SECTOR 10 (The CLOUD 2)

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 7

The colonists are gone. Now that they have been abducted from Mars without a trace in an unidentified ambush, Yasmine is puzzled when she attempts to come up with a reason for their disappearance. She does not know about the kidnapping, yet. An unanswered transmission to the excavation site means even more trouble. While Bartram is on his flight to Salinas, Yasmine's assignment to the colonists' camp seems more like an extra burden that is distracting. Now that she has had a meeting with Dr. Adams at the dinosaur exhibition, the pictures remind her to contact Mars for confirmation. Though this time, she is left only with silence.

On Mars, the colonists' excavation site has been thoroughly destroyed by the arrival of Gereon Heinemann and his Nemesis crew, incinerating their campsite. The Concord is recognizing the hazard humans pose for their mission of galactic supremacy. By waking the transmitter separating worlds from Pangaea, the humans become one of two targets for the new planet-killer. The primary goal is to annihilate the Yhemlen. Strong as they are, Gereon has plans to take the starship Nemesis right to them.

In a cold, open zone of the starship Nemesis, hollowed walkways are fortified by metal panels. The dimly lit interior matches nicely to the dingy surface of Mars in the smell and hue of some copper pieces, as they pull away from the surface. The Martian colonists left confined in their cell are sealed away within a dungeon to the rear of the starship. It makes sense being that Gereon and his crew are not exactly human anymore that they tuck them away from view. They would not want to be reminded of such mortal fragility.

"The humans are now a hazard to the Grey Order's truce for peace," Gereon says. "We must act on the presiding danger to stop the threat to our cease-fire with Yhemlen brigands. The generation of peace is coming to an end."

He and his son Jasper are in the front-facing control lodge, the cockpit. Jasper's sister Madame Ria remains rested against a side wall where she holds her slender arms crossed in front. Artificial magnetic poles keep everyone bound inside the starship's primary hull, extra-fortified by the magnetosphere dipole circling the cockpit and its energy generators. From inside, tiny magnetospheres are positioned throughout the Nemesis to balance them at a steep decline in the cockpit and within the rest of the starship Nemesis behind the front cabin. Outside, a bubble of gravitational force is centered at the floor and beneath the starship, but is only a fraction of Earth's, though their suits take care of the rest. Madame Ria swivels from the Mars silhouette whose curved horizon shines in the distance and looks toward the Sun gleaming at the outer edges of Nemesis's wings and rings flanked wide to each side, mirroring the same tug of war forces.

Captain Gereon lowers himself in the cockpit seat after pistons fire underneath him. He is locked onto a coordinate of stars shining ahead that will anchor his light bridge portal back home. Systems are prepared to activate recall, teleporting themselves to their home in an alternate future.

"They are deliberately crossing the divide," says Jasper, whose aura is darkened by his black suit while beside his father's gold one. His sister glances from across the pilot cockpit.

As she looks on from afar, Madame Ria says, "Perhaps not. They are practicing diligence, meaning they are being careful. It is their curiosity that's led them here. At least we know what capturing a few has brought us, trouble." The three Heinemann of the Grey Order keep their helmet covers retracted, and their piercing voices make each German syllable more pronounced. For Gereon, his days as Heinemann patriarch do not let him forget their mother, who died valiantly. For Madame Ria, her place in all of this is still a mystery next to her brother. Of course, things could have gone differently for this family. Captain Gereon was a teenager when he left for the Grey Order, and it was their mother who was set on another path.