The New Frontier Page 14

  “What happened?” their mom asked.

  “I have no idea. I must have gotten something,” their dad said, wobbling in.

  “Do you want me to call the doctor?” their mom wondered.

  “No, I think I’m OK. I just need to rest a while,” he said.

  The girls felt relieved, knowing the call to the doctor may have tipped off the Zebs before. Their dad just retreated to their parents’ bedroom and collapsed into the bed.

  The next few days followed the same pattern that the girls had experienced. Their dad slept a lot, threw up some more, then slept again.

  A few days later, he was feeling much better, just as had happened with the girls, but a little quicker. It was Friday and the family was up for family pizza night at the plaza.

  After school, their mother greeted them as usual and the family headed home. The girls were anxious to see how their dad was doing. To their relief, he was back to his old self.

  “Hey kiddos, ready to go get some pizza tonight?” he asked them when they walked in the door.

  Maia and Evan started chanting, “Ya, ya, ya, ya!”

  “Yep,” Lauren said.

  Julia nodded in agreement, eyes gleaming.

  “OK, well, then let’s go.”

  The girls and their brother and sister set their bags down and ran toward the door.

  “Why don’t we walk today?” their dad asked.

  Their mom said, “Sounds good.” And they were off.

  The family strolled along on the short walk. Everything was getting back to normal. Evan and Maia walked ahead, talking to each other and generally getting along.

  The older girls stayed back, walking with their mom. Their dad walked behind, just happy that he was feeling better.

  At the plaza, they went through their typical routine, getting pizza with pepperoni and black olives.

  Lauren looked at her dad. “Are you feeling a lot better?”

  “Yes, much. It’s good to get out and walk,” he said.

  After pizza, their dad asked, “Do you all want some ice cream?”

  “Yep,” Julia said.

  “Julia, Lauren, can you two help me?” he asked.

  They walked up to order their ice cream at the window. Their dad looked around the plaza then stopped and squinted at some bushes.

  “What?” Lauren asked.

  “What is that?” he asked. “Have you ever seen one of those things before?”

  Lauren looked back in the bushes and saw two monkoons. Her sister saw them, too. The two smiled at each other, knowing their plan had worked.

  Part III: A New Alliance

  Chapter 17

  Our New Allies

  “Dad, there’s something we have to tell you,” Lauren said, tugging at her dad’s elbow.

  “What, Lauren? What is it?” he asked, staring at the monkoons in the flowerbeds.

  “The reason you can see that creature is because we gave you a treatment that made you sick,” Lauren said.

  “What are you talking about, Lauren?” he asked, as they shuffled up one slot in line to get ice cream.

  “You got sick, remember?” she said.

  “Well, yeah, of course I remember,” he answered, looking back at the creature.

  “Did you have a bad dream when you were sick?” she asked.

  He turned his gaze down to her. “What do you mean?”

  “As in, did you dream about a strange ship you went to, went through the halls, and ended up right in front of some pulsing blob?” Lauren put her arms at her side, akimbo.

  Their dad’s face went white. “Excuse me?”

  “Yes, it happened to both Julia and me,” she said. Julia stood behind her, nodding her head several times.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Like I said, we gave you a treatment. The treatment lets you see these things. That’s not all, either,” Lauren continued.

  “What do you mean?” he repeated with a more stern voice, frowning.

  “You know all those conspiracy theories about some alien life form living here, controlling us?” she said.

  “Yes. But those are all stories. Made up by some wackos,” he answered, returning his gaze to the monkoons.

  “They’re not stories. They’re true. We’ve seen them,” she insisted, stomping her foot on the floor.

  “Seen what?” he asked looking back at her.

  “The creatures. They’re a little taller than us and frighteningly ugly!” She scrunched her face and shivered as she spoke.

  “What do you mean? Those things over there don’t look like that,” he said, nodding in the direction of the creatures.

  “Trust me, dad, these creatures are just the tip of the iceberg. The other ones are real, too. They’re scary. We didn’t know what else to do, so we gave you the treatment,” she explained.

  “What treatment? What are you talking about?” he asked, raising his voice with his face flushing red.

  “The treatment. Julia had a science experiment and she dropped one of those rocks in it that you brought back from the asteroid belt. Something happened to it and it made that stinky smell. You remember? When we were in the hotel on New Cielo? That stinky smell?” Lauren asked.

  “Yes, I remember,” he confirmed.

  “That was the treatment that Julia made. Somehow, the microorganisms change us so that we can see these things and everyone else can’t,” she said.

  He laughed an uneasy chuckle. “Wow, you all really had me going! That’s some story.” He got the ice cream and started walking toward the table.

  Lauren grabbed his elbow again, pulling him back. “Dad, we’re not kidding.”

  He grinned, “Sure! That was a good story. But I’d still like to know how you found out about my dream. Did Mom tell you?” he asked as he continued walking back to the table.

  Lauren stopped, folding her arms in front of her.

  Looking ahead, Julia didn’t see her sister stop and bumped into her.

  When their dad was out of earshot, Julia piped up, “What do we do now?”

  “You sure were a lot of help! You didn’t say a thing!” Lauren accused her sister.

  “Well, you seemed to have it covered,” Julia said, shrugging.

  “Thanks a lot!” Lauren grumbled back.

  “Girls, come eat. Your ice cream’s melting,” their mom called to them.

  The two sauntered back to the table, wondering what to do next. Their dad’s phone started beeping. He pulled it out of his pocket and held it up to his ear.

  “Yello,” he said, followed by a pause. His smile disintegrated to a frown. “OK, I’ll come out there first thing in the morning.” He hung up.

  “What is it?” their mom asked.

  “I have to go out to the asteroid belt. Some of the guys are having trouble out there. Production is down,” he said.

  “What! You just got better and now you have to go?” Their mom set her ice cream cone down.

  “Well, I was gone for over a week. They’re kind of a rough crowd out there and need supervision,” he defended.

  “All right, I guess it has to be that way.” She looked around at her brood. “Are you all ready to go?”

  “Yep!” Evan jumped up, licking his sticky lips. Maia got up behind him, ready as well.

  Lauren and Julia lingered a second longer, still wondering what they could do.

  *

  The next morning, their dad was gone early. He was well on his way to the asteroid belt by the time the girls got up, as the trip out there took about half a day. It was Saturday, though, so the kids didn’t have school and slept in later than usual.

  About 10AM, Lauren and Julia rolled out of their bedroom into the living room. Lauren rubbed her eyes, stumbling to the couch. Julia was a little more alert, but looked wild with frizzled hair shooting in all directions.

  “Well, look who’s finally up!” their mom said. Evan and Maia looked over from the TV in the living room. Evan was playing a video g
ame and Maia was watching.

  A second later, Evan set the controls down. “Lauren, you said we could do something today!”

  Lauren rubbed her face with her hands. “Maybe later, Evan.”

  “Lauren, you promised!” Evan pleaded.

  “Are you two feeling OK?” their mom asked, studying them.

  “We’re fine!” Lauren shot back with a glare.

  “Whoa … somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” their mom said. “Listen, you two need to get it together. I’m not sure what’s wrong, but you need to figure it out. I’m taking Evan and Maia out to shop for school clothes and I expect you two to shape up by the time I get back.”

  Julia rolled her eyes. “OK, OK.”

  A few minutes later, Evan and Maia emerged from their room dressed and ready to go. Their mom stood at the door waiting for them.

  “Girls?” Their mom looked at them.

  No response.

  “Girls!” she tried again.

  “What? Huh?” Lauren shook her head.

  “We’re leaving.”

  “OK,” Julia acknowledged.

  As soon as they had left, Lauren hopped up, going back into her room to lie on her bed, drifting back to sleep.

  Julia plopped in front of the television and turned on one of her shows.

  After Julia’s show was over, she sat up, wondering what to do next. She turned the TV off and lay back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. “Ring, ring.” She was startled by the doorbell.

  “Hmm, I wonder who that could be?” she asked herself as she went to see.

  She opened the door, completely unprepared for what stood in the hall. Her jaw dropped almost to the floor. Taking steps backward toward her room, she stammered, “Lauren,” in a low trembling voice.

  Lauren stirred, blinking when she heard her sister. Immediately, a chill went down her spine, followed by a twinge in the pit of her stomach. She rolled out of bed, rushing to the aid of her sister.

  Her anxiety quickly turned to fear when she saw two Zebs standing in the doorway. She recognized them as the ones that chased them on New Cielo. Her legs wobbled, barely holding her up.

  “Girls, we’re not here to hurt you,” the larger Zeb said as he reached a hand out to help steady Lauren. “We’re here to help.” His lips didn’t match the words he spoke.

  Lauren refused his hand, stepping backward. The Zebs retreated, standing with their arms at their sides in the hall.

  Lauren stood straight, stiffening her stance, scowling. “How could you help us?”

  “You may not realize it, but you’ve already helped us greatly. My human name is Ankit. And this is Raja,” he pointed at his companion.

  Still in shock, Julia stood with her mouth open. Lauren didn’t waiver, staring straight at them. “How did we help you? You chased us all around New Cielo and now you’re trying to help us?”

  “Yes, that was unfortunate. But you must understand, until now we had no free will. We were under its control,” he said.

  “Whose control?” Julia blurted out.

  “You see, when you exposed us to those microorganisms on New Cielo, it had a similar effect on us as it did you,” he continued.

  “The what?” Lauren questioned.

  “You mean the treatment,” Julia answered.

  “Yes, is that what you call it? The treatment?” he said. “We are under the influence of it, too, just like the human population. But the treatment somehow breaks the bond for us, like it does you.”

  “It was an accident. I had no idea it would do that!” Julia defended herself.

  “No, you don’t understand. It helped us break the bond,” he restated.

  “What bond? What are you talking about?” Lauren folded her arms, still scowling.

  “We don’t have a name in your language for it. This … this being … it controls our minds. It grabs control and makes us do things we don’t want to do,” he said in his low, calm voice. His words still weren’t in sync with his mouth, almost as if something was translating for him as he spoke.

  Seeing the look of confusion on their faces, Ankit offered an explanation. “You notice our mouths aren’t matching what we’re saying … when you all boarded the station, we injected you with a number of things, including nanobots that translate our language into yours. They attach themselves to your inner ear canal and do the translation.”

  Lauren stuffed her finger in her ear, twisting as if she was trying to dislodge the foreign objects.

  Julia shook her head, then asked, “What is this thing?”

  “It resides on the far side of New Cielo. You haven’t seen it before because you haven’t been over there. And all the other humans who do go there can’t see it because they’re under its control.” He paused.

  “These things … that’s how they live … they travel from solar system to solar system. They’re like insects here on Cielo. They have hard shells … what do you call it? Exoskeleton? Yes, their exoskeleton protects them from space. Then, we can walk around inside,” he continued.

  “In the middle of it is a large, pulsing mass that controls the ship. This … this is what controls us, too. It’s the brains of the monster,” he stopped again, taking a deeper breath than normal. “Forgive me … we have trouble with the atmosphere here.”

  For the first time, Lauren noticed the strange suits the two Zebs wore. The suits fit tightly around their bodies, with ribs of fabric running vertically up the sides. A tube pushed a vapor up toward their mouths when they breathed.

  The four of them quieted down when a mother and her three small children walked by. Lauren didn’t recognize them, but said “Hi” anyway and smiled.

  Julia hadn’t seen a thing, lost in thought. Her eyes widened in horror, remembering Lauren and their collective dream. “Lauren, it is real!” She looked at Lauren, who just had the same revelation.

  “Our dream! That brain thing! That big blob in the middle of the ship! When you look at it, it flashes lights like a squid,” Julia said.

  “Yes, that is it. How did you know this?” the other Zeb, Raja, asked in a deep, croaking voice.

  Lauren explained, “When we smelled the treatment, we got violently ill. We both had this horrible dream, where we traveled to that ship. We walked around through a maze and ended up right in front of this brain. It felt like it dug into our heads, then in a flash it was over. We both woke up.”

  “Strange,” Raja said. “Maybe this is how the bond is broken.”

  “We had another dream, too,” Julia said, not elaborating on the horrifying experience.

  Ankit spoke again, “Once the bond is severed, then it can’t find you. It doesn’t know where you are, but sometimes it can reach out to try and scare you into revealing yourself. It doesn’t know where we are now, either. We’ve been in hiding.”

  “How do you hide?” Lauren asked.

  “Grid 2. We can stay there. So many people have mods, we can blend in. Our people don’t have much of a presence on this station, either. Just a small mining operation,” he said.

  “Mining? You must be talking about the factory, where you take the crystals,” Lauren said.

  “Yes, how do you know about that?” he wondered.

  “We found it. One day we ran into the woods and saw some people going in. Then we followed them to see where they went. We saw a huge conveyer belt, giant buckets, and huge hammers,” Julia said with her eyes gleaming.

  “These two have seen it all, then. It has no idea how much they’ve learned,” Raja spoke to Ankit.

  Another family passed by, and this time the girls recognized them. “Hi, Mrs. Smith. How are you today?”

  “Just out doing some shopping,” she said, looking at the two disguised Zebs out of the corner of her eye. She continued past them to her apartment.

  Lauren looked up and down the hall. A few more people were coming by. They waited until they passed to ask more questions.

  “Why do you need those crystals?
” Julia asked.

  “We don’t. It does,” Ankit said. “It feeds on the crystals. The factory breaks apart the rocks and extracts the crystals. Then we take them to it.”

  “Where we come from, these creatures have ravaged our civilization. They have an elaborate web of control. Each one controls some part of our people. They search for new unsuspecting civilizations all the time. They found your solar system about 50 years ago. They will try to do the same here that they did to us. They brought us here to mine the crystals. It uses some of the crystals, then keeps what it doesn’t use, so they can bring more of its kind here,” Raja added.

  “More?” Lauren asked.

  “Yes, that’s how they live. They want to control whomever they can, wherever they can, to get more of the crystals. And the crystals give them power,” Raja continued.

  “And you can’t stop them?” Julia looked horrified.

  “No, we can’t. The crystals make them too powerful,” Ankit said.

  “Our people are at war with these creatures. We came to know them as Gr-awl-toltz,” Raja growled the first syllables, followed by a high-pitched ending.

  “Translated, it means those who vanquish us,” Ankit muttered while looking around the hallway.

  “Growlts? Hmm, how about we just call them the Squids, because that’s what they look like and I can’t pronounce that anyway,” Julia said, waving her arms.

  Lauren mused, “Yeah, that’s what they remind me of—a squid or a cuttlefish or something. Remember that show we saw on cuttlefish, Julia? They were amazing. They could change colors in a flash. They were smart, too …”

  “Well, whatever you call them, they are bad. Very bad. Your analogy … sounds right. They’re animals, not as advanced as us. They hunt and act on instinct. No compassion,” Raja said.

  “And we have nobody to blame but ourselves,” Ankit added. “Hundreds of years ago, our civilization found these creatures in space. They weren’t as advanced as they are now. We herded them in space, using them for mining asteroids to help establish new space colonies.” He paused, folding his hands together, reflecting.

  “Before, the creatures weren’t threatening, just blissfully wandering in space. They would talk to each other using blinking lights, like we said before. Then, we decided to genetically modify the creatures to make them more ‘controllable.’ We modified them so we could more easily communicate with them directly to their minds using these crystals,” Ankit explained.