The Solar Flare

by Laura E. Collins

  It was Xavier that spoke first. “I hope that you are feeling much better now.” He seemed to study her as if he were awed by what he saw, pleased that she looked rested.

  “I am. Thank you for your kindness . . . Mr. Xavier, what are you planning on doing with me? Where are you taking me?” She asked quickly.

  “Please, call me James,” he responded. She remained silent. “We are going to take you someplace safe.”

  “I was perfectly safe where I was . . .”

  “Really? Things looked differently to me,” he said patiently.

  “I have a reasonable explanation for that.”

  “Ava, believe me, you are going to be safe with us. You don’t have to cover up what’s happened to you because you are afraid. We can give you a new beginning, away from the abuse that you have endured at Robinson’s hands. It won’t be like that with us. I can protect you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “It’s okay, Bryant told us all about the cruelty you have suffered with them. I won’t treat you like that. You know what we are, it’s supposed to be different than what you have experienced,” he spoke calmly and sincerely.

  “Bryant? . . . He cannot be trusted! I don’t know what he’s told you, but he’s obviously serving his own agenda here, not mine or yours!” Ava replied heatedly, becoming a little upset figuring out a little about Bryant’s angle.

  Xavier was about to question Ava more about this when Melanie entered the room and interrupted them. “I think it’s time that Ava had some rest James.” When he didn’t get up, she gave a more authoritative command. “Go on, shoo!” She said lightly to him. “Ava, try and eat a little bit, you’ll feel better and have more restful sleep.” Xavier stood and said a polite “Good night,” and left the room.

  Ava could not deny that she was still tired. She took a few bites of food to please Melanie and then climbed into bed as she left. She had a difficult time falling asleep despite her fatigue as her mind raced to come up with a plan to reason with these people to try and convince them to take her home.

  After leaving Ava’s quarters Xavier walked up to the flight deck to speak with Nicholas. He could sense Ava’s apprehension and anger once they started discussing Bryant and he didn’t like it. “Nicholas, I want you to take us to the nearest space station that will allow us to dock.”

  “A space station? That might take us some time because of the Orionis situation. I thought you wanted to go home?”

  “I do, we’re not staying there long. I want to be rid of Bryant as quickly as possible.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t trust him.”

  ∞

  The passing storm gave way to a sunny, hot, humid, and windy day in Kyanos city. Wesley slept in a lot later than he had planned to. Teleportation always drained him for days. He showered, put on fresh clothes, ate, hopped into his courier, and sped off for the hangar. On the way he could already see the cleanup crews and military at work trying to restore balance to the city. He surveyed the damage as he drove, pledging to help with the re-build once Ava was back safely and they had towed the Andromeda down for the repairs to begin.

  Naomi and Andre met Wesley at the hangar that housed the Principia. It had been refueled and readied for their short mission to Ibis to retrieve Ava. Andre offered to pilot the ship to give Wesley a break, but he refused. He raced the starship towards the wind-swept desert eagerly awaiting his reunion with his beloved Ava. He set the ship down outside of the base just as he had done with the Andromeda, powered down, and the three of them approached the heavy doors. They surveyed the landscape out of habit and everything appeared as usual. He thought maybe Ava would have seen them coming and open the doors to greet them but she did not. Wesley punched in the entry code and the doors slowly opened. The cool silent air of the base hit them as they stepped inside of the dimly lit entry way, which illuminated when the sensors detected movement. Strange, Wesley thought. They waited for a few seconds, expecting to see Ava run out towards them to greet them, but she did not. “Ava!” Wesley called out. Silence was his only reply. The three of them looked at each other, concerned that she did not reply. Then all of them simultaneously started calling her name and fanning out to search for her. No one was faster than Wesley, who started frantically teleporting himself into all of the rooms one after another searching for her.

  After a less than a minute they met back up in the entry-way, with Wesley appearing visibly upset. “Let’s think about this Wesley, maybe she went for a walk. Andre and I will take the West side of the base, you take the East,” Naomi advised.

  “Okay.” Wesley started to calm down a little. Ava had mentioned that she planned to stretch her legs during her stay. They left the base and closed the doors behind them. They looked for footprints in the sandy ground, but could not even see their own from a few minutes before because of the wind. They split up, each sprinting in opposite directions along the rock face, calling Ava’s name. It did not take Wesley long to reach the opening in the rock face. He suddenly became very concerned as he recalled that there was a cave further back. Surely Ava wouldn’t have gone back there. He jogged back inside of it, drawing a small flashlight from his utility belt. Ava’s name echoed off of the walls as he called out to her. He aimed his light down into the crevice and gasped as he saw a backpack on a rock ledge at the bottom. He teleported himself down to the bottom and picked up the bag, looked around the small enclosed area, and teleported himself back up to the surface. He opened the bag and groaned when he recognized Ava’s sunglasses.

  Wesley ran out to the entryway of the cave and called to his friends on the PCD. Within minutes they were by his side, but not before he got a good look at the ground outside of the crevice. The wind and sand had covered most of the evidence, but there they were; small, distinct deep depressions in the dry ground where a starship had landed.

  “There were several Asterions here. It’s faint, but I can feel it. I don’t think it was Kaden,” Naomi announced after they had returned from inspecting the cave again.

  “Was it Xavier?” Wesley asked, unable to conceal his concern. Naomi walked over to a large rock that projected out of the ground and bent to put her hand on it.

  “Ava was here, . . . more recently than in the cave.” Naomi closed her eyes sensing faint remnants of Justin’s fading energy.

  “These depressions are from landing gear. It looks to be about right for the Solstice, from what I remember about its size,” Andre called from his crouching position inspecting a nearby divot in the ground.

  The wind shifted and Naomi inhaled deeply and dropped her head, sensing what they hoped wasn’t true. “Wesley, it was Xavier. He took her.”

  “I can’t believe this. I sensed it! In the Andromeda I picked up on some stray faint transmissions last night when I was fighting Kaden. And I did nothing, I just ignored it!” With eyes wide, Wesley dropped the back pack and put his hands on his head.

  “It’s not your fault Wesley, none of us saw this coming. We’ll find a way to get her back from him. You know he wouldn’t harm her,” Naomi tried to say reassuringly.

  “We don’t know what he might do to her! She obviously fell down into that crevice inside the cave. Maybe she was running from them. She could be hurt, she could be dying!”

  “She’s not dying, Xavier wouldn’t let that happen. He’s a smart man just like you are. Chances are Melanie was with them.”

  “We have to get back to the hangar, we have to make the Principia ready, we’re going after them!” Wesley put a hand on each of Naomi’s and Andre’s shoulders and spent more of his precious energy teleporting them back to their starship to start the journey back towards the Kyanos city.

  Andre messaged the other Asterions explaining what had happened so that they would be ready to have a strategy meeting when the Principia returned. They returned to the hangar in record time, Wesley wasting no time exiting the ship once they landed. The captain and crew met in one of the large meeting r
ooms adjacent to the hangar to discuss the plan. Vance attended at Andre’s suggestion.

  “I want to leave in less than five hours,” Wesley announced immediately.

  “We can have the Principia ready by then for you. Do you want all of us to go?” Ash asked.

  “Captain, I know how much Ava means to you and I understand that you need to leave, but if you could spare one or two of your family to help with the repairs of the city it would be appreciated. The people still look to you for leadership,” Vance commented gently.

  Wesley sighed. The longer they delayed, the further away Xavier would take Ava, and the harder it would be to recover her. On the other hand, Kyanos had just been through hell in the attack from Kaden. He was torn between his love for Ava and his duty to his people. He burned with the struggle inside of him. He grew anxious because he could not be certain Ava was safe with Xavier, especially if Bryant was around.

  “I love Ava too, but I need to assess the crop stability. We need to be sure the people here will have plenty to eat next season. Justin and I will stay. . . If that’s okay with you Wesley,” Rowan said to both Wesley and Vance.

  “The timing of this is bad,” Andre commented.

  “The rest of us will leave today. We will give it one week. If we haven’t uncovered any leads in a week, we will return here and tow the Andromeda back to the hangar so the engineers can get started repairing her. Then we can go back out and search for her as long as it takes. Searching for them would be easier if we had two ships instead of one. How does that sound?” Wesley suggested.

  “All right,” Andre agreed, it sounded like the best plan of action at the moment.

  “I have the coordinates from all of the transmissions I detected earlier in the week. This may guide us towards the Solstice’s point of entry into Kyanos. Maybe we could trace it back,” Ash offered.

  “I doubt Xavier would go back the way he came,” Wesley said softly.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I wouldn’t,” he replied flatly.

  “I’m no tracker like Bryant, but I will do my best to help you find her,” Naomi added, putting a hand on Wesley’s arm.

  “Thank you.” His voice was almost a whisper.

  Chapter 15: Antares

  The small digital clock in the wall read 1:34 p.m. when Ava awoke the next day. She hastily got out of bed, unhappy that she had slept much longer than she had intended to. As she finished getting ready to leave her quarters she noticed that the ship wasn’t making the familiar humming noise that it did when it was in flight. They must be docked somewhere, she realized. She immediately started forming a plan in her mind. Even if she couldn’t escape, she could at least try and make a scene in whatever hangar they were docked in. This could be something that would be documented in the security logs that Wesley could search for, that is, if she could get out of the ship.

  Ava approached the door and paused to listen; she didn’t hear any noise on the other side. She pressed the release button and the door glided silently open. She paused, looked both ways, and felt elated when she didn’t see anyone. She decided to walk slowly and calmly in the corridors, remembering Melanie’s tips on finding her way back up to the main common areas. Reaching the main level she still didn’t see anyone and decided to proceed nonchalantly past the medical evaluation area she had spent most her time in. This might work, Ava thought. She could see the exit landing a short distance away and kept walking silently towards it, mentally keeping her fingers crossed. A few more yards, almost there! She quickened her pace. Then, her hope died instantly when she sensed that the energy of an Asterion was near.

  “Look at you, . . . sneaking around and trying to escape,” a familiar voice said, sounding amused. Ava turned and gasped as Bryant suddenly materialized right behind her.

  She hastily took a few steps back, “don’t touch me!” She warned him sternly.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he replied casually. “I do hope you will like your new home, . . . wherever that is going to be,” he grinned sinisterly at her.

  “This is all of your doing!” She stared him down, unable to disguise her anger.

  “Of course it is. Tracking you was the most fun I’ve had in ages. But for the record, Robinson did a pretty good job keeping you hidden from me. Though I have to say I was hoping for more of an exciting confrontation between the two of them. You know, to see them duke it out with each other over you.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Oh well. I’m happy with the results, just the same. He’s never going to find you,” he smugly told her.

  “It’s not Wesley’s fault your wife died. He tried everything he could to save her. How dare you mess with my life like this . . . over something so misunderstood!” She had figured it out, Bryant was on a revenge mission.

  “It’s really not about you . . . however, you should be thankful I did. You would perhaps be dead now if I hadn’t,” he replied sharply, referring to her predicament back in the cave.

  Not sure how to respond to that, and there really was no point to, she just stood there staring at him as she sensed the others arriving. Ava had become more used to sensing the energy of Asterions since Wesley’s family no-longer concealed it as much as they used to from her. She noticed that Bryant had a few travel cases stacked near the exit/entrance ramp. Bryant turned on his most charming and gracious smile as Xavier and a few of the others approached.

  Blayke tapped in the code to lower the exit ramp. Ava watched with hopeful eyes as she could see the busy activity and smell the staler air of a hangar through the opening, but she did not move. She tried to think of something, but knew it would be no use. Even if she screamed, no one would hear her over the commotion going on out there. She could hear Bryant and Xavier talking but didn’t really listen to what they were saying, it didn’t matter. Out of the corner of her eye she saw them cordially shake hands. Bryant turned towards his travel cases and approached her on the way.

  “Farewell Ava, you are in good hands,” he said pleasantly to her before he turned away and collected his things. She said nothing and watched as he exited the ship, the ramp raising and closing promptly after him, dashing her hopes for escape.

  She turned towards Xavier and the others. “Where are we?” She asked abruptly.

  “On Antares. We’ll be docked here for a day or so because the pirate activity out there is heavy right now. Don’t worry, the ITO has not published our docking in the public records at my request for anonymity,” Xavier replied honestly.

  Antares! Ava brightened by the possibility of a chance to leave word for Wesley. “I have some friends from Earth here.” She walked towards Xavier, stopping right in front of him, looking into his eyes. “May I please see them, or message them while we are here? Alexis and Marc are probably worried about me; I haven’t been in touch with them since the evacuation of Orionis. Please?” She could hear herself practically begging him.

  “I understand, but I’m afraid not Ava. There can be no communication because the ITO has a warrant out for your arrest. And if that weren’t enough, there reportedly is a deadly virus now plaguing the station. Seems there is an antivirus available but it is in short supply due to the number of new cases.”

  “What are you going to do with me? You can’t keep me a prisoner forever,” she replied hastily.

  “That’s really not the idea Ava. It isn’t our intention to make your our prisoner,” he stated in an amused tone. The others standing nearby chuckled a little bit at the drama going on. “It isn’t safe for you out there,” he continued sympathetically. “Why don’t we go to the common area and talk about this?” He gestured in the general direction and she began walking.

  “The only safe place for me is Kyanos,” she muttered flatly as they walked away from the others.

  “Kyanos? Is that the name of the small planet Robinson had you marooned on?” He asked as he followed her.

  “I wasn’t marooned! I wasn’t in any danger there! This whole thing is nothing but a big mess. Wha
tever Bryant told you about Wesley’s treatment of me was untrue. He and I love each other, more than I would have thought it was possible to love someone after what I had been through on Earth.” They had reached the common area and Ava gingerly sat down on a seat directly across from him, staring at him.

  “Tell me everything. Start from the beginning, before you left Earth,” he suggested softly, his gaze lingering on her. Ava shifted slightly in her seat, suddenly feeling slightly nervous. There was something about him, so like Wesley. She wanted to hate him and trust him at the same time, but she couldn’t find it within herself to do so. She remembered what Wesley had told her about when he first discovered her in the hangar on Orionis, after her migration from Earth. He had said he had a hard time staying away from her. She couldn’t be attracted to this stranger, even if he was the other half of Wesley, could she? There was so much about these Asterions that she did not know. Was it possible that the more time she spent with him, the more she would be attracted to him? No, just push that thought out of your mind and remember where you are; Ava thought to herself. She took a deep breath and focused. She found the words and started talking. She described her lonely, cold upbringing in the underground on Earth, her happiness when she married Nathan, and her grief and decision to leave Earth after his death.

  She kept going, as Xavier never interrupted her, and described her first terrible weeks on Orionis and how she had met Wesley and the others and what they had come to mean to her. She related her scary experiences at the Labyrinth and on E.S. Number One, her near death experience with the virus, and finally her frightening encounter with Kaden and the explosion on Orionis. She decided to continue and tell him about her short stay on Capri and the happy new life Wesley had given her on Kyanos. Ava wasn’t sure how much she should divulge to Xavier, but went ahead and described the struggle with Kaden and why Wesley had evacuated her to the desert on Ibis. She hoped her explanations would be enough to sway his sympathy into letting her go.