Earth United

Twelve-year-old Jake Saunders flattened himself against his bedroom wall, next to the auto-furnish console. He could hear Cal coming down the hall, slow and cautious. That was Cal, always the cautious one, the thinker, the planner. But this time, Jake had the plan. Not one of his spur-of-the-moment, just-wing-it decisions. Keep coming, Cal. Just a few more seconds… there. Cal was just outside the door. Jake made a small, deliberate noise to give away his position. As soon as he heard Cal move, Jake punched the ‘armchair’ button on the console and dropped to the floor.

Cal swung into the room, his toy plasma gun pointed in Jake’s direction. “Surrender, Earthling, or face the wrath of Romalor. Your Earth Legion is no match for the Cratonites.”

The armchair module slid out of its wall cavity and mushroomed to full size, right into Cal’s line of fire. Jake rose to one knee and, using the armchair for cover, shot Cal with his sepder gun replica. Cal twisted at the last minute, and the fake plasma beam clipped his shoulder instead of hitting his chest. Darn.

Cal staggered back dramatically, clutching his shoulder. “You will never take me alive!”

Jake flipped the lever on his toy sepder and the sword blade extended, just like a real sepder. Time for hand-to-hand combat. “Die, then, Romalor!” he shouted, and dived over the chair. His foot caught on the arm, and he crashed into Cal, sending both of them to the floor.

“Ow!” Cal said. “You big lug. You trying to kill me for real?”

Jake’s Aunt Jane called up the stairs, “Jacob Saunders, are you trying to knock the house down? Your uncle will be here any minute. Have you finished wrapping his birthday present?”

Jake forgot about his game with Cal immediately. He had been waiting forever to give Uncle Ben his present. Jake had lived with the Walkers in the Sector Four Legion headquarters, in the Owami Desert in former Nigeria, ever since his dad was killed in a quantum fighter explosion. His mom had died when he was born, so Uncle Ben and Aunt Jane were like parents to him. He called back, “I’m sorry. I was taking a break. I’ll finish up and be right down.”

Jake finished wrapping Uncle Ben’s present and raced Cal down the steps. As they hit the landing at the bottom and saw the house full of guests, he grabbed Cal and came to a sudden halt. He hadn’t realized how long he and Cal had been playing. But he could never resist the chance for a make-believe battle with his toy sepder gun. He searched the crowded room for Aunt Jane. There she was, over by the gift table. Jake made his way through the crowd to her.

“You look like you were in a war, Jake,” Aunt Jane said, patting his hair down with her hand.

“I’m good,” Jake said, pulling his head away from her reach. “Do you really think Uncle Ben will like this?” He carefully placed the present on the table.

Aunt Jane squeezed his shoulder gently and smiled. “Like it? Your Uncle Ben’s going to love it.”

Someone shouted her name from the kitchen. She turned in that direction. “Be right there.” She turned back toward Jake. “No more wars, at least not until after your uncle gets here.” She smiled.

Jake scanned the room to see what was going on. The family robot was rolling through the room, carrying a platter of drinks. Turning neatly on its pivoted wheels, the robot made its way among the guests, stopping momentarily at each one to give him or her a chance to take a beverage. Jake noticed that his aunt had retracted all the furniture into the walls, so that the guests could mingle more easily. The television and video com screen on the far wall had been retracted as well. Darn. He had been hoping that he and Cal and could watch a show until Uncle Ben arrived.

“Jake, over here!” Cal yelled.

Jake turned quickly, bumping into someone’s forearm, causing the person’s drink to spill down the front of the person’s shirt. “I’m sorry,” Jake said.

He looked up, holding his breath, prepared to be scolded. Then he let out his breath and relaxed when he saw it was Bernard Danielson, Cal’s father. Bernie was a Legion soldier just like Uncle Ben and Jake’s dad, and Jake felt as comfortable around Cal’s family as he did around his Uncle Ben and Aunt Jane.

Bernie shook his head with a rueful smile. “It’ll wash off, champ. But you better work on those reflexes. A Legion soldier could have reacted quickly enough to miss the arm.”

“I’ll work on that,” Jake said. He signaled the robot. “Spill protocol,” he commanded as it reached them. The robot’s sonic cleaning arm extended and removed the stain from Bernie’s shirt front, and then from the floor. Finished, it trundled off to deliver more drinks.

“Hey, your birthday isn’t too far off, is it?” Bernie asked. “And it’s a big one. You’ll be a teenager if I’m not mistaken. Thirteen.”

Jake straightened his back and stuck his chest out. “Yep. Cal and I want a surprise party twice this size, together, since we’ll be turning thirteen about the same time.”

Bernie smiled and patted Jake on his shoulder. “I’ll talk to your aunt and uncle about that, but you better act surprised when the time comes.”

“Don’t worry, I will,” Jake said.

“Jake, come here!” Cal shouted.

Jake made his way through the guests toward Cal. He could see Cal’s sister standing next to him. Jake immediately slowed down, straightened his back, and smoothed down his hair.

Diane was so beautiful. She was tall, taller than he was. But that didn’t matter. He was growing a lot anyway. Her cheekbones were set high, making her look like an old-time Indian princess. He liked her dark hair, so different from his blond hair and blue eyes. And there was something about those eyes, how they seemed to stare right inside him. They were mesmerizing.

Lots of young Legion cadets hung around Diane, but ever since Mrs. Danielson died three years ago, Diane was too busy taking care of Mr. Danielson and Cal to pay much attention to them. That was good—Jake didn’t want her to fall in love with one of them before he got old enough to ask her out. Sometimes, she’d talk to Jake when she wouldn’t talk to them. That was the best—even better than practicing to join the Legion one day.

Jake looked at Diane, ignoring Cal. “Hi, Diane. Glad you could make it.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t miss your uncle’s birthday for anything,” Diane replied, smiling.

Cal gave Jake a playful shove. “Come on, let’s go do something before your uncle gets here. Play some more.”

Jake squinted his eyes at Cal. “Stop it, Cal. I just want to talk.” Why did Cal have to be so immature? He didn’t usually act like that. Cal was just trying to embarrass him in front of Diane.

“Since when?” Cal asked. “When would you want to talk rather than play?” Cal broke into a large grin. “Since Diane got here. Right?” He poked Jake in the arm.

“I said stop it, Cal!” Jake tightened his lips and squinted harder. “Can’t you see I’m talking to Diane.”

Diane broke in, “Okay, guys. I need to see your Aunt Jane anyway.”

Jake frowned at Cal.

“Oh, come on, Jake,” Cal said. “She’s too old anyway. She’s seventeen, you know. Let’s go play Legion combat or something else on the computer. That’s something I can beat you at.”

Jake glanced back at Diane walking away. “No, let’s have another armed combat battle.” Real combat was much more fun than computer simulations. And he won more often. “You can even be the Legion soldier this time, and use my sepder.”

“Are you serious? You haven’t let anyone touch that thing since you got it,” Cal replied.

Cal was right, Jake thought. His uncle had given him the sepder replica for his twelfth birthday, and it was his favorite possession. He was always proud that he could immediately recite to anyone the technical name for a sepder: ‘sonically emitted plasma direct-energy ray gun.’ It was both a gun and a sword. Jake even knew the details of how real sepders were made and how they worked. As a gun, a real sepder was a direct-energy weapon that used sonic blasts to emit plasma streams in the form of short, repeated rays. As a sword, its blade was composed of a mixture of various elements found throughout the galaxy, including a small trace of processed hilaetite. As he liked to tell anybody that would listen, ‘Hilaetite gives a sepder unparalleled strength and durability, providing resistance to breakage as well as a blade that rarely needs sharpening.’ His plan, for as long as he could remember, was to be a Legion soldier just like his dad and Uncle Ben, and to wield a real sepder of his own. He couldn’t wait to get his Uncle Ben’s sepder. Because of the hilaetite used in them, he knew that new sepders were no longer made. They were passed down through the ranks.

Aunt Jane shouted from across the room, “Everyone, here he comes! Get ready.”

Jake saw Aunt Jane peeking out the window by the door. She was pulling the metal window blind closed by hand, so Uncle Ben couldn’t see in. The auto-window console must be jammed again. He was going to help Uncle Ben fix that when Uncle Ben had some time. He hoped that didn’t cause Uncle Ben to notice her in the window and give away the surprise.

Jake could hear the door code being entered into the keypad outside, and the automatic door slid open. He liked the newer sliding doors better than swinging doors, which were still around in some older buildings.

Ben stepped inside. The whole room erupted with a shout of, “SURPRISE!”

Ben stopped and smiled. “Oh my, you guys got me good!”

Jake saw that everyone in the room bought it, except him. He knew that look on his uncle’s face. Uncle Ben was faking it. But then nothing surprised his uncle much anymore. He had been through too much. But Jake thought Ben was doing a great job at acting, and he appreciated the effort. Aunt Jane had gone to a lot of work and spent a lot of time organizing the party and trying to keep it a secret from Uncle Ben.

Jane, with Jake by her side, walked over to Ben and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “How was your day?” she asked.

Jake noticed that the party guests were immediately back to mingling and talking to each other. Ben replied, “Oh, the usual. Mostly the same old, same old. A couple of new developments, but they don’t involve me much.” He smiled at Jane, and then at Jake. He rubbed Jake’s hair, shaking Jake’s head. “How’s my little buddy?”

“Great,” Jake replied. “I have to show you the new sepder move I used on Cal.”

Ben chuckled. “Sure, buddy. After the party.”

The evening progressed with talking, some music, games for the kids, cake, and ice cream. Jake knew or recognized all the guests, as they were all Uncle Ben’s colleagues or friends of the Walkers, and all lived here at Sector Four Legion headquarters. Jake was having a blast, as he always did when Cal was around. He didn’t mind that he had no siblings or that the Walkers had no children of their own. Cal was just like a brother.

Finally, Jake turned to Jane and Ben. “Is it time to open presents?” He still liked the excitement of guessing what was in a gift-wrapped box and opening it to see what was inside, even if the present wasn’t for him.

Aunt Jane smiled. “All right, everybody into the living room!” she called out.

Jake plopped down on the sleek sofa right beside Ben. Ben’s presents were piled on the table in front of them. He looked around. Most of the guests were still sipping drinks or nibbling on a snack.

“Let’s save mine until last,” Jake said. He picked up the small neatly wrapped gift and placed it to the side.

“Okay then,” Ben said. “Why don’t we start with this big one right here?”

Jake watched as Ben opened the last gift other than his. Some of the presents were boring, useful items, and others were some form of a joke, poking fun at Uncle Ben turning fifty. Jake reached over and picked up his gift. “Okay, Uncle Ben. It’s time to open mine.”

As Ben began to unwrap it, Jake could feel his heart beat faster and the excitement swell up inside him. He had worked so long and so hard making it, anticipating this moment, trying to imagine the look on his uncle’s face when he opened the gift. Now, the moment was finally here. It seemed to be taking forever for Uncle Ben to get the wrapping paper off.

Finally, Ben slowly opened the small box and pulled out a gold-colored chain necklace with a flattened piece of shiny gold metal dangling from the chain. Jake noticed how bright the metal shone in contrast to his uncle’s rough, callused hand. It was the hand of a Legion soldier that had seen plenty of action.

Ben turned the metal piece over and read the inscription out loud: “To Uncle Ben. The best dad ever. Love, your little buddy, Jake.”

Ben reached over and hugged Jake. “Thank you. You’re the best little buddy ever.”

Jake, with a huge smile on his face, said, “I made it in shop at school. I’ve been working on it all year. Do you like it?”

Ben smiled. “Do I like it?” He slipped it over his head and let it drop around his neck. “I love it. I don’t think I’ll ever take it off.”