by Vlane Carter
Chapter 9: Can I Join?
Jaden wakes up and is sitting up in his bed and looking in all directions. He is back in the large room in the virtual underwater Andromedian city. He is breathing heavily and his heart is racing. Saliva drips from his mouth and he wipes it with his right hand. He wipes his sweaty face with his left hand. He looks around in all directions and is on full alert. He doesn’t see Bellona anywhere.
“What the hell just happened?” Jaden asks.
There is no one in the room, and he just hears an echo.
“Was that just a dream?”
He walks around the room in his boxers looking at the pool of water. Bellona suddenly appears out of thin air.
“Are you okay Jaden. I noticed that you are awake now.”
“I’m fine now. I just had a crazy dream,” he says while sitting back on the side of the bed.
She walks over to him.
“What was it about?”
“I can’t remember now. I just remember bits and pieces of it. I met my girlfriend at school, but I can’t remember anything else. It was very strange. How long was I sleeping for?”
“About eight human hours.”
“Oh okay. Cool. Can I have some water?” Jaden asks.
“Sure you can. Just walk through the pool.”
Jaden walks over and walks through the water. He comes out the other side and the water comes off his skin.
“Man that was refreshing. The water was warm, but I feel like I just drank some cold water. I also don’t have to use the bathroom anymore.”
Jaden walks over to his bed and puts his clothes on.
“Are there nanobots still inside of me?” Jaden asks.
“Yes. They are studying everything inside of you and will give a report soon. This is a lot safer than doing experiments.”
“Yes, I agree. My muscles feel sore like I just came from the gym.”
“Are you feeling better about not being able to go home Jaden?”
“I’m going to try to deal with it, and make the best of it. There isn’t much I can do. Maybe I’ll just be an explorer like Captain Kirk. Maybe I’ll just start my own species on a planet. Who knows, I have so many more options now. My mother always said to make the best of a bad situation. What is there to do on your planet?”
“Would you like to use our Galaxynet? You can see thousands of planets, nebulas, supernovas and see millions of species.”
“Boring, what else is there to do?”
“You can use Optic-vision where you can see live events happening at different parts of the galaxy and talk to different species.”
“Something more exciting,” Jaden says.
“There is a spaceship race about to happen soon.”
“A spaceship race?”
“I know it sounds a little corny, but that is the best choice of words to translate what it is in your language.”
“Oh okay. Tell me more.”
“There is first a qualifying round. About eight spaceships fly through optic-warp from our solar system. Then they reach a solar system about 109 light-years from here. First team there wins the first part of the race. Then they fly up to the speed of light from the star to the last planet in that solar system. There are billions of asteroids and meteors flying in many directions. They have to avoid every one of them without using their matrix vortex shields. Then they fly back, and the first one back to our planet wins. This can be very dangerous, because there are micro black holes and artificial wormholes being created randomly. The racers can only use short-range scanners to detect objects. Anyone with a destroyed ship is put on punishment duty.”
“Punishment duty?”
“Yes, their nano-silicon is rescued from where the ship exploded and they are put on modified assignment for many years. Each elite warrior has their own spaceship assigned to them, which they are responsible for. If they are damaged or destroyed in a game, it is the Andromedian’s responsibility. Myself, Marco and Bomani are elite warriors.”
“Are you all racing?”
“I think Marco will be racing.”
“What about your criminals, what kind of punishment do they get?”
“We don’t have many criminals or citizens breaking the law. We punish our criminals by putting them in a virtual prison. It is just their nano-silicon in a virtual hell. They can be in there for hundreds of years, depending on their crime.”
The 3D video images light up the middle of the room. The image is much larger and it shows the shiny spacecraft flying around a solar system. Jaden looks at how fast the ships are moving and dodging objects in the way.
“This is cool, like a virtual video game. Can I join this race?” Jaden asks, “Do you think Elderone would let me fly also?”
“Jaden,” she laughs, “I seriously doubt if you’ll be able to join. It’s only for elite warriors and you would have to use your human body.”
“I don’t care, I want to race. I think I can handle it, I’m not afraid.”
“Jaden, a guest has never joined one of these races; Elderone would never approve, neither would the supreme elders. Even if you did race, your brain isn’t fast enough to handle the fast maneuvering. If you crash into something at a high speed, you could be disintegrated. There would not be anything to bring back or retrieve from the explosion.”
Jaden thinks about it for a few seconds. He walks around the 3D imaging video.
“I feel I don’t have much to lose. I’m willing to give it a try, if I could join.”
“I admire your courage Jaden. I’ll ask Elderone and show him how you feel. Give me a few seconds.”
‘Come on, please say yes,’ he thinks to himself.
“Sorry Jaden, Elderone said no. He even asked the supreme elders.”
“Oh man, that sucks… oh well,” Jaden says while there is an awkward silence.
“Can I see my artificial body?” He asks with a sad voice.
“Sure, but you can’t operate it unless you are in the virtual tub. It is programmed to mimic your human body. Every nerve ending in your body is redirected into this artificial body.”
“Okay, that’s cool.”
Jaden’s artificial body appears in front of him like an image slowly showing up on a computer with dial-up. Jaden looks around at the body just standing still.
“This artificial body looks like a waxed alien body. Very interesting,” Jaden says while walking around and inspecting the body.
“Jaden, guess what?”
“What?” He asks with a sad face.
“You were just approved for the spaceship race,” Bellona says.
“How? You just told me, I wasn’t approved.”
“Somehow they agreed they wanted you to participate.”
“Alright!” Jaden yells excitedly and accidently knocks over his artificial body.
“Oops,” Jaden says.
It stands up by itself and stays in the same place.
“The way it just got up, looked very creepy.”
“It is programmed to wait for a host to control it, similar to a robot,” she says.
“Jaden, this is the first time a guest has been able to enter one of our racing games. This is highly unusual.”
“I guess I’m changing the rules in the universe. Maybe in a thousand years I’ll be an elder here,” he says.
“You have the same chance of a black president being elected in your country as you have being an elder here,” Bellona says while chuckling.
Jaden laughs, “Whoa, you are getting too American here. That was a good come back”
“Jaden, you have to get prepared.”
“Prepared? Do you mean I have to go through what I went through on Earth again?”
“Not the same thing but similar, but in a fraction of the time.”
“Why can’t I use an artificial body?”
“The signal being transmitted from your hum
an body to your artificial body in space and in subspace wouldn’t be accurate.”
“Oh no, do I get a cool looking ship?”
“It would be a very cool ship, the same ship you were originally flying in. Each ship is usually personal to an individual. The ship bonds to an individual and its DNA. An individual feels pain if the ship feels pain. The good thing is that you don’t have to be in your body when it gets assimilated with the ship.”
“In the future would I always have to go through the same thing?”
“That won’t be a problem in the future. The Darclonians took vital information about how your body reacts in space and with the ship. Stages one, two and three should take less than fifteen minutes. Shall we head to what you would call the airport?”
“Let’s go. Wait a second; can I carry my zombie body?” Jaden asks, while he tries to lift it from its knees.
“Jaden you can’t move it.”
“Man, it weighs a ton.”
“Don’t worry, it will be there too. Ready?”
“Let’s do it.”
The room changes around them like a fade in a movie camera. Everything around them turns completely bright white. They appear on top of a small cloud. Each puffy cloud is about forty feet round. The sun is shining bright over hundreds of round clouds in all directions.
“Where is this?” Jaden asks while he notices he is back in his artificial body.
“This is our airport Jaden.”
It is amazing what he is seeing as he looks all around and sees the ship he was in on Earth all by itself on a cloud. The body is very metallic and reflective and looks like a huge diamond as it sits by itself. He walks around the edge of the cloud and looks down.
“I see the ocean below. What will happen if I jump down?”
“Jump and find out.”
“I have a feeling I don’t want to find out. Where is everyone else?”
“They left already and are waiting for you outside our neighboring planet, Fujin. Your body is in stage two already,” Bellona says.
“Cool. Are we on a real cloud?”
“We are still in our city. These clouds are computer generated. When you are ready to leave, you fly into our simulated sun and you will come out the transport portal way beyond the moon.”
“Cool. I can’t wait to fly again. This is going to be my ship right?”
“Yes.”
“Can I name it?”
“Sure you can.”
“I want to call it…” Jaden thinks to himself while holding his artificial hand to his face.
“Can I get closer to it?” Jaden asks while looking down at the large blue ocean thousands of feet below, “How do I get over there?”
“Let’s see if you can figure it out.”
Jaden looks around, takes a few steps back and tries to leap to the next cloud about ten feet away. He misses by a few feet and spirals downward towards the ocean.
“Aaarrggghhh,” he yells as Bellona looks down and watches him.
The body is transmitting the feeling of falling to Jaden’s human body. The wind is blowing by his face as the ocean quickly approaches. He begins to scream as his body feels a rush. He quickly hits the ocean making a big splash and everything around him is completely white. He reappears a few feet above the cloud he just fell off. His body collapses as he breathes very heavily.
“What happened?” He asks while looking confused on the soft cloud.
“Jaden that was amazing and funny. Your mind thought you were actually about to die, so instantly your mind started to race through all your memories. Your body started to brace for impact and your adrenalin glands released a huge amount of adrenalin into your bloodstream. Your heart was beating faster, oxygen intake increased from your lungs and your muscles got stronger. The nanobots in your human body started to relay all kinds of signals to your artificial body as you were falling down. Your brain was being over stimulated with info. I saw images of the assistant principal beating you in elementary school when you were younger. Images of you opening your eyes just coming out of your mother. Images of your mother in different parts of your life. No images of your father though, that is interesting.”
“I don’t remember seeing all of that.”
“It happened very quickly. It is very interesting how your mind reacts.”
“I can never forget that beaten by the assistant principal. That happened when I went to school in the south, in the early eighties. Teachers and principals were allowed to hit children then when they misbehaved. I have never seen such well-behaved children in the school. I was in the first grade down there learning what children in New York were learning in the third grade. I was so embarrassed that day. I couldn’t take being in the south. I don’t even remember what I did to earn that beating,” Jaden says.
Jaden stands up again and daydreams for a second.
“Oh okay! Thanks for reminding me Bellona.”
“You’re welcome,” she says in a sarcastic voice, then continues in a regular voice, “It seems like physical punishment was the best deterrent for bad behavior for many humans when they are young.”
“I guess so. Anyway, I thought of a cool name, for my ship. I want to call it Gravityhawk. That is somewhat long. Gravhawk is better.”
“How about Galaxyjumper? Eaglewarper? Optic-shuttle?” Bellona asks.
“Those sound too corny. I like Gravhawk better.”
“Okay, it’s your ship.”
“How do I get over there without falling?”
“I’ll tell you. Remember Jaden, everything is easy here. We don’t physically jump nor do things that require too much work. Concentrate on a piece of the cloud at the edge. You see it detaching itself from the rest of the cloud. Now just step on that piece and it will move in the direction that you want it to.”
Bellona floats across to the cloud the ship is on and the small cloud goes into the rest of the cloud.
“Cool.”
Jaden concentrates on a small piece of the cloud and a small piece comes off. He steps onto it and floats over to where Bellona is.
“I guess that was easier.”
“It is interesting to see your brain’s reactions on how it figures things out.”
Jaden rubs the body of the shiny ship. “My Gravhawk, such a cool name. We are going to have some fun together my little friend.”
“Jaden be very careful, this is very dangerous for you. You will be using your real human body in this race. Even though this is a practice race, there is a lot of danger in the Spidone Solar System. There are billions of meteors, asteroids and strong radiation from a nearby collapsed supernova. Please reconsider and not race.”
“I feel Bellona this is something I have to do. I’m stuck on this planet. I can’t go home. I need some excitement and danger in my life. I love adventure and races. I’m also the first non-Andromedian to do this, so I want to see what it is about,” Jaden explains.
“Okay Jaden, as you wish.”
“I won’t be put in a cyberjail if I crash or destroy the ship right?” He asks.
“No, but if you hit something your body will feel it also. You will be able to control your Gravhawk much faster, because you are using a higher percentage of your brain. Your body’s nervous system will be interconnected with your Gravhawk ship.”
“Okay, cool.”
“Are you ready to go Jaden? Your body has finished its preparation.”
“Yes, I am, but first I have to do this.”
Jaden jumps off the cloud again, but this time headfirst.
“Jaden! What are you doing?”
“One for the road!” He yells while he puts his hands in front of him as if he is diving.
His artificial body quickly approaches the large ocean. The wind is blowing all around him. The water changes into sand and he quickly approaches a white desert. He starts to wave his hands around in fear as he covers his face. Jad
en begins to scream as his body goes into the sand at a fast speed. Sand goes flying into the air all over the place. He opens his eyes and he is he is instantly looking outside his Gravhawk ship.
Bellona is chuckling.
‘It is amazing how easy it is to deceive your mind and cause panic throughout your body from an image changing,’ Bellona says telepathically.
‘That wasn’t nice Bellona. I was trying to dive from 5,000 feet, which would have been a world record.’
‘You need to get serious Jaden. This is serious business flying in these races. Are you ready to fly?’
‘Yes I’m ready. I just need to check one thing.’
Jaden changes view and looks at his naked body in the fetus position in the life zone.
‘Man, I shitted myself on that one. Or could it been on the first jump?’ Jaden asks.
‘The first jump,’ Bellona says.
‘I was talking to myself, but thanks for your two cents.’
‘No, Jaden you cannot fly the ship into the ocean.’
‘It was just a thought Bellona. I really wasn’t going to do it,’ Jaden says.
Jaden changes his view to outside of the ship. He zooms in different directions. He sees his navigation screen, Altitude -5200 feet sea level, Shield strength 100%, Anti-Gravity Engines 100% charged, Manual flight, Speed 0mph, Radar online, Air pressure / Barometer 5300 PSI, Light engines online.
‘I can communicate with you without delay until you leave our solar system. Then there will be a small delay, maybe even a major delay. There will be an AI nanobot to help you with basic things for flight. It will be your co-pilot. This was the same AI auto piloting your ship back on Earth.’
‘Okay cool. I’m ready. Let us get this Gravhawk into space. Are you ready co-pilot?’ Jaden asks.
‘Yes sir,’ a soft-spoken voice says.
Bellona moves to a nearby cloud. The Gravhawk lifts up a few feet and levitates. Silver wings come from the body and the tail comes out the rear.
‘Flying into our artificial sun above leads out the other side of the transport portal and you can start off by getting used to flying around here.’
The wings turn vertically and thrust comes from the wings. He quickly takes off leaving a white trail behind him. He passes through hundreds of clouds. He heads directly into the sun. Bright orange light flashes all around him as he increases speed. 12,089 mph, Altitude unknown
He enters the artificial sun and the bright light disappears behind him. It is completely dark around the ship. An eerie cold feeling passes through his body. Jaden looks from his long-range nanoscanners in front of his ship. He sees an opening is near.
‘There is no oxygen outside, it feels like we are in space now,’ Jaden says.
‘We are in the transport portal,’ AI says.
‘Let’s go faster then. Light engines one percent.’
A slight flash of light comes out the rear of the ship. The ship slightly shakes. He quickly comes out of the transport portal and billions of stars appear all around. 1861 Mps
‘Jaden, see the map of our solar system?’
‘Yes, I see about nine ships outside of Fujin.’
‘That is where they are waiting for you at.’
Jaden sets a course by thinking of his destination. A line is drawn with the path he will take. He puts the light engines at ninety percent. Everything slows down around the ship and gets dim. The stars fade and the sunlight in the area goes into the Gravhawk. A flash of light is seen and the ship quickly accelerates.
‘ETA is six minutes. Not bad,’ Jaden says.
‘So Mr. AI, how are you today? You were with me while I was on Earth. Why didn’t you speak to me sooner?’
‘I wasn’t allowed too. My mission was to find a human subject, observe the subject to an extent, and then get the subject back to our home planet.’
‘But why did you let me fly the Gravhawk around Earth and cause all that chaos?’
‘The stages weren’t complete. I was allowed to see if the human subject had navigation skills and capable of flying this ship without assistance. You did very well, adjusting to all the weapons and shield technologies. It was very interesting watching how you interacted with other aircraft on your planet.’
Jaden is looking around at the billions of stars while he listens to his new friend AI.
‘We should name you something other than AI.’
‘I think my name is fine. It matches your human vocabulary to artificial intelligence. I’m really AI 89 trillion…..’
‘Yes that’s fine then, all those numbers are too much to know. AI is okay with me.’
They quickly approach the neighboring planet Fujin. He sees a white and grey ring around this planet. The ship slows down. Jaden sees about twenty-five space stations on the ring of this large planet, that is slowly spinning.
‘Hey Jaden, you finally made it,’ Marco says.
‘I didn’t know you were flying with us Marco,’ Jaden says.
‘Yes, I enjoy flying in the race every now and then. I wanted to surprise you. We are leaving now to meet you.’
A few ships detach from the huge rectangular space stations. Jaden is amazed at everything he is seeing. Jaden feels as if he is watching a 3D episode of Star Trek and Star Wars together.
‘Getting used to your Gravhawk I see,’ Marco says.
‘Yes, this ship is amazing.’
‘You haven’t seen everything these ships can do.’
There are eight ships coming up on Jaden.
‘Hello fellow Andromedians,’ Jaden says.
There is no response.
‘Don’t worry about it Jaden. The others don’t really like outsiders and especially in our races. One of our friends had to sit out because you are in the race. So the others…. well you know.’
‘I understand. This isn’t the first time I was an outsider.’
Jaden thinks back to the first time he was an outsider at the first day of elementary school down south.
They pass Jaden and he turns around and follows them. Marco’s ship flies near him.
‘Okay, Jaden these are the rules. First, we are going to leave orbit. Then start the race and hit light speed. Then each ship joins a team of three and connects together as one. We have to work as a team. Then we will work together to create a vortex electromagnetic shield around us to fly faster than the speed of light. Then we ride the strongest solar wind into the sun. The goal is to get the best slingshot before entering optic-warp in subspace. Do you think you can handle this Jaden?’
‘Of course! Count me in, I’m ready. This is just like a radical video game.’
‘I’m ship seven and our friend Calibose is ship eight and you are nine. We are team three,’ Marco says.
‘Hey, how are you doing Jaden?’ Calibose asks.
‘I’m fine. Thanks for acknowledging me,’ Jaden says.
‘Just don’t slow us down; the winners get the best upgrades for their bodies,’ Calibose says.
‘Okay, I’ll try my best. I was a good team player playing football in high school. I could can handle this,’ Jaden says.
The ships leave the planet’s orbit. They line up across from each other. The solar system’s sun is directly in front of them. Jaden sees about twenty nanoscanners checking the path in front of them.
Go is displayed on Jaden’s virtual screen.
Jaden turns on his light engines to one hundred percent. All the ships charge up. The light for hundreds of thousands of square miles around dims and the stars fade. There is a bright flash of light straight across and the ships disappear into a stretch of light.
‘Yeah! This is flying,’ Jaden says.
Light is flying by in different directions. Most of the light is flying away from the sun.
‘Jaden stay as steady as possible. We are going to connect together around you,’ Marco says.
‘Jaden, how is it going?’ Bellona asks.
‘Everything is fine. I’m just trying to concentrate on staying still so we can have this space orgy threesome.’
‘Okay Jaden. I’m here if you need me,’ Bellona says.
The other two teams are almost fully connected.
‘Watch out.’
Jaden moves to the left and the other two ships bail out of the way.
A small asteroid comes into their path and they avoid it.
‘That was close,’ Jaden says, ‘Let’s go fellas.’
‘I’m at 186,100. Try to match my speed,’ Jaden says.
Team two is connected and a blue vortex electromagnetic shield is created around them. They quickly accelerate and the light follows them like toilet paper stuck on someone’s shoes. Their ship disappears into the bright x-ray radiation filled solar winds. Their light stays on the side of the two teams left behind.
‘Come on team, they are ahead of us,’ Jaden says.
‘Hold on Jaden. This has to be done right, and you keep moving,’ Marco says.
‘Sorry, everything is happening so fast.’
‘Calibose is watching the short range radar. We can’t use nanoeyes or scanners,’ Marco says.
‘Calibose almost made us all crash into an asteroid!’ Jaden yells.
Team one is connected and then disappears. Teams one and two pass planet Xenos’ orbit. Jaden keeps his Gravhawk very still. Team three almost fully connects.
‘How are we going to catch up to them?’ Jaden asks Marco.
‘Don’t worry; they took the closest solar winds into the sun, not the strongest.’
‘Jaden, manually zoom around planet Xenos. The magnetosphere around our planet is the strongest and reflects the most solar winds. Look for the fastest moving solar wind and widest light beam. This time of the day they are stronger.’
‘The light path is bending and curving around the planet.’
‘It doesn’t matter; we can turn with the solar wind.’
Team three fully connects to each other. Teams one and two pass the first red planet in the solar system.
‘Could I steal this Gravhawk and go back to Earth?’ Jaden asks.
‘Your ship is set to travel local; you would also need the codes for optic-warping under a black hole’s subspace,’ Marco says.
‘Can I travel directly from this galaxy to the Milky Way Galaxy?’
‘Your ship is not made for that type of journey; it would run out of energy. There isn’t much sunlight in between galaxies. Even if you did have the energy it would also take you over two million light-years, to make it to your galaxy.’
‘Oh well, it was just a thought. I found a strong fast moving solar wind on the opposite side of the planet,’ Jaden says.
‘Set a course for the complete path.’
‘Okay, the path is like an S-turn on a highway,’ Jaden says.
‘I bet you never had a ride like the one you are about to have,’ Calibose says.
‘I’m not shitting myself this time I know,’ Jaden says.
They slow down and change direction towards planet Xenos. Teams one and two disappear into subspace behind each other. A large solar flare is exploding outwards from the sun.
‘We aren’t going to win this part of the race, they already went into subspace,’ Jaden says.
‘Don’t worry Jaden, we are going to catch them and make it out before they do,’ Marco says.
‘But why wouldn’t the other teams do the same thing, if this way is the fastest?’ Jaden asks.
‘Sometimes this way works faster, sometimes it’s much slower. I have confidence this way is faster today,’ Marco says.
‘Okay, you’re the speed space racer pro.’
Team three quickly approaches the planet at half the speed of light, 92,142 mps. They enter the solar wind around the planet’s magnetosphere that is shaped like an egg with a spider inside of it. They pass between the large moon and the planet.
Nanotime is displayed on Jaden’s screen.
‘Before you ask, nanotime speeds up our ships and minds so something that happens fast seems as if it is going in slow motion. Nanotime can be anywhere between a billionth of a second to one-tenth of a second,’ Marco says.
‘Let’s do it! Voltron team!’ Jaden yells as he puts the flight in autopilot.
The planet quickly approaches and the ships reach the turning point. The ships begin to glow. Everything slows down for Jaden. He sees the ships changing direction towards the planet. The force of the turn is so strong at this speed. The ships quickly change directions again and point towards the sun. The light engines go to 150% and a very large, light blue vortex electromagnetic shield glows around them as they quickly accelerate in normal time. There is a flash of light and a shadow trail of light left behind trying to catch up. The ships are shaking very fast and violent. Jaden sees the speed of the crafts on his screen at 299,981 mps.
‘This is flying, guys. This is very fast!’ Jaden yells, ‘There is a planet coming up! Shit!’
Everything goes semi-invisible for a split second. They quickly pass right through the planet.
‘I knew that would wake you up Jaden,’ Marco says.
‘What just happened? How did we go right through the planet?’ Jaden asks in a curious, startled voice.
‘That was called a high speed semi-invisible molecule replicator. That allows us to pass through something solid. This is nothing like all the sci-fi movies and books you read, right Jaden?’ Marco asks.
‘This is beyond anything I could imagine. I feel like I’m in a futuristic movie. This electromagnetic shield feels like a massage on my skin. Why does it look so much larger than the other ship shields?’
‘We need to create this type of shield around the ships to protect them at faster than light speeds. If we didn’t have this type of shield around us, the ships would rip apart,’ Marco says.
‘What is the fastest you Andromedians have been able to go past light speed?’ Jaden asks
‘In a solid form and more ships connected we have been able to reach three times faster than light,’ Marco says.
‘That is amazing.’
‘But to us that is considered slow. Optic-warp and black hole subspace is faster,’ Marco says, ‘Jaden the other teams slingshot into the optic-warp at six seconds a light-year. They are moving that speed through subspace. We need five to beat them out the other side. We have more speed now, but we need to catch their solar flare they created.’
They pass the first planet’s orbit around the sun. The sun’s rays get stronger as the light bounces around the ships. There is more violent shaking inside as the outside of the ships begin to glow a bright yellow. They reach 360,000 mps as the ships change course slightly. They go directly into the large solar flare created from the other teams. They increase speed. All three ships begin to slowly rotate and special nanoscanners form in front of the ships, but inside the large vortex shield. The ships disappear at 379,000 mps into optic-warp.
Jaden sees outside the nanoscanners. His body and ship disintegrate into trillions of molecules with his team. They are in a microscopic tunnel; the huge sun quickly disappears behind them. Another pair of nanoscanners appears on the side near Jaden.
‘We are at 4.5 second light-years. We will definitely beat them before we reach the exit star. This will only take a few minutes,’ Marco says.
All of the smaller molecules and atoms are behind the scanners trailing like a comet’s tail. They all glow together. It is quiet as stars are passing by all around like a train passing subway stops. The negative film color of images outside the tunnel amazes Jaden. The two teams in front look like particle comets right behind each other. Jaden is looking at the many colored stars passing by so quickly, and the clouds of gas passing around the tunnel.
Jaden’s team begins to slow down to 6 sly. The other teams are already down to 8 sly. The comet lights of the other team get closer and closer. A bright red light is in fron
t of the other teams at the end of the tunnel. Another minute passes, as team three rides team two’s light. The molecules merge and then pass team two. Jaden is looking at the hundreds of stars passing by so quickly outside the tunnel. He sees long lines of light that look frozen in time. A few seconds pass, team three catches team one and quickly passes them. Jaden, Marco, and Calibose’s nanoscanners continue to ride in front of the wave of molecules and light. Hundreds of other nanoscanners pass them and get in front. A bright red light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter and brighter.
‘Alright we beat them,’ Jaden says.
‘Piece of cake. We are ahead of them by a few light-year seconds. They can’t catch up now. Sometimes we have battles inside of the optic-warp tunnel. The nanoscanners stay behind while the rest of the molecules continue forward, and we fight each other with neutrons and protons,’ Marco says.
‘That sounds awesome,’ Jaden says in an excited voice.
‘We are getting out up ahead. The scanners open the optic-warp tunnel on the other side of the star, or we could continue in two other directions towards another star.’
‘Let me guess, if we continued we get another slingshot of speed from the star?’ Jaden asks.
‘Correct Jaden, each star has enough energy to give each ship more momentum to the next star. Sometimes we slow down to minute plus light-years, depending on the distance from each star. Okay, we are getting out here. This is our stop.’
Everything turns bright red around Jaden. The scanners in front are spinning in a circumference very fast. Everything turns red around Jaden. They slow down considerably and there is a flash of light. Jaden feels very hot and sees black space in front of him. He is outside of the optic-warp tunnel. The ships are quickly forming back together, molecule by molecule. The ships are detached and are semi-invisible as a bright red star is behind them. Jaden’s nanoscanners go into his ship. His Gravhawk turns completely visible and quickly goes into warp speed with his other teammates. The other teams come out of the optic-tunnel and begin to form back together.
‘Where are we? Why is everything so red?’ Jaden asks, while he sees on his ship’s screen that it’s flying in autopilot.
‘We are in the Spidone Solar System. The star is red and will be dying in a few thousand years. A supernova collapsed a few light-years ago from here, so there is a high concentration of radiation all around. The supernova also helped to put this star in its final stages. It affected the species on the local planets here,’ AI says.
They continue past the first planets orbit at 186,019 mps. The other six ships follow behind by less than a minute.
‘The other teams said we got lucky,’ Marco says.
‘What a rush, we just did sixty-nine light-years in less than ten minutes,’ Jaden says to Marco.
A few minutes pass by and they pass the second planet. Jaden zooms in on the planet and it looks almost destroyed, just the core is left. Jaden zooms back and notices Marco changed his direction from the rest of the team.
‘Marco, where are you going?’ Jaden asks.
‘I’m going to take a quick break over at my favorite planet.’
‘What about the race?’ Jaden asks, ‘They will catch up and beat us.’
‘I’m not worried about it,’ Marco says.
Jaden is confused and zooms in on Marco’s ship heading towards a strange looking, red glowing planet. Jaden continues in the same path. Marco’s ship slows down as it reaches the planet.
‘AI, where is Marco going?’
‘That used to be a training planet for us. Now it is a planet full of mutated species, from the high doses of radiation plaguing this solar system. I don’t know what he is doing over there,’ AI says.
Marco’s ship disappears as it reaches the planet. Jaden and Calibose still in the lead, they slow down to ten percent light engines as asteroids are flying in all directions.
Jaden is very curious about where Marco went. Jaden takes manual control of his Gravhawk and sets a course for the planet Marco went to. The light engine slows down to one percent. The other teams quickly pass him.
‘What are you doing?’ AI asks.
‘I want to see where Marco went. I don’t care about the race.’
‘Watch out!’ AI yells.
Jaden sees a huge asteroid spinning toward the ship from the left and he maneuvers trying to dodge it. He can’t maneuver in time. Autopilot instantly comes on. The Gravhawk turns left and at the last second goes into the asteroid. The matrix vortex shield comes on in front of the ship and rips a hole through the asteroid. They quickly pass through the icy rock and come out the other side.
‘Shit! We almost died. Why you didn’t tell me sooner?’
‘You were using the short range radar to look at this planet. You need to react faster, Jaden.’
‘Why you didn’t use the nanoscanners or the eyes?’
‘The nanoscanners for this ship don’t work well in high radiation areas.’
‘Thanks for saving us. I was trying to zoom in on the planet so I could see what Marco was up too.’
‘I know. Your curiosity level is very high. We will be in the planet’s orbit in less than a minute,’ AI says.
Light engines are offline. They approach the planet with red sunlight shining on one side of it. The planet looks like Mars to Jaden with patches of thick clouds all around. They enter the upper atmosphere and the outside of the ship heats up. Jaden launches a pair of nanoeyes; they quickly pierce the atmosphere looking for Marco’s ship. There is no sight of his ship. Jaden notices thousands of miles of little cities that are shaped in the form of art. The art reminds Jaden of artwork by Jackson Pollock. The eyes move in closer. There are thousands of miles of spider web in all directions. They are connected together like a community of cities, hundreds of miles over the surface. A few spiders are moving in from all directions towards something. Jaden moves the nanoeyes closer and zooms in. Jaden sees Marco in his huge warrior body lying on top of the thick-laced cobwebs, looking helpless. Nine gigantic alien looking spiders, the size of an 18-wheeler truck, quickly approach from all directions. The spiders have seven red glowing legs on each side and small, black eyes all around their bodies. Their legs have small metal spikes coming out of them and a metallic claw coming out the mouth.
‘Marco, do you need help? How did you get stuck on the web?’ Jaden asks.
There is no response, as he continues to struggle. The alien spiders move faster towards their prey. They shoot from all directions a glowing lime-green web at Marco. The web goes all around his body. The webs create high temperatures and an acid-like burning feeling around his body. The Gravhawk accelerates in the atmosphere towards Marco’s position. Jaden hits the high oxygen atmosphere and the outside of his ship begins to heat up. Jaden isn’t going to make it in time. The spiders leap towards Marco at the same time, as each tries to target a delicious piece of his body. Suddenly, the shadow of Marco’s ship passes over him. His body disappears into the huge red molecule of his ship. The huge spiders run into each other and then pile on top of each other as if a bad car accident has just taken place. Jaden slows down and uses the nanoscanners to follow Marco’s semi-invisible ship as it passes through the layers of web. His spaceship changes direction and comes up a couple of miles out of the web, in solid form making a hole.
‘Marco! What were you doing back there?’ Jaden asks in a panicked voice.
‘Sorry about that Jaden, I was having a little fun with the spiders.’
‘You almost gave me a heart attack. What about the race?’
‘I’m only concerned about winning the first part of the race. The rest isn’t that important to me. Having fun with these evil spiders is much more fun.’
The Gravhawk and Marco’s ship both are facing one another, levitating in one place a few hundred feet from the webs. The ships are absorbing the red beaming sunlight.
‘How did you disappear with your ship and get out of that
spider web?’
‘It’s called an atoms manipulator collector. The ship’s molecules break down and a shadow of the ship is seen. The ship also looks semi-invisible sometimes. The ship’s molecules and alien molecules synchronize together. A ship can pass through most things when it is in this mode, but only for a short period and requires a lot of energy from the ship. It will only work with an alien’s DNA that passed all three stages with one of our ships. No, the ship cannot change direction, it continues at the same speed it started,’ Marco says while reading Jaden’s mind as he thinks of questions.
“Let’s get out of here, these Spiders are looking very angry,” Jaden says.
“Okay, I’m ahead of you,” Marco says while quickly accelerating upwards.
They quickly pass through the rich oxygen atmosphere. Jaden looks at the planet around him and it reminds him of being back home on Earth.
The Gravhawk and Marco’s ship leaves the Spidone planet. Jaden switches to autopilot and they set a course back to Xenos. Images of Jaden being back on Earth appear on the artificial screen. He thinks back to a time in his past and sees images from his own eyes.
July 1999
Jaden lied on the hood of his car and looked up at the stars with his girlfriend Amy by his side. The radio in the car played a local radio station. They were at a local park. She wore a blue skirt and blouse. Her knees were slightly bent and her black heels were over the bumper. Jaden wore a Beavis and Butt-head tee shirt, a pair of green shorts and some sneakers. His right arm was behind his head, keeping his head from touching the car’s hood.
“Your mom’s dinner was delicious. It’s so nice your family still gets together and eats a couple of times a month. I wished my family did that,” Amy said while rubbing her stomach.
“I’m glad you liked it. You finally met my mom. I think my mom likes you.”
“You think so?”
“Yes, I think you made a good impression,” Jaden said.
There was a brief romantic silence between them. The wind is blowing slightly from the northwest. The crickets communicated loudly in the background.
“Over there is Jupiter and over there is Mars,” Jaden said while pointing into the sky, “Vega Star System is twenty-five light-years from here.”
“What is the next closest sun to ours?” Amy asked.
“Hmmm… It is a red dwarf star twenty-five trillion miles from here, which is five light-years.”
“Baby, you are very good with this science and space stuff. You know so much about this stuff.”
“It is really going to come in handy when I take Space and Science 103 next semester in college.”
“I’m so happy we are going to be in many of the same classes next semester in community college. When you talk your science space stuff, it really turns me on. When I first looked into your telescope, it was the best images I’ve ever seen. It really turned me on.”
“Yeah, you were a real slut to give it up on the second date,” Jaden said in a sarcastic voice.
She playfully slapped him on his chest and leaned up to look at him.
“Slut? That is what I am to you?” She asked.
He chuckled and leaned up as well.
“I’m just kidding baby, I’m glad you were an easy second date. Look how far we have come already.”
“Yeah, I was nervous you might not call after we did that.”
“With an ass and body like yours, I was going to call back.”
“My 5’8” 125 lb figure kept you interested, huh?” She asked.
“Yes it did, but also your personality, your interests, and the fact that you like so many things that I do were a good turn on also. Your love of life and your ability not to hurt any creature, even a fly or a bug. You being a vegetarian sometimes I also like,” he said.
“I’m a vegetarian every other month, I suppose.”
“You’re a Milli Vanilli-vegetarian. Don’t forget my hamburger!” Jaden yelled and then laughed.
They laughed, while Amy tickled him.
“That was cold. You calling me a fake vegetarian?” She asked while he just looks at her smiling. She poked him and continued, “It’s your fault! You keep eating meat in front of me.”
“I guess you didn’t want my mother to know you were a vegetarian tonight right?”
“No, your mother is from the south. She would probably think I was weird or something.”
“All your tasty cute animals were on the table tonight; Wilbur the Pig, the Drink Milk cow, the lambs when you sleep at night, and Mr. Turkey.”
“Okay, Jaden. Now you are making me feel bad.”
Jaden rubbed her stomach and said, “They feel good in your sexy stomach, don’t they.”
“Yes, it does,” she smiled back at him and then looked up into the dark glowing sky with millions of stars above them, “What is that over there?”
“That is one of our local galaxies. The Triangulum Messier 33 Galaxy. Over there next to it, is the Andromeda Galaxy. One of our biggest neighboring galaxies,” Jaden quipped.
“Would we as humans be able to travel there one day?” She asked.
“It would take over a million years to get to the next galaxy. Maybe if we had some faster than light traveling in the future. I would go one day, if E.T. had a super fast ship or if a real Star Gate was on Earth.”
“Would you take me with you?”
“Of course I would. Me and you riding through voids, super clusters, and to the end of the universe…”
“How much do you love me Jaden?”
“Well I love you enough to let you meet my mother for the first time. You are the first girl to meet her you know…” Jaden was interrupted.
“That’s my song!”
Amy got off the hood and turned the radio up.
“All I want to do is have some fun…” Amy sang.
Jaden laid there watching her dance by herself.
“Come on baby, let’s dance together.”
“No, I pass.”
She continued to dance and sing to Jaden while she snapped her fingers. He smiled at her and turned to look up towards space. Thinking of what is beyond the stars. Jaden closed his eyes and the images of his past faded.
“…Number 1 on the billboard charts. The jam of the summer….” The radio DJ said while the song faded into the background.
Weekly Halo 1 lan ctf battles at Action Burger. 4-16 players.
Play with Vlane the author of this book and the owner of Action Burger. Join here: www.facebook.com/groups/halo1nyc
