The Cartographer (28 page)

My teeth cracked as I clenched my jaw. I grew fond of Lianne and we have become close during my time aboard the Argus. I couldn't let this savage kill her yet. I had to come up with an idea, fast.

Wraith leaned in and whispered. “I know what you are thinking, Nathan. We can't go back, we would be walking into a trap.”

I nodded but his words seemed far away. He could have just told me I won the lottery and I wouldn't care. I have never felt so lost, until the soldier hovering over the scanners made up my mind.

“I think you guys need to see this,” he said and motioned us over to his screen.

On the screen was a news reporter, from Fox 5 News in Washington DC, according to the logo in the corner. It quickly panned away from her to a live screen shot of a building on fire. I was about to ask what the importance of a structure fire was in DC but the reporter interrupted my chain of thought.

“
What you are looking at is a live image of the Pentagon building. We have unconfirmed reports of a terrorist attack at the facility. We are attempting to assess the situation but—
”

The reporter stopped and looked off screen. She nodded and looked visibly shaken. “
I'm sorry folks, but I have just learned that—
”

The screen went blank and I glanced at the soldier monitoring the station. “Hey what happened?”

He shook his head. “I'm not sure. It seems to be some kind of interference…oh wait there we go.”

The screen came back to life but instead of the Washington reporter it was Calypso. I gasped and stepped back, accidentally bumping Kedge which snapped him from his concentration on the screen.

The soldier looked at Klax. “Sir every news station on the planet has been compromised.”

Klax frowned. “What do you mean?”

“What we are witnessing here is being fed live to every news agency around the world.”

“
Greetings, Earth. My name is Calypso
,” he announced. “
I assure you what you see here is real. The time for you has come to make a real difference
.”

Shai appeared to be monitoring the same thing we were. Although his face was locked on something off to the side, the smile he wielded told the story. Calypso had won.

“
The attack on your Pentagon was not from terrorists, well not any terrorists you know of. I have traveled very far to bring a message to Earth
.
Your planet is in danger
.” He paused for dramatic effect before continuing. “
There is an alien society monitoring you this very moment, preparing an offensive. This attack was only the first in a series of preemptive strikes
.”

“What the hell is he trying to do?” I asked.

“
I beseech the governments of the Earth to strike against the hostiles
.” He pulled back his lips in a smile, revealing flawless white teeth beneath. It resembled the smile of a politician trying to sell something unscrupulous to his unsuspecting constituents. “
As a matter of fact, they are gathering a large force right outside the planet's orbit at this moment
.”

“That son of a bitch,” Wraith muttered.

“
You may be asking yourself, `who is this guy and why should I believe him'. Who I am is not important, but I will explain the why part
.”

The camera panned to the side revealing a video screen and I recognized the room as the one Calypso took me to when I first came aboard the Cirrus. The video on the screen was also familiar. Kedge stiffened behind me when he recognized his home planet. It was the invasion of Mars.

“
What you see here is an invasion by these very same people many years ago. As you can see they spared no one then and they won't spare any of you. They will approach you under false pretenses. They will pretend to want to help you and just as you are ready to trust them they will stab you in the back
.” His eyes burned with anger, but his words dripped in charm. I knew they would win over the people of Earth.

“So this is how he's going to do it,” I said.

“What do you mean?” asked Wraith.

Calypso continued before I could answer, but his words confirmed my fears.

“
But all is not lost, people of Earth
,” Calypso continued. “
I bring you hope and the technology that will aid you in defense against the interlopers. The United Nations building, from what I understand, is a meeting place for the governments of the world. This would be an adequate place for us to meet and discuss the strategy of defense. I will arrive shortly so we can begin discussing a mutually beneficial partnership
.”

The screen briefly went black before reverting to whatever newscast had been going on at the time. A lot of confused reporters around the world were left gripping pages of old news. We were so focused on Calypso that we forgot all about Shai, who smiled smugly from the Argus.

“So you guys ready to come back yet? As you witnessed, it is pointless to remain on the planet.” His smile widened and he trained the barrel of the gun on Lianne. “You're the bad guys now.” He roared with laughter and the guards joined in.

I was about to tell him to go screw off when Lianne wrapped her bound hands around the nearest guard's throat. He let out a surprised squeal and fired his weapon, hitting the guard next to him. Satou sprang up and shoulder tackled his closest guard. Shai's jaw dropped and he tried to mark a target with the rifle. Embeth leapt forward and kicked him in the chest, knocking him into a chair. The screen went black before we could see the outcome.

Klax ran to the radio console. “This is Sergeant Major Klax from the Shuttle Navetta. This hail goes out to anyone surrounding the Argus. The hostages are battling back, board the ship now!”

“
This is Captain Daranan of the DFS Swallowtail, we received your message
.” There was a brief commotion in the background, like several muffled voices shouting orders at each other. “
Boarding has commenced
.”

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“Judging by the video it seems Calypso is still aboard the Cirrus,” replied Wraith. “They attacked the Pentagon so they must be somewhere between there and the United Nations building.”

“We have to find him and take him out before he persuades the people of Earth to turn against us,” I asserted.

“Well what are we waiting for?” growled Kedge.

“
Sir, if Calypso is in that area, my scanners are not picking him up
,” Gard said.

“There is nothing on the shuttle scanners either,” replied the soldier at the controls.

“We know where he is going,” I said. “Can we intercept him?”

Klax shook his head. “New York City is too populated. We would be stopped by human authorities as soon as we stepped foot onto the streets.”

It would be too obvious, I thought. What was I thinking? Oh yes, Mister Officer, don't mind us parading through your streets with hand cannons and stun knuckles dressed like we just raided the bargain bin at the wetsuit supply store. Oh and don't mind those guys in golden armor behind us, they are part of the freak show.

“What are you thinking?” Kedge snapped me out of my trance.

I pushed the doubt out of my mind and tried to focus on the problem at hand. “The answer is obvious, we have to intercept him.”

“
DFS Swallowtail to Shuttle Navetta, please respond
.”

Klax grabbed the radio. “This is Shuttle Navetta, go ahead.”

“
We have conducted a sweep and clear of the Argus. We managed to subdue most of the intruders, but several have escaped from Docking Bay 1
.”

“And Shai?” Klax asked.

“
Not on board
.”

“What about Satou and Lianne?” I exclaimed.

“
What was that Navetta? I didn't catch that
.”

“
How are the people aboard the Argus
?” Klax asked. “
Casualty report
?”

“
Twelve dead, including Captain Jasper. Most of the dead were part of Embeth's crew. Tek the communications officer and Marle the detention guard were among the dead. Embeth and Captain Lianne are OK
.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned in to the microphone. “
What about Satou
?”

“
Satou is OK and attending to the injured
.”

Wraith and I exchanged relieved glances. Losing a captain was bad, but losing two members of the Council would have been a disaster.

Our screen came to life and the sour face of Embeth peered at us. He appeared battle weary and sported a gash along the left side of his face that oozed blood. Someone from the Medical Lab worked feverishly to close the wound but Embeth kept waving him off. Exasperated, the doctor moved on to other patients.

“Klax, status report!”

Klax explained everything up to and including Calypso's newscast. Embeth's face went from sour to furious by the time Klax was done.

“Do we know where Calypso is?”

“We are still scanning but haven't been able to lock in on him,” Klax explained.

“I will send another shuttle,” Embeth offered.

“No!” I blurted. A puzzled expression crossed his face and everyone aboard the shuttle turned toward me. “I can't speak for other governments but the United States will be on military alert after Calypso's little stunt. They will be scouring land, sea and air.”

“What do you propose we do,” asked Embeth.

I thought about his question for a moment. After eliminating every scenario that would either destroy us or the planet I came to one logical conclusion. I battled with it, but no matter what argument I came up with, it still won in the end. I moved in front of the screen and told him my idea.

“Send me home.”

Follow The Dusty Trail

“A
re you sure about this?” Wraith asked.

After explaining my plan, Embeth decided it was the safest course of action. Kedge questioned whether anyone on Earth would believe my story but suggested that I take something from the Consortium's arsenal to prove my point. Embeth, however, squashed that idea because he didn't feel comfortable leaving Consortium weaponry in the hands of humans. Eventually, after several minutes bickering among ourselves, Wraith handed me a portable Sustanant. We agreed an object that could make food out of space poop should win over any skeptics, without endangering lives.

Wraith, Kedge, Gard and I boarded the Navetta, leaving behind the contingent of soldiers to continue scanning for signs of Calypso. We headed for our destination—Carlsbad, New Mexico.

We landed about a half mile from a very familiar cave. I loaded the Sustanant into a backpack and strapped it on. During the trip, I also changed into the clothes I wore at the cave. It would be too much of a psychological shock if I showed up wearing an alien wetsuit. They accompanied me down the ramp and for the first time since my fateful trip long ago, I stepped foot upon my home turf.

“Welcome home, Nathan,” Kedge said and admired the surroundings. “Much of this reminds me of Mars.”I sympathized with his sorrowful expression.

“How far do you live from here?” Wraith asked.

I pointed toward a ridge off to the east. About two miles that way. I rode my bike, but I wonder if it's still here.

We traveled to the mouth of the cave but the bike wasn't there.

“Guess I'm hoofing it from here,” I muttered.

“That's a long way to carry that thing,” Kedge said, gesturing toward the backpack.

“I'll be OK, I know most of the back roads.” I turned toward the dusty trail leading from the cave but someone stopped me. It was Kedge.

“Good luck.” He gripped his staff tightly and surveyed the horizon. His words seemed to be directed toward the sky rather than to me. “I'm more machine than man now and have lived well past my natural life span. I admit time taken its toll on me. Long ago, I yearned to be the avenger of mankind, to right the wrongs perpetrated against Mars.” He shrugged. “It's weird how fate deals its hand in life, isn't it?”

I said nothing because I viewed the pain in his face while he purged his conscience.

“Mankind doesn't need an avenger now,” he continued. “It needs a savior. The task belongs to you now, Nathan.”

“Thanks, that's not a lot of pressure or anything,” I grumbled.

Kedge smiled. “It is what it is.” He threw his staff over his shoulder and fastened it to his back.

He said no more so I turned toward the trail and left them behind. As they faded in the distance my mind focused on what I would tell my parents when I saw them. I had been gone so long I was most likely presumed dead by now. Hopefully, I won't give them a heart attack when my `ghost' strolls through the door.

I followed National Parks Highway north until I came upon a familiar convenience store—Qwik Mart. It was one Sam and I stopped at a few times to pick up drinks and an occasional rubbery hot dog—stores in the middle of nowhere weren't usually known for their cuisine. I was going to walk past until my dry throat forced me to stop. The store had a water fountain inside for the local hunters who stopped in and grabbed a quick drink as they gassed up.