Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes. P. H. C. Marchesi
Candidates
After taking them through several corridors, the general finally marched through a double door that led into some kind of dining area, where boys and girls in their teens, sitting on long tables, were having lunch and chatting enthusiastically.
“There certainly is a lot of energy here,” said Lendox, cheerfully. “Perhaps fifty will be enough, after all.”
“Enough to eat us out of house and home,” retorted the general, looking with disgust at a boy who squeezed a whole dinner roll into his mouth.
“I feel like I’m back in school,” said Marina. “Where is everyone else from the base?”
“They don’t eat here,” answered the general. “For security reasons, we are trying to keep contact between candidates and army personnel to a minimum. It’s bad enough we have to teach them to fly our planes.”
“We get to fly?” cried Shelby, his eyes shining with excitement.
The general ignored Shelby, and turned to Lendox.
“Don’t you think it’s ironic,” he said, looking outraged, “that we have to depend on kids who aren’t even old enough to drive?”
“The universe has its own sense of humor,” Lendox replied.
The general’s face turned red, and he looked as if he were about to say something nasty, when a friendly voice interrupted them.
“There you are!” said a tall, thin woman with a pleated, dark brown skirt and an ill-fitting silver blouse. She had straight, dark hair combed carelessly into a bun, and light blue eyes peering from behind large glasses.
“This is my wife, Jeannie,” said the general, as she rushed to meet them. “Jeannie, you remember Marina.”
“We met once or twice,” she said, pleasantly. “I hope we get a chance to get to know each other better now!”
Marina smiled awkwardly and shook Jeannie’s hand. Shelby and Shauna were surprised – and relieved – to see that Jeannie Falconbridge was nothing like her husband. She was friendly and approachable, but Shauna noticed that her gaze always returned to Dale, as if to certify herself that he was really there. Dale, however, was either not aware of her constant attention, or had no wish to show it: his expression remained unchanged, and he did not once look at his mother. Shauna was just wondering whether Dale ever smiled, when she felt the weight of his gaze on her. She unconsciously tightened her grip on Tippy, who immediately started wriggling in her arms.
“And who’s that?” Jeannie Falconbridge asked, as Shauna eased Tippy down to the floor.
“It’s my cat,” Shauna replied, as Tippy trotted off towards the kitchen. “I think she’s kind of hungry, actually.”
“I’ll have someone from the base get some cat food for her,” Jeannie offered. “Meanwhile, how about some lunch?”
Shelby and Shauna could barely hide their enthusiasm at Jeannie’s suggestion. They were starving, and apparently they were not the only ones: Marina eagerly followed Jeannie Falconbridge, who was explaining to Lendox what macaroni and cheese was.
“The kids like it,” Jeannie said, somewhat apologetically. “I’ll have someone bring you some from the kitchen, since it looks like they already took everything away. Lunch is usually nearly over by now.”
She gestured towards five empty chairs at the end of one table, and started looking around, scanning for more empty seats.
“We have two places here, if you’d like to join us,” said a pleasant voice, which belonged to a man sitting at a nearby table.
“The two of you can sit there with Ian,” the general told Shelby and Shauna. “Off you go.”
Shelby gave the general a resentful look, but he was too hungry to pick a fight, and followed Shauna as she meandered over to where Ian was.
“Welcome to the detention table,” Ian said, brushing his straight, dark blond hair aside.
“Detention table?” repeated Shelby, shocked. ”There’s detention here?”
“The general seems to think there is,” replied Ian. “Whoever heard of not being able to play music after midnight?”
Shelby laughed. He already liked Ian.
“So where are you from?” Shelby asked.
“Hawaii, most of the time,” said Ian, fixing his name tag.
“Your last name’s Thurston?” asked Shelby, seeing Ian’s tag for the first time. “There’s a building in Manhattan called Thurston Tower.”
“It’s named after my dad’s company,” explained Ian. “He’s the one with all the money. All I have is positive energy.”
“Money can’t help you against the klodians, anyway,” ventured Shauna.
“You’re absolutely right,” said Ian, smiling. “Try telling that simple truth to my father, though.”
“You should have told him you were going to save the planet,” said a boy who was sitting across from Ian, playing a video game. He had dark brown skin, and thick, wavy black hair. His jet-black eyes shone brightly, and Shauna was immediately struck by how handsome he was. She smiled shyly as she scanned the name “Jitendra Sengupta” on his name tag.
“That’s what happens when you’ve been here for a while,” said Ian. “You end up telling most of your secrets to a fourteen-year-old who plays electric guitar in the dining hall after midnight.”
“Hope the general doesn’t confiscate this as well, or I’ll go bonkers,” complained the boy, with an accent that Shelby and Shauna guessed was British. “I guess he’s never felt the artistic call in the middle of the night.”
“He doesn’t strike me as the artistic type,” said Ian, laughing.
“Are you from England?” asked Shauna.
“Yeah - from London,” said the boy, not taking his eyes off the video game. “I go by Jit.”
“Don’t they have a base in England?” asked Shelby.
“They do. That’s where most of her Majesty’s kids are.”
“So how come you’re here in Colorado?”
“I was already in the country,” explained Jit. “My dad’s a visiting professor at Carnegie-Mellon.”
“Cool,” said Shauna, watching him finish playing his game. She did not know anything about video games, but she could tell that he was really good.
“Are you two related?” Jit asked, when he finally put the video game down and looked at Shauna and Shelby.
“We’re twins, actually,” said Shauna. “Fraternal.”
“I thought you looked like each other a bit,” he said.
“Except for the different hair color, and the different eye color, right?” asked Ian, teasingly.
“It’s not my fault if you can’t see past the superficial stuff,” Jit told him. “People are not just looks, you know. Look at me, for example: underneath this extremely handsome exterior lies an even more gorgeous interior.”
“Ignore him,” Ian joked. Jit turned to Shelby now.
“So how come you only arrived today? Did your parents have a hard time letting you come?”
“Not exactly,” said Shelby. “Mom got attacked by a klodian.”
“She got killed?” asked Ian, appalled.
“No, but she’s gonna take a long time to recover,” added Shauna, as a man in an apron arrived with two plates of macaroni and cheese.
“If