“Everyone has gone beyond normal protocol, taking risks that we didn’t in the past. This is the one and only chance we have to make a difference. There’s nothing to lose. If we die now or next year, dead is dead. There won’t be any mourners around to remember us a few years from now,” Lixa said.
Lixa was young, but she seemed to be as tuned into the situation as Hudson.
“As far as supplies, we have zero-energy batteries to recharge the mech-armor. There’s plenty of food and things to drink. We have a blaster and ammo for both you and the armor. After a couple of days rest you’ll be as ready as you’ll ever be.” Lixa hesitated and darted her eyes over at Tarik.
He had been staring at her, hanging on the music of her every word. His infatuation must have been obvious.
Lixa started to blush.
Chapter 9
The Present
Cole had set up his laptop and video camera on a tripod outside on the patio, just beyond the overhead awning. Fortunately, the weather was cooperating, and the sky was clear. He had moved his telescope out there, too. Mostly for show, as he had no intention for them to do any star gazing. He had hurriedly cleaned the patio furniture, a chocolate brown aluminum table and four matching chairs, before taking a shower.
Charlotte put the cookies on the table, and Cole sat the drinks down.
“Hold on a second.” He picked up a clean towel off one of the chairs and gave the one he had selected for Charlotte a quick wipedown.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You’re welcome.” He pulled the chair further out for her to sit.
Charlotte took her seat. Cole waited diligently behind and helped push the chair forward as she bellied up to the table.
“Such a gentleman,” Charlotte said, genuinely sounding impressed.
He enjoyed the compliment but didn’t really know how to respond, so he didn’t. After taking his seat, he scootched over next to her but made sure he wasn’t so close as to invade her personal space. The last thing he wanted to do was shove himself on top of Charlotte and creep her out.
The laptop was between the two of them. Cole ran his finger over the touchpad and woke up the screen. “You can get information on Spotthestation dot gov, a NASA website, to find out when and where the International Space Station flies over. We’re going to watch the live stream on the main NASA site.” Cole stood and adjusted the screen for them to get a clearer view. “Can you see that okay?”
“Yes, it’s fine.”
“It’ll look better as the sun goes down.”
“Ready for a cookie?” Charlotte asked as she picked up the plate.
“I was ready for a cookie before we ate the hummus.” He eagerly picked a cookie on the side of the plate, careful to keep his fingers from touching the others. After a bite, he said, “Man, these are so good!”
“You think so?”
“For real. They’re firm but not overbaked. Soft, but not undercooked. I’d call this the perfect chocolate chip cookie.” Two bites later, the sweet dessert had disappeared.
Charlotte bit into one. “Wow, these are good. Thank goodness, I tried really hard to follow the directions. I’m not much of a baker, but I like doing it sometimes. Mom helped me decide when they were done. You have to use your judgment. All ovens are different, so there’s no other way to know when to take them out.”
Cole adjusted the volume on the laptop to where it was barely audible. “Whatever you did, just keep on doing it.” He grabbed another cookie and went after it.
“I wonder what antigravity is like,” Charlotte said. “Look at them in the station, hanging in midair like floating in the water.”
“I bet it would be neat.”
“Maybe, but since there’s no gravity pulling them in any direction, they can’t move unless they grab or push off of something. You can’t tread thin air like you can water.”
“True, but their living area is so small, that’s not a problem.”
“Look at all that stuff in there,” Charlotte said while pointing her cookie at the screen. “All those wires. That keyboard on the wall is vertical. Not having gravity to give you a sense of up and down would take a lot to get used to.”
“It would. But if you lived in zero gravity, you could eat all the cookies you wanted.”
Charlotte smirked. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you’d never gain any weight.” He downed his last bite of cookie and smiled.
Charlotte giggled and extended her right elbow to nudge him in the arm. “You have crumbs all over your mouth.”
Momentary panic froze his face in mid-chew. Frantically searching about, he grabbed the rag he used to wipe the furniture and brushed the crumbs from his lips. “Sorry, I forgot to bring napkins. Do you want me to go inside and get some?”
“No, that’s okay. I was just picking on you.”
So far, things had been going well between them. This shocked Cole, because Charlotte seemed so approachable right now. So different than the girl he thought she was just this morning.
A few more cookies vanished from the plate. The sun hung low on the horizon, slowly gathering the last orange rays of light. A cool gentle breeze in the night air carried the soft fragrance of honey from sweet alyssum. The cloak of darkness intensified, unveiling Venus and other emerging stars and galaxies.
“We should see the ISS soon. Keep your eyes kinda west-south-west. It’s going to come over at sixty-eight degrees tonight. Ninety degrees is directly overhead, so don’t look too high up.”
Charlotte turned her head to the west. Princess Charlotte. Her striking profile looked hand sculptured by God’s most talented angel.
“Is that it coming up over there?”
Charlotte Meadows was sitting in his backyard with him. She had baked him cookies. Was any of this real?
“Cole?”
“Huh, what?”
“Is that the ISS?” She lifted a finger toward the west.
He paused a moment, and said, “I don’t think so. The light is too bright.” Cole continued to watch. “See the red light? It’s just a plane.”
“Yeah, I see it now.”
No sooner had Charlotte spoken, then the dim light of the ISS appeared above the horizon. “There it is, see? It’s not as bright as Venus. It’s too early in the night for it to look like that.”
“I see it,” she said enthusiastically.
Cole stepped over to his video camera, already pointing toward the western sky, and focused in on the ISS. “The video isn’t going to be all that impressive. I’m just videoing it as evidence that we actually worked on the project.”
“Wow, I don’t know why, because it is just a light traveling across the sky, but it’s really cool!”
Cole looked away from the viewfinder. He could spare a few seconds here and there to see it with his naked eyes. “Knowing the ISS is in outer space and that there are people inside puts it in perspective. That’s why it’s so neat.”
There were four men and one woman on the ISS. The live streaming video showed two of the men, one upside down and one right side up, performing some mundane task. Cole wished there had been a way to get them to give a shout-out to him and Charlotte as they passed over.
“It’s moving so fast. It’s almost halfway across the sky.”
“Yep, about five miles a second.” Cole repositioned the camera.
Less than a minute later, the ISS continued its journey to the northeastern side of the horizon, lost among the canopy of the forest.
“If you don’t know to look for it, at first glance you might think it was a jet.” Cole moved the camera from pointing to the sky, and over at Charlotte.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Uh, I need proof that you were here for the project.”
“You can hear my voice on the video.”
“I don’t have the audio on.”
“Okay, then you need to be in the video too.”
Good point, Cole thought. H
e quickly stepped over behind Charlotte, put his head next to hers, and waved quickly before returning to the camera. The smell of her hair lingered.
“Did you ever see the Space Shuttle re-enter the atmosphere?” Cole asked, and then turned off his video camera and sat back in his chair.
“No, I never did. I never got to see one launch either. I watched a nighttime launch once on TV, and I wanted to see one after that. Too bad the shuttle program’s over.”
“I saw the shuttle come in at night two different times. I had to set my clock and get up, but it was worth it. It looked like it traveled faster than the ISS, but in reality, the shuttle came in at about the same speed until the atmosphere slowed it down. It glowed like a meteor and left a trail like fireworks. That was really exciting to watch. But just like the ISS, it was gone before I could even go back in and wake up my dad to come out and watch.”
Charlotte had picked up her drink and drank some. There was a low buzz coming from the laptop from the ISS audio. Cole reached over and closed the laptop.
The space station had passed. There was no reason for Charlotte to be here anymore. All the excitement of the day had led to this moment. Cole honestly didn’t know where to go from here. “I guess…I guess we’re finished with the home project. I’ll upload my video tonight to YouTube and we can show it tomorrow.” Cole looked over at the table and brushed a few cookie crumbs to the patio floor. “It was nice of you to do the project with me.”
“It was nice for you to ask me to do the project. Most guys my age hardly talk to me.”
Cole chuckled. “Well, I don’t want to sound like a jerk or anything, but you hardly ever act like you know guys our age even exist.”
Charlotte raised both hands and brought them to her forehead, hiding her face. She let out a sigh. “I know…I know…I’ve been a bad person.”
“Wait, no, that’s not what I meant,” Cole said, feeling like he was about to dig another hole he couldn’t keep from falling into. “I didn’t mean you’re a bad person. I—”
“I know what you meant, Cole. In fact, I’ve learned a lot about myself just recently. After I broke up with Brennon,” Charlotte paused and then said, “I was so upset...I took a really hard look at my life. Who I was, and where I was going? My relationship with boys have been all the same and ended all the same. Me, with my heart broken.
“My mother and I talked, and she told me that if I wanted to have better relationships with boys, then I needed to stop picking the same one over and over.”
“What do you mean?” Cole asked.
“It’s different for girls than boys, you know. Girls mature faster. And me, well my body developed earlier than most. Older guys are interested in that. The guys who call me and talk to me are one or two years older. Guys my age see that and feel like they don’t have a chance with me. I can’t blame them, because I used to mentally cross them off my list entirely. They felt like they couldn’t play in my field, and I never gave them the time of day to begin with.”
“So you didn’t know I existed until today? You’ve told me hi from time to time,” Cole said.
“Actually, I have noticed you a little more than any others in our class. I mean, your locker is right next to mine.”
Lucky me, Cole thought, feeling like it was only a matter of circumstance that she was right here right now and not because she had found him appealing in any way.
“And, when you joined the baseball team. I’ve seen you practice when I was watching Brennon. I knew you were in my science class, too. To be honest, I liked your longer hair better than the short cut you have now.”
Now he was getting somewhere! She’s talking about his looks. “So you’re telling me that you think of me more than just the locker troll who has a locker next to you?”
Charlotte winced and giggled, pushing her right elbow against his arm again. “So I’ve told you, I’ve been reconsidering my choices in life. Bad habits are still hard to break. It wasn’t until Brennon busted in on our conversation that I had a defining moment in life. I saw that I had two choices before me. I could just become a thing and spend my life trying to make boys like Brennon like me and suffering the consequences. Or, I could go for someone different. Someone with a good heart and kind spirit. There’s something about you, even from the first time I saw you, I thought was different.”
“Different because of my interest in the paranormal, aliens, and bigfoot?”
“No, I have to admit, I do think of some of those subjects are juvenile.”
Cole felt a sharp knife to the heart, but the wound wasn’t deep, and he didn’t bleed much.
Charlotte said, “You’ve seemed to be a caring person. It’s just the way you treat people. I like that. And as far as your looks, I’ve always thought you had potential. At the time, not for me, but for other girls who like guys their own age. But that was my old way of thinking. I think with a little help from me—how to dress, what to say, how to act—I could turn you into a guy that girls couldn’t stop calling.”
Cole turned his head to the side. With one eyebrow raised, he asked, “So, are you saying you like me?”
Charlotte placed her hand on his thigh. “Yes, I am saying that I like you. I want us to become friends and get to know each other better. I’m looking for a new direction in life, and you’re the kind of person I’d like to start it with.”
Boldly, Cole placed his left hand on top of Charlotte’s and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Well, I’d like to give our friendship a try too.”
Charlotte took her hand back and grabbed her drink. She leaned back in her chair and looked up into the sky. “You believe in aliens.”
“Yes, you don’t?” Cole said, turning his body in her direction.
“I’m not sure what to believe. The universe is a big place. But after all the years of man on Earth, there’s no hard evidence that there’s life on other planets. Even with all the smart phones where just about everyone has a camera, there aren’t any convincing pictures of UFOs.”
“Okay, so I’ve read that there are trillions and trillions of stars in the universe and within an estimated ten trillion galaxies. The odds that there isn’t life elsewhere is practically zero. That said, I think the mound of evidence that we do have of ETs is enough to believe it’s true.”
“I read a book about a year ago, Rare Earth. One thing it talked about was that single cell and simple multicell organisms might be common on a good amount of planets. But life like we have on Earth, with sentient beings like humans, would be extremely rare. The book pointed out that even if aliens did exist, that the distances would be so far away that they’d never reach us, or us them. So, honestly, if there is intelligent life in the universe, I don’t think we’ll ever know.”
“What about interdimensional travel? Or warping space? Scientists have mathematically proven it can be done.”
“And the book talked about how the energy required to bend space would be equivalent to that of the sun. Mankind will never harness that kind of power,” Charlotte said.
“I might have to read that book. I hear what you’re saying, but I’m still keeping an open mind,” Cole said and leaned back into his chair.
“Would that be so bad?” Charlotte asked. “That even though there are trillions of planets in the universe, that Earth was the only planet with life of any kind? Earth is such a beautiful place. We’re still discovering new species of land life every day. Our oceans have hardly even been explored. Wouldn’t it be enough if we are all that there is? Our souls constantly being reborn throughout time, sharing the world over and over again?”
Cole thought of all the waste if the heavens above were empty of Earth-like life. Then, he thought of the fragrance of Charlotte’s hair, the warmth of her hand, and the possibility of countless lifetimes together. “Yeah, it would be enough.”
Chapter 10
The Future
The safe-house might have been hastily put together, but the bare essentials were more than adequate fo
r Tarik and the Nu-Mans’ comfort. Fortunately, the house had ten-foot ceilings, which gave Zax barely enough room not to feel confined. The whole inside walls, including the ceiling, had been sprayed with a material designed to block out any electronic signatures which might give away their position. Each had a bedroom and a mattress on the floor to sleep on. Tarik found his comfortable at first, being tired after such an active day. As the night passed, it only felt firmer. He had to keep rolling over or else he’d start getting sore places on parts of his body.
A chemical toilet kept them from having to go outside to use do their business. They had a large supply of water. Of course, none of the house’s plumbing worked. That said, a portable sink had been set up with the drain piped to the outside. The sink provided both hot and cold water. Tarik and the Nu-Mans were able to sponge bath themselves adequately clean.
Clothing had been a problem for Tarik. Whoever had stocked the house failed to provide him with clothes designed to fit humans. All the clothing he had was what he showed up in. To be comfortable inside the mech-armor, all he wore was a tight fitting, clingy shirt where the sleeves stopped mid-bicep; underwear to keep his privates from flopping about; clingy shorts not much longer than his underwear; and socks.
Tarik had considered his options. Even if Lixa hadn’t been there, he doubted he’d walk around naked while his hand washed clothes air dried with a fan. He had been self-conscious about his body most of his life. Not having hair covering most of it made him feel too exposed. Plus, there was a noticeable size difference in genitalia between human and Nu-Man males. Tarik played out a thought that if Lixa ever caught a peek of his man-pride, she’d break out in hysterical laughter; other Nu-Mans had over the years.
Before he stripped down, Tarik chose a traditional Nu-Man tunic, socks, and underwear. The socks were large enough for him to fit three feet into. He used the shears in a utility knife to cut the socks down the middle, from the top all the way to the toe. He then put his foot on the folded out material, wrapped both sides over, and cut off the excess material until the two sides met. Using all-duty tape, he bonded the opposing sides and had a functioning sock. His creation might be uncomfortable in his armor. But he would wash and dry his old clothing before going on the mission.
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