Free Socket 1-3 - The Socket Greeny Saga by Tony Bertauski

technology.” The
golden thing shrugged. “ I did a simple scan, decoded your
nojakk. You really should upgrade your passcodes.”
    “Scanned it with what?”
    “ It’s a mental scan. You wouldn’t
understand.”
    I’m reading thoughts and stopping time. Now
there’s talking… things. Sure, why not. “What are you?” I said.
“Like a dragon or something?”
    “ Phhsssh .” Its lips flopped around,
exposing rows of sharp teeth. “ We’re grimmets, hailing from the
edge of the Milky Way. My name is Sighter.”
    Grimmets. Hmmmm . Tiny dragons
speaking on nojakks, apparently with their mind. We missed that
species in biology class. And from the Milky Way? We missed that in
astronomy. Of course, we never covered timeslicing in physics. I
reached for Sighter, wanted to poke him, make sure he was real. He
snapped my finger with his tail, like a wet towel.
    “CHRIST!” A red line swelled across my
knuckles. I put it to my lips. “Why’d you do that?”
    “ We’re not pets.”
    “Well, tell him that, you’re sitting on his
shoulder.”
    “ I like him .” He wrapped his tail
around the blind guy’s neck again. “ But Pivot doesn’t own me,
boy.”
    “My name is Socket.”
    “ I know.”
    “Then why’d you call me boy?”
    “ I just met you .” He rolled his
bulging eyes. “ Do I have to explain everything?”
    “Listen, three or four months ago I was
living a normal life, now I’m reading thoughts and stopping time
and you look like a golden dragon that did some sort of…” I waved
my hands over my head, frantically, “ mental scan to steal my
passcodes and now you’re talking to me, without moving your lips.”
We stared at each other, deadpan, until I said, “So, yeah, explain
everything.”
    Pivot’s eyes remained unfocused, but his
lips moved. Sighter nodded.
    “ Fair enough, boy,” Sighter said.
“ Follow us.”
    We went to the tree. It wasn’t growing in
the stone slab, after all, but against it. The slab dropped off and
below, maybe fifteen feet, was a pond. The tree was rooted in that.
Pivot sat against the tree and Sighter climbed to the top of his
head. Hundreds of grimmets peeked out of hiding places along the
branches, their eyes glowing.
    “ We came to help awaken the human
race.”
    “This gets better every day,” I
muttered.
    “ You don’t think Earth is the first
planet in the universe to make a mess out of their evolution, now
do you?”
    “I didn’t even know there was life on other
planets.”
    Sighter shook his head. “ You have so much
to learn, boy .”
    “I just got here. Remember?”
    The grimmets fluttered around Pivot like
needy butterflies, fighting to be the next to swing on his fingers.
Sighter stood on his shoulder monitoring the fracas, waving them
off when they got too pushy.
    “So who are you?” I asked the blind kid.
“Your name is Pivot, right?”
    No answer. Then all the grimmets looked up.
Their eyes grew wider. Brighter. They scattered like bugs, found
stones to sit on, branches to hang from. Sighter crossed his arms.
They weren’t looking at me. They looked over my shoulder.
     
    Someone strode across the stone slab. He was
about my age. Each one of his steps landed softly and purposefully.
His hair was black, properly cut. His one-piece suit was loose
fitting, green and beige. It may have been the colors of the
jungle, but it was too clean to belong in the Preserve.
    “Salutations,” he said. “I see they have
finally let you out of the box.”
    I was still taking in the camouflaged onesy
and the strange way he walked. It was almost like he did it
perfectly. Whatever that means. Guess he figured I was confused. He
jerked his thumb over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off me.
“The Garrison. They finally let you out. It can get quite stuffy in
there, no?”
    Not a single grimmet stirred. Pivot sat
quietly, unnoticed. My gut sparked like a fire alarm just went
off.
    “I hope you don’t mind, but I believe it is
high time we met.”