The Cardboard Spaceship (To Brave The Crumbling Sky Book 1)

by Matt Snee

  7. However, the solar system is filled with wonders no one ever told you about!

  8. Enjoy!

  He read it quickly and turned to Jennifer, who gave him a sorrowful and questioning look. “Is this a joke? This is impossible.”

  “Is it?” she asked. “Look around. There's no such thing as impossible.”

  He read the pamphlet again. The things it said melted through his mind, but deep down inside he could almost feel the truth of it, as much as the logical parts of him screamed in protest against it. He gave the pamphlet back to her, not wanting to read it again. She held her cigarette in her mouth as she put the pamphlet back into her bag.

  “Who are you?” he asked her.

  “My name is Jennifer Pichon. That pamphlet …my father wrote it. He was a scap, like you.”

  “A scap?”

  “An Earthling who doesn't know the truth about Earth and the rest of the solar system.”

  “Because of the psychic block by…the Shadows?”

  “That's correct.”

  “I'm sorry,” Captain told her. “This is all more than I can bear. Why me? Even if this is all true, I don't understand what it has to do with me.”

  “Just a sec,” she said, extinguishing her cigarette and placing the butt into her bag.

  They rose up and out of the cloud back into the blue sky. Now Jennifer pointed behind them. “That's why I'm here.”

  “What?” He turned and looked. In the twilight, he could see the astronomical phenomenon that had appeared in the sky a week ago. He had forgotten all about it. The color of it looked especially nauseating from here. “That?” he asked. “What is it? Do you know what it is?”

  “I know what it is,” she said. “It's the No-Shape.”

  “The No-what?”

  “The No-Shape. It's formless. It exists, but it doesn't exist.” She shook her head. “I don't know how to explain it to you. All I can tell you is it signifies the end of everything both you and I have ever known. It's total destruction, a total hell threatening every living and non-living being in the solar system.”

  “But what has that got to do with me?” Captain pleaded.

  * * *

  Jennifer didn't know where to start. How could he ever possibly understand everything so quickly, as quickly as he needed to? Her eyes searched the skies for danger. They weren't safe yet. “Because only you can stop it.”

  “How do you know? I'm nobody!”

  “That's not true,” Jennifer told him. “Everybody is somebody. And you just happen to be the somebody I need, that we all need.”

  “But what can I do?”

  “Well, what is it that you do, do?” she asked him.

  “I write. I make stuff up, that's all.”

  “That's not all,” Jennifer explained. “You come up with ideas. New ideas. And that's what I need.”

  “An idea?”

  “Yes.”

  “But which one?”

  “I don't know. Maybe you haven't had it yet. All I know is you will have it.”

  “How do you know?”

  “That's what I was told.”

  “By who?”

  “By dead aliens.”

  Captain sighed. This was going nowhere. “I don't believe it.”

  “Believe what you want,” she snapped. “I don't believe it either.”

  * * *

  They were silent for a moment. Captain stared at the… No-Shape, the anomaly that spread above the horizon, illuminating and pulsing. Was it true? What should he believe?

  “Look, I'm sorry,” Jennifer said. “I'm not really good with people. You don't understand.I haven't been around people in twenty years. I was orphaned, and I … was alone for a long time. I don't know how to explain this to you. I don't know how to talk to people or just …be.” She lit another cigarette. Her hands shook. “I'm really trying.”

  “It's okay,” Captain said, thinking it was strange that now he was reassuring her. As crazy as all this was, he still felt good about her, even though she had lied to him—extensively. But had she told the truth, would he have believed her? Could he have believed her?

  “Look, Lewis. I'm not going to lie to you anymore. We're in grave danger. Everybody is, but us most of all. We're the only ones who can stop the No-Shape, and the creatures who know that want to stop us.”

  “You mean the Fangler?”

  “Yes. And others. The Shadows, the secret rulers of Earth, they don't allow people to escape. We haven't escaped yet. We still have more ground to cover. We have a long journey ahead of us. It's not going to be easy.”

  “And what if I say no?”

  “I've seen your heart. You won't.”

  “Did you really read all my books? Or was that just another lie?”

  “No, really I read all of them,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “Because once I knew I was coming for you, I knew I had to learn about you, and that was the only way I had.”

  “How did you …how did you know I can help?”

  “Like I said, the dead aliens, the Tiamatites—the ones who raised me after my parents died—they knew. They know many things.”

  “Where are you from really?”

  “I'm from a place called the Devasthanam. It's what's left of Tiamat, the fifth planet, which once sat between Mars and Jupiter, before it exploded, millions of years ago.”

  “Tiamat?” he asked.

  “Your culture knows the word. Threads of the true history exists in your own, you just have to find them. The ancient Sumerians, from the fertile crescent, they wrote of a goddess who was slain.”

  “And that was Tiamat?”

  “Yes. She died. The planet died. But those who lived there, the Tiamatites—who died too—their ghosts are left. Ghosts who speak.”

  “And what did they say?”

  “They said to find you. They told me you would have the idea.”

  “What idea?” Captain could swallow the alien part, but the stuff about him being important was difficult to believe.

  “The idea to save us,” Jennifer told him. “The idea to save the entire solar system.”

  5. The Secret Sky

  You cannot believe a single word of the research which follows, and even if you could, you would not remember it.

  Martin Pichon, “Le Système Solaire Caché”

  “We're very high now,” Jennifer said. “It's going to get bumpy. Just try to go with it until we make it past the secret sky, and then everything will be okay for a bit.”

  Captain could feel the acceleration. He looked down and saw nothing but clouds. Night spread above them. The box bent this way and that, but never faltered. Why can't I wake up? Captain wondered.

  “The secret sky?' What's that?” he asked her.

  “It's complicated,” Jennifer replied. “We'll be in space soon. Just give me a minute to think.”

  Captain's thoughts turned back to his mother. This was terribly real. He had loved his mother more than anything on Earth. How could she be… gone?

  The box jumped up and down in the air as a powerful wind struck them. Captain and Jennifer were thrown together.

  “It's okay,” Jennifer said. “We're safe.”

  The walls of the box shook as another powerful wind hit them. Jennifer grabbed Captain's hand. This time he did not pull away. Instead, he went dumb. But the turbulence brought him back to the moment. The box bounced around, throwing the two of them against its walls.

  They somersaulted backward and forward. The box was spun, thrown, bounced, and crashed through the air. Then a dark spray of liquid shot in at them from outside the box.

  “Ah!” Jennifer screamed.

  The liquid was so cold as to be almost burning. More splashed in, abrasive, violent.

  “What is it!?” Captain asked. “Are you okay?”

  “It's blood!” Jennifer answered. “Sky blood! But harmless. We're cutting through the Earth's atmosphere now! It won't be long until we're up into space.�
��

  This was nothing like he had ever imagined space travel to be like. The box continued to flip in the air, and the sprays of sky blood increased in their frequency.

  “It's almost over,” Jennifer promised.

  Then they hit something hard, some barrier in the sky, and crashed through it like it was some amalgamation of flesh and rock, a sinewy stone that groaned as they punched through it. Sky blood soaked the walls of the box, making the ink of the drawn-on controls smudge. The box twisted one more time, and then they burst into a weightless peace. Everything was quiet. No more sky blood sprayed at them. The enormous, blue orb of Earth hovered beneath them.

  “My God,” Captain said. He turned to Jennifer, stupefied.

  She seemed sure of herself suddenly, of everything, her spine straightened and a glow took over her face. “We made it.”

  “What now?” Captain asked.

  “Now we wait. We still have the secret sky to deal with. But we're not in Earth's realm anymore, and that's a big deal.”

  “We're in space, and we're alive!” Captain couldn't believe what was happening.

  “Oh yeah. That whole thing about the vacuum isn't quite true. Anyway, humans are predisposed to survive it. It's in our DNA.”

  There was nothing barring their view of the galaxy around them. Below them Earth loomed, a spinning distant ocean; and far below that the sun pulsed, warm. Back behind them hung the moon, gray and bathed in light.

  And all they did was float. Captain stared at Jennifer's hair twisting in the air like coiling ribbons. He had never been weightless before, and the experience was exquisite.

  “I don't believe it. It's… it's wonderful,” Captain said. And then a pang of guilt and loss hit him. If only his mother could see this—

  They streamed through space, stars spinning around them. The sun was warm on their skin, but the air was some mixture between fresh and foul, ancient and new, and they both took breaths carefully. Somehow, whether it was the lack of oxygen—or the shock—Captain fell asleep.

  * * *

  Jennifer watched him, worried. Had it all been worth it? What now?

  She shivered – she knew all too well what was next.

  Captain awoke some time later to find them still floating in space. “How long have I been asleep?” he asked her.

  “Forty-five minutes, I think,” she told him.

  “You should have woken me up.”

  “I thought maybe you needed to rest.”

  “I'm not sure if I'm awake.”

  “You are,” she said, grabbing him by the wrist for a moment.

  “My mother is really gone?”

  “I'm sorry.” There was a moment of awkward silence between them.

  “Where are we going now?” Captain finally asked.

  “The moon,” she said, truthfully.

  “What's there?”

  “The way to Tiamat.”

  “You mean, to your home?”

  “The Devasthanam,” she confirmed. “The temple.”

  “And what's there?”

  “Answers. I promise.”

  “I'm not sure I want them,” he admitted. He looked behind her. “Jeez!”

  “What?” she turned.

  Across the void in front of them, perhaps a hundred miles away, stretched a long, glowing red conflagration of light, which upon close inspection looked to be a city, floating in space. It flickered and bent like a mirage, but there was no denying its realness. Still, there was something off about it. It was like a phantasm, half there and half not there.

  “What is that?” Captain gasped.

  “This is the secret sky,” Jennifer told him. “The home of the Shadows. That is their city.”

  “I don't understand.”

  “It's okay. It doesn't make a lot of sense if you don't know the history. The Shadows rule Earth, secretly, and they have for millions of years.”

  “How?”

  “They have great power. This is where they live.”

  “What are they?”

  “They are… the first sons and daughters of God. The angels.”

  “The angels?” Captain didn't seem to believe it.

  “They have always ruled Earth. That is their role.”

  “But the pamphlet said they are evil,” Captain argued.

  “They are. They are not what they were. They fell and were punished by God.”

  Jennifer watched as the red city twinkled before them. They were in grave danger here. It was only a matter of time. She turned her head and checked the position of the Moon, which was getting closer, thankfully. She wondered how much it would hurt. She wondered if they would be strong enough.

  “What are they now?” Captain wondered.

  “They are terrible things. And they do terrible things.”

  “But why does God allow it?”

  “Because God allows everything. We are free. He does not intercede.”

  “But he did something to them, right?”

  “Yes,” she answered. “They are not free.”

  “And everything on Earth that's wrong …it's their fault.”

  “No. But they allow it.”

  “Do they intercede?”

  “Sometimes, on their own behalf. They rule from afar. They do not agree on everything. They each have their own motivations.”

  “How many are there? Thousands?”

  “Thirteen,” she corrected him.

  “Only thirteen?”

  “And their servants, the spirits. There were fourteen angels in total. One was not punished, or perhaps he was punished further than the others. I do not know.”

  “This is all a little hard to take,” Captain told her, rubbing his eyes and sighing. “So the whole Judeo-Christian religion thing …it's true?”

  “No!” Jennifer was certain. “Just parts of it. The religions on Earth only hint at the truth. The Shadows control what people know, and what they don't know. There are clues, but your minds won't believe it. The psychic block takes care of everything.”

  “And how do they do that?”

  “Like you would guess. With a machine.”

  They neared the Moon. Its glow stood wide in front of them. Jennifer bit her lip. They would be coming soon.

  Captain leaned over the edge of the box and watched the red city as it floated among the stars. “I hate them,” he said.

  “I know.”

  Captain paused for a moment, calculating. “Will the No-Shape harm them too?”

  “Yes,” Jennifer answered.

  “Then why don't they do something?”

  “I don't know.”

  “Then it's only us?”

  “I think so.”

  “But why?”

  She did not know.

  * * *

  Death is certain for the born.

  For the dead, rebirth is certain.

  Since both cannot be avoided,

  You have no reason for your sorrow.

  The Gita always spoke to her. But it seldom gave her answers. Still, she quoted it for Captain: “No one should relinquish their duty, even though it is flawed.”

  “What does that mean?” he asked.

  “It's from the Bhagavad Gita,” Jennifer told him. “It's Hindu. It means that all actions are enveloped by flaws, like fire is enveloped by smoke.”

  With that the howls began, creeping out of the corners of the void, long chants of wildness that echoed far around them. It was bone-chilling, the hair on their arms rose up, and shivers ran through them both.

  “What was that?” Captain asked Jennifer.

  “Danger,” she answered. “The burning wolves. Les loup brulants.”

  Les loup brulants. Those were her father's words. At twenty-two years of age, he had first escaped Earth, much like they attempted now. Born in France, educated in England, and a true rebel if there ever had been one, Marty Pichon had clawed his way off the planet, only to find the Shadow's final defenses:

  The burning wolves. No
one knew what they really were—some sort of sorcery, spirits culled from tyrannical hells, or just cursed animals bound to protect the boundaries of Earth from escaping fools. Now they hunted Captain and Jennifer as the two made their way out to the moon.

  Getting off the planet was one thing; really, except for the psychic block, anyone could do that. To bypass the secret sky was another matter entirely—a true trial that few braved and fewer survived.

  “What do we do?” Captain asked. Phantasmagoric shapes began approaching them from the direction of the Shadows' city.

  “We flee,” Jennifer told him. “Quick, we must go faster. Concentrate.”

  Maybe she could have told him the truth and maybe that would have been simpler. But how do you tell someone that in order to press forward, they must die?

  Captain urged the box faster, concentrating on the Moon and the territory in front of them. Jennifer placed her hand on his shoulder to reassure him. But there was no escape. This, Jennifer had always known.

  * * *

  The howls grew louder and a thundering breath echoed behind them. Captain turned. A pack of ghastly, translucent wolves—each the size of a small car—followed their trajectory across the heavens. There were seven of them, mouths gaping, red eyes flashing. He could see their burning souls through their bodies, sick green flames in their chests that flickered coldly.

  “Come on!” he told the box, and he urged it faster still. The wolves, however, continued to gain. “Shoot them!” Captain told Jennifer.

  “I can't. There's no use,” she said softly, resolved.

  “What do we do?”

  “We have to be brave, Lewis.” She clenched his shoulder tightly. “Just get us as close to the Moon as you can, so we can crash there once they're upon us.”

  The wolves were at their tail, snarling, barking,

  “What are we going to do?” Captain clenched the box, frantic.

  “Just take my hand and don't let go,” Jennifer told him. She held her hand out to him as the wolves descended. He frowned and took her cool skin into his own, just as the wolves reached them.

  They were even scarier up close, with glowing gray fur and drool spilling from their nostrils and mouths. Their breath was fetid, their claws sharp, and one could hear the crackle of their souls underneath their pounding hearts. They attacked the box first, ripping the cardboard to shreds, and then they pounced on Captain and Jennifer, who held hands as long as they could.