by Mark Wandrey
“Don’t worry about it,” Doc said. “Just get the important stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Underwear and video games?”
Terry laughed, and Doc went over to open the case. Terry saw his name with some more information printed on a removable label. He wanted to know what was on it.
“No time, just pack. I’ll help. I have lots of experience.”
“How?” Terry asked, pulling open a drawer on his clothes chest.
“When you’re a Navy SEAL, you move all the time, usually with no notice. We always kept the vital stuff in a duffel we called our ‘Go Bag.’ A lot of the guys on the teams never unpacked.”
“They lived out of their go bags all the time?” Doc nodded. “That had to suck.”
“All a matter of perspective, I guess.” Doc helped him sort by making piles of what he thought was important to the Terry. He was right much more often than he was wrong. “You and Yui are really good friends,” he said, not so much a question as a statement of fact.
“Yeah, she’s my best friend.” Terry tossed aside a pair of slacks and took jeans instead. “We were friends almost from the time we met in grade school.” He stopped and thought. “She’s just cool, and we get along great.” Doc nodded but didn’t comment. He handed Terry a pile of thin sweats. “It’s hardly ever cold enough for those,” Terry complained. “It’s almost summer, too.”
“You’ll want them where we’re going,” Doc said.
Terry smiled and thought, So we’re going somewhere cold. He was excited about seeing someplace new and being with the cetaceans. There’d be some great stories to tell Yui when he got back.
Doc put his hand to his ear over the headset. “Ship’s taking off.”
“Can I watch?”
Doc looked at his watch, then nodded. “For a minute.”
Terry dropped the sweats in the case and ran out to the living room. The big window overlooked the ocean, but two smaller ones to the rear overlooked the tanks, and the parking lot, somewhat. He was disappointed he couldn’t see the ship, but then the ground shook, and the building rumbled as he covered his ears against the intense roar. Outside, the beetle-like ship climbed into view, riding on six brilliant columns of pure blue fire. It was incredible.
“I’m going to get to ride on one of those?”
“You betcha,” Doc said behind him. Outside the ship climbed into the sky, and the roar slowly dissipated. Terry lost view of the ship in the small window. “Come on, let’s get back to it.”
He somehow managed to get the case filled. In the end, Doc and he both had to sit on it and latch the locks with their feet. Terry laughed uncontrollably as the drama played out. He only managed because Doc said he could take his school backpack, too, which he stuffed with books, games, and his tablet computer. At the last minute, Doc took his dive computer, which Terry had left on the room’s desk, and put it in the backpack.
“I won’t have a chance to use it, will I?”
“You never know,” Doc said.
They traveled down the elevator just in time for Terry to watch the big tank vehicle loading the bottlenoses, one after another, into its interior using an amazing flexible plastic tube with metal articulations. For their part, the dolphins appeared to be having the time of their lives.
His mother was still in the same place, by the doors outside the employee parking lot. Only now there were more people. A lot more people. There were men and women he’d never seen before, along with children, too. Many wore grim expressions, and the children looked confused or scared. A little of it began to rub off on Terry.
“Everything will be fine,” Doc said, noticing his expression. “Your mom planned ahead.”
“She knew this would happen?”
“More like a contingency plan. You know what that means?”
He nodded. “Who are all these other people?”
“Family and friends of the staff,” Doc said. “Also some supporters who helped financially.” He looked up and shielded his eyes. “Here comes the last one.”
A brilliant flash of light was falling toward them from the sky, its engines blinking as it maneuvered. Terry watched it come, marveling at how such a huge thing could fall all the way from space with seeming ease.
Doc put his hand to his ear again. “Madison!” he yelled. She spun around, attentive. “A flyer is coming from Honolulu, where a suborbital just landed.”
“They figured it out,” Terry’s mom said. “Everyone, ready to go! Doc, can your friends buy us some time?”
Doc’s mouth was a thin line, but he nodded his head. He spoke into the tiny microphone by his mouth, too quietly for Terry to hear, then aloud to Terry’s mom, “They want to come along afterward.”
“Are they sure?”
“Yes.”
“What about their families?”
“None of them have wives or kids; that’s why they came.”
“Okay, but they better hurry.” The rest of the conversation was drowned out as the ship’s engines roared to full power, burning off velocity.
Terry saw it was coming in to the side, over the water, and only began to slip sideways toward the institute after it had nearly slowed to a stop. He wondered if that was on purpose. Before he could ask anyone, it flew over the parking lot and landed on four columns of fire. This ship was different; it was more boxy looking.
The engine roar rose to an intolerable volume, and Terry again covered his ears. The blast from the rockets blew debris everywhere, and the wind was strong enough to push him back, even a hundred yards away. As it’s big, thick landing legs pistoned to bear its weight on the ruined concrete, Terry saw writing on the side near a big glass cockpit. “USS Teddy Roosevelt.”
As soon as the gear touched down, the engines cut out with a quickly reducing whine, and people raced into motion. Terry was swept along with the first group as Doc easily carried the case they’d packed together. He could hear voices yelling, children crying, the motors of the dolphin transport whining, and the distant sounds of gunfire. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates as he half walked and was half carried by Doc across the now crunchy concrete.
The closer he got to the ship, the bigger it seemed. It looked like a flying aircraft carrier to his untrained eyes. He wondered why it looked so much different than the beetle-shaped one earlier. His young mind wanted to ask a thousand questions, but there was no time.
Two ramps had lowered from the Teddy Roosevelt, one from under the front, and another much larger one under its rear. The dolphin transport was rumbling toward the rear one. Terry was at the front of a steady stream flowing up the front ramp.
“Take care of him, Doc?” his mother asked.
“You bet,” Doc said and guided Terry to a ladder and up several decks.
The inside of the ship looked nothing like the sci-fi shows Terry had seen. It was rough, dirty, and there was rust in places. Nothing was white or padded. What a dump, he thought. A pair of crewmembers passed them, going down, while Terry and Doc went up. They looked just as dirty and rough as their ship. Neither seemed to be wearing uniforms, just oily coveralls and ballcaps which said USS Teddy Roosevelt. The logo on the hat was a fat guy with a big mustache riding a moose.
“Here we are, Terry,” Doc said as they arrived at a room with lots of seats. It didn’t look like it usually had a lot of seats; in fact, there was a man in the back busily clicking more to the floor. It appeared the floor was covered with places for them to be snapped into place.
“I want to stay with you,” he said to Doc.
“No can do; I have to help outside.”
“I can help,” Terry insisted.
“Yes you can, by staying right here and helping the younger kids coming up.” As if Doc had conjured them, a bunch of kids were shepherded into the chamber. “Please?”
“Okay,” Terry said. Doc nodded, set the crate by another door, and was gone in an instant. Terry grumbled, then saw a pair of young boys—twins maybe—who
looked scared to death. “Hey, you guys want to play a game?” he asked and fished out his game box. They looked skeptical but came closer. Terry smiled at them, and they smiled back. In minutes, there was a crowd around him, and Terry at least felt like he was helping.
He didn’t know how much later it was when a crewman dropped in from the deck above and looked at the dozens of kids standing around in abject shock. “What the hell is going on here?” he gasped.
“Keeping them entertained,” Terry said.
“We lift in one minute!” He raised his voice to a low yell. “Get in a chair, now!” The kids, being used to grownups getting excited, moved in response to the specific order. Well, most of them did.
Terry looked at the seat design and instantly joined in, helping the kids closest to him. Other older boys and girls saw what he was doing, and they began helping others. The crewman quickly showed him how to flip the buckles so they couldn’t be unhooked by the occupant, then went around corralling a few children barely old enough to be in school, bodily stuck them in chairs, and strapped them in. Just as Terry helped the last boy buckle in, an alarm began to blare.
“Thanks,” the crewman said, then pointed to one of the last empty seats. “Buckle in, space cadet!”
Terry threw the man a salute and got a smile in reply. He dropped into a seat and pulled the straps into place. “Lift ship!” someone yelled over the intercom. Just as he clicked the straps home, the world seemed to explode.
Pure transcendent rage assaulted his senses. It was like being in a hurricane and an earthquake at the same time. He’d been in some fast boats and flown a number of times, so he’d felt acceleration. None of it was like what he felt at that moment. Something was sitting on his chest, crushing the air from his lungs. He thought he was screaming, then realized it was all the kids around him. Some in shock, some in stark, raving terror.
His vision swam red, and he could see kids tearing at their restraints. The still-functioning part of his brain now understood why the buckles on the restraints were reversible so the person wearing them couldn’t release them. He could barely breathe and could only try to imagine what would happen if the children unlocked their straps and crashed to the floor. Is it ever going to end?
Suddenly the pressure began to fall away. His vision cleared, and he looked around. Some of the kids appeared to have passed out. The sound of the engines’ roar was greatly diminished. The crewman buckled in nearby was using a computer tablet and glanced at his young charges.
“When do we land?” Terry yelled at him.
“Land?” the man asked, looking confused.
“Yeah, when we set down to hide the cetaceans.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man said. “We’re set to rendezvous with a hyperspace carrier in eighteen hours.”
The horror on Terry’s face must have registered with the man, because he looked surprised. “Nobody told you we were leaving Sol?”
“We can’t...” Terry said, his voice trailing off. The man looked sad, and Terry got mad. Then he remembered his last words to Yui. “I’ll see you soon.”
In a panic, he grabbed his phone from his pocket and clicked on Yui’s grinning face. Of course it was a satellite phone, but would it work in space? It took the phone forever, but it did eventually connect, and he heard a ring.
“Terry?” Yui’s voice spoke. It sounded distorted.
“Yui, it’s me. I’m sorry!”
“Terry, where are...” the call broke into static. “Saw ships taking....police are everywhere!”
“We’re going to another star! They didn’t tell me!”
“...star?...Terry, I...you!” The phone disconnected.
“Yui! Yui!”
“Take it easy, kid,” the crewman said. Terry stared at his phone in anguish, slowly letting it fall from his hand. It bounced off the floor and flew across the room, spinning lazily as it went. His tears didn’t fall down his cheeks, instead forming puddles over his eyes. He was in space.
* * * * *
Chapter 2
Approaching the Stargate, Sol System
July 1st, 2037
Terry didn’t speak to Doc when he came to get him. The older man floated onto the deck, looked at the devastated expression on Terry’s face, and simply unbuckled him.
“Come on,” Doc said. He gently took Terry by the arm and began moving him.
Part of him marveled at zero gravity, but that part was crushed by his sense of loss. Why didn’t they tell me?
“I’m sure you’re wondering why we didn’t tell you,” Doc said as he helped Terry through a hatch and up/down another deck. Terry had no idea where they were going. “Your mother was afraid you might end up in jail with everyone else when the government came for us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Glad you’re still with us,” Doc said. Terry shrugged and almost hit a ladder. “Careful until you get used to this.” Doc helped him get his own grip on the ladder before speaking again. “The court not only ruled against allowing the whales to live, it also ruled everyone involved in the project was guilty of illegal modification of an endangered species.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Terry said.
“No, but you helped take care of them. In the eyes of the law, that’s enough.”
“They were going to put me in jail?”
“We don’t know,” Doc admitted. “As a minor, probably not. But they would have put your mom in jail, and you’d have probably been tried as a minor. Might even have been sent to some sort of juvenile detention facility.” He shrugged. “So much of the new Earth Republic government is still unset, nobody knows what would have happened to you. Your mom thought it better you come.”
“Without asking me,” he said darkly. “No one thought about what would happen to my life.”
“That’s not fair,” he said, “and not true. She was always thinking of you. In fact, she was thinking about staying and fighting it out, until we found out they were going to arrest you along with everyone else.”
Terry looked away, but couldn’t let go of his feelings of betrayal. They continued moving through hatches and long companionways until they reached a dome with windows all around. The Earth was a sphere off to one side and looked no bigger than a basketball. Terry gasped at the view. I’m in space, he thought, the spectacle finally overcoming his anger. In the dome were all the institute doctors, three strange people he’d never seen before, and his mom.
“I’m sorry,” she said as soon as she saw him. “There wasn’t time.”
“Doc explained,” Terry said. She could see he wasn’t happy and frowned.
“So you know we had to do it this way?”
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I’d have understood.”
“Would you?” she asked. “Terry, you’re mature for your age, but you’re still a child. The truth is, a lot more people than just you and I were in danger of going to jail, maybe forever. I had to think about everyone.”
“And the cetaceans,” Dr. Orsage said. His mom nodded in agreement.
“We also thought you deserved to be here,” Doc said.
Terry looked around at the people and realized he was the only kid there. Everyone else was senior staff from the institute, Doc, and some of the ship’s crew. At least, he guessed that was who the three strange people were.
“Terry,” his mother said, “this is Captain Baker; she owns the Teddy Roosevelt.” A woman with long grey hair pulled back was hanging onto a rail like she’d spent her life in space. She nodded to Terry and winked. He smiled despite himself.
“Glad to have you aboard, young man,” she said. “This is Commander Ed Moore; he’s my XO. If you need something from me, he’s usually who you’ll talk to.” The man she’d indicated was considerably younger than the captain looked, despite being bald. He smiled a big, natural smile and nodded to Terry as well.
“Lastly, meet Ensign Drake; he’s my purser and will see to all the passengers,
including you, enroute.” Drake was a young man, and nodded at Terry with no smile. He had short cut dark hair and sharp eyes.
Terry was about to ask what their destination was when something outside caught his eye. They were approaching another ship. Terry grabbed a handle and moved closer to the window for a better look. He didn’t know much about spaceships, though just about everyone on the planet would recognize this one—a long, cigar-shaped ship with a ring of modules around the blunt rear.
“Is that Pegasus?”
“Yes it is,” Captain Baker said. “Teddy and the other transports are catching a ride. My ship’s capable, but she doesn’t have her own hyperdrive.”
“Pegasus,” Terry said again. The famous ship of the Winged Hussars, one of the Four Horsemen. Eleven years ago, they were the last of the alpha contract merc companies to come back from deep space. Everyone had written them off for dead, but they came back, and in a different ship than the one they’d left with. Nobody knew much about the huge warship, only that it was incredibly powerful and rarely came back to Earth. “Why are they helping?” he asked.
“Your mom can explain better,” Doc said.
“Well, the Hussars have helped us for years,” his mom explained. “They were the ones who arranged to move the bottlenoses and orcas from the parks where we found them. They were also the principle financial backer. Amelia Cromwell, who’s married to the Hussars’ commander, Lawrence Kosmalski, has been extremely helpful, though it was Colonel Kosmalski who volunteered to get us out this time. He just happened to be here when everything fell apart.”
“Where are we going?” Terry asked. All the adults looked at each other, but none of them answered right away.
Eventually his mother replied, “For now, we’re riding with the Winged Hussars to a system called Karma. We’ll wait there to see if this legal stuff can get sorted out.”
“What about the cetaceans?” he asked.
