My Little Planet

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. What a concept! No medium for sound to travel. Stars explode, planets coalesce, asteroids collide, comets vaporize all in complete silence. At the same time both terrifying and majestic.

Not the first time Jefferson Reynolds had this thought while lying under the stars. The bright band of the galaxy stretched from horizon to horizon. Every clear night he would spread a blanket on the grass of a nearby meadow and lie with his hands behind his head as he watched the stars slowly cross the sky. One time his sister had found him like this and said that he had the stupidest grin on his face. Even she couldn’t ruin his moment. His time with the stars.

Generations ago his ancestors crossed that soundless starry void to reach this moon, Loasi, which orbits a dull yellow gas giant, Lottona. The journey was told in school year after year. Getting more and more embellished as the students grew up and could tolerate more details. Jefferson learned last year that the shuttles used to transport the voyagers from the colony ship to the surface had been dismantled to build the first shelters. The colony ship itself was deorbited into Lottona leaving a dark spot in its atmosphere that lasted for only a couple of months.

As Jefferson had been lying there daydreaming he hadn’t noticed that Lottona had half risen in the sky already, creating a murky, yellowish twilight. I wish that colony ship was still around, Jefferson sighed to himself as he stood and rolled up his blanket. Lastly he picked up his rifle and slung it over his left shoulder and headed home.

As he neared home, he could see that his mother was already shuttering the windows.

“I take it that supper’s already served?”

“Well, the Prodigal Son returns,” jibed his mother. She stopped mid-shuttering of her current window. “You almost missed supper with your stargazing. Now get inside before your sister eats your portion.” She closed the shutters and locked them with a whispered metallic scrape.

Once inside, Jefferson turned the hand wheel a quarter turn to seal the hatch. Then he hung his rifle on his shelf in the gun rack. Sitting on the bench opposite the gun rack he took off his dirty boots and stowed his blanket on the shelf above the bench. He could hear his father and sister talking through the blackout curtain that separated the entryway and the rest of the house. When Jefferson finally pulled aside the curtain he was momentarily blinded by the brightness in the house. Once his eyes adjusted he could see his father talking animatedly with his sister and occasionally spot his mother flitting between rooms to close the shutters. Then his father spotted him.

“Jeff! Come sit down. Your sister’s having a growth spurt apparently. I’ve had to swat her hand away from your plate a couple of times already.”

“Dad!” whined his sister before slapping their father on the shoulder.

Jefferson chuckled. “Leave Dad alone, Veva. He needs to eat too. Besides, why aren’t you trying to eat Mom’s portion while she’s busy locking the house down?”

“I heard that, you little merdo!” His mother yelled from one of the back rooms of the house.

All three in the dining room snickered.

Jefferson then sat down and started eating his supper. His mother joined them presently.

“Did you come across any wild nephieri while you were out?” his mother asked.

“No, I didn’t see anything. Just the stars.”

“Tsk, too bad, we could have used the extra meat to sell in the market,” said his father.

Veva made an obscene face at him, which he returned his own version and then started eating his supper. The rest of the night was uneventful. Jefferson and Jenna went to their separate rooms to get ready for bed while their parents cleaned up the kitchen and dining room. For a brief moment, Jefferson thought about opening his window to look at the stars as he drifted off to sleep. But he knew the old dictum: Errant light brings the expectant blight.

***

The next day Veva and Jefferson had to experience their midterms. Jenna had less scholastic experience, but Jefferson ended up being the critical thinker, which resulted in his lower grades. “The colonies needed forward thinkers, not lateral thinkers,” was a repeated mantra during parent/teacher conferences. Didn’t seem to matter how he did in any subject: His indicated best marks geared him towards the Globale. His mother loved the idea of her son defending the colony, his father merely wished for him to remain close.

Civilization 101 was a constant hurdle: “If only there were an academy that warranted the conscripts,” Jefferson debated in one particular session. The virtual professor fumed, demanding how Jefferson could question a system that kept him and his family safe for generations. “Safe from what?” was his only reply, but the virtual prof only steered the conversation away from the Globale.

Veva chewed her hair on the way to school. She only ever did that at Midterms and Finals. Jefferson gently nudged her. When she looked up at him he said, “Keep doing that and your hair is going to be a sopping mess by the time you get to school.” Veva bewilderedly pulled her hair from her mouth and tried to dry the slobber off of it with her sleeve. “How come you’re not nervous?” She asked while she dried her hair.

“Well, I guess you could say that I just don’t see much of a point in being nervous about it. I don’t know. It just feels like the same thing they test for year after year and whenever I ask something that isn’t part of the agenda I get brow beaten with insinuations and dogma until one of us gives up. It all just seems… inane.”

“Is that why you go star gazing by yourself?”

“Part of it. I also do it because the galaxy’s a raw beauty that you can’t get down here. So I like to appreciate it whenever I can.”

“You’re weird.”

He stuck his tongue out at her, which she mirrored.

Midterms were held in the testing hall located in the center of campus. Rows upon rows of single seater booths filled the square kilometer of the hall. In front on the sitter was a three-foot screen with partitions extending outward to separate students and prevent cheating. Foam carpeting lined all of the walls to hamper sound from travelling much farther than the intended recipient. A touchscreen keyboard inlaid in the shelf below the screen was the only method of input. Once the student was done with their exam, they were given an immediate readout on the screen of their grade and which questions they answered incorrectly.

Jefferson did as well as he could expect: B minus. With no classes scheduled for today, Jefferson waited outside the testing hall for Jenna so they could walk back home together. Half an hour later Veva sulked out the door.

“I hate tests,” she said.

“C’mon. I’ll help Mom make your favorite dinner tonight.” He pulled her close to him as they turned toward home.

Veva remained sullen as they walked. Jefferson watched for face for a moment as he tried to think of something to cheer her up. It was then that he saw her eyes widen and freeze in place. Before he ask her what was wrong he heard a snort from the trail ahead of them.

Stepping out of the brush waddled a plump creature, but it had four sets of tusks: one set pointing straight forward, one set pointing up with a slight curve around the upper jaw, one set attached to the upper jaw curved downward, and the last set also pointed upward like the second. It had three tails, all with poisonous barbs at the tips. A nephieri! In the daytime? Why would…? And that was when he saw the tails whipping through the air in a frenzy. It’s mad!

As quietly and as quickly as he could he pulled himself and Veva into the brush. The nephieri hadn’t spotted them, but it’s sense of smell would lead it to them all too soon. Veva was breathing rapidly. She needed to calm down before she panicked and ran, or worse screamed.

He squared himself in front of her, held her shoulders and locked eyes with her. “Breathe,” he whispered and demonstrated a calming rhythm for her and continued until she caught on and was breathing at the same rate as he was. He quickly looked through the brush at the nephieri to see what it was doing. It hadn’t spotted them but seemed to be catching their scent.

He turned back to Jenna and whispered, “I’m going to distract it.” Veva’s eyes widened more and she was on the verge of panic again. “I’ll be fine. I just need to lead it away so you can run to get Mom and Dad and arm yourselves. Then come looking for me. I’m going to lead it towards the gully on the other side of that hill. It’ll be trapped there and we can kill it easily.”

“No!”

“No time to argue. I’ll be fine. Now wait until it’s fully chasing me before you run for home.” One last check at the nephieri which was heading their way snuffling along the ground. Jefferson dashed out into the path. “Hey, ugly!” he screamed at it. Immediately the nephieri howled and charged at Jefferson who waited only long enough to see that he caught the beast’s attention.

He crashed through bushes and narrowly ducked low branches. Behind him he heard the nephieri howling and tearing through the undergrowth. Luckily its madness made it less nimble and it repeatedly bumped into tree trunks, slowing it ever so much.

Just keep running. Don’t look back. You know it’s there. Veva’s safe. You’ll be at the gully before you know it. Scaling the hill slowed him a bit and he heard the nephieri close the distance between them some.

His lungs were burning by the time he careened through the downslope gaining some precious distance. Faster, dammit! Faster! He was approaching the near end of the gully.

The muscles in his legs and lungs burning, he threw all the energy he had into a sprint down the gully. The walls echoed the nephieri's grunts and howls towards him. It's in here! Gotta get out! But the walls were getting higher the deeper into the gully he went. No other choice: keep running!

His vision started blurring and he could no longer get enough air into his lungs. I'm not going to make it. Just ahead he saw a black mound, high enough the nephieri couldn't reach him. He might be able to climb it quickly.

Putting all of his remaining energy into a dead sprint he was able to reach the mound and hopped up onto the the nearest ledge of it. Just as he dragged his foot up onto the ledge, the nephieri charged and hit the mound with a metallic bang. It yowled in anger as it had broken one of its front tusks. It started raging back an forth under Jefferson as he caught his breath.

That wasn't rock or dirt that nephieri ran into. It sounded metallic.

When he felt he had enough energy to sit up he took his first real look at the black mound he had clambered up on. It wasn't a mound as it was made of metal and it had a funny shape. Like a boxy triangle. Climbing to the top of the mound he could see a window at one end. He knelt down and brushed some dirt away so that he could peer inside. He saw a chair surrounded by various instruments. This wasn't a mound at all. It was some sort of ship.

"Merda." he said.