The 17 (21 page)

Zack smiled, which took Splifkin aback. “No, we’re not. They need us. At least they think they need us. Even though they are advanced and brilliant and can do so many things far beyond our comprehension, they are in denial. They are scared. I know what scared is. I’ve been scared all my life. And they, Splifkin, are frightened.”

Splifkin backed away and leaned against his desk. Mizuki simply cocked her head and stared at Zack with a strange look he had never seen her have before, a sort of mix between awe and who the hell are you?

Splifkin lowered his head in thought, and then snapped it back up to look at them with contrition. “What do you think we can possibly do with this information?”

“It’s a blind spot. They have a weakness: their own mortality. They haven’t had to face death in who knows how long. Now it is staring them in the face and they are desperate to stop it. We can use that. Fear is powerful.”

“I still don’t understand what you think you can do to them?”

“George is the key. George knows the truth. If we can convince George that no matter what they do, they are doomed, maybe the others will realize it and they will let us go home.”

Splifkin chuckled again. “Home? I’m not even sure if my home is still there, or what I’ll find there if it is. This is my home. The only one I’m sure of now.”

“Don’t you want to see your real home again?”

Splifkin’s skin turned burgundy and he grinned wistfully. “For what seems like an eternity, I have wanted to see the Jillonna Falls again. The water flows over a cliff a mile high into a cerulean lake. It is the most breathtaking location on our planet. The sound of the water crashing is deafening, but is like a song that I have so longed to hear again.”

“Maybe you can,” Zack pleaded. “I just need to talk to George. Can you set that up?”

Splifkin nodded. “I’ll see what I can do. Now go.” He winked with the three lids of his large left eye. “I’m tired of looking at you.”

†††

Mizuki’s feet pounded down the hallway, her strides long and purposeful—and a bit angry.

Zack struggled to keep pace.

“Hold up,” he said.

Mizuki just walked faster.

“Hey,” Zack yelled. “What’s wrong?”

She walked faster still.

She spilled into the dining hall and brushed her shoulder past Eb as she did. It nearly knocked him to the ground. However, shaped as a weeble-wobble like he was, Eb didn’t fall down.

Mizuki grabbed her mug of steaming broth and set it forcefully on the table. Some of the steaming liquid sloshed out onto her hand. She defied the pain with just a slight grimace as she sat and slurped loudly.

Zack had a plate full of eggs and bacon, but had lost his appetite as he sat across from her, staring dumbfounded.

He began to speak, but stopped. Her eyes darted about everywhere but at him. He began to speak again, but swallowed his words.

Finally, he worked up enough courage to ask. “What’s wrong, Mizuki?”

She finally looked at him and scowled. “I thought I told you I’d do the talking.”

“I was just trying to help.”

“Well, when I need help I’ll ask for it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, Zack, you are. You are sorry.”

“What’s wrong with you? We have Splifkin on our side now. He’s a powerful ally.”

“I could have handled it.”

Zack poked at his eggs with his fork as he searched for the right words to say. He couldn’t find them. He rarely could in situations like this. He hated confrontation, but it seemed that was all there was in this new reality. This place was nothing but discord.

He didn’t expect strife with Mizuki. She was one of the few people he had ever met who he seemed to connect with on a deep, personal level, and now he feared that was over.

And why? Why was she acting like this?

Zack tried to change the subject. “Hey, why don’t we go to that room Eb took us into and poke around. There’s some cool stuff in there.”

Mizuki just snapped her eyes up from her broth and glared.

Zack’s pleas cracked with desperation as they escaped his quivering lips. “Please, Mizuki, talk to me.”

Mizuki took one last loud slurp of her broth, set the mug down harshly and stood. “I’ve got things to do.”

As she walked away, Zack reached out and grabbed her arm. She jerked it away.

His voice cracked more now with heartache. “Staying with me tonight?”

“That’s okay. I think I want to be comfortably cold tonight.”

She walked away in a huff and Zack could feel his eyes well with tears as she did. He felt like crying, but held them back as he poked at his eggs with the prongs of his fork.

A foul smell snapped him out of his sad stabbings.

“Is this seat taken?” Eb asked. He held a tray with a plate of what looked like worms crawling over it.

Even his food was disgusting.

“Have a seat. You’re my only friend today.”

Eb plopped down, picked up a squirming worm and sucked it into his mouth. Zack used to do the same thing with spaghetti, only the spaghetti was never alive.

“You seem down.”

“Yes.”

“Woman troubles?”

Zack snickered. “You could say that. I just don’t understand.” Zack began to explain and the words just kept gushing out. “Everything was great between us and then we met with Splifkin and he did his whole Splifkin intimidation act with Mizuki, so I stepped in and calmed him down. I talked him into helping us, which is what we wanted, and now Mizuki is giving me this attitude. What did I do?”

Eb inhaled another worm and swallowed before he spoke. “She’s very complicated. I read her file. It’s tough being the youngest of a brood on her planet. She’s had to fight for everything. She’s been ignored and underestimated her whole life. She reacted to that inattention by rebelling and it got her exiled. She set off on her own, and that still did not satisfy her. I know the feeling. She felt slighted, like she needed saving. That’s the worst thing to her, needing help. She’ll get over it … eventually.”

Zack wanted eventually to be now. He wanted things to go back to normal. He wanted for her to smile and wink at him again.

He wanted to feel that shudder again

With her, he didn’t feel so alone. At this moment, he felt like that last living thing in the cosmos.

He felt like the Ankhs.

“How long do I have to wait?”

“A day. A year … I’m not sure. I never got in a fight with one of her kind. I assume she’ll realize she overreacted. Then again, her people hold a grudge.”

“That’s not helping.”

Eb reached out a pale hand and slapped him awkwardly on the shoulder. “There. There.”

“That’s not helping, either.”

“Zack, when you put yourself out there, you’re bound to get hurt. It’s part of living. If you don’t, you’re no better off than the Ankhs. The Spark comes with a price.”

Eb, having finished devouring his worms, stood and left Zack to the slow torture of his eggs.

And himself.

†††

The Great Mizuki Freeze, as Zack had taken to call it, stretched into its third day with no signs of a thaw.

They sat awkwardly during meals, no words exchanged. They passed in the halls and sat in the observation room, watching various races engage in various activities, most mundane.

It was a terrible stretch of days, more anguishing to Zack than any he had spent in the arena, wielding lead pipes and swords and being slaughtered.

But he heeded Eb’s advice to let time mend their relationship. There were no words he could say that would work. Mizuki needed to break out of her fit on her own.

More Sparks arrived each day, the number swelling into the double digits. Seeing a new Spark arrive was the only time Mizuki made eye contact with Zack.

Number eleven arrived, a beastly looking thing with thick, coarse hair covering most of his body, a sloped forehead and a jutting jaw.

Zack sighed as he ate the last of his bacon.

It just didn’t taste the same.

He bused his tray and began to leave. He looked back at Mizuki, who sat despondently in her usual spot, when a group of burly men, humanoid, surrounded him.

“Zack Earnest,” one of the men said in a deep voice. “Come with us.”

“Where … where are you taking me?” Zack asked nervously. He peered over his shoulder at Mizuki, who stood and watched worriedly.

“Just come with us,” the man said, grabbing his arm and dragging him through the door.

As they pulled Zack along, he could hear Mizuki yell, “Leave him alone!” and another man, his arms as thick as tree stumps, subdue her.

They dragged Zack through the sterile hallways and finally into that cell he loathed so much. They flung him onto the cot and the spring poked him hard in the back.

Zack leapt to his feet and charged at the exit, but before he could reach it, the swirling aurora appeared. His face came inches from it and the heat of the plasma singed his eyebrows.

Zack stumbled back to the cot, and sat and stared at the swirling light. He found himself praying, which was odd because he had never been the religious sort. But he thought it appropriate now. If there were a God, he certainly needed Him now.

He stared for hours at the changing light patterns of the barrier, his muscles tense. His neck began to stiffen and throb and his eye began to twitch. He hated that.

Finally, he was ripped from his trance by a booming voice. It was George. “Zack Earnest, I am sad for you.”

Zack stood. His legs were stiff and wobbly from extended inactivity. “George?”

“Yes, Zack.”

“Why am I here?”

“You wanted to converse. Let us converse.”

Zack wanted this meeting, just not exactly this way.
Perhaps it was a way for the Ankhs to intimidate him.

Perhaps it was working.

He suddenly found himself grasping for words again. He stammered and stuttered before calming enough to speak. “I know everything.”

“It is impossible to know everything. Even we do not know everything.”

“I mean about you. I know you have human DNA.”

“How do you know this?”

“I just know. I just know we are the same.”

“Yes, Zack. We share commonality. That does not, however, make us the same.”

“I also know you have no hope of survival. Even with us, even with our Spark, you will still die.”

“We know this as well.”

Zack was shocked. He felt his heart flutter in his chest as he tried to speak again. It took him a minute to compose himself. “You … you know?”

“Yes. We have known this for millennia.”

“Then why do this to us? Why bring us here and make us go through all of this if you know it is hopeless.”

“It is not hopeless. There is always hope.”

“Not for you.”

“We cannot give up. Bertha has made that very clear.”

“Do you agree with Bertha?”

Silence.

“George. Do you agree with Bertha?”

Silence and then, “Conflict is essential for any species.”

“So you don’t?”

“Would you not try anything to perpetuate your species?”

“I would see the writing on the wall. I would see when something was futile.”

“You would still try. Remember, Zack Earnest, we are you.”

Zack sat on the cot and contemplated that point. He came to an uncomfortable conclusion: George was correct. He stood and walked toward the barrier, getting as close as he comfortably could to it. “I want to see you.”

“That is not possible. Our form would offend you.”

“I know. I still want to speak with you face-to-face.”

Silence.

Zack waited at the barrier until it finally flickered off. He heard a door open and a figure couched in shadows walk toward him.

As the figure entered the light, Zack’s mouth dropped open. He closed his eyes and opened them again, not really sure he was seeing what he was seeing.

Standing before him was a man who looked like … Zac Efron.

“Is this pleasing to your eyes?” George asked.

Zack simply laughed. “Seriously? Zac Efron?”

“Would this be better?” George asked, his features morphing into a woman who looked like… Selena Gomez.

“No, George, that’s worse. I want to see your true form, no matter how offensive you think it may be.”

George backed into the shadows. “No. You are not ready. Someday, perhaps.”

“Why do we share the same DNA?” Zack asked.

Silence.

“C’mon. I’m curious. I’m fascinated.”

“Long ago we set out looking to expand our reach in the universe. We seeded many planets, including your own. We nursed you through your darkest times, built temples for you to worship us, and then, when you were ready to be on your own, we departed. We did this because we knew, one day, we would need you again.”

“When you get the seventeen, will you let the rest go?”

“We need thirty-four.”

It was Zack’s turn to be silent for a moment. “Wait. Thirty-four? I thought you only needed seventeen?”

“Yes. Seventeen. The seventeen strongest. The seventeen fittest. The seventeen who survive.”

Zack’s heart thumped in his chest. It pounded so hard he thought George could very well hear it in the shadows. “Survive what?”

“The final test.”

“What is the final test?”

“The one that will determine the seventeen.”

Zack was growing frustrated with the circular conversations he kept having with George. For a race as advanced as the Ankhs, sometimes they were quite thick, he thought. “What does this test entail?”

Before George could answer, he heard click-clacking from the darkness. The barrier turned on inches from Zack and he quickly backed away again, feeling the heat on his face. His nose felt warm and his forehead blistered as he staggered back to the cot.

“I must go now, Zack Earnest. I will ask for the highest mercy for you.”

“What does that mean?”

“You must be punished.”

Zack tried to quell his panic. “Punished? For what?”

“Your insolence.”

“Was Splifkin punished?”

“Yes.”

“Is he dead?”

“No. We do not kill. He will pay for his crimes in accordance with our laws, as will you.”