Chapter Twenty-Two: Between the Lines

She smacked the staff against the practice dummy; then swung it around again for another blow. Back and forth she hurled it until the sweat began dripping from her brow. She ended her session with a stab to the torso area.

Kate set time aside every cycle, or one day on the moon, to work out in the base training room. She released frustrations and stayed in shape, which was not easy in low gravity.

These days it had another advantage. She could clear her mind and plan her escape from Omari.

The first step in that getaway was complete. Since Omari gave the base librarian security clearance to spend time with her, he and Kate were able to spend hours alone. The purpose was to review the logs from the Odyssey. The ship had been gone almost 150 years, so they needed to spend a lot of time reviewing every word. It also gave her an opportunity to ask him for a favor.

The librarian was older than Kate’s father, so Omari brushed away any idea of an affair. The two were left to work without disruption. That’s when Kate asked the librarian for something he could tell no one about. She was an Alexander. Of course, the answer was yes.

Kate asked him to supply her with blueprints for Shackleton Base and Station Beta. The station was close enough to Shackleton to get there quickly, but far enough away that it would take time for Omari to even suspect it. The librarian gave her the shuttle schedules, staff schedules, anything and everything that would help her find a way out.

Beta was designed for deep core drilling and long term gravity experiments. Only a few scientists spent a great deal of time there, so Kate would be out of place. She would have to move through quickly, maybe as a garbage or storage worker.

And, of course, she would have to be disguised. Being an Alexander gave her the ability to get the plans in the first place, but without the right disguise they would be worthless.

Kate let her thoughts drift, wondering what she could pretend to be and what would it feel like to be someone else. Someone that no one knew, someone that no one cared to know. That’s when Omari entered the training room and ripped her from those dreams.

“Miss Alexander,” he called out from the doorway.

“Yes,” she answered.

“You requested I inform you when Io’s shuttle departed Earth,” he said.

“Yes?”

“It has just left, m’am.”

Kate quickly turned toward the door and exited the training room. Never looking directly at Omari, not once.

“Thank you,” she said as she passed by.

Kate headed to her quarters to dress for the occasion. Io would dock at Shackleton Base in a couple of hours.

•••

“Hello, mother,” James said, still standing in front of the site where Yori was killed.

“Hello, James,” she responded. What she really wanted to do was scream. She even dreamt, just for a moment, of dropping to her knees and weeping at what her family had become.

“What are the two of you doing here?” James asked.

“Looking for you,” William said, knowing it was a lie. He and Sun were headed to the vault. “Yes, I wanted to let you know that I’ve sent Io’s bodyguard with her to Shackleton Base.”

“What?” James asked.

“I understand you were concerned because some of the incriminating messages surrounding Yori’s death were sent from his station.”

“Yes.”

“But, I can vouch for his whereabouts at the time of those transmissions,” Williams told him. “I have evidence that will exonerate him.”

James paused. “It is for me to clear him, father,” he said. “That is my duty as the Commander.”

“Yes, son, I understand. But since I was in charge of the original investigation I am privy to facts you may not be.”

“What facts?”

“The transmissions originated from somewhere else,” William said. “I can show you where they came from. Would you like to see the evidence?”

“Yes,” James said. “But not now. Perhaps tomorrow would be better.”

“Very well.”

William and Sun knew that James was responsible, but to confront him, to accuse an Alexander. This was a road no one before them had traveled. The two had just started to talk about it. They had just realized what their own son had been plotting against them. It was not the time for a confrontation.

So, William continued to play the game. He looked down at the hole in the ground, “we haven’t spent time here since Yori was assassinated,” he told James. “Perhaps this is the right moment to begin healing that wound.”

James felt his heart soften. He was reluctant to even speak. Then he looked back at the hole in the ground, and responded with an honesty he had long forgotten.

“The hole is deep,” he said.

“It is,” William responded. “But, perhaps it can be mended.”

James looked over at his mother. “Do you think it can be mended, mother?”

“I don’t know,” she told him.

Chapter Twenty-One: Change of Hearts

Kate went to visit Omari in his new command center on the far side of the base. She knocked politely, entered when asked, and stood at attention in front of his desk.

"Does this mean we're speaking to each other?" he asked, still looking down at the glass panel in his hands.

"Enough, Omari."

"What's the problem this time?"

"This personal attachment you seem to have," she said. At this he stopped reading and looked up at her.

"I think it's impeding your ability to perform your duties," she continued. "And it needs to end right here, right now."

"My personal attachment? What are you talking about?" he demanded, standing up to face her.

"Lately, you have been too involved with my private life, and I believe you’ve forgotten to behave like a professional. You need to either ignore any feelings you may have for me or remove yourself from this position."

"I don't have any feelings for you," he asserted.
"Call it whatever you want, but things have become too personal and I think it's affecting your job."
"The only thing affecting my job is your irresponsible behavior."
"My behavior should be irrelevant."
"You've been behaving like a child, and forcing me to act like your babysitter."

"That’s exactly the type of talk I’m referring to."
"What talk?" he screamed. "Your cooperation is essential to your security."

"Not if you're good at your job," she said sternly. "Omari, you haven’t been behaving like a member of my security team."

"And how have I been behaving?"

"Like a jealous boyfriend."
Omari stood still and silent. A part of him agreed with her. He had been speaking to her on a personal level.

When he watched over Sun, he hardly ever spoke to her. Once in a while, he would brief her on security procedures for certain events. But that was it.

His relationship with Kate had taken a different turn. He had even shared with her his memory of their first encounter. Perhaps it had gone too far.
"Our bodyguards are not supposed to be seen or heard,” she told him. “Focus on your job or I'll demand someone else do it."

After several minutes of silence, Kate spoke up again.

"I’m headed to the library to do some research," she told him. "I will need to spend time with the base librarian. Please, complete your procedures for clearing him so that we can work together."

"Yes, m’am." Omari stepped outside and called over one of the base officers. He told him to escort Kate to the library and watch over her until he arrived.

Kate and the officer walked off. She did not speak to Omari again, or even turn back to look at him. Her plan was underway, so she kept her gaze on the path ahead. No matter how difficult it was.

•••

James followed his parents from the council chamber. He had gone there to speak with his mother about Ceres. The plan was to plant seeds of doubt and paranoia, about anyone but him really. But, as he approached the balcony, he heard his father’s voice.
He couldn’t make out exactly what they said, but somehow he knew they were speaking about him. He couldn’t shake his concerns that they had figured him out. He believed his father had, and what he caught was his father sharing that information with his mother.

He stood behind the curtains near the balcony, trying desperately to hear their words. He could only make out a few, but his mind filled in the rest. And, the paranoia grew like a wildfire.

When the two left the balcony, he stood behind the curtain as motionless as his shaking hands would allow. They passed through the council chamber and into the main alcove. He slowly opened the doors to the chamber and peeked out just in time to witness the couple step inside the library’s vestibule.
James continued to follow them through the library. They walked past the map rooms, and toward the Alexander wing, exactly where he anticipated they were going.

But they did not stop.
They moved past the entrance to the wing and continued to walk, down into the depths of the library toward his father's office. James watched the pair enter the hallway that ended with the door to the Curator's office. What was his father doing? No one was allowed in there except the Curator.

He stood by the entrance to the hallway for some time wondering what was happening inside. Did Yori have evidence against him? What was so important that his father could not take the evidence to his mother; he had to take Sun to the evidence? He needed to speak with his aunt.
James decided to leave the library. He walked out through the lower exit near the vault, the spot where Yori had died. He had not been there in person since Yori's death. 
Standing in the atrium, the damage from the explosion was still visible. Columns were missing. Piles of stone were waiting to be removed. He eyed the cracks across the stone floor as they crept up the walls and into the ceiling like bony fingers.
This is what he had done.

He was the one responsible for this destruction. He placed his hand on his chest, trying to grip the heaviness within, and started to cringe when the door to library opened.

William and Sun stopped. They looked at their son staring at the hole in the ground. James looked at his parents, and noticed his mother glance over at the doors to the vault.

Chapter Twenty: Enemy Number One

Escape was the only answer.

Omari would be humiliated if he lost Kate. He would have to send for Eric. No one would believe could do a better job after that.

Kate wasn’t even sure if she wanted Eric back. But she was positive that she wanted revenge. Omari was the enemy.

She sat in her quarters, considering the best way to take her enemy out. If she wanted to put Omari in his place, she would have to leave the base. Simply hiding out for an hour or two wouldn’t do it. He could cover it up, or simply lie about losing sight of her.

But, if he discovered she wasn’t even at Shackleton Base. That would be the kind of revenge she was looking for.

Now she needed to come up with a plan.

At first, she considered catching one of the shuttles back to Earth. But in order for that to work, she would have to hide on the shuttle until it headed out. Such a small space left too much opportunity for discovery and failure.

That’s when it hit her. She didn’t have to leave the moon at all. Almost thirty bases dotted the moonscape. All she had to do was get to another one.

The nearest base wasn’t necessarily the best choice. One further away, a small lab a few kilometers south, was not as heavily guarded. It was a science station, focusing primarily on long term experiments. It was never intended for tourists or secret testing.

That would be the one.

“Kate?”

She sat up quickly, waking from her daydream, and looked over at her communicator. She had been waiting for this call.

“Kate, are you there?”

“I’m here,” she said walking over to her desk, “go ahead.”

“It’s the same,” the base librarian told her, “identical transmissions over the next five years. What I’m wondering, though, is why no one picked it up before? Now that I’m looking, it seems so obvious.”

“But you’re looking,” Kate said. “We never had any reason to question the logs.”

“Someone must have seen it,” the librarian said.

“Like who?”

“What about Yori?” he asked. “He would have reviewed every log before it was added to the library.”

Kate realized he was right. Yori would have reviewed every log. He would have been the one to notice something was wrong. And he was the one who was murdered.

•••

Sun followed her husband into the depths of the library, neither one saying a word.

She did not want to be there. The Curator’s office was underneath the library, deep within the ground. It was the place where the keeper of the box could hide, a place where the secrets the box held would be safe from the outside.

No one was allowed to even enter the hallway, let alone the office. William knew this. He had always followed the rules. He had always been one to respect the traditions of the family.

But something changed. He did not explain to Sun why he was taking her there; why he was changing the rules without asking. But, Sun knew he must have a reason. So she followed.

At the end of a long hallway she had never stepped foot in was a large, oak door with the Alexander family tree carved in its center and no handle, only a small glass panel on one side.

William walked up to the door and placed his hand on the panel. The door opened to reveal a circular space. A wooden desk sat in the center and shelves lined the walls. Sun stepped inside and began walking slowly around the room, examining the multitude of artifacts and objects around her.

Then William spoke up, breaking her concentration.

“Sun?” he asked. “You need to look at something.”

She quickly walked over to his desk. William had placed everything on the desk exactly as it was when he first entered the room. Even Yori’s journal was open to its final page and an open pen rested between the pages.

“This is how I found the desk when I first entered,” he told Sun. “What strikes you first?”

“Why is the professor’s map here?” Sun asked.

“I had the same question and it led me to find this.” William picked up Yori’s journal and showed Sun an entry from the week before his death. As she read, she slowly sat down in the worn, leather desk chair. After flipping through a couple of pages, she looked up at William with shock and sadness in her eyes.

“Keep reading,” he said and placed his hand on her shoulder. Sun continued until she finally got to the last entry. When she finished, she placed the journal back on the desk and cupped her face in her hands.

“Why wouldn’t they have warned us?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Maybe they did,” William said. “That’s what the box is for, to help us survive.”

“Then why haven’t we discovered them before?”

“We haven’t asked the right question,” he answered.

Sun stood up abruptly and said, “then let’s ask the right question.”

The two left the office behind and headed to the vault where the box was kept. One could open the box; the other could ask the question.

Chapter Nineteen: Prelude to War

When Kate learned Omari had plans to send her personal bodyguard, Eric, back to Earth she was furious. But she realized, since he was her mother’s former bodyguard, he might respond better to a diplomatic approach. So, she gave herself a day to calm down, a day to let the water stop boiling.

He had set up the new command center for her protection detail in the very room she tried to escape through less than a week before, with Eric’s help, of course. He was constantly moving his base of operations. He said it kept him on his toes, and his enemies guessing.

Kate opened the door to this office focused on her goal, getting him to allow Eric to stay. As she stepped inside, he was just finishing a conversation on his communicator.

“I’ll get back to you shortly,” he said. “I have a visitor.”

Kate calmly waited for him to end the transmission and look up at her. “I’ve learned you’re sending Eric back to Earth,” she told him.

“I’ve already sent him back,” he responded.

“What?”

“He left yesterday.”

“How dare you make personnel changes without speaking to me first,” she snapped.

“I felt it was best.”

“You feel nothing.”

“Actually, that is the best approach for a bodyguard.”

“How can a guard protect someone he doesn’t care anything about?”

Omari said nothing. He was placid, missing the natural tension that defined him. Kate was also silent, refusing to give in to her desire to wail and rage against him.

“He’s been my personal bodyguard for years, and I trust him,” she said stoically.

Omari stood up from his desk to face her. “I saw you kissing in the training room,” he stated.

Kate was silent.

“I know about your affair, and it complicates and compromises your security,” he added.

“I am not having an affair with anyone,” she lied. She had thought Omari was ignorant to her relationship with Eric. She thought she had fooled everyone.

As her mind began to wonder how many others knew, or if Omari was the only one, he spoke up. “I haven’t told anyone,” he said.

“I don’t care what you tell anyone,” she said.

“You used your beauty and power to manipulate him,” he stated, pointing at her like a schoolchild. “You even used him to try to escape my security in this very room. And, I already have someone else in mind.”

“No one else will have my trust,” she said.

“I will be your bodyguard.”

“I certainly don’t trust you,” she responded out of vengeance.

“I am the most qualified,” he barked. He then realized his emotions were getting the best of him, and sat down slowly. “It will make Eric’s departure appear less suspicious. Besides Io arrives tomorrow with four additional guards.”

“Io arrives?”

“Of course.”

“Io is coming here?” she asked.

“She will be joining us for the Odyssey’s arrival,” he told her. “I thought you had been informed.”

“It seems I’ve been kept in the dark,” she said. “Just how you like it.”

Without waiting for a response, Kate stormed out of his office, heading back to her quarters. As she walked down the corridor, she whispered to herself. “This is war.”

•••

Sun stood on the balcony of the council chamber, looking out across the compound. Her hair was tied back, without a single strand out of place. Her posture was straight, her shoulders back and her hands rested on the railing. She looked like a soldier standing watch, not a family matriarch enjoying an evening breeze.

William walked up beside her, and placed his hand over hers.

“It’s a beautiful evening,” he said.

“Out here, yes, it is,” she responded.

“We must talk about it,” he told her.

“Very well,” she said, taking in a deep breath. “He is conspiring, isn’t he?”

“It’s true, he is,” William admitted.

“I thought he might be. Is it power he seeks?”

“Perhaps,” he answered. “But, it may be something more.”

“It’s about me.”

“And your decision to choose Kate.”

“He’s never accepted that.”

“I don’t believe so,” he said.

“And Ceres has taken advantage of his weakness.”

“It’s in her nature to take advantage.”

“How long ago did you see it?” Sun asked.

“I was only convinced recently,” he told her.

“I noticed the time they spent together could be a problem,” Sun admitted. “Perhaps I chose look away.”

“And there is evidence he was involved in Yori’s death,” William admitted.

“There was no sorrow in his face,” she said. “What would you suggest we do?”

“For now, we can only watch, wait and prepare,” he told her.

“Very well,” she said, dropping her chin and closing her eyes.

“Unfortunately, my son’s betrayal is not my greatest concern.”

“How could it not be?” Sun turned to face him.

William stood and stretched out his hand to her, “come with me.”

Sun placed her hand in his and followed him out of the council chamber. The two headed toward the library.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked as they crossed the vestibule.

“To my office,” he answered.

“It’s forbidden for anyone except the Curator of the Library to enter that room,” Sun reminded him. “There’s a reason for that rule, William.”

He stopped in the center of the vestibule to the library, taking both her hands and looking her in the eyes. “Things have changed,” he said.

Sun could tell by his tone and expression something was different. Something had shifted in their world.

For William, it was time for the Curator to step outside the solitude of the library and begin to gather his troops.