Shadows of Mars (Broken Stars Book 1) I.O. Adler (read people like a book TXT) 📖

to make things comfortable for us, as if someone had pre-programmed them.”

“And you’re controlling everything virtually.”

“It’s like a touchscreen right before my eyes. But for every one thing I understand, there’s dozens of others I don’t.”

“Then keep being careful. If someone had this place ready for us, then that’s good. But there’s so many questions I have. What about this voice I talked to? Have you communicated with them?”

Jenna’s face blinked out again, and this time it took a few seconds for her to reappear. “She was talking to me, but I got confused. I turned her off.”

Carmen wiped her wet hands on her jeans. “What do you mean?”

“She was trying to speak while I was working to bring us together. I was getting distracted so I broke the connection.”

“Don’t turn it back on until we know what to say,” Barrett said. “We need to learn what we can and can’t do with this spaceship. Can we return to Earth?”

“Yes. I can take us.”

“We’re not going back until we find our mom,” Carmen said.

Barrett walked back out into the corridor. “Right now we don’t know enough about anything. I haven’t forgotten about your mother. But there’s no point in trying to find her if we can’t get home ourselves. And if this is going to take time, we’ll need food. Even more important, I need to talk to Earth. Jenna, can you boost my phone signal? Do you have any way of making a radio pop out of the floor?”

The Jenna bot moved to the doorway. “I’m not sure. The communication link is what I turned off when I muted the woman on the speaker.”

“So turning that back on means opening ourselves up for a conversation. Don’t do that yet. I know you both want to get your mom back. We have trained people who can help. I suggest we do what we can to turn around and head back. You’re both civilians. I don’t want to risk seeing either of you hurt.”

Carmen felt wary at the suggestion. Yes, she wanted to go home. She had her dad to look after. Jenna had the boys. But handing off their mom’s rescue? This was the same government that had blocked her every effort in learning the true nature of the disaster. And now that she knew some of what had happened, she understood that nothing had been done.

NASA, the ESA, Russia, Japan, Korea, China—were any of them doing anything to get them back to Mars to learn the fate of their astronauts?

But then an even darker thought came to mind. “You want this ship, don’t you?”

Barrett touched a wall before meeting her gaze. “Yes. If Jenna has control of it, that gives all of us a chance. Imagine what we can learn if we bring this ring back home. We were attacked by someone we haven’t even met and don’t know. They nearly wiped us out in a few hours. They might try to finish us off at any moment. Think about it. Billions of people dead by an invisible enemy using technology beyond comprehension. Having this ship under our control is a gift we don’t dare risk. We have to go back. Not bringing this prize home is immoral.”

“What about our mom?”

“We thought she died two years ago. Perhaps she managed to survive somehow. If she’s alive, she will be waiting for us when we use this ship to find her and discover what really happened on Mars.”

“But we don’t know if she’s okay. What if she’s barely hanging on? What if she’s somewhere that doesn’t have food or water? And what if whoever she took this ship from repos it and doesn’t want to loan it out again?”

“Look, Carmen. Jenna. Both of you love your mom. But I’ve trained for situations where a hard call has to be made. If you run into a burning building and find a child alive, you don’t leave them lying there while you search for other people. You rescue the ones you can and then you go back in for anyone else.”

“But our mom is alive. She called us.”

“We still don’t know if that was even her.”

“It was her. Jenna’s still Jenna even though she’s inside a robot. Mom’s out there. Jenna just needs to open up this communication node and call. She might be able to answer.”

Barrett was shaking his head. “No. It’s too risky. Jenna, listen, you have to turn us around. It’s hard. You did well in everything you’ve done. Figuring this place out took guts. But now I’m telling you to take us all home. You want to be back with Zach and Landon, don’t you?”

But the Jenna bot’s face had gone dark.

Carmen touched the bot’s hand. “Hey, are you there?”

Jenna returned. But she wore a worried expression. “Car, there’s someone else here.”

“What do you mean? Like Mom? Inside the control room with you?”

“No, I mean another ship. I can’t look inside it. It just connected to the ring and docked. It’s like the ring just let them. A door is opening. They’re here inside and there’s nothing I can do to stop them.”

Chapter Sixteen

Barrett took Carmen by the arm and began to lead her down the hallway. “Back to our sphere. Hurry.”

Carmen broke free of his grip. “We’re going. Jenna, come on.”

Jenna followed, her sleek metallic body easily keeping up as they ran along the curving corridor. The doorway stood open. Barrett and the Jenna bot ran inside. Jenna’s physical body remained where they had left it, but the red light and the other couches had vanished.

“You can disconnect this portion of the ship and send us back, can’t you?” Barrett asked.

“I think so. But they’re all connected so it means slowing, stopping, and heading the opposite direction. There’s an end sphere which