electricity." Tom ads.
"Here, I guess you'll be safe with these." Andee hands the gloves to Mykee.
Gloved, Mykee feverishly starts fiddling with the wires. He connects each color to its matching counterpart. Nothing. He fiddles with it. Nothing. He tries different color combinations. Still nothing. He lets loose a deflated long breath.
"Damn it! I though I had it."
"Language young man" Old Tom warns from the distance.
Andee looks at Mykee's sad face, than at all the parts around. He reaches out to another set of wires in a different part. One zaps him and he snaps his hand back.
"Hey, does it really have to be the same color? If it's from a different ship it might be..."
"Did that wire just zap you?" Mykee suddenly comes alive.
"Yup."
Mykee jumps over to the new part. It has three wires but these are all yellow. He starts randomly connecting them to the panel wires, but nothing. He changes pattern order, and gets a flash of light on the panel.
"There!" He touches the wires again in the same configuration. The mate black screen of the white panel lights up in color. "Ahhhh-ha-ha!"
"Whooa!" Both Andee and Mirceu shout in shock and awe. "Little man you did it!" Andee yells and grabs his brother in a hug. Mykee pushes him away too concentrated on his device. He carefully winds the wires so they stay connected.
For the next hour the brothers take apart the large piece until they uncover a black box, the size of a fist, from where the wires are coming out. It looks like a battery. They free it from the debris and tape it to the back of the panel. Mykee and Andee start studying the display. Mirceu is watching over their shoulders, but Old Tom is no longer in the place.
The screen is now lit up, covered in symbols and diagrams.
"Look, every time I touch one of these squares it opens up another window." The brothers fiddle with the display.
"So what do you think all this is?" Andee asks.
"Look-look-look. It is, I told you it was! Holly crap!" Mykee shouts excited.
"Oh my god little brother, you were right!" Andee shouts eyes ogling out of his head.
"What? What's he right about?" Mirceu jumps in shouting over their shoulders.
"Look, that's a schematic of the ship. And look at it's shape. It's ship 1. This panel is from Ricio's ship." Mykee answers giddy with excitement.
"Can I see that?" Old Tom's voice suddenly cuts the group in two, a bit startled by the sudden intrusion. Mykee hands him the display with the taped battery in the back. Old Tom looks at it. Flips through a few of the pages by sliding his fingers across the screen, then turns and takes a step forward, but trips, and tosses his arms up in the air. The panel flies out of his hands as Old Tom stumbles forward. Mirceu leaps after him, but Andee leaps away, diving over the floor and catches the panel just before it hits the ground. He turns onto his back, with the panel in his arms, and looks to Old Tom who is being held up by Mirceu. He looks right into the old man's eyes. They are cold and emotionless. He is hunched sideways, being held from falling forward my Mirceu. Mirceu helps straighten him up. Andee leaps up to his feet and hands Mykee the panel.
"Be careful with this thing. We're taking it home." Andee turns to Old Tom who is being helped to his chair by Mirceu and says nothing. "You OK Tom?"
"Let me get you a glass of water." Mirceu offers and leaves.
"Mykee, you ready to go?
"Already?"
"Yeah we got to take off. Why don't you wait for me outside."
"And I can take this?"
"Yes, it's yours." Mykee nearly giddy leaps as he rushes out of the building. Andee pulls up a chair next to Old Tom.
"What the hell was that?" Andee asks Old Tom with an accusatory tone.
Tom just looks at the ground between his legs.
"Tom, you didn't just drop that. You threw it. Why?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Old Tom responds dismissively. "And why are you giving away my stuff?"
"Tom. Please don't do this to me. I trust you. You know how hard it is to trust. So many Carpati are brainwashed. We can't trust our neighbors. Not even family for some. You're family to me. Since dad vanished, you've always been there for me. Don't do this to me now."
Tom finally looks up and leans into Andee. "I'm not doing it to you. I'm doing it for you. You're young, and you want to know everything, but I'm old, I have seen everything, and let me tell you, some things are better left unknown. Trust me on this. I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true."
"What? You sound like the administrator of my school when he kicked me out. I can't accept that."
"I'm sorry but you'll have to."
"Are you afraid there's something on that display I shouldn't know?" Old Tom just looks away. "Then why did you show it to us?"
Shaking his head, Old Tom seems to struggle before he responds. "I made a mistake. I was trying to make your brother happy. I didn't think he'd figure it out. I thought it would make him happy to have it just as it was."
"What's wrong with how it is now?"
"Everything."
"I don't understand." Andee stares at him with a hard frown. "And that makes me mad."
"It's a Pandora's box, young Andee. Once you open it, you can never close it again. Nothing will ever be the same."
Andee grits his teeth. "I don't want it to be the same! This..." sweeping the area with his arms, "is not what I want. I want things to change. You can't do this to me. Not you. You're not Bitani. Why are you acting like them? Saying things that don't make sense. If you know something... anything, I need to know."
"No you don't."
"But I do! All I have is questions, and it's killing me. And what's worse, I can see that you have answers. I get the Bitani not letting us in, but you, why won't you let me it? It's killing me Tom. It's driving me crazy. I don't understand. Why am I not allowed to know? Why? What can I possibly learn that's so bad? What? Why do you think that torturing me like this is better?"
"Son, I want to tell you. There's so much I want to tell you, but... I can't."
"Why? Why can't you? Who's stopping you? Are there recorders in here watching your every move?" Andee asks and then looks up at every corner of the room.
Old Tom just shakes his head in the negative.
"What is it? I'm not a regular 17 year old, if you haven't noticed. I can deal with things. I can take care of myself."
"No you're not, and that's part of the problem."
"Ahhhhrrrr... you're killing me old man. You're killing me. You know they have me recorded?"
"Who?"
"The Bitani."
"What are you talking about?"
"When I rescued Ricio... and that ship crashed." Nudging to the arranged wreckage with his chin. "They recorded the whole thing and showed it up in the city. All the Bitani know me."
Old Tom is the one now baffled staring at Andee with disbelief.
"I'm not kidding. Remember Gono? I was with him at the Bitani Friendship Center this morning. He's getting a job in the city because of me."
"What?" Old Tom ask completely dumbfounded.
"Yeah, that's where I was this morning. I was supposed to go in there for a job too, but the guard wouldn't let me in. They got my name wrong. It didn't match."
Old Tom's glare is hard and locked on Andee. He seems to struggle to produce the next sentence. "What do you mean your name didn't match?"
"Some nonsense about Star and Starfighter."
Old Man Tom's eyes turn round as saucers. He looks horrified as he grabs Andy by his shoulders. "Where did you get that name?"
"I-that's how they had me listed. What's going..."
"What name did you give them?" Andee looks startled, puling away but Old Tom's grip on his shoulders is strong. "What name did you give them?" Old Tom snaps at Andee.
"What else? My name. I even handed them my citizens card."
"And the other name?"
"They said they were waiting for
someone named Andee Starfighter, so they didn't let me in."
Old Tom's eyes are bulging out of his head. He looks horrified. He lets go of Andee and grabs the sides of his head in his hands, than wipes them down over his face as if trying to wash away the stress spelled out on it by his stone cold glare. Andee is looking at the old man perplexed, his frustration gone, replaced by total confusion.
"What's wrong Tom?" Andee asks baffled. "You look like you're staring at a ghost."
End of Chapter 4 next Chapter 5 : Gay Sex
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