by Trent Falls
The door finally opened. Aiyana, in her black and white business suit, walked into the room. She entered like she owned the room, which wasn’t far from the truth. For the brief moment that the door was open John could see the grey uniformed guards standing outside.
Aiyana didn’t talk as she walked in. She simply walked around to the opposite side of the white table. Her heels clacked on the tile with each step. The chair creaked on the vinyl tile floor.
“Tell me about Scott Euler.” Aiyana demanded.
John stared at Aiyana for a moment. He sized her up; sized up the woman that ten years earlier came very close to being his wife.
“He was my squad leader on Phaedra.” John explained, as though he were delivering a deposition. “There were a few times I thought I’d die on that planet. Scott Euler was there every time.” John paused, trying to find the best words for his thoughts. “We were brothers.”
Aiyana was taken aback by John’s tone. She had been his girlfriend for nearly five of the eight years he had been on Proxima Five. They had lived together, shared some of their most intimate moments as human beings. When John said ‘brothers’ she knew he meant it, yet she knew nothing of this Scott Euler.
“And he took your niece because he wanted you to help him find the Norn?” Ana pressed. “That sounds insane.”
“I told you. Euler IS insane!” John replied sharply. “He may as well have launched an expedition to find the Easter Bunny.”
“Seems like a lot of effort to kidnap a teenage girl and drag her to space.” Aiyana noted. “Pretty ballsy snatching someone from Earth, not to mention expensive.”
“They may have a bigger bankroll than you think.” John stated, wondering if he should continue his explanation to Ana. “He may be working with the Xen.”
“The Xen? Now I know you’re joking!” Ana chuckled.
“No, it may be true.” John went on. “In any event, I know Euler’s lost it. He was on the verge of losing it during the war. The best thing that could have happened for him was the war ending. Trust me when I tell you,” John leaned in towards Ana, “this man will kill my niece! No question about it!”
John sat back in his chair. Aiyana took a deep breath. It was some reunion!
“John, the best thing you can do is go back home.” Ana spoke in a more consoling voice. “Let ESF handle this. They’re probably already out there looking for her.”
John stared back at Ana. His expression was blank for a while until he allowed himself to crack a smile.
“I missed you.” John spoke his mind frankly. He glanced at the table for a moment, then back up into her eyes. “I really did.”
Aiyana sighed. She looked away briefly. “John.” She exhaled, almost as a complaint.
“Hey. I just wanted you to know.” John smiled.
Aiyana exhaled again. She shook her head. She didn’t want to meet John’s eyes again but eventually did.
“Scott Euler has nothing to lose. If I’m right about him, he’s already betrayed his own people and killed Terran colonists on Kappa Ceti Five.” John explained plainly. “Every second my niece is with him, the more likely that she’ll be killed by his hand.”
“You don’t know that, John.” Ana frowned.
“No, I think I do.” John assured her. “One of two things are going to happen as I see it. The first is that I get my niece back and get her back to Earth unharmed. The other is that my niece is harmed or killed…” John paused, feeling the cold of his own blood. “… and if that happens I’ll find as many of them as I can and kill them!”
Aiyana found herself staring at John. She was in a state of disbelief. She had never seen John so visceral; so bloodthirsty!
John sat back in his chair and relaxed his posture. “I see you’re doing well here on Mars.”
“I’m doing okay.” Aiyana replied. She was caught a bit off guard.
“I thought, after I left, that you planned on staying in New Australia.” John remarked.
Aiyana pursed her lips. “New Australia didn’t need me anymore.” She said, somewhat sadly.
“I wish you had come back to Earth with me.”
“John.” Ana complained. “It’s been ten years. Are we going to go through this same shit again?”
“I just missed you is all I’m saying.” John replied. He felt in an honest mood. He thought he was a man with nothing to lose.
Aiyana stood up. She had enough and wanted to leave.
“I know I hurt you. I’m sorry for that.” John spoke to her sincerely.
Aiyana turned back around to look down at him and meet his gaze.
“Doing the right thing sometimes means giving up the things that you really want for yourself.” John explained.
Aiyana extended her right arm to the wall comlink while keeping her eyes on John. She depressed the button on the com. “Open the door.”
The door mag lock buzzed. The lock unlatched, allowing the door to swing open, revealing the two armored guards outside.
Aiyana walked past the guards. “Take him back to his cell.” She said as she passed, vanishing back through the doorway.
The two grey armored guards walked in. They restrained John’s hands again in front of him then hauled him out of the chair by his arms.
Chapter 12
Julie Stevens sat at the small desk at her chair. There was nothing to do. She was bored out of her mind. The window in front of her was narrow and lined with bars. Beyond the bars was a polycarbon window, about three inches thick. The window looked as though it had been installed long after the building had been erected, as an additional security measure. In fact, the entire cell looked like much of the rest of the grey stone building. It looked as though it had been a converted bunker which had originally been open in many areas to the outside elements. Those areas, like the windows, had been closed off with glass or concrete to allow a central air system to be added later.
There was nothing on the desk. The bed she slept in, a padded single mattress on a concrete slab, was unmade. She had been in that cell for four days.
There was a deep clang from the duty station outside her cell. Julie knew this to be the opening of the blast door entry to the stockade. She then heard the wheels of the chair beneath the guard on duty. She heard him get to his feet as he stood up quickly. Julie moved to the barred door of her cell to see the guard on duty standing at attention. Andrew Rochette was standing in front of the guard, again wearing a sport coat over his barrel chest.
There was an old man standing in front of Rochette. He was wearing a brown jumpsuit similar to the uniforms worn by the guards in the bunker, only the old man’s was a bit dirtier. His jumpsuit was wrinkled. It was also soiled at the knees and ripped near his right arm. The old man’s face bore recent scars and a blackened mark over his left eye. He had been beaten.
There was another younger man next to the old man. He had short blonde hair and looked very military as well; much like Rochette only with a slightly smaller body frame.
“At ease.” Scott Euler spoke to the guard.
Euler, from Julie’s perspective, exuded an air of command. She knew, somehow, by his mannerisms that he was in charge.
Euler shoved the old man past the guard, urging him to move towards the cells. “Move it!” Euler grumbled to the aged man in the jumpsuit.
The old man, Max Dekker, let out a grunt. It was as though he were about to complain or fight back, but decided instead to remain silent and comply.
The door next to Julie’s cell clanked open. It had been activated remotely by the duty station. Julie noted this silently in her head. The old man paused to glance at Julie, but only briefly. Up close he looked more gruesome. Julie politely looked away. Euler shoved Dekker forward again to get him moving.
“Go on! Get inside!” Euler growled.
Dekker obeyed. He shuffled into the cell. Euler pulled the thick barred door shut with another clang.
“Relax.” Euler stared at Dekker through the bars for a mom
ent. “Someone will be by in a few hours to start another round of questioning.”
“Damn it! I’ve told you all I know!” Dekker protested. His voice was hoarse.
“I still don’t believe you, old man.” Euler bit back. His eyes slowly turned from Dekker’s cell towards Julie’s.
Julie instinctively backed away from the bars. It was as though Euler were a natural predator at a menagerie or zoo, only Julie was the one in the cage.
“So, you’re Julie Stevens.” Euler grinned at the blonde girl with straight hair.
Julie winced. “Who are you?” she asked defensively.
“An old friend of your uncle.” Euler grinned proudly. “You have a pretty voice.” Euler continued warmly. “I need your help with something.”
John Carn stood in his jail cell several light years away. He waited anxiously near the bars. Alex remained lying on the bench at the back of the cell. The dark skinned skipper of the Tequesta was far more relaxed than John.
“Man, you need to ease up.” Alex spoke from the bench. “You ain’t going to melt those bars with that mean ass look.”
“I need to get out of here.” John replied to him indirectly. “This was a mistake. Julie’s out there somewhere. These people are just going to pass me off to ESF and send me back to Earth.”
“So… what? You going to break out or something?” Alex smirked.
“I’m trying to figure that part out.” John replied evenly.
“Well, wake me up when you do. I’m tired.” Alex grumbled. He lied back down, resting his head back on the plank of the bench to look up directly at the ceiling before shutting his eyes.
John took a deep breath. He wished desperately that he could get out.
The sounds of footsteps grew quickly in the prison hallway. A number of people in the other cells started shouting out and complaining. There were a lot of footsteps. They were getting louder and sounded very hurried. A few moments later, John found himself looking at several security guards in grey and maroon armor plating.
“Carn. Scoffield. I need you both to come with me immediately.” The lead guard spoke out.
Alex got to his feet behind John. John stared at the lead guard from behind the bars as the release was activated for the cell door.
“What’s this about?” John demanded.
The door clanged before rolling open. Two of the guards raised their stun pistols up at John.
“Please follow me, sir.” The guard responded with basic authority.
John stepped forward. Alex wasn’t far behind him.
“Hey! Who the fuck are they?!?”
“Come on! I need to call my wife!”
“When do I get my phone call?”
John eyed the complaining prisoners as he walked by. Many looked like typical Martian residents. Two dusty ore miners stood near the bars of the next cell. Another cell held a man in a black suit with a light blue shirt. He was pacing back and forth near the bars.
The guards led John and Alex down a narrow white paneled corridor. The modular construction of the hall was typical of an off-world installation. The floors were raised with metal panel flooring that could be opened to get access to mechanical conduit beneath. Water pipes typically ran through the flooring. Electrical, air conditioning, and network wiring ran through the angled panels in the ceiling.
The group took a right down a wider corridor. Another member of Hutchinson City security walked past them in the opposite direction. The guards were cautious not to let anyone too close to John or Alex.
They finally entered what looked like a conference room. Two guards walked in with John and Alex while the rest remained outside on watch. Aiyana was sitting inside. Richmond Howe was standing behind her. The elongated polished wood table at the center of the conference room stretched out between them.
“Gentlemen. Welcome.” Howe extended his right arm to the many empty chairs around the table.
“Richmond Howe?” John couldn’t help but ask aloud. He had seen the man’s face on magazines, in the news, and on the net. Seeing him in person was somewhat strange and unexpected.
“Yes. It’s, uh… nice meeting you.” Howe replied uncertainly.
“John. Alex. Please have a seat.” Aiyana noted in an even, yet serious, tone.
John stepped forward slowly and sat down. Alex did the same and sat down next to him.
“Does this sound familiar to either of you?” Aiyana asked. Her hands worked over a touch sensitive screen built into the table.
Several speakers in the room activated. The sound of a girl’s sweet speaking voice filled the air.
“Twenty hours forty one minutes eighteen seconds. Declination Twenty nine…”
“That’s Julie’s voice!!!” John noted with loud excitement. His eyes shifted from Ana to Howe. “Where did you get this?!?”
“It was sent to my personal mailbox this morning. My real mailbox! At my house!” Howe explained.
“It was delivered to you?” John asked in shock.
“On a physical memory drive.” Howe clarified.
John fell silent to listen to Julie’s voice. There were crackles and hisses in the background. She sounded like she was speaking on an old vinyl record with some radio interference in the background. The gain had to be turned up on her voice to make her words clear, adding also definition to the hisses, pops, crackling and squeals of the radio interference. It was somewhat spooky to hear.
“Twenty hours forty minutes…” Julie repeated again and again.
“Obviously you have someone here working for Euler if they delivered this to you physically.” Alex noted.
“Or maybe someone they just sent here from the colonies.” Howe noted.
“I don’t think so.” John noted. “Not enough time. We only left Earth less than two days ago and just got here.”
“They know you’re here.” Aiyana stated seriously. “They want you to know she’s alive.”
“This is the location of a planet.” Alex observed.
“Yeah, but where is it?” John wondered aloud. “The coordinates don’t sound familiar.”
“It’s Altair Nine.” Aiyana explained. “Sometimes known as New Congo.”
“Shit!” Alex exhaled as he slowly sat back in his chair. “That’s in Xen space!”
“Yeah.” Ana breathed, nodding in agreement. “Yes, it sure is.”
“Where do you think this transmission came from?” John asked, almost as a demand.
“We don’t know.” Ana replied. “We’re running through the stations com logs but we don’t think anyone directed an array looking for it. It might have come down through the regular transmission stream from Proxima Centauri.”
“In which case it could have come from anywhere.” Howe added.
“Someone had to have pulled it off the computer to transfer it to physical memory, though.” Ana added a bit more enthusiastically.
John shook his head skeptically. He had investigated similar crimes when he was a Marshal on Proxima Five. Julie’s audio stream sounded like the work of a professional.
“The background radiation is faked.” John observed.
“How did you know?” Howe asked, somewhat surprised.
“It’s too obvious.” John answered. “You can tell by listening to it. A galaxy cluster here. A quasar there. Blended into the mix to keep us from hearing any real identifying markers.”
“Even if we could narrow it down to a point in space, you’d be searching through that line for 200 years!” Howe observed.
John’s eyes turned up to look seriously at Howe. It caught Howe by surprise. By the look on his face, John might very well search the galaxy for the rest of his life to find Julie.
“We’ve passed this information on to the local ESF branch.” Aiyana noted plainly. “They’re sending a local agent down from Arabia to take you two back to Earth.”
Alex exhaled, clearly frustrated.
“I’m sorry. We have no choice in the matter.” Aiyana noted ev
enly, trying to keep her emotions in check.
“The ESF isn’t going to go to this planet.” John stared at Howe. “When Scott Euler doesn’t get what he wants he’ll kill my niece.”
“I’m very sorry, Sergeant Carn.” Howe replied sincerely, using John’s old rank. “I really am. I have two daughters of my own. I can’t imagine what you must be going through. But coming here with the belief that I or Aiyana could help you was wrong. You knew this. This is a potentially serious interstellar incident. We have a very shaky truce with the Xen. If this erupts into all out war…”
John stared up from his seat at Howe. Deep inside he knew Howe was right. John had to think of something. He needed another way. He simply couldn’t go back to Earth without Julie.
Howe leaned over and pressed a control button on the touch screen surface of the conference table.
“We’re done here.” Howe spoke aloud.
The magnetic door latches clicked open. Three of the armored security guards entered the room, immediately flanking John and Alex. Alex stood up. John kept his eyes on Ana as the guards hauled him out of the chair.
“Please. I’m begging you.” John spoke to Aiyana directly in a low desperate tone. “You know he’ll kill her if I don’t comply. Please….”
“Alright! Come on!” the security guard holding John’s right arm jerked him away.
John resisted and pulled himself away, if only to make life difficult for the guard. He needed to test them. He needed to get away. He surprised the guard and nearly broke free, but another crimson and grey armored guard was on top of John before he knew it.
“Let’s go!!!” the second guard shoved John through the door.
A moment later, the door closed, leaving Howe and Aiyana in the conference room alone again.
“What do you think?” Howe asked his COO in a cool serious tone.
Ana spun in her chair to look up at her boss. “About John? I don’t know. I’m convinced he thinks he’s doing the right thing. He’ll tear across the universe to find this girl.”
“Do you think this Scott Euler will kill her?” Howe asked in the same cool tone.