“You’re doing a very brave thing today,” Grandpa said. “May you live forever in peace.”
Cik-A took the metal box containing the tracker in one hand and the device I’d made in the other. It would send a signal to its sister device on my desk along with information on the Control Room’s location.
“After you open the box,” I said, “you’ll need to leave as quickly as possible. The Changelings will be after you the moment they pick up the signal.”
Cik-A saluted and then left.
Stari, her Grandpa, and his three top generals sat watching me as we waited for Cik-A to get to the surface.
I was so nervous, I couldn’t sit still. Stari took my hand and held it between hers.
Grandpa’s radio hissed and made me jump.
“I’m in position,” Cik-A said.
Grandpa looked at me. I nodded.
“Open it,” Grandpa said.
“Mission complete, sir,” Cik-A said. “The explosive device has been installed. Now I’ll make my escape.”
The explosive device would blow up in five minutes, destroying the tracker and, more importantly, the machine I built to track the Control Room’s location. If the Changelings got their hands on it, it might be possible for them to backward engineer it and discover the base’s location.
I watched the machine and waited to receive the signal.
Any second now…
“Why aren’t we receiving the signal?” Grandpa said.
“My machine’s scanning for it,” I said. “The moment it finds it, we’ll get the information here.”
“Uh, guys?” Stari said.
She placed the holograph cube on the front table. The constant reruns of my relationship with Chax were still playing. I’d seen them so often by now that they no longer had the shock factor they once did. Then they cut off and Quus stepped onto the desktop.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said soberly. “We’ve just had word of a new development. It turns out the female human known as Maddy is still alive. She was not destroyed at the shuttlecraft site. She was abducted by the vile Yayora creatures. Iron Hoof had no chance of defending himself when an entire army of the disgusting monsters descended upon him. He fought valiantly and took out a hundred of their number before he made his escape. We assumed her body was burnt to a crisp in the fire. Now we learn she’s alive. We’re closing on her position now.”
My eyes widened and I shot up onto my feet.
They were coming! They were coming here!
But none of the others appeared concerned.
The holograph flickered to show two military shuttlecraft descend in low over the land toward the signal. A devastated Yayora city.
Cik-A must have chosen one of the evacuated buildings to open the sensor I gave her. It was surreal to be watching it happen live.
I fiddled with the settings on my machine but there was still no signal. There was nothing I could do until the tracker transmitted.
I ground my teeth, wondering what was happening. We should have locked onto it by now!
On the TV show, Cik-A came running out of the building. My heart was in my throat when I noticed what she was wearing.
A replica of the old contestant uniform I’d been forced to wear.
“Wait,” I said. “Wait. Why is she wearing my clothes? And why is she wearing a wig?”
I turned to Stari. She looked away from me.
“You’re sacrificing her?” I said.
“It’s the only way,” Grandpa said. “If we can make them believe you’re dead, they’ll stop chasing you. And that means the base will be safe.”
I watched in horror as Cik-A ran as fast as she could, knowing there was no chance she was going to escape. She couldn’t allow them to capture her. I’d seen what their TV shows were like. I imagined they had some very… innovative ways of making prisoners talk.
“The second team is heading into the building now, toward the tracking device,” Quus said, speaking into the camera. “We’ll split the screen so you can watch both live streams at the same time.”
The armed Changeling team rushed into the building, covering one another as they took one hallway after another, closing in on the tracking device.
And still, my machine on the desk hadn’t made so much as a peep.
Cik-A turned another corner.
The shuttlecraft descended. It didn’t even set down as the Changeling soldiers abseiled to the ground and hit it running. They took after Cik-A.
The team in the building turned down a hallway. The tracker was in the next room. They approached it carefully.
The Changelings cornered Cik-A, who had nowhere else to go. She raised her rifle and clutched a remote detonator in her hand. The Changelings opened fire.
My machine bleeped, making a loud high-pitched noise like an old fax machine.
Inside the building, the soldiers turned a corner and lowered their weapons at the room.
Cik-A danced as her body was riddled with plasma fire. She pressed the button on the detonator and she exploded, knocking the Changeling soldiers back on their asses.
At the same time, the tracking device in the room detonated, taking the closest four members of the Changeling team with it.
And my machine came to an abrupt stop.
I had just watched myself die.
No one was happy to see the soldiers die. Not even the Changelings. They could care less if a Yayora had died but Changelings were not supposed to die, especially not on air.
It was a hollow victory, one I felt had been too expensive to pay. The soldier shouldn’t have died.
Not for me.
When I saw Cik-A press the detonator and watched as the fire enveloped her body, I was reminded of Chax consumed by his wreath of flames.
“Well?” Grandpa said. “Did we get it? Did you track down the Control Room’s location?”
I couldn’t focus.
They had a right to know what the sacrifice of one of their soldiers had bought them, but I couldn’t recall how I was supposed to know the answer to his question.
I glanced at the details on the machine’s monitor. A string of numbers that made up coordinates.
“Yes,” I said
