Jen Air: Out There
By John Coutelier
Copyright 2016 John Coutelier
Table of Contents
Introduction
Out There
About John Coutelier
Other books by John Coutelier
Connect with John Coutelier
Introduction
Outside of a town called Irongate, there was a lighthouse on top of a hill. Most did not know the story of how there came to be a lighthouse on top of hill miles from the ocean or any large body of water, so to them it was curious. Strange and lonely and out of place. Much like it’s occupant, Jennifer Airhart.
At least, she had been lonely. Now, due to a somewhat bizarre set of circumstances, an old friend had returned to her – Kaya Cade. They had explored the world together as children but, again due to a somewhat bizarre set of circumstances, they had separated in their teens and not seen each other in quite a few years. It seemed Kaya genuinely repentant for the bullying and cruelty she had inflicted on the other girl as a teenager, and so Jen had given her a chance. And not just her.
There was another girl, still a child, who had also been left alone in this world. A responsible of course would have turned her over to the proper authorities to find a home to care for her, but Tenley Tych was a unique case in several ways. Her now deceased mother had not only trained her in a variety of deadly skills, but the Queen Titania had made her into a changeling, possessing far greater agility and strength than any normal human.
Titania was not the Titania of stories and myth, but a creation of Alvin Stag and his corporation who had rebelled against her creator. It was that, ultimately, that had brought all these people together.
So now Jen lived in a lighthouse on top of a hill, and it was still strange and out of place, but it was no longer lonely.
Out There
The stars were very distant. To describe how distant they were was almost impossible. You could be given all the facts, the figures… but, say the distance between two cities was a hundred miles. That was maybe a two-hour drive, depending on traffic, but it was something you could feel, experience for yourself. But a hundred million, billions… those numbers mean nothing, as they are so far beyond a human being can experience in a lifetime. Basically, the universe is really, really big. And Jennifer had never lost her sense of wonder whenever she looked at it and the endless possibilities it offered.
The object she was looking at this night was a little closer to home than usual, a mere two hundred and fifty miles above her head, so barely off the ground, really. Right now it was a bluish white blob with antennae like ears. Nevertheless, as she adjusted the telescope, beside her the young Tenley was bouncing and flapping her arms, wailing, “I want to see!”
The fair star gazer sighed, “That’s… that’s not how you ask nicely.”
“No,” the little raven haired girl folded her arms, her head inclining to the left as her dark eyes shone on the woman. “No it’s not.” She didn’t say anything else, but you didn’t have to be an expert at reading body language to get her message. It was ‘I can punch a hole through your chest and your heart out faster than you can blink. That I haven’t done so already shows exceedingly good manners on my part.’ Which was hard to argue with, really, but Jen nevertheless stood her ground.
“I still have to focus and set the tracking,” she explained, “but if you don’t want to ask nicely, I suppose I could forego all that and leave you staring at some fuzzy white spheres.”
“Fine,” Ten huffed, stepping back a little. “I don’t really care, anyway. It’s just a shiny, expensive tin-can. I don’t know what all the fuss is about.”
“Well, that tin-can was made with the cooperation of scientists and engineers from all over our globe,” Jennifer explained while tapping the keys on her laptop set up on a tree stump. “That alone is almost a miracle, never mind the great feat of engineering that it was to get it up there… and that should be it…”
As Jen finished her adjustments she turned back to look again through the eyepiece. At least she would have done; her eye never quite made it. Something very rapidly accelerated into her side and the next thing she knew she was lying on her back several feet away gulping for breath. She supposed she ought to just be glad the girl seemed genuinely interested, even if the manner in which she expressed it still left something to be desired.
The van was parked by the edge of the forest, Kaya Cade sitting inside the open side door plucking her guitar strings. “I don’t get why we couldn’t do this at the lighthouse,” she asked idly, “you got plenty of telescopes on top of that tower.”
“You said I needed to get out more,” Jen answered. Besides, if she’d been at the top of the tower with Tenley there…
“This isn’t exactly what I meant.”
Sayuri Oshiro sat cross-legged on the ground near the van’s front tires. “I like it,” she said, arching her neck. “It reminds of when I went camping as a little girl. It’s good to get away from things, sometimes.”
“Your dad’s got you working hard at the store?” Kaya asked.
“He bought a crate filled with calculators and I’ve got to figure out some way to make a profit them. Don’t suppose you want to buy a calculator, do you Jen?”
The blonde scrambled up, flushing and stuttering nervously, “I-I don’t, really… no… I’ve an app on my tablet…”
“It’s all right,” Sayuri assured her, “no-one needs to buy a calculator anymore. I’m done for,” she sagged and groaned, sliding back against the tire. “I’ll be out on the streets. Forced to sell my body.”
Tenley turned to her and squinted. “You mean your kidneys and stuff?”
“Something like that… it’s an idea anyway.”
Kaya shrugged and tried to perk up her former band’s drummer. “Hey, come on… it won’t come to that.”
“No?”
“Nah. I mean, you could sell drugs. Stan Greif at The Mill is always looking for new employees. Benefits suck and he has a very literal interpretation of what it means to fire someone. But the pay’s decent.”
“Great. So my choices are life on the streets or life in prison.”
“You’ll work it out,” Kay winked. “You always do,” she turned to face the telescope. “In the meantime, can the rest of us see this station thing?”
Tenley seemed a little unwilling to surrender the eyepiece, but Jen shuffled by on her knees to her computer, clicking on it to bring up the image of the tin-can tumbling through space miles above them.
Sayuri pulled herself up and staggered over. “So what are they doing up there?”
“Oh… all sorts of experiments,” Jen said, arms bouncing excitedly. “Weather, biology, looking for dark matter…”
“Dark matter?”
“Oh, yeah,” Kaya grinned wickedly, “she was telling us about it the other night. See, scientists looked into space and did all these sums, and then they realized that most of the universe was missing. But rather than think their sums and theories were wrong they decided to just make up that there was all this stuff that no one can see. Dark matter.”
“Yes, well,” Jen huffed and folded her arms, although she again supposed she should just be glad anyone paid attention to anything she said, “When you have a better theory than Einstein to explain the behavior and structure of the observable universe, I’m sure scientists will be happy to hear it.”
“Obviously, giant space lizards stir the galaxies around with their tongues which the stars all stick to.”
“And… where did the invisible lizards come from?”
“God bought them from a pet store, of course. And they’re not invisible - they’re j
ust really well camouflaged.”
“So, you think the universe is just an infinite vivarium for God’s lizards?”
Sayuri wondered and asked, “Can a vivarium be infinite? I mean, could you really call it a vivarium if its dimensions are endless…”
“See,” Jen sighed, “your lizard theory just creates a lot more questions than it answers.”
But Kaya wasn’t ready to relent quite yet. “Yeah, well you’re going to be feeling pretty dumb when the end times come and the Earth is mistaken for a big blue bug.”
Suddenly Tenley’s ears perked up and she shushed them. “All of you stop yapping,” the girl demanded as her black eyes slowly turned from the telescope.
“What is it?” Kaya asked.
Ten inclined her head, listening intently as she spoke slowly, in as low a voice as she could manage. “You know, when I was changed, the world started to look very different. People were brighter, and I can see things I couldn’t before, like red clouds and swirls over there where something pooped by that bush. And I hear more as well. People talking a long way away, footsteps, and if I listen carefully I can even hear your heartbeats.”
“Why are you telling us this now?”
“Because, I count five of them.”
Kay glanced around at the others, obviously not needing a calculator to notice the discrepancy. “So… either one of us is a Time Lord, or…”
“There’s someone watching us,” the girl confirmed, nodding gently as The girl whispered. “He’s over there, under that tree… don’t look, dummies!”
“’He’?” The three women had moved into a small, tight circle around Tenley, their heads touching as they leant over her.
“Sounds clumsy and heavy, and obviously is very stupid to be sneaking around me like that, so it’s most likely a man.”
“So what do we do about it?”
“Well,” Ten yawned, “I’m kind of sleepy so I’m going back to the van. You all have fun with your telescope.”
And she wandered off, leaving the three women in their circle with their eyes nervously darting between each other, until Sayuri finally broke the silence. “So, are we just going to stand here, or go after her, or…”
“Just wait a second,” Jen suggested.
Then, after a few seconds, they heard an anguished howl and a human shape came screaming and spinning out of the bushes, before collapsing to the ground with a soft thud. Tenley stepped out after it brandishing a broken branch almost the same size as her.
Jen wondered if somehow a portal had indeed opened in time and space as the portly gentleman scrambled to his knees fixing his deer-stalker hat while raising his other arm to defend against the girl. He looked like some Victorian adventurer, which further begged the question of what he was doing here.
“W-w-wait!” He spat, wiping saliva from his jaw as he got up. Jen just hoped that was from where Tenley had hit him, otherwise she would have no hesitation letting the girl hit him again. She was already getting ready for another swing. “I assure you ladies; I mean you no harm!” He sounded English, posh, and mildly panicked.
“Hold on, Ten,” Kaya got between them. “Who are you, and why were you spying on us?”
“Please forgive my indiscretion,” he said, remaining on his knees as he held up his palms. “I was unsure whether you were friend or foe. A man in my profession can never be too careful.”
“I don’t think Peeping Tom really counts as a profession…”
Sayuri looked curiously at the man who appeared to be their prisoner. “Wait… I think I know his voice. It’s on the radio. That paranormal show… Mystifying Yarns, with… Lionel Baker.”
“Ah!” The man turned to her as if seeing a light. “A believer!”
“Well,” the Japanese drummer looked down a little guiltily. “To be honest, I only tune in to have a laugh.”
“Ah,” the man deflated. “Well, be that as it may, I am indeed the Sir Lionel Baker. Gentleman, polymath, purveyor of mystery. And host of the aforementioned radio broadcast.”
Kaya scoffed, “Well it’s a pretty dumb title. Only yarn that ever mystified me was when my mum gave me a sweater with Donny Osmond’s face on it. I’ve always hated Donny Osmond.”
“Yeah, well, what are we going to do about him?” Sayuri asked.
“I don’t know. I think he’s in Vegas at the moment…”
“No, not Donny Osmond. I meant what are we going to do about Lionel?”
“Oh… right,” the punky guitarist tore herself away from whatever terrible memory she was reliving. “Well, I guess he seems harmless enough.”
Tenley had been waiting impatiently, loosening and gently swinging her large stick as the others talked. “Well I still think he’s fishy,” she grumbled, “and ought to be battered.”
“Charming little girl you have,” Sir Baker noted, feeling his jaw. “Although, may I suggest a little less sugar and caffeine in her diet…”
Ten glared and emitted a low growl, but Kaya was still between them and held up her palms. “Stand down, kid.” The girl seemed to obey, albeit reluctantly, backing off a couple of steps.
The only person who had remained quiet through this exchange, Jennifer, now padded around in a circle, giving Lionel a wide berth, going up and leaning in to Kaya then whispering in her ear.
“Good point,” the punk nodded, turning back to Sir Baker. “Why would you think we might be foes?”
Lionel peered up at her, considering a moment, before shaking his head. “My vehicle was driven off the road, a few miles back that way,” he explained. “Of course, I had to be sure you were not part of the gang of ruffians that assaulted me.”
“And why would any ruffians assault you?”
“As I alluded to before, it is a professional hazard. You see, I know things. Secrets that some individuals, such as those who control Stag Corp, would rather not have out in the open.”
The women, and girl, all exchanged a look, all knowing that despite how ridiculous this man seemed that much of what he said, that last sentence at least, was completely true.