by Adam Holt
ZEUS AND EUROPA
“Hear, O Ascendant, the stories of old. You were born for greatness. Hear and remember the stories of your people. We are Ascendant. We always rise.
“Since the first epoch of time, the gods have intervened in the lives of men and women. Zeus, great god of thunder and the sky, was foremost among them. One day, while seated upon his throne on cloud-high Mount Olympus, he spied a stunning girl with hair black as the deepest ocean valleys, eyes like young kelp, and skin as soft as a jellyfish’s great hood. Zeus was smitten.”
The images were bizarre, but I pictured Tabitha’s eyes and her dark hair.
“The girl was counting cows in a field. Her father, great king Cadmus, gave her this simple job, and the royal maiden was bored. She combed her hair. Zeus looked down from on high. He wrestled with his feelings. I cannot visit her in godlike brilliance, thought the great god to himself. Surely she would die at my magnificence. And, yet, she is meant for more than counting cattle. And so, in great Zeus’ mind did an idea emerge. I will visit young Europa, but I will disguise myself so as not to frighten the dear girl. Thus Europa will love me.”
“Oh, Europa!” Janice hit pause. “Have you heard this story?”
“No, but this is an English-speaking Ascendant telling a Greek story. What in the universe is that all about?”
Janice didn’t know, but she produced her holophone notes and called up picture of Europa. We found one of a girl riding a bull.
“Uh, Europa is a female bullrider?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” Janice replied, clicking play again.
“Dear Ascendant, Zeus chose his disguise wisely. One day, as black-haired Europa counted her cows, she found a problem—an extra head of cattle in the sun-bright field. She inspected her father’s herd and discovered a beautiful newcomer, a bull as white as a comet’s tail. The beast knelt upon his front paws before her and offered her his lordly neck, as if to say, I am most tame among the animals of men. I submit to offer you a ride. Europa was amazed, and thus she mounted the bull without another thought, gripping its broad horns.
“No sooner had she sat upon his back than the great bull bolted across the seaweed-green grass, leaping and tossing her about. Rather than fear, she felt fascination. She laughed and held on tightly as the bull dashed through town. Her father heard the commotion. When he saw her, he knew that a god was to blame. With fear in his heart, he ran after her on meteor-fast feet. ‘No, daughter, it is not as it seems!’ he shouted, but it was far too late. Europa heard him not, for her pleasure had turned to terror. The bull made for the beach, bounded through the deep sand, and into the foaming waves. Fear-eyed Europa clung to him as they bolted into the wine-dark sea.
“O Ascendant, she found herself, days later, on new shores, as far from her father’s land as the sun is from Pluto, as far as good is from evil. But all was not lost. Great Zeus left her an inheritance. He left her Taurus the Bull, great constellation in the sky, to remind her of how special she was, God-blessed child of a king. What’s more, she was with child now, and that child became a great king, and that king is destined to rule the universe. He will be called ‘Chosen of the Sacred.’ One day he will once again ride the bull. So the myth tells us. So is it written in the stars. We are Ascendant. We always rise.”
The story ended. Janice and I stared at the music player, our heads together.
There was something in the back of my mind, a word I couldn’t remember, a question that would not take shape. It left me feeling unsatisfied, but there was one thing I understood.
“That story is more than a myth,” I said.
“Yeah, something like that,” she said. “The Chosen of the Sacred who rules the universe. That sounds pretty clear.”
“Right, they deserve to rule us all,” I said, “but something else.” The itchy feeling stuck with me though. I couldn’t shake it.
I flexed my scarred hands and pictured a giant bull rumbling through space, passing us on its way to Earth. Purple fire lit its eyes. It was ferocious, unstoppable, and planned every step it would take on its way to Earth. Once there, it would trample the Earth, all our work and history and people. Janice and I sat pondered the story in silent fear and awe. Not for long.
“Hey, you got any beef jerky?”
Sunjay plopped onto my bed and scared us to death. Janice fell onto the floor. I hit my head on the wall and then threw a punch at Sunjay. He saw the punch coming and flexed.
“I was ready for you that time,” he said.
“You breath smells terrible,” I said. Janice nodded in agreement. “Sunjay, have you heard the Europa myth?
“The one about the girl on the bull? Yep. So you don’t have any jerky? You want any? I’m going to get food and check on your dad.” We watched him go and tried to regain a foothold in our conversation. Maybe we were making too much of the myth. I wasn’t sure.
“Tully, the Ascendant don’t have every advantage,” Janice said. “They don’t have the Sacred, so they must need a Plan B.”
“Either way, they’re planning to trample us,” I said. “We have to stop them before they get started.”
That night I dreamed of a black-haired girl riding across the universe on a white bull trailing stardust like a comet. They swerved between planets but smashed through asteroids without a thought. I chased them. Then they saw the Earth and jolted toward it. The girl held on for dear life. I was so close but could not catch them, and I had to watch as the bull barreled into the Earth in an explosion of purple sparks. He landed in the ocean. A tsunami rose. A million people screamed. A million people underwater. The bull raised his head in triumph and walked ashore.
The next morning, when I awoke in the dim purple room, I kept my eyes closed, replaying the scene, hoping that I could grab his tail and turn him away from his destination, or I could grab the girl’s ponytail and save her from danger, but they were always out of reach.
THE LETTER
The next few days there was never a good time to talk about the Europa myth. We spent time planning our landing. We studied geography and learned some helpful facts. We couldn’t believe Europa had more water than Earth.
“That’s impossible,” Sunjay said. “Where is it all?”
“On the surface,” explained Janice. “There’s a layer of ice and then an ocean beneath it, probably sixty miles deep. Then there’s a rocky mantle with lots of underwater volcanoes, in the center is probably molten lava. It’s like one of those jawbreaker candies, only it’s ice, water, rocks, and lava.” Sunjay licked his lips, picturing a piece of candy the size of our Moon. He was hungrier than usual, and we had not brought any candy on board. That was a major oversight.
Europa also had very low gravity. I weighed 115 pounds on Earth, but on Europa I would be 15 pounds.
“That can be disorienting,” my dad said. “When there’s so little gravity, astronauts sometimes lose their sense of balance. They fall over or can’t stand back up. It doesn’t last long though. Suffice it to say, there may be a few clumsy moments on Europa. I know I had a few on the moon.”
“Oh, right,” I remembered, pulling out my holophone. My dad had sent me a video of his first moonwalk. Well, not his, but Buckshot’s. I showed everyone the footage of Buckshot in his spacesuit hopping up and down about six feet in the air, then losing his balance and landing on his face, struggling to get up before Dad grabbed him by the arm.
“Not my finest hour,” said Buckshot, shaking his head, “but look at that Space Alliance suit! It weighed almost two hundred pounds and made me look like a deranged marshmallow. You put your skinny legs in that and see how you do, Tully Harper.”
“I won’t have to,” I said, pointing at the slick black Ascendant suits in the corner.
“You bet your boots,” he said. “You kids have got it easy. These Ascendant suits are much more friendly for athletics maneuvers.”
Athletic maneuvers take practice, and practice began. Besides planning for our arrival, we worked out and
fought.
The arena itself trained us in the Ascendant ways. Holographic figures walked us through a combination of martial arts and body-weight workouts. It felt strange to take instruction from your enemy. My dad said it was the best way to understand them, even if they spoke Greek.
Each session lasted thirty minutes, and we did four training sessions back to back. The first session focused on cardio, the second on blocking, and the third on attacks. Squats, push-ups, and burpees also got thrown into the mix. By the end of the third session we wanted a break, but my dad encouraged us to do one more. Encouraged, commanded. Same thing. During the fourth session the entire room flashed purple and said something in Greek. The walls opened up and held out a black staff for each of us.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“τέσσερα λεπτά μανία,” said Little Bacon. Ah, LB. Always so helpful.
“What? No, in English,” I said.
“Of course,” he said. “Four Minutes of Fury.”
That didn’t sound like a good cool-down to me. Holographic Ascendant showed us how to play. Apparently, if you could hold off someone for one minute, a timer went off. You won the first round. Then another opponent would join the attack. Two vs. one. If you defend against both for another minute, a third would jump in. Finally the fourth person would join the attack. If you could hold off all four for the entire four minutes, you won Four Minutes of Fury. Or τέσσερα λεπτά μανία. Call it what you like. It was almost impossible to defense that many attackers.
“I like it,” said my dad.
No one could do it though. Two people trying to stun or incinerate you was too much to deflect and dodge. I couldn’t imagine trying three or four people. No, that’s not true. I could. I just needed to use my powers, and I wasn’t about to try that.
Later that night before bed I found Dad on the upper deck looking at the star map. Buckshot napped on the bench beside him.
“We’re still gaining speed.” He rubbed his hand along his red streak and pointed to the moon. “I never thought I would travel this far away from home again.”
“Why not?”
He smiled and pointed at my chest. I nodded.
“Thanks,” I said. I was about to apologize for arguing with him. Then I remembered to tell him about the Europa myth, but before I could do anything he asked me a question that nearly knocked me off my feet.
“Do you want to open the letter from your mom now?”
“I don’t have a mom to write me a letter,” I said.
“That’s not true. You do have a mom, and she did write you a letter.” He handed me the yellowed envelope from Aunt Selma. It wasn’t my aunt’s sloppy handwriting. My name was written in cursive, and double-underlined. My mind wobbled.
“What does it say?”
“I haven’t opened it,” he said.
“Of course, yeah, no, right,” I stammered.
“If you want to open it alone—” he started. “No, stay. I want you here.”
Here? Where was here? Nothing else existed at that moment. I wasn’t traveling through space in a stolen alien ship. My dad wasn’t looking at me. Buckshot wasn’t snoring. Sunjay and Janice weren’t asleep downstairs. It was as if I had entered my own virtual world, an envelope that contained four sheets of white paper full of beautiful script. My mom’s handwriting. My mom’s words.
LOVE BEYOND ALWAYS
I read her letter aloud:
“Dear Tully, my heart, my love, my son,
This is just a short note that I hope you never have to read. If you do, it means two things have happened - something has gone terribly wrong with the world, and I am no longer with you.
These two things may have something to do with a strange incident from my work at the Space Alliance. I began work on a secret space base a few years ago. Only a few Alliance employees knew where it would be placed. During this time a former co-worker of mine approached me. He wasn’t on the project, and he wanted to know the location of the base and the equipment on board.
“She’s talking about LG Alpha,” I said. “You mean she created the space base that we visited? The one that the Ascendant destroyed?”
“Yes, she worked on that project,” he said. “She died before she could see it completed. Keep reading though. The letter is about this other employee.”
Of course, I could not tell him what he wanted to know about the base. I did not tell him. He smiled but there was fire in his eyes. I could tell he was enraged.
A few days later he came back and offered to pay me for the information. I did not take the bribe. Then he said something bizarre. ‘What if I told you I worked for a race of aliens that live in the near solar system? And that this base could inconvenience their plans to take over the Earth? That would be a terrible, crazy story, wouldn’t it? Stella, give me the information and all is forgiven.’
His words rattled me. His offers of bribes continued. I worried about him, but I said nothing. Aliens? What could I say? He was either a liar, a lunatic, or something else.
I found out today that he was reassigned to this project. I’ll be working with him now, and he seems to be normal again, as if nothing ever happened. Still, I cannot forget his strange request or comments. They are too strange to ignore...or repeat. Hopefully they mean nothing. How could they? But since you are reading this, they meant everything. Son, you should keep your eye on Gallant Trackman.
“Dad?”
He didn’t respond, just put a hand on my shoulder and the other over his mouth. I kept reading:
I had a dream once, Tully. You were with your father, and both of you were fighting a monster. The monster had children, and they attacked you. You turned to fight them, but I heard a voice whisper to me: “Tell your son to fight but not to hate.” I do not know if this means anything, but it is the best advice I could give you now. Fight but do not hate. Hope. And Love.
Love beyond always,
from your mother,
Stella Harper
I held the letter to my head. I had heard her voice and seen her face in recordings, but this was the only letter she ever wrote me.
She had dreams about me. I heard this whispered in a dream. The words haunted me. I found the monster, Mom, and I’m going to fight him. I know who killed you now, Mom, and I’m going to find him, too. Her advice cut me though. The Sacred told me the same thing, but he had come to her first.
“Did you know any of this?” I asked my dad. “The Sacred spoke to her like it did to me.”
“Trackman,” my dad’s voice thrummed. “Trackman took her from us. He tried to take you. He…”
My dad could not finish his sentence. He stroked his hair, sat beside me on the bench, and looked down. He sat that way for five full minutes. There were tears of rage and heartbreak in his eyes, revenge on his mind, but he took a deep breath and refocused.
“What really matters? It matters that your mother never caved in to his demands. It matters that she was the bravest person I ever knew. She was fearless when it came to herself and protective of everyone around her. It does not explain everything, but it explains the car accident. No, the car wreck. It was no accident. I wish…no, she wouldn’t want me to wish. Wishing doesn’t matter. She would want me to do exactly what we are doing. She saw the war coming. She had a vision of it. Do you know what that means?”
“Yeah, we weren’t the first in our family to know something about the Ascendant.”
“True,” he said, “but, Tully, there are no accidents. Something guides our steps. Maybe it’s the Device or maybe something else, something bigger.”
The rest of that day flew by. We all went about our days as usual, black staff training, learning some Greek, and eating together. I couldn’t wait to lie down on my bed that night when I could re-read my mom’s letter. Which I did. So Trackman must have killed her. He took her from us, but I could get revenge. Revenge wasn’t enough though. I wanted to set things right. I wanted to get Tabitha back and destroy
the Ascendant. I did not know if I could follow my mom’s advice. Fight, but do not hate. How could I not hate? Either way, I now had something that he could not take. My mother’s voice. Her words in my heart. It was like discovering a new room in my house after living there my entire life, a room full of power and wisdom. The bull and the girl did not disturb my dreams that night. I felt pretty raw but slept soundly, hoping that something much bigger guided us on to Europa.
.1335G AND A DISCOVERY
Over the next several days we trained hard. My dad and I shared looks and he tousled my hair with a determined look in his eyes, but we didn’t talk about the letter. That was always our way.
We spent most of our time in the arena surrounded by the Ascendant crowd. Four Minutes of Fury was in full effect. We sweated through our clothes and started to stink, so we resorted to wearing Ascendant uniforms. That was a good move. Not that I like wearing a tunic and sleeveless shirt, but they shrunk to fit each of us perfectly and wicked away moisture like nobody’s business. Smart fabrics, said Janice.
There was one downside. The sleeveless shirt gave Sunjay plenty of chances to flex his biceps, which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Just what everyone wants – to watch their friend flex his muscles every five minutes. I was kind of impressed, and totally annoyed. I’m still waiting for my growth spurt. It will probably get here when I’m 35.
“Hey, anybody want to buy tickets to the gun show?” asked Sunjay.
“Is this the same gun show from fifteen minutes ago?” asked Janice.
“Nope, it’s a new one. Check it out.” He balled his fists and tightened his arms.
“Thanks for the invite,” said Janice, “but I’ve got plans already. I’m going to this really great ‘How Not to Impress Your Friends’ Seminar. And it’s totally free. Oh, look, it just started! Tully, come join me. Prepare to be totally impressed!”
Janice sat forward and stared intently at Sunjay’s arms, pretending to whisper under her breath.