Alpha Centauri

Five - Jaden

Julian flicks his wrist, and the largest of the knives, the one aimed at the creature's heart, shoots forward, plunging into its chest and stabbing out the back.

Deep blue blood seeps from the wound. I watch the life fade out of its blood red eyes.

I release the breath I've been holding since the beast swiped at me. The rest of the knives clatter to the floor, and we both relax.

Julian dashes into Mom's bedroom, me following not far behind. We find her curled up in a corner, shaking like a leaf about to fall to the ground.

"Mom!" Julian says as he rushes over and pries her out of the fetal position. I kneel next to them and put an arm around Mom.

"Jule," she whispers. "Jade... Are you two okay?" She starts checking us for boo-boos. "Oh my God. Jade, your face...oh, and your arm...!"

"Mom, we're fine." I push her away, only to pull her back into a hug. "What happened?"

"I don't know... I never saw it coming. It just snuck into the house, and..."

Mom's face is covered in slightly bleeding scrapes. She's crying from fear or pain or relief or all three mixed into one. Her arms are scratched up, and there's a large knot on her forehead.

"What was that thing?" Mom sobs.

"I don't know, but it's dead, and it's okay now," Julian says, rubbing her shoulder.

Mom trembles as we help her to her feet. "Julian, Jaden, I have something to tell you."

"Mom, we know about that," I say.

"What-"

We walk into the kitchen. Nizami is standing over the corpse, taking a remote analysis with her weird contact lens. Mom stops and stares at her. Nizami has a bleeding knot on her forehead, but other than that, she looks fine. Her glossy sword has disappeared.

"Mom," Julian sighs, "this is Nizami."

"You're one of them, aren't you?" Mom says to Nizami. "Calabastor..."

"Yes." Nizami turns to Mom. "I am here to retrieve your son and daughter to and take them back to Crenala."

"Can she tell us what that thing was? Was it from your planet?"

"I just performed a biological analysis of this creature, and its DNA does not match any of the ones I have recorded in my system."

"So it's not a Crenalan species?" Julian asks.

"It appears not."

"You could have just said that," I mutter.

"Did it say anything to you, Mom?" Julian asks.

"It just wanted to know where you two were. It tortured me until I gave up something. I'm sure it would've killed me if you hadn't showed up." She shudders.

"What I would like to know," Nizami chimes in, "is how Julian made the knives move without touching them."

Julian sighs. Then he tells us.

But I already know, of course.

We both recall the hiking trip the seventh grade class took three years ago.

"Julian, how did you do that?" I demanded on the bus ride home.

"I have no idea," he whispered. "But promise me you won't tell Mom about this. Please."

"Telekinesis," Nizami marvels when Julian finishes. "Remarkable."

"You don't have that, do you?" he asks.

"No. And as far as I know, neither do humans."

Nizami does another remote scan of us. I feel vulnerable and awkward. "Amazing," she says. "The combined DNA of two species has caused at interesting effect. With Crenalans being so much more advanced than humans, your brain has so much more capacity. Telekinesis utilized that extra space."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Mom asks.

"Why didn't you tell me I'm half freaking alien?"

Mom looks at the floor sheepishly.

"But it's strange," Nizami says, turning to me. "Your scan did not indicate any presence of a special ability."

I shrug. "Figures." Julian has always been the better twin.

"Julian, Jaden, we must go. I am certain there are more of those aliens searching for you." Nizami picks up her backpack and digs through it. "But first we must clean your wounds to avoid infection. Catherine, pack bags for Julian and Jaden. Julian, remove your shirt."

Julian chokes. "What?"