

RIC

INTO UNKNOWN SPACE

J.M. WOODRUFF

Copyright © 2017 J.M. Woodruff

ISBN-13: 9781370395231

Library of Congress Control Number:

All rights reserved. This book may not be copied in print or in whole, in any format digital or otherwise without expressed written consent of the author. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, as well as any location, event, or entity is purely coincidental. This novel is a work of fiction.

To Carissa. You are a star, and I am a planet helplessly attracted to you.

Chapter 1

They were black like space, white, red, yellow and brown. That's what people used to call them before the Final War. Ric peeked through the slit in the curtain at the crowd of children. One boy in the front sat on his knees, rocking forward and backward, waiting to see Ric and Jerome perform the play. The boy's eyes were magic. He had so little memory but so much history. His skin was what people used to call yellow. That was back in the day when war was constant and when categories surpassed love. It was when world peace was still a dream instead of a reality.

Ric looked at his own dark skin. It was hard to believe that his color was so controversial in history. Slavery. Civil rights. Unequal opportunity. He looked back at their dark history and marveled at how far they had come. When he looked around and saw all the people, he noticed those who looked different. His mind was trained that way for survival, but his knowledge trumped instinct. He knew that melanin was responsible for the spectrum of skin colors. He knew that skin had varying ability to absorb Vitamin D and convert harmful ultraviolet rays into harmless heat. Most of all, he just saw the children.

They were getting a little antsier now. The girl with the strawberry blond hair picked her nose and graced her friend's shirt with it. They had no idea what history came before them. They were the lucky ones, able to learn of wars past and to advance peace. None of them would be hungry or thirsty. They would have clothes, a bed, and a roof.

No exceptions.

The dark color kids were at peace with the light color kids. Their society was built for sustainable happiness. Even their careers would be enjoyable as their options were virtually limitless, and they could do any job any time as long as they were certified.

Ric walked toward center stage, still behind the makeshift curtain.

Jerome, Ric's older brother, also walked toward center stage. He looked like he could bench press a lion. He was born that way, always gifted athletically.

The director of the play motioned for the curtains to be lifted, and the entire crowd of children was in plain sight, along with the surrounding parents.

Ric raised his fighting stick for the choreographed fight. His wiry frame struggled to resist the impact from his brother's swings. It was all he could do to simply hold on to his stick.

Only the crowd of parents and children would care if he actually got hurt. Other crowds that day welcomed friendly violence as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in the Final War. That night, they celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Crack – crack – crack. Their sticks bashed together.

"Today we remember when our veterans fought the world for peace," the narrator said.

The narrator had California sun-scarred skin. She was probably in her 70s. Ever since she moved to Seattle, she oversaw the community library. Her voice was barely loud enough for the children, probably because she whispered so much at work.

Ric borrowed various books from that library, most of which were textbooks on physics and astronomy. Seattle was prime for studying books and drinking coffee. The frequent rainy days excused him from the social expectations of being outside. That night was neither rainy nor cloudy. It was perfect for star gazing.

The narrator continued, "But the war was only one part of a long effort. In the beginning, our world leaders gathered together to problem solve world peace. They decided that peace could be achieved in ten phases. Phase 1 was sending Earth on a path of atmospheric stability while concurrently feeding more people by eating more grains and less animals."

Two actors sat at a table, and a waitress brought a cow prop for them to eat. They refused and accepted a bowl of oatmeal and some raisin bread.

"Phase 2 was a unified focus on education. Phase 3 was a transparent and educational approach to getting people healthy and well. Phase 4 was fair treatment of animals. Phase 5 was a globally unified health care system where everyone in the world gave their fair share. Phase 6 was an intermediary analysis of global finances. Some wanted to get rid of money altogether, while others wanted to sustain the economic system. This ultimately created divisions and initiated the unplanned Phase 7, the Final War."

The spotlight was back on Ric and Jerome.

"Our own Western states fought against the Eastern states. In the end, the Western states and its allies won the Final War. Phase 8 was the global submission of firearms and other weapons designed for killing. During Phase 9, communities formed, and careers shifted focus to what benefited the community and the world. Phase 10 was the remission of country borders so that the world was truly unified."

When the play was over, they took a bow for the learned children. Jerome stepped backward and tripped over a loose board, falling on his back with a loud thump. The children roared with laughter. Ric pretended to trip and fall as well, and soon enough everyone on stage pretended to trip.

Jerome's face was ripe with embarrassment, but he laughed it off and mouthed a thank you to Ric and the others.

Jerome was Ric's only family. They would have done anything for each other, especially something as trivial as taking a fall.

They pushed off the ground, and the curtain closed.

"Nice fight, brother," Jerome said.

"Yeah, nice trip. I bet that felt really good."

Jerome laughed. "I'm starving. You ready to go?"

Jerome was always starving, not because he didn't get enough food, but because he loved eating food that much. He would eat anything digestible. Fruit, veggies, nuts, meat. It was all good to him. His favorite, however, was cheeseburgers. He could have eaten four cheeseburgers a day without tiring of them. Half of his conversations seemed to be about food. Even when he was full, he would talk about how full he was, or about how good the food was. At his wedding, there were two wedding cakes, one for Jerome and one for everyone else.

The man could eat.

His food options those days were limited though. Despite the Final War killing 30 percent of people, the world's population was projected to converge back up to its full capacity in the ensuing months. There were not enough cows to feed the monster that was Jerome's stomach.

Ric put his weight on his left hand and hopped off the stage. The sun was below the horizon, and he was subjected to all the night's charms. The cool breeze kissed his face, and the blades of grass cuddled between his toes.

He loved the Northwest. The air was so dense and fresh from the Evergreen trees and tall mountains. The rain perpetuated the smell of new soil. It was all he had known until he was old enough to drive and explore other states.

As a teenager, he had gone to the desert in the Southwest where the climate was far from crisp. His lips were severely chapped within only a couple days of being there, but the sand was beautiful, and the warmth, even in the winter months, was freeing. The Midwest, on the other hand, was charmed by snow and ice. He had ice skated atop the community frozen pond where there were bridges that he could glide underneath, and where there were plenty of proud Midwestern folks to enjoy it with. After all the adventure, he had determined that all the states were beautiful, except for the parts that were still rebuilding from the war.

A young boy approached Jerome. His long, red hair bounced on his eyeballs. It looked uncomfortable.

"I want to be just like you when I grow up, Je-wome," the boy said.

"Oh yeah? Why's that, little man?"

"Because you're awesome!"

The boy outspread his hands like he was describing an explosion. His heels bounced from the ground rapidly, and his toes left the ground every few hops.

Kids loved Jerome.

He gave the boy a high five and ruffled his hair. The boy smiled wide as if a superhero just touched his head.

Ric and Jerome walked through downtown Seattle toward home. In some ways, the city was the same as it was before the Final War. Many of the tall business buildings were still intact, but the ones that were destroyed in the war were rebuilt into apartments, community centers, and research centers. All the buildings were decorated with solar panels.

Phase 1 did not require solar energy utilization, but eventually the economy no longer required cheap energy, and they focused on optimized sustainability. The Space Needle was another piece of architecture that remained unchanged. It was still a symbol of the future despite all the advances in technology.

Ric thought about being in space. He wanted to know what it felt like to sail the dark universe, to travel into its heart and discover it. The idea was like wind, however. He did not want to be separated from his brother for any long stretch of time. For him, it was Jerome or nothing.

Chapter 2

The dinner table was full of family and of fresh, local food. They sat outdoors on the newly renovated patio. Before, it was just painted white, but that day it looked like it belonged in an ancient forest. It was a natural brown color with tree arms passing overhead in intricate patterns.

Ric noted a spider overhead, and he waved a fly away from his plate. He would have complained, but it was his idea to eat outside.

"Pass the raspberries?" Gabby asked.

Gabby was Jerome's wife. She wrapped her fingers around the bowl and set it back down. She was very beautiful. Her hair was naturally wavy. Her eyes were big and deep brown. Every time she entered a room, the mood was more fun. Ric always admired that about her. When his mind drifted into gray, she had a way of coloring life again.

Her mother, Maria, and her father, Diego sat across from her. Maria looked like an aged Gabby. She was 61 years old, and she looked like she was going to live to 200. She was in great shape from taking care of the backyard. Her trademark was to keep her hands and feet busy. If she kept a pedometer, she would have busted the record books.

"Pass the raspberries," Diego said.

Diego was older at 70 years. During his retirement, he fixed up the house and did any number of side projects involving a hammer. He had a complex personality just like everyone else, but he did not know how to show it anymore, often grunting to make conversation. He spent his entire career climbing the military ladder, fighting wars. The memories haunted him, but Ric never knew what those memories were exactly. He thought it best not to ask.

"I'll hand it to you when you respect me," Maria demanded.

"Yes, dear. Please pass the raspberries."

Diego once told Ric that the two words that save a marriage are "Yes, dear." Diego loved Maria. He just had a difficult time finding the right words.

Ric met Diego in a peculiar way. One day, he and Jerome walked out of their high school building, and Diego was waiting there, ready to invite them over for dinner even though they never met before and were in different communities. Jerome almost declined before he realized that Diego was Gabby's father, and Jerome was not prepared to pass up an opportunity to hang out with Gabby. They had been eating dinner together ever since.

Intermittent fireworks blasted the air. Colors of purple and gold burst into the black abyss above. Photons traveled from the umbrella explosion to Ric's eyes at the speed limit of the universe. The sound waves followed at a slower pace, generating a cracking sound. It was a dance of energy and paradox as the light traveled through infinite positions of discrete intervals to everyone watching.

"Pass the gravy," Diego said.

Maria sent Diego a look, but this time the gravy was closer to Gabby. Gabby passed the gravy without delay, but Maria's eyes protested emphatically.

Diego caught on, "Thank you, daughter."

Ric dug into his meal. He had a slice of meat pie, some mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, focaccia bread, fresh berries from the garden, and some thick eggnog to kick it off. Ric enjoyed his food almost as much as Jerome, who was already on his second plate.

Fireworks popped more frequently as the night progressed, shedding constant light on Diego and Maria's lawn. The lawn was not large, but there was enough room on one half for Jerome to toss a football with Tyson, Jerome and Gabby's only child.

Maria kept her greenhouse, strawberry patch and raspberry bushes on the other side of the lawn. Another perk of the Northwest was the fresh berries. They could pick bowl-fulls one day and repeat the next day.

"Mommy, can we go to the park now?" Tyson begged.

Tyson was understandably antsy to go to the park at the Puget Sound. All the festivities and most of Seattle was there. While Tyson hardly touched his food, Jerome was piling on a third serving of meat pie and mashed potatoes.

"Tyson, do you want to hear a joke?" Jerome tried to distract him.

"I wanna—"

"What makes a tissue dance?"

"Um, legs?" Tyson guessed.

"You put a boogie in it," Jerome finished.

There was a moment of silence as everyone let the joke sink in. Of all people, Diego broke the silence with a hearty laugh.

"Where do you come up with those jokes?" Diego said.

"The internet has some pretty good jokes." Jerome winked at Gabby.

Tyson was not amused. He fussed and threw his arms in the air, managing to knock over his glass of eggnog. The thick liquid spilled all over Maria's table cloth. Maria was calm and patient in general, but she was irked when her table cloths got dirty.

"Tyson..." Maria sighed. "My table cloth."

"Careful, Maria," Jerome countered.

Jerome was in a good mood until someone messed with his son. Even Ric had to be very careful about treating Tyson with a positive tone.

"We all just wanted to sit and eat, and now my table cloth is sticky and wet."

"Come on, Maria. It's not his fault. Just get a new table cloth. I don't understand what—"

"This table cloth was given to me from—"

They were both talking at the same time. Ric felt awkward, and Gabby sunk in her chair. Diego was fine with the conflict. He just kept chomping at his meat pie like there was nothing to be stressed about.

Jerome and Maria argued more loudly. It was to the point where neighbors probably listened, and small showers of saliva sprayed the food between them.

"I'm pregnant!" Gabby interjected.

That did the trick.

Maria seemed to forget that the eggnog fail ever happened. Her eyebrows raised almost to the top of her head. Her face was red like she was going to pass out, but she managed to remain conscious while she hugged Gabby tightly. Diego got up slowly and hugged her as well.

Ric took a breath of relief. He already knew Gabby was pregnant when Jerome told him days earlier.

Jerome wrapped his arm around Gabby and smiled. He was genuinely happy with his family. His love for them was like a law of physics. It was undeniable.

Chapter 3

Ric and Jerome bought some ice cream from the dessert stand for the family. Ric got cookie dough, and Jerome got dark chocolate truffle. They each had two more ice creams in their hands for the others as well.

The fireworks show lit the sky with colorful bursts. Fire roasted meats saturated the air with savory scents. It was the one day of the year that almost everyone ate meat. It was more a symbol of people's dedication to a life-sustainable planet than an indulgence.

"I could smell this all day, every day," Jerome said in his dreamy food bliss. "Remind me why this can't be every day?"

"Because—"

Jerome shooed away Ric's answer with his ice cream hand. "I say we force the population to stay at a modest seven million so that we can have as much barbecue as we want. Think about it. There would be mountains of ground beef."

"Shhh," Ric urged.

"What? I'm not saying that we have to throw everything away. Just have everyone sign a contract that they will only have two babies."

"Didn't you tell me recently that you want three kids?"

"Yeah, but that will just make up for some couple that only wants one kid."

"Sounds like a really effective contract."

"So funny, little brother."

Ric laughed. "I'll go print that contract right now. It will say, by the decree of Jerome, you will have to limit your—"

Jerome shoved Ric to the side with his arm, almost causing Ric to drop his ice cream. Ric kept laughing.

"Dude, it's not funny...okay, it's a little funny," Jerome said as he cracked a smile.

Jerome took an impulsive lick at his ice cream.

"Hey, isn't that the girl that you have a crush on?" Jerome asked, nodding his head to the side opposite of Ric.

"I never said that I have a crush on her," Ric defended.

Ric did have a crush on her though. By his account, she was by far the most beautiful woman he ever saw. Her eyes were brown, and her hair was a natural blond that fell to her shoulders. She looked unbelievable in anything she wore. She was an angel. The first time he saw her, his stomach felt like it encountered destiny. It felt like time was bent in his space, and every movement felt slower.

"Emm is her name, right? Go talk to her. You have to."

"Yeah, I'll go talk to her as soon as everyone signs your contract."

The brothers walked to the Puget Sound where the others stood. Ric passed Gabby her caramel ice cream, and the strawberry went to Diego. Ric hoped that the ice cream was a worthy distraction from Emm, but it was not so.

"Ric has a crush on a girl named Emm, and he's going to talk with her for the first time, right now."

Before Ric could contest, Diego said "Go get her."

"Complement her, but don't complement her too much," Maria offered.

Ric felt his cheeks get flushed with embarrassment. He felt sick just thinking about talking with Emm and all the things he could say wrong. He did not even know what to do with his ice cream. Gabby seemed to catch on to that part of the problem.

"Here, my caramel will feed me and your cookie dough will feed the baby inside me."

"You'll be fine, brother. Just be confident."

With that, Ric began his 100-yard mile journey over to Emm. He wondered why he ever told Jerome anything in confidence. He tried to think of something to say to her, but all attempts were thwarted by the impending reality that he was going to be talking with her. His thoughts ran in circles.

While he was still assembling words together in his head, she was free-form fighting in a cage. Fists. Knees. Elbows. Wrestling. She seemed to be winning too since she was in a prominent position over her opponent.

Ric did not know anything about fighting. He inferred that the ringing bell signaled the end of the fight when Emm promptly got up to celebrate with the crowd. It was the only day of the year in which mixed martial arts was popular. It was another reminder of the past, and people loved it. They cheered for it.

Emm bounced off the side of the stage opposite of Ric. He walked across the perimeter as people started walking away.

"Where's everyone going?" Ric asked a random woman.

"The fights are over. Gotta wait 'till next year," the woman replied with a voice tired from cheering.

He went around the stage and saw her there. He did not know what to do, whether it was best to move his feet or talk to her from a distance.

He stood there too long. It started to feel weird, as if he was trying to stare with no further intention, so he walked toward her. The world became blurry. He could not discern the objects around him, let alone the proper words to conjure. On his way, he tripped on a rock and ran his shin into a bench.

"Ouch!" he said, barely managing to keep balance on one leg while he pulled the other one toward his chest.

The pain subsided, and he found himself looking at her while she tied her shoes.

"What do you want?" Emm asked.

He thought about complementing her on her fighting.

"Uh, fight..." Ric's throat got dry. He was already messing it up.

"You want to fight me? Let's do it." Emm grabbed her fighting shoes, gloves, and a shirt before she raced back up to the stage to notify the announcer that he needed to bring other people back to watch another fight.

Ric was in deep trouble.

Chapter 4

Ric put on combat gloves. He wore blue jeans and a t-shirt, hardly the appropriate fighting attire. While his family enjoyed their ice cream, he was backed against a chain-linked cage. It was painful to watch as Gabby transitioned from the caramel to the cookie dough ice cream that was supposed to be his. He considered running away, but it was too late. People had already flooded back to watch.

"I bet you my spare ribs that Emm wins," someone in the crowd said.

"Deal. I like blue jeans to win. He looks sick. You gotta watch out for the crazy ones."

Ric felt dizzy. Before, he was nervous to talk with Emm, and now he was scared to fight her. She was beautiful. Her hair was tied behind her head, showing a little more of her neck. Though intimidating in context, her energy was contagious for the crowd. She could have been some kind of leader, or actress, or professional fighter, or all of the above.

He slid his fingers along the cage behind him. The metal felt cool. He circled his finger around the diamond-shaped pattern as his thoughts transported him to a place where diamonds were abundant. 55 Cancri e. It was a planet just 40 light years away, and an entire one third of it was made of diamond. He imagined himself there with a pile of diamonds sifting through his fingers down to an ocean of more diamonds. If he ever found a way to visit that planet, he would have brought back some diamonds for Jerome to give to Gabby, and maybe a few for Emm if she would ever want to accept a gift from him.

Ric snapped back into reality. Thoughts of space calmed him, but the adrenaline was still real. The announcer grabbed his microphone to address the large crowd.

"Welcome, all violence cravers, to the encore!"

Emm lifted her fists in the air, and she nodded her head up and down like the crowd was asking if she would win.

"In the blue corner, we have the blue jeans barbarian. In the red corner, we have the mean, five- foot-nine with a 26 inch arm reach, wrecking ball. It's the crowd favorite, the human eraser. Emm!"

"Emm! Emm! Emm!" The crowd could not contain their excitement for Ric to get demolished.

"Fighters, are you ready?"

Emm hopped up and down like there was an invisible jump rope sweeping underneath her feet. She pounded her chest when the announcer looked at her.

Ric copied her, jumping up and down, trying to give a confident ready-to-go indication. He felt like he could not even jump correctly. The thousand eyes watched his every move. If he swallowed a gulp of saliva, the people would have probably noticed. At least it felt that way.

He was not sure if he should actually punch her or let her punch him. Either way it was insane. He never punched anyone before.

The bell rang.

It was too late to do any more thinking. She charged him, and he opened up his body to throw a punch. As soon as he pulled his arm backward, it was over.

Chapter 5

The paper shifted under Ric's weight. It was his first defense against all the microorganisms on the seat from previous patients. The nurse had already checked his vitals, and she had performed a basic checkup on his medical background. The next step was for the physician to come in and treat his battle wounds.

His right eye felt like a raisin and a baseball at the same time. Out of his left eye, he could see that the clinic room looked comfortable. The walls were yellow. There was a picture of a giraffe across from him. Its brown frame complemented the yellow nicely. Otherwise, there were devices for checking vitals, soap for hand washing, a computer fostering electronic medical records, and some personal protective equipment.

The fight went better than expected. It ended with him on the ground almost as soon as it started. Defeat was inevitable from the moment he stepped into the cage. He was just glad that the fight was short-lived.

He actually got to talk with Emm too, even if it was only a few words. Her voice sounded alto and pretty. Before that day, he only saw her on chance occasions from a distance. Each time he had seen her, butterflies flurried in his stomach. One time, she almost saw him, and he ducked behind a tree.

For all he knew, that fight could have been the last time he would ever see her. Suddenly, his mood became somber.

The door opened a crack, allowing him to hear the medical professionals exchange whispers, although he could not see any of them. He put his hands over his eyes, and the door shut behind the physician.

"Guess which eye you will have to treat tonight, doctor."

"I am guessing your right eye. That's the one that took a nasty left hook from the city's most dangerous fighter."

Ric wondered if word spread that quickly around Seattle, but even more curious was that the physician's voice sounded familiar. He did not know any doctors personally.

He put his hands down and opened his good eye. It was Emm.

Emm donned gloves and squeaked her rolling chair over to Ric's patient seat. She had cleaned herself up since the fight, but he could still smell some sweat. "Okay, let me take a look at your eye."

She gently touched the perimeter of his eye, and she ran a light over it to check his pupil response.

"I'm really happy to see you," Ric said. "I mean, you know. I can half see you. Because you're pretty."

The compliment sounded a lot better in his head. He cringed at how awkward it sounded coming out.

Something about her was calming though. She did not seem to care about anything except for his bad eye. The exchange of words was a mere afterthought as her proximity was a worthy distraction. It felt like he was transported to a new dimension where there were singing birds and sun kissed mountains. She was the first person to make him feel that way.

Her eyes moved from his bad eye to his good eye. For a brief moment in time, it was like her eyes were windows to her soul. Even though she put him in that room with her fist, she made him feel like new all over again. She was his angel of peace.

Her pretty mouth opened as if to say something, but Jerome barged into the room.

"Man, I told you to be confident with her, not to get into the cage and fight her. What were you thinking? I don't know how you will ever get Emm to like you now. Wait, no I got this. You will have to play it cool like you meant to get creamed by her, and then you just want to—"

Emm turned around.

"Oh. Hey Emm." Jerome looked surprised. "I just. I'm going to go get a bar from the vending machine, because I like to eat food. I'll just...I'll just wait for Ric. That's my brother. I'll wait outside then."

On his exit, Emm turned back toward Ric. Jerome mouthed, "Talk to her," and gave him a thumbs up.

"Are you and your brother close?"

"He's my best friend. We go back a long way."

"Don't all brothers?"

"Yeah. I mean, we've always been close, you know? We never really fought with each other, we just helped each other out. I just didn't want to practice fighting too much growing up, because I knew it would give me an edge over you in the cage."

"Is that so?" Emm laughed. "Well, consider me lucky then."

"Do you have siblings?"

"Nope. I am one of those narcissistic lone children who get all the attention."

There was an oddly comfortable pause in the conversation.

"So, you like me, Ric? That's what your brother seemed to suggest."

"Simply put, you are the most fascinating woman I have ever laid eyes on."

Emm did not seem to expect that response. Ric did not expect to say it either. Something about her just made him feel honest.

"The good news is that your eye will make a full recovery on its own. You just have a black eye is all. To help with pain, keep an ice pack on it. That will cause the blood vessels around your eye to constrict, and it will also help with swelling."

She doffed her gloves before she tossed them into the trash can.

"To make recovery go faster, keep your head elevated as much as possible, and make sure you get a healthy portion of vitamin C. You might eat oranges, mangoes, broccoli, lemons and limes. All in all, it should be a quick recovery."

Emm stood from her roller chair and walked to the door.

"Will I be seeing you again?" Ric asked as he walked out of the room.

"Stay in trouble and there's a good chance."

Ric walked out of the room and into the lobby where Jerome was pacing.

"How did it go?" Jerome asked.

"My eye will make a recovery in one or two—"

"No. Dude. How did it go with you know who?"

Ric nodded with confidence for the first time since he handed off his ice cream to Gabby.

"Good."

"Yeah? Yeah, alright. That's my bro." Jerome playfully jabbed Ric in the chest a few times.

They walked into the Seattle outdoors once more.

"Why don't I take Tyson for the night?" Ric offered. "He's going to be riled up by the fireworks. I think you, Gabby, and your bun in the oven should have some alone time."

"You read my mind. Tyson likes hanging with his uncle anyway."

Chapter 6

Ric lied in his bed, eyes wide open. His hands interlocked under his head as he stared at the dark ceiling. He thought about that evening. The meat pie. How livid Maria got about her table covers. Emm.

He mostly thought about his future. Maybe he would have somebody to love, someone to share a child with. Maybe the kid would be like Tyson, or maybe it would be a she. He could teach his son or daughter everything he knew about the universe. He wondered what the future even was. If a particle in the universe could travel faster than the speed of light, then it would be traveling back in time. In that case, his future would be its past. If only he could speak with such a thing to know what his future would be. Maybe there were multiple futures that depended on his decisions, in which case the particle would have multiple pasts, or maybe there was only one future where probability was an illusion. His head was turning even faster now. Sleep was not in his near future.

He sat up and felt the carpet with his toes, managing to locate one of his shirts among all the pigsty. He kicked it up awkwardly, nearly flinging the gold cross of his necklace up to his still tender eye. He massaged his temples and kissed his necklace before braving the disaster that he called a bedroom. Textbooks and papers might as well have been his carpet. He rolled on a pen, and he stepped on his stapler on the way out.

He turned on the apartment hall light before he walked to his guest bedroom just a short distance away to check on Tyson. Sleep treated Tyson better than him that night.

He closed the door as quietly as he could before retreating to his best refuge for sleepless nights, his piano. The piano was never dusty, because he tried to play it at least once every day. The bench creaked a familiar sound, and the keys beamed with potential energy. When he pressed the first key, it struck a string, and the sound was purified by the sound board before presenting its music to his ear. He pressed the una corda pedal to help soften the sound for Tyson. It was cold on his bare foot, but only for a moment.

"What song will you sing for me tonight?" Ric asked his piano.

He closed his eyes and played whatever came to his mind. The sound was gray and slow. He did not know his future, but his past played through him in every note. It was a duet of emotion and history. He told the piano what to play, but the piano also played him. It revealed his thoughts in a way that words were insufficient to describe. The music led him to places of light and dark, to deep inside the universe of his soul.

One of the stairs creaked. Tyson rounded the corner.

"Hey buddy. What are you doing up so late?"

"I had a dream," Tyson said with a tired voice, rubbing his eyes.

"Well, I'll give you two options. I can either tuck you back into bed, or you can accompany me outside on the balcony and help me look for constellations."

Tyson held up two fingers for the latter option.

Ric went out to the balcony and sat down on his Papasan. He plopped Tyson onto his lap followed by a heavy blanket. There were only a few minutes left until midnight. This midnight was special, as was every midnight following the annual peace celebration. On these special nights from midnight until dawn, all the city lights shut down. Nobody had access to any power. That way, people could gaze up at the unperturbed night sky and see stars as far as light permitted.

"Tell me a story," Tyson said.

"What does your mommy and Grandma tell you to say?"

"Please?"

"Alright, a story."

He filed through his memories for children's stories. None of them seemed relevant enough.

"I can tell you about the story of the stars and Los Angeles."

"What's Los Angeles?"

"It's a city in California to our south. In Spanish, it means 'The Angels.' So, one day, many years ago, the people of Los Angeles felt the Earth shake. Plate tectonics were disturbing the peace, and it caused all the lights to go out. The streetlights, everything went dark."

Tyson pulled the blanket over his chin.

"For some people, it was scary. They looked at the night sky, and they were afraid because they saw lights that they had never seen before. So, they called the police to keep them safe, but the police could not save them."

"Daddy says we don't need police anymore."

"That's right. You'll grow up to learn self-defense so you and the people around you can protect you. Back then, they called the police. But when they called the police that night, it turned out that they were not in any danger at all. They were seeing the stars in the sky. They saw the Milky Way for the first time in their lives."

Ric peeked over his shoulder at the clock in his kitchen. Perfect timing. "In about a minute you—"

The light in the apartment and the lights in all the city powered down. It was like the sky removed a giant veil and let their eyes gaze upon its true self.

"Wow." Tyson gasped.

"You, buddy, like the people of Los Angeles, are seeing billions of stars in our galaxy for the very first time."

Ric was almost as impressed as Tyson. He had seen the billions of stars several times before, but once a year was infrequent enough to renew his awe.

"Each of those stars is a huge ball of plasma, just like our sun. They are unfathomably far away, but they are so big and so bright that we can see them from here. Many of those stars have planets, and some of them are very similar to Earth."

Ric knew Tyson would not understand everything. He did hope, however, that Tyson would learn to share his love for the universe.

"So why don't you tell me a story, buddy. What was your dream about, the one that woke you up?"

"Monsters."

Tyson's voice sounded tired.

"Ah, the abstract predator that trains your mind to defend yourself. What was the monster like?"

"It was super big and had lots of teeth."

"I bet that felt icky."

"I killed it."

Ric did not expect that twist in the story, but fighting was one option in a fight or flight situation.

The blanket was an anchor for his eyelids. It was warm enough to save him from the chilled night air and to relax his tired body. He put in an extra effort to keep his eyes open so that he could gaze upon the stars for as long as possible. The stars were as mysterious as they were enchanting. There were 400 billion of them in the galaxy.

It was possible for an alien species to cloak their planet's existence by manipulating the transit method's results. In that case, aliens would have existed, but people would not know it. Alien life could have escaped detection just by being too far away to see them.

Ultimately, the sheer number of planets along with the favorable probability of Earth-like planets revolving around stars at a livable distance expedited the question to the forefront of his mind.

"Where are all the aliens?"

Chapter 7

Ric awoke from his sleep. His muscles felt odd. He was in a bed instead of his Papasan, and he was in a room instead of on his balcony. The bed felt comfortable with warm, maybe flannel sheets. He was not sure what the material was exactly. The room had metal walls, which contributed to the chilled room temperature.

"Where—"

"There you are. You're awake." Emm came into the room.

"Emm?"

"Where—"

"I can see that your vitals look fine. Your eye looks about the same as it did yesterday but that is to be expected since I only punched you in the face yesterday."

"Where's Tyson?" Ric asked with a concerned tone.

"Here, I'll help you up and you can see him."

"Is he okay? Where are we?"

"Yes, he is fine. It will be just a moment."

Emm took both of Ric's arms to help him out of bed. He felt whacked. Every muscle was slower and weaker than usual. It was a heavy feeling like his muscles were undead. His mind was clear as ever though. He could remember everything, and he could apply basic reasoning.

Emm led him to Tyson's bed. There was a half-closed curtain separating the head of each bed, but Ric could see the beds and the people in them when walking around. He could see that Tyson was healthy and well.

"Jerome and Gabby are in those two beds," Emm explained. "The other beds have other people from Seattle."

Ric could feel his muscles returning to full strength. Emm did not look crazed like she meant harm. It appeared that he and his family were not in danger, but he could not shake the eerie feeling that something was off. He still did not know where he was, or why Emm harbored that information. Maybe he was involved in a serious accident. He looked at his limbs and his body. No damage.

Monitors started beeping. Emm sighed.

"I was hoping that they would get up individually, but it looks like the other three are all getting up at the same time. Ric."

"Ric."

"Uh, yeah."

"I need your attention. You need to tell your family that they are in a safe place. Tell them that they have not been harmed and are not in any danger. Can you do that?"

"Yeah."

Ric said it out loud, but he was not sure if they were truly safe. Jerome was the second person in the room to open his eyes and orient.

"Where...Gabby. Where is Gabby? Tyson?" Jerome looked at Ric's eyes. Ric had never seen Jerome so vulnerable before. It looked like his worst nightmare had come true.

"Gabby and Tyson are fine, Jerome. They're right here." Ric opened the curtains so Jerome could see that Gabby and Tyson were also getting up.

"What happened?" Jerome's concern overrode Ric's assurances.

Whatever kind of sedative Emm gave them, she did not give Jerome enough. He ripped off his sheets and jumped onto his feet, pushing Ric aside as an obstacle on the way to his pregnant wife and son. He looked at Gabby and saw that she was fine. Tyson looked fine as well.

Jerome put his hand on the side of Gabby's head. "Do you feel okay, Gab?"

"I feel fine, honey. Just a little weak."

Jerome stroked Gabby's cheek and looked to Emm. "Where the heck are we?"

Chapter 8

Once Gabby and Tyson regained strength, Emm led them all down a hallway. She still had not revealed where they were or to where they were going.

"By president's orders, I can't tell you," she explained.

Ric could see that Jerome was about to burst with suspicion. He had a right to know. They all did.

Ric was somehow less concerned about their well-being and more intent on observing what was around him to deduce what was happening. The hallway was long and big. It could have probably fit an elephant. There were no rooms or linked hallways. There was just the door that they walked through and the door at the other end. The door they walked through made a decompressing sound as it opened, and there was even a little steam. The hallway was illuminated brightly by LED lights along the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor. The floor was a slightly declining ramp. Wherever they were, it was accessible to people with walking disabilities. By all accounts, nothing was familiar. He was stumped.

"I say we take her from behind and make her tell us where we are," Jerome whispered to Ric.

"That wouldn't do anything. Besides, she would beat both of us up anyway. We're almost to the door. Just wait."

Jerome was getting nervous. "I have to know what's behind that door." His patience ended as soon as the hallway did. The door opened.

They entered a massive room. At first it looked like a zoo where animals could roam freely without being locked up in cages. None of the animals were exactly familiar. Some of them looked similar to known animals, but they were not the same. There was a fox, but it was not a fox. There was a peacock, but it was not a peacock.

A couple animals that looked like small pterodactyl dinosaurs walked by. "Jet keeps pulling my hair when we stand in line for food."

"That means he likes you."

"He has a weird way of showing it."

The animals spoke in English. A billion neurons fired in Ric's brain. His stomach microbes churned with a warning that something was not right. Goosebumps rose on his skin. The situation they found themselves in was becoming more perplexing by the minute. He opened his mouth to say something, but Gabby beat him to it.

"Is it safe to play with the animals?" Gabby asked.

Emm nodded her head.

Gabby took Tyson into her arms. "Come on, you guys. Just have fun!"

Gabby was the most fun person Ric ever met. Whenever she crossed something off her bucket list, she added two more things to it. She had the typical extravagant ones which were crossed out long before then, like sky diving and bungee jumping. Other items were less extravagant, like going on another date with Jerome, or trying a new food. Everything in her life was a new opportunity. She smiled a lot because she was genuinely happy. Her happiness was an antidote for Jerome's ill-content and even Ric's tendency to over-think everything.

Ric and Jerome looked at each other as if they had a choice. They followed Gabby around the massive zoo of English-speaking, unknown species. His fears were calmed with every second that he did not get eaten by the powerful animals.

After some moments, he finally felt safe enough to take his eyes off the potential predators and appreciate the large room he was in. The ratios of width and height of all the structures were pleasant. By his estimates, the golden ratio was present in just about every construct. The ceiling was very high and was decorated with bulbs of light that looked like stars. In the center of the ceiling, the star bulbs spiraled and traced the Fibonacci sequence. There were no windows anywhere. There was a large stage at the front of the room, complete with a podium and microphone. Behind the stage was a massive video screen, and several feet above the podium hung a model of Earth.

Other people walked around with perplexed faces. They looked pale and uneasy. They did not have Gabby to refocus their energy on being happy. Gabby was finishing up a conversation with an animal that looked like an ape with walrus teeth.

"All I do is run my fingers through it."

"Well your hair looks fabulous," Gabby said.

The walrus ape waved goodbye to Gabby as she walked away. Ric lifted his hand to wave goodbye, and the walrus ape waved back. Wherever he was, it seemed like a friendly place. There was total tranquility among everything living.

As they walked along, they passed by two animals that looked like a lion and a lamb lying next to one another. The lion-like animal was panting, sticking out its tongue and showing its bone-crushing teeth. The lamb-like animal rolled on its back as its lion friend rubbed its belly with its nose.

Ric passed by several animals that had no resemblance to anything he had seen before on Earth. One species had four eyes, two noses, and two mouths on either side of their heads. Another species had rubber-like treads covering its body, enabling it to roll around like a tire.

Gabby led them in front of a line of elephant-like animals.

"Hey. Hey you. Hey."

Ric turned and looked at the elephant that seemed to be talking to him. He pointed to his chest as if asking whether the animal was talking to him.

"Yeah, you. Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"Close your eyes."

The animal opened its mouth and extended its extremely long tongue. Its tongue wrapped around him and picked him off the ground and onto its back.

"Yuck." Ric was covered in slobber.

He looked over to Gabby and Tyson who had also been escorted to higher elevations via tongue. She was red in the face, laughing, which made Ric start to laugh. Ric laughed even harder when Jerome landed on his animal's back, scouring and wetter than the rest of them. His elephant gave him one last tongue kiss in his face, which prolonged his scouring even more.

Someone walked onto the stage. He had blond, graying hair, and he looked very sculpted. Each step he took toward the podium boasted confidence. Every voice in the room went silent as he tapped and adjusted the microphone. With just one sentence, everything began to make sense.

"Hello everyone, and welcome our guests to our spaceship, 34,791 light years away from Earth."

Chapter 9

Ric heard the words. It should have been easy to deduce, but it was too incredible to believe. The foreign species were aliens, he supposed. He never bought into the Hollywood hypothesis that aliens embodied the monsters of nightmares. He had never envisioned it as he now saw it though.

The speaker continued. "My name is Remai. I am president of my own, my ship, and our home planet, Paradise. Just hours ago, you were administered a sedative, escorted to our ship, and injected with Languithol Neurons. These neurons automatically translate any language spoken into your primary language, and they also modify perceived lip movement according to how the word would be spoken in your language. If you are still feeling a little woozy, I assure you that you will be back to normal shortly."

Ric wondered if he would be able to hear the conversations of birds and other Earth animals now that he had Languithol Neurons.

"Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is teeming with life. There are 7,048 planets that have reached at least stage 1 intelligence. That is, they have adapted to their surroundings enough to generate characteristics suitable for survival. About half of those have reached at least stage 2 intelligence, which means their brains are capable of applying basic logic and instinct. A small subset of those have reached stage 3 intelligence. Earth's people have stage 3 intelligence. You have the capacity to apply rigorous logic and to ask the question, 'Why?' Many of the new species from Paradise that you encountered today have also reached stage 3 intelligence. My species has reached stage 4 intelligence, which is the highest recorded intelligence to date. We no longer have to adapt to our surroundings. Our surroundings adapt to us. We have a finer ability to leverage the galaxy's resources, such as dark matter, dark energy, elements and particles. We can control these things under the limitations of the natural laws."

Ric stared from his alien elephant perch, taking in all the new information. Not only was there other life in the galaxy. There was plenty of it, and there was life more intelligent than anything on Earth.

Jerome seemed to be entranced as if in a dream. At least he was no longer consciously aware of his slobbered body. Tyson was still too young to fully appreciate this new reality shift, but he seemed entertained. Gabby was smiling and whispering in Tyson's ear.

"You probably want to know why you are here. There is war in the galaxy. In brief, some inhabitants of our planet were dissatisfied with only controlling matter in the universe. They wanted control over all the life in the galaxy as well. So, they formed a coup, and now they are a threat to all life in the galaxy, including you and me. We call them the Fallen."

Ric did not know how to handle all the emotions. He was still recovering from the sedative, from the realization that he was in deep space, and now he had to wrestle with thoughts of war. People had fought too hard and too long to earn peace.

"The inhabitants of Paradise and the people of Earth are the only species in the galaxy that have achieved stable peace and have the capacity to fight the Fallen. You people were handpicked by my trainers as advocates for peace. There are many bases scattered across our planet, and you will stay at whatever base is closest to your trainer's home. My trainers worked hard to learn English and your culture, so I hope you do not waste their time by going back to Earth today. That said, you have two options. One, you retreat to your families and friends on Earth. You eat and drink with them, and you hope that an invasion does not strike you or the generations after you. Two, you stay here. You learn how to fight. You take anarchy by its neck, and you send our galaxy onto a track of sustainable peace. You have ten minutes. Those of you who wish to return home tomorrow, exit this room through the green hall. For the rest, stay here or explore the ship as we prepare to land on Paradise."

Remai walked off the stage the same way he walked up to it. Emm tucked her arm under Remai's shoulder and let him escort her out of the room. Ric wondered if their relationship was deeper than president and trainer.

The noise in the room became loud again with animals talking to one another. Some people immediately walked to the green hall to depart for Earth. It was not surprising. They were part of a world of peace, and now they realized they were living in a galaxy of war. They had prepared for spending their lives delivering food and doing laundry, not firing weapons.

Ric shared their disappointment. War was dark. He wanted to be part of the history that benefited from the sacrifices of soldiers past, not part of the history that perpetuated the sacrifice.

The alien elephants set them aground with their trunks. Jerome palmed his temples and slapped his head in frustration. Then he just stood there with his hands on his hips for a solid two minutes.

Ric wanted to know what Jerome was thinking. The silence was agonizing. Ric had two possible futures that hinged on his decision right then, or perhaps there was only one future and his decision was an illusion. He wondered what it would be like to walk on another planet, and he wondered if Paradise would live up to its name. He pulled the necklace from under his shirt and clenched it gently in his fist. There were so many risks to assess in such a short time frame. Ultimately, he would do whatever Jerome decided.

Jerome started walking toward the green hall.

Ric looked at a surprised Gabby. She rushed to cut off his path.

"No, Jerome. You don't get to make that decision alone. We have to talk about this."

"Gab, if we stay, I go to war. None of us will be safe."

"We won't be safe on Earth either. We will be looking at the sky wondering when our last day as free people will come. We will wonder how soon Tyson will become a slave, or worse."

"Jerome," Ric tried to cut in.

"Ricardo, stay out of this."

Ric sensed that his brother's anger was directed at the lack of injustice of the situation rather than at him.

Jerome closed his eyes and turned his attention back on Gabby.

"If we stay, we will wonder how soon Tyson will be fatherless and how soon you will be a widow. I'm going."

"I'm staying."

With time to spare, Gabby finished it. Jerome would not have been anywhere in the universe if Gabby and Tyson were not also there with him. Jerome sighed an audible reluctance, but he opened his arms and hugged Gabby while the spaceship flew farther from home and nearer to Paradise.

Chapter 10

Ric followed the crowd of people through the spaceship on the way to the exit doors. The hallway was painted blue and gray and had red arrows pointing toward the exit. Sentences constructed in a foreign language were painted into the walls. He traced some of the letters with his finger, following the curves and the spaces between words. The Languithol Neurons could not translate the writing for him, but he could learn to read it just as easily as he could learn to read another language on Earth.

It seemed that the spaceship was a small planet in its own right, judging by the number of hallways he walked through before bumping into an idle animal in front of him. The crowd stopped, and it was just a matter of waiting for the doors to open. He stood next to a large lizard on his left and a young woman about 19 years of age on his right. The woman stared at him for an uncomfortable length of time.

"What if it's all a dream, man?" the woman asked. "You would wake up tomorrow. Would you feel relieved?"

The question caught Ric off guard.

"Or what if it's a nightmare and you are about to walk into a trap," she said. "When the doors open, Paradise will be your own Hell, and you will be miserable for as long as you're sleeping. You'll wake up cold and shivering. Or worse, you're not asleep, and this is a real trap."

Ric looked at the woman's eyes. They were blue and sharp. She seemed smart.

"And who are you?" Ric asked.

"Arizona, man. That's my name, and it's where I'm from. I like the heat. All this cold air conditioning is a bother. Even if it is Hell outside those doors, at least it will be hot. Back in Arizona, my sister and I would ride ATVs all day. We were the beasts of the desert."

He pictured her riding an ATV over rolling sand hills with her dreadlocks sailing the wind behind her. She was not in the desert though. She was still staring at him with her sharp eyes, cutting away the facade of his social graces. He felt exposed.

"She chose the green hall. My sister. She never had the stomach for finding out what was behind the mysterious door."

"I can relate, but I think—"

"See that's where I differ, and believe me, man, I am pretty different than most people. None of us know our fate. As soon as you pretend you know your fate, you are delusional, man. I say, we should all just embrace whatever door we walk through next, because that's the only one we are supposed to walk through, man."

The doors opened. Natural light beamed into Ric's eyes, and a blanket of warmth removed his air-conditioned goosebumps.

"That's what I'm talking about, man."

Whether it was Paradise or Hell, it felt perfect. The crowd squeezed tightly through the doors. Ric could not see anything beyond the tall animals next to him, only the grass beneath his feet. Through intervals of space in the crowd, he spotted a rock to his left. He climbed on top of it, and, from there, he saw Paradise. There was beauty beyond imagination. There were waterfalls, ponds, endless rocks, hills and mountains. There were trees bearing fruit, and there was ground bearing vegetables. The hills were either a stunning green or were decorated with exotic flowers. He pinched his body to reassure himself that it was not the darkness of tombstones in which his body rested. He was simply alive on Paradise.

He followed the crowd to the heavily fortified base located in a deep valley for camouflage. Jerome, Gabby and Tyson were already settled into their rooms. Before Ric saw his own room, Tyson was determined to show and tell.

"Look at my room, Uncle. Look, look, look."

"Wow, buddy, you got it made. A big bed all to yourself, and a big closet with toys in it."

"Yeah, look. Race cars."

They gave him a whole set of racecars. It was paradise enough for a four-year-old.

Ric went to his own room. There was a king-sized bed, a book shelf full of textbooks that spanned the entire wall, and a grand piano with a red bow tie on it. Now he was just as excited as Tyson.

There were all his textbooks from home plus a host of other books covering topics that had not yet been researched on Earth. He opened one up and almost got lost in it before he remembered that he had a grand piano to play. It was black like the one he had at home, but it looked brand new. It was sleek. An inscription on the top said, "For Ric." He lifted his fingers as if to touch the inscription, but it felt disrespectful. He never thought he would touch something so elegant as a grand piano.

Jerome popped his head in the door. "Nice room, brother. We only got gift baskets in our room. Someone likes you a lot."

"Yeah, it seems that way."

"Why don't you come outside with us. We're going to relax in the sun."

"Sure, I'll meet you out there."

Jerome left, and Ric stood there. A wave of gratefulness washed over him. He felt undeserving. He was not a grand piano kind of person. He was just a person that lived in a community in Seattle.

"Hey, man."

Arizona found his room.

"Having fun in Paradise? Or is it really paradise? This could be an elaborate trap, man."

Ric tried to suppress the eerie feeling that Arizona gave him.

"If this is an elaborate trap, they should just pounce on us now. We have no way of escaping, unless you know how to fly that spaceship back to Earth."

"It's all a lie, man. You'll see."

Ric shook off the goosebumps. He left his grand piano for another time and found Jerome and Gabby already sun bathing outside the base.

"Where's Tyson?"

Gabby lifted her head up and tilted it to see over Jerome.

"Ty is over there at the water slide."

Jerome was relaxed as Gabby cuddled with him. Ric offered anyway, "I feel like exploring the place a little. Anyone down for a walk?"

"No, but be back at dusk. They're going to throw us a welcoming party."

The scent of Paradise was of fresh grass and honey flowers. Ric bent down to pick a flower from one of the hills. It was a striking red with contours of deeper shades. He made his way to the top of the hill, which was high enough to see a fair distance away. There were animals running freely and scattered throughout. He felt like running with them, running far away to the lengths of the planet. There could be secrets to find, new landscapes to see. Another day, perhaps.

He diverged from the wild and circled back toward Jerome and Gabby, this time taking the route through the trees. The trees were saturated with green, and they were ornamented with exotic fruit. The trunks were hazel brown and smooth. He felt the soft greens and the smooth branches all the way until he could see Tyson and the slide.

He was not sure if the fruit was poisonous, but it was too tempting to pass up. He picked one among the low hanging fruit. It was round like an apple, soft like a pear, and orange like an orange. An appearange, he called it. He tossed it in the air just a few inches for good faith, then bit into its flesh. His taste buds contacted the fruit, and his nerves sent messages to his brain. Sweet. Delicious. Safe.

As he chewed on his appearange, and as the sun began its descent behind the hills, Tyson stood in a line at the slide, waiting for his next turn. His body was dry from the sun, but his hair was still wet. Some older children by a year or two cut in line. The leader of the pack shoved Tyson and some other kids out of the way like a bulldozer.

They were bullies.

Ric started walking toward the children to intervene but stopped when Tyson defended himself. Tyson stepped in front of the kid and talked to him with hands waving and fingers pointing. The bully burrowed his face toward his chest and walked away along with his minions.

Tyson reminded Ric of Jerome when they were younger, except Jerome deterred bullies physically rather than verbally. The appearange did not fall far from the tree.

Chapter 11

Ric stood in line for food at the welcoming party. Signs over the tables read, "Welcome to Paradise." He thought he felt someone staring at him from behind. He looked behind his shoulder to find Arizona, but she was not there. Goosebumps rose on his skin. Maybe he would get through the evening without being reminded that something was wrong and that the trustworthiness of their stage 4 intelligent hosts was questionable.

He tapped his paper plate on his arm as the line slowly progressed. There were hundreds of long, rectangular tables on the eating grounds. Those who were not eating shared cultural games. People taught others how to play flag football, while they learned Paradise's version of a sack game.

"I love veggie pot pie," Jerome said.

Jerome was in the other line filling two plates with veggie pot pie and an assortment of Paradise's finest fruits and vegetables.

"You love everything you can eat."

"I know, but these flavors are incredible," Jerome said with a giddy smile as he plopped a purple pepper into his mouth before it ever made it onto his plate.

Ric cheated as well and took a bite of bread. The flavor was better than any bread he tried on Earth. The grains were alive in his mouth. It was warm and soft.

One of the cooks stepped out of the kitchen with more bread. She had dark hair that was tied back with a sanitation net. Her big, green eyes surveyed the food, hunting for trays that needed more food from the kitchen.

"What did you put in this bread to make it so good?" Ric asked her.

Her eyes stopped bouncing frantically from tray to tray. Her counting finger relaxed, and she placed her hand on her hip.

"Nothing, we breed all our food for flavor."

"Do you genetically modify the grains?"

"No, it's more about the health of the soil, harvesting in its natural season, and also some scientific ingenuity for optimizing quality. I'm guessing you are accustomed to dead grains."

"Dead grains?"

Her pointing finger came out again.

"Yup. Dead as dead things. It happens when harvesters breed the bread for feeding the numbers rather than focusing on quality. We have sustained our food supply for so long now that we can eat as much quality food as we like."

"I've never been so grateful for science until now," Jerome said with a mouth full of bread.

By the time they reached the end of the line, Jerome had a mountain of food on either plate.

"Is any of that for Gabby?"

"She was going to get her plate later."

Ric smirked. They found an empty spot at a table, but Ric was called by a familiar voice.

"Ric!"

Emm waved her hand and stood up from her seat so that he could see her.

"Go have fun with your girlfriend," Jerome said. "Don't be too confident this time though. I don't want your other eye to turn into a balloon."

"Ha ha," Ric said sarcastically as he parted ways from his brother.

He sat down at the edge of the table across from Emm. She was stunning as ever. She wore a black dress that showed most of her shoulders and her arms. She made her necklace look more glamorous than it would if any other neck wore it. Her black earrings complemented her dress and her brown eyes.

"I like your necklace," Ric said.

"Thanks. I've had it ever since I was born."

Emm lifted her necklace away from her chest so he could see it better.

"How do you like Paradise?" Emm asked.

"I love it. It's even better than the paradise of my dreams. The grand piano is an amazing touch. You wouldn't have anything to do with that, would you?"

"I may have put in a word."

Emm's eyes were playfully looking into his. It felt right being with her. He was nervous to talk with her still, but she made him feel calm at the same time.

"It feels natural," Ric blurted.

Emm looked puzzled, probably wondering what he meant. Her bewilderment turned to a smile, but it was not directed toward him. She turned her head and smiled at someone else who sat down next to her and kissed her cheek.

"Hey," they said to each other.

"I was just talking to Ric here. Ric, this is Marz."

Marz had brown hair and green eyes. He was tall and well built.

"Nice one," Marz said, pointing at Ric's eye. "How did that happen?"

"This was a gift from my doctor," Ric said looking at Emm.

"Don't worry too much about that. I've had my fair share of shiners from her as well."

"Shut up, Marz," Emm said, playfully pushing at his arm. "I only hit you that one time on accident."

"See what I have to deal with all the time?" Marz said pointing at Emm.

"I think she's great," Ric said.

Marz stared at him with his green eyes and a wicked smile. His eyes were a lake of fire. Ric did not trust him for a second. His aura was off.

"Your drink has a lot of foam," Ric said to Marz.

Marz took a gulp of his drink. "I promise it's better than anything you have on your planet. This is nitro nectar. It was crafted by our finest juicer. You have to pour it into the glass quickly so that the nitrogen enhances the flavor."

Ric looked at it fizz at the top of the glass. The glass was like a planet. Its foam was a bubbly atmosphere. He could have stared at it all night. He would have stared at it long enough if it meant that Marz would leave him and Emm alone.

"So, Emm and I were having a stimulating conversation about intelligence earlier," Marz said. "I would love to get an opinion from Earth's finest on what intelligence is."

"One of the smartest people in Earth's history defined intelligence as the ability to adapt to change," Ric said.

"So, we all agree there, but how do you measure intelligence? What makes me more intelligent than you, for example?"

"The same guy that defined intelligence also said that it is unclear whether intelligence has any long-term survival value. So, we can't measure intelligence with the longevity of a species' lifespan. For me, someone is inherently intelligent if they are alive. Attempts to measure their intelligence are illogical because they are theoretically born with the best genetic makeup their family branch has offered so far. Take me and my brother, for example. I have competed in my environment by studying textbooks and doing what traditionally smart people do. My brother, on the other hand, competes in his environment by being successful socially and physically. I'm smart, and he is social. Nobody can compare our intelligence, because we express our intelligence in genetically different ways."

Marz loudly applauded Ric's response. "Bravo, Earth's finest. May you not kill us all with your stage 3 intelligence."

Nearby conversations were nonexistent. Those nearby were all eating still, but it was obvious that Marz had drawn attention and that their perked ears were curious about what Ric would say next.

Emm spun her spoon around the gold crust of her pot pie, trying to avoid eye contact. She, like him, was made of the same ingredients as stars. They were made of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and a soup of other elements. Whether she was a different species or a different intelligence, they would always have commonalities with what they were made of. They were 93 percent stardust. She was 7 percent angel.

"Refresh me. How long has Earth been at peace?" Marz asked.

"Twenty years."

Marz coughed a laugh. "That might seem like a long time to you, Stage 3, but twenty years is a blink of an eye in the cosmic calendar. You are not here for peace. You are here for war because that is all you and your Earth friends know how to do. As soon as we take down the Fallen, you won't belong here. You already don't belong."

Ric had never received such socially violent words before. He tried to force objective thinking and not assign value to Marz's scorn, but his feelings were hurt. His lack of experience with confrontation left him feeling suffocated. He wanted to say something clever, but he was afraid that, if he spoke, his airy lungs and strained vocal chords would reveal his weakness.

Luckily, he was saved by a worthy distraction. Remai walked behind Marz and Emm.

"Marz, will you go help with the fireworks? They are having issues with the simulated projections. They are flying too high, somehow."

"Yes, president." Marz left the table and his nitro nectar immediately.

"Emm, you are looking wonderful tonight," Remai observed.

"Thank you, father."

After some more conversation, Remai walked away.

Ric stared at his plate of lukewarm pot pie and cold veggies. He had a crush on the president's daughter, and he was socially obliterated by her boyfriend, or maybe even husband. He was embarrassed, and he wanted to run away. He ended the humiliating exchange, giving Emm a quick courtesy glance before he took his plate to go.

Chapter 12

Ric sat at his grand piano. He closed his eyes and focused his breathing until his own thoughts seemed detached. He let his fingers rest atop the grand keys where white and black made harmony. The grand piano was a new friend. He had not heard its music yet, and the piano had not listened to his emotions either. The first note played would be like their handshake, and he had to do it just right.

He remembered the first song he ever wrote. It was a simple melody that was passionate, inspired by his mother's smile and her memory. It was about the price of love. He sunk his fingers into the keys to play the introduction. It was dark but calming, like sitting alone on a beach watching the sun fade away.

The sound of the piano was incredible. He almost wanted to stop playing just to appreciate the first note, but he wanted to keep going at the same time because the song sounded brand new. It was like he heard it for the very first time. He got to the chorus and sang about the world, and how people must be empowered to make it better. He belted the bridge and quieted his voice to a whisper. He was supposed to sing the chorus one more time, but the piano took control. He let the music speak for him, finishing with his favorite chords.

"That was a beautiful song."

Ric opened his eyes. Emm stood at the door frame with her shoulder rested against it.

"You can keep playing if you like. I like listening to you sing."

"Maybe I will play the piano, and you could sing for me," Ric said.

"I'm afraid I wouldn't sound very good. I don't have any practice. I heard music for the first time when I was on Earth."

"That's crazy. You don't have music in Paradise? How do you live? Music is everything. It's happy. It's sad. It's the staple of movies."

"Yeah, we don't have movies either," Emm said with her face slightly cringed.

"Well, Paradise needs to get on the ball. It's not a real planet until there's widespread music. Tell your dad that."

Emm laughed. "Okay, I will tell the president of the planet all your demands." Her laugh sounded playful. It always sounded that way. It was contagious.

She sighed, "I'm sorry that Marz treated you the way he did. You didn't deserve that."

"Is he your husband?"

"No, but my father wants him to be."

"Do you want him to be your husband?"

Ric bit his lip. He should not have asked that question. It was too private. She stood there without saying anything for a while, but she did not seem offended by the question. It was like being in the medical room all over again, where her sense of peace made everything alright.

She pushed off the door frame and sat on the piano bench next to him. Her thumbs circled the air while her other fingers interlocked in her lap.

"What do you think death is?" she asked.

Ric assessed her question within the context of her emotions. It seemed that she had a personal stake in his answer.

"Death is complicated. People on Earth tend to think that death is final, or that a second life comes after death. I don't see death in either of those ways. Being dead is just another way that we express what we are made of. The ultimate way of staying alive in the traditional sense is to pass on our genes by having children. That's why we die, anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"The reason we die is because we pass on our genes, to make better versions of ourselves instead of persisting our less competitive selves through all the years."

"Do you think that our parents are part of us?"

"They are us. I mean, not exactly, of course. We are their genetic cocktail. They gave us parts of themselves that we couldn't depart from if we tried."

She nodded her head slowly, pondering his response. "I think you're smart, Ric. You seem to know a lot."

"I just think too much," he said.

She looked at him with a warm smile. She relaxed her fingers and placed her hands on the piano bench. He felt a strange feeling. He felt close to her emotionally even though he only met her recently. Analytically, there was no reason for such feelings, but the feelings were real like air. He was compelled to her.

She was a shining jewel in a world of fog. He wanted to follow her light so that clarity would no longer elude him, and so that he could finally understand the kind of rare love that every song failed to describe in full.

"It feels natural to be around you, Emm."

She offered one last smile before she walked toward the door to leave.

"Tomorrow is when you get your dark energy sword," she said. "See you then."

Chapter 13

On the next day, the sun felt like a blanket on Ric's skin. The temperature was comfortable and had not fluctuated much since he arrived in Paradise. It seemed that Paradise had an embedded thermostat set for 72 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun was still low as it was morning, but it would continue its ascent on Ric and all the trainees ahead of him in line.

Eventually it would be his turn to receive his dark energy sword. To people on Earth, dark energy was still a mystery. Scientists could have called it "Larry" and it would have had the same meaning. They knew nothing of its properties or its predictability.

Ric heard from eavesdropping that dark energy existed in both the future and the past at the same time. It also reacted to a holder's touch, assigning itself properties based on the holder's past and future identity. Some trainees already got their sword. The swords were blue, green, orange, deeper orange and all the other colors of the spectrum.

"I wonder what it means when a person has a black sword," Gabby said.

"It means they have six days to live," Jerome joked.

"He's kidding, buddy," Ric said to a distracted Tyson.

One of the trainees got a pink colored sword. She jumped up and down and hugged the closest random person. She did a full mashed potatoes dance, moving her outstretched arms up and down. Then she changed up her moves and held an imaginary bowl full of food with her left hand while rapidly spooning the food into her mouth with her right hand. Some of the species looked at her like she was an alien. Other people looked at her as an alien as well.

Ric did not blame her though. He was giddy about it too. In the ensuing moments, he would touch the sword, and it would reveal the color of his past and future identity. He would know more about himself and be even more united with the universe. It was the story line of his favorite dreams.

"Oh, he isn't listening to anything that anyone says today," Gabby said of Tyson. "He's too busy thinking about the fight he had this morning with the other boys."

"Another one, huh?" Ric said.

"I looked away for two seconds and then I saw boys throwing pebbles at him...I just don't understand why they did that. Wait...what do you mean, 'another one'?"

"There was a bully at the slide the other day. Tyson handled it really well, actually."

"See Gab, Tyson just sticks up for himself. There's nothing else to it."

"What do you think my color will be?" Jerome asked, trying to divert the conversation.

Gabby sighed. "It will be green, because that's my favorite color."

"I think yours will be hot pink," Ric said.

"Hey, I look good in hot pink, don't I, Gab?"

It was Jerome's turn now. Emm was on duty to hand out the dark energy swords, so she handed him a sword with outstretched arms and open palms. He grabbed it and pointed it toward the ground before ejecting the dark energy and revealing the symbol of who he was.

"Yellow," Emm said.

"I also look good in yellow."

Now it was Ric's turn. He was about to meet a future version of himself that could only speak in a language of colors. Emm lifted a dark energy sword in the air for him to take.

"What did you feel like when you received your dark energy sword?" Ric asked.

She relaxed her arms. "I didn't think much of it, honestly. I grew up around them."

She extended the sword to him again. "I'm nervous," Ric said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Her arms relaxed again, and she sighed at her second failed handoff. "Deep down, you already know who you are, Ric. You just have to face it."

She extended the sword to him again. "I think you will be pleasantly surprised."

He took the sword from her hands. The hilt felt cool, and it was much lighter than he expected. His stomach felt the way it did when he first met Emm. Until then, his future was black like space, but now there was one light for him to see. Like a star in the sky, he could look upon it and understand more about where he came from and who he would become. He pointed the sword toward the ground and revealed its gray color.

"My identity is gray," Ric said. "Gray isn't so bad. It's is the color of...stone."

"Gray is worse than you think," Emm said softly. Her eyebrows curled to her nose with a look of concern. "Gray means that your future is unknown."

"What?"

"It's worse than that." She bit her lip. "Until the universe knows who you are, the sword will be as useful as a stick. It will show a gray light, but it won't pierce through anything."

"How long...? When will it change color?"

"I'm sorry, Ric. This is very rare. You just have to wait."

He was upset. If the future did not know who he was, then he did not even know himself. Nobody knew him. He was a walking lie, and his identity was as mysterious as dark energy itself. He could not believe it.

He took his sword and ran to the closest tree. He swung at it with full force, but the sword bounced off the tree. The harsh vibration hurt his hands. He swung at the tree again, but still the tree did not break, and his hands hurt even more. He swung high, and a heavy fruit hit his head.

"Ouch!" he grumbled loudly.

He pulled his arm back for an angrier swing, but before he chipped away more atoms from the tree, another trainee picked up the large fruit that hit his head. With no effort, the trainee cut the fruit in half with her dark energy sword. Even the large, hard pit in the middle was seamlessly sliced in half. His sword was truly useless, as useless as his new self-perception.

Jerome wrapped his arm around Ric's shoulders. "Let's go, brother."

They walked by the crowd of people whose eyes made every attempt not to stare. He felt their contempt, or maybe it was just the universe's spite. Either way, he felt lost.

Chapter 14

Later that day, Ric stood in front of Jerome with a training sword in hand and with a suit of armor that covered vulnerable areas. They had just acquired the equipment from the corner of the arena.

It was a large space, all business and no pleasure. The floors and the lower parts of the walls were covered with padding. The eggshell blue was a nice accent on the upper walls, but it still was not sufficiently comforting. It was the only room with a cube shape that he saw since his departure from Earth, and he did not like it. It needed a touch of the golden ratio to make it more welcoming, but perhaps that was the point. They were not there for pleasure. They were there to prepare for war.

Ric tapped his training sword once against his chest armor, and both his sword and his armor lit up with a bright purple color.

"If I hit you in the head, at least we know a good doctor," Jerome said. Their heads, unlike the rest of their bodies, were totally unprotected. The sword was rounded so it could not puncture him, but it was heavy enough that any blow to the head would be painful.

Emm stood at the front of the room, and the hundreds of people in pairs awaited her go ahead to begin the starter techniques. She wore dark exercise clothes without armor, while the other coaches under her command put on white suits with armor of varying colors.

Earlier in the day, the coaches presented footage of proper fighting technique and effective tactics. During his presentation, Marz positioned Emm as the most mastered sword fighter in the galaxy. She neither confirmed nor denied verbally, but she demonstrated techniques all the way from basic defense to brutal offensive combinations. She was incredible.

The final pair of people were in position, so Emm instructed them to practice the basic defense techniques. It was mostly about using proper footwork and the correct grip for different angles. Emm told them to strike gently, but Jerome had a special idea of what gentle meant.

Ric held his training sword firmly as he tried to meet Jerome's swings with equal aggression. He blocked left, right, up, and down. Against the jab directed toward his chest, he countered by smacking Jerome's sword to the side, and then by swiping at Jerome's stomach. The strike was too aggressive, and it managed to hit between the armor.

Jerome bent over in pain.

"Sorry," Ric said.

Jerome wheezed a laugh with what air his lungs could afford. "Still trying to impress your girlfriend?"

Ric scanned the room. None of the coaches were looking. He swept Jerome's legs, knocking him to the ground.

Jerome grimaced in pain, but it was all for show. For anyone else, it would have been unwanted violence, but for Jerome, hitting him like that was a sign of brotherly love.

As soon as Ric let his guard down, Jerome swept his legs and knocked him to the ground as well. It hurt more than he thought it would. His calf stung from the impact of the sword, and the padding on the floor was less than comfortable. He laughed with Jerome, but they caught a scour from one of the coaches, so they returned to practice.

Ric took the offensive this time. The training sword was heavy, so transitioning from one attacking position to the other required a good deal of strength. He swung in each position with the same aggression that Jerome had. He did not know how to wield a sword with a soft touch anymore.

"You are so much more confident ever since you got punched in the face," Jerome said. "You're better for it."

"I only swing hard because you do." He swung downward at Jerome's legs, which Jerome blocked easily.

"No, I mean you are more confident in general. You're different, in a good way. You have a hop in your step."

"You make me sound like a bunny."

"I'm serious, man. How is it going with Emm, anyway?"

"I think we should talk about something else, maybe about you and Gabby."

"So, it's not going that well?"

Ric realized that he would be updating Jerome about his love life until marriage, maybe even longer. He paused too long, and Jerome read into it.

"Oh, so it's going really well, then? Okay, that's my bro."

"I'll just let you think whatever you want to think."

Ric defended the attacking sequence again. His arms were exhausted from swinging the sword. Even a short stack of paper would have seemed heavy. His pulse was high, and sweat like salt water trickled down his face and onto his lips.

Jerome hit Ric's sword, ejecting it into the air where gravity brought it to the ground.

"Stop bending your wrists, and keep your power centered with your legs," Jerome instructed.

"And stop swinging your sword like you're trying to kill the air," Marz joined in. "You have a lot of wasted motion. Jerome, would you say Ric needs a little more practice?"

"I think we all do."

"Well, you wouldn't mind if I step in for you, would you?"

Jerome stepped aside.

"Show me your attacking sequence," Marz said.

Chapter 15

Ric swung his sword, and Marz blocked each one with relative ease. Ric's arms were jelly while Marz's were fresh from watching everyone else swing their heavy swords.

"That was weak, Stage 3. Let me show you how it's done."

Ric rested his sword on the ground to relax his arms. He needed a long break and some water. The last thing he needed was to fight the one soul that was bent on hurting him, although part of him wanted to stay for the slim chance that he actually landed a hit on Marz.

He picked up his sword as Marz approached. He blocked only one swing before he absorbed a relentless hit to the arm, precisely where the armor was weak. His arm was already weak, and now it felt dead. He could almost feel the blood pooling inside. Marz could have easily held back some of the power, but he did not because this fight was personal.

"Let's go, brother. You got this," Jerome said. "Just be quicker."

"Are you afraid, Stage 3? Pick up your sword."

After a few moments, his arm was not numb anymore, but it was still tired from the heavy sword. He bent down next to his sword. He was light headed and hungry. Gravity pulled him down and he wanted to submit himself entirely to it. The padding on the ground was not as comfortable as a pillow, but it was suitable for his needs.

"I'm getting impatient, Stage 3."

Ric used his leg strength to pick himself up. His armor was colorless because Marz's sword touched his suit. He tapped his sword on his suit, and the armor lit up in purple again.

Marz charged again like a wild dog bent on ravaging its prey. Ric blocked the first strike, but again Marz hit the same arm in the same spot on the second swing.

The pain was unreal. He lost some of his visual focus as his brain shifted priority from his visual cortex to send warnings of pain. It felt like a heavy log crashed directly into his bone. He yelled at his pain because it seemed like the only thing he could do. Some of the people heard his yell and looked his way. Now he had a small audience.

"Keep your balance on the balls of your feet. Watch your footwork," Jerome said.

Ric was used to Jerome being a support system. While the pro-tips were helpful, Ric was already motivated enough. If he landed even one hit on Marz, then it would all be worth it.

"I'm ready," Ric said as he picked up his sword.

"How could you be ready for anything? Your dark energy sword is gray. You're not even ready to be alive."

"Yet I'm here. Just fight me."

Marz charged. Ric blocked the first strike. He shifted his weight with his leg strength quickly enough to block the second strike. He moved his sword up in anticipation of a downward strike, but Marz took advantage of his vulnerable position and punched him in the kidney. The hit dropped him to the ground.

"Come on! That was a cheap shot," Jerome yelled.

The number of onlookers increased twofold. If they wanted entertainment, then he was theirs. Jerome pressed his fist gently against Ric's chest. "Are you okay?"

He was still collecting himself. The pain was mostly gone, but he still had to get over the surprise of it. He took Jerome's offered hand to get up and to try out his breathing in a standing position.

Marz looked at him and must have concluded that his condition was too withered to continue. Marz tossed his sword on the mat and turned away.

"Again," Ric said.

Marz stopped walking, but only for a moment. He did not take anything seriously if it came from Ric's mouth.

"Again!" Ric demanded, louder this time so that the whole room could hear. Almost everyone looked his direction, including Emm. Marz had no choice.

"You sure about this?" Jerome asked.

"I'm fine."

Jerome looked at him like he was crazy, but it was not madness that drove him forward to yet another round, nor was it the chance opportunity of winning anymore.

Jerome was right. Ric was a better person ever since Emm punched him in the face. Each blow, although painful, was a reminder that he was embracing every aspect of life. Every violent contact brought him closer to his parents and the rest of his ancestors. Violence was the most mundane of actions, but it made him feel the opposite of mundane.

"Come on," Ric said.

Marz reluctantly approached again, delivering uncharacteristically weak attacks. He seemed to question his resolve amid the large crowd of judging eyes.

"What are you doing, Marz? Take him out," another coach yelled.

That was all the encouragement Marz needed. His eyes were vestibules of hate as he refocused on winning.

Ric needed to take the offensive if he was to gain any advantage, so he swung in every direction, but each swing was blocked easily. His arm strength was diminishing, and the rest of his body screamed for a break and some water. He channeled all his remaining strength in one last swing to the ribs.

Marz struggled to resist it with equal force, but he still managed to keep his balance, and to counterattack by pushing his sword against Ric's nose.

Ric's head knocked back, and tears welled in his eyes as a natural reaction to his face getting smashed in.

That one really hurt.

Marz tossed his sword on the ground. This time, Jerome insisted that Ric stay down from the fight.

Blood from Ric's nose dripped through his fingers. It must have been entertaining to watch. He was the man with the gray sword and the red nose. He was the one who they could talk about at lunch with all their friends.

Chapter 16

Emm transitioned the people to their next activity, the tournament. There were teams of four grouped by the color of their armor. Three on each team were trainees while the fourth was a coach.

"When fighting, you will gain invaluable experience. When observing, you will learn from the best."

Ric could hear Emm talking through the walls of the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror with a tissue up his nostril and his fingers clenched on the bridge of his nose. He was thirsty, but he needed to stop the bleeding before bending down for a drink.

Some cold mucus collected in the back of his throat. He spat it out and watched the red and yellow goop slither down the sink drain.

When he had grabbed his dark energy sword for the first time, he felt like he did not belong in the universe. He was a misfit among strong men and women. They had toned muscles and confident steps. Ric had his smarts and his piano. Maybe Paradise made a mistake in recruiting him, or maybe they knew he was inferior and accidentally scooped him up as a byproduct.

"Take a fresh one," Jerome said while extending another tissue.

"No, thanks. He patted the still white parts of the tissue at the remaining blood in his nose. A faint orange color returned at the tip of it. "I think it's done bleeding."

Jerome threw the other tissue away. "Let's go."

They walked back into the large training room. Most people were in their groups of four already. There were so many people and so many shades of purple. It was difficult to spot the other pair, but Jerome finally found them.

One person on the team caught Ric's eye. Her hair was red like a sunset. Her eyes were light brown, and her skin was pale like moonlight.

"I think we are your long-lost accomplices in crime," Jerome said.

Kara scanned Ric with her eyes. She stood a couple inches shorter than him. Her hair was wavy and reached slightly beyond her shoulders. Sun drops sprinkled her nose and cheeks.

"You were the one who got his face knocked in by that trainer," Kara said.

"That's me."

"I just wanted to hit that guy in the face myself. What a jerk. We all felt for you."

"Hitting him is harder than it looks. It takes some luck."

"We don't need luck. We're humans. We can do anything. Right, Mong?"

"No," Mong said.

Mong was the fourth member of the team. He was there to be a coach, but his mannerisms were uninspiring. He moved his disinterested eyes in Kara's direction long enough to convey his feelings and reaffirm intimidation. He was a head taller than any person in the room, and his arms were contenders with Jerome's.

"You guys really should have come sooner." Kara said it to both Ric and Jerome, but her eyes said something more when she looked at Ric. When she smiled, his heart beat quickened, and his visual focus was blurred. She made him feel like he was the only man in the room.

"Let's just go to our mat. I want to see a fight before our round," Jerome said.

Jerome escaped the conversation first, and Mong stomped behind him like the giant he was. Kara placed her hand on Ric's lower back as they followed.

"Mong is a real dream come true," she said.

"Part of me wishes it was a dream. I'd wake up at home and give my nephew some breakfast. We would keep it simple with some toast and peanut butter, maybe with a side of fruit. I'd make sure Tyson and I ate before my brother came over and ate the fridge."

"Where is home for you?"

"Beautiful Seattle."

"I've been there once on a tour of the Northwest. What did you do there...you know, before all this?"

"I never did anything with my life. Mostly sat around and picked grass."

Kara was mildly amused.

"No, I delivered food to the community. I rode my bike around the city and mostly handed food to people with disabilities. On my free time, I either studied books or played piano."

"How about Jerome?"

"My brother delivered food with me. He has a family, so he spent a lot of his free time with them."

"You don't have a family?"

"I meant that he has a wife and a son, and another on the way. But...no not really. My brother is all I got."

Ric sat against the wall next to Jerome. "How do the teams look?"

"Easy enough," Jerome said.

They looked easy enough to Jerome, but Ric was intimidated. The white team in front of them was talented enough with Marz, but the other three made the team look unbeatable. Each of them were built like warriors. The red team looked challenging, but they wore fear on their faces. They, like Ric, were spoiled by peace. They did not welcome violence as a friend. Violence was a ghost only told in stories about previous generations.

"Fighters ready?" Emm yelled from across the room. "Set!"

The white team sunk their heels into the mat, preparing for a slaughter.

"Fight!"

The red team fought as if to defend their dignity, but it was not enough to overwhelm Marz and the others. One by one, the red LED lights shut off as the suits were contacted by white swords. Within only seconds, all four of the white team were in the game and only the coach on the red team remained.

Ric would have given up if he were in that coach's position, but she had a spark in her eye that said, "Come and get me."

The three people on the white team chased her toward the corner of the square. When they were almost within reach, they pulled their swords back for a strike, but she ducked in time to dodge the onslaught and sweep their legs.

Suddenly, there was just her and a calm Marz who did not look surprised that she outsmarted three people, because, to him, people were nothing.

They ran toward each other and clashed their swords in a frenzy of combinations. They applied advanced techniques, but mostly they just fought by instinct. Marz lost his balance for a moment, and it seemed that the red team would pull off the upset, but Marz collected himself in time to counter with an unexpected swing to the chest.

Marz won. Again.

"I just want that smug smile off his face," Ric said through his teeth.

"Let's win until we fight the white team, and then let's show him what people can really do," Kara said.

Ric stepped into the square. He felt naked with all the eyes in the room watching. They were all sizing him up against his opponent. He felt like every part of him was being evaluated. Where he stood and how he let his arms rest to his side were all called into question. None of it felt natural.

When he had fought Emm in the cage, it was better because he was in the presence of good company. Now, his opponents were less than enchanting, wearing emerald green armor and violent intentions on their faces. The woman standing in front of him adorned tattoos on her arms and neck. None of the green team paralleled in stature to Jerome and Mong, but their confidence was unsettling.

"Fighters ready? Set. Fight!"

Ric plunged forward like an American Revolution soldier fixed on spearing the enemy with a bayonet. The only barrier between him and his opponent was his own training sword and the air between them. The tattoo woman met Ric on his half of the square, where she attempted a strike toward his head. The force behind her swing was weak compared to Jerome's, but she swung rapidly.

Swing after swing, it became difficult to manage the variety. She plunged her whole body weight toward Ric, attempting a jab at his chest. He swatted the jab away, opening up her center. He seized the opportunity and swung toward her belly, but she fell to the ground and landed a hit on his leg. His sword turned dark along with the rest of his armor.

She surveyed the rest of the mat to find her next victim. All three pairs were still fighting, but it quickly turned into a two-on-four matchup when Kara fell.

Jerome realized the urgency of his situation. He delivered a powerful strike, forcing his opponent's sword to fly over to another team's square.

Mong was occupied by the coach of the green team in the corner while the other two remaining members of the green team headed his direction. Mong's face shifted from boredom to focus. For once, he was engaged with the level of challenge presented to him.

Jerome rushed toward Mong's corner to alleviate the challenge, but it proved unnecessary. Mong swung his sword like Babe Ruth landing a home run. In one fell swoop, all the green armor turned dark, and the people and the coach in them rolled in pain with hands covering their bruises.

After more rounds of fighting, Ric gained more confidence. His technique centered around his calm approach. In the chaos of violent swings, patience was his best weapon. He learned how to create offensive opportunities and when to maintain defense.

Then there were twelve. Ric's team as well as the white and orange team made it to the first round of individual matchups.

Ric paced on his mat, waiting for an opponent in orange or white to step in front of him. The crowd stood in a circle around the six squares centered in the room. Hundreds of eyes watched him. He felt more confident given his latest successes, but part of him wondered if he could win any of the one-on-one fights. Mong and Jerome did most of the damage in the team fights.

Ric hopped up and down, first just with his heels lifting off the ground. Then he let his toes join in the recurrent defiance of gravity. He remembered how it felt to watch Emm hop up and down in the cage. She had so much energy and so little fear. Or maybe she was scared and, like him, she learned how to fake the absence of fear.

Finally, an opponent in orange stepped in front of him.

Emm stood among the crowd of trainees and coaches across from Ric. A wave of energy ran through his gut when he saw her. She was extra motivation for winning, but his smile turned to concern when Marz pushed the opponent in orange to the side, taking his place. It would be the umpteenth duel of him and Marz. He thought of all the times he lost to Marz as the pain in his nose resurfaced.

"Show him what people can do," Kara reminded him. She was in an adjacent square, ready to face off with her opponent in white.

She was right. People were amazing. For whatever reason, fate chose him to prove the worth of his ancestors to the incessant skeptic in front of him.

"Fighters ready? Go!"

Ric raced forward, taking the offensive this time, but every swing was blocked easily. He wanted to end the fight with a win, and he lost patience. As soon as the slightest opportunity presented itself, he plunged his body and sword forward with a jab toward the chest.

Marz blocked and swung his sword toward Ric's head. He ducked just in time and backpedaled away from Marz.

"Do you know why I'm going to beat you?" Ric asked.

Marz laughed. "Entertain me."

"Because people always win. That's what we do."

Ric settled his mind and focused on the lessons he learned in previous fights. It was time to be patient, to wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

He stood his ground, only backing up a step or two to block the most powerful strikes. After a couple flurries of attacks, Marz stepped back with a look of surprise. Ric's armor was still as colorful as ever.

Marz got angry and commenced another offensive. After only a couple strikes, Ric got positional advantage and delivered a blow to Marz's nose. Marz fell on the ground with his hand cupped over his nose and a face reddened with humility.

Ric was deeply satisfied. He proved to a doubter what history had proven ever since Earth conceived people. It was better to be an ally rather than a foe to the people of Earth.

Marz was not done yet though. He gathered himself for another attack, this time with heightened vigor in every swing.

Ric defended well enough, but he was forced backward until his heels were inches away from the perimeter of the square. Marz pushed him into the crowd, and an annoyed crowd member violently shoved him back into the square.

Jerome saw what happened and walked over to the person in the crowd who pushed Ric. The guy from the crowd met him halfway, and Jerome punched the lights out of him.

Mass brawling ensued.

Members of each team were protecting their own, throwing others onto the mat. Emm tried to peel one of them off a dog pile only to take an elbow to the jaw. She grabbed him again, threw him on the ground and pulled out her dark energy sword.

The crowd stopped fighting. Emm loomed over the man who was visibly scared for his life. The dark energy sword was real, not like the training swords. Its color was gold, and it made an intense sound like a thousand quiet cellos.

Emm had their attention. "Are we not here for peace? What good is peace in the galaxy if we have civil wars at home? The enemy we prepare for is brutal and dark. Your hate for each other will get you killed in battle, because if you don't fight for each other, then you fight for nothing."

Emm scanned the room and saw that everyone was tame enough. If they could not respect each other, they at least respected Emm and the prospect of death.

Chapter 17

Ric's nose throbbed as he sat in the next training room. It hurt worse now that he had a chance to sit down and let his adrenaline subside. The training room had rowed seating. Each seat was like a captain's chair in a plane. There were buttons, switches, and steering controls.

Marz and a female instructor stood at the front. She had gray hair and wrinkles, but nothing else about her was old.

Marz tapped his finger on his khakis as he waited for the rest of the trainees to find a seat.

"Thanks for punching that guy for me," Ric said to Jerome.

"He had it coming. Jerks like that shouldn't even be here. Of all the people they could have picked."

"I guess Paradise isn't perfect after all."

"It's definitely not perfect. I pictured Paradise as a place where I was always full, and now here I am with my stomach growling."

On cue, Jerome's stomach growled like an alien bear.

"Lunch isn't for another full hour. I bet they will serve steamed vegetables with heavenly curry."

"You know I get hungrier when you talk about food."

"Or maybe they will have stew with bread fried in balsamic vinegar, and some green beans."

Jerome's stomach complained at the prodding. It sounded like a void of nothingness trying to consume more nothingness.

"When I get some food, me and my happy stomach are going to kill you. Isn't that right, stomach?" It growled one more time. "It says 'yes, I will join you in killing Ric.'"

The lady instructor walked to the podium to begin class. Her entire outfit looked like she was ready for war at a moment's notice. She sported lightweight boots, camouflage pants and a jacket complete with a black sash.

"Good day, Earth trainees. During this session, you will perform flight simulations. You will learn the basics of flying in space from me, and Marz will teach you how to use the weapons built into the spaceships. Then, you will go through a series of simulations. Whenever you pass all simulations, you will be permitted to fly a real spaceship. Nobody has ever passed all simulations on the first day, but I am feeling some real potential from this group."

Marz smirked.

"Flying is very simple. You have the steering wheel and the throttle. Use the throttle to—"

Jerome leaned toward Ric and talked softly. "Do you remember when we were young, like really young when Mom and Dad were still there, and they took us to that big mall in Minnesota?"

Ric nodded.

"We went into this toy store. Mom and Dad told us not to play with the swords, but we did anyway. You were a klutz and knocked down that model airplane."

"No, you knocked it down."

"No, it was definitely...well anyway. You knocked it down and then we went over to the racecar aisle. You wanted to open every single box to see what the car looked like. Every time Dad turned around, you opened another box. You just couldn't resist, so Dad took us out of the store."

"You were making a mess too."

"Yeah, but you felt the most guilty. Do you know how I know that? You were crying...tears and more tears. Just to get you to shut up, they took us to the candy store. I remember how relieved everyone was when you finally stopped crying. Dude, it was bad."

Jerome laughed. He could hardly suppress a smile while he told the story.

"But you went crazy over that candy. There were so many options. Gummy bears, jelly beans. Mom told you that you could choose only one. So, you looked and looked. You eyed every single candy in that room at least twice. Then it came down to two options. Either the root beer jelly beans or the popcorn jelly beans. I got so bored watching you watch those jelly beans. It's like you analyzed everything. To this day, I still don't know how a human being can spend so much time contemplating which jelly bean to eat."

Jerome rubbed behind his ear. He only did that when he had something important to say. "It must have been five minutes of deciding what jelly bean you wanted. Do you remember what you chose?"

Ric moved his head side to side.

"You chose neither. Both options were so appealing to you that you opted out of making a decision altogether."

Ric looked at Jerome like the story had more to it, but Jerome stopped talking. The instructor was the only one in the room talking, and she seemed to grab Jerome's attention.

"As you can see, our design team made the controls as simple to navigate as possible. Remember—"

Ric could not help but wonder why Jerome brought up that story. It seemed too random. "So, what?" he asked.

"Ric, pick one."

"Pick one what?"

Jerome sighed. "Emm. Kara. I noticed how you and Kara looked at each other. Pick one. You can't have both, but dude, please pick one of them. Don't think for one second that one of them will just fall in your lap. At some point, you need to make a choice."

"I only have feelings for Emm."

"Well, then your choice will be easy."

The class applauded the lady instructor off the stage, and Marz took her place.

"I am here to teach you how to use a spaceship as a weapon." Marz addressed the class. "The button on the right of your steering wheel fires the right turret of your ship, and similar for the left button."

Ric reached out to touch his simulation wheel and found the buttons tucked behind either side of it.

"The left switches and handle are used for locking the turrets on an enemy ship or an otherwise dangerous object such as an asteroid. The big red button on the right is for ejecting yourself from the ship. Your ability to eject is automatically disabled when the ship detects that ejecting you will kill you. It won't eject you when you are in space, for instance. The yellow button on the right enables the ship's dark energy shield. The shield can break if it takes enough hits, and, when enabled, your ship cannot shoot. Questions?"

Marz scanned the room for half a second. "Okay then. Let's begin simulations. We'll start with level one. There is an enemy ship in front of you."

A three-dimensional virtual world was cast around Ric. There was a box that indicated where the ship's turrets were aimed. A hologram of an enemy ship was in the line of fire.

"Fire at and destroy the enemy ship. If you hold down the trigger, the dark energy beams fire rapidly. This is recommended since there is no limit to the beams you fire, but you can tap the trigger to fire individual shots if you need."

Ric shot down his enemy ship easily enough. Everyone else passed the simulation as well.

"There are nine more simulations. Whenever you fail, you may get lunch, and you will return to that simulation next time."

Jerome quickly failed his next simulation on purpose. "I'm too hungry for this right now."

Ric was left to fend for himself. The second simulation was slightly more challenging. There was a timer of 15 seconds. The enemy ship was moving around, which required him to adjust the trajectory of the turrets. Each successive simulation was more challenging than the last. By the time he reached level seven, the room was completely quiet except for when he shot at virtual spaceships. He reasoned that he was the only one left in the room other than maybe the instructors. He could not know for sure though since he was immersed in simulated space.

The next level required him to pursue two enemy ships. One enemy ship fell back to chase him, so he turned on his dark energy shield and hit the brakes to allow the exposed enemy ship to nosedive into the shield, leaving him with only one ship to destroy as in the second simulation. He proceeded to level eight, then nine, and then the screen to enter the final level ten.

He wondered how many before him were able to make it to level ten on the first try and what challenges it presented that caused a 100 percent failure rate. As soon as he entered, the simulation took him to a frightening place in space. In front of him, there was a whirling yellow gas cloud with pure black spinning quickly in the cloud's center. He could feel his ship starting to lose control as he got closer to the spinning blackness. Its gravity was strong. It looked like a spinning black hole, but it was not exactly that.

A non-player character populated the screen. "The way to win a war is to survive longer than the enemy. Therefore, your objective upon entering the wormhole is to survive for five minutes. Good luck."

As if he had a choice, he plunged into the spinning blackness and was instantly transported to an entirely different region of space where thousands of ships were under attack, including his own. He dodged dark energy beams and stray debris until he finally had a chance to assess his options for staying alive. Danger was present in every direction. A giant enemy ship occupied his left side while asteroid fields and some enemy ships occupied everywhere else. He flew in the direction of the massive enemy ship that had its dark energy shield enabled. He wasted a solid minute just flying around the ship without getting fired at, but the easiness was only temporary. The dark energy shield disabled, and from the large ship came an overwhelming herd of enemy ships. Ric shot at a few of them, but that only drew attention. There were too many to shake on his own.

In a desperate attempt to summon help from ally ships, he flew into the main danger where the thousands of ships fired at each other. His allies were unwilling to help him, but he was able to dive under a rain of random dark energy beams that eliminated the pursuing enemy ships for him.

There was only a minute left. His dark energy shield was badly depleted, so he took his chances in one of the asteroid fields. The asteroids were much bigger and faster than they looked from afar. Contact with any of them would destroy his ship.

He dodged some close calls, maneuvering in every direction. There were only ten seconds left. He found his way into a sparse area of the asteroid field, away from most of the danger.

There were only five seconds left.

On his radar, there was a fast approaching object. He rotated his spaceship in the object's direction only to find a large asteroid blazing toward him at top speed. There was no time to dodge it, so he pulled the triggers on his wheel and fired at the incoming death rock. The asteroid exploded, but it was so close already that some of the debris hit his spaceship as time expired.

The virtual world closed, and Ric was once again immersed in reality. Everyone except the instructors were gone. The lady instructor was giddy with smiles. Marz stared at his feet in disappointment. Ric passed.

Chapter 18

Ric was already late for the next training session, but his stomach was starting to sound like Jerome's. He ran outside into the heavenly outdoor warmth, over to the trees to pick some fruit. The appearanges were the lowest hanging fruit, but he chose to climb some other trees to discover new fruit. There was a large variety. Some were purple, some green. Some were round and others sharp.

There was a food hanging in the shape of a rectangular box that dripped honey. He grabbed it and bit into its outer crust, sinking his teeth into the gooey honey center. He also grabbed a small, purple fruit. He popped it into his mouth, and its juice exploded between his teeth.

When he was full, he stashed a few more purple fruits into his pocket and found his way to the next training room where he would take a math and science exam. Exceptional students would be offered the chance to avoid the battlefield entirely and make use of their smarts behind the scenes. Ric sat in the only vacant seat, which was in the front row by the window.

Jerome waved to him from the back of the room. He looked happier now that he had a chance to eat.

The instructor was thinner than the rest of the trainers, probably from dedicating her time to mental workouts rather than physical ones. Her smile was apparently permanent as all her teeth were constantly on display. Ric massaged his jaw just thinking about how sore his mouth would be if he smiled that much. She walked over to Ric and ruffled through the exams to pass them out to his column of seats.

He reached out to grab the stack of exams, but she pulled it back. She spoke with a slow, monotone voice, which eerily contrasted with her smiling facial expression. "Class, Ric is late."

She stared at the back wall as if there was something interesting there. Ric and a few others looked over their shoulders. He thought there would be an insect or something, but there was nothing except silence in the room. Her entire body was motionless including her wide open, smiling mouth. She broke out of her trance and nearly handed Ric the stack of exams, but once again she had something to say. The class sighed.

"Also, he is the first ever in history to pass all the flying simulations on the first attempt."

The room was silent for a moment except for the sound of the instructor breathing through her mouth. Ric almost grabbed the stack of exams again, but this time Jerome spoiled the progress. Jerome jumped from his seat and ran all the way to the front of the class.

"Stage 3!" he shouted. He lifted Ric up from his seat and into the air.

"Stage 3! Stage 3! Stage 3!" The rest of the class followed suit.

The trainer looked like she would blow an artery with all the classroom disorder. Her face was reddened with stress, but her smile persisted. Jerome spun him around with his fist in the air.

It felt like Earth's moment. In a galaxy with 400 billion stars, Earth was a pale, blue dot that hosted a life worth being. They were the stage 3 intelligence bent on achieving stage 5 feats.

Ric sat down in his seat, smiling brighter than the instructor. The guy behind Ric patted him on the shoulder.

"Keep it up, Stage 3. Show 'em who's boss."

The instructor finally passed out the exams. Her artery was still threatening to burst, but less so now that order was restored.

The exam content ranged from basic algebra to advanced calculus, and from basic climate science to astrophysics. Ric skimmed the fifteen pages that would occupy his next two hours. Jerome did not stand a chance at answering most of the questions, and neither did anyone else. Most of them would get about 25 percent of the questions correct. Ric read through each of the problems in detail. He could have gotten at least 80 percent of the questions correct. He had never studied some of the rocket science before, and some of it required knowledge of dark energy for which he knew nothing about.

Other people bounced pencils off their foreheads. One guy did not even look at the exam. He just held his hands over his face.

If Ric passed the exam with a relatively high score, then he would have to be away from Jerome on the battlefield. If he scored too badly, then it would be obvious that he threw the exam. He jotted down correct answers with half-justified solutions for the easier questions, and he squiggled some random numbers for the harder questions. He estimated that he would get a 30 percent score.

People handed in their solutions long before the maximum limit of two hours expired. Their eyes were glazed with boredom. Jerome was still trying to figure out some of the problems. He was not the smartest guy in the room, but he was persistent.

Ric looked at one of the problems, pretending to ponder its solution even though he already squiggled in some random numbers. He thought about his conversation with Jerome earlier. Before then, he did not even realize that Kara was an option for his affection, but it was true. She was attractive and seemed genuinely interested in him.

It seemed that learning more about her was the only sensible choice, but it was not the only choice he had to make.

If he was going to end up with either Emm or Kara, he would have to choose one. It was an impossible decision now because he did not know enough about either of them, but eventually the time would come when his resolve had to be final.

Chapter 19

Shooting was the last training session of the day. Ric already passed his basic competency in the other core areas of dark energy swords and space flight. If he passed the basic competency for shooting, then he would be certified for war and could focus on mastering technique.

Paradise was raining. It still felt warm out. Even the raindrops felt warm to the skin. Everything smelled fresh, like he stepped into Paradise for the very first time again. It was a light sprinkle before it slowly developed into monsoon rain. It did not remind him of home at all. Seattle rain was cold, and it rained heavily in Seattle, but not as heavily.

In front of him was a hay bale with two guns resting on top of it. The dark energy gun was built to fire dark energy beams like the spaceships. The nitro gun was built to freeze enemies on contact. In front of Ric were targets in the shape of monsters. Each one was 25 yards farther out than the next. When a dark energy beam made contact with the shield around the target, the shield would turn green. After hitting three consecutive targets, a new target would appear in a random location and the goal was to freeze it with the nitro gun. Finally, they would have to hit the moving target with the dark energy gun.

Marz finished giving instructions from behind all the trainees, and Ric watched the others pick up guns and miss their targets spectacularly. Only a few people actually hit the targets, but that was expected since guns were outlawed on Earth during Phase 8. For most of them, it was the first time they fired a lethal weapon.

As they fired shots, sounds of small explosions ripped through the wet air. Orange and blue shots lit up the mild fog like lightning.

Jerome's clothes were a small ocean, unable to get any wetter. He stepped up to his hay bales, and he took a long look at his guns. He and Ric were the only trainees that had not fired any shots yet.

"We can do this, Ric."

Ric was not sure if he could though. The sight of guns triggered an unbearable memory that he could not shake.

Jerome picked up his dark energy gun and fired at the targets, but Ric could not do the same.

He was overcome by debilitating anxiety. His chest pounded. He reached for his necklace, and he pulled it from under his shirt. Its gold cross dripped rain from its arms and its leg. He touched it to his lips and closed his eyes in remembrance.

He walked away from the gun range.

"If you walk away, you'll get a zero," Marz shouted through the rain and explosions.

Ric kept walking, quickening his pace as Jerome tried to stop him.

"Come back, Ric. You can do this."

The memories of guns and his childhood were too violent. He tried to suppress them, but every attempt was futile. His emotions were clouded like the sky. His insides flooded with grief.

Running away from the guns felt like the only way to escape the pain. His fast walk turned into a jog, and his jog to a sprint. Jerome chased him through the trees and over the hills until he finally caught him and pushed him into the mud.

"Get up," Jerome said as he stretched out his hand.

Ric could not get up. Somehow it felt like self-betrayal to stand in confidence while his soul was grieving in the ground. He was forced onto his feet anyway, and he was pulled into the embrace of his brother.

When he finished adding wetness to the ground with his tears, he was escorted inside where there was a small fire and blankets to keep warm. He held the cross of his necklace between his lips for comfort as he sat on the ground next to a fire.

"I miss her," Ric said.

"I miss Maggs too," Jerome said.

"I remember when Mom gave her this necklace, right before she left for war for the last time. I wanted to be so strong for Mom. I stood as tall as I could when she knelt down and looked me in the eyes. She said, 'Peace is strong, so you must be strong.' That's what she told me. Then she walked two steps over to Maggie and looked her right in the eye. She told her—"

Jerome finished Ric's sentence, "You will be the woman of the house. This necklace is a symbol of love and grace. Love your brothers."

Ric stared into the fire, but it looked like a red-orange blur as tears welled in his eyes. "Then she took two steps over to you and told you to take care of us, and that's what you did. You took care of me when we were kids, and now you take care of Gabby and Tyson. You're a good person, way better than me."

"Shut up."

"No, listen. You actually care for other people. You have ambitions, goals. Me, I just go for the ride. I can't even pick what jelly bean I want."

Jerome laughed and picked at the dirt on his shoelaces. "I'm not better than you. I was just older than you. It was my job to take care of you when Maggie died."

Ric daydreamed of when Maggie made both him and Jerome play house with her. She always wanted them to play with dolls, and most of the time she got her way.

The heart-warming memories were soon replaced by emotionally terrorizing memories of his grandfather and the hunting accident.

"How could you pick up that gun?" Ric said.

"Excuse me?"

"Never mind."

"Hey, I hurt for her just as badly as you, brother. I love her deeply. Just because I grieve differently than you, doesn't mean I loved her less."

They both let the words travel further into the past. Ric felt badly for accusing Jerome of bearing inferior love, but it felt even worse creating separation between him and his brother. They always stuck close to each other through the hardest times. It felt wrong to berate him after everything.

"I still hurt," Jerome continued. "But a long time ago, I told myself that the past can't determine my future. I have to determine my future. If I let her death or guns control me, then I wouldn't have the capacity to be there for Gabby and Tyson."

Ric poked at the carpet under him. It had white edges and swirls of red over a beige background. He felt his brother looking at him. It felt like his mother's hypnosis stare, beckoning attention as if nothing else existed.

"Ric, you get to grieve how you grieve. I can't tell you otherwise. But at some point, in your own way, you have to tell death to take a seat and make way for you to function in life, even if it means shooting guns." Jerome got up and threw his blanket over the top of the chair behind him. "She would want you to be happy, so just focus on doing that for now."

Jerome squeezed Ric's shoulder and then walked away to spend the rest of his night with his wife and son.

Ric lied on the carpet with his nose pressed against one of the red swirls. For once in his life, he stopped analyzing everything, and he let his mind relax. He was in a public place, but he did not care. He submitted to primitive instinct and let Paradise swirl him into deep sleep.

Chapter 20

Seven days passed in Paradise. Ric spent them learning advanced techniques with dark energy swords, and he got even more practice with flying spaceships. The leadership pressured him to retake his math and science exam, but he refused in favor of preparing for the battlefield. He had not spent another second on the gun range ever since it triggered his tragic memories, but that had to change. The leadership wanted him certified that day or returned home the next day because of Emm's Vice President induction.

She was implicitly nominated long before then, and her election that night would make it official.

Ric poked at his honey cream. It was a cream cheese mousse with chunks of baklava, one of the many desserts at Paradise's finest dessert bar. The mousse followed the swirl shape of the glass all the way up to the lone berry at the top. He identified with the berry. It was alone.

The dessert bartender shined one of the glasses with a towel and asked a regular if he wanted the usual.

"I'll have butterscotch angel food cake this time, Roj. Today is my daughter's birthday and I don't want to overdo it."

Ric actually scooped up some of his mousse instead of stabbing it. The texture was thick, and it smelled of honey. The blend of sweet with the thickness and the crunchiness was indulgent, almost enough to get his mind off his gray sword and absent shooting certification.

"Is this seat taken?"

Emm stood at Ric's left shoulder with her hand on the center of his back. He had two layers of clothes on, but he could still feel the warmth of her hand, or maybe he just felt warm inside when she touched him.

"I like your sweater," he said.

"It's not exactly VP material. My father says I should change into something different for the induction."

"I think you look beautiful. I don't think any change is necessary."

Emm blushed and sat down with her elbow on the bar. She opened her body toward Ric as he took a big scoop of honey cream.

"So, what brings you to the dessert bar at this hour?" she asked.

"I thought I knew myself. I play the piano. I deliver food to people. I study math and science. I don't play sports except for the very occasional mixed martial arts, of course. I like dessert and berries, despite the fact that I haven't eaten this berry. I just relate to the berry, you know? The berry is me."

Emm nodded her head to go along with it.

"I can't believe, after all this, I won't be able to fight next to Jerome."

"Why can't you fight next to Jerome?"

"Nobody knows who I am. I walk around with a big question mark at my hip thanks to my gray sword, courtesy of the universe. Plus, I still don't have my shooting certification, and I haven't even been able to pick up a gun yet."

"As far the color of your dark energy sword goes...I still think you'll find out soon and be pleasantly surprised."

"How do you know?"

"I just do," she smiled warmly. "And as far as the shooting certification goes...I don't see why you can't pick up that gun today and pass the test."

"Because..." he paused. The reason in his head would not have made sense to her without explaining his history. It hardly made sense to himself anymore.

"Would you say that I need to shoot guns to function in my life?"

"I think you need your certification to do the things that you want to do."

"I need to go get that certification right now," Ric admitted. He put down his honey cream and kissed Emm on the cheek. It surprised him as much as it surprised her.

"Was that too forward?" he asked.

"Um...no. I liked it."

"I liked it too. I should go."

He ran out the doors and arrived at the shooting range looking like a fool in love with the biggest smile still stamped on his face.

"4:26." Marz said with arms folded. "You are one hour and 26 minutes late."

"I know. I'm ready now."

"Where were you?" Jerome asked. "I looked everywhere for you."

"I'm here now, so let's just do it."

"You have until 5:00, Stage 3. If you don't pass by then, it's over."

Ric walked over to the guns that lied on the hay bales. The dark energy gun was black, and the nitro gun was blue. They looked identical besides the color. The chamber was large and round.

"Just pick it up," Jerome said. "Don't think about it. Just do it."

Ric took a breath and picked up the dark energy gun. Its grip was like a pistol, and its weight was light for how large the chamber was. Jerome took charge as the instructor while Marz stood by and watched with arms still folded.

"Use your left hand to hold the base of the handle. Grip the handle with your right hand. Squeeze it hard enough to have balance but not so hard that you squeeze the life out of it."

Ric tried to follow Jerome's instructions.

"Okay, good. Now, you don't want your elbows bent, so straighten your arms out."

"Now what?"

"Aim, put your finger on the trigger and pull it."

Ric aimed at the target closest to him. He had to hit all five targets consecutively without missing.

"Aim at the center of the target. That way if you're off target a little, you still get the hit."

Ric aimed at the middle and pulled the trigger. The dark energy beam sailed way off to the right, making contact with a target not his own. The target's outline lit up green.

"Does that count?" Ric asked.

Marz rolled his eyes.

"That was awful," Jerome said honestly. "This time, just pull the trigger finger and don't move anything else. It helps if you cock your head to the side and exhale on the pull."

After several more tries and several more minutes, Ric finally hit one of his own targets.

"Tick tock," Marz said. "I continue to be underwhelmed by you, Stage 3."

Ric shot at the second target and missed. The shield around his first target turned from green back to red. He had to start over.

Jerome compulsively patted his chest with his fist. He was understandably nervous. Ric had not even practiced with the nitro gun whose ice beams had a different arc trajectory than the dark energy beams.

"Six minutes, Stage 3."

Ric grabbed the nitro gun and practiced with it. He determined that a twenty-degree angle would carry the nitro beam about half a football field away. It was actually fun to shoot the nitro gun since it turned whatever it contacted into ice.

"I'll give you one more try, Stage 3."

"He's got four minutes left," Jerome complained.

"I can't be here all night. Tonight, Emm will become Vice President. I shouldn't even be here in the first place. You get one more try."

Ric put down his nitro gun and replaced it with the dark energy gun. He needed to land his next five shots, or else he had to be stuck eating honey cream at the dessert bar all day and then back at home the next day wishing he had not missed his chance.

The first shot hit the target dead center. He spent a few seconds focusing his breathing for the second target, and the beam struck center again. He got too confident and fired the third round without much delay, and the beam barely made contact with the target.

He could nearly hear Jerome's nervousness. The fourth target randomly popped up from the ground between the first and second target. It was smaller than the rest of the targets.

He raised his nitro gun to get a good angle, and he pulled the trigger. The nitro beam looked promising, but it carried just short of the target.

He missed his chance.

"Tough luck. I guess you really don't have value here."

Marz walked away, but Jerome grabbed Marz by the shirt and pushed him up against a tall stack of hay.

"It's not even 5:00 yet. Give him one more try."

Marz looked at his watch and paused a few seconds. "Actually, it is 5:00 now, and he doesn't deserve another try. He failed."

Jerome pushed Marz harder against the hay. "One more."

Marz scoured angrily at Jerome like he was a disgusting worm.

"Fine, but if you ever touch me again, I'll kill you."

Ric picked up his dark energy gun once again. It felt more like destiny this time. The first three beams hit their targets perfectly. The fourth target emerged farther away this time, but he angled the nitro gun perfectly as the beam sailed in the air and caught the bottom of the target.

He picked up his dark energy gun for the final shot. The target moved in a rectangular pattern at about five miles per hour. He aimed for where it moved longitudinally before he exhaled and pulled the trigger. The beam grazed the target's shield, and it turned green.

Now he was certified for war.

Chapter 21

It was the night of Emm's induction ceremony. The air felt like a blanket. It was comfortable, warm, and the breeze which sifted through the encircling trees was refreshing.

Emm stood on a flat rock in the middle of a crowd of observers. Her voice was enchanting as she swore her oath and held her hands to the sky as a symbol of her dedication to the stars and the life revolving around them. She wore the sweater that Ric had complemented earlier in the day. She was beautiful as usual. The finest musician would not have moved Ric the way she did.

Not everyone was engaged like Ric though. Jerome pressed his fist against his cheeks and stared into space with eyes nearly as glazed as Tyson's.

After a while, Emm relaxed her arms, and Remai indicated that the ceremony was over. Some of the leaders turned to talk with one another while others began their hike down the torch-lit trail, back to their sleeping quarters.

"Where's the music?" A person shouted from the crowd. It was not in people's nature to mingle in quiet air. They needed an outlet from awkward social interaction.

"I got what you need right here," shouted another person. "What do you say we show Paradise how to throw a real party?"

She switched the speakers on, and the air filled with the sound of treble and crushing bass that vibrated everyone's chests. The stiff leaders involuntarily twisted their bodies and dipped their shoulders as if the music forced them to dance.

Remai lifted a finger and opened his mouth as if to object, but his knees bounced like puppets. He liked it. Everyone liked it. Music was Earth's greatest gift to Paradise.

"Your turn?" Jerome asked.

"I'll take good care of my nephew," Ric replied.

Jerome took Gabby's hand and pulled her into the middle of the crowd to dance. Gabby was an excellent dancer. She had taught Salsa once a week when she was on Earth. Jerome used to be a real stiff before he met her.

"Dancing is for chumps," Jerome told Ric long before then.

Now Jerome was a chump, and he would not have traded it for anything. Jerome was still the same person that he was as a child, but now he was a better version of himself. He was the best version of himself because of Gabby. He spun her and dipped her. Then she spun him and dipped him. For how talented she was, Jerome made it look like a mess. They were perfect for each other.

Kara came up from behind Ric. Her hand slid from his lower back to his side as she wrapped her way around to his front. Her hair fanned down to her silk blue dress.

"Finally, some music. I was starting to think that Paradise was no fun," she said.

"Tyson sure likes it."

Kara took a step back from Ric, and Tyson waved to her. He could hardly hold in a smile.

"My nephew is normally a little shy around others, but he likes you."

"Well, I like him too. How old are you, Tyson?"

He held up four fingers while jumping up and down. He nearly tripped an older woman as he danced around.

"Tyson, why don't you go play soccer with the other kids. You could use some exercise."

Tyson let out a sigh, reluctantly stomping his way over to the other kids.

"I developed software for pediatrics and oncology," Kara said as they watched Tyson head over to play with the other kids.

Ric was caught off guard, but she continued, "You told me what you did back on Earth, so I'm telling you what I did."

"Oh. I pictured you doing something more physical. You killed it at sword training."

"Software development involves serious finger workouts, so don't talk to me about physical labor."

She laughed. Her smile was attractive. "Tell me more about yourself," Ric said.

"My dad is a farmer, and my mom teaches calculus to children. Kids just keep getting smarter. I learned calculus when I was fifteen, and that was young back then. They just blow me away. That's why I wanted to help them be healthy. They all deserve a chance to show the world what they can do."

She paused and the music filled the silence. "You're cute, Ric. I think I like you."

Kara's eyes held his as she stepped closer to him. A wayward soccer ball flew just behind her head.

Ric reacted to the close call and pulled her to him. Her hair smelled like exotic fruit, and her skin was soft. Her palms relaxed his sore muscles with their warmth as they slid from his back, away from him.

"That was unexpected," she said.

"There was a soccer ball."

She looked confused, apparently unaware that a high velocity ball nearly struck her in the side of the head and instead smashed a glass clear off its stem. The guy holding the glass was also unaware until he tipped his glass for a sip and spilled the liquid all over his face.

Beyond the broken glass was the field of children playing soccer. Before, it was difficult to do a head count of all the kids, but now there were fewer of them. He scanned the small crowd of children, but he did not see Tyson.

Tyson was missing.

"I have to look for my nephew."

Kara opened her mouth as if to offer assistance, but Ric was already gone. Worry struck his heart like lightning. He walked closer to the crowd of children to ensure that his eyes were not playing tricks. Tyson really was not there.

He turned his body in a full circle, looking at the large party. All of them were happy, dancing to the music. They were totally unaware of his problem. If only they were aware, then they could have helped find Tyson, but then they would all know that Ric lost him.

"Hey you!"

Ric looked toward the voice. There was a man escorting Tyson by grabbing his ear. Tyson's face cringed in pain. He would have been squealing if he was not tough like his father.

"Get your hand off him," Ric urged. He whacked the man's arm away, and he pulled Tyson close.

"Are you this boy's father?" the stranger asked.

"I'm his uncle."

"Your boy told my boy that eating handfuls of dirt will give him superpowers. Who knows how much dirt he ate?"

The other boy had dirt all over his face and on his clothes. If he cried more, the dirt would have turned to mud. Tyson avoided eye contact, kicking at the superpower dirt below him.

"Tyson, apologize to the boy for convincing him to eat dirt."

"No," the father said. "I don't want an apology. I want to know why my kid is swimming in bacteria. Foreign bacteria mind you. His immune system had a hard enough time adapting to the microbes on Earth. Now he has your dumb kid telling him to eat alien dirt."

The man's face was cherry red with anger. He looked like a lobster got sun burned and then slow cooked over a fire. Saliva spewed from his mouth.

Ric was becoming more accustomed to conflict. Words of engagement used to betray his memory in similar situations, like they were locked away in a bomb shelter until the noise shifted to silence. Ever since Emm knocked him to the ground, conflict was no longer a dangerous enemy.

"Tyson, apologize to this boy for lying to him."

"Sorry," Tyson said with a whisper.

"Buy a leash." The man rolled his eyes and backed away with his son. Dirt sprayed the air with every step the boy took.

Ric thought of Jerome, how he would have handled it. Jerome never backed down from a fight, and he always had the last word.

Ric could have let the man and his dirt-ridden boy fade into memory. He could have bent on one knee and taught Tyson a lesson about treating other kids with respect, but a new color was on the horizon. He took a step forward and let Tyson's hand slip out of his. Conflict was not a dangerous enemy anymore. It was not a pointless diligence conveyed by irrational people.

"Wait!"

The father stopped walking, still only a few feet away. He was bigger than Ric in every regard. Muscles bulged from his arms and his chest.

Ric did not care. He had taken a punch in the face from Emm who was a far more dangerous fighter. He could take another.

He put his pointer finger on the man's chest. Poisonous words sat at the tip of his tongue. He wanted to punish the man for treating his family like dogs. He wanted to tell the guy to shove dirt down his own throat and grow a plant. But he did not. He would not.

"I feel minimized by you treating me and my family like dogs. And I'm sorry that your son's safety was at risk. I'd prefer to be your friend rather than your enemy."

The father was thrown off. He was expecting more violence rather than a peace offering. The father sighed as he walked away,

"Just keep your nephew away from my son."

Ric knelt down to Tyson, whose brain was a sponge that absorbed every piece of information and compiled it into his world view. He looked Tyson in the eye and, in honor of his mother, he said, "Peace is stronger than violence. Peace is strong, so you must be strong."

Chapter 22

Paradise's leadership took a while to understand the difference between having a party and partying, but they were figuring it out. They flew spaceships overhead and dropped loads of foam. People caught it from the air and used it to shape their hair into Mohawks. Some of the typically stiff members of the leadership were jumping up and down and sliding along the foamy grass.

Their dancing techniques were original. They danced in ways that would never earn them a penny in a dancing competition back on Earth.

After Kara left the party, Ric stood next to the drink table, holding Tyson's hand. Ric's only goal for the rest of the night was to keep Tyson safe and to let Jerome and Gabby stay worry-free while she continued tearing up the dance floor.

Emm watched people dance, but she could not bring herself to copy their technique. Her personality could not be contained as she moon-walked surprisingly well, putting some of the people to shame.

"This party is killer, bro."

A party enthusiast with a foam afro and a foamy beard strolled by.

"This foam is so killer. It's like I'm caught in a fairy tale where there's just a lot of foam. You know, bro? I can't wait until we get back to Earth so I can tell my people about this. It's so...elating."

The word "elating" floated off the top of his tongue like he just had an epiphany.

Remai walked over to the drink table. The bowls were layered with foam. The only way to pour a drink would have been to serve a nice helping of foam along with it.

"This is just exactly what I needed," Remai complained. "Foam. Foam. Foam."

His words nearly foamed with foam, "All I wanted tonight was to make my daughter Vice President, and then go to my quarters to have peace. Now, I can't even get some water because there is foam everywhere."

"I have the solution for you, bro. Check this out."

The bro collected a pile of foam and plopped it on Remai's head. There was no hope for a Mohawk since Remai had a buzz cut, but the afro was easy enough to replicate. Remai rolled his eyes at the pestilence.

"You Earth people are..." Remai gave another deep sigh. "Aggravating."

Despite Remai's bemoaning, most were still having a good time. Foam no longer fell from the spaceships in the sky. It just circulated among the crowd.

Marz brushed off the foam from his suit like a disease while Emm still danced around him. She was a beautiful pearl locked in a seashell, but Marz treated her like a rock. If she had any value to Marz, then he did not show it. He just assumed that life would play by his rules, but it would not. Soon enough, Emm would recognize that her father's wishes for their marriage were ill-advised and that Marz would be miserable in any context of life. At least Ric hoped she would recognize it.

The bro with the foam afro chased after a foam cloud with his foamy drink. He tripped and spilled juice all over Marz who yelled at him.

Emm broke it up, pointing Marz toward the torch-lit path away from the party. If only Ric could have a chance with Emm like Marz had. He would dance with her. He would make her feel special on her day. Just a couple hours earlier, he had mustered the courage to confront a monster lobster with a son covered in dirt, but somehow he still found it hard to walk over to her.

Each time he had a conversation with her, he liked her more, and that was the problem. Every time, there was more on the line because he felt more strongly for her while her feelings remained largely unknown. She was worth it though. If he talked with her again and felt the pain of uncertainty about how she felt, at least he would have heard her voice.

Emm brushed off some foamy juice from her shoes and some venom that Marz left from his disrespect. She must have felt Ric looking at her.

He looked away to avoid staring, but it was enough to get her to walk over.

"You look handsome tonight, Ric. And you also look handsome tonight, Tyson."

"Say thank you, Tyson."

"Thank you."

"You look beautiful tonight, Vice President of Paradise. So, what does the doctor/MMA fighter do as VP, anyway?"

"Well, I get to tell people what to do. Like, pull my finger."

Ric laughed.

"No, seriously. I command you to pull my finger."

"Oh," Ric said. He pulled her finger, and she let a mouth fart rip the air. Her eyes crossed and she made a gassy face in front of Tyson. He giggled like a four-year-old boy ought to. It was probably the first time he laughed all night.

"I saw what happened with Marz. He looked pretty mad."

Emm sighed. "Yeah, I want to forget about that. I learned a pretty good way to be distracted recently though."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"Dancing, silly. Do you want to dance?"

"Do I have a choice, VP?"

"You always have a choice."

She took Ric and Tyson by the hand and onto the dance floor. She waved her arms in the air, and she moved her body to the body-rocking beat. Ric joined in, but he could not keep up with her moves. Even Tyson danced better than him.

The fast-paced song was soon replaced by a slow one. Emm kept moving like Paradise would only keep spinning if she kept spinning, until she realized that Ric stopped dancing.

"Why aren't you dancing?"

"It's a slow dance."

"Oh," she said. Ric reached out his hand to take hers for a traditional slow dance, but instead she continued dancing the same way, just in slow motion.

Ric played along with inventive dance moves. He popped the bread out of the toaster in slow motion before he buttered it. In any other situation, he would have been embarrassed, but Emm made it fun.

Emm laughed. Her smile was art and her laugh was a symphony. Although Ric was nervous to approach her, he felt comfortable when he was with her. He could spread the butter on the toast in slow motion, and it would be okay. More than that. It would make her laugh. If she laughed with him every day, he would have been a happy man.

Chapter 23

Tyson lied in bed with his eyes closed. He liked it when Ric told a story, but the long night proved tiring enough for him to fall asleep on his own. His breathing got heavier until the stars and the planets were only present outside of his conscience. The only thing on his mind were dreams that taught him how to fit in based on lessons from the day. Too many of the lessons he learned recently were of conflict. He would hopefully become an adult in a galaxy of peace, but Ric had to win a war before that happened. War was necessary for peace. That is how it seemed, at least.

"I think he's asleep," Emm whispered.

"I think you're right," he whispered back as if sharing a secret.

He wanted to hold her hand. The light in the room was soft enough to see her eyes, yet dark enough to dream of stars in the sky and her beauty, but her beauty was not a dream. She sat next to him and watched Tyson fall even deeper into sleep.

"He sleeps so soundly," she said.

"Much more soundly than my next-door neighbor."

"What makes you say that?"

"I can hear him snore at night through the walls."

"Impossible. These walls are really thick."

Her disbelief turned to curiosity as she noticed that Ric was serious.

"Show me."

They stood in front of his neighbor's bedroom door, but there was no sound. "He must still be at the party," she said.

Ric pressed his ear against the door. "Nope, he's definitely there."

She put her ear and the rest of her weight on the door, but it opened and crashed against the wall with a loud bang.

Emm lied on the bedroom floor, and the monstrous snoring came to an oinky halt.

Ric helped her from the ground and shut the door behind them with another loud bang. She cupped her mouth with her hands, holding in her laugh until her face was bright red.

"Sh, sh. Listen, he's snoring again."

"No way." She pressed her ear against the door.

"Just your ear this time," he joked.

She gave a thumbs up and a wink. "Wow, he sounds like an animal choking on another live animal."

Ric cupped his hands over his mouth, trying to hold in a laugh of his own.

"That's so mean...but so true."

"Hey, I have an idea," she said.

"Does it involve snoring?"

"Teach me how to make music."

Luckily, he had not completely destroyed his bedroom with scattered textbooks. Most of his focus had been on training the past week, so he barely had the chance to break them in.

He was excited to teach her how to play the piano because she was about to play music for the first time in her life. He used to assume that intelligent life beyond Earth would incorporate music into their daily lives, but he was wrong. She was underprivileged in that regard.

He placed her fingers on the piano keys.

"These are called keys. When the piano is tuned properly, hitting these keys makes a pleasant or perhaps unpleasant sound. Go ahead and tap one."

Emm tapped a C sharp. Her eyes grew wider with excitement.

"What makes that C sharp musical is actually very mathematical. Music makes use of integer sound waves. Non-integer sound waves are used for other purposes like alarming you to wake up in the morning. Integer sound waves are pleasant. They make you feel—"

"They make you feel like you want to dance."

"Exactly. Let's play a harmony. Take this finger and place it here."

Ric took her right hand and placed her fingers where he wanted them. Touching her hands was logistically unnecessary, but he enjoyed it and wanted more of it.

"Okay, now press down on those keys about once per half-second. Yup, like that. Now I have a beat that I can work with. You just keep doing that."

Ric played a simple melody on his side of the piano. They made music with their hands, and their souls made music too. She seemed to enjoy tapping the key over and over again. Each time, she expected the same result, but it made her body bounce up and down anyway. She could make anything fun.

When the song was over, her smile remained like the music still played in her head.

"That was incredible, Ric. Thank you. I don't want to ever stop playing music."

Her eyes were warm, and she wore a sincere smile. Like her, Ric did not want the music to be over. If the music stopped, then she would leave and the following day would bring another set of worries. He just wanted to relax with her while their worries were still so simple.

"There is a way for you to always play music. You just sing."

"How do I do that?"

"Like all other music, you generate integer sound waves. You just use the vibrations of your vocal chords to make the sound instead of making vibrations with a different instrument. Try it."

She let out a sound that wasn't really singing. Her face got red with embarrassment when she realized that it did not sound like she hoped it would.

"Try singing this song. It's a classic by Louis Armstrong." Ric played an introduction on the piano and cleared his voice.

I see trees of green, red roses too

I see them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world

Emm repeated the song a capella. Her speaking voice was beautiful enough, but her singing voice was a paralyzing flower. The tone was a carpet ride on clouds. Every note was soothing. She closed her eyes as if feeling the notes inside her skin. Her left hand was on her belly and her right hand touched the music-saturated air. If she sang on Earth, she would have drawn a large crowd. Her voice was like an angel.

"I think that sounded a little bit better, right?"  
"Amazing."

He had a thousand words on his mind, but none of them were coming out. They all seemed cheap, like saying them would not do justice to how he felt. It was just her. Nothing else mattered. All the math and science could not explain the intricate emotions in his awakened soul. Not even music could have collected the right pattern of sounds. Only one thing felt right.

He wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her gently toward him. Her eyes moved from his eyes to his mouth. Butterflies flew in his gut, and he embraced it because being close to her was the only thing that made sense. He leaned toward her, and she closed her eyes.

Before their lips met, a loud alarm with annoying, non-integer sound waves interrupted them. The alarm screamed in their ears, forcing them to separate once more.

They were being called to war.

Chapter 24

They all knew what the alarm meant. An ally planet needed military assistance. It just did not feel real. It was too soon.

People flooded the hallways, running into each other angrily while the alarm persisted its annoying beep.

In Tyson's room, Jerome said his goodbyes. Gabby had tear-filled eyes and hands that did not know what to do if not force Jerome to stay. Moments earlier, she had danced with her husband, and now she would be on her own while he fought a war.

It was difficult to watch. Jerome never wanted to leave them.

If Ric's parents had never left for the Final War, they would still be with him. Now Jerome was the parent, and Tyson the child. He hugged Tyson tightly and said he loved him. He placed his hand on Gabby's pregnant belly and assured it of safety before he gave Gabby a long hug.

"I love you."

"Come back to me."

The hallway was a stampede to the locker room. Ric put on his armor, which was weak against dark energy weapons but strong against elements like fire. He strapped on a dark energy shield, gun, sword, and a nitro gun. He wanted to eject the dark energy from the sword to see if it had a non-gray color, but there were too many people around him. He would have to wait.

"We can do this, brother," Jerome said as much to himself as he meant it for Ric.

They walked out the locker room doors and into the same night that they partied in. Moments earlier, there was foam falling from the sky. Now it would be dark energy beams raining on them.

Ric and Jerome filed into their squad of 100 soldiers. Their squad leader was tall and had short hair. Her muscles were toned from a life of training for war on Paradise.

Emm stood alongside her father on a hill for adequate elevation. Ric was just playing music with her, and now she was ready to lead an army to battle. He wished he could turn back time to that moment and kiss her without being called to battle. If war did not exist, though, he may have never met her. She would have never punched him in the face in Seattle. She would not have slow motion danced with him at the party. He had an ironic gratefulness for war.

"You have your nitro gun strapped on backwards, man."

Arizona stood next to him in the adjacent squad. She stared at him with her sharp, blue eyes. Her hair was even more frazzled than when he first met her on the spaceship. She smelled like she had not showered during their entire stay.

Ric unstrapped his nitro gun and reversed its position.

"So, what side are you on? Have you decided yet, man?"

"I didn't know there were sides. It's just Paradise and Earth out here."

"You always have a choice, man."

She talked too loudly and caught the eyeballs of people adjacent. She lived in an isolated part of the desert for years with her sister. Either she did not know how to be discrete, or she did not value discretion.

"Remai could be Satan himself and we wouldn't know it," she continued. "He says we will fight for peace, but we still struggle to define what peace is. He says we will go to battle, but we don't know who we will fight. If we lose this war, we will go down in history as the bad guys."

"We're not the bad guys."

"It's all relative, man. Everything is relative. There are no absolutes."

He internalized what she was saying, but he had to believe that he joined the right side of the war. He could not root against himself and the people he loved. It was time to risk it all and fight for something. Thinking about it too hard was pointless.

Remai left Emm's side and approached the front of the army. The thousands of soldiers were silent, waiting for him to talk.

"I bet he has killed a few in his lifetime," Arizona whispered in Ric's ear. "The only difference between you and a killer is that you haven't killed someone, but that's about to change. That's what war is good for. Soon enough, we will be just like him."

Shivers ran down Ric's spine. He wished she would just keep her mouth closed and anticipate the opening speech like everyone else. He wanted to stand anywhere else but there.

Remai yelled into his microphone. "Paradise, and the people of Earth. Our friends, the emps, are being attacked by a formidable enemy. Our ally's skill in battle is limited, but they are geniuses of peace. It is your duty to protect them. In doing so, you will protect peace in the galaxy. You have been trained for this very moment, and you can be assured that the loved ones you leave behind will be safe. We place Paradise's finest on duty to defend this planet. Our allies have several fortresses, but one of them faces almost certain defeat, so most of you will defend that fortress. Just follow your squad leader, and good luck to you."

As Remai spoke, Ric could not help but think about Arizona's warnings. His thoughts were infected by her.

The means of peace was war both on Earth and now there in the galaxy, but the definition of peace suddenly eluded him. His entire life, he thought he knew what peace was, but now it was a stranger. He was willing to sacrifice for a worthy cause, but it scared him that he might kill and die for a peace that he did not understand.

His shoes felt like cages around his feet. Each foot was a prisoner shackled in darkness, forced to comply with his every command. He wanted to let them free, to unleash them to the cool night grass so they could take him to the far side of Paradise. His feet would command him where to go next, and he would live off appearanges and other exotic fruit. He would be dubbed a coward by others, but only his feet would be cowards, and he would be their master. There was only one way forward, however. He and the rest of the people knew it.

Ric leaned toward Jerome. "I'm scared."

Chapter 25

Ric climbed into the cockpit of his spaceship. The controls looked the same as they did in training. There were controls for shooting, for activating the shield, and for changing speed and direction. Everything else was automatic.

Endless rows and columns of spaceships surrounded him.

"It's a perfect day for flying spaceships, don't you think?" Jerome said into the communications device. He was not the most talented pilot. It had taken a while for him to pass the flying simulations, but he managed it.

Ric thought about the irony of what Jerome said. In Paradise, one day was how long it took the planet to spin full circle on its imaginary axis. In space, days did not exist, because time was relative. If Ric traveled close to the speed of light for just a few years in space, he would come back still in his twenties while Jerome would have aged into an old man.

Remai had assured them that those who stayed behind would remain young while they were gone. Gabby would not have to live a long life of solitude, barring that Jerome would survive the battle.

"Affirmative," Ric replied.

"We should have code names," Jerome said.

"Like what?"

"Like, you should call me Space Pirate."

"Affirmative, Space Pirate. Call me Star Avenger."

Being in space used to be an unattainable fantasy. It was the subject of his childhood imagination. He would fly rockets into space, navigate alien planets, and shoot the aliens before they captured his imaginary pet dog. Now it was an impending reality. He would shoot aliens, but it would not be for a dog. It would be for his own survival and an ideal of peace.

The light in the overhead of the cockpit turned yellow. They were about to take off. He reached into his shirt and felt his necklace.

"I'm about to take you on an adventure, Maggie. Hold on tight."

He gripped his necklace harder as the light turned green. His ship moved forward in unison with those around it.

The artificial intelligence built into the spaceship was incredible. It was capable of communicating with the other spaceships to monitor speed and prevent collisions on takeoff. His spaceship lifted off the ground and slowly pointed its nose toward the edge of the atmosphere. Other spaceships were unnervingly close as his speed rapidly quickened. Despite the spaceships being equipped with the best technology the galaxy had to offer, he still did not trust it. If it could go wrong, it would go wrong, at least according to Murphy's Law.

His stomach was uneasy as he passed through successive layers of atmosphere. He wanted the scariness to go away, but at the same time he did not want to miss anything. He was the Star Avenger, and this was his star avenging destiny.

He broke through the atmosphere and the gravitational pull of Paradise, and he entered into the dark sanctuary of space and time. His rearview video feed showed Paradise become smaller as he sped farther away. The planet was mostly green with long stretches of blue throughout.

The light from the star landscape in front of him escaped his vision as he flew closer to the wormhole. The wormhole was an ingenious invention. Its monstrous gravity was suppressed by controlled supplies of dark energy. It was even scarier than the simulated one, mostly because his life was on the line.

His spaceship shook as he flew closer to it. The gravity wanted to pull him in. It wanted to tear matter apart and merge the future into the present, making the universe itself come to its end. If Murphy's Law prevailed, and if the dark energy failed to suppress the gravity, then his body would spaghettify into a million bits.

He lost control of his spaceship as the wormhole took control of it. He plunged into its skin and was instantly transported light years away to a different address in the galaxy. He clutched his steering wheel tightly in anticipation of a swarm of enemy ships, but there were none. There was nothing except allies, stars, and one small, blue planet.

"Space Pirate, come in."

"Space Pirate here."

"I think we should call this planet the blueberry planet."

"I can get behind that decision. It suggests that the planet has some flavor." Jerome sighed. "Now I'm hungry."

"Nothing gets the mind off food like competition. I'll race you to that large asteroid."

"You got it. When I win, I will enjoy eating the omelet with extra mushrooms that you cook for me."

"Yeah, right. I'll have your ice cream the next time we have some. You still owe me a cookie dough."

Ric hit the accelerator and turned his spaceship toward the space rock. He dodged some other spaceships and debris. It was a stupid idea, now that he thought about it. Jerome could have easily hit one of the other spaceships as he tried to race to the asteroid first, all for an omelet with extra mushrooms. Ric dodged a few more undoubtedly annoyed pilots until the asteroid was between him and Jerome.

"That's what happens when Star Avenger faces Space Pirate. Space Pirate always wins."

"That was a tie, and you know it," Ric said.

"I want at least 15 mushrooms in—"

The communications cut out. It seemed the asteroid interfered.

Ric wondered why he ever competed with Jerome. Even when Jerome lost, he always argued that he won, especially when food was on the line.

The asteroid blocked Ric from seeing anyone. Jerome and all the other pilots were on the other side of it, leaving Ric alone in the dark solitude of space. He used to dream of flying in space, but he was never alone in his dreams. While seeing the stars and the blue planet in front of him was enchanting, it proved lonely after only a short while.

He could hear his communications come back. "I think I changed my mind about the cookie dough. I'll have peanut butter and chocolate instead."

He expected a smart remark, but the line was silent.

"Jerome, did you hear me?"

He passed the edge of the asteroid, and all the familiar ships were back in sight along with a host of enemy ships.

His gut turned with fear.

Jerome was under attack by two enemy spaceships. He weaved and oscillated, but his dark energy shield was getting pummeled by dark energy beams.

Careful not to shoot Jerome down himself, Ric tailed the enemy ships and fired at them. With one blow to the engine, one enemy ship spun into black death. The other enemy ship activated its dark energy shield and decelerated overhead to tail him.

He turned on his dark energy shield, but it would not activate. Murphy's Law.

He pressed the button repeatedly to activate his shield, but it would not work. If any dark energy beam hit his ship, he would die instantly. At that point, every second felt like it could be the end. He changed directions, trying to dodge every beam, but it was only a matter of time before his body would be buried in a vacuum far away from home. Pressure mounted. No clever thoughts could have saved him. He needed Murphy's Law to be on his side. He needed luck, but luck eluded him as the enemy ship got a lock on him.

After a few long seconds, he wondered why he was still alive. He opened his eyes and saw that Jerome decelerated right into the enemy ship. The contact with the dark energy shield was enough to destroy the enemy ship, but it was also enough to damage Jerome's ship. They needed to land immediately before his badly mangled engine ruined his ship entirely.

"We're almost to the fortress. Just keep pointing toward the green part of the planet," Ric urged.

For every mile that they flew closer to the blueberry planet, Ric had to try harder to suppress hope. He wanted to think that Jerome would survive, but hope would crush him if Jerome did not make it. He never knew of a universe without Jerome in it, and he did not want to.

The blueberry planet looked greener from the forests as they closed the gap between themselves and the ground. The oxygen in the atmosphere caused Jerome's engine to burst into flames. Jerome did not have enough mechanical leverage for a soft landing, so his ship slowly declined toward the trees, eventually knocking the trees down like bowling pins before they forced him to a harsh stop.

Ric crashed into some trees as well, but he was not concerned about a soft landing. He jumped out of his spaceship and darted toward Jerome like a professional track athlete.

He took Jerome by the arm and pulled him as hard as he could. "Come on, we have to run!"

Ric ran with Jerome at his quickest hobble through the trees and bushes. He spotted a large rock firmly grounded behind a hill.

Just as they dipped behind the rock, Jerome's ship exploded magnificently. The sound was unbearably loud despite their covered ears.

When the explosion settled down to crackling fires and smoke, they emerged from the rock and watched Jerome's ship smolder.

"I want at least 15 mushrooms in my omelet."

Ric shoved Jerome's bruised arm. Jerome's smile and laugh turned to a grimace.

"I think I saw the fortress just a few miles away," Ric said.

"Do you think your ship will get us there?"

There was a small fire at the nose of the spaceship.

"Yeah, that fire will go away on its own."

Before they took another step, Ric's ship exploded, pushing them against the ground as fireballs flew past them.

"Just kidding," Ric said. "Looks like we're walking."

Chapter 26

The blueberry planet felt much cooler than Paradise. The surrounding bodies of water sent a salty breeze their way. Ric could not see any of the water or anything else more than a few feet away because the trees were so dense. He mostly closed his eyes anyway to prevent the sharp needles on the tree branches from poking his eyes.

"It smells like wet diaper," Jerome said. The nearby salt water combined with an unfamiliar stench from the forest for a gross scent.

"You would know. I bet you look forward to changing diapers again."

"It's part of the job."

Jerome got smart and crawled underneath the trees to avoid the needles altogether. Ric thought it would slow them down, but somehow Jerome army crawled at a walking pace. Only Jerome could do that. He was always quicker and stronger than the person next to him.

"Hey, Jerome. Do you remember that weird idea you had about keeping the population low enough for everyone to enjoy life more?"

"Yeah," he said, burying his elbows into the ground. "Are you gonna make fun of me for it again?"

"I just wonder what you want the universe to be like, if it were up to you."

"Honestly, all I want is for Gabby and my children to have everything they need. And I want them to be safe. I'll live in any universe if I can have that much."

"Would you have fought in the Final War if you were old enough?"

"If that's what Gabby wanted, but I don't think she would have. The only reason I'm here is because she thought we'd be safer here. Look, I'm glad that people figured out how to live peacefully. That took no small amount of effort by anyone. I think people could have done a better job though. They could have avoided the Final War altogether if they were more patient."

Ric always thought he would have fought in the Final War if he was old enough. He believed that people deserved peace after so many generations of perpetual fighting.

A tree needle poked him in the ear. He stopped to rub the pain away and to take a break from the relentless needles when a shadow crossed the tree in front of him. It looked like the shadow of a bird, but, when he looked up, it was a flying animal with scaly skin. It boasted a long body with an impressive wingspan.

"Jerome, I think I saw a dragon."

"Jerome?"

He could not hear the sound of Jerome's elbows digging into the dirt. It was quiet until Jerome yelled loudly from several feet away.

Ric sprinted through sharp trees toward the sound, but Jerome's yell carried farther away. Jerome was running.

Ric chased after his brother's voice until he could not hear it anymore.

"Jerome!" It was silent again.

He did not know if silence meant Jerome eluded danger, or if danger finally caught up to him. He ran in a random direction, yelling for his brother.

"Jerome!"

There was still no reply. It felt like watching Jerome fall to the planet with a broken engine all over again, except this time he was out of sight.

Finally, he broke through the tree line and found Jerome catching his breath.

"What happened?"

Jerome shivered with disgust. He held his hand near his chest.

"There was a spider this big. Its skin was..." he shivered. "And it had teeth."

Ric chuckled an innocent laugh that turned into a violent one filled with a cocktail of emotions. All the fear of recent danger, the pokey trees, the simple worries about Emm, his mysterious identity, memories of guns, and the spider all bundled into a ball of stress that could only be laughed away. He fell to the ground, barely managing to breathe. His laugh hit a higher pitch to the point where it sounded like he was crying.

"It's not funny."

Ric kept laughing.

"Shut up." Jerome kicked him in the ribs.

"Ouch." Ric got up to protest, but Jerome shushed him and directed his line of sight toward the nearby pond.

There was a strange animal drinking from it. It was tall and muscular with a scaly body. It boasted two legs, two arms and opposable thumbs. It looked like a mix between a human and a raptor dinosaur. Jerome took Ric by the arm and guided them backward toward the dense trees. When they turned around, the monster spider was slowly approaching them.

Ric let out a throaty "Ugg!"

The spider walked away back into the trees, but the danger across the pond became aware of their presence.

The strange animal spread its wings and flew its tall body only an arm's reach away from them.

Jerome took no chances. He ejected the yellow from his dark energy sword, and the animal also took out a bright orange dark energy sword. Ric took out his gray sword for due diligence.

It felt like five minutes, standing with the three dark energy swords ready to strike. The animal had its eyes mostly set on Jerome who probably appeared more threatening. Every second was suspenseful, waiting for the animal to attack at any moment. Instead, it turned its head toward the sun that was setting over the trees, and it flew away.

"Why didn't it attack? And why did it have a sword?"

"I don't know. We need to go," Jerome said. "I've seen enough of the blueberry planet for one day."

Chapter 27

The fortress was enormous. It was a network of nine buildings mostly surrounded by trees. The buildings formed a slightly open rectangle, with the food building at its center. The open ends of the rectangle were narrow and served as the main entrances since each one had a dirt path leading up to it from the encircling trees. Underneath the fortress was a large basement that served as a tunnel for navigating to the various buildings during cold months.

The thermostat in the medical room was set to a chilling 50 degrees. The emps had a different idea of comfort than Ric did.

Emm took care of Jerome's cuts and bruises, and she tended to the cuts that Ric got from running through the pokey trees.

Somehow, Ric kept finding himself in need of her. He liked it. If the only way to see her was to get a few cuts and bruises, he would do it. She made every moment magical.

"Make sure to get all the puss out of my blister," Jerome broke the mood. "I don't want a puss-infested hand when I fight tomorrow."

It would have been more magical without Jerome's puss.

"The puss might make enemies run away from you though," Emm said jokingly.

"It's scaring me away," Ric added.

"Plus, popping your blister could introduce harmful bacteria into your body. It looks like it won't be irritated by any of your gear, so we'll just leave it be for now. Let me know if it becomes painful, and I will take another look."

Remai barged into the room.

"Dad," Emm complained. "I'm seeing my patients."

"They are not patients. They are soldiers. They don't have patients' rights," Remai said. "I want to know why two of my soldiers went out of rank. You jeopardized our defense schema and nearly crashed into our own ships before the fighting ever started."

"We—"

"This war isn't a joke. I expect both of you to follow your orders. Otherwise, I'll send you and your family back to Earth where you can wait for the war to be over."

"We saw something in the forest," Jerome said.

"Congratulations," Remai said. He opened the door to leave.

"It had a dark energy sword."

Remai's harsh tone and angry body language softened to curiosity.

"What did it look like?"

"It had wings, a long chin. It was tall, and—"

"Krevils." Remai almost forgot about his anger entirely. "That's good intel, soldier."

Emm closed the door behind him as he walked out with an epiphany.

"Krevils are very dangerous," she said. "You're lucky you arrived here with only cuts and bruises."

"So, you've seen one too?"

Emm sighed. She seemed sad, but it was not because her father had interrupted. It was something else.

"Yes," she said with brevity. "Let's just say they deserve to die. They are with the Fallen. Our war is against them, and that is all."

Ric wanted to extend grace to her by changing the topic, but Jerome did not catch on.

"So, we have to fight two armies, then?" Jerome said.

"Looks like it. Just try shoot them instead of fight them up close, and you'll come away with less scrapes than you got from those trees. I still don't understand how you guys have so many scrapes. Most hikers try to avoid the needles instead of walking through them.

"It's a long story involving giant spiders with teeth."

"Oh, those are harmless. It was probably just trying to make friends. M6323822 has a lot of gnarly looking animals, but almost all of them are friendly."

"You mean the blueberry planet?" Jerome asked.

"Hm?"

"It's not M63...whatever. It's the blueberry planet."

"Blueberry planet. I like that better. It makes it sound more—"

"Tasty," Jerome finished.

"I was going to say cute."

Ric was relieved that the conversation had finally become lighter, but he could not shake a question that popped into his head.

"Why did the Krevil run away from us if it was so dangerous?" Ric asked. "It looked scared, like there was something threatening in the sky."

"It was probably scared that the sun would set. They're completely blind unless there is plenty of light. Their planet revolves around four suns, needless to say that they never had dark nights like we do. Their eyes never developed the ability to adjust to the darkness."

Emm finished dabbing at Jerome's cuts. They each had a few band aids, and Jerome had a large piece of gauze taped to his shoulder.

"My brother would be lucky to be with you," Jerome said. "You have to watch out for him though. When he sees giant spiders, he screams like a girl."

"I recall all that screaming coming from you, after you saw the hairy legs, giant eyes—"

"Okay, I don't want to think about it anymore."

Emm led them out of the clinic to the chilly outdoors. The fortress was built with pure white rock. It glowed in the night brightly enough that electricity-powered lights were unnecessary.

They walked down a hundred stairs to the white gravel path. A refreshing scent of rain and dirt carried in the air. It was more refreshing than the headache-inducing forest.

Music played loudly from the food building. If people contributed anything to the galaxy, it was music. The bass thumped in Ric's chest, and the treble got louder as they opened the doors. The food building should have been called Jerome's heaven. Fruit and vegetables piled high to the ceiling. Vegetable lasagna, cannoli, and dozens of other meals and desserts entered the building by a conveyor belt. An entire wall was dedicated to beverages.

The building itself was a remarkable sight. The lights gleamed magically along the white stone. Dozens of crystal chandeliers hung beautifully, giving the room a romantic feeling. The building could have been used as a wedding for royalty if it was not for all the partying. The various species treated the building with all the romanticism of a wet belch.

"Welcome to the finest food stop in all of the galaxy. My name is Rossi, and it is a pleasure of mine to be your host tonight."

Rossi stood at a modest five feet tall. Her skin was furry and looked blue. Her face was nearly flat. There were thousands of others that looked like her, some taller and some smaller.

The species that flew above looked like bats with baby chicken heads. They were strange. All the species looked harmless, mostly because they were partying instead of hunting one another like they did on Earth.

Jerome eagerly joined the party. He nudged others out of the way to clear a path toward the food which was both his finish line and his trophy. It was a free-for-all for the hungriest of stomachs, and he was the ultimate qualifier.

Ric could hardly hold himself back as well.

"Rossi is an emp. She is a master of peace."

"I'm genuinely curious how you do it," Ric said to Rossi. "People took millenniums to stop organized fighting, and we still only have friendships with a select few species."

"Languithol Neurons help to identify a common ground across species, but ultimately all it takes is a little respect and appreciation for others. Mix that with a little love, and you have all the ingredients you need for peaceful relationships with anyone," Rossi said.

"Well what you've done here is very impressive," Ric said.

"Thank you, but we're not here so I can gloat. Enjoy the best food the planet has to offer. We need you to be strong for tomorrow. Oh, and make sure to enter into the angel food cake toss. It's the most appetizing competition you'll ever eat...I mean...have."

"You go ahead, Ric. I'm going to talk with some others," Emm said.

He slipped on abandoned food and spilled drinks as he decided which food pile he wanted to explore.

Jerome chugged smoothies from a keg while nearby chicken bats flapped their wings and prodded him to keep chugging.

The music thumped in Ric's chest, but its volume was marginal compared to the cracks of cups smashing on tables and the hearty laughs. He looked around to see if Emm came back yet, but he was distracted by an ogre-like animal whose face was almost entirely occupied by its enormous nose. The animal belched in his face.

"Now I can eat more," the animal said with a surprisingly high-pitched voice, excited face, and general lack of empathy as Ric swatted the stench away from his nose.

"That was gross," Kara said from behind.

He turned around, surprised to see her. She wore camouflage pants and a tucked-in blue t-shirt.

"Try this," she said. She held up a stone fruit with a vivid orange color.

He grabbed the fruit from her hands and bit into its flesh. It had the texture of gummy candy and the sting of a pineapple. His face turned sour, but in a good way.

The clock turned to a new hour. A loud clang vibrated off the walls, which preceded a cloud of sugar exploding into the air from sugar canons. The powder sugar slowly fell on their heads and the ground like sweet snow.

Kara laughed as Ric extended his tongue to the sugar snowflakes. He took another bite of the now sugar-covered fruit. Kara took a bite without even taking it from Ric's hands.

"What do you think?" she said.

"It's too sweet now. What do you think?"

"It's really disgusting," she said with her fingers over her smiling mouth. She knocked the fruit out of his hands and interlocked her fingers with his.

"We're going to do the cake toss together," she said.

"Okay," he said nervously.

It felt strange to hold her hand. He did not know her well enough to warrant such an intimate exchange. Nonetheless, he followed her like a caboose.

People and emps organized into two lines for the cake toss, with one line facing the other. Kara stood across from Ric. She was as close to him as she was on Emm's election party. Although it had felt strange to hold her hand, he realized it had only felt strange because he feared that Emm would see. If he was honest with his own feelings, he felt attracted to Kara. She was a smart software developer who was gorgeous, and she was somehow interested in him.

"Cake tossers. Are you ready?"

The emps replied in unison, "Always!"

Ric and Kara did not reply though. He just looked into her eyes, which confused him. He still did not know her well, but there was something about her. She was not just a person who he met on a chance encounter. She was a person who made him feel exciting.

He could not explain his feelings scientifically because he did not have much data. He did not know what she thought about current events or what her family was like. The only science that he could ascertain was the chemical reaction when he looked in her eyes. When he stood near her, their molecules reacted in an explosive courting.

Emm joined the cake toss, teaming up with Jerome who was covered in keg smoothie. It was all over his face and his clothes. Emm tolerated Jerome's frozen burps while she noticed Ric and Kara standing close to each other only several feet away.

"Toss!" the host emp demanded.

Kara grabbed her first small slice of cake and shoved it into Ric's mouth. The frosting had a balanced sweetness, and the fruit filling was exotically decadent. She took one step back, and Ric reached his slice of cake into her mouth. He took a step back and was now out of reach. She tossed it in the air with a brilliant 45-degree arc, right into his mouth. A few slices of cake from other teams were already splattered on the floor.

She took a step back, and Ric tossed his cake into the air. It was off center, but she made a leap for it and managed to catch it between her lips.

After a couple more rounds, it was only them who remained as well as Emm and Jerome. Emm and Kara grabbed their next slice of cake.

Jerome squinted his eyes and pointed at Ric as if to say, "Game on."

Ric was not worried though. Kara was spot-on with all her tosses. He just had to open his mouth and the cake fell in every time.

Kara cocked her arm backward and launched the cake forward with a strike. Emm also threw her slice of cake perfectly, but Jerome was too smoothie and cake drunk to manage any more degrees of coordination. The cake bounced off Jerome's nose and onto the floor.

Ric threw his hands in the air. "We have our victors!" the host emp shouted.

Kara grabbed a handful of cake and walked toward Ric. He opened his mouth wide open with his hands still in the air, anticipating another round of cake to eat, but Kara smashed the cake into his face.

One of the chicken bats observed the cake smashing. At first, it spoke a spastic and quiet, "Food fight."

With its strange voice and an oddly melodious crescendo, it declared "Food fight, food fight!" It yelled as loud as its chicken bat lungs could manage, and it flew around the entire building, calling for a food fight. Soon enough, food was being tossed everywhere around the building. Those who were somehow still hungry were eating food off their own faces. Clothes and tables were all equally blanketed with mashed food.

Kara wiped the cake off Ric's face, pushing the cake to the side and off his lips. Her mouth was close to his as she stood on her toes and moved her hands around the back of his neck.

Emm noticed. She sighed loudly, turned and walked away.

Kara closed her eyes and leaned forward with her mouth slightly open. He wanted to kiss her to find out how explosive the chemical reaction would be if their lips touched, but he also wanted to be with Emm. Kara was exciting, and she seemed like a good person. There was nothing wrong with her. Everything about her was perfect, and as she leaned toward him to express her feelings, he wanted to reciprocate.

Instead, he let Kara lean into the air as he walked away.

He could hear Jerome's voice in his head. If he was going to end up with Emm or Kara, then he had to pick one before it was too late. He hoped it was not already too late.

Chapter 28

Ric wiped the cake off his face with his hands and some water from an abandoned cup. He searched for Emm among the food-stuffed crowd. He checked by the smoothie kegs and the ends of the building, but he could not find her, so he asked a chicken bat.

"Yup, yup, yup, yup." The chicken bat cocked its head to either side with every word. "I saw her leave out the side entrance."

"Where is she going?"

"Yup, yup, yup. She probably went to the color races in the long building over there. The color races are very exciting. Yup, yup."

Ric left the food building and found his way into the games building. Only true entertainment gurus would have a building in their war fortress dedicated to games. The emps were one of a kind.

In the center of the building was a large dirt racetrack in the shape of an oval. The thousands of seats each had a neon glow beneath them to distinguish the sections by color. The size of the building was spectacular, and it was going to take a while to find Emm unless luck worked in his favor.

He started with the closest section and worked his way around until he found her sitting high up in the gold section. He sat beside her and stared at the empty racetrack below.

"Did you get all the cake off your face or did she?"

"I did. With water. From a glass."

Ric did not know what to say or how to say it. He just wanted to communicate how he felt about Emm. He preferred to tell her that he cared by kissing her, but that was not an option at the moment. Somehow, he had to redeem himself.

"I didn't kiss her."

"Maybe that was a mistake."

"I like you a lot, Emm, and nobody else is going to change that."

"You're going to have to do better than that."

He saw a window of opportunity to sacrifice himself for an apology. He sang opera style, "I'm sorry, and I didn't kiss her because I want to get to know you better...and I think you're really great."

"Is that all you got?"

Ric stood up, now a complete fool in front of everyone watching in the gold section and the sections adjacent. He sang even louder, trading his opera tone for an airy, cracked voice.

"When I first saw you, you made me feel alive. Now, when I see you I still feel the same, but better. We can—"

"Okay, sh," she said laughing with embarrassed, red cheeks. Nearby emps covered their ears from the wretched noise. They looked like they just experienced the most stressful situation of their lives.

"That was definitely awful. I don't think you hit a single integer sound wave," Emm said.

"So, what do you say?"

"I guess I'll let you get to know me better, if that's what you really want."

"That's the only thing I want."

Ric did not even know what their relationship had just become, but he wanted whatever it was.

The emps at the edge of the gold section recovered from Ric's vocal disaster, and they were fighting with emps in the red section about the color races. Their blue cheeks turned purple with anger, and they threw drinks at each other.

"They are pretty heated over the game," Ric observed.

"Even the most peaceful need an outlet for violence. After the game, they will shake hands and hug like nothing ever happened."

The racers drove out of their garages and onto the racetrack. Their vehicles were like double sided mopeds with turbo engines. They could rotate and drive the vehicle facing forward or backward. Their vehicle color as well as their armor and training swords matched the color of their team. There were three per team, and there were eight teams altogether.

"Their swords look like our training swords."

"They are a little lighter and easier to wield, but it's the same concept. We gave them the training swords a long time ago, thinking that they would use them to prepare for war. The emps never took to war though. They prefer games."

"So, how do the color games work?"

"Each team groups together, and they start out about a hundred yards from the other teams. When they get the green light, they drive around the track and try to hit the other teams' suits and turn them dark. Whenever an entire team loses their armor color, the round starts over and that repeats until there is only one team remaining."

"Interesting. I like the red team to win."

"How dare you," Emm said with a playful tone. "You have to sit in the red section then."

"I'm scared of the red section," Ric said as the emps in the red section sported deeper shades of purple fury on their faces.

"Fine, but if gold makes it farther than red, then I get to know why you touch your necklace all the time."

"And if red wins, I get to know why you asked me about my opinion on death the first time you were in my room."

"Deal."

The stadium was full as the racers lined up in their starting positions. The gold team looked modest compared to the red team. The red team had an emp that stood a foot taller than the rest of them.

When they got the green light, the teams dashed forward in various formations. The main key for survival seemed to be avoiding a color sandwich, and to keep in contact with only one other team at a time. The red team got off to a hairy start, losing one of their members to a jab in the back from the green team. The gold team skillfully outplayed the blue team without additional aid to end the first round.

"Prepare to tell me all your secrets, Ric."

"Don't worry. The red team will look much better this time. I can feel it."

The red team did worse the second round. The only reason they stayed in the race was because the purple team lost their third member a split second before red was thoroughly compromised. The tall emp had a presence but had a knack for dropping his training sword.

In the third round, the red team got pummeled within seconds. The emps in the red section stared in disbelief. Their high excitement only served as a sharp contrast to the pain of their loss.

"Congratulations," Ric said.

Emm was in better spirits. Her eyes were bright with sincerity and love. She bit her lip in a playful way.

"Come on," she said, taking his hand. "I want to show you something."

Chapter 29

The roof of the fortress building was flat and enormous. It would have taken an hour to walk along its outer walls. Emm got up on one of the ledges and yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Hello!"

Her voice echoed a far distance. Moments later, he heard another echo, but it was not Emm's voice. It sounded like it came from giant reptiles. The animals were undoubtedly large because their powerful movement bent the trees around them.

"What was that?"

"Dragons," Emm said. "They are the only large species that the emps have not made peace with, which means the dragons are the only meat eaters left on this planet, and we are meat. We should be safe here tonight though. They sleep at night just like us."

So, it was true. On Earth, dragons were purported as scaly, giant beasts of legend that could destroy villages with fire breath. In reality on the blueberry planet, they could fly and they were dangerous. That was all Ric cared to know.

What he really wanted to know more about was Emm. He was not satisfied with their current relationship because she was like water. Every time he thought he had enough, he later wanted more. Part of him was apprehensive though. He risked getting hurt every time he gave a piece of his heart to her. But the future was a mystery while the present truth was plainly obvious. He was with her. She was there with him, and the stars and the glowing white rock served as their light. Giving his heart to her was a risk, but he would have been a fool to do anything less. For the first time, they were truly alone.

"Try yelling," she said. "It's freeing."

Emm stood on the ledge with the wind blowing her hair.

Ric did not usually take risks like standing on a ledge. He did not usually fall in love with someone either.

He stepped onto the ledge with her helping hand. The trees spanned for miles until the water no longer permitted their planting. Mountains of snow from far away gave a chill to the wind which blew his shirt like a ship's flag in the open sea.

He interlocked his fingers with hers. She did not look surprised, and she did not pull away. It was just them on top of the fortress. Nobody would know what they shared that night. There was no need to hide. He could hold her hand, and she could hold his, and everything would be alright. Everything they did would be their secret.

"I don't want dragons to eat me!" he yelled to the wild air and to the beasts in the forest.

The dragons echoed through the air even louder this time. Startled, Ric and Emm hid behind the ledge. Her arms wrapped around his body, and her head rested on his chest.

He could feel his heart pounding against her ear. In the past, a hug seemed pointless as though two people were fighting inevitable separation. Now, he understood. The hug itself was fleeting, but the memory was not lost in their separation. He could still feel the warmth of her head on his chest as she pulled away, and his heart still pounded as if she would remain there forever. He did not want to let go.

"Would you like to slow dance with me?" he asked.

"With no music?" she asked.

He nodded his head, and she bounced to her feet. She pumped her fists onto her chest and into the windy night in slow motion, but Ric had a different idea in mind. He placed his hands on her sides and moved her body with his feet.

"This is a weird slow dance," she said, still pumping her fists in the air in slow motion.

"It's a traditional slow dance...almost," he said. "Put your arms around my neck."

She wrapped her arms around him.

"Yeah, like that. Now, just move your feet wherever I go."

She looked down at his feet to mimic them, and then she looked into his eyes. The wind was calmer now, but his heart was not. It pounded in his chest as if trying to escape it altogether so that it could beat alongside her heart.

He took her hand, propelling her for a spin, and then bringing her back for a dip. The dip was clumsy, but it worked in his favor as she fell into him. He moved his feet a little, and she wrapped her arms around his neck once again. This time she was closer to him. Her body moved in unison with his.

"Why am I here?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you pick me to fight in galactic warfare? All the others are so much more physically adept than I am."

"I personally picked you because you see things differently than the rest do. Tell me what you see when you look up at the night sky."

"I'd rather look at you. You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

His instinct was to be less forward for once, but he could not help it. There were few known truths in the galaxy, and the truth that he was attracted to her needed to be spoken. All he wanted was to hold onto her, and for the blueberry planet to halt its movement so the night would last forever.

Her eyes moved from the stars to his eyes. Looking at her felt like listening to birds in the warmth of the rising sun. Nothing was on his mind except for her. He felt a burning desire to kiss her, but the moment slipped away again.

She tripped on a pipe protruding from the roof, and she fell on her back, laughing. Ric pretended to trip on the pipe as well, and he landed with his head next to hers.

"No, but seriously." Her laugh calmed. "What do you see when you look up at the night sky?"

"I used to see the past expressed in the plasma of the stars. I used to wonder where all the aliens were. These days, I look up at all the billions of stars, and I wonder what they see when they look at me."

A long silence befell them. The stars were beautiful in the naked Milky Way. There were no city lights to mask the photons that traveled from light years away just to grant him a visual of their star source. Long before he was ever born, the photon light left its star and traveled toward the roof of the fortress for a chance encounter with him. There was such a low probability of a given photon meeting his eye, but it happened every second. It was a romance of space and time, of light and probability, of him and Emm.

"It was my sister's. Maggie."

"What?"

"You were wondering about my necklace."

"Can I see?"

He handed the necklace to her, and she held it above her head to see its gold contrast with the black space.

"What does the 't' at the end mean?"

"It's called a cross. It's a symbol of grace. My mother gave it to my sister before they both passed away, my mom in the war, and my sister in a hunting accident."

"I'm sorry."

"I never found out how my parents died, only that they were in our home country at the time. My sister..."

"You don't have to talk about it."

"No, I want to. I haven't told anyone this before, but I feel like telling you. After my parents died, the only family member who could take care of us was my grandpa. For a while, all we did was hang around the house, trying to cope. Then one day, he wanted to cheer us up and get us out of the house. I think part of him wanted one last day with his gun too. He hunted all his life, and Phase 8 was going to force him to give his gun away. I remember looking at the trees around me. Everything was so calm. Birds were chirping. We walked over a small hill and found a pond of water where a moose was drinking. My grandpa told us to hide behind the hill because the moose was dangerous, but I could not move. My eyes were fixed on how enormous that moose was, how powerful it looked. I watched the water drip from its chin as it looked at my grandpa and his gun. It got aggressive and charged. My grandpa fired a shot, but his hands were too shaky from old age, and he missed. He raised the gun again, and put his finger on the trigger. I still don't know how Maggie knew, but she knew. She pushed me out of the way just before the moose mauled my grandpa. The impact knocked him to the ground and caused his finger to pull the trigger when the gun was pointed at her. Every time I look at a gun, I think to myself, 'Why didn't I just hide behind that hill?' If I did, she would still be here. Sometimes I talk to her. I ask her to forgive me, but it's hard because she can't talk back to me. Mostly, I just miss her."

"Death," Emm said. "That's what I see when I look at the stars. I just wonder why people and stars have to die, why death has to be the end."

"Some people think that there's life after death."

"I've never heard of that. I hope they're right. I'd get to see my mother, and you'd get to ask Maggie anything you wanted."

She rubbed her thumb on the cross. To him, death was a foe best placed at a distance. All his life, he kept it at a distance, only sharing his feelings sparingly with Jerome. Something about her made him feel safe, like he did not have to hide from his memories.

Part of him wanted to change the subject to hear her laugh again, but he felt okay just being with her. He returned his sights on the stars above him, and he leaned his head on hers while they held hands.

Her hair was soft, and it smelled like the flowers of Paradise. His eyes became heavy. Blinks turned into extended darkness, and the photons that traveled from far away were no longer detected by his wandering eyes.

Chapter 30

Ric woke up with armor that landed on his face.

"You're lucky I found you first, little brother."

He poked his head above the armor and looked around for Emm, but he did not find her. Only Jerome stood there in full war gear.

"What time—"

"Put on your gear, and I'll tell you everything. You're lucky I found you first because you missed Remai's pep talk. Apparently, the information we gave Remai about the uh..."

"Krevils?"

"Yeah, those. Lucky for you and your gray sword, the strategy totally changed. We're not going to be fighting them up close at all. We're just going to stick with guns."

Ric hopped on one boot to put the other on. "What time is it?"

"A few minutes 'till sunrise. They'll attack soon."

He finished strapping on his weapons as he followed Jerome down one level to the turrets and the rest of the 100 in their squad. There were forty heavy turrets, each with their own window. He and Jerome discretely assigned themselves the turret nearest the door to avoid being seen by the squad leader and being recognized for their tardiness.

The room was void of noise but it was not silent. Ric could nearly hear the concern for safety trickling to the surface of everyone's minds. He was concerned too.

The sun had already risen. Blue, red, and orange light populated the sky as the blueberry planet spun on its axis, spinning them closer to war. Once there was enough light, the Krevils would approach, and death would be more probable than ever. He was not ready to die. He did not even know who he was yet.

"Alright, listen up," the squad leader said. "Your job is to keep yourself alive and to shoot the enemy. My job is to keep you alive. That is what I want. The only thing that matters to me is keeping you alive, and I need your help doing that today. If we can do that, it's gonna be a good day. What kind of day is it going to be?"

"A good one!" shouted someone from across the room.

"What kind of day is it going to be?"

"A good one!" everyone shouted.

Ric responded with the others to the pep talk, but he felt less than energetic. Her personal confidence in their safety calmed his nerves, but he did not want to numb his sense of danger. Ultimately, her assurances would do nothing for his safety, but the sick feeling in his stomach would serve as a reminder of his mortality. It would propel him to perform well enough to stay alive. Hopefully.

The colors of the sky changed to light blue, and the sun rose above the tree line. The beams of light from the sun peered through the windows onto their faces. A new day was born, and thousands were going to die.

Ric put his hands over his squinting eyes. The bright malice of the sun was harassment, but it only lasted a few seconds before the sky was plagued with sinister darkness. He relaxed his eyes, expecting to see a dark cloud. Instead there were countless Krevils flying in the air. Their dark bodies filled the sky like a starless outer space.

"Prepare your aim!" The squad leader ordered.

"Fire at will!"

Just like that, dark energy beams rapidly emitted from the turrets. Holes of light poked through the ceiling of Krevils. Ric and Jerome watched from the back of the line, waiting to relieve the turret holder.

"Keep them from breaching zone 1," the squad leader complained, but they already breached it. The Krevils made it close enough to the fortress to split out of their formations. There were just too many of them. They dove and dodged the beams as if they had been training for it their whole lives. They probably had.

It was Ric's turn.

He knelt down on the stony floor. The gun was large, but the handle had the same grip as his dark energy gun. He looked for where the Krevils were still densely formed and fired there. Dark energy beams spat from his gun. Most of the enemies were still far away, but a couple got within a few feet. It was only a matter of time before one of them bashed through the back door or otherwise found their way in.

Jerome tapped him on the shoulder and took his place.

The squad leader had her back turned to the windows with her hand pressed against her headset. She was talking with Remai and the other squad leaders.

Holes of light peaked through the windows again. Jerome and everyone else avoided the blinding sun altogether by pointing their turrets away from it. The Krevils could have approached the fortress from the blinding angle without trouble.

Ric thought about alerting the squad leader, but she looked too occupied, talking into the headset over the sound of the dark energy beams.

Ric alerted them himself. "Shoot the other way!" he yelled. "Shoot—"

A dark horror lurked into their sanctuary. Ric's throat became dry, and his perspiration was intensified as a Krevil flew onto Jerome's window sill. Jerome did not notice since his focus was down the sights of his gun.

The Krevil cocked its arm toward the sky to deliver a lethal blow to Jerome. There was not enough time to warn him.

Ric reached for his dark energy gun, but he fumbled it. It was strapped on backwards again. By the time he tried to recollect his gun, it was too late. He could not help his brother, the only person in the world that he truly loved.

The Krevil nearly struck Jerome in the head, but a dark energy beam intervened just in time. The squad leader shot it.

Jerome realized what happened after the Krevil fell directly in front of his gun.

"That was lucky," Jerome said as he walked to the back of the line again.

"Yeah," Ric said through his dry throat as he strapped his gun in the correct way.

He almost had time to exhale relief when a nitro grenade was tossed into the room. It came through Jerome's window at an angle and fell in the center of the room. He and Jerome darted for the door and dove through the air as the ice exploded behind them. They escaped with only cuts from the hard ground while everyone else was frozen. The floor, the walls, and the people between them were all covered in blocks of ice.

"Ric, we gotta get out of here."

Jerome was right. Every window was now dark with approaching Krevils. The squad leader was the closest to making it out of the room. Her motionless eyes were wide open with frozen fear. Near her legs was the headset, the only thing in the whole room that escaped the ice.

"We really need to go, Ric."

He snatched the headset and slipped out of the room as Krevils poured through the windows.

Chapter 31

Ric and Jerome ran through the fortress halls, changing course whenever the Krevils got close to catching up. Jerome turned to fire his nitro gun on occasion, but Ric did not notice if it was helping. He was just focused on sprinting away from the danger. For the first time in his life, he was the prey being hunted by predators.

He spoke into the headset that the squad leader left behind. "We need help. We are under attack. Our squad...they're all dead."

"Repeat that, soldier," Remai said. "Did you say your entire squad is dead?"

"Affirmative. It's just us two. We're being chased by Krevils. We need help."

"No," Remai overruled. "We need to stay the course."

Other squad leaders spoke on the line. "We cannot hold the roof for much longer, Remai. Our shields are losing strength."

A Krevil dove at Ric from the air. He pulled out his nitro gun and turned the Krevil into a large block of ice. He ducked as the frozen Krevil crashed into the ground like a small asteroid.

The Krevils were getting closer. Running from them was not a sustainable way to survive. He had to change his strategy. They could have fought the Krevils, but that would not have been sustainable either. The law of large numbers was against them. They could have hidden behind a door and used their dark energy shields, but that would have only postponed death.

The roof. It was weakened, but it was the only option.

"We have to go to the roof," Ric said.

"You won't stand a chance up there with your sword," Jerome said as he fired a couple more nitro beams.

"It's our only chance to get away from these creeps."

"Over there!" Jerome pointed.

There was an enclosed staircase at the end of the hall. Jerome stopped shooting behind him as they sprinted as fast as they could.

The adrenaline was enough to keep them going despite their tired lungs and exhausted muscles. Ric ran so fast that his headset flew off his head and into the stampede of Krevils. He followed Jerome up the dark stairs, and then through the door to the blinding daylight.

Jerome curled around the entrance to the roof and opened his dark energy sword. Two Krevils immediately fell into the sword and split in half. The next Krevil smacked Jerome's dark energy sword out of his hands in Ric's direction. Ric caught it in mid-air, and the dark energy sword turned gray. He tossed it back to Jerome. It turned yellow immediately after Jerome grabbed it, just in time to deliver a lethal counterattack to the Krevil.

Krevils were dominating the roof and would eventually control all the roofs and their access to the inner fortress. Ric and Jerome had to move. They ran through a maze of people defending their lives with dark energy. The various colors of the dark energy swords were vivid until their owners fell to the Krevils.

Ric managed to make it halfway to the next door before a Krevil cut off his path.

Jerome stepped in front of him and fought the Krevil. His strength matched the Krevil's with every swing. He put the Krevil in a vulnerable position, and Ric finished it off with his dark energy gun.

Ric was still recovering from the chase. His lungs were wheezy, and his heart thumped madly. There were so many opportunities for him to die all within the last few minutes. Anything could have gone wrong at any moment.

Jerome's heavy breathing turned into a laugh.

"This is exciting," he said.

Somehow, Jerome made him laugh even in the most dangerous situation. They laughed together, but only for a moment. A Krevil approached Jerome from the back.

Ric darted to his right to get a good angle, and he shot the Krevil while still in a dive.

"We need to keep moving," Jerome realized.

They made it to the other roof exit. He wanted to stop the whole thing. He wanted Jerome and Emm to find a corner with him and stay there while the battle pressed on to its resolution. That was not an option though. Emm would never agree to it. Jerome might.

"Help! Help!" someone screamed.

A group of people were cornered by Krevils and vulnerable from the rear. He started toward the people, but Jerome pushed him back.

"No, brother. You go down those stairs and find some turrets to man. You've been lucky to last this long on the roof, and I can't protect both you and me up here."

He hated that Jerome was right. He would not have lasted much longer on the roof without a usable dark energy sword. What lied before him down the stairs was not a guarantee of safety though. He was scared to be alone. By the time he opened his mouth to request accompaniment, Jerome was already running to the people's aid.

Ric had to fend for himself.

Chapter 32

He was not being chased for once. It felt good to be calm and appreciate what was in front of him instead of worry about the doom from behind.

The fortress was beautiful with artistic pillars that stretched to the tall ceiling. He walked down a long hallway and looked at the statues on either side. Most of the statues were of the emps' everyday lives. One statue was of a mother holding her baby. Another was of two friends hugging. One of the friends had a piece of cake in his hand. Ric laughed and thought about Jerome. It was the perfect planet for Jerome to live in because his stomach would never growl again. They could live there and eat well. They could go anywhere they wanted. The whole galaxy was theirs for the living as long as they could live through the battle.

He heard footsteps rounding the corner. His gut turned because he did not want to be seen by Krevils or anyone else. He wanted to admire the art until the sweet darkness of night arrived and scared the Krevils away.

They were almost in the hallway.

He ducked behind the friends statue and leaned to the side to see that it was not the Krevils that approached. It was Marz and his squad.

Unfortunately, if there was one group in the whole fortress that he belonged with, it was Marz's squad. They exclusively used guns as their weapons, and guns were the only weapon that Ric could use since his dark energy sword was worthless.

The sound from their boots hitting the stone ground vibrated off the walls and ceiling. The echo was magical. He wanted to stay and sing with an imaginary choir, but duty compelled him. He already killed a few Krevils. He needed to kill the rest to end the battle and all its miseries.

"Enjoy your cake, my friend," he said to the statue.

He followed the squad from a distance, trying to keep his own feet from generating an echo. They jogged a half mile until finding their way to a turret room where another squad egressed to make room.

When all was clear, he quietly made his way to the turret room. There were two people per turret, and Marz was attentively watching their progress.

The sky was still black with Krevils, but Marz's squad efficiently picked them out of the sky one by one. "Stage 3."

"Stage 3!" Marz barked.

Ric was not discrete enough.

"Where are you supposed to be?"

"My squad got—"

"I don't care," Marz said. "Just leave. Or if you stay, just don't mess things up with my squad. We're doing just fine without your unworthy assistance."

Ric considered leaving just to get away from Marz's contempt, but Marz's squad was his best chance at staying alive in case the Krevils finally poured in through every entrance of the fortress. He stood in line at the closest turret. The guy in front of him had a long beard and tattoos of rings around his upper arms.

"What's going on with the battle? Are we winning?" he asked the guy with the beard.

"Hecks yeah, dude. What kind of question is that? Of course we are going to win this war."

"No, that's not what I—"

The guy bent down to man the turret, trading places with his partner. "Sorry about him, friend. He gets a little excited," the man said with a British accent.

"So, how are we doing?"

"I heard that they will settle their differences in the courtyard."

"Outside?"

"Out in the center of all the fortress buildings."

That made no sense at all. Meeting the Krevils in the center of all the buildings was almost the same as fighting on the roof. Remai was going to play to the advantage of the Krevils. The only reason Ric could conjure was that they were losing the battle. They were desperate.

At that point, all he wanted to do was man his own turret and pick out every Krevil from the sky. He wanted to control the situation in his favor, but that was impossible. There were not enough turrets, and he only had two hands.

He nearly had a shot at using the turret, but a pack of Krevils burst into the room on the opposite side. They were too fast for everyone to react in their own defense. It was a proper mauling as the stampede of Krevils stomped toward him.

"Go!" Marz yelled.

Ric dashed out the door, and Marz ran beside him. It was another terrifying sprint for his life, but worse than the last one since Marz was with him instead of Jerome. It was the first time that Ric saw a scared expression on Marz's face. Even the most arrogant among them was humbled in the face of death.

Marz looked behind his shoulder, letting out gasps of horror as the Krevils closed in on them. Death, it seemed, was unavoidable for both of them.

It was even more unavoidable when Marz reached his arm around Ric and pushed him to the ground.

He could not believe it. His body crashed to the floor along with his dark energy gun which slipped out of its holster, out of reach. It was a painful fall with the stone ground cutting his flesh and the realization that there was nothing he could do to save himself. The Krevils would surely stop to kill him instead of chase after the more challenging prey that Marz had just become.

A Krevil landed on the ground and ran toward him. He pulled out his nitro gun and shot it just in time, but the frozen Krevil slid into his leg, pinning it against a pillar. It did not crush his leg, but it was enough to shoot warnings of a life-threatening situation through his body. The pain was unimaginable. He dropped his gun and dug deep into his soul to express the raw pain he felt. He opened his wet eyes to see the blurred image of another Krevil walking toward him. He was trapped. It was over.

The Krevil stood over him. It was an alien, a wild animal. It was the monster that his dreams prepared him for all his life. This situation was different than his dreams in which he stood a fighting chance, however. He could not even stand now, much less move without feeling waves of pain rush through his leg all over again.

The Krevil surprised him. It said, "May death find you in a more honorable way."

It amassed its strength and pushed the frozen block away from his leg before it flew away.

Stunned by his own survival, he nearly forgot that he still had legs to move. He leveraged his good leg to stand up while more Krevils turned the corner into the hall and spotted him. Chances were that they would not be so honorable as the last Krevil.

He hobbled toward the end of a dark hallway and hid around the corner. The Krevils scurried away immediately when the darkness overwhelmed their eyes. It was the perfect hideaway. He could have easily stayed there, taken care of his leg, and slept his pain away. He wanted to, but he could not let Jerome and Emm fight in the courtyard without him. Their suicide mission was his suicide mission.

He nearly turned the corner to head back to the main fortress area but realized that a Krevil was still in the hallway, slowly walking toward his hiding spot. The Krevil sniffed loudly, relying on its nose and ears to see on behalf of its eyes. It was only a few feet away from him as he slipped his fingers into his holster and felt for his guns, but they were not there.

He had left them on the ground after his leg got pinned by the frozen Krevil.

The only weapon he had was his dark energy sword. He gripped onto it, and he waited for the Krevil to turn the corner. He tried to control his breathing, but his lungs struggled to keep steady as adrenaline coursed through his body.

The Krevil was only a foot away. It stopped moving for a minute to assess its surroundings. Whether its nose picked up his scent or not, it opted out of turning the corner in favor of precious light.

It was the second time that he was deferred to a more honorable death. He walked back out and picked up his guns for the next time his life was threatened.

Chapter 33

Anyone who was still alive was in the courtyard. Everyone except Ric. He crouched next to a low window and watched Remai discuss terms with a Krevil leader. On Ric's left was one of the color race vehicles and the sky bridge leading to the games building. To his right was the main fortress hallways from where he came.

Remai and the Krevil leader headed back to their respective sides, and with a single word the battle began. "Charge!"

Thousands of dark energy swords clashed in the center of the massive fortress. He tried to find Jerome among all of them, but there were too many others, and too much distance between him and the farthest people to discern their faces. The Krevils were off to a crushing start. The front line of people did not stand much of a chance to begin with. It was truly an act of desperation by Remai and Emm.

Emm. He hoped she was safe in all the madness. Perhaps she was watching the battle from a window just like him. She could be with Jerome, and they could defend each other. It was unlikely, but necessary to keep his mind from wandering too far into worried madness.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway at a running pace. Two apparently lost Krevils ran his direction. Like cockroaches, they never left him alone, and they came out of nowhere. Ric sulked as they ran toward him. He took out his nitro gun and blasted at them, but they were too elusive. They progressed dangerously close, so he jumped onto the color races vehicle and made his way through the sky bridge, still shooting behind him. The vehicle was surprisingly easy to drive. It had built in smart technology to keep it from a collision while maximizing its speed by default.

He drove the vehicle onto the oval track of the games building. It was an open area, which was not ideal, but it was his only option at the moment. He sped around the track, trying to land a hit on the Krevils, but he was mostly just freezing the seats with every missed shot.

A Krevil dove toward him, and he turned it into an ice cube, leaving only one Krevil remaining. He turned around and the other Krevil was speeding toward him. He ducked out of the way, but the nitro gun got knocked out of his hands.

As the Krevil flew above him, Ric sat where he would normally place his feet, trusting the vehicle to steer him away from the walls. The Krevil reached for him, but his head was just out of reach. As it pulled its hand back, its finger caught his necklace and ripped it off his neck. He took advantage of the separation and shot it with his dark energy gun.

He slowed the vehicle to a halt and walked over to the Krevil's body and the shambles that his necklace had become. His sister's necklace was in shambles. Hatred coursed through his veins. They took the one material object that he cared about in the universe, and they broke it. He aimed his gun at the Krevil and shot it dozens of times over. He yelled at the top of his lungs until the anger was thoroughly expelled into the air, until his lungs were empty.

He threw his gun as far as he could, then picked up the cross and a few other necklace parts that he could scrounge. He held them next to his heart where they belonged. Tearful screaming felt like the only right thing to do for his sister who was lost, and for himself who was also lost.

"I didn't know you had such a sentimental side, Stage 3."

He was shocked back to the present. He stuffed the cross into his pocket and turned around to find Marz pointing a dark energy gun at his chest.

"You know, ever since I met you that first night, I didn't like you."

"I couldn't tell," Ric said sarcastically.

"Shut up. I'm going to do the talking, and you're going to listen, and your puny stage 3 brain is going to comprehend it."

"Do you want to know the real reason I hate people?" Marz continued. "I hate you people because you're so...pretentious. Everything is about you, you, you. Earth is yours, and screw every other living thing. You have never been peaceful, and you never will be because of who you are."

His words spilled out of his mouth like growls. "It's written in your DNA. There is no societal system in the galaxy in which you would be peaceful. You are poison that runs its course through this galaxy's veins. I'd kill every last one of you if I had the chance."

Ric tried to think of a distraction. Marz's breathing was getting heavier, and his eyes were dark with ill intent.

"But you can't kill me or anyone else because Emm would find out, and she would hate—"

"How dare you bring up Emm," Marz growled. "You don't think I know about your little chat on the roof last night? It's so obvious. It always has been. You look at her with your cute little stage 3 eyes, and she lets you. It makes me sick to watch it, but then..."

Marz paused to smile and expel a wicked laugh from his throat. The mild chuckle turned into a raspy hysteria.

"But then..." he continued. "Then I realize that I am jealous of you, puny Stage 3."

Marz's face turned completely stoic again. The laughing was over.

"You're a joke, Stage 3. You're so much of a joke that I want to restrain myself from killing you right now. But, unlucky for you, it's just too convenient."

Marz raised his gun again.

"A Krevil!" Ric shouted, trying to look genuinely concerned.

Marz looked over his shoulder, and Ric pulled out his dark energy sword. He whacked the gun out of Marz's hands and smacked him in the head with the sword. It gave him just enough time to sprint to an open door accessible from the track. The door led to a maze of walls, pillars, and storage items used for the color races.

He kept moving for a while until Marz's footsteps weakened in volume and eventually became silent altogether. He tried to steady his breathing, but it was difficult. There were too many corners to feel safe. Wherever he turned, there was a chance of encountering Marz, but until that happened it was just him and his shadow cast by the artificial blue light above.

He chose to keep moving. He peeked around each corner to see the room dimensions and whether Marz was there. Chills flurried up his spine at the thought of Marz approaching from his back. His imagination made all the eerie possibilities feel real.

"I think you're close, Stage 3."

He heard Marz's voice, but it was difficult to discern the precise location.

"I've got to hand it to you. I didn't expect you to outwit me in a life or death situation, or any situation for that matter. I promise you it won't happen again."

Ric retraced his steps backward, still trying to discern where the voice was coming from.

"This is kind of fun. It's like a sport. You're my defenseless prey, and I'm your predator. You might as well give up now. You and the rest of your people don't stand a chance. You have no idea what's coming for you, and you never will because you will die today. The rest will realize their fate and the danger they have been in all along. They will see."

Ric slid against the wall and rounded another corner. The silence was worse than the hateful taunting because he could no longer track Marz's location with the relative position of his ears.

He pressed his back against the cold wall and leaned his head around another corner. Marz was not there. He nearly turned the corner but there was a footstep from the other direction.

Marz shot a dark energy beam a split second after Ric dove behind the wall and sprinted through the maze, turning whichever way his instincts led him. After numerous random turns, there was a bright light beaming through one of the doorways that led him back to the oval track in the games building.

The nearest sky bridge was just up the stairs. He nearly continued his sprint in that direction, but he paused. Marz's taunting was too curious. There was a fate that Marz knew, yet Ric and other people were unaware.

He jogged up the steps and stood over the door from which he exited the maze. When Marz came out, Ric jumped from the ledge, knocking Marz down hard on the ground. He beat on Marz's face with his fist until Marz was bloody enough to submit.

"What do you mean that my people will realize the danger they've been in all along?"

Marz laughed with blood oozing from his cut lips. Ric shook him by the shoulders, and prodded him to be transparent.

"You know what, Stage 3? You have really nice eyes. I see why Emm gets confused sometimes."

It was hopeless. Information about the future was always elusive, and this instance was no different. Ric could continue his method of beating information out of Marz, but at a cost to his own identity. Instead, he stripped Marz's dark energy gun from its holster and strapped it into his own to ensure his safety as he walked away.

"You're all pawns," Marz coughed.

Marz was too stubborn to give away information after a beating, but he was too arrogant to withhold it at the risk of appearing inferior.

"Remai never intended for Earth to be an ally. Nobody in Paradise was that stupid. Historically, you are too unpredictable. You're here to minimize the damage incurred to Paradise. You're a cushion. The more you die, the less we die. There was never a threat to the entire galaxy. This was a civil war, and it always has been until today."

"So, Earth was never in any danger? Do you all want to destroy us?"

"Remai won't attack Earth, but he won't defend you either. If all of you left through that green hall the day you were recruited, Earth would have been completely safe. Now, Earth has an enemy in the Krevils and the Fallen, and you will have to fend for yourselves because Paradise won't deploy a single resource to save you. Your planet was doomed the moment you stepped on this one."

"Your lies jeopardized our entire planet," Ric mumbled to himself as he processed everything. "Earth has a target on its back because of you. But why would they attack this planet if it was just a civil war between them and you? Why go after the emps?"

"The Fallen want to survive just like the rest of us. They want to destroy Paradise, yes. But they want to take this planet because it has more water, more food, more everything than they have. It's simple economics. As for you..." Marz could barely contain his laugh. "As for Earth, you stood in their way of progress. They have a long memory and a short temper. They'll destroy Earth because you gave them a reason to. That is a certainty."

Marz curled to his side and laughed hysterically again. Fear dropped in Ric's stomach like an anvil. Knowledge was always powerful, but especially so in that moment. For the first time in his life, he did not want the knowledge. He wished he had just run up the stairs, or, better yet, that Marz never found him in the games building to begin with. The truth, in this case, was a lie. They were all lied to, and now all people would have to defend Earth and fight for their survival.

Chapter 34

Ric exited the games building. The molecules in the hallways reacted with his olfactory senses to produce a burnt smell.

He mustered the final ounces of energy left in his body, and he ran the rest of the way to the courtyard. A dark smoke cloud arose from the courtyard, or what was left of it. It had caved into the tunnel below.

Once, the tunnel was a fortified assembly of pillars, but now the tunnel and the courtyard were the same. The middle of the fortress was a giant box of rubble and dust.

Ric covered his face with his shirt. The smoke and ash was denser as he approached the edge of the hole that was once the courtyard. His right foot fell into it, and it would have taken the rest of his body with it if he was not so careful.

He coughed deeply. His lungs were already tired from all the high adrenaline chasing. Now his lungs were breathing in toxins for which his shirt was not an adequate filter. He ran back into the games building where he fell on his knees, coughing out the poison smoke. It appeared that he and Marz were the only survivors. It was his worst nightmare. A life without Jerome was the worst life he could imagine.

But then a spaceship flew overhead. There was another survivor. A second one flew by. Either they were reinforcements from Paradise, or they won the battle and were heading out.

He walked in the direction that the spaceships were coming from, and there was a crowd of people walking that way. He tried to yell, but his throat was too dry, and his lungs could only manage a grizzly cough. He caught up to the crowd of people as quickly as he could.

"Jerome," he coughed. His voice was coming back. "Jerome!"

People looked back at him with curious stares, but none of them were Jerome. He continued his run beside the trees and all the people until he came to a sea of emps applauding them. The emps threw each other in the air, and they cheered for the battle that was won on their behalf.

"Thank you!" they chanted.

They threw toilet paper in the air, and squares of it floated into his walking path. Beyond the sea of emps and toilet paper was the collection of spaceships ready for takeoff. He looked around for Jerome again but did not see him.

There was a vacant spaceship nearby on which he leaned his shoulder. The ship smelled like space. The high velocity molecules of space had collided with the blueberry planet's atmosphere on arrival to create the metallic, burnt meat smell.

"Ric!"

Jerome ran toward him, alive and healthy. Ric coughed the greatest relief of his life as Jerome gave him a long hug.

"I didn't know if you were still breathing. I was worried about you," Jerome said.

"I wasn't worried."

"Shut up, little bro. I know you were extremely worried about me. Nothing was on your mind the whole time except for these bad boys." Jerome flexed his biceps. "You couldn't live without 'em."

"Okay, Jerome."

"So, did you stay by the stairs the whole time, or what?"

Ric laughed. "Not exactly. Tell me how you guys won the courtyard. I thought there wasn't a chance in the universe that we would come out on top."

"As soon as we realized that our turrets weren't cutting it, Emm came up with a plan to finish them off. We made it look like we wanted to charge them, which we did for a few minutes. But it was all a decoy. We retreated and Emm shot down the tunnel pillars with her dark energy gun. The Krevils were vulnerable because they could only either fall in or fly up. We shot them down easily at that point. Speaking of, Emm is over there. You should go say hi. She'd love to see your sweaty self. I know it."

Ric almost walked toward her out of habit, but he realized that he did not want to talk with her. He would not know what to say. Maybe he would say something like, "Gee, thanks for lying to me the whole time and making Earth a target."

Or maybe he would say something like,

"I can't believe you tricked me into falling for you. I guess I really am the punch line of Paradise."

He would get some satisfaction by saying it, but it was too complicated, and his body was too tired for anything other than sitting in his spaceship and letting it autopilot back to Paradise.

"No, I don't want to right now."

Jerome was surprised, but Ric did not have the energy to explain. He climbed into the cockpit and closed it before Jerome could prod him for more information. He did not want to deal with it. All of it could wait until the following day.

The emps thanked the rest of them, including the straggling, bloodied Marz. As Ric's spaceship took off, he looked out his window to see the crowd of emps waving goodbye. They seemed genuinely grateful.

On the airstrip, there were also thousands of empty spaceships once occupied by the thousands that died that day. He thought about wars of the past, how soldiers might have felt after leaving the battlefield with a label of victory, but with feelings of grief for their fallen friends. Their feelings were probably different than his. He felt pain, but it was not for those who lost their lives that day.

He felt pain for all the people on Earth who would lose their lives because of them. That day was not a victory for Earth's people. It was the opposite. Earth had just enlisted itself in a galactic war.

Chapter 35

As they flew through space, Ric must have been more stoic than usual because Jerome was prodding him to say what was on his mind.

Ric wanted to tell Jerome that Earth was a lost cause. He wanted to tell everyone so that they could do something about it, but the more he thought about it, the more reality sunk in. If he told everyone the truth, they would react poorly and add Paradise to their list of enemies. Even if Paradise was not a friend, they at least had a common enemy that they could fight together.

It felt strange to withhold information from Jerome. They usually shared everything with each other. Eventually, he just ignored Jerome altogether and switched his communications station. He skipped through all the private conversations and joined in with the main station where anybody could talk. Random drivel and auto piloting through the calm space was all he wanted at the moment.

"...and then the Krevil said, 'That's funny, you even sound exactly like her.'" Laughter exploded.

Ric did not think the punch line was funny on its own, but any mildly entertaining joke was better than Jerome's badgering.

Remai picked up the conversation. "You know, we need a good post-victory story. Emm, why don't you tell everybody the parable of the parallel universe?"

"It's been a while," Emm said. "But alright."

"A husband loved his wife more than anything. Every day, he would bring her a gift, be it flowers or her favorite things. She was his purpose for work and everything else in life. When he was at work, he thought about her. When he was with her, she was his only focus. One fateful day, she died, and he was left alone. Suddenly, he didn't have a reason to work or buy gifts. He was determined to find a way to see his wife again, so he spent the next few years in his house and finally discovered a parallel universe. He traveled to it, and, when he arrived, he found her there, but she was not alone. A copy of himself was also there, and his copy was equally in love with her. At first, he negotiated with his copy. He would be with her every other day while his copy would be with her the rest of the time. This didn't last long, however. The husband and his copy grew tired of sharing her. Each of them wanted her to himself, and they both refused to leave the universe altogether. The husband tried to kill his copy, but each attempt ended as a draw because his copy always had the same strategy. This went on for days until both of them lost patience. He killed his copy, and his copy killed him at the same time. In the end, she lived in one universe while he lived in none."

Some on the station applauded the parable. "Tell another one, Emm," they said.

Ric felt like the only one who did not understand the meaning of the parable, but he had to know.

"What does the parable mean?" he asked.

Marz laughed. He could tell it was Marz because of the distinct, sickening laugh.

"Always classic, Stage 3. How long does it take for you to process things? It's like you are constantly short-wired."

"Stop it," Emm told Marz. "The parable means that, to truly commit to someone, you have to get out of your own way. Otherwise, you end up ruining what really matters."

"Which is?"

"Love."

Ric wondered what really mattered anymore. Maybe it was love, or maybe it was something else.

For so long, he was part of a community in Earth that cared for each other. He deeply loved Earth. It would have been a dream come true to rewind his improbable reality, to turn his spaceship toward Earth, and to lie in its sun-kissed grass again.

That was what mattered most to him, but now he was part of something bigger. At least, that was what he was told.

There was something that objectively mattered to life in the universe, but he was skeptical of what it was. Maybe the universe wanted Paradise to win the war and for Earth to escape its annihilation. Or maybe the universe did not care. After all, the universe would continue to exist regardless of whether life persisted on Earth or Paradise, or anywhere else.

"Why are we alive?"

"What do you mean, why are—"

He turned his communications off, just realizing that he asked the question out loud. It was a question that other people thought of a lot. He rarely asked it himself until recently. Back on Earth, he was just interested in family and in observing the universe and all its wonders. It was different now. His individual identity was a mystery, and he did not believe in the war that he fought.

Then a thought crept into his mind that scared him more than anything. Maybe the universe had a purpose for him, and that purpose was to introduce Earth to a war and its expedited death.

Chapter 36

Ric tried to swallow his miserable feelings as he traveled through the wormhole. The raw fascination he had about going through a wormhole for only the second time was a helpful distraction. Its powerful blackness rocked the space around it, yet the genius engineering kept his body from spaghettification. It bent space and time like a paper folds in half, and it transported him light years away in a near instant.

"Welcome home, everybody. It's good to—" Remai started. He did not finish, however. If he did, Ric did not hear it.

Paradise was covered in dark smoke.

Happiness turned to panic as everyone finished their return to Paradise. Ric put on his gas mask before hopping out of the spaceship. Jerome acrobatically leaped out of his cockpit and hit the ground running. Paradise had been attacked, which meant Gabby and Tyson were in danger.

Ric followed Jerome through the dense smoke toward the base. It was the only place that was safe from a bombing because of its low elevation and its underground accesses. Thousands of runners converged to the base, all with one thing on their mind. Their loved ones were in danger, or worse.

Jerome ran to his room, but it was covered in dust. Pieces of the ceiling were on the floor. There was no sign of Gabby or Tyson yet. They went down a level to the bomb shelter where there was a large crowd of survivors and their family. That was a good sign, but it was not enough to calm Jerome as he searched frantically for his wife and son.

"Jerome, there is..."

Ric forgot to take his gas mask off in all the chaos. He unsealed it from his face and pulled it off.

"Jerome, there's a group of kids over there."

Jerome threw his gas mask on the ground and skipped over people's feet to get there. Sure enough, Tyson was there. He sat by himself in a corner with his head buried between his legs. Jerome scooped him from the ground. He hugged him and kissed him, then hugged him more.

"Oh, I'm so glad I found you. You're safe with Daddy now."

He turned to one of the teachers. "Hey, where's Gab?" The teacher shrugged her shoulders.

He asked a few more teachers, but none of them knew where she was. Panic rekindled. Something was wrong. If Gabby was okay, she would have been with Tyson, or at least have talked with some of the teachers. Jerome scanned the room for where she might have been. He turned his head every direction and finally set his gaze on the medical room.

He dodged random people and their families. He even nudged a few to the side with one arm while still carrying Tyson in the other. Ric knocked a few people aside as well just to keep up with him.

They found Gabby in the medical room with the machines unplugged.

The physician exited the room.

"Hey!" Jerome begged. "Is she okay?"

The physician turned around and glanced at his nurses who normally answered family questions, but they were too busy. He sighed.

"She died saving children from a fire. All the children made it out okay, but she inhaled too much smoke. We did everything we could to save her."

Jerome screamed and cried. Ric took Tyson out of his hands, and Jerome beat against the glass with his fists. He pounded harder and harder. Then he barged into the room, and the nurses scurried out of his way.

"Wake up!" he said. "Just wake up." He took her hand and held it close to his eyes to wipe his tears away.

"Please come back to me," he said as he rested his ear on her chest and cried there.

Tyson cried along with him, but Ric got the feeling that his tears were expressions of empathy rather than personal pain. He was too young to understand death.

Ric wiped a tear away from his own face and bounced Tyson in his arms.

Jerome's vocal chords tightened like the emotions were choking him. "I don't know what I will do without you. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Chapter 37

A few days passed. A massive funeral was held for all those who lost their lives both on the blueberry planet and in Paradise. Ric sang a goodbye song at the funeral that he wrote with Jerome and Gabby in mind. He was not running on much sleep. Whenever he tried to sleep, he mostly stared at the ceiling and then surrendered to the call of his piano. It was not the grand piano he had grown to love. That one was covered in smoke like the rest of Paradise still was.

Jerome did not talk much. He was still in a funk, taking care of Tyson or otherwise pacing aimlessly.

Emm tried to console Ric, but he did not let her. She was getting impatient, but he did not care. She was the one that recruited Jerome, and Gabby was her collateral damage.

Paradise was uninhabitable. It would stay that way longer than any of them would live. Its beauty was only a memory.

Remai had thought that their defenses were adequate to keep Paradise safe while they were gone to the blueberry planet, but he underestimated the strength of the Fallen. The Krevils were just pawns like people were. They were sent as a decoy while the real force of the Fallen focused on sacking Paradise.

Ric sat in a chair in the gathering room of the spaceship where Remai first introduced himself. This time, there were no alien elephants to prop Ric up because they were extinct. All the life in Paradise was erased besides those who made it to the underground levels in time.

Remai took the stage and approached the podium. The remainder of Paradise and the Earth recruits all sat in their chairs, awaiting his leadership.

Ric could nearly feel the questions in the crowd's minds like potential energy. They wanted to know what their future would be like. He sensed eyes looking at him from his left.

Arizona.

She looked at him with that same look she always had. Luckily, she was several chairs away, so she could not pester him with her paranoid ideas. He was not in the mood.

Remai leaned into the microphone, "You all had a few days to grieve. We will always remember those who lost their lives in battle. We will remember their courage, and we will remember our loved ones in Paradise who were also courageous."

Ric gagged at Remai's words. He had no right to speak of those who died in Paradise as if they had a choice. They were just the first among many who would die because of his recklessness.

"I will stay concise because I know you have a lot of questions, and I want to answer all of them if time permits. Rest assured, the Fallen will pay the ultimate price for their war crime. They will be haunted by justice, and we will not sleep until they are wiped clean from this universe. That is all. I'll take questions."

Hundreds of voices filled the room at once. "How did this happen? How long will we live in this spaceship? What will we eat? Why can't we stay with the emps?"

"We anticipate that the emps' planet will be attacked by the Fallen again. This time, we don't have enough numbers to defend their attacks and we would soon die after our arrival there."

One possibility was for everyone to go back to Earth so that those from Paradise could restore their population.

That was a laugh.

Remai saw Earth's people like wild animals. To him, people were unpredictable savages with lowly stage 3 intelligence. They would be stuck on that spaceship until they ran out of food and died, or they would find a new home other than Earth. Until then, their food rations would be split conservatively. They would be hungry and without a home. Eventually, everyone on that spaceship would become a savage.

Ric stood up to leave the joke that Remai called a conference. Remai had no new information to give. They all knew that their future was fragile. They just did not want to accept it. Remai was just a soundboard for them to express their feelings verbally before boiling over and turning the whole thing even more upside down. Even that proved to be a failure as someone from the back of the room fired a drunken shot at Remai with a nitro gun. It missed by several feet, and the person was arrested immediately.

The crowd erupted.

Ric shoved his way through the crowd, clearing a path for himself while trying not to get punched in the face by raised fists. The exit was nearby, but it was hard to see through the dense crowd. He tripped over someone's shoe, nearly knocking over a woman.

"I'm sorry, I—"

It was Kara. She stood in front of him with her brown eyes that said so much despite the void of words shared between them. He hardly had enough energy to apologize again, so he brushed by her, ducking his head underneath more raised fists and elbows.

Jerome never came to the joke of a conference. He just stayed in his room like he had been doing for the last few days. Eventually, he would have to escape his room and do something with his life again, but Ric had no clue when that time would come. It still felt unnatural to be carrying on with the future, given what was in the past.

He stopped by Jerome's room and knocked on the open door.

"Just checking in," he said.

Tyson looked up at him, but Jerome just stared at the air and scratched his beard. Tyson colored on a piece of paper that spanned the entire open floor. Even when Jerome was in the dumps, he still cared about Tyson and the people around him. It was something that Ric admired.

"You need anything, Tyson?" Tyson shook his head side to side before he returned to his coloring. The marker color was not just on the paper. It was also on the walls and the furniture. Jerome did not seem to care.

"I want Mommy."

"Me too," Jerome said. There's some more space on the wall in that corner if you want to draw her. Just make sure to use the brightest colors, and make her really pretty."

"No, I want Mommy."

Jerome scratched his beard some more while he massaged his scalp with his other hand.

"I'll go," Ric said.

"Wait. Can you bring us lunch, please? Tyson needs some fuel."

By Tyson, he really meant himself.

"I'll bring you dinner as soon as they serve it in a few hours," Ric said.

"Dinner? Are they out of lunch, already? I feel like we just had breakfast."

"They cut lunch. Until they figure out a way to ration the food better, it's just going to be breakfast and dinner."

Jerome looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. The last thing Ric wanted to do was drop another bomb on his life. Losing Gabby was the worst thing that could have happened. Besides Tyson, losing food was the second worst thing that could have happened to him. All his staples of happiness were crumbling away.

Jerome got up from the ground and hobbled over to Ric. It looked like one or both of his legs were asleep. He pulled Ric into the room by the shirt and closed the door.

"We have to leave," he said. "There is nothing for us here except for walls covered with markers and more war."

Ric shook his head side to side.

"What do you mean? Don't say 'no.' This is a sign, man. Don't you see it?"

He banged the palm of his hand on the wall next to Ric's head with one strike per syllable.

"This" bang "is" bang "a" bang "sign" bang.

His breath was gross. Bacteria had a field day in his mouth after days of not brushing his teeth. He smiled at Ric with hopeful, crazed eyes.

"I'm staying," Ric said with a monotone voice.

Jerome walked over to his bedside stand and threw his lamp against the wall. The light bulb shattered on impact, and Tyson started to cry.

Jerome realized what he did, so he crouched next to Tyson, holding him and caring his tears away.

"Just tell me why, Ric...tell me why."

It was painful to continue withholding information from Jerome. The one thing he could have done for Jerome was to be there for him. Part of being there for him meant being transparent about his own feelings. It was what Jerome had done for him when they were kids, when they had lost their parents to war. Jerome had been there for him back in the day, and now Ric could not return the favor.

It ate him up inside. He opened the door to leave, but it felt like a physical barrier was in front of him. He had to tell Jerome at least something.

"Earth is in danger, Jerome."

"I know, we've known this the whole time, but—"

"No, you don't understand. If we go to Earth, we will die with certainty. Look, I've already told you way too much. I'll be back in a few hours with dinner."

Ric walked into the hallway, but he could not help but notice the curious look on his brother's face. He wondered if he told Jerome that information for Jerome or for himself. It was a challenge to keep such a large secret when it was constantly on the surface of his mind. The price of his relief was Jerome's suspicion.

Chapter 38

Ric went to his bedroom. There was nowhere else to be. He did not want to talk with anyone. All he wanted to do was sulk in self-pity. He tried sitting down to let his mind wander. It had not been a long time since he felt the Seattle rain, but it felt like a lifetime has passed.

He stretched out his arms toward the walls, and he pretended to feel the rain on his skin. When everyone else ran through it, he walked. Sometimes he would even jump in the puddles like a child would. Rain was nature's shower. They could all use one of those. He sniffed his armpit. Nasty.

He paced around his room. It felt like an hour passed, but it was only a minute or two. If he was going to be isolated, he had to do something. All his books were still in Paradise among the rest of the things that were inaccessible. He wanted to open up one of those textbooks that were given to him so he could learn something new. He wanted to learn about dark energy and dark matter, to know how to build his own spaceship that could fly in excess of 17,000 miles per hour. Such luck was not in his favor, however. He scrounged up a piece of paper and a pencil from his bedside stand. If he could not study math, he could at least start his own textbook.

He thought about the first Calculus textbook he ever opened. It was the first time that he was inspired to study math. Until then, he just did what he was told, not caring about actually learning anything.

The first pages of his old Calculus textbook explained the dichotomy paradox. If he were to travel ten feet away from his classroom desk to the door, then he would have to travel an infinite number of halves. First, he would travel five feet. Then two and a half, and so on. Because of the nature of infinity, it seemed that he should not have been able to walk through the door, but he did. He walked through that door and sat in that classroom every weekday for the year. The paradox inspired him to keep learning and to be skeptical of his own intuition.

He penciled in the dichotomy paradox, but it only took another minute. The day was dragging, and there seemed to be no worthy solution. He rolled over and stared at the ceiling while his stomach begged for lunch.

Remai was insane for keeping them caged in space with low rations of food and low hope for anything better. They would not find a suitable planet for maybe years. Their bodies would be long wasted away by then. The only possibility of survival was to kill the Fallen so that Earth would not live under their threat anymore. Only then could he feel the Seattle rain again.

The Fallen were far away though, and they were too strong to fight against with any measure of success. Ric could only wait in his room, starving while Earth waited to peril.

"Unless..." he sat up.

There was another option, but the only way it could work is if they began preparations immediately.

Ric burst out of his bedroom door, catching a stare from his curious brother. He ran to the command room where Remai and the other leadership spent their time. The door access blinked red as he tapped his key card on it. He pounded on the door and demanded entrance.

"Let me in. Let me in!" he yelled.

Finally, the door opened, but two guards pushed him away. He shoved the guards' arms out of his face, but they still pushed him back with their strength.

"Remai! Emm!"

"Ric?" Emm said. "Guards, let him in."

The guards stopped shoving him, but they did not move out of the way either. Ric pushed between them, and he walked into the large command room filled with staff that had top level security. There was a section for the technical crew and another for the decision makers. A large window in the front let them see all the outer space in front of them. Remai, Emm, Marz and other trainers and leaders were all looking at him. He suddenly felt out of place.

"What are you doing here?" Remai prodded.

He looked to Emm to feel less out of place, but she looked equally curious.

"I know how to survive," he said sheepishly.

Marz laughed. "Get this stage 3. He knows how to survive. Congratulations." He bumped elbows with a couple other leaders as they exchanged laughs.

"I know how to get you out of trouble so that you can survive, and so the people of Earth can survive as well. My people."

"Well, don't hold back," Remai said. "Do tell."

"Okay, well I know you don't care about Earth's welfare, but—"

"Where did you get that crazy idea?" Remai interrupted.

"I told him," Marz said. "I didn't think he would even be smart enough to understand."

Emm's face turned pale. She must have realized why Ric had pushed her away for the last few days. The truth was out. There was no going back for anybody.

Remai rolled his eyes at Marz. "Not to give credence to anything Marz told you—"

"No." Emm interrupted. "He deserves to know the truth. The truth is that we needed you. We took you in, knowing that there was a risk for your planet if we did not succeed. With your help, there was a much better chance that we would win the war."

They were watching him, waiting for him to react like a crazed animal. He was slow to anger, however. The present was just a myth. Everything perceived in the present was actually in the past, which meant he could forget the words that were spoken for the time being and carry on.

"As I was saying before, I have an idea. You can survive, and so can Earth, but there is only one way to do it, and we have to act fast."

Remai nodded.

"We both need the Fallen to die. That's the one thing we've had in common ever since you pulled us out of Earth's atmosphere. The Fallen will attack Earth. That is a promise, but we can use that to our advantage. Earth is a sizable planet. They will have to pull most of their resources to cover all the land. When they do that, they decentralize themselves and become weaker. That's when we attack. We'll put them in one-on-one fights, and people can pitch in with their kitchen knives. You can provide air support and reinforcements wherever they're needed. We know how strong they are this time, so we won't underestimate them. We'll use as much defense as we need to, and we will do it together this time with all the resources we have. It'll work."

Remai turned around and looked into space. The room was quiet as they waited for his response.

"It won't work. We will train Earth's people to use dark energy guns, and they will win the war on their own."

"You've got to be kidding me," Ric said.

Remai looked surprised.

"First of all, you won't give Earth any weapons. It took way too many generations for us to finally put our weapons aside and create a peaceful system. Our system is not built to have guns, and if you give us guns without providing legal accountability, we might have to fight for peace all over again."

Remai opened up his mouth to speak but Ric found strength within himself to continue.

"Second of all, you put Earth in this mess, so you have to clean it up. Besides, if the Fallen take Earth, there is nothing stopping them from hunting you down. And you know what it's like to be removed from your home planet. That feeling of hate that you have for them is exactly the same thing fueling them in their war against you. You must save Earth now, or else both of us will lose this war."

He felt a little dizzy after telling the leader of a planet what to do. What he said was bigger than himself. It was for Earth, but his social identity was being evaluated by those in power. He could still be outcast from the group, and his shaking legs were primal warnings that everything was on the line.

Remai just stared at him, eyes not wavering.

Emm broke the silence, "I think there is a way to have some middle ground here. Dad, the Fallen always travel space with their home ship, right?"

"Yes."

"Well that home ship is going to be their end. When they dispatch all their smaller spaceships to Earth from their home ship—"

"You can attack their home ship." Ric chimed in.

"Exactly. When we take over their home ship and their leaders, the rest of the Fallen will come back to save them. At that point, we can approach them from all sides and pick them out of space one at a time."

"That way, we don't have to mingle with people," Remai thought out loud. "I'll take note of your suggestions and we will discuss details."

"Just let me know when you're ready," Ric said.

"We will discuss details without you, Ric."

The two guards walked in between Ric and Remai. He wanted to stay. Something was off about Remai's tone, but he did not have a choice.

The guards opened the door. He nearly walked through it, but Jerome stood in his way. Jerome's face was a wildfire ready to burn everything in his path.

Jerome heard everything including Emm's confession about Earth, about Gabby. He stormed into the room, bulldozing through the two guards, heading straight for Remai.

"You brought us here to die!"

Remai pulled out his emerald dark energy sword. Emm and the other leaders scattered away from the danger, but Jerome kept going.

"No, Jerome!" Ric pleaded, but to no avail.

Jerome screamed and charged while Remai raised his dark energy sword in striking position.

Ric felt sick, barely able to watch as Jerome let his rage pull him closer to danger.

Remai side-stepped and butted Jerome in the nose with the base of his dark energy sword. Jerome was a bloody mess, but he did not care. He was too tough. He jumped off the ground instantly, but it was already too late to fight. The guards tackled him and bound his hands together.

Remai holstered his sword while he brushed his short, blond hair with his fingers.

"Take him to a high security cell. Nobody will see him again. He just attempted the worst crime."

Jerome shook his body, trying to free himself from the guards and charge Remai again. A guard elbowed him in the gut. That would have taken the breath out of anyone, but not Jerome.

"You killed her!" He yelled toward Remai. He spat the accusation over and over. It was the only sound they could hear until his voice was farther from the command room and closer to jail. Ric could still hear the words echo in his head, and Jerome was right. Gabby would have still been alive if it was not for Remai. Paradise was responsible for everything.

Chapter 39

Tyson ran out of space on the wall, so he colored the floor. Even if the marker was permanent, Ric did not care. Remai deserved defaced property, among other consequences.

He needed to calm himself. The piano would do it. He sat down on the makeshift bench and warmed up with scales. Up and down, the notes were familiar friends, except for the last one. He could not hit the last key for his life. First, he struck it too far to the left, then too hard and right. He tried again, but the key was too elusive. The scales would have sounded just as good if he pounded his fist on all the keys.

Stress flowed through his body like lava in a volcano. He wanted the stress to go away, and there seemed to be only one option. He clenched his fist and pounded the elusive key along with its neighbors. He pounded it again, harder. It was a symphony of anger and noise. He threw his bench across the room and it crashed onto the floor with a loud, cracking sound.

He heard the crash of the bench, but it was a pale sound in comparison to the persistent sound of Jerome's screams in his head. Remai might as well have killed Jerome's body, because Jerome's soul was so thoroughly damaged.

Ric leaned his good hand on the wall while he nursed the hand that pounded the piano. The pain was raw. It was his only distraction from his helpless situation. Jerome was bent in jail, and Ric's future was likely death in a battle for Earth. Or worse, he could survive the war, but watch everyone else on Earth despair.

He heard footsteps behind him come to a static position near his door. He knew who it was.

"Don't give me a speech about peace. You would throw things too."

"I wasn't going to," Emm said.

He turned from the wall. Her eyes fixed on his for a moment but were drawn to the medical project that his hand had become.

"Ouch," she said. "Let me see it."

She walked over and felt his fingers.

"Does that hurt?"

Ric pulled his hand away and turned back to the wall.

"My brother hurts. My nephew hurts. You know, Gabby was the best that Earth had to offer. She was happier, more peaceful than anyone on Earth or in Paradise. And you let her die. What does that say about Paradise?"

"Gabby was special."

"Yeah, special."

"When I first came to Earth, I was nervous," she said. "I thought the peace was...how do you say it...the calm before the storm. But then I met you. You treated me better than anyone has ever treated me."

"So, you pulled us up to space anyway?"

"I knew we would make a good team."

"You sent us here to die!" he yelled.

"All I'm trying to say is that I would bring her back if I could. I would keep Jerome out of jail. If I could do it all over again, I would have persuaded my father to outsource somewhere other than Earth, or make a new weapon. It just didn't turn out how I expected. I'm sorry."

Ric sighed. She put one foot out the door to leave the room, but she had one more thing to say.

"You are stronger than you know. I think the future understands that. It just doesn't know how you will use that strength."

"Wait," he said. "I know how you can help."

"Anything."

"Take me to see my brother."

Chapter 40

The jail was not anything like Ric expected. Nobody watched the comings and goings of visitors. There were no video cameras. The entrance to the jail was in a far corner of the spaceship where nobody ever went.

"What's the catch?"

"Hm?"

"What stops anyone from walking in there? I thought it was supposed to be high security."

"It is," Emm whispered at a barely audible decibel as she opened the first door.

Inside was a wall of jail cell bars and a second door leading to the jail corridors. Emm closed the first door, and the room became pitch black.

"It's so dark," he said.

But the darkness only lasted a moment before she ejected the dark energy from her sword. Its light had a five-foot radius and would serve as a short-range flashlight.

"Where's yours?" she asked.

"I left it in my room. It's gray and useless anyway."

"Alright, well. Stay close."

She released the lock on the next door and began to open it.

"Wait, what am I getting myself into?"

"Borofax."

"What's a—"

"Sh."

Emm put her fingers over Ric's mouth to shut him up. A grunt from a large animal echoed through the hallways.

"That's the prison guard."

He wanted to learn more about the danger he was in, but there was enough to infer. Emm was scared of it, so he should have been too. The animal let out a shrill moan. Goosebumps terrorized his skin. It was so loud, he instinctively backed away, but Emm grabbed him.

"It's okay," she said. "It does that."

The walls were smooth and strong like the rest of the spaceship. The hallway itself was rounded like a large tube, like he was a mouse in a maze experiment. Perhaps that was the point.

There were hallways every several feet that led to unknown locations. If it was not for Emm, he would have probably walked down any number of them until he was thoroughly lost and had no hope of eluding the borofax. Emm seemed to know where she was going as she confidently navigated some halls and skipped others. Each hallway curved sharply, so he could only see a few feet ahead of him at all times, never knowing what was around the bend.

"So, what's a borofax?" Ric whispered.

"It's the most dangerous animal we've ever encountered. It's like a...what animal do you have that's similar? It's like a honey badger the size of a bear. It has natural-grown spikes surrounding its body, and it can walk on walls and ceilings like spiders."

Ric looked up at the ceiling. He almost expected to see it there, waiting to fall on him like a vicious bird. When he did not see it, shivers ran down his spine. His imagination was too real sometimes.

"What does it eat?"

"It constantly hungers for fresh meat, but it will eat anything. The kitchen staff send it the leftovers through an air pressured tube."

"Except now there won't be any leftovers because they're rationing everything."

He supposed Jerome also got leftovers or whatever crumbs were offered to him.

They surfaced out of the last small tunnel and into a rectangular hall with cells. Emm holstered her dark energy sword since the lights by the cells were bright enough.

"You don't have long," she said. "The borofax could come any second."

There were at least twenty inmates just down the first hall. They were quiet, as they should have been. Loud noises would have drawn the borofax to that area.

One of the inmates rocked back and forth with his knees pulled toward his chest. He was aged with gray hair and wrinkled skin. He did not even notice Ric's presence, only the imagined company of whoever he was talking to under his breath.

Ric wondered how long some of the inmates were locked up and what they did to deserve it. Some were likely dangerous, but there was not a solid justice system in place. It seemed like Remai had the first and final say for their sentence.

Ric neared the end of the first hall. Emm was getting farther away beyond his comfort. He did not know whether to look in front of him or behind him, or even above him to spot the borofax. He was defenseless.

He brushed his fingers against the metal bars. They were reinforced with some kind of foreign material. It would have taken a lifetime for any inmate to break out, probably something Remai counted on.

He neared another cell when its inmate rushed to the bars.

"Welcome to my house!" he said loudly.

Ric jumped like a track athlete away from the cell. His heart raced as if the borofax was chasing him already.

"I'm Sim. Come see what I've done with my house. I think you'll enjoy the metal accents."

Ric snapped back into reality. The borofax was not in pursuit, but it would have been soon if the inmate kept talking.

"Sh. Stop talking."

Sim laughed with his finger over his mouth.

"Sh," he mimicked.

Sim was thin, thinner than the other inmates. Either he got all the small portions, or his body was just built that way. He had blue hair that looked natural grown. His voice was high and energetic, one of those voices that was loud despite any effort to be quiet.

"I don't recognize you. I met everyone on Paradise at some point, at least I—"

Ric tried to walk away, but Sim's voice just got louder.

"Oh, I know why," Sim said. "You are a human. I redesigned all the spaceships with you in mind. One click of a button, and you go from ground to space."

His eyes were fascinated as he launched his hand toward the ceiling like it was a spaceship.

"So why is a human walking around in borofax territory?"

"My brother."

He tried to keep his answer short to encourage mutual brevity, but it was hard to keep Sim quiet. Sim potentially had years of pent up words that could only be expressed to the four walls in his cell and to the other inmates with fleeting social skills.

"Ah, I see I see. King Remai put your brother in here. So many look up to Remai. I've never understood it. I've always said you better be careful who you believe in because it will change you. You know what the real problem with our universe is? It's way way way too small. If it were a googolplex, there would be so much space and so few atom build combinations that our exact selves would live somewhere else in the universe. At least then I could be okay with lifetime jail, because another me would be somewhere else in the universe inventing artificial intelligence and sipping nitro nectar. We would all have a second chance."

"What do you know about artificial intelligence?"

Sim laughed, "More than anyone else. It's sort of the reason I'm here. I created a robotic species."

"That seems fair."

Sim walked closer to the bars until his face pressed against them. His bright eyes turned a new shade of serious, and the smiles in his cheeks erased entirely.

"Do you disrespect my bots?"

The silence was uncomfortable. It was all Ric wanted since the start of their conversation, but not that frightening kind of silence. He backed away from Sim before remembering that the jail cell separated them.

Sim howled a high-pitched laugh.

"I'm just kidding. You should have seen your face," he said through even louder laughs.

While Sim laughed, Ric finally escaped the conversation. He slid his fingers across the bars of empty cells as he searched for his brother. Time ticked. He was already in the jail longer than expected. The borofax could have appeared at any moment, or Emm could have become too nervous to wait for him.

A couple cells further, Ric found Jerome sitting in the corner of his cell with his forehead burrowed between his knees.

"Jerome?"

Jerome looked up from his knees and immediately jumped to his feet.

"What are you doing here? There's this huge thing that walks around here. You could die."

Classic Jerome. Even in his lowest time, he still thought of his brother. Maybe it was just his sad and tired eyes, but there was something off about him. He was Jerome, but he did not seem the same. The moments leading up to his incarceration were life changing, and now he had to think about them in isolation.

To make it even worse, it was not Jerome who committed the crime. It was Remai who was at fault. Only Remai deserved a jail cell. Jerome deserved his family.

"It's good to see you, Jerome."

"Where's Tyson?"

"He's safe. Not here."

"What are you doing here?"

Ric opened up his jacket to show Jerome his dark energy sword.

Jerome reached for it.

"Wait," Ric said.

Emm was still watching.

"I'm going to get you out of here, but she doesn't know that."

Jerome scratched his beard.

"What do I do when I get out of here? Someone will notice that I got out."

Ric had not thought about that part. He just wanted Jerome out of jail, back with family, and back where the borofax would never go.

An alarming shriek vibrated off the corridor walls. Emm looked around the corner where the sound came from, and Ric seized the opportunity to hand the dark energy sword to Jerome.

"Come on. It's coming!" Emm urged.

If Jerome's cell had plants, sunlight, and a touch of rain, then it would have felt a little like home in Seattle. For a sweet moment, it was just he and his brother, together like they were always meant to be.

Emm rushed over and grabbed Ric's arm to pull him away. The daydream unveiled from his eyes, and once again he saw the situation for what it was. He was in danger of meeting the most predatory animal ever encountered.

"Let's go," she said.

The borofax was on the other end of the corridor, running after them at three times their speed. It was large like a bear. It had short hair, claws like a honey badger, and teeth. It had countless teeth almost as sharp as the lethal spikes on its back.

"How well does it see in the dark?"

"Very."

They could not stealth their way out of the jail. Running was the only option. They turned a corner where there were three tube-shaped hallways to choose from.

"Which one?"

"Uh, left," she said.

She was faster than him. She was better than him at almost everything, and it really showed when she was scared for her life.

The tube-shaped hallway curved often in varying degrees. It was impossible to reach top speed because he had to change directions so often. Emm's agility was hard to match, and she eventually disappeared behind the bend of the tunnel, leaving only the faint gold light from her dark energy sword as his beacon of hope.

The borofax's screams echoed through the tunnels. It was not far behind. His only chance was to keep running and hope that Emm would find the way out, but the gold light was fading deeper into darkness.

The tunnel bent sharply, and he ran face-first into it before he fell on his bottom. The light was gone. The only sense that he could appeal to was the sound of the borofax. It was a snarly, choking scream from a foreign predator. Everything in his nightmares had come true. It was dark, and there was a monster on its way.

He got up and ran, but it was a challenge to maneuver through the darkness when the hallway took unexpected turns. He needed help.

"Emm!" he shouted.

There was no response.

He stumbled through the hallway, trying to run through the impossible maze. She must have thought he was still behind her, but that did not make sense. She would have noticed.

An unsettling thought made him feel like puking. He and Jerome were the only people who found out about Paradise's plan to sacrifice Earth for their own security. Jerome was already locked up, which made Ric the only loose end. He feared that she plotted his demise from the outset.

The borofax was close. Its screams were louder. His adrenaline kicked into an entirely new level, but it was nearly worthless. It felt like he could do any physical task except navigate through the tunnels. No matter how hard he tried, he could only go so fast. In any moment, the borofax would appear out of nowhere, and his body would become a thousand parts.

A glimmer of gold light peaked through the hall. It became brighter until he could see the curvature of the hall and, finally, Emm.

"Almost there, come on!"

She did not leave him after all. All his stored adrenaline was unleashed. His legs felt like they could carry him across the universe. Once again, hope was as real as the fear. Every second mattered as the borofax closed the gap.

He could see the barred exit in front of him, but he could also see the borofax behind him. Every muscle in his body supercharged him passed the barred exit and to safety.

Emm locked the door only a split second before the borofax crashed into it and let out one last hurricane scream. Saliva spattered on their clothes. The hundreds of sharp teeth were only a few feet away, as was its rotten stench.

"What took you so long?" she asked.

"Thank you," Ric said.

He hugged her. For at least a moment, she was the one who led him to Jerome and saved him from certain death instead of the one who jeopardized him and his people.

They left the jail and went their separate ways. He tucked Tyson in bed, and he promised that he would take better care of him. Then he walked into Jerome's room and holstered Jerome's dark energy sword.

Now both he and Jerome had one.

Chapter 41

Ric sat up in his bed after a heavy sleep. Space made it difficult to keep track of time. He could have slept for 24 Earth hours without knowing it. His whole body was sore, but his legs took most of the beating.

There was nothing to do that day and nobody to do nothing with, except Tyson who was learning in school.

Tyson was always in school. He only ever got family attention from Gabby back when things were somewhat normal, and, even then, he had spent most of his time in school since she was a teacher. That was too much school for anyone.

Ric dismissed Tyson from class, and they walked to the cafeteria. Ric got a bagel for himself and a slice of toast for Tyson.

"Are they feeding you well in school?"

Tyson nodded his head.

"That's good," Ric said. "My bagel is pretty good too."

It really was good. He was so hungry, his stomach almost sounded like what Jerome's stomach always sounded like. Only a couple minutes in, he was almost done and ready for seconds and thirds. He had to wait until dinner though. The food shortage persisted regardless of the calories he burned the previous day.

Tyson picked at his toast as he switched sitting positions. His shins pressed into the bench.

"Make sure to eat your toast, Tyson. We need to eat all the food we get our hands on these days."

Tyson picked at his toast anyway as if he heard nothing. Ric would have assumed that the teachers were feeding him adequate portions, but Tyson's body was a little frail.

"Eat your toast, Tyson. I won't say it again."

"Where's Mommy and Daddy?"

Ric sighed. He did not know whether to explain death and tell the truth, or to distract Tyson from his thoughts.

"Have you ever wondered where babies come from?"

"Mrs. Gross said they come from mommies and daddies."

"That's right. I came from my parents, and you came from yours. Your mom gave parts of herself to you, and your dad gave parts of himself to you. So, they are always with you. And when you can't see them, I'll be there with you, and so will your teachers."

Tyson was frustrated.

Ric tried to rationalize the situation away, but it was not working. What Tyson really needed was his mom and dad, and that was impossible at the moment.

Ric wrapped the toast in a napkin, took Tyson's hand, and led him back to school. He wanted to spend the day together, but keeping Tyson social was the best medicine.

Mrs. Gross was seasoned with sunlight and a long life. Her eyes smiled as she took Tyson back into her care.

"Do you feed the kids lunch?" Ric asked.

"We do," she said. "We make sure they eat every meal."

"When will he eat next?"

"In about an hour."

"Okay, perfect. I love you, Nephew. Bye."

"Bye."

After Tyson was out of view, Ric unfolded the napkin and gobbled up the toast. It had kid germs all over it. The moisture was either from butter or finger saliva, but he did not care. He was hungry.

He walked slowly down the hall and let others pass him by. Half their conversations were about food, either about that one meal that was so good, or about the injustice of their hunger. He could not help but eavesdrop. It was possibly his only form of entertainment for the entire day.

"I can't imagine my little brother with a gun. I just hope I get stationed in another state away from him."

Ric caught up to the two women talking about guns.

"Excuse me."

They did not pay attention to him.

"Hey!" he said.

He cut their path off, and they stopped with annoyed expressions.

"Where's your brother?" he asked them.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" one of the women said as she walked by him, but he cut her off again.

"Please, I just...is he on Earth?"

"Boise. Now, can I go?"

Idaho. Earth. There was only one reason those two women were having that conversation about guns.

He finished shoving the shreds of toast into his mouth before he darted toward the command room. He ran down a couple halls with bedrooms designated for people. Some were packing their bags, while others already vacated their rooms entirely. He quickened his pace and forgot all about his sore legs again.

He banged on the command room door until the reluctant guard opened it. The guard rolled his eyes. Ric had made an impression the last time he was there.

"Ric! I've been looking everywhere for you," Emm said.

She approached him, but Ric asserted himself by her. He was not there for her.

"You chose wrong, Remai."

"Guards, please. Come on." Remai urged.

The guards grabbed Ric by the arms.

"Family behavior is a pattern waiting to emerge. Don't mind if I prevent the nasty pattern that your brother started. Now, what was it you were saying?"

"You just killed Earth twice, Remai. The first time, you sentenced us to a war that we cannot win. Now, you are going to distribute weapons to people. I already told you, we have no accountability for lethal weapons anymore. If we don't die from foreign invaders, then we will die from daily civil war. You can't give them weapons."

"I already have. Most areas of your planet are under our supervision and are receiving weapons as we speak. Your city—"

"Seattle."

"Seattle, right." Remai nodded. "Seattle will be one of the last armed cities because of your elusive whereabouts. Consider yourself lucky."

"I am not lucky to watch my planet burn like you watched yours burn!"

Remai displayed a new level of anger. His eyes were fire, and his fists were clenched.

"Do not make an enemy of me now. We may not look strong, but there will come a day when you are grateful that we do not wish you ill. You will depart to Seattle, and you will distribute the guns to them because you know that is the only way they stand a chance in a war against the Fallen. When the distribution is complete, you will fight, and we will resume our lives on the planet of four suns after the Fallen takes ownership of M6323822."

"You mean that you won't fight alongside us? That's insane."

"That is reality. So, deal with it. Conflict is what your species does best, anyway. I'm sure it will turn out fine."

"What gives you the right?" Ric paused to let his emotions simmer into a stew of sharp words.

"What gives you the right to put my brother in jail, or to make decisions for a planet that isn't yours? You are not an officer of peace, because you created a system of power. You're already an enemy to me, and you are a disease to my people."

The guards tugged Ric toward the door, but Remai stopped them. He walked closer to Ric until his breath was audible.

He whispered in Ric's ear, "Be grateful for my daughter. If she wasn't here right now, I'd throw you in jail on the opposite end of your brother."

"Take him out of here, and never grant him access to this room again."

The guards pushed him out of the room and slammed him against a wall. He recovered from the hit, but the bitter emotions were harder to overcome. He hated that Remai was such a parasite, and he hated that it took him so long to realize it.

Emm saw him sitting on the ground in pain.

"You're hurt."

"I'm fine."

"Just let me see your head."

He pushed her away.

"Just leave me alone! Leave my people alone! Can't you see that's what we need? It's what we've needed all along."

Emm was visibly hurt by his words.

"Your people can win this war, Ric. It's not over yet."

"The war isn't over yet," he said. "But it has already begun."

Chapter 42

Seattle was overcast and raining heavily. Ric loved it.

People rode their self-driving, predominantly solar power cars. They walked on the sidewalks with their rain coats, and they raced from building doors to community buses, anything to minimize rain exposure.

Then there was Ric. He walked on the side of the road nonchalantly with nothing between him and the sky except for layers of atmosphere and cold rain. It triggered all his happy memories as it dripped between his fingers and from the tip of his nose.

He walked by the local peanut butter shop where they painstakingly broke each peanut shell before blending the peanuts in a food processor. It was the best peanut butter he ever tried.

The store keepers would wake up early every morning to make fresh batches because it was what they loved to do. He would have been lucky if there was any peanut butter left for the day. On most days, they were out of stock by lunch time. It was already afternoon.

His wet shoes squeaked on the tile floor when he walked in, partly because his shoes were wet, and partly because his shirt was dripping water on the floor like a shower. He wrung out the bottom of his shirt just outside the door.

Even though the door was open, it did not necessarily mean that the shop was open or that anyone was inside. There was no money, so door locks were unnecessary.

"Hello?"

He stepped farther into the peanut butter shop. The display shelves were empty, and there was no immediate sign that anyone was present. Propped by the window was a vivid green plant trying to get whatever sunlight it could. It felt smooth and soft. That alone was a warm welcome back to Earth. The last plant he had touched was on the blueberry planet, and it was more of a sharp needle than anything.

"Well, look who it is. Ric!"

Luis. He and Diego, Gabby's father, were best friends. Luis was the only one who could make Diego laugh at any time. He was short and muscular. Like Diego, he was a war veteran and never lost his physical stature. His main diet consisted of peanut butter and more peanut butter, which nourished him with enough protein for three people. His wife, Kate, tried to get him to eat more diverse foods, but no amount of fruits or starches would have reduced his peanut butter portions. There was not a person in the world who loved peanut butter more than him.

"It's good to see you, Luis."

"It's good to see you! You're taller than I remember."

"Yeah, you can blame that on space. I'll shrink back to normal size in no time."

"Sit, sit. I'll get you some water. I wasn't expecting you to be back so soon. Are you hungry?"

"Starved."

Luis brought a glass of water and a small jar of peanut butter with a spoon in it.

"You're in luck today," he said as he sat across the table. "I saved off this jar for Kate, but she is just about to leave on a last-minute vacation to the Caribbean. It's all yours."

Ric dug into the peanut butter. It was crunchy, just the way he liked it. There were small chunks, and the oils and peanut flavor mixed in his mouth in every perfect way. He scooped up bite after bite.

"You're really hungry," Luis observed out loud. "What did they feed you?"

"When will Kate be coming back?"

"In a week or so."

"Stop her from going."

"Why?"

Ric dipped into the peanut butter again.

Luis stared at him like he was an alien from outer space.

"Tell me why I should stop her from going. Does it have to do with that city gathering tomorrow?"

Ric was not supposed to tell anyone about the danger they were in yet. Emm called for the city gathering, but she wanted everyone to find out about the war at the same time to avoid uncontrolled panic.

"Thanks for the peanut butter, Luis. It was delicious as always."

"Best in the world," he said as he pulled out his phone to call his wife.

The rain made his clothes sopping wet again. He wanted to walk around all of Seattle, but there was only so much daylight. Diego and Maria already knew that Gabby passed away. Messages from space had been sent to family on a regular basis while they were away. He could have visited them, but there was something else he needed to do.

He grabbed a community umbrella and walked to his old house. It was the house that he lived in when his parents and Maggie were still alive. It was the house he lived in before he was raised in community care with the other "less fortunate" children. It was the house where everything started.

The evening was dark when he knocked on the front door. His clothes were still a little wet but not dripping.

A man dressed in slacks and a nice sweater opened the door, which let out the scent of garlic bread and spaghetti sauce that had been simmering all day.

"What can I do for you?"

Ric knew a lot of people in the city, but not everyone. He never saw this man in his life.

"I know this is kinda weird, but I used to live here, and I'm wondering if I can come in and look around?"

"Sure, sure. Let's get you out of that rain there."

He kicked his wet shoes off. His socks were damp, but it was the best he could do. The house felt warm and looked warm with comforting wall accents and dimly lit lamps. The man walked over to his husband and presumably told him what the stranger next to the door was doing. He waved and gave his welcome before finishing the dinner table setup for their children.

Some of the furniture was familiar. During the Final War, Seattle became one of the first places to eliminate cash flow. When that happened, everything was shared among the community instead of being purchased through retailers. When he was taken to community care, everything stayed in the house, including the furniture.

He skipped the kitchen and living room to leave the family to their dinner bliss. At the top of the stairs, there was another bonus room as well as four bedrooms. Even though there were enough bedrooms for the three of them, he, Jerome, and Maggie used to sleep in the same room. Sometimes his dad would make one of them sleep in the room adjacent if they were not cooperating with him or each other.

The bedroom was dark enough to see the stars glow on the ceiling. He lied down on the carpet where he used to place his sleeping bag. There were 64 stars, same as before. He used to count them after saying goodnight to Jerome who had his own bed, and to Maggie who slept on the floor where he currently held the cross of her necklace. He wished the necklace was still intact, but the cross was enough to remind him of her.

A bang from downstairs awoke him from nostalgia. One of the kids screamed and cried. The fathers must have wondered what he was doing upstairs so long.

He scooped up the cross and made his way downstairs. One of the men nursed his daughter's head bump, while the other one cleaned up a spilled drink. Both their plates were still full of food and hardly touched. It was the life of a parent.

He opened the front door while he caught the eye of one of the men to indicate his departure without disturbing their night even more.

"Oh, wait!"

The father in the slacks and nice sweater rushed to the front door.

"Did you get what you came for?"

"I did. I just needed to remember where I came from."

Chapter 43

The next morning was overcast, but it was not raining. Even though there were no sky showers, the air still felt dense like it always did in the Northwest.

Ric stood on top of the amphitheater stage. A large crowd filed in, standing shoulder to shoulder with little room to spare between rows. Several waves of crowds would come throughout the day. This was the first.

There were over 6,000 leaders from Paradise and Earth that stood with Ric. Each of them would command 100 people, just like the battle on the blueberry planet.

He leaned toward one of the leaders that was born in Paradise.

"Did you know that every person on Earth could fit in Los Angeles if they stood shoulder to shoulder?"

"What's a Los Angeles?"

Sigh. It sounded like a high school assembly with every quiet conversation aggregating to one collective sound. Some folded their arms, and some just stood there, staring blankly. Some were young. Others were old. They were generally aware that people had been taken to space and that non-human life was involved, but they did not know much else. They did not know if they were in danger or whether the whole thing was just a joke. They did not know that the shots they received contained Languithol Neurons.

Some of them had tried to refuse the shot. They had to be convinced by Ric or other people that it was safe. Grown men fought it until it was finally forced upon them. It was already miserable.

Emm tapped on the microphone.

"People of Earth—"

Ric cringed at how foreign that sounded. The people did not need to be treated like aliens. This was Earth. This was their home.

Ric rushed to the microphone and placed his hand on Emm's back to get her attention.

"Can I say something instead? I think they need to hear it from one of their own."

Emm handed the microphone to Ric, and all eyes were on him.

"Hey everyone."

His voice echoed in the open air. Suddenly, his breath was taken away. Even after his encounters with Krevils and the borofax, he was still scared of public speaking.

"As you know, me and some other people from Seattle and other parts of the world were taken to space. Pretty crazy, right?"

The crowd was motionless. They just wanted to know why they were there.

"While we were in space, we learned that, although we were able to achieve peace on Earth, the same was not true for the rest of the galaxy. We were brought to space to help win a war. After some initial success, things went very bad, and irreparable harm was done to the planet we trained on. We have had peace on Earth for a little over 20 years now. Before peace, it seemed that we always had something to fight for. Freedom. Justice. Food. Country borders. Some of you fought in the Final War, but most of us haven't fought really anything before. We've come a long way. Today, we stand here not because our ancestors were masters of peace, but because our ancestors fought when they needed to. They were just like you and me. They were people with family. They had dreams and fears, and they also had courage. Yesterday, peace was our reality. Today, we make it our goal again."

People whispered to each other, but they looked confused. They had no idea what he was talking about.

"Like our ancestors before us, we must have courage to fight for something that is bigger than ourselves...because the same ones who destroyed the planet we trained on will attack Earth soon, and we will fight to maintain the livability of our planet. We will fight to survive."

The crowd erupted with noise, and he tried to talk over them.

"We think they will attack sometime in the next few days, so we need to prepare. You will be equipped with extremely dangerous weapons. They will be the same weapons your enemy will use against you. Until they attack, you will train with either another person or someone from Paradise."

Ric joined the other leaders in a line that cut through the crowd.

Emm grabbed two guns, a sword, and a holster. She handed it to the next leader in line, and so on until Ric grabbed them at the end of the line.

The crowd volume went from loud and angry to silent in an instant as he handed the weapons to the gentleman beside him.

It was the most defeated he ever felt in his life. The weapons were unregulated, unenforced, and unsuitable for their societal strategy. He used to hand these people meals every day, and now he might as well have handed them poisonous food.

The people passed the weapons among themselves until everyone was equipped. Old women. Children. Everyone had a weapon if they could carry it.

Chapter 44

Ric led his squad to a field off I-5. They rode in a couple self-driving buses to get there. He half expected one of the squad members to accidentally pull a trigger or eject their dark energy sword, but no such catastrophes had happened yet.

At best, they had a few days to train, and at worst their battle would start that day. He wanted them to master each skill before moving on to the next, but there was not enough time. They had to learn everything at once.

"Put down your dark energy guns and your dark energy swords, and find a good stick to fight with."

There were not enough training swords to distribute to Earth, so they had to improvise. They walked into the woods nearby and scoured for any fallen branch that was strong and thick. It was difficult to find a good stick, which was actually preferable because he got to spend more time with the Evergreen trees. He wanted to sit next to one of them with a good physics textbook and ponder the universe's sophistication.

"What's your name?" one of the squad members asked.

He was about the same age as Ric. He walked awkwardly close and stuck his neck out as he talked. His eyes were tired with dark shadows under them, as if the dark shadows were trying to arrest his consciousness and transport him to the dreams of night where he would be forced to submit to sleep.

"Ric. What's yours?"

The squad member stuck out his neck to talk again.

"Peter."

He said his name almost as a question, like it was obvious and everyone knew his name. His clothes were basic with blue jeans, white shoes, and a solid red t-shirt. The shirt looked like it needed a wash. It had evidence of lunch on the front of it, as did his bearded chin.

"Where we going?"

"To get some sticks so we can train."

"Why?"

"We have to train so we can fight, and we have to fight because...we have to."

"No. Where's Seahawks?"

"Probably with their families, training just like us."

Peter fake-laughed. His words were slightly slurred, but his walk was steady. "Where your dad?"

"He's not here. He's giving his body back to the universe that made his body."

There were no good sticks in sight, just an assembly of beautiful trees. He wanted to keep going until he touched every tree, but there was a war coming, and the squad needed every minute of training they could get.

"I'm calling it! Whether you have a stick or not, head back to the field, please," Ric shouted to everyone.

"Go home?" Peter said.

"Not home, Peter. Not yet."

A few people emerged with good sticks while the rest of them either had none or something flimsy. They needed realistic swords to fight with, otherwise the two young boys were destined to poke each other in the eye.

Few of the squad members looked physically capable of fighting in a war. It was tempting to make them do push-ups all day, but they needed to learn how to use their weapons.

"Just wait here, everyone. I'm going to get us some training swords."

They stared blankly. They did not know what else to do.

"Where we going?" Peter asked as he caught up to Ric.

"I...we are going to the store."

He hopped into the bus and Peter followed. He set the address parameter to the local hardware store, and the bus took off without further prompt. Like all the other self-driving cars, it came equipped with lane detection, cooperative adaptive cruise control, topology prediction software, optimized efficiency algorithms, and a host of the finest safety technologies.

He set the fuel parameter to fast instead of fuel efficient, and the bus picked up speed by about 30 miles per hour. Within minutes they were in downtown Seattle. They approached a red stoplight, but the bus did not slow down. The stoplight sent a signal which communicated that it was about to turn green. Just as they entered the intersection, the light turned green, and they proceeded to the hardware store without incident.

"Just stay here, please," Ric said to Peter.

Peter stared out the window at the empty parking lot.

Ric had never heard the city so quiet before. Most of the sounds were distant echoes of dark energy beams. Leaders were making their squads fire into the sky instead of the city infrastructure.

The doors to the hardware store were unlocked, but nobody was there. The store keepers were probably among those firing dark energy beams into the sky.

He rolled a cart around and picked up a few saws, some PVC pipe, foam padding, and duct tape. He grabbed a lot of duct tape. Typically, he would have only been allotted a few of anything, but the war changed everything. Every roll of duct tape was up for grabs because it could all be destroyed in a few days from an alien onslaught anyway. At least he hoped it would not be an onslaught. In any case, people were the underdogs, and they needed as much help as possible.

He talked to Emm on his headset.

"Hey, Emm."

"Hey."

The line went silent. He knew what he wanted to say, but his emotions made it awkward. He wanted to let himself like her. He wanted to forgive her, but it was hard since she planned to leave him and the rest of Earth to fend for itself as soon as she was done with distribution.

"What's up?" she asked.

"Don't leave us. We need you to stay. We need all the help we can get."

"You know I can't, Ric. It's my father's orders."

"Look, you should see my squad. None of them thought they would ever see a gun. Most of them aren't physically prepared. I have a person in my squad with a mental disability who may not understand that we are preparing for war. We need more numbers. Please."

"I can't, Ric. I'm sorry. I'm almost done handing out weapons. Then I have to go."

She terminated the conversation. He wanted to throw his headset. People would have to figure out how to survive on their own like they always did.

By the end of his trip, he had three carts full of training sword supplies. He rolled the carts one by one from the store aisles to the bus. There were not any cash registers to roll the carts between because there was no cash flow. Only the old stores still had cash registers, but they all went unused.

Peter helped him load the bus, and they rode it back to the field where the rest of the squad was. They hardly moved at all since he left.

"Okay, Peter. Let's get this day done," Ric said mostly to himself.

He brought the materials to a tree stump in the field where he cut one of the PVC pipes to about the length of a dark energy sword. Then he cut some foam. He wrapped it around the pipe for padding and sealed it to the pipe with duct tape. The handle of the training sword was bare PVC pipe, and the rest was covered in padding and duct tape.

A few of the able-bodied squad members caught on and made some training swords as well. After a half hour of sword-making, they finally had a hundred.

"Okay, everyone. Get into pairs."

He taught them the basic attacking strategy and defense mechanics.

It was rough.

They missed some steps. The power in their swings was ineffective to defend or attack in a real battle. They did little that reassured Ric that they could pull off preparation in only short amount of time. Some perspective was in order.

"Okay, stop! I want to show you something. Who wants to hold a real dark energy sword? You in the blue sweater?"

She walked over to where Ric was standing.

"I'm going to hand you my dark energy sword. I want you to point it toward the tree stump in the ground and slowly cut into the stump. You ready?"

She nodded slightly. He ejected the dark energy from the sword. It was gray until she grabbed it, and then it became purple. Just like Ric had instructed, she let the dark energy sword tip toward the stump and slice through it like it was nothing. The people watching were amazed.

"Every time you lay hands on that PVC pipe, I want you to pretend that it is a dark energy sword. I want you to pretend that the person in front of you also has a dark energy sword, and that they intend to harm you just like that stump. Let's try the basic defense maneuver again. This time, I want more passion. The mechanics will come eventually."

Ric turned on some workout music, and the collective energy kicked into a new gear. After another hour, they improved significantly. They were able to defend against basic attacks and execute the fundamental combinations. Most of them did, anyway.

It was time to change things up.

"Okay, it's time for gun training."

They lined up with their guns pointed toward the ground. On Ric's command, they pointed the guns at makeshift targets. He had them hold down the trigger and also pull the trigger rapidly to get a feel for the gun.

"Keep it up."

Most of them participated, but one of the high performers had enough. She walked over to Ric with a disconcerted look on her face.

"What are we doing here?" she said loudly.

Some of the others overheard what she said, and they stopped to listen.

"We're here because we need to train to—"

"No, I mean why did I fight in the Final War if it wasn't going to be the final war?"

Why is Earth suddenly a target?" someone else asked.

He empathized with them. He was also tempted to dwell in the past and wonder why everything happened the way it did, but that kind of thinking was futile. Everything including their questions were in the past, and everyone had to make the best of their future.

"We need to focus on what comes ahead."

Everyone stopped shooting, so he raised his voice to address all of them.

"I know this isn't what you expected or what you wanted. It's not what I wanted. You don't have to fight. You can leave and try to find a hiding place where you might be safe, or you can stay and contribute to the survival of every person because we all have value."

They contemplated whether they wanted to stay or leave. If they were on the fence, then perhaps they needed one more shove in the right direction.

"Let's do a little more shooting. I want you to be as comfortable as—"

A dark energy beam fired off, but it sailed straight into the ground and was followed by a young scream. One of the boys held up his arm that was grazed by the other boy's shot. The boy cringed in charred pain while the other one was struck with shock.

"I didn't mean to," he said.

The fathers and mothers of the boys grilled each other.

"You better get a hold on your boy."

"Your kid shouldn't have been standing in front of the gun."

It was a terrible concoction of fearful emotion and weapons. People did not know how to handle the war. They did not know how to handle the weapons. They pointed their guns at each other and they spat out insults. Something bad was going to happen.

"Stop!" Ric pleaded.

He got in between them and their guns.

"Just stop! Even though we face war, we have to maintain peace with each other. If we can't be peaceful now, we have no chance at winning this war. If we kill all our foreign enemies, then we must not have enemies among each other at the end of this war. Now please put your guns down."

He reminded himself of Emm, telling people to stop fighting each other. He felt like an alien, like an outsider. They were not ready to put their trust in someone who still smelled like space.

The parents holstered their guns.

"We're out. We have a better chance of surviving without you."

Mumbles of agreement permeated the air. The woman who fought in the Final War took one of the buses and left while the others in the squad walked their separate ways.

The only person left was Peter, who was still pacing around the same parts of the field.

"Well, Peter. I'm hungry, how about you?"

Chapter 45

Ric took Peter to the food distribution center where he had worked before he was taken to space. It was one of several decentralized locations in the city where meals were put together and taken to the community.

It did not look like much on the outside. Most of the food buildings were built new, but this one was converted from a traditional factory. The wood was old and needed to be repainted to protect against the weather.

The sign on the outside read "Middle Seattle Food." Along with the food building, there was an arboretum and the center of a comprehensive set of bike paths all in the middle of the city.

He sat on the bike that he used to ride every week, number 22. Technically, it was not his bike, but nobody else ever rode it. They always stuck to the same number. Even though people did not own anything, possession was still a habit.

"Where we going?" Peter asked.

"Back to the good old days."

He took his feet off the pedals and placed them back on the hard, dirt ground. Despite the old appearance on the outside, the inside of the building was decked out with high-end technology. The system had a parameter for handling food production with robots only or with the assistance of people. He never actually saw the machines handle the food assembly by themselves because people always wanted to help. It was their way of engaging with society.

He toggled the parameter, entered two for two meals, and he hit the green start button. The machines grabbed two boxes and sent them down the expedited line. In lieu of people filling the boxes with food, it scooped its own food and assigned the portions based on how hungry they were. When it was done, Ric opened the box and smelled the peppery aroma.

"Hope you like broccoli," he said to Peter.

They sat on a hill at the arboretum and dug into their meals. Peter spared all the social graces. He forked way more pasta than he could handle every time. Whatever noodles made it into his mouth, he chomped on them loud and proud. He looked at Ric and laughed with half-chewed pasta and broccoli falling out of his mouth. Ric laughed too.

Ric forked at a pesto-covered mushroom and spun some noodles around it like he was tucking it in bed.

The hill they sat on was across the road from the distribution center and the bike rack. He remembered how much he enjoyed riding his bike with Jerome. Each day of the week, they used to take a different path and see different people. The people were happy when they received the food, and, in turn, he felt happy. Every ride, Jerome would talk about how good the food smelled and how much he could not wait to finally have some.

Ric almost took another bite, but some glass shattered from across the road. He looked around to see if anyone was around, and a dark energy beam zipped by and shattered another window.

"Get behind the hill. Come on!" he urged Peter.

Peter did not catch on right away, so Ric pulled him by the shirt. His box of noodles was still there along with a freshly dipped fork.

Another dark energy beam zipped by and obliterated one of the bikes. Dark energy beams took out bikes 25 and 24. Jerome's was 23.

"They better not..."

Bikes 23 and 22 were obliterated.

He tuned into his headset to see if there was talk of an attack on Earth yet. Nothing.

Something was off.

The Fallen could have quietly infiltrated Seattle and disrupted his communications. That did not make sense though. Nothing made sense as a couple more dark energy beams whizzed by. Those ones missed everything except the dirt on the ground.

"Woohoo!" the shooters cheered. "Get some more of those bikes there, Duke."

These were not Earth invaders. They were people.

"Stay here," he told Peter.

"Hey!" he called to them.

They shot a couple more bikes.

"Where is your squad leader?"

"Hey Reggie, get this guy. He's like, 'Squad leaders are so important.'"

"Yeah, he's so serious."

"I think you're onto something, Reggie. He is serious. Maybe we should take him seriously."

Duke was rough around the edges. He was both confident and unpredictable as he waved his gun in the air. Reggie was less assured of himself. He talked quietly and looked to Duke for approval.

"You're a squad leader, aren't you?" Duke said, pointing to Ric's headset. "We hated our leader, but you must have been especially bad if all of them left you."

"Yeah, you should get some kinda award for being crappy," Reggie added.

"Just shut up and let me do the talking."

"I just agreed with you. What's so wrong with that?"

"No, you ruined what I said with your airy voice. I keep telling you that it's annoying, but you never stop talking."

"It's my voice, I can't help it if..."

"Guys."

"if it sounds this way. It's—"

"Guys!"

Ric shot a dark energy beam into the sky. That got their attention.

"Stop shooting the bikes and the windows."

Ric received a violent scowl from Duke. Whatever hole Duke crawled out from, it must have been a dark one. His mouth twisted with malice, and his free hand was clenched in ready position for a fight.

Ric was not particularly intimidated. He already encountered his fair share of real danger, and Duke did not fit the bill. Still, Duke had a gun and an ignited temper.

"Or what?" Reggie said with his airy voice.

Duke rolled his eyes and punched Reggie in the arm. "What he said. Or what?"

"Or you'll have to deal with us."

Three big guys appeared from one of the bike trails.

Now Duke and Reggie were outnumbered.

"You're lucky," Duke said as he holstered his gun. He dug his shoulder into Ric's as he walked away.

Reggie tried to do the same, but he missed, nearly falling on his face as a result. He pretended like nothing embarrassing happened, but the cloud of dirt he kicked up with his feet was enough for Duke to berate him.

"What are you doing? I don't understand you."

"I almost hit him like you did. What's so wrong with that?"

Ric almost felt bad for Reggie. He would have felt bad if his bike had not been decimated.

"Thanks," Ric said to the friendly giants.

They looked like they came straight from a motorcycle club. Their beards had beards. Tattoos decorated their bulging arms and other parts as well.

Two little girls and a chow shepherd dog stood behind them. It looked like the dog walked a long way, panting with its tongue sticking out while guarding two tired girls.

"You're welcome," one of the men said. His voice was not as deep as Ric expected.

"Hold on a second," Ric said.

He went back to the hill and climbed its seven-foot perch to get Peter, but Peter was not there.

He scanned along the hill and between the trees, but still he did not see Peter.

"Peter!" he shouted, but there was no reply.

He turned on his headset again to see if anyone talked about Peter. Nothing. All 100 of his squad officially left him.

He nearly cut off the headset feed again, but Emm came online.

"The weapon distribution in Seattle is complete. We will head to another planet to restore our future. Good luck, Earth."

That was it. She left.

He walked over to the bikers and their daughters who were waiting patiently.

"Mind if I join you?"

Chapter 46

It was dark outside when Ric and his new company of men and daughters walked into his apartment. It looked like he had never left, except that his books were gone. He swiped some dust from the top of his piano as they walked into the living room. There were not enough seats, so he grabbed a couple fold-ups from the closet.

"Make yourself at home."

Toby sat on the couch first. He and Eric had their daughters while Darius had the dog. Destiny jumped up on the couch and wagged her tail.

"Oh no you don't," Darius said.

He picked her up and sat on the couch. Ric was not sure if the couch would sustain the weight of all three guys, but he was always up for a good experiment. Eric squished in between the other two. The couch cracked a little.

"Say thank you for welcoming my family into your home, Becka."

"Thank you for welcoming my family into my home...your home," she repeated as she looked at Ric. She was very young, about Tyson's age.

"You're most welcome."

She smiled wide like two small stars stretched her cheeks.

"Thank you for the water," the other one said.

"You have well-mannered children."

"Most of the time," Darius said. "Every now and then Destiny does a no no, don't you Des? She knows it though."

He massaged her ears and her neck as her tail wagged. It looked like dopamine fired in her brain at all cylinders.

"She's been pushing my limits ever since we met at the club. You want to hear that story?"

"Oh my gosh, no. I've already heard this 26 times," Eric said.

"You're lucky I don't tell it every day, because that's what this story deserves."

"Just get it over with," Toby said as he let some gas rip the air. Now the couch was both broken and smelly.

"Alright. One day, I was doing maintenance on my bike, you know the standard stuff. Sprocket wear, chain stretch. Anyway, I was the last one to leave the garage. So, I went outside and pressed the button to close it. Well, out of nowhere I see this dog come running. Just before the garage closes, it runs underneath the garage door and sets off that laser thing. So, the garage opens back up. The dog ran back out of the garage as quickly as it went in, so I closed the garage again, but the same thing happened. I was about to lose it at that point. I mean, that dog was going to be the end of me. I thought, well maybe if I drive away a little first, then it won't think that I'm playing with it. So, I get in the van and start driving away. Sure enough, I hit the button, and the door closes. I go, 'thank God.'"

His face turned red as he tried to suppress giggly laughter.

"But then I look in my side mirror, and I see the dog running next to the van. I hit the brakes, and I roll down my window. The dog is looking at me and I'm looking at her. It was a weird feeling, you know? It felt like she was my dog even though I just met her. And I just says, 'you wanna join the club?' She's been pushing my buttons ever since."

He moved his massaging down to her lower back.

"But anyway, that's why she's named Destiny. It was meant to be."

"He treats that thing better than I treat my own daughter sometimes," Toby said. "It isn't natural. I've been telling him that for years. I mean, look at him."

Darius blew kisses at her while she was licking his mouth and everywhere else on his face.

"Gross."

"Darius just knows how to treat a dog right," Ric said.

Toby scoffed, "You don't even know the half of it."

"No, really," Ric insisted. "The Latin root for animal is soul. Animals deserve good treatment. Charles Darwin had a theory that all life stems from the same source. In a way, we're all kind of the same. I think Darwin even had a dog."

Darius was still entranced by the love of his dog. Toby was still grossed out.

"I bet Darwin didn't love his dog as much as Darius does."

"Besides Darius' love affair, I kind of get it," Eric said. "Dogs are smarter than we are. Destiny is sitting there having the time of her life while we sit here and think about war. Since when did dogs fight wars?"

"Daddy, I want to go home."

"I know sweetie. We're going to be on a vacation here tonight though. It's gonna be like camping with Auntie Mayra except there won't be a fire."

"No marshmallows?"

"Nope. In fact, let's go to bed. We need sleep."

"Beds are upstairs," Ric said.

After they were all situated, Ric grabbed a heavy blanket and took it outside to his deck. The sky was cloudy, and the city lights were on, so the stars and their beauty were hidden. He closed his eyes and imagined them. He pictured the night before he had been taken to space, when the Milky Way had served as the city lights. Tyson had been with him, and Jerome and Gabby had been safe.

Everything changed since then. The stars in his life faded, and gloom like clouds hid his future away. He wanted to hold onto hope, but it was a tight rope growing thinner as he walked along it. He did not want to fall. He did not want to fall asleep because the next day would come, and the pattern of misfortune that plagued his recent days might continue. He just wanted to stay awake and wait for the clouds to move so that he could see one more ghost of the past in the sky. Instead, it rained.

He walked inside and lied down on the couch where the cushions were still warm and a little smelly from the three friendly giants.

Sadness filled his soul. He wanted to apologize, although he did not know why or to who. Just at the right time, four paws hopped their way down the stairs. Destiny licked his sadness away and then climbed up on the couch and lied next to him. Hope was slim, but at least he could still hold onto Destiny. Her presence calmed him down until all his negative thoughts seemed secondary. She did not know about war, but she did know how to make him feel loved. Maybe she really was smarter than him.

Chapter 47

The morning sun pierced the darkness, although clouds were inevitably on their way. Destiny jumped off him and ran upstairs, presumably to let the others know it was time to wake up.

Tension left his body as he stretched. He walked to the kitchen and opened up the fridge. Gross. Nobody cleaned out the fridge before they took him to space. The only consumable in the fridge was the pitcher water. He drank a full glass with a few gulps and took care of his basic needs in the bathroom.

When he came back out, he expected Destiny to have dragged everyone out of bed, but he was still the only one awake. Maybe Destiny just wanted to switch sleeping buddies.

He poured some cereal flakes into a clean bowl and opened the fridge to grab some milk.

"Oh, yeah." He sighed.

The milk was spoiled. He grabbed his bowl and cocked his head back to let some dry cereal fall into his mouth. It was too crunchy, but it got the job done. He pulled his head back for another, but he heard a strange sound that was too quiet to discern. It was close in location, but nothing about it was intrinsically alarming. He wrote it off as neighbors making too much morning noise.

He lifted his bowl to take another round of cereal, but the sound interrupted him again. It sounded like shattering glass. He walked out to the deck, and a dark energy beam zipped by, crashing into a window and shattering it. That was the last straw. It had to be Duke and Reggie from the previous day, still vandalizing, except now they were shooting at people's homes.

"Hey! Stop shooting windows. I'll bring out my friends again. I bet you don't want that, do you?"

He shouted as loud as he could toward the source location of the dark energy beams. Another glass shattered. He tried to place where Duke and Reggie stood, but the beams came from a weird angle. It was like they shot from the top of a building far away.

He thought about calling for assistance upstairs but figured he could take them alone this time. He holstered his guns and sword.

Before he got to the door, the city alarm sounded. It was loud and annoying, like a high-volume alarm clock that he could not snooze. It could have only meant one thing.

A spaceship flew nearby and rained dark energy beams on one of the apartment buildings, turning it to fire and ash within a second. It was not two troublemakers. It was war with the galaxy's most dangerous enemies.

"Hey!" Ric called upstairs, "Get down—"

They finally got out of bed and rushed down the stairs. Ric opened the front door until all of the people and the dog vacated. A few seconds after they made it outside, Ric's building was pummeled with dark energy beams.

"Do we have spaceships?" Toby yelled over the loud noises of panicked people and burning buildings.

"No," Ric said. He pulled out his nitro gun and aimed in the path of the enemy ship.

"How are we supposed to take out that ship, then?"

The ship sped by along the predicted path, and Ric hit it with a nitro beam. The entire ship turned to a block of ice in an instant and crashed to the ground at its breakneck velocity.

"That's how," Ric said.

The fathers held their children tightly. The girls cried, and the dog whimpered and sulked. The fathers' hands were so full with love, there was no room for them to hold weapons. Taking an offensive approach was impractical.

"You know why we're going to win this war?" Ric said. "Because we are going to survive longer than them."

He racked his brain. Jerome would have known what to do. They needed a place free from spaceships overhead, a place hidden away from enemies on the ground. The Space Needle.

"We need to get to the Space Needle. It's our best chance."

"We would have to go deeper into the city. Isn't that the most dangerous?" Darius said as he comforted Destiny.

"Nowhere is safe, but if we can get underground, I like our chances. They built an underground storage area near the Space Needle to store all the supplies for the global Science Festival."

"I think we should take the ferry to Vashon Island," Eric said.

"No, Ric's right. We're sitting ducks out in the water and anywhere else above ground," Toby said. "Let's do it. Let's go to the Space Needle and get underground."

They ran toward the city while others ran away from it. There were a lot of scared faces, and there were few squads still working as a unit.

They turned the corner onto 5th Avenue, which was a straight shot to the Space Needle only a couple miles away.

A spaceship flew close to the ground, taking as many hits as it was giving. It burst into flames from the rear and thundered into the ground, breaking up asphalt for a hundred yards until it finally stopped in front of them. Ric walked toward the cockpit to take a look at it.

"What are you doing?" Eric asked.

Something did not feel right in Ric's stomach. Every time he felt that way, it was like the universe was trying to tell him something. The spaceship looked familiar on the outside, but the controls were different on the inside. It looked more complex than the spaceship he flew to the blueberry planet.

"Come on," Eric urged.

They walked in the broken asphalt a few feet below the sidewalk. There were several inches of gravel underneath the road, all packed tightly. On any other day, those little rocks worked together to support city traffic, including large trucks. They were a unit. He wished Seattle was more like the gravel. If they stuck together, they could win, but their current response of fear and distrust would get them killed. He hoped the rest of the world was more unified than Seattle.

A couple dark energy beams darted from around a corner and smashed into the middle of the intersection. Beams returned from the other side.

If they kept walking, they would be victims of crossfire, so they ran into a building nearby and watched as two groups of 100 fighters fired their weapons liberally. Asphalt and chunks of buildings sprayed a cloud of dust into the air as both sides traded advantage. Eventually, neither side could see their enemy because so much dust accumulated between them. Dark energy beams were still exchanged, and it was not about to end any time soon. Ric needed a way around.

"I'm gonna see how we can get around this," Ric said. The others nodded.

He walked to a nearby road that was sprayed with the dust of demolished infrastructure. The dust was too dense to breathe healthy air. He covered his nose with his shirt, but it did not help. What he really needed was a mask.

"Next time," he told himself.

Across the street was an alley that would lead them beyond the crossfire and back on track to the Space Needle. He nearly crossed the street to investigate further, but a mysterious person caught his attention.

"Hey!" Ric said.

The person stopped. He wore blue jeans, sneakers, a jacket and a bandanna that covered his nose and mouth. Ric pointed his gun at the person. He could not justify why, but the person felt like a threat. He looked like a human, but then again, so did Emm. The dust blew toward them, clouding the situation even more. The only thing Ric could tell was that the distrust was mutual as they both assessed the situation carefully. The dust cloud became denser until they could no longer see each other.

"Just go west," Ric told him. He did not want a stranger near the girls.

Ric took a deep breath of clean air as he walked back into the building and was welcomed by familiar faces.

"I know the way."

They walked outside, but it was more hostile now with lives being exchanged every second. Dark energy beams crashed into the streets from every direction. At least Seattle was putting up a fight. Destiny whimpered, and the girls hid their faces in their fathers' chests. Ric felt like he was responsible for them. Even though they were not his squad, they were his friends. More than that, the girls were Seattle's future. They needed to grow up with war as their memory instead of their fate.

They waited for the rate of dark energy beam fire to decrease, and then they darted across the street and over to the alley.

They came to a locked chain link fence at the end of the alley.

"We need a dark energy sword to cut through that," Ric said.

Darius offered his dark energy sword.

"No, I already have one, and I can't," Ric said. "You have to cut through it. I'll hold onto Destiny."

Ric took the leash and watched as Darius drew an outline of a door. It sounded like a child ran with a thin stick and brushed it against a fence.

They walked through the newly formed door and continued down 5th Avenue. He still held onto Destiny's leash. It made him want to get a dog when all the fighting was over. She bounced up and down with her four legs and her tongue catching the breeze. She was loyal, which was more than he could say about some people.

Another flurry of dark energy beams flew through the air. Multiple intersections were privy to the exchanges, making 5th Avenue too dangerous. One of the errant beams nearly hit Eric.

"We gotta move," Toby said.

They ducked behind cars and inched their way toward the nearest corner. Ric followed the others as they rounded the corner, but something caught his eye. He looked again in between the parked cars.

"Come on, Ric. Let's go."

Ric did not follow them yet because he found another friend on the street.

Peter was hiding behind the parked cars.

Chapter 48

Ric timed the errant dark energy beams. They whizzed by with a Normal Distribution and an average of about three seconds. He ran for it. A dark energy beam flew nearby him as soon as he left the safety of his corner, but he pressed on. He slid behind a few cars and dodged more dark energy beams before he made it.

Peter sat with his elbows on his knees and his hands over his ears. He smelled like urine.

"Peter!" Ric tried to get his attention.

Peter was in a state of shock, and Ric's surprise greeting only aggravated the situation. Peter stood up to run, and a dark energy beam nearly struck him.

Ric pulled him down.

"Stop, Peter. It's me, Ric!"

Peter struggled with his arms and legs, but Ric just held him down.

"Stop, Peter. I'm your friend. I want to help you."

Ric managed to put Peter in a locked position where it was uncomfortable to move.

Peter's eyes dashed between all his possible escape routes until he finally recognized Ric.

"Where we going?"

"Somewhere safe. Follow me."

They made it back to the others and walked down more side streets. Ric was getting used to the sound of city infrastructure getting blown to pieces. Even on the roads that were free of fighting, errant dark energy beams crashed nearby. There was a probability that one of those beams would finally intersect with one of them, but it was a probability they had to accept.

"Daddy, I'm thirsty."

"I know darlin'. We're going to a place that has lots of water though. You want me to sing you the song?"

"Yeah."

"Remind me how it goes."

"You know, Daddy."

"But I want you to start it out for me."

"I don't want a lot for Christmas. There is just one thing I need," she sang like a little Mariah Carey.

Eric joined in, "I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree."

Eric and his daughter danced and held hands as they walked down the street. They sang the Christmas song, and it was only the beginning of autumn. Only a child could cause a man like Eric to dance with such small dignity. Toby joined in with his daughter, and Darius pretended that Destiny danced as well. It was the first time the girls smiled ever since Ric met them. Their love was something an army of the Fallen could not take away.

Peter hummed some of the melody too. Ric liked Christmas music in small doses. It was not his first choice in warm, cloudy weather, but it was a worthy distraction from the surrounding danger.

They were only a quarter mile away from the Space Needle. It was in plain sight since they already passed most of the tall buildings. Many of those buildings were on fire, sending a mass of black smoke into the atmosphere. Firemen could not contain the blaze because they left their fire duty to follow the guidance of their squad leaders. It was only a matter of time before hospitals and other important sites were rained on with dark energy beams and fire.

He felt sick to his stomach. They were so unprepared for a worldwide battle. If they stood a chance, it was not evident. The pushback on the Fallen was too weak. From what Ric could tell, they were losing the battle, and it was not even close.

Eric still sang the Christmas song. He already extended the song to three times its length, but it was worth it just to keep his daughter in good spirits.

"All I want for Christmas is—"

They heard a large cracking sound in the distance. Metal smashed. There was an inanimate scream of metal bending on heavy weight. The Space Needle was falling.

It tipped slightly to the right at first, resisting gravity with whatever infrastructure it had left at its base. Slowly, it roared a metallic cry of defeat as gravity finished it off, pulling it to the ground with an explosion of sound and rubble.

It felt like defeat. The Space Needle was the symbol of Seattle's future, and now it was nothing more than a pile of metal. Buildings were burning, showcasing a wake of destruction. Everything was in shambles. A Christmas song would have been irreverent, so they stood in silence and waited for feelings of despair to point to memory rather than the present.

A spaceship the size of a miniature city descended from the sky. The Fallen sent reinforcements, as if they needed it. At least a hundred smaller spaceships dispatched from it, immediately firing at an already compromised city. Ric shot down a couple of them, but he needed a spaceship of his own to actually protect Seattle.

The large spaceship continued its descent. Thousands of the Fallen stood at the edge of it, holding onto handles until they stepped onto Earth's ground. They poured from the ship as a stampede of predators bent on the destruction of the planet and everything in it. They funneled into the main streets and shot every living thing in their path.

"The underground haven is blocked off by the Space Needle. There's no way we get to it even if it wasn't blocked off. There's too many of them."

"I knew this was a bad idea," Eric said with angry regret. "We should have gone away from the city."

Ric searched desperately for another way out. The city was no longer an option. The longer they stood there, the less time they had to run. He patched into his headset and checked up on the status of the rest of the city.

"Have any of you seen very large spaceships carrying reinforcements in the last few minutes?"

The line was quiet for a moment. Ric was not sure if anyone was still using their headsets or if anyone else was even alive still.

"Yeah, one just dropped down at Jackson Park."

"Yup, just got one here at Rainier Valley."

"Anyone else?" Ric asked.

There were no other replies. Jackson Park was in far North Seattle while Rainier Valley sat on the South end.

"There's nowhere to hide," Ric blurted out loud.

"What do you mean there's nowhere to hide?" Darius asked.

"They control the skies, and now with their ground reinforcements...they're sandwiching us in. We can't hide anymore."

"Where we going?" Peter said.

Ric's head span as chaos erupted in the streets.

"There's only one thing we can do."

He patched into the headset again, "All squad leaders, pay close attention. We know what the enemy plans to do, and I have a plan." He looked at Eric's and Toby's daughters. "I have a plan to fight back and keep your daughters alive."

Chapter 49

Ric joined another squad at an apartment building not far from the broken Space Needle. The squad managed to survive with all 100 intact. Their squad leader was a woman with short hair and a birthmark near her lips. Her physique was naturally strong, and her personality was both strong and gentle. Ric felt inferior. She proved her effectiveness as a leader, keeping all 100 of her squad alive in the most dangerous circumstances. She was also selfless enough to let Ric take the lead on his counterattack strategy despite his lack of proof as an effective leader.

Some squad members stood with their backs pressed against the walls nearby the windows, so they had quick access to enemies outside while staying hidden.

Ric stood in one of the corners of the building along with the bikers and Peter. He made strategic calls on his headset while helping to protect the girls.

"You sure your plan will work?" Toby said.

"Historically, it's been very effective," Ric said. "When they see that the streets are empty, they will think they've won. They'll put their guard down, disperse through the city with limited organization, and then we will cut them down one by one, militia style. It's the only way we finally get an advantage."

The clouds darkened and gave the city a cool rain. It started with a few heavy drops and then picked up pace until it was a shower.

"Are we ready, Dana?" Ric asked the other squad leader.

She had her hands on her hips as she looked at the sky.

"All three regions are a go. Once we take back control of Central Seattle, the Northern and Southern regions should have more of a fighting chance. Central is awaiting your call."

"I'll defer to you. You're in a better position to decide."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah."

"Hey," she said as Ric turned to leave. "How many days would you say it rains here?"

"It rains about five hours on three days a week."

Peter came out of nowhere.

"Where your headset?"

"It's right here," Dana said with a smile.

"No. Different." Peter explained, pointing at the battery pack buckled to her belt.

"Oh, I see," Ric said. "Good call. Dana, your headset is a different model than mine. They're really similar, except your battery pack has two lines across it and mine only has one."

"Huh, weird. I never noticed."

The bikers were still in the corner, taking care of the girls. Destiny whimpered, and the girls sulked in their exhaustion. When Ric thought of war, he usually thought of blood and death. He never thought about the tiredness. The girls needed a place to rest their heads almost as much as they needed safety.

The room fell silent as footsteps and quiet conversation populated the outside air. Ric could see out the corner of a window that the Fallen were less dense in number but still overwhelming. They walked in groups of five, each of them watching the others' backs as they scanned the buildings and the roads between them.

He exchanged a look with Dana, and she shook her head side to side. They were not ready to attack. They needed to wait as the enemy walked deeper into the trap set for them. The only sound he could hear was the slow crunch of gravel and the enemy's steady pace.

Eric's daughter hiccupped loudly, and the noise vibrated off the walls. Eric covered her mouth with his hands as faces across the room cringed with worry. They needed to initiate the attack, and silence was their only chance at succeeding.

Silence, however, was fleeting. A dog barked from across the street. Ric burrowed his head in his hands.

"Shut up, dog."

It kept barking. Ric held his breath because there was nothing else he could do. Darius tried to calm Destiny's growl.

"Sh, Destiny. It's okay."

Calming her was impossible. She barked loudly and sprinted for the door. Darius leaped for the leash, but it was too late. She was already halfway across the room, barking loudly through the apartment building. One of the squad members jumped on Destiny before she got through the door. They all stopped and looked at the muzzled dog with one eye open and the other cringed shut. Every second of silence was reassuring that the rain may have suppressed the sound of the bark, but the uncertainty was chilling. As soon as Ric thought the bark went unnoticed, shots fired through the glass. Several squad members died immediately.

Ric stood to shoot but had to duck back down as a dark energy beam fired in his direction. It crashed into the wall behind him and spilled small rubble on his head. Dana and her squad were handling the situation like experts. There was no question of why they lasted as long as they did. They were outnumbered about five to one, but their casualties were limited to only those first few that died. Ric did not want to poke his head back up for fear of being shot at, but he trusted that the Fallen were taking a sufficient beating.

Dana motioned for the squad to move onto the street. Ric thought it was premature, but he trusted her instinct more than his own. He followed her lead, but Eric pulled him back.

"We're not going with you," he said. "We're going to sit tight until the streets clear up. I might find a random bed and put some ear plugs on Becka so she can fall asleep."

Toby nodded in agreement as did Darius.

"Peter?"

"Where we going?"

Ric grabbed Peter by the shoulders and looked him square in the eye.

"Peter, you should stay with these guys. The streets are too dangerous now, and being here is as safe as you can be. Alright?"

"Okay," Peter said.

Ric walked toward the door, but Peter followed him. There was nothing more Ric could say to ensure Peter's safety.

"Stay close."

They walked onto the street. Ric picked off a couple of the Fallen, but most of the heavy work was already done by Dana's squad. He got word over his headset that the militia attacks were an initial success. The Fallen were not expecting an organized attack, probably because Seattle was not organized at all until then.

Everything was eerily calm until they reached the Space Needle where shots fired in every direction. Ric ducked for cover behind a car, only resurfacing his eyes and gun every few seconds to land a shot.

"How you doin' Peter?"

"Good."

"We need those reinforcements right about now," Ric said over the headset.

A massive crowd of people ran down the street toward the Space Needle, cleaning up the Fallen along their path. If they were going to win the battle, they had to win the ground. Outnumbering the enemy was a good start.

Ric followed them to the open field where most of the action was. The Fallen called in their own reinforcements from the inner city, and there were thousands of people and Fallen at war in that small area. Dark energy swords broke out, and flashes of color struck the air like killer sunsets.

Ric tried to keep enough distance so that he could still use his gun. He grabbed Peter and took him to a rooftop where he could more easily shoot at the enemies and keep safe. He shot several down like they were fish in a barrel until an enemy ship in the distance headed his direction.

He pulled out his nitro gun and fired at the ship. He missed once. It was too far. He missed again. It changed speed every few seconds, which made timing the shot impossible.

"Come on, Ric," he said to himself.

He had one more try before the ship would be over all the people and within range to do some damage. Ric sent off another nitro beam, and it sailed just shy of the ship.

"Oh no."

The ship pummeled the people on the ground and landed a shot on the building just below Ric's feet. It was enough to send him off the edge of the two-story building and onto the roof of a car. He lied there in pain. It felt like his brain got punched by his own skull, and his arm felt like it wanted to quit altogether.

He looked up at the cloudy sky and pondered whether that was the last sky he would see. Maybe it would be an honorable enough death.

He blinked and Peter came into view. Peter pushed Ric onto his side with a nudge and then pushed him harder until he rolled off the car and landed on his feet and hands. Peter nudged Ric into action again.

"Alright, alright. I'm up."

Ric looked at the current state of the fight. People were in bad shape. After the ship took a chunk of them out, they were once again outnumbered and losing numbers at a much higher rate than the Fallen. He did everything he could to establish an advantage, but it was too hard. Seattle was in deep danger of defeat.

Another giant enemy ship was descending onto the field. That was the last straw. Before, it was hard, but now it would be just short of a miracle if even one person survived.

The ship descended further toward the ground, but it never landed. Several spaceships flew toward it and rapidly released a shower of dark energy beams on it. The enemy spaceship was defenseless as the onslaught destroyed it and all its Fallen passengers within seconds. Its engines burst to flames, and its insides turned out as it crashed onto the ground.

Emm. She came back.

"South and North, how are you doing?"

"We got help from angels in the sky. I think we're going to win this thing!"

The large enemy ship exploded spectacularly, and the momentum shifted. New life kicked into Ric's legs and arms. He ran toward the fighting and shot several more of the Fallen, depleting their numbers to bare bones.

It did not take long for the Fallen to recognize that the battle had become a suicide mission. A multitude of enemy spaceships took off beyond the clouds, back into space.

Victory was theirs.

People everywhere screamed at the top of their lungs. Fists and feet were in the air as people jumped into each other's arms. Ric ran over to the spaceships that just landed and searched through the small crowd for Emm. He weaved between several ships, until he checked each one. She was not there.

He ran around the side, and finally he found her there, walking alongside others toward the city.

"Emm!" he called.

She turned around, and he ran toward her. She looked the same as before, but never had she looked so beautiful to him. Her blond hair bounced on her shoulders, and her brown eyes smiled as pretty as her mouth did. He picked her up off the ground and spun her in a 180. It was as close as he could be to her with her arms around him and his strength the only thing keeping her above ground.

Her feet touched the Earth's ground again, and they looked into each other's eyes. She started to talk, but he did not want to talk. He put his hand on the back of her head and kissed her. It felt like space and time converged and diverged in rapid succession, like he was transported to another dimension. Signals of affirmation exploded in his mind as the taste of her mouth lingered on his.

She had come back, and he wanted her to stay.

Chapter 50

The rest of Earth won the battle. Like Seattle, they had an initial struggle, but ultimately people were able to drive the Fallen out with a little help. Australia was the last to have victory, but they were still able to drive out the last enemy before sunset.

Emm stayed on Earth while the rest of her crew returned to space along with people who wanted to explore outer space for the first time.

Ric spent the first part of the evening by cleaning up parts of the city. He swept broken car pieces and rubble off 5th Avenue. He helped take note of the people who died whenever he recognized them.

Peter helped with the cleanup as well until he got too tired and took rest on a nearby bed. Eric, Toby, Darius, and their girls were all okay.

Ric said "Merry Christmas" to them as they walked away, which earned smiles from the girls and a wagging tail from Destiny.

Later in the evening, food was transported to the inner city in bus loads. People did not want to eat at their homes that night. They wanted to be together, to celebrate their victory and take comfort in their personal losses. Plenty of locally raised fruits and vegetables were tossed around liberally. Bowls of spaghetti and foot long garlic bread were consumed by the hungriest of people. Ric and Emm finished their meals and held hands as they walked around the wood fire in the middle of the crowd of people.

Among all the people was Dana, talking with some of her squad members. He was glad that he met her because she reminded him that it was possible to stay alive even when victory seemed improbable.

"Let's get away from here," Emm said.

"What do you have in mind?" Ric asked.

"I want to go back to where we first talked."

"You mean, where you first punched me in the face?" he smiled.

Emm smiled back. "Exactly."

They held hands through Broad Street, mostly just enjoying each other's company. The rest of the time, they focused on not tripping on rubble. She helped him through some of the darker areas in the city since she could see in the dark better than him.

The Puget Sound was calmer than it was on the night they first met. A lot changed since then, but at least one thing was still the same. He still wanted to be with her.

"It's calm tonight," she said.

"Good old Seattle. One hour it's raining, and the next, this happens."

"So, what made you come back?" he asked.

It was not the calm chill of the evening air that gave him goosebumps, but it was her silent smile and stare. She stared at him as if he was the answer to his own question.

"It wasn't my father. I can say that much. My VP title is revoked, I'm sure."

"Well, we might as well tell him that we visited Jerome in jail too."

"Ha, yeah then he'd just have a heart attack."

"I like being with you, Emm. I feel like a better person with you. I feel that way now, and I felt that way on the blueberry planet. You know, I never did ask you the most important question that a person could ever ask."

"What's that?" she asked with a serious tone.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Green," she said without hesitation. "It's clearly the best color."

"Well you pass the test. I like evergreen because it reminds me of home. Maybe that will be the color of my dark energy sword whenever the universe figures out the mystery that is me."

"It still hasn't happened yet, huh?"

He pulled out his sword and ejected its grayness into the air. It made no sound at all.

"Nope, not yet," he said.

"I'm guessing the universe just wants a certain level of certainty before it assigns you a color. You are made of the same stuff that stars are made of. You're part of the universe. In some sense, the universe doesn't even understand itself if it doesn't understand you. Besides, you know who you are."

"Do I?"

The wind picked up a little. It was getting colder. Emm folded her arms and put her knees together for warmth.

"Did you know that half our daily caloric intake is expelled just keeping our body temperature warm?" Ric said. "It would be easier to stay warm if my arm was around you."

"Oh, I know who you are. You're the cheesy pick up line guy. Mystery solved."

She laughed, resting her ear on Ric's chest as he pulled her close. It really did help to stay warm. It was magical and primal at the same time just to help each other keep alive and comfortable. He enjoyed just being with her as he stared at the large body of water in front of him.

"Something kind of weird happened today."

"What happened?" she asked.

"I met this squad leader, Dana. She asked me how much it rains in Seattle. I told her it rains on average five hours for three days a week."

"I don't follow."

"It wasn't the question itself that struck me as odd. It was the way she asked it, like she was curious how much more she could expect it to rain. It was like she hadn't lived here for long even though she lived here all her life."

"She was probably just stressed out from the war."

"Yeah, you're probably right. The other weird thing though...she had a different headset than me. Did Paradise manufacture different model headsets?"

"No, but there's always a chance of variation. We make them—"

Emm talked, but Ric did not hear a word she said. Her voice was a distant whisper compared to the loud train horn crashing around his mind. He had a sinister thought. It was a loud thought, and it made all the sense in the world even though he did not want it to. If what he suspected was true, people were still in deep trouble.

"We have to go back to the party."

"Already?"

She sounded upset.

"I wish this night could last forever, but please trust me. We might be in danger."

They ran through Broad Street. This time, Ric just tripped every time there was an object in his way. He did not care. The pain of hitting the ground with his wrists was nothing compared to the thoughts that propelled him forward. He needed answers.

They made it to the dwindled crowd of people, some of whom already returned home for the night. He scanned the crowd, moving his eyes rapidly over each person. He did not recognize most of them, but that was not too surprising because Seattle was so populous. There was only one person that he was interested in seeing. Dana. She was still close to the fire.

"Dana."

She did not notice him because she was talking with her friends. He stood in the middle of their circle.

"Dana."

"Oh hey. Ric, right? Meet some of my friends. You will probably recognize some of—"

"How long have you lived in Seattle?" he interrupted.

"All my life, why?"

"Where exactly?"

"Over on McClellan and 3rd. Why do you want to know?"

Ric stepped away from the confused Dana and the fire that seemed blurry as his consciousness became a dizzy haze.

"What is going on?" Emm asked in private.

"I delivered food to McClellan and 3rd for years. She isn't from McClellan and 3rd."

He spoke too loudly. He walked closer to Emm's spaceship, away from the crowd.

"She isn't from Earth at all," he continued. "She's Fallen, and I'd wager there's a whole lot more of the Fallen here than just her. Their plan was never to destroy Earth like they destroyed Paradise. They don't want to live on the blueberry planet. They want to live here."

Emm stared with a tortured look of dark epiphany.

"We need everyone to come back. This war isn't over."

Chapter 51

Ric and Emm arrived to the spaceship that was still a temporary home for the inhabitants of Paradise. Large groups of Earth's people walked around the ship, looking out into space or admiring the mathematically aesthetic architectures of the ship itself. For all they knew, they were on a peaceful ship in a peaceful galaxy with a home that was safe in their absence. It was a good dream, but a dream nonetheless. Like moons revolved around objects, they believed their long futures were guaranteed. But only the future knew what the future was, and Ric had a more informed projection than most.

He needed the people and the support from Remai to fly back to Earth to engage the enemy again.

Ric and Emm walked to the control room where the same two guards stood. One rolled his eyes, too annoyed to talk.

The other one said, "He can't go in there."

"I know," Emm said. "It's just me."

Ric looked at her, surprised. He had a hundred words on the tip of his tongue.

"Trust me," she said. "It's better this way."

She was probably right. Every time Ric had stepped into the command room, there was some kind of trouble. Last time, it looked like Remai's head was filled with all the blood in his body, like an angry tomato.

He sighed, "Okay."

She walked into the command room. Ric caught Remai's eye before the door closed and all he could see was the two annoyed guards. He stepped closer to the door, and one of them thumped his chest with an outstretched arm.

"Relax," Ric said. "I just want to listen to their conversation."

He pressed his ear against the door. He could feel the two guards exchange looks, but apparently they did not care enough to push him back again. He could barely hear the conversation until it picked up some heat.

"Why won't you just tell them? It's your obligation as their leader," Emm said.

"My obligation is to ensure their safety. That was the whole point of bringing Earth here in the first place. Don't you get it? We are going to a place that isn't our home to rebuild our population. Isn't that bad enough? I won't put us through anything worse than what is necessary. I won't deploy a single resource to help people's cause."

"The day we brought people here was the day we became allies with them. They are us and we are them. If they lose their planet because we abandon them now, then everything we fought for together has been for nothing."

"Everybody—"

Ric could not hear the last part of what Remai said.

"Everybody out!" he shouted.

That one was crystal clear.

Marz was the first one to walk out. His eyes beamed with hatred. His breath stunk of old garlic bread and soup, which was painfully pungent when he pinned Ric against the wall with his forearm.

"Never thought I'd see you again, Stage 3."

Ric anticipated a violent hit, but all he received was hateful eyes and a turned back. For all the times that they did not get along, they had one thing in common. Their home planets were deeply compromised.

Ric knew the conversation between Emm and her father would take a quieter tone, so he took off his shirt and stuffed it between the door and its side, leaving the door ajar. He could hear anything louder than a whisper.

Remai started the conversation again, "You and I both know that the issue you posit isn't about us. It isn't about all of Earth's people. For you, it is about one of Earth's people. For whatever reason that eludes me, you have constantly chosen to betray me by pursuing that stage 3 animal. I will not jeopardize any more lives for him anymore, Emm."

"I can't believe you right now. Billions of lives are at risk at our enemy's hand, and you will do nothing? My motives are irrelevant. There is right and wrong, and you choose the latter."

There was a minute of awkward silence. Remai was not budging. It seemed like there was nothing Emm could say that would shift the conversation onto a more productive track.

"Mom would be disappointed," Emm said.

"How dare you bring her into this. You have hurt my heart in many ways lately, Emm. I'm tired of it. There is a conference in short time where I will stand in front of everyone and tell them what their new lives will be like on a planet with questionable livability. It's not a speech that I look forward to delivering, and I want to spend the remainder of my time preparing for it."

"But—"

"Your title as VP will be stripped, and there will be another election held on the planet of four suns. That is all, Emm."

Emm walked out of the command room as Ric fumbled his shirt in an attempt to put it back on quickly.

"So, you heard everything?" she said.

"I know that Remai doesn't support us, but that's no surprise. We can still rally everyone just like you did before without his permission."

"No, Ric. We can't this time. I'm tired of being the bad guy with my dad. If you want to rally everyone, then just do it yourself. I need to...I just need a break."

She walked away, and Remai exited the command room a minute later, giving Ric a dark scowl on the way out.

Ric needed to rally the people together, but it was not the right time yet. People were still scattered around the ship, sight-seeing.

While he had a chance, he wanted to see the only blood relative still alive and free after all the messiness. He wanted to see Tyson.

Chapter 52

Ric went to the teacher's lounge and asked around for Tyson. A few heads nodded side to side, but the teacher pouring caffeinated liquid into her cup said, "Oh Tyson. Yes, one of the new teachers came to pick him up and take him to the play center."

"New teacher?"

"Yes, he was so cute. He said I look gorgeous."

"What did he look like?"

"He was thin, but in a cute way. He wore a hat, but I think he had blue hair. I saw a couple strands touching his ear. All I wanted to do was touch his hair and tidy him up."

"Had you ever seen him before?"

"No, I usually don't see someone unless they're a parent or they've been teaching here a while. Kids are my world," she laughed.

She seemed like she could laugh at anything.

"Okay, well thank you. I'll look around the play center then."

She took a sip of her drink and walked away without a care in the world other than the blue haired charmer. Ric went to the play center but neither Tyson nor a teacher with blue hair were there.

Tyson had to be somewhere. Ric asked around a little more, but nobody was able to help. He became concerned.

If Tyson was lost or hurt, Ric would be crushed. He would not be able to look at himself in the mirror, or even look at Jerome for fear of being hated by his only brother. He ran to Jerome's bedroom and Tyson's bedroom, but Tyson was not there.

Ric scratched his head frantically and racked his brain for where his nephew could have been. For minutes, he paced around the hallways only jumping to the worst conclusions. "What if" plagued his mind until his body was a walking stress ball. Then a moment of clarity hit. If Tyson was okay, then there was another possibility for his whereabouts.

Ric stopped pacing and sprinted through the hallway. He crossed the main auditorium where a multitude already awaited Remai's speech. They looked at Ric strangely, but he did not care. He ran through more halls, trying to navigate through all the backways from memory. He did this only once before, and at a much slower pace, but his memory was particularly sharp with Tyson and Jerome on the front of his mind. One more corner stood in the way between him and the jail.

He rounded it and stopped a few feet in front of the first door. This time, he knew too well what danger awaited his entrance. He opened the first door and closed it. It was pitch black, but this time he was able to use his own dark energy sword as a flashlight.

The key to the second door lied a few inches beyond his normal reach. He slid his fingers over the metal ridge until he could feel the key with only the tips of his fingers. He tried to leverage it toward him, but it only slid farther away. He jumped, but it did not afford him enough length. Only his shirt would do. He pulled it off and flung it over the ridge.

The key slid off its perch. He tried to catch it, but it bounced off his hands and clanged a few times on the ground, echoing its noise throughout the jail corridors. He cringed at the sound because he wanted to stay completely silent to avoid the borofax altogether.

The dark energy sword shed its light on the floor by his feet, but he could not see the key there. He knelt down to feel the floor with his hands, but he still did not feel it because it lied a few inches beyond the second door. He reached his fingers through the bars, exposing himself beyond safety into borofax territory. The tips of his fingers dangled just short of the key. Every second that passed was another chance for the borofax to pounce, but he was too close to give up. He flung his shirt between the metal bars and finessed the key toward himself. The key was a little closer now. He rotated his shoulder and reached as far as he could until the thin metal of the key was between his fingers.

Something wet fell on his fingers as he finally wrapped his fist around the key. The borofax was on the ceiling.

He pulled his hand back just in time before the massive jaw of the borofax could grab hold. It screamed loudly, causing his heart rate to spike up. His body was ready to sprint 10 miles to get away from the monster, but he just lied on the ground knowing that he was safe behind the strong bars.

When he opened his eyes, he noticed a discrepancy in the darkness above him. The ceiling was dark, but there was an imperfect square that appeared even darker. He stood up and reached his dark energy sword toward the ceiling. There was a hole. It looked like he could jump into it and crawl in the ceiling.

Jerome had created a safe way out of jail.

"See ya, borofax."

The borofax screamed at him.

He ran back to the main auditorium where the large gathering took place. Remai still had not presented. People looked at their watches as if the time on their wrists mattered in space. While they hoped that the progress of time would present Remai to them, Ric hoped it would hand him Jerome and Tyson, who were still missing from the crowd.

He ran back down the hall to their rooms. Tyson's room was empty still, as was Jerome's except for a piece of paper resting on the bed.

He read it slowly.

"Ric. You are the best a brother could ever have. I hope you choose right."

Ric did not know what the note meant. He needed to have a real conversation with Jerome, but there was no way of knowing where he was. There was only hope that he and Tyson were doing well. Unfortunately, patience was a close companion of hope, and the best place for Ric to wait was in the auditorium.

This time, he just stood in the back and waited for Remai to address the crowd like everybody else.

"He's usually not this late," someone remarked.

"He's important. Important folks have important things to do."

"Well I'm hungry. If he doesn't come out in a few minutes, I'm going to the cafeteria, and I'm going to take whatever food I get my hands on while everyone else isn't looking."

Ric leaned against a wall and listened to other random conversations. Their conversations still revolved around food. It was like Jerome gave everyone his stomach.

"Screw this. Let's just go eat some pre-dinner. I'm starving."

The starving group in front of him left to fight personal hunger, revealing Arizona in his line of sight. She was already staring at him when he looked up to see her.

"What are you doing here?" he whispered to himself.

She stared at him with her sharp eyes. Oddly enough, he had enjoyed their first conversation. Now, just looking at her made him feel off.

"Ric!"

Emm called to him. She was welcome to distract him from Arizona any time she wanted.

"Have you seen my dad?"

"No, I thought you would've seen him. Everybody is waiting for him to come out."

"I know," she sighed. "You almost look more unnerved than I feel. What happened to you?"

"Nothin', I just—"

The screen behind the auditorium stage turned on. It looked like there was a live feed, but there was no sign of Remai. At least not yet. All Ric could see was a half-lit hallway and a small spaceship in the background. It looked like the video feed was coming from the spaceship dispatch area, but it was hard to tell because the camera abruptly adjusted angles every several seconds. It was not exactly movie quality camera action.

The entire auditorium stood in silence, waiting for Remai to stand in front of the video camera and give a speech. It did not make sense though. Remai would not have waited to stand in front of the video camera, and he would not have even used a video camera in the first place.

Someone in a hood walked in front of the camera. It was hard to tell if it was Remai or not, but when he took the hood off, it was obvious. It was not Remai. It was Jerome.

Chapter 53

It was surreal. Last time he saw Jerome, they were in jail. Now Jerome was on video in front of the remainder of Paradise and a host of people.

"I know you were expecting Remai. He'll be on video in just a few more moments, so I thank you for your patience," Jerome started.

It sounded like Jerome, but his voice was deep. The quality of the feed was questionable. He looked tired.

"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jerome. I'm a person from Earth. I was taken here without my consent and misled to fight a war that ultimately led to the death of someone I love deeply, a war that risked the lives of all my people on Earth. Although concerning, none of that is the reason I stand here before you. I stand here talking to this video camera because I have a son and a brother that still managed to survive despite all the adversity. I stand here because I ask myself, 'Why can't the people I love have everything they need and want? Why can't they have mountains of food, when there is a whole galaxy of resources at their disposal?'"

Jerome paused, and everyone in the auditorium watched in silence.

"We all want the best for those that we love, which is why we will say 'No more!' to food shortage. We will say 'No more!' to feeling like idiots just fighting to stay alive. We will say 'No more!' to Remai and his unrealistic ventures of peace that have ultimately led us to where we are today...and today, you have a new leader."

The camera moved away from Jerome, and it showed a lifeless Remai lying on the ground along with a multitude of jail escapees including Sim. Gasps filled the air in the auditorium. Some of the people did not understand the weight of what they just saw, but everyone else knew.

Remai, their leader, was dead.

Jerome came back into view. "Join me on the planet of the emps, and we will never stop taking what is rightfully ours."

The video feed cut out. About half of those in the room walked in the direction of the spaceship departure site. They were leaving to follow Jerome's leadership. Some of them were people.

Emm sobbed loudly with her knees on the ground. She had no parents anymore. She had only a short moment to grieve his death before being expected to take action. One of Remai's advisers grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. She leaned on him as they walked to the front of the auditorium. He opened a small book, and she lifted her palms to face the ceiling.

She was being inducted to take Remai's place. She would be the new president.

Tears fell down her face as she repeated the words spoken by her soon-to-be adviser. It was an expedited induction, given the urgency of the circumstances.

Ric stood there watching like a storm just passed through and wiped away all his expectations for the future. He had to make an impossible decision to stay with Emm or to leave with Jerome, who was not apprised of Earth's dangerous situation with the Fallen.

He wanted to stay, and he wanted to leave. This was a jelly bean decision with an exponentially higher magnitude of importance. He had to pick one. He wanted to analyze all the consequences of each option and to weigh the good and the bad, but there was no time. Instinct was his only guide because ultimately either decision would ruin everything that he wanted for his future.

He walked away in the direction of the spaceship departure site.

Emm watched him leave. He never looked away from her as he crossed the room. Even though he knew he would see her again, it still felt like a permanent goodbye.

Another tear fell down her sad eyes, down her cheek. Marz put his arm around her for comfort and also watched Ric leave the auditorium.

He jumped into a spaceship, buckled in, and took off. He followed the swarm of spaceships until they were many miles away from Emm, until her spaceship was only a speck of black in uncountable specks of black space. Spaceship after spaceship plunged into the wormhole that would portal them to the blueberry planet.

He punched his steering wheel in anger, nearly running into surrounding spaceships. He could not believe the impossible situation Jerome put him in.

The wormhole pulled him closer, but the situation did not sit well with his gut.

He turned away from the wormhole and headed for a different one. He plunged into the wormhole that nobody else entered, and before him was a beautiful, blue planet. It had oceans, and it had land. It had mountains and valleys, river beds and clouds above them. It had roses and exotic flowers that smelled of their own paradise. It had buzzing bees and birds that sang in the morning's calm. It had trees for which animals both crawled among their roots and swung from their branches. It had music and laughter, innovation and history. Others in the galaxy knew it as a pale, blue dot in a distant address. To him, it was home.

Chapter 54

Ric walked around the familiar house. The carpet was pinkish red. The corners of the living room had plants thriving from their owners' care. He walked past the old furniture and into the dining room where the extendable wood table was. Next to the table was a sliding wood compartment that tucked away an old CD player. He always appreciated the old methods of playing music.

On the other side of the table was a cabinet full of dishes that were never used. They just sat there in the same place for years. Ric was never one for impractical decorations.

He skipped the hallway of bedrooms and walked down two steps to the family room. Recliners and couches populated the perimeter of the room, leading to the wood fireplace in the corner. They had to chop their own wood to get the fire going, which meant there was not always wood lying around. When there was, it kept the house toasty warm.

He opened the sliding glass door and walked outside. The fountain on his right trickled with water. Each droplet behaved in recursive fashion, descending from the fountain spout on top, diving in with the rest of the water in its basin, and eventually routing back up to the spout. He walked up to the patio that still looked freshly renovated. He touched the wood that looked of an ancient forest, and he followed the intricate patterns of the tree arms above him.

"...and dear, would you please remember to shut the gate when you are done. I don't want Kendra's dog running in here and ruining my garden. I'm tired of – whoa! Ric, you scared me."

Maria, Gabby's mother, held her hand on her chest and took a deep breath.

"You okay, dear?" Diego called.

"Yes, honey. Ric is here."

"Who?"

"Ric!" she shouted to Diego.

Diego came from the side of the house where he did all his handy work. His shirt was covered in dirt, his hands were swollen, and his eyes were sadder than they were before Gabby died. His step was noticeably less preppy, which was saying a lot for him since his motions were generally rigid. It was not right that their only daughter had to die before they did.

"Would you like some tea, Ric?" Maria asked.

"No, thank you."

"Well, we have water, some smoothie. There's this fantastic new smoothie recipe that Teddy made. He calls it the Fallen killer. It's really quite tasty."

"No, thank you, Maria. I'd really just like to speak with Diego."

"Oh, sure sure. When you're done, come in and try my new pumpkin pie recipe. I'm thinking about serving it for everyone on Halloween, but I want your opinion on it."

"You got it."

She walked into the family room and closed the screen door behind her.

"What can I do for you?" Diego asked. He rubbed the dirt off a jar with a dirty cloth, and he spoke with a nail sticking out the side of his mouth.

"I need advice."

"What kind of advice do you need?" Diego's words were slurred because he bit down on the nail when he talked.

"Jerome is in trouble. He is now the leader of a coup that murdered an ally's leader, whose daughter I like a lot."

"Mhm," Diego grumbled, still rubbing at the dirty glass, mostly just spreading the dirt.

"There's more war in the galaxy, and I don't know what side I should be on."

Diego sighed. He put down the jar and the nail from his mouth. "I think it's about time I show you something."

He put his hand between Ric's shoulders and led him inside. Diego opened his bedroom closet, ruffled some stuff around, and finally opened his safe. He pulled out a box and set it on the bed. It was full of photographs for which he rummaged through until he found the section he wanted and pulled out several photos.

He held them so that they faced away from Ric. He looked at the one on top and sighed as if trying to escape the past that stared at his face.

Diego handed it to Ric. It was a picture of Ric as a young child. Diego handed him another photo. It was a picture of Jerome.

"Why do you have photos of us as kids?"

It was odd because Ric and Jerome had not met Diego until their high school years.

Diego did not answer. He just handed Ric a third photo. It was one of Maggie.

"Where did you get this?"

The next photo was a picture of Ric's dad, but it did not look like his dad because he was badly beaten, covered with wounds and dirt.

Ric was angry.

"Where the heck did you get these pictures?"

He snapped and grabbed the rest of the photos from Diego's hands. He looked through each one and wanted to puke a little more every time he saw another. They were mostly pictures of his beaten parents.

"I met your parents in the Final War, Ric. I wasn't born in Seattle. I was born in Philadelphia. When the Final War started, I fought for the East. There were traitors in the East giving weapons to the West. So, I was assigned to go to Wisconsin and plug the leak. Well, when we got there, things went south real quick. We didn't plug the leak. We lit the place on fire. Our own soldiers on the East died, and most on the West died too, although some had non-lethal wounds like your parents. Since your parents had high enough rank, we took them and some others as prisoners, and I gave the order to soften them up before their formal interrogations. I traveled back to Philly for a few days to get some business in order. When I came back to Wisconsin, I found your parents like that. All the soldiers took a beating, but your parents took the brunt of it. Maybe it was because they had high rank, or maybe they were just the most stubborn. I don't know. When I found them, they were nearly dead. There wasn't much I could do."

Ric could not believe it. He was angry but also curious.

"I knelt beside them as they were dying, and your mother..."

Diego's eyes welled up with tears.

"Your mother told me, 'If you have a soul, take care of my children in Seattle.' It took me a long time to find you and your brother. I found your old house, but by then someone else was living there. All I got were pictures of you and your siblings, but no names. The only reason I ever found you was because of Gabby. She showed me a picture of Jerome in her high school year book, and I thought he might be...him."

A tear streamed down Ric's face. He saw Diego in an entirely new light.

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because I learned a lesson that day, Ric. I should have never left your parents in a hostage situation where my soldiers had no accountability. They beat your parents to death, and that was wrong. The ones who hit them made a choice, and the ones who stood by also made a choice that was equally wrong. Only every-day heroes make a conscious decision to do good. Sometimes you only get one chance in your life to be a hero."

Diego pulled out one more picture of Ric's beaten parents. This one showed their sleeves rolled up and an "R" tattooed on their shoulders.

"What does the 'R' mean?" Ric asked.

"I didn't know at first either, but I did some asking around. It stands for Renegades. It meant they were rebels against power. It meant they were united to do good when power and inequality was the status quo."

Ric stood up from the bed and walked to the window looking out on the raspberry garden.

"And why should I care about any of this? Why should I care about the lessons you learned in the past when the lesson came at the price of my parents' lives?"

"Because this is your once in a lifetime chance to choose whether you want to be a hero."

Ric looked at Diego with dry, red eyes. He breathed in and out, while the future of the universe slowly drifted into the past. He thought of Maggie, his parents, Jerome, Emm. All his memories led to this, and this would lead to one of two futures.

He took out his sword and ejected its dark energy into the bedroom air. It hummed with the sound of a thousand quiet cellos and beamed a colorful, dangerous light. The future finally knew who Ric was and who he would be.

"I'm ready for some pumpkin pie now."

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