by R.E. Rowe
Chapter 30
Twisted metal and piles of cement rubble were all that remained of the downtown city block. The twenty-story building fire raged as Jayden and Parker huddled together behind a mangled green dumpster near Market Street and First.
Jayden stared at the red tablet his father had given him to keep after the war with the Atilla ended three months ago. He sat next to Parker, Nora, and Cleo in the waiting room of the emperor’s castle. The waiting area reminded him of a dentist’s office. Each of them used a mini-tablet to battle inside level 150 in Space Expeditionary Combat Command’s online game while they waited.
“Everyone else space dust?” Jayden asked.
“Yep,” Parker said. “Isn’t this the same way we ended the game eons ago?”
Jayden heard Nora snicker next to him. “True,” he said, “But we’ll capture Zeekmo’s flag this time.”
“You know I can hear you guys, right?” Nora said to Jayden. “You might want to stick with flinging angry fowl or making pretty gardens, Earth baby.”
Cleo chuckled. “I can hear you too, Earth babies.”
All of the tablet displays went blank at the same time. Altair3’s face filled the screen causing Jayden to jump. “Swim forward. The emperor winks at bubble bath.” The tablet returned to the game screen.
Jayden grinned. “We really need to upgrade his translator . . . let’s go.” He turned off the tablet, and then put it behind his back in a Rosa-sewn, t-shirt pocket.
The four of them walked shoulder-to-shoulder down an elongated hallway toward the emperor’s main chamber.
Twenty-four Earth hours earlier, the emperor had requested that they visit him in the Royal City on MachuTutu3. The big man wouldn’t tell them what it was about, so they had boarded an intergalactic transport and traveled to the castle in Andromeda from their new home.
“So you think you can capture my flag, huh, Surfer Boy?” Nora asked him with a smile.
Jayden grinned.
Nora walked tall and confidently with her short curly locks. Her tan was killer again. Living on Lorcan’s home world, Uraeus, twenty light years from Earth, was like living in a super high-tech tropical paradise. Sort of Silicon Valley meets Honolulu, Hawaii, two hundred years in the future.
Cleo had plucked her eyebrows to perfection. She batted her eyes playfully at Parker, AKA “Snickerdoodle,” and poked him as they walked.
Two guards in red tights opened the tall wooden doors at the end of the hallway. Ruchbah9 was waiting for them inside, sitting atop his large wooden throne, with Rhea1 and Rhea2 at his sides. The doors closed with a thud that echoed throughout the chamber.
The rotund emperor pulled at his trimmed green beard. “Welcome, young heroes,” Ruchbah9 said with a wide smile.
All of them took turns hugging Rhea1 and Rhea2. Then the emperor embraced them. Finally, the emperor sat down with his daughters at his side with the four of them facing the big man.
“It must be very difficult for you to live somewhere other than Earth. But keeping the people on Earth isolated until they are ready to join the galactic community in a few decades will ensure your people are ready,” the emperor said, adjusting himself in the large chair. “Your parents are well and adapting to life on Uraeus?”
“Yes, thank you,” Nora replied.
“Mine too,” Cleo added.
Jayden nodded. “Lorcan’s people welcomed us all like family.”
“We’re celebrities,” Cleo said, her eyes wide.
“Yeah. And our dads enjoy playing with the alien tech and working as your envoys,” Jayden said. “My dad is even talking about starting an investment firm to help manage Golden Way companies.”
“But Rosa still thinks she’s gone to heaven,” Parker said with a chuckle. “Everything she says now is in Spanish.”
“Rosa?” the emperor asked. “No translator?”
“Never mind,” Jayden said, and gave Parker his “shut-up” look.
“Knifetango, Zebraguts, and BBgun are all good too,” Jayden said. “They wanted to join us here, but they’re still helping their families get settled.”
“Not a problem,” the emperor said. “It is you four with whom I wish to speak. Thank you for joining me here on such short notice.”
“Is everything okay?” asked Nora.
“Your request seemed important,” Jayden added.
The emperor nodded. “Two items of interest. First is an announcement. I want to inform you before the news goes intergalactic viral.”
“What announcement?” Cleo asked.
“Later today I will make it known that Rhea1 and Rhea2 will be taking my place as emperor. They will work together to lead Milky Way and Andromeda governments into the future with Atilla leadership.”
“Are you sick or something?” asked Parker.
“Oh no, of course not. I will be traveling with the Atilla’s supreme leader, Abaddon, along the Golden Way to expand trade agreements into the Atilla’s galaxy.”
Rhea1 sat up straight and smiled.
“Congratulations,” Jayden said.
“Thank you,” Rhea1 and Rhea2 said in a combined whistle-whisper.
The emperor cleared his throat. “But that is not everything,” Ruchbah9 said. “We hear rumors about Ga.” Concern washed over his face. “We believe they are doing something sinister inside ‘space between the space.’”
Sinister? “Like what?” asked Jayden.
“Destabilizing it somehow,” the emperor said.
Jayden tried to visualize how the space between space could even be considered stable in the first place. He gave up trying to understand what the emperor meant. Obviously, the Ga were doing something that wasn’t good. “Can’t the Atilla just go in there and blast the Ga into stardust?”
The emperor shook his head. “They have tried, but failed. The Atilla forces have even teamed up with the Zepar to form one fighting force. But still they did not succeed.” He paused for a moment. “There is someone I wish you to meet.”
Jayden swallowed hard. The emperor certainly seemed to enjoy surprising them this way.
Two men in red tights opened the large wooden doors at the far end of the room.
A giant black raven flew into the room, cawing as its two massive wings pushed down on the air. The crow circled near the ceiling, four stories above them. Jayden estimated each of the bird’s wings was about six feet long. His mouth hung open as he watched the raven circle and land near the emperor.
The four-foot tall crow lowered its head while adjusting its enormous quills. Midnight-blue feathers covered half of its long, stout bill, and shaggy, black feathers decorated its tall throat. Its eyes were large and clever.
The bird somehow looked familiar, but Jayden couldn’t place it.
The emperor nodded to the crow.
Parker elbowed Jayden. “It looks like the bird avatar in the video game,” Parker whispered. “Remember the raven with the blue beak that was watching us play all the time back on Earth? We thought it was a game monitor, remember?”
Parker was right. But that was in a video game. “How—?”
The emperor’s face tightened. “I know it is not fair to you, Jayden, the ultimate Killgeek. You and the others have been through much.” He paused. “I have asked you here today because I need your help to muster the Spring Tide Masons once again.”
“You want us to get them back together?” Parker asked.
“But why?” Jayden asked before the emperor could answer Parker. “I don’t get how a bunch of teenagers could do better than the Atilla, the Zepar, and the new and improved Space Command fighting force.”
The emperor clapped his hands twice. They turned to the front doors as the crow flew upward again. It circled the room as a boy walked through the large doors.
The boy appeared to be about twelve years old, with dark skin and curly black hair. But it was the boy’s large, enchanting sapphire eyes on his otherwise petite, big-cheeked face that captured Jayden’
s attention. The boy faced the throne and lowered his head to acknowledge the emperor. Then, he turned toward Jayden and bowed at the waist.
The raven flew through the doors to the outside.
The emperor lowered his voice. “I introduce you to Magnetar, son of Thuban.” The emperor clapped three times.
The doors shut.
A man in red tights ran over to the four of them. He handed out new earplugs.
“Please replace your old ones with these,” the emperor said. “Software upgrade.”
Jayden pushed the release button on the plugs, then took out the old ones and replaced them with the new ones. Both new plugs planted themselves softly into his ear canals.
“Thank you, great emperor,” the strange boy said.
Magnetar turned to Jayden and the others. His bright eyes glowed from his dark brown face. “I am from a cluster of galaxies your Earth calls Abell 2029. In total, it is eighty-one times larger than your Milky Way. The hundred trillion stars that comprise the home of my people are 315 megaparsecs from Earth in the constellation of Virgo.”
Jayden nodded as if he knew where that was located, though he didn’t have a clue. “It’s nice to meet you, Magnetar,” he said. “Are you helping the emperor?”
“I will be helping you,” he replied. “My people have been watching you for some time now, Jayden Banks.”
“Watching me?”
“We monitor all play on World Corp games. But more important, we have been watching your strategic play—very creative. I must say, your Gallimimus eggs contained a wide variety of colorful code.”
Jayden and Parker both tilted their heads simultaneously.
“I apologize, a minor translation glitch,” Magnetar said, touching his earplug and pushing a slide switch. “The Easter eggs your clan has created are, well, very impressive.”
Jayden smirked at Parker. “Oh yeah,” he whispered, and followed up with a casual fist bump.
Nora rolled her eyes.
“My people created the red tablet you carry. Once you had been chosen, we arranged for your father to receive the tablet as an award.”
Jayden’s eyes widened. He searched the emperor’s face.
“The tablet measures you. You have a special energy, my young friend,” Ruchbah9 whispered. “Energy you must cultivate and grow.”
Jayden’s red tablet vibrated as if it were a cell phone ringing. He ignored it and recalled the raven’s knowing eyes from the video game. The tablet vibrated again.
“If we do nothing,” Magnetar said, “our entire universe will collapse into ‘the space between the space’ and extinguish back into the void of the multiverse. All life forms in our universe will perish as the bubble membrane of the ancient universe implodes. This would, of course, include you and your family, my friend. Everyone will die.”
“We need your help again, Killgeek,” the emperor said, locking eyes with Jayden.
Getting involved in another space battle wasn’t part of Jayden’s plan. His life on Lorcan’s planet was finally boring again, and he loved it.
“We are all in danger,” Rhea2 said. “Your home world, Earth, is in danger too.”
Jayden took a moment before speaking. “Can the four of us stay together?” he asked.
“Yes, of course,” the emperor replied.
“Knifetango, Zebraguts, and BBgun too?”
“Yes, yes. Not a problem.”
Jayden stared at Nora, then Parker, then at Cleo, probing each of their faces.
They nodded.
He turned his attention to Magnetar, then to the emperor.
“You will do it?” the emperor asked Jayden.
The red tablet vibrated again. This time Jayden glanced at its display. The familiar pixie face of the energy being filled the screen, her marigold-flower irises glowing. Two wings fluttered in a hummingbird-like blur. It looked to Jayden as if she were flying inside the tablet.
The pixie girl smiled and winked.
Jayden grinned back at her, then nodded to the emperor.
“Game on!”
###
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this book, please take a moment to write a quick review. Think of each review as neutron fuel that will propel this series into more books.
Thank you for reading! ~R.E. Rowe
The Adventures of Jayden Banks and the Jameson Twins
More Adventures Coming Soon
About the Author
When R.E. Rowe isn't dreaming, you’ll find him trying to discover why, figuring out how, uncovering ancient mysteries, searching for a grand unified theory of everything, exploring the universe, writing a crazy fun middle grade or young adult novel, reading a novel, helping a business innovate, inventing something seriously cool, or learning something super interesting. He enjoys participating in science camps and talking to groups about creative topics such as the process of inventing, building worlds for science fiction and fantasy stories, and importance of dreaming big.
Connect with R.E. Rowe
Email at: [email protected]
Author’s website: https://rickrowe.com/adventures-jayden-banks-jameson-twins/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RickERowe
Follow the author on Twitter: @rickerowe
Other books by R.E. Rowe
The Reincarnation Young Adult Series
Voices Copyright 2015 by R.E. Rowe, Book 1
Whispers Copyright 2015 by R.E. Rowe, Book 2
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all my amazing writer friends for offering suggestions, support and critiques. Thanks to the professional editors and writing teachers I've worked with who continue to teach me the art of transforming neurons carrying story ideas into digital manuscripts.
A big thank you to all the amazing authors, podcasters, literary agents, and educators who spend time teaching writers and sharing lessons learned. I've been touched by many and promise to pay it forward as you all continue to do.
A special thank you to my author friends Jenny MacKay (www.jennymackay.com) and U.K author Vanessa Curtis (https://www.curtisliterary.co.uk) for sharing their knowledge, experience and taking the time to work with me.
Last, but not least, thank you to all the readers who take the time to comment and review the novels they enjoy. Taking the time to post even a one or two sentence review motivates us to write more, dig deeper and craft seriously cool stories. As Jayden Banks would say, "Game On!"