Explorer X Alpha (7 page)

“We will see about that. Hey, Carter, Tacitus, you are on Aadi's team. I'll take Dakota and Scott,” Damien said as he walked into the glassed in basketball court sandwiched between the adventure gym, rock climbing walls, and obstacle courses.

“Why do I feel like I am being set up?” Aadi whispered to his backpack.

“Because you are,” said Scott when he walked by Aadi and onto the court. Aadi followed and set his backpack on the bench.

“Hey, we want to play,” called Eirena to Damien.

“Ugh,” said Aadi. He shook his head from side to side and put a hand up to his forehead.

“Play what?” Damien replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Basketball, loser. What do you think?” Eirena said to Damien, and she walked in front of him. With her arms folded, she sized him up as Raiko came to stand behind her.

“Fine. You're on my team. Aadi, you can have what's-her-name,” he said, pointing at Raiko.

“Rah-ee-koh,” Raiko said, then put her hands on her hips and squinted.

“Freak off, squirt,” Damien said. Raiko stuck her tongue out at him, then turned and went to Aadi's bench.

“Hey, Tacitus, what position you want to play?” Aadi asked Tacitus.

“I have never played basketball before,” Tacitus replied, ruffling his brown hair. Aadi inspected him from head to toe. He was taller than Damien, but not as tall as Aadi, so he figured he would make a good forward.

“You'll play forward. Your job is to get any and every ball that comes down from the basket and don't let anyone pass you on either side,” he told Tacitus. He then looked over at Carter's tall, lanky form.

“Carter, can you shoot a ball?” he asked after he looked him over.

Carter crossed his arms in front of him and squinted in thought. “Yeah, it's not much I can't do. I can shoot, dribble, whatever. I am your man. Boy, they are going to be sorry! We are going to kick butt,” Carter said, then cracked his neck to the side. At that moment, Aadi knew that their team was in big trouble.

“You will play forward too,” Aadi replied. He sure hoped that Raiko had some skills, because if not, he was going to be working his tail off.

He turned to Raiko and took a deep breath before he spoke. “Raiko, can you dribble?” he said.

“I may be short, but I play a mean point guard, and I can shoot three-pointers too. It pays to have a lot of brothers,” she said, and for the first time, he saw a smug, self-assured smile on her face.
This may not be so bad after all,
he thought to himself.

They started the game, and Aadi admitted to himself that he was rather impressed with Raiko's basketball skills. She held her own as the only point guard and scored many of the points they made in the game. Tacitus, although surprisingly coordinated, caught on to the game pretty fast. Carter was barely doing his part at blocking out Eirena, who was a tough competitor. She could shoot and was a relentless point guard. Damien was pretty good, but he and Scott were tied for points.

“Cadets, it is now lights out. Everything is closing down. Report to your rooms,” a woman's voice exclaimed over the loudspeaker. Just as the loudspeaker finished, Raiko made the last shot, and Aadi's team was declared the winner. Damien kicked the ball, pushed past Dakota, and went to the bench to throw his things in his backpack.

“Hey, guys… we are still on for tonight, okay? Meet me in the boys' bathroom near the elevators. We need to go to the lower level,” said Carter in a whispered voice while they gathered their things.

“Umm, we can't meet you in the boys' bathroom,” said Eirena as she walked up behind Carter.

“Again, who invited you?” Damien asked Eirena.

“You are definitely a butt wipe! I was just on your team in this game, and now you are selling me out. I ought to punch you,” Eirena said as she frowned and balled her fist at her sides.

“Why don't you try and give me a reason to punch you back. So what you were on my team - it doesn't mean I actually like you at all,” Damien said. He balled up his fist and moved closer to Eirena.

“Look, back off, both of you. They can come. They are part of our team anyway, and if you hit her, then I will have to hurt you,” Aadi said to Damien, then he stood between Eirena and Damien.

“Really? I'd like to see you try.” Damien punched Aadi in the jaw. Damien aimed his punch as though he had been waiting forever for the opportunity. The smile on his face held a sinister glare of hate and anger. Aadi felt the sharp pain of the punch on his jaw and quickly reacted and punched Damien back in the jaw. Then, he crouched down to his knees and punched him in the stomach. Damien felt the heavy, sharp snap of the punch, which only made him angrier. He recovered quickly and elbowed Aadi against the face. The piercing pain of Damien's blow finally made Aadi angry enough to stop holding back, and he grabbed Damien by the left leg to try to knock him off balance. Frustrated, Aadi couldn't budge him at all. It seemed like that leg was made of steel, but it couldn't be because it was soft and muscular like the rest of him.

Aadi quickly recovered and elbowed Damien's right leg, causing him to lean down and favor the leg. Aadi punched up and caught Damien in the nose, and blood squirted out of his bruised nose, which caused Aadi's fist to slip. Damien grabbed his nose, saw the blood, and was ready to attack again. Eirena quickly stepped up and side-kicked Damien to the floor, put her knee in his stomach, and had her other foot on his neck. Damien coughed since she didn't hold back any pressure and pushed him to concede. Damien looked at her with all the anger he felt, which caused Aadi to want to attack him again.

“Okay, boys, let's break this up. I'll see all of you tonight,” Eirena said and got up off of Damien. She took off with Raiko behind her. Raiko, turned around to wave goodbye, and ran as fast as Eirena, which was surprising since Eirena had her by a good three to four inches.

“Ugh, I hate that girl. One day, her butt will be mine, and I will show her no mercy!” Damien said. He got up, then grabbed the towel Carter handed to him to wipe his bloody nose.

“Yeah, right. You do that, and you will have to deal with me again,” Aadi said, then put out his hand to help Damien up. Damien smacked his hand away.

“I don't want any help from you. Move out of my way!” Damien said. He stumbled to his feet and pushed past Aadi with his shoulder.

“Man, that guy has issues,” said Scott. He shook his head and walked up beside Aadi.

“You're telling me. Try going to school with him,” Aadi replied.

“Well, that was interesting. You have to show me some of those defense techniques,” said Tacitus. He turned his head to the left, as though he was processing the whole scene.

“I may one day,” replied Aadi, and he kept on walking.

“Boy, I am glad she is on our team! I would have jumped in and handled him, but I didn't want to hurt nobody, ‘cause I am a licensed black belt, you know. My hands are really lethal weapons, and I don't want to kill no one and get kicked off the ship,” said Carter, balling up his so-called lethal weapons. He hopped around and made punching moves that didn't look the least bit intimidating.

“Yeah… good thing you didn't jump in. We wouldn't want you to hurt no one,” Aadi said with a laugh and slapped Carter on the back.

 

 

They walked toward their rooms. Carter's room was across the hall. The lucky sap had his own room, which is why he hadn't been bugging them to bunk up with them. Carter gained some respect because they figured he must really have connections and lots of money to have a room to himself. In preparation for meeting Carter, they put on backpacks with supplies for their sneaky tour of the labs.

“Now, Scott will lead the way. If we run into any problem with the staff, you handle it,” Aadi said to Scott.

“Yeah, I'm ready,” Scott said as he put on his backpack.

“Damien, follow behind Dakota and me. Tacitus, stay here in the room and cover for us,” he instructed.

“I would really like to go also. I know the ship really well,” he said as he watched the other kids pack up.

“C'mon, man. It's better to not have anyone left to snitch on us,” reasoned Damien.

“Right. Come on,” Aadi responded. They all left the room but went undetected as people were still running to and from different locations. They arrived two minutes to ten o'clock. Carter, Eirena, and Raiko waited near the elevator for them. Aadi looked around to make sure that there were no other kids around to notice them. Carter motioned for them to follow.

“Let's take the hidden doorway to the left of the elevator. Make sure no one spots you. I have a card key to get us in, so follow close behind me, or the door may close before you get through,” he said as they walked toward the elevators. He waited until they were alone and waved his key in front of the wall. The wall had hundreds of tiny dim lights in the form of a doorway. They watched as Carter led the way by going through the wall to the other side. Carter appeared to be able walk through the wall, so they all quickly followed suit.

“Wow! How'd that happen? It looked like we walked through the wall,” said Raiko. Aadi looked around and touched the wall to see that it was solid.

“Well, they have a hologram of the wall so that when the door opens, you can go through it unnoticed,” said Carter. Then, he continued to walk down the dimly lit hallway.

“My, you do have connections. I have a new respect for you now, Carter,” said Eirena and poked him in the arm.

“Okay, follow me this way. We are going to the labs first. There is some weird stuff going on down there. Don't touch anything. I don't want us to get caught,” he said, puffing out his chest at Eirena's compliment.

“Um, how do we know no one is there?” asked Scott. He glanced back at Aadi.

“I have an x-ray device that allows me to see through the wall. Also, they leave the labs at around eight at night. Seems like they are short on staff and need all staff available to get the campers secured,” Carter replied. He took a device out of his pocket as they stood in front of the door. He put the device behind his ear, and a red light came out of it the size of the door they had gone through before. They could see all the activity in the room on the other side. There was only one person in the lab, highlighted with a warm yellow and red glow.

“Okay, now. There is just one person in the lab. What now,” asked Dakota?

“Send Scott first, and then he can give us the signal to come,” said Aadi. Scott moved forward to the entrance of the lab. Carter waved a key over the pad, and Scott walked in.

“This is not a good idea. We should wait until she leaves,” said Damien in a strong, steady voice.

“No, Scott's going in,” Aadi replied heavily and then moved between Scott and the rest of the kids. They tried to see around him, but he kept moving as he saw Scott talk to the man in the lab. The man turned around and left, and then Aadi moved out of the way.

“Follow carefully behind Carter, and I will watch the back before I come in,” he said while he watched them move forward through the entrance to the labs.

“Don't stay out here too long,” Eirena said as she followed behind Damien.

Aadi watched them go in and whispered to this backpack. “Ebu, I want you to go in and check the place out. Also, check for surveillance devices and deactivate them. Don't let anyone see you,” he said as he squatted on his knees and took his backpack off.

Ebu emerged as a box, untangled into full height, turned toward the hallway behind Aadi, and emitted a small sound.

“Hmm, funny. There is no surveillance down this hallway,” said Ebu.

“Okay, just go and secure the room for us,” Aadi replied and put on his backpack while he stood up. He watched Ebu crouch low and go forward, and then Aadi proceeded to follow him into the labs.

As he entered the lab, he saw the others crouched down as they walked around to separate parts of the lab. The lab was a huge square room with several rows or areas that seemed to hold lab specimens. Each row had a large screen and computer keyboard in front of its specimen area, and every wall had a specimen area except for one. The girls were poised over the touch keyboard typing furiously in search for information. Scott appeared to be keeping watch by looking up frequently for signs of someone entering. Aadi searched the room to take note of everyone's location. He noticed the girls seemed to be looking intently at the screen, as though they were struggling to commit everything to memory. Dakota took his role of lookout seriously as he walked the perimeter around where the girls and Scott were working.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Aadi said and walked up beside them.

“We are hacking in to see what they study here. Hacking into systems is a hobby I have. My dad and I always did puzzles, and he and I would hack in to different mechanical systems to fix them. I just happen to like to take things a little further. Aha!” she said with one last stroke.

“A useful tool”, Scott said.

“Wow! Read this. ‘Subject one has DNA makeup of Sample A, Sample B, and Sample XY. Alpha,'” she said, then pointed to a picture of Aadi and the text beside his face. Suddenly, they heard a small crash, and all but Eirena and Raiko turned toward the sound in concern.

“What was that?” Aadi asked as his head turned toward the noise.

“I am okay. Everything is okay,” said Carter in the distance.

“You idiot! I ought to kick your butt right here. You are going to blow this!” Damien said, and he pointed his index finger into Carter's head. Carter was on his knees, while he brushed the glass under a nearby table. Aadi's eyes were drawn to the floating object in the tank across from Carter. The object looked like a deformed human with a misshapen eye with no pupil. Where another eye would have been, it was flat. Its body was multi-colored and seemed to change colors rapidly as it moved. The specimen blinked and jumped toward the glass, and Carter jumped back again.