Chapter Eleven

My body grew rigid as I glanced over at one of the monitors. Inside of my chest, my heart made a constant loud thumping sound. "Caleb, how deep does the ice go? Are there any heat signals?"

"Captain James, everything on the planet is showing to be frozen—"

"Except the RaCO," I mumbled as I looked up, my eyes frantically searching the screens looking for something more, but not really sure what. "The RaCO is not frozen."

"What are you doing Esa?" Audrina leaned over towards me. One eyebrow arched questioningly.

"There has to be a heat source, Aud. The RaCO is in liquid form. If everything is frozen there is no way it wouldn't already be a solid. It doesn't make sense," I responded in frustration. A dull pain had settled in near my forehead. I needed to clear my thoughts and think about what was happening. I had to figure this out. There was a reason we were here on Merak and it was obviously because of the RaCO, but there was something I was missing and that was frustrating. I also didn't have the heart to tell the rest of the ship that something about Merak seemed familiar.

Dr. Marie was too smart for me to discount the simple fact that she probably had a very grand plan, but what was it that she was trying to do?

The ship grew quiet as we all stood looking down at the floor. I knew the others were probably also having similar thoughts as me.

"Hmmmm. Caleb, you said it's a form of radioactive cobalt right?" I cocked my head to the right to lessen the muscle strain I could feel building up in my neck.

"Yes Captain James. That is correct. My sensors are picking up cobalt and ice."

"Then Esa is right. The RaCO should be more of a solid, unless there was a heat source around to allow it to conduct heat and electricity...and stay in liquid form," Audrina's hands made a weird, jerky motion. "I'm beginning to feel a little uneasy about this landing."

"I am just reporting the information I have in my system," Caleb's voice responded nonchalantly. "The surface layer is ice. That is all. It's ice, but there is more below."

From somewhere behind me, Theo cleared his throat. "I don't really want to go over to the Napoleon, but it may be the only way for us to get answers right now."

"I agree," I immediately responded. "Audrina and Gave should stay here in case we need them. Luther, I want you to come with me and Theo."

"Sure thing Captain," Luther's voice responded. "I always look forward to seeing your parents."

"Maybe you should stop calling them that—"

"Sorry...I meant Marie and Paul."

"Thank you."

I couldn't focus on Luther's words right now. I needed to better understand our current situation. Defiantly, I pushed back from where I was standing and walked over to the transfer tube. "Let's go Theo and Luther."

The tube was too narrow for all three of us to fit inside, making me say something I wasn't sure was the wisest statement. "Luther, come with me. Theo, follow behind us."

Almost instantly we were in a room inside of what I knew had to be the Napoleon. Just as I was trying to get my bearings, Marie and Paul appeared in front of us. It was odd seeing the two of them back together. It made my head spin with so many questions, but none of them seemed important right now.

"Good to see you again Esadore," Paul moved closer to me.

I held up my hand to silently signal that he had come close enough.

"Don't call me that. My name is Captain Esa James." I walked out of the tube to face both of them. Defiantly, I lifted my chin and let my gaze find theirs. We all stood there for what seemed like at least a minute, but I knew it was probably more like two seconds.

"Don't get snappy with us. It's not a good sound," General Paul James quipped. He and Marie were both wearing white suits almost identical to the rest of the team.

"Why are you wearing those suits? You're not a part of this team."

"We need them...for now," my mother responded.

"For what?"

"Our travels. Just like you."

"But, we can't travel on the Jump Line..."

She didn't immediately respond.

"Dr. James, why doesn't the Jump Line open up here?" She clicked her tongue. I could see the ugly satisfaction on her face as she spat out her response. "I shut it down. You five were getting too careless with being able to travel through time. I might reopen it once you show me a little respect, but all of you Ciphers are getting a little too reckless right now."

Her words caused me to throw my head backwards and laugh as loud as possible before looking back over at her. We were very similar and I didn't plan to let her get away so easily. My eyes slowly moved from her to General Paul James. "We were careless? No. That's a lie and you both know it. You two and your robot Troy have been stealing healthy humans who weren't set to expire. You are responsible for causing the ripples in time."

Dr. James flicked her hand towards me. "That's where you are wrong. Once again you haven't done your research. Everyone we've taken is sick. Most didn't know it yet, but their time was very limited. What you guys saw when you travelled back through time has been altered. But we think we've found a way to cure them and they will be able to live very long and happy lives."

I didn't want to show any sign of weakness, but I couldn't help turn my head to the side so she couldn't see my questioning eyes as I tried to think about what Dr. James had just told me. It seemed impossible that the normals we had seen were set to expire. They were all healthy. Marie was once again trying to play me. She wanted me to second guess myself.

"What?! You're lying... again."

"No. I'm not and Captain Esa James you need to be very careful of accusing me of doing such a thing," my mother turned towards my father. "Thankfully, we have found a way to save all of us."

"Are you both delusional? You aren't saving the human race. You are slowly killing us off!" My skin began to crawl as I stood only inches away from both of them. How was it possible that I was related to such evil human beings?

"Stop being so difficult. I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were just talking about humans. Yes, we are using all of you," General Paul James pulled his hand back and then quickly struck it across my face causing my head to thrust to one side as my hand flew up to protect my stinging cheek. My head throbbed, but I had to calm myself down. A part of me was angry, but the other part was saddened by his actions.

With my right hand protecting my face, I squared up my shoulders towards them. "I can say whatever I want to right now. You are both crazy and obviously in denial to be able to say that you're not to blame for our world dying."

"Oh please. We tried to help that stupid planet. I gave you all the ability to travel through time and collect healthy normals. It's not my fault your science is mediocre," my mother said sharply through gritted teeth, but I wasn't about to give her too much time to talk. I didn't want to hear her voice. She needed to shut her mouth and for once listen to me.

"Wrong. You are the ones who are to blame. Don't tell me anything more. I'm leaving. I knew it was a bad idea coming over here."

"Fine," Dr. James responded thrusting her head in the direction of the transportation tube. "Go ahead and try to leave."

"Bye," I turned and walked back into the tube that had just brought me here.

Thankfully, I was instantly transported back to the Illiad. A deep sigh of relief escaped out of my lips as we landed. I wasn't sure what I had expected, but being able to easily leave hadn't been a realistic part of that plan. I had been sure they would try to stop me.

"Audrina, let's get off this planet," I walked towards my chair.

"Works for me. Caleb, you heard Captain James. Let's lift off this cold, dead hell hole."

"The thrusters have been activated. We will lift off in five seconds—"

"Wait! Where's Theo?" My eyes darted around the main bridge.

Audrina's head snapped over to look back at me. "He followed you to the Napoleon. He was right behind you. Weren't you together?"

"No. He never landed." I knew for a fact I hadn't seen anyone else use the transportation tube.

"That doesn't make sense. He literally got into the tube several seconds after you and Luther left to see your parents."

"Luther, did you see him?" I turned towards an area at the back of the ship near where Luther sat.

"No and I don't see him right now," his deep voice responded.

"Caleb, can you do a scan of the Napoleon and see if Theo's onboard?"

"Scan complete. There are no signs of Captain Theo Marcus aboard the Napoleon."

"Check again."

"Done. I still do not see any readings of his vitals. My apologies Captain James."

"Stop our lift off."

"It has been cancelled."

"Scan the Illiad and let me know how many are onboard."

"There are four of you, but Captain James you need to know there is a big heat source moving towards the lower right bottom of the ship."

"What is it?"

"I don't know. It's almost as if something is coming out of the RaCO," Caleb said.

"Give me visuals. Now." An image of the ships bottom surface came to life in front of us, but it was hard to see anything. Everything looked dark and almost blurry.

"I can't make anything out."

"Me either," Gave came up behind me.

"Wha—"

The image in front of us disappeared and the ship went dark. "Caleb!"

No answer.

"We've lost power again. I have a feeling Dr. James is toying with us."

My hand swiped at the air in front of me to see if anything would turn back on, but nothing did. Just as it passed back over the front I saw it, a tiny line of electricity shoot out of my palm.

"Did you guys see that?!"

"Yes!" Gave turned his hand over. A tiny bolt of electricity danced in the middle of his palm. "We're back to normal!"

"How did that happen?" I flipped my hand back over.

"I don't know," Audrina said.

"Luther, do you feel any different?" My eyes searched the Illiad looking for the place he might be sitting.

"No. I feel the same," he responded.

Audrina let out an ecstatic, high-pitched glee. "Yes! I feel so happy!"

"Aud, don't get too excited," my eyes stayed focus on the screen in front of me. The heat source had grown immensely over the past few seconds. "Something is about to hit us."