by R. E. Rowe
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 whispered.
“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.
Chapter 19
After changing into freshly pressed Space Command uniforms, Jayden, Parker, Nora, Cleo, and BBgun scurried to the hanger where a previously stolen galactic transport awaited them.
“Here’s the plan,” Jayden whispered to Parker and Nora as Cleo and BBgun walked behind them. “Once we arrive at the hub and help Rhea2 jack a transport, we’ll ditch her and find our own transport.”
“Sounds good to me.” Nora nodded. “After we jack one, I’ll punch in a quick set of travel coordinates where we can regroup. It’ll buy me time to use the tablet to work out the refueling hops to get back to Earth.”
“Leave Rhea2? Seriously?” Parker asked. “That seems intense, doesn’t it? Won’t Leader Nuk’ana kill her?”
“We’ll only leave her once she gets to an intergalactic transport,” Jayden said. “She knows her way around the Milky Way better than we do. She’ll be fine.”
The three of them agreed as they entered the moon base hanger. The galactic transport was massive compared to the house-sized UFO. Rhea2 waited with Lorcan a short distance away from the open entrance.
When the group reached the two masons, neither Rhea2 nor Lorcan bothered with a greeting. “We’ll be riding in captain’s pod,” Rhea2 said, sharply. “Follow.”
Jayden and the rest swiftly proceeded toward the transport’s entrance. He noticed Rhea2 was peering at a hologram of the target hub facility that floated above her mobile device. She interacted with it by using hand gestures.
“Your raid yesterday was impressive, Zeekmo,” Lorcan said to Nora. “I enjoyed watching your wicked cool maneuver to exit the hangar before the door closed.” He put his arm around Nora’s shoulder.
She didn’t resist.
Jayden wanted to kick Lorcan’s feet out from under him.
�
�Where’d you learn that?” Lorcan asked Nora.
Nora shrugged and giggled. Jayden did a double take. He’d never heard Nora giggle before.
“Are you coming with us?” she asked Lorcan.
“Not this time. I’m traveling to Megena9,” Lorcan said.
“Where’s that?” she asked.
“Oh, it’s just another one of our moon outposts, about 9,500 parsecs from here,” Lorcan replied, then added, “I’ll be taking transport ship number two after you leave.”
“Why are you going there?” Nora asked.
“We have some expansion opportunities, so to speak. Besides, I like to rotate between our outposts.” He moved closer to her as they continued walking. “I’d like to get to know you better. Why not come with me and try some of that decryption you mentioned? Rhea2 and the rest of your clan can handle this raid.”
Nora gazed at him but remained silent.
Poacher! Jayden thought. “We stick together, Lorcan,” Jayden told him with authority.
Nora flashed a grin.
Lorcan hesitated, then said, “Excuse me there, Killgeek. I was talking to Zeekmo—”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” Nora said. “I stay with my clan. We can discuss decryption techniques another time.”
Lorcan forced a smile. “Too bad. We could use your help breaking into Space Command’s system.”
Jayden wanted to shove Lorcan onto his arrogant backside but thought better of it. They needed to get back to Earth and the only way to do it was to keep cool. Lorcan couldn’t suspect they were planning on bolting soon.
When they reached the transport, Rhea2 put away her handheld unit. “We go in here.”
“I’ll be off,” Lorcan said. “Happy hunting. We’ll all meet up after the raid.” He widened his stride without looking back as though he couldn’t wait to get away from them.
Good riddance, Don Juan, Jayden thought.
They followed Rhea2 into the transport, then up a four-story-tall spiral stairway to another door resembling a reinforced international jetliner’s cockpit entrance. Jayden was huffing for breath by the time they reached the door.
Rhea2 held a cube in front of the door and pressed a yellow button. The cube played the Ga audio with no translation: “Gsse-ta-aat-tez.” It sounded like a cross between a teapot whistle and a rap song. When the cockpit door opened, they hurried inside.
The cockpit was arranged similar to an Earth-style commercial jet pilot’s cabin, but much larger than a first-class cabin. Instead of fancy first-class seats, the cabin was filled with bench seats that seemed to belong on a city bus. It wasn’t very advanced in Jayden’s opinion, though the benches included pop-up headrests, shoulder and seat belts.
At the far end of the room, two impressive leather chairs had been positioned in front of a long dashboard and bus-sized steering wheel. Jayden figured they must be the pilot and co-pilot seats.
“Smells like a city bus,” BBgun muttered to Jayden, who sniffed the air and agreed.
Musty and dank, he thought. The room seriously needed a bucket of bleach and a day with Rosa.
“Everyone takes a seat,” Rhea2 said. “Put on the straps and belts. You sit here next to me, Zeekmo. I’ll show you how to fly the transport.”
Rhea2 sat in front of the big bus steering wheel, which was twice as wide as her body.
Jayden and the rest of the squad sat behind her in pairs on bench seats, peering forward towards a wall-sized view portal. Wow. A hundred UFOs filled the busy hangar bay. Some masons were getting onto UFOs, some getting off, and others working on disassembled UFOs. At the far end of the hangar, Jayden saw an opening as wide and tall as the hangar itself that led out to space.
“Panel is green,” Rhea2 said.
“Girlfriend’s hair is blooming today,” Cleo whispered to Parker. “Freaky.”
Jayden glanced back. Parker and Cleo were making eyes at each other.
“You look handsome today, snickerdoodle,” said Cleo.
Snickerdoodle? Jayden rolled his eyes.
Lorcan’s voice came over a speaker. “You are go for launch. May the energy beings guide your mission, Lorcan out.”
“Launch,” Rhea2 said.
In an instant, the portal view changed from the inside of the hangar to a swath of stars. One of the stars grew bigger by the second, filling the view with a bright yellow sun.
Rhea2 lifted a switch on the panel. “Prepare to punch in.”
They all looked at each other and sat back in their seats. Jayden tightened his muscles.
“Punching in . . . now,” Rhea2 said.
Again, Jayden had expected some physical movement or jerking motion, but he felt nothing. The only thing that had changed was the star field above their heads. One second there were stars, the next second, nothing.
Just blackness. No sound either, or even a vibration.
Before long, he relaxed and peered at a countdown display on the control panel indicating fifty-nine minutes and thirty seconds to go before punch-out.
“Show me the buttons to push again,” Nora said. “The ones you use to enter coordinates.”
Rhea2 gave Nora a tutorial while Jayden dosed off.
Suddenly, Jayden felt an elbow in his side.
“Dude, you’re snoring.” Parker huffed.
“Oh, sorry.” Jayden wiped his face and sat up.
Rhea2 turned a large knob. “We have arrived.” She flipped a switch on the panel. “Punching out in 3-2-1.”
Starlight filled the portal.
“That was easy,” Nora said. “So the intergalactic transport works the same as this transport?”
“Yes.” Rhea2 stood. “Come. It is time.” Rhea2 left the cabin in a hurry as they all jogged to keep up with the fern-headed girl.
A minute later, Jayden and his team joined the other twenty or so masons assembling inside the transport’s giant hull. Jayden recognized the mason kids from Lorcan’s briefing: Io3, Sol9, and Orion2.
“Put on your wearables.” Rhea2 handed each of them a silver water container resembling a workout water bottle. “Everyone carries a water bottle inside hub. Snap the container onto your pants.”
They quickly put on the knee and elbow wearables, and then forced their hands in the tight fitting gloves.
The cube of lightning bolt electronics on the topside of each hand felt bulky to Jayden. He opened and closed both hands, trying to stretch the glove out.
“Have you memorized coordinates?” Rhea2 asked.
Nora nodded.
“Good. Destroy coordinate papers.”
She complied.
Jayden couldn’t stand still. Jacking a transport was their ticket home, and this raid was do or die.
“Io3, you are on point,” Rhea2 said. “Take north side elevator to level sixteen. There you will secure transport and return to Sigarr. Sol9, take the south side elevator to level four. Orion2, take west elevator to level six. We’ll take east elevator to transport level one where they prepare intergalactic transports for launch.
Epsol8, once we are away, return our transport back to Sigarr. Any questions?”
A few of the masons fidgeted, but no one said a word. Everyone appeared to be as eager as Jayden felt.
“Good luck. We meet up at the outpost. May beings of energy be with each of you.” Rhea2 pushed the button and the outer hatch of transport opened wide and led the way into the hub.
The group followed her casually out of the transport as if they were Space Command kids working inside the hub.
Nora grabbed Jayden’s arm. “Let me see the tablet,” she whispered.
He discretely took it from his t-shirt and handed it to her as they walked. The characters on the screen were changing faster than ever. “What’s it doing?”
“No idea,” Nora said. “It’s starting to worry me, though. It seems way too active.” She handed the tablet back to him. “No time now. I’ll investigate more later.”
Jayden tucked the tablet away as Io3, Sol9, Orion2,
and most of the other masons jogged off in different directions.
As they walked with confidence into the massive hub facility, Jayden abruptly froze, and his feet stuck to the floor. This place wasn’t just big, it was massive. And Zepar were all around them.
Chapter 20
Jayden gazed around the hub level in awe. He estimated it had to be at least twice the size of the mason's outpost hangar, rivaling the dimensions of at least twenty superdome football stadiums. In the center, a large, open square with massive steel beams and cables passed through all the levels. It was hard to imagine fifty-seven similar levels built on top of each other.
“Follow me . . . hurry,” Rhea2 said as she jogged off.
Parker grabbed Jayden by the arm and pulled him forward, and quickly followed her.
When they reached a corner in front of the open space near the hangar’s center, Rhea2 pressed a large button on a waist-high metal rail that ran along the edge of the center open space. A small section of the rail near them lit up.
Then they waited.
Jayden noticed the Space Command kids and shimmering Zepar went about their business. No one even notices us.
“Each corner of open space has an elevator,” Rhea2 informed them.
What was taking so long? Jayden wondered, tapping his foot impatiently. “Good to know.”
Jayden leaned over the railing and peered upward. Unfreaking believable! The huge center space went up as far as he could see. He glanced down and instantly felt dizzy. The drop seemed to go on forever.
Rhea2 yanked Jayden back from the rail. Just in time too. An empty elevator on the other side of the rail appeared in a flash and jerked to a stop in front of them. The elevator was nearly the size of Jayden’s bedroom back home, but completely round with a see-through glass frame.
Two doors slid apart with a burst of air, while at the same time the lit-up portion of the rail retracted in front of them. It was the wildest elevator he had seen.
When they stepped in, Jayden’s head began to spin. The only thing that wasn’t see-through was the thin, metal-frame skeleton and the mirrored ceiling.