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Henley squeezed her eyes tight, grimaced, and stared at the screen. She asked herself, How do we even begin to save an entire planet? She flipped through sets of digital displays, frowned, and thumped on the screen with her closed fist. It wasn’t a faulty engine, and it wouldn’t show what she wanted by just hitting it. But at least whacking it felt good. She glanced away from the monitor and out the glass wall. She rolled her eyes, irritated at the jumble of Upperworld clouds floating by. Grrrr! Here she was sitting on a cloud, another nest in the sky. The Upperworlders could call it the Sky Box, part of their castle, but to her it was still just a stupid box in a cloud hanging in the air.
And they’d just about solved the problem of the planet’s poisoned waters by getting thousands of gallons of fresh water filtered on Katamoor. It was a stroke of genius, given the lack of materials in this alien world. She felt as if she was fighting against Murphy’s Law. Anything that could go wrong on this planet, would.
She turned and watched Edison for a time, remembering their very first meeting. She had been out-of-control angry that her life had been ripped from her. Edison had been on the opposite side of the room. His sheer body mass was put together like a steel refrigerator—tall, solid, a picture of physical strength, wrapped in the most beautiful ebony skin. One look at him had stopped her in her tracks. As he spoke, all she saw was a soothing sweetness.
Now, she wished she could emulate him and match his careful, methodical approach to science. All she could do was play the violin, sing and dance, and build things. But she wouldn’t cop to feeling useless in front of him or Parker.
Parker left off with the telepathy and gave Henley a few more moments before she approached.
“What’s going on?”
Henley blurted, “Like you don’t know. I saw you practicing your voodoo. You know exactly what I’m thinking.”
Parker deflated, and once more her hand moved of its own volition and touched the deep cut on her face from Vibius. “Sorry. It’s…a lot. It’s new, and scary.”
“You’re telling me. I’m glad I’m not wincing every time somebody nearby speaks, or birds squawk.” Henley sighed. “I wonder how my family’s doing.” Then she snarled and threw a pile of notebooks off the workstation, which instead of landing with a thud, unexpectedly fluttered to the floor.
“We live out in the hills, you know. My parents bought a house right in the middle of wildfire territory. Not a smart move for two pretty smart people. For as long as I can remember, we’d sit and sweat, watching the fire service warnings to see if we’d have to evacuate. Then my mother would wring her hands and she’d resort to meditating—” She rolled her eyes again. “—as if that was going to help anything.”
“That can’t be easy,” Parker replied. “How about all this?” She gestured to the multiple Sky Box screens, then knelt to scoop up the mound of notebooks strewn across the floor.
Henley stood up and helped Parker gather up the papers. She harrumphed while explaining tersely about the carbon dioxide saturation they had recorded from their handmade weather balloons, the lack of polar ice as confirmed by several species of waterfowl, the insane caves, tunnels, and the desolate, destroyed urban wasteland they’d stumbled upon.
“It’s hopeless, Parker. It’s like asking us to pull the moon closer. And now that Katamoor’s dropped into the sea, we don’t have those plant species to use for solutions anymore.”
“Can we please remember why we’re doing this?” Edison coaxed from across the lab. “We promised to try and help.” His deep, slow voice resonated with his physical presence and sent a wave of calm across the Sky Box.
“But there’s just so much we don’t know. Weird stuff that flies in the face of scientific logic, at least as we know it. Like the Silver Helm spray. How is it possible when we apply it to our skin, we become invisible? But not to each other or the royals. And then, we go unseen to the rest of the planet. I’m not so sure it’s science. To me, it’s magic. Or it’s mystical stuff that might happen here on Spyridon but could never happen on Earth. Maybe in a third dimension, or an alien planet like this one.”
“But there are things we do know, Henley. And we have to build on that. You said it—we know the water levels are too high—that’s what has eaten up all the land here and left this planet one big ocean, with the exception of Katamoor. It’s the same principle that is happening on Earth in places like Antarctica. We can assume too much greenhouse gas, carbon emissions, and not enough carbon dioxide from plant life. If we find a way to restore the plants, then those Virago trees can go back to work—just like they did—and continue filtering the water and supplying food resources.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right, Eddie.” Henley’s expression changed. “We were making progress before Vibius set off those explosives and destroyed our work.”
Parker smiled inside hearing the lilt return to Henley’s voice when she used Edison’s nickname.
Henley raised her eyebrows, twinkled her fingers at him, and in an otherworldly voice joked, “Whoooo knows what else lurks beneath Katamoor? Or the Underworld? Caves, labyrinth paths, monsters, literally everything and anything.”
Henley smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand and returned to reality, at least Spyridon’s reality. “Come to think of it—there has to be something beneath Katamoor. A big land mass like that doesn’t just float. Its weight has to be distributed over a large area, big enough that it avoids overloading the underlying caves. Think of those caves as support structures, acting like walls, beams, and footings. Remember when we were in the Underworld, I know none of us want to think about what happened there.” She paused, but only for a second. “—That dark tunnel was claustrophobic. Without Belliza lighting the way and your humming, I wouldn’t have made it.”
She had Edison’s attention and wasn’t stopping. “Remember when we moved that big boulder and the whole tunnel collapsed during our escape? We could have been killed, right then and there.”
Edison stood up and walked over to Henley—perhaps to move away from the disturbing memories of the snake bite when he lost his ring, or maybe just to send her a physical sign of unity. They’d been through so much. But they’d accomplished a lot too.
“But we weren’t. We’re alive. We made it. And now we have to keep going.” He matched her gaze out the window, wanting to bring her back around. “Henley, we can start by attempting to get more samples. Maybe we can salvage some plant life from the floating debris from Katamoor. Maybe we can learn something that will help us bring back the Virago trees.”
Inside, Parker warmed. Every team should have an Edison. She smiled and touched the medallion Stefanos had bequeathed to her. She wore it suspended from her neck on a leather braid. For the moment, she tried to sublimate the position and power it signified.
But there it was again—the uninvited vibration in her brain. Parker was getting used to the feeling. Still, it startled her. Belliza was sending her a silent message. She scrunched her nose and concentrated. Something about the Upperworld leaders, the Great Ones were calling for a meeting.
“The longer we delay, the harder this will be!” Exasperated again, Henley clamped her jaw and added, “Those Virago trees aren’t going to survive under the water. There’s gotta be a way to get the samples we need and get them planted…somewhere. Some shallows area. Ugh, it’s like that big evil vulture, Vibius, took everything we built up over weeks and trampled it like it was nothing. I hate it! And I hate being so invested in something that’s obviously going to fail!”
A soft melody emanating from Edison soothed the red out of Henley’s tightened face. Henley teased in return, “If you keep doing that, I’m gonna crush your windpipe, you big dumb…amazing singer person.”
Edison chuckled, but kept up the almost inaudible melody.
“I warned you,” she said in a gentle, laughing voice and raised her fists. “Crushy, crushy, crush, Eddie.”
How easily Edison blew off Henley’s anger. Parker read her mind—Henley was thinking Edison was able to diffuse her anger far quicker than her mother’s irritating advice. The words flowed from Henley’s thoughts, Ming Mei, if you would just slow down, relax, and take your time, you would find the answer sooner.
Parker tried not to let Henley’s despair and defiance get to her, but with her enhanced telepathic gift, it was hard to control. Sometimes it was more of a hindrance than a help. Parker reassured her, “We’ll find a way to make this work, Henley. The Underworlders just might see reason and decide to work with us. If my guess is right, Vibius hurt them too. His explosives collapsed a serious portion of the Underworld tunnels and caves when he blasted Katamoor.”
“Maybe there’s a whole series of different plants and mineral resources in the Underworld that will help us solve this problem!” Edison said as he threw his hands up and laughed. “Would have been nice to know the extent of what we were dealing with when we made the decision to stay and help Spyridon survive.”
“And I’d be willing to bet with all the weird tech here, there must be a way to reroute the lava flows,” Henley said, picking up on his enthusiasm. “Or maybe it’s all magic. Whatever they’re using, it’s working.” She opened her palms, motioning across the lab space and said, “Look around. They built living spaces in clouds that hang in the sky. Seems to me miracles happen here all the time—like the Silver Helm. I’m going to see if we can get samples to experiment with.”
“Good idea.” Parker said as she pointed her finger to her brain. “Belliza just sent word. The Great Ones are looking for an accounting of what came down with Vibius. Let’s get this over with. We can get back to your idea, Henley, about the Helm afterwards. Maybe you’ll be able to extrapolate what it’s made of.”
“Yeah, and maybe you can teach us how to use telepathy, Parker,” Edison said. “Beats having to pick up a cell phone to look at a message.”