“What is it?”
“Ask Dr. Albion to transfer you to Fort Bragg, to Project Jedi.”
“But why?”
“It’s all part of a larger plan that will happen a few years from now. And you and Lumen are both enormously important to it. It could mean protecting the very existence of the human race.”
“But I don’t understand,” Cedric said as he watched EBE watching him. “This is all happening too fast.” He wiped a little bit of sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.
“I know, but there is no other time to tell you,” EBE said and then held up his spindly right arm and looked at a gold bracelet he wore. “Good heavens, look at the time. I’m due back on Hjärta—that’s our home world in the Zeta Reticuli star cluster. I really must be going. It was wonderful to meet you, Cedric, our elemental Hero! You are indeed a fine young man and a credit to all Zetans!” EBE waddled over and hugged Cedric, who recoiled from the strange contact. “But I must leave,” the alien said. “Remember that you are a Hero but tell no one. No one.”
EBE’s form began to fade into the white light that filled the room.
“And remember: Fort Bragg, Project Jedi,” he said before vanishing completely into the swirling air.
Cedric opened his eyes and gasped for breath. Lumen sat watching him from the corner of the Army bunk. She shifted her legs and let them drop over the edge.
“Was I right? Wasn’t it spectacular?”
Cedric shook his head.
“What happened?” Lumen asked.
“I don’t know. It wasn’t like what you said at all,” Cedric answered. “I was in a weird white room with a tiny man. I guess he was some kind of alien.”
“An alien?” Lumen said, laughing.
“Yeah, big head, thin arms, and gigantic black eyes.”
“Sounds like an alien,” Lumen replied. “It must have been a bad trip.”
“Yeah.” Cedric rubbed his forehead. “It wasn’t pleasant at all. Just strange.”
“Maybe because I’m a telepath it’s easier for me to interact with the Cube?”
“Maybe,” Cedric replied. He scooted closer to Lumen and put his arm around her. “This is much better than that Cube anyway.”
Lumen felt very safe with Cedric in this moment. She snuggled against his warm side. She looked up at Cedric and read his thoughts. Wow, he likes me a lot. He’s cute too. That’s good. And he really is my friend. This is definitely more fun than the tests in those stupid labs. Maybe he’ll be the one, my first time? Lumen put her hand on Cedric’s thigh and gave it a playful squeeze.
Mendocino Woodlands, CA, the Present
11.
“THERE’S SOMETHING up there, all right.” Falling Star shielded his eyes with his hand and glanced at the sun. “It looks like a small planet, maybe a moon?”
Tenzing nodded in agreement and went back to licking burrs off his belly.
“Maybe it’s an asteroid?” James wondered as he stood next to Falling Star. He continued to stare up quietly for a moment, then let out a deep sigh. “I know this is going to sound really weird, but I think we should get back to Fort Bragg and find out what’s going on.”
“Turn ourselves in?” Tenzing asked.
“Maybe get close enough so we can hear the guards talking,” James replied as he sat back down near the fire. “Just so we can understand what’s happening up there. Of course, we still need to rescue Keira and Lumen.”
“What about Paul?” Tenzing asked.
“I don’t think he’ll want to come with us,” James said hesitantly, not wanting to bring up his ex again in front of Falling Star. “Not now.”
“What? Why not?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Tell me,” Tenzing said, his ears forward, alert.
“Let’s just say that we’re not friends anymore,” James said a little sadly, then turned to look at Falling Star, who smiled back at him.
“But what happened?”
“Paul made a deal with Dr. Albion, and now he’s her little pet.”
“That’s terrible,” Tenzing said, then spit out a burr and continued grooming himself. “But I think we all saw it coming, didn’t we?”
“I didn’t,” James said.
“You can’t find what you aren’t looking for,” Tenzing replied.
James stopped to ponder that thought. “You really do sound like an old monk sometimes,” James said laughing a little. “I’m still worried about getting Keira and Lumen out of there safely.”
“I can go back by myself,” Falling Star said.
“Really?” Tenzing asked.
“I can pretty much come and go as I please,” Falling Star said, then added, “but they’ll take more of my people prisoner and won’t let them go until I return.”
“Plus they’ll be mad at you for taking me out of there too,” James said as he poked the fire with a stick. “They might do something awful to you to make you tell them where I am.”
“I could say you ran away from me.” Falling Star ripped up a tree stump, dragged it over next to James, and sat down on it. “You could zap some of my hair like we had a fight.”
“That might work,” James replied. “But when you left again to come back here, I’m sure they’d follow you somehow.”
“I’d be careful,” Falling Star added quickly. “I can blend in anywhere I go in the forest.”
“They’d probably have Lumen track you by remote viewing,” James said and then realized how exposed they were. “They could be doing that right now.”
“We all want to get Keira and Lumen out of there,” Falling Star reminded James as he waved a gust of smoke away from his face. “We should go back together, not just me. It will be safer.”
“Why don’t I go see what I can find out?” Tenzing asked. “I have the best disguise of all, don’t I?”
“That’s true,” James agreed.
“And if something happens to me, who knows, I could become a rat again and get away.”
“Okay, that sounds like a plan,” James said as he stood up. “We’ll all go back. Tenzing will get inside Fort Bragg, and we’ll wait outside in the woods for him to return with the information.”
“But what if he gets in trouble?” Falling Star asked. “How will we know?”
“We can set a time limit, like twenty-four hours. If Tenzing isn’t back by then, we’ll assume something bad has happened.”
“But what do we do then?”
“You and I will have to get onto the base somehow,” James said to Falling Star. “We’ll have to figure it out then. Let’s put out this fire and head back to Fort Bragg right now.”
“I know a secret way to get there,” Falling Star said. “I don’t think they’ll see us coming.”
“We don’t know what they can or can’t see. Let’s assume that we could be discovered at any time. We need to be careful.”
“I understand why Kun made you the leader,” Tenzing said. “You have a real feel for tactics and operations.”
“Thanks.” James smiled at Tenzing, a little embarrassed. “Paul and I…,” James started to say and then stopped. “I mean, I used to be the dumbest kid in class, the one who had the hardest time just reading a book. And now that I have my Zetan family around me, I feel like I can do anything.”
“Support makes all the difference, wherever it comes from,” Tenzing observed. “Biological family or not.”
“I’ll go get some water and put out the fire,” Falling Star said as he got up and walked into the forest.
“What will you carry the water with?” James shouted after him.
“I’m a country boy,” Falling Star said. “I have my ways.”
“WE’LL HAVE to figure out when the changing of the guards happens,” James said from behind the outcropping of fiddlehead ferns. “At Paragon and Oak Knoll, where they were holding UBE prisoner, they did it on the hour.”
“Do you have a watch?” Tenzing asked.
“
No,” James replied. “We’ll have to observe from here and figure it out.”
“I’m waiting for a truck to pull up,” Tenzing said. “I’ll jump in the back and get in that way.”
“That’s a great idea, Little Cat,” Falling Star said.
“You can call him Tenzing,” James said.
“I know, but I like calling him Little Cat.”
“But he’s not a little cat; he’s a monk. And his name is Tenzing.”
“He looks like a little cat to me.”
“I’m not this cat,” Tenzing said with some annoyance. “I’m just in his body temporarily.”
“Okay, Little Cat.”
James shot Falling Star a look. He grinned back innocently.
Tenzing heard the low rumble of a diesel engine first. “Sounds like a truck,” he said excitedly.
The trio peered through the dense foliage at the road that ran up to the North Gate. An unmarked white van approached and slowed down at the checkpoint. An armed guard came out to speak with the driver.
“Now’s your chance,” James said.
“Wish me luck,” Tenzing said, leaping from the bushes and running off.
“Good luck, Little Cat!”
James glared at Falling Star.
“What?”
When Tenzing came to the edge of the road, he paused and looked around. The van doesn’t have a running board, and no windows are open. How am I supposed to get inside? Maybe if the driver opens their door for a second, I could run in? No. Too risky. There must be another way. Before he could figure it out, the van began to move again. Without thinking, Tenzing bolted out of the undergrowth and jumped up onto the van’s bumper. It was difficult staying on. The van shifted gears and lurched forward, but he managed to keep his balance long enough to get inside the North Gate. The van started to turn left, and Tenzing hopped off and ran behind a row of parked Jeeps.
Now where?
All the buildings on the base looked the same: tall, whitewashed, covered with antennae and satellite dishes. This base is huge. Keira and Lumen could be anywhere. But first I need to find out what’s going on with the sun. Tenzing creeped around the Jeeps and made a mad dash for the nearest building. It looked like an officer’s club. He crawled behind it, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one had seen him. A window was open. Tenzing jumped up onto a pile of cardboard boxes and leaned in to peek over the sill. An MP was watching the news on a laptop.
“…currently the sunspot is getting bigger, but we have word from NASA that there is nothing to worry about,” a reporter’s nasal voice said.
Sunspot? I’ve never heard of a sunspot you could see from Earth. I wonder what the government is hiding?
The officer closed his laptop with a snap and stood up. Tenzing nearly fell over as he backed down from the window in a hurry. He leaped from the boxes and walked around to the front of the building. A pair of MPs were talking to a woman in a white lab coat. As Tenzing moved closer he realized who she was: Dr. Albion.
What luck! If I follow her, she’s bound to lead me right to Keira and Lumen!
Dr. Albion strode off in the direction of a large, tentlike structure to the left, her high heels clunking on the tarmac. The structure looked like it had been recently constructed and put up in a hurry. The tent flaps were billowing with movement from inside. Dr. Albion parted them and went inside. Tenzing saw his opportunity and ran over to the makeshift structure. Over the whir of desktop computers, he heard Dr. Albion’s voice.
“I want hourly updates on the movement of the object,” she said. “We have to synchronize its position with Project Intercept.”
“It’s still on the same bearing,” a young man’s voice said. “No changes.”
“What’s happening with Darkfeather?”
“The implants are ready for Alexander and Keira,” another voice said.
Implants? What is she up to now?
“Good, good. Very good. And the Sun Stone’s progress?” Dr. Albion asked. “Where are we?”
“On schedule,” the first voice replied. “Right up to the minute.”
“Excellent. I’ll alert General Hesslop.”
Tenzing peeked beneath the tent wall, but all he could see were short desks and the overworked ankles of Project Jedi employees. He tried to reposition himself by hunkering down on his belly, but it was no use. He still couldn’t see enough of what was inside of the tent. Dr. Albion’s heels clicked loudly as she emerged from inside and headed to the left across the base. An MP in a patrol Jeep saluted her as he passed. She continued to a low brick building on the far side of the base. Tenzing hurried along behind her, keeping a safe distance, always looking over his shoulders to see if he was being observed.
He paused behind a metal barrel and watched as she entered the building. Tenzing ran across the tarmac and stopped before the glass double doors. He pushed against one of them and managed to open it enough to squeeze inside. Tenzing walked slowly through the small lobby, keeping close to the walls and ducking behind its potted plants and narrow sofa. He had no idea where Dr. Albion had gone. He turned the corner and came upon a long hallway with a series of closed doors on either side. A familiar scent suddenly greeted him: seaberry hand cream. Keira used that kind.
She’s here! Keira must be in one of these rooms. This must be the dorm.
He followed the scent down to the middle of the hall. Tenzing stood before a closed door. He got up on his hind legs and began scratching furiously. He stopped and listened. There was no sound from inside. He started scratching again. Still nothing.
She must not be here, but at least I found where her room is. I don’t know if James knows this or not. I must get back to him and let him know about everything else I found out.
Tenzing ran down the hallway to the lobby and used his body again to push open the front doors. He headed back across the base to the North Gate. A Jeep pulled up and was about to go through as Tenzing arrived. He came alongside the vehicle and then, when it was safe, jumped into the back seat, as the guard pressed a button, and an opening in the plasma dome appeared. The driver put the Jeep in gear and drove off the base with Tenzing stowed away in back. Just outside the North Gate, Tenzing leaped from the Jeep, did a somersault to the forest floor, regained his footing, and ran off down the dirt path to find James and Falling Star.
“WAS I being too forward at the lake?” Falling Star asked as he gathered dried sticks for kindling.
“No,” James said with a grin. “But I’m not quite in the rebound stage yet after my breakup.”
Falling Star stopped gathering sticks and stood, rooted to the spot. James noticed the sad look in his eyes and continued to explain. “I mean, if I were going to be with someone, it would be someone like you. I just mean I don’t know when I’m going to be ready for another relationship. But I like hanging around with you. You’re fun to be with. I’m waiting for it to feel right again. Then I’ll know.”
Falling Star sighed with relief and smiled to himself. His ears perked up. “Something is running this way. I hear fast footsteps approaching right in front of us.”
James squinted ahead and searched between the redwoods and overgrown ferns. “Should we hide?”
“It sounds like Little Cat’s feet.”
“Tenzing?”
“Or maybe another cat.”
The green-eyed tabby leaped out between two mossy stumps. “I know where Keira and Lumen are,” Tenzing said panting, as he came to stop at James’s feet. He quickly explained to them that he also learned about the solar phenomenon, Dr. Albion’s projects, and the whereabouts of the white tent.
“But how are we going to get back inside?” James asked. “It’s easy for Tenzing to slip into a delivery van and go in unnoticed, but it’s going to be difficult for Falling Star and me.”
“I can push through the dome,” Falling Star said. “That’s how we got out in the first place.”
“Really?”
“I’m the only one strong enough
to do it.”
“I guess I don’t remember,” James replied.
“You were pretty out of it,” Falling Star answered.
“Let’s get going,” James said.
“Right now?” Tenzing asked from where he had curled up beneath a tuft of mustard flowers. “I just got out of there.”
“Yes, right now, lazy bones,” James replied.
The cat yawned languidly and stretched out his legs. He stood up and nodded his head. “I’m ready.”
“Back we go,” James said and stepped between the fern fronds and onto the path back to Fort Bragg.
“Come on, Little Cat,” Falling Star said to Tenzing as he stepped into the bushes.
“My name is Tenzing,” he said, grumbling. “Or I’m going to start calling you Lassie, even if you are a prince.”
FALLING STAR approached the dome on the south side, away from the North Gate, and placed both his hands onto it. An electric tingle ran up his arms and caused his golden hair to stand on end all over. He pressed his callused palms against the scintillating plasma field. At first the dome remained solid, but slowly Falling Star could feel it giving way under his pushing. He turned his head to look at James and Tenzing, who were hiding behind an outcropping of slipper orchids.
“I’m ready,” he whispered. “Come over and jump up on my back so I can pull you through. You too, Little Cat.”
“I’m not going to bother arguing with him anymore,” Tenzing replied under his breath. “Little Cat it is.”
“He’s just teasing you,” James said.
“I know,” Tenzing said.
“He’s got a weird sense of humor.”
James bent down and picked up Tenzing, who climbed up onto his shoulders. Then James walked over and clambered up onto Falling Star’s muscular back. He patted his shoulder. “We’re all set.”
“Hang on tight,” Falling Star said as the plasma parted around his hands and he began to sink into it with his passengers in tow. Before they knew it, they were each holding their breath and passing through the thick barrier. Electric shocks snapped all over their bodies. James felt himself absorbing the electricity as quickly as it pulsed around him, protecting the others. His internal battery recharged to full capacity. He hadn’t realized how much Dr. Albion’s last experiment had drained him. Tenzing squirmed. James placed his hand on Tenzing’s furry side to calm him down. Pink and purple flashes of light danced around them. Then the plasma wall puckered and spat them out. They tumbled out onto the tarmac.
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