Spacestastic Mysteries

She looked over to me and asked, “Project Sierra-Lima-Tango?”

I asked, “How much do you know?”

“It is actually Intel that has come across the President’s desk…”

I turned to Graham and decided, “This isn't working because if there is Intel on her desk., it is over. I believe we need to rethink this. I say we bring everyone in on it…maybe together we can solve this.” He thought about it for a moment. “Do you have to discuss it with anyone? Leland? Rueland? Bradley?”

He shook his head. “Bradley told me to handle this any way I see fit… and, unfortunately, I think you are right. You want to bring them up to speed?”

I took a deep breath. “I will give them the abbreviated version. I cannot, I will not, relive the details.” I turned to Jake. “I am sorry, but you will see why we cannot be together.” I moved my eyes to Jessa. “Can you get Nate?” With Alex, I asked, “Can you get Tony?”

A few minutes later, Nate and Tony came into view. They both waved at Jake, greeting him. Nate, the dark-haired, brown-eyed Lieutenant Colonel of the Liberty, expressed, “I am glad to see you home safe and sound. We need to do a guys’ night or weekend.”

“I agree,” Jake responded, “and you are invited too, Tony.”

I saw Nate's nose wrinkle. There was no love lost between Jessa’s husband and partner, Nate, and Jessa's childhood best friend, Tony. I internally laughed. If I wasn't about to bare my soul to these people…and risk losing my friends and Jake forever, I would have laughed aloud. I cleared my throat. “Graham and I have been keeping secrets…that is our business, I know, but we did not disclose what we knew to keep people safe.” When all eyes were on me, I revealed, “There was a couple who came to us eight years ago, claiming to be my parents. DNA proved that claim to be true.”

Jake required, “You know where your biological parents are?”

“You have to understand why we did what we did--”

Jake turned me around and demanded, “You want to tell me what that nonsense you were spilling back there was about?”

“It wasn’t nonsense.  You have no idea what I have been through…and yes, I want to tell you…but like I said, it is a part of an ongoing investigation.  I am not allowed to speak of it.”

“I bet your pal Graham knows about this.”

“Yes, because he is in charge of the investigation…and you know that he and I are very close friends since our high school days.  He is happily married with two children.”

We sat and ordered our food through the screen in the middle.  “I am sure that Graham was able to get you through this little crisis,” Jake expressed, gesturing to me, “of yours.”

I put my hands over my face and took a ragged breath.  I removed them and locked eyes with Jake.  I said with grave deliberation, “It is taking all my strength not to go off on you right now, to hit you, to break ties with you forever.   I understand that you don’t get that what I have been through could be anything of significance because you just see the dead husband and the two additional children, so you figure my life was rosy.  It wasn’t.  It isn’t.”  I rolled up the sleeves of the turtleneck under my Woodland fatigues, showing my arms to him.  “And I have the scars to prove it.”  I pulled down the neck of my turtleneck.

“Danny, those are burns.”

“Very good, Doctor Riley.   Now can you stop acting like you are the only one who has the corner on trauma?  I will never be the Danny you need and want, so stop trying to make me into her.  I wish I could be her, but she died about eight years ago.”

He raised the Privacy Wall and voiced, taking my hands, “I’m sorry I didn’t realize.  I’m sorry for what you have been through, but you are still Danny.  You are still my Danny.  I see it in your eyes and in your heart.  The burns—I don’t care about them.  You will always be beautiful to me.”
 
“I am having the rest of them removed.  The doctor is coming in a couple of days.  I just want to feel pretty for the first time in years.”  I shook my head and remarked, “I know that is vain, but—”
 
He gave me a sidelong glance.  “Josh didn’t tell you—”
 
I looked away and then moved my eyes back to Jake.  “I don’t want to talk about him.  To suffice to say, it wasn’t his style.  I just want that one thing that I can control—to get the burn scars on my arms and neck removed.  I had them all over my body…I was in recovery for months.  I don’t think they expected me to survive.  It is the only time your mother was nice to me.  She took Zariah in until I was well.”
 
“You said they didn’t expect you to survive.  The doctors?”
 
“No, the people who did it to me.  Unfortunately, they have never faced the consequences of their actions…and I am starting to doubt they ever will.”
 
“It does not matter what you have been through.  I will be with you through it all.  All I have dreamed of for the last ten years is getting back to you…and telling you how much I love you.”
 
“There are a lot of things I have been involved with…that when you find out about them you are going to be angry…but will you promise you will let me explain why I had to do what I did, why Graham and I did what we did.”
 
Just then he lowered the Privacy Wall as the waiter came over with our food and drinks.  The waiter set a soda and BLT in front of me and a soda and burger in front of Jake.  Once the waiter left, he raised the Privacy Wall.
 
“As a Section Chief and General, I respect Graham—”
 
I put half of the BLT to my lips.  “You should.  He is one of the youngest officers to make General in the Freedom Alliance.”
 
He nodded, lifting the burger to his mouth.  “The three of us were close friends in high school.  I was always envious of how close you two are.  It was like if I wasn’t in the picture, he would have stolen you away from me.  I figured it would have been Graham you married and not some random guy.”
 

"Jordana," a deep, baritone voice greeted, “how much does your partner know?”

“Hello to you too, Father,” I returned, then I dropped onto the corner of the bed. “Nothing. He knows nothing. I have to keep it that way to keep everyone safe. Isn’t that what I agreed to when you came to me eight years ago?”

“Yes, it is,” the familiar feminine voice interjected. “We are just making sure you remember that.”

“You know, you two are acting like I owe you. I don’t owe you. I am the child you didn’t raise because you were in hiding, but you managed to raise the others. I am helping you…and I have been through hell trying to keep you safe. If there is anything worse than hell, that is what I have been through…and you two are here acting like enforcers.”

“You haven’t had to live an assumed life because--”

“That would have been easier…I have been through the physical, emotional and mental wringer because of this. I have scars inside and out. Jake knows nothing about you. He, however, is investigating who is sending the threats, so it is a matter of time before he tracks you down…and I am not going to stop him. Once he finds out I knew and kept it from him, any reconnecting he and I seem to be doing is going to be out of the question. I am going to stick to our official case and figure out the cure for the disease that killed Josh.”

“You act like we are forcing you to help us. We are your biological parents. It is your obligation to help us.”

“It is those kind of statements that make me want to just walk away, but I have too much invested in you two. I will see this through to the end but not for your sakes. You two have proven that living this life as other people has made you bitter. I am doing this for my children and Adam’s children. They need to know their grandparents, but the people you have presented to me over these last eight years are not people I would willingly associate with if you were not blood related to me.”

“We are your biological parents. Show us some respect,” the man retorted.

“I tried, but you two have been nothing but entitled and selfish. You don’t know me…you have no idea that Jake was the greatest love of my life before he was captured…and I was forced to marry Josh. At first, you two were fine, nice people who I was enjoying getting to know, but I don’t know what happened. You switched into these people…who are controlling, manipulative and threatening. Something happened. I just cannot remember what.”

“You are so ungrateful…we have done so much for you,” the woman said.

“Umm…what have you done for me? You gave birth to me—that’s it. Any birth parents could do that. What you have done for me is get me involved in this whirlwind of deception trying to save you.” Just then I heard, “Incoming Wounded.” I hurriedly said, “I have to go” and disconnected the call. I had no intention of going to help with the wounded. Graham made it clear that I was to take time off…and that’s what I intended to do.

“Danny,” Jake said over my CommLet, “I am going to take care of the wounded with the other doctors who are not part of the skeleton crew…afterward, maybe we can have dinner or lunch, and I can brief you about what happened with the wounded.”

“I have to eat. I cannot stop you from meeting me at the Food Court or in my office.”

Just then the computer system announced, “General Graham will be arriving later today to tour the Lightyears…and he would like to talk with you.”

“CHIP, tell General Graham, we will be ready.”

"You do understand that I may have to find your biological parents, right? You have always been so against it."

"I think I have a right not to want to meet people who abandoned me at six months old and then go on to have at least one son that, from all indications they raised. He was younger than me."

"You do not have all the facts. You have no idea what happened."

I narrowed my eyes. "I didn't end up in foster care at six months old. I didn't have to learn to fight at an early age to take on kids who bullied me. I imagined it all. I see."

“That is not what I said.”

“You didn’t have to. You made it abundantly clear with what you did say. I don’t care the excuse. I don’t care if it is an excellent excuse. I still grew up in a foster care system that was not kind to me. A foster care system that did not care about the children they were sworn to protect. That’s why I couldn’t allow my nephews to grow up in that environment. It is not their fault. Just like it wasn’t mine.”

“But--”

“No. I don’t care if you find them. That’s up to you, but I don’t want to meet them.”

“What about our daughter? Doesn’t Zariah get to meet them?”

“First of all, you are acting like they are still alive. They might not be…and when Zariah is eighteen, she can decide for herself, but I do not want to meet them. That is my choice. I was in the hospital alone when I was ten because I broke my skull. I almost died when I was twelve because I was hit by a car. I have been an adult for many years, and they have never tried to find me.”

“Maybe they can’t. Maybe they are being held captive like me.”

I asked with grave deliberation, “Are you sure? Are they being held in the same facility as you were? Is that why you are insistent that I see them?”

He shook his head and replied, “No, but I think you should confront this part of your life, so that you can be whole, so you can know your history.”

“I’m not whole because I do not know my parents?”

“I am not saying any of that. Why are you being so sensitive? That isn’t like you.”

“I am not. I want to know why you are forcing this. You are just like everyone else in my life who thinks they are doing me a favor by trying to find my parents or my family.”

“Dani! I am trying to help you.”

“Are you? Because people who know their parents say that. In the last decade, I had to endure five, count them five, sets of people who claim to be my parents because of the meddling people in my life. None of which turned out to be my parents. I don’t want to meet them. That is my call.”

Close to an hour later, General Graham observed over my CommLet, a wrist-worn communication device, “Dani, you sound tired. Now that all of your crew has arrived. I am giving you and the skeleton crew that has handled all the incoming wounded over the last week three days off. I have already arranged it. No command duties. No surgery. But you can work on your next IIB assignment.”

“Which is?” I pulled the baked ziti out of the oven.

“You have to promise not to tell me you told me so.”

I placed the ziti on the potholders on the counter. “We have some kind of evidence that the disease that killed Josh was man-made.”

“Yes, but I am assigning you a partner for this one. I am only looking out for you. I am afraid that you might become obsessed again. He should have arrived by now. He is your new Chief Surgeon. Since you are working three jobs, you are limited to only practicing medicine when you have incoming wounded, but seeing as you are a MASH unit, that could be a majority of the time.”

“Jake,” I decided, leaning with my back to the counter.

“Jake.”

“He is already here. I have already spoken with him.”

“How did that go?”

“About how you would expect. We broke up right before he was captured. You should have seen the hurt in his eyes when he realized I got married…and widowed. He wants things to go back to what we were before. I don’t know that I can do that. Too much has happened to both of us.”

Graham answered, “Just take it one step at a time.”

Before I could answer, I heard the doors chime, signaling a visitor followed by “Daddy!”

“I’ve got to go. I am suspecting Jake has arrived for dinner.”

“How did that happen?”

“We can talk about it later.”

A group of people burst through the doors and screamed, “IIB!”  This gave Tony and I time to knock the guns out of the people’s hands. 

The people who jumped from the access tunnel try to run past the group, only to be seized by them.  Tony and I helped the group disarm the people and cuff them, leading them all in a single file line to the Brig.

It took quite a while to process them and get them into cells.  

Tony and I watched from afar.  “I was a little afraid you were going to kill that guy,” Tony mentioned.  “You were gripping his arms pretty tightly.  It looked like you went into your own world.”

I continued to feel all the emotions and memories of the prisoners.  I felt disconnected.  I heard what Tony said, but I couldn’t respond.   The memories and emotions paralyzed me.  I could not move and lowered to the ground.  I heard my father in my head:  “Hang in there.  I am rounding up every Indigoid on this SpaceBase, and we are going to join and fix this.  I promise.  Stay calm, and we will be right there.”  I heard Tony screaming out my name and calling Drew.  I fell to the ground, writhing, as I listened to the memories of Zeitverschidetes and those they killed.  My stomach sickened as I listened to horrifying, graphic memories of how my own people were murdered in cold blood over land.

I felt Drew put a DiagnMonitor on my arm.  Then I heard my father scream, “Drew, get out of the way.”  Then I felt a ton of people touch me, smothering me underneath them.  Slowly but steadily, I started to return to normal.  Once I nudged the people off me, I sat up.

“What happened,” I questioned, looking around at my father, sisters and children staring at me.  

“We need to get you out of here,” my father instructed, helping me to my feet.  “I will explain outside of here.”

Drew followed me and my family out into the hallway.  My father explained, “She is an uber-empath…and she was absorbing all the memories and feelings of the Zeitverschidetes in there. So much that it was short-circuiting her gift, but more than that, it was killing her.  I brought all the Indigoids I knew together to absorb some of that off of her.  I have only seen it happen two other times.  I watched her grandmother, my mother, die because we did not know what to do to help her.”

I reached out and touched his hand.  “I am so sorry.”

“We named you two after her,” he told me, then looked to Alli.  “Her name was Alexandria Allison Madrid.  Allison was her mother’s maiden name.”

“For the first time, I actually feel a part of this family,” Alli admitted, darting her eyes around the group, “because we worked together to save one of our own.”  

“Aunt Alli, you are family…and once we know about family, we do not abandon them,” Samantha told her.  She looked back at Drew and asked, “Papa, you can check on Momma and Sophie now.”

Drew moved through the crowd and selected several options on the screen before assessing, “They are both fine.  I am, however, taking her away for the weekend to somewhere other than here.  Alone time--just her and me.”

“Isn’t alone time how we got Sophie in the first place,” I questioned, then noticed Ethan.  “Hello, ol’ friend, I am surprised you couldn’t have saved me on your own since you are an uber-empath like me.”  I couldn’t feel anything from him.  I rose my eyebrows.  “I am still affected by them.  Not as much.  Why don’t you seem to have any signs of distress?  Why can’t I feel your emotions?”  My eyes widened in alarm.  “Oh hell!  They turned you into one of them!”

“What do you mean turned him into one of them,” Dad required, staring at me.  “Are there Indigoids that have been turned into Zeitverschidetes?”

“I met your father. I shot him because he tried to shoot my unborn child,” I advised Zane. When she turned to me, I added, “He was in surgery. He is expected to recover, but he has guards posted at his Hospital door, who are going to escort him to prison when he is recovered.”

"Thank you," Zane and Alli whispered as if they said it aloud, they would jinx it somehow.

"I don't feel good," Zane revealed. She caught my eye and asked, "Can one of your doctors check me out?"

Drew agreed, gesturing her to sit, "I can. Just let me get a DiagnMonitor.". He disappeared. She looked at me for clarification as she sat. "He is my Chief Medical Officer…and my husband, Dominic's Dad."

When Drew returned with a DiagnMonitor, Zane held her arm out to him. Drew put it on her and fiddled with the options. "You are perfectly healthy. You are just going through the Revantio, the six-month healing period Indigoids go through every seven years that are a result of the atmospheric disturbances of India-Seven. You are half Indigoid and half Zeitverschidete. I am guessing Kane is Zeitverschidete."

"As far as we know. Who knows at this point,” answered Alli. “This Revantio thing. Indigoids go through it every seven years?”

I nodded. “And it is when you gain powers or your current ones strengthen.”

“But--”

“No, you do--you both do. It is just that for most people they don’t see them until they are between twenty-eight and thirty-two. Unless you are an uber empath because, for Ethan and me, it was always a gift we knew we had.”

Alli nodded. “It was so fricken annoying.” She turned to Zane and explained, “I would be quiet because I was upset about something…and she would ask if I were okay. I would say I was fine, but she would say no you are not. I feel that you are upset about something. I just wanted to be upset without her knowing about it.”

“She has learned to navigate better now,” Drew responded, moving closer to me. “If you are upset, she will let you be unless you bring it up.” Drew put his arm around me.

“Alixxea,” I heard Papa say in my head, “I need to see you right away.”

“You just got out of surgery,” I told him. “Rest first, and I will come see you in a few hours.”

“No, now! And bring Allison.”

I turned to Drew and required, “What room is our father in? He is demanding to see Alli and me now.”

“He needs to rest.”

“I get that. I told him that, but he wants to see us now.”

Drew motioned Alli and I toward the hallway. He took us down one corridor, then another and another until we reached Room 916. He moved into the room with us. “Jack, you need to rest. You cannot be having heart-to-heart conversations with these women until you have rested for at least an hour.”

“Drew, back off,” Papa screamed. “I need to talk to them before anything happens to me.”

I walked over to Papa and put my hand on his shoulder. “Papa, nothing is going to happen. Drew said you are going to recover.”

“Yes, but you two need to know that those people were killed because of me.”

“What the hell,” I demanded, crossing my arms.

“To rescue my father. Because he was married to an heir to the Supervisor Seats, he has a tracking device embedded in his skin. I had General Graham read it, so we are going to rescue him.”

“How do you know he is in trouble?”

“He is on India-Seven.”

“Maybe he decided to return home.”

I shook my head. “He is in a prison on India-Seven. A prison that has not been in use for twenty years because it is extremely dangerous. Not only is the air bad but there is a lot of damage. It is unstable and can collapse at any moment.” I pointed to Tony, then Drew. “You two are coming with me. “Meet me in Hanger Bay Alpha in fifteen minutes.” I stood. “I am going to gather the equipment we will need--shovels, gloves, rope. Drew, bring two mobile DiagnMonitors. Alli, can you watch the kids? They are pretty self-sufficient. And, Dominic will be home from the Academy later tonight. He says he is bringing a surprise. I hope this is not another girlfriend…or that he is going to be a father. I love the boy, but he is too girl crazy for my tastes. He has always wanted to follow in Drew’s footsteps and be a doctor. I am just afraid something is going to get him off track.”

Victoria and Alli said in unison, “I want to go with you.”

I rubbed my eyes and asked, ‘Hook, do you want to come too? You might as well since you might prove useful in getting us into this prison. I never thought I would be breaking into a prison. I have broken out when I have been held captive.”

Hook threw up his hands and decided, “Why not?”

“I don’t know if you can. I don’t know anything about you, but I have an expert on her way that has been studying you…and we can figure out if that is an option. However, I doubt that is going to stop you from killing people. How can we solve the real problem? What is your issue with Indigoids? With humanoids? What did we do to you?”

“Your people–you time travelers have traveled back in time and every time you do, you kill our people.”

“How is that possible? I time traveled, and I set the timeline straight, but I did not eventually kill any beings. Does the mere act of traveling back in time kill your people?”

“More of our people die every time you all time travel.”

I wondered, “Is that true? Or is something else going on?” When I saw the contorted look on Drew’s face, I added, “I don’t mean I don’t believe you. I just mean that maybe your people died because of some other phenomenon that happens at the same time we time travel. I don’t know, but I am willing to help you out and figure this out, so your people stop dying. I assure you I did not know–”

“We know you didn’t, but people on the Supervisors who do know are not doing anything about it. That’s why we are killing them. They are intentionally ignoring the problem.”

“I would feel terrible if that were happening to my people, if I brought up a problem and no one was doing anything about it…but can you see this from my point of view? My mother was killed when I was five because of what we believe was probably one of your race possessing my father. My father can potentially be killed as well, or at the very least spend his life in a brutal prison camp because he is the one who pulled the trigger.”

I dashed to the window. I didn’t see anyone. Then I heard it again. “Jack, no! I am not giving up being a Federal Agent just because you do not like it. I may have to marry you to keep our seats on the Supervisors safe, but I do not have to give up my life for you. I had these children, and I take care of them. You wanted them, but you do nothing to care for them, now, do you?”

“You are the most ungrateful person I have ever met. Your parents wanted you to marry me, so you wouldn’t marry that man you were engaged to…and ruin your life. You have to serve on the Supervisors in order to keep the seats…and instead you are–”

“All I needed to do was produce heirs with you. I did that…now I am going to take my children and divorce you because you don’t care about me or my children.”

“Our children…and I will sue you for custody.”

“Not because you love them. Because you are using them as pawns because you are hurt. You have been insufferable. When we first married and when we had the children, I thought that I could stay married to you, be a Federal Agent and raise our children. My adoration even turned to love, but now, I don’t know you anymore.”

“You can’t raise those children without me. You can’t even stay alive without me. You are just a pathetic excuse for a human being who needs to be rescued in order to keep the Supervisors’ seats.”

“Frankly, I could care less about those Supervisors’ seats. I care more about my parents. This is a big deal for them, but I do not need you to raise our children. I can stay alive without you. I don’t want my girls being raised by you, to think they need a man, or anyone for that matter to rescue them. Alex, I know for sure, already knows better than that.”

“She is already a little brat like you.”

“I am leaving you. I am taking the kids with me.”