by R.E. Rowe
Chapter 18
Three loud, metallic thuds on the sleeping quarter walls woke up Jayden from his first deep sleep in days.
“Spit and shine, workforces!” Altair3 bellowed. “Pulse your wafers and shock your pistols. After teachings, you’ll foot straight to the pool.” Then the crazy-talking alien teen abruptly walked out, presumably to wake up some other poor kids with nonsensical comments.
“Ah, man.” Jayden groaned and pushed himself out of the cot. He glanced over at Nora’s empty and still pristine bed.
“What’d green-haired plant dude say?” Parker asked.
“Guess we have a briefing or something,” Jayden replied. “Have you seen your sister?”
“Nope,” Parker replied as he gazed at her empty cot.
Jayden rubbed his face and yawned. “We’re so hosed—”
As if on cue, Nora burst in through the metal door. She made a beeline to Jayden and Parker with the red tablet in her hands. “Got it. I know how to get us to Earth. I’ve got the coordinates.” As she tried to catch her breath, she handed Jayden the tablet. “Put it away.”
Jayden noticed her eyes sparkling as he stuffed the tablet into his t-shirt pocket. “Seriously? You know how to get us home?”
Nora nodded. “It takes two sets of six coordinates. One set of six for our current position and one set for our destination. The good news is the transport’s control panel always calculates current position, so we just need six coordinates for our destination. But it’s not all good.”
“Why not?” Parker asked, frowning.
“The starting point to get home is a star 16,000 parsecs from here,” she said.
Jayden did a quick calculation in his head. One parsec is equal to about nineteen trillion miles, multiplied by sixteen thousand. The number was too big for him to imagine. “Where’s the star exactly? In non-mathematical terms, for those of us who didn’t have MIT tutors.”
“A star system in the Milky Way’s Scutum-Centaurus spiral arm. There are three habitable planets in the system with two habitable moons.”
“Why do we have to start there?” Parker asked.
Nora let out a sigh, and then said, “The transport won’t reach Earth in one hop. We’ll need to recharge the UFO near that star and pick up more neutron fuel from the depot that operates there.”
Altair3 rushed into the room with his face all scrunched up. Jayden thought the green kid’s silver piercings might shoot out from his skin like blow darts. “Push it, Earth elders,” Altair3 said. “You’ll be early. Shadow me yesterday!”
It took Jayden a minute, but he understood. Altair3 wanted them to follow him quickly.
They each grabbed two disrupters and a set of wearable devices tied together in a bundle.
Jayden snapped everything around his waist. He preferred pockets or even a belt, but finally understood why there were snaps around his uniform. He grabbed the disrupter case with the wound up gold thread they’d prepared, along with the three disconnected batteries, snapped the case to his pants, and then pulled down his shirt to cover it. On the way out, he snatched a piece of red-colored fruit, bit into it, and immediately spit it out. Bleck! It looked like a ripe apple but tasted like an onion.
They jogged though the steel paneled hallway following the fern-headed mason kid until Altair3 reached a different metal door. He opened a heavy hatch and motioned for them to follow him.
About twenty-five teens had gathered around a large table listening to Rhea2. She interacted with chart holograms and map projections at the front of the room. Jayden noticed her fern curls appeared to be in full bloom.
Layered steel and white painted walls enclosed the windowless room, which was at least twice as large as the last conference room. The chairs were the same ridiculously uncomfortable ones made out of sharp-edged, welded scrap sheets of metal.
Jayden’s first impression was that the kids around the table looked like typical Earth kids, but then he noticed differences. A few were fern heads like Rhea2 and Altair3. Three other teen aliens sported purple braided hair that dangled down past their shoulders with purple eyebrows above intense, dark blue eyes. The freaky thing was their skin glowed florescent blue, and their fingernails shone yellow.
He noticed a group of alien girls sitting next to each other in black leather jumpsuits. Their jet-black hair, dark black eyes, and black lips made them look like Goth kids with major attitude. Red ears pointed up through their straight black hair.
Jayden decided most of the other kids in the room were definitely not from Earth. As if he was some kind of intergalactic cool dude, he nodded to the red-eared girls. He jumped when they sneered back in return, hissing and showing off white, pointed shark teeth.
Nora gave Jayden a shove. “Focus, Surfer Boy,” she whispered.
“This next raid is more complicated than previous . . . ,” Rhea2 continued.
“In posterior, sleep walk there,” Altair3 muttered to them.
Jayden decided that Altair3 meant they should stand in the back of the room next to him.
As Jayden stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Altair3, he noticed Altair3’s green hair smelled like Hawaiian flowers. He flashed back to a family vacation a few years ago. Walking out of the airport with his mom and dad into a neck full of nice smelling Hawaiian leis.
Home.
Rhea2 continued her briefing. “We are targeting intergalactic carriage hub, which is on-orbit around Zeco23-1 in the Xe7vb2 star system. It is size of a small city, with a long cylindrical shape and fifty-seven levels. Each level has similar dimension to hangar here on Sigarr and accommodates either a galactic transport or an intergalactic transport. Top levels are dedicated to UFOs. Four high-speed transport elevators are located in the middle of a fifty-yard-by-fifty-yard area. With Leader Nuk’ana’s fighters focused on front line of the war, this should be quick, in-and-out raid.”
Jayden glanced at Parker and yawned. It seemed like the masons loved boring briefings.
Rhea2 continued. “We’ll take our mason’s transport ship 10,000 parsecs from this base to edge of galaxy where intergalactic transport hub is located . . .”
“Oh, great,” Nora whispered.
“What?” Jayden asked.
“She’s taking us in the opposite direction. We’re going farther away from Earth.”
As they whispered, kids sitting nearby glared and nudged each other. Some even pointed at them.
“So what if we’re heading farther away?” Jayden whispered. “We have the coordinates of Earth now, right?”
“True. But it’ll take an extra stop to get home. I’ll need to find another place where we can refuel—”
“Ssssilence!” one of the shark-teeth girls hissed.
Altair3 glared at Jayden and put one finger to his lips. Whatever.
Rhea2 paused for a moment until the room stilled. “Access to pilot’s cockpit in each carriage requires voice command, which is only security device you will need,” she said. “We will pass out portable voice cubes. Just put cube on access unit and press yellow button. It plays audio of entry code in Ga-speak . . .”
Ga-speak?
Jayden hadn’t thought about different languages much since the day the Zepar implanted the translator in his ears.
“This particular hub is massively larger than the hub that Zeekmo and her clan raided yesterday.” Rhea2 nodded at Nora.
Weird. Rhea2 had been going toe-to-toe with Nora, but now it sounded as if Rhea2 was giving Zeekmo props. Just mention quantum physics and you’re evidently in Rhea2’s clan. The green-haired fern girl from Andromeda didn’t seem to hold much of a grudge. Good news for us, he thought.
The door burst open, and the room went silent. Lorcan walked in wearing a brown leather jacket, a vintage leather aviator hat, and reflective aviator sunglasses. The Spring Tide Masons’ leader removed his glasses then removed his hat. Long, jet-black hair fell to his shoulders. The kid seriously needed a tan, Jayden thought, but the girls back on Earth would probably
vote for him as homecoming king.
Lorcan fixed his hazel eyes briefly on each kid around the room. It seemed to him that Lorcan seriously cared about each of the masons in the room. Then Lorcan gazed at Nora and winked.
She blushed.
Um, what? Hold up a second! Jayden felt a surge of blood warm his face.
“I want to introduce the latest addition to the Spring Tide Masons,” Lorcan said. “In the back of the room: Zeekmo, G-striker, Killgeek, BBgun, and ZapperGirl. They successfully completed their first raid yesterday. Captured four UFOs with zero casualties. Quick and easy, although, I did hear they pulled off a creative flying maneuver to make it out of the hangar.”
All the masons stomped both feet on the floor and shouted, “Uta!”
Altair3 grinned at Jayden.
“You five will be with Rhea2,” Lorcan said. “She’ll be piloting the intergalactic transport you will steal. You’ll be with her on this raid and the coming raids over the next three moon cycles. Is that clear?”
Jayden nodded.
Parker leaned over to Nora and Jayden. “How do we jack a transport with Rhea2 watching our every move?”
“We’ll think of something,” Jayden replied.
“Oh, great,” Parker whispered. “I know what that means.”
Nora grinned.
A boy in dark sunglasses waved. He was tall and slim with a button nose, thick red lips, and long, red hair with a matching scraggly beard. Jayden thought the boy looked like he should be playing in a mega rock band. The kid removed his glasses to reveal wide set, yellow bug eyes.
Yeesh! Never mind on the rock star vibe.
“Speak!” Lorcan said.
“Are we authorized to fire our wearable devices?” the alien boy asked in a loud, deep voice. It sounded as though he seriously wanted to zap something.
Lorcan nodded. “You may shoot only Zepar. We must secure the intergalactic transports at all costs, but we will not harm our brothers and sisters.”
Everyone in the room seemed restless.
“Look, Masons. This raid is our most important yet. You are the very best.” Lorcan paused to gaze over the group. “If we can acquire three or more transports, we can start reaching other Space Command teens around the Milky Way Galaxy. Better still, if an intergalactic transport can be secured, some of you will be able to return to Andromeda.” Lorcan nodded at the kids with the fern hair.
“Io3, Sol9, and Orion2. You’ll each lead a team. Any questions?”
BBgun raised his hand.
Jayden’s stomach dropped. BBgun?
“Yes?” Lorcan asked him.
“How long does it take to travel on a galactic transport?”
The kids in the room snickered as if he’d asked for the answer to one plus one. But Jayden thought it was a decent question.
“Right,” Lorcan said. “In Earth time, the transport travels in the space between the space at 10,000 parsecs per hour. The intergalactic transport travels 150,000 parsecs per hour. UFOs travel 6 parsecs an hour. Anything else?” This Lorcan kid from Seattle sure knew his parsecs per hour. No wonder he was in charge. But Jayden still didn’t like the way he looked at Nora.
No one replied.
“Good. We muster at transport one.”
“Muster?” Jayden whispered to Nora.
“He means gather,” she whispered back.
All the kids clapped their hands, hooted and hollered. He figured it was their version of a rally before a big game.
A loud bong rang. The biggest flat screen television Jayden had ever seen inched down from the ceiling at the front of the room.
The entire room of masons went silent.
“What is that?” Jayden asked Altair3.
“Shhh, it is Nuk’ana’s live talking points,” Altair3 replied. “He yells.”
Rhea2 crossed to the back of the room and stood by Jayden as an image of Leader Nuk’ana standing behind a wooden podium appeared on the screen.
Leader Nuk’ana puffed on his long, carrot-shaped smoking stick. The leader stood tall in a pressed black Space Command uniform. His jawline wasn’t extended like it had been the first time Jayden had seen the alien. He thought Nuk’ana’s new jaw shape was a much better look for him—less ruthless mass killer and more CPA banker.
But Jayden still felt sick to his stomach when he peered at Nuk’ana’s reptilian eyes with their black vertical slits. Jayden had lost two boys to the Atilla because of Nuk’ana and had watched another boy turned into BBQ dust.
A black Space Command flag with a large image of the Milky Way Galaxy and another black flag with an image of what Jayden assumed was the Andromeda Galaxy dangled behind Nuk’ana.
Jazu stood at attention on the left side of Nuk’ana. Just as Jayden remembered, Jazu was half as tall as Nuk’ana, with a long, pointed snout and pointed ears like a hairless wolf. When Jazu blinked, he fanned colorful eyelashes. Shazu stood on Nuk’ana’s right side. Even though she was shorter than Jazu and Nuk’ana, the alien was hard to miss with her piled-high, red-apple hair and dark pink face.
Twelve Space Command kids in black uniforms stood beside the leader, five on either side of the podium, framing Nuk’ana’s image. They all appeared disoriented. He noticed one kid with red-rimmed eyes.
“It is time for Nuk’ana’s sixteen-rotation communication briefing,” Rhea2 whispered.
Sixteen-rotation? Jayden thought, shooting Rhea2 a puzzled look.
“That’s every five days in Earth time,” she whispered. “His briefing is always at this hour.”
“Communication with whom?” Nora asked her quietly.
“He always delivers his message and war update from a different location in Milky Way,” Rhea2 said.
“Talking points are Nuk’ana’s updates,” Altair3 said. “But I say it is eagle poop.”
“Why from random locations?” whispered Parker.
“Nuk’ana stays in hiding,” Rhea2 said. “He delivers a live message to twist truth.” She narrowed her eyes. “There are rumors he worries about assassination, so the leader randomly selects a different location for each briefing.”
“How does Nuk'ana manage to send a message that reaches across a gazillion light years instantly?” Parker asked.
“He uses the Ga mesh communication network. It sends broadcast through space between space to every Ga data station node, simultaneously reaching every civilization in Milky Way and Andromeda,” Rhea2 said. “It allows Nuk’ana to keep his grip on Andromeda while remaining in Milky Way.”
“Wasn’t there like someone else who used to rule Andromeda?” whispered Cleo.
“Yes. Emperor Ruchbah9,” Rhea2 said. “When Atilla invaded Andromeda, Nuk’ana took control of my people. Now Nuk’ana believes he speaks for all Andros.” Rhea2 scowled. “Nuk’ana wanted Emperor Ruchbah9 to be at his side during these propaganda updates, but our emperor spit.”
“Ruchbah9 told Nuk’ana to pound particles,” Altair3 said, and looked away.
Jayden raised one eyebrow.
“Greetings, citizens,” Nuk’ana began in a deep baritone voice. “We have excellent news that the war effort continues to go well . . .”
Jayden reflected on the front line battle he and Parker had managed to survive. How two of his clan had been captured. He couldn’t listen to Nuk’ana’s lies any longer. “Liar! He's a liar!”
All the masons in the room peered at Jayden, then began to stomp both feet, one at a time. Some screamed things he didn’t understand. But he got the impression they agreed with him.
Lorcan grinned and waved his hand.
The room fell silent.
“We have pushed back the Atilla and have protected our citizens.” Nuk’ana grinned and continued. “The invaders are no match for our Space Command fighting forces. We will prevail! Build a better tomorrow, build a better future, take care of our citizens, and grow our wealth along the Golden Way . . .”
“The guy talks like an Earth politician,” Parker wh
ispered.
“A murderer always,” Altair3 said in a low-pitched growl.
“Who are the Space Command kids with him?” Jayden asked Rhea2.
“Jazu and Shazu request new recruits to be with Nuk’ana for each briefing,” she replied. “I have been told Nuk’ana believes that having them stand with him reinforces what he says.”
“Just like Earth politics,” Parker said.
“What do you mean?” Rhea2 asked.
“During speeches, politicians always have people in the background that represent whom they want to attract for more votes,” Parker said.
Nuk’ana continued. “Space Command army will protect you. The Ga will help us defeat the Atilla barbarians! Continue to go about your day-to-day living. I promise to protect your children and our way of life. Space Command fighters, like the outstanding recruits around me, will protect us all.” The teens with him smiled on cue, like robots.
“You said the Ga disappeared,” Jayden whispered to Altair3.
Altair3 nodded.
“But Nuk’ana said—”
“He tells baby man lies,” Altair3 said with a snarl.
Nuk’ana took a long drag on his smoking stick. He blew the smoke out in one puff. “Thank you, one. Thank you, all. May the beings of energy protect the Zepar Empire and guide our Space Command warriors.”
Beings of energy? It was the second time Jayden had heard the phrase.
The screen went black, and the room remained silent.
Lorcan stood and raised his fists. Rhea2 strolled over to him. “Let us get to our raid.”
He punched the air. “We can beat this maniac and his brainwashed army! We will take away his power and return it to the people across both the Milky Way and Andromeda. I promise to expose this lying monster. Our star brothers and sisters will be set free! Do you agree?”
The room went wild. Everyone stomped their feet and began chanting, “Uta! Uta! Uta!”
Jayden had no idea what that meant but joined in the sing-a-long anyway. “Uta! Uta! Uta!”
He could relate to what these masons were trying to do. It made sense. Nuk’ana bullied, deceived, and hurt teens like them. But that was the Lorcan's problem, not his.
Jayden leaned over to Nora and Parker. “Let’s jack a transport at the hub and bolt from there. I don’t care if it takes an extra stop. We need to get out of here A.S.A.P.”
Parker responded to Jayden with an “Uta!” in sync with the larger group’s chants.
Nora nodded and joined in with her own “Uta!”
The time to leave these masons had come.