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This is my story.

My mom named me Tom, but people call me Smash. I guess they call me that because I hurt things. Sometimes I hurt people and sometimes I hurt property and sometimes I hurt both. I don't mean to. My mom says it's because I'm so big and clumsy. She tells me I'm special. I love my mom.

You probably guessed that I'm not good with words. I'm also not good with numbers. I have trouble finding work with some of the local shipping companies. I can't pass their apitood tests. I still want to provide for myself and my mom. She works so hard every day to care for me. I just want to care for her too.

One day I decided to pray to the gods for help. Please help Smash to care for my mom. Please help Smash to get a good job. I applied to the government for help and guess what? In a short time, I had a small ship and a few credits to get me started. I was so proud of myself. I was going to work hard to be a good provider.

I decided I was going to be a trader, just like my dad. Before he left us, he made lots of credits working the trade lanes. He would come home late every night and tell mom how much money he made. Sometimes, he was gone for many nights. I miss my dad. I think my mom misses him too because I hear her cry at night when she is alone in her bedroom. If I find my dad, I will tell him mom and I still love him and want him to come home.

My first day as a trader was not so good. The controls on the ship confused me and I scared a lot of other traders. I couldn't tell where the afterburners were. I didn't know how to start up the cruise engines. I didn't even know how to get the trade lanes to push me across to the other side. I had a long line of traders behind me, waiting. They would yell at me, calling me hurtful names. That's okay. I asked them to be patient with Smash. Smash is special. That made them laugh. I like making people laugh. They told me to practice flying near Milford Base. They said there were lots of friendly people over there who could help me be a good pilot. I told them I didn't know where Milford Base was, so they taught me how to enter the information into the Nav map and let the ship's computers take me there all by itself. I did what they told me and I was happy. I was on my way to learning how to be a trader.

It took a long time to reach Milford. Once I got close, the cruise engines stopped, but my ship was still moving toward the base. I realized I forgot to ask the traders how to stop the ship. The giant rock was getting very close. My eyes got big. I started hitting all the ship's buttons as fast as I could. Finally, I must have hit the right button. The base wasn't getting any closer. I slumped back down in my chair and took a deep breath.

Before I could even think about how to dock on Milford Base, three fast ships came out of the rock and surrounded me. A stern voice told me to halt, which means to stop. I told the man that I was already halted. I checked the base again to make sure it wasn't getting any bigger. It wasn't. My answer seemed to make the man happy. At least he didn't sound quite so stern the next time he spoke. He seemed to be very interested in me. He said I had entered Xeno space and he asked where I came from, where I was going, what cargo I had been hauling, where did the cargo come from, and how did I feel about immigration?

I told them everything, except I didn't know much about immigration. I already had my own religion.

to be continued...

There was silence after I told the Xenos about the traders sending me here, and then they burst into laughter. They spent a long time telling me about Xeno stuff. They asked me if any of what they were telling me was sinking in. I told them the only thing I could understand: police are bad and Kusari rice is the devil. For some reason, they thought that was funny too. I guess that was the right answer.

They stopped laughing when I told them I needed help learning to fly my new ship. Or, maybe it was when I accidentally shot one of the Xeno ships with a missile. They all started screaming and their ships circled around me like angry bees. I crawled under my seat and begged them to not hurt poor Smash. One of them yelled YEEEEEEHAAAAAAW really loud. It hurt my ears. I waited for them to kill me with their purple guns, but after more screaming, they just stopped. They told me they didn't like shooting crying girls. Well, I looked real hard, but I didn't see any girls around, even after I wiped the tears from my face.

They began talking to me again, this time very calmly and slowly. They taught me how to move my ship backward. I didn't know my ship could even go in reverse. They said they didn't want me hurting their rock base. One Xeno said he would use small words so I could understand. All the Xenos laughed. I laughed too. I was glad they were happy again and not screaming.

The Xenos said I was just the type of person they were looking for. They even told me they would help me learn to fly my ship, just like the traders promised. At first, I didn't do any flying on my own. They showed me how to get my ship computer talking with their computers and then my ship followed. They called it formation. I still hit a few space rocks, but not enough to hurt my ship. They told me not to worry about any damage that might happen. They had this wonderful thing called duck tape. They said it fixed everything.

They said they had a job for me. The police were squatting on the lanes and one of them held a buddy of theirs in his hold. After showing me how to use my tractor beam, they wanted me to beam the Xeno captive on board my ship, cuz I had space. They said it was my payment for them teaching me how to fly. They would tell me when.

When we got near the Liberty police ship, the Xeno in charge started talking to the officer in his stern voice. There was only one police ship there, a small one. The Xeno demanded that the officer let his friend go. If not, no amount of duck tape would hold his ship together. I wanted to crawl under my seat again until the angry words stopped.

The officer hailed me and asked if I was alright. I was too scared to even speak. The Xenos told him to ignore me and release their friend. I was shaking so hard. Just then, two more police ships, big ones, appeared from the other direction down the trade lanes. They stopped just short of the Xenos and then everybody started screaming at once. One of the Xenos told me to scram. I couldn't even move.

Purple and blue fire shot across my viewscreen from all directions. Missiles zipped by and mines were floating all around me. It was so pretty and scary and horrible at the same time. After a short while, all my Xeno friends were captured, their ships blown into tiny pieces. Three police ships turned to face my tiny ship.

The police officer hailed me again, asking if I knew anything about those Xenos. I tried to be brave. I didn't cry. I sat up and shouted the only thing I knew about Xenos:

Police are bad, and Kusari rice is the devil!

to be continued...

I don’t understand people. You say one thing to a person, and he laughs. You say the same thing to a different person and he gets mad. The police got mad. They told me that my brain had been washed by the Xenos and I was hanging out with the wrong crowd. They asked how I got involved with such bad people. I didn’t think Xenos were bad. They taught me how to fly my ship so I wouldn’t crash into things no more. I told them about the traders and how the Xenos helped me and how I just wanted to support my mom with a good job.

After answering a lot of their questions, one of the officers told the rest I was harmless. However, there was a lot of damage done to their ships, and someone was going to have to pay for that. They seemed worried about something called a bottom line. They told me I was going to have to follow them and help get them out of the red and back into the black. I didn’t see what red or black thing they were talking about, so I just kept my mouth shut.

They told me I was going to have to clear the debris fields near Sugarland to pay off my debt. Finally, a real job. Just what I was looking for. I’ve never been to Sugarland before, but it sounded like a happy place. I asked the officers what kind of sweets they had there. This time, they did laugh. No, they said. No sweets, but they did have donuts. Only police got donuts, they said, so none for poor Smash.

Sugarland did not look like the happy place I thought it would be. The police were right. There were no sweets in Sugarland. It was a prison. There were lots of angry people, locked away in cages, screaming and clawing at the police officers as they walked me down the prison halls. Some prisoners were begging for food. Others, for pills to help with some sickness. Some were crying. I couldn’t figure out why they called it Sugarland.

The police asked me what I thought about the place. I didn’t want to be here anymore. All my happy thoughts about a job disappeared. I asked about my friends, the Xenos. They said the Xenos were taken to a different place called Huntsville. They told me it was much worse than Sugarland. I felt bad for my friends.

The police stopped me and had me face a cell with lots of prisoners in it. They were all a lot smaller than Smash. Some of the men looked at me and started screaming at the police to not let me in. Others ran toward the far edge of the cell and pushed their backs against the wall. They promised to be good. Don't let the freak near us, they said. It reminded me of school. Lots of kids were fraid of Smash. They would run from me. I tried to be nice to them, but they would throw things at me and hurt poor Smash.

Some people say Smash stupid. Some people think Smash can never learn. Smash not stupid. Smash can learn. I counted how many police I saw in Sugarland. I counted how many prisoners there were. If Smash made friends with police, then Smash make lots more enemies with prisoners. After thinking very hard, I made a decision.

I turned toward the three officers and punched one of them right in the face. I never hit anyone like that before. He fell to the floor and didn’t get up. I didn’t want to hurt anyone else so I let the other two officers call their friends over. They tried tackling me, but I didn’t want them to win too easy. I pushed one of them to the ground and the prisoners cheered. I kept my foot on top of his back so he wouldn’t get up. The officer yelled in pain and the prisoners cheered louder. I felt a sharp pain in my back. Something bit me. I felt another bite on my leg. Then another on my neck. The prisoners urged me not to give up fighting, but there were lots of more bites. I finally dropped to the ground and gave myself up.
When the officers threw me into the cell, I was hurting all over. But not one of the prisoners hated Smash. They helped me get up. They patted me on my shoulder and told me I was their hero. Smash had friends again. Smash was sore, but happy.

The police were not happy though. They told me I was going to be in Sugarland for a long time. I thought about my Mom. She was going to miss her boy. I was already missing her. I sat down on a bench, my face in my hands and tried not to cry in front of my friends.

To be continued…

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Garrett Jax

Garrett Jax

Garrett Jax