Chapter Twelve: Fighting to Move On

“I would prefer it if you ate inside your quarters,” he said.

“I wouldn’t,” Kate responded. “But I don’t want the people to see me like this.”

“You don’t look troubled,” Omari told her. “You’re very much like your mother.”

“Stoic?”

“Strong.”

Kate closed her eyes for a moment. She didn’t feel strong, especially at this moment.

“I’ve never spoken to such a large crowd,” she admitted, “and I’ve never given a eulogy. Lucas’s father was the closest loss I’ve known, before today. This will not be easy.”

Omari stood still near the entrance to the door. He did not know what to say. He felt the loss in a very different way. For him, the focus was on Sun.

He was assigned to protect her for many years, and she was almost lost. However, here on this moon base Kate was his charge. It was his job to protect her, not to be her confidant, or her friend.

“I will have your meal brought to your quarters,” he told her, bowed and left abruptly.

When Kate first considered what her duties would be as the representative for the return of the Odyssey, she realized she would have to speak to large crowds. This was different. Millions of people would be listening to her.

The Martian colonies, moon colonies and Jupiter Station would join Earth in a service for Yori that stretched across the solar system. Since Kate was at Shackleton Base, she would be speaking to the millions of people across the five moon colonies and the hundreds of smaller bases scattered across its surface.

Kate stared at the tablet in her hand, wondering how she could explain to all those strangers that he was more than just a librarian. He was more than just the keeper of the box. Even she didn’t understand at first.

The first time she really spoke to Yori was when her father took her to The Library. It was right after her mother had decided that Kate would be the next Alexander to serve as the council chair. She didn’t really understand what that meant back then, but she knew she had to start studying for a very important job.

She and her father met Yori in the very atrium where he was killed only days ago. They took her inside the vault where the box was kept. She thought it was beautiful. The metal box with intricate markings rose up from the table in the center of the room like magic.

Her father told her to place her hand inside. The markings lit up and she could feel something happening. Then her father placed his hand on top of the box. He closed his eyes and Kate could see a question flash before her eyes. How many galaxies were there in the universe?

Moments later she could almost feel the information flow from one side of her hand to other. Her father opened his eyes and took his hand off the box. He repeated the answer to her out loud and it was the same one she had felt. When she took her hand away from the box, the markings grew dark.

Kate thought it was the most amazing thing she had ever experienced. She asked her father if she could be a librarian when she grew up, but he reminded her that she already had a very important job.

At first, Kate was upset but Yori told her that every time someone asked a question, they would write it down and add it to the library. She could always come visit him and read all the questions and answers. She showed up early the next morning and kept returning until the day she left for Shackleton Base.

•••

James spent time in the training room everyday. He practiced forms, meditated or worked out. It was his favorite place in the compound, the place he felt most comfortable. Everyone knew where to find him, including his father.

William arrived with his staff in his hand. He believed James still needed to earn his place on the council. And defeating his father in a fight would be one way to do that.

James stopped training when the doors opened and immediately turned to face his father. The sweat dripped from his brow as he bowed before him. William walked straight up to James, faced him and bowed in return. The two immediately fell back into fighting stances and the battle began.

James attacked first with a swift swing of his staff. William simply leaned back to avoid the blow, as a small bolt of electricity stretched out from the end of his staff. It hit James at the waist, pushing him back and almost knocking him off his feet.

With his opponent unsteady, William stabbed his staff at James’ gut and struck him with another small bolt. He then swung his staff around and hit his left bicep. None of the moves were fatal, but like bee stings each bite made James more and more uncomfortable.

For a moment, James wanted to start swinging widely at his father. Something had to hit the old man. Instead, he braced himself for the next blow. William had quickly swung his staff around for another sting at the right bicep.

James took the hit, using that moment to gain his composure. He considered the chessboard before him, planning rather than reacting. He grasped the staff with both hands, taking a defensive posture.

William did the same and the two clashed their staffs, end to end for several strikes. Eventually, James knelt down and slammed his staff to the ground. A strong shockwave swept across the floor. James looked up to see his father jump over it like rope.

He quickly swung his staff around, trying to take out his father’s footing as he landed back on the ground. But William slammed his staff down directly in front of his ankle, halting the attack. He swung his staff upward and continued it around to strike at James’ head, but James somersaulted backward and stood upright, ready to take on his father again.

“Enough!”

Both men turned around to see Sun standing in the doorway of the training room. They pulled their staffs to their sides and bowed at each other.

“I do not need the two greatest warriors in the family destroying each other,” she said. “Both of you will follow me now.”

As she stepped outside the doors, father and son looked at each other and smiled. Then they turned and exited behind her.