Trespassers: a science-fiction novel (7 page)

The door frame was scarred and the walls were worn from neglect. Cobwebs collected in the corners. Dust lined the floorboards. A mismatched collection of dented, rusty shelves lined the walls, holding an array of products. Soft music from a cheap radio played in the background. There was no indication of danger, no sign that anyone was looking for him. Being accused of destroying a shipment of beer bottles was not much of a concern to Jin, but inquiries about how he came to land there would be a problem. It was imperative that he exit the store without drawing any suspicion.

Jin slid on a pair of dark sunglasses from a carousel-type display rack.
His
glasses were in the supply bag. With no cash, he had no options. He would have to shoplift this pair.

It wasn
’
t vanity or an oversensitivity to sunlight that compelled Jin to wear dark shades. It was a need to blend in. Jin was on the outer limits of what passed for earthling, and this was due to his eyes. They drew attention: instead of being round, his pupils were shaped like bow ties. And that was difficult for people to forget.

He eased around the corner, practicing his English in his mind, carefully rehearsing the accent and the proper flow of the words. He enjoyed practicing different languages with his friends, but
studying
was a struggle for him.
Studying
meant putting in time on a Melkon Box
—
a cube designed to teach foreign languages through direct stimulation of the brain. This device didn
’
t program a new language into your head with the flip of a switch. It just streamlined the learning process. With the right technique and a lot of determination, a new language could be mastered in thirty days, complete with idiomatic expressions, accents, cadence, and even spelling, depending on the individual
’
s intelligence and willingness to learn. Everyone hated the Melkon Boxes though, because they were so mind numbing and tedious. They sapped all your mental energy. This was probably why Jin failed to finish his Melkon exercises.

To get out of this store, Jin would have to walk right past the clerk at the counter. He would have to sneak by as a shoplifter, a visitor from another planet, and the guy who just smashed a load of beer behind the store.

As Jin stepped into the open space that led to the front doors, an overweight man in his fifties was sitting at the cash register, staring down into a newspaper that was fanned out in front of him.

Jin froze. He swallowed hard, gritted his teeth, rehearsed his English, and pushed himself forward. The clerk
’
s eyes rose from the paper and landed on Jin. A scowl emanated from the man
’
s face quite naturally. In that instant, Jin began rehearsing a new plan:
a sturdy right hand to the nose, a quick left to the side of the head
. But there would be no need. The clerk
’
s eyes returned to the paper, and Jin
’
s momentum carried him out the door.

The fresh air and warm sunlight hit Jin all at once. With the convenience store safely behind him, he felt free and exhilarated. This was his first time outside a ship or space station in over two weeks. His lungs stretched with the welcome introduction of fresh air. His cheeks tingled with the warm caress of the sun. After a deep breath, his smile gave way to embarrassment, since he had so quickly abandoned his plan and decided to resort to violence.

To the outside world, Jin displayed the air of a tall, confident young man. On the inside, he was always judging himself, based on the many role models of his youth. He was on a constant search for improvement, striving to become the figure he so easily displayed to others.

This made him think of Dexim, whom he admired. Dexim could have handled the store clerk with a few convincing lines and a comfortable smile. Above all, it would have been Dexim
’
s genuine confidence that guided him through the situation. To this point, Jin had only pretended to have that kind of confidence.

The role models who shaped Jin
’
s expectations were not family members; they were images seen through the doorway of his small, run-down hut with its dirt floor and failing walls; they were passing businessmen and dignitaries. They had an air of respect, and most important, they had the ability to leave the slum. It captivated Jin
’
s imagination, how they rolled into town and rolled out the other side. None of Jin
’
s family ever did that. They just lingered in the slum until they landed in jail. Crime was the way of life .
.
. crime and lingering. Jin didn
’
t want to be a criminal, and he didn
’
t want to linger.

Having never met his father, Jin grew up living with his mother and two older half brothers. They had never met their father either, and they spent most of their time up to no good. Jin kept his distance from these shenanigans, and opted instead to gaze out the open door of the hut, watching the vehicles carry the more fortunate over the pothole-ridden road. While most of the slum
’
s inhabitants dreamed of snatching those people from their vehicles and robbing them, Jin dreamed of becoming them. He longed for his own vehicle that would take him beyond the slum.

Jin smiled with the realization of how far he had come. Not only had he gotten out, he had traveled all the way to a distant planet and was now surrounded by a strange new world. Jin was in downtown Juniper, Indiana
—
a small rural town with a modern feel.

Jin was struck by how clean everything was. There were no rotting logs or animal bones, no piles of leaves or discarded trash. It was as if nature wasn
’
t allowed to reside here, except in the few little triangles where grass had been inserted, and trees were kept in precise circles cut in the pavement. Birds flew from branch to branch, behaving themselves. There was a systematic order to all of it, which Jin admired.

No matter what distances he traveled, when he fell asleep at night, Jin still expected to awaken in that little hut. However, where Jin had been waking up for the past four years was aboard vessels in the Royal Expeditionary Armada (REA). Before being reassigned to Dexim and Lyntic
’
s unit, his work had been strictly clerical. For the last nine months, however, he was part of Dexim and Lyntic
’
s team. Their official assignment was to inspect and report on locations where royal dignitaries were scheduled to make appearances.

Even though
inspect and report
was the job title, the Royal Office of Security was not expecting to receive any reports that contained less-than-perfect marks. So, somewhere after the inspection and before the report, Dexim and Lyntic would correct all existing problems so that the site
’
s actual security fitness would match the stellar report that would be filed. The Royal Security Administrator relied heavily on Dexim and Lyntic to smooth the rough edges of these outposts.

In the Adashi language, it was common to attach the word
Fire
to the best of a category. For example, the best restaurant in a town would be referred to as the town
’
s
Fire
Restaurant. For that reason, Dexim and Lyntic
’
s unit was known throughout as the Fire Unit. Officially, it was Dexim
’
s team, but anyone familiar with the siblings knew that it belonged to both of them. Jin could attest that things were always fast paced and efficient in the Fire Unit.

Reality washed back into Jin
’
s consciousness. Reality was a duffle bag filled with supplies. He could picture it resting in an open field somewhere, waiting to be picked up. He could also picture the worst-case scenario: that it landed in the back of a truck that was now transporting it across the country, the driver mistaking the jolt of the hard landing for a pothole in the road. There were plenty of other bad possibilities, but Jin quickly tired of pondering them. He just needed to start looking.

Jin had a good sense of direction. He started walking, remembering to blend in. He knew the bag was released before him, traveling along the same path. The bag was lighter, so he figured it probably landed about the same time he did. He nodded to himself, agreeing with his assessment. He now had an image of where the bag should be.

As Jin turned off Main Street and walked one block to the east, the vibrant shops were replaced by old, mostly abandoned buildings, with a few ground-level businesses. Jin stood on the sidewalk, about where he expected the bag to be. Glass crunched under his feet. Looking up, he saw a broken second-story window, with a hole about the size of a duffle bag.

Inside a bistro that inhabited the building
’
s front corner, a tall, thin hostess leaned against her oversized stand. Her long, brown hair collected on the pages of a magazine that soaked up her boredom, as her fingers flirted with turning the page. The restaurant was about half full, and apparently none of the guests needed her attention.

Jin walked through the front door, which announced him with a metallic jingle. The hostess
’
s head slowly lifted. Mustering all the composure he could, Jin delivered an over rehearsed line.
“
I
’
m .
.
. meeting .
.
. someone,
”
he softly announced, with all the grace of a person who just landed in the country twenty-seven minutes ago.

Even though he tested very high in English communication and could speak fluently with his colleagues, the prospect of speaking to an actual earthling was a bit much. He was certain that each word would give him away.

The hostess waved him in and returned to her magazine. Jin walked by her without a bit of suspicion. As he made his way to the back of the room, he scanned over the patrons. None of them pointed in amazement at the alien.

He made a quick assessment of the building
’
s layout and headed for a small door near the back, which led to a stairwell. Ascending the bare wooden staircase, he navigated around a young couple who sat on the third step, too engaged in an adolescent lip-lock to notice him. The boy was on a break from washing dishes. The girl, who had his break times memorized, was visiting from her post at the nearby laundromat. She held the loose apron that hung from his waist as they kissed. As Jin hugged the wall to climb past them, he realized that human apathy would go a long way to help him blend in.

On the second floor, Jin made his way down the dusty hallway. He stopped at what felt like the right door and tried the badly worn knob. It didn
’
t turn, but the door itself felt loose in the frame, so he gave it a push. It gave way and crashed to the ground before Jin could stop it. It landed hard, kicking up a cloud of dust. As the dust settled, Jin saw what he was looking for: the supply bag, sitting on the floor in a bed of broken glass. Any earthling would guess that the light-brown bag was made of a high-quality leather, but it was actually a material called nawmas (pronounced NAH-mus). It was porous, with microscopic dimples across its surface, and it was so slick that it almost felt wet. Running your fingers across the fabric could be quite addictive, but Jin was not here for such tactile pleasures. He lifted the bag from its landing zone and headed back through the doorway.

In Jin
’
s careful grip the bag glided over the young couple, who were in the same position as before, eyes closed, lips locked, but a bit sweatier this time. The girl
’
s hands were now locked around the boy
’
s apron, which she had subconsciously rolled into a phallic shape
—
no need to consult Freud on this one.

Back in the restaurant, Jin made his way to the front entrance, where the doors opened for him as he arrived, courtesy of two patrons entering at that very moment.

The supply bag was a major breach of protocol. To the casual observer, it would look like any other top-of-the-line bag, but to the trained eye, it was a blazing four-alarm fire of conspicuousness. Under ordinary circumstances, such a breach of protocol would never be allowed. Tobi should have switched the contents to the proper bag .
.
. or maybe that was Lyntic
’
s job. Either way, a perfectly suitable Samsonite duffle was left behind on the ship, waiting to be filled with the mission
’
s supplies. Thanks to Stewart
’
s unannounced hostile takeover, there was only time to grab the nawmas bag and dive head first to the planet below.

Jin set the bag down beside a Post Office drop box. Hunching over the bag to conceal it, he inspected the contents. The second-most-important thing inside that bag at this moment was a white hand-held box about the size of an iPhone. It appeared to be undamaged. He hit a button, and the display screen came to life. It was a tracking device that would lead him to the others.

He dropped it back in the bag and felt around for the most important item, which was roughly the size of a first-aid kit. Lifting it from the bag, he saw that it was unharmed. There was no surprise that it made it through the rough landing. Like most of the items in the bag, it was made for work in the field. This was good news for Tobi, because this was an emergency field-immunization kit, and it was going to save Tobi
’
s life.