Sleepers (The Blue Planets World series Book 1)

  Sleepers

  The Blue Planets World, Book 1

  Darcy Pattison

  Contents

  SLEEPERS - Title Page

  1. The Great White

  2. The Face of Rison

  3. Triple-Shot Ventis

  4. Jake’s Siren

  5. Lungs vs. Gills

  6. Break-in

  7. Sleeper Cells

  8. Made You Laugh

  9. Phoning Home

  10. Betrayed

  11. Panic Attack

  12. The Harbor Seals

  13. Volcanoes

  14. The Drone

  15. Going Commando

  16. Need-to-Know

  17. The Seal Pup

  18. Ferry Ride

  19. Smoking Volcano

  20. Along the Cowlitz River

  21. Statesman vs. Politician

  22. Science Project

  23. Killing Earth

  24. Eavesdropping

  25. Dive, Young Man, Dive

  26. Seastead

  27. The Fullex Incident

  28. Earthquakes

  29. Shark Spies

  30. The Moon Pool

  31. The Commanders

  32. Two Friends

  33. The Globes

  34. Contagious?

  35. An Early Thanksgiving

  36. The State Swim Meet

  37. Just Friends

  38. Triple-Shot Venti

  39. Revenge

  40. The Baby Shark

  41. Chase

  42. The Faces of Rison

  43. Phoke

  44. Jake –

  Read More: THE BLUE PLANETS WORLD SERIES

  About the Author

  Other Books By Darcy Pattison

  SLEEPERS - Title Page

  BOOK 1:

  THE BLUE PLANETS WORLD

  SLEEPERS

  by

  Darcy Pattison

  Mims House, Little Rock, AR

  The Great White

  The Great White shark moved silently through the surf, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. It had no conscious thought for what it was doing so close to shore. It just hunted. The water shone brilliantly under the Milky Way, and its myriads of stars reflected on the face of the gentle ocean swells.

  A lone figure emerged from a dark beach house, trotted down the weathered boards across the dunes to the beach, scuffed through the soft sand and slowed to walk straight to the water’s edge.

  Wet sand under his feet now, Jake Rose threw a darting glare over his shoulders, and then turned to stare out to sea. He took a deep breath, letting the salty air fill his lungs, and suddenly the longing was overwhelming.

  I will go skinny dipping tonight, he thought.

  Defiant, Jake removed his shirt, flip-flops, and swim trunks, tossing them beside a piece of driftwood. He splashed into the warm August surf until he was immersed chest-deep, and he scooped water to splash over his shoulders, his face, and his hair.

  A hundred yards off shore, the shark heard the splash and stirred, moving toward the disturbance, an arrow spiraling towards a bull’s-eye. The shark closed in, his dorsal fin cutting through the water less than a dozen feet to the teen’s side.

  At the sight, a shiver of fear ran down Jake’s spine, but he was committed. Without stopping to think further, he bent his knees and dove, arms outstretched, splitting the glittering breaker.

  Underwater, Jake’s eyes adjusted to the dark. There it was, circling. The shark’s row of teeth flickered, stark white in the gloom. Its circle collapsed inward until the shark darted past, just a few feet away from Jake’s face.

  Time to move, Jake realized.

  Quickly, Jake inhaled, the gills under his arms undulating as they expanded and contracted with each breath. Water-breathing through his Risonian gills felt as natural and regular as breathing air through his human lungs. When he pressed his legs together, the villi wove together with what his father jokingly called a Velcro system that turned his legs into a long tail.

  Jake swept his tail in a powerful thrust that sent him speeding away from the shark. But as he did, he felt a strange vibration in the water. Confused, he stopped and looked back at the Great White, who now held stationary just staring at Jake.

  Perplexed, Jake waited for a repeat of the vibration. Nothing.

  Had the vibration been an attempt at communication? he wondered. If he were home on Rison, there’d be no doubt. But here? On Earth? Clumsily, Jake flapped his hands, sending his own vibrations through the water.

  With its short fins, the Great White beat out a series of vibrations in answer.

  Jake attempted a rough translation: “Friend. We swim.”

  He repeated the exact vibrations back to the shark, and immediately the shark repeated the phrase: “Friend. We swim.”

  Crude, but effective, exulted Jake. They understood each other—after a fashion.

  “Cousin,” Jake called in a bubbly voice. “Before us is the open sea. Take me out to explore!”

  The Great White didn’t understand the words, of course. Nevertheless, he swam toward deeper water, pausing now and then, as if to be sure that Jake followed.

  Jake reveled in the too-long-forbidden feel of warm seawater buoying him upward and the joy of a strong tail that sent him coursing behind the Great White. With wild abandon, Jake followed his guide. They were just two wild creatures off to explore the Gulf of Mexico.

  The Face of Rison

  Three hours later, as the stars began to fade for the night, Jake left his cousin-in-the-ocean, un-Velcroed his legs, and wearily climbed up into the shallows. It took only a quick moment to reestablish his air-breathing; his lungs expanded with a gasp, and began a regular rhythm. He splashed through the breakers toward the driftwood log to reclaim his clothes.

  “Feeling calmer?”

  Startled, Jake turned to see his mother striding toward him from the boardwalk, a gray shape in the early-dawn. The beaches here on the Gulf of Mexico were lined with beach houses of all sorts—big, small, old, or new—mostly rental properties. The houses sat back from the shore far enough to avoid storm surges; that meant they were fronted by sand dunes, which were protected by environmental laws. Local ordinances required a wooden sidewalk over the dunes to lessen the impact of foot traffic. The gray, weathered boardwalks were scalding hot during the afternoon sun but cool in the early morning, so his mother was barefoot, her red flip-flops dangling from one hand.

  Embarrassed, Jake turned his back and pulled on his swim trunks. On Rison, people often swam with no clothing, but he’d been off-planet now for three years, and he’d picked up the Earthling’s reserve about naked bodies. Shivering in the early morning air, he put on his rash-guard t-shirt, too, and slicked his wet hair back out of his face. When he turned, he sidestepped a pale ghost crab that scuttled across his path. Mom settled onto the sand facing the eastern sky and stretched her legs out in front. She was small and athletic, with dark curly hair. She wore a black one-piece swimming suit under a red t-shirt. As usual, she carried her waterproof string backpack.

  Jake flopped beside her and absently brushed at the white sugar sand that clung to his wet legs and toes. Leaning back, he gazed up at the sky. Dawn slowly lightened the horizon, and mother and son watched as Venus, the gleaming morning star, faded; Jake knew they were both thinking of their own star, Turco, half a galaxy away and invisible from Earth. In the distance, a couple of helicopters droned toward them, probably an early morning patrol—a common sight on the Gulf Coast.

  Jake leaned forward, suddenly. “Mother, it’s an amazing ocean. They say that Earthlings have only explored about
5% of it. Our scientists could—”

  At her frown, he stopped. The conversation had been repeated too many times; he shouldn’t start it again.

  “Look,” she said. “I know you’re upset about the YouTube video, and I know that swimming is the best way for you to calm down. But it’s not our ocean. You’ve got to think before you act.”

  “Of course, I’m upset.” He barely managed to keep his voice calm. “You’ve put yourself out there as the ‘Face of Rison.’ You’re painting a bull’s-eye on your face!” Guiltily, he thought, I should have done the video with her.

  Last week, when it was clear there would be a family vacation, Mom had asked if he wanted to be in the video. “It’ll be more emotional and real for people if they see a family. We could tape it at the beach.”

  While still on the Moon Base and excited about moving to Earth, Jake had been horrified at what that notoriety could mean for him. Now that he was finally moving to Earth, and headed toward his grandparents’ house, he wanted to just be like other kids, everyone equal. He wasn’t a Face of Rison and never would be.

  Mom had accepted his “No” without comment, taped the video alone, and uploaded it right before leaving the embassy for the beach.

  And now, her excitement spilled over: “I just checked. It’s had over a million new views. Overnight. It has a chance of turning the tide of opinion our way.”

  Jake spun away, trying not to think about his mother’s face on the video, her impassioned plea for Earth to understand how bad the situation had become on Rison, her brilliant blue eyes as startling as her speech. She needed to startle Earth’s politicians: Rison’s scientists warned that the instability in their planet’s core was increasing rapidly. Time was running out. There had been background video of volcanoes erupting with Risonians running—the Risonian Embassy video editors had done a great job in making it emotional. “Compelling,” his mother had called it.

  Viewing it for the first time four nights ago, Dad had said quietly, “You risk your life with this video.”

  Even more quietly, Mom had answered, “I’m here on Earth on September 3, 2040 because others have sacrificed so much. Life is a risk. I choose life.”

  Now, his mother’s voice softened, as if to ease his frustrations. “Angry or not, you were forbidden to go for a swim like that. Promise me that you won’t swim in Earth’s oceans again.”

  A pang shot through Jake, and he gripped a handful of the white sand. The past three years living at the Obama Moon Base on Earth’s waterless moon had been torture. He had longed for water, and now that they finally had this weeklong vacation near Gulf Shores, Alabama—he couldn’t stay out of the water. He wouldn’t.

  He tossed the sand toward the ocean and avoided her request for a promise. Instead, he asked plaintively, “What will we do, Mom?”

  She hugged him so tight that he thought of the human stories of mother grizzly bears, fierce and protective. The smell of Risonian seaweed that always hung over her was an odd, yet comforting perfume. “We’ll fight for a place for our people. In the end, Earth won’t let a whole race, a whole species, be destroyed.”

  Jake wanted to argue that Earth had done just that over the last few hundred years. The Dodo bird, the passenger pigeon, the white rhinoceros—humans had let these and so many more species go extinct. The short-term needs of the humans were more important than saving an entire species.

  “We can trust the humans,” Mom said. “We must trust them. But we must do this slowly. You can’t just take off like a child and explore whenever you like.” She stopped, her mouth in a tight line.

  Jake knew the arguments she wanted to repeat, had repeated endlessly the last few days, and was glad she restrained herself. Like every other Risonian school child, he had learned English, the business language of Earth, and studied Earth geography, cultures, and history. The planets had first become aware of each other in 1999, but Earth had been content to let contact flag because they were 30,000 light years apart.

  Rison couldn’t ignore contact with Earth, though. It was motivated by the crisis over its unstable core; by 2010, Risonian secret agents had landed on Earth, and by 2015, Rison was teaching English in their schools. Since then, the interest in Earth language and culture expanded so that many Risonians learned multiple Earth languages. Because Earth was the only planet similar enough to their own within reach of their starships, the blue planet was their only plan for evacuation, their only plan for survival. Jake knew what was at stake and why he shouldn’t explore the oceans. But he also knew that Risonians needed real experiences on Earth, not just book knowledge; Risonian scientists needed to explore Earth’s vast oceans to uncover its secrets and find ways to live and thrive.

  “What are you two doing out so early?” Dad’s baritone voice boomed from the boardwalk behind them.

  Jake scrambled up, relieved that Dad had arrived before Mom forced him to make a promise he couldn’t keep. He held out a hand to pull Mom up, too.

  She linked her arm with Jake’s and waved, calling merrily, “Come and join us for a walk on the beach. Maybe we’ll find a shell or two.”

  “Great idea,” Dad said. “I set out steaks for breakfast. A walk will work up our appetites.” He was olive-skinned, fit and trim, with just a hint of grey at the temples. His dark eyes twinkled, and he pulled his military-issue sunglasses from the top of his head, slipped them on, and headed toward his family.

  When he reached them, Mom let go of Jake and lifted her chin to Dad, who scooped her into a tender hug.

  Jake turned away, embarrassed. They’d been like this all week, as if he’d been thrust into their honeymoon. His discomfort was partly because he was forced to see his mother in a new light. Back home on the planet Rison, Jake had lived with his mom and stepfather, Swann Quad-de. They were distant cousins who married for political reasons, consolidating power into one united front; the result, as expected, was that Swann was now Prime Minister of Tizzalura, the largest country in the northern continent. Jake had known for a long time that Swann wasn’t his biological father; Jake was a test-tube baby, the result of a laboratory experiment in combining alien and human DNA. Only three years ago he’d learned the identity of his real father.

  He remembered the conversation perfectly. Mom had explained, “We’re evacuating you to the Earth’s moon.” She stared over his head and spoke in a too-casual voice. “By the way, you’ll be with your biological father, Lt. Commander Blake Rose.”

  Startled, Jake asked, “You know my biological father?”

  “Yes,” she shrugged, but it was too nonchalant. “He was on the first Earth-Rison contact mission as the U.S. Navy’s comparative anatomy physician. He did the test-tube experiment that created you.”

  Jake tried more questions in the weeks leading up to his departure, but his Mom cut him off. Instead, she bustled about helping him pack for the Moon, stopping often to pull him into a hug and whisper, “I’ll miss you.”

  He answered stoically, “I’m a Quad-de. We’ll survive.” The Quad-des were politicians, always involved in the government of Tizzalura. He only hoped to earn the right to be called a Quad-de. It was bad enough to leave Rison, but it was worse to have to replace Swann Quad-de with a mere human.

  Jake had expected to hate Commander Rose, but Dad had been a total surprise in many ways; in the last three years, they’d learned to like each other—except when they behaved too similarly, like when they both got stubborn in an argument.

  When Jake had first met his biological father, he’d called him by his first name, Blake. Jake didn’t remember when he made the transition to calling him Dad, but it just seemed natural now.

  Behind him, Jake heard Dad’s gruff voice, “Dayexi—so beautiful.”

  His mom laughed—as she hadn’t in a long, long time.

  Jake cringed and blocked out their private moment by stretching out on the soft sand and flopping one arm over his eyes. He yawned, ready for a nap after his long swim.

  A moment later
, though, his mom kicked sand onto his legs and said, “No naps. We’ll walk, and then we’ll eat steak and eggs, and then you can—”

  A phone rang, a jangling noise against the rhythmic surf. Mom stopped, her nose wrinkled deep with worry. Risonians were so close anatomically to Earthlings that it would take a casual observer a while to notice the nuances between the species. Earthlings from Asia have a slightly different eye created by the epicanthic fold. In a similar way, Risonians looked different but it was hard to pin down exactly what that difference was. Of course Risonians had underarm gills and the Velcro-like legs, but you didn’t see that at a glance. Risonians had a slight wrinkle on the bridge of the nose, a sharper chin, and slightly bigger eyes. When Mom was worried, her nose wrinkle deepened.

  Now, she pulled her satellite phone from her backpack and turned away to answer it.

  Mom had been allowed this week long vacation, with the provision that she was on-call and couldn’t go anywhere without the phone, the latest in communication technology. Surprisingly, it’d been silent for four days, giving them four days of peace, of being together as a family. Jake suspected his parents had been in regular contact since he’d moved to Earth’s moon, but Dad had been private about his feelings for Dayexi—till this week. Jake didn’t understand how his mother could value a human over a Risonian, especially a Quad-de. But they were his biological parents, and even if Jake was a test-tube baby, he supposed Mom and Dad could still like each other. These four days were like a glassy sea with no wind. Strange, yet peaceful. A calm space—a time set apart.