Three weeks later

Shit, that was too close. I thought as I saw some kind of fruit exploiting in the market stand that a couple of seconds before was at my side. I was running as fast as I could across the filthy market hoping this was the right way to the ship.

It was a joke for God’ sake. How should I know that Sargons don’t have sense of humor. I didn’t even think these stupid creatures would understand English. And why nobody helps me? Of course, how could I forget it? I’m just a human…a human who is being chased by three Sargons. They have guns, people! They are shooting at me, some help would be appreciated. Fuck you all! Damn planet, I want to get out of here. I hate this planet. I hate being running away like a defenseless kid when I’m able to kill those fucking bastards. But no, Kevin doesn’t want us using our powers here, I guess he prefers me dead. It’s not like all these idiots would notice anything. You would think Sargons kill humans every day here for the way nobody even pays attention to me. Maybe I could use my shield. That’s it, I will try to reach a place with less witnesses. I can’t believe what I’m getting through for not using my powers. You are going to pay for this Kev. Yeah, right Alex, that will happen. If those Sargons don’t kill you Kevin will, for going to that place. Just a couple of blocks more and… “Ouch!” I screamed after twisting my hand trying to avoid crashing into a wall. I had left the market behind and was running too fast through the little alleys that were not too far away from our ship.

Concentrate AJ, you almost fall there. And how come Brian isn’t here helping me yet? Right, I almost could hear Howie’s words “you need to practice your telepathy AJ. We can’t never feel you” Fuck! It's not a question of practice, it's just my bad luck, I’m sure. How is that I get a headache “feeling” the screams if one of them crushes a finger with a hammer or shit like that but no one ever sense me when I’m the one in trouble? I could die here and they wouldn't feel a thing. Shit! “Brian!” I screamed the second the laser touched my skin. Okay, if he can’t feel me asking for help maybe he can hear me. That really hurt. That’s it! Kevin can kiss my ass. I’m using my powers right now. I was about to go round a corner when another laser hit me in the ankle and I fell to the floor. I managed to reach the other side almost crawling though.

“Cover yourself!” I heard someone said and then hell broke loose.

------------------------------------

I was still recovering from the fall, not sure which was the sky and which was the floor - I think I hit my head - when the shooting stopped.

“They finally left after I hit one” someone said and I finally saw my rescuer approaching me.

“How come you didn’t defend yourself?” he asked kneeling at my side and pointing to my gun. He was a human, not much older than me, probably about Rok’s age, brown hair and hazel eyes. “You have a gun. How come you didn’t use it?”

“Oh yes, if this stupid old think had worked when I needed it, I could have defended myself. The trigger got stuck.” I answered checking my ankle. It hurt a lot but thank God it was only superficial.

“Are you okay? You lost some blood there.”

“It’s nothing.” I said still holding my ankle with my left hand. “Just a scratch.”

“I wasn’t talking about your ankle but about your other injury.”

“Other injury?” I followed his gaze “Oh, shit!” I had completely forgotten about the first shot. I got alarmed. Having grown up surrounded by soldiers during the Big War, I knew that sometimes deadly injured people didn’t feel the pain at first. It took me some time to gather up the courage to check my right shoulder. Luckily it was just another scratch. Seemed that the old joke about the Sargons being bad shots was based on true facts. I had no idea where all the blood came from though. I quickly checked the rest of my body looking for other injuries.

“I think I’m okay. No serious injuries” I said looking directly to his eyes for the first time and offering him my hand “I’m AJ.”

“Jeffrey, Jeff Vaughn.” We shook hands and I noticed that there wasn’t a bar code on his wrist, no that I was waiting to find a human from the Empire in this planet but year after year it was more difficult to find humans with no bar codes.

“No, I’m not one of the Emperor loyal subjects.” He said winking at me after realizing I was looking at his wrist.

“It’s just an old habit.”

“Don’t worry. I do the same.”

“Did you say your name was Jeffrey?”

“Jeff.”

“Well Jeff, thanks for saving my life.”

“Your welcome,” he said smiling. “Now you only own me a new laser chamber, I think this one saw his last shooting.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Okay” I said trying to stand up, which I finally could do with his help. “You can take the one from my gun. After all it won’t serve for a while.”

“I’m just kidding. You don’t own me a thing. If us humans don’t help each other, who will?”

“Well, you got me there for a moment.”

There was an uncomfortable silence that lasted less than a minute. I wasn’t sure what else I could say but what he told me really took me by surprise.

“Are you with the rebels?”

“Rebels? There are rebels here?”

“Yes, there is a base at the other side of the planet.”

“And everybody knows it?”

“Well, most of the inhabitants of this planet, including the Sargons and the Grises, are not in the best of the relationships with the Empire so they keep it quiet. No that they are happy seeing humans around but they usually don’t look for business with the rebels. Even for the Sargons the rebels are pretty tough people.”

I was trying so hard to avoid thinking what I was thinking but there is not such thing as too much coincidences. I felt the urge to talk to Brian.

“So, if you are not with the rebels. What are you doing here?” His question brought me back to reality.

“Our ship was having some troubles and we ended up here looking for some spare parts.” I said trying to sound as casual as possible. “Are you with the rebels?”

“Me? No. I’m not good for that. I came here looking for a job. You know there are not many places that hire humans, much less humans with no bar codes, and I heard that the Grises’ mines were hiring. I’m just a human trying to survive alone. Yes, that’s it, I’m just a loner. Probably has something to do with the fact that I was born in Earth.”

“Oh.”

“That’s all? Wow. First time I tell someone I was born in Earth and don’t receive at least a weird look. Is not like there are a lot of people like me, except for some of those serving the Empire, of course. Were you born on Earth too?”

Damn AJ. Why didn’t you show surprise. Now you have to fix this. “No, not at all. I wasn’t born on Earth, is just that my father was. I was raised in a military station so I grew up with people from Earth.”

“That explains it. Soldiers were the only ones who left the Earth during the last years. I was raised in a military base too. Which one were you at?”

“Philippians” I replied holding his gaze. I knew what he was going to say. We always got the same answer after mentioning that name.

“The one near Mars? Wow, you probably met lots of heroes there. You were born there?”

”Yes,” I lied quickly “My father was a soldier.” Kevin and Howie had made us memorized this lie. “He died in one of the first battles after Earth destruction but I stayed in the base. How you got out of Earth?”

“My mother hid me in one of the military ships? She was working for the government and that’s probably why she knew that something was going to happen, so she just hid me there.”

“Wow, I think I don’t want to know how soldiers reacted when they found you.”

“Yes, you could tell that they weren’t happy finding a child there. You didn’t see children in those space stations, at least not in the one I ended up. I didn’t know there were stations where soldiers had their families with them.”

“I guess that was not the case for the stations created during the first years before the war but Philippians was an old station. Its soldiers were there years before the first conflicts started and there were lots of families living there.” Well, that really isn’t a lie, except for the fact that my parents weren't there.

For some reason he decided to change the subject that moment.

“Do you need any more help? I don’t think the Sargons will come back but maybe I could walk with you to your ship.”

“No, it's okay, It's not that far away. I can do it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m not really injured.”

“Well, I guess I will be going then. Maybe I see you some other time. We humans tend to stay together in planets like this one.”

“Maybe. We are staying here for some time. Thanks again and good luck with the job.”

We shook hands and I saw him walk away. For a moment I had a weird feeling but didn’t think too much about it; when I saw him left I started to walk as fast as I could until I reached our ship.

“Brian! Brian where are you?” I shouted entering the ship and looking for him. I finally found him in the engine room.

“I’m here” he said still working in the pressure gauges, he was singing a song like he used to do all the time. When he looked up he panicked. “What happened? You are injured!”

“It’s nothing,” I said but he was already next to me, checking my shoulder and trying to make me sit down.

“It’s nothing? There is blood on your shoulder and you say it’s nothing.”

“I need to tell you something.”

“First let me check this. We should call Kevin or Howie so they can heal you.”

“No, I’m okay. Listen to me, this is important.”

“AJ, sit down and let me check that wound.”

“Brian, would you hear me for just a minute?” I shouted. “There is a rebel base here. On the other side of this planet.”

“A rebel base? Cool!” Nick said entering the room carrying some tools. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing. Now get lost, I need to talk to Brian.”

“I’m not going anywhere. You can't tell me what to do.”

“I said I need to talk to Brian.”

“And I said I don’t care.” God he is so stubborn.

“Nick, would you leave us alone for a minute?” Rok’s words surprised the kid. He looked kind of hurt and just murmured a “whatever” before leaving.

“OK, Bone. What’s it?”

“You know what’s it, Brian. I can’t be the only one who is thinking about it. They are working for the rebels, Bri.”

“We are not sure.”

“Come on Brian! It’s not the first time that we end up near a rebel base. And all the people we are always flying in this ship, they are always rebels.”

“I know that, but we do it for the money. They pay and we sure need it. “

“Bri” I pleaded.

“Okay, Bone, what you want me to say? That you are right. Then I will say it. You are right. But that’s not going to change a thing.”

“You mean that you are not going to say something.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I trust them. I will trust my live to them. Damn, I already trusted my live to them. And if they don’t tell us they probably have a good reason.”

“You got to be kidding me. We have the right to know.”

“AJ” He was the one pleading this time.

“No! And don’t tell me to be patient. I’m sick of it.”

“Jay!”

“Screw you!” I said leaving the room and closing the door behind me.


------------------------------------------

“What happened?” I heard Kevin ask Brian.

“He didn’t tell me, Kev”

“You think he will tell Howie?”

Howie and I entered the room that moment and they both stop talking.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes Kevin. I’m okay. Only a couple of scratches.”

“Care to share what happened?”

“No.”

Howie was easier to deal with. Until now I’ve managed to avoid answering the questions while he was healing me, but Kevin is something else. Well, here goes nothing. I thought holding his gaze. Either they start trusting us or…or Kevin is about to kick my ass.

“I will tell you something.” I added watching him giving what we called a 'Kevin’s look'. “I need a new gun.”

“What’s wrong with the one you have?”

“Nothing, except it’s dead. The fu…”

“AJ!” Brian stopped me. He was pretty serious when it came to cursing. Not that Kevin or Howie would like to hear me swearing, they really wouldn’t, but Brian simply hated it.

“It’s broken.” I sighed “I need a new one.”

“I probably can fix it,” Brian said.

“We can’t afford a new one now AJ.” Kevin interrupted him. “I told you to stay near the ship, I still don’t understand what were you doing out there.”

“I was bored.”

“That’s not excuse Alex.”

I didn’t answer.

“You know this place is dangerous.”

“If I could use my powers…”

“I already told you that we can’t use them here.”

“Why? You keep making us practice day and night when we are in outer space and the minute we could use them you tell us not to.”

“They would only attract attention to us.”

“And you and Howie can’t afford that. Can you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know there’s a rebel base here?”

That was it. It was a just a second but I saw the sidelong glance he and Howie exchanged. Brian just shook his head in disappointment.

“What’s your point?”

“You know what Kevin? Forget it!”

And for the second time that day I shut myself in my room.

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