1
Ktrill farm
“Someday I’ll leave Karthrill,” I muttered to myself, “and I won’t be a ktrill farmer.”
“Corr, it’s time to harvest the ktrill field.”
“Gosh.” I threw back the covers and sulked as I walked out to the main room.
“Come on boys; let’s get most of the field done before the heat of the day.” said my dad.
It was still dark outside. The nocturnal creatures still made noises outside as well.
My brother Cain walked into the table, knocking over a glass, Crash!
“Quiet, you’ll wake the girls.” I whispered, rubbing my eyes.
He quickly cleaned up the mess, and looked for his boots. I luckily found mine.
I felt around in the darkness for my gloves. “Here they are.” I exclaimed.
Cain mocked me, “Quiet, you’ll wake the girls!”
“Shut up!”
“You gonna make me?”
“Boys,” said father, breaking up the battle. He was always that way, stopping fights before they became wars. He always made sure Assia was kept in good care, and made sure Iriddel keeps the house neat.
Let me tell you about my family. Iriddel is the eldest of the children, eighteen. Now Cain is seventeen. He thinks he is the boss. I’m fourteen, and in two weeks, I will be fifteen. Assia is the reason my mom is dead. Mother died while giving birth, which was three weeks ago. Can’t say much about Assia, all she does is lay, mess herself, and cry. Mother was, was amazing. She did just about everything, from running a house, to helping manage money, that makes Dad even more special, because he does even more than Mom had to do.
“Cain,” said Dad, “I want you to pick the south end of the field today”
“Yes Sir.”
“Corr, you can help me today.”
I replied solemnly, “Yes Sir.”
I’ve never liked ktrill; it has a bitter taste, and it’s gritty. I do not like harvesting it either, but I know we need the money.
Later on
I swallowed a mouthful of ktrill dust and choked. “You okay, son!?” yelled my dad over the machinery.
I nodded my head and stopped choking. Then we stopped for a small break. After a little while, I asked my Father, “Dad, when can I leave Karthrill?”
“Ah, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“I’m not kidding.”
“Oh, well, do you even have a plan when you get off this planet? We need you to help bring in money, and-”
“Alright,” I cut him short, “I get the point. I plan to work as a mechanic in the spaceports on Genesis, and if I’m gone, you won‘t have to support four children. I just don’t want to be a ktrill farmer all my life.”
My Father sighed, “Yeah, I know what you mean; this life isn’t for everyone. Well I guess you could leave on you birthday; it would kind of be a present.”
“Really?!”
“Let me think about it.”
A week went by; then my Father approached me, “Son, I thought it over, and I think you might be ready to leave. I told Cain he could leave when he was fifteen, but he didn‘t want to go.”
“You really mean it?” I asked with great excitement.
“Yep.”
“Thank you!”
My birthday was greatly anticipated by Cain and me. Cain, so he would be rid of me. Me, well, I would finally be getting off this planet. The day was here at last. I walked by the mirror and caught my reflection. I saw my blue eyes, brown hair, stocky body, and rough weathered face. I was leaving my childhood and becoming an adult.
Iriddel walked into the room. “Come on,” she said in her soft tone.
I walked outside, and Cain said “Be careful.” It was the only nice thing he had ever said to me.
I gave Assia and Dad a hug. He gave me a hundred dollars. “Here’s something to get you started. I love you very much.” He paused. “Don’t forget that if you ever want to come back, I’m always here.”
“Thanks, I won’t forget it,” I said, looking him in the eye.
“Now go before you miss your ship,” he reminded.
I gave everyone a hug then mounted our speeder. I took off then looked back to my family as they disappeared into the horizon. I eased the accelerator downward and sped forward. My eyes burned from the wind; it was the wind of freedom. After fifteen minutes, I saw the outline of the spaceport, so I slowed my speeder down. I drove into the spaceport and looked around. I saw many exotic alien life forms, most of which I had never seen. This was my first visit to the port, so I was extra careful. I got off my speeder and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I turned on the autopilot, and away went the speeder back to our farm. The space sport was a dirty and dusty place, full of used oil canisters that reeked. The dust was like a haze as it blew through the port.
As I walked; a tall, orange, alien with a lappet of skin covering his mouth pulled me aside. “Hey, you wanna Gunnga?” it said in a low, rough voice. As it spoke a lappet of skin bent down, and two more lappets, hinging on opposite sides, opened side to side baring his teeth and tongue.
“Ah, no thank you.”
“Hey, I tink you do.”
“Please, no.”
I tried to walk away, but he grabbed me, “You need one!” it held out a lizard like creature, “Come on, just den dollars.”
“No, I don’t have any.”
“Ah ha! I know humans; you never go out witout some dollars.” “I said no!”
“You diseased rat,” it said and walked away.
I walked farther on, and a few Inter galactic troops were directing workers in unloading some crates from a ship. As I watched, I also walked. Not paying attention, another speeder about cut my legs off. “Look out, human!”
I had enough; I started to run to the landing bays. When I finally got to the landing bays, the pilot announced that the ship to Genesis, or my ship, would be canceled. “Oh no!” I yelled, “I’m not staying on this planet longer than I have to.”
I walked through the other bays and found a star cruiser. “Now that is a ship.” The ship was so shiny big, and-and oh, it was awesome.
I walked up to a person that looked like the pilot. “Excuse me, sir, but can I buy a ride home to see my grandmother who’s on her death bed?” I made myself sound pathetic as I could.
“Sorry. Why don’t you buy a ticket for one of the regular shuttles?” he turned around, and boarded his ship.
“Why, why me?!” the main turbines started to hum, and a light blinked over the boarding ramp. “Here we go!” I jumped on the boarding ramp, just as it became one with the ship.
The inside of the cruiser was black as could be. Then lights flared on, it looked so luxurious. As I looked around, sitting on a chair was a beautiful young woman with honey-colored hair, green eyes, and a trim body with a smooth face. She looked at me with a stare of shock. I slipped into a small side compartment and shut the door. I hoped she would be so shocked at the sight at me that she would keep quiet.
After a while, the room became very cool. It kept getting colder and colder. I finally came to the conclusion that it must be a freezer room. Colder and colder it got the longer I sat there. So taking my chances, I opened the door. Ftzz, the door’s seal broke and the door opened. I stepped out, and the feeling of warm air on my icy body felt good. Then I saw the interior and stared, awe-struck. Nevertheless, I knew if the captain saw me, he would probably send me out the garbage port in the back of the ship.
Boom! The ship rocked back and forth, and the lights flickered on and off. Boom! This time the ship rocked even more fiercely. It rocked so hard it knocked me down on a crate, and cut my cheek. “Attention all passengers, please fasten you restraining devises!” blared the captains voice on the intercom.
The young woman reappeared in the room, sitting on the couch, fastening her seatbelt. Then she looked at me, and motioned me to sit by her. I quickly did so, and fastened my device as well. “What’s your name?” she asked me, holding on to the couch.
“Corr Zaphad, yours?”
“Marta Rosefeld. Tell me, how did you get on this ship?”
“I’m a stowaway,” I replied sadly.
Marta nodded, “I thought so; Griffin never lets anyone on this ship, unless they’re royal.”
I was shocked; this was a royal star cruiser, and I was a stow away. I thought about the punishments that I would receive. This was not my day. “Great!” I blurted out.
“No, it’s alright; I’ll tell my father you’re just a poor boy looking for some way to get off his home planet.” she must have read my mind. The chances of her guessing why I was stowaway were one in a hundred.
Boom! This time, the ship’s alarms started to blare. Marta unfastened her restraining devise, “Quick, to the escape pods!” I unfastened mine and followed her. “Wait,” she turned around and reached into one of the cupboards. Marta pulled back a sword-like hilt. “Got it.”
At that instance, the ship’s hull was torn away. I expected to see lifeless space, but instead I saw an ocean. Marta was sucked out and left my sight. I tried to grab some thing, but I was a pulled out of the ship. Down, down, I went. The air whistling through my ears blew in my cut, smearing the blood up into my eye. My hair was flapping in the wind just like my backpack. Splash! I hit the water. Of course, it knocked the wind out of me, so I tried to breathe under water. I coughed and choked, but finally I pulled myself out of the merciless water. Luckily, a fishing boat was near. I swam towards it. While I was swimming, I looked up and saw the ship explode. Little pieces of debris hit the water around me. It’s a good thing that there were fishermen around. They threw me some rope, and pulled me in. As soon as I was aboard, they started to punch me and search through my belongings. After they were done with that they tied me to the boat, and aimed a gun at me.
“You chupid ‘uman, you tinked we’d ‘ave you.” a solid red beam burned though his chest. The alien dropped dead and behind it was a shadowy cloaked figure. The other two aliens were scared out of their skins. They were motionless when the figure beheaded them.
“What?!” I stated in shock.
The soaked figure removed its hood and revealed Marta. “Lucky for you I was here.” she said flicking a button on the hilt of her red beam. It suddenly turned off.
“What is that thing?”
“It’s my weapon.”
“No, what’s it called?”
“I don’t know anything about you, Corr, so why would I tell you?”
“Why did you save my life?” She rudely did not answer. “Why are you being so rude to me? On the ship you had no problem being polite.”
“Maybe I felt sorry for you; after all, you were a stowaway.” She took the controls of the boat.
I couldn’t say anything to that; I sat down at the front of the boat as we sped toward land.