The New Frontier Page 13

  Julia started, “Oh, sorry, we’re lost. Can you tell us how to get back to the main part of the station?”

  “Drop the charade, girls. We know who you are,” he said, glaring at them as the other Zeb joined him.

  The girls’ jaws dropped as they both slowly walked backward toward the main hall.

  “Stop! We would like to talk to you,” the Zeb said.

  The girls didn’t stick around to listen to anything else as they sprinted away as fast as their legs could carry them. Not looking where they were going or to see if the Zebs were following, they ran through the halls, looking for any hiding place.

  The first dark hall they came to, they ducked in and flattened themselves against the wall. The Zebs ran past them a moment later and turned into a hall on the opposite side. They were there for a minute then came back to the main hall.

  “Do you see them?” one of them said.

  “No, not in here,” the shorter Zeb said in a gruff voice.

  The two Zebs continued down the main hall out of sight.

  Lauren whispered to Julia, “If they just searched there, I don’t think they’ll come back there. Come on, let’s go.”

  “Good idea,” Julia said as she followed her sister across the hall.

  The well-lit hall went straight back, and at the end there was an open door.

  “Quick, in here,” Lauren said.

  The two jumped through the open door. It closed quickly behind them. They found themselves in a prep room for workers and robots heading out to work on the station. It didn’t look like many people used it.

  “Julia, look,” Lauren whispered, pointing at the suits. “They’re not for grown humans. I bet the Zebs use this room to go out and inspect the station.”

  Julia wasn’t paying attention. She’d taken her phone out of her fanny pack.

  “What are you doing?” Lauren asked.

  “Trying to call Dad … still no answer,” Julia answered.

  Before they could think much more about it, they heard the voices in the hall.

  The two looked at each other in horror. “Quick! Into the suits,” Lauren said as she frantically suited up. It didn’t quite fit, but it was good enough. The suits were smart enough to compensate for different-sized individuals, and it tightened around her.

  Julia stuffed her phone back into her fanny pack. As she did, one of the vials of the treatment fell out. Scared, she fumbled, trying to pick it up and accidentally stepped on it, smashing the glass.

  “Oops,” she said.

  “Hurry, forget about it. We don’t have time!” Lauren shrieked.

  The familiar foul smell seeped into the room. Ignoring the vial, Julia did as Lauren said, zipping into her suit. They hobbled into the airlock room and flipped their helmet visors down.

  Lauren tapped her wrist control to turn her microphone on. “Can you hear me?”

  Julia nodded, “Yep.”

  The airlock was a small room with a bench and an airtight seal to protect people in the prep room. It had a small circular portal so they could see inside the prep room.

  Julia poked her head up into the portal to see if the Zebs had come into the room. As she did, she saw them entering the room, wincing at the rank smell from the treatment. They spotted her in the portal. She stumbled backward in the awkward suit.

  Quickly, Lauren punched the airlock control and the space door opened, sucking them both out into the vacuum. Tumbling end over end, they both maneuvered to right themselves. The emptiness of space engulfed them with complete calm. They looked at each other with fearfully wide eyes, unable to cry and wondering if this would be the end of them.

  Lauren shook her head, coming to her senses as they found themselves at the fringe of a construction zone. Worker bots buzzed off in the distance, back and forth, riveting bolts and welding metal together on the station. The bots were piecing the next enormous sections of the cylindrical shape into place. The massive project was almost too much to absorb.

  “We need to get out of here. Those Zebs will be here any minute. Let’s head over to that construction area,” Lauren said.

  The controls on the suit were the same as the suits in the theme park. With a kick of their feet, the two jetted off to the construction zone, hoping to get lost in the commotion.

  Moments later, the Zebs appeared at the entrance to the airlock, jetting off in the direction of the girls.

  After 10 minutes at full speed, Lauren and Julia reached the construction zone. As they drifted over, they gently shifted their feet forward to stop their momentum. A small automated transport moving materials narrowly missed them as it whizzed by. The two scooted behind a long, massive metal girder, then turned around to see how close the Zebs were following. Sure enough, the Zebs were close behind.

  Lauren motioned to Julia to follow her. The two traversed the length of a girder blocking the Zebs’ view. They took a sharp right into a newly constructed building shell attached to the end of the massive girder. Sparks flew all around. Metal rods swung back and forth, barely missing them.

  On the other side of the building structure was a trash net where all the scraps were placed. Lauren pointed toward the net and the two jetted over to hide and wait behind it.

  Once there, they floated, waiting to see what the Zebs would do. Lauren looked around to see if she could see another airlock. Just on the other side of the girder, she saw the largest ports where bots came in and out. She pointed it out to Julia, then motioned that she was going to check on the Zebs. Rather than use the jet pack on the suit, she climbed the netting, positioning herself to catch a glimpse. She peeked over the top, looking through the construction zone, but couldn’t see them anywhere.

  All of a sudden she heard a shriek and “Lauren, help!” in her headset. She looked down to see the Zebs tugging at Julia’s arms.

  She looked around for any weapon in the trash heap, finding a long steel bar loose in the debris. Using it like a lance, she gripped it tightly under her arm and kicked her feet, fully engaging her jets. Her aim was dead on, striking one the Zebs in the chest. Shocked and hurt, he looked up at Lauren in agony. His face contorted through the visor, staring back at Lauren. For a moment, she thought she saw a hint of remorse in his face.

  Short on breath, the Zeb wheezed, “Stop, we’re not trying to hurt you!” He doubled over in pain but didn’t release his grip on Julia. The force of the blow sent the two spiraling off into the construction mayhem.

  The other Zeb lunged for Lauren. She dodged to the left and whacked him with the rod, sending him floating in the other direction.

  Julia and the Zeb drifted right in between two worker bots riveting bolts onto the girder. Lauren sped over to them, grabbing Julia’s arm and then flipping her feet around and kicking the thrusters on again.

  The force of the thrusters knocked the Zeb backward just as a worker bot was pounding a rivet into the girder. The rivet punched through the Zeb’s space suit, trapping him. Lauren and Julia didn’t stick around to see his fate, blasting off to the port Lauren spotted earlier.

  Machines flew in and out of the bay doors, swarming the entrance. A queue of machines waited to enter in orderly fashion just outside the dock. Rather than fly in themselves, the two decided to hitch a ride on one of the bots waiting in line. The second bot in line was big enough for them to latch on. As they grabbed hold, the bot’s thrusters kicked in, taking them with it.

  The bot rapidly accelerated, scaring the girls for a second and causing them to tighten their grip. As it glided into the bay, they got their first view of the massive outfit needed to build the station. The giant bay housed a honeycomb of several smaller cubbies where the bots landed, picking up supplies, then returning to the construction site.

  Their bot flew into one of the holes, gently landing as the door slid shut. The girls jumped off, feeling gravity once again as they headed for the only door in the bay. The door slid open and closed, pressurizing the space as it did. The two shed their suits and exited
the chamber as quickly as they could. The chamber opened into a maze of shafts, scaffolding, pipes, and tubing.

  “Hold on, let me see where we are,” Lauren said, picking up her phone and speaking into it. “Display map.”

  Immediately, the phone displayed a map of this section of the station with a blinking red light where they stood.

  “Show directions to hotel room,” she said next. The phone traced a path through the labyrinth showing them where to go.

  “All right, let’s go this way,” she said as she began to run. Julia followed as they picked up their pace.

  “Turn right. Turn left. Go straight.” The phone guided the two through the area.

  Lauren stopped to wait for Julia and catch her breath. “You OK?” she asked her sister.

  “Yes,” Julia stopped too, putting her hands on her knees. “Let’s … take … a … break,” she stammered, sliding down against the wall to take a seat.

  The girls sat for a few moments gathering their composure, looking at each other and panting. They didn’t notice a figure coming in their direction.

  “What in the world?” the figure said as he approached the two. “What are you two doing here and how did you get here?”

  The two surprised girls looked up, relieved to see a human.

  Chapter 16

  The Trip Home

  The man who found the girls took them to the control room overlooking the massive construction bay. On the other side of the room was a large window where the controllers could survey the entire bay operation. There were a few rough-looking workers who weren’t paying any attention to them looking out the window.

  “You two wait here,” the man said. “We need to find your dad. He’s not answering his phone.”

  He walked over to the control console, rapping his fingers on the counter.

  The man spun around to address the girls. “You two are in a lot of trouble. You know how dangerous it is out there?” He paused, not really expecting an answer. “How did you get there, anyway?” he asked, folding his arms in front of him. He was completely unaware they had just done a spacewalk clear across the construction zone.

  “Uh, we were just looking for our dad,” Lauren thought quickly. “We can’t find him, either.”

  “Hmm. You know we should call the police. It’s really dangerous out there and you all shouldn’t have been in there,” he mumbled with a frown, not believing them.

  “Please, sir, we weren’t trying to break anything. We don’t live here. We live on Cielo Prime, and we were trying to find our dad. We traced him to somewhere over here,” Julia said.

  “See, look.” Lauren held up her phone with the map locating her dad.

  “Well, I won’t call the police. But it’s weird how you didn’t trip any of the security alarms,” he said under his breath.

  Just as he spoke, Lauren’s phone rang and she picked it up. “Dad? Is that you? … . Yes, we’re on the other side of the station … no, they’re not happy about it … yes, they want you to come get us … yes, we’re in trouble.”

  The man who detained them stood in front of them, perplexed. He wasn’t sure what to do with the two, as they didn’t have visitors very frequently and certainly not a couple of young girls. He had been inspecting the machinery when he found the girls and was covered head to toe in grease. He obviously wanted to get back to work and appeared agitated that he had to watch after the girls until their dad got there.

  He yelled to one of the guys at the control window, “Charlie, I’ve got to get back to work. Can you watch these two until their dad comes?” He didn’t wait for the guy to answer and just left the room.

  “Sure,” the gruff man at the window replied without turning around. He reached for his cup of coffee, hunched to blow on it, then took a drink.

  The girls couldn’t see his face, but they could tell he was older. They could see his silvery hair sprawling out of his beat up old baseball cap.

  Julia and Lauren both approached him, peering out the window with interest. “Wow! Look at that!” Julia said when she could see.

  The man looked down at the girls, surprised, but not agitated like the other man. “Hey, did you all want to see?”

  “Definitely,” Julia said, taking a step up on a bench.

  “See here, these are all the bots fixing up the station.” He turned, putting his hand up to his mouth to cough.

  “That there giant one, see—” He pointed at the largest bot in the bay. “It comes in here and picks up all these ginormous metal plates and takes it out there.” He waved his hand in the general direction of the construction.

  “Wow! That’s what makes the outside of the station?” Julia asked.

  “Yep. Then you got your welding bots, and your electrical bots, and your inspector bots. They all know what they’re doin’. We’re just watchin’ and waitin’ for somethin’ to break down. Then we fix it,” he said, then coughed.

  The girls just stood observing, mesmerized by all the orchestrated chaos. Just then, a loud buzz came overhead. The man reached down and punched a button. “Yes?”

  The girls heard their dad’s voice. “I’m here to pick up my kids.”

  “Come on up,” the man said, hitting another button.

  A few moments later, their dad arrived. Immediately, the girls could tell something was wrong with him. Devoid of emotion, he said to the man in a monotone, “Sorry for the trouble.” Then to the girls, “Come on, let’s go.”

  The congenial old man waved to the girls as they walked out. “Thanks for the company!”

  Outside the control room, Lauren looked at her dad. “Dad, are you OK?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” he said abruptly without looking at them.

  “Did you talk to the governor’s office?” she asked.

  “Yes, it’s all OK. We’ll keep bringing back the rocks. We’ll go to the hotel room now,” he said.

  “And what were you doing down by the new construction area, Dad?” Lauren asked.

  “I wasn’t there. I was in the governor’s office,” he said.

  “What? We tracked you over there,” she said.

  “Must have been an error. I wasn’t there,” he repeated. Lauren and Julia looked at each other in doubt, wondering if the Zebs had gotten to him.

  “Let’s get back to the hotel room,” he said.

  “But we haven’t eaten yet,” Julia protested.

  “We’ll get room service,” was all he said. From there to the room, he didn’t say another thing. The girls just rode along glumly. Strangely, he didn’t even mention the episode in the control room. The girls didn’t mind, but they did think it was odd.

  Back at the hotel room, their dad sat down in the chair next to one of the beds, looking at his phone. The girls looked at each other and shrugged. Julia opened her fanny pack and surveyed the contents. She found the vial with the treatment. It was ready. She knew this was the right time and caught Lauren’s attention.

  Lauren gave her a nod. Julia pulled the vial out of fanny pack, shook it, and unscrewed the lid. Almost immediately, a distinct foul smell filled the room.

  Their dad instantly crinkled his nose, holding it, saying, “What is that horrible smell?”

  Lauren twitched her nose and Julia was already holding hers. Julia twisted the cap back on the vial and placed it back in her fanny pack.

  “I don’t know. That’s awful,” Lauren said walking into the bathroom and turning the fan on.

  Their dad said, “Air conditioning fan on, high,” and the fan whirled on, sucking the air from the room. After several minutes, the smell still lingered.

  “Let’s go get some food,” their dad said, putting his phone in his pocket.

  “Good idea,” Julia said. “There’s lots of places up on the first floor. We saw a commercial earlier about the restaurants near the lobby.”

  The three left to go eat. They found a good Thai restaurant and each of them had their favorite curry. Lauren’s was Musman, Julia’s Penang,
and their dad’s some sort of green curry.

  After an hour outside the room, they figured the smell should have subsided enough that they could return.

  Back at the room, the girls were beat and wanted to go to sleep immediately.

  Their dad still was still acting strangely and wasn’t talking much. But they knew it was just a matter of time before the treatment started to work.

  *

  “Ugh!” their dad flew out of bed and into the bathroom, expunging his dinner into the toilet.

  The commotion woke Lauren. “Dad? Are you OK?”

  Julia stirred, but didn’t wake up.

  Lauren shook her. “Julia, wake up!”

  Julia snorted, then rubbed her eyes. “What?”

  “Ugh!” Their dad threw up again.

  “Oh!” The two smiled at each other, then Julia rolled back over and went to sleep.

  Lauren looked at the clock: 2AM

  “Dad, are you OK?”

  “Yes, Lauren, I must have a stomach virus or something,” he said from the bathroom. “Go back to sleep … I’ll be OK.”

  Lauren smiled to herself, pulled her covers up higher and went back to sleep.

  Early in the morning, the girls woke somewhat refreshed. Their dad was slumped over the toilet in the bathroom, asleep.

  Lauren walked in and poked her dad. “Dad, I don’t think we should stay here any longer. I miss Mom. Can we go home?”

  “What?” he said waking up. “I’m not feeling too well, anyway.” He struggled to his feet on wobbly legs.

  They packed in a hurry and were out the door in a flash. Their dad hobbled along behind them, clutching his stomach.

  Julia turned to Lauren, grinning. “He’s holding up pretty well. By now, we were out cold!”

  Lauren chuckled back, “Yep. Now let’s get him home so he can rest.”

  The trip home was uneventful other than their dad having to stop periodically, leaning against a wall or rail.

  They barged in at home, their dad struggling behind. Their mom greeted them, surprised.

  “Hey, you guys are here early. Did you have a good time?”

  “Definitely, but he’s not doing too well.” Lauren looked back at her dad behind them.