Across The Universe With A Giant Housecat (The Blue) (5 page)

I flew out of bed. How had I overslept? I had set an alarm! I had set ten alarms!

My eyes flew open as my hands flung my covers back, my feet hitting the floor of their own accord.

Katelyn stood there in her pink bathrobe, toothbrush in hand.

“How did I miss the alarm?” I cried, searching madly for a set of clean clothes.

Then I noticed she was snickering, a sound which turned into a full-on laugh.

“Your appointment isn’t for two hours! I couldn’t resist!” she cackled.

I was less amused. “You brat!” Here I was, fully awake thanks to the adrenaline rush of thinking I had been late, with two hours to spare.

“I’m going to get some breakfast,” I announced crossly.

“I’ll go with you! Wait up!” She flew over to her suitcase to grab an outfit.

But I didn’t wait up. After getting dressed, I went down to the cafeteria and proceeded to eat like a horse. I expected my appetite to have vanished in a cloud of anxiety at the upcoming meeting, but that didn’t happen. The moment I saw the spread of delicious breakfast food, my mouth began to water and I happily filled my plate.

Two and a half plates of food later, my stomach rumbled its complaints, but I was content. Or maybe I had eaten too much out of anxiety? Nope. No anxiety there.

Leo had eaten four plates, beating my food record. Maybe he was going through a growth spurt of some kind. I’d have to look up the maximum size kvyats could grow. I hoped it wasn’t much more than his current size. He was unwieldy enough aboard the
Dragontooth
as he was.

“If you want to grow more, you have to learn how to be more graceful,” I told him. He stared at me, licking pancake syrup off his whiskers.

I glanced at a clock on the wall and saw that it was nearing the time for my appointment.

Katelyn appeared next to me. Her pink bathrobe was gone and she wore a light blue sundress instead, her hair caught up into a smooth ponytail. “Hey! You were supposed to wait up while I took a shower and got ready!”

I shook my head. “I don’t wait up for people who wake me up too early and interrupt my dreams.”

She punched me on the shoulder playfully. “But you were snoring!”

“Leo snores, and you don’t wake him up.”

“Sorry! I didn’t know you’d be upset.”

“I’m not! I’m messing with you. Go have some breakfast. They have those pancakes you like. Leo likes them, too.”

With a little shriek of joy, she set off for the buffet table.

I disposed of our dirty plates and set off for Northe’s office, Leo padding by my side.

As we drew closer to his wing of the base, anxiety finally began to grip my stomach. At last I would finally know why I had been asked to come here. Did they know about me being a Space Reader? Surely they wouldn’t punish me for hiding it, would they?

Before long, Leo and I stood in an anteroom before a door marked
Standing Admiral Northe
. There were chairs in the anteroom along with a screen, just like in the medical waiting room. Thankfully, there were no exotic plants. The chairs didn’t look nearly as cozy, either. Good. The last thing I needed was to fall asleep here.

“I’ll let him know you are here; you can sit down and wait,” said Levi Cartus, who had appeared next to me somewhere during the walk here. He went over to a monitor screen on the wall and keyed something in.

It didn’t take long, for which I was grateful. Hardly had Cartus finished before a woman opened the door. “Alan Wolf? Right this way.”

The woman ushered us into the room, glanced down at Leo with a raised eyebrow, then shut the door behind us. We were alone with Standing Admiral Northe.

The office was large, with a broad wooden desk made of a gleaming dark purple wood and windows that overlooked the rest of Iron Horn Base. Behind the desk sat Standing Admiral Northe.

He ignored Leo, who promptly curled up on the floor and fell asleep. Northe’s eyes beneath bushy eyebrows regarded me appraisingly.

“Alan Wolf,” he said in a gravelly voice, a stronger version of what I had heard during his communiqué.

“Sir,” I responded.

“I know you are a Space Reader.”

In surprise, my mouth popped open of its own accord. I shut it quickly. How had he known? I had kept it a secret!

“Don’t look so surprised. Your little episode with the assassins and the ship filled with Blue Star has always been on our radar. My people began to suspect you were a Space Reader as soon as your story came to light, and the way you’ve flitted about the known universe over the past year as if you were running from something has only served to convince us further. Relax, we don’t want to take you apart and figure out how it works. We’ve got a much better use for you. Though a couple of the medical scientists asked me if they could take a few samples from you while you’re here. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.”

“I... I suppose they can,” I began, still reeling from the shock that he knew I was a Space Reader. Who else had figured it out? “But just samples. Nothing else.”

“Good; it’s settled. I’ll let them know to do it at your medical appointment tomorrow. Yes, I know about that too, and I had to make sure you had a clean bill of health before I spoke to you. Because you’ll have to be in good condition for what I’m about to say.”
 

“Are they letting me back into the academy, sir?” I asked.

He waved a hand. “Don’t ask that yet until I’ve finished what I have to say.”

“Sorry, sir.”

“Alan, because of your injury, you can’t be a captain. We both know that. You have a serious injury on your record. I’m not going to suggest you go back to the academy if you have no hope of that promotion. I wouldn’t want that for you, and you shouldn’t, either.

“I have something else for you. It won’t require you to be in perfect physical condition the way the academy would. You’ll be ready for it now, provided your back is healed. Several of my associates have taken an interest in you in light of the events of last year. They want to have you join the Stellar Intrepid in a different capacity.”

My breath caught. They wanted me for the Stellar Intrepid. Sure, I wasn’t a captain, but to still be part of the Stellar Intrepid…

“You have an interesting talent, being a Space Reader. And even without that, you would still have caught our eye. You exposed the assassin plot, took down their leader, Trilloque, and rescued a large number of children imprisoned on Mitio.”

Yes, I had done all of that, but I had nearly been killed in the process. Multiple times. “Sir, it wasn’t all heroics. I got thrown from a moving spacecraft and nearly died.”

“Yes, and you kept going. Alan, when our people picked up those children you rescued, they collected reports from everyone involved.”

“I know, sir. They had me give a report, as well.”

“I read those reports. People speak highly of you, Alan Michael Wolf. You have this tenacity that I admire. You’re an ordinary lad who has done extraordinary things.
 
So, pending a clean bill of health, are you in or not?”

“Yes, sir! It would be an honor. That is, if I can make some sort of arrangements for my sister. I don’t know if she should come with us, or—”

“Arrangements are being made for her as we speak. I noted you have a kyvat, too.”

“He’s used to life in space. He won’t be a bother if he stays with me.”

“Very well. He can stay. You can talk to your sister first before you say yes to my offer. If you agree, you and my other Space Reader will be shipping out in one week, when the ship arrives here. I want to keep you two together—you’re the only two known Space Readers. My hope is that you can help each other out and learn from each other.”

“There’s another Space Reader?” I blurted.
 

While Katelyn and I had been traveling, I had done some research on Space Readers. Evidently, before I had gotten my hands on all the Blue Star, several corrupt researchers had tried to test it on unsuspecting groups of people. Hundreds had died or had other reactions to the Blue Star, but about five or six of the test subjects had become Space Readers. These few had been tested over and over to determine what in their genetic makeup had made them Space Readers. One of the tests had accidentally killed them all.

Until now, I had been sure I was the only Space Reader alive.

“Yes. One with a different background than yourself. Very different. You’ll meet her very soon—you’ll be going on a mission together.”

“A mission, sir?”

“Alan, your situation is very unique. The Blue Star substance is very new, so that makes you Space Readers a new phenomenon. To put it bluntly, we have no idea how to train you, or even what training you need. So we’ve arranged for you to accompany one of our ships on a mission, as observers. In addition, we’ve built an onboard training room for the two of you, with stellar maps and everything you will need to test out your new… talents.”

A mission? I could burst with anticipation. This was turning out far better than I could have hoped! “What mission, sir?”

“Captain Keene of the
Indomitable
will brief you on that. They are due to dock here early next week. All I can tell you is that it is in deep space—it will take five weeks of travel just to reach the site. Your training partner will meet you when they dock.” He cleared his throat. “Oh, and Alan? She isn’t military and she’ll be completely out of her element. You may have to help her adjust to a few things.”

“Of course, sir.”

“That is all.”

I left Northe’s office on feet that felt like they were immune to gravity. This was wonderful news! I was in the Stellar Intrepid! And going on a mission, something I never expected to get to do for
years
, if ever.

And all I had to do was have a decent bill of health in the form of a successful removal of the medical vest. So simple, yet something I had frustratingly little control over.

I found Katelyn in our apartment, nervously pacing back and forth.

“Alan!” she cried as I entered and shut the door behind me. “I’ve got some news!”

“Me, too!”

“Great! But I’m telling mine first.”

I was fine with that. I wasn’t sure how she would react to my news anyway.

Leo wasn’t interested. He went into one of the bedrooms to finish his nap on a bed.

“Well,” began Katelyn, “I had a visitor today, while I was stuffing my face with ice cream in the cafeteria. Someone by the name of Ms. Sara Bridgewater. She works for the military school, in admissions.”

“Yeah, I may have met her when I was starting out at the academy,” I said.

“She came to tell me about a program they started here last year. For younger students. As in, students my age.”

I was pretty sure I could tell where this was going.

“She said she was impressed with me and wanted me to join the program.” She frowned. “I—I didn’t tell her yes yet, Alan. I told her I’d talk it over with you.”

“Do you want to go?”

“Yes,” she said, sounding guilty. “I really do. The last year has been fun, but I really want a change. I want to make friends with other girls. I want to meet people my own age. You’re all I have, Alan. And if you die, I have no one. No family, and no friends.” She looked down at the ground. “I can’t change the fact that I have no other family, but I want a chance to have friends.”

“But this school is a military school, right? Do you want to go down that path?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. But the program isn’t the same as a military school, it’s just a school. With an emphasis on things like science and technology. I’m
good
at those things, Alan. Oh, please don’t be mad at me when I say I want to go.”

I smiled. “I’m not mad. Just the opposite. Because I was going to tell you that I want to go somewhere, too.”

“You do?”

“Yes. Northe offered me something. A position in the Stellar Intrepid.”

“Well, go! Do it!” She laughed. “I’m so glad! I thought you would be mad at me for wanting to go to the school.”

“Nope!” I told her about Northe’s offer. She was ecstatic and insisted that I should go.

Leo awoke and padded over to us.
 

“We’re going into space again,” I told him. “You and I are going on a new adventure.”

Chapter 8

I was awake before the day began, and pacing nervously as the artificial lights slowly brightened throughout the base in their attempts to mimic the sun rising.

Today was I would find out if my injury had truly healed. Dr. Kassa was taking the medical vest off, and I would get to see the skin of my chest for the first time in years.

I fiddled with the medical vest anxiously as I paced, sure something would go wrong. Maybe Dr. Kassa had made a mistake—maybe my spine wasn’t healed enough. What if I woke up in pain? What if I couldn’t move without the vest and they had to re-install it permanently? As uncomfortable as the thing could be, it had saved my life on more than one occasion.

I didn’t want to think about any of the other possibilities. I had to be cured—otherwise I couldn’t be in the Stellar Intrepid. Northe hadn’t needed me in perfect fighting condition, he’d said. But my back had to be healed for this mission, whatever it was. It was all so close to happening now. I willed my body to be cured.

After an incredible amount of this sort of fretting, I checked the time. Still two hours before my appointment. Did they really expect me to sit here for two hours and wait? Grabbing my shirt, pants, and my jacket, I stuffed myself into them. Then I headed for the medical wing.

Passing the door to Katelyn’s room, I saw that it was shut. Good. She didn’t need to be worrying about me. Hopefully she would be asleep until they were finished with me. Then I could wake her up with the good news. No, that was unlikely. I would probably be completely groggy well into the afternoon, and sore for days after that.

I stalked into Medical, my frustrations taking on a darker tone. Why had Northe told me about the Stellar Intrepid opportunity now? He could have kept quiet about it until I was good and healed, then I wouldn’t have nearly as much worry.