Chapter Nine: The Left Turn

Maria glanced over the messages of the day: postings, rumors, headlines and the like. Most were not kind. Things like “Alexanders Arming Up,” or “Family Request Military Meetings,” or “Keepers of the Box Keeping Secrets.”

As the Ambassador of the family, it was her job to keep up with the talk. It was also her job to do what she could to combat any lies or damaging rumors. Maria looked over these comments wondering how she could do that without actually knowing the truth.

She understood that Sun and William had recently suffered a terrible blow when James betrayed them, but she also knew what kind of people they were. Suddenly turning into a warring tribe because one person deceived them; this was not the type of people they were. Something had to be going on. She was sure of it.

So, when there was a knock at her door Maria hoped for the best. She was right to, it was William.

“Come in.”

William poked his head in without a greeting and said, “Come with me.”

Maria said nothing. She stood up and followed him out the door; down the hall and into the depths of the library. Eventually they made their way to the atrium by the vault.

Armed guards stood in front of each marble column that stretched the length of the rectangular room. At the end of the open-roofed space were two guards in front a set of oak doors with no seams. They appeared to blend into the floor, the walls and the ceiling. Sun and Kate stood by these doors, waiting for the other two to arrive.

As Maria approached, Kate turned and placed her hand just to the right of the doors, and they opened. Everyone stepped inside a small, glass room with no windows or doors. Once they were inside, Kate placed her hand against the wall opposite the oak doors. A seam appeared and the wall split apart. As it separated, a large room revealed itself with seven chairs lining a wall that circled a square, black table with a glass-like skin. Kate approached the table and placed her hand on one end.

The glass separated and a smaller table rose up with a small, metallic box on it. The box was about ten inches in length and six inches wide with a rectangular hole visible on one side. The surface was covered with intricate markings that resembled ideographs.

“You can turn the box on,” William told Maria. “Just place your hand inside.”

“I know what to do,” she said defensively.

“It’s Ok,” Sun said, placing her hand on Maria’s shoulder. “I did the same thing. William asked this identical question, and I activated the box. Please, trust me. You’ll understand.”

Maria looked at the box reluctantly. Still, she slipped her hand inside. The markings began to light up, and William placed his hand on the top of the box. The markings glowed brighter and brighter.

Maria could almost feel William’s presence flow through her. She could sense him think. He wondered about the box, about Paul Alexander, about how the two came together. She could hear him repeat these thoughts in his mind, over and over. He formulated a question, and like a bolt of lightning the question flowed through her. Maria felt her thoughts stretch into an infinite catalogue of knowledge.

One single thought was captured in that infinite space. She could feel it travel through her and into William. She suddenly opened her eyes, returning to the room. She looked at William.

“That is why they gave us the box,” he said.

Maria knew is less than a second that they were in danger. The Nekuia were already coming, they had destroyed the Odyssey, and that was the purpose of the box. One race of beings had given another an edge. The information in it could give the human race just enough technological know-how to survive the attack.

She lifted her hand off the box and stepped back until she hit the wall. Finally, Maria dropped to her knees and wept. For the first time in her life she felt as though she didn’t matter. The Alexanders were not as important as she had thought. It was not about them. It never was.

William lifted her up into one of the chairs lining the wall, and placed an arm around her. He pulled her in tight and held her as she cried. But he said nothing. There was nothing he could say that would console her. Eventually she asked to go back to her quarters.

Kate walked over to the glass wall where they entered, and placed her hand on it. The wall separated and William led Maria out with Sun in tow.

The moment the group stepped into the atrium outside the vault, William’s communicator sounded. He looked at and immediately pressed a button.

“What is it?” he asked.

“We’ve been trying to contact you, sir,” the guard said. “He’s missing.”

“Who?”

“Lucas,” the guard responded. “He did not show up for a meeting with Fernando. The alarms were sounded and every guard deployed. The only thing we have found so far is an unauthorized individual guiding him to the shuttle bay.”

“What do you mean 'an unauthorized guard'?”

“We’ve never seem him before, and he cannot be identified,” the guard said. “I believe Lucas has been kidnapped.”

Chapter Eight: Image is Everything

William sat at the desk in his office working on a small, black device. He typed into his computer and connected it to the apparatus. Then he removed it, and tweaked it just a bit more.

When he was finished, he took a similar device from his desk. This one was gray. It was the same one he had held the day before, and showed James and Kate. For some time, he compared the gray and black devices.

Finally he said, “That’ll do it.”

Suddenly, his communicator sounded. He placed both the black and the grey objects in his desk, and answered it.

“Greetings, sir. I got your message,” Omari told him from Shackleton Base.

“Greetings to you. I requested your communication because I have an answer. I want you and Io to depart for Jupiter Station tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I don’t believe the Machinists will be a problem,” William said. “It’s unlikely the people who sent that letter are even affiliated with the original movement. Some one out there is just trying to get a piece of the political spotlight.”

“Could they be dangerous to her?”

“Not at all. If they wanted to hurt Io, their first move would not be to send a letter. They would have already taken action.”

“I still plan on keeping watch over her.”

“Good.”

“I’ve profiled the list of passengers you sent me, and will be keeping an eye on them as planned.”

“How many personnel do you have on your security team?”

“Fifteen on my personal staff, and we can utilize the ship’s security team as well,” Omari said.

“Don’t forget your job is to make sure Io returns one year from now. That is your only concern.”

“I understand.”

“Keep in contact. Communication is crucial in times like these.”

“Times like these, sir?”

“Nothing. Just keep watch over Io,” William said. “That’s the one thing I want you to do.”

“Understood.”

William ended the communication. He lifted his hand to his lips and sat in silence for some time, just thinking and contemplating, when a knock at his door lifted him out of the stupor.

He pushed a button on his viewer, and saw Maria, the Ambassador, standing outside the door to his office. He pushed another button, and the door opened.

She stepped inside. “We need to talk, William,” she said.

“What’s on your mind, Maria?”

“The people are talking about your recent actions.”

“That’s usually what people do.”

“The people know you have been recruiting heavily and scheduled meetings with every major military leader across the globe.”

“I have only scheduled two meetings.”

“More than one is enough for rumors to begin,” she said.

“I understand it is your job to observe and report on public opinion of this family, but we both know that rumors are rumors. We cannot react to every one.”

“Our image is dwindling,” she told him. “The credit this family gained after Yori’s death has been squandered.”

“This family gained nothing from Yori’s death,” William declared. “It was only a loss, and a deep loss.”

“Don’t play that game with me,” Maria said. “The people believe that it was James who killed Yori and brought violence to this house. The rumors are that the only ones on this planet who want war are the members of this family, specifically you and James.”

“The Machinists are the problem, Maria.” William told her. He paused and pretended to look around his office, as though someone could be watching. “You must not tell anyone I showed you this,” he said.

He pulled the small black device out of his desk, pushed the top of it, and a projection of a letter from the Machinists’ addressed to Io appeared. Maria leaned forward, sitting on the edge of her seat and read the contents.

“I don’t believe it,” she said when she was finished. “This must be some kind of fake or copycat. It does not make sense for the Machinists to send this to Io.”

“Why not?”

“It does not further their cause in any way.”

“Perhaps it is not their cause they are trying to further. They only want to nullify the one argument against them.”

Maria sat back in her chair. “What do you mean?”

“The only terrible thing this group has ever done wrong is to kidnap and assassinate two innocent and beloved scientists,” he told her. “If that mistake is forgiven, the people will listen.”

“A simple letter cannot take away what they have done. History is history.”

“But it can be rewritten by the survivors of it.”

“It’s not that easy to bury the reputation the Machinists earned when they killed Io’s parents. Besides it’s just a letter.”

“No, Maria,” William said. “It is just the beginning.”

Chapter Seven: The Starting Line

“I think the sparring sessions are benefiting your mother,” William said.

“You do?”

“Yes,” he told Kate. “She’s rediscovering her strength. And that is something we all need to see right now.”

Kate did not respond. She knew he was right. The last thing the Alexander family needed in a time of pending war was a weak leader.

“Will you continue to spar with her?”

“I will,” she said. “I would do almost anything for the family.”

“You aren’t doing it for her?”

“No. It’s not my job to rebuild my mother’s ego,” Kate told him. “I was betrayed, too. And I’m not cowering behind it.” With that, she opened the door and stepped inside the library’s vestibule.

Lucas was waiting inside.

“Thank you for joining us,” William said, as approached. He shook his hand.

“Of course, William,” he said. “What can I do to assist you?”

“Your final paper was on The Machinists,” Kate said.

“Maria was right about their reappearance wasn’t she?” he asked.

“We believe she was,” William told him. “We’d like to ask you about their history, see if we can figure out their next move.”

“Of course, sir.”

“This way,” Kate said, motioning to the doors to the library.

The three headed inside, and down several staircases into the lower levels where the ancient paper books were held.

Each era had its own room. Kate was taking them to one of her favorite rooms; a place she knew had no listening devices or cameras, the 19^th century reading room.

Book shelves made of a deep, brown mahogany lined every wall of the round room that stretched three floors to the ceiling. The center was open with a small, spiral staircase that crawled up one corner and connected to a thin catwalk on each level.

An old leather chair with a foot stool sat in the corner of the first level, opposite the staircase. A small mahogany table was next to it, and a soft blanket was laid over one of the armrests.

Two smaller, leather chairs were opposite of it. They crowded the room, and looked out of place.

“We can have privacy here,” Kate said. “I brought extra chairs in so we could be comfortable.”

The three sat down, and settled in. For the next several hours, they discussed The Machinists original appearance in the late twenty-second century, more than a hundred years after the Alexanders were first given the box

The group, however, wasn’t really noticed for another hundred and fifty years.

The first Alexander, Paul, received the box in the early twenty-first century. Paul and his wife understood the purpose of the box and the reason it was given to them, a secret that was lost to history a long time ago.

They felt they had to let the world know of its existence. So they made a spectacle of it on a live demonstration broadcast around the world. The Alexanders were famous soon thereafter, and for several decades, they were worshipped.  But eventually the allure wore off because the box had its limitations. Only simple questions could be asked, and humanity had to develop the technology they learned about on their own.

It was not a magic box that could cure cancer or create a source of limitless energy out of thin air. It was only a library.

And many people started to believe that anyone could use the box. They felt the Alexanders lied about how the box worked. The family was depicted as a symbol of deceit and greed. This is the era the Machinists were born out of.

The group eventually developed into a political party with global power. Their voice was heard around the world, and many governments took them seriously. They used this influence to take members of the Alexander family. They kidnapped Io’s parents en route to a technology conference.

It was an accident, or so The Machinists said. But, either way, Io’s parents were killed. Her mother and her father were murdered and the leader of The Machinists was the only one to blame.

He was killed and everyone moved on, but no one forgot. Most members of the group left or went into hiding. No one wanted to be associated with the murder of Io’s parents. And for several decades, everyone thought the group disbanded and would never be heard from again.

That was no longer the case. Io had gotten a letter.

“Omari sent me a copy of letter,” William told the others. He pulled out a small device and showed them the image of the letter.

“It wasn’t our fault …,” it began.

Chapter Six: Internal Battles

The room was silent.

And for the first time in a week, so was Kate’s mind. She thought of nothing except how the coolness of the bamboo floor underneath her feet crept its way up her body. Her attention was focused on her surroundings, on the moment, on the present.

Then suddenly her father’s voice began to rise out of the back of her mind.

“Find out all you can,” he said.

Then two words started to get louder, “The Machinists … The Machinists.”

She tried to fight off the memory, but it kept coming back.

“They’ve been hiding somewhere,” her father told her. “For the past ten years.”

His voice echoed in her head, rattling around like a monkey in a cage.

“Find them … you must find them.”

The night before, William contacted her. He wanted Kate to research The Machinists, to search the library for any and all references to the political movement responsible for the death of Io’s parents.

They had resurfaced, and William wanted to know everything about them.

He asked her to work with the Alexander’s Historian, Lucas, to find out everything about their past. He asked her to investigate every mention of them over the past ten years and find out where they’ve been hiding since the execution of their original leader.

And, he wanted her to use all that information to determine where they were now and what they were after. Most importantly why they contacted Io.

“What are they after?” he questioned. “I must know what they’re after.”

She had come to the training room to clear her mind. Instead, all she could do was begin to map out the day, the week, the month.

She also came to spar with her father.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” was the last thing he said. Now, all she could do was hope he would arrive soon. Meditation was no longer enough to keep her mind clear. She needed a distraction.

The doors to training room opened and Kate quickly stood up. She turned to face him, only to see someone else.

Sun stood in the entrance to the training room with her staff in hand.

“What are you doing here?” Kate demanded.

“I’m here to spar with you,” Sun responded.

“Where’s father?”

“He couldn’t make it,” she said.

“Why not?”

“He had things to attend to,” Sun told her.

“So do I,” Kate said.

“Should we postpone our session then?” she asked.

“No,” she said reluctantly. “Do you need to warm up?”

“Just give me a moment.”

Sun walked to the center of the room, stopped and stood straight and tall. She closed her eyes and spun her staff around in front of her. Then she stopped moving the staff, and held it straight out from her torso. At the same time she slipped her right foot out to the side, keeping her leg straight.

She returned to her original position and opened her eyes. “Ready,” she said with a smile.

Kate approached her mother slowly, but swinging her staff quickly from side to side. Sun stood motionless as she approached, watching and waiting.

When Kate came within striking distance, she swung low at Sun’s legs and high near her shoulder.

Sun blocked both strikes with little effort. Both women began circling each other. They moved gently around, calm and attentive.

Then Sun swept in with a low strike, and spun around with her staff to strike a blow from above. As she moved, her staff began to glow a red-hot orange. Kate leaned back to avoid the hit, but exposed part of her torso. Sun came down and missed her, but she singed a small piece of her shirt.

Kate looked down at the blackened fabric, then back up at her mother. Sun smiled at her daughter. With that Kate stabbed at her mother’s torso then quickly swung her staff across her face. Sun dodged the blow, but Kate continued to swing around and shot out a blinding flash of light as she came into her mother’s line of sight.

Sun’s staff had already begun to glow again, and Kate turned to a defensive posture. The two women struck at other, quickly and fiercely. Kate attacked and Sun blocked. Then Sun attacked and Kate blocked.

Flashes of light filled the room like a strobe, and the heat of Sun’s staff left several black burns on Kate’s clothing.

After a time, Sun tired and looked to end the session. She stabbed at Kate’s torso, only to be blocked, and lifted her staff upward to hit Kate in the chin.

Instead of blocking, Kate let her mother push thru the maneuver. When she was off-balance, Kate spun around and hit her in the back, sending her to the ground. Kate held her staff over her mother as she laid on the floor, poised for the final blow.

“Very well,” Sun said, holding out her hand. Kate took it and helped her up. “Thank you. I needed that more than I realized.”

Kate nodded.

“May I join you again tomorrow?”

Kate hesitated, but eventually said, “You may.”

Sun walked out of the training room without turning to look back. Kate watched her exit, then sat down on the floor and again tried to clear her mind.

Chapter Five: A New Enemy Emerges

He swung his staff low, trying to sweep her legs out.

Kate jumped up quickly to avoid the hit, but a small bolt of electricity shot out from his staff as he passed underneath, hitting the bottom of her feet. She lost control and fell to the floor.

William kept the momentum and swung around for another blow. She recovered and tumbled backwards to avoid the hit and regain her balance.

Kate counterattacked and stabbed at her father’s face. She wasn’t close enough to hit him; but, she was close enough to send a bright flash of light into his eyes and temporarily blind him.

Then she swung her staff around, hitting him hard on the side of his head and forcing him off balance.

He stumbled back a few steps trying to put some distance between them while he regained composure. Kate was on him, and pulled back her staff for a strong hit, hoping to finish him off.

That’s when the doors to the training room opened.

Both warriors stopped dead in their tracks and looked over to see what disturbed them.

Sun walked over. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak with your father,” she said.

“About what?” Kate questioned.

“There’s an urgent message from Shackleton Base.”

“From Io?” William asked.

“No. It’s Omari.”

William turned to Kate. “Same time tomorrow?”

“Fine,” Kate said.

As the doors to the training room closed William told Sun, “you should take my place tomorrow.”

“Take your place where?”

“Sparring with Kate.”

“You want me to spar with Kate?” Sun asked.

“I told her I would meet her at the same time tomorrow morning,” he said. “But I may have other things to attend to.”

“I had plans with Maria in the morning,” she said.

William stopped, turned to Sun and took her hands. “It would help you,” he told her.

Sun lowered her head, and let some tears slip down her cheek. William lifted her chin up and kissed her softly on the lips.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too.”

“Whether you feel up to it or not,” he told her. “Get up in the morning, dress in your gear, grab your staff, and walk to the training room.”

“I don’t know if …,” she started.

“I do,” he said. “Sometimes we have to fight our way back. Let the fighter in you come out, and you will find your way.”

He put his arm around her, and the two continued down the corridor.

* * *

William sat down at the desk in his office and opened the communicator. Omari’s face appeared on the screen.

“You have something urgent to discuss with me,” William said.

“Yes, sir,” Omari told him. “The Machinists have sent a message to Io.”

“On the moon?”

“Yes. They had the correct address. It was sent directly to her quarters.”

“Does she know?”

“No. I’ve been checking deliveries since we arrived.”

“Don’t tell her,” William said. “Was it paper or digital?”

“Paper.”

“He’s the only one who still uses that medium. Show me,” William demanded.

Omari lifted up a piece of paper to the screen, and turned it around to show the entire document. He pointed to a small mark in the bottom right-hand corner. “This is his signature.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.”

“I suppose it could be copied,” William said. “But why would anyone want to?”

“Perhaps they think it will strike fear in our hearts,” Omari told him.

“We killed him. We have nothing to fear from that signature,” he said.

“Could it be his descendants? Trying to make a statement about what they are after.”

“Perhaps. We killed the parent, so they’ll kill the child.”

“It could just be posturing.” Omari said. “But I am not willing to take that chance when it comes to Io’s safety. I think we should return to the compound.”

“You cannot.”

“We know the Odyssey will not arrive.”

“We don’t know that,” William told him. “And the one thing that could come in its place is even more dangerous. I need you on Jupiter Station.”

“Another reason to send Io home,” Omari said. “Let me go on alone. I can be the family’s representative. The people will not assume the Odyssey is in trouble; they will believe the decision is a result of all the family has been through.”

“I will consider it. But for now, stay on schedule. You leave in a few days,” William said. “Have you confirmed the passenger list for the ship?”

“I have.”

“The ten I pointed out need to be watched, but not disturbed. Do you understand?”

“Of course.”

“I will send word once I have decided about Io. In the meantime, scan the document and send me the hologram. I want to see every detail.”

“Understood.”

“If the Machinists have returned, we may find ourselves fighting two battles at once.”