Soon we were approaching my house, and Sophie and I both, instinctively, looked over to the hill and the smoke above the ship in the distance as well. I still wasn’t used to having the humans there, and a force field around my precious woods. As I opened my front door I couldn’t help but sigh at the thought of how different everything was now.
“We’re back mum.” I called out as we entered the hallway.
Sophie went straight into my room and grabbed her bag, then came back into the hallway.
“So go on, tell me.” I said, as she and I walked into the kitchen. “What exactly are we going to do?”
“Well…” Sophie sat down at our kitchen table and started digging through her backpack. “I guess we’ll have to find out why the humans came we have to go right to them, and that means going through the force field. So for tha-”
“Are you really sure that’s a good idea?” I interjected.
“No but it’s the best thing I have.” Sophie replied in annoyance. “Now be quiet and let me talk. Anyway so to get inside the force field we’ll use the teleport watch, obviously. You’ll use your special powers to find a weak point in the field, I’ll manipulate the watch and then zoop…” she ran her hand through the air. “We’ll pop right in.”
“No offense Sophie, but I don’t think it will be that easy. The Halapatovians and my people are experts in force fields, you can’t just teleport in.” I told her, crossing my arms and leaning against the table. “We’ll have to think of something else.”
“No we won’t.” Sophie mimicked me by crossing her arms stubbornly. “I know the power of my watch; it has taken me to some of the tightest spots in the universe. Trust me, it can get us inside a tiny force field.”
“But Sophie-”
“No.” she held up her hands for me to stop talking. “Just trust me.” Sophie said in a quieter tone, leaning in towards me. “I do know what I’m doing.”
“I know.” I replied in the same quiet tone.
Sophie pulled back and grinned.
“Alright then, that’s sorted. Now!” she stood up, her bag fell over and Sophie moved towards me. “We’re going to need to sort some things out. First of all, I might have to use my amazing engineering skills to build a few bits and bobs, and then you’ll have to come with me to the edge of the force field to check out the state of it. And while we’re doing that we can do more planning. Perfect, right? Nothing can go wrong.” She put her hands on my shoulders, grinning at me.
I leaned back a bit. “Sophie, your eccentricity is starting to creep me out.” I said.
She dropped her hands and moved back. “Geez, sorry.”
“No it’s alright, it’s just….. Ah never mind.” I shook my head slightly.
Sophie then started pacing around the kitchen, muttering under her breath and counting on her fingers, as if she was making a list. Suddenly her eyes landed on the holographic scanner my dad left on the bench the night before, and she snatched it up.
“What’s this?” she looked excitedly at it, showing it to me.
“It’s a holographic scanner.” I started and she nodded as I said it.
“I thought so.” She peered closely at its design. “This is perfect, I can easily use this. You don’t mind do you?” I opened my mouth to answer but got cut off. “No of course you don’t. Anyway…” Sophie sat down at the table again and started pulling the panels off of the scanner.
I stood there, dumbfounded at the way Sophie just casually started taking the device apart. Seriously, so much about this girl surprised me. She always acted so unpredictably and even with my powers, if I didn’t concentrate on Sophie, I couldn’t understand her at all. I wouldn’t call it a bad feeling, but it certainly had me on edge, and even more worried about the human threat just over the hill than might be deemed normal.
As Sophie fiddled with the holographic scanner, I went over to the kitchen and started to make sandwiches. By the time I was done, the scanner was unrecognisable and Sophie had all sorts of tools and gadgets spread over the small table.
I pushed what looked like a wrench out of the way and placed Sophie’s sandwich in front of her, then placed mine down in my spot at the table and sat down.
“Thanks.” Sophie said, looking up and nodding to me.
“So what are you doing there?” I asked before taking a bite of my sandwich. From what I could tell, Sophie was connecting wires in some device she’d developed from the scanner. She looked up again as she worked.
“Well the holographic scanner takes a scan of a scene or an object and replicates it right?” Sophie gestured to the scanner lens that was lying on the table next to her elbow.
“Well I’m going to change its function, as well as a picture I’m going to fix it so it will replicate sound, specifically to work as a communicator.” Sophie explained, complete with hand gestures.
I stared at her incredulously. “You’re going to take an image scanner and use it as a telecommunications device?” I raised an eyebrow.
Sophie looked taken aback. “Well shoot me down for not bringing communicators with me when I landed here. It’s not like I knew there was going to be a situation like this.” She threw her hands up in the air dramatically.
“I didn’t mean to offend you.” I murmured quickly. “So what exactly do we need communicators for?”
“For communication obviously.”
“But why?” I asked pressingly.
“Well we’re going into the lion’s den!” Sophie raised her voice. She really seemed to like being dramatic. “We don’t know if we’re going to be separated or not, communicators could be very important!”
“Alright, alright you don’t need to shout about it.” I laughed at her drama.
As if on cue, my mum poked her head in through the kitchen door.
“What are you two yelling about in here?” she asked.
“Nothing.” Sophie and I chorused, and then laughed at mum’s expression as she saw the stuff spread across the dining table.
“Well….. Okay then.” Mum decided not to ask, and walked back down the hallway.
Sophie and I looked at each other and burst out laughing again.
Once we’d recovered from our fits of laughter, Sophie got back to her work and I got back to finishing my sandwich, which was pretty delicious.
“Argh!” Sophie exclaimed, after a few minutes of silence. “Of course I don’t have my friction stabilizer!”
“Your friction stabilizer?” I smirked. “Seriously?”
Sophie pouted. “Well from what I can tell from the holographic scanner, your people should have the parts I need for it anyway.” She quickly grabbed a piece of paper and pencil and scrawled out a short list of things she apparently needed, then handed it to me.
“Can you go and buy these things?” she asked me.
Taking the list and glancing over it, I realised I had no idea what any of the equipment Sophie needed even was. I could tell what the general gist of each item was but still, the technical words were mostly foreign to me.
“Alright.” I eventually answered her, stuffing the list into my right trouser pocket as I stood up to leave.
“Be back soon.” Sophie didn’t look up as I left, totally engrossed in her work. Before leaving, I stopped off in my room to grab a pouch of coins so that I could buy the few parts.
Then, closing the front door behind me as I left, I quickly set out onto the road I had walked so often in the past day. There I was, on my way to the shops. It felt kind of ironic that I was doing something so normal during this not-so-normal situation. Speeding up as I went, I soon found myself in the fairly large market place of my town, which wasn’t my destination but it was on the way. They didn’t sell technological or electronic stuff in the market, only food and trinkets. Instead I headed to a small store on a street corner, tucked away from the bustle of the town and hardly noticed. Today there was less activity than normal; most people were likely staying home if they could, with strange aliens on our doorstep. Luckily this store remained open. A bell tinkled as I pushed the door open as I entered. I stared around at the cramped space, boxes of electronic parts piled upon shelves and tables and models hanging from the ceiling. There was a desk which held some parchment and a few more boxes, and a door was behind it. I stepped forward and knocked on the desk three times.
After waiting for a couple of seconds, the door behind the desk opened and the man who owned the store came through.
“Hello Abigail.” He greeted me, grinning. He often supplied parts to my dad's workplace, so I had been on a few shopping trips here in the past.
“Hi Carlenco.” I replied, pulling the list Sophie had given me out of my pocket. “Erm, do you happen to have any of the parts on this list?”
Carlenco took the list from me, stood there reading for a minute and then he handed the list back and nodded.
“Yes, yes I do have all those parts.” He told me. “It just took me a while to work out what some of them were.”
“Sorry.” I said sheepishly. “My friend wrote the list, she’s very technical.”
“Yes well,” Carlenco moved from behind his desk and started sifting through one of the many boxes in the room. “I did figure them out in the end. Your friend must be an expert in technical parts though; she seems to know more than me!”
He laughed and I joined in, feeling incredibly awkward. Then I watched patiently as Carlenco pulled different parts out of boxes and placed them on the desk, until he had all of the few parts Sophie needed. Once he had all the parts, he put them in a brown bag and placed it to the side, holding out his hand for payment. I quickly pulled the right amount of coins out of my pocket and handed them over. Carlenco then handed me the bag and I left the store.
As I walked back to my house, I wondered why Sophie needed all these parts anyway. I mean, if we were going to get inside that force field, we probably wouldn’t even need communicators or whatever else she was making. I sighed as I remembered how engrossed in her tinkering Sophie had been, and I knew that it was just a distraction. It was something to help her think, so that she could work out what to do. Plus I knew it made her feel like she was doing something. Well it was only fair to let her have peace of mind, at least for now.
When I entered the kitchen, Sophie’s equipment now took up the entire table; she obviously took advantage of my absence.
Clearing my throat, I held out the bag of parts to Sophie. She looked up and grinned at me, taking the bag.
“Thanks Abi.” She said.
“Abi?” I raised an eyebrow at the nickname.
“Just a little pet name I have for you.” Sophie told me with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
“Do I have to call you ‘Soph’ now then?” I pulled out my chair and sat down at the table.
Sophie shook her head, laughing. “No of course not! Sophie’s already a nickname anyway.”
“Really?” I asked, mildly interested. “What’s your actual name then?”
"Sophia."
“Well I can see why you shorten it, that’s a mouthful.” I grinned at her, and she grinned back.
“Well what’s your full name then?” Sophie asked, pretending to be hurt by my mocking of her name. “Or do Paladanians not have last names?”
I laughed. “We do have last names! My full name is Abigail Shurn.”
“Abigail Shurn.” Sophie repeated. “Nice!”
“Thank you.”
I stared at the parts Sophie had strewn across the table. I could recognise memory chips, power sources, conductors, transistors, lenses, programming units, bits of metal and plastic that would comprise of the outer shells of the devices she was making, but I couldn’t understand how she was making a device out of any of them. She had already half completed most of them, and she was working expertly, methodically, as if she’d built machines from scratch before. That was the thing about Sophie and I; although I could understand circuits and how they worked I didn’t have the skill or knowledge of how to put them together, whereas she did. I was the one with natural powers and insight, and she was the one with learned intelligence and experience. I admired that about her.
“So how did you learn to make these sorts of things?” I asked, sincerely curious.
Sophie looked up from a part she’d been attaching to a transistor. “Oh, just back home.” She replied with a shrug. “My parents… well they were both engineers and I learnt a lot from them when I was a kid. Most other people don’t know much about what makes up our technology and stuff, because they just use it, they don’t study it. But my parents did, and they wanted me to understand the devices I was using and their workings, my ammi especially. She used to come home from work, and sit with a projection in front of him, pointing out all the different parts and how they worked."
I nodded. “There’s one thing we have in common.” I said after a few moments of thought."My dad works with technology as well."
“Hmm, yeah.” Sophie suddenly seemed distracted.
Sophie had been fiddling with the, now almost finished, device in her hands while we’d been talking, and it suddenly went off, making a loud beeping sound. Sophie and I both jumped, then laughed at each other’s shocked faces.
“What was that?” I asked, wiping tears of laughter from my eyes.
Sophie was still laughing. “It’s a… a test. To check if it works.” Her voice suddenly became serious again. “And it does, so I think I’m done with this.” She placed the device down on the table next to the other completed gadgets. “Now for the friction stabilizer!”
I groaned. How long was this going to take?
Sophie rolled her eyes at me. “Just be patient, Abi.” She said in a mocking tone. “As a Paladanian you should understand that these things take time.”
I poked my tongue out at her.
“That is incredibly rude and immature!” Sophie threw a screwdriver at me and we both burst into laughter again.
We seemed to be laughing an awful lot today, in spite of everything. Still chuckling, Sophie looked back to the bag of parts and started searching through it. I sat there in silence for a bit as she connected parts, screwed in bolts and fixed up different bits on the friction stabilizer she was building. After sitting there for a long while I became bored, and fidgeted in my seat.
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked exasperatedly.
"Find something for us to carry these gadgets in?" She said after screwing her face up for a few moments. "I don't know if my backpack will be enough. Maybe we could hang them off my belt or something?"
“Oh okay.” I nodded in understanding. “Why do we need all these gadgets anyway?”
Sophie sighed. “I’ve already explained this. It’s just a precaution, seeing as we’re going-”
“Into the lions den.” I finished, getting up from my chair. “I’ll go see if we have anything.”
“Thanks Abi.”
I sighed slightly as I entered my parent’s room to search for a small bag.
“Mum?” I called out, and I heard her exit the study where she’d been reading, and come into her room.
“What are you doing in here?” she asked incredulously.
"Do we have a small bag, a satchel or something?" I asked as I poked around the room.
“I think so….” Mum said, moving over to the wardrobe beside me and opening a drawer inside. She rummaged around and pulled out a bag I'd never seen in my life.
“Here you go.” She handed the bag to me. "It was your grandmother's."
“Thanks mum.” I headed out the door.
“Abigail….” Mum’s voice stopped me in my tracks, and I spun around to look anxiously at her.
“Yes?”
“You’re not going to do anything dangerous are you?” she asked, looking scared.
“With a bag?” I tried to laugh but mum’s face stayed as serious as ever.
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah I do.” I replied softly.
Mum looked at me insistently. “Well?”
“Well….” I didn’t know what was the right thing to say. “Maybe.”
“Abigail…” her voice was thick with tears now.
“Mum… don’t cry, please don’t.” I stepped forward, placing my hand on her arm. “Please.”
“Why did this have to happen?” she wailed. “Why did the humans have to come here?”
“I don’t know mum.” I answered gently. “That’s what Sophie and I are going to find out.”
“But you’re only fourteen” She wiped tears from her face.
“I can’t let Sophie go alone.” I said determinedly.
“Oh, you’re so brave.” Mum covered me with a hug, and I wrapped my arms around her tightly.
After a while I pulled back, saying; “I’ll go take this to Sophie now.”
Entering the kitchen again, I approached Sophie and she looked up. “What took you so long?”
“Oh mum just wanted to talk to me.” I replied nonchalantly, placing the satchel on the table in front of me.
“She doesn’t want you to come with me.” Sophie stated, without looking up from her work. “She’s worried you’ll get hurt.”
“Well… yeah.” I replied. “She’s my mother, that’s her job.”
“Hmm.” Sophie sounded uncomfortable about what she was about to say. “I don’t think you should come with me either.”
I was speechless. My mouth fell open at the unfairness of her words.
“Why not?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest stubbornly.
“It’s too dangerous for someone of your age.” Sophie replied. “It will be better if I do it myself.”
“Seriously?” I stared incredulously at her. “You travel all through the universe on your own and you’ve done it for years, but me going with you to find out why the humans came is too dangerous?”
“It’s different. I’m older.” Sophie replied, frowning.
“You’re only two years older than me.” I snapped back. “And how old were you when you started travelling the universe?”
“Well…” Sophie hesitated.
“You were thirteen, weren’t you?” I guessed, with an eyebrow raised.
“Thirteen and seven months actually.” She replied.
“Oh, cause that’s such a big difference.” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
Sophie looked furious with me. “Abigail, you-”
“No Sophie, listen to me.” I stood defiantly. “If you’re going inside the force field to the humans then I’m going to be right by your side. You need me, and you know it.”
She looked speechless for a moment. She looked at me, then to the ground, and back up again, her anger dissipated. “Okay.” She finally said, with a soft voice.
“Really?” I brightened up immediately.
Sophie grinned. “Well when you put it that way, how can I say no?”
“Oh, okay.” A smile split across my face. I pulled the chair out again, and sat down. “So are you almost finished?”
“Almost.” She replied, fitting a part onto the device in her hand. “While you’re waiting, can you put the other devices in the bag?"
“Okay.” I said, pulling the satchel towards me and getting to work. Before too long Sophie was done with the gadget she was fiddling with and went to place it in the bag, but then hesitated and attached it to her belt. Then she decided to irritate me by taking out a few of the other gadgets I'd put in and attaching them to her belt as well.
“Oh, and this is yours.” Sophie tightened the belt and unclipped one of the gadgets. A communicator, I assumed. She handed it to me.
“Thanks.” I placed it in my pocket.
“So are we ready to go then?” Sophie asked me, swinging her bag over her shoulder.
“I guess.” I replied. Despite what I said to Sophie, I wasn't that confident about what we were about to do.
“Let’s go then.” I picked up the other bag and we walked out of the house.
It was mid-afternoon, and the staar (the star my planet orbited) was fairly low in the sky. Sophie and I reached the crest of the hill, and wandered over the other side, reaching the tree line.
We surged forward, getting faster and faster until I realised we had to stop.
“Wait!” I called out, and Sophie stopped dead.
“What is it?” she asked warily.
I reached my hand out and lightly touched the shimmering blue energy field that I hadn’t seen until now. It reacted with a spark of energy at my touch.
“The force field.” I breathed.