Blackie watched with the realization more than one aspect of their circumstances was life threatening. A direct hit from a huge boulder would result in the same fate as slipping into the black hole. “Come on Anonoi, we’re almost out of air in here,” he said to himself.
“What was that.” Gary looked at his nav system and their coordinates had changed. “We gained some ground, we’re back to the event horizon. What’s happening back there?”
“Gary, this is Kevin. Something going on with our fish. It’s flashing like crazy near the baster net.”
“I don’t have a clue what’s causing all the commotion, but let me know if you see any more changes.”
Wayne watched a series of twitches from behind the steering wheel. Who in their right mind would ever believe this could happen, he thought.
“Is it working?” asked Amelia.
“I can’t tell,” said Blackie. Wayne’s instrument panel is useless.”
Another violent twitch rocked the car, and Amelia felt herself being pushed against the seat back. “We moved, I felt it.”
Gary looked at his nav system and the coordinates had changed again. “We gained two thousand more feet. How’s the propulsion system doing?”
“Our engines are pushed to the limit. I don’t think they have anything to do with this. Something is going on back there.”
“It’s Anonoi,” screamed Mark. “He said to clear the cargo bay, they’re coming in soon.”
“Who is Anonoi?” demanded Arton.
“The Desredeedese Shade we met on Lindone. That’s him shifting space to move the Nomad. Clear that bloody cargo bay.”
Gary grabbed the handset and told Kevin to prepare for an incoming spaceship.
“There’s no room for a spaceship back here, Gary.
“The ship is small. It’s been in there before; no problem. Clear the hold.” and he hung up. “I can’t wait to see this Nomad thing.”
“How are we doing, Arton?
“We’re stable. What are our coordinates?”
“Twenty-eight hundred feet outside the event horizon. We are clear.” His headset and Kevin came on the line.
“Gary, the hold is clear. While we were tidying up, the tow line went slack. We reeled in the baster net, but our fish…”
Gary hung up the headset and started working his control panel. “There’s an unshielded source inside the horizon. That’s our fish.”
“Wayne must have restarted the Nomad’s engine,” said Mark, “so we could trace them.”
Arton watched Gary’s screen as he played with the propulsion throttle. “They’re out. They’re out,” he said pointing at the screen.
Gary’s headset buzzed again and he put the feed into the ship’s speaker system.
“Attention everyone, this is Kevin in the aft cargo bay. Our fish has landed.”
No sooner than the words were out of his mouth, Arton’s stealth fighter was moved in a series of time and space shifts. When they stopped, Arton was flying side by side with Alpha One.
“Unbelievable,” was all he could say.
Mark ran to the rear of the ship and spent the next few minutes bear hugging everyone, including Kevin and George whom he’d never met. Arton expertly brought his fighter to rest in the Alpha One’s landing bay and reported their status to the com deck.
“With Arton safely aboard, Officer Williams asked Captain Warrington for permission to join the phalanx.
“Without delay, and Williams, you have the com.” Bert walked to the flight deck to congratulate Arton for pulling off a mission he had given little chance of being successful.
Once they rejoined the fleet, and took their position in the phalanx, a major party erupted on Alpha One’s flight deck and Bert authorized the entire crew to attend. “Luden won’t mind being in charge for a little while longer,” he said as he ordered another Gorgas Cavitas with two shots of Barlean triple distilled whiskey. “Ooh, that could be habit forming,” he said, smiling at the waiter.
The next morning, as his own staff was apprising him of the situation on Korganra, Bert received a communique from Erg Balor. In phase one, Ninety percent of the Giants had been transported off Korganra. That was the first wave of evacuees. Eight percent of the population, who were originally against leaving, but subsequently changed their minds, were successfully evacuated in phase two.
Of the remaining two percent, only a handful changed their minds at the last second, and asked to be evacuated. Kor Tohl and Erg knew the margin of error for phase three of the evacuation was razor thin. By the time their distress call arrived at the mobile evacuation center, boulders half the size of houses were being sucked into the atmosphere.
Kor Tohl made the decision to abandon any attempt at a phase three evacuation. The communique to Bert ended with a statement of gratitude. “You have pressed the restart button for Korganraim Giants, and our new home is glorious beyond all our hopes and dreams. The Giants are now wholly committed allies of the Centorians. Call on us if ever you need our assistance, and please, visit New Korganra soon. Your trusted ally, Erg Balor.”
At 13427 IPT that morning, two hours after Bert received the communique from Erg, stress fractures caused by sound waves generated when the rift was opened, were exacerbated by the extreme gravitational harvesting of the planet’s surface. As predicted by Officer Kulla’s stress-to-failure simulation, the fractures connected major void spaces in the subsurface of Korganra resulting in the planet’s complete disintegration.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
HOME IS WHERE YOU PARK YOUR CAR
The Alpha Gunship fleet arrived on Centoria the morning of the fourth day after Korganra’s destruction. The intervening time was sprinkled by Blackie’s stories about what had happened to them while they were separated. Mark insisted they not tell him everything because he wanted Nita to hear the stories with him.
The next day, Mark, Nita, Wayne, Amelia, Joules and Blackie had a long, long picnic on the Ninnth Hill Cliffs. The western ridges were a perfect place to tell stories, eat snacks, and drink Gorgas Cavitas. Bert had sent a small flask of Barlean triple distilled whiskey with Mark, but they decided they preferred regular old, nonalcoholic, Gorgas Cavitas.
They wasted away the entire afternoon, and soon they sat watching the sun on the Eastern Cliffs of Umbreathe and the swirling plumes of smoke rising from chimneys in the village. The golden light bathing Umbreathe signaled the end of another work day.
When they arrived back in town, a messenger delivered a note from Sly. How about all of you meet me for Breakfast at 8 am? Send word with Mike.
They accepted the offer and the next morning they met Sly, who introduced them to a friend and business associate. Gilfour Tormangian was an engineer at the Jump Starter Corporation, and the supplier of Sly’s unregistered unit. Amelia handed over their jump starter for him to inspect.
“What have you tried,” asked Gilfour.
“Tried? questioned Amelia. “We’ve only pushed the red button. By we, I mean me. We did reinstall the retainer ring. It fell out in the desert on Lindone.”
“Yes, this model’s ring wasn’t secured with lock-tight. That was a dreadful manufacturing oversight.”
“I expect you have some kind of tool or something that will help us learn how to use the blasted thing,” said Wayne, who thought this discussion was going nowhere fast.
“No, nothing like that.” Gilfour smiled at them like he had announced they won the lottery.
“Any suggestions, Gilfour,” asked Sly.
“Suggestions? Oh, yes of course.” He hesitated, then offered what he thought was the only explanation. “In a vain attempt to make the units more secure, each unit was shipped with instructions on how to program the instrument. It was an unmitigated failure of epic proportions.”
“Customers lost their instructions, the company had woefully inadequate documentation (how much more inadequate could it have been than none) and the old security program was abandoned. You are the happy owners of
one such unit. I’m sorry, but the trade-in deal worked out by our attorney, Matt Tildon, has long since expired.”
Wayne was looking like a well shaken bottle of soda water on the verge of exploding. “Did I miss the suggestion?” asked Wayne as nicely as he could, since Gilfour was a friend of Sly’s.
“Well, the next time you use the Jump Starter, try holding down the button. Don’t just push it in. Depress it, hold it down, and see what happens.
“None of these units are known to have exploded, right? asked Blackie.
“Oh, heavens no. We’ve taken every precaution to make them safe.” Once again, his face beamed with a smile. They finished their breakfast and Gilfour quickly excused himself.
“I have to be back at the factory today,” he said, as he slid his chair back. “We are upgrading the safety precautions on the new models.”
Amelia couldn’t resist such a golden opportunity. “But if you’ve already taken EVERY precaution previously, to make them COMPLETELY safe, what’s left to upgrade?”
Gilfour was dumbstruck, and said he had enjoyed breakfast and wished them safe travels. As he left the diner, Sly addressed his friends.
“Well, I was hoping for much more than that. He’s a gifted engineer, but the fellow is a little odd I think.”
“A little odd puts the point to it, don’t you think?” said Joules as Wayne burst out laughing.
Sly laughed as hard as any of them. When the chaos died down he made them an offer. “I’ll unofficially see to it that everyone gets home. Tell me where you want to go, and I promise the full resources of Centoria to make it happen. Honestly, one week of not having to monitor the Giants, and intervene in their shenanigans will be more than enough savings to pay for your travel expenses.”
The group’s response was not what Sly had envisioned. Total silence. This was the first time they had to wrangle with the idea of going separate ways. Sly started to make a joke, but realized they were all struggling with this new reality – they could all go home. They would be right back in their own neighborhoods, or wherever they chose, and how would they ever see each other again.
“You can track the Nomad now, isn’t that right Sly.”
“Officer Kulla says the Nomad is now officially listed in the signals analysis software throughout the entire fleet. Why do you ask?”
Blackie pulled out his credit card and laid it on the table. “There’s enough credits on that card to buy an estate on one of Joliean-4’s biggest lakes. On earth, that card is almost useless.”
“What do you mean almost?” asked Wayne.
“One guitar shop we’re familiar with might accept that card,” said Mark. “We know the owner.”
“Sly barked a laugh then asked, “What’s your point? Or, your plan?”
“I haven’t talked to everyone about this,” said Blackie, “because I just thought of it. So, I don’t want anyone to feel pressured to agree, but here goes. What if you arrange transportation for all of us to Earth. I know there’s a prohibition against going to Earth, but it would be nice for Nita and Joules to see where we live.”
“Then, we’ll stop by the guitar shop and let you know when we’re ready to try Gilfour’s magical 'Push the button and hold it' routine.” Blackie paused for a moment to make sure everyone was onboard with his idea.
“If Gilfour’s idea works, we may find out how to use the Jump Starter and we can go wherever we want, whenever we want. If we inadvertently make a Jump, you can have one of your Alpha Class ships track us down. But if it doesn’t work at all, we’ll visit you at the guitar shop and let you know we need help. If the 'didn’t work' scenario prevails, each of us will have to choose where we want to live. And at that point, the party is over.”
No one said a word. They were all deep in thought trying to evaluate what Blackie had said.
“I think it’s a logical conclusion.”
“This is going to get weird again, isn’t it?” said Wayne. “I can feel it, things are going to get weird. I’ve got that same creepy feeling I had on Alphus Nebulum after our first mixing zone experience. But now that I think about it, that ended pretty well. We met Nita.”
“I’m delighted to have joined the party,” said Nita.
“There doesn’t seem to be any downside,” said Joules. The worst that can happen is we end up right back in the situation we’re in now. I’m for it.”
A limited discussion was followed by everyone’s acceptance of the Blackie’s plan. Sly agreed to take them to Earth, or anywhere they else they wanted to go.
“One question, Sly. Earth is a little freaked out about aliens,” said Amelia. “How do we arrive, and leave, without starting a worldwide panic?
“The Alpha will be cloaked. No one on Earth will ever suspect it was there. The international legal community that monitors planetary visitation agreements might be upset with me, but don’t worry, I have an attorney on full retainer.”
Everyone agreed and they left for Earth the next morning. Sly accompanied them on the trip, and took Venessa and his boys along as well to show them the guitar shop.
*********************************
A month later Joules was sitting at a table waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. While Blackie finished his new workout regimen, Mark had taken Nita on a walk, and Wayne and Amelia had gone shopping.
“There you are,” said Blackie.
The restaurant was larger than it looked from the front. Tables with cloth covers were neatly arranged on clean ceramic looking floors. Overhead fans stirred the air and cast a pleasant light throughout the room. Blackie sauntered across the floor to a table about halfway to the back wall. As he sat down, Mark, Nita, Wayne and Amelia walked in and joined them.
“Our favorite table,” exclaimed Amelia.
“So, what have you been doing this morning, Joules?” asked Wayne.
“I’ve been thinking about Sly. I think the time has come to pay him that visit we discussed.”
“You’re right,” said Blackie. “I promised him we would come by. I guess I lost track of how much time.”
“I love being back here,” said Wayne. “Absolutely nothing has changed. But I suppose it’s time to move on.”
“Excuse me, are you ready to order now?” asked the waiter.
“Absolutely, we are ready,” said Mark. “And how are you today?”
He laughed and said, “I’m rich,” and laughed again. “I presume you will want an order of Toast to start.” He turned with remarkable dexterity for a being that was almost the size of a rhinoceros. Except for not having a horn, he looked like one.
“So, while we’re waiting for Tugurro to bring our Toast, let’s plan our trip to see Sly and Venessa.” Amelia reached into her backpack and retrieved the Jump Starter. Depressing the red button on the front cover and holding it down, she counted to ten. When she released the button, a barely perceptible seam formed around the sides of the case, then it opened. On the right side was a small key pad and plasma screen. Attached to the inside of the left panel were precise operating instructions.
“I think we could have breakfast tomorrow morning with Nita’s Dad on Centoria, late lunch with Joules’ Mom and Dad at that exquisite café down the street from the museum on Gafcon-49, and make it to the Treehouse for dinner with Sly, Venessa, and the boys tomorrow evening.”
“Brilliant,” said Blackie, “We’ll see Paxim again. I have a question for him about a sword fighting technique.”
“Of course you do,” said Wayne. “Hey, maybe on the way we can go by the Space Saver Garage and park the Nomad.”
“So that’s your plan. I was wondering why you hadn’t repaired all the damage,” said Mark.
“Why would I bother.” Wayne pulled out his credit card and a Space Saver coupon for fifty percent off on his next visit. “For a few credits, I can have their 3-D equipment print a new Nomad; tires and all.”
The next morning, they sat in the Nomad anxious to start their trip. The torrent of golden r
ings flying around the car were just a blur accompanied by the sound of a hurricane force gale. The white haze enveloping the Nomad pulsed with silver flashes and became somewhat transparent.
With each pulsation the silver flashes increased in intensity and the haze became more and more transparent, as did the car and everyone in it. In a matter of seconds, you could have said they looked more gone than present.
A silver flash reflected off what was left of the translucent haze, and the Nomad and its six passengers vanished, along with several finely crafted instruments recently purchased from Sly’s Guitar Emporium.
The End.
*************************************
Thanks very much for reading World Eaters. I hope you enjoyed the book. Please post a short review on Amazon.
John David Buchanan
Visit my website – www.jumpstartingtheuniverse.com for news of other books and oddities in the making.
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