A Stranger Thing (The Ever-Expanding Universe) Read Online Free Page A

you’ve had enough adventures out there for a while, don’t you?” he says, jovial once more. “No, you’ll be stationed at a secret facility near Cape Crozier.”
    It’s not a place on the planet most people would probably know. But I happen to have a deceased mother with a passion for travel and a detailed book of maps.
    “ ANTARCTICA? ” I screech. What. Da. Fuh.
    “The camp is home to a number of Almiri. A sort of . . . ‘time-out’ zone for brothers who have broken the Code.”
    I drop my head so that my chin is practically digging into my chest, but my glower shoots directly into Byron’s pretty eyes.
    “And you really think the safest place you could put me is in the middle of the frozen tundra with a whole bunch of superbuff aliens who you already know can’t keep it in their pants ?” I ask in disbelief.
    “Come now, Elvie.” Byron scrunches up his face and gives me a quick headshake, as if I have a filthy mind for even thinking what I’m thinking. He walks back over to his desk and hits a button on his intercom. A voice crackles in response.
    “ Yes? ”
    “We’re just about finished in here,” Byron replies. He takes his hand off the intercom.
    “Elvie, I realize that right now I must seem like a terrible villain—well, let’s be honest—an asshole. I’m sure I can’t blame you for thinking as much. Hopefully, someday sooner than later, you will understand that I have no choice. For the time being, Cape Crozier is our only option, however imperfect.”
    The main door slides open, and my new buddy Alan is on the other side. Byron leans in to me and whispers so that Alan can’t hear. “Just remember that I won’t stop trying to help you, dearheart.” I flinch at the sound of the pet name that I’ve only ever heard my father call me.
    Just how much does this guy actually know about us, anyway?
    “Are the preparations made?” Byron asks Alan.
    Alan, already at attention in the doorway, stiffens at his commander’s voice. “Nearly, sir, another hour at most,” he says.
    “Please lead Miss Nara to the holding area, until then,” Byron says. “And for God’s sake, get the girl some clothes.”
    •  •  •
    I walk down the long, sterile corridor with Alan beside me, my slippers sliding across the slick linoleum floor. The rooms along the corridor do not have normal doors. Rather, the doors are thick, heavy, and mechanized, like the kind you might find in a factory, or a cargo ship.
    Or a prison.
    “How long are you going to ‘hold’ me here before I get started on that all-expenses-paid trip to the Earth’s rectum?” I ask Alan.
    “Not long, Miss,” Alan says, and I can’t tell if he’s being polite or condescending.
    Each door has a small, circular window about the size of a dinner plate. As we pass by one such window, I think I catch a shadow standing at the door, peering out at me, but in a flash the shadow disappears.
    “Hey, what’s that?” I wonder, pausing. I try to look inside, but whatever was just there has disappeared. Alan takes my arm and gives it a slight tug, and my feet slide away from the door.
    “This way, Miss,” Alan says.
    I pull against Alan’s grip to crane my neck and look inside. I make out a tall, willowy figure and a very familiar-looking long blond ponytail.
    “But—”
    “ This way, now.”
    If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear that the Almiri were keeping my arch-nemesis, Britta McVicker, under lock and key.
    But no, I think. That wouldn’t make any sense.
    We come to the final door along the corridor, and Alan slides a card over the side sensor. Immediately the locking mechanism springs to life and the door slides open. The inside of the room is even more drab than the one I woke up in. It’s gray, with nothing but a couch built into two sides of the wall. Like a karaoke room without the karaoke.
    I step inside, and without another word, Alan closes the door behind me. My options are pretty much stand or sit, so