Paradox (12 page)

It’s just about too much to take. “No!” Ana explodes. “We
can’t
leave it. We’re heading to some colony, that’s the whole goal of this … this mission, or whatever the hell it is. You said that’s where we’re going to finally be told what’s going on. Okay, fine. But now you tell me that there are also
no people there
? Or just a few people, but a bunch of them have died? Or whatever the hell you mean. What is going on here?”

She looks to Todd for support and is surprised to see him shaking his head. “Let’s just get where we’re going,” he says. “There’ll be more than enough time to talk it through then. Okay?” He reaches a hand toward her and it’s all she can do not to slug him right across his cowardly, nonconfrontational face.

Instead, she launches herself at the mountain, scrambling faster than before, tearing new scratches on her hands and pushing against the stitch growing in her side. She throws her whole soul into the mountain and lets it burrow under her skin, losing herself in the strain of her muscles and the yank in her side that tells her she’s doing too much too fast and the wrench of her shoulder as she grits her teeth against the pain.

She knows she can’t keep it up, but she just wants some
distance. The others don’t call out to her—whether they’re conferring among themselves or just giving her space, she has no idea. She only knows she’s so angry she can hardly see straight. At Ysa, at Chen—and at Todd most of all, just for being okay with this ridiculous state of affairs when he should be siding with her and backing her up.

She can’t keep up this pace forever, though, and after twenty minutes of breakneck climbing, she knows she needs to take it down a notch. She pulls herself onto an overhang that juts out of the rock face, drops her backpack, and collapses onto the warm stone. She pops a few water capsules and rips open a blackberry-nut bar with her teeth, then finally allows herself to look back at the slope face she’s just scaled.

It’s a spectacular panorama.

The slope rolls below her in an endless wash of rock and dead scrub. The lava stream twists and winds to her left, following the easiest track downhill. She can even see the far-off blanket that is the Dead Forest, though the trees look like scratchy black bristles from this distance.

Todd and the others aren’t as far behind as she had expected, though she’s gratified to see them, even Chen, red-faced and sweating. Ysa trails the group, looking like the walking dead, and Ana feels a twinge of sympathy that she quashes as quickly as it comes.

A cool wind blows from the east, chilling the sweat that’s pooled in Ana’s collar. The exertion and the heat rolling off the volcano’s slope—not to mention the baking rays of the
rapidly rising sun, Torus, which has now halved its distance to its twin—have flushed her cheeks and made her wish she could strip down to her underwear. Finally she feels restored enough to sit up, and she turns around to face the rest of the slope. She gasps.

The summit is so close—it’s
right there
! She feels as if she could stretch out one arm and touch it with the tips of her fingers. It can’t be more than a ten- or fifteen-minute climb away.

She rubs the energy bar wrapper briskly between her hands until it biodegrades into a fine powder. Then she throws on her backpack and turns to restart her climb.

“Wait,” comes a croak from behind her. Ana glances back to see Todd, breathless and waving a strip of white tissue like a flag. His look is pleading, and something inside her gives a quick, sharp pulse. She suddenly thinks back to that moment in the scrub, the clasp of his hand in hers as they fled the worm—and her iron grip on her fury wobbles.

“Please, just wait a second,” he says.

“Yeah,” calls Chen beside him. “You can’t summit on your own. We’re a team, even if some of us are psycho!”

In spite of herself, Ana half smiles.
Could I have been overreacting back there?
She considers. Suddenly she’s a little ashamed at having made such a big deal out of the situation. There are nine hours to go; is that really so long to wait for answers? If the others think it’s that important, does she really need to force the issue? Not to mention storming off like a toddler in a temper tantrum.

She hates to admit it, but maybe Todd had the right idea after all.

With a resigned smile she lifts a hand in agreement. “Get your butts up here, then, because this mountain climber has a goal to reach.”

And the sooner she gets there, the better.

Now that she’s made peace with the situation, Ana throws herself mindlessly into the rest of the trek. They clear the last bluff, and from there it’s an easy climb to the summit.

She marvels at all the Earth-like elements on this planet. Is that why it was chosen for exploration? How long did it take scientists to find Paradox, among the millions of planets in the galaxy? How far away from Earth are they?

She scrambles up alongside Todd, who seems to have located the easiest path to the top.

“Hey,” she says. “So tell me about the volcano.”

“Mount Fahr,” Todd says. He stumbles a little, catches himself with both hands, but keeps moving. “It blew its top thousands of years ago, if I’m not mistaken. The plant life has come back in some areas, but not in others.”

Ana whistles. That explains a lot about the vegetation all along the mountain. And even … “The Dead Forest!” she says. “No wonder it’s all ashy and, um,
dead
.” She frowns. “Do you suppose there used to be life on this planet? Real animal life, I mean, more than just the worm?”

“Kaboom!” Chen crows from behind them, apparently still in the volcanic eruption part of the conversation.

“Who knows,” says Ysa. “The planet scans were zip on any current life, that’s for sure. And virtually no signs were found of any past animal life, either.”

“Except the worm,” Ana muses, “which isn’t supposed to be here anymore, but somehow it is.”

Ysa lifts her head quickly and locks eyes with Chen, who frowns. Ana rolls her eyes. More secret stuff, no doubt.

But now their climb is over. First Todd, then Ana, with Chen and Ysa just behind, take their last scrambling steps up and over.

They stand at the very top of Mount Fahr.

The peak is wide and flat—it must go a quarter mile all the way around—and a big gap is hollowed out of the nearest edge, like the first lopsided scoop dug into a tub of ice cream. They all drop their packs in an unspoken agreement to take a few minutes’ break. Ana follows the lava flow across the summit to the edge of the crater. Here the rocky surface is cracked and jagged, the slate-gray stone dark and scorched.

This is where the lava stream begins its down-slope journey, but other molten puddles burble and dance around the
edge, little spills and trickles of hot melted rock that don’t go anywhere in particular.

Ana steps cautiously around the pools and peers into the gaping heart of the mountain. There’s not much to see, just smoke and steam. The same horrible stench they’ve been smelling all the way up the mountain is so strong here it’s almost like a physical shove.

And then—“Boo!” There
is
a hand at her back, but it’s not shoving her, it’s grabbing her to keep her from toppling over the edge of the crater.

“Steady,” Chen says. “I’ve gotcha. Just a friendly jab between travelers.”

Ana spins around and socks him in the jaw. It’s not much of a punch, but he reels theatrically backward. Ana groans at the pain that ripples across her knuckles. “Don’t—ever—do that to me,” she growls. “Not anywhere, but definitely not here. Are you an idiot?”

To her surprise, Todd is chuckling and Ysa is laughing out loud. They’re sprawled out next to their packs on the flat ground that’s set back from the lava pools. “Boy, did he have that coming,” Ysa says between giggles.

“No way!” Chen crows, picking himself off the ground. “You did not just do that. Baby Anagram grew a pair!”

Ana can’t believe it
—actually, no, I totally can
—but he’s coming at her with his hand up and clenched … not for a return punch, apparently, but for a fist bump.

She groans. “Is it too late to send him back?”

“Mount Fahr,” Chen says, sliding past her without missing a beat, peering over into the pit. “Best lava dipping spot in the universe!”

“What?” Ana says.

“Sure! Put on the right gear, and you can shimmy right down the side, here.” He kicks his boot at the patch of ground by his feet. On closer look, it appears that some obstructions have been cleared away and the earth deliberately packed down to make a wide, smooth area surrounding a flat boulder that’s embedded in the lip of the crater. It all looks quite intentional, but how could Chen know about this?

“Chen …,” Ysa says softly.

Something clicks into place in Ana’s mind.

She’d assumed that he knew so much about the planet from having researched it ahead of time. But now … “You’ve been here before,” Ana says slowly. “Or … all along? Were you already here before us? Is that it? You
weren’t
on that rocket?”

Chen looks at her with a suddenly wide-open and vulnerable gaze. He glances behind her at the others. For a second she thinks he’s going to speak, he opens his mouth even, shakes his head a little as if he’s going to let slip something he knows he shouldn’t. But then he takes an involuntary step back.

And the world falls apart.

Ana’s watching as it happens and still she can’t explain it. He’s on solid ground, his feet flat on the embedded rock. And then, suddenly, he’s not.

Chen topples into the lava pit.

Ana screams and drops to her belly, desperately trying to see through the searing fumes and smoke. At first she can’t see Chen at all. Then there’s a low moan down to her left, and she sees him.

Chen has landed on a rocky outcropping about ten feet down, his left leg twisted under him.

“Oh, no,” Ysa says, dropping down next to Ana. “Chen! Get up!”

He’s struggling to stand, but something about his face scares Ana. His eyes are so wide they look almost totally white, and his breath is coming in short, harsh bursts. Chen isn’t just in pain, and he isn’t just afraid. He’s flat-out terrified.

“We have to do something,” Todd says, crawling up to Ana’s other side.

“Why isn’t he saying anything? It’s like he can’t hear us calling,” Ysa says.

“Grab my legs,” Ana says to Todd. “Drop me over the side.”

Todd chokes on a mouthful of fumes. “Are you crazy? What are you going to do down there?”

She grabs his wrist and snaps, “It can’t be more than a ten-foot drop. Look at him—he’s not getting himself out anytime soon. Take my feet. I’ll catch hold of him and you pull me back up.”

Todd shakes his head but scoots behind Ana and grabs her feet. Ysa scrambles behind Todd to give him extra ballast. As soon as his grip tightens around her ankles, Ana walks her hands over the rim of the crater and down the side. She wishes
she’d thought to tie a cloth around her face; the fumes are almost unbearable and the farther down she goes, the less she can see.

“Chen,” she calls. “Talk to me! Are you okay?”

“Alex!” he shrieks suddenly, then whimpers, “No, wait….”

Ana is just an arm’s reach away when he shrieks again, incoherently this time. He jumps to his feet, knocking into her.

From the rim above, Ana hears Todd yell, “Hey!” Then his hold is gone and Ana crumples down onto the ledge at Chen’s feet. She feels her shoulder pop back out of place and bites her lip against the pain, forcing herself to scramble right up to her feet.

“Chen,” she gasps, but he seems to have no idea she’s there.

“Not the fire, Alex.” His head swivels slightly from side to side.

Ana leans in closer and grabs Chen’s shoulders. “Look at me,” she pleads. “It’s Ana. Come on, Chen.”

His eyes lock on hers and widen. “What do you want me to do?”

“Just focus, okay?”

A wisp of smoke drifts between them. “I can’t do this, Alex. Please don’t make me.”

What is he talking about?
Ana shakes him. “Chen!”

He thrashes from side to side, pulling out of her grasp and taking a step backward on the ledge. “No, please … I won’t say a word. Just let me go!”