9 SNIFFLES
The party waited for what seemed hours on end, in Norman’s office, with everyone getting dead bored except for Kru who was loading Max onto a chip in a new transmitter and onto two more spare transmitters, that he had salvaged from the damaged droids.
“How much more long?” asked Holloway, with a sleepy expression.
“They should be here any minute,” answered Kru. “After all, it’s chaos down there!”
Troy seemed uninterested in what was going all around him. He kept looking at the floor with a vacant expression. Emilie was beside him, holding his hand. She knew what he was going through and also knew that the best she could do was to just be there beside him.
Norman lay unconscious and unattended in a corner, with a piece of torn cloth across her mouth and her hands handcuffed.
“Can you see what’s going on, Kru?” asked Holloway.
Kru nodded and took out his gadgets, after a while he said,
“Senator Jedias and the Kepler Premier are in the HQ Conference hall, holding talks with the rest of the Albein Senate! They have arrested about fifty Albeins who were in league with Norman, including the security head, Quinto.”
“Great!” Holloway exclaimed, giving Kru a quick kiss on his lips. “You are the best, babe!”
Kru’s ears and cheeks turned baby pink and he smiled.
“There is an incoming message from Rutgers,” he suddenly announced. “Yes uncle!
Oh!...Tsokay!...Alright!......Thank you!”
Turning to Holloway, he said, “Rutgers has sent a medical team and a droid force on its way to fetch us and Norman!”
“Everything else is alright?” asked Emilie, from across the room
“Yes,” answered Kru. “Like I said before, they should be here any moment.”
Sure enough, an Albein medical team of five and a twenty droids came to escort them soon and they were on their way to their newly assigned cabins on level one hundred and forty-five.
The four were assigned four adjacent cabins and extensive medical examinations before they were allowed to rest. The four had no idea as to what had happened to Norman and her loyal gang, but they knew everything was at rest now. Troy was however restless to meet his mother, who eventually came just before Troy was about to enter his cabin.
“Son!” said Amanda, holding Troy’s hands.
“Mum! You’re alright!” Troy said, feeling a heavy weight pulled away from his heart.
Amanda smiled in return and then brushing Troy’s soft hair, she said, “I heard about Hugo, Troy.”
Troy immediately turned his face away from Amanda’s.
“It’s tsokay, son!” she continued while hugging him. “I’m proud of you, Troy!”
Troy didn’t reply anything.
“Is there anything I can do for you, son?” asked Amanda, her worry lines clearly showing on her face.
Troy just let out a heavy sigh.
Amanda saw that he was troubled and thought it would be best to leave him alone.
“Take rest, Troy. I’ll see you later,” said Amanda.
Troy smiled back weakly and went inside his cabin quietly. Once alone inside, Troy still felt horrible and couldn’t sleep a wink. He kept awake and looked at the food tray beside his bed. He was hungry but he couldn’t eat. He was poking at the steak on the plate, when the AI suddenly alerted him, “You have a visitor.”
“Who is it?” asked Troy.
The AI projected the camera view in front of him. It was Emilie. Troy smiled a bit but he was unsure whether he wanted to meet her or not. After a long pause, he said, “Open the door!”
The door disappeared beneath the floor, letting Emilie enter in.
“Lights!” said Troy and the pale white lights turned on in the room.
Emilie stood at the entrance, smiling, dressed in a light blue V-neck t-shirt and black pants, with a hand on the wall and looked very pretty.
“Come sit!” said Troy, slapping the bed beside him.
Emilie walked towards him and sat.
“Kru told me to give you this,” said Emilie, handing over a tiny white cuboidal box, like the one Troy had got earlier in the shower.
Troy smiled at the box.
“It’s Max!” he said, trying to sound enthusiastic
“You don’t have to lie to me about how you’re feeling right now!” said Emilie, looking at him.
Troy breathed out loudly.
“I don’t know what to do!” he confessed. “I’m not alright and why? Because I idolized a guy and he turned out to be a complete dash! It doesn’t make any sense, I lost almost everything and what else am I going to lose?”
Emilie placed a hand on Troy’s shoulder, she knew he was not done yet, “This is nuts! Complete nuts, Emilie! I wonder how people are still sane! Seriously, I wonder how I managed to be sane! They have destroyed us even before they have killed us! I can’t do this any-”
Emilie suddenly kissed him, abruptly stopping Troy from continuing any further. Troy was taken by surprise, but as Emilie’s soft lips slowly caressed his own, he let himself forget his troubles and started to kiss her back. He slowly put his arms around her, pulled her down on him. They kept kissing for a long time. Then Emilie moved to kiss his forehead and looked into each other’s eyes.
“I never thought, I mean I never ever thought, like, what to say, what I mean is-” choked Troy, trying to express his feelings.
“You never thought you would get to kiss a girl like me,” cut in Emilie.
Troy went pink in his ears and looked at her guiltily.
“I understand boys,” said Emilie, with a cute smile.
“It’s not like that entirely, Emilie,” said Troy. “It’s just that I have never felt this good with any of the other girls.”
As soon as he had said it, Troy wished he hadn’t said it.
Emilie’s smile had vanished.
“I’m sor..so sorr.. so sorry!” stammered Troy with his blue eyes dancing.
“It’s perfectly understandable that a handsome boy like you would have probably run his tongue everywhere on countless girls.”
Troy couldn’t believe what he had just heard from Emilie.
“That’s not true!” protested Troy.
Emilie stared at him.
“Not entirely though!” said Troy, reacting to her expression.
“Forget it!” Emilie suddenly said. “Would you go out with me?”
Troy laughed heartily until he stopped after noticing Emilie’s expression.
“What?” asked Emilie, wondering why he was laughing about.
“You do realize that there’s nowhere to go out with you in space, right?”
“Bad joke,” deadpanned Emilie.
Troy raised his eyebrows, after a while and replied, “I like you very much, Emilie and it would be my honor to go out with you, even though there’s nowhere-”
At that point, Emilie pressed on his lips with hers.
“Thank you, Troy,” said Emilie, looking into his eyes.
Troy nodded his head with a handsome smile.
“I do have one question,” said Troy.
“What is it?” asked Emilie.
“Why do you want to go out with me?”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
“That’s not an answer,” said Troy. “That’s just trying to be a smart-” and stopped right there, before saying ‘ass’.
“Smart, what?” asked Emilie, trying to hide her grin.
Troy squinted his eyes and bit his tongue, to which Emilie placed her hand on his chest and said, “You have a good heart, Troy and that is why I want to go out with you.”
“Hmmm…” replied Troy, wondering whether what she told him was true.
“You’ve such beautiful eyes,” said Emilie, stroking his eyebrows suddenly.
“Do I?” asked Troy.
“Yes and especially those tiny golden flecks in your eyes now!” said Emilie. “It’s so beautiful!”
“I don’t have golden flecks in my eyes!” said Troy, getting a bit startled, worrying whether it might be some sort of a medical condition.
“Of course! You didn’t when I saw first you,” said Emilie, to which Troy took a huge gulp and reminded himself to take a look later, after Emilie had left.
“There’s one more thing,” said Troy, looking at her.
“I know,” said Emilie, with a knowing smile.
“You do?” asked Troy, hesitantly.
“It’s all for good,” said Emilie.
“How do you know for sure?” asked Troy, looking for a reassurance.
“I don’t,” answered Emilie, within a flash. “But it’s the truth.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Troy, getting even more confused than before.
“Sleep tight Troy,” said Emilie, kissing him for one last time, before she left.
Troy was left to himself after Emilie left and thought over what had just happened.
Strange!….This was beyond anything I had imagined and so spontaneous, thought Troy. But I am happy! She’s a fine girl….
Troy closed his eyes to sleep. As soon he had closed his eyes, he found himself awake somewhere else.
It was a land filled with purple trees and purple grass. He seemed to be right in the middle of a meadow. The land had a blue star, which was about to set, giving a yellowish color to the green sky.
Troy found himself wearing his old organic attire of dark brown pants and a light blue V-neck tee, but without the his customary button less white shirt. Troy walked on, never reaching the end of the beautiful meadow. A gentle cool breeze flew and Troy saw the same sign he had seen on the day, just before he was rescued by the Albeins. The J-like word with three dots, floated in front of him for a couple of moments and then flew away. Troy immediately set after it, trying to see where it was going.
The sign teased him by letting him almost catch it just before it flew even further out of his grasp.
Eventually, Troy chased it up a small hill. When Troy was about to catch it at the top of the hill, the sign flew down the other side of the hill. Troy tried to jump and catch it, but as a result fell on the purple grass. Troy lay on the grass and saw where the sign had flown. The mark had reached the foot of the hill and transformed gracefully into what seemed to be very weak man, lean, diseased and in tattered clothes like that of a homeless man, with his back facing Troy. Troy looked on steadfastly.
The weak man took out what seemed to be a dagger, out of nowhere and looked at it a while, before he stabbed himself in the heart and fell dead onto the grass. Troy gasped at what the man had done.
Within the next moment however, the man rose again from the place he had fallen, looking perfectly healthy and stronger and turned to face Troy. Troy was shocked at what he saw. It was him. It was Troy himself that was facing him. Fear and confusion hit Troy at the same time, like a bolt of lightning and woke up in his bed with a start with his heart beating unnaturally fast.
“What the-” gasped Troy, breaking into a cold sweat. Troy didn’t think of anything else and focused on calming himself down. Once he had calmed down, he thought about the dream he had just had.
Nothing made any sense to him then, then thinking that it would be better to ponder over it after he had woken up, Troy lay back to sleep again. Sleep was difficult to catch, as his mind kept reverting back to the dream, making him feel annoyed. Troy then started thinking about Emilie and slowly, his eyes closed in peace.
A few hours later, after Troy had gotten up from a peaceful sleep, he found himself smiling, his memory of a nightmarish dream almost wiped out from his head.
“Wow!” he whispered, touching his lips, remembering the time before he had slept.
“You have a message!” announced the AI.
“Let’s hear it,” replied Troy.
“You are requested at the HQ conference hall, sir! You are expected in twenty minutes!”
“What time is it?” asked Troy, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
“Kepler time, sir?”
“Of course! That’s what my body is accustomed to!”
“Ten-forty A.M, sir!”
“Hmm…” Troy said. “Let’s keep moving!”
Troy brushed, bathed and returned to his cabin and wore the transmitter that Kru had given him.
“Hello Max!” he said enthusiastically.
“You seem happy!” said Max, as if she had detected something fishy.
“Oh! Nothing really just that Emilie came here a few hours and we kissed, you know!” boasted Troy.
“AH!” said Max and let out a yelp. “Did you do it?”
“WHAT?” asked Troy, suddenly thrown out of balance by Max’s question.
“Did you do that?” asked Max again.
“No! Of course not!” said Troy. “Bad girl!”
Max laughed heartily in return.
“Well, you are still young and full of-” she said.
“Shut up, Max!” said Troy, grinning. “I’ve got a meeting to go to!”
“Yeah! A meeting you were supposed to be at forty minutes ago!”
“OH MY GOSH! AM I THAT LATE?” said Troy, panicking. “Are others gone?”
“Yes!” said Max. “Emilie is missing you a lot, lover boy!”
“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” cried Troy, blushing as he went out the door.
Soon, he was at the conference hall and as he entered it, the unpleasant memories of being there, the first time, hit Troy. He waited a moment outside the hall, as he shook his head as if to clear his head and entered.
He saw the Albein Senate and many Kepler officials seated in the semicircular arrangement. Soon, he spotted Kru, Holloway and Emilie seated on the other end of the semicircle across the room.
Come quickly! whispered Emilie’s voice inside Troy’s head, he smiled.
“VAA! If it isn’t Mr. Troy Zander himself?” boomed Jedias’ voice, who was standing on the stage in front of the semicircular arrangement. The high podium of the Speaker’s, which had been there the last time, Troy had visited the HQ, wasn’t there anymore.
Troy smiled awkwardly and genuinely wished he had been earlier to the meeting to avoid this sort of publicity.
“Come, come, my dear boy!” said Jedias, raising his arms towards Troy.
Troy couldn’t believe that Jedias had such a powerful voice, for his age. He walked slowly towards the podium. Jedias put his arm around Troy’s arm and said, “A Kepler young man saves the lives of Albeins and those of his own people with the help of his friends, our very own children Mr. Kru Yule and Ms. Holloway Parker and an Elveden angel, Ms. Emilie Rose Fox!”
With that, he waved his hand in the direction of the trio, calling them towards the podium. Once they came and stood beside Troy, Jedias began again.
“Today we stand alive, because of these four children,” Troy squirmed a bit, on hearing Jedias refer to them as children, Emilie at once held his hand and said You are a child! Troy looked at her and wished he could tell her something witty, but found himself tongue-tied on seeing her.
“You are blushing!” said Max.
“Shut up!” breathed Troy, Emilie covered her mouth beside him, hiding her grin. Meanwhile, Jedias continued his oratory,
“They overcame a lot of adversaries to save us from the enemy within! And for what! To unite us to fight against the common enemy we all face now! The attackers who destroyed our families, our friends and our homes! And we’re still being hunted by them. It is in times like these, when acts of courage and bravery like those displayed by these children must be saluted and encouraged in order to boost our morale and our will to survive!”
When Jedias had completed his speech, the entire Albein Senate and the Kepler contingent rose to their feet and applauded them.
“Now you may go!” whispered Jedias, slightly nudging Troy on his shoulder.
“Where to?” hissed Troy.
“To our seats,” replied Emilie softly.
“Oh,” said Troy and followed her. When, they took their seats, Jedias launched again into a detailed plan of what he had in vision for the inhabitants of Orion Swift.
“Blah!…blah!...blah!” said Troy. “Do you have any idea when he is going to finish, anyone?”
“Actually, no Troy,” said Kru. “It is customary for newly appointed Chancellors to talk a lot about their vision, mission and stuff.”
“I would’ve done nothing to remove Norman, if I had known that,” said Troy. “Alright! Just wake me up, if something important turns up!”
“Ah! You can’t sleep in here!” said Kru, with a horrified expression.
“Let him sleep, Kru!” said Holloway and Kru looked away disappointedly.
Troy smiled at Holloway and then winked at Emilie.
“Soon!” he said, closing his eyes.
Ten minutes later, Emilie woke up Troy,
“Troy, wake up!” she said, shaking his shoulder.
“Yea!” said Troy, dreamily.
“They are not going to sanction a rescue mission for Aura!” hissed Kru.
“What!” said Troy and woke up with a start.
“They think there is not conclusive proof to indicate there are any Homo aureus present on Aura to launch a rescue mission!” said Kru.
“Well! The Alien Head himself told Norman about them! Emilie told them, right!” said Troy.
“Well, yes! But it’s not enough for them!” said Holloway.
“What about the research Albeins conducted on them?” asked Emilie.
“No conclusive proof!” said Holloway.
“We can’t give up, just like that!” said Troy, enraged.
“Well, it’s too late!” said Kru. “They just finished discussing that!”
“We’ll see about that!” said Troy, “SIR!”
Jedias and the rest of the people, turned in Troy’s direction. Once he made sure he had everyone’s attention, Troy said loudly,
“We can’t abandon Aura!”
“We don’t have conclusive proof that Aura is still inhabited, son!” said Jedias onto the microphone.
“With all due respect, sir, you heard Emilie tell you about the conversation between Norman and the alien Head! They still exist, sir!”
“It’s not wise to risk the lives of everyone aboard the Orion Swift for the lives of some, of whose existence we aren’t even sure of!”
“THEN, HOW DIFFERENT ARE YOU FROM NORMAN?” shouted Troy, in a bout of rage.
Jedias was taken aback by Troy’s question and so were the others in the hall.
“I am sorry, Mr. Zander, but our decision stands firm.”
“You wouldn’t do this to your own family in such a situation, would you?”
“You are very imaginative, Mr. Zander but sadly we can’t indulge in your little fantasies!”
For a moment, Troy and Jedias just stared at each other coldly.
“I’m only asking you to have mercy, sir, nothing else,” said Troy, after a long time.
Jedias looked away, lost in thought,
“Very well!” he said, looking thoroughly displeased with his decision. “Take an away team to conduct a search on Aura! I give five hours and only five hours, Troy!”
“Thank you, sir!” said Troy and turned to his friends. “Let’s go!”
“I think we should have handled the situation more delicately!” said Kru.
“I handled the situation no different than you had earlier!” shot back Troy.
“Troy did the right thing,” said Holloway, walking fast beside Kru.
Emilie kept quiet, as she walked beside Troy. He turned his head and looked at her, as they kept walking. Emilie nodded her head, as if she were in agreement with what Troy had decided. Troy was reassured by her acknowledgement and lifted his chin high. Soon, they were in the Cruiser bay, suited up in black nanobot suits.
“Hey!” said Rutgers, as he joined the four beside a Cruiser, in his blue captain suit.
The four wished him back. “I heard Troy had muscled the Senate into agreeing for a rescue mission on Aura!” said Rutgers.
“Yeah!” said Holloway, looking dashing in a black body suit. “You should have heard him yell at Jedias! Boy, it was such a roar!”
Rutgers laughed loudly and looked at Troy, “I can’t believe the Albein Senate aren’t providing you with any help.”
“I just picked up on some gossip from the hall,” said Kru. “They don’t want to lose any more Albein men or droids.”
“We can’t blame them,” said Troy. “It’s their job description to ensure the security of the people and maintain resources, especially when the future looks shoddy!”
Everyone nodded their agreement.
“That’s right!” Rutgers agreed at last, “So what’s the plan?”
“Where are we?” asked Holloway, “Just out of curiosity!”
“In the Andromeda galaxy,” replied Rutgers.
“Wow! My favorite one!” whispered Holloway, as she brushed Kru on his shoulders, grinning.
“Yes!” Kru whispered back, blushing, then turning to the others, he said, “Once we exit the wormhole near Aura, we’ll scan the planet for signs of life. So far all the satellites that we’ve put into Aura’s orbit have never worked or have never transmitted any life form readings. So if we do get any readings, we’ll pinpoint the locations and get down, taking a number of Cruisers proportionate to the reading values! Tsokay?”
“Tsokay!” said Rutgers, clapping his big hands together, producing a massive sound.
“Have you figured out as to why they don’t work?” asked Troy, tapping his ears.
“No,” replied Kru. “We don’t know! I mean Aura was the least habitable planet, to be colonized by our ancestors. The planet’s pretty unstable apart from being extremely cold!”
Troy was not satisfied by Kru’s answer, anyways, he said, “Alright! We’ll do as you say!”
“There’s one more thing,” said Holloway. “Even if we do find life there, it’s highly unlikely they will be anything like us!”
All of them looked at Holloway and realized that it was true than being unlikely. It had been fifty thousand years since the first humans had set foot on the planet, while the other three colonies had advanced technologically, the humans on Aura had disappeared from everyone’s eyes and memories.
All the exploration by the Albeins had not found conclusive evidence of life but of one thing they were sure, that the humans on Aura had not certainly developed civilization.
Troy knew there was no turning point from the commitment he had made and told Rutgers, “We’re ready!”
Rutgers nodded and took his leave.
“These suits can adapt to the cold, right?” asked Troy.
“Yes, they can,” said Kru. “They can handle up to a minus hundred degrees Celsius!”
“Cool,” said Troy, as Kru received a message.
“Guys,” said Kru. “We’re about to enter the wormhole to Aura!”
“Do you think the aliens will be there?” asked Troy, having last minute doubts.
“It’s highly unlikely, which is another reason, Jedias agreed to this, Troy,” replied Holloway.
Soon, they were through the wormhole,
“I am streaming data now,” announced Kru, “Normal dark matter flux and searching for life now.”
All of them waited with bated breath, as Kru remained silent.
“Honey!” whispered Holloway from time to time, to no response from him.
Finally, he got up and said, “I am picking almost no reading! I am picking high levels of all sorts of radiation and infrared spikes, which means something terrible had happened all over the planet, not too long ago.”
“The attackers must have been here too!” said Holloway.
“Almost no reading?” asked Emilie.
“The planet must be completely ravaged based on these readings,” said Kru.
“You said almost no reading!” said Emilie, “Which means there is at least some are left alive!”
“It could be just some random spikes in the reading! After all it could mean nothing!” said Kru.
“We can’t come to that conclusion just like that!” argued Emilie.
“I am telling you, it’s highly probable that it’s just an artifact reading.”
Troy stepped in the conversation at this point, “Emilie!” he said, “Is there any way you can confirm that there are still people alive on that planet?”
Emilie looked at him, thinking while Kru and Holloway regarded Troy’s question as completely ridiculous.
“That’s totally absurd!” cried Kru. “What are you thinking, Troy?”
Troy didn’t mind him and showed him his palm.
“That’s rude!” muttered Kru.
“That’s cute!” said Holloway, grinning.
“Tell me, Emilie!” Troy asked again.
Emilie seemed unsure of what to tell, “I think I can,” she said finally.
“Show her the origin of the readings!” said Troy.
“It’s fluctuating!” said Kru.
“Just show her!” said Troy, getting annoyed.
Emilie looked at the weak pulsating red spot on Aura. “There’s a snowstorm in that area!” said Kru, still streaming data.
“Tsokay!” breathed Emilie. “I have to have some sort direct contact with the planet visually at least!”
Troy looked at Kru, which made him fidget a lot and then he told, “We can view it from here we’ve got portholes in here.”
“Tsokay!” said Troy, lifting his eyebrows at Emilie.
Kru led them through behind lines of Cruisers to the wall, where there were large rectangular portholes. The four could see the spectacular space beyond the safety of the Orion Swift. Brilliant glimmering stars dotted every inch of space with a few brilliantly colored galaxies here and there.
“It can’t be a natural disaster! I mean, look at that!” exclaimed Holloway, and right in front of the four was a small globe, covered in white clouds and dotted with large ugly black spots over a white background.
“It must’ve been only a few hours,” said Kru, as Rutgers broke through in Kru’s ear.
“Are you looking at this, Kru?” shouted Rutgers, almost screaming.
“Yes, uncle, I’m, I’m!” said Kru, repeatedly so that he would stop.
“The Senate has cut down your rescue mission duration down to forty-five minutes only!”
“But whoever attacked them isn’t here anymore! I mean look at the flux readings!”
“That’s why the Security Advisors and the Senate believe it’s the perfect trap!”
“But uncle-”
“It’s out of my hands, Kru!” interrupted Rutgers and cut out his transmission.
The other three looked at him intently and Kru looked at them with a sorry look,
“The mission’s down to forty-five minutes! They’re not budging!”
“It should be enough!” said Troy, looking at the frigid planet and touched Emilie’s hand.
Emilie turned, took one long look at the planet and closed her eyes. In her mind’s eye, she searched for life as she floated over the planet’s ice cold surface. As she moved over icy mountains and valleys, she heard sounds coming from her right, the sounds were largely grunts, low roars and then she heard a baby crying. Emilie snapped back into reality, taking a huge breath and almost collapsing onto Troy beside her. Troy held her and asked her, “Emilie?”
“I heard a baby crying,” said Emilie.
“What’s the location?” asked Kru, taking out his mini keyboard.
“Show me a tactile responsive map of Aura,” said Emilie.
Kru nodded quickly and projected the planet from a tiny cube that he placed on the floor, after punching a few keys on his keyboard. Emilie quickly turned the globe and expanded a tiny part in the centre of a large landmass. Once she did that, she tried expanding further to get a surface view, to no success.
“I’m sorry, our probes never made to the surface, this is as much as you get.”
“Tsokay! This is it then,” said Emilie, pointing at the base of a lone mountain.
“Are you sure?” asked Holloway.
“Yes,” replied Emilie quickly.
“Are there others?” asked Troy, with his fist on his lips.
“None, that I could pick up,” replied Emilie.
“Alright!” said Troy. “Let’s get down to Aura!”
The four quickly made it to a Cruiser in their shining black body suits. Kru handled the communication between the Command Bridge and them and cleared their Cruiser for lift off.
“It’s great that you know how to fly one of these things alone,” said Troy standing beside Kru who was seated in front of the control panel in the Command centre.
“I did advanced warbirds for my dissertation, Cruisers were one of the seventy five different Albein ships I studied,” said Kru, with pride written all over his face.
“Right,” said Troy and wished he hadn’t asked him that.
“We’ll be arriving at the Emilie’s coordinates in seven minutes! We got really bad weather here! So I suggest everybody take a seat and put your belts on,” said Kru loudly.
The other three quickly took three other se