Jack thanked him and sauntered back to the car. His mood had been bordering on foul before. Now it had shoved over into cesspool nasty.
Anna was in the driver’s seat. That made Jack’s mood darker. He wanted to feel the steering wheel in his hands. At least then he’d feel like he had some semblance of control over his life. At least then he’d have something to do other than watch mile markers.
Jack sat down heavily in the passenger seat. “I thought it was my turn to drive?”
“I’m doing fine. You look tired. I thought you could rest more and take over when we stop for dinner in a few hours.”
Anna held the foul-smelling pickle in her left hand and started the car. “You’re in a mood.”
Jack didn’t answer and sank into the seat. He’d worked up a good stew of negativity and didn’t want anything to spoil it.
Jack had never known a girl to leave a guy alone and stew. Anna was no exception. “What’s going on, Jack? It’s not like you to be so sour.” She said this while she noisily crunched on a dill pickle.
“How do you know what I’m like? You’ve known me for what? Like a whole seventy-two hours now?”
Anna smacked her lips as she finished off the pickle then took a swig of her soda. “More like eighty.” She smiled at him.
He didn’t smile back. “Longest damned eighty hours of my life.” It wasn’t by far. He’d had far worse stretches, not the least of which was the two weeks in Commander Sturgis’ cave.
“Wow, you are foul. Go ahead and stay in a funk if you want. I just wondered what happened to get you in such a mood. We’ve hardly spoken all day.”
“It’s not you, okay. Not everything is about you.”
“I didn’t say it was. Look, we’re not even halfway there and it’s going to be a long drive, especially if you’re like this the whole way. So if there’s something that will make you feel better – if you want to talk about anything, then –”
Jack hit the dashboard. It sent a puff of dust in the air that made Anna cough. “It’s my birthday, okay? My goddamned eighteenth birthday and I’m in a smelly fucking car with a stranger instead of with my family and the people I love. So yeah, I’m in a bit of a mood, and no, there’s nothing you can do about it. Just drive the damned car and leave me alone.”
He turned his back to her and hoped she got the hint that he really, truly did not want to talk to her about it. He didn’t want to talk at all.
Thankfully Anna stayed quiet. She turned the radio on, and Tejano music blared. The music grated Jack’s nerves, but he’d give her the music if it meant he could be alone with his self-pity and loneliness.
The sun was warm coming in the window. Jack soaked up the heat and balled up a jacket and put it under his head to use as a pillow.
When he woke, the sun was just north of the horizon. The sky was deep coral and lavender with bursts of gold spinning away from a few low, wispy clouds.
He felt bad for snapping at Anna. It wasn’t her fault that his girlfriend had flown away from him in a spaceship or that he couldn’t go home if he wanted to stay out of jail and off Sewell’s shit list.
“Look, I’m sorry I snapped at you. I’m having a bad day, okay?”
Anna nodded and walked toward the restaurant. Her long hair bounced about her shoulders and her hips swayed gently as she walked. The setting sun shone on her hair and made it look like it was somehow lit from within. Jack wondered what it would feel like to run his hands through it.
The parking lot was long and wide, and Anna had parked near the back. There was a huge neon cowboy hovering over the restaurant by a sign that said ‘The Big Texan.’ Another sign announced it was home to the ‘72-Ounce Steak’. Of all the unlikely things Jack had done with Anna Sturgis so far, this was by far the most surreal. It seemed like the last place Miss Spinach Salad would choose to eat. Jack looked toward the horizon in every direction as he walked and realized she likely didn’t have much choice. There was nothing but open range in every direction.
They checked in at the hostess stand set below walls filled from eye level to ceiling with stuffed heads of dead animals. Erika wouldn’t have set another foot further in the place no matter how hungry she was. The thought of her made Jack’s hurt redouble.
The huge menu nearly covered Anna completely as she read it. Jack thought for sure she’d order water with lemon and a salad. But she surprised him and ordered a Shock Top and beef filet.
“I’ll have the same,” Jack said.
The waiter carded him and grudgingly accepted the fact that Steve Harper was indeed twenty-two years old that day and of legal age to drink the beer he’d just ordered.
Anna maintained her aloof mask. Jack wished he could reel his angry outburst back in. He hated conflict.
When the beers came, Anna began to take a sip but stopped. She held her glass up. “A toast,” she said.
Jack halted himself from taking the sip he was ready to take. He raised his glass as well.
“To you, Jack Wilson. Happy birthday.”
They clinked their glasses and each took a long draw of the bubbly liquid. It went down smooth and warmed Jack’s insides.
After they sucked down half their beer and made the bread into a pile of crumbs, the mood had lightened considerably. They made small talk about inconsequential things and got into a raging debate about which franchise was better: Star Trek or Star Wars. Jack argued on behalf of Star Wars while Anna made a passionate argument for Star Trek. The truth was, Jack didn’t care. He was just happy to learn that his driving companion liked either. Most girls he’d met wouldn’t have known the difference between the two. Heck, even Erika rolled her eyes if he mentioned Star Wars.
They stuffed themselves with French fries and steak cooked rare. The waiter cleared the dishes, and Jack was getting ready to hit the head when a horde of servers came toward them, singing happy birthday and carrying a piece of chocolate cake with a lit sparkler coming out of the top. Jack had thus far lived his life without having to succumb to the embarrassment of a whole restaurant staring at him while having people sing happy birthday to him off key. The two beers he’d downed made him chill with it.
The sparkler reflected in Anna’s twinkling eyes as she sang along with them. She smiled, and the fire cast a soft glow on her pink skin. Maybe it was the beers talking, but Jack had the urge to kiss her. It was like for a brief moment, he was living someone else’s life. If someone was looking at them, they might think the two were boyfriend and girlfriend out for a special meal to celebrate his day. Kissing her would look natural. Be natural.
If she was his girlfriend. If his girlfriend wasn’t a billion miles away.
Jack forced the thoughts of Erika down and put a smile on. The sparkler died down and the magic of its fire was gone. Anna was a business companion forced on him by the situation, and he was no more than that to her. She was making the best of it. He should too.
He dug into the gooey cake and shoved the plate toward Anna so she could eat some as well. She ate a bite. A smile crept across her face as the sugar dissolved in her mouth.
“If we keep this up, I’m going to be as big as a house by the time this is over.” She took another huge bite.
Jack answered by digging his fork into the chocolate fluff icing. It wasn’t the eighteenth birthday he’d imagined or how he’d hoped to usher in adulthood. But he figured he’d always remember it, drinking beer and eating cake with one of the wealthiest and most beautiful women in the world.
They got into the car and Anna undid the top button on her jeans. Jack laughed and did the same.
They found a cash-only hotel. Jack was both relieved and disappointed when Anna requested a room with two beds. They wormed their way into sleeping bags so they didn’t have to take their chances with getting bedbugs. As Jack drifted off to sleep that night of his eighteenth birthday, he decided that life was better when he kept himself in the here and now without thoughts about his past or his future. Without thoughts about Erika a
nd what might have been. Or about his mom and how sick with worry and grief she must be. It was too unbearable to consider the things he had no control over.
In the here and now, he had spent a very pleasant evening with a woman that, as it turned out, was an amiable companion. He was now Steve Harper. Jack Wilson’s past was full of might-have-beens. His future held the prospect of going up against Croft’s men to liberate Alecto, who was just as likely to kill him as help him. With his belly full of good food and drink, and Anna lightly snoring next to him, Steve Harper contentedly slept away the last few hours of Jack Wilson’s eighteenth birthday.
18
ERIKA
Erika felt Ian’s forehead with the back of her hand as her mom had done to her when she was a child. He was still burning with fever. She smoothed his hair. It was wet and matted against his head. His face and his lips were cracked and dry. His whole body trembled as he shook with the fever. “I’m going to find medicine for you. Hang in there, Ian. I will be back. I won’t leave you.” She bent and kissed his forehead and hoped that he could, on some level, hear her.
Erika once again pressed her hand firmly to Xenos’ shoulder. She wanted to remind her that she’d make good on her threat if she didn’t cooperate. Xenos trembled slightly beneath Erika’s fingers. Erika was sorry to have to scare Xenos that way, but she didn’t see an alternative.
Xenos led them in the opposite direction she’d walked when she had tried to help Erika and Ian escape. Erika didn’t know if that was a good sign or bad one.
They twisted down dark, narrow hallways. Each looked exactly like the last except that the further they walked, the more crumbly the floor became. It was as though there was little to no upkeep in the furthest reaches of the place.
Dr. Randall walked silently behind them. They didn’t see a single Conexus.
“Doesn’t it seem strange that we haven’t seen any Conexus?” Erika asked.
“A bit,” Dr. Randall said. “But every day they drag me through the halls to the place where they interrogate me and I don’t see any others in the halls. It’s almost like – well, it’s like they deal with us here but live somewhere else.”
“Yes,” Xenos said. “The Conexus do not live here. They live in Upper Tro. All live there.”
“Well, that explains it, I guess. Still, since we’re like prisoners, you’d think they’d guard us more heavily.”
“Why? We can’t get out of the room without one of them, and even if we did – like now – where are we going to go?” Dr. Randall said.
He had a good point. She had no way of knowing if the surface of the planet was habitable. If Tro and the greys were all there was on the planet, then their only hope for escape was to find a way to use the same technology that had brought them there to chart a course for home.
Xenos led them through a wide doorway that looked as though it once had a door but was now only a hole in the wall. She stepped over a pile of rubble, and Erika tripped on it before realizing how large it was. This hallway was darker than the others. And it smelled awful. Erika tried to place the smell and finally hit on it. The place smelled moldy.
“Dr. Randall, do you smell that?” Her voice was full of excitement.
Dr. Randall had just stumbled on the rubble and came up behind her. He sniffed the air. “Well, it’s – I’ll be damned. It’s water. From the smell of it, lots of water.”
Erika gave Xenos a slight shove to let her know they were ready to proceed. Even Xenos walked more slowly to keep herself from tripping over broken concrete and small divots on the ground.
They walked for maybe a hundred yards down the crumbly corridor and arrived at a dead end. In the dark, it was difficult to see what lay before them, but the entire wall ahead appeared covered in bumps and curves.
“I can’t see a darn thing. I wish we had a flashlight,” Erika said.
“Flashlight?” Xenos asked.
“A portable light. Just any light. I’m sick of not being able to see anything.”
Xenos went to the right side of the small room they were in and did something. A row of dim lights along the floor flickered on. She pressed something else, and another dim row of lights came on overhead. It wasn’t as much light as Erika would have liked, but it was enough to illuminate the wall before them. I hope this doesn’t alert the Conexus that we’re down here. She looked back down the corridor, but they remained alone.
“Well, we found something,” Erika said. The entire wall, at least ten feet high and as many feet long, was covered in what looked like a very old apparatus of pipes and conduit with what looked like the housing of an old electrical and computer system. But the wires were eaten away, the dials gone.
Dr. Randall stumbled as he pressed forward. “What the –”
Dr. Randall’s mouth was open wide in awe, his lower lip practically hanging to the floor. Dr. Randall gingerly touched a conduit. His fingers moved slowly over the wall of broken wires and rusty pipes.
“You okay?” Erika asked.
“It’s – it can’t be. It can’t be.”
“What? What can’t be?”
But Dr. Randall was lost as if in a trance, his fingers moving, touching, his eyes wandering and taking it all in.
“Dr. Randall – what is it?”
His mouth hung open with surprise, but there was wetness pooling at the corner of his eyes. “I – I know this place.”
“How can you know this? You’ve never been here before.”
“But I have. I’ve been here many times. I know this place.” He smiled; then tears streamed down his face. The crying gave way to a laugh that was as disturbing as it was loud and out of place in the dim quiet of the alien world.
“Dr. Randall – snap out of it. Don’t wig out on me now. Can we use this?”
He wiped his face with the back of his hand and grabbed Erika by the shoulders. “Of course we can. It’s exactly what we need.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I built it.”
19
U’VOL
U’Vol’s magnificent, richly embroidered ceremonial robes created a billowing cloud of red about him as he walked through the streets of Zhichta on his way to meeting with the Council of U. The sandstone pavement was the color of weathered bone and the stone buildings a checkerboard of beige, tan and parchment. The city was aglow under the bright midday sun. Though he would miss his wives and children keenly while way, he would not miss the overly hot monochromatic world on which they lived. He preferred the lush green of Ghapta to the endless sea of sands of Uktah.
As he passed through the open market, shopkeepers bowed and children ran after him, hoping to touch his robes as he passed. U’Vol waved, took the hands of old ladies and graced them with generous smiles. Even among the M’Uktah, U’Vol was a towering figure of a man. At over eight feet tall, he could be seen by most everyone as he moved through the marketplace. By the time he was midway through the market, a throng surrounded him. U’Vol was good natured about it. They all wanted to speak to and touch the man who nearly single-handedly quashed the Kreelan uprising, making him a near legend in his own time. The citizens had high hopes that he would secure the new food stock and end their fears of starvation.
Despite taking the time to soothe Eponia and greet commoners in the market, he was only a few minutes late for the council meeting. U’Vol walked swiftly to make up for the time. A thin film of sweat beaded on his bald head as he entered the grand foyer of the halls of the council. Great columns of smooth reddish-tan stone atop gleaming red-flecked creamy marble created an impressive entryway. Two guards stood sentry at the closed doors of the council. They pushed the heavy stone doors wide to allow him entry. They didn’t need to ask for identification. All knew he was U’Vol Vree’Kah, the noble hunter captain.
As he entered, all rose to greet him except Vrath, the Lij, High King of Uktah. All twelve council members bowed to him and he bowed to each of them, including U’Baht, his mentor and friend. He gree
ted Vrath last and bowed deeply to him. Vrath was old, even for a M’Uktah, and had been Lij for the last one hundred of his two hundred and forty years. Vrath had ascended to become Lij the year that U’Vol was born. Vrath had always favored U’Vol and had personally chosen U’Vol’s first wife for him. It was in large part due to Vrath’s influence that U’Vol had ascended to captain his own ship after the Kreelan uprising.
U’Vol softly kissed Vrath’s deeply wrinkled outstretched hand. It had become bristled with coarse hair on top, as was common for the elderly M’Uktah. Only the Vree’Kah were genetically altered to be entirely hairless. The rest of the M’Uktah population, though not furry, had thick plentiful hair on their heads. Males frequently grew luxurious beards, sometimes long enough to reach the floor. As they aged, many M’Uktah’s hair on their arms and legs grew more coarse, darker and longer, giving them the appearance of having thin fur. Vrath’s hairy hands showed his advancing age more than the wrinkles around his eyes.
Vrath touched the top of U’Vol’s head and he rose. Vrath’s old spine was arthritic and he was stooped over. U’Vol stood nearly three feet taller than the stooped old man dressed in billowy royal blue robes embroidered with threads spun of the finest gold. Vrath’s orange eyes had become slightly cloudy, but they twinkled as he smiled up at U’Vol.
“You honor the council with your presence, U’Vol. We know that you have many things to attend to in preparation for your journey. Please, be seated.”
U’Vol helped the king to his wide, richly carved chair. The dark, nearly black wood was said to be from the last tree that had grown on Uktah in the age before the first Lij, well before the time of starships.
U’Vol took the seat of honor to Vrath’s left. It was a place reserved for those invited to speak at the Council of U. It was not occupied very frequently. U’Vol felt the eyes of the council upon him, especially the eyes of Doj’Owa, the supreme cleric of the Temple of Doj and the spiritual leader of the M’Uktah. Her golden yellow eyes, much the color of U’Vol’s, shone bright and clear, her pupils narrow oblong slits. If he had not been denuded, his hair would be standing on end from the discomfort she caused him. Her stare made the skin on U’Vol’s back ripple over his spine.
H.A.L.F.: The Makers Page 12
