Star Runner

by Mark McDonough

  Chapter Nineteen – On Our Own

  Nick woke with a start. Heart pounding, he snapped his eyes open and frantically searched the room. His hair was slicked to his forehead, his clothes damp. Memory flooded back and he slumped back down into his bunk. It wasn’t all just a dream. He now knew that most of it, and especially the most terrifying parts, were all too real.

  Tears welled in his eyes as he remembered the terror of having a gun pointed at him; the helplessness of being at the helm with unresponsive controls; the absolute blackness of the pod; the sound of their air hissing into space; meeting aliens for the first time with weird purple skin or with tails; and finding out that they were stranded on the other side of the galaxy, who knew how far from home.

  He’d give anything to be back on Cygnus Station, in his father’s office, being yelled at. At that moment, he’d even take having his simulator privileges suspended for a year. Well, maybe not a year, but a month or two.

  Nick mashed the heels of his hands into his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he swung his legs over the side of the bunk and stood up. Looking at his watch, he was surprised to see that he’d been asleep for over fourteen hours. He was still in the same maroon flight suit from the day before, only now it was even more rumpled than before he’d collapsed into bed. Not bothering with his boots, Nick headed out the door of his cabin.

  Directly across the corridor was the door to Alex’s cabin. Nick punched the button and started in surprise when it immediately slid open.

  “About time you woke up,” Alex called cheerfully.

  Nick grinned at the sight of his brother reclining on the lower bunk. Somehow or other, his blue Cygnus jumpsuit looked crisp, clean and ready for an inspection. Pete’s uniform, on the other hand, looked even dirtier than usual. Grease stains of what looked to be at least three different colours were now splattered over it. Pete looked up from the cabin’s desk as Nick entered, but he wasn’t totally sure the engineer even really saw him at all.

  “You guys get any sleep?” Nick asked as he half-fell onto the end of the bunk where Alex had made room for him.

  “Nine hours,” Alex answered. “Pete had nearly ten.”

  “What’s he working on?” Nick asked as he craned his neck trying to see past Pete’s back.

  “One of those visor things Holas found,” Alex explained. “He’s been at it for nearly an hour. Thought he’d be finished by now.”

  Nick grunted. If he knew his brother, nothing would stop him trying to figure out the new tech until he’d completely stripped it down and then rebuilt it. Preferably as many times as he thought he could get away with.

  Alex climbed up and reached into the overhead bunk. He swung down, dropping a rectangular box into Nick’s lap.

  “Here. Figured you’d be hungry when you woke up.”

  “Thanks, Alex,” Nick replied gratefully.

  At the thought of food, his stomach let out a loud rumble. He tore back the lid and snatched up the fork in the side tray. Spaghetti and meatballs. Cold. Nick shrugged. Not his favourite, but right then, he thought he could have eaten almost anything.

  “You been down to the pod?” Nick managed through a mouth full of food.

  “Yeah. We went with Holas to upload English into the visors,” Alex replied. “I grabbed some of the emergency rations while we were there. Sorry it’s cold. Didn’t think you’d sleep so long.”

  In short order, Nick had finished what was in the tray. He felt better, but not really full.

  “There’s more up top,” Alex offered.

  Nick stashed the empty tray in the bin under the desk before jumping up to stand on the lower bunk. On the top bunk was an identical tray to the one that he’d just finished off. There was also a smaller square box and a tall cup. He dropped back onto the bunk, crossing his legs as he popped the lid on the cup and took a cautious sip. He closed his eyes in bliss at the chocolaty taste. This time, his meal consisted of a ham sandwich.

  “These things are amazing,” Pete announced as he swung his chair around. “Hey, hi, Nick. Been here long?”

  “Nah, not long,” Nick replied with a grin.

  “You didn’t break it did you?” Alex asked teasingly.

  “Course not,” Pete replied. “Here, I’ll show you how they work.”

  Nick took a pair of the dark glasses. There was a small rectangular data port on the right arm that flipped up and down. On the left arm, were a series of small grey buttons. He slipped them on and looked around.

  Everything went darker, of course, but there were also small green squiggles dotted here and there around the room. Nick peered at them. They seemed to line up with the alien glyphs. Putting his sandwich aside, he stood up.

  Taking a pace towards the console over the desk, Nick looked at the control pad. The green squiggles coalesced into letters, numbers and symbols, all in English. He reached up and slid the glasses down his nose and peered over the top. The alien glyphs reappeared. He slid the glasses back up and once again, it was English.

  “It takes a little getting used to at first,” said Pete as he stood up next to him.

  Nick nodded absently. He already knew that this was his answer to not being able to fly the Star Runner. There’d be nothing to stop him now that he could read the console.

  “These buttons here are the controls,” Pete explained. “The first one’s for colour, the second for language, not that that’s anything we’ll be changing. The next two are for zooming in and out. The other three are contrast, brightness and to make the glasses opaque.”

  Nick experimented with each button. First he made the green letters and numbers turn blue, then pink, red, yellow, purple and back to green. He flipped through them again, before settling onto the green. The language button was kind of interesting. As were the last three buttons.

  The zoom buttons though, were something else again. Nick was fascinated with just how far he could zoom in. He kept making the small freckles on Alex’s face grow to the size of his head, before zooming back out until his brother looked like he was on the other side of the ship.

  “Cool,” he breathed. “How many of these things are there?”

  “A few boxes. Holas says they’re worth quite a bit. I’ve programmed one for each of us, as well as a few spares. That way, if anyone else needs to use the pod, they’ll be able to,” Pete answered.

  Nick sat back down and grabbed up his sandwich. He kept turning his head as he ate, looking at the alien glyphs that were now turned into English.

  “So what’s the plan, Alex?” Pete asked as he settled back onto the chair across from them.

  Alex looked up. “Plan?”

  “Yeah, plan. How do we get home?” Pete persisted.

  “And where are we, anyway?” Nick put in.

  “I don’t know,” Alex answered. “At least, I don’t know where we are. That’s got to be our number one priority – finding out where in the galaxy we ended up. And to do that, we’re going to need star charts.”

  “Isn’t that what we’re hoping to get at this planet we’re going to?” Nick asked.

  Alex nodded. “And the charts we get have to be as broad as possible. I’ve got no idea how hard it’s going to be finding reference points.”

  “What about getting home?” Nick asked. “We won’t get far in the pod.”

  “Can’t we go back the same way we came?” Pete asked.

  “No chance,” said Alex. “We came through a wormhole. Humans didn’t even know for sure that they existed until we did that. Which means that we’re the only one’s who know. Everyone back home will just think we died when we got caught by the black hole. Not to mention the fact that we have no idea where it was that we came through.”

  “What about the Star Runner?” Nick asked.

  Alex nodded. “That’s my thought exactly. We’re on our own. But we don’t have to be. We just need to convince Holas and Zheen to agree
to help us get home. Apparently, we’ve already saved their lives. Now we just need to make ourselves indispensable to the ship. They can’t run it by themselves and neither can we. Together, though, that’s another thing. Pete, you’ve already started there. Zheen and Holas may be good at engineering, but I’m sure that you’re better.”

  Pete’s face turned bright red and Nick raised his eyebrows. It wasn’t often that Alex acknowledged how good Pete was.

  “What about you and me?” Nick asked.

  “You’re a great pilot, Nick, you proved that yesterday,” Alex answered. “We just need to get you actually sitting at the helm.”

  Nick felt his cheeks grow hot and he was certain that they were as red as Pete’s. Alex usually just nagged at him about how much time he spent in the simulators instead of doing important stuff, like schoolwork or science projects. He never talked like this. Nick thought he even kind of liked it.

  “As for me,” he continued, “I’ll find a way, even if I have to become a cargo handler or something. One way or the other, though, we will get home. And the sooner the better. There’s no way we’re leaving Mum and Dad alone on Cygnus Station with O’Lochlan for one minute longer than we can help.”