Extras (34 page)

"Controlled environment?" Aya snorted. "You mean a prison?"

"Of course not!" Moggle's new voice said. "We are honored to have you here. Our colleague offers her profound thanks, by the way. Your hovercam saved her life when she fell from the ruins."

"Yeah, this is some thanks." Aya sat up straighter, pain shooting through her.

"If you allow us to explain, we think you'll discover that our aims and yours are complementary." Aya laughed. "Sorry, but our aims don't include blowing up the world!" The voice paused, then answered, "It is unfortunate, but certain foolish children have misled you. Perhaps you'll listen to an old friend."

Aya frowned. An old friend? Who did they think she was? And why were they talking to her in English, anyway?

A rumble passed through the building, the huge doors parting a bare sliver. Through the opening, Aya saw several inhumans hovering nervously, needle fingers at the ready. In front of them was a strange-looking man, with wild hair and bizarre ragged clothes. He slipped through the doors, which hurriedly closed behind him.

Aya blinked—she'd never seen anyone so
ugly.
His skin was sunburned and his features crooked. The beaming smile he gave her was unbelievably snaggle-toothed. He laughed and said in English, "I knew you would come for me, Young Blood!"

"Um, I don't think we've met," Aya said. "And
what
did you just call me?"

"Your voice is …" He stepped closer, sharp eyes flicking among the three of them. "If you would show your face, Young Blood."

A short, painful laugh escaped Aya. "You think I'm…?"

"She's not Tally Youngblood!" Frizz exploded. He turned to Aya. "The freaks think we're Cutters."

Frizz reached up to pull his hood off. Aya did the same, and after a moment's hesitation, Hiro sighed and followed suit.

The man stared at the three of them, dumbfounded.

"See?" Aya said. "I really don't think we've met." She gave as deep a bow as her injured ribs allowed. "My name is Aya Fuse."

"But you…," the man sputtered, fingering his own dirty, ragged garment. "You wear the Sayshal clothing, and the floating ones said you had come to rescue me. But your faces are not Sayshal!"

"Indeed," Moggle's new voice agreed. "We seem to have made an error." Aya nodded slowly. "We aren't Cutters, but we're friends of Tally."

"Young Blood is an old friend of mine as well!" The strange man smiled and clapped her on the shoulder. "My name is Andrew Simpson Smith."

TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

Things were starting to make sense. Sort of.

Soon after their hovercar had limped home on autopilot, the freaks must have realized that Tally Youngblood had arrived. Who else but Specials would have jumped out over the jungle? And Frizz, after all, had announced Tally's name to Udzir. That explained why the inhumans had let Aya, Frizz, and Hiro roam their camp, too afraid to confront them, waiting until they were trapped before attacking. In the sneak suits they'd looked exactly like Cutters.

But there was one thing Aya couldn't figure out…

"How do
you
know Tally? And what are you doing here?" Andrew Simpson Smith smiled proudly. "Young Blood fell from the sky near my village, three and a half years ago."

"She fell from the sky," Aya repeated. "Near your village?" Andrew nodded. "It is very far from here. Among the little men."

"The little men?" Aya asked, looking closer at him. Had his teeth been surged to be that crooked? His clothing had scruffy bits of fur clinging to it, like something made of dead animals. "Are you in some kind of clique that does pre-Rusty re-creations?"

Confusion clouded his face. "I don't understand. Perhaps you do not speak the gods' language as well as I?" He leaned closer. "Many of the floating ones also speak it poorly." Aya sighed, deciding to stick to simple English. "Are you from Tally's city?"

"My people live in the wild," Andrew said firmly. "But now we know the ways of magnets and other magic. We help Young Blood watch the cities, to make sure they don't injure the Earth. That is how I met the floating ones."

Aya nodded slowly. "She said she had a friend who got kidnapped by the freaks. That's you, right?"

"Yes." He added softly, "The floating ones don't like to be spied on." Moggle spoke up again. "Andrew, perhaps you can explain what you've learned about us." Aya rolled her eyes at the hovercam. Did the inhumans think that this pre-Rusty-looking oddball could convince her of anything?

But the man was nodding sagely. "Do you know about the shape of the world, Aya?"

"Um, pardon me?"

"It is not flat, as it appears. But round, like a ball."

Hiro barked out an astonished laugh, but Frizz bowed and said, "Yes, we've heard this before."

"You are wise, then." Andrew squatted next to where Moggle lay on the ground, placing one dirty finger against its curved, camo-black skin. "All of us live on the surface of this ball. More all the time—more people, more cities, less wild."

"We know." Frizz squatted next to him. "We call that the expansion."

"Expansion." Andrew nodded. "The gods' word for making bigger. But the ball of the world does not get bigger."

"Yeah," Frizz said. "We're kind of stuck with what we've got." Andrew smiled. "That is where the floating ones are clever. What if we build a new city…here." His finger wavered in the air, a few centimeters from Moggle's skin.

Frizz was silent for a few moments, then said, "In space?"

Andrew nodded slowly, spreading out his hands as if warming them over Moggle's surface.

"There is a steady place over our heads, called
orbit.
A ring that fits around the world."

"I don't believe it," Hiro said softly.

Andrew chuckled. "It is hard at first, I know. But I learned from Young Blood that the world has no edge, no end. You must learn to see beyond the little men."

"The little
men?"
asked Hiro.

Frizz looked up at the towering metal shape above them. "Turns out you were right, Aya, back when we saw them making this thing. You said it looked like a ship!" Aya looked up at the missile, or ship, or whatever it was. She shook her head. "But it looks exactly like one of those Rusty weapons!"

"The Rusties had more than one dream," the inhuman voice said. Aya realized the sound hadn't come from Moggle, and she turned around. Udzir and two other inhumans floated above her.

"After the first crude city killers were invented," he continued, "they were redesigned to send people into space. Death and hope in one machine."

"That's what this is all about?" she asked softly. "Space?"

"That's why you're all so lame in hoverball rigs!" Hiro cried. "You're not using them to get around quicker— you're using them to practice for zero-g!"

"So you
do
believe in orbit!" Andrew said happily. "It is a place where everyone floats!" Aya closed her eyes, remembering her own trip through the jungle. "And that's why you're all surged up like freaks. In zero-g there's no point in having feet. So you've all got extra hands." Udzir frowned, swimming in the air. "We aren't 'freaks,' Aya Fuse. Every change we've made adapts us better to our future home. We're the first extraterrestrial people." He bowed. "We call ourselves Extras."

Aya barely managed to stifle her laughter.

"I assure you," Udzir said firmly "we are completely serious about our new home."

"Sorry it's just that in my city 'extra' means…well, never mind."

"So you
are
on the same side as Tally," Frizz said. "All that metal's leaving Earth for good." Udzir nodded. "Two birds with one stone. We can slow the expansion here on Earth and redirect it into space. It's time for humanity to leave our home, before we destroy it."

"You're going to stay in orbit?" Frizz asked. "Not go to some other planet?"

"Permanent orbital habitats," Udzir said. "Close enough to Earth to lift more supplies with mass drivers, near enough the sun for plenty of solar power. And miniature ecosystems to recycle our water and oxygen."

"The Rusties never managed to save themselves this way," another of the Extras said. "They were overwhelmed by their own numbers and their wars. But humanity is smaller and more united now—we have another chance."

"Unless Tally Youngblood and the Cutters stop us," Udzir added, turning to Aya. "A possibility we have
you
to thank for."

"Me?" Aya said. "Why didn't you just tell everyone what you were doing? If you hadn't been hiding here and kidnapping people, I bet Tally-wa would totally be on your side!"

"We have great respect for Tally Youngblood," Udzir said. "But we couldn't reveal our plans. Do you think the cities would let us strip the old ruins of metal? Or build a fleet of ships that could be easily turned into city killers?"

"You better ping Tally now and explain," Frizz said. "She's probably already here. And if she sees those ships, she'll think the same thing we did!"

"She has not listened to us so far," Udzir said. "We hope that you will try, Aya Fuse." Aya nodded slowly, her last doubts falling away. The Extras weren't trying to destroy the world; they were trying to save it. The zero-g rigs, their monkey toes, the spaceship towering over her—finally the whole story fit together.

The biggest story since the mind-rain…

"I'll try," she said. "But one condition. Give me back my hovercam."

"I should have known," Udzir sighed.

He waved his hand, and Aya felt her limbs lighten, her hoverball rig coming back to life. Hiro floated up into the air, and Moggle rose uncertainly from the floor.

"Is that really you?" she asked.

Moggle's night-lights flashed.

She smiled, blinking away spots and booting her eye-screen. "Tally-wa? Are you around? I've got some news for you."

There was no response.

Aya shook her head. "She must be farther than a klick away. Can you boost my signal?"

"We can try," Udzir said. "But if your ping goes out through our network, Tally may not believe that it's really …" His voice faded.

Outside, a low rumbling sound was spilling through the night, like distant thunder. Aya felt it through the soles of her feet, and the walls of the building shivered around them. She heard the squeal of a faraway alarm.

"That sounds like Young Blood," Andrew said softly, and Aya nodded. Tally was finally blowing something up.

CONFLAGRATION

"Come on, Aya!" Hiro said, reaching down for her. "I'm the fastest person here." She nodded, grabbing his gloved hand and shouting, "Moggle, bring Frizz!" The huge doors were already swinging wider, and Hiro pulled her off her feet, shooting toward the opening. Aya's injured ribs burned with pain, her feet flailing behind her.

"Slow down!" she gasped.

"Sorry, little sister," he said. "But we don't have time." He shot out into the night and through a sweeping turn, leaving Aya gasping as her ribs creaked inside her.

"Maybe you should go ahead," she grunted. "You'll get there faster without me."

"Your English is better than mine. And Tally will listen to you!"

"But she hates me! Or thinks I'm an idiot, anyway."

He laughed. "I doubt that, Aya. And she'll have to believe you on this one—you wouldn't change your mind about the freaks unless you were positive."

"Because it means my story was totally truth-missing?" she cried.

"Exactly," he said, then pointed with his free hand. "Uh-oh." The horizon before them flickered with a series of flashes, the ramble of detonations arriving several tardy seconds later. Distant clouds of smoke rose into the air, flickering red from fires on the ground below. It looked almost like a party mansion, but the rumbling thunder was much deeper than the crackle of safety fireworks.

"I guess that's where the Extras' ships are," Hiro said.

Aya could only grunt. Hiro was weaving through the floating forms of Extras who'd spilled out into the night, pulling her one way and then the other. Her wrist twisted in his hand, and her ribs screamed with every turn.

Hovercars rose into the air around them. A few flew past overhead, lifting fans stirring the air, screaming toward the flashes on the horizon.

"This could get messy," Hiro said. "It'll turn into a battle if we can't stop her soon." Aya nodded, flexing her ring finger. "Tally-wa! It's me!"

"We're still too far away," he cried, dropping closer to the girders thrusting up from the ground. Aya could feel them whipping past, the magnets in Hiro's rig pushing off from their metal, each burst of speed threatening to wrench her shoulder from its socket.

The buildings and factory tents fell behind them—Hiro was dragging her across a broad, clear-cut plain, empty except for the girders.

"Look!" Hiro's free hand pointed downward. Huge burn marks darkened the earth, and a charred smell filled Aya's nose.

"They must have tested the rockets here," she yelled.

"I hope that means we're getting close!"

The air itself trembled around them now—Aya felt the explosions rumbling through her body. The flashes threw long shadows from the girders, and half the night sky was shrouded in smoke.

"Aya?" Frizz's voice sounded in her ear. "Moggle and I are right behind you." He paused. "Well, maybe not
right
behind you—Hiro's flying like crazy. But we're coming as fast as we can."

"Okay, Frizz. Just make sure that Moggle gets some good—crap!" Hiro was pulling her into a sudden climb, wrenching apart her wounded ribs. A black expanse of wall stretched out before them, as wide as Aya could see. They skimmed over its top, then suddenly were flying across what looked like a burning expanse of jungle canopy, treetops waving wildly in the spreading flames…