The Accidental Astronaut

by Matthew K Wyers

  “We can’t catch up at this speed Hannelore,” Darbian said.

  “What about the station Darbian? Does the station have a teleporter? What if we turned around and went inside?” Micah growled.

  “Don’t you leave me out here!” Hannelore thrashed her arms.

  Darbian winced. “Wouldn’t do any good, my boy. The only teleporters are on the Wardein ships.”

  “What about a tractor beam? The station has one of those, right?” Micah clamored.

  “Yes, but it’s short range only. She’ll be gone before we can activate it,” Darbian prattled.

  Suddenly, a door opened in the middle of the vastness. A bright yellow light shone out from the opening.

  It drew Hannelore inside, and the door shut behind her.

  “Well, I didn’t expect that,” said Darbian.

  “Where is she, Darbian?” Micah gloomed.

  “She’s where we’ll be in a moment. Don’t worry Micah. There’s another ship here, but it’s cloaked. Hannelore was drawn in with a tractor beam and I imagine that beam is about to grasp us as well.” Darbian took his hand off the thruster controls.

  The tractor beam took a hold of Darbian and Micah and drew them faster and faster toward the same spot where Hannelore disappeared behind the mysterious door.

  In a moment, the door opened again, and it took inside Darbian and Micah. The door closed behind them and they landed not so gracefully on the floor of the ship.

  Hannelore stood nearby and with hands on hips.

  Darbian rolled onto his back.

  Micah tried to stand up.

  “Some rescue attempt, you two. Some stupid ship kidnaps me and the best you can do is get caught too?” Hannelore tapped her foot repeatedly.

  “My dear, the reason we couldn’t catch you is that a tractor beam from this ship was pulling you aboard. My thruster had no chance of catching you.” Darbian sat up. “Don’t worry, though. We’re safe here. This is a Warden’s ship, and we are now guests.”

  “Beginning airlock procedure,” a voice spoke in the background.

  The sound of air flowing from vents filled their ears. Soon there was enough oxygen for the trio to remove their helmets. An invisible shield dropped all around them with the sound of sparks and the sight of flashes of light.

  “I recognize this ship,” said Darbian. “It belongs to Aculpus Atronis, an old friend. The question is where is he?”

  They heard moaning echoing off the walls of the ship. First, it was soft, but it became louder.

  Darbian put his arm behind him and motioned to the children. “Stay here.” He slowly climbed up a flight of stairs. With every step, the sound of moaning grew louder. He reached the top of the stairs and a door automatically opened. Darbian entered, and the door closed behind him.

  “How long should we wait for him?” Hannelore asked.

  “There might be some sort of monster up there. We should wait until he calls us up there. I’m tired of surprises,” Micah said.

  In the room above, Darbian searched through a mostly dark room as a few emergency lights flickered on and off. “What in the world happened here? Aculpus! Where are you? Are you here?”

  The moaning turned to coughing, and, for a moment, sounded like garbled speech.

  Darbian walked toward the sound. “Aculpus, is that you?”

  “Darbian, I’m over here,” a tempered voice answered back.

  “Aculpus! What in the black abyss happened here?” Darbian said.

  “Darbian, are the lights working?” Aculpus asked.

  Darbian looked up with only an occasional flash shining upon his face. “No, can you turn them on?”

  “Computer, turn the lights on,” Aculpus stated.

  “Ship’s energy is at 34% capacity. Do you still wish to use full lighting?” A digitized voice answered back.

  “Yes computer, turn them on,” Aculpus shook his head.

  Most of the lights on the ship came on and Darbian saw Aculpus for the first time in a long time.

  Aculpus could not return the favor, however, as his race was blind. Where you might have eyes on most humanoids, Aculpus had a second set of ears. His skin was light brown, and he was mostly bald except for what would pass for a beard among his people, the Milinauks. Though they could not perceive light, Aculpus and his people had the rather remarkable ability of natural radar. Every Milinauk brain projected an energy signal that bounced off of objects and returned to be received by the mind. So in a manner of speaking, they saw the world around them quite well.

  “Your arm! Your uniform is tattered. What happened to you?” Darbian stooped down to tend to his friend.

  Aculpus was laying down with his right arm in a sling. “The battle didn’t go well, Darbian.”

  “What battle? How did you end up here? Why is the ship cloaked?” Darbian’s heart pounded.

  “Cloaked?” Aculpus tried to sit up too quickly and smacked his head on the ceiling above. “Bah! My ears! No wonder the power is so low. Computer, turn off the invisibility cloak. We don’t need it here.” He relaxed.

  “Aculpus, what battle are you talking about?” Darbian went back to the subject at hand.

  Aculpus raised himself up. “Don’t you know, Darbian? Halinkoy…Halinkoy defeated us.”

  Darbian was silent, motionless.

  “Darbian, they’re all gone. The Wardein are defeated. I’ve never seen anything like it. If I survive this, I’ll never know anything like it again.” Aculpus laid back down.

  “What do you mean they’re gone? What happened to the Central Command?” Darbian massaged his chin.

  Aculpus moaned again. “It’s gone, Darbian. I barely made it out. I was late arriving to the battle and there was such destruction before me. No one could have convinced me to believe it if I had not been there. I don’t want to believe it now, but it’s true. Halinkoy’s ships were too strong for me to salvage anything or anyone. They almost destroyed me. I put the ship on autopilot and told it to fly to the nearest unaffected base. I suppose it brought me to yours, Darbian?”

  “Halinkoy, that name again. Why have I never heard of the Halinkoy Cult until today? I don’t understand.” Darbian paced around the room.

  The children popped in from around the corner.

  “Darbian, there aren’t any monsters in here are there?” Hannelore quivered.

  “No my dear, the monsters are far from here,” Darbian said.

  “Darbian, what’s wrong, and who’s that?” Micah pointed toward Aculpus.

  Darbian stopped and looked at his friend. "This is my old friend, Aculpus Atronis of District 7822. He’s a Warden like me and he’s going to help us."

  All four of Aculpus’ ears perked up. “Help you do what exactly?”

  “First thing, my friend, dock this ship with the station. We need to get Gregorical back up and running.

  “Certainly! Computer, dock with the nearest station and begin a download of any new information.” Aculpus sat up. “Darbian, what else can I do?”

  Darbian turned to face him. “We need to get you aboard the station and get you healed. Then we’ll worry about what comes next.”

  The ship docked with the Warden station.

  Base 401 was egg-shaped as though its makers started out building a sphere and changed their mind halfway through. It was white like an egg too with bright lights emanating from the upper and lower ends. The station itself was the brightest thing in the sky. All the nearby galaxies looked like dim blobs of light by comparison.

  There were four spires pointing out from around the equator of the massive structure. Each designed to provide multiple docking stations, they were tube-like and set equal distances apart.

  Aculpus’ ship approached one. It connected with a thud and everyone walked onto the station.

  “Safety never felt so good,” said Darbian.

  Darbian helped Aculpus into the infirmary.

  Meanwhile, the children climbed up ladders and played with innocent looking devices
.

  The Warden station was a magnificent sight for the children. There were high ceilings and scaffolding all along the walls. There were catwalks above that connected workstations to doors, each with an oculus for an opening. The floors and walls were spotless.

  In fact, the children noticed their reflections on all the surfaces if they stood close enough.

  “Micah, these steps float through the air!” Hannelore exclaimed.

  “Now, how would you know that?” Micah turned around in time to see Hannelore riding a craft from one side of the station to the other.

  She stood behind a small podium that luckily included a few levers to control where she was going. That didn’t keep her from banging into a few walls along the way though.

  Micah rolled his eyes. “Hannelore, come down from there! You’ll break something!”

  “Oh, it’s fine! Darbian will get me down when he comes back. Stop worrying and have a little fun.” Hannelore punched a button here and there just to find out what would happen.

  “I don’t want to have fun,” Micah said under his breath. “I want everything to be normal again.” Micah took a seat on the floor and folded his legs. He stared at the ceiling and noticed a wide set of windows near the top of the large hall they were in. He climbed up and looked out.

  After a moment of scaling the scaffolding, Micah reached an observation deck.

  A ring of windows stretched all around the station.

  One had the ability to look in any direction. There wasn’t much to view, however, as Micah soon found out.

  He placed his hands on the glass, at least he thought it was glass, and peered out into the cosmos. “Where do you think Earth is?” Micah glared toward the brightest blob of light in the sky.

  “I don’t know. Does it matter? I thought you wanted to be an astronaut. You’re getting your wish. You’re getting to see the stars and lots of things neither of us ever imagined. And wait a minute; didn’t you say a while ago that you wanted to be here? What changed your mind?” Hannelore floated up to the observation deck and sat her craft down next to him.

  Micah’s face lit up. “How did you get up here?”

  Hannelore hopped off the steps. “I told you I knew what I was doing.”

  “You can’t really see anything out the window,” Micah whispered.

  “Is going home all you can think about? Why you’re so worried? When Darbian comes back and fixes Gregorical, he’ll probably take us home then. Vinitor can’t get to us anymore. There’s no need to keep looking out for us now.” Hannelore stretched her back and stared out the window herself.

  “Don’t you understand what’s going on, Hannelore? Everybody’s in danger. The people on Vinitor’s ship; what about them? The Wardein won’t respond to Darbian. Aculpus was in some kind of fight and apparently lost. Something is going on and they don't want to tell us yet.” Micah scowled.

  “You worry too much,” responded Hannelore.

  “Besides, it’s not that I want to go home, although I want to tell my mom about everything that’s happened. I’m just tired of being in trouble. This isn’t what I meant when I said I wanted to be an astronaut.” Micah bowed his head and then looked out the window again.

  “Everything will be fine. Darbian will take care of us. And if not, then I’ll take care of you!” Hannelore put her hands on her hips and posed as though she were some cape-wearing superhero. She laughed.

  “I don’t need you to take care of me!” Micah quipped.

  “Sure you do. We take care of each other. That’s what friends do.” Hannelore smiled.

  “Well, I’ll hold you to that then,” replied Micah.

  “I hope you do. And you better take care of me too, mister! Don’t think you’re getting off easy.” Hannelore put her face up against the window and made faces at the universe. She laughed.

  “What are you laughing at?” Micah’s mood had lightened a little.

  “We’re seeing things people haven’t seen before. I can’t help but be happy about it.”

  Micah shook his head. “I hope you never change.”

  Chapter 9

  Darbian emerged from the infirmary. “Children, where are you?”

  Both kids shouted, “Up here!”

  “Ah, you’ve made use of the levitators. Come down. I want you to help me bring Gregorical in for repair.” Darbian walked to a workstation in the middle of the room with a design similar to the one on his own ship.

  Hannelore rode the levitator she had just mastered while Micah took a set of stairs he didn’t see earlier.

  Darbian pushed a few buttons on the control panel and spoke. “Gregorical, are you there?”

  “Yes, sir, I was becoming worried. I thought you would have made contact earlier.” Gregorical’s voice piped through the speakers in the hall.

  “Yes, our entry into the station didn’t quite go as planned, but I’ve met up with Aculpus Atronis.” Tears welled up in Darbian’s eyes. “Unfortunately, he was injured, but now he’s in the infirmary and we can focus on getting you back in shape.”

  “Sir, pardon me, but you sound worried,” Gregorical responded.

  “My friend…” Darbian said.

  “Aculpus was injured in battle?” Gregorical’s somber tone bounced off the walls like an echo.

  “Yes.” Darbian clenched his fist and spoke. “The Wardein aren’t here. They’re gone. According to Aculpus, they’re all gone. We’re all that’s left.”

  Gregorical was silent for a moment. “How is that possible?”

  “Halinkoy,” Darbian responded.

  Gregorical replied. “You once told me you feared this day, but we will face it together. You are not alone.”

  Darbian leaned over the panel with his head bowed. “Next stop is Crystal Dawn and the Council of Planets.”

  “Are we going home soon?” Micah asked.

  Darbian looked at him. “Children, I don’t want to make you afraid, but I must tell you the truth. You are now in more peril than you can imagine. It’s best you stay with me for now.”

  Hannelore blinked. “You can protect us right?”

  “That’s what they trained me to do,” responded Darbian.

  “Ready to engage sir,” Gregorical said.

  Darbian stared at the panel. “Initiating tractor beam, ready to bring you into the shop.”

  Micah looked at Hannelore then turned his eyes to Darbian. “Well, when will it be safe?”

  “Until I can figure out how Halinkoy knew the Convergence was on Earth, then it’s too dangerous to go back. He might go looking for it himself and there’s no telling what or who he might find if he starts turning over stones. Can’t leave you here either. You must stay with me until then.” Darbian squeezed a lever to activate the tractor beam.

  From the lower section of the station, a beam of energy shot out into space. A series of concentric circles of light vibrated through the beam until they reached their target, Gregorical.

  Gregorical slowed down.

  The lower section of the station opened as Gregorical retracted into the bay.

  A series of tubes and wires sprung forth from the walls and connected to the ship as the doors below closed behind him.

  “Sir, I believe I am docked,” Gregorical said.

  “I’ll be in to see you shortly, old man,” Darbian responded.

  Hannelore came up behind Darbian. “I don’t understand. What did you fear would happen?”

  “It’s hard to explain. I don’t really know what to make of it myself.” Darbian looked at the children and tapped his fingers on the panel. “Two sets of memories…as long as I can remember, I’ve always had them. It feels like I’ve lived two different lives, very different lives.” He walked away from the panel and toward a door leading to an elevator.

  “We’re coming with you,” Micah said.

  “Well, that was the plan.” Darbian managed a smile.

  The three of them entered the elevator and jetted down several dozen floors un
til they reached the bay where Gregorical was docked.

  Hannelore worked up the courage to ask the obvious question. “I don’t understand what you mean. How can you remember two different lives?”

  “I’ve been alone on this station all my life. As a young man, I came here and have done nothing but walk these lonely halls. I remember sitting on the floor and using the wormhole generator to view a hundred different worlds. I saw each of them many times, always wishing I could be a part of life somewhere and sometime. Rarely leaving, always looking in on the worlds that fascinated me most…including yours.” Darbian extended a bridge to Gregorical’s outer door.

  The bridge moved out from under the deck where the three were standing. It zig-zagged around the tubes and wires until it reached the hull of Gregorical.

  Darbian walked across the bridge, and the children followed.

  “But I thought you said you were a Warden, and that you had been around the universe and that you saved people and defeated all sorts of villains?” Hannelore marveled.

  “That’s the crazy thing. I remember a completely different life as a Warden, a genuine Warden who traveled around more than he stood still. Facing foes, fighting, winning; I remember it all and I remember the camaraderie with my fellow Wardein. We lived here, trained here. Sometimes we went on missions together. Other times we were solo, but always in contact.” Darbian paused as he waited to enter Gregorical’s airlock.

  “What else do you remember? Why did Gregorical say you feared this day was coming?” Micah asked the question that Hannelore had been hinting at.

  Darbian stared off into space at first, but then looked at the children. “I remember a day when all the Wardein disappeared. Don’t ask me how. I don’t understand what it all means, but it’s as though I’ve lived this day before. Yet, it came as a total shock when Aculpus told me what happened. I didn’t want to believe what I heard, but in a way I was expecting it. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what happened.” Darbian entered Gregorical’s airlock.

  The three walked about the ship.

  Gregorical gave specific instructions on the damaged parts while Darbian did an expert job in repairing him.