Somewhere
Harlan Band plummeted down the silver shaft. He felt chilled even through the gray insulated jumpsuit issued to all Starcademy cadets. The laws of inertia seemingly didn't apply here, so Harlan drifted.
<"This must be some kind of laundry chute, like the jumptubes back on the Christa." >
Harlan spread his arms perpendicular from his body to slow his descent. It was pleasant at first, but nothing compared to way he felt when he piloted the Christa. From the moment he and the others had boarded the strange, alien vessel, the ship had bonded with them. "Or maybe it was the other way around, like how Thelma's in tune with the ship," Harlan muttered. He did feel a little guilty about cracking Thelma's logic crystal. Ever since that day Thelma had begun experincing sporadic malfunctions.
Harlan's peaceful sensation of falling weightlessly abruptly ended. All thoughts went clear out of his head by a painful throbbing throughout his body. When it subsided to tolerable level, Harlan looked around. He discovered he'd landed atop a pile of broken rubble.
<"It's not the fall you have to worry about, it's the landing. Ah, man! That hurt!" > Harlan thought, rubbing his tailbone, his thoughts turned back to when they'd crash-landed on the jungle planet.
Harlan remembered the fire fight with three Spung kill cruisers led by a Warlord. <The Spung discovered Elmira's presence aboard our ship. They activated some kind of 'royal retrieval chip, then transported her to his ship,. Right after that they fired flak torpedoes at us. That explosion caused Cat and her 'imaginary.. Scratch that, 'invisible friend, Suze, to switch places.">
"Commander Goddard orders a blind hyperspace jump through the White Circle. So I do, and we exchange becoming space debris for a collision course. With all sensors down all we had was Radu's sense of direction racing the clock to find a safe place to land..."
Harlan shook his head. "Enough of this. Gotta figure out where I am."
He stood and picked a direction at random and began walking, trying
to get the kinks out while ignorning his
aches and pains, but it was hard.
Meanwhile
The cadets gathered in the classroom resigned to enduring another boring lecture from Miss Davenport. She counted heads as they trickled in.
"Where is Mr. Band?"
"Harlan's always showed up for class," Radu replied as he shook his head causing his blond locks to fall over his blue eyes.
"Must Harlan continually be later and disruptive?" Miss Davenport said in her clipped British accent. Her blue eyes turned icy.
Bova saw the look of disapproval. Nonetheless, he felt inclined to speak up. He didn't doubt for a second it would bring the teacher's wrath down on his head. "He had some things to take care of."
"Whatever it was, I'm sure it's important," Suzee said as she turned her attention to her compupad which displayed damage estimates from the crash.
"Oh? What sort of things?" Davenport asked.
"He wouldn't say," Bova replied.
"I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for it," Rosie said cheerfully.
"Rosie, you stick up for everybody," Suzee complained.
"Yeah. I remember the time Catalina said that. We'd slipped into a parallel universe and .... " Bova was interrupted by Radu's hand on his shoulder.
"Don't remind me. That was the time we all started turning into Spung," Radu gently reminded the perpetually gloomy Uranusian boy.
"Oh. Sorry, Radu," Bova shrugged. Radu's gentle but restraining grip was painful. Bova, however, didn't think it was worth pointing out right then. His Andromedan crewmate had good reasons for anxiety where the Spung were concerned. Radu began pacing along the circuit of the classroom.
"That is not the issue. If Mr. Band cannot make the effort to attend class, he should have the decency to notify me first, or the Commander," Davenport announced, a note of finality in her voice. "Thelma?"
"Yes, Miss Davenport?" The shipboard android puttered up behind the teacher.
"Please scan for Mr. Band's whereabouts."
"One moment, please." A few minutes later the android completed the interior scan. "Mr. Band is no longer aboard the Christa."
"What!" Radu exclaimed. For once the normally soft-spoken Andromedan boy actually raised his voice. He'd been getting along well with Harlan lately. Harlan's initial hostility towards him had gradually evaporated after being shipmates on the Christa, even with his recent winning streak in Minbar chess. Radu's concern for Harlan stemmed more from friendship than concern over a missing crewmate.
"I will reiterate if my previous statement was unclear," Thelma trailed off.
"He heard you." Suzee dragged Thelma away by an elbow.
"He's been kidnapped," Bova predicted as he brought a hand up to rub his sore left shoulders.
"We have to find him!" Rosie exclaimed.
"Yeah. But how do we go about it? "Radu asked back to his normal tones and stopped pacing.
"When was the last time anybody saw him?" Suzee asked, not to be left out.
"Last night, in the bunkroom. Harlan was having trouble sleeping. I could hear him tossing and turning. At 0400 hours he got up and wandered around the room," Radu answered.
"Why were you still awake?" Davenport asked.
'I wasn't. Harlan woke me up. Bova was sounding asleep. Harlan tapped and thumped the walls with his fingers."
"Didn't hear a thing," Bova interrupted unhelpfully.
"Odd behavior, even for Harlan," Davenport mused.
"And this morning, what did Harlan do?" Suzee asked.
"Dunno. He seemed the same old Harlan to me," Bova replied.
"You didn't question his behavior from last night?" Suzee asked.
"Ah, no," Radu shrugged.
"Mr. Bova, you said, "he had some things to do". When did he say that?"
"Right before class and after the Commander had us take watch duty at Command Post, " Bova yawned.
"He wouldn't have vanished into thin air?" Rosie mused.
"I got an idea! You remember the phase through program hidden by the walls? Maybe he was looking for something like that," Bova said a touch breathlessly.
"It is possible. I mean, Radu did say Harlan was tapping and thumping the walls," Rosie added.
"I think we should alert Commander Goddard and begin a search of the ship, even though Thelma's scan didn't turn up anything. Class dismissed."
"It's hopeless," Davenport groaned as the cadets left the classroom, the metal doors slid shut behind them with a soft whoosh.
Rosie and Bova trailed behind the others. Rosie giggled and leaned towards Bova, "Now she's starting to sound like you," she whispered into his ear.
"Don't do me any favors," Bova replied. Against his will a small grin slipped out as the pair went to the Team Room.
Elsewhere
Harlan kept walking, his jumpsuit liberally sprinkled with rock dust. Getting around proved far more difficult than he'd anticipated as he was forced to scramble over or go around other piles of rubble like the one he'd landed on. Some he'd been able to move out of the way. The place meandered about in what Harlan felt like a series of endless loops.
<"Great, I'm trapped in some kind of stupid maze> Harlan griped.
Snippets of Miss Davenport's lessons in alien architecture floated into Harlan's mind, not that he'd paid much attention that day, or any day.
What he'd taken to be outdoors was actually the remains of a massive marble structure, perhaps part of a larger community, or city. Whoever or whatever had built the place had used massive stone blocks and pillars to support a domed roof., but it was gone now. Craning his neck, Harlan saw that what ws left of the strcture appeared to have been smashed in by a giant's fist. Sooty black streaks ran down the walls from a fire that had burned the stone. The closer he looked, the place looked like it had been attacked.
"Whoever the people were who lived here, looks like a battle took place. I'd say they lost, and left in a hurry."
So absorbed was Harlan that he failed to hear footsteps approaching behind him. "There you are. How did you manage to get yourself lost?" A woman's voice suddenly asked, sounding vaguely annoyed with having to look for someone who should have known their way around.
"He's an Earther. It's normal for them to lose their way, even in places they've known all their lives," The male voice remarked, sounding more good-natured than irritated. Harlan could only distinguish the two voices as male and female, since the second voice bordered on a light tenor. The first reminded Harlan oddly of his mother, or Miss Davenport, when they wanted to nag or scold someone.
"Oh, I guess I didn't realize that. We've been expecting you," the woman's voice announced, this time sounding genuinely pleased to see someone.
"Come again? Harlan shouted, whirling around to face the unidentified speakers.
"She said," the male voice started.
"I am Mithras210." An Andromedan male announced, extending his arm out, he pointed to an attractive Andromedan female next to him, Her strawberry blond hair held back from her face in an elaborate braid. The male's coloring were darker, more of an ash blonde. Harlan couldn't put his finger out, even though he'd once thought that all Andromedan pretty much looked alike, something in the blue eyes reminded Harlan of the Christa's quiet Andromedan navigator.
<"Nah, they couldn't be, could they?" > Harlan thought.
"You must be Harlan Band" Minerva asked, interrupting Harlan's thoughts.
"You're Radu386's best friend. And as for how we know, let's just say we have genuine interest in his welfare," Mithras remarked.
"What is this place?" Harlan demanded, gesturing around.
"Creche001," Mithras replied, like it should have been obvious.
"It was a beautiful place once." Minerva sighed longingly. "The place of longest memory, first abandoned but last forgotten."
Minerva gestured towards what he'd taken for blocks of masonry. "Once, on both east and west sides of the court were two pavilions, with a small fountain. The ceilings were domes divided into two perfect hemispheres, carved and tiled with glyphs in Andromedan depicting our history and legends. In the center of the court The Fountain of Lions sprayed water and refreshed the atmosphere through the mouths of twenty marble lions, standing in a circle, painted in copper and gilt."
"Our children, after they're born, this was the first sight they beheld. It's where they were raise and trained to become members of our communal society," Mithras explained. "Is it not in truth that white cloud which pours its streams upon the lions and seems as Unity and Loyalty were one," Mithras intoned.
"If this place was so great, why did your people leave?' Harlan asked, caught up in the history in spite of himself.
"The spacearks came from here," Mithras answered.
"The hatcheries?" Harlan interrupted, curious in spite of himself.
"So, you do know after all. I know it's difficult for someone of your species that values individuality to understand the communal nature of Andromedan society," Mithras explained.
"We had to. This isn't something that's commonly known, but we had to leave our war devastated galaxy in order to find a new home for ourselves. That's when we found the Andromeda Galaxy in our space arks. One of those ships carried the Andromedan hatchery," Mithras continued.
"The Spung were quick to exploit any vuenerability. Unfortunately it was only in hindsight that our Council Elders realized that putting our entire brood in a single ship was a cataclysmic mistake, "Minerva continued.
"When we first arrived, the Spung were embroiled in a war with the United Populated Planets as you're aware, since your father died in during that conflict," Mithras trailed off.
Harlan gritted his teeth. Tthat one casualty was the one that had hit very close to home. It had been the focus of his unreasoning hatred of all Andromedans, including Radu when he'd first arrived as a student at the Starcademy.
"The Spung threatened to wipe out the entire generation of unborn Andromedan children if the adults didn't surrender to them. What choice did we have?" Minerva sighed.
"It was either that or let the Spung commit genocide. It seemed the lesser of two evils. Slave labor or forced into a fighting a war," Mithras explained.
"Coercion or not, Andromedans made good slaves and soldiers," Harlan griped.
"I understand where the anger is coming from, Harlan," Mithras began.
"How can I be certain you're telling me the truth? Harlan demanded.
"Because, Harlan," We're Radu's parents." Minerva laughed.
"You're kidding? Harlan asked, completely floored.
"You mean Radu really has family? Does he know?" Harlan gulped.
"No he doesn't know who we are, or that we've been following his progress. That's why we thought it best to bring you here, since you're the person closest to him. You're his best friend. Andromedans don't claim friendship lightly, so when you began treating him as a friend and crewmate, it meant a great deal to him," Minerva explained.
Harlan's dusky black skin darkened noticeably. In the back of his mind he remembered when an assignment to create family trees. He also recalled how cruel he'd been twisting what he'd taken to be a deliberate lie on Radu's part to create a false family tree and a fake birthday. He remembered all the other humiliating things he'd done, all the cutting remarks he'd made,
"We should continue this discussion aboard our ship, " Minerva added. "The sooner we take care of this, the sooner we can take him back. Otherwise the others will think we've kidnapped him."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Harlan announced, folding his arms across his chest.
"Don't worry, Harlan, once we've concluded our business, we'll bring you back to the Christa." Mithras laughed.
Aboard the Cassiopeia
Harlan followed Minerva and Mithras towards a raised platform that he'd been told had once been used as a gathering place. Its current function was a landing pad, for spacecraft. Minerva had wept when she told him this, apparently recalling when her people had met here.
A ship was waiting, as promised, a sleek craft shaped like an ellipsis. Its main body appeared somewhat barrel shaped; however, the double bladed wings extending outwards gave the ship a sweeping feeling.
"Welcome aboard the Cassiopeia, Harlan," Mithras said, as he activated the ship's access portal and three stepped up the boarding ramp and entered the ship.
"Nice ship, guys," Harlan commented, taking a three and sixty inspection of the ship.
"Thank you," Mithras replied.
Inside the bridge looked identical to the Christa's except that it had seating in addition to the operational stations. Scribed on the walls were glyph symbols that Harlan took to be Andromedan language.
Mithras took the helm and laid in the course. "Make yourself comfortable, Harlan.
Harlan collapsed into the nearest chair, relaxing for the first time since he'd arrived. <"Funny, how you really understood someone." >
Looking at Mithras quietly, confidently steer the Cassiopeia, Harlan wondered if it was true that you could one someone would look/be like as an adult when you knew the parents. Harlan allowed exhaustion overwhelm as events caught with him, and fell asleep in his chair.
When Harlan woke up again, he realized they'd covered a good distance. He glanced at the navigation console and discovered the heading corresponded to the one the Christa had last been in.
"When you get back to the Christa, please give Radu this?" Minerva asked as she handed Harlan an oblong object.
"Ah, Sure." Harlan said as he accepted the package Minerva placed in his keeping.
"We're within range of the Christa. Hailing frequencies are open. You can contact them any time you want, " Mithras said.
Conclusion
Minerva and Mithras had proved as good as their word.
He'd had to explain to both Commander Goddard and Miss Davenport, in detail, the facts surrounding his 'disappearance'. He'd been yelled at, Davenport had fainted once during the recitation, but not before giving him several demerits. Goddard had wanted to meet Minerva and Mithras. Eventually, they'd let him go.
Harlan collapsed onto his bunk.
"Man! Am I exhausted," Harlan groaned. "Uh Radu, there's something I've been meaning to tell you..." he trailed off.
"What?" Radu asked sitting up on his bunk.
"Ah Man, I know I had it here somewhere." Harlan rummaged around beneath his bunk, then went over to his drawer and discarded a variety of junk before he locked onto the object he'd been looking for.
"Here," Harlan said, handing the object to Radu.
It was a small oblong box wrapped in silvery wrapping paper.
"Where did this come from? What's the special occasion?"
"Stop asking stupid questions, just open it." Harlan grinned.
Radu carefully pried apart the wrapping paper, trying to ignore Harlan's cocky, knowing grin. Inside was a wooden box carved with scrollwork that looked exactly like Andromedan spiral shaped ears. Surprised, Radu glanced at Harlan whose grin had become a smirk threatening to burst out into good-natured laughter. His sensitive hearing could hear Harlan's heart beating faster, and Bova's somnolent breathing asleep in the other bunk.
Radu removed the lid and peered inside.
He took a deep breath. Inside was an object he'd left behind after leaving Andromeda for the Starcademy, a ring given him by a female he barely remembered.
The other items in the box were things he had never seen before, including a medallion with the photo of three smiling Andromedans, two adults and a hatchling, that looked suspiciously like himself at about three years.
He picked up the medallion, which activated a miniature holographic projector, and an adult Andromedan female's image appeared.
"Radu386, I am Minerva219. I'm your mother. I know there is no way I can convince you of the truth of that. Just know that your father, Mithras210, and I love you. We care about you. We know how uncomfortable with our people's mindset you've been. You were angry when they discouraged any trace of individuality when you were younger. We also know that you felt isolated and desperate to fit in. If you're wondering where you get it from, I guess it's our fault. Your father and I were exiled because we questioned various tenets of our society, " Minerva explained.
"The crystal inside is yours to keep." Mithras appeared in the hologram's expanded field. The hologram fizzled and disappeared.
"Harlan, Where did you get this?" Radu demanded.
"From two people who 'are genuinely interested in your welfare,' pal. Now go to sleep."
"My parents," Radu sighed, and lay back on his bunk. Then heclosed his eyes and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He was oblivious of the happy smile on his face.
Finito