Diggers: The Sharp Edge of the Universe by Shannon Heather, Jerrett James

to the floor.
    After a while, Reggie and Mikayla couldn’t help themselves, and they started laughing too. They laughed at the DUMP still wedged into…whatever…at an uncomfortable slant. They laughed at the dried vomit on Mikayla’s red uniform, and at Reggie’s random motion sickness. They talked about Belch and they giggled about his armpits that smelled like old hamburgers and how his nickname was perfect in so many ways.
    “Feels…good…to…laugh.” Mikayla wiped away tears.
    “We need to figure out what we’re stuck into,” Finn said as the last of his gut-wrenching laughter subsided, “and how to see better . And where we are.”
    Mikayla pulled herself up to the navigational screen. “That’s why I wanted to get out of the water droplet. I think I know a way to help us see our surroundings better. If we—”
    Whatever they were wedged into began to move. “Whoa. What’s going on?” Mikayla screeched.
    The DUMP bumped and jostled and the kids, once again, went flying in every direction.
    Reggie had almost made it to the captain’s chair when the DUMP began to rock and pitch. He barely managed to hang onto the seat and strap in, then within seconds, the DUMP took flight.
    “ELAINA.” Finn struggled to right himself. “We need a damage report on the DUMP.”
    “Two sensor arrays sustained minimal damage, most likely due to the DUMP being stuck in the anomaly,” ELAINA sweetly explained. “Three deflector shields sustained minimal damage on the port side.”
    “We’ve got to figure out how to navigate better or we’re gonna get killed.” Finn tossed away a pair of goggles that had smacked him in the face during the turbulence.
    “I’ve been trying to tell you,” Mikayla yelled. “I have an idea to help us see our surroundings and navigate.”
    The boys stared at her, blank-faced.
    “Well, do you want to hear my idea or not?” Mikayla’s cheeks began to turn crimson.
    “Yes,” Finn blurted, unable to comprehend what in the universe she was waiting for. She was, after all, a girl, and girls were harder to understand than any alien life form he’d ever met.
    Mikayla flattened out the wrinkles in her red suit and knocked off a couple of barf chunks. “I think we should have ELAINA change the view on the main view finder, like you do on a microscope, until we can see everything.”
    Finn’s anger rose again. Mikayla, with her all-important red Science suit and her Science rock star dad, could think up a great idea like this, yet she didn’t even like being a Scientist.
    It just wasn’t fair.
    “Sounds good.” Reggie nodded his head too vigorously.
    “ELAINA,” Finn growled, his anger about to get the best of him. “We need you to adjust the view finder slowly. We’ll tell you when to stop.”
    “Starting now, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly,” ELAINA purred.
    They watched the screen as the massive, blurry blobs became even blurrier.
    “No,” Finn yelled. “Go the other way, ELAINA.”
    “Okay, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly.” Her silky voice made Finn more angry .
    Minutes passed and the blobs still looked like blobs. Then the minutes slowly, painfully, turned into hours. Dozens of times the DUMP popped into a water droplet, which meant they had to start from the beginning. To make matters worse, the moment they thought they finally could see defined outlines the light in the new world died out.
    “So, it’s night time here?” Mikayla said. “Wherever here is.”
    “Must be.” Reggie took her hand, and Finn had to stomach another googley-eye episode.
    “There’s still a little bit of light.” Finn said. “We might be able to make out shapes.” He turned away from the love-fest and searched the screen for anything identifiable.
    “We might as well get some sleep,” Mikayla yawned.
    Discouraged, Finn reluctantly agreed. He slumped onto one of the sets of connecting seats at the back of the DUMP and grabbed a blanket. Reggie plopped his feet on the captain’s chair and