“Don’t touch it!” Livy cried.
He dropped his hand. “What do we do?”
“Shoot it!”
He eyed the smartphone on the floor, shaking his head. Somehow, the option seemed explosive.
Below the giant cluster of black stones, a metal bar circled the transmitter like a foot rest. No, like a foot stop! He lunged forward and stomped the bar. With little resistance it plunged to the floor. Simultaneously, the cluster expanded outward as each individual stone separated from its neighbor by a narrow gap.
The hum stopped.
In the ensuing calmness, Trey’s heart drummed. Cautiously, he lifted his foot and the bar held in place.
“You did it!” Livy shouted.
“Yeah,” he said, less excited. “I did it all right.”
“What’s the matter?”
He gazed at the lifeless black cluster, the only object in the room resembling a controller. “This bucket is useless now. We’ve got the world’s largest paperweight parked in Amy’s back yard.”
Stuck
TREY CIRCLED THE large communicator, studying the control room. The surrounding metal walls were completely bare, lacking a single window, button, or display.
Livy crouched next to one of the two unresponsive aliens, feeling for a pulse. “I have no idea if they’re alive or dead. They’re cold and I don’t feel a heartbeat.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s normal. They’re heartless.”
She lifted one of the long, boney arms and let it fall to the floor with a thud. “I’ll give that weapon credit. These two are definitely incapacitated.”
“Can you close that thing’s eyes,” said Trey. “It’s creepy the way it just stares.”
“Um, I’m not sure they have eyelids.”
“Maybe you can roll it over then.”
Dylan’s head popped up through the opening in the control room floor, his blue eyes wide. “So, this is where the party is.” He yelled down. “They’re up here.”
Trey went back to studying the disabled controls. Hundreds of round, black stones covered the surface, each separated by a miniscule air space. A single, larger stone in the center of the clustered sphere caught his eye. He opened his palm toward it. The large, smooth surface seemed a perfect match for an alien-sized palm.
He yanked his hand away. “Livy, check this out.”
She rose and eased toward him, seeming hesitant to turn her back on the unconscious creature. “What is it?”
“Do you suppose the controls still work when this thing is shut down?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” She turned to the black orb. “Oh, that’s interesting.”
When she opened her hand toward the surface, Trey pulled it away. “Don’t touch it. Not yet. We don’t know if it’s safe.” He turned to his big guinea pig. ”Oh, Dylan. Come here!”
“Just a sec,” said Dylan guiding Meagan through the floor by the hand.
Livy narrowed her eyes at Trey.
“Just kidding,” he mumbled. “Dylan, do you think you could dump these aliens with the others? I don’t want to be caught off-guard if they come around.”
“Wait,” said Livy. “Do we need to keep one of them for a door key?”
“You tell me. Any idea what’s in all those rooms?”
She glared at the alien on the floor, shaking her head. “Nothing useful. Get rid of them both.”
Meagan approached, pushing her green hair away from her eyes. “What is that?”
“An interstellar communicator,” said Trey with no shortage of awe. “And if I’m right, a steering column.”
She lifted a brow. “You aren’t considering trying to fly this thing?”
“Sure, we’ve come this far.”
“Oh no! I didn’t sign up as a crash test dummy. We were just gonna stow away.”
“Yeah, well, change of plans. If you didn’t notice, our pilots have lost their faculties.”
She turned to Livy. “He’s kidding right?”
“He’s right. We have to try.”
The whole room shook to a deafening thunder clap that rang through the metal ship like a gong.
Trey fingered his ringing ears. “Someone see what the hell that was.”
“On it,” said Dylan, bolting toward the stair shaft.
Meagan squealed. “I think one of them just moved.”
“Grab the weapon,” said Trey. “But try your mind control thing first. If that doesn’t work. Let ‘em have it.”
Dylan returned faster than seemed possible, popping up like a mole. “The sky is crawling with UFOs. I think one of them fired on us.”
“That settles it!” Trey lurched forward and planted his hand flat against the black surface of the transmitter.
The metal cage surrounding him disappeared along with everyone in it. His lone projection hovered over the grassy field, overlooking Amy’s house in the distance. High overhead, shiny disks circled just below the dark clouds, rotating in perfect unison with one another.
One disk zipped away as a fighter jet rocketed past in high speed pursuit. Another saucer dropped from the clouds to fill in the missing place in the formation.
The closest disk streaked toward Trey. Instinctively, he tried to dodge the approach, but his projection was anchored in place. He had control of the craft, but something kept it bound in place.
A blast of energy shot from the incoming saucer and struck him like lightning. The pulsing vibration rocked the hull of his body, his ship.
He pulled his hand free of the controls. Immediately, the command center took shape around him.
“The ship won’t move” he said. “I have to turn this thing back on.”
Livy’s eyes grew larger than ever. “What’s going on out there?”
“I think we pissed them off!” said Trey. He looped his toe under the bar circling the controls. “Nobody trust anything you see.”
As his foot lifted the stop bar, he launched his palm against the controls. A shock wave rattled up his arm, sending him flying off his feet. He landed hard on his back and slid into the wall.
As he shook himself to his senses, the deep hum returned to the transmitter, filling the room with vibes.
Livy stomped the bar, cutting it off. “There must be something else. Dylan, see if there’s a way to crank up the engine.”
“What engine?”
“That big gyro thingy.”
Another blast rocked the entire ship, sending Dylan plummeting down the shaft.
Meagan scurried to the opening. “Dylan!”
“I’m fine,” he shouted from below.
Both aliens sprang to their feet at once. The closest latched onto Meagan’s arm and ripped the weapon from her hand. She peered up in horror as it aimed for her face. An instant later her voodoo kicked in.
The alien whirled, blasting the other off its feet.
Meagan’s new servant turned back to her proudly, like a dog waiting for a treat.
She gazed into the creature’s big, black eyes. “Give me the weapon.”
The alien’s hand shook, struggling to refuse the command. It’s large, black eyes broke free of her gaze and the weapon fired. Sparks flew from the railing. The blind shot narrowly missed her.
The creature made the mistake of looking back for its target. Meagan glared so intensely that Trey fell victim from across the room, wishing with all his heart he had a weapon to give up, just to please her.
He turned his head, avoiding her sight.
“Thank you,” he heard her say.
The weapon discharged and a body rumbled to the floor. Nervously, Trey peeked through one eye. Both aliens lay unconscious.
Before he could celebrate, the lights flickered and a hollow thud shook the floor. A loud whine piped from the open shaft into the control room.
Dylan had fired up the engine.
Interstellar
TREY READIED HIS hand, his palm inches from the controls. When the engine’s whirring vibrations slowly settled to
a quiet hum, he pressed into action.
The open hayfield took shape below as he morphed into the soul of the ship. The naked aliens expelled by Dylan were fleeing beneath his feet, leaving trails of bent grass in their wake.
The anchor had been lifted. Unbridled energy waited at his command. Exhilaration coursed through him as he recognized his own personal trinity: his human body, his spacecraft, his projection. All separate, all one.
He rose from the meadow, bringing everything with him. High above, the circling disks broke formation, perhaps as stunned to see the craft take flight, scattering into the clouds.
Trey darted into cloud-cover and held the craft idle. Letting his focus retract within himself, he projected into the control room, appearing in human likeness next to his true body.
His crew buckled over at their waists, white-washed in dread.
“What’s wrong?” he said, “We’re flying.”
Livy looked up, swallowing sickness. “Slow down next time! You have passengers.”
He envisioned the forces placed on his friends by his rapid motions. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry.”
“Where are we?”
“Hiding in the clouds.”
Dylan spit, hunched over, choking down nausea. “Seriously? That felt like we humped a planet.”
“I’ll try to slow down. But I gotta get us moving.”
Trey focused on his outer world, disappearing before they could talk him out of leaping into space. Slowly, he lifted the craft from the clouds, increasing its speed in tiny increments. Gravity seemed only a suggestion he felt inclined to ignore. Around him, the sky darkened to deep blue as he continued higher into the atmosphere. Stars appeared like dusk. Then blackness took over. He looked back to see Earth looming below, shrinking like a deflating balloon.
He gazed into the billions of crisp twinkling stars, clueless which direction was Kryo. He set a random course into the vast emptiness, letting inertia continue the ship’s steady acceleration through space. With his thoughts on his physical body, he retracted his hand from the controls.
His friends sat on the floor, backs to the wall. Livy looked exhausted, but her color had returned to its usual, yet pale tone.
The floor was light under his feet as he approached his friends. “Um, good news and bad news.”
“Save the good news,” said Dylan. “Hit us with the bad first.”
“Well, I . . . I don’t know what direction to go.”
Livy looked up. “Kryo! You’ve been there like a hundred times.”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. I kind of know where it is, in my gut. But this ship doesn’t respond to my gut.”
“So, where are we headed?”
He pointed up. “That way.”
“Trey, if your gut can’t get us to Kryo, it’s not gonna get us back home either.”
“We’re good. Home is straight back that way.”
Dylan shook his head. “And the good news?”
Suddenly, it didn’t seem as positive. “I don’t think we’re being followed.”
Livy sprang up. “Let me try.”
Trey rolled his eyes. “You couldn’t even find Kryo in your sleep.”
“That’s exactly why I want to try. I don’t navigate with my gut like you do.”
He tossed up his hands. “Have at it then.”
She stormed to the controls. “You might want to sit.”
Trey slid to the floor alongside Dylan, blowing out a regretful sigh. He looked up to see Livy go rigid, her arm extended to the black orb.
Dylan turned with a crooked grin. “Kryo, here we come. She’ll find it just to prove you wrong.”
Trey feigned accomplishment. “Whatever it takes.”
The floor parted from Trey as gravity evaporated. He fanned at the air, hopelessly trying to swim his butt back down. An instant later, acceleration did it for him, pushing him to the hard surface as if he weighed a ton. The skin on his face drooped and his chin drew to his chest. Locked in place, he found it difficult to move even his eyeballs.
“Arrrrrr,” he groaned, teetering at the edge of losing consciousness. “This-s-s . . . s-s-s-ucks-s-s-s . . .”
As the acceleration dragged on, the other side of the galaxy seemed an impossible reach. The agony of being pushed into a puddle of goo would kill him if the forces continued much longer. Silently, he welcomed the idea, anything to end the torture.
In answer to his unspoken prayer, the pain vanished.
She’d done it, he thought. She’d killed them all.
Livy’s pulsating energy filled the air, permeating Trey’s existence like water seeping into a dry sponge. Her vibrations hummed around him and within him, slowly rising in tone, honing in on a perfect pitch.
Wham! Complete stillness rocked his mind. Silence prevailed in the presence of absolute darkness, yet somehow, light surrounded him, consumed him.
He became light itself.
Around him and within him, six beings shared in the wondrous experience, fingers on the same cosmic hand.
He would never think of his friends quite the same, nor the two aliens who had suddenly become more to him than flesh and bones.
Wham! The vibrations returned with a vengeance, rattling his core. Disappointment filled his soul, the blissful peace had ended.
The feel of his heavy, immovable body returned, then the pain. A deep roar rattled his ears, traced back to a scratchy scream vibrating from his own throat. He stifled his shriek, hoping it had gone unnoticed.
Slowly, his crushed body eased free of the heavy drag of acceleration. He lifted his arms, the pain reduced to a tingle.
Beside him, Dylan tipped his head back against the metal wall. “Whew! Anyone else feel like they need a cigarette?”
Trey refused to dignify the crude comment with a response, but he understood exactly where the big guy was coming from.
Livy continued to navigate the ship, frozen like a statue at the helm. As weightlessness slowly returned, her shoulders slumped and she drew away from the controls, completely drained.
Trey pushed from the floor to float her direction. “I should never have doubted you.”
She sighed, relieved and proud.
Trey met her with open arms, bowling her off her feet and carrying her with him for a midair hug.
She pushed to arms-length, slowly tumbling. “Why so confident? You don’t even know where we are.”
“That was too awesome to have been a failure.”
She smiled. “Yeah, Kryo is in sight. I just hope I can nail the landing.”
Unwelcome
RAPID DESCENT TO Kryo had gone as smoothly as a greased roller coaster. And now, well after the ship settled on the planet’s surface, gravity tugged at Trey’s entire body. His projection had been to Kryo on dozens of occasions, but it took having a physical body to appreciate the difference between Kryo and Earth.
Trey lumbered to his feet, his blood turned to molten lead. He smiled at Livy, covering the queasiness in his gut. “Perfect landing, Captain.”
She sidestepped awkwardly, her feet snapping quick and hard to the floor. “For real?”
“Sure,” he said, honestly. It was the dips and spirals along the way that were questionable.
Dylan powered to his feet with no signs of weakness. He offered Meagan a hand and pulled her up alongside him. The green-haired girl grabbed his thick bicep to steady her swaying. “I’d throw up if my stomach wasn’t glued down.”
Trey drug himself toward the floor egress. “We’ll get used to it. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Livy pointed to the two aliens sprawled on the floor. “What about these guys?”
“They’re not going anywhere.”
“Trey! This ship is our only way out of here. They could steal it from us.”
Dylan held out his hand. “Give me the weapon. I’ll stay and watch them.”
Trey reluctantly handed over the bug-shaped device. “Great. I’m going into hostile territory unarmed.”
/> “Potentially hostile,” Livy corrected. “We don’t know who’s out there.”
“Nice! I feel better already.”
Dylan stared at the weapon. “You know? We could crank up the dial and roast these turkeys for good.”
The group eyed one another.
The vile act was unthinkable.
“I’ll stay with Dylan,” said Meagan. “These guys won’t be a problem.”
Dylan nodded. “We got this. Go make friends.”
* * *
Trey dropped through the circular hatch, landing heavy on the black, rocky surface of Kryo. The taste of charcoal tainted the thick air he sucked in.
Livy touched down next to him, crunching stone beneath her sneakers.
He gazed over the dark smoky ruins. “I didn’t think it could be worse in person.”
“It’s like Hell just packed up and moved on.”
Surrounding them, the broken remnants of walls were indistinguishable from those Trey had seen, but in the distance, a familiar building stood intact, windows aglow. Livy had hit her target.
“That way,” he said. “It’s gonna be a hike.”
A rock tumbled nearby, clattering as it rolled to a stop. Trey’s eyes snapped toward the stirred up dust. “Probably just loosened by the landing.”
Behind him, a much louder scuff of stone whirled him on his feet. A dark figure, draped in black, rose from the rubble. Livy eased closer to his side, peering along with him at the tall shadow. A white face emerged from the silhouette. A man had drawn back his hood.
No one spoke.
Dark figures ascended on all sides, encircling Trey and Livy. Trey considered showing his empty hands, but clung to the secret he was unarmed.
The unhooded man stepped forward, a tall staff at his right hand. “Search the ship.”
Two of his robed companions broke for the craft. The first to arrive raised a similar staff. The sealed draw-gate responded, slowly drawing open. Before the ramp had fully reached the ground, they scurried onboard.
“We come in peace,” said Trey, surprising himself.
The leader smiled. “Greetings, Earthlings.”
The surrounding men burst into mocking laughter.
Trey’s hands went up, drawing the opposite of his intent. The men silenced, their staffs pointed his way.
Misplaced Trilogy Page 38