Alpha Class: A Kurtherian Universe Series (The Etheric Academy Book 1) Read online

  William shrugged, “Of course. Tell them not to go, and they do anyway. They should still be on the map. We’ve flown over that area before without harm. It is a bit shaky but doable.” Bobcat’s breathing had slowed down, but he was still trying not to hyperventilate.

  “That’s in a pod. Who knows what it’s like on the ground. We need to look for them.” William stared at his friends.

  “We can use the E. I. satellite system to look for them. If we ask ADAM or Meredith to help, we should find them pretty quick.” Marcus pulled his tablet back from Bobcat and began to type.

  “Marcus, what are you doing?” Bobcat gave him a funny look.

  “Sending a message up to the Meredith Reynolds asking for ADAM or TOM to take a look.” He began to type faster. Suddenly his tablet was snatched out of his hands.

  Marcus looked up confused, “Why did you do that? I was almost finished.”

  “Dude, we can’t ask for help! We have to do it, just us. If they find out about it, up there...We will never live it down. We will be the ones that lost five kids on their first field trip! We have to find them ourselves.”

  “Marcus, Bobcat is right. I can’t believe it either, but the Queen won’t be very happy with us if we lose them. We can use the pod to carry the last rover. We can trace where they went and then follow their tracks. They are kids.”

  William looked at his two friends, “How hard can it be?”

  —

  “Whoa! Look out for that boulder!” The Marsh of Sleep was a bust. The soil was just a brown rust color that looked to be the result of a meteor impact. Ron was taking samples when they saw the gleam.

  Twenty minutes earlier…

  “So it’s just one big impact crater?” Tina stood in the middle of what resembled a brown field of rocks.

  “The different colored stones is what makes the color show up from space. The meteor must have been massive to cause this much debris.” Ron picked up rocks here and there adding them to his bag.

  “So where to now?” Yana casually looked all around her.

  Nestor pointed toward the east. “What is that? It appears to be moving.”

  “A spacecraft or probe of some kind? It could be Marcus and Bobcat looking for us.” Maxim dug in the rover for something to see better with.

  “Let’s go check it out. It’s just over there.” Ron pointed. “It might be wreckage or something we can haul back.”

  “He’s got a point.” Tina agreed. “If we find wreckage, they won’t yell so much about us going out-of-bounds.”

  “Tina, you rule breaker you. Come on boys, let's go find the whatever-it-is.” Yana waved them to the rovers.

  “Sure. Why not. We are overdue anyway.” Maxim climbed behind the wheel again.

  The gleam in the distance suddenly disappeared.

  “Hey, it’s gone! Maybe it was a probe.” Ron strained his eyes to see.

  “Let’s go anyway.” The two rovers continued east.

  —

  “I’m starting to hate these kids.” William stared at the hole dug out of the regolith where a rover obviously crashed.

  Bobcat punched his friend in the arm. “Don’t hate the kids.”

  Rubbing his shoulder William replied. “I don’t really hate them. They just make me look bad. That fall should have destroyed that rover. But somehow they fixed it and continued on. They could take my job, that’s all.”

  “They went east like on the map.” Marcus pointed toward the tracks. “The larger rover is driving a little shaky.”

  “OK, now I don’t feel so bad. They aren’t perfect. Are you sure they are headed to the Marsh of Sleep?”

  Marcus nodded. “That is where the computer lost them. The EM field is much stronger than it was last year. I will have to check the older readings.” He began to type on his tablet.

  “Um, Marcus, what are you doing?”

  Marcus looked up noticing his two friends stared at him. “Uh, I was checking last year's findings and comparing them. I was about to have ADAM… Oh. Sorry. I forgot.”

  Bobcat waved his hands in the air and shook his head. “Just kill me already Marcus. Thanks, buddy.”

  Their Pod swooped over the brown colored area known as the Marsh of Sleep by those on Earth. Not a kid in sight.

  “OK, now what?” Bobcat looked to William.

  “We drop the LRV and search for them. We can lock the pod’s position down, it will stay here for us.” He carefully set the Pod down on the brown soil.

  “Have either of you driven one of these rovers?” Marcus climbed into the rear of the vehicle.

  “I have, but only to move it. This one is Dr. Crankinstein according to the artwork on the back.” The rover was painted like it belonged to the Munsters.

  “Are the other two decorated like this?” Marcus examined the skulls and spiders decorating the rear area.

  “Not quite. Those engineers we sent here were a bit on the odd side. I think this one was painted by a goth or something.” The steering wheel was off of a race car. Both it and the gear stick were skull shaped.

  “I like it. Remind me to track this guy down. He can decorate my car for me.” William smiled.

  “What car? The one back in Florida that the State confiscated? That car?”

  “They confiscated his car? Where was I when this happened?” Marcus looked at William.

  “It was around the same time they got BA’s house in Smugglers Cove. They called it eminent domain, but you know they were looking for tech or clues about TQB. I’m going to miss my car the most. It was sweet!”

  William’s face took on a darker look. “A buddy of mine in the police force told me they stripped it down and used saws to cut it apart. Haven’t they ever seen a lift kit before? Idiots.”

  “I’m not up on my cars but what did you have?” Marcus knew guys liked to talk about cars.

  “It was a 1968 Road Runner my dad left me. All original. I jacked it up in the back. Added chromed bumpers, wheels, and custom tailpipes. That car was my baby.” He looked away for a moment.

  “Sorry for your loss.” Marcus put his arm on William’s just as the rover began to shake.

  “What is going on?”

  “Don’t look at me! I was going to ask you!” William pulled his hands off the wheel as the rover began to be pulled in a new direction.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “I could almost swear this was where we saw that flash of metal.” Ron stood next to the pink rover looking out at the endless, shadow-filled landscape.

  “Ron, does the rover have enough power to get us back to base? We’re really far away.” Tina fiddled with the power monitoring controls, which unlike everything else, weren’t labeled. Yana looked concerned at her friend.

  “What does the monitor say? It’s the readout bar on the left-hand side.”

  “We have full bars on that one. The one in the middle is all red.” Tina thumped it with her fingers trying to make the readout move.

  “That is the recharge rate. Red is bad. We need to check the other rover.” He scanned the horizon trying to spot the moon version of a monster truck.

  Yana called out to the rest of the team. “Maxim? Can you hear me?”

  “Nestor? Come in please?” All three kids could hear a faint scratching in their helmets.

  “Are these things defective?” Tina rolled her eyes as she tried to get the helmet to run a diagnostic.

  “Bobcat said they were new, but they tested them extensively out in the asteroid belt so they should work. It might be that EM field we were warned about. We may have to drive closer to them.” Ron rolled his eyes along with his friend.

  “Get back in the car Ron. We will chase the boys.” Giving the tech-savvy boy time to climb on she started the electric engine and gave the accelerator a nudge.

  The pink rover took off in the direction the monster truck was last seen.

  —

  Pop! Crackle….sssssss. “All I get is static. I thought there was something there
for a moment.” Nestor stuck out his tongue and wiggled it.

  Maxim chuckled at his cousin. “That makes you look funny. Too bad I haven’t a camera. I think you must roll your eyes to fine tune the sound.”

  “Not what I was doing. I saw a tab for location and mapping. Bobcat said there were more advanced features. I was trying to access them.” He stuck out his tongue and appeared to lick his nose.

  “So? Did you find them?”

  “Maybe. I have a map on my HUD now. The blinking icon shows three somethings headed in our direction. Should we wait?”

  “Da. I mean yes. We wait. English is… hard. We wait for others.” Maxim turned the rover off and checked the batteries. His readout showed only a trickle of energy recharging now. The batteries were full, thankfully.

  “You think Ron found something yet?” Nestor slumped in his seat and scratched an imaginary itch he couldn’t reach.

  “Possibly. He is smart. Did you know about some of what he speaks about?”

  “Some. Mainly the mechanical aspects. Do you remember the trip I took with father to Moscow when I was ten?”

  Maxim thought for a moment then nodded. “Yes. Your father asked us to take care of the farm for you.”

  “When his business was over we went to the Museum of Cosmonautics. He wanted me to learn about how humans can overcome things. He wanted me to never underestimate people. He said it would save my life one day. But the museum was like a dream. The machines and rockets made me want to learn to take them apart and build more. It was fantastic!” Nestor’s eyes shined with remembrance.

  “Was that the summer you blew up the goat barn?”

  “That was an accident. Too much alcohol in the rocket fuel mix. Father was not pleased. He destroyed all my experiments and told me to never attempt it again.”

  “He wanted to protect you. Too much attention might be drawn our way. Boris could only protect us so much. You know that.” Maxim looked over at his cousin.

  “I know that now. But as a child I was heartbroken. Space was out of reach for me. This...this fills me with wonder. What does the future hold for us if this is just the first few weeks of school?” Nestor waved his arms in a circle.

  “Not blowing up a barn? We will learn everything we can so one day we can help a small ten-year-old boy who wants to go to space.”

  Catching a flash of light out of the corner of his eye Maxim pointed. “There they are. Yana, can you hear me?”

  —

  “Yana….hear...”

  “Did you catch that Ron?” Yana jerked the wheel to the left to miss a small crater.

  “Yes. I have them pinpointed. According to my helmet, they are north of us about ten degrees. I think the problem is the EM field. It’s weird, it increases in strength the closer to the crater center we get.”

  “Guys, I see what I think is them up ahead.” Tina pointed toward the same direction Yana was already driving.

  Peering through the growing gloom Ron could just make out the shape of the beat up rover. “Maxim do you hear us?”

  “It’s about time you caught up to us. Nice to hear another voice!” Maxim replied.

  “We looked, and you guys were gone. Did you find any sign of wreckage or anything?”

  “Nothing, Ron. We searched the area and found exactly nothing. The sun going down worried us. Do we have enough power to get back?”

  “I don’t think we do. We could combine the batteries and make it but will either of the rovers hold five people? Nestor, what do you think?”

  The two rovers were now in sight of each other. Everyone smiled and waved.

  “We weigh too much. One option is Maxim, and I could follow on foot and let you three use the rover.”

  “Nyet! No. We stay together. Nestor that is a bad idea. Find another option.” Yana put her foot down firmly.

  Tina, Ron, Nestor, and Yana started trying to figure out options for them as Maxim surveyed the area. All he could see was the outline of distant craters and rocks. According to the helmet maps, they were right on the edge of Mare Crisium or the Sea of Crisis. The crater seemed to be the source of the EM field that was affecting all communications. Strangely enough, they could talk now when they couldn’t before. Maxim looked toward the east and his eyes widened.

  “Yana.”

  Yana and the others were in deep discussions over where to put the batteries from Rota-Ree on Wheelie and still have room for extra passengers. They didn’t hear Maxim’s quiet voice.

  “Yana! Stop talking!” Maxim finally had to yell.

  Yana turned toward the large boy and glared. “Maxim Nikolayevich what gives you the right to interrupt me at this time? We need to figure out how to get back!”

  “None of that matters now. Look!” He pointed toward the East.

  The center of the crater was glowing.

  “What is that? Is it Bobcat and the others?” Yana stared at the greenish-blue glow.

  “I don’t think so. They should be coming from the west. That is something else.” Tina pointed behind them.

  Ron glanced at the glow like the others, but only as a distraction. He still measured the battery compartment on Wheelie to see if Rota’s would fit when the tool he was using flew out of his hand.

  Ron could only stare at his empty hand as yet another of the box of tools flew off. “Hey, guys?”

  The tools spread out on the rear of the rover were now flying off into the night toward the green glow. The toolbox began to rattle and jump. “Guys!”

  All heads turned in Ron’s direction just in time to see the toolbox lift out of the rover and become airborne.

  “Ron! What’s happening?”

  “No time to explain, Tina! Maxim, we need to all get in the rovers, or we may never see them again!” The rovers, like the toolbox, began to rattle and shake. Wheelie began to noticeably slide sideways.

  “The magnetic field is pulling us in! We need to either get in or lose the rovers!” Everyone piled into their rovers and tried to steer toward the anomaly.

  “Hold on, here we go.” Maxim unlocked the brakes and steered toward the center of the crater.

  Both rovers were pulled toward the middle of the crater by a force that didn’t seem to belong to nature. The speedometer on Yana’s rover registered a speed of over fifty miles per hour. More than twice that of its previous speed. Ahead of them, they could see the glow had increased.

  “Any idea of what is ahead?” Tina looked over her shoulder at Ron.

  He shook his head, “No. It has to be using some sort of tractor beam. It must have activated because of our communications. Notice, it was only after we got together did it activate.”

  The crater’s center came into view. A small, dome-shaped, lump was at the exact center. Dark tunnel shaped spaces were open around the edges. The tunnels seemed to be their destination. The incline became much steeper as they were pulled down.

  All five kids screamed in terror as they were pulled into the dark. The rovers continued down and over, what appeared to be a steep cliff.

  “AAiiee” Echoed in their helmet as the rovers went over the edge and stopped suddenly with a resounding crunch of metal and plastic.

  Maxim and Nestor were thrown from Wheelie as it tumbled down into a pile of metal. The girls, belted and buckled into the rover, had passed out and were hanging upside down in a pile of what appeared to be spacecraft parts.

  “Hello? Did everyone survive? Maxim?” Ron called out to his friends. His magnetic boots saved him for the second time, but he was now hanging upside down staring at the ground.

  “I cannot move.” Maxim groaned in pain.

  “I’ll help as soon as I get free, hold on!” Ron called back.

  “Find the girls Ron. I will heal, it is just painful. Nestor? You alive?”

  “Uugh. Did you get the name of the truck that hit us? Go punch him for me.” Nestor found himself in a pile of what looked like probes and scrap metal. “Where are we?”

  Maxim felt the bones in
his arms and legs knitting and painfully sat up. He looked up at the glowing ceiling of the area. “We are in the crater, but it is not a crater. Looks like a spacecraft.”

  Their rover was lying on top of a pile of white, gold, and gray painted scrap metal. Behind, was the pink Rota-Ree rover. Maxim could see Ron trying to climb up to release the girls.