Lightship Chronicles Chapter 5 : Gay Sex

of their homes, and head west.

  They've been walking without a word for quite a while. Nayaa is on Andee's left, but keeps looking right, studying Andee. He is either ignoring her or so lost in thought he is not even noticing her. His eyes are locked ahead. Nayaa keeps staring at Andee, but no reaction. Her view moves past him, over the great flatland expanse, to the mountainous northern horizon where Carpatia's moon is half peeking out, even though it is still day. From her perspective it is the size of a house. The moon's white whirling clouds, and its blue and green regions underneath, are clearly visible on the sun facing half. The dark side is not dark at all, but a hazy grey due to all the daylight diffraction, and none of the moon-fairy strings of lights are visible. Nayaa glimpses the moon for a moment but ignores the beautiful view. She studies Andee again who looks lost in a trance, his eyes locked straight ahead.

  "I'm sorry." Nayaa breaks the silence.

  "Whatever. She was going to find out anyway." He responds sternly without looking at her.

  "Not that. Well, kind'a that. Sorry for always taking things too far." She continues clearly remorseful.

  "Huh?" Andee finally turns to her.

  "You're mad at me. Been avoiding me, because I keep going too far. And I did it again, no?"

  Andee's hard glare finally breaks as he smirks. He throws his left arm around Nayaa's shoulders and pulls her in closer, like a good friend. He gently head butts the side of her head with his own, in a friendly way. They both smile.

  "I'm not mad at you. It's Old Tom... and now mom. I don't understand what the hell is going on. Old Tom hasn't talked to me in weeks."

  "Really! Then why do you keep going back there?"

  "Because... I need to figure out what's going on."

  "Is that why we're going up to the crash site?"

  "Yes."

  "Cool. I'm going to solve your mystery for you." Nayaa's energy returns making Andee smile. "See you need me. I make you smile, and now I'm going to solve your mysteries." Andee lifts up his left hand from her shoulder and ruffles up her hair like he used to do when they were kids. Nayaa forcefully pushes him away.

  "Hey! My hair!" Lifting up her finger to Andee. "I'm not twelve any more. This..." ...pointing to her wavy black locks. "This is valuable. You think it looks this good all by itself. Those berryfruit credits... are in my hair. I spent a fortune on berryflower soap. It took me over an hour this morning to make it look this good. I don't care what mood you're in, don't screw around with my hair. Got it buddy?" Shaking her finger at him with a coy smirk.

  "Yesss... buddy. And you're right. You do make me laugh. I guess, I have been cold to you, more than you deserve, but Old Tom's really got me twisted. Ok, you really want to help me figure out what's going on?"

  "Of course I do. If there's something going on, I want my nose in it."

  "How about your hair?"

  She tweaks her head to the side and gives him a disapproving look. "I definitely have to help you with the jokes."

   

  Adinaa, wearing a jacket similar to Nayaa's, but light in color, knocks twice on Old Tom's door before she lets herself in.

  "Hey there, Andee's mom." Mirceu greets her joyfully.

  "Hey Mirceu, is Tom... ah there you are." Turning to Old Tom coming out of the dark recesses of his shed.

  "What brings you by?" Old Tom asks.

  "Can I get you a water? I've got some berry-fizz if you'd like?" Mirceu eagerly offers her.

  "No thank you, but I do have something important to discuss with Tom here, if you don't mind." She responds to Mirceu.

  "Sure, sure, I got lots to do out in the yard. But if you want that berry-fizz it's right there in that electric cooler." She nods as Mirceu leaves.

  "Andee." Is all Old Tom says with cold eyes.

  "Do you know what's going on? I just found out today what he's been up to, with the rescue, the friendship center, and then of course the name." She leans in close to Old Tom and whispers. "Is it safe to talk here?"

  "Yeah, I've got a few working sensors, we're good here."

  "He said you've been avoiding him? What's going on? Do they know?" Adinaa looks at him with eyes that seem to hide a deep secret that both she and Old Tom know.

  "Come, have a seat. We've got a lot of talking to do, and some hard decisions to make."

   

  Andee and Nayaa are walking up the steep jagged path to the outcrop. Quite a ways before reaching it Andee stops.

  "All right, you ready?"

  "I can't wait."

  "The ship crashed up there." Pointing to the outcrop. "But all the parts rained down here so there's no point in going all the way up. And the bubble was stuck in a deep crevice behind those giant boulders."

  "Cool, lets go."

  The two human Leaping Ghimurs get to work. They are pretty much at the line where the sloping rubble ends and the sheer cliffs begin. They are moving along that line, neither climbing or descending, but their path is no walk in the park. It is full of large boulders, crevices and cracks, all at steep angles. It would probably take the average man hours to transverse, even with the necessary gear, but Andee and Nayaa make a game of it. They are in fact racing. Running, leaping, flipping, and making astounding progress. Within minutes they reach the boulders above the tiny ledge and crevice where the bubble crashed.

  "I win." Nayaa shouts with a smile as she lands on the large domed stone Andee pointed to. He lands next to her. "Ok, so what are we looking for?"

  Andee looks down. "To be honest. I really expected the bubble to still be here." Pointing to the shallow ledge by the deep crevice where the bubble stuck. "I guess they must have used one of those black hoppers like we saw that night at the warehouse to remove it."

  "You know I had nightmares about that. That thing really creeped me out."

  "Yeah me too. But since the bubble is not here, just look for anything that isn't natural. That doesn't belong here."

  "OK." Both start searching, looking in every crack and crevice. They quickly find broken pieces of plastic, even a shard of the transparent bubble material. Andee fiddles with it.

  "This is a piece of the bubble." Showing it to Nayaa and bending it with force. "I can't break it. It's so strong but light and soft. It looks like glass but it doesn't cut, look." He draws the knife sized shard over a finger but his skin is unharmed.

  "Why do they call it a bubble? It sounds stupid." Nayaa blurbs.

  "Because it's a bubble."

  "Yeah, but they should call it something else."

  "Like what?"

  "I don't know, like the pilot pit, or something."

  "That's even more dumb."

  "Bubbles are for kids. It should be something more manly, something hard and strong."

  "Fine, call it whatever you want. You can call the pilot's bone hard pit, I don't care. Listen, there's nothing here. Just shards. What I want to find are the electronics that were inside the bubble."

  "What are those?"

  "You saw Mykee's vidrom, right?"

  "Yes."

  "It came from right here. It was inside that bubble, and look." Andee points down in the large crevice where the bubble was stuck. "Look how deep that goes, and then it turns out and goes that way. You see the end of the township there? Those sheds there?" Nayaa nods. "That's the back of Old Tom's Junkyard. And that shed is where he keeps his two alcama. That's only a kilometer from where the debris fell, and if you look down this crevice, it curves out and exits in the same place. I bet that vidrom fell when I was helping Ricio out, when I cracked the bubble open. If that fell, other things could have fallen. There's got to be more stuff down in that sand down there.

  "Ok, then we're going down."

   

  Brandberd Bret is walking quickly down an oval walled white hallway lined with curved-in square panels. Each panel is ornamented with deep purple lines, about a foot in from the edge. The purple lines are tastefully embossed forming a large frame with gently curving twirls and
curls. In the center of each square there is a bust of former Bitani leaders, floating inside a soft glow of purplish light with filaments and soft purple electric arcs that seem to the be the energy holding the busts in place. Brandberd reaches a panel missing the light and bust, and when he steps in front of it, it opens, splitting apart. The Governor steps through the sliding doors into his ornate office, and rushes to his desk. The instant he takes his seat the desk lights up. All around his oval glass top, 3D holographic images of other politician looking types, appear already in deep discussion. They stop talking to each other and welcome Brandberd for joining them as if they are all sitting around the same round desk.

  "My apologies for being late. Issues and issues, you know how it goes." At that moment the center 3D display lights up with the Commander interrupting them.

  "I'm sorry to interrupt the board meeting but we have an emergency."

  "Well, there we go. Sorry Governors, looks like this is a bust for me. I'm going to have to pick this up later."

  The 3D holographic governors agree with nods and they vanish one by one.

  "What is it Commander?" Brandberd turns to the only remaining image.

  "We have action."

  "Where?"

  "At the crash site." Next to the commander the 3D image expands showing Andee and Nayaa searching on the rocks.

  "They've been at it for half an hour. Here's earlier footage of them scampering down the mountain." Brandberd watched the footage.

  "Amazing! Absolutely amazing. I almost admire these kids."

  "Sir?"

  "Look at them. Have you ever seen humans move like that? No wonder our Sentinels got their buts handed to them. These kids are