Galileo (Battle of the Species)

by Meaghan Sinclair

  “We heard the drones before we saw them, like a thunder rumbling over the trees. When they came over the mountain, they started firing large blasts into the picnic area, exploding trees and ground all around us. People were screaming and running for shelter until a rotund energy shield suddenly covered the area.

  “We turned to the source of the shield and saw the Talelle family with their hands up, releasing the energy from their bodies. After a few minutes, our own drones came, shooting down the enemy. It became so quiet once everything had settled. Out of all the explosions, no one had been hurt and no one understood why. Then everyone began talking, piecing together what had happened. ‘I was pushed to the side by someone…but I didn’t see anyone,’ one said. ‘I could have sworn the blast was coming right for me, but then it veered to the left at the last second.’ After a while everyone understood that it had been the Talelle protecting us the entire time. Even the children had defended us, despite how we had treated them.

  “My parents and I looked over and saw the Talelle packing their things up to leave. My mom pleaded with my father to do something, so my father went over and asked if they’d like to join our family and find another place to enjoy the rest of the picnic together.

  “They have been close friends with our family for many years now and are the reason I came to the Galileo. There are incredible species in the Federation we will never know unless we take a chance and invite them to our picnic.”

  Meta looked up, indicating she was done and the students knocked on their desks as she sat down. She looked over at Renn to hear him project, You were great. She mouthed the words, “Thank you” and couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the class.

  ***

  Renn, Dylan, and Rudy finished their dinner and were headed back to the dorms to study when they passed Tabit, Pyxis and Vela in the corridor.

  Tabit looked at Renn and said, “Hey, great job yesterday,” as he passed by.

  “Thanks,” Renn grinned and continued walking down the hall.

  “Wait a second,” Tabit said.

  Renn stopped when the three Mindeerians looked at each other and walked up to Renn.

  “Do you guys hear something?” Pyxis asked.

  “What, like thoughts?” Vela replied, playing along.

  “Yeah.”

  “You know what, I don’t hear anything,” Tabit said laughing.

  Renn laughed back. “Yeah, all right. I learned how to block.”

  The three Mindeerians cheered.

  “Finally!”

  “It’s about time!”

  “Man, that was starting to get a little embarrassing,” Tabit teased.

  “Okay, okay,” Renn said.

  The Mindeerians said goodbye and headed into the mess hall.

  Renn, Dylan, and Rudy walked down one of the outer halls on the ship to take the scenic route with windows. They stopped, staring out the window at a large planet in the distance, seeing tiny sparks of light crackle intermittently all over the planet.

  “What is that?” Renn asked, confused at what he was looking at.

  “War,” Dylan said.

  “What planet is that?” Renn asked, shocked he could see the explosions from space.

  “Temin,” Rudy replied.

  “Who’s Temin at war with?” Renn asked, not remembering seeing anything on the news.

  “It’s another world war,” Dylan said.

  “Going back to Earth was meant to bring peace,” Rudy said in an accusatory tone.

  “Man, humans will always be at war with each other,” Dylan said. “Going back to Earth wouldn’t have changed anything. The Earthlings were right; we would have destroyed it again.”

  Renn opened his mouth to reply, when an alarm blared throughout the halls and Ava’s voice resonated throughout the ship.

  “All students are to return to their dorm rooms immediately. Please proceed in an orderly fashion.” The alarm blared again and Ava repeated her command once more in a calm, crystal clear voice.

  “What's going on?” Rudy asked, but the question went unanswered, since everyone for once was as clueless as he was.

  Tom was at the entrance of the boys’ dorms, with a worried expression, looking at the students walking in. His eyes scanned the hall, counting students and checking them off his mental list. “Pick up the pace, guys,” he said.

  “Tom, what’s going on?” Rudy asked.

  “Everything will be explained later, please keep moving, kids,” Tom said.

  They passed students lingering in the common area, who had been asleep when the alarms had begun to blare and received an unwelcomed dose of adrenaline into their systems from their sleep regulators.

  Dylan, Renn, and Rudy walked into their room, finding Leo relaxed on his bed of ice.

  “You think the ship’s under attack?” Leo asked.

  “No, they’d just jump portals if that were the case,” Dylan said.

  “Yeah, but the attacker would just follow them through the portal. What difference would that make?” Rudy argued.

  “The portal destinations are programmed for the Galileo only, no other ship could access them, even by force,” Dylan added.

  Renn lay on his bed listening, until he felt his throat start swelling up from the inside. He opened his mouth as wide as he could, trying to inhale more oxygen. His palms turned blue as he began to panic. He tried to get the guys’ attention and call out, but couldn't get enough air in his lungs to do it.

  Upgrade watched him, barking louder and louder until everyone turned to tell the dog to be quiet. Renn pointed to his throat, gasping for air.

  Dylan ran to the door, slamming the emergency alarm next to it. The door slid open, with a red light flashing above it, beckoning for help. Renn’s friends rushed to his side, but there was nothing they could do.

  Tom ran in, while the boys moved out of the way. He put his hand above Renn and red beams illuminated through the lines on Tom’s palm. He scanned Renn’s chest, leading up to his throat, then lifted him into his arms and raced out the door.

  Renn felt his stomach give way when he realized Tom had jumped over the railing and they were now falling to the ground, four stories below. Tom landed long enough to gain traction, then raced out of the dorm towards the medical bay.

  “Get out of the way!” Tom yelled.

  Professors and ship-bots scrunched up against hallway walls to avoid getting trampled.

  “You’re going to be okay, Renn. Just hang in there,” Tom said.

  Renn watched the walls turn into a blurry mess and tried to close his eyes. Tom was running so fast, it was starting to make him nauseated.

  They ran into the medical bay and Tom laid Renn on a table, allowing the other machines to take over. He heard three loud thunks and saw three bursts of light as Ava’s scanner hovered above his body.

  A tube slithered up his arm, inserting a needle into a vein, and patches self-adhered to his body, monitoring his vitals. Ava’s medicine coursed through his body and his throat stopped closing in. Metal clamps opened Renn’s mouth, allowing a tube to slither into his throat and slink down the bit of passageway that was still open.

  Renn felt air fill his lungs, giving him a dizzying euphoria from the oxygen, having been deprived of it for too long.

  Tom had already left the room, running back to the other students who might also require his help.

  Renn tried to relax, but could hear the medical bay was full. He looked over to his right and saw Tabit staring back at him from the next table.

  Hey. Are you all right? Renn asked, but Tabit wasn't moving. He just stared back at Renn with glassy eyes and blue lips. Renn's heart raced when he realized Tabit was dead. He turned his head to the other side and saw a medic-bot pull a blanket over Pyxis' frozen face.

  Renn's heart beat faster and faster until an alarm on his heart monitor sounded. He heard his sleep regulator beep and his eyes became heavy as everything around him became a fuzzy haze. He closed his eyes, falling int
o a deep sleep.

  When Renn woke up, Lockrin was sitting by his bedside, surrounded by all of Renn's friends. Tubes were retracting and patches were peeling themselves off.

  “What happened?” Renn asked, his throat dry and sore.

  “Ava is usually very good at protecting us from food that will cause us harm,” Lockrin explained. “Unfortunately, someone broke into the system and made an alteration. Everyone aboard the ship was given burlia, a harmless herb to most species, making some species sick, but it is lethal for Mindeerians. You have your human blood and Tom to thank for surviving it.”

  “Who died?” Renn asked.

  “Child, please just rest now,” Lockrin pleaded with him.

  “I want to know,” Renn said, while his eyes watered. He looked over to his friends, but their faces and thoughts gave nothing away.

  “Tabit, Pyxis, Vela…and Professor Paro passed away,” Lockrin said. “I’m sorry there was nothing we could do.”

  “What about Desh?” Renn asked.

  “Desh was thankfully unharmed,” Lockrin said. “Luckily, he was in the simulation room with his friends and had yet to eat, when the alarm went off.”

  Renn wasn’t sure what to think of that. He didn’t know what to say, thinking about his great uncle, Tabit, Pyxis, and Vela. He was already regretting not having tried harder to get to know them.

  “I’ll leave you with your friends,” Lockrin said, patting Renn’s arm with his long blue hand.

  His friends got closer while Lockrin walked away.

  “Man, we thought you weren’t gonna make it,” Dylan said, visibly shaken up by it.

  Renn looked over at Meta, who had swollen red eyes and was trying to hold back more tears. “Hey, none of that now. Come here,” Renn said, putting his arm out for her. She crawled onto the bed and put her head on his shoulder, snuggling into him while the others continued talking.

  “Who would be able to access Ava?” Renn said, thinking out loud.

  “They must have been on the ship,” Dylan said.

  “Okay, who on the ship would know how to do that?” Renn asked.

  Dylan and Leo looked at each other.

  “Etienne,” Dylan said.

  “Why would Etienne do it?” Joss asked. “He isn’t exactly the serial killer type.”

  “He might do it if Desh asked him to,” Renn replied, feeling guilty as he thought it and even guiltier that he said it, but the dream in the cave always loomed. Maybe the cave wasn’t the first assassination attempt.

  “What?” Lux asked, flabbergasted. “He’s your brother! It could have been the Eminites who figured out how to do it. They’re the ones after Mindeerians, aren’t they? Just tell me why Desh would do it,” Lux asked, becoming more upset by the second.

  “Because Desh spent his entire life being told that he would be captain of the Quintessence until the day he found out that we were brothers. Lux, you should have seen the look on his face when he said that I might be captain instead of him.”

  “It’s a question of whether Desh puts the Quintessence before himself or not,” Dylan added. “If he puts the Quintessence before himself, then he would stand back and let Renn lead, if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. If he doesn’t, then he would get rid of the one person standing in his way. Renn.”

  Meta cleared her throat and everyone followed her gaze to the door where Desh entered. He walked over with a worried expression on his face and took a seat on the empty bed beside Renn.

  “How are you feeling?” Desh asked.

  “Fine,” Renn replied.

  “Great, great,” Desh said, but looked around, as everyone avoided eye contact with him.

  Renn could tell Desh was starting to rummage for thoughts in his friends, trying to figure out what was going on, when he finally spoke up before Desh could find out for himself. “Where were you when it happened?” Renn asked.

  “I was in the simulation room with Grus and Kia,” Desh said.

  “That’s convenient,” Renn said, mumbling.

  “What's that supposed to mean?” Desh asked.

  “I mean everyone ate but you,” Renn replied.

  “You think I did this?” Desh asked, shocked at what he was hearing. Desh looked around at everyone, each one looking away, fidgeting. “Why, because I’m alive? Come on! Lux?” Desh pleaded.

  Lux looked up at him. “He almost died, Desh,” she said.

  “Please leave,” Renn mumbled.

  “Unbelievable,” Desh said, shaking his head. “Fine. I'm sorry you all feel that way.” He left the medical bay, not saying another word.

  Renn was discharged a few hours later and made his way back to the dorms with his friends. He didn’t say much for the rest of the night, except to make sure that everyone in the dorms knew that Tom had saved his life. The students treated the android with more respect after that day.

  Classes went on, but Renn had a hard time concentrating. The only thing the school could find out was that the hack didn't come from inside the ship. He acknowledged to Desh that it wasn’t him with an “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah,” Desh replied, still looking hurt at the strain of distrust lingering in Renn’s voice. Desh wasn’t sure what to do about it. He hadn’t exactly been giving Renn reasons to trust him since they had boarded the ship.

  Lux walked up to Desh after class, trying to start a conversation with him. He was still mortified that she would think he was capable of killing his own brother and for that moment he hated her for it. “Whatever,” Desh said, walking away.

  The relationship between Desh and Renn was still strained when a couple of weeks later, Renn sat at a table with Leo and Dylan, eating their latest experiment, pangot soup. The broth itself was pretty good, but the meat had a texture like oysters, which always made Renn gag (to the amusement of his fisherman father). Renn was playing with his food when he got a nudge from Dylan. Renn looked up and followed his gaze to Desh, Kia, and Etienne walking up to the table.

  “Hey,” Desh said.

  The guys all nodded and said “Hi,” looking at Renn, ready to follow his lead.

  Desh and Renn stared at each other, having what looked to everyone else like a Mindeerian conversation, but any telepath could tell that nothing was being said.

  Kia finally spoke up, breaking the awkward silence. “So, we were wondering if you guys wanted to hang out in the simulation room. Maybe get some sun.”

  Everyone looked at Renn, waiting for him to decide.

  “Thanks, but we were planning on going back to the dorms to work on our robotics projects,” Renn said.

  Kia and Etienne looked over at Desh.

  Desh nodded. “Okay. Well, if you guys change your minds, you know where to find us.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Renn replied.

  They all watched Kia and Etienne follow Desh out of the mess hall.

  “I don't know,” Leo said. “The school said he couldn’t have had anything to do with the poisoning…it may not be such a bad idea to hang out again.”

  Renn thought about it a second and looked at Dylan.

  “I’m still not his biggest fan, but he is your brother. It’s your call,” Dylan said.

  “What about the dream?” Renn asked.

  “The one where white boy kills you?” Dylan replied.

  “Yeah, that one,” Renn said. “Just because he didn’t poison the Mindeerians doesn’t mean he wouldn’t rather have me gone. I just wish I’d stop having that stupid dream.”

  “You ever have other dreams like that?” Leo asked.

  “Yeah…” Renn said.

  “Do they always come true?” Leo continued.

  “Yeah,” Renn said.

  “I didn’t know Mindeerians were seers,” Dylan said.

  “Most aren’t,” Renn replied, having hoped that that was going to be the end of it. Leo and Dylan, however, continued staring at him, waiting for him to elaborate until Renn finally gave in. “You know, on Earth we have this saying. ‘Everyone’
s good at one thing.’ It’s the same for Mindeerians,” Renn replied. “But that ‘one thing’ isn’t always something cool. The only things I see are in dreams and they’re always nightmares. Like, traumatic events that are so haunting, I can feel them coming months or weeks before they happen.”

  “It would be cool if you could stop something bad from happening,” Dylan added.

  “Well, yeah, but so far I can’t,” Renn replied. “If I can figure out what’s going to happen, I end up fulfilling the prophecy by trying to avoid it.”

  “Yes, but you still have a warning. Like if you see your own death while wearing a red shirt, then never wear a red shirt,” Dylan said.

  “Doesn’t work,” Renn replied. “I tried that once when I was having dreams of falling out of a tree and breaking my arm while wearing my blue sneakers, so I stopped wearing blue sneakers. Then I started having dreams about falling out of the tree wearing white sneakers, and I did fall out of the tree wearing those stupid white sneakers.”

  “Why not just stop climbing trees?” Dylan asked.

  “For like…ever?” Renn said. “I’d rather break an arm.”

  “Oh, Lord,” Dylan said, giving up.

  “Wait a minute. So you did change the prophecy!” Leo said. “You’re focusing on the bad part, but the original prophecy was about blue sneakers. Even changing the color means you have control of your future. You could have chosen to stop climbing trees. It was still your choice.”

  “It’s not always my choice though!” Renn said. “Before I came here, I had dreams of the Aranea and Eminites attacking…”

  “Then you could have stopped the attack!” Dylan interrupted.

  “How?” Renn asked. “I had no idea they were there for me. I didn’t recognize what species they were, or where we were, or what we were doing there. None of it made sense. And when I tried to explain it to my dad, it just came out as, ‘Dad, these huge spiders and tailless lizards attacked us…somewhere…”

  “But you die in the dream you’re having now?” Leo asked.

  “Yeah,” Renn said, then took a deep breath to stop the panicking feeling he would always get when he thought about it.

  “Okay, okay,” Dylan said before Leo started crying. “We can figure this out. Maybe you’re just misinterpreting it. What do you see in the dream?”