The Call of Destiny

by Robert C. James

  “It was very informative, Kione.”

  “What did you like most?”

  Benjamin had to think about it for a moment. In truth, he’d only listened to parts. He was too busy being awestruck.

  “I guess I found it most interesting when Alexander the Great came into the region.” He recalled his own studies as a youngster, particularly enjoying reading about the Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations.

  “Can you do me a favor?” he said to Kione. “Miss Deane and I need to have a chat. Why don’t you read for a while, and when we’re done, I’ll take you home?”

  “Okay.” Kione hurried off to his solitary desk and activated his computer, while Miss Deane ushered Benjamin into the observation gallery, facing the classroom.

  “So, tell me about his testing?” he said to her.

  She picked up a data tablet from her pile of work and handed it to him.

  He looked over the results with a raised brow. “I realized he was exceptional, but this… You’re telling me across the board his scores average at an eighth-grade level?”

  “Some competencies as high as the tenth grade.” Miss Deane grabbed another tablet. “He measured at one hundred and sixty-three on his latest IQ test.”

  Benjamin did a double take of the results. “He’s got me covered.”

  “And no doubt many other scientists at TIAS.”

  He handed the tablets back to her. “Well, you’re to be commended, you’ve done a great job.”

  “I wish I could take the credit, but we both know Kione is special.”

  “That goes without saying.”

  “Hmm.” She turned and peered out into the classroom. “There is one concern I wish to discuss with you.”

  “Oh?”

  “While he’s excelling at his studies, I am worried about his social abilities.”

  “In what respect.”

  “Sometimes I feel he’s not entirely happy.”

  It was like a dagger in Benjamin’s heart. He’d been with Kione for several years. He’d cared for him and raised him. And while he was the first to admit he was no expert, he thought he’d done a good job overseeing his development.

  “He’s asking questions,” she continued. “He wants to know why he can’t have friends or classmates and why he can’t interact with people his own age.”

  Benjamin stared at the child reading away at his computer. “He knows the answers to all those questions. He understands he’s different to everyone else and that mixing with others isn’t possible.”

  “While he may understand that at a certain level, regardless of how well he ranks academically, he’s still a six-year-old.” Miss Deane frowned. “Sometimes it’s difficult for him to grasp why things are so.”

  “Unfortunately, at this point there’s no solution to that problem. I wish there was.” At the end of the teacher-parent meeting, Benjamin took Kione home.

  Home was only one level up. The artificial environment had been created years earlier to look like a rustic household in suburbia, encircled by a large lawn. The surrounding lights illuminated at a different brightness depending on the time of the day.

  When Benjamin tucked Kione into bed, the lighting was dimmed to replicate the evening. Whenever he said goodnight, he wondered what would’ve happened if he’d stayed with his ex-wife and had a child of their own.

  “Can we go to Dara?”

  Kione’s question threw off Benjamin’s train of thought. “Dara?”

  “It was an East Roman fortress in the sixth century. The ruins of what remains are still there today.”

  “Did you learn about that in class?”

  He nodded. “The Romans and Persians fought there in the year five hundred and thirty.”

  Benjamin’s heart sank. What do I say to him?

  “We can’t go, can we?” Kione said knowingly.

  “Maybe one day.”

  “Will that day ever come?”

  Benjamin put a hand on Kione’s and smiled. I hope so.

  *

  May 29, 2214

  Edinburgh, Scotland

  Present Day

  Doctor Charles Whitlowe stood before the monitor watching over Kione inside his bio-chamber. The alien being was unconscious, but his body shuddered from top to bottom at the energy bombarding it.

  Charles shook his head at the readings. He’d been working with Kione for over two weeks, and his methods were still no closer to bringing the extraterrestrial’s abilities to the surface.

  “Shut it down!”

  Charles’s assistant, Le Favre, flicked at the controls and deactivated the bio-chamber.

  Charles checked over Kione’s life signs. While they were lower than normal across the board, they were still within normal parameters.

  “Do you want me to get him out of there, Doctor?” Le Favre asked.

  Charles nodded, and three of his assistants hurried into the medical bay to retrieve him. They placed his unconscious body onto a mobile stretcher and took him back to his quarters.

  “Doctor Whitlowe, there’s a call coming in for you.”

  Charles smacked the intercom on the console with his fist. “Who is it?”

  “Minister Takashi.”

  He closed his eyes in frustration. Just what I need right now. “Send it down here.”

  He put on the cheeriest expression he could muster, and the monitor filled with the face of the commonwealth’s Minister of Defense. “Minister Takashi, so good to see you.”

  The man had heavy eyelids, portraying someone who’d had little sleep. “What have you got to report, Whitlowe?”

  “I just finished another experiment, and while the results weren’t what I was expecting, I am getting closer to the desired outcome.”

  “In other words, you lucked out again and have nothing to show for it?”

  “I wouldn’t put it quite that way Minister, I—”

  “Whitlowe, you’ve had weeks on this. You guaranteed us you were the person for the job. The president has my balls in a vice. You of all people should know when you get on his wrong side what he’s capable of.”

  All too well.

  “Now listen closely.” Takashi’s eyes burned straight down the camera. “I’ll call you back in a week. If I’m not informed of any progress, I’ll recommend to Jarret you be pulled from the project and Kione be returned to TIAS.”

  Before Charles could say a word, the screen went blank. He realized he had only had one option left.

  Using it, however, might mean risking Kione’s life…

  Chapter 6

  Martian Tribune Building – Holden City, Mars

  Marissa popped two aspirin and guzzled down an entire glass of water. She closed her eyes and massaged her temples. The brightness of her computer monitor made her want to vomit, and the commotion in the surrounding bullpen rang in her head like a bell.

  She did her best to refocus her attention on a piece on the commanding officers of the expeditionary force. It was tedious to write, and she feared it’d be even worse to read.

  On the cubicle wall was a photo of Marcus and her on vacation at Planitia Resort, a year earlier. She smiled at how much simpler things had been back then. But why are they so different now?

  “Hey, are you coming out to lunch today?”

  She glanced up at Evan Gray, one of the Tribune’s leading sports reporters. “Me and Li Jun booked a table at the new Italian restaurant down on Fifth Street.”

  The thought of it made her want to vomit again. “Enjoy yourselves. I’ll stick around here.”

  “When do you ever say no to Italian?”

  “When I have work to do.”

  Evan peered over her shoulder and scoffed. “What are you trying to do, put our readers asleep?”

  She glared at him.

  “Sorry,” he said, putting his hands up in surrender.

  “You two go.” Marissa peeked over the top of her cubicle at Li Jun sipping a coffee at the other end of the bullpen. “I know you’
ve wanted to get her alone for a while.”

  His eyes darted either side of him, and he leaned in toward her. “Do you mind not broadcasting that?”

  “Just ask her out, for crying out loud. She won’t bite.”

  “And if she does?”

  Marissa rolled her eyes. “You’re so weak.”

  The Tribune’s editor, Sandra Veroni, approached them. “You two look suspicious. What’s going on?”

  “Nothing!” Evan said in a high-pitched voice.

  “I was just telling him he should ask Li Jun out,” Marissa informed her.

  Sandra glanced over at the younger female reporter. “I think that’s a great idea.”

  Evan’s face went red, and he threw his hands in the air. Sandra and Marissa laughed, watching him retreat to his cubicle.

  Sandra’s demeanor became more serious. “Can I see you in my office?”

  Marissa nodded, closing her computer down and following Sandra through the bullpen.

  “Close the door,” her editor instructed her.

  Marissa did so and sat across from her at her desk.

  “Is everything all right?” Sandra asked.

  The two had mended their working relationship since she’d gone over her editor’s head with the Orion V story, and she hadn’t expected such a blunt question to begin their meeting.

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  Sandra spun her computer around. It was an article Marissa had written earlier in the morning about a police shooting on the west side of the city.

  “While your story’s on point, it’s full of mistakes. It’s as if a college freshman wrote it. Hell, when I verified it with the police department, they told me you got the names of the detectives and the victims around the wrong way.”

  Marissa narrowed her eyes and read over the soup of words in front of her. Sandra was right. She smiled apologetically.

  “If this was a one-off, I wouldn’t be worried.” Sandra swiveled the computer around. “But I’ve noted numerous gaps in a lot of your work lately. Since you got back from Earth, it’s as if your mind’s been somewhere else.”

  “I’m not sure what to say.”

  “Have you become bored? When you break the biggest story of your career, the work afterwards can seem almost menial in comparison.” Sandra stood and walked over to a glass case in the corner. She pulled out a small trophy. “I won this for an exclusive I wrote on a scandal in the supreme court fifteen years ago. I never came close to repeating anything else like it.”

  Marissa hadn’t thought of that. The notion she may never break a big story again scared her. “I guess I’m exhausted. It’s been a long six months.”

  Sandra frowned. “Well, normally I’d tell you to take the week off and come back fresh, but the bigwigs upstairs have another assignment for you.”

  Marissa furrowed her brow.

  Sandra returned the award inside the case and closed it. “With the CDF expeditionary force coming together, they want you to head up our coverage of the war games.”

  “Go back to Earth?”

  Sandra nodded. “If you’re not up to it, I’ll send someone else. You can have leave. Take a month if you’d like. Michael could do the coverage.”

  “No.” While Marissa liked the idea of time off, as a professional she couldn’t say no to the opportunity. “I’ll do it.” She’d developed a standing at the Tribune and wouldn’t be knocked off her pedestal.

  Sandra sat back down and stared at her. “I knew you’d say that. I had to try, I guess.”

  Marissa smiled. “Thank you for trying.” She made her way to the door.

  “Oh, Marissa!”

  She turned.

  “When you go to Earth, see if you can find what you lost. Those bigwigs upstairs, they won’t remember the big stories forever.”

  Thanks for the warning.

  *

  Holden City, Mars

  Marissa closed the front door as softly as possible and kicked her shoes into the corner. There was a distinct smell of spaghetti sauce in the air. What is everyone’s obsession with Italian at the moment?

  She walked down the hall into the kitchen to find Marcus stirring a hot pot of food. “This has to be a record.” He checked his watch. “I can’t remember the last time you were home when the sun was still up.”

  Once it would’ve been a jovial quip. Now there was a thin hint of sarcasm in his voice.

  Marissa put her bag on the kitchen counter. “Sandra let me out of the asylum early.”

  “Well, isn’t that nice of her?” Marcus took the wooden spoon from the pot and placed it in the sink. In another bowl was a large serving of fresh pasta.

  “There’s something I have to tell you.” She stepped closer and rested her hand beside him.

  “Yes?”

  “Work are sending me back to Earth to cover the war games.”

  Marcus put the pasta in two bowls and poured a healthy serving of sauce on each. There wasn’t even the slightest hint of emotion on his face.

  “Are you going to say something?” she asked him.

  “What do you want me to say?”

  “I’m not sure. Something. Anything.”

  He grabbed a pair of forks from the drawer and nestled one beside each bowl. “When we got together, I knew what I was getting into with your job. I understood there’d be early mornings and late nights. And I realized you’d have to travel. I’ve accepted that. If you need to go to Earth, that’s fine.”

  It frustrated her how calm he was. “Then what is it? What has happened between us?”

  “Only you can answer that, Marissa. I’m not the one who brought baggage back with me.” He walked to the fridge and pulled a jar of parmesan from it.

  “You’re the second person today who’s said something along those lines.” What the hell is wrong with people?

  The doorbell rang, and Marcus brushed past her down the hall. She placed a liberal amount of cheese on her dish and dug into her bowl. The murmurs at the front door echoed through to the kitchen, though she couldn’t understand what was being said.

  Footsteps came up the hallway.

  “Marissa, this gentleman says he knows you.”

  She turned to Marcus’s voice with a mouthful of pasta, and a figure stepped out from behind him.

  She nearly choked on her food.

  “Jason!”

  Chapter 7

  “What are you doing here?” Marissa said through her mouthful of food.

  Jason couldn’t help but smile at her shock. “I need your assistance.”

  She finished the last remnants of her meal and placed it on the kitchen counter. “What for?”

  Jason glanced at Marcus who seemed to be trying to weigh him up. Marissa noticed as well. She walked over to her partner and put her hand on his.

  “Can you give us a moment?”

  He looked back at Jason and then at her. Without any protest, he picked up his bowl of pasta and strolled off into the living area.

  Marissa grabbed Jason by the arm and dragged him out onto the balcony of her apartment, closing the screen door behind her.

  “You came to my house?” she said venomously.

  “I’m sorry. I tried you at your office, and they told me you’d gone home early for the day.” He stared into her eyes. “I wouldn’t have come unless it was necessary.”

  She crossed her arms. “What do you need?”

  Jason put his hands on the railing and gazed out at the sun falling over the Martian horizon. “Someone has taken my crew from the Argo hostage.”

  “Wait. What!”

  He filled her in on everything that’d happened since Captain Shila had given him permission to go to Ganymede Station, along with all he’d found out when he was there.

  Marissa’s eyes widened. “Jesus, you’ve got yourself into some serious trouble, Jason.”

  “Not as much as Aly, Kevin, and Althaus are in.”

  “I’m flattered you came to me, but I’m not su
re how I can—”

  “I’ve done some digging on this Darius Lok guy.” He stepped closer to her. “From what I found out, going through ship registration records, Lok is an alias for Julian Perry. He was born and raised in Holden City, right here on Mars.”

  “I guess someone’s got to start somewhere.” She bit her bottom lip. “And you think I can help you with that?”

  “Well, believe it or not, while I didn’t have a subscription to the Martian Tribune, I had time to read your articles occasionally. And when you’d started with the paper, I remember you did a lot of work in the crime pages. Most of your stuff was on the gangland war between the Petrellos and the Gallaghers. So I figured—”

  “I’d have contacts?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That was a long time ago, Jason. By the end of those street wars, there was barely anyone left of those families who didn’t end up either dead or in jail.”

  “A few cockroaches always survive.”

  Marissa stared out into the distance. “There might be someone.”

  Jason smiled. “I knew I came to the right place.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. There are never certainties in life on the red sands.”

  The pair stood on the balcony and watched the sun drop over the horizon. The great dome of Holden City turned to darkness. If it were any other time or place, Jason would’ve thought he were in Heaven, but he couldn’t get the images of Aly, Kevin, and Althaus from his mind. And he wouldn’t until he’d finally freed them.

  *

  “They don’t call it the wrong side of the tracks for nothing, do they?”

  Jason stared out from the passenger side of the hovercar while Marissa drove down the less affluent streets of Holden City.

  “Some of these buildings are among the first that sprang up when the original colony was founded,” she said.

  “No kidding. Half of them are falling apart.”

  “Most are government housing for the poor. There are some that house four generations of the same family.”