Titan Encounter (6 page)

Several minutes passed
before the door opened, but he couldn’t see who it was from his sprawled
position. He decided to let whoever it was believe he was still unconscious and
besides, his head hurt every time he moved.  Whoever it was stood silently
for a moment then stepped toward into his field of view.

He smiled at the
sight of Naomi.

She held a tray with
a pitcher, glass and other items. Sitting it on the dresser, she poured a glass
of water. Turning toward him, her eyes caught his and she smiled. “How are
you?”

“Head hurts.”

She nodded. “It will
pass.” She handed him the glass of water and a tablet from the tray. “This will
help.”  She waited while he swallowed, then said, “You are not a
Nephilim
.”

“No.
Just a man.”
Talking hurt his head.  “How long have I
been out?”

“Less than thirty
minutes.”

“Are we safe?”

She shook her head.
“Not yet.  The police and
Ferren
are in pursuit,
but Mara is staying ahead of them.”

Started the day a
prosperous business man and ended it a fugitive.
Slowly he sat
up. 
Definitely not my best day.
“Is Mara
hooked to the ship’s systems?”

“Ah, yes. I…I helped
her connect.” Her face flushed. “I didn’t know she had an implant.”

Justin nodded.
“A present from our former owner.”
He reached out his arm.
“Help me.”

He put his arm
around Naomi’s shoulders and they walked out.

Naomi helped onto
the ship’s bridge.  He’d been here several times while his crews worked on
the yacht, but never while the ship was in flight. Even preoccupied with his
pursuers and a throbbing head, the compartment was impressive.  Shaped
like an egg, the narrowest part of the room was toward the bow and opposite
from where Justin stood at the entrance.  Visual displays covered the
bulkheads of the forward half.  Just below these images were half-a-dozen
workstations. At the center of the room was a captain’s chair with a desk-like
control panel arching in front of it.

Justin walked past
the captain’s chair to the forward end of the room.  Mara lay in what
appeared to be a pod-like reclining chair, arms beside her, eyes closed. 
Her general look gave the appearance of someone asleep, but Justin knew better.
Optical fibers connected to the implant on the back of her skull linked her
brain to the ship’s helm, navigation and engineering systems.

“Mara,” he called
softly as his eyes darted about the room.

A holographic image
formed on the right side of the captain’s chair. “How are you doing brother?”

“I’m alive.” He
stepped in the direction of her image, but plopped into the captain’s chair.
“Where are we headed?”

“Just
away at the moment.”
She pointed to a display showing aft sensors. 
“The nearest ship is a police cruiser the other is the Acheron.”

Ferren
.
  “Are they
gaining on us?”

She nodded. 
“Got any ideas?  They’ll be in firing range in less than twelve minutes.”

“Then we need a
plan, a place to go, in less than eleven.”  

“Justin,” Naomi said
softly, “I know where we could go.”

They both looked at
her.

“I have not
been…ah….” Naomi bit her lip. “I have not been entirely honest with you.”

“Yeah, I know,” he
said without emotion.

Mara looked at
Justin, her eyes wide. “You knew she was lying and…”

“Not right now,
Mara. Go on Naomi.”

“The man I was
traveling with, Dr. Carl Saul…well, that was not his name and he was not my
father—he was my creator.”

“Creator?”
Even though it was
merely a holographic simulation, Mara’s eyes seemed to fix like beacons on
Naomi.

Justin’s head sank
into his hands.
I’ll be glad when this day is over.
Gently he rubbed his
temple. “What do you mean, Naomi?”

“Dr. Galen, that was
his real name, was not taking me to
Gatewai
,
he was taking me to a jump gate in the Spitzer system. I
had never heard of the star before we left Earth.”

Justin smiled
knowingly. “Yesterday you said you were from Epsilon.”

Her face flushed.
“Dr. Galen was from Epsilon.”

 “Okay, but why
were you traveling to Spitzer?”

“Galen said there
were people on the other side of the jump that could hide me.”

Mara’s eyes flared.
“Most of those gates haven’t been used since the
Titanomachy
war—over four hundred years ago.”

“
Navsys
on,” Justin commanded. He turned to the console before him and mumbled, “Dr.
Galen was taking you to Spitzer.” Tapping his finger on the holographic map, he
brought up the appropriate region of space. The display zoomed in and
annotations appeared over several celestial bodies. “Spitzer is a white, dwarf
star. The system has one gas giant and two rocky planetoids.” He shook his
head. “No habitable planets.”

“Are you actually
thinking about going there?” Mara raised her holographic eyebrow incredulously.

Justin again tapped
his finger on the holographic map. “Do you have a better
plan.
”

“Well….” She turned
to Naomi. “Did you say ‘hide
?’
Why did you need to
hide?”

The holographic
image of a uniformed man appeared to the left of the captain’s chair, opposite
of Mara.  He seemed to look Justin in the eye as he said, “Surfeit,
decelerate and prepare to be boarded.  Comply or we will open fire.”

A flash of light
swept the bridge and alarms sounded.

Justin’s eyes locked
on the fireball just ahead. 

The words ‘fugitive’
and ‘Titan’ echoed in Justin’s mind. He glanced at the display then silenced
the alarms. “That was a shot across our bow.  The next one will be into
our engines.”

Naomi’s stared at
the Navigation display. “What do we do?”

Justin felt his
every muscle tense. Mara’s eyes remained calm, but fixed on him. He could feel
fear from both and see it on Naomi’s face. Purposely he gave a casual shrug in
answer to her question and took a slow deep breath and turned to Mara. “Do you
have a better destination than Spitzer?”

Mara shook her head.

In the most
confident voice he could muster he said, “Set course for Spitzer.”

Mara nodded. 
Her image faded, blinked then snapped back to full intensity.  “The course
is set.  I sure hope we find a working gate when we get there.” She
pointed to displays in front of Justin.  “We won’t have enough fuel to
jump to another system after we arrive.” A restraining harness slid across the
real Mara as the holographic one said, “Strap in everyone. I’m going to need
them off our tail.” She gestured toward the pursuing ships.

Justin clicked his
belt into place just as the thrusters roared, pushing him deep into the seat.
The ship
zigged
one way as he
zagged
into the harness.  Another wild turn and the police fell far behind, but
Ferren’s
ship, the Acheron, continued to gain.  Mara
fired the
retros
, throwing Justin forward into the
harness.

Their pursuer shot
past.

Thrusters blazed as
the Surfeit dashed off at a right angle from the Acheron.  

“On
your order Captain.”
Mara turned and waited for his command.

There was no hint of
sarcasm at the word, “captain” and just for a moment, he marveled at how such
an intelligent and talented woman had followed him all these years.
“Jump.”

The stars slid into one
bright mass off the bow as Justin tried to gulp air, but he couldn’t
breathe.  Abruptly he felt weightless and disoriented as the ship crossed
the event horizon. The next instant he slammed hard into his harness and
gasped.

“Jump complete.”
Mara smiled. “The vortex collapsed behind us before any ships could follow.”

Justin took a deep
draft of air and forced a smile.
“How long till we arrive at
Spitzer?”

“Just over
Fifty-seven hours.”

When we get there
all we need to do is find the gate and hope the ancient thing works.
Fatigue flowed over
him. There were a thousand questions he needed answered, but, for now, there
was only one thing he wanted to do.  Looking at Mara he asked, “When will
you need to eat and…ah go…”

“As soon as I do a
ship wide systems check, I’ll disconnect. Flying through subspace is easy.”

He nodded. “I’ll be
in my room,” he said walking from the bridge. 

*              
*              
*

The room was dark
when he awoke. Justin felt his head and smiled. It didn’t hurt. For a moment he
struggled to remember the name of the ship he was on. “Surfeit lights, normal.”
The pitcher and glass that Naomi had brought him remained on the dresser. 
He stood, filled the cup and drank deeply. A glance in the mirror drew a moan
as he rubbed the deep stubble of his beard and attempted to straighten his
tousled hair.
Hopeless.
As he dressed he
struggled to understand how the fall from respected businessman to fugitive had
occurred so quickly. 
I need answers.
With that resolve he marched
from the compartment.

Someone had latched
the door to the bridge open. The voices of the women greeted him as he
approached the hatch. Stepping into the compartment he noticed a table had been
setup at the rear with coffee and food.  He grabbed some cheese as he
passed. 

“How do you feel?”
Naomi asked.

“Much
better.”
He looked about the bridge then back at Mara.  Stepping forward he touched
her on the arm.

Mara nodded. 
“Yes, this is the real me.”

“What’s our status?”
he asked, then consumed the cheese. 

Mari shrugged.
“We’re on auto-pilot still traversing the wormhole. When we get to Spitzer
we’ll be low on fuel.” 

Justin nodded. Those
problems were still some hours in the future.  He turned to Naomi.
“Yesterday you said that Dr. Galen was not your father, that he was your
creator. What did you mean? Are you a clone?”

Mara frowned. “I’ve
already asked. She won’t answer.”

“It is complicated.”
She looked at both of them, “If I had to tell, I wanted to do so only once.”

Justin stared at
her. “Okay, let’s get started.”

Naomi sighed deeply.
“I told you his name was Dr. Carl Saul, but that was just part of the cover
story.  Like I said his real name was Dr. Luke Galen.” Tears welled in her
eyes.  “He was a good man.”

Touched by her
emotion, Justin sat beside her and took her hand.  

“I do not know where
to start.”

He squeezed her hand
gently. “We have time. Start at the beginning.”

She nodded and wiped
her eyes. “Okay,” she sighed. “Twenty years ago an imperial warship detected a
cloaked vessel running at high speed in the restricted zone between the CFS and
the empire. Thinking it was a CFS spy ship they attacked and disabled it.”

Mara held up a hand.
“Do we need the history lesson? Just start with why you call this Galen guy
your creator.”

“This is where my
story begins.”

Mara looked
confused.

“Go on,” Justin
said.

“When imperial
marines boarded the ship the crew destroyed most of the onboard systems and
vented the atmosphere.”

Mara’s eyes widened.
“They committed suicide?”

Naomi nodded.

“But I still don’t get
it. What does all this have to do with you?”

“Unfortunately
everything.”
Taking in a deep breath she continued. “Imperial Intelligence determined that
the
crew were
Titans.”

Justin’s breath
caught in his throat and he felt Mara’s surprise wash over him.
I could use
a drink. 
A good strong one.
 
He
examined Naomi’s face, trying to grasp the fullness of what she had implied.
“Are you saying that you’re a Titan?”

“In
a sense.”

“No,” Mara said
flatly. “That’s something you either are or you aren’t.” Her eyes locked on
Naomi as she slowly stood. “What are you?”

“Calm down, Sis. If
she were some genetically-enhanced murderer, we’d be dead already.”

“They were cunning.”

“Remember,” he said
gesturing toward his chest, “I might be a Titan.”

She shook her head
and moved to the side and slightly behind Naomi, “Whatever you are, you’re not
a genocidal, killing machine.”