The Seventh Element Read online

  Piper made her way back over to the group. “Whatcha doing?” she asked, curious. “Aren’t you guys a little old for Duck, Duck, Goose?” Or maybe they’d made up some new game in her absence. A lot can change in a few weeks.

  Chris tentatively reached out his hand and laid it on top of Piper’s. She was surprised at the warmth of it. “The mission is over,” he said, trying to put as much emotion into his voice as he could. He knew the others thought him devoid of it, but it wasn’t true. “We cannot make the Source,” he told her, “without the Pollen Slither. It could not have survived the blast.”

  Piper looked down at her three friends hunched over in their circle, and then up at Chris as his words sunk in. Her eyes widened.

  “You’re right! It couldn’t have survived the blast,” she said seriously. Then she twisted around in her chair and flipped open a storage space behind her headrest. “Good thing it wasn’t on the ship when it exploded. I took it from the engine room before I left.” She held up her hand to reveal an iridescent liquid inside of what looked like an ordinary mayonnaise jar.

  For the first time in his very long life, Chris felt like weeping as he hugged her and her chair at the same time. Carly and Gabriel jumped up so fast they bonked heads. Piper couldn’t tell if they were laughing or crying, and settled on a combination of both. Dash was a bit slower to his feet, but his joy at her news soon gave him enough energy to join the others as they jumped up and down.

  Chris beamed at all of them. “No doubt about it. Shawn Phillips picked the four best candidates in the entire world for this mission.”

  “No more surprises,” Dash ordered the crew, raking his fingers through his hair. “I honestly can’t take it.”

  As if the Omegas had heard his words, they chose that moment to chime in through the intercom system. “Request permission to board,” Anna said. She sounded weary. Dash really, really did not want to deal with her—or Colin. Especially Colin. Dash grimaced and closed his eyes.

  “What took them so long?” Carly asked Chris.

  “The shock wave likely knocked out their engines,” Chris explained. “They probably had to drift here.”

  Piper handed the jar of Pollen Slither to Chris and turned her air chair away from the docking bay. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to sit this reunion out.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Carly said. The two girls hurried from the room.

  Gabriel nudged Dash and gestured toward the docking bay. “Guess you should answer them.”

  “Guess so,” Dash replied, but he didn’t move toward the communication system.

  “They’ll need to know about Piper too,” Gabriel added. The Omegas had treated them all so poorly—both on the planets and in outer space—that a small part of him wanted to hold off telling them Piper was safe, just so they’d feel bad a little longer. He glanced at Dash and wondered if he was thinking the same thing.

  Then Gabriel sighed. He had liked them all back on Base Ten. He’d even grudgingly admired Anna’s drive to win all the time. They were dealing with that weird alien clone. He’d like to think he would have behaved better in their shoes, but who knows? He still regretted being kind of snappy with Dash those first few weeks in space.

  He was about to nudge Dash again, when the Alpha team leader took a deep breath and squared up his shoulders. Gabriel couldn’t help noticing that all the excitement of the day had taken its toll on Dash. His skin looked a little gray. Gabriel sure wasn’t going to point that out, though.

  “All right,” Dash announced. “Here goes. Chris, can you open the docking bay doors? Tell them they can park beside the Cloud Cat. Give them the good news about Piper and escort them all to the training room. They can buckle into the flight simulation seats to prepare for the jump to Gamma Speed.”

  Chris nodded and strode to the other end of the engine room to ready the docking bay. Dash spoke into his Mobile Tech Band. “Alphas, meet on the flight deck to prepare for Gamma Speed. Piper, I’m sorry you won’t have time to rest. We need to make up for lost time.”

  Dash hoped that last part didn’t sound too selfish; he hadn’t meant it that way. But for all the good news that day, he wasn’t getting any younger. He’d rest when they went into Gamma.

  Right after he figured out what to do with their “guests.”

  From the control panel on the arm of his flight seat, Dash switched on the large monitor above their heads that allowed them to see into most of the rooms on board. He pulled up the view of the training center. He wasn’t ready to see the Omega team’s faces yet, but he knew he had to do his duty as captain. He took a deep breath and forced himself to look at the screen.

  The Omega team were already strapped into the simulation seats. “Prepare for Gamma—” he began. His voice cracked on the last word. They looked so miserable! Anna’s face was as swollen as a boxer after losing a big fight. The other three looked pale and sweaty. His anger at them faded fast. He hadn’t considered they might be upset about losing their ship, but of course they had to be. He’d be devastated if the Cloud Leopard went up in smoke.

  He cleared his throat. They all looked up, clearly just noticing that the screen in front of them had been turned on. “I’m very sorry about your ship,” Dash said, meaning it. “I’m sure the Light Blade was a great—”

  “How can you even think about that?” Anna shouted up at the screen. “We’re the ones who are sorry. It’s because of us—me really—that Piper’s gone. And the Pollen Slither! How will we get home now if we can’t make the Source?” She said this last part as if just realizing it for the first time. Then she cried even harder. “This is all my fault! I’ll never forgive myself. Never. I don’t care if you believe me or not.”

  Dash’s eyes opened wide. He twisted around in his seat to face Chris. “Didn’t you tell them?”

  Chris shook his head. “There was no time. I had to ready the ship. You may have forgotten our time predicament, but I have not.”

  Dash opened his mouth to argue, but what was the point? Chris probably wasn’t trying to be cruel by withholding the news of Piper’s return. For all Chris’s decades on Earth, he still hadn’t quite picked up on appropriate social behavior.

  Dash turned back to the view screen and moved the controls to widen the angle. Now the entire navigation deck would be visible to the Omegas. All at once, they strained against their straps, gasping with wide eyes.

  Siena spoke first. Relief flooded over her usually guarded face. “Piper! Is that you? Is it really you?”

  Piper waved at the screen. “Hi, guys. Yes, it’s me.”

  Ravi spoke next. “You’re not some crazy hologram, just trying to mess with us?”

  Piper smiled. “That’d be cool, but no.”

  Anna and Niko stopped gaping long enough for Anna to stutter, “But…but…how?”

  Piper shrugged. “The same way I got to your ship in the first place.” She glanced at the others beside her and winked. “Well, mostly the same.”

  Next to her, Carly giggled.

  Dash spoke up. “Chris was supposed to tell you when you arrived, but there was a…” He glanced at the alien currently gesturing madly toward the Gamma Speed button. “A miscommunication,” Dash finished. “Once we’re safely in Gamma, we’ll explain about Piper and the plans for the rest of the mission.”

  “You mean our mission,” Niko said, speaking up for the first time. “We’re helping now.” Then he waved, almost shyly, at Piper. “Hi, Piper. Thank you for being alive.” He bowed his head at her. She saluted.

  Dash noticed the look of determination on each of the Omegas’ faces. In a way, Niko was right—the Alphas were going to need every advantage they could get on the next planet, and these four did have major skills. He wouldn’t turn down help from anyone. Well, maybe from Colin. Speaking of…

  “Chris! Where’s Colin? Wasn’t he on the Clipper?”

  “He is being held in my private quarters,” Chris replied. “We will discuss it later. Gamma Speed in five…four
…”

  Three seconds later, everyone gripped the arms of their seats as their bodies pressed deeper into the backs of the chairs. Gabriel had once said that going into Gamma felt like an invisible hand pushing on his chest. But soon the pressure released, and the burning embers of the Light Blade were hundreds of light-years away.

  The Alphas began unstrapping themselves. “We need to go talk to them,” Dash said.

  —

  Down in the training room, none of the Omegas moved. They wore matching puzzled expressions. “Didn’t he say we were going into Gamma Speed?” Ravi asked Anna.

  She looked around at the room, which, after the mild shaking, seemed completely unchanged. Nothing looked warped, or stretchy, and she didn’t feel the slightest bit nauseous or dizzy. She nodded grimly and could barely keep the hysteria out of her voice. “This ship is broken. We’re all trapped in space.”

  Siena groaned. “We were finally going to be a team!”

  Anna raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean finally?”

  Siena and Niko exchanged glances. They both knew they never should have stood by while Anna held Piper hostage on board the Light Blade. Anna had said they needed “insurance” that the Alpha crew wouldn’t leave them stranded in deep space. But Niko and Siena knew that the Alpha team would never have left anyway. Instead, they had let their fear of Anna’s temper keep them just as much a prisoner as Piper.

  Niko sat up straighter. “Yes, Anna, finally. Siena and I have had it with the way you treat everyone, never letting any of us share an opinion or make our own decisions. We’ve always wanted out, but now it doesn’t matter. Without Gamma Speed, we’ll never, ever make it back to Earth.”

  Anna opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. The others just didn’t understand that being the leader required making the toughest choices, taking the biggest risks. Hadn’t she always kept her crew safe? Well, mostly safe? They had beaten the Alpha team nearly every time because of her. But then, when she thought Piper was dead, and it was her fault, something had snapped inside her. She’d gone too far. And why? To impress someone millions of miles away with how clever she could be? She was done doing things based on what others thought of her. She was done trying to impress anyone.

  So she pursed her lips and crossed her arms and didn’t say anything. The other three sat there and pouted right along with her.

  The door to the training center slid open. Dash walked in, followed by Carly and Gabriel, with Piper pulling up the rear in a new air chair.

  “Why are you guys still strapped into your seats?” Gabriel asked. “The next sixty-one days in Gamma are gonna pass really slowly that way.”

  “But how are we in Gamma?” Niko asked. He unbuckled quickly and jumped up. The others followed, a bit more hesitantly. Niko rested a hand against the smooth white wall. “It doesn’t even feel like we’re moving.”

  “You’ve been following our Gamma stream across the universe for over nine months now,” Gabriel pointed out. “You know what Gamma Speed feels like.”

  No one replied until Ravi burst out laughing. “This is what it’s like for them!” The rest of the Omega team paused, then broke into cheers and laughter themselves.

  “It was really bad over there,” Piper explained to the Alphas. “Being in Gamma Speed felt like your body was being stretched in ten different directions. And it lasts pretty much the whole time.”

  “Really? Wow,” Carly said, feeling a flicker of pity. Now that they were up close and not running from each other on an alien world, she could see how the Omega crew had aged since they’d all hung out at the base over a year ago. She supposed she didn’t look like a little kid anymore either.

  “That bites,” Gabriel agreed. “Bet you’re glad you’re here now.”

  At the same time, Siena and Niko said, “You have no idea.”

  “Totally,” Ravi said. Then to Anna, he added, “No offense.”

  “Yeah right.” She grunted and kicked the nearest chair, but a hint of a smile flitted across her face. Anna might not miss the old ship too much, but Dash had no doubt she’d miss being in charge. He would have to move slowly with her if they were going to function as one big team. And that was a big if.

  “C’mon,” Dash said, beckoning them to follow him out of the training room. “It’s been a long day for everyone. Quick tour so you know the lay of the land; then we’ll eat and sleep. Chris has called a meeting in the morning to figure everything out.”

  Carly stepped in as tour guide. She pointed out the different rooms as they passed, and explained how the transport tubes that crisscrossed the ship worked. She left out the part about the contest to see who could take the longest route. She wanted to keep that as something the four Alphas did.

  “We had those tubes on the Light Blade,” Ravi said. “But they only went directly from one level to the other. No twisty stuff in the middle just for kicks. Colin didn’t put anything on the Light Blade just for kicks.” As they passed the relaxation room, Ravi caught sight of the video game screens built into the walls and tabletops. His eyes opened wide at the virtual reality station. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” That started the Omegas pointing out all the things that were better on the Cloud Leopard. Dash had to admit he felt proud of his ship. He tried not to dwell on the fact that it would fall apart if Chris’s old, tiny beaten-up ship hidden beneath the engine room decided to fail. Other than Chris, Dash was still the only one on board who knew about it, and he planned to keep it that way. The crew had enough to worry about.

  When the tour reached the sleeping quarters, the four newcomers instantly quieted. Both doors had slid open at the same time, and the Omegas looked from the boys’ dorm to the girls’, their eyes wide. Then Niko and Ravi ran into the boys’ bedroom, while Anna and Siena ran into the girls’.

  Siena gave a small cry. Piper gasped and pulled up short in her chair.

  “What’s wrong?” Carly asked, stepping inside the room. She blinked twice. Huh? She and Piper had just been in this room not even an hour ago. But it looked very different now. Somehow, it had grown to twice the size! The room was both taller and wider, and easily accommodated the additional bunk bed that now sat a few feet away from theirs. The walls displayed pictures not only of Carly’s and Piper’s families, but of Anna’s and Siena’s now too, along with maps of all their hometowns. The walls sparkled with a fresh coat of yellow paint, and a super-thick white carpet replaced the pink one that Carly had always thought was too girly. The ZRKs had been very busy!

  “Wow,” Anna said with a low whistle. “This is almost as nice as the room I won back at Base Ten!”

  Across the hall, Ravi flung himself to the floor and ran his arms back and forth along the plush carpet. Niko joined him, and after a moment’s hesitation, Gabriel followed.

  “Dude,” Gabriel said, twisting his head to look up at Dash. “You’ve gotta try this.”

  Dash laughed and shook his head. “Someone’s gotta run this ship.”

  “I agree,” Anna’s voice said from behind him. “You offering me a job?”

  Dash jumped back, startled. He’d have to work on getting used to having her so close. “Hardly,” he said dryly. “Surely you notice that every time I suggest we work as a team, you double-cross me? Starting with that holo Raptagon back at the base. And then basically every other time I’ve seen you.”

  She shrugged. “Okay, I get it. Teamwork’s not my thing. I’ll try harder, I promise.”

  Dash narrowed his eyes at her. “And I should trust you because…?”

  She looked him in the eye and whispered, “Because I know your secret.”

  “Chris, you have outdone yourself tonight, my man,” Gabriel said as he sat down next to Carly at the dinner table. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation of the tasty meal.

  Chris nodded his head at the compliment. He knew it had been a very long and difficult day for both crews and wanted to do something nice for them. Plus, preparing the food got him into the kitchen an
d away from Colin, who gave him the creeps. Looking at him was like looking in a fun-house mirror, but without the fun. The clone was currently fuming, trapped as he was by the newly created force field that would keep everyone out of Chris’s private quarters—and keep Colin in. At least until Chris could determine if Colin was a threat to the success of the mission.

  Niko, Ravi, and Siena stared at the dinner set out before them. Steaming plates of meats, vegetables, and pies, refreshing piles of cut fruit, chocolates, cookies, ice cream, and lemonade covered the long table. Ravi actually began to drool. “You eat like this every night?” he asked. On the Light Blade, if it wasn’t freeze-dried, powdered, or pressed into the shape of a bar, they didn’t carry it.

  Carly grinned. “Yup! Every meal. Don’t you?”

  Piper elbowed her good-naturedly. “Don’t listen to her. Chris only cooks for us on special nights—like right before a mission or when we come back. The ZRKs just feed us whatever’s been programmed into the system. It’s usually pretty good, though,” she admitted.

  “Where are Dash and Anna?” Carly asked, glancing at the door to the dining hall. The rest of them were all there.

  “Dunno,” Gabriel replied, already piling his plate high with food. “Probably talking about captain stuff, you know, who’s going to do what now that we’re all on one ship.”

  Carly and Siena shared a look across the table. As second-in-command on their respective ships, they both felt a pang of jealousy. They were used to being in on their captain’s plans. Well, Carly more than Siena. And now with two captains, where would that leave them?