Bounders (31 page)

“Are those birds, too?” I ask.

“Those are kite bats,” Charkeera says, “native to the planet, obviously. They roost in the pomagranana trees.”

Soon the kite bats overtake the hover. They dive low, and we duck. Meggi screams, then Lucy screams, then pretty soon we're all screaming.

“Stay calm,” Charkeera says. “They won't attack. They're just getting a closer look.”

“Easy for her to say,” I whisper to Cole. “She's all fur, too. Who knows if they'll be so friendly to a bunch of humans?”

One of the bats swoops close, and Marco strokes its belly. The bat screeches and soars straight into the air.

“What the heck?” I say. “Are you trying to provoke it?”

“I couldn't help myself,” he says. “And by the way, it felt like puppy fur.”

“Marco!” Waters says. “Keep your hands off the wildlife.”

“Yes, sir.”

“What did I tell you about calling me sir?”

“Sorry. I'll try not to touch the wildlife again, Mr. Waters.”

Meanwhile, we've closed the gap to the waterfall. The water plummets from a peak higher than my apartment building and cascades to a deep, turquoise pool below. Next to the pool is a vast grove of trees bursting with plump purple fruit and lavender flowers. The trees don't have trunks—just a huge mass of branches that sprout from the ground. They look like the prickly disco lights in our pod room.

The hovers pull to a stop about a hundred meters from the trees. The kite bats soar past us and into the grove.

“We'll be picnicking here,” Charkeera says. “Follow your fellow Earthlings over to that clearing next to the pomagranana grove.”

I hop off the hover after Cole and Marco, and then help Mira down behind me. As we make our way to the clearing, kissing noises smack from behind. Geez. Regis can't even give it a rest today.

Marco looks at me and raises his eyebrows.

Ignore them,
I mouth, taking Mira's hand. So there, Regis. See how much I care.

Marco spins around, now walking backward toward the clearing. I should have known the silent treatment was not in his repertoire.

“Hey, Regis,” he says. “Do you have any idea what's in those barrels?”

Back at the hovers, the Tunnelers are unloading the kegs of pomagranana juice.

“Is this a quiz?” Regis says. “Or are you just making conversation so you don't have to talk with the king and queen of freaks?”

“It's pomagranana juice,” Marco says. “Florine said it has an immediate effect on your muscles. It wears off, but it temporarily makes you twice as strong. How about we drink some and have an arm-wrestling match? Settle this beef with our pods once and for all?”

“I'm not settling anything with you losers.”

“Suit yourself.”

We stop and let Regis and his buddies pass us.

“That's not true,” Cole says.

“Of course not,” Marco says. “But it's true it gives you gas. So those clowns are in for a real surprise.”

“Yeah, and we're in for a stinky ride back to the space station,” I say.

“Victory will never smell so good, or bad, if you know what I mean.”

We settle on blankets next to the pomagranana grove. The kite bats nest deep in the branches. The trees have that sweet, pungent smell berries get right before they rot. The fruit is bigger than my head, kind of like giant eggplants, but with spiky skin.

The Tunnelers pass out sandwiches, which are more like flat crackers spread with gray goop that looks gross but is actually delicious. It tastes earthy with hints of walnut and maple. Charkeera explains that the spread is made from groundnuts found on the planet. They also serve up carrots and cucumber slices grown in a hydroponic farm near the mines. Finally we each get a cup of pomagranana juice.

The juice is purple and smells kind of like raspberry lemonade.

“What are you waiting for, Ace?” Marco asks. “This stuff is delicious.”

I sip the juice. My mouth puckers at the extreme tartness. I'm not sure I can swallow. But the tartness is quickly replaced by sweetness, like sour candy with a red licorice aftertaste.

“Yum! Can we have seconds?”

“Careful, Jasper,” Lucy says. “Remember what Mr. Waters said.” She whispers to Meggi and Annette, presumably about the gas.

I wouldn't want to stink everyone out on the way home. One cup is enough.

“It looks like someone didn't get the memo.” Lucy points at Regis, Randall, and Hakim, who are sneaking refills from the pomagranana keg. The girls burst out laughing.

“You can thank
me
for that,” Marco says.

“Oh, Marco,” Lucy says, “always the prankster.”

Meggi turns almost as purple as the pomagrananas. Is she ever going to get over the tofu strings?

“Cadets!” Edgar Han crosses to the center of our group.

We all stand. “Yes, sir!”

“At ease,” he says, “no need for formality. You've worked hard this tour, and now it's time for recreation. We thought it would be fun for you to try out your blast packs by flying around the waterfall.”

Ummm, yes please!

I throw on my pack and dash for the cliff. As I run, I slip on my gloves and unzip my grips. A squeeze of my hands, and I lift off.

“Jasper! Wait!” Cole shouts.

I ease up just a bit, letting him close in. A grin the size of a pomagranana stretches across his face. Instead of stopping, he flies right past.

“Beat you!” he shouts.

No fair! I chase Cole. We fly close to the waterfall, and the spray spritzes my face.

Cole shoots straight up, tracking the trajectory of the falls. “This way!” He crosses in front and ducks out of sight.

I follow him to the other side, but he's nowhere to be seen. Did he fall? I squeeze the grips and bring my body to a standstill in the air. As my legs sway, I scan the ground beneath me for Cole.

“Over here!”

I crane my neck but still can't see Cole. Wait a second. . . . Is that him . . . through the waterfall?

I fly forward and curve close to the cliff. Sure enough, Cole is sitting on a small ledge behind the waterfall. I coast in beside him. We have our own private hideaway behind the wall of water.

The light snakes through the falls, flickering in tiny rainbows on our skin. Every few seconds we catch a glimpse of another Bounder flying in front of the water or rising from the ground.

“I didn't think it was possible,” Cole says, “but I actually managed to forget about the alien for a minute.”

“Me too, until you went and brought him up,” I say.

“Want to forget again?” Cole asks. “I'll race you to the ground.”

We load back into the hovers, full from lunch, bloated with pomagranana juice, and exhausted from flying our blast packs. I stretch out, plop my feet on the bench in front of me, and take in the amazing sights of the Paleo Planet. This place will be the ultimate gold mine. They'll pack them in by the thousands. Forget Disney World. They should build an amusement park here. Or a water park with a log ride off one of those awesome waterfalls. I can't believe how lucky I am to come here first. The kids at home will be so jealous. Will Stevens will finally shut up.

That's right, Will. I'm a B-wad. A B-wad who just blew by you in my blast pack.

Our hover leads the others across the vast landscape. Our cameraman pans his lens across the plains. At the controls behind me, Charkeera grunts and clicks. “We're approaching a watering hole. You'll see lots of native animals in this area. Over by the ridgeline, the wildeboars graze. We count their herd as more than a million strong. And don't miss the mammoths. They're slowly making their way to the water.”

A thin river snakes across the valley and widens into a basin. Animals are everywhere. Birds covered with a rainbow of feathers bathe and fish in the water. Small rodents with four pairs of legs pop out of holes near the bank. A saber cat limbers over. The other animals give him a wide berth as he bends to drink.

“This is unbelievable!” Ryan says. “Like an intergalactic safari!”

“No kidding,” I say. “Get a look at that cat!”

“He's gorgeous,” Lucy says. “Check out his muscles. We better not get too close.”

“What on earth are those?” Marco asks.

A group of creatures walk in a cluster toward the watering hole. I can't tell for sure, but from this distance they appear to be walking on two feet. I had no idea there were any bipedal animals on the Paleo Planet.

Charkeera makes a loud noise, a bark I've never heard before. She grunts and clicks into her com pin. Her translator box stays silent. She must have turned it off. The Tunneler manning the camera stands and shouts at Charkeera. Shouldn't he be catching this on film?

Sheek pushes past us to the helm of the hover. He lifts a hand to his forehead to cut the glare. “And I thought it was a rumor!” he says. “You are in for a real treat, kids! We've encountered some humanoids!”

Humanoids? As in humanlike aliens? Is he serious? Did we even know there were humanoids on the Paleo Planet? Did I zone out during that part of the lecture? I lean over to Marco. “Did you know there were humanoids?”

Marco shakes his head. I'm about to ask Waters, but stop cold. Something about him makes me shudder. A gray curtain has fallen across his face, and deep lines crease his forehead.

THE HOVER SLOWS. CHARKEERA REACTIVATES HER
translator. “We'll stop here for a minute, then return to the base.”

“No, no, no,” Sheek says. “Bring us in closer. I am not going to miss this.”

Charkeera speaks privately into her com again. She shifts her weight from foot to foot, and the pitch of her voice rises with each grunt. If I had to guess, she seems nervous.

“Take us in for a better look,” Sheek says. “That's an order.”

Charkeera grimly nods and eases the hover forward.

Up ahead, a cluster of humanoids approaches the riverbank. They wear hide bags slung across their chests for carrying water. Another group stands together, bending and straightening. They carry woven baskets on their backs.

“What are they doing?” Cole asks.

“Gathering food,” Charkeera says. “We believe ground nuts are a staple of their diets.”

“Like the ones we had for lunch?” Lucy asks.

Charkeera says yes, and then explains a bit about the humanoids. They used to see them a lot more on the planet, but now they keep to themselves. They live in caves deep in the mountain ranges. As she talks, she extracts her gun from a side storage compartment, straps it across her chest, and disengages the safety.

As our hovercrafts approach, some of the humanoids point at us. Many fall to their knees and drape their arms on the grass.

“What are they doing?” I ask.

“They're bowing,” Waters says. His voice is low and laced with something furious. “They must think we're gods.”

“Gods?” I gasp and burst out laughing.

Waters glares at me. His face is so clenched, he looks like he might explode. Or punch me in the nose.

I bite my lip to stop from laughing. A memory tickles the edge of my brain. Bo, the Tunneler who led our last lecture, said something similar. When Earth Force arrived in the skies over Gulaga, the Tunnelers all thought we were gods, too.

Our caravan glides forward and parks in a long line of hovers perpendicular to the watering hole.

“We can cover the rest of the ground on foot,” Sheek says.

A sputter of high-pitched grunts erupts from Charkeera. “No! That isn't safe! Think of the children! We must stay aboard the hovers!”

“Oh, please.” Sheek strides to the edge of the hover and hops off, dropping gracefully to the ground. “A few animals won't hurt us. The kids can fly away in their blast packs if there's a problem. And you have your weapons, of course.”

He's already striding toward the humanoids when he calls over his shoulder. “Come on, Bounders. Don't let the saber cat scare you! And bring that EFAN camera along!”

“Let's go!” Edgar Han shouts from his hover. He has his own equipment strapped across his chest—an old-fashioned camera with a huge zoom lens.

Marco hops off next. Lucy grabs my arm as I stand. “Something doesn't seem right, Jasper.”

I have the same feeling, but what could go wrong? We have our packs. The Tunnelers have guns. And isn't the whole point of the tourism initiative to get an up-close look at the Paleo Planet and its native animals?

I shrug. “Maybe. But don't you want to check things out?”

Lucy's lips stretch in a thin line. At first I think she's going to sit it out on the hover, but she shakes her head and follows me off.

“Everyone, please proceed this way,” Florine says. “This is a very special opportunity! Make sure the film is rolling!” She limps through the grass. High heels weren't meant for this kind of terrain.