Tangled Planet by Kate Blair

Author:Kate Blair
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Kids' Fiction
Publisher: Cormorant Books Inc.
Published: 2017-09-13T04:00:00+00:00

I push myself back against the other side of the vent. The bomb has no lights or countdown on it, but that’s not reassuring. It could be set off at any time, remotely. I force air into my lungs. In. Out. What do I do? Okay. Okay. I can deal with this.

Breathe. Breathe.

I pull a wire cutter from my gear bag. It’s a simple circuit. I can disarm it. I’m sure.

Mostly sure.

Should I leave it? Get help? But what if it’s triggered in the meantime? There’s a chance it could blow a hole in the hull and decompress this part of the carriage.

My mind whirrs through an assessment of the likely result. The Genebank is far enough away to be safe. It’s mostly storage and changing rooms here. I’m right above the machinery for this carriage’s air circulation unit. It’s a low population area.

If the bomb triggered a hull breach, the emergency doors would seal automatically. The air circulation backup in the engine room would kick in and take over pumping in fresh air through the spokes to the rest of the ship until we repaired the damage and normal air flow could resume around the rim. It’s unlikely anyone would be hurt, except me, and they couldn’t have known I’d be here.

So why would someone plant a bomb here, where it could only take out the air recyclers?

Cold itches up my back.

There’s only one reason I can think of for taking out the air recyclers.

If an air circulator went out in one of the carriages, then something went wrong with the backup in the engine room, the ship’s air flow would be compromised. It wouldn’t be able to circulate around the rim or down the spokes. Carbon dioxide would build up in the inhabited areas, and dangerous pockets of oxygen would form in the ecocarriages. The Venture would trigger the emergency protocols to prevent suffocation or explosions. All the carriages would break away from the spokes that connect them to the engine room and descend to Beta.

It’s a failsafe, now that we’re in orbit. If anything threatens survival up here, the ship will automatically initiate Betafall. The ship would be destroyed, but the individual carriages will land in the breathable air of the planet, saving the crew and the crops. It’s what the ship’s designed to do — bring the carriages with all their metal and tech down to Beta, once we’re ready.

But we’re not ready. If I’m right, whoever planted this must intend to force the Venture down to Beta. Now.

There might be other bombs. They’d have to destroy the backup in the engine room, and they can’t be certain this one would take out the air circulation unit. They may have planted another bomb in the vents near a different air circulation unit to be sure.

My throat is dry, but my hands are steady. I pass the wire cutter back and forth between them. A red wire runs from the explosive to the remote sensor. The remote sensor is a simple one, like we use on doors.

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