Karl in Space: Part 3

Karl raised his hammer high into the air and brought it down hard on a protruding nail, driving the metal shaft deep into the beam of freshly hewn wood. He stepped back and wiped his sweaty brow while admiring his work. The new grand hall was coming together nicely and swiftly, and Karl turned around to seek the familiar and approving words of Garland. The old man stood off the side, resting on his cane, and merely smiled.

Karl had settled into a familiar pattern of daily life, rising early and spending his days in hard labor, living with the transplanted human colony. He lost track of the days, and Trevor seemed disconnected as well. Sometimes his co-pilot would join them in their labor and other times he would disappear back to the wreckage of the ship, a quixotic quest to salvage some glimmer of technological hope.

Karl, on the other hand had made his bed and was now lying in it. Literally.

He has spent his first several nights with the girl Kaila, sleeping in her bed while she kept to the floor. After several nights he asked her if she wanted to join him. She did. Together, resting side by side in the narrow bed on the thin mattress of foliage, they began to touch each other. He had kissed her lips and she responded. Moments later Karl had pulled her garment up and then they made love.

The next morning Garland greeted them when they walked outside. They were bonded in a ceremony beneath the sagging willow tree. Afterwards, as the custom dictated, Karl had felled the willow to make a larger bed for their home.

It was slow going, but Karl had dedicated himself to the task, much as he had fully committed to the space academy. He learned the craft and soon his hands were hard and strong from the woodworking.

Now, with the structure of the grand hall in front of him, Karl felt pride.

“It’s almost done, father,” he announced to Garland.

Garland smiled, but shook his head.

“Be wary of arrogance, son, the prophets did not bring us to this planet to boast. Isn’t that right, daughter?”

Kaila had walked up silently and joined her husband.

“Space knight, your work is skilled, but beware pride, as my father warns,” she said, then leaned in to kiss his lips.

Karl’s lips, dry from toiling under the sun, touched her moist embrace.

“Thank you, wife.”

As Karl looked her deep in the eyes, he saw over her shoulder Trevor, running hard across the field toward them. He gripped Kaila and drew her attention to his co-pilot.

“Something is wrong,” Karl said. “Garland, look.”

The old man turned as Trevor arrived, panting. He had spent the day out at the wreckage, close to five miles away with scant shade in between.

“Karl, the transmitter, it’s working,” he gasped.

Karl shook his head, feeling sorry for Trevor. He had delusions of getting home from an unknown point on the other end of the galaxy.

“That’s great, but it doesn’t help, we’re millions of miles out of range for that thing,” Karl said.

Trevor shook his head, about to speak, but at that moment the sky exploded with noise. Karl covered his eyes and looked toward the horizon where two helicopters approached. They circled the area and landed, driving huge gusts around Karl and the others. From one of them, a familiar face appeared. General Sharpridge, the man who sent them into space. The engines of the helicopter died down and Sharpridge looked around. As if in a dream, Karl approached with Trevor trailing behind. The general’s eyes brightened.

“Jesus, Lt. Weis, Lt. Kidd, it’s good to see you,” he grabbed Karl’s hand and pumped furiously. “We had just about written you boys off.”

“General, what are you doing here? How did you find this planet?” Karl managed to ask.

"Planet? Son, this is Earth.”

Karl was having trouble thinking.

“But we traveled millions of miles, the jump…” Karl stumbled, short of forming a question.

“Must be a mechanical error,” the General said. “We lost you when the transponder went dark. We suspected you burned up in re-entry.”

Karl shook his head, “But these people, the aliens…”

The General looked concerned. “This is some sort of kook ranch in Kansas. Lt., these people are beyond wacky. If I could airbomb them right now, I would."

“Trevor,” Karl turned to him. “How?”

Trevor shrugged. “I kinda thought so, but I didn’t want to say anything. This was kinda fun.”

From the distance another helicopter appeared and touched down near the others. The general patted Karl on the back.

“We got someone who wants to see you, son,” he said.

Cautiously stepping from the helicopter was Kate, her red hair kicked up in the wind. She saw Karl and began running, her little legs furiously propelling her forward. A tear fell down her cheek and she jumped onto Karl.

She was sobbing as she held him tight. “I thought I lost you forever.”

Karl put his arms around her and everything felt right. It seemed surreal, as if in a haze, but he smiled.

“Husband? Who is this woman who touches you like a lover?”

Karl’s smile dropped and he turned to look at Kaila.

Kate pulled her head from his chest. “Husband? What’s she mean, Karl?”

Karl looked at them both.

“Oh crap.”

“What do you mean, ‘Oh crap?’” Kate looked him in the eyes.

“I thought…I thought I was on another planet,” Karl said.

“So you got married?"

“Aye, he is my husband,” Kaila said. “And I’m with child.”

Kate looked at him again and stepped back. She had a different set of tears now. She threw her hands against his chest and screamed ‘Why?’ He grabbed her and pulled her close. It washed over him and he asked himself the same question. Why? What had he done?

Garland had watched the scene unfold without saying a word. He cleared his throat. “The prophets test us in many ways, my son. Now you must choose.”

The old man laughed.

THE END

Karl in Space: Part 2

Karl’s eyes were burning, no matter how hard he shut them, the bright light was everywhere. He thought he heard himself screaming, but he couldn’t be sure - it may have been Trevor. Then there were the alarm bells. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to tell something had went wrong. It seemed to go on forever, but it could have been minutes, then everything began to shake. Trevor definitely was screaming now, Karl thought before everything went black and he faded into unconciousness.

When he woke up, everything seemed blurry. The window in front of him was dark, but the faint emergency lights had clicked on and he could see Trevor was hitting the console furiously.

“You’re awake,” he said. “I thought you were dead.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Karl said. “What happened?”

“Bad stuff.” He pointed to the instruments, charred and almost unrecognizable. Karl hit the communicator but heard only a static hiss.

“That won’t work even if it did work,” Trevor said. “Look.”

The guage in front of him had burned out, but the numbers were still visable.

“We went 400 million miles,” Trevor said. “That’s out of radio range.”

Karl sucked his breath in. It couldn’t be.

“That’s gotta be wrong,” Karl said. He fumbled with the harness and let himself free, but he didn’t float. They were somewhere, but where? The cabin was at an angle, and he climbed up the inclined floor to the hatch. He could see light peeking through the edges, which may be a good thing or a bad thing, he thought. On one hand, it meant the cabin wasn’t airtight anymore, worse case scenario in space travel. Then again, if there wasn’t any air out there, they would have been dead already. He told Trevor, who merely shrugged at the suggestion of opening the hatch.

“What the hell,” Karl said. He grabbed the handle and pushed hard. It flew open and Karl tumbled out, caught in his momentum. He yelled as he fell several feet and landed on ground. Whatever he was face down in looked a lot like grass, he thought.

“I don’t know where we are, but it’s not going to kill us,” he yelled back into Trevor. He brushed himself and turned to look around. Standing twenty feet away was a group of people, oddly dressed but definitely human. An old man stepped forward.

“Welcome, space traveller. Our people have been expecting you.”

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

The old man was named Garland and when he spoke Karl somehow understood him. Trevor poked his head out and also had no trouble communicating. Millions of miles from Earth and they had found intelligent life that spoke English. Incredible, Karl thought. It was much better than finding a planet of apes.

After introductions, Karl pried as much information as he could from the old man.

“We come from a planet called Earth,” Karl said.

Garland nodded his head wisely.

“We, too, came from Earth. In the Before Time,” the old man said, stroking his long, grey beard.
Karl was confused once again.

“How is that possible? No human ship has ever been this far before.”

Garland’s eyes lit up. “Precisely, my son. No human ship. We were taken here by a kind and benevolent species known as the Turgeen. They told us to colonize this planet, spread the goodess of humanity. We have not seen them since.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Karl said. If he could travel millions of light years anything made sense.

“Here, come to our village and we will give you food and shelter, travelors,” Garland said. “My daughters will see to your needs.”

Two women stepped forward, young and wearing long, rust colored frocks. Their hair was tied back in braids and one of the girls took Karl’s hand.

“Let me help you,” she said, smiling. “I feel honored by your physical presence, brave one.”

Karl, flustered, timidly pulled his hand away.

“Please, that’s ok. What’s your name?”

“My name is Kaila, space knight.” She held the edges of her garmet and courtsed. “I will offer you my bed to rest.”

Karl in Space: Part 1

As the weightlessness overtook him, Karl could feel himself start to drift upward in the tiny capsule, and let out a curse when his head bumped against the metal ceiling. He pulled himself over to the window and looked out, watching the curve of Earth change, flattening and turning into a circle as the craft left the planet behind. It never got old for him, that first sensation of crashing into space, and he smiled behind his heavy helmet.

He turned to his co-pilot, Trevor, who was watching the Earth from another window.

“Wow. It’s pretty,” Trevor said.

Karl liked that about him. He didn’t use too many words when only a couple would get the job done. Karl figured that said something about his personality, something that translated into a good astronaut. Time will tell, Karl thought, and maybe his first mission with the guy would be a success.

Karl pushed back from the window and floated forward to the front of the craft, pulling himself past his partner and toward the controls. With a shove off the ceiling, he propelled himself down and grabbed the control seat. He strapped himself in quickly, before the lack of gravity made him drift again. Now clear of the planet, it was time to get down to work, and he was eager to get started. He began punching numbers into the computer, prepping the craft for the test of the jump drive. The precise calculations were crucial in aligning the engines, otherwise the craft could end uncountably off target. If all went well, they would make history for the longest space jump ever attempted. If it didn’t go well, Karl had said his goodbyes the best he could. It seemed like forever he was standing on the tarmac, looking at his wife.

“Hey baby, don’t look so glum,” Karl said, brushing the red hair out of her eyes. “I’ll be back before you know it. And I’ll be back a hero.”

Kate sniffled, grabbing his hand and holding it tight. “You know I don’t care about that. I just want you. And I want to have your baby.”

They had this conversation before.

“Listen, Kate. You know I don’t want to bring a child into this world knowing I might not make it home someday. I grew up fatherless and swore that would never happen to my kid.”

Kate was about to cut him off, but he stopped her by gently placing his finger over her mouth.

“That’s why when I make it back from this one, I’m retiring,” he said.

Her eyes lit up and a tear fell down her cheek.

“And the first thing I’m going to do in my retirement is knock you up.”

The conversation played through his mind on repeat as he crunched the numbers. When he planned it, he thought it would be a little more romantic, but Kate didn’t seem to care. And he didn’t care either.

Trevor pulled himself into the control seat next to him and strapped in, flicking a switch on the console that started up the engines. Since the invention of the jump engine ten years ago, testing had moved slowly and cautiously. Too much was not understood about how exactly it worked, other than it got astronauts around the galaxy faster than ever previously imagined. The first tests were done hesitantly and over short distances. Ten months ago a mission successfully went from the Earth to Jupiter and back again. Now it was time to push the limits. They were ready to jump farther than ever before, the edge of the known galaxy and back.

Karl finished his work and looked over at Trevor, who nodded back. Karl hit the communicator button to raise the base.

“This is Prometheus, calling Houston,” Karl said. After several moments a tiny, metallic voice rang back, echoing through the shuttle.

“This is Houston. What’s your status Prometheus?”

Karl hit the button again. “Ready to jump, Houston. Here goes nothing. Wish us luck.”

“Roger, Prometheus, come back in one piece. I don’t want to give that cute wife of yours any bad news. Houston out.”

Karl smiled and tightened the belts across his chest. “You ready to do this, Trevor?”

“I guess so,” Trevor said. “In 30 seconds. Thirty, twenty nine….”

His counted down and Karl tried to keep his breath steady. In front of him was just the stars, steady in the night. He put his hands next to his side and gripped the side of the chair.

“Five, four, three, two, one. Ignition.”

Trevor pushed the drive lever forward and the stars blinked.

March 13, 2008

Kate wasn’t happy she had to go to so much trouble to round us up, but still she took Karl off for a practice called “co-habitation” and I hadn’t seen him since last night. They left me tied up in the barn with the Crazy Persons, who were tending to their wounds from the battle. When I woke up in the morning, they were already pounding Grandslam breakfasts. Karl and Kate walked into the room and he came over to see me in the corner.

“Hi Pat.”

“Hi Karl.”

We exchanged some small talk, me still tied to a chair, him not seeming to care.

“So, things are getting a little weird with Kate.”

“Really, Karl? You think so?”

He shuffled his feet. “Yeah, I had to clean up her habitat last night. Then I had to take out the garbage this morning. Then I had to walk Abito.”

Kate started looking around.

“Karl? Karl? Where are you Karl?”

Karl raised his hand.

“I’m over here, Kate. Just talking to Pat.”

“You never want to hang out with me, Karl.”

“I’m sorry, Kate. I’ll be right over.”

He looked at me. “See you later, Pat.”

I spent most of the day tied to the chair, watching people eat Denny’s. In the afternoon, Kate came over, with Karl trailing behind.

“Well, well, well. I just got a call from our benefactor. He’d like a few words with you.”

I asked who that might be, in the nicest way possible, although I may have used a couple of obscenities.

Kate turned to Karl.

“Karl, your friend shouldn’t talk to me like that. Apologize.”

“I’m sorry, Kate,” Karl said sheepishly.

Kate turned back to me and confirmed my joke before about Denny’s underwriting the movement was, in fact, entirely correct. The CEO of the company would touch down in his helicopter in minutes.

This took me off guard. The head of Denny’s was no stranger to the news and I saw his picture everywhere. He had turned the company into a Fortune 500 powerhouse and sent stock prices soaring. Worth billions, he was on the short list of richest people in the country. That he was involved with these nutjobs, well, I would have to see it to believe it.

As Kate promised, I could soon hear the roar of a helicopter. After several minutes the engines died down and into the barn strode one of the most powerful men in America: R. Chadwick Krementz.

“Is this the son of Flair?” he asked Kate, pointing at me. He cut straight through the chit chat. Kate told him I was and he strode over to me.

“Your old man has given me a lot of trouble, boy. Every time my people try to bribe him, he puts us in something called the Figure Four. It hurts.”

I chuckled. Good old dad. Krementz stared at me.

“Laugh now, boy. I’ll have the last laugh. With you, I will get my legislation through the Senate and soon all marriage will be illegal.”

“What?”

Krementz bent down to look me in the eyes.

“My profits will go through the roof. All my research shows married people don’t eat at Denny’s."

“So if no one’s married…” I reasoned.

“Exactly.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “Are you on drugs?”

“I’ve never touched a drug in my life, boy. What do I look like? Some Hopi Indian?”

At that moment I heard a loud scream and into the room ran Jason, who I thought had died a grisly death, but was very much alive, yelling loudly and sloshing gasoline on everything in sight. A couple LARPers had survived and started to engage the remaining DLF crazies. Jason made a beeline to me and hit Krementz over the head with the gas can, then with his teeth he gnawed my bonds loose.

“It looks like I’m going to win after all,” Jason said. Up close I could see the end of a wooden sword was broken off in his stomach. “This module wasn’t that hard.”

“Jesus, are you OK?”

“Never mind about me, get the man-bride out of here, I still have one more spell I need to cast,” he told me.

I didn’t argue and was able to grab Karl. He turned around like he wanted to stay with Kate, but when he saw her stomping on the head of a LARPer, he thought better of it. As we ran out of the barn, we heard Jason yell one more time.

“Wall of Flame, Level 10!” and he dropped a match.

The barn exploded in flames and Karl and I stood outside for a while watching it burn to the ground. Finally, there was nothing left but a smoldering pile of wood.

Karl kept his eyes on the fire when he finally spoke.

“Want to go get some Denny’s?” he asked.

Everything was as it should be.

THE END