Mike Stellar (15 page)

And then the only full sentence to come through during the entire “conversation” screeched out of the computer, crystal-clear.

“Mom and Dad are
in on the sabotage.”

That took the
breath right out of me. I sat there spluttering, not able to form words. She abruptly stopped talking and turned her head. I heard muffled shouting and saw the room fly around as Nita’s arms waved like they do when she gets really mad. I heard a distinct hair ball noise and then the screen went blank.

“Nita?” I nearly yelled into the microphone.
“Nita?”

She was gone.

I sat back in my chair, my brain swimming. Sabotage? Mom and Dad? David Hazelwood on the
Spirit?

From the hallway, Mom’s voice interrupted my racing thoughts. “Is everything all right in there, Mike? Were you just shouting something?”

I opened my door. “Just, uh, practicing my report, Mom.”

Mom talked over her shoulder as she walked to the kitchen. “Shouting is not proper form for public speaking, Mike. Now, come eat your breakfast and then we can call Gram and see if she’s found anything out about Nita.”

I felt my stomach knot up. With the
Sojourner
getting closer to the Fold, I wouldn’t be able to contact Nita anymore, even with the greatest hacking skills in the universe. And the peapod would be useless soon, so Stinky couldn’t help, either. If I was going to figure out what Nita was trying to tell me, I had to do it quickly. And if Mom and Dad were sabotaging this mission, or had sabotaged the last one … well, I was going to have to figure out what was going on without their help.

I was anxious the whole time we were in the Family Room. Mom talked to Gram for only a few minutes, but I felt my face flushing the entire time. I knew I should tell them that I’d found Nita, but she had said so many unsettling things. I just wanted to sit down with my handheld and look at my scribbles.

“Right, Mike?” Mom was looking at me expectantly.

“Huh?”

“It’s okay if Dad walks you to class, right?”

“What? Why?”

Dad didn’t say anything. He just opened the door to the Family Room and motioned for me to go out first.

I stood up from the couch and said, “So that’s it? Gram had no news?”

Mom sighed. “I just
told
you, Mike. The task force is still investigating.”

“Come on, kiddo,” Dad said, his expression softening. “Let’s get you to class.”

Mom grabbed me in a hug and I guiltily hugged her back. Then I picked up my bag and headed out the door with Dad right behind me. We walked to my classroom in silence. I needed to talk to Stinky about Nita … but it didn’t look like I was going to get that chance. I’d tried the going-to-the-bathroom thing too many times lately and Mrs. Halebopp was only letting me go during lunchtime now. She knew I was up to something. I was pretty sure she could somehow read my mind.

And then there was my report. With all of the other researching and hacking I’d been doing, I’d practically forgotten all about it. Now it was due at the end of the week and I was going to have to really hustle. Not only that, but the detention from ages ago that I’d never served was happening after class today.

“Have a good day, Mike,” Dad said. We were standing in front of the classroom door. It was open. Larc was inside staring at me.

The area around us darkened from the tower of Mrs. Halebopp’s hair blocking out the artificial light. She cleared her throat. “Mr. Stellar?”

Dad shook her outstretched claw.

“Has Michael informed you of his detention this afternoon? I’m afraid he may be late for dinner this evening.”

“Detention?” Dad asked, looking at me, his smile fading.

“It’s an old one,” I muttered. “Remember? From last week. Larc’ll be there, too.”

“I’ll see that young Mr. Stellar learns the value of good behavior if it takes a detention every evening,” Mrs. Halebopp said, mostly to herself, though her face was aimed at Dad’s.

Dad frowned. “Behave yourself today, okay?”

I sighed and walked into the classroom. As I took my seat, I saw Dad’s and Mrs. Halebopp’s heads bowed together. They were talking, and I didn’t like it.

Larc turned around in her seat and gave me a thoughtful look. “You look like a three-day-old burrito,” she said.

I made a face. “What does that even
mean?”

“You look bad. Tired. Sad.”

“Well, much like a three-day-old burrito,” I said, riffing on her weird analogy, “I have noticed that things around here stink.”

“Well, it’s not me,” Larc said, shaking her head and trying to get a whiff of her hair.

I laughed. “No, I mean figuratively. Something fishy is going on.”

I tried to think of the best way to tell her what had happened this morning. I didn’t want to blurt it out in the middle of class. Mrs. H probably had bugs under all our desks. I decided to wait until detention. Mrs. H was pretty reliable about handing out manual-labor punishments. So if Larc and I had to swab the decks or e-file some papers, we might be able to quietly talk.

I leaned forward in my desk and carefully tapped Larc on the shoulder. “Do you think we can talk during detention?”

“Michael Stellar, are you asking me to the
Sojourner
Space Prom?” She turned and batted her icy eyes at me.

“What?” I spluttered. “There’s no … What in the world are you talking about?”

Mrs. Halebopp cleared her throat and looked at us menacingly. I sat back in my chair and Larc leaned forward in hers. Mrs. H walked to the front of the room to begin the day’s lesson. I could hardly concentrate on what she was saying. I just tapped my foot and waited for detention.

“Against my better
judgment I’m letting you two serve your detentions together this afternoon.”

Mrs. Halebopp had her hands clasped behind her back and she was pacing. She shot us both a grimace. Her hair was teetering forward even more than usual and it looked like it was leading her down the aisle as she marched back and forth.

“I don’t want to hear any talking, see any smirks, or catch even a glimpse of either one of you turning around in your seats. You are to research your reports in silence. Communication is forbidden.”

I sighed. Great. No sweeping or filing. How were Larc and I supposed to talk?

Mrs. H continued. “I’ve turned on the wireless port. You should be able to access the Universal Network
through the mainframe on the ship. There you’ll be granted access to the library’s reference section and you can work on your reports. Your password is your birthday. Now, Larc, honey, I want you to come sit over here.”

She motioned for Larc to take a seat at the other end of the classroom with her back facing me.

“Michael. You stay where you are.”

I nodded, feeling the world drop away. There was no way Larc and I could even
try
to talk now. Mrs. H unclasped her hands and smoothed her hair as she walked back to her desk. She swayed a little and it looked like she was collapsing under the weight of her hairdo. I snickered and she wheeled around like I’d jabbed her with a curlzapper.

“What was that, Mr. Stellar?”

“Oh, uh, nothing,” I mumbled, “just a, you know, tickle in my throat.”

“Well, I suggest you resolve your tickles right now. There is to be silence in this room.” She took her seat behind her desk and glared at me. I picked up my handheld and initiated my link with the mainframe. Then I had a brain wave. I tapped a couple of commands into the handheld and waited for a second.

“Link Failure.”

Dang
, I thought. I tapped the screen and tried again.

“Link Failure.”

Come
on….

I tapped out a few more commands and waited. I glanced over at Larc. I couldn’t figure out what she was doing. She was just sitting there. The only sound in the room was my tapping.

Finally a box popped up on my handheld screen.

“Act normal,” I typed.

“Took you long enough,” she wrote back. I smiled.

“I hacked the wireless port to connect our handhelds,” I wrote.

“Duh,” Larc wrote back.

“Take a look at these notes,” I tapped out as I quickly uploaded my scribbles to Larc’s handheld. “I talked to Nita this morning. Our connection was terrible. The things she said … Bad.” I hit Send and waited.

Larc took forever. With only ten minutes of detention left, I sent her a note to see if she had come up with any ideas. No response. I sent another note. Still no response. Then, finally, the familiar little white box popped onto the screen.

“This is not good.”

“What is not good?” I wrote back right away.

“David Hazelwood on the ship. Money-crazed Aurora. Sabotage. Your parents. Mike, this is bad.”

My shoulders slumped. I already knew it was bad. I was hoping Larc would see something different.

“It looks like my parents really did sabotage the first trip, doesn’t it?” I wrote as my stomach filled with lead.

“I thought she was talking about them sabotaging
this
trip.”

I sighed. Larc was confirming all my fears.

“I told you. Bad,” she wrote.

I just had such a hard time believing Mom and Dad were the bad guys. Yet Nita’s crackly voice kept running through my head.

Another message from Larc broke my concentration: “Are you OK?”

“Fine,” I typed back. “I’m just trying to figure out my next step.”

Knowing Larc, I expected to see a suggestion for my next step right away, but there was nothing.

I glanced up at Mrs. H. She was reading a book. I couldn’t quite make out its title, but the cover was a gaudy orange and red. It was funny to see her with an actual book in her hands. The only other person I knew who read old books anymore was Dad.

And then I saw it.

The title of the book, its gold lettering flashing in the fluorescent lighting, was
anthology: the life works of e. e. cummings.

Suddenly Mrs. H looked up and caught me gawking. For a few seconds our eyes locked. I could hardly believe it, but she almost seemed to
smile
at me. A moment later there was a buzz and the classroom intercom said, “Beatrice Halebopp, the ship administrator would
like a quick word.” She closed her book with a
thwap
and set it on her desk.

Grumbling, she stood up. “Please stay in your seats. Do not move. Do not talk. Continue studying. I’ll be back in five minutes. And if you think I can’t see you while I’m gone, then you’re more naive than I thought.” With that, she walked briskly from the room. The door whooshed shut behind her and Larc and I were alone.

We sat there
stunned for a few seconds before I whispered, “Go stand by the door, will you?”

Larc’s eyes widened. “She just said she could see us, Mike!” she whispered fiercely

“I’m calling her bluff,” I said. “Go stand by the door. Give me a whistle when you see her coming.” I jumped up and ran to Mrs. H’s desk. Larc hustled to stand by the door.

“How am I supposed to see anything? Door’s shut, brainiac.”

I ran and hit the button to open the door. It flew up and startled me. I still wasn’t used to doors that flew up instead of out. I dropped the stylus to my handheld in the doorway and whacked the button, closing the door. This left a tiny gap for Larc to peer through.