THE THIRD BROTHER

CHAPTER THREE

BaseOne

Mother? Father?

I wandered into our scoop, it was late and already the second moon was high in the sky. Stars dotted the deep blue skies and only a few clouds remained after yesterday' downpour.

Father?

No one was home. This worried me; at this hour my family would be home. But they weren't.

Maybe my mother has a conference and my father finally decided to give in to Baroff's offer to go to Gox-48.

Baroff is a family friend, our neighbor. Ramor's father. Baroff and my father were friends. Ramor is older than me; he actually met Aximili and Elfangor. So sometimes, he'd talk about them.

Truthfully, Ramor is Elfangor's friend since he's around his age. I thought about going to his family's scoop but decided against it. He may start talking about my screwing up in the field yesterday. I've had heard enough talk about it.

He wouldn't boast about it though, he wasn't that kind of person. I suppose he wouldn't even mention the topic. Ramor may have gotten himself in the Drift Ball team in his university but that didn't make him a die-hard fan. Actually, he told me once that the only reason he played the sport was so that he could get a little exercise.

It was lonely in our scoop. And I found the prospect of spending the late evening alone extremely boring. Besides. I could ask Ramor. Maybe he'd know where my father was.

I trotted into my neighbor's land and carefully I edged toward the scoop. Maybe if I just saw Baroff there then I wouldn't have to talk to Ramor. The last thing I needed was get Cleapath and Ramor annoyed, they probably had important stuff to talk about what with their marriage ceremony nearing. They're supposed to pick a scoop of their own; they still haven't decided on the location.

I saw no one wondering outside the scoop. I didn't want to barge into the scoop uninvited.

I yelled a bit to get anyone's attention. If 'anyone' was home that was.

Scyeth, is that you?

Great. Ramor's mother. I don't have anything against her but if she found out that there was no one in our scoop she'd have me spend the evening with her.

It gets embarrassing if you came to your scoop finding your neighbor's son staying with your mother. Even though Ramor wouldn't mind but I found it childish of me.

Ramor has always acted like a bigger brother for me. And I have yet to catch him doing something wrong. He even covers for me in case I did something my parents might disapprove of. And there is a lot that I do that my parent's might object to.

Personally. I'd rather face my parent's than Ramor.

Are you looking for Ramor? She asked me, coming out of the scoop, he's not here dear, he said he was out with his friends.

Oh. Of course. His teammates might have spent the rest of the evening together celebrating their victory over the previously undefeated Whestler Academy team. It made sense.

Is Baroff here? I asked her.

No. He went out with your father.

Gox-48? I guessed. It was the showroom they used to display new models of fighters. They have shows too. You know. So that you can see the fighters in action, and they even have a flight stimulator, like the ones they use to train Arisths.

I wouldn't know.

So…if he weren't at Gox-48 where would he be?

What is wrong, honey? Aiel asked me, she walked over, Is everything all right? I could call Baroff if you are worried-

No. No. I'm fine. I said hastily. I turned around and started to walk back home, thank you for your help.

She shrugged and went back into the scoop.

I trotted back onto my family's land and into our scoop and went near our computer. Opened my mother's DP –Day Planner. And found that she had a SCC conference running at about now. My father's DP showed nothing.

That was not unusual. My father no longer has a busy schedule. After he retired from his service in the military, his only 'job' was to work full time on designing heat transfer components.

That is our family's contribution to aiding shipbuilding. Ramor's family starts the first process in building the components. And the neighbor's on our right -Shrag- transports the finished products.

I took off to Gox-48, quickly calling Cathydor to meet me there. I wasn't going to wonder in there alone.

The DP had not been made for the convenience of worried sons who were wondering where their fathers might be, but for the authority to quickly locate residence.

When I was younger –much, much younger- I recalled my parents putting every stupid trip outside the scoop into the DP. My mother once wrote why she was taking me to the clinic so they could locate her easily. If my friends had ever read my parent's DP that day they would have died laughing at me and I would have burned to death with embarrassment.

I didn't understand it back then. But now I did, Aximili had once asked for my parents while he was on Earth. The military was able to locate my father easily –since he was so punctual and accurate- while they couldn't locate my mother –even though she kept accurate notes. Ever since then my mother made sure the entire world knew where she was and when she would be there.

And now, even after all the years my mother still wrote accurate entries –I always made sure it didn't include anything about me- but my father had stopped doing it and finally accepted my brothers' deaths.

But even that –my brother calling from Earth- I had not heard from my parents but from Ramor.

I stepped off the P-Train and easily found myself approaching Gox-48. It was in the smallest spaceport –proportionally small, the place was huge- and you could see some transporters and individual fighters –even a dome ship- in cradles. Must have been landed for servicing.

I went into Gox-48 and found Cathydor waiting impatiently near gallery three –just like I told him.

Scyeth, any reason why you wanted to urgently meet me in gallery three? There's nothing new.

I laughed, Did I say urgently? I meant quickly, in any case, you got the correct message.

Cathydor looked at me seriously, then why did you call me here?

You weren't doing anything important. I said coming up to him.

Why do you take whatever it is I was doing for granted? He sounded a little bit annoyed with me.

Okay, I'm sorry. Will you move on now?

Where?

Just…come on.

Cathydor and I walked all over Gox-48. And still I didn't find my father or Baroff.

Why are we here again?

And I haven't told Cathydor why I need him with me.

Just thought you needed the exercise. Trying to hide my disappointment. Where was my father? And why was it bothering me?

Cathydor noted something unusual about my thought speak tone, he looked at me wearily, what is it?

I shrugged, sorry if I wasted your time. You could go back home now.

Unfortunately that didn't wave off Cathydor. I swear that as the days pass by Cathydor becomes more and more bolder. Maybe he got it from me.

I'm not falling for it Scyther. He said, something is bothering you. What is it?

Nothing. I said, I was just fooling around.

Now, Cathydor looked embarrassed, you wanted Nateesh to go with you to the Sunset High-

No! I said quickly, don't confuse things okay? I didn't drag you all the way here just so I could find a way to tell you I made a stupid mistake yesterday. That's not it..

What is it that you're hiding? He looked closely at my main eyes, I sighed exasperated and yanked him out of Gox-48, I docked another P-train and took him to my scoop. On the way over I explained.

I was just looking for my father. I couldn't find him at home.

Cathydor may be timid, but he's only like that in front of females and, well, males as large as Ramor. But believe that I am not lying when I say that Cathydor looked like he was about to slit my throat open.

You called me all the way over here just so that you could find your father?! He yelled it so loudly that perhaps half the people on the train heard him and all around us people were turning.

Stop yelling, I hissed, people are staring.

I'm glad that they are, he retorted, I believe that I'm not the only one who thinks that your trips are hilarious!

Will you shut-up? I murmured, Look, you're embarrassing me in front of all those people.

I didn't know you are capable of feeling that way in front of people you don't even know, he answered bluntly. I guess he was a little bit annoyed with me. I would have been if one of my friends dragged me over just so they could locate their father.

I pulled him off the train, what was it that you were doing that's so important anyway?! Don't yell at me like that in public again I'll-

My heart's suddenly jumped at the back of my throat.

Cathydor noted my reaction and looked ahead, he sounded worried. What is it?

I didn't say anything. For a few minutes I just stood there. Even forgot that Cathydor was standing near me.

Hovering just a few inches off the ground was a fighter. A brand new, military fighter. Two soldiers stood, hooves firmly planted on the ground as Aeil shouted something at them. Trying to get them off our land. What was the meaning of this unexpected visit?

I trotted towards them quickly and Cathydor followed. Was my father hurt? Or in trouble? Which was it?

Where was my mother? She had to be home by now.

Scyther? Cathydor asked nervously as we neared my home, Maybe I should leave now…

He was probably thinking the military visit had something to do with my last prank. If he thought the military was going to bother itself with my stupidity he had another thing coming.

No. I said tightly, feeling a sinking feeling at the pit of my stomach, can you stay, please?

Cathydor understood. He nodded silently.

Scyther! Aeil said as I came over, I'm glad you're home, I'm was so worried! Where have you been?

The second question was defiantly said in a different tone. But I didn't care. Maybe I would have if it was my mother, but it was Aeil, my neighbor. Okay, so I respected her but that did not mean I would answer every single question she asked me.

Scyther-Coraff-Maheen. One of the warriors said formally, your parents have asked us to escort you to base for a private reason.

My parents? Private reason? Base!?

Okay. I managed to say, I didn't ask why, I was afraid I'd faint if they told me my father was dead or something. But my friend is coming.

The warrior's eyes flickered. my orders are simple. You alone will come.

Well then, I said loudly, I'm not coming.

Cathydor looked trapped.

The warrior just looked angered.

Listen, youngster. The second warrior growled, If you think we haven't got anything better to do then you are sadly mistaken.

I would stop wasting your time if you quit trying to enforce your order. I said stubbornly. he's coming with me, what's wrong with that?

Then we will wait until you decide that complying with our request is the best thing to do. This came from the first warrior. And it was supposed to be polite. Very pushy, but what did I expect from a warrior?

You know, Cathydor said privately, maybe it would be best if I didn't come.

What? I replied back to him privately, are you joking? You're going to let them push us around.

No. That's not it. You don't know what's coming next. He shrugged –and I almost kicked him for confirming the two warrior's suspicion, we were conferring, they had been staring at us all along- maybe it is best that you go on. If you need anything you could call me. Or I could stay here if you want.

No thanks. You can go home now, I think I wasted enough of your time.

He shrugged, what are friend for after all?

You see what I mean about being loyal, if it was any of the others they'd have not only left the second I told them I had been looking for my father, they'd have knocked me unconscious and stuffed me in a carrier hold so that I could wake up and find out that I was at who knows where.

I went into the fighter and it was like in one of these holo-games Hagher and Idgar are so into playing, only in this case it was real. I've been aboard fighters before but you have no idea how exhilarating it was to see it being operated by the two warriors. I felt myself grin idiotically as we gradually hovered above my family's land and took a course to 'base'.

It took me a while to realize that we were heading to BaseOne. The largest of the three spaceports on my world. That's when I started having a funny feeling at the pit of my stomach.

What was going on…?