Tatum's War

Tatum found his way down to the practice floor though a ladder inconspicuously hidden behind a panel. The incident with the feline man still troubled him, but not how he thought it would. He’d never met anyone who wanted to kill him, at least not literally, but to see what a killer’s face could actually look like up close, should have left him terrified at the very least. But his emotion bordered on fascination, which bothered him even more. The mere thought of wanting to understand how someone could be so far on the other side of the emotional scale as himself, was something he didn’t understand. He never gave much thought to emotions per say, and to start with this, was just a bit outside his comfort zone. He hoped he’d get to speak with Alexa about it whenever he got the chance to talk to his family. She’d help him understand, she was good at analyzing emotions.

MeerRhonda watched him approach with her usual disdain. Tatum ignored it of course, and tried to have his own look of disapproval at this whole escapade.

“Friend of yours…”

Tatum started and then ended up on his back with MeerRhonda’s knee pressing against his throat. He struggled against her to no avail. Despite the fact that consciousness slipped from him, he again found fascination in the eyes of a killer.

“May I inquire what you may have said to up set your instructor?” Dr. Oullwyyng asked Tatum as he regained consciousness.

“Not sure.” He rubbed his head while he sat up. “Why does my head hurt?”

Dr. Oullwyyng looked sheepishly around. “She dumped you on the floor, and we may have accidently, mind you, bumped your head while getting you on the table.”

“I see. Where is that bitch now?” Tatum asked.

Dr. Oullwyyng’s eyes grew wide. “You love her?”

Tatum’s eye narrowed in confusion. “Oh, no. That isn’t what bitch means on my world. It’s a derogatory term. It means, female dog.”

Dr. Oullwyyng turned his head to the side. It almost looked like his head could go a lot further around.

“I see. That is certainly not the translation that came across. I’d watch what you say.” He cautioned.

“I will.” Tatum agreed.

“To your first question. I was told to tell you to come back to the training area when you woke up.” Dr. Oullwyyng informed him.

“I’m supposed to go back? She tried to kill me.” He complained.

Dr. Oullwyyng smiled. “If she had wanted to kill you, we wouldn’t be talking. But that does raise the question of what you said to provoke her into almost killing you.”

“All I asked was if the feline man was a friend of hers. Next I know, I’m on my back, her knee in my throat, and waking up here.” Tatum hopped off the table. His head hurt but his shoulder felt better.

Dr. Oullwyyng tapped his chin, his yellow eyes looking up and left in concentration. Suddenly, his eyes widened. “Abaddon.”

“What?” Tatum wasn’t sure what he had said. It came out so low that he had trouble hearing him.

“That was not a very good thing to say. In fact, I wouldn’t mention anything about that species again to her.” Dr. Oullwyyng told him.

“What species. I don’t even know what he was.” Tatum placed his hand to his head. The ginormous bump hurt very much. He wondered if the sonic shower would help with it too. Dr. Oullwyyng looked cautiously around. Satisfied, he spoke. “He was an Abaddon. A violent race that conquered MeerRhonda’s home world. They are a part of the Draco Conclave, a very nasty part of it.”

He’d never seen Dr. Oullwyyng express any kind of anger or hatred, but at the mention of the Draco Conclave, his usual demeanor changed to anger.

“Who are the Draco Conclave?” Tatum asked.

Dr. Oullwyyng shook his head, regaining his more jovial demeanor. “Not for me to explain. The Commodore will fill you in. You should go. But the good news is. Since you have been in here so much today, your shoulder should feel much better.”

Tatum moved his shoulder around. It felt great. “Thank you.”

Dr. Oullwyyng walked/pushed Tatum to the door.

Before Tatum could ask any more questions, the door shut in his face. A little annoyed, Tatum began the walk back to the practice area. Waiting for him was MeerRhonda. Her face appeared impassive, but anger played in her eyes. Figuring the best way to avoid getting pummeled again, Tatum slowly approached her, watching her body language, and apologized.

“I’m sorry, MeerRhonda. I didn’t know the history of that alien to your kind.” He explained. “I wouldn’t have been so callous with my remark if I had known beforehand. I know you don’t like me, and honestly, I’m not sure I like you either, but I do appreciate you trying to help me.” Tatum held out his hand for her to shake it.

MeerRhonda studied his hand, and Tatum could see that some of the anger had vanished from her eyes.

“What is this?” she asked.

“A way of expressing sincerity. I think it was a way for people to show they had no weapons when greeting each other originally on my world, but my History Channel knowledge is a little vague. But it usually means that an agreement or acceptance of an apology has been offered. If you don’t want to shake it, I’ll understand.”

“How did you find out?” she asked.

“Dr. Oullwyyng told me.” Seeing her eyes turn angry again, he blundered on. “He didn’t tell me much. Just the very short version that his people conquered yours. That’s it.”

MeerRhonda stood for a moment, and before Tatum withdrew his hand, she reached out and shook his hand.

MeerRhonda nodded. “Apology accepted, Earther.”

Tatum did his best not to flinch at the pain that shot up his arm as they shook. Suddenly, she pulled him towards her, flipped him over her outstretched leg, and he landed on his back with a thud.

“That leaves you very defenseless.” She commented.

“That’s the idea.” He caught his breath. “It about trust at that point.” He coughed.

She turned her head to the side. “Odd custom.” She helped him up.

He bent over catching his breath. “I never thought so before, but now I do.”

A slight smile almost appeared on her face, but quickly vanished. “Let’s begin.”

For the next two months Tatum trained daily. It became clear, quite early on that he’d never be good at the fighting skills that MeerRhonda was teaching him, and he felt a little inadequate because of it. He never considered himself a jock, he wasn’t un-athletic either, but he clearly didn’t have the athleticism required to master the advanced skills she was trying to teach him. That isn’t to say he didn’t improve, he certainly felt he could handle himself better than before, but if he came up against an opponent with a quarter of the skill possessed by MeerRhonda, he’d be dead. A term she used constantly when he failed. He also was spending a lot of time in the medical bay. Not by choice, certainly, but Dr. Oullwyyng expressed his pleasure at gaining knowledge about his kind by tending to his wounds.

Tatum moved in and leveled a punch at MeerRhonda’s midsection. She avoided it easily, and her face again showed annoyance that he would try such an obviously simple move. Smiling, he let his momentum carry him into a leg sweep that avoided her left cross, the one that had sent him to see Dr. Oullwyyng on many occasions, and caught her by surprise. Unfortunately, his triumph turned to tragedy, as MeerRhonda leaped over the leg sweep and brought her knee crashing into the side of his face sending him sprawling on to the floor. Blood ran down his face from a split above his ear. Dazed, Tatum stumbled to his feet and tried to defend himself from the follow up punches, (because there were always follow up punches), and managed to block a few before being put down like a wounded animal. Laying in a pool of his own blood, wheezing, Tatum barely heard the door open. He could only see the outline of the individual that approached him. Too tired to lift his head, he weakly waved with his right hand. He figured it was best to stay down, to avoid any more punishment.

“Going a little ruff on our guest, Cadet?” The Commodore’s voice echoed in Tatum’s ears.

“No Sir.” MeerRhonda sounded off.

A chuckle escaped the Commodore’s lips. The Commodore easily lifted him off the floor and set him on his wobbly feet.

“Enjoying training?” Commodore Greystone asked.

“Just trying to make MeerRhonda a better fighter, Sir.” Tatum slurred. Through the blood he saw a smile appear on her face.

“By letting her beat you senseless?” he asked.

“Yes.” Tatum chuckled. “Keeps her frosty.”

Commodore Greystone looked confused at the comment. Then he smiled. “I’m not sure the translator interpreted the quip correctly, but I believe I understand your sarcasm.”

Tatum nodded and smirked before a wave a nausea almost made him vomit.

“Take him to Dr. Oullwyyng and clean him up. He has a call to make.” Commodore Greystone instructed her.

“Yes, Sir.”

She took Tatum from him and began to walk/drag him to the medical bay.

“Do you think I can get a Godzilla Band-Aid this time?” Tatum slurred.

“I think he’s out.” MeerRhonda snickered. Which she usually did now, since this was a familiar scene carried out daily.

After another round of medical treatment, (his file was growing quite large to Dr. Oullwyyng’s enjoyment) Tatum wondered back to his cabin, showered, and headed to the cafeteria. He ordered his usual; burger, fries, and a root beer. He ate, flipped through some communications that he had Flexi monitor, so he could get a better idea of what was going on, and headed off towards the Commodore’s office. Tatum gingerly touched his nose and left cheek. MeerRhonda had managed to break his nose again, and if it wasn’t for the miracle of advanced medicine, he was sure he’d look like one of the MMA fighters. A look he was glad he didn’t have. He finished his soda, dropped it off in one of the many disposal bins around the station and stopped in front of the Commodore’s office. Tatum pushed the little green button, which acted like a doorbell, and waited.

He felt himself starting to get a little nervous. In-between his training sessions, Buccaneer Zulutan, whom he disliked tremendously because of the way he made Tatum feel inferior, had instructed him on what he could and couldn’t say. Basically it came down to that he couldn’t mention anything and had to make up the entire story on his own. He didn’t particularly like lying to his father, and the emails sent to his family, or whatever passed for email on the station, had been scripted mostly by Zulutan. But Zulutan had made it quite clear that if the transmission or emails were intercepted it could put his family in danger. Not only from the Draco Conclave but from his own government. Tatum didn’t really believe his own government could decipher the transmission, but he had watched enough UFO stories on H2 to take the warning seriously. The only thing he had going for him was the information Mr. Chance had sent him about the school and the surrounding countryside.

The door swished open and Tatum walked in. Commodore Greystone sat at a table along with Buccaneer Zulutan, Buccaneer Iyara, Dr. Oullwyyng and MeerRhonda. Tatum was a little surprised at how many people were there.

“Didn’t expect this many to be listening.” Tatum said annoyed.

Commodore Greystone smiled. “Only Buccaneer Zulutan and Buccaneer Iyara will be staying if that is okay. The others were just leaving.”

Tatum nodded.

On que, the others left. MeerRhonda passed him without a word as did Dr. Oullwyyng.

“What about you, Commodore.” Tatum asked.

He rose. “I have confidence you will say the right things. I have other matters to attend to. Enjoy your Skyping, I believe you call it. They will be glad to see your face as I’m sure you are eager to see them.

Commodore Greystone squeezed Tatum’s shoulder as he walked by and left.

Tatum turned back to the others. Iyara smiled at him in her seductive way as she had done since saving her. It still made him uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure whether it was because she was one of the most beautiful women he’s ever seen and his boyish shyness made him nervous or because he didn’t know how he felt about her. Buccaneer Zulutan eyed him coldly, and Tatum knew exactly how he felt about him. Complete dislike.

“So, where’s the phone?” Tatum joked.

Iyara’s laughter filled the room like a birdsong making him blush even though he tried not to. Zulutan’s eyes narrowed, choosing to ignore his attempt at humor or completely missing its meaning. Either way, Tatum chose to go with Iyara’s laughter.

Zulutan pushed a spot on the table and a hologram monitor materialized in front of him.

“I will remind you to watch what you say. Keep it to the talking points we went over, and if you can’t answer a question, just lie or say nothing at all.” Zulutan pushed some more buttons and an outline of talking points appeared to the right of the monitor. Tatum touched one of the talking points and a subcategory appeared below it.

“What possibly could go wrong?” Tatum sighed.

“Everything.” Zulutan answered.

“Don’t let Zulu upset you. Just talk to them and have fun. You’ve already laid the frame work in your earlier communique. So just sit back and enjoy. You’ve done a great job coming up with your school and classes. Your father will be proud.”

Tatum smiled. “Why can’t you be more positive like Iyara? Instead of cold and mean and just a jerk all the time.”

Zulutan looked at Iyara, who smiled, and ignored Tatum’s question.

Tatum sat nervously as he waited. He wasn’t sure why the butterflies were multiplying exponentially in his stomach, it was just his father he’d be talking to and maybe Alexa. And that shouldn’t be so bad. But never the less, his anxiety continued to grow as the time stretched on.

“What is taking so long?” Tatum growled.

“This isn’t some transmission across your planet, Cadet. We are millions of light years away from Earth, a Black String isn’t as instantaneous as being next door.” Zulutan growled back. “Be quiet, while I work.”

“Millions of light years?” Tatum whispered.

He never really thought about the distances. In all the time he’d been here, he’d never perused the idea. Tatum figured he was a long ways away from home, but the enormity of space was hard to comprehend. The mere idea of being among species from other planets had taken most of his time, and to add on top of that the distances across space, it was getting a little hard for his brain to absorb.

“Wait. Are you sending information faster than light?” Tatum asked.

Zulutan nodded.

“But I thought that was impossible? Nothing goes faster than light.” Tatum stated.

Zulutan looked at him with his superior look before turning to Iyara and giving her the nod to explain the simple concept to him. Tatum really didn’t like him.

“Let’s see. Your Einstein wasn’t quite right. He had a small part of the equation correct, but the universe is put together even more simply than that.” Iyara started.

“It isn’t a simple concept on my planet. He was considered the father of physics.” Tatum said proudly. “How do you know about him?”

Iyara nodded. “I’ve been studying your planet since you’ve arrived. I’ve got all sorts of places to go when you take me there.” She smiled.

Tatum raised his eyebrows in surprise. “When I take you there?”

“Of course. I love going to new planets. They are so different and exciting.” She waved her hand in the air, like she was picking destinations on a map.

“Uhm, it’s probably a little backwards for you, isn’t it?” Tatum said.

Her eyes lit up. “That’s the exciting part. All the races here have already found how to use the sun and gravity for energy and given up fossil fuels. But your culture hasn’t yet. It would be like stepping back in time!”

Tatum laughed nervously. Not that introducing Iyara to his friends wouldn’t win him every kind of macho award there is, but if he could bring back ideas to help his planet’s energy needs, he’d be a genius too.

“But getting back to your first question, every world has to make those steps before getting to the truth. Even Zulu’s race had to go through the process of elimination and discovery before getting to the right answer. And his race is one of the oldest known in the universe.”

Zulutan scowled at her, but Iyara just smiled back.

“So, how does it work?” Tatum asked.

“Well,” Iyara started, “A black string takes on a unique property of gravity called Mens Mentis. I’ll dummy this down as much as I can.”

Tatum rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”

“Your Einstein postulated that space and time were interconnected. That one would work with the other to help keep the balance between objects moving at the speed of light and stationary observers. The idea being that since nothing can move faster than light, therefore space must shrink and stretch to keep the object from going faster than light. This keeps the cosmic speed limit.”

Tatum nodded. “Right, I understand that much.”

“Good. This theory is based upon the concept that light has a speed limit. That mass and energy are equal with the constant of light.”

“Yeah, Energy is equal to mass times the constant of light squared.”

Iyara smiled. “Right. So, what can capture light?”

Tatum blinked a few times, “A black hole.”

“Right. Black holes can capture light. So what does that mean?”

“That the energy needed to capture light is stronger than the energy needed to travel at the speed of light.” Tatum suggested.

Iyara eyes brightened. “You get cuter every time I talk to you.”

Tatum blushed.

“Lucky guess.” Zulutan sneered from the side.

Iyara scowled at him. “Nonsense, he’s getting smarter by being around me.”

Tatum agreed.

“In his equation, it takes an infinite amount of power to reach the speed of light, which makes the object gain an infinite amount of mass to maintain the speed limit. If that were true, every black hole would be so heavy that the fabric of space would tear and unleash chaos, destroying the universe. So, why doesn’t this happen? First, the fabric of space isn’t really a fabric, it’s more like skin. It stretches, grows, and dies. Space is a living thing. Second, since it is living, space is more like your body. Each galaxy is a cell, and there are pathways that connect each galaxy to each other like your nervous system in your body. Since gravity makes up the space in between each galaxy, and because your body instantaneously communicates with every cell in your body, we can tap into the nervous system of the universe and send information or travel, at a slightly slower speed, anywhere. This is what brought you here from your planet.”

Tatum tried to look like he was following the conversation, but Iyara had started down a path of reasoning that he wasn’t following. His eyes must have given him away, for Iyara stopped and smiled.

“You may have to dummy it down even more.” Zulutan laughed from the side.

“Shut up.” Iyara growled.

Tatum let his mind settle just a bit before he spoke. “But how does Time effect things. You can’t travel distance without a measure of time.”

“Very good.” Iyara smirked at Zulutan, who dismissed the observation. “That is correct. But what if Time isn’t real?”

“What do you mean it isn’t real? I can see time every day.”

“You see a manifestation of time that is taught to you. But Time is happening at the same time everywhere in the universe. We are talking and your family is getting ready to talk to you. Just like my family, four hundred million light years away, using your terminology, they are eating breakfast. We might not see those things with observable light waves for millions of years, but to gravity, it is all happening at the same time.”

Tatum narrowed his eyes trying to understand. The distances were still giving him trouble.

She smiled. Iyara grabbed a handful of her hair, and gently let it run through her fingers until only a few strands were caught between her fingers. “Like this, honey, think of one atom at the very end of my beautiful, thick, luscious hair.” Iyara had strung it out close to Tatum’s nose. The faint smell of strawberries and another pleasant smell entered his nose. He nodded. “Now, think of an atom at the very end of my soft, perfectly straight big toe.”

Tatum nodded.

“So, those two atoms talk to each other instantaneously and distance isn’t a factor, because to those two atoms, the distance is almost infinite to their respective placement on my rock hard body.”

Tatum coughed uncomfortably. “I think I understand.”

She let her hair drop from her hand, leaned in seductively, holding Tatum’s eyes with hers. “Would you like to see my big toe, Tatum?”

Tatum shifted uncomfortably, while trying to keep the redness from his cheeks, which did nothing for his lower groin area.

“That is why if you can tap into the energy of gravity, you can move almost instantaneously from any point in the universe to another.” She finished with a slow lick of her lips.

“Why not instantaneously?” Tatum squeaked the question watching her moist lips.

“Space, or gravity is still a medium. It isn’t a true void. Even gravity energy has stuff in it that slows down other energy. So, even though we can talk or move in it, we still feel a delay. If you were to match the gravity energy perfectly, you would become a part of gravity and occupy every point in space simultaneously, and lose your individuality.”

“That would be bad.” Tatum rattled off.

“That would be bad.”

“If the fourth grade physics lesson is over, and your failed attempt at seduction; Tatum your father is ready to talk to you.” Zulutan interrupted them.

“Who said I failed.” Iyara purred.

Tatum turned to the holographic monitor. He took a deep breath to calm himself and let it out as his dad and little sister, who sat in his lap, looked anxiously at the screen. All the butterflies and sexual excitement vanished and was replaced with homesickness.

“Hello dad.” Tatum’s voiced cracked with emotion.