Defenders of Destiny, book one, the Discovery of Astrolaris

  Chapter Five

  The Neanderthal Twins

  Joseph woke with the sunlight streaming through his window; it split and refracted into different colors as it struck his crystal collection on the windowsill. The morning was particularly quiet; all he could hear was the occasional raspy cry of a magpie in the tree in the yard.

  From his window, Joseph could see through the trees, across the backyard, to the barn.

  On his way to the barn he made a compulsory stop in the kitchen. On the counter was a note: “Went with Grandma to the doctor—I’ll be back this afternoon. Mom.”

  Joseph opened the cupboard and stared blankly at the granola, cheerios, and cornflakes. As he stood, wondering why they couldn’t have something that tasted better, he suddenly seemed to hear his mom’s voice in his head: “You might as well give your kids a candy bar for breakfast as feed them those sugar cereals.”

  He opened the pantry, but there were no candy bars, so he turned to the fridge. There, on the middle shelf, was a huge piece of carrot cake with thick cream cheese frosting. Just as good as a candy bar, he thought, as he reached for the cake.

  Taped to one of the rungs of the ladder leading to the control room of the ship was a note from Dad:

  Don’t touch the controls.

  Joseph sat down in one of the comfortable chairs in the lounge area of the cargo bay and enjoyed the last of his cake. He felt so relaxed, as if he were almost floating in the air.

  He glanced down the hallway toward the bathroom that they had discovered the day before. As he looked, he noticed that a section of one side of the hallway wall was not covered with storage compartments. Instead, there was a single label. He got up and pressed the label. The wall rolled back and revealed eight strange looking overalls hanging from a rack. They were clear and seemed quite large. They reminded Joseph of the huge overalls that painters sometimes wear, except that these were almost transparent and had a strange looking hoodie attached to them.

  No, they look like some kind of one-piece haz-mat suit, he thought to himself. At the wrist, elbows, knees shoulders, hips and feet were pieces of the same metal as the hull of the ship. The pieces on the wrist were about three inches long and two inches wide. The rest of the pieces were about the size of an old time silver dollar.

  “Maybe they are spacesuits!” commented Joseph out loud. He looked around for air tanks but could not find any. He pulled one of them off the rack and began to try it on. He felt like he was putting on a giant pajama sleeper because it was open from the hood all the way down to one ankle. But he could not see any zipper, snaps or other way to close it. He pulled the edges of the suit together where the zipper should have been.

  At that moment, Sharianna appeared in the doorway. She gasped at what she saw: as soon as the two edges of the suit touched each other, they stuck together, like two magnets. It seemed to Joseph that there was a magical, or invisible, zipper automatically going both directions.

  Sharianna screamed as she saw the suit zip up by itself. At the same time it began to shrink, until it fit perfectly snug on all of Joseph’s body; with the exception of his head, which had about a half-inch clearance all around. The more it shrunk, the more clear the material became until it was virtually invisible, except for the small pieces of metal.

  “Hey, it fits,” proclaimed Joseph, apparently calm, except for an almost imperceptible squeak in his voice that gave away some of his nervousness.

  “Can you breathe?” questioned Sharianna.

  “Yes.”

  “Can you move?”

  “Yes,” he answered, as he took a step toward her.

  Without warning, his mouth dropped open and his hands shot to his neck; he mouthed the words: “Help me.”

  Sharianna instantly jumped toward him and tore at the invisible suit, pulling on the material where the zipper should have been, only to have it stretch and flex, but not come apart. Suddenly, Joseph burst into laughter.

  “That’s not funny!” she scolded, as she gave him a shove.

  “Yes it is,” Joseph replied, still chuckling.

  “It feels like I’m not even wearing it!” exclaimed Joseph, as he moved his arms and jumped up and down.

  Joseph pulled on the material with both hands where it had gone together and it easily pulled apart. When he let it go, it resealed itself.

  “How come it wouldn’t come apart when I pulled on it?” demanded Sharianna.

  Joseph pulled the seal apart again. “I don’t know. Maybe it only responds to itself.” Joseph held up his hands and Sharianna pulled on one of his fingers. As the material stretched she observed: “It’s like a latex glove.”

  “Except that it’s clear,” responded Joseph.

  Sharianna touched the invisible material that covered Jo-seph’s face. “It’s hard. How come I can hear your voice like normal? It isn’t muffled or anything.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you think it’s a spacesuit?” she asked.

  “I couldn’t find any oxygen tanks,” he replied. “I don’t know if it takes the air from outside, or if it uses what is already in here.”

  Sharianna began to put on one of the other suits. “I know how to find out.”

  “How?” asked Joseph.

  “Follow me.”

  They got their bikes from the garage.

  “Where are we going?” asked Joseph.

  “To the lake.” They called it a lake even though it was really a reservoir.

  As they rode down the road, Joseph noticed that he couldn’t even tell that Sharianna was wearing the alien suit over her regular clothes, except that her hair looked kind of flat and did not blow in the wind.

  “Wait!” called Joseph, as he stopped on the side of the road. “Let’s take the bike trail along the creek.”

  “Yeah, less chance of being seen,” Sharianna concurred.

  They were about halfway to the lake, riding side by side, when they noticed two motorbikes coming the other way.

  “Oh no. It’s the goony twins,” moaned Joseph.

  “I hate those bullies.” Sharianna shared Joseph’s contempt for the twins.

  “Just keep on riding and ignore them,” cautioned Joseph.

  As they approached each other, the riders on the motorcycles suddenly slammed on their back brakes and skidded sideways, blocking the entire path. Joseph and Sharianna could barely stop before they plowed right into them.

  “Look, it’s the wash rats.” Don spat into the dust as he spoke the derogatory words.

  “Hey, where did you find those old pieces of trash?” Dan sneered, as he looked at their bikes. “The thrift store?”

  “No, the landfill,” countered Don. “Didn’t you know that’s where they get everything?”

  “Yeah, your parents drive old junk, so why wouldn’t you?”

  Joseph felt a surge of anger. It was true, that their bikes were old, but they were still in good shape. Sophia and Thomas had bought them new with the intent to ride them regularly even before Joseph and Sharianna were born, but they had sat idle in the basement until Joseph and Sharianna were old enough to ride.

  “I thought we told you that this was our personal bike trail,” mocked Dan.

  “I guess you’ll just have to pay,” echoed his brother.

  “Leave us alone!” commanded Sharianna sharply, as she tried to ride around the bullies.

  Dan gunned his motorcycle and bumped into her front tire, knocking her down. “Or what?” he taunted, laughing.

  Joseph was fuming mad now as he got off his bike. “Leave her alone!” he yelled.

  “Oooh, look at the big tough man,” jeered Don, as he flipped his kickstand and got off his motorcycle. “What’cha gonna do about it?” he scoffed, in a challenging voice with a disdainful upward nod of his chin. He stepped toward Joseph with his elbows out, fists clenched and his chest puffed out.

  Joseph looked up at the twin that dwarfed him by more than
a foot in width as well as height. He wondered if David was this scared when he stood up to Goliath. The difference was that David had a sling and didn’t have to grapple with the giant, while Joseph had nothing. Joseph glanced at Sharianna, still on the ground. He saw her hand curl around a baseball size rock with a long jagged point as she stood up and faced the other hulking twin.

  Dan got off his motorcycle and came toward Sharianna, but stopped when he saw the jagged shard protruding from her fist.

  “What are you gonna do? Stick me with that?” he asked.

  “Yes I am,” she retorted calmly, with determination flashing from her eyes.

  Dan took a step back. Bullies, even big bullies, are usually only bullies when others cower.

  By this time, Don had covered the distance to Joseph with a couple of giant size steps.

  “I don’t want to fight,” insisted Joseph.

  “Good,” replied Don, as he faked with his left while swing-ing a ham-sized right that caught Joseph square in the face. In the split second before the impact Joseph winced in anticipated pain…but he felt nothing. Instead, he heard Don groan in agony. Don stepped back as he cradled his injured hand.

  The encounter was so intense for Joseph that he had momen-tarily forgotten that he was wearing the alien suit. Immediately, he realized that the ‘helmet’ had reflected the force of Don’s punch.

  Dan turned from Sharianna toward Joseph.

  Sharianna picked up her bike and looked at the front tire, it was a little bent but looked like it would still roll. She pushed it between the two motorbikes and jumped on.

  “Come on Joseph! Let’s go!”

  Joseph jumped back on his bike and made for the gap be-tween the motorcycles. Dan leaped over and gave Joseph a shove on the shoulder. As Joseph fell, he crashed into one of the motorcycles, knocking it down. Both the hulking Neanderthals now leaped toward Joseph with the intent to really teach him a lesson. In desperation, Joseph swung as hard as he could at Dan’s gut. Dan doubled over in pain as his feet lifted off the ground and he landed on the other motorcycle, knocking it to the ground.

  Realizing that the suit must be enhancing his strength, Joseph turned with a little more confidence as Don swung at him with his good hand. Joseph caught his fist as if it were softball, pulled Don toward him and grabbed him by the belt and tossed him onto the heap that was his brother.

  Sharianna had stopped and witnessed the interchange with amazement.

  “Are you going to leave us alone?” Joseph demanded, pointing at the pile of bully with a squeak in his voice from the adrenaline.

  The two bullies meekly nodded.

  As Joseph rode away with Sharianna, Dan said with a moan: “I think he’s been taking Karate lessons.”

  Don rubbed his hand. “He’s got a hard head. Let’s keep this to ourselves.”

  “Wow!” exclaimed Sharianna, as they rode down the trail. “How did you do that?”

  “Adrenaline.”

  “You don’t think it was the suit?”

  “Probably,” Joseph replied. “Dan did feel a lot lighter than I expected, when I threw him on top of Don.”

  “Wasn’t it Don you threw onto Dan?”

  “What’s the diff? Goons are goons,” quipped Joseph, as they both laughed.

  When they approached the lake, Joseph turned onto a barely discernable trail that appeared to lead away from the lake, but in reality doubled back to a secluded alcove nestled between some low cliffs. The trail was strewn with rocks, branches and the occasional fallen tree.

  Sharianna could see her front wheel wobbling, and wondered if it would hold up as she bunny hopped over the logs that blocked the path. She was impressed by her own ability to climb, without even stopping, right up the big rocky hill that protected the alcove from most other casual explorers. Usually, she had to push her heavy bike up the hill – it really wasn’t that heavy, only when compared to the new super light composite bikes some of the other kids had at school.

  Sharianna loved to shop with her mom and still enjoyed imagining that she was a princess, but she also loved the outdoors and this was her favorite swimming spot on the whole lake; it was worth the trouble it took to reach it.

  “How about that? I didn’t have to stop, even once,” Shariana bragged, as she probed for a compliment.

  “Yeah, I didn’t have to either,” commented Joseph, as he stashed his bike in some bushes.

  Sharianna hid her bike too, and followed Joseph to the edge of the small cliff that overlooked the alcove. It was only about ten feet high, but always looked a little too formidable to her. She was a good swimmer, but the water was so clear in this spot that she could see the rocks on the bottom, and she had to admit, that was a little too scary.

  Joseph stepped to the edge and looked down at the rocks on the bottom. They looked very close to the surface, but he knew they were over twelve feet deep, because one time he had tied both his and Sharianna’s fishing poles together and probed the depths with it.

  “If you can beat the Cro-Magnon twins then why are you scared of a little cliff?” he silently asked himself. Joseph’s heart was pounding as he took a few steps back and, with a quick run, leaped off the cliff. As he was flying through the air, it occurred to him how strange it was to be jumping in fully clothed. Normally, when they came to the lake on a warm summer day they would wear their swimsuits. Joseph took a deep involuntary breath and closed his eyes a moment before he plunged into the water. It was a very odd sensation for Joseph as he felt the water flow over his body without feeling its wetness. He opened his eyes and exhaled; then he forced himself to take a small breath. The euphoria that flowed through him was a singularly unique emotion. He realized that he really could breathe under water. He wanted to explore the whole lake.

  Sharianna watched as he splashed feet first into the water. The splash and the ripples momentarily made it so she could no longer see the bottom. As the ripples cleared, she looked and saw Joseph swimming around among the large boulders on the bottom. Finally, after what seemed like a long time, he made a lazy ascent. When his head slowly broke through the surface, she could see an enormous smile.

  “Well?” she inquired.

  “See for yourself,” proposed Joseph, with a wave of his hand. “I dare you.”

  The call of exploration, and Joseph’s challenge, was too great for Sharianna. Overcoming her fear, she took a running leap and screamed, with both exhilaration and trepidation, as she flew through the air and plunged into the cold water—except that it didn’t feel cold.

  Sharianna involuntarily held her breath until she reached the surface, and then she took a deep breath.

  “You don’t have to hold your breath, you know,” Joseph informed her.

  “I couldn’t help it.”

  Sharianna was an excellent swimmer, so she dove down and swam toward the bottom, and then without stopping she began to swim toward deeper water. Joseph was hard-pressed to keep up with her.

  Sharianna stopped and pointed to a hollow under a large boulder. “Look,” she mouthed the word. There, resting in the shade, sat an enormous catfish. Joseph swam toward the huge whiskered beast but it darted swiftly away into deeper water.

  “Whiskers, come back here,” coaxed Joseph.

  “Hey, I can hear you, even though we’re under water,” Sharianna exclaimed.

  “Cool! There must be some kind of walkie-talkie built right into the suits,” replied Joseph.

  As they swam along the shore, they could hear splashing and discovered that five of their friends from school were playing near the shore. The water was a little murky from all their splashing about. Sharianna smiled as she got a mischievous idea. She motioned to Joseph and reached out as if she were grabbing some imaginary legs. Joseph smiled wide and with a nod swam toward their unsuspecting friends.

  Pandemonium reigned when Alison screamed in utter terror.

  “Something has a hold of me!” she screamed, as Josep
h grabbed onto her ankle and didn’t let go.

  Slowly, he dragged her a couple of feet toward deeper water, before relinquishing his grip. As she scrambled to get away, he momentarily grabbed her other ankle, creating even more panic.

  At about the same time, Sharianna grabbed Cameron, who also panicked. The others had no choice but to believe that something was attacking their friends because their screams were so real and unexpected. They all stampeded for shore.

  Joseph and Sharianna swam away right on the bottom, until they got behind a boulder a short distance away, where they surfaced to watch their panicked friends scramble out of the water.

  “Cameron screamed like a little girl,” Joseph commented, in between laughs.

  “So did Alison,” giggled Sharianna.

  “She is a girl.”

  “I know, but she sure did scream, didn’t she?”

  “I can’t wait to hear them tell the story of how they were almost dragged down into the lake by some horrible monster,” laughed Joseph.

  “Yeah, me too!” agreed Sharianna. “We’d better be getting home; I forgot to leave a note for Mom and Dad.”