Galileo (Battle of the Species) (38 page)

“We are about to go through the portals in a few minutes and you will first be vaccinated for that planet,” Professor Zaneer began. “Since this will take a while, when you get to the other side, you are expected to stay in the vicinity of the portal until the entire First Year class is through.

“You will find a large edifice outside the portal cover, which is where we will all meet, so please go straight there. Once we have all arrived, please use your flexible tablet to display information regarding the locale. It will show you everything you need to know about the planet, though we will go over a lot of the material together.

“Now please divide yourselves: males to the left and females to the right. There is to be no shoving!”

The students segregated and began shoving to get closer towards the front of the lines. They all walked down the long corridor to the portal room in rows of two, though Renn had lost Meta, unsure of how far back in line she was pushed, without Joss and Lux by her side to push back.

Two ship-bots stood near the portals with a disinfectant laser in one hand and a vaccination gun in the other. The students placed a hand on the screen to identify them, and the vaccinations were distributed accordingly. After the vaccination, each student was handed a small earpiece that would translate anything they heard on the planet. A disturbing device for some, since the translator didn’t discriminate and not everyone wanted to hear the pleadings of a fly before a spider ate it.

When Leo placed his hand on the screen, he was told that no vaccination would be necessary and he grinned at his good luck, excited to see the planet. He walked through the portal, anticipating the welcoming cool air.

Dylan put his hand on the scanner next and was identified as Dylan Heisner, a human from Temin. He took off his thick jacket and lifted his sleeve. The robot placed the disinfectant gun over his arm and blinked a red light, killing any bacteria on the skin. Dylan looked away, flinching at the vaccination gun, which made Renn laugh. Dylan was a fighter in BOTS, getting beaten up and murdered on a monthly basis, but needles still scared him.

“See you in a second,” Dylan said as he walked through the silver sheet of Xeero.

Renn took his time to identify, waiting till Dylan finished going through the portal. He looked behind him, not wanting everyone to see the screen flash all of his baby pictures.

He pushed a sound of a huge crash coming from the concourse into everyone’s head and both lines of students turned around to look back. That is, everyone except for Desh. Renn noticed, but put his hand on the screen anyway. His jaw dropped when he saw that Cybernex had deleted the information and only four words remained: “Renn Andreas, access granted.”

Renn wondered where all the information had gone. It was scary enough that it had been there in the first place, but even scarier that it had been changed. Cybernex was autonomous, a self-reliant computer system, tracking countless species inside the Federation and out. Why would it break protocol on his file?  
I’m nobody
, he thought.

“You have already been vaccinated, sir,” the ship-bot said.

“Oh,” Renn said, wondering how that could possibly be.

The kids behind him grew rowdy and began complaining about Renn taking so long. He apologized and walked towards the portal, becoming nervous about the trip. He wondered if he should turn around and stay, but it wasn’t like the ship had been able to keep him as safe and protected as promised.

When Renn got to the other side of the silver sheet, he looked around, but saw nothing inside the small portal room other than the two silver portals and two large openings leading to the outside. He shivered at the sudden chill and buttoned up his jacket, then saw Leo standing just outside the doorway with Dylan.

Leo had been grinning for the past few weeks, but Renn found him frowning once he scanned the icy planet.

“What's wrong?” Renn asked.

“It's Crystalline!” Leo said in disbelief. “Of all the cold planets in the Federation, where do I go? Home!”

Renn look around and frowned, spotting the shopping center in front of the portal.

“What’s wrong with you?” Dylan said.

“It's Starbucks,” Renn said, staring at the chain in front of him.

Dylan turned to Leo. “First time on another planet and white boy here wants a latte. Figures,” Dylan scoffed, but Leo was still too annoyed at being home to laugh.

Dylan looked back at Renn, who continued frowning from the disappointment.

“I just didn’t expect to see commercialism outside of the Milky Way,” Renn said.

“Oh, you two are going to be a blast, I can feel it,” Dylan said.

They stepped out from beneath the portal’s canopy as the sun’s rays reflected off the snow, glaring into their eyes. Renn’s eyes turned black.

At least this time Dylan was able to stop himself from jumping, but still had to bite his lip.

Renn shrugged when he saw Dylan’s face. “I can’t help it. It’s really bright.”

Dylan looked around at the girls walking through the portal. He took out his sunglasses, handing them to Renn. “Seriously, put these on. You aren’t getting any girls looking like that,” Dylan said.

Renn put them on and the black film cover receded, adjusting to the light change.

They walked into Starbucks and were met by two clear androids. Renn and Dylan smiled at the novelty of them. Their shells were made with a series of screens that displayed the image behind them, making them appear transparent, but the images were spaced wide enough to allow for cameras to capture that image, placed at certain angles outlining the body form that appeared human, like Crystallians.

The androids welcomed them to Crystalline and gave them brochures of the planet. The androids then looked at Leo and said, “Welcome back, sir” to his sheer irritation.

When everyone was through the portal, Professor Zaneer explained that
corporations were required to sponsor an impoverished planet, in order to be approved by the Intergalactic Trade Commission to conduct business abroad. This was done so that not only would a corporation refrain from establishing business on a planet and completely draining its resources, but they would also stop other companies from doing it as well, since they would ultimately be the ones who would have to pay for it. Starbucks sponsored Crystalline and therefore were the ones who sponsored Leo, paying for his tuition to the Galileo. They then further fulfilled their obligation to Crystalline by pitching the Galileo to take the yearly field trip to that planet in order to increase tourism, much to Leo’s dismay.

The professor transferred the lesson to their flexible tablets, which they all wrapped around one of their forearms. A menu illuminated, giving options of Crystalline’s topography with maps and diagrams, species information, weather, time. Anything anyone could possibly have a question about was on there.

“I want you to all select ‘History’ and we will begin,” Professor Zaneer said. “Follow me please.”

The First Year class, including half a dozen professors, followed Professor Zaneer out into the snow. A caravan of large sleds, holding a dozen students each on their benches, met them at the door. Large white animals with long shaggy hair, and a smell that reminded Renn of a wet dog, pulled the sleds. Once all the students were in, the sleds took off, as the animals crunched the snow beneath their massive paws.

Renn could hear echoed voices and looked all around him, in an attempt to figure out their origin.

Food…want food…hungry…food…

Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot…

Renn looked in front of him and realized it was the thoughts of the animals pulling the sled. He grinned and continued looking around. “Leo, I know you’re annoyed to be home, but this place really is kind of amazing,” he said.

“Try growing up with no color,” Leo said. “There’s no color anywhere. It’s all white or transparent.” He looked up to the sky. “Even the sky is gray. It never changes. On Earth, you’ve got blue skies that change to orange and red and then to black. We get two weeks of nighttime a year, two weeks! You’ve got blue water and green grass and flowers of all different colors. I’m sorry guys, I was just hoping to see something besides this.”

Renn and Dylan talked telepathically to each other so Leo wouldn’t have to endure listening to them oohing and ahhing. There were buildings and small houses scattered everywhere, all made of crystal and ice. The caravan sled between rolling hills where Crystallian children played tag, wearing nothing but pants made of gauze. They ran barefoot in the snow, waving to the sleds, and laughing at the funny looking aliens.

           The sleds slowed down in front of a large temple, which had the form of a terraced step pyramid. Renn at first thought Crystallians were placing stones on the steps, but got closer and found it was a bit more macabre than that.

           “Leo, are those skulls?” Renn asked, thinking he was going to get sick.

Leo didn’t bother looking up as he got down off the sled. “Yes, but they’re not real. They’re made of crystal.”

As they walked inside the temple, Renn let out an “Oh, classic!” before he could stop himself and received a scowl from Leo for it.

           “Sorry again,” Renn mumbled.

Meta came up behind him and the two walked hand in hand along the walls, which were detailed with elaborate chiseled markings in the crystal. They were written in the Crystallian’s primary language, words of prayers and blessings, but the deeper they went, the more edged drawings they found, depicting tales of the past.

Renn kept glancing behind him and noticed that Desh was keeping his distance, but remained where he could see Renn. Renn wasn’t sure what he was doing, but the two hadn’t spoken since they got there and it was now becoming so awkward that they hadn’t spoken, that they were now trying to avoid making eye contact.

Professor Zaneer explained that the temple had a dark history, with ministers sacrificing Crystallian children to their deity. Fewer and fewer followers were willing to sacrifice their children, and the ministers, desperate to please their goddess, kidnapped children when they would leave their village to play.

There was an uprising and the followers stopped coming, praying in their homes, so the ministers wouldn’t catch sight of their children. The ministers begged the goddess for an answer to their problem and came in one morning to find a crystal that had been carved into a skull, lying on one of the steps to the temple. They took it as a sign and told the villages that the goddess no longer wanted their children, rather a symbol of their existence. From then on, Crystallians would leave skulls in all sizes, thanking the goddess for their lives, and praying that they would be happy ones.

When they got outside, Meta ran back to Lux and Joss, stumbling in the snow along the way. She blushed and looked back to see if Renn had noticed, but he looked away, not wanting to embarrass her.

They continued on the sleds between the snowy hills, until they reached what looked like a cut trail that descended into the ground. The students once again got off their sleds, stretching from sitting on the hard benches.

While Renn and Dylan waited for everyone, Renn caught sight of something moving out of the corner of his eye. He focused on the tiny motion, trying to make out what it was, and then realized it was a butterfly, flapping its wings. He put out a gloved hand and the insect landed on his finger. It had transparent wings and a thin silver body with tiny, curved antennas sticking straight up.

“It's not real,” Dylan said.

“What isn’t?” Renn asked.

“The butterfly. The only insects on Crystalline live underground,” Dylan explained.

Renn held it up to the light and saw that the wings looked like memory chips with Cybernex’s symbol engraved into one of the wings. “What’s it do?” Renn asked.

“It gathers information for Cybernex about the atmosphere. They're constantly finding new planets and new species, but have to know how that species will react on other planets before they'll let them go through the portals. They watch the species for years before they invite them into the system. Then they leave the automaton on the planet to watch for climate changes, species evolution, stuff like that.”

“Do they ever collect information about individuals? Like personal information?”  Renn asked, a little paranoid.

“I’ve never heard of them doing it, but I guess they could,” Dylan said. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason,” Renn said, not wanting to tell him about Cybernex knowing his life’s story. It would make sense, he thought. He wouldn’t have thought twice of a ladybug flying near him or a grasshopper landing in the grass while he walked around Earth. He could have easily been surrounded by cameras his entire life without knowing it.

“You guys coming?” Professor Hevia asked.

Renn and Dylan looked over, realizing they were the last ones still above land. They followed the professor down a flight of steps carved into the ice. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, they looked up the passageway towards the gray sky, guessing they were about twenty feet underground.

They caught up to the rest of the class and were surprised when the walls changed to glass with water on the other side. They could see rich vegetation, artificial spheres and robotic fish illuminating the water, and a plethora of activity under the thick blanket of ice. Crystallians swam around, some farming the vegetation, while others seemed to be swimming for sport. Tiny creatures, half the size of a human, with blue scales and webbed hands and feet, swam up to the glass walls, staring at the odd looking visitors.

“Crystallians are excellent swimmers,” Professor Zaneer explained, while she sauntered down the walkway. “They are able to hold their breath for over a half an hour at a time and see well during deep swims. The blue creatures you see near the glass are Uhrlars, who live underwater. They are unable to breathe above ground, receiving their oxygen through the water passing through their gills.
 
Neither species, however, can survive swimming on another Federation planet, since their low body temperature would freeze the water around them, enclosing them in ice until they suffocated.