What did she care, though? None of them had yet to try to make contact with her. Samantha had forgiven her twice in that short time span.
A draft rippled up her arms, and she put her hands in her pockets. A flat smooth surface brushed her skin. She pulled out a photoimage; Seth and Chloe were holding one another while she, Gwen, looking pathetic, stood idly to the side. Before this all began. She folded the photoimage over her knee, bent it in half, and tore it down the crease, splitting it into two pieces.
One piece held the image of Seth and Gwen beside one another. The second piece was of Chloe, now holding no one but the edge of the torn photoimage. She tossed the piece with Chloe into the trash receptacle.
A buzz came from the door. She twirled around and stuffed the photo back into her pocket.
By the time she had reached the door, the buzzer had rung at least ten times and she wondered what the panic was. She pulled it open, and Thomas Cross rushed in.
"Come right in," she said casually. He was already four paces inside before she reacted.
"Miss Arwell," Cross said in his level tone. "Your return has caused a great rift amongst the MSA."
"Mr. Cross." She mimicked his serious but absurd tone. He didn’t intimidate her; maybe the other MSA lackeys were intimidated but never the chancellor’s daughter. "What rift are you referring to? You authorized the report confirming my return."
"We both know why I authorized that report. Your father has a weak spot for you. If you don’t learn to control yourself, you will lead to his undoing. The only thing protecting you from me is him. Anyone else in the solar system would be dead, executed as a traitor on the landing pad. Remember that."
"I find it hard to believe that you traveled all this way to threaten me. And I will remind you that you betrayed Aethpis colony. If I’m a traitor, you are a traitor."
Before she realized he had moved, his hand was around her throat, squeezing until spots formed in her eyes. She clawed at his face, but his other hand grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back.
"Stop struggling," Cross said, the meaning clearly written in his eyes. Gwen gasped for air, and as he wrenched her arm back, pain shot through her shoulder. She whimpered a few short breaths as he loosened his grip intermittently. "I did what I did for Mars. I joined the MSA when you were still a young girl, when we discovered the truth about metalor. I came here to ask you to return to Lunara. You are a distraction to your father. It is clear to me that we made the right decision in sending you there. You should have never been a part of this. You should have stayed away like a good little girl."
"Go eject yourself!" She was angry, not so much at the physical threat, but at his admission that they had conspired against her to send her to Lunara and shield her from what they were doing. She wanted to prove more than ever that she could help the MSA. "I have already beaten you, and I’ll beat you again. Don’t underestimate me."
"Beat me?" He smiled. "Never."
"I guess Chloe and Seth escaping and your feeble attempt to stop my rescue mission was a victory. I’ll have to nominate you for a medal."
"Shut your mouth, little girl," Cross said through gritted teeth. "I should kill you. It would end any distractions you might cause us in the future. Even with your display this afternoon at the meeting, many of us wouldn’t trust you with a lump of Martian ore. So don’t think you won anything."
"Go ahead, kill me." With his hands still at her neck, she nearly recanted her bluff, but she held herself in check. "You won’t kill me now. You are in my quarters with a pair of security guards outside. They saw you come in. Even if you manage to kill them, the computer records stored in the inerasable databases will prove you were here."
"Gwen, why is your door open?" Samantha’s voice called from the hallway.
Before Samantha opened the door fully, Cross threw Gwen to the ground. On her knees, twisting to find Samantha, Gwen rubbed her throat; a stiffness was pushing against her esophagus that she thought would never go away. But ten seconds later, it did, and she managed to hide her labored breath from both Cross and Samantha.
Samantha stopped short of Cross with an expression of surprise on her face. Most likely, Samantha thought she would never find him in Gwen’s quarters. "What is going on here?" she said.
"Nothing," Gwen said, accompanied by a cough. "Mr. Cross was leaving."
He pointed down toward her. "Think about what I said. Come talk to me if you need help with it." His eyes shifted to Samantha, an intense burrowing glare telling her to forget he was ever there, and left the room.
"Why was he here?" Samantha said, helping her to her feet.
"I’ll be fine." She closed the door. "He thinks that I’m a distraction to my father. He wants me to return to Lunara."
"And you said no to him, and he got angry. That would be typical of him."
"I didn’t give him an answer. I want what is best for the MSA. If that means me leaving, then I shall leave."
"No, you can’t leave. Your arrival galvanized the people to the MSA. They love you, Gwen. You are the most popular person on Mars and always have been. You just didn’t know it."
"I know my place among the people, but I don’t want to be the leader."
"Your father leads. You pull the people toward him," Samantha said. "You can’t do that on Lunara. Cross wants you isolated again because you are taking the spotlight. In one day, you have become the most powerful person on Mars."
Gwen turned away from Samantha and smirked. "I think they overestimate what I offer. After all, even my father thinks I’m incapable of helping the MSA." But Gwen knew Samantha was right; she had an opportunity to gain more control of Mars and not let the MSA underlings take power from the Arwells. If she was going to understand and correct any MSA wrongdoings, she needed more power and more time to search for a plan. The Alliance and MSA, though neither know it, needed her more than anyone.
Chapter 15
"Mr. McCloud, how is Minister Cortez’s security coming along?" Captain Terry said with an odd patronizing tone. He had developed such a tone since Parker McCloud had been upgraded to full general for the war.
"General McCloud," Parker bit back. "You seem to be the only one who can’t grasp that."
He stared down Terry as the captain stalked across the bridge of the Sheriff toward him. The sun beamed through the bridge and lit both the lower navigation and the upper command sections, showcasing the control panels with the glint of innovation that gave Parker confidence about their firepower. The MSA had shiny new ships, but the Alliance wasn’t far behind with its upgrades and retrofitting.
"The minister will be coming aboard within the hour, General. Is everything set for her arrival?"
"No," he said, partly to annoy Terry, but mostly because it was the truth. "We have some supply ships lagging behind. They will have to be scanned before we can let the minister on board."
"Five more left to arrive," Atalo Grove said to his right. Parker had selected Atalo to be his operations leader of security for Sarah. He needed someone he knew he could trust. Only Eamonn or Jan would have been a better choice, but Atalo’s loyalty was without question.
"Thank you. Fifteen minutes until their arrival?"
"Thirty now, sir. Some of the automated pods are getting confused, with all the loading we are doing in such a short time. I’m letting them clear first."
"Don’t anything slip past in the confusion," Terry said, raising an eyebrow at Atalo.
Atalo bristled slightly. "Sir, that is why I’m letting them clear."
"Very good, Atalo," Parker said. "Let me know if anything is out of the ordinary."
"Yes, sir."
Parker turned his eye to Terry. "Are you satisfied?"
"I’ll be satisfied when she is within the bunkers on Mars."
So will I, Parker wanted to say, but he wasn’t going to give Terry any satisfaction today. "She will be safe."
Terry mocked a salute to Parker, turned on his heels and scampered off to
the different control stations across the bridge.
Parker turned to Atalo. "We better get this right. Not only for Sarah but to escape the wrath of Terry. I swear his paranoia grows each day."
"Understood, sir."
"Those supply ships coming in," Parker said. "Are we vacuum sealing them in the hangars?"
"No. Our oxygen levels are low. We might not be able to get back to Mars with our reserves. I was going to hold the air in the hangers so we could pump it to the main parts of the ship if needed."
Parker grumbled. He wanted to vacuum seal the supply hangars so he wouldn’t have to worry about any stowaways trying to infiltrate the ship. Plus, no oxygen in the hangars would slow down, or eliminate, many of the explosive devices from triggering. "Can we skim the Earth on the way out? Take some of the air."
Atalo shook his head. "None of these Aethpisian ships have methane scrubbers."
"Just heavy-duty CO2 converters?"
"Exactly."
Parker should have realized these warships were equipped with Martian standard air scrubbers. They weren’t calibrated to handle any skimming of Earth’s atmosphere.
"Are those scout ships gone for good?" Atalo asked.
Parker eyed Atalo curiously, wondering what he was thinking.
"I mean, sir, with our ships returning to Mars, will the scout ships stop?"
"We almost had the last one." Parker bit his lip. "And I almost died trying to get it. It is hard to say what the MSA are thinking. The scouts could pick up their recon because Lunara is a more tempting target."
"The main fleet stung the MSA hard. I think they’ll try to get at the fleet first before heading to Lunara."
"Why not just take Lunara?"
"Lunara is too far from Mars to be a legitimate target. Sure, the MSA could take it, but the fleet would be back to retake Lunara again."
Parker remained skeptical. "Why wouldn’t they fortify Lunara further? We barely won the first battle, and frankly, I don’t think we have the firepower to win it again."
"The MSA can’t," Atalo said.
"Why not? They control Mars and all its resources."
"Not all. They haven’t had the gumption to take Aethpis as a whole. Our Alliance controls a significant portion of the colony. That leads me to believe that the chancellor has spread the MSA thin. He doesn’t have the firepower to retake Lunara if he is opposed. He wants our fleet destroyed first."
Parker nodded. He had heard theories from the captains, and some of the theories involved a stretched MSA fleet. He was sure the chancellor foresaw opposition, and he suspected that the MSA had a shipyard somewhere in deep space. He worried that another fleet of ships would show up around Mars or Lunara any day now. The Alliance’s fleet arrival over Mars could either be a giant trap or a great maneuver to make the MSA show their hand.
Parker put his hand on Atalo’s shoulder. "Remember when Hans Bauer arrived on Lunara, and our stomachs rotted with worry? That is my hope when the fleet arrives over Mars. The chancellor will run to his antacids."
Atalo laughed. "He is a coward, so I have no doubt."
"My biggest worry about leaving Lunara is exposing Seth and Chloe. The MSA will try to get them back."
"They won’t attack Lunara for those two."
"No, but they might kidnap them. Or lay a small siege to get them."
"Why are they so important?"
Parker turned his view to Lunara, tranquilly sitting along the moon’s surface. The supply ships gathered along the hangar bays popped out every five minutes or so and headed toward one of the fleet’s cruisers. If he hadn’t know any better, he would have thought they were ore transports, readying for departure to Mars. He smiled. Lunara was doing what it did best, moving cargo to Mars. Except this time, not a gram of metalor ore was being loaded. It was extra food supplies, weapons systems, antimatter containers, and Aethpisians. Had the metalor made Seth and Chloe special, like it did for Lunara? "Somehow they evolved differently than you or I."
"Evolved?"
"Mars changed them. Metalor changed them. Like in the holodramas. The MSA, and Mars, have a plan for their future. Their fate leads to a tough road ahead."
"Fate has served Seth poorly." Atalo leaned back in his chair. "He hates Mars and probably his abilities, too."
Parker nodded. "It is hard to understand Seth. One minute he is saying something, and the next he is saying the opposite. His opinions are based entirely on emotions and not logic. He frustrates to no end."
Atalo smiled. "I always wondered if he was a jerk on purpose."
"He can be a jerk…perhaps more often than not." Parker smirked, thinking about Seth’s flaring eyes, and the anger and frustration that drove them. "I don’t think he tries to be. His heart pushes him in directions without a concern for others. Well, others not named Chloe."
Atalo’s face turned serious. "Chloe’s ability to read minds worries me."
"She wouldn’t read your mind."
"She might not be capable of stopping herself. Can you stop from seeing something you have already seen?"
Parker nodded. "Good point. But she wouldn’t use it against you."
"I don’t think she would, but can she be the only person who has these abilities? If this is an evolutionary jump?"
"No one has come forward, and somehow Bauer knew about her. So I must conclude that she is the only one."
Atalo frowned. "Unless he already has a group he has abducted."
"Don’t think like that." Parker shook his head. "I already have enough to worry about."
"Sorry, sir. But how can we trust anyone? Anyone could be reading our minds right now."
Parker bit his lip. Atalo was right. If Bauer had loyalty from someone like Chloe, they could infiltrate the Alliance fairly easily since they could gain secrets without suspicion. "Atalo, that is why you are my chief confidant on this mission. Keep an eye on the supply ships and let me know when we can button up the supply hangars. Also, keep scanning the hangars for intruders after we leave. I don’t like how we have to keep the air in there."
"Understood."
Chapter 16
"I hate this," Seth said as the supply ship swooped by the window toward the retrofitted Unity Hybrid. "We should be on the Unity Hybrid heading for Mars to help our friends. Eamonn leaves in the night without telling anyone, and Gwen is trapped within the MSA. I promised her I would come back."
"It will take time," Chloe said. "You heard Ty and Jan. We can’t leave the colony. Besides, Gwen has joined the MSA now. The holotube showed her sworn in."
"Don’t believe what you see on the holotube," he replied. "We should be on Mars helping the Alliance."
"I want to, and I don’t like it as much as you do, but we have orders and responsibilities to Lunara."
"How can you accept Ty’s orders?" he said, gesturing swiftly with his hands. "There has to be a way to convince Ty to let us go. The Alliance needs our abilities. I’m not a coward."
"What do they need us for? All they need is ships and metalor. We can supply neither."
He rubbed his temples. "We can’t supply ships, but we can supply metalor. That cache the minister hid, we should be able to find it. You have a kinship with the metalor to help us locate it." He shook his head. "But how can we convince them that we should be the ones who can find it?"
"I can," she said. "Sarah said the metalor was siphoned from Lunara. If I get samples from those shipments, I should be able to get a reading. I can use the samples to track where it might have gone."
"You can’t possibly forward track the metalor. If you hit a fork in the road and two hovercars split, the one can’t tell where the other has gone."
"Unless they have CommUns to tell each other their paths."
"Metalor can’t communicate."
"You don’t know that. I have been practicing with the metalor since our return."
"Chloe," he said with sourness on his face.
To cut off his next protest, she pushed her hand towar
d him. "The experience no longer overwhelms me, and my contact with the metalor is akin to a datapad and a user. Metalor is as dead as a datapad, but it saves information. For some reason, I can recall it."
"You are the only person that we know about," he said. "More like you remain out there."
She shook her head. "I haven’t felt anyone else. I know I would feel it."
"I kept you on Lunara for too long," he said, shaking his head. "We should have left for Mars to search for others like us. I felt the urge a few years ago."
"Me, too, but we didn’t know how special our abilities were until Hans changed us. Before him—it was just a nuisance."
He paused for a moment to remember what it was like before the invasion of Lunara and the intervention of Hans Bauer, but he couldn’t. The recent events had consumed his life, and he hadn’t had time to think about anything else. He shrugged his shoulders.
Her brown eyes flared. "Maybe I can find out where the metalor has gone and end the war. It is a long shot convincing Ty, but it is the best chance we have of getting on that transport to Mars."
"So now you want to leave?"
"Now you are against leaving?" She put her hands on her hips.
"Let’s go," he said, pulling her out of the door and toward Ty’s office.
"Ty!" Chloe yelled, rushing into his office. Jan was sitting on the opposite side of his desk. "Jan, good you are here."
Ty stood abruptly, forcing her to stop. "Don’t barge into my office without knocking."
"We need to ask something important."
"For the last time, you are remaining here. End of conversation."
"Stop protecting me! I have the right to go where we choose, and when I choose to go." Chloe’s lips thinned. The shackles irritated her wrists like never before, and her motivation to get to Mars spiked higher than Olympus Mons.
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