Galileo (Battle of the Species) (5 page)

“All right, if you insist on keeping your toes, we can get some new ones when we drop off the fish.”

Fish! Renn had completely forgotten they were going fishing that day. He kicked himself for having taken a shower, realizing he was going to have to take another one when they got back.

Renn got butter on his hand and resisted the temptation to wipe it on his jeans. He looked over to a pile of cloth napkins on the counter, raised his hand, and telekinetically pulled it through the air.

“Can I get adjustable sneakers this time?” Renn asked hopefully.

“No adjustables in this house, no mind reading, no telekines…” Adam said, stopping mid-sentence when he turned around and saw the cloth napkin flying through the air.

Renn and the napkin froze, busted.

“Put it back,” Adam said with patience.

The napkin then flew back to the pile, as Renn said, “Sorry.”

“Now get your butt out of the chair and go get it.”

Renn walked over and picked up the napkin, patting Max along the way. He started to wiped the butter from his hand, then realized the butter was already gone, and mumbled, “Sorry, Buddy,” when he noticed Max’s head looking suspiciously slick.

When they finished their breakfast, they packed what they needed and headed outside. Max rushed to the hover-truck, hopping into the bed so as not to be left behind.

A cloud breezed by, revealing a brilliant sun that showered Renn and his father with strong rays. Adam put his sunglasses on, while a black film cover glided across Renn's eyes, shielding them from the bright light.

They drove through the low countryside, passing raspberry fields and apple orchards, steadily making their way towards a harbor full of sailboats. They boarded their hover-boat and sailed into the cobalt blue ocean, until they came to the ocean ball full of fish. The top half of the massive ball was covered in solar panels, powering the system that would feed the fish fresh food and keep out hungry predators, allowing the fish to swim unharmed inside the ball.

Renn and his father dove into the ocean ball with nets and loaded as many fish as they could carry into the boat. As each net was loaded, Max ran around, keeping the birds at bay as best he could. The fish were then packed into soft bags made of Prodlinhide that kept them cold. Prodlinhide was the hide of a cold-blooded species, whose husk never warmed, regardless of the temperature around it. The outside was dark gray like sharkskin, the inside a semi-transparent white gel.

Once they were done, Renn and Adam sat on the boat with their feet dangling in the dark blue water. They lifted their faces, enjoying the sun, and continued the same conversation they had had for years.

“What’s so bad about going to high school on Earth?” Adam asked.

“Because if you go to school on Earth, the focus is agricultural studies and I don’t want to be a farmer. If you go to school on Temin, the focus is business, and I don’t want to work for some lousy corporation for the rest of my life. But if you go to a high school in space, their focus is intergalactic studies: planets, species, alien languages…” Renn said, his frustration mounting, as it did every time they had this conversation.

“Have you had a dream about being on a ship?” Adam asked.

“Well…no, but…”

“Then maybe it doesn’t happen,” Adam said.

“No! That’s not true, Dad!” Renn replied talking as fast as he could. “Cause the prophecies are always about something bad that’s about to happen, so if I don’t dream about it, then maybe I
do
go on a ship, but it’s a good experience. I wouldn’t dream about it then. Ha! Think about that!”

“Renn, it’s too dangerous and you’re too young. I don’t know why the Federation even allows kids in space,” Adam said. “You can finish high school on Earth and then join the space academy when you’re eighteen. I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s just five more years, and then you’re old enough to do whatever you want.”

“High schools in space start at age fourteen though!  So I can do one year of high school on Earth and then finish in space. Seriously, Dad, I’d be on a space station. What could possibly happen?” Renn asked.

Adam tilted his head and gave his son a long look. Renn didn’t need to hear his thoughts to hear, “You’ve got to be kidding,” and laughed. It wasn’t that Renn was naïve; he was just taking the opportunity to prod his dad into talking. Adam had spent the majority of his life in space and moved back to Earth when Renn was born, in an attempt to keep him safe. “Safe.” That was his dad’s favorite word. He would, however, sometimes catch his dad staring at the stars for hours on end, when he thought Renn had gone to bed. Reminiscing about the past. Reminiscing about
her
.

They drove into town to drop off the fish at the local market and then buy Renn a pair of new shoes. Commercialism was just starting to come back and the town had splatterings of hologram advertisements and animated commercials on the sides of old brick buildings. As long as they didn’t harm the planet, which holograms didn’t, they were allowed in, under Earth’s new laws.

They drove past a hologram commercial of a woman pitching the Autobotica Corporation, a company that made realistic androids. The woman’s voice resonated through the streets while Renn stuck his head out the window, relishing the feel of the wind against his cheeks.

“Have you lost a loved one?” the hologram asked. “Replace him with an android that will live forever.”

Renn was surprised they were still running the commercials, considering that Earth’s consumers had rejected the androids and boycotted all of Autobotica’s products. The company duplicated the loved ones’ consciousness, embedding it into an android, cloned after the one who was lost. The only robots accepted in Earth’s new society were the ones easily identified as robots. Consumers found the androids that looked too realistic to be creepy and disturbing, like solid ghosts walking around, taunting mourners.

Large maple trees lined the city streets, while solar powered hovercrafts zoomed above roads made of grass. Polished copper robots pushed strollers with human babies, and townspeople smiled and waved, calling each other by first name.

Adam and Renn arrived at the fish market, jumped out of the truck, and began unloading their catch. They looked over towards the market and saw one of the workers stop in his tracks, staring at them.

Adam waved and shouted, “Hi, Charlie,” but Charlie just stood there, frozen, staring at Renn in alarm.

Renn listened to his thoughts and heard,
I got to get out of here. Stay away from me!

Charlie then dropped the crate of fish he was holding and ran off, looking up at the sky, as if he would be struck down by lightning, just for making eye contact with Renn.

Adam walked up behind his son, whispering in his ear, “Stay off drugs or you'll end up like Charlie.”  

Renn could tell his dad was making light of it, but Charlie’s thoughts had startled him. He looked up out of paranoia, but saw nothing but a blue sky with hungry seagulls circling above.

Renn left his dad at the fish market and walked along the town’s main street, on a quest for comfortable shoes. He was anxious to get a new pair, even if they were manual.

With each step, he became aware of everyone staring at him, whispering and pointing. He overheard mish-mashes of thoughts that seemed abstract.

There’s a Mindeerian…

Renn, that poor dear…

I don’t want to be standing near him when they come.

It was the latter that made him paranoid the most, while he continued walking down the same street he had walked down all his life.

He ducked into the shoe store, grabbing the door behind him to keep from slamming it, and turned around to look outside the windows. The town had stopped, all staring at Renn. He wanted to run back outside and shout, “What’s wrong with you people? I know you! You know me!” but their staring made him feel as if they were suddenly strangers who were watching a dead man walking.

He felt a cold hand on his shoulder, making him jump and cause his hands to spark. He clenched his fists in an attempt to keep them from sparking, but the shopkeeper who touched him read his body language differently and backed up.

“It’s okay. I won’t harm you, child,” the shoemaker said with pity in his eyes.

Renn looked at the cobbler, flummoxed. It wasn’t as if he were seeing an alien for the first time. It was the only shoe store in town and Renn had been getting his sneakers there since he was born. “Right,” Renn said. “I was just coming to get a new pair of shoes.”

“Shoes?” the cobbler repeated in disbelief, as if that had been the strangest thing Renn could have possibly wanted in his tiny shoe store. “Child, haven't you heard?”

“Heard what?” Renn asked. His heart began racing and his hands illuminated with a bright blue light.

“I'm so sorry…” the shopkeeper began, “but the Mindeerians are dead.”

“…what?” Renn asked. It was such a bewildering thing to say, as if one day the postman walked up and said, “Sorry kid, but mankind’s left the building.”

Renn crept back towards the door. “There's been some kind of misunderstanding. Thank you for your time though…okay…I’ll just…” Renn said, and hit the door with his butt, spun around, and ran right into his dad’s chest. He looked up at Adam, whose face showed controlled panic.

“We have to go right now,” Adam said, grabbing Renn’s hand.

They took off down the street towards the fish market and could hear police sirens moving towards them. A police aircraft stopped beside them and the police chief, Frank, opened the door to the craft yelling, “Get in!”

Adam and Renn jumped into the back seat, with Frank sitting shotgun to the pilot. The aircraft rocketed into the air, flying over the fish market where Max waited in the bed of the hover-truck, warming his belly in the sun.

“Where are we going?” Adam asked the pilot as they passed Camden’s tiny police station.

“I’ve been given orders to take you to the Searsmont police station,” the pilot said, increasing the craft’s speed.

Frank leaned back. “Adam, an I.A.’s there, looking for Renn.”

“An I.A.?” Adam said, startled.

Renn listened to Frank’s thoughts and heard disturbing phrases like, t
hey’re hunting him…we have to hurry…they’re coming
…

“Dad, what's going on?” Renn asked.

“I'm sorry I have to tell you this…” Adam began.

But Renn wasn’t listening. He looked past his father, towards the approaching destroyer ships. “Um, Dad. Someone's coming,” Renn said, trying not to panic.

They all followed Renn’s gaze to two black ships with spiked wings, heading their way.

“Dad, what kind of ships are those?”

“Eminite destroyers,” Adam replied in shock.
“Why are they heading towards us?” Renn asked, but there was no time to answer.

The aircraft, small and swift, dodged
two large green energy blasts that raced towards them.

Renn followed the blasts past the windows, until the green lights hit the trees below. Renn’s mouth dropped as he watched the blasts expand around a clump of trees and implode.
           “Did you see that?” Renn asked, his voice tight with fear.
           “Yes,” Adam replied, as he squeezed Renn’s hand. “Get us out of here, Frank.”
           “But Dad, if a blast hits the wing, then…”
           “Renn, they’ll switch to Prian lasers when they get closer,” Adam said. “Even Eminites aren’t stupid enough to use expansion blasts when they get too close.”

Frank called for backup while the pilot fired and dodged. They all held their breath until the backup flew in, charging and dodging the enemy’s ships. More destroyers came, then more cops, turning into a massive dogfight that pulsated above the quiet town of Camden, Maine.

“Is this all you got?” Adam shouted to the pilot.

“This isn’t a damn fighter jet! You’re lucky we have lasers at all!” the pilot snapped in frustration.

A destroyer charged the police craft, firing a steady stream of small blue blasts. The pilot had little time to dodge, veering to the right, and hit the wing of another destroyer flying by. The destroyer’s wing snapped, spinning it out of control and into an incoming Eminite craft. The two destroyers collided at full speed, creating a colossal fireball in the air. The ships descended from the fire in a heap of crumpled metal, but the fire lingered for a moment, creating a cloud of thick black smoke.

The pilot took advantage of the cover of smoke by disengaging from the fight and headed towards Searsmont, unseen by the enemy.

“We're almost there,” the pilot said.

They soared up over a mountain and found themselves face to face with an incoming destroyer. Renn held on tighter while the pilot deftly maneuvered the ship to the left, but a blast penetrated the shield, hitting the pilot in the chest. He gasped for air and spat blood, clawing at his chest in desperation. The ship swerved, until the pilot slumped over the controls, quietly dying in the chaos.

The police craft nose dived as the destroyer took off for the dogfight. The pilot’s lifeless body fell forward, pushing on the joystick, thereby accelerating their speed towards the ground.

Adam unhooked his straps and lunged forward, while Frank pulled the pilot out of his seat. Adam pulled back on the joystick and lowered the speed as best he could, until the craft’s nose became level with the ground.

Renn could hear the scraping of branches against the ship’s shell, before the craft began to ascend once again. He breathed a sigh of relief when he looked out the cracked front shield to see the police station ahead.

Frantic, Adam tried to set the landing gear, but the control panel sparked and fumed, resulting in the completion of only a few of the required tasks. He pulled back on the joystick to avoid colliding with the police station. He circled around and flew to the edge of the landing dock, scrambling for a seat belt as he shouted, “Hang on!”  

He tried to keep the ship as level with the ground as possible, lowering it until it touched down in a rapid skid towards the police station. They held their breaths, no longer in control, and had to let momentum and friction determine their fate.