The Light Blue Jumper Page 15

  Salaar gasped and I winced, afraid to look at Zaaro. Except, when I did look over, he wasn’t there. “By the kingdoms!” I yelled, “You did it. You sent him back in time.”

  “No. I didn’t,” he said emphatically.

  “Oh no! Was it a disintegrator?”

  “Calm down. No it wasn’t and I didn’t do it,” he said. “There is no saying it worked anyway; Zaaro could just be somewhere around here, out of range.”

  “I don’t understand any of this. You mean you were telling the truth? Zaaro has the power? Or do you mean he doesn’t have it?” I asked, confused.

  “He does have the power to jump through space and time but he didn’t know it until a moment ago and he can’t control it yet,” he explained.

  “Oh. Well, his secret is safe with me, for the time being at least.” I grinned at him.

  “It better be, otherwise I may have you sent back to your spotty adolescence,” he warned.

  I stopped grinning immediately. I was what you may call a late bloomer and preferred not to recall pre-bloom days.

  63. Lieutenant Salaar (Back in Time)

  We were under attack. I rushed into the control room to find Zaaro vibrating with tension while Madam was pacing up and down. His arms were flailing about wildly and he was saying, “Don’t crash the ship!”

  “I don’t intend to, Zaaro,” I said in my most calm manner. Then I asked Central Command to activate our shield.

  “Zaaro is already here and Dinaara can take care of herself; inform Lethal and The Good Doctor to come to the control room immediately,” Madam instructed Central Command.

  “Should we jump?” Madam asked.

  “We can’t. They’ve got us locked in a retractor beam. Our shield will give us five minutes at most,” I told her.

  “Prepare to land on Dephron!” I shouted to Central Command.

  “Landing sequence initiated,” she said.

  “How will we land if the IPF ship is locked to ours?” Madam asked, perplexed.

  “Then we will land together. Increase speed to maximum!” I shouted at Central Command.

  “Wait!” Zaaro squeaked.

  “I am warning all of you. The next shout directed at me, I will file a complaint under Ship Rules ref 2.2.2. Any attempt at intimidation of Central Command by audio or visual means will not be tolerated and a complaint will result in the perpetrator being incarcerated for the rest of the journey,” Central Command said primly.

  After a stunned silence in which I made a mental note to carry a copy of the Ship Rules with me at all times since I was now beginning to suspect that Central Command simply made them up as and when she required, I adjusted my decibel level in order to speak. “What is it?” I asked Zaaro.

  “If we land, we’ll crash, and Madam, The Good Doctor, and Lethal will die,” Zaaro informed us.

  “Abort command,” Madam immediately stepped in.

  “Our shield will be down in three minutes, we have to land,” I said.

  Just then Lethal and The Good Doctor entered the control room.

  “Disengage from the IPF ship first,” Lethal said.

  “Thank you for not shouting. How?” Central Command enquired.

  “Switch off all engines,” said The Good Doctor.

  “But we’ll collide with the IPF ship,” I said.

  “They will switch off the beam to avert a collision; right at that point, we revive our engines and cut loose,” The Good Doctor offered an alternative plan.

  “At which point they will pull us in again!” Madam was getting exasperated.

  “Not if we charge full speed ahead for Dephron,” Lethal said.

  “Following which fancy manoeuvre, we will then crash onto Dephron and die!” Madam flung back.

  “I have a suggestion,” Zaaro said timidly. “Why don’t we just land as we regularly do?”

  Madam was about to cut him short, when I asked him to go on.

  “As soon as we are disengaged, we can enter the atmosphere around Dephron and let the gravitational pull do the rest. They won’t be able to pull us back, the most they can do is follow us,” Zaaro finished with a mumble.

  “That’s brilliant!” Lethal agreed.

  “Switch off engines,” I said to Central Command.

  “Engines off,” she confirmed.

  We started careening towards the IPF ship and their beam was switched off exactly as predicted.

  “Do it now. Land on Dephron,” I said to Central Command.

  “By land, do you mean land or do you mean crash?” Central Command clarified, before following my instructions.

  “Land. Absolutely do not crash,” I said.

  64. Madam X (An Alternate Reality)

  We landed on a sandy stretch, bordered by barren rocky mountains on either side. Dephron was largely uninhabited because it was a very dull place. There was absolutely nothing to do there. An air of boredom had steeped into the very soil of the place over millennia. They say that once upon a time there was a brave group of settlers who tried to set up a small village there. As each day passed, the planet drained them of their will to live. They became listless and miserable, losing all interest in their daily activities until one day they were found by a group of travelling missionaries, sitting outside their makeshift homes, staring up at the sky through vacant, unblinking eyes. They are still there, it is rumoured, as a warning to anyone foolhardy enough to try and inhabit Dephron.

  One by one, we ventured out of the ship. The IPF would be following us in soon enough and we had to take cover before then.

  After a quick look around we located a cave, the entrance to which was half hidden by boulders, and holed ourselves up inside, taking defensive positions. We waited and waited some more. There was no sign of the IPF forces or their ship. Perhaps they had decided that the list wasn’t important enough to pursue. I cornered Dinaara.

  “Where are they?” I asked.

  “I have no idea. According to my expectations, they should have been here, killed us and retrieved the list hours earlier. How about we make use of this opportunity and leave?”

  She was right. I decided to give the command to head back to the ship, in about five minutes. I just had to rest my weary bones for a while before rushing around and managing everything.

  As I rested, it was pleasing to see that everyone else was also recuperating. Salaar and Lethal were lounging near the entrance while The Good Doctor was snoozing a little further in. Dinaara was now staring, transfixed, at something on the wall.

  I looked around for Zaaro but he wasn’t in my line of vision. He was probably sitting behind me. I would turn around in a while and check on him, I thought to myself.

  65. Zaaro Nian

  I was getting extremely fidgety and restless waiting for the others to wake up. They weren’t technically asleep, though, their eyes were open. I tried to speak to each one of them in turn, urging them to leave. I even jostled Salaar but he didn’t take any notice. I had a terrible feeling about this place, what was the point of rescuing everyone only to introduce them to a different kind of mortal danger? We really had to leave, but how? Then I had a brilliant idea, it was all part of being empowered through career-related growth, I suspected. I would speak to Central Command; she would know what to do. I ran out to the ship, clumsily shielding my poor eyes from the haze emitted by the fiery twin suns of Dephron.

  As I neared, I realised the Second Light’s doors were open. I stepped in gingerly, looking around for any unwanted visitors. Everything was quiet though. Extremely still. I pressed the button to connect to Central Command. I pressed again when there was no familiar clicking sound at the other end.

  “Hello,” I said.

  There was no audible response. I noticed a message flashing on the wall in front of me. ‘I am resting. Please wait for a more opportune moment to contact me,’ it read.

  “We have to leave this planet now! We are all in danger!” I almost raised my voice.

  ‘I agree. We will leave as
soon as I’m done resting,’ the wall replied.

  “How long will that be?” I asked.

  ‘I will let you know the answer to that as soon as I’m done resting.’

  “Can you help me get the others here?” I asked.

  ‘I probably can. I’ll be right on it, as soon as I’ve rested.’

  I would have preferred a run in with the IPF pursuit ship to dealing with this lethargy any day. It looked like it was up to me to get us off this miserable planet. No wonder the IPF ship had elected to stay away. As I was walking back towards the cave, something caught my eye. It was a tiny plume of smoke rising from behind the closest mountain. I promptly set off to investigate. Perhaps the IPF had followed us after all.

  The smoke was rising from a large crater in the ground. I walked closer, taking care to stop short of the edge, regardless of my outstanding balance and sturdiness and of course my special powers. Large blue drums, there must have been thousands of them, were piled one on top of the other. The smoke was rising from one that was broken. There was a putrid smell coming from the whole area. It seemed oddly familiar.

  Then it came to me! Of course! It was the stinking gas that was being developed in a restricted part of the Weapons Development Complex on Zaaron. The smell was so pungent though, that it had permeated the whole structure. Why it was being stockpiled here, in the middle of nowhere, was a complete mystery to me.

  I moved closer to check for any markings on the drums. As I leaned in, the sand shifted a little under my weight, making me teeter, for one frightening second, on the brink of the crater. I righted myself quickly and avoided falling in. Unfortunately, the sand that trickled down gathered momentum as it reached the inside of the pile, causing one of the blue barrels to roll forward, knocking a second barrel loose. Pretty soon, there was an avalanche of sorts, and blue barrels started falling like dominoes. They were definitely unmarked.

  A couple of them burst open, spewing their vile contents out on the sand. The stench would have made someone of a less sturdy constitution faint. I looked up and saw the little plume of smoke previously rising from the pit had turned into an aggressive mist, steadily enveloping everything around it; it wouldn’t be long before it reached the cave and the ship.

  I tried running as fast as I could, ship first or cave, I kept asking myself. Cave, no, ship; it had to be the ship. I ran to the ship followed by clouds of mist. “We have to leave now!” There was no response at all from Central Command, not even a flashing wall. “All right then I suppose I’ll just have to fly this thing myself.” There had to be a manual override. I sped to the control room and pressed a few buttons on the control panel. Suddenly a very loud and irritated Central Command piped up, “Mr Nian. I am deeply offended that you would deny a colleague some much needed and well-deserved rest and recuperation.”

  “We have to get the others and leave, otherwise the mist will consume them and this ship,” I warned.

  Central Command responded by turning the ship’s engine on, followed by the hyperexhaust. “If anyone thinks they’re going to damage my newly commissioned ship, they are mistaken,” she said contemptuously.

  We were at the cave within seconds. I used the retractor beam to pull each person in and we emerged out of the Dephron stratosphere at top speed, crashing into the now stationary IPF pursuit ship.

  66. The Good Doctor

  I woke with a jolt as we crashed into something. The last I remembered, we had decided not to crash. I was starting to get really irritated with Central Command for not following my instructions.

  I pressed the button for Central Command. “Please explain why we are currently engaged in the process of crashing into things!”

  “I am a little busy at the moment, Good Doctor.”

  “Are you disobeying a direct command?”

  “I am trying to save this ship. Would you rather I stopped and had a long chat with you instead?”

  “No. No. Carry on. Keep up the good work,” I said apologetically.

  “Are you sure? I could stop and chat for a while. We would crash and burn, but technically I could, since I would be obeying a direct command from my commanding officer.”

  “Please carry on with your brilliant work,” I urged. “Ignore me.”

  Everyone else in the control room was asleep, other than Zaaro and I. “Zaaro, do you have any idea what is going on?” I asked.

  “I believe we have crashed into the IPF pursuit ship,” Zaaro said.

  “That is correct, Mr Nian,” Central Command cut in, “The IPF ship has been torn apart, except for the control room, which is reinforced against collision. We have also suffered serious damage to our ship, which will have to be repaired as soon as we dock. I am picking up a distress signal from the IPF ship, there are only two survivors. Request permission to beam them on board,” she asked.

  “Permission granted,” I said generously, pleased with the deference in her tone. Nothing seemed to be happening though. “Go on,” I said a little firmly. She was still waiting for something.

  “Beam them aboard,” Madam’s clear authoritative voice rang out, and Central Command sprang into action immediately. I was going to speak to Madam about this later. Perhaps she could tone down her air of authority to keep it in line with her designation, so that the rest of us wouldn’t have to exert ourselves beyond what was required.

  The others were up as well. Suddenly, two prone figures were deposited on the control room’s beam platform. One of them, a tiny blue-eyed blonde woman, sprang up and pulled a gun on us.

  “Stand down. This is not an enemy ship.” Dinaara remained loyal to the IPF. I had yet to tell her about my conversation with her representatives at the Kingdom.

  The woman fired. Dinaara pushed Zaaro out of the way. Lethal had already pulled the woman’s arm behind her back and wrenched the gun out of her grasp.

  “You will be court-martialled for insubordination. I am Princess Dinaara, Commander Black Ops,” Dinaara introduced herself.

  “Ah. So we meet without my having to summon you,” the woman said. “I have been hearing conflicting reports about your current mission, ranging from defection to death on the job. Let’s just clarify everything right here, since, as you say, we are amongst friends,” she said silkily. “Are you dead?” she continued.

  “No, but that’s no thanks to you, whoever you are,” Dinaara responded.

  “Have you retrieved the list?” she asked.

  “What’s that to you?” Dinaara replied.

  “Have you discovered Lieutenant Salaar’s special powers?” was the next question.

  I saw Dinaara look startled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

  “Have you killed the Zaaronian?” the woman asked finally. All of us inhaled sharply and moved towards Zaaro, blocking him from view.

  “That was never my mission,” Dinaara protested, looking at us. “And you have no right to ask about confidential matters,” she said to the woman.

  “Well, it is now. The list is worthless. We merely used it to lure these cretins in. Recruit Salaar and eliminate the Zaaronian. General’s orders!” The rosy-cheeked villainess flashed us a bright smile and disappeared. We were all left staring slack-jawed at the spot where she had been.

  “It’s reverse-beam technology. Once a person is beamed on to a ship, they can use the adaptors in their suits to store the beam energy and redirect it to exit to a pre-programmed location of their choice whenever they please,” I informed everyone. It was something I had been on the verge of replicating for some time now.

  “Nobody except the highest ranks would have access to that though,” Salaar said.

  The other prone figure began to stir and sat up gingerly. “General?” he asked, looking around, “No, no, not again!” he said, holding his head. His epaulettes identified him as a Colonel in the IPF.

  “She seemed to have been in a great hurry to leave. You are?” Madam had stepped forward just as I was about to take charge of the situatio
n. She really had to stop doing that. Ordinarily I would have minded more, but I was pleased that I had been right about Dinaara’s mission all along. “I told you so,” I said to everyone in general and Madam in particular.

  “Bob. Colonel Bob, at your service. Told me what?” the IPF officer asked. He was the only person in the room I had not addressed. Nonetheless, I explained my reservations about Dinaara to him in detail, citing my initial suspicions of her having special powers, followed by my absolutely correct conclusion that she planned to eliminate Zaaro, as he appeared to be the only one who was listening.

  67. Madam X

  Colonel Bob was one of the five-member elite security team that travelled with the General at all times. He wore the black IPF sharply tailored military uniform. It was a little gaudy, but it was the popular choice as it was voted the best military uniform design in a poll conducted across all the planets under IPF control. Personally, I thought our uniforms could have done with a bit of sprucing up, but Salaar wouldn’t hear of adding even a hint of gold to our white space suits.

  When The Good Doctor and I flew the First Light out of the IPF armada and initiated the rebellion against the IPF, we had nothing but our ship, Central Command, our crew and each other. We remained in our standard-issue IPF conscription uniforms for the next two years causing indescribable mayhem in both IPF and rebel ranks, until we recruited Salaar and Anya straight out of Military School. We’d had quite a bit of competition for Anya; the IPF were desperate to have her, based on her military strategy scores. Her military quotient (MQ) was simply off the charts! Luckily for us, she would not be separated from Salaar, so we got both of them. And Salaar had insisted on a distinct uniform, which had led to an endless debate about the appropriate insignia for freedom. Finally, we settled on the fist as a symbol of the strength of the people. Personally, I thought it was poignant, as it was an accurate depiction of our relative strength and likelihood of success, the fist against a warship.