Chapter Two
John
"Maybe it's in the Smithsonian," Sam says. Malcolm buries his head in his hands in a desperate gesture. Six, who is surprisingly sympathetic despite the turn of events a few minutes ago, fidgets on my lap. Ella, multiplied by at least a dozen, is grooming the group of Chimæras on the floor of the living room. Bernie Kosar, who had a sulky kill-me-now doggy face, kept saying to me, set me free. I hate pink. I hate ribbons. Set me free. Nine, Meredith, Cole and Marina are seated on the couch in front of the coffee table while Six and I occupied the one parallel to Malcolm's chair. Since the space is too small for both of us, Six agreed to sit on my lap. Crayton and Sam remain on their feet, thinking deeply. "How did you know it disappeared?" asks Crayton. Here we go again. Crayton is in his detective mode, and you can't lie to him. Not against his searching eyes.
"We were assigned to look at the ship if it was still there, and when it was my turn it was gone. Vanished without a trace," Malcolm says dreadfully, not looking up from his hands. "Dad, it wasn't your fault. Maybe the Mogs took it and buried it in a mountain," says Sam. He's been ranting like this for the past fifteen minutes, suggesting places like the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, under the White House, in the Yucatán, buried in the Pyramids of Egypt and other places like that. Only Cole seems to pay attention to him, but sometimes he ignores Sam's suggestions like the rest of us.
"No. That ship has some sort of concealing device that allows it to show up only with a transmission device. I don't know what it is, but I think there is also another device that allows the ship to disappear and relocate on its own when it's found by unauthorized personnel. It can be anywhere in the planet," Malcolm says looking up briefly at his son.
"What is Robert Miller's connection to this?" Nine asks.
"Everything. He was the last person who saw the ship in its place. He was the one who alerted me when it was making these sudden noises, according to him. Then when I came to check on the ship, it was gone. I called him, but got no response, even from the others," Malcolm says.
"What makes you sure that this Robert Miller is still one of us? He might get blackmailed by the Mogs to do their bidding. And besides, we have the transmission device, the one from your backyard. Can't we just find the ship ourselves?" I say.
"Well we—wait, what did you say?" Malcolm says, his beady eyes wide and astonished.
I leave the explaining to both Six and Sam while I get my Chest from one of my backpacks at the foot of the bed in our room. I've been keeping the white tablet-slash-transmission device and the clump of documents Six grabbed in my Chest, folded neatly and organized. Once I get the tablet and the papers out, I re-lock my Chest and hand it to Malcolm in the living room. He traces the surface with his index finger with a series of strokes and turns, like a pass code, and the transmission device's screen illuminates brightly. It takes several seconds before the light of the screen decreases and shows a map. "Locate ship," says Malcolm, and the map on the screen moves, zooming at remote places and valleys. Six stands up, running her fingers through her hair and says, "I'm just going to hit the sack, my head's about to explode." With that she turns on her heels and walks away.
Malcolm squints at the screen and mutters certain words, and then the screen goes blank. "What else did you take from the lair?" Malcolm asks.
"Well, Six took about a handful of documents," I say, handing him the pieces of paper, "and a pendant from a large skeleton dude." Malcolm scans the papers, and asks Crayton and Sam to accompany him in the kitchen table, leaving me and the others in the living room. Ella, back in one body, is asleep in between furry bodies of the Chimæras. Marina carries her to their room with Cole trailing close behind her. I sigh, and yawn sleepily. After all the tension, I didn't even realize that my bones are aching, and I can barely open my eyes. When I walk through the door to our room, Six is on the bed, back turned to me. What caught my attention the most is that she's wearing one of my larger shirts, the ones that fit her like a lose nightgown, and it showed too much of her legs. My heart starts to pound. I should be used to this. How many times have I seen Six's legs? This isn't even the first! But yet here I am, trying to decide what to do, while I marvel at how beautiful and perfect she is, even from behind.
My first step towards her makes the floorboards creak underneath, but if Six heard it, she doesn't let it on until she feels the mattress sink under my weight. She turns to her side, pulling my shirt down to cover her thighs as she goes. "I can't sleep. As much as I want to, I just can't," she says, making space for me. The second my back hits the bed, Six snuggles near my chest. I've missed this, having her pressed against my side, because most of the time I sleep earlier than the others. I bury my nose in her hair and breathe its lemony scent before asking, "Why?"
"I just have a bad feeling about all of this. What if you're right?" Six says, looking up at me, her eyes sparkling. As a matter of fact, I also have a strange feeling about this. Robert Miller might not be one of us anymore. But he is another ally, and the Elders chose him for a reason. Six looks at me expectantly, and I just shrug. She sighs and tucks her head under my chin. After a while I can feel Six doze off, so I allow myself to do the same. I quickly kiss her forehead goodnight and close my eyes.
And another haunting vision flashes behind my eyelids.
I'm on Mogadore; the sky here is blood red. The Mogadorians here are all scurrying from one place to another, almost like frightened rodents. In the distance, the tall soldiers are surrounding the ruins of a rock fort. My dream form approaches the fort soundlessly, and the soldiers turn blind eyes towards me. I enter the eerie castle through the big, blown hole on the wall which I think was meant to be a door. The entrance pretty much reminded me of a cave's mouth, and that made goosebumps rise on my arm despite being a ghost in an illusion.
Inside, the stone walls are blackened and chipped, so worn that this structure might collapse. Again, I had to remind myself that I'm not really here, that I just came to visit this horrifying place.
The halls are dark and empty. Cobwebs line every corner, and the darkness in this castle is enough to scare a child for life. Bats are screeching from above, but what I find most terrifying is the wails and growls from one of the upper floors.
"Please, master. You have to re—" says a small and frightened voice, but a louder, much familiar voice growls at him, and something hits the wall. "Those little pests may have weakened me, but that will not stop me from destroying them. You, Lusmos, have done nothing to help me! I need strength! And the only way to do that is to awaken him!" says Setrákus Ra, angry for something I know not of. My dream self floats up, passing through walls and floors until I know that I am directly below the room where the tension is occurring.
"B—but master; he is unstable. We know not of how he will behave," says the frail voice. I risk floating just a little higher, enough for my eyes to see through the room. Had it not been a dream, I would've screamed all I want. Sitting on a metal chair, with wires and tubes connected to him, Setrákus Ra is seated, more than half his entire body covered in blisters and burns. His skin looks like it might dissolve at a single touch. The grotesque scar on his neck looks like it's been recently opened, now that it stands out more in his ever ashy gray skin. The other Mogadorian, Lusmos, is huddled on the floor, clutching his guts like they might fall off. He is certainly scared; terrified even. "Master—"
"Do not speak of it," says Setrákus, "I am your master, you are my servant. A servant must always obey his master, and in this case, if a servant disobeys his master, the penalty is that of your own destruction. Release him when I tell you to. Once I tap into his energy, I will be unstoppable once again." The three pendants on his neck begin to glow, and I'm fairly aware that mine is too. Setrákus' dark eyes bore into mine, and I'm whisked back to my own body.