by William Wood
“Thank you,” Calvin said, trying not to sound too sarcastic. He earned a look from Astra, so he knew he wasn’t entirely successful.
Calvin and Astra watched the jet take off from one of the bedroom windows. It flew away over the mountains and disappeared.
An ominous feeling of doom slowly gathered over Calvin and Astra, hovering like a dark cloud for the next two days.
Calvin found it hard to sit still. He wondered how Stronberg could convince the council that the war was over, and the galaxy was now a safe place? The senate was officially in charge of the planet, but the real power behind the government was the Security Council. If they could be convinced, then maybe the world of New Arlandia could be changed. Calvin talked for hours about his dream for the planet; that the Space Command would be allowed to develop new ships and explore the galaxy. That was a future he wanted to live in.
After dinner, late in the evening of the sixth day since they arrived at the mountain retreat, they were lying on the couch watching a news report. It was interrupted and a live feed went to the large dome in the middle of New Arlandia City. A caption at the bottom of the screen said, ‘Senate in lockdown.’ Calvin sat bolt upright.
“Is this as bad as I think it is?” Astra asked, sitting up and holding Calvin’s hand.
“Maybe not,” Calvin said. “If the Security Council was going to brief the senate on what was going on, they would more than likely kick the media out of there.”
The camera view moved to a woman, just outside the senate building. She droned on and on about the senate, and what the lockdown could mean. After an hour, the screen blanked out.
“What in the world?” Calvin said. “I think the planet’s going into panic mode.”
“Is that bad?”
“Well, they did this when the Sorenia went missing and the crew returned home in escape pods. Then again when the Goremog battleship checked out this area of space. I’m glad we’re here.”
“Me too.”
They spent the next week in isolation, something they were already used to and quite comfortable with. The midday sun was hanging directly overhead in the deep blue sky. There was a movie playing on the video screen, but neither of them were paying attention to it. Calvin was reading a magazine, and Astra was half asleep on the couch under a warm blanket. A fire blazed in the fireplace. Both of them were still in their pajamas. There was nowhere to go, therefore, no reason to get dressed today. Calvin felt rested; fully at peace. Whatever was happening in the world, he was certain it would take care of itself.
The roar of a jet overhead startled him. Astra sat up and looked at him quizzically.
“Are we expecting visitors today?” she asked.
“No,” Calvin said, standing up. “We aren’t.” He walked down to the elevator. The engine sound wound down and faded away. The dark red display on the wall showed the elevator moving through the sublevels. There was a soft ding, and the doors slid open. Out stepped Foster and Dawn Range. His father smiled when he saw Calvin and Astra waiting for them. Dawn looked worried.
“Mom, Dad,” Calvin said, surprised. “It’s good to see you. Is the emergency over? I thought you weren’t going to come back until things settled down.”
“The Security Council wants to interview you,” Foster said. “I reluctantly agreed to it; conditionally.”
He was almost afraid to ask. “What conditions?” he asked warily.
“We’ll talk about it on the way,” Foster said simply. “Go change into your dressuniform.”
“Yes sir,” Calvin said. He quickly headed to the bedroom, with Astra following him closely.
Calvin got ready as quickly as he could. Astra sat quietly, waiting. When he was finished, they walked back down to the living area together. Foster and Dawn were sitting on a couch, speaking in hushed voices.
When he saw them, Foster stood. “Ready?” he asked.
“Yes,” Calvin said. “Is Astra coming too?”
“Oh, no,” Foster said. “That wouldn’t be a good idea, right now. Your mother will stay with her, to keep her company. I’ll feel a lot better knowing they’re here, safe where nobody knows where they are.”
Astra held Calvin, and kissed him. “Be careful,” she said.
“I will,” Calvin said.
The elevator doors opened and they walked briskly to the jet. Four men stood around it, holding laser weapons out and ready.
They all climbed in and the jet took off. They flew low through the mountains, so low Calvin felt he could reach out and touch the tall evergreen trees.
Thirty minutes later the jet landed in a clearing in the forest where a car was waiting.
Once they were all inside, the car took off down a narrow winding road.
The ride into the city was short, at least it felt that way to Calvin. He was so worried about what the Security Council was going to ask. How would he answer? How much of the truth should he tell?
“Try to relax,” Foster said, looking at his son with concern. “Just stick to the truth, and you’ll be fine.”
Calvin stared out the window at the blur of trees passing by and patches of snow on the ground.
“I read your journal,” Foster said. “There’s nothing that happened to you that you need to hide from the council. But, and this is important,” Calvin turned to look at his father. Foster continued, “Do not tell them anything about the asteroid base, or the Laurite group. There’s no reason the subject should ever come up. You haven’t had a chance to be inducted into the group, formally, but you will. Part of that is taking an oath, to swear to keep all knowledge of the Laurites secret, even at the cost of your own life.”
Calvin looked into his father’s eyes; he was serious.
“Oh, and the Security Council will never be allowed to get near the Sorenia,” Foster said. “That’s why it was moved to the asteroid base three days ago.”
Twenty minutes later, the hover-car entered the city. The buildings gleamed in the sunlight, but the streets were deserted. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen a single vehicle on the ground or in the air since they left the house. It was a stark reminder of a government that was afraid of its own shadow, so afraid of losing control that it shut everything down to make sure it had total control of every moving piece of society. Those were the kind of people he was dealing with. Perhaps, and this scared him the most, common sense was not going to work with them.
The hover-car moved rapidly down the empty streets until it approached a short, round, windowless building. A gate opened, and they drove quickly through, passed several armed guards. They descended into a tunnel, down a tight, cork-screw road deep underground. Ten floors down the car entered a parking lot where a row of black hover-cars were lined up.
The car stopped at an elevator, and the doors were opened by a group of men in dark suits.
Foster and Calvin were led to the elevator. When the doors closed, Calvin felt the sudden seriousness of his situation, and he felt trapped. But, it wasn’t fear that he was feeling. He was nervous for sure, but scared? No.
After everything he’d been through; he could remember a dozen times that he should have been killed. Now he was about to face his own people. What were they in comparison? It wasn’t the same. This was just a meeting, not his execution.
They walked down a corridor, the walls were bare, light gray concrete. What kind of place was this? It felt like a bunker.
They entered a large dimly lit room. Calvin couldn’t gauge the full size of it. There was a square chamber in the middle, with aisles leading off in two directions. Rows of seats ascended into a dark haze above, but Calvin could see no way to get up to them; there was a five foot wall blocking the way. Many of the seats were occupied, but the only thing Calvin could see were the outlines of their heads; no details. The only area that was well lit, was a single chair sitting on an elevated platform. Three larger chairs faced it. Calvin was led to the single chair and told to sit down. In the three chairs in front of him
were seated two men and one woman, all of them were older and wore serious expressions. “This isn’t at all like the parade I hoped I would get,” Calvin thought to himself. “In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Now what? I’m going to get interrogated? This is perfect!” He chuckled at the irony, but wasn’t able to conceal it completely. His laugh echoed throughout the room. Foster gave Calvin a look that conveyed a heavy reprimand, as he was escorted out of the room.
“This way senator,” one of the armed men said.
Calvin glanced up to see his short display of emotion did little to amuse his interrogators. In fact, it accomplished the opposite. Calvin put on a serious face and looked down.
“Lieutenant Range,” one of the men said in a deep voice. “The Security Council hasn’t yet decided on whether to try you for treason yet, so I suggest you change your attitude.”
“Yes sir,” Calvin said simply. He would play the game. For several minutes the three talked quietly amongst themselves and shuffled paper around. Finally, the man in the middle put his papers down then stared at Calvin with cold, dark eyes.
“I don’t intend to rehash the testimony we’ve already heard from Senator Range, and the senior officers from Space Command. Information I feel was one-sided and useless. Yesterday we heard from the Space Intelligence Agency. Their statements were equally worthless because it seems they were completely in the dark on all of this. We studied the logs of the Sorenia; but I believe that was sanitized before it was delivered to us. We also conducted interviews with all crewmembers that launched with you, and were later recovered. Finally, we read your personal journal. What disturbs me is your account of the events of the last year, or rather, the details you failed to explain.” Calvin’s heart skipped a beat. What did the man just say? He read his personal journal? How did he get a copy of it?
“First of all,” the man continued. “Why didn’t you try to find a way home, after the Sorenia was captured? It doesn’t sound at all like you even tried.”
“What?” Calvin asked. “I thought you said you read my journal. Jax and I couldn’t get home. At first we didn’t know that we had been found by friendly forces, and we evaded capture. That was the smartest thing to do. The ship jumped into hyperspace. We couldn’t communicate with the robots that caught us, and by the time we could, we were light years away from here.”
“But you could have insisted the Alerians let you go,” the woman said. “You could have asked for a ship. From the sound of it, I’m sure they would have let you go.”
Calvin felt anger rising through his core. “And you think that would have been the best thing for us to do?” He said angrily. “Take a ship and leave, so they could track us all the way home? I made a judgment call, I had to. We couldn’t risk having them track us all the way home. Besides, I thought it was more important to try and save our world. Running home to my mommy wasn’t the best way to do that.” Unfazed, the second man began to speak, “Your account of the death of Lieutenant Jax Jovan was incomplete as well,” the second man said. “You said he was shot by a Goremog combat robot, but I don’t understand why it was necessary to go down to the planet in the first place. Why did you land on the surface of Aleria?”
“I already told you,” Calvin said, forcing himself to control his temper. “We couldn’t communicate with Ion, the Alerian robot in charge. He took us to the surface. As I understood it later, he was instructed to report there when he found Arlandian survivors. Just like I put it in my journal.”
“But it still doesn’t make sense,” the woman said, becoming agitated. “Why risk so much when he could have contacted the Alerians from the safety of the mothership.”
“No, you’re confused,” Calvin said. He stopped and took a deep breath before continuing. “Let me help you. Ion was tasked by the Alerian King, to find survivors of the Arlandian race; us. Because they needed us, it takes one Alerian and one Arlandian to open the vault doors and to fire the weapon that would save the entire galaxy from the Goremog. Get it? They needed us. So, it was one last desperate act. The Alerians were also being hunted to extinction, so the King sent Ion in the biggest ship they had, with the hopes that it would distract the Goremog, and keep them away long enough for them to plan their backup plan. Anyway, as a safety precaution, the King ordered total radio silence. When Ion left them, the Alerians were hiding was on their original home-world. King Fulton thought it would be the last place anyone would look. So Ion went back, unaware the Alerians had moved on. We went down to the surface to contact their base, which was under the citadel. You know the rest.”
The three members of the council wrote notes as Calvin spoke. “But why?” the first man asked. “Why build the weapon with such an obvious weakness? In all your time with them, did you think to ask?” “You saw the images,” Calvin said. Now he was tired of playing their game. It was obvious whatever they were trying to do, he was not going to win it. So with nothing to lose, he slowed his words, as if speaking to a child. “Never mind, I shouldn’t assume you did. But if you did see the scans that Sorenia took, you would have seen a level of destruction even you would fear. Imagine having that kind of power! Who should have access to something like that? What if the wrong people got it?”
Silence. Not a sound could be heard in the entire room. The three “interviewers” exchanged looks.
Finally, the woman spoke. “Speaking of the Alerians, we’ve been informed that you brought one home with you. Can you say with all certainty that the Alerians can be trusted, trusted enough not to reveal the location of our home? How can this be viewed as anything less that treason? Treason to your people, to your oath as an officer in Space Command?”
“My oath?” Calvin repeated, wondering how it applied. “This is all easy for you to say, sitting here in your nice, warm, safe prison planet where you have everyone locked up and in complete control. You have no idea what it’s like out there. The galaxy is a dangerous place, and here we sit, completely unprotected. It’s just a matter of time until some passing ship discovers us. Then what do you plan to do, send them an angry message to stay away. Maybe threaten them, and if they don’t stay away threaten them again. I'm telling you, I did what I had to do. I would do it all over again if it meant protecting this planet. An uncountable number of people have died, and we sit here fat, dumb and happy. But it’s not too late. We need to build a strong defense, not only to protect ourselves but to help others that are out there in the darkness crying out for help. That’s something you need to think about. But if you’re worried that I might have given away our location, or led others here to destroy us, you can put that to rest right now. Look at the scans, really look at them. Everyone that knew about us, has been destroyed. It’s all there in my journal. Why don’t you go back and read it again?”
The three whispered quietly back and forth for five minutes. Finally, the two on the end looked at the man in the middle.
“I think we’ve heard everything we need for now,” the man said. “Lieutenant Range, we are remanding you to the custody of the Space Intelligence Agency, to be held for further questioning. At least we know we can count on them for some semblance of impartiality.”
At that, two armed men stepped forward. Calvin stood, and followed them down the corridor, one walked in front of him and one behind. Calvin wondered where his father was. A dark cloud settled over him. What was going on? His father led him into this, and he needed to get him out of it.
Halfway down the corridor, and man stepped out from behind a door. He had a dark gray uniform on; Calvin recognized him instantly. Captain Vinder. The armed men stopped in front of Vinder and saluted. “Captain Vinder?” Calvin asked, but didn’t know what else to say. “Colonel, actually,” Vinder smiled a strange, uneven smile. “I was promoted. I’m in charge of the S.I.A. now. Let’s go this way.” Calvin and the two men followed. As soon as the door closed they put their weapons away.
“I take back everything I said about you,” Calvin said. Vinder laughed. “It’s good the
Security Council doesn’t know that the Laurite group owns the S.I.A.”
Vinder took him the back way to a special garage, where he was reunited with his father. Once back in the car, they were taken back out of the city.
“I have to ask,” Calvin said. “How did they get my journal, and why?”
“They got a special edition,” Foster smiled. “It was slightly altered, by us. We only gave them what we thought they needed. In this case, I thought it would be better to control what they read. You were, of course, free to tell them anything.”
“I’m glad we didn’t bring Astra.”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t have ended well,” Foster said. It took three different hover cars and they used two different jets to take them back to the mountain hide-away. Foster and Dawn returned to the city. Another week passed. Calvin’s father and mother returned. This time, it was to tell them that the lockdown was over. The government was finally convinced that the Goremog were not going to show up and destroy them. Also, Foster had the most powerful telescope ever made search deep space for evidence to prove Calvin’s story. The senate was not able to deny what they could see with their own eyes. There was massive damage to the center of the galaxy. All they could see was a large black void. That was compared to information provided by carefully screened scans from the Sorenia’s sensors. Then just like that, the emergency was over.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR:
WELCOME HOME PARTY
Four days later, Calvin stood on the balcony of his family home, looking up at the stars. The smell of wood fires filled the air, and the red, orange and gold leaves covered the trees. It reminded him of a similar night, standing on this very balcony with Jax before the mission began.
The last four days had been exhausting. He would have preferred to spend the evening alone with Astra. She’d been complaining of feeling sick. Even the smell of food made her feel nauseous. He could tell she was tired, and so was he. They’d been though a lot. He suppressed his worry of her for a moment, hoping it was the new environment that was getting to her.