by R. E. Rowe
“What’s that?” he asked.
“You will not be able to communicate when you are in the space between the space.”
That made sense to Jayden given the place didn’t even have stars. It was clear to him what they needed to do. “Nora, I need you to hack the offline Space Command database copy while you’re traveling on an intergalactic transport to Earth. Take BBgun with you. With any luck, by the time you reach our sun, you’ll know how to decrypt Nuk’ana’s personal live database.”
“With a lot of luck,” she muttered.
He continued. “When you arrive in Earth’s solar system, connect to the live database. Find out where Nuk’ana’s next briefing is going to be. I’ll need the location. After you get that info, hack into their system again, but let space command locate your position.”
“But won’t they destroy our transport?” Nora asked.
“Probably,” Jayden said. “But that’s why the hull will be filled with explosives.”
The emperor let out a loud laugh. “Very creative, young mason leader.”
Jayden continued. “After you tell me the briefing location, use a time delay to insert the transport’s location into Space Command’s live data feed.”
Nora grinned.
“Genius,” Parker said, as if he could read Jayden’s mind. “Smoke-a-bloke?”
Jayden peered at Nora. “You’ll let them get up on the transport, and then, boom, BBQ those shifty Zepar.
But you won't be on the transport. You’ll be on the UFO from the transport’s cargo hold.”
Nora’s smiled grew.
Jayden turned to Altair3. “When’s the next briefing?”
“One hundred, seventy-two thousand, eight hundred pulses,” Altair3 said.
“Huh?” Jayden said blankly.
“Two of your Earth days,” the emperor replied.
“After you tell me Nuk’ana’s meeting location and booby-trap the transport with explosives, take the UFO
to Earth and pick up our parents. BBgun will be your backup. Once you have all the adults onboard the UFO, hightail it to the far side of Earth’s moon and hide out until I check in with you.” Jayden turned to the emperor.
“Nora will call you. She’ll let you know when to send them an intergalactic transport that will bring them back to the Royal City.”
BBgun looked nervous and Nora’s expression changed to a frown. “You’re not coming with me, Jayden?”
“No time. That’s the second part of my plan. Parker and I will punch out somewhere near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. When you tell me where Nuk’ana is going to give his briefing, we’ll have other masons start raids as far away from the briefing as possible. From there we’ll use a galactic transport to travel to the briefing. Nuk’ana will think all the rebel activity is far away from his pathetic little briefing.”
“Then what?” asked Nora.
“Parker and I will sneak in with a group of masons. We’ll replace the recruits he’s planning to put on display at his briefing.” Jayden turned to Altair3. “Can you arrange for masons to join us onstage?”
He nodded. “No issues. Bigger puzzle is weapon pieces.”
“I’ll work on getting weapons and credentials,” the emperor said. “We’ve recently upgraded a set of skin tight wearables that blends in with your natural skin color. They’ll be perfect. Blast 50,000 volts of shock. It won’t kill, but it will disable very effectively.”
“Once at Nuk’ana’s talking spot,” Altair3 said. “Mason sleeper cells wake up.”
“Yes,” Jayden told Altair3. “But you’re going with Zeekmo too. She’ll need help enabling the explosives.”
He smiled. “Understood? I need you to make a light show to keep Space Command distracted near Earth.”
“Understood,” Altair3 said, “I bus with Zeekmo and BBgun.”
“We shall send my other son with you and G-striker, Killgeek,” the emperor said. “His name is Altair5.”
“Altair3 has a brother?” Jayden asked.
The emperor nodded. “Yes, Altair5 is twelve of your sol years.”
The Andros sure don’t get too creative with their naming tradition.
“Then what?” Nora asked Jayden. “How will you stop Nuk’ana at his briefing?”
“Yeah, well, that part Parker and I will need to work out,” he replied.
Altair3 stood and gestured for them to get moving.
“May the beings of energy be with you,” the emperor said.
“And some luck too,” Jayden added, and then paused. He peered at the emperor. “The energy being said:
‘Find the spot behind the neck, push to switch off the hologram tech.’ Does that mean anything to you?”
The emperor gazed at Jayden carefully then shook his head.
Jayden continued. “Reveal you will the truth at last, tell all you can, quantum fast. No idea at all?”
The emperor frowned. “Unfortunately, I do not know the meaning.”
Jayden let out a frustrated huff. “We should get moving.”
They all headed for the door.
Nora grabbed Jayden’s arm, holding him back until they were the only two left in the room. Her hair was growing back, but it was still short. He loved the way her glinting brown eyes softened when she talked to him.
She touched his face with one hand and gazed into his eyes. “Be careful, Surfer Boy,” she whispered. “And take care of my brother.”
“I will,” Jayden whispered back to her.
“Come now!” shouted Altair3 from the hallway.
Jayden’s focus shifted. Both fists tightened.
Time for a Zepar BBQ.
Chapter 28
The viewport filled with a blue and yellow gas cloud littered with pinpoints of stars when the intergalactic transport punched out of the space between the space into the middle of the Milky Way’s Sagittarius Arm of stars. Jayden was getting nervous. The masons had started the raids as planned, and Leader Nuk’ana’s briefing was only six hours away. They were cutting it close.
Jayden and Parker quickly transferred to a smaller galactic transport that waited for them at a secret mason base in the gigantic gas cloud hidden from Space Command sensors.
Altair5 piloted the transport. The kid was a miniature version of Altair3, with a similar silver chain woven around the outline of his ear. Silver stud piercings the size of pinheads were fixed all over his cheeks in geometric patterns, with some pierced through his dark green eyebrows. The only difference between Altair3
and Altair5 was that Altair5’s face appeared to be a lighter lime green, and he didn’t mess up his words nearly as often. Jayden was also pretty sure this was Altair5’s first real mission.
Jayden's new comm device beeped. “Hello?”
“Zeekmo here, you read me?”
Yeah! “I got you. Can you hear me?” He gave Parker a thumbs-up and mouthed, “It’s your sister.”
Parker rolled his eyes. “I hear her too, duh. The earplugs are all entangled.”
“We’re in position,” she said.
“Good,” replied Jayden. “Do you have news?”
“I hacked Nuk’ana’s database and figured out where his briefing will be.”
“Awesome,” Parker said.
“Where?” Jayden asked.
“A Space Command base on the second moon of a star located near the molecular cloud SH2-136 in the constellation of Cepheus. Are you ready for the coordinates?”
“Go ahead,” Jayden said.
Jayden and Parker listened to the sequence of numbers. Parker relayed them to Altair5, who in turn called the emperor and transmitted the coordinates.
“Where the heck is SH2-136 located?” Jayden asked Nora.
“It’s about twelve hundred light years from Earth,” she said. “The location is near what they call the Ghost of Cepheus, also known as Flying Bat Nebula.”
“Sounds creepy,” Jayden said. “Are you guys ready to take the UFO to Earth and pick up everyone?
”
“We’re ready,” Nora replied. “Don’t worry about us, we’ll get them to a safe place and hide out as planned.”
“So the transporter booby trap is set?” he asked.
“Ready,” Nora said. “All wired up and ready to explode. Altair3 is making some last minute adjustments.
He’ll activate the trigger’s timer just before we leave.”
“When?” Jayden asked.
“We’re headed to Earth in ten minutes,” she said.
“Okay. I’ll call you when we punch out into the Flying Bat Nebula.” He sucked in a long, deep breath. “I—
”
“Don’t worry,” Nora said. “We can do this while you deal with the alien leader jerk.”
“Right,” Jayden said, a little too quickly. He watched Parker give a reluctant thumbs-up. “Don’t forget to pick up Rosa and Rox too.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll pick-up everyone, including BBgun and Cleo’s families. Just kick that bully’s butt.”
“Roger that,” said Parker. “Good luck, sis.”
“Be careful, Zeekmo. Killgeek and G-striker out.” Jayden wanted to be with her on the rescue, but he was on a mission with Parker just like old times.
“Get us moving,” Jayden told Altair5.
Altair5 worked the controls of the galactic transport. It wasn’t long before they saw nothing but black in the viewport.
“How long will it take us to arrive?” Parker asked.
“Do not worry,” Altair5 said. “I will get you both there before the meeting with time to spare.”
Jayden groaned. He realized by the time they entered normal space again, Nora and Altair3 would have all the families safe, or he would need a bigger rescue plan. He crossed his fingers, arms, legs, and toes, and hoped for the best.
Time to settle the score with Leader Nuk’ana and end his Space Command reign of terror, Jayden thought.
He imagined the look on his mom and dad’s faces when they learned what he had been doing since his disappearance. He knew a joyful reunion wouldn’t happen unless he could stop Nuk’ana.
But at that moment he had no clue what he was going to do.
Chapter 29
When they punched out through a star in the middle of the Ghost of Cepheus, Jayden’s stomach began doing Olympic high dive flips.
“Punch-out complete,” reported Altair5.
He tapped his ear. “Zeekmo? Can you hear me?”
Nothing.
His stomach sank. Oh no, he thought. Had Nora failed? “Zeekmo?”
“Sis?” shouted Parker, tapping his earpiece. “Are you there?”
Still nothing.
Finally, a beep vibrated from their earpieces.
“Killgeek? G-striker?” Nora said urgently. “You there?”
“We’re here,” said Jayden at the same time Parker did, and then asked, “Are they?”
Nora interrupted. “Relax. Everyone is safe.”
He turned to Altair5 and gave a thumb’s up, then let out a long breath.
“Thank God,” Parker said.
She continued. “We moved our getaway spot from the far side of Earth’s moon to the dark side of Titan.
We’re all fine, but we encountered a slight problem.”
“What happened?” Jayden asked.
“Well . . . ,” she said.
Jayden heard his parents and others talking loudly in the background. “Where are you from again?
Andromeda? The galaxy? Jayden is okay? Where’s Parker again? The moon? We’re in space? What about our Cleo? This must be some kind of prank. Is that real hair? It looks like a plant.”
Rox barked as if the dog were asking the same questions. He imagined Rox running in circles through Nora’s UFO, then wondered if Nora had remembered to grab a pooper-scooper. “So what happened?”
“Rosa about killed me,” she said. “Oh, and disgusting! Rox peed all over my leg!”
He smiled. “That sounds like Rox. What’d Rosa do?”
“She was completely nuts, talking a mile a minute in Spanish. Thank goodness I understood her. She thought she was being taken to heaven. Then she started to cry when she thought she was being taken to hell, and . . . well, you get the idea. Most of the other parents thought we were taking them on an international trip.
When they saw space, all of their eyes grew to the size of the moon. Anyway, it was tough to explain everything.”
“Cool,” Jayden said.
“You did it, sis!” shouted Parker.
“Are you in position?” she asked.
“Yeah, we’re here, in the Nebula,” Jayden said. “We’ll be ditching the transport soon and hitching a ride on a UFO to travel to Nuk’ana’s briefing.”
“Be careful, okay?” she said.
“We will. Don’t worry, sis,” Parker said.
“Right, like I’m really not going to worry,” she said.
“You know what I mean,” Parker added.
Jayden shushed Parker. “We need to go.”
“Just come back in one piece,” Nora said. “Besides, someone needs to calm your dog down, Surfer Boy.
He’s doing his business every ten feet. He obviously smells alien.” She softened her voice. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
He felt his face warm. “Will you be able to watch the briefing?”
“Yep, Altair3 rigged up the UFO com-channel to receive it. He told me Space Command blasts out their broadcast, so we don’t have to worry about anyone tracking us.”
“Good,” Jayden said. “We’ll need to stay silent, so don’t try to call me with the comm device. I’ll call you when it’s over.”
“Got it,” she said. “You want to talk with your parents? I’ll pull out this ear thing—”
“No time. Tell them I’m fine. Besides they’ll just tell me not to do anything crazy, and this entire situation is crazy.” Jayden’s stomach was back in knots. “It’s too late to back out now.”
He was thankful the families were safe. But he knew if the plan didn’t go well, they’d all be in big trouble.
“One more thing,” she said. “I found something curious in Nuk’ana’s personal data files.”
“What’d you find?”
“It’s hard to explain,” she said.
Jayden made two fists, tightened, then shook them out. “Should I be worried?”
“No, it just looks like some sort of wearable technical device he keeps on all the time.”
“What sort of device? A weapon?” Parker asked.
“Not sure, but it seems important. Be careful.”
“Okay, see what else you can find,” Jayden told Nora. “We need to get moving. Contact the emperor and tell him what you found. Keep digging and see if you can find anything else.”
“Right,” she said.
“Killgeek, out.”
“G-striker, out.”
Before long, Jayden, Parker, and Altair5 ditched the galactic transport on an asteroid and transferred to a UFO. Jayden and Parker quickly changed into pressed Space Command uniforms, put SECC caps on, and walked back to where Altair5 was piloting the UFO.
“Are we in position yet?” Jayden asked Altair5.
“My father has provided me with coordinates. I transport you using quantum wave particle-izer.” Altair5
frowned and raised his voice. “But why cannot I join?”
“I appreciate you want to help us. But we need you here to transport us out if things go south.”
“Go south?”
“I mean if the situation gets bad and we need a quick exit.”
“Ah. Understood.” Altair5 gave Jayden a quick look over. “You are impressive in uniform, Killgeek.”
“Thanks.” Jayden stood a little taller.
“So where are you transporting us?” Parker asked.
“The location is a mining operation on a moon with no atmosphere. Space Command base is an enclosed habitat with artificial oxygen atmosphere inside. You can breathe wit
hout apparatus. Father has knowledge of secret water channel entrance below habitat. The entrance avoids Zepar security.”
“A water channel?” Parker asked. “You mean a sewer?”
Altair5 turned his head slightly.
“Never mind,” Jayden said. “Once we’re in, which way do we go?”
“Masons will greet you. Follow them. They have weapons and credentials. What is your plan, Jayden the ultimate Killgeek?”
Jayden sighed. “If I knew, I’d tell you.” He took off down the stairs to the transport platform with Parker, and then projected his voice to activate the intercom. “We’re ready, Altair5. Transport.”
“Yes, sir,” Altair5 replied.
The next instant, Jayden and Parker found themselves standing in a brick hallway with eighteen other masons dressed in Space Command uniforms. It was at least one hundred degrees Fahrenheit inside and smelled like a sewer.
Jayden began to sweat and gag at the same time. Most of the masons around him reminded him of typical Earth kids in middle school and high school, but with subtle physical differences like bug eyes, cat ears, dog noses, and flicking lizard tongues, all alongside green-haired Andros kids.
“Hi, sir. I’m Talon,” a teenage boy about Jayden’s age said to him. His face was long, with a hawk nose and crooked bright white teeth. “Put this on.”
Talon handed Jayden and Parker credentials and small compact blasters. “Hide these on your trousers behind your back. They’re a new design. Looks minimal, but the blast is epic.”
Jayden stuck two onto the back of his pants and pulled his shirt over them. He did a double take at Talon.
“Where you from?”
“Huntington Beach. All the masons from Cali have mad love for you, dog.”
Jayden smiled. “Thanks.”
He turned to Parker. “You too, dude. The way you walked a robo pod up a skyscraper was, well, seriously cool. We’re glad you’re okay.”
Parker grinned.
Another boy walked up to Jayden and stared at him with haunting topaz eyes. His dark eyebrows looked drawn on his face with a Sharpe. “I’m RegusZ. We, sir, are pleased to help.” RegusZ lowered his voice. A growl followed at the end of each word he spoke. “Lorcan hath assigned me mason go-team leader in thirty-third quadrant.” The alien teen looked down and whispered, “We shall indeed miss him, sir.”