“What! Who gave you the right to speak for me? I’ll kill him with my bare hands if I ever see him face to face. Jonas, how could you?”
“Jonas agreed to this as well because you were in a coma, and none of us were sure you’d be coming back.”
“Boss. What good will it do now to fight him? We can’t land without his help so I—”
“You know, Jonas, I’d expect that from her, but you? How could you? You can’t trust him, and you know that.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, Dr. O’Neil. That was the agreement that this ship’s command crew made, and you will abide by it.” Ileana turned and began walking from the room and Will hobbled after her as best he could.
“Ileana! What’s this all about? You’re smarter than this. You know he can’t be trusted just based on his concealment of the asteroid to save his own skin. It’s about your brother again, isn’t it? You think he’s your only chance now, don’t you?”
“My motives are none of your concern, Dr. O’Neil.”
“They damn well are my concern. I’ve noticed a cold wind with you since I woke up. What is it? What are you afraid of?”
“I am in fear of nothing and focused on getting this ship safely to the ground. If Commander Larsen is a means to make that happen, then so be it.”
“Bullshit! You’re afraid that you’ll be alone in this new world. He’s the only family you have, and you’ll do anything to get him back, even if it means breaking the loyalties and alliances that we’ve built. I made you a promise back there that I’d help you find him, and I meant it. If you choose to build an alliance with Larsen, then you’re on your own. Don’t expect any help from me.”
Ileana paused for a moment, and Will could see the internal struggle she was facing. She desperately needed to find her brother, especially now that Mars was gone and he was her only other connection to her life on that world. He could feel her desperation building with each passing second.
“I will do what I must to find him,” said Ileana as she turned and the door closed behind her.
Will smashed his open hand against the closed door and lost his balance, falling to the floor due to his weakened state.
“Are you OK?” said Jonas as he rushed over to help him.
“No, I’m not OK! I need some time alone,” said Will as he struggled to his feet with Jonas’s help.
“OK. I’ll be two doors down if you need anything,” said Jonas, expecting to hear a thank you from Will. He and Oria had been looking after him for the past two weeks, and as usual Jonas felt unappreciated. But part of him understood how he must be feeling, having not had the two weeks to deal with his loss as everybody else had.
As Jonas left the room, Will took one last look out the window at the Sirocco and then lay back down on the bed. He noticed his belongings sitting on a small table near his bed and reached for the com that Stanzic had given him. He replayed the last images of Edena over and over, and each time hit the button to call, knowing there was no one on the other end to answer. He eventually fell into a deep sleep, still not totally recovered from his head injury.
He awoke again ten hours later to the sound of glasses clinking together. He looked up to see Nigel Daniels sitting next to him and pouring a drink.
“Come to see if I’m still breathing?”
“I knew you’d be breathing. You’re too good a man to go out in your sleep. No, I expect you’ll have a much more horribly violent death.”
Will smiled and rubbed his forehead as he gingerly sat up. Daniels quickly poured half a glass of whatever he was drinking and handed it to Will, who drank it down without saying a word.
“Leave it to you to find a pub in a situation like this,” said Will.
“Let me tell you, I was pleasantly surprised that this ship was well stocked with the essentials,” said Daniels as he poured Will another half glass of the red liquid. As before, he quickly drank it down in one gulp, mostly out of a ravenous thirst he felt, having been on injected supplements for the past two weeks.
“Nigel…I’m sure Jonas told you I’m not real happy about the deal that was struck with Larsen or the decision to leave Mars so quickly. Is Ileana calling all of the shots around here?”
“Not quite,” said Dainiels. “She and I have come to a loose power-sharing agreement and have jointly made most of the decisions, which I can assure you have been the right ones. Will, there’s nothing left; you have to trust my word on that. I have two boys I wouldn’t just abandon if I thought there was even the slightest chance of saving them. And as for that wanker in the ship next door, he’s no threat right now. We need him, and more importantly, he needs us. We took extensive damage and so did the Sirocco. Karkovich is doing what needs to be done right now, so take it easy on her.”
“Since when are you concerned with her feelings? I really have been out of it for a while,” said Will as he put his head in his hands.
“I’m not concerned with her feelings, but I have to make decisions with this woman, and I don’t want to deal with her dark side. We’ve both seen that, haven’t we?”
Will couldn’t help but laugh, and Daniels quickly lost it as well.
“So where do I fit in with this arrangement?” Will asked.
“We agreed that if you woke up and still had your marbles, you’d take on the cooking duties. We really have no need for an Earth expert for another two months.”
Will smirked at Daniels, knowing he was kidding.
“I hope you have a food taster, in that case.”
“Indeed. That’s where your friend Jonas comes in.”
Will and Daniels once again burst into laughter as the alcohol started to have its desired effect.
“While we’re on the subject of Jonas, you really ought to know that he was by your side the whole time. He gave you your injections and sat with you for hours each day while Karkovich and I were busy getting things situated. He did it while nursing that knife wound in his leg too. I just thought you should know.”
Will felt horrible knowing how coldly he’d treated him. “He’s a good man. One of these days I’ll have to tell him.” said Will.
“In any case, we have some problems you need to be aware of. The obvious one is the arrangement with Larsen. I don’t trust him, but we have no chance of a successful entry interface without his nav coordinates. If we guess at it, we could drop right in on your beasties or into an ocean. There isn’t enough fuel to cruise around until we find a good spot to land. We really need you to get working on that as soon as you’re up to it.”
Will nodded affirmatively. “What else?”
“Well, there is something that’s bothering me. I trust my instincts, as they’ve never failed me yet. There’s something strange going on with those Cholan. One in particular worries me. His name is Nodon.”
“Do you think he’s a separatist?” asked Will.
He could see the uncertainty in Daniel’s face as he pondered the question.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure how much the government screened these people, but you’d think after all of the trouble we had up there, they’d be pretty tough in their methods. He’s the leader of this group, and I don’t trust him.”
“What seems to be the issue?”
“I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but the rest are obviously poor, uneducated dregs of their society, to be honest. Not this Nodon—he’s sharp as a tack, and it’s like he’s sizing you up when you speak to him. Like he’s trying to find your weaknesses or something.”
“What’s Ileana’s take on him? Has she had the same impressions?”
“Karkovich isn’t sure what to make of him, but one thing is perfectly clear.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“He has no love for her government ass,” said Daniels. “I think he sees her as the last representative of all of the oppression that Cholan faced over the years. We have to watch this closely. If it can be helped, we have to keep those two apart.”
“Obvio
usly I don’t know this guy, but my money is on Ileana in a fight.”
“Indeed. That girl can take care of herself. I don’t know if you ever noticed, but she smells fantastic too,” said Daniels as he drank down another full glass.
“Ah, yes. I’ve heard that before,” laughed Will. “Too bad she never really gives you enough time to appreciate that side of her.”
“I suspect if you got that close mate, you’d be lucky to escape with your bollocks intact.”
“I think you’re right on that,” said Will, thinking back to his dream and not wanting to relive any part of it.
He wondered what the future would hold and felt an emptiness in his heart at the loss of his daughter. He also thought about Earth and the challenges they would face once they landed. Part of his soul was still on Mars, where he prayed his daughter might still be alive. The other part of his soul lay ahead on the beautiful blue planet he’d spent so much of his time dreaming about. The prospect of finding happiness in a place he and Edena shared a love for gave him a new sense of purpose. He suddenly felt warmth in his heart that overrode the pain. He would make it there and build a life for himself in her memory. To do so he knew what had to be done. He had to overcome the grief and challenges that lay ahead and meet his destiny on a new world. His destiny was Earth.
# #
Tony Mazzarella is a twenty-five-year veteran of the transportation industry, working in sales, operations and technology solutions. An avid guitar player, Tony lives in Pennsylvania with his wife Maria and children Matthew, Lauren, and Nicolas. Destiny Earth is his first novel. Tony’s education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, with concentrations in business administration and management information systems. He also holds a Master of Science degree in computer information systems.
COMING SOON
The Awakening – A new novel by Tony Mazzarella
While excavating newly discovered catacombs in Livorno, Italy, American Archeologist Caitlin Kirby struggles to understand her attraction to the mysterious entity that now invades her dreams. She and her team uncover unimaginable horror as they find the remains of thousands of Egyptian slaves and evidence of a cataclysmic event that will threaten all of humanity. As she gets closer to his secret, the entity manifests in physical form as the handsome, green-eyed government official Adrian Valente. She and her team fight to discover the truth of what happened two-thousand years earlier that delayed the destruction of humankind, Adrian’s love of a beautiful Egyptian slave. Now the time has come once again and this time love might not be enough to prevent the destruction that has happened throughout the millions of years of Earth’s history.
Destiny Earth II
The saga continues as Will and the rest of the survivors aboard EC2 finally reach Earth. Ileana’s loyalties are once again uncertain as she forges an alliance with Will’s nemesis, Larsen, in a desperate attempt to find her brother.
Commander James Devon and his crew arrive at the shattered remains of their home world to say one last goodbye, but something is waiting for them. They struggle to stay alive in the midst of the forces aligned against them.
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