Chapter 8
Kynan
A sharp pain ran down Ben’s neck after his head rolled away from the wall, waking him up. He reached his left hand up reflexively and rubbed the pain as he opened his eyes.
“Man,” he muttered under his breath. He looked down at Kara, who was still sound asleep on his lap, her hand on his leg just above the knee. But that was in a better spot than where his right hand was, which was draped over the upper part of her waist, a little too close to female comfort. He gently removed it.
He saw a strand of her hair that escaped the bun and had fallen over her face, so he decided to move it back around her ear for her. The light caress was enough to awaken her. She sat up and looked at him. “What time is it?” she asked in a thick Irish accent.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I don’t even know if it’s light outside yet or not.”
“Aye, I don’t hear any rain, and it’s warm’n up in here, so it must be.” Ben hadn’t noticed it before, but she was right on both counts. He stood up and opened the oval door, letting in a refreshing scent of passing rain and evaporating water. They both inhaled an appreciative breath before descending the steps to the outside, where Ben looked around in wondrous amazement at the beautiful trees and mountains surrounding them. A flock of strange-looking birds chirped and soared into the air, leaving Ben with an excited grin.
“Boy, look at ya,” Kara teased. “You look like you’ve never seen a forest before.”
“I haven’t,” Ben replied, “at least not in real life.”
Kara squinted her face slightly in embarrassment. She knew that Ben was an orphan from Naroon, and she felt she had come across as a little insensitive. She tried to cover for it. “Right,” she said. I guess Naroon is pretty much a wasteland, isn’t it?”
“Well, not exactly. It’s desolate, but I wouldn’t call it a wasteland. It has oceans and enough plants to produce breathable oxygen, and there are lots of bugs and a bunch of reptilian-like creatures we called Dubbies.”
“Dubbies?” Kara asked perkily. Ben looked at her incredulously as though she had admitted to liking pests. Kara shrugged. “I like creatures, what can I say?”
“You wouldn’t like these. They’re a pain in the butt.”
After a few more minutes of absorbing their exquisite surroundings, Ben and Kara pulled out their packs and took care of their morning necessities before eating a Hydra food pack.
The ground was soft and wet from the rain, but there was enough wild grass and foliage to prevent puddles from forming, which made their tasks a little easier.
Kara turned on her handheld Simpad and scrolled through an overhead map with coordinates of the area that she had downloaded prior to the drop. “It looks like we need to go that way for a spell,” she said with a head nod before taking a sip of water from a tube attached to a water pack in her gear. “Kara, look,” Ben said softly. She turned her head to where he was looking. A short distance away, she saw a powerfully built animal walk out of the tree line. It looked like a cross between a gazelle and an elk, but it was as big as a moose. Its two-foot-tall antlers were like a gazelle’s, except they forked halfway up. The animal stopped just past the tree line’s edge to scout its surroundings. After a few seconds, a slightly smaller antlerless animal walked out, followed by a tiny fawn.
“Oh, how cute!” Kara whispered loudly as she eyed the tiny fawn. She lifted her Simpad and took several rapid pictures of them, paying particular attention to the fawn.
“Can your Simpad’s scanner differentiate between human and animal life?”
“That’s a good question,” she said. She scrolled through her programs until she found her scanner. “It’s picking up those animals, but it only identifies them as being mammals. This forest is crawling with life forms. Wow.”
“But nothing human?”
“Not that I can tell. I’m really not too familiar with how this program works, though. Captain Baas told me not to use it too much because of the signal it gives off. It might alert the Alliance.”
“Does he seem a little too paranoid about that to you?” Ben asked.
“No, not really. He’s just concerned about our safety. I should put this on standby mode to minimize the power output. I’ll just check it every now and then to make sure we’re still on course.” She tapped the screen a couple of times and put it into her pack. “Come here so I can adjust the settings on your exosuit.”
“Should we take our helmets with us?” Ben asked as Kara set to work on the patch-like screen on his left arm.
“Na,” she replied. “It’ll just be a nuisance to us.”
“Sounds good to me,” Ben replied, thankful he wouldn’t need to lug the thing around on his head.
After they were comfortable with their electrical signature, they gathered their gear and started their journey into the alien forest to look for Kara’s father. They were both mesmerized by the sights and sounds of the forest, but for different reasons.
“Most of these trees look like large oak and spruce trees,” Kara said as they carefully traversed the natural obstacles created by the forest. “It’s amazing how the biodiversity of this place is like Earth’s. The vegetation, the trees, the animals…well…in a manner of speaking.”
“Does it?” Ben asked curiously.
“Aye,” she replied. “It does have its differences, though. I mean, look at some of these plants with the large bluish leaves and fat roots. I don’t think there’s anything like that on Earth. And those greenish, yellowish viney shrubs over there? There’s nothing like that, I don’t think. But most of these trees and other plants are very similar. And the rich, fragrant smells from the plants are similar, too.”
“How does it compare to other habitable planets you’ve been on?”
“This one has them all beat by far. Even without the human population, I can definitely see why the Alliance is so interested in it. I mean, all of the other habitable planets have some kind of vegetation that produces oxygen, of course, but nothing like this. I guess they’re really not much better than what you described about Naroon, come to think of it.”
“How about Icarias?” Ben asked, referring to the planet that COTA was located on.
“It’s not overly rich with plant and animal life, but it has large oceans, and its gravitational pull is similar to Earth’s. It’s diverse enough to be perfect for land and sea training.”
“Makes sense,” Ben replied as he carefully stepped over a large vine that had several brightly colored blue and orange mixed blooms coming out of it.
As they continued their trek, Ben couldn’t help but think about how a few weeks prior he was stuck on a lifeless rock dreaming about someday doing something important. And now here he was on a secret mission to rescue a spook on a previously unknown planet that was more beautiful and exotic than anything he’d ever seen. An excited chill ran up his spine as he reveled in his good fortune. Just as the chill hit his neck, he heard the sounds of a large animal bounding away from them somewhere nearby, but he couldn’t see it.
They stopped every few minutes so that Kara could check her Simpad to make sure they were heading in the right direction. There were several pockets in the forest that were dense with tall trees and foliage, which prevented them from seeing the mountain tops they had been using as markers. It also slowed their progress considerably, but they did their best to take advantage of the areas that weren’t as dense.
After about an hour of hiking, Kara decided to leave the Simpad on so she could scan the area ahead as they got closer to the objective. She was fairly confident that they were closing in on it.
“Do you smell that?” Ben whispered to her.
Kara sniffed the air. “It smells like smoke,” she whispered back to him. Her heart began to beat a little faster. “Let’s keep going, maybe we’ll be able to see it.”
They carefully tread through the forest for a few more minutes until they noticed a thin haze of smoke hovering lightly in the air as if trying to escape the dense forest.
After a period of silence, Ben moved up directly behind her, grabbed the back of her elbow, and pointed at something.
“Look over there,” he whispered into her ear as he pointed at something out of place in a small clearing down a slight hill. It looked like fabric from a large green tent that was camouflaged with flora picked from the surrounding vegetation. It could easily house six people.
Kara lifted the Simpad and scanned the area. “I think there’s someone down there,” she said as her heart began to pound faster and her hands started to tremble.
Ben put a hand around her shoulders and squeezed her close to him. “It’s a good sign, Kara,” he said. “Let’s stay calm, okay.” She nodded her head, but she couldn’t shake the tremors.
They started moving towards the small clearing and the tent, now about thirty meters away. Kara kept the Simpad out in front of her, about abdomen-high, so she could monitor the heat signatures of everything in front of her. Ben held on to her arm to make sure she didn’t trip.
About twenty meters out, Kara suddenly stopped and looked up at a large tree on the other side of a weedy clearing. Her body froze, except for her heart, which began to beat faster and faster. She squinted her eyes and stared intently for several seconds. Ben squeezed her arm, time slowed, her pulse felt heavier, and her vision began to blur. A moment passed, and she could hear the thudding in her chest get louder. Ben’s hand released, she drew in an excited breath, and in a voice that startled Ben, she yelled out, “Daidí! Mo Dhaidí!”
They saw a bearded man with unkempt hair peek his head around the tree. Kara saw his eyes, and that was all the confirmation she needed. With tears flooding her face, she sprinted through the trees and shrubs, yelling “Daidí!” over and over again.
The red-bearded man stepped out from behind the tree, and in a froggy, cracking voice, overcome with emotion, he yelled back to her, “Buíochas le Dia! Kara, mo chailín leanbh!” He was a tall, powerfully built man in a blackened exosuit.
Kara ran into the man’s large, open arms, and he collapsed them around her in a commanding embrace that lifted her completely off the ground. “Mo chailín luachmhar, mo chailín óg,” he repeated several times as he kissed her cheeks and head.
Ben felt a burning sensation swell up in his chest as he watched Kara and Kynan’s tearful reunion. He had never felt so overcome with happiness so quickly as he did now – he’d never had a reason to – this was new. He slowly made his way down to them, passing the remnants of a hastily put-out cooking fire.
Kynan saw him, and as he did, he relaxed his grip on his daughter. He wiped the tears from his eyes, looked down at his daughter, then back at Ben with a curiosity that was a cross between confusion and comprehension.
“Did the Colonel send you two?” he finally asked with the audible frog still in his throat.
Kara tried to answer, but her voice wouldn’t let her. Picking up on this, Ben said, “Yes, sir, he did. My name’s Ben.” He reached out a hand, and Kynan grasped it while still holding his daughter in the other.
“It’s good to meet ya, Ben,” Kynan said warmly in a familiar Irish accent. “And my daughter, praise be to God. I’m so happy you’re here!”
Tears were streaming down Kara’s face as she looked up at her dad. She’d never felt so happy to see him. He was alive, and he was well. She didn’t even notice how bad he smelled, nor would she have cared if she had.
“It’s been ages,” Kynan said as he brushed his daughter’s hair. “Aye, how I’ve missed you.” Kara couldn’t speak, only nod. “How’d you get here?” Kynan asked.
“Colonel Stoddard put us on this mission with a man named Captain Baas and his Jack Crew,” Ben told him.
“Aye, Captain Baas,” Kynan replied with a head nod as he looked back at Ben. “Good man he his – good crew!”
“Oi!” Kara shouted as she pulled away from her dad. “I need to contact him now, let him know we found you!”
Kynan gently extended his hand and placed it on her Simpad as she lifted it. “Why don’t we go inside my tent first, my sweet? I have questions. And it’s more comfortable in there, less wet.”
“Um, okay,” she said, rather confused. “I just figured you’d want to get out of here as quickly as you can.”
“Aye, I do, but…” he let the sentence trail off.
“Are you all right, Dad…I mean, aside from being trapped on this planet for several months?”
“I’m fine, luv, especially now that you’re here,” he told her sincerely. “I’m just trying to absorb this. I need to understand, think things through a bit.” He turned and motioned to the tent. The teens glanced at each other. Ben nodded his head gently and then did as instructed. Kara grabbed her dad’s arm and followed him.
Aside from a collapsible chair and cot with an air mattress on it, there weren’t very many amenities or creature comforts in the tent. Hanging from the seven-foot-high ceiling was an artificial light source that also dubbed as a heating unit. Kynan explained that it was powered by a battery pack connected to a small solar panel outside the tent. As for comfort, like Kynan had said, it was dry.
“It’s been a rough few months,” Kynan told Ben and Kara, who were now sitting on the air mattress on the cot. Kynan sat down on the collapsible chair after adjusting the light. “I’m curious, Ben. How did Colonel Stoddard finally find you?”
Ben and Kara looked at each other and then back at Kynan, who seemed to pick up on their puzzled look.
“Hmm, interesting,” Kynan said to himself.
“You mean, where did Colonel Stoddard find him?” Kara said in a quickened voice, more as a statement than as a question. It was clear she wanted to go. “Ben’s an orphan from Naroon. He was, ah, working in the mines on LG Four. The Colonel recruited him because his aptitude tests were off the charts.” It was obvious that her adrenaline was still pumping. There was no reason for her to speak so fast or to be so descriptive.
Kynan rubbed his dark reddish-brown beard with his calloused hands and nodded his head, not at all betraying his thoughts. “Aye, Naroon, eh?” he said.
“Yes, sir,” Ben replied.
“Is that it?” Kara asked. “You were curious about Ben? It’s not complicated.”
“Sweetie, it’s okay,” Kynan said as he held up loving palms. “I’m just trying to figure some things out.”
“I don’t understand. What’s there to figure out?” There was obvious concern growing in Kara’s voice. She wanted desperately to get her father off this planet and back to the safety of the ship. But for some reason, he acted like it wasn’t important, or rather like something else was more important.
“Kara, baby, it’s okay, I promise,” Kynan told her, picking up on her concern. “Colonel Stoddard’s got something up his sleeve here. I need to figure out what it is.”
“There’s nothing up his sleeve,” Kara argued with a hint of desperation in her voice. “The government wouldn’t let him send a rescue team, so he devised a plan where me and Ben would act like brother and sister who hired a Jack Crew to find you.”
Kynan shook his head and smiled, “Aye, is that what he did? A creative one that man is.” He turned his attention to Ben. “I suppose he told you you’re expendable, didn’t he?”
“Well, yeah, how did you guess that?”
“Deductive reasoning,” Kynan replied.
Ben and Kara looked at each other and seemed to read one another’s thoughts. I think he’s lost it, Ben thought to himself. I think he has, too, Kara seemed to confirm.
“I’m not off my rocker, kids. Colonel Stoddard never does anything that simple.”
“Okay, um, are you going to explain this or not? Or can we go now?” Kara asked as she lifted her Simpad.
“No, we can’t leave just yet. It’s important that we discuss a few things here and not in front of Captain Baas and his crew.”
“Why’s that?”
“Spycraft, luv – need to know – and they don’t. Just hear me out. As I’m sure Colonel Stoddard told you, I was sent here because we got word that the Alliance had discovered a planet that had human life on it. I got here and settled on that larger moon. I was able to hack into their satellites, and I managed to send back a feed, but somehow, they detected me. It was on day two. It must have been a random patrol or something, I don’t know. I lifted off the moon and tried to run, but they attacked and damaged my ship. I was losing power fast, and my options were limited.
“They must’ve thought they’d disabled my ship by the way they approached me. I transferred all of the auxiliary power I had to my engines, and I figured I had a choice between crashing on the moon and crashing on the planet. I opted for the planet; figured I’d have a fighting chance for survival here. It was certainly better than letting them capture me.
“I put the ship on course for the planet, and while it navigated towards it, I rushed to put as many survival supplies in my escape pod as possible. As soon as the ship hit the dark side of the atmosphere, I bailed.
“The ship crashed in a fiery ball that probably looked like an asteroid to the indigenous people. I landed near the crash site and self-destructed the pod so that it looked like I died in the crash, and then I set out on foot until I decided that I was far enough away that the Alliance wouldn’t find me.”
“Weren’t you concerned about the natives finding you?” Kara asked.
“No, not at all. There isn’t a village within a two-hundred-mile radius of us, and we’re deep in this mountain range. Anyway, I activated the portable TCL I had, but it malfunctioned, and I don’t know how to fix it. The solar panel out there gives me just enough power to keep my Simpad charged and the lights on in here. Of course, I don’t use my Simpad very often because it could alert the Alliance to my existence.”
“Did you ever think about surrendering?” Ben asked him.
“Aye, no, never,” Kynan replied, shaking his head. “I had enough faith that Colonel Stoddard would find a way to rescue me. I just didn’t think he’d do it like this, sending you two. Especially not you, Ben.”
Kara squinted her face and darted a look at Ben. Ben picked up on it. “That’s the second time you’ve made it sound like you know me. Am I missing something?”
“You say you’re an orphan from Naroon?”
“Dad, I already told you this. His aptitude tests were off the charts; they were even higher than mine. He applied to COTA, and that’s how he landed on Colonel Stoddard’s radar.”
“COTA? Huh. That certainly puts the tumblers into place.”
“What are you talking about, Dad? You’re not making any sense.”
“I suppose the nuns submitted a DNA sample for you when they shipped you off to the mines, right? I mean, after all, it is the law.”
“Um, yeah,” Ben replied. He started to feel an ominous sensation grow from the pit of his stomach. Something wasn’t right.
“Just…curious,” Kynan then said. “Did Stoddard say to tell me anything before you left?”
“What?” Kara asked as she drew her head back. “No, what would he…” but Ben cut her off before she could finish her sentence.
“Actually, he said to tell you, ‘The future’s bright,” Ben told him.
Kara paused as she remembered Stoddard’s awkward smile.
Kynan nodded in approval. He shrugged his shoulders as if he’d felt a cold chill run up his spine. “This has been a long time coming. And now it’s here.”
“Dad, seriously, what are you getting at?” Kara said agitatedly.
“This mission isn’t just about saving me, Kara. It’s also about saving Ben.”
“Huh,” Ben and Kara said together.
“Ben, I’m afraid I have to tell you something that’s, well, life-changing. This is going to be hard, son.”
“What? I mean…I don’t understand.”
“I need you to prepare yourself, Ben,” he said as he looked imploringly into Ben’s eyes. “This is a crappy thing to do, son. All the more so because I have to do it in a tent on a strange planet…after you’ve just met me.” He shook his head and then pleaded, “God help me.”
“DAD!!! What is going on!” Kara yelled at him. This made no sense at all. Why was this happening? Why was he doing this?
“The future’s bright…” Kynan said as he nodded his head before looking at the ground. Ben’s heart quickened – Kara pleaded.
“You’re not a descendant of Earth, Ben,” Kynan said as he lifted his head and stared at Ben directly in his eyes. He was trying his hardest not to add additional drama, but it wasn’t working. “Your parents were from a planet called Payra. They were spies, and they were killed in the line of duty.”
Ben reflexively stood up and looked straight ahead with a blank look on his face. “What? What?” The tent started to spin.
“I’m being serious, Ben. This is about you and your parents. This isn’t the only planet with human life. In a manner of speaking, you’re an alien. Your family is from Payra, not Earth.
“What? That’s not…you’re not…how could…” Ben couldn’t find the words. The world began spinning faster. His head was getting lighter.
“It’s true, Ben. This is important. This is why you’re…Hey, are you okay?” Kynan asked as Ben wobbled.
“I don’t…what the…what…” the world around him curled into blackness.
The last thing Ben heard was Kynan yelling, “Catch him!”
Kynan and Kara laid him down on the air mattress after stopping his fall, and then Kara grabbed her med kit from out of her pack. She pulled out a medical scanner and ran an analysis of his systems after syncing it to Ben’s exosuit. Other than a rapid pulse, Ben’s bodily functions were normal.
She leaned in close to his face and said, “You’re okay, Ben. You’re okay.” She rubbed her fingers through his hair, and he slowly began to open his eyes. “Can you hear me, Ben? You’re okay.”
“What…happened,” he replied groggily.
“You passed out. It’s okay. I’m here. You’re fine,” she said, resting her hand on his chest.
He blinked his eyes several times, causing tears to stream down the sides of his face. He laid there for another minute, and then he began to sit up.
“Here, take a sip of water,” Kynan said, handing him a small cup of it. “It’s rainwater, it’s really good.”
Ben did as instructed, and then he rolled his feet and legs over the edge of the mattress. “I’m sorry, guys, I just…I guess I just got a little overwhelmed.”
“That’s my fault, son,” Kynan said to him. “I should have told you a little more tactfully.”
“This is why you didn’t want us alerting the Jack Crew, isn’t it?” Kara asked him, still stunned by the revelation herself.
“It is. They don’t need to know. Nobody does.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Ben said, shaking his head. “Why wouldn’t Colonel Stoddard have just told us this from the beginning?”
“It’s plausible deniability, Ben,” Kynan replied. “You’re deep into enemy territory. If they had captured you, they would have tortured you all for information. They may not have the technology to read minds, but they do have the technology to determine whether or not you’re lying. They’d keep torturing you until they knew you were telling the truth. As long as you believed that you were on a search and rescue mission for me, they wouldn’t know the truth of your mission.”
“But you’re the mission,” Ben pressed. “What other mission are you talking about? How..how can you be certain about me? How do you know I’m not someone else?”
“Aye, Ben, you’re not exactly the spit’n image of your father, or your mother for that matter, but you do look similar to both of them in your own way. Colonel Stoddard’s been looking for you for ages. The only reason I can see him sending my daughter out here with another teenage boy is if that teenage boy was you. And it would be for your own protection, ironically enough. It makes sense.”
“It doesn’t make sense!” Kara pitched. “He could’ve kept Ben on his own ship or sent him into hiding somewhere.”
“Like here?” Kynan replied.
“Well, no, not like here. Somewhere safe.”
“Like here? Kynan replied again.
“This isn’t safe!”
“That depends on your perspective, doesn’t it?”
“What perspective?”
“There are complexities you don’t know about, Kara. Stoddard can’t keep Ben on his ship. Not with the risk of moles. And hiding Ben defeats the purpose of his mission,” he finished as he nodded toward Ben.
“WHAT MISSION!” Kara yelled. Kynan looked at her lovingly and put a hand on her shoulder. It was enough to calm her.
“So, you knew my parents?” Ben asked softly.
Kynan and Kara both looked at him.
“I didn’t know them very well. I only met them a handful of times, with Colonel Stoddard and Jim.”
“Are you certain about them? They’re aliens, and they’re dead?”
“The proof was in their DNA, just as it’s in yours. Their DNA sequence doesn’t match anyone from Earth, dating back at least three thousand years. Anything before that, we don’t really have a comprehensive record of.”
“But you said they were spies.”
“Aye, that’s what they claimed. We had no reason not to believe them. We did our due diligence. Coming up with a story about Payra would be an elaborate scheme, but a worthy one if they were Alliance spies. But that wouldn’t have made any sense given what they were claiming.”
“Which was what exactly?”
“That the Alliance wanted Payra to destroy the Federation.”
“Wait a second. So, the Alliance knows about them?”
“According to your parents, they do. The president at the time and our congressional handlers didn’t believe Colonel Stoddard when he briefed them on it. They believed your parents were spies for the Alliance. We were instructed to detain them for questioning, but Colonel Stoddard had no intention of following through with the order. Unfortunately, your parents were killed before we figured everything out.”
“So why am I not dead then?”
“That’s a good question. More than likely, the people who killed your parents probably thought that you were killed along with them.
“You have to understand, Ben, there are a lot of unknowns surrounding your parents. I don’t want to make it sound like I have all of the answers because I don’t; nobody does. Colonel Stoddard knows a little more than I do, and he hasn’t shared that information with either me or Jim, and for good reason, too.”
“What reason is that?”
“Jim and I are still active spooks. If we get caught, we run the risk of exposing the truth.”
“But you just said that no one believed you,” Ben retorted.
“I said the president and our congressional handlers didn’t believe us. But I also said your parents were killed by someone. Whoever killed them believed something. And unfortunately, we have no idea who killed them.”
“Do you at least know how they died?”
“Aye…I do,” Kynan said somberly. “Their spaceship was destroyed not far from Earth’s moon. They had an outpost on the moon, but we were never allowed access to it. In fact, we didn’t even know its exact location until the day they died.
“Your parents sent us a distress signal from the outpost. A few minutes later, we picked up another distress signal from their ship, but by the time we arrived, there was only debris floating in space. I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but we found…DNA.”
“As for you, they told us they had a child. Towards the end, they were convinced that someone from their planet was onto them, and they sent you into hiding. I mean, this was just days before they were killed. They were going to tell us where you were just in case something happened to you, but they didn’t do it in time. We knew you were somewhere in the Federation; we just didn’t know where.
“Oh, and I should mention that we knew your name was Ben. Surprisingly, it’s not an uncommon name.” Kynan paused and rubbed his unkempt red hair.
“If the people who killed them found out that you’re still alive,” Kynan continued, “you can believe they’d come after you. But it’s a safe bet they believed you were killed with them.
“Like I said before, it makes perfect sense why Colonel Stoddard sent you on this mission. It’s the safest place for you to be, especially now that your DNA’s been listed on the government’s data lines. You’re not safe with him.”
“So, how is it that you never saw me as a baby if you met my parents so many times? I can’t imagine they left me by myself.”
“Ben, that’s…that’s all part of the unknown. We assume you had a nanny or something. And believe me when I say we tried like mad to find her, but we had nothing to go on. They had to have a home base they lived out of; we just never knew where it was. Their ship wasn’t big enough to live in, and from what I understand, their outpost on the moon was just that, an outpost. I’m sure they could have lived there for days at a time, but I doubt they ‘lived’ there. It couldn’t have been a permanent residence.”
“I’m so confused,” Ben said, shaking his hurting head. “What was their purpose for being here, or at Earth, or whatever? What were they spying on? I get that they said the Alliance wanted to form a military alliance because they wanted to attack us, but what would that have to do with my parents?”
“I don’t know what to tell ya, Ben. I don’t have all the facts. Our first few meetings were about courting each other. Building trust. We gave and received bits and pieces of information over the course of several weeks.
“They told us there was political turmoil on Payra. Scientists from Payra visited Earth several hundred years ago, and something happened that caused the Payra government to forbid anyone from ever coming back. We don’t know what happened back then. And we don’t know how the Alliance came into contact with them afterward. Your parents were sent here to scout the Federation, but they discovered something that compelled them to reach out to us. Again, another unknown.
“Obviously, we haven’t been attacked by Payra or the Alliance in the past sixteen years, so it seems they aren’t in league with each other. And we’re fairly confident that Payra isn’t involved with the Alliance’s research on this planet. It could be that Payra has stopped contact with them altogether. We simply don’t know.
“Since your parents died, Payra’s been a myth. An urban legend.”
“But you’re convinced it exists and that my parents weren’t just lunatics playing a game?” Ben asked.
“I don’t know how else to tell you, Ben. I know it in my heart. It’s just something I believe. Call it faith if you will.”
“Faith…faith,” Ben repeated, shaking his head, but not meaning anything derogatory by it.
“Ben, your mission is just beginning. Colonel Stoddard needs you to go to the moon to access their outpost – see what you can find out about them. It’s a must if we’re going to prove to the Federation that Payra exists.”
“Well, if you guys know where their outpost is, why haven’t you tried accessing it?”
“For starters, the military is strictly forbidden from landing on the moon,” Kynan replied before holding up a silencing hand at the obvious retort. “There’s another wrinkle. There’s a hand pad at the entrance. It’s an advanced type of technology that scans for both a handprint and DNA.”
“That’s going to count me out. I was just a baby. They wouldn’t have my DNA programmed into it, let alone my handprint.”
“That’s not necessarily true. First off, you share their DNA. Secondly, even though your hand gets bigger, its print never changes. Lastly, Colonel Stoddard received a coded message from them the day before their death, providing him with information about various things. One of the things they said was that if they ever got killed, you were the key to their site. I know they were worried about being tracked, but I don’t think they knew at that point they were in serious trouble, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone back to it. But again, it’s all part of the unknown.”
Ben stood up again and rubbed his face. This was simply too much for him to handle. None of this made sense to him – it wasn’t logical. He didn’t know if he could believe what he’d heard or not. But something inside of him told him it was true. “Faith,” he mumbled to himself.
Kynan took a deep breath and stood up to face him. “I know this is a lot to absorb, Ben, I do. But this is your life. This is who you are. I promise you that Colonel Stoddard has already run all of the tests he possibly could to confirm that your DNA matches Azaria’s and Boaz’s DNA.”
Ben stiffened his neck and head and looked directly at Kynan. It was the first time he’d heard his parents’ names. He was amazed that it hadn’t dawned on him to ask about their names before now. “Azaria and Boaz?” he repeated softly. “That was their names?”
“Yes, it was. I’m sorry, I don’t know their last names. Ben, they were good people. I’m not going to say that you owe it to them to find out the truth. But I will say that you owe it to yourself. And you’ll be honoring their names all the same if you do.”
Ben nodded his head slowly. “Okay,” he said. “Okay.”
“Kara, sweetheart,” Kynan said, looking over at his daughter, who was so overwhelmed with disbelief she’d lost her voice again, “call Captain Baas. Let’s get out of here. But first, you two, not a single word to him or his crew about what we discussed. Not one word, and I’m serious about that.” Ben and Kara both replied with a firm, Yes, sir!
Kynan quickly packed what few belongings he wanted to take with him, and they left. He told Ben and Kara that he wasn’t concerned about the tent as the forest would consume it over the next few years. He seriously doubted that anyone would ever find it.
Kara alerted Captain Baas to their situation and estimated they would reach the egg pod within an hour. She’d contact him again once they arrived.
Kynan insisted that they maintain a decent clip going back, and his speed and agility running through the forest surprised the two teens. They had a difficult time keeping up with him, and it was even more difficult for Kara to direct them, as she needed to check her Simpad on the fly.
“We’re about two hundred meters away,” she told them about forty-five minutes into their trek. “At this pace, we’ll be there in another five minutes or so.”
“Okay, call Captain Baas and tell him we’ll be airborne in about five,” Kynan instructed her.
Kara looked down to tap her pad, and as soon as she did, Ben tackled her to the ground. A red bolt missed them by inches. Kynan pulled out his sidearm and began to plink away in the direction of the laser fire. “Keep your heads down!” he shouted back to Ben and Kara, who were already scrambling behind a couple of fallen, dead trees.
Kynan high-crawled over to the base of another tree and lined up his next shot. He fired his weapon, and in the distance, they heard a man cry out in pain. “Got one,” he shouted proudly.
He high-crawled over to Ben and Kara, who were hugging the ground tightly behind the fallen trees. “Well, this certainly complicates things,” he said. Another volley of laser fire flew overhead.
“Okay, kids, the forest is dense enough up there; it should offer us some protection,” Kynan told them as he pointed in a direction that was to the right of where the firing was coming from. “Bank left about twenty meters ahead and run towards the clearing. On the count of tree! One, two, tree!” His Irish was running thick.
They all jumped to their feet and ran as fast as they could through the forest. Laser bolts flew at them from different directions, but Kynan was right about the density of the trees, as nothing touched them.
Kynan continued to take random shots toward the laser fire as they ran through the trees and foliage. At twenty meters, they banked left – the clearing was now fifty meters away, but they didn’t stop running.
Forty meters…thirty meters…a bolt flashed between them…twenty meters, and then they felt the thudding, deep concussions of a roaring engine flying overhead, followed by the distinct sounds of rapid laser fire.
Kynan grabbed the kids, hit the ground, and then looked up. “God love ya, Captain Baas!” he shouted once he recognized the underbelly of the captain’s Zephyr through the tops of the trees. Just as he did, a smaller Galactic Hawk swooped by and fired in the Zephyr’s direction. “Oh crap,” Kynan muttered. “Kids, keep running!” The Zephyr arched up towards space, enticing the Galactic Hawk to follow.
They got up and sprinted to the edge of the tree line, where they again dropped to their bellies to conceal themselves from any enemy forces that might have been near their pod. Kynan couldn’t see anything, so he went to his knee to get a better view.
He looked and listened intently.
“I don’t hear anything in the forest,” he said, “but it’s hard to hear with the ships overhead. There’s two men down on the opposing tree line. Those shots Baas fired must have taken ‘em out. They couldn’t have only sent three men. Maybe the others are scouting the forest. Probably on their way back now.”
He looked down at Ben and Kara, and then he canted his head, and with a chastising voice, he said, “Oi! Where’s your sidearms?”
The teens looked at each other, and, with a timorous motion, they simultaneously drew their firearms from their holsters.
“Aye!” Kynan leered. He looked up to where the roar of engines echoed through the air, but he couldn’t see the ships. “Kara, can you remotely start that pod?” he asked her.
“Aye,” she replied, and then she quickly scrolled down her Simpad’s screen until she found the proper app and then tapped on it. Within seconds, they heard the pod’s engine come to life.
No one fired a shot.
“Good, that’s what I was hoping for,” Kynan said, referring to the lack of enemy fire. “We’re running again. Ready, GO!”
Twenty seconds later, they were climbing the steps into the pod, and moments after that, they were strapped in. Kara pulled up the Visi-screen on the pod’s center console and began to type information into it rapidly.
“Kynan,” Ben said with determination in his voice. “I want Azaria and Boaz to be proud of me. My mom and dad. Like you’re proud of Kara. And I want the people of Payra to know their truth.”
“You’ll get that chance, Ben. I promise you. Kara, are we ready?”
“We are. Captain Baas, can you hear me?” she called out over the net. “Captain Baas!” she repeated after a few seconds of dead air.
“I’m sorry,” a rattled-sounding Gedeon replied. “I can hear you. We’ve got a lock on you, and we’re coming in fast and furious! Launch now, and we’ll intercept!”
Kara pressed the launch button, and they shot into the air with enough force to sink low into their bench seats. The pod’s vibration rattled them to their bones.
“We’re moving in to intercept now,” they heard Gedeon shout over the net.
The pod cut to the left and then banked sideways, causing their stomachs to churn. They soon felt a madding thud and heard a loud banging noise. And then nothing. The vibrations stopped, and a calming sensation of stillness and quiet overtook them.
“Are we dead?” Ben asked sheepishly.
“No,” they heard Gedeon say. “You’re on board, but you’re in the tube. We’re not out of the woods yet. Stay in the pod until…CRAP!”
They felt the ship bank hard to the right, then pull up and flip, but they could tell by the lack of G-forces that they were already in space. The ship barrel-rolled and then cut left.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Ben asked through his clamped jaw.
“Trying to escape,” Kara said as if stating the obvious.
“Then why don’t they just fly straight?”
Kara looked at him dubiously and rolled her shoulders and hands up. As she did, they felt the ship dive straight down and then bank back upwards like a rollercoaster going down and back up a hill. And then the ship leveled out, and they felt it vibrating rapidly.
“They’re opening a gate,” Kynan observed.
After a few seconds, the ship calmed, and the madness stopped.
“Kynan,” Gedeon called out to him over the speakers. “We’ve got a surprise for you and Colonel Stoddard. You’re gonna love it!”