by Jay Riverton
“I’m sorry, did we invite you to talk to us?” Martia said.
“Why would you even want to try that?” Lycanere said to Pirelavs, ignoring Martia. “You want to become like those others?”
“Oh, they wouldn’t dare with me. I’m lame. I’m surprised they didn’t just kill me the second my parents signed me up,” Pirelavs said. Lycanere glanced behind them to see if anyone was listening. The closest person was a dwarf, a little taller than four feet, who looked to be in his late teens and had a full beard and scowl to match. He glared up at Lycanere as he hobbled behind him. Lycanere looked away.
“It’s not a good idea,” Lycanere whispered.
They walked on down the new path, this one longer, towards what looked like another cabin at the end. Scout Master Mike whistled to himself, oblivious to the talk of betrayal behind him.
“Even though I’d hate to agree with dragonkin over here, I think it’s a good idea,” Martia said. “What about you, Khaki? You have your joystick with you. You can do it.”
Kakine looked from Martia to Lycanere, then shrugged. “I could fly it, but—”
“What happens if they locked us out the ship and only Mike can lower the ramp?” Lycanere said.
“I have my tools. I could open anything with enough time,” Martia said.
Lycanere paused for a second, not knowing what to say. He could see another wood cabin in the distance which he only assumed to be the Reformation Tank. “Do you even know how hard it would be to take over a ship.”
“We could do it,” Pirelavs said.
“With what weapons?” Lycanere said.
They walked on, silent, before Pirelaves spoke up again.
“I heard of your group, the Wolves of Quoryine’s Moon,” he said. “You’re supposed to be warriors, hunters, and leaders. You always find a way to win, even when the odds are against you.”
Lycanere walked on, ignoring him.
“Or, at least, you’re supposed to.”
The sounds of their footsteps, Scout Master Mike’s whistling, and the talking of the rest of their troop behind them filled Lycanere’s ears as he thought about what Pirelavs said.
“I’m not saying it can’t be done,” Lycanere said as they neared the Reformation Tank. “I just don’t think it’s the smartest choice. If we fail…”
They reached the Reformation Tank at the end of the forest path. It was just a small wood cabin with a metal door that looked no more significant than the rest. The only thing about it that caught Lycanere’s eyes was the unique lock on the metal door: a large metal handprint scanner which was placed between the door and its contour to make it impossible to break out of from the inside. Above the scanner Lycanere could see the words “For Scout Master Use Only.”
Lycanere looked at Scout Master Mike as the man turned and faced them with disgust on his face.
“My new family, this is the Reformation Tank!” Scout Master Mike yelled. “This is where you’ll go if you cause me any problems. Now, it may look like an ordinary cabin, but inside it is a mind-warping machine. You go in there, and bam! You’ll come out reformed.”
“Can we take a look inside?” Martia asked.
Mike shook his head. “Only ones that go in there are me and the Reforms-to-be.”
He walked towards them, making his way through them to the back of the group. “Well, that’s it. Hope you enjoyed the tour. Let’s head back.” He led them back the way they came, Lycanere and his group now at the runt of the party. The dwarf glared at Lycanere as he turned before hobbling after the others. Lycanere ignored him.
“Just think about it, guys,” Pirelavs said. “We’ll set the people who fight against us on fire, take over the ship, and—”
“There’s no way we could take over a ship,” Lycanere stated. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to leave the others.”
“They’ll obviously come with us. There’d be no reason not to. We’re escaping a future that none of us wanted. What’s not to like about that?” Pirelavs said.
They walked on. Thoughts blossomed in Lycanere’s head. “Maybe,” he finally said. “We’ll see.” He glanced back at the Reformation Tank, feeling that his day in there would come if they went through with this plan.
Chapter Two
The cabin
When they arrived back at the cabins, the Reformed Scouts had already put everything away. Mike pointed to a cabin, labelled A through L, and called out six names before moving to the next. Martia was sent to Cabin B, and Pirelavs to D.
Mike pointed to Cabin E. “Rebella Ares, Kakine Lee, Benjamin Miles, Mars Moon, Lycanere Robinson, and Comissa Rogers.”
Kakine smiled at Lycanere. “Guess we’re living together.”
He smiled. “Maybe we’ll live in the same cabin after the coupling, too.”
She looked into his eyes. “You promise?”
“Yeah. Of course.” She smiled and stared into his eyes only to be interrupted by the dwarf pushing past them and walking into their cabin. Kakine looked at him with disgust.
“Just ignore him.” Lycanere said. They followed the dwarf and a few others into the cabin.
They entered and looked around. It was large, and full, just three king-sized beds: one on the left wall, one on the right, and one against the back wall. Their luggage filled the room, two peoples’ items, one male and one female, on each wall.
“They’re really pushing this coupling thing,” Kakine said.
“Why couldn’t it have been bunk beds?” Lycanere said.
“Be happy with what you got,” a scruff voice said. Everyone looked at the dwarf. “Bunk bed or not, you still got a bed. Just be happy you’re not sharing it with a guy.” The dwarf turned away to his items on the back wall. Lycanere glared at him, then turned away to search for his items. Kakine already found her luggage against the left wall and was sifting through it.
“I don’t think they would’ve taken anything,” Lycanere said.
“Not why I’m looking.”
He spotted his stuff beside hers and approached it. She noticed, looked up at him, and smiled.
“Looks like we’re sharing a bed,” she said.
He awkwardly laughed. “Yeah, guess so.”
He sat on the bed and watched her go through her stuff, only to discreetly pull out a bottle of pills. Lycanere saw the bottle but could not see what it was, only making out the word “Hormone” on the side. Kakine took one and threw the bottle back into her bag. She swallowed it dry and dug back through her bag.
“Whatcha looking for?”
She pulled out a black tube with a red button on top. “This.” She showed it to him. “The Joystick. Slap this onto any ship and you can override it and fly away.”
She handed it to Lycanere and he examined it. He’d never seen something like it before, so simplistic yet so powerful. He felt eyes on him and looked over to the dwarf who glanced away the second their eyes met. Lycanere handed it back to her.
“I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but I want you to keep this on you. Don’t let it out of your sight,” Lycanere demanded.
“Will do, Captain,” she joked. He laughed with her, though he kept back the admittance that he liked the title.
Chapter Three
The codes
Dinner came quickly. Scout Master Mike came to them and ushered everyone to the Reformation Center.
Inside was a large room filled with wooden benches and tables. Columns decorated the walls and multiple arched windows gave a pleasant look to the green, serene outdoors. The Center had three back rooms. The back rooms on the left and right had closed doors with something etched into them that Lycanere couldn’t see from where he stood at the entrance. The middle room lacked a door.
Many of their fellow scouts-to-be were already at benches eating sandwiches and chips and drinking water off of wooden trays by the time they were inside. Lycanere spotted Pirelavs and Martia sitting with each other at their own table, far away from the others, waiting for them. They smiled and waved at
each other.
Reformed Scouts exited the middle room with trays with food on them and delivered them to those who hadn’t been served yet.
“Sit wherever you want,” Scout Master Mike told them, “but I suggest you meet as many new people as you can. You’ll be living with them all soon enough.”
Lycanere turned to Kakine. “Go sit down. I gotta ask Mike something.” She walked off.
“What’s up?” Mike said.
“Do you have a bathroom around here?”
“That’s what you want to talk about?” Mike laughed, then looked out the window. “You see it.”
“Oh.” Lycanere went to go outside only for Mike to grab his shoulder.
“There’s a better one in the back-left room. The door has a keypad on it. Twenty-eight, twelve, twenty-four, thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight. It’s the code. Means SCOUTS.”
“You sure you should be telling me this?”
“It’s just a bathroom, Lyc. Besides, we’re brethren. There’s nothing back there that would make me second-guess giving the code to you.” He then repeated the code once more.
“Thanks.”
Lycanere walked to the door and saw the keypad on it. Above, etched into the upper-center of the door were numbers:
28 30 25 25 21 18 14 28
Lycanere didn’t know what to make of them. He looked at the keypad. Ten numbers were on it, zero to nine, and a button which read “enter.” He put in the code, opened the door, and saw a hallway inside. He stepped in and closed the door behind him, hearing it lock.
At the end of the hallway was a door with “BATHROOM” carved into it. He walked towards it and spotted another door halfway down. It was open and full of a whole bunch of food and a huge shopping cart that was obviously used to bring it in. He walked on down to the bathroom.
When he exited the hallway, he closed the door behind him. He looked over at his new friends, then curiosity hit him. The other door. Scout Master Mike was nowhere to be seen.
Lycanere walked to it and saw a keypad on this one as well. The numbers on this door were different from the others. This collection was long:
18 23 12 10 28 14 24 15 10 23 14 22 14 27 16 14 23 12 34
Lycanere looked them over and over, but made nothing out of them. He turned away and walked to his friends’ table.
“That door leads to something,” he said, pointing at it.
“We saw you go in the other one,” Pirelavs said as Lycanere sat down.
“It’s just a bathroom and a supply closet. Mike gave me the code to get in.”
“What was it?”
Lycanere couldn’t remember. He’d forgotten as soon as the door opened. “They were just numbers. He said they meant SCOUTS or something. There’s numbers on the door too, but I know they’re not the code he gave me.” Lycanere glanced back at the doors.
A Scout came out to him swiftly and placed a tray with the same food as everyone else in front of him.
“So, I hear you and Kakine are livin’ together now.” Martia teased.
“Yeah, same bed and everything,” Lycanere said.
“Like you two were destined or something?” Martia said.
Lycanere saw Kakine blush.
Pirelavs cleared his throat and grabbed their attention. “So, what are we thinkin’ about the plan?”
Lycanere caved in. He’d been thinking about this enough to trust in his judgment.
“There’s a way to beat them,” he said. “Get the others on our side, create a distraction, and flee to the ship. Then, we’ll rid of the adults on it since we outnumber them, attach the joystick and get out of here. How we’ll do that is still unknown to me, but we can do it.”
They looked at him as if he were a genius.
“It’s going to be hard,” he said. “We need to work together like a team for this to work.”
They smiled at him.
“You’re a natural born leader, aren’t you?” Kakine said.
Lycanere shook his head. “If I was, I’d still be on Quoryine’s Moon right now with my family. And I would’ve beaten Conqueror’s War.”
“Man, that shit’s hard and no one ever wins. Closest person I ever saw was Madison, over there. She’s amazing,” Pirelavs said. He pointed to a tall and strong, short light brown haired, butch. MAD, Lycanere thought. He knew her name and who she was now, but nothing else.
“I just want to know when we’re going to do this? We’re only here a few days,” Kakine said.
“Let’s sleep on it. Get an idea after coupling, get our couples on our side, and work from there,” Lycanere said. He glanced back at the door with the long collection of numbers on it. “Maybe find out what’s in there.”
“Lyc,” he heard. He looked over his shoulder to see Scout Master Mike walking over to them with the dwarf by his side.
“This here is Benjamin Miles, engineer of the Plutonian Brotherhood. He’s the eldest member of your troop, and the only person who voluntarily came here in years. He was sitting by himself over there, and I thought it’d be great if he had some friends. So, who else to ask than my own brother?” Scout Master Mike smiled.
Lycanere smiled back. “Go ahead and sit down, Benjamin.” The dwarf sat beside Martia, across from Lycanere.
“Thanks,” Mike said before walking to the front of the room.
“So, you and Scout Master Mike actually brothers?” Benjamin asked in his scruff voice. The four all had their eyes on him. Lycanere knew that not a single one of them favored him here.
“No. He’s part of one of my colonies,” Lycanere said. Silence.
“What’s up with you? No one volunteers to come here,” Pirelavs stated.
“Unless they have a good reason. And, it so happens I do. I’m a midget. I’m coddled ‘cause I can’t reach the things I need to, no woman wants me, and I’m no help to my people.”
“So, you thought you’d be a help in populating a new world?” Martia joked. “Who’d want you?”
Benjamin laughed at her. “It’s not who’d want me, it’s that someone will be forced to have me. I’ll be appreciated here. You’ll see.”
“HELLO, DISCOVER SCOUTS OF TROOP 10! MY COLONIZERS OF THE UNIVERSE!” Scout Master Mike yelled over them. Everyone quieted down and turned to him. “Tomorrow you will come back here at sunrise for the coupling, so make sure to get good rest. Your couples were chosen by Corporate looking at your DNA and choosing who should go with who from it. I won’t lie, I even convinced them to let me have say in a few to get some more preferable couple choices." Lycanere could feel Mike’s eyes singularly on him though they darted from person to person.
“After two rounds of the consummation tomorrow, you’ll all be given the titles of Discover Scouts. Then, finally, you’ll be on your way to your new home. I wish you all the best. Thank you.”
Everyone applauded.
Lycanere’s crew turned back to Benjamin.
“I saw you go in that door,” Benjamin said. “How’d you get through the lock?”
“Mike,” Lycanere said. “How else?”
“What’s the code?”
“Why?”
“Just wonderin’?”
“There’s just a bathroom back there,” Martia said. “And a supply closet.”
“Still wanna know.”
“I don’t remember,” Lycanere said.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not. I know there were six two-numbered entries and it meant SCOUTS, but that’s all.”
“Hmm.” Benjamin rose from the table. “It was nice meeting you guys.” They watched him hobble over to the back-left door, look at the numbers on the door, then the keypad, then walk over to the other and do the same.
“Weirdo,” Martia said.
“We should’ve told him about our plan. The more people on our side the better,” Pirelavs said.
“No. It’s better we didn’t. He came here on his own volition,” Kakine said. “He’d rat us out.”
All of the
ir eyes stuck to Benjamin as he walked out of the Reformation Center. If one thing was certain, it was that they could not trust him.
Chapter Four
The bedding
It was Lycanere’s first time in bed with a girl, to his parents’ dismay. The room was dark, the only moonlight coming in through a window and splashing across Kakine’s face. She faced him, her joystick in her hand. He hadn’t let her let it go. He couldn’t with that dwarf around.
He glanced up to make sure that Benjamin still wasn’t in the room. He’d left only a couple minutes ago, most likely to pee, and Lycanere didn’t want to talk to Kakine with him here. Lycanere doubted that the others in the room would say a thing if they heard them. They’d want to help. Why wouldn’t they? He thought.
He laid back down and looked into Kakine’s beautiful brown eyes. He searched for a feeling in them, of something, anything. The only thought that he could muster was how similar they were to Reggie’s eyes. Reggie. The man who became the leader of Lycanere’s tribes instead of Lycanere.
“Talk away,” he whispered to Kakine.
“Are we actually going to do this?” she whispered back, a smile stretched across her face.
“Of course. Why do what these people want us to when we can make our own worth by doing something else?”
“Like what? Where will we go?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but we don’t belong here. None of us do. Not those Reformed Scouts or Mike or Benjamin. We should be our own people.”
She nodded and rolled over so that she was looking up at the ceiling. “We need to go somewhere that we’ll be loved regardless of who we are. Thieves, scarred people, dwarves, whatever… There has to be a place for us somewhere. And it’s not on Jovial-10 with children.”
“You don’t want children?”
“Not that I don’t want them, I just don’t want them to think of me like how I do for my parents,” she said.
Lycanere took in her glowing skin. “Why are you here?”
She didn’t say anything. Instead, she rolled over and faced her back to him. “My parents were disappointed in who I am.”