Running for the Stars

[CascataNerina]

1. Taken

Nearing the old clearing Les spied a wild blueberry bush. Without letting on he gestured to Marie to go on ahead, "I need to take care of something first." He antsily danced from foot to foot, trying to give another impression. His sister raised an eyebrow, just to show she didn't quite believe him, but she went on to the clearing and laid out the blanket with her book and her telescope wrapped inside.

Les snuck over to the blueberry bush and turned up his shirt. He slowly picked the ripe berries and filled his jury-rigged bowl with them. Though, to be fair, just as many made it into the bowl as into his mouth. Amidst his midnight surprise snack, the young boy heard a sound he'd never heard before. It sounded like some sort of great growling monster. He looked around to see if a boar or a bear had managed to sneak up on him in his distraction. No giant animals. As he continued to look for the source of the strange noise, he spotted what looked like a fire from the direction of the clearing. All thoughts of the berries were gone as he raced toward the clearing, leaving his treasure splattered on the forest floor.

Just before he broke cover his brain kicked in and overrode instinct. It doesn't look like fire, the light's out now. Caution. If there's nothing to be done for your sister there's no sense in you dying as well. So he peered from between the trees to see into the clearing. Some sort of great metal monster sat there spewing monster men.

The great metal monster was all black and stiff. It's mouth open to reveal the steady fire in its gut as the men-monsters marched out in formation just like an army. The monsters spoke his language. "Summit said the girl knew too much. We're to take her, and see what she knows. Maybe incorporate her." The voice sounded tinny and fake.

"But Sir, she's a little girl. Not even old enough for marriage, even on Planet. What could she possibly know? Most of our intake is late teens, early twenties, and even then it's usually for things related to biology or geology. Her record says she's slated for a mathematics and engineering focus." That voice sounded higher, but it definitely came from a man-monster. It had the same fake quality.

"Summit said the girl had 'devised the true nature of the stars,'" he chuckled after saying the last in a mocking voice. "Sounds like Summit's almost gone native. This girl knows that Aubade is the center of a solar system rather than Teria, and apparently she's almost worked the equations through with nothing but a little cracked telescope."

Forgetting the strange words, Les looked around for his sister. She wasn't anywhere. The clearing was simply filled with these strange man-monsters. Fear held him in his place, even when he knew he should speak up. But the man-monsters were talking again. This time he listened and took in the look of the man-monsters. "The intel says she's always with her brother. Do we need to hunt out the boy too?" There was a shiny almost glassy look where the man-monster's face should be and the inky shininess turned to look at another inky shininess.

"No," came the response. They didn't really look like monsters any more, now that Les ha really looked at them, only men in strange, very strange, armor. "Summit said the brother didn't seem interested, and that he was borderline retarded anyway. Too much inbreeding she said."

Slowly the man monsters walked back up the tongue of the squat metal monster and disappeared inside. Then, what Les was thinking of as the Frog, though in truth it bore little resemblance to a frog, rolled up its tongue and gently leaped into the sky. There was nothing in the clearing now, not his sister, not the Frog, not the man monster Frogmen, nothing; not even the sound of the crickets.

What Les had seen and heard was now explained as being sounds and fire coming from the giant steel Frog. But what do I tell Father?

======

Well, what do you think?  I'm constantly trying to get feed back on this thing.  If you want to read more I can post more.