The Battle (5 page)

He peered out the window and saw at least ten men surrounding Rusty.

They were police.

Rusty was trapped!

Tim stayed very still. He thought about his options, but he realized that there was nothing he could do to help Rusty. There were just too many men. If he went out there, they would simply capture him, too. He knew he had to hide, but he was sure that the police would search the ship for other people. Where could he go? Was there a back door off this thing?

Outside, the men had already put handcuffs on Rusty. Peering out a window, he could see several of them approaching the ship. Rusty looked scared. Tim ducked down slowly. He looked around for the best place to hide. He didn't see any back doors, but there were a lot of bins throughout the cabin used for storage. However, they were way too small for him to fit in.

He ran to the back area where the storage room was. He quickly slipped inside the door and looked around for a place to hide. He decided on a large box with several coats inside. Tim lifted out the heavy coats, climbed in the box, and then pulled the coats back on top of him.

He could barely breathe under the weight of it all.

Loud noise filled the ship—voices and the sound of heavy feet coming down the aisle. The men were onboard. They would most certainly find him!

Tim was beginning to really regret his decision to come along.

Then, he heard the door to the storage area squeak open. The men were inside the room. He heard boxes being moved and kicked aside.

Tim could also hear his heart pounding in his chest, and he was sure the men would hear it, too.

“No one else is here,” one of the men shouted out.

It sounded like they were leaving.

Had they left the room? Tim wondered. Nope, it still sounded like someone was there.

I think someone is in this box.

Wait, Tim thought to himself. Did I just hear someone's thoughts? Here on Briny Deep?

The coats were lying right on his face. His nose began to itch.

Oh no, he thought.

And then it happened—he sneezed—loudly.

He heard footsteps approach the box where he was hiding. Then, someone lifted the coats off of him. Tim realized he was going to get caught. And there was no escape.

Suddenly, Tim was staring right into the eyes of a police officer.

The man staring back at him looked surprised.

“Listen to me carefully,” he whispered. “I'm Steve, I'm Rusty's friend. I couldn't warn him about this arrest because I didn't know it was coming until it was too late.”

Tim wasn't sure he was hearing him right.

“You aren't going to arrest me?” he asked, his voice cracking.

“No, of course not, but if those guys out there find you, they definitely will take you into custody. You have to stay here. I will come back later when it's clear and get you out.”

“Can you help Rusty?”

“No, he's being held in a cell at the Reef Institute. I don't think I can reach him there. I can't really even help you much more than getting you out of here. I have a family I need to protect. Now duck back down and I'll cover you up again. Remember—stay put until I get back.”

And then he was gone.

The noise outside began to fade away. He was alone, in a box, on a ship.

The seconds became minutes. The minutes became hours and soon he felt his legs begin to go numb. He had to get out of this box. But what if someone was out there?

Tim slowly pushed the coats off his face and to the side. Then he listened.

Silence.

Tim slowly lifted himself out of the box and felt his legs begin to tingle from being asleep. They were stiff, so he shook them briskly and they began to come back to life. Raising his arms over his head, he stretched out and began to feel like he could move normally again.

The grave circumstances he now found himself in began to sink in.

What was he going to do?

Steve had never come back. Should he try and make it out on his own?

Tim knew he had to try. He couldn't wait any longer. It would be morning soon and others would be arriving in this building for work.

He knew it was a huge risk, but he had no choice.

With his newly blond hair and a hooded sweatshirt, he just might have a chance to make it back to Briny Deep—and Nina.

But would she want him back?

Tim opened the door to the storage room and peeked outside. Then he slowly walked down the aisle of the ship's cabin to the front. When he got to the front, he peeked out a window. There was no one out there. The room was dark again. It must still be night.

And there was still no sign of Steve. He really wished he had his phone.

Time to go, he thought.

Pulling the sweatshirt up over his blond hair, he walked off the ship and headed for the elevator. Tim was just about to press the button for it, when he realized it might be better to take the stairs.

He saw the stairwell just ahead and started heading up.

After several minutes, he could tell this was the longest staircase he had ever climbed.
Maybe I should have taken the elevator.

It was too late now, so he kept climbing, and climbing, and climbing. Up, and up, and up.

Man, will this thing ever end?

Finally, it did. And Tim found himself in the front reception area of the building. He quickly made his way outside and searched for signs of the shuttle.

Rusty had handed him a shuttle pass while they were still onboard the ship, so he wasn't worried about getting on the shuttle. He was more worried someone would see him and wonder what some teenager was doing out by himself in the middle of the night.

He was also concerned about finding the shuttle station. Having traveled this route with Rusty before, he tried to remember the best way to go.

Finally, he made it to the station and it was almost empty. One old man sat on a bench and another older couple walked hand in hand on the other side of the room. Thankfully, he was able to slip onto a shuttle without being seen.

Tim sunk down into a chair in the back.

He was on his way back to Briny Deep.

Nina paced nervously back and forth.

She wanted to listen to her parents' conversation downstairs but was afraid what else she might learn. Moments ago, she had accidently heard them talk about the night Tim, Max, and Emily had disappeared. They had said she was there when it happened?

But, how could that be?

The last thing she remembered was talking to Tim at school. He was in a hurry to get somewhere—but she couldn't remember where exactly.

And then he was gone.

She should have followed him. Wait . . . that sounded familiar. Did she follow him? The whole day was a huge blur to her. It almost felt like it had been wiped away from her memory.

Maybe she could have saved them if she had told them the truth. But she had agreed to keep the secret from her friends—that they were from Earth. Her parents had explained to her what a terrible place Earth was and how much Indus needed them to keep growing its population. It made sense to her. And she didn't want them to ever leave. But lying to her friends had not been easy. Acting like she didn't know the truth was hard, especially when she started to develop feelings for Tim—strong feelings. And when all the kids started disappearing, she knew what was happening—Earth was coming back to get them.

But now, why were her parents whispering?

They had always told the truth about everything—
didn't they?

She tiptoed over to the stairs and walked halfway down.

“We have to do something fast,” her mother was saying. “There are spies everywhere. The whole thing is going to unravel.”

“Trident has a plan. We need to stick with that plan,” her father answered. “It will cover the whole thing up, so the other regions won't know the truth.”

“We shouldn't have to get caught up in this. We are scientists,” her mom responded.

Her father walked over to her mother and took her hand.

“Lisa, we are responsible for this experiment. We convinced Trident to orchestrate the kidnapping of all of those children from Earth so we could see if they would thrive here,” he said softly. “We didn't tell anyone in the capital city of Nomad—we didn't inform any of the other regions. If we are caught, we could get in a lot of trouble. Now, we have to cover it up.”

“But a war?” her mother whispered back.

“If we had been able to finish our work, we could have saved our planet from eventual extinction,” her dad answered. “But it was interrupted too soon. Now we have to act like it never happened.”

“Okay,” she replied. “But Nina must never know that she's from Earth, too.”

Nina stumbled back a step when she heard that last line.

Tears welled in her eyes. She was from Earth, too?

She didn't understand anything they were saying, but she knew she had to get out of there.

Nina crept down the rest of the stairs, slipped over to the kitchen, and snuck out the back door. Then she ran, and ran, and ran.

She had no clue where she was going. She just wanted to get away. All those years, she had never felt particularly close to her parents. They were always working. Over the years, she had tried to impress them with good grades and her loyalty. But they always seemed distant and unemotional.

Now she knew why—they were not her real parents!

She was some sort of experiment gone wrong.

Nina found herself running in the woods. She had no idea where she was. Then she saw it—Rusty's cabin. She must have been running a long time, so she plopped down on a nearby log, cradled her head in her hands, and sobbed.

“Nina?”

A familiar voice called from behind.

“Nina, is that you?”

She slowly lifted her head and turned to see who was saying her name.

“Tim!” she cried as she ran over to him and hugged him.

Tim's arms remained at his side. Nina had betrayed him—had betrayed them all. As much as he wanted to hug her back, he couldn't.

“Where have you been? I've been so worried about you! Are the others with you?”

Then Tim remembered that Mr. Kull had wiped her memory of that day at the cabin when he learned she had been lying to them all along.

He removed her arms from around his neck.

“Nina, I know you lied to us. You knew we were from Earth. You knew we had been kidnapped. But you never said a word.”

She took a step back and her eyes filled with fresh tears.

“I never wanted to lie to you. My parents told me . . . well turns out they're not my parents . . . they lied to me. Tim, I'm from Earth, too.”

He stood staring at her for a moment—in shock. How many more secrets were there?

Tim couldn't stand to see her in so much pain. She was a victim, too, only doing what her parents—her kidnappers—had told her to do all these years.

He stepped forward and swept Nina into his arms, holding her tight.

“Nina, we have a lot to talk about, but right now, we need to get to the tunnel and find Mr. Kull. I think he's the only one who can help us now.”

Rusty was handcuffed to a chair.

All he could do was sit and watch the man with black hair pace back and forth in front of him. He knew the man well but not by the name he was now using—Trident.

Rusty knew him as the highest official in Briny Deep—the man in charge of everything here. He was the top man, also called the town's regional commander.

Each region had a commander. They made the laws, enforced the rules, led the police, and ruled over the other officials in town. Rusty had respected him, trusted him. But he had tricked Rusty. He was a bad man—the one responsible for all of the kidnappings on Earth.

In charge of all the regional commanders was the chief who lived in Nomad.

Rusty was tired of waiting for Trident to speak.

“Does the chief know about your little experiment?” he asked briskly.

“Of course not,” Trident said with a laugh. “He doesn't know what this planet needs. He is weak. And once I take over, things will change. Indus will be strong.”

“Once you . . . take over?” Rusty stammered. “You really are crazy.”

“My experiment is the only thing that could save this planet. In ten years, there will be no more children born on Briny Deep unless we bring in children from other planets to grow up here, marry here, and have their own children here. By joining with compatible species, the population on Indus will continue to grow. I am the only one who can save this planet!”

“Save it by kidnapping children from their real parents? That's not saving anyone—that's a crime and you have to be stopped.”

Trident laughed again.

“And who is going to stop me—you? By this time tomorrow, I will have a declaration of war approved by the chief against Earth.”

“Against Earth—for what?” Rusty said in disbelief as he struggled with his cuffs.

Trident moved closer to Rusty until he was just inches away from his face.

“For kidnapping
our children,
of course. For aggressively attacking our planet with thugs who took our beloved children away in ships.”

“That's a lie!” Rusty yelled. “You would start a war just to cover up your own terrible plan?”

“I would start a war to save my planet,” he replied. “And I plan to save it by taking over power from the chief once we declare war. He will look weak for allowing all these children to be taken over the years. The people of Indus will need a new leader—me.”

Then he called for two men to take Rusty to a cell.

“I'll find a way to stop you,” Rusty shouted.