"What'd he do to you?" Harper asked me when I got back to the common room. Both she and Michael had been waiting nervously for me to return. I told them what Bajer had told me.

  "I'm glad you weren't killed or anything," Michael said. "When Bajer hauled you out of there it was real scary. He came in with his Dark Matter going everywhere and it enveloped you and carried you off. We all thought you were a goner or something like that."

  "Well," I said, not really knowing what to say. "I'm here now so that's all that counts."

  My friends nodded their heads. Harper yawned and took a plate off the couch that had some food on it.

  "That's the food we saved for you," she said. "You missed dinner by a long shot. Have fun eating your food. I'll be going to bed now."

  She retired to her room and so did Michael. I went to my room to brood over my thoughts and eat my dinner. Once I was done, I had no problem falling asleep. Whatever I had really done with the water and Maelus had taken quite the toll on my body. It felt like I had run a marathon.

  As soon as my head touched the pillow I was out.

  The days flew by as we had our contests and lived our lives. It was all enjoyable, but I really hated how we had to constantly watch our backs. I felt that Maelus could pounce at any time looking for revenge.

  Our team itself was doing pretty well. We were consistently holding our position in the top ten, which was a good sign. I felt that we could have held number one, but for some reason I never saw any more white dots and I never got random bursts of energy. The only thing keeping us in the top ten was Michael's bots. They had saved our butt one too many times.

  Competition after competition went by and it became the only thing that our little group had to look forward to. Other than that, we just hung out in our common room and played games with the deck of cards we had managed to find. You would be amazed at the games you can play with a deck of cards if you are really desperate.

  Still, time passed fairly quickly and before I knew it, the day that we would be touching down on Titan was upon us.

  "Today's the day!" Harper said, banging on my door. I looked up at my clock. It was like three in the morning, but I still clambered out of bed. It felt like Christmas morning.

  I opened the door and Harper gave me a big hug. I could have sworn my ribs cracked. Michael was right behind us smiling.

  "How long have you guys been up?" I said, laughing. Clearly Harper was delirious.

  "I don't even know," she said. "All I know is that we will finally be able to get off of this ship and you will get to see where you were born and we'll get to fly around and stuff. It's going to be so much fun!"

  I pulled up my flesh-watch and sent Michael a text.

  DOES ANY OF THIS REMIND YOU OF A THREE-YEAR-OLD ON CHRISTMAS MORNING?

  He grinned at me and nodded his head.

  That morning felt like it went on forever and all we did was play poker over and over again. Harper was so tired that she wanted to bet actual money that she didn't have. We told her no, we were good. If we played her with money, she would have lost it all in a heartbeat. Not that she had money to lose.

  At last, it was time for breakfast. We all changed into actual clothes and then headed out the door. When we walked into that breakfast room, you could feel the energy in the air. Kids were goofing off and getting into trouble, and I saw Bajer standing in their midst looking over everything.

  "They're so hyper that they have to have you look over them for the first time ever?" I asked Bajer as I walked up to him.

  "That pretty much sums it up," he said, eyeing two kids that were using baguettes as swords. "Though you act like you're above it and that you're NOT hyper."

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  I smiled at him guiltily.

  "I'm hyper all right," I said with a grin.

  "As you should be," Bajer said. "You guys will be taking the landing pods down onto the surface in about an hour."

  "Landing pods?" I asked curiously.

  "I won't spoil too much, but we definitely can't land this massive ship on the ground. It would cost a fortune in fuel to lift her off the ground again. Plus, we would have to empty out the stronghold and that would be much too dangerous. Anyway, you can go on your way. Just don't forget to report at the arena in an hour."

  I thanked Bajer for the information and my friends and I happily ate breakfast, looking forward to the day ahead.

  Once we were done, I figured I might as well head straight to the arena after we stopped by our dorm.

  Once we had collected all our stuff, we were ready to go. All Harper and I had was the deck of cards, but Michael had a small backpack. It looked like if we had taken the normal way to space, we could have brought something to space.

  The arena was already packed by the time that we got there. All the fledgling manipulators were jumping up and down in their seats like a bunch of hyper toddlers.

  "Are you guys ready to get off of this ship?" I heard a voice say. Everyone went nuts as they shouted and jumped up and down.

  "I'll take that as a yes," the voice said. The voice sounded suspiciously like Bajer.

  "The steps to getting to the surface are simple. We will escort you one by one to your pods and strap you in. Once that is done, y'all will be launched off this ship and will be headed toward the surface. Good luck!"

  Then, I noticed Bajer and Claire standing in the entrance to the arena. One by one they got a group and escorted them away until we were the last ones there.

  "Sorry for the long wait," Bajer said, smiling at us. I jumped and saw that he was behind me.

  "You guys can come this way." Bajer guided us out of the arena and led us through a mess of hallways until we came to a gate with a passcode on it. Bajer typed in a code and the grill unlocked.

  "Here it is," Bajer said. All "it" was was three seats in a little egg, which was maybe five feet tall.

  One by one, Bajer strapped us into a seat. Everything was hooked into place: our arms, our legs, nothing was going to be flying around. Only my arms were able to move.

  "Good luck on the surface," Bajer said, and closed the door. Immediately something started to play on my flesh-watch.

  "You all are about to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience," the voice said. I looked over at Harper, whose face was aglow with excitement. "This ship will take you down to the surface, where you will be put through a final test to see if you are worthy of the academy."

  Harper looked at me worried and mouthed, What kind of test?

  I don't know, I mouthed back. The recording continued.

  "Whatever you guys do, do not press the red button next to you until the pod comes to a complete stop." I felt the little "pod" that we were in start to move ever so slightly. I reached over and grabbed Harper's hand. She was shaking just as much as I was.

  "When you come to a complete stop, you may press the button and your straps will undo themselves," the voice continued. "You will then get up and put on the mask, which will allow you to breathe in Titan's climate. Once that task is completed, you will exit the pod by pressing the red button located next to the door you came in on."

  I felt Harper's hand start to shake harder. I squeezed her hand, letting her know I was there. She looked over at me and smiled. I would've felt embarrassed about holding her hand, but this all felt so life or death that it didn't even matter.

  "Once you are on the surface, you have a simple task: make it to Titan Academy from wherever you landed on the surface. Once you accomplish that, you have been officially accepted into the academy." I thought the recording to be over, but it kept talking. "If you need help navigating, you will find a GPS for Titan in the compartment by your red button."

  I looked at Michael, seeing if he was remembering all this. He seemed to be paying rapt attention, so I figured that we would be fine.

  "One last thing," the voice said. "Please note that your pod will be flying back to the main ship five minutes after you click the exit button, so make sure you exit promptly. Life support will not be available on the return flight."

  I shuddered at that. I would be out of the pod in no time, that was for sure.

  "Enjoy your flight," the voice said cheerily, and I could feel that we were gaining speed.

  "Hold on tight!" I yelled as I felt the skin on my face being pulled down by some unknown force. I started to scream at the sensation that I felt.

  To me it felt like someone had made a roller coaster where the whole ride was pitch black, and they had made it so fast that humans would have a fifty-fifty chance of being able to survive, depending on how tough they were.

  This feeling went on for ten minutes as our little space got very loud, from both the outside and the inside because of our screams.

  Finally, everything went black.

  I woke up to Michael tapping me on the shoulder.

  "How long have I been out?" I asked him.

  "I don't know," Michael said. "I was the first one to wake up."

  I pressed the red button next to me and my straps fell away.

  "Go ahead and get out your GPS now," Michael said. "But don't touch your mask. I assume that as soon as you open the compartment it starts to work, and we need as much time as we can get."

  "How far away from the Academy are we?" I asked Michael, getting nervous from the tone of his voice.

  "This far away," he said as he held up the GPS with his shaking hand. The little dot that appeared to be us was on the exact opposite side from where we were trying to get.