by Thomas Davis
"What have you gotten yourself into Jake? What have you gotten yourself into? Your mother will kill me for this."
…
Jake and Adeola stopped running and tried to catch their breaths. Jake felt as if his heart was ready to burst, he hadn’t been this excited and terrified in all his life. Adeola straightened and took in long, deep breaths then let them out in a measured fashion.
“What do we do?”
“Huh?”
“I assumed you had a plan.”
“I do… it just hasn’t coalesced yet.” She gave him a look. “I am still thinking, alright?”
“Can we get more pizza?”
“What?”
“Pizza!” Adeola responded with a straight face.
“Now? You seem to not comprehend the gravity of our situation.”
“Oh. I do. Trust me. But I cannot work on an empty stomach. I need sustenance.”
“Didn’t we just eat?”
“We were not done. Your friends interrupted us.”
“They aren’t my friends okay.”
“Okay.”
“You should have a plan now.”
He wanted to protest, but then he realized what she had been doing. “I sort of have a plan.”
“Let us hear it then.”
“We need to get you to my father, so he can get you off the station.”
“Sounds simple enough. How do we do this?”
“I just call him up on his private line and voila!” Jakes tried to tap his Navi only to discover it was missing. Adeola noticed the confusion in his eyes.
“What happened?”
“I must have lost my device during the scuffle with David and the police.”
“What does this mean?”
“We have no way of contacting my father. It means the plan’s been ruined.”
“Can we find it?”
“Good luck with that. They would be looking for us everywhere by now. Going back that way is dangerous.”
“What do we do now?”
“I honestly don’t know, Adeola. Stay put until I figure something out?”
“That does not sound good. Water is corrupted unless it moves.”
“Lucky thing we’re only 70% water then.”
She didn’t smile at his attempt at a joke.
…
On the surface of Lhasa Colony a small Arez space cruiser waited magnetized to the exterior. Beneath the craft, a circular incision was cut into the Station’s exterior. A narrow air lock punctured through the opening like a mosquito’s stinger. The ship was in low power mode and blended almost seamlessly with the metallic surface of the Station. A pilot sat inside of the ship making preparations to depart once the infiltration team returned. He looked at a round monitor, similar to a radar screen, and saw three blinking lights in the upper right hemisphere. The lights became smaller as the three warriors they represented got further away from the ship.
Within the spherical space station, the same three warriors from the Jophiel reconnaissance mission were searching Travis Takeda’s workshop. They had tracked the energy signature of the egg-like pod to this location. The lead warrior held up her fist. The other two snapped their gazes in her direction. She made quick hand signals and her two subordinates quietly slinked into the surrounding shadows. She watched the door for a second before pulling a device from the back pouch on her belt. The device fit onto her hand like brass knuckles. She pointed her fist upwards then a magnetic force pulled her to the ceiling above the open egg. A male voice could be heard on the other side of the door now.
An older gentleman wearing casual earth tone clothing walked into the workshop. He was talking into a device on his wrist. It was Sal, a member of Travis Takeda’s salvage team. “So you’re positive your guy can move these crystals?” He was wearing a pair of black leather gloves and obviously was there on shady business. “Good. Good. I’ll meet you at the spot in about an hour.”
Sal tapped his navi to end the transmission. His plan was a sound one. He was there to crack open the egg and swipe a few crystals. That idiot Travis wouldn’t notice a few missing. Even though he was a blue collar working man, Sal had a couple of underworld connections. People who could move a few stolen crystals on the black market. They didn’t pay as much as the government but Sal would still make a huge payday. He was well aware of Takeda’s security set up and he had the cameras on a loop. As Sal got closer to the egg he noticed that something was amiss. “What the void? It’s open already?”
He walked up to the pod and stood there in disbelief. Sal then made the worst mistake he’s made in his adult life. He looked up. Perched on the ceiling looking down on him was the alien warrior. Before Sal could let out a scream he felt a piercing pain. His eyes slowly looked away from the figure above him and down to his torso. A humming dark blade stuck out from his stomach. The warrior behind him pulled the sword from his body and Sal dropped to his knees. He looked back up and the room violently spun before everything went dark. His headless body fell to the floor as the warrior behind him sheathed her blade behind her back.
The leader dropped down from the ceiling and pulled a scanning device from her belt. The other two warriors gathered closely behind her to view the scanner’s readings over her shoulders. She spoke a few words in their shared language. The two nodded and made their way towards the door as she followed. She tossed a small capsule over her shoulder onto Sal’s body as she walked away. His remains burst into blue flames and quickly burned to ashes leaving a shadow-like outline on the floor.
8
Where the threads meet
Catherine Fisher was a petite woman in her mid-twenties with reddish brown hair. Her skin was pale with freckles dotting her slender face. The long grey skirt she had on cut abruptly at the ankle while the matching jacket on her frame was neatly folded at the elbows. The hallway of the council building was busy with people, beeping and chatter. As she made her way to Louis Johnston's office down the hall several people greeted or threw a nod or two of familiarity her way. Some she ignored some while acknowledging others. There was no way anyone could miss Louis's office; it's sheer size being the major contributing factor. It was built to be the largest office on the floor and the building by extension with large mahogany doors serving as the entrance. The architect in charge deliberately designed the windows to be enormous with a beatific view of downtown Lhasa near the lake. Catherine meekly tapped on Louis's open door. He had his door custom made and it had this antiquated mechanism called a doorknob built onto it. The sight of this inefficient device always annoyed Catherine. It was pretentious. She was finally ushered into the office by the secretary after what seemed like forever. He was behind a large ornamental desk that held zero clutter. Louis held up a finger for her to wait by the door while he pretended to finish up some work on his data pad. His navi then beeped and he got on a call with someone Catherine could only vaguely take a stab at. His office chair resembled a throne and swiveled along with his movement. He was a handsome man in his early 40s who only wore the sharpest of suits on the Station with a contagious charisma. In his younger days, he was an infamous locksmith, breaking hearts with every master key he fashioned for the Alcatraz females. Louis Johnston was the Senior Director of the Station Security. His inadequacy for the job was the only ill air around this man laughing boorishly. Catherine wondered how a man with such great fashion sense couldn’t act coordinated or handle a sensitive job like security.
She doubted every other story that spoke praise of this man. His inebriated sense of administration of security was the reason she was here instead of enjoying the periodical that came in her mail this morning.
Catherine stood by the door until he was done with the call and laid the pad down. Passively, he waved her in. She walked towards the seat in front of his desk but he stopped her.
Abruptly.
“Cathy, could you do me a solid and whip me up a cup? Nobody makes it as good as you. Thanks,” he added before she could utte
r objections. She hated him because of how much of a douchebag he could be. He had passive aggressively thanked her in advance because he wasn't really asking. Louis got whatever Louis wanted. There was no use arguing with the bully behind the desk with a pretentious smile.
For a moment, Catherine awkwardly stood in the middle of the office clinging to her data pad close to her chest. "Okay?" She turned and walked towards the coffee machine in the back corner of the office. This wasn't part of her job. Catherine was the Junior Station Security Director and had the qualifications to do his.
Louis fired his personal assistant a month ago and Catherine, in a bid to do a good deed made him a cup of coffee. He liked the brew so much that somehow it became part of her many daily tasks. For a week she has been trying to work up the nerve to refuse his request but like always, today was another failure.
She brought the full cup to his desk. It was light and very sweet, a product of several experiments to find the balance between coffee beans and skill. This was normally when Louis would bring up some random Station business to justify summoning Catherine into his office for his drink but his data pad began to beep urgently. Catherine's pad also started beeping.
Louis tapped on his device frantically. “What the void is a code 009? I never heard of that one.”
No big surprise there, Catherine thought.
Before Louis could tap his Navi device to search for the answer Catherine educated him. “Code 009 is Arez contact in the Colony.” She tried to hide her annoyance when she spoke. Louis’ perfectly tanned face went pale. He handed her the mug as he jumped up from his throne. “Pour that into a travel cup and follow me.” He was clearly shaken by the news. His commanding voice was shaking like a leaf in summer.
“Where are we going to…?”
“We're heading to the Governor's office. C’mon. Don’t dawdle.”
They briskly walked across the municipal complex grounds towards the Governor's office building. Louis flashed his credentials at the guards at the front desk and signed off on Catherine accompanying him to the Governor's floor at the top of the building. Catherine was a bit excited. Louis was very protective of his access to Governor Manning. She was finally going to have an audience with the Author Manning. They entered the lift and Louis gestured for her to press the button for the top floor.
“Listen Cathy, just follow my lead and be sharp and wing everything you don’t know. Don’t make an ass of me in there. Are you going over all the details of the incident on your pad right now?” Louis snapped.
For once Catherine wasn’t on top of her duties. She was riding the awe-struck wave. Louis leaped in front of her and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Listen Cathy,” he said through his teeth. “This is the big leagues. I'm going to need you backing me up in there. Are you game or not? I need to know where your head is right now!”
Catherine immediately started researching on her pad. “I'm game...” she said absent-minded. “I'm game, absolutely!” Her resolve made Louis smile.
“Good.” He let go of her shoulders, adjusted his expensive tie and turned back toward the lift doors. He produced a black comb from his breast pocket and manicured his glorious head of hair as the lift doors opened. A long hallway swallowed them as they got off the elevator. There were only two doors on the floor. One led into the Governor's office and the other was for his personal bathroom.
“Okay...” His voice trailed off. “It’s show-time!” Louis opened the double doors that led to the office.
It was an incredible sight to behold. Three of the four long walls were lined with windows. The office was so high you could see the curvature of the landscape afar off. Most of the Station was visible from this vantage point. Author Manning's desk was massive but it had to be to not look tiny in such a gigantic space. There was a large empty mug on his desk. Catherine could smell the coffee in the air, strong and heady.
“You better have a damn good explanation for how a Red got onto my colony Johnston.” Manning's deep voice echoed throughout the room. He was an older, fatherly looking man. He had to be in his mid to late fifties. His presence permeated the room.
“Author, I heard you knocked a couple of swings off your game recently,” Louis said and offered a sheepish smile.
“That's Governor Manning to you right now,” Author replied curtly. Louis saw his plan to play up to the Governor was unraveling at the seam. “Director of Station Security. I want answers. Right now.”
The sweat was coming by the buckets on Louis’ face. He decided sink or swim, Catherine had to save him.
“Catherine? Enlighten the Governor on our findings.”
Catherine's heart did a cartwheel. She realized why Johnston brought her along. There was very little information on the incident and no leads as to where the Arez invader had gone. Johnston invited her along to take the bullet for him. Her voice trembled as she delivered the bad news - lack of news.
“Why is she even here?” Manning yelled.
Louis sweated even more. "Sir, I believe in cultivating a strong team by giving them responsibilities. I trust my team and in this one instance it backfired. She wasn't ready and I take total responsibility for that. This is a team failure, sir. Cathy could you wait for me in the hall? Please."
"The first Arez attack in over 80 years. It didn’t happen anywhere but on my Colony?!! This could ruin everything I worked for."
“We won’t rest until the invader is contained, sir.”
Catherine was mortified. It took an eternity for her to cross the ridiculously large office back to the door. She closed the large door behind her and pressed her forehead against it. She was shaking.
That was humiliating, she thought.
The anger was rising gradually within her. Bile rose in her throat and her face contorted. She was tempted to punch something – anything. Slamming her fist into the door may serve a therapeutic function, but she stopped herself.
She had to fight back, but how? Catherine looked down the hall to the solitary bathroom door.
Twenty minutes later, Louis Johnston emerged from the office. He pulled out his comb to repair his glorious hair. He looked side to side down the long hallway. “Cathy?” He entered the lift, “guess she headed back to the office.”
Moments later, Author Manning exited his office and power walked down the hall to his private restroom. He flung the door open and dashed to the urinal. As he relieved himself, the door to the toilet stall slowly and quietly opened. After he was done with his business, he turned around to find Catherine standing there.
Without missing a beat, he asked, “What're you doing here?! I'm calling Security.”
"Wait. Wait. Wait. I have a way to quietly find the invader."
He was about to call out to the security personnel through the comm device on the wall when he paused.
"What?"
Catherine reached past the Governor and swiped her hand over the faucet. Water began to pour out. Manning turned and began washing his hands.
“I’m listening,” he said loud enough for her to hear over the sound of running water.
“There was a project called Liberty Shield. It was a secret project I worked on it.”
“Wait. You're a scientist? What are you doing in politics?” Manning said while waving his wet hands under a device on the wall. They were instantly dry.
“Who invented that hand dryer?” Catherine asked. Manning folded his arms, stared her down and didn’t pretend to think about it. Catherine clutched her data pad to her chest and continued. "Exactly. There's no recognition in science but politics… is a different beast altogether."
She had piqued Manning's interest. He respected ambition. “So... what's this Liberty Shield thing you speak of?”
“It was a black ops R&D program that can help us accomplish this thing in half the time. It was designed to grant backdoor access to any... no all the Frames on the Station. We can have eyes everywhere. Station wide. You can even override a Frame and use it to apprehend the
intruder."
"Doesn't exactly sound legal."
"I was lead on the team but the program was scraped before it was put into action because the people on the board felt it was unconstitutional. We were only trying to make a dooms day protocol and save lives. Talk about being ahead of our time.”
“What do you need to get it up and running?” he added as an afterthought.
“Access to the Station mainframe.”
“What do you want?”
Catherine was taken aback. She had never openly put her cards on the table before. No one ever asked her what she wanted.
She blurted out, “I want Louis's job.”
Manning laughed slowly. “You don't want that clown’s position. He's been stuck in that department for fifteen years. He's not going anywhere.”
Catherine's nerves were starting to get to her. She was angry when she left the office. Now that her anger was fading, so was her resolve.
“I tell you what. You pull this off and I’ll give you a junior position in my cabinet. You want to be a politician? You get to see a real one up close.”
“That doesn’t sound like a promotion?”
“Unlike Johnston I invest in potential,” he said with a smile. “You learn enough to become a future ally or you work for me indefinitely and I have a scientific mind on tap.”
Manning rubbed his brow with his fingers. “I would like you to handle this quietly,” he said with a look that demanded obedience. “I don’t want any agitation. This situation is too close to the elections and I don’t want anyone questioning my competence because of some life forms that decided to show up after 80 years of silence. Is this clear? I trust your discretion on this.”
Manning reached into his jacket and handed her an access card. Catherine attempted to take the card but he was holding it too tightly.
