It was not a battle she always won, but today, sitting on a park bench in a dress Jane gave her a few weeks before, a large summer hat covering her sky-blue hair, Valerie looked under control. Today, she was winning.
Jane sat down next to her and smiled. "How are you?" she said.
"Feeling almost human today," Val said. Her skin pure white, but uneven, changed colors like clouds, with wisps of silver and gray mottling through. Her appearance shifted with her mood. When they first met, she'd been dark gray like a thundercloud, lightning dancing across her skin in violet ripples. The air around her always indicated her mood, too, be it fury or fear, sadness or peace. Jane wondered what overcast and breezy meant.
"Have you done that thing we talked about?" Jane asked.
"I can't," Val said. "I've flown over my parents' house a few times, I've creeped through their windows, but I'm… I'm not ready for them to see me like this."
Jane put her hand on the back of Valerie's, trying to reassure her.
"I want to tell you that someday this will all be normal, but…" Jane said.
"I know. I'm beginning to be okay with that. With not being normal," Val said.
"Where are you staying?"
"There's a lighthouse. An abandoned lighthouse. I stay there sometimes," Val said. "I don't sleep much anymore, so I have trouble staying still. I think that's the thing that feels the most strange. Not flying, not controlling the weather, but… not being able to sit still anymore."
"I wish we knew more about what they did to you, so we could help," Jane said.
Val shook her head softly.
"It's okay. I'm figuring things out on my own," Val said.
"Well, you know you'll always have a home with us," Jane said.
Val tinkered nervously with her oversized hat.
"I don't think I'm ready to live like a normal person just yet," Val said.
"Trust me, none of us are normal," Jane said.
"That's not exactly it," Val said. "I mean… I don't feel right indoors anymore. It makes me feel cut off. I feel trapped."
"That makes sense, you know," Jane said.
Val nodded, almost to herself.
"I suppose it does," she said.
A light rain began to fall. Jane turned up her collar. Val looked at her apologetically.
"Sorry," she said.
"It's okay," Jane said. "So I have something to ask you."
"Of course," Val said. "Anything."
"Something bad is coming our way. We're hoping we can stop it before it becomes a problem, but if it does…. We could use your help again."
"You know, when you freed me, I thought I was destined to be the villain forever," Valerie said. "I thought they'd made me into something evil. That they'd made me into a weapon."
"And we've asked you to be a weapon once already," Jane said. "I'm sorry for that."
"No," Val said, raising her face to the air, letting rain splash against her skin, which had deepened to a pale gray. "When Kate asked me to help free you from the prison, she gave me a chance to be a hero instead of a villain. To be better."
"I think you've always had it in you to be a hero," Jane said.
Val vigorously shook her head no.
"I never would've been a hero if this hadn't happened to me. At best I would have been ordinary. At worst I would've been a statistic. In some weird way, everything I went through at the hands of those people made me better than I ever could have been."
"You don't have to help us if you're afraid," Jane said.
Valerie stood up, spinning on one foot, playing in the rain she'd made fall from the sky. It gleamed on her bare shoulders.
"This is what we were all made for, Jane," she said. "We're like little gods. The weather elemental, the goddess of the sun. And we're here to keep our tiny world safe from harm. This is what those terrible people gave me, and this is what you and your friends have taught me."
Jane watched her dancing, barefoot in the park grass, her lonely friend, this elemental being with no home. She remembered how they almost had to kill her, to put her down to save thousands of lives. And here she was, a being with the power of a hurricane, dancing in the rain and prepared to go to war beside them.
"How will I know when you need me?" Val asked.
Again, Jane looked to the sky. She could feel the rain soaking her knit cap.
"We won't have to tell you," Jane said. "Everyone will know when it happens."
Chapter 8:
Up, up, and away
Billy stood on the landing platform of the section the Indestrucibles thought of as the "docking bay" and entrance for the Tower, an open area littered with hoverbikes, technology and hardware none of them really understood, and the clutter where Kate spent time tinkering and personalizing her own equipment. He was alone, except, of course, for Dude, and stared up into the growing darkness of the evening sky.
"I have absolutely no concept how big space is," Billy said.
No one really does, Dude said.
"Have you ever been to the edge of it? Does it end somewhere?"
Rumor has it there's an end point somewhere, but I don't know anyone who's laid eyes on it, Dude said. And I've known beings who have ranged very far.
"Not like we're going that far, are we?" Billy said.
I fear we're not even leaving your solar system.
"What do you mean, fear?"
If we don't leave your solar system, it means the Nemesis is very, very close, Dude said.
"Great."
Billy walked up to the very outskirts of the landing platform, looked down at the City below, something that used to give him vertigo. Sure, just when I get used to flying, we go into space. New vertigo. Vertigo 2.0.
"So let's break down the ground rules here. You give me the ability to breathe in space."
Not exactly.
"Not exactly?" Billy said, his voice cracking.
Not exactly. I remove the need for you to breathe in space. The shielding I generate also provides you with enough of the necessary airborne elements you need to maintain respiratory function.
"I have no idea what you just said," Billy said.
I give you the ability to breathe in space, Dude said, resigned.
"And all the other stuff that happens in movies. My head won't blow up? I won't freeze to death in three seconds?"
Dude sighed in Billy's head, which always meant he was at his wit's end.
Imagine that, being connected to me, you have as part of your actual body the best spacesuit ever invented. Personalized to your biological needs. This is what I do for my host. I grant the same ability to live in the vacuum of space I myself have.
"Great. Next question: What happens if someone hits us with a null gun and we separate?"
You probably die, Dude said.
"Dude!"
Would you rather I lie to you?
"Yes," Billy said. "Yes, in fact, I would prefer you lie to me about stuff like that."
In that case, don't worry about anything if we get hit with a null gun. You'll be dead before the surprise actually reaches your brain.
"I hate you sometimes," Billy said.
"I love when you talk out loud to Dude and you think nobody's listening," Emily said, emerging from the interior of the Tower. Frustrated by the progress of her replacement Fourth Doctor scarf, she'd begun testing out different signature items, and tonight she wore one of her hand-made Jayne Cobb wool hats over her neon-blue hair.
"Hey, Em," Billy said.
"You're leaving right now, aren't you?" Emily. "You sneaky git."
"Well, I was going to, but clearly you're going to rat me out," Billy said.
Emily walked up to the edge of the platform as well, dangling one foot over, fearless.
"I want to come with you," she said.
"You can't," Billy said.
"One: we don't know that for sure, and Two: yeah, I know. I'm kind of jealous, y'know," Emily said.
"Of scouting out an
invading army of aliens."
"No, man, you get to do what I've wanted to do since I was three years old," Emily said. "I want to just…"
She waved her hand vaguely at the empty sky above them.
"Go where no man has gone before. Up, up and away. Into a galaxy far, far away. Take me out to the black, tell 'em I ain't coming back," Emily said, the last part sing-songy.
"Now you're singing theme songs," Billy said.
"I'm serious, though," Emily said. "This world is such a drag, man. Why do you think I do the things I do? I'm bored. I want to be out there."
"Maybe you'll get your chance."
"Y'think?" Emily said. "Maybe someday, right? We save this stupid, mean, boring world, we make sure it's okay, and then you and me and Dude and Watson, we can find ourselves a Corellian stock light freighter and go travel the star lanes?"
Billy stared at Em for a moment, watching as she playfully stepped off the platform and floated herself back onto it repeatedly.
"I can't tell if you're being serious or not," Billy said.
Emily looked up at him, a huge, almost feral grin on her face.
"C'mon, Billy Case, you know you want to go explore the universe. Meet yourself an alien princess from a far away world. I'll learn how to duel with a laser sword. It'll be awesome."
"You're a space cadet, Entropy Emily."
"I prefer the term 'starship captain,'" she said. "Look, just come home safe, okay?"
"I will."
"Tell Dude I told him he needs to take care of you."
I heard her, Dude said.
"He heard you," Billy said.
"Good." Emily took her hat off and stuffed it on Billy's head instead. "It's dangerous to go alone. Take this."
"You said the same thing to Annie when she left," Billy said.
"Well, the same logic applies," Emily said. "Now you're a meme."
"How do I look?" Billy said. "I know the answer to this ques—"
"Man walks down the street in that hat, people understand he's afraid of nothing."
"I knew you were going to say that," Billy said.
"It's a cunning hat."
"Be safe when I'm gone, Em."
"Don't die, Billy Case."
"I won't," Billy said.
"Watson will be so mad at you if you don't come home."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Billy looked once more into the sky, held his hands loosely at his sides.
"Up, up, and away, huh, Dude?"
'To infinity, and beyond,' the alien said.
"Did you just make a Toy Story joke, Dude?"
I did. Why are you so surprised?
Billy laughed, his first real laughter in as long as he could remember.
"No reason," He said. "Okay. Here we go. 'To infinity, and beyond.'"
Billy Case rose into the air, fast as a rocket, swifter than a shooting star, a streak of white and blue light darting heavenward. The world grew tiny below him, his friends, his family, the Earth itself, a tiny marble adrift in eternity. He watched his world shrink into a bauble, something blue and beautiful he could put in his pocket, the galaxy expanding around him in infinite blackness. A blanket of stars enveloped him, the sun bright and hopeful in the distance. The moon was a nickel spinning in shadows. He looked out into the blackness of space, into the void, and the silence of it, the vacancy, made his heart beat faster and faster.
I've never known what it feels like to be truly alone until now, Billy thought.
But you're not, my friend, Dude said. I'll be right here with you.
And together, boy and alien, heroes and partners, flew like an arrow into the darkness, in search of an armada.
Chapter 9:
E.T. phone home, long distance
When Titus and Kate returned to the Tower they found it eerily quiet. They wandered the halls wearily, backpacks slung over their shoulders, wondering where everyone went.
"You're the werewolf," Kate said, raising an eyebrow at Titus. "Sniff them out."
Titus shook his head.
"Neal keeps this place too clean. The whole place smells like intergalactic disinfectant," Titus said. "Speaking of…"
"Entropy Emily is looking for you in the library, Designation: Whispering," Neal said unexpectedly.
"Not the first choice I had in mind, but fine," Titus said. Kate held out a hand to take his backpack, and he handed it to her gratefully. "Thanks."
"I'm going to shower. Good luck with Baby Einstein," Kate said.
Titus sighed and headed for the library, a circular bay on one of the lower levels. Both he and Emily had found it on their own and discovered the library to be surprisingly full of print books dating back hundreds of years. The center of the room held an electronic research hub, which Titus used to dig into werewolf history and past exploits of the residents of the Tower. Emily mostly used it like the galaxy's best Wikipedia, pulling at threads of subjects she knew nothing about until she fell asleep sitting at the terminal. More than once Titus had found the blue-haired girl passed out while sitting up, random subjects displayed in front of her, like evolutionary theory, the schematic plans for the Eiffel Tower, or a dissertation on the history of fennel.
As soon as he walked into the room, Emily latched onto him.
"I need your brain," she said. "I broke something."
"Great," Titus said, pulling up a chair next to her. A holographic projection of planet Earth spun in front of them.
"Watch this," Emily said. "Library: Display all outgoing communications signals leaving the planet."
Suddenly the virtual globe lit up, hundreds of points of light appearing all across it.
"What the hell," Titus said.
"I know, right? I thought, hey, like Doc said, if there's this invading army coming our way, they probably have spies and scouts. So those guys would try to signal back to the mother ship, yeah? Send their spy notes. But this can't be right. That's like seven hundred signals leaving the Earth on a regular basis."
"If I may interrupt," Neal's monotone voice chimed in, startling Emily and Titus both. The surprise caused Emily to standup startled, then sit back down again.
"Do we have a choice?" Titus said.
"Can you at least knock first? I think I may need to change my pants because of you," Emily said.
"What is it, Neal?" Titus said, ignoring Emily's melodramatic response.
"Designation: Whispering, you should be aware that Earth plays host to a large number of embassies for alien cultures, as well as poses as a waypoint for several space-traveling beings."
"Define a large number," Emily said.
"That's ridiculous," Titus said. "Earth is what, the bus stop of the Milky Way?"
"Watch what you call ridiculous, Titus. You're a werewolf. People don't believe in you either," Emily said.
"Look at that screen, Em," he said. "That doesn't seem impossible to you?"
"Listen, Chewie, we just came back from the future. I believe everything now. You could tell me the ghost of Elvis is controlling the body of a Food Network host and I'd be like, yeah, cool, that makes total sense to me," Emily said. "Earth being chockablock full of aliens? Not really a stretch right now."
Titus rubbed his eyes in an almost eerie imitation of Doc's habit.
"Okay. Okay. Let's talk parameters. Parameters. How about this. Library? Please narrow those signals down to only the ones that are two-way. A bunch of those have to be Earthlings just yelling into the abyss hoping someone yells back," Titus said.
At that point, roughly half the lights on the virtual Earth went dark.
"Half of those signals get an answer?" Titus yelled, voice cracking.
"Holy carp, Earth is like the Internet provider of the Universe!" Emily said.
"This is crazy," Titus said. "Okay. Again. Parameters. Got it. Library, remove from this search any signals Doc Silence or our predecessors were aware of and deemed non-threatening. Closed cases or whatever."
This time, most of the
lights winked out, leaving only five distinct points of light on the map: in northern California, Nevada, in a mountain area in the American Southeast, in the ocean to the East of Florida, and finally one in the South Pacific.
"One of these things is not like the other…" Emily sang.
"Stop. That's a lot of locations," Titus said.
"And one of them is the Bermuda Triangle," Emily said.
Titus stared at the globe.
"Oh come on," he said.
"Right there," Emily said.
"I know," Titus said. "But this is just stupid. Neal, is Doc home?"
"I'm right here," Doc said, walking into the library and throwing his long black coat over a nearby chair. "I was hoping you two would be working on this."
"Are there really over seven hundred aliens living on Earth?" Emily said.
He waved his hand dismissively. "Alien is a relative term. What've you got?" Doc said.
"Five unexplained two-way signals which had previously been unknown or unaddressed," Titus said.
"Well that one you can discount entirely," Doc said, pointing to the spot in the Pacific.
"Because it's an outlier?" Emily said.
"Because it's a moveable island we've never been able to figure out," Doc said. "We know it pings outer space. It also does some weird stuff with numbers. But it's relatively harmless as far as we can tell."
Emily stared at Doc, hard.
"There's a moveable island in the Pacific Ocean?" Emily said.
"Flying islands too." Doc said. "But most of those are in Europe."
"Would you call the moveable island… lost?"
"Oh no," Titus said. "Emily, can we focus?"
"Are there castaways there? Did their plane crash?" Emily said.
Like A Comet: The Indestructibles Book 4 Page 5
