The Ganymede Legacy

by A C Bonesteel

  "Let's go," Alice commanded, then she turned and retraced her steps to the exit hatch.

  When Alice reached it, she strode confidently out of the Epiphany and onto the docking bay floor. Then, she quickly spotted the exit ramp to the docking bay and walked briskly toward it.

  As she walked down the long, wide ramp, Alice noticed the echoing patter of hurried footsteps. Based on their intensifying volume, they were rapidly approaching her.

  After a few seconds, a man, flanked by two women, became visible as they strode up the ramp. All three of them wore the silver and black uniforms of high-ranking Osiris Officers.

  When they reached her, they stopped, and as one, placed their right hands over their left eyes. Alice returned the salute and waited for one of them to speak.

  "I'm Director Sullivan," the man wheezed. "This is Captain Ray, and Captain Kona," he then explained, gesturing first to the blond-haired woman on his left, then the purple-haired woman on his right.

  Alice recognized Sullivan's voice from their earlier conversation, but his voice didn't match his appearance at all. He was short and stout, with a thick neck, pale skin, and beady eyes. He looked like he needed a bit more exercise and sunlight, Alice thought with a grimace.

  Sullivan was repulsive, but she needed him to be as helpful as possible, so she kept her voice even and kind.

  "Nice to meet you in person, Director Sullivan. You can call me Idi for the purposes of my mission. Thank you for your cooperation with the station lockdown. It will make fulfilling the Council's wishes much easier."

  Alice had hoped that politeness would lead Sullivan to be more helpful. However, her hope was dashed when he raised his voice and angrily replied.

  "I don't give a damn about your thanks! You Council operatives think you can just show up whenever you like and raise hell for me. Well, let me tell you something. I have a station to run, and this lockdown is nothing for me but a big, fat, pain in my ass. My only priority is to get this station back to regular operation as fast as possible. So, dispense with the niceties and tell me how I can make that humble dream an immediate reality."

  Sullivan was breathing heavily by the time he had finished. He took a deep breath, wiped his forehead with his hand, then crossed his arms as he waited for Alice's answer.

  "Okay then," Alice replied, allowing her tone to become brusque. "About thirty minutes ago, an anomaly occurred near quadrant four, between decks 48 and 62. I need to investigate the area and any incidents that occurred in that timeframe."

  Sullivan turned and began barking orders at Captain Ray. "Cross-reference that information with incident reports that came through in the last hour."

  "Yes, sir!" Captain Ray responded as she closed her eyes. After five seconds of tense, silent waiting, she opened her eyes, turned to Sullivan, and revealed her findings. "Seventy-two incident reports within that timeframe and location, sir."

  Sullivan turned back to Alice. "Care to provide any information to narrow down what we're looking for?"

  Alice ignored his attitude. "Explosions, disappearing objects, wiped memories... That kind of fun stuff."

  Without waiting for her superior's command, Captain Ray closed her eyes again. She was silent for nearly a minute, which passed in irritated silence as Alice and Sullivan stared at each other. Then, she opened her eyes and revealed her findings.

  "An incident at a bar called O'Hearn's occurred twenty-eight minutes ago. A drunk patron brought an illegal projectile weapon into the bar and attempted to murder the bartender and several patrons. Early eyewitness statements are conflicting, and some witnesses reported not being able to remember what happened. All witnesses agree that the suspect had a gun and fired it, but no weapon was found when security officers apprehended the suspect and searched the crime scene. Additionally, video recordings from inside the bar are unable to be played back due to an unknown method of file corruption."

  Excitement flowed through Alice as she listened to Captain Ray. The man she was looking for could have caused all that Ray had just described.

  "That sounds promising. Take me there, and I'll have your station off lockdown in no time," Alice ordered.

  But then, Captain Ray interrupted. "Director, my apologies for the interruption, but there's just been an incident in brig four. A group of unknown assailants penetrated security, killed three guards, and released several prisoners. Tactical response teams are on their trail now. Also, the suspect from the incident I just mentioned was among those who escaped."

  Before the Director could speak, Alice cut him off. "Sullivan, I need to interview all the eyewitnesses and the suspect. You better make damned sure you catch him! And, don't release any other witnesses until I say so!"

  Sullivan gave Alice a look of utter contempt, then scowled furtively at Captain Ray. "No one escapes justice on my station."

  Alice returned his look. "It will make my job a lot easier, and allow you to live much longer if that's true. Now, take me to O'Hearn's!

  Sullivan snorted disgustedly. "Don't be ridiculous! I'm not taking you there. Captain Kona will. I obviously have much more important things to do. Captain Ray and I need to have a little talk for starters..."

  Then, he abruptly turned and hurried down the exit ramp. Captain Ray reluctantly followed, fear evident on her face.

  Alice watched Ray and Sullivan practically run down the exit ramp. She hoped that Sullivan would not take out his anger on Captain Ray. If he did, and she found out about it, she would make sure that he was punished.

  "Please come with me," Kona kindly requested and gestured for Alice to follow.

  Then, Kona began walking down the exit ramp. Alice sighed, quelled her tumultuous flow of emotions, and followed.

  Chapter 7

  Loud, melodious electronic music reverberated through Club 111 and into Leo's ears as he sat in a small corner booth and inspected his surroundings for threats.

  The walls of the club, elaborately decorated with posters of different bands and album covers, seemed to vibrate with the beat of the music. Bright multi-colored lights flashed in time with the beat, illuminating a sizeable dance floor that was filled with young, affluent residents of the promenade district.

  The music wasn't precisely Leo's cup of tea, but he had heard worse. The droning and dissonant chants of the Samari Monks on Titan had been far worse, he thought with a chuckle, as he watched a young woman move frenetically in time with the music.

  Nearly 20 years before, the monks had hired him to deal with a group of bandits who had gotten in the habit of stealing the monks' sheep. He had solved the problem by crafting several fake sheep out of wool and bio-plastic, complete with audio playback capabilities to reproduce their telltale bleating. Within the phony sheep, he had placed small thermal detonators that could be triggered remotely.

  From afar, he had watched as the bandits approached the fake sheep, allowing them to get close enough to realize their error before triggering the thermal detonators. Leo couldn't help but smile to himself as he recalled the memory.

  "What are you thinking about?" Annabelle asked with interest.

  Leo drew his attention away from the dance floor and back to the beautiful woman sitting across from him.

  "I was thinking about the time I blew up some bandit assholes with fake sheep," Leo answered in a solemn voice.

  Annabelle let out a trilling laugh, like some exotic bird from a faraway, yet to be discovered planet. Leo smiled at the sound, and felt his spirits rise.

  "Sounds like a fun first date," Annabelle laughingly replied.

  Leo grinned awkwardly. The music was loud, but they were seated far enough from the dance floor to carry on a conversation with only moderately raised voices. Too bad he wasn't an able conversationalist. Years of hiding hadn't honed that skill as much as others.

  "You wanna tell me that story?" Annabelle asked. "Or, should we talk about some more serious stuff, like what happened in the bar and why you're in such a hurry to leave Osiris?"

&n
bsp; Leo's mood took a slight downturn. Between the music, his memories, and Annabelle, he had briefly forgotten about his current dire circumstances.

  "I'll explain as much as I can to you, but I need a drink first," Leo groaned.

  "Ooohh, good idea. Alcohol always helps when you're in deep shit up to your eyeballs," Annabelle joked before letting out another trilling laugh.

  As Annabelle's laughter faded, she tapped a button on the corner of the table between them. A hologram drink menu appeared, and she began to scrutinize it.

  Leo watched her evaluate her options, amused at the genuine excitement and curiosity that took hold of her as she vocalized the menu.

  "Oooh, they have red wine from Oberon!" Annabelle happily exclaimed. "It says the grapes are grown naturally. I wonder how that's possible, that far out from the sun."

  "A carbon and oxygen-rich atmosphere, coupled with a thin ozone layer," Leo explained. "They have any good beers here?"

  Annabelle quickly motioned through the menu until she reached the beer section. "They've got two beers. Mars Special Bitter, and PBR..."

  Leo snorted indignantly. "Huh, I can't even get a good beer in the promenade district. Order me a Mars Special. Actually, make it two."

  "Done and done," Annabelle replied as she tapped her finger on the menu. "Two MSB, and an Oberon Cab. This place has great service; they'll be here in a jiffy."

  Leo nodded but didn't reply.

  "You know a lot about terraforming, Leo?" Annabelle inquired as she placed her arms on the table and looked at him with interest.

  Leo leaned in and copied the position of her arms. "I have some experience. A few billion tons of nano-tech injected into the core gets you a magnetic field and geothermal activity. Then, add few billion more onto the surface to form a livable atmosphere and build terrain. Finish it off with some cloned flora and fauna, and you've got yourself a new colony."

  Genuine interest sparkled in Annabelle's eyes as Leo continued.

  "They terraformed Oberon about a hundred years ago, and they did a good job with it. Beautiful Islands and oceans, warm climate, and a huge array of flora and fauna cloned directly from Earth-born samples. Still rather sparsely populated, though. I spent some time there a couple of years ago. I liked it."

  Annabelle was obviously impressed by his knowledge. "Wow, sounds amazing! I'd love to go there someday. I've never even been off this crappy station."

  Leo was taken aback by her admission. With her apparently large amount of wealth, he would have thought she would be well-traveled, even if she were as young as she looked.

  Anabelle noticed his raised eyebrows and began to explain. "My father won't let me off Osiris. He takes a lot of pride in being station-born and says I should too. He wants me to take over his business here when I'm older."

  "What sort of business?" Leo asked as their drinks arrived, carried by a wheeled robotic platform. Annabelle distractedly placed her left hand on the tray that held the glasses, and the robot slid them gracefully onto the table before quickly zooming away.

  "First round is on me," she announced as she took a sip of her wine. "My dad's a landlord. He leases spaces from the station authorities, then subleases them for quite a profit. He operates a few businesses on the station, as well. Shops, clubs, casinos... He's quite the entrepreneur."

  Leo took a drink of his beer, guzzling a third of it with one draught. As the foamy amber liquid hit his taste buds, he frowned. It wasn't good, he thought, but it was beer.

  "But, he won't let you leave the station?" Leo asked. "Aren't you an adult? Can't you make your own decisions? How old are you anyway?"

  "I'm twenty-one, and I can do whatever I want," Annabelle replied. "My father is just scared. My mom left us to run away with some charming vagabond from Callisto when I was five. My father worries that I'll do the same thing to him. If I left, it would destroy him."

  "That makes sense, I guess," Leo tentatively agreed. He had a hard time relating to family bonds and experience.

  Leo fell silent and quickly finished his first beer, then slid the empty glass to the edge of the table and got started on his second.

  Annabelle sipped her wine, then continued. "Enough about me. We need to get down to business. You tell me who you are, what happened in the bar, and why you were in such a hurry to leave. Then, I'll tell you how I can help you. The station authorities probably have your face on record from one of the security cams, so you might want to make it quick."

  Leo was silent as he contemplated how much to reveal to Annabelle. For 200 years, he had been meticulous in guarding his closely held secrets. He believed he could trust Annabelle, and there was something in her eyes that made him more and more sure of it, but he could not easily break his habit of secrecy. In the past, any time he had revealed too much, the Council's operatives had immediately tracked him and forced him to move on.

  If he allowed the Council to capture him, they would want only three things: To enslave him, to study him, or to kill him. He could not reveal anything to Annabelle that could allow the Council to track him if they ever got to her.

  Leo let out a long sigh as he considered another aspect of the situation. Much of his internal debate was irrelevant anyway. Even if he did trust her implicitly, most of what Annabelle would want to know about him, he didn't even know himself.

  Leo had 200 years of real memories and experiences to draw on. There were many lives he had lived, black-market identification implants installed and removed, again and again, always moving, and always alone. He could tell Annabelle about those memories, but he couldn't remember anything from the times before he had been held by the Council on Venus.

  Leo stared into Annabelle's clear, violet eyes. He shouldn't tell her anything, but there was something about her that inspired his trust. Her eyes were kind and honest, and Leo could feel that she had a good heart. He felt sure that she wouldn't betray him by choice.

  He had been hiding his secrets for a long, long time, and that secrecy had worn him thin. What would the harm be of telling her a little bit?

  "Well, Annabelle. My name isn't Leo. I don't know what my real name is, and I'm really, really old, though I don't know how old exactly. Two hundred years ago, The Origin Council held me captive, erased my memory, and performed numerous experiments on me. They've been hunting me ever since I escaped their research facility on Venus, so I've been on the run from them for pretty much my whole life."

  Annabelle had been sipping her wine as she listened, but when Leo took a breath, she interrupted him by letting out a burst of laughter and spewing wine all over his face.

  "Oh shit, sorry about that!" Annabelle yelped as she tried to control her hysterical laughter.

  Leo glared at her and wiped his face as Annabelle laughingly continued. "If you don't want to tell me anything, fine. But if you're gonna yank my chain, at least let me know, so I don't choke on my wine!"

  "I'm telling the truth, Annabelle," Leo retorted in a low, irritated voice. He then crossed his arms, looked down at the table and inspected the droplets of Annabelle's wine that had spewed from her mouth. "I need to get off this goddamn station..." he then lamented under his breath.

  Annabelle reached across the table and placed her hands on Leo's folded arms. The warmth of her hands upon his skin shot waves of excitement through his body, and he felt his dour mood soften.

  "Leo, it's gonna be okay," Annabelle reassured him. "On the run, not on the run... Forget your past; it doesn't matter right now. Tell me what happened in the bar. How did you 'disarm' the crazy guy?"

  "I still don't know how you saw all that," Leo replied. "I would swear that you weren't there. I couldn't see you or detect you."

  Annabelle returned her hands to her wine glass and took a large drink. "I have my secrets too," she revealed after setting her wine glass back on the table. "One of which is a very new cloaking device, supposedly unbuyable by the general population."

  "You cloaked yourself and watched everything?" Leo demanded.
"Also, now it's not a secret."

  Annabelle nodded and shot him a sly smile. "Oh, please, you wouldn't tell anyone. Anyways, what I saw... Well, I saw that crazy guy shoot the bartender, but that didn't happen, did it? Then, I saw the drunk turn and shoot you, but then the shot had never even been fired, the gun was gone, and the drunk's arm was cut off. And, the whole time, I felt as if I was trapped within a void... I'm still a little fuzzy on it honestly. I don't even know if it really happened..."

  Leo drained his second beer with a long, slurping chug before answering. "Yep, that's pretty much what happened. Crazy stuff, huh?"

  Annabelle wasn't letting it go that easy. "How did you do it?"

  Leo listened to the tone of her voice and was sure that if he didn't answer truthfully, she would leave him there, alone, without another thought. She had revealed one of her secrets to him, and now he had to do the same.

  "I honestly don't know," Leo answered with immense frustration. "I can't consciously control it. It follows my heart, not my mind, if it follows anything. The first time it happened, I accidentally killed seventy-five people. That was when I escaped from the Origin Council's facility on Venus."

  Annabelle didn't give any sign of disbelief this time , but was disgruntled at Leo's honest ignorance. "C'mon, you've had this ability for that long, and you don't know what it is? Ever take a guess?"

  Leo pressed the button to open the hologram menu on the table. Then, with a flick of his finger, he ordered another round before answering.

  "All I've got is guesses. My best guess is that there is something in me, either in-born, or a product of the experiments done to me that allows me to briefly, and by instinct, manipulate spacetime. It's like... There's a peace within me... An Emptiness... A void, like you said. When it comes over me, it acts through me, and I'm somehow able to make crazy, impossible things happen."

  "Sounds like a superpower, Leo," Annabelle chortled before taking another sip of her wine. "Can you also shit gold bricks?"