Zero woke up in the dark, floating in the cargo bay. His head hurt, and his chest ached where the stun gun darts had hit him. But he was alive, and he was healthy.
And he was alone.
There was no sign of Nyx, or of where she might have gone. Zero assumed she’d gone back to find Big Mama, which meant she was probably going to tell the others where he was. But why had she just left him? Why not take him with her? It’s not like it was hard to carry someone around in zero gravity—she could just shove him along in front of her, all the way up the central column of the ship. She didn’t want him to screw up their plans, but she didn’t want him to die, either. Maybe her solution was just to … leave him?
There was no way he was going to give up. With Mama sick and Kratt still outside, they were down to just three pirates, and one of them was a little girl, and she’d already used her stun gun. Those things only had one shot each. He opened the door and checked the nearest computer panel, showing him the countdown. It was almost time to cross the Kuiper Cliff. He’d been unconscious for hours. He didn’t have much time, but he still had some, and he was going to use it. All or nothing. Do or die.
He didn’t like that last thought, but he couldn’t get it out of his head.
He opened the door and jumped into the hall, and started climbing through the tubes toward the Drago on Ring 240. He didn’t have a plan, but he didn’t have time to make one, either. All he had was desperation. He prayed that it would be enough.
About halfway up, a voice echoed through the tube. “There you are.” It was Spider. Zero spun around, trying to see where she was, but he couldn’t find her. He kept moving, and her voice moved with him—instead of behind him, it was in front of him now, like she’d teleported. How?
“Don’t stop now,” said Spider. “Keep coming! Or going, if that’s what you want to do. You think we can’t find you? I control the ship now, you little space rat. I can find you anywhere.”
Zero realized that Spider was talking through the speakers, just like Sancho had done! Which meant she’d gained even deeper access to the Pathfinder computer. That’s how she knew where he was.
“The locator chip!” Zero whispered.
“What was that?” asked Spider. “You’ll have to speak up, little space rat. You’re so insignificant I can barely hear you.” Sancho had been able to tell where Zero was by using a chip sewed into the fabric of his coverall. He unzipped it now and tore it off, leaving himself floating in the air wearing just a pair of shorts. The suit tumbled away, along with the flashlight he’d stashed inside of it. He grabbed the light, ready to use it as a club if nothing else.
“You think you can hide from me by taking off the coverall?” asked Spider. Her voice seemed to come from everywhere. “I have the whole thermal system too, dude. And you’re the only other heat source on the entire ship, so: you’re kind of obvious.”
Zero launched himself up through the tube, leaping from Ring to Ring, trying to go as fast as he could—until bam! A hand reached out and grabbed him.
“Gotcha,” said Spider, right in his ear.
Zero swung the flashlight at her hand, smashing her fingers. She yelped, and he jumped back down the tube. She recovered and followed him. He looked at the painted sign on the wall: Ring 193, Section B. He was almost by his family! That gave him an idea. He threw himself down the next tube, trusting that even though Spider could find him, he could at least move faster than she could.
“You can’t run forever,” she said through the speakers.
I’m counting on it, thought Zero, and dropped out of the tube into Ring 181. He pushed off the wall and flew down the aisle toward his family, and toward his stuff: the food, the brushes, the paint cans, and the chain. He grabbed the chain, looped it through the handle on the nearest can of paint, and started whirling it around himself like a weapon. Blue paint sprayed out at first, flying through the air in an expanding spiral, but as his swing sped up the centripetal force kept the rest of the paint firmly in the can. Spider came around the corner and he let go of the chain—it flew toward her with terrifying speed, and she grunted when it caught her squarely in the gut. He jumped off the nearest stasis pod and launched himself at her, hoping he could reach her before she recovered, but she pulled out a stun gun and fired it at him. He grabbed a stasis pod and yanked himself to the side just in time; the metal darts flew past him, sparking in the air.
“I am going to really enjoy hurting you,” she said.
“With what?” asked Zero, trying to catch his breath. “You just wasted your stun gun.”
Spider smiled, and pulled a second stun gun from a holster on her belt. “Surprise.”
“Crap,” said Zero, and reached down desperately for a weapon. All he found were the other paint cans, and he started throwing them at her wildly. A splash of color hit her face, and she howled and shielded her eyes. The narrow aisle filled with paint, covering the walls and the stasis pods and the lights, and as the lights got covered up, the aisle grew darker. Zero saw the darkness, made a quick decision, and started targeting the lights specifically. Soon the entire aisle was plunged into black.
“You think you can hide from me?” she asked.
Zero hid in the dark. “You know I’m in this aisle,” said Zero, clutching his flashlight, “but do you know where? You can’t aim a stun gun at computer data.”
“It’s always the same with you cavemen,” said Spider. “You’ve got paper and rocks and scissors, and you think you rule the world. But advanced technology will beat you every time.” Her face lit up suddenly, and he saw green lights on a pair of goggles. Her night vision! She’d used them before, trying to find him in the computer banks! They worked by amplifying light, taking the tiny amount that was present in the aisle and magnifying it so that she could see perfectly. She aimed the stun gun straight at him and smiled. “Say hi to the other cavemen for me.”
“Wrong caveman,” said Zero, and held up his flashlight. “This one invented fire.” He turned on the light and aimed the bright LED beam straight into her eyes; the goggles magnified the brightness and blinded her. She screamed and ripped the goggles off, trying to save her eyes, and Zero grabbed the last can left in the aisle and threw it at her—but it wasn’t a paint can this time. It was the jar of jalapeños. The spicy pepper juice flew out in a cloud and hit her square in the face, right in her wide-open eyes, and the acids went to work on her eyeballs. She screamed, clawing at her face.
“What have you done?”
Zero jumped forward, staying below her flailing arms, and plucked her communicator off her belt. She swung at him—missing completely—and Zero jumped away again.
“Sorry about your eyes,” he said. “I recommend you get back to the Drago, and fast.”
“I’ll kill you!” she screamed.
“Yeah, people keep saying that,” said Zero, and launched himself up another maintenance tube.
He angled toward the fore of the ship. It was time to end this, once and for all.