The Solar Flare (6 page)

     “So you guys are not Kyanos’ leaders?” Ava questioned.

     “No, we wanted Kyanos to be governed by humans, mainly because we are on the go a lot, tracking down things that the colony needs from either Earth or the stations,” Naomi explained.

     “We are considered more of like elders I guess. We assist them and help guide them as needed. We’ve rarely needed to step in take control. The people there are extremely grateful for their existence and hav
e great respect and love for us,” Mia added.

    
“Do they know about you all being .  . . Asterions?” Ava asked.

     “Yes, of course. They are the only humans that grow up with, or are given the knowledge of our existence. Since the planet is too far for the ITO to reach and for our colonists to travel away from, there is no contact, and no worry for that information to become general knowledge. Believe it or not, our human population
copes quite well with it.”

     “Really?” Ava found this surprising.

     “The oldest residents have known us their whole lives, and the residents that are born into the society grow up knowing us. It’s more . . . natural for them I guess, than, for example, the way that you found out about us. Now that our population is expanding, we do not bring new residents from the stations like we used to, unless we require the knowledge or expertise of someone who works in a profession that we need. Then those people sometimes go through what you might be feeling now, but they get over it,” Naomi spoke thoughtfully. Ava could sense that they cared deeply about the safety of their colony.

     After a few hours of hearing about Kyanos, Ava retired to her quarters to rest a while before dinner. She still felt uncertain of her desires regarding which direction her life should be heading, or whether or not she wanted Wesley to be a part of it. At dinner, she sat beside him as usual and they talked on and off, however she found it hard to relax. She wondered if she could accept him back into her heart.

      The next morning, Naomi came to wake Ava early so that she would not miss their landing on Kyanos. After Ava dressed, Naomi gave her a small tube of white cream and instructed her to rub it into her face, neck, hands, and arms.

     “What is this for?
Is it a moisturizer?” Ava inquired, puzzled, studying the tube.

     “Kyanos has two suns, you will need to apply sunscreen to protect your skin from being sunburned.”

     “Sunburned?” This was a concept Ava had only read about in the history books. She had grown up underground and had never actually really seen the sun. She had always dressed for the cold underground temperatures and cool environments of the space stations. Naomi handed Ava a pair of dark glasses.

      “Are these sunglasses?” Ava asked, turning them over in her hands, inspecting them.

      “Trust me, you’ll need them, the weather is predicted to be a hot 88 degrees and sunny today,” she said with a smile.

      After Ava applied the sunscreen the two women went to the observation deck to observe the la
nding. She watched the monitor intently as the Andromeda approached a purplish, bluish looking orb. The ship shuddered slightly as it entered the atmosphere, adjusting to the pull of the planet’s gravity. Ava gasped as she watched their descent towards the colony and what she could see of the hangar. She had never seen anything like it. The sleek silver ship glided effortlessly down and into the large covered structure. She could see buildings scattered here and there and people walking about, or gliding around in what Naomi had described to her as ‘couriers’, small solar powered vehicles to go from place to place. Then, all motion stopped as the ship officially landed on Kyanos.

     “
We’ll meet Wesley at the entrance ramp, and he’ll take you down.” She smiled at Ava, trying to reassure her that everything was fine.

     Within moments of their arrival at the ram
p, Wesley appeared, looking a little more hopeful as he came to stand next to Ava as the ramp lowered.

      “Are you ready?” He asked.

     “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She tried to sound positive, despite feeling nervous. He started down the ramp and she followed slowly behind him, the others behind her. Ava observed her surroundings intensely as she walked. The hangar did not appear as large and intimidating as the ones on the stations, and the Andromeda was the only starship there. She noticed there were a few monitors displaying the common numbers and symbols she was used to seeing, and equipment of some kind that appeared to be in storage, but otherwise the place seemed empty. As they walked, Ava noticed two people, a man and a woman, standing near the exit doors to the outside. The woman was holding something in her arms.

      As they neared, Ava could see the woman held a new baby, they appeared relaxed and happy. “Ava, this is our Chief Officer, Trev
or Vance, and his wife Rochelle,” Wesley nodded to them as he made the introductions.

      “I’m
pleased to meet you,” Ava said, shaking Vance’s hand and nodding at Rochelle who had her arms full. Ava smiled at the baby, who appeared to be a boy.

    
“It is nice to finally meet you, Ms. Amherst. You are most welcome to our small community. We hope that you will be very happy here on Kyanos,” Vance replied.

     “Thank you
, I hope so.” Ava responded politely. They seemed to be kind people.

     “Congratulations Vance, Rochelle
, how old is he?” Wesley smiled at the couple and their new baby.

      “Thank you
, Captain. Our son was born three weeks ago.” Vance announced proudly, looking at his son.

     “His name is Dominic
,” Rochelle informed them pleasantly. Ava thought she looked positively radiant.

     “Congratulations, he is beautiful
,” Ava remarked, feeling sentimental. She had often wondered if she herself would ever become a mother.

     “Thank you
,” she replied, smiling at Ava. “We are very pleased you have come back with the Captain. I know you will feel at home here in no time. If there is anything we can do to help you with the transition, please do not hesitate to ask us.”

      “Thank you, that is very kind of you.” Ava liked Rochelle instantly. She had a
calm, pleasant nature about her. She also noticed how both of them treated Wesley normally, like the knowledge that he was as an Asterion did not concern them at all.

     “Has there been any news?” Wesley inquired to Vance.

     “Everything is just fine,” Vance replied calmly, glancing at Ava. “I’ll fill you in on the details later, I’m sure you must want to get Ava settled.”

     “Yes, I’ll touch base with you later. It’s good to see you again.”

     “And you, my friend,” Vance replied, turning back to his family.

     Wesley led the way
over towards one of the doors to the outside. Ava stopped abruptly just before he opened the door; she had never been “outside” before. He sensed her apprehension and took her hand in his, which she accepted. “It’s going to be okay,” he smiled at her. “Now, where are your sunglasses?”

     Ava pulled them out of her pocket and placed them on her face
. Wesley opened the door and escorted her outside. She walked cautiously looking at the surroundings with great interest. The air smelled sweet and fresh as she inhaled deeply and the heat from the suns surprised her. She had never experienced such intense warmth like this before, and although she wanted to remove her jacket, she did not out of fear that she would be “sunburned.”She could not believe how exciting and beautiful it was, the green foliage, the flowers, the lofty trees, people moving about here and there, dressed in cropped pants and shirts, wearing skimpy looking shoes that she later learned were called “sandals.” She had never seen such a public display of toes before! She almost felt out of place wearing her heavy clothing and tall boots.

      Wesley smiled at her as
she took it all in. He had been waiting for this moment for so long. “Welcome to your new home,” he said softly to her, gently squeezing her hand.

     Ava paused from scanning her surroundings and looked up at him. For the first time in a day, she felt a sense of
peace; she could almost call it happiness. For the first time since he had told her the truth, she smiled a genuine smile back at him.

Chapter 5: Putting the Pieces Together

     The midnight black Solstice approached the coordinates marked out in space where Orionis had once been. With its gravity stabilizers knocked out of alignment from the explosion rendered courtesy of Kaden, the massive station had drifted out of position. Bryant, using Xavier’s computers in the flight deck, located the station and in no time, brought them right up to the pitiful sight. From a short distance, everyone aboard the starship could see small vessels entering and exiting the station, with other starship “pods” as they were called, stationed along the gravity rings, apparently reconstructing them.

     Xavier looked down at Bryant and began to question him. “So this is where Ava lives?”

     “I have no doubt Robinson evacuated her before whatever went down here happened,” he replied calmly.

     “Hack into their network and find out what happened here
,” Xavier said without emotion.

     Bryant’s fi
ngers flew along the flat keyboard. Being part of the ITO investigations unit, he had no trouble getting in. He wanted to show off his tracking skills to Xavier by hacking for the information, but he already had a suspicion as to what really happened. He had recently run across Kaden and his associate, Torian, building a bomb. From what he knew of him, he deduced that he and Captain Robinson were enemies. But why? Why would Kaden want to destroy Orionis? Bryant’s mind raced as he searched. Perhaps it was because Kaden noticed Robinson docking at Orionis frequently and felt he had a chance at destroying him this way? He could not think of any other explanation for it. Better not mention Kaden to Xavier, Bryant thought.

     “Ah, here it is. The transmissions I’m receiving cite an explosion in Orionis’ core. They believe it was s
ome kind of an act of terrorism,” Bryant informed him as his blue eyes scanned the report.

     “Interes
ting. I wonder who is behind it.” Xavier’s voice was soft. He looked sadly upon the images of the evacuated station, now only a shell. He hated to see anything suffer, particularly humans.

     “Looks
like they don’t have any solid suspects at the moment. The good news is that the explosion didn’t completely destroy it beyond repair. They are in the process of fixing the gravity stabilizers in order to rotate it back into its correct axis, then they will begin the process of restoring the station.”

     “That’s going to take them years.”

     “Probably.” Bryant, tired of learning about Orionis, turned his focus back to the task at hand. “I’m going to take a look at the online launch records. The ITO keeps pretty strict records of the coming and goings, even during evacuations.”

     Xavier watched as Bryant performed a search
of the starship launches both before and after the explosion. The records were there all right, but not listed in order. They had apparently been uploaded by different operators at different times. “It’s going to take me some time to sort through this, but we’ll find her.”

      “I’ll leave you to it.” Xavier walked out of the flight deck, leaving Bryant with the pilot, Nicholas to complete his task.

∞

     Further out in the galaxy, on the small station known as Sceptrum; the oldest of the functioning space stations, Kaden paced back and forth angrily in the Draconis. He and Torian had caught a flight back to the station, and their starship after planting and activating their bomb on Orionis. Now he, and his Asterion crew, which consisted of his first mate Darius, his electrician Torian, and his two other crew members, Ranieri and Cassidy were feeling the frustration as the disappointment hit them at the discovery that the Andromeda had not even been scratched during the event.

     “I don’t understand what happened? That bomb should have erupted with the strength to o
bliterate that irritating space station,” Torian complained.

     “This is all your fault!” Kaden shouted, pointing the blame on Torian. “We should be reveling in our sweet victory over that poor excuse for an Asterion starship captain and his crew, but we’re not!”

     “We’ll get him yet, don’t you worry,” Darius chimed in. No one wanted Kaden to explode into one of his well known temper tantrums. Someone usually gets hurt when that happens.

     “I’m searching the onlin
e docking logs for the stations,” Ranieri volunteered.  “Seems like the Andromeda made an uneventful landing on Capri shortly after the explosion. The weird thing is, they were only docked for less than an hour. I wonder why?” She added.

     “Because they were
probably re-fueling you idiot!” Kaden had still not calmed down; his energy pulsed erratically through the small meeting room. “I’ll bet you anything that they are back on Kyanos right now with no intentions of leaving anytime soon.”