Tundra 37 (18 page)

“You’re from TINE?” He sounded surprised.

Mestasis kept her voice even despite the tremors spreading throughout her body. “I told you; I’m not here to cause trouble.”

He stepped closer and the moonlight illuminated his face. He had a wide forehead and a sharp, broad nose. Despite his good looks, Mestasis had to remind herself he was dangerous.

James crossed his arms, his long cloak rippling behind him. “You’re going to let us steal food from your rich friends and not report us?”

“They’re not my friends.” The venom in her voice surprised her and she bit her lip. James furrowed his dark eyebrows, studying her like a puzzle that refused to be solved.

The way he looked at her, like a spoiled high-rise princess, made anger warm her neck and she spit out her words. “I grew up in the slums, no different than you. I’m only working for TINE to get my family away from gangmen like you.”

“Is that how you think of me?” He sounded amused and she wondered if he set a trap.

A kernel of anger hardened inside her. “I recognize your colors. I’m well aware of the Radioactive Hand of Justice.”

He shook his head. “I’m trying to help the world, not control it.”

“By stealing from the government, enacting your own laws?”

“By making life more fair for the thousands that live in the shadows of those above.”

She clamped her lips down with no response. He did have a point. Although it was wrong to steal, the current system failed the majority. The government had cut aid programs before her lifetime, and too many lived in poverty and died of hunger. She was trying to save her mom and sister from those conditions by staying in the system. He was trying to save the world by thinking outside it. In reality, who made the biggest difference?

More footsteps sounded in the stairway and he gestured toward the plastic assimilator. Mestasis crouched down in her old hiding place and he stooped next to her. The room filled with men, their hair singed with red highlights. Spikes poked from their necks, the implants protruding like scales down their backs.

James clenched the metal machine arm in his fist. “Damn, it’s the Razornecks.”

Mestasis opened her mouth to ask who they were, but the men flooded the room, their rough voices breaking the silence. James put his hand over his laser, but she knew they were outnumbered, even for a weapon of that caliber.

He brought his lips to her ear, his breath tickling her neck. “If they find us, we’re dead.”

The men spread out, perching on the old equipment. They held strange tubelike glass beverages and watched the room with wild eyes.

Mestasis put a hand up to her mouth, covering a gasp. They were moonshiners, men who drank their problems away with a substance stronger than alcohol. Made from Morpheus, a chemical found on the moon, the substance brought out violence and ate the drinkers from the inside out. Highly addictive, they’d kill to get their hands on anything that would lead them to their next drink.

They became rowdy quickly, standing in a circle punching each other, while the others roamed around the room, destroying what remained of the machines. With gaunt cheeks and dilated pupils, they looked more like ghouls than men. One broad-chested Razorneck sauntered over in their direction. James slipped off his coat, threw it on top of her, and drew his laser.

“Look what we’ve got here.” The burly man approached James with a bar of jagged metal in his hand. “Looks like a green-haired leprechaun, a do-gooder from the Hand of Justice.” James stood, hiding Mestasis and she shrank back into the shadows.

Some of his companions chuckled while other spat. “I hate those guys. They think they’re helping people out, but they won’t share any of their profits with us.”

James tightened his grip on the laser growling, “And we never will, you moonshiner crap.”

Grunts of protest rang out. Mestasis’s throat constricted and she struggled to breathe. She’d just met James, but she was tied to him. He did save her life.

Another one of them shouted, “Bring him here. Put him in the center circle.”

James pulled the trigger, but the man had already drunk some of his moonshine, and he moved faster than any normal human. He grabbed the weapon as it flung white light into the ceiling and hauled it up in the air. James, unwilling to let go, dangled from the straps.

Mestasis closed her eyes and focused her energy. Quickly, she placed both hands on the concrete, feeling the electromagnetic pulses of the room around them, the heat signatures, and the remaining working lights. Her consciousness heightened by the impending danger, she’d never experienced so many impulses in her life. She channeled the energy and released it in a strong gush of will. All of the lights in the room flickered on before exploding above their heads, raining shards. The man dropped James, and he recovered quickly, firing warning shots with his laser.

He shouted as he pursued them, “Leave now! All of you.”

Their drinks gave off a strange radioactive pulse, and she reversed it, sending it back to each glass tube with twice its force. The glass shattered in their hands, blood spraying everywhere. Cries of fear and rage erupted into the darkness. Disoriented, the men scattered, giving James enough time to work his way back to Mestasis. The gang evacuated the room as quick as they’d come, leaving a sprawling mess of glass and blood in their wake.

James pulled his cloak off her shoulders. “Are you okay?”

Mestasis secured the kitten beneath her shirt and stood, wiping her electrically charged hands on her legs to disperse the extra energy. The room swirled around her and she steadied herself, leaning on the old machine. Her powers receded and she became a normal nineteen year old once again.

Still holding his laser toward the door, James stared at her, gawking. “You did this?”

“Now you know why I work for TINE.”

She thought she’d scare him away. Any man her age that was aware of her powers stayed a clear two-meter radius away from her. But James seemed impressed. “With powers like that, you could rule TINE, never mind work for them.”

Mestasis laughed for the first time that day. “I didn’t know how strong they were until tonight. Besides, I don’t want to rule anything. I just want to have a safe place for my family.”

His expression grew serious. “Leave TINE and come join me. We have everything you could ever need: freshly grown food, running water, everything in a vast network underneath the streets.”

She smiled. His offer enticed her, because it would provide shelter for her whole family that instant, instead of waiting for years to raise enough money so her mom didn’t have to work. But, she could never live the life of a criminal, even if they were fighting for the lower class. She had too much to sacrifice on the higher decks. Her mother would never hear of it, and Abysme wouldn’t either.

“Thanks, but I can’t.”

She moved to leave and he grabbed her hand, his hot fingers warming her skin. His voice was husky. “At least tell me your name.”

“Metsy.” She slid her hand from his grasp, studying his perfect features in the moonlight. She’d never allowed herself a sliver of romance, and the feelings she’d suppressed rose inside her like hot lava.

“I’m James. James Wilfred.”

She started walking, shouting at her feet not to stop. She couldn’t allow herself to become attached. “See you later, James. Good luck with your cause.”

His voice stopped her as she reached the stairway. “Will I see you again?”

Mestasis froze, one hand on the doorframe. His expectation hung heavy in the air between them. She had to make a choice. She could return to her floor and forget this night ever happened, or she could risk everything to conspire with a renegade. Her conversation with James made Mestasis question how much she really trusted TINE. What if her work failed to land her and her sister successful careers? What if the government shut the program down? What if Abysme’s concerns were valid? The world fell apart around them, crumbing a little more with each passing day. It might be useful to have an ally underground. Her feelings screamed inside her, and this time she couldn’t ignore them.

“Depends on if you like coffee.”

§

Mestasis sighed, the memory of James filling every ounce of her body with warmth and making some parts long dead and severed feel again. She could almost wiggle her toes. As the coldness of Tundra 37 seeped back in, reality hit her hard. This frozen planet was the last place she had expected to end up.

“I can’t continue this mission without them!” Luna whined from the front seat, reminding Gemme of when five-year-old Ferris wanted to swim in the aqua tanks with the salmon.

Tech revved the engines of the landrover, waiting for a direction from Brentwood. The old engineer had volunteered to take up the wheel, giving the Lieutenant time to rest. “Should we go back?”

Brentwood rubbed his temples and Gemme’s heart went out to him. He’d gone through a lot. They all had, and the mission had just begun. “I’m not sure how far we’ve come escaping that creature, but I bet going back would put us a whole day behind.”

Luna twisted her neck to gaze at him from the front seat. She batted her eyelashes and pleaded. “I need them. Code Beta Prime, remember?”

It sounded like nonsense to Gemme, but when Brentwood’s face showed recognition, she stared at him in disbelief. Luna spoke as though the two of them had some secret language. Gemme couldn’t understand what was so important about chunks of snow and tentacle goo, but she kept her mouth shut. This was Brentwood’s decision, not hers.

In a resigned voice, he ordered, “Turn around, Tech.”

Tech craned his neck from the front seat to meet Brentwood’s eye. “You sure about this, chief?”

“Yes, absolutely.” He sat back against the seat and stared out the sight panel, his jaw set in a rigid line. Gemme was tempted to ask him what Beta Prime was all about, but she didn’t want to seem nosy, or overly eager for his attentions with some schoolgirl crush. And she didn’t want Luna to get the satisfaction of knowing she was curious. They probably wouldn’t tell her anyway. She settled into her seat and watched the snowflakes blow against the sight panel, feeling like she’d regressed back to her class years.

Tech brought the landrover in an arc around a jagged outcropping of ice. “What’s the big discovery, Luna?”

Luna shifted in her seat. “Ocean life and lots of it.”

The old man scoffed. “I don’t see any ocean.”

“It’s below us. We’re driving over it as we speak, kilometers of water running underneath the ice. Where do you think all those tentacled elephant jellyfish ran to?”

Gemme shivered at the thought of driving over an ocean with a layer of ice in between. It seemed almost as scary as a chrome hull separating her from deep space. Why did life have to be so precarious?

Tech shrugged. “I don’t get it. The scouts said Tundra 37 had little to no known life.”

Luna sounded smug. “That’s because they never checked below the surface, when the findings lay underneath their feet.”

“You mean this forsaken place just might prove a useful habitat in which to live?”

“If we can eat them, yes. That’s why I need my sample trays. I’m trying to figure out how compatible their proteins are to our bodies. Yes we need energy, but we also need food to eat, and I don’t see any apple trees spouting, or fields of golden wheat.”

Golden wheat. Gemme thought back to the strange dreams she’d been having ever since the comets hit. Dreams of Old Earth. They’d seemed so tangible at the time, but sitting in the landrover with Alpha Team Blue made her dreams feel like gibberish. She was relieved no one else could see what she experienced when she closed her eyes.

“Here we are, home sweet home.” Tech parked the landrover and opened the hatch.

Gemme jumped out, stretching her legs. The paws of the alien-mammoth had decimated their camp. Luna’s trays of samples lay knocked over, the small vials scattered in the snow. Luna’s tent was flattened and torn, the pegs all bent out of shape. Gemme wondered if they’d get their mission accomplished at all, never mind on schedule.

Brentwood surveyed the damage, eyeing his own still standing tent. The strength in his voice gave Gemme hope. “Luna, next stop, you can have my tent. I’ll bunk up with Tech. As for the samples, find as many as you can and start packing up. I’d like to leave as soon as possible. If I drive through the night, we can make up for lost time.”

Tech spoke up. “I’m going to need someone to help me pry these monster hairs from the drill. I took a look at one of the strands, and the darn things are made of pure muscle. I don’t want them clogging our equipment.”

“I’ll help.” Brentwood clasped Tech’s shoulder. The two of them walked to the back of the landrover. Hugging her shoulders against the brisk wind, Gemme didn’t know where to start.

“Oh my poor samples!” Luna cried as she fell to her knees in the snow.

If Luna spoke the truth, her findings were just as important as the hyperthium. She’d already packed up her own belongings. Gemme sprang forward to help her. At least she’d have a task to accomplish, even if she did have to work with Luna.

Gemme bent down and picked up a broken vial and Luna gave her a questioning glance. “You’re going to help me?”

Gemme shrugged. “Sure.”

“Great. Thanks a million, Gemme, dear.” Luna stood up, brushed off her knees, and left Gemme with the mess of samples. Gemme watched openmouthed, wondering what could be more important than collecting the answers to their future existence on this planet. Luna bent over the mess of her tent and rummaged through the torn fabric, righted an upturned tray, and started to load the vials. When she turned to Luna again, she’d pulled out a makeup kit and was applying some sort of skin cream to her face.

Gemme’s frustration balled in her chest. “Luna, what are you doing?”

“Collecting my things.”

“What about the samples?”

She winked at her. “You’re doing a nice job, hon. Keep at it.”

Gemme shook her head and picked up a few more vials filled with snow. She wondered if Luna had convinced them to come back for her personal items, and not for her research. But, no one could be that self-absorbed, right? She wished she’d volunteered to help Tech along with Brentwood. Gazing across camp, she saw them chipping away at the ice-coated hairs wrapped around the drill.