Clones vs. Aliens (23 page)

Fisher could feel the clone’s gaze slip across him like sharkskin, and he couldn’t help but shiver. He now held the key to unleash one of the most destructive forces ever created. It was bad enough that they were relying on the Gemini to give them the opening they’d need to carry out their mission. Adding Three into the mix made it a far more volatile one. He swore that he’d keep Three locked up until there was truly no other choice.

“I won’t lie,” Mason said, scratching the back of his neck and looking down at the floor with the expression of a person who long ago passed the point of desperation. “Ordinarily, we’d plan and train for a mission like this for
months. A year, if possible. This is a longshot. It’s also the only shot. So man your ship, and may the … well, you know.” He smiled.

Fisher and Alex got up and instantly had half the life crushed out of them by their parents.

“Come back to us,” Mr. Bas managed to choke out.

“And if you can save the world while you’re at it, that would be great,” Mrs. Bas half sobbed.

“Mmpphh,” Fisher said, wriggling away from his parents’ death grip. “We’ll be fine,” he said, trying to sound reassuring. “Back before you know it.”

“With the world saved and everything,” Alex said, forcing a grin.

Amanda and Veronica had stepped away for a moment and Fisher had to look around to spot them. They were being crushed in the arms of their own parents. When they returned, Fisher smiled at Veronica.

“How in the world did you get them to agree to this?” he said.

“I took care of that,” said Mason. “Or, more accurately, I called the president, and he took care of it. Their parents received calls from him personally. It took a little convincing, but now that they know what’s going on, they gave their permission.”

“I’m sure it took more than a little convincing, even from the president,” Veronica said, chuckling and waving
back at her parents. “Not all parents are as cool as yours.”

“You hear that?” Alex said. “You two are cool! Up top!” He put up his hand for a high five. Mr. Bas sort of pushed his palm into Alex’s with a goofy smile.

They suited up. Amanda put on the strength suit, and flexed her arms with satisfaction. Fisher had brought his well-tested spy suits for himself, FP, and Alex, along with a new one for Veronica. In their sleek, black jumpsuits they certainly looked the part of heroes. Fisher wished they could’ve taken the ChameleoClothes to sneak in, but those had mini-generators and used a considerable amount of power. No matter what they looked like, the power signatures would be easy to track inside the pirate flagship. Fisher picked up his gear bag with one hand and his spy-suited pig with the other.

There was nothing else to do but board the ship. The inside was awash with shifting, flowing colors, like a million tie-dyed shirts in a whirlpool. The colors flowed across the walls, under their feet, and over their heads.

“Wow,” Fisher said. “What is all this?”

“Well,” Alex said, pointing to a flowing green line dotted with lavender splotches, “that’s the power usage meter. And that orange ball hopping around is the cooling system readout. The aliens that designed this ship before the Gemini stole it don’t visually express language with writing, but with color patterns. I can’t read
it all … there’s only so much they were able to encode in the H2Info, I guess … but I’ve got a pretty good idea of what most of it means.”

BATTLE PLAN TO DEFEAT THE MECHASTACEANS AND SAVE PLANET EARTH AND THE HUMAN RACE FROM DESTRUCTION:

1. Fly Gemini ship to outer space.

2. Focus on the mission and not how cool space is.

3. Infiltrate Mechastacean mothership.

4. Destroy the ship’s core.

5. Don’t die? Victory?

Padded seats had been installed by the MORONS team. Fisher settled into his position and buckled himself in, watching the wild colors jump over his head. Alex sat in front of a pair of flat panels, which he set his arms onto, nodding that he understood how the controls worked. Fisher buckled FP to the side of his own harness.

Mason wheeled in Three on a hand truck. The clone had restraints at his wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles. He clipped the restraints into a pair of hooks set into the wall, and handed Fisher a tiny remote with a single button on a chain.

“Only if you need him,” Mason said.

“You can be sure of that,” Fisher said, slipping the chain around his neck, where it settled next to his portable hard drive.

“Okay, people,” Mason said. “Get the job done, and get home. That’s all there is to it.”

“Yes, sir,” Amanda said, nodding.

“You got it,” Alex said. Mason left, and a minute later they heard the airlock shut behind him. This was it. Once they were in space, nobody would be able to help them. Nobody would be able to rescue them if things went badly.

Fisher had a sudden idea, and he hefted the Three
remote in his palm, took a miniature tool kit from his spy suit, and popped it open.

“What are you doing?” said Three in his normal chilly tone.

“Boosting the range,” Fisher said, unbuckling himself, taking a few cautious steps toward Three to adjust the little receiver on his restrains. Three’s perfectly even, calm breathing ruffled Fisher’s hair, and Fisher felt as if spiders were creeping down his back. “It’s … a big ship.”

“Hmm,” Three said, raising an eyebrow. Fisher tinkered with the transmitter and the receiver for another minute, then hastily returned to his seat, wishing he could shower.

“
Perseus
, this is control,” Mason’s voice came in over the ship’s comm system.

“Is that us?” Fisher said.

“My idea,” Veronica said. “The hero who braved unspeakable dangers to enter Medusa’s dark lair.”

“This is
Perseus
,” Alex said. “Ready when you are, control.”

“The Gemini have begun their attack on the Mechastacean scout ship,” Mason said. “You’re clear to launch, repeat, clear to launch.”

“Hey,” Fisher said, “how exactly do we launch, anyway?”

“Right now,” Alex said, “the top of this silo is opening like a convertible roof. Get ready, everyone.”

The low thumping of the engine became louder and higher pitched. Alex made a quick swipe at the controls and the front of the room became a screen, displaying the view in front of them. Only when Fisher saw the cave wall sliding
downward
did he realize they were already in the air. The ship must have a system to compensate for g-forces, necessary since they’d be accelerating to very high speeds.

Daylight became visible, and then they were in the open air, hovering just above the base.

“Here we go …” Alex said.

With a single twitch of Alex’s right hand, the
Perseus
shot across the sky like a cannonball. The ground became a greenish-brownish blur, clouds turned to white flashes in the sky, and Fisher could feel the ship rushing through the air. In seconds, the blue sky turned to navy, then to black, and the stars popped into brilliance.

They were in space.

Fisher’s body bounced a little against his restraints as the
Perseus
freed itself from Earth’s gravity well and free fall set in. Stress and tension left his joints as his weight disappeared.

The girls’ hair drifted like seaweed, and FP flailed his legs in the air as he floated up on the tether connecting his spy suit to Fisher’s chair. He squealed happily as he spun himself.

“Wow,”
Alex said. “Fisher, we’ve got to get one of these.”

Fisher couldn’t respond. He was speechless, gazing out across the stars. This was what he’d spent his whole life dreaming about. Sailing the void, skimming the edge of human advancement, and helping to guide civilization to its future. Or in this case, making sure that it had one.

“This is wild,” Amanda said, watching her hair drift around her face.

“I just wish we had more time to enjoy it,” Fisher said,
reaching out to give FP a little push to help his spin.

“We’re approaching the pirate fleet,” Alex said. “This thing has a stealth system, but it can only help us so much. Let’s hope the Gemini have their attention … Control, do you copy?

“This is control,” Mason’s voice replied. “You’ll reach the edge of the pirate fleet in under one minute. One of their frigates should be directly ahead. Accelerate to seventy percent speed and stay as close to its hull as you can to avoid its scans.”

Dots that had looked like tiny stars became bigger and brighter. Moments later, the fleet was all around them, crowding out the sky. As Mason had said, one of the Mechastacean ships was dead ahead, and their weight briefly returned as Alex accelerated toward it.

“Hang on,” Alex said, and flipped the
Perseus
up and over the black and red hull of the colossal warship, skimming along its surface. A jutting weapon emplacement appeared right in their path. Alex executed a swift juke and Fisher clutched his seat as they missed it by less than a meter. A second later the vast vessel was left behind.

“Looks like somebody’s spotted us,” Alex said. “Fisher, could you scramble their comms for me?”

“Um, how?” Fisher said.

“With this jamming system,” Alex said smoothly. Fisher marveled at his mother’s H2Info, and wished
he’d drunk from a glass of water encoded with information called
How to save Earth from imminent alien destruction.
“It’ll spit out a blast of radio interference that should overload its system for a few minutes.” A cable extended from the ceiling toward Fisher. The end unfolded into a screen that displayed the ships around them as gray dots. One of the dots turned bright white. It was following them.

Fisher didn’t need any further instructions. He grabbed the joystick, centered it so that a small crosshair lined up with the pursuing craft, and pressed the red button. The ship vibrated slightly. The pursuing ship slowed down, then peeled away.

“Nice shot!” Alex said. “Their sensors and comms are down. They’ll need to reboot before they can come after us again. By that time we should be aboard the flagship. Speaking of which …”

Fisher looked up at the main screen.

“Look at the size of that thing,” Amanda said, her jaw dropping open.

Even at this distance the flagship was too big for them to make out its shape. In seconds it had filled the whole screen. It looked like a wall at the end of the universe.

“Does it know we’re here?” Veronica asked in a hushed voice.

“I don’t think so,” said Alex, but he sounded uneasy.
“The
Perseus
has been discreetly scanning it for the past few minutes. I see a few possible entrances. I’m taking us into one of the smaller docking bays. Amanda, if somebody’s waiting in there, you’ll need to act quickly.”

“On it,” Amanda said, punching her palm.

An opening appeared in the side of the ship, and the
Perseus
made for it. They slipped soundlessly into the gaping dark mouth, touching down on a loading bay that held several small spacecraft and a number of huge storage tanks set into the walls.

“Bringing us in,” Alex said tensely. “Amanda, there are two Mechastaceans in the bay, and they’re coming toward us. If you could get over to the airlock, please?”

Amanda released her restraints and disappeared into the corridor.

“We’re inside!” Alex said. Two Mechastaceans were now visible on the main screen, walking right up to where the ship was about to land. A dark shape flew in from off camera and landed on one of the aliens. After a second Fisher realized it was Amanda.

She moved so fast his eyes could barely follow. She leapt onto one alien, fists flying. The suit pumped up her strength so much, she could bust pieces of steel carapace into shards with every impact. A final strike went straight through the thing’s body and it fell. She hurled herself onto the second alien, and with a single double-handed
wrench tore a tangle of cables and wires from its midsection. By the time the ship had powered down completely, both of the robots were on the floor, motionless.