They were not oriented with the planet again, and the shipyard was slowly
moving to the middle of the viewscreen. However, it was now much closer
than before.
“Hey, hey, hey, watch it, we’re coming in too fast!” Fena reached out
a moment to take her side of the controls. Just before she took control,
both Fena and Jeremiah felt the weight of the straps against their chests as
their speed decreased. Jeremiah quickly applied a bit or rotation thrust and
216
reoriented the ship to the station. The shuttle slid into the hanger bay, three feet off the deck. One of four large landing skids dragged across the deck
as the shuttle was brought down due to the artificial gravity plating in the
decking. The shuttle slid on the deck a few inches as it came to a slow stop.
“Welcome to the Brandon Memorial Shipyard, everyone.” Jeremiah
looked towards the back, where a number of people were unbuckling
their seats.
One of them stopped moving around and looked up at him. “What
was up with the turbulence?”
Jeremiah opened his mouth to reply, but Fena beat him to it. “It’s his
first day, go easy on him.” She smiled again as Jeremiah opened the ramp
door, seemingly not pleased with the interaction.
“It’s okay, they really only train you to take off and land on planets.
Landing on an orbiting body above the source of gravity is a different
aspect to piloting. You did good, stop sulking already.”
“I am not sulking.”
Fena slowly looked over at him with one eyebrow raised. “Sure.”
“I’m not!”
“Okay.”
“Stop it!”
“Wow, you need to calm down. Stop overreacting.”
Jeremiah glared at her, his mouth open. Finally, he shook his head and
focused on his side of the cockpit.
Fena checked the gauges and indicators, then waited for the personnel
to unload from the shuttle, taking the supplies with them. Minutes later,
when the shuttle was empty and the hanger bay was clear from wandering
people, Fena looked to Jeremiah.
“Call it in.”
“This is the shuttle requesting gravity de-act.”
The station didn’t respond, but turned off the gravity plating to the
hanger. They felt it the moment they did so.
Jeremiah took the control stick and rotated the ship so the front would
point to the exit.
“Stop!” Fena shouted. A hard, stern look was chiseled on her face,
217
directed solely upon Jeremiah. “It’s not a plane, stop treating it like a plane.
Stop wasting air.” She breathed a moment. “Back us out!”
“Why are you so concerned about the air? We have like ninety-five
percent compressed tank capacity remaining.”
“Get into the habit of efficient flying now, and you won’t have to try
and learn how to do it when things are critical. Activate the rear camera and
back us out.”
Fena looked forward and realized the shuttle was rotating inside the
hanger bay, pointing toward the deck, and was about to hit the ceiling.
“Look out!”
The shuttle’s rear right corner gently hit the ceiling of the hanger bay.
Fena looked at Jeremiah with crushing disappointment. “Quarter sec
burst on the back end, an equal amount on this one a full second later.” She
pointed to the ceiling of the shuttle.
Jeremiah did as instructed. The shuttle came to a stop in the hanger,
albeit at a slightly awkward angle.
“Hey, are you guys tearing up the hanger bay in there?” came the mes-
sage from the communication system.
“Whatever are you talking about?” Fena responded, both sarcastic and
amused. “One second rear, and quarter sec on that one.” She pointed down
at her feet.
“They have names, you know.”
“Oh, please, don’t even try to one-up me right now. You’re so far in the
hole, it’s not even worth your breath.”
Jeremiah smirked as the shuttle slipped out of the hanger bay.
218
Chapter 19
Our Hobbies
“ARE YOU SURE about this?” Alex eased the electric vehicle to a
stop. Ahead of him was the newly fenced-off section of tunnel that few
knew about.
“It’s not like I am disappearing, I am just going to focus on this for
a while.”
They both remained seated, staring straight ahead.
“I mean it. I don’t want to see you coming around all the time. I need
this time away from you, the UEF, everything.” Timmy made a sweeping
motion with his arms.
“How long do you think you’ll be in there?” Alex nodded his head
towards the direction of the tunnel.
“Do you really expect me to have an answer?” Timmy opened the pas-
senger door and moved to step out of the vehicle.
“The last time you secluded yourself in a dark place, we set up a global-
ized organization.”
“Ha.” Timmy stepped out of the vehicle and walked to the rear, then
opened the trunk and pulled out several bags. He walked a bit clumsily
towards the gate.
“Want me to help you?” Alex shouted as he stood up outside the vehicle.
“No, thanks, Alex. I’ll be fine.”
Alex watched his friend approach the small guard shack installed in
front of the fenced area. Not even the guards had permission to enter
beyond the fence. Moments later, those inside let Timmy through the gate.
Timmy walked down the brightly-lit tunnel, large military-style duffel
bags forcing him to walk slower then he wanted. It wasn’t long before he
got his first glimpse of the refortified walls and ceiling around the pod that once held the Queen, still securely set in the position Timmy remembered.
The tunnel past the pod had also been cleared of the mound of dirt and
debris. He walked around the pod slowly, noticing the Queen had only
slightly changed in appearance as it decayed on the ground, still crushed
by a boulder.
Several scientific stations were set up, computers, microscopes and all
sorts of equipment littering the walls around the pod. Timmy continued to
where he really wanted to focus his attention.
The tunnel slowly continued to curve as he walked deeper. A large
makeshift shelter was set up, a mountain of supplies set beside it. Putting
his bags down inside the shelter, he walked past another elaborate scientific
setup before he reached the ‘Orb of Confusion’.
“You’re a bit early.” Pete glanced up, noticing Timmy and his eagerness
to get involved.
“The goodbye wasn’t as long as I expected it to be.”
“Well, you have good timing. The orb lit back up about an hour ago.
I’m recording and digitalizing the glyphs already.”
Timmy reached out and touched the unnaturally-smooth surface of the
orb. His hand easily glided along the surface, as though it was helping him
move it.
“Nothing affects it, permanent marker won’t even stick. The ink just
beads on the surface and rolls away towards the ground. It’s like that
with everything.”
“Now, that’s interesting. Like hydrophobic, but with everything. Mat-
terphobic.” Timmy stood up, smiling. The orb was now fully exposed and
rested on a clear pedestal, as every part of the surface of the orb hosted the moving and ever-changing glyphs.
Walking over and sitting down in a computer chair, Timmy reviewed
220
the list of glyphs the computer had thus far digitalized and recorded. Only two had repeated during the last hour of recording. Timmy pulled up the
first repeated glyph.
Two parallel figure eights nearly on top of each other, with an identical
one perpendicular to them. Remembering this one, he printed out a large
copy of the image and hung it up on the outside of the shelter.
The second repeated glyph was a hollow circle in the lower left corner;
in the lower right was two short stubby lines at an angle away from the
corner. The upper portion was clear of markings.
“I will figure this out,” Timmy mumbled to himself as he sat down in
front of the orb next to Pete, the scientist that survived the cave-in with
Timmy so long ago.
The moment Timmy sat down, all the glyphs froze in place, and then
the orb cleared itself of all glyphs.
One new glyph appeared. Four figure eights, one at each end of a plus
sign. Then a new additional glyph appeared, this one was a simple triangle.
Then a horizontal line appeared about a quarter inch from the top point.
The newly formed triangle separated from the larger object, no longer a
triangle and rotated upside down. A circle then appeared inside.
Timmy and Pete watched in complete silence, entranced by the display.
* * *
“Not you too!”
“Forget it, Alex, I’m done here. I’ve trained enough people to take over
my functions. I’m going somewhere where I can be useful.”
“You can be useful here. I don’t understand why you have to leave,”
Alex pleaded as he followed his friend back and forth from the bedroom to
the living room.
“I don’t know why you suddenly care so much. Besides, you’ve got
Zeek to kick around.”
“Are you upset that I got—”
“You think I’m jealous? God, you don’t know me at all, do you?”
“Well, then just slow down for a moment and talk to me as a
friend would.”
Jorge slowly turned around and approached Alex, standing nearly nose
221
to nose. “The very fact that you don’t know is all the evidence I need to explain to you just how far apart we have grown,” he whispered.
Several people from the UEF logistics department walked past them as
they continued emptying Jorge’s residence.
“So you’re just gonna leave? Where will you go?” Alex spread his arms
out wide, taking a couple steps back from Jorge.
“I’m gonna help rebuild. I build things, it’s what I do.”
“I just don’t understand why you need to do that somewhere el—”
“I don’t want to be around you! Don’t you get it? You’re a corrupt meg-
alomaniac, totally self-absorbed and self-motivated. I see right through all
your crap, Alex, and I am tired of pretending it doesn’t exist. I’m leaving
before you get me killed, too.”
Alex froze, unable to reply. His mouth hung open limply. Jorge stepped
off to the side, leaving him in the enlarged doorway alone.
“Have you ever seen the devastation out there?” Jorge pointed out
past the UEF perimeter. Alex still had his back facing him. “You haven’t,
because you live in your little hermit kingdom like you always did. You’re
all the same.”
Alex dropped his head slightly, his mouth closed as he looked away
from Jorge.
“You never had the experience of suffering from the lack of anything.
My family was desperate, and we came to you asking for help so our
house wouldn’t foreclose. You and your father basically laughed us out of
the house.”
“We did not!”
“Oh, please, the estate is being audited right now, it’s not a good time.”
Jorge said as he recalled the excuses of the past. “Just admit it.”
“You said you understood and we were friends after that!” Alex was
worried where the conversation was going.
“Yeah, and I was young too, then you got Zeek and pushed me away
‘cause I asked you for help.”
“Is that what you think happened?”
“I don’t care anymore! That’s my point, it’s too late now. I’m leaving.”
Alex turned around. “Every person has the power to effect change, and
one act of kindness can change the world. You, Jorge, are no different.”
222
“Ever take your own advice?” Jorge said as Alex turned his back and began to walk away.
Before Alex got into his vehicle, Jorge spoke up. “I’m taking a shuttle.
A ground-based shuttle.”
Alex hesitated several moments.
“You know, if you don’t give one to me, I’ll have to build one myself,
and I’ll need to hire a bunch of people to help me do it. I won’t be so
secre-tive with the construction plans, I assure you," Jorge eyed Alex.
Alex shook his head in disappointment. “Take the next one that fin-
ishes construction.” Alex stepped into the vehicle and shut the door. He
pulled away from Jorge, who stood like fossilized timber.
* * *
Major Grissom was technically no longer a major, but it didn’t stop people
from continuing to call him that. He glanced to his right; a young UEF
inductee looked forward, not allowing the major to break his concentration.
“Let this moment define you! Take control, dominate and take it out.”
“Sir, I am boxed in. I’ve got nothing.”
“This is the time you gotta dig deep, look past the surface of what you
see, look at the bigger picture. Know who you are playing. You understand
what I am saying, son?”
Paul, the inductee, glanced right just for a moment and refocused
in front of him. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them, the major interrupted half his vision, his face inches away.
“Stop stalling and make your move. Sometimes it’s the wait that
kills you.”
Others in the room watched on as Paul continued to hesitate. He
looked at his opponent.
She looked back, a smile growing on her face, she offered a slow
wink and puckered her lips. The major turned to glance at her.
“Son, look at me!”
Paul turned to look at the major.
“Destroy her!”
Taking another deep breath, Paul reached out and grabbed the queen,
moving it four paces straight ahead and taking out a rook. His opponent
223
quickly used a pawn to kill the queen. Without giving her time to think, he moved a knight and took out the pawn, which was removed by another
knight in quick succession.
The obvious move was to take out the bishop, but there was a one in
a million opportunity. Paul moved up his last knight and made the check.
The bishop was in the way, blocking the other rook and the other queen.
Then it dawned on her. No matter what path she took, to uncheck her-
self put her in checkmate. The smile all but disappeared from her face. Her
eyes danced back and forth, desperate for an answer.
>
The major never looked at the board, continuing to stare into Paul’s
eyes with an intense adrenaline-fueled gaze.
“Good game,” she said in a soft but defeated voice.
“Yeah! ” the major screamed out loud and turned to look at her, his face bright red, and veins popped out all over his face. His fist came down hard
on the table, and chess pieces flew off in various directions. “That’s how
it’s done!”
The major slapped Paul hard on the shoulder and stood up. Only now
did Paul notice the rest of the room was cheering as well, both elated at his
win and shocked by the major’s display of victory. He turned to Cindy.
“I believe you owe us a twelve pack of cold beer.”
Cindy turned to Jiya. “I thought you had him.”
“I did. I don’t know what happened,” Jiya responded desperately.
The major looked at Cindy and tilted his head to the side, the color
slowly returning to normal on his face. He waded through a small crowd,
which was still exchanging bets and celebrating. He exited the
makeshift shack and stepped out into the open.
Their hangout was made with scrap metal from the various ships and
projects in the area, making it stuffy with that many people crammed
inside. The shack was initially a place for a few people to hang out and
take breaks in private. Over time, it slowly expanded as construction crews brought more half-used sections of plate sheeting or decking, adding
their own areas to it. Now it entertained about one hundred people, with
makeshift tables for card or board games, plenty of seating space lined
the walls, and a corner set aside for some ground grappling.
224
A woman followed him from the shack, drawing him to a stop a few dozen yards from the building.
“I just learned about a certain tunnel, a tunnel that even I don’t have
access to. I am on the council—if I don’t get to know, then what’s the point
of the whole thing?” she asked rhetorically.
“Look, there wasn’t a need for you to know before, but now that you’re
aware, you need to know. Remember all the talk about an orb not so
long ago?”
“No.”
“Okay, well, Timmy and some guys found an orb. Impenetrable, noth-
ing—and I mean nothing—has put a scratch on it. It’s covered in alien writing, and they’re trying to decipher it.”
“Okay… Why block off the tunnel? Why not just take it to a lab? Also,
Neighbors Page 27