“Ah!” shouted someone who sounded like Alhabor. They tumbled down the slope.
A second later, Manning’s voice joined his. Faint beams of light were twirling around in the distance. Those must have been their wristlights going nuts as they rolled down the slope. I didn’t know for sure that they were the ones because I might have just been imagining their existence. I looked at Anderson and saw my own confusion mirrored on his face. That was all the confirmation I needed. I waved my wristlight toward the slope and caught a glint of the gold on Manning’s suit. It was them.
“Yes! They came for us,” I said. I pointed my light at the ceiling to act as a beacon. “Manning, we’re over here!
Manning pushed himself up and adjusted his glasses. I couldn’t see his expression from that far away, but I assumed that it was a relieved one when he spotted us. He pulled Alhabor up and they both hobbled over to us. I had to hobble toward them too since I was still reeling from the robot’s attack. As long as my bones were intact, I’d be fine.
I hugged Manning the second he got close enough. A warm feeling of relief surged through me. I didn’t even care how we would get out as long as we were together. Alhabor grinned at Anderson, who just scoffed. I guess they were too tough for hugs.
“Thank goodness you’re all right,” Manning said as he held me at arm’s length. “I had assumed that the mud-like material led somewhere due to its texture and odd patterns. We jumped in as soon as we could, but we were pestered by these small creatures.”
“Those guys right over there!” Alhabor waved his wristlight toward a bundle of gremlins. He continued to wave it around until he settled the light on the fallen robot. “What the…is that one of the bots? You guys beat it?”
“No, the greml—aliens did. They saved our lives. Plus they’re adorable, just watch.” I ran over and held my arm out to one. It sniffed it and patted my hand like it was a dog. Then it scampered off. “See? Their living here means that this planet is already inhabited, though. We have to tell Frost that we can’t do anything with it.”
Alhabor crouched beside the robot. He pulled a dagger out of his suit and hit a button on it. The blade glowed green. It was like a green version of the knife that Laura had stolen from Anderson’s xeno ship. Alhabor shoved his dagger into the bot and carved a square into it. He ripped the square out and dug around inside the bot. Then he pulled out a transparent orb that was surrounded by a dim glow.
“Yes! We can scan this back at the ship. It’ll tell us what these things are made of. We’ll know which division the materials belong to, so we’ll be that much closer to discovering their origins.” He shoved the metal square and the ball into his suit alongside the dagger. “Right. So what were you saying about this place being inhabited?”
I raised an eyebrow. “That’s exactly what I was saying. These aliens call this place their home, and they’re smart enough to know good people from bad. Otherwise, they would have allowed the robots to capture us. We have to tell President Frost that she can’t colonize this planet.”
Manning’s eyes widened, but Alhabor just laughed in my face. “You want to halt the production of a new colony just for the sake of a few overgrown bedbugs? It’s great that they protected you, but I don’t think one cave warrants that much precaution. The planet is huge. We can just build around this section.”
I glanced into the dark. “Just one cave? Manning, do you think that’s true?”
Manning rubbed his chin as his eyes glowed gold with Hybrid power. He looked away from Alhabor to prevent him from seeing them. We had no idea how much this guy knew about us, and we weren’t about to ask.
“Unlikely,” Manning said. “Many creatures tend to travel in packs. I believe that there’s far more where these delightful little fellows came from.”
“You’re with the kid, Theodore?” Alhabor said.
“Of course I am. He’s never steered me wrong. On purpose.”
I deserved that last part.
“And you?” Alhabor swatted Anderson’s arm, breaking the blank stare on his face. “You think there are more of these guys?”
“Nah, obviously I think the freaks in here are the only ones on the whole planet,” Anderson said with a roll of his eyes. “Locke and Manning are two of the biggest know-it-alls in the galaxy. If they think there’s more, then there’s more. We’re wasting time just standing here talking about it.”
Alhabor sighed. “You’re right about that. Okay, since everyone thinks they know more about this planet than the guy who’s been on it twice, let’s check it out. Let’s head further into this place. See how populated it really is.”
“You’re only suggesting that because we can’t get out the way we came in.” Manning motioned to the slope. There was no way we were climbing that. “Investigating this cavern may be the only way we’ll find our exit.”
“No, I’m suggesting it because I’m a team player. Let’s get going.”
Alhabor marched into the darkness with an abundance of confidence. We followed with much less enthusiasm. His shining wristlight made mine redundant, but I still put it to good use. I scanned the ceiling and walls with it. They got further and further away as we went deeper into the cavern. It was widening out.
Occasionally I’d find a gremlin, and it’d hiss at me before crawling away. I always chuckled at that. These guys might have been kind of gross, but I liked them. The last aliens I had met had gone on to start a revolution. These ones had just thrown mud at a capture bot, killing it instantly. Sometimes simpler was better.
“What the Earth?” Alhabor said as he squinted at the area ahead. His wristlight caught a few gremlins, but they were far away. It was like they weren’t even on the same floor as us. “Why are they—whoa! Careful, team.”
Alhabor held his hand out, halting us. I pointed my light down and realized that the floor had ended. If Alhabor had taken one more step, he would have fallen off this “cliff.” I tiptoed up beside him and scanned the whole room with my light. A deep gorge separated our side of the cave from a cliff on the opposite side. Crawling around in the ravine were dozens, no, I mean hundreds, of gremlins.
We’d found the rest of them.
“Holy Venus!” Alhabor swept his light around the ravine like I had. Silver mud caked the bottom. “It’s like the inside of an anthill in here.”
“There are more openings on that side.” Manning pointed his light at an assortment of holes drilled into the other wall. “More passageways like the one we took to come here. They must be connected to every mud pit on the planet.”
“How’s that for unpopulated?!” I peered over the edge. A miniature army of gremlins was crawling up the wall. “There are so many of them down here. It’s not just a handful, it’s an ecosystem. If we colonized the planet, we’d be disturbing it. How much more proof do you need, Alhabor?”
Alhabor was directing his attention elsewhere. He scanned the area around us with his light. There was a narrow ledge connecting us to an opening on the right side of the wall. As long as we watched our step, we could follow the ledge to the opening and get out of there.
“Bingo!” Alhabor said. “I’m betting it leads out of here. Sorry, were you saying something?”
“He said that you should tell your boss to back off this place!” Anderson said. “I heard what she did to New Earth, and—”
“Supposedly did,” Alhabor corrected him. “If anyone’s going to convince the president of anything, it’s Mr. Epsilon Explorer over here. Come on. Let’s head back to the surface so you can tell Madam President all about her bad idea. Watch your step.”
Alhabor hugged the wall as he inched toward the new opening. He didn’t sound like he believed in my idea. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I would have liked all the support I could get. Plus I kind of liked Alhabor. His suit’s power-draining ability would be amazing against the AI.
I scooted along the ledge, following Alhabor’s lead. As we reached the new opening, I went over what I’d say to Frost. I thought about the positives associated with preserving the planet. Then I realized that there weren’t many. The only real positive would be protecting the aliens. That wouldn’t be enough. The mud might have been enough. It disrupted technology, so it clearly had special properties. That could be valuable to Frost.
“Wander?” Manning called, breaking my train of thought. “It’s your turn to go.”
He pointed above me to a silver ceiling. It was made of mud. A slope led up to it. Climbing up and pushing through it would get me back to the surface. I looked around and realized that Alhabor was no longer with us. So he must have already gone through. We were about to escape from our underground prison. Thank goodness.
“Right. Thanks, Manning.”
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I activated my helmet and shoved my head against the mud. My visor disappeared like it had the previous time, so I held my breath. My body grew twice as heavy, which would make getting out of here a bit of a challenge. I grabbed the mud walls surrounding me, and pulled myself up into the mud. Silver and darkness consumed my surroundings. Everything smelled like soil.
The mud tunnel only got narrower as I tugged myself upwards. It felt like I was shimmying through an air vent, but vertically. Eventually, I reached up and broke through some sort of layer. I wiggled my fingers freely. No mud? My hand must have reached the surface!
I pushed my second hand through, placed both hands on the ground (or the roof, in this case), and pulled myself up. Sound rushed back to my ears as my head broke through. The rotten stench of the swamp filled my nose, but, luckily, no water filled my mouth. The ground was still moist, but it wasn’t submerged.
“Need a hand?” Alhabor stood over me. He lowered his hand to me. His suit was sprinkled with bits of mud, but his grin didn’t reflect that.
I grabbed his hand.
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I’d been in the Canis Major once before, but I was ecstatic to be back in it.
I sat down on a white bed with a black blanket. I knew this room wasn’t mine because the closet was full of sniper rifles instead of clothes. Kaela would have loved this place. Actually, she wouldn’t because it smelled like sweaty clothes. The room also had a dusty wallscreen, and a series of metal javelins was displayed on a wall to my left.
After escaping from underground, we’d decided to relax before getting to the next order of business: scanning the robot guts. Alhabor had gone to some other floor, Manning had gone to the kitchen, I had come to this room, and Anderson had gone into a very specific door in the hallway.
Speaking of Anderson, we had some unfinished business. I refused to ignore what had happened underground. Bringing it up might restart the fight, but I didn’t care in the slightest.
A starry hallway greeted me as I left the room. The ship’s cabin area was space-themed like the rest of the ship. While I loved space, this was making me hate it. I approached the door that Anderson had entered and knocked on it. I should have prepared a mental list of topics, but I was too nervous to think.
The door slid open. Anderson took one look at me and rolled his eyes.
“About time you showed up,” he said. “Get in here, you have to check this out.”
I’d expected him to be shocked or angry, but he was just annoyed that I hadn’t shown up earlier. That was good, I thought. No, I was done making assumptions about how this would turn out.
I stepped into the room, and a literal breath of fresh air hit me. The room smelled like someone had thrown it into the washing machine. It was a stark and welcome contrast to the room I was staying in. A bed with a red frame and a huge mattress sat beneath a series of video game posters. Some were written in foreign languages and had too many colors. The dark floor was spotless. I felt guilty stepping on it. A small TV rested on a stand that was packed with games.
“Was this his room?” I asked as I approached a stand beside the bed. I got my answer when I saw the holo-pictures that decorated it. A black base projected the images. They all showed a younger-looking Anderson and a guy with hair almost as dark as his. The color looked familiar actually…
“Yeah.” Anderson picked up a photo and stared at it. “This was—I mean is Ben’s room. I knew it the second I walked in. The room he had back home was just as clean. I guess he’ll always be a neat freak. He was the one who would clean up around the place after Dad got done yelling at Mom for doing a…let’s just say ‘bad’ job of it.”
Way to drop a bomb on me. Not that I wasn’t curious.
“Ben was the one who raised you then?” I asked. “Sounds like your parents weren’t aware enough to do it. It would explain why you love him so much too.”
“Can you quit analyzing me?” He sighed and handed the picture to me. “You hit the nail on its stupid head, Locke. My parents took care of us for a while, but their toxic relationship infected the house. They held daily door-slamming contests and shouting matches. No idea who won, but my bro and I sure as hell lost. Not that it was ever that big of a deal. It happens, right?”
His unstable voice told me that he wasn’t convinced by his statement. He wasn’t allowing himself to feel the pain that he’d buried. His gaze lingered on another picture, one of three smiling guys. I recognized one as Young Anderson thanks to his bowl cut and striped shirt. The other was Ben with his dark hair descending to his shoulders. He wore a confident smile. The third was a tall man with sunken eyes and the saddest smile of all. His straw-colored hair framed his face.
“My godfather,” Anderson said to answer the question I hadn’t asked. “With our parents getting worse by the day, it was only a matter of time before someone called the cops. Lots of legal crap happened, and, once it was over, we ended up with this guy. He was a good pal of my mom’s before she and my old man drove each other nuts. My godfather’s a great guy…and all I’ve ever done is disappoint him.”
Anderson sighed and walked away from the photos. It sounded like he was finally experiencing something called “guilt.” He’d built up a few years’ worth of it, so I was surprised it hadn’t crushed him.
“I doubt he’s disappointed in you,” I said. “He’s probably just disappointed in your decisions. Wait, that doesn’t sound any better.”
“It shouldn’t sound better!” He grabbed his head and sighed. “I only explained all that so you’d understand why I was so awful. Being raised in that house taught me to reject everything, but I went too far. I bullied you and your friends for years, plus I just assaulted you guys. I don’t deserve to be here.”
“Yeah, you don’t, but at least you’re finally following the right train of thought. You’re supposed to feel bad about this stuff. That’s how you keep from doing it again. It means you’re growing, dude. About time.”
He groaned. “Isn’t there an easier way to ‘change’? I don’t think I can take much more of this guilt stuff.”
“Easy? Nothing’s easy in this godforsaken galaxy.” I placed my hands on my hips. “How have you not learned this by now?”
It felt good to spit wisdom at someone in desperate need of it. I was like a miniature Manning. I guess this therapy session meant we were cool again, but I didn’t know whether I would have used the word “friends.” I couldn’t look at him without thinking about Nessa. Hopefully that would change.
“Okay, I’m done being sappy…for the entire year.” Anderson shuddered as he headed for the door. “Come on. Let’s find Alhabor. The sooner we scan that robot crud, the sooner we can rescue my bro.”
He was right. And the sooner we rescued Ben, the sooner I could rescue Laura. I took a step toward the door, but then I paused and glanced at the pictures again. Something was bothering me. Ben’s hair was dark, but it wasn’t black. I stared into one of the pictures again. Upon closer inspection, I realized that Ben’s hair was chocolate brown. Just like mine.
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I asked Manning about Alhabor, and he said that he’d gone to the basement. I didn’t know why the Canis Major would have a basement when it also had a parking bay, but who was I to judge the most advanced battle ship in the galaxy?
I followed Anderson as we strolled through the ship in search of this basement. His walk had gotten slower, less confident. It was amazing how much a person could change once they realized they were a scumbag.
Anderson found a set of stairs and trudged down them without a word. We’d gotten halfway down before my ears perked up. Something was pounding against something soft down there. It sounded like someone was taking their aggression out on a pillow. When we were halfway down, Anderson came to a complete stop. I peeked over his shoulder and understood why.
Alhabor was jabbing a glowing green punching bag. He reeled back and did it again and again. His suit was missing; he was just wearing a white tank top, shorts, and gloves. Alhabor gritted his teeth as he unleashed a barrage of jabs on the bag. It looked like I’d been right about the aggression part and wrong about the pillow.
“Sirius!” Alhabor roared as he stepped back and slammed his fist against the bag. It immediately dissipated into green cubes that floated around his arm. Had he just punched that bag out of existence? Alhabor fell to his knees, his whole body shaking. He shouted and struck the floor. “It’s always Sirius…”
What the heck had I just witnessed? I knew I’d seen Alhabor beating a punching bag to death, but what was that stuff about Sirius? I wanted to ask for Anderson’s take on all that, but…he was already approaching Alhabor. He didn’t seem to understand the concept of stealth, or eavesdropping.
“Got some beef with my bro?” Anderson crossed his arms as he stood over the fallen general.
Alhabor jumped up and adopted a combat stance. When he saw Anderson, he sighed and put his arms down. I hurried down the steps to join this odd confrontation.
The room’s walls were lined with lockers, and it was filled with blue benches. The air was humid and stuffy and smelled like a sweat-drenched shirt. This wasn’t much of a basement; it was a lot like a locker room.
“What are you two doing down here?” Alhabor asked as his eyes darted between the two of us. His voice didn’t have its usual charismatic tone. “How much did you hear?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I heard you muttering ‘Sirius’ as you walloped that thing.” Anderson pointed at the squares that had once constituted the punching bag. How long were those going to be there? “If you’ve got a problem, you can take it up with me!”
Alhabor blinked and then burst out laughing. “Oh, that. Okay, I can explain, but it’s not going to put me in a good light.”
“Already looking bad to me.” Anderson furrowed his brow. His defensiveness made so much more sense now. Ben was the shining light in his otherwise dark life.
Alhabor plopped down on a nearby bench. “All right, boys, gather around. You know how I lead the Constellations? It doesn’t always feel that way. Sometimes, Sirius is the inspiring one. His orders are better received than mine. It’s almost like he’s the real leader, and I’m just the figurehead…”
“So what, you’re jealous of him?” Anderson asked.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that. This nasty resentment inside of me? It got to the point where I started wishing that Sirius would mess up. Just one little slip up that would prove the guy was human. That even he made mistakes! Then it happened…but it wasn’t a little slip up, was it?”
Alhabor had wished that Sirius would make a mistake, and the first time that Sirius had done that he had gotten captured. Ouch. Obviously, it hadn’t been Alhabor’s fault, but guilt didn’t listen to reason. Poor guy must have been beating himself up this whole time.
“Dude, there’s no point in wishing that your friend will screw up,” I said. “I know you grew up in a competitive time, but you shouldn’t be like that with your teammates. Direct that energy toward finding Sirius instead. Then you can apologize for jinxing him.”
Alhabor chuckled as he stood up. “Words of wisdom, spoken by a kid. Anything can happen in this universe. Come on, boys. Let’s go scan that robot junk.”
He strolled up the stairs. He seemed much more cheerful than he had been when we’d walked in. Anderson’s expression was still sour though.
“Still upset that someone doesn’t like Ben as much as you?” I asked. “It’s just how rivals work, isn’t it? You’d know a thing or two about that.”
“He got over that guilt pretty easily, huh?” Anderson said. “You barely had to convince him of anything. Speaking as someone who’s doing his best not to pummel you right now, it’s not easy to change someone’s mind about that stuff. It’s not that easy to shake guilt.”
What did he say about pummeling?
“Dude, he’s still Sirius’ friend. He didn’t need to be convinced of anything. I just told him not to worry.”
Anderson rolled his eyes. “How can someone who’s been through as much as you be so stupid? There’s something going on with that guy. Luckily for him, I don’t care. Not as long as he finds Ben.”
He headed for the stairs too. Did I trust too much? I couldn’t help thinking about my current situation with Frost. Despite all the events she had been responsible for, I was on friendly terms with her. However, I wouldn’t call that trust. Sooner or later, I’d have to confront her about everything I knew…after we’d saved Sirius and Laura.