The Cartographer (26 page)

“Well I might as well get straight to the point,” I conceded. “We need you.”

He stopped his melodic finger tapping and raised his eyebrow. “Oh really?”

I wrung my hands nervously underneath the table and they were clammy from sweat but determined to not show any sign of weakness in front of him. Closing my eyes, I mustered the inner strength needed to get through the meeting.

“We are on our way to Earth. Calypso is bringing his…
your
forces to Earth to conquer the planet and gain access to the time hole.”

Kedge remained suspicious. “What does he hope to gain by that? His end game is the destruction of the Consortium. Earth serves no purpose in achieving that goal.”

“All we know right now is he plans to add humans to his army. He needs access to the time hole for some reason.”

Kedge rubbed his chin. “Humans are so fragile, there are millions of other races among the cosmos that would prove more useful. Plus the hole on Earth cannot be accessed without the map.”

I rubbed my hands together briskly. “Yeah, well about that…”

Kedge leaned back in the chair and finished the sentence. “He has the map.”

I nodded. “We are also outnumbered.”

“Oh, so the news gets better,” he griped. “So what are your assets?”

I glimpsed over my shoulder through the window where Satou and Wraith stood with glum faces and arms crossed.

“About a hundred Defense Fleet soldiers, a crew of fifty, this ship…” I trailed off and placed my hands on the table. “And me.”

“I was always under the impression the Consortium was bigger, with some sort of extensive list of allies,” he grumbled. “Apparently I underestimated their resources.”

“Reinforcements are on their way from Caelum, but they are days behind us,” I noted.

“Oh, how desperate they must be to ask me for help.” Kedge stared past me—toward Satou and Wraith.

“It's not desperation and it wasn't their idea. It was mine. They allowed this meeting only because I insisted.”

He fixed his gaze on me and slammed his palms on the table. “Well now that is refreshing.” He shot out of his chair and leaned in ominously.

From the corner of my eye Satou and Wraith moved towards the door. I waved them back. Satou hesitated with his hand on the door.

“They fear I am a madman,” Kedge whispered. “They fear I am out of control, prepared to leap across this table to snap your neck.”

“But you're not,” I whispered, trying to keep the quiver from my voice.

Kedge moved to the other side of the room. I breathed a sigh of relief and checked my pants to make sure I didn't pee myself.

“You're right, I won't.” He sat at the end of the bed and lowered his head into his hands. “I have lost everything because of that backstabbing bastard.” He lifted his head and locked eyes with me. “I will join you, Nathan, but I will need my weapon if you expect me to fight.”

I went to the door and Satou stepped inside with apprehension. He frowned when he overheard Kedge's request.

“We will make arrangements to have it delivered to you.” He scanned the room and frowned. “I will also see what can be done to improve your quarters. Unfortunately, these cells are the best we can do at the moment, but I can try to see if we can make them more comfortable.”

Kedge waved his hand dismissively and scowled. “I don't care about that. You just bring me to Calypso.”

“Well, at least I can stop being the babysitter on board,” grumbled Wraith. “If anyone needs me, I will be in the weapons lab trying to figure out what the hell we are going to do when we get to Earth. I imagine Embeth has already scoured through the weapons, making a mess out of everything.” He turned and stomped down the hall.

Satou's wrist communicator beeped. It was Jasper and he sounded urgent. “
Satou, please report to the bridge
.”

“Acknowledged.” He turned to me. “Nathan, you can return to your room and get some rest. I will call you when we get closer to Earth.”

“What about me?” asked Kedge.

“You will remain here until I call for you.”

I left the room but didn't miss the disappointment on Kedge's face. When we approached the door to my quarters Satou turned to me.

“It will take some time before we can fully trust him.”

“Unfortunately we don't have a lot of time,” I admitted.

“Get some rest, Nathan.” He turned and hustled down the hall toward the elevators.

I entered my room and shuffled over to the desk. I ran my hand over the slot that once contained the Universal Map and my thoughts drifted to Earth. Although only in the company of the Consortium for several weeks, it felt more like years. The memory of the cave was nothing more than a faded photograph in the photo album inside my head. With everything happening around me, I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I sat on the bed. I was asleep not long after my head hit the pillow.

I slept deeply until someone's phone started ringing. When I regained consciousness, I realized it wasn't the phone, but the door.

After rubbing cobwebs of sleep from my eyes, I lifted myself from the bed and trudged to the digital viewport. Satou stood on the other side, shuffling his feet apprehensively.

I dropped my forehead against the screen of the viewport. “What now?” I muttered.

When I opened the door his enormous frame filled the doorway. He eyeballed me and shook his head.

“I knew you needed rest, you look like hell.”

“Thanks,” I grumbled.

“Sorry, I did not want to disturb you but you need to see this. Please follow me to the bridge.”

I threw my boots on and followed him out the door. Satou said nothing on the way to the bridge, but it was hard to miss the tension in his face. I wanted to ask him if he was OK, but knew he wouldn't tell me. His mind seemed to be focused on a problem a million miles away.

We stepped foot on the bridge and I scanned the room. Jasper was on the periscope, surveying the vastness of space. Embeth and Lianne were in a corner of the room, huddled over the communications panel. Lianne looked up when we came in and hurried over.

“Local news reports are confirming the data we received from the transceiver,” she whispered.

Satou looked grim. “What is our estimated arrival time?”

“Two hours, tops,” she replied.

“Can someone tell me what's going on?” I interrupted. “Just so you know, I was sleeping peacefully until you came along.”

She led me to a monitor near Embeth. He moved aside which allowed me to see the screen. A news anchor sat in front of a depiction of a starry night sky split by a comet streaking across the center. I yawned and started to protest my rude awakening until the anchor started speaking.

“
Hello, South Florida, this is Brian Nolan bringing you tonight's news. An unidentified object in the sky has aviation experts scratching their heads. As first reported by WPLG-10 in Miami, the object did not appear on radar but nearly collided with a private jet over the western coast of the Bahamas. We take you now live with Mark Fogel, who is with the pilot of that private jet
.”

The camera turned from the reporter to a disheveled, middle-aged, bearded man who looked like he had just come off a three week bender of coffee and No-Doz. A field reporter stood next to him, with a microphone the size of a banana shoved in his face.

“
Thank you, Brian. I am here with Jeff Benkman, the pilot. Jeff we understand you have more information regarding your harrowing encounter
.”

The man scratched his beard and cleared his throat nervously. He obviously had not been in front of a camera before and seemed unsure of himself.

“
Uh, yeah. I was flying at an altitude of about 8,000 feet when I…uh…I don't know if it was a remote control aircraft or something, but something came up on me fast. It looked like a…um…
” he trailed off and ran his hand through his hair.

“
It's OK, Jeff. Please continue
,” the reporter prodded.

“
It looked like a…uh…small bus, sort of like the type people take from the old folks home to the bingo parlor, you know what I mean? Except instead of tires it had what looked like metal bars where the wheels should have been
.”

An uncomfortable pause passed between interviewer and interviewee. The reporter looked at the camera and shrugged. Jeff discovered some inner strength and continued.

“
Once I steered out of its path, it vanished
,” he added. “
When I called in the near miss, the tower told me they had nothing on the radar
.”

Embeth switched off the monitor and exchanged glances with Satou.

“It sounds like a shuttle,” Embeth offered.

“That belongs to the Cirrus, to be exact,” Satou countered.

They both turned to me and saw the resignation in my face—Calypso won the race. Embeth turned to the communications officer.

“I need you monitoring all news stations on Earth. If you hear anything out of the ordinary, I don't care how trivial it may seem, you notify me,” he barked.

The communications officer nodded his acknowledgement before pulling on his headset. I grabbed Embeth by the elbow.

“What do we do now?” My frantic expression matched his grim countenance.

When he cracked his knuckles they sounded ominously like gunshots. “We fight.”

“Sir, we are passing Earth's moon,” Tek said.

Satou looked beyond Tek to the communication officer manning the radio. “What is the latest status from Caelum?”

“DFS Swallowtail and DFS Alacrity are the closest ships, but still two days out,” replied the officer. “DFS Pioneer is reporting four days out.”

“Do we have any Explorer's League vessels out there?” asked Satou.

“Nothing closer than the ships mentioned,” he replied.

I watched Embeth's expression change from grim to dire. He turned to me so abruptly I stepped back in surprise.

“I have good news and bad news, Nathan,” he growled.

“Well isn't that great,” I replied sourly.

“The good news is local news has only reported seeing one shuttle. If it is indeed the Cirrus shuttle it can only hold, at most, twenty soldiers. Its weapons systems are very basic and designed more for defense than offense.”

“The bad news?”

Embeth crossed his arms and turned to the monitor. “If Calypso somehow managed to land the Cirrus discreetly, we could be facing a force much greater.”

“What are the chances of that?”

“Humans are able to detect a large force entering the planet's atmosphere,” Satou explained. “Consortium shuttles come with camouflaging devices which allow them to escape the reach of radar, however. Calypso, theoretically, could sweep in under the cover of a storm undetected.”

“Which I am prepared to do if the need arises,” Jasper chimed in before closing the periscope. “Tek, are you picking up anything on the scanners?”

“Negative, Captain,” he replied. “Just the usual satellite traffic.”

I gravitated toward the primary monitor and gazed at the screen. The Argus was positioned above the South America continent with the moon off to the left. I assumed Jasper took the position for visibility since the sun cresting behind the Earth on the other side. From this distance, the Earth seemed at peace.

Embeth's words echoed in my mind and I couldn't shake the notion that we were walking into a trap. If Calypso had attacked already, there would be news reports all over the place, but I continued feeling that something was wrong. I scanned the room and watched frantic faces hover over radios, computer screens and guidance equipment. We had several eyes and ears monitoring traffic on Earth. Then suddenly it hit me like a brick to the face.

“Oh no,” I gasped.

Everyone turned toward me.

Satou's expression of determination morphed into concern. “Is something wrong, Nathan?”

“The moon!”

I rushed over to Tek who was busy monitoring an Asian news agency following up on the strange craft in the Bahamas. I stumbled on my way over to his station and almost knocked him out of his chair.

“Hey, watch it!” he exclaimed.

“Can you change what you are monitoring?” I asked, panic creeping into my voice.

“Why,” he replied. “Where on the planet do you—”

“No, not on Earth,” I interrupted. “I need you to switch to the moon!”

A confused expression crossed his face. “I don't have a transceiver on the moon. We will have to use the ship's scanners for that.”

“Damn, why didn't I think of that!” Jasper slammed his hands on the control panel. “Scan the moon!”

Before he turned to the monitor the ship shuddered violently and I found myself surrounded by light. Explosions rocked the ship. The momentum sent me backwards for what seemed like an eternity—until my head slammed against a control panel. Flaming stars fell around me and I couldn't tell if they were caused by the attack or by my head slamming against the panel. I rolled to the side and winced from the sharp pain stabbing the rear of my skull. The back of my head felt sticky and I pulled my hand away covered in blood. The bridge was a scene of chaos. Satou struggled to stand while Jasper barked orders to the crew—what was left of them. Lianne lay unconscious in the corner while Embeth pulled an unconscious (or dead) Tek from the control panel.

“Security alert,” Jasper shouted above the crackle of shattered machinery. “Battle stations!”

The large screen at the front of the bridge flickered to life. An image of a man flashed across the screen. His skin was black and he had the pointed ears of an elf, similar to crewmembers I had witnessed aboard the Argus—from the planet Drith, I recalled. Long flowing white hair poured from the top of his head and a thick golden hoop earring dangled from each ear. He wore some sort of dark gray, flexible metallic armor that allowed him to fold his arms across his chest. A hard expression adorned his face—the look of a man who had seen many battles.

“Greetings, Explorer's League,” he cooed. “I can't believe it but that son of a bitch Calypso was right. You people are way too predictable.”

Jasper turned to the screen with fists clenched. “Who the hell are you?”