26

I sit down in Becka’s boring, non-captainy chair, in front of her former computer station. She’s sitting happily where I used to sit, spinning round and round in the chair, like it’s the teacup ride on Walt Disney Moon.

I never should have given them access to the computer. I never should’ve trusted them.

And I hope you don’t mind, but I’m gonna speed through this next part. It doesn’t really involve me all that much anyway. (So it can’t be that good of a story.)

Anyway, Ari and Becka’s brilliant plan is this: (1) Re-broadcast the code that the Elvidian guard gave us—the one that got us off Elvid IV in the first place. (2) Dress Becka up in the helmet that the guard left behind, along with one of Ari’s old Halloween costumes. (3) Send a message to the prison saying that the Minister is ordering the release of all the umjerrylochners. (4) Pick everyone up from the roof. (5) Go home.

“And we have a fail-safe,” Ari says way too many times to be reassuring. “The second there’s trouble, we use the light speed engine to get out of here.”

This is obviously the worst plan I’ve ever heard. There are a thousand reasons why it shouldn’t work. For example: #1: Wouldn’t the guard who gave us the code have already reported it stolen? #18: Why would the Elvidians believe that the Minister gave us orders? #613: How are we supposed to get far enough away from the planet to use the light speed engine if (or when) something goes wrong?

But it works.

Breaking everyone out of jail is unbelievably easy. Without any help from me, Becka and Ari successfully pull off steps 1-4.

They’ve “assigned” me to head down to the hangar bay and bring everyone up to speed. The 118ers are all onboard now, and the hangar bay doors close behind them.

“What’s happening?” Principal Lochner asks me.

“Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“Let’s start with the bad news.” The teachers and crewmembers gather next to him as the students mill around in confusion.

“Okay,” I say, but my voice is drowned out by everyone’s worried chatter. I hop on top of a small metal storage box. “Okay!” I shout, getting everyone’s attention. The room quiets down. “Hi. We don’t have a lot of time. So here are the highlights. Becka, Ari, and I stole back our ship and got our light speed engine refueled. We’re trying to get home. Back to Earth, actually. Ganymede is, um—” I think twice about telling the total truth here. We can explain everything later. “Ganymede might be dangerous.”

“Our light speed engine?” is all Principal Lochner asks.

Mrs. Watts glares at me like she wishes I’d left her in jail.

“Long story,” I explain. “And I’ll tell you everything once we’re safe. I promise. For now, all you need to know is that things might go bad really fast. If you ask me, there’s no way the Elvidians won’t come after us. And we can’t use the engine to get back to our solar system until we’re far enough away from the planet. Oh yeah, and there’s a giant alien conspiracy to keep younger civilizations from ever achieving high tech capabilities.”

Mr. Cardegna just blinks.

“Wasn’t there good news?” Ms. Needle asks after a few seconds.

“No one’s blown us up yet?” I offer. “And we’re all together now? Oh, and time travel’s a thing. So there’s that.”

Principal Lochner nods. “Jack is right. We’re together now, and we’re back on the 118.” He turns to the three members of the ship’s crew. “Harriet, Georgia, Tim, get us out of here.”

The crewmembers don’t look too excited to be back in action, but Harriet goes over to the nearest control panel anyway and puts her hand on it.

“WELCOME, LAKE HARRIET LITTLE,” the ship says. “YOUR ACCESS HAS BEEN REVOKED.”

Harriet stares blankly at the control panel. Principal Lochner turns to me. “What’s going on?”

“I think Ari and Becka locked everyone else out,” I say.

The ship rocks to one side—nothing bad, just Ari’s usual bumpy takeoff. “So who’s flying the ship?” demands Principal Lochner.

“Uh, Ari.”

His eyes go supernova and I think fast about my options. Ari and Becka locked me out too, and I haven’t gotten over that. It would be easy to work with Principal Lochner and get the adults back in control.

But—no thanks to me—Ari and Becka’s plan is really working. Now’s not the time to get in the way.

Besides, we started all this. We should be the ones who finish it.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “We’ve got this. Becka’s on scanning and I’m in charge of the light speed engine.” A bit of a lie, but whatever. “So the rest of you can just, uh, hang out until we get home.”

Principal Lochner looks at me skeptically.

“They’re children,” Mrs. Watts reminds him, as if I’m not standing a foot away from her. It’s like the first thing I’ve heard her say since the assembly. “They all need to be disciplined.”

Principal Lochner doesn’t look at her. “Later, Enid. Later.” He’s still staring me down, wrestling with what to do. Finally, he speaks. “All right. I can see that it’s going to take a while for us to understand everything that’s happening. So in the meantime, I guess I have no choice but to trust your judgment, Jack.” He turns to the teachers. “Take everyone to the gym and stay there until this is all over. It’s the safest place on the ship—farthest away from the outer hull in case something happens.”

He looks over at Ms. Needle.

“The hooks in the floor? By the bleachers? Grab the extra-long bungee straps. Jump ropes. Whatever. Strap everyone in as best you can.”

She nods, and Principal Lochner turns to Harriet.

“Go with everyone to the gym,” he says.

“Oh thank you,” she exhales, which isn’t that surprising, I guess. The crew isn’t known for their work ethic.

He looks at her sternly. “And be ready with a remote flight portal just in case.”

She nods sheepishly. “Of course, boss.”

Principal Lochner turns back to me.

“But if you think that I am not going to come with you to my command bridge—well, that’s not going to happen.” He extends an arm toward the corridor behind the shuttles. “After you.”

***

We rejoin Ari and Becka on the bridge just in time for everything to go wrong.

I sit back down behind Becka’s old computer console and Principal Lochner silently joins me. He pulls a small bench out from under the controls, sits down, and straps himself in with a seatbelt I didn’t see before.

“Don’t you think you all should be wearing your seatbelts?” he asks.

Becka turns around to give him the stink-eye. But I can see it dawning on her that, yeah, we probably should be wearing our seatbelts. We all strap in.

“Almost there, Jack,” Becka says smugly. “Look out for an ‘I told you so.’”

But as we break low-orbit—still a few minutes away from the edge of the light speed jamming—the screen in front of us flickers with static.

We keep moving, because what else are we supposed to do? But the static slowly clears and reveals a familiar image: an Elvidian woman, holding a scepter made of lasers, sitting on a black crystal throne.

“Hello,” she says. “I am the Minister.”

Becka immediately slumps down into her seat as Principal Lochner asks, “Was that supposed to happen?” And I’m sorry, I know this is a bad time, but I can’t help it. I lean forward as far as I can stretch and whisper in Becka’s ear.

“I told you so.”