“We’re in hell, aren’t we?” I looked from DJ to Jenny to Jenny Perez, waiting for one of them to answer me. “Right? This has to be hell.”
While Jenny was basically catatonic, and I was on the verge of snapping, DJ had managed to remain calm. He’d done the same thing when I’d been blown into space. Maybe that was his superpower. It was impressive, but also kind of annoying.
“Where’s the crew?” DJ asked. “Why’re we here?”
“How come I can’t remember how I got here?” I threw out there, not actually expecting an answer. I wish I’d kept my mouth shut.
“There is a teeny, tiny chance that you may be experiencing short-term memory loss due to the use of your Trinity Labs Quantum Fold Drive,” Jenny Perez said. “That’s perfectly normal and should be temporary. However, if any member of the crew experiences memory loss concerning events further back than seven days, recurring jamais vu, cryptomnesia, rectal bleeding, onycholysis, overactive reflexes, loss of fingerprints, or the unusual secretion of milk, please consult a Trinity Labs medical advisor immediately. But don’t panic; I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Jenny’s head jerked up. “Did she say ‘rectal bleeding’?”
This was not happening. I refused to believe that we were going to be trapped on this spaceship for six months, and that we wouldn’t even have hot showers. Honestly, I was surprised I’d held it together as long as I had. “What are we supposed to do now?!” I shouted at Jenny Perez.
DJ reached for my arm. “Noa…”
I almost allowed him to calm me down. Even though we’d only just met, DJ didn’t feel like a stranger, except that he was. And the moment he touched me, I jerked away. I didn’t want to be calm. I didn’t want to listen to reason. I wanted to go home, and if I couldn’t have that, then I wanted to yell. “How are we supposed to survive? I can’t do this! I can’t!”
“All evidence tells me that you can do it!” Jenny Perez said. “And you’ll be back on Earth in six to nine months. Twelve at the most. Unless you’ve suffered an unforeseen calamity, have resorted to cannibalism, or have gone mad due to boredom and murdered each other. But that’s only happened on one other ship, so I’m sure you have nothing to worry about.”
Jenny Perez pulled a magnifying glass from her pocket and held it in front of her eye. “Be good, junior detectives. I’ll be watching you!” The hologram exploded in a burst of light and disappeared.
THREE
DJ SHOULD HAVE LET ME die in space.
I didn’t mean that. Mostly.
Fine, there was a part of me that meant it, but it was the part that was tired of wedgies and wearing someone else’s clothes, and wasn’t looking forward to six months on a spaceship with two strangers and no hot showers.
“It could be worse,” DJ said.
Jenny fixed him with a murderous glare. “How?” she demanded. “How could this possibly be worse?”
DJ shrugged. “I was signed up to take the SATs on Saturday. Dodged a bullet there.” He looked from me to Jenny and then back to me. “Did you really have anything that exciting happening on Earth anyway?”
Maybe DJ had a point. It wasn’t like I’d been happy. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been dreaming of stealing a car and driving to a city where no one knew me. I would’ve had to learn how to drive first, but that was a minor detail. Still, my mom had to be worried sick about me, and Mrs. Blum had gotten an order the day before I disappeared for two hundred fondant fancies for a bridal shower that she would never finish on time without my help. I couldn’t just shrug off being in space and forget about them. And I didn’t understand how DJ could either.
Jenny huffed. “Sorry if I’m a little bothered by the fact that I’m stuck on a dirty rocketship with two strange boys, one of whom may or may not have roofied me and locked me in a toilet.”
“No one roofied you!” I said.
“Someone might’ve,” DJ said. “They might’ve roofied us all.”
Jenny stuck her tongue out at me. “At least I put up a fight.” She held out her sleeve to show us the blood staining her cuff.
Unable to remain still, I stood and paced around the cramped room. Ops might have been designed for three people, but it still felt too small. “What do we do now?” I asked. “I’m not giving up on home just because a sassy hologram said to.”
“We should search the ship,” DJ said.
Jenny tapped her nose and then pointed at him. “There might be people imprisoned like I was.”
“But were you really imprisoned?” I asked. “Imprisoned is such a harsh word. Maybe the lock got jammed. You went in to take care of your business, and the lock malfunctioned and you were trapped. It happens.”
“To who?” Jenny asked.
“People.”
“Has it ever happened to you?”
This was getting us nowhere. “Well, no, but—” Besides, searching the ship was probably a good idea. “Fine, let’s go exploring.”
Jenny hopped to her feet, energized now that she had a mission. “Great! We should split up. I’ll start at the top and work my way toward the middle.”
I was shaking my head before she reached the door. “No way. Splitting up never ends well. Don’t you watch horror movies?”
DJ frowned. “I can’t stand horror flicks.”
But Jenny smiled sweetly. “The only thing you should be afraid of on this ship is me.”
“I am,” I said. “And we’re still not splitting up.”
Jenny tilted her head to the side like she was thinking and then said, “Right. You’re not the boss of me, and I don’t have to do what you say. You boys can stick together if you’d like, but I’m going. Scream like you’re being murdered if you find anything. Or, I suppose, if you’re actually being murdered.”
“I’m not—” I began to say, but Jenny was already gone. I couldn’t decide whether I liked Jenny or not, but I did kind of admire her.
“I guess we should go?” DJ was standing by the door with his hands in his pockets, waiting for me to make up my mind. This day had been awful enough, and I was reluctant to do anything that might make it worse. But I also couldn’t sit in Ops while DJ and Jenny explored the ship without me.
“Fine.” I brushed past DJ as I left.
DJ and I roamed around Qriosity until we reached the lower levels, but all we found down there were service tunnels, a cargo bay with no cargo in it, and the massive water storage tanks.
“Hey,” DJ said. “Wanna hear a joke?” It was the first time he’d spoken since we’d left Ops, and his voice was jarring in the silence.
“Not really.” I was still annoyed by Jenny Perez refusing to give us any actual answers, and at Jenny for taking off on her own.
“Oh.”
“We’re the joke,” I said. “Three teenagers wake up on a spaceship.” I frowned. “Or are we the punch line?” I shook my head and walked to the end of the corridor. I stood by the ladder leading to the next level and waited for DJ to finish searching each room. “I thought this was a good plan, but maybe it’s a waste of time.”