by J. D. Tew
The three of us took turns introducing ourselves to ED. I felt funny having to go through what I felt like re-introducing myself to an old friend on Earth who just recently experienced a severe bout of amnesia. But I managed to pull it off.
‘Who’s piloting the ship?’ ED asked.
Nilo held up his hand. ‘It’s on autopilot,’ he said.
‘I will check on the course laid in and inform myself of the mission of your ship. For now, I would prefer if you all wait in your rooms for me so I may complete bio-scans and make sure that your health is optimal. That includes you, Theodore. Can anyone tell me where we are?’
Nilo answered, ED. ‘The Urilian ZF-Targine. I estimate our location to be four kiloparsecs from the planet Karshiz. I am only guessing the distance, because I am not familiar with Urilian ships.’ Nilo said.
ED answered Nilo, ‘Yes. I will run a parallax and bring up the files to orientate myself. It has been a while since my activation.’ ED shuttled off to plug himself into our ship’s console, to upload our ship’s vital files.
“ED, while you’re booting yourself up to speed, check out the Caves of Ranvier,’ I said with a gleam in my eyes.
ED turned to me. ‘I have never heard of them.’
Nilo rolled his eyes. ‘You won’t. It’s all folklore and indigenous to our planet. It’s all superstition, anyway.’
‘Hmm,’ ED said thoughtfully. ‘Interesting. I will magnify my scan under the myths and legends database then, just to be sure, and let you know.’
‘Thanks, ED. Anything that will help.’
Dan looked at me with scrutiny. ‘About the name of the ship Ted... It sucks. If it’s our ship, we should give it a name.’ He was right.
Nilo leaned in just over my shoulder about an inch, extending his neck and startling me a bit. In a soft voice, he asked, ‘How about... Freebird?’ That was how our vessel received its name, which was great because name of ZF-Targine was just about as exciting as the generic name Acme Industrial Corp.
‘Freebird? That actually has a good ring to it! Fine. Whattya say Dan? Does Freebird pass your suck test?’
‘Anything is better than the ZF-Tangerine... Ha-ha.’
‘Nilo, please reprogram the ZF-Targine to respond to the verbal cue, Freebird. Grab ED if you need help. Okay, Dan and Mariah, back to your rooms to meet with ED for a checkup. ‘ I ordered.
‘Alright, dude, this one is on you,’ Dan said.
‘Hey man, you’re responsible for you own actions. If I told you to stick your tongue to a metal pole in the dead of a Minnesota winter, would you do it?’ I said, complimenting my grandpa’s wisdom.
‘Don’t be a dork, dude, of course I would,’ Dan said, while laughing with me. By then, ED had returned to our teasing group. That robot sure is fast.
ED looked at Dan inquisitively. ‘Dude? Interesting. You must be from the land division known as California, on Earth.’
‘No. He just acts like it. Ha-ha.’ Dan and I exchanged a couple of punches to our respective shoulders, ending up with a playful push to each other, while ED stared at us as if our goofy actions were new to his central processing unit.
‘From my unlimited database, which contains profiles of all the known species of the galaxy, I conclude that you guys are currently exhibiting the behavior of dudes,’ ED said matter-of-factly.
Dan and I looked at each other, nodding our heads in affirmation of ED’s assertion. Then we hurried to our rooms, snickering. Sharing a moment of laughter was great, but the clock was ticking.
I ran to my slightly chilly room, to lie in my bed and wait for ED, with my feet kicked up over my sword harness, resting my head on a smart pillow.
“DIE. Please play the Pink Floyd album, Animals.’ I pronounced every letter of the three-letter acronym, clearly and succinctly.
‘Yes, Theodore.’
‘Freebird, adjust temperature to seventy degrees Fahrenheit in my chamber.”
Our rooms were small, and my gear took up the majority of the space. It was somewhat claustrophobic. I rose up from my bed to fool around with the buttons on the wall near the door, wanting to discover more about the room. Somehow, I instead turned on an intercommunication device connected to another room—Mariah’s room.
I heard her distant voice as she muttered, unaware of my eavesdropping, ‘I find out Lincoln is alive, but now they tell me not to have false hope.’ A pause, then she grumbled, ‘What’s the point of falling in love with someone anymore?’
Kneeling on my bed, I leaned in toward the communicator on the wall, ashamed but full of curiosity. To my surprise, and the door across from my bed opened. I almost fell off my bed in shock upon seeing ED arrive.
‘May I ask what you are doing?’ ED inquired, and then I switched off the device quickly.
‘Nothing.’ There was no hiding my shame, because my face was enough of a confession.
‘Interesting. Take off your shirt please.’
‘I’m fine. Seriously, you should check on the others,’ I said, no longer in the mood for a checkup. My thoughts were still on Mariah and her despondency.
‘Theodore, you must be honest in order for me to understand the state of your body and mind.’ Every time ED spoke, it was like deja vu from the previous ED, who was destroyed during battle on Tritillia.
I responded to ED’s question. ‘We were all in a battle about a day ago.’
‘I see that you have wounds from that battle. In order to enable me to make a complete diagnosis, please tell me what happened to you and your crew.’
‘Okay . . .’ I said, pausing to recollect the details of the battle. ‘We were in a battle with sentient plant beings called Elons. We fought some Dacturon wizards and a Driad warrior in the jungle town of Jaakruid, on the planet Tritillia.’
‘I am quite familiar with these species, as well as their rumored fighting skills. I am also knowledgeable about the planet Tritillia. Tell me more, please.’
I took another deep breath ‘I was subjected to some Malorian pollen and blasted by a giant log. Oh, and I was shocked by an electric sword.’
‘I will attend to all these wounds and symptoms in a matter of minutes. Ted, judging from your English and long drawn out vowels, I presume you are from Minnesota. The municipality known as St. Paul, to be precise. I will try to mimic your dialect as I speak so that you are comfortable in conversing with me.’
Now he was speaking like one of my young adult neighbors across the street from my home on Earth! Although in a voice neither masculine nor feminine, neither young or old—just robotic. ‘Awesome,’ I said, longing for home more than ever.
‘At your service, Theodore. I am curious. While scanning the ship’s log, I learned of this mission to return to Karshiz. Why would you do that, given that you’d just escaped from that planet? And how can you fight, being so young?’
‘Liam is there now. He was lost during the hijacking on Karshiz, and we need him. I’m not going to tell you the mission isn’t crazy, but we don’t leave anyone behind. This guy Liam is our protector. We could use some muscle on our team. He went out on a limb when he left Earth with me to fight in this war, and my grandpa would roll over in his grave if I didn’t go back for him. As for our ability to fight, all of us, my whole crew and I, trained aboard the Uriel in advanced military tactics, widening our scope with close quarters weaponry and different large-scale maneuvers. Zane was in charge of our training.’
‘I am familiar with Zane, thank you. And who will pilot this ship on such a dangerous planet?’
‘You’ve met Nilo, but he’s only going as far as Karshiz. ED, can you take over as pilot then?’
‘It is my duty to accomplish your orders.’
I savored this eager-to-please, professional manner of this ED. Were it that every clerk, employee, car dealer, and retail salesperson on Earth could be every bit as pleasant and selfless as him. ‘Please carry out the reformatting of the rest of my crew.’
‘Yes, Theodore. I will go see the others.
’
I started to walk away.
ED conveyed a voice that I would have that was one of annoyance, even if he were a robot. ‘Wait, Theodore. You forgot something.’
‘What is it?’
‘You were asking about the Caves of Ranvier.’
I wanted to slap myself for forgetting. ‘Yes?’
‘Very interesting,’ ED said. ‘There were logs under this name.’
‘And…?’
‘Someone has deleted them. Not just from my database, but from all databases throughout the galaxy. This is most unusual.’
My heart was pounding. ‘Indeed.’
‘The only database that may have any remnants of information may reside in Eppa,’ ED said. ‘And that is one database I have no means of accessing. That is all, Theodore.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, heading to my room. My eyebrows knitted in puzzlement as I thought over ED’s strange findings.
After turning up the heat in my room, he closed the door. I sat down, closed my eyes and imagined myself hugging Liam. My grandfather Marvin explained to me that if you really want something to happen, you have to envision yourself doing it first. It’s truly the best way to motivate yourself—once you see how tangible it is to imagine.
“It is the impossible that is difficult to visualize, but the impossible had never seemed to stop me before. And I wanted nothing more than to see Liam’s face after freeing him from the hellish Windled Desert. I couldn’t wait to land and begin the search.”
8 THEODORE: WINDLED DESERT
“Zane didn’t have the manpower or fleet to order roaming patrols on the outer rim of Karshiz. What Zane and the Urilians lacked in size, they made up for with technology and power. I knew that the major cities would be full of Urilian guards, but figured our pinpoint entry into the massive planet would be uneventful, especially since our destination was the Windled Desert. The Urilians wouldn’t be patrolling this area. They had enough to worry about, with Odion and his army sacking planets left and right. At this moment, Nilo and I had analyzed the hologram of the planet Karshiz, and we both determined that this orbit was absolutely necessary for our upcoming rendezvous to rescue Liam. I knew that Lincoln was the ultimate prize, but Liam was the most logical tactical step on the way.”
Also, after discussing the pros and cons with both Nilo and ED, we agreed to let ED man the piloting for now; that way, Nilo could contribute his valuable expertise to train ED while he was still part of my crew.
‘ED, we should try a dead stick descent to conserve core energy,’ I said.
‘You’ve been poking at your manual, Theodore. Impressive. It’s going to be a rough ride then, sir!’
‘Brace yourself! Here we go!’ I yelled, gripping my chair in the cockpit of Freebird. I closed my eyes, taking myself back to a fond memory before my pre-intergalactic adventure.
I thought back to the years of precious friendship with Jason, which ended abruptly and tragically when he tumbled down the cliffs to his death at Taylor’s Falls. Three years later, I sneaked out of my grandparents’ care, against their wishes, to reminisce over his death. If I didn’t go to the cliffs that day, I would have never been teleported into this realm.
Anyway, while we plummeted through the Karshiz’s turbulent atmosphere, I imagined the winter before Jason’s death; he and I were standing atop a hill in my grandmother’s backyard full of snow, plotting a daredevil’s feat. Jason covered his face with his scarf up to his eyes, and he stood on a snowboard, knees bent, in preparation to slide down the hill. Leaning forward, he flew down the hill like a pro, leaving a wake of snow powder in his path. Just as it seemed he was going to smash into the blue candy-cane-striped poles of the swing set that lay ahead, he crouched and zipped underneath the slide, missing it by inches.
Excited, he jumped up and down and hollered, “Now it’s your turn, Ted!”
Just because he can do it, doesn’t mean I can.
I knew that Jason would always tease me if I didn’t take the plunge, so I shut my eyes and I inched my snowboard toward the steep hill. My stomach lurched, but by then it was too late to pull back.
Too chicken to visualize the danger looming just ahead, I closed my eyes. I could hear the wind-chilled and hardened snow scrape along the bottom of my board as I carved. The sounds made me cringe, and then my friend Jason yelled, ‘Open your eyes, you idiot!’
Before Jason launched down the hill, he told me that the key to the trick was making sure you stayed down and kept your eyes open. I kept them open until I saw the approaching slide, and I crouched, as he did, zooming by safely underneath it.
‘Woo hoo!’
My celebration was premature. Still sliding with unstoppable momentum, I pumped my hands into the air and yelled, ‘I did it!’ Just as I completed my self-praise, my still-moving board slammed into the A-frame pole, and tiny stars lit up my concussed vision. When I awoke from my head’s collision with the pole of the swing set, Jason asked, ‘Are you okay?’
I told him I was fine, but it seemed he didn’t believe me. I felt a wet and warm substance on my forehead. My instinct was to wipe the drip before it hit my eyes, and when I did, my hand was covered in red. It was a three-quarter inch scar that was carved onto my forehead that day, to remind me that when you’re in a pivotal moment, it’s best to pay attention to detail.
As I sat in the cockpit communicator chair of Freebird, with the intensity of a downward descent, I thought to myself: open your eyes, you idiot! After the memory of Jason flashed though my head, I jolted back to reality, feeling the vessel’s dive through Karshiz atmosphere. My abdomen flexed, and my face tightened as if I was puckering from a grapefruit.
I looked at the others: Mariah’s eyes were also shut, but she seemed to be in a meditative state. I envied her, but even more so, I envied Dan. He was waving his hands up in the air, like he was on a ride at the fair. He gave me a thumbs-up with a smirk, and I returned with a squeamish thumb of my own.
After several minutes of this roller coaster-like ride, we were now about to land very soon. The horizon of the target landing area of the planet, complete with rolling hills, appeared on the hull’s plasmatron navigation screen. Our ship, screeching to a stop, skimmed the downslope of the highest hill, and finally slowed down in the nearby valley. I tried to fix my eyes on the horizon, but it was swaying. Mariah’s gentle hand landed on my shoulder.
‘Theodore, it’s over.’
‘Oh? I’m okay, I was... I was just... whatever. That was intense.’
The landing was smoother than I anticipated, but breaching the atmosphere was ugly. I knew we needed to advance on foot right away before our ship attracted any unwelcome attention, so I issued the order. ‘We must secure the perimeter first. It is always the first action required of occupying an unknown area.’ The ship’s topographical analyzer created a hologram of the outlying area, showing the terrain elevations. We needed to secure an area of operations by ensuring there were no aliens present, and we needed to find the Caves of Ranvier.
After wiping the sweat away from my face, I continued the orders without delay. ‘Okay, we will spread out in teams of two, and Nilo will stay to keep watch over the ship. The two teams will search the valley in separate directions for the Caves of Ranvier. Dan, since you can use your hover board, I suggest you take flight, and watch us from above with ED.’ Everyone knew that ED could hover too, using his own jet propulsion system.
‘This is going to be fun. Okay, the rally point is the ship!’ I yelled, motivated by curiosity to discover the landscape. ‘We should converge on the rally point in a half an hour, if everything goes as planned. But if either group is not back in an hour…’ I looked at Nilo. ‘…or one-hundred and twenty morgets, the returning group will seek out the other. Please return to the ship at that point, and take the search to the air. Alright? Let’s go! Communicate any changes in position or mission.’
‘Wait!’ Nilo yelled. ‘What do you want me to do if my position is compromised?’
/> ‘You have the heaviest fire power,’ I said, hinting that he should know what to do. ‘If an enemy approaches you, just fire the ship’s blasters and obliterate the threat. Right, ED?’
‘That sounds like a perfect reaction to a threat,’ ED said.
After equipping our gear, we all exited through the dropped hatch of the ship and split up into two groups. Sand wind-whips bullied the valley by blasting around loose sand, much of which ended up in our faces. Clear perspective was nearly impossible. Even though we were in unknown territory, the excitement of adventure thrilled me.
‘Doesn’t this feel great?’ I asked Dan. ED and Mariah were starting to fade in and out within the dirt cyclones.
‘Ah, what part? The part where I get moon dust blasted at my eyes? I keep getting pelted. Seriously, what the hell are we supposed to be looking for?’
‘We have to make sure that this area is clear and find the caves straight away.’ Even though I couldn’t see four feet in front of me, the valley seemed lifeless and barren.
‘It’s probably a good idea to find the caves. And if one of them, is big enough, we should store Freebird in it!’ Dan shouted over the gusts of wind.
The gusts settled down for about thirty seconds, and finally I had a clear, short-lived view of the terrain. I said, ‘There!’ Over in the nearby distance was a massive cave, carved out up high in the wall of a sheer cliff. From my vantage point, I made rough calculations: it would take me thirty-five feet to climb up the cliff to reach the floor of the cave. The cave itself seemed about fifty feet high at its apex, and broad enough to take in our ship, Freebird, while the cliff itself was about one hundred feet high.
Dan soared up to take a better look inside this cave from his hover board. I knew I could climb up the cliff to it, if I took the proper path. As Dan ventured into the hole, I yelled, ‘Dude, wait up! You just can’t pilot your hover board into a random cave all by yourself, what are you, nuts?’ I yelled, as if my words alone could stop him. Dan would do anything for a sliver of action.