“I’ll take the mirrors, I think that will be the safest thing for me to do.” He went into a closet and found cleaning solution and a bag of rags. He disappeared into the first dome.
I sat down at the center work station and booted the computer. I set my computer up on the table next to the monitor and booted it as well. My laptop booted ten times faster.
Everything on the main computer was the same as the first time we had visited the observatory. I clicked on the settings icon. There were two options, manual configuration and the other was automatic configuration using last known good configuration. I didn’t click on either, the telescopes would start moving and I didn’t want to get Ryder hurt.
I joined Ryder outside in the first dome, "How goes it in here?”
“Luckily the filth on the mirrors is coming off very easily.” he wiped sweat off his brow. I had no idea how he could be sweating, it was like less than fifty degrees in the dome.
I grabbed an extra rag from the stack that he had sitting on the ground next to the door. I put some of the cleaning solution on it and then went to the next mirror.
“You don’t need to do that, go on inside and turn on the heat.” he smiled. He got really close to me, and looked over my shoulder at the mirror that I had started on. The hairs of the back of my neck stood on end.
He snatched the rag out of my hand, "If you insist.” I slipped underneath his arm and walked back into the control room.
I found the thermostat and turned the heat to seventy. Almost immediately, I could smell burning dust from all of the vents. I had a flash back to high school when they would fire up the heaters the first cold day of the year.
I returned to the computers and started to boot the rest. I went to my laptop and searched for things that were cool to look at in the night sky. I found a few suggestions and bookmarked the sites in the browser. Each one had detailed instructions on locating the anomalies.
“All done.” Ryder rejoined me in the control room after replacing the cleaning supplies in the closet.
“Well let’s see how this works.” I clicked on configure using last known good settings. I hoped that when the hard drives lost their data they didn’t lose the configuration files.
The computer started to work on its own. The first monitor showed two windows. One flickered on and a live camera feed from inside the dome appeared. The telescope started to move around in all directions. A timer flashed on the main screen 2:00:00.
“We’ve got two hours until it’s finished with the configuration.” I swiveled in my chair to look at Ryder who was leaning on a nearby wall.
“Well this is the perfect time for us to talk.” he walked out of the room. When he returned he had two glass soda bottles in one hand and a folder in his other hand.
“What’s that?” I didn’t care about the drinks, the folder worried me.
“It’s something that is very important.” he handed me one of the bottles, and pulled up a chair. I opened it and took a sip.
He took a deep breath.
“What is it?” I asked again, he was getting very serious.
“I have spent some time with Sam the past couple of days and we have been looking into Joseph Madison.”
“Really? What did you find?” I was suddenly very excited.
“Well he and his wife died two years ago.” he paused.
“You told me that.” I leaned back into my chair.
“I did, but I didn’t tell you how. Until now we never needed to know why. We found the police, and coroner’s reports, and the deaths are interesting to say the least.”
“Interesting how?”
“Well, there was no cause of death, and they died at the exact same moment. The police were positive that it was a murder, but without a cause of death, and zero evidence at the scene of the crime, a hotel in Las Vegas, which I found weird, they had to drop the case.”
“So what do you think?”
“I think that they were killed by a mod or nat.”
“What else did you find out?” I really wanted to know if I was his daughter or not and it felt like he was stringing me along.
“Joseph Madison had two children, Grace Madison and Isabel Madison. We have already worked up your DNA, and compared it to his. You are his daughter.”
I felt a tear in my eye, but I pushed it back, "Where is Isabel?”
“I haven’t been able to locate her. I did find this.” he held up the folder, "this is Joseph’s last will and testament.”
I took it from him, and opened it. I skimmed over most of it until I saw my name.
And to my daughter, Grace Madison, in order to repay her for having abandoned her at such a young age, I leave her every one of my worldly possessions, and any and all funds that may remain that she may use it to have a better life . I know that it cannot begin to repair the damage that I may have caused in her life, but I would hope that she could find it in her heart to forgive me and her mother for our actions. We only wished for her to have a life free of ridicule and shame. The only thing that I wish of her is that she should locate her sister, and try to create a meaningful relationship with her. We would like both of you to know that we love you and will always be with you.
Tears had weld up in my eyes now, to know a piece of my past, that I had family, was a great feeling. Ryder had moved beside me and put his arm around my shoulder.
“I looked up some history, if you want to know.”
“Umm… sure.” I wasn’t really sure what he meant by history.
“Joseph owned a huge technology company called AdvaGen Technologies, several factories across the world, the whole nine yards. He had this observatory constructed as a hobby for his wife. When his company was denied a government contract due to a technicality, he had to put it all up for sale. The observatory first and then the company.” he looked at the ground.
“Aurora purchased the company and all of your father’s brilliant designs.”
“So you are telling me that the technology that they use was created by my father?” I could feel my face turning red from anger.
“Things like vehicles. Yes.”
“What about the devices that they used to give us these abilities?” I set my hands ablaze.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged and gave me a little space.
“What about the other girl? The one that I saw back at the school. Isn’t she technically the real me now?” I changed the subject.
“She is the real Grace Ward according to the government, but you are the real Grace Madison. By making you go by Ward, Joseph was doing you a big favor. When it came to your abduction, Aurora replaced Grace Ward.”
“I want to go to the house, see if I can figure anything else out.”
“Sure. We may have to break in.”
“It’s my house; I think that we will get away with it.”
I turned back to the main computer, the configuration was finished, and all of the telescopes but two were working. All of the monitors were showing a panoramic, very up-close view of the moon. It was beautiful.
“It’s wonderful.”
“I think that I just found my new favorite place.” I grinned.
Chapter 19: PCD-003
Given that we got home so late I was surprised that I was up out of bed bright and early. I was eager to check out my father’s old house. I was primed and ready to learn as much about my past as I could.
I was sure that it was foolish to assume that I would be able to find something that the police overlooked, but I was optimistic for the first time since as far back as I can remember.
I had to wait around for a few hours while Ryder finished his assignments that Sam had given him.
He picked me up in the mid afternoon.