Defending the Galaxy: The Sentinels of the Galaxy

by Maria V. Snyder

  Twenty-Two

  2522:304

  Operation Defending the Galaxy may have been a success, but there is so much to do that even twenty days later, we’re still cleaning up and getting organized. The Protectorate took control of the other looter bases without any major problems. DES arrested all those involved. Unfortunately, there were fatalities on both sides. Three hundred and seventy-three people total. They’ve all been cremated and stored until DES can find their next of kin. The Warrior Express is still being used despite the threat of HoLFs. However, travel through the portals is limited to trips that are absolutely necessary like reuniting families. All the strike team members have returned to their original bases until everything is sorted. We’re back on the research base on Yulin and repairs to the structure have already started.

  My parents have been put in charge of figuring out how to repair all the broken Warriors and give them new hearts to prevent the HoLFs from returning. Eventually, DES hopes to use the Warrior Express without fear of the aliens’ return. It will be limited to people or people-sized cargo as they’ll need to keep the Warriors in their original formation, which doesn’t allow for bigger portals. All in all, repairing them is an immense task. Yes, my parents have already asked me to help. And I will…eventually.

  The miracle of instant space travel has been my blessing and my curse. I spend days and days with the authorities, explaining what happened, repeating everything a million times, showing them that I can do it again with another Protector Class ship—fun seeing so many adults freaked. Right now, they’re still reeling from the information. The astrophysicists are insisting it’s not possible, while others are panicking about the implications. It’s going to take them a long time to decide how best to use this new technology. Meanwhile, the other ships will remain on the star roads for now. Although I’ve already told them I’m moving my brother’s ship first. He’s going to be so surprised! And my parents have been walking on air since they’ve realized they’ll see their son again.

  The delay is good for me as I need time to sort everything out. DES is going to have certain expectations about what they want me to do, and it won’t necessarily match with what I’m comfortable doing. I expect they’ll show me their plans, and I’ll counter with how it’s really going to go. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not on a power trip, but I want to ensure no one takes advantage of this technology or profits from it.

  “I’ve been looking all over for you. What are you doing down here?” Niall asks me.

  “I’m spending time with my father.” Actually, my father is puttering with the machinery in the factory under the Warrior pits, ignoring me, and I’m just…enjoying the quiet, hanging out in what I call the Warrior infirmary. That’s what it looks like to me with the statues lying on tables. There were plenty of black Warrior hearts when we first discovered them, ready to be inserted into the statues. However, most of them were used. No choice, they were the only reason we could see the HoLFs.

  “Uh huh. Are you sure you’re not hiding?”

  That too.

  Niall wraps me in his arms. “I understand the need to get away. You’ve been in meetings non-stop. But you need to tell someone where you’re going. When you disappear, everyone in the Galaxy panics.”

  I lean against him. “And I thought you and my parents were overprotective. No one is going to let me live my life are they?”

  He’s quiet a moment. “No, not for a while. But once you train other navigators, then the pressure is off you.”

  If I could trust them. And I’d still have to keep an eye on everyone so they don’t abuse their power. Ugh. The ramifications of the New Discovery are far more complex than I’d imagined. I’m not sure humans are ready for it, but all I have to think about is Lan, Jade, and Jarren and how the time dilation ruined their lives to know it’ll improve everyone’s lives even if they’re not prepared for instant travel.

  Jarren had good reasons to be so bitter. He was never told about Jade. Never knew he had a daughter with Lan until Jade arrived on Suzhou in 2520—the same year Xinji went silent. Like her father, Jade learned how to worm and she accessed her sealed birth records. Sealed because Lan was a minor when she gave birth. Lan’s parents officially adopted Jade and she was told that her father wanted nothing to do with her. She didn’t even know his name until she wormed into her records.

  When Jade turned eighteen A years old in 2492, she left Xinji for Suzhou. But she never told her grandparents or Lan she learned her father’s name. Nor did she contact Jarren, preferring to give him the news in person.

  Can you imagine Jarren’s shock and anger when she showed up? I can. No wonder they plotted how to use the Warrior Express for their own profit and screw DES. Jade worked against her own mother, who didn’t even acknowledge Jade as her daughter. Lan had two children with Vint—Tomas and Kate. Tomas is still living on Planet Rho, but Kate died in 2521. Her death was ruled an accident, but DES is now investigating what exactly happened in her lab at the university.

  Jarren and Jade are both secured in the brig on Captain Sainz ship awaiting trial. Jarren is claiming all responsibility for the deaths on Xinji, swearing Jade wasn’t to blame. I don’t envy the jury in sorting out that mess.

  “You can handle the pressure, Mouse,” Niall says as the silence lengthens. He pulls me closer to his chest. “And you don’t have to do it alone. We’ve got your back.”

  Best boyfriend ever. I kiss him. He responds by deepening the kiss. We’ve both been so busy and haven’t gotten any time alone.

  “Ara!” My father says.

  We jerk apart. My dad’s head is poking out of the room with the alien devices.

  “I thought I heard voices.” Oblivious to our annoyance, he continues, “The machines are working, come see.”

  Well, that’s worth being interrupted for. Niall and I join my father. A smooth hum sounds from the big boxy machinery along the far wall. A conveyor belt disappears inside the main block and comes out the other end.

  “Near as I can tell, the Warrior is placed on the belt and taken into the chamber where a heart is inserted,” Dad explains.

  “How is it inserted?” I ask.

  “Well, that’s the thing. I don’t know. And I’m not tearing the thing apart to find out. Not until we’ve given hearts to all the broken Warriors and make them Sentinels again. See here?” He points to another large contraption. “This is the machine that makes the hearts. There’s a chute high above where you pour the material in, and, below here, it spits out the hearts with the silver markings. Then you put the heart in this slot.” Dad pulls out a metal shelf. It has a heart-shaped indentation. “The heart is conveyed into the chamber. Or that’s what those files you found said would happen.” He runs a hand through his hair. “We’ve no idea what that material is either. Do you know if there are more files?”

  Do I? Q sent them to me. I could search through the Q-net, but that would take…days. I don’t have Q to help. I remember Q saying something about merging body and soul to create a Sentinel. I’m not sure how that would work, though.

  “Sorry, Dad, I don’t. But when I have some time, I’ll look.”

  “Thanks, Li-Li.” He gives me a quick hug.

  Niall has wandered back over to the table with the hearts. I join him. We can touch them now that we’ve already claimed one. He’s tracing the silver symbols etched into all the hearts with a finger. His expression is sad.

  “What are you thinking about?” I ask.

  “When I touched that heart and it disintegrated in my fingers, it reminded me of my mother.”

  His mother? That’s odd. But, considering all the strangeness that has happened to me, I’m not in a position to judge. “How so?”

  “The texture.” He rubs his hand on his jeans. “Remember when I told you my mother asked me to mix her ashes with paint and use it to paint a landscape?”

  “Yes. You’re going to hang it in the museum dedicated to her on Earth.” Which we can visit without jumpi
ng ninety-five years into the future!

  “This is going to sound creepy, but, in order to fulfill her final wishes, I needed to know the consistency of the ashes so I would know what type of paint to use. Like, if they were light and powdery, I’d need to use thicker paint. I haven’t mixed anything yet, but I did touch the ashes. And it reminded me of that heart. It had the same feel.” Niall glanced at the machines. “Do you think those hearts could be made out of the cremated remains of the aliens?”

  And just like that, Q’s comments made perfect sense. “They are!”

  “Then we’re screwed. You said fourth nation went into the black hole.”

  “Q told me humans could be Sentinels.”

  Niall pulls me close. “In that case, we might have a chance.”

  We explain our theories to my father and he wants to test it out right away. Mom and Radcliff are consulted, and he proposes using the ashes of Officer Menz. He stored them—with the time dilation his parents would have been long dead before the urn arrived.

  Except, I remind Radcliff that now they will get his remains sooner—in a few years instead of a few decades. So used to factoring in the time dilation for travel, everyone keeps forgetting about our new reality.

  “I’ll make sure to tell them,” Radcliff says before going back to his office to consult them.

  Dad ropes us into helping him get everything ready just in case. It’s hot, sweaty work. And I’m super glad when Radcliff returns to the factory with the urn.

  Thanks to us and a mechanical lift, the machines are now humming and there’s a Warrior lying on the conveyor belt.

  “That was quick,” Dad says to Radcliff.

  “They said their son loved being a security officer and helping people. They’ll be happy knowing his spirit is protecting the Galaxy,” Radcliff says.

  “If it works,” Dad says. He takes the pretty container and mounts the ladder to the top of the machinery.

  Niall and my mother are also in attendance. My parents want to see if the test is successful before announcing anything.

  Dad removes the lid and tips the contents into the chute. Menz clatters and slides on the metal. The hum grows into a roaring crunching noise that rattles the metal. Heat pours off the machinery and we all back up a couple steps as a bright orange glow shines from the interior.

  “Perhaps we should have done more research,” Mom says, as more alarming screeches sound. “Or cleaned out the mechanisms, maybe oiled the gears. This equipment is over two thousand years old.”

  “What gears? From what I’ve seen, there’s no moving parts,” Dad shouts over the noise. “For all intents and purposes, it’s not manufacturing, it’s using magic.”

  “How do we turn it off?” Radcliff asks Dad.

  “We don’t. Let it finish.”

  “Finish what? Exploding? I’m not risking everyone’s—”

  The racket dies down, returning to that smooth hum. We hold our breaths as a black heart slides into a bin at the end of the machine.

  “How do we know it worked?” Mom asks.

  That’s easy. “Turn off all the lights.”

  They look at me in horror. But my dad goes to shut off the lights. At first the blackness is complete. I grab Niall’s hand. He squeezes back when the semi-translucent figure of Ivan Menz appears. He’s staring straight ahead and looks ready for action.

  “Menz,” Radcliff says. His voice is rough.

  The ghost doesn’t react. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. It’s one thing to see a Warrior ghost that resembles the Warriors, but quite another to see a friend. To see the man who saved my life. I wonder if he’s happy? Can he feel emotions? I remember the general who took the brunt of the energy from the kill zapper. He was proud and satisfied about a job well done. I hope Menz will feel the same way.

  Dad turns the lights back on. We all blink in the sudden light. “Let’s see if the next stage works.” He lifts Menz’s heart and inserts it into the machine.

  The conveyor belt pulls in the Warrior. Once again the noise and heat reaches scary levels before the Warrior is expelled from the chamber. I expect to see a black scorch mark on his chest. But he appears unaltered. There’s not even a scratch on the terracotta. No one asks if it worked as we all feel it in our bones. The Warrior is whole.

  The days blur together. Most of the families of the casualties agree to donate their loved ones’ remains to the Sentinel project. The news of the HoLFs and the Warrior Network is spreading throughout the Galaxy faster than…I’m not sure since we need to redefine fast. Over four hundred years ago, light speed was considered the fastest anything could go in the universe, then there was crinkled space fast, and now…the speed of thought?

  I resume training despite DES. They want me to focus solely on implementing the new technology and teaching the interstellar navigators ASAP. Yes, it’s going to be the navigators who learn first. We agreed the best people to learn are the ones who are already well versed in the Q-net and have the most experience. I’m looking forward to seeing Chief Hoshi again and all the security officers are happy about Captain Harrison’s planned visit. We’re going to have lots of visitors over the next few years.

  Of course, DES wanted me to return to Earth right away, but Yulin is home and my family is here. I know it’s inevitable, but until they have the details of the new network sorted out, I’ve been allowed to stay.

  What we still haven’t agreed on is the name of the new technology. DES wants to name it the Ara Lawrence Quantum Entanglement Drive. Isn’t that a mouthful? Everyone will shorten it to the Q-drive in no time. I want them to name it after Lan, but they countered with naming the Warrior Express after her. The Lan Maddrey Interstellar Warrior Portal Network. Another tongue twister.

  I arrive at Radcliff’s unit in time for dinner. The heavenly scent of garlic and tomatoes entices me into the kitchen. Niall and my parents are already there. Along with my little barnacle, Shay. She has no next of kin and my parents are in the process of adopting her.

  Plopping into the empty seat, I say, “I’ve had it with bureaucrats! If another one of them condescends to me about the shadow-blobs again, I’m going to send them to Pit 1 and shut off the null wave emitter. See if they still think I’m exaggerating after being stabbed a dozen times.” I huff. “How can they be so…obtuse!”

  “They’re bureaucrats, it’s in the job description,” Mom says with a smirk.

  I growl at her. And now Niall and his father are smirking. Shay giggles.

  Radcliff places a bubbling pan of manicotti in the middle of the table and my mood instantly improves. It’s my favorite and I tuck in with abandon. Once my stomach is about to burst, I realize that everyone at the table has been extra…grinny. As if they know something I don’t and it amuses them.

  “Okay, what’s the joke?” I ask. “Spit it out.”

  My father glances at Radcliff. “Told you she’d forget.” He holds out a hand. “Pay up.”

  “I don’t see how she could.” Radcliff grumbles and makes a show of paying my father three pudding cups.

  I’m trying to remember what I forgot. Yeah, that doesn’t make sense since I forgot it. Niall thinks this is all very hilarious and I’m about to threaten to send them all to Pit 1, too when Radcliff sets down a big chocolate cake.

  “Happy Birthday, Ara!” everyone says in unison.

  Oh my stars! I’ve been so busy I forgot my own birthday. I know it’s hard to believe, considering I was counting down the days. Mom lights the eighteen candles.

  “Blow them out quick,” Radcliff says. “I don’t want the fire alarm to go off.”

  Ha ha. I draw in a breath.

  “Make a wish,” Niall says.

  And do you know what? I can’t think of a single wish. Oh, there’s tons of things I’d like, but they’ll happen eventually. I’ll see my brother, Phoenix; the Warrior Express will protect the Galaxy and transport interstellar travelers; families will no longer be torn apart by the time dilation; and Shay
will have a family again. Content with my life, I blow out the candles.

  Even though I’m stuffed full of manicotti, I find room in my stomach for a big piece of cake.

  “Time for presents,” Mom says. “Follow me.”

  Ooh interesting. I follow everyone out of Radcliff’s unit. We head down the hall.

  Mom stops in front of unit number three-oh-nine. “This is from your father and me. Your very own unit. Welcome to adulthood.”

  I hug my parents. “Thank you!” Then I place my palm on the keypad. The door opens and reveals bright, colorful walls. Marveling, I go inside. Niall’s mother’s paintings from my room in Radcliff’s unit have been hung on the walls along with a few new pieces and…some of Niall’s. “Perfect, thanks, Toad.”

  His smile promises that I’ll be thanking him again later—when we’re alone. I walk around. The unit is a one bedroom, with a small living area, kitchen, and washroom.

  Radcliff strides to the kitchen and opens the pantry. It’s full of food. “I still expect you at dinner, Officer Lawrence.”

  Not junior officer. Not anymore! “Yes, sir. Thanks.”

  “I moved all your things from our unit and Radcliff’s in here,” Mom says. “Including those contraband drawings.”

  Oops. She found my collection of Niall’s pencil drawings. But she’s not upset.

  “If you check your closet, I believe Officer Kier has filled it with a few more pieces,” Mom says.

  Shay rushes over and picks up a glass bowl filled with colors. She hands it to me. “Candy dish! From me!”

  Even she knows about my sugar addiction. I squat down to her eye level. “Are you going to come visit often and help me eat these?” I ask.

  She gives me a shy smile. “Yes.”

  I straighten and gesture to the unit. “This is all so wonderful. Thank you!”

  The adults and Shay leave to let me “settle in.” Niall remains behind. He has a broad grin on his face.