by Dave Walsh
* * *
That night when they got back to Kara’s quarters, Jonah knew that it was time to put his plan into motion. He had done his best throughout the night to not roll his eyes and to stay social, even if it went against the very fiber of his being. He felt a knot in his stomach, unsure if he should even move forward. He was trying to consider the implications. He circled back to her friends. They were younger, he kept telling himself. They were rich, and they simply did not know any better. Kara had been pushing for him to get to know them better for months and Jonah had always resisted. Now it all felt justified to him.
They lay in bed with the shutters across the room open. Jonah propped himself up on the pillows and watched the vastness of space with one arm around Kara.
“What are you thinking?” she asked after a long silence.
“Nothing,” Jonah said, not looking over at her but feeling her hand trace along the edge of his chest. “Just admiring the view is all.”
“Oh,” she said.
“I guess thinking about this weekend.” Jonah bit his bottom lip and shrugged. “Holiday and all.”
“Oh, Ministry Day,” she said as he gave him a slight squeeze. “I know that must be tough with your dad gone and all, and I know you don’t have much family.”
“I’m used to it.” He had to admit that she was right, but he remained stoic, doing his best not to show any emotion. There were doubts inside of him. He knew that she cared; she was just confused. It felt wrong to move forward, but he gulped and closed his eyes. “I assume you’ll be going to visit your family, huh?”
“Yeah.” She paused, then looked up at him before sheepishly looking away. “My mom always cooks too much, so if you don’t think that it's too lame...”
“Oh, c’mon,” Jonah said. “You know holidays aren’t my thing.”
“Jonah,” she said as she propped herself up on her elbow and looked up at him. “It really isn’t a big deal. I think it would be a good idea for you to come and eat with us. My mom asks about you all the time.”
“All right,” he said, letting out a forced sigh. It was working, and it felt like his life just got a whole lot more difficult. “I guess I can make an appearance.”
She was trying, he thought, although it made him feel like a terrible human being. He wasn’t trying anymore, and Kara was just a tool in his eyes, but their relationship was easily manipulated, which only made things feel worse.
Even if his plan was working perfectly, a part of him felt like it shouldn’t be working, like it should be more of a struggle. Their relationship had been complicated for a while, but Jonah had always felt that it was real. On this day, it felt like it was becoming different, like one in a story that he’d read about, not one that he was living.
Jonah rolled over so that he was facing away from her and dug his arm beneath his pillow to support his head. He closed his eyes, hoping that he’d just effortlessly drift off into sleep. He was doing his best to justify his actions, to remind himself that Kara’s family was an important cog in their broken system, that they were suppressing the truth. That truth had to get out somehow, and Jonah knew that he had the means to make that happen, even if it meant destroying everything that he had left.
Jonah wanted to close his eyes and everything to be all right, but he was genuinely scared -- scared for himself, scared for Kara and scared for everyone aboard the ship.
Everything felt justified when he viewed it in that light, at least.
* * *
“Oh, you must be this Jonah whom we hear all about,” Kara’s mother said. She stood in the doorway to their quarters while Jonah fidgeted in place, finding himself uncomfortable and feeling out of place in the A-Block. She held her arms out to embrace him, and Kara motioned for him to move in off of the causeway.
“Hello, Mrs. Levine,” he said as he smiled at her. He moved in and hugged her back before she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. He had seen photographs of her before, but seeing her in person definitely felt a bit unreal. She looked quite a bit different from Kara, but he always thought that she took after her father more than her mother. She did have her mother’s eyes, though. “Nice to finally meet you.”
“Oh, it is nice to meet this young man whom my Kara talks about all the time,” she said as she grabbed Kara and pulled her in close. Kara clearly looked embarrassed.
“Mom,” she grunted under her breath. “Cut it out.”
“You must be Jonah,” a voice boomed from the other side of the ornate room. Jonah turned around to see a tall, slender man with salt and pepper hair and a neatly trimmed mustache walk up to him with his hand extended. Jonah quickly took his hand and felt a tight grip before doing his best to return the squeeze.
“Yes, Mr. Minister, sir.” Jonah met his gaze and gave him a nod before they broke the grip.
“Oh bullshit,” he said as he slapped Jonah on the back, causing him to jump a bit. “Call me Jim. None of this formality shit, all right?”
“Yes, sir -- err,” Jonah said, correcting himself. He was giving the old-buddy approach, which made it difficult for him to not roll his eyes. “Jim.”
“There you go,” he chuckled, leading Jonah through the entryway into the main quarters. Jonah was doing his best to not let his jaw drop at how beautiful it was. “Welcome to our home, Jonah.”
“No, thank you for having me.” He did his best to remain respectful and tried to hide how awestruck he was. This was a home -- more of a home than he had ever seen in person in his whole life. If old Dusty was just imitating what he had seen in photographs, this was a perfect emulation of what it would be like to live on Earth before it all went to hell.
“I’d offer you a drink, but I’m three years sober now,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“Hey man, that’s all right.” Jonah looked around, trying to take in as much as he could of the home. “That’s great, though.”
“Thanks. I mean, I have some Scotch from Earth, some real vintage stuff.” He sighed a forlorn sigh. “But I can’t have any. I guess you could, though.”
“Oh, no,” he politely declined. “I couldn’t.”
“So Jonah.” Kara’s mother surprised him from behind, putting her hands on his shoulders. “You ready for supper? Come to the table. There's just so much that we don’t know about you. Our daughter,” she began before clearing her throat and looking back at Kara, who was rolling her eyes again. “Well, she hasn’t told us everything about you yet. This one, she thinks that she's all grown-up and doesn’t have family anymore.”
Jonah felt like he was in the belly of the beast, the machine that he had always cursed and damned his whole life. Their home was what he had always imagined having a family would be like, and he hated Kara for taking it for granted the way she did. They were a family, even with their dysfunctions, and they had more money and power than they knew what to do with.
All throughout dinner, Jonah had to keep convincing himself that these people were, in a way, the enemy. At least Jim was.
Jim. The thought of calling one of the Ministers by his first name -- never mind just calling him Jim – made him laugh out loud while Kara’s mom was telling a rather embarrassing story about Kara. But looking around and experiencing it all firsthand made him feel uneasy. These weren’t bad people; they were just different.
After the meal was over, Jonah said his polite thank-yous and excused himself to the bathroom after asking where it was. He had to stop his eyes from lighting up when Kara’s mother explained that it was down the hall on the left, the second door. The first door was Jim’s study, she explained. That was the room that he was looking for, where he expected to find Jim’s holoscreen and the information that he had came here for. He knew this because Professor Cox was friends with the maintenance crew, and they were able to obtain a schematic for their quarters. He made off down the hall and fumbled around with the crysdrive in his pocket, understanding that if they caught him in the act, there will be no easy way to excuse it.
> Jonah checked behind him to make sure that they were all still in the dining room. When the coast was clear, he slipped into the study, quickly moving over to the desk, tapping away at the console and pulling up the holoscreen. He removed the crysdrive from his pocket and quickly plugged it into the port on the left side before pulling up the onscreen keyboard and typing in the command to copy the entire drive onto his crysdrive. He didn’t have time to discern what was valuable and what wasn’t.
His heart was almost beating out of his chest, and it felt like an out-of-body experience. There was no way that he, Jonah Freeman, could be inside of the Minister of Finance’s office, stealing Ministry information. If he were caught, this was treason, if not high treason, and then the chances of Jonah ever seeing that new world would be slim to none. His actions of late were not like him, he repeated to himself in his head as he kept one eye on the door.
“Hey, Jonah!” Jim’s voice boomed from down the hall, and Jonah could feel his heart drop. He scrambled to look down at the holoscreen to see that the transfer was nowhere near complete, but he knew he had to be out of there.
“Jonah!” Jim called again.
Jonah quickly scrambled to the door, peering around both corners to make sure the coast was clear as he reached around the corner and slipped the bathroom door open. He looked around again before he slipped into the room and quietly closed the door behind him.
He slumped over against the door, trying to catch his breath and knowing that if Jim walked into his office and saw the crysdrive, it was all over. He quickly scrambled to his feet and pulled the door open, exiting the room and nearly running into Jim.
“Oh, hey there, Jim,” Jonah said as he laughed and straightened himself out.
“Jonah, my boy.” He put his arm around Jonah’s back and started leading him down the hall. “Come outside and have a smoke with me, why don’t you? You know Maryl won’t let me smoke inside of the house.”
“Always the way, isn’t it?” Jonah did his best to sound like nothing was wrong, but he could feel his voice shaking a bit and wondered if Jim could tell.
“See, you're with my daughter.” The Minister laughed. He opened up the glass door to the terrace overlooking the immaculately groomed lawn that was their yard. “So you understand what I’m dealing with, don’t you?”
“You don’t even know the half of it, Jim.”
“Ha!” Jim gave a hearty laugh, slapping Jonah on the back again before he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He slapped the pack against his hand a few times and then pulled one out, slipping it into his lips before holding the pack out in front of Jonah.
“No, thanks.” Jonah said, waving his hand.
Jim nodded, stuffing it back into his pocket before pulling a lighter out of his other pocket, flicking it open and on. He held it in front of the cigarette until it caught, then flicked it back shut and into his pocket.
“Suit yourself.” He spoke through the side of his mouth. “I know how women can drive you insane.”
“She really is impossible sometimes.” Jonah leaned against the iron railing, shaking his head. “I mean that with all due respect, Jim. It’s tough, you know?” He was doing his best to keep his cool, but his head kept turning back toward the door and the office.
“Oh, trust me, I know.” He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and flicked some ash onto the lawn. He held the cigarette down in front of him as he leaned against the railing. “People assume that I didn’t have to work for what I have, but this didn’t come from me slacking off,” he said as he motioned at their surroundings.
“Do I wish that it had all come easier to me? Of course. But these kids. I appreciate that Kara tries to make her own way, but sometimes I wonder if she’s doing it just to spite me for not being there as much as I should have been. But how else was I going to keep my family where we were?”
“Yeah, I’ve gotten that impression from her as well.” Jonah started to feel pangs of regret. He was finding Jim to be quite personable, but he held steadfast to the belief that what he was doing was for the greater good.
“See, you're an apt guy, a smart guy. I can appreciate that. You know how I know that?” he asked through the haze of smoke between them. “You know how I know?”
“No. How?”
“Because you knew who I was.” He turned toward Jonah, leaning only one elbow against the railing. “You knew how rich I was, how powerful I was, and you didn’t try to use her, to get money or power from her. You care about her for who she is.”
“I do care greatly about her, sir.” Jonah swallowed hard, knowing that at that very moment, he was stealing all of this man’s secrets and that he was indeed using this man’s daughter to get to him. The thing was, he wasn’t lying, either.
“I can tell.” Jim reached up and stroked his mustache before taking another drag of the cigarette and flicking it off of the porch. “How do you feel about this whole troupe thing on Omega?”
“Oh god.” Jonah laughed, letting his guard down for a second. “I’m not a fan of it, sir.”
“See, I knew you were a bright guy,” he said, pointing at Jonah. “I think that it's bullshit. We don’t know shit about this planet yet, and we won’t have everything set up planetside for actual cities and making it habitable for what, something like two years? Yet she wants to be down there for every step of the way? Bullshit.”
“I know. It's so ridiculous.”
“Well, Jonah,” he said as he turned back to face his sprawling yard again. “I want you to do me a favor: When you kids get down there, look out for her.”
“Oh.” Jonah coughed, unsure of how to break things to him. “Well...”
“Well what?”
“I’m not going,” he said, making a mock-surprised face at Kara’s father.
“No shit?” He let out a sigh. “Well, you know, Jonah, I’d feel a whole lot more comfortable if you would go with her and look out for her. You care about her; you’d look out for her. It’s not like you can try to talk her out of it...”
“God, no. I’ve tried so many times.”
“See, I know my daughter,” he said as he hung his head down, shaking it. “She is a stubborn girl after my own heart, got a bit too much of her old man in her. I’d appreciate it, though, if you were to go down planetside with her, Jonah.”
“I can’t make any promises right now, Jim.” Jonah knew that it was pointless, but the troupe was truly the last thing on his mind. “But I’ll try.”
“Well, that's all that I can ask for.” He patted Jonah on the back before motioning toward the house. “C’mon, let’s get back in there to them, all right?”
“Sure,” Jonah agreed as he followed him back into the house, closing the door behind him. “Oh, hey, Jim,” he said when Jim was down the hall a bit. “I’m just gonna hit the head again, all right?”
“You feeling all right?”
“Yeah, just drank a bit too much iced tea is all.” He forced a nervous laugh while eyeballing the office.
“All right. I’ll brave them alone for now,” he said. “But don’t leave me alone in there for too long, all right?”
“Oh, I won’t.” Jonah smiled and pushed himself into the bathroom where he quickly ran the sink and splashed cold water on his face.
He had done a lot of difficult things in his life, but he had never had to deal with something like this. A part of him wanted to just stay in that bathroom, to just curl up in a ball and become insignificant, but they were expecting him, and the device in the next room was enough to have him thrown out of an airlock.
Jonah pulled himself up and put his hand on the knob, knowing that as soon as he left the bathroom, he had to make a beeline for the next room, pull out the crysdrive and make it out of the room undetected. It was going to be a hard pill to swallow, but he knew that he needed to do it.
In a burst of courage, he twisted the knob and quietly pulled the door open, looking around the corner to ensure that the coast was clear.
Jonah snuck out of the bathroom and peered into the office. Finding it empty, he felt a slight sense of relief but knew that he wasn’t done yet.
He slipped through the door and headed for the console. After looking down at the holoscreen to see that the transfer was complete, he snapped the crysdrive out, pocketing it before pressing a few buttons on the console to turn the screen off. Then he found himself practically sprinting for the door.
He was home free, he thought to himself as he rounded the corner, only to find himself face to face with Jim. Everything started spinning, and the only thought racing through his head was that he was caught, and that he’d spend the rest of his short life in immeasurable pain and misery.
“Uh, Jim,” Jonah said. “I was...”
“You were in my office, Jonah.” Jim frowned, looking into the office and then back at Jonah. “I...”
“Sir,” Jonah began. He found himself shaking his head and sweating. “I apologize.”
Jonah’s mind began to race, knowing that there was no reason for him to be in that room, that he had been to the bathroom twice now, and that the first time he could have written it off like a mistake, but that second time? No.
“I don’t understand. I mean...”
“It was the books,” Jonah said, catching his breath. “I was walking by and saw some of the books on the shelves, and I just had to take a peek.”
“Ah,” Jim said, seemingly satisfied with that answer. “A book man?”
“Oh yeah.” Jonah decided to cling to the story, unsure if he’d buy it but knowing that it was his only chance. Jim was giving him a strange look, and Jonah felt his fist clench, knowing that he might need to overpower him and make a break for it if he wanted to get out of that situation as a free man. “I’ve always been fascinated with them, sir.”
“Well then.” Jim cleared his throat and walked past Jonah into the office. “Come and see these then. These are my prized possessions.” He motioned for Jonah to come over, and Jonah could feel a wave of relief wash over him.
