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Inside the little S-fighter Alex was trying to calm his little cousin.

“Nick, please stop crying.”

“I’m scared Alex I can’t help it” he sobbed and both kids cringed hearing the unmistakable sound of laser explosions coming from the same route the bombers had taken.

“Don’t be. They are going to help us.”

“Are they going to be here fast?”

“Of course. We are really close to the base. See, they are already coming” Alex was pointing to the ship’s radar and turned around, in an attempt to actually see the new ships that were approaching, only to notice that he couldn’t see Philippians anymore.

“Alex” A familiar voice sounded through the communication panel.

“Kevin?”

“Yes boy we are behind you. Don’t worry, we are taking you to the station. I need you to do everything we say, okay?”

Alex was about to reply when another voice interrupted him

“Littrell two are coming your way. Look at your right.”

“Shit!” Kevin said and the kids saw a couple of Empire fighters coming directly to them just to be blocked by one of the bomber fighters. Suddenly they were in the middle of a space battle with every single human ship trying to save them from the attacks.

The first explosion made Alex start to cry too but he recovered fast feeling that it was his duty to calm Nick. When a explosion reached one of the Philippians’ bombers Alex got a shiver down his spine and started to sob again not knowing if that was the ship that Kevin was flying. There were explosions everywhere and all the ships were doing risky maneuvers. It was like there were Empire ships all around.

“Okay kid” Someone ordered. “There’s a button at your left. Push that one and it would turn off your gravity control allowing us to take you home.”

“Is my brother, is Kevin….” Alexander wasn’t even sure they had heard him since his voice was so low and shaky.

“He is okay son. Now do what I say.”

Nick was faster and in a quick move did what the pilot was requesting. Through a PRT laser the other ship extended its own gravity field to the kids S-fighter and take them away from the battle.

Once the base came in sight again – Alex didn’t even know how they have gotten so far away – a big mix of feelings overcame the boys. They were happy to be safe and back at home again but at the same time they started to get more than uneasy when one of the officers who helped them to get out of the ship told them to follow him.

They were taken to the tower, a place they had never visited in the past, and if they could have shared their thoughts they would have agreed that the base had never been that silent before.

When the big door got opened Alex felt like every single pair of eyes was fixed on them.

“Hello Alexander.” The boys recognized the voice that had been talking to them in the body of this extremely tall man that didn’t look too friendly. All the time Alex had been grabbing Nick’s hand but suddenly the kid released himself and ran to the other side of the room. Alex was about to say something to him but noticed the two figures approaching, Howie and Brian were there and Brian was hugging the little kid. He felt like running to them too but the eyes of the General petrified him.

“Come in kid.” The General ordered and as soon as Alex took a first step Howie walked to him and put a hand over his shoulder.

“Sir” Someone talked to the General. “One of our men wants to talk to you.”

“Sir we destroyed 7 of the enemies ships.” Someone said from the battle field. “We ask your permission to follow an 8th one.”

“Granted.” He turned around again and addressed to the kids. “Follow me.” He said entering another room.

Alex wanted so hard to take Howie’s hand the same way Nick was taking Brian’s but he didn’t want to look like a little kid. The room was intimidating, a big table, some chairs and a different door at the other side which was abruptly opened to let two officers in. The kids recognized immediately one of them. General Jocelyn Turner was a great lady, really nice but firm. She was in charge of the “city” part of Philippians. The other one was a Major but none of the children knew his name.

“So, who is going to explain this little incident to us?” General Simpson began and that same minute the door got open again and Kevin entered the room.

“Airman Littrell. Good to see you joining us.” The Major greeted him after Kevin saluted.

“Airman Littrell.” General Simpson continued. “Leader of the squadron. You were about to be promoted to staff sergeant, one of the younger ones ever. I’ve heard a lot about you, but for what we witnessed here today it looks like people were exaggerating when talking about you Littrell.”

Kevin didn’t reply.

“You know why I’m saying this?”

“No sir.”

“Sure, you are a good soldier, you are brave and an amazing pilot. But are you really officers’ material? Let me put it this way, are you in charge of these two kids?”

“Yes sir.”

“Well, officers need leadership qualities, they have to control all men under their command. How are you supposed to do that if you can’t control two kids? I don’t think you can be in charge of a group of soldiers, Littrell.”

Howie gasped, tightening his grasp on Alex shoulders.

“Do you have something to say, Airman?”

“It’s not fair, Sir.” Alex interrupted ignoring Howie’s tough grip. “Why are you saying that to Kevin? What we did wasn’t his fault.”

“Alex!” Howie pulled him back.

“But…” The grip was even harder.

“Alex, keep quiet.” Kevin commanded with a low but harsh voice, gritting his teeth and without even looking at him.

“Kid listen to your brother, we don’t accept this kind of behavior here.” The Major fumed.

“Why isn’t he telling something Brian?” Nick whispered. He was about to cry, as both he and Alex were extremely surprised watching their brother let this man talk to him the way he was doing it. For the first time in their lives Kevin wasn’t the same Kevin they knew, the one who was confident and brave all the time. This Kevin looked like a kid being reprimanded.

“Come on Victor. Airman Littrell just destroyed three enemy ships. He was the best pilot out there and you are treating him like a young delinquent.” General Turner spoke for the first time.

“I won’t admit something like this on this base. What happened today…”

“What happened today was not his fault. You are going against the wrong person here. What happened today was just a children’s prank that went wrong.”

“A children’s prank that could have ended with one of our men dying.”

“But it didn’t happen, mainly thanks to Kevin. He just saved two men out there, Victor. I can assure you that Kevin is one of our best soldiers.”

“I can tell you the same thing, sir.” A new voice added as everyone looked at the person who had just entered the room.

“Colonel Robertson. Glad to have you with us. These kids were under your care, right?”

“Yes, sir, at first they were but Kevin here showed me he could take care of them alone.”

“Robertson was the one who brought them to Philippians, Sir.” The Major said taking a seat and looking at Robertson.

“They…. I …I was a friend of their father.”


~ × ~ × ~ × ~ × ~ × ~ × ~× ~ × ~ × ~


“A friend?” I snorted remembering the scene. “More like a friend of his money. Big jerk!”

“Jay don’t.” Rok shook his head looking at me from where he was, seated in front of me on his bed. “You know he helped us.”

“Our parents paid him to take us to Philippians Bri. The bastard not only didn’t accept to take them too but he never really cared about us.”

“He defended Kevin then.”

“Defended from what? Kevin didn’t do anything. Nick and I were the ones who got punished from our little adventure when we returned to school.”

Brian sighed and kept shaking his head.

“What happened after we left Brian?” Nick was sitting at my side, I looked at him frowning because until that moment it never occurred to me that something else happened.

“I left with you, remember?”

“Yes, but Howie probably told you.”

“It was so weird when Kevin came back.” I pointed out. “I remember that Howie was the one doing all the yelling and Kevin practically ignored us.”

“They told him they were considering to separate us.”

The way Brian said it, so fast and practically out of nowhere, let me without words. Good thing that Nick was there to make questions.

“Separate us?” He almost yelled.

“Yes, something about maybe make us live with some couple or at least with one of the female officers. They kept saying that we probably needed a mother figure.”

“Something like adoption?” Nick asked and Brian shrugged.

“I can’t believe they…” I still was trying to put my thoughts in order.

“Yes, I always thought that your little escapade is one of the reasons why Kevin is so overprotective.” Brian said biting his bottom lip.

“What did he do? How did he convince them not to do that?”

“He didn’t. He didn’t say a single word that day. He stood there listening to them. Then one of the officers decided that it wasn’t really necessary, that you would get your punishment at school and convinced the others. Kevin stood there letting them talk and not complaining. Then, not that he had ever recognized this but I’m sure about it, he just decided to be the best soldier at Philippians and didn’t let something like that happen again. In other words, Kevin used to be a tiny bit more relaxed until you did that stupid thing. So if you ever wonder why is he such a control freak, blame yourselves.”

“Why didn’t he yell at us?”

“Because he wanted to kill you not only yell. So he decided it would be better to leave everything in Howie’s hands.”

“Yes.” I said lying in my bed and stretching my arms above my head “D was beyond mad but he still was sweet D. He wouldn’t kill us.” I was still trying to digest what I had just found out but I wasn’t as astonished as a moment ago.

“Yep, that’s D.” Nick added smiling just when Howie opened the door of our room taking us by surprise and making me take a seat again.

“Are you talking about me?”

For some reason the three of us just looked at each other and laughed.


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The next days things started to look much better. As time went by, Nick was in a better mood which allowed the rest of us to relax. A week after his last nightmare and for the first time in what seemed years Brian Nick and I slept late. We had spent a whole night chatting with Dana, having a good time telling funny stories from the past and jokes. By the time we woke up the next day Kevin and Howie weren’t in the room anymore – yes we were still sleeping all in the same room – and it was almost noon.

“I can’t believe D and Kev let us sleep this longer and didn’t wake us up to make us do our chores.” Nick usually had the funniest face waking up. He would keep smiling at everything, eyes half closed under the big mess that was his hair.

“Well, they know we stayed late last night and maybe it has to do with the fact that we are about to arrive to Trinsuet. Maybe they are letting us enjoy our last days of freedom or something like that.” Brian replied before yawning for the tenth time.

“What do you mean?” I asked still half asleep.

“Well, we are about to become part of the Rebel Force.”

“Right” I mumbled putting my shirt on the same minute the door got opened and Kevin and Howie entered the room.

“Good morning guys.” Kevin greeted taking a seat on Nick’s bed. “Good to see that you are up because is time for us to vote.”

“Vote?” I looked at Brian and Nick and realized I wasn’t the only one confused.

“Yep. We fulfilled our job bringing T and the rest here. Now our secret is out so we can do one of two things, carry on with our lives the way we know them, helping the rebel forces like Howie and I have been doing it till now, or stay in Trinsuet, at least for a while.”

“I was almost sure that was what we were going to do.”

“No AJ. This is a very important decision. We are taking it all together, as a family.”

“Are we sure they will want our help once they find out…well, that we are different?”

“They will. Howie and I have been working with them for a while and they always wanted us full time. Us being different is not going to change the fact that they need our help.”

“Yes” D added. “They have been asking Kevin for years to accept to be a combat pilot again.”

“Combat pilot? I…”

“What Nick?”

“You are gonna be okay, right?”

“Of course little man.” Kevin smiled patting Nick’s leg. “What do you say, guys? Should we stay?”

“I guess… I guess it’s okay for us to stay. I mean, well… is not like we have anything else to do.” Brian was looking at me the whole time he was speaking and for some reason it made me feel uncomfortable. I knew part of the reason he wanted to stay was Dana and that he probably knew that I didn’t want to stay. Suddenly I felt betrayed and had to look other way. Too much things were going through my head and I started to feared this voting idea.

“Nicky? AJ?” Howie looked at us. “What do you say?”

“Stay?” Nick shrugged.

“Is that an answer or a question Nick.” Kevin folded his arms across his chest in what could look like a more serious posture, but he was still smiling and using a soft tone.

“I’m really not sure. But why not.”

“Nick you were so excited about working with the rebels? What happened buddy?”

Kevin man, you are so dumb sometimes. The dreams happened. The dreams and the realization of how dangerous all this could get, especially for you. He doesn’t want you risking your life again.

Nick shrugged again and after giving him another pat on the leg Kevin directed his attention to me.

I wanted to say something but I couldn’t. I made a big mistake taking too much time to reply because the next minute everyone was looking at me. I felt like they were all reading my thoughts and became more nervous. No matter that I was sure they didn’t know what I was thinking I was getting dizzy and an image became clear in my mind, my father.

“Jay?” Howie’s voice brought me back to reality.

“I’ll do what you guys decide.” I finally replied and stood up considering to leave the room. Maybe if I go to the bathroom they will stop asking me.

“You don’t wanna stay, right?” Kevin stood up too.

“I…not really.”

“What do you want us to do Jay? Tell me.”

“Does it matter? I’m outnumbered.”

“Of course it matters, AJ”

“I have no idea what I want. I guess…” I stuttered. “I guess I want my life back Kevin. I want my life the way I knew it before going to K-Tawoor, but it’s already too late for that.” I felt the tears coming down and wiped them quickly trying to smile. “Don’t look at me guys, I’m okay.”

Kevin put a hand on my shoulder.

“Wanna let this conversation for another time?”

“Nope there’s nothing more to talk guys. Lets’ stay.”

“Alex.”

“I voted Kevin. Lets stay.” I said smiling again and praying for them not to insist anymore. “Now excuse me but I have things to do.” I finished leaving the room.

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Author’s Note: Hey guys, is there someone still reading this story? I think I would probably post more often if I thought any of you were still reading it.

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