Prologue

Helen glanced up at the clock on the wall behind the counter. It was noon. She had gotten there thirty minutes earlier than she was supposed to. The little hands on the clock were in the shape of retro cars. She watched as the big hand turned.

“Can I help you, ma’am?” an employee appeared and refocused Helen’s attention.

“Yes, table for two,” Helen said. “The second will be arriving later.”

“Actually, I think he might already be here.” The employee gestured behind him. Helen craned her neck and saw him sitting at a booth all by himself with his back turned to her.

“Ah… yes, that’s him. Thank you.” Helen’s heart raced as she walked towards him. It had been twenty years. Twenty long and painful years. She slid into the booth and set her purse down, but still held onto the strap. She said nothing. Walter stared as his newspaper and didn’t bother to even look up. Helen gripped the strap on her purse with both hands, waiting for Walter to speak.

“Hello, Helen,” he finally said, still staring at the newspaper. “How are you?”

“Well, my fridge has stopped running at home,” Helen started, “my husband has been dead for twenty years, and in a few hours my son is going to be led into certain death. I’m fine, how are you Walter?”

He smiled under his thick mustache and looked up from the newspaper. “Helen…”

“No, Walter,” Helen snapped. “No. Have whatever opinion about me you want, but you will not talk to me that way.”

Walter continued to smile. He leaned back in the booth. The leather squeaked loudly. Walter shifted around uncomfortably. He shrugged and kept staring at Helen. “You called me here, Helen.”

Helen frowned and took a deep breath. “I… I want some verification.”

“Verification of what?”

“Verification that…”

“Hello, and welcome to Rock’n Rogers!” their server interrupted her mid sentence. She placed menus in front of each of them. “Can I get a drink order started for you today?”

“I’m fine with water, thank you,” Helen said.

“I’ll take another coffee,” Walter held up his mug. “Black, please.”

“Sure thing, I’ll be right back.” The server left them.

Helen kept frowning as she felt her throat begin to tighten.

“So…” Walter said. “What kind of verification do you want?”

“I want verification that Jared will be safe.” The words felt bitter.

Walter straightened his neck. “How bad do you think Galecko World is now?”

“If it’s even remotely close to how it was when I left, then it’s too dangerous,” Helen scoffed. “If I’m giving up my son and I’m sending him into this dangerous place, tell me you’re going to protect him.”

Walter opened his mouth but said nothing. Then he began. “I haven’t seen you for twenty years, Helen. Your husband was the bravest man I’ve ever known. Gideon considered you to be her sister, and that in turn makes you my sister too. Jared is my family, Helen.”

Helen tried to interrupt but Walter kept going.

“You may think you’re sending him to certain death, but what you’re doing is sending him home.”

Helen let the words resinate with herself. She felt tears begin to swell up in her eyes.

Just then, the server came back. “Ok, one coffee,” she set the coffee down in front of Walter, “and one water.” She set the water in front of Helen. “Now, do we know what we want?”

“Actually, I think I’m good,” Helen said. She grabbed her purse and left the restaurant before Walter could see her cry.

01

Corpora

Jared Topsider was at a point in his life where nothing mattered to him. He was twenty years old, attending college, and in about two years he was going to be working at a small company as their IT guy. He wasn’t a partier and he wasn’t very social. If you asked him how many friends he had, he would say one, and that would be his roommate, Tim Erickson. He spent most of his days sitting on his computer and reading various useless news articles.

And that’s where we find him on this particular day: in his room on his computer. It was the middle of summer and bordering 200 degrees. It wasn’t really, it was closer to 80 degrees, but Jared was an Oregonian and if the temperature ever rose of 50 degrees he would feel cold. He had a fan aimed right at him to keep himself from melting. He had just turned his computer off and was getting ready to leave his apartment for a couple days.

He stood from his desk chair and went to the kitchen to get a drink. His apartment was pretty small, but he wasn’t exactly flushed with cash. There was a living room, a kitchen, and a room for himself and Tim.

He got a cup from the cupboard and went to get the pitcher of water from the fridge. Except Tim hadn’t refilled the pitcher again. Jared sighed audibly as he filled his cup with water from the sink. He leaned against the counter and sipped from the cup.

Jared was a tall guy, around 6’3’’. His hair was dirty blonde and combed back. At least today it was combed back. Somedays he would just let it fall down and be messy. He usually wore a sweatshirt and shorts, but since the day was so hot he was wearing a plain T-shirt with a Yin-Yang logo on it.

He stared lazily at his fridge while he slowly sipped his water. He checked his watch. It was 3 o’clock. He should probably head out pretty soon.

As he stayed in his own thoughts, he heard his apartment door begin to unlock. Tim was home.

Tim opened the door and strutted in the same way that he always did. His shoes made a loud noise on the wood paneling. He walked into the kitchen, holding his keys and a bunch of letters. He was a very young looking guy with faint whiskers where his beard and mustache should’ve been. His hair was shorter, dirty, and unkempt. However, he still carried himself with a lot of confidence. He was always an outgoing kid and the complete opposite of Jared. It’s what made them stay such good friends for such a long time. “You got an actual letter,” Tim greeted Jared.

“Is it a bill?” Jared said placing his water glass on the counter.

“Please,” Tim sighed as he opened the fridge. “If it was a bill I would’ve just thrown it in the trash.” He took the pitcher out of the fridge and slowly turned it upside down. He let a few drops of water fall to the ground as he looked at Jared disappointingly.

Jared looked back at Tim with wide confused eyes. “…What?”

“Out of water?”

“You tell me,” Jared said in almost a sassy tone.

Tim peered into the pitcher just to make sure that there was no water left.

“How’s Sophie?” Jared asked.

“She’s good… we’ve only been together for about a month and I… I don’t know.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.”

“You already said that.”

Tim breathed in as he walked over to the sink to fill up a cup of water. He filled the cup up to the brim and leaned against the counter in the same way that Jared was. He was still holding onto the mail. He sipped his water contemplatively. “She’s boring as shit,” he finally answered.

“I see,” Jared replied with equal disinterest.

“I don’t know, man… I haven’t really been serious with a girl in a year and I thought I really had something with Sophie. I mean… am I really that hatable that I can’t find a girl that I honestly like and enjoy being around?” He looked at Jared.

Jared looked back. He took a sip of his water, maintaining eye contact with Tim the whole time.

“You’re a dick,” Tim said as he walked out of the kitchen and into the living room.

“I don’t think I am,” Jared said heartlessly. “Some people would go so far as to say that I’m a pretty nice guy.”

“The only people that say that are the people that don’t know who you are. And the people that don’t know who you are are everyone except me and your mom.”

“What makes you think you know me,” Jared said quietly, but loud enough for Tim to hear.

“You’re not a complicated person, Jared, people can figure you out in two seconds.”

Jared didn’t feel like giving a witty response to that one since it was mostly true. People thought they had Jared figured out within their first few encounters with him. That didn’t bother Jared though, because he knew they didn’t really know who he was.

“I thought you were going to be gone by now,” Tim said politely.

He was also right about that. “Do you have my mail?” Jared asked, ignoring Tim’s comment.

“Right here, dumbass,” Tim said, holding up an incredibly thick stack of letters. He smiled wickedly. For some reason last year the two of them began to sign each other up for as many mailing lists as they possibly could. Ever since then, they overtook their own mailbox and now had to get their mail out of a dairy crate that resided below their mailbox. Since the mailing list war, they had stopped getting their mail and got it only once a week. It was completely useless, anyhow.

“You said there was an actual letter,” Tim stated.

“It’s in there somewhere.” Tim still held the stack of letters up towards Jared.

“Give me the damn letter, Tim.”

“I already shuffled it in here. You want the letter, you better dig.”

Jared really didn’t want to, but he also didn’t particularly want to leave right now. He hated going home. He loved his mom very much, but being home always depressed him more than his regular life did. He took the stack of letters from Tim and took a seat in the char next to their TV. He began to cycle through the letters as Tim kept talking. Jared kind of just tuned him out.

He wasn’t really paying attention to the letters. He kind of just threw them on the floor before he processed what was on the envelope.

Finally, about halfway through the pile, he found a letter that had their address handwritten on it. He leaned forward and stared at the handwriting. Jared had no family besides his mother. Jared had no friends besides Tim. Nobody sent letters anymore. He had no idea who this could possibly be.

“You find it?” Tim asked.

“Yeah,” Jared said as he began to open the envelope. He pulled the letter out and read what was printed on it.

JARED TOPSIDER

We have much to discuss. Please meet us in CORPORA at Salem Oregon.

I can assure you that a lot depends on your cooperation in this matter.

-Walter Fool.

Jared held the letter up by one corner and let it dangle so that Tim could see it. “Very weak attempt, bitch boy,” Jared said.

“What?” Tim squinted at the letter. “Who’s it from.”

“Walter Fool. Is that a new alias? What happened to Mike Hawk?”

“Ok, Mike Hawk is always funny when waiters call it out. Also… I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“What exactly was your plan here?” Jared said pointing at the letter. “I show up to Corpora, nobody is there, haha, the joke’s on Jared?”

“Jared, I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Jared read the letter over again. There was one aspect about the letter that made Jared think that maybe Tim didn’t write it: there were no spelling errors. Tim was so bad at spelling and grammar and writing in general. Jared studied the letter again suspiciously.

“You swear you didn’t write this?” Jared said, feeling kind of dumb that he wasn’t 100% sure that Tim was behind it.

Tim held both his hands in the air. “I swear to you, I didn’t write it. What’s it say?”

Jared read the words out loud to Tim.

Tim scratched his chin and stared off. Jared could tell he was deep in thought. “You got to go check it out.”

At that moment, Jared was sure that Tim had something to do with the letter. “Do you want to go check it out?”

“The letter didn’t ask for me.”

“Tim, whatever this is it’s not real.”

Tim sucked his teeth and continued to look through his own giant stack of mail. “Well excuse me for giving a damn about a letter that doesn’t happen to be a damn add for lawn service or a Dunkin’ Donuts coupon.”

Jared smiled at that one. “Let’s say you didn’t write the letter,” he said, leaning back in his chair and setting the letter on his lap. “I don’t even know where Corpora is.”

“I do. It’s next to the Gilbert House.”

Jared squinted at the ceiling as he tried to remember any buildings nearby the iconic Gilbert House.

“It’s down the road with the rail tracks,” Tim said, noticing Jared was still having trouble placing it.

Jared looked back down at Tim. He smiled. “How do you know where Corpora is?” He was almost disappointed. His life was pretty boring, and a letter from a mysterious source was far from boring.

Tim shrugged. “I just remember it.”

Jared was still suspicious, but for some reason he had this feeling that Tim wasn’t behind this. “If it is down that road, it’s on the way to my moms house. I’ll stop by on the way home,” Jared said, putting the letter aside. He couldn’t tell if he meant what he said or not. Maybe he would stop be, maybe he wouldn’t. Regardless, he would tell Tim that he would because he was growing tired of their conversation.

“Well…” Tim tilted his head from side to side. “What do you think it’s about?”

“It’s probably nothing,” Jared told himself. Jared was mad at himself that he believed it was something more. Deep down, he wanted this to be something excited, even though the odds were that it was just Tim playing a prank.

“What if it’s something?”

“What could it possibly be, Tim? They genetically modify me to save the world?”

“Read the letter. A lot depends on you cooperating with them.”

Jared shrugged and stood from his chair. “Regardless… I’ll figure out soon. I’m going to head out.”

Tim looked down at the floor and nodded his head solemnly. “Well, wait, can I… can I come with you?”

Jared stood still and looked down at Tim suspiciously. “Why?”

“I want to see what this is about.”

“Tim, come on.” Jared acted as if he didn’t want Tim to tag along. The truth of the matter was that if Tim came home with him for the weekend, he’d feel much less depressed than he usually did when he went home. And he was sure that his mom wouldn’t mind; she though of Tim like a second son. But at the same time, Jared really didn’t want to stop by an old abandoned warehouse to see if there was anything for him.

“I just want to see,” Tim repeated.

Jared shrugged again. He was always shrugging. “I guess so, but I’m leaving in ten minutes.”

“Sweet, I’m ready now,” Tim said, jumping to his feet.

Jared eyed him. “What clothes are you bringing?”

“I’ll just borrow some of yours.”

Jared sighed. “Alright, fine.”

Jared jammed the letter into his pocket, grabbed his duffle bag that contained his clothes and his laptop, and he walked with Tim to his car through the gravel parking lot. “You’re driving,” Jared said, tossing the keys at Tim.

Tim caught them and got into the drivers seat. Jared drove a 2002 Honda CR-V. He hated it, but it was cheap and he didn’t drive much. Oregon State was only about half a mile from his apartment and he didn’t mind the walk, especially in the morning or night.

Corpora was only a forty minute drive away. As Tim pulled up to the big ugly building, Jared recognized it immediately. It wasn’t particularly tall, but it was long. It stretched all the way down the street for about 100 yards. The windows were dusty and moldy. There was a small series of creaky old scuffed up steps that led up to a single door that looked like if someone sneezed in its general direction it would tear right off its hinges. Jared had drove past the building countless times, and never once did he even bother to think what was inside.

“Tim…” Jared said, as Tim illegally pulled up and parked right next to the creaky steps.

“I know,” Tim said, nodding his head knowingly. “But we’re already here, so…”

Jared stared at the door and pondered his next decision. “Fine,” he said, unbuckling his seat belt. “But if we get molested, I’m never going to forgive you.”

They got out of the car and shut the door. Jared waited for Tim to walk up the stairs first. For some reason, Jared started to feel eager and excited.

Tim stepped on the first step and the stairs creaked and bent. After that, he cautiously walked up the last few steps to reach the door. Jared followed.

As Tim threw open the door, Jared could smell must from outside the building. As he stepped inside, he saw a bunch of tables and chairs that were wrapped up in old brown paper. Thousands of dust particles danced in the light coming in through the window. The floor was wood panelling, but it had been torn up in various spots. On the wall to their right, Jared spotted another old door. There were no lights anywhere in the room. Jared couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed.

“Jesus,” Tim coughed.

“Yeah, nobody’s been here for at least ten years, Tim.”

“Well…” Tim sounded disappointed as well. “Can we at least look around?”

Jared didn’t see why not. They walked around the small room, examining each set of tables and chairs. There was absolutely nothing. “I feel like we’re trespassing,” Jared commented.

“Yeah, probably,” Tim said heartlessly. “Yeah, I don’t think there’s anything here. Do you want to…”

Tim’s speech was cut off as the door creaked open. Jared felt his heart jump for some reason. He stiffened up.

Slowly, a middle aged fit black man stuck his head out from behind the door. He was wearing a tight black turtle neck, cargo pants, and a blue hat with the letters ‘GPA’ written on it in black print.

Jared held his breath as the mans eyes shifted back and forth from Jared to Tim. Finally, he focused on Jared.

“Jared…” he said quietly. He kept staring at Jared. Jared felt uncomfortable. The man must’ve been able to tell. “Y—you, uh… You’re Jared, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am,” Jared said insecurely.

The man looked over at Tim. “And, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know you?”

“My name’s Tim,” Tim said, equally as insecure.

“Ah, well… nice to meet you Tim. We weren’t exactly… we weren’t really expecting you…”

“What is this about,” Jared blurted out, not even really registering what the man had said.

The man smiled nicely. “Well, my name is James Hanks,” he began. “And your name is Jared Topsider. We have a lot to discuss, Mr. Topsider.” He opened the door wider. Jared could see inside the room and he saw two other men sitting around a table. One was pale and hairy with long greasy black hair. He was wearing a raincoat and sweatpants. The other was older and wearing a collared shirt and khakis. His hair was combed back nicely and he had a thick mustache.

Jared looked over at Tim. Tim looked back at Jared. They had no idea what to do.

“I, uh…” James stammered nervously again. “I don’t want to make either of you feel uncomfortable. I understand that we’re not people that you know, but I can assure you that our intentions are nothing but good.”

“The only thing that’s on our mind is keeping you alive,” the pale one spoke up.

Jared slowly stepped towards the room. He wasn’t sure why he was doing it. The logical thing would be to leave, but something was making him want to be there.

“Jare…” Tim cut himself off. He sighed loudly but subtly and followed behind.

The room was not much different from the first one: same ugly scuffed up floor, same ugly windows.

James took a seat at the far end of the table. The other two men sat at either side. There was one chair left.

“Uh… right…” James said awkwardly as he shifted around his chair. “Like I said, we weren’t exactly expecting… Tim.”

“It’s cool, I can stand,” Tim said as he stood in the corner awkwardly.

Jared sat. Jared had always been socially awkward, but for some reason he felt comfortable around these men. “So… what is this about?” Jared asked.

“Well, let me introduce you to my associates,” James began. “This is Russell McDonald, but everyone calls him the Mapmaker.” James gestured to the pale man to his left.

“It’s nice to meet you,” the Mapmaker reached over and shook Jared’s hand.

“And this is Walter Fool,” James gestured towards the man with the mustache.

Walter gave a firm wave in Jared’s direction and said nothing.

“And as you know, my name is James Hanks,” James put a hand on his chest. “I am the head of an organization called ‘the Galecko Protectors Alliance’. You can call us GPA. These men are also from GPA. We… we have a lot to talk about.”

Jared rested his arms on the table and looked around the room at the three men. He looked back at Tim who stood there with his arms folded across his chest. “Ok…” Jared said.

James’ chair squeaked loudly as he leaned forward. He spoke slowly and carefully. “… Jared, I’ve gone over this over and over in my head, and I really don’t have any idea where to start. Your mother… what do you know about her?”

Jared furrowed his bro and opened his mouth even though no words came out.

“Do you know anything about her childhood?” Walter spoke for the first time.

“Well… I know she’s from California. I think she said she was from Fresno… besides that, I never really asked and she never really told. Why?”

“Ok…” James processed the information. “Ok… Jared… your mother is not from California. Your mother is not even from this planet. In fact, you’re not even from this planet.”

Jared sucked his bottom lip and looked down at the table. He slowly turned to look at Tim. “I told you it was nothing.”

“Listen, Jared,” Walter said, “I know that this is all going to seem crazy to you, but it’s all true. You left because it wasn’t safe for you. But now you’re old enough to…” Walter cut himself off.

Jared looked at Walter with wide eyes. He looked back up at James.

“It’s true, Jared,” he said.

“And what planet am I supposed to be from?”

“Galecko World,” the Mapmaker said as if Jared were a moron for asking the question. “We’re all from Galecko World.”

“Galecko World?” Jared repeated the words. They sounded even dumber when he said them.

“That’s right,” James verified. “What do you know about your father, Jared?” James asked.

Jared scoffed. “What does my dad have to do with this? He died in a car accident.”

Walter chuckled. “Could you imagine? ‘Gregor Topsider killed in a car accident’.”

“What are you talking about?” Jared grew eager.

“Jared, your father was not killed in a car accident. Your father was murdered by a vicious war criminal named Yema.” James maintained heavy contact with Jared as he spoke.

Jared shook his head and frowned. “I have to go see my mom, sorry,” he began to stand up when the Mapmaker spoke.

“Would you like to see something that might change your mind?”

Jared sat back in the chair. “Sure.” If he had to humor these guys just to get them to leave him alone, he would do it.

The Mapmaker reached under the table and pulled out an object wrapped in a white blanket and a box of jelly doughnuts. Jared watched the thing in the blanket. The Mapmaker set the object right in the center of the table and removed the blanket to reveal a garden gnome holding a fishing rod.

Tim giggled at the reveal.

Jared sat still and kept staring intently at the smiling gnome as if something exciting was about to happen.

The Mapmaker took a jelly doughnut out of the box and plopped it in front of the garden gnome.

Jared kept staring. Slowly the garden gnome’s nose begin to twitch. Jared blinked rapidly and let his jaw drop. Tim let out an audible ‘holy shit’ as the garden gnome’s eyes flickered. Then all at once, the gnome came to life and looked down at the doughnut.

“Oh boy! I haven’t eaten in a damn week!” the gnome said in a thick German accent. He dropped his fishing rod and picked up the jelly doughnut. He viciously ripped into it. Jelly cascaded onto his porcelain vest. “These never stop being good!” he said enthusiastically.

Jared was speechless. He didn’t know what he was looking at. The three men at the table smiled. Jared tried to say something, but he just made a grunting nose.

The gnome took notice to Jared and looked up at him. “Well, hello there, chap! Are you the one who has given me such gracious gifts of jelly filled doughnuts?”

Jared, again, was speechless.

“No, sir, that was me,” the Mapmaker said. “Can you tell us, please, what’s your name?”

“Why, my name is Frank Grazer!” the gnome said pridefully as he hopped into the air. “I was made forty years ago, but only now do I exist! I can’t thank you enough, for…” Frank’s exuberant speech was cut short by the Mapmaker who took out a hammer and smashed Frank.

“What the hell, man!” Tim yelled.

Jared too felt like the Mapmaker had just committed murder even though it was just a gnome.

“Galecko World only imports one thing from Earth: garden gnomes,” James explained.

“There’s a small garden in Galecko World that’s ran entirely by garden gnomes,” the Mapmaker continued. “Nobody in Galecko World knows how to make them, but for some reason, on Earth, if you put a jelly doughnut in front of one it comes to life.”

“Why the hell’d you kill it!?” Tim yelled.

“There’s a surplus of garden gnomes in Galecko World right now,” Walter said. “The land is overrun with the little bastards.”

Jared’s mind was racing. He didn’t know whether to run or to stay.

“I know this is a lot to handle, Jared,” James spoke cooly, “but we intend not only to tell you about Galecko World, we intend to show you.”

Jared was so confused. He was also angry, but he wasn’t sure why. He wanted to ask why this was happening. He wanted to ask so much, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was: “H—how…?”

“Would you like to see?” James asked.

Jared didn’t want to admit it, but he did. As badly as he didn’t want to believe what he was hearing, something inside of him was telling him it was real.

“Walter,” James said, not waiting for Jared to respond.

Walter cleared his throat and looked over at Tim. “You may not want to be here, son.”

Tim looked around the room helplessly. Jared could tell Tim wanted to be there also.

“He’s staying,” Jared spoke up for him. “He’s staying with me.”

“Uh, Jared…” the Mapmaker chimed in. “Transportation from Galecko World to this planet is… limited.”

“I want to go,” Tim said.

James studied Tim. Walter and the Mapmaker looked up at him. “He can stay. But be prepared for what you’ll see, Tim.”

Walter cocked his head to the side and raised his eyebrows. Jared could tell that Walter disagreed with James’ decision. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box that looked like it held a watch.

“This isn’t another gnome is it?” Tim asked genuinely.

“No,” Walter answered as he opened the box. “It’s our teleporter.”

Jared craned his neck to try and see into the box, but Walter quickly jammed his finger into the box. All of a sudden, Jared heard a loud WHOOSHING sound coming from outside. He felt the whirl swirling lightly. He gripped the table for stability as Tim braced himself against the wall. Right at that moment Jared realized how sick he actually felt.

Then all at once, it stopped. Jared stiffened himself in his seat. Tim let go of the wall. The other three stood from their seats.

“What… what was that?” Jared asked.

“Go look outside,” James said.

Jared got up and moved over to the window. He stared in awe. He had felt even sicker than he had before. Outside the window was a busy street made out of grey stone. People dressed in outrageous outfits like ponchos and brightly colored suits walked around and interacted with each other.

“What is…” Jared had no idea how to finish his question. He had so many, he didn’t know where to start.

“Welcome to Galecko World,” James said with a smile.