Thetis--The Deep Sky Saga--Book Two Read online

  As soon as he hears his voice, Jonah realizes this is Freeman, the man asked to guard his room.

  “Yeah,” Jonah says. “Thanks.”

  Freeman turns and cracks the door back open and looks up and down the hall before closing it again. He moves quickly into the room and sits on a stool at Jonah’s feet. The man clasps his hands and opens his mouth to speak, but then he reconsiders it. The sadness in his eyes fills the room.

  “How are you doing?” Jonah asks.

  The question brings a quick smile across the man’s face, and he leans back and laughs at the ceiling. “When was the last time someone actually asked me that?”

  “I don’t know,” Jonah says, pushing himself up on the mattress. “When?”

  “It’s been a long-ass time, I know that. I’m okay, kid. I’m okay. Considering everything. Now, how are you? By the way you’re staring right at me, it looks like you can see better, am I right?”

  It’s Jonah’s turn to smile and let out a quick laugh. “I honestly can’t believe it. I can see almost perfectly, like my disease somehow never happened. I can see your face and your eyes and my feet and pretty much everything. I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep for, but just a little while ago, all I could see were blobs and shapes and some colors and shadows and stuff. Now, it’s like…it’s like Achilles was all a bad dream, and it never happened, and hey, here I am. I can see.”

  Freeman stands and leans over Jonah to take a closer look at the machines beeping and humming on the other side of the bed. “Oh, it happened all right. It happened so much that all the good stuff you guys were supposed to bring us… But you’re lucky, you know. Really lucky. Lucky not only that you survived the whole crash and that our ship found you, but also that…” He sits back down and takes a long, labored breath. “Let’s just say, thank God for Commander Mirker, kid. Because just a month or so ago, things around here got pretty scary.”

  Jonah sits up completely. “Pretty scary how?”

  “I’m sure someone will tell you all about it when you’re feeling better and you’re out of here. It’s not my story to tell, really.”

  “I’m feeling better, Freeman. Tell me. Please.”

  Freeman stares at him for a few seconds, and then he looks down at his own shaking hands and mumbles something Jonah can’t understand.

  “What?” Jonah asks.

  “I said, ‘We’re all going to die here.’”

  Jonah’s skin goes cold. He rips the covers off his bruised legs and attempts to scoot to the edge of the bed, but the tubes attached to him pull the machines clanking into the metal frame. They’re all going to die here? Jonah wraps his fingers around the rubber tubes, knowing that they’re keeping him alive, but at the same time, they’re keeping him prisoner. He needs to find Vespa and Brooklyn and hide.

  “Whoa, whoa,” Freeman says, placing a giant hand over Jonah’s wrist. “You’re not cleared yet. Don’t take those out. Please don’t. Of course, we’re all going to die here, kid. That’s what I’m saying. Thetis is our home forever now. Where else would we die, right? Just don’t take those out.”

  The cadet raises his elbow like he’s about to yank the tubes out. “Then tell me what happened a month ago that was so scary.”

  “Fine. Sit back and stop pulling on things, and I’ll tell you. Christ, kid.”

  Jonah slowly falls back against his pillows. He closes his eyes for a second and then tests them again. He can still see.

  “About a month ago, the captain, Captain Tejas, she went out and left for a bit on a simple survey mission. Heading southwest, she said, looking for new plants and species and whatnot, just seeing what else was out there, you know? No big deal. We all go out and do that. You’re supposed to go out and do that. You will, too, you know what I mean? But when she came back later that day, she was acting really strange and wasn’t talking right and seemed really off or something, like she went down to check on the construction of the…road or whatever in the valley. Later on, she stood in the middle of the village and was just staring at everyone like she had never seen us before. We’d try to talk to her, but nobody could get a clear answer out of her. Then the next morning, she’s back out there ranting and raving about how we were all doomed and this and that and how we were an infestation on Thetis and that we were killing the planet and stuff like that. And then, for the rest of the day, she was saying that our only hope for survival here was that somebody needed to sacrifice himself for all our sins.”

  “Like who, Jesus? She thought Jesus was coming to Thetis?” Jonah asked.

  “That’s what we asked her, and she kept saying no, but she wouldn’t say who it was supposed to be. Then, that night, Mirker caught her putting explosives all over the village, the ones we use for excavating, and thank God he stopped her before she blew anything up.”

  The lights in the room begin to flicker again, and Jonah stares at the man, watching his face fall further with every sentence.

  “She got away, though,” Freeman continues. “And she ran off into the trees, and now we’re all a little freaked out that she’s still out there somewhere, planning something again. When you get out of here, keep your eyes open for explosives or mysterious things around the village and stuff like that, okay?”

  “Everything is going to be mysterious to me here,” Jonah says.

  The door flies open and in walks Commander Mirker. He’s huge, and for the first time, Jonah sees the details of his face: Sharp green eyes surrounded by deep wrinkles, a gray beard that reaches high up his tan cheeks and down past his collar. The moment he sees Freeman sitting at Jonah’s feet, he lets out a grumble of disapproval.

  “Thought I ordered you to stand outside and make sure he was safe?”

  Freeman stands with a cough and nods at Mirker with respect. “Sir. Thought he could use some company.”

  “I could,” Jonah adds. “I mean, I did. And he was watching the door the whole time. He only just sat down because I asked him to. Him just standing out there the whole time was making me nervous.”

  Freeman gives Jonah a quick smile and walks toward the door. “Feel better, kid.”

  When the door shuts, Mirker leans against it in exhaustion, his huge biceps straining against his olive-green uniform. “You ready to get out of here?”

  “Out of here?”

  “Yeah,” Mirker says. “We’ve been monitoring your progress on the machines, and it looks like you’re done in here for the day. You can see, right?”

  “I can. And I can’t thank you enough. I mean, I thought I would never—”

  “So, it’s time you assimilated into the colony and make yourself at home. I want to sit down and talk about your time on Achilles very soon, and I mean very soon, but for now, you should get acclimated. Welcome to your new home.”

  Jonah swings his feet over the side of the bed and starts picking at the tubes in his arm. “First, I want to see Brooklyn.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  The cadet slowly walks out of his hospital room on sore legs, the soles of his feet thick and callused from running through the jungle on Achilles.

  “Turn left,” Mirker says behind him. “She’s right there.”

  Jonah shuffles down the hallway of black wood, his hands running along its soft, almost furry texture. He finds a door marked with the number three and takes a deep breath. Before going inside, he looks back down the hall for reassurance. Mirker and Freeman both nod at him, and then they immediately begin a heated, muffled conversation between the two of them, one that must have previously ended too soon.

  The room is brighter than Jonah’s, spot lit with steady lamps circling the one bed inside. It’s so bright, in fact, that Jonah has to cover his eyes, which is something he thought he’d never have to do again. He squints into the whiteness and sees his friend Brooklyn unconscious and wiped clean, her face and arms covered with tubes, a threadbare sheet pulled up to her chest. A shadow suddenly moves in the corner on the oppo
site side of the room, causing Jonah to jump and ball his hands into fists.

  “Relax, Firstie,” Vespa says as she steps into the light.

  He unconsciously follows her orders and uncurls his hands, relieved to see the cadet standing guard over their friend. “How is she?” he asks as he steps up to the bed. The smell of chemicals and sweat and sulfur hit him, and he has to momentarily turn away and cover his face with the collar of his shirt. Did his room smell like this?

  “The same, I guess. Hasn’t woken up yet,” Vespa says. It takes her a moment to realize that not only is Jonah standing there, but it looks like… “Wait, your eyes. Can you see? Can you see me?”

  Jonah nods and a single tear barely makes it onto his cheek before he wipes it away.

  Vespa practically leaps over Brooklyn’s bed to hug him. Her embrace is suffocating, but entirely welcome, and Jonah wraps his long arms around her back. He buries his nose into her black hair, which has been shampooed and stripped of smoke and death. The two stand like that for thirty seconds, both of them squeezing each other so hard that they begin to cough, and then they laugh. And then they fall silent. Vespa pulls away, struggling to stiffen her quivering lips. She bounces on the soles of her new shoes and then suddenly reaches up to touch the corners of his eyes with her thumbs.

  “It’s good to see you,” Jonah manages. “Like, really good to see you. You look…you look really nice. You look beautiful, Vespa.”

  “This ugly mug?” She blushes and then takes a few steps backward before collapsing into a chair next to the bed. “I bet you say that to all the girls right after regaining your eyesight. I bet it’s good just to see anything.”

  “It’s definitely good to see her, too.” Jonah reaches for Brooklyn’s small hand and holds it gently between his giant palms. He stares at the demic’s long face covered with bandages and thick ointment. Scratches and bruises crisscross and stretch from her cheeks down into her collar like a warped chess board. He presses his hands together, flattening the girl’s warm fingers, trying to give her some of his good luck. The last time he saw her was on the top of the ridge before he and Vespa slid down the canyon to stop Tunick and the Splitters from leaving with the ship. He doesn’t know how, but he knew she’d somehow survive up there all alone. But now, staring down at her small body wrapped up in this large bed, he isn’t so sure she’ll survive all this, even when she’s surrounded by her friends.

  “Brooklyn,” he says. “It’s me, Jonah. And Vespa’s here, too. We made it. We’re on Thetis. So, wake up already so you can boss people around up here.”

  No response.

  “Jonah’s here,” Vespa tries. “Squeeze his hands, Brooklyn, if you can hear us. Move something. Wake up and make fun of Jonah’s big ears.”

  The girl doesn’t move a muscle, and Jonah slowly releases her hand. He shuffles past Vespa and stands over Brooklyn’s face, and without thinking, he places his fingers on the girl’s eyelids and pulls them back.

  The blue underneath is so solid and so bright that it startles Jonah. There are no corneas and no pupils and no white parts. Nothing is growing back. He releases her eyelids and a breath he didn’t know he held.

  “I thought she was doing better. Why…why isn’t it working for her like it worked for me?” he asks.

  “It is,” Mirker says in the doorway. “She’s stabilized right now. She’s doing okay. Or at least better than she was when we found you. Unfortunately, she was further along than you were. But we’re hoping to see some real progress soon. Keep giving her the meds. Keep hoping. Keep trying.”

  Jonah grabs Brooklyn’s hand again. “Please get better. Please.”

  Mirker walks up to the bed with a sad, forced smile. “She will. She’ll get better, I promise.”

  “Thank you,” Jonah says to him. It could be from all the emotions he has for his friend right then, or the fact that Mirker saved him from Dr. Z earlier, but Jonah feels a fatherly sense from the man. It’s impossible to ignore; half of Jonah wants to yell at him and blame him for all his problems, and the other half of him wants to hug the man and be taken care of and praised for what Jonah was able to do on Achilles. “Thank you for everything. For helping her and for helping me and Vespa and everyone else. We thought we were dead. You saved us.”

  Mirker puts a hand on Brooklyn’s damp forehead and sighs. “You don’t need to thank me, cadet. We’re just happy you’re here. We’re happy you guys made it. We thought we lost everyone.”

  “Barely. We barely made it,” Vespa whispers.

  “Hey cadet, why don’t you get some air and show Jonah around a bit,” Mirker says to her. “You’ve seen the place already. Maybe you can help Jonah find his yurt. Number thirty-one.”

  “Sure.”

  They stand and say goodbye to Brooklyn and promise to be back in a couple hours. After passing through a maze of soft black wood, Vespa opens a door and steps aside.

  The moment Jonah walks out of the building and onto the soil of Thetis, he can sense the difference between this planet and its moon. There’s less humidity. There’s more salt or something in the air. More sunlight hits his face with more warmth. Also, there’s more gravity here, much closer to that on Earth. No more fifty-foot leaps or slow-motion falls, he thinks. No more acting like a comic book hero. Which is for the best; he doesn’t want to be a comic book hero. He just wants to live the life of a quiet, secondary character who never gets in anyone’s way. One whose friends get better and share this quiet, once-in-a-lifetime adventure with him. And who knows, maybe in five or ten years he’ll start a family with someone. Someone like Vespa.

  Vespa grabs Jonah’s upper arm and gives him a slight pull to the left: “This way, Firstie.”

  The Athens colony looks much less futuristic than Jonah had imagined; with its tall wooden fence topped with spikes dominating the horizon and the dozens of dark green tents and yurts, Athens looks more like a temporary military base than an interstellar space colony. Everything is olive-colored and nondescript and lined up with precision, creating long alleyways and predictable turns. He had seen photos and videos of the colony on his sheaf and on the news but figured that the tents would have been replaced with concrete buildings by now. He pictured gleaming white towers with shining windows and alien birds with villagers riding them, circling around their tops. He pictured paved roads with strange flowers lining their edges. He wanted a futuristic town square with a futuristic gazebo. A water fountain. A pool with a high dive. Instead, he finds this? A glorified campsite behind a huge wall? What has everyone been working on for the past year?

  Jonah follows Vespa left and right, passing several colonists who stop whatever work they’re doing to look the two over. No one makes a move to introduce themselves or asks to show them around. The cadets quietly wave at each person they encounter, and all they get back are shaking heads and stiff shoulders. Jonah can’t tell if it’s his eyes still adjusting to the sunlight or adjusting to just being able to see in general, but everyone to him looks a little pale and sickly, moving slowly with heavy feet.

  “Do they hate us or something?” Jonah asks.

  “Something like that,” she says. “Seems like everyone was counting on us to bring a bunch of stuff here to help. And then when we crashed…”

  “And that’s our fault somehow?”

  “It’s someone’s fault, in their eyes, and now we’re here to use up even more of what little resources they have left.”

  When they get to the center of the village, a long black building emerges with several open doors running along its side. Short fences and tall cages surround each opening, but that doesn’t stop the animal noises within. Jonah’s mood picks up instantly; he forgot about the farm building. He forgot about the videos and photos of the Athens scientists collecting animals and plants and anything else they could bring safely into the village. He walks faster and faster, and then finally he breaks out into a full-on sprint toward the first open door.

 
; “I thought you were sick!” Vespa yells after him.

  Jonah reaches a six-foot tall fence and easily peers over it, his heart in his throat, his cracked fingernails digging into the fuzzy wood. On Achilles, every creature was a mystery, a potential killer, capable of anything. The hoppers, the glowing beetles, the white spiders and snouts and airplane fish. Jonah had no idea what to expect. No one did. This, though, is like a zoo, with a safe barrier between him and the unknown.

  There’s movement in the open door, and out of the shadows come three green round creatures cautiously hopping into the sunlight on one thick leg, their long thin tails leaving lines in the dirt. Jonah laughs; he recognizes them immediately from his sheaf’s Thetis Bible, the living document of the planet updated by the people in the village.

  “Vespa, look,” he calls. “They have frosties!”

  “Well, that’s a dumb name for some green puffballs,” she says as she looks through the fence slats.

  “Just wait,” Jonah says. “They might do it…”

  Within seconds, the creatures hop in a tight circle in the far corner of their pen. One of them tucks its leg under its body and sits still in the black dirt, and immediately another jumps on top of it and pulls its leg under itself. And then the third frosty leaps onto the top one.

  “Okay, now I get it,” Vespa says. “They stack up like Frosty the Snowman. Clever.”

  The smile on Jonah’s face feels like the first genuine smile he’s had in years. He watches in awe as the bottom frosty stands and starts to hop along the fence line. The other two balance perfectly on top, and then both stand and balance on their single legs, and soon the green snowman is twice its height from moments ago.

  “Now, like, imagine a hundred of them doing this, all on top of each other,” Jonah says. “Because that’s what they do. It’s so they can eat certain insects living in the top of trees.”

  Vespa puts her hand through the fence slats, reaching out to pet the top one. “I think I remember those photos from the Thetis Bible now. They can keep hopping and none of them ever fall off somehow.”