“OK. You are all here for one reason, and one reason only. You guys are driving me CRAY!” Justin cried, his arms in the air for emphasis. “You guys aren’t talking, aren’t smiling, aren’t talking… did I mention not eating? That’s not good. And Nick? You need help. In fact, all of you need help. Something is wrong with you people and you know it. And RIGHT NOW I demand to know what the hell is bothering you all. NOW.”
No one looked anywhere in the circular manila room. They all looked at their feet toward the peach colored carpet.
“Oh is that how it’s gonna go? Ok then. I’ll choose someone to go first. Chris. What is wrong with you?” Justin asked.
“Nothing.”
“Ok you said something- that’s getting somewhere. I’ll get back to you. Nebula. What is wrong with you?”
“It’s stupid.”
“Two words. Even better. Nothing is stupid, just get your faith up and let it out. I’ll get back to you. Ok… Kevin. What’s wrong with you?”
“Ask Brian.”
“Brian?”
“Ask Kevin.”
Justin groaned and rolled his blue eyes. “Ok. I’ll get back to you later. Um…JC? C’mon man help me out.”
JC looked up at Justin with tired, pained eyes. He hesitated for a great while before starting quietly, “I don’t know… it was a nightmare…a complete nightmare…”
“What was it about?” Justin asked softly.
“V… Vanessa.”
The young blonde inhaled sharply. “What about her? Did she die?”
JC’s beautiful blue eyes misted over and he looked down again. “No. She…she cheated on me… she said she didn’t love me…”
Justin’s eyes widened. “Are you JOKING?! OF COURSE she loves you!”
“How do you know? Are you in her head Justin?” JC snapped.
The youth’s head was flung backwards at the comment. “No. I’m not. But you can see it in her eyes JC. You can see it.”
JC only looked away.
Justin let out a long breath and looked around the group. “Joey?”
Joey took a sidelong glance at JC. “My parents,” he said bluntly.
Justin decided it wasn’t a good idea to push it, so he dropped the subject. “Um…AJ?”
“Mind your own fuckin business Fro Boy.”
“Ok…” Justin didn’t seem fazed at all. “Is that everyone? Oh, no… Lance?”
The older blonde pursed his thin lips. “Like I said before… if we fail… we’ll lose everything.”
“Would you mind elaborating on that?”
“There was this voice… not my conscience… but this actual… ENTITY… and it was talking to me…it said that I’d have nothing left if we lost…”
Justin looked at everyone else, and they looked up this time. He was sure he had hit something. “OH thank you Lance! I thought I wouldn’t get ANYWHERE. So… you all had something… someone in your head?”
“Not me…” JC said. “I had a nightmare.”
“Amen,” Chris muttered.
“Same for us,” Kevin said, speaking for him and Brian.
“Ok. So it’s nightmares and someone in your heads. WHY?”
Everybody looked at one another, trying to figure out why.
“Wait… why don’t YOU have somethin wrong with you?” Nick asked suspiciously.
Justin realized he forgot to ask Nick what his problem was, but ignored it and turned to the situation at hand. “I dunno…I just don’t.”
“The planet…” Joey realized slowly. “The blue smoke- Justin was still sleeping!”
The group minus Justin started to mumble.
“What blue planet? You mean that smokey stuff I saw in my window?”
“Yeah… we all went out… except for you!” Nebula cried suddenly. “OF course!”
“And that’s why Dierdre and the scientists didn’t want to go outside!” Joey said slowly.
“So…how do we get rid of it?” Brian asked.
There was a silence. It lasted for a pretty damn long time too.
“Well…from what I know…these things that these “entities” are pointing out… are our greatest faults, fears, or our weak points…” Nick rested his head on his palm. “So we have to find out what everyone’s “thing” is… and conquer it. Get over it. Right?”
They looked at one another and back at Nick. “Right.”
“SO…y’all ready to conquer your fears?” Justin asked cautiously.
There was one huge sigh before they all nodded.
“And…we can help each other,” AJ said quietly.
“Besides, aren’t these things just tryin to mess wit our minds?” the young blonde asked the group.
It was quiet before Nebula spoke up, “What if it’s the truth?”
+ + +
“NICK!”
The blonde looked up at JC. “Hmm?”
JC tilted the trash toward him and pointed. “This food is YOURS. This isn’t going make you lose weight I hope you know.”
Nick only glared before reading his magazine.
“Nick, we’re supposed to help each other forget these things.”
JC was about to speak again but Nick looked up. “So you’re saying that your nightmares went away?”
The brunette stared before saying, “NO. In fact, they haven’t. But I try to forget them. Justin helps. Try being friends with him. It might help.”
The younger man shook his head and narrowed his blue eyes as he got up off the couch lining the wall. “NO. Look, I can do this by myself. I’m sorry if your demons are leaving you alone, but mine sure as hell aren’t.”
JC stared in shock as Nick stomped away from him, his hands in tight fists at his side.
“Oops.”
+ + +
“You guys. Please. This fog is making you guys think funny. WE CAN’T FAIL IF WE TRY. Failing is if we go down without a fight. I KNOW you guys try your hardest. But lately… man COME ON! You’ve got to get out there and fight these things!” Justin sat down and sighed.
Brian stared hard at his ring. “What you’re saying IS true…but how do we make these things go away?”
Kevin glimpsed at his cousin before agreeing. “I tried. Believe me I tried… but I keep seeing it… I keep hearing her… her pleas for help…” The older man hung his head, ashamed.
Justin took a deep breath and sighed. “I know this is hard. I don’t know just HOW hard… but to conquer your fears and to live with your faults is very difficult. Just look at Nick!”
“Nick isn’t fat,” Brian said flatly.
“I know.”
“Nick isn’t fat. I can’t see why he thinks he is. He’s perfectly normal.” Brian stared blankly at the floor.
“And look at AJ…”
“His lyrics don’t suck,” Kevin chimed in. “They’re beautifully written. Straight from the heart.”
Justin nodded. Then he was struck with an idea. “Of course…”
“Of course what?”
His smile was so wide he was positively beaming. “Alright, here’s what we do. Oh this is so gonna work. Ok wait a second,” Justin said, running to get a piece of paper and a pen. “So much to do… so little time!”
Brian’s eyebrows went up for a second. “You sound like a teacher.”
“All in due time Brian…ok…oh yeah AJ…got it!” Justin muttered as he scribbled down all their names.
“So what is your great idea?” Kevin asked.
“You see, after Brian had defended Nick about his fault, he forgot about his fear. SO,” Justin got excited, “I’m going to have you all pick one person who has a fault or fear that they think STRONGLY that they can overcome. I can predict that Brian will take Nick, right?”
The dirty-blonde nodded.
“And you, Kevin?” Justin asked after he jotted down Brian’s name after Nick’s.
The older man pursed his lips in thought. “I don’t know… I know that Lance will want AJ… um… I dunno…”
“Ok well there’s JC.”
“I never knew him really…” Kevin shook his head.
“Um…Lance.”
“That we’re gonna fail? Dude that’s my fear too.”
“Ok scratch that. Joey?”
“Never really knew him either.” Kevin sighed.
“Ok um… there’s Chris.”
“That he never taught us enough? I think JC would wanna prove that to him- considering him being the best student…”
Justin rolled his eyes and sighed. “Ok…Nebula?”
“I didn’t know Derrick.”
“Err…” Justin growled under his breath. “Ok. That’s it. Who do you choose?”
Kevin bit his lip and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Ok. I’ll get back to you. I’m meeting with the others.”
+ + +
By the end of the afternoon he had it figured out- Brian to support Nick, who was supporting Nebula, who was supporting Lance, who was supporting AJ, who was supporting Kevin, who ended up supporting JC (with Justin’s help), who was supporting Chris, who was supporting Brian. But all in all, everyone was supporting everyone in at least a little way.
It was going to work.
+ + +
Brian shot up, covered in sweat. The room was so… warm… He pulled the blanket off his legs and rested his wet face in his hands. It just wouldn’t GO AWAY…
“What is WRONG with me?” he whispered to himself.
Chris DID help a little- but the point of the whole encourage-someone-while-someone-encouraged-you activity was to focus so much on someone else’s fault/fear/weak point that you didn’t think about yours- and to slowly realize it was irrelevant, that faults were just to weigh you down.
But somehow, the nightmares kept coming back- it was now 2 weeks since departure (they figured it’d take about a month to get to the Quitara galaxy- where Crystalon was located), and they needed to be strong. But it just wasn’t working…
The red sky…the angry flames… the tears and pleading of the one woman… it reappeared every night in his mind, and he never got any sleep… his head echoing the cries of help he heard in his dreams. Each time it went a little further, but he woke up every time.
Brian sighed. ‘Last time…promise…’
And he grabbed the pills from under his pillow.
+ + +
“GOD LET ME UP!!”
JC laughed and released his hold on the black belt.
“Hey I was better than I thought!” he smiled.
Chris rolled his eyes and laughed. “Ok I just lost my concentration ok? You didn’t beat me.”
“Dude, I got you down in like 5 minutes!”
“Shut up,” Chris muttered, and JC laughed.
“Ha ha.” JC sing-songed as he danced around on the mat.
With a swift movement, Chris dropped down and swung his leg around, knocking the younger brunette down to the mat- face first.
“OW! Hey that doesn’t count! I wasn’t ready!! CHEAPO!!!” JC yelled, his voice muffled by the mat.
Chris broke down laughing and held his stomach. “Oh my god…”
“Blah!”
Nebula smiled from her view around the corner. It was good to see bonding on the ship instead of the tenseness that was present only a while ago. She sighed. The blue haired woman turned around and almost collided into Nick.
“Shit Nick watch where you’re going!” she nearly yelled before she realized it.
“Ooh Neb you SWEAR?”
“Oh shut it,” she laughed, lightly elbowing him as she started down the gray hall.
Nick rolled his eyes and followed after her. “So what was so interesting?”
“Huh?” she asked, a second before realizing what he was talking about.
“You were watching so-”
“Yeah it was pretty funny. I was watching JC and Chris doin their Tae Kwon Do stuff- JC’s really good you’ll have to see him. He could pin Chris in less than 5 minutes!” she marveled, smiling at Brian as he passed.
Nick raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Yeah. It was… COOL.”
The blonde rolled his eyes.
Nebula stopped at a metal door, shaped like half an egg and slid a card into a nearly-invisible slot in the wall. The card was a translucent ice blue- seemingly her favorite color.
“Neb?”
“Hmm?”
“Where are you going?”
“Meeting with Captain.”
“Oh.”
Nick looked around, in awe. The room was relatively office-sized, around 25 by 25 feet. The walls were covered with space maps, many of them 3-D and refreshed every 5 seconds, according to where they were. Many tall shelves lined the walls, also cluttered with models of planets and ships and maps, some neatly piled, some messily ordered. There was a huge window behind the desk, closed off by what seemed like curtains made of mercury. Nick surprisingly refrained from touching it. The large metal desk was cluttered with papers and models of what looked like planets. There were two silver chairs in front of the desk, waiting to be sat on.
Nebula jerked her head toward the chairs and they sat on them. Nick nearly jumped back up- the chairs were made of mercury. He had stood back up a few inches, but slowly lowered himself back down on the chair. His hands squeezed the armrests, and watched wonderingly when the substance oozed over his fingers. “H-how?”
“It’s not mercury, if that’s what you’re thinking- it’s a special substance from Crystalon. Quite an expensive one too, so don’t… DO anything to it.”
Nick looked up when he saw the chair turn.
“Nebula.”
“Captain Clarque,” Nebula nodded.
“Why is HE here?” the older man asked, pointing at Nick.
The blonde looked almost insulted.
Nebula glanced at him before grabbing his hand. “It can’t be THAT secret Captain…”
After much hesitation, Clarque sighed. “Princess-”
“Don’t call me Princess,” Nebula said automatically.
“NEBULA,” Captain Clarque corrected exasperatedly. “Our navigators can’t locate the portal that transported us here before- we only had enough fuel for that journey- we’ll have to refuel at a nearby planet.”
“What? Are you SURE you can’t find it ANYWHERE?”
Nick glanced up before continuing to toy with his chair again. He kept a hold of Nebula’s hand, mindlessly playing with it while he was fascinated by the material of the chair he was sitting on.
“We’ve studied map after map after map, new and old… we can’t find it!” he sighed, his head in his hands while his fingers gripped his short, slowly graying auburn hair.
Nebula blew out her breath as she sat back against her chair. “How do we know which planet to choose…?”
“Simple- we don’t.”
The princess rolled her eyes. “Ok… that really helps. So… what do we do? We don’t have guards and warriors on this ship!”
Nick looked up again, his eyebrow raised. “Are you sure about that?”
+ + +
“What the hell are we? Soldiers?” AJ mused, crossing his tattooed arms as he sat back on the curved ice blue couch.
“Basically,” Nebula explained. “Except we have to dress up.”
“Oh.”
“Sounds like fun to me!” Justin said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “We get to play dress up!”
JC elbowed his friend in the stomach and the blonde let out a grunt.
“But… I think this might be a good thing,” Chris said slowly.
All eyes were on him as he continued.
“Well, we’ve been training, right?”
They nodded.
“Well this is time to prove that we can use that training for something,” Chris concluded.
Joey sighed. “He’s right you know.”
“Unfortunately,” AJ muttered. He sighed. “But if it means action, I’m in. If it means I’m gonna get mutilated, send me on a jet back to Earth.”
Brian laughed and jerked his head toward AJ, “I’m with J.”
“Ok… so we’re all in this?” Nebula asked cautiously.
“Doesn’t look like we have a choice,” Kevin half laughed. “So… all of us? Won’t that look a bit… much?”
Nebula shook her head. “Nope- some of us in front, some of us in back and scattered. The more powerful ones are in pairs or alone.”
“Ha so that means the elements huh?” Nick said.
“And Justin,” Lance added.
“All of us are strong, aren’t we?”
“Not me!” JC said disappointedly, his eyebrows furrowed as he sat back. “I won’t be able to do ANYTHING.”
“But hey- you can pin me down in sparring, I’m sure you’ll have NO problem,” Chris smiled.
JC laughed. “Yeah I guess…”
“So who’s gonna be up front?” Nick asked, cracking his knuckles before picking up the red Expo marker.
It was then that they realized why the whiteboard was up with a diagram of the ship.
“Well how bout 4 of us up in front?” Brian suggested.
“Good idea. Now, which ones?” Nebula asked.
“We’ll need 2 strong and 2 to help,” Joey added before anything could be said.
“He has a point,” Kevin agreed.
“I know I’ll be somewhere in back,” JC said, knowing he could use his Telepathy for warning the others without making himself vulnerable.
“I’ll-” Nick started.
“Wait!” AJ interrupted. “How do we know what KIND of planet this is? I mean, water or fire won’t do good against water people, would it?”
Everyone murmured at the new thought.
“You’re right,” Nebula said. “Um… the planet is gaseous, I remember Captain Clarque telling me- that’s why we were partially sure of the fuel supplies there… and it’s half water.”
“Damn.”
Brian laughed and put his arm around Nick’s neck jokingly, “Better luck next time Frack.”
Nick rolled his eyes and elbowed his friend away.
“Ok then… I’ll go up,” Lance volunteered, raising his hand as if he were in school.
“And me,” Chris added, knowing water conducted electricity.
“I’ll go up,” Justin said.
“And me,” Joey said. “If there’s any trouble with the others, JC can use his Telepathy and I can get away.”
“Same here,” Kevin said, “but I’ll stay in the back or side or whatever.”
“I’ll be in back,” Brian said adamantly.
“As will I,” JC agreed.
AJ sighed, “I guess I’ll be with someone on like the sides or whatever.”
“Hey, what about the top?” Joey brought up.
They all glanced at each other.
“Ok, maybe 3 in front,” Nick shrugged.
“I’ll be at top,” Justin volunteered. “I can make some kind of a shield if there’s too many people, and do Telepathy with JC.”
“Um… I guess I’ll be paired up with someone around the sides,” Nebula chose.
“I’ll be where anyone needs me,” Nick said simply.
Brian rolled his eyes, “You’re a lot of help Nicky.”
“Do NOT call me Nicky!”
“Nicky!” everyone shouted.
The blonde pouted and everyone laughed- for once they were all happy. Their focus on the new task was forcing their fears and demons aside, and it was for the best.
Or… maybe not.
+ + +
“JUSTIN!”
The blonde grinned at the shocked faces of his friends. “Hehe… like it?”
JC pushed his jaw up off the floor and his eyes narrowed as he inspected his friend. “What did you DO to it?”
“What? Nothing!”
In a matter of seconds, everyone was surrounding Justin, poking and prodding at him.
“Hey stop it! Haven’t you heard of something called a HAIRCUT?!” Justin cried before ducking into a ball.
“Damn, now I can’t call you Fro Boy,” AJ said disappointedly. “Not fair!”
The youth stuck his tongue out quickly before standing up and dusting himself off. “Whew. Thought I was gonna die there.”
“You… look… DIFFERENT,” Nebula said slowly.
Nick snickered. “Joining the Marines Timberlake?”
Justin narrowed his eyes at the older blonde. “NO. Great. People STILL make fun of my hair. This is cruelty to Justin!”
Everybody cracked up and tried to make good comments about his hair.
“You guys lie, but that’s ok,” Justin laughed, sitting down.
“Ok. Now to the point of this mid-day meeting…” Nebula called everyone to attention, “is that I’ve studied some, and found out a lot about this planet we’re going to stop down at.”
The group was all ears now.
“Well, it’s half water you know of course… but they’re amphibious. They live in the water AND on land. Trouble is, they’re slower and weaker on land than on water, unless they’ve grown used to lack of moisture,” she started.
“Great so my element is useless?” Nick whined.
“Not necessarily,” Kevin broke in. “You can use the water there to toss the land-frogs,” people snickered, “onto the land so we can use our powers.”
“Oh. Well… then I guess that’s ok,” Nick accepted hesitantly.
“Ok well you never want to fight them underwater, unless you’re positively sure that you can win,” Nebula went on, “for they’re extremely strong underwater.”
“So what about me?” Justin asked.
“I want your power,” Lance whined. “You can defend AND counter.”
“Dude so can you!”
“Ok no fighting NOW,” Nebula groaned.
“Yo pay attention!” Brian shouted.
“Ok well here’s a picture I found of them- I’m not sure if this is how they look NOW, but…” She proceeded to put up a holographic image of 2 fully grown… amphibious aliens.
“UCK!” AJ and Joey cried out.
They broke out laughing again before looking closely.
“They should be about… um… Lance’s height,” Nebula said, trying to get as close as possible. “Well, on average.”
They were tinged a green-blue color and had webbed feet and hands, like frogs. They had no hair, from what they could see, only a scaled scalp. Their ears were like fins coming out of their heads, and their facial features looked relatively the same as one of a human. They had 3 gills on each side of their neck, obviously for breathing, and Nebula said that they also had lungs for being on land. The difference between the female and male were their body structures- the male had the muscular structure, and the female had the more…well, feminine structure. She wore pieces of cloth around her chest and waist. The male only wore one around his waist. And they both had golden earrings.
“Dude what’s with the earrings?” Nick asked.
“That just looks WRONG,” Chris muttered. “Fin-rings?”
Everyone laughed as Nebula changed the picture to one of 2 children. It looked relatively the same, except the lack of mature body parts (for lack of better words). Then she showed a picture of a typical town.
“Ok there’s the body of water here,” she pointed, “then you see there’s sprinklers and stuff around on land to keep them active and able. Their buildings are inspired by those of other races, and many ethnicities of Earth- such as Spanish, French, and Chinese- And I saw a ship in the back, but I’m not sure.”
“USS Grant,” Joey muttered, in awe as he squinted at the photo. “How…?”
“Didn’t that thing sink at Pearl Harbor?” Justin asked, confused.
“Yeah…man… these are some weird species.” JC shook his head.
“Well, are they dangerous?” Lance asked.
“Are they all that ugly?” someone chimed in.
Nebula let out a breath and grabbed a picture, in no hurry to put it up. “You can judge for yourselves…” And she put up the picture on the stand.
“Whoa.”
Everyone started to mutter and voice requests to stay in the ship once they landed.
The picture was of… skulls.
They could see they had preserved the skulls rather well, for they were all intact. It was like a room full of totem poles- skull after skull after well-preserved skull. But somehow, they ordered each one. They could make out the racial grouping and age grouping, but nothing else.
“Man… ok send me on a jet back to Earth,” AJ said, shaking his head, his eyebrows so high up that you could see his eyes from behind his black shades. “I am NOT going to have my head cut off for some aliens!”
Everyone else muttered in agreement.
“Look, you guys, you don’t know if those people were killed by treason, or lack of cooperation or whatever… you never know,” Kevin said loudly. “For all we know, they made those skulls.”
“Made them??” JC asked, disbelieving. “Ok there might be millions of races and aliens out there, but I don’t think a single one of them make skulls for fun.”
The group mumbled agreements.
“Well what do you suppose we do?? We’re arriving there tomorrow morning,” Nebula said, leaning forward and resting her head on her palms.
“WHAT?!”
“I think you forgot to tell us that tiny little fact,” Nick said slowly, deliberately.
She blushed a little and shrank back. “Oops?”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Ok Neb. Whatever.”
“Well, let’s just rough it out… I mean, we’ve got our advantage.” Brian shrugged.
“Yeah! That means my power was better than I thought!” AJ grinned.
“Let’s get AJ in front,” two voices said in unison.