by Dave Walsh
“You know what I’m talking about, sir,” Jonah said. “Or should I say Jim?”
“I don’t know what you are implying or who told you,” he growled, speaking through his teeth.
“Oh, no one told me.” Jonah's smile broadened as he reached into his pocket and produced a small crysdrive, leaning forward and placing it squarely on the desk.
“What is this?” The Minister stared down at the drive, afraid to reach out for it.
“Go on. Check and see what's on it, Jim.” Jonah motioned for him to pick it up. “Everything will make a lot more sense once you do, I think.”
“If this is some kind of trick,” he said as he gritted his teeth, snatching it up and plugging it into his holoscanner in one fluid motion before he fumbled around to open up the drive.
Jonah’s heart was racing as he leaned back in the chair, folding his hands in front of his face just like he’d seen villains in films do because he felt like one of them right now, unveiling his master plan.
The Minister’s face turned pale when he loaded up the video and the sound of the captain’s wife screaming and moaning filled up the office. He quickly scrambled to mute it, his face turning red as Jonah just started laughing to himself, watching one of the most powerful men aboard the ship scrambling like that.
For as long as he had understood the distribution of power, it had been a fantasy of his to do something like that, and there he was. Even if he didn’t uncover the secret of their journey and was forced out of an airlock to an untimely end, he had accomplished more than he ever imagined that he would.
“So what are you going to do with this?” The Minister leaned back, his chair creaking as he tried to compose himself. “Show my daughter? Show my wife? You think that this is your key to whatever it is you want? What is it that you want, Jonah? Money? Power?”
“I think you underestimate me, Jim,” Jonah replied. He pointed at the holoscanner again. “I believe that I’ve seen that woman somewhere else before, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it, can you?”
“I --”
“Oh, c’mon, Jim, think,” he said as he smiled and feigned ignorance. “It’s a face that we all see all over the place, isn’t it? During official broadcasts especially --”
“What is it that you want?” Jim shouted, slamming his palms down on the desk, taking the crysdrive out from his holoscanner, clutching it in his hand and waving it at Jonah. “How did you get this?”
“I have my ways, Jim,” Jonah said. “Your security isn’t as tight as you’d imagine.”
“Oh, you little snake,” he snarled. If he had been a dragon, steam would be coming out from his nostrils. He would be breathing fire for sure. “You weren’t admiring my books -- this is high treason, you know! I could have you thrown out of the fucking airlock for this!”
“You’d be right there with me, Jim. Maybe even Mrs. O’Neil would be there to hold your hand as the captain flipped the switch and watched us floating out in space. We’d freeze to death first, I gather, and then the pressure would be too much for our bodies if we didn’t freeze. I don’t know about you, Jim.” He shrugged and shook his head. “But I’m not sure that is in the cards for us, huh?”
Jim collapsed back into his chair, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. “Just tell me what you want. What can I do? I didn’t want it to get this out of control. My family, Jonah. I don’t want to hurt them.”
“I want information,” he stated slowly and clearly. “If you can’t give me what I need, then you’ll get the information for me from someone else and relay it back to me, Jim.”
“Fine,” he said, almost desperate. “Just what is it that you want?”
“I want to know about where we are going, Jim.” Jonah looked him dead in the eyes. “None of this bullshit.”
“That’s it?” He laughed, shaking his head. “You used me -- you used my daughter -- and for that? I thought you were better than the rest, Jonah.” He laughed harder now. “But you’re just another kid who thinks that he’s more important than he really is. You are just a clueless boy playing a man’s game.”
“Your daughter is a bitch, Jim.” Jonah felt a pang of regret immediately. “You’ve raised a bitch, Jim, and I’m sorry that I ever fell for her. In fact, she reminds me a lot of you, but that isn’t why I’m here. Where are we going?”
“You fucking idiot.” Jim continued laughing, wiping the tears away. “We're going to New Earth; we're going to Omega.”
“Damn it,” Jonah said as he sprung out of the chair, slamming his fist down onto the desk before he turned his back to the desk and felt his shoulders tense. “I knew you wouldn’t know a goddamned thing about this.”
“About what? You're just some conspiracy nut like the rest. You don’t even know what you want or what you're risking your life for! It's for nothing!”
“You're the idiot, Jim.” He was fighting back tears of his own as he turned back to face the Minister. “We're heading to our doom, Jim. We're going home.”
“Home?” He shrugged and laughed again. “Home? What? Earth? C’mon, kid. We left Earth. We're heading to Omega. We all know that.”
“No,” he said as he shook his head. “We aren’t, Jim. We are going to one of the homes that humanity had forged beyond Earth. Of course they wouldn’t tell you a damned thing about this; you aren’t even essential.”
“You are absolutely insane,” the Minister said. He was turning a deeper shade of red, laughing harder and harder now as he tried to catch his breath. “You break into my files, you uncover this, you have the balls to bring this to me and to blackmail me, and then you tell me some story? You are insane!”
“So be it.” Jonah swallowed hard and sat back down in the chair, shaking his head. He paused for a second before leaning in and pointing at the screen. “You know that no one else can see this and that you have some work to do for me. Right, Jim?”
“You're insane,” the Minister muttered to himself as he nodded.
“We’ve established that.” Jonah could feel some of the tension finally easing inside of him as he watched the Minister slump back down into his chair, defeated.
“Okay,” he said in disbelief. “You're insane.”
“What's the easiest way to get me a meeting with the captain?”
“You're going to have to give me time, damn it!” His face turned red again. “I can’t just call him up and tell him that I need to see him. It doesn’t work that way. You wouldn’t know -- you don’t understand how this whole thing works. This isn’t just some game that we all play. It is politics!”
“Politics?” Jonah shook his head, picking himself up from his chair. “I don’t remember ever voting for you or anyone else. I don’t remember being given a choice.”
“I need time,” Jim restated, trying to keep his cool.
“You have until a week from today,” Jonah told him as he walked toward the door, feeling himself trembling but doing his best to not show it. “Or the whole ship will see that tape.” He paused, looking back before nodding and slowly adding, “Sir.”
* * *
The universe greeted him coolly when he locked the door behind him after entering his quarters. Jonah fell to his knees, doing his best to catch his breath and steady his breathing. The whole ship was spinning around him, and he was acutely aware of the ship’s movements all at once. One look out the window, and there was no way to tell if anything was really moving or even what motion meant anymore.
He quickly tore his shirt off, tossing it into the corner of the room before slinking over to the chair overlooking the window and slumping over into it.
His eyes focused on the vast view in front of him. For that second, the whirring of the mechanical world that he was a part of stopped, and he could feel his emotions start to bubble up.
“I never wanted to be a hero,” he heard himself speak out loud, tears starting to stream down his cheeks. Jonah was aware that no one could hear him, but he was speaking for everyone and no o
ne, but especially for himself. “I didn’t want this. I just want everything to go back to normal.”
Jonah reached up and wiped at his eyes before he heard the sound of his holoscanner behind him. He did his best to compose himself and spun the chair around, picking the device up off of his bed before sinking back into the chair with the scanner in his lap. There were a few messages, some from Professor Cox and then one from Kara, which simply stated, “Where were you today?”
He let loose a loud sigh while he quickly scribbled out a response to Kara, explaining that something had come up and took him all day, that he was exhausted and just needed to rest.
His response to Professor Cox was a bit different. It was only mid-afternoon, and he knew that he owed it to the professor to explain how the meeting had gone.
Jonah tossed the scanner back onto his bed before leaning over, picking up his shirt and sniffing it. After deeming it acceptable and sliding it back on, he pulled himself to his feet, grabbed his scanner and unlocked his door.
“Did it go all right?” the professor asked nervously as soon as the door slid open. Jonah didn’t even have a second to brace himself before he nodded solemnly.
“It went fine,” he replied. He pulled up a stool and smacked his scanner down onto the table, spinning to face the professor. “Really, it did,” he said as he nodded at him, seeing how the professor was still uneasy.
“Jonah, we need better than fine.” He raised his voice before catching himself. The professor looked around, paranoid, and lowered his voice. “This is high treason. We need this to be flawless.”
“Trust me. I played the perfect hand; there's just no way that this doesn’t work out,” he assured Professor Cox, even though he himself was doubting the plan at this point.
“So you presented him with the evidence, I assume,” he said as he motioned toward Jonah’s scanner. “I don’t think that he’d just arrange a meeting with the captain, right?”
“Well, he claims that he can’t, actually.” Jonah swallowed hard when he heard the alert go off on his scanner. He quickly tapped it a few times to silence it.
“He can’t, or he won’t?” The professor pulled himself up to his feet, rubbing his fingers through his beard as he paced around the room. “It is vital -- can’t or won’t?”
“He claimed that he couldn’t,” Jonah said, nodding. “I gave him a week, though, played hardball. I know that he’ll be able to do something to make this happen.”
“Yes, well,” the professor sighed. “You don’t know what a man like him will do with his back against the wall, Jonah!” he cautioned, looking over at the desk as Jonah’s scanner went off again. “Can you please either answer that or turn it off? This is stressful enough, Jonah, without your girlfriend interrupting us like this all of the time.”
“I know, I know,” Jonah admitted as he picked it up, silencing it again before slapping it back down. “I don’t know what she wants. She never bugs me like this. I’m sorry. Look, this will be fine, okay?” Just as he stated it, his scanner went off again, and he cursed under his breath.
“Just answer the damned thing and see what she wants,” the professor instructed as he motioned toward it.
“Fine,” Jonah sighed. He picked it up and answered the call. “Kara?” Her image appeared on the screen with tears streaming down her cheeks, her mascara forming dark streaks down the side of her face, and her bangs doing their best to hide her eyes. The professor sighed and turned around, doing his best to immerse himself in his own scanner.
“Jonah, where have you been?” she asked, choking back tears. “I’ve been trying to reach you for a while now.”
He couldn’t help but feel concerned for her. Then suddenly a realization washed over him: What if her father had spoken to her and told her about their meeting? He quickly cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Kara. I was taking a nap, and I’m at Professor Cox’s now. Why? What’s wrong?”
“Jonah, I...” She paused, trying to fight back the tears.
“Jonah!” Professor Cox shouted, trying to keep his voice low, turning to him with his face as pale as ever. “Jonah...”
“I’m talking to Kara, c’mon,” Jonah snapped before turning back to her. “Kara, what’s wrong? I don’t have time for your games right now.”
She choked back the tears long enough to murmur a few words. “This isn’t a game, Jonah! This is serious!”
“Oh,” he said, afraid of what she’d say.
“Jonah, it’s my father,” she finally let out.
Jonah quickly lost his color and began to feel nauseous. She knew, he told himself. She knew everything, and soon the police would be onto him.
“He’s...” Kara began before pausing again. “They found him in his office, and he's... he’s dead!”
Jonah blinked a few times before his eyes opened wide. He looked back at Professor Cox, who had a report up on his screen and was looking back at Jonah with a similar expression on his face.
The world was starting to spin for Jonah. He had finally completely lost control. A man was dead due to his meddling and digging.
“Oh my god,” Jonah finally squeaked out. “I’m sorry, Kara,” he said, swallowing hard. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Just...” She paused, wiping away the tears. “I need you.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll be there.”
Her image washed away, taking with it some of the color in the room. It was dead silent, just Jonah holding onto his holoscanner. Professor Cox sat in his chair with a blank expression on his face, the two of them not making eye contact. The silence was deafening between the two men; the only sounds were the slight whirr from a few of the machines and the air coming through the vents.
“He’s dead.” Professor Cox’s unsteady voice cut through the silence.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.” The professor’s voice was gnarled and vicious. “This is what you do, Jonah. This is always what you do.”
“What do you mean?” Jonah looked up at his mentor, feeling the walls caving in around them.
“This is what you always do!” He slammed his fist down onto the desk and bit his bottom lip. “Always, Jonah. Always. You are fucking brilliant -- you know that, right?” He looked into Jonah’s eyes and growled. “Of course you do. That's the problem. You don’t take anyone else into account. You don’t listen!”
“I’m sorry.”
“You're only sorry when things go wrong! That is when you stop to think and when you start to consider that other people exist and know things that you might not! Jonah, I never expected you to take it this far. What did you do?”
The accusation cut deeper still -- the idea that Professor Cox thought that Jonah could have ever expected things to go so wrong.
“I didn’t do this.” Jonah panicked as he tried to find the right words. “I didn’t mean for this --”
“Because you didn’t think! Yes, Jonah, the world is holding you back, things come easy to you, but you never want to ask questions. You always want to figure everything out on your own, to be independent and not ask for any help or advice. This is what happens, this,” he said as he pointed at the screen, the file photo of Kara’s father. “A man, regardless of how wrong he was or whatever he did, a man is dead, and you brought me into this!”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen -- you have to believe me!”
“I know,” the professor said. He didn't make eye contact and instead stared straight forward at the screen. “I know that you didn’t. In a way, it is my fault. I knew what you were capable of; I knew how you’d react to this and that you’d want to do this all on your own. I should have stopped you or devised a more thorough plan.”
“Nobody knew it would end like this.” Jonah stared at the only man who had been there for him over the last few years, the only family that he knew anymore. “I’m sorry.”
“I know, Jonah. I know.”
012. The Fourth Fleet
Captain
O’Neil
“Today at approximately 15:00 hours, history was made.” O’Neil stood at the official podium, the same podium that he had been addressing the ship from for the tenure of his entire career. Something about this time felt a lot more formal and almost final. “Today the Starship Omega made its first contact with another vessel since it originally left the moon's orbit over 82 years ago.
“I was contacted by Admiral William Navarro of the Fourth Fleet. That Fourth Fleet being from Earth,” he added as he took a sip from a glass of water and then stowed it back under the podium.
“No, the Fourth Fleet is not some long-lost fleet from history, but instead, the Fourth Fleet is a sign from back home that our mission is not forgotten. Technology has improved since our grandparents departed Earth 82 years ago, so much so that the invention of something called a HyperMass Drive has cut down the amount of time that it takes humanity to traverse the stars.
“Their journey here was a staggering 10 weeks compared to our 82 years, showing that human ingenuity will always win out. Over the coming days, the planet’s surface will become visible, and we invite everyone to spend some time in the observation rooms located throughout the ship. We’ll also be rendezvousing with the Fourth Fleet as we approach the planet.
“Now,” he said, smiling. “This is all a lot to take in, and I know that the main question is still, when will you get to set foot on your new home? The answer to that is soon. The Fourth Fleet is currently running safety scans on the surface and doing their best to locate zones that will be the best place for us to begin our settlement on our new home. These are exciting times for all of us. I hope to see you all on the surface shortly.”
It felt candy-coated, he thought to himself. Large, important facts were omitted, but those were all the direct orders of Admiral Navarro, who was his superior. At this point, Captain O’Neil understood that he had done his duty, but that his power would quickly diminish under the watchful eye of Admiral Navarro. It would especially come to an end when the Starship Omega was out of action, and everyone was planetside.
