeah, you’re right.”

I picked up my backpack and walked to the portal.

“I’ll be home in time for dinner,” Mom offered, returning to her precious crystals, laid out on the table like jewels.

“Okay, I’ll start the congealizer.”

“Good, honey.”

I could have said I’d jump off a cliff and she wouldn’t have noticed. I’d already lost her to her experiments again, and I slipped out the portal without another word. On the way back to the
New Dawn
, I punched in Sirius’s locator code with shaky fingers. I cringed at the thought of him flying haphazardly as he glanced down to see my message, but it was a small risk compared to not warning him.

My locator sent the signal, and I watched as the picture of a satellite flashed on and off as the message sent. I knew it would take longer because he was farther away, but when the screen flashed the message
Error 394: unable to locate the recipient,
I started to panic. Did they turn off his message receiver while in flight? If so, how was I ever going to get ahold of him?

My eyes traveled past the jungle to the far ridge poking the murky sky. He seemed a world away. I punched in his code again, my fingers traveling over the keys in the same pattern for the thousandth time, the same way my lips moved when I recited the Pledge of the Guide. The same error code came back again.

Pulling my eyes away from the ridge, I jogged home while wracking my brain for another way to reach him. When I got back to our family unit, a message beeped on the wallscreen from the newly established Planetary Affairs Office. Though addressed to our family, it was a general message for everyone, so I almost skipped it and tried Sirius’s locator again. Maybe he’d landed and turned it back on.

An inkling stirring inside me told me to watch the message. I threw down my backpack and turned on the wallscreen. Lieutenant Crophaven’s face came on and he looked even sterner than usual.

“This is a formal message to clear up speculation on the whereabouts of scout ship seven-four-seven.” My heart skidded and almost stopped. I pictured the numbers in my memory as my fingers traced the metal hull of the Corsair before I met Sirius, before he kissed me. 747 was his ship, I was sure of it. I fell toward the screen, hanging on every word the lieutenant said.

“At this point there is no reason to be alarmed, but we have lost contact with the crew of seven-four-seven and the whereabouts of the ship. We believe it has something to do with the crystals interfering with our communications and are working on establishing a new frequency. I repeat, there is no cause for alarm.”

I looked down at my locator and realized I wasn’t the only one trying to get through. What if my directions had placed him in danger? Guilt poured over me, coating me from head to toe. I had to tell Lieutenant Crophaven where I’d sent him. I had to turn us both in.

Glancing at the time, I still had three hours before Mom came home for dinner. I looked up Lieutenant Crophaven’s code and punched it in my wrist. The screen flashed
Airstrip 7, Communications Tower.
Gathering my last ounce of courage, and throwing out my stinking heap of pride, I bolted out of my family unit to Airstrip 7.

Hazy plum clouds covered the sky and I wondered if they blocked Sirius’s vision, keeping him from returning home. Running past the parked Corsairs, I had no idea how I’d gain access to the control tower. The guards shot me a wary look as I ran up to them, panting and wheezing like an old woman, trying to catch my breath.

“This is an emergency. I must see Lieutenant Crophaven.” Ironically, besides Nova, he was the last person on Paradise 21 I wanted to talk to, and here I was begging to see him.

The guard shifted uneasily. He appeared to weigh the options. He looked younger than my father and easier to manipulate. “Lieutenant Crophaven is very busy right now. Is there anyone else that can assist you?”

“No, I have a private message for Lieutenant Crophaven.”

He gave me a look saying
I doubt that
, which made me angry and annoyed. In a split-second decision, I used my connections, hoping I didn’t abuse them.

“It’s from Commander Barliss.”

I hadn’t actually spoken to my great-granddad since we’d argued about Sirius and Corvus, but the man in front of me didn’t need to know that. I flashed my locator with my last name on it to reiterate my point.