Shock the Monkey, page 16
“That’s the second seismic event today,” Knell had noted.
They both heard the pounding on the door, and that annoying boy, Ogden, calling out for Noah, Andi, and someone named Miss Luella. When Ogden unlocked the door, and tried to open it, Kratz held it closed to keep them from being discovered. Then it was quiet.
“We can’t let them leave,” said Knell. “If we’re going to catch Noah Prime, we have to make our move now.” But when they opened the basement door, they found that the house was empty. Everyone had left.
“They couldn’t have gone far,” said Knell, and led the way out the front door, both of them steeling themselves to face the dreaded vegetable garden once more—but the second they stepped outside, they realized that the garden was gone. And so was the street. And so was the whole neighborhood. They stopped short on the porch.
“What’s going on?” asked Knell. Then she turned to Kratz as if this was all his doing. “Quantavius, where are we?”
Kratz thought about all that had befallen them in the basement: the strange vibrations, the sudden jolts, the noisy furnace that might not have been a furnace at all… and he arrived at the only possible conclusion.
“The house is a time machine! We’ve traveled back millions, maybe billions of years to when the world was new.…” He pointed up at the red sky. “Look at that prehistoric sky. What more proof do you need?”
Knell squinted toward the sun. “I would agree… except for the fact that the sun didn’t look like that in its early days.”
Kratz took a look at the gigantic red sun and came to the only other possible conclusion.
“Aha! So we’ve traveled into the distant future—when the sun has expanded to a red giant!”
“Makes sense to me,” said Knell. “The question is, why did they come here? If Noah Prime and his delinquent accomplices are in league with aliens, what do they want with the future?” Then she smiled. “I see a long, slow, painful interrogation in store for Noah Prime.”
“Agreed, but we have to catch him first.”
And so, armed with the levitator, the portal gun, and the memory cube, they took off down a gully, following footsteps in the sand, still not having the slightest idea that they were on a different world.…
17
The Jadoon Cipher
- - _ _ |
In a house that was an exact replica of the one Noah once lived in, beside a field that was eerily similar to the one by which his original house once stood, Noah tended to the suitcase that was his sister.
/ - | - - - /
Andi’s wheels had melted off. Not that they would have been any help hauling her across the faux Earth terrain. Noah and Jad had found the house a few miles from the impact crater, and now Noah was using tools from his father’s coffin-making workshop—which was also perfectly recreated—to try to pry Andi open.
- - | / _ - __
Her handle and unlock button had been fused, and most of the lights were out on her digital display, making it impossible to read what she was saying. Noah couldn’t even be sure if she was actually saying anything at all. Those random dashes and slashes on her digital display could have just been a malfunction, for all he knew.
-|-…
“I don’t know why you’re so worried about it,” Jad said, a bit irritated by all the attention Noah was giving the little roll-aboard. “Your house has everything you need. You probably don’t even need any of the stuff in your luggage.”
“It’s more than luggage,” Noah tried to explain. “It’s… it’s an android.”
Jad looked confused. “A what?”
“A kind of a robot.”
“Kind of a what?”
That made Miss Luella chuckle. “Noah, not all civilizations are arrogant enough to create AI in their own image,” she said. “I imagine the Triastrals never found much use for such things.” Then she went back to the kitchen. Since the house was fully stocked, she was baking bread, as if settling in for a long stay. The smell of fresh bread would have been comforting to Noah, had they not been in a replica of a home that no longer existed. The fourth version of that home, in fact. The original, of course, had been in Arbuckle, but had been destroyed in an alien attack. The second was in a cornfield in Iowa, the third was on a Himalayan mountaintop. And now this. When they had first arrived at this one, Noah half expected to find another set of backup parents pretending to be his real ones.
“Can’t you just forget about the suitcase?” whined Jad. “Whatever’s in there is probably ruined anyway.”
Noah let off an exasperated huff. “I can’t!” he said finally. “It’s my sister in there!”
That gave Jad serious pause for thought. “Uh… Noah, I hate to tell you this, but if your sister is in there, I don’t think she survived.”
Noah almost laughed. “Trust me, Andi could survive a supernova. Although it might tick her off.”
-—. _ | - /
If she really was trying to communicate, there had to be a better way.
“Andi,” he said, “if you can hear me, blink once.”
The display on the handle went dark.
And then, a single mark appeared.
“ - ”
Noah blew out a breath of relief. So it wasn’t just random misfirings. Andi was still alert, and probably extremely annoyed!
“Hey,” said Jad, “she really is alive in there!”
“Sort of,” said Noah. “It’s complicated.”
By now Miss Luella had come back out of the kitchen, curious about this new development.
“Andi, your display is broken, so we’re going to have to talk this way,” said Noah. “Do you understand? Blink once for yes, twice for no.”
“ - ”
“Good. So, first—are you okay?” Noah asked.
Andi responded with “ - ” and then “ - - ” and then “ - ” again.
“So… that must mean maybe?” said Jad.
“Or it could mean she’s not sure,” said Miss Luella. “She probably can’t run a systems diagnostic in there, the poor thing.”
“Did Mittens eject you, too?” Noah asked.
“ - ”
“And do you know what happened to Ogden and Sahara?”
“ - - ”
“Do you know how we can get off this planet?”
Andi gave them a very long pause, and then a very slow “ - - ”. Leave it to Andi to find a way to “blink” sarcastically.
“Why are you asking her that?” said Jad. “You just got here! Why are you talking about leaving?”
Jad nervously tugged at a few ear hairs with that third arm. Noah understood Jad’s anxiety. Jad’s ecosystem was a paradise, but alone in paradise was still alone.
Andi waited for the next question, and Noah sighed. There had to be a better way than playing a slow game of twenty questions to communicate. Then something occurred to Noah.
“Miss Luella—do you happen to know Morse code?”
“Oh, heavens no,” she said. “All that buzzing and beeping drives me to distraction. I never cared for it.”
The only Morse code Noah knew was what everyone knew: dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot. SOS. That wasn’t going to be very helpful, since SOS was pretty much the synopsis of their entire week. But on the other hand, it didn’t matter what the code was as long as both sides knew it.
“We need to create our own code,” Noah said, “then teach it to Andi.”
“I can do that,” said Jad. “I’m good with secret codes.” But then Jad hesitated. “If I help you… will you promise not to leave?”
“I promise… that we won’t leave you here alone,” Noah said. Which was enough for Jad.
A / B // C /// D - E -- F --- G | H || I ||| J /- K //- L /| M //| N -/ O --/ P -| Q --| R |/ S ||/ T |- U ||- V /-| W -/| X |-- Y -|- Z -/-
They called the code the Jadoon cipher. Since the language of First Spiralese—which they had been speaking—had over five hundred letters, they decided to go simple and create the code in English, which Jad learned quickly, even without the benefit of a brain tick.
“My whole species is really good with languages,” Jad told them. “Maybe someday I could take you to my planet.”
Noah took a deep breath, and offered no response, other than, “Yeah, maybe.”
The cypher used combinations of three symbols: a dash, a slash, and a vertical line, all of which Andi was able to create using the limited functional lights on her readout. Although Noah needed a cheat sheet, they only needed to explain the code to Andi once.
“ | --/ |- ||| |- ” Andi wrote.
Got it.
And then she offered up this:
“ -/| || -- -/ ||| | -- |- --/ ||- |- ||| //| //| / //- ||| /| /| |- || / |- /// / |-”
When I get out Imma kill that cat.
Noah tried a screwdriver, a crowbar, even a hammer and chisel to get Andi open, but nothing worked, and Andi was increasingly annoyed.
“ ||- |/ | --/ -/ -/ / // |/ -- / //- //| --”
She kept pulsing out her frustration in Jadoon cipher symbols—which was much easier for her to do than it was for Noah to decipher. He couldn’t find a single animal in his genetic repertoire that had the cognitive ability of instant translation. Jad could do it but was too busy checking out everything in the house to be bothered. So Noah had to rely on his own very human brain, which required him to write it down and consult the cipher key. He wished there was a brain tick around that could learn it instantly.
“Ur gonna break me” is what Andi had said.
“You’re already broken,” Noah responded. “We might need to break you more before you can be fixed.”
“I’m not broken, I’m jammed. There’s a diff.”
“Maybe we could grease your seams.”
“Don’t u dare.”
Noah dropped his tools in frustration, and they hit the ground with a clang. “So what do you suggest?”
No response but “—_—”. Which wasn’t part of the cypher, just a digital glare.
Throughout all of this, Jad continued to explore the house, pulling things out of cabinets like an overstimulated child. “What’s this? What’s that? What’s this?”
Miss Luella, with endless patience, answered all Jad’s inquiries.
“A muffin pan. A laundry basket. An XBox.”
“What do you put in an XBox?”
“Every last bit of your free time.”
Noah tried not to be irritated by Jad’s lack of anxiety over their whole situation. After all, this was the first time in ages that Jad had seen anyone. How could Noah fault his new friend for being excited? And knowing the fate of Jad’s world… well, Jad’s ignorance certainly was bliss.
Miss Luella went on with a litany of labels. “That’s a potato peeler, that’s a roller skate, and, good lord, I have no idea what that is.”
“It’s a Roomba,” Noah called out. “It cleans floors and trips you.”
Noah stepped away from his compacted sister, rethinking his whole approach.
Then Andi pulsed out, “Fine. I’ll do it myself.” Suddenly, her damaged LED screen went blank.
“Andi?” said Noah, but the screen stayed dark. “Great. She’s pouting.”
“Or maybe she’s thinking,” suggested Miss Luella.
“No, I know my sister. She’s pouting.” And then he went off into his room to do the same thing.
Noah’s room was, of course, just as he remembered. Same motocross posters, same messy desk, same pile of laundry in the corner. The Fauxlites were obsessive when it came to attention to detail. But Noah didn’t feel comforted by the familiarity. More than anything, it was an unsettling reminder of what he’d lost. He knew if they couldn’t find a way off this planet, this could be his room again, permanently. And if the Fauxlites ever found out he was alive, and was exactly where they wanted him to be, that would be the end of Earth.
There was a timid knock. Noah turned to see Jad standing by the open door, waiting for permission to enter.
“You can come in,” Noah said.
Jad stepped in and looked around, no longer asking what everything was for. There was a sense of respect now. Of reverence for Noah’s personal things.
“My parents did the same thing yours did,” Jad said. “They copied our home—and my sleep space—perfectly. I thought it was weird. Do you think it’s weird?”
“Yeah, it’s weird.” Noah took a moment to gauge the level of Jad’s wide-eyed innocence. But then, Jad’s eyes were always wide.
“What did your parents tell you?” Noah asked.
Jad shrugged and looked away. “My… problem… was getting worse. People were starting to notice the way I was behaving like different animals, and my parents were…” This part was clearly hard for Jad. “My parents were embarrassed and ashamed. They said they’d take me to a place where no one would make fun of me. I didn’t know they meant off-world until we got to the spaceport.” Jad took a moment to wipe away a tear. “They never told me why they left me alone, or why I never heard from my friends.…” Jad’s eyes began to tear up even more. “I’m sorry… it’s just hard to think about, so I try not to.”
“My parents were a lot like yours,” Noah said. “They didn’t tell me stuff, either. They lied to me for a long time.”
“Did they go away, too?”
“They got taken away.”
“Who took them?”
“People who wanted to kill me.”
Jad gasped. “So your parents were protecting you?”
“Kind of…”
“Maybe my parents were protecting me!”
“I’m sure they were, but…”
“But what?”
Noah realized he’d already said too much, but Jad wasn’t about to let it go. Noah had to choose his words carefully.
“That ‘problem’ that made you have to leave your world…”
“Is the same one you have,” Jad said. “But for you, it’s not a problem, is it?”
“I used to see it as a problem, too. But once you learn how to control it, it’s more like having special powers that no one else has.”
“But why?” asked Jad. “Why are we like this? No one else is like this.…” Then Jad took a dangerously deep look at Noah. “You know something! What is it? What are you not telling me?”
“Jad… uh… I…”
“Lunch!”
Never had Noah been so relieved to be interrupted. Miss Luella stood in his bedroom doorway, defusing what could have been a disastrous situation.
“The fridge and pantry are fully stocked, so I made grilled cheese sandwiches on freshly baked bread. Are either of you lactose intolerant?”
“No,” said Noah.
“I don’t even know what that is,” said Jad.
“Well, we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?” said Miss Luella, brightly.
Jad threw Noah one more glance, as if to say, This conversation isn’t over, then headed toward the kitchen. But Miss Luella held Noah back.
“Noah, you mustn’t tell Jad,” she whispered.
“I know, but it’s so hard to keep my mouth shut.”
She sighed. “Think about it this way; if it were you, and Earth had been destroyed, would you want to know?”
Noah was about to say that, yes, he would absolutely want to know. But then, what good would knowing do? It would serve no purpose other than to make him miserable for the rest of his life. So then, would he rather live in blissful ignorance like Jad? Noah didn’t like either option.
“Let’s just keep trying to figure out a way off this planet,” he said.
And at that, Miss Luella smiled. “I think I might have found a way,” she said. “But first, lunch!”
Noah hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he bit into his grilled cheese.
“This is delicious,” Jad said, devouring it in just a couple of bites and asking for another that Miss Luella was happy to provide.
The meal brought memories to Noah, as tastes and smells sometimes do. He remembered sitting in his original kitchen, eating grilled cheeses with Andi—and Andi did eat them, but it was all for show. She had a little ejection port on her side for all the food she chewed and swallowed. Those days before he knew the secret truth of things loomed large in moments like this. He could almost pretend that he was just sitting at home, eating lunch with one of his friends. Except that this particular friend was covered with silver fur. Things change, and moments of nostalgia weren’t going to help him now.
“So what did you find?” he asked Miss Luella as he rinsed his dish in the sink.
“I’ll show you.” Then she opened up one of the things she had taken from the escape pod’s medicine chest: It looked like a little makeup compact, but when she opened it, Noah could now see that it was a small radar dish, which cast a holographic map in the air. “As you can see, there’s a small launchpad about twenty miles from here,” she said.
Noah pointed. “Is that a ship on the launchpad?”
“Looks like one,” she said.
Jad began to look nervous. “I don’t think we’re supposed to go there.”
“Don’t worry,” said Noah. “Going where we’re not supposed to go is kind of my specialty.”
“Yeah,” said Jad, “but it’s not mine. And if we get caught…”
“If we get caught,” said Noah, “they’ll just take you back home. They won’t hurt you. They can’t.”
Jad’s bushy eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean they can’t?”
“I mean they’re not allowed. We’re important to them—no matter what we do, they won’t hurt us.”
Still, Jad wouldn’t let it go. “Important to who?”
Noah could only stammer “Uh…” And with Noah’s brain suddenly on pause, Miss Luella chimed in.
“It’s a mystery!” she said cheerfully. “But whoever ‘they’ are, they wouldn’t have brought you here and set you up in such a splendid home if they wanted to hurt you!”
“They brought me here?” said Jad. “No, my parents brought me here. Didn’t they?”
Now it was Miss Luella’s brain that was on pause. “Uh…”
