Enceladus 2: The War
Chapter One

“I don’t understand this!” Lainie threw her hands up in frustration.

“Love,” I grabbed her hand and brought her close. “You’ll get it.”

We were studying trigonometry. Trigonometry had come easy to me when I moved to Earth and enrolled in college classes. On Enceladus (my home planet and one of Saturn’s moons, approximately 790 million miles from Earth) we used the metric system like much of Earth.

“I just feel so stupid,” Lainie whined.

“You are nowhere near stupid, Lain.” I kissed her forehead. We were in my apartment in downtown Columbus, Ohio. “Ü mïð zü,” which meant I love you.

“Ü mïð zü.” Lainie had gotten much better at pronouncing my language. She now knew all of the key phrases and words of Enceladian.

Lainie pushed away her trigonometry book. “Hey, you never told me about the animals on your planet. I never even saw any when we were there.” She raked her hand threw her hair, which was now ombré. It went from white into blue.

I grinned. “Okay. Hm, where do I start?” I asked myself. We had very little animals on Enceladus. Since everyone on my planet could live comfortably in New Jersey, there wasn’t much room for nonessential animals. “There’s an animal called a fëb. They are a mix between a horse and a bull. We ride fëb but not often because of our wings.” Even my unusual wings; one black and one white. Every other Enceladian had white wings. “There’s this small rodent called a våk. It’s similar to a raccoon. There’s another animal that looks like a skinless lion. It is called a pïz. They’re very deadly but on the verge of extinction.”

“A skinless lion, huh?” Lainie cringed, picturing it.

“Yes, they’re not pleasant to look at. There’s a qær, which is a big cat or closer to a fox. They come in a variety of green shades. The last animal is called a vüŵ. A vüŵ is the equivalent of a cow. It looks like a giant, fat deer. We use it for meat and milk, like your cows.”

She nodded, her eyes wide, taking it in. “I want to see them.”

“Well, if we ever visit again, I’ll make sure to show you our animals.”

“When we visit again,” she corrected.

“Of course, when.” I didn’t tell her that I had no intention of going back.

An hour later, Lainie’s friend from school picked her up so she could grab some clothes from her dorm for school tomorrow. We had been spending the night together for weeks now.

I checked my email and had one from my brother Lynx. Thank goodness it wasn’t an S.O.S. He was letting me know how my sister, Queen Cassiopeia’s wedding and coronation had gone.

Lynx also informed me that his shoulder was much better and he could fly normally again. Last year, when we took down those involved in the coup of Enceladus, when I killed them, Lynx was stabbed right through his shoulder. I was pleased to hear it was healed and hadn’t damaged his wings.

The next morning, Lainie and I got ready for school together. For spring quarter I was taking psychology 102, statistics and biology. Lainie and I had biology together. She was studying to become a nurse. Sometimes I would tell her to become a doctor but she argued that she wasn’t smart enough. That always earned her a lecture. Of course she was smart enough. She could do anything.

“Don’t forget your contacts!” Lainie yelled from the living room. My eyes were normally grey but in order not to freak out the humans, I wore blue contacts. Lately, now that Lainie knew about me, I had been forgetting them.

“I’m gonna be late, Amy!”

I chuckled as she rushed me and we left the house. I drove us to school in my Prius and we parted ways since I had statistics and Lainie had nutrition.

Lainie and I met up outside the cafeteria to go to biology. She had one more class afterwards but I would be done for the day.

“Hey, love. How’s your day so far?” she asked me. She looked so cute wearing a neon blue tee.

“Great, now. And yours?” I grabbed her hand as we walked.

“Awesome. Hey, after bio, I’m going to go into town. Alone,” she said suspiciously.

I knew why. My birthday was in three days, May fourteenth. I would be 119 years old. But on Earth, as Amy Thorne, I would be twenty-two. I had a feeling Lainie was planning something amazing, as amazing as she was.

“Okay, have fun. I’ll be home. Call me when you want to be picked up.”

“Actually I think tonight I’m going to stay in the dorms.” She bit her nail like she was afraid of something. The weird thing was that lately whenever she said something that opposed my ideas or thoughts, a flash of fear went through her eyes. I tried not to think about why.

“Of course, love. No problem.” I smiled. We got to class and took our seats.

Bio passed uneventfully and afterward, I said goodbye to Lainie and drove home. I no longer worked at the coffee shop, it was too risky after Cassiopeia and Lynx showed up with their wings out. Even though they did erase everyone’s memory.

I was looking online for a new job when an email popped up from Lynx. It read in Enceladian;

Hi, Amelia! Don’t worry, nothing terrible has happened. I just wanted to check in. How is everything? Are you still with Lain? Speaking of girlfriends, guess who I saw recently? Alessa. Yeah, it was strange. She is still as hot as ever, with that red hair. If I liked girls . . . Anyway, Cass is doing great as Queen. Although, it hasn’t been that long so only time will tell. She and King John are absolutely in love. It’s gross, really. I don’t know how people can marry. Actually, there is something that is slightly alarming. A group of SE agents came to Enceladus the other day and they asked us if we had heard from Queen Amara of Tethys. They said when they checked in recently she wasn’t in her kingdom. It shouldn’t be anything to worry about. But I know how brutal Tethys can be. Don’t worry, everything else is good.

Mïð zü.

Lynx.

First of all, he saw Alessa? Alessa was my first girlfriend ever. It was the girl that Lynx introduced to me in 1955 when I was fifty-three.

Second, Queen Amara was-

Ring, ring!

I scrambled to answer my cellphone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Amy?” It was Lainie. “Can you come get me?” She sounded scared.

I bolted to my keys. “Of course. Where are you, love?”

“I’m in the bad part of town. I took a taxi to Party City and they took me to the crappy one. I finished my shopping but I can’t wait for a taxi. Please come get me.”

I was out the door before she finished talking.