3. The Slippery Mission

Hares were not made to carry koalas.

They tried having Akoa stand atop their heads, but she kept sliding off. Then Prince threw her over his back like a cloth, but she was too heavy and kept scraping the ground with her claws.

Finally, they had pulled her tree from the dirt. Akoa hugged one of the upper branches while the hares chewed on two lower ones and dragged the whole thing along.

They soon reached a slope. They’d been walking over what used to be the seabed, which meant the slope probably led to a beach, and shortly after to Raketa: the rocket base.

Prince sighed, planted the tree back into a crack in the ground, and tapped Akoa.

“We can’t jump while carrying you.”

“No problem, no problem.”

She rummaged in her pouch again and found a rope, woven by human hands, frayed by time. She tied one end to her branch and gave the other to the hares.

“Pull me down as far as you can.” Teeth on the rope, they bent the branch until it was taut.

“See you soon!”

Akoa let go. The branch snapped back up like a rubber band, firing her into the black sky. Prince anxiously watched her vanish. When she was out of sight, he heard a thud and began climbing up himself.

At te horizon, he saw a new star. Cautious sunrays, two whole ones, lit up green patches.It was tempting. I chose this plan, he thought. The humans will help us, so we’re going for it.

Something alighted at the end of the slope. It began as gray smoke but quickly turned yellow and orange, illuminating great fires and a new rocket ready for takeoff. Akoa was a small black silhouette amidst the smoke plumes.

The hares bounded up but stopped when a white blur attacked Akoa.

Pika’s eyes grew wide. “Should we really do this?”

“Yes, we’re doing this,” said Prince. “We have one chance.”

“But they’re still humans. What if our tube explodes too? It’s dangerous!”

“Oh, stop with the humans already.” Prince tracked the white blur dragging Akoa toward the rocket. “This is our chance at a beautiful future!”

Up close, they saw the blur was no white paw or human hand, but a penguin. It slipped over the hot ground while Akoa lay dazed on her back.

“Sorry, can’t stop!”

Akoa looked to the hares. “What’s it saying?”

“That we must hurry,” Prince called out. The rocket already rumbled, ready to launch any moment. How will we ever get in? Prince wondered. Not from below, certainly. The flames would roast us.

He noticed the long stairs leading up to a higher platform. To reach them, they had to pass the Floatfences.

He felt for Pika beside him, but she was gone. She braked the penguin by leaping atop him. “Do you know where we can find water?”

“If only I did know,” he replied. “Where all the ice has gone. I’m Pinpin and I’ve lost my family.”

“Well, where are you from? It must be colder there. We’ll head that way next!” Pika’s voice grew higher and faster.

“The Nordic Iceplates. They’ve all melted away.”

Prince shoved both her and the penguin toward the Floatfences, toward the rocket whose loud countdown had begun.

“I do hope he apologized,” said Akoa. “I’ve few enough ribs as it is, without a runaway penguin breaking them!”

“Yes, yes, yes, he’s terribly sorry,” Prince rattled off. “And he’s offering up his back too.”

“What for?”

Prince pushed Akoa onto the penguin’s back. With a nudge from the hares, they slid straight toward the fences, though unsure if they’d make it through. He and Pika followed with great bounds.

When Apra was attacked during the Second Conflict, they’d built the Floatfences. These metal fences hung from tall pillars, leaving only a small opening at the bottom for smaller creatures, while keeping out all major threats. Even if it meant the apes themselves could no longer get out either.

This way, all of Aprania had become fragmented into blocked-off sections for safety, only allowing small prey animals to travel.

Prince’s fear proved true when the penguin smashed into the fence, getting stuck halfway through. Akoa gripped the mesh with her claws, trying to bend the gap into something bigger, but the Floatfences were built to withstand far greater dangers than a koala paw.

“Aaaah!”

Prince sped up, leapt, and curled up. Like a bowling ball, he hurtled toward the penguin, collided with his rear, and knocked him loose.

Groaning, the four slid underneath the Floatfences, but wasted not another second. Prince peered up. There must be entrances our size somewhere, he thought.

A thick shut gate gave access to the launch area. Akoa took her passcard and swiped it across a glass square, front, back, side, over and over until finally they heard a beep and the square turned green.

Steel stairs with mesh treads led up to a platform dozens of meters high. The whole area was gray, stripped of all trees and plants. Behind the rocket stood a small cabin, in which hundreds of multi-colored lights flickered between on and off.

The penguin slowly hopped up. Sometimes he slid back down a few steps. The hares would soon gain a huge lead if Akoa hadn’t grabbed Pika’s tail with her left claw, and Prince’s with her right. Like a much too heavy backpack, they lugged her along.

“Is there water in that thing?” asked the penguin. “Why are we going up?”

There was no time to respond. The rocket took off. The hares stood nearly at the top, twenty steps above Pinpin.

“Then fly!”

“If only I knew how!”

The penguin flapped his smooth black wings, but Prince instantly saw they were more akin the fins of a fish, useless for gaining air.

Prince reached the summit. Akoa and Pika followed. Pinpin would never make it in time.

The rocket slid past, shooting fiery plumes.

“Take cover!” Akoa yelled.

“What’d you say?” Pinpin yelled back.

The hares roughly seized him and duck into an opening, just before the flames would have burned them alive.

It was, however, no opening from the rocket.

It was a gap in the launch tower, from where they watched their ride seek the stars without them.