“You’re not going to give me a hard time about Alice, are you?” I asked her.
She smirked at me and her lavender eyes crinkled with amusement. “Seriously? Am I supposed to be jealous?”
Her response was not what I’d expected, and so I may have had a hard time making any sounds that didn’t sound like sputtering.
Tamret’s expression hardened slightly. “I don’t need to be jealous, do I?”
“No, of course not,” I said, maybe a little too quickly. She didn’t, of course. Tamret was the most amazing girl I’d ever met. She was brazen and smart and maybe a little bit reckless, but the most important thing to me was that she made me feel like I was those things too. When Tamret was around, I could go places and do things I would never have had the guts to do before I met her, and she always made me feel like I could get the job done.
“Anyhow,” I said, “Alice wants to see if she can leave when we get to Earth.”
“Really?” Tamret’s ears rotated slightly backward. “I thought she wanted to be in on the action.”
“She does, but she’s worried about her dad.”
Tamret nodded. “I’d have given her a hard time if it were something stupid, but if my parents were still around, I’d want to make sure they were safe too.”
Her parents had disappeared into the black hole of her country’s prison system when she was a little girl. Tamret had no idea if they were alive, but I got the sense she assumed the worst. The way things were on her planet, she had no reason to be optimistic. I knew that was one of the reasons she had been fighting so hard for the Confederation. If she could get membership for her world, the oppressive rulers and tight caste systems of Rarel would come crashing down.
“She thinks you have a problem with her,” I said, feeling like I was on thin ice.
“Maybe at first,” Tamret admitted. “Things were weird with us when I got back to Confederation Central.” “Weird” in this case meant she’d shown up with a total dork as her fiancé, but that was all in the past, so there was no point in dwelling on it. “But she’s a good member of the team. I’d rather she stuck around, but I understand why she needs to go.”
She looked relaxed, and I knew she was being completely honest. She usually was unless she thought she needed to protect someone from the truth. It was just one more thing I admired about her. I’d spent so much time on Confederation Central worrying about how intense she was, how she might hate Alice because she’d see her as a rival, and now, once again, I saw that I’d been an idiot to underestimate her.
I wanted to talk to her about whether or not we were a thing, and if she was still planning on coming back to Earth with me when this was all over, but it seemed like the wrong time. It always seemed like the wrong time, what with planetary invasions and upheavals in galactic civilizations and all that. Maybe, I thought, it didn’t matter. She wanted to sit near me while we recovered from the last crisis and waited for the next one. For now that was enough.
• • •
We emerged back in Earth’s system, just as Steve thought we would. That was good. We did not emerge at the exact same point from which we’d departed, in the void between Jupiter and Saturn. That was less good. Instead we emerged between the Earth and the Moon. Quick astronomy lesson: There is a lot less distance between the Earth and the Moon than there is between Jupiter and Saturn. That means the gravitational pull of the larger body, in this case my home planet, was going to become a factor, especially since the crew piloting our ship had anticipated popping into gravity-negligible emptiness and not next to something as big as a planet.
And, while we’re at it, quick lesson in space-battle tactics: When you suddenly appear near a planet where there are dozens of enemy ships on the lookout for anything that doesn’t belong, you don’t have a whole lot of time to come up with a clever plan that doesn’t end with capture or destruction.
Steve did not discuss options, because there were no options to discuss. We had nowhere to run, and there was no place to head but down. In order to avoid being spotted by the orbiting Phandic cruisers, he took us directly toward Earth.
The ship rumbled and lurched as we entered the atmosphere, but then quickly settled. The viewscreens revealed clouds and below us oceans. Inhabited planets tended to look similar from orbit, but there was still something unmistakable about my own world, even viewed from miles up. This was where I was from, the place I was fighting for—and it had been invaded by aliens who hated me.
“Head for someplace uninhabited,” I told Steve. “We can’t let the nonhumans be spotted.”
“No!” Dr. Roop cried. He was rubbing his knobby horns, which he tended to do when nervous. “The Phands won’t miss an unidentified spacecraft entering the atmosphere. You have to find someplace densely populated where the natives of this planet can blend in. Those of us from other worlds are going to be captured. There is no avoiding that.”
I glanced at Tamret. “Forget that. We need another option.”
“It’s the only way,” he said. He had opened up the holographic keyboard from his data bracelet and was typing rapidly while he talked to us. “I’m sending all of you my plan. The Phands always follow protocol, which is to wait two standard days before they begin interrogating prisoners. With your upgraded skill trees, that should give you ample time to find and liberate us. If we attempt anything else, we’ll all be captured, and the situation will be much more difficult. We want to get off-world unhurt, but we also want to do it without revealing what we can now do, so I suggest you only use the Former military technology for concealment. Nothing ostentatious. The less they know about our new abilities, the better.”
A message pinged in my HUD, and I opened it and glanced quickly at Dr. Roop’s plan, which did seem to make sense. I looked at Steve and Tamret, who both nodded. If they were on board, then I had no choice but to go along with the scheme, however much I hated it.
“I can’t agree to this,” Villainic said. He was the only one among us who had not received the Former implants. He didn’t even have a data bracelet, so Dr. Roop couldn’t have shown him the plan. “On behalf of Tamret and myself, I insist that we find an alternative that does not involve capture.”
As had become our custom, we ignored him.
“We are also going to have to destroy this ship,” Charles said. “It is of Former origin, which means they’ll be able to figure out exactly who we are.”
“Yes,” Dr. Roop agreed. He had already thought of it. He began programming a molecular decomposition program into the ship’s computer. It was a lot less spectacular than an explosion, but a great deal more effective. The ship would dissolve into particles and drift away in the breeze. There would be no pieces left to examine or reconstruct. The Phands would know some aliens had landed on the planet, but it would take them time to identify their species and point of origin. If Dr. Roop’s information was correct, Phandic protocol would require the prisoners to stew for two days before they began any questioning. With the aid of the stealth features of our upgrades, we’d use that time to find our friends, steal a ship, and be back to exactly where we were before we’d started spiraling out of control through Earth’s atmosphere.
“Your world,” Steve said to me. “You should take the helm.”
I sat down and began to steady the ship as I figured out where we should go. If Alice, Charles, Mi Sun, and I were all going to blend in, we needed to be someplace that was ethnically diverse so none of us looked out of place. We were also wearing Confederation clothing, which wasn’t that different from plenty of Earth clothing, but it would help to be in a place with lots of weirdly dressed teenagers. Maybe there were better spots on the planet than New York City for kids who’d gotten their outfits on a space station, but I couldn’t think of any.
While I piloted the ship, Dr. Roop turned to address us humans. “We can’t even guess at all the abilities we now possess, but finding us and rescuing us from the Phands is well within your power. I have no doubt
you can do this. But you are going to need to protect yourselves from scrutiny. You have a camouflage ability, so use it to hide your data bracelet and any technology that could identify you as having spent time off-world.”
I checked my HUD and saw this was pretty easy to do.
“Why do we need to wait to be rescued?” Villainic asked. “Why can’t you use your new abilities to lead us to safety?”
“Because once the Phands understand what we can do, they are going to take us much more seriously,” Tamret said. “If they realize we are basically walking weapons with the means and will to take down their empire, I think they’ll find ways to make our lives more difficult.”
“Exactly,” Dr. Roop said. “However, those of you who are from this world will have one disadvantage, and that is the people you know and care about. If the Phands identify you, they may try to use your families and friends against you. For that reason, I suggest you do all you can to conceal your identities and to avoid making contact with anyone.”
This was a disappointment. Alice had wanted to check in on her dad, and I had been hoping to talk to my parents to make sure they were okay. We all wanted to know that our friends and families were safe, but we couldn’t take the risk. The best way to protect them was to stick to the plan and get the Phands off Earth for good.
“Okay,” I said. “I think we get it.”
We were coming across the Atlantic and could see Manhattan now. My first impulse was to land in Central Park, and our course was projected on a holographic display above the helm station. When Tamret saw where I was heading, she shoved me away from the console. “An open field is going to make it impossible for you guys to escape. You need someplace crowded, where you can vanish quickly.”
Tamret may not have known very much about New York, but by pure chance or clever instinct she picked a good spot, landing our ship at Astor Place, right by a big statue of a cube. I don’t know what that cube is supposed to be, but I was pretty sure no one was looking at it too closely when our ship touched down. On our viewscreens we could see people staring at us but keeping their distance, not sure what fresh horrors were going to emerge. They probably thought we were more Phands, come to do something terrible.
“Everyone ready?” I asked.
“Not yet,” Dr. Roop said. “We have a few minutes before the Phands will likely be able to mobilize a response to an unknown spaceship landing here. Keep in mind that on occupied worlds the Phands use a system of passive security checks embedded into virtually all their technology. Inhabitants radiate an identification aura, which is constantly being verified. You will have to forge identifications in order to blend in, and this should be quite easy to do with our new upgrades, but you will first have to hack into the local security systems. That means you will not have the opportunity to generate proper identification until you are actually interacting with local authorities. Meanwhile, they will be attempting to read your aura before it exists.”
Okay, so I’d be forging a new identity on the fly under impossible conditions. “Got it.”
“Then I will open the hatch,” said Dr. Roop. “Is everyone prepared to run?”
“Not yet,” Tamret said. She threw her arms around me and hugged me. “Don’t be long,” she whispered in my ear.
“I won’t,” I told her. The last time we’d been separated, I’d promised to come get her, but I’d had no idea how I could make it happen. This time around, I was ready. The Phands were not going to get in my way.
Dr. Roop opened the hatch, and the gloomy light of an overcast day streamed in. We ran.
• • •
By unspoken agreement, the humans all stuck together, as did the aliens. It wasn’t going to work in anyone’s favor if we got separated.
I’d been to New York a few times with my mom, and I felt like I knew the city moderately well—I understood the difference between uptown and downtown and could read a subway map—but I’d never been to New York during an alien occupation. That changed things.
The streets were, as always, full of people, and I was pleased that none were Phands. I had no doubt there were plenty of them on the planet, but none were near me, and that was a good thing. Less good was the obvious influence they’d had on the place in the short time they had been on Earth. All the billboards and advertisements on buildings were now about the glories of the Phandic Empire. There were holographic projections in the skies promising peace, prosperity, and order. More than that, I saw human police officers in altered uniforms, changed so that they reflected the cut of Phandic military uniforms. On one of the police cars rushing toward where we’d landed I saw the motto to pacify and preserve order.
Worst of all were the billboards and posters showing the smug face of our supreme viceroy, Nora Price. I was annoyed, but not at all surprised, that she had risen to become top Phandic bootlicker on Earth. She had been the adult human representative during our first visit to Confederation Central, but it had turned out that she was a Phandic double agent. Now she’d received her reward for selling us out. Pictures of her were everywhere. We saw her glancing down at us wherever we went, smiling her humorless smile, as text accompanying the images urged us to admire and obey or submit to your viceroy—and prosper!
Nora Price and I had a history, and it wasn’t a pleasant one. I’d made her look bad in front of her Phandic masters, and I knew she would like nothing better than to see me face what she considered justice for my crime of not wanting to be murdered. I needed to rescue my friends and get busy putting an end to this invasion before she found out I was here.
I dared a quick glance behind me while police officers rushed out of their vehicles to inspect our ship. They seemed afraid to get too close, a decision they probably felt good about when the ship began to glow an eerie white color and then slowly dissolve into a wispy fog that blew away in the breeze.
I started to run again, but Alice grabbed hold of my arm. “Don’t,” she said. “No one else is running. Act normal.”
“She means act like a normal person,” Mi Sun elaborated. “Don’t act normal for you.”
Alice was right. A crowd had now formed at what had been mutually determined a safe perimeter around where our ship had landed. The police were cautiously walking around the now-empty spot, but there were no signs that anything had been there a second ago. Several of them were talking nervously into their phones, obviously unclear about how to proceed. My guess was that the Phands weren’t particularly forgiving planetary masters, and none of these officers wanted to do the wrong thing in a completely unfamiliar situation. As far as any of them could know, they’d already made a thousand mistakes, and their new bosses were going to be very angry.
As for Tamret, Steve, Dr. Roop, and Villainic, I could see no sign of them. Maybe they hadn’t been captured yet, but it was only a matter of time. Two cat aliens, a lizard man, and a guy with a giraffe neck were not going to blend in, not even in New York.
I glanced back over my shoulder and saw police officers moving crowds away from where the ship had been, and they weren’t being too gentle about it. “I can’t believe they’re working with the Phands,” I said. “New York cops should be leading the charge against the aliens.”
“I did some research on the way over here,” Alice said. “I figured it was a good idea to be prepared.”
Especially, I thought, since she plans to stay.
“About ten percent of the population on Earth now has behavior-modification nanites,” she explained. “Anyone in law enforcement or the military, or with any kind of leadership role, has them. It’s not exactly mind control, but they make people want to help the Phands. It’s not really their fault that they’re cooperating.”
“So we can’t expect any local help,” I said. “Good to know.”
Alice looked around. “Yeah. So, now what?”
“Now we wait until they’re captured,” I said. “Then we find out where they’re being held and go get them. Let’s give things a few hours to set
tle down and then see if we can hack into the Phandic planetary computers.”
“Okay,” Alice said. “I’ll help make sure everyone gets away, but then you guys are on your own.”
“What?” Mi Sun crinkled her face in surprise. That was the first she’d heard of Alice’s plan to leave.
“I’m just—” Alice said, cutting herself off. I guessed maybe she didn’t want to talk about her dad’s problems. “This is just more than I signed on for, you know. And I’m worried about my dad.”
“Yeah,” Mi Sun said. She seemed to be thinking about this. “I’m worried about my family too.”
We began to turn away from the crowd when we noticed a police officer standing directly behind us. He was holding up his smartphone and moving it so it scanned each of us, like he was taking videos.
“Why don’t you have loyal-citizen identification auras?” he demanded.
I haven’t had a chance to forge mine yet was not an answer that was going to get me very far. “We forgot them at home?” I attempted.
I took some comfort in the knowledge that there was no response unstupid enough to get us out of that situation.
By now several other officers were coming toward us, getting out their handcuffs. We could either fight and run, which would only draw attention to us, or go along for now.
“It looks like we’ve got four more delinquents for reeducation school,” one of the cops said as he cuffed my hands behind my back. “Don’t worry. Pretty soon you’ll learn all about the Phandic Empire. I know things must seem scary right now, but the behavioral-modification nanites they’ve given me have helped me to see that the Phands are really our friends.”
And that’s how we ended up going back to school.
CHAPTER THREE
* * *
In order to operate reeducation facilities for troublemaking kids, you need to have some kind of system of oversight. You need enforcers, sure, but a particular kind of enforcer—the kind who won’t make friends because he’s too busy punishing anyone who steps out of line. I have no doubt that there are adults out there who would love a job in which they got to punish a seventh-grader for failing to wear a have you hugged a phand today? button, but those adults were probably needed as soldiers or torturers or fry cooks. No, the well-oiled Phandic machine used other kids, and they were likely to be the worst bullies they could find.