by R.E. Rowe
Chapter 14
Jayden and the others stepped out of the elevator into a colossal-sized room resembling a two-story-high hotel lobby. Two dozen teens were scattered about at workstations that reminded Jayden of a robo pod control panel.
Across the room, a tall boy with shoulder-length emerald hair and lime-green skin waved at them.
“Nice crop of hair,” Cleo whispered.
Parker snickered, and Nora quickly shushed him.
Jayden was fascinated by the alien boy’s green skin and dark green hair. He wore a long, black leather jacket and matching pants. The boy’s diamond-shaped green face and large, almond-shaped, magenta-red eyes were strange, but cooler than any avatar he’d ever controlled. The kid’s nicely trimmed green hair reminded him of the ferns growing in the Pacific Valley cliffs near Big Sur, California. Even freakier was the small silver chain woven into each ear. The chain attached to his lime-green temple, wrapped around the outside of the ear, and then dangled down below each ear lobe. Jayden tried not to stare but couldn’t help himself.
Silver stud piercings, each the size of a pinhead, decorated the boy’s cheeks in geometric patterns. Smaller symmetrical patterns adorned his dark green eyebrows. Colorful raised tattoos of creatures Jayden didn’t recognize covered the boy’s arms and neck. Strangely, each three-dimensional tat appeared to move when he did. One particular 3-D tattoo of a tiger creature appeared to turn its head to keep its ink eyes on Jayden.
The green boy touched his chest. “Altair3.” The expression on the alien boy’s face was part crazy eyes and part tight-lipped. He gestured for them to follow him.
The alien kid moved his head with each step. Jayden thought he looked like a fern dude with a cool gait. He was tempted to copy Altair3’s walk, but thought better of it. But that didn’t stop Parker.
Nora gave Parker a sisterly “cut it out” glare. He stopped just before Altair3 glanced back and caught him.
They all jogged to keep up with Altair3 as he quickly crossed the lobby room and entered a massive circular flight hangar. The place was enormous. White-yellowish light glowed from the ceiling.
Jayden counted twenty UFOs stacked like vessels in a boat hanger, along with a few other spacecraft he’d never seen before.
Altair3 pointed to a glowing circular platform. “Please. Take nap in center of glow. It flings you like egg to Sigarr meeting room.”
Take a nap? Jayden tapped on his ear translator plugs and twisted his face. Flings like an egg? He assumed the green boy meant step up on the glowing platform, so that’s what he did. Parker, Nora, and the rest of the group followed his lead. As soon as Jayden stepped onto the metal platform, the hangar disappeared. Suddenly, he found himself with the others inside a small room. He hadn’t felt a thing, not even a jerking motion.
The room resembled an old, rusty-metal railroad car, with metal-ridged walls and a matching ceiling. Dangling from the ceiling were round lights the size of baseballs attached to black cables. A large table made from welded metal scraps with matching chairs filled most of the room.
“Carry your rear,” Altair3 said, pointing to the chairs as he sat down at the head of the long, rusty table.
Jayden smirked at Parker and decided the kid meant they should sit down on the uncomfortable metal chairs. The room was a low-end version of what he and Parker had experienced at the Dione base.
A steel door resembling a submarine hatch burst open, and the kid who called himself Lorcan walked into the room with a tall, thin, lime-green girl. Her green hair draped down below her waist, with tiny pink flowers blooming throughout the tresses. Jayden noticed the irises of her eyes matched the color of the pink flowers. Her petite facial features matched Altair3’s, but her deep-set eyes and curvy full lips gave her a more exotic look. The girl was surprisingly beautiful for being green.
She wore a dozen shiny gold studs embedded in the skin on both sides of her nostrils, and a small silver chain like Altair3’s was woven into the skin outlining each ear. Round, silver stud piercings the size of pinheads dotted her forehead in a cool geometric pattern like silver freckles. Colorful raised tats covered her lime-green forearms and the sides of her neck. Jayden had always thought tats on older girls were pretty rad, but her 3-D tats set a new bar for serious coolness.
“I’m Lorcan and this is Rhea2. She’s from the Royal City on MachuTutu3 located on the far side of Andromeda.” They sat down at the head of the table.
“As in the Andromeda galaxy?” BBgun asked. “Isn’t that over two million light years from Earth?”
Jayden and Parker gave BBgun a puzzled look.
BBgun shrugged. “I got an A in astronomy class,” he whispered.
“Correct.” Lorcan pointed to the fern-headed boy. “I take it Altair3 introduced himself?”
Altair3 interrupted. “Before platform naptime, I sprayed name in their faces.”
The way Altair3 talked was hilarious. Jayden nodded and tried to conceal a grin.
“Good. He commands a mason base on Daxon2 in Andromeda. I’m an Earth grunt like you. Seattle, uptown to be exact. Welcome. Strange place where we live, huh?”
They all remained silent.
“So the Spring Tide Masons . . . you guys are rebels, right?” Nora asked.
“Not necessarily,” Lorcan said, “We like to think of ourselves as liberators. We’re an assortment of teenagers from different worlds that escaped the repression of Space Command and their ridiculous intergalactic war. You’d be amazed at how many planets have humanoid-looking species similar to you and me all over both galaxies.” He paused when Rhea2 leaned in and whispered something to him. “Oh, yeah. But just like on Earth, there are many physical differences between intelligent beings.” He grinned. “Some really do look alien.”
“Like walking plants,” BBgun said.
Altair3 and Rhea2 glared at BBgun.
Jayden elbowed him. “Dude.”
“Sorry, no offense,” BBgun said, and then gazed down.
“True statement,” Lorcan said. “It takes some getting used to, for sure. Some have green hair, some multicolored, some blue. Others have different features. Just about anything you can dream up or code into a video game. Evolution beyond Earth can be pretty wild. In the Zepar case, shape shifters too . . .”
Jayden knew what he meant. Jazu and Shazu were two prime examples of “way different.”
“These days the Spring Tide Masons are a growing group of kids that escaped from Space Command’s battlefields and found each other.”
“Like George Washington,” BBgun said. “He was a freemason.”
“Just listen, would you,” Jayden whispered to him.
“Fine.” BBgun lowered his eyes. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Lorcan said. “He’s right. George Washington was a freemason. In fact, from what I’ve been told, the freemasons existed all through the galaxy a thousand years ago. They inspired our name choice.” A serious expression came over Lorcan’s face. “Once we organized, we took over old, deserted moon bases across both galaxies, like the one you’re on now. As word got out that we existed, more space fighter teens defected and joined us and our cause.”
“And what cause is that?” Jayden asked Lorcan.
“To free kids from being Space Command’s war slaves,” Rhea2 whispered in a soprano voice that sounded as if the air was leaking out of a bicycle tire.
“You mean free from the Atilla, right?” Cleo asked.
“Well, yes, maybe, no—,” Altair3 said.
“You can’t think so two-dimensional,” Lorcan said, his voice rising. “You have to touch and feel our situation.” Rhea2 tapped Lorcan’s arm. He paused and softened his voice. “We needed to free ourselves from Space Command. It’s a long story, but everything you’ve been told so far is a lie. Except for the fact that Space Command uses teenagers to fight for them because we can handle it physically.”
“Nuk’ana and his Zepar army are evil ones,” Rhea2 said.
&nb
sp; Well, yeah. Jayden thought. No kidding. He’d already seen Nuk’ana turn one kid to dust. The Zepar didn’t seem the type to hold back.
“Tell them the history, so they understand,” Lorcan said to Rhea2.
“The Ga3si, or Ga, as they are named,” Rhea2 said, “Showed up all over Earth at same time to contact Earth leaders five of Earth’s years ago.”
“Your military married them and formed a family,” Altair3 said.
Parker smirked and covered his face.
Formed a family? Jayden snickered too. Someone needed to fix Altair3’s translator.
“The Ga agreed to keep the contact classified in order to avoid worldwide panic,” Rhea2 said. “They toiled with Earth leaders retrofitting alien technology so Earth people could use it.”
“Why would they do that?” Nora asked.
“Sort of an offering, a way to welcome Earth into the galactic community of the Milky Way,” Lorcan said. “Build trust. If you want to learn something about somebody, team up with them, right?”
“But it was a trap they often use,” Rhea2 added. “This is how Ga steal from all civilizations they contact.”
“So what happened?” Parker asked.
“Earth leaders discovered Ga had been removing massive amounts of gold, silver, and platinum, along with other valuable Earth resources. Earth governments suddenly knew Ga to be a threat. But sadly, it was too late,” Rhea2 said.
“Figures,” Nora said.
“When all secret armies of your world started to fight back, Ga made Zepar army, led by Leader Nuk’ana, do the dirty work,” Rhea2 said. “Nuk’ana took control of Earth.”
“That novel Nuk’ana spewed out was mostly air farts,” Altair3 said.
Jayden choked, holding back a laugh.
Before anyone else could react, Lorcan interrupted. “He means Nuk’ana’s army conquered Andromeda the same way with the help of the Ga."
“A treaty wasn’t signed?” Jayden asked.
“No. It was a lie,” Lorcan said. “Nuk’ana’s Zepar army now controls all of the civilized worlds in the Milky Way and all the worlds throughout Andromeda.”
Altair3 turned to Rhea2. “Tell how mines in Andromeda pass gas.”
Parker turned to Jayden and whispered under his breath, “Like air farts.”
Jayden covered his face again. Altair3 was killing them.
“Sorry. He means my people in Andromeda have spent millennia perfecting fuel resources,” Rhea2 said. “The fuel my people make powers spacecraft technology the Ga acquired.”
“So Nuk’ana conquered Andromeda to control fuel resources?” Parker asked.
Rhea2 nodded. “Correct, Zepar conquered my people to control fuel and to open up trade routes between Andromeda and Milky Way.”
“So the Ga skim resources they want from every world?” Nora asked.
“Many people call it the Ga tax,” Lorcan said. “All civilizations are allowed to trade with each other, but it comes at a cost.”
“What’s in it for Nuk’ana?” Nora asked.
“Power and control,” Lorcan said. “The Ga could care less about the civilizations conquered by the Zepar army. Think of them as highly-evolved mad scientists.”
“So why is Space Command fighting the Atilla?” Jayden asked.
Lorcan sat back in his chair. “Nuk’ana figured if Space Command controlled Galaxy IC1101, he’d have an unstoppable intergalactic force to invade millions of other galaxies.”
“So Nuk’ana invaded IC1101?” Jayden asked. “They told us it was too far for them to reach.”
Galaxy IC1101 Size Comparison -- Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
“He lied about that too. Long range transport cruisers can make it,” Lorcan said. “When Nuk’ana invaded, it was like disrupting a hornet’s nest inside Galaxy IC1101. Nuk’ana destroyed hundreds of the Atilla worlds and murdered over a hundred trillion souls. The Atilla’s supreme leader, Abaddon, didn’t take too kindly to the intrusion or the mass murder. He sent his galactic armies to the Milky Way and Andromeda. The rumor is their orders are simple. Destroy all civilizations, and then begin terraforming conquered worlds to their liking.”
BBgun groaned. “That’s not cool.”
“Can’t someone talk to the Ga?” Parker asked.
“Very curious,” Rhea2 said. “Just after war broke out with Atilla, all Ga vanished.”
“They hid the ball because they fouled Atilla,” added Altair3.
“The leeches just disappeared,” Lorcan added. “Puff. No trace.”
Parker leaned forward. “Where’d they go?”
“Maybe into the space between the space,” Lorcan said. “Another universe perhaps. No one really knows.”
“Who controls the trade routes now?” Cleo asked.
“Nuk’ana controls the entire Golden Way. But Nuk’ana’s war with the Atilla is taking a toll. Nuk’ana is losing.”
“No kidding,” Jayden said, as he thought back on the blazing skyscrapers and piles of crushed robo pods.
“So the Atilla are kicking our butts because Nuk’ana threw the first punch?” Nora asked.
“Truth,” Rhea2 said.
Lorcan nodded. “The Atilla are eliminating the threat to them, so to speak.”
“Threat as in us,” Nora mumbled.
“Why can’t we just tell the Atilla we want peace?” Parker asked Lorcan.
“Because Nuk’ana is determined to keep expanding trade routes no matter the cost,” Rhea2 said.
“Greedy bully baby. He wins to fight,” added Altair3.
Jayden was starting to understand the fern-headed boy. Nuk’ana fights to win because he’s greedy.
“When those UFOs trapped us, I thought I saw Nuk’ana on the UFO’s display panel,” Nora said.
“Yeah, wasn’t Nuk’ana in one of the UFOs?” Parker asked.
“Why didn’t you just blow up his ship?” BBgun asked.
“Just a hologram,” Rhea2 said. “His communication was patched into your UFO. All the UFOs you saw were flown by Space Command teens like all of us.”
“We avoid hurting innocents that are being forced to fight,” Lorcan said. “It’s a fine line, but that’s why we only incapacitated their ships.”
“Nuk’ana never comes out to play,” added Altair3.
“That’s right,” said Lorcan. “Leader Nuk’ana stays at a secret location somewhere in the Milky Way.”
“Many dream to see him spinning atoms in grinder,” Altair3 said.
“What happened to the kids in the UFOs you downed?” Cleo asked.
“We invited them to join us,” Rhea2 said.
“But they must decide. Most are still in shock and scared of Nuk’ana,” Lorcan said. “Some don’t want to join us.”
“Then what?” Cleo asked.
“To answer your question, Cleo, the recent encounter is a good example. We kept two of their UFOs. But I immediately sent one UFO back to Space Command with two girls and one boy who didn’t want to join us,” Lorcan said.
Jayden peered at Lorcan. Something about him seemed strange, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“You wonder about me?” Lorcan, asked. “Is that it?”
Jayden hesitated, then nodded. He reads minds too?
“I was one of Nuk’ana’s officer apprentices, so was Rhea2. We found out what was going on and decided to stop watching teens die at Nuk’ana’s hand.”
“But fighting against Nuk’ana? Isn’t that a little ambitious?” Nora asked.
“How’s that?” Lorcan asked.
Nora continued. “A bunch of kids against thousands of Nuk’ana’s shape-shifting Zepar? Seems like the odds are impossible.”
“Agreed. We hope that when more kids find out the truth, they’ll join us and rebel against Space Command,” Lorcan replied. “Our size grows larger each day.”
“Whatever,” Nora said with a wave of her hand. “Look, we just need to get out of here and go back to Earth!”
“Yeah, I want to go home!” BBgun said.
Jayden’s head hurt. “Can’t you get us back to Earth?”
“We have our hands full here with Space Command. Not to mention Earth is on the other side of our galaxy. We can’t afford to take the time or resources to get you there now. I’m sorry.”
Nora scowled. “In the meantime, we’re stuck here?” She took a breath, and then blurted out, “Will our parents be safe?”
“Probably. Nuk’ana is sidetracked at the moment with his losing war efforts.”
Nora broke the silence. “Can’t you please let us borrow a transport? We’ll be on our way. You can have it back once we get home.”
Jayden was thinking the same thing. They needed to get their parents to safety before Nuk’ana figured out where they lived.
“You’d need our transport ship to get there,” Lorcan said. “We only have two galactic transport ships. I’m sorry. We can’t risk sending one to Earth.”
Regardless of what Lorcan said, they were going home, Jayden thought. It was just a matter of when.
“Take some time and get cleaned up,” Lorcan said. “Rhea2 will brief you later on our next mission.”
“You’re putting us to work?” asked BBgun.
“I am afraid so. We need your help, unless, of course, you want to go back to Space Command.”
They all shook their heads.
Jayden needed time to figure out another plan. “Sure. We’ll help.”
Nora and Parker glared at him. He discretely gestured at them. For now. Nora and Parker seemed to get his message. They’d have a better chance getting back to Earth by pretending to team up with Lorcan and his masons until they came up with a better plan.
“Good,” Lorcan said. “Now get some rest. You’ll feel better.”
“We have a group living pod set up for you all,” Lorcan said. “We’ve provided you with rations as well.”
Lorcan and Rhea2 abruptly stood and exited the room without looking back.
“Skip with me,” Altair3 said.
Parker started to skip. Nora pushed him.
They followed Altair3 for about ten minutes through rusty metal hallways with a few open doors. Teen boys and girls about their ages worked inside the rooms. One area resembled a chemistry lab, with bubbling mixtures and steam filling the air. Another room reminded Jayden of Nora’s bedroom—full of computer equipment.
Altair3 pulled opened a heavy hatch door that appeared to belong on a battleship. He pointed. “In. Go. Dream for a while. I’ll tunnel back in six.” He turned around and walked away.
Jayden, Parker, Nora, BBgun, and Cleo entered the living pod that was a larger version of the conference room they were just in, rusty walls and all.
Jayden spotted five camping-style cots at one end of the room, and a bathroom and shower at the other end. In the middle, a metal table held an inviting pitcher of clear water, a dozen silver cartons that looked like juice boxes, and a large metal bowl of foil-wrapped cubes. Each cube was about twice the size of a game die. A wooden bowl next to the metal bowl contained strange-looking fruit: red oranges, black apples, and purple bananas. Rosa would not be impressed, he thought.
From the look of the room, sleeping and eating were a low priority in their military-barracks-style living quarters. Jayden grabbed two handfuls of foil-wrapped cubes, and then made a beeline to a cot and sat down. He stuffed his face with cubes. The sudden blast of flavor surprised him. “Wow,” he mumbled through a mouth full of expanding cubes.
One cube tasted like meatloaf and potatoes, another like steak and eggs, and another like lasagna. He chomped down as many as he could, as fast as he could. A few minutes later, he was beyond stuffed. It was as if each cube had expanded in his belly to a full-sized meal.
BBgun and Cleo unwrapped foil cubes and nibbled on them as if they were sampling candy. “This one tastes like a hamburger and fries!” BBgun shouted. “I can even taste catsup.”
“This one’s mac and cheese,” Cleo muttered with her mouth full. She shoved them in faster than she could swallow.
Jayden let out a burp. Aaahhh. He didn’t care that Nora and Parker were standing next to him. Before long, everyone was burping, and laughter echoed off the metal walls. It turned into a “who could burp louder” contest.
Then just as quickly as the burp fest erupted, it ended in a pity party.
Parker groaned. “This totally sucks.”
It was as if they all remembered at the same time that they were still farther away from home than they could ever imagine.
“I’m—I’m sorry,” Jayden muttered. “It’s my fault we’re in this mess.”
“Like I said before, get over it, Killgeek,” Nora said.
“Who knew the galaxy was filled to the brim with aliens?” Parker asked.
“Drake did,” Jayden mumbled. He turned to Nora. “We need to get you access to a computer.”
Nora’s eyes went wide. “Like the kind we saw in that room down the hallway?”
“Bingo,” Jayden replied.
