Darkfeather

by Andrew Demcak

  “You think so?” Lumen asked.

  “She’s never been in the Sun Stone or in space before, so that sounds like part of the Nibiru project. Why else would she be out there?”

  “But what was that mouth opening?”

  “Maybe the torpedo doors opening when we launch the device at the object?” Cedric suggested with a hunch of his shoulders.

  “And Lumen and James were there too. They were running around like they were panicked about something,” Keira said as she stood up. She wobbled a little, but Lumen and Cedric both steadied her. “I think I want to go back to the dorm.”

  “No problem,” Cedric said. “I’ll have an MP drive us. Just wait a minute. I’ll be right back.”

  “There they are,” Paul said as Cedric passed him on the way out of the Rec Room.

  James, Falling Star, and Tenzing ran over to help Lumen steady Keira. Downy feathers were still drifting through the air across the Rec Room and gathering in small piles.

  “What happened?” James asked as he waved the feathers away from his face.

  “Long story,” Lumen replied as she readjusted her grip on Keira.

  “I’m so glad you guys are back,” Keira said, still a little woozy. “Tenzing!”

  He leaped into Keira’s arms. She held him tight and rocked him back and forth. “I’ve missed you so much. I felt you were nearby, but I didn’t know where.”

  “We’ve been right outside the base,” Tenzing answered. “I missed you too.”

  “We’ve been plotting how to get back in and rescue you guys,” James said.

  “Falling Star!” Keira said as she noticed him lingering at the edge of the reunion. “How have you been?”

  “I’m fine,” he replied and tried to brush the gathering feathers off his hair without much luck. “We’re both fine.” Falling Star wrapped his arm around James and squeezed him close.

  James wiggled from the yeti’s grasp. “Okay, I can speak for myself.”

  “I know.”

  “Paul said you guys wanted to stay here and help Dr. Albion,” James said, his face full of concern. “That’s not true, is it?”

  “You saw that black spot on the sun, didn’t you?” Lumen asked.

  James nodded.

  “The whole planet is in trouble,” Keira said. “We’re the only ones who can do anything about it.”

  “Really?” James asked.

  “And we’re not helping Albion,” Lumen added. “We’re helping everyone.”

  “This isn’t another Paragon trick?” James asked.

  “Paragon is pretty resourceful, I’ll admit, but you saw that thing on the sun. I don’t know how they could do that.”

  “I want to stay because my mother is here working on the project. I finally have a chance to get to know her.”

  “Wait a minute,” James said. “Who was that guy who ran out when we got here?”

  Lumen blushed a little bit. “Cedric.”

  “That’s Cedric?” James asked. “The Cedric?”

  “Yeah, he’s working on the project too.”

  “I thought he disappeared.”

  “He did,” Lumen continued. “They sent him up here to Fort Bragg. That’s why he wasn’t at Paragon when you got there.”

  James looked at Keira and then Lumen. “Is that weird?”

  “Weird?”

  “Well, you know, because of who he is and what you guys did….”

  “Not at all,” Keira said. “In fact, we’re exploring polyamory together.”

  “You’re exploring what?” James asked and stared at them blankly.

  “Let’s just say that Keira and I are both seeing Cedric.”

  “Together,” Keira said and smiled at Lumen.

  “Whoa, that’s a new one,” James replied. “Kinda off the beaten path for you two, isn’t it?”

  “So says the guy who’s dating a yeti,” Lumen said and gave James the once-over twice.

  “Hey, wait a minute…,” Falling Star began to say.

  “I’m not dating Falling Star,” James added quickly. “We’re just friends.”

  “James doesn’t want to rush into anything,” Falling Star explained. “Not after what that douche over there put him through.”

  Paul, lingering in the doorway, looked up. “Watch your mouth, Monkey-Man!”

  “Make me,” he said with a snarl.

  “Would you two stop it?” James said. “You’re both being really annoying.”

  “You must be in heaven, James,” Lumen said in a teasing voice. “What, with two guys fighting over you.”

  “I’m not,” James confessed. “They don’t get it. I’m the one who decides who I want to be with, not them. And right now, they’re both getting on my nerves.”

  Falling Star and Paul looked at each other and backed down.

  “I’m feeling so much better since Tenzing and you guys came back,” Keira said. “We should tell Cedric not to bother with the MP.”

  “He’ll be back here in a minute anyway,” Lumen said. “We’ll tell him then.”

  “What happened to you?” James asked Keira.

  “I had a strange reaction to some Zetan tech.”

  “Did Dr. Albion use you as a guinea pig on some unfamiliar tech?” James asked, a little angry.

  “No, nothing like that,” Keira replied.

  “It was something Cedric brought up from Paragon. It’s called the Cube.”

  “The Cube?” James asked. “What does it do?”

  “It gets you high,” Lumen said. “But Keira had a weird reaction.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine now. Don’t worry.”

  “Are you sure?” James asked.

  “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  “A couple Army guys tried to get me high once,” Falling Star said. “I didn’t like it at all. Same with beer. Yuck. It’s nasty. I’d rather lick a skunk’s butt.”

  James turned to Lumen. “So, you really believe this Nibiru thing?”

  “Don’t you?”

  “I guess.”

  “Believe me, if someone were lying to us about this, I’d find out,” Lumen said, pointing to her head.

  “But everyone here takes those pills to block you out.”

  “Not everyone. Just those who work closely with us,” Lumen said. “And now that I’m not wearing the cuffs, I’m stronger than those pills sometimes. They just don’t know it.”

  “They haven’t given us a reason to doubt it, anyway,” Keira said and then paused dramatically. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

  “What is it?”

  “Not this way,” Keira said and took up James’s and Lumen’s hands. She pulled a little of Lumen’s telepathic power into her own mind and began. “My mother wants to meet with us. I don’t know what about.”

  “Maybe she knows that this is a trick?” James thought.

  “I don’t think so. But I have a feeling it’s about getting us out of here at some point. Maybe when this project is over.”

  “Did she say when she wants to meet with us?” Lumen thought.

  “Not yet, but I’ll let you know when she does.”

  Cedric and a tall MP walked into the Rec Room. Keira let go of James’s and Lumen’s hands, and they moved away from each other.

  “I’m feeling much better,” Keira said and smiled. “I’m okay now.”

  “Oh, okay,” Cedric said. “I guess we don’t need you after all.”

  The MP grinned at the teenagers and left.

  “I’m James,” James said and put out his hand for Cedric to shake. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “Oh, really?” Cedric said, raising an eyebrow and looking at Lumen as he shook James’s hand. “Good things, I hope.”

  “Only the best,” Lumen said quickly.

  “I’m Prince Tutata Taara of the Saesq’ec People,” Falling Star said. “But you may call me Falling Star.”

  “Prince Tutu, the dancing monkey?” Paul lisped
from the doorway behind them.

  “Shut your mouth.” Falling Star turned and growled at him.

  “Stop it,” James said firmly.

  Cedric shrunk back as Falling Star approached, towering over him, and also extending a hand to shake.

  “He’s our friend,” Keira said. “Don’t be afraid of him.”

  “I’m not afraid,” Cedric replied. “I just didn’t know these things existed.”

  “I am not a ‘thing,’” Falling Star said, a little indignantly. “I’m a person just like you.”

  “What I meant was…,” Cedric hurried to correct himself.

  “It’s all right,” James said, stepping in. “It takes a minute to get used to.”

  “It’s great to meet you,” Cedric said as he accepted Falling Star’s hand and shook it. “Listen I have to get back to the lab, and you guys have training to do.”

  “It’s true,” Lumen said. “We don’t have any time to lose. That object is on its way straight to earth. It will be here in less than three weeks.”

  “Let me tell Dr. Albion that you’re back,” Cedric said and tapped on his wrist communicator.

  “No, that’s all right,” James said. “I want to tell her myself.”

  While everyone was busy introducing themselves, Paul realized that this was the perfect time to get away unnoticed. He glared at Falling Star one more time, hurried out of the Rec Room, and then ran down the hallway, into the elevator and down to the floor where they kept the Sun Stone, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

  DR. ALBION hurried into the plastic cubical where James stood waiting. Her white lab coat flapped behind her like flag. She placed a silver tablet and clipboard on the desk and turned to face him. “I’m so glad you’ve come back to us,” she said as if fueled by some unspoken confidence they shared.

  “I’m not.”

  “James, the fate of the planet is in your hands,” Dr. Albion said and sat down. “We may not have seen eye to eye in the past, but at least now we have some common ground.”

  “The only reason I’m doing this is for Keira and Lumen.”

  “That may be, but you are also doing it for your mother and Paul.”

  “Leave my mother out of this!” James answered across the desk.

  “But James, she will certainly die as well as everyone else on the planet if you don’t help.”

  James stared coldly at the doctor.

  “You know I’m telling you the truth,” Dr. Albion said and then turned her tablet to face him. “I can show you all the data we’ve collected about the Nibiru object. It’s all here.”

  “I don’t need to see it. I told you already, I’m in.”

  “Very well, we have no time for pleasantries right now anyway. We need to start you in your training program.”

  “I know how to fly Zetan ships from back at Paragon.”

  “I realized that, dear boy, but you haven’t been in outer space yet. It’s quite different from being down here. There are things you must know, routines and information to make your mission a success.”

  “Just tell me where to go, and I’ll do it.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Dr. Albion said with a faint grin. “You can start by meeting up with Cedric and Dr. Darkfeather on Green Level. They’ll debrief you about the Sun Stone you’ll be flying.”

  James turned to leave, and then he paused and looked back at Dr. Albion. “There’s one more thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I want you to release Falling Star and his people.”

  “Whatever for?”

  “You heard me. Leave them alone from now on.”

  “I suppose there is no haggling about this point?” Dr. Albion said glumly.

  “None,” James said. “Let them go or I won’t help you.”

  “Very well,” Dr. Albion replied with a little bit of fluster. “I’ve been instructed to accommodate you in any way I can. Consider it done.”

  “Give the order.”

  “What?”

  “I want to hear you give the order.”

  Dr. Albion looked James over. “You certainly have grown up over these past few years. The boy I met at Paragon would never dare to speak to me in this way.”

  “That’s because the boy you met is gone. You killed him. I’m 10 billion watts stronger than he ever was.”

  Dr. Albion took a communicator out of her coat pocket and held it up. “This is Dr. Albion. I want you to release the Saesq’ec prisoners and let Prince Falling Star go with them. We are no longer interested in studying them. That’s an order.”

  James heard someone reply in the affirmative on the communicator.

  “Are you satisfied?” Dr. Albion said harshly.

  James smiled. “Yes, I am. Very.”

  PAUL WANDERED around the underground hangar on Blue Level, unnoticed by the lab techs who scurried about replacing parts and finalizing settings on the Sun Stone. A thick black cable ran from the back of the ship into a wall conduit. A yellow radioactive symbol identified it. Paul went over and tried to figure out which levers would detach it. He pressed down the first lever on the coupler.

  “Are you looking for Cedric?” a young tech in a blue jumpsuit asked.

  “Yeah,” Paul said as he spun around. “I’m supposed to meet him here.”

  The tech noticed the unfastened coupler and reached past Paul to fix it. “That shouldn’t be undone.”

  A yellow wasp flew between Paul and the tech, who waved it away with his hand.

  “I thought they got rid of those wasps. There was a nest on the wall over there. I don’t know how they got in here in the first place. I have to tell someone again.”

  “Oh, I didn’t notice,” Paul said. “What would happen if that cable was unplugged?”

  “That’s feeding the engine core, so it would only run out of energy,” the tech said. “But we’d really be in trouble if someone tried to feed this electrical cable into that outlet.” The tech slapped a white cable the same thickness as the black one a few feet over.

  “Is Cedric here?” Paul asked.

  “I haven’t seen him,” the tech said.

  “Okay, but tell Cedric I was looking for him,” Paul said and hurried away toward the elevator.

  “You bet.”

  14.

  FOR THE next week, the days blended into a routine of Zero-G basic training, Zetan vehicle repair, weapon deployment, docking, and various other mission duties. Dr. Darkfeather explained about zero gravity in the first training they all attended.

  “The effects of launching, or landing, for that matter, have various consequences on the human body, with the most significant being motion sickness, orthostatic intolerance, which is related to blood pressure, and other circulatory events.” She wrote the words, motion sickness, orthostatic intolerance, and circulatory events, on a blackboard.

  James and the girls were sitting in their pressurized space suits. They wore their suits every day now to get used to the seals, joints, straps, and tubes. The silver fiber on the sleeves and legs glittered, and the joints creaked when they moved around. They didn’t wear the helmets, though, because they were too heavy in Earth’s gravity.

  “Space sickness can occur within minutes of entering a fluctuating gravity environment. It can happen at launch, or from microgravity in space, or hypergravity, or during reentry and landing. The symptoms range from drowsiness, headaches, to nausea and uncontrollable vomiting. Seventy-five percent of astronauts get motion sickness. There is usually a small amount of postflight sickness, but only following long-duration, deep-space missions.”

  “Great, we’re all going to be barfing,” James said and shook his head.

  “Maybe not,” Lumen said hopefully. “We don’t know if a Zetan vehicle has some way of dealing with motion sickness, like some kind of countermeasure.”

  “Maybe a real one would,” James said. “This is a reverse-engineered, human-built one.”

  “We still won’t know until we’r
e out in space, though,” Keira added. “It’s best that we prepare.” She smiled at her mother, who continued speaking.

  “Postflight, the vestibular structure in the inner ear may be disrupted because of the microgravity. The otoliths, which are small concretions that sense body postures and balance, are sometimes out of position. This can lead to some postural illusions, such as a feeling of falling or spinning.”

  Dr. Darkfeather looked at her audience. They were already losing their focus. James and Lumen were fidgeting and yawning. “This feels like a good stopping point for today. Please review the video of this lecture later on, and I’ll see you again tomorrow morning.”

  James stood up first, his suit creaking and shifting from side to side.

  “I’m going to get changed,” he said quickly. “I’m supposed to hang out today with Falling Star.”

  “You really like him, don’t you?” Keira asked as she joined James.

  “He’s a nice guy, but it’s too early to tell if he’s boyfriend material.”

  “Too early to tell?” Lumen asked incredulously.

  “Yeah,” James replied. “I know he likes me. I mean, he follows me around like a lost puppy. But I don’t want someone fawning all over me. I want to date someone who is my equal.”

  “You’re going about this the wrong way,” Lumen said and patted James on the shoulder. “Stop thinking about it with your brain and think with your heart. That’s what I do.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, that’s how I can be with both Keira and Cedric at the same time.”

  “How can you have room in your heart for both?”

  “My heart is flexible.”

  Keira giggled beside James and then turned to follow her mother out of the classroom. “Wait up!” she shouted after her.

  “I don’t get it,” James confessed. “I have a hard enough time with just one partner.”

  “If you’re having a hard time, maybe you aren’t right for each other after all.”

  “You know what I mean,” James said. “Besides, how can you juggle two people at the same time?”

  “I don’t juggle. That’s the secret,” Lumen said and smiled.

  “I still don’t get it.” James scrunched up his face.