**Narrative; Late September, 1999**
A loud knock sounded on the hotel room door, waking Taylor from a sound and restful sleep. He groaned and rolled over, succeeding only in tangling the blankets and sheets around his legs even tighter. He lay his back on the pillow, listening as whoever was outside the door pounded once again. He glanced over at the alarm clock on the bedside table and couldn't help but groan again. One thirty in the morning…how dense were these people?
He rolled over again, forgetting about the sheets. They were now almost painfully tight, but he didn't want to have to take the time to unwrap them from around his waist just to get up to answer the door. So, he did the next best thing as he sat up to untangle the sheets.
"ZAC! ANSWER THE DOOR!" he yelled demandingly. For a moment, there was no reply, and then, another loud, insistent knock on the door.
Another moment passes. "ISAAC! GET THE DOOR!"
Another knock, this time sounding threatening. "TAYLOR! GET THE DOOR!"
Taylor sighed and figured that he would end up having to get it, since his brothers were obviously to lazy to drag themselves out of their nice, warm, welcoming beds. He swung his feet over the side of the bed and stood up, his toes sinking into the plush carpet. He grabbed a pair of jeans and pulled them on quickly, then, slowly, he walked to the front hotel door while another knock sounded through the room.
"All right, all right! I'm coming! I'm coming!" he called back angrily. He reached the door and struggled briefly with the multitude of locks before finally throwing it open.
The florescent glow from the hallway lights blinded him momentarily before he was able to focus on the two men standing there in front of him, looking real official.
"Whadaya want?" he demanded, put off from being woken up so abruptly. The two men didn't seem in least disturbed by his manner…in fact, they seemed to have been expecting it.
"Taylor Hanson, correct?" One man asked calmly, flipping open a tiny little notebook. Taylor nodded, brushing a piece of hair out of his eyes.
"Yeah. Whadaya want?"
"Is your brother Isaac Hanson here as well?" The other asked, ignoring his question.
"Yeah. Whadaya want?" Taylor reiterated impatiently, even more annoyed at being ignored. He was a good five inches taller than the first man, and the second man was about the same height. They were dressed casually, but their eyes seemed to see everything.
"Is Zac Hanson here, too?" The first man asked, once again brushing aside his question.
"Yeah. Whadaya want?"
The two men shared a glance and then made to walk inside the room to the left of Taylor through the doorway, but he shot out his arm and caught the doorframe, effectively blocking their entrance.
"What do you want?" he asked again, pointedly, as he accentuated every word. He stared straight into the second guy's eyes, since he was the same height.
"Ahem, my name is Jacobs, and this is my partner, Marks," he replied, as if that solved everything. He made a motion for Taylor to move his arm, but Taylor didn't budge.
"You didn't answer my question," he pointed out, the impatience showing in his voice. "And if all you wanna do is play these mind games all night, I have better things to do with my time…like sleep, which I was doing when you rudely began knocking on my door."
"We're from the government," Marks said simply. Taylor shrugged.
"So? Doesn't mean a thing to me."
"You're cooperation would be greatly appreciated," Jacobs added, eyeing him warily. Taylor nodded.
"I'm sure it would, but you're not gettin' shit outta me till you tell me what you're doing here," came his smart ass reply. The two men sighed.
"This is an international emergency, and you've been drafted. Now get your ass out of my way before I put you under federal arrest," Jacobs threatened, his voice low and grumbling. Taylor thought a moment, then moved aside.
"Get dressed, and get back out here," Marks ordered before walking down the hall behind Jacobs, looking for his brothers.
"WHAT THE HELL!? WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM? HOW DID YOU GET IN? GIVE ME BACK MY BLANKET!" Pause in Zac's shouting. "NO! I AM GOING BACK TO SLEEP! GET OUT OF MY ROOM! WHO LET YOU IN? DID TAYLOR LET YOU IN HERE? MAN, I'M GONNA KICK HIS ASS! NOW GET OUT!" Pause as he listened. "NO! I AIN'T GOING ANYWHERE! I'M STAYING RIGHT HERE AND GETTING PLENTY OF SLEEP, JUST LIKE PEOPLE SAY I SHOULD! YOU SEE THE BAGS UNDER MY EYES? HUH? DO YOU? DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT PEOPLE WANNA SEE ME WITH BAGS UNDER MY EYES? NO, THEY DO NOT! AND DO YOU KNOW WHY I HAVE BAGS UNDER MY EYES? CAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO ARE SO DENSE THAT YOU CAN'T REALIZE THAT FOURTEEN YEAR OLD BOYS ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!" Pause. Extended pause. "HEY! I CAN GET MY OWN DAMNED PANTS, THANKYOU VERY MUCH!"
Moments later, Zac, who had hurriedly thrown on a pair of baggy jeans, a t-shirt, a pair of socks, and some sneakers came stumbling down the hall, muttering obscenities under his breath. He ran a hand through his hair before taking a brush to it. Dropping down onto the couch beside Taylor, who was pulling on his own shoes, he glared once at his brother before falling into a stony silence.
Isaac came out a few minutes later, much more calmly than Zac had. He looked from his brothers and then to the government men, and back again. "What's going on?" he asked calmly as the men threw some varied items into three separate duffel bags.
"International defense emergency. You've been drafted," Marks replied gruffly. Zac arched his eyebrows.
"Drafted?"
"Yeah, you're going up to fight."
"Up where?" Taylor wondered out of curiosity.
"Space."
"Why space?" Isaac asked as Jacobs shoved him towards the door.
"Cause we're about to be in the middle of a war, and you're going to go up, along with lots and lots and lots of other people and kick some Avanti ass. Sound good to you? It'd better."
"Who are the Avanti?"
** *** **
Zac sat in his seat in the government van, staring out the windows that had been tinted so that no one could see inside. It was barely five in the morning, and the hotel room that had been in downtown Atlanta was now long behind them, along with the rest of Georgia. They were well into Alabama, and, as Jacobs and Marks had vaguely answered them, they were on their way to Huntsville. Alabama wasn't real interesting, and Zac was glad that, from what they had been told so far, they wouldn't be staying there very long. Of course, they wouldn't be staying in the same country for very long, either. Or the same continent. Or the same planet, for that matter.
Suddenly, a thought struck Zac. One that neither he or either of his brothers had thought of before. Zac leaned forward in his seat to where Jacobs was driving.
"Hey, do our parents know about this?" Taylor and Isaac were suddenly more alert by that one question than they had been throughout the whole drive added together. Jacobs and Marks shared a look, and Jacobs sighed.
"Well, Zac, no, no they don't."
"What!?" Zac, Taylor, and Isaac exclaimed, partly in anger, partly in disbelief.
"You mean that you show up at our hotel room in the middle of the night, order us to come with you to help 'save the world', and yet you don't even have the courtesy to tell our parents that you're taking us?" Isaac demanded, his brown eyes flashing with bitter anger.
"Now, no, not exactly-" Marks began, but he was cut off.
"Are you ever going to tell them?" Taylor interrupted, his blue eyes hard, cold, and angry.
"Well, now, just calm down-" Jacobs began to reply.
"You aren't, are you? You're just going to let them, and the rest of the world, think that we just ran off and disappeared, or got kidnapped, which, in a since, we were!" Zac exclaimed in a shout, his eyes wide as he stared at them.
"Well, yeah, kind of," Jacobs said. "But there are hundreds of others, mostly teenagers and people in their early twenties, who are, well, 'disappearing' tonight, too."
The three boys stared at them in absolute shock. "You don't have children, do you?" Taylor finally asked, sitting back in his seat with a resigned sigh.
"Yes, I do. A daughter," Marks informed him proudly.
"I have two sons," Jacobs put in.
"And yet you're still refusing to tell our parents? You're cruel. No, you're even more than cruel…you're downright selfish, cruel, irresponsible, uncaring, disrespectful, murderous, tactless-" Zac began rattling off, counting off every name on his fingers.
"Enough!" Marks suddenly yelled. "We know that not telling your parents will hurt them, but you will come home. We have the technology to send you back to before it ever happened…we can send you back to this previous night, and change it. After we're finished."
"What if we die in action?" Isaac asked matter-of-factly. Jacobs cleared his throat hesitantly and gripped the steering wheel tighter, leaving Marks to answer.
"Well, see, if a person dies in action, we can send the body back in time. They will live fine, but they'll know when they're going to die, because they'll die on the same day that they died before…we don't know why, but that's how it happens. So we would prefer not to do that, and we send them back to Earth at the time of death, and they are buried with honors, and the family is sent notice saying that their son/daughter or whatever died in action, though they don't know what kind…"
"Its very complicated," Jacobs added. "Too many catch twenty-twos. Just rest-assured that we'll do our best to keep people from dying."
"That's nice to hear," Taylor mumbled, falling into a stony silence after that while staring out the window.
** *** **
**Back to present, December 1999**
The boys paused in their narratives to look around the table. Only Tucker wasn't staring at them with an awed form of horror, curiosity, and intrigue in their eyes. Finally, Jessie spoke up, her voice echoing the question that was running through almost everyone's heads.
"Did you guys…die? Up there?"
The three boys laughed quietly, their voices easing the tension a bit.
"Nope, fortunately. We're gonna live to be a hundred and four, don't worry," Isaac replied. Smiles appeared on everyone's faces.
"Oh, okay. That's good."
"Yeah, but lemme tell you, those Avanti CE Lasers hurt like a…well, let's just say that they hurt a lot," Taylor commented, eyeing the bottle of Chardonnay that was sitting on the table near him. Tucker smiled knowingly and got three more wine glasses down from the cabinets and placed them in front of the boys, then pushed the bottle over to them.
"Hey, they aren't of legal age," Walker commented, reaching to take the bottle back. Tucker stopped him.
"You forget…we were up there for six and a half years. Isaac was twenty-six, Taylor was twenty-three, and Zac was twenty-one when we sent them back. If you check government records, that's how old they are."
After a few moments of slightly shocked silence, Diana finally spoke.
"Well, go on. What happened next?"
** *** **
**Narrative; Early October 1999**
The cafeteria in the Huntsville, Alabama space station was bustling with supper-time activity. It was more than the normal activity that had taken place the past week and a half. Along with the eagerness to eat and then get the night off to relax and so forth, they were getting their ship assignments that night. They were to leave the next day to fight. It was an excitement filled nervousness fear that filled them all, but they all pushed it back as they talked amongst themselves. The tables seated six, and Isaac, Taylor, and Zac filled one, along with the help of Jax Chaveaux, Theo Smith-Ivy, and Nick Quinn.
Jax Chaveaux was an unruly fourteen year old who, as of yet, had never been seen with anything less than a full blown smile on his face. Not a grin, not a smirk. A smile. The kid was constantly happy. He had a headfull of sandy brown hair that were matched by a pair of smiling gray eyes that were big and wide-set. He had a knack for making people laugh, and he and Zac had instantly bonded after meeting in the hallway of the living wing when their roommates had locked them out of their rooms. Zac, using his younger and tormented brother skills, had picked each one of the locks, with Jax giving 'helpful' tips on how to get revenge. That was it. Best friends.
Theo Smith-Ivy was Taylor's roommate, and it was like putting fire and ice into one container and then trying to keep the fire going while not letting the ice melt. That was how different they were. Theo is a medium-sized, sixteen year old black guy who was the only child at home, so, despite the hard times his family went through, he was used to having plenty of his own space and privacy, and pretty much always getting his way. Taylor is, of course, medium-sized, white, and one of seven kids. He could hold his own, and the first night of having to share a room was the hardest for both of them. After that, they had that bond of friendship, though not as instantaneous as Zac's with Jax. Theo was the real active one, while Taylor was the one who would be the entire thought process behind a plan. Basically, Theo's a act-before-you-think person, while Taylor does a bit more thinking. Not much, but enough.
Nick Quinn was Isaac roommate, and he was actually Theo's cousin. Isaac and Nick didn't have such a hard time becoming friends, sine they didn't spend a whole night yelling at each other before dropping into a game of poker. Other than the color of their skin, they were so alike it was funny. Thoughtful, rational, quiet, confident, blah, blah, blah. All that stuff.
"God, Theo, think you got enough food?" Jax asked as Theo sat down with his tray piled high with food. Theo glanced down, and then shrugged.
"I don't know, I may need seconds."
The rest of the table burst out laughing before falling into a short silence where they were all too busy eating to talk. Finally, as they began to slow down and eat at a more normal and healthy pace, conversation picked up.
"I heard that we get ship assignments tonight after everyone's finished eating," Jax commented. "Is that true?"
"Yep. Hayes announced it earlier this morning during routine work," Isaac answered, referring to the head of the department.
Nick let out a low whistle underneath his breath. "Wow…its hard to believe that we're going up into space to fight some people that we didn't even know existed up until a week and a half ago."
A thoughtful silence descended upon the table as people passed with their trays on all sides of the table to get to the trash cans to clear them off. Supper was beginning to end. Suddenly, the attention of both Theo and Taylor was caught by a girl who was passing by the table.
"Aw, come on, stop drooling, you two! Don't even think about it!" Zac commented laughingly as he referred to the pretty red-head who had been the object of their attention. Theo and Taylor shot him almost identical dirty looks.
"And why not?" Theo demanded.
"Cause, neither of you could possibly handle her," Isaac answered for him, his voice matter-of-fact.
"And why not?" Taylor asked of him, slightly put off.
"Cause she's one of the most eccentric, untamed women you could ever come across in your life," Nick stated. "That was Christy Kennedy."
"Are you serious?" Theo asked, glancing once more in the direction in which she had gone. They had all heard of the girl, who was one of those people who loved fun and hated rules. She was pretty, but she wasn't any form of a slut or anything. She just had a knack for inciting lust in boys, and then leaving them in the dust. All unintentionally.
There was no time for reply, because a voice came over the loud speaker. The person who was beginning to make the announcements was near the very front of the cafeteria.
"All right, everybody. It looks as if you all are pretty much finished. As you all know, we go up tomorrow. Right now, we're going to announce ship placements, so that you all know what ship you will be on during this. We will begin with the crew for Cold July. Hammonds, Julie. Marks, Justin…"
He continued to rattle off several more names before telling them to meet in the lobby now. He waited patiently while those people left the cafeteria, and then continued.
"For the crew to be on board the Universal Destiny One. Chaveaux, Jax. Hanson, Zachary. Hanson, Taylor. Hanson, Isaac. Quinn, Nick. Smith-Ivy, Theodore. Chancey, Laina. Creeden, Justine…"
After the man had finished calling out the names, they were told to meet immediately in the library. The whole table that the six boys were sitting at was cleared as the moved towards the exit doors.
After reaching the library, along with the rest of the crew, they were introduced to the main man on board.
"Okay, everybody, listen up. You will all be under this man's discretion while you are on board the UD1. Everyone, this is Captain E. Tucker."
