NEBADOR Book Five: Back to the Stars by J. Z. Colby - HTML preview

Chapter 39: Star Transit

A special, tingly mood filled the Manessa Kwi for the next few hours as the crew learned what they needed to know, ate the very last of their food, and shared excited glances or touches as they passed each other, going from task to task. The cabins had not been so clean and tidy since the five new crew members moved into them, many months before and nearly six light-hours away in space.

Kibi and Rini gave the toilet rooms and the galley a good cleaning. Sata, at her station, glanced up with a guilty look, but had more study and preparation for star transit than anyone else.

Eventually everything was ready. Ilika went to the steward’s console, raised the big table, and asked Manessa to arrange six seats in a close, inward-facing circle. “Soon this will be as easy as ion flight, and you’ll be able to do it from your consoles without a second thought. But for your first time or two, holding hands really helps.”

Everyone waited until Mati was comfortable, then Rini took one side and Sata the other. Boro seated himself beside Sata. Kibi looked over her console one last time, then she and Ilika took the last two seats. Hands found each other all around the circle, most a little sweatier than usual.

“Kibi,” Ilika prompted.

She took a couple of slow breaths to focus on her task. “Manessa, secure all fluid systems. Switch all internal energy to standby. Lock hatches and the lift. Shut down my station and the big screen.”

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“Acknowledged,” the deep-space response ship said.

The subtle background sounds of the ship suddenly ceased, leaving a profound silence. All of the passenger area and bridge lighting faded out, leaving only displays and instruments casting a soft glow.

“Rini,” Ilika called.

He glanced at Mati with sparkling eyes for a second. “Manessa, shut down all sensors. Auto-restart on return to normal space and time.”

“Acknowledged.”

The watch station went completely dark.

“Sata.”

“Manessa, feed ship’s position and flight plan Satamia Five B to the star drive. Shut down navigation and communications.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Boro,” the captain prompted.

“Manessa, lock all fuel lines and initialize the star drive.”

“Acknowledged.”

Boro’s station became dark except for six tiny blue lights, high up on his control board, in an area he had never before used. Even as he glanced that way, they changed to blue-green, showing him the star drive was warming up and testing itself.

“Mati,” Ilika began, “as always, the pilot has the honor, and responsibility, of making the final determination that we are ready for flight.”

The handicapped pilot, who had hopes of not being handicapped much longer, looked around at her captain and fellow crew members. She didn’t see anything in their eyes that worried her. “Manessa, shut down all remaining systems. Activate the star drive as soon as we’re ready.”

“Acknowledged.”

The last displays and control symbols went dark. The only light now came from the six little indicators on the star drive at the engineer’s station, all still blue-green.



Rini felt Mati squeeze his hand as he closed his eyes.

Old memories, of a family who didn’t understand him, fleeted across his mind for a few moments. Scenes from his years as a slave came and went.

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The painful moment, when Mati decided to stay with the goatherd, lingered, then the pleading face of a desert girl pulling him toward her tent.

Finally Rini cleared his mind and drifted into the timelessness of meditation.

One of the lights on the star drive changed to green.



Kibi closed her eyes and reviewed many painful scenes from her childhood, always out-thinking her parents with ease, and always being punished for it. Her time in slavery passed in a blur, except for a sweet memory of Miko that lingered for a moment. She smiled slightly, accepting the part of her life that had made her strong.

The memory of seeing Ilika for the first time burned brightly in her mind, and the warm, almost hot feeling of wanting something with all her heart.

Realizing he was beside her now, holding her hand and sharing her bed, allowed her to relax into the comfort of the darkness around her.

The second light on the star drive changed color.



Boro felt his heart throb from holding Sata’s warm, sweaty hand, but let the feeling pass, knowing he could treat her to a nice meal or a gift at Satamia Star Station, and more of the deep kisses they had begun to share.

Memories of cattle, sometimes taller than he was, came and went. Painful scenes from slavery made him cringe, scenes of masters telling him he was good for nothing.

Eventually he relaxed, remembering his beautiful engine and fuel control board, and knowing that even now it was preparing to take them on a long journey. Thoughts fell away until only his breath remained, without measure in time or space.

Another light changed to green.



Mati was so filled with the hope of getting her knee fixed that she couldn’t relax. The faces of slave owners, soldiers, and a lonely goatherd peered at her, but had no power compared to the overwhelming dream she clung to with every fiber of her being.

Finally, she realized that as long as she held tightly to her hope of someday

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walking, running, and dancing, she would not be able to relax and clear her mind. Many long minutes passed as she wrestled against her deepest desire, its claws sunk deep into her heart. Sweat poured down her face and dripped onto her clothes.

Suddenly a memory came to her, a scene from the recent past in which she asked the most beautiful boy in the world to marry her, and he accepted. And he hadn’t, she remembered, set any conditions, such as first getting her knee fixed. Her breathing slowed, a slight smile appeared on her wet face, and her mind cleared.

The fourth light on the star drive changed to green.



Sata’s mind visited countless fond memories of mother, father, and brother. She could see every timber and board of the inn, and had personally scrubbed or swept most of them, except a few on the ceiling.

Then the anger returned from the day she overheard her parents talking about giving the inn to her brother, because girls just got married, they said.

Slowly the anger faded and a smile grew on Sata’s face as she remembered the navigation and communications console of the Manessa Kwi, just a few steps away, where she did a job her parents and brother could never understand.

Coming fully back to the present for a moment, she felt Boro’s hand in hers, and her friend Mati’s hand on the other side. She let her mind clear, and drifted into timelessness.

Another light changed color.



Ilika took his time relaxing.

Memories of his parents and sister were not overly painful, and far in the past. The faces of a few girls visited, girls who had liked him during his years of training. Zini appeared for a moment, then danced away into the crowd at some social event for the nobility of her medieval kingdom. Only one face lingered, a face of longing and desire, framed by lice-infested tangled black hair, first seen in the common room of Doko’s Inn. She was the first girl to ever really love him, and she was beside him now, his second-in-command, his partner and companion for travel and service in the stars.

The captain of the Manessa Kwi took a slow breath and let his mind relax

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and go dark and quiet.

The last blue-green light changed to green.



A moment later, all six green lights changed to yellow at once.

Manessa Kwi Habishu Glinta, deep-space response ship of Nebador, currently floating in the blackness of space on the outer edge of a little solar system called Sonmatia, began to shrink. Soon she was just a tiny speck of gold, barely visible in the dim light on the edge of deep space.

Then she was gone.



Deep Learning Notes

A light-hour, you might recall, is about 6.5 billion km (4 billion miles).

All ship system must be shut down during star transit because they are physical systems, and so would not work in a spaceless and/or timeless reality state. Even the simplest device, such as a liquid flowing through a tube, can only function if space and time are as we know them. The idea of “flow” has no meaning without a “here” to start from, a “there” to go to, and some “time”

to allow it to happen.

Each of the crew members, including Ilika, had emotional events or situations in their pasts that could have kept them from relaxing during star transit, thinking clearly when on duty, or otherwise doing their jobs and living their lives. Every time we are hurt physically or emotionally, we can heal, regain our strength, and become wiser, or we can fail to heal, and move closer to death or insanity. Will-power is certainly necessary, but there may also be an element of luck involved. That element of luck may or may not be divine intervention.

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Buna’s New World

By Karen Buchanan

This story takes place when Buna and Toli are buying sweets in the marketplace in NEBADOR Book One: The Test.

Buna danced into the marketplace.

“What are you doing?” Toli asked. “Everyone’s gonna stare at us!”

“So what! There’s nothing wrong with dancing.”

“But Ilika said to watch out for each other, and so I’m watching out for you.”

Buna stopped prancing and thought about it. “I guess you’re right. I’m just . . . really happy! I haven’t been able to just walk around since . . . I don’t know . . . since I was a little kid. It feels wonderful! ”

“We’re supposed to buy something for dessert.”

“Hmm . . .” Buna started to say, looking around. “There’s tarts at the bakery . . .”

Toli scanned the marketplace, looking over most people’s heads. “I think we should look at everything, then decide. Everything sweet, I mean.”

Buna pouted for a moment, then grinned and nodded.



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After whispering to the tall boy and the tangle-haired girl, the sweet biscuits thought about standing up on the table and dancing, but the woman who made them was watching, so they didn’t.

Candies winked and wiggled, especially when the candy maker had his back turned. The girl holding hands with the tall boy caught a glimpse of them, but when she got close, the man was looking, so they stayed still.

A big bowl of plums, from a farm in the southern valley where hot water gushed out of the ground, could feel the girl’s feet moving to the music. They wanted so much to jump up and dance, and then send plums home with her and the tall boy. They started to wiggle, but the farmer turned around after selling carrots to the innkeeper’s son, so they stopped moving and tried to look like a plain, innocent bowl of plums.



As they walked among the carts, Buna leaned on Toli and looked up at him. “What do you think of this weird master we have?”

“He’s not a master, he’s a captain.”

“Oh, yeah. What’s it like working on a ship?”

“About like being a slave, I think. I’ve unloaded ships, but not sailed on them. I think you have to be good with ropes and stuff to be a sailor.”

Buna frowned. “But you can leave, right?”

Toli laughed. “Only at a port!”

Buna thought about it, then snickered.



A donkey eating hay saw the girl prance by, her feet still tapping to the music as she walked. The donkey listened, and heard the drum rhythm that was the same as what the girl’s feet were doing.

The shaggy brown animal felt something special, like it had just seen a spirit. It knew about wolf spirits and mountain lion spirits, and how dangerous they were. But this girl seemed like a different kind of spirit, a nice spirit.

In a burst of courage, like it had never felt before, the donkey decided to try it. Front hooves started lifting up from the ground, one at a time. Once in a while, they tapped against each other.

Feeling its heart beat faster with the thrill of doing something a spirit

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could do, back hooves started lifting, then tapping.

Suddenly a booted foot jabbed the brown donkey in the ribs, it stumbled sideways over some wooden crates, and landed on its side, calling loudly in pain and confusion.

“Stupid donkey!” the man said, almost spitting out the words.

The donkey stayed on its side until the man left, then slowly got back to its feet.

It always remembered the girl-spirit, now long gone, but never again tried to dance.



Buna and Toli sat down on a log to think about what they had seen.

“I think we should get plums!” she said excitedly.

“They looked good, but I don’t think they were ripe.”

Buna frowned. “Okay, sweet biscuits!”

“There were only six left. We need ten of something.”

Buna

sighed.

“I’ve never had a sweet biscuit . . .” a timid voice said.

Buna and Toli both looked. On the other end of the log, a little girl sat holding a bundle of cloth in her arms, and looking at them with big brown eyes.

Buna hopped up. “Maybe we can’t decide, but you are getting a sweet biscuit, little friend!”

“But we’re not supposed to . . .” Toli started to say, but Buna was gone.

A minute later she returned, sat down beside the little girl, and handed her the sweet biscuit. “Now there are only five,” Buna said, looked at Toli, and stuck out her tongue.

Soon a poor woman came by and the little girl hopped up.

“Mommy, she gave me a sweet biscuit!”

The woman looked at Buna with eyes that said thank you. She looked in her bag for something to give in return, but found only a crust of bread.

Buna shook her head, fished in her pouch, and handed a silver piece to the woman. It brought a smile that was missing several teeth.

When the girl and her mother were gone, Toli stood beside Buna. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

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Buna looked up at the tall, handsome boy, and kissed him on the cheek. “I think the baker probably still has plenty of pastries.”

“Let’s go see!”



Three crows perched on the inn roof.

“I could have snatched that sweet biscuit, right out of the little brat’s hand, if her mommy hadn’t shown up!” said Ke.

Te cackled. “Afraid of an old hag? That’s not like you, Ke! Did you see the crust of bread she had?”

“What I see, I eat!” said Re.

“In your dreams!” Ke taunted. “Let’s see what the tangle-haired girl and the tall boy get. They’re heading for the bakery.”

“You do recon, Ke. As soon as we know what’s on the menu, I’ll create a diversion, then Te swoops in for the first grab. Ke and me will be right behind for clean-up.”

The three cawed at once.



A slave boy, about nine years old, was cleaning up the marketplace that evening after all the wagons and carts had left. He liked working in the evening because he could look up and see the stars come out.

He didn’t dare look up for very long, of course, or a whip would make him get back to work. But he knew how to take a quick look, memorize what he saw, then cherish it in his mind until he could glance up again.

As he was picking up some scraps of rope and broken pottery near a log, he happened to spot a small piece of a sweet biscuit down in the dirt, partly hidden by the log. He quickly picked it up but just held it in his hand with two fingers and continued to work.

A guard glanced at him but didn’t see anything wrong.

The boy waited until he tossed the junk into the trash wagon, then as he turned to go back to work, popped the little piece of sweet biscuit into his mouth.

Even with a little dirt, it tasted heavenly.

As soon as he could, he glanced up at the darkening sky to see what stars were out. Only the brightest ones were shining.

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He smiled to himself and wondered if maybe he could somehow visit them someday. Maybe he could find a way if he got free and climbed the highest mountain.

As he started picking up horse droppings, he wondered if they had sweet biscuits in the stars.



It was nearly midnight before Te came out from under the little cart where he had been struggling with his painful broken wing for hours. He hadn’t seen the baker’s broom handle coming, but clearly remembered the guard’s sword slice through Re’s body, then seconds later Ke fell from the sky, pierced by a feathered shaft.

Te looked around, and wondered how he was going to find somewhere safe before a dog or cat found him.



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First Taste of Freedom

By Katelynn Persons

This story takes place when Miko and Neti are buying pouches in the marketplace and the nearby streets of Rumble Town in NEBADOR Book One: The Test.

Miko and Neti stepped into Rumble Town for the first time on their own, with nothing but each other and the money pouch Ilika had given them with two small silver and eight copper pieces inside.

“Where do we go?” handsome Miko asked uncertainly as he stared uneasily into the busy streets of Rumble Town.

Neti looked around, more determined than frightened. “Well,” she said, thinking, “Ilika said we need to do some of the shopping for the group. We need money pouches, enough for all eight of us, so we need to find somewhere that sells them, preferably somewhere close.”

Miko looked at Neti with shifting eyes. “What if we get lost?”

“We won’t,” the pretty girl said as she took her love’s hand. “Trust me.”

He nodded as he looked timidly down the street, and followed Neti’s lead into the crowd, in hopes of completing their first task.



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“Look!” Neti exclaimed as she pointed to a group of large, rich-looking men on horses coming toward them.

Miko watched the men approach as his stomach tightened. “Our old slave masters,” he whispered under his breath.

They stood frozen for a few moments of panic before Neti took Miko’s hand and led him into the crowd, going away from the terrible men. Miko stopped in his tracks.

“No, Neti!” he said firmly.

She turned around, almost running into him. “What are you doing?” she asked with a hiss.

Miko took her hands in his as he looked into her startled eyes. “Neti, we aren’t slaves anymore, there’s nothing to be afraid of! Ilika said to treat everyone we come across with respect, so we can’t run from them. We have to continue what we’re doing, or they’ll think we’re acting suspiciously.”

Neti looked at him anxiously, but gave him a small nod of understanding.

He smiled and touched her cheek gently. “Come on, there’s a leather wagon over there, maybe they’ll have what we need.”

Without a word of disagreement, Neti followed Miko to a small wagon filled with different leather goods. Miko reached down to make sure the coin pouch was still on his belt as he and Neti looked around the wagon with eager eyes.

“There!” Neti said with excitement as she rushed to the other end of the cart, picking up a brown coin pouch off the wagon. “How much for this?” she asked the leather man as Miko scurried to her side.

The leather man turned to face the pretty girl, and saw the nervous boy standing beside her. With a pause for thought, he responded, “One copper piece and it’s yours.”

Neti smiled at Miko as he untied his pouch and dug out a copper piece, handing it to the man.

“Thank you very much!” he called back at the man as he followed Neti into the crowd.



“Those sweet biscuits smell so good!” Miko said as they ambled past the baked goods cart.

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“I know,” Neti said slowly, “but Ilika might be mad if we spend his money on treats. We have to find money pouches for the rest of us.”

“You’re right,” Miko said slowly with disappointment.

“One copper for three biscuits!” the man said to Neti and Miko as they passed.

“Really?” Miko said, then received a disapproving glance from Neti. “I mean, no thank you.”

Neti smiled and took his hand again, leading him past the lingering aroma of sweets.

They passed one of the bread carts, stocked with good-smelling breads and rolls, but with their stomachs still full from breakfast, it wasn’t as hard to pass them up as the sweets had been.

“Hey, Neti,” Miko began as they continued walking, “what do you think of Ilika so far?”

“Ilika?” she responded, her eyes examining the ground in front of her.

“He’s alright, I guess. I don’t really understand the point of all this, though.”

“Me neither,” Miko said, shaking his head, “I was just curious. He seems so different from the rest of us. I don’t get why he’s treating us this way. For all he knows, we could be escaping right now.”

“I know, it’s weird, but I’m not going to complain. He bought us our freedom. He said that we could leave whenever we wanted and he wouldn’t try to stop us.”

“But he trusts us with his money, why would he do that if we’re free to walk away?” Miko asked, noticing Neti’s thoughtful expression as she pondered the question.

“I don’t know. He’s just a very trusting person, I guess. I just hope he’s not so blind that he trusts Kodi with his money.”

“Or anything, for that matter,” Miko said with a smile.

Neti smiled back and kissed her man.

“Alright,” she said, looking around, “where would we find more money pouches? I don’t remember.”

Miko looked around. “What about that little shop over there?” Miko said as he looked at Neti for approval before heading that way.

Inside, they found exactly what they needed, money pouches of all

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different colors and designs.

“These are perfect!” Neti said with excitement, picking one up. “The different colors will make it easy to tell them apart if they get mixed up!”

“Right!” Miko said as he chose two colors. “How many more do we need?”

Neti thought for a moment. “Well, if we need eight, and we have one . . .

that’s eight minus one.”

Miko put down the pouches and subtracted slowly on his fingers. “Seven pouches!” he stated as he picked up a few more. When they had all they needed, they joyfully approached the shopkeeper.

“We’d like to buy these, please,” Neti said in her most polite voice, setting the seven pouches in front of the shopkeeper.

“Alright,” said the large man slowly, “that’ll be seven coppers.”

Neti looked eagerly at Miko as he slowly counted out his coppers from the money pouch.

“Seven coppers,” Miko said, handing them to the shopkeeper.

“Thank ya kindly,” said the man. “Have a good day now!”

Neti and Miko smiled as they carried their new merchandise away from the counter. Suddenly they heard the large old man holler at them. “Hey you kids! Get back here with them money pouches!”

They stopped in their tracks. Their skin became cold and pale as they turned to face the man, who approached them and took the pouches from their hands.

“Trying to steal one of my pouches?” the man quickly accused. “Do you know what the penalty is for stealing?”

“We . . . we didn’t steal anything,” Neti said, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

“You’ve already been caught, stop lying!” the man said as he went back to the counter and set the pouches in a row. “You see these right here? You bought seven pouches from me, yes?”

“That’s right . . .” Miko replied cautiously.

“Then would you mind counting how many of them are lying on this counter?”

Neti, lacking good counting skills, turned to Miko in fright, who slowly approached the counter. He counted out loud, one by one.

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“There are eight pouches here,” Miko said softly, “but we had already bought one from another place.”

“You expect me to believe that crud? Get out of here, and don’t you two dare come back!”

“No, honestly!” Neti said, fighting back tears. “We would never steal from you! Please believe us . . .”

“Prove your innocence!” the man said firmly.

Neti, with determination written on her face, approached the counter and picked up the money pouch from the cart. “See this one? It’s different from all of these you sell. The ones we bought from you have different colors and patterns, so there’s no way we could have stolen this one if you don’t sell them!”

The man examined the pouches with careful eyes before looking back at Neti, trying to hide her trembling. He sighed and handed the pouches back to them. “My apologies,” he said in a deep, rough voice. “Be careful, and don’t bring things like that into other stores or you’ll get yourself in some real trouble, do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir,” Neti and Miko said at once as they picked up the pouches and hurried out of the shop.

They stopped and sat on a street corner, setting the pouches next to them.

Neti broke into tears.

“Oh, Neti,” Miko said, wrapping his arms around the pretty girl, “there’s no reason to cry, we didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I know,” Neti said between sobs, “but we could have let Ilika down! What if the shopkeeper didn’t believe us?”

“Shh,” Miko coaxed, “no reason to talk like that. Your quick thinking got us out of there, and that’s what counts.” He wiped the tears quietly from her face as she calmed down. Then he kissed her forehead before saying, “Let’s get back to Ilika before he thinks something’s wrong.”

Neti nodded and thanked him softly, but Miko only smiled and took her hand as they stood up, each of them carrying a few of the pouches.



Neti and Miko walked side by side the entire way back to the inn, making small talk about their friends, and about Ilika.

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“This life is a lot better than the one we had, that’s for sure,” Miko said with a soft smile.

“Yeah . . . it’s sure different.”

Miko smirked as he thoughtfully said, “Remember that time where you, me, and Kibi honestly thought we could escape?”

“Yeah,” Neti said dryly. “I do.”

“Doesn’t seem so crazy now!” Miko declared.

Neti looked down and shuffled her feet, something she hadn’t done before.

“I hit a nerve . . .” Miko began softly. “What is it?”

Neti shook her head quickly. “It’s nothing, just remembering.”

“Remembering what?” Miko questioned with raised eyebrows.

Neti stopped and put her hand on Miko’s shoulder.

He turned around to face his girl. Seeing her seriousness, he whispered,

“What is it?”

“Miko,” Neti said softly, “do . . . do you still have feelings for her?”

The handsome boy’s face flushed, as he immediately knew she was speaking of Kibi.

Neti looked at him anxiously. “Well?”

“No . . . no, Neti . . . not at all.” He wrapped his arms around her. “It’s just me and you, I promise. I care about her, but she’s a close friend, nothing more. She will never be anything more, no matter what.”

“Tell me this much,” Neti said, fighting back tears, “tell me that you’ve never actually loved her.”

“I swear to you, Neti,” Miko said softly.

Neti gently wiped the tears from her face.

Miko leaned in to kiss her. “You’re my girl, Neti, and you always will be.

No need to worry about silly things like that, alright?” he said tenderly.

“Alright.”

Miko kissed her again. “Let’s head back, and let other people have a chance to go out, okay?”

“Okay,” Neti said as she took her man’s arm, and wandered back through the streets of Rumble Town, not knowing when she’d get another moment alone with Miko.



About the Authors

Born in the Mojave Desert, J. Z. Colby now lives and writes deep in a forest of the Pacific Northwest.

He has studied many subjects, formally and informally, including psychology, philosophy, education, and performing arts, but remains a generalist. His primary profession as a mental health therapist, specializing with families and young adults, gives him many stories of personal growth, and the motivation to develop his team of young critiquers and readers.

All his life, he has been drawn toward a broad understanding of human nature, especially those physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual situations in which our capacity to function seems to reach its limits. He finds fascinating those few individuals who can transcend the limits of our common human nature and the dictates of our cultures.

Karen Buchanan, 14 at the time she wrote Buna’s New World, is a native of Quebec, Canada. She speaks both English and French fluently, is learning Spanish, and wants to learn German and Chinese someday.

Born and raised in Portland, Oregon until the age of fifteen, Katelynn Persons now lives and goes to school in Sandy, Oregon, where she continues her journey through her teenage years.

Although she is only seventeen, Katelynn finds much enjoyment in her passions for writing and theater. She’ll be graduating high school in January 2012, and plans to attend Mt. Hood Community College immediately afterwards.

This is Katelynn’s second published piece of literature, and she hopes it won’t be the last. If she isn’t locked in her room typing away, you’d most likely find her with her few close friends, or out meeting new people, and trying to change the world one step at a time.