APRIL 6, 2011

Lilly Majestic's brother was safe.

The blond man knew this because Ken Herman knew this.

Reese Low rolled a blue ball across the distance between herself and a boy.

Ken and his charge, Reese, were in a lounge room. Watcher Denny Merit and a kid named Aris Upside were nearby. They were passengers. The four Soynites belonged to a thirteen-person group.

"I'm going to kill every Freeman I can," Reese said. She sat across Aris on the blue floor.

Lock Tannis, you aren't going to kill this one.

"I'll help you," Aris said.

Next to Aris was a flashlight, but he didn't bother to shine it against anything or anyone.

As he sat near Reese, Aris touched his black hair. The young boy's eyes were brown. Reed Pisces, who had been exiled from Soy a long time ago, knew what it was like to have black hair and brown eyes.

Denny Merit stood beside Ken. He was the Watcher of Aris Upside.

The man's hair was blond, like Ken's, but it went past his broad shoulders. The long-haired Denny stood with his muscular arms crossed as he watched the boy he had boarded the spaceship with.

All the Highs and all their Watchers had made it into the spaceship. They lived together. Six child rulers. Six adult Watchers. One pilot.

Ken.

Denny.

Reese.

Aris.

They were four people, but a fifth person occupied the room.

Cape Majestic. He sat on a sofa, holding a blue tablet. The screen glowed against his face as he tapped his small finger against it.

Theo Majestic and Cape were descended from Hase Majestic, the first Soynite.

Stars and distant planets and distant moons were outside the space vessel as it flew. Beyond the circular window was the vacuum of outer space. Past the window was outer space's vastness, and within the room was Ken the Watcher. He was more than a Watcher.

Breakfast would come.

What Victor Valley fed into Kara Ascend wasn't solid food. Baby Kara didn't have the luxury to bite into fruit. She had no teeth.

Kara wouldn't be the age of one by the time the spaceship landed on Earth. The baby would still be more defenseless than the other High children. The Freemans needed Soynites to be as defenseless as possible. A Freeman was a problem. Lock Tannis was a problem.

Ken and Lilly's brother had the exact same problems.

"When the two of you are older, you'll be able to fight the Freemans," Denny said. "Right now, you both are too young."

They weren't on planet Earth, not yet, but they would be. What covered the thirteen passengers was safety. It embraced them. The spaceship could reach the humans' planet in less than a day, but the Watchers and the children needed to spend time inside the spacecraft. They needed to prepare. Theo Majestic had refused to let the crew be too traumatized by the time they got to Earth.

After the Watchers and the Highs landed, they would split into six groups of two.

Reese Low would go with Ken Herman.

Cape Majestic would go with Ine Rain.

Aris Upside would go with Denny Merit.

Lovely Windsore would go with Marina Tome.

Path Seekman would go with Jamie Clarke.

Kara Ascend would go with Victor Valley.

Path Seekman was good at finding people. That boy was the eldest High. Seven years ago, he had been born on the second of January.

The door opened. A woman with orange hair and green eyes moved into the room, followed by a green-eyed child whose hair was orange.

Marina Tome was the woman.

Lovely Windsore was the girl.

The Watcher and the girl had the same hair color and eye color as each other, but they were not mother and daughter. They were not sister and sister. They were not aunt and niece.

Like Marina, Lovely was pale.

They frequented the spaceship's UV light room, which is also what the other passengers did, but the orange-haired Soynites were naturally pale.

Marina was the only woman inside the spaceship. She had gone to the outside of the spaceport. Lovely and Boone Windsore had been with her. Boone. He was Lovely's father. The girl and her Watcher didn't know if he was alive or dead.

Boone wasn't with Marina or Lovely. The High childrens' friends and family had been prohibited from boarding the spaceship. Only the pilot, the six Highs, and their Watchers had been allowed to enter the space vessel.

Kara Ascend was one of the spaceship's crew members. She was a Pure. Ken didn't know what Saves the baby would develop.

One of the former Highs, Don Ascend, was Kara's biological father. He had been absent for his own daughter's birth. Five former Highs had gone missing. Before the invasion, they had still been Highs. Before the invasion, they had become missing men.

Theo Majestic had succeeded in greeting the Highs and their Watchers outside the spaceport.

Ken had met Theo many times in the past.

"Hello, you two," Marina said, directing her words to the children sitting on the floor. She smiled. "Would the both of you like Lovely to play with you, too?"

Aris scowled. He grabbed the flashlight, turned it on, then aimed its bright beam at Lovely's eyes. She shielded her face with her pale hands.

"Aris!" Denny said. "You blinded the poor kid!"

"She's never going to be blinded for real," Aris said. "She is mean. I hate her."

Marina moved onto her knees in front of Lovely. She put her hands on the kid's shoulders.

"Are you okay, Lovely?" Marina said.

"Yes," Lovely said. She moved her hands away from her face, then blinked several times. Lovely glared at Aris. "I hate you too."

Lovely sat next to Cape on the sofa. He scooted over. Aris laughed.

"Cape doesn't want to sit next to you, because you're mean," Aris said. Lovely curled her fingers around her white pants. "I'm happy that I aimed my flashlight at you."

It was great the boy hadn't aimed a laser gun at Lovely's face.

"Stop it, Aris," Denny said.

"Get killed by a Freeman," Lovely said.

"That's enough, Lovely," Marina said.

Cape stood. He turned and placed his tablet on the sofa's blue cushion, then he and Reese made eye contact. Ken hoped the two kids would still be friends ten years from now.

Because Ken had done what Reese's birth parents had wanted to happen, Reese and Cape were able to play together.

Ken had known what to do.

He thought about people who weren't related to him, and then he thought about Reese.

Yes, the Watcher had known what to do. And he didn't forget how important it was for him to reunite with Theo, Lilly, Nick, Hailey, Anne, Don, and Boris. The man had to reunite with other people as well.

Reese held the ball higher.

"Do you want to play with me, Cape?" she asked.

"Of course!" Cape said.

They sat across each other on the floor, rolled the ball back and forth, playing. Ken smiled.

"You should be good to Lovely, Aris," Ken said. "I want to see the two of you be good friends, like what Reese and Cape are to each other."

Aris turned on the flashlight. He roamed its beam along a wall, letting blue glow in the illumination.

Ken didn't intend on letting Reese deal with the Freemans on her own. Perhaps the man and the girl would attack a Freeman base. In the future, of course.

"Keep wanting," Aris said. "I'm never going to be Lovely's friend."

The children would get older, and they would have to work together, to bring the Freemans the deaths they deserved. Someone had to kill Lock Tannis. His position as Freeman ruler had lasted for far too long, and a Soynite needed to dispose of that Freeman.

It would be better if Aris and Lovely became friends, Ken knew.

Aris and Lovely would show wisdom if they befriended each other. The boy Aris had aimed a flashlight's glow at Lovely's green eyes, and had made her obvious dislike for him deepen.

Though Ken could not see her from his location in the lounge room, Kara Ascend was out there. She would have to become friends with Lovely. Kara was a baby. Perhaps she wouldn't be dead ten years from now. The chance existed she would befriend Lovely after a decade went by.

To his dismay, Ken was aware there was a possibility Soy wouldn't be revived in ten years.

The Watcher and the other crew members had watched live footage of Soy. The Freemans had ruined the planet. A camera attached to a Soynite space station had given the traveling group a view of Soy's destruction. The space station monitored Soy, gave information about it, provided intelligence about its surface and well-being.

Green had dominated Soy.

Gray dominated it.

The computer in the bridge had informed Ken and the others Soy had become barren. The space station meant for monitoring Soy had allowed that information to come to the computer. A Freeman spaceship had destroyed the space station.

The Freemans had destroyed so much.

Regardless, they hadn't destroyed the new generation of Soynite Highs. They hadn't destroyed Reese.

The Freemans had slaughtered without shame, without mercy, without remorse.

Lock Tannis had sent his pale warriors to unleash destructive chaos on Soy and its people. Soynites had earned the right to live in peace, but the Freemans had plunged the number of living Soynites way too close to zero. The pale brutes had drained lives. They had killed.

Ken didn't care to meet Lock. Not now. Not yet. Not this day.

The Watcher would hurl insults at the Freemans' ruler, but it wouldn't come today. For now, safe in a spaceship, Ken clutched appreciation. He didn't die. His heart didn't bleed. The man was as alive as the others within the spaceship, which was huge and blue. Ken had been inside a huge and blue building.

He would go to Earth. The Watcher would meet a human man. The man intended on giving Ken and the others assistance.

Ken could not see Earth from here, but it was real.

The planet was distant, so far from the moving spaceship, but the crew would arrive on Earth. They would be among humans, who looked like Soynites.

Ken enjoyed the safety he had earned. He hadn't died during the attack.

"You have to become Lovely's friend, little one," Marina said. She stood next to the sofa. Lovely stayed on it as she fiddled with her blue shirt's short sleeve. "Teamwork is extremely important during a war. You two have to cooperate with each other. You have to like each other."

A child ruler, that was what Lovely was.

She was not Aris's friend, but her Watcher preferred for her to be. Marina, like the other Watchers living in the spaceship, had no powers. The fierce kid she had been tasked with mentoring was young. Lovely could gain Saves. She could. In the now, though, the girl had none. No powers.

Lock Tannis had multiple powers at his disposal.

His death would not be a loss worth mourning. In order to bring peace, the universe's worst Freeman needed to die. Lock needed to die.

Freemans would mourn his death.

Soynites would celebrate it.

Ken was a Soynite who was safe. He didn't fight for his life on Soy anymore. His situation had changed.

Soy was far away. Earth was far away. The spaceship had left Soy, and its destination was Earth. It wasn't close, but the space vessel's crew needed to get close to the planet.

Either way, Reese was safer with Ken than she was with anyone else. He wouldn't abandon her. She wouldn't abandon him. Spiteful warriors who were not like them had stepped foot on their planet. Freemans had come to Soy. They hadn't been gentle. They hadn't been polite. They hadn't come to give the Soynites precious gifts.

Lovely leaned back against the sofa's blue softness, then the girl released a heavy sigh.

"I'm never going to be his friend," Lovely said. She pointed at Aris. "You are almost as annoying as Lock Tannis."

Denny rubbed his forehead with his thumb.

Playing kids, frustrated kids, and three adults were in the room, but Lock Tannis didn't stand or sit in it.

The invasion had come because Lock Tannis had arranged for its advent. He led the Freemans. He had made them do what Ken had preferred for them not to do. Lock had brought suffering. He had let it smother Soy and its residents.

Anger had flared through Ken, bitter anger. Sadness had rushed through him.

The man had found safety, but he hadn't killed Lock Tannis. Even if he had the potential to kill Tannis, the Freeman leader was not in front of him. Ken relished his status as an enemy of Tannis's cruel empire. He loved it. He also loved the kid Reese, and keeping her safe was one of the reasons why Lock Tannis's life had to end.

While the pale opponents praised and appreciated Lock Tannis, Ken was the Freemans' enemy, adversary, foe.

The Freemans had enemies in Ken, five other Watchers, and six young leaders.

Being enemies with so many Freemans was nothing nice. It was horrible. Ken, who was away from Soy and away from Earth, planned on doing whatever he had to do to end the war. He had to end the war with the Freemans.

For now, as he stood beside Denny, Ken knew the war wasn't over. It hadn't died. Soynites had died, but the war with Lock Tannis hadn't.

Ken had made it off his home world without a Freeman ending his life.

Agony had sunk into him, but he lived.

He lived.

"I hope bellmas eat you," Lovely said. She aimed her green eyes at Aris's face. "I want them to eat you alive."

It wasn't impossible for bellmas to tear into Aris's young flesh with their sharp teeth, but no bellmas were near the boy.

"They won't," Aris said. "But bellmas should really eat you. They really should."

Aris didn't like Lovely.

Lovely didn't like Aris.

Even though Freemans despised both children, Lovely and Aris would rather argue with each other than make peace.

Peace.

The Freemans hadn't come in peace. They had come with dark laser rifles and red laser rifles, and they had brought vicious animals to the Soynites' planet. Enemies had wiped out Soy's beauty.

Enemies hadn't wiped out Ken, Lovely, or Aris.

Ken, Lovely, and Aris lived in the universe. They wanted to stay in it.

If the three were fortunate survivors, they would survive longer and be alive ten years from now. Ken hoped for it.

Lock Tannis had catalyzed a brutal massacre in Ken's lifetime, and the ruler's actions had forced Ken and Lovely and Aris to leave their planet. Reese, Cape, Marina, Denny, they had been forced to leave Soy.

Thirteen Soynites lived together. They resided in a spaceship that had multiple halls and multiple rooms, but only one pilot occupied the space vehicle.

The pilot had a name.

Copper Storm.

His hair was black and his eyes were brown. He was muscular. The man would fly the spaceship's crew to Earth.

The pilot didn't hurt Ken. He didn't hurt the other passengers, the twelve people he intended on taking to Earth. Pilot Copper Storm could get Ken and the passengers to where they needed to go. Greatness filled him.

"Aris, you need to stop this," Denny said. Cape rolled the ball to Reese. Lovely smirked. Marina put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "You and Lovely are allies. When the two of you are older and stronger, you will both have to fight Freemans together. I know you want to fight them, Aris, but you're not the only Soynite. There are others. There's me, Lovely, and other great ones. We have to work together. You and Lovely have to work together. That means the two of you have to be friends. You have to get along. It has to happen."

"No," Lovely said. "No, it doesn't."

Yes, it did.

"Denny is right," Marina said. "You and Aris over there have to be friends with each other. It's true."

"I want to kill him," Lovely said.

"Don't say that!" Cape said. He didn't roll the ball to Reese. "Aris is my friend."

"Be quiet!" Lovely shouted. She curled her fingers around her pants. "I don't care if Hase Majestic is your ancestor! I don't like you!"

Ken looked at the kid he had been tasked with mentoring.

Lock Tannis, you aren't going to kill this one.

"Don't talk to him like that!" Reese said. She stood. Her hands came to her hips. "He's my best friend. You don't talk to my best friend like that!"

"Marina, Lovely is making the kids uncomfortable," Denny said.

"It was a mistake to bring you in here," Marina said. She hadn't meant bringing Lovely into the spaceship had been a mistake. Ken hoped not. "Come with me, Lovely. Maybe you're hungry. Maybe you just need food in you. Let's go to the cafeteria."

Lovely crossed her thin arms.

"I'm not leaving," she said.

"I'll carry you," Marina said. "You're little, just like the other Highs."

Correct. Lovely, Cape, Aris, Reese, Path, Kara, they were all young. They were much smaller than Lock Tannis, easier to carry and move around than the Freeman ruler. Kara. She was smaller than the other High children. A baby. The girl was a baby. Don Ascend had fathered her.

He was a former High. Theo had erased the previous High generation. He had brought a new High generation into the universe. Most of the present Highs still had baby teeth. One of them had none.

Six children filled the current High positions.

"Be a good girl," Marina said. "Please."

She approached Lovely and picked her up. The woman carried the girl bridal style.

"Me and Lovely are going to go eat," Marina said. Lovely scowled. "We're going to be in the cafeteria."

"So will we," Ken said. Marina left the room, carrying the rudest High, the small fury. Ken approached Reese. "Let's go have breakfast, Reese. It will be fun. Cape can come with us."

Reese smiled.

She tended to fiddle with her fingers when uncomfortable, but she didn't fiddle with them now.

Great.

Ken had been in the girl's life for a long time, longer than she knew.

Reese had a birthday. February 20th. She and Cape had both been born on the twentieth of February. They were five.

Even the rude Lovely Windsore had a birthday. She was a living being, of course.

January 14th.

That was Lovely's birthday.

Five years ago, the rudest kid in the spaceship had come into the universe.

January 10th.

That was Aris Upside's birthday. Like Reese, Cape, and Lovely, Aris was five years old.

Path and Kara weren't five-year-olds.

January 2nd.

That was Path Seekman's birthday. He was seven years old, a Bloodhound, a High.

March 1st.

That was Kara Ascend's birthday. The baby had been born during the invasion.

Freemans, they had murdered Soynite babies. They hadn't turned Kara into a murder victim, but that didn't mean a Freeman would never kill her. Babies can be killed. Kara could be killed.

Ken could be killed.

He wasn't invincible. Ken and Theo Majestic weren't the same person. If a Freeman foe opened fire on Theo, the laser beam would deflect off the man. It wouldn't hurt him. No one could hurt Theo. Not even Lock Tannis could hurt him.

If a Freeman foe shot Ken, something the Watcher preferred not to happen, the laser would hurt him. It could kill him.

Much to Ken's dismay, Freemans were real.

During the invasion, the Freemans hadn't traveled to Soy so they could give gifts to Don Ascend's pregnant wife. The Freemans had ventured to Soy so they could kill. They had killed Soynites.

A Freeman had killed Reese's adoptive parents. A Freeman had murdered Bowie Low and Prim Low, people who had deserved better. What a shame. Ken hoped Reese would avenge her parents' deaths. Perhaps a Freeman hadn't murdered her birth parents.

Still, Freemans had murdered good people.

The slaughtering that had occurred on Soy, it had brought physical agony, emotional agony.

Ken lived. He wasn't a corpse with a puddle of spreading blood underneath its weight, but emotional agony isn't light. Its heaviness can lead a man to commit suicide. Ken was no dead man. His death would come, but he hoped it wouldn't come because of his own doing.

Reese was his responsibility.

She had a name. She had an original name. Her birth parents had given it to her. She had a second name, Reese. The Lows had given her that name.

After they landed on Earth, the High children and their Watchers would have to go by new names.

What would Ken's new name be? What new names would he have in the future?

John. Arthur. Bill. Those names were decent enough.

Kevin.

That was a great one.

Doug. Peter. Everett. Dave. Those were decent names. In any case, the man's current name was Ken, his original name, his Soynite name.

What would Reese's future name be?

Charlotte. Sabrina. Those were good names.

The human helper would meet Ken and the human knew what the man was. A Soynite. The crew wouldn't pretend to be human around the helper they were supposed to meet.

The spaceship's destination was a place sand dominated. A desert. Deserts didn't exist on Soy, but they were found on Earth. A desert in Nevada, U.S.A. was where the crew would head to. The emergency protocol Theo had created stated that, in the event of a full-scale attack on Soy, the High children would go to that specific desert with their Watchers and the pilot.

Copper Storm had lost communication with Theo.

The pilot informed the passengers about what they needed to be informed about, but he was one man. He had no powers. The pilot he had been in contact with was the most powerful Soynite, but Theo wasn't able to communicate with Copper. Not anymore.

Was Theo alive?

Was he dead?

Wherever Theo was, Ken and the spaceship's passengers preferred him to stay alive and well. The crew needed Theo alive. The Soynite population needed him alive.

Theo was the best chance the Soynites had at winning the war. If he was dead, who would kill Lock Tannis and end the war?

The Freemans hadn't brought peace and love to Soy.

Reese offered Cape her hand. He took it. Ken left the room, with Reese and Cape following him. Footsteps came, emerging from the room they had left. Aris and Denny joined the small group.

Victor Valley walked in the long hall, carrying a baby. The man had wrapped a blue blanket around Kara's small body. The infant Kara was in it now, safe as her adoptive father held her.

Ken, Reese, Cape, Denny, and Aris went to the cafeteria.

Long benches were arranged in rows. They were white, unlike the floor.

Path Seekman and Jamie Clarke put distance between themselves and the kitchen, holding food trays, their shoes meeting the blue floor as they walked. Path and Jamie were brown-haired and brown-eyed, like Kara and Watcher Victor Valley.

After placing his food tray on a bench's table, Path waved. Ken, Reese, and Cape waved back.

Time passed.

Ken, Reese, and Cape sat at a bench. Food trays and bottled juice rested on the white surface.

Path and Jamie laughed at one bench.

Aris and Denny sat at one bench. The boy Aris punched the air and grinned. Denny smiled. He shook his head.

While she held a piece of fruit, Lovely glared at Aris.

Aris had aimed an activated flashlight at her green eyes. Ken had seen it happen. But Lovely terrorizing the children who could walk wasn't a rare sight in the spaceship. Ken pitied any Soynite who would meet Lovely at least ten years from now. A rude child was a rude child. A rude teenager could be dangerous enough to be a serious threat.

Marina had carried Lovely out the room. The pair had gone into the cafeteria, but Reese, Cape, and Aris had done the same.

The nearby children who didn't sport orange hair didn't like the one who did. They weren't far from her.

Lovely could fling her piece of fruit at Aris's head, but she didn't.

"Lovely is so mean," Reese said. She bit into her fruit, chewed, swallowed. "Cape, you saw how she treated us. She's bad. She's a bad person."

Ken would rather deal with Lovely than deal with a seven-foot tall Freeman warrior.

Reese, Cape, and the four other Highs were away from any Freeman enemy. For now, distant from Earth, Reese and Cape had to deal with the trouble a five-year-old girl hurled into their lives.

Lovely, no longer scowling at Aris, set her fruit on the tray in front of her. The kid grabbed her bottled juice. She smirked.

"I know," Cape said. He sat next to Reese, who sat across Ken. "She went into the room with us, then made us angry. She made us so mad."

The Freemans had made Ken mad.

If the pale brutes caught and imprisoned the Soynite man in the future, he would escape.

Unbeknownst to Ken Herman, in California, planet Earth, he would escape a Freeman base on his own.

"Don't be too concerned, kids," Ken said. Reese fiddled with her fingers. "Lovely isn't going to treat the two of you harshly forever. Perhaps she will like the both of you. Eventually."

Cape sneered.

"That is never going to happen," he said. "I don't like her. I never will."

Would Cape kill Lock Tannis? Would that happen?

Lock Tannis had made his Freeman warriors attack Soy's wonderful people. They had attacked Soynites hard.

Lovely stood. With the bottled juice in her pale hand, she walked. The bottle's lid sat on the table.

The girl walked until she stood close behind Aris. She tilted the bottle. Red fruit juice spilled onto black hair, Aris's black hair.

Aris shouted.

He stood, whipped around.

"You poured juice on me!" Aris said, stating the obvious.

Denny stood. He placed a hand on Aris's shoulder. Red liquid dripped off the boy's dark hair. It was Lovely's work. It gave Aris another reason to dislike the girl in front of him.

Marina approached Lovely from behind.

"If these Watchers weren't here, I would beat you up!" Aris said, clenching his fists.

Lovely dropped the bottled juice. It rolled against the floor, the transparent container moving as anger moved within Aris.

A hand grabbed Lovely's, an adult hand. Marina moved. She forced Lovely to move near her while Aris slammed his hands against the table.

"I'm glad I aimed my flashlight at you!" Aris shouted. "I hope you become blind forever!"

Reese and Cape laughed.

"Weakling!" Lovely shouted. "You could've hurt me, but you didn't! You're a weakling!"

After Lovely and Marina left, so did Aris and Denny.

Path went near the discarded juice bottle. He picked up. After moving it into a trash bin, the boy took his seat. The young Bloodhound was a good kid. Ken wished Lovely would become as great as him.

Ken knew another Bloodhound, but he didn't know if that woman was still alive.

"I wish Aris hurt Lovely," Cape said.

"Me too," Reese said.

Reese and Cape, they didn't like the same person. They disliked Lovely. Their clear dislike for the girl strengthened their bond.

Reese and Cape might kill Freemans together in the future. The future, it was not certain. Perhaps a Freeman spaceship would destroy the Soynite spacecraft before the day ended. If the Soynite crew reached Earth without dying, that would be nice. But the Freemans were beyond their current home. They were beyond the blue spaceship.

Ken and Reese and Cape would have to fight. They would have to fight, kill, survive.

Path had picked up a fallen bottled juice. Ten years from now, or eleven years from now, he might pick up a friend's lifeless body and drop it into a hole in Earth's ground.

Lovely had dumped juice onto Aris. Years from now, the girl might bring actual pain to another Soynite. Ken hoped that Soynite wouldn't be him. The man hoped that Soynite wouldn't be Reese, Cape, or Hailey.

A Freeman had hurt Reese's parents. He had killed them.

A Freeman had hurt Ken's parents. He had killed them.

Ken and Reese were more alike than she knew. Marina, Denny, all the adults in the spaceship knew who Ken was. All the High children with teeth knew who the man was.

They knew who his sibling was.