“It’ll work out,” Marcum pleaded. “Honest.” He switched to Klaqin and explained to the girls the whole marvelous plan then back into English he said, “I won’t really do the stoppage, but I’ll make them believe it. Time will pass … a generation, let’s say. You will live your lives in peace. They will too.”
“That’s stupid.” Alex said. He got real fidgety. I hoped he wasn’t going to lay Marcum out with another punch like he did on Azoss. “What kind of plan is that? They’re gonna notice they’re aging. They’re gonna monitor us and see Klaqin building up more defenses. And why wouldn’t they want to take Selina now?”
“They do. But Stetl-glet trusts me and I told him she needed time with her family. I would be insurance that she’d come.”
“Still makes no sense.” Alex grabbed my hand again and rubbed his nose with the other. “Dad, let’s go back to Earth.”
“Hold on, son. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. It’s a myth that the Gleezhians are cannibals. I’m sure of it. They’ve been stealing Klaqins during the wars and during the peace treaties when they’ve had the citizen exchanges. I have a suspicion, and maybe Marcum can find out if this is true or not, but I’m willing to bet that the Gleezhians they’ve sent here have all been sterile, or nearly so.”
I looked from Alex’s dad to Marcum and then at the faces of the girls. Mr. Rimmon’s conclusion put a whole new perspective on this war thing. Based on the head nodding everyone was following.
“Yes,” Marcum said. “There are very few Gleezhian children. Coreg and I saw none at all when we infiltrated a refugee camp. But—”
“What?”
“Well, our population on Klaqin is also quite unbalanced. Few children, few women … and not many elders.”
“They experimented on me,” I blurted out. Mr. Rimmon gave me a long look. “A needle or something … right through that thumb ring. My hand turned colors. I felt like it was sucking the life right out of me.”
“What do you know of that, Marcum?”
Before he could answer Renzen spoke up, but her eyes stayed fixed on the floor. “We’ve all had that done. At the banishment camps. It’s an awful procedure, but the scientists were looking for females who were fertile. Most of us are. That’s why we were always guarded.”
Holy crap.
Mr. Rimmon motioned Alex and Marcum to join him in the other ship for a men-only conference. Cue the women’s lib march. Sheesh.
Alone, just girls. I had more than a little to say. While the guys were probably time-pacing themselves through their huddle I slowed things for us girls and had a very specific chit-chat with them. Hashtag harem.
“So, are we like breeding stock? Are we going to be a puppy mill of teenage moms?”
Blank stares.
“Has marriage gone out of style on Klaqin or what?”
Renzen clucked and answered, “What do you want to know, Selina?”
“I want to know if anybody, any girl, has free will. I’m feeling a little pressure here. Not exactly ready to march down the aisle.” More funny looks. I needed to calm down and think in Klaqin. Like that was easy. “Okay, okay. Let me start over. Did you know you were sequestered, er, kept from the guys, the males, so you could be saved for reproduction services?”
Still a tad too much on the advanced vocabulary side even with the extra time to think, but Makril got it. She rasped out, “We knew we were special and that our families would be granted freedom from the banishments if we agreed to be schooled at the Interstellar Combat Academy.”
“Schooled? I thought you weren’t allowed to learn anything.”
“Right, but we found ways to teach ourselves and then there was Coreg and his friends.”
“Coreg?” I couldn’t imagine how Coreg would have taught them anything.
There was a ripple of giggles then and a nice breath-expelling calmness came with the laughter.
“Yes,” Renzen continued, “Coreg often came to our pod. He would brag about all he knew and we listened. And learned.”
“He thought he could make us believe he was the best at everything,” Makril raised one corner of her mouth, “and maybe he was, but mostly we paid attention to his words. We would get him to argue with his friends, Hagab and Payat. That way he revealed all the lessons they were learning. He was showing off. We wrote it all down later and studied it. And then there was Marcum’s training. He did a time stoppage and nearly sixty females learned to fly and fight.”
I had a shuddering thought then. “Hey,” I said, barely able to get the scariest of ideas out of my mouth, “maybe we should unlatch and steal away. Why are we letting guys make all the decisions for us?”
CHAPTER 3
#TimeAfterTime
“CAN YOU REALLY do a planet-wide time stoppage? Because if you can it would be a whole lot smarter to do that here so Klaqin could have the advantage.”
Marcum, Alex and Nate stood stiffly in the Liberator, evaluating the current situation.
“I don’t know.”
Nate grabbed the comm control and spoke quickly to someone he called Commander Tarsi, “Send units one through twenty to land all over Klaqin including the Edges and the dark side. Give me a time readout now and again when all have landed.”
Tarsi responded, “Current Earth time: eleven, sixteen and forty-nine seconds, Greenwich.”
Alex and Marcum looked to the panel and watched the numbers flicker between Tarsi’s numbers and the Klaqin symbols; the Liberator had been designed for readouts in English and Klaqin.
“Okay,” Nate said to them, “while Commander Tarsi sends them off we’d better unlatch. The bio-metals are alternating between Earth time and Klaqin time.” He pulled a lever and adjusted the retraction device, much to Alex and Marcum’s concern. Both boys looked to where the tunnel was sealing itself off from the Fighter Five—and from the girls. Nate caught their looks and said, “Don’t worry. It’s not like they’re going to fly away. This’ll only take a little while.”
They waited, two or three knuckle pops and a nervous cluck, until Tarsi reported that twenty Earth Liberators were stationed throughout the Klaqin landscape including the uninhabited back side. “Time: eleven, twenty-seven, two, Greenwich. Your next order, Commander Rimmon?”
“Contact me at eleven, twenty-nine, Tarsi.”
“Will do.”
Nate closed off the comm and said to Marcum, “All right, son. Do your thing. Let’s see if you can stop time for the whole planet.”
Marcum closed his eyes, thought of Selina, pictured his farm as well as Plickkentrad, the Academy and the Edges, the purlass rivers and the underground cities, and tried to imagine the dark side of Klaqin. He pressed his thoughts into an all-encompassing time stoppage and opened his eyes. All three glanced at the Liberator’s clock: eleven, twenty-nine, forty. But it didn’t move on.
Nate opened the comm again and called for a status report-in. One by one clipped American voices gave their Liberator number and position and reported that all systems except their Klaqin clocks were functional. It took a few minutes for all reports to be heard. Nate then tried to contact Tarsi, but could not make a connection.
“I think you did it, Marcum. Klaqin has all the time it needs. Once you resume time we can bring all the ships down and—”
“Wait,” Alex jumped in, “I have a question, Dad. We know we can do stuff like learn and build and move around during a time stoppage, but if we don’t grow any older how can we, uh, reproduce? I mean, babies, you know, wouldn’t get any older … if we had babies.” His voice trailed off and he looked at the floor where tiny thorns punched up from the bio-metals. “Oh, and while we’re in this time-stoppage the Gleezhians could be reproducing and building ships and weapons and—”
“I see your point.”
Marcum folded his arms; his lips curled in an approximation of a smirk. “So my original plan would work then. I go to Gleezhe and stop time for them. And even though they’ll be building and not growing older, you
can be here growing the civilization and re-arming and building, too.”
“Hmm, we’d have the advantage of population growth … and years of peace. Well, maybe. I don’t know. We’re going to have to have an all-out war as some point. Pacing and bending will be another advantage.”
Alex began to hum a game show tune as if they had exactly thirty seconds to decide.
Nate chuckled. “Right. We have a lot more time to figure this out if we want. Let’s get some more brains working on this. Marcum, start things up again.”
Marcum nodded and pointed to the clock, his face drooping. “Already did.” But again the time stayed set at eleven, twenty-nine, and forty seconds.
***
UNLATCHING AND FLYING away was such a scary idea that I had to dismiss it as soon as I said it. Plus, I could feel Marcum’s time-stopping affect the air around us. There was a quiet stillness. A flutter in my stomach matched the quickening of my heart beat.
“He’s doing it.” Makril’s words, like sandpaper, affirmed my suspicion.
“He included us this time,” Renzen said. “We should do what you said. Fly away. I wonder how far this stoppage goes.”
Another girl, a green-skinned beauty with long gold-red hair—I’d met her on my first day but I couldn’t remember her name—said, “Maybe we’d crash when we hit the boundaries of his time stopping.”
“Maybe,” I said, “or maybe not. Maybe we’d punch through and then freeze like statues. We’d better not risk it.” To myself I added oops bad idea.
I checked the floor then for those thorny projections, but there were none. The scent in the air was no longer that oily odor; I could smell the girls though, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Quiet reigned as we contemplated our situation. The bio-metals on the wall reflected our feelings, turning a blood-red crimson.
I expected the latching to reform and an opening to appear at any second, or rather non-second, but the next movement came from the normal entry to the ship. Marcum and Alex stepped in and made an announcement. I listened to Marcum in disbelief, while rubbing my nose hard and keeping my eyes on Alex.
“We have a problem. I have stopped time on all of Klaqin, we believe, but I cannot release it.”
Oh, that prickly heat was building, not because of what he said, but because Alex’s eyes were watering. I know him well enough to tell he wasn’t sad or in pain, so the tears had to mean something else.
“We’ve been trying, me and my dad, to counteract the stoppage by pacing, but it hasn’t worked.” He blinked hard and the sparkle left his eyes. “Selina, maybe your time-bending … you know … could help.”
This was horrible. My family was out there far above Klaqin and their clocks were ticking. The Gleezhians could return. There’d be a monumental fight … no, wait, wouldn’t they all be stiffly stuck in the moment that Marcum flexed his power? No ticking clocks. My head reeled with confused thoughts. Oh man. I lifted my eyes to Marcum and grit my teeth. I’d had a stand-off with Coreg once, but then I lost. Marcum looked like he wanted to lose against me.
I thought … I thought I was bending. The moment sure felt awkward with all these pairs of eyes on me. Emoji: anguished face.
I glared at him then was distracted by a movement at his feet. I couldn’t help but drop my gaze to the Five’s floor where the bio-metals were spiking up around his stolen boots. Another boot came into my view. Alex’s foot stomped on the thorns and kicked at Marcum’s toes.
It sure seemed like I was time-bending. I started running through multiple times I’d slowed things at the worst times. In class. On the bus. First time I met Marcum.
I swear I pushed my soul against Marcum. And my soul was stumbling. Falling into his. I could feel every drop of my blood chasing through my veins. Burning.
Another vision: something in the future. A ceremony of some kind. I didn’t think it was a wedding, but Marcum was there and Coreg and Alex and my family though Buddy was as tall as me. There was boisterous noise and loud clanging. Then the vision ended.
My time-bending ceased and I think Marcum’s power lapsed too. Everyone breathed again. Alex rubbed his nose. I looked up at him and his eyes were as fathomless as the galaxy. I wanted to cry with complete abandon like Buddy does, and go limp until I succumbed to complete hiccupping exhaustion. But I didn’t.
Suddenly the latching burst open and Mr. Rimmon’s head appeared. He laughed. “Eleven thirty and counting. The stoppage is over.”
I fell back into the seat and Marcum mouthed something at me. I couldn’t read his lips. Looked like I eee ooo. Could have been I see you or I be who or I need you. Yeah, probably that last one. Relationship status: it’s complicated.
“So,” I said, drawing out the sound and waiting for someone else to finish my thought.
Mr. Rimmon crawled the rest of the way through and asked, “Was her time-bending what put things right?”
Alex nodded. “This is all so screwed up.” I knew he wanted to start yodeling, something he used to do when we were kids and he couldn’t come up with the right tune to express himself. He held back, but looked at me, trembling muscles lifting the corners of his mouth.
The other girls kept quiet though Renzen fidgeted like she wanted to say something, but since they were so used to being second class citizens she stayed mute. Maybe I’d have a second goal here: start up feminism.
“What do you think, Renzen?” I said.
She didn’t hesitate to answer and directed her opinion at Marcum. “Honor the treaty, Marcum. Go with Stetl-glet to Gleezhe. Do your time stoppage there while we work with the Earth men—many are Klaqin descendants, are they not?—and fortify our planet. But do not do a whole planet stoppage. Step outside of time like you did when you trained all of us females. Let the rest of their planet become as stiff as a purlass window. When we have weapons enough to destroy them we will come. Selina will break through your stoppage and then we will fight.”
“And win,” Makril added, her voice squeaking up on the second word.
I looked at Marcum. He looked at Alex’s dad. There was some sort of silent argument between them. I figured it was Mr. Rimmon’s call unless Commander Cotay was still in charge though that seemed unlikely. Something else had happened down there, I was sure.
“She’s smart,” Mr. Rimmon said. “What’s your name? Who’s your father?”
“I’m Renzen, sir. My father was Baro of Lower Purtrad, hero of the second moon conquest.”
“Yes, I remember him. A couple of ranks ahead of me, but he had a reputation for quick thinking and aggressive battle skill. Sorry to hear of his death.” He put one hand on the back of the pilot chair and started nodding his head. “I see nothing wrong with Renzen’s plan. You, Alex? Marcum?”
It was cool that he would ask them their opinion. The guys gave their agreement. I didn’t say a word; I was fixated on the walls and how the color was relaxing into blue then gray. I was super happy no one suggested I go with Marcum. I might be perfectly safe, either frozen with the Gleezhians or whiling away a mini-eternity with Marcum, but after that last vision I thought it best to keep my distance from him. There was an attraction growing that shouldn’t.
“And old chipmunk cheeks? I mean Cotay?” Alex asked. “Did he agree?”
“He did. Marcum was ordered to program the Fighter Five to camouflage itself as a Gleezhian ship and then bring Stetl-glet aboard. With all the Earth ships here you can imagine the prince is uneasy about leaving the safety of this base.”
“What are we supposed to do? We can’t all fit into your ship.” I was pretty sure the girls wouldn’t want to be stranded on a banishment settlement again.
“Don’t worry, Selina. You and Alex will come with me to escort the Fighter Five half way while the girls will stay here under Cotay’s protection—there are plenty of guards—and then the base will be evacuated. We’ll all meet back at the Academy.”
I liked that I’d get to stay with Alex and I was pretty anxious to see mom and dad and Buddy.
/> “Special Commanders, come with me,” Marcum said. He didn’t glance at me as he led Renzen, Makril, Sama—I finally remembered her name—and the others off the ship.
“All right,” Mr. Rimmon said, “we’d better crawl through and close up the latching. Best if the prince doesn’t see Selina at all.”
CHAPTER 4
#SchoolDaze
I MADE A number of nasty and rather uncharitable observations, silently of course, concerning Gleezhians and even Klaqins as we lifted off, latched to the Fighter Five and crammed into the smaller space of Mr. Rimmon’s Liberator. I was shoulder to shoulder with Alex pressed against the spot where the latching tunnel had closed. The flight was fast with two time-pacers on board.
We hovered over the Academy and a bird’s eye view of the whole area showed on the upper screen. I’d been taken there by underground transportation when we first arrived but had no idea of how expansive the Academy was. A small continent, it was, with tiny lakes and ponds splattered everywhere and the most incredible sparkling tower rising in the center. I think I spotted the pod where I’d met Renzen and the others as we angled in closer; it was a tiny dot of a place.
Mr. Rimmon contacted my dad and when I heard his voice come through the comm I was so excited I could have floated with relief. There was a ton of back and forth instructions and new voices speaking in mumbled Klaqin shorthand, like air traffic controllers. Very confusing until Alex deciphered the orders for me: we were to land in a staging area that would hold thousands of ships. It was awfully trusting of Mr. Rimmon and my dad to allow our entire Earth force to gather in the open, parked all snuggly close like sitting ducks. But we did it. The rest of our ships came racing in in groups of eight. I expected Alex to comment with some musical reference like they were flying in octets, but he remained silent.
The Time Ender Page 3
