Planet Noestra Ch 1-1 Garron

Garron's eyes were glued to the shiny new Zeta-thrust Cycle that his brother was landing on the back meadow. 

"Telmer Thadeus Saber Junior!"  Their mother's voice echoed stridently from inside the house.  Garron smirked knowingly.  You only got the three name treatment, or in his brother's case the four name treatment, if you were in big trouble.  Tel-2, as his brother was known in more affectionate moments, had been roaring through the sky above the house for the past two hours. 

His mother came to the open terrace doors and yelled over the revving engine noise.

"If you burn the irrigation pipes with those rockets, you're going to have to pay for a lawn repair-bot!"  She glared past Garron at her oldest son as he dismounted from the huge, heavy Z-Cycle.  Four whirring robotic braces extended from the monstrous machine and gently made contact with the lush green grass.  The Z-Cycle looked like a giant shiny beetle's carapace balanced on tiny segmented legs. 

Convinced that his birthday present was securely supported, Tel-2 turned off the howling turbos and then turned to his mother.

Garron watched silently as Tel-2 put on his best lop-sided grin with the oh-so-cute-dimple, and then topped it off with the sure Mother neutralizer: the boyish shoulder shrug. Garron rolled his eyes as Tel-2 stood there twinkling his eyes at their mother until her posture relaxed. 

"Aw, come on, Mom.  You know the Z-cycle has cold turbo jets, not rockets.  Why, it's so safe, even Garron could use it."

Garron straightened up and his eyes popped open.  Could his brother really mean to let him try the Cycle?

"I don't care what kind of jets it has.  Your father is going to be at the dinner table in fifteen minutes and you'd better not be late."  Their mother's words were now at chastising volume, so Garron knew his brother had successfully charmed her, as usual.

Their mother disappeared back into the house to supervise the Nutra-designer and the serving-bots.  Garron hurried down off the terrace and galloped toward his brother.

"Wo-yo!"  Garron cheered as he neared Tel-2.  He listened as his mouth inexplicably blurted out every silly thought in his head.

"This is the best cycle on all of Noestra!  It's so great!  The silver exo-chrome really shined when you were up there flying around!  You looked like you were a mile high!"

The streak of words finally cut short as Garron stopped before Tel-2. He looked up at his big brother and was suddenly too awestruck to say anything. 

Tel-2 took off his para-jacket and slung it over the cycle's seat.  He gazed down at his little brother fondly, then his eyes narrowed a little.

"Don't think for one second that you're getting on it."  Tel-2 saw his brother's face fall and continued quickly, "At least not until you turn 12 on Independence Day.  For your birthday present, maybe I'll give you a ride."

Not until his birthday!  That was more than two months away.  Practically forever, Garron moped.  Gloom drooped his shoulders which made his narrow chest look even more concave than usual. 

Tel-2 walked up to the house and Garron followed glumly behind.  It wasn't fair.  His brother had everything.  He was tall, good looking, Captain of his Robo-Dunk team, got frigging straight A's and now he had a Zeta-thrust Cycle!  Garron felt smaller and more ineffectual with every step toward the house.

After climbing the stairs to his room, Garron answered a link from his best friend Ritchie.

"Hey, Rich."

"What's the matter?  You sound crappy."

"Tel-2 got a Z-Cycle from my dad for his birthday."

"A Z-Cycle!  Your brother's the luckiest guy in the world!"

"Yeah" Garron moaned, as he hunted for a clean shirt to wear for dinner.

"But, do you know who's the second luckiest guy in the world?"  Ritchie answered his own question.  "Me!"

There was a moment of silence.  Garron slipped on his shirt without disturbing his ear-piece, and then dutifully asked, "OK, so why are you the second luckiest guy in the world?"

"Because my mom's company bought a whole shipment of Marconan OT implants!  And we're all going to get one! "

Garron immediately sat down.  All thoughts of finding his good shoes were pushed out of his dazed brain by this colossal news.  The new Occipital Temporal Implants had been imported from Marcona and were all everyone talked about.  When the implant was wired directly to the brain, it allowed you to see and hear any cast without a monitor.  The demand for the new technology far exceeded the supply.  There was a huge waiting list.  And Ritchie was getting one?

"No way!"

"Way!  It's all set up with the doctor's office and by this time next week I'll be able to access all the Marconan streams just by thinking!  I can even multi-pick!"

"But we only have one net that casts Marconan OT streams, so you can't multi-pick."

"Well…This is the wave of the future so I'm sure there'll be more nets casting Marconan streams soon.  Maybe our nets will start to cast OT streams of our stuff!"

"Noestran stuff crashes!"

"Yeah, I know," Ritchie chuckled.  "Marcona streams blast, Noestran streams crash."  Ritchie laughed gleefully as if he had started that saying.

"Ritchie, I gotta go.  Dinner's ready."  Garron closed the link and hung his head.  I have the most boring life in the galaxy, he thought.  Everybody has more fun than me. 

* * *

Eva?  Are you awake?

Silence greeted her thoughts, but Katy tried again.  She was lying in bed too agitated to sleep, and wanted to talk to somebody.

Eva!  Eva!

What? Katy received her sister's grumpy response from the next room.

Are you awake?

I am now! Katy could feel Eva's irritation.  What is it?

What do you think he's gonna do?

Who?

Jason!

About what?

When he's sees that poem I wrote!  I told you at dinner!

Eva shifted groggily in her bed and tried to concentrate.  She searched her mind but couldn't remember what her little eleven year old sister was so upset about.  She sent a sheepish questioning thought to Katy.  Then she started up in bed when she felt the electric anger in her sister's reply. 

You don't remember!  I talked forever!

Eva scrunched her face as the loud thought hit her.  Katy was growing into a powerful telepath and needed to start controlling the strength of her energy.

Yeah, yeah, I know.  Meditate and control, meditate and control.

Eva smiled a little as she felt the cadence of Katy's sing song.  Katy was mimicking the school telepath instructor.  Eva remembered school days nostalgically.  That seemed ages ago.  She had graduated last year at sixteen, and was now a full intern.  At least this time, as Eva thought about how silly school children were, she was awake enough to shield before she let any of those thoughts stray down the hall to Katy.

Katy explained her problem.

I told you that the poem I wrote was about Jason – the one where I not so secretly put the letters of his name at the start of each line.  Well, it was picked by the teacher as the best in the class.  And now it's going to be displayed by the school!  For everyone to see!  It's a catastrophe!

Well maybe Jason won't see the poem.  From what you've told me about him, he doesn't seem the poetry type.

Don't you know how school works?!  As soon as one person figures out who I wrote about – everyone will be TPing everyone else and the whole school will know!  Including Jason!  It's only a matter of time. Katy finished her thought dejectedly.  Eva sympathized with her.

I don't know what to tell you.

I KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU BOTH!  STOP THINKING AND GO TO SLEEP BEFORE I HAVE THE GUARDIAN GIVE YOU BOTH SEDATIVES!

Katy and Eva jumped as their oldest sister's angry message echoed through their heads.  Aliya was not to be messed with.  Katy and Eva, quiet as durndle flots, pulled the covers up and hid their guilty heads.

* * *

Garron slinked out of the house -- like a shadow in the darkest hour of the darkest night, he mused.  In his mind, the music of his favorite Marconan adventure series accompanied his furtive movements. 

He snuck across the wide lawn scoping for "Yexorrals" and "Lime beasts."  He knew that "Rock Dagger's" greatest nemesis, the evil and never completely vanquished "Black Scar," would be far harder to spot than mere "Yexorralls" and "Lime beasts."  He must be doubly cautious.

He crept toward the garage; sure he was cleverly evading the foul attentions of "Black Scar."  As his theme music swelled to a crescendo, he ducked around the side wall and into the safety of the open garage.

There, hidden inside the deep recesses of the vault was the glorious treasure of the… of the…. Garron stopped to think of a good name for his brother.  Giant Meany Tel-star!  Garron sighed, it wasn't a very good name but it would have to do.

The beauty of the prize was almost blinding as its long shiny engine pods shimmered in the glow of the security lights.  "Oh," Garron exhaled in wonder as he approached the sparkling Z-Cycle.  Rock Dagger's ship The Claw, might be bigger, but it wasn’t more impressive this sleek epitome of aerodynamics.

Garron reached out a tentative hand and touched the smooth synthetic surface of the powerful cycle.  He could almost feel it breathing, almost hear its excited sighs…

"Oh!"  Garron stopped.  That was him breathing.

He spared one quick moment to glance around and make sure he was undetected.  Then slowly and with great care, he stepped onto the running board and swung himself onto the glossy black seat.

He could barely reach the control bars from the seat.  He leaned at a steep angle, eyes closed, hands around the silky molded accelerator handles.  He felt as if the cycle was made just for him. He could feel the exciting strength of the engines rising up from beneath him.

Well…no, he didn't feel it.  Not really.  He didn't feel the excitement as his brother had as he raced around all day like a….a… Giant Meany!  Giant Selfish Meany!

Garron looked at the control panels.  There weren't so very many buttons.  He could learn which ones to push and when to push them.  How hard could it be?  He knew his brother would never let him have a chance.

So, NOW was his chance.

Before he could think about stopping himself, his hand reached out of its own accord and pushed the big red button.

"Rrrrrrruuuuummmm!"  The turbo jets growled to life and the whole cycle started to vibrate with enthusiastic precision. 

It was really loud.  It was really, really loud.  It was so loud that even as Garron decided to turn it off again, his hands disobligingly flew up to cover his ears.  As his other hand left the accelerator handle, his unsupported body fell forward against the elevation trigger.  In the next second, the idling turbo engines received enough power to lift the cycle and suddenly it was airborne!

The ecstasy of flight was lost on Garron as he clung to the cycle for dear life.

Even if he could have appreciated the wondrous surge of the turbo jets as they lifted the Z-Cycle into the air, it would have been short lived appreciation.  The elevation trigger needed to be choked back as soon as the cycle lifted off the ground.  An experienced pilot would have stabilized the upward thrust and edged the cycle forward, gently easing it out of the garage.  However the nearest experienced pilot was asleep in his room.  Pilotless, and with its elevation trigger on full bore, the Z-Cycle leapt up like a great feral cat and launched itself -- straight into the roof of the garage.

Garron's little body was smashed between the steel beams of the garage roof and the massive, unstoppable inertia of the Z-Cycle.

The Z-Cycle's jets spun it out of control, flipped it over and slammed it into the garage wall.  Garron fell from the height of the roof onto the hard, cold floor. 

"Wow," he thought, "Tel-2's gonna be so pissed…."  He slipped into unconsciousness as the lights in the windows of the main house started to flicker on.