The fruit sits on the table-my boyfriend, the guitar,
sits on the chair at the other end of the table-
his eyes are like steel pools of cold, blackness.
He thinks to himself he is not gone for good,
that he is not a radio, a star, a piece of fruit-
the fruit that is on the table, in the middle of himself.
He is not myself. He is not a hole inside myself.
He is the world, and the world is growing large-
large inside my belly, that feeds another world.
He sits in the green chair, all by himself, and molds
tomorrow out of clay-clay that melts between my fingers-
and sings out a world.
My heart is in my hands. In between dreams, thoughts are
things, and everyone is ecstatic about the fruit of trees.
People mold, and life continues-but not for disease.
For people with disease, life ends, bitterly, and it is the
end of all worlds-the worlds that spin between time and space,
and the stories we make real.
Showing posts with label space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label space. Show all posts
Friday, December 17, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
IN THE COURT OF THE SONG SLAYER.
IN THE COURT OF THE SONG SLAYER
Characters:
Arianna Arabelle Erisyn Eros
Commander Rius Andros, Space Marines, Veryona
Planets: Veryona, Earth
The word “Marine” was generally inclined more towards that of distant oceans on the planet Earth, but, in relativity, the word was concocted to that of the planet Earth, and not of oceans in the universe in general. The term “Marine” derived from Old English; Middle English.
She was the song slayer, the woman from Veryona.
It was the world beyond worlds; the world beyond time and space. Or, rather, it was situated between the 32nd galaxy and the 43rd galaxy. Her mother said there were over three hundred thousand trillion galaxies in this universe alone, and it spun endlessly. Her father was Commander Rius Andros, of the 31st Space Marine Corps. “Marine” was a strange word. She didn’t know it could be applied to space, as well.
Her full name was Arianna Arabelle Erisyn Eros. She had flowing blonde hair, piercing purple eyes, and a ruby in the middle of her forehead. She demonstrated interesting abilities when she was five. She had the gift of telekinesis; and Cat-pathy, the ability to communicate with felines in space. She generally bent spoons; then, when she realized spoon-bending was an old art, she lifted entire tables off the air and sent them spinning out the window. She almost destroyed her neighbor’s backyard with a brown wooden table from Earth. Earth and Veryona were on good communication terms; they agreed to have skirmishes every three hundred million years, when Mars, the god of war, thought it was necessary to put the universe back on balance. Which was whenever he felt like it.
In the dictionary, war was described as “the ability to harness powers in an evil manner.”
Arianna smiled primly. She had been studying her primer. She was three hundred seventy four years old, and barely reached adulthood. Her hair was long and flowing and her best friend was a manitee. A manitee was an animal that had brown fur and bristly hair. The bear’s eyes were pools of blackness.
Arianna held the book out in front of her. The book was old and the pages were torn in two. The pages were torn in two and she couldn’t ask for another. Her Mentor, who was also called “William,” was a very stern teacher. He had seen a lot of battles and went to Tyn to fight in the wars. Tyn was a long ways away, and Arianna dreamt of leaving her castle. Did she forget to mention? She was a princess. She hated it. She was stuck inside all day and had nothing to do. She felt like crying all the time. The boys from her school came to visit her and played cricket and handball. She watched, sitting under the tree, reading a book. She wasn’t talking to any of the boys. They only played games. They were ordered to by her father; she wasn’t supposed to talk to boys, only girls. She could play with the boys, though, but she didn’t feel like playing.
One day, a young servant came to deliver a set of hand-washed clothes. He said his mother was a Ljnn, someone who could weave magic from nothing. Her father only hired the best. It was all he could do. He had so much money he didn’t know what to do with it. He had so much money, he was greedy and thoughtless and slept with woman after woman. Arianna was studying in the kitchen. She liked to study in the kitchen with the cook, a Khr Sa’in. She was not Earthling. She was from a planet called Iare. She said people lived on the world and they were very small, tiny. Their eyes were usually gold or purple and they lived their lives singing songs. Arianna didn’t believe her. The servant left, and Arianna paid no mind. She was used to people coming and going. She was used to people doing odd things in her presence. She was, after all, a princess. She collected her homework and went up to her room. Exhausted, she fell onto the bed, and her mouth hung open. She looked out the window and the clock tower was in the distance, shorn of silver and stone. She had never been to the clock tower. Old Man Niles lived in the clock tower. He was very cranky and had a big nose and narrowed eyes. She wanted to visit the clock tower one day.
The next morning the sun was a brilliant blue, and Arianna went outside to practice bow and arrow. The target was an apple in a tree. The leaves of the trees were very big, broad, and green. The sun shone through the branches. The sun was fierce and hot. A man wandered over to her. It was her teacher.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
He frowned at her. “I was studying astronomy!” he replied. “Looking at the stars. Don’t you ever wonder about the stars? Don’t you ever dream? Don’t you ever think, be? Are?”
She frowned. “You’re not making any sense.”
He spread his arms wide, as if to embrace the entire castle. In fact, he really hated the castle. He despised it. It wasn’t something he enjoyed, spending time in the castle. He was happy doing other things. Off having other adventures. Off doing things he wouldn’t normally be doing. Sometimes with her, more often by himself. She worried about him spending more time alone, by himself. “I found a book,” he said, his face brightening.
“What book?” she asked him. She was interested now. She put down her bow and arrow, and everyone complained. She made a face at their backs. So, let them complain. It would do them good. She knew about doing good and complaining. They were both among her favorite pastimes.
“What kind of book is this?” Arianna asked with interest, flipping through the pages.
He shrugged. His shoulders were small and bony. He had always been small for a teacher, and had big eyes and brown hair. He was born on a space station that orbited Earth, and confessed he felt out of place. He wasn’t happy with the way things were going in his life, and spent more and more time absorbed in his books-usually, magick books, or books about spells and sorcerers. Recently, he had come across an old book and had given it to Arianna for inspection. She found the pages were blank except for the last page. The words, “Iresyn Litte” was written across it in gold, bold ink. The lettering was like magic, but it wasn’t exactly so.
“What does it mean?” Arianna asked quizzically.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Damned if I know,” he replied. “Where do you think it came from?”
“I thought you bought this thing.”
“No, someone gave it to me. He said it belonged to the song slayer.”
“Who’s that?”
“Someone who can pen songs-songs from magic,” he reported. He frowned, and added: “I think.” He rubbed his temples warily. He hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep lately. He had been working all day and all night, his temper was flaring. He didn’t want to take it out in front of her. She was his buddy.
“I don’t know anyone like that,” she said, pursed her lips while she thought. She didn’t know why he was interested in such a book. She had better books in her father’s library, large books with large words and written in script. Men came from all over the world to give her father books. She was very proud of him. He had a large collection.
He cocked his head and winked at her. “Maybe you do,” he replied, and chuckled. “Maybe it’s you.”
She shoved him. “Or it’s you!” she said sarcastically. She made a face at him. “Always making fun of me, huh! I don’t like the turn of events!” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.
“It is you,” he said seriously, and shoved the book in her hands. He laughed and hurried away. She stared after him, and shoved the book into the pocket of her cloak. She had better things to do. It was time to go to the Midnight Ritual. The Midnight Ritual was a union, an elite, of a group of girls from the castle and they gathered around and paid homage to fairies. Lydia was the first one to think of it. She was her Uncle’s next door neighbor and was home schooled and her mother worked at the castle as a teacher. The city didn’t have a real school and they were trying to get her father the money to give the workers to build a school.
The four girls clustered around a large, silver tree. The sun was red, now; it only turned to blue once every full cycle. A cycle was a half a year on Veronya; they didn’t go by Earthtime. That’s was what they called a year on Earth, Earthtime. Veryona had no government; no intricate system of webbing sand from stone. The clouds hung in the sky, and it was a lazy, lazy day, and then midnight was an even darker night. Lydia crept closer and threw a flame into the fire. She was a flame-thrower. Most people shunned her. She was from Veryona, which was very curious, because Veryona did not possess the gift of magick. Magick was an old, ancient art. People did not have magick here. It was forbidden, and no one knew how to use it, besides, and decided to make it forbidden. The forbiddenness came from within the heart; the heart was where all Darkness and Light had lain. Her father told her this many times, after her mother died. She was the one who told her first. She missed her mother dreadfully, and life had become dreadfully dull and boring.
Lydia was a spot of bright sunshine in her otherwise dull life. She had black hair and blue skin. She was from Earth, but her mother was XCryick. A planet three thousand light years away from Earth, she was often lonely and desolate, until she discovered magick and other girls who harbored it. She was surprised Veryonians did not have magick, and Arianna explained women on Veryona were not gifted in magick, her abilities were flukes. She said William told her it was not so, that she was different, brilliant. Her magic was different. He called it “magic” without the “k.” She was surprised. Most of the time, he sounded like an Earthling and wondered about his parents.
The Midnight Ritual started out fine. Lydia chanted about the moon and the stars and Brooke talked of her mother, on the Other World, the Ghost World. Veryona had a real world and a ghost world. The ghost world was three hundred light years away, in the universe. The universe was vast and Brooke wanted to visit it one day. She planned on building a star shuttle to take her to the place.
Characters:
Arianna Arabelle Erisyn Eros
Commander Rius Andros, Space Marines, Veryona
Planets: Veryona, Earth
The word “Marine” was generally inclined more towards that of distant oceans on the planet Earth, but, in relativity, the word was concocted to that of the planet Earth, and not of oceans in the universe in general. The term “Marine” derived from Old English; Middle English.
She was the song slayer, the woman from Veryona.
It was the world beyond worlds; the world beyond time and space. Or, rather, it was situated between the 32nd galaxy and the 43rd galaxy. Her mother said there were over three hundred thousand trillion galaxies in this universe alone, and it spun endlessly. Her father was Commander Rius Andros, of the 31st Space Marine Corps. “Marine” was a strange word. She didn’t know it could be applied to space, as well.
Her full name was Arianna Arabelle Erisyn Eros. She had flowing blonde hair, piercing purple eyes, and a ruby in the middle of her forehead. She demonstrated interesting abilities when she was five. She had the gift of telekinesis; and Cat-pathy, the ability to communicate with felines in space. She generally bent spoons; then, when she realized spoon-bending was an old art, she lifted entire tables off the air and sent them spinning out the window. She almost destroyed her neighbor’s backyard with a brown wooden table from Earth. Earth and Veryona were on good communication terms; they agreed to have skirmishes every three hundred million years, when Mars, the god of war, thought it was necessary to put the universe back on balance. Which was whenever he felt like it.
In the dictionary, war was described as “the ability to harness powers in an evil manner.”
Arianna smiled primly. She had been studying her primer. She was three hundred seventy four years old, and barely reached adulthood. Her hair was long and flowing and her best friend was a manitee. A manitee was an animal that had brown fur and bristly hair. The bear’s eyes were pools of blackness.
Arianna held the book out in front of her. The book was old and the pages were torn in two. The pages were torn in two and she couldn’t ask for another. Her Mentor, who was also called “William,” was a very stern teacher. He had seen a lot of battles and went to Tyn to fight in the wars. Tyn was a long ways away, and Arianna dreamt of leaving her castle. Did she forget to mention? She was a princess. She hated it. She was stuck inside all day and had nothing to do. She felt like crying all the time. The boys from her school came to visit her and played cricket and handball. She watched, sitting under the tree, reading a book. She wasn’t talking to any of the boys. They only played games. They were ordered to by her father; she wasn’t supposed to talk to boys, only girls. She could play with the boys, though, but she didn’t feel like playing.
One day, a young servant came to deliver a set of hand-washed clothes. He said his mother was a Ljnn, someone who could weave magic from nothing. Her father only hired the best. It was all he could do. He had so much money he didn’t know what to do with it. He had so much money, he was greedy and thoughtless and slept with woman after woman. Arianna was studying in the kitchen. She liked to study in the kitchen with the cook, a Khr Sa’in. She was not Earthling. She was from a planet called Iare. She said people lived on the world and they were very small, tiny. Their eyes were usually gold or purple and they lived their lives singing songs. Arianna didn’t believe her. The servant left, and Arianna paid no mind. She was used to people coming and going. She was used to people doing odd things in her presence. She was, after all, a princess. She collected her homework and went up to her room. Exhausted, she fell onto the bed, and her mouth hung open. She looked out the window and the clock tower was in the distance, shorn of silver and stone. She had never been to the clock tower. Old Man Niles lived in the clock tower. He was very cranky and had a big nose and narrowed eyes. She wanted to visit the clock tower one day.
The next morning the sun was a brilliant blue, and Arianna went outside to practice bow and arrow. The target was an apple in a tree. The leaves of the trees were very big, broad, and green. The sun shone through the branches. The sun was fierce and hot. A man wandered over to her. It was her teacher.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
He frowned at her. “I was studying astronomy!” he replied. “Looking at the stars. Don’t you ever wonder about the stars? Don’t you ever dream? Don’t you ever think, be? Are?”
She frowned. “You’re not making any sense.”
He spread his arms wide, as if to embrace the entire castle. In fact, he really hated the castle. He despised it. It wasn’t something he enjoyed, spending time in the castle. He was happy doing other things. Off having other adventures. Off doing things he wouldn’t normally be doing. Sometimes with her, more often by himself. She worried about him spending more time alone, by himself. “I found a book,” he said, his face brightening.
“What book?” she asked him. She was interested now. She put down her bow and arrow, and everyone complained. She made a face at their backs. So, let them complain. It would do them good. She knew about doing good and complaining. They were both among her favorite pastimes.
“What kind of book is this?” Arianna asked with interest, flipping through the pages.
He shrugged. His shoulders were small and bony. He had always been small for a teacher, and had big eyes and brown hair. He was born on a space station that orbited Earth, and confessed he felt out of place. He wasn’t happy with the way things were going in his life, and spent more and more time absorbed in his books-usually, magick books, or books about spells and sorcerers. Recently, he had come across an old book and had given it to Arianna for inspection. She found the pages were blank except for the last page. The words, “Iresyn Litte” was written across it in gold, bold ink. The lettering was like magic, but it wasn’t exactly so.
“What does it mean?” Arianna asked quizzically.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Damned if I know,” he replied. “Where do you think it came from?”
“I thought you bought this thing.”
“No, someone gave it to me. He said it belonged to the song slayer.”
“Who’s that?”
“Someone who can pen songs-songs from magic,” he reported. He frowned, and added: “I think.” He rubbed his temples warily. He hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep lately. He had been working all day and all night, his temper was flaring. He didn’t want to take it out in front of her. She was his buddy.
“I don’t know anyone like that,” she said, pursed her lips while she thought. She didn’t know why he was interested in such a book. She had better books in her father’s library, large books with large words and written in script. Men came from all over the world to give her father books. She was very proud of him. He had a large collection.
He cocked his head and winked at her. “Maybe you do,” he replied, and chuckled. “Maybe it’s you.”
She shoved him. “Or it’s you!” she said sarcastically. She made a face at him. “Always making fun of me, huh! I don’t like the turn of events!” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.
“It is you,” he said seriously, and shoved the book in her hands. He laughed and hurried away. She stared after him, and shoved the book into the pocket of her cloak. She had better things to do. It was time to go to the Midnight Ritual. The Midnight Ritual was a union, an elite, of a group of girls from the castle and they gathered around and paid homage to fairies. Lydia was the first one to think of it. She was her Uncle’s next door neighbor and was home schooled and her mother worked at the castle as a teacher. The city didn’t have a real school and they were trying to get her father the money to give the workers to build a school.
The four girls clustered around a large, silver tree. The sun was red, now; it only turned to blue once every full cycle. A cycle was a half a year on Veronya; they didn’t go by Earthtime. That’s was what they called a year on Earth, Earthtime. Veryona had no government; no intricate system of webbing sand from stone. The clouds hung in the sky, and it was a lazy, lazy day, and then midnight was an even darker night. Lydia crept closer and threw a flame into the fire. She was a flame-thrower. Most people shunned her. She was from Veryona, which was very curious, because Veryona did not possess the gift of magick. Magick was an old, ancient art. People did not have magick here. It was forbidden, and no one knew how to use it, besides, and decided to make it forbidden. The forbiddenness came from within the heart; the heart was where all Darkness and Light had lain. Her father told her this many times, after her mother died. She was the one who told her first. She missed her mother dreadfully, and life had become dreadfully dull and boring.
Lydia was a spot of bright sunshine in her otherwise dull life. She had black hair and blue skin. She was from Earth, but her mother was XCryick. A planet three thousand light years away from Earth, she was often lonely and desolate, until she discovered magick and other girls who harbored it. She was surprised Veryonians did not have magick, and Arianna explained women on Veryona were not gifted in magick, her abilities were flukes. She said William told her it was not so, that she was different, brilliant. Her magic was different. He called it “magic” without the “k.” She was surprised. Most of the time, he sounded like an Earthling and wondered about his parents.
The Midnight Ritual started out fine. Lydia chanted about the moon and the stars and Brooke talked of her mother, on the Other World, the Ghost World. Veryona had a real world and a ghost world. The ghost world was three hundred light years away, in the universe. The universe was vast and Brooke wanted to visit it one day. She planned on building a star shuttle to take her to the place.
Friday, October 30, 2009
THE BIGGEST LITTLE WORM HOLE IN THE UNIVERSE.
“What about Prisoner #3422?” the warden, Timothy Markowitz, asked thickly. He was staring hard at the back of the head warden’s head, wondering if the man had gone mad. He just said he was releasing all prisoners to different parts of the galaxy that was ordered by the President of the United Nations. It was vital to get them out as soon as possible. How soon could they do that with all the names they had? It was going to take all day to sort out the problem. Timothy sighed. He wanted to fly a starship, not do all this stupid crap. He didn’t even like prison. The food was awful. The prisoners were loud and obnoxious and the head warden looked like he wanted to throttle Timothy all the time. Once, he slipped and fell on a piece of ice and had to have back surgery. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
“Put him on a starship,” Johnson Jones answered with a sugary smile. “He’s no use to us. We’ve studied his intelligence scores, he’s good at math, but not much anything else. With the population exploding, we don’t have any room for him on Earth.” Johnson snorted. “We don’t have room for anyone on Earth, actually, least of all the prisoners.”
Timothy shook his head, looking worried. “This is bad. Very bad. What are we going to do?” he asked critically.
“You’ll still have a job tomorrow-if you do it right!” he snarled, and threw a paper weight at his head. It hit the wall and fell to the floor with a crash.
Timothy swallowed hard, terrified of the head warden’s weird attitude, and nodded. He didn’t want to get kicked off the planet like the other prisoners-he had never gotten in trouble a day in his life. “I just hope I’m not going to hell,” he muttered, and, shaking his head, filled out the prisoner’s release form. At least he wasn’t going anywhere. That was a plus.
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhh.
The super-tram was coming in faster than I expected.
I jumped back onto the platform just in time to see it squeal to a stop next to me.
The conductor helped me aboard. “Nervous?” he asked me. He wore a gray tie and a suit. I wore jeans and a t-shirt. I shrugged. “I’ve never been to the moon,” I said.
He snorted and almost smiled. “Very few people have,” he answered. “Let me take those bags.”
He took the bags and tossed them in their rightful compartment; the suitcases landed in their rightful places in one flying leap. I was impressed. Not many people could do that.
Being a conductor must be an interesting job.
I smiled.
Not as good as my job, though.
I was a prisoner with the Department of Corrections, on voluntary leave of absence for three months. I learned my lesson. Never take a hover craft without permission. It was a federal crime on most planets.
“Please,” he instructed. “Take your seat.”
Swallowing hard, I nodded and found a seat by the window.
The conductor came over the loud speaker. “We will be arriving on the Moon in three hours and fifteen seconds,” he chirped. “Buckle your seat belts and hold on tight. It’s going to be a wild ride.”
“Three hours,” someone sitting next to me whistled. “That’s pretty fast.” He shook his head. “Makes me wonder how they build them darn things.” He shook his head again, and chuckled aloud. Hey, I liked this guy. Not more than myself, but still, he was cool. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
I chuckled. Clearly this guy wasn’t a scientist. “I’m Brian,” I said, lying through my teeth. “Brian Jones. I’m a physicist at the University of Norte Dame and I’ve heard that they use microchips in their engine-it programs the trams to move faster.”
“My name is Nicholas Lauder. How are we able to breathe oxygen in space?” he asked me curiously. “I studied astronomy for two years at the University of Michigan before I became a real estate agent, but I’ve been wondering about that.” He frowned. “It’s very peculiar. Very peculiar indeed.”
I shrugged. “Just like in a space shuttle,” I said. “That’s all it is.”
“The trams have been around for awhile,” he said musingly.
I nodded. “They sure have,” I answered.
I didn’t say anything after that. It wasn’t that I wasn’t willing to talk, it was that the low-gravity amps were making me sleepy.
I curled up in a ball and fell asleep, using my arm as a pillow.
A man in a dark suit came running up to me while I was asleep. Looking left, and then right, he injected me with a syringe. Chuckling to himself, he walked down the aisle and disappeared. I never felt a thing.
Nicholas shook me awake. “Hey, kid,” he said softly. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
I yawned sleepily. “What are you talking about?” I said, rubbing my eyes. “I’m supposed to give a tour of the space station on the moon.” I creaked my neck and looked out the window. Nothing but darkness. Nothing but stars. Stars as vast as the sky at home. I missed Earth, but not that much. “What about lunch?”
Nicholas frowned. “I don’t remember seeing you get on,” he said. “What’s your name?”
I looked at him in confusion. “I just told you that two hours ago.”
“I don’t remember,” Nicholas said.
“You don’t remember?” I squeaked. Clearly, this man was having a mental breakdown. He just wasn’t aware of it. I shook my head. “You know what? Never mind. I don’t care. I just have to get to the space station.”
“We’re not going to a space station.”
“Where are we going?”
Nicholas shrugged. “We’ve been stuck in a worm hole for seventeen years,” he explained. “We’re not going anywhere.” He chuckled. Apparently, he found the whole thing very funny.
I stared at him in shock and horror and couldn’t say anything else. This was too unreal. I couldn’t even blog it online like I could back at the prison. I shook my head. “What do I do now?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “There’s nothing we can do,” he explained. “Most of the people on here have some strange amnesia I can’t relate to.” He glared at me. “Including you.”
A shiver rolled down my spine. I didn’t know what else to say after that.
I got over that shock after like five seconds, especially when I realized I wasn’t going anywhere. I stumbled out of my seat and down the hall to the captain’s quarters. A green alien with tentacles was at the starboard. “It’s our prisoner,” he greeted me. “Good evening, prisoner, I hope you are well.” He looked like he wanted to kick me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to let him. I wanted to find out why.
I looked startled. “Evening? I didn’t know you had day and night in space.” I frowned. “I didn’t know I was a prisoner. The only bad thing I’ve ever done is gotten a ticket for my hovercar. I was going seventy in a sixty mile per hour zone. It wasn’t a pretty sight.”
He shrugged. “We have so many crew members we decided to use it before we left.”
“Now we’re stuck in a worm hole.” I frowned disapprovingly.
He nodded, his face crestfallen. “Hey!” he said, brightening. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to get us out of one, would you? I’ll give you a gold coin. The universe is full of gold.”
I scowled. “I’m a physicist,” I said, shaking my head. “Not a magician.”
“That’s funny. According to your files, you’re a prisoner from Earth.”
“I don’t remember committing any crime.”
He sighed and snorted. “They all say that. According to our Intergalactic Laws, we have to tell you that we’re not going to judge you based on color, sex, religion, or creed, and you are welcome to work alongside the other crew members if you feel up to it. If you find a way out of this ship, we are not going to object. Do you understand?”
“In other words,” I said. “We’re all the big crazy.” I laughed. I liked being the big crazy. It sounded nice.
He nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Care to introduce yourself?”
“My name is Getta Gotta Gem. Call me Gem.” The alien smiled, and cackled madly.
“My name is Brian Jones. What kind of worm hole are we stuck in, Gem?” I asked him.
“According to our starboard, it’s one of the largest this galaxy has ever seen,” he said. “Our archives can record anything that has happened in the universe a long, long time ago, including the formation of the worm hole, but it can’t tell us how to get out of one.”
I frowned. I didn’t know what to say that would help. “Bummer,” I said instead. “Do we have any tacos?”
Gem chuckled. “We have tacos from three different galaxies. They’re in the cafeteria.”
I hurried out of the room, eager to find the cafeteria and to eat lunch.
Fun on the starship lasted about five seconds. I wandered around, looking for something to do. The crew members were more than friendly. I talked to Nicholas and Gem for three hours. I played video games in the virtual reality tank. I wandered back to the starboard, hoping to find a way back home.
“Gem,” I said. “I was supposed to start class before I got here. Have you ever tried going through the worm hole?”
He nodded. “Many times,” he replied. “We’ve tried different things to try to get us out of here, and nothing works.” He pointed to the starboard. “That’s the throttle that makes the ship go forward. There’s the break. And those buttons program the ship to do different things.”
“Like what?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “Like, star-jump. We’ve tried to star-jump once, but it didn’t go very far, only three feet, at the most. If we want to star-jump more than three feet, we need more fuel.”
“Where do we get the fuel?” I asked him.
He looked at me strangely. “Gee, you don’t know anything about star ships, do you?” he asked me. “We get the fuel on different planets. We got some fuel three hundred light years ago, and we’re always almost on empty.” He frowned. “I don’t know how to fix it. It’s becoming quite bothersome.”
“What happens to us when we’re in a worm hole?” I asked. “What happens to our psyche?”
“Psyche?” he scowled at me. “Listen, boy, we’re in this together. We can’t get out of it. Sit back and enjoy the ride.”
That’s exactly what I did.
“Put him on a starship,” Johnson Jones answered with a sugary smile. “He’s no use to us. We’ve studied his intelligence scores, he’s good at math, but not much anything else. With the population exploding, we don’t have any room for him on Earth.” Johnson snorted. “We don’t have room for anyone on Earth, actually, least of all the prisoners.”
Timothy shook his head, looking worried. “This is bad. Very bad. What are we going to do?” he asked critically.
“You’ll still have a job tomorrow-if you do it right!” he snarled, and threw a paper weight at his head. It hit the wall and fell to the floor with a crash.
Timothy swallowed hard, terrified of the head warden’s weird attitude, and nodded. He didn’t want to get kicked off the planet like the other prisoners-he had never gotten in trouble a day in his life. “I just hope I’m not going to hell,” he muttered, and, shaking his head, filled out the prisoner’s release form. At least he wasn’t going anywhere. That was a plus.
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhh.
The super-tram was coming in faster than I expected.
I jumped back onto the platform just in time to see it squeal to a stop next to me.
The conductor helped me aboard. “Nervous?” he asked me. He wore a gray tie and a suit. I wore jeans and a t-shirt. I shrugged. “I’ve never been to the moon,” I said.
He snorted and almost smiled. “Very few people have,” he answered. “Let me take those bags.”
He took the bags and tossed them in their rightful compartment; the suitcases landed in their rightful places in one flying leap. I was impressed. Not many people could do that.
Being a conductor must be an interesting job.
I smiled.
Not as good as my job, though.
I was a prisoner with the Department of Corrections, on voluntary leave of absence for three months. I learned my lesson. Never take a hover craft without permission. It was a federal crime on most planets.
“Please,” he instructed. “Take your seat.”
Swallowing hard, I nodded and found a seat by the window.
The conductor came over the loud speaker. “We will be arriving on the Moon in three hours and fifteen seconds,” he chirped. “Buckle your seat belts and hold on tight. It’s going to be a wild ride.”
“Three hours,” someone sitting next to me whistled. “That’s pretty fast.” He shook his head. “Makes me wonder how they build them darn things.” He shook his head again, and chuckled aloud. Hey, I liked this guy. Not more than myself, but still, he was cool. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
I chuckled. Clearly this guy wasn’t a scientist. “I’m Brian,” I said, lying through my teeth. “Brian Jones. I’m a physicist at the University of Norte Dame and I’ve heard that they use microchips in their engine-it programs the trams to move faster.”
“My name is Nicholas Lauder. How are we able to breathe oxygen in space?” he asked me curiously. “I studied astronomy for two years at the University of Michigan before I became a real estate agent, but I’ve been wondering about that.” He frowned. “It’s very peculiar. Very peculiar indeed.”
I shrugged. “Just like in a space shuttle,” I said. “That’s all it is.”
“The trams have been around for awhile,” he said musingly.
I nodded. “They sure have,” I answered.
I didn’t say anything after that. It wasn’t that I wasn’t willing to talk, it was that the low-gravity amps were making me sleepy.
I curled up in a ball and fell asleep, using my arm as a pillow.
A man in a dark suit came running up to me while I was asleep. Looking left, and then right, he injected me with a syringe. Chuckling to himself, he walked down the aisle and disappeared. I never felt a thing.
Nicholas shook me awake. “Hey, kid,” he said softly. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
I yawned sleepily. “What are you talking about?” I said, rubbing my eyes. “I’m supposed to give a tour of the space station on the moon.” I creaked my neck and looked out the window. Nothing but darkness. Nothing but stars. Stars as vast as the sky at home. I missed Earth, but not that much. “What about lunch?”
Nicholas frowned. “I don’t remember seeing you get on,” he said. “What’s your name?”
I looked at him in confusion. “I just told you that two hours ago.”
“I don’t remember,” Nicholas said.
“You don’t remember?” I squeaked. Clearly, this man was having a mental breakdown. He just wasn’t aware of it. I shook my head. “You know what? Never mind. I don’t care. I just have to get to the space station.”
“We’re not going to a space station.”
“Where are we going?”
Nicholas shrugged. “We’ve been stuck in a worm hole for seventeen years,” he explained. “We’re not going anywhere.” He chuckled. Apparently, he found the whole thing very funny.
I stared at him in shock and horror and couldn’t say anything else. This was too unreal. I couldn’t even blog it online like I could back at the prison. I shook my head. “What do I do now?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “There’s nothing we can do,” he explained. “Most of the people on here have some strange amnesia I can’t relate to.” He glared at me. “Including you.”
A shiver rolled down my spine. I didn’t know what else to say after that.
I got over that shock after like five seconds, especially when I realized I wasn’t going anywhere. I stumbled out of my seat and down the hall to the captain’s quarters. A green alien with tentacles was at the starboard. “It’s our prisoner,” he greeted me. “Good evening, prisoner, I hope you are well.” He looked like he wanted to kick me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to let him. I wanted to find out why.
I looked startled. “Evening? I didn’t know you had day and night in space.” I frowned. “I didn’t know I was a prisoner. The only bad thing I’ve ever done is gotten a ticket for my hovercar. I was going seventy in a sixty mile per hour zone. It wasn’t a pretty sight.”
He shrugged. “We have so many crew members we decided to use it before we left.”
“Now we’re stuck in a worm hole.” I frowned disapprovingly.
He nodded, his face crestfallen. “Hey!” he said, brightening. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to get us out of one, would you? I’ll give you a gold coin. The universe is full of gold.”
I scowled. “I’m a physicist,” I said, shaking my head. “Not a magician.”
“That’s funny. According to your files, you’re a prisoner from Earth.”
“I don’t remember committing any crime.”
He sighed and snorted. “They all say that. According to our Intergalactic Laws, we have to tell you that we’re not going to judge you based on color, sex, religion, or creed, and you are welcome to work alongside the other crew members if you feel up to it. If you find a way out of this ship, we are not going to object. Do you understand?”
“In other words,” I said. “We’re all the big crazy.” I laughed. I liked being the big crazy. It sounded nice.
He nodded. “Pretty much.”
“Care to introduce yourself?”
“My name is Getta Gotta Gem. Call me Gem.” The alien smiled, and cackled madly.
“My name is Brian Jones. What kind of worm hole are we stuck in, Gem?” I asked him.
“According to our starboard, it’s one of the largest this galaxy has ever seen,” he said. “Our archives can record anything that has happened in the universe a long, long time ago, including the formation of the worm hole, but it can’t tell us how to get out of one.”
I frowned. I didn’t know what to say that would help. “Bummer,” I said instead. “Do we have any tacos?”
Gem chuckled. “We have tacos from three different galaxies. They’re in the cafeteria.”
I hurried out of the room, eager to find the cafeteria and to eat lunch.
Fun on the starship lasted about five seconds. I wandered around, looking for something to do. The crew members were more than friendly. I talked to Nicholas and Gem for three hours. I played video games in the virtual reality tank. I wandered back to the starboard, hoping to find a way back home.
“Gem,” I said. “I was supposed to start class before I got here. Have you ever tried going through the worm hole?”
He nodded. “Many times,” he replied. “We’ve tried different things to try to get us out of here, and nothing works.” He pointed to the starboard. “That’s the throttle that makes the ship go forward. There’s the break. And those buttons program the ship to do different things.”
“Like what?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “Like, star-jump. We’ve tried to star-jump once, but it didn’t go very far, only three feet, at the most. If we want to star-jump more than three feet, we need more fuel.”
“Where do we get the fuel?” I asked him.
He looked at me strangely. “Gee, you don’t know anything about star ships, do you?” he asked me. “We get the fuel on different planets. We got some fuel three hundred light years ago, and we’re always almost on empty.” He frowned. “I don’t know how to fix it. It’s becoming quite bothersome.”
“What happens to us when we’re in a worm hole?” I asked. “What happens to our psyche?”
“Psyche?” he scowled at me. “Listen, boy, we’re in this together. We can’t get out of it. Sit back and enjoy the ride.”
That’s exactly what I did.
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