by Chucho Jones
“Ok, General, I’m ready. I’m gonna need you to walk me through. Over,” he said through the chamber as he spoke to his helmet microphone.
He awaited the general’s response and opened the hatch as if it was a familiar thing to do. For a brief moment, he remembered the arduous training he went through as a child.
Pushing the memories out of mind, he took a step out into the darkness. He held tight, and despite the fact that his suit was latched on to Tomorrow Sky, he felt drifting. All he could hear at that moment was his heavy breathing. All he could feel was his fear and his heart beating wildly in his chest. He looked around behind him as the ship left Earth miles in their wake, everything in his scope skewed.
The sight was like something out of a dream. He turned the other way and saw nothing but darkness and Earth’s light reflecting onto the ship. His stomach did a summersault.
The dream-like aura made him forget for a moment where he was. He lit up the suit’s phatasfas, checking to make sure they worked correctly and took a deep breath. He looked around once more, and without hesitation, thrusted his jetpack toward the rocket’s engine.
“Alright, General. I’m at the engine by the Vitro-Plasma systems. What’s the order? Over,” Leon said as he tried to remain focused on nothing but the task.
“Ok, erm, release the main valve and open the auxiliary gauges one by one,” the general ordered with no inflections, as if reading from a manual.
Leon held his phatasfa tight and complied with the first task with no problem.
“Ok, General. Gauges taken care of. What’s next? Is the kid awake yet? Maybe he can do something from the inside, so I can get the heck outta here,” Leon replied back to the general.
As he awaited the next order, he felt something graze Tomorrow Sky along the side. He looked around and saw nothing. It must have been the shakes from being in outer space, he thought.
“Great, kid! Now use the geo-thermal auxiliary hoses and connect them to the Vitro-Plasma’s main coupling. Then set the pump system to oscillate,” the general responded with another order.
Leon swiftly took care of the second task, despite gripping the tools as hard as he could. He felt as though if he let any tool slip out of his grasp, everything—including his suit and possibly he, himself—would float off into space.
He couldn’t help but feel that something had lurked passed the vessel’s side. Again, he thought it must have been the outer space jitters. His confidence built up with each passing task.
“Ok, got that outta the way. You know, I feel like we’re being watched among all this darkness. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like it much. What’s next?” he eagerly replied as he seemed to come closer to completing the task and heading back to safety.
“Prime the Vitro-Plasma’s power containment by pumping the lever six times, then, uh, turn it back on. It should start acting as a generator. Then slowly close each individual gauge. That should kick the power in and set the controls back to auto,” the general’s voice said, echoing through the helmet’s radio.
As Leon completed the task, he heard a clanking sound. He looked around and saw nothing. He figured the sound might have come from the engine kicking into gear.
“Done and done, General. Permission to come aboard. This place is giving me the creeps,” he said as he pushed himself back to the latch.
“Granted, come back on board,” replied the general.
“Way to go, ‘Captain Thunderbolt.’ Now let me reel you back in,” said Oliver through the radio as well.
Despite the eerie feeling of drifting in the darkness, Leon felt a solid comfort hearing his nephew’s voice.
“So, now you decide to step in. Once I did all the dirty work for you,” chided Leon in a playful taunt.
“It must have been the plasma rush. I can’t explain what happened, but I felt something, it almost felt like it was calling out to me,” replied Oliver.
Leon used his jetpack to stabilize his retrieval. Another crisis averted, he thought with gusto. Suddenly, among the silence, he spotted a few lights closing in. His heart started pounding out of his chest.
“Ok, let’s cut the crap. I think there’s something out here. Reel me in quick,” Leon said, desperation bleeding into his voice. The reeling stopped, and he dangled as he felt a stronger pressure sucking him away from the ship.
“I can’t explain what happened, but there’s no communication with ground control, and we’re ahead off trajectory by a seventy-two percent increment,” the general reported in a concerned tone.
“It must have been the blast. I’m having trouble communicating with Tomorrow Sky. The symbiote isn’t letting me. We’re on a set path,” said Oliver with concern.
“Well, whatever the hell it is, please take me in NOW,” Leon said as his voice started to crack.
“Incoming bogeys coming from twelve o’clock. Prepare for possible impact,” the general announced.
At that moment, everything stopped for Leon. He couldn’t wrap his head around how he could come out on top of all this. He raised his gaze to the horizon, the tiny dots becoming clearer with each passing moment.
They approached like atom shaped nightmares among the darkness. It became harder to breathe as his knees weakened. He was letting go. As the atoms approached, he felt a tingling sensation, and suddenly, his body was pulled to the ship’s exterior.
An intense blue light emanated from Tomorrow Sky’s engine. The atom shaped saucers were struck by a massive blue bolt of lightning that shot out from the back. Looking around, Leon saw the ships were no more. He had difficulty moving, but at least he wasn’t dangling in space anymore. He tried to make sense of it all.
“I’ve taken care of the bogeys. I’ve magnetized the ship so you can latch on to it. I’ll have to manipulate the Teslatron engine for further combat,” Oliver said through the radio in a stale tone.
“Oliver, this is insane. General, can you do something? You can’t leave me out here. They’ll be shooting at us soon,” Leon said nervously.
“Not if we can help it. General, prepare for evasive maneuvers. We must not allow them to retaliate,” Oliver said through the radio.
Leon saw a few more atom shaped saucers closing in. This time, the energy from the rear channeled through the side of the ship and shot out of its tip. Soundless implosions rendered the saucers inactive. Leon was relieved that they had survived the first tier.
He kept crawling his way towards the ship’s hatch. He struggled to get on his feet as the ship’s gravity pulled hard against him. He managed to climb to one knee and pushed his body upright.
He took a few steps, but then his left foot became stuck. He looked back and saw a gruesome, scaly tentacle had grasped his ankle. Two stranded alien pilots managed to latch aboard the ship along with him.
There was no time. He had to take action.
He lit up his phatasfa and struck the wounded alien closest to him. The alien tripped him, knocking him down on his back. He kicked the alien in the head several times, then took one more blow at it with his phatasfa.
Enraged, Leon lashed out with his frustration at the alien abominations. He felt his head spinning as he let it all go. With one final punch, the green ant-like squid floated off in the distance.
The second wounded alien closed in before Leon had a chance to get back on his feet. He swiftly used both phatasphas to cover himself from the alien’s attacks. The alien retaliated, knocking a weapon out of Leon’s hand. He tried to fight back, but lost his second Phataspha from his poor grip, thanks to the thick space gloves.
The alien then grabbed on to Leon’s neck and squeezed. The dials on Leon’s suit went crazy as the pressure got tighter. Leon looked up and saw more UFOs closing in.
As Tomorrow Sky readied for another shot, Leon thrusted his jetpack forward, surprising the alien, who then lost his grip helplessly flailed as it floated off into space. He knew as soon as the ship shot another ray, this would pull him back to the ship’s hull.
>
He crawled the rest of his way to the latch. He took a deep breath and went back into Tomorrow Sky. He realized then he needed to stop counting the times he cheated death before the habit would eventually kill him. He felt safe inside the pressure chamber as he took his helmet off.
21
Chapter 21
The Vitro-Plasma ran smoothly through the ship’s pipe-system. Oliver felt it all too well. It was a chill down his spine that yelled, “no,” yet the rushing plasma through his body screamed, “let go.” He saw his uncle come aboard and felt relief.
“What is going on here?” Leon asked.
He grabbed a couple of pullout cables from the jetpacks to secure his place inside the ship. Oliver thought it strange to see that Leon had been out for only a short period of time, but had gone into space and was doing full-on astronaut chores with ease.
He wandered off for a moment, his thoughts bringing him back to the moment when he remembered the energy explosion.
Each passing event drew him closer and closer to the mysterious power to which he felt more inclined to. Science was briefly replaced by a sense of acknowledgement, and the screaming sensation that kept telling him to let go finally took over. He stopped looking for a reason and went with the energy’s flow.
“I realize we’ve hit certain complications, and we’re heading off course—away from our original target. However, I’ve managed to set us back on track. There’s an alternate energy reading that is drawing our sensors in, and it’s not set to our original coordinates,” Oliver said calmly. He realized that his new-found clarity must have come from his latest episode.
“Certain complications?” Leon interrupted. “Excuse me, but from my perspective, we almost died out there. I was literally hanging by a thread,” Leon continued while bursting into a nervous laughter.
“Cut it out, Worthington. You did a hell of a job out there. What happened was just duty hazards,” Banks interrupted Leon. “Oliver, what are you doing? We’ve lost all communications. Think about your mother; think about Victoria. We cannot risk the mission this way. We must stay on course.”
The general’s demeanor rendered no threat to Oliver. He twisted his alien forearm inside the socket, moving along with his plan. It only took him a simple thought to have the symbiotic alien operate the ship’s systems to his will. Oliver charted a new course, and the general’s console switched to the new heading.
Oliver saw the general looking at his screen in disbelief. “Wait a minute, you’re trying to tell me we just travelled fifty thousand miles from earth in a matter of minutes?” The general looked around the main cabin and held on to the controls.
“It’s the quantum wielder,” said Oliver with a nod.
Both Leon and Banks gaped at him. Their expression was everything but flattering.
“The quantum wielder?” Leon asked with concern.
“That’s what Doctor Dickens and I deduced the aliens do, so I decided to call it by that name,” Oliver said in a monotone and distant voice.
“So, now you named it? Like a pet?” Banks asked in response. Leon and Banks looked at each other in concern.
“Yeah, kid, don’t get too attached,” Leon interjected. “I mean, uh, mentally that is.”
“Remember, we only need it to get the girls back,” interrupted General Banks.
“And to end this alien madness,” Leon added.
Oliver heard the words and nodded. All he could think of was the beat inside of him getting stronger and stronger as Tomorrow Sky gallantly darted through the darkness of space.
Still, inside all this mental turmoil, his heart beat strongly at the thought of Victoria. Other than his mother, she had been the only other person that didn’t treat him like a freak. He couldn’t shake the bad feeling about relying on the alien power to get them both back, but it seemed like the only way.
The men trusted Oliver with the alien information enough to allow him to follow through with his plan. They remained alert, focused on their new-found target as they travelled at ludicrous speeds far beyond any human-recorded space travel.
Oliver felt he didn’t want to lose himself as they drew closer to the source of power. Everything around him became fuzzy. It took but mere seconds for Tomorrow Sky to close in to its destination, a blob of darkness surrounded by space.
As they grew closer to the massive dark structure, tiny greenish lights swarming like a hive came out from beneath. The moon’s reflected light crested the dark object. A gruesome, organic sight of metal and pink viscosity manifested before them. The crew couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
It was a floating asteroid with thrusters and scattered pockets of technology and civilization throughout the metal rock. Rivers of Vitro-plasma ran through the creases of the gargantuan object. A gruesome display of a floating cityscape with alien technology filled the space shuttle’s viewport.
“It’s the mother ship,” Oliver said.
He felt he knew the name of the vessel, but it was in a tongue he couldn’t pronounce. The asteroid’s swarming menaces started to close in. Oliver twisted his arm to prepare for an attack.
“Incoming bogeys at twelve o’clock,” the general said as he grabbed on to the ship’s controls.
The vessel channeled a massive ray that shot out of the tip. Three atom shaped saucers collided with the ray, imploding in space and turning into floating debris.
“Not those nightmares again,” Leon said in frustration as he struggled to stay in place.
“Geo-thermal power is at thirty percent. You can’t keep shooting our power out,” Banks shouted to Oliver.
Dozens of saucers approached in the distance. The floating debris flew by Tomorrow Sky’s windows as all the mercuranium was drawn back to the mother ship. Oliver had an idea. He knew they couldn’t fight all their alien prowlers.
“Leon, you’re gonna have to get in your seat,” Oliver said as he started to twist his arm inside the socket, commanding the ship for a new directive.
“Why? There’s no time. We got incoming, and I have to take off this jetpack,” Leon replied confused.
“Just trust me, okay? Unlatch and just hold on to the seat. We’re getting out of here,” Oliver said confidently.
Banks grabbed Oliver by the arm in disapproval.
“What the hell are you thinking, kid? What are you gonna do?” Banks asked Oliver.
“Just trust me. I know what I’m doing. We want to get in there, right? Doctor Dickens said the escape pod has a mercuranium structure. We’ll be drawn to the ship like that debris,” Oliver said as he pointed towards the floating mercuranium returning to the ship.
Leon unlatched from his post, put his helmet back on, and held on tight to his chair as he wrapped his arms around the seat belt.
“Oh, what the heck. We’ve made it this far. Just do it, kid. Go!” yelled Leon.
The swarm of alien ships closed in on Tomorrow Sky. Oliver used the remaining power to shoot one last blast to clear their way. Another wave of debris surrounded the vessel. A massive assault was still headed their way. The cockpit detached from the rest of the vessel, leaving the carcass behind as a decoy.
Oliver’s plan worked. The escape vessel was drawn back into the mothership along with the rest of the alien debris. Everything happened so fast that it was subtle enough. The alien pilots were too busy surrounding the ship’s main body to take notice.
Oliver felt yet another small victory, but he couldn’t help but wonder what surprises might lurk inside the gruesome behemoth of a ship. Some debris went into a shaft while the escape pod remained floating around the ship with more debris. The crew’s vessel clunked its way through yet another shaft and into a red spherical environment.
“We’re getting close,” Oliver reported.
“Close to what?” asked General Banks.
Oliver looked at the crew. He realized it was time to come clean. It was time to let them know the alien arm was having more control than Oliver wished for.
&n
bsp; “It’s this thing. I think it belongs to something else, and it wants it back. I think it knows where we are, and it’s drawing us in,” he blurted out. He anticipated the guilt his companions might react with.
“We knew this thing was making you crazy. We had it figured it out since the beginning. The thing is, we wanted to find out why. Now we know. So, we move on,” explained Leon.
“We’re not gonna let this thing do you any more harm,” Banks said.
He raised his arm and put it on the kid’s shoulder. Oliver felt slightly comforted once more. A clanking sound got louder and louder as the cockpit deformed with them inside. All the mercuranium components of the cockpit broke apart and floated away.
Leon was shot out by the pulling force and into what seemed to be a scrapyard. Oliver and the general were propelled in the opposite direction. Oliver’s head spun, his head fuzzy. A constant silhouette of a mechanical bug kept jolting in his head. He looked around and saw that no one was in sight. Gravity was loose in the thick, red environment.
Oliver got up and turned on his radio control. The environment was more eerie than he had expected. Thick, luminous yellow gas surrounded the spherical place. Piles of junk sat on the bland surface that created a landscape that resembled mechanical rock formations. The menacing sight was like the fleshy walls of someone’s insides. A thought crawled in his mind right then… It showed us a way in.
22
Chapter 22
The condensation on the walls of the organic vessel reflected the misty environment. Alien minions operated machines at each designated station. The mist grew, reflecting the thickening tension from Kha Tse’s rage.
She thought over all the previous events and resented the Forefather for such incompetent resources. She was still in charge of a hive mind, an exclusive privilege of the collective brain known as the Main Brain Council from her place of origin by the Orion Nebula.