Cheerleaders From Planet X

by Lyssa Chiavari

  That damned neutrality again. I leaned against the wall. My eyes felt swollen from the crying, and the cool tile was soothing against my lids. “Mom,” I said, my voice hoarse and ragged. “How would you feel if it was Dad up there in that ship right now? Or Tonio, or Julian, or Rolando, or Cristina?”

  She didn’t answer for a long time. Finally, I opened my eyes to look at her. She was staring down at her own feet now, at the chipped red polish on her toes. When at last she spoke, it was in a whisper so quiet I could barely hear it.

  “…I’d bust the ship apart to find them.”

  I crouched down in front of her, looking up into her face. “But you’re asking me to just leave Shailene and Ana behind.” I could feel my face burning, but I still doggedly added, “You know who Shailene is to me, don’t you, Mom?”

  “Of course I do. I remember eighth grade.”

  I put a hand on her foot. “You want me to go through that again? Because I’ll tell you what, I’m not letting you block my memories again. That might work on a thirteen-year-old, but I’ll die before I let it happen now.”

  “I know. I wouldn’t do that to you again, Leelee.” She ran a hand through my hair, like she used to when I was little. For just an instant, I closed my eyes and let myself pretend that I was small again, when everything was easier.

  But maybe things had never actually been easier. Maybe the hard memories were just missing.

  I swiped at my eyes with the back of my hand. “I can’t go back, Mama,” I said. “I can’t leave her.”

  A beat passed, then she stroked my hair again. “I know.”

  I stared at her, unsure I’d heard her correctly. “What?”

  She stood, pulling me up with her, and drew me into a hug, pressing her nose against the top of my head. “I know, Laura.”

  * * *

  I left the bathroom, still sniffling, and went back to the cabin where my dad was strapped into his seat, ready for takeoff. A couple of sentries sat noiseless on either side of the cabin, not seeming interested in anything other than ensuring I didn’t leave the shuttle.

  I sat next to my dad, buckling my harness.

  “Where’s your mom?” he asked.

  “In the bathroom still. She said she wanted to stay in there until we’re back on the ground so she doesn’t have more… trouble.” Apparently she’d been pretty badly airsick on the way up. That hadn’t surprised me when she’d told me—her motion sickness was so bad, it made mine look tame. She needed to take Dramamine even on long car trips.

  My dad looked at me and patted my knee. “It’ll be okay, sweetie. We’ll get through this.”

  I nodded but didn’t say anything.

  The transport ship vibrated and hummed, rumbling forward into the airlock where it would disengage from the Okeanos. I closed my eyes, trying not to be overwhelmed by the queasiness.

  My dad squeezed my hand as we broke away from the mothership and our bodies lifted from our seats once again. There was the same nauseating weightlessness, followed by the jolt as the artificial gravity kicked in.

  “I’m never going to get used to that,” I said aloud.

  We sat in silence, me breathing slowly through my nose trying not to be sick, my dad patting my hand reassuringly, until the ship re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.

  As we were landing, Dad asked, “I wonder if your mother’s doing okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “And I managed to not throw up this time.”

  Then my body shifted into that of my mother’s.

  “Surprise,” Mom said with a grin.

  At least, I assume that’s what happened. I didn’t see any of it myself. I was already back on the Okeanos.

  I hurried down the hallway, taking care not to be seen. When I’d been in Shailene’s form, Andronicus had told Damien that there’d been a technician waiting on the second level. That must be where she was now.

  This level was broken into odd sections, each separated by large bulkheads. It almost seemed like more than one ship had been patched together to make this part of the Okeanos. Moving through this level was slow-going. I couldn’t shift and didn’t have the time to find someone whose form I could steal that wouldn’t lead to me being caught. But I wasn’t completely helpless. Before I’d left the transport shuttle, I’d seen Shailene’s electrified nightstick laying in an open crate amid a ramshackle assortment of items I guessed had been taken from the Strikers. I clutched it to my chest now.

  I took the hall in sections, hiding behind corners looking around to make sure no one was coming, methodically making my way through level two until I came to another large bulkhead. This one had a symbol on the door that reminded me of the symbol we used on Earth to indicate hazardous materials, interlocking circles in the shape of a triangle. That made me nervous, but I’d already made up my mind that I needed to check behind every door. I craned my neck, looking around for any signs of sentries. Then I crept forward, pressing my hand to the keypad. The door slid open.

  This door opened on a long hallway with windows in both walls. It reminded me, for some reason, of the airlocks you see in science fiction movies—one door on one end, and one on the other, with a decompression area in the middle. The door at the end of the hallway had a porthole in it. I crept over to it and peeked inside to make sure the room was empty.

  Well, the room wasn’t empty. But there were no Anesidorans inside as far as I could see. So I unlocked the door and crept in.

  It was some kind of lab, almost completely dark. Small lights blinked on a computer console in the center of the room, and pinpricks of stars shone through the large window to my left. This part of the ship was facing away from the Earth, so the massive blue globe that was visible from other parts of the Okeanos was nowhere to be seen.

  No, the main source of light in the room was coming from the thirteen glass tubes on the wall directly in front of me.

  The tubes were tall, glowing bright blue. Each tube held a human figure suspended, as if they were floating in water, though there seemed to be no liquid in the glass. Their eyes were closed, their faces blank and peaceful. I only vaguely recognized most of them from the night I’d scrolled down the Swordsmen Athletics webpage, but the two on the far left I recognized as Leah and Joanie—the first two girls who had been captured.

  I walked closer, my eyes moving down the row of tubes. Involuntarily, my fingers flexed and clenched into a fist. They were all here. All of the Strikers. The twelve cheerleaders and Janice. It was like they’d been cryogenically frozen or something.

  I stopped in front of the last tube, my chest clenching uncontrollably, and slowly lifted my hand to the glass. There was Shailene, her porcelain features relaxed, serene, as if she were sleeping. Her hair gently curled around her.

  I was too late. If she was here, they’d surely erased her by now. Her memories would be gone again. Even if I could free her from this glass prison, she wouldn’t remember me. She’d probably fight me. What was I going to do?

  I rested my forehead against the glass, squeezing my eyes closed. Shailene…

  Behind me, someone cleared his throat, and the overhead lights to the lab flickered on. “You are like a bad penny.” I whipped around to see Andronicus emerging from the shadows. He’d been here all along. It was like he’d been expecting me. Maybe he had been. It would explain why I hadn’t run into any opposition on my way over here. And he was right, I had set a precedent of coming back like a boomerang. Not that I was going to apologize about it.

  “What do I have to do,” he said dryly, “to get rid of you?”

  “There’s nothing you can do. Just deal with it.” I gestured to the thirteen glass pods. “What the hell is this? What are you doing to them? Brainwashing them isn’t good enough?”

  “They are not brainwashed,” Andronicus said, folding his arms. “We merely activated their free will inhibitors. That’s something the I.G.A. installed, incidentally.” He shot me a snide look.

  I shot him one back. “L
et me guess—leftover tech from back before Gramps did away with the abduction program? Because I know it’s Anesidoran technology. You used the same thing to block my memories, didn’t you?”

  He shook his head, irritated. “I don’t know why you are being so antagonistic. We did it to help them, Laura. We need to take them back to Nibiru, per our agreement with Earth. Activating the inhibitor was the easiest way to do it, and the best way to ensure they weren’t injured in the process. The Strikers have been fighting us for years at your government’s behest. They’re dangerous warriors.”

  “Bet you’re real glad to have them on your side now, huh? Even if you had to wipe their brains to do it.” We stared frostily at each other. “So what’s with these tubes?”

  “These will keep the Strikers in stasis until the Nibiru high council has determined their fate. Deliberations could take months. After that time, they’ll more than likely become part of the Anesidoran army.”

  “With or without the help of the inhibitors?”

  He exhaled wearily. “I don’t know, Laura. The council will decide that. It’s not my place.”

  “Andronicus, come on,” I pleaded. “They’re people. Surely you must see. You’re destroying their lives.”

  “No more than the I.G.A. did to begin with.”

  I threw my head back in frustration. “Andronicus, you know this is wrong. The Strikers should be told the truth and allowed to make their own decisions, like… like your test subjects.” Like Ana, as much as I didn’t want to accept that. “You’re acting like you’ve got the moral high ground because the I.G.A. started this, but you’re still turning thirteen people into zombies.”

  “All’s fair in love and war. That’s an Earth proverb, Laura. Surely you’re familiar with it.”

  I stared at him. He really wasn’t going to see reason, was he? So I’d have to do it my way. “All right, Andronicus. All’s fair? Then this is fair.” In a quick motion, I ripped out Shailene’s nightstick and charged him. I thought for sure surprise would give me the upper hand, but he dodged my blow with expert skill, and returned with one of his own.

  We lunged and parried. Andronicus was bigger, and he was trained, but anger made adrenaline course through my veins, and that lent me speed and strength I didn’t know I had. I charged at him, punching again and again, but he was always a fraction of a second ahead of me, dodging my blows repeatedly.

  He twisted away from me, lifting his hands. His skin rippled the way mine did when I transformed, swirling a kaleidoscope of colors like it had in my dream. But his form didn’t change; instead, a ball of red light began to grow in the space between his fingers, crackling and pulsing. He hurled the orb in my direction, and the bright red lightning I’d seen him use against the Strikers crackled around me. I flung my arms up, blocking the energy with Shailene’s nightstick. The lightning cracked, blinding, arcing off the blue electric sparks of the weapon and dispersing.

  Andronicus charged at me again, and I braced myself for the force of impact, but he rushed past me to the tube just behind me. I whirled in horror just in time to see him fling down a switch, disengaging the pod. Steam erupted from the tube as its glass lid opened.

  I froze, unwilling to move. “What are you going to do to her?” I asked, terrified. He’d opened Shailene’s stasis tube. He’d threatened her before, but I genuinely thought he’d been bluffing. But I knew he knew that I would do anything to keep him from hurting her, and that knowledge made him reckless—and me desperate.

  She opened her eyes, looking around herself in confusion.

  Andronicus smirked. “It’s not a question of what I’ll do to her,” he said. “It’s what she’ll do to you. Striker Peterson?”

  She blinked, then looked at Andronicus with cool, expressionless features. “Yes, sir?”

  He pointed at me. “Take her down.”

  In an instant, she was on me. Reflexively, I flung the nightstick up, blocking her attack. “Wait, Shailene—no!” She dodged away from the nightstick and lashed out with her leg. I tried to turn away, but I was too slow, and her foot connected painfully with my side. I doubled over, leaping away from her as she kicked at me again. “Shailene, please! I know you’re in there somewhere. Don’t you recognize me?”

  She lunged at me again, knocking the nightstick out of my hand. I dove after it, but she was faster. She brandished the weapon, crackling with blue electricity, and faced me, every muscle poised to strike. She was like a mouse trap, ready to snap.

  I backed away from her, my hands up. “Shailene, come on… please… I know you’re in there. I know you remember me. You have to. Even after what they did to us before, erasing our memories… we both still remembered. Deep down. I know your memories are there.”

  The words seemed to make her hesitate, just slightly. She cocked her head to the side, her eyes blank but a hint of confusion playing at her expression.

  “Shailene,” I implored. “It’s Laura.”

  “Striker Peterson,” Andronicus snapped. “Finish her. Now.”

  She advanced on me, raising the nightstick to bring it down over my head. I cringed, looking away, but the blow never came.

  I looked up, my heart pounding in my ears. She stood over me, her arm raised, but she didn’t move. The room was silent except for the electricity crackling and pulsing off the nightstick. Why wasn’t she moving? It was like she was frozen in place.

  “Striker Peterson!” shouted Andronicus.

  Her face was as blank as a mannequin’s. But in the corner of her eye, there was the slight glimmer of an unshed tear.

  My heart broke at the sight of it.

  I didn’t think. I just moved. I took one step forward, closing the distance between us, brushed that tear away with my thumb, cupped my hand against her cheek and pressed my lips against hers.

  The world exploded in sharp agony and blinding light.

  * * *

  We were riding our bikes down the gravel road leading to my parents’ ranch. It had become a daily ritual at this point, the two of us racing each other from the science classroom to our bike racks as soon as the bell rang, then pedaling our bikes the mile and a half from school back to my house. We’d become inseparable over this last year, closer friends than I’d been with anyone, even Charlie. We’d watch movies together, and I’d introduced her to my favorite video games. We’d have sleepovers and sing along to ’90s boy bands and get up at the crack of dawn to feed the chickens. We shared all our secrets together.

  Well, almost all our secrets. There were two that I’d kept closely guarded from Shailene, that I didn’t dare open up to her about. The first was being Anesidoran, something my mom had forbidden me from telling anyone my whole life. That was an easy secret to keep. I kept it from everyone. I had practice.

  And the second secret? Was that I was falling for her. Big time.

  That secret was getting harder to keep every day.

  Shailene turned the corner through the open metal gate first, gliding up the short paved driveway from the road to our house and dumping her bike on its side in the front lawn. I was just a second behind her, and she laughed as I hit the brakes, skidding to a stop.

  “I won again,” she said, putting her hands on her hips with a grin.

  “Of course you did,” I said, panting. “You’re like a superhuman or something.” It was true. The only way I could keep up with her was if I tapped into my Anesidoran side. On my own, I was no match for her. When we’d had our physicals in P.E. this year, she’d gotten the quickest speed out of all the girls in our class.

  “Winner gets to choose what we do,” she said.

  “Let me guess: Hang out with the goats?”

  She flashed an enormous smile, the one that had been making my heart loop-de-loop in my chest every time I saw it. “Of course,” she said. “I have to see my Violet!”

  In addition to the chickens that my mom raised for their eggs, my dad kept goats, sheep and alpacas on the ranch. Shailene had fallen in love with the
goats the first moment she’d seen them. Her favorite was a doe named Hyacinth, and she’d been ecstatic when, this spring, the doe had given birth to a little kid we’d named Violet. Every day when we got home from school, Shailene had to check in on them.

  I followed her out behind our house, to the big pasture that the goats were grazing in. She called out to them, and the whole herd lifted their heads and came bounding over, Violet hopping ahead to reach her first. “That’s my girl,” she said, laughing as Violet nibbled at her fingers.

  I found myself staring, as I often did. I couldn’t help it. It was getting almost pathetic, the way I was mooning after her. Even after all these months, I still wasn’t sure whether she even liked girls or boys, or both. She hadn’t mentioned being interested in anyone, and I hadn’t dared. I knew she knew about me being gay—the whole school knew it. It had never really been a secret. But I also knew it wasn’t exactly common, and I had developed a talent at keeping my feelings to myself, especially around girls of questionable orientation.

  We sat in the grass, chatting about nothing while she held Violet in her lap. It was Friday afternoon; homework could wait until Sunday. We had the whole day to ourselves.

  As the sun started to set, Lola came out into the backyard and called across the grass to us. “Dinner in fifteen minutes, Leelee. Is Shailene eating tonight?”

  “No, ma’am, I have to get home,” Shailene called back. I always laughed at the way she called Lola and my parents “ma’am” and “sir.” They’d all told her to call them by name a long time ago, but she couldn’t seem to drop the habit. “My parents expect me to be polite,” she’d say from time to time. I didn’t think it was impolite to call your best friend’s parents by their names, but I didn’t push it.

  As Lola shuffled back into the house, Shailene looked at me, an odd expression on her face. “I probably ought to get going,” she said. “I don’t want my parents to get mad again.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Again?”

  “Er, I mean…” Her face colored, and she avoided my gaze. “It’s just…” She rubbed her hand across the back of her neck. “I don’t know. Laura, what did your parents say when you told them you liked girls?”