by Jon S. Lewis
Colt’s hands shook uncontrollably. His knuckles were covered with the same green blood that was splattered on the walls and the floor. He looked over at the Thule’s broken body, and he knew why Danielle was crying. She wasn’t afraid of the Thule. She was afraid of him.
: :
CHAPTER 5 : :
Superintendent Thorne has changed the name of the academy,” Colt said as they stood on the lawn outside the apartment building. “She’s calling it the Intergalactic Defense Academy.”
“As in IDA?” Oz said. “Isn’t that an old lady’s name?”
“Exactly,” Colt said. He hesitated, knowing that they were about to part ways but wishing they didn’t have to. “Look, I think you should come back with us.”
“Yeah, right.”
“We’ll tell the superintendent what you did—that you helped save our lives.”
Oz shook his head. “She thinks I went back to Arizona with my mom, remember? That was the deal. If she knew I was here, she’d have me thrown into a cell next to my dad. And she’d do the same to you.”
“I’d like to see her try,” Danielle said. “Maybe I’ll erase her identity.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Oz said. “You’re not a criminal. Besides, she’s not worth it. Neither am I.”
“Whatever,” Colt said. Oz couldn’t have been more wrong as far as he was concerned. They needed him in the war against the Thule. Colt needed him. “You’re part of our ECS. You’re part of Phantom Squad.”
“I appreciate it,” Oz said. “I really do, but you can’t worry about me now. You have bigger fish to fry, like your training. How’s everything going with Project Betrayal? Is it still on track?”
“We’re not ready,” Colt said. “We haven’t passed any of our hologram scenarios. I mean, we’re not even close. Jackal, Blizzard, and Lightning have already passed, and I’m supposed to be leading the mission. What does that say about me?”
“You’ll get there,” Oz said. “Besides, your squad is filled with a bunch of brainiacs, not soldiers. Plus, you’re stuck with Pierce. What did they expect?”
“They moved the go date to January 15.”
“What?” Oz asked. “That’s less than three weeks.”
“Exactly,” Colt said. “And it’s going to fail without you.”
Oz smiled as he shook his head. “Sometimes I don’t get you, McAlister. Just about everyone on the planet thinks you’re our only hope for survival, but you’re worried about me? You got this.” A helicopter flew by, and he pulled his hood over his head. “Look, it’s been great and everything, but I have to go.”
“Where are you staying?” Danielle asked.
“Around.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’ve been camping out at this place that isn’t too far from campus.”
“Like, in a tent?” she said. “Are you trying to catch pneumonia? It’s below freezing every night.”
“Relax,” Oz said with his easy smile. “I found a cabin stocked with enough Spam, powdered eggs, and baked beans to last for months. It even has a generator, so I can watch TV if I get bored. But I spend most of my time stalking you two.”
“That’s creepy,” Colt said.
Oz shrugged. “Remember somebody has to watch your back.”
Danielle removed her helmet, and her ponytail fell down the back of her armor. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she just stood there staring at Oz like she wanted to say something. Instead, she walked over to him, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed his cheek.
“What was that for?” he said.
She frowned.
“What?” Oz said.
She rolled her eyes. “We have to go. Just make sure you stay out of sight, okay? I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said as he brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. “Oh, and before I forget, guess who called me a couple days ago, McAlister?”
“Who?”
“Lily.”
“Seriously?” Colt suddenly forgot that they were standing in the middle of a war zone. The sound of her name made his heart race. Lily Westcott was stunningly beautiful, played the guitar, and sang like an angel. But it was more than that. Behind her amazing smile was a lifetime of pain. Like Colt, she had lost both her parents, and the two of them understood each other without having to say a word.
“You realize Superintendent Hill can trace your line,” Danielle said.
“It’s encrypted,” Oz said. “Besides, we only talked for a couple minutes.”
“What did she say?” Colt said.
“You mean, did she mention you?” Oz smiled like the Cheshire cat as Colt blushed beneath his helmet. “She asked how you were doing.”
Colt felt his chest constrict as he waited for Oz to say something more, but he didn’t. “That was it?”
“She said that she missed you . . . Well, technically she said that she missed all of us, but I knew what she meant.”
“Oh.”
“And you can relax, because she’s not dating anybody,” Oz said.
“Really?”
“Really.” Oz walked over and sat on his motorcycle. “I still have the same number,” he said, showing them his smartphone. “If you need me, call.” With that, he put the phone back in his pocket, pulled on a pair of driving goggles, and started the motorcycle.
The drive back to the academy was quiet. Awkward. Danielle sat in the passenger’s seat, her eyes focused on the barren landscape. Colt had seen her upset before, but never like this.
“If it makes you feel better, I’m going to turn myself in,” he said, glancing at the rearview mirror to make sure that his skin hadn’t morphed into scales or his teeth weren’t pointed. “I mean, you looked pretty freaked out, and I get it. I just . . . I don’t know.” He took a deep breath and exhaled. “I just want you to know that I’m sorry.”
Danielle turned and looked at him in a way that made him feel like a complete and total idiot. “What are you talking about?”
“You know, how I snapped back there,” Colt said. “It’s like it wasn’t even me—or maybe it was, but that’s the thing. I don’t know who I am anymore. Am I human or an alien or . . .” He was afraid to say it out loud, but what if he wasn’t either? What if he was alone? “Look, all I know is that something isn’t right, so I’m going to let them lock me up until someone figures out what’s going on, because the last thing I want to do is hurt someone I care about.”
“See that?” Danielle said as they passed the charred remains of a gas station next to the off ramp. “We need you out here so that kind of stuff doesn’t happen again—not locked up feeling sorry for yourself because you’re different.”
“I’m a freak.”
“No. Different. And you always have been. Remember the time you brought me to that beach party with your friends over in Carlsbad? One minute we were roasting marshmallows around the bonfire, and the next you were gone. It took us an hour to find you, and do you know what you were doing?”
Colt shrugged.
“You were teaching a homeless guy how to play your guitar.”
“Oh yeah. I forgot about that.”
“We had to drag you away so we didn’t miss curfew, but we were still late because you had to go back and give him your last twenty dollars and a book.”
“The Hobbit.”
“Normal people don’t do stuff like that.”
“Read?”
“I’m being serious.”
“Maybe, but this is different,” Colt said. “It’s like I can feel this living thing inside of me, and it wants to take over.”
“So don’t let it.”
Colt wanted to tell her that it wasn’t that easy, but he didn’t. Danielle had always been honest with him, even when it wasn’t something he wanted to hear. And more often than not she was right.
What if it was that easy? He’d been carrying the Thule DNA in his system for ten years, and it hadn’t manifes
ted until recently. Maybe it was triggered by fear or anger or even adrenaline. Maybe breathing exercises or yoga could stop it. Or maybe they could give him some kind of pill to keep the alien in check.
“I guess I just hated the way you looked at me back there,” he said. “I don’t want you to be scared.”
“You thought I was scared of you?”
“More like terrified, but yeah.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “That thing came out of nowhere. I honestly thought I was going to die without being able to say good-bye to my parents or you or . . .” She covered her eyes as they misted over. “I’m sorry, it’s just that Oz didn’t answer my e-mails, and I couldn’t text him because I thought his phone was disconnected.” She wiped away a tear as it streamed down her cheek. “I was scared that he was going to go out and do something stupid to prove that he isn’t like his dad. I mean, I’d hold my breath every time one of the rescue teams found a body, because I thought it was going to be him—and then he just shows up and tells us that he’s been here all the time? He’s such a jerk!”
Colt sat there, not sure what to say or if he should say anything at all. On one hand, he was relieved that she wasn’t scared of him, but then again, he hated to see her so upset. He’d known there was a spark between Oz and Danielle from the moment he first saw them together, and he figured they’d eventually announce that they were dating, but this was different. It was deeper. Real. It was love.
Danielle sniffled as she wiped her eyes and straightened her ponytail. “Just so we’re on the same page—if you tell anyone about this conversation, you’re a dead man.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“And when we get back, you’re going to see a doctor. Period.”
: :
CHAPTER 6 : :
By the time they got back to campus, Colt’s body ached and his eyes were heavy and all he wanted was to go back to his dorm room and sleep, but Danielle grabbed him by the arm and started walking him to the infirmary.
“What about my report?” he said.
“It can wait,” she said. “Besides, we already called it in. Let the investigators handle it.”
“Tell that to my commanding officer.”
A girl approached wearing one of the new Intergalactic Defense Academy uniforms. It was formfitting, like neoprene, and it had the IDA crest and orange striping that signified she was part of Jackal Squad.
“Don’t look now, but I think Miranda’s trying to get your attention,” Danielle said, rolling her eyes.
“Sure she is,” Colt said.
Miranda Patel was widely considered the most beautiful girl on campus. Whenever she was around, the male cadets stopped and stared. It didn’t matter if she was walking, running, or eating an apple; it was like she had super-powered pheromones that hypnotized the opposite sex. Then again, it could have been her enormous brown eyes, full lips, dark skin, and that long black hair that bounced with each step she took.
“Hi,” she said as she walked past them.
“Um . . . hi,” Colt said with his voice caught in his throat. She smiled, and without realizing what he was doing, Colt turned and watched her walk away.
“You might want to put your tongue back in your mouth,” Danielle said.
“What?” Colt turned back around and ran his hand over the stubble of his shaved head.
“Could you be any more obvious?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you don’t.”
Danielle stayed at the medical facility long enough to make sure he checked in before she left to take a shower and get something to eat. He sat in the waiting room and stared at the floor, wondering why his appointment was with someone named Dr. Roth instead of the medical team that had been monitoring him since he arrived at the campus.
Twenty minutes later a door opened, and a white robot on track wheels entered the room. It was roughly the size of a mini-fridge, with a red cross on its chest, a wide rectangular head, and two of its eight retractable arms fully extended.
“This way, if you please,” the medibot said in a synthesized voice. A series of eyes lit up as it wheeled back around and led Colt down a hallway. It passed the examination rooms and stopped at an elevator.
“Where are we going?” Colt asked as he entered the elevator.
“Dr. Roth maintains an office on sublevel three.”
“Sublevel three? Wait, what happened to Dr. Cornelius?”
“He is currently indisposed . . . Mind your fingers. Some of our subjects are a bit aggressive,” it said as the doors opened.
Three other medibots were in a room that was about as big as a fast food restaurant, each one of them attending to a variety of caged animals. Their domed heads sat on top of tapered bodies that were wider at the base than they were near their shoulder joints. Their retractable arms and the cluster of eyes reminded Colt of the creepy mechanical spiders that had attacked him back at Greg’s Comics in Arizona.
The walls were lined with cages made of thick glass. One held a chimpanzee that simply sat there, staring at him. Another had a nervous dog that paced back and forth, its tail swishing as it yapped. But most were filled with strange creatures.
The first thing that stood out was an enormous green slug resting in the branches of a tree like a length of gelatinous intestine. According to the plaque it was called a Storaab and was from the jungles of Gathmara, the home world of the Thule, but Colt hadn’t run into any during his training scenarios in the hologram rooms. He stood there, entranced by how disgusting yet fascinating it was. The only light in its cage emanated from its body, where a complicated network of veins was lit up like a neon sign beneath translucent skin.
Nearby, colorful reptiles called Kyax fed on a carcass. One tossed a hunk of marbled flesh into the air and snatched it in its jaws as its leathery wings pounded the air. The Finopod in the adjacent cage looked like a Venus flytrap, but it was nearly as tall as Colt. And he recognized monkey-like creatures called Twilek as they glided from a platform to a series of poles, using membranes that ran from wrist to ankle like those of flying squirrels. It was incredible to see them in the flesh instead of as a holographic representation.
“Interesting, aren’t they?”
Colt turned to see a man with the beginnings of a goatee and hair that hung down to his shoulders. He was in good enough shape that his tight black T-shirt didn’t look too ridiculous, and most of his right arm was covered in an intricate series of tattoos.
“Sorry,” Colt said. “I, um . . . I was looking for Dr. Roth.”
“Then you’re in the right place,” the man said. “You must be Cadet McAlister.”
“Dr. Roth?”
“In the flesh.”
“Are you a veterinarian or something?”
“Not exactly,” Dr. Roth said. “Though I do know a thing or two about Thule physiology. In fact, you might say I wrote the book on the subject.” He stood there like he was expecting applause, but Colt just stared at him. “Anyway, given the unusual nature of your condition, I’ve been asked to take over your medical care.”
