APRIL 6, 2011

No Freeman could hurt Ken Herman. He had found safety, and so had his mentee.

Reese Low rolled a ball toward Aris Upside, who sat across from her. Their legs were spread. Light glowed against the young girl's blonde hair. Like her eyes, her shirt, pants, and shoes were blue. Those eyes had seen too much suffering.

The sofas in the blue room hugged the walls, and beyond those walls was the vacuum of outer space. Ken hadn't stood outside in weeks. And if he were on Soy, he wouldn't see any trees.

Denny Merit watched Aris as he played with Reese. The man's blond hair went past his broad shoulders. He was tall and muscular, and so were the other male Watchers who lived inside the spaceship. The woman in the vessel had brought a girl with her, a girl who might love power as much as Ken loved Reese. She played with Aris. But he wasn't the High she had spent the most time having fun with.

Cape Majestic's Watcher was Ine Rain. All the Watchers in the spaceship had known their mentees ever since they were babies. Every Soynite was supposed to get a Watcher before they turned one, and Victor Valley cared for the High who had never been that age.

"I'm going to kill every Freeman I can," Reese said, still sitting across from Aris.

On Soy, the two children had stood not far from Theo Majestic. He had made them into child rulers. Yet they sat on a lounge room's floor, not thrones.

"I'll help you," Aris said.

A flashlight rested next to him, but it remained off. While looking at the ball with his brown eyes, he touched his black hair. Reed Pisces knew what it was like to have black hair and brown eyes.

Cape Majestic sat on a sofa. He and Theo were descended from King Hase, who had created the Majestic surname. Theo had been each Soynite's superior.

Which High would become the next Supreme High?

The spaceship harboring the Soynite rulers and their Watchers hadn't landed on Earth, but it would. It could reach the humans' planet in less than a day, but the Watchers and the children needed to spend more weeks inside the spacecraft. Theo didn't want the crew to be too traumatized by the time they got to Earth.

One passenger within the spaceship was good at finding people. Seven years ago, Path Seekman had been born on the second of January. He had come into the universe as a Bloodhound, but he needed to reach Earth and settle there, not find the people Ken wanted to find.

The door opened. Marina Tome entered the room, then Lovely Windsore did the same. The High and her Watcher had pale skin. Like the other passengers, they sometimes went into the spaceship's UV light room. But the two orange-haired Soynites were naturally pale.

The green-eyed High wore a blue shirt, white pants, and white shoes. Like everyone else in the lounge room, she donned a Soynite pendant. She had never hurt any of the other passengers. Yet she could torment a person without inflicting pain.

Weeks ago, Marina had headed to the outside of the spaceport. Lovely and Boone Windsore had been with her. He had witnessed his daughter's transformation into a High. Lovely couldn't see him, and she didn't know if she would reunite with him.

Ken's father and mother had died during Soy's invasion. He had failed to keep them safe, but he would succeed in protecting Reese. She remained safe inside the spaceship. Only the pilot, the Highs, and their Watchers had been allowed to use it to escape Soy. That was why Boone hadn't been allowed to board the spacecraft.

"Hello, you two," Marina said, speaking to Reese and Aris. The woman smiled. "Can Lovely play with you, too?"

Aris scowled. He grabbed the flashlight, turned it on, then aimed its bright beam at Lovely's eyes. She shielded her face with her pale hands.

"Aris!" Denny said. "You didn't have to do that."

Aris turned off the flashlight. "I did have to do it, because Lovely is mean and I hate her."

Marina put a hand on Lovely's shoulder.

"Are you okay, Lovely?" she asked.

"Yes," Lovely said. She moved her hands away from her face before blinking several times. The girl scowled at Aris. "I hate you, too."

Lovely sat next to Cape on the sofa, and he scooted over. Aris laughed.

"Cape doesn't want to sit next to you, because you're mean," Aris said. Sitting, Lovely squeezed the white fabric of her pants. "I'm glad that I aimed my flashlight at you."

"Stop it, Aris," Denny told him.

Lovely scowled at Aris. "Get killed by a Freeman!"

"That's enough, Lovely," Marina said.

Cape stood before making eye contact with Reese. She held the ball. Because Ken had helped her survive during Soy's invasion, she and Cape could play together. On Soy, Ken had seen dead Soynite children, young members of his race who would never play on their home planet ever again. Reese wasn't one of them. Neither was Cape.

Reese held the ball higher. "Do you want to play with me, Cape?"

"Of course!" Cape said.

He sat across from Reese, then she rolled the ball to him. She loved being near Cape. Aris didn't want to become Lovely's friend, but they ruled a planet together. They needed to be fond of each other.

"You should be good to High Lovely, Aris," Ken said. "She's your co-ruler, after all. I want you to become friends with her. I need you to."

Aris turned on the flashlight. He moved its beam closer to the bookshelf in the room, then shined light against book spines.

"And I need to never be Lovely's friend," Aris said.

The boy and almost all the other passengers had watched live footage of Soy after boarding the spaceship. Kara hadn't. The Freemans had ruined the crew's home planet. A camera attached to a Soynite space station had given the group a view of Soy's destruction. The space station used to monitor Soy, give information about it, and provide intelligence about its surface and health.

The computer in the bridge had informed Ken and the others Soy had become barren. The space station that had monitored the planet had allowed the computer to receive that information. A Freeman spaceship had destroyed the space station.

As Marina stood beside the sofa Lovely sat on, the woman looked at Aris.

"You have to become Lovely's friend, Aris," she said. "Teamwork is extremely important during a war. You two have to cooperate with each other, and you have to like each other. The two of you are co-rulers."

Lovely aimed a finger at Aris. "I'm never going to be your friend, and I hope you die during this war."

"Lovely, that wasn't nice," Marina said.

"I don't care. I hate him."

"I hope something really bad happens to you," Aris said, clenching his fists. "I hate having to see you every single day. I hate you so much."

Denny rubbed his forehead with his thumb, as if doing that might make Aris stop despising Lovely. The two Highs might never become friends. Yet Ken hoped they would, like he hoped Reese would survive the war Lock Tannis had started.

The spaceship's pilot would get Ken and Reese to Earth. Copper Storm had black hair and brown eyes. The man stood tall, and he was muscular. With his help, the spaceship's crew might reach Earth. When they were on that planet, the Watchers could sell the jewels that were within the vessel and become wealthy. Earth money remained inside the spaceship as well.

"Aris, you need to stop this," Denny said. Cape rolled the ball to Reese. "You and High Lovely are allies. The two of you are also Soy's rulers. You rule our planet together. But you can't just be each other's co-rulers. You have to be friends, too. It has to happen."

Lovely shook her head. "No, it doesn't."

"Denny is right," Marina said. "You and Aris have to be friends with each other, my High."

"I want to kill him."

"Don't say that!" Cape told Lovely. The ball rested near him as he and Reese glared at Lovely. "Aris is my friend."

"Be quiet!" Lovely shouted. "And I don't care if Hase Majestic is your ancestor. I don't like you. I also don't like Hase, because he didn't kill the original Freemans when he had the chance. I hope you get killed, you annoying Majestic."

"Don't talk to him like that, you moron!" Reese said. She stood. "He's my best friend. And he's not annoying. Cape is a good person, and you're not."

Cape moved closer to Reese, and they looked at Lovely as if they wanted to hurt her. Dennis approached Marina and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Marina, Lovely is making the kids uncomfortable," he said.

Marina stroked Lovely's hair. "Let's go get some food, Lovely. We should pay a visit to the cafeteria and get some breakfast. Come on."

"Okay," Lovely said. "But I want to be carried."

Marina picked up Lovely. She carried her bridal style.

"Me and Lovely are going to go eat," she said. "We'll be in the cafeteria."

"So will me and Reese," Ken said, as Lovely scowled at his mentee. "Soon anyway. Hopefully, High Lovely will be calm by the time we get to the cafeteria."

Marina left the room, carrying the rudest High. The bookshelf stood behind Aris like a protective Watcher. He held the flashlight he had used to bother Lovely.

"I'm so happy that she's gone," he said. "I hate that girl."

"I really wish you didn't," Denny said, crossing his muscular arms. "I know that Lovely is hard to love, but you can't hate her forever, Aris."

Aris put his thumb on the flashlight's button, but he didn't turn it on. "I want to hate her forever."

Reese approached Ken, and he smiled before lifting her off the floor. While carrying her, he kissed her cheek. He would never want to kill her. He would never hate this High, this wonderful girl who might fight Lock one day.

Lovely didn't believe Reese was wonderful.

"Do you want to hate Lovely forever, too, Reese?" Ken said, holding her.

"No," she said. "But it's hard for me to like her."

Lovely seemed to love Marina, who sometimes spoke with Ken and the other Watchers. Her older sister might have died during Soy's invasion.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

While Freemans attacked that planet, Camille Ascend had given birth to Kara. The youngest High had no teeth, and she couldn't talk, but she might give commands to her people in the future.

Soynites used to kneel for her birth father.

Ken had met Don Ascend for the first time years ago. Kara had never met him. Victor had become her second father, and he took care of her. Yet he didn't know where he could find her biological father. None of the passengers did.

Victor lacked a beard. He might grow one, and his daughter might live long enough to gain her first Save. Kara's co-ruler Lovely acted like Reese didn't deserve the safety the spaceship provided.

"I agree with you, baby," Ken said, holding Reese. "Lovely is hard to like, but I wish that wasn't the truth."

"She's so rude," Reese said. "She loves being mean to me, Cape, and Aris. She loves being mean to other people, too. But I don't want to hate her forever, and I wish that she was nicer. She's not as bad as the Freemans, but she's still bad. I hate that she's like that."

"Me too," Ken said, as Cape and Aris sat across from each other on the floor. They liked Reese. "But not everyone hates you. I definitely don't hate you. I'm always going to support you, my High. Don't forget that. Your parents are gone, but you still have me. And I will never want anything bad to happen to you. I'm not Lovely."

When Ken met Reese for the first time, she had been a newborn baby. Now she was five years old. She had two dead parents, but she didn't have a dead Watcher. Ken could keep himself safe. He could keep the High safe.

"You're not like her," Reese said. "You're good, and you're never mean to me. Lovely isn't like you. She's a bad person. She's a High, but she's bad. And I hate being around her."

"She might become a better person," Ken said. "I can't see the future, and neither can you. But I do know that good things can always happen. Lovely will probably be kind and polite one day, and maybe you and her will become friends. I hope that happens. The two of you might even become like sisters to each other. Would you like that?"

"Yes. I want Lovely like me, and I wish that me and her were friends."

"You have to be friends with the people you rule Soy with, Reese," Ken said. "I'm glad that you know that, but I'm disappointed that Lovely doesn't want that to happen. Me and the other Soynites who aren't Highs need our rulers to like each other."

Ken set Reese on the floor. She watched Cape roll the ball to Aris.

"I like Cape," she said. "I really like him. I like Aris, too. And Path. I don't want anything bad to happen to them. I definitely don't want them to die."

"I don't want that to happen, either," Ken told Reese. "I want all of your friends to live, and I want them to be happy, too. You deserve to be happy, too. And I can't bring your parents back, but I wish I could. I also want you to know that I think about them every day."

"I think about them every day, too."

Ken could talk to Reese. He could hold her. He could keep her alive. What had happened to Bowie and Prim hadn't happened to their daughter. While Reese stood, Ken caressed her hair. A horrible Freeman had murdered her parents. The Watcher hadn't killed that Freeman.

"I hope you find the Freeman who killed them," Ken said. "He killed two good people who didn't deserve to get killed. Your parents were great, and they loved you. And I loved them. They were my friends. I wasn't able to save them, and I'm always going to regret that fact."

Lovely's father, Boone, had been alive while Theo transformed his daughter into a High. Boone might have survived Soy's invasion. Reese's father Bowie hadn't seen her become a ruler. The dead couldn't see.

Ken had spoken with Theo outside that spaceport. He was the only person who had been a High maker. The Supreme High position went unoccupied, but a child ruler aboard the spaceship might become the next leader of the Highs.

Ken's stomach growled, and he put a hand on it.

"Let's go have breakfast, Reese," he said. "It will be fun. Cape can come with us."

She and Cape had been born on the twentieth of February. Like Aris and Lovely, Reese and Cape were five years old.

Even the rude Lovely Windsore had a birthday. She had been born on the fourteenth of January.

Aris had been born on the tenth of January.

Path was seven years old. He had been born on the second of January.

Kara had been born on the first of March. She was a month old. Like the other people living in the spaceship, she might reach Earth.

The spaceship's destination was an area sand dominated. A desert. Those didn't exist on Soy, but they were found on Earth. The passengers were supposed to arrive at a desert in Nevada, in the United States of America. The emergency protocol Theo had created stated that, if Freemans attacked Soy, the High children would go to that specific desert with their Watchers.

Ken thought about people who weren't related to him, then he thought about Reese.

"Cape," Reese said. "Do you want to come with me and Ken? We can go to the cafeteria and have breakfast."

Cape stood. "Okay. Let's go."

Reese offered Cape her hand. He grabbed it. Ken left the room, and Reese and Cape walked close to him. Ken heard footsteps, then Aris and Denny joined the small group.

"Look," Cape said. "There's Victor and Kara."

Victor Valley moved in the long hall, carrying the passenger who couldn't talk yet. A blanket hugged Kara as Victor held her. He had become her second father. But her birth parents, Don and Camille, might not be dead.

After Ken stepped into the cafeteria, Reese and Cape stopped holding hands.

Like the spaceship's other rooms, this one was blue. Long benches were arranged in rows. Light shone against their white surfaces, and their wheels touched the cafeteria's hard floor.

Path Seekman and Jamie Clarke sat in the huge room, and food trays lay in front of them. Like Victor and Kara, the Path and Jamie were brown-haired and brown-eyed.

Time passed.

Ken, Reese, and Cape sat at a bench. The Watcher sat next to the blonde girl, and Cape sat across from her. Food trays rested on the table, and so did bottles filled with fruit juice. Path and Jamie laughed while sitting at one bench. Aris and Denny stayed at a different one.

As she held a fruit, Lovely scowled at Aris. She sat across from Marina. Aris had aimed a flashlight's bright beam at her eyes. Did she plan on getting revenge?

Lovely looked at her bottled juice before switching her attention to Aris.

"I wish your parents were here, Reese," Cape said. He bit into his fruit, chewed, swallowed. "I wish I could've met them."

"I wish you could've met them, too," Reese said. "They loved me a lot, and I miss them. I always will. And if I ever find the Freeman who killed them, I'm going to kill him. I want that pale moron to die."

"I hope you kill him."

If Ken could destroy every Freeman, he would. Not even Freeman babies deserved to live.

Victor's baby hadn't died. Kara had been born a month ago, and she was better than any Freeman alive. Her birth father had been alive when Theo banished Reed from Soy. Theo had erased Reed's status as a High, and that had led to Don becoming one. He had gone missing. During his absence, Theo had made new Highs.

Reese. Cape. Lovely. Aris. Path. Kara. After the spaceship arrived on Earth, those children would separate from each other. They would go with their Watchers, people who had known them since they were babies. Ken had never met Lock, but the blond man knew what the Freeman leader had done. So did Reese. Her parents had died because of Lock, and Ken needed to defend her. He needed to keep her alive.

While Soy's invasion raged, too many Soynites had lost their lives, Bowie and Prim included. Reese and the other Highs hadn't died. They had escaped their home planet, and their Watchers had escaped with them.

Reese would step onto a desert on Earth weeks from now, and she might find the Freeman who had murdered Bowie and Prim.

"That Freeman isn't going to kill you, Reese," Ken said, as he remained next to his mentee. "I don't know if you will ever kill that horrible person, but I do know that he will never kill you. You're a survivor. After all, you survived the attack on our planet. So many of our people died that night. Good people."

Reese looked at the table. "Like my parents."

"Yes, like your parents. Something awful happened to them, but I'm so glad they met you. And I'm so glad they took care of you. They treated you well, and that's one of the reasons why I will always appreciate them."

"I wish they were still here. I wish I could talk to them, and I wish they could talk to me."

As Cape sat across from Reese, he took fruit juice into his mouth before swallowing.

"If they were here, what would you tell them?" he asked.

"That I love them," Reese said. "I want to tell them that I love them. They're gone, but I still love them. And I'm never going to stop loving them."

Lovely placed her partially eaten fruit on the tray in front of her. The girl grabbed her bottled juice, smirking. She left the bench and started walking.

The bottle's cap sat on the table.

After reaching the spot behind Aris, Lovely tilted the bottle. Red fruit juice spilled onto his black hair. He shouted, stood, then faced Lovely.

"You poured juice on me!" he said, glaring.

Denny rose, and he moved into the aisle where Aris and Lovely stood. Red liquid dripped off the boy's hair. Lovely smiled, happy, as if she had killed a Freeman. Marina approached her from behind. She and Denny frowned.

Aris's fists trembled. "If these Watchers weren't here, I would beat you up!"

Lovely dropped the bottled juice, and the transparent container hit the floor.

"Try to!" she said. "Try to beat me up."

"Don't do it, Aris," Denny said.

Marina picked up Lovely before taking several steps away from Aris.

"I'm sorry, Aris," she said, as Path came closer. He held a napkin. "Lovely, you shouldn't have done that."

Aris looked as if he wanted to assault Lovely with his fists. As Marina held her, Lovely grinned. Her joy was as obvious as Aris's anger. If he tried attacking her, Marina would protect her.

Path approached Aris, and gave him the napkin. He used it to wipe some of the liquid off his forehead.

Denny put a hand on Aris's back. "Let's get you cleaned up."

The boy and his Watcher walked away from Lovely. Aris and Denny planned on leaving the cafeteria, and they would leave the spaceship one day.

"I hate you, Lovely!" Aris shouted.

"Just get out of here!" Lovely said, as Marina held her.

After Aris and Denny left the cafeteria, Path and Jamie started cleaning up the juice that had dropped onto the floor. Marina helped. Lovely didn't. She took her seat and picked up her fruit. She bit into it, looking content, like Aris might have been before the juice incident. Lovely would probably smile if she poured juice on Reese's hair. Those girls ruled over Ken and the other Watchers in the spaceship, but Lovely would rather insult Reese than compliment her.

Lovely had dumped her juice onto Aris, and Ken assumed that had deepened his dislike for her. Would he still hate her when the spaceship landed on Earth?

"I hope Aris gets clean soon," Reese said. She glared at Lovely. "He didn't deserve to get juice spilled on him."

While Reese spent time with Cape, Ken could speak with Lovely's caretaker, who was more polite than the green-eyed High.

Ken put a hand on Reese's shoulder. "I'm going to talk to Marina."

When Ken approached Marina, she was kneeling as she wiped the floor with a napkin. Red liquid contrasted with the white material. Marina's napkin-free hand pressed against the hard floor. The Watchers in the spaceship could use their hands to clean, but they couldn't use them to heal wounds. They weren't Theo.

"Marina, can I talk to you?" Ken said. Marina tilted her head to look at him. Lovely, Path, and Jamie remained nearby. "In private?"

"Sure," Marina said. She rose. "We can talk in the hall."

A trash bin stood in the aisle. Jamie had put it there. Marina dropped the used napkin into it, and looked at the girl who had caused too much trouble.

"Lovely, I'm going to talk to Ken," the woman said. "I'll be back."

"Okay," Lovely replied.

In the hall outside the cafeteria, Ken stood in front of Marina, their shoes touching the blue floor. It was the same color as the walls and the ceiling above the Watchers' heads.

Marina crossed her thin arms. "I'm going to assume that you want to talk about Lovely."

"I do," Ken said. "And you know why Aris aimed that flashlight at her. Lovely bullies him and almost all the other Highs, her own co-rulers. If she wasn't so awful to Aris, he wouldn't have bullied her. She spilled that juice on him, and she should apologize for it. If Lovely does that, he might stop hating her."

"She doesn't apologize. I'm sorry, Ken, but I can't change the way Lovely is. Only she can do that. I've tried to get her to stop being so rude to Aris and the other Highs she bullies, but I can't. And I hate knowing that Kara is the only High who doesn't hate Lovely. I'm the only person in this spaceship who loves her, and that's the truth. But I really wish it wasn't."

"Likewise," Ken told Lovely's Watcher. "Regardless, the truth is the truth, Marina. You're the only one here who loves Lovely. And most of her co-rulers hate her, and that's a problem."

Bowie and Prim had wanted to protect Lovely's co-ruler Reese. They had loved her. They had planned on seeing her become a High, but a Freeman had ruined their goal when he killed them. There was a possibility Boone Windsore had survived Soy's invasion. Lovely had a Watcher, and she might have a living father. She loved him, but she didn't love Reese.

Lovely didn't love any Majestics. She wasn't like Ken.

"I know exactly how Lovely is," Marina said. "I really do. Maybe she will be even worse years from now. But she can love others, and so can the rest of our people. One day she might even love you."

Ken's belief that Lovely might become a good person had weakened after he had seen her pour juice on Aris.

Ken shook his head. "Let's focus on the present. Your mentee isn't a good person, and it's possible that she will become a tyrant, not a kind and sweet ruler. Reed Pisces was a teenager when Theo got rid of his High status and exiled him from Soy. What do you think will happen when Lovely is a teenager? There might be a Supreme High by then, and that person will probably get rid of Lovely's High status."

"And how do you know Lovely won't become the next Supreme High?"

"Would you choose a horrible person to be your leader?"

Marina turned her head to the wall, and Ken put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know you want what's best for Lovely, but most of her co-rulers don't," he said. "And they probably won't elect her as their leader. Lovely might stop being a High one day. Because the future Supreme High might get rid of her royal power. The same thing that happened to Reed might happen to Lovely."

Ken moved his hand away from Marina's shoulder. She shook her head, as if he had asked her if she hated Lovely.

"She needs power," Marina said. "She doesn't have her father, and she definitely doesn't have her mother. If she loses her power, what will she have?"

"You," Ken said. "If she loses her power, she will still have you."

After Ken and Marina returned to the cafeteria, he looked at Lovely. She remained seated. Path and Jamie had finished cleaning the mess. Reese sat across from Cape, talking to her best friend.

Marina went closer to Lovely. "Are you enjoying your food, my High?"

"Yes," Lovely said.

Marina kissed her on the lips. Her parents used to show her affection that way.

"Your juice is gone, but that's fine," Marina said. She lifted the bottled juice off her tray and placed it on Lovely's. "You can have mine."

Lovely smiled. "Thanks, Marina."

"You're welcome. Listen, I need you to know that I will always be here for you. Your father isn't with you right now, but I really do hope he survived the Invasion. You need him. You need a father, and you need a mother, too."

"I also need siblings."

"I hope you get some," Marina said. She ran her fingers through Lovely's long hair. "And I hope you see your father again. You deserve to be reunited with him, and you also deserve a crown and a throne."

High Lovely sat on a long bench in a cafeteria. Many years ago, Theo had earned the right to sit on a throne. The children he had made into Highs lacked thrones and crowns, yet they had won royal power, and their Watchers could protect them. Ken couldn't protect Theo's wife. Ken couldn't be with her, but he wished he could.

Ken had the same problems as Lilly's brother.