by Gini Koch
“Battle stations!” I shouted as I grabbed my purse and flung it over my neck.
As rallying cries went, this was a good one. For a fort, a submarine, or a battle cruiser. Only we had no actual battle stations in the Embassy. On the other hand, superfast people and those who work with them on a daily basis tend to react swiftly when any kind of cry like this is shouted out.
As everyone started to move, however, something freaky happened. And, considering that nothing normal had happened to me since I’d joined up with Centaurion Division, this was saying a lot.
Light encircled and surrounded me and several of the others. Light from nowhere inside the Embassy. The light was multicolored and flashy, bright but still easy to see through. It didn’t hurt, but the light seemed intent on keeping me inside it, as if I was in some sort of tube made of the light.
I couldn’t really move, and I could tell that others couldn’t, either. But not all the others. Those kept stationary all looked similar—like they were flickering images instead of people. I was in a good position to see pretty much the entire room, which was nice, since my head was also invited to the immobilized portion of the current festivities.
Jeff had tried to lunge for Jamie when I’d shouted—I could tell by where he was looking and how his body was arched when the light surrounded him. He wasn’t going anywhere, though. Neither were Christopher, Chuckie, Reader, Gower and Jamie, Tim, Tito, Kevin, the flyboys, Lorraine, Claudia, Serene and Brian, and Abigail Gower, the youngest and now only other remaining Gower sibling.
The princesses were also flickering. Unlike everyone else in the room, however, they didn’t look freaked out. They looked worried, and somewhat anticipatory, but not afraid.
Len and Kyle were running for me, Amy was about to grab Christopher, and others were aiming for the rest of us. “No!” Siler thundered, as he body slammed the boys so that they flew into White, who didn’t go down, but steadied them. “Don’t touch them!”
Those not flickering like an old movie froze. “What’s happening to them?” Denise cried out as she held onto Raymond and Rachel and the three of them stared at Kevin with looks of terror on their faces.
“Kitty, is this the death ray?” Buchanan asked, voice shaking just a bit. Noted that Siler had zipped back after knocking the boys aside and was holding him back, presumably to keep Buchanan from diving for me or Jamie.
“Hardly.” It was fairly easy to move my mouth. Well, that was nice for me—I worked best when I could run my yap, after all. “We’d be dust piles now. No idea what this is, but it’s not from the other universe.”
“Yes,” Raj said slowly, “I’d bet it probably is. But we’ve seen it in this one, too. Kitty, think Star Trek,” Raj sounded soothing, which meant he was working his troubadour magic, because he didn’t look relaxed. “You look like you’re all being beamed somewhere.”
The princesses’ expressions told me what I needed to make a very educated guess. “Alpha Centauri.” Thought about it. “That’s why it’s taking so long, isn’t it?” Much harder to beam someone from one solar system to another, and I had to assume we didn’t have a spaceship floating over Earth because someone would have mentioned that to us. At the top of their lungs.
The A-Cs in the room who weren’t in a beam of light all nodded. “That makes sense,” White said. “This wasn’t something on Alpha Four when we left, however, Missus Martini.” White always called me Mrs. Martini when things were rolling. Clearly he was guessing that at least one of us was about to go into action. But, based on the lights, not both of us. Interesting. In a freaky way.
“Why?” Buchanan asked. “Why are they trying to take them? And why not take the entire room? Why these people specifically?” Buchanan was echoing my thoughts, but I didn’t have an answer, either.
The reply didn’t come from me, the princesses, or White. It came from Mom. “There’s only one reason these specific people would be taken.”
“I agree for the most part,” White said. Apparently he and Mom were on a wavelength no one else was. Well, go them. “But why Abigail?”
“Not sure . . .” Mom looked at Rahmi. “How bad was the political situation when you left?”
“Bad. Very bad. As Kitty has surmised, it must have been why our mother sent us to you.”
“And now she wants you back,” White said, sounding as worried as I felt. My daughter was being beamed somewhere, and she wasn’t with me or her father. Gower had her in his arms and held against his chest, so at least she wasn’t alone. Jamie didn’t look scared. Gower did, but she didn’t. She looked excited.
“This is not our technology,” Rhee said. “Though this was how we were sent to you before.”
“Whose tech was it?” White asked.
“The Planetary Council’s,” Rahmi replied. “But why would others be taken, beyond my sister and me?”
“Because of what’s going on and why.” Mom replied. “Kitty, the people being taken are significant. You need to be prepared—”
But whatever we needed to be prepped for I was going to have to figure out on my own, because the light stopped flashing, went solid and opaque, and my body tingled as if I was pixelating.
Had to figure I was. Truly, the fun around here never stopped.
CHAPTER 11
REALLY HOPED I’D be put back together correctly whenever we got wherever we were going, but I didn’t count on it.
This was unlike any other way I’d traveled the cosmos in the past. Traveling via ACE remained the most pleasant—just a gentle tug and then you Time Warped wherever and got a lovely view at the same time. The Universe Wheel was weird but weightless, and at least interesting, albeit freaky beyond belief. Superconsciousness Express wasn’t so bad when they moved you, too. Even the gates, while nauseating, were, by now, normal. For the freak world I lived in, but whatever, still normal.
This was very different. I definitely wasn’t standing on anything, nor was I lying on anything, yet I still couldn’t move and was being buffeted about. The feeling now was truly like being in and traveling through a tube, albeit one made of light, like those old fashioned air tubes some banks still used to take drive-through deposits. Only a million times faster, and I was the change rattling around in the plastic container. While still tingling in that weird “I’m being chopped up into a million little pieces” way. I wasn’t a fan. Of any of it.
I was less of a fan when the tube sputtered and lost its opacity. As it did so, I was able to look around. Everyone was still within my field of vision, but we were farther apart now. Jeff was farther from me and closer to Jamie and Gower, in that sense, but they were much farther away from both of us than they had been. Everyone was spread out and further away, as if we’d been part of a sphere that had exploded, sending us radiating away from center.
I was closest to Chuckie and I tried to reach for him. As I did so, I realized we were in space and wondered if we were all about to die, fast and ugly. Then the light tube reactivated. Hoped everyone else’s had reactivated as well.
Back to being whizzed through a Galactic Pneumatic Tube. Still not a fan. Even less of a fan when the tubes sputtered again. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t smooth. Meaning there was probably interference of some kind. This thought wasn’t reassuring. At all.
Interference could be caused by a variety of things, but the bottom line was that we were somewhere in the cosmos without spacesuits, spaceships, or helpful space entities. At least as far as I knew.
Then again, because Jamie was one of those taken, we had at least one space entity with us. But I had no idea if this was something that affected ACE negatively or not. Hoped not, and also hoped that ACE’s self-preservation would mean that Jamie, and hopefully Gower, survived.
Didn’t have too long to worry about it, because I finally felt something under my feet again. Felt like something solid. So, one for the win column. Hey, the win column
was totally empty at this moment, so I’d take even the smallest victory.
Of course, “solid” wasn’t the same as “steady,” “sturdy,” or “safe.” The light tube disappeared, but the horrible tingling was still going, though it seemed to be dying down. I was able to look around and discovered that what I was standing on was the top of a tall tree.
I’d had a freaky dream about something like this. Only in my dream, the trees weren’t all purple and I was, you know, dreaming. Right now I was very much awake. And I was precariously balanced on something that was extremely unlikely to be able to bear my weight.
Sure enough, the moment the tingling finally stopped, gravity decided to take an interest. Nice to know it existed wherever in the cosmos I was. However, gravity was, as so often happened for me, pissed that I’d ignored it for so long. I plummeted down.
Managed to grab a decent-sized branch before I banged through every single branch, twig, and leaf on this tree, but only because I cleverly caught it with my stomach.
Decided to hang there while I tried to get my breath back, the branch having knocked all the wind out of me. Was relieved to realize that I could breathe. Took a closer look at the tree. I wasn’t the Queen of Arbor Day or anything, but I was pretty sure that Earth didn’t possess trees that were literally purple all over. Purple flowers, yes, sure. Purple flowers, leaves, branches, and trunks? No, not so much.
My tree was quite pretty, since each part was a different shade of purple. It also smelled nice, similar to lavender, but different. Nice and sweet, but unlike anything I’d smelled before. It smelled like purple, honestly.
As my breath returned, I considered my options. Climbing down seemed like a wise course of action. Finding the others was definitely up there at the top of the To Do List. Figuring out where in the cosmos we were was also a biggie.
Because Jeff had been given Surcenthumain by some of our enemies, he’d become enhanced. Same thing for Serene and Christopher. Christopher had taken the drug in large doses but most of his enhancement had faded, though he was still potentially the fastest person in the galaxy.
Jeff’s and Serene’s talent enhancements hadn’t faded so far. But there had been another side effect, which was that Jamie had come out extra-special with a side of amazing, and she’d done a mother and child feedback kind of thing inside me so that when she was born, I’d inherited some of the A-C abilities. Meaning that I had hyperspeed, enhanced vision, somewhat enhanced strength, and an ability to heal very fast. Basically I was Wolverine With Boobs.
Meaning that the cuts and bruises I’d just acquired were healing as I looked at them, and I could probably handle myself wherever the hell I actually was, even if I couldn’t find the others. However, not finding the others wasn’t something I was hoping for. Of course, what I wanted and what was really going on appeared to be, as so often happened, nowhere close to aligning.
Congratulated myself on my foresight, because my purse had stayed with me, even when I’d fallen, but only because I’d put it over my neck. Because I was still wrapped around the branch, it was hanging under me. As I stared at it, it opened and three heads peeped out.
“Harlie, Poofikins, and Bruno! Kitty’s so happy to see you! How did you guys get here? Bruno especially?” The Poofs weren’t a total surprise, but the Peregrine having managed to make this trip, inside my purse no less, seemed almost as amazing as the trip itself.
Harlie mewed, purred, and mewed. Poofikins added in. Then Bruno did his head bob thing and squawked quietly.
I understood this because, in addition to all the other A-C goodies I’d acquired, I’d somehow become Dr. Doolittle as well. Richard White insisted that I’d always had this talent and was aware of it now because I had Alpha Four animals that talked back. Whether I’d had the power all the time or whether I’d acquired it along with Jamie, I liked the skill. Jeff wasn’t as much of a fan, but he’d learned to accept it by now. Sort of.
The animals finished their recap. “Huh. Good news.” Apparently every person who’d been spirited away had their own attached Poof with them, other than Jeff, because it required two Poofs to bring Bruno along. “Well, other than the fact that Jeff is Poofless.”
Poofikins made sounds of protest. Jeff had an unnamed and unattached Poof with him. Meaning that, very shortly, I assumed, Jeff was going to have a Poof that had bonded to him, regardless of Jeff’s specific wishes.
“Aha, well done, that Poof.”
Technically Harlie was Jeff’s. Harlie had been Jeff’s father’s first, when Alfred was still on Alpha Four. But when our Poofs came to Earth, Harlie bonded with Jeff. Supposedly. Based on everything that had gone on since then, Harlie was clearly more bonded to me than Jeff.
Frankly, the Poofs were truly bonded to Algar, though I was the only one who knew this. Meaning they probably had a way of communicating with him. This was good news, because I and the others were definitely up the proverbial creek without any kind of paddle, and any assistance we could get was probably going to be incredibly helpful.
Of course, Algar was hiding out with the Earth A-Cs for crimes against Black Hole Universe beliefs or some such. So his form of helping was extremely low-key. But any port in a purple sea, sort of thing.
“Is it safe for any of you to do reconnaissance and tell Kitty if it’s safe for Kitty to climb down? As in, are there things down there that want to eat me, kill me, or enslave me?”
“No. There are things down here that are hoping you have a med kit in your purse.” The voice was faint, but I recognized it.
“Christopher! Where are you?”
“He’s between us, Kitty.” This voice was nearer and one I’d recognize if I was unconscious.
“Chuckie, are you okay? Where are you?”
“Just scratched up. I landed in the middle of a tree.”
“I was on top of one. How is it I can hear you?”
“I’m not on the ground, Kitty. Look to your right.”
Sure enough, there he was, in another tree just like mine. It was only easy to spot him because he’d adapted to the A-C’s formality and wore black Armani suits and white shirts all the time, just like the rest of the men working for Centaurion did. He stood out in the purple tree. I probably did, too.
When I’d taken that fast look around in the middle of space, in addition to Chuckie being nearest to me, Christopher had been fairly near to him as well. So, it made sense that these two were the nearest now. Making as educated a guess as I could, and based on how far away from me Chuckie was now, Christopher had landed even farther away. However, Christopher was so fast that even if he’d landed farther away from us, it would make sense that he’d found us because he could probably search half of this planet in less than a minute.
“Is Jeff here?”
“I don’t see him,” Chuckie said. “I’d suggest we get down and then look for the others. I’m just worried about breaking something or something stabbing into us on the way down. Me in particular, since you and White have the healing factor and I don’t.”
“Haven’t found Jeff yet,” Christopher shouted up to us. “Hang on, though. I have a plan.”
“He has a plan.” Chuckie didn’t sound enthused.
“Dude, he was the Head of Imageering for over a decade, you know. He has the skills.”
“Yeah. And in all that time, tell me how often they worked on alien planets or with, in, around, and, most specifically, on gigantic trees.”
“Wow, you’re sure testy.”
“I’m sitting high up in a tree, on a branch that’s just managing to hold my weight, and I can’t see another safe branch under me. Yeah, call me the anti-Eagle Scout right now.”
“I fell through half a tree to get to my branch. I’m not feeling the sympathies for you at this moment.”
“Healing factor.”
“Sitting, versus draped like a wet towel, on your
branch.”
“Keep on bickering,” Christopher called up to us. He sounded a little closer. “It’s helping me find you.”
“Are you building a ladder?” Chuckie asked hopefully.
“No, there aren’t enough dry branches of decent size down there.”
“Then, um, what are you doing?”
Christopher’s head bobbed into view. “This.”
Had to admit—“this” wasn’t something I’d have guessed in a million years.
CHAPTER 12
CHRISTOPHER WAS RIDING on the back of a gigantic, flying bug. The bug looked like a katydid-grasshopper combination, only the size of a pony. Oh, and it was bright yellow. A yellow like a thousand daffodils put together, an almost neon yellow.
The creature had a small head with large eyes and antennae that looked like they were long, delicate eyelashes shooting up and out. Its wings were going so fast they were a blur, just like a hummingbird’s, and they made a pleasant humming sound. I couldn’t tell for sure, but they looked fairly see-through and very iridescent, just like the eyelash-antennae.
Christopher sat in front of the wings and the two long, bent, and powerful back legs, right behind the head. His feet were resting on the middle two legs that went out to the sides like upside-down L’s, almost as if the insect intended them to be stirrups for a rider. The two front legs were in front and under the head and seemed more like arms, albeit arms the insect was going to use to keep its head up when it was on the ground.
“I didn’t realize I’d hit my head,” Chuckie said, speaking for both of us.
“I’m really glad I’m not a girl who freaks out at bugs. And the two of you should be truly grateful for that, because I can hit a level that’ll burst your eardrums if I’m really freaked out.”
“I’ve heard you hit that register, so keep calm and spare us,” Christopher said. “But they’re amazingly tame. And strong. And the two of you can stop whining about them.”