The New Frontier Read online

  “What are you going to do?” Julia was out of her league with computers, just as Lauren was with biological experiments.

  “I’m going to put a Trojan horse here that will get picked up by their tracer, then it will tell us exactly who they are,” Lauren declared.

  “Lauren, this is getting scary. I don’t like this,” Julia said, feeling even more alarmed than she already had. “We need to tell somebody.”

  “Who would we tell? Nobody would believe us, and they’d put us in the loony bin because they’d think we were crazy! We need that treatment, fast!” Lauren glared at the computer. “Is there anywhere else you kept your entries? Or did anyone else help you?”

  “Well, I guess the teacher would have kept my notes and report,” Julia said. “I could try and get in touch with her.”

  “OK. Give me a minute and then we’ll send the message,” Lauren walked over to her desk and rummaged through her drawer. She pulled out a pair of strange glasses that had full blinders around the rims, and then sat down at her desk.

  After a minute, Lauren started waving her hands around. Julia simply watched and waited.

  “There, done,” Lauren said after a few minutes more, setting her glasses down.

  “What did you do?” Julia questioned.

  “So, I put a Trojan horse on your blog that will trace who’s trying to access these files. Looks like their tracer picked it up as soon as I changed it. Then I changed the system to make the tracer think it was monitoring your activities when it’s really monitoring somebody else’s blog.”

  “Who is it monitoring?” Julia blinked at her sister.

  Lauren smiled “A fake person named Ima Hogg.”

  Julia laughed, remembering the name from Texas history as one of a former governor’s daughters.

  “Well, now, contact your teacher and start trying to recreate that treatment from memory. This redirect won’t fool them forever and we need to move fast,” Lauren commanded.

  Julia was already getting set up to record a message to her teacher. She started speaking to the screen, “Mrs. Montgomery, I seem to have lost my experiment logs from when I was in your class last year. Can you find my report on genetic modification I did a few months back? If you have any of my notes, please send them to me as soon as possible. It’s important.” She was about to sign off the message, but then added, “Oh, also please encrypt this message. I don’t want anyone else reading it!” She smiled at the camera and touched the screen to send the message.

  “OK, we’ll just have to wait now.” Lauren looked at Julia straight lipped. “Do you think you could try to make it again from memory?”

  “It’s going to be really hard. I don’t even have the right equipment or the DNA I need.”

  “Hold on.” Julia turned to her screen and said, “Find gel electrophoresis chambers for sale on the station.”

  After a second, the system flashed back with an intricate three-dimensional model of the station. A blinking red dot appeared at the girls’ location, their apartment. The system zoomed into a closer view of their apartment, hovering far enough back so they could recognize the main landmarks. It then proceeded to trace a path from their apartment to the location of the store they needed to go to. At the destination, a tag displayed “Morison’s Genetics Shop.”

  “Wait,” Lauren stopped Julia. “Whoever is watching us could watch your search, too. I didn’t put anything in there to mask your searches—it’s a lot more difficult.”

  “OK. I guess they’d have everything else we need,” she said, focusing on the screen. “Wow, it’s all the way at the end of the station. Over in Grid 2,” she muttered under her breath.

  “Uh, oh. Grid 2. There’s no way Mom would let us go down there,” Lauren said.

  “What’s wrong with Grid 2?” Julia asked.

  “I’m not exactly sure. I’ve just heard it’s a pretty rough part of the station,” Lauren answered.

  “We still need to go. It’s the only place on the station that has it,” Julia said.

  “We’ll have to figure something out … anyway, electro-what? What is that?” Lauren asked with a contorted look on her face.

  “It’s something I need to isolate the neon green gene from the jellyfish,” Julia answered, half paying attention. “There are better ways to do it, but we have to do this pretty cheaply.”

  “OK. Whatever that means! What else do you need?” Lauren questioned.

  “Well, I remember I needed the jellyfish gene, then I needed a virus to put the gene on to insert it into the microorganism.” Julia looked at the screen, then shifted her gaze to Lauren.

  “If I search for the other things, I bet whoever corrupted my blogs would know what we were up to,” she continued. “So why don’t we go to this store and see if they can tell us where to get the rest of the stuff.”

  “OK, let’s go after school tomorrow. We’ll have to figure out something to tell Mom, though, because there’s no way she’d let us go down there …”

  Julia sat down at her computer, trying to piece together what she remembered from the experiment.

  Lauren turned to her own computer, putting her strange glasses on. “I’m going to try and hide our tracks. They can trace us anywhere with our phones and biometric scanners on the station and I don’t want those weird creatures following us.”

  Chapter 10

  The Experiment

  The next day, Julia awoke with vigor, ready to get through school and get to the store. She got up early and plotted out their course down to Grid 2.

  Lauren woke up a little while later as she always did, enthusiastic as her sister. In their room, they collaborated on what to tell their mother about where they were going.

  First thing, Lauren logged onto her computer to check email and look at her schedule. The screen flashed on and an alert popped up saying, “Blog tracker—no results.”

  “Shoot. I was hoping it would have returned something by now. Oh well, we’ll just have to wait,” Lauren said, then turned to her sister.

  “How about we tell Mom we need something for one of your projects at school,” Lauren suggested.

  “Yes, that’s kind of true. I did need it for a project six months ago … and I don’t have the equipment now!” Julia agreed.

  The two mustered up the courage to talk to their mom and walked out to the breakfast area.

  “Mom,” Lauren said, with innocent-looking eyes as big as saucers. “Julia and I need to go get something after school. It could take a little time. Is that OK?”

  “What do you need to get?” their mom absently asked as she blocked Maia’s hand from dipping into Evan’s cereal bowl.

  “Oh, just something for school,” Lauren responded.

  “Where is it?”

  “Oh, I think it’s over in Grid 2,” Lauren mumbled.

  “Where? Grid 2! Absolutely not! You know what’s down there?” Their mom froze and stared at Lauren in disbelief.

  Lauren smiled broadly. “I’m just kidding, it’s in Grid 11.”

  “You better be kidding! Grid 2 isn’t any place for kids,” their mother said. “Well, Grid 11 is still on the other side of the station. What do you need to go there for?”

  “Like I said, it’s for a school project. It’s Julia’s project,” Lauren explained.

  “Can’t you just have them deliver it?”

  “No, I’m not sure what I need and I need to look at it,” Julia said, shifting her eyes.

  Lauren shot Julia a glance to get her to stay quiet and leave the talking up to her. Julia fell silent.

  Suspicious, their mother looked at Julia to see if she would crack. Julia held her own, simply returning her mother’s stare.

  Lauren felt their permission slipping away and tried one last plea. “Mom, she really needs the equipment. She can’t do her extra credit experiment without it.”

  Their mother stood thinking for a second, “OK. You can go, but try not to be there too late. Leave your phone on so I can make su
re you’re OK.”

  Their mother felt secure they would be safe, knowing that the phone would track their movements. Plus, as the girls’ dad had reminded her when they had been out late before, the safety net on the station was second to none. At a moment’s notice when anybody was in trouble, all they had to do was yell and police bots would come detain all the parties involved for the police to sort out.

  “We promise,” they both said and headed out the door for school. Unbeknownst to her mother, Lauren had already changed their phones to send out a false signal from a different location.

  They got to school a little early to hang out with their friends before class. It helped to distract them a little from thinking about the experiment, but not fully. Lauren’s first class was math. She slouched down in her desk, struggling to pay attention. Around the room, her fellow students answered questions as the teacher called on them.

  There were 20 students in the advanced math class. The teacher wrote on the board in the front, and most students were following along on their tablets.

  Lauren’s friend Alyssa sat behind her, and they’d frequently get in trouble for talking when they were supposed to be listening.

  But today, Lauren wasn’t paying attention for an entirely different reason.

  “Lauren!” her teacher called her name.

  “What? Huh?” she said.

  “What’s the answer? X + 10Y = 300, where Y = 1/2X. What is X?” The teacher pointed to the board at the front of the classroom.

  “Uh, I’m not sure.”

  “Lauren, think. You can do this.”

  Lauren looked up toward the ceiling, “Um, 14 something?”

  “Try again,” her teacher said, glaring at her.

  Lauren took a pen and wrote on her tablet. While she wrote, it displayed on the board in front of the class, “Um, 50?”

  “Yes, that’s right. See how she did it?” The teacher pointed at her work on the board, but Lauren had tuned out already.

  Her friend Alyssa tapped her on the shoulder.

  “What’s wrong with you? Where are you?”

  “I’m right here,” Lauren defended.

  “No, you’re not. You’re out there in space.” Alyssa pointed to a window where stars shown in.

  “Girls,” their teacher looked at them, “pay attention.”

  Lauren sat straight in her seat, staring ahead with a blank look on her face.

  Fifteen minutes later, the bell rang.

  “Finally, lunch!” Alyssa said. “Are you ready?”

  “What?” Lauren said again.

  “Come on, space cadet! Get up, let’s go eat.” Alyssa grabbed Lauren by the arm.

  They walked through the halls toward the lunch room. Kids ran around, scurrying to class or lunch. They got to the cafeteria and waited in line.

  When she smelled the food, Lauren started paying attention to the here and now.

  “I hope we get Mexican food today,” Alyssa said.

  “Mexican food? No way, I want Indian food,” Lauren protested.

  “I’m tired of Indian food,” Alyssa complained. “I’ve had it twice this week already.”

  As they reached the trays, they could see what it was.

  “Mmm, Mexican food!” Alyssa said.

  “Ah, man! I don’t like it here. They can’t make it right. It’s a lot better at home,” Lauren said.

  “What are you talking about? You all don’t make it, it’s prepared for you!”

  “Maybe … but there’s still something different,” Lauren said.

  They got their food and Lauren sat down.

  “So, what is going on with you?” Alyssa asked as she sat down. “You’ve been in la-la land all morning.”

  “Oh, nothing,” Lauren said, hiding her gaze.

  “It’s not nothing. You’re up to something,” Alyssa said. “And I’m going to find out!”

  A couple other girls joined them at the table, distracting Alyssa from her grilling. But at the end of lunch, Alyssa reminded Lauren, “I haven’t forgotten about it!”

  Throughout the rest of the day, Lauren tried to focus, but just couldn’t manage to do it. At 3 o’clock when the bell rang, she sprang out of her seat, sprinting to the door.

  On the way out, Alyssa tried to stop her “Lauren, want to go to the plaza after school?”

  Lauren slowed down briefly to answer her friend. “No, not today. Julia and I are going down to Grid 2 to pick some things up.”

  “Grid 2! So that’s what you were thinking about all day. Do you know what’s down there?” She looked at Lauren in amazement. Then she grinned slyly. “What kind of mod are you getting?”

  “What kind of what?” Lauren asked, not understanding what Alyssa was talking about.

  Surprised, Alyssa asked, “You really don’t know what’s down there, do you?”

  “I’ve heard it’s not really a place for kids our age,” Lauren admitted. “But the place we’re going is right on the edge of Grid 2. It’s not in the middle where all the bad stuff is.”

  “Where is it?” Alyssa asked.

  “I think it’s just a couple blocks off the local line 2,” Lauren said.

  “OK. What’s the place?” Alyssa continued.

  “It’s called Morison’s Genetics Shop,” Lauren answered.

  “Genetics? Then you are looking for a mod! I knew it! What kind?” Alyssa appeared startled.

  “It’s something for Julia. She’s doing an experiment or something,” Lauren said, vaguely hoping Alyssa wouldn’t ask more than that.

  To Lauren’s relief, Alyssa dropped her interrogation. “Huh. A 10-year-old doing genetic experiments … your sister is pretty smart.”

  “Yes, she’s something else!” Lauren grinned as she fondly thought of her quirky sister.

  “Regardless. You guys are new on this station and don’t know how things work around here,” Alyssa said confidently.

  Lauren could tell Alyssa was trying to entice her to ask more, and she knowingly took the bait. “Why, do you know that area?”

  Alyssa could hardly contain herself. “Sure do! I used to go down there with my older sister. She would go down there to meet some people and took me along a few times.”

  Lauren wasn’t feeling too sure of herself and thought she could use the help. “Would you like to come with us? I don’t know the area and it sounds like you do.”

  “That’d be great! I need a little adventure. Let me go tell my mom when we get outside.”

  She started toward the door.

  Lauren grabbed her before she could get very far, “Alyssa! Don’t tell her we’re going to Grid 2. I told my mom we were going to Grid 11.”

  A slight smile crossed Alyssa’s mouth as she said sarcastically, “Really, Lauren, do you think I was born yesterday? Of course I wouldn’t tell her where we were going.”

  Outside, the two approached Julia. Surprised to see Alyssa, Julia gave Lauren a questioning look.

  Lauren reassured her, “Alyssa wanted to come down there with us. She’s been there a few times and said she could help.”

  Julia looked relieved, “Good! We could use the help. I’ve heard it’s not a place for kids. I guess we’re taking the train?”

  “Yes. We’ll take the express line down the station, then it’s just one local train over there. Where we are going it’s not too bad,” Alyssa said with a nod.

  The two sisters were glad to hear that. “OK, let’s go tell Mom that we’re off.” Lauren moved in the direction of her mother with Julia following.

  Alyssa did the same, walking over to her mother.

  Lauren approached her mother quickly. “OK, Mom, we’re off!”

  “Hold on, you two,” her mom said, holding her finger up behind her back as she finished a conversation with another mom.

  “All right, Kathryn, I’ll see you later tonight,” their mom’s friend said as she waved and walked away with her daughter

  “Mom, we’re going to go get the stuff Julia needs. We
need to go! Alyssa’s going with us and she’s waiting.”

  “Grid 2, right?” their mom asked, trying to catch her daughter.

  “What? Grid 2? No, we’re going to Grid 11,” Lauren said as certain as she could.

  The two turned to walk away and Alyssa walked up to join them.

  “Well, hello, Alyssa,” Lauren’s mother said.

  “Hi! How are you doing today?”

  “Fine,” their mother folded her arms in front of her. “I hear you all are going on an adventure down to Grid 10.”

  Lauren grabbed Alyssa’s arm and drew her closer.

  Alyssa looked confused. “Grid 10? We’re going to Grid 11.”

  Their mother’s frown gave way to a smile. “OK, kids, be careful.”

  Lauren felt bad about lying to her mother, but she knew how important this was. If they didn’t get that equipment, they couldn’t recreate the experiment and they’d never be able to get the truth about the creatures out.

  The three adventurers headed toward the train station.

  Chapter 11

  A New Ally

  On the train ride down to Grid 2, the two sisters shifted in their seats, looking around at the other passengers. Julia drummed her fingers on the seat next to her while Lauren fidgeted with her phone. The sisters had heard so many bad things about Grid 2, they didn’t know what to expect.

  Alyssa was calm, casually looking out the window, unaware of how the girls were feeling until she caught a glimpse of Julia’s long and expressionless face. Her eyes were focusing on the advertisements above her. “Are you nervous?” Alyssa asked her.

  Julia blinked and then looked at Alyssa. “No,” she insisted crumpling her face and almost acting offended.

  Lauren knew it was a facade. She squelched her own apprehension and tried to reassure Julia. “It’s going to be OK.”

  Julia gave Lauren the same offended look. “I know.”

  Alyssa chimed in, “It’s not as bad as you’ve heard. And we’re not going to the middle of Grid 2.”

  “I sure hope Mom doesn’t find out about this. She’d kill us,” Julia blurted out. Then, more quietly she muttered, “Unless we die here first!”

  “Don’t worry. It’s almost like a circus down there. The people there are a lot different than from where we live, but they’re still nice just the same,” Alyssa said.