The First Star: Star Light Series, #3

transmission logs

Transmission begins .

Scrambling codes initiated.

From: Third Leader EXLOR 221182119

To: First Leader CLMLE 221182119

Second Leader BXLOR 221182119

We have located the secret Eridu base. We are tracking Eridu operatives and gathering information on numbers. We will be ready to strike the base soon.

From: First Leader CLMLE 221182119

To: Third Leader EXLOR 221182119

Your priority is to capture an operative or progeny and move them to base. We can mind-strip them for all information. Don’t waste time on a foolish attack of their base when we don’t know their strength.

Because of your initial failures we have wasted much valuable time. Our orders have changed. We must increase our harvest on this planet. We must secure as much food as we can to ensure a high price for a restricted commodity. If you fail to secure an operative or progeny you will take its place in the feasting hall.

Scrambling codes initiated.

Transmission Ends.

Chapter one

Noah had been in paradise for three years. He hated it.

He stared out at the blue sea beyond the island reef and thought about aliens. He was pretty sure he wasn’t one. He hadn’t touched minds for help when a shark had got into the lagoon. He hadn’t mind-shifted his tools out of the way of the water fight. He lifted a handful of powdery white sand and watched the grains float down through his fingers. Everyone was helping to build the spaceship and here he was staring out to sea, not a spanner in sight.

Saul flopped down beside him on the sand. ‘Have you been here all this time?’

Noah shrugged. He didn’t feel like talking.

‘Eh. There’s nothing out there. Just miles of ocean.’

The waves rolled in and out of the impossibly blue sea. The sun shone on the whiter than white sand, the glare making his eyes water. Noah squinted to see if anything was floating in the lagoon. He would even take a shark sighting.

Saul flicked sand at him. ‘Lorikeet got your tongue?’

‘Shut up Saul!’

‘Ah, now he speaks. Who are you talking with, bro?’

Can’t a guy just sit on the beach? Does he need a bunch of aliens in his head watching his every move?

‘Who wants to see your every move... you on the toilet... ewww.’

Noah shrugged. He wasn’t going to answer Saul, it wasn’t worth it. They had nothing in common.

He could feel Saul looking at him.

‘Who are you calling alien anyway?’ Saul’s voice snapped. ‘You’re the alien here. You don’t fit in.’

Noah turned in surprise to stare at Saul. In the three years he had been on the island, this was the first time anybody had ever acknowledged it: he was the one out of place.

At first it had seemed like a big adventure, a fairy tale. His little family whisked off to a tropical island where they could go to school for the first time. And they didn’t have to do all the farm work like back home. He had a great workshop with tools and engines and they let him work on whatever projects he liked. He didn’t think much about his father in a hospital in New Zealand. Suddenly he seemed to have more family than he had known about back home when it was just his twin and his elder brother and sister living alone in the back end of nowhere.

He closed his eyes against the glare of the white sand and thought back to the cool deep green water of the farm stream. The shadows of the eels in the deep pools under the overhanging bush and the way the mist hung down draping the hills surrounding the farm like a wet sheet. He so wanted to go back. Life was uncomplicated. Just him and the generator. A small safe world. None of the secrets. None of the weirdness of being trapped on an alien base in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Noah stood up, ignoring Saul and walked into the lagoon. He started to swim, closing his eyes against the blue and trying to think of the deep green and the shadowed coolness of home.

Caleb would laugh at him. Trade in a fantasy Pacific island with everything on tap for a small farm with high rainfall and no phone access.

Rachel would sort of understand but she was away doing who knew what with Daniel, one of their half-brothers. He missed her. He was stuck here building a spaceship and wondering what his place in the world would be. There were a few kids like him. Bright but not with that extra hopped up genetic loading.

Caleb’s words from the night before floated back to him like seaweed on the tide: ‘Listen buddy, dumb here means genius everywhere else. So you aren’t in the Book. Big deal. Do you really think you’d want to be? Look at all the disadvantages. You’d have to marry early. You have to keep a lot of secrets. You’re tracked everywhere you go. Your only friends are related to you.’

Tobias’ head had popped up from the hammock he was lying in. ‘Gee Caleb, those are negatives?’ His twin had snorted. ‘That’s life as we knew it back home. We never had friends outside family. We’ve never been anywhere on our own. Marrying early, really? Are you looking forward to having Shira around all the time?’ He chuckled. ‘With the new spaceship being built that’s not going to be a problem much longer. We’ll have all the universe to travel in. Lots to see and do.’

‘Shut up about Shira.’ Caleb chucked a pillow at Tobias’ hammock, starting it swinging under the porch rafters. Tobias responded by hurling all the deck cushions at Caleb kinesthetically. Noah slunk lower in his own hammock, annoyed with his twin for showing off his super-mind skills. Life on the island had been great until Tobias had figured out how to be like ‘them.’ That was all they cared about. All you were worth to them. Super genes. Yeah right. Caleb, Rachel, and now Tobias. He felt like a left over and Saul’s words had hammered that home.

Noah surfaced and floated on the water. One good thing about the sea, he thought. No one could tell when you cried.

He flipped over and swam under water. A few fish swam past him. He tried to catch one with his fingers but they were too quick for him. In the distance he could see a grey shape ghosting through the water. Saul must have dived in. He turned away and swam towards the other side of the circular lagoon.

He couldn’t mind move anything. He couldn’t ‘speak’ to others, he was only good for understanding machines which never gave him any problems... not like his ‘family.’

‘Not all of us will be leaving Earth anyway,’ Caleb had said.

‘I bet I know who will be staying,’ Noah had said. ‘Anybody that doesn’t fit in the genetic super group. And what happens to us, eh, when you are all off swanning about the universe. You will be traveling in faster than light drive. Simple physics tells me I’m never going to see you again. You will be as dead as Mum.’

Noah stared hard at the grey shape in the distance. He looked around. Saul was swimming in the lagoon on the other side. The grey shape changed direction. A fin knifed up through the surface then disappeared. There was a shark in the lagoon. He frowned. That was the second shark this week. The lagoon was supposed to be shark-proof which was why the exclusive resort on the island did so well. It was difficult for them to get into the nearly protected lagoon unless someone was helping them. Come to think of it, Saul had been there both times.

Now he was getting paranoid. Dead men tell no tales. That was one way of getting rid of the genetic extras – unfortunate accidents.

The shark slid towards him like an oil slick in the water. It swum a wide circle just checking him out. Noah started to move towards the shore taking his time not trying to be any threat.

He glanced back over his shoulder He couldn’t see the shark!

‘It’s the shark you don’t see that takes you down,’ Saul’s words echoed in his ears. Saul! Where was he?

Noah stopped swimming and stuck his head out of the water searching for Saul.

A dark shadow flickered in the corner of his eye. The shark was coming straight for him.

Noah dodged, spinning to try and put the shark off. He pushed water hard and shouted under water. Sometimes the sonic shove of sound could put the shark off. The shark veered off flicking its tail from side to side. Noah surfaced gasping for air.

He ducked his head back under the water searching frantically in a circle for the shark or Saul. No shark. No Saul. He swam hard for the beach and staggered up onto the sand.

‘Saul!’ He yelled.

He kept yelling Saul’s name as figures popped into sight all along the shoreline.

His brother Caleb was the first to get to him.

‘There was a shark, Saul was with me and then he disappeared.’

The group of figures turned and stared at the lagoon. Two of Saul’s brothers raced for the canoes that were lying on the beach. Caleb and Luke launched each canoe into the middle of the lagoon where the paddlers peered over the side looking for Saul or the shark.

Noah stood on the shore clutching his towel to his stomach. He replayed the shark’s turn towards him. Where was Saul?

‘Hey guys, what’s up?’ said a voice behind him.

Noah sagged with relief. Saul stood there, his towel around his neck looking innocent.

Caleb alerted everyone that the scare was over. Saul was on the beach.

‘Very funny, Saul,’ he growled. ‘You freaked Noah half to death. He thought you’d been taken by a shark.’

‘I just shifted it back out of the lagoon. Noah has to remember I can port myself away. I’m not a dead weight like him.’

Caleb frowned. Saul backed up. ‘I mean I’ve got skills to get me out of trouble.’

‘And a mouth to get you into it,’ said Caleb. Noah saw Caleb’s eyes slide quickly towards him and then back to Saul.

Luke looked at Saul and shook his head.

Three canoes landed on the beach. Saul’s brothers clambered out

‘Where did you get to? Noah was scared for you,’ they both accused Saul.

Noah began to feel silly. Saul hadn’t been in trouble but then he hadn’t ‘called’ anyone either. He’d just shouted Saul’s name and everyone had suddenly appeared.

‘I was shifting a shark out of the lagoon. I can’t help it if Noah gets scared coz he can’t see me.’ Saul gave a half smirk in Noah’s direction. His body language was screaming ‘poor little kid’.

Noah glared at him. He wondered how much control Saul had had over the shark. Had he caused it to charge? ‘Sorry I cared.’

Caleb sucked in his breath. Luke frowned. Saul’s brothers looked at the fire power around Noah and ‘ported away, leaving the brewing fight.

‘Thanks for getting rid of the shark, Saul,’ said Luke. ‘It’s nearly time for class. Why don’t you deal with the canoes and we’ll walk Noah back to the dorm.’

Caleb picked up a towel and slung it around his younger brother’s shoulders. Luke stepped up beside him to walk along the path. Tobias couldn’t help feeling like it was the march of the condemned man. Guards on either side of him. He wished he could ‘port away but Saul was right, he was dead weight in this community.

Luke placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. ‘You aren’t dead weight. Everyone has their own part to play. Their own place in this world. You just have to find yours.’

Yada. Yada, Noah thought. Such a typical adult thing to say. He slid his eyes towards Caleb, waiting for him to say something. Caleb didn’t look at him.

Luke peeled away heading to his teaching room, and Caleb and Noah continued along the crushed shell path through the palm trees to the one story wooden building the family called home. At that point Noah realised he never called it home, it was the dorm. Home was a shadowed valley with knee high grass and a faint smell of cows. Home was the old farm generator. And he really wanted to go back there.

Noah was head down inside the jet intake when he heard his name called. The rapping on the steel cowling made his ears ring. He swore and backed out. He was even more annoyed to find his twin Tobias was using his best spanner to show off his levitation skills.

‘What?’ snarled Noah, thinking about using the spanner on his twin’s head.

‘I heard you and Saul had a problem this morning.’ Toby leaned against the wall, his eyes on the spanner as he levitated it higher.

Noah scowled. ‘There was a shark in the lagoon I thought it had got Saul. Shouldn’t have bothered.’ Toby looked at Noah who lunged to catch his spanner as Toby’s concentration broke. The spanner stayed up in the air. Show off, Noah thought feeling stupid for lunging when he didn’t have to.

‘That’s not the ‘better twin’ talking is it? I knew it.’

The old twin rivalry comment annoyed Noah even more than Toby levitating his spanner out of reach. ‘Better. Better. Best,’ he snarled. He knew Tobias had only come in to annoy him with his improved levitation skills. ‘Go away. I’m doing real work here.’

‘There’s a meeting after dinner.’ Tobias let the spanner fall with a clang and began to saunter out of the workshop. Noah snatched up the spanner, swearing at Tobias while he inspected it carefully to see if it had been damaged.

Tobias laughed at him. ‘Naughty. Naughty.’ He wagged a finger at Noah and disappeared. One moment he was there the next moment he was gone. Noah caught his breath. Toby had learned to teleport. For a moment he felt deep envy. His twin was supposed to be like him. But now he was something different. Tobias was leaving him behind.

Noah carefully placed the spanner in his work bag and took his time tidying everything up. His plan for coming back after dinner scuttled. He slouched over to the dining room, annoyed his work was being interrupted for something that would have nothing to do with him. It was all alien stuff and he wasn’t one of them.

The noise was almost deafening as he opened the door. He looked at the milling crowd and saw his sister Rachel in the middle of a group of people by the window. She had been away from the island for most of the year. Rachel saw him and detached herself from her group to fling an arm around Noah.

‘Eww yuck. Rach, get off.’ Noah tried to shrug out of the hug.

‘You’ve been growing, Noah...’

Noah finally shrugged her arm off, his face felt hot. He hated being noticed. He could hear the snarky comments about him from the group she had left.

‘Well, you look like you have.’ She flung her arm around his shoulders again. ‘I feel like I’ve been away for years.’

‘No such luck,’ muttered Noah, wishing he could leave as well.

Rachel frowned at him. She leaned forward. ‘Talk later,’ she promised. Her eyes bored into him for a moment, a hint of warning in them.

Noah felt ashamed of his bad mood with her. He hadn’t seen Rachel in months. He was about to ask what she had been doing, when she sped off to hug one of her friends, leaving him standing there. He felt more alone than ever as he walked to his group table and sat in a corner waiting for everyone to get themselves organised. He needn’t have come over so early. He glanced around the room looking for Toby so he could glare at him.

Dinner seemed to go on for ever. Noah shovelled up the food and thought about roast beef. Living on a tropical island the menu was always pork and fish, breadfruit, mangoes, taro and greens, and coconut everything.

He sighed. His work group was on dishes. That meant clearing away super quick so that the dining room could be used for the meeting. He raced into the kitchen and filled the big sinks with hot water. Scrubbing the pots was the worst job... but it meant that he didn’t need to talk to anyone.

He started on the pile. His work group left him alone to scrub while they stacked dishes and cleaned cutlery. The bell went on the veranda and everybody stopped what they were doing to head into the dining room for the meeting. Noah saw that his work group had quickly cleaned the tables, doing a half-assed job again. Judith would have something to say.

Adam and Judith, the leaders of the school, sat down at the top table. With them was a man that Noah had never seen before. He was not as tall as Adam and had dark wavy hair. There was something about the way he sat that made Noah shiver. He reminded Noah of a large cat. One that had marked out the bird it was going to kill and was just waiting for the right moment.

Adam stood up. ‘It’s been a while,’ he said, ‘but David is back from Europe. He says he’s having a bit of a holiday here.’

There was some laughter from the older students.

David, the mysterious one. In the three years Noah had been at Ecole Liatris, he hadn’t visited once.