A Butterscotch Sky Ch. 02

An intense wave of nausea poured over me. I stumbled to the washroom and retched over the sink. I hadn't eaten dinner the night before, but my body didn't seem to care that my stomach was already empty. It tried repeatedly to expel nothing.

When I recovered, I shouted, "What time is this fucking meeting ?"

"Thirteen hundred Zulu. Shizuka is on a Russian military hypersonic out of Khabarovsk which picked her up in Osaka. She will be landing at Andrews about the same time we land. Not sure about Cedric. That's all the man from CM who called me was able to tell me."

"You and Irenka will need to get your own transportation because I'm damned sure going to be the first one at Central."

"Okay, Sean. I understand," he said before disconnecting the call.

I slumped onto the floor.

I didn't go to the bathroom when I felt the urge to vomit again. I spat only saliva and sputum into the wastebasket. I gasped for breath, winded from the bout of heaves. My gasps became sobs.

Less than twenty-four hours earlier, Aly and I had made slow, tender love in my bed, then showered and dressed. We ate breakfast together, then I invited her to join me in a new phase of our relationship.

When the last call to her comm as well as two messages failed, I wondered if I'd been blocked. Maybe she needed a little distance and time to breathe. Maybe she needed time to consider my proposal, so I didn't press. I should have known better. I should have pushed. I would have, perhaps, been with her before, or, at the very least, known sooner.

It took me almost an hour to will myself back to my feet and dress myself. I draped on a false veil of composure after I summoned an Adev to take me to Central. I noted its approach from seven kilometers away on the moving map in the Metro app. I knew it'd be about ten minutes before it would arrive at the entrance of my building, so I secured my apartment, opened the door to depart, and surprised the man whose knuckles were already moving to knock on it.

I was just as startled at the presence of two more uniformed men standing in the hallway behind him.

"Commander Emerson, I'm Captain Sachs. I need you to come with us, sir."

I sighed in frustration. "Oh, god. Here we go again. Sirs and ranks , Captain? It doesn't matter! I've been detached from Central. I'm not under your authority, but it just so happens I'm on my way there right now. An adev is about to pick me up. You can follow me if you want."

If we'd been members of the same branch, a captain would outrank a commander, but we weren't, and I would have outranked him had I still been active.

"Sir, you've been recalled," he said, handing me a sheet of paper. "I need you to give me your comm for a moment. Under subsection seven of 10USC688 , I have the authority to restrain you if required."

"Section 688 only applies in exigent circumstances," I argued, reading the order.

"I am told, Commander, such circumstances exist."

The two men flanking him had already unsnapped the top straps securing their stuns in their holsters and held their hands near them. I was familiar with their effects. I and my crew were trained to use them. They were a contingency in case someone went bonkers on Mars and needed to be restrained. Part of the training was being subjected to a demonstration of their incredible effectiveness.

The devices have a tendency to cause a specific unfortunate effect. It doesn't matter how recently bowels or bladders have been evacuated, a stun will very effectively eliminate more from both if food or drink had been consumed not long before. During training, I had, but that morning, I wasn't wearing appropriate undergarments.

I slowly reached into my jacket pocket, removed my comm, and gave it to the man standing in the center of the group of three holding out his hand. He deftly extracted the encryption and authorization chip then handed my comm back to me. He placed the chip in a plastic bag, pulled a red strip of film from the tab, then sealed it. He returned the bag to the breast pocket on the right side of his utility blouse.

"Thank you, sir. This will all go much easier with your continued cooperation. Please proceed to the exit."

The three trailed me.

What is it about being on an elevator that renders people mute? I pondered the question as I bent to pick up a bit of detritus someone had left on the floor. I absentmindedly fiddled with it until Sachs spoke.

"I'll take that for you, sir," he said, pulling it from my fingers and shoving it into his pants pocket.

When the elevator opened at the ground floor, I turned for the main doors.

"No, sir. This way, please," one of the others spoke, leading me down the service corridor to an exit into the alley.

Not five seconds later, the vehicle I was rushed into departed quickly.

We entered the Central Mission campus through the main gates after Captain Sachs was admitted by security. The gate guards were armed, which was highly unusual, and I began to get an eerie sense that Aly's death might have been part of something sinister.

When I noticed the odd refraction of the window, I asked the uniformed man seated next to me, "Is this vehicle armored?"

"Yes, sir."

Everyone's heads were on swivels, and I began to suspect the three men who'd come to my apartment weren't simply escorts, they were a protective detail. The vehicle turned in a direction away from the main building.

"Captain Sachs," I asked the man seated directly in front of me, "where are you taking me? There's a meeting I need to attend in the main building in about an hour."

"For security reasons, the meeting has been moved from Building 1 to Auxiliary Building 7."

Like Building A which held mission control, Building 7 had enhanced security and guards. It was rumored to be where the vault securing the eight locks was housed. Building 1, the main building, had no enhanced security.

"Stay seated for a minute," the man next to me instructed once the vehicle stopped at a side door. All three men exited the car. The driver opened my door shortly afterward, and the three men flanked me as they ushered me inside.

I was handed off to a man in the corridor who nodded to Captain Sachs. After the captain handed the man the plastic bag holding my comm's chip, he and the two other uniforms turned and exited the way we had come in.

"Commander Emerson, please, follow me."

He escorted me to a large conference room which could seat twelve people at the table and another dozen along one wall. A commissary employee wheeled an empty cart out the other door. She'd placed an urn of coffee, a tray of mugs, plus loads of pastries, various fresh fruits, sliced melons, and chunked pineapple on a sideboard.

"Make yourself comfortable, Commander. It may be a while. There's a private lavatory through that door," he pointed, then left the room. I heard him lock the door behind him. That I'd been locked into a room gave me a sense of dread.

Though I hadn't eaten in eighteen hours, I wasn't hungry. The aroma of the coffee made me think of it as a necessity, though, so I poured myself a mug. Out of sheer habit, I pulled my comm from my pocket. Of course, it had no connectivity since its chip was absent. I passed the time as best I could by solving logic and arithmetic puzzles on it until I heard the door being unlocked.

Through it walked Cedric, escorted by the same man who'd brought me to the room.

"Sean!" he said with wide eyes, rushing to me. I rose and we embraced. It was the first time in a long while that I'd seen him in person. The last was on the surface of Mars. I'd only seen him through video calls during my recovery.

"Holy shit, man. I can't believe what's happening."

"I can't either. I talked to her just yesterday."

"Talked to who?"

"Alyonka. I was with her yesterday morning. She seemed perfectly fine," I said, pushing my emotions back to the core where they needed to stay.

"Okay, whatever. I have no idea what all this drama is about. Do you?" He grinned. "I wonder if all of us are going to do some sort of publicity tour or something."

It was at that moment I realized he hadn't heard.

"Cedric, why are you here?" I asked cautiously.

"Not like I had a choice, man. Last night, I went to a pub with some buddies, and got home around midnight. Pub, eh? Liquor, eh? Well, it took me three tries to enter my apartment door's unlock code, so I know it was locked. I wasn't that drunk, but I was feeling pretty good!" He laughed.

I held up a palm to try to rein him in. It didn't work. He wasn't paying attention while he paced and jabbered.

"So, just as I got the door unlocked, I see these three … goons coming my way up the corridor. One said I had to come with them. I was too drunk to open my door on the first try, I was probably also too drunk to realize who the guys were, and I went after one of them.

"Anyway, I had to change my shorts after I got zapped. Next thing I know, I'm sitting on a high-speed train from Toronto to Baltimore. The four of us⁠—"

"Alyonka is dead , Cedric!"

"⁠—had the whole carriage to ourse⁠—wha⁠—what did you just say ?"

"Alyonka died yesterday. Apparently, she was found in her office at Georgetown. That's all I know. Siemen called me this morning and informed me before I was brought here."

He stumbled to a chair and slumped into it.

"Oh, my god, Sean. What the hell happened ?" he asked. He seemed as aghast on hearing the news as I still felt.

"I've told you all I know."

"This cannot be true!" Shizuka Ayani gasped.

I hadn't even noticed her entrance, but she was always a stealthy individual. She embodied her given name, 'Quiet.'

"Did you overhear what I was saying?" I asked.

"Hai . How did she die?"

Cedric reached out to her and grasped her hand.

"I don't know yet."

"When did this happen?" she asked.

"I don't know that either. All he said was that she was pronounced … um, that she⁠—"

I couldn't continue speaking. I envied Shizuka's ability to compartmentalize her emotions. I'd witnessed it first-hand on a number of occasions, particularly during training. When we were drilled, trainers would pepper and pound us with multiple, simultaneous, or overlapping failures in emergency scenarios. She'd simply take a deep breath and help me triage. I heard her take that exact sort of breath right then.

"You had an incident involving an automation malfunction on your module which led to you being injured. Alyonka had no such issue," she said.

"Correct."

"Perhaps she did. Commander, all three return modules were identical in every respect but hull number."

Her unspoken insinuation hit home like a fifteen-kilogram kettlebell.

"Are you suggesting we're being regrouped because we all might have some sort of lingering, potentially life-threatening aftereffe⁠—"

"It won't be helpful to continue speculating," said a voice from a person who wasn't in the room.

I immediately recognized it, and I forced myself to resist the urge to launch the middle fingers of both hands to whatever cameras had been observing the three of us.

Cedric darted his eyes, tacitly suggesting to me and Shizuka that further conversation should cease.

Ten minutes later, the door opened again. Siemen and Irenka entered.

"Commander," Irenka said. She stepped to me where I accepted her offer of a compassionate and commiserative embrace.

She kissed my cheek. "I know you and Alyonka had become very close of late. I am very sorry for your loss," she whispered.

There was no reason to deny her claim.

"Her death is a loss to us all. Everyone needs to remain silent. We are being overheard," I said with unneeded amplitude.

The door opened and he walked in. "No need for that. It's not like you've been read your rights. I only said it'd be unwise to speculate on the reason I have called you back together and am reactivating this crew."

The more-than-corpulent administrator of Central Mission, Jim Gantry, strode directly to the sideboard and fiddled with the pastries with his fingers instead of using the serving tongs. He plopped a half dozen onto a plate by hand.

"Everyone take a seat," he mumbled with a full mouth after he crammed half of a donut inside it. Crumbs and confectioner's sugar flew out with the words.

I noticed Shizuka's grimace and Simi's rolling eyes.

Cedric piled a plate high with donuts as had the general. Not because he was similarly slovenly, but he had a way of mocking someone without it being obvious to the mocked. If I weren't weighed down with a foul and somber mood, I'd probably have laughed aloud.

"Sir," I spoke, "does this whole thing have anything to do with Alyonka's death?"

He looked at his comm, shoving the other half of the donut into his gaping maw. He washed it down with a noisy gulp of the iced coffee he had brought with him. "Your answer is about six minutes away."

My former crewmates and I looked at each other curiously. I think it amused the man who reported directly to Capitol Hill.

A pall covered the room. No one chose to pass the time in conversation. We spent the time staring at our hands or twiddling our thumbs. Instead of watching Gantry add to his waistline, I worked more puzzles on my comm.

I heard the door open behind me and heard gasps from most of the people in the room. Simi's face appeared to blanch. I swiveled my seat.

A woman stopped moving and her relaxed expression quickly vanished when she saw me and four others staring at her in shock.

"What the fuck ? Is this some kind of joke ?" I shouted at Gantry.

I closed the distance between me and the woman, grabbed her left hand, and pushed her blazer's sleeve up her forearm. I saw the small birthmark near her wrist before instinct and defensive reflexes caused her to force my hands off her.

I beckoned the visibly confused woman into the vacant hallway. I slammed the door and wrapped my arms around her shoulders and wept. She cautiously placed her arms around me and brought me closer, but I could feel confusion and alarm surrounding her like an aura.

"What is wrong? What has happened?"

"Aly, we all believed you were dead !" I shout-whispered.

"What ?" she gasped, pushing against my shoulders with her hands to look me in the eyes.

"Simi called me this morning while Irenka and he were on their flight. He told me that someone from Central summoned them to an emergency meeting here because some students found you in your office at the university yesterday. He was told you had died !"

I stared at her, my own shock reflected in her expression.

"Why would Siemen do something so cruel ?"

I was baffled by the entirety of the situation. I needed more proof.

"I am certain he was conveying what he believed to be true. Alyonka, tell me something only you and I could know."

She was silent for several moments before she offered, "Two nights before leaving Mars, we shared vodka I had hidden in the medical supplies."

I maintained my gaze. "Where did you hide it?"

"In a woman wash think," she whispered directly into my ear, repeating the exact words as quietly and in the accent she'd used that very night.

I brought her close again. The warmth I felt radiating from her body reassured me I wasn't in the middle of some nightmare.

"I knew something unusual was happening when I left your apartment yesterday morning, but I do not understand what is happening now."

"None of us do. Tell me what happened yesterday."

"When I leave your apartment, I went into elevator. Central Mission security men were already inside it. I think they were surprised to see me. One of them disabled my comm, then they brought me here."

I then remembered the bit of trash I'd removed from the floor of the elevator. It was a piece of red film. It might have been the type which covered the adhesive seal of a plastic bag. I wondered if the security team knew she was at my apartment, or if they seized the opportunity to snatch her up first instead of me.

"General Gantry spoke to me on my arrival. He knows I am very much alive. They would not let me leave the building. I was assigned a dormitory. I have not been allowed to even change my clothing."

We both heard shouts and the following calamity. When I opened the door to the conference room, Gantry was prone on the floor, and Simi was being pulled away from him by Cedric. Irenka held her hand on Simi's chest and was staring him down.

"You fucking imbecile ! Do you not understand the pain you've caused?" Cedric barked at Gantry, then looked at Alyonka. "We were told you were dead!"

"Sean informed me," Aly hissed, glowering at Gantry as he struggled back to his feet.

"This was your doing?" I demanded.

"No," he said, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket which he pressed to his mouth.

I could tell by the expression on Aly's face that she was as bent on beating the crap out of Jim Gantry as Simi and I were.

"It has all been fully sanctioned by the leaders of all of your nations, so the six of you should get yourselves under control before I have you all sent to the barracks at Leavenworth. It is a necessary cover, I'm afraid," he said, blotting his split lower lip.

"Specialist Ljuba, you are going to be killed in a motor vehicle accident near Hradec Kralove tomorrow. Specialist Reinoud, you are soon to be declared missing, presumably in the mountains of Stora Sjöfallets . The wreckage of your personal aircraft will be found there in three days.

"Specialist Hamilton, you took your own life last night during a drug and alcohol-induced depressive episode brought on by … well, Ayani-san, your hypersonic transport did not arrive at Edwards this morning. The search for it will not be fruitful because … and it personally disgusts me that you're being portrayed in this manner, but the Kremlin will determine you hijacked your HST and forced the crew to fly it to North Korea where you intend to defect."

"An outrageous lie !" she shouted as she jumped to her feet.

Gantry held up his palms. I wanted to snap his arm in half at the elbow.

"Specialist Sabratova, as far as the world is concerned, or soon will be, you are dead," he continued. "The news was leaked to the media late last night. More will be brought to light today with video taken this morning of Commander Emerson being arrested by CM Security on suspicion of your murder. The two freshman students who found you won't be returning to campus."

"What ? You're involving and destroying the reputations of two innocent kids?! You're a fucking lunat⁠— "

"Don't do that again," warned one of the uniforms I hadn't even seen enter the room.

Alyonka and Cedric helped me to my feet after I shook off the aftereffects of the mild stun. I hadn't eaten in twenty hours or had more than a few sips of coffee barely an hour before, so I was still dry.

"Commander, the two students are nothing but digital artifacts inserted into the registrar's records. The fictional individuals were registered as freshman virtual learners. You didn't ask about the pilots of the HST. They were read in last week. They will be living in the United States with identities provided by the Marshals Service until this is settled."

He paused. "I swear to god I'll let you all kick my ass when this is over. I am not entirely pleased with it myself."

The tone of his voice totally and completely took me aback. His bureaucratic mien was completely absent. It sounded to me like he genuinely regretted the undertaking.