Space Race (Space Race 1) Nathan Hystad (ebooks children's books free .TXT) 📖

“No. Can you scan the entire Proxima Centauri system?”

Jade smiled as she set to work. I stood behind her chair, anxiously awaiting the results. She filtered through what she called radio noise for ten minutes, before zeroing in on a specific target. “This is interesting.”

I leaned down, trying to get a better look at her screen. “What did you find?”

“There’s a distress call, but it’s just sitting there, like it’s being blocked from transferring to Earth.” Her fingers moved quickly over the screen. “I’ve never seen something like this. It’s as though the call went out, but only made it 0.5 AU, almost in a perfect sphere from the origin’s destination.”

“You’ve lost me,” I said.

“Someone sent a distress call, but it’s dormant. Without my invention, we never could have located it.”

“What does it say?” I glanced at the bridge entrance, where Holland, Luther, and R11 were joining us again.

Jade lost color as she read it. “I think we should watch it.”

“What are we doing?” Luther asked, passing me a coffee. Holland offered a cup over to Jade, and she reached for it with trembling hands.

“We found an old lost communication from near Proxima. Can you tell us the date?” I asked, sipping the hot beverage.

Jade set the cup down. “Arlo…”

“What?” And it hit me. “Play the distress call.”

The communication was a video, and there he was. My grandfather, standing front and center. “I am Captain Preston Lewis, of the expedition vessel Obelisk. We entered Proxima Centauri a day ago and have been followed by an unmarked vessel since the moment we arrived. They’ve failed to acknowledge any transmissions from us, and I fear they are potentially hostile. If this message reaches anyone, know that Proxima is not safe. I repeat…” The camera shook, and the angle shifted toward the viewscreen as an alarm rang out. People ran by, taking positions on the bridge.

The camera showed the enemy ship filling the viewscreen. Long tentacles flowed in front of it, pulsing bright red. More people walked by the camera, and it stopped moving, showing Preston standing in the middle of the expedition ship’s bridge, shouting orders.

The feed went dark.

“That’s it?”

“It is.” Jade started it from the beginning.

“Pause it!” Holland yelled. Jade obliged, and he shoved her arm aside, taking the controls into his own hands. “There.” He pointed at the screen, and I saw the resemblance. “How is she…”

“Holland, is that your mother?” Luther asked.

It was her. The woman from Bryson’s room devoted to his wife’s memory. “Holland, did you know your mother was lost with Obelisk?”

He backed away, slowly shaking his head. “I don’t understand. Dad told me she died in a boating accident near SeaTech. I was only a year old.”

“I was supposed to be on that mission,” Luther said nonchalantly. We all turned toward him while he drank his coffee. “What?”

“You’re saying you were part of the Proxima mission?” I asked quietly.

“Sure. I was young, highly sought after by Lotus for a security officer role. But in the end, the CEO wouldn’t let me go.”

“Okay, so let’s get this straight,” I said. “Bryson Kelley’s wife was on Obelisk. My grandfather was the captain. You were supposed to be on the ship… There’s no way this is all a big coincidence.”

“I agree,” Jade said. “And my grandfather was Luna’s CEO at the time. They built Obelisk.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing. “I guess you forgot to tell us that part,” Luther said.

“Wait…what?” Holland asked.

“I’m Jade Trevors. Niece to Erik.”

Luther sighed deeply. “This keeps getting stranger.”

Holland just stared blankly. “Dad always told me that Mom loved space…that she was an adventurer. She spent hours looking out at the stars from the island, wishing she could explore them.”

“Sorry you had to find out like this,” I told him.

“I have to contact Dad.” Holland attempted to message his father, but all efforts failed. Eventually, he gave up and just sat staring at the screen.

“I’m beginning to understand Bryson’s obsession with Proxima,” Luther said. “You saw the room.”

“What room?” Holland asked.

Luther returned to his seat. “Nothing, kid. Let’s get focused. We still have Sage and Lotus to deal with.”

____________

I daydreamed memories of an old digital puzzle I’d played with as a child. My parents worked long hours, and after my sessions in the Sage schooling system, I had a lot of free time. The pieces were the same as when I was a child, and they scrolled by me. I tried to grab at them, to slide their 3D holographic pieces into the proper place, but they wouldn’t move.

The memory shattered, dispersing into a million pieces when I remembered seeing the distress call. They’d encountered an alien vessel, and the thing had looked terrifying. Were those beings related to the ship I’d discovered, or perhaps the ones Jinx had found watching our every step? No wonder I’d been thinking about puzzles. I was living one right now.

Jade prepped the system for the alterations on the Core boosters, and I read over the message we’d received from a distant world. Level Dark. Destination: Refuge. Location unknown. Assault imminent.

What did it all mean? With no answers forthcoming, I set to the final leg of the Race, urging Pilgrim forward at top speed for another couple hours, until Neptune displayed like a huge ball in my viewer. Ships were all around, gathered near the gargantuan craft holding the CEOs and Board. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people were occupying it, waiting for the outcome of this Race. Every Primary wanted to control Proxima, but after the distress video, I wasn’t sure they’d be welcomed there. For the moment, it was a three-ship race.

I saw various vessels from each of the Primaries but couldn’t pick out any from SeaTech. Maybe Bryson was mingling with the other executives. Still no sign of Eclipse, which surprised me. They should have been visible on the radar, but their element of surprise would only work if they weren’t seen from tens of thousands of kilometers away. She would have made sure