Journey to Ohmani (Across the Infinite Void Book 1)

by Ashley Grapes

He was so sick with worry he had not seen the notice on the door or their uniforms. He also didn’t care that he had just threatened to kill a police officer. “Where is my mother?” he asked and began pacing to move his restless legs. The next few seconds awaiting their answer were some of the longest he ever remembered experiencing.

  “Your mother has been taken in for questioning. We assumed you were at the police station. You cannot be here. This suite is being swept for evidence.” Three more men had been in the bedrooms and came to stand in the living room with hands full of brushes, and kits, and plastic bags.

  “I am confused. My mom’s preliminary trial isn’t until tomorrow. Unless there’s some other crappy law here I don’t know about, she is innocent until proven guilty and I know for a fact that hasn’t happened seeing as she wouldn’t hurt a cockroach,” Levi spat.

  “I cannot answer any of your questions, son. You’re going to have to go down to the police station,” one of the men stated, walking towards Levi to shoo him out. “I would be careful threatening to kill people,” he advised sourly and shut the door in Levi’s face.

  Levi had had it with this God-awful asteroid. Just when he was actually starting to tolerate it, perhaps even enjoy it a little, something like this squashes any affections. At least Axella would probably want to go back to the ground after this ridiculous injustice.

  “What’s going on?” Talon queried anxiously after catching up to him.

  “The OSP’s in there tearing up our house. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I know my mom has been arrested…again. I need to go back to the police station.” He swore under his breath and began leading them down the hall toward the elevator. “Thank you for being honest with me tonight and showing me that note. I think you are right about something serious going on that we don’t know about. I will ask my mom some questions. We need more information if we are going to figure this out. Where are you staying?”

  “My uncle has a property here that he is letting me stay in. I haven’t met him before because he lives on Dedrake, but when he found out my mom died he emailed me a ticket and a hefty check to come stay here. He said he is flying in to Ohmani sometime in the next month to meet me.”

  “Okay, as long as you are safe.”

  “Always. When you talk to your mom, ask her if she knows Utpal,” Talon suggested. “Text me tomorrow and we can meet up.” She stood on her toes and gave Levi a kiss. “Be safe.”

  Soon Levi was walking into the police station and asking a new front desk employee about his mother’s whereabouts.

  “Oh,” she looked uneasy. “Hold on one moment, please.” The woman closed the glass sliding door on the window and picked up her phone. Levi heard her muffle his name and then nod several times as she looked at him apologetically. She opened up the glass window again.

  “Someone will be with you shortly. Have a seat.”

  “Last time I waited for over three hours. Can’t someone just tell me what’s going on?”

  “I can,” a voice said around the corner of the glass booth.

  Bale walked into view with Bockie by his side. For the first time, his grandmother actually looked her age. Her shoulders were slumped and large bags shown under her eyes. Levi ran to her.

  “Bock, are you okay?”

  “I am fine,” she said crisply, never liking to seem weak. “It’s your mother.”

  Bockie had said it with such sorrowfulness, Levi jumped to the first conclusion that made sense from his last talk with Talon. “Oh my God, is she dead?”

  “What?” Bockie looked at him like he had two heads. “What kind of nonsense is that? No, she’s not dead, you silly boy, otherwise we would be in a morgue not a police station. Humph. Don’t say such things.”

  Levi would tell his grandmother what Talon had told him, but not in front of Bale and not at the police station. “I’m sorry, I just don’t know what’s going on and the OSP is at our house right now. I want to speak to Mom.”

  “You can’t,” Bale said in a low voice. “Visiting hours are over and they’ve already taken her in for the night. I know you just got here but we need to find a quiet, private place to talk. I’m afraid I have some very bad news to share with you.”

  “What? I can’t wait to hear it. Just tell me,” Levi urged, about to explode with the anxiety of it all.

  “The murder charges against your mother for Pila’s murder have been dropped. Apparently, the Fort Bragg police refused to reopen Pila’s case. And although there’s really not enough evidence to convict her for Jivine’s murder, they have not dropped it yet.”

  “Isn’t that good? If there’s not enough evidence to convict her for Jivine’s murder, they’ll eventually drop it, won’t they? I don’t get why everyone is so upset,” Levi said confused.

  Bale looked at Bockie, and Bockie looked at Bale. They both looked to the ground and then at Levi. “They have presented new, additional charges against her…” Bale paused, “terrorism and conspiracy.”

  “Terrorism and conspiracy?” Levi repeated. He would not allow the words to sink in.

  “They now have evidence that Jivine may have had something to do with the spaceport bombing, and, because your mom was in Jivine’s apartment, that she may have as well,” Bale said.

  “What? That is…,” ludicrous, extreme, mendacious. He was going to fill in the blank, but then his thoughts were filled with the note Pila had written. Axella, Ohmani, Utpal, bomb. Was it possible his mom did in fact have something to do with this? Why was she on that list? What did it mean? Doubt about his mother’s innocence arose for the first time since they moved to Ohmani.

  “I know you are in shock, Levi. I was confident in the defense I had prepared but all of that work is for naught now. We held another arraignment in which your mother pleaded not-guilty. Unfortunately, the seriousness of these charges meant that the possibility of bail is…almost impossible. It is set at one million ohms.”

  “So she has to stay in jail until this is over? How long is that going to be?” Levi asked, the shock not seeming to wear off.

  “Yes. In OSP cases like this, the preliminary trial must go to court without unnecessary delay and there is a lot of money and resources going in to solving this bombing case. Axella’s original prelim date is now canceled and rescheduled for next Wednesday. It saddens me to say that this is going to be very hard for your family. We know that Axella is innocent but this is going to be a much publicized trial and people are looking for someone to blame.”

  “What evidence do they have to make such accusations?” Levi asked. Besides having been in Jivine’s apartment, and the note Talon found – which they were never going to get their hands on – there was no other way they could link Axella to the bombing. Or was there?

  “The prosecution will present their evidence at the preliminary trial. Fortunately, prelims have no jury and will be closed to the public. This is where I will be able to hear their burden of proof, but the judge will decide whether or not the evidence is sufficient enough to try Axella. Now, we must do as we did before and try to come up with any way your mom could be connected to the bombing. Is there anything you can think of at this moment in time?”

  Levi thought about whether or not he should tell Bale about Pila’s note. His instincts about Bale were that he was trustworthy, but the lawyer would be forced to question Talon and drag her into this mess. He needed to discuss it with her first.

  “No.”

  …

  Bale invited Bockie and Levi to stay with him that night since they could not return home until the sweep was completed. The lawyer lived on the top floor of the tallest apartment building in Ohmani. Levi was beyond tired of elevators, they were as long as a darn five o’clock commute. As Levi stepped out of the elevator, he almost fell over.

  “What the…” he sputtered, not getting his footing right.

  “Woo hoo!” yelled Bockie, jumping out of the elevator like a leaping lizard.

  “Oh yes, I forgot to mentio
n. As one of the tallest buildings on Ohmani, we are standing more towards the center of the asteroid where there is less gravity. You will feel much lighter up here.”

  Levi jumped in the air, coming down like a feather. “You live like this?”

  “Takes pressure off my back,” Bale said matter-of-factly. “You feel it, right Bockie?”

  Uh oh.

  “No, I am fit as a fiddle, old man,” she declared, bounding down the hallway.

  “I don’t get it,” Bale paused in serious thought, “how can an instrument be healthy?”

  “Who knows? I don’t understand half the things that come out of her mouth,” Levi confessed.

  Bale’s apartment was about the size of their hotel suite at the Stellar Grand. It was decorated modernly, which to Levi, meant very distastefully. Art that made no sense hung on the walls and the furniture looked like geometric disasters. Levi crossed the room to peer out of a window but there wasn’t much to see except the pedestrian and car bypasses stretching across the asteroid in long glass tubes, like he was inside a guitar looking out. Lights twinkled at almost equal brightness from the floor and ceiling of the asteroid.

  Before they went to bed, Bale sat Levi and Bockie down one last time to go over any possible details they had missed.

  “Unfortunately, your mom was drunk from the moment she landed on Ohmani,” Bale exhaled annoyingly. “It’s difficult defending a person when she was inebriated during both the murder she was first accused of and now the bomb. When I spoke with her she could not tell me anything useful. I need to go through the events one more time in as much detail as possible.”

  Bockie and Levi talked to Bale over the next hour. Levi didn’t realize how difficult it was to retell anything in that much depth. When they reached the part about standing on the street right after the bomb, Bale stopped to ask lots of questions.

  “So she went to the bathroom by herself right after the bomb went off? How long was she in the bathroom? Did anyone else go in or come out of the bathroom? Hmm…I think something might have happened during that timeframe. I will have my team go check it out tomorrow.”

  They kept moving through the events of that night and again Bale stopped them to ask elaborative questions. “So you got on the PB and Axella threw up on everyone. Did anyone say anything to you after that…tragic event?”

  “No, everyone was just really mad they had barf all over them. Axella kept saying she was sorry, and that she felt horrible.”

  “What exactly did Axella say? Be as specific as possible.”

  “She said, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and ‘I didn’t mean to do that to everyone,’ and ‘I feel terrible.’”

  “Uh oh.” Bale cringed.

  “What?”

  “She sounds like she’s confessing to the bombing. I know she is innocent, but if the OSP did find one of these passengers to do a testimonial it could be used against her. I don’t expect it to count for much, but it’s something.”

  Bockie announced that the reduction in gravity was making her tired of talking, and then turned on the TV. Levi answered a couple more questions until the lawyer was satisfied he had gotten every last infinitesimal detail.

  “Tomorrow my team will go check out that bathroom at the spaceport and interview Vernean, Kierra, and his body guards. They are the only other possible leads. There must be something we are missing,” Bale said getting up from his chair. “You all should get a good night’s rest. I am going to retire for the evening. Please make yourself at home and don’t worry if you hear a strange noise tonight…that is my pet crullen, Marion.”

  “You have a pet?” Levi asked. For some reason Levi did not see him as the caretaker type. He just imagined Bale going to caress an animal and accidentally crushing it with his massive hands. “What is a crullen?”

  “It’s native to a planet the midaki have discovered. There is life there, but not what we would define as intelligent…although this little bugger is smarter than some politicians I know. The story goes that the midaki went to explore the planet for possible colonization decades ago, and while they were there, some orphaned crullens followed them around like chicks behind a mother hen. The midaki took them back to Dedrake as a sort of charity case, and years later, they have become a favorite household companion. I’ll bring him out tomorrow. He sleeps like a baby once the sun goes down.” Bale bid them good night and took his leave.

  When only Levi and Bockie were left in the living room, he went to sit beside her. She was watching another reality show about couples in long distance relationships — very long distance relationships. The subtitles shown at the bottom.

  “It’s just so hard.” A beautiful sydces woman sniffed. “Lever and I are…connected by The Sacred Union. I can’t be fifty solar systems away from him. I…I…I think I’m going to have to quit my job.”

  “Can you believe this virus sperm crap?” Bockie yelled in a surprisingly passionate voice.

  He really did detest these types of shows. “Bock, I have to tell you something I found out…” Levi began.

  “Not here, Vi,” she cautioned without taking her eyes off the TV. “You can tell me tomorrow when we are alone and not in a strange man’s house. I do not trust that we are not being recorded at this very moment...plus I am really into this.” She paused momentarily with pursed lips. “But if we are being recorded, you have a very nice ass Bale, and if your back is feeling up to it…”

  “Good night,” Levi interrupted. And he went to bed where he tossed and turned with restless dreams.

  The next morning Levi woke up to the smell of coffee and bacon — at least he thought it was bacon. Levi had learned quickly not to assume the meat products on Ohmani were of earthly origin, but as the age old saying goes, ignorance is bliss.

  “Did you all sleep ok?” Bale asked.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Levi lied.

  “Bockie?”

  “Like a log.”

  “A log?” Bale asked confused. “Logs do not sleep. Why not like a hibernating bear or like a baby?”

  Bockie snorted. “You’ve obviously never been a parent.”

  A few emotions passed over Bale’s face in an instant, but Levi couldn’t place them. Something about what Bockie had just said about parenting struck a chord with him. Then Bale’s phone rang. When he stepped outside to answer it, Bockie turned on the TV. It was automatically set to the news, and the words ‘Breaking News’ jutted out at the bottom of the 3D projection in bright red font. A picture of a woman was displayed at the top left of the screen. She was very plain looking, with mousy brown hair held up in a bun and a face that would be hard to describe for its lack of distinguishable features.

  “…far as anyone knows. A human named Ms. Jivine Holendough has been confirmed to be the spaceport bomber. She was the front desk manager at the Stellar Grand, but sources are telling us she moved to Ohmani three weeks ago to work as the security manager before suddenly asking for a position transfer. She was found murdered last week shortly after the bomb was deployed. We are told a second suspect, race unknown, is in custody and will have a preliminary trial next week. Some are speculating that these two are involved in some type of underground extremist society that doesn’t want peace negotiations to run smoothly for the upcoming conference tomorrow, which begs the questions, why? And, is it over?…”

  So Jivine wasn’t silenced for finding out about the bomb, she was silenced because she set it off? Why? If she really was part of an underground extremist society of humans who wanted independence from the midaki then why would she kill her own kind during the bomb? How was his mother involved? Her name had been on that note – Axella, Ohmani, Utpal, Bomb.

  “Many human and midaki leaders are arriving today for a conference that will aim to re-visit The Great Rescue Treaty signed twenty-two years ago. Some of these leaders include…”

  An assortment of profiles then followed on the screen with pictures of world leaders that would be attending the conference along with their race and j
ob titles. Pope Austino, Human, Bishop of Rome; Basil Wayne, Hamza, DSO Sect leader; Rowan Alexander Drake, Human, World Bank President; Ty DeGrass, Human, NASA Science & Technology President; Mantys Ti, Sydces, Sect leader.

  Bockie jumped up from the couch. “This is boring. Why aren’t there any good shows on in the morning?”

  “Are you using the word ‘good’ to describe your reality shows?” Levi asked.

  “I have to go to work this morning. I’ll call you later to see if we can return to our suite tonight. I am kind of hoping we can’t though, I am loving the way my boobs look with less gravity. Look, I’m not even wearing a bra.” She thrust her chest out and gave it a quick wiggle.

  Levi quickly looked away.

  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Kierra’s boobs are going to look like this one day. Alright, Le-boy, have a nice day,” she quipped, and then bounded down the hall.

  Levi wished he could have her energy. Here she was, ninety years old, and hopping in a cab to go to work. TAXI. Suddenly, Levi remembered where he had heard the name Utpal…from the raging racist taxi driver. The driver had said that if his bigoted words had “resonated” with Levi, to go to the Revolution Lounge and ask for Utpal. Could this have been an invitation to one of these underground societies? He needed to text Talon. Levi walked down the hallway to grab his phone and then heard a very strange scratching sound coming from Bale’s room.

  Levi peeked his head in the door and saw a furry creature rummaging through paper shreds at the bottom of an opened metal crate. It looked like a marmoset about the size of a cat, but with no tail and big ears jutting from the top of its head like a jackrabbit. This must be Bale’s pet crullen named Marion, Levi thought. He had always liked animals, and found this creature to be quite entertaining. Marion was now picking up paper by the handful and patting it down on his skull between his ears.

  “Hi, Marion,” Levi cooed in a voice he saved only for infants and cute animals.

  The creature jumped at the unfamiliar voice, paper flying off its head. It turned around and upon seeing Levi, went into full spaz mode. It jumped out of the open crate and sprung onto Bale’s bed. Its feet had barely made contact before it leapt onto the wall and catapulted itself clear across the room. This time it landed on a particularly regretful piece of orange art décor hanging on the wall, knocking it clear off its supports. Levi ran over a second too late, and the piece shattered on the hardwood.