The Light Blue Jumper Read online

  “You mean more bloodshed,” I said glumly.

  “No, I mean that of the rebel variety.”

  “Another thing, I don’t like the Princess,” I told him bluntly.

  “Well, we agree on that then, neither do I.” I was glad he shared my sentiment.

  “She seems like a very mean person. It was completely gratuitous, all that screaming and the terrible accusations without a shred of proof.”

  “She isn’t exactly known for her kind heart, Zaaro. She is a very dangerous Black Ops agent who would stop at nothing to sabotage our mission.”

  “I hope she is being kept under tight security Lieutenant. Personally I don’t know how the IPF puts up with her. She should have been fired for misconduct a long time ago.”

  “I agree. Don’t worry though, Madam is seeing to it personally that she is kept in complete isolation,” Salaar reassured me.

  “That is a relief. I can go back to my room and sleep easy tonight then.”

  “Yes. Get some rest Zaaro and don’t worry about the Princess,” he said kindly.

  I walked back to my room placated. I thought of Madam wielding a huge gun and threatening to blow everyone’s heads off and smiled.

  45. The Good Doctor

  I could not believe my ears. Princess Dinaara! A prisoner on board our ship! How I had dreamed of this day. We could use her to get all sorts of concessions from the outlying kingdoms, maybe permission for a secret rebel base on one of their smaller moons; the possibilities were endless. I would be sure to congratulate Lethal on pulling this off. I always knew he had it in him.

  “We should make sure our guest is well taken care of,” I told Madam.

  “Why don’t you drop in and see for yourself, Good Doctor?” she asked.

  “I was just on my way there, actually,” I said, striding towards the personnel quarters.

  I knocked sharply. There was no reply so I keyed open the door and peered in. It was dark and I could hear gentle snores from within the room. It would appear that the Princess was asleep. I prepared to withdraw, having looked around and seen that the room seemed spacious and clean. As I was leaving, something struck my foot.

  On closer inspection, I discovered it was a pile of books stacked neatly near the door. I hadn’t imagined the Princess to be the reading sort, being a spoilt royal and an IPF Black Ops agent; it was a pleasant surprise that she had time for quiet contemplation.

  I picked up a book from the pile. It would be useful to see whether we had any common interests. It was important for us to start off on the right note if we were to accomplish the most out of the hostage situation.

  I held the spine of one of the books to the light streaming in from under the door. The Jumper Within. How odd. I checked another book, I Jump Therefore I Am. I felt a chill run through me. The third was, One Two Jump. Oh, by the suns and the moons! I sat down on the floor. The Princess was here to recruit Zaaro! She had followed his trail, here to us, and was planning to steal away our prize, right from under our noses! Somehow she had managed to procure all the reference material I had given to Zaaro. She was a worthy opponent indeed, but she would not find me lacking either.

  I toyed briefly with the idea that the Princess herself may be a Jumper, but rejected it straight away on the basis that she would not have been caught if she were. Unless, of course, she wanted to be caught in order to get to Zaaro. But that begged the question, why would she need Zaaro if she was a Jumper herself? Unless, she didn’t know he was a Jumper. But she knew about the prophecy. She didn’t want him for herself, but only wanted to make sure we didn’t have him. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that I was on the right track.

  The list, the storage site, were all a part of an elaborate IPF hoax in order to lure us to the IPF ship so they could send Dinaara back with us and avert the prophecy. It was with reluctant admiration that in a single moment of clarity, I realised the full extent of the IPF planning and foresight. They had set this sequence of events in motion years before we had even discovered Zaaro!

  Dinaara was ruthless. Hadn’t I heard that she had attempted to shoot Zaaro on the IPF ship and luckily Zaaro had escaped largely unhurt except for a wounded leg? She wasn’t here to take him back with her, I realised with a sinking heart. She was here to finish him off.

  I decided to post a guard outside Zaaro’s door at all times. As for Dinaara, Madam would have to move her to the ship’s prison. I could not countenance her being housed right next to Zaaro for one more second.

  I rushed out of the room, accidentally knocking over the pile of books in the process. I stood around, listening at the door for a while, but luckily the Princess remained asleep.

  46. Commander Lethalwulf

  I was standing on the bridge, keeping watch on the personnel quarters, when I looked down and saw movement in the corridor. I walked over to investigate and saw the strangest thing. The Good Doctor, having emerged from Zaaro’s room, was standing with his ear to the door. After a while, he left, muttering something about the Princess. I wondered if he had dropped in to see her as well, or if his snooping around was confined to Zaaro’s person. I decided the quickest way to find out would be to just ask the Princess directly.

  “Enter!” she said when I knocked.

  “Greetings, Your Royal Highness,” I said with mock ceremony as I opened the locked door with my security key card.

  “I don’t speak with people below the rank of Lieutenant,” she responded.

  I couldn’t help but smile. “I am a Commander on this ship and as far as I can recall, I outranked you in Black Ops.”

  “Your career suffered a bit of a setback when you defected to the rebels. Let’s say you have been demoted to the most wanted list while I am still a serving Commander.”

  “I am quite used to being wanted,” I said.

  “Don’t flatter yourself, Commander. As you know, that’s where the IPF and I totally disagree.”

  “Tell me, have they stopped teaching Commanders how to wield guns these days? Or is getting shot just a hobby of yours?”

  “Why don’t you tell me when you started recruiting insane Zaaronians? Are rebels so hard to come by?”

  “The Zaaronian is not a recruit. He is a valued friend.”

  “How much?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “How much do you value him at?”

  “Even for you that is an offensive question.”

  “Have I offended your sensibilities, Commander? Let me rephrase. How much would you sell him out for? I have authorization to make a payment of up to 99.99 million Currency Units, straight into your account. No questions asked. And the list would have to be part of the package.”

  “You disappoint me Princess. I would never give up a friend for any amount of CUs. What do you want with him anyway?”

  “Now it is my turn to be surprised Commander. I too was a friend once, roughly around the time when you defected to the rebels and left me at the mercy of the IPF high command, answerable for my alleged role in your defection,” she said, with the slightest tremor in her voice.

  “I knew they would never touch you. Your lineage has always been enough to take care of you, Princess. Unfortunately, my other friends don’t have the luxury of kingdoms behind them,” I attempted to explain.

  “Fine, the Zaaronian was just the icing on the cake. I thought his violent streak might be of some use to us. I will give you the full amount just for the list.”

  “I couldn’t sell you the list even if I wanted to. It is in Madam’s safekeeping. Did you notice the way she was threatening to blow everyone’s heads off? That was her being polite. She usually shoots first and asks later,” I said. “Actually you couldn’t even handle Zaaro,” I added as an afterthought.

  “I can totally handle him. I was unprepared for his particular brand of mayhem earlier.” I saw her glance at her leg.

  Now I permitted myself to laugh. “You don’t understand. Zaaro is not a killer. He is just extremel
y accident-prone.”

  “Nice try, Commander! I am quite impressed by your attempt to paint Zaaro as a loose cannon. I have seen right through it though. His moves were all textbook, but deftly executed. I know exactly what to expect now, and I am confident I can counter and deflect every move of his,” she said with feeling.

  “All right then. You totally saw through my attempt at misinformation. Well done!” I said as I turned to walk out of the door. Apparently my momentary desire to be honest was completely surpassed by Dinaara’s desire to be clever. I had a sneaking suspicion I had forgotten something when I reached my lookout post. I guess I will find out soon enough if it was important, I thought to myself, resuming sentry duty.

  47. Zaaro Nian

  I had such a strange dream. I was asleep in front of an audience. People were staring at me and whispering as I slept. I heard a jumble of voices, doors banging, objects clattering to the floor. I woke with a start and heard my room’s door clicking shut. I jumped out of bed and switched on the light.

  I checked everything in turn. The steel chairs were in their usual place around the table, my empty plate was where I had left it. The blank white walls were unchanged. And then I noticed with a start that my neatly piled books were scattered on the floor by the door. There had been an intruder in my room! I ran to my cupboard to check that my freshly procured stores of chicken tikka cubes were safe. All accounted for, I heaved a sigh of relief.

  I ticked off the list of could-have-beens. Definitely not Salaar. He would have burst in and attacked me, as was the usual course. Probably not Lethalwulf either, he was on sentry duty on the bridge for the night. Unlikely that it was Madam, she was simply too well mannered to be creeping about my room as I slept. That left me with The Good Doctor; again highly unlikely as he was all the way over at the other end of the Second Light, besides he would have summoned me if he needed me.

  Just then I heard another door click shut close by. I immediately decided to investigate. Who was roaming around at this late hour, wandering into people’s rooms and knocking over things? The room next door to mine was unoccupied. Salaar was two doors down.

  I moved stealthily out of my room, opened the door next to mine and peered in. The room was standard-issue, a steel table and four chairs, and a small folding cot in the corner. I couldn’t see anyone. Nonetheless, I decided to be thorough and slunk in to look around properly. I had heard the door after all.

  I tapped on the brilliant white walls for hidden doors and checked under the bed; all with the eerie feeling that someone was watching me. I decided to get Salaar’s help. There was definitely some strange invisible presence in this room. Just then something whacked me in the back of my head.

  “Ouch!” I said, turning around, gingerly rubbing my head.

  “How dare you snoop around in my room, Zaaronian!”

  Oh Zaaron! I had wandered into the Princess’s lair! I tried to quell the fear I felt rising from the pit of my stomach.

  “I had no idea you were in here,” I said truthfully.

  “Do not lie to me! You were obviously looking for something, thief!” she shouted.

  She really was an obnoxious person. “I’ll just call Salaar, he will explain,” I said, trying to squirm past her.

  “Why? What does Salaar have to do with this?”

  “Well, if you must know, someone came into my room while I was asleep and woke me up. I thought that person might be hiding in this room.” The last part of my sentence was inaudible even to me.

  Now it was the Princess’ turn to look perturbed. “I knew I wasn’t safe here. They’ve left you and goodness knows what else, free to roam around at night. Hoping to kill me in my sleep, were you?” she asked menacingly.

  “No, no, I don’t kill people. Please don’t hurt me!” I wasn’t proud of my performance at this point.

  “I will not be fooled by your attempts at looking vulnerable! Drop the act, Zaaronian!” she shouted.

  I gulped in response, then tried to hide myself under the covers on her bed, assuming that was where she had been hiding.

  Just as she was dragging me out, Salaar burst in to the room, thankfully true to form.

  “Leave him alone!” he shouted at Dinaara. All the shouting; I was trembling like a leaf.

  “It’s all right Zaaro. I’ll handle the mean lady,” he said to me.

  “The mean lady? Just who are you calling a mean lady?” The Princess was still shouting.

  “He meant you, Princess,” I hastened to clarify. Zaaronians like to be useful.

  “Look at how you were bullying poor Zaaro. You ought to be ashamed,” Salaar said, then turned to me and asked, “Just how did you get in here, Zaaro?”

  “Me bullying this killer? Lethal is the one who left me at his mercy, by leaving the security door unlocked,” the Princess fumed.

  Could she possibly be referring to me? “I think she has me confused with someone else, Lieutenant. She thinks that she is in mortal danger for some reason.” I felt a little more confident with Salaar around. “Allow me to explain to the Princess, Lieutenant,” I continued.

  “By all means, go ahead,” Salaar smiled.

  “This is a very safe place. I am a very nice person. In fact, there are good people all around you on this ship. Actually, and I think you will find this knowledge very comforting, I think you may be the only unsavoury person on board,” I further reassured her.

  “I’ve never been called unsavoury before. Ruthless, dangerous, insane even, on certain occasions,” she mused.

  “What awful things to say about someone! I am sure you are a very considerate person, other than when you’re hurling abuse at people and assaulting them,” I said, immediately feeling sorry for her.

  “Yes, I feel the same way about myself. It’s a pity most people don’t agree with my analysis,” she nodded in agreement.

  “Finally we agree on something! I think we are becoming friends, Princess, and it has come to my attention that friends share information with one another,” I said.

  “Yes, Zaaronian, you are right. You may begin with your confidences first,” she said graciously.

  “I appreciate the opportunity. I would like to begin with something about the Lieutenant, if you’d be interested?” I asked.

  “Yes, I would be delighted,” she responded.

  “Zaaro! No!” Salaar tried to hoist me out of the bed.

  “This may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, Salaar, let me speak,” I urged him.

  Salaar managed to pull me towards the door. “Salaar has special powers!” I threw over my shoulder as I was unceremoniously dragged out of the room.

  48. Madam X

  I had given up on all thoughts of sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw before me the IPF operatives list that had been decrypted an hour ago. I had ensured no one else had seen it. It had been routed directly to me by Central Command as soon as it had been deciphered. Even Central Command was in the dark, as I had divided it up before asking for it to be unscrambled.

  How was this even possible? Although, to be fair, I had been battling a nagging feeling for some time that something was not quite right. But this was beyond anything I could have imagined. My thoughts on the subject were interrupted by footfalls.

  The Good Doctor walked in. “I’m so glad I found you!” he said.

  “Why?” I dreaded to think of what catastrophe may have brought on this late-night visit.

  “I have good reason to believe, actually I am more or less almost sure, that the Princess is a Cardigan!” he announced.

  His obsession with jumping and speaking in code was getting exasperating. “That is totally impossible,” I told him.

  “I have seen it with my own eyes,” he insisted.

  “You have seen her jump?” I was incredulous. For thousands of years Jumpers had been the stuff of legend, and now suddenly they appeared to be available by the dozen.

  “Yes, in a manner of speaking,” he said enigmatically.
/>   “Which manner of speaking is this, the type where you merely embellish and exaggerate or tell outright lies?” I asked bluntly.

  “There is no need to be so brusque,” he said. “I went to her room a short while ago.”

  “At this late hour! Why would you do that?” I asked, bewildered.

  “You told me to,” he said.

  Well, he was right about that. I wasn’t about to admit it though. “I did no such thing!” I protested.

  “I saw them in her room.” He paused.

  “Weapons? Hostages? Drugs?” I asked fearing the worst.

  “No. Books! Books about jumping, to be precise, the very same ones I had given to Zaaro and they seemed pretty well thumbed to me.”

  “So, because she was reading about it, you assumed she was a Jumper, rather than maybe she had found out about Zaaro’s abilities. How about that for logical deduction!” I was amazed.

  “I thought that at first but on further reflection, there is absolutely no chance whatsoever that she knows about Zaaro. Besides me, the only people who are privy to that information are the three of you, and I can vouch for the discretion of each one of you.” He beamed at me.

  “Who will vouch for you though?” I mumbled.

  “What was that? You want to vouch for me? Very kind of you to offer but it is wholly unnecessary. I don’t need convincing,” he chuckled, “I am quite familiar with my own ability to keep secrets. I don’t know if you noticed, but even in the privacy of this room, I used code to refer to the Princess’s abilities,” he said, thoroughly pleased with himself.

  “And then you spoke at length about Zaaro’s jumping abilities,” I said, giving him my most fetching smile.

  He was oblivious of my sarcasm. “My instructions are to immediately post a guard outside Zaaro’s door and transfer Dinaara to the ship’s high-security prison. I believe she is here to get rid of Zaaro, to avert the prophecy.”