Fantacia. Voxian series Book One. Chapter 10

Chapter 10
All seemed quiet on Titan, Kathos and Comet were still discussing the film they had encountered the night before with Orion, they were laughing and joking about the Human idea of what they believed a Vardu (or as Humans would say ‘vampire’) was like.
“These stories would be seen as a comedy on Vox, it’s amazing because Humans are part of the Vardu food chain, but they don’t believe Vampires are real, Vardu don’t make themselves known on Earth, so they have never seen one of these creatures in the fl...” Orion said stopping to try and think how to describe them.
“Rotting meat suit?” Comet said laughing.
“These creatures are nothing like films and books on Earth described Vampires.” Orion replied smiling at Comets very quaint description.
“Well actually it’s more like dead flesh and muscle.” Kathos added to Comets depiction.
The Vardu (or Vampire) conversation finished at that, Orion was still pulling a confused face that said it all really.
“We need to talk about serious stuff, like our approach to the Humans.” Kathos said. “You say there is a newspaper office nearby?”Kathos looked at Orion and he nodded to his grandfather. “What can we do to get this message of danger across to the Humans?” Kathos asked.
“Titan has computers and the internet; the academics here do not rely so much on televisions. My idea is simple and quick; we need to spread the news perhaps by newspaper article” Orion said.
Orion was searching for the newspaper they had previously found, it was in a pile of papers on the coffee table, he then began to show Kathos and Comet the article the team had found before they had fled Titan.
“I see,” said Comet holding the paper up for them all to see “Yes, the date shows that people who are living on Titan can actually get back to Earth, which was said to be impossible. Why have the leaders lied about this?”
Orion shrugged, he picked up his mobile phone from the table in the front room and punched in some numbers; he waited, not pressing the call button just yet.
“Last night I managed to contact my friend from college Stuart.” Orion said “He is working on ‘The Titan News’ in the press office. He is in control of the presses and the printing blocks that go together to make the articles.”
“Is that who you’re contacting now?” asked Comet.
“I am hoping he is still alright, we will go to his office this morning. I am going to ask Stu to place an article in the dailies of Titan.” Orion said.
“How big is the population on this moon Orion?” Kathos asked.
“Titan has a population of around two million, I can assure you that between all of us we can get the article distributed, highlighting the date on it in bold, with a circle around it if needs be, the news will be distributed one way or another and seen by the people who live here” Orion said.
“Those who don’t read this article, I am sure will be told by those who have. The only problem we have is with Beth and her Vardu cronies.” said Comet.
“Yes, I am afraid there is just one complication in this plan, I have been informed only this morning by our spies that Belial has taken ownership of all the press offices, he won’t be too happy that we are getting the message out using his businesses, which in a way is ironic ” said Kathos.
“Ah...That is just too bad,” Orion said making a crying sign pretending to rub his eyes.
Comet laughed. “You’re a crazy idiot! We should consider getting to work on this, I am sure we can help your friend; all we have to do then is set up the article and get out of there before we are seen. We can take your friend Stuart with us... So how can we help?” he said.
“Make the ship ready to go home, I hate it here, this place always smells like cow dung. If I need you, I will call you, just keep your mind open so that you hear me” said Orion. “A better idea would be for you to warn me if Beth turns up.”
Comet and Kathos nodded at Orion, they both got on with packing from a list given to them by Fantacia before they left Vox, two lists actually, they had a small list of books from Drakos whose words were ‘I am never going back to that shit hole’.
Orion drove a black and red land rover that had been left as they vacated the place before. He wasn’t happy that he had been stuck once again on this iron Hell, this time he hoped to persuade Stu to leave with him. That would be hard...
Orion pulled up outside the printing offices, but could see immediately that something was wrong.
The place was abandoned and the machines silent.
The offices were in a large warehouse type building which usually had a lot of loud machine noise coming from it. People looked across as Orion stepped from his vehicle, then turned and got on with their work in the nearby buildings.
Orion walked through a door at the side that had been left open slightly, then he heard a... “PSSST!” Orion began to look around, but he could see no one.
“PSSST! Over here!” came a familiar whisper.
Orion turned to see Stu bundled under a mass of netting and old disused magazines; he looked filthy, like he had been there a while, perhaps even slept in hiding.
“What’s going on?” Orion said as he looked around, he could see no one else the whole of the building stood empty.
He went over to his friend.
“What are you doing here? You look like something the cat sicked up!” Orion whispered.
“I know man; I’ve been hiding out here.” Stu said running his fingers through his untidy hair “Yesterday this chick turned up here wanting to see the editor, she had some strange looking guys with her, they were weird man, all toothy and fangy, they were just too creepy for me, so I hid. These dudes walked into the editor’s office and just grabbed him, the editor I mean, she snapped his neck like breaking a stick.” Stu said shaking his head.
Stu looked terrified, Orion understood what he meant, the Vardu scared the shit out of him and he was a Voxian.
“Shit mate are you okay?” Orion asked him with some concern.
“I think so, I didn’t want to hide, but man it was too late for my editor, he was dead. I just did a runner, didn’t see the point in trying to fight her and her strange fangy dudes. She looked like a bodybuilder, the things that were with her, man, they appeared up through the floor like, from nowhere!” Stu began to panic as he described the scene in the press building.
Orion looked around, the presses that normally ran around the clock were silent, kind of spooky, every move they made in the building echoed.
“So what do we do now?” Stu asked
“I will call my Grandfather here and Uncle, all this could be too much for just us two to take on and if Beth comes back we need to be ready to fight her, look at this article!” Orion said.
Orion handed over the newspaper and showed Stu the front page; he was speechless and angry, he had left a lot behind on Earth including members of his family, he had no idea what to say.
Stu just bowed his head looking extremely saddened.
“It’s okay Stu” Orion put his hand on his friends shoulder to give him some comfort. “we can copy and distribute this picture to everyone. Will you be able to gain access to all the stuff still? We can help you start up the presses again. We will even help to distribute the papers.”
“Thanks man.” Stu said half smiling.
“Most of the equipment here is already sorted, we just have to take the article and add it to the computer systems here from this USB.” Orion showed him the small device he had pulled from his pocket.
“No lid as usual.” Stu laughed at his friend, Orion always lost the lids off these things.
“Is Beth, err...? I mean the buff woman, is she still around?” Orion asked.
Stu shook his head still staring at the photograph in the paper. Like Orion, Stu had also felt Titan was a giant iron Hell, he had missed the green trees and birds flying freely in skies of blue, he had longed to be on Earth.
Kathos and Comet arrived surprisingly fast, both by foot.
Stu just shrugged it off thinking they had been with Orion in the first place, so they could not have been very far away, but Orion smiled and shook his head, quite glad of his friend’s ignorance.
“Beth has been here” said Orion “she has killed the editor and left no workers here, the Vardu have probably killed them all by now, we need to pull together and help Stu get this printed and distributed around Titan.”
“Okay you guys; let’s get the article for the web sorted out first. A lot of Titanian dudes use a computer for news, this has to be our first priority, it is the most used method of spreading information. I am not sure who our best reporter is...or was, but I will quickly look to see if he or she is alive, if so I will see if they can help out a dude in distress!” Stu said.
Comet and Kathos looked at one another the young man’s language was causing them slight confusion.
Comet leaned towards Orion “What is a dude?” he asked.
“We are dudes; we are what are known as his fellow man!” Orion said.
“Is this English?” asked Comet
“No, it’s just slang talk that a lot of the younger Earthlings speak to sound cool!” Orion smiled as he answered.
Comet looked even more confused now “But how can it be cool if no one else can understand it? No offense!” he said.
“None taken, Comet.” Orion laughed.
Stu walked back over after talking on his cell phone, he was shaking his head “That is just so wrong man.” he said.
“What is? What has happened?” Kathos asked.
“The built chick warned him that the paper was now her property, she asked all of them to leave, then said they could never come back here, not without being punished.” Stu said.
“What does that mean? Is the reporter coming? Or are they afraid for their lives now? We can’t blame them.” Kathos said looking angry.
“No man he can’t come back here, he was too scared. This Beth chick said they know where he lives and his family, she threatened to take revenge if they see anything written in his name in the newspapers again. He will be killed, you know done over dude!” Stu said.
“Done over?” Comet looked in confusion at Orion again, who then made a cut throat sign with his finger across his throat, Comet got that immediately.
“It looks like it’s up to us then. We have to make this right and get the news out on the streets quickly man!” Stuart said “For Earth.” He put his fist in the air as Orion looked on.
“Dude sometimes you are such a drip!” Orion said.
The friends all shifted into action, Stu wrote a very good article named ‘Are the people of Earth alive and still out there? by Stu Smith’ he missed out his slang language like ‘dude’ and ‘chick’, in fact the article proved why he was on Titan in the first place, he was very obviously an academic, despite his jibber jabber as Comet now called it.
Stu emailed the news article out to all he could for fast delivery; he then posted the article on every social sight he could find.
Hoping that people would not think it was a hoax. He then put together the printing blocks, made a daily newspaper and called it “EARTH NEWS!’ putting that day’s date which was 12th February 2512.
“Oh My Goddess’! February 2512! We have only months to prepare and conquer Belial.” Kathos said.
“We already have our own species in training, we will be alright Kathos.” Comet said as he stopped to comfort his King just for a short moment, while Stu had began to pick up on the conversation; he still just shrugged and carried on regardless.
“You must let the people here know that the pods can be separated from the domes again, that they are able to get back to Earth. It may take a few weeks Stu, but they should be back in time for us to recruit those from Earth who wish to help fight. They must be careful that they are well sealed in before separating.” Comet said as the blocks were added to the press by Stu he nodded but said nothing.
Stu was fast, he had articles and recruitment details, all placed in the small 5 paged paper, it was only two hours later and he had managed to prepare everything. All in colour, it looked very professional.
“How many papers do I print?” Stu asked loading massive coils of paper to the machine with Orion’s help.
“How many do you think we can distribute?” Comet asked.
“I have called on the drivers to deliver as usual, this press distributes about 20,000 daily will that be enough? I can deliver some myself if you need me to and get them further afield.” Stu said.
Kathos approached Stu, he was so impressed by this young Human man, he had felt afraid of what could happen to him, yet still he had helped them to get the message across to his fellow man.
“Stuart?” Kathos said.
“Err...? Stu, if that’s okay dude.” Stu said.
“Stu, have you ever considered that other planets have inhabitants?” Kathos asked.
“You mean green aliens ‘n shit?” Stu replied.
“Well, not quite...but...Yes!” said Kathos.
Orion stood smiling again shaking his head in amusement as Stu was talking to Kathos their planet’s King, if only he had realised he was Royalty, he doubted Stu would be speaking to him like an everyday person.
Kathos and Comet now seemed to understand why it was so important to save Earth, not just because it had been home to their long lost family, but they kinda liked this guy as well.
They realised that there was something about the Human race that made saving it worthwhile. They may not have strength and be as powerful as the Voxian race, but there was something, something that made them like the Voxians, Stu had spirit, despite his weaknesses he was still willing to risk his life to help his friend and his species and he was just one Human man.
“If we asked you to fight by our side to save the Earth, would you want to?” Comet asked Stu as they worked.
“Sure thing dude, the Earth is our Mother; she gave us life and sustains the Human race. As chick planets go dude she is pretty awesome!” Stu replied.
Comet looked at Orion confused again.
“That means yes!” Orion said laughing.
Kathos and Comet could not help but laugh at the language he used, it was easy to understand once you caught on, it was about what replaced what; they knew he had the intelligence to talk properly, but he had more fun using the slang.
“Another question for you Stu, would you come back to our planet with us and train with our people, we want you to stand as good a chance of survival as possible.” Kathos asked.
“YOUR PLANET... DUDE... JUST A FRIGGIN’ SECOND!” Stu said a little panicked.
Stu looked at Orion and the panic just vanished from his face, he shrugged his shoulders “That figures! Sure why not, when do we go?”
Orion smiled at his grandfather, he knew from that moment Stu would be safe from harm with the Voxian people, that his bravery and would be a welcome addition to his family.
“So Orion dude, you’re an alien?” Stu said finding it all very funny now.
“Mmh if you are coming to my planet Stu, actually you are the alien! As for Titan... we are all aliens.” Orion replied.
Orion began giving Stu a quick rundown of Vox and his people as they carried on working.
Orion explained that for every 1 year on Earth it was more like a month on Vox, actually a year took ten Human years, hence why the Voxians did not age as quickly as Humans, the planet was far from their sun.
The friends carried on working, Stu, then suddenly realised that the reason his friend was so big was because he was from Vox and not Earth, a resounding “DUDE!” was respectfully said.
Orion was a fighting machine from another planet that had been sent to help save his planet.
“Man, this is just so cool!” Stu said throwing the printed papers now into the back of the waiting vans that had arrived at the door of the press offices. “Voxians, I can’t believe this. Did you know all along?” he asked Orion.
“No, I basically reacted like you when I found out; after all we are quite an awesome species. If I had been from a naff planet maybe I would feel different, but we are pretty cool on Vox dude.” Orion said now using the same strange slang.
The drivers of the two vans got out and asked which district they wanted the papers to go and then Stu pulled out maps of the quadrants and the areas to drop the papers that would be safe from Beth.
Stu and Kathos climbed into the back of the one van, while Comet and Orion jumped into the other.
These Human drivers were already risking their lives just driving this stuff to the destinations, the Voxians hoped that none of them would be caught handing out the newspapers.
But news needed to reach the people who lived on this god-forsaken moon.
As they pulled away, the doors began to shut on the vehicles.
Kathos shouted “Meet you back at base camp!”
The others nodded in agreement and the vans both moved off.
“Base camp dude where is that?” Stu asked.
“Fantacia’s makeshift home.” Kathos said smiling.
Stu shrugged, he knew that this guy could be trusted, he was really different from the other Voxians he had met, there was something but he just couldn’t put a word to it.
Orion looked as the van drove away. He really hoped that this would not be the last time he saw his friend Stu.
Kathos would not let anything bad happen to him, he would do all that he could to keep Stu safe from harm, but these Vardu creatures of Beth’s were a bunch of sneaky bastards. Orion turned to Comet and they began making plans to distribute the news quickly.