Author's Note: Sorry for the delay guys. If there's still someone reading this story ;)


The next day

The first to arrive were a human and a Gazoid. Brian and I were outside, we had climbed on top of the ship and were checking the external housing of the crystal oscillator when we saw them approaching together with Kevin and Nick who had left early that morning to go to the rebel base.

“What the hell!”

“What is it?” Brian asked me.

“From all the people we have transported before the professor was the only one I never suspected to be a rebel.”

It turned out that one of our fellow travelers had already been in our ship once before. His name was Strauss and back then he had claimed to be a scientist doing some private researches. I recognized him immediately, especially because we didn’t get along the first time. He was a very old man who we had flown a couple of years ago to Sarmi and used to complain every day about Nick and me. It seemed that the man didn’t like kids. I hoped he didn’t consider me too young this time.

The Gazoid, like all the Gazoids I had met before, was a scary creature. The average height of a Gazoid was 6,5 and they kind of resembled the Sargons, being very muscular and having a strong long face and a big mouth completed with what you could describe as lion’s teeth. But, unlike the Sargon race, the Gazoid was known as one of the most intelligent races in the Universe.

“AJ, Brian, come here.” Kevin called us and we jumped to land.

“Remember Professor Strauss?”

We shook hands with him.

“Nice to see you again Professor,” I said giving him a big grin.

“Aw yes I remember this one. This is the one that kept getting in trouble, right?” Nick was behind him and rolled his eyes making a funny face, the professor probably had said the same thing to him. “What happened to you? The little one here is now taller than you.” He said pointing his thumb at Nick.

I didn’t even bother to gave him an answer. Great everyone keeps noticing that my little cousin is taller than me, and Nick is still growing, he will probably end up being taller than Kevin. Well, at least I’m taller than Brian and D. Although is nothing to be proud of, everyone is taller than Brian and D.

“And this is Rual.” Kevin said as we shook hands with the Gazoid.

“Rual?”

“My name is Ruaalsidrom Dkilttinszaksingrow,” was the gibberish he added. “Do you prefer to call me that?”

I put my hands up. “Rual it is.” He showed me a big smile and I decided that minute that I would be making friends with the big guy.

“Are the rest already here?” the Professor asked.

“Here? Someone was coming before you?” I didn’t understand why he was asking that coming from the base.

“We left the base a couple of hours ago but stopped to some last minute shopping in town.” Kevin explained and I assumed that either Rual or the Professor were the ones who had bought something since none of my brothers were carrying any packages.

“Someone is coming over there,” Brian said.

That “someone” turned out to be the most beautiful someone I had ever seen. Yes, it was a girl, a blond and petite beautiful girl. Blondes weren’t usually my type, I had always preferred brunettes, but the minute I saw this girl I got stunned by her beauty. She had crystal blue eyes, a perfect body and an adorable smile.

“Hello again Capitan,” she said to my brother once she was next to us.

“Hello Sergeant.”

Sergeant? This girl is already a sergeant? She doesn’t even look older than me.

“Good morning Professor, Rual.” she addressed to the other two travelers.

“Can’t we just drop the formalities? We are going to be together for a very long time so you all can call me Milos.” the professor growled and I was sure that by that 'all' he wasn’t referring to me or Nick.

“Okay,” she nodded.

“All right, then let me introduce you to my other two brothers,” Kevin said leading her to us. “Brian, AJ, this is sergeant Dana Varinsky.”

“You can call me Dana.” She smiled.

Can I call you honey?

“I don’t think T will be here soon, Kevin. I saw him before leaving and he was receiving some last minute instructions from Colonel Katsopolis and you know how much Colonel Katsopolis likes to talk.”

“Did you say T?” I interrupted her. “As in T the famous rebel. The one in charged of the battle of Zmira?”

“Yes, that would be T” There was a sparkle in Dana’s eyes when she smiled and I found myself smiling like an idiot to her. Nick probably noticed it because I heard him giggling. I finally managed to take my eyes off her.

“Is T coming with us, Kevin?”

“Aha.” He was smiling and I knew for sure what he was thinking. It wasn’t common to see me that interested in something. I knew I was acting like a kid on Christmas’ morning but I couldn’t avoid it, T was a living legend.

“Wow! Nick, did you see him at the base?”

“I don’t think so,” he shrugged. “How he looks like?”

“I don’t know Frack. What do you think Brian?”

No answer.

“Brian!”

“Huh?” He jumped like he had been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to do. It seemed that I wasn’t the only one captivated by Dana.

“Nevermind” I laughed.

“What?” He was blushing.

“Nothing,” I said but leaning closer to him I whispered “Be careful not to drool Bri.”

The look on Brian’s face was hilarious.

“Well, we are not going to wait for T here. Lets better go inside” Kevin said walking to the gate. “Where is D guys? Did he come back?”

“He is back. He went to town but came back and hour ago. He is doing a last minute check of the engines before departure.” I answered as we all proceeded to enter the ship.

“Wait for me guys.” We hear someone yelled and I turned around to see a guy coming to us. The guy looked extremely familiar, he was blond and around Kevin’s age and height. Stuart

“Stuart?” I said out loud when the guy was at our side.

“Hello Brian.” He shook Brian’s hand and then stood in front of me “AJ? Wow, you look so different.”

“Stuart, I can’t believe it. So much time without seeing you man.”

“It’s great to see you again Stuart,” Brian added.

“You are coming with us too? Kevin didn’t mention it.”

“We just did, AJ.”

“You did?” I suddenly realized what was happening. “No way! You are T?”

“Yes, that’s my new name,” he grinned.

“You are T?”

“Yes, AJ. Remember that my last name was Turlington”

“You are T?” What the hell!

“Are you going to keep saying that?” he laughed.

“Sorry, but this is something I never imagined.” No offense to you Stuart but you weren’t the bravest soldier at Philippians.

“I know.” He winked at me. Hero or not he was still the same old Stuart, always smiling and joking. “It’s good to see you again, guys. I saw Nicky on the rebel base but he didn’t recognize me. Don’t you remember me, Nicky?” he greeted Kaos patting his arm.

“Of course I remembered you and is Nick not Nicky,” Nick grumbled.

Stuart’s eyes widen, surprised by Nick’s answer. “Okay.”

I elbowed Nick before Kevin could say something.

“Sorry” Kaos apologized. “I didn’t want to sound that rude it’s just that I don’t like that name.”

“Don’t worry. I understand, I don’t like the nickname T either. Even my friends call me that now but you guys can call me Stuart, like old times.”

“Okay people” Kevin spoke up. “Time to go. We can get back to this conversation once we leave this planet.”

Everybody went inside but I grabbed Kevin by the arm.

“Hey Train, I was thinking that maybe we can change some things, you know, so everybody can be comfortable.”

He stopped and looked at me.

“What do you have in mind?”

“I can share a room with Dana.” I grinned.

“Very funny,” he said laughing and smacking me on the head. “Forget what you are planning AJ.”

“I’m not planning anything. I was just kidding.”

“Joke or not, I don’t want you bothering her. Dana will have my room and the Profesor could have D’s. Stuart and Rual would probably sleep in the living room.”

“Where are you going to sleep?”

“In the lab, I already took my things there this morning.”

“Well, you can’t blame me for trying.” I laughed and we entered the ship, or rather as Kevin pushed me inside.

“Are we ready guys?” Kevin asked once we all were in the main room and receiving in exchange some “yes” and nods. “Okay, lets go. Everybody to your positions. Rual maybe you could go with AJ. Stuart come with me, we will join Howie in the cockpit. Dana, Professor, feel free to follow us.”

Stuart and the others followed Kev while I led Rual to the lasers chamber, Brian and Nick walking behind me, in direction to the engine room.

It was customary for me to stay in the laser room during landings and takeoffs but I wasn’t used to have company there and that’s why I felt kind of nervous at first, after all this was what the guys called “AJ’s box”. It didn’t take too much time for me to get used to Rual’s presence though. He proved to be not only a great guy but an expert on weapons, and that day we had the first of many interesting conversations.


A couple of hours later

“It’s not that little.”

“Huh?” I was giving Stuart and Dana a tour around our ship but I was getting distracted by Dana’s beauty.

“I said that it’s not that little,” Stuart repeated. “I never thought your ship was this big.”

“Considering the size of most of the ships we were used to see in Philippians this one looked small at first, but after some years in the outer space and comparing it to lots of other ships I guess you could say it’s big.”

“That inner deck it’s definitely big. I still can’t believe you guys have a little basketball court here. Remember the competitions at Philippians?”

“Yes, those were fun. And it’s good to have that one in the ship, you know that when you spend so much time in space you need to be able to exercise. What I still don’t understand is why you don’t know the sport Dana?” A couple of minutes before we had been in our sport area and Dana had looked confused in front of the basket.

She was about to answer but Stuart interrupted her.

“Whose room is this? Can we go in?”

“I guess so. It’s mine. I share it with Nick and Brian.”

“You have a guitar?” The first thing you noticed once you entered our room was the guitar on the wall over Brian’s bed.

“That’s Rok’s. Kevin has a keyboard too.”

“Right. Sometimes I forgot that you were born on Earth.”

I looked at Dana. I still didn’t feel completely comfortable saying in front of strangers that I was born on Earth, but considering that it was only a matter of time until the empies realize who we were, there wasn’t any reason to hide it anymore. As Kevin had already explained to us, the only reason for not saying the place we were born was that the legend referred to five men born on Earth.

“You guys were born on Earth? I didn’t know that.” Dana exclaimed “And what’s a guitar?”

“That,” I said pointing to Brian’s most precious treasure and she looked at the guitar like she was looking at a dangerous weapon. “It’s a musical instrument,” I added but for the look on her face I could have said that it was a tropical plant.

“Let me show you.” I took Bri’s guitar, sat down on his bed and started to play a song. I felt magically transported to our past on Earth. Our family was very musical, always playing instruments and singing. My mother used to give us piano lessons. Kevin, Howie and Brian already knew how to play the guitar and the piano when we left Earth and they had tough Nicky and me how to play them.

I sung one of my mother’s favorite songs, the one she used to sing to me when I was little.

“Wow. That was beautiful” Dana said when I finished, taking a seat at my side.

“You should hear Rok.” Great! Why did I said that? The last thing I want is Dana listening to Brian sing and falling in love with him.

“Why?”

“He is the best playing this. And he has a beautiful voice.” I had to admit.

“You have a beautiful voice too.”

Am I blushing? I never blush in front of girls. Who I am? Rok? “Thank you. Alex Littrell, at your service, singer and dancer” I joked trying to put the feeling of nervousness aside.

“And look at all these books. I don’t remember you having any of these things in Philippians, but then I don’t remember going to your room there.” Stuart sounded impressed.

“Those are Rok’s too.”

“Man, I didn’t know of too many people on Earth having so many books.” So many? There are not more than 10 there.

“We had a lot at home on Earth. They were already considered antiques but they were important to our family. Brian’s mother was a writer and those were some kind of family treasure.” I found myself remembering the last days before we left Earth, deciding what things we were going to take with us.

“Brian’s mother? Wasn’t she your mother too?” Dana asked.

“What? Aw, no. Do you really think we are all brothers?”

“You are not? I mean, I was almost sure Howie wasn’t Kevin’s brother, considering that they don’t look alike and have different last names. But then Kevin is always referring to him as his brother, same with you. And you just said you are Alex Littrell, right?”

“Yes, but that was my mother's last name. Kevin, Brian and Nick are brothers. They are my cousins. His father was my mother’s brother.”

“Oh, I get it. And Howie?”

“I guess you can say he is our cousin too.”

“Like I told you, Kevin always refers to you as his brothers.”

“We are brothers, in a way.”

“Have you seen a book before Dana?” Stuart interrupted us again. He was standing next to the shelf turning the pages of one of the books.

“I’m not even sure what a book is. I suppose, since you mentioned Brian’s mom being a writer, that you are referring to those things where people used to write before computers, right?”

“Yes.” Okay that’s strange. I know that these are things from Earth but almost every human has at least heard about them.

“How come?” I asked

“How come what?”

“You don’t know basketball, guitars, books? Don’t they teach about human history where you grew up. Haven’t you heard anything about the things from Earth.”

“I was not raised by humans. I was raised by Gazoids. I have only been among humans for the last year.” That explains it.

“Where you grew up?”

“Dalticon.”

“You were born there?”

“No, I was born in Pladaa.”

“That was your planet too, right Stuart?”

“Yes,” he said without looking at us, still reading a book.

“You said you have been only around humans for a year but you are already a sergeant?” I felt so useless.

“Long story. I’m interested in learning about human things though.”

“Well, then you need to check those. All the humans that come into the ship are interested in our books. We had probably read them thousands of times. The second one at the right,” I said pointing to the little shelf where Brian placed his bunch of books.

“This one?” Stuart said taking it.

“Yes. That was written by Brian’s great-great-grandfather who was a writer too, a very famous writer.”

“Cool!” And then people wonder why I was so impressed this morning. You definitely don’t sound like a hero Stuart.

“What are you doing here?” Brian entered the room.

“Nothing.”

“AJ was telling me about your books,” Stuart answered, again without looking at any of us.

“And that you are a great musician.” Dana added.

“He said that?”

“Yes” I sighed noticing both of them blushing. Dumb me, I did it.


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