Starbounders (5 page)

“The deal was you had to do my laundry for a week. And by my estimation there's still sixteen hours left, so you've got time for at least one more. My bag's right over there.”

Zachary sighed and shook his head.

“Right now?”

“My favorite running shorts are in there, and we've got our first Chameleon game tomorrow,” Kaylee said. “Chop-chop.”

“Remind me never to make a bet with you again,” Zachary said, heading for the laundry bag.

“Try not to accidentally mix the colors in with the whites this time,” Kaylee called out.

“That wasn't an accident,” Zachary shot back at her.

The laundry room was on the second basement level of the Ulam. It was rarely crowded, and Zachary figured it would be empty now, seeing as how everyone was still upstairs in the Skyterium. He lugged Kaylee's bag inside and was startled to find someone standing over the sink. It was Loren, the trainer from the Qube. His arm was still in a sling from the accident. He looked surprised to see Zachary, too.

“Hey, shouldn't you be upstairs with everyone else?” Loren asked.

“I'm still paying off that bet I lost to Kaylee,” Zachary said.

Loren smiled.

“There's an empty machine by me,” he said.

Zachary walked over and started loading Kaylee's laundry into the washer. He saw that Loren was scrubbing a knit green shirt with one hand.

“Chameleon jerseys,” Loren said. “For tomorrow's game. It's like capture the flag meets laser tag.”

“Yeah, my brother used to talk about it all the time.” Then Zachary asked, “Can I help you there?”

“Nah, I'm getting pretty good at doing stuff one-handed,” Loren said. “I was really impressed by your performance in the Qube last week. You're a natural.”

“It kind of comes with the last name.”

“I know how that is.” Loren shut off the sink and put the jerseys in the dryer. “My father was an IPDL commander. Highly decorated, too.”

“What for?” Zachary said.

“Dying with valor. His ship went down during a rescue mission. It wasn't even the crash that killed him, though. He sent out a distress call, but by the time the IPDL showed up, it was too late. His body couldn't adjust to the microorganisms in the planet's atmosphere. Total organ failure.”

Zachary averted his eyes, not sure how to respond.

“I was only five when it happened. I didn't really know him. My mom always told me I could be angry about it and carry around a grudge my whole life, or I could honor my dad and carry out his legacy as a Starbounder. So here I am.”

Zachary could certainly relate to carrying on a family legacy. His eyes returned to Kaylee's laundry bag.

“Is this a white or a color?” He held up a beige shirt.

“It's safer to go color,” Loren said.

Zachary shoveled a sloppy cupful of detergent into the machine.

“So, any advice before tomorrow's game?” he asked.

“There's a reason they call it Chameleon. The best way not to get hit is not to be seen.”

The following afternoon, Zachary's purple jersey flapped in the wind as he raced through the woods on the outskirts of Indigo 8. A fellow Chameleon teammate ran at his side, puffing so hard it seemed as if he would faint at any moment.

The rules of the game were simple enough. All of the Starbounders-in-training were separated into four different teams. The first to collect a baton from each of the opposing teams and return all three to their base would win. To neutralize their opponents, every player wore a computer-controlled belt armed with five stun balls, which remained charged until they were plucked off and thrown. If a ball made contact with an opposing player, it emitted a shock that stunned him or her into temporary paralysis. The trainers claimed it was just a sting, but Zachary didn't want to find out if that was true.

He could hear a screech of static as one of the metallic stun balls sailed past his ear, barely missing his shoulder. He glanced back and could see that three trainees in yellow jerseys were gaining on him. One of them was an outerverse exchange whose primitive wings didn't allow full flight but made jumping over obstacles effortless. Zachary had taken Loren's advice to heart, but some of the older trainees had sniffed out his hiding spot on the warp-glove training course faster than he expected. Now he and his teammate were sprinting for the edge of the purple team's safety zone.

“Go!” Zachary's teammate called. “I can't keep up.”

“We're almost there,” Zachary shouted back.

But it didn't matter. A stun ball struck the trainee squarely in the back, tightening every muscle in his body and turning him into a breathing statue. Zachary's nostrils were invaded by a familiar scent: the smell of burning ozone after a lightning strike.

Zachary would surely be next. He braced himself even as he ran along the muddy ground, still wet from the storm. Then an arm stretched down from the treetops and grabbed him, pulling him fifteen feet upward. There was only one person at Indigo 8 capable of such a feat.

“Ryic,” Zachary said, coming face-to-face with his bunkmate.

Ryic was perched in the tree alongside Kaylee. Both were wearing green jerseys over their shirts. Kaylee immediately launched a trio of stun balls down at Zachary's pursuers. As each of the balls made contact with its intended target, the three trainees in yellow were immobilized.

“Thanks,” Zachary said.

“Don't thank us,” Kaylee said. “We were using you as lizard bait. We've been trying to wipe out the yellow team's assassins for the last twenty minutes.”

“You really know how to make a guy feel special, don't you?” Zachary replied.

Just then, a loud horn blared, signaling the end of the game. Cerebella's voice rang out over Indigo 8's PA system.

“Today's Chameleon game has been suspended. This evening's bonfire will be taking place early. Please remove your jerseys and proceed down to the lake.”

Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee all exchanged looks.

“How disappointing,” Ryic said. “We do not get to enjoy competitive sport on Klenarog. We view it as a waste of time to do something whose outcome is so meaningless. But now I see that my people are missing out.”

Ryic lowered the others to the ground, then swung himself down as well. A pair of trainees wearing purple jerseys ran past them, heading back in the direction of the sleeping quarters.

“Hey, either of you know what happened?” Kaylee called.

“Stun ball malfunction,” one of the trainees replied. “Set one of the green team's jerseys on fire.”

“But apparently nobody got too badly hurt,” the other added.

They continued on. Zachary, Kaylee, and Ryic walked through the woods toward the grassy slope between the lake and the Ulam.

“Well, consider yourself lucky,” Kaylee said to Zachary. “My next stun ball had your name on it.”

“How do you know I wasn't going to get you first?” Zachary shot back.

“I've seen your aim on the starchery range. I wasn't worried.”

“Can those frail little arms of yours even pull the string on a photon bow?” Zachary asked.

“I guess there's only one way to settle this,” Kaylee said. “Another bet. We'll see whose aim is really better. Besides, I've gotten used to the way you fold my shirts.”

“Oh, it's on,” Zachary said.

The two took a turn away from the grassy slope and began heading uphill through the dense forest toward the starchery range.

“Um, guys,” Ryic said. “That is not the way to the lake.”

“Come on,” Kaylee said. “We need an official scorekeeper.”

“Wait. You're going to sneak onto the starchery range now? Without supervision? That's a clear violation of campus rules.”

“If we cut through the woods, no one will even see us,” Kaylee said.

“You're welcome to head to the bonfire without us,” Zachary said. “We shouldn't be too long.”

Ryic appeared conflicted.

“Well, I can't very well let you go without a lookout.” Ryic shook his head. “What is this apparent mind control you're able to enact on me? Making me do things I normally wouldn't do?”

“It's called peer pressure,” Kaylee said.

“Well, I don't like it,” Ryic said.

After a short walk through the woods, they reached the empty starchery range, which sprawled out in the shadow of the Ulam. Ryic was twisting his head practically in circles to make sure nobody was around to see what they were doing. Zachary and Kaylee approached a long rack and each chose a photon bow—which looked like a regular bow, except the string was glowing. There was no need to put arrows in these bows. Merely pull and release and a beam of superheated light called a photon bolt would shoot forth.

“First person to tag three targets wins,” Kaylee said matter-of-factly.

Zachary nodded.

They each lifted their weapon and prepared to fire. As Zachary's thumb and forefinger pulled back on the tightened string, he felt it warm up, a flicker of light forming at his fingertips.

“Ryic, first targets,” Kaylee said.

Ryic pressed a button on a metal pedestal, and a hundred yards away a robotic arm sent two jet-propelled crystal cubes airborne. They began spiraling randomly through the sky.

Kaylee released her fingers from the string, and a beam of light shot out, sailing in a perfectly straight line for one of the targets. It looked as if it was going to score a direct hit, but the cube zigged at the last second, avoiding it.

The heat between Zachary's fingertips was almost too blistering to withstand. He took a moment longer before he let his photon bolt fly. His beam cruised toward the other target and, unlike Kaylee's, it made contact with the cube, blasting it into tiny electrified shards.

“That's one for me,” Zachary said.

Ryic pressed the button again, and another pair of crystal cubes were launched into the sky. This time Zachary and Kaylee both successfully tagged their aerial targets, destroying them.

As the third round commenced, Zachary felt something slimy wiggle up his pants leg. It was cold, wet, and quickly tightening its grip on his skin. He swatted at the lump beneath his pants and a cool, fleshy mass slipped out and hit the ground. Zachary recognized it as one of the sluglike creatures from the Ulam hallway's wintery terrarium. Before he could hit at it again, it was slithering off.

“I didn't know vreeks existed on Earth,” said Ryic. “I thought they were only native to the tundra planets.”

“They are,” Kaylee said.

Ryic's eyes went wide. “We need to stop it!”

As the creature made a beeline toward the lake, Zachary turned his photon bow and pulled the string.

“Not like that!” shouted Ryic.

But it was too late. The beam of light shot out and hit the vreek directly on its back. Instead of killing the creature, the shot split it in half and made two of them, each one growing larger than the first.

“Vreeks thrive on heat,” Ryic explained. “Extreme temperatures actually multiply them.”

They watched as the two creatures slimed their way out of sight.

“Where did it come from?” Kaylee asked.

“I don't know,” Ryic said. “But if they make it to the bonfire, there are going to be a lot more of them.”

Zachary and Kaylee dropped their bows, and the three sprinted back through the woods for the grassy hill that led down to the lake. Even with a killer space slug on the loose, Zachary couldn't shake the giddy feeling bubbling inside him. The camaraderie, the adventure, even the danger. It was everything he'd hoped Indigo 8 would be.

The bonfire had already begun when they arrived. Piles of wood and thin copper strips had been stacked at the center of a ring of rocks, and the fire's otherworldly green color gave everyone around it an emerald glow.

Most of the Starbounders-in-training were already sitting on stone benches, paper plates loaded with cookout food balanced on their knees. A trail of meat-scented smoke drifted from a row of industrial-sized gas grills. There was also a make-your-own-sundae table with an ice-cream freezer behind it.

Zachary, Kaylee, and Ryic had reached the outer circle of the bonfire. They looked around frantically but saw no sign of the vreeks anywhere. Zachary spotted Kwan sitting with the Lightwing boys.

“Kwan,” he called as he hurried toward him.

“Hey, there you are. I've been looking for you.”

“I was up at the starchery range,” Zachary said between breaths. “Somehow one of those vreeks from the Ulam terrarium got—”

“Starchery range?” Kwan asked, cutting him off. “You know you're not allowed to be there without a trainer.”

“Listen. There are vreeks coming this way. You have to do something.”

Just then a trainee with the Indigo 8 infinity sign shaved into the hair on the side of his head pointed down at the ground.

“Loose vreek!” he yelled as he dived to try and grab it.

The creature easily slipped through his hands and propelled itself toward the bonfire. The other vreek was squirming its way past a group of third-year girls from the Cometeers SQ.

“Don't let them get to the fire,” Ryic shouted.

Resident advisors and trainees tried to stop them, but the vreeks had already disappeared into the heart of the flames. A moment later, more than a dozen creatures emerged from the fire. The original vreek had been no bigger than a fist, but its mutated siblings each had grown to the size of an enormous crocodile. And there were no burns on their slimy bodies or any other signs of harm from the fire. Quite the opposite: the heat had turned the two slugs into a pack of vicious alien life-forms, stronger, faster, and much more aggressive than before.

Zachary watched as one of the new vreeks flung itself onto the back of a fleeing Lightwing girl. The force knocked her face-first into the dirt. The vreek was about to bite into the back of her neck when Monica kicked the supersized outerverse beast clear off her.