Shift

5- Setting Off

We followed Klisa through the woods. When Klisa and I were back in her ship and Daz and Meben had gone back to theirs, I asked Klisa about lunch.

"Of course! I've been getting hungry too. Here try this!" She said and stuck out a stick of breaded meat to me. It was sweet. Not exactly Earth food but, it was okay.

As we ate, Klisa asked me why I didn't come back to the ships when everyone else did, right after the meeting.

"I was talking to Daz. She's concerned for her little brother. I guess you know him, Meben." She nodded and smiled.

"He's a good kid, smart and sweet a little mischievous though. One time he pulled a prank on me by replacing my box spring with a trampoline and when I jumped into bed, I bounced so high, I nearly hit the ceiling."

"Ha, good one. Your trampolines must be bouncier than ours."

"Sure are; the size he put in my bed, you could jump nearly two stories high." She laughed and I laughed with her.

We camped out in the ships that night. A cozy pink blanket was handed out to each Shift, including me. I curled up in the grey, plush chair and wrapped myself snug in the blanket. Klisa was still awake when I drifted off. She was watching the stars. One star in particular held her attention, the one that warmed her planet. In the morning, we all and ate Shift cuisine, a mixture of their softest fruits heated over a campfire and spread on a dried leafy plant. Then we held another meeting under the bridge.

"So, getting started, has anyone found out how many stations exist?" I asked in a hurry to get things rolling.

"Yes, there are 10, Glisy was right." The same Shift who the night before had said 12 stations, replied humbly. His arms were crossed her stared down at his brown boots.

"Perfect" I replied. "Pairs will work. Anyone find out locations?"

"There is one in the Milky Way, it orbits Pluto and there is one in orbit of the dwarf planet in the solar system neighbouring Shifalia." A pale blue Shift said. The other Shifts listed the rest of the stations and eventually, we had them all. They had one thing in common. They were all orbiting dwarf planets.

"Feel free to team up with whomever you would like to. Klisa and I would be happy to go to one station."

"I'll go with Meben and Irrix to the central O.P station." Daz informed the crowd. The other Shifts paired off and were assigned stations to go to. The remaining Shifts went with Meben, Daz and Irrix, the Shift with the overalls. As we walked back to the ships, I thought about my role in this again. Klisa was the spark but was the blazing fire.

I couldn't believe it. I was leading an alien rebellion across the universe, wow.

"Isn't this just electrifying?" Klisa blurted out as we went back to the ship.

"I don't know if I'd go as far as 'electrifying' but, I guess I'm a bit on edge." I admitted.

"The station we are going to see is a full day trip away, orbiting Quamba."

"I know; I was there when we received it by default." I replied. We were the last people to get a station assigned.

"You would call it a, let me think, 'roud trip'?"

"Yeah, road trip or I'd call it a space trip." I laughed.

We shifted to the phase of Klisa's ship and entered. We buckled up and flew off, leaving my planet for the second time in the past few days.

A communication came threw to our ship. It was from Glisy.

"We will be on the same frequency for 20 hours, just thought I'd say hi." Klisa engaged auto-pilot and opened a line with Glisy.

"It's a long flight, hope you're well prepared. Who did you pair up with?" Klisa asked.

"Haxol, he studies Mars, ever hear of him?" Glisy responded.

"Yeah I actually met him a couple days ago. I didn't realize he studied Mars. Mars is such a lonely planet."

"Yeah, I totally agree. I was thinking, do you think..." After that, the line was silent and Glisy didn't say a word. She never finished her sentence.

We started to worry. "Glisy, Haxol? Either of you there?" Klisa cried out. It had been nearly an hour.

"Hello, is anyone out there?" I asked. Klisa scanned for their ship, with a terrified look spreading her face. The scan turned up nothing. They vanished; they were gone. Klisa sent a general transmission into our phase and we waited.

I was biting my lip when something showed up on sensors. It was another ship, Daz's ship. She was responding to our transmission.

"It's Glisy and Haxol! They're gone!" Klisa screamed.

"That's not possible!" Daz replied, in even more shock than us.

"Yeah, we were talking to Glisy and then they just vanished!" I exclaimed.

"If that's true, we have a problem." Daz sighed. "They aren't the only ones who've gone missing. We lost another ship about an hour ago."