by Andi J Feron
We traveled by plane to California. Helen hired stylists to come and do our makeup and hair. I loved the dress that she picked for me, I felt elegant. Petra, however, thought otherwise; she was convinced we needed a little more skin showing.
We met Mr. and Mrs. Lui, who were very proud of Helen. The ceremony was quiet, as Helen hadn’t wanted a fancy wedding, and it consisted of only twenty-five people. After the wedding, Elliott and Helen left for their honeymoon in New Zealand.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Talon - November 25, 2010
Two days before our extended leave was up, Elliott and Helen joined us back on the station. We were already assigned a mission on the day leave was finished. The morning of our mission arrived sooner than I felt it should have. Helen and Elliott held hands as they boarded our craft.
“You two do know you have to use two hands to operate some of the controls?” Ajax joked.
Elliott and Helen kissed each other before taking their assigned spots. I was reading the mission’s assignment report. I had been in a tactical room, locating a lost ship for one of the admirals, so I had missed the briefing that the others had attended. We were negotiating a treaty with an alien race known as the Grocktians, but very little was known about them.
I looked at the pictures of the species and felt slightly creeped out. The way they stood was very mantis-like, with four pointed legs. They had two arms with human-like hands, but their fingers were thin and needle-like. Their bodies were long, and their face was humanoid but smoothed over with no ears. They were bald, and they ranged from grey to blue in color. Two long antennas extended from the top of their heads.
They looked like we should be running from them, not making friends. I knew I shouldn’t judge; just because they looked like the stuff of nightmares didn’t mean they weren’t a cordial species. The Loctorians wanted some type of artificial intelligence chip that they had designed, so managing an alliance with them was crucial.
We arrived on the planet, and five of them skittered toward us. My survival instincts told me to back away slowly to the safety of the ship. Instead, I stood with my feet firmly planted, waiting for their strange arrival.
“We are pleased to see your arrival safe,” one of the Grocktians spoke, their voice scratchy.
“Thank you for having us. We appreciate your hospitality,” Ajax said.
They showed us to the rooms we would be staying in. We each had a small room, just big enough for a round nest-like bed. Each of our rooms had another small room attached with a hole in the ground, what I assumed to be the bathroom. There were no pillows or blankets, and I was glad that I had my travel ones in my bag. They invited us to dinner but did not join us. They stood behind glass and watched us eat.
“Did anyone expect to be eating cheeseburgers and fries tonight?” Ajax asked.
“Definitely can’t say I’m disappointed.” Petra popped a fry in her mouth.
Elliott glanced around nervously. “Anyone see any cows though?”
I patted him on the back. “Try not to think about it too much Elliott.”
“Seems they are very kind to have studied our culture,” Fayard pointed out.
Negotiations began the next day. Fayard and Ajax took the reigns, as they were the most experienced in alliances. Petra wanted to manipulate them into an agreement to speed things up but she knew that their agreement would have to be voluntary. This would stop a species from crying fraud later on and avoid causing a headache for the council.
After the first day, the Grocktian leader, Akrote, had a surprise for us. He led us to a dry field with dark brown dirt. The soil looked like it would yield fruitful crops. A long sheet of ice, probably about the length of a football field, sat in the middle of a field.
“We have learned your species enjoys this activity, some violently by hitting a rubber disc into a netted cage, others for merriment and tricks. Fun,” Akrote explained our activity. “We prefer you not sway to the violent side, so we have not provided netted cages. In preparation for your arrival, we have gathered your sizes from the database and have produced ice skates.”
“How did you find our shoe sizes in a database?” Elliott sounded a bit creeped out.
“We have our ways. Your database was primitive.” Akrote pressed a button on a device, and several other Grocktian brought out ice skates. I was a little on Elliott’s side about there being a creepiness factor, especially considering that the skates had our names on them. We put the skates on and slid out onto the ice. Petra did a twirl in the air and landed perfectly.
Ajax’s mouth hung open. “You’re a figure skater?”
“Yep, was competitive for five years.” She awed us with her stunts.
Some of the Grocktians joined us on the ice. They didn’t need skates since their pointed legs glided nicely across the ice, reminding me of water striders. Seraphine grabbed my hand, and we glided together. She held both my hands as we spun in a circle. Elliott couldn’t ice skate and kept falling. Helen helped him up and steadied him, occasionally he would take them both down.
Fayard zoomed quickly around the ice. I remembered rollerblading was one of his favorite activities, so it made sense he could move right into ice skating. Ajax was a wobbly skater, but he only fell on his knees once and his butt twice. I was grateful that Allie talked me into taking her ice skating so often when we were younger, or else I would have floundered just as much as Ajax and Elliott.
We spent a good couple of hours on the ice while the Grocktians still skated with us. We laughed and spun, enjoying this unexpected mission treat. I kept wondering how they kept the ice from melting, as the outside air was warm.
We attempted negotiations for another three days, and each night we ventured back onto the ice. We got to know a Grocktian named Brack pretty well. He particularly liked skating. He and Ajax were at the same skating level; they weren’t great at skating, but they could manage. Ajax enjoyed Brack pulling him around on the ice.
On the fifth day of negotiations, Akrote said we would be taking a break from negotiations for the day, and we were going to tour their grandest city. Brack was our tour guide. All of the buildings were a sleek slate color, and each one towered hundreds of stories in the air. They were all connected at the roof through bridges. You could walk the entire city going roof to roof. Next to the walking bridges were places for round vehicles that drove Grocktians around. All of the advertisements in the city were holographic.
Brack took us to a building for lunch and the same thing as always occurred—we sat at a table while Grocktians would watch us eat behind glass. We invited Brack to eat with us, but he said that our invitation was unnecessary and we should enjoy our sustenance.
“Anyone else feel like we’re on display?” Elliott asked as we ate the very human food of spaghetti. Elliott tended to be paranoid on a typical day, but I was with him this time.
“We kind of are,” I looked up at the spectators intently watching us trying not to look savage not to look savage while eating one of the messier foods of humanity.
“It is odd,” Fayard agreed.
Brack took us to the sky bridges once we finished eating, where we walked around the city for the afternoon. All of the Grocktians scuttled around, and no one seemed to do much else but move from place to place.
“What does your species do for fun?” Ajax asked Brack.
“Fun? We do not have fun. We maintain our city.”
“There’s nothing you do for enjoyment?”
“No, that is a human concept. We maintain our city, that is all. “
“Sounds delightful.”
“Yes, it is quite satisfactory.” Brack missed Ajax’s sarcasm.
That evening they once again told us to ice skate.
“This was fun the first couple of days, but now I think I’m ready for something different. Too bad they won’t let us liven it up a bit with violent hockey, net cages and all,” Elliott said.
I guessed he was tired of falling on his butt co
ntinually.
“So Brack, what do you do when we are not around?” Ajax asked him as we were given another day to explore the maintained city.
“I clean the bridges. I want to be in the creation center. I work hard so someday I can work there. That is the ultimate accomplishment of a Grocktian. If I do well for humans I will be let to work there.”
“I’ll write you a letter of recommendation.”
“How would that help me?”
Elliott laughed. “It wouldn’t. Ajax thinks his opinion has sway.”
Finally, after a week, the Grocktians agreed to join our alliance. They would give us their artificial intelligence program, and we would protect their city so that they could keep their focus on maintenance. We thanked Akrote for his hospitality.
“We’re getting ready to leave, we just need the program,” I informed Akrote.
“We have let you sample the unit we are sending. We hope you found it satisfactory?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. When did we sample the technology?”
“Your tour guide. Brack, come forward.”
“Me, sir? I must go?” Brack sounded immensely disappointed.
“Yes, you have been chosen.”
“Sir, I was told if I did well with humans, I could go to the creation center. I have worked my way to bridges to be noticed for the task.”
“Instead, you have been chosen for this task.”
Akrote touched the side of Brack’s head, and Brack went stiff. Akrote pushed another spot on Brack’s head, and his skull opened, revealing a chamber that seemed to be made of steel. After pushing a few more spots, a thin rectangle moved upward, and Akrote grabbed it with his hand and gave it to me.
“This is the technology. The Loctorians may put it in a more compatible unit for your species.
Back on our ship, we prepared to go back to base.
Ajax typed into a console, preparing our launch. “What just happened? They’re all androids.”
“Explains why they don’t eat,” Seraphine said.
“Yeah, but poor Brack. All he wanted was to work in the creation center.”
Petra scoffed at Ajax’s pity. “He’s a robot.”
“Android is more accurate. Haven’t you watched TV? Androids have feelings too.”
Petra shook her head at Ajax. I secured the technology in our ship’s safe, which was durable enough to protect it even if the ship exploded. When we got back to base, Admiral Parks praised our accomplishment. She asked Seraphine and me to stay behind when the others left.
“You both are being promoted to captain, which I know is your cap. I read the report, and I have to say I believe the entire thing is unfortunate. I wish I could remove the reprimands, the two of you have definitely proven yourselves many times over. However, the type of reprimands they are make them unremovable.”
“We have accepted this a long time ago, ma’am. We’re not in this for the promotion,” I told her.
“Even so, the entire thing never should have happened. You shouldn’t have been punished for doing what should have been done by those in charge. You were young, and you did the right thing.”
“Talon’s sister is alive and well, and that is enough for both of us,” Seraphine said.
We left Admiral Parks office to get out of our uniforms.
“You really okay with never being above the rank of captain?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m not in this for rank. I’m in this for humanity and mainly family.”
Our promotion ceremony took place the following week, and our team threw us a party. Elliott made his famous lemon cake, and I ate too much of it. Seraphine was right, we didn’t need rank, only our family safe.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Talon - December 15, 2010
The Loctorian council was good about rewarding soldiers with time off after they accomplished something significant. This helped with motivation and prevented soldiers from burning out. They gave us a week off after we secured the Grocktian alliance. Seraphine and I went to the tropical moon we’d been meaning to get to. We spent our days at the spa and snorkeling in the moon’s self-illuminated coral reef.
Seraphine made sure that she had an umbrella over her each time we went to the beach. She said one of the curses of being a redhead was how easily her pale skin burned. She also made sure to have a sun hat on when we walked around.
We had to buy special sunscreen to combat the particular components of this moon’s sun. With all her effort, Seraphine still burned because she miscalculated the reapplication time by an hour. She looked at herself in our hotel mirror and frowned.
“I’m a lobster,” she groaned.
“Cutest lobster I’ve ever seen.”
“No cuteness is involved here. Look at you. You barely stay out of the sun, and you have a beautiful tan. Can’t your genetics be flawed in some manner?!”
“My genetics are so flawed I once turned scaly.”
“Accidentally being injected with an RNA editing compound doesn’t count.”
“Babe, come here, I’ll put this cream on you. The lady at the front desk says it will get rid of your burn by tomorrow.”
I massaged the cream into her and was rather enjoying myself when she said, “Talon, my chest is well-covered. I think it’s so covered that you have ensured that if we hang out at a nude beach my next three sunburns will heal instantaneously at that location.”
“Prophylactic is best, and besides, it’s my favorite area to protect.”
She laughed, turned around to push me back on the bed, and kissed me. We had two days left and spent them in the hotel. Seraphine’s burn was nearly gone after the first night using the cream, but she didn’t want to risk a relapse. I didn’t complain because it meant we got to pursue more private endeavors.
On our last night there we went to a large bonfire on the beach. There was a buffet of various foods to roast, a large variety of alien and human cuisine available for us to choose from. After making our selection, we would put it on a stick and take it to the fire to roast it to the degree we found satisfactory. We fed each other various foods, kissing between bites. A band began to play music, and we danced on the beach by the light of the bonfire.
We finished the night by walking on the beach holding hands. We stopped about a mile up the beach and sat, watching shooting stars zoom across our view. We walked back to our hotel room and I filled the jacuzzi tub in our room. We sat soaking while we watched a movie. We only made it half an hour through the movie before we found ourselves distracted with each other.
When we finally made it to bed Seraphine laid her head on my chest. “I can’t remember the last movie we finished.”
“It was probably a group setting where we had to control ourselves.”
“I like our private viewings better.”
I wrapped my arm around her. “Glad we’re on the same page.”
We packed up our bags and spent one day back on base before Admiral Parks had a mission for us. We were told our destination was an island on a remote planet a few solar systems over from base. We were being sent to find three teams that went missing without a trace. I wasn’t even able to track them, which made it stranger. I could find the soldiers if they were dead, so there was little explanation for me not locating them.
Something was unnerving about willingly traveling into an unknown danger that had potentially already claimed three other teams. Wasting lives seemed to be a pastime of the Loctorian council. The Loctorians refused to leave the planet alone because they discovered from scans there was a chemical that would aid cloaking technology.
The Loctorians were seeking to outwit the Khalbytians in this area since the Khalbytians always seemed to have more advanced defense systems. I felt we were on this mission more as resource collectors than search and rescue. Sensors showed the highest deposits of the compound were in the northern pocket of the planet. Ajax piloted the ship and landed us on a large island.
Ajax scanned the
planet again. “I’m not picking up any life signs, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Talon?”
I concentrated and reported, “Trail is murky, but there seems to be some sort of presence roughly three kilometers from here. That would be the best place to look since the previous teams would have most likely landed here where the biggest concentration is.”
“Atmosphere is safe. No environmental suits needed,” Elliott said.
We began hiking, and the ground was pretty level with a burgundy grass growing that reached to our ankles. No other plants appeared around us for as far as I could see. We walked about two and a half kilometers before I concentrated again.
I was attempting to find the lost soldiers, but it was as though my tracking sense was now only half on. I could see glimpses, but the location was scrambled. The further we walked, the hazier the air began to appear, and I realized we were immersed in the chemical itself.
“Eek! Spiders! Okay, I can’t do this anymore!” Petra was staring ahead of us.
“What spiders?” I asked her.
“Right there! There are hundreds of them!” Petra’s eyes were wide, and she pulled her gun out, ready to fire.
Seraphine touched her arm. “There are no spiders, Petra.”
Petra closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. “I swear there were tons of spiders. Where did they go?”
“Ahhhh!!” Helen was screaming and ran to the left of us.
Fayard pulled out his knife and began stabbing the air and stomping with his feet.
“I told you there were spiders!” Petra screamed and ran off in the opposite direction from Helen.
“Noooo!!” Ajax’s eyes were filled with terror and he bolted back the way we came.
Elliott began firing his weapon in front of us.
“Put that thing away, Elliott!” I demanded.
When he failed to respond, I stunned him with my gun, and he dropped to the ground. Seraphine was frozen in place, paralyzed with fear.