“Alright hold that wire down and get ready for the current.”
“Are you sure that’s the right wire. I think it’s supposed to go to this plug first.”
“You sure? Last time we tried that it blew back on us big time.”
“Pretty sure because I don’t want another shocking.”
“How about we take a break for a second,” Kathryn wiped her forehead. “Looking at this stuff is giving me a migraine.”
“I hear that,” Marco replied and sat down in the grass. Letting out a breath he took off his jacket and lay it down on the ground. The sun above their heads was beating down hard even with the breeze. Kathryn pulled her hair out of the pony tail and sighed.
Between them they had a barely functioning box that definitely looked like something. Neither of them really knew what it was supposed to look like but it was definitely a device that could do something. They’d managed to turn it on once or twice and broke their cellphones in the process but then it would conk out leaving them stranded.
Scattered around the two of them were circuits, wires, the glass from the asteroid as well as other pieces of machinery that they had lifted and taken over the past few weeks since the crystal had crashed into the city. Ley left them some very specific instructions on how to construct the cloaking device to dampen down the signal it gave off before they disappeared.
“Thanks for coming out here,” Marco said glancing at her. “Home has been hectic.”
“I was noticing,” she said. “Wanna talk about it?”
He glanced at her and leaned back and forth trying to think about it. “The wedding planning has gotten heated. Jack and Sarah both want to work on things together. Location, time of day, colors. And because of things with the crystal and the alien attacks I haven’t been able to mediate too well.”
“I mean I know weddings can be hell. Cal was almost a bridezilla for him and Ben’s wedding. I talked him down from a lot of things and arguments. Sometimes you really need space. Or an outside opinion.”
“You think so?” he asked.
“Yeah. Once we finish making this thing. Everything will slow down and then we can catch back up on regular life problems,” she smiled. “Which speaking of that how wild is this?”
“You mean knowing how to suddenly make an alien cloaking device?”
“Exactly,” Kathryn tapped her forehead with a small screw driver. Marco winked but Kathryn frowned. “Have you noticed how insane our powers are now?”
“The armor change is pretty neat. And I definitely enjoy having the power up to my gun.”
Kathryn shook her head, “Not just that Marco. I’m talking about us as regular people.”
He looked at her raising his eyebrow and she made a face. “The other day I was at home and my pen rolled underneath the fridge. And it was too hard to get my hand under there and suddenly I just lifted it up. Like it was a paper weight. Found my pen, set it down, realized what I did and had to fix my fridge. But look at my arms Marco. I’m not strong. Not even remotely. And I lifted my fridge.”
Marco’s eyes didn’t widen. He didn’t look shocked or surprised. In fact, he let out a breath and nodded. “Yeah. It’s happened to me too.”
“What?”
“The other day we were doing grocery shopping. And I accidently shoved a car because I leaned on it without thinking. Set off an alarm. It was really bad. And it’s more than that. I’ve been moving faster. Heck even thinking faster. I’ve been doing math equations faster than the computer at work.”
“You think its part of us being celestial humans or whatever that means?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Marco said letting out a breath. “We’re really more than human in every sense of the word.”
“Indeed, you are.”
Both of them jumped to their feet startled and whirled around. The voice was alien but very much one they were familiar with. They looked to the darkening sky first but instead of it coming from there it materialized in front of them like a ball of light. That ball exploded and standing before them was Ley.
The celestial looked identical to what they were used to down to the flaming head and expressive eyes. The only difference being they had never seen the celestial in life. As many times as the being had appeared to them in their dreams, they had never seen them in the flesh and blood. Or in their case the stars and light.
“Is that really you?” Kathryn asked staring at them.
They looked at her raising their eyebrows before nodding. “I am unsure of who else I would be.”
They exchanged looks and then smiled, “That’s not what we mean Ley. We mean, we’ve never seen you before. In front of us like this.”
“Oh. I guess that’s true. We’ve only ever communed in your subconscious.” They looked down at themselves and noted their form. “I have not assumed a form like this in some time.”
“Where did you go for the past two weeks?” Marco asked. “We’ve been trying to work on the cloaking device but its been a mixed bag.”
“The task that I asked for you to accomplish wasn’t an easy one,” they said. “And you have advanced much further than I anticipated in the time that I’ve been gone. Truly I am impressed.”
Ley began to say something when they saw the crystal begin to pulse. It flashed red and a hologram of the earth appeared. It spun around quickly until a red beacon shined over the coast of South America. It shone like a beacon into the sky highlighting a section of the sky. Ley looked at the crystal and then at them raising their eyes. “What is that?” Ley asked.
“That the early warning system?” Kathryn asked.
Marco rushed over to the crystal zooming in on the section of the sky and then watched a beam of light strike down at the forest. “Yep. Looks like we’re heading to the Amazon. No idea what kind of alien it is but they’re very interested in us.
“Think we need to call the others?” she asked.
“No way. We can handle this,” Marco smiled.
“I’ve always wanted to do a safari trip. Maybe I can get a souvenir for Violet.”
“Good luck knights,” Ley said dipping their head. Red light engulfed the pair of them and then they were gone.
The Harlequin Library 