Vanished (28 page)

We’re going into space!
 

              Renner looks at me with a knowing smile and my cheeks fill with heat.  I keep forgetting he can hear what I’m thinking.  “Listen to your girlfriend, she knows her spatial distances. And it’s not a tin-can,” He adds, looking my way, his eyes sparkling with amusement. Logan gives him a confused look, sighs deeply, turns and sits in the chair next to me holding his arms out so the straps can buckle him in. 

              “Comfy?” Renner asks him sarcastically then turns and sits in the center seat, and straps buckle him in too. 

              Logan gives me a semi-panicked look then squeezes his eyes shut, his fists tightening on the seat below him.  “Trin?”

              “Yes, Logan.”

              “Remind me again why I listen to you.”

              “Because I say smart things, Logan.”

              “Oh yeah, say something smart now…please.”

              Logan isn’t afraid of much but the idea of leaving earth has him a little anxious. I search my repertoire of knowledge for something that would apply to this moment, some apropos proverb or words of wisdom, something that might comfort all of us – except Renner who I notice doesn’t seem to need any comforting.  “Carl Sagan said ‘
we have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean.  We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.’
” 

              “Ugh, that was bad, really, really bad.” Madison groans “What is this thing?” A gooey neon green organic type of material, growing out of the wall, has wrapped itself around her belly forming a cocoon that conforms to the shape of her tiny bump.  There are ripples in the slimy organic material and…is it breathing?

              “That’s a protective muscle that acts as special defense for the fetus in space. Pregnancy and space travel don’t mix without that critter.”

              “It’s alive?” Maddie asks looking sharply up at Renner. He nods and she holds her hands up and away from it. “Ewww, Collin …” she whines.

              “So the baby needs this or it will die?” Collin clarifies.  He softly pokes at the muscle and the surface ripples under his touch.

“Yes.” Renner says, he turns around, “and they don’t like to be poked.”

“Ewww….it likes and dislikes things, this is…ugh…how long do I have to wear this thing for?”

“Until we get there” Renner answers.  He shakes his head and hits a button that shuts the door and I realize I’m getting my last glimpse of home…not like my house home but my planet home.  I don’t know why I feel such a tender feeling for St. Raphael’s but I don’t like knowing this is the last time I’ll see it, it’s in ruins. 

“We’re not letting little Marshall die just because his mom was grossed out by that…that….protective muscle thing,” Collin leans away from Maddie and she swats playfully at him.  

              “We are not naming our child after a rapper. I don’t care how good his last album was.”

              “I said you could pick his middle name,” Collin pleads, leaning his tangerine head on his fist and getting all quiet.

              “Well this is going to be a fun ride.” Logan mutters, “Wake me up when we get there.”

              “Actually you can all go to sleep if you want,” Renner tells us, “See the button on the left. When you hit that button it sends a signal to your brain telling it to sleep.  The forehead strap will automatically secure your head when you hit the button, though, so don’t hit it until you’re sure you’re ready.”

              “Oh, I’m so in,” Maddie says, reaching for the button but Collin grabs her wrist preventing her from hitting it. 

              “Is it safe for the pregnant girl?” He asks, looking a bit stressed.  Renner nods, dismissing his questions with a wave.

              Collin lets go of her wrist. She wiggles in her seat, getting comfortable, and hits the button. A strap shoots out of the wall and stretches around her forehead, gently pressing her head back into the wall which gives away like a foam pillow.  She smiles, closes her eyes and she’s out.

              “Bye,” Collin waves, hits his button, his head gets strapped in and then he’s asleep too. 

I look at Zayn and realize he’s looking at me. There’s something in his eyes I don’t understand, some silent message he’s trying to impart.  I haven’t even had time to think about him being my guardian angel, YF, my friend before all the rest of them even knew who I was. I give him a confused look and he sighs and hits the button.

“What was that about?” I ask Logan.

He looks uncomfortable with the question for some reason, “I think he’s having some…issues.”

“Like?” I ask, stretching out the word.

“Later,” Logan says, his finger hovering over the sleep-button, but he doesn’t push it, instead he glowers up at Renner’s back.

As if Renner
can actually
read Logan’s mind, without turning toward us, he declares in that deep, intoxicating voice of his, “If I was going to try something, it would be just as easy for me to do it with you awake, kid. Relax” he chuckles, “I’ll keep an eye on your girlfriend.”

              The muscle in Logan’s jaw flexes.  He looks at me, “Trin?” He asks looking pointedly at my sleep-button.

              “No way am I missing this,” I reply, my hands gripping my armrests, as we start to rise steadily into the sky. It’s repelling and electrifying all at once and my heart starts to plunge down into my stomach.

              Logan looks green, gives me an apologetic look, and pushes his button. 

              “Whatever you do, don’t close your eyes,” Renner says with a shout and pulls up on the throttle and we shoot up through the cloud cover, the ship rotating, sailing upward in long corkscrew turns and I remember the beautiful orange spiral display the saucers made before they turned St. Raphael’s into an inferno.

              As we steady out all we can see through the glass-screen is a cloak of clouds.  Suddenly a feminine voice with an odd rhythmic accent fills the ship, “Ranger. Your ship has entered the
mesosphere pause
.  The next sector is restricted space.  Please divert course and return to earth-prime airspace.”

              “Renner?”

              He doesn’t look at me but I see his fingers hitting dials on the control panel.

              “Ranger, your ship has now entered the
exosphere pause
.  You are in restricted airspace.  Correct your course immediately or we will be forced to apprehend you.”

              “Renner?”

              “Just hold on,” he tells me, “the Agarthan woman must have notified them somehow.”

              “Should we wake the others?” I asked, whispering but not sure why.

              He shakes his head, “I’m not worried about it.”

              “But they said they would capture us.”

              Renner leans over on his arm and turns to look back at me.  His eyes flash with that dangerous cat-like quality and he smiles, touches a button on the arm of his chair and turns back to me, “There. Now they can’t see us anymore,” he says turning back to face the windshield. “Happy?” He asks. 

              I breathe a sigh of relief and unclamp my hands from the seat as my eyes take in the new view through the window beyond where Renner is seated.  “Beautiful,” I whisper.  Space, quiet, black, twinkling and framed within the view screen sits before us.  A giant satellite, hovering like an abandoned piece of machinery, passes by the window and for some reason I picture an old rusted out wagon abandoned in an overgrown field and a wave of nostalgia washes over me. 

              “Sad thoughts for such a pretty girl,” Renner states interrupting my revelry, “but it’s thoughts like those that fuel the passion of resistance fighters. Never forget. Remembering what you lost is good motivation for getting it back.”

              “What have
you
lost?” He can’t know how it feels to lose your whole race in one night. 

              He flips a switch on the control panel, “Autopilot function activated,” a voice announces in the cock-pit.”

              “Renner, what are you doing?” I inquire nervously. 

              Ignoring me, he hits another button and unbuckles himself, stands holding onto his seat, bends over and buckles two straps over each of his boots so he is fastened to the ground.  We must be in zero-gravity.

Slowly he starts to unwind his corded shirt.

              I look down. The blood rushes to my face and my pulse increases. I’m trying to decide if I should push Logan’s button and wake him up when I look up and see Renner’s bare chest. His caramel skin beginning at his collarbone is splotched with patches of white glittering skin, identical to mine.  The further down he disrobes the more purification fire burns appear, until he reaches a little past his ripped six pack, leading down to the inward curve under his pants to places I am ashamed – yet slightly curious – to see but then he stops.  “Because of these scars, my wife and daughter were murdered.” 

His words fill me with pity.

I sit silently and watch as he redresses in the uniform again. He cocks his head, “I didn’t show you for sympathy,
Misae
,” he tells me, unclipping the straps and sinking back down into his chair where the other straps drift up and over securing him to the seat again, “I showed you because you asked what I had lost.”

              “I’m sorry,” I whisper, “I didn’t know.”

              “Hey,” he says, looking over his shoulder and there’s something very human about the sadness that lines his face, “It happened a long time ago, I’ve made peace with it.”

              “How long ago?”

              He turns forward again, “Two hundred and three years, yesterday actually,” he mutters in his deep voice. 

              He must read my disbelief in my silence because he explains further, “Agarthans age much slower than human beings.”

              I remember something suddenly that I have been wanting to ask him and for some reason right now seems like a good time. “Renner, that woman back at the school, she called you a half-breed. Why?”

              “Because I’m only half Agarthan.”

             
What’s the other half
, I think. Then I’m not sure I want to know.

              “My father was Agarthan, my mother was half-human, half-cypher.”

              “Cypher?”

              “Cypher’s are from Cyphon, a planet in the Andromeda galaxy.”

              “Um…”

              He’s not really acting too chatty about it but how can I not ask more. I just found out Agarthan’s aren’t the only type of aliens.

              “Actually,” Renner says and I look up, confused, it’s going to take some time to get used to talking to someone who is both in and outside of my head. “Agarthan’s come from the same ancient tribes as humans. Long ago we were all one people.” 

              If they are the same as us why do they look so different and where do their powers and their wings come from? Thinking of Madison’s wings again I remember him mentioning that our DNA would be restored to its original state.  “Tell me about it,” I look up at him, starting to catch on.  Communicating this way could really shorten a conversation. 

              Reading my thoughts he answers me, “Your specific DNA was altered twice. First during the sweep, from exposure to the rays of the machine they use and the second time when the purification fire touched you. Humans only have two strands of DNA, with the exception of a few who have just recently been born. Agarthan’s have between three and four strands. Most of your friends only gained an extra strand of DNA, giving them three strands total, but the
Taipa
has two extra, putting her at four and you have three extra, giving you, the most, five strands. There are rarely people of the Agarthan race with more than four.”

              “How do you know all of this? Like how many DNA strands we have?”

              He shrugs, “Optical modification.  I have implants that function as a sort of computer, analyzing molecular structure, biological make-up, genes, the vital signs of whoever I’m looking at, etcetera.

              “Optical modification,” I say, trying it on for size.

              “We call them Op-mods. Or if you’ve had spinal implants they’re called Spi-mods, and so forth.”

              “So what do these DNA mutations do to us?”

              “Well, your friend there is having a physical manifestation of her extra two strands.  In the inner-world, randomly, people are born with the specific and intricate make-up needed to grow wings.
Taipa
– winged ones. The other manifestations aren’t physical. They’re subtle, like extra senses. Unless developed by a proper teacher, which we will find for all of you at home-base, your extra abilities will probably remain dormant.” 

              My mind flashes back to Renner moving faster than my vision could process back at the school, when he turned the tables in our favor.