“The Nagas!” screamed Takota.
“We’re out of time!” Rix pleaded. “Help us, True Soul! Save us!”
Jack wouldn’t accept it. His first reaction was to try and wake up. He was in bed, dreaming. That had to be it. No alien world begging him to be its savior. No army of Nagas slithering through the sky. No life or death struggle staring him in the face. It was no dream. The aromas of that unfamiliar planet—sulfur and burnt grass and other scents too exotic to describe—each colluded to ensure he recognized everything as all too real.
Rix pointed to the attacking multitudes.
“You have to do something, True Soul!”
Jack’s neck craned up, up, up. He tried to widen his eyes to capture the entirety of what he was seeing. It seemed impossible. Only in the wildest of fantasy paintings had he witnessed anything comparable. A planet, larger on the horizon than the horizon itself, rising like the sun and eclipsing the daylight.
Rix and his allies ran from the debris falling from the sky. Everywhere the La’oonians turned, the destruction went from bad to worse. Trees collapsing. Ground liquefying. Buildings shaking and shattering. The very air seemed to catch fire, and Jack felt it hard to breathe all of a sudden.
Jack pressed and held the O/A. He inhaled deep and hard, fighting for air as the energy from hundreds, millions, quadrillions of dimensional duplicates fused within him, making him the strongest living being imaginable. The potency of the O/A was nothing to trifle with, and he needed to be fully prepared for the all-out mental assault. Concentrating, he diverted the power stream to his own liking, a blacksmith forging a white-hot bar of iron, fashioning it into a formidable weapon. His weapon of choice—the air. The atmosphere, to be exact. He thought of the surrounding gases, and then imagined applying force to those gases vertically in the form of vapor, achieving the optimal atmospheric pressure, and, once again, restoring the oxygen supply to the planet.
Takota took a deep breath through his nose.
“Good job, buddy!” but his joy didn’t last long. His eyes got huge and he disappeared in a ripple of light. Jack heard a horrible collision just above. He looked to find Takota, spread eagle in midair, with a winged serpent in each hand and each foot, along with at least three in his mouth. The flying eels snapped and clawed at their sudden captor, never once taking their cold, calculating eyes off Jack. They were on a singular mission to destroy him, and would have if it weren’t for Takota’s quick reflexes.
A few serpents got past, though, and, at the last second, Lark came forward and sent a barrage of gold-colored lightning from her Eteea machine, pelting the dark snakes and repelling them as if they’d hit a wall.
Jack nodded at Lark, thanking her for the help. Then he doubled his concentration on the looming planet, its vast, churning bands becoming the only things visible in the sky. Though he knew the giant was mostly gaseous, and could have been dissipated with the right molecular expertise, he had no time to dwell on chemical compositions. This time it would be nothing but brute force. And a whole lot of it.
At its highest setting, the O/A hummed and chirped with ferocity, its glow reflecting off the eyes of the surrounding witnesses. With his hand extended, he clenched his teeth, focusing every ounce of energy, every micron of power in his soul at the gigantic planet.
A faraway moaning and grinding. The approaching planet stopped, and, slowly, became smaller in the horizon. Little by little, the natural daylight appeared, first a sliver of blue, then a slice, then a large chunk. Jack pushed harder, and the once threatening celestial body moved even further. More and more he pressed, making sure the planet had no chance to collide with La’oon again.
“It worked!” Jack was both proud and surprised. “Takota! Did you see that! I moved a planet with the O/A! A whole planet!”
“That’s great,” Takota answered, pointing straight up. “Now can you move a solar system?”
His stomach dropped when he saw what Takota was talking about. Planet after planet, plummeting from the heavens, racing toward them from all angles at once. A pinkish giant, larger than Jupiter, with yellow gaseous swirling superstorms. A brownish gray pockmarked rock smaller than Mercury. A reddish and desolate desert planet resembling Mars. And even a medium-sized blue and green one with white, puffy clouds like Earth. One ringed like Saturn. Another all black with a charred crust. All on a collision course with the world the inhabitants called La’oon.
“NO!” he wouldn’t accept failure. “These people don’t deserve this!”
He pressed the O/A harder. Maybe he could get just a little more out of it. The protective bubble stretched and stretched, encompassing the mountainside, then the city below, then the timbered valley. The entire time it extended, it crackled and snapped wherever it touched a serpent, obliterating the nasty thing on the spot much like a bug zapper. ZAP! Went another, then ZZZAAAAPPP! a whole troop of them, eliminating them from above the hillside and beyond.
A mighty cheer erupted as the shield grew and grew. Jack imagined it surrounding the entire planet, and it was so. But it wouldn’t last. Takota seemed to know it, and stayed close as Jack trembled under the strain.
“Jack, you’re not doing so well,” he looked troubled. “Are you okay?”
Jack wanted to respond, but it took all his concentration just to maintain the force field. Every muscle in his body was tense. Then he started shaking violently. The pressure. The amount of energy he had to control. It was too demanding. A tear began to develop in the shield, coming from far off in the distance, and traveling fast.
Takota shouted, “It’s coming apart!”
Jack couldn’t see past the horizon, and was having a hard time picturing the shield beyond that point. The Nagas, in their airborne state, were finding ways to slip in. His forehead burned. His nose bled. And the sweat. Buckets of it. The small split in his shield, despite his best efforts to stop it, grew into an enormous gap, and in rushed a wave of boiling hot air, toppling swaths of trees in the great forests.
“The atmosphere!” Jack screamed.
A wave of hot vapor spread in all directions, leaving a jet of steam and destruction in its wake. All houses collapsed into piles of rubble like Popsicle models. Screams and wails were replaced by eerie winds, blitzing the landscape. The structures that didn’t fall were laid siege to by mobs of flying black things. Even from the distance of hundreds of yards, Jack heard their claws clattering and their jaws chattering.
Then a shockwave hit Jack and he felt the ground turn to liquid and dust.
“Come on!” Takota led him to an open space, with nothing above them but sky. The closest planet was near collision. Jack saw every miniscule feature of the other world’s topography in distinct detail. And he felt its influence too. No air. No atmosphere to keep the temperature moderated. The shade became a subzero freezer.
The O/A summoned another spherical shield for Jack and his protector. His heart broke that it couldn’t do the same for the others. Jack watched the little girl, the Eteea warrior, at her father’s side, turning away a regiment of flying snakes with a constant bombardment from her Eteea machine, a golden gem packing a powerful punch. Others used sophisticated light cannons, firing volley after volley into the circling, hissing reptiles, wiping whole swatches of them out of the sky at a time. The La’oonians were formidable, and they fought valiantly. But it wasn’t enough.
The ground split open, threatening to swallow everything in sight. The O/A had Jack and Takota both in its protective sphere, dangling them above the destruction. Whole mountainsides fell away, sliding and leveling what was left of the metropolises as the O/A lifted both friends higher and higher, up and up, past the dusty layers of war. Jack felt inadequate. He’d helped, but not enough. Too little, too late. Saving his small hometown from a tsunami was one thing. Defending an entire planet from this cosmic onslaught was a different ballgame altogether.
As the O/A brought them higher, Jack got a better view of the encroaching worlds. Tossing and colliding, ric
ocheting like gigantic pinballs, they roared toward the unsuspecting and innocent La’oon. The velocity alone created a visible shifting of the background, things stretching into strange shapes. Jack’s ears rang, and the O/A shook as it streaked from the scene at a million miles an hour, so fast, Jack glimpsed only the final act of devastation. Several worlds collided with the much smaller La’oon, surrounding and crushing it into dust. The O/A took them further away, slipping through the purplish halo which encircled the great galaxy. Then Jack witnessed the worst event of all. The dazzling, gaseous cloud turned to charred cotton candy and crumbled to nothing. All life. All light. Every shred of proof that planets or stars or moons or comets had ever existed—all gone.
“Where did it all go?” asked Takota.
“So you saw that too? I’m not crazy, right?”
“Of course I saw. The whole galaxy…it just disappeared.”
“And all those people.”
Neither of them spoke on the return trip to their home galaxy. Jack felt torn. The ride was exhilarating, yet he only wanted to weep for those lost souls. Before he could shed one tear, though, Earth came to within view. His heart filled with joy when he and Takota slipped past the moon, jettisoning into the exosphere like a torch. The O/A lit up so bright, Jack knew someone somewhere must have seen them.
Then, just when he was wondering how they would make it through the roof of his house, he and Takota were back in his bed. Jack knew he’d toss his dinner all over the place if he didn’t breathe some fresh air and quick. Once the O/A’s shimmering, electric blue and purple, semitransparent bubble folded and withdrew into the machine, he ran to the window and stuck out his head.
“They all died, Takota,” he breathed deliberately, trying to keep from heaving. “All of them.”
“I know,” Takota stared at Jack’s Star Wars comforter and sighed. “I couldn’t save them.”
“Neither could I,” Jack looked at the O/A. “What good is this so-called infinite power if I can’t get it to work?”
“That’s what I keep asking. Why does Eteea give me this power, but it never quite seems enough? Why?”
The little fellow hung his head, and Jack had no other inclination than to copy him. They both would have sat around feeling sorry for themselves for the rest of the night if Pud hadn’t barged in, arms loaded with potato chips, animal crackers, and marshmallows.
“Oops!” he stopped in mid-stride, his mouth full of cookies. “I didn’t think you guys would be awake,” he peeped over his shoulder, then at Jack and asked, sheepishly, “Is it okay if I come in here to eat this? If your mom finds out, I’ll be toast.”
Jack laughed half-heartedly.
“Sure, Pud. Come on in.”
“Thanks,” he tiptoed in and closed the door behind him. “You guys wanna…hey, what’s wrong with you two? You look like I feel when I don’t get enough to eat.”
Jack’s eyes met Takota’s. They both sighed.
“Nothing, Pud. Eat your snacks.”
EIGHT
THE NEXT DAY, at high noon, the whole town of Willow, and quite possibly the entire population of Clatsop County, gathered to give their local heroes a festive parade. Several floats, each decorated to resemble one of the Tanakee, ambled along Main Street.
The town’s schoolchildren, along with the art teachers, worked hard to get the adornments completed and, though they were on the amateurish side, they were nothing if not flattering. Jack couldn’t say enough about all the hard work put in by the citizens of Willow. Not only was the parade wonderful, the streets were decked out in full regalia, all celebrating their new hometown stars.
“We love you, Jack!” a group of little girls cried from the sidewalk as they passed. Jack, finally, after the cruel brutality of the night before, allowed himself to smile.
“It’s about time,” Amelia stood beside him, waving at the adoring crowd. “There’s a smile. I was wondering if you were ever going to enjoy yourself.”
Jack looked at her and put on a brave face, but said nothing.
“Jack, what’s wrong?” she came right out and asked, still beaming for the parade-goers. “You’ve been acting funny all morning. Did something happen last night?” she looked deeper into his eyes, studying him. “You went somewhere, didn’t you? With the O/A?”
“Not now,” Takota insinuated himself between the two children, waving like nothing was wrong. Jack felt relieved to be off the hook. He didn’t know if he could bear telling the story. Still, his heart hurt so badly, he needed some comfort. The kind of comfort only Amelia could give. He was about to say something when he noticed her looking at the pavement.
“There’s Argus!” she smiled eagerly. “Hi, Argus!”
Jack’s bad mood worsened.
At the parade’s conclusion, Al Horner, manager of Winmart, invited all the Tanakee, along with the public, back to the store where he allowed the five creatures to have what he called, carte blanche. That meant they were given free rein to run amok, eating whatever they wanted for a whole ten minutes.
“I call it the Tanakee Eating Spree,” Al announced. “And everything the Tanakee eat, I’ll donate to the local food bank. A new one, that is, not the one they gnawed on,” he laughed.
All the Tanakee had a great time back in their old stomping grounds. More than anyone, Pud was elated by the opportunity. Jack noticed Takota had perked up too, mentioning the chance to get ahold of some more M&Ms. Even Cheyton became somewhat less rigid, eager to get his fill of human food. Jack enjoyed watching the little creatures enjoy themselves. Lingering ever-present in the background of his thoughts, though, was La’oon.
He tried to maintain a cheerful attitude. It was hard. How does one stay cool after witnessing the end of so many lives? It made him second-guess whether he was indeed cut out to be the True Soul. If he was to defend the universe, then he’d need a much thicker skin.
Fortunately, Pud, scampering from aisle to aisle, distracted Jack from those unsettling thoughts. Pud’s antics had everyone in Winmart in stitches with his burst of hilarity. Not once did he quit running, grabbing food items in midstride, tearing through wrappers, devouring tasty morsels and tossing aside the packaging. There were moments where he went so fast, the only way to track his movements was by following his trail of litter. Soon, the other Tanakee began to imitate him. Cheyton took it one step further and blinked in and out of sight, using Eteea to transport from place to place. Next thing Jack knew, they all were doing it, turning the previously casual outing into a feeding frenzy. And each time a roast beef or a halibut filet or a prime rib disappeared, the store manager lost a little more of his smile. When the ten minutes was up and he blew the whistle finally, the store was virtually empty of food.
“How did…” Al walked down the center aisle, looking left and right and appearing more depressed with each new revelation. “How did you guys eat so much?”
The first one to reappear from the interdimensional food fest was the snowy Enola. She held her head down, apologizing with giant green eyes. Cheyton showed up next, picking his teeth and working his gums. Then Ayita appeared, then Takota, both rubbing their bellies. Lastly, Pud joined them.
“Hey!” he looked at his friends expectantly. “What’s up? Why’re we stopping?”
Clearly, the locals were no longer surprised by the Tanakee’s mystical abilities, as evidenced by a riotous round of laughter. Pud acted confused and, obviously, still hungry. That made the laughter even louder. Jack wasn’t immune to Pud’s shenanigans, but the good cheer didn’t last long, and his mind drifted to those poor people in that faraway galaxy.
“Jack?” Amelia gave him a worried stare. He just shook his head and forced another giggle, hiding his trepidation behind a veil of fake happiness.
NINE
LATER, AFTER THE CELEBRATION had concluded and the town went back to normal, or at least as normal as Willow could now get, Jack and Takota decided to consult the Holoversarium, the only thing they knew that might shed some light on
what they’d just gone through in the alien galaxy. While Pud, Enola, Cheyton and Jack’s family watched movies downstairs, the two of them snuck off alone.
“Okay,” Takota closed the door. “Coast is clear.”
“Good,” Jack fired up the device. “I don’t want anyone else to see this. Not yet.”
“Not to worry,” Takota jumped onto the bed. “Pud has them all watching Winnie the Pooh. They’ll be at it for hours.”
“I hope we don’t need that long,” Jack entered the command for the holographic universe to appear, and a brilliant beam shot from the top of the darkened dome. He slid the mouse and the three-dimensional star map unfolded, a sea of swirling, luminous dots no bigger than gnats.
“What are we looking for?” asked Takota, watching the multicolored constellations.
“I want to see if my hunch was correct.”
“What hunch?”
“That place we saw destroyed…I’m certain it was the same place Amelia pointed out to me. It’s weird, because she picked it totally at random, but it just happens to be the same place we were taken to—it just…it’s weird.”
“What if it is the same place?”
Jack said nothing. He didn’t need to. The hologram spoke volumes. Before too long, they were staring at the evidence. A wall of total blackness.
“What is this?” Takota asked.
“This is what’s left of that galaxy, the home of the La’oonians,” Jack checked the monitor to make sure the coordinates were correct. Sadly, they were.
“It’s gone. All gone.”
“What’s gone, Jack?”
Jack flinched at a new voice in the room. His first instinct was to collapse the Holoversarium and hide their research. Then he relaxed when he saw Amelia, Ayita cradled in her arms.
“Amelia! Am I glad to see you!”
“How nice,” she placed Ayita next to Takota. “Why? What’re you two doing?”
Jack James and the Call of the Tanakee Page 7