The New Frontier Page 11

  Chapter 13

  New Cielo

  It had been a week since Julia started growing the treatment and since their last strange dream. The dream still haunted them, but Julia felt better knowing the treatment was almost ready. She could tell because when she cracked the lid, that familiar, funky smell seeped out. Meanwhile, Lauren and Alyssa hatched a plan to convince her parents to go to New Cielo for a short trip. Alyssa talked about an amusement park on New Cielo that she thought was really cool. They thought maybe they could get Alyssa’s parents to take them over there on an upcoming weekend.

  Lauren was on her bed staring at the ceiling, contemplating the options, and Julia was tending the crystals when they heard the front door open.

  Their father barged into the apartment after a long, late work day. He was not in a good mood. The girls thought they were lucky it was almost bedtime, and they stayed in their room pretending to do their homework.

  Without apologizing for the being late, their dad jumped right in complaining to their mother. “I just don’t understand it. We can’t keep bringing these rocks back! We’re losing so much money on it, we just can’t keep doing it.”

  “What do you mean?” their mother asked. She turned to the two younger kids. “Evan and Maia, why don’t you go to the playroom?”

  Maia hopped up and ran into the other room.

  “Ah, Mom!” Evan said, then stomped into the playroom with his shoulders slumped.

  “Well, what can you do?” their mom continued.

  “I have no idea … I have no idea,” their father admitted, staring at the kitchen table.

  “And another thing,” he continued. “We’re bringing back WAY more metal than is being used at New Cielo. I don’t know where it’s all going. We’re working as fast as we can, but the appetite for metal is insatiable.”

  Their mom patted him on the shoulder. “I wish there was something I could do to help. Is there anyone you could talk to?”

  “Maybe,” he said. “If I went to New Cielo where the government seat is, I could maybe talk to the governor’s office.”

  “What would you get by talking to them?”

  “Well, if I explained how much money we’re losing on this and show them the numbers, maybe I can convince them to actually start paying us to bring it back.”

  He sat thinking, then continued, “I’m not trying to make money on it … I’m just trying to make sure we don’t lose TOO much money.”

  “Why can’t you do that on a conference call?” she asked.

  “It’s better in person. It’ll be harder for them to tell me no in person,” he said. “I guess I’ll go ahead and go to New Cielo tomorrow to try and talk to the governor’s office.”

  Lauren and Julia had been quietly listening from their room. Lauren whispered, “If we’re going to get to the bottom of this, we need to go with Dad to figure out where that tracer came from.”

  Julia added, “Plus, we need to stay close to him with the treatment. As soon as it’s ready, I want to expose him to it.”

  The two went out to the kitchen. “Can we go too? We haven’t seen New Cielo before.”

  “What? You all have school. You can’t go,” their mom dismissed them.

  “Mom, it’s just Friday. We won’t get behind. All the tests are done for this session and, at least in my class, we were planning on watching a movie half the day, anyway,” Lauren mentioned.

  “A movie?” their dad questioned. “What kind of movie?”

  “Oh, some space cowboy movie. Why?” Lauren said sensing it was the right thing to say to get her way.

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Their dad was too preoccupied to care. “Well, I’m OK with it if you are. If all they’re doing is watching a movie, might as well have them tag along and see the other station.”

  Their mother thought about it for a minute more. “Well, OK. But what are you going to do with them there?”

  “My meeting should only go through the afternoon, and then we could stay an extra day to look around,” he said.

  He turned to the girls. “Well, if you’re going to go, you better get to bed so you’re rested for tomorrow. We have to leave early in the morning. Go pack and then get to bed.”

  Back in their room, Julia checked the experiment for the treatment. She looked at Lauren. “It’s coming along. We should have enough in the next day or so.”

  Thinking, Lauren said, “I need to call Alyssa and tell her. She’s probably trying to convince her parents right now!”

  She called Alyssa while Julia packed. Then, they both slipped into bed and tried to get to sleep.

  *

  The next morning, their dad energetically came into the room. “Time to get up, you two,” he said, clapping his hands.

  “No, no, too early,” Lauren mumbled.

  “Come on. You said you wanted to go. We need to get going,” their dad persisted as he walked out of their room.

  “Lauren, let’s go. This is our chance, remember,” Julia said. That statement struck a chord with Lauren, and she hopped up to get ready.

  Julia checked the experiment and collected several samples from the bin. She took a few complete crystals that had signs of ooze beginning to form and put them in three small vials, then tucked the vials into her fanny pack.

  A few minutes later, the girls came out fully dressed, yawning, with their luggage in tow.

  “Wow! I’m impressed,” their dad said, shoving a couple bowls of cereal in front of them. They ate without looking up, still struggling to wake up.

  Before they could even get their empty bowls into the sink, their dad said, “Let’s go!” And then he was out the door without looking back.

  “Hold on!” Lauren yelled, running to catch up. Julia was right behind her.

  When their dad went on work trips, he would fall into a zone where everything was rushed. The two sisters got the feeling they needed to pay closer attention to what was going on, as their dad wasn’t going to offer much help, and if they fell behind they might get left behind.

  The girls struggled to keep with their dad’s pace down to the train station. He’d stop periodically and look back at them. “Come on, let’s go, girls.”

  When they got to the spaceport, there was a short line for the ferry, as it was still pretty early. There were a few other business travelers and some construction workers headed to the other stations, but no other bleary-eyed kids.

  They boarded the ferry with the other passengers and sat waiting to take off. Lauren remembered the feeling she got leaving the transport ship and braced herself for leaving the artificial gravity. Julia played a game on her phone, not paying attention to the launch.

  “How can you do that?” Lauren frowned at her sister.

  “Do what?” Julia questioned while she played her game.

  “We’re about to take off. Aren’t you worried?” Lauren asked.

  “What are you talking about? It’s just a short, 30-minute shuttle,” Julia shot back, trying to ignore her sister while she played her game.

  Frustrated she didn’t have anyone to share in her misery, Lauren let out a humpf, crossed her arms, and waited for her stomach to drop.

  Shortly after that, the gut-wrenching twist away from gravity took her over. She clinched her armrests and gritted her teeth while Julia played her game on her phone.

  Once free of gravity, Lauren felt a little nauseated, but she was able to keep from throwing up this time. The trip over to New Cielo was short. As they sped away from Cielo Prime, they could see New Cielo getting bigger.

  New Cielo was a fantastical sight. The station was about halfway completed and was already as big as Cielo Prime. The monstrous structure was designed similarly to Cielo Prime, with a cylindrical shape but twice the circumference. The completed half had clusters of buildings around the shell just like Cielo Prime. They seemed like they were a little taller, but not by much. On the section still under construction, there were no buildings. Smooth steel plates skinned the cyli
ndrical structure which had no distinguishable features.

  “Dad, why aren’t there any buildings on that end?” Lauren asked, looking out the window.

  “Well, you know, just like on Earth, people buy parts of grids on the station and build their own buildings. Since New Cielo is so new, people haven’t built on that end yet,” her dad answered.

  The buildings transitioned into the raw skeleton where only the ribs of the station were exposed. Once complete, the skeleton would easily double the size of the existing structure.

  Swarms of worker bots flew all around the skeleton, welding pieces of metal in place. Hot, glowing sparks made it look like a fireworks display. Lauren stared out the window in wonder.

  Oblivious to all, Julia played her game without looking. Lauren elbowed her to get her attention.

  “What? I’m almost finished with this level,” Julia said, agitated.

  “Pause it! Look, this is amazing,” Lauren said.

  Julia paused her game, then briefly looked out the window. She sighed, rolled her eyes and said, “Neat,” then went back to playing her game.

  Lauren squinted at her sister then turned back to watch the station activity.

  Moments later, the ferry slowed as it came closer to New Cielo, waiting in the queue to dock.

  “OK … I have to work half the day talking to some people in the governor’s office. So I put you two in an activity for most of the morning and afternoon, then I’ll come pick you up. We’ll go look around the station a little bit, then we’re staying at a hotel tonight and heading back tomorrow,” their dad said.

  “What are we doing?” Julia asked.

  Their dad smiled broadly. “You’ll see! I think you’ll like it.”

  The girls looked at each other, wondering what entertainment New Cielo could possibly have in store for them that they couldn’t do back on the other station.

  By now, the traffic congestion thinned and the ferry proceeded to the dock for a landing. The dock was much busier than Cielo Prime’s central station.

  Similar to when they arrived at Cielo Prime, there were customs gates where lines of people waited. But this time they went through the Residents line, which went a lot faster.

  New Cielo was much more frantic than Cielo Prime, too. The excessive activity outside the station was matched inside. Everybody on the station seemed to be going somewhere or doing something as fast as they possibly could.

  Their dad pulled them toward a small kiosk shaped like a large box that had a wire hopper next to it. An automated attendant’s voice asked, “Where are you staying?”

  “The Intergalactic,” their dad said, placing his finger in a small recess on the side.

  “Please place your bags in the bin,” the attendant said as their dad put their bags up on the shelf.

  “Done,” their dad said. “There, that’ll deliver our bags to the room so we don’t have to carry them around with us all day.”

  In the hustle of the morning, the girls had forgotten all their troubles and just went with the flow. They felt completely at ease, following their dad as he made his way through the crowd toward the train. He seemed to know where he was going.

  The girls walked after him, still bleary eyed from the morning trip as he wove in and out of the crowd. Julia trailed Lauren, who was right behind their dad. He bumped into something and they heard him say, “Oh, sorry, young man, I didn’t see you.”

  As their dad moved aside, Lauren’s heart leapt into her throat. The young man was not a young man at all, but a Zeb. She couldn’t speak. She stood frozen, dead in her tracks as she came face to face with the Zeb. Her heart pounded faster and faster. She heard every beat amplified in her burning ears. Blood drained from her face as it turned a pale white. The Zeb looked straight into her eyes for a moment, then continued past her.

  Julia shrieked as she saw the Zeb, grabbing Lauren’s arm in a death grip. When she did, Lauren snapped out of her daze and yanked Julia forward.

  Their dad hadn’t stopped walking and didn’t notice that the girls lagged. They caught up to him and tugged at his arm.

  “Dad, did you notice anything strange about that boy?” Lauren asked.

  “What?” he asked, still focused on where he was going.

  “Dad, this is important. Did you notice anything strange about that boy?”

  “What do you mean? He was just a teenage boy. A little short, but nothing strange.” He crossed into a main intersection of the station and pulled the girls along, then ducked into a door that read “Spaceport station.”

  Lauren shot Julia a glance as they struggled to keep up with him. When they arrived at the train, he finally stopped as they waited for the next train to come.

  “Seriously, Dad, nothing about that boy?” Julia probed further.

  “What are you two talking about? Nothing strange. Please quit asking me about it, I’m trying to figure out where this place is,” he said, starting to sound annoyed.

  As the train arrived, the passengers spilled off the train from several doors. From the adjacent door, another Zeb hopped off the train. He didn’t notice the girls as they stared at him.

  Julia pulled her dad’s hand, saying quietly. “Dad, look at THAT boy. Does HE look strange?”

  Their dad turned to look at the boy, then stepped back, startled.

  Julia’s eyes lit up excitedly. “You can see?”

  “Yes, yes. Look at him!” their dad whispered back to her. “How could I not have noticed that before? His fangs, they’re huge! And those horns? How does he not bump into things with those?”

  Puzzled, Julia looked over at the Zeb again. Scratching her head and crinkling her nose, she looked up at her dad. “Horns?”

  Lauren straightened her arms at her side and growled, “Julia, he’s making fun of us!”

  “No, I’m not, girls. I can see his monkey tail, too. He must have gone through a lot of mods. I wonder if his parents know about that? Do you two know about mods?” he said mockingly.

  “Argh!” Julia grumbled.

  Their dad dropped the charade. “You girls, I have no idea what you’re talking about. That kid looks perfectly normal, too. Come on, we need to catch this train.” He pulled them both onto the train as the doors closed.

  Chapter 14

  Spacewalk

  On the train, Julia and Lauren decided it was best they pretend they didn’t see the Zebs. Otherwise, their dad might take them to a psychologist instead of doing the fun thing he had planned. It seemed the Zebs weren’t bugging anyone. They were just walking around the station minding their own business, right?

  As the train accelerated, the girls insisted in unison, “What are we doing?”

  “I’m not telling. You’ll find out soon enough!” their dad said as they sat down. “It’s just a couple stops from here.”

  He took his phone from his pocket and tapped it a few times. “OK, I’m going to drop you two off at the place, and when you’re done go straight back to the hotel. I’ve already checked us in, so just go to the room and it will let you in. Here, Julia, let me see your phone.”

  Julia, who was sitting next to him, hunted for her phone in her fanny pack. She patted the vial with the treatment, reminding herself to check it later. At the bottom of the pack, she found her phone and handed her it to her dad. He tapped a few things on it and then held it up for both of the girls to see.

  “This is the hotel. Go straight there when you’re done. I’ve got a tracer on you two to monitor where you are, so if you don’t go back to the room, I’ll know!” he said, half kidding and half serious.

  “We know, we know. We’ll go straight back. We promise!” Julia smiled back, knowing full well that as soon as they were away from their dad, Lauren would immediately disable the tracer. They had an agenda here on New Cielo and couldn’t let a tracer get in the way.

  The train came to its third stop. Their dad hopped up. “Here we are!”

  “Look at that!” Julia pointed out the window.
>
  A huge sign, which said: “Spacepark! The one and only!” spanned the platform.

  “Awesome!” the girls shouted, as they put both hands on the window and peered out. Their dad had to peel them off to get them out of the train.

  “Let’s go!” he said pulling them both.

  A whole imaginary world of holographic images greeted them.

  “Ah!” Lauren screamed as a real-life roller coaster swooped down in front of them with kids screaming, stretching their arms out in sheer joy.

  It looked so real, Julia reached out to touch it, but her hand went straight through it.

  They walked through the image and saw the star attraction, “The Monster.” The famous roller coaster shot straight up into the middle of the station, rolling around as riders free-floated in the cars within a glass tube, then shot back down to the station surface. The Monster was something they never could have done on Earth.

  The girls had definitely heard of Spacepark before. Kids talked about it all the time on Cielo Prime, but their family wasn’t into theme parks back on Earth, so they hadn’t thought too much about it here. But this was a one-of-a-kind theme park built as part of the grand vision of New Cielo that could never be duplicated on Earth.

  “Come on, Dad, let’s go!” they both shouted back to him.

  Speed walking after them, he shouted, “Hold on, I’m coming!”

  At the gate, their dad paid by waving his hand over the automated teller and saying, “Three passes.”

  The automated teller responded as the gates opened, “Thank you. Please proceed.”

  Through the gates, the girls stopped, waiting for their dad. “I thought you had to work today?” Lauren asked.

  “I do. I’ll get you settled here, then I have to go,” he said.

  “Are we going to stay here alone?” Julia asked, eyebrows uplifted.

  “Well, glad you asked! This state of the art theme park comes with automated chaperones,” he said.

  Lauren sighed, “Ah, man! Like the ones at school?”

  “They’re a little different here. This one will act as your guide and will make sure you’re safe. It stays with you the whole time. It’s like a robot dad! It will even escort you to the hotel room once you’re done,” he said, beaming.