“Can you repeat that last part?” I asked.

“Later,” Riley said. “We need to leave before the rest of the Outsiders come to investigate.”

We made it through the hatch. Bubba Boom waited nearby with his blow torch. His face was peppered with cuts and a cracked helmet rested by his feet.

“Disk deflected off my helmet,” Bubba Boom explained. “I passed out from lack of oxygen. I woke when there was enough air, but decided to stay down until the odds looked a little better.”

As Bubba Boom sealed the hatch, we removed our suits. Riley helped me with mine.

He inspected the cut on my shoulder. “I see bone. Do you know where your mother is?”

“On the other ship.”

We all glanced at the bay door. Two possibilities waited on the other side. One—Outsiders controlled the ship. Two— Hank and his people had managed to free our Insiders.

Logan examined the panel next to the door. “When should I open it?”

Riley handed me a gun he had taken from the fallen Outsiders and then armed himself with two. I held the unfamiliar weapon in my left hand. Sloan also held one and his wrench rested on his shoulder. Bubba Boom finished sealing the hatch and joined us. Riley gave him one of his guns, then pulled his knife from his belt.

“On three,” Riley said. “One.”

Logan pressed a few keys.

“Two,” Sloan said.

More beeps followed. Logan’s hand hovered above the glowing red button.

“Two and a half,” Bubba Boom said.

A nervous chuckle rolled through us.

“Three,” I said.

23

LOGAN PUNCHED THE BUTTON. THE DOOR SLID OPEN. Chaos greeted us. We clutched our weapons and peered into the crowd of screaming people. I searched for Outsiders, but only Insiders poured from the hatch of the ship.

My brain finally sorted through the overwhelming scene. The screams were happy cries and the Insiders were hugging and celebrating. I spotted Hank leaning against a far wall. We crossed to him, dodging a few overly excited people.

“Looks like my idea to widen the lift worked,” I said to him.

“Your idea was crap, Trella,” he said. “I could only send up a few people at a time.”

“How did you take out the guards?”

“I didn’t.” He gestured to the Insiders. “They did it before we reached them.”

“How?”

Riley clapped me on my good shoulder. “You taught them how to stand up for themselves.”

“I don’t think so,” Hank said. He poked a finger toward one woman, standing off to the side by herself. “Rumor has it the Doctor knocked out all the Outsiders inside the ship, then rallied and organized everyone else to attack the guards in the bay. The Outsiders didn’t stand a chance.” He glared at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Now I know who you inherited your pain in the assness from.”

I smiled. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Riley and Logan accompanied me as I went to congratulate my mother. Sloan went searching for Jacy and Bubba Boom stayed with Hank.

My mother’s eyes lit up when she spotted us. She wrapped her arms around me, but pulled back when I hissed in pain. Then there was no talking to her as she transformed into doctor mode, tsking over the deep cut and insisting on getting me to the infirmary without delay.

Wishing to remain and find out more details, I grumped at her. “I’d rather have you mother me.”

“Then you’re in luck since I can do both. Get moving or I’ll make you stay in the infirmary long after you’re recovered.”

“Yes, Mother.”

The cleanup took longer this time than when the Force of Sheep had won. Even though the Insiders had all rallied against the Outsiders, resentment still lingered between them. A few of us—me, Hank, Emek, Jacy and Domotor—sat together and decided how to proceed. Yes, we included Hank. He always wanted the best for Inside and he had good insights into what changes the people craved after the Pop Cops were gone.

We kept the family names and soon everyone Inside had a family. Then we asked everyone to sign up for a job. Except this time, there wouldn’t be scrubs cleaning and uppers working the controls. If a person wished to work in the air plant, he would learn every aspect of the plant and his job would rotate from computer controller to changing filters to hauling cleaning trolls around from shaft to shaft then back to being a controller.

For the jobs no one wanted—like cleaning out the waste pipes—every single person of Inside would take a four-hour shift, which, when you considered we had a population of 22,500 and some, that meant I would have to do my four hours every nine hundred weeks. Doable.

Levels five to ten would be completed first and then everyone would be able to move out of the barracks at the same time.

As for the Outsiders, they would be invited to join us, to choose jobs and vote. For those who declined our offer, they would be given a room in the brig. We realized the danger in letting someone like Ponife have freedom in our world, but agreed not to limit or incarcerate someone with a difference in opinion. Actions and not words would land an Insider in trouble. Jacy volunteered to head the ISF for now.

Soon after I had recovered, I joined Logan, Riley, Bubba Boom, Hank and a handful of others in saying goodbye to Anne-Jade. We lined the hallway up to Chomper’s lair and paid tribute to a hero. Logan wished for her to be recycled and not sent out into Outer Space.

“She will always be with us,” he said.