by David Liss
He came and sat down next to me. “A few years back I faced the same choice. I could go back to my family, or I could stay away and try to help the entire world. I know I made the right decision, but it was a painful one, and it hurt every day. You need to understand what you are agreeing to. You’re still just a kid, but you’ve been out there. You know it can be dangerous.”
I’d never heard the story of how my father left Earth, and how he managed to advance so far in Confederation politics under an assumed identity. It was one of those things we hadn’t had a chance to discuss. Now wasn’t the right time either, but I made a mental note to talk to him about this when we had a quiet moment together.
“I do understand,” I said, “but I think you know that I have to do it.”
“For Tamret? You can save her just by meeting with the director. After that you don’t have to do anything. You can come right back.”
That was true, but if I did that, I’d never see Tamret again. “They’re offering a lot. I need to at least hear what the director wants from me, but if it’s even slightly reasonable, I have to do it. The things I did got Earth kicked out of the running for Confederation membership. If there’s a way for me to fix that, I can’t ignore it.”
He nodded. “I know. I know what it would cost you if you didn’t, but they’re not playing fair with you. If they really wanted to give you the chance to back out, they’d explain what they want while you’re still on Earth. And Zeke, no matter what the director does to protect you, Junup will still be your enemy, and a dangerous one. You need to remember that.”
“Believe me, I won’t forget it.”
He shook his head.
“What?” I asked. “Are you upset that I’m going away?”
“Well, yes,” he said, “but I’m just thinking about the fact that you broke into an American military base.”
“Dad,” I said, “I broke into Area Fifty-One in order to steal a flying saucer. Get the story right.”
There was a knock on the door, and then my mother came in. And then there were a lot of tears.
• • •
I wanted to give them a chance to talk alone, so I encouraged everyone to leave. Colonel Rage had instructed my mother to bring a duffle bag with clothes for me, so I found a bathroom in which I changed into things that actually fit me and then met up with the others in a small break room. grabbed a hot chocolate—instant, but still pretty good. I brought one to Urch, who kept poking at the melting marshmallows with his claw.
At some point while I had been dealing with my parents, Alice and Jacinto went off to speak privately with Colonel Rage. Now they came and sat down with us. I gave them a short rundown of what Urch had told me—that the new boss, whom I did not know or trust, wanted me back, and was offering me too much for me to say no.
“I’m glad it’s worked out for you,” Alice said, smiling crookedly. “It sounds like you got everything you wanted.”
“We’ll see if they deliver. What about you guys? Are you in trouble?”
“They’re not sure what to do with us,” Jacinto told me. “We’ve seen more than they’re comfortable with, but I think they also understand the world is changing.”
“Can’t keep this stuff a secret forever,” I said.
“They’ve been trying to do just that for a long time,” he told me.
Alice looked up at me, her gaze steady, her jaw set. “You need to add one more condition to your agreement.”
Alice was sharp. If I’d missed something, I wanted to know about it. “Okay, what are you thinking?”
“You have to let us go with you.”
“Please tell her that is not authorized,” Urch said. He could understand her, even if she and Jacinto couldn’t understand him. “The director has permission to bring the former Earth delegates, and Colonel Rage will be joining you as a guardian and advisor, but you cannot have any others from your world on the ship.”
I nodded, glad to have some cover. I understood that she wanted to come along. I could only imagine what it would be like to learn about the Confederation, to get a hint of all that was out there, and then to be told you couldn’t see it. I sympathized with Alice, but she had no experience with life outside Earth. The director was going to ask me to do something dangerous, and Alice didn’t have the experience or training for what I was likely going to face.
“Urch says no,” I told her. “He isn’t allowed to bring anyone from Earth except for me, the other former delegates, and the colonel.”
“That’s not fair,” she said, slamming her hand down on the table. A marshmallow flew out of Urch’s cup and hit him in the tusk. He scraped it off with his claw and ate it.
“Alice, I don’t know what you think it’s going to be like—”
“That’s just it. I don’t know, and I want to. You owe me, Zeke. You thought you were in trouble, and I dropped everything for you. I helped you take on the United States military, and you are going to toss me aside.”
“It’s not my call,” I said.
“Maybe not,” she snapped, “but I don’t see you arguing for me either.”
That was true. I was hiding behind Urch’s pronouncement, and I knew I would not have let that stop me if he’d said the other initiates couldn’t come along. I would have refused to budge if they hadn’t agreed to my terms for Tamret. This, however, was different, and I couldn’t exactly explain that to Alice. I didn’t think she would want to hear that if she came along, I would feel responsible for her safety in what was probably going to be a very dangerous place.
“I owe you a lot,” I told her, “and I’m not going to forget it. Not ever. But right now isn’t the time. If I manage to do whatever it is I’m supposed to do, and I don’t get killed, then they’ll give me my own spaceship. When that happens, I promise you’ll get the grand tour. I’ll show you all the incredible things I’ve seen and even some new ones, but you’re going to have to wait.”
“Right,” she said. “When you finish this whatever it is, you’ll be off with your alien girlfriend, and you’ll completely forget about me.”
“That’s not true,” I told her, desperate to make her believe me. She had risked her life to help me, and I wasn’t going to forget that.
Maybe she didn’t know me well enough to understand that I didn’t abandon my friends, or maybe she just didn’t want to wait. Alice turned away.
“For what it’s worth,” Jacinto said to her, “Zeke is making the right decision.”
“You too, Uncle Jacinto?” She looked surprised. “You risked everything to get this far.”
“I wanted to find out the truth about aliens,” he said with a shrug. “I found out the truth. I’m sitting in a cafeteria with an alien right now. I’m calling this a win.”
Alice looked around the table. We were all gazing at her with serious expressions—all but Urch, who was now licking the inside of his Styrofoam cup.
“Fine,” she said, folding her arms. “But please let me stay until you guys leave. Let me meet your other friends. Can I at least see inside the shuttle craft?”
Urch now had the cup turned upside down, and he was shaking drops into his mouth. “This is the most delicious excrement I have ever tasted,” he said.
“What do you say, Urch? Can she get a quick tour of the shuttle? I owe her.”
“She can,” he said, “if someone gets me another cup of this liquid.”
• • •
Colonel Rage decided to be easygoing about all the illegal stuff we’d done to get into Area 51. He told me that the government would not file charges against Alice and Jacinto, and that they could remain at the base until I left with Urch. He arranged guest quarters for them as well as for my mom and dad. We were just waiting for the rest of the previous initiates to show up, and then I would be heading back to Confederation Central. Charles and Mi Sun had agreed without missing a beat, like all this time they’d also been waiting for something to happen that could get them back into space. Nayana had
taken a little more convincing.
“I don’t want to have to face any hazardous situations,” she told me on the phone. “Can you promise me everything will be safe?”
I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of dealing with her obstructions and complaints again. I was just about to politely tell her that it was fine if she didn’t want to come along, but then I remembered how brilliant she was, how she was the one who’d connected the dots and discovered that my father was alive and a member of the selection committee. She’d helped us to figure out how to defeat the Phands’ defenses at the prison. Nayana’s most obvious talent was being a pain in the butt, but she was also incredibly skillful at too many other things that mattered.
I supposed we could just ask the director to put a genius on our team—preferably one with combat training—but then I thought about what it would mean having to deal with a stranger. No matter how difficult Nayana could be, I trusted her. Maybe she was no commando, but she’d had piloting and weapons training, and she knew how to handle herself. I also knew exactly where she stood. More than anything else, she was my friend—as much of a friend as she would let herself be—and I wanted to be surrounded by people I could count on.
“Nayana,” I told her, “you are pretty much irreplaceable. We’ll do this without you, but I don’t want to have to.”
“Very well,” she said with a sigh. “I suppose I must save my planet. Again.”
When I finished the phone call, I told Urch that she had agreed. He then sent a message to his ship to tell Director Ghli Wixxix that I had accepted all her terms. He assured me that the director would send a comm beacon to Confederation Central and they would begin the process of getting Tamret off her home world. Urch promised to let me know as soon as he had any information, which was great, but it didn’t do much to alleviate my constant state of tension. I had no idea if Tamret was okay, or even if she was still alive. I lived in fear of the moment Urch would take me aside and tell me he had received bad news.
Meanwhile I got to spend time with my family—my whole family. I have to admit it was a little awkward, the three of us being together again. My mom didn’t seem to know exactly what to say, and my dad seemed a little overwhelmed by being back on Earth. He could see I was a little alarmed, and he took me aside to tell me not to worry.
“This is a huge change for all of us,” he said, “and your mother is worried about you as well, but it’s nothing we won’t get past. We just need a little time. You’ve got enough problems, and I promise you, this isn’t one of them.”
Urch was as good as his word, and he gave Alice a tour of the shuttle. Her clothes had begun to get a little ripe, and now she was wearing an Army T-shirt and camouflage pants—they’d managed to find stuff for her that fit—and a cap that barely contained the mass of her hair. Her eyes were as large as dinner plates as she wandered around the shuttle, wanting to know everything: weapons, acceleration, navigation, and just about every other feature. She even asked about basic operations, like shuttle security, storage, ballast, and tons of other things so boring I could barely make myself pay attention—except I had to, since I was translating for her.
“Can I get a quick tour of the actual starship?” she asked.
“No, that’s not going to happen,” Urch told her through me.
“Please,” she begged.
Urch was adamant. Finally she accepted the decision, and she stormed off.
“You like them fiery,” Urch told me.
“You want the fiery ones on your side in a pinch.”
“Good thing you’re leaving her behind,” he said. “That one is trouble.”
The next morning I woke up and found Mi Sun and Nayana in the commissary, looking sleepy and jet-lagged. It was great to see them. I gave them both hugs, and for once neither of the girls was reserved. Mi Sun was grinning so broadly she almost looked like a different person.
“Your face!” I shouted. “It’s cracking!”
She actually laughed. She had been so serious and critical when I’d first met her, I sometimes forgot how much she had changed during our time on Confederation Central. Now I looked at these two girls, who had seemed to hate me when we first set out into space, but whom I’d come to like and trust. They both wore jeans and interesting long-sleeved T-shirts, like they’d coordinated their outfits. Maybe they had, but more importantly, I realized, they were dressed not for looks, but to be practical—these were clothes that gave them freedom to move but wouldn’t get in the way. They were ready for action, and I wondered if they were as happy to get back to the Confederation as I was.
I sat down at the table with them. “Maybe we’ll have a chance to set things right this time.”
They both nodded, like they’d been thinking the same thing.
“I hate to admit it,” Nayana said, “but returning to my life, though it is interesting and glamorous, has been a bit of an adjustment. Maybe if Junup hadn’t chosen to make us into villains, I’d feel differently, but I somehow don’t quite belong in my own home anymore.”
Mi Sun nodded. “I know exactly what you mean. All the things that used to seem important now feel silly. I hate that we left so much undone.”
“We came so close to securing Earth’s place in the Confederation,” Nayana agreed. “We did secure it. If it hadn’t been for that awful alien, the world would be a different place.”
“They’re giving us another chance,” I said. “This time we’ve got to be careful not do anything that someone like Junup can object to.”
“And you say Steve will be joining us. And Tamret?“ Mi Sun said, arching her eyebrows.
“Yeah. I’ll have to remind both of them to be on their best behavior, but the main thing is, we’re back in it. We have another chance. It’s so crazy. People become doctors or politicians or whatever because they want to try to take on big challenges, but none of them have a shot at the kind of difference we could make.”
We all knew that the Confederation had its problems, and it was certainly populated by some very flawed beings, but it also had so much to teach us. We were lucky to have gone to Confederation Central once, and now we were going back. I felt a nagging anxiety, though. I still had no idea what the director needed from me. Why did she have to travel all this way and make all these agreements to meet with a middle school kid from Earth? I was dying to know, but at the same time I dreaded finding out.
That afternoon, another small plane landed, this one carrying Charles. I watched him descend the steps and walk toward us on the runway. There was something different about him. His gait had a confident swagger, but there was more to it than that. I then realized that his clothes were different too. He wore a white shirt, open at the collar, and a brown canvas vest. His pants were a faded blue, tucked into high boots, and he wore a thick belt slung loose at the waist.
By the time we were close enough for me to shake his hand, I realized why his outfit looked so familiar.
“You are totally dressed like Han Solo!”
“This time,” he told me, wagging his finger like a cartoon schoolteacher, “I have come prepared.”
“For cosplay?”
“I always held out hope that we would have another chance to go back to the Confederation, so I have been studying.”
Now I was really curious. “Studying what?”
“Television, cinema, comic books, all of it,” he said cheerfully. “I have turned myself into a nerd!”
I looked him up and down. “I’d say you’re more of a fanboy.”
“There is no need to address me as though I were a nerf herder,” he said with mock seriousness. Then he started to walk toward the main building. “Come. Let us get a cold drink and discuss the many differences between the original Battlestar Galactica and the remake.”
• • •
Now that everyone had arrived, Urch injected everyone with nanites for translation and to activate a limited HUD. We could not rack up experience points or gain levels, but we were told w
e’d get data bracelets once we boarded the ship.
We all had dinner together that night—my mom, my dad, Colonel Rage, Urch, Jacinto, Alice, Mi Sun, Nayana, and Charles. It was one of those weird moments when people from different parts of your life, not to mention the galaxy, are all together in the same place. Everyone seemed to enjoy each other’s company, though my mother kept casting uncomfortable glances at Urch’s plate. I had been afraid that Alice was going to be glum or resentful, but she seemed upbeat and was chatty with Charles, Mi Sun, and Nayana. It was a great evening, and I wished I could have enjoyed it more, but I couldn’t shake my worry about Tamret. The idea of getting back to her had been a pipe dream for so long, but now I was going to see her soon, and the things she must have been going through all these months became more real and urgent—and all the more terrible because they were unknown. Then there was the business with our mission. What could the most powerful being in the Confederation want from me.
The next day I had to say good-bye to my mother yet again, only this time she wasn’t sick, and this time I wasn’t leaving her alone. She and my father hadn’t quite gotten their rhythm back, but I could see they were working on it, they both wanted to make up for lost time, and that was good enough for me.
My mother hugged me tightly, and then my father took me aside.
“I know you have to do this,” he said. “And I know there’s no point in telling you to be careful, but I’m going to tell you anyhow.”
I nodded. “Any thoughts on who I can trust?”
“Your friend Urch seems pretty solid. He thinks highly of Ghli Wixxix, but I don’t know her, so you’ll have to use your best judgment. She’s been on the right side of most important issues, but she went to school with Junup, and they were friends until a few years ago. I don’t like it. I wish Dr. Roop could be there for you. He’s pretty much the most trustworthy being in the Confederation. You can trust your friends, of course, but they’ll be out of the loop, just like you. Captain Hyi on this ship seems like a good being, but I got a bad vibe from the crew. Most of them wear Junup’s Movement for Peace armbands, which means they won’t be on your side. Don’t say anything private around someone you don’t know.”