The Oldest War (To Brave The Crumbling Sky Book 2)

by Matt Snee

“Uh, no, thanks,” Captain said, a courage building up in his legs. “I must be going.”

  “Going?” Douglas Daniel asked him. “But you cannot leave yet. There's so many questions I want to ask you about Marty and Kitty.”

  “Oh, ah,” said Captain remember the lie. “Honestly, my friend, he's been arrested by the ah, Concatenation, and I have to help him…”

  “Oh,” said Douglas Daniel. “I did hear of that. The Mmrowwr. I'm afraid the Moroder Treaty is quite serious.”

  “Be that as it may,” said Captain. “I must rescue him.”

  Douglas Daniel shook his head. “You don't understand. The Concatenation is very powerful. Had there been something we could have done, we would have done it I assure you.”

  Captain felt that this was a lie. “The Mmrowwr, he saved Jennifer's life, when she was poisoned on Mars. Without him, we wouldn't be here. Surely there can be some clemency?”

  “You must know, relations between the Jovian governments and the Concatenation is very fragile and touchy. We must abide by our treaties, or chaos will reign.”

  ' “Yeah, well, I don't care about that,” said Captain. “I care about my friend.” He got up from his chair, not ready to listen to any more excuses.

  Auntie Bess took his hand.

  “Leaving?” she asked, half-lost in her own world.

  “Yes, I must.” despite the fact, he did not know where he was going.

  “Oh,” Auntie Bess yawned. Then some thought entered her head and she smiled. “So long!” She let go of his hand and went back to her chocolate mousse.

  “At least allow me to escort you out of our house,” Douglas Daniel offered, as he stood.

  “Okay,” Captain said, worried. What power does govern the duality we live in? It was a line from one of his stories, “Wanderers of Darkness”. What strange menace?

  Douglas Daniel smiled at him, but there was something behind his teeth, something calculating and needing. Captain's nerves were on alert. He raised all defenses.

  “So, Lewis,” Douglas Daniel spoke as they exited the dining hall and proceeded back down the long hallways covered with Western fantasies. Douglas Daniel put his hand on Captain's shoulder. “Now are you going to tell me what you and Jennifer are really up to?”

  “What do you mean?” Captain asked, stopping.

  “I think you know exactly what I mean. Why did you come to Jupiter, instead of going straight to Saturn? What do you want here?” Douglas Daniel was becoming red with anger. His grip tightened uncomfortably. “And what does this have to do with those ruins on Jupiter?”

  “What ruins?”

  “The ones in the Death Dream, son! Jennifer was talking about an artifact. I can only suspect they meant what we found on Jupiter!”

  It took a second to click in Captain's head. “You mean the shard?”

  “Shard? I don't know, something! There's tremendous power there, we know it! What are you and Jennifer not telling us?”

  “Look,” Captain said. “I have to go.” And with that he started running toward the exit.

  At the edge of the home he found cars waiting. He knocked on the glass of one and the driver nodded. She was thin, in her forties, with blond hair to her shoulders and dressed in a tight blue suit. Captain got in.

  The driver conveyed Captain back to the surface in silence. She neither spoke nor turned on the radio, so the only sounds were the gentle flow and hum of the car. At this late hour, the underwater darkness was oppressive—it seemed even the fish had turned out their lights—so Captain was left alone with his thoughts and imagination. He tried to think about the dinner, to fully digest everything he had seen and heard, but he was saturated with the people and the talk, so much so that he felt ill.

  Captain shuddered deeply and then erased these thoughts from his mind. What good would it do to worry? He had to save Plerrxx.

  “We're almost there,” announced the driver in her calm voice, interrupting Captain's reveries.

  “Almost where?” he asked. He remembered he had not told her a destination.

  The driver turned to him and smiled, and while she did, her skin turned from pale pink to a loud orange.

  A Delphinium!

  “Where you need to be,” she said, turning around and laughing.

  * * *

  What did Jennifer feel now? What strange currents played about her skin and squirmed in her mind? What forest obscured everything? Jon Jason was her last link to that happier time; that place when her cares were but green leaves blowing across the ground. What did she feel for this old “friend,” this sudden stranger? He could help her, she knew that. But what else? What did she feel?

  “These are propulsopuvs,” Jon Jason was saying, pointing at the ocean through the thick translucent walls. He had already explained they were made of “crystron”, a new (and very expensive) iron/crystal composite. She stared; they were torpedo-shaped, shark-like creatures, glowing a neon green. Through the water she could see their black teeth.

  “They swim by absorbing water through their mouth and accelerating it from their tails, a sort of undersea jet propulsion. They can move at astonishing speeds; you wouldn't believe it.” Jon Jason brags.

  “It sounds like you know your fish,” Jennifer said nervously, trying to find ground to stand on and think. She listened to him vaguely.

  They were in his private quarters, which boasted a large viewing lounge of the ocean, offering panoramic views of aquatic life swimming to and fro. All the light came from the fish themselves, a sort of neon green-blue that didn't carry far from its source, but still lit the lounge in an eerie and stunning way. Besides several luxuriant couches and armchairs, there was a small bar crammed with top shelf earthly spirits, and a large multi-level entertainment center with innumerable switches, knobs, and buttons.

  “I'm fascinated by life,” Jon Jason continued, taking Jennifer's full attention for granted.

  “These creatures are fabulous creations. You can see the workmanship of God as clear as day. Evolution, understood.” He smiled. “A law of God.”

  “And you're religious now?” Jennifer asked, confident in her curiosity.

  “I've grown up, Jenn.” His eyes were clear.

  “So have I, Jon Jason.” Her eyes were guarded.

  “I have a lot of responsibility now. I worry a lot.”

  “I always knew you would,” Jennifer said. She was proud, in a desperately scary way.

  “But this is the life I want,” he said. “I changed I guess.”

  “I've changed too.” Jennifer needed to convince him. She felt cold.

  “I don't know,” he said. “I look at you and see the same girl I used to know, poised at adolescence, beautiful as an Earth sky.”

  Jennifer exhaled. “Stop.” Heat crept to her cheeks.

  She looked him up and down. He was taller now, of course, and thicker, but trim and fit. A slight belly jutted out of his belt, which she attributed to age. His hands were remarkably clean and subtly animated. His shoes were new. She looked up at his face again, and saw that familiar jaw, those ambitious eyes. She had never liked that he shaved his head and had always wished he would grow his hair out, but it was an old Dunleavy tradition.

  He was still arrogant; she could tell that. That arrogance had always been so exciting, something none of the other boys she had known possessed. There was only one Jon Jason in the entire universe, and he, despite his flaws, had always captivated Jennifer. She did not know why; perhaps because back then he had showed her something he had never shown to anyone else - his heart. To know he was a flawed being like the rest of us diminished his size to that of a normal human, and made him surprisingly attractive—even with his insane money and laborious heritage.

  He continued pointing out the fish.

  “And what is that?” she asked, spying a gray, dimly glowing monkey-like creature clinging to the branches and vines of the undersea trees that were so tall they reached up miles from the bottom.

  “A swin
gal,” Jon Jason answered. “The Delphiniums say that they're intelligent and that we're oppressing them just by being industrious in the sea. They say that we've displaced them and their numbers have gone down.”

  “Is that true?”

  “No, of course not! There's not enough evidence for any of those claims! They just want to destroy me like they destroyed my grandfather.”

  Jennifer nodded. Jon Jason's grandfather had lorded over the last war between the Dunleavys and the Delphiniums. “They are really powerful now, aren't they?”

  “They're into everything! Everywhere I look I see their influence. What am I supposed to do?” Jon Jason showed clear frustration with his opponent.

  Jennifer had no answer to give him.

  “I'm sorry,” he smiled. “I don't want to talk business with you.”

  “It's okay,” Jennifer said. “Maybe we could talk about the Death Dream again?”

  “The ruins—okay. We don't know what they are, or where they came from. We found them four years ago, during our initial exploration of the Death Dream with the Phantom Ray, which came before the Fire Bolt.”

  “ 'Dream ship?' Is that what you call them?”

  “Dream ship. Designed specifically to travel within the confines of the four Death Dreams. Not just Jupiter, but all four: Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus.”

  “How is that possible?” she asked. This was exactly what she was looking for.

  “Science. Ingenuity. Only humans could have done it. Evolution!” He smacked a fist into the palm of the other hand.

  Jennifer understood. Like her father, the Dunleavys liked to explore and conquer. That's why they had all gotten along so well. Until now.

  “What is down there?” Jennifer asked. “Did you find anything? There's something I need…”

  “Well—we don't know,” Jon Jason said. “We haven't reached it yet. It's deeper than we have dared to go. We first detected it from the surface of the plant belt, though now we've even been somewhat deeper.” Jon Jason was proud of his accomplishments.

  “The plant belt?” It was incredible. How could a ship reach so far into the Death Dream?

  “It has power,” Jon Jason continued. “It's so easy to see.”

  “The shard? You have seen it?”

  “A shard? Well – not with my own eyes. Through digital x-rays and sonar wipes. Tell me, what is it a shard of? And how do you know of it at all?”

  “You knew my father,” Jennifer told him. “Knowing is the family business.”

  “I suppose so,” he said, amused, light shining in his eyes. “Tell me what it is.”

  “It's part of a key, to the Triborg.”

  “I've heard that term before. You mean the barrier at the edge of the Solar System?”

  “There is a fortress there. That's how we get in, by collecting the shards,” she explained.

  “How many are there?”

  “Four. One for each Death Dream.”

  “One for each Death Dream?”

  “Yes.”

  “And we have the Fire Bolt and the Phantom Ray.”

  “Yes, you do. We need to get to it. My friend and I.”

  “Your friend?” Jon Jason teased. “Is that all he is?”

  “That's all,” she said.

  “Do you trust him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Of course.” It was the truth.

  “But you're not sure you know me anymore, are you?”

  “No.”

  “I'm still me, Jenn.”

  “I know. Me too.”

  “We have unfinished business.” He stepped toward her.

  “Do we?” She stepped back.

  “You owe me,” he said. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him.

  “I…” She didn't know what to say.

  He leaned in and kissed her, softly, the first time her lips had been touched in almost twenty years. She returned his kiss. Instantly she felt dizzy, and she lifted up her arm and took grip of his waist to hold herself up. Jon Jason took this as an invitation and fully embraced her. She couldn't breathe, but she continued to brush her lips against his. Finally, through some impossible strength she didn't know she had, she pushed away from him and retreated a couple feet.

  “What's wrong?” he gasped.

  “Nothing!” She clutched her face with her hand, unable to think at all.

  “You owed me a kiss.”

  She sighed, returning to reality. “We're not kids anymore, Jon Jason!”

  “That's what I'm saying,” He replied, stepping toward her again. She did not step back yet.

  She had forgotten. She had forgotten the whole stupid game. He hadn't changed, not in some ways. He was as aggressive in all things as ever. “I forgot.”

  “You forgot? About our kiss?” Jon Jason appeared shocked. “I thought about you all the time, Jenn.”

  “I thought about you too,” she said.

  “I understand,” he said. “Women are all the same. You moved on.”

  “That's not fair,” Jennifer argued. “I didn't forget about you. Just your stupid kissing game.”

  Jon Jason laughed. “You never had an appetite for fun.”

  “That's not true. Just not your kind of fun.” Jennifer was amused.

  “Don't you remember that day? That last day?” Jon Jason asked sweetly.

  “I remember,” she said.

  And she did.

  6. A Girl Named Jenn

  “Some literature is invisible.”

  –Jennifer Pichon, Poetry from My Travels

  There is a girl, and her name is Jenn. A true space-girl, flung across the planets, a princess born of explorers and royalty and high-minded ideals. She is the darling of everyone and knows it. She is a single-child, center of the world. Hers is a life in Eden. For her… only the best.

  Most of the time life is a lonely affair, playing amongst the halls of the Devasthanam, reading books, nearly drowning so she can communicate with the ghostly alien Tiamatites. Once a year she blossoms when her parents take her to Jupiter or even more distant places such as Saturn, Neptune, or Uranus. They never take her to the terrestrial planets, which are controlled by evil and considered too dangerous to visit. This is how they spent their winters; away from the Devasthanam. Sometimes while traveling to the outer planets they visit Ganymede, and Jennifer is allowed to be a normal girl for three months. Too old for candy, too young for boys, she is in a special place. 12 years old. Her parents' little miracle.

  Mom is beautiful and smart, but often silent. She teaches Jennifer to stand up straight, to cook for her father, to tie her own shoes, and to translate through Weird Space. Mom is a loving puzzle, unpredictable and prone to abrupt mood changes. There is nothing worse than when mom gets mad. Jenn is always careful not to disturb this dragon. Her mother is her role model—she knows no other women— all of her mannerisms, speech, and tics, she learns from her Mom.

  From her dad she inherits an unfathomable curiosity and a heroic courage. Dad is an adventurer, famous, known all throughout the Solar System. Mom is a princess. Dad comes from humbler beginnings. From the sporadic times he talked about his parents, Jennifer learned that they were poor farmers, peasants really, scraping away at the earth in some forlorn forgotten corner of France. It appeared he apparently didn't get along with them. He has even been a scap. Only by sheer will did he escape the planet Earth and his meager heritage. To most, he is a well-known quack, an oddity even for interplanetary civilization. To the people with the power, he is both an amusement and a menace. The System only has so much space for him to exist, and his ego is fantastic.

  So this star-crossed love of Martin Pichon and Kathani Malhotra bids Jenn to come forth from the cosmic dust. She is proud of her parents; they are her whole world. They are special parents, and she is luckier than other kids she sees on TV or reads about, because she has been born into a significant heritage. Her mom has taught her that this is a responsibility. Jen
n accepts it solemnly. On Ganymede, her chin stands higher than the other kids', and sometimes her nose does too. She is the alpha, the heir apparent, and no one else can compete.

  Except for one other child - Jon Jason.

  He is a few years her senior, already a teenager by the time Jenn arrives on Ganymede that year. She knows, before she steps foot on the irradiated soil, that somehow the game has gotten more serious. She is no longer a girl, not entirely. Parts of her are growing up, but not all parts. She still plays with dolls on occasion, disappearing into an imaginary world of talking animals and royal children, myths and quests that will linger in her forever. All the stories take place on Earth, a magical place she has never been. Her true home, and as her father says, the true jewel of the galaxy.

  Jon Jason is no longer a child, and moreover, is at that age when a few years equal a huge gap in maturity. He is practically an adult compared to Jenn, but no one realizes this but the two of them.

  There has been a lull in their communications. Before her visit, she is depressed and apprehensive during the year's trip to Jupiter. She is a jumble of emotions and desires; she doesn't understand any of it. She knows it can't be anything but love.

  Jenn doesn't like his bald head, or how he treats the other kids as well as the adults sometimes. However, there is something immensely strong about him, and he is an intellectual, too. He reads everything and can opine on any subject with an expert's grace. If she is a princess, he is the only one she has been able to imagine as her prince; her eyes are always on him.

  Thus, when they arrive on Ganymede, she is both hesitant and excited. She has always loved her visits, but this time her apprehension pulses up and down her body.

  Her mom has been attentive during the trip, as though she knows what Jenn is going through. Tensions have been high between the three of them lately—between herself and her mother about growing up, between her father and her mother about returning to Earth, and between herself and her father over drowning. They all need a break from each other, and a visit to Jupiter is imperative to their collective sanity. Jenn doesn't understand it at the time, but often it has been hard for her parents to deal with her at the Devasthanam, as living with a pre-teen in a secluded alien ruin has only intensified a parent's normal trials during the turbulent start of adolescence. Jenn bounces off the walls with energy and is desperate for more human contact other than her mom and dad. Jenn wants to explode. She wants to fly into the air and live like a human, with humans, to talk to them, touch them, and hear them with their hearts on their tongues.