Lunara: The Original Trilogy

by Wyatt Davenport

  She felt something was not right. A daring attempt by Shannon and Chloe had left her with a million questions. Most importantly, what were they planning? It had to be something big if they had risked capture, twice, to retrieve the bar. The beacon as they called it. What was so special about it? Without Samantha here, she would investigate this herself, even if it put her in harm’s way again.

  "Blonde," Chloe said. "I never saw myself as a blonde. A redhead possibly."

  "You look fine," Shannon said. "Bringing your hair around your face, you are hardly recognizable."

  "And your cropped hair completely changes your face. But your red highlights…I don’t know about them. You look a little trashy."

  "Thanks." Shannon smirked. "Are you ready?"

  "Do you think we should go now? What about a lower profile later tonight?"

  "No. The port will be shutting down, and we need the crowd to move around."

  "I guess so," Chloe said, watching Shannon clean up the sink and throw away the dye’s packaging into the garbage. "Why didn’t you shoot Gwen?"

  Shannon’s body went erect, and she turned slowly toward her. "Why didn’t you shoot Gwen?"

  "You were doing the shooting. You shot her two guards and the curator. Who was perfectly innocent, by the way."

  "Are you accusing me of something? I did what I did for our survival. Shouldn’t you be grateful or at least understanding?"

  "I’m not accusing you of anything. But you meant to kill Gwen, and you killed the curator instead. You should be remorseful."

  "What makes you think I was shooting at Gwen? I killed the curator on purpose. With him dead, his secret dies with him."

  "You killed him on purpose!"

  Shannon jabbed her index fingers toward Chloe. "You put me in that position. You wanted to get the beacon. Don’t pass your guilt on to me."

  "I’m just confused," Chloe said. "It is just…I wanted to kill Gwen so bad. But I didn’t…couldn’t. She knows Seth’s plans for Alexandria. What if Alex is in danger?"

  "Your daughter is with Radella. She is safe."

  "For how long? The MSA will eventually find her."

  "The MSA will be too busy hunting us down. Let’s go."

  Chloe grabbed Shannon by the arm. "Why didn’t you kill Gwen?"

  Shannon shrugged her shoulders. "Because killing the last chancellor turned out to be a nightmare for me. Gwen Arwell is a far better chancellor than Samantha Burns would ever be. I wish Samantha Burns had been the one carrying the beacon. I would have killed her, without the personal conversation, I might add."

  "Gwen was only stalling us."

  "You let her talk, and she said some interesting things."

  Chloe clenched her teeth. She hoped Shannon had forgotten about Gwen’s threats and allegations. "Perhaps we should go."

  They stepped out of the bathroom and moved across the corridor toward the transportation center. This confused Chloe. Even with her untrained eye, she spotted four MSA agents lurching in the upper tiers of the transportation center. Did Shannon want to be caught?

  The center bustled as much as Shannon had said it would, providing them with enough camouflage. The last trains of the day were scheduled to leave shortly, but Chloe and Shannon weren’t going to be on any of them. Guards checked the IDs of everyone boarding the trains, and getting on the passenger cars wouldn’t be possible.

  Chloe looked out across the crowd of people. It unsettled her to find they didn’t mind the intrusion into their lives. The MSA soldiers used the excuse of security measures to justify the ID checks. What had happened to the liberty afforded by the Principles of Man? The cloud of the MSA might erase them from history.

  The crowd swelled as the final bell rang through the transportation center’s main terminal.

  Chloe held Shannon’s hand as they moved away from the passenger trains. Shannon knew where she was going, and Chloe didn’t mind letting her take the lead. She was far too nervous to think straight. Her focus was to look inconspicuous, which wasn’t an easy task when you knew you were being hunted. Her head swiveled around, trying to spot anyone noticing them.

  Shannon led them under an overpass for the passenger trains and into a darker tunnel.

  After walking for several minutes, they arrived at what looked to Chloe to be a secret train station. "What is this place?" she asked.

  "Industrial workers’ transportation facilities. Anyone willing to work can board. They take you out to the mines, the algae farms, and the construction centers."

  "Which one are we boarding?"

  "Not sure yet. It’s hard to tell which will be the most likely to need qualified workers. The guilds require licenses for that type of work."

  "I see," she replied, watching as the men and women boarded the trains. There were a few guards posted, but they weren’t as attentive as they had been to the passenger trains.

  Shannon looked upward, toward the display screen reporting the train assignments. "How about mining on Gorp’s crater?"

  "No," Chloe said, looking up. "Algae farms near Arcuate Fractures. My old colony is only kilometers away. We can find refuge there."

  Shannon nodded. "Farms are better. The mines require blasting licenses. I just want out of here."

  "Me, too."

  Ten minutes later, with only passing glances from the security guards, they boarded the train on their way to Arcuate. Unlike with the passenger trains, the MSA did not pester the labor trains heading out to their various jobs. Chloe knew the guilds had leverage, even within the MSA. Resources were too important to them to hassle with trivial matters, such as an escaped criminal.

  Chloe felt her pocket; the beacon tucked snugly against her hip. She let out a breath as the lurch of the train leaving the station jolted her. They had escaped, but at what cost or benefit to them or the Alliance? Surely, their mistakes revealed the plan.

  The Alliance was going to need a miracle, and she wondered if she was the person to deliver it—a scarier thought to her than their capture. She sensed her destiny was close at hand.

  Chapter 16

  Parker let out a long breath as the shuttle cleared the hangar bay of the MSA shipyard and entered the emptiness of space. He inputted the flight path given to them by the command tower and sat back in his pilot’s chair. The tension in the cockpit dissipated. Eamonn remained stolid and unmoved, and Atalo’s rigid posture slackened, though he still fixated on the radar.

  "Don’t waste your time," Parker said. "The MSA can still hide from radar."

  "I know," Atalo said. "But something might pop up. No tricks and no fight—our escape seemed too easy."

  "They underestimate us," Parker said. "They always have."

  "Underestimating the Alliance into virtual extinction, and they keep piling the dirt on," Eamonn replied. "They’ll find out about the missing explosives—only a matter of when. Hopefully, we’ll be within the atmosphere by then."

  Atalo’s face soured. Eamonn didn’t notice him as he turned toward his control station.

  "I better check on the engine room," Atalo said. "Make sure they don’t give out in case of an attack."

  Once Atalo had left the cockpit, Parker shifted his gaze at Eamonn. "Why do you take his spirit? Our plan was good, our sources were good, and we executed it perfectly. Give us some credit."

  "I won’t disillusion anyone. We don’t even know if we have a drone ship or if Sarah convinced Terry to help. This was a long shot to begin with."

  Parker’s shoulders tightened. The distinct possibility that the girls were imprisoned had crossed his mind several times on the flight into Phobos. The mission’s uncertainty wore on his belief in the Alliance, and he began to think that relying on Eamonn anymore was a futile endeavor. Once, Eamonn had come up with great strategies; now, his pessimism broke the team’s confidence. Still, they believed in his plan, while Eamonn himself doubted it the entire way. Were they foolish to trust him?

  "MSA members aren’t stupid," Eamonn said as he tapped on
the control panel.

  Parker looked over at him. "What are you doing?"

  "Checking for homing devices. It’s better to be safe than sorry."

  "I guess," Parker said. "I don’t see why you have to be so down. Yes, she hunted you. But I was hunted, too. The Alliance hasn’t been a safe organization for a long time."

  "Every day, every colony, my picture is hung, proclaiming my guilt for everyone to see. Your picture wasn’t hanging anywhere."

  "Because I was careful. I didn’t go assassinating the chancellor and expect everything to be okay."

  Eamonn spun around and grabbed Parker by the collar. "Listen to me. I took the risk no one else would."

  Parker shrugged his shoulder, but couldn’t shake free of Eamonn’s grasp. Perhaps if he fought harder, he would be able to, but he knew he deserved the rebuke. Killing the chancellor was a great moment for the Alliance. Nevertheless, Eamonn’s apathy irritated him. Eamonn had given up on his crew, and Parker had to convince him he was wrong.

  Eamonn pulled on him harder. "I did it for Sarah’s family. Remember that. Like I’m doing this mission for you, when I don’t want to."

  "Don’t do me any more favors," Parker said. He didn’t know how to express his disappointment with Eamonn. Telling him straight up would do no good because Eamonn would just ignore it. He set his teeth and glared into his friend’s eyes. "You killed the chancellor to appease the anger you felt for Madelyn’s death. Don’t get righteous on me. No one would take that assignment because of the weight it carried. Sarah’s and your bloodlust blinded you from making a choice. Now you regret it because of how it turned out. Now you can fix that, by fighting for Mars and the Principles of Man. The right reasons to fight."

  "As you said on Phobos, the reason isn’t important. The fact that I acted is what matters. I did it for my own reasons. I’m finished with fixing Mars. I am trying to avoid the whole thing."

  He pushed with his arm, and Parker fell back into his chair.

  "Just remember," Parker shouted, "coming to Phobos ensured your commitment to sticking this out to the end."

  Eamonn remained silent.

  Parker narrowed his eyes. "Why did you leave me when I needed you the most? I had to run the Alliance."

  Eamonn smirked with an uneasy and twitching curl to his cheek. "So that is why you are angry with me? You think I abandoned you. I had no choice but to leave. The Alliance wasn’t safe. No place was safe."

  "The Alliance was safe for you."

  "Are you kidding? With the bounty on my head, greed would have motivated someone from within to turn me in. As well, I won’t put you in danger."

  "I needed you. You quit on the crew and me. Jinx to the end of the solar system with you. The only crew member I have left is Chloe, and she is barely with me. I can’t even trust her because at any moment she’ll turn on me. Seth pulls at her heart."

  "You weren’t abandoned, Parker. The crew died long ago. The day Chloe, Seth, and Gwen didn’t come back to help us fight in the Battle of Lunara. Jinx, I didn’t even have one crew member with me during the battle."

  "Jan and I were there. How can you say that?"

  "There? When I looked around the bridge, I saw Fenor Davis at communications, Ripley at tactical, and her at the helm."

  Parker didn’t reply. He was too angry to talk. They were still on a mission, for Pluto’s sake—

  The shuttle shook.

  Parker turned toward the flight controls and looked down at the status screen. The atmosphere had been broken. "We should be in the clear now. Our exhaust trail is masked."

  Eamonn remained silent.

  "Where are we supposed to meet Shannon and Chloe?" Parker said. "I have to finish this."

  "Don’t worry, I plan on finishing this," Eamonn said.

  Parker heard him inputting commands from behind him. He didn’t bother to look back. Now that the ship was in the atmosphere, he had to concentrate on avoiding the sandstorms on the dark side of the planet.

  After several minutes, Eamonn spoke. "They want us to go to Orcus colony."

  "Orcus? Isn’t that where—"

  "Yes, it is. It is deserted. A great place to load the drone ship."

  "If they got the drone ship," Parker said.

  "Shannon left me a message in my box, so she was successful," Eamonn said. "I think."

  "You think?" Parker’s tone was sharp. "Is it a trap?"

  "Doubtful. It is an anonymous message box, and plus, we use codes. She didn’t leave any markers that it is a trap."

  "Markers?"

  "The way she signed her name or the address. It checked out."

  Parker adjusted the flight path toward Orcus. The shuttle gently tilted to the port side and leveled into a steady descent toward the Martian surface.

  "We are two hours out. Orcus is on the other side of the planet."

  "Stay away from the sandstorms as far as you can. The MSA will monitor the flights. We don’t want them warning us about potential weather problems. They might look deeper into our flight plan."

  "Inconspicuous is my middle name," Parker said, gripping the controls a little harder. If one keen MSA controller happened to be monitoring them, and they found out about the stolen explosives, they might connect the dots and come after them. Looking at this weather map, he cringed; sandstorms and tornadoes littered the screen between them and Orcus. The flight might take more than the two hours he originally thought.

  Parker turned toward Eamonn for a moment. "Do you think Sarah is all right?"

  "If Captain Terry shows up for the battle, I would say yes. Otherwise, we may never know."

  "We should check in with her. We can call the whole thing off if they don’t come."

  "This shipment is too important to risk calling it off. Even if she doesn’t get the fleet."

  "Sacrificing Chloe, Shannon, and Atalo isn’t a plan B. It can’t hurt to find out her status. Sarah and I have our own coded message system."

  "We can’t risk communications with the other team members, even anonymous ones. The only reason I allowed Shannon to do it was that she needed flexibility in her landing location. We are supposed to remain autonomous until we regroup with Shannon and Chloe for loading the explosives on the drone ship and with Sarah during the battle. That was the plan. Final."

  The proximity alarms buzzed. Parker adjusted the shuttle’s course again, avoiding the two sandstorms he had planned to cut between and steering around the far side of the closest one.

  The sight of Sarah in handcuffs consumed his mind. Through his binoculars, a kilometer away, he had seen the entire surrender and couldn’t do anything about it. He watched them take her away, and the same gut instinct he had against releasing the Megacruiser from its docking bay resurfaced. He knew he had made a mistake. Sarah insisted, though, and he couldn’t say no without a better reason than an intuition.

  Not again though. He needed to know if Sarah had successfully convinced Terry to help. He spied Eamonn, who was busy monitoring the radar with Atalo gone. Parker slid his hand toward the communications unit and sent a "request of status" transmission to Sarah.

  Chapter 17

  The hour and forty-five minute train ride into Arcuate was uneventful. The other passengers were engrossed in their own little worlds. Several complained about the pay scale for the assignment, while others slept the entire ride in, conserving energy for the day ahead. A security patrolman walked by several times but didn’t seem to take much notice of them or anyone in particular. Chloe noted his attitude. He seemed to walk the train waiting for trouble rather than looking for it.

  Chloe and Shannon had tucked themselves into a corner of one of the cabin cars and blended in. They didn’t speak for much of the trip. Chloe thought that was partly because of the sheer exhaustion they were both feeling from the acrobatic and brutal escape.

  Exiting the train, a chill trickled across Chloe’s skin, and she couldn’t imagine the edginess within her ever going away. With darkness surrounding the
m, they walked at a brisk pace toward Orcus colony, guided only by the small light provided by their flashlights.

  The rocks under Chloe’s feet crunched louder as she tried to keep up with Shannon’s increasing pace. "What is the hurry?"

  "It is the middle of the night," Shannon said, "and I don’t like to be out in a Martian night, going to a colony I have never been to before."

  "It’s only a few kilometers from the Arcuate Farms."

  "And you are sure it is deserted?"

  "Pretty sure," Chloe said. "Orcus was destroyed. Another in a long list of abandoned colonies."

  They walked for another hour in the cold Martian night. The only sounds were the hollowing of the wind as it wrapped around the rock formations to the south of them.

  Chloe’s legs began to tire, and her eyes had a hard time staying open. She trudged on, and finally, after another hour’s walk, they came upon Orcus.

  The colony of Orcus was erected in the shallow crater it was named after and had approximately one hundred stone housing units, nestled within a short distance of the protective rim of the western edge. Toward the middle, the main road ran from north to south, separating the housing units from the supply sheds on the eastern side. Gates lay destroyed on either end, the same state as they had been left in fifteen years ago when the Raiders destroyed it.

  They stepped into the colony, and Chloe tried to swallow the lump in her throat. Her flashlight zipped between the buildings. Everything looked the same, except for the layers of dust and sand drifts against the buildings.

  The last time Chloe was in Orcus, Seth had rescued her. Seth and she never spoke of the haunting memories of that day. He wouldn’t allow it, and to her, it was senseless to speak of it with anyone else. In a weak moment, when she wanted to remember, her mind brought visions of her mother, father, and sister beaten to death. She tried to remain resolute. However, the memory of the restless nights, grief-stricken days, and inappropriate acts forced upon her always remained painful within her and always controlled Seth.

  She wiped tears from her eyes.