The Cassini Code

by Dom Testa

  “Speaking of which,” Triana said, “the Cassini’s secret path through the Kuiper Belt seems to be perfect so far.” She looked at Bon. “Any thoughts yet on when you might need to check in again?”

  Bon sat still for a few moments before answering. “It’s a feeling, that’s all I can really say. As strange as it sounds, I think they’ll let me know when it’s time to talk. In the meantime, we’ll just have to trust that they’re…okay with us.”

  Lita looked worried. “Meaning…they still haven’t decided if we get a pass, is that right?”

  Bon nodded. “Yeah.”

  “But they must be happy about how things have turned out now,” Channy said. “I mean, there’s no more fighting on the ship, and…and…”

  Triana cut in. “We don’t even know what they’re looking for. We can’t assume that they only grade us on how we get along. In fact, I would think it has to be more than that.”

  “You’re right,” Bon said. “For a species to grow and prosper, in their eyes, not only must they be civilized, but they must prove that they have something to offer to the rest of the universe before they can reach out and affect others.”

  Channy looked glum. “Well, what would we possibly have to offer?”

  There was silence for a few seconds, and then Triana began to laugh. “Oh, Channy, don’t be that way. What if we’re judged on positive energy? You usually bring more of that to the table than any two crew members combined.”

  A smile spread across Channy’s face. “Hey, you might be right. Okay, positive energy it is.” She turned to Lita. “You know, love is the most positive form of energy there is. Just think how much we would glow if you joined the dating game.”

  There was laughter around the table. Triana began to feel better than she had in a long time. She looked back at Gap, ready to wrap up the meeting.

  “One last thing,” she said. “Our course has changed through the Kuiper Belt, so we’ll need to begin plotting a correction eventually. But I guess we’ll need to figure out where we are before we figure out where we’re going.”

  “Yeah, I’ve already started that process,” Gap said. “We’re running in something like a zigzag pattern through the Kuiper Belt right now, only a little more complex than that. There is one thing that’s pretty cool, though, and it can’t be a coincidence, I don’t think.”

  He punched a couple of buttons on the keyboard before him, and all of the room’s monitors pulled up a tracking view of the Kuiper Belt. “If things don’t change too much in the next week, we’ll get a pretty good view of another dwarf planet, similar to Pluto.”

  “Hey, that’s awesome,” Lita said. “What is it?”

  Gap highlighted a small, reddish dot on the screens. “It’s one of the last major bodies in the Kuiper Belt. Not as big as Pluto, but still interesting. I think we’ll zip by close enough to get some great pictures, at least.”

  Triana raised her eyebrows. “Maybe the Cassini use it as an anchor for the secret passageway, eh? What’s it called?”

  Gap looked up at her. “It’s called Sedna.”

  Lita had been raising a cup of water to her lips. She froze, her eyes looking over the rim of the cup at Gap. “What?” she said loudly.

  “Sedna. S-e-d-n-a.”

  Triana saw the look of surprise on the Lita’s face. “What’s the matter?”

  Lita slowly put the cup on the table and said, “Oh my God.”

  “What is it?”

  Lita didn’t answer at first. She said to Gap, “And we would never have come anywhere near this…this Sedna…before we changed course?”

  Gap shook his head. “Not even close.”

  Triana grew concerned. “Lita, what is it?”

  The young girl from Mexico slowly turned to face the Council Leader. “I knew it. I knew there was something different about her.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Lita took a deep breath. “Remember when I said that there was something different about Alexa? There was a funny blip on her neural scan when she came out of the coma. I couldn’t explain it, but didn’t think it was important. But now…”

  She took a couple of minutes and told the story of Alexa’s foggy comments upon awakening from the coma.

  “You said she was mumbling,” Triana said. “Are you sure it was Sedna?”

  “I spelled it, just like Gap did.”

  Gap and Triana exchanged glances. Channy whispered, “This is too weird. She…she’s become psychic. The coma turned her into a psychic!”

  Bon looked away, deep in thought.

  33

  Dusk arrived on Galahad. They had gone to dinner together, and now, as the lights slowly dimmed, Gap and Hannah strolled down one of the paths in Dome 2. During the meal he had caught her up on some of the details of his day in Engineering, but had repeatedly steered the conversation away from any mention of his success at thwarting Merit.

  He also did not mention the bizarre circumstances unfolding around Alexa.

  Hannah walked slowly, staying two feet from the edge of the path. Occasionally she would brush her hand against Gap’s, but he made no move to grasp it.

  This was their first time alone since the tense moment in Engineering. He had not volunteered any information regarding his decision to leave the Council, and she wondered if he had discussed it with Triana. Finally, during a lull in the conversation, she brought it up.

  “I haven’t decided for sure,” he said. “I want to think about some things.”

  “You realize,” she said, “that the crew thinks of you as a hero right now. It wouldn’t make any sense for you to quit.”

  “I’m not a hero,” he said. “But let’s not talk about this right now, okay?”

  She nodded. They walked in silence for a few more minutes, passing other crew members who had also chosen a walk in the dome for the ship’s version of a sunset. In the distance they heard the sound of irrigation pumps beginning their nightly chores, a low, rhythmic thump that reminded Hannah of a heartbeat.

  The awkward feeling between them was not getting any better. Hannah felt torn, wanting to discuss how she was feeling, how he was feeling about the two of them, yet not wanting to inflame the already sensitive aura that had somehow descended upon them. She was confused about what had happened. One day everything had been fine, and now…

  “I want to apologize if I’ve been difficult lately,” Gap said, nudging her out of her thoughtful state. “I know it hasn’t been much fun for you.”

  “That’s okay, I understand,” Hannah said.

  “You’ve been terrific, as always,” he said. “It’s just that…things have been tough, you know?”

  She nodded, keeping her head down. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with me and the Council. I don’t even know if I should be in charge of Engineering right now. Maybe somebody else could bring a fresh view to the Council, shake things up a little bit.”

  They walked in silence another minute before he spoke again. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m a little overwhelmed right now, a little confused about what I need to be doing, you know? And…” He paused. “And I think, to be fair to you, that you and I should take a break right now, too.”

  Hannah stopped in her tracks. It took Gap a few seconds to realize that she had dropped back. He turned and walked back to her.

  “What are you saying?” she said. “You’re breaking up with me?”

  “I’m just saying that I’m really confused right now—”

  “You’re confused?” she said. “That’s it? You’re dumping me because you’re confused?”

  “I’m not dumping you,” Gap said. “I’m not very good company right now, and you deserve a lot better.”

  Hannah stared at him, her lower lip quivering. “Please,” Gap said. “I just want you to understand.”

  “Understand? You’re dumping me. At least have the guts to be honest.”

  Gap shook his head. “I really don’t want this to
get ugly. I’m not saying I don’t want to be with you, but it’s just not a good time for me right now. It’s not a good time for us right now.”

  Hannah stared at him, tapping a finger against her leg. After a few moments she slowly shook her head.

  “I thought the whole ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speech only happened in books and movies,” she said. She started to walk away, then turned back. “You know, when things are going tough, the last thing you should sacrifice is the one person who knows you best and cares about you. You should lean on them, Gap, not push them away.” Her voice cracked as she added, “Sometimes the answer—and the right person—is right in front of you.”

  This time when she walked away she didn’t look back.

  Lita didn’t look up from her work when she heard the door to Sick House slide open. It wasn’t until she felt the presence of someone hovering at her desk that she raised her head to find Bon patiently standing there.

  He looked uncomfortable. Lita was sure that he associated the clinic with his own hospital stay several months earlier, and she wondered what could have brought him down here from the Farms. When she asked, he nodded toward the hospital ward.

  “Any chance I could visit with Alexa for a minute?” he said.

  “Uh…sure,” Lita said. “She’s awake. I think she just finished dinner.” She stood up and walked around her desk. “C’mon, I’ll take you in.”

  “Any chance I could visit with her alone?”

  Lita stopped and looked into Bon’s face. “Well…” She quickly sorted through all of the possible arguments, but really couldn’t find one that didn’t come back to the fact that she was simply curious about his request. “Yeah, I guess that would be okay.” She waved him ahead. “Just five minutes, okay?”

  Bon thanked her, then walked past her into the ward. Lita stared after him, her mind racing. She had already wondered about the changes in Bon; now he had come to visit Alexa, who also was no longer the same person she had been days ago.

  She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

  Sweat was dripping from Channy’s face, and she loved it. The workout had been full, the largest attendance for an evening session in months. Now she sipped from a cup of water and exchanged greetings and jokes with several of the crew members as they filed toward the locker rooms.

  “Is that all you got tonight?”

  “What are you talking about? I saw you stop and rest a few times when you thought I wasn’t looking.”

  “Hey, Channy, not so fast after dinner. I thought I was going to hurl.”

  “Maybe you should skip the second helpings for a while, you think?”

  Kylie, her roommate, walked up to her, a smile covering her face. “I can’t remember the last time I saw you so happy.”

  Channy shrugged. “Why not? The workouts today have been terrific. The crew seems pretty happy, too.”

  “I think they’re embarrassed,” Kylie said, helping herself to some water.

  “What, you mean because they put their faith in a scoundrel when they should have been supporting Triana all along?”

  Kylie laughed. “Yeah, something like that.”

  They were interrupted by Addie and Vonya, who approached slowly, their eyes darting back and forth between each other, as if pooling their courage.

  “Uh, hi,” Addie said, glancing at Channy and then looking at Kylie.

  “Hi,” Channy said. She could tell that they likely wanted to speak with her in private, but she also remembered their last encounter after a workout. They had had no problem speaking in front of Kylie when their attitude had been confrontational, so it would have to be okay this time, as well. “Is there something on your mind?”

  “Well, yes,” Addie said, throwing another look at her friend, pleading with her eyes for support. Vonya chimed in.

  “We just wanted to let you know that we apologize for being so…so snippy with you. Things were a little crazy, and we…we didn’t handle it very well.”

  Channy took another sip of water without taking her eyes off Vonya’s. She could have bailed them out by quickly accepting the apology, but she decided to let them dig their way out a little longer.

  “Yeah,” Addie said. “You’ve always been great, and we treated you pretty badly. Can we move past all of that?”

  Channy stared at the two girls for a moment without reacting. Then, a smile slowly crept across her face. “That means a lot to me. Thank you, both. And yes, we’re still friends, so no worries, okay?”

  A visible look of relief spread through Addie and Vonya. They each mumbled a thank you, then hurried off to the showers.

  Channy turned to Kylie and raised her eyebrows. Kylie wiped some perspiration from her forehead with a towel and said, “You look like you’re about six inches off the ground.”

  “It’s better than you think.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When it comes time to do my dating game,” Channy said with a grin, “people will sign up out of guilt. I’m sure to have a full house.”

  Bon stepped into the hospital ward and could see that Alexa was the only patient in the room. He immediately flashed back to his own stay, back when the connection with the Cassini was fresh…and painful.

  Alexa turned to look at him, and kept her gaze on him as he walked from the door to her bed. Something in her look registered with Bon, a sensation that hit him right away and remained constant. There was a power radiating from her, something that he wouldn’t have been able to explain to anyone else. It was something he wouldn’t have understood himself until recently.

  He stood beside her, quietly, for a minute. They simply looked at one another. He heard a trilling sound, and noticed that Iris was curled up beside Alexa, sleeping soundly.

  “How are you feeling,” he finally said, and when she smiled he realized how rehearsed—and unlike him—it sounded.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Ready to get back to work, to tell you the truth.”

  “I understand,” he said. “Uh…do you mind if I talk to you about something?”

  “No, that’s fine. What is it?”

  Bon indicated the edge of her bed. “Okay if I sit down?”

  Alexa looked amused by the request. “Sure.”

  He perched beside her. Iris woke up, yawned, then tucked her head back under her leg and closed her eyes. “I’m just a little curious about how you’re feeling after waking up from the coma,” Bon said. “Or, to be more accurate, what you’re feeling.”

  She looked into his left eye, then his right, then back again. “Explain.”

  Bon took a long breath, then began to tell her about the ship’s zigzag course through the Kuiper Belt, and how they had just discovered that their path would take them near the large body known as Sedna. He watched to see her reaction when the name was mentioned. There was none.

  “You referred to Sedna when you came out of the coma,” he said. “Can you tell me how you knew about it?”

  A brief smile flickered across Alexa’s face, then she looked away. “I don’t know how to answer that. How do you know your birth date? How does anyone know their parents’ names? I just…” She trailed off.

  Bon considered that for a moment. He glanced at the sleeping cat, then back into Alexa’s face. “May I ask a favor?”

  “Sure.”

  “Would it be all right,” he said, “if I touched you?”

  This time her smile remained. “Are you going to heal me?”

  “Just humor me.”

  Alexa shrugged again, and held out her hand. Bon hesitated, then grasped it.

  His eyes went wide. His body went stiff, shaking slightly. A minute later he gently placed her hand onto the bed, then he stood up.

  “You felt that.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes,” she said. She licked her lips nervously, then reached down and began to scratch Iris behind the ears. The cat lifted its head, yawned again, then stretched.

  “I can’t explain
what I’m feeling,” Alexa said. “But when I go to sleep, I wake up with a very…strange sensation. Like I’ve been somewhere while I was asleep.”

  Bon didn’t reply, so she continued. “When I woke up from a nap about an hour ago, just before dinner, I knew that you were coming to see me.”

  “Are you afraid?”

  She appeared to think about the question. “No. Not really. Just…intrigued, I guess. I don’t know what’s happening.”

  Bon leaned against the bed and crossed his arms. “I…I understand. Probably better than anyone else could, actually. I haven’t felt…normal since we left the space around Saturn.”

  He paused, shifted his weight to his other foot, and continued. “I don’t think you and I are experiencing the same thing, necessarily. But…” Another pause. “But it’s nice to know that someone else has changed.”

  Alexa took a few seconds before answering. “Maybe we should use a different word. I think I’m the same person I was yesterday; I’ve just been…modified.”

  “Fair enough,” Bon said. They stared at each other for a moment before he added, “Any other visions, besides the one about my visit?”

  Alexa moved her hand from Iris’s ears to her chin. “Yes. But it was more of a feeling, rather than a vision.”

  “Would you like to share?”

  She looked up and met his gaze. “We’re going to make it through the Kuiper Belt just fine.”

  Then she paused before finishing the thought. “But there’s something waiting on the other side.”

  34

  It was close to midnight, the end of a very long—and interesting—day. Triana put on a long t-shirt and eyed her bed, but knew that sleep would never come until she emptied the receptacle of thoughts that was filled to the brim. She sat at her desk and spent a few minutes leaning over her journal.

  Once again I can’t help but think of everything that has happened and wonder what lessons I might have learned. Dad always said that there were lessons in life every day, and that it was up to us to find them.