keep us in suspense, Ara,” Radcliff prompts.
“Jarren said that shadow-blobs was ‘a rather accurate name.’ How would he know that if he can’t see them?”
“Then we need to assume he and his people can see them,” Radcliff says.
“Does that change any of our plans?” Dad asks.
“No. Actually, if it’s true, it’ll work in our favor.”
“Great,” Dad says, then he turns to me. “Li-Li, except for the Warrior hearts and the factories, most of Lan’s translations have not been proven and we don’t have the luxury to test her theories. Like I said before, we’re taking a few things on faith and will need your help.”
In other words, it’s dangerous and might not work. “I’m in.”
As soon as everyone leaves, I entangle with the Q-net and worm to the programs for the base’s power. The red and green guidelines are still there. I carefully untangle Jarren’s worm, fiber by fiber. I thought escaping Jarren’s blockade was difficult. That was easy in comparison. It takes me over five hours, but I separate the instructions to knock out the power from the grid’s main programming. Then I sever it without removing it. If Jarren checks on his worm, it will appear as if it’s working as intended. Unless he picks it apart, then he’ll see where I disconnected it. But he might be too busy.
Beau’s been tasked with transmitting panicked messages to DES about losing power and the HoLFs attacking and killing people. They’ll get more desperate before we go “silent.” This will hopefully convince Jarren his plan worked and give us a few more days.
I send messages to Radcliff, Beau, and my parents that I was successful. They’re all waiting with the security team near the stairwell just in case I failed. Glad I don’t have to race to join them to sizzle-zap shadow-blobs, I change into my bunny pajamas and collapse next to Niall. Sleep is instant.
By the end of the next day, my head aches from the delicate work of worming around Jarren’s…er…worms. Now that the threat of losing power has been mitigated Radcliff gave me a list of tasks to do for his grand plan. Most of it is with the satellite. No, I don’t know all the details and I suspect there’s a reason for it.
After dinner, I crawl into bed with Niall. It’s been sixty-seven hours and he’s still unconscious. Worry and fear for him are my constant companions. Come on, Niall. You can’t do this to me. Or to your father. Not after what happened to your mother. That’s cruel.
Of course I don’t voice those thoughts out loud. Instead, I settle next to him, dig his hand out from underneath his blankets, and lace my fingers in his.
“I spent the entire day worming,” I say. “Don’t worry, my brain didn’t turn to mush. I took breaks.” I did. “I can’t believe an Actual year ago, I never would have thought I’d be worming legally and be part of a security team. I thought I’d be still on Xinji, hanging with my best friend, Lan, and waiting to go to university on Planet Rho. That girl was so young and innocent.” I laugh. “Okay not so innocent, but she was definitely a brat. And her worming skills were rudimentary. Now I’m worming to save everyone’s lives. No pressure there.” Another memory bubbles to the surface. “Maybe you should have arrested me for worming. Remember when you were still acting like a jerk and threatened to throw me into detention? My antics drew Jarren’s attention so maybe if I stopped sooner… No, Jarren planned to attack the Warrior planets before I meddled. He only came back for me after he destroyed the Warriors.” Small comfort. But still…
My thoughts turn to Jarren’s plans and I mull it over, voicing it out loud for Niall. “So if I’m right, and the Warriors can open portals to other planets without causing the time dilation, then those that control the…technology—for lack of a better word—will not only be obscenely rich, but extremely powerful. DES will have no way to stop them because of the time dilation. They’d have no choice but to relinquish space travel to Jarren and his partners. And then what?
“Let’s assume we live through the takeover—I know, a big assumption since we’re trying to stop Jarren—then all our lives will change. I could take the…Warrior Express to zip over to Earth and visit my brother. Except he’s still in a time jump so I have to wait twenty-five years