Explorer X Alpha (6 page)

“I hope so, but I didn't exactly get that vibe from him,” Scott said as he passed by Aadi.

“You go first since you know what to do. I know where her room is because her roommate was in line with me when they gave out room assignments,” said Aadi.

“Uh, I am feeling a little left out here, comrades,” Dakota said in a goofy authoritative voice.

“The plan is to go to Eirena's room and get back something of mine that she has,” Aadi said.

“Wahoo! About friggin time I had some fun! Hey, cowboy, just how are we going to get past the Counselor?” asked Dakota as he pulled Aadi to a stop.

“Scott has it handled,” replied Aadi. He pulled out of Dakota's reach and kept walking.

“Just great. I wonder what the punishment they give out here for going against the rules, ‘cause we may be in it by the end of camp. I hope you are not afraid of being whipped, tied, and held in the dungeon. You know, with how uptight some of these staff members are, I bet that is just what is in store for us,” Dakota laughed.

“Can you shut up, please? You may blow this with your big mouth,” Scott looked back and said to Dakota.

“You want to make me?” said Dakota and stepped up to Scott.

“Can you both just cut it out?” said Aadi angrily as he stood between them putting his hand on Dakota's chest.

“What's the plan, Scott?” Aadi said and squinted his eyes at Dakota in warning.

“I will go first and ask the Counselor if I may pass. I'll tell them to forget us. Then, you will follow us to her room,” said Scott as he came to a stop. He walked back to Aadi and Dakota with his arms crossed with an annoyed look on his face.

“Um, how the freak is that supposed to work? You think they are just going to let us pass because you asked nicely?” Dakota said, folding his arms and shaking his head in disbelief.

“No, fool! Trust me. I got this,” Scott said, looking at Aadi and Dakota. Then, Scott turned around started to walk fast again.

“Well, the worst thing is if they tell us to leave. No harm done, okay?” said Aadi, not wanting to give Scott's secret away to Dakota.

“Fine. Walking into trouble is better than dodging Carter's spit and bad breath while he brags,” said Dakota.

 

 

When Eirena got to her room, she noticed Raiko wasn't there. She closed the door and locked it. The object didn't move when she took it from under her shirt and placed it on the bottom bunk. She took the extra blanket from the foot of her bed and pulled it under the mattress of the top bunk horizontally. Then, she took the top blanket off her bed and draped it vertically under the mattress of the top bunk, enclosing her lower bunk in private darkness. She crawled in on her knees to inspect the box with legs. She picked it up and turned it over, upside-down. After she turned briefly, thinking she heard noises, she looked out of her hideaway and turned back for the box.

Funny thing was, when she looked at the object this time, it was not a box with legs any longer. It was an action figure with a gray and tan outfit on with a metal face. The miniature robot was sitting on her bed in place of the box. She looked around to see if the box was still there and then returned her gaze to the robot on her bed. Finally, she sat down after staring at it. She pouted her lips in thought. She reached out to pick up the action figure robot, then poked it, moved the arm and then the leg, and put her ear to its mouth.

“What are you looking for?” asked Ebu, which caused Eirena to jump and drop him. He sat up, then got up, and walked closer to her.

“Were you the box that I had? Can you change form? Uh, what are you? Do you belong to someone? Who…” Eirena rushed out.

“Whoa there! I may be a robot, but even I can't answer that many questions so fast,” Ebu said and crossed his legs.

“Okay. A robot. So, are you the box I picked up?” Eirena asked, sitting on her knees.

“My name is Ebu, and I am a robot. I came with my friend, and I escaped our room,” Ebu said.

“So, does that mean I can keep you?” she asked him.

“No one keeps me. I prefer to stay only with my friend,” Ebu said.

“Who is your friend? Who created you? Maybe they are my friend too?” she stammered as she reached out to touch his arm.

“My friend created me. I will not tell you who they are until I find out if you are safe,” Ebu answered and then moved away from her.

“Why would you think I would not be safe?” she asked, a bit hurt, and she crawled a little closer to him.

“Because some things are not good on this ship. Some places and people here are not safe. I know. I have been around,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Eirena asked, though she looked like she had had the same thoughts.

“You know what I mean. You are the one that hid me before you would begin your inspection of what or who I was,” Ebu replied then turned his head to study her.

“Well, I sometimes get dreams or funny feelings when things don't add up. My mom said that I am like her grandma. I have a strong sense of things to come. It's an Old World way of thinking, but it's her way of making me feel better about it. Whoa… wait a minute, why am I telling you this?” Eirena said, shaking her head as if coming out of a daze.

“Hmm. I think I can trust you. I went on a journey out of my room. My friend is probably angry at me, but I was curious,” Ebu said, then leaned closer to Eirena.

“I did a bad thing. I tapped into the database of the ship. I can do this, but my friend doesn't know that yet,” Ebu said even lower.

“Well, what did you find?” Eirena asked and inched a bit closer to him.

“Hey! Eirena, you will never guess who I talked to just now. The Captain! Personally!” Raiko said excitedly as she barged into the room. Raiko whirled around and did a double-take at the bed that looked like a fortress with the lower bunk completely closed in with blankets.

“Hey, why are you hiding? What's up?” Raiko asked before she opened the flap. Eirena reached back and put her hand to Raiko's mouth. Then, she put her finger up to her mouth.

“Shh,” Eirena said quietly. She took Raiko's chin and turned it toward Ebu.

Raiko's dark, slanted eyes got wide with recognition, and she slowly crawled into the lower bunk. “What is that?” Raiko asked with a pointed finger.

“I found him, and I am keeping him.”

Raiko reached over and tried to poke Ebu. “Keep him for what? That thing is ugly!”

“Because I want him. He is interesting,” Eirena said.

“Hmm, let me check him out,” said Raiko, reaching over Eirena to grab Ebu. He was docile and let her pick him up to inspect him.

“Wow! Great workmanship. Is this titanium? And look… he even has one of those battery packs that is powered by the sun. Cool! His power pack's non-removable, so no one can just shut him off. Hmm, I should get out and get my tools. You know, I am pretty good at fixing stuff. It helped to get away from my brothers and sisters,” Raiko said, and she turned Ebu over and sat him down.

 

 

Scott, Aadi, and Dakota walked slowly toward the girls' dorms and saw a tall, muscular woman with blue eyes, highlighted brown hair, and an angry expression.

“Where do you think you are going, gentlemen?” she said, then looked down at them.

Scott flicked the device hidden in his hand and tapped his ear. With a flash of his hand, he flicked out of Aadi's vision. Dakota was looking behind them to make sure no one else noticed them in the hallway.

“Um, ma'am, what is your name? I have a question to ask you,” Scott said, a little nervously. At that moment, Aadi started to get worried that their plan wasn't going to work.

“My name is Marianne, and you boys better get moving,” she said, then pointed opposite of the hallway.

“Well, you don't see us. You are going to let us pass and just forget we are here, Marianne,” Scott said to her in a melodic voice that Aadi never remembered Scott using before.

“I don't see you. I will forget,” she repeated and tued away in trance-like agreement. Scott walked forward and then pulled at Dakota's sleeve. They made their way to the room without further hesitation. Aadi got in front and led the way.

“Okay, now we are here, but how do we get through the security check for our eyes?” Scott asked Aadi.

“Move out of the way, amateurs,” Dakota said, then took out a key card and punched in a code, which opened the door.

“Okay… um, how did you do that?” Aadi asked Dakota.

“You know I have a good memory, and I saw one of the Counselors do it. However, he dropped his key card, so I just picked it up. Figured I may need it someday,” Dakota said with a smile, then Scott looked at him with something similar to a new respect.

“Well, I am going to go in first and look around. You both stay out there and watch,” Aadi said. Dakota and Scott stood on either side of the door.

“Okay. Me and Dakota will stay out here and look out. We'll knock if we see anyone and then come in to hide,” Scott said.

Aadi opened the door and looked around.
This is a two-person room,
he guessed,
since there are only one set of bunk
beefs,
two desks, and a small bathroom off to the side.
He looked again at the bunk bed and noticed that the bottom bunk was hidden behind a makeshift blanket curtain. He walked slowly and quietly toward the bed, only for Eirena to jump out, punch him in the jaw, and land an impressive sidekick to his chest. It knocked him to the floor and caused him to slide a bit. He felt a little dazed since he hadn't planned on an ambush, but he quickly recovered.

“What the—” he said, and got into his fighting stance. Then, he blocked a scissor-kick she aimed at his shoulder. Aadi noticed she was breathing hard with hands up while she looked for a weak area to make her next attack.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Aadi asked Eirena and noticed Raiko had come out of hiding and was holding Ebu. She held him in her left hand, and her right hand was over her mouth.

“I am protecting my room. Get out! Now!” Eirena said fiercely and looked as if she was trying to think of a way to throw him off balance.

“Oh? And you are going to make me?” Aadi asked with a laugh and held his stomach with his right hand on his knee. He couldn't believe she really thought she could come close to beating him, but he was impressed that she would try.

“It seems like I am doing pretty good so far,” she said as she did the splits and used her leg to throw him off balance by kicking him at his foot.

He only faltered a little and stepped back a bit as he regained his footing. “Oh, you are good,” he said with a laugh.

Raiko slowly shook herself out of her surprise. She then calmly walked over to Aadi while he was laughing at Eirena. Raiko sneaked up behind him undetected, placed her fingers on his neck, and touched a pressure point on his neck that forced Aadi to his knees.

“Okay! I've been nice, but both of you are making me angry now,” Aadi said as he quickly got up, grabbed Eirena by the leg, pulled her under him, and sat on her. He used his other hand and grabbed Raiko just around part of her neck, then secured her diagonally to the waist and forced her to sit on the right side of him and on the other side of Eirena's head.

“Hey! I can't breath!” Eirena said from under Aadi. Eirena struggled to get her breath while buried under Aadi's weight. Raiko tried to squirm from under Aadi's strangle hold on her neck.

“Ebu, come out of hiding! Now!” Aadi said loudly. Then Ebu crawled to Aadi in box form. Aadi put Ebu under his shirt with his free hand.

“Now, if you girls promise to be good, I will let you up,” Aadi said and then adjusted his right-arm hold on Raiko as she almost squirmed free.

“I won't promise you anything!” Eirena said. She squirmed and fought furiously under Aadi's weight, which caused him to hop up in the air from time to time.

“I'll promise to be good,” Raiko said, then winked at Eirena.

“Hmm, I don't trust you. But I have backup outside the door,” Aadi said as he got up, grabbed one of the blankets covering the lower bunk, and quickly threw it under him and over the girls' heads as he got up. He heard them yell out his name in muffled voices from under the blanket.

He ran to the door and tapped the boys on the shoulder. “Let's go… quick!” he said and ran past them. They caught up and rounded the corner just as Eirena reached the door.

“This is not over yet!” she yelled down the hall at them.

 

 

The boys returned to their room to see a note from Damien that said, “Me, Tacitus, and Carter are in the gym playing basketball. If you want your butt kicked, be there.”

“I am going to go meet them in the gym. You both coming?” asked Dakota, then grabbed his backpack and headed to the door.

“Me too”, said Scott and then winked at Aadi as he followed Dakota out of the room. Aadi gave Scott a peace sign and said, “I'll be right behind you.”

He sat on his bed, turned toward the back wall, and lifted his shirt.

“Ebu, I can't deal with you right now, but I am going to be coming back later, and you better not leave,” Aadi whispered.

“I will come with you or leave on my own. Your choice,” Ebu said, still in box form.

“Dang it, Ebu! You are being a royal pain. Fine, I guess you will be safer with me where I can watch you. Climb in my backpack, and I'll take you with me,” Aadi replied. With Ebu secured in his backpack, he headed to the gym to meet the others.

“Hey, what's up? You guys play yet?” Aadi asked Dakota.

“Well, well, well… guess you ladies showed up for a butt whipping after all, and I am just the one to give it to you, fool,” said Damien after he nodded his head and sized Aadi up.

“No, I showed up to give you one, sap,” Aadi replied to Damien.