Tucson, Here I Come

By David J. Wighton

The mermaids pursue Cosmos membership but are accused of being cannibals with powers that can destroy planets if they want to after eating the children. Spoiler Alert! Readers will face an unexpected plot twist. On Earth, Boris attends a baseball game intent on poisoning spectators, but is stopped by sprinkles. His future health depends on what Maddy unearths in her interrogation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David J. Wighton
• Release date: Mar 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215053461

David J. Wighton

David Wighton is a retired educator who enjoys writing youth novels when he's not on a basketball court coaching middle-school girls. The books in his Wilizy series peek at how people lived after the word's governments collapsed in the chaos that followed the catastrophic rise in ocean levels and the disappearance of the world's last deposits of oil. Luckily today, in the 2080s, the citizens of Alberta are safe because their It's Only Fair society uses brain-bands to zap people whenever they break a rule. That way, all children grow up knowing the difference between right and wrong. Unfortunately, they're also taught that women's ankles need to be covered so that men can't see them and turn into perverts. Plus, no-one in Alberta can have babies any more because the government manufactures them in a way that ensures that no child has an unfair advantage over any other child. All of this makes sense to Alberta's dictator, but not to Will and Izzy – two teenagers who are decidedly different from everyone else.Wighton's novels have strong teenage characters driving the plot and facing challenges that, in many respects, are no different from what teenagers face today. His novels are intended to entertain and readers will find adventure, romance, suspense, humour, a strong focus on family, plus a touch of whimsy. Wighton also writes to provoke a little thought about life in today's societies and what the future might bring. Teachers may find the series useful in the classroom and the novels are priced with that intent in mind.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Unidentified spaceship, this is Cosmos Command. You are entering our restricted airspace. Stop immediately, identify yourself, and state your business.

We're from Planet Aurora, Merly replied from the pool where she and Meringue were topping up their energy levels. We want to join the Cosmos.

I don't recognize your planet name. What's your planet identification code?

We don't have one.

I'm sure that you do. It has two letters, one digit, and another letter.

We don't have one of those.

Yes, you do. Even pre-civilized planets have an ID.

We don't. We're from outside the Cosmos and we want to join.

There are no habitable planets outside the Cosmos.

The people on Planet Aurora would disagree. We exist. We've existed for a very long time. This is not the greeting that we expected. Who is in charge of Cosmos membership?

The Cosmos secretary.

Why don't you connect me to him?

I'm sure he's very busy.

One of his staff, then.

I don't recognize your ship type.

That's because we are from outside the Cosmos. How's that connection to the Cosmos Secretary's staff going?

Does your ship have weapons?

Of course, we do.

With the exception of life support, power down immediately. Any attempt to turn your power back on will be considered a hostile act.

If I turn the power off, how will we continue to communicate?

# # # # # # # #

ALL FORCES: CODE 1. ALL FORCES CODE 1! This is Cosmos Planet Security. Our staff reports that an armed extra-terrestrial spaceship is in our periphery. The ship's captain has refused to power down.

Cosmos Command to Fighter Command: Scramble four ships. I want this intruder surrounded. Arm all weapons.

Cosmos Command to all building personnel: Yellow alert! Yellow alert! Be prepared to evacuate to basement levels.

# # # # # # # #

Fighter Command to Cosmos Command: Enemy spaceship does not conform to Cosmos standards. I am unable to determine what weapons it might have or where they are located. Enemy engines are off. This may be a ruse. It may have a source of auxiliary energy that can power its weapons.

Cosmos Command to Fighter Command: Do you detect any heat signatures of personnel?

Fighter Command to Cosmos Command. They must have a way to mask the heat signatures of their crew. I'm reading only two creatures aboard in what I assume is their command center. That's not enough crew to fly this beast of a ship. The crew might be cold blooded.

Cosmos Command to Fighter Command: Describe the ship.

Fighter Command to Cosmos Command: It has a saucer shape, which I assume is where the controls and weapons for the ship are located. However, it also has a huge cargo space appended to the bottom of the saucer. Without knowing the physical size of the enemy, I am unable to determine how many invaders might be in that hold.

Cosmos Command to Fighter Command: Hail the ship. Advise them that we have them surrounded and can obliterate them if we see any indication of a weapon powering up.

...

Fighter Command to Cosmos Command: Hailed as ordered. No response.

Cosmos Command to Fighter Command: Use CWO to communicate.

...

Fighter Command to Cosmos Command: CWO attempted. No response.

Cosmos Command to Cosmos Planet Security Control: What language did the invaders speak?

Cosmos Planetary Security to Cosmos Command: They communicated in standard Cosmos lingua. It was a female voice."

Cosmos Command to Cosmos Planetary Security: Are you sure that they claimed that their planet was from outside the Cosmos?

Cosmos Planetary Security to Cosmos Command: Yes, definitely. They also claimed that they had no Cosmos planet ID.

Cosmos Command to Fighter Command: Does the ship have a Cosmos ID?

Fighter Command to Cosmos Command: I see nothing on the fuselage of the ship that indicates where they came from.

Cosmos Command to Cosmos Planetary Security: If the ship is extraterrestrial as they claim, how would they be able to speak Cosmos lingua?

Cosmos Planetary Security to Cosmos Command: This suggests that this is not the first time they've entered Cosmos territory. They could have spied on some of our planets. They might have abducted citizens, interrogated them, experimented on them and stolen the language chip. How else would they have done it?

Cosmos Command to Cosmos Planetary Security: What reason did they give for being in our territory.

Cosmos Planetary Security to Cosmos Command: They said that they wanted to join us. Given how they've already spied on us, I would not trust them.

Cosmos Command to Fighter Command: Hail the ship. Inform them that we'd be willing to meet with them, but first we want an image of them.

...

Fighter Command to Cosmos Command: They refused to respond.

Cosmos Command to Fighter Command: Send a boarding party of six heavily armed men. Inform the enemy captain that we will inspect their ship. If they object, ping them from all four of our ships.

# # # # # # # #

A life boat from one of the Cosmos ships is approaching, Meringue.

Finally! I will meet them formally at the air lock. You will speak with them and translate what they say for me. Have the two pilots form a regal retinue complete with weapons.

Weapons? Merly asked.

Without the regal weapons, I could be anybody.

# # # # # # # #

In response to three heavy blows on the airlock door, Merly messaged the pilots to power up the ship, fill the airlock with oxygen and then take up positions at the air hatch. When that was completed, she unlocked the air lock hatch, pushed it open and took up position a step behind Meringue.

Merly counted three armed men at the front of the airlock. They were in full military gear, which meant that no skin was showing anywhere. They were pointing three short things at Meringue. Presumably weapons. Behind this trio were three more solders, equally armored but they had three long things pointing at Meringue. Meringue's retinue reacted immediately and pointed their weapons at the boarding party. These were for show only, but the would be intruders didn't know that. The ship's main weapons were Meringue and Merly's luminescent robes.

What's the meaning of this hostility, Merly asked.

You were told to shut down your engines.

We did. The airlock won't open if we don't have engine power.

You didn't respond to our messages.

You ordered us to shut down our engines, which meant our communications system went down too.

We will enter your ship and conduct a search.

This spaceship is the property of Planet Aurora. If you take one step inside this ship, we will consider that an armed invasion of our planet. Standing in front of you is Queen Meringue, the leader of Planet Aurora. If any of you touch her in any way, and if by some chance you survive, I will report this incident to the Cosmos Minister of Justice who is a personal friend. I'm sure the Cosmos has rules about how it is supposed to treat dignitaries from other planets. You will return to your lifeboat and cast off now. Queen Meringue will be happy to meet Resolute and give him a tour of our spaceship.

# # # # # # # #

I knew this was a bad idea, Merly. I'm not waiting. We're going home.

Shall we tell everybody that we were chased off by six sunfishes? [Sunfishes are the biggest and dumbest fish in Aurora's oceans.]

...

Meringue, how they acted was offensive. But, you're about to meet one of the most powerful men in the Cosmos, and he'll know that you were treated shabbily. He'll want to make things right. It couldn't have worked out better for us if we had planned it.

Back to the Table of Contents

Chapter 2

First week of September.

Why are you sitting in the dark in the basement, Mathias?

[Kashmira's question was legitimate. Mathias was indeed sitting in the dark. For him, darkness and sitting did not generally happen together. Darkness was for sleeping.]

I felt like it.

It's Monday morning. Aren't you supposed to be in the lab?

Yes.

[The lab was the Stanford chemistry lab. Mathias was always there weekday mornings. If he had something to field test, he'd schedule that for a weekday afternoon. Keeping to a pre-arranged schedule was part of their marital agreement. Mathias could not be home much during the week, but Kashmira always knew where he was. She had agreed not to contact him on weekdays unless it was an emergency. If she had to reach him, she had a pinky ring connection that would cause Mathias' brain plug to vibrate].

Are you alright?

[A vibrating brain plug could not be ignored, even for Mathias. When he was working on a scientific problem, Mathias would lose track of time. His concentration was so strong that he could work for days without feeling the need to sleep or eat. He had agreed that this was unhealthy for himself, his marriage and his daughter. Mathias agreed that he would stick to a 9 to 5 work life. Evenings and weekends were for family. If he ever had to run an experiment that needed more time, he'd set that up with Kashmira ahead of time.]

No.

[Absolute honesty between them was part of their agreement. This was more for Kashmira's sake than for Mathias. Mata, their daughter, was almost six years old and she had been a handful to raise. Mata had received a hefty dose of Kashmira's personality. Think volatile mood swings. Expecting Kashmira to control Mata when she was in one of her moods was unreasonable. Kashmira had difficulty controlling herself at times. Mathias was the rock that both of them could lean on when they were upset. Mata was entering grade 1 this week. That grade 1 teacher didn't know what she'd be facing].

You look like you're mourning in the darkness.

[Mata got along reasonably well with her two cousins. But that relationship had taken years to establish. Marie Jay came from a family of Voodoo princesses and she already knew some spells. She had Marie's sense of humour, which did not bode well for anybody. You've already met Azure who Lylah had struggled to control. To be charitable, let's say that she was headstrong. In addition, Winnie had discovered that Azure was able to read minds. Enrolling these three girls into a public school was impossible to consider, not if the Wilizy were hoping to keep their secrets secret. The parents called for a volunteer and Momaka responded. She had kept a killer dragon under control for years. Surely, she could handle these three.]

I guess I am mourning. My purpose in life has died, I suppose.

[You may be wondering what purpose in life Mathias was talking about. For years, he had been working with Nary in an effort to find a scientific reason why she could control the wind. Mathias reasoned that if he could use science to manipulate the wind, he could help the Earth recover from climate change.]

What does Nary say?

She's ready to quit too. She thought that when she was promoted to Voodoo Queen, her powers would increase. As far as controlling the wind, they didn't. She has enough power to develop a mini tornado but when she tries to move it laterally, it peters out. If she stays inside the tornado, it will remain strong but that means that she would have to accompany any wind event. Earth is too big for her to change weather patterns with voodoo.

What does Marie say?

We haven't told her yet.

Did you talk with William?

He said that there are some things that physics cannot do. The same should apply to chemistry.

I can't create a baby with my music. All I can do is turn a brain to mush and send emotions in the air. That doesn't mean that your science skills can't solve other worthy problems.

Back to the Table of Contents

Chapter 3

[Narrator: I don't know exactly when this meeting took place. I don't know where it was situated either. From events that followed, I am fairly certain the participants were Sewage Breath and Rabid Skunk. The conversation probably went something like this.]

I had a visit from Resolute today, Rabid said.

What did he want?

He said that he was just passing on some information to me. There may be something else going on. I thought I should inform you.

What message?

Resolute said that he had met with a delegation from Planet Aurora, which is interested in joining the Cosmos. Apparently, they had some problems with Cosmos Planet Security, which reacted to their presence as if they were a threat to the Cosmos. He happened to know one of the members of the delegation, so he was able to defuse the situation and then met with them to smooth their way.

I've never heard of this planet. Where is it?

Nobody has heard of it, which is why Cosmos Planet Security reacted. The delegation claimed that they were members of an ancient civilization that preceded the formation of the Cosmos. They had heard about us and decided to apply for membership.

Do we have a location of their planet?

As part of the information Resolute gave us, yes. They are way outside our borders.

If they are so far beyond our borders, how were they able to communicate. Surely, they didn't have a translator chip.

One of them did. A small group of them had been stranded in the Cosmos when they had been exploring for other civilized planets millennia ago. She did all the talking. Presumably, she was instrumental in the planet asking to join us.

What's the problem?

They refused to let inspectors enter the ship so that they could determine if the ship were a danger to the Cosmos. They admitted that they had weapons.

All ships have weapons, but I'm surprised that they refused to allow a team of inspectors to enter.

They didn't just refuse, they threated bodily harm. Here's exactly what was said.

This spaceship is the property of Planet Aurora. If you take one step inside this ship, we will consider that an armed invasion of our planet. Standing in front of you is Queen Meringue, the leader of Planet Aurora. If any of