by J. D. Tew
Dan exclaimed with glee, thrilled to see Liam. He looked as if he were going to jump him and give him a bear hug, but he followed my lead. Shuffling his feet as he gazed at both of us, he said, ‘It’s so great to see you again! Nilo is going to freak when he sees that we have you! Let’s get the hell out of here!’
‘You got it Dan, let’s move!’ I shouted. Looking over to Liam, I said, ‘Man, am I glad to see you.’
‘This day sure beats the time I won the paintball state championships! I knew you would come. We have to hurry, their base is not far from here,’ Liam said, unable to restrain his enthusiasm. He looked as if he were going to burst with overflowing energy.
‘I am going to bend over and I want you to just drape yourself over my back,’ I said to Liam. ‘Like a piggyback ride. It will be weird, but we don’t have any other option.’
‘Anything. I want to get as far away from this place as I can,’ Liam said.
‘Let’s go!’ We launched in the air, Liam and I. Everyone else followed.
Securing Liam was one of my favorite victories. Rescuing him from a life of indentured drudgery and snatching him just before his forced entry into the slavery black market left me with a feeling that kept me smiling the entire way back to Freebird. And, on top of that, actually freeing a group of Sepherans.
The ultimate high: winning for the right reasons.
After flying three hundred meters toward the ship, I lowered to the ground, as gracefully as one can with the unadjusted addition of two hundred pounds squarely on my back. My boots were suited for my weight and stature, but throwing Liam into the mix offset the typical lift ratio, so we clumsily crashed and rolled along the ground as we landed.
‘That didn’t go as planned. Sorry, Liam,’ I said, as I brushed the dust off my shoulders and back. ‘Let’s go inside.’
Dan said, ‘My pleasure.’
The ship’s hatch lowered, we walked up the ramp and for a moment—Dan, Mariah, Liam, and I indulged in a moment of pure joy, glancing into one other’s eyes, not needing words to convey how we felt.
Togetherness was an understatement. With all of the dangers absent at this moment, there was no reason to refrain from celebration of the spirit of our team.
I made the first move, because I couldn’t contain myself. Shrieking cries of delight, I ran toward my long lost friend. Nearly tripping during my mad dash, I slammed into Liam and embraced him. Laughing at us, Dan and Mariah leapt into the mutual adulation. Collectively, we were like a family welcoming a soldier home from war. Four sets of hugging arms, four beaming smiles, and four pairs of sparkling eyes—we showered ourselves with “the love.” I felt another slam into our group as Nilo joined. Next was the cold metal of ED, because he was determined to fit in with our team. My deliriously happy mind, strangely enough, commanded an image of quick-dry cement. But my thought was timely, because Liam was the missing ingredient, and our group was now bonded.
Bring it on. Bring—it—on! I thought.
‘Okay, we have to escalate security. They are going to come looking for us,’ I said. However ED disagreed, suggesting that the vengeful Skiorfs might search for the missing Sepherans first, essentially taking these pursuers off our trail.
Dan graciously offered to take on the first shift, so that the rest of us could be free to spend valuable time with Liam. I brought Liam to the one of the vacant sleeping quarters on our vessel, and told him it would be his bedroom for the duration of the expedition. Liam was thrilled to have a soft, clean bed to lie in again after months of rough conditions out under the stars.
‘Welcome to our ship! Freebird,’ I said to Liam.
‘Is that what you guys are calling it?’ Liam asked.
‘Yup, and since you’ve been away from civilization so long, you’re probably ready to crash.’
‘I’m too excited to sleep,’ Liam said, rubbing his hands. ‘But I’ll definitely take a shower now! God, it’s been ages. I’ve never liked showers, but after this horrible experience, I just can’t wait.’
‘Help yourself to anything you want in the ship. We have our food pantry that way, too. Just ask the replicator over there.’
‘Boy, I can’t decide!’ Liam roared. ‘To eat, or have some decent hot water! Maybe I can grab a steak in the shower, so I can do both at the same time.’
I laughed. Good old Liam. ‘We leave for Foita soon.’
‘Thank you, Theodore. You all are the best friends I have ever had.’ He raised one eyebrow. ‘Foita?’
‘It is an ice giant! A planet. I will fill you in tomorrow.’
‘Sounds good to me, dude.’
We were on our way. I placed my head on the pillow, after falling onto my mattress, sinking into my cushy bed, and I waited for my turn to do some security outside. I couldn’t sleep.
I sat up, placed the padded soles of my bare feet on the cold floor and decided to train up. Freebird had a virtual simulator, an arena used for practicing. I wasn’t up for action, yet knew it was a while since my training aboard the Uriel, and I wanted to bolster my knowledge of military tactics, as some of what I had learned on the Uriel was fading.
I sat in the chair and activated the case study questionnaire. I didn’t have much time to practice, so I didn’t want to engage in a virtual battle. Instead, I chose to answer case studies, developed from past war accounts, as an onlooker.
What do you do if this happens or that happens and you only have a stick of bubble gum and some twine? Those weren’t exactly the questions.
A battle would form, and I would appear as an omniscient. Different variables would be presented, number of troops, weaponry used—odds were typically stacked against me. For instance, I’d have three men and a hundred soldiers with barely the means to win.
“The Uriel had similar simulations, but there were instructors watching us as we developed strategy. My eyelids became heavy. I sat up from the simulator to lie on the bed, and then closed my eyes.”
12 THEODORE: REICHERZ?
Now, at the present time and within my containment cell, there are no moments for me to savor. I feel as if I am an entertainer for the warden’s pleasure. I take just a second to stretch, and I hear the echo of a faint voice in my head slowly gaining volume. Someone is using a form of telepathy to communicate with me.
“Prisoner. Do not be conspicuous. This is the only way I could bring about our acquaintance,” says the voice in my head.
“Yes, sir.” I pace slowly and nervously, because this is a request of me that seems odd. I recognize his projected voice as that of the rookie and he sounds less shook up than before.
“Do you know who I am?” he asks. The telepathy is giving me a pounding headache; the rookie is not deft or smooth with his telepathic delivery.
“Yes. I think we spoke before. You are the one they call rookie.”
“That’s what they call me, but that will change.”
“I’m not sure what you are trying to accomplish by communicating with me,” I say, as I worry of our interaction, and how it could negatively impact me. I can’t trust this guy, but I leave my open mind regardless.
“My name is Drey Richerz.”
“Why the hell are you telling me?” I ask.
“The name doesn’t sound familiar to you?” He asks. I hesitate, puzzlingly; after all, I am in solitude. How can I recall a name out of thousands over the last few years?
“Try this name on for size... Lincoln, your pal... He escaped a week ago.”
“What?”
“Someone is coming. As my squad leader would say—get back to it.”
“Wait.”
Damn it! He is gone. Think Theodore! The name—about the name. Richerz. Richerz.
The Premier’s kid?
The rookie is the Premier’s son! And Lincoln is free and active!
What a streak of luck! Why is Drey risking all to communicate with me, and does that mean he is going to help me escape from the prison? Or is he part of a trap, to get me to do something th
at would be punishable by gunfire, and result in my death? I better get back to my recordings before they notice. The orders of the warden are to continue my account without end.
I slide my finger across the oily screen of the electronic tablet, while trying to wipe it down, but my shirt only smears and smudges the screen more.
“Where was I? Karshiz. It was the morning after the evening in which we rescued Liam, and many on the ship were awakening from their slumber. For me personally, it was an awful morning. It was a mistake I would never make again, and believe me, I paid for it. I forgot to use the moilon before entering my chamber the night before. I had the feeling that I had slept for thirty minutes, but in reality I was in dreamland for at least a few hours.”
Here is the funny part about deserts and the Karshiz climate: don’t ever go to sleep without bathing. Not only did I have my legs covered with little blood boils from the nips of pests similar to jiggers, but they itched like hell, and I’ll never forget the next few hours of annoying skin irritations and itching sensations. Freebird was probably focusing all of its security measure on the exterior of the ship, rather than on the interior. These varmints were like lice, and probably too small to discover anyhow.
Dan entered my room. ‘Dude! What is wrong with you? Why are you itching like a maniac?’
‘Oh man, there is something wrong with my legs, crap dude. Oh, my God they are itchy. Damn it!’ I shouted. I started to pull my legs out from under the covers and I felt a hundred welts slide across the smooth inside fabric of my sheets. The itch was unbearable.
‘Holy shit! What happened to your legs dude? Stay away from me!’ Dan shouted out of fear that I had some strange infectious disease. ‘You stay here. I will go get ED. We can’t have you spreading your whatever-it-is you have to everyone on the ship dude, yuck!’
‘Relax, they look like bites. Well, what are you waiting for, go get ED!’ I shouted. When I had chicken pox as a kid, I was told not to scratch the sores, because they could get infected. So as I stood bare-footed on the cool composite floor of my bedroom, I danced. The shifting and stretching of my skin from my sporadic movement satisfied the itch slightly enough to encourage my jive.
‘Oh no, see… ED, now he’s losing his mind too.’ Dan said to ED, out of concern for my weird dancing “pops and locks”—those of breakdancing fame.
‘I don’t believe he has lost his mind, but he has some interesting dance moves,’ ED stated jokingly. ‘Didn’t bathe, I presume; fogleiates got the best of you? Let’s get you inside. I will prescribe you an antibiotic to ward off the approaching infection; the fogleiates are mangy little insects, with nasty mouths full of bacteria. You’ll have no tolerance for the diseases fogleiates spread.’
‘Why did they only bite my legs?’ I asked.
‘It’s the nature of the animal; they preferred the warmth of your legs, which were probably under the covers. Sadly your legs bore the brunt of the attack.’ ED started chuckling in a weird robotic chatter, and Dan collaborated with his own goofy chortle.
‘Well I’m glad you guys think this is funny,’ I said, disgusted with the timing of their jokes. ‘Can we go inside now?’
‘Not until you have a meeting with the moilon. We need to ensure that your body and gear are free of any substances foreign to the sterile environment of our ship,’ ED stated. His metallic eyelids slid over his lenses to lubricate them, and as they pulled back up over his optics, the lids squeegeed the substance clear, and his robotic eyes glistened against the beaming light surrounding us.
I went straight into the ship’s moilon to be cleaned.
As I walked, Nilo poured salt into the wound. ‘That’s what you get for neglecting hygiene.’ I was naked, and apparently Mariah was still sleeping in. I felt awkward standing nude.
‘Well dude, are you going to just stand there with your tally-whacker waving in the wind?’
‘You were meat gazing weren’t you?’ I asked, poking fun at my friend.
‘Meat gazing?’ ED asked. ‘I am not familiar with this term. What does it mean?’
I looked at him with a crooked grin and said, ‘You don’t want to know! But check this out!’
Still stark naked, I slapped on my hover boots and started soaring through the air, avoiding the walls and ceiling. With my chilled rear end exposed and my nipples hardened enough to cut a hole in a window, I was flying around the room. Plus, I was holding a T-shirt that I had spun around with my wrist to form a corkscrew-like length of cloth. Whenever I hovered near Dan, I would make fun of him by reaching out with one arm, and snapping this twisted T-shirt at him.
‘Dude, okay! Put some clothes on, you silly goose.’
‘Humans are far odder than I ever calculated,’ ED stated. It seemed he had enough of our tomfoolery and retreated to the garden.
‘We need to prepare for our trip to Foita,’ I said, covering my body in clothing. ‘Wait, where are you going Nilo?’ I asked, because he walked away, as if he wanted nothing to do with the conversation.
‘Weren’t you listening when I told you?’ Nilo asked rhetorically. ‘Once we arrive in Karshiz you’re on your own. That’s what I said, before we landed on Karshiz. I’m going to gather my stuff to head back. I will hitchhike if I have to. I’m a time enforcer. I have to get back to my work, policing time violators.’
I wasn’t sure what his job title meant and I didn’t have time to ask. From what I knew about Nilo, he was a time keeper and effective at that.
ED looked over toward me and said, ‘Let him go, this isn’t his war.’ Although our mission wasn’t of Nilo’s choosing, he sure did a great job burying his nose deep into it.
‘I will let him go once I get the info I need. Wait, Nilo!’ I yelled, as I ran after him. When I arrived at his quarters it was obvious that he had already packed. His bag was shouldered and he was motivated to leave beyond anything I could do to stop him.
‘Theodore, I admire you. But you need to be more careful and not be so headstrong. You always are the first into battle. But what you need to realize is that if you lead the battle, you are the first target. One day you will go too far.’
‘You’re right. So I guess I have some stuff to work on, but what about you. You’re here, why not stay and make something out of all this? Stick to the path you’re on and see where it takes you.’
‘Arresting time violators is my path and if I don’t find the man responsible for ruining my life, then I’ll never be at peace. You can show me a bit of empathy, Theodore. It wasn’t long ago that your life was turned upside down,’ Nilo said, walking over to Dan. They hugged. It was a true brotherly hug, both of them not knowing when to let go and when they did their eyes locked in. An interminable bond was made between those dudes.
The adrenal bond never fails. In a battle, when two men unfamiliar with each other and unprepared for the reality of war grind out a victory after too closely sampling defeat, they become joined by the relentless flow of adrenaline.
I had little time to know Nilo, but I was forever grateful to him for rescuing us during the low point of the battle on Tritillia, when all seemed lost. If it were not for him, we all might have not been here today. We owed him that much. I surely didn’t want to see him go.
As Dan pulled away, he said, ‘Don’t be golo, man.’
‘I’ll be worried about you, dude,’ Nilo said, while they respectfully reciprocated each other’s dialect.
ED floated in front of us and yelled, ‘Wait, we have an excess of detachable motojexes. You can use the motojex to fly back into town! It’s Urilian, so you will need to be careful who sees you on it.’
‘I will take what I can get,’ Nilo said, as ED prepped for Nilo’s takeoff.
The hatch lowered, and our cherished comrade disappeared on his motojex into the dust gusts of the valley. Our ramp closed the curtain on a short but fruitful friendship. Nilo was in such a hurry.
Nilo was gone. Not because he didn’t care or we irked him bad enough to push him away. He was jus
t part of something else, and I didn’t want to knock him off of his path long enough to screw up his destiny.
I sat down in one of the passenger chairs while ED operated from his charging cord. ‘I hope that Nilo makes it home okay,’ I said.
ED sighed. He said, ‘Theodore, child of Earth, you are too focused on what you can’t control, which is typical of a fledgling boy. I will not be the first person to tell you this, but this adventure can end in an instant. You may be moments away from victory, only to be stripped of it instantly. Your role in this war is inundated with millions of variables. I am unable to calculate them correctly, because many of the variables are not set in stone. There will only be one end, and on that day your life, soul, body, and mind will escape your world. You will be only a memory and even that has an end. Please, try hard to focus on what you have learned, because that, Theodore, is what will make you the man everyone believes you to be.’
‘Thank you ED.’
‘Theodore, I’m sure a day will come when I will have compiled numerous predictions of your death, but you will prove me wrong with your success. A boy from Earth, in space, his knowledge of our political, economic, and strategic reality outstripped by thousands of other leaders who desperately want to take his place. It’s a recipe for failure.’
I started to walk away, because ED really just made me feel even worse.
But, further words from ED started to sound like music to my ears and ointment to my ailments. “But this simplistic perception is grossly incomplete. The design of your story is strengthened by a tenacious desire to never give up, and that is why you will succeed Theodore. Your survival instinct and leadership is what will cause the defeat of our enemies. After yesterday’s battle, I am certain that my evaluation of you is still an impressive work in progress.’
I smiled, stood straight up, turned back to the robot, and said, ‘I will not let you down, ED.’ I continued on down the hallway to retreat to my room and do some serious reflection.