Space Race (Space Race 1) by Nathan Hystad (book recommendations for young adults .TXT) 📕

The metal samples were encased in containment boxes, protecting the handler from a heavy dose of radiation. I grabbed one, flipping it around in my fingers, and heard my grandfather’s voice in the back of my mind, telling me that wasn’t how the Lewis men operated. I returned it with a scowl on my face, and slammed the lid.

“Come out, Veera,” I muttered, and sprinted for the set of doors across the room. They parted, revealing wide steps, and that was where I went, lower into Eris’ surface.

The halls were pitch black, but my lights were powerful, and I made quick work of the corridor. At the height of their operation, the team would have this place brightly lit, with voices carrying through the underground bunker. A day later, and it was a terrifying place, a frozen tomb where you couldn’t survive the long orbit.

Checking the map, I saw Veera was a hundred meters away, and I pushed faster, anxious to recover her and return home. I dashed over the metal floors and stopped at the end of the corridor.

“Veera, I’m here to bring you to Kol!” I shouted, my voice echoing from the external speakers.

I heard a rattling beyond and called out again. Still no verbal response, but it was clear something was going on through the doors. “Fine, make me do this the tough way.”

I tugged at the lever as the entrance swung open, and she rammed into me, her fists pounding against my suit. The momentum sent me onto my back, and my helmet smashed against the floor with a loud bang. Her fists continued to rain on the clear part of my face shield, a relentless fury of rage filling the diminutive woman.

My arm lifted in defense, and I saw it then. Her eyes were blood red, a snarl on her lips. She spoke, but I couldn’t understand the words.

“Veera, I’m trying to help!” I shouted, but she didn’t pay attention; she just hit me again. Her hands were bleeding, and I’d had enough playing nice. I shoved her firmly, sending her clattering against the doors. My Pulser was in my glove a second later, set to the lowest level. The blast struck her in the chest, and she dropped to the ground, unmoving.

“Kol, I found Veera. But you… have some explaining… to do,” I told him through heaving breaths.

The clock said I had twenty-three minutes to return to Capricious and depart the surface. I glanced at the unconscious woman and groaned as I picked her up, slinging her over my shoulder.

I was definitely getting paid extra for this one.

 

 

 

Two

“Dim the lights,” I told CP, and the cabin darkened. My headache wasn’t easing despite the injection. The last few days had been some of the strangest in my life. First the self-destructing vessel, then Veera viciously attacking me just hours ago. It had all happened so fast, I hadn’t quite wrapped my brain around it.

“Dr. Kol Bell is attempting to contact you.” The CP’s voice carried softly, and I rolled off my bed, pressing the door open. It slid wide, and I stalked through the corridors of my freighter, boots clanking against the floor.

Kol was where I expected him, in my mess hall. It was far too large for a one-man operation, and seeing him inside, attempting to use my coffee pod, felt out of place.

“Kol, what is it?”

He turned, blinking slowly as if I were an apparition he hadn’t anticipated. “Arlo, thank you for retrieving Veera. I must apologize for not being more forthright.”

I crossed the space in a few long strides, almost grabbing him by his white lab coat. “Are you telling me you knew she was hostile?”

He moved away, his back hitting the cabinet, rattling my plates. “No. No. Nothing like that. She had been working on a new… project.” I stopped coming at him, and Kol left his empty cup behind.

The tension fled from the room, and I finished the beverage for him. It smelled delicious, and I used the machine to brew my own cup. Twenty seconds later, I slid it over my dented table and sat across from him. “Tell me about this project.”

He stared at the cup, steam rising into his brow. “She discovered something important. Buried deep. We’ve been under orders to continue our investigation of the core. Eris has been very fruitful, but we’ve reached a point where we’re producing more of the Elurnium than Oasis can distribute. If we don’t formulate another substance, or if they don’t find an alternate use for our alloy, the facility will shut down.” He took a sip, setting the cup down with a shaky hand.

“What did she locate?”

“The core is far beyond the main Elurnium caches, and we’ve moved to a secondary site, across the methane fields. Oasis spared no expense in assuring we had everything we’d needed,” he said. I recalled the last shipment I’d delivered there. It had been substantial, with various contraptions I’d never seen before.

“Go on.”

“Veera was the lead on the job, ensuring it was all done to spec. She found… an organic culture.”

“Organic? In the core of Eris?” I asked.

“Yes, but we couldn’t tell Oasis yet, because we wanted to learn more about it. If we informed them there was a living being on the dwarf planet, the Corporations would be all over them. Red tape. Delays. Probably ending in my team being forced to evacuate for good. I couldn’t be responsible for this, so we kept it under wraps. We sealed off the shaft, but… Veera went back. She was doing her own research.” He fumbled his fingers into his lab coat’s pocket and pulled out a silver-colored coin. “It’s on here.”

He placed it on the table and passed it over. I grabbed my PersaTab and dropped the coin onto the clear surface. It powered up, a holographic display showing footage of a lab room. In the projection, Veera leaned into a glove box case, her arms enveloped in the protective layer.