Max Baker: Guardian of the Ninth Sector (13 page)

Max turned once again toward the group, but instead of seeing Noah and Kennedy looking back at him, Mikael stood towering over him. 

“Don’t hold your breath,” Mikael said and gently pushed on Max’s chest.  He felt himself lose his grip on the door.  He teetered for a moment on the edge, trying to right himself.  He grabbed furiously for the frame, but couldn’t make contact.  He willed himself to regain his balance, but he had no such luck.  Max disappeared into the abyss.

Max rocketed through the darkness, picking up speed the further he fell.  He had managed to open his eyes for a split second, and the orange light that had been so far away had grown closer and filled his vision.  In that brief second, he felt as if he were falling to heaven.  Max’s eyes slammed shut almost instantly; he was moving at such a rapid pace that his eyes burned the longer he kept them open. 

Max felt like he had been falling forever.  He wasn’t exactly sure what his expectations should be of space travel, but he felt like Donovan should have warned about the length of time it would take…and also offered a restroom break.

Suddenly he stopped falling.  He kept his eyes shut for a moment, terrified of what he would see if he opened them.  He could feel himself hovering in midair, surrounded by silence.  When he mustered enough courage to finally open his eyes, he immediately recognized that he was in outer space and began to panic.  Instinctually, he grabbed his throat, expecting to suffocate due to lack of oxygen.  He floated there holding his breath, afraid that at any moment his head would decompress and explode like in all the sci-fi movies he had seen.

But nothing happened.

Max couldn’t hold his breath any longer. He exhaled followed by a deep inhale.  Oxygen filled his lungs.

This can’t be real,
Max thought as he floated there.  He could see for miles and miles; stars and galaxies filled his vision.  Planets and stars were painted with vibrant colors, and Max felt like his senses were on overload.  Far off in the distance, Max could see a supernova occur; an explosion of blue light was surrounded by celestial orange clouds.

He floated there weightlessly, watching the fireworks light years away.  He knew that there was no logical reasoning that could explain this.  He would never be able to provide a rational justification for jumping through a doorway in the basement of some abandoned building, and then ending up in outer space.  Add on the fact that he was able to breathe normally in an oxygen free environment, and he realized that he was in the midst of a physics teacher’s worst nightmare.  He could imagine trying to explain this scenario to Dr. Shirley, the head of the Physics Department, and wondered how long it would take him to call the men in white coats.  He pinched himself and nothing happened.  He pinched himself again…this time much harder. 

“Now what?” he asked himself aloud. The sound of his voice seemed muffle, as if he were underwater.

And then as suddenly as he had stopped, Max began falling again.  He began to pick up speed, and he closed his eyes again.  He felt as if he were traveling at a much faster speed than before. He felt his body begin to vibrate, as if he were a spaceship whose hull had been breached and in any moment he was going to tear apart.  He raced further and further into space, and his stomach grew more and more uneasy with each passing second.

After a couple of minutes into his second free fall, Max could feel himself slowing down.  Max opened his eyes and could see ground below him.  He was still moving more quickly than he would have liked as the black and white checkered tile floor came into focus, growing closer and closer.

Max landed on his feet and then promptly collapsed to the floor below.  He felt nauseous.  The cool tile below him comforted him, and he pressed his forehead onto it.

“Sorry,” he heard Donovan say from behind him. “I should have warned you not to lock your knees when you landed.”

“Ouch,” Max said.

“I suggest that you move out of the way, Max.” Donovan’s accent seemed even thicker as it bounced off the tile.  “Your friends should be right behind you.”  He grabbed Max by his arms and slid him from under the giant black hole in the ceiling over to the corner of the room.

Max attempted to stand, but felt the urge to vomit as soon as he did.  He resigned to sit back down on the tile.  He placed his head between his knees and waited for the room to quit spinning.

“The first time can be a bit rough,” Donovan said from above him. 

“You think?” Max asked sarcastically, the black and white tiles whirling between his legs.

“Here drink this.”

Max looked up to see Donovan had extended a vial of liquid to him.  It looked exactly like the one he had handed to Mikael, only the liquid was red inside.

Max uncorked the vial and took a whiff of the contents.  It smelled like garbage water.  Max quickly covered his mouth to keep from retching all over the floor.

“It will make you feel better,” Donovan said.

“No way, man,” Max said.

“You humans are such babies,” Donovan replied, walking away from him.

Max looked down at the red liquid swirling around in the tube.  He couldn’t fathom how something that smelled so awful could make him feel any better, but he couldn’t stand to feel as sick as he did.  With his free hand, he pinched his nostrils closed and emptied the contents of the vial into his mouth.

It tasted worse than it had smelled.

“Gross,” Max coughed, but almost instantaneously he felt relieved of the nausea.  Peering out over his knees the room stopped dancing.

This rectangular room was a much nicer room than the one they had left – with the exception of the big gaping hole in the ceiling.  The black and white tile looked as if it had been waxed and buffed recently, and he could see his reflection staring back at him.  Three of the walls were completely bare, and they were painted the same boring taupe color of the room they had just left.  The fourth wall possessed a large steel door with an esphynalor painted in the center of it.  Beside the door was a stainless steel intercom, and beside that a large mirror.  It looked like the mirrors they used in interrogation rooms where the cops would watch a detective drill a suspect for a confession.

“Where are we?” Max asked. 

“We are in the intake room of Sidus Refugium,” Donovan said, kneeling down to examine Max.  “Does this hurt?” he asked, pressing down on Max’s knee.

“No,” Max said. “I think I’m fine.”

From the giant hole in the ceiling Max heard a girl screaming, first faintly and then growing louder and louder.  Kennedy emerged feet first from the hole. She floated down slowly, landing gracefully on to the tile.

“Oh my God,” Kennedy said. Her face was flushed.  “What just happened?”

“We crossed through space and time using the gateway,” Donovan said to her.  “Please move over toward us before you get kicked in the face.”  Donovan pointed to the hole as Noah’s feet emerged from the darkness.  Kennedy moved over to join Max and Donovan, and the three of them watched Noah float down and land nimbly on the ground.

“Why didn’t I do that?” Max asked Donovan furiously.

“The key is to resist opening your eyes,” Donovan said.

“And not to lock your knees,” Noah added.  “Mikael told us before we jumped.”

Max shot Donovan a look of resentment.

“What happened to you?” Noah asked Max, who was still sitting on the floor.

“Grow up,” Max scowled at him.

Noah pulled Max to his feet as Donovan headed to the intercom in between the mirror and the door.

“Now that was an awesome ride, huh?” Noah asked Kennedy, throwing his arm over her shoulder.

“Please, let’s just get this over with,” Kennedy said, pushing away from Noah.

Donovan hit the call button on the intercom.

“Please identify yourselves,” a woman’s voice on the other end commanded.  The female’s voice was heavily accented as well, but the accent was completely different than Donovan’s.  The woman’s voice was nasally and almost robotic.  She sounded alien.

“My name is Donovan Reese, Protector of the Guardian,” he spoke loudly and clearly into the intercom.  He removed his finger off the button and looked back toward the group. “Sometimes it’s hard to see through the mirror.”

“So now you’re
the Protector
?” Max asked.  “Let me give you a hint, if you want to protect someone, you tell them not to lock their knees before they jump through an intergalactic wormhole.”

“Who is accompanying you?” the voice asked.

“I bring Max Baker, age 16, and potential Guardian of the Ninth Sector.  Also accompanying is one Kennedy Coleman, age 16, and one Noah Allman, also age 16.  All three residing in the city of Forest Valley, in the state of Georgia, in the country of the United States of America, of the planet Earth.”

“Dude, where you were born?” Noah asked Donovan.  He began to mimic him, speaking in an over-the-top nerdy voice.  “My name is Donovan Reese, residing from the city of Nerdville, in the state Nerdopolis, in the country of the United States of Nerdonia, on the planet Nerdtune.”

“Actually I was born in Futora Armeddia,” Donovan said to him.

“Whatever nerd,” Noah said.

There was silence for a moment as the group looked at one another.

“What now?” Max asked as they stood at the closed door.

Finally, the door buzzed and unlocked.

“Max, it is time to meet your destiny,” Donovan said and pushed open the door.

The four of them walked down a long windowless corridor.  Paintings of creatures and places that Max had never seen before hung along the wall.  Max paused to look at one them; it was of some futuristic looking city that was being engulfed by a mushroom cloud.

“What is this one of?”  Max asked.

“That is of the Great War,” Donovan said, pausing behind Max.  “It was the worst war that anyone had ever seen.  It caused the end of our civilization on Amed…Earth.”

“What happened?” Max asked.

“It is something that I will explain to you later,” Donovan answered, putting his hands on Max’s shoulders.  “For now, we must keep moving.  The Council of Twelve will be gathering.”

“Later better be coming pretty soon,” Max said as Donovan nudged him to continue walking.

“The lobby is just ahead,” Donovan said, ignoring Max’s comment.

The group entered through the door at the end of the hallway and walked into the reception area.  It looked like the waiting area of some high end business office.  There was a bronze fountain that stood in the center of the room, the water bubbled from the top and cascaded down.  It was surrounded by a couple of semicircular leather couches.  The receptionist’s desk sat empty in the front of the room. Behind it a large door sat ajar.

It was a standard reception area with the exception of the floor to ceiling windows that looked out into space.  Planets and stars filled Max’s field of vision; a black sky filled with wonder and mystery.  The view of outer space was magnificent. 

“Wow!” Max exclaimed.

“It is quite something, is it not?” Donovan asked him.  “All of this, Max, will potentially be under your watch.  It is highly probable that you are the guardian of all you see in front of you. 

“You sure like to throw that word ‘potentially’ around,” Max said.

“The Council will have questions for you, and then there will be a series of tests.  If you are the Guardian, like I believe you to be, then you will be charged with defending this great expanse.  Max, this is the Ninth Sector.”

“The Council is prepared to see you now, Mr. Reese,” a woman’s voice interrupted from behind them. 

Max turned to find the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  Her skin was a silvery white and sparkled like it was covered in diamonds.  Her eyes were deep lavender, and she had long blue hair that hung down between her shoulder blades.  She offered a polite smile in Max’s direction and then turned back through the door behind the receptionist’s desk.  Max attempted to return the smile, but she was already out of view.