Upbeats

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Think butternut, five eyes in a pyramid formation, a funny branch thingy on the head, no feet; it hovered, and it had only one ear; one ear where the mouth should have been.

  And, to add to the villain look, it wore a dark, purple cape.

  Smithy looked sideways at Robyn. It was easy to see his trepidation. He really didn’t want to do this.

  But Robyn nodded, encouragingly.

  Everyone fell silent, the kind of silence you could almost hear; buzzing in your ears, giving you a headache.

  "Captain Monmia, I am. Would you be who?"

  Smithy blinked. The little colour he had left in his face drained. It took him a minute to understand the Monmia. His voice sounded like someone talking through a mouthful of peanut-butter. Smithy coughed into his sleeve.

  "I would be Gemini," Smithy said, trying to sound older. "Sorry. I mean, I am Gemini.

  "The information, have you?" the Monmia asked.

  I knew I had to keep on my toes, ready to help Smithy, but I couldn’t stop my mind from wondering.

  You know how when you have to have focus on something, you suddenly get all these questions flying through your mind?

  What exactly was Captain Monmia speaking through? He didn’t have a mouth. Was he talking through that ear thing?

  "Um, yes?" Smithy said, nervously making it a question. He cleared his throat, straightened up and spoke confidently. "Yes, I do."

  "To me, you must give," Captain Monmia demanded.

  The Monmia obviously didn’t know how to speak English properly. His grammar education must have been from Yoda.

  "Admit, I must. You coming through, I didn’t expect. Back-bone, you don’t have. But good, this is."

  "Uh . . . thanks? Anyway, do you want to know where the thinnest part of the O-Zone layer is?" Smithy said.

  "Information to me you must give," the Monmia confirmed.

  Smithy nodded. "The information, I have. I mean, I have the information."

  "This is where?"

  System quietly, unnoticeably, waddled over and slipped a small USB stick onto Smithy’s lap. Smithy held it up to examine it. He was slightly confused at first but trusted System had already figured everything out.

  "Um, the co-ordinates are on this information holding device," Smithy said. He glanced, quickly, out the corner of his eye at System who nodded in confirmation. Smithy plugged it into the computer. "Sending you information, I am. I mean: I’m sending you the information now." There was a single folder on the stick. He attached it to a message and sent it off to the Monmia. I was surprised at how easy it was. It couldn’t have been easier if I had been emailing a picture to a friend.

  The Monmia hovered out of camera shot for a moment, probably to check his email. It gave us a better view of his ship. It looked exactly like a space ship design from an old seventies sci-fi movie. White structures with lots of brightly coloured, flashing buttons and small tiles in rows that changed colours in sync to each other.

  "Over the ocean, that is," he said when he came back into view. He sounded sceptical.

  "Well, yeah, it’s extremely weak there. In fact, the sun has been known to cook the fish there," Smithy said, wisely. He was settling into the acting occupation very well.

  "Sure, you are?" the Monmia sounded doubtful.

  "Sure, I am. I mean, I’m sure."

  "Gemini, thanks. Shells, must I deploy, how many? Effect, what we want?"

  Smithy blinked, trying to decipher the question.

  The Monmia had a terrible voice. You could barely make out the words. Then, on top of that, you had to rearrange his sentences, mentally, and contemplate your answer.

  Smithy nodded, finally understanding. "You must deploy all of the shells you have," Smithy said, firmly. "We need this to happen quickly so the Intergalactic Police don’t have any time to respond. They won’t even know what hit this planet."

  Smithy was keeping the act up pretty well.

  "Sure, you are?" the Monmia didn’t sound too convinced.

  An abrupt sick feeling hit me like a brick wall. I pressed my back up against the wall, suddenly tired.

  The terrible thought that had been eating away at the back of my mind finally had the nerve to surface. What would happen if this whole operation went south?

  If the Monmia didn’t buy our story, would tomorrow happen? Would kids, reluctantly, get up, get dressed and rush off to school? Would the city streets be stampeded upon by thousands, even millions, ever again? Would another song ever be sung, another picture ever be painted and another view ever be seen? Would anyone ever laugh, cry or smile again?

  Or would the Monmia move in?

  I had a picture in my head of Monmia playing in the parks, eating at the restaurants and sitting in classes.

  My classes.

  That couldn’t happen. And I had to trust in Smithy not to let it ever happen.

  "Yes, sure, I am. I mean, of course I’m sure, like I said before."

  We all held our breath as the Monmia stared at Smithy. Smithy didn’t budge. He was holding his ground, flawlessly.

  The Monmia said nothing more and cut the link.

  For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was breathing and the technology in the room humming its soft, constant rhythm.

  Smithy closed his eyes and let his shoulders sag, relieved.

  The rest of us started breathing, too, having forgotten we were holding our breath.

  "Well, that went," Ned burst into laughter.

  "It wasn’t exactly fun," Smithy pointed out.

  "At least we saved Earth," Robyn reminded us.

  "Yeah," Smithy admitted. "But I don’t think the Monmia really bought that. Holes in the O-Zone layer are created by humans. Why would there be one over the ocean? Especially over a part of the ocean that’s so vast, there is no way they could have destroyed it yet. The Monmia aren’t going to like it when they find out we tricked them."

  We all heard a faint rumble of thunder.

  "That will be the shells breaking," System informed us.

  "How do you know?" Brooke asked.

  "Because, if the shells didn’t break and actually completed their mission, you wouldn’t have heard anything: they are designed for noiseless operation. And, also, you would be dead by now."

  "I wonder what they’ll think of that," Robyn mused.

  My temporary relief wore off. I jerked my head towards the computer. "You don’t have to wonder much longer. Look."

  A message had popped up on the computer, announcing an incoming call.

  Smithy quickly straightened up and accepted the call.

  The Monmia was fuming. Literally. Smoke was coming out of his branch thing.

  "Work, it didn’t. Broken, the shells are," the Monmia said, sharply. "Lie, you did."

  Smithy shrugged. "Oops."

  "Tricked me? Trick Captain Monmia, you didn’t!"

  "Yeah, I just did. See, I didn’t think your offer was good enough. You want to destroy a whole species; you’re going to have to pay more than that."

  Captain Monmia narrowed his five eyes at Smithy. If looks could kill, then Smithy would have been fried.

  "Forgotten, you have. The deal: let you live, was."

  We probably should have gotten better bluff material, I thought to myself. I noticed Robyn nod in agreement with me.

  "Two hours, you have to live," Captain Monmia said, darkly. "Return, I shall. Pay, you will."

  The call dropped.

  Smithy ran his hands through his charcoal stained hair. He rested his elbows on the desk and held his head in his hands.

  The failure hung on all of us. But it weighed Smithy down most of all, it seemed. "I’m sorry, guys," he said in choked voice. "I let you down."

  I looked at my team. Brooke looked away and didn’t meet anyone’s gaze. A tear rolled down Robyn’s cheek. She fingered her locket, sadly. Even Ned was quiet, which was a first for him.

  I couldn??
?t tell what System was thinking. He didn’t seem too worried.

  "Come on, guys," I said, trying to establish some kind of hope. "This isn’t that bad."

  "No, it’s that bad," Robyn said, quietly. "When the Monmia comes for Gemini . . . he’s going to find us. And if he doesn’t find us, he’ll find Smithy. And if he doesn’t find him, he’ll find someone else. He’ll be back and I don’t want to know who’s going to be on the receiving end of his anger."

  Robyn has always been one for optimism. It scared me to hear her say something like that. "What can we even do about it?" I asked, hopelessly.

  "I guess . . . we just go home and enjoy our last two hours alive," Brooke said.

  "Or we can run away," Ned suggested. At first, I thought it was his dark humour shining through.

  It was the kind of humour I didn’t want to hear. Not at that moment when it seemed like we had saved Earth, only to have another horrible fate inflicted upon it.

  "Ned . . . now’s not the time . . ."

  "What? Captain Monmia isn’t after a bunch of kids. He’s after Gemini. If we leave town, he’s only going to find our pal: the real Gemini. Not us. Then the Monmia will worry about him, leave everyone else alone, and humans shall live on!"

  "I cannot believe I am saying this, but . . ." Brooke said, under her breath. Then, louder: "Ned is right."

  "You agree with Ned? Wow. That is a first," Robyn conceded.

  "We’ve got two hours," I said. "Let’s see how far away from Rockwell City we can get in that time."