Galileo (Battle of the Species) (33 page)

Meta saw the crackle of electricity and stepped back.

Renn saw her and tried to calm down. “Everything's fine,” he said, not sure what else to say.

She nodded, but the mood was gone.

Renn didn't say much to anyone for the rest of the class and waited until the girls separated, heading towards their dorm rooms. Once the boys had turned the corner to head for the boys’ dorms, Renn walked behind Desh with Dylan and Kia by their sides.

“Hey!” Renn yelled at Desh. “We're going to talk about this. Don't just keep walking.” Renn grabbed Desh's uniform and pulled him back.

Desh spun around and pushed Renn back.

“Hey, whoa!” Kia yelled, while he and Dylan grabbed their friends, separating the two.

“Seriously, you guys are going to both be expelled if you start fighting again,” Dylan said. “Now, I realize you two have some family issues going on, but you both need to get over it real fast and calm the hell down.”

“Fine,” Desh said, walking away.

Renn grabbed his uniform again. “No, don't walk away from me!” Renn said, gritting his teeth.

Now it was Kia’s turn to separate them and looked at Renn. “Now, that's cool if you two want to talk, but let's agree to keep our hands off each other, all right?”

“Fine,” Renn said, releasing his grip on Desh's sleeve. He looked at his brother, who glared back in defiance. “Just tell me why you did it.”

“You wouldn't understand,” Desh replied.

“Try me. Or is it that you think since I'm taking something away from you, you're going to take something from me?”

“That's not it,” Desh said. “Look, you're not on Earth anymore, you don't even know how to take care of yourself.”

“Seriously, thanks for the gloves and water and all, but my seeing some girl is none of your business, brother or not. Stay out of Meta's head.”

“Fine,” Desh said.

“Fine,” Renn replied, walking away.

They walked into the dorm room, taking opposite spiral staircases, and walked up to the fourth floor.

“It could be fine,” Kia said to Desh.

“He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Desh replied, still irritated. “He’s going to get them both killed.”

“Do you want me to say something to him?”

“No, just leave it.”

“Okay,” Kia said, letting it go.

When Desh got back to his room, he lay back on his bed, scrolling
through the computer at the foot of it. He used a flexible casing on his finger, with sensors on the tip to slide or click his commands. “Come on,” Desh said under his breath while he scanned the Federation News. “Where are you?”

He froze the screen and double clicked on a news report, prompting a Lucian female to start talking into his earpiece.

“Another Eminite commander was assassinated today, after leading an attack on the Agrinathia planet. Witnesses say an unidentified Mindeerian female was seen leaving the battlefield, though the Agrinathians insist that the Mindeerians were not helping them in the war. Both the Eminites and the Agrinathians are asking for the identity of the woman, as it still remains unknown…”

Desh grinned at the picture of a silhouette of a woman, which the reporter displayed next to her during the report. He turned the news off to show a blank white screen that projected one thing, “21.” Desh traced the number “1” with his finger, erasing it. He double tapped on the screen prompting a list of commands to appear. He tapped on “Draw” and clicked out of the command menu, then wrote a “0” next to the “2” with his finger. He stared at the number, “20.” Thinking. Calculating. Waiting for the day when he could change it to “19.”

“Soon, Brother,” Kia said, watching Desh.

Desh nodded. “Come on, let’s play again.”

Kia got up and turned Desh’s desk sideways, tapping on a square screen that lay flat on the desktop. It illuminated a hologram display above it that read, “Battle of the Species - War Games.”

They sat down as a woman’s voice resonated from the screen. “Choose your fighters.”

“Eminites and Aranea,” Kia said, prompting a hologram Eminite and Aranea to hover above the screen.

“Mindeerians and Torans,” Desh said, playing the game they would play until the number on Desh’s screen read, “0.”

CHAPTER 15

Allies

The boys’ dorm was full of excitement as the students prepared for another game of BOTS. Most of the students ran out the doors to get good seats, while a handful of First Years stayed to change into their combat suits.

Desh dressed for battle while his roommates, Kia, Etienne, and Grus, ignored the commotion outside, not as excited as the others for the game. Desh looked over at Kia who was at his desk, watching an intergalactic battle game on his tablet.

“Are you going to fight?” Desh asked.

“I don’t know,” Kia said, not sounding very enthusiastic about the idea. “I don’t want to fight with some random partner who’s going to get my wings blown off.” Kia thought about it a second and turned to Grus. “Hey Grus, you got a partner for the battle?” Kia asked.

Grus shook his big green head.

“You want to fight with me?” Kia asked.

Grus smiled. “Yeah, yeah, would like to battle with you, Kia.”

“Good, get your suit on. Ava, sign Grus and I up for today’s game,” Kia said, getting up.

Etienne sat on his bed designing a new robot on his tablet when a pair of large pants was thrown at his head. He took the pants off and saw Grus throwing clothes out from the drawer under his bed, scattering oversized uniforms around the room.

After the last battle, Grus had buried his battle suit deep down, not wanting to remember the experience. He hadn’t felt like battling if it meant that he would just be fighting with another partner who would make him feel even more alone than he already did. Kia was different. Kia wouldn’t leave a partner behind. Grus found his suit and put it on. He got one leg halfway in before he realized he had yet to take off his school uniform. He yanked his leg back out and stripped.

“I don't think I've ever seen a Zorgre so excited,” Desh said to Kia, smiling.

In another part of the dorm, Dylan and Renn were both changing into their simulation suits, and Renn looked over at Leo, who once again watched them get ready, unable to hide his frown.

“Leo, get ready,” Renn said. “You gotta come with us.”

“Renn, you know I'll get sick,” Leo said. “I'm sorry guys, I just don't want to spend another night in the medical bay.”

“That's okay, Buddy. We'll tell you all about it,” Dylan said.

“We won't have to,” Renn said with a sly grin. He walked over to the closet and pulled out a white suit with a thick gel lining. “I made you something. Now, I'm no tailor, so it might not fit right, but it should do the trick,” Renn continued, handing it to Leo.

Leo squished the gel lining. “It's cold!” he said bursting with excitement.

“Pfff, it's freezing! I just about got frostbite making it. It's made with Prodlinhide. Prodlins are nasty animals, but their hide is usually used for keeping things cold like medicine, organs, and well, codfish,” Renn said with a laugh. “I thought, if it can keep fish cold, it can keep you cold. Try it.”

“Would you mind telling me how you know how to sew?” Dylan asked grinning.

“It's an Earth thing,” Renn said. “In school, we had to learn everything we needed to survive on our own. Grow our own food, sew our own clothes, and build our own houses, that kind of thing. It's mandatory in schools on Earth.”

“Oh,” Dylan said, disappointed. Practicality never was a good source material for jokes.

Leo separated the suit. It came with a jacket, pants, boots, gloves and a cap. He put them on, feeling as cool as if he were lying on his bed of ice. After he finished getting dressed, the only thing visible was his translucent face. “It's like being on Crystalline,” Leo said. “It's amazing. Thank you!”

“No problem,” Renn said. “I was thinking, if it works, maybe you could give it to other Crystallians. You know, the ones who want to go to other planets.”

They all scrambled out of the room, running to the simulation room. “Who’s your partner?” Renn asked Dylan on the way.

“I don’t know. I put myself in the system, for a partner. I hope I don’t get Ivan. I’m so not in the mood to hear how he can do everything better than everyone else,” he replied.

They walked into the simulation room and parted with Leo who went up into the stands. Leo smiled and sat down next to the warm-blooded creatures, for once not having to worry about their warmth killing him. The students next to him scooted away, shivering from the sudden temperature change. Leo found himself rather isolated, but continued smiling from ear to ear nonetheless. Nothing could ruin the moment for him.

Renn and Desh waited in the holding tank, occasionally glancing at each other, but avoiding eye contact as best they could.
They had to wait five games before their names came up and they began stretching while “Terminated” was stamped over Dylan and Sargus’ photos from the previous game.

Dylan walked up to Renn in the holding tank. “All right, so, you're fighting against a Zeanup,” Dylan said, while Renn unfastened Dylan’s shoulder pads. “Don't bother shooting if you don't think you can kill them, because they’ll just re-heal and you’ve let them know that you’re now trying to kill them.”

“Gotcha,” Renn said.

Lux came up behind them, having already changed back into her uniform.

“We'll be up in the stands. Knock 'em dead,” Dylan said.

“Thanks, man,” Renn said.

Lux and Dylan walked up to the stands and sat next to Leo. “Thanks for saving us seats,” Dylan said, looking around.

“What?” Leo asked, confused.

Renn and Desh were announced, fighting against Pacus, a female Janiun they had in their physics class, whom everyone liked, and Ulrich 71, a snotty male Zeanup, whom only Pacus seemed to be able to stand.

“The planet is Elnot,” Ava announced on level one.

Renn was sure he knew enough about Elnot to survive, having just studied one of the species in species class, and knew there was a species called Noycans, that illuminated and were very docile. He just didn’t know how many species on Elnot could illuminate. Earth only had a handful, mainly fish and insects, but the majority of species on Mindeere had some type of glow to them.

The battlefield changed to a green swamp-like planet. Renn looked up through the trees and could see light trying to shine through, but the trees were so thick, he was grateful for the white swamp water that lit up its surroundings. Ava’s scoreboard hid itself in one of the trees, enough for the boys to see it, but not enough to create more light.

“Fighters, prepare,” Ava said.

Desh and Renn glanced at each other, nodding, neither too excited to be fighting with the other.

“The game will begin in five, four, three, two, one,” Ava said, prompting swamp water to begin moving and creating ripples that glimmered light all around.

The Noycans were easy to spot approaching in the dimly lit area and Desh and Renn lifted their hands to wave.

A Noycan nodded acknowledgement and Renn looked up to see Ava award them 200 points for identifying the species as benign. The Noycan stopped walking towards them, looked to his left, then back to Desh and Renn.

All right, here we go,
Desh projected. He motioned for the Noycan to go the other way and headed in the direction the Noycan had looked.

Renn followed close behind, picking up a branch off the ground, and carrying it with him.

Desh stopped behind a tree, motioning to his ear.

Renn listened and could hear thoughts, but couldn’t recognize the language.

There are two of them,
Desh projected.
We’ll jump them and take them down at the same time
.

Renn could have sworn he heard three. Renn shook his head.
There are three
.

No there aren’t
, Desh replied, clearly irritated.
Come on, get it together. Let’s charge, on the count of three
.

No! Who made you captain
? Renn asked, regretting his choice of words the second he projected it. He knew that was a sore spot for Desh and didn’t mean to hit below the belt.
I didn’t mean…I meant…
he began before Desh cut him off.

You know what, do whatever you want,
Desh projected, ignoring Renn from then on. He walked around, until lowering himself behind a fallen tree.

Renn heard one of the voices move and then realized that there were indeed two. He closed his eyes, kicking himself. When he opened them again, Desh was gone and thumping could be heard on the other side of log.

Renn charged, finding Desh hitting a large brown creature that looked like a fanatical canine covered in moss, blending in well with its surroundings when it wasn’t moving.

“Get this Bayton off me!” Desh yelled as a second canine gnawed at his leg.

Renn ran up, hitting the Bayton away. He looked up at the scoreboard.
They only had 900 points, having to earn a hundred more before they could even consider eliminating the pain.

The Bayton tackled Renn, causing him to lose his grip on the branch. He wrestled with the beast, trying to keep its snapping teeth away from his face. The animal had him pinned down and he could see Desh hitting his own attacker over and over with a rock.

Renn put his knees up, squeezing them underneath the Bayton, and then got his feet to its chest. He kicked as hard as he could, sending the animal flying. He took off running, glancing back to make sure it was following him and not ganging up on his brother. It was one thing to leave Desh alone; it was another to leave him alone outnumbered.

Renn ran towards the swamp, where there was more light, but the Bayton was closing in on him. He was almost to the swamp when the canine jumped, landing on Renn’s back. Renn took advantage of the beast’s momentum, grabbed hold of it and pulled it over his shoulder and into the water.

Let’s see if it can breathe white swamp water
, Renn thought. He took the Bayton’s face, stuffing it into the shiny white liquid. He threw himself on top of it to stop it from moving and breaking its head free. While he struggled with it, he heard splashing and looked up to see Pacus and Ulrich run into the water.