Space Rocks! (22 page)

“H
oly . . . crap,” said Gus over the radio. I blinked as the glow of the Q-sik faded from my eyes. Out past the battle cruiser, the vortex of warped space still shimmered. It looked like the sky had been . . . punctured.

“We did it,” said Becky.

“By Jalasu Jhuk,” said Kalac, though I couldn't tell if he spoke in triumph or horror.

Nearly half of the battle cruiser was gone. Just gone. Burned away cleanly. What was left of the hulk spun oddly; most guidance and propulsion systems had surely been disabled or destroyed by the blast. None of its gun batteries moved.

The final trireme was flying back toward the crippled battle cruiser now. Retreating.

“What about that last one?” asked Little Gus.

“Let it go,” said Hollins. “We've beaten them.”

“You must have disabled their communications systems!” radioed Ydar. “They're no longer jamming surface transmissions.”

“Can you contact the
Phryxus
?” I said.

“Just a moment,” said Ydar. “Yes, I see the human ships. They're not far now, less than a hundred thousand kilometers from Gelo. Okay, patching them through to you.” The High Observer punched some controls off screen.

Now the com screen showed Commander Hollins. “Danny! Kids!” she said. “Are you safe?”

“Define ‘safe,'” said Becky.

“Yeah, we're all fine,” said Hollins.

“Kids, we detected a massive energy spike and several—well, they look like spacecraft, near 48172-Rybar. Do you know what's going on there?”

“It's over now, Mom,” laughed Hollins. “We won. We beat them. And the asteroid isn't called ‘Rybar.' It's Gelo.”

“And these aliens—these ‘Xotonians'—haven't hurt you?”

“Does the oog-ball match count?” asked Nicki quietly.

“No,” said Hollins. “They haven't hurt us. In fact, I think they may have just helped us save Earth.”

“Well, that's—that's good,” said Commander Hollins. “Look, we'll be landing on the asteroid in two hours. We're going to bring you all home.” She was openly crying now.

“Sure, Mom,” said young Hollins. “I can't wait.”

“Commander Hollins,” said Becky, “can you tell my mom and dad something for me?”

“Yes, Rebecca, anything,” she said.

“Can you tell them I want a car?” she said. “A nice one.”

“Me too,” said Nicki.

“I'll tell them,” said Commander Hollins.

“You know, I'll take one too,” said Little Gus, “if the Garcías are just giving them out.”

“Okay. I will relay that message to them, Augustus,” laughed Commander Hollins. “You have my word.”

“I love you, Mom,” said Hollins.

“I love you too. I'm never letting you out of my sight again until you're thirty-five.”

“We'll see you in two hours,” said Hollins. “Hollins out.” And the transmission ended.

“We're all going home,” said Nicki.

“Maybe. If I can get us back to Gelo in one piece,” said Becky. Our damaged starfighter lurched as she steered it slowly back toward my asteroid. “Hollins, can you fly?”

“Yeah,” he said. “It'll be slow going for us, though. We were hit pretty hard. I've only got one engine, and it keeps cutting out.” I could see his ship from the turret. It was in bad shape, full of blaster holes. But it was moving.

“Okay, but can you fly?” said Becky again. “Like, do you actually know how to fly?”

“Ha ha,” said Hollins.

“Wait, what is happening?” said Kalac, suddenly staring out the viewport. The shimmering vortex of bent space seemed to be growing. The battle cruiser pathetically fired the few engines it had left. It was no use. The giant ship began to tumble out of its orbit. It was slowly falling toward the light.

Once more Ydar came over the com screen. “I'm detecting a surge of dark energy just beyond Gelo.”

“What?” I said. “What does that mean?”

“A wormhole,” whispered Kalac. “We created a—”

“Gravity looks like it's spiking!” screamed Ydar. “You need to get out of there!”

“Something's pulling me,” said Hollins as their ship tumbled past us.

Becky punched the thrusters. But even as we flew toward Gelo, the wormhole grew closer. It was sucking us in.

But how could we be moving toward two things at once? Suddenly, it dawned on me. We weren't moving toward Gelo. The asteroid was hurtling toward us. It was being drawn into the wormhole too!

“Can't. Get. Free . . .” growled Becky. And at last, our ship fell into the glowing vortex.

Once more, all was white. Whiter than white. I felt like I couldn't breathe, like I was being crushed and infinitely stretched in every direction at once. I was freezing cold and boiling hot.

And then, suddenly, we weren't where we were.

W
e stood in the Observatory and looked out at the galaxy. Through the screens, we could see the surface of Gelo and space beyond it. The stars shone brightly in the blackness.

But they were different stars now.

The disabled battle cruiser hung in the sky too. A broken hulk traveling the same orbital path as Gelo, unable to move under its own force. Still, its red lights blinked.

There were other, less subtle changes to our sky as well. T'utxuze the Red Planet was gone. Instead, Gelo now orbited a green planet that the Observers had yet to identify.

This new world was covered in soaring mountains and dense, lush forests and oceans of salty water. Preliminary scans seemed to indicate that it was inhabited. By whom? At this point, that was anyone's guess.

We had traversed a wormhole. According to Nicki and Ydar, the power of the Q-sik's blast had ripped a hole in the fabric of space-time. This rip had temporarily connected two distant points in the universe.

But unlike the tiny, short-lived wormhole created when the Q-sik was first fired, the second one was large and stable enough to pull an entire asteroid through—before sealing itself forever.

Gelo had been spit out somewhere . . . else. And so far, none of our ancient star-maps had provided any clue as to where.

We had beaten the Vorem, though. Inside the tunnels, the fighting had been fierce. There were many Xotonian casualties, and the attackers had pressed all the way to Core-of-Rock. Parts of the city had been badly damaged. But when the battle cruiser was disabled, the Vorem lost their will to fight. The Vorem legion had surrendered—or most of them had, anyway. They were now being held prisoner. The legate in command of the invasion, however, had yet to be captured.

We had kept the Q-sik from our enemies. Gelo was unconquered (if relocated). And Earth was safe. Against all odds, we had won.

“You acted with such bravery. We all owe you a debt of gratitude,” said Kalac in halting human—my originator was starting to pick up the language.

“We are pretty great, aren't we?” said Little Gus, holding Pizza in his arms. The other Xotonians in the room eyed the thyss-cat nervously, their skin instinctively camouflaged.

“What's the Xotonian equivalent of a Ferrari?” asked Becky. “Because I think we deserve it.”

“Come on,” said Hollins. “We didn't do it for material reward.”

“It's probably an usk-lizard, anyway,” said Nicki.

“Huh,” said Becky. “Maybe I'll pass then.”

Nicki looked out at the strange planet we now orbited and the swirling galaxies beyond. She shook her head. “You know, we could be anywhere in the universe. Fascinating.”

“Sis, you and I have a very different definition of ‘fascinating,'” said Becky.

“Seriously, though,” said Nicki, “we could be one light-year from Earth. Or a hundred thousand. Both distances are still so astronomically huge, they're practically the same thing. I mean, even if we had the fastest human spaceship, it would still take us nearly two hundred fifty years to travel even one light-year. And that's if we even knew which direction to go. . . .” As she noticed the other humans staring at her, she stopped thinking out loud.

“What I mean is that it will be an adventure,” said Nicki, smiling.

“That's for sure,” said Hollins. “But we can do it. We will do it. We helped save two worlds. I think we can find our way back home.”

“At least now I really will get to skip seventh grade,” said Becky. “Suck it, Mrs. Pascarella.”

“I'm just happy that I'm here with my best friend,” said Gus, tickling Pizza's belly. “And my second-best friend, of course.” He clapped me on the back. “For the record, Hollins, you and Nicki are tied for third place. And, Becky, you're, like, my nineteenth best friend.”

“Please, tell me how I can get to twentieth,” said Becky.

“Well,” I said, “you all may not be able to get back to your own homes yet, but you can certainly come to ours.” Kalac nodded and placed a thol'graz on mine.

We descended all five thousand spiraling steps of Dynusk's Column and stepped out into the glittering underground city.

There, before us, a huge crowd had gathered. I saw Loghoz and Dyves and Glyac; Ornim and Chayl and Eromu; even old Gatas had come. Plus countless more Xotonians that I knew, many bearing the wounds of the recent battle. For a long moment, they stared at us in silence.

Somewhere, a voice called out a single word: “Human!”

It was Linod, I realized. Somehow it had pushed its way to the front. Again it called out, “Human!” And it pumped its spindly thol'grazes in the air.

And this time, the crowd took up the chant: “Human! Human! Human!”

I chanted it too.

And they followed us, cheering, across Ryzz Plaza, past the Vault and the Hall of Wonok, all the way back to my home.

There, Hudka invited as many inside as would fit. We ate Xotonian burritos and played Xenostryfe III. I even gave out Feeney's Original Astronaut Ice Cream bars for dessert.