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The next morning, I woke to a knock at my door. I twisted deeper into my covers. The woman inside the cylinder—my reflection—I thrashed against the sheets, then shrieked as they tangled around me and I fell off the edge of the bed.
Thump. Right on my bad shoulder.
“You all right in there?” Inese called.
“No.”
The lock chinked and the door creaked open, letting in a stream of light. I squeezed my eyes shut, but Inese wasn’t done tormenting me. She flicked the light switch and motioned to the ceiling. “You might want to get those trimmed.”
Vines crisscrossed the frosted glass cover with tiny leaves. A few had thorns, a product of last night’s nightmares, and yet others concealed the porthole window with thick leaves. A homemade curtain of sorts.
“I like them.”
Inese shrugged. “Your choice. Anyway, you wanted an introduction to the Oriental Alliance, right? I’ve made the arrangements. Crush and Tim found a reference to some kind of underwater ruins off the coast of Yonaguni, so Crush gave us those coordinates, too. Figured we could take a look around for any artifacts. We leave in a couple days.” She looked me over. “You can swim, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Good. That makes this easier. Since Jack needs to rest and Gwen is sick, I’m trying to avoid the more dangerous missions. No beasties, no guards, and nothing trying to kill us.”
“Gwen is sick? But I thought she was a life-spirit elemental. Shouldn’t she have recovered by now?”
“As of last night, her powers don’t seem to be working. Healing you guys must have been more of a strain than we thought. Crush is making sure Gwen stays comfortable. If she’s not up and moving before we leave, I’ll buy medicine while we’re out.” Inese put a hand on her hip, one finger looped around a large key ring with lock picks. “I’ll see you after breakfast.”
She jingled her keys and left me to my sheets. I was pretty sure that was a reminder that I was supposed to be practicing my lock picking, but all the locks I’d seen outside this airship were keypads.
Lock picks didn’t help.
“I can’t wait!” Val announced. “I’ve never been to Japan. Of course, I’ve seen beaches and they’re amazing, but those were in Mexico.”
Tim smiled. “You’ve had an amazing life.”
“No kidding,” Lance agreed. “No Community? What was it like?”
I popped a piece of bread in the toaster and faced them. “You realize it’ll be a day or two before we leave, right?”
Val shrugged. “That’s okay.” She turned to Lance. “I wouldn’t have minded the Community; it’s similar enough. You have more freedom in a territory, though—no curfews, for one thing, but there’s beasties.”
Tim leaned his head on his hand, gazing at Val.
Of course, I was just one of three girls on the ship. As soon as she came on board, they noticed someone aside from Inese.
I took my toast to the table. We obviously weren’t ready to go on a regular mission anytime soon. If I could just relax—
“Glad you joined us, Jenny,” Val piped cheerfully.
“It’s Jenna,” I snapped, taking a prompt bite of toast.
Stale, burnt... and really stale.
“Are you looking forward to the beach?”
I raised an eyebrow as I scraped off the blackened bits. “Beach?”
Well, Inese did mention searching through an underwater temple. I guess that implied there would also be a beach.
Tim nodded. “After Crush and I found the reference to the underwater temple, I figured it might have one of the stones that my translation mentions. And with Gwen sick and Jack recovering, Pops agreed that there wouldn’t be any harm in looking.”
“Inese said something about that.” I took a bite of toast and frowned. Pops’ dissertation said powers were caused by a genetic component. If the body was tired, they might not function properly. Reserve power would go to the immune system. Since Gwen’s powers were life-spirit, she would have a natural connection to her own life. But if those senses were severed—
I remembered all those times I got sick from taking the pill and being injected with liquid adominogen. I hadn’t even had that strong of a connection to my plants then, and I still went in shock.
Someone with life-spirit would have it much worse.
But how had her powers been blocked?
I twisted the charm between my fingers, careful not to let it show while I pondered.
Most likely, Gwen had strained herself when she stumbled into my memories of Lady Winters. But how those memories blocked her powers, I wasn’t sure.
After breakfast, I left Tim and Lance with Val and found Crush alone in the command room. His legs stuck out from underneath a computer console. An orange glow reflected on the floor. I stood back until the torch shut off.
“Crush?”
Metal twanged against metal. He scooted himself out and lifted the mask from his face, then touched his forehead gingerly. “Yeah?”
“Have you found any information about my parents yet?”
“Right.” He jammed his finger into the computer’s power button and the screen booted from black to loading. “The most I’ve found so far is that you’re one of the most wanted people in the Russian Community.”
My palms sweated as I rubbed my arms, trying to dispel the cold. “What am I wanted for?”
“According to security, you contracted theophrenia, infected and blackmailed Tim into hacking EYEnet, and then evaded capture.” He flipped through a lanyard of flash drives, selected one, and inserted it into the computer. “You’re wanted for endangering public safety.”
“So much for keeping the incident quiet,” I muttered.
Crush shrugged and removed his torch from under the desk. “Sometimes it’s better to come up with alternative explanations. They want to catch you, so they need a reason for you to still be around.”
“They think I might go back to my parents?”
Crush clicked through the articles regarding my search warrant. “Pops tried to warn your father what was really going on shortly after you were born, but your father called security instead. They might think you’ll do the same. But there’s no word on your parents in the security logs, so evidently, they aren’t trying to use them as direct bait.”
“Are they safe?”
“Well, I don’t know. They haven’t reported to work since you disappeared.”
My heart jumped. “Are they—”
“Don’t worry yourself yet,” he said. “Pops did warn your father a long time ago. I’m sure he’s a smart man. They may have gone into hiding.”
“Into hiding?” I swallowed hard. “Let me know what you find.”
“Of course. And Jenna? I’m not sure I told you this, but thanks for going after Gwen. She appreciates what you did.”
“Even though I attacked her?”
“She’s not convinced you did. And even if you did, she might not be here now if you hadn’t gone on the mission.” He laid a hand on my shoulder and smiled. “Thank you.”
I ducked my eyes, sheepish, though a hint of pride seeped through me.
Two days later, we reported to the hangar bay. Inese wore a v-neck shirt and jeans, her hair pulled back in a dark pony-tail, her sunglasses atop her head. Tim stopped short when he saw her. “Nice outfit,” Lance whispered to Tim. He glanced back at me, smiling, and Tim’s face turned red.
Val giggled. “Boys.” She grinned.
I rolled my eyes. Ever since she’d come on board, they hadn’t spent nearly as much time trying to find a solution to our world problems. Instead, they’d been teasing Tim about girls, teasing me about how much time I spent studying, and teasing Lance about how much time he spent practicing, showing off his skills to Val.
As for practice, I’d walked in on one of the training sessions with her, and she was blasting little cardboard targets to smithereens.
I’d avoided the metal railing that day.
“Take it easy,” Crush told Inese. “You guys deserve it.”
“No problem. We’re just visiting a military base and going to a beach. Piece of cake.”
“Wish I could come with you, but with Gwen still out, I imagine I’m going to be running errands all over the ship.”
Inese patted him on the back. “Don’t let Jack con you into playing video games all night. He needs his sleep, whether he wants it or not.”
Crush grinned wide, his eyes glinting under the florescent lights. “Have a little faith in me... I can handle a game or two. Anyway, have a good time.” He waved and stepped aside.
Inese flipped her shades over her eyes. “All right, guys. You’ll want these.” She tossed us each a small, metallic bracelet with a little cylinder on it. Each bracelet had a different color. “Keep them on you at all times.”
“Ooo, shiny!” Val strung her bracelet over her wrist, raising her arm and jingling it in the sunlight coming from the open hangar door. Tim gave a soft, sappy sigh.
I sighed and held the bracelet to the lights. The thin trinket looked flimsy; I expected it to snap when I tugged on the band. But despite its lack of substance, it hardly budged.
Inese wore one as well.
“What it’s for?” I asked.
“It’s how you keep from being shish-kebabbed, shot, zapped, and-or pummeled by friendly fire,” Inese said cheerfully.
Val’s smile faded. “Do what?”
“This little bracelet lets mechs know we’re friendly, and therefore not to shoot us.” Inese tugged at her bracelet, as if to demonstrate.
“This is safe?” I asked dubiously. It felt loose.
“Sure—long as you keep that bracelet on. I don’t plan on taking you down where any of the beasties are, though you might see a few.”
At least we’d get to learn more about the fabled OA.
“Get in,” Inese said. “I’ll explain as we fly.”
Lance took the front seat with Inese and I took the back with Tim and Val.
“We’ve been sitting over South Africa,” Inese said as we flew over patches of savannah and city that turned into sea. “They’re the ones who fund us. In Egypt you’ll start seeing some semblance of the Community, but it’s mostly Camaraderie territory.”
“Only downside is the beasties,” Val said softly. Her words were directed at me, but we hadn’t yet come to an agreement regarding transformation as a penal system.
I stuck to watching the rolling waves beneath us.
Even if I hadn’t followed Pops, I’d have left home behind, and the outcome wouldn’t have been nearly as pleasant. I closed my eyes, avoiding the memories of transformation.
The hours passed. The waves under us went to trees and then open fields—then movement. The car veered left, swooping low with a sharp drop in the pit of my stomach.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I don’t see anything,” Tim complained.
“Neither do I,” Lance said. “Wait—there!”
We’d entered India not too long ago, and just under the trees, several large, boxlike robots lumbered across the landscape with shining arms. They stood on heavy, gleaming legs, and they dwarfed the creatures that attacked them. A few of the machines had visible, glass pods inside their main frame, and the robot’s arms were their guns, some blasting rounds of heavy fire and some shooting bolts of electricity, while yet others shot small, guided missiles that crashed into the ground and exploded into debris. Whatever was on the ground got blasted into the air.
I inhaled sharply. Mechs.
The car took a sudden dive, bringing us between an explosion and a tree. Beasties raced to attack. One leapt across the machine before latching onto the metal with its claws. Though the mechs were huge and destructive, the beasties didn’t seem to care if they got underneath a missile when it exploded, tearing them apart.
I dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands. Those creatures had been human once. Now they were being sent uselessly to their deaths.
My arms felt cold and clammy.
Seeing anybody, even Val, would have been more comforting than watching the dark clouds obscuring the battle behind us.
