Journey to Ohmani (Across the Infinite Void Book 1)

by Ashley Grapes

  Levi watched the officers walk away with his mother and disappear into the same back elevator they had taken when first arriving. The last thing he was going to do was wait patiently while his mother was being accused of murder less than twenty-four hours after they had arrived on this stupid asteroid. He turned to brainstorm a game plan with Bockie but found her shuffling back into her bedroom. Levi heard her sifting through boxes and mumbling restlessly under her breath. This was way too much stress for a ninety-year old to handle. Levi wished he was in a robot avatar that could assess the health of her heart.

  A couple of minutes later she re-emerged in…another cocktail dress? This one was fire-engine red, with a deep scoop neck and high leg slit. Her crimson curls were pinned in a disheveled mass atop her head and she had on lipstick the same hue as her gown. That’s it, Levi thought, her old age was finally catching up with her.

  “Here’s some money for a taxi.” She handed him a wad of Ohms. “Go down to the police station and I’ll be there in a couple of hours.”

  “Err, where are you going?” he asked hesitantly.

  “The casino.”

  “What!” Levi shouted.

  “Love you dear.” Bockie squeezed his bicep and waddled down the hall, opposite the dead body.

  Levi hopped a cab to the police station as soon as he could, his mind swarming with things past, present, and future. On the way there, the taxi driver had the news broadcasting on the back of the headrest.

  “…fifty-two fatalities and a hundred-and-four injured from the underground spaceport bombing. It is believed that the motive behind the attack was to target UN Ambassador for Midaki Relations, Mr. Vernean Wharran, who, in an unannounced last-minute decision, took the back elevators trying to escape the media frenzy.”

  The female newscaster disappeared and Vernean appeared on the screen. “It saddens me that because of a disturbed and extreme few, so many people had to die and suffer. I am deeply saddened by this and my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. I am here to do a job and I will not cower in fear. This conference will continue as planned. In the meantime, the Ohmani State Police will be working hard to arrest the individuals responsible for this act of terror. We will find them, and when we do they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

  The anchor appeared again. “The bombing is the first of its kind here on Ohmani, with many worried and asking questions like, ‘will this happen again?’ The human-midaki conference will begin next week with plenty more important political and peace leaders arriving daily. Officials are assuring the people of Ohmani that all necessary precau…”

  The taxi driver turned off the TV. “Can you believe that acshally happened ’ere?” He spoke with a thick southern American drawl. “I mean, dang, I’ve had my car broken into a few times n’ my wallet stolen, but a bomb? My brother-in-law’s Aunt Jessup was down there. Came out with a busted ear drum. Damn aliens bringing their crap on our soil. I blame em’, ya know. They mighta’ helped us out once, but I don’t think that gives them the right to come ‘ere with their mess and put us all in danger. You’re not an alien are ya? One of them sneaky types?” The taxi driver was looking at Levi in his rearview mirror and then swiveled in his seat to give his passenger a hard up-and-down.

  “Err, no, all human.” He was in a car with a raging speciest.

  “I didn’t think so. You got nice broad shoulders and a real ‘Merican look to ya. Not all creepy like. Never know these days with all the skin dyin’ and plastic surgery and crazy hair. I swear some of these ladies hopping in my backseat are purtier than a glob a butter meltin’ on a stack a’ wheat cakes and then they start talkin’ gibberish and I’m like, damn, you’s all aliens.”

  The longer the man railed, the more brain cells Levi lost. He wondered how such a racist person came to be on Ohmani — a place teeming with aliens. He wasn’t curious enough to ask — that would put his eardrum in danger of exploding. Luckily for Levi, they were pulling into the police station. He looked to see how much he owed the driver on the meter and began counting it out.

  “Thanks, man. It was nice talkin’ to ya,” the redneck taxi driver chattered as Levi paid him. “Ya know,” he began in a whisper, “if what I said resonates with ya, ya should come to the Revolution Lounge and see Utpal. Life changin’.”

  “Sure, thanks,” he muttered. This guy gave Americans a bad name, Levi thought. As he stepped out of the car, he saw an alien running down the street towards the taxi waving his hands for Levi to save it for him. Levi gladly waited for him to catch up.

  Levi walked into the police station and up to the glass-protected front desk.

  “May I help you?” a young Ryley woman asked.

  “Yes, Axella Avondale was brought in earlier. I am her son. I would like to know where she is and if I can see her.”

  The women typed loudly on her computer, looking bored. “Yes, it appears that her booking process was completed about twenty minutes ago, which means she’s probably in questioning. Sorry, no family allowed. Just take a seat and I will let you know when she is out. You have to wait until the prosecutor has reached his decision on what charges will be filed.”

  He sat down, frustrated. This was Levi’s big plan? Waiting? After giving Ohmani a fair fifteen hours he decided that he hated it. How ridiculous to arrest a woman for murders just because she was in close proximity to them both. What kind of evidence was that? Levi stewed, infuriated at the injustice of it all, his thoughts raging stronger than an ocean storm. Three hours passed and the storm had grown into a hurricane.

  Suddenly, he saw confusion wash over people’s faces as they looked towards the door. Bockie. She came tottering into the building with little finesse and plopped down next to Levi in the waiting area.

  “How’s it going?” she asked.

  Was she serious? “Horrible.”

  They sat for another half an hour until finally he heard his name called. Bockie and Levi walked through a security gate and were led down the hall to a door that read, ‘Arraignments.’ The person leading them swiped a card in the door’s magnetic strip and they entered the room. Axella sat at a table with a man to her right and a man and woman sitting across from her. A fifth person sat at the head of the table, his uplifted chin and demeanor suggesting his importance. Levi looked at his mother with grave concern but she surprised him by looking rather serene.

  “Please have a seat, Levi and Orella,” offered the man to Axella’s right. “My name is Bale, and I was appointed to be Axella’s lawyer.” He was gigantic in both height and girth with a strong nose, bronzed skin, and jet black hair. His shoulder blades and bottom seemed to swallow the edges of the chair, making it seem like he was levitating.

  “Were the charges dropped?” Levi asked, remaining hopeful.

  “I’m afraid not,” Bale said, with a rueful shake of his head. “May I introduce the honorable Judge Achfi Nubi,” he motioned to the man at the head of the table, “and prosecutors Charlie Glass and Shay Stanton. Here on Ohmani our initial prosecution procedures are accelerated compared to that in California...saves money. The initial review of the evidence has been deemed sufficient for pressing the murder charges against Axella. We’ve gone ahead and had her felony arraignment, in which Axella has pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges. Judge Achfi Nubi has set the preliminary trial for the Wednesday after next, where the evidence will be presented by the prosecution. He has set bail at forty-thousand ohms.”

  “Forty-thousand!?” Levi boomed loud enough to make everyone, including the Herculean lawyer flinch. Where were they going to scrape up that kind of money?

  Bockie reached into her over-sized gold clutch and pulled out a handful of cash…and then another…and then another. The table of six gawked at the massive wads of money on the table. Bockie was not helping them look completely innocent right now, Levi thought.

  “That’s why you went to the casino instead of coming here with me?” Levi asked.

  “Ye
p.” She smiled as she clicked shut the now empty purse.

  She never ceased to amaze him.

  “Alright then, I think we’ve just met bail,” Bale proclaimed with a quirked eyebrow and they all left the station.

  Bale drove the three of them back to the Stellar Grand and they all went up to the seventh floor suite. The lawyer told them all to sit in the living room while he made a few phone calls. He talked on the phone for several minutes outside on their balcony. The man was so enormous Levi was scared the balcony might give way under his bulk. Finally he hung up his phone and addressed them.

  “Okay, Axella. As your lawyer I need complete honesty from you. We need to start preparing our defense and in order to do that I need to hear everything in full detail. Do you understand?”

  Axella nodded.

  “Good. Now, do you want to do this privately or is your family okay to be here?” Bale asked.

  She hesitated. “Yeeesss. Yes, they can be here,” she added more confidently.

  “Alright, then. Let’s start with your best friend, Pila. I just spoke with my team, who reviewed the file. It was very thin — mostly filled with your testimony.”

  “Two weeks ago exactly, I was working the morning shift at the Stellar Grand in Fort Bragg, California. I don’t know why Pila was there, to be honest. She was the Stellar Grand Supply Specialist and worked from eight to four. Although, sometimes she would come in and work odd hours after travelling…jet lag and such. She had just returned from travelling to Ohmani. Anyway, I came to work and clocked in at 4:47am. When I walked into the linen room...,” Axella trailed off.

  “All the details, Axella,” Bale coaxed.

  “She was lying on the floor with a half folded towel in her hand…it was so red. There was blood everywhere. I didn’t know what to do. I thought maybe she was still alive. I ran over to her and dropped to my knees, trying to cover up the wound with my hand. The next thing I know, another hospitality technician, Gina, is screaming behind me. By the time the police got there Pila was pronounced dead. There was a knife next to her body.”

  “Yes, your fingerprints were on it,” Bale stated with another habitual quirk of his eyebrows. It was more a question than a statement.

  Axella shook her head ruefully, “I sort of remember moving it away from her face so I could get to her. It was coated with blood so I didn’t even realize it was a knife until much later. At the time, I wasn’t thinking of anything else except trying to save her. I just don’t know who would have wanted to do such a terrible thing. As far as I know Pila didn’t have any family and…well, I was one of her only friends. It just doesn’t make sense.” Axella’s eyes began watering.

  “Emotion is good. Make sure you do that if we go to trial,” Bale instructed rather insensitively.

  Levi was a little annoyed by this, but figured Bale heard so many slash and gash homicide stories as a defense lawyer that he was desensitized. He hated that his mother wasn’t able to move past this. She deserved some peace, not to sit around and revisit her best friend’s gruesome murder scene. Bale asked her a few more details and was ready to move on from Pila’s murder.

  “Tell me about last night,” he prompted.

  “Well, I kind of got drunk on the flight over here because I hate flying…”

  “Drunk? That’s never a good start. And then…”

  “And I remember being in an elevator when the bomb went off and…”

  “The bomb?” Bale interrupted. “You were there when the bomb went off? I need you to back way up here.”

  Bockie proceeded to fill him in on the story — every drugged, exploding, barfing detail of it. Bale typed rapidly on his tablet, his big sausage fingers looking incongruous on the small device.

  “Continue your statement, Axella,” Bale encouraged when he was done recording Bockie’s recollection of events.

  “Well, I guess Levi and Bockie tucked me into bed because I woke up in it and had to pee so…I peed. I still felt a little tipsy but not too bad. I walked to the other two bedrooms and neither one of them were here. I figured they went down to the lobby to grab a bite in the hotel restaurant so I went down to eat with them. They weren’t there so I sent Levi a text and he let me know where he and Bockie were. Then, I went back into what I thought was our suite but I made a mistake. I accidentally went into the suite next door…her door was unlocked. I met the woman living there. She said her name was Jivine and that she was the new front desk manager. She was cooking dinner.”

  “Mm hmm. While you and Jivine were preparing dinner, do you remember using a knife?” Bale asked.

  “No.”

  “Her throat was slashed too. Did you stay with her long?”

  Axella began to panic. “We just chatted for like ten minutes, I swear. I was completely sober by the time I left and she was still alive. I came back here and went straight to bed. Next thing I know, there’s a knock at the front door and it’s the police.”

  “I can see why the judge held the charges. Two dead hotel employees, both in close proximity to you, both murdered by a knife left at the scene. You had your fingerprints on one of the murder weapons but not the other, which is good, but I’m sure your fingerprints will be found somewhere in that room if you were there for ten minutes,” he added. “They will have to come up with some sort of motive, or at the very least, connection. If not, they will just try to peg you as some crazy serial-maid-killer-in-training who was pissed off at her best friend and piss drunk for girl-next-door. They might not have a concrete case, but they have one.” He then grew quiet in thought. “Is there anyone you can think of that would want to frame you?” Bale asked in a very serious tone.

  “What? No no, not that I know of,” she shook her head emphatically.

  “My mom is one of the sweetest, nicest people I know. Everyone loves her,” Levi added defensively.

  “I can see that. But sometimes the most innocent are the easiest to target.”

  “So what are we going to do?” Axella asked desperately.

  “I’ll get back to you,” he replied, hopping up from the sofa.

  I’ll get back to you? Were they talking about a murder case or a bad first date? “Um, what are we supposed to do while you get ‘back to us?’” Levi wondered.

  “Go about your normal, everyday lives. Axella, go to work. Levi, go to school. Bockie, do…whatever it is you do. Guilty people are more likely to change their routines,” Bale explained. The giant lawyer then dipped his head under the door frame and walked down the hall.

  Nothing about their life on Ohmani had been normal or routine so far. Bale might as well have told a fish to fly.

  “I’m going back to bed,” Axella expressed, dragging her feet down the hall and closing her door with a surprisingly gentle click.

  In a sincere effort to distract himself, Levi began unpacking the moving boxes marked for his bedroom. The mental diversion was working until he started unraveling the parchment cushioning his surfing trophies. With every shining achievement he put on the shelf to collect dust, his gut became heavier. There would be no new trophies…not for a long while at least. Just when he thought he couldn’t take anymore, he heard the doorbell ring. Please don’t be the police again, Levi thought as he reached for the knob. A black man stood in the entryway with his hands behind his back.

  “Hello, my name is Dejan and I am the hotel manager. May I come in and speak with Axella?”

  Levi woke up his mother. She was supposed to have read the information packet and checked in at some point today. Levi guessed that point had passed. Axella grudgingly got dressed and walked out to the living room. Bockie was watching a reality hologram show about interspeciel couples trying to make it work in today’s universe.

  Dejan cleared his throat, “Ms. Avondale, the police have informed us of the situation at hand. Unfortunately, we cannot have you working as our hospitality manager at this current time. I hope you can understand why. Under union laws, we cannot let you go until a verdict has been reac
hed. Unfortunately, this is our last manager’s suite. We are going to have to ask you to move to a hospitality technician room so our next hire can move into this one.”

  Axella stood numb, feeling overwhelmed with all the terrible news coming her way. Her silence was deafening to Levi.

  “I will take her place as manager,” Bockie announced between a mouth full of crackers.

  “What?” Levi and Axella yelled together.

  She swallowed hard and casually turned her attention away from the TV. “I was hospitality manager for fifteen years at the Ocean One back in Charleston. I would suggest calling for a reference but everyone I worked with there is probably six feet under or in some fancy porcelain vase. And let’s admit, you haven’t had a hospitality technician now for almost a week and hiring another person would just add more of a delay.”

  “Hmm. Are you the spitfire old woman my pit bosses keep talking about?” Dejan asked. Before Bockie could come up with a witty rejoinder, the hotel manager continued. “I am tempted to offer you the position just to keep you out of my casinos.”

  “In that case, if you don’t offer me the position I will turn off this holotelevision show and go down to the casino in a stunning turquoise dress until I bleed you dry.”

  Silence fell over the room except for the annoying whimpering of the five foot television hologram kneeling in mid-air. Bockie had just threatened the general manager of one of the most powerful hotel chains in the galaxy under his own roof.

  “Deal,” he acquiesced. “Read the information packet and check-in before five o’clock. You start tomorrow.” He was about to leave, but turned back around to give her one more instruction. “I hope that’s not your hospitable face.”

  That week Levi stayed in the suite with Axella. They unpacked the moving boxes and tried desperately to settle in despite the cloud hovering over their heads; an impending murder trial was quite an ominous cloud. Bockie, on the other hand, was waking up early every morning for her shift as the new hospitality manager. Levi thought that his grandmother would be miserable once she discovered that being cordial wasn’t in her personality profile any longer, but she surprised him by coming home with a big smile on her face every afternoon. Out of sheer curiosity, Levi snuck downstairs one day to witness her being nice firsthand. He felt like he was on a safari looking for an endangered species, tip-toeing down the hall. He hid around the corner of the front desk and listened hard for his grandmother’s unmistakable sass.