Chapter Twenty-Six: Interrupted

Io rolled over and snuggled up to Omari. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in tight. His warmth was comforting. Maybe it was the isolation of moving through the Asteroid Belt; maybe it was the distance, just being so far from the Alexanders.

Something about her relationship with Omari was safe. She had never felt so safe in all her life.
The first kiss happened just after they crossed into the belt. The two had been discretely flirtatious all along, but no one crossed the boundaries until then. At first, she tried to pull away. She couldn’t even sleep that first night, thinking about the family.

What would they think? How would Kate react? Could they ever really be together? Was he just using her for something?

But by the following wake up call, she had pushed all those questions from her mind. It would take weeks to get through the belt. It was the most dangerous part of the journey to Jupiter Station. And, it was difficult to send and receive messages while traveling through it. Most captains kept the communications to emergencies only.

Io realized it might be her only chance to just enjoy being in love, if only for a few weeks. She decided to worry about the rest of it once they made it out the other side, if they made it out the other side.

So at this moment, she was only thinking of his warmth. She was enjoying the feeling of being in love and being loved.

She smiled and snuggled in closer, closing her eyes but hoping not to fall asleep again. Suddenly, the console across the room beeped. At first, Io thought it was the wake-up call letting them know the day cycle had begun.

“Message alert for Io Alexander,” the voice called out.

Omari quickly sat up and looked around. Io slowly sat up beside him.

“Message alert?” she said, reluctantly crawling out of bed. She sat down at the console, clicked a couple of buttons, and then dropped her chin.

Omari walked over, “What is it?”

“I need to see this alone,” she told him.

“Understood,” he said.

Io hadn’t heard him speak like that in weeks. The way he said it, “Understood,” was like a soldier obeying commands. It gave her the chills.

Omari quickly got dressed, and headed for the door. He tried to turn back to her and smile, “I’ll be in my quarters.”

The message was from Kate and sent from Mars. It was for Io’s eyes only and had two additional messages embedded within it. Io hit a couple more buttons and Kate’s face appeared on the screen.

“Hello, dear cousin,” it began. “I know you’re making your way through the belt, so I’ve sent this message, but I do want you to contact me as soon as you get to the other side. I wish I could tell you all this in a direct connection, but we just can’t wait.” Kate paused and took a deep breath. “Where do I begin?”

“Why are you on Mars?” Io whispered to herself.

“Maybe I should start by telling you why this message comes from Mars,” Kate said.

Io smiled. She and Kate always had a connection, which was another reason she knew that everything was about to change.

Chapter Twenty-Five: They’re Coming

By the time the ship arrived on Mars, James was thinking he had just about won Kate over. Little did he know, she was actually more distrustful of him than ever.

“Working with The Machinists?” she thought, looking out the ship’s window as they broke through the thin atmosphere.

How could that happen? No one in the Alexander family would consider that, if only out of respect for Io. No matter how dangerous they imagined the Nekuia to be. The fact remained that they killed Io’s parents, accident or not.

Kate could only imagine one way the Alexanders would work with The Machinists, if Io gave her blessing. It didn’t matter if they kidnapped Lucas, and somehow managed to convince him to trust them. It was really Io that mattered. And she was on her way to Jupiter Station.

They flew over several large cities coming in to the surface of Mars. Most looked run down, even from her vantage point.

It has been a long time since Kate had set foot on Mars, and she had never been to the Prosperity Ghetto. But she could swear that they were flying over it from the images she’d seen on Earth. The ship didn’t land in the Ghetto, but flew past it and crested a small crater ridge just beyond. That’s where the ship landed, in a small port out of sight, but not far away.

The captain came back into the passenger area, told them all about the gravity changes, the effects it would have on them, and, of course, about the dirty air.

“How long will it take us to acclimate?” Kate asked.

“Probably weeks,” he said. “But, you may never feel right.”

When Kate stepped out of the ship and into the small port, she could instantly feel the difference. She coughed several times and had to pause for a minute to recover. He was right, the air was dirty. She could almost taste the grit in her teeth.

This was nothing like the Mars station she visited when she was a child. And she couldn’t quite get the sense of her legs yet either. It was like being at sea, but worse. There was no horizon she could concentrate on.

Kate took her time walking through the small docking bay, and towards another gate. She followed Eric through and into the communication center of the station.

It was small, even smaller than she thought when they landed. But for some reason, she didn’t feel cramped by it.

A long wall of windows to her left was covered with a thin veil of red dust. To her right, several monitoring stations sat on tiered platforms. Screens, buttons, switches and lights covered every surface. Everything in the room had a purpose, not one inch was wasted space.

The group continued to move through the room and exited on the far side. She stepped through the next doorway, and had to squeeze out behind everyone. She wondered if the room was really that small.   

But it wasn’t.

She looked past everyone to see someone on the other side of the room. She did not recognize him. Eric and James turned around to look at her, and they all stepped back to allow her to move forward.

“Hello, Kate.” The man didn’t speak, and she looked around to see where the voice came from. Standing in the corner of the room was Lucas.

She instinctively ran over to him.

“Lucas,” she said. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” he told her.

That’s when she took a step back and looked around. She started to wonder if anyone in that room was on her side.

“What’s going on here?” she asked.

“We’ve come to talk with you,” Lucas told her. “Trent didn’t think we should wait for you to come to us.”

“Whose Trent?”

“I am,” the strange man answered, reaching out his hand.

She ignored him, and looked back at Lucas. “What’s going on?”

“We’re afraid,” Lucas told her.

“Afraid of what?”

“We picked up transmission from deep space,” Trent said, stepping forward.

“What transmission?”

“They’re coming, Kate,” he told her. “And, they know you have the box.”

Chapter Twenty-Four: A Different Kind of Team

James entered the kitchen area of the ship, hoping to convince Eric to listen to him. He figured he would have a captive audience while Eric was preparing Kate’s meal. She hadn’t come out of her room since James last spoke to her.

“I told them,” James said.

“Told them?” Eric asked without looking up.

“Told them The Machinists were listening in.”

“Who did you tell?”

“I sent a message to the Alexander compound.”

Eric still did not look up. “How did you do that?”

“I used Kate’s code,” he said. “Some things never change.”

Eric smiled. “I meant, how did you send a secure message?”

“It wasn’t secure,” James admitted. “It’s likely they were listening in.”

Eric stopped preparing the food, and this time looked James in the eye. “I thought if you could listen to them, you could get around their security,” he said.

“I can’t listen to them,” he told him.

“Then how do you know what they’re up to?”

James paused, unsure if he should tell Eric the truth. But, after a moment he realized he had nothing to lose. “I know someone,” he admitted.

Eric set down his utensils and walked right up to James, stopping inches from his face. “So, you have been working with them,” he said.

“No,” James told him. “I met someone after I got here.”

“And why would one of them tell you what they know?” Eric demanded.

“Because I told them what I know.”

“What?” he screamed.

“I told them how to get Lucas,” James said, trying to look away.

“Once a traitor, always a traitor,” he said, then pushed James against the wall.

“I did not do it to betray my family,” James said. “I did it to save them.”

Eric stormed out of the kitchen, and headed down the corridor toward Kate’s room. James quickly followed. “They want to help us,” he tried to tell Eric. “They want to join the fight.”

Eric paused outside Kate’s door as James came running after him. He caught up, and desperately tried to make his case. “Lucas is the one person who might listen to them,” he told Eric. “He’s in no danger. I’ll prove it the moment we land.”

Kate opened the door and looked at the two standing in the corridor.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Eric looked at James, wondering just how to respond.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Friends and Foes

After more than two weeks of silence, Kate was beginning to wane. She thought about talking to James following the first week. Keeping quiet was never her strong suit, and anyone can get antsy watching so time pass in silence.

But that was likely his plan, she thought. He knew the trip to Mars would take almost a month. She couldn’t leave or run away.

That’s when she remembered this was the reason she was sent here. Finding Lucas was ultimately what they wanted, but first they were supposed to find James. Sun predicted that he was on Mars. She thought either he was working with the Machinists and could lead Kate to Lucas, or he would know how to find them.

She was right. He did know.

And, Kate had been too distracted by her anger to use James for this purpose. Remembering this made her feel better. So, instead of being consumed by anger, she began devising a plan of how to get what she needed from James.

This time, she vowed she would use him.

When the dinner alarm sounded she got on the speaker and asked that dinner be brought to her quarters. This was typical of her. And, each time she did James was the one who brought it. He always came with hope in eyes. Hope that maybe she would speak to him.

And, this time was no different. There he was at her door with a plate full of food and hope in his eyes.

She said nothing at first. Then, just as he was about to close the door behind him, she spoke. “Are you working with them?”

James quickly turned back toward her and eagerly answered. “No, I’ve only been watching them.”

“Then you’re a listener, too,” she said.

He laughed. “I suppose I am.”

“So, you are with them.”

“No,” he said in defense. “Not at all. But I believe they want to work with us.”

“Us?”

“I think they want to work with the Alexanders.”

“There is no us. You are not an Alexander,” Kate said.

James left that argument alone – for now. He thought he’d have a better chance of getting back in her good graces if he didn’t argue that point.

“The Machinists are not looking for payback or power. They never were,” he told her.

“What are they looking for?” Kate asked.

“They are trying to convince Lucas to help them form an alliance.”

“What kind of alliance?”

“An alliance with the Alexanders,” James said. “They want an ally in the war against the Nekuia.”

“We’re not even certain there will be a war,” she said.

“Well, The Machinists are.”

“What makes them so certain if we are not?”

“They’ve heard something,” he said. “I don’t think it came from us, I mean, the Alexanders.”

“What do you mean?” she questioned.

“I believe they discovered a message that came directly from the Nekuia.”

“That’s impossible,” Kate declared. “No one has ever heard directly from the Nekuia.”

“I know that they heard something that changed them. And it didn’t come from the Alexanders. It didn’t even come from Earth,” James told her. “Something that frightened them so much that less than a day later, they decided to capture Lucas.”