The Enemy’s Reach

No Space for Family [Chapter 26]

So there we were, running back into the arms of the lovely and cool colony overseer Sakura Ishii. Those are Grandma’s words, not mine. I think she didn’t think my dad had a plan. We had hurriedly packed up into our day bags, and off me and my mom and my brother went to the colony’s administration building.

The three of us pushed through the doors, holding what probably seemed like days’ worth of supplies and making enough racket to match. Not a moment later, a set of automatic lights came on and out walked the plump green lady from before.

“Oh… to what do we owe the visit… at this hour?”

My mom smiled a big smile and presented herself before the desk. “Hey, hi, again. Once more, I apologize for the intrusion. I’d like to see if Sakura is available.”

The woman twisted up her wrinkled face and nodded. “In person, I’m assuming? Huh, I’m sure we had our technical people get a radio connection to your craft the last time you came.”

“Seems the airwaves are… finicky today,” sighed my mom. “Please, we need to see her.”

The green lady shook her head and tapped away at her computer systems. “Madame Ishii currently isn’t answering. I would assume she has turned in for the night. May I take a message to relay to her? She will be able to access it at her earliest convenience.”

I saw my mom fidgeting, probably thinking up another lie to not make everyone panic. Terren was at the far side of the lobby there on the ground floor, looking out through the wide corner window to the Ora sitting lifelessly under the meager orange lights cast across the tarmac.

“What do you think Dad has planned?” I asked, creeping up behind my brother.

Terren shrugged. “It might be a good idea to lift off from here, we’ll be sitting ducks. Hide the Ora in a more secluded part of the planet. He mentioned running off to the flight control station on the other side of the tarmac to talk to the folks there, probably to see if they knew a place.”

“Dad would just lift off on his own and leave us here?”

Terren clicked his tongue and shrugged sadly. “I don’t want him to get hurt… or worse, but… he would risk it if he had to. But he won’t get himself hurt.”

“Or worse,” I repeated.

Terren slid back and patted my head. “Right. I heard him also talking to Grandma. About what she could do if she had to do something.”

“More than she usually could?” I asked, the gears in my head turning. “What if… she flew the ship herself?”

Terren shrugged. “I suppose it could work with the right connections, but… do you really think she would agree to that, flying all alone?” he declared with a chuckle.

“Or she could get all in the systems and booby trap the whole ship for anyone besides us who wanted to get in. It’s like that old Earth movie from a long time ago, where the boy gets left by himself at home.”

“You’ve watched way too many of those movies, kiddo.”

“Hey,” clapped my mom from the reception desk. She was pointing to the elevator off to the side. “We’re being let inside. Best behavior.”

“Of course.”

“Yes, Mom.”

We ended up all packed in the boxy lift with all of our things. That Sakura woman was waiting for us as the doors opened. She looked us up and down as my mom pushed Terren out first.

“Pardon me,” said my brother lowly.

“Don’t tell me,” sighed the Overseer, looking into my mom’s eyes. “A family dispute? I mean, I don’t see Jefferson anywhere.”

Mom held up her finger. “First off, no. Second, can we do this someplace a little more private?”

Sakura pursed her lips and urged Terren down the hall in front of her. “To my office yet again.”

I shifted the strap of my bag around my shoulder and followed off after everyone else.

“Little Terren, all grown up, I see,” reminisced Sakura as my brother glanced back for guidance to the correct room.

He smiled a fake smile back at her. “Apologies if I don’t quite remember much about back then.”

The Overseer shrugged. “Don’t worry, I won’t say one of those embarrassing older people things like how I changed your diaper before. Which I haven’t, mind you. Right there, the corner office.”

“You never were quite interested in the idea of kids,” said my mom back. “Any of that stuff.”

Sakura took point to open the door to her office and allow us in one by one. “You’re right. Which is strange considering that older folks can end up needing as much care as little children. Diapers included. So… Amelia, I’m assuming you’re anticipating getting your mother into our care, is that it?”

My mom stopped by the door and pulled the handle out of the Overseer’s hand to shut it on her own. “Not quite. I need you to listen. I kind of… lied before.”

Sakura exited the doorway and took a seat behind her desk. She glanced out the corner window to where our ship had settled. Terren helped me set down our bags while also watching the landing platform and the dim sky.

“Lied? What possibly could you have lied about?” Asked the Overseer like she wasn’t surprised.

“It was for a good reason,” I blurted out.

Mom scowled at me before sitting down in the visitor’s seat, crossing one leg over the other. “Let’s see, I think it was about the people that were here for us… that they wanted something back. Well, the truth is, we didn’t get it back to them. In fact, they still want it pretty bad, and they’re likely more upset than ever.”

Sakura sighed and rubbed at her brow. “Well, at least you’re not on the run from the law.”

“They do kind of work for a prison,” I pointed out, leaning on the arm of the second chair. “And good guys put bad guys in prison. So…”

“That’s right, Sola,” said my mom, grasping my arm and tugging me around against her leg. “But we’re not sure about the legitimacy of this whole prison thing. We were transporting an AI core meant for them, but it… the AI… divulged that they’re practicing some pretty heinous things there.”

Sakura sat back in her desk chair and stared up at the ceiling. “So you, in your good conscious, decided not to stick around and turn over the AI to them?”

Mom grimaced. “Well, before that, there was an accident. The one that got my mother… in the condition she’s in currently. And the AI took it upon himself to digitize her consciousness and put it in the core, overriding himself in the process. So we couldn’t just…”

The Overseer sat up suddenly and held her hand up. “Wait, so the… AI… I conversed with while in contact with your ship… was actually your mother?”

“Uh, yeah…”

“That explains a couple things.”

Mom huffed a bit. “She didn’t say anything… strange to you, did she?”

“No. But… is there a way to get her back? In her body, that is?”

“Yes, well there’s a doctor but she might be—“

“Hey, Mom,” Terren interrupted, standing up off the side wall. “Before all that, take a look.”

Sakura jumped up out of the seat and stood at the window where me and my mom joined. “Is that your doctor?”

The jets from a ship’s landing boosters were shimmering above the tarmac not far from our own ship. It was probably a bit bigger than the Ora and looked like some sort of transport ship, probably not with a bunch of weapons.

Terren hummed. “Were you expecting anyone else, Overseer? Because no doctor would pilot a ship like that.”