Jahv answered, "Please be careful. Those are what you would call ears, and they're very delicate." But he bowed his head and let Jason touch one of his antennae gently. Jason did so, and almost immediately withdrew his hand, looking more surprised than ever. "What?" asked Fabian.
"It — it was warm to the touch. And I could feel a pulse in it!" said Jason.
That seemed to be enough proof for Jason that Jahv and Keyro were the genuine article, and the boys were then given a tour of the two aliens' home, including the bizarre computer, and the shuttle that Jahv and Keyro had been working on, which was now nearly ready. Niklas looked forward to traveling in it. Jason and Fabian weren't nearly as convinced. Conversation then turned to who else it might be safe to tell about the presence of these two otherworldly youngsters. It was generally agreed that Sniv would be safe to tell. Jonathon was another matter.
"I hate to say this, but he's too often an accident waiting to happen." said Niklas. "I like him. He's a great kid. But he's reckless."
"If he finds out without one of us telling him, and then finds out that we knew and didn't tell him, he's going to be really upset." said Jason. "He's going to feel betrayed by all of us and I wouldn't blame him. And he's had enough of that already. Look what his mom did to him."
"I didn't say we wouldn't tell him," said Niklas, "but I think we need to think about it. Maybe bring him out here with a group of us. Who else? Randy?"
"If we tell either Randy or Jonathon, we have to tell the other." said Fabian. "What about your sister, Niklas?"
Niklas scowled. "Over my dead body. That blabbermouth would have it all over the school come fall, as well as following us out here all the time and ruining our fun. She doesn't even know about this PLACE, never mind who's living here!"
Fabian grinned. "Easy, Niklas. I was just kidding. Who else do we know?"
"Jody?" offered Jason.
Niklas considered that. "Keith knows him better than any of us. It should be up to him. Didn't Sniv make a friend with a kid named Ricky, when he was tracking down Keith and Martin when Keith tried to run away a while back? And then there's Martin's new friend Chris."
Jason nodded. "Yeah, but I don't know if Sniv's seen much of Ricky since."
"I think Sniv should be next, and then later we should probably bring Randy and Jonathon out here together." suggested Niklas. "Telling Chris should probably be up to Martin. But we should get to all of them before summer vacation is over."
And so it had gone. Sniv was introduced to the two aliens, and was properly astonished. Martin, on his own, brought Chris out at one point, to not only meet the two aliens, but Davy as well. Davy and Chris got along well, even though Davy was a lot more outdoors-type and energetic, compared to the quieter Chris. Chris' reaction to the aliens was one of the more unusual. Of course, Chris spent a lot of time reading comic books and other fantasy material. He grinned widely and said, "I knew it had to be true. I knew there had to be people out there." Of course, he was a little nervous around them, but who wouldn't be at first?
Jason and Fabian later brought out Randy and Jonathon. Randy was also impressed, and Jahv seemed fascinated by Randy's long hair, which was longer than any of the other boys', but he didn't say anything about it except to stare a bit.
Jonathon was skeptical about the «aliens» until he had a chance to poke around the dome-tent. True to form, he started pounding on the computer until a horrendous squeal nearly deafened everyone in the room. "What'd I do?!" exclaimed Jonathon, suddenly frightened.
Jahv made a big show out of checking the computer. "Oh, very nice. When the invasion force shows up and enslaves the planet, I am NOT taking the blame for it."
"WHAT??!?!" shrieked Jonathon, suddenly terrified. Then Jahv started laughing, which in turn got everyone else laughing, including Jonathon, eventually. But it was a solid example to the accident-prone youngster about keeping the presence and location of these two aliens a definite secret, and Jonathon actually managed to keep quiet about it. He nearly slipped a couple of times in conversation, but a loud cough from someone else, one of the other boys, suddenly made him aware of what he was about to say, and he soon learned to say nothing.
Not long after, the shuttle Jahv and Keyro had been building was ready. Finding passengers was a little trickier. Talking about flying into space was one thing. The sudden realization of actually being able to do so caused a certain reluctance on the part of a lot of the boys. Eventually, Niklas, Davy, and Keith decided to go along with Jahv, while Martin and Keyro would keep track of them from the dome-tent. Niklas and Davy managed to overcome whatever fear they might have had about an actual space voyage with the sheer prospect of adventure. Keith figured he'd better go along to provide a reality check if one was needed, or so he said. He probably wanted the adventure as much as Niklas and Davy, but wasn't about to admit it aloud.
Their destination, explained Jahv, would be a planet orbiting a star roughly fifteen light years away. According to his people's records, the planet was habitable, but was uninhabited — at least as far as advanced sentient life was concerned. And yet Jahv had detected, through his radio telescope investigations, what sounded very much like a distress signal, in a language that was believed to be nearly extinct.
Jahv had outfitted Niklas, Davy, and Keith in spacesuits similar to his own, but with different color patterns. He explained that the trip to the planet would only take a couple of hours, since much of it would be spent in a form of interdimensional transit he described as «hyperwarp». Fortunately, the boys technically had all weekend. Niklas, Keith, and Martin had said they were going to spend the weekend at Davy's. Davy had told his parents that they all wanted to camp out in the woods nearby, and they had made a big production out of hauling a large tent and more than enough food out there with them, most of which would be parked in Jahv's dome-tent.
"What are these uniforms made out of?" asked Niklas, tugging at the sleeve of his outfit. "They feel kinda weird."
"It's an organic fabric made out of — " began Jahv.
"Never mind!" interrupted Keith. "Organic anything and I'd just as soon not know. How'd you get the fit so perfect?"
Jahv shrugged. "One size pretty much fits all. The suit is highly elastic. Now strap in. We're leaving momentarily."
Minutes later, the sleek shuttle shot out of the dome-hangar it had been built in. Not that anyone saw it or heard it. The grav-engines were utterly silent, and the ship had the same cloaking capability as the dome-tents Jahv and Keyro lived in.
However, the boys were able to watch the lift-off through huge windows in the passenger cabin. The Earth quickly diminished in size behind them. "Incredible!" whispered Davy. Niklas was equally impressed. Keith was trying to hold onto his lunch. The inertia compensators of the shuttle were such that there had been no real feeling of extra gravity during the launch, but Keith's stomach wasn't entirely convinced of that.
Before long the moon came into view. "This is incredible!" proclaimed Niklas. The shuttle had windows along its sides, and Niklas and Davy's faces were firmly pressed against them. Keith was allowing himself an occasional glimpse, but he was also realizing that whatever he was when he grew up, it would most likely be something decidedly earthbound.
"Hey, I think I just saw a comet go past on this side!" yelled Davy.
"I feel like I oughtta be up on the bow of the ship yelling 'I'm the king of the world' or something." giggled Niklas.
"You would have to quote that movie, wouldn't you?" remarked Keith. "The ship sank. Get over it."
Niklas ignored him. "Jahv, this is incredible! And you get to do this sort of thing all the time?"
Jahv grinned. "Believe it or not, it becomes routine after a while."
"I don't believe that." said Niklas, still staring out the window. "This could never become routine."
"Hey, any chance of stopping on Mars on the way to this planet you mentioned?" asked Davy.
"It's not on the itinerary." replied Jahv from the cockpit. "Why?"
Davy shrugged. "I just thought it'd be a blast to walk past Pathfinder's camera and freak out all of NASA."
"You're evil, you know that?" remarked Niklas, grinning. "Fortunately for NASA in this case, I think I read that Pathfinder's batteries have already drained. But maybe we could figure out what happened to that Polar Lander probe they lost."
"I've got a better idea." said Keith, finally recovered from his brief nausea. "We do this again, we should take a couple of soda cans with us and leave 'em on Mars. Wouldn't that drive the 'first' manned mission to Mars completely nuts?"
"Great, we've got a kid on board who wants to be the world's first interplanetary litterbug." commented Niklas.
"Yeah, right." said Keith. "I saw an old video with astronauts on the moon. How about that one that golfed? You think he bothered to track down and fetch the ball back?"
Niklas groaned. "Jahv, when do we enter this hyperwarp or whatever you called it?"
"In about ten seconds, fortunately." replied Jahv.
Ten seconds later, the stars around the shuttle seemed to shift into long, straight lines, spinning around the small vessel. This time, the inertia compensators couldn't quite keep up, and the boys felt a decided tug of gravity slam them into their seats.
Once it alleviated, they all breathed something of a sigh of relief. Niklas had alternately been paying attention to the scenery outside the window, which at this point looked like stars whipping past so fast it was honestly making him dizzy, and noticing the empty co-pilot's seat next to Jahv. He surmised that Jahv and Keyro had used some sort of standard design for shuttle building that included a two-person cockpit. Figuring the shuttle was stable enough for him to get up and walk around, Niklas unstrapped and headed over to the cockpit. "May I join you?"
Jahv smiled. "Certainly. But strap in and don't lean on anything, okay?"
Niklas sat down and buckled the harness, and took a look through the front window. That scene was even more bile-inducing than the stars shooting past sideways where he'd been. It looked like a tunnel of stars, moving impossibly fast. Niklas wasn't sure if he was getting hypnotized or was about to throw up. He decided it really didn't matter, and averted his eyes and looked at Jahv instead.
Jahv looked just a little nervous, but was hiding it well. His antennae were perked up higher than usual. Niklas found Jahv fascinating. A child from another planet. He assumed that he and Jahv were more or less the same age, but what was a year to Jahv? Did his people age at the same pace? Jahv tended to act much more mature than his appearance. That could either mean he was older, or it was just normal for his people to act that way.
Niklas had always wanted an older brother, but he didn't have one, and of course it was an impossibility as such. Jahv acted older even if he wasn't. Niklas started to think it would be pretty cool to have a brother who didn't look any older, but sort of acted like a big brother, to a point.
And Jahv's huge dark eyes, white, almost feathery hair, and green skin made him that much more interesting. It was the differences and the similarities Niklas noticed, which put together made an interesting package. Given that Jahv tended to spend most of his time naked, it was readily apparent to anyone that he was both humanoid and a boy. And yet, if one combined the eyes, the antennae, the hair, the green skin, and the fact that Jahv had only four fingers per hand and four toes per foot, it was equally clear that Jahv was something quite different from what most people defined as «human». Niklas couldn't help but stare and smile at this remarkable friend he had made, and he felt something special inside whenever he thought of him.
Jahv, meanwhile, was paying very close attention to the navigational console and trying desperately to look like he knew what he was doing more than he really did. He and Keyro had assembled this shuttle from proved design parameters, and checked out all the specifications, so in theory, it should be a fully safe and operational spacecraft. But flying the thing was a different matter. Jahv was not an experienced pilot. He'd trained on a number of simulator devices, which were more than just games, and he had done well, but his mind couldn't help but remind him that this was the real thing, and if he messed up, he and his friends were space dust, and those left behind on Earth would have a lot of explaining to do.
An experienced pilot would not find this flight a challenging one. Straight shot out and back from one planet to another along precise coordinates was what would be called, in Earth slang, a "milk run". But Jahv was finding that all of the space-survival lessons he'd had pumped into his head from the instant he could understand language at once giving him a certain measure of confidence that he was capable of making this flight safely, and making him paranoid over everything that could go wrong. But he did notice Niklas staring at him, with a big silly grin on his face. Jahv returned the smile and Niklas' face reddened somewhat.
Niklas didn't visit the tent-dome quite as often as Keith or Davy or Martin did, but his visits were becoming more frequent, and he seemed to enjoy spending time especially with Jahv, and seemed to like being as physically close as possible. Jahv didn't entirely understand this. It wasn't rude behavior, but it did strike Jahv as peculiar. It had taken Keyro, after his arrival, and after witnessing this a few times, to finally explain it.
It had been one evening when Jahv and Keyro were discussing their new friends. "Niklas is the one that mystefies me," Jahv had commented. "The others are a little more obvious. Both Davy and Keith are, in their own way, lonely. Davy has few friends in the immediate area, and Keith comes out here to escape his home situation, much as we left ours. Martin comes out here because for him, it is a safe adventure for an otherwise timid boy. But Niklas seems at once the most well-adjusted of the lot and yet the most mysterious. I can't figure him out."
"I can't figure out why you keep using those big words." said Keyro. "You put out much more static and people around here will start getting interference on their radios." The two alien boys, when on their own, of course, spoke their native language, which sounded like static to anyone else. "You don't have to impress me with your vocabulary, and I think Mom and Dad always figured you were just showing off."
Jahv huffed. "Mom and Dad probably never heard much of a word I said."
"Anyway, Niklas is easy to figure out, if you have the right perspective." said Keyro.
"Which would be —?" asked Jahv, genuinely curious.
"Mine." replied Keyro. "Niklas wants a big brother. We've heard him mention a younger sister a few times, but I think he'd rather have a big brother than be one."
"But he and I are of nearly identical age." countered Jahv.
"You also act a lot older most of the time." said Keyro. "Niklas is picking up on that. And I suspect he's probably not sure how old either one of us are. Basically, we look the same as they do, so they figure us for kids. But they're probably smart enough to consider the possibility that we might not be that close in age to them."