by Chucho Jones
“However what, Doctor?” Commander McCoy asked.
“Factoring in the other ship debris that bombarded us, this could throw the trajectory off by another twenty miles.”
Banks shook his head in disbelief. “Order a twenty-five-mile radius enclosure. I want to find that pod before anyone else does.”
* * *
McCoy pulled up with the group to the old rocket junkyard, where Leon Worthington would scrap any unwanted experimental hardware. In the center sat an old house with broken windows and useless contraption inventions, now standing as the storefront of what some called a sham business.
Strings of candescent small lights automatically turned on with the dusk of the evening breaking. Through the broken fence, Leon noticed the shadow of a figure moving, and couldn’t help but feel a small shiver run down his spine, reminding him that someday his past would come back to haunt him.
“Someone’s here.” Leon said, jumping out the car and racing into the house. Without a second’s notice, Leon was outside with his lucky bat and kicking the side gate open. “All right, you thief. I know you’re in there.”
“What are you doing?” Victoria asked, trying to bear what weight she could of the sleeping Oliver.
“It’s Leon. There’s no use trying to figure him out,” Oliver mumbled.
Another cracking sound from behind the fence followed by a bottle breaking finally alerted Oliver and Victoria.
Victoria dropped Oliver back into the seat. “There is someone here.”
“Listen up, fella, if you don’t show yourself, you are gonna get a bat upside the head,” Leon threatened.
The shadowy figure jumped out. “Boo! Gotcha!”
Leon reacted from the scare and realized it was ratchet-face Delores. “Damnit, Delores. What are you doing here?”
“I heard Sticky Vicky’s dad sent you here. I want to help,” Delores said, eying Victoria.
“I told you not to call me that,” Victoria said, grabbing Oliver once more. “If you want to help, you can start by helping us move Oliver into the house.”
Leon’s house smelled of stale beer and used chewing tobacco from the front of the house all the way to the back to where an old, torn-up punching bag hung. A place where Leon would unleash his demons from a life he was once promised. A life he let go by.
Leon went to the bathroom to grab what clean towels he had to clean up. Delores held her nose as they laid Oliver’s body on the couch.
Leon’s house was full of junk and unusual trinkets. Next to Oliver’s head was a tarnished saxophone fitted into the mouth of a stuffed elk. Delores smiled at the thought of Oliver waking up to it. “The boy’s gonna freak when he wakes.”
“Knock it off, Delores. He’s been through a lot today,” Victoria said as she plopped on the couch next to him. “We all have.”
A horn honked from behind the house. Victoria ran to the back door where a shelf held different sets of keys. Out back, they could see a large race track that weaved around the old rocket junk.
Delores ran and sat in a dirty, yellow, modded convertible Hot Rot with an exposed engine, and McCoy behind the wheel. McCoy held a shiny set of keys, fired the engine up, and gestured for Victoria to join them. Victoria coiled with hesitation.
“Get out of there, you dummies,” Victoria called to them.
Leon ran up behind Victoria just as rocky dirt turned up a large dust cloud. Victoria covered her face as Leon disappeared for a moment, returning with his lucky bat.
“Damn little air rats,” Leon said, running to the old pan head motorcycle leaning against the broken wood fence.
Leon jumped on the hog and kicked the starter down with all his weight. The pan head fired with a loud growl as Leon kicked back the stand. He twisted the accelerator with one hand and held his lucky bat in the other, taking off down the track after the mischievous duo.
“Get back here! This course will send you flying, if you’re not careful!” Leon called to them, gaining on them slightly.
McCoy saw Leon and pulled the stirring wheel in a jarring move, kicking up more dust in his path.
“Yeah, you wouldn’t know anything about flying, now would you, groundhog?” McCoy yelled back.
“Shut it, pompadour. You’re just mad ‘cause you chickened out the other night.” Leon maneuvered the track with ease. He pulled up on his dirty, yellow hot rod, slamming the bumper.
“Try it all you want, Square. You can’t catch us!” McCoy shouted back.
They approached the curving corner. Leon knew McCoy couldn’t handle it. I have to do something, but what?
Just as McCoy and Delores hit the corner, their engine shut down. The vehicle slowed to a stop, and Leon was speechless.
“Hey, no fair! You cheated,” Delores said.
Leon pulled on the brakes to see Victoria standing on porch and an awakened Oliver by her side, holding a remote control.
“Oliver for the save!”
* * *
Leon went to the kitchen, opened the fridge door, and grabbed a beer. As he walked to the front door and peered at the setting sun, now almost completely hidden from view, he said, “If you ever try that again, you’ll be the one with the bat upside the head.”
McCoy gave a mischievous smile as he hugged Delores. “Oh, come on, Leon. I’ve always wanted to race that track.”
Victoria blotted Oliver’s face with a towel that smelled of mildew and cumin.
“What did you see this time?” Victoria asked Oliver.
“I’m not sure. This time the visions were stronger, but absent.”
Leon thought for a moment. The whole situation was a fluke—an anomaly caused by that damn Silver Wing Academy. Then he remembered the attack. That large streak in the sky that disappeared behind the tree line.
“Laura is out there,” Leon said, now looking into the night.
“What do you mean?” Victoria said.
Leon thought for a moment, then grabbed his lucky bat and spun in place. “I saw something among the crashing debris.”
“Like what?” Oliver said.
“A pod heading west,” Leon said, polishing off the rest of the beer.
“Yeah, well, I bet the Silver Wings will find it,” McCoy added.
“And what if they don’t?” Leon asked, eyeing the others.
The group fell silent.
“So, what do you want do? Go look for what you think you saw? In the dark?” Delores asked.
Leon looked at McCoy’s shiny new rig outside the house and smiled. “Yep, and McCoy’s gonna take us.”
8
Chapter 8
The strongest of metal alloys, known as mercuranium, dressed the halls of the pink lit hallways of the Gorgazon-X. Two squid-like aliens with an exoskeletal chest plate and a bulbous pink helmet escorted the rest of the cyborg-wasp carcass that is GR-3G down the pinkish blue corridors of the Vitro-plasma.
A circular door opened to a red, dark, and steamy walkway that led to a spherical room of grand proportion. Metallic tentacles with claws from above organized the remains in piles. A grand scrapyard of leftover robots and broken engines. A true artificial graveyard.
An overheating rush of energy made the wasp carcass jump up and down on the floating tray on which it is carried. The minion thought Grendel Roth was no more.
The aliens disposed of him in the scrapyards main room. He felt the dreaded approach of non-existence. Finally, he understood what his purpose was. Alas, he would not give up and let Kha Tse have her way. How would she retrieve the information? And what would she do with it once she did? What would become of the Quantessence? Who will retrieve and protect its power?
* * *
An oscillating feeling tantalized Kha Tse from the bottom of her green, snake-like tail and up to her squid-like head receptors. She experienced both a warm and cold feeling that swirled in her womb.
What does it mean, a womb? She wondered many times.
This time, she had little time to think of such thing
s. She had only time to act. Had the Forefather been in charge, none of those thoughts would have mattered. Only the Quantessence.
She graced the halls of her command chambers and then made her way into an examination room, escorted by two sleek, aliens with a likeness to Earth’s octopus. They had ant heads inside their ego suit with bulbous helmets.
She’ couldn’t escape the feeling in her womb. A feeling of what’s about to happen.
A pink cocoon with a thin mercuranium carcass preserved the prize that was left from the alien mutiny toward the human space refugee. A woman, probably an explorer of sorts. Perhaps a female equal? Could it possibly be that the superior motive derives from the gender?
Kha Tse took a closer look at her captive. This time, her crude expression fell into a comprehensive glance that almost resembled empathy. Her front tentacles intrude the pink cocoon and rest aside Laura’s forehead. Kha Tse takes a deep breath and shuts her eyes.
Kha Tse searched deep inside her mind and a series of events flash before her eyes. The rush brings her to understand the incompetence of GR-3G as the Quantum Wielder, as well as a sense of respect that fueled her understanding of Laura’s actions.
A sphere appeared, interrupting the flow. The Quantessence was revealed, Through the light of a human boy, the Quantum Wielder. The place within became too much to bear. Kha Tse retrieved the link with a jolt. Although strained from the mental link, her will strong as ever.
She had a clear purpose and the chance to become the Quantum Wielder. As the thought subsided, a rushing feeling over-encumbers Kha Tse from the torso down as countless images of a man being called out by name due to female entanglements flowed through her mind. “Leon…Oh, dear, Leon!”
The distracting factor brings her back to her reality. Although she couldn’t take the memory for reasons she had never felt before, a purpose was born. She would become the Quantum Wielder and fulfill the Forefather’s mandate.
Kha Tse’s tentacles helped her slender figure displace herself through the ground as she made her way toward the Master Chambers inside the Gorgazon-X. The mercuranium metal was a bright pink as it housed the voluminous Vitro-plasma that coursed through the ship. Like blood to a body, the Vitro-plasma was central to functioning all the alien technology.
Flashes of memories shot through Kha Tse’s head once more. Images of soft white haze and tingling lights take hold in her mind. She saw Laura in her bright orange space suit, walking on the moon. Another flash came of Laura crashing into the Omega Station. And finally, Laura taking the Quantessence and ripping off GR-3G’s arm just before she sent it to the blue and white marbled planet.
“The Quantessence and The Quantum Wielder are there on that planet,” Kha Tse said to the green minion who was listening and smiling.
Another flash came to Kha in the form of a strange feeling. Something strong that she had never felt before. A baby faded into view, his dark hair was long and shaggy. The peace and quiet was breached when the infant opened its mouth and let out a long wail.
Despite the ruckus, Kha felt what Laura felt. The longing, everlasting love she had for that small child. The crying grew louder and Kha could feel that Laura felt something was wrong. The infant began to roll its eyes upward and then convulse. The doctors grabbed the young baby from Laura’s arms as she cried in fear.
“Oliver, I love you,” Laura said.
The doctors clamored with strange medical devices, reading charts and table graphs. “Impossible. The treatment should’ve impaired any genetic transcendence.”
Another bright flash filled Kha Tse’s head, but this time, in fiery red explosions, like a battle had taken place. Yet, she saw a general of some kind, comforting the young Laura as she held the baby at a cementary. The grey cemented tombstone reflected the grey skies overhead and read ‘Here lies Thomas J. Hawke. A husband, Father, and Silverwing’.
Kha Tse felt the remorse, regret, and sorrow Laura had experienced in her life during that time. The grayness faded and turned to a bright green chalkboard that was filled with complicated, formulaic calculations. Oliver Hawke, now a young boy, could be seen smiling at his mother proudly.
“You’re so brilliant,” Laura said.
“I love you, mother,” Oliver said.
Kha smiled for the moment as the scenery changed once again. This time, to a pod entering Earth’s atmosphere and crashing into a house. Kha Tse was shocked to see the sight.
“One of my fleet crash landed there?” Kha said to herself.
Kha watched the dark-skinned general place his hand on Laura’s shoulder. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Thomas is gone… There is no one else… I have to do this for Oliver,” Laura said as she stepped into the Omega Station, headed for the moon.
Kha Tse came back to herself and thought some orders at the small, green minion alien awaiting her.
“Send the retriever and escort to this blue and white marbled planet,” Kha Tse ordered.
“What shall we tell the Forefather?” the minion asked.
“He can feel our failure. We must correct it,” Kha said. “Now, go and bring me the Quantessence.”
“Yes, mistress,” the green alien said. “At last we will reveal ourselves. At last we will rule the galaxy.”
The rushed feeling from before was finally coming to an ease as she felt the strength taking control from her Forefather’s wishes.
9
Chapter 9
The windy backroads of Auroville were canopied on either side with lush, dark green trees, beautiful green foliage filling the areas between trunks and leading into hills that were lit at their tops by the moon above.
Oliver sat in the backseat boys hot rod between Victoria and Leon. The air was cold and crisp as it blew on his face, chilling him a bit. But that was the least of his concerns at that moment. His leg was touching Victoria’s, and he couldn’t help but feel the excitement.
Despite how warm the cheap feel got him, the air still made him shiver. The air was colder due to Lake Tahoe and a phenomenon called ‘the lake effect’, one of the many random, useless facts he kept cluttered in his head.
“Where do you think this pod is?” Victoria asked Leon.
Oliver looked at Leon as he scanned the tree lines. “It’s gotta be out here. I know it.”
“Yeah, right. I bet you’re just making this up,” McCoy said.
The car hugged the turns, and Oliver caught a glimpse of a faint light just beyond the forest. “What’s that light?”
McCoy slowed the car and pulled off to the side of the road. Leon jumped out first, holding his lucky bat. Occluded by hundreds of trees, a faint blue light could be seen in the distance. Leon pressed into the damp foliage, whacking what he could as the group followed.
“That has to be it. Come on,” Leon said.
“I’m kind of freaked out. Do we even know what’s out here?” Delores asked, grabbing onto McCoy.
“What do you expect? We’re essentially hunting down a falling space capsule. We could find anything,” Oliver said matter-of-factly, side-stepping fallen branches.
“Yeah, like aliens,” Leon said.
“Stop it, Leon,” Victoria said.
The blue light grew in magnitude as the group advanced closer to the source. Just past the thick forest was an opening that led to what appeared to be a clearing. Hundreds of trees were knocked down, and the dirt had been recently disturbed.
“Just like Tunguska,” Oliver said.
“What’s Tunguska?” Victoria asked.
“The Tunguska event was a large air burst from a meteor in Russia. It knocked over thousands of trees just like this one.”
“The tuskugusha bla bla… Nerd,” McCoy said.
Oliver’ felt the familiar sensation of a slight flush appearing on his face, as his gut clutched in anger.
Leon was now ahead of the group, but Oliver quickly passed him as he jogged over to the capsule that laid almost completely submerged in dirt. He could se
e a small, circular door with a hatch-like window illuminated in a blue light from inside. Oliver watched Leon try to open it, but to no avail.
Oliver gazed inside the window to see an metallic, orb-like device and what looked like an arm to the naked eye. “There’s half an arm in there!” Oliver shouted worried.
“What? Like a human’s?” Delores said in disgust.
“No, I don’t know,” Oliver answered.
Oliver put that aside as he remembered why they were there. His mom was still missing. Did she make it on another pod?
“Stand back,” Leon said as he slammed his bat into the glass, again making no headway.
Oliver grabbed him by the arm and pointed at some security latches that adorned the round door. He reached out with his right arm and stuck his hand into a small opening. A couple of cranks, and the door was released. Leon was quick to reach in and grab the illuminating orb.
“Strange. How is the light able to shine from within the metal?” Leon asked.
Oliver ignored his question, stepping closer to the door of the pod. He analyzed at the large, robotic arm fitted with a bulbous orb on its forearm and cybernetic hand. At the other end, Oliver could clearly see it had been severed. The orb on the arm came to life with small electrical arcs as he touched the strange limb.
“Is that thing alive?” Leon said.
Before anyone could even think to answer, a bolt of energy hit everyone without warning. Electrical wires hung from the severed arm and began to move, each one moving like a spider’s leg as they pulled the dead arm. Oliver stepped back in fear, and Leon readied his bat.
“What the hell is that thing?” McCoy asked, then grabbing onto Delores.
The arm pulled itself out of the ship and shot two long wires at Leon. Leon Swung his bat with all his might, knocking the arm out of his way. Oliver stuck his hand up to protect himself, and the wires wrapped around him like a cybernetic mummy as the arm began to search for something, possibly for another vessel.
