1st 5 Pages March Workshop - Baxton Rev 2

K.L. Baxton

MG Science Fiction

Intrec and the Earth's Venom

On the planet Harte, a plague is spreading. Eleven-year-old Intrec is all too familiar with the fatal disease. He’s grieving his father’s death, and now his grandfather is dying. Only planet Earth has the antidote: rattlesnake venom. His mother, a research astronomer, is part of the team being sent to the recently discovered twin planet to collect the needed venom. Many patients are depending on the cure, and Intrec’s grandfather only has days to receive treatment. Intrec fears they won’t gather enough of the remedy in time to save his grandfather—so he stows away on the spaceship to help.

To ensure that nobody stops him from helping to fulfill their task, he secretly ejects himself to Earth, lands in a desert, and gets to work.

Soon thereafter, thirteen-year-old Ethan discovers a gray-skinned alien hiding inside his treehouse. Ethan’s father died, too, and he agrees to help Intrec. But that’s easier said than done, because his next door neighbor is an FBI agent.

If the FBI finds Intrec, he could be locked up for experimentation, dissection, or worse—he and his grandfather could both die. 

CHAPTER 1—EARTH’S SERPENTS

If Intrec couldn’t snatch another one of Earth’s serpents, Granddad would die.

He’d already lost Dad to Tapergnaw’s disease. As tears blurred his vision, he passed by houses in his neighborhood, landing several feet ahead with each stride. I can’t lose my grandfather.

Harte’s golden ball of shine light beamed over the white-dotted mountains. Its warmth latched on his black short arm top and trickled over his sky-blue twilled bottoms that stretched to his knees. A gust of dry wind rustled the palm fronds as they leaned in the opposite direction. Every numah who zapped by him in a gray blur never failed to smile and wave. His head dropped.

All he did was discover the antidote to Tapergnaw’s disease, the deadly plague that suddenly spread on planet Harte over ten years ago. He just tried to save Dad, he never asked to be famous. Although his discovery saved millions of Hartians, the tape substance had already strangled Dad’s heart to where he’d only lived a few more months. And if Granddad didn’t receive the antidote within the next several days, he’d suffer the same fate. His chest puffed.

As the ground light between crossroads beamed from orange to purple, the traffic of people on the zap path stopped and filed in lines. He glanced at everyone’s ear tips that stood on both sides of their bald heads. Two lanes, divided by a straight black line, allowed the traffic to move in either direction safely.

Since he’d broken into the experimental lab once before and borrowed one of Earth’s creatures, he’d do it again. As he twiddled his thumbs, the ground light emanated blue.

The line thinned, and he maintained traffic’s pace. Several blocks ahead, he crossed over a patch of green strands as he sidled closer. He sucked in several deep breaths and darted his gaze everywhere, no numahs were in sight.

This must work again. He vanished, but a familiar voice shouted, “Don’t try to attempt that again, Intrec.”

He materialized, whirled around, and Mom paced toward him. Her gray slip swayed at her knees and the breeze ruffled her white top. She always passed the lab on her way home—but why was she off work early? The person he’d least expected had spotted him. He sighed. She worked many late evenings, so why did today have to be different? He squinted as the shiner brightened the medal star-shaped work badge below her shoulder—the embroidered OSH(Outer Space Headquarters).

“Security measures are tighter now…you wouldn’t make it past the sensors even with invisibility.” She spoke telepathically.

“I have to save Granddad,” he stammered, the words sounding from his brain.

She blinked her oblong black eyes sideways. “Don’t worry about that.”

How could he possibly not worry about Granddad dying? Ever since Granddad Podo moved in a few months before Dad died to help Mom care for him and his thirteen-year-old sister, Meeca, they’d developed a closer relationship. “Why aren’t you at work?”

She grinned down at him, revealing square white teeth. “Jezum is in meetings,” Mom answered. They shuffled down the walk path, and her heel lifts clicked on the pavement. Jezum was her boss. “He gave me the rest of the day off.”

Intrec’s heart skipped a beat as he wiggled his ear tips. “Are the meetings about going to Earth?”

Mom nodded.

An idea popped to mind. “When?” Would another journey to their parallel planet take place soon?

“Within the next couple days.”

He gasped. Earth’s serpents cured Tapergnaw’s disease, but at limited supply, elders never received treatment. Youngsters were always treated first.

“How many trips have been made to planet Earth?” Their twin planet was just on the other side of a black hole.

His stare connected with hers, the tips of his ears slowly rising.

“So far, there have been six successful journeys to Earth.” Scientists rarely stayed there more than several days at a time. The longer they explored their parallel planet, the more likely they’d be discovered by earthlings.

His chest puffed. “I want to go to Earth.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but that’s very unlikely.” He frowned, and his ear tips wilted.

“Things aren’t so bad. If Granddad dies, he still lived a full life.”

Still not long enough. Since Tapergnaw’s disease stole Dad’s life and would soon be stealing Granddad’s, he’d be losing another parent. Somehow, he needed to collect an extra serpent. They dawdled up their wheel-way toward a peach-bricked house with a maroon-colored roof. She rested her hand on the automated sensor beside the door. It lifted, and they stepped inside.

He called for Twyzoe, and his tricolor wagger barked and ran toward him. His white legs and black paws rested and scratched on Intrec’s knees. Intrec bent down on the black wooden floor. Twyzoe licked his face full of kisses while he patted his white head, also petting his floppy brown ears and back.

Although Intrec had to find a way to travel to Earth, Mom wouldn’t want him to risk exposure to the earthlings. But since when did a youngster genius listen to his mother?

CHAPTER 2—THE HUMAN FAMILY

“This move will give us a brand new start,” Mom said for the millionth time.

Ethan wanted to argue, but the words didn’t budge from his tongue. When Dad was alive, he always used to say, “Sometimes people make bad choices. It’s no use to dwell on the past. All you can do is learn and move on.” But some mistakes were bigger than others. When they resulted in death.

 Mom peered straight ahead as she drove, her gaze fixed on the white beam of the headlights. She seemed quite sure of what their new home would be like, but he had no idea what to expect. Silhouettes of cacti, palm trees, and the sun rising behind the mountains started brightening the horizon.

The rays grazed her face: the dark circles under her eyes, the large yawn she let off—he did the same thing. He didn’t have to stare into her eyes to know how they’d look: chocolate brown amid redness. And he was certain that his mirrored hers. Ethan wanted Mom to pull into a hotel like they had the past four nights, but she insisted she’d drive through the night, so they could start their new lives sooner. Seriously, what was the hurry? She took a swig of coffee from her large cup.

“So…” Ethan propped his elbow in between the two seats and ruffled a hand through his dark, gelled hair. “Have you always missed living in Benson?”

Mom nodded and grinned. “I certainly won’t miss Connecticut’s cold winters, that’s for sure.” She chuckled. He held back a groan. However, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her smile, and that was his fault. He caused his father’s death, and the move must’ve been his punishment.

“Your grandfather is really looking forward to seeing us.”

Ethan blew air through his lips.

“Try giving him a chance…He’s always wanted to spend more time with us.” She patted his hand. “And he wants to get to know you better."

Ethan’s grandfather had practically been a stranger before Ethan lost his perfect life. One where he played ice hockey with Dad every winter and was always surrounded by the friends he’d known from kindergarten to eighth grade. His grandfather only visited them once a year, sometimes twice, and now they’d soon be living with him.