While he was trying to escape he didn't have much time to think, which was a good thing. But at the big, secluded house, hidden away in the face of a cliff, his brain would not shut down. He couldn't sleep, couldn't do much of anything, except think about the girl, Jaylen Voss. One thought dominated his mind: he had to get to her, to rescue her, to save her. And he didn't even know where she was.
At night he would walk through the foreign place, a place that was supposed to be his home, and he usually ended up in the library, standing in the middle of hundreds of images projected in 3d space all around him. All of them starring a smiling, dark-haired boy running through the tall, green grass of a planet he did not remember, chasing a small brown dog, or being held tightly by a woman he didn't know, but supposed was his mother.
One night when the house was quiet and everyone else was asleep, the old man found him there and pointed to the image of the woman and the boy. "She was so beautiful. She loved you so much.”
Jolo wondered what he was supposed to say. Should he lie and say that he missed her? Like all the images that he saw there, she was just a woman that he didn't know, just like the boy in the pictures, just like the man standing before him. So he just nodded.
“Casualty of war,” the old man continued. “The BG needed something and if your planet had it, then you were royally farked. They needed minerals from Pleny. And like dumbasses, we thought we could beat the black, alacyte bastards. Big and strong we were, ignorant farmers from a nutrient rich land. But they mowed us down and took what they wanted. Not many made it out. And after that you went dark, joined the Fed, and were hell bent on making things right in your mind. I think you figured if you could kill enough of them then you’d get some relief. But that never happened. I figured you was gonna die fighting.” And then he stopped, put his hand on Jolo’s shoulder. “But we got lucky, didn’t we? Sometimes forgetting is a good thing.”
“What should I call you?” said Jolo.
“Marco is fine, for now. But I am your father and it’s good to have you back.” The old man headed for the door.
“Marco?”
“Yes?”
“Are any images missing? I’m looking for a girl I knew before when I was captain of the Jessica and Barthelme was chief. Her name is Jaylen Voss.”
“Computer, is there a Jaylen Voss in the image archive?”
“No, sir,” came the reply. The old man shrugged.
Jolo checked the room Marco said he had slept in several years back. He found clothes that fit better than his stolen Fed blues, and he also found a beautiful, leather holster for his gun, but there were no hints of her existence. Why would there be? he wondered. It was forbidden by Fed regulations, so he’d tried to keep it hidden, he supposed.
Jolo left the library and wandered around the dark house, finally ending up in Katy's room. He sat down on the edge of her bed. He moved the hair from her forehead lightly with his finger and checked the bandage that the med-bot replaced earlier. He didn't see the blood stain anymore so he figured the wound was healing.
Suddenly Katy woke up and grabbed his hand. "Dansby?" she said.
"Who's that?" asked Jolo.
"Just some dumb boy on Mephis 4. Why are you here?"
"I couldn't sleep." And he just looked at her for a moment. "Are you my friend?"
She sat up in the bed, realized she was still holding his hand, and pretended to pull the sheets closer with both hands as if she was cold. "Of course I'm your friend."
"Well that's good, because I think you're the oldest friend that I have, besides Barthelme. But I didn't know him for very long."
"What's the matter?"
"I can't get her out of my mind."
She sighed. "Sounds like love."
"No. I think there's more to it. My mind isn't right. I remember things."
"You mean you remember your past?"
"No. Nothing from the past. But I remember everything from the time I was in the escape pod."
"Well, that's good, isn't it."
"Well, it’d be good if it was normal. But I remember everything. Just after I escaped, I ran through the plaza. Do you know how many trees there are lining the walkway from the judicial building to the beginning of the park?"
Katy sat up a little taller and tilted her head. "Of course not."
"I do. There's 83. I know because last night I couldn't sleep and I replayed the escape in my mind like it was a movie. And I counted every tree. I can tell you the exact color of the flowers that grew beside the bench at the entrance to the park. I remember the names and serial numbers written on the uniforms of all four Marines that tried to take me down. I remember color of their eyes, the weapons they carried, the size of their feet. The short one was Johnson, serial number 38169473288zxc.7. He carried the standard Fed-issue energy weapon, but I don't think he used it very often because there were no scratches on it and his hands were white and soft like he’d been sitting at a desk. Now the tall one, Yoshikawa, serial number 3847294--"
"Stop," said Katy. "I get the picture."
"Do you think I'm strange?"
"Yes," she said smiling. "But strange in a good way. You're a good person. But for now, let’s keep your super memory between us." She patted him on the hand. “Go to bed, Captain.”
Jolo went back to his room and lay down on his bed. He took a few deep breaths, feeling better after talking to Katy. He closed his eyes and immediately went to sleep for the first time since he’d been there.
He dreamed about Jaylen again. It was like she was calling to him, urging him on. It was the same dream as before. The BG had her in a jail cell. She was frail and thin. They prodded her with their energy weapons and so she cried. Occasionally, they let her out, and this is where the dream was different. For the first time Jolo could see the trees surrounding the large building that held prisoners.
The trees were tall and had three large leaves just like he had seen in his dream before, when he was fighting with the Federation against the BG, when he had pain in his side and he thought he was going to die on the beach. Barthelme was there. It was the same place. And then the dream shifted to daytime and Jaylen was outside. And next to the three-leafed trees was a large pool in the shape of a diamond with green water, shimmering in the sunlight, and it looked odd and beautiful next to the drab BG prison.
Jolo woke up with a start and looked around in the darkness. At first he didn't know where he was, and then he remembered. The image of the diamond-shaped pool and the strange trees were still fresh in his mind so he asked his computer about it.
Computer, Jolo thought, which planets have large trees with three large triangular shaped leaves?
There are 3,475 herbaceous life forms with a three leaf structure. The most common, and largest variety, is a tree called the trivold, typically found in the planets near Vellos and New Racelle.
Computer, do you know of a diamond shaped pool with green water?
In Federation space?
Yes, Federation space and three jumps beyond the edge.
There are 42,761 man-made green pools in the image archive, there are eight with a diamond configuration.
Show all eight at two second intervals.
Instantly images appeared in Jolo's mind. The first few were smaller pools next to residential houses which looks to be well within Federation space. One looked to be natural but there was no building next to it. And the rest were natural pools that had somewhat of a diamond-shape but nothing that looked like the pool in his dream.
Computer, restrict the search to Vellos and New Raceli space.
Zero matches, came the reply.
Jolo walked down to the large bay where the Jessica was. He found Koba working on the computer array. Two logic boards were lying on the deck and he was reaching into one of the climate controlled logic bays, his arms and head most of the way in.
"Koba, where is Hurley?"
Koba extracted himself from the logic bay holding a small board. "Gotcha," he said,
with a smile on his face. "Don't you want to know what I'm doing?"
"Okay. What are you doing?" said Jolo.
"I'm gonna make the Jessica obey all of your commands."
"Great, so I won't have to call down and have Hurley manually engage the jump drives."
"I think Hurley is on level IV."
Jolo found Hurley working on the right thruster mounts.
"Gotta reinforce everything from the inside. It should be stronger than before, and maybe a tad heavy. Probably probably just outside of fed specs." He laughed.
"Hurley, back in the day, before the wars, did you see the trivold trees in Vellos"
"I been to Vellos. Ain’t much left of it now, though. Also been to New Raceli. Tho’ I ain’t never seen no tri-hole or whatever you talking about."
"You know, the strange trees with the three large leaves. Have you seen it?"
"Ahhh, yeah I seen ‘em. Why didn't you say that in the first place?"
"How about a diamond-shaped green pool somewhere in Vellos or Raceli?"
Jolo was excited because it was the first time anyone had ever confirmed a part of his dream. He looked at the old man expectantly, waiting for the final confirmation, but the old man looked off to the side and massaged his temple with the spanner he was holding and finally just shook his head. "Nope. Ain't never seen nothing like that."
Jolo was deflated. But right then a voice behind him said, "You are talking about the Emerald pool on the moon called Montag in Vellos space."
Jolo turned around. It was his father.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I've been there. For a while there was trade between the Vellos and some of the Federation core planets. Around the time I met your mother. Before we went to Pleny to try our hand at farming."
"Are you sure?"
"I've never seen anything else like it. The Vellos said the pool had healing properties, but who knows. I'm not sure the BG left anything behind. They tore apart the Vellos and their synthetic life form production plants."
"I've got to get there. I've got to leave now." The pull that drew Jolo to Jaylen was stronger than ever now. He was going to get her if it was the last thing he did.
Just then Koba called on the comm. "Captain, can you come to the bridge? I think you can give the Jessica commands now."
At that moment, Jolo really wasn't interested in testing out the computer system. But he knew he needed to have full access to the ship if he was going to get Jaylen. Up to this point, engaging the jump drives meant someone had to run down to engineering, and even raising the shields had to be done from the console on the bridge, instead of just a simple voice command.
So he and his father went to the bridge and met Koba and Katy.
"Computer, close the door the bridge," said Jolo. The door to the bridge slid shut. Koba smiled.
"Computer pull up the star map." And the 3D star map appeared.
"Computer raise shields."
But the shields did not go up.
"Computer, this is Captain Vargas. Raise the shields."
"Captain Vargas is deceased." Came the reply from ship’s computer.
Koba scratched his head. "Well, obviously it's only accepting a subset of the total commands which require less permissions. I also gave bridge officers some authority as well. Katy you try."
"Raise the shields," Katy said. And instantly there was an electric hum and the air got tingly around them as the forward shields kicked in and the field surrounded the ship.
And then Koba said, "Lower shields." And just like that the hum was gone.
"Well, that's a pisser," said Hurley.
"It sure is strange," said Koba. "It's almost like the ship thinks you're dead."
"Brilliant deduction," said Katy.
"Let's do a test," said Koba. "Computer, how many deceased humans are aboard this ship?"
"There are no deceased humans aboard this ship."
Koba shrugged.
"How many humans are aboard this ship?" said Koba.
"Four."
"Well, there's five of us here," said Marco. But everyone was looking at Jolo. He sat in the captain’s chair not knowing quite what to make of it.
But then Koba asked the question that everyone was afraid to ask. "Computer, how many synthetic life forms are aboard the ship?"
Jolo jumped up and put his gun to Koba's head. "You've had it in for me ever since I did what I had to do to save the ship. If you can't handle that, then leave."
And then the computer replied: "One."
Jolo dropped the gun and fell to his knees. How could this be? He thought. Katy came and put her arm around him.
But then Jolo's father spoke up. "Jolo is no synth." And then he got on the comm. "George, are you on the ship again? I told you not to board the ship. If you are here come on up to the bridge."
And everyone looked at Marco, and wondered who George was. A moment later a man walked in that no one had yet seen. His skin was nearly opaque and he had piercing blue eyes. His movements were graceful but when he stopped it was as if he was made of stone and then all at once movement started again. "I’d like everyone to meet George," said Marco. "He is a dear friend and a great help around here, and is, in fact, a synthetic life form."
Katy stepped back suspiciously.
George stepped into the middle of the circle of people, clearly enjoying the attention.
"My name is George. I am a synthetic life form, as Mr. Marco has so cogently pointed out. Though you may not have noticed. You may think I am human, but alas, I am not." And he smiled at everyone and did a small bow. "Oh, and one more thing. I love to eat human brains." Then he smiled real big and looked right at Katy and leaned in her way.
Katy screamed and stepped back behind Jolo.
The synthetic life form named George looked confused. He stared at the people, assessing their reaction. And then he turned to Marco. "Mr. Marco, was that not humorous?"
"Yeah, it was funny," said Marco. "But most people are still afraid."
"Totally unwarranted," said George, slightly miffed.
"Of course."
Jolo took a deep breath. There was still the issue of him being dead and all hanging out there. "I'm no synth," said Jolo, eyeing Koba angrily.
"But you are not human, either," said Koba.
And then Marco spoke up. "Jolo, you are my son. And I accept you. You’re a good person with feelings and heart. All of the things that you did before, all of the things that you can't remember, are still inside of you. And you’re still doing it. The people you saved on Qualus. That's exactly what Jolo would have done. And it's because you are Jolo."
And then George spoke up. "Mr. Marco, can I scan him? My scanners are far superior to the Federation junk."
Marco looked at Jolo, then Jolo looked at Katy, and she nodded to him, held his arm.
"Okay," said Jolo.
George stood in front of Jolo and waved his hands in front of his face, then in front of his body down to his feet. And then he stood up, still as a statue with his head slightly tilted for a full minute.
"Well?" said Marco, finally.
"He is not synthetic. He’s biological, and more," said George. "Though he is not completely the man you knew as Jolo, your son."
"That doesn't make sense. Who am I?" yelled Jolo.
"You are you," said George.
"Why does the ship say that I am dead?" said Jolo.
"Because Jolo Vargas is dead," said George. And then he tilted his head again. "Yet some of him remains, in you."
"So I'm some of Jolo? It doesn't make sense."
"How much?" said Marco.
"52.87% matches the DNA structure of Jolo Vargas. The rest is purely biological, yet not quite human. And there's something else." At this point Jolo started to back away from the rest of the group. He felt the need to run, to escape. It was too much. And then George continued, "he has a chip in his brain. The work is fantastic. I've never scanned anything quite like it." And G
eorge looked at Jolo with admiration.
Jolo started running. He ran straight to the edge of the bay and Katy screamed. But Jolo stopped and looked down. He felt the wind on his face and he saw a bird gliding down above the stream at the bottom of the ravine.
Then he turned and ran back into the house.
……
Marco and Katy came to see Jolo in the atrium a few hours later. They brought some vegetables. Real tomatoes.
“So did the Fed know?” asked Jolo.
“Maybe, maybe not,” said Marco. “They knew you weren’t a synth, that’s for sure. But were willing to send you away because they were afraid.”
“Oh what?” said Katy.
“Of stirring up the military. Of making people realize that the BG aren’t our friends. Jolo Vargas is a liability to the Federation that wants peace with the Devil himself. If the people knew you were alive there might be trouble. There are enough of us who don’t like what the President has done—this alliance with the BG, this false peace that we now have might be broken.”
“That’s what Barthelme said,” said Jolo. “There was more going on than everyone suspected.”
“He’s right,” said Marco. “You don’t need to look further than Duval. Why has alacyte production ramped up? They got transports working 24/7. What do you do with alacyte?”
“You build ships,” said Katy.
“And weapons,” said Marco. “And the Fed is happy to let them with no questions asked.”
“I am not Jolo. Just tell them,” said Jolo. “Tell them to go away. Jolo is dead and I’m just some… I don’t know what I am.”
“I don’t care what you believe, but I know you are my son. You are Jolo. And if some scan says otherwise, I don’t care. The words out of your mouth are Jolo. The things you do are Jolo. And it doesn’t matter whether you believe it or not, the Federation and the BG want you dead.”
Hostility (Jolo Vargas Space Opera Series Book 3) Page 2