Nemo West, The Curious Conspiracy on Gamma Ceti
excerpt
The Curious Conspiracy on Gamma Ceti Publisher:Kenneth E. Floro, III Date: August 20, 2019 Length: 238 pp. ISBN: 0989283968; 978-0989283960 |
Chapter One: What Happened in Homeroom
Dex sat anxiously at his desk. This was his one chance each day. The new girl sat right beside him in Mr. Fillmore’s homeroom-the only class they shared together. He just needed to strike up a conversation with her in the precious minutes before the bell rang.
He’d rehearsed what to say and how to say it a thousand times, but he’d never found the nerve. In fact, he’d never spoken to the new girl in school at all. For weeks, they’d sat just an arm’s length apart, but no matter how fiercely Dex wrestled with his cowardice, he’d never even managed to say hi. To a timid, quiet kid, just opening his mouth felt like a terrifying leap. But he was determined that today would be the day everything changed!
When she walked in the room, Dex’s heart started thundering. She had a sharp, exotic appearance, like a serrated blade. Jet-black hair swept from an ear-length crown to a stiletto point beside her left chin. Vivid red highlights graced each temple. Off-world makeup accented precociously attractive features, and among the colony’s pale natives, her olive complexion stood out like a fly in a milk pail. Tabitha Tempest was impossible to ignore.
Her parents were new converts to Pleiades Catholicism and recent immigrants to the colony on Gamma Ceti, in the Electra star system. Such newcomers were rare enough, but Tabitha was something truly exceptional. With insouciant poise and a bold strut, she stood out-a defiant thorn in the otherwise prim campus flowerbed. Her early maturity also produced a gravitational effect on the male gaze.
Just by walking through the doors on her first day she’d inspired dozens of crushes. Subsequently, she’d earned resentment from dozens of jealous girls. The faculty disapproved of what they considered her provocative example. Tabitha herself appeared indifferent to all the unsolicited attention.
Since she didn’t fit in at Saint McIntyre’s Academy, Dex had dared to hope he and Tabitha might have something in common. He’d never fit in with his peers either. The remote colony on Gamma Ceti presented all the drawbacks of small-town life, but with less hope of escape. Each generation started school together as toddlers and stayed together until teenagers. Under those circumstances, most colonial natives built lifelong friendships. Dex, however, had a much different experience.
Most of his classmates admired the charismatic and effortlessly handsome star athlete, Travis Bannon. Yet Travis had always treated Dex with special malice. Over the years, his chronic bullying had influenced their peers and condemned Dex to the lowest social margin of the class. He became a target anyone could tease and everyone could ignore.
Dex was bright enough to recognize what that most likely meant for his future. Pleiades Catholics weren’t spacefarers, so he’d probably spend the rest of his life marooned on Gamma Ceti. Unless something monumental changed, he could expect the same treatment from his peers until the day he died. That prospect didn’t exactly give him much to look forward to.
But if he could find just one other person-one other outsider-to share his isolation, it might make that bleak future bearable. In his wildest fantasies, Dex liked to dream he and Tabitha might someday, somehow, actually be together. In reality, he’d be content just to make a real friend. That’s why he’d planned what to say to her so carefully. That’s why he’d struggled for weeks to summon the courage to say it. That’s why the fear of failure made him so nervous right now that his hands trembled. Dex knew with crystal clarity that what happened today could change his life.
Soon Tabitha turned down the aisle toward her desk. As usual, she wore black stockings beneath her plaid uniform skirt, along with a pair of black leather boots that Dex found distinctly intimidating. When she reached her desk, she swung her backpack from her shoulder. Dex caught the scent of her perfume in the air between them. He wanted to speak up right away, and he almost did. But Tabitha turned away from him as she dropped her backpack on her chair and opened it to collect her books for class.
Dex couldn’t bring himself to interrupt, so he waited for her to finish. As he sat, facing her, doubts and nerves jangled his thoughts. He was simultaneously excited and terrified. Time didn’t seem to flow normally. Heartbeats felt like eons. Part of him wanted to rush through this, blurt out what he had to say, and get the whole thing over with. Another part of him wanted to keep quiet, kick the can down the road one more day, and avoid risking his hope of a happy ending.
Then Travis Bannon suddenly took the matter out of Dex’s hands. From behind Dex’s seat, Travis reached toward Tabitha, who still stood leaning over her backpack. With a quick lunge, Travis grabbed the hem of Tabitha’s skirt and flung it up over her hips, exposing a slender triangle of apple-red underwear. Tabitha jumped with wide-eyed alarm. She immediately pulled her skirt back down, but not before half the room had glimpsed her upended modesty.
When she spun around to face the culprit, she found Dex staring at her with an anxious expression. Anger darkened her features. Shock froze Dex in place. This couldn’t be happening. Not with Tabitha. Not today. Not now!
Before Dex could say anything, Travis spoke up with a loud, accusatory tone. “Dex, why did you do that?”
Dex gawked. “What? It wasn’t me. You did it!”
“Come on now,” Travis taunted. “I was sitting right here and saw the whole thing.”
“I didn’t do it!” Dex insisted. “You did!” He turned to Tabitha, desperately sincere, and spoke to her for the very first time. “I would never do anything like that.”
Tabitha looked at him for a long moment. Travis continued accusing Dex, but Tabitha ignored him. Instead, she studied Dex, searching his eyes. Her expression remained stormy. Eventually, she spared a glance at Travis. Then she grabbed her backpack and stalked away to find a new seat. Her boots clacked sharply across the linoleum as she departed.
Devastated, Dex spun around. “Why did you do that?”
Travis sneered. “Shut up, loser.”
“You lied to her,” Dex accused.
“I said shut up!” Travis replied. Then he kicked the foot of Dex’s desk, causing it to spin halfway into the aisle. The jolt simultaneously knocked Dex’s books to the floor. Amid laughter and stares, Dex blushed and scrambled to pick up his things. Before he could collect everything, Travis stepped on a brightly colored paperback.
“What’s this?” Travis asked, looking down at the book under his foot.
“A book,” Dex answered.
“Let’s see it.” Travis picked it up and read the title aloud. “Dirk Dasher versus the Perilous Plot on Planet Polaris,” he scoffed. “What’s this about?”
Painfully aware of the attention of his peers, Dex answered quietly, “A guy who goes on adventures in space.”
Travis smirked, enjoying Dex’s humiliation. “It sounds stupid. Why are you reading it?”
“For fun.”
“For fun? What kind of idiot reads books for fun?”
Dex shrugged.
“Do you like this kind of crap?”
Dex didn’t answer.
“Do you want to be some kind of space adventurer when you grow up or something?”
Dex looked at his shoes and said nothing.
Travis gloated over his victim for a moment. Then he asked, “This isn’t contraband, is it?”
“No!” Dex answered emphatically. Church censors maintained a strict list of items permitted in Pleiadic society, and getting caught with unlisted goods was grounds for serious punishment. “I got it from the school library, so it can’t be contraband,” he added.
Travis frowned, disappointed. “Well, it looks dumb anyway,” he decided. “Next time, try to keep it off the floor, numb-nuts.” Then he tossed the book so that it bounced off Dex’s forehead and landed back on the ground with a thump.
As Dex collected his scattered belongings, the bell rang, announcing the start of homeroom. Dex slumped in his seat, shattered. Not only had he lost his chance to befriend Tabitha, but now she probably hated him. He’d truly needed the casual circumstances of sitting right beside her in class to break the ice; he was far too shy to even consider approaching her in the halls. Now that she’d changed seats, he had no idea how he could ever talk to her, let alone explain what had really happened that morning.
He couldn’t concentrate on that day’s homeroom announcements. Shame, guilt, anger, and despair tormented him. Eventually the period bell rang. Along with the rest of his class, Dex shuffled morosely into the hall and headed toward the chapel for Morning Mass.
Tradition inflicted this ritual service on the entire student body and faculty every morning-one of many ways in which Pleiades theology diverged from traditional Roman Catholicism. The most significant difference between the faiths lay in the Pleiadic rejection of modern technology. Pleiades colonies maintained an idealized version of twentieth-century society, believing that to be the last pure age before the human condition strayed too far from God’s plan.
Of course, the laws of the Colonial Administration required every colonial settlement to maintain at least one facility with a modern medical clinic and access to the Interstellar Data Network-the Net-for supply orders, communications, and periodic monitoring. The outpost on Gamma Ceti was staffed by a few diligent but mostly bored Federal agents. They received little contact from the Pleiades colonials, who shunned them as conduits to the temptations of modern society. Every kid on Gamma Ceti knew the Federal outpost was off-limits, but a few troublemakers often snuck in to peruse contraband trinkets or to make a brief, daring connection to the Net for “personal recreation.”
As he sat in chapel, Dex remained tormented. Nothing could stop his anxious thoughts. Not the discomfort of his rigidly starched uniform. Not the solemn Gothic architecture sim-painted on the walls. Not even the somber organ music reverberating from the titanium rafters. Only the drone of Morning Mass successfully erased his mind for a while.
As usual, the hours following the service blurred into a foggy-headed lethargy. Dex drifted through his morning classes, unable to focus on much of anything. Tabitha didn’t return to his thoughts until he glimpsed her in the cafeteria at lunch.
Like him, she sat alone. Like him, she also used books as a substitute for company at her small, empty table. Those facts, along with a dozen others he’d quietly observed, convinced him they might truly have something in common. He believed she’d want someone to sit with and talk to as badly as he did. But after what happened in homeroom that morning, he now had no idea how he could ever let her know.
Chapter Two: Off-World Gum
The next morning, Dex cringed when he saw Travis Bannon and his cronies standing near his locker. Thankfully, they didn’t notice his approach. They were hunched around a locker just a few numbers down, whispering to each other and laughing impishly. As Dex walked up to his own locker, he overheard their conversation.
“What else has she got in there?” Donny Demson asked.
“There’s all kinds of off-world stuff,” Tommy Mason said. “Look at this. These must be pictures of her home, on Earth.”
“Anything cool?” Travis asked.
“No.” Tommy snorted. “Just her and her friends at a bunch of dumb places.”
“Look at this,” Travis said, holding up a small, brightly colored package. He read the label out loud. “Gus Cunneling’s Red Delicious Cunneling Gum. Flavor to savor, for you and your partner. Lasts up to two hours.”
“What the heck is that?” Donny asked.
“Some kind of special off-world candy?” Tommy wondered.
“It’s contraband,” Travis said with a gleefully ominous tone.
“Hey, we should make somebody try a piece,” Donny said.
“Ha! That’d be great!” Tommy replied.
Suddenly, Travis noticed Dex standing beside them. “Well, look who we’ve got here,” Travis said. “It’s the little space adventurer. Let’s make him try a piece.”
Before Dex could even move, Tommy and Donny grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into the middle of their group. Dex looked up and saw Travis glaring down at him with wicked delight. Beside Travis, Dex recognized Tabitha Tempest’s backpack and jacket hanging inside an open locker. He realized they’d been going through her things, and he felt outraged on her behalf. However, a fast-rising fear of what was about to happen to him overshadowed his chivalrous impulse.
Travis pulled out a bright red piece of gum and held it in front of Dex. “Try this,” he ordered.
Dex trembled. Several of Gamma Ceti’s urban legends described the dangers of off-world contraband. Chemical substances designed like candy could contain mind-altering drugs capable of inflicting permanent psychosis. Music and videos could be layered with hypnotic frequencies to brainwash an unsuspecting audience. Perhaps most dangerous of all, off-world ideas could corrupt the soul and lead straight to damnation. Both physically and spiritually, Dex was terrified. “No, please,” he begged. “I don’t want to.”
“I don’t care. Try it.”
“No!”
A menacing snarl darkened Travis’s handsome features. “Do it, you little twerp!”
“Please! No!”
Donny grabbed Dex’s chin. “Make him do it, Travis.”
“Yeah,” Tommy said. “Shove it in his mouth!”
Travis glowered at Dex. “Last chance. Try it, or I’ll make you.”
Dex felt tears rising beneath his eyes. This amplified his panic. The risk of trying contraband candy was frightening enough, but at least there was a chance nothing bad might happen if he went through with it. However, he knew for a fact Travis and his cronies would torment him even worse if they saw so much as a single tear trickle down his cheek. They’d probably also tell half the school about it. He had to act quickly to avoid total humiliation.
“All right,” Dex said. “I’ll try it.”
Tommy and Donny relaxed their grip on Dex’s shoulders slightly. Struggling to hold back his tears, Dex took the gum from Travis’s hand. For a fleeting moment, Dex thought about throwing it across the hall, then trying to break out of Tommy and Donny’s hands and make a run for it.
Experience stopped him. He knew defying Travis would only make things worse. Travis was the type of bully who would chase Dex down and then make him eat the gum off the floor. It would be easier to just cooperate. So Dex tossed the contraband into his mouth.
Travis, Tommy, and Donny all watched eagerly as Dex began to chew. The expectant gleam in their eyes showed their hope that something horrible would happen. They clearly wanted to see Dex collapse in a seizure or start foaming at the mouth-or at the very least spray vomit across the linoleum.
Dex’s own anxiety certainly made him queasy. The vibrant apple flavor filling his mouth was pleasant enough, but he worried what toxic chemicals it might conceal. Could off-world nanotech be infiltrating his salivary glands? Were foreign pathogens infecting his bloodstream? Worse yet, his fears about the gum kept his tears from subsiding. He could feel them pooling in the bottom of his eyelids and knew he was only moments away from compounding his humiliation.
Suddenly Donny snorted. “This is dumb. Nothing’s happening.”
“Yeah,” Tommy said. “It’s just plain old gum, but some weird type the censors have never heard of, so it wound up as contraband by default-like that one song Kevin Galler cribbed from the Net last month.”
Donny nodded. “I remember that. He ran around talking like it was such a big deal because it was contraband, but it was just a bunch of losers singing about their crappy hometown on Earth. Big deal!”
Travis scowled at Dex. “Thanks for nothing, nitwit.”
Dex could hardly believe his luck. It looked like his bullies were losing interest just before the first teardrop slipped through his eyelashes. That’s when Travis suddenly lunged and sucker-punched Dex in the gut. The blow delivered an instant blast of stomach-clenching pain. As he gasped, Dex almost swallowed Tabitha’s gum.
“But at least we got to watch something interesting,” Travis said as Dex dropped to his knees. Tommy and Donny laughed. With a gloating stride, Travis then led his cronies off down the hall, pausing only to slap Tabitha’s locker closed as he left. To them, the entire interaction with Dex had been so insignificant they were already discussing something else before they were even out of earshot.
Meanwhile, Dex gasped for breath, trembling with anxiety. He immediately spit the gum into his hand. Yet he knew any hidden chemicals lurking in it could have already seeped into his system. Would he break out in a rash? Would he hallucinate? Would his hair start falling out? He had no idea what to expect or what he could do about it. He’d have to wait and hope everything would be all right.
Chapter Three: Truant
All through homeroom, Dex kept worrying. His belly hurt, but he couldn’t tell if it was from the gum poisoning him or from Travis’s sucker punch. When the bell rang for Morning Mass, he felt a rumbling twinge in his gut. Still, he dutifully followed his classmates into the hall and toward the chapel.
Along the way, however, Dex felt a sudden, intense pang. He recognized the sensation and realized he needed to find a toilet, immediately. Clenching every anterior muscle he could, he dashed to the nearest bathroom. Just in time, he scrambled into an empty stall, wrestled his stiff navy uniform slacks to his knees, and slid bare cheeks onto cold porcelain.
Lumpy fluid then burst out of him with a resonant blurp. The eruptive debut soon gave way to a vigorous, splattering flow. While Dex waited for the torrent to subside, he grunted anxiously. As the first wave relented, he could already feel his insides trembling with a sequel.
This spiked his anxiety even further. What was happening to him? Had he been infected by some off-world plague? Had the gum rotted his guts? He fretted for several more minutes as his colon repeatedly emptied.
At length, the flow finally ceased, and the tremors in his abdomen settled. Dex cleaned himself up as quickly as he could, fearing he might miss the final bell that would signal the start of-RRRRRIIIIIIINNNGGGG! Halfway through buckling his pants, Dex froze. That bell meant Morning Mass was starting. He was late!
Frantic, Dex burst out of the stall. He hurriedly washed his hands and then peeked out the bathroom door. The halls were still and silent. Dex gulped. He’d always been an obedient student; he’d never cut classes, cheated on quizzes, or even passed notes during study period. Now he was stuck in the middle of the worst infraction he’d ever committed.
But maybe there was still time to dodge this bullet. Dex bolted out of the bathroom and raced down the halls toward the chapel, hoping he might still have time to sneak in. He stopped when he reached the sanctuary doors and found them already closed. The loud clacks and jangles of opening those heavy doors would interrupt the morning service and draw all eyes to him. Standing in the hall, he weighed the risks of getting caught for skipping against the thought of facing the entire school’s withering attention for coming in late.
After a moment’s consideration, Dex found he preferred the possibility of detention to the certainty of his peers’ disdain. Besides, he figured, there had to be a reasonable chance he could slip back in with his class the same way he’d unintentionally slipped out. When Morning Mass ended, Dex could duck back into the bathroom until he heard voices in the halls. Then he could simply walk out and return to class as if nothing had happened.
With that plan in mind, Dex knew he had about an hour to kill. As he turned around to consider how he should spend that time, he paused. He’d never been alone in the school before. Now he had the entire place to himself-excluding the chapel, of course. When he’d raced through the halls a moment ago, he hadn’t realized how different they looked with no one in them.
The circumstances produced an unnerving effect, as if some mythic apocalypse had stranded him in a vacant world. Unnatural stillness and isolation compounded the anxiety Dex already felt about his truancy. Worse yet, he’d always been the type who loved a good ghost story but regretted hearing one for days afterward as he lay awake, worrying about every creak and crack in the middle of the night. Now goose bumps prickled the back of his neck, and he wondered if any of the creepy legends about Saint McIntyre’s might actually be true.
Had a dozen workers really died when a crane fell into the foundation during the school’s construction? Had a teacher really been killed up on the third floor, thirty years ago? Did the school really have a subbasement level of extra classrooms that was mysteriously closed down because strange things kept happening there? Such thoughts kept Dex frozen for several minutes.
Eventually he realized he had to move at some point because he certainly couldn’t be found standing right outside the chapel when Morning Mass ended. The safest place he could think to go was right back into the bathroom where his ordeal had started. Of course, he didn’t want to just sit on a toilet with nothing to do for an hour. To pass the time, he decided to stop by his locker and grab his Dirk Dasher book. With that goal in mind, he ventured into the empty halls.
Copyright © 2021 by Nemo West
