Authors: Kyle Pratt
Justin smiled then
told of awakening in a space place and the mind probe interrogation. Finally,
he described meeting Leonidas, discovering that he was on Terra Nova, and the
older man’s admission that he led the Titan fleet in the Battle of Earth.
Naomi was familiar with time dilation, but it still took several minutes to
explain that the people who rescued them were the Titans of the
Titanomachy
War and the Battle of Earth.
Justin tried to
explain how his own feelings had evolved over the last two days as they
continued to talk. Finally he sighed.
I guess what I’m trying to say
is after they knew that I wasn’t an
enemy, that
I was
a Titan, they treated me well.
He held up his hand showing the
several fingers still bandaged due to frostbite
. I’ve walked all over
Exodus….
Naomi didn’t
understand and let Justin feel her puzzlement.
Terra
Nova.
They changed the name of the ship after they captured it at the Battle of
Earth.
You sound like you
want to stay here.
We are Titans.
But these are the
people who attacked Earth. The war they waged destroyed the United
Planets and allowed the
Nephilim
to take
control. How can we stay?
Justin stood and
looked about the compartment.
We don’t have to stay here. Well,
as long as you promise not to hurt anyone.
She nodded.
I
promise, as long as I am with you and they stay back.
He smiled.
That was probably the best he could hope for now.
Then let’s go back to
Exodus.
They stood.
We’ll see Mara.
Justin stepped toward the door
then paused and turned. “And dinner tonight will be a bit of a surprise.
Try to keep an open mind. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said
hesitantly. As they walked to the door she asked, “What took you so long to get
here?”
“Actually it was you
that came to me.”
“Huh?”
He gave her a quick
grin.
“Because of our injuries, they rushed Mara and me back to the main
fleet where they had hospital facilities, but they kept you on a ship in the
Lepanto system. Shortly after they discovered we were Titans I asked to see
you. They rotated your ship back to the main fleet as soon as they could.”
Stepping out the door he said, “I came here as soon as you arrived.”
She smiled at him.
“And when I got here
you threw a chair at me.”
She thumped his
chest. “I didn’t know…”
He laughed, as they
walked down the passageway hand-in-hand.
*
*
*
Justin and Naomi
packed into a shuttle with people who had completed a week of duty in and
around Lepanto. The two found a seat near a portal on the crowded shuttle, and
after it launched took in the vista of other vessels heading toward a giant
microworld
.
That’s our
destination, Exodus or Terra Nova,” Justin said.
Throngs of people
swarmed about them as several shuttles emptied into the Exodus docking
port. Walking across the platform Justin said. “Yesterday morning, after
I finished what Leonidas called, ‘primary school mental training,’ he offered
to get someone to show me around.”
Naomi’s eyes
narrowed.
“A spy.”
“I thought of that,
so I told him I already had someone in mind.”
Oh, who is it?”
Up ahead in the
crowd a pregnant woman waved.
“Her,” he said
waving back. “I think you’ll like
Becca
; she’s a
norm.” He said as he walked towards her.
“Why would that make
me like her?”
You can read her
thoughts. It’s against all Titan rules of decorum, but I wanted to know
if she had been told to hide anything from me.
Was she?
No.
As they approached,
Justin introduced the two women.
“You made a pregnant
woman show you around?” Naomi said.
“I was glad to do
it.”
Smiling at his
guide, Justin said, “You didn’t have to come here. I could have….”
She shook her head
and smiled. “No, that’s not why I’m here. My husband is coming on another
shuttle.”
“Glad to hear it,”
Justin said. Looking back and forth between the women he asked, “Should
we wait and meet your husband?”
“No. He will be
stuck here with his platoon for a while and I know you want to see Mara. Go
ahead and, if she is well enough, bring her to dinner tonight.”
“Dinner?”
Naomi said with
some surprise. “Perhaps we should not. Your husband is…”
“It’s fine. He
wanted to meet all of you and,” she patted her stomach, “cooking is about all I
can do now.”
As they walked away
from
Becca
, Naomi shot Justin a glance.
I sensed
the baby’s mind reaching out to us. Is her husband a Titan?
Yes.
We
are eating
with one of them?
Justin shook his
head.
Is it possible that much of what they taught you in the Empire
is a lie?
From what you have
told me, they do not deny the worst of what we both have been taught.
Just try to keep an
open mind.
She stopped and took
his arm. “Try to remain skeptical.”
“They did save us on
Lepanto and in a few days we will know if they have repaired our ship.”
“And if they let us,
we should leave.”
“They’ve been kind
and apparently honest.”
“Don’t forget, they
are genetically enhanced killers.”
The last moments of
Garrett’s life flashed through Justin’s mind. “They deny being genetically
enhanced and whatever they are, so are we.”
“We are not killers
and we are hundreds of years removed from them. We may be their descendants,
but these are the creatures that killed hundreds of millions.”
Justin nodded.
Leonidas, and others, had admitted their guilt, but for hardened
mass-murderers, they seemed strangely troubled by the events.
She took his arm and
pulled him in close. “I could never stay with these people.”
He sighed.
“Okay, when Surfeit is ready, we’ll collect Mara and leave.”
Alarms sounded.
“General quarters,
general quarters, all hands man your battle stations.” The message seemed to
come from everywhere.
Justin’s eyes flashed
right and left as the crowd hurried in all directions. He looked for his guide,
Becca
, but she was already lost in the multitude that
now flowed toward every exit. Turning to Naomi he asked, “Do you think it’s a
drill?”
Naomi, still holding
him by the arm, shook her head. “Were they listening? Did they hear our plan to
leave?”
“Bring an entire
ship to battle stations because
we
want to leave?”
A stubborn
expression covered her face and, with a shrug she asked, “What’s your plan?
What should we do?”
He cursed the alarm
as he tried to think. “Let’s go to Mara.”
Even as they hurried
from the docking platform, people shut some of the hatches and locked them
down. With Justin in the lead they joined others heading down a wide passageway
toward the central core of Exodus.
Entering the open
expanse of the habitat, Naomi slowed then stopped. “It is huge—and
beautiful.” The crowd attempted to flow around, but some jostled her as
they passed.
Justin followed her eyes
as they drifted along the arc of the ship and the buildings, farms, lakes and
rivers that seemed to hang from the sky. After a few seconds he stepped toward
her. “Yes, lovely.” He took her hand, “but let’s
keep
moving.”
Within minutes, they
trotted up the walkway that, just two days before, he and Leonidas had casually
walked down. Few people were visible as they reached the top of the hill.
The alarm stopped as
thy neared the clinic door and, the voice from everywhere announced, “Condition
one, set throughout the ship.”
“Condition one? What
does that mean?” he asked rhetorically. The clinic door slid open.
“The ship is ready
for battle,” Naomi said following him in.
“How do you know
that?
Where you in the navy?”
Justin picked up speed.
“I was trained as a
Marine.”
Justin raced around
the final corner to Mara’s room. Two armed men came down the hall. He stopped
abruptly.
“Are you Justin,
Justin Garrett?” one of them asked.
Naomi turned the
corner and slammed into his back.
A third man pushed
Mara in a wheelchair out of the room.
Justin smiled at his
sister. “How are you doing?”
She smiled weakly.
“Getting better.”
The other man
repeated his question. “Are you Justin Garrett?”
Naomi stepped
forward.
What do they want? Where are they taking Mara?
Justin felt her
fear.
Her eyes darted
between him and the marines.
When they get closer, we could take
them.
Out the door came
Thor, his tongue hanging to the side. The dog seemed to smile and that
reassured Justin. He took Naomi’s hand and held tight.
And
after we ‘take them’ then what?
“Yes, I’m Justin.”
“Fleet Admiral
Leonidas requests you follow us to combat.” The two-armed men moved past
Justin and Naomi and disappeared around the corner. As Mara rolled by, Justin
noticed the medic insignia on the sleeve of the man pushing her.
Momentarily, he touched his sister’s hand,
then
turned
to follow.
Mara looked over her
shoulder and smiled at him again. He knew she was pleased to see him, but it
wasn’t the smile that told him so. Even with his minimal training, he now
sensed her emotions and thoughts and knew she felt nothing radiating from him.
He mused how much things had changed in just a couple of days. Out of
politeness, he blocked out her mind.
As they exited, a
breathless
Becca
came toward the clinic. When her
eyes rested on Mara in the wheelchair, she held up her arm, “Stop.”
Everyone halted.
Becca
bent over and
breathed deeply. “Where…are you…taking…my patient?”
The soldiers quickly
explained their orders and the medic then discussed Mara’s condition and care
with
Becca
.
Justin grinned that
armed Titan soldiers stopped and explained themselves to a winded, pregnant
normal human.
“Okay, if you feel
up to it Mara, but,”
Becca
turned to the medic, “you
get her back here as soon as we secure from general
quarters.”
The group moved on
as
Becca
continued to the clinic. Thor lead,
followed by the two-armed marines. Mara and the medic came next.
Everyone moved quickly behind the trotting dog.
Justin followed the
others pondering how Thor seemed to know where they were going. Naomi
jogged to his side and he locked eyes with her.
They said, Leonidas
‘wants us to follow them to combat?’ I don’t hear any shooting, any combat.
What do you think they meant?
Naomi smiled at him.
Military vessels navigate from the Bridge, but they fight from the Combat
Center. For some reason the admiral wants us there.
*
*
*
Justin had visited
the farms and communities that made up the core of Exodus, but now, with his friends,
he followed the marines into the superstructure. This part of the vessel
looked like the interior of a ship, gray and austere. They passed through
several airtight doors. When he rounded a corner, Justin saw two marines
standing on either side of a large, airtight hatch. As they approached, one of
the guards opened the door and stood aside.
Once within, their
armed escort reported to the admiral and then departed, but the medic and Thor
remained nearby. The compartment was roughly square with displays and
consoles along the bulkheads and down the middle of most of it. The wall
farthest from them presented a digital display of a solar system.
Immediately in front of it was a large holographic map of part of the system.
Justin could see a star, several planets and comets along with a host of nearby
vessels. Leonidas moved with several other officers toward the
holo
display.
Justin looked down
at Mara in her chair, took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Leaning
down he whispered, “I came to see you the last two days, but you were always
asleep.”