P L A N B E T A

Chapter Nineteen

November 28th, 2042

Baker-Crane

We board the train. I let Maia have a booth to herself so that she sleeps, and I sit on the other side. I look out the window and even in the dark, I can see the orange and red tints in the trees. I want to sleep, but the anxiety of missing our stop sticks with me.

In the window, I can't help but make out Orren's features. He's showed up everywhere since he left, I can't seem to make him get out of my mind. He's only been gonna a mere week and I miss him like he's dead. I can't even imagine how Maia feels about Jack Peter. I always compare her to my situations but I can't help but wonder what goes on inside of her head. I feel as though we aren't close enough more me to ask but I still try to encourage her to speak.

We I watch them as the sun rises and we get dropped off at our first station, Beacon Station in Newburgh. The next train isn't for another couple of hours, so I drag Maia off of the train along with our luggage. We sit on a bench outside in the cold while I wait for the train. I hope that Maia is resting well, but I feel severely lonely with no one to talk to.

I sit for about twenty minutes until a girl walks over to me. She smiles at me and looks a the sleeping girl next to me. "Oh, well it's too chilly for a beautiful girl like you to be out here, Where are you heading?" She asks.

"New York City," I say. "But it's gonna take a while to get there," I explain.

"Well, where do you come from? You girls look young, you shouldn't be out here at this time of night in this temperature, it's going to begin snowing."

"We come from Sleepy Hollow. And it's okay, we're getting to where we belong."

"Sleepy Hollow's only about fifty minutes from New York City, why didn't you take that route?" she asks. She was a stranger, so I obviously wasn't just going to tell her that we were a part of Plan Beta and had to get back to a secret-ish island in the middle of the Atlantic to see our families in case of our death during a second war, so I had to lie, but make it short and sweet.

"We have places to be and things to see, ma'am. If we take the bridge then what's the point of the river beneath? Might as well take the hike if you're not in a hurry, yeah?" I try to preach, hoping that she leaves so I can sit with my sleeping friend in peace.

"Smart girl, smart girl you are-are-are-are." Her body starts popping it's like she's buffering, but she then returns back to normal after a few seconds and smiles at me nicely. "So what's your name, dear?"

I hesitate for a second think that something is clearly suspicious about her. I can't let her know that I'm an agent but if I told her my real name there's a chance I could expose myself. "Lee," I say. The woman buffers a little bit again but then is silent for a little bit. I shift uncomfortably on the bench and look down at the sleeping Maia.

"T-t-t-th-that's a lie, Arabe—" As soon as I hear her start to say my name I stand up and try to sink my fist into her face but she catches my hand. I see her 'veins' glow green and her eyes are like some metal cylinders with no irises.

I kick the bench behind me hoping that it will wake up Maia, and to my pleasure, Maia awakens and slaps the side of her hip. The lady's skin melts and then turns to ash that starts to steam on the cold concrete. I stare at the sight in horror and turn to Maia who is now fully awake.

"Well shit, now they know your name. And they know where we're going," Maia stresses. She stares down at the pile of metal and steaming ash when she starts to sift through it with her foot. I give her a confused look but she doesn't acknowledge it. "What the hell is this?" she asks and brings up a metal thermos looking object.

"It's probably part of the android, Maia," I say. "It could be taking your fingerprints, put it down." She shakes her head and opens it, then pulling out a piece of paper. "What is it?" I ask.

She reads aloud, "If you want to get your little boyfriend back you're going to have to decide to get him. Good thing you decided to come on down this was so you can actually get him back instead of him dying alone in space. ACA is stronger, better now. You can't trust anyone or anything besides maybe each other. If you want to live, and if you want to get Jack Peter Cullen back, then you have to do as we say. Trust no one, and find the code to find your love. Have fun, ACA."

My jaw drops and she looks back inside the thermos before concealing the letter back up. She turns the container over and holds a golden dollar up to me. "This is what we're working with," she says and drops the coin back into the thermos along with the letter.

The next train finally arrives. It seems that as soon as Maia and I sit down, ready to go to the Oswego train station. I see the sun starting to rise when a waiter came to our table in the dining cart. He smiles at us and asked if we wanted anything, but he already had a covered tray in hand. We asked for pastries and juices, and before he left to go fulfill our order, he placed the covered tray on the table.

I was about to open it when Maia stopped me, she took the hair tie from her hair and wrapped it around the handle so she didn't have to touch it. She carefully lifted up the lid and set it aside. Upon the plate, there were many crystals formed in the shape of a certain constellation, but I couldn't remember which one. There was a crystal that was bigger from the rest and had an orange circle made from a dry erase marker around it.

"No," she said and put her head in her arms. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no..."

"What?" I asked.

"That's the Taurus constellation. That huge crystal right there with the orange circle around it, that's the Maia star. M-a-i-a Maia. That's my name, they know my name, Lee. I can't believe this. What if they know Jack Peter's too?" Maia starts to weep in her arms. I could feel her radiating worry and sadness everywhere. It's like she was melting into a sea of fear that she wasn't allowed to talk about.

I placed my hand on her arm for comfort and the waiter returned with our food and beverages. We looked at him with caution this time, see if we were possibly an android. He stood at our table for a second and I gave Maia a wondering look. She nodded, looked away, and slapped the male's hip as hard as she could.

"Ow," he said. Maia and I both jumped and scooted to the window side of our booth.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized. "I thought that you were some sort of android—that might sound odd but I swear it's not..." She then sighed and gave up. "Thank you for our food, sir." He stood there for a few moments with a blank expression on his face. I scooted to the side of the table nearest to him acting like I had to use the restroom, but when I got up, I hit the hip that was closest to me, and his skin casually melted off, he then became a pile of parts.

A few people in the dining cart gasped in confusion and didn't understand what was going on. Children started crying and all of the parents gave us confused looks. This time I shifted through the scrap metal. There was another, smaller canister inside of him. This one would fit comfortably inside the other.

When I opened it, I found a letter at first and then saw a tiny object at the bottom. "What does it say?" Maia asks.

"Only the star can decide what you need to get your boy back. Get to it. ACA," I read. I raise a brow and look at Maia. She takes the small thermos and turns it over, bringing out a NASA pin. Her eyes widen and then turn sad.

"This was his," she said. "O bought it for him when we visited NASA... I really miss him, Ara."

"I know, Maia. I know, we'll get him back soon, I promise. They can't harm him, not unless they kill off you and I and everyone else, remember that. He's our boy," I assure. She nods and lays her head against the window, clutching the pin in her hand like it's Jack Peter's ashes.

The rest of the train ride is nearly silent and eventually, Maia decides to put the pin and letter back into the thermos, and put that thermos into the other.

We are dropped off in Oswego after a four and a half hour ride. It's now about Nine AM and Maia is fully awake. Once the next train comes, we embark on our five-hour journey to New York City.

Once we board, I stare off into the rising sky. I hope that Jack Peter's still alive because Maia's not the only one who misses him, even if it took me a little while to realize.