Final Exam by Rob Astor (free novel 24 .TXT) 📕

Final Exam
By
Rob Astor

Foomp! The blanket jerked away, interrupting Xack’s warm, peaceful world of sleep. It can’t be morning already. “C’mon, Xack. Rise and shine. We gotta get goin’.”
Squeezing his eyes tight, the younger teenager rolled onto his side, embracing his pillow. Cool air caressed his bare back as he fought to return to the quiet blackness. Xack had never been a morning person.
“I let you sleep in.” Rob was persistent. “Now you just got enough time to get up.”
Xack moaned. “Man, Rob, we can skip homeroom and first hour,” he tried to bargain.
“Not today. Exams.” Xack sighed. “Matt’s waiting.” Lazily, Xack rolled onto his back. His pale blue eyes focused on Rob standing near the end of the bed. Rob fluffed his wavy blonde hair, which was highlighted with red streaks. Rob’s expression betrayed impatience.
Rob picked up a plastic cup covered with condensation in his left hand. “Okay. Ice water or tickling. How do you want to die this morning?” Rob grinned, hazel eyes gleaming. His right hand clasped Xack’s left ankle. Water sloshed as ice rattled in the shaking cup.
Sudden adrenaline snapped Xack out of his slumber. He swung off the bed. What a choice! Assassination by freezing or laughing.
Rob smiled with satisfaction, setting the cup down. Grudgingly, Xack quickly pulled on a sky blue t-shirt and exchanged his gray sweat pants for blue jeans. He combed his straight black, red highlighted hair. Stepping socked feet into loose sneakers, Xack picked up his backpack and looked up at his taller friend. “What’s taking you so long?”
They filed from their dorm room to the youth center’s makeshift cafeteria. “‘Bout time.” Arms crossed over his chest, brown hair sculpted in a long spiked cut, Matt leaned against the breakfast counter. His angular features looked harsher than normal. Blue denim legs were crossed as well. “Kip and Linka caught the Byrail.”
“Not my fault, Matt.” Rob made a pointing motion toward Xack. He picked up a bunch of bananas, a jug of orange juice, and a bottle of water.
“X-Man sleeping late again?” Matt looked at Xack, annoyed. Xack blushed, plucking up a pair of oranges. He spooned cream and sugar into a hot coffee and looped an index finger around a bottle of water. The trio made their way to the exit. “I noticed you’ve been staying up late,” Matt said.
“Studying, okay?” Xack’s wasn’t in a good mood. He walked stiffly, scowling. “I wish you guys would quit picking on me.” Xack roughly shoved the door open. It’s not like I do drugs or something.
The bright sun stung Xack’s eyes as they walked into the parking lot. Rob put on red rectangular glasses. Matt squinted. Xack took a long sip of coffee.
Stepping up to his domed red hovercar, Rob touched a control pad, unlocking the New Zimlliaan manufactured vehicle. Rob sat behind the steering console. Matt took the passenger seat. Xack tossed his bag in back, plopping onto the plush red cushion. He put the water between his legs, the coffee into a holder on the right, and the oranges to the left.
“Set altitude to fifteen meters,” Rob said. The boat-like vehicle lifted high over the pavement, hovering until Rob joined a lane of sparse air traffic. Xack leaned back, pulling out his iPod. He put the earbuds in and turned on the holographic projection. Listening to Mozart and watching a display of geometric shapes and musical notes, Xack peeled and pulled apart an orange, eating a slice.
While Rob drove toward school, Xack gazed at the cityscape of Albany, New York. It had been dramatically altered twice. First by the New Zimlliaans. Second by a battle to drive them out of the city.
Damage was evident among some of the kilometer high structures. Skyscrapers suffered shattered windows, ugly black gouges, or were missing half their original stature. Parts of the once spaceport city lay in complete in ruin.
Floating cars and trucks, powered by a superconductor technology called hyperpulsion, weaved silent courses through the fractured cityscape. The city’s newest municipal transportation system, the New Zimlliaan Byrail, swooped along below dual tracks, making stops at every tourist destination.
Surrounding Albany was a powerful invisible electromagnetic shield, keeping the invaders at bay. Other cities were protected as well, most in this part of what was left of the United States. Estimates of two years to close off all North America were given by their military squad, a small band of resistance fighters they joined.
Safe inside Albany, the young men were under strict orders to try to lead normal lives by their many surrogate parents. Strange they still had to practice self-defense and using weapons, Xack thought. But the shadow of the New Zimlliaan threat was ever prevalent.
Outside the force field, floating high in the azure sky, one of the alien ships waited, perched like a vulture. The X’hal Minor. Its dark gray, rectangular bulk was a constant reminder of the threat the New Zs posed to Earth. Cold tritanium bulk glimmered in the sunlight. The sides of the craft were bent down at a seventy-degree angle. A conning tower and bridge loomed over a small city of buildings along the top of the gargantuan construction.
Xack felt cold, unmerciful alien eyes watching them. Waiting for them to lower their guard. Size belying the New Zimlliaan ship’s true power, the viper was poised to strike. As it had before, raining destruction and terror down upon the city.
* * *
Standing in the entry line of one of Albany’s newer educational institutions, a New Zimlliaan built school with seemingly impossible lines of construction, the group of five best friends formed a close knot. Rob dumped banana peels into a green trashcan. “Being born in the year of the monkey doesn’t mean you have to eat like one, Peacock,” Kip chided the blonde. Kip had handsome Irish features and a large, playful grin. Xack nearly spit out a mouthful of water holding down a laugh.
At Kip’s side, a young woman with long blonde hair caught up in a white banana comb slapped his bicep. “Not nice, Yankee,” Linka scolded.
“Smack him for me, Linka,” Rob added.
“X-Man liked it,” Kip chuckled. He turned to Xack. “So, we gotta change your bedtime to like seven at night?”
Xack’s eyes rolled. “I was studying, okay? Not that you would know anything about it.”
“Torched you, Rick Kid,” Matt chuckled at Kip.
“Someday, Xack will be just as smart as me.” Linka giggled.
They moved up to the entryway. A tunnel of metal flanked by security guards awaited them. Scanned as they entered, right down to the bone marrow, the security device found nothing threatening. The bored guards waved them in.
* * *
Sitting next to Rob in class, Xack studied the holographic projection floating over a bowl-like depression in the floor. There was a map drawn in multiple colors, a highly sophisticated star map, depicted as a Rhombic Dodecahedron in fifth dimensional space. Stars floated before his eyes, dancing, shifting positions in the void. This reminds me of Astronomy class back home, Rob’s thoughts entered Xack’s mind telepathically.
Xack gave a slight smile. If only the world hadn’t gone to hell, Xack reflected thoughts back to his best friend. Rob was a brother in every sense to him, except biologically. Sharing private conversations with Rob telepathically was special. Something Xack enjoyed doing.
“Keep in mind, this exam lasts all week,” their instructor, Mrs. Barry, was saying. Dressed in a white lab coat, she paced behind students seated around the holographic display. She wore round glasses, her dark hair caught up in a bun on top of her skull. The booming voice she used to address the class contrasted her petite figure. “You can use your books, your notes, and your calculators.” Xack glanced at her as she passed near he and Rob. “Answer the questions completely and show your work for every equation. Time starts now.”
Xack opened his black “Fifth Dimensional Spatial Trigonometry” textbook. Taking a course in the mathematics the New Zs used to travel through space was exciting. Discovering answers to reality he never considered was thrilling. Solving his questions about creation could prove phenomenal. Life altering. Xack was compelled to know how the aliens came from the other side of the galaxy’s center to Earth’s position in space.
Writing his name at the top of the page, Xack glanced at his watch to copy down the date. They were simple numbers, hovering silently in the liquid crystal display. But those numbers gave Xack pause. Troubled him. Memory flashed through his mind.
All the air in Xack’s lungs exhaled in a long, silent whoosh. His heart sank. He lay his black pen down. Body stiff, Xack felt guilty. Ashamed.
What’s wrong? Rob’s voice entered his mind. Xack’s anxiety had spilled over to Rob. Rob could feel sudden rushes of emotion. Sometimes, it annoyed Xack not having total personal privacy.
Xack’s eyes watered. He pulled back on the sadness. Held it in. Today is my mom’s birthday, Xack sent his thoughts back to Rob. I forgot my mom’s birthday.
Pausing, Rob set his pen down, glancing sideways at his younger companion. Xack felt Rob’s left hand rubbing his back and shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Xack nodded, choking up. Hot tears slid down his cheeks. He lowered his head. Wiped them away. Fighting for control, Xack took a deep breath. Held it. Swallowed. Regaining composure, Xack diverted his attention back to his exam. Rob’s comforting hand withdrew.
Reading the first question, Xack was instructed to name the basic object used to described fifth dimensional space. Picking up his pen, Xack wrote, “Tesseract or Hypercube.”
The next question asked him to explain, in his own words, the two extra spatial directions in fifth dimensional space. Xack wrote, “Objects can move forward and backward, up and down, sideways, freely through points in time, and freely across alternate planes of reality.”
Xack reread his own answer several times, focusing on moving through time. If only he could go back to his family. If only he’d never been sent to Rob’s house through the Intercity Exchange Student Program hosted by the New Zs. If only everyone in his hometown hadn’t turned up missing. What he wouldn’t give to spend one more day with them.
The next question Xack paid attention to was a calculation. He had to plot a course through hyperspace from Earth’s solar system to Proxima Centauri using a wormhole. The end point in time had to be one week from the departure of Earth, as opposed to the four point three years it would take traveling at the speed of light.
Drawing out diagrams and listing equations, Xack leaned on his left hand, focused. Deep in thought. He tapped on his calculator, glancing up at the holographic map floating in the middle of class.