The Discover Scouts

by Jay Riverton

  “They didn’t want you to be a pilot?”

  “More like, they didn’t want me to be me.” She sighed. “You’re here because you’re not a good leader, right?”

  It was his turn to stall. “Kinda. I’m the failed unifier of two colonies… And I’m kind of the same as you. My parents didn’t like who I am.”

  Silence.

  “Do you like who you are?” Kakine said, her eyes on the wall instead of him.

  He thought about it only for Reggie to pop back into his mind again. “Yeah. Do you?”

  “Yeah.”

  Chapter Five

  The Coupling

  With sunrise came a knock on their door. Without hesitation, it swung open and they all turned to see Scout Master Mike with a smile on his face.

  “Rise and shine, scouts-to-be! Time for the couplin’!” They groggily got out of bed, still in their pajamas, and followed Scout Master Mike out of the room.

  All of the other soon-to-be scouts of Troop 10 were outside, being ushered out of their cabins by the Reformed Scouts.

  “Go tell everyone to meet us at the Center,” Lycanere heard Mike tell one of the Scouts. The young man ran off to do his master’s bidding.

  Scout Master Mike turned to their group of sixty, a smile on his face.

  “I hope you’re all excited. This is the true next step into becoming a Discover Scout. Now, I wasn’t allowed to do this, but I always love watching you guys be able to. Follow me!” He skipped off, running down the path to the Reformation Center. They followed.

  Martia and Pirelavs found Lycanere and Kakine quickly.

  “We need to do this thing, like, now,” Martia said. “I don’t want to fuck anyone here.”

  “You wanna do it today?” Lycanere said.

  “If we don’t, we’re going to end up doing something none of us want to. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want to be pregnant at thirteen,” Martia said.

  “She’s right,” Kakine said. “No matter who we’re paired with, if we don’t get out of here we’re going to face the consequences.”

  “We need to revolt now,” Pirelavs said.

  “You’ll be overrun and thrown into the Tank,” they heard. “You wouldn’t stand a chance against the Reformed Scouts.” They turned and saw Benjamin beside them.

  “When’d you get there?” Kakine said.

  “Were you eavesdropping?” Pirelavs added.

  “I’ve always been here. And no, I was just listening from close by.”

  “Leave us alone, shrimpy,” Martia said.

  “Very funny,” he responded. “What’s even funnier is your chances of taking over the ship against the Reformed Scouts. Ironically, I could do it by myself, but you guys aren’t me.”

  “And how would you do it? Punch everyone in the balls since you’re eye level with them all?” Martia said. He ignored her.

  “Lycanere, I found out your door problem,” Benjamin said.

  “How?” Lycanere responded.

  “I’m a genius. That’s how.”

  They were getting closer to the Reformation Center. It was only a few yards away.

  “Tell us,” Lycanere said.

  “I got an idea last night after you told me about the doors. You said the code was six groups of two numbers and spelled out SCOUTS. By that logic, the S’s of SCOUTS would have the same two-digit number. I started with the thought that the numbers were in numerical order, A being one, B being two, and so on.

  “Then, I assumed that the numbers on the door are related to the code to make it easier for the Reformed Scouts. They were 28 30 25 25 21 18 14 28. There aren’t thirty letters in the alphabet, so I moved all letters over by four so that A equaled four and Z equaled thirty and wrote my findings. It spelled out X Z U U Q N J X. Of course, that’s not a word. So, I kept moving the letters over one until I found it out. You said it was a supply closet, and the answer was supplies. S U P P L I E S.”

  They’d reached the Reformation Center. The Reformed Scouts were already entering. Lycanere felt his heart pumping. Then the numbers clicked in his head.

  “The hexadecimal system,” Lycanere said. He remembered the words that Scout Master Mike had told him about it back on the ship. It was their key.

  “You’ve heard of it?” Benjamin said.

  “Mike told me that they use it here. Every letter is assigned to a number. A is 10, B is 11, all the way up to Z being 35.”

  “Precisely,” Benjamin said. “So, SCOUTS would be 28 10 24 30 29 28. I tried it out last night, and the door opened. Then I went to the second door. 18 23 12 10 28 14 24 15 10 23 14 22 14 27 16 14 23 12 34. Spells out ‘In case of an emergency.’” IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY, the words hit him again. Mike had said those words to him too when discussing the hexadecimal system. He was telling me how to get inside. But Lycanere didn’t know where to go from there.

  “So, what’s in there?” Pirelavs said. They were at the entrance. It was time.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know the code. Weapons, I’m thinking. Whatever it is, I’m sure you guys will want to find out.”

  “Why are you telling us this?” Lycanere said.

  “I try to help when I can, even if I think it’s wrong. Besides, I think it’d be safer if you stayed here. We could all live happily together on Jovial-10 and be who we want with our kids. We’ll be our own rulers there.”

  “We don’t want to be,” Martia said. “At least not there.”

  “I’m just warning you guys in advance. If you want to continue your plan, find out what’s inside that room. It could save or kill you. But, I believe that staying here is right for us. We are unwanted by our own people, so we might as well find a way to appease them and become a part of the collective. If you can’t follow that logic, then don’t blame me when you get caught. This is on you.”

  He went to walk on but Lycanere grabbed his shoulder.

  “You’re not going to tell Mike are you?”

  Benjamin cocked a smile. “Depends on what you do.” He shook Lycanere’s hand off and entered the Reformation Center. The group exchanged looks.

  “Should we trust what he said?” Pirelavs asked. “He may have been lying the whole time.”

  Kakine shook her head. “His assessment of the hexadecimal system was correct. He was just trying to help, dick or not. We need to find out what’s in that room. Knowing what it is may or may not save us.”

  They hesitated, then entered the Reformation Center.

  Everyone sat at their unassigned tables in their own groups again. The Reformed Scouts filled all of the untaken seats. Benjamin didn’t sit with them this time. Instead, he was at the edge of one of the tables filled with Discover Scouts, staring at the “IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY” door.

  Scout Master Mike stood at the front of the Center, a collection of papers in his hands. “GOOD MORNING REFORMED SCOUTS AND SCOUTS-TO-BE!” He yelled. “Here, I hold the results of your couplings chosen by Corporate and myself. I’m glad that today has come and hope that you all will look back on it one day with glee in your hearts.”

  The Reformed Scouts cheered and applauded. No one joined them other than Benjamin. Lycanere saw the disgust of this moment on everyone else’s faces. He looked around and tried to count the number of Reformed Scouts – there were more of them than there were members of Troop 10, and they were closer to the “Emergency” door.

  Martia looked to Lycanere. “Now?” she mouthed.

  Weighing his options, he was starting to believe that Benjamin was right. Right now was not the time to try to escape. Without a proper plan there was no guarantee of possible success. He shook his head at her.

  “We can’t let this happen,” she whispered. “I don’t want this.”

  “None of us do, Martia,” Lycanere said.

  “So, what are we going to do?” Pirelavs said.

  “Get coupled and convince our couples to join our side. Then work from there,” Lycanere said.

  “We’ll be carrying a shi
p of pregnant people,” Kakine stated. “I don’t think that’s safe.”

  Lycanere looked around as Scout Master Mike rambled on about what an honor this moment was.

  “We can’t do anything right now. We’ll lose and be thrown into the Tank,” Lycanere said. His eyes hit the Reformed Scouts, lost in Mike’s words. It struck him that they’d all once been individuals like he and his friends. “We can’t let that happen.”

  “Well, we need to do something,” Martia demanded.

  “I’m thinking on it.” He thought about the ship and how it would most likely go bad if they tried to take over right now. He thought about how they’d need to get the Reformed Scouts out of their way. He thought about what was behind the “Emergency” door. He thought about what Reggie would do.

  Conqueror’s War. He needed to unite his people and fight back. Of course he had known this, but he actually needed people in order for that plan to work.

  “We need to stop the consummation,” he said to his friends. “Do something to cause a halt.”

  “Like what?” Martia said.

  “And lastly, before I call out the couples, I wanted to tell you a stipulation of the consummation!” Scout Master Mike yelled, a smile on his face. “A Discover Scout will be watching each pair of you to make sure you consummate. I know it’s awkward, but we need children for our planet to thrive. Now, our first couple is…”

  The group looked to each other. Lycanere smiled.

  “That. One Reformed scout to each pair of us,” Lycanere said. “Take each scout out, find out what’s behind that door, then get out.” Lycanere barely paid attention to the names Scout Master Mike shouted. He watched as people moved around the room to join their pair before turning back to his group. Kakine was watching the other Troop 10 members too.

  “What about them?” Kakine said. “We can’t leave them.”

  “We won’t. If we take out our three Scouts, they’ll take out theirs. They’re not stupid. They’ll join our cause.”

  “Does it even matter if we find out what’s behind that door?” Pirelavs said.

  “It might. Just think. If the left door’s code is SCOUTS, what would the right’s be?” Lycanere asked.

  “SCOUTS,” Pirelavs joked.

  “Something that relates to emergencies, maybe?” Kakine said.

  “Ugh, this is gonna take too long. I can just try to break it open,” Martia said.

  They all stared at her.

  “You can do that?” Pirelavs said.

  “I already told you guys I could. I have my tools with me and could probably do it within a couple of minutes. Have you not been listening to me?”

  “Why didn’t you just say this before?“ Kakine said.

  “I didn’t think the door was that important. I honestly think we should just flee and not worry about it. Besides, I told you all that I had them on me. I even told you back on the ship, Khaki.”

  “I remember, but I didn’t think we were going to need them,” Kakine said.

  “We didn’t think we were going to need your joystick, either,” Martia said.

  “Pirelavs Copher!” Scout Master Mike said, bringing them all back to reality. They turned to Scout Master Mike. “And Genevieve Hugh! Our seventh couple of the day! Pirelavs, go sit with your new love.” The Reformed Scouts cheered.

  Lycanere watched Genevieve stand up and look for Pirelavs. The young woman was right beside Madison. She had peach skin, curly light brown hair, and a cute face. She was no older than sixteen. He turned back to Pirelavs who was trying to hide his bad arm from Genevieve’s sight.

  “After this, we’ll all go to the same cabin together. Then, we can be together and make sure this plan works. Tell Genevieve to tell her friends about our plan. We will get out of this place together,” Lycanere told Pirelavs.

  “And after the revolt?” Pirelavs asked.

  Lycanere looked at his group. “We’ll come back here. Immediately. We’ll open that door and go from there.” Pirelavs nodded and left the group. Lycanere watched him go and saw Genevieve grimace upon seeing her lover-to-be. Lycanere sighed, feeling bad for the young man whom he’d recently met, and turned back to the others.

  Scout Master Mike continued to announce names. Lycanere went back to whispering to his friends.

  “Kakine, after the revolt, I need you to get to the ship and get everything ready. Tell the people on board that Scout Master Mike got a call from Corporate and they want the ship ready now. We may not have to use the joystick if that works.” He turned to Martia. “We’ll come back here together with our partners. We’ll break in that door and find out what’s going on from there. We got this. We’ll leave today.”

  Martia smiled. “Yessir.”

  Kakine’s face lit up when Lycanere turned back to her.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You’re a great leader.” she said.

  He blushed. He wanted to tell her his family didn’t think so, that Reggie was a true leader, and that he wasn’t good unless he beat Conqueror’s War, but he kept it to himself.

  “Thank you,” he said instead.

  “Kakine Lee!” Scout Master Mike yelled. They turned back to him. Lycanere saw Kakine place her hands on the table, getting ready to rise. “And Lycanere Robinson! Our tenth couple of the day! And y’all don’t even have to move. How cute.” The Discover Scouts cheered. Mike winked at Lycanere. Why? Lycanere thought. It was obvious this had been done on purpose. Why her?

  He turned to Kakine, and she was blushing.

  Martia giggled. “Guess you two are consummating soon.”

  Kakine froze. “That’s not good,” she said.

  “Why not?” Martia said.

  She stalled for a quick second. “Because we’ll have less people on our side now. The more people the better.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Martia said, awkwardly.

  “And next is Martia Lowe!” Scout Master Mike said. “And Benjamin Miles.”

  Applause from the Reformed Scouts. Lycanere and Kakine stared at Martia.

  “Shit,” they all said together. Lycanere believed this would’ve been comical if the situation they were in wasn’t so dire.

  They watched Benjamin rise from his seat and hobble over to them.

  “We can’t convince him,” Martia whispered as Scout Master Mike moved on to the next couple. “What are we going to do?”

  Lycanere saw Benjamin getting closer out of the corner of his eye. “Knock him out too. There’s five of us and one of him. He’s super short. He shouldn’t even be a prob—”

  “It’s a pleasure that we got chosen to be together,” Benjamin said, stoic, as he sat next to Martia.

  She grimaced.

  “Don’t think I like this anymore than you do. You’re young and stupid and look like a whore. Pretty, but a whore nonetheless,” Benjamin told her.

  “I’m not sleeping with you,” she said, moving away from him.

  “Don’t think you have much of a choice,” Benjamin said. “Trust me, the disgust is mutual.”

  They bared out the rest of the coupling, anger and silence between them. Lycanere’s thoughts rumbled inside his head. The Reformed Scouts were enough to worry about, but adding Benjamin made it worse. The only person who’d voluntarily come, now inside their plan. And there was nothing they could do about it.

  “Now, it’s time to choose your cabin groups. After that, you will return to your cabins with your new group and three Reformed Scouts to begin the consummation. That’s right, nine of you in one cabin, with six of you doing the asteroid belt tango…” He smiled. No one laughed. “I’ll give you a few minutes to get into your groups.”

  Pirelavs brought Genevieve over to them, completing their group. He glared at Benjamin. “We’re sharing a cabin with him?”

  “Not like you could lose Martia now, could you?” Benjamin retorted. He smiled at Pirelavs’ dissension.

  Pirelavs turned to his three friends. “This is Genevieve.”

&nb
sp; She waved and took a step closer to Lycanere, blatantly checking him out. Kakine stuck to his side as if they were conjoined. Lycanere wanted to laugh at her protectiveness. At how she now was acting like his lover. Such a ridiculous concept, her as a lover. One his parents would’ve wanted.

  Genevieve brought her head to Lycanere’s ear and whispered, “Pirelavs told me everything, and I told my friends. We’re in. They’ll do whatever they can to help.”

  They separated.

  “Thank you,” Lycanere said.

  “Anyone want to tell me what’s going on here?” Benjamin asked. They ignored him.

  Everyone was in their groups and Scout Master Mike sent out Scouts to move their luggage over to the appropriate cabins. Luckily, they’d get to stay in Cabin E.

  Lycanere counted the Scouts in the room then. There were one hundred and seventy-two. He didn’t know if his measly sixty, counting Benjamin, stood any chance at all against mindless drones like these. Nor did he have time to find out.

  The groups were all escorted out together. Lycanere looked to his friends as if to telepathically tell them it was time for the plan to take charge.

  They were brought into Cabin E and led to their beds. One Reformed Scout stood over each bed.

  “Get undressed,” the Scouts said together. “Begin. Don’t make this hard.”

  “Don’t worry, I am,” Pirelavs joked. Genevieve laughed at his joke, though Lycanere could tell she couldn’t stand to look at his scaled and burned skin.

  “Hurry up now,” a Scout said. They pushed the groups onto their beds. Kakine was pressed up against Lycanere. He felt something hard push up against his abdomen as the Scout pressed Kakine into him. She quickly moved out of the way and smoothed out her shirt down to her thighs.

  “Stop, don’t rush us,” Kakine pleaded.

  “It’s time for consummation,” their Scout said.

  Benjamin was the only one undressing, taking off his shirt. Lycanere looked at Kakine, then Martia and Pirelavs. They nodded to each other.

  Lycanere bulldozed into his Scout, picked him up by the waist, and rammed him into the wall across from them. All of the air in the Scout fled from his body. He let the Scout fall and turned on the others as they charged at him.