Galileo (Battle of the Species) (24 page)

          The minister bit his tongue, and placed his hand on the portal scanner.

          “That’s it?” Jonah said, looking up at his dad in shock. “Can’t you at least damn them to hell or something?”

“Jonah, please,” the minister said.

“Unbelievable,” Jonah groaned, while he placed his own hand on the scanner.

Jonah stomped off through the portal, followed by his father, who turned his head to glare at Adam and Renn one last time before walking through the glimmering silver.

Adam looked down at Renn and winked. “Come on, let’s go home,” he said, wrapping his arm around Renn’s neck and kissing him on his head.

Renn smiled. Home sounded so nice.

Renn and Adam spent the next two days doing what they had always done. They played catch in the backyard, ate freshly caught fish for dinner, and watched movies till they fell asleep. It was the best two days Renn and Adam could remember having in a long time.

          At the end of the break, Adam sat Renn down, and explained all that he had kept from him for so long. That Adam had been an Intergalactic Law Enforcement agent, until Desh’s father, Theron, died. Adam then became the second lieutenant aboard the Quintessence, a Federation ship his mother was the captain of. She and Renn were born from a long line of Mindeerians, passing the responsibility of captain down from generation to generation. Since Hollen had already given birth to Desh, she had fulfilled her requirement by supplying an heir to take over after she died, leaving her free to have a child born out of love instead of obligation — a child who would have the option of leading a normal life. That is, unless her enemies found out about him and went after him out of revenge. Now that he had been discovered, he had the choice of joining the Quintessence, or running for the rest of his life.

      
    “I don’t want to run, Dad,” Renn said.

          “I didn’t think you would,” Adam replied.

          “You want me to though, don’t you?”

          “It’s just such a dangerous life, Renn. It’s like the game, Battle of the Species. You may think it’s cool playing for a couple of hours, but imagine that on a daily basis, without being able to eliminate the pain and without lives to spare.”

          “Would I be an agent?” Renn asked.

          “Well, technically, you could be captain. You would be for sure if Desh died before providing an heir, but the decision’s up to your mother.”

CHAPTER 11

The Closet Explorer

Renn and Adam returned to the port junction, relieved to be able to take their time with their good-bye, instead of having laser blasts fired at them until they left.

When Renn was back on the Galileo, he messaged Leo and Dylan, wondering if either of them had made it back yet. Leo replied back, “Eating,” and Renn headed to the mess hall when he heard behind him, “Hey, white boy.”

Renn turned around, seeing Dylan smiling. They walked to the mess hall talking about the last two days. When they got there, they found Leo stuffing his face with a large chilled shellfish.

Renn told them about everything his dad had explained, though something kept bothering him and he couldn’t shake it. He kept glancing at Leo, taking longer and longer gazes.

“What?” Leo asked.

“Why are your clothes dirty, and why are you so hungry?” Renn asked.

Leo shrugged and kept eating.

Renn stared at him. Despite how hard someone tries to
not
think of something, there inevitably comes a point when they think, “I better not think of…” (and then they think about it.)

“Oh my gawd, you went to another planet instead of going home!” Renn said.

“What?” Dylan said wide-eyed, looking at Leo.

Leo stopped eating. “You know, sometimes I hate that you can read minds.”

“Why not just tell us?” Renn asked. “We’re your friends. I don’t get all the secrecy.”

“Because I don’t want you guys to know that I don’t want to go home, all right? That I would rather spend two days wandering around some random planet, starving, than to go home and spend even a minute with my dad, who would just stand there and point out everything that I’m doing wrong with my life.”

           “It’s not as if we wouldn’t understand, Leo,” Renn said.

           “Really? You both talk about your dads all the time. I had no idea that there were even dads like that. Who don’t yell at you every time they see you and say ‘you’re worth nothing.’ I’m sorry, but there are some things I don’t want to talk to you two about.”

           The three fell silent, trying to eat, until Renn tried to change the conversation. “Will you at least tell us where you went?” he asked.

           “Lucia,” Leo replied.

           Renn and Dylan looked at each other.

           “That’s actually kind of cool,” Dylan said. “I’ve never been to Lucia.”

           “Me neither,” Renn said. “How was it?”

           “Well…it was kind of great,” Leo said, as a smile crept across his face.

           “Come on, man. Tell us about it!” Dylan said.

          
“Well, I went to Curta.”

           “Never heard of it.”

           “Yeah, neither had I, but I asked Cybernex where the coldest city on Lucia was this time of year and it spat up, Curta. Turns out the winters there get so cold, they evacuate the entire town till the Spring. It was beautiful though. It was by this sea, with white cliffs and black sand.”

           “Snow?”

           “No, but the ground was frozen solid and it was really difficult to find food, because the shops were closed and all the animals had migrated. Cybernex stated that I could eat the bark from a Yun tree, but it didn’t warn me that Yun bark tastes really gross.”

           The bell chimed and the three of them headed to physics class, trying to get back into the groove of school.

When Desh walked into the physics class, he passed Renn without acknowledging his presence, and instead, sat next to Etienne as usual.

Etienne slyly slid a clear memory stick over to him.

“What’s this?” Desh asked, looking down at it.

Your homework,
Etienne thought.

Desh slid it back. “I already did it, goofball.” He booted up his tablet, nodding to Kia who sat down in front of them.

“Yeah, well, you did it wrong,” Etienne said.

“You don't even know what I wrote!” Desh said, looking at Etienne in disbelief.

“Just take it,” Etienne insisted.

“No, get over it,” Desh said, putting an end to the conversation.

Professor Ozrot walked in, with a pleasant smile on his face as Sensati always had. “Okay class, let’s begin please,” he said, setting his teaching materials down. “Everyone slide your homework to the left for grading. Move along, move along, we’ll do this as a class and discuss.”

Desh realized he hadn’t even looked to his left since he sat down, when the other students began sliding their homework to their neighbors. He turned his head to find himself looking into Lux’s blue eyes.

“You got your homework?” Lux asked.

Desh froze, wondering how long she had been sitting next to him.

“Move along, move along,” she said, giving a dead on impression of Professor Ozrot.

Desh grinned before he could stop himself and looked down at his memory stick, hesitating. Etienne slid two sticks over, both of which Desh reluctantly took. He slid one over to Lux, causing Etienne to snicker until Desh gave him a nudge in the ribs.

At the end of class, Lux handed Desh his memory stick back. “Hundred percent,” she said, smiling.

“Imagine that,” Desh replied under his breath.

“See you around.”

“Yeah,” he said, as if seeing her again were no big thing. He frowned, watching her walk out with Renn, Dylan, and Meta. Renn put his hand on her back, letting her walk through the door first.

“He doesn’t know any better,” Etienne said in a consoling tone.

Desh nodded.

***

Professor Zaneer walked around the class, while the students listened to various degrees.

“On the news this morning,” Professor Zaneer began, “there was a story about two aliens from different species who mated, creating a third species that resembled neither parent. This new species then killed both parents and massacred everyone in its path. The infant then had to be put down by the Federation and the body is now being studied to see what effects the crossbreeding had created.

           “Crossbreeding has occurred for billions of years, throughout the universe, despite most species having a law against it. There are species who will go so far as to kill their own kind in order to prevent it from happening, and other species who don’t mind it at all. Now, for argument’s sake, we’re going to assume the species we’re about to discuss would accept crossbreeding, since this isn’t philosophy class; rather we’ll just be discussing the science of it. Can someone give me an example of two species that have been known to safely mate?” The professor asked, looking around the room and seeing a human girl named Shelly raise her hand.

“Humans and Mindeerians,” Shelly said, looking over at Desh with a flirtatious grin.

Desh dropped his eyes to his tablet, trying to ignore her, like he had been doing since the first day of school. He had never said a word to her and yet from overhearing her thoughts, he knew she thought they were destined to be together. It made him very uncomfortable every time he saw her and wished he could just hand her a pair of thought blockers so he didn’t have to listen to her daydreaming about them together.

Kia snickered at the exchange.

“Very good example. I believe we even have a half human, half Mindeerian in the class,” the professor said, motioning to Renn as an example.

Renn waved awkwardly to the class as everyone turned to look at him.

“There are some species that are so similar in form, it’s easy for the cells to merge,” Professor Zaneer continued. “Then there are others whose cells are so different it isn’t even possible to procreate. The male simply cannot fertilize the female’s egg. Can anyone give me an example of a species that would be impossible for another species to mix with?”

Katie raised her hand. 

“Yes, Katie.”

“Crystallians can't mate with warm-blooded species,” Katie said, glancing over at Leo, matter-of-factly.

Leo looked down, embarrassed.

“Very good, Katie,” Professor Zaneer said. “Cybernex compiles a list of species with a database showing either studies or examples of species mating in the past. Now, I want to make it clear that I am not promoting crossbreeding, but I want it to be known that this list exists, if one of you one day finds yourself in love with an individual that’s not from your world. The catastrophe like the Massacre at Half Moon Harbor that recently transpired, could have been avoided had they referenced the list.”

At the end of class, the professor informed the students that First Years would be taking their annual field trip the next week, but that they would not know to which planet until they got there. “Pack for cold weather” was the only hint they were given.

Leo looked around, excited by the clue, but found himself to be the only one smiling.

“A cold-weathered planet in the Federation?” Etienne said under his breath. “Well, that narrows it down to about a quadrillion planets.”

“I’ll hand out translation earpieces and transfer the data once we arrive, so bring your wrist-tablets with you,” the professor continued. “You’ll have all of the information about the planet and the species on it, so if you have any questions, please refer to your tablets.

“We will spend one night on the planet in tents, each tent separated by sleep pattern. You are to ALL abide by your species’ sleep patterns,” Professor Zaneer warned.

Katie raised her hand. “You mean girls and boys are sharing the same tents?”

“Yes,” the professor replied. “There won't be enough professors there to double the tents,” prompting everyone to talk at once. “Quiet down, class. There will be a professor in each tent with a different sleep pattern than the students, which means an adult will be awake at all times, so no funny business. One year a boy thought it would be funny to put a live Pathnet in a girl's sleeping bag and when he got back to the ship, he found that he had been expelled. All the rules that are on the ship will be followed off the ship while under our supervision. Understand?”

“Yeeees,” the students groaned.

***

Renn walked into the simulation room and put on his gloves.

“All right, let’s not waste time,” Paro said. “Ava, initiate Mindee…” Paro began, but stopped mid-sentence to turn to Renn. “You don’t want target practice today. You want to learn how to block your thoughts…”

           “Yes,” Renn replied. What else was he going to say? Paro was obviously reading his mind.

           “Okay,” Paro nodded. “Have you ever said one thing, but thought another?”

           “Yeah, of course,” Renn replied.

           “Mind blocking is the same concept. You can’t stop other telepaths from entering your mind. What you can do, however, is send them in the wrong direction. It’s like the thought blockers the humans wear. What do you hear when they wear them?”

           “Static,” Renn replied.

           “Exactly, but you
are
hearing them. The device is only covering what you want to hear. You will have to do the same, by providing them with a facade,” Paro explained.

           “And what sound are you giving them instead of your thoughts?” Renn asked.

           “Silence,” Paro said.

           “But silence is the absence of sound,” Renn said, not getting it.

           “And cold is nothing more than the absence of heat, but you still feel cold. Darkness is the absence of light, but you still see blackness, which is how you block your images, by creating a black screen. Sound works the same way; you are creating silence and pushing it forward, while hiding the sound of your thoughts,” Paro said. “Understand?”