Eternal Horizon: The Chronicle of Vincent Saturn (Eternal Horizon: A Star Saga Book 1) (9 page)

“Genius…” Vincent mumbled under his breath as he turned and was struck at Gaia’s beauty once again. She wore an emerald colored sheath dress that embodied her athletic figure. On her upper arms, she had gold armlets in shapes of dragons, and from elbow down she wore black evening gloves. Her long hair smoothly fell around her shoulders, neatly cut in bangs over her intelligent eyes.

“Nothin’ genius ’bout it,” Spaide fussed, tussling with the robot over his jacket. “I’ll blast one of these things someday.”

“So, let’s begin,” Exander started.

Vincent looked at Exander and saw a strange uniqueness in the young Xenian. He had pretty much the same complexion as his brother, yet at a smaller scale: a strong jaw, thick eyebrows, dark eyes—everything except for the hair. Unlike any other Xenian Vincent had seen during his last few hours of
exploration
, Exander had long, wavy, blonde hair. It didn’t really matter to Vincent—he didn’t want to bother the brash Xenian with questions anyhow.

Spaide and Damocles saw Vincent’s indifference at that and exchanged looks.

“Once again, you’re from a planet we’ve never heard of, and somehow you end up on my grandfather’s ship without him or Duell present?” Exander asked, looking down, arms crossed, slowly pacing back and forth. He wore a loose khaki shirt over black jeans that were tucked into his combat boots. His scabbard, engraved with Xenian letters, hung at his side. A thick gold necklace was around his neck with a bizarre pendant similar to his brother’s.

“I’m a federal agent in my country, one of the many nations on my planet… planet Earth,” Vincent tried explaining as logically as possible. “Earlier today… or maybe it was yesterday?” He paused, looking at his watch that had stopped at seven forty-five, a.m. or p.m., he couldn’t tell. He had no way of knowing how long he’d been out when the watch malfunctioned.

“Continue!” Exander snapped.

“We received a call from one of my bosses that an object had crashed on our grounds. So my partner and I went to investigate. Our find was extraordinary. It was actually an alien ship—”

“
Alien
?” Exander exclaimed.

“I told you,” Spaide said, shaking his head. “The man’s crazy, called me an ‘alien’ too.”

“I’m sorry,” Vincent said in defense. “On Earth, we believe we’re the only ones in the universe, and we’d never think something like this exists.” He waved his hand at the traffic outside.

“Okay, whatever.” Exander whirled his finger, gesturing Vincent to continue.

“As I was searching outside of the craft, an entrance opened up, and of course—being the curious person that I am—I went in.” Vincent scoffed and looked down. “Stupid of me, really—always have to be the first one to—”

“What did you see inside the ship?” Damocles asked.

Exander picked up his pace.

“As I’ve said before,” Vincent said. “There was a man who looked like you, lying on the floor in a pool of blood.”

“That’s true. I also saw blood on the floor,” Spaide added, aghast. “But I… I didn’t think…”

“Was there anyone else?” Exander quit pacing and stopped in front of Vincent, his fists clenched. “What about the swords?” He slightly jerked his head at the second question, seemingly asking Spaide without taking his gaze off Vincent.

“No swords,” Spaide muttered.

“I didn’t see anything or anyone else,” Vincent continued as his hand went up to his temple. Trying to remember the part before the blackout caused him another bad migraine. “I came down to the man and called for help, and then as I turned back, I saw him staring at me, and then… then I remember lights… bright lights… and then I blacked out.”

“It’s just the same story with you,” Exander said. “Isn’t it?”

The big man gasped. “
Bright lights?
”

“Don’t go there!” Exander yelled at his brother.

“He was hurt,” Vincent said. “It seemed as if he was wounded terribly.”

“Damn you!” Exander swung at Vincent.

As though it had a mind of its own, Vincent’s left hand stopped the fist inches away from his face. The incident occurred in less than a fraction of a second. The whole room was silent—everyone staring at Vincent in disbelief, perplexed at how he reacted with such instinct, even though he didn’t know it himself.

“Well…” Spaide broke the awkwardness. “We’ve no time. I must call my contacts inside the Republic. We’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise. In the meantime, stay here and watch the human.” He then turned to the big guy. “Damocles, make sure the psycho doesn’t do
anythin
’ crazy,” he said, pointing his thumb at Exander. The Dirsalian’s carefree face changed instantly. “They know we’re here. Every constable and bounty hunter on this planet is out there lookin’ for us. We must move quickly if we are to rescue them.” He threw on his jacket and exited the room.

“Let’s see the disk from the ship,” Damocles said.

Exander—after throwing Vincent another distrusting look—followed his brother to the desk in the corner of the room. “You stay there!” he shouted at Vincent, who was trying to join them.

“But—”

“Stay there!”

Vincent pursed his lips in anger and nodded.

There was an electronic device atop the desk. Exander hit a knob, and an image appeared in thin air. He waved his index finger next to the projection, and it switched screens.

Vincent remained in the other corner with Gaia. He could see what the twins were doing but couldn’t make out their whispers. “Is that a computer?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Will it be possible to look at a star map or something of that sort on that thing?” he continued, not daring to come up to the brothers.

“Yes, but if your planet’s unknown, it’ll be next to impossible to find.”

Vincent sighed. “I know. Spaide already informed me of that. There are billions of stars, and they all look alike.”

“Well, have your people ever reached any other star systems?” she asked with a tone of curiosity.

“No, we’re not that advanced yet.” Vincent was beginning to remember the educational shows he loved to watch. It seemed to be so long ago, in another world, watching television, waiting for yet another day of his ever-boring life, which now he so dearly missed. “As far as I’ve heard, the closest star to us is four light years away.”

“Four light years! That’s good news. Now we know your system is in one of the outer rims.”

“The outer rims?”

“Sit.” She beckoned, sitting down on the divan.

After all the walking, Vincent gladly sat next to her.

“Right now, we’re closer to the center of the galaxy,” she explained. “Most of the stars around here are no more than a few light years apart. The outer rims are the names of the systems that are further away, like
Zazaban
, for example, the planet Oryon visited prior to landing on yours.”

“Well, at least I’m sure I’m in the same galaxy,” Vincent mumbled.

“There’s no doubt about that—we can’t travel to other galaxies just yet,” she assured.

He rubbed his knees. “Now all I have to do is browse through a hundred billion stars.”

She allowed herself a smile but remained silent.

He noticed that she was still looking at him like he was an
alien
. And who could blame her?

“Just how fast are the starships around here?” he asked, switching topics.

“Well, while some still travel at light-speed, which is excellent for traveling within the system, others fly much faster,” she said. “Spaide’s ship, for example, does roughly a light year per hour.”

“Whoa…” Vincent couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “But how?”

“Hyperspace travel.”

Vincent hushed, thinking about the possibilities of Earth’s civilization skyrocketing after—or rather, if—he got home.

“The amazing thing is that a solitary planet has advanced to a status of such high intelligence,” Gaia said again. “And you look like us more than any other primate race in the galaxy.”

Vincent smiled, lost deep in his mind, knowing that she was just trying to cheer him up.
High intelligence
seemed to be a compliment in comparison to
caveman
. At that moment, his headache came back, forcing him to clasp the sides of his head.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“It’s my head. I’ve had this terrible headache ever since I woke up. I need something, some medicine, if you have any.”

Gaia got up, went to the lavatory, and brought back a small square packet.

“What is it?” He studied the packet curiously. He then tore open its side and pulled out a damp napkin.

“Just rub it on your temples,” she said, trying to suppress a smile.

“Uh…okay.” He did as she told. It sizzled at first but took away the pain almost immediately. “Thank you,” he said in relief.

“You’re welcome,” she replied, sitting down. “Relax, Vincent. I understand your situation, but we honestly don’t know how you ended up here, and believe me—we’ll do everything to get to the bottom of this.”

Vincent nodded and remained quiet.

“Damn it!” Exander fussed after going through the files for the third time.

“I don’t understand,” Damocles said. “If the last place is
Zazaban
and the next is Sebalon 2, then what are those glitches in the data?”

“I don’t know. Something happened to the ship during the flight.”

“So the ship
was
attacked.”

“They must’ve veered the craft off its course.”

“That’s what probably caused it to land on the human planet,” Damocles said. “But from there, it flew to Sebalon 2 on autopilot. How? Who programmed it?”

“Maybe they’re holding Duell and Oryon and sent this guy to spy on us,” Exander whispered, looking over at Vincent.

Damocles shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. Why us? Plus, how would he be able to calculate
Sebalon’s
position?”

Exander raised an eyebrow. “Maybe he didn’t—maybe someone else did it for him.”

“You still insist he’s a spy?”

“What… you believe him?”

Damocles shrugged. “I don’t know, Ex, but he really seems like he crawled from under a rock. I don’t see any danger in him.”

Exander squinted, glancing back at the divan. “I sense confusion in him… it’s like he’s hiding something from us.”

“Yes, so do I, but I doubt he’s evil. Disorder is all I sense. Why he’s hesitant to tell us about what happened is not because he doesn’t
want
to talk; it’s simply because he doesn’t remember.”

“Well, why’s he here then, Damocles?”

Damocles took a deep breath and said, “
Dellah
… fate brought him to us.”

“You think?”

“It works in mysterious ways.”

“But that still doesn’t explain who calculated
Sebalon’s
position!”

“Maybe Oryon did?”

“Then where is he?”

“I… don’t know.” Damocles sighed. “One person might though…”