by Trevor Wyatt
Ketra was growing frustrated by all of it until word reached her that a ship from Elban carrying three passengers had arrived on the planet. They were just rumors at first, but the rumors circulated with such consistency that she had no choice but to investigate.
The elevator chimed—she’d reached her destination.
The sound of her stilettos clicking against the floor filled the otherwise quiet hallway. She knew she was going the right way by the appearance of workers in hazmat suits.
A smile curled on her lips. If she managed to get this story, and get it right, then it would be the story of a lifetime.
Her prize was in sight. The quarantine area was just down the hallway from her. Ketra picked up her speed, excitement growing in her with each step until two arms extended from either side to block her entry.
“Sorry, ma’am, we can’t let you go any further,” the guard to her left said in a gruff voice. “This area’s under quarantine until further notice.”
“I’m well aware that this is the quarantine zone. That’s why I’m here,” she said. She raised her tablet and stylus. “My name is Ketra and I’m with the press. I heard rumors that someone from Elban is here, and I want to have a word with him.”
“Sorry, orders are orders. You don’t have the right clearance,” he said, his voice firm.
“That won’t do. I demand to speak to the administrator of this facility,” she said, her eyes narrowed into a glare at the slightly taller man.
“Still not gonna budge,” he said. His tone made it obvious to Ketra that she was getting nowhere with him.
“That’s too bad. Well, I guess I’ll just have to run the story as is,” she said.
She hummed, tapping her lip with the tip of her stylus.
“I just don’t have all the details since I’m working off rumors and speculation. It’ll be vague... probably freak out a lot of the readers. You wouldn’t want that, now would you?”
She heaved an overly dramatic sigh and shook her head.
“If only I could go in and interview this guy,” she continued. “Then, I’d be able to dispel the rumors and prevent a panic I’m sure neither of you want to be responsible for. I guess I’ll just be leaving, then.”
The two guards shot each other a nervous glance.
“Hey, hey, don’t be hasty here,” the one on her right said, finally speaking up. “Look, we’ll let you speak to the admin, but don’t expect much.”
Ketra maintained her composure, but on the inside, she was ecstatic.
“Great. Lead the way, boys,” she said, motioning her hand.
It was just a short walk to the administrator’s office. Inside sat a man behind a transparent desk. His glasses hung low on his nose as he poured over the paperwork before him.
“Sir, we’ve got a reporter. Says she needs to talk to the guy in quarantine,” the first guard said as they entered.
“No,” the administrator said, clearly frustrated by the sudden interruption. “No one sees any of the patients.”
“That’s too bad,” Ketra said, speaking up and pushing past the guards into the office. “If I don’t get the information I need, then I guess I’ll just have to broadcast this story on what I do have. But it’s hard to tell how the people would react to hearing something like that.” Ketra tapped her chin for a moment, feigning deep thought.
“I got it: ‘Elban Man Escapes Planetary Quarantine! Crop Fever Pandemic Imminent’?” Her hands gestured outward as she spoke. “Yeah that’s a good one!”
“You wouldn’t,” the administrator said.
“You sure about that?” Ketra replied with a hand on her hip, a smirk playing at her lips.
The man thought about it for a moment. He groaned and shook his head.
“Fine. You have ten minutes,” he said. “Take her to the quarantine zone and make sure she doesn’t go past the glass partition.”
With reluctance, the two led her back to the containment area. One of the guards entered a code into the keypad, letting the door slide open rapidly.
“Ten minutes. Don’t go past the glass, or you’re not coming out.”
“Got it,” she said as she walked past the pair. The door sealed behind her, and she saw a glass partition with a man sitting behind it in a chair. He didn’t seem to be sick at all.
Ketra found a seat and pulled it in front of the glass.
“You don’t look like one of the staff here,” the man said, seeming almost relieved to see someone other than the people who locked him in there.
“My name is Ketra. I’m with Pak News. I just wanted to get a bit of information about your recent experiences for a story I’m doing a research on. You’re the talk of the town, you know,” she said, turning on her voice recorder as she spoke.
“I thought as much,” Cassius replied with a dry chuckle. “A single shuttle fleeing a world in catastrophe. That’s bound to turn a few heads.”
“Just to give you a heads up, this interview is going to be recorded, and it can be used as a source if the story is broadcasted,” Ketra said, holding up her recorder.
“Fine with me,” Cassius replied.
“So, tell me what happened. In your own words,” Ketra said as she held the recording device closer to the partition.
In response, Cassius scooted his chair closer to the divide between them.
“Well, it all happened so fast,” he began. Cassius leaned further forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “So, the Crop Fever, as we’d taken to call it, started a few weeks ago. It started with the field workers, hence the name. After a while, it started spreading to the general population.”
Ketra listened intently as Cassius spoke, enthralled by the story already.
“At first, it didn’t seem to be all that bad. It was mainly a fever. You might cough your throat raw, but otherwise, you’re fine.”
“I ordered some supplies from Centralia, medicine to keep the fever down until it went away. Then, it started making people go...crazy,” he continued. “And people started dying once their minds were completely gone. About a week ago, it had spread to half the population. Killed ten percent of that number, too.”
Cassius’ voice cracked from the pain of reliving the nightmare all over again in his mind.
“That’s terrible,” Ketra said, her eyebrows drawn together.
“It was horrifying. We waited one more week for the shipment to arrive, but it never did. I ordered a full evacuation of the planet to get them here to Centralia, but our navigation systems were jammed. I have a good reason to believe that the Lange Corporation is involved in all this, and the Centralian government is covering their tracks,” Cassius said. He rubbed his face with his right hand and breathed a deep sigh.
“After that, all hell broke loose. I lost my wife, my son—almost lost my daughter,” he said, his voice faltering once more. “My people are suffering and dying there as we speak, and I’m locked in here like I’m diseased. I need to get out of here and track down the person responsible for this experiment they used my people as guinea pigs for. Whoever they are, they need to be brought to justice.”
Ketra was about to respond, but a knock at the door said that her ten minutes had expired.
“Hey, I have to go. Thanks for your time,” she said. “I don’t think I caught your name?”
“Cassius. Cassius Ojun,” he said. “Go on. I wouldn’t want you getting in trouble on my account.”
Ketra turned off her voice recorder and waved goodbye, leaving the room in a hurry. She wished she could have stayed longer, but thought this should be enough to get the story out there for now.
Ketra stood in her news editor’s office and played the recording for him.
“Well? What do you think?” she asked, leaning her palms on the desk and giving an expectant look.
“Do you really want to know what I think, Ketra?” he asked, rhetorically. “I think this is a slander suit waiting to happen. You can’t broadcast this accusation against Lange and the go
vernment without more sources.”
Ketra hung her head and groaned loudly. “But I…”
“Listen, I know you want a good story, but you can’t go about it by taking the word of a man who illegally entered the planet from a colony under quarantine,” the man said.
Ketra wasn’t about to let this stop her. If the news editor wanted sources, she’d find them.
She pushed herself from the desk and reclaimed her voice memo.
“Thanks, I’ll get back to work,” she said, turning on her heels and exiting the room before he could respond.
Chapter 13
Cassius
Cassius sat alone in the quarantine room for what felt like forever.
Alone with his thoughts, the events of the last several weeks continued to torment his mind. He felt a vice grip around his heart, his lust for revenge taking greater and greater hold each day.
Lange needs to pay for what they’d done, for all they’d stolen from me.
He was taken out of his thoughts by the sound of the door opening next to him. The administrator stood in the threshold.
“Come on,” he said, motioning for Cassius to follow him. “You and the kids are free to go.”
Cassius stood and met with the other man, along with Peyton and Sienna.
“We’re cleared?” Cassius asked, taking the hands of the two children.
“Yeah. No sign of the disease in any of you,” he said. “Just don’t cause any trouble out there, okay? Make sure nobody knows who you are, don‘t disturb the public—otherwise, we‘re going to have a much less pleasant conversation.”
“Duly noted. Thank you for your hospitality, anyway,” Cassius said.
The three of them followed the necessary precautions. One last checkup and some discharge forms had to be performed before they were finally allowed to leave.
A ground car was waiting for them out front to take them out to one of the neighborhoods of Centralia. Cassius guided the two girls into the car before climbing in himself and closing the door.
He gazed out the window, watching the landscape go by at a moderate speed. Sienna leaned against her father, on the verge of falling asleep. Cassius, in turn, held his daughter close, knowing she needed the comfort after it all.
Sienna and Peyton soon fell asleep.
The sun hung high in the sky; it was already noon when they finally reached their destination. Their driver pulled into the driveway of a modest home. He put the car in park and turned back to look at Cassius.
“This is our stop. The owner’s gonna let you go ahead and move in. You were the governor of Elban—we couldn’t just toss you out on the street. You’re expected to make payments when you do get settled in, though.”
“That sounds fair,” Cassius said.
He reached over to nudge the two girls’ shoulders. Their eyes fluttered open, one after another, and Sienna yawned.
“Come on, kids. We’re here.”
Groggily, the two stirred awake while Cassius helped them unbuckle and get out of the vehicle.
The two girls stumbled for a moment before shaking the sleep from their eyes. Peyton and Sienna each took a hand of Cassius, and the three followed the driver to the door.
“The lock code for the doors has been sent to you. Expect a call from the owner later,” he said. “He’ll give you more details.”
To be sure, Cassius checked his messages. Sure enough, a code for the doors had been sent from an unfamiliar sender.
“Thank you,” he said.
He entered the code into the panel on the door and entered the home with the two girls.
The living area was small, only large enough for the sofa, television, and a few plants in the corner. It wasn’t anything special, but Cassius knew he would come to see it as home sooner rather than later.
Cassius decided to explore the house a bit further.
“You two just have a seat in the living room, I’ll be back,” he said as he went down the hall, which led to two bathrooms and two bedrooms. One was obviously the master bedroom, while the other held two twin beds on either side.
Cassius made his way back down the hall, this time entering the kitchen rather than going back to the living room.
The kitchen was just as basic as the rest of the house. Just the bare necessities for food preparation. He leaned against the counter and gazed out the window to the alley across the street. Just a few minutes ago, he had thought this neighborhood looked familiar when they first entered.
Now, he realized it was the same one where the old boss of the Roland gang lived.
A young boy, no older than Sienna, darted around the corner of the alley. He clutched a package under his arm, constantly looking over his shoulder as he jogged to a nearby dumpster.
With one last check of his surroundings, he stuffed the box beneath the dumpster and moved a few boxes in front of it. Cassius knew exactly what he was doing.
It was something he’d done himself countless times.
His mind was brought back to a rainy night in the slums nearly two decades ago. He had held a package against his chest, the contents of which he’d not been made privy. The scent of decay had filled his teenager’s nostrils as the sound of puddles splashing filled his ears.
He’d had a few close calls with the authorities by then. He needed to be more careful. That was his life, doing the dangerous jobs for the Rolands. It was his lot in life to follow their orders in hopes of getting enough money to survive just one more day.
Things changed for him so much over the years, yet so little had changed overall. People still fought to survive in the streets, an uphill battle that only resulted in success for a very lucky few.
Cassius had been one of the lucky ones who were able to get out of the system. His experience had given him invaluable knowledge of the world, of its cruelty, its corrupt system. He had gotten out because of that knowledge—but he wished that life didn’t have to be the reality that so many lived with each and every day.
His mind was taken immediately to Peyton. She was alone in the world now. Her family was gone, her planet was in shambles. She had no one and no future if she were to be turned loose alone.
He couldn’t just let her fade away as one of the forgotten children of Centralia.
Overall, his position wasn’t that bad—he still held his position as governor, which meant he wasn’t destitute, and the house already had a second bed in the smaller bedroom.
There was plenty of room for Peyton to stay with him and Sienna, and the two children seemed to have bonded during their experience.
Cassius pushed himself from the counter and left the kitchen. He returned to the living room to sit in the chair beside the sofa the girls had claimed. He sighed as he sank into the cushioned fabric. The chair itself was comfortable, much more so than he had thought from the looks of it.
“So, girls, this is going to be our new home now,” he said, leaning forward so the two could give him their full attention.
“Are we ever gonna go back to our old home?” Sienna asked, head tilting to the side.
“I don’t know, sweetie,” he said. “For now, we need to make the most of what we have and keep moving forward for bigger and better things. I’m going to find the people who hurt your mother and brother. They’re not going to get away with it.”
“I’m scared, daddy,” she said, pushing herself off the sofa and crawling into Cassius’ lap. Her small arms hooked around his neck, and she buried her face in his shoulder. “Everything here is too big and scary.”
“I know, but don’t worry. This is where daddy grew up. I’ll keep you safe. No more bad things are going to happen—not if I can help it,” he said, a hand reaching up to pet the back of her head while the other held her close.
He looked to Peyton and motioned for her to join them. She was reluctant at first, sitting for a moment on the sofa, before crawling into Cassius and Sienna’s embrace.
“You’re part of our family now, too. Your dad tr
usted me to take care of you,” he said, each and every word feeling like a nail clawing up his throat, “and I’m not going to let him down.”
Peyton didn’t speak. Instead, she hugged him as tight as her tiny frame would allow, her body shaking a little at the mention of Craig.
Cassius could imagine the trauma that she’d experienced, and how it would most likely linger with her for the rest of her life.
At least, he would make sure he would be there to try and lessen the pain as much as possible.
Chapter 14
Cassius
Cassius threw his comm away in frustration. He thought he had good rapport with those he tried to contact, yet another refused to take his call. It was easy to give up at this point.
He was alone. Again.
If his wife was there, she would tell him to stop whining and get it done, so instead he wrote up an official request to speak at the next Governors Congress meeting. When he needed a voice of reason, he always asked himself what Lyla would say.
The meeting was only two weeks away—that gave him time to prepare and hopefully sway some of his counterparts to his side.
Approval was granted right away, giving him the fourth slot. By then, after new business, old business, announcements, and updates, the governors would already be tired.
Three speakers ahead of him and he would have the crankiest bunch of governors of the day. He had a suspicion it was designed that way.
At least he would get to speak. They had to be selective with their topics, and declined more than they approved.
They probably knew that everyone would have questions about the incident on Elban and would find it strange if it wasn’t raised. With the right mixture of official reports and rumor, they could control the population’s reaction.
Cassius got up and walked over to the comm, debated stepping on it, and grudgingly picked it up. He placed it gently on the desk next to the slipstream. He just stood there and glared at them as if it were to blame, jumping when the comm beeped.
