by LM. Preston
“Whoa there! I may be a robot, but even I can’t answer that many questions so fast,” Ebu said and crossed his legs.
“Okay. A robot. So, are you the box I picked up?” Eirena asked, sitting on her knees.
“My name is Ebu, and I am a robot. I came with my friend, and I escaped our room,” Ebu said.
“So, does that mean I can keep you?” she asked him.
“No one keeps me. I prefer to stay only with my friend,” Ebu said.
“Who is your friend? Who created you? Maybe they are my friend too?” she stammered as she reached out to touch his arm.
“My friend created me. I will not tell you who they are until I find out if you are safe,” Ebu answered and then moved away from her.
“Why would you think I would not be safe?” she asked, a bit hurt, and she crawled a little closer to him.
“Because some things are not good on this ship. Some places and people here are not safe. I know. I have been around,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Eirena asked, though she looked like she had had the same thoughts.
“You know what I mean. You are the one that hid me before you would begin your inspection of what or who I was,” Ebu replied then turned his head to study her.
“Well, I sometimes get dreams or funny feelings when things don’t add up. My mom said that I am like her grandma. I have a strong sense of things to come. It’s an Old World way of thinking, but it’s her way of making me feel better about it. Whoa… wait a minute, why am I telling you this?” Eirena said, shaking her head as if coming out of a daze.
“Hmm. I think I can trust you. I went on a journey out of my room. My friend is probably angry at me, but I was curious,” Ebu said, then leaned closer to Eirena.
“I did a bad thing. I tapped into the database of the ship. I can do this, but my friend doesn’t know that yet,” Ebu said even lower.
“Well, what did you find?” Eirena asked and inched a bit closer to him.
“Hey! Eirena, you will never guess who I talked to just now. The Captain! Personally!” Raiko said excitedly as she barged into the room. Raiko whirled around and did a double-take at the bed that looked like a fortress with the lower bunk completely closed in with blankets.
“Hey, why are you hiding? What’s up?” Raiko asked before she opened the flap. Eirena reached back and put her hand to Raiko’s mouth. Then, she put her finger up to her mouth.
“Shh,” Eirena said quietly. She took Raiko’s chin and turned it toward Ebu.
Raiko’s dark, slanted eyes got wide with recognition, and she slowly crawled into the lower bunk. “What is that?” Raiko asked with a pointed finger.
“I found him, and I am keeping him.”
Raiko reached over and tried to poke Ebu. “Keep him for what? That thing is ugly!”
“Because I want him. He is interesting,” Eirena said.
“Hmm, let me check him out,” said Raiko, reaching over Eirena to grab Ebu. He was docile and let her pick him up to inspect him.
“Wow! Great workmanship. Is this titanium? And look… he even has one of those battery packs that is powered by the sun. Cool! His power pack’s non-removable, so no one can just shut him off. Hmm, I should get out and get my tools. You know, I am pretty good at fixing stuff. It helped to get away from my brothers and sisters,” Raiko said, and she turned Ebu over and sat him down.
Chapter 9
Scott, Aadi, and Dakota walked slowly toward the girls’ dorms and saw a tall, muscular woman with blue eyes, highlighted brown hair, and an angry expression.
“Where do you think you are going, gentlemen?” she said, then looked down at them.
Scott flicked the device hidden in his hand and tapped his ear. With a flash of his hand, he flicked out of Aadi’s vision. Dakota was looking behind them to make sure no one else noticed them in the hallway.
“Um, ma’am, what is your name? I have a question to ask you,” Scott said, a little nervously. At that moment, Aadi started to get worried that their plan wasn’t going to work.
“My name is Marianne, and you boys better get moving,” she said, then pointed opposite of the hallway.
“Well, you don’t see us. You are going to let us pass and just forget we are here, Marianne,” Scott said to her in a melodic voice that Aadi never remembered Scott using before.
“I don’t see you. I will forget,” she repeated and tued away in trance-like agreement. Scott walked forward and then pulled at Dakota’s sleeve. They made their way to the room without further hesitation. Aadi got in front and led the way.
“Okay, now we are here, but how do we get through the security check for our eyes?” Scott asked Aadi.
“Move out of the way, amateurs,” Dakota said, then took out a key card and punched in a code, which opened the door.
“Okay… um, how did you do that?” Aadi asked Dakota.
“You know I have a good memory, and I saw one of the Counselors do it. However, he dropped his key card, so I just picked it up. Figured I may need it someday,” Dakota said with a smile, then Scott looked at him with something similar to a new respect.
“Well, I am going to go in first and look around. You both stay out there and watch,” Aadi said. Dakota and Scott stood on either side of the door.
“Okay. Me and Dakota will stay out here and look out. We’ll knock if we see anyone and then come in to hide,” Scott said.
Aadi opened the door and looked around. This is a two-person room, he guessed, since there are only one set of bunk beefs, two desks, and a small bathroom off to the side. He looked again at the bunk bed and noticed that the bottom bunk was hidden behind a makeshift blanket curtain. He walked slowly and quietly toward the bed, only for Eirena to jump out, punch him in the jaw, and land an impressive sidekick to his chest. It knocked him to the floor and caused him to slide a bit. He felt a little dazed since he hadn’t planned on an ambush, but he quickly recovered.
“What the—” he said, and got into his fighting stance. Then, he blocked a scissor-kick she aimed at his shoulder. Aadi noticed she was breathing hard with hands up while she looked for a weak area to make her next attack.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Aadi asked Eirena and noticed Raiko had come out of hiding and was holding Ebu. She held him in her left hand, and her right hand was over her mouth.
“I am protecting my room. Get out! Now!” Eirena said fiercely and looked as if she was trying to think of a way to throw him off balance.
“Oh? And you are going to make me?” Aadi asked with a laugh and held his stomach with his right hand on his knee. He couldn’t believe she really thought she could come close to beating him, but he was impressed that she would try.
“It seems like I am doing pretty good so far,” she said as she did the splits and used her leg to throw him off balance by kicking him at his foot.
He only faltered a little and stepped back a bit as he regained his footing. “Oh, you are good,” he said with a laugh.
Raiko slowly shook herself out of her surprise. She then calmly walked over to Aadi while he was laughing at Eirena. Raiko sneaked up behind him undetected, placed her fingers on his neck, and touched a pressure point on his neck that forced Aadi to his knees.
“Okay! I’ve been nice, but both of you are making me angry now,” Aadi said as he quickly got up, grabbed Eirena by the leg, pulled her under him, and sat on her. He used his other hand and grabbed Raiko just around part of her neck, then secured her diagonally to the waist and forced her to sit on the right side of him and on the other side of Eirena’s head.
“Hey! I can’t breath!” Eirena said from under Aadi. Eirena struggled to get her breath while buried under Aadi’s weight. Raiko tried to squirm from under Aadi’s strangle hold on her neck.
“Ebu, come out of hiding! Now!” Aadi said loudly. Then Ebu crawled to Aadi in box form. Aadi put Ebu under his shirt with his free hand.
“Now, if you girls promise to be good, I will let you up,” Aadi said and then adj
usted his right-arm hold on Raiko as she almost squirmed free.
“I won’t promise you anything!” Eirena said. She squirmed and fought furiously under Aadi’s weight, which caused him to hop up in the air from time to time.
“I’ll promise to be good,” Raiko said, then winked at Eirena.
“Hmm, I don’t trust you. But I have backup outside the door,” Aadi said as he got up, grabbed one of the blankets covering the lower bunk, and quickly threw it under him and over the girls’ heads as he got up. He heard them yell out his name in muffled voices from under the blanket.
He ran to the door and tapped the boys on the shoulder. “Let’s go… quick!” he said and ran past them. They caught up and rounded the corner just as Eirena reached the door.
“This is not over yet!” she yelled down the hall at them.
Chapter 10
The boys returned to their room to see a note from Damien that said, “Me, Tacitus, and Carter are in the gym playing basketball. If you want your butt kicked, be there.”
“I am going to go meet them in the gym. You both coming?” asked Dakota, then grabbed his backpack and headed to the door.
“Me too”, said Scott and then winked at Aadi as he followed Dakota out of the room. Aadi gave Scott a peace sign and said, “I’ll be right behind you.”
He sat on his bed, turned toward the back wall, and lifted his shirt.
“Ebu, I can’t deal with you right now, but I am going to be coming back later, and you better not leave,” Aadi whispered.
“I will come with you or leave on my own. Your choice,” Ebu said, still in box form.
“Dang it, Ebu! You are being a royal pain. Fine, I guess you will be safer with me where I can watch you. Climb in my backpack, and I’ll take you with me,” Aadi replied. With Ebu secured in his backpack, he headed to the gym to meet the others.
“Hey, what’s up? You guys play yet?” Aadi asked Dakota.
“Well, well, well… guess you ladies showed up for a butt whipping after all, and I am just the one to give it to you, fool,” said Damien after he nodded his head and sized Aadi up.
“No, I showed up to give you one, sap,” Aadi replied to Damien.
“We will see about that. Hey, Carter, Tacitus, you are on Aadi’s team. I’ll take Dakota and Scott,” Damien said as he walked into the glassed in basketball court sandwiched between the adventure gym, rock climbing walls, and obstacle courses.
“Why do I feel like I am being set up?” Aadi whispered to his backpack.
“Because you are,” said Scott when he walked by Aadi and onto the court. Aadi followed and set his backpack on the bench.
“Hey, we want to play,” called Eirena to Damien.
“Ugh,” said Aadi. He shook his head from side to side and put a hand up to his forehead.
“Play what?” Damien replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“Basketball, loser. What do you think?” Eirena said to Damien, and she walked in front of him. With her arms folded, she sized him up as Raiko came to stand behind her.
“Fine. You’re on my team. Aadi, you can have what’s-her-name,” he said, pointing at Raiko.
“Rah-ee-koh,” Raiko said, then put her hands on her hips and squinted.
“Freak off, squirt,” Damien said. Raiko stuck her tongue out at him, then turned and went to Aadi’s bench.
“Hey, Tacitus, what position you want to play?” Aadi asked Tacitus.
“I have never played basketball before,” Tacitus replied, ruffling his brown hair. Aadi inspected him from head to toe. He was taller than Damien, but not as tall as Aadi, so he figured he would make a good forward.
“You’ll play forward. Your job is to get any and every ball that comes down from the basket and don’t let anyone pass you on either side,” he told Tacitus. He then looked over at Carter’s tall, lanky form.
“Carter, can you shoot a ball?” he asked after he looked him over.
Carter crossed his arms in front of him and squinted in thought. “Yeah, it’s not much I can’t do. I can shoot, dribble, whatever. I am your man. Boy, they are going to be sorry! We are going to kick butt,” Carter said, then cracked his neck to the side. At that moment, Aadi knew that their team was in big trouble.
“You will play forward too,” Aadi replied. He sure hoped that Raiko had some skills, because if not, he was going to be working his tail off.
He turned to Raiko and took a deep breath before he spoke. “Raiko, can you dribble?” he said.
“I may be short, but I play a mean point guard, and I can shoot three-pointers too. It pays to have a lot of brothers,” she said, and for the first time, he saw a smug, self-assured smile on her face. This may not be so bad after all, he thought to himself.
They started the game, and Aadi admitted to himself that he was rather impressed with Raiko’s basketball skills. She held her own as the only point guard and scored many of the points they made in the game. Tacitus, although surprisingly coordinated, caught on to the game pretty fast. Carter was barely doing his part at blocking out Eirena, who was a tough competitor. She could shoot and was a relentless point guard. Damien was pretty good, but he and Scott were tied for points.
“Cadets, it is now lights out. Everything is closing down. Report to your rooms,” a woman’s voice exclaimed over the loudspeaker. Just as the loudspeaker finished, Raiko made the last shot, and Aadi’s team was declared the winner. Damien kicked the ball, pushed past Dakota, and went to the bench to throw his things in his backpack.
“Hey, guys… we are still on for tonight, okay? Meet me in the boys’ bathroom near the elevators. We need to go to the lower level,” said Carter in a whispered voice while they gathered their things.
“Umm, we can’t meet you in the boys’ bathroom,” said Eirena as she walked up behind Carter.
“Again, who invited you?” Damien asked Eirena.
“You are definitely a butt wipe! I was just on your team in this game, and now you are selling me out. I ought to punch you,” Eirena said as she frowned and balled her fist at her sides.
“Why don’t you try and give me a reason to punch you back. So what you were on my team - it doesn’t mean I actually like you at all,” Damien said. He balled up his fist and moved closer to Eirena.
“Look, back off, both of you. They can come. They are part of our team anyway, and if you hit her, then I will have to hurt you,” Aadi said to Damien, then he stood between Eirena and Damien.
“Really? I’d like to see you try.” Damien punched Aadi in the jaw. Damien aimed his punch as though he had been waiting forever for the opportunity. The smile on his face held a sinister glare of hate and anger. Aadi felt the sharp pain of the punch on his jaw and quickly reacted and punched Damien back in the jaw. Then, he crouched down to his knees and punched him in the stomach. Damien felt the heavy, sharp snap of the punch, which only made him angrier. He recovered quickly and elbowed Aadi against the face. The piercing pain of Damien’s blow finally made Aadi angry enough to stop holding back, and he grabbed Damien by the left leg to try to knock him off balance. Frustrated, Aadi couldn’t budge him at all. It seemed like that leg was made of steel, but it couldn’t be because it was soft and muscular like the rest of him.
Aadi quickly recovered and elbowed Damien’s right leg, causing him to lean down and favor the leg. Aadi punched up and caught Damien in the nose, and blood squirted out of his bruised nose, which caused Aadi’s fist to slip. Damien grabbed his nose, saw the blood, and was ready to attack again. Eirena quickly stepped up and side-kicked Damien to the floor, put her knee in his stomach, and had her other foot on his neck. Damien coughed since she didn’t hold back any pressure and pushed him to concede. Damien looked at her with all the anger he felt, which caused Aadi to want to attack him again.
“Okay, boys, let’s break this up. I’ll see all of you tonight,” Eirena said and got up off of Damien. She took off with Raiko behind her. Raiko, turned around to wave goodbye, and ran as fast as Eirena,
which was surprising since Eirena had her by a good three to four inches.
“Ugh, I hate that girl. One day, her butt will be mine, and I will show her no mercy!” Damien said. He got up, then grabbed the towel Carter handed to him to wipe his bloody nose.
“Yeah, right. You do that, and you will have to deal with me again,” Aadi said, then put out his hand to help Damien up. Damien smacked his hand away.
“I don’t want any help from you. Move out of my way!” Damien said. He stumbled to his feet and pushed past Aadi with his shoulder.
“Man, that guy has issues,” said Scott. He shook his head and walked up beside Aadi.
“You’re telling me. Try going to school with him,” Aadi replied.
“Well, that was interesting. You have to show me some of those defense techniques,” said Tacitus. He turned his head to the left, as though he was processing the whole scene.
“I may one day,” replied Aadi, and he kept on walking.
“Boy, I am glad she is on our team! I would have jumped in and handled him, but I didn’t want to hurt nobody, ‘cause I am a licensed black belt, you know. My hands are really lethal weapons, and I don’t want to kill no one and get kicked off the ship,” said Carter, balling up his so-called lethal weapons. He hopped around and made punching moves that didn’t look the least bit intimidating.
“Yeah… good thing you didn’t jump in. We wouldn’t want you to hurt no one,” Aadi said with a laugh and slapped Carter on the back.
Chapter 11
They walked toward their rooms. Carter’s room was across the hall. The lucky sap had his own room, which is why he hadn’t been bugging them to bunk up with them. Carter gained some respect because they figured he must really have connections and lots of money to have a room to himself. In preparation for meeting Carter, they put on backpacks with supplies for their sneaky tour of the labs.
“Now, Scott will lead the way. If we run into any problem with the staff, you handle it,” Aadi said to Scott.
