Skylar Mars and the Stolen Egg Page 14

  “It was deemed that there was too much of an opportunity for cheating if computers were used, so way back in time, they opted for a sentient count as backup.” Del floated through the doors as they slid open. “If the stories are true, one of the team captains hacked into the scoring computer and the team ended up getting two points for every actual point they scored, while the opposing team suffered a five-point penalty every time they used their jetpacks. But regardless of what really happened, people are the scorekeepers now.”

  On the other side of the lift doors was a medium-sized booth with a large number of monitors and holographic screens. There were nine people in the room, most seated at separate monitors. In the center of the room floated one of the snail-like Pulmonians in its envirobubble.

  One of its eye stalks swiveled toward them. “Del, glad you could make it. Since there are Tursiops playing, are you sure that you can be objective?” A speaker on the outside of the envirobubble projected its voice to them.

  Del nodded enthusiastically. “Sure, Monte. I don’t have anything riding on this game.” From the way he moved in the weightless environment, Skylar knew Del had a fair amount of experience at it, but then wondered if being weightless was a lot like being in an ocean.

  Skylar watched the ten people floating about, moving easily, either by jetpack or swinging from the rails that ran along the sides of the clear barrier that showed the gardens. Solaria seemed to fly around without any aid whatsoever. He wished he could move so easily. He kept grabbing various consoles, rails, and workstations to get further into the booth.

  “And your friend? Is he neutral?” Monte drew Skylar’s attention away from the players and back to the beings in the control room.

  Skylar turned back to Monte but kept a firm grip on the back of an empty chair. “I’m new here. Can’t get much more neutral than that.”

  “And you’re human, so you probably can be neutral with Pantherian or Tursiop as a whole. That’s only logical. Okay, there are two more terminals. You sit next to Del—he can help if there’s any problem. I trust he’s already explained how the game works?”

  “Yeah.” Skylar nodded. “I think I understand.” He tried to sound more confident than he felt. His stomach kept knotting at the idea of missing something important and screwing up with everyone counting on him to be impartial.

  Monte shifted in his envirobubble. “We’ve got three minutes folks. Get ready.”

  Skylar glanced at Del, trying to figure out what Monte meant by nuetral.

  Del shook his head. “No, I’m a great shielder and Skylar’s got a dampening bracelet on right now.”

  He glanced at Skylar and gestured for him to raise his arm. When Monte saw the bracelet, his eyestalks bounced in what Skylar could only assume was a nod.

  “Two-minute warning!” Monte announced. In the game area below, everyone lined up.

  Del gestured for Skylar to follow him to the two empty monitors. It took Skylar nearly a full minute to make it to the chair Del indicated. He was pleasantly surprised to find a seat belt that would keep him in place. As they got seated, the monitors came to life.

  “Okay”—Del leaned over to Skylar—“now see the image on the screen, that’s who you’re keeping track of. Oh hey, that’s Felicianana Palas. The screen will show you what’s going on, but you concentrate on her. Every time she uses her jet pack, you tap the red button there.” He gestured to the large red button on the lower right of the screen. “That’s all you’ve got to do.”

  Skylar nodded. “That sounds easy enough.” As long as he didn’t hit the button by mistake, everything should be great.

  “It can be, but sometimes you get so wrapped up in the game, you might forget. Try not to. It’ll look bad for both of us.” Del settled back into his own seat.

  “One minute!” Monte called.

  Even with the dampening bracelet blocking his abilities, the tension in the room was palpable. Monte floated to the edge of the booth. He touched a button with one of his eyestalks, and a ball shot into the zero-gravity playing field. The players all seemed to be in motion at once. Felicianana and Solaria both took off toward the ball. For the first time, it registered with Skylar that they carried long rods. Solaria swung her rod at the ball. Her swing was true and the ball flew off into the floating blue cube that was the Tursiops goal as she tumbled backward. The ring of white light around the goal hole flashed red as the goal floated off to a new position, slightly lower than it had been.

  “First goal, Solaria for the Pantherians!” Monte announced. The distant sound of cheering came from speakers set near the lift.

  Skylar kept his cheer silent, and was thankful he had the dampening bracelet on so no one in the booth could feel his excitement that his friend scored the first goal of the game.

  A small burst of white came from Felicianana’s jetpack as the compressed air propelled her toward the ball that came hurling out of the goalbot. Skylar tapped the red button and a one appeared next to it.

  One of the Tursiops swung off a rail and shot toward the ball. He barely missed Felicianana and managed to hit the ball further into Pantherian territory. Again, Solaria moved forward without any obvious help. One of the other Pantherians kicked off the goal toward the ball, but a Tursiops that appeared to be moving the same way as Solaria got there faster. He hit the ball. It didn’t go anywhere, but he tumbled end over end toward the barrier. Felicianana swooped down faster than Solaria and hit the ball. It flew back toward the Tursiops goal.

  “That’s always hard when that happens,” Del said as he tapped the red button on his screen.

  “What was that?” Skylar asked.

  “That was the ball having a mind of its own. Well, that and partially a zero-gravity thing. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That’s why when folks hit the ball they get thrown off course, even the ones using telekinesis, like Solaria. They’re still affected by the basic rules of physics in the environment out there.”

  “Score, Felicianana for the Pantherians!” Monte’s voice echoed through the speakers.

  Felicianana propelled herself off the goal and floated to the middle of the field. The ball returned to play. Solaria soared past a Tursiops heading for the ball, but Felicianana already had it coming back toward the Tursiops goal. One of the Tursiops flew toward the ball. He missed his swing, but the ball caught him in the gut. The impact sent him flying toward the control booth. He hit the clear barrier hard.

  “Break. We need a med bot in the field to remove the injured player!” Monte shouted. “From what I can tell, he’s going to be unconscious for at least an hour. That was some hit. But it’s a hard blow for Kril. Flip was his best player.”

  Skylar glanced at Del. “How long is the break?”

  “Until the med bot gets Flip off the field,” Del explained. “We can’t have injured players floating around getting in the way. School rules. They used to be left in the area till the school changed the rules, and now we have to get them to safety.”

  A small white and red remote-controlled bot appeared from an alcove further down the field. Little white puffs of air accompanied it as it maneuvered toward the unconscious Flip.

  Skylar looked out onto the field. “Are there often injured players?” All the players were still where they had been when the break was called. Even the ball and goals were frozen in space.

  “Every so often. Like I said on the way over here, if the ball doesn’t like you, it can be a lot worse. I don’t think that’s what occurred with Flip. He just caught a bad blow. It happens.”

  “If you say so.”

  The med bot latched onto Flip’s floating form and dragged him toward the alcove adjacent to the announcer’s booth. Beyond the alcove, a medical team waited.

  Once the bot slipped back into the alcove, Monte sighed. “Okay, let’s get this going again,” he said at a normal volume before calling, “Resume play!”

  The players all moved at once. Those who weren’t close enough to k
ick off something used their jetpacks to get going again. Skylar hit the red button to yank another point from Felicianana.

  The game settled into a fairly predictable rhythm. After an hour, the Pantherians had seventy-five points and the Tursiops had forty. Solaria and the Tursiops mover appeared to have an advantage over the other players. They didn’t have any penalty points for using their jet packs, although Skylar noticed the Tursiops mover seemed to be tiring as the game continued, while Solaria maintained her speed and agility. The two movers had scored more points than any of the others on the field.

  Something distracted the Tursiops mover just as the ball flew in his direction. He swung his rod and missed. Right before the ball would’ve caught him in the head, he used his jetpack to get out of its way. The ball caught him in the foot and sent him tumbling.

  The Pantherians heightened their aggression. Within minutes, Skylar was fairly sure they had just been toying with their rival team. It only took them fifteen minutes to drive their score up to a hundred.

  “Well, that’s a game folks!” Monte called out. “The score is Felicianana and the Pantherians, one hundred, Kril and the Tursiops twenty. Better luck next time Kril.”

  The cheering from the speakers reached a fever pitch. Even with the dampening bracelet on, it hit Skylar hard. A surge of joy and happiness stronger than anything he’d ever felt before made him almost giddy.

  “Thanks for the help, folks,” Monte said. “You all did a great job, even the new guy. If you want to monitor the next game, I’ll get in touch when it gets scheduled.”

  A round of “Sure,” “Anytime,” and “Count me in!” rang out in the booth. Then everyone started for the lift.

  About halfway down, Del’s com beeped. He glanced at it. “Skylar, we’ve got to get back to the room as fast as we can. The alarm just went off.”

  “What alarm?” They couldn’t move any faster—there were a lot of people around them.

  “I set up an alarm after you brought it in,” Del whispered. “Just in case something happened when we weren’t there. I was afraid Panthal might try something, or that something else might happen. Well, something just did.”

  Skylar’s heart pounded. Please let the little guy be alright. He wished he could get out of the lift right then. When the door opened, he pushed his way through the doors and dashed toward their room. He didn’t even bother seeing if Del followed him or not.

  18

  Separation Anxiety

  A LOUD crash filled the nearly empty hallway as Skylar ran toward his room. He skidded to a stop and pressed his palm against the bioscanner that locked their door. The portal reluctantly slid open to reveal a scene of chaos.

  The beds were trashed. Everything that had been on a desk or shelf now lay on the floor. Clothes were scattered about, worse than normal. Fear filled the room, breaking through Skylar’s bracelet. That hit him harder than the mess that filled the room.

  “What happened here?”

  “Hold the door!” Del charged up behind him. “What happened here?”

  Skylar glanced at his friend. “That’s what I just asked.”

  Del frowned at the door. “Someone tried to break in. I bet it was Pathal. With everyone down at the game, he and his bottom feeders must’ve thought it was a good time to try to get the egg back.”

  Something flung itself out from under the nearest pile of clothes. A bright yellow and orange streak flew at Skylar. He barely got his arm up before the hatchling landed on him. His bright, multi-colored eyes sparkled and a feeling of surprise and happiness rolled off it. It reached out and preened a bit of Skylar’s hair.

  “Did you do all this?” he asked.

  The little Solar Drake stared back at him, then rubbed his head against his hand before making the soft, almost purring sound that Skylar recognized as a request for food.

  Del pushed Skylar far enough into the room that the door could close. “We need to get this place cleaned up. Fin and Connor are not going to be happy to see it trashed like this.”

  Skylar looked at the drake. “But why would he do something like this? Did Pathal or whoever make it and scare him? And when did he start flying?”

  “I don’t know, but he can obviously fly now.” Del bent over and picked up a shirt. “This looks like yours.”

  “Toss it on my bed.” Skylar gestured to the center of the destruction in the room as he continued to stare at the drake. “What are we going to do with you while we try and get you back home?” He glanced at the door, a feeling of dread settling in his stomach. If Pathal had finally gotten the nerve to try to recover the egg, would he try again? Or would the alarm Del put on the place be enough to dissuade him from doing anything else in the future?

  Tossing more of Skylar’s clothes onto the growing pile, Del sighed. “I think we need Solaria in on this discussion. If we make a decision about him without her, then we’ll be in trouble.”

  Stroking the drake’s little head, Skylar nodded. “I think you’re right there, but what kind of decision can we make?”

  Del frowned. “He’s obviously growing up. Pretty soon, someone—beyond the few people that already know—is going to find out. I bet it’s not going to go well. We’ve also got to ask ourselves if it’s right to keep him locked up in this room all the time. From what I’ve been able to find out, it’s going to take a bit to get the right permits to get him home.”

  “But we take him out to the garden with us at least once a day.” Skylar shifted the drake to his shoulder and started helping Del pick up. The longer he had the drake, the more he wondered about taking him back to Armstrong’s Ring, the planet where the drakes lived. He was getting more and more fond of him.

  “Yeah, in a pack. How long before he starts complaining about that? And we’re just really lucky that nobody’s caught us when we’re out in the garden.” Del stopped moving things about and tapped his com. “Solaria Uncia. Hey Solaria, can you come to our room? The little guy’s started flying and trashed the place. Also we’re wondering if Pathal tried to break in.”

  Skylar couldn’t make out the response since Del hadn’t opted to share the com with him. But Del’s face didn’t change. It still had a dark worried look. “Okay, see you in a few.” He looked at Skylar. “She’s not happy that we’re interrupting her after-game celebration, but she’ll be here in a few.”

  “Okay.” Skylar set some books up on his desk. For the next few minutes, with the little drake shifting on his shoulder for balance, Skylar worked on putting the room back together

  They had a fair semblance of order when Connor showed up.

  “What happened in here?” their roommate demanded.

  “The little guy’s learning to fly,” Skylar said quickly, trying to make it sound like a good thing. He opted to not say anything about the possible break in and hoped neither Connor nor Fin would notice the slight slowness in the way their door slid open.

  Connor frowned. “He better not break any of my stuff.”

  Del shook his head. “It doesn’t look like anything got broken. I think he’s just being a bit clumsy is all. He’ll get better at it.”

  “You better hope so.” Connor stomped over to his desk and glared at the pile of knick-knacks there. He held up an antique book and glared at Skylar and the drake on his shoulder. “Look at this!” He pointed at fresh scratch marks on it. “I can’t fix this. It’s a very valuable family heirloom. Keep him away from my stuff.” Connor slammed the book into a drawer and set about organizing his area.

  “Sorry, Connor.” Skylar started to give an extended apology, but, by the way their roommate slammed things back into their proper place, Connor probably wasn’t interested in hearing it.

  Someone knocked on their door. “Skylar, Del, it’s Solaria.”

  “We’ll be right out.” Skylar dug his pack out from under the pile of clothes on his bed and motioned the little drake inside. “Come on, we’ll get out of here for a bit.” As it had done for nearly a week, the hatchling wal
ked into the pack. Skylar didn’t bother closing it before slipping it over his shoulder and following Del to the door. He felt a sense of relief getting away from Connor’s justifiable anger.

  As the door opened, Solaria gestured at the door frame. “Looks like someone tried to pry it open. The door was a couple seconds slower moving than normal.” She tapped a couple of scrapes that marred the gray metal of the frame, then peered into the room.

  “What!” Connor shouted.

  She appeared to ignore him. “Wow, our little guy made that mess?” A wide smile crossed her face. “He’s going to be a bit of a handful, huh.”

  Del frowned. “Going to be? He already is. We need to figure out what we’re going to do about this—and soon. While we’re at it, I could use some food and he sounds hungry… again.”

  “Food sounds awesome,” Skylar agreed. They hadn’t gotten themselves anything to eat before the game, although he and Del had fed the hatchling.

  “Tell you what.” Solaria pointed a finger emphatically. “Skylar, you take the little guy and go to the garden. The crowds are mostly moving to the cafeteria. I’ll run get some food for him and Del can get some for the rest of us.”

  Skylar nodded. “That works for me.”

  They went their separate ways. Inside the pack, the little drake squirmed a bit, then settled into a comfortable lump against Skylar’s left side. Having the drake there next to him made Skylar relax.

  As he walked down the hall, he reached into the pack and rubbed the little yellow head. There were tiny knots just beginning to push their way out of his leathery skin. They made him wonder if the little guy was starting to grow horns, and he promised himself to look closer at him when he got to the garden.

  The magnolia tree they liked to sit in—and under—was empty when he got there. Like Solaria said, most of the students had left the garden already, and the few that hadn’t were either absorbed in their personal activities, or on their way out when Skylar arrived.

  As soon as he reached the tree, he opened up the pack and the drake dashed out and scurried up into the tree. He walked out onto the lowest branch and spread his yellow wings. The orange veins in his wings blazed almost red in the light. I bet that would be really pretty in a bright sunset, Skylar thought as he looked up at the drake. He really is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. And those do look like little horns coming up above his eye ridges.