Galactic
Unity 2
By: Mark J. Hadley
* * *
The professor carefully lifted the ice pack from the side of Silver’s head to inspect the bruise. It was already getting much smaller, healing at a rapid pace much like his wing, which was nearing the point of being useful again. The efficiency of the Centraxians’ robotic cells at growth and repair amazed him, and he expected that even if the wound were serious, he could probably make a full recovery from it. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” Silver said, sitting up slightly from the couch where he was lying. He looked over at the girls, hovering nearby to make sure he was all right, and smiled slightly before lowered his eyes a bit. “Professor, I’m sorry…”
“No, I’m the one who should be sorry,” the professor told him. “I should have told you everything sooner. I guess I wasn’t sure how you’d react… I see now that you’re a lot more adaptive than I expected.”
Silver nodded, and asked, “So, as you were saying, the Centraxians… they’re explorers?”
“Yeah,” Blossom said. “Their whole purpose is to try and learn as much as they possibly can. Everything they learn is imprinted onto their cells, and even passed on to their children. This way, they can take everything they learn back to Centraxia, so it can be entered into the Repository of Knowledge.”
Silver looked intrigued by this, and asked, “This Repository, have you seen it?”
Buttercup nodded, “Yeah, it’s this huge building, like a couple miles tall…”
“It’s bigger than anything,” Bubbles said, spreading her arms out to the sides. “An’ inside, it looks even bigger!”
“We went there once with your mother, Xianea,” Blossom told him. Her expression saddened slightly, and she added, “I really wish you could have met her… she was one of the nicest people in the galaxy…”
“Xianea…” Silver repeated, lost in thought. “You know, maybe I still can, in a way.”
Looking puzzled, Bubbles asked, “What do you mean?”
“You said that Centraxians pass on everything they learned, right?” Silver pointed out. “Well, wouldn’t I be able to access Xianea’s memories, then?”
“Hey yeah, you’re right!” Buttercup exclaimed. “Cool!”
“Can you access anything right now?” the professor asked.
“I don’t think so,” Silver replied, pausing to think harder. He shook his head after a moment and said, “No, I don’t remember a thing. Although everything you’ve been talking about… I have this feeling, like I’ve thought about it before…”
“Déjà vu?” Blossom asked.
“Sort of…” Silver said. He shook his head a little and said, “But we’re getting off-topic now. I’m a Centraxian, and you’re all Earthlings. The question is, do I belong here?”
“Of course you do,” Bubbles told him. “You’re like family.”
“To you, yes,” Silver said. “To everyone else… after what happened earlier, I don’t know… I don’t think I’ll be accepted by them…”
“Give them time,” the professor said. “They were the same way with my girls when they were first created. The people may fear what they don’t understand, but once they get comfortable with you, you’ll be just as welcome as anyone else.”
“I guess you’re right,” Silver nodded. “But… I just wish there were more of my kind around here, you know? I feel… alone, in a way. I know more about Earth than I do about my own species…”
Blossom suddenly brightened, “We could fix that!”
“Hm?” Buttercup said “What do you mean?”
“Why not take a trip to Centraxia?” Blossom proposed. “We still have Xianea’s ship. We could visit, and Silver could learn all about his origins, and while we’re there, we could also get the Repository to unlock all of Xianea’s memories from him, so he can remember her.”
“Oh wow, really?” Silver said, growing excited at the idea. He looked at the professor hopefully, “Professor, can we?”
“Now, hold on,” the professor said. “I can’t just let the four of you head off into deep space all by yourselves. It’s dangerous, even for you girls.” As the others started to sadden, the professor grinned and added, “Besides, it sounds like fun. Count me in!”
“Yayy!” Bubbles shouted. “We’re going to Cen… cen… traxika…”
Buttercup said, “All right! When do we leave?”
“Let me just make all the arrangements first, supplies and such,” the professor said, “and we could be ready to leave as early as tonight. Now, everyone go and pack!” The girls flew upstairs in a flash of light, and as Silver started to stand up, the professor told him, “Not you… you need to rest and finish healing, young man. Got it?”
“Got it,” Silver nodded. A second later he added, “Thank you, Professor.” The professor smiled back at him and got up to begin preparing for the trip. This will give me the chance to learn more about their advanced technology, he thought. To see the ship in operation alone would be a huge help. But mostly, how could I pass up the opportunity to see something as fantastic as the Repository of Knowledge, quite possibly the largest database of information in the universe?
* * *
Blossom flew into the holding bay of the shuttle, setting down the box she was carrying. “That’s the last of the supplies. Do you think that’s enough, Professor?”
“I think so,” the professor nodded. “We’ll probably only be gone a week at most, but it never hurts to be prepared.” He did another count of the supplies and scribbled the numbers down on the pad of paper he was carrying, while Blossom sat down on the edge of the box to take a break.
“I can’t believe we’re really going,” Blossom said, sounding excited. “Professor, you’re going to love it out there. Centraxia is a beautiful planet.”
The professor nodded as he finished his inventory, and looked over, “Now, you’re sure you remember how to fly the ship, right?”
“Of course!” Blossom said. “Xianea did a good job teaching me… but anyway, it’s not too difficult. I can show you during the trip if you want.”
With a chuckle, the professor said, “Oh, I’m sure I could figure it out if I had to. But I do appreciate your helpfulness. Maybe I’ll look over your shoulder a bit as we go, how does that sound?”
“Great!” Blossom smiled. “Now… you managed to get in contact with the A.W.S.M., right? As much as I don’t like them, someone does need to watch Townsville while we’re gone…”
“Don’t worry, they agreed,” the professor said. “They owe you a favor, after all.”
The other girls flew into the bay a moment later. Both of them looked just as excited as Blossom was. Buttercup told him, “Hey, Professor! We packed the spacesuits, like you asked, we’re all ready to go.”
“Thanks,” the professor said. “Where’s Silver?”
“He’s up in the front,” Bubbles said. “Buckled into his seat already.”
Blossom grinned, “Well, we know someone’s anxious to go.” She looked over at the professor for his okay, and the professor smiled back a bit, giving a thumbs-up. With a cheer, the girls flew out of the bay towards the cockpit, and the professor followed after them.
As they went up front, Buttercup tossed something over to Blossom, who caught it and gave a questioning glance back. Buttercup grinned, “Those translators. We’ll need ‘em, remember?”
“Oh, right,” Blossom nodded, brushing her hair aside and putting them in place. Buttercup did the same with her own translators, but Bubbles, of course, didn’t need them. Blossom realized they didn’t have a pair for either Silver or the professor, but she figured they’d be fine for a while without them.
By the time the professor caught up with the girls in the cockpit, all of them were in their seats already, with Blossom in the pilot’s chair in the front, and Silver in his own seat, grinning widely and kicking his legs in anticipation. The professor secured himself into his seat, one of the ones right behind Blossom, and fished a small remote control device out of his pocket. He looked around at everyone, then nodded, saying, “Let’s do it.” With that, he clicked the button on the remote.
Outside the ship, the roof of the launch bay slid open slowly, the stars becoming visible in the night sky above. The hillside near the house made the perfect launch exit, just as he had used it for the Dynamo a while back. As soon as the doors were all the way open, he nodded to Blossom, and she activated the ship, her hands flying across the controls like a pro… the engines started up, and the ship lifted into the air, emerging from the hillside. Once it was high enough, the launch doors closed beneath them as the ship turned up towards the sky and took off.
Outside the windows, the lights in the city of Townsville brightened the dark terrain below. Silver watched as it grew smaller and smaller beneath them, and said, “It sure is beautiful from up here. When we get back, remind me to take a flight around the city one night.”
“Yeah, that’s always fun,” Buttercup nodded. “Right, Bubbles?” Bubbles shook her head a bit since she still didn’t like the dark too much.
Townsville shrank beneath them until it eventually disappeared altogether, as the ship flew out of the atmosphere of Earth, rising towards the stars. The professor watched the view of the earth below out of the window, and said, “It’s a wonderful sight, isn’t it? Makes you realize just how insignificant we can be, compared to the scale of the whole planet… and compared to the whole galaxy, how insignificant the Earth itself can be.”
“Yeah,” Blossom nodded, watching the sight also, “but still, a few people can make a difference… just like we did, the last time we were out here.” She focused back on the controls as she piloted the ship and told him, “We had such a big impact on the galaxy, and in such a short time. Sometimes I wonder just how long-lasting our actions will be… if some of the planets out there will still talk about us in thousands of years…”
“Indeed,” the professor said, then looked over Blossom’s shoulder at the controls she was manipulating, studying their functions. “You’re plotting a course there, aren’t you?”
Blossom brought up a chart on the screen, and it started calculating a trajectory for the ship. She said, “I’m taking us to Paradise Fringe first; we should be able to send a message to Centraxia from there. Everyone, brace yourselves.” Bubbles and Buttercup quickly secured themselves more tightly in their seats, and the professor and Silver followed suit.
As the engines powered up, the professor exclaimed, “This is it! I’m finally going to see a singularity jump in effect… I can barely contain my excitement!”
“Just make sure you can contain the contents of your stomach, Professor,” Blossom warned him, and activated the singularity generators. The ship lurched forward as the singularity blinked into existence, pulling the ship along on its course before vanishing, leaving the Earth behind and rocketing them into deep space…
* * *
Buttercup knocked on the door to the waste removal chamber and called out, “Professor, you okay in there?”
“I’m fine,” came the reply from the other side of the door. “Just give me another minute…” Buttercup grinned and flew back to her seat, remembering how unpleasant their own first singularity jumps were. As she sat down, she gave a glance over at Silver, who still looked a little dizzy, but then noticed Buttercup watching her and gave a thumbs up to indicate he was okay.
Bubbles leaned over the back of her seat and said, “Aren’t you excited, Silver? It won’t be long now.”
Silver nodded, “Yeah…”
Noticing that he looked a little troubled, Bubbles asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Well,” Silver said, pausing for a moment before taking a deep breath and continuing, “it just occurred to me that… well, I was out of place on Earth, because I was an alien. Even though everything I learned was learned there, I still didn’t really fit in. Now, here I am going back to Centraxia, ready to meet others of my own kind, but…”
“But what?” Buttercup asked.
“…but I know almost nothing about them,” Silver told them. “The only thing I really share in common with them is their species. I grew up on Earth, so… I feel like an Earthling, not a Centraxian. So really, I feel like I’ll be almost as out-of-place there as I would be on Earth. It makes me wonder… is there really anywhere for me to be in my place?”
“Of course there is,” Bubbles said with a smile. “With us.”
Buttercup nodded, “Yeah, you’re our brother, man. We’ll always be there for you, right?”
Silver smiled back at them, but before he could say anything, Blossom’s voice came from the front seat, interrupting things a little, “That’s odd…” The three of them looked over curiously, and the professor emerged from the waste disposal chamber in time to hear her continue, “I’m still not getting any kind of messages on our communications. I mean, we’re almost to Paradise Fringe; we should be getting something by now, at least from the station.”
“That is odd,” Silver remarked. “Maybe our communication equipment isn’t working?”
Blossom shrugged a little, “I’m not sure. Professor, did you take it apart at all when you were studying it?”
“No, I hadn’t started on that part of the ship yet,” the professor told them. “I was occupied with the singularity generator most of the time…”
“Either way, we’re almost there,” Blossom said. “Have a seat, everyone, I’m going to slow the ship back down in a second…” Everyone scrambled back to their seats as Blossom worked the controls. Once everything was in place, the singularity generators kicked in, jarring the ship to a halt once again. The professor and Silver both looked disoriented from the effects of the stop, but they managed to shake it off quickly. The ship, once again back at sub-light speeds, drifted forward, towards the station which now became visible in the distance. Except…
“Something’s wrong,” Blossom said, looking at it through the window. It was definitely Paradise Fringe, but it looked strangely vacant. There were a few lights on the station, but not as many as they remembered, and there were only a couple ships docked. It was almost as though the station had been abandoned, or mostly abandoned. Blossom checked the charts on the screen to confirm their location and said, “This is Paradise Fringe all right…”
“Of course it is,” Buttercup agreed. “But what’s goin’ on?”
“Yeah, where is everyone?” Bubbles asked.
“Hold on,” Blossom said, working the controls and opening up communications. She transmitted, “Hello? Is anyone out there?”
There were a few moments of silence, but then the communications panel lit up as they received a vocal transmission. It spoke in an alien language, which the translators automatically changed into English for the benefit of everyone on-board, “Yes, hello… dock quickly, and shut down communications as soon as possible. We don’t want them tracing it back here…”
“Who?” Blossom asked back into the transmitter.
“The invaders,” the voice replied. “Please, just comply. Or leave.”
Everyone glanced around at each other, and Blossom answered, “Okay… okay, we’re coming in…” She shut down communications and started guiding the ship over to one of the docking bays, as everyone began to ponder the ominous message, and wondering who these ‘invaders’ were. Whatever it was, it had spooked the once-busy station, and either way, they knew that the answers lay there…