‘What did?’ Hayden asked, bemused at his uncle’s comment.
‘We’ll tell you later. ’
He looked around and felt strange juggling such huge figures as it was scientifically impossible for a human being to be this far from Earth. At least - with the world’s current technology. But he hadn’t arrived here using Earth’s technology and that fact was glaringly obviously parked out in the hanger bay.
It felt decidedly uncomfortable for him to be making such calculations from the destination rather than the origin. The origin to him, to science, was familiar, always being Earth. The destination never being anything but an unreachable point, until now, at least for him and every other human other than the group he found himself in. What was also strange was that he didn’t even have to think about the calculations. They had recently just sprung to mind. If only Monty and Maddy could see him now. If Scott Worcester and his goons were here, he thought. He imagined how they may have reacted if they’d seen a Sepian.
‘Uncle Jonah, where exactly are we?’
‘We’re on Salar-One,’ he calmly explained. ‘It’s a planetoid in the Salar-Belt that orbits the gas giant Salar-Prime in the Jomidda system. ’
‘Andromeda?’ Hayden asked, not quite understanding his uncle over the din. Andromeda. He’d definitely heard of that.
‘Jomidda.’
‘Jomidda system?’ The same sense of amazement he had experienced upon entering the vast chamber washed over him again, though this time it was mixed with more than a little fear and confusion. He sat down on a thick carved stone bench which jutted from one of the walls near the fountain. Jomidda? He thought, trying to think where he may have heard of it before.
‘All you need to know, for now anyway, is that it’s very, very, very far away from Armadale.’ Jonah stated this with an almost eerie nonchalance that didn’t placate his nephew’s growing concern. Hayden created an astrological map in his mind. ‘Okay: To Earth, our closest neighboring galaxy is the Canis Major dwarf galaxy if I remember correctly?’
‘You do,’ Jonah confirmed.
‘And that is twenty five thousand light years away. A long way from Earth but not even outside our own galaxy as it’s overlapped the Milky Way.’
‘Correct.’
‘Andromeda is over 2.5 million light years away! We’re past Andromeda!’ Hayden exclaimed.
‘We are well past Andromeda,’ his uncle replied as nonchalantly as before. ‘- and we’ve bypassed an incredible amount of stuff in between Earth and here.’
The reality of what had happened in the last hours caught up with Hayden and he felt like a heavy stone was in his centre of gravity pulling him downward. Despite the awesome surroundings, he just wanted to go back to that little bed in his cabin on the Copernicus and sleep, to recharge hopefully. His own bed at home, in his little house outside Armadale would be better but he knew distinctly that that was, at the very least, a long way off, or more scarily never to be experienced again_ as far as he knew?
‘How could we have gotten so far so quickly? ’
‘It’s a fine and fast old ship,’ Jonah said, answering his nephew’s rhetorical question.
‘I’m being serious.’
‘So am I.’
‘I’ll let Tor explain when we get back on board.’
‘We’re not going back to the ship now, are we?’ He asked, realising he didn’t want to stop his current adventure.
‘There will be plenty of time to see just an infinitesimal new part of the universe, Hayden. We’ll stay here just a while longer and let you acclimatise as best you can.’
Hayden was somewhat relieved for there was a lot of exploring he wanted to do. Salar- One was a feast for the senses and he’d only barely gotten a taste. Think ahead. Hayden pepped himself, trying not to think too much about their distance from home and to enjoy his current surrounds.
The giant atrium was abuzz with life from all over this strange galaxy. Hayden watched the beguiling multitudes of aliens as he sat on the bench. Tall, short, thin, stout, fat, multi-eyed, multi-mouthed, tentacled, horned, slimy, scaly, hairy, scary, ugly and beautiful with some being very oddly, all so at once. One particular creature Hayden could only tell which end its head was situated because of the direction it was moving and even then he wasn’t sure. Amy and her brother observed Hayden’s looks of amazement interspersed with those of fright, amusement and intrigue but what they were most happy to see were his young eyes full of wonder and not fear. The crowds around the three intensified as a larger passenger ship had just docked and the already bustling atrium was filling quickly with even more diverse biology. Suddenly out of the crowd a creature approached rapidly. Its translucent, wet eyes glaring at Hayden, burning into his.
A Sepian!
It glided on its tentacled limbs along the stone floor and halted no more than an arm length from him. Worryingly, hanging in a black holster from a netted belt at its side, it wore what looked like a weapon. A large funnel appeared to be the stock so that it could get its tentacle arm inside and two barrels sticking out the bottom made the shape of an upside down U. What it fired he did not want to know. Suddenly out of nowhere the first mate stepped forward so that he was standing between Hayden and the grotesque alien. The creature’s wide eyes flicked briefly at him and pulsated in rapid waves of red in a way that could not be mistaken for anything but a warning. Hayden, trying not to stare, noticed a large scar running down the right side of its head. It was the dominant creature he’d seen glowering over the other earlier.
The first mate looked as if he were staring down the creature and at this, Jonah looked at Hayden with great surprise. Several seconds later, it appeared to have worked. As the cephalopod began to move away, it turned and with a final chilling, silver-eyed glance at Hayden, flashed the same red warning then slithered off, pushing its way through a dense crowd that was more than willing to get out of its way.
Hayden felt quite shaken.
Jonah offered their thanks to the first mate who just shrugged the encounter off then he too moved off into the crowd but in a different direction. Jonah whispered to his sister that they’d better hurry and she immediately held her hand out to her son which he took gladly and she gripped tightly. Hayden rose from the bench and they moved in the opposite direction to that the Sepian had taken.
‘We’re going back to the ship? ’ Hayden asked disappointedly.
‘Not quite yet as I need to get some supplies.’
‘Aren’t you a General?’ Hayden asked. ‘I thought you’d have someone else to do that job?’
‘I wanted to do it this day so I could show you.’
Jonah was walking a few paces ahead of Hayden and Amy was speaking into a communicator. He turned sharply across the path they were heading to walk down a narrow alleyway and after traversing its considerable length, they arrived at a market flooded with yellow light from a large lamp embedded into the apex of the domed ceiling. Hayden noticed the space seemed more cave-like. He commented on this and Jonah explained to him that generations ago the original engineers had only modified a lot of the natural cavities within the planetoid. It was quite hard for Hayden to remain on one subject when he was subjected to so much around him. He was most intrigued with the things some of the stalls were selling. He could tell that most were food items but what types of food he couldn’t possibly know. He saw the carcasses of unknown animals of all sizes hanging from the awnings of many of the trader’s stands and he saw what looked like a very large greengrocer’s stall. The smell was terrific and he broke his mother’s hold briefly to view some of the odd vegetables arranged neatly on shallow trays. Huge rhubarb-like plants a metre long and almost as thick with twisty blue and green roots. Berries in clutches of four or five that were the size of apples.
After perusing the stand for a while he saw something that did look familiar and reaching out he picked up what he thought looked like a large Idaho potato but gasped and dropped it back in fright when several tiny beady bla
ck eyes and a small tooth-filled mouth opened to let out a shrill rasping sound! Hayden dropped it back where he found it and hastily rejoined his mother. He looked to the humanoid merchant in charge of the stall. A short, dark-skinned unshaven and rather fat little “man” who had greying, greasy receding hair tied back tightly into a pony tail. Sleazy looking, Hayden thought.
What was unusual was when his uncle started speaking fluently in the trader’s language. After securing what he needed Jonah finished his business there and rejoined his sister and nephew.
They stopped at several other stalls and Hayden watched on very impressed as again his uncle bargained in still more numerous languages with equally numerous life forms for what appeared to be a long list of mysterious supplies.
‘Do you know these languages?’ He asked his mother.
‘I know ten languages very well and a few not quite so well. My brother knows at least fifteen.’
He started to feel inadequate but his mother, being his mother, quickly picked up on his feelings. ‘You’ll learn. Don’t worry. The languages will come to you quite quickly indeed. ’
‘I doubt it.’
‘I don’t,’ she responded knowingly.
Hayden’s gaze had traipsed across the varied produce available and onto the walls of the cavern and then to a large window set half way up the dome ceiling. Through it he could see Salar-Prime or at least one quarter of it. The immense sphere of multi-coloured gas slowly rotated as the asteroid belt surrounding it appeared to flatten out into the distance into concentric rings. Like Saturn he thought and a pang of homesickness for his own solar system struck. There’d be nothing on Salar-Prime but gas and at the centre, most probably a solid metallic core created from the forces of gravity that had been compressing the gases over millennia. Hayden’s thoughts were interrupted by his uncle tugging on his arm gently.
‘Hayden, we’re to head back now,’ he instructed with some urgency and without complaint he followed them.
‘Where’s all the stuff you bought? ’
Amy had taken his hand and was dragging him along quite quickly. ‘The vendors will box it up and it’ll be couriered.’
As they rushed back to the ship, Hayden still tried to absorb as much of the place as possible. He had to learn as much as he could and hope to have the most incredible adventure of his life.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Hayden sat in his cabin and observed the sweep-hand round the dial of his watch and wondered what time really was.
According to him, they had been cruising for a few hours in open space with Salar-One now far behind. There was a knock at the door and Amy and Jonah entered as the door swished aside for them at Hayden’s command.
‘Are you ready for something to eat? It’s almost six o’clock, Earth time.’
‘Will we be eating any of those things we saw today?’ Hayden asked, remembering with distaste the potato-like creature.
‘I can assure you that all the ingredients we bought will be prepared quite deliciously.’
‘All?’
‘That thing I know you’re thinking about was called a Crissit.’ His mother smiled. ‘Crissit are parasite eaters. A vendor will put one or two, depending on the size of the stall, onto their display and as it has a voracious appetite for bugs, it keeps the stall clean. ’
Hayden was relieved.
‘We have a few in the galley on board. They’re totally harmless, unless you’re a parasite.’
Suddenly Hayden’s stomach growled loudly.
‘Obviously those beans weren’t enough then?’ Jonah joked and Hayden shook his head. He’d been so wrapped up in things he hadn’t realised he was so hungry. They left the cabin and headed to the mess.
‘Do you know exactly where we are? ’ Hayden asked, hoping that either of his escorts could fill him in.
‘We’re heading to the mess.’
‘No, I mean - ’
‘I know, I know, I have a fair idea,’ Jonah chuckled. ‘The captain will give us a more precise update at dinner.’
They neared the door and Hayden adjusted his clothes. It wasn’t the first time he’d been to a dinner with Barry there but it was the first dinner he’d had with the captain of an inter-stellar starship.
*
The mess was dimly lit and was as he’d imagined it to be. Four long tables lined up and around ten people were sitting at each and the centre table had Captain Baden at the far end. Hayden knew the ship was big but seeing this many people in one room really confirmed it. Amy led them in with Hayden behind then Jonah.
All at the tables rose from the long bench seats and bowed their heads in this common greeting he was becoming used to.
Behind them, a series of round portholes viewed into space.
‘Come. Sit here with me,’ Baden asked and he gestured to the seat directly on his right. Sitting on the second chair around the table to Baden’s left was Ambassador Rankin, when he caught Hayden’s gaze, he dipped his head gently. Hayden dipped his head in response then continued to scan the table. Almost immediately he saw sitting on the opposite side to Rankin, with his arm, like the others, still across his chest, his headmaster.
‘Mr. Dusting! ’ Hayden exclaimed, almost as if he was disappointed.
Mr. Dusting looked apologetically at Hayden’s surprise.
‘Yes, Highness, but here I am Admiral to your fleet.’
Hayden was overwhelmed.
‘Admiral,’ he acknowledged flatly, his mood noticeably turning to the worse. Amy and Jonah sat at seats on either side of the table head, adjacent to the captain.
Hayden’s widened eyes still scanned the room.
He didn’t have to look hard, even in the low light, to recognise the faces of numerous people he’d known and seen over his lifetime in Armadale. Mrs. Carter the music teacher sat alongside Mr. Townsend, the psychologist, who sat with his wife who was a chef at the local restaurant. Mr. Rampe, the town’s Civil engineer sat with his wife. Mr. Cabaj, the philosophy teacher, and Mr. Hull the gamekeeper sat there too. He hadn’t noticed them in that cavern in Jagged Peak but that was because he’d been so stunned.
‘So,’ began Hayden, the apparent guest of honour, before he sat directly at the head of the table next to his old bus driver. ‘My mother is a Queen, my uncle is a General, my science teacher is an Ambassador and now my headmaster is an Admiral!’ He paused. ‘I suppose that you are all whatever you are? Dukes or Duchesses or Counts or something?’ He shook his head then sat almost reluctantly next to the man he once knew simply as Barry the bus driver. ‘Am I missing someone - anyone?’
There was an unexpected long silence where Hayden had half expected a laugh or two but what he did hear break the silence was a familiar, almost inaudible nervous voice.
‘Just me.’
‘...and me,’ another equally familiar voice added almost as meekly. Hayden scanned all those seated and gasped in shock.
Seated halfway down the very next table to his and hidden from direct view, he saw to his greatest surprise, Maddy and Monty!
Feeling dejected when he should have been elated, he shook his head in disbelief. It was then that he noticed that their parents sat either side of them. What? He thought, his mind spent from surprise. What the hell was going on! They were aliens too and had probably been groomed for this moment their whole lives.
My so-called best friends?
A strange anger began filling Hayden. An anger he’d never felt.
*
The mess was silent but for the sound of cutlery grating on crockery and it was uncomfortable for all. Hayden was silent as were the other diners as they could palpably sense his mood.
Even though he was very hungry, Hayden found it laborious to eat. He didn’t even notice what was served and set before him. He managed to swallow only a few mouthfuls of something that may as well have been tasteless. He had completely lost his appetite. Maddy and Monty tried to talk to him but were discouraged to do so with silent gestures from their parents.
Hayden felt truly lost and it wasn’t for the parsecs he was from the home he knew but for the emotional distance that was now spreading to separate him from his loved ones. He worried. Could his family and friends ever be trusted again? What was so important that such a secret should be kept from him? Such a secret could be made of him?
He looked out of the porthole at the billions of stars that surrounded them and sighed. Even those diamonds of space had lost their lustre to him.
*
The meal finished, Captain Baden broke the silence and asked Hayden if he would care to join him on a tour of the ship. The offer was politely declined with a gentle hand signal. The Captain of course, allowed him the privilege and wished him goodnight.
Hayden stood from his chair, stopped briefly as the other diners rose and bowed their heads and saluted. He shook his head as before he’d found this pleasantry over the top but now felt embarrassed by it. He looked to the floor, closed his eyes and still slowly shaking his head, left the room.
As he walked he tried to make sense of what was happening.
It was totally unbelievable. Who would believe such a story? On the bright-side, he thought. Anyone worth believing me is on the ship with me. He thought about home again and those tremors on the mountain and what they turned out to be. He thought of his uncle and how he’d kept the truth about those tremors and, depressingly, facts of his whole life from him. Saddest of all, his beloved mother was no less guilty as she had made it her absolute mission in life to hide the truth from her only son.
His school teachers and headmaster knew it and unfortunately so too did those who he thought were his best friends.
It seemed the whole of the town were in on it. He was even expecting Scott Worcester and his gang to jump out from around a corner but that would be too unappealing an addition to events.
Hayden didn’t know that Maddy had started to cry when he’d left the mess and was being comforted by her father or that Monty was close to tears as well. He felt completely out of it. For the first time in his life, he wanted to run away but knew that even though he had everywhere to go, he had nowhere to go.
The Blake Equation- Discovery Page 9
