Chapter One

Ten more minutes until the bell rang.

Ten more minutes, David’s mind echoed as he absently gazed at the dirt glazed clock on the wall of the classroom, for what seemed the thousandth time. Being the last class of the day, Advanced Spanish dragged on long enough, especially with the end of the school year a week away, but today was Friday and David’s mind was racing with thoughts of the weekend.

The vision of the clock faded as the memory of his mother’s sharp voice echoed in his brain, “David Ari Cohen, when will you learn to set your priorities the way you should?”

A brief shudder dispelled that train of thought, and his mind drifted back to his girlfriend as the sounds of the Atlantic Ocean filled his mind. He and Sharon planned to spend Saturday on the boardwalk of Seaside Heights, and later take a moonlit walk along the shore, which would lead to…whatever. A smile came to his lips as he thought of her. The fellow high school senior had practically stolen his heart away more than a few months back, always fawning over his broad shoulders and raven black hair. When she gazed deeply into his dark brown eyes, he would feel the world melting away beneath him.

“David,” the teacher snapped in the best rendition of a Spanish accent her Central New Jersey background allowed, painfully dragging out the ‘a’ sound in his name into an ‘ah’, “what is the answer?”

David winced at the sound of her voice, as he tumbled out of his daydreams and back into the class. Then his spirits sank, he knew he had no excuse for not knowing the answer. He didn’t even know the question.

A dozen plausible excuses came to mind, all of which he quickly rejected as ridiculous. “I don’t know Señora Johnson,” was what finally came out.

A few quiet snickers sounded throughout the classroom.

“I know graduation is around the corner, but you were daydreaming again, weren’t you?” his teacher asked, a hint of exasperation in her voice.

“Oh, no Señora Johnson.”

“Then why can’t you answer my question, David?”

“Well, it’s Friday, and…uh, I’m tired, and…uh…” His voice trailed off as he realized it was useless to argue. Ms. Johnson was known for her ruthlessness, and he could see his name on the detention list now. Damn, he silently grumbled as he sank back into his thoughts, this could mean another hour ‘til I get home.

The bell barely finished ringing, signaling the end of the day, before David was up and out the classroom door. He kept expecting to hear the teacher call him back, but soon he was down the hallway, in search of his girlfriend.

David rounded the corner at the end of the hallway with a screech, almost falling flat on his face as he collided with a mouse-faced freshman, who quickly scrambled up his dropped books and disappeared. He barely noticed the hapless fifteen-year-old but did slow to a walk when he saw his own little slice of heaven ahead.

Sharon was leaning against her locker, wearing her short mini skirt which drove him crazy in all the ways he loved. She had on a button-down shirt which was tied at the bottom, in the manner of a southern belle, which was fine since she was originally from Georgia and had moved to New Jersey this year. Her arms were folded over her chest, the way she did when she was anxious, and she was biting her bottom lip which emphasized the same.

Just can’t wait for me, David thought as a smile came over his lips. He quickly decided to check himself over, to make sure he had not messed up his clothes in the collision at the corner. After all, he considered with a grin, it always pays to please the woman you love.

The pair of grey denim jeans Sharon had picked out for him were a little dirty, which was fine. “Ah think blue, blue jeans are just so…blue.”, he could hear her say in his mind, her cute southern accent ringing all the right notes. One of his sneakers was untied, and his shirt was untucked, but a quick moment’s care fixed both.

Looking back up from his sneaker, David’s mind was slow to register someone was now talking with his girlfriend — Steve.

“Now what in the hell does he have to say to her?” he muttered silently.

Steve, who was his captain on the high school football team, had been a thorn in his side since they were both freshmen, four years ago. Since then, things between them had gone steadily worse.

He wanted to run up and push the jerk away, but he forced himself to stop, still a good halfway down the crowded hall from the two of them.

What am I thinking? he thought with a silent laugh. Sharon loves me, she said so many times over the past seven months we’ve been together.

David stood and leaned against a locker and watched, smiling in anticipation of the ‘crash and burn’ good ol’ Steve was destined to face if he dared to ask her out.

However, the smile slowly faded from his lips as the conversation continued between them, and instead of Steve looking mad or rejected, he was smiling. It was Sharon who was starting to look nervous as she glanced around.

David came to the realization Sharon was probably looking for him to rid her of the offending athlete, so she didn’t have to hurt him herself. The senior quickly resumed his ardent stride, pushing through the teenage crowd, when Steve leaned over and kissed her.

Anger flushed through him as he started to run — how dare he? Except, something was wrong, she was not trying to break away. In fact, she had her arms around his neck and seemed to be responding positively.

David stopped dead in his tracks, dumbfounded, and for a moment was sure he was in another of his daydreams. However, this time he knew in his heart what was happening was real — all too real.

He briefly considered confronting them, but instead swiftly turned and strode away. As he picked up speed, the burning feelings of betrayal built rapidly within him. He exited the high school and quickly crossed the parking lot to his waiting 1973 Plymouth Fury III. David fumbled with the keys for a moment and dropped them, unable to think clearly as his eyes began to sting, water misting them. His mind was a jumble of confused anger as he finally managed to unlock his most favored possession and get inside.

The blue Fury came to life with a roar as he started her up and floored it, pulling through the tight parking lot faster than he should have. The streak of baby blue steel tore past the parked cars, barely missing a pair of sophomores who were arguing about which mall to go to first, not even hearing the car until it narrowly passed them.

Soon the school was far behind as the ten-year-old car screamed in protest to the sudden stress it was being put under. David cared little, barely watching the road, his mind a despondent swirl of emotions as he drove toward the mall. The speedometer passed the one hundred miles-per-hour marker while the narrow, winding backroads flew beneath the smoking tires.

“Dammit,” he cried angrily, as the car sped along, barely paying attention to his surroundings.

Somewhere in his mind, he knew he was overreacting, but his late teen brain didn’t care.

It was far too late when he realized how close to the canal he had come. At this speed, the ninety-degree turn ahead would be unnavigable to the hurtling projectile which encased David Cohen like a coffin of metal.

He was about to hit the brakes when an eerie cobalt blue glow illuminated his windshield, turning it ablaze with light.

I must be dying, was his last thought as the car careened through the rusted safety railing and launched into the air, leaving the bank of the canal below it.

~ * ~

Katie Ann Peterson was greatly concerned as she went over her shopping list in her mind for the tenth time.

“Mommy, when will we get to the mall?”

She looked down at her five-year-old daughter, Paula, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to her. She slowed her Honda Civic down as she realized Paula had somehow managed to slip out from the safety belt shoulder harness.

“Get back under that seatbelt immediately young lady!” Katie scolded as she reached over to grab her daughter. “How many times to I have to tell—”

She stopped in mid-sentence as both looked up.

Ahead, at the canal junction, a large blue sedan with a black landau roof careened through the railing and plummeted toward the water. What caught her eye though, was the intense cobalt blue light which bathed the car like a ghostly halo. It almost seemed to hold the car in mid-air for a moment, frozen.

Katie slammed on the brakes, causing Paula to smack her head on the dashboard as the car rapidly decelerated. The young girl started to cry as the blood trickled from above her left eye, but both fell silent as they stared in wonder.

The mysterious blue car in the mystical cobalt glow was empty. No driver, no passengers — simply empty as it sat frozen in the air for a moment. Then the light flashed away, and the car proceeded down into the canal with a thunderous crash. The impossibility of it all would haunt Katie for the rest of her life, same as the cut on Paula’s forehead would remind her of this as well, long after the scar faded into a small white line above one eye.

~ * ~

The ominous blue glow encompassed David and blinded his senses. He was enveloped within the brilliant light and a deafening high-pitched whine, while his body tingled as if a thousand ants were crawling all over his skin. It felt like an eternity but was merely a few seconds. When the glow faded, David struggled to regain his senses. He was face-down in icy water which had soaked him through, but he had no memory of being tossed from his car. His muscles ached all over, but still he managed to raise his head to see he was in the middle of the canal. Glancing around, he couldn’t see any sign of his car. The water wasn’t deep, but deep enough he had to swim across to the far side of the canal. Once there, he slowly pulled himself up onto the grassy bank.

He sat there on the edge of the canal for a moment, shivering. It had been a relatively warm spring day, but now he noticed the few trees along the bank only had buds but no leaves. There was also a distinct chill in the air. However, although odd, it wasn’t what dominated his immediate thoughts.

“Where the hell is my car?” he half whispered in confused disbelief through the throbbing pain of a growing headache, the whole Sharon situation momentarily forgotten.

David glanced around again, amazed that his stupidity hadn’t cost him his life. He assumed he’d been tossed from the car, but there should have been some sign of the accident, like broken glass or something. He didn’t think the canal was deep enough to completely hide a car, let alone a huge one like his Fury.

The dazed and cold youth looked across the canal, back up the far slope at the road, to see the point where his car had gone through the railing — but the railing was intact. In fact, it was more than intact, as the expected faded paint wasn’t there. Now it seemed brand new and shiny, like it was made of some sort of fiberglass and not the rusted metal he recalled being there. However, what caught David’s attention was the man in the black leather body suit and trench coat who was standing on the other side of the railing, staring down at him through his reflective sunglasses. In his left hand he held a small black plastic device of some sort. He glanced at it for a moment, then back down to David.

“I…I’m all right,” David called out to the odd bystander, figuring he must have seen the accident and come to help. “Can you go get the police?”

The dark stranger shook his head and casually reached into his long black leather jacket.

Man, this guy is weird, David decided. “Are you a cop?

It was not a badge the stranger pulled out. Instead, it was an odd pistol of some sort. It was bulky in the middle and was slightly longer than a revolver. It was also dark blue, looking like it was made of some sort of plastic.

David almost laughed. “What’s that, your ray gun?”

“Are you David Ari Cohen?” the man inquired. “Born May 4, 1965?”

David’s eyes narrowed as confusion flushed through him, “What the hell is going on?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Yeah,” David yelled back. “What’s your problem anyway?”

The strange man pulled the trigger of his odd weapon, and a bright ruby pulse of energized light burst out of its barrel and struck a small rock right behind David. The startled youth turned barely in time to witness the rock explode as the pulse violently annihilated it.

“Holy shit!” he yelled, then glanced back at the stranger, seeing him raising his weapon for another shot.

Without thinking, David turned and started to quickly climb up the steep embankment on the side he was on, as another blast struck the dirt mere inches from his head.

“What the?” he yelled frantically, as he scrambled up and away. “Why the hell are you shooting at me? What the hell are you shooting at me?”

Wet and shaking, David made it to the top and, despite the danger, stopped, stunned by what he saw. In place of the large mall which he expected to see, a huge gleaming metropolis sprawled out before him. Gargantuan white towers stretched up like ivory fingers to touch the sky and spanned out across the miles. They were all within clear interconnected domed city sections which lay like glistening bubbles. A monorail track led into and out of the city in many places, and David could even see a few of the gleaming monorail trains speeding along, high off the ground. Many lights sparkled within the domes like jewels in a treasure chest.

“Maybe I died,” he whispered in shock, as he surveyed the unbelievable grandeur before him, his pursuer momentarily forgotten. “Yeah,” he half groaned while nodding, trying to reassure himself, “I must have bought it, and this is the afterlife.”

Somehow, though, the thought of being shot at in heaven by men in black sort of drowned that idea.

“Wait,” he exclaimed to no one as he began to half walk/half run toward the city. “Maybe I’m in a coma of some kind and I’m really lying in a hospital bed with all sorts of tubes coming out of my body. Yeah, that must be it,” he continued to rationalize, “I’m in some sort of drug induced dream.”

He snapped out of his thoughts when the tree right next to him erupted as yet another energized blast struck it, prompting David to break into an all-out run toward the brilliant city. Stealing a glance over his shoulder as he fled, he could see the black garbed assailant vanishing as he started to descend the far bank of the canal to come after him. David picked up his pace drastically — he may be dreaming, but he still had no intention of testing that by getting shot.

He raced across the large field, his sneakers squishing as they crunched the half-frozen grass, the stranger relentlessly following behind. A few more wild shots came at David, but as he reached the boundaries of the city the blasts stopped. David hoped the city limits meant sanctuary from the stranger. He glanced over his shoulder again to find his pursuer was barely a hundred yards behind him and walking swiftly.

“If I can just make it inside,” he panted as he continued to run toward the sparkling metropolis.

David reached the white asphalt pavement, which surrounded the city like a barrier against nature, and picked up his pace now that his soggy sneakers were on flat ground. However, when he looked up, he instantly slowed to a brisk walk, astounded by what he saw. There was a gated entrance to the mammoth city before him. An immense neon sign hovered above him which read WELCOME TO NEW PRINCETON in bright luminescent orange letters set on a black backdrop. The monorail track he had seen in the distance came into the city right above the huge entrance way.

“New Princeton?” he whispered as his brow tightened. He had not been too far from the college town of Princeton when he ran his Plymouth off the road into the canal, but how could this be a New Princeton?

A bewildered David Cohen walked through the crowded entrance way to the city and gazed about in sheer awe. The inside of New Princeton was all white and pastel and sterile looking, like being inside a brand-new mall. He could see many gleaming levels, all crisscrossing and intersecting with escalators and strange platform elevators which had no walls.

He searched around for anything which made sense to him and spotted a ‘mall like’ directory in front of him, which he promptly made for. On it was a holographic layout of the ten-mile-long metropolis. From shopping plazas to residential sectors, restaurants to something called holo‑theaters. There was even a historical museum named Old Princeton, about five miles away in the heart of the city. His eyes widened as he caught a large structure on the directory, which was outside of the city, yet still connected through underground transport tubes. It was practically a quarter of the size of the city itself, and it was labeled New Princeton Starport.

It was then it dawned on him that not everyone who was bustling about the busy concourse was human. For one, there was a couple walking by who had to be feline. They were shaped like humans, but had catlike heads and tails, and they were all covered in fur. The two of them were meowing and purring at each other as they laughed and walked past, their long tails swaying back and forth. In the distance, he noticed a human guy with his arm around a stunning blue-skinned, silver-haired woman; the very sight of whom caused a tingle in him which almost made him forget Sharon.

Someone tapped him on his shoulder, startling him as they spoke in a garbled English.

“Excuse please,” came the scratchy voice from behind, “but we can’t see the directory.”

David turned to find himself looking at a pair of large crab-like life-forms who stood on their long-shelled legs. Both of them were over four feet tall. The larger of the two had come up right behind him, and when he turned to face the aliens, he found himself looking right into the creature’s eyes, which were on the end of one-foot-long stalks.

“This is totally unreal,” David whispered as he shook his head and backed out of the way. “I’ve got to try and wake up.”

The two red shelled crustaceans watched David as he quickly moved away, then they slowly turned back to the directory.

“Humans…” the first sighed in his own language.

The smaller of the two nodded her eyes in agreement.

As for David, he was about to turn back the way he came when he spotted the black garbed stranger in the entrance way. The assailant turned his head back and forth as he unremittingly swept the interior through his sunglasses, then he focused on the high school senior and started to walk his way. David noticed the man had put away the strange laser gun but kept his hand under his jacket at all times.

For an instant, David considered going back to the crustaceans for help, then decided against it, still unsure if he was facing a nightmare. He turned and quickly began to move deeper into the city, trying to lose himself in the crowd. He stopped when he saw a large neon sign which read:  INNER CITY TRANSPORT TUBE A.

“Why not?” he said as he let out an exhausted breath, then started to swiftly make his way through the crowd toward the escalator which would take him to the transport tubes, whatever they were.

David lost sight of the man following him when he went up the escalator, but he was certain the assailant was not far behind. The youth reached the top and saw a plexiglass covered tube‑like tunnel of some sort ahead, with small egg shaped ‘cars’ moving back and forth through it. There were people getting in and out of these ‘eggs’ on a black moving platform in front of him. Deciding his options were limited, and he had nothing to lose by trying it, he gingerly stepped onto the pad and felt the ground move beneath his feet.

“Hurry up, lad,” an auburn-haired woman with a thick Scottish accent nagged from behind.  “I havna all day to waste on a transport platform.”

David nodded apologetically and quickly moved toward one of the ‘eggs’ which had come into view. As the platform and the ‘egg’ merged together, it opened up, splitting in the middle as the top rose like a hatch. Another of those strange feline people came out, but this one was barely clothed in an ultra-thin bikini. David realized he was staring because she glared at him, then bared her fangs.

“Keep your eyes where they belong, Terran,” she hissed in a heavily accented English, “that is, of course, if you value them.”

David snapped his eyes away from the overgrown orange tabby and jumped into one of the four seats inside of the ‘egg’.

Scanning the dashboard in front of him, he spotted a button labeled ‘hatch’, which was glowing a bright green. He pushed the button, causing the top to come down slowly as a seat belt automatically came around his shoulders and waist, securely fastening with a loud click.

“Welcome to a Trans Comm Travel Pod,” a pleasant female voice came from the speaker in the dash. “Destination?”

“Uh…” David tried to gather his thoughts but drew a blank.

It was then, through the closed hatch, he saw the black-garbed man emerge into view. The would-be assassin stepped onto the platform and came right in front of his travel pod, pulling out his gun as he moved in.

“Uh…the starport,” David quickly blurted, saying the first thing that came to him.

Instantly, the travel pod whisked off, leaving the platform and the man with the gun far behind. He felt a swirl of warm air surrounding him and noticed some glowing letters on the dashboard that read ‘Inclement Weather Auto Dry’.

As the comforting breeze around him swiftly dried all his clothes, David wondered if he should have gone to Old Princeton instead, perhaps that would have been more of a familiar setting, but his gut had chosen the starport — so he went with it.

There was still a dull thumping between his eyes, as all the events of the last hour caught up to him. He let his eyes close as he leaned back and enjoyed the warm air, caring little where the pod was taking him, grateful to finally have a moment of peace. Seconds later he was fast asleep, his mind focused on what could have possibly possessed Sharon to have dumped him for Steve.