“Come in.” Matthew barked the command.
Cal walked into Matthew’s office and the president followed.
“Captain, I gather you saw the news conference,” Matthew addressed him.
“Yes, sir.” Cal stood at attention. He saluted both Matthew and the president.
“At ease,” the President said as he crossed the room and took a seat on the leather couch under the television monitor.
André turned to Cal. “Hi.”
“You can really stop the meteor?”
André nodded and looked over at his father.
“André thought it would be a good idea to have a medical officer on board with us,” Matthew said.
Cal’s brow furrowed. “Why?” he asked, looking back at André. “Will doing this hurt you?”
“Pushing the meteor off course won’t,” André answered.
“But the Zyclonian space explorer might,” Matthew added.
Cal raised his eyebrows. “There’s another ship out there?”
“Yes,” Matthew answered. “And it’s not friendly.”
Cal looked around the room and nodded. “When do we leave?” he directed at Matthew.
“In less than an hour,” Matthew replied.
“Okay, I’ll meet you at the outer base with the medical supplies I’ll need for the three of us,” Cal answered.
“Four,” President Foster said. “I’m going as well.”
“Three,” Matthew corrected and gave a dismissive nod to Cal.
Cal glanced at the three men, his gaze lingering on André before he left the room.
Matthew waited until the door closed and turned to the president. “Mr. President, you can’t go with us,” he stated, throwing down the gauntlet.
President Foster stared in disbelief. “Bullshit.”
“Mitch, you can’t,” Matthew addressed him as a friend instead of as a subordinate. “You have a responsibility to steer clear of a known ambush. That is what we are doing. If we were just going up there to move a meteor, then yes, I’d welcome your company. But we know there’s a hostile presence up there. One aimed at killing my son.” He paused and glanced in André’s direction. “If his little display earlier is a preview of what could happen, then I have to stand firm on this. I will not clear you to be on that ship.”
“Then I’ll fire you and get someone who will clear me.”
“That is your prerogative, sir.” Matthew stood up. “I’ll clear my things from this office.” He began to stack his personal belongings in the center of the desk.
“Goddamn it, Matthew!” President Foster snapped.
Matthew looked up at him. “Am I fired?”
President Foster glared at Matthew. “No,” he spat. He looked between André and Matthew and then stormed out of the room.
“Thank you,” André said.
“There are still three of us on board,” Matthew said.
“I’m aware of that.” He glanced at his father. “Do I need to get a change of clothes or something?”
“No, we have flight suits,” Matthew replied.
“Change of underwear?” André raised an eyebrow and offered a smile.
“No,” Matthew answered, his expression stern enough for André to ditch any further attempt at levity. “Let’s go,” he added and led André out of the office to the hovercraft in the parking lot.
Outer base was twenty minutes away on the southeasternmost point of the dome wall, and André tried to focus on the task ahead, but all he kept hearing was that voice in the speakers and he shivered.
“You don’t seem concerned that Captain Grey will be with us.”
“Cal will be fine,” André said, studying the transitioning scenery.
Matthew glanced at his son. “You know the captain’s first name?”
André nodded without looking at Matthew, keeping his mind blank. “We talked quite a bit this summer.”
Matthew remained quiet, casting glances in André’s direction, a crease appearing between his eyes. “You opened his barrier, didn’t you?”
André pressed his lips together, irritated that his father could read him so easily.
“André, it’s not safe to open barriers of just anyone.”
“He’s a medical officer and he’s known about me since day one.” André turned toward his father. “He saved my life once already, or did you forget?”
Matthew’s face went red. “I didn’t forget.”
“I trust him,” André said. “So should you. He’s worked the powers in his mind to the point he is almost as strong as Katrina.”
Matthew looked in his direction. “How powerful is Katrina?”
“She saved Anna’s life today,” André said, looking out the window again. “Anna was going to kill Katrina, so I blew up her craft.” He summed up the event, glancing at his father again. “Kat put a barrier around Anna so she wouldn’t get hurt in the explosion.”
“You tried to kill someone?”
“I reacted. She intended on killing Kat, and I had to stop her,” he answered.
“Why the hell would she want to kill Katrina?”
“Because my vibe drove her over-the-edge crazy,” André said. “Can we talk about something else?” He glanced at his father. “Please?”
“You told Katrina what happened this morning?”
André sighed. “Yes.”
“And that’s all she did to you?” He nodded toward André’s face.
“Yes,” André answered and his mind traveled to the shower. He couldn’t wipe away the thoughts or the grin that formed fast enough.
Matthew swerved, glaring at André. “In my house?”
André blushed.
“I could just wring your neck.”
“I’m sorry, but she’s my wife. Besides, it broke whatever spell I was transmitting.” André sensed the resignation in his father and met his sideways glance.
Matthew sighed. “I’m glad I won’t have to be privy to that anymore.”
André nodded. “Me too,” he answered as they pulled into the outer base.
Matthew marched directly to Cal as soon as they arrived at the base. “I understand you allowed my son to convert you.”
Cal nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Matthew scanned the captain’s mind and sized him up. He found nothing that would prevent him from coming on the trip, quite the contrary. This man would die to protect André, just as Matthew would. “Fine,” he replied, satisfied with what he dug out of the captain’s mind.
“He’s a special kid,” Cal replied.
“Yes he is.” Matthew followed Cal’s gaze to where André stood. “It’s been a tough year, though.” He looked back at Cal.
Cal nodded. “I imagine so, but at least he had honorable intentions.”
Matthew smiled. “Not always,” he said. “Sometimes he’s just a rebellious, impulsive teenager.”
Cal laughed. “I can see that, too. I have no idea how I would have dealt with the collective female population throwing themselves at me.”
Matthew shook his head. “I’m with you there. I probably would have tagged every single one of them,” he said, voicing what he would never admit to his son.
Cal chuckled and nodded. He headed toward the situation room with Matthew.
André sat in a gray and blue nylon flight suit with a matching gray baseball cap on his head, waiting for them.
Matthew turned on the monitor and dimmed the lights. A satellite image came up on the screen, showing the path of the meteor through the galaxy. “The meteor will be passing by Saturn in a few hours. We’ll be intercepting it just beyond Jupiter.” He pushed another button, showing the projected path of the meteor. “We want to push this thing a few hundred kilometers off the current course.” He pushed the button and showed the new path of the meteor, missing Earth and eventually colliding with the sun. “That is our primary directive.” He looked at his son. “This must happen before we intercept our visitor.”
André
nodded acknowledgment.
“We believe the explorer is following in the meteor’s wake, hidden from our satellites,” he explained. “When you shove this thing off course, he’ll be exposed.” Matthew looked at both men in the room. “That’s when I expect all hell to break loose.”
“What’s the plan?” André asked, looking at the path of the meteor replaying behind his father.
“Capture and detain,” Matthew said.
André laughed. “You’re shitting me?”
“No,” Matthew answered. “I’m not going out there with the intent to kill anyone, and neither are you.”
André looked at the floor.
“Wipe those thoughts out of your mind, André. That’s apt to get us killed,” Cal said. “If our visitor perceives us as a danger, then we’re already dead.”
Matthew nodded. “We’re going to act very surprised when we see the ship. Understand?”
André looked at his father. “Bluff?”
“Not exactly,” Matthew said.
André looked at him, his eyes widening, and he shook his head. “You’re out of your fucking mind, Dad.”
“You have to wipe all traces of knowledge of him out of your mind right now.” He looked at Cal. “And out of our minds.” He looked back at André. “Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“I understand, but I don’t know if I can do that,” André said.
“You have to wipe out everything from the point we left my office to go to the press conference and Cal’s memory from the point he entered my office this afternoon.”
André stood up in protest. “It screws with your brain,” he said.
“This is the only way this will work and if you need to grasp a bright side here, I won’t remember you and Katrina slept together under my roof today.”
André blushed and picked at another hangnail. Taking a deep breath, he gave his father a slight nod without raising his eyes.
“You can fill us in on why we are here, minus the visitor,” Cal piped in.
“You’re going to be disoriented,” André said.
“It’s all right.” Matthew approached André. “I trust you, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember. Can you sit down?”
Matthew sat as André requested.
André focused on Cal first, his eyes transitioning to that neon blue Matthew had seen dozens of times, but he had never seen the full transition of power that turned André’s eyes into a laser red flash. “You remember coming to my father’s office and being told we’re going out into space, but that’s it. Next thing, you are here.”
Cal winced and blinked, glancing at André and Matthew, a puzzled crease appearing between his eyes.
André smiled. “Go change in to your flight suit, Cal,” André said and Cal nodded and headed to change.
“Damn.” Matthew watched Cal walk off. “It’s a complete blank,” he said and glanced back at André.
“Are you sure you want me to do this, Dad?”
“It’s the only way I can keep you safe,” Matthew said and inhaled, wondering if there were any nasty long-term side effects to the mind erase he was agreeing to.
“Besides a possible stroke?” André asked, worry painting his gaze.
“I will be fine, André. Just do what you have to do,” Matthew said.
André inhaled and concentrated. “You fired me and I took off. You called me back for the press conference, the president announced what we were planning and explained who I am.” He paused and raked his palm over his face. “You have no other memories since I left the office outside of the meteor.” He pushed gently and his father reacted the same way as Cal. “Dad, we’re getting ready to go.”
Matthew looked around, blinking and confused.
“The meteor.” André pointed at the repeating trajectory on the screen behind him. “You said we need to knock it off base by a couple hundred kilometers?” André asked. “Does it matter which direction?”
Matthew shot his eyes between the screen and André. “No. Either direction will take it out of Earth’s path. Think you can do that?”
“Sure, Dad.” André kept his mind as blank as a new sheet of paper.
Matthew looked at his son, his brow furrowing. “What the hell happened to your eye?”
André shifted. “I told Kat about this morning. She was a little angry.”
Matthew barked laughter. “I’m surprised you’re still breathing.”
André smiled. “Yeah, well, she forgave me.”
Matthew shook his head. “You are one lucky son of a bitch.” He stood. “Linda would have shot me if I pulled what you have.”
André glanced at his father. “I don’t intend to screw up like that ever again.”
“I hope not because I’ll throttle you myself. She’s not someone you want to lose, André,” Matthew said and headed off to change.
André closed his eyes, collected all the memories relating to the visitor in space and jammed them in the room in the back of his mind, closed the imaginary door and locked it. He prayed that would be enough. When he opened his eyes, his gaze landed on the shuttle, studying it from a distance and remembering the last time he flew.
“This ship is a little bigger than the last one you were on,” Cal said as he stepped next to André, wearing the same flight suit.
“Seems like a lifetime ago,” André whispered and let the silence fill the space between them.
“How’s Sam doing?” Cal asked after a few moments lost in thought.
André smiled. “He’s finally sleeping through the night now.” He turned toward Cal. “It’s been a long ass summer.”
“Just look at it this way, you’ll be under forty when your boy is out of college.”
Forty. André couldn’t comprehend being that old and let out a laugh. “There’s something to look forward to.”
Cal smiled. “It’s not that old.”
André smirked and huffed.
“Hey, I’m not that far from forty,” Cal pointed out.
“You’re over thirty?” André asked.
“Yes.”
“I thought you were younger,” André said.
“I’ve got a medical degree through the service, André. That means eight years of school, followed by two years as a resident. I was in my second year as a resident when you first arrived,” Cal explained. “You do the math.”
“Thirty-four?” André answered.
Cal smiled. “Not bad.”
“You’re twice my age,” he marveled.
“Okay, now you’re pushing it.”
“Sorry, Cal,” André said. “It’s just that I thought you were, like, twenty-five.”
Cal laughed. “Your dad isn’t even forty yet.”
André turned and watched as Matthew crossed the floor. “Yeah, but he turns forty this year,” he said before his father was at their side.
“Commander.” Cal saluted.
“At ease, Captain.”
Cal relaxed and smiled. “Your son thinks forty’s old.”
Matthew shrugged with a small smile on his lips. “What does he know?”
Cal laughed and followed Matthew onto the ship.
André looked around the hangar and then followed them on board, trying to lock the trepidation out of his mind.
Matthew glanced back at his son. “You all right?” he asked, sensing his son’s unease.
André nodded. “I’m just a little nervous to go back up there.”
Cal turned in the co-pilot’s chair, his brow furrowed as he caught the lie. He glanced at Matthew, and then back at André.
“Let it go,” André said to Cal.
Matthew looked between the two of them. He went to speak and closed his mouth, turning to the controls. He glanced at Cal as he turned the ignition over, rolled the ship to the exit gates, and waited for the hangar door behind them to close so the vacuum seal could take hold before he opened the outer gate.
Rolling down the runway, he revv
ed the turbo engines and accelerated. As soon as they were airborne, he took the ship up at a seventy-degree angle through the atmospheric layers. Once in space, he set the jets to maximum speed, hitting close to ninety thousand miles per second. He programmed the course into the computer and turned to his passengers.
André watched the stars trace by in bright lines, awed by the view. He had been so sick when Matthew found him that this was lost on him the first time around. Time passed in silence as both Cal and André stared at the celestial visions filling the windshield of the spacecraft.
“You did your thing to Cal,” Matthew stated, breaking the silence after they approached Mars and Jupiter loomed in the distance.
André’s gaze shot to his father’s. “Yes.” He didn’t hesitate to answer. He glanced back out the window. “How much longer?” he asked, feeling the dread wrap around his heart.
“An hour or so,” he answered. “When?”
“Hmmm?” André asked, not taking his eyes from the awe-inspiring sight.
“When did you do it?”
“Early this summer,” Cal answered. “I asked him to.”
Matthew focused his attention on Cal. “What did you hope to gain?”
Cal smiled. “Knowledge.”
Matthew leaned back. “So what can you do?”
“Cal already had a touch of ESP before I opened the gate,” André said.
Matthew looked back at André. “While you are on this mission, you will refer to him as Captain Grey, understand?”
André snorted at his father. “What the hell are you babbling about?”
Matthew swung the chair full around and stared down his son. “This is not a game, son. It is a military mission and while you are under my command, you will act accordingly.”
“Yes, sir,” André mumbled.
Matthew turned back to the controls. “So, Captain, what can you do?”
“I can move things and read minds,” Cal said and turned, studying André, a crease appeared between his eyes. “What’s eating you?” he asked.
André shook his head. “Nothing.” He looked up through the window as they passed the red blur of Mars.
Matthew and Cal exchanged a look.
“Just let it go. All right?” André said.
Matthew turned toward André. “What is wrong?”
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