In the beginning... there was a plan... with purpose.
...From the first spark ... to the gathering of ideas...to the blueprint...
...Now the collaborative construction
I am simply amazed at what your children are producing and the terminology that they are developing and the depth of understanding...
The students have worked through lunches and sometimes through the night...
...And Finally down to the wire...
Students had to create a Steampunk Airship, 3 devices, 3 characters and create a back story, not to mention create an Abode Spark Page that showcased the progress of their work.
https://spark.adobe.com/page/hLiMlaLxHtyAz/
The Adventure of Marti
I wiggle my fingers, hoping I can get some feeling back into them. I puff out a breath that turns into a little cloud. I brush back my dark red hair with my arm. I feel a trickle of sweat down the back of my neck.
“How's it going down there Marti?” I hear Papa’s booming voice. I adjust my grip on the window ledge I'm crouching on. I tilt my head to look up the side of our cruise ship. I squint into the light of a lantern.
“Good! I'm almost done fixing the circuit!” I shout upwards.
“Wonderful! Shout when you're ready to come up!” Papa yells down to me. I nod and look down at the circuit I'm trying to fix. As I inspect the broken cords I realize that it looks as if an animal had been gnawing at it. Puzzled, I wrap some sticky paper around the cords to hold them together. I shut the little box containing the cords just as the lights inside the ship flicker on. I hear muffled shouts of happiness from inside. I smile to myself as I put my tools into the various pockets of my jacket. I turn away from the window and throw my feet over the side of the ledge and dangle them. I look out over the smoke clouds. A pale pink explodes across the sky as the big orange sun peeks out over the grey clouds. The sunlight shines brightly off the blue paint on our ship. I frown wishing I could see what the skies looked like before the aliens and smoke clouds blew in. I turn away from the sky and reach over for the rope. I grab it and pull myself up to the main deck. I throw a foot over the railing, jump down and land with a smack on the wooden floor.
“Marti! Great job, thanks for helping us out,” Papa says and slaps my shoulder.
“Yes, thank you sweets. Now I can finally start making breakfast before the guests wake up,” Cook says, and she gives me a smile. I smile back and turn towards the stairs that go below deck. I jump down and tiptoe across the creaky floor hoping to not wake any of the guests. I slip into the small room at the end of the hall. My room is small, with a bed pushed up against the left wall, my covers sprawled in a mess across the mattress. To my right there's a little round window and below that is my work table with screws and tools strewn across it. I sit down on the small stool and pick up my newest project, a little wind up girl to keep me company. There's no one my age on the ship except for Tommy the Cook's son but he talks too much and stands too close to me which bothers me. I sigh and stand and look across my bed at the broken mirror. I look at my red hair pulled into messy braids and my soot covered face. I rub the back of my hand across my cheeks. I look again in the mirror and see my piercing green eye twinkling in the sun. My other eye is brown and cloudy, it's harder to see out of that one. I unbuckle my goggles and shift them off my head. My hair puffs up. I shrug off my jacket and set in on my dresser. I fall onto my bed, prop my feet on the wall and cradle the back of my neck with my hands. Just as I close my eyes, ready to fall into a nice nap, I hear a scraping sound above me that makes the hairs on my arms stand up straight. I crack open an eyelid. Maybe it was just Tommy pulling chairs across the deck. I close my eyes and yawn. Then there’s the scraping sound again followed by a thud that makes the floorboards creak heavily, then I hear shouts, yelling as if the world is suddenly on fire. I jump up and fly out the door and down the hallway, guests peeking their heads out of their rooms, faces frightened. I smile at them and continue running up the stairs. The rising sun blinds me for a second and I stumble. When I gain eyesight again I see Tommy laying on the the floor with a bloody cut on the side of his head. I gasp. I look around for help and see two people in black cloaks that definitely aren’t guests on our cruise.
“Hey! Who are you?” I yell to them. They turn slowly towards me. In between them Papa is dangling lifelessly. I let out a quiet scream. Suddenly my tongue feels like sandpaper.
“The real question is... who are you?” I look up at the people holding Papa. I'm taken aback at the looks of these people. They have perfect faces, nothing different or out of place and they are oddly tall.
“I-I’m Marti” I stutter.
“Well, peasant Marti, we are borrowing this man for a few months but he will be back,” they turn quickly and walk to the edge of the ship, hop over the railing and jump. I rush over to where they were standing and look over the edge. Far below I see them floating off into the fog.
“Papa!” I scream down at them. I turn around and run my hands through my hair. I see Cook kneeling over Tommy, her shoulders shaking. I run over.
“Is he okay?” I ask and put my hand on Cook’s shoulder to comfort her. She shakes it off and looks at me.
“He’s breathing but badly hurt, I need to get him to a hospital,” she says and starts to pick him up. “ I knew something would happen if I started working with your father, he spells trouble,” Cook says as she walks away.
“Wait, Cook!” I yell after her, “what do you mean he's trouble?” Cook turns to look at me, her eyes narrow.
“A long time ago your father,” She jerks her chin at the sky, “he worked for them aliens, he helped them, until they killed your mother. I bet they're here to kill him too,” she says and turns to walk away. “And Marti? I'm turning this ship around and we are taking it back to New York,” she says and disappears into the cockpit. Confused and scared I turn to go back to my room to make a plan to save him, but my path is blocked by all the guests. Their mouths are hanging open.
“This ship is crazy and dangerous!” An older woman yells.
“No please-” I start to say but am interrupted by a man.
“Yes! She’s right, take us back to New York!”
“We can't be involved with anyone who knows those-those aliens,” a young man says and wraps an arm around a woman.
“Please, it's alright! Nothing bad has happened” I lie.
“What are you saying!? The captain and the servant boy were just hurt badly, you think we want to stay on this cruise?” An old man with a cane shouts.
I hang my head. “Yes, I suppose you're right, we will give you all refunds,” I say to them as they disappear into their rooms. I run back to my room and collapse on the bed sobbing.
The next few days are difficult, I'm on the verge of tears the whole time. All the guests have left including the staff. I’m now alone on a huge ship in the port of the New York Sky Bay. I’m laying stomach down in the middle of the deck when I hear a strange sound underneath me. I press an ear to the floor and hear something scratching down below. Is it the aliens? Are they back? I jump up and tiptoe down the stairs. On my way down I grab a loose piece of plywood. The sound gets louder. It's coming from the storage room. I slowly twist the doorknob with one hand while with the other I raise the plywood high. The noise stops. I swing the door open and jump in. But there's no one there. Puzzled I look around the piles of old equipment and boxes. Then at the back of the room I see it. A cat. But he's dressed oddly, he wears a workers uniform with a cloak on and some strange boots. He presses up against the back wall with his eyes wide.
“Ugh! What are you doing here!?” I yell and march towards him. He jumps quickly on a tower of boxes.
“Hey!” I lunge at him and drop the plywood but grab him around the middle. He meows and meows.
“Oh be quiet. You must have been the critter who was eating through all our electrical wires,” I say to him and take him out of the room. He doesn't stop meowing. He raises his paw like he's going to hit me but then hits the pin on his little jacket instead.
“Don't hurt me!” He says. I scream and drop him.
“Oh my gosh! You can talk!” I say surprised. He lands on the ground, pushes himself up on his hind legs and stands up like any human would. He brushes his jacket off and pats the top of his head.
“Yes I can and that was very rude of you to drop me,” he says in a high pitched voice.
“But-but how can you talk?” I look down at him puzzled.
He points his paw at the pin on his jacket, “This is an Opax, it's translates what I’m saying to your language,”
“Wow, okay, that's strange. I’ve never heard of it,” I say as I squat down to get a better look at it.
“Of course you haven't, I made it myself,” he brags.
“That’s awesome,” I say then realize that this cat is on my ship without permission. “Hold on cat, why and how did you get on my ship?”
“Oh, um, I, was just looking for my top hat,” The cat says.
“What? Well get off my ship!” I say and move to grab him again.
“Wait! No please! I can work for you!” he says
“I don't need help,”
“Yes you do, your ship is empty and your father just got taken by the big bad aliens,”
“Fine! Fine, how can you help me?” I ask.
“Hm, let's see,” he says and rubs his paws together.
“I can give you my fancy boots, they're called All Terrain Boots, ‘cause they can walk on any material. I walked over lava once wearing these.” he says and smiles at me
“I don't want those but that's cool. Wait! Can you help me get my dad back?” I ask.
“Well, no. Sorry but the aliens scare the fur off me,” he says and shivers.
“Please, I need to save him! These aliens are ruining my life! They killed my mother,” I plead.
“Little girl, they're ruining a lot of people's lives, not just yours,” the cat says and points his paw in my face.
“You're right,” I say and sit cross legged on the floor to think. I look up at the cat and see he's pulled something out of his jacket and is messing with it. I squint at the object, I feel like I recognize it.
“Where did you get that?” I ask pointing at it.
“Oh this thing? I pick-pocketed one of the guests on your ship,” he shrugs.
“Can I see it?” I ask. The cat nods and throws it over to me. I catch it and take a closer look.
“Wow! This is just what I need!” I jump up and run to my room.
“Hey! Wait! What is it?” The cat says from behind me.
I push open the door to my room and rush over to my work desk. I pick up the little wind up girl I'm working on and use a screwdriver to open her back panel.
“What are you doing?” I look to my left and see the cat has jumped up on my work table and is looking at what I'm doing.
“This piece you stole is a rare device that holds the intelligence of a dictionary, or a person. I was trying to figure out how to make one or buy one but they are super expensive. Now if I can just put it in right we can have a little walking, talking dictionary,” I explain to him.
“Well first of all you're doing it wrong. Here, let me try,” he says and reaches over and takes the doll from my hands. In under a minute he puts the device in the doll and slowly winds her up, setting her softly on the table. We wait a quiet minute, holding our breath to see if it will work. Slowly the little doll turns her head to the left then the right. I smile. She then bends herself into a standing position. She turns her little painted eyes to look at me and the cat. She opens her small mechanic mouth and says,
“Hello, my name is… Juno,”
“We did it!” I say excitedly and look at the cat. He holds out his paw.
“Well done partner,” he meows with a little smile, “My name is Neko,” I shake his little paw.
“Nice to meet you, my name’s Marti,”
It's been a day, and I’m worried about Papa. I hope he's okay and I know I need to save him soon. I'm wandering around the ship with Juno sitting in my palm, asking about our ship and seeing if she can tell me things about it. So far she's just telling me that the ship is very dusty. I'll have to work on that. We've just made it to the kitchen when I hear a crash. I run over and look inside. A bunch of the pots are on the floor, and Neko crawls out from underneath them.
“What are you doing in here?” I ask and start picking the pots up.
“Well, I was looking for my top hat,” he says. Then I hear a low grumble. I look over at Neko and he's looking at his stomach.
“Oh you're hungry,” I say.
“Yes just a little, I haven't eaten in a few days,” he says and massages his stomach.
“Geez! Here, let me make you some toast and cheese,” I say and turn to the refrigerator. I set Juno on the counter and start cutting some bread. When I set a plate of three pieces of toast and some cheese in front of Neko he happily starts scarfing it down.
“So Neko. Do you remember when you told me you would help me save my Papa?” I ask him.
Neko looks up at me and squints his eyes at me.
“Yes,” he mumbles.
“Well, can you help me make a plan to break into the main base?” I wonder.
“No, because nobody even knows where any of the bases are,” he grumbles.
“Actually, Neko, there is one man who has a map. The map is called Map of The Hidden actually, but it shows where all the alien bases are. The man who has it lives in 32nd street in New York City,” Juno says from across the room. Neko stops eating and slowly we turn to face Juno.
“How do you know that Juno?” I ask.
“My old master uploaded that information into my system,” Juno responds.
“Well that's definitely helpful!” Neko says excitedly, “We can just go find this guy!”
“Great, thanks Juno. Let's go find him!” I say and stand up.
“Wait! I want to finish-” Neko starts to say but I scoop him and Juno up as I run out the door.
“Darn it! I wanted to finish my food,” he pouts.
“Sorry, we can't waste any time. Who knows what those crazy aliens could be doing to Papa,” I say and rush to the exit of the ship. I lock the door behind me. Neko jumps from my arms and stands on his hind legs.
“I would look so much better if I had my top hat,” he whines. I roll my eyes and slip Juno into a pocket on my jacket.
We walk along the the wooden dock. I look over the edge and see below us the city. When we reach the elevator, we step inside joining a older man who eyes us suspiciously. The elevator rattles loudly as we slowly inch our way down to city level. The doors creak open revealing the dark city streets of New York. It's only one in the afternoon but the street lights have been turned on and cast eerie shadows across the streets. Neko walks out of the elevator and starts trotting down the street. The people walking around are wearing big dresses with ruffles and jackets with lots of decoration on them both men and women are wearing top hats.
“C'mon! 32nd street is this way!” he yells over his shoulder at me as I run to catch up with him.
We weave our way through the streets for at least an hour. People start looking at Neko like he’s crazy. I start to wonder why Juno is so sure that this guy lives in New York, or if he exists at all.
“Juno, where on 32nd street does this man live?” I ask her.
“He lives in the abandoned factory at the end of the street” she answers quickly.
“There it is!” Neko points down the street, I squint and see what looks like an old abandoned building. We walk over to it and see a large padlock on the front door. I open a pocket on my jacket and take out a thin piece of wire, I hand it to Neko and he shoves it in the lock on the door and after a minute, the lock pops open. I push the door slowly open. It’s mostly dark inside, except for a hole in the roof that lets in soft grey light. I creep inside slowly, not sure if this man is nice, or if he is even here. Neko walks in after me looking around. I see broken wooden stairs on one side of the room. I walk over and carefully walk up the stairs, hoping they won't break underneath me. On the second floor it looks as if someone has been here. There's a pile of blankets and computers sprawled in the corner.
“This place smells familiar,” Neko whispers from behind me. Before I can respond a voice echoes across the factory.
“Who are you?!”
I whirl around and look across the room and see a short silhouette in the shadows.
“Oh geez, I know who it is,” Neko whispers, then louder he says, “Isla, it's me, Neko, and my friend Marti,”
“Neko, I thought you were dead?” Isla says and steps slowly towards us. I notice she has The Opax on her little jacket, just like Neko’s.
“Well, surprise, surprise, I'm not. Nice to see you too,” Neko says sarcastically.
As Isla emerges I see that she’s a cat and looks similar to Neko.
“Wow, is that your sister?” I ask Neko.
“No, I'm his cousin, and we do not get along,” Isla responds to my question.
“Well, we just didn't think the same way,” Neko say.
“No, our family doesn't like you, you ruin everything and are always getting in trouble,” Isla glares at Neko.
“Okay, okay,” Neko says and puts his paws in the air like he's surrendering, then he looks at me, “Last time I was home I burnt down the house and then they kicked me out and I’ve been ship hitching since then,”
Isla rolls her eyes, “Anyway, why are you here?”
“Well, a little birdy told us that you had a special map and we were wondering if we could borrow it for a day or two?” I ask.
“What? How do you know I have that? No one knows that.” she says, backing away from us.
“Please, Isla can we borrow it?” Neko says stepping toward her as she jumps back.
“No! Never! How did you even find me?” she hisses at us, “Haven't you heard what people are saying on the streets?”
“No, we've been in New York for only a day,” I say, a little confused now.
“I'm a fugitive because I stole The Map Of The Hidden, and it was kind of an accident too, so please leave and don't tell anyone where I am or that I have it!” Isla says and backs up ever further pulling something from her pocket.
“Looks like I’m not the only bad cat in the family,” Neko snorts as I glare at him.
“Sorry Isla. We can leave,” I lie, frantically trying to come up with a plan. I look at Neko and see his brow is furrowed so maybe he's thinking about something too.
“Well hope you have a nice life,” Neko says and turns around and walks down the stairs. I stumble after him.
“We need that map,” I hiss at him. He holds up a paw, squats down and lays on the stairs out of sight. I do the same.
“What are you doing?” I whisper. He just puts his paw to his mouth. I peek up the stairs and see Isla sitting on a stone block taking a something from her pocket. It's a rolled up tube of paper.
“That's the map,” I whisper to Neko.
“Oh would you be quiet!” He whispers harshly back. He turns and faces Isla, pushes his legs onto the floor and suddenly leaps and goes flying through the air right onto Isla. She screams. I jump up and sprint across the floor. I snatch up the map and shove it in my jacket. Neko and Isla are growling at each other as they roll around on the floor. Isla pushing her hind legs into Neko’s stomach. He sails towards me and grab him out of the air.
“Nice catch,” he wheezes. I tuck him under my arm and run down the stairs. The force of me hitting the stairs makes them start to crumble and shake under me. Just as I get to the ground floor the stairs collapse into a pile of dust behind me. I shove the big door open and run into the street quickly drawing attention to myself.
“Stop! Someone stop them! They have the Alien’s Map!” Isla’s small voice yells behind us. I pump my arms and legs and run down city blocks as Neko shouts directions in my ear. We make it to the elevator and then to the docks. The elevator doors close just as a group of policemen reach us. The elevator crawls up slowly. I drop Neko as the doors open at the top and we run to my big blue ship. The wooden docks sway as we run. We reach the ship and I quickly go below deck to the control room. I hit the controls and drive the ship out of the sky dock at full speed. I collapse on a chair as we glide out of New York.
“Geez, we got our workout done for today,” Neko says beside me, “Now lets see that map.” I pull the map from my jacket and see that it's not really that fancy. It's made of old parchment paper with two knobs of gold on the top and bottom of the tube. I slowly unroll it and see it has only a few small words printed on it. It reads: Hello, what would you like to see today?
“Show me where my father is, Ivan Verne,” I say to it. It doesn't do anything for a minute.
“I think it's broken,” Neko whispers. Them suddenly a black and white photo appears on the paper. It shows a huge, tall, oddly shaped building. There is a small arrow pointing to part of the top of the building and next it it says Papa’s name. In the left corner of the paper it has an address. I type the address into the computer on the table, twist a few knobs and the ship is now pointed at the alien’s home base. I'm going to save Papa.
“Well we are very lost,” Neko says, I look over at him. He has his feet propped up and his eyes closed.
“Would you like me to play some music?” Juno asks from her perch on the ship's control panel.
“No, please, Juno. Your music taste is awful,” Neko grunts. Then he lifts an eyelid to look at me, “You know we are off the grid, and the ship is just floating around. We aren't going anywhere,”
“Yes we are! I told you the address is just off the human map, but I’m positive there is something out here,” I say focusing on the glass window in front of me. I look out into the foggy darkness, searching for signs of life.
Another two hours pass. Neko is asleep. I’m starting to drift off myself, my eyes are drooping. Maybe if I just close them for a few minutes it won't do any harm. So I close my eyes, and fall into a dreamless sleep.
I wake to a bright light streaming through the window. I jerk awake and see that we are still floating in the sky but now the sun is slowly rising and there are four new ships in front of us.
“Neko, Neko!” I say and shake him awake.
“What is it, I’m sleepy,” He says and slowly opens his eyes, but when he realizes what we are looking at he jumps.
“Is that the alien?”
“I don't know. Should we get out of here?” I ask.
“Let me see the new ships,” Juno says in her little robotic voice.
“I swear her eyes are only painted on,” Neko whispers to me,
“I painted them myself, of course they're fake,” I respond. We look at Juno as she slowly gets to her feet and shifts around so she is facing the big window.
“Yes, I believe those are the alien ships, they are equipped with seven different weapons,” Juno says.
“How can she see them?” I say still puzzled.
“Who cares!? We have to get out of here! Those things are going to kill us!” Neko yells and jumps up to the control board and starts hitting switches.
“Wait! No stop!” I say and push him off, “We have to get on that ship so we can find my Papa and destroy the aliens. We need to kick them back where they came from!”
Neko crosses his short arms, “And how are you going to do that?”
“Well, I um-” I start to say but am interrupted by Juno.
“Surrender now! We will take you aboard our ship as prisoners. Put down all your weapons,” The voice does not sound like Juno’s but sounds like a gruff male voice.
“Who is speaking? How did you get into Juno?” I yell.
“We have hacked into your speaking unit. Please put down your weapons. We will take you aboard our ship,” the male's voice says from Juno. Out the window two of the ships move towards ours.
“Let's get out of here quick!” I say and start grabbing the controls and turning the ship around, but it moves too slowly. The two alien ships are on top of us. They stop the ship from moving and I hear a thud above us.
“Marti! What do we do?” Neko yells frantically.
“I don't know!” My stomach drops, I’ve led my new friend into a trap that will get us all killed.
I hear footsteps thundering through the ship and two figures in all black outfits burst into the room. I scream and back up against the wall. The two people grab me and pull me through the ship. I hear Neko meowing behind me. I struggle but the the people have an iron grip.
“Let me go!” I yell and kick. They pull us aboard their ships, which are fancy and clean and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. They pull me and Neko into a room made of mostly glass and the skyline spreads out before us. There’s a beautiful man lounging on a throne. And beside him kneeling on the floor is… Papa.
“Papa!” I scream, but he doesn't seem to hear me.
“Hello, little creatures,” the man on the throne says, “Tell me what you what you were doing in this area,”
“I was coming to save my father,” I say and breathe heavily.
“Oh were you now?” The man says and strokes his chin. “Give me back what you stole from me and maybe I will help you,”
“I didn't steal anything! You stole Papa from me!” I yell.
“Marti, he's talking about the map, and-and my boots,” Neko says quietly from behind me.
“What?! You stole your fancy boots from these people?” I yell outraged.
“Oh Marti please calm yourself,” the man says. “Guards, take the boots and search the ship for the map,” Two more guards walk up to Neko and start ripping the boots off. Neko meows in pain.
“Stop hurting him!” I yell and struggle against the arms of the guards.
“Marti, it doesn't matter if they hurt him a little, you're both going to die anyway.
“What!?” I turn at look at the man.
“You know too much about us. We have to kill you, unless you can give us valuable information,” he says and raises an eyebrow.
“I have no information to give you. If I did, then I wouldn't tell you anyway,” I say.
“Tell me how you made your ship. We need that information to help advance our knowledge so we can destroy more annoying planets like this one,” The man says and leans forward to look at me closer.
“No - I will never tell you anything. I'm going to save our planet,” I whisper.
The man throws his head back and laughs, “Oh that's funny! Guards! She is not cooperating, so... kill her father. He is of no use to me anymore.” With a flick of the man's wrist one of the guards steps towards Papa. He takes a light gun and points it at Papa’s head.
“NO! STOP!” I scream. The gun clicks.
To be continued
The Adventure of Marti
I wiggle my fingers, hoping I can get some feeling back into them. I puff out a breath that turns into a little cloud. I brush back my dark red hair with my arm. I feel a trickle of sweat down the back of my neck.
“How's it going down there Marti?” I hear Papa’s booming voice. I adjust my grip on the window ledge I'm crouching on. I tilt my head to look up the side of our cruise ship. I squint into the light of a lantern.
“Good! I'm almost done fixing the circuit!” I shout upwards.
“Wonderful! Shout when you're ready to come up!” Papa yells down to me. I nod and look down at the circuit I'm trying to fix. As I inspect the broken cords I realize that it looks as if an animal had been gnawing at it. Puzzled, I wrap some sticky paper around the cords to hold them together. I shut the little box containing the cords just as the lights inside the ship flicker on. I hear muffled shouts of happiness from inside. I smile to myself as I put my tools into the various pockets of my jacket. I turn away from the window and throw my feet over the side of the ledge and dangle them. I look out over the smoke clouds. A pale pink explodes across the sky as the big orange sun peeks out over the grey clouds. The sunlight shines brightly off the blue paint on our ship. I frown wishing I could see what the skies looked like before the aliens and smoke clouds blew in. I turn away from the sky and reach over for the rope. I grab it and pull myself up to the main deck. I throw a foot over the railing, jump down and land with a smack on the wooden floor.
“Marti! Great job, thanks for helping us out,” Papa says and slaps my shoulder.
“Yes, thank you sweets. Now I can finally start making breakfast before the guests wake up,” Cook says, and she gives me a smile. I smile back and turn towards the stairs that go below deck. I jump down and tiptoe across the creaky floor hoping to not wake any of the guests. I slip into the small room at the end of the hall. My room is small, with a bed pushed up against the left wall, my covers sprawled in a mess across the mattress. To my right there's a little round window and below that is my work table with screws and tools strewn across it. I sit down on the small stool and pick up my newest project, a little wind up girl to keep me company. There's no one my age on the ship except for Tommy the Cook's son but he talks too much and stands too close to me which bothers me. I sigh and stand and look across my bed at the broken mirror. I look at my red hair pulled into messy braids and my soot covered face. I rub the back of my hand across my cheeks. I look again in the mirror and see my piercing green eye twinkling in the sun. My other eye is brown and cloudy, it's harder to see out of that one. I unbuckle my goggles and shift them off my head. My hair puffs up. I shrug off my jacket and set in on my dresser. I fall onto my bed, prop my feet on the wall and cradle the back of my neck with my hands. Just as I close my eyes, ready to fall into a nice nap, I hear a scraping sound above me that makes the hairs on my arms stand up straight. I crack open an eyelid. Maybe it was just Tommy pulling chairs across the deck. I close my eyes and yawn. Then there’s the scraping sound again followed by a thud that makes the floorboards creak heavily, then I hear shouts, yelling as if the world is suddenly on fire. I jump up and fly out the door and down the hallway, guests peeking their heads out of their rooms, faces frightened. I smile at them and continue running up the stairs. The rising sun blinds me for a second and I stumble. When I gain eyesight again I see Tommy laying on the the floor with a bloody cut on the side of his head. I gasp. I look around for help and see two people in black cloaks that definitely aren’t guests on our cruise.
“Hey! Who are you?” I yell to them. They turn slowly towards me. In between them Papa is dangling lifelessly. I let out a quiet scream. Suddenly my tongue feels like sandpaper.
“The real question is... who are you?” I look up at the people holding Papa. I'm taken aback at the looks of these people. They have perfect faces, nothing different or out of place and they are oddly tall.
“I-I’m Marti” I stutter.
“Well, peasant Marti, we are borrowing this man for a few months but he will be back,” they turn quickly and walk to the edge of the ship, hop over the railing and jump. I rush over to where they were standing and look over the edge. Far below I see them floating off into the fog.
“Papa!” I scream down at them. I turn around and run my hands through my hair. I see Cook kneeling over Tommy, her shoulders shaking. I run over.
“Is he okay?” I ask and put my hand on Cook’s shoulder to comfort her. She shakes it off and looks at me.
“He’s breathing but badly hurt, I need to get him to a hospital,” she says and starts to pick him up. “ I knew something would happen if I started working with your father, he spells trouble,” Cook says as she walks away.
“Wait, Cook!” I yell after her, “what do you mean he's trouble?” Cook turns to look at me, her eyes narrow.
“A long time ago your father,” She jerks her chin at the sky, “he worked for them aliens, he helped them, until they killed your mother. I bet they're here to kill him too,” she says and turns to walk away. “And Marti? I'm turning this ship around and we are taking it back to New York,” she says and disappears into the cockpit. Confused and scared I turn to go back to my room to make a plan to save him, but my path is blocked by all the guests. Their mouths are hanging open.
“This ship is crazy and dangerous!” An older woman yells.
“No please-” I start to say but am interrupted by a man.
“Yes! She’s right, take us back to New York!”
“We can't be involved with anyone who knows those-those aliens,” a young man says and wraps an arm around a woman.
“Please, it's alright! Nothing bad has happened” I lie.
“What are you saying!? The captain and the servant boy were just hurt badly, you think we want to stay on this cruise?” An old man with a cane shouts.
I hang my head. “Yes, I suppose you're right, we will give you all refunds,” I say to them as they disappear into their rooms. I run back to my room and collapse on the bed sobbing.
The next few days are difficult, I'm on the verge of tears the whole time. All the guests have left including the staff. I’m now alone on a huge ship in the port of the New York Sky Bay. I’m laying stomach down in the middle of the deck when I hear a strange sound underneath me. I press an ear to the floor and hear something scratching down below. Is it the aliens? Are they back? I jump up and tiptoe down the stairs. On my way down I grab a loose piece of plywood. The sound gets louder. It's coming from the storage room. I slowly twist the doorknob with one hand while with the other I raise the plywood high. The noise stops. I swing the door open and jump in. But there's no one there. Puzzled I look around the piles of old equipment and boxes. Then at the back of the room I see it. A cat. But he's dressed oddly, he wears a workers uniform with a cloak on and some strange boots. He presses up against the back wall with his eyes wide.
“Ugh! What are you doing here!?” I yell and march towards him. He jumps quickly on a tower of boxes.
“Hey!” I lunge at him and drop the plywood but grab him around the middle. He meows and meows.
“Oh be quiet. You must have been the critter who was eating through all our electrical wires,” I say to him and take him out of the room. He doesn't stop meowing. He raises his paw like he's going to hit me but then hits the pin on his little jacket instead.
“Don't hurt me!” He says. I scream and drop him.
“Oh my gosh! You can talk!” I say surprised. He lands on the ground, pushes himself up on his hind legs and stands up like any human would. He brushes his jacket off and pats the top of his head.
“Yes I can and that was very rude of you to drop me,” he says in a high pitched voice.
“But-but how can you talk?” I look down at him puzzled.
He points his paw at the pin on his jacket, “This is an Opax, it's translates what I’m saying to your language,”
“Wow, okay, that's strange. I’ve never heard of it,” I say as I squat down to get a better look at it.
“Of course you haven't, I made it myself,” he brags.
“That’s awesome,” I say then realize that this cat is on my ship without permission. “Hold on cat, why and how did you get on my ship?”
“Oh, um, I, was just looking for my top hat,” The cat says.
“What? Well get off my ship!” I say and move to grab him again.
“Wait! No please! I can work for you!” he says
“I don't need help,”
“Yes you do, your ship is empty and your father just got taken by the big bad aliens,”
“Fine! Fine, how can you help me?” I ask.
“Hm, let's see,” he says and rubs his paws together.
“I can give you my fancy boots, they're called All Terrain Boots, ‘cause they can walk on any material. I walked over lava once wearing these.” he says and smiles at me
“I don't want those but that's cool. Wait! Can you help me get my dad back?” I ask.
“Well, no. Sorry but the aliens scare the fur off me,” he says and shivers.
“Please, I need to save him! These aliens are ruining my life! They killed my mother,” I plead.
“Little girl, they're ruining a lot of people's lives, not just yours,” the cat says and points his paw in my face.
“You're right,” I say and sit cross legged on the floor to think. I look up at the cat and see he's pulled something out of his jacket and is messing with it. I squint at the object, I feel like I recognize it.
“Where did you get that?” I ask pointing at it.
“Oh this thing? I pick-pocketed one of the guests on your ship,” he shrugs.
“Can I see it?” I ask. The cat nods and throws it over to me. I catch it and take a closer look.
“Wow! This is just what I need!” I jump up and run to my room.
“Hey! Wait! What is it?” The cat says from behind me.
I push open the door to my room and rush over to my work desk. I pick up the little wind up girl I'm working on and use a screwdriver to open her back panel.
“What are you doing?” I look to my left and see the cat has jumped up on my work table and is looking at what I'm doing.
“This piece you stole is a rare device that holds the intelligence of a dictionary, or a person. I was trying to figure out how to make one or buy one but they are super expensive. Now if I can just put it in right we can have a little walking, talking dictionary,” I explain to him.
“Well first of all you're doing it wrong. Here, let me try,” he says and reaches over and takes the doll from my hands. In under a minute he puts the device in the doll and slowly winds her up, setting her softly on the table. We wait a quiet minute, holding our breath to see if it will work. Slowly the little doll turns her head to the left then the right. I smile. She then bends herself into a standing position. She turns her little painted eyes to look at me and the cat. She opens her small mechanic mouth and says,
“Hello, my name is… Juno,”
“We did it!” I say excitedly and look at the cat. He holds out his paw.
“Well done partner,” he meows with a little smile, “My name is Neko,” I shake his little paw.
“Nice to meet you, my name’s Marti,”
It's been a day, and I’m worried about Papa. I hope he's okay and I know I need to save him soon. I'm wandering around the ship with Juno sitting in my palm, asking about our ship and seeing if she can tell me things about it. So far she's just telling me that the ship is very dusty. I'll have to work on that. We've just made it to the kitchen when I hear a crash. I run over and look inside. A bunch of the pots are on the floor, and Neko crawls out from underneath them.
“What are you doing in here?” I ask and start picking the pots up.
“Well, I was looking for my top hat,” he says. Then I hear a low grumble. I look over at Neko and he's looking at his stomach.
“Oh you're hungry,” I say.
“Yes just a little, I haven't eaten in a few days,” he says and massages his stomach.
“Geez! Here, let me make you some toast and cheese,” I say and turn to the refrigerator. I set Juno on the counter and start cutting some bread. When I set a plate of three pieces of toast and some cheese in front of Neko he happily starts scarfing it down.
“So Neko. Do you remember when you told me you would help me save my Papa?” I ask him.
Neko looks up at me and squints his eyes at me.
“Yes,” he mumbles.
“Well, can you help me make a plan to break into the main base?” I wonder.
“No, because nobody even knows where any of the bases are,” he grumbles.
“Actually, Neko, there is one man who has a map. The map is called Map of The Hidden actually, but it shows where all the alien bases are. The man who has it lives in 32nd street in New York City,” Juno says from across the room. Neko stops eating and slowly we turn to face Juno.
“How do you know that Juno?” I ask.
“My old master uploaded that information into my system,” Juno responds.
“Well that's definitely helpful!” Neko says excitedly, “We can just go find this guy!”
“Great, thanks Juno. Let's go find him!” I say and stand up.
“Wait! I want to finish-” Neko starts to say but I scoop him and Juno up as I run out the door.
“Darn it! I wanted to finish my food,” he pouts.
“Sorry, we can't waste any time. Who knows what those crazy aliens could be doing to Papa,” I say and rush to the exit of the ship. I lock the door behind me. Neko jumps from my arms and stands on his hind legs.
“I would look so much better if I had my top hat,” he whines. I roll my eyes and slip Juno into a pocket on my jacket.
We walk along the the wooden dock. I look over the edge and see below us the city. When we reach the elevator, we step inside joining a older man who eyes us suspiciously. The elevator rattles loudly as we slowly inch our way down to city level. The doors creak open revealing the dark city streets of New York. It's only one in the afternoon but the street lights have been turned on and cast eerie shadows across the streets. Neko walks out of the elevator and starts trotting down the street. The people walking around are wearing big dresses with ruffles and jackets with lots of decoration on them both men and women are wearing top hats.
“C'mon! 32nd street is this way!” he yells over his shoulder at me as I run to catch up with him.
We weave our way through the streets for at least an hour. People start looking at Neko like he’s crazy. I start to wonder why Juno is so sure that this guy lives in New York, or if he exists at all.
“Juno, where on 32nd street does this man live?” I ask her.
“He lives in the abandoned factory at the end of the street” she answers quickly.
“There it is!” Neko points down the street, I squint and see what looks like an old abandoned building. We walk over to it and see a large padlock on the front door. I open a pocket on my jacket and take out a thin piece of wire, I hand it to Neko and he shoves it in the lock on the door and after a minute, the lock pops open. I push the door slowly open. It’s mostly dark inside, except for a hole in the roof that lets in soft grey light. I creep inside slowly, not sure if this man is nice, or if he is even here. Neko walks in after me looking around. I see broken wooden stairs on one side of the room. I walk over and carefully walk up the stairs, hoping they won't break underneath me. On the second floor it looks as if someone has been here. There's a pile of blankets and computers sprawled in the corner.
“This place smells familiar,” Neko whispers from behind me. Before I can respond a voice echoes across the factory.
“Who are you?!”
I whirl around and look across the room and see a short silhouette in the shadows.
“Oh geez, I know who it is,” Neko whispers, then louder he says, “Isla, it's me, Neko, and my friend Marti,”
“Neko, I thought you were dead?” Isla says and steps slowly towards us. I notice she has The Opax on her little jacket, just like Neko’s.
“Well, surprise, surprise, I'm not. Nice to see you too,” Neko says sarcastically.
As Isla emerges I see that she’s a cat and looks similar to Neko.
“Wow, is that your sister?” I ask Neko.
“No, I'm his cousin, and we do not get along,” Isla responds to my question.
“Well, we just didn't think the same way,” Neko say.
“No, our family doesn't like you, you ruin everything and are always getting in trouble,” Isla glares at Neko.
“Okay, okay,” Neko says and puts his paws in the air like he's surrendering, then he looks at me, “Last time I was home I burnt down the house and then they kicked me out and I’ve been ship hitching since then,”
Isla rolls her eyes, “Anyway, why are you here?”
“Well, a little birdy told us that you had a special map and we were wondering if we could borrow it for a day or two?” I ask.
“What? How do you know I have that? No one knows that.” she says, backing away from us.
“Please, Isla can we borrow it?” Neko says stepping toward her as she jumps back.
“No! Never! How did you even find me?” she hisses at us, “Haven't you heard what people are saying on the streets?”
“No, we've been in New York for only a day,” I say, a little confused now.
“I'm a fugitive because I stole The Map Of The Hidden, and it was kind of an accident too, so please leave and don't tell anyone where I am or that I have it!” Isla says and backs up ever further pulling something from her pocket.
“Looks like I’m not the only bad cat in the family,” Neko snorts as I glare at him.
“Sorry Isla. We can leave,” I lie, frantically trying to come up with a plan. I look at Neko and see his brow is furrowed so maybe he's thinking about something too.
“Well hope you have a nice life,” Neko says and turns around and walks down the stairs. I stumble after him.
“We need that map,” I hiss at him. He holds up a paw, squats down and lays on the stairs out of sight. I do the same.
“What are you doing?” I whisper. He just puts his paw to his mouth. I peek up the stairs and see Isla sitting on a stone block taking a something from her pocket. It's a rolled up tube of paper.
“That's the map,” I whisper to Neko.
“Oh would you be quiet!” He whispers harshly back. He turns and faces Isla, pushes his legs onto the floor and suddenly leaps and goes flying through the air right onto Isla. She screams. I jump up and sprint across the floor. I snatch up the map and shove it in my jacket. Neko and Isla are growling at each other as they roll around on the floor. Isla pushing her hind legs into Neko’s stomach. He sails towards me and grab him out of the air.
“Nice catch,” he wheezes. I tuck him under my arm and run down the stairs. The force of me hitting the stairs makes them start to crumble and shake under me. Just as I get to the ground floor the stairs collapse into a pile of dust behind me. I shove the big door open and run into the street quickly drawing attention to myself.
“Stop! Someone stop them! They have the Alien’s Map!” Isla’s small voice yells behind us. I pump my arms and legs and run down city blocks as Neko shouts directions in my ear. We make it to the elevator and then to the docks. The elevator doors close just as a group of policemen reach us. The elevator crawls up slowly. I drop Neko as the doors open at the top and we run to my big blue ship. The wooden docks sway as we run. We reach the ship and I quickly go below deck to the control room. I hit the controls and drive the ship out of the sky dock at full speed. I collapse on a chair as we glide out of New York.
“Geez, we got our workout done for today,” Neko says beside me, “Now lets see that map.” I pull the map from my jacket and see that it's not really that fancy. It's made of old parchment paper with two knobs of gold on the top and bottom of the tube. I slowly unroll it and see it has only a few small words printed on it. It reads: Hello, what would you like to see today?
“Show me where my father is, Ivan Verne,” I say to it. It doesn't do anything for a minute.
“I think it's broken,” Neko whispers. Them suddenly a black and white photo appears on the paper. It shows a huge, tall, oddly shaped building. There is a small arrow pointing to part of the top of the building and next it it says Papa’s name. In the left corner of the paper it has an address. I type the address into the computer on the table, twist a few knobs and the ship is now pointed at the alien’s home base. I'm going to save Papa.
“Well we are very lost,” Neko says, I look over at him. He has his feet propped up and his eyes closed.
“Would you like me to play some music?” Juno asks from her perch on the ship's control panel.
“No, please, Juno. Your music taste is awful,” Neko grunts. Then he lifts an eyelid to look at me, “You know we are off the grid, and the ship is just floating around. We aren't going anywhere,”
“Yes we are! I told you the address is just off the human map, but I’m positive there is something out here,” I say focusing on the glass window in front of me. I look out into the foggy darkness, searching for signs of life.
Another two hours pass. Neko is asleep. I’m starting to drift off myself, my eyes are drooping. Maybe if I just close them for a few minutes it won't do any harm. So I close my eyes, and fall into a dreamless sleep.
I wake to a bright light streaming through the window. I jerk awake and see that we are still floating in the sky but now the sun is slowly rising and there are four new ships in front of us.
“Neko, Neko!” I say and shake him awake.
“What is it, I’m sleepy,” He says and slowly opens his eyes, but when he realizes what we are looking at he jumps.
“Is that the alien?”
“I don't know. Should we get out of here?” I ask.
“Let me see the new ships,” Juno says in her little robotic voice.
“I swear her eyes are only painted on,” Neko whispers to me,
“I painted them myself, of course they're fake,” I respond. We look at Juno as she slowly gets to her feet and shifts around so she is facing the big window.
“Yes, I believe those are the alien ships, they are equipped with seven different weapons,” Juno says.
“How can she see them?” I say still puzzled.
“Who cares!? We have to get out of here! Those things are going to kill us!” Neko yells and jumps up to the control board and starts hitting switches.
“Wait! No stop!” I say and push him off, “We have to get on that ship so we can find my Papa and destroy the aliens. We need to kick them back where they came from!”
Neko crosses his short arms, “And how are you going to do that?”
“Well, I um-” I start to say but am interrupted by Juno.
“Surrender now! We will take you aboard our ship as prisoners. Put down all your weapons,” The voice does not sound like Juno’s but sounds like a gruff male voice.
“Who is speaking? How did you get into Juno?” I yell.
“We have hacked into your speaking unit. Please put down your weapons. We will take you aboard our ship,” the male's voice says from Juno. Out the window two of the ships move towards ours.
“Let's get out of here quick!” I say and start grabbing the controls and turning the ship around, but it moves too slowly. The two alien ships are on top of us. They stop the ship from moving and I hear a thud above us.
“Marti! What do we do?” Neko yells frantically.
“I don't know!” My stomach drops, I’ve led my new friend into a trap that will get us all killed.
I hear footsteps thundering through the ship and two figures in all black outfits burst into the room. I scream and back up against the wall. The two people grab me and pull me through the ship. I hear Neko meowing behind me. I struggle but the the people have an iron grip.
“Let me go!” I yell and kick. They pull us aboard their ships, which are fancy and clean and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. They pull me and Neko into a room made of mostly glass and the skyline spreads out before us. There’s a beautiful man lounging on a throne. And beside him kneeling on the floor is… Papa.
“Papa!” I scream, but he doesn't seem to hear me.
“Hello, little creatures,” the man on the throne says, “Tell me what you what you were doing in this area,”
“I was coming to save my father,” I say and breathe heavily.
“Oh were you now?” The man says and strokes his chin. “Give me back what you stole from me and maybe I will help you,”
“I didn't steal anything! You stole Papa from me!” I yell.
“Marti, he's talking about the map, and-and my boots,” Neko says quietly from behind me.
“What?! You stole your fancy boots from these people?” I yell outraged.
“Oh Marti please calm yourself,” the man says. “Guards, take the boots and search the ship for the map,” Two more guards walk up to Neko and start ripping the boots off. Neko meows in pain.
“Stop hurting him!” I yell and struggle against the arms of the guards.
“Marti, it doesn't matter if they hurt him a little, you're both going to die anyway.
“What!?” I turn at look at the man.
“You know too much about us. We have to kill you, unless you can give us valuable information,” he says and raises an eyebrow.
“I have no information to give you. If I did, then I wouldn't tell you anyway,” I say.
“Tell me how you made your ship. We need that information to help advance our knowledge so we can destroy more annoying planets like this one,” The man says and leans forward to look at me closer.
“No - I will never tell you anything. I'm going to save our planet,” I whisper.
The man throws his head back and laughs, “Oh that's funny! Guards! She is not cooperating, so... kill her father. He is of no use to me anymore.” With a flick of the man's wrist one of the guards steps towards Papa. He takes a light gun and points it at Papa’s head.
“NO! STOP!” I scream. The gun clicks.
To be continued
Once upon a time in Aggland, a small, remote island off of the Western coast of the United States that contained a very rare breed of an animal human hybrid, there lived two best friends named Agus and Agasa. They seemed inseparable, as they did everything together. They went to school together, read books together, and invented interesting machines together. It seemed there was no end to their companionship. Eventually Agus proposed to Agasa, and she happily agreed. They got married in the Kingdom where they built machines for the King and Queen. A few weeks after the wedding, Agasa was informed she was impregnated. Nine months later, Agasa gave birth to three beautiful children, Flagu, Flagus, and Flagie. Two boys and a girl, just as they had both wanted. Life seemed perfect, as if it couldn’t get any better. Agus and Agasa had the jobs of their dreams, the house of their dreams, and the children of their dreams. On the 1st birthday of their three children, an alien race swooped down
And swiped up Flagu, Flagus, and Flagie’s parents. The alien’s felt that they could benefit from the high intellect of Agus and Agasa. The three triplets then had to fight for their lives in order to survive.
Fifteen years later-
The three triplets had finally mastered life on their own. They had become child prodigies at engineering and mathematics. Like their parents, they invented every chance they got. After their parents were taken, all their old inventions disappeared with them. The only one that was left behind was the airship; the S.S Q.A.J.J.T.K. (Quad-JA-ka-ta). This ship was named after their six holy ancestors, Qaugus, Agie, Jagus, Jagie, Tagus, Kagie. The airship was only partially completed so it was up to the triplets to finish masterpiece.
One day, when Flagus was putting the final touches on the propellers of the airship, he realized how overwhelmed he was by his loneliness. He had grown to become very sick of his siblings, as they were the only friends he had ever known. He began to wonder, what ever happened to the other survivors that hadn’t been snatched up on that sorrow filled day. He then wondered why they were even spending their lives completing the airship? Then a genius idea struck him. What if they used the ship to hunt for the remnants of their nearly extinct race?
Flagus proposed the idea to his siblings and although they were skeptical at first, after some convincing, they very happily agreed.
Within three months, they were able to complete the airship, although they definitely rushed. They failed to add multiple windows, so the inside was rather dark. Even though they wanted a deck on the airship, they just didn’t have the time frame. They were too worried that there could be more of their species dying the longer that they waited.
They had agreed that Flagie would captain the ship, Flagu would serve as the lookout, and Flagus would be the repair man that was stationed in the engine room.
Their system worked smoothly, and they all got along well.
Flagus, Flagie, and Flagu went on to rescue the reminisce of their species. They collected all of the survivors and were able to start a hospital for all of the wounded and an orphanage for all the parentless.
https://spark.adobe.com/page/r2LpbtIRktWG6/
And swiped up Flagu, Flagus, and Flagie’s parents. The alien’s felt that they could benefit from the high intellect of Agus and Agasa. The three triplets then had to fight for their lives in order to survive.
Fifteen years later-
The three triplets had finally mastered life on their own. They had become child prodigies at engineering and mathematics. Like their parents, they invented every chance they got. After their parents were taken, all their old inventions disappeared with them. The only one that was left behind was the airship; the S.S Q.A.J.J.T.K. (Quad-JA-ka-ta). This ship was named after their six holy ancestors, Qaugus, Agie, Jagus, Jagie, Tagus, Kagie. The airship was only partially completed so it was up to the triplets to finish masterpiece.
One day, when Flagus was putting the final touches on the propellers of the airship, he realized how overwhelmed he was by his loneliness. He had grown to become very sick of his siblings, as they were the only friends he had ever known. He began to wonder, what ever happened to the other survivors that hadn’t been snatched up on that sorrow filled day. He then wondered why they were even spending their lives completing the airship? Then a genius idea struck him. What if they used the ship to hunt for the remnants of their nearly extinct race?
Flagus proposed the idea to his siblings and although they were skeptical at first, after some convincing, they very happily agreed.
Within three months, they were able to complete the airship, although they definitely rushed. They failed to add multiple windows, so the inside was rather dark. Even though they wanted a deck on the airship, they just didn’t have the time frame. They were too worried that there could be more of their species dying the longer that they waited.
They had agreed that Flagie would captain the ship, Flagu would serve as the lookout, and Flagus would be the repair man that was stationed in the engine room.
Their system worked smoothly, and they all got along well.
Flagus, Flagie, and Flagu went on to rescue the reminisce of their species. They collected all of the survivors and were able to start a hospital for all of the wounded and an orphanage for all the parentless.
https://spark.adobe.com/page/r2LpbtIRktWG6/
S.S. Tokyo
The story takes place on Earth after a nuclear war rendered Earth’s surface useless. Recently, scientific research said that humanity could return to the surface. Technology was set back during the war’s destruction, and Japan is now at the head of the resulting technological race. Centering in Tokyo, Japan, William Ian George III is building an empire with a fleet of airships. This is different from the war we experience in real-life, but Japan’s advancements in certain fields made them the cheapest and most effective option. The U.S. emerged as a rival, but they ultimately do not have the firepower to stand Japan. William III has not entered war against them because of the inherent costs and damage it would inflict.
William III is the Supreme Ruler of Japan and often visits Japan’s various colonies and territory in East Asia in a royal airship of his own. It is named the S.S. Tokyo, after its city of origin and the nation’s capital. It is staffed with a wide range of personnel including radiation scientists and soldiers. The leader of the soldiers aboard the S.S. Tokyo is General Guillaume, a surprisingly young military leader known for his strategic brilliance and prowess as a swordsman and marksman. Although he carries a shortsword with him, it is known that he uses a revolver reminiscent of Colt revolvers in the late 1800s in times of battle. Some areas still are filled with radiation, so a team of scientists led by Samuel Tesla predict where contamination can be found and also conduct tests in suits when the ship lands before any other crew members exit.
To learn of its beginnings, we will need to rewind to a time before the S.S. Tokyo’s existence. When the world retreated underground, descendants of Japan’s previous emperors still lead the people and ruled. About one hundred years after the return to the surface, William III took power. He was only nineteen when this happened, as his father had died from cancer at a relatively young age. Airships had recently become widely used, and one of the first ideas the young emperor had was to build himself a royal airship that would be relatively small and mostly used for travel. He enlisted the top engineers and designers for its construction. It features a massive steel construction painted in dark copper, two large cylinders for releasing steam, and two propellers at its rear. The wings stretch outwards, supported by diagonal beams coming from the ship’s side. The edges of the ship’s faces are layered with a thin coat of gold, and the deck and gears are made of bronze. Several devices are onboard the Tokyo, some of them being the Bolt Converter Mk. 2, the Bi-Scope, and the Double-Barrelled Cannon. The Bolt Converter is a device brought out during storms, having the ability to convert lightning into extra power for the ship’s device. The Bi-Scope is a device used to see objects or places too far away for the human eye. It can be looked into from the back, and has a handle and a variety of buttons for its operation. Finally, the Double-Barrelled Cannon is a device used for the airship’s defense. It uses gunpowder to propel cannon balls at any would-be airship pirates. The S.S. Tokyo’s construction took a few years, and by the end of it William III was in his early twenties. Much of this was due to the precise design aimed to make the interior and exterior be lavish and pretty.
After the airship was ready in the harbor, he decided to choose fellow young men for leadership positions while traveling. Guillaume had gained some buzz for unprecedented promotion to General at the age of only twenty-one and became William III’s right hand man in the fight for conquest. While they would only be needed when William III wanted to do some traveling, he also enlisted some strong fighters to join him whenever he ventured overseas. Although mainland Japan had been cleared of any radiation, some land was known to still be harmful. Because of this, William enlisted top scientist and inventor Samuel Tesla who had only graduated from college a few years ago but had already made important improvements to the equipment used by scientists in his field.
Early in William III’s rule, new territory in China was taken and the Japanese Empire was spreading West. A reasonable idea that the Japanese came up with was to set up a city in China that would almost serve as a second capital, a place for Japan to watch over their new territory. During this period, the S.S. Tokyo came under more use than ever before. William III would often venture into China to meet with the governors he had put in charge of state-like districts. These meetings were relatively quick, and he spent much of his time in China observing how smoothly the new rule was functioning. When in the air, the S.S. Tokyo is surrounded by other Japanese airships for safety reasons. These airships are larger an armed with many more cannons. This is largely due to the interesting development of airborne pirates after airships became popular.
William III will most likely rule to the age of eighty or beyond, supported by his close friends and collaborators. The future for Japan looks bright, and its growth has been steady so far. Even after William III is long gone, the S.S. Tokyo will surely stand as a relic to a time of exceptional growth and change.
https://spark.adobe.com/page/TPYtHNQRkXT32/
The story takes place on Earth after a nuclear war rendered Earth’s surface useless. Recently, scientific research said that humanity could return to the surface. Technology was set back during the war’s destruction, and Japan is now at the head of the resulting technological race. Centering in Tokyo, Japan, William Ian George III is building an empire with a fleet of airships. This is different from the war we experience in real-life, but Japan’s advancements in certain fields made them the cheapest and most effective option. The U.S. emerged as a rival, but they ultimately do not have the firepower to stand Japan. William III has not entered war against them because of the inherent costs and damage it would inflict.
William III is the Supreme Ruler of Japan and often visits Japan’s various colonies and territory in East Asia in a royal airship of his own. It is named the S.S. Tokyo, after its city of origin and the nation’s capital. It is staffed with a wide range of personnel including radiation scientists and soldiers. The leader of the soldiers aboard the S.S. Tokyo is General Guillaume, a surprisingly young military leader known for his strategic brilliance and prowess as a swordsman and marksman. Although he carries a shortsword with him, it is known that he uses a revolver reminiscent of Colt revolvers in the late 1800s in times of battle. Some areas still are filled with radiation, so a team of scientists led by Samuel Tesla predict where contamination can be found and also conduct tests in suits when the ship lands before any other crew members exit.
To learn of its beginnings, we will need to rewind to a time before the S.S. Tokyo’s existence. When the world retreated underground, descendants of Japan’s previous emperors still lead the people and ruled. About one hundred years after the return to the surface, William III took power. He was only nineteen when this happened, as his father had died from cancer at a relatively young age. Airships had recently become widely used, and one of the first ideas the young emperor had was to build himself a royal airship that would be relatively small and mostly used for travel. He enlisted the top engineers and designers for its construction. It features a massive steel construction painted in dark copper, two large cylinders for releasing steam, and two propellers at its rear. The wings stretch outwards, supported by diagonal beams coming from the ship’s side. The edges of the ship’s faces are layered with a thin coat of gold, and the deck and gears are made of bronze. Several devices are onboard the Tokyo, some of them being the Bolt Converter Mk. 2, the Bi-Scope, and the Double-Barrelled Cannon. The Bolt Converter is a device brought out during storms, having the ability to convert lightning into extra power for the ship’s device. The Bi-Scope is a device used to see objects or places too far away for the human eye. It can be looked into from the back, and has a handle and a variety of buttons for its operation. Finally, the Double-Barrelled Cannon is a device used for the airship’s defense. It uses gunpowder to propel cannon balls at any would-be airship pirates. The S.S. Tokyo’s construction took a few years, and by the end of it William III was in his early twenties. Much of this was due to the precise design aimed to make the interior and exterior be lavish and pretty.
After the airship was ready in the harbor, he decided to choose fellow young men for leadership positions while traveling. Guillaume had gained some buzz for unprecedented promotion to General at the age of only twenty-one and became William III’s right hand man in the fight for conquest. While they would only be needed when William III wanted to do some traveling, he also enlisted some strong fighters to join him whenever he ventured overseas. Although mainland Japan had been cleared of any radiation, some land was known to still be harmful. Because of this, William enlisted top scientist and inventor Samuel Tesla who had only graduated from college a few years ago but had already made important improvements to the equipment used by scientists in his field.
Early in William III’s rule, new territory in China was taken and the Japanese Empire was spreading West. A reasonable idea that the Japanese came up with was to set up a city in China that would almost serve as a second capital, a place for Japan to watch over their new territory. During this period, the S.S. Tokyo came under more use than ever before. William III would often venture into China to meet with the governors he had put in charge of state-like districts. These meetings were relatively quick, and he spent much of his time in China observing how smoothly the new rule was functioning. When in the air, the S.S. Tokyo is surrounded by other Japanese airships for safety reasons. These airships are larger an armed with many more cannons. This is largely due to the interesting development of airborne pirates after airships became popular.
William III will most likely rule to the age of eighty or beyond, supported by his close friends and collaborators. The future for Japan looks bright, and its growth has been steady so far. Even after William III is long gone, the S.S. Tokyo will surely stand as a relic to a time of exceptional growth and change.
https://spark.adobe.com/page/TPYtHNQRkXT32/
https://spark.adobe.com/page/Ccp5M9wiJlf1V/
In the Victorian era on the planet Mars, 3 prisoners were sent from planet Earth to a maximum security prison called Xanus. Xanus was the most horrid, most awful purgatory in the whole universe. Monsters and humans from every galaxy were sent there for various crimes such as genocide and others that needn't be explained here. Xanus is now famous for holding its most infamous prisoners yet; Mikey, Mage, and Dave. Dave was framed for murdering the prime minister of England and the President of Russia. Mage gassed a whole village and committed mass treason. Mikey was the head of the Italian mafia, trafficking drugs, arms, and military grade tanks through most of Italy and the world.
They were bound in chains and tortured by robots for information from Earth to Mars in a maximum-security cargo ship. The ship dropped them off at the Xaus, Mage separated and put into the women's side of the prison while Mikey and Dave were dropped off in the men's.
Mikey and Dave were being walked into the full-body scanner when Dave decided to attempt to grab the guard’s gun. Unfortunately, the guard caught him, proceeding to beat him with a bat and crunching his teeth. The guard then ripped his arm off so slowly that you could hear the slow rip of the flesh and bone and muscle from his arm. Then they beat him ferociously with his own arm. His own blood splattered in his eyes, blinding him.
After that, the robots moved Michael and Dave through the full body scanner that shocks you if you do dumb stuff like what Dave did. They kept moving to their cells and were thrown down on the metal floor.
On her side of the prison, Mage was having an easier time. All of the robots had heard of Dave’s horrid attack and had rushed over to witness his punishment. Mage, unlike her two male comrades, found it better to manipulate the robots into thinking she was the angel of the three. Earning as much trust as one can earn from a robot, Mage began to collect an important asset that she knew was needed for the machines’ defeat: water. Within weeks, Mage had a bucket full of H2O, all thanks to the minni cups she would get every so often. Once she heard of Dave’s recovery from the robot’s chit-chat, she picked up the metal bucket of water and let out a horrid and painful screech, drawing a dozen robots to her cell. When they all arrived at the same time, Mage heaved the bucket up and splattered them all, smoke and oil clouding the tiny chamber. Collecting the rusted keys from a robot’s hook, she shot through the rocky landscape that separated her from her comrades and sneaked into the prison. Mage weaved herself through the corridors and, after many close encounters with the robots, she found her allies and sneaked them back out, a few guards shambled to simple slabs after Mikey got his built up anger out.
The three collected any metal sheets they came upon the next few days, eventually getting enough to build an airship. The Argo was somewhat shaped like a bowl with a propeller on top and heavy grade 19th century machinery and gears. The airship was made similar to a mushroom. This was because of the condition in which the metal they had found was in.
They created a gun that shot out cactus pricks, getting them stuck in the robot’s slits eventually perfected by all three escapees. They also found a way to turn Dave’s tie into a rope that came in handy for many things. Finally, they found a way to convert the sand that covered Mars into fuel for their ship, the Argo soaring to wherever it was told to.
Mage became the pilot, Dave the mechanic, and Mikey the guard. They all formed together to protect each other and themselves, fighting of the robots and continuing to explore Mars.
https://spark.adobe.com/page/ZaLojsc5THgYd/
The History of Human Venus
A long, long time ago, when humans still lived on the planet Earth, all was wonderful. Humans were happy with their lives.
What they didn’t know was that they were slowly killing their beloved planet.
The steam that powered all of their machines was being pumped into the atmosphere of Earth. The pressure was becoming so great that even the humans knew their world was ending.
But, the optimistic humans reasoned, that did not have to mean the end of humanity. There must be plenty of available planets.
They set to work to preserve their species.
Within a few years, they had created rudimentary oxygen-cycling systems and aircrafts, powered by their beloved steam.
Humans estimated that they had about five years left. They were wrong. As they were about to begin on a new upgrade, there was panic across the world. Animals everywhere were anticipating the coming cosmic shift and losing their minds.
The scientists realized there wasn’t much time.
They made as many of the basic ships as they could.
Once there were enough ships for two million people, the scientists started sending the ships into space.
But soon, tragedy struck.
A mere fifteen hours after the two million humans launched, Earth’s atmosphere imploded.
The cosmonauts realized there was no time to search for an acceptable planet. They had machines to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, so they didn’t have to be picky.
They picked Venus, because of how close it was. They set down the ships. A few of the ships were disassembled, to create a central “outside” area with circulating air.
Then came the discovery of rare metals. Venus-Humans, or V-men, used them as currency to trade for food from the meager supply. Within a year, though, there was an established plantation. Metals retained their value, though. This was partly because V-men wanted to travel to the far reaches of the universe and conquer more planets, and to preemptively arm themselves, they needed weapons.
And so the V-vernment, the government of the Venus-Humans, was formed to govern the growing colony.
V-men thrived on their new planet.
Thirty-Five Years Later
The Venus Army was one of the prides of the V-man civilization. Although, there had not been any living creatures on any planets they had conquered. Ordinary soldiers were bored out of their minds flying through space and never doing anything. The privileged generals were not bored, though. They were treated to the luxuries of V-man culture.
One soldier, named Dune, thought that this was extremely unfair. But he did not want to wait to rise up the ranks. He decided that he would kill a general and take their place.
The general that Dune plotted to kill was one of the heroes of the army. This general was only twenty, but he was the man to convince people to join the army, and the first to trust that the airship technology would bring him home. He pioneered a new sort of courage that the V-men had never encountered before: the courage to leap into the unknown.
Dune despised him.
Dune believed that General Fler, as he was called, was a fraud, someone paid large amounts of money to be a general-- the poster general-- of an army that never did anything.
It’s uncertain exactly why Dune wanted to be a general when he thought that the army was stupid for not accomplishing anything. But the most probable reason is that Dune wanted to go home. And only generals could give the order for liftoff and travel.
Dune plotted for days and weeks. Finally, General Fler was needed in the control center of the airship. Dune was sent to get him.
He knocked on the door of General Fler’s room, grinding his teeth at the fancy gold sign on the door.
“Yes?” asked the general.
“I have a message for you!” Dune called, hoping the general would let him in, or come out of the room. Either would work. There was no one in the hallway.
“Come in, then.”
Dune’s heart pounded as he walked into the irritatingly neat quarters. General Fler was sitting at a small desk, writing a note with a quill and ink. He turned to look at Dune.
“What’s the message?”
And Dune looked at him with hate in his eyes. “You’re going to die.”
Dune pulled out the never-used gun-sword from the pocket of his army uniform and tried to stab at the general.
General Fler stood up, and Dune faltered. The look in his eyes was so cold that Dune felt an urge to salute and show respect, to beg for forgiveness.
Then Dune’s hatred returned. He launched himself at General Fler, stabbing the sword-point into his face.
The general screeched, holding his head as blood flowed from his left eye. He ran to the wall and slapped at a button, missing by a few inches. He tried again, and suddenly alarms were blaring.
A team of five V-men ran in. One carried handcuffs and a handkerchief. One carried a first-aid kit. And the other three carried their gun-swords.
Within a few seconds, Dune was subdued. He was handcuffed and the handkerchief, which was soaked in chloroform, had ensured he was unconscious. The other V-man was trying in vain to stem the flow of blood from General Fler’s face. General Fler was also knocked out with the chloroform, to minimize pain.
More first-aid V-men arrived, and it was determined that the general’s eye could not be saved. It had to be removed to prevent infection. So their replacement was an eye that was made of gears and circuits. There were no other materials available. It did not enable General Fler to see out of that side, but it looked better than an empty eye socket.
The general awoke hours later. He sat up in a bed in the hospital area and opened his right eye. He tried in vain to open his left eye, then realized it wasn’t working. He slowly moved his hand up to where his left eye should have been, and screamed when he felt metal.
Doctors came to him, did their best to explain that he didn’t have a left eye anymore, but General Fler wasn’t paying attention. There was one picture looping through his head. Dune, holding the weapon, jumping forward with hate on his face.
Then he made a leap of assumptions; that the V-vernment did not want him to be a general, so they had sent Dune to kill him. This was by no means obvious or correct, but the general had been knocked out, and he was on painkillers. His thinking wasn’t the clearest.
Nevertheless, he established a goal. He would bring down the government that had hurt him, no matter what.
The way to start would be to cripple the army that he was in charge of.
He spent hours and days, throughout the whole period of his recovery, planning ways to kill everyone on the ship, keep the ship, and have the V-vernment unaware of his acts. A big task, but he was a big thinker.
By the end of his recovery, he had a plan.
General Fler didn’t think of himself as a pioneer to the unknown anymore. He was a man with a score to settle.
Being in command of the ship meant that no one questioned him. So when he went to the escape pod, one day, no one thought anything about it. They weren’t allowed to. He had too much power for them to be suspicious.
He cut off the location-transmitter on the ship. All other technology he left alone. Except for one set of machines.
Then General Fler used a remote control to shut off the ship’s air circulating system killing the V-men within hours. They breathed up the oxygen in the ship and expected the carbon dioxide they exhaled to be converted into oxygen. But it didn’t. R.I.P. Army Force Thirty-Five, all fifty of you.
As Dune, who had attacked Fler, died in the prison of the ship, he had a moment of perfect clarity of the terrible enemy he had made. And what that enemy would do to Human Venus.
As soon as all of the V-men were dead, the general restarted the machines, and made his way back to the main ship, wading through dead bodies. After a few hours of thinking and planning, he landed on a small planet. Donning his spacewalk suit, he carried dead bodies out of the ship and laid them on the ground. But he took every single one of their gun-swords.
Carrying out all of the dead soldiers was hard and taxing work. The General didn’t care. He had assumed a new identity. Not General Fler anymore. Just The General, the only general that the V-vernment would ever have to worry about.
He was now the most methodical thinker and planner, and he knew that the dead on the ship would weigh it down. But, because of the value of metal, not to mention the value of weapons, he took all fifty army regulation gun-swords. He stored them in the escape pod, where, he reasoned, even if he had to get away from something, he could have them.
That was the beginning of The General’s reign of terror. But, of course, no one on the V-vernment knew about all of those soldiers that had gone missing…
Ten Years Later
Dylan was fifteen years old when she met The General. She was becoming known in the criminal world of Human Venus.
She was the best thief on Human Venus, and a trader in the black market. She was also very good with a knife, if she needed to be.
The most disturbing thing about her was how human she was. She’d pretend to be delivering mail, or some such, just a good-natured fifteen-year-old doing a part-time job.
But let her come in and you’d never see your prized possessions again. And soon, they would be off her hands and in someone else’s, someone who had paid her. And Dylan was too good to accidentally incriminate herself.
She was dangerous, but she was dangerous for a reason. She was pulling in money as though she was a magnet, all to go into a jar in her room, labeled “Bribe Fund.” The jar was kept in the back of her closet, where her mother wouldn’t find it. Because her mother would worry about her little girl, think she was crumbling, think she was dealing in illegal activities.
She was.
The “Bribe Fund” was almost full. Almost enough money to pay off various informers, all over Human Venus. She was desperately searching for someone who knew what had happened to her father.
He had been scheduled to return almost ten years ago. When she was five.
He didn’t return. Neither did anyone else in Army Force Thirty-Five.
Someone had to know, didn’t they? Someone had to know what had happened to her father, Dune.
*****
A few thefts later, (she tried to think of it as “business”), Dylan had enough money to get into the Records, with some left over. The woman in charge agreed to let Dylan look at the files, in exchange for a large amount of precious metals.
She decided to look at any files concerning Army Force Thirty-Five. She slowly flipped through folders upon folders, not wanting to miss the file she was looking for.
Finally, she found the beige file folder with “AF 35” written in black scribbles. She opened it while half-covering her eyes, as though she could hide herself while also seeing the file.
What she saw froze her blood.
Although she had wanted to know, so badly, she wasn’t prepared to see a red stamp with the words “MISSING IN ACTION: WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN.” Dylan dropped the papers, stunned. She had expected her brave father along on a classified mission somewhere. Something like that. Dylan didn’t expect the V-vernment to not know where he was.
There had been no lifeforms discovered, in the whole history of Human Venus.
Her heart raced. Her mouth hung open. She knew she should clean up the files that she had dropped. But if no lifeforms have been discovered…
There was a human to blame.
You don’t know he’s dead, her mind argued.
If he’s not dead, then he needs rescuing. She picked up the files mechanically, hardly daring to breathe, hoping that maybe the stamp on the file would have disappeared.
But it hadn’t.
Dune’s whereabouts were unknown. To his daughter. To the V-vernment. To Human Venus.
If the V-vernment can’t find them, it’s because they’re not trying, she thought angrily. It’s their fault. They have to keep track.
Dylan would find him. She had to. And if she could bring down the V-vernment for not keeping track of him, she would.
*****
After Dylan left the Records, she went straight to school. Because she was a teenager, she went to school every single day, but only in the afternoon.
She couldn’t focus. The only class where she wasn’t obsessing over her father was her last class of the day, Art. In Art, it was hard to focus on anything but the project, which was a painting.
Dylan tore the painting she had worked on for weeks into pieces. She started anew, a painting of pain and wanting and terrible deeds for a worthy cause.
Absorbed in her painting and her feelings and the brush against the canvas, she hardly noticed-- or cared-- when the final bell rang. Her teacher, Ms. N., had to tap her on the shoulder to catch her attention.
Dylan looked around wildly, her paintbrush fell, her hands curving toward her sleeve-knives. When she saw that it was only Ms. N., she visibly relaxed.
“Dylan? School is over. Are you alright, dear?” she asked, because she had seen the look on Dylan’s face, the killer look that scared the living daylights out of any sane person.
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“Okay, have a good evening, then.”
“Thanks, you too.” And Dylan smiled gratefully at Ms. N.
As soon as she left the classroom, the smile dropped from her face. She took on a scowl and quickly walked to her locker.
Once her homework was loaded into her backpack, Dylan ran home. Finishing her homework early was key to having enough time for searching. Of course, her mother would only know that Dylan was going out to see friends.
Her mother didn’t know that Dylan didn’t have friends.
Thieves don’t make friends.
*****
Dylan knew that there must be someone who knew. Someone who had kept track of fifty-one people in space.
She figured she’d find something, anything, at airship docking. Maybe the name of Army Force Thirty-Five on a list, a schedule.
She didn’t think of the odds, of how small the chance was.
Optimistic criminals are few and far between.
Dylan walked to the airship dock, carrying nothing. She knew she’d run into deep criminals. How could she not, sneaking into the high-security building that was the entrance to the docks? It would be just her luck.
It wasn’t hard to break into the building. Dylan used her knife-sleeves to break a window. Windows were expensive. V-men wanted them anyway. Even those too young to remember the Migration. But however expensive they were, they were easy to break, if you happened to carry illegal gun-swords around.
Once Dylan was inside, she made her way down the long halls as fast as possible.
She only ran into one person. And he didn’t even count, because he would never run into anyone again.
Dylan made it to the docks, looking around at the airships that seemed to take up an infinite amount of space. The graceful, metallic ships, with gears covering their sides and generating steam. They were high-tech in that clunky, pieced-together way that seemed to be unavoidable.
There were voices. Two loud voices that seemed to be trying hard to be confident.
Dylan had a second of panic. Fear coursed through her veins, infusing her blood and chilling her. She looked around wildly, desperate not to be caught.
The pieced-together metal boxes on the wall called to her and she pushed the hinged lid up, stepped in, and pulled the lid down. She curled as small as possible, because the box was only as tall as her shoulders and it was mostly full of fuel capsules. She breathed slowly and quietly, calming herself.
The two voices got closer. Two men, maybe in their twenties. Joking with each other in a way that bordered on covering up stress. Dylan smiled to herself the dark box. Shallow criminals. She’d dealt with enough to know the uneasy demeanor of those not used to the criminal underworld. It was almost funny how unsure they were. Dylan had been a black market trader since she was twelve, when school was not as long as the whole day, but more than just the afternoons.
The voices were so purposely loud that she had no way of judging where their owners were.
She was still surprised, almost fatally, when there was a loud screeching sound next to her box.
One of the men swore. “Quiet,” the other one said. They had dropped their bravado and false confidence. Now they were focusing on the task at hand. Whatever that was.
“This box is so heavy,” the first man complained.
“Quiet,” the second one repeated.
So, they’re lifting the box next to mine. Why would they do that?
“The General pays too well for you to complain, Janden,” said the second voice.
Oh. If the box next to mine also has fuel, then…. They’re smuggling fuel. Why would they need to….
Then it hit her like lightning.
If they have to smuggle fuel to get it for a ship, then…. There’s an undocumented ship. There’s a criminal, unknown ship.
Dylan’s grin spread wide in the dark of the box.
And when the men carried the other box out of the room, Dylan carefully slipped out of her box, and followed them.
It was easy, really. They were not skilled in the art of stealing. Every minute or so, a sound would reach her ears; the sound of metal screeching on metal, or the sound of the men swearing.
She followed, quietly, always exactly one turn behind them.
Eventually, they stopped, and Dylan stopped too. Then she crept to the turn just ahead of her, the corner between her and the shallow criminals. She pressed against the wall, got onto her knees, and peeked around the corner.
The room was big and gray, with a perfectly cubical shape and an air lock on the far side. The shallow criminals were in the middle of the room, with the box.
The men were of average height, average build. One was shifting his weight from foot to foot, fidgeting. The other had his hand to an earpiece, not aware of how suspicious that looked to Dylan. She knew that The General, whoever that was, wasn’t listening in. So the earpiece was either a prop or connecting them to a go-between. That seemed to be it. The man was nodding, forgetting that the person couldn’t see him.
There was a period of waiting, because neither of the men moved and Dylan just watched them silently.
Finally, the man with the earpiece opened the door to the airlock and they pulled the box of fuel canisters inside. They hurriedly set the box in the little room.
As they turned around to reenter the big room, Dylan pulled out her mini-gun-sword and killed them. Because they were leaving the room, they clearly weren’t supposed to be there when The General picked up the fuel.
Then she sat in the air lock, hidden from the view of a person from either side. She waited.
After a while, a light came on in the air lock, illuminating the words ‘Helmets On Now.’ Dylan hastily donned a space suit and helmet, snapping the helmet into place and quickly hiding herself.
Not even a minute later, the door to the air lock opened, and a man walked out. He had a gear for an eye, and a cold look in the remaining eye. He easily picked up the heavy box.
As soon as his arms were around it, Dylan jumped out.
“Don’t move,” she hissed, holding out her bloodstained mini-gun-sword.
The man looked at her, a fierce, dark look in his eye. He didn’t move, but he stared at Dylan, glaring with a ferocity that scared her to the bottom of her soul.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you, General.”
“Can I move, then?” he asked mockingly, keeping his mouth completely still, like a ventriloquist.
“No. Just give me a reason.”
“Well. Can I assume you want my airship, then?”
“You may so assume.” She flicked the safety, readying it to fire.
“Fine. I can fly a ship. You can’t.”
She gave him a cold smile. “Now tell me all the methods in this room that you can kill me with.”
He sighed deeply. “A little girl is as smart as me. This is humiliating. All right, I could hit that button to cut off your helmet from air supply, then vacuum the air out of the room….”
There was a few minutes of that, and then Dylan said, “So, in short, if I let you move, you kill me.”
“Not necessarily.”
“Hmm?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
“It’s hard being a criminal. You couldn’t last in space without me. And it wouldn’t hurt me to have an ally.”
“Why would you need an ally? You’re fine right now.”
“Why not, honestly? And anyone that can outwit me is someone I had better be on the same team as.”
“And what is your team?”
The General narrowed his eyes like a cat. “I want to take down the V-vernment. You?”
When she hesitated, he laughed. “You expect me to think that you killed my underlings,” he pointed with his chin toward their bodies, “and want to take over my off-the-grid ship because you’re a good person?”
Dylan glared at him, hatred in her eyes. “I am a good person. Every single illegal thing I’ve ever done was to save my father. And if I can bring down the V-vernment, then I’ll do that, too.”
“Okay. So, ally, can I set down this box? It’s heavy.”
I hope he’s telling the truth, thought Dylan. If not, I am dead.
“Fine, ally. Can you give me a tour of the ship?”
One Year Later
Dylan and The General made a good team. They had been able to bring down a few high-up members of the V-vernment. And they were gaining notoriety.
Humans down on Venus were starting to be afraid. There was a full-scale code red drill once a week, in every single building on Human Venus. But the remaining higher-ups in power knew that nothing they could do could stop Dylan and The General.
Honestly, if they could get into Venus Control and get past about twenty passwords, they could disable the oxygen machines, killing everyone in Human Venus. Exactly like The General had done to Army Force Thirty-Five. Well, no one actually knew what he had done to Army Force Thirty-Five. But it was the same idea.
Down in the mines of Human Venus, a miner leader named Alex Holden was deeply, deeply apprehensive. The miners had oxygen masks and protective suits, but Alex knew that anyone who wasn’t afraid was stupid.
Even though the V-vernment was trying to keep it quiet, almost everyone knew that Human Venus was in danger. Since Alex was in charge of a mine, he had been briefed on all known information. But much wasn’t known. Just that there was a rogue, dangerous airship out there, gunning for Human Venus.
Alex knew there was really nothing he could do to stop whoever the unknown threat was. But he was smart.
And one day he had a discovery of a new metal. With it came an idea that was so good, he requested a meeting with a defense commander.
*****
“I’m sure, sir. I don’t know anything about ships, but I think it’s true.” Alex had tried to explain his rather abstract idea for a half of an hour. The Defense Commander wasn’t making it easier, peppering him with questions he couldn’t answer.
Defense Commander Hart, a tall, gray-haired man, paced back and forth. “I don’t know much about the ships, either. But it’s someone’s job to. I’ll call in the Director of the Fleet.”
After the Director Daflin had arrived, Alex explained his idea again.
“Well,” said the Director, drumming her fingers on the conference-room table. “Well. The amount of power needed would depend on how far away the ship is. And depending on that, we could extend an enormous amount of energy, to no avail.”
Alex’s heart sank. “But would it work, as a principle? Ships are made of metal.”
Director Daflin shrugged. “It’s never been attempted before. Is there any proof it would work?”
“Well, I’ve tried pulling a couple helmets with this new metal. They moved across the room.”
“We can run more tests. We can take some to our lab.” This was Commander Hart, who was trying to redeem himself.
Director Daflin nodded. “And if you could try and mine as much of this new metal as possible. Anything that can protect Human Venus is in demand.”
“Yes, ma’am. Is there any more information on the threat?” This he asked to both of them.
Commander Hart answered. “No. There is something interesting, though. News from the population.”
“What is it?”
“There’s a teenage girl missing. Her mother is freaked out. And no one has found a body. So, either she’s been kidnapped, or she’s part of this threat.”
Alex shook his head. “Are we sure this is related at all? With all due respect, Commander, kidnappings probably aren’t uncommon.”
“That’s just it, Mr….?”
“Holden.”
“Okay, Mr. Holden. That’s just it. Usually, any kidnappings are resolved in a relatively short amount of time. This girl, Dylan, she’s been missing for a whole year. And there were police all throughout the city looking from the first day.”
Director Daflin nodded. “Even me, up in Fleet Division, I’ve heard about this. Her mother is distraught. It’s possible she’s depressed.”
“Do we have any clues about who the threat is?”
Commander Hart scratched his head, deep in thought. “A day or so after the girl disappeared, there were two bodies of dead men discovered in the docks. The police did identity and background checks. Low-level criminals, involved in a few minor schemes. One of them had a photocopy of a note in his pocket. It detailed the theft of a crate of fuel canisters, and the signature of the sender was blacked out.”
Alex swallowed. He was unnerved by the news, however relevant it was. “And how were they killed?” he asked.
“Blasts from a gun-sword. Which are illegal in Human Venus, by the way. They’re only allowed in the military, where they might actually need them.”
Alex looked the Commander in the eyes. “So, if all of this is related to the unknown threat, then there’s a whole network, potentially. Sounds like those two guys got double-crossed, since I assume they didn’t have access to the docks?”
Director Daflin nodded. “We have pretty tight security. Not just anyone can get in. Although, soon after the bodies were discovered, we also found another body, a few halls down, as well as a broken window. We assume the broken window was a mode of entry.”
“What is this proof of, though?” Alex said, frustrated. “Will my idea work, or not?”
Director Daflin shrugged. “It’s a good idea, a little fantastic, but we can make it realistic. It’s something to try. And we’re grateful.”
“Yes,” said Commander Hart. “Thank you. We will see if this can work. You’re a good man, Mr.Holden. And we’ll tell you what we figure out.”
*****
It was a few days later when a messenger from the V-vernment was sent to fetch Alex.
The messenger was a short man who had run all the way to the mines. He was extremely short of breath and had to be provided with three glasses of water before he had enough breath to talk.
“Sir. Defense Commander Hart says that you’re to come to the Defense Building.”
“What for?” Alex could guess, but he wanted to be sure.
“I haven’t been told that, sir.”
“When?” asked Alex. He took off his miners’ helmet but held onto his pickaxe.
“As soon as possible,” the messenger panted. “May I have another glass of water?”
*****
As soon as Alex made it to the Defense Building, he was met by Commander Hart.
“Mr. Holden. We’re glad to have you here,” said the Commander, holding out his hand. Alex Holden quickly shook it, then cut to the chase.
“Sir, have there been any discoveries?”
“Yes. Security has reviewed the tapes of the docks, of the day before the bodies were found. We have footage of the girl-- the one who’s been missing a year-- sneaking in and killing the men. And--” he said, sitting forward in his seat, “we have footage of her making an alliance with a man who seems to have an unauthorized airship.”
“This is huge,” said Alex. He shook his head. “Has anyone told the girl’s mother?”
“No,” said Commander Hart. “But we’re planning to. The trouble is that no one wants to be the one to tell her.”
“Okay. Also, do the tapes show anything about the man she made the alliance with?”
Commander Hart stared into space for a moment. He looked a little afraid. “Mr. Holden, the man…. We ran facial recognition software. Have you ever heard of General Fler?”
“Sure,” answered Alex, a bit hesitantly. “He was that poster general, maybe a decade ago. But no one knows what happened to him.” There was a pause. “Right?”
“Mr. Holden, General Fler is the one. It looked like he’d lost an eye, and it was replaced with gears, but it was undeniably the same man. And because we’re sure of that, we know how afraid we have to be.”
“And?”
“Very afraid. General Fler was one of the smartest graduates of military academy. It seemed as though he dropped his guard, and while facing death, he made an alliance with Dylan.”
“Do we think she’s safe?”
“Well, there’s been nothing since. So, honestly, he could have backstabbed her any day he wanted. Anything could have or could be happening. But because of that one moment of her having the upper hand, now we have no word of her.”
Commander Hart paused to let that sink in. “I called you here today because your idea is the only hope we have. If we can use that metal you found to bring their ship down to Venus, then we are saved, we can imprison General Fler and be unafraid.”
“If I may, what would happen to Dylan? She’s a teenager, right?”
“Yes, we think she’s about fifteen or sixteen. And we don’t know. We don’t even know if she’s alive. We have no idea what sort of crimes she might have committed. We don’t know what to do with her. But when we capture them, we’ll sort it out. Right now we need to focus on catching the ship.”
“Right. So, all of the mines are under orders to look for this metal in particular. We’ve found a lot, about ten tons. And it’s all been sent to Defense Control, under your name.”
“Great! Then let’s catch a pair of intergalactic criminals.” Commander Hart started to move toward the door leading to the Defense Control Room.
Alex was caught off-guard. “Now, sir?”
“Yes. We can’t let the people of Human Venus live in fear. Plus, we have all the equipment. We just need to go to get your metal. All the ships have been grounded, including the military ships. The generals all decided it wasn’t safe for them in space during a crisis, which plays to your plan perfectly.”
*****
A few hours later, the enormous magnet was assembled. All of the members of the V-vernment were there, as well as Alex. Apart from him, they all looked in bewilderment at the huge amount of metal.
Commander Hart came forward. “I would like to introduce Alex Holden. This V-man formulated the plan that may save Human Venus.”
All the assembled people clapped. Feeling self-conscious, Alex looked to the ground.
Director Daflin was typing away at a small computer, while another director looked over her shoulder and muttered advice. “I’ve adjusted the booster to the amount of power needed. But we can’t let it stay on for too long, or it will leach power out of Human Venus.”
“Now, Mr. Holden will press the button to start the booster, and we will hope for the future.”
All twenty-five commanders of the V-vernment, as well as fifteen directors and the president, the leaders of Human Venus, looked to Alex. He swallowed.
Commander Hart nodded to him. He walked to the machine attached to the netting that covered the metal.
He took a deep breath, and pressed the bright green button.
*****
Aboard their ship, currently flying toward Mars, Dylan and The General felt the ship change course. Well, the cannon at the front was still pointed toward Mars, but the ship was…. Being pulled.
“General? What’s happening?” Dylan called. She held onto a door for support.
“I don’t know! I’m going to try to accelerate. Maybe that will stop whatever’s happening.”
And The General tried, but it was a tug of war. They might have made it, except that they hadn’t gotten any fuel for at least a month.
Army Ship Thirty-Five was dragged slowly, but unceasingly, toward Venus. Dylan and The General could do nothing.
When they finally landed, The V-vernment sent armed police to escort them to the Central Plaza of Human Venus, in handcuffs. There, as many people as could fit crammed the plaza and the streets.
What only Alex knew was that a detective team had been building a case against The General. Including something he thought Dylan would be very interested to know.
“We are gathered here today,” said Human Venus President Mint, “to see justice. These two,” he pointed to Dylan and The General, (surrounded on all sides by police) “have terrorized Human Venus for more than a year, and we are saddened by the losses of Directors Kee and Frendle, as well as those of Commanders Lopez and Santin. May they rest in peace.
“Now, before I give out our sentences, I understand that a Mr. Holden would like a few words.”
There was polite applause.
Alex walked up to the podium, cleared his throat, and said, “I couldn’t sleep when I knew there were intergalactic criminals on the loose. But once I knew enough about the case to be taken seriously as part of it, I was surprised to learn that we had a fifteen-year-old as a tie for Enemy Number One. And so it seemed like we ought to look deeper into her, why she’s in handcuffs right now, and her sentence.
“So here is our detective team. They have looked into everything about this case, put together pieces of this puzzle with nothing but speculation. But now that we think we know the whole story, it’s not speculation anymore.”
The detectives came up onstage, and Alex left.
“Our first question was, what happened to her? After combing through hundreds of hours of video and audio footage, we know that she came into the airship dock building by breaking a window, followed two men illegally smuggling fuel, then killed the men and waited for General Fler. Once Fler had arrived, she waited until he picked up the heavy box, then jumped out and threatened him. Based on their conversation, we can deduce that she wanted control of an airship. She and Fler ended up joining forces.” This detective looked to the next.
“Our next question was, what was her motive for wanting a ship? And we solved this question by way of a long search. We talked to her mother and realized that her father had gone missing in action years ago. In looking through her room we came across a jar labeled ‘Bribe Fund.’ This tipped us off that Dylan was in illegal business. We did a lot of looking and talking to people who Dylan may have interacted with. People in high places that she might have paid off.
“Following a hunch, we looked into the father business, going to the Records and speaking to the people there. We found out that Dylan had bribed an employee at the Records, to let her see the files relating to her father’s Army Force, number Thirty-Five. That’s all the evidence we have, but it’s enough to make an educated guess. That Dylan teamed up with General Fler to find her father, Dune. Is that right?” This question was directed at Dylan, who nodded.
“Then, because we were genuinely intrigued, we decided to find out what happened to Army Force Thirty-Five. And you know what we found?”
“We found out the murderer in this whodunit. And it’s actually a cruel trick of fate, at least for Dylan.” The man cleared his throat, self-important in his moment of glory. “Based on the reappearance of the exact ship that housed and transported Army Force Thirty-Five, and the fact that eleven years ago, there was a period of time where all the air circulation was cut off for a few hours, we can put this case to rest. The murderer of Army Force Thirty-Five is none other than General Fler.”
There was total silence for about two minutes.Then Dylan screeched, “You killer! You liar! You….” before the police made her quiet down, so President Mint could speak.
“So, for the murder of Army Force Thirty-Five, as well as of our directors and commanders, we charge General Fler with a lifetime in prison.”
There was applause and hollering.
“And for murder, breaking and entering, and theivery-- yes, our detectives uncovered that as well-- we charge Dylan with a sentence of five years, as she is a minor.”
There was stunned silence.
Then the two were carted away in police vehicles.
As the president wished everyone farewell, Commander Hart whispered to Alex “You saved Human Venus.”
The Aftermath
Dylan was just about the most obedient inmate there was. She had no reason to want out, because the gloomy setting allowed her to grieve for her father fully.
Alex, who had been granted the title of Director of Mining, visited her sometimes. The first few times were awkward, as they didn’t know each other at all, but after that, they knew each other well enough to play chess together. Alex only won once. He kind of became a ‘big brother’ figure to her, which was a little ironic, considering he had put her behind bars.
Dylan’s art teacher, Ms. N., also visited Dylan. Once a week, on Fridays at ten in the morning. She was always exactly on time.
She brought Dylan paints and canvases, and she told Dylan stories. Her visits were some of Dylan’s best times in prison.
Then there was her mother.
Dylan’s mother was very stubborn by nature. The first time she visited, she sat in the chair in Dylan’s cell, and pretended to not see her until she apologized for all she had put her mother through.
After that, though, they were able to have some good talks and cry over Dune together.
Dylan was pretty content in prison. It wasn’t fun-- that would have defeated the purpose of prison. But Dylan spent her days contemplating her life, thinking about how to change.
The General was a completely different story.
No one ever visited him. No one wanted to, or had any reason to.
He died in prison, ten years after being put there.
There was a funeral. Dylan was invited, even though she was a prisoner. She accepted, because it was outside of the prison. She enjoyed the thought of The General dead.
The History of Human Venus
A long, long time ago, when humans still lived on the planet Earth, all was wonderful. Humans were happy with their lives.
What they didn’t know was that they were slowly killing their beloved planet.
The steam that powered all of their machines was being pumped into the atmosphere of Earth. The pressure was becoming so great that even the humans knew their world was ending.
But, the optimistic humans reasoned, that did not have to mean the end of humanity. There must be plenty of available planets.
They set to work to preserve their species.
Within a few years, they had created rudimentary oxygen-cycling systems and aircrafts, powered by their beloved steam.
Humans estimated that they had about five years left. They were wrong. As they were about to begin on a new upgrade, there was panic across the world. Animals everywhere were anticipating the coming cosmic shift and losing their minds.
The scientists realized there wasn’t much time.
They made as many of the basic ships as they could.
Once there were enough ships for two million people, the scientists started sending the ships into space.
But soon, tragedy struck.
A mere fifteen hours after the two million humans launched, Earth’s atmosphere imploded.
The cosmonauts realized there was no time to search for an acceptable planet. They had machines to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, so they didn’t have to be picky.
They picked Venus, because of how close it was. They set down the ships. A few of the ships were disassembled, to create a central “outside” area with circulating air.
Then came the discovery of rare metals. Venus-Humans, or V-men, used them as currency to trade for food from the meager supply. Within a year, though, there was an established plantation. Metals retained their value, though. This was partly because V-men wanted to travel to the far reaches of the universe and conquer more planets, and to preemptively arm themselves, they needed weapons.
And so the V-vernment, the government of the Venus-Humans, was formed to govern the growing colony.
V-men thrived on their new planet.
Thirty-Five Years Later
The Venus Army was one of the prides of the V-man civilization. Although, there had not been any living creatures on any planets they had conquered. Ordinary soldiers were bored out of their minds flying through space and never doing anything. The privileged generals were not bored, though. They were treated to the luxuries of V-man culture.
One soldier, named Dune, thought that this was extremely unfair. But he did not want to wait to rise up the ranks. He decided that he would kill a general and take their place.
The general that Dune plotted to kill was one of the heroes of the army. This general was only twenty, but he was the man to convince people to join the army, and the first to trust that the airship technology would bring him home. He pioneered a new sort of courage that the V-men had never encountered before: the courage to leap into the unknown.
Dune despised him.
Dune believed that General Fler, as he was called, was a fraud, someone paid large amounts of money to be a general-- the poster general-- of an army that never did anything.
It’s uncertain exactly why Dune wanted to be a general when he thought that the army was stupid for not accomplishing anything. But the most probable reason is that Dune wanted to go home. And only generals could give the order for liftoff and travel.
Dune plotted for days and weeks. Finally, General Fler was needed in the control center of the airship. Dune was sent to get him.
He knocked on the door of General Fler’s room, grinding his teeth at the fancy gold sign on the door.
“Yes?” asked the general.
“I have a message for you!” Dune called, hoping the general would let him in, or come out of the room. Either would work. There was no one in the hallway.
“Come in, then.”
Dune’s heart pounded as he walked into the irritatingly neat quarters. General Fler was sitting at a small desk, writing a note with a quill and ink. He turned to look at Dune.
“What’s the message?”
And Dune looked at him with hate in his eyes. “You’re going to die.”
Dune pulled out the never-used gun-sword from the pocket of his army uniform and tried to stab at the general.
General Fler stood up, and Dune faltered. The look in his eyes was so cold that Dune felt an urge to salute and show respect, to beg for forgiveness.
Then Dune’s hatred returned. He launched himself at General Fler, stabbing the sword-point into his face.
The general screeched, holding his head as blood flowed from his left eye. He ran to the wall and slapped at a button, missing by a few inches. He tried again, and suddenly alarms were blaring.
A team of five V-men ran in. One carried handcuffs and a handkerchief. One carried a first-aid kit. And the other three carried their gun-swords.
Within a few seconds, Dune was subdued. He was handcuffed and the handkerchief, which was soaked in chloroform, had ensured he was unconscious. The other V-man was trying in vain to stem the flow of blood from General Fler’s face. General Fler was also knocked out with the chloroform, to minimize pain.
More first-aid V-men arrived, and it was determined that the general’s eye could not be saved. It had to be removed to prevent infection. So their replacement was an eye that was made of gears and circuits. There were no other materials available. It did not enable General Fler to see out of that side, but it looked better than an empty eye socket.
The general awoke hours later. He sat up in a bed in the hospital area and opened his right eye. He tried in vain to open his left eye, then realized it wasn’t working. He slowly moved his hand up to where his left eye should have been, and screamed when he felt metal.
Doctors came to him, did their best to explain that he didn’t have a left eye anymore, but General Fler wasn’t paying attention. There was one picture looping through his head. Dune, holding the weapon, jumping forward with hate on his face.
Then he made a leap of assumptions; that the V-vernment did not want him to be a general, so they had sent Dune to kill him. This was by no means obvious or correct, but the general had been knocked out, and he was on painkillers. His thinking wasn’t the clearest.
Nevertheless, he established a goal. He would bring down the government that had hurt him, no matter what.
The way to start would be to cripple the army that he was in charge of.
He spent hours and days, throughout the whole period of his recovery, planning ways to kill everyone on the ship, keep the ship, and have the V-vernment unaware of his acts. A big task, but he was a big thinker.
By the end of his recovery, he had a plan.
General Fler didn’t think of himself as a pioneer to the unknown anymore. He was a man with a score to settle.
Being in command of the ship meant that no one questioned him. So when he went to the escape pod, one day, no one thought anything about it. They weren’t allowed to. He had too much power for them to be suspicious.
He cut off the location-transmitter on the ship. All other technology he left alone. Except for one set of machines.
Then General Fler used a remote control to shut off the ship’s air circulating system killing the V-men within hours. They breathed up the oxygen in the ship and expected the carbon dioxide they exhaled to be converted into oxygen. But it didn’t. R.I.P. Army Force Thirty-Five, all fifty of you.
As Dune, who had attacked Fler, died in the prison of the ship, he had a moment of perfect clarity of the terrible enemy he had made. And what that enemy would do to Human Venus.
As soon as all of the V-men were dead, the general restarted the machines, and made his way back to the main ship, wading through dead bodies. After a few hours of thinking and planning, he landed on a small planet. Donning his spacewalk suit, he carried dead bodies out of the ship and laid them on the ground. But he took every single one of their gun-swords.
Carrying out all of the dead soldiers was hard and taxing work. The General didn’t care. He had assumed a new identity. Not General Fler anymore. Just The General, the only general that the V-vernment would ever have to worry about.
He was now the most methodical thinker and planner, and he knew that the dead on the ship would weigh it down. But, because of the value of metal, not to mention the value of weapons, he took all fifty army regulation gun-swords. He stored them in the escape pod, where, he reasoned, even if he had to get away from something, he could have them.
That was the beginning of The General’s reign of terror. But, of course, no one on the V-vernment knew about all of those soldiers that had gone missing…
Ten Years Later
Dylan was fifteen years old when she met The General. She was becoming known in the criminal world of Human Venus.
She was the best thief on Human Venus, and a trader in the black market. She was also very good with a knife, if she needed to be.
The most disturbing thing about her was how human she was. She’d pretend to be delivering mail, or some such, just a good-natured fifteen-year-old doing a part-time job.
But let her come in and you’d never see your prized possessions again. And soon, they would be off her hands and in someone else’s, someone who had paid her. And Dylan was too good to accidentally incriminate herself.
She was dangerous, but she was dangerous for a reason. She was pulling in money as though she was a magnet, all to go into a jar in her room, labeled “Bribe Fund.” The jar was kept in the back of her closet, where her mother wouldn’t find it. Because her mother would worry about her little girl, think she was crumbling, think she was dealing in illegal activities.
She was.
The “Bribe Fund” was almost full. Almost enough money to pay off various informers, all over Human Venus. She was desperately searching for someone who knew what had happened to her father.
He had been scheduled to return almost ten years ago. When she was five.
He didn’t return. Neither did anyone else in Army Force Thirty-Five.
Someone had to know, didn’t they? Someone had to know what had happened to her father, Dune.
*****
A few thefts later, (she tried to think of it as “business”), Dylan had enough money to get into the Records, with some left over. The woman in charge agreed to let Dylan look at the files, in exchange for a large amount of precious metals.
She decided to look at any files concerning Army Force Thirty-Five. She slowly flipped through folders upon folders, not wanting to miss the file she was looking for.
Finally, she found the beige file folder with “AF 35” written in black scribbles. She opened it while half-covering her eyes, as though she could hide herself while also seeing the file.
What she saw froze her blood.
Although she had wanted to know, so badly, she wasn’t prepared to see a red stamp with the words “MISSING IN ACTION: WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN.” Dylan dropped the papers, stunned. She had expected her brave father along on a classified mission somewhere. Something like that. Dylan didn’t expect the V-vernment to not know where he was.
There had been no lifeforms discovered, in the whole history of Human Venus.
Her heart raced. Her mouth hung open. She knew she should clean up the files that she had dropped. But if no lifeforms have been discovered…
There was a human to blame.
You don’t know he’s dead, her mind argued.
If he’s not dead, then he needs rescuing. She picked up the files mechanically, hardly daring to breathe, hoping that maybe the stamp on the file would have disappeared.
But it hadn’t.
Dune’s whereabouts were unknown. To his daughter. To the V-vernment. To Human Venus.
If the V-vernment can’t find them, it’s because they’re not trying, she thought angrily. It’s their fault. They have to keep track.
Dylan would find him. She had to. And if she could bring down the V-vernment for not keeping track of him, she would.
*****
After Dylan left the Records, she went straight to school. Because she was a teenager, she went to school every single day, but only in the afternoon.
She couldn’t focus. The only class where she wasn’t obsessing over her father was her last class of the day, Art. In Art, it was hard to focus on anything but the project, which was a painting.
Dylan tore the painting she had worked on for weeks into pieces. She started anew, a painting of pain and wanting and terrible deeds for a worthy cause.
Absorbed in her painting and her feelings and the brush against the canvas, she hardly noticed-- or cared-- when the final bell rang. Her teacher, Ms. N., had to tap her on the shoulder to catch her attention.
Dylan looked around wildly, her paintbrush fell, her hands curving toward her sleeve-knives. When she saw that it was only Ms. N., she visibly relaxed.
“Dylan? School is over. Are you alright, dear?” she asked, because she had seen the look on Dylan’s face, the killer look that scared the living daylights out of any sane person.
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“Okay, have a good evening, then.”
“Thanks, you too.” And Dylan smiled gratefully at Ms. N.
As soon as she left the classroom, the smile dropped from her face. She took on a scowl and quickly walked to her locker.
Once her homework was loaded into her backpack, Dylan ran home. Finishing her homework early was key to having enough time for searching. Of course, her mother would only know that Dylan was going out to see friends.
Her mother didn’t know that Dylan didn’t have friends.
Thieves don’t make friends.
*****
Dylan knew that there must be someone who knew. Someone who had kept track of fifty-one people in space.
She figured she’d find something, anything, at airship docking. Maybe the name of Army Force Thirty-Five on a list, a schedule.
She didn’t think of the odds, of how small the chance was.
Optimistic criminals are few and far between.
Dylan walked to the airship dock, carrying nothing. She knew she’d run into deep criminals. How could she not, sneaking into the high-security building that was the entrance to the docks? It would be just her luck.
It wasn’t hard to break into the building. Dylan used her knife-sleeves to break a window. Windows were expensive. V-men wanted them anyway. Even those too young to remember the Migration. But however expensive they were, they were easy to break, if you happened to carry illegal gun-swords around.
Once Dylan was inside, she made her way down the long halls as fast as possible.
She only ran into one person. And he didn’t even count, because he would never run into anyone again.
Dylan made it to the docks, looking around at the airships that seemed to take up an infinite amount of space. The graceful, metallic ships, with gears covering their sides and generating steam. They were high-tech in that clunky, pieced-together way that seemed to be unavoidable.
There were voices. Two loud voices that seemed to be trying hard to be confident.
Dylan had a second of panic. Fear coursed through her veins, infusing her blood and chilling her. She looked around wildly, desperate not to be caught.
The pieced-together metal boxes on the wall called to her and she pushed the hinged lid up, stepped in, and pulled the lid down. She curled as small as possible, because the box was only as tall as her shoulders and it was mostly full of fuel capsules. She breathed slowly and quietly, calming herself.
The two voices got closer. Two men, maybe in their twenties. Joking with each other in a way that bordered on covering up stress. Dylan smiled to herself the dark box. Shallow criminals. She’d dealt with enough to know the uneasy demeanor of those not used to the criminal underworld. It was almost funny how unsure they were. Dylan had been a black market trader since she was twelve, when school was not as long as the whole day, but more than just the afternoons.
The voices were so purposely loud that she had no way of judging where their owners were.
She was still surprised, almost fatally, when there was a loud screeching sound next to her box.
One of the men swore. “Quiet,” the other one said. They had dropped their bravado and false confidence. Now they were focusing on the task at hand. Whatever that was.
“This box is so heavy,” the first man complained.
“Quiet,” the second one repeated.
So, they’re lifting the box next to mine. Why would they do that?
“The General pays too well for you to complain, Janden,” said the second voice.
Oh. If the box next to mine also has fuel, then…. They’re smuggling fuel. Why would they need to….
Then it hit her like lightning.
If they have to smuggle fuel to get it for a ship, then…. There’s an undocumented ship. There’s a criminal, unknown ship.
Dylan’s grin spread wide in the dark of the box.
And when the men carried the other box out of the room, Dylan carefully slipped out of her box, and followed them.
It was easy, really. They were not skilled in the art of stealing. Every minute or so, a sound would reach her ears; the sound of metal screeching on metal, or the sound of the men swearing.
She followed, quietly, always exactly one turn behind them.
Eventually, they stopped, and Dylan stopped too. Then she crept to the turn just ahead of her, the corner between her and the shallow criminals. She pressed against the wall, got onto her knees, and peeked around the corner.
The room was big and gray, with a perfectly cubical shape and an air lock on the far side. The shallow criminals were in the middle of the room, with the box.
The men were of average height, average build. One was shifting his weight from foot to foot, fidgeting. The other had his hand to an earpiece, not aware of how suspicious that looked to Dylan. She knew that The General, whoever that was, wasn’t listening in. So the earpiece was either a prop or connecting them to a go-between. That seemed to be it. The man was nodding, forgetting that the person couldn’t see him.
There was a period of waiting, because neither of the men moved and Dylan just watched them silently.
Finally, the man with the earpiece opened the door to the airlock and they pulled the box of fuel canisters inside. They hurriedly set the box in the little room.
As they turned around to reenter the big room, Dylan pulled out her mini-gun-sword and killed them. Because they were leaving the room, they clearly weren’t supposed to be there when The General picked up the fuel.
Then she sat in the air lock, hidden from the view of a person from either side. She waited.
After a while, a light came on in the air lock, illuminating the words ‘Helmets On Now.’ Dylan hastily donned a space suit and helmet, snapping the helmet into place and quickly hiding herself.
Not even a minute later, the door to the air lock opened, and a man walked out. He had a gear for an eye, and a cold look in the remaining eye. He easily picked up the heavy box.
As soon as his arms were around it, Dylan jumped out.
“Don’t move,” she hissed, holding out her bloodstained mini-gun-sword.
The man looked at her, a fierce, dark look in his eye. He didn’t move, but he stared at Dylan, glaring with a ferocity that scared her to the bottom of her soul.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you, General.”
“Can I move, then?” he asked mockingly, keeping his mouth completely still, like a ventriloquist.
“No. Just give me a reason.”
“Well. Can I assume you want my airship, then?”
“You may so assume.” She flicked the safety, readying it to fire.
“Fine. I can fly a ship. You can’t.”
She gave him a cold smile. “Now tell me all the methods in this room that you can kill me with.”
He sighed deeply. “A little girl is as smart as me. This is humiliating. All right, I could hit that button to cut off your helmet from air supply, then vacuum the air out of the room….”
There was a few minutes of that, and then Dylan said, “So, in short, if I let you move, you kill me.”
“Not necessarily.”
“Hmm?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
“It’s hard being a criminal. You couldn’t last in space without me. And it wouldn’t hurt me to have an ally.”
“Why would you need an ally? You’re fine right now.”
“Why not, honestly? And anyone that can outwit me is someone I had better be on the same team as.”
“And what is your team?”
The General narrowed his eyes like a cat. “I want to take down the V-vernment. You?”
When she hesitated, he laughed. “You expect me to think that you killed my underlings,” he pointed with his chin toward their bodies, “and want to take over my off-the-grid ship because you’re a good person?”
Dylan glared at him, hatred in her eyes. “I am a good person. Every single illegal thing I’ve ever done was to save my father. And if I can bring down the V-vernment, then I’ll do that, too.”
“Okay. So, ally, can I set down this box? It’s heavy.”
I hope he’s telling the truth, thought Dylan. If not, I am dead.
“Fine, ally. Can you give me a tour of the ship?”
One Year Later
Dylan and The General made a good team. They had been able to bring down a few high-up members of the V-vernment. And they were gaining notoriety.
Humans down on Venus were starting to be afraid. There was a full-scale code red drill once a week, in every single building on Human Venus. But the remaining higher-ups in power knew that nothing they could do could stop Dylan and The General.
Honestly, if they could get into Venus Control and get past about twenty passwords, they could disable the oxygen machines, killing everyone in Human Venus. Exactly like The General had done to Army Force Thirty-Five. Well, no one actually knew what he had done to Army Force Thirty-Five. But it was the same idea.
Down in the mines of Human Venus, a miner leader named Alex Holden was deeply, deeply apprehensive. The miners had oxygen masks and protective suits, but Alex knew that anyone who wasn’t afraid was stupid.
Even though the V-vernment was trying to keep it quiet, almost everyone knew that Human Venus was in danger. Since Alex was in charge of a mine, he had been briefed on all known information. But much wasn’t known. Just that there was a rogue, dangerous airship out there, gunning for Human Venus.
Alex knew there was really nothing he could do to stop whoever the unknown threat was. But he was smart.
And one day he had a discovery of a new metal. With it came an idea that was so good, he requested a meeting with a defense commander.
*****
“I’m sure, sir. I don’t know anything about ships, but I think it’s true.” Alex had tried to explain his rather abstract idea for a half of an hour. The Defense Commander wasn’t making it easier, peppering him with questions he couldn’t answer.
Defense Commander Hart, a tall, gray-haired man, paced back and forth. “I don’t know much about the ships, either. But it’s someone’s job to. I’ll call in the Director of the Fleet.”
After the Director Daflin had arrived, Alex explained his idea again.
“Well,” said the Director, drumming her fingers on the conference-room table. “Well. The amount of power needed would depend on how far away the ship is. And depending on that, we could extend an enormous amount of energy, to no avail.”
Alex’s heart sank. “But would it work, as a principle? Ships are made of metal.”
Director Daflin shrugged. “It’s never been attempted before. Is there any proof it would work?”
“Well, I’ve tried pulling a couple helmets with this new metal. They moved across the room.”
“We can run more tests. We can take some to our lab.” This was Commander Hart, who was trying to redeem himself.
Director Daflin nodded. “And if you could try and mine as much of this new metal as possible. Anything that can protect Human Venus is in demand.”
“Yes, ma’am. Is there any more information on the threat?” This he asked to both of them.
Commander Hart answered. “No. There is something interesting, though. News from the population.”
“What is it?”
“There’s a teenage girl missing. Her mother is freaked out. And no one has found a body. So, either she’s been kidnapped, or she’s part of this threat.”
Alex shook his head. “Are we sure this is related at all? With all due respect, Commander, kidnappings probably aren’t uncommon.”
“That’s just it, Mr….?”
“Holden.”
“Okay, Mr. Holden. That’s just it. Usually, any kidnappings are resolved in a relatively short amount of time. This girl, Dylan, she’s been missing for a whole year. And there were police all throughout the city looking from the first day.”
Director Daflin nodded. “Even me, up in Fleet Division, I’ve heard about this. Her mother is distraught. It’s possible she’s depressed.”
“Do we have any clues about who the threat is?”
Commander Hart scratched his head, deep in thought. “A day or so after the girl disappeared, there were two bodies of dead men discovered in the docks. The police did identity and background checks. Low-level criminals, involved in a few minor schemes. One of them had a photocopy of a note in his pocket. It detailed the theft of a crate of fuel canisters, and the signature of the sender was blacked out.”
Alex swallowed. He was unnerved by the news, however relevant it was. “And how were they killed?” he asked.
“Blasts from a gun-sword. Which are illegal in Human Venus, by the way. They’re only allowed in the military, where they might actually need them.”
Alex looked the Commander in the eyes. “So, if all of this is related to the unknown threat, then there’s a whole network, potentially. Sounds like those two guys got double-crossed, since I assume they didn’t have access to the docks?”
Director Daflin nodded. “We have pretty tight security. Not just anyone can get in. Although, soon after the bodies were discovered, we also found another body, a few halls down, as well as a broken window. We assume the broken window was a mode of entry.”
“What is this proof of, though?” Alex said, frustrated. “Will my idea work, or not?”
Director Daflin shrugged. “It’s a good idea, a little fantastic, but we can make it realistic. It’s something to try. And we’re grateful.”
“Yes,” said Commander Hart. “Thank you. We will see if this can work. You’re a good man, Mr.Holden. And we’ll tell you what we figure out.”
*****
It was a few days later when a messenger from the V-vernment was sent to fetch Alex.
The messenger was a short man who had run all the way to the mines. He was extremely short of breath and had to be provided with three glasses of water before he had enough breath to talk.
“Sir. Defense Commander Hart says that you’re to come to the Defense Building.”
“What for?” Alex could guess, but he wanted to be sure.
“I haven’t been told that, sir.”
“When?” asked Alex. He took off his miners’ helmet but held onto his pickaxe.
“As soon as possible,” the messenger panted. “May I have another glass of water?”
*****
As soon as Alex made it to the Defense Building, he was met by Commander Hart.
“Mr. Holden. We’re glad to have you here,” said the Commander, holding out his hand. Alex Holden quickly shook it, then cut to the chase.
“Sir, have there been any discoveries?”
“Yes. Security has reviewed the tapes of the docks, of the day before the bodies were found. We have footage of the girl-- the one who’s been missing a year-- sneaking in and killing the men. And--” he said, sitting forward in his seat, “we have footage of her making an alliance with a man who seems to have an unauthorized airship.”
“This is huge,” said Alex. He shook his head. “Has anyone told the girl’s mother?”
“No,” said Commander Hart. “But we’re planning to. The trouble is that no one wants to be the one to tell her.”
“Okay. Also, do the tapes show anything about the man she made the alliance with?”
Commander Hart stared into space for a moment. He looked a little afraid. “Mr. Holden, the man…. We ran facial recognition software. Have you ever heard of General Fler?”
“Sure,” answered Alex, a bit hesitantly. “He was that poster general, maybe a decade ago. But no one knows what happened to him.” There was a pause. “Right?”
“Mr. Holden, General Fler is the one. It looked like he’d lost an eye, and it was replaced with gears, but it was undeniably the same man. And because we’re sure of that, we know how afraid we have to be.”
“And?”
“Very afraid. General Fler was one of the smartest graduates of military academy. It seemed as though he dropped his guard, and while facing death, he made an alliance with Dylan.”
“Do we think she’s safe?”
“Well, there’s been nothing since. So, honestly, he could have backstabbed her any day he wanted. Anything could have or could be happening. But because of that one moment of her having the upper hand, now we have no word of her.”
Commander Hart paused to let that sink in. “I called you here today because your idea is the only hope we have. If we can use that metal you found to bring their ship down to Venus, then we are saved, we can imprison General Fler and be unafraid.”
“If I may, what would happen to Dylan? She’s a teenager, right?”
“Yes, we think she’s about fifteen or sixteen. And we don’t know. We don’t even know if she’s alive. We have no idea what sort of crimes she might have committed. We don’t know what to do with her. But when we capture them, we’ll sort it out. Right now we need to focus on catching the ship.”
“Right. So, all of the mines are under orders to look for this metal in particular. We’ve found a lot, about ten tons. And it’s all been sent to Defense Control, under your name.”
“Great! Then let’s catch a pair of intergalactic criminals.” Commander Hart started to move toward the door leading to the Defense Control Room.
Alex was caught off-guard. “Now, sir?”
“Yes. We can’t let the people of Human Venus live in fear. Plus, we have all the equipment. We just need to go to get your metal. All the ships have been grounded, including the military ships. The generals all decided it wasn’t safe for them in space during a crisis, which plays to your plan perfectly.”
*****
A few hours later, the enormous magnet was assembled. All of the members of the V-vernment were there, as well as Alex. Apart from him, they all looked in bewilderment at the huge amount of metal.
Commander Hart came forward. “I would like to introduce Alex Holden. This V-man formulated the plan that may save Human Venus.”
All the assembled people clapped. Feeling self-conscious, Alex looked to the ground.
Director Daflin was typing away at a small computer, while another director looked over her shoulder and muttered advice. “I’ve adjusted the booster to the amount of power needed. But we can’t let it stay on for too long, or it will leach power out of Human Venus.”
“Now, Mr. Holden will press the button to start the booster, and we will hope for the future.”
All twenty-five commanders of the V-vernment, as well as fifteen directors and the president, the leaders of Human Venus, looked to Alex. He swallowed.
Commander Hart nodded to him. He walked to the machine attached to the netting that covered the metal.
He took a deep breath, and pressed the bright green button.
*****
Aboard their ship, currently flying toward Mars, Dylan and The General felt the ship change course. Well, the cannon at the front was still pointed toward Mars, but the ship was…. Being pulled.
“General? What’s happening?” Dylan called. She held onto a door for support.
“I don’t know! I’m going to try to accelerate. Maybe that will stop whatever’s happening.”
And The General tried, but it was a tug of war. They might have made it, except that they hadn’t gotten any fuel for at least a month.
Army Ship Thirty-Five was dragged slowly, but unceasingly, toward Venus. Dylan and The General could do nothing.
When they finally landed, The V-vernment sent armed police to escort them to the Central Plaza of Human Venus, in handcuffs. There, as many people as could fit crammed the plaza and the streets.
What only Alex knew was that a detective team had been building a case against The General. Including something he thought Dylan would be very interested to know.
“We are gathered here today,” said Human Venus President Mint, “to see justice. These two,” he pointed to Dylan and The General, (surrounded on all sides by police) “have terrorized Human Venus for more than a year, and we are saddened by the losses of Directors Kee and Frendle, as well as those of Commanders Lopez and Santin. May they rest in peace.
“Now, before I give out our sentences, I understand that a Mr. Holden would like a few words.”
There was polite applause.
Alex walked up to the podium, cleared his throat, and said, “I couldn’t sleep when I knew there were intergalactic criminals on the loose. But once I knew enough about the case to be taken seriously as part of it, I was surprised to learn that we had a fifteen-year-old as a tie for Enemy Number One. And so it seemed like we ought to look deeper into her, why she’s in handcuffs right now, and her sentence.
“So here is our detective team. They have looked into everything about this case, put together pieces of this puzzle with nothing but speculation. But now that we think we know the whole story, it’s not speculation anymore.”
The detectives came up onstage, and Alex left.
“Our first question was, what happened to her? After combing through hundreds of hours of video and audio footage, we know that she came into the airship dock building by breaking a window, followed two men illegally smuggling fuel, then killed the men and waited for General Fler. Once Fler had arrived, she waited until he picked up the heavy box, then jumped out and threatened him. Based on their conversation, we can deduce that she wanted control of an airship. She and Fler ended up joining forces.” This detective looked to the next.
“Our next question was, what was her motive for wanting a ship? And we solved this question by way of a long search. We talked to her mother and realized that her father had gone missing in action years ago. In looking through her room we came across a jar labeled ‘Bribe Fund.’ This tipped us off that Dylan was in illegal business. We did a lot of looking and talking to people who Dylan may have interacted with. People in high places that she might have paid off.
“Following a hunch, we looked into the father business, going to the Records and speaking to the people there. We found out that Dylan had bribed an employee at the Records, to let her see the files relating to her father’s Army Force, number Thirty-Five. That’s all the evidence we have, but it’s enough to make an educated guess. That Dylan teamed up with General Fler to find her father, Dune. Is that right?” This question was directed at Dylan, who nodded.
“Then, because we were genuinely intrigued, we decided to find out what happened to Army Force Thirty-Five. And you know what we found?”
“We found out the murderer in this whodunit. And it’s actually a cruel trick of fate, at least for Dylan.” The man cleared his throat, self-important in his moment of glory. “Based on the reappearance of the exact ship that housed and transported Army Force Thirty-Five, and the fact that eleven years ago, there was a period of time where all the air circulation was cut off for a few hours, we can put this case to rest. The murderer of Army Force Thirty-Five is none other than General Fler.”
There was total silence for about two minutes.Then Dylan screeched, “You killer! You liar! You….” before the police made her quiet down, so President Mint could speak.
“So, for the murder of Army Force Thirty-Five, as well as of our directors and commanders, we charge General Fler with a lifetime in prison.”
There was applause and hollering.
“And for murder, breaking and entering, and theivery-- yes, our detectives uncovered that as well-- we charge Dylan with a sentence of five years, as she is a minor.”
There was stunned silence.
Then the two were carted away in police vehicles.
As the president wished everyone farewell, Commander Hart whispered to Alex “You saved Human Venus.”
The Aftermath
Dylan was just about the most obedient inmate there was. She had no reason to want out, because the gloomy setting allowed her to grieve for her father fully.
Alex, who had been granted the title of Director of Mining, visited her sometimes. The first few times were awkward, as they didn’t know each other at all, but after that, they knew each other well enough to play chess together. Alex only won once. He kind of became a ‘big brother’ figure to her, which was a little ironic, considering he had put her behind bars.
Dylan’s art teacher, Ms. N., also visited Dylan. Once a week, on Fridays at ten in the morning. She was always exactly on time.
She brought Dylan paints and canvases, and she told Dylan stories. Her visits were some of Dylan’s best times in prison.
Then there was her mother.
Dylan’s mother was very stubborn by nature. The first time she visited, she sat in the chair in Dylan’s cell, and pretended to not see her until she apologized for all she had put her mother through.
After that, though, they were able to have some good talks and cry over Dune together.
Dylan was pretty content in prison. It wasn’t fun-- that would have defeated the purpose of prison. But Dylan spent her days contemplating her life, thinking about how to change.
The General was a completely different story.
No one ever visited him. No one wanted to, or had any reason to.
He died in prison, ten years after being put there.
There was a funeral. Dylan was invited, even though she was a prisoner. She accepted, because it was outside of the prison. She enjoyed the thought of The General dead.