By the time she got to the apartment door, she was fighting back tears.
The biometric sensor flash-scanned her teary eyes and Aster hurried inside, slamming the door shut behind her. She ignored the maganiel android standing guard in the hallway and headed straight for the master bedroom, closing the door behind her more gently this time before flopping down on the bed in despair.
It felt useless to cry about what had happened, let alone wallow in self-pity over a partly self-inflicted predicament. She’d only been suspended from work, after all; and unlike the poor souls at the Loki facility, she was still alive.
Rolling over to stare at the ceiling, Aster felt the tears roll down past her ears. She couldn’t help but wallow in self-pity; self-pity was all she could manage right now. Having unearthed more questions than answers, her stupid hunt for the truth was now effectively over. That ought to be a huge relief, but it wasn’t.
There was a little knock on the door.
“…Yes?” Aster called, hastily composing herself.
The door opened a crack and Orion peeked in, his younger siblings visible behind him.
“Hey, sweethearts.” Aster smiled at them, hoping her eyes didn’t look too red.
“Hi mommy.” Orion replied with a weak smile, he could see his mother’s teary eyes.
“Come in, sit down.” Aster beckoned them to come inside.
Orion opened the door a little wider and walked in clutching his tablet computer, followed by Rose and Violet. Together they climbed onto the bed and sat down.
“Leo’s still sleeping.” Violet said.
“That’s ok, let him sleep.” Aster replied, “So what did you learn today?”
“Ionic and covalent bonds in chemistry, algebraic long division, and how to construct while loops in a program.” Orion replied, playing with his tablet computer.
“Are you understanding it ok?” Aster asked her oldest child.
“Mostly.” He replied.
“We also had an essay on the history of space exploration.” Rose added.
“I’m sure you did great.” Aster reassured them with a hug.
“How was your day, mommy?” Violet asked.
“Tough.” She replied, a gross understatement, but truthful enough.
“Are we going to see Grandma again?” Orion asked.
“Not any time soon.” Aster replied, “Why?”
“You don’t seem to like her very much.” He noted astutely.
“What makes you think that?” Aster asked, embarrassed that her children had noticed. Orion went silent and started staring at his feet.
“Nothing.” He said sheepishly.
“Ori recorded you talking.” Rose blurted out. Orion flinched in embarrassment and jabbed his sister’s shoulder in retaliation.
“Hey! Don’t do that your sister.” Aster remonstrated.
“But she told on me!” Orion protested.
“But it’s true!” Rose counter-protested.
“Apologise to your sister, now!” Aster snapped.
“…Sorry.” Orion mumbled half-heartedly.
“Now what’s this about a recording?” Aster asked, her curiosity piqued.
Orion frowned self-consciously; then with great reluctance, he pulled up an audio file on his tablet and pressed the play button.
“…By asking me here, you’re guilty of conspiracy to commit corporate espionage.” Aster’s own voice played over the speaker.
“And by coming, you’re officially complicit.” Grandma Jezebel’s voice played in response, “unless, of course, the real reason – the one you’d like me to corroborate if the investigators ask – is that you simply came to–”
Orion paused the recording, embarrassed that his snooping had been found out. Aster was stunned. Not by the recording itself, but by what a stroke of luck this was.
“How much of my conversation with Grandma did you record?” she asked Orion.
“All of it,” Orion replied sheepishly, “from when you walked in to when we got in the taxi. If you want, I can delete it–”
“No! Don’t do that. Actually, could mommy borrow your tablet for just a minute?”
Orion nodded and handed over his tablet. Aster went over to the armoured closet where the maganiel was usually kept, and the children quietly left to give her some privacy.
Aster slid her thumb across the access pad. The light went from red to green and the doors of the maganiel’s armoured closet opened. The maganiel was still standing guard in the hallway, but there was a little side compartment next to its alcove containing an electronic screen and a communications box. It was labelled: “EMERGENCY USE ONLY”.
“Pretty sure this qualifies.” Aster muttered as she activated the device.
“Please state your emergency.” The box demanded.
“Someone attempted to blackmail me into committing corporate espionage, potentially involving xenotechnology.” Aster replied to the box.
“Do you have evidence for that?”
Aster placed Orion’s tablet on top of the comm. box’s interface pad, established a wireless connection, and uploaded the audio file.
“File received,” the box replied, “standby.”
Aster heaved a sigh, though not of relief. She had now ratted on Jezebel Thorn and indirectly ratted on her bosses, thereby officially violating her employment contract. She would never have dared to do so without proof, which had been the whole point of trying to pull that bait-and-switch with the data chips in the first place. Now that it was done, she had to trust that the DNI would believe what they heard on the file.
Still, there was something tremendously satisfying about sticking it to her sleazy bitch of a mother-in-law. The kind of woman who would use members of her own family, including her own grandchildren, to further her own goals. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising for a vulture capitalist who’d gone into business after being mysteriously widowed.
* * *
The sudden change in gravity and the sensation of having one’s guts yanked downwards were no less disorienting the second time around. The walls became a high speed blur and the roaring of the air in the gravitic tunnel was reduced to an imperceptible din as the auditory sensors filtered out the otherwise deafening noise.
Gabriel hugged his weapon close and kept his feet together as he hurtled along the tunnel at breakneck speeds before veering suddenly to one side. The tunnel was uncomfortably narrow, wide enough for two or three people to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, but narrow enough to worry about hitting the side at such speeds.
A light appeared at the end of the tunnel and in a split second it rushed up to meet Gabriel. He re-emerged, just like before, on the ceiling of another hemispherical chamber. The sudden deceleration yanking his innards upwards as the gravity field dramatically slowed his descent, landing him squarely on his feet.
Standing upside down on the ceiling, the retracted column beneath Gabriel’s feet protruded from its slot again to reseal the tunnel entrance. Gabriel jumped to one side to avoid being pushed back into the tunnel, and the change in gravity carried him down to the floor. This time, he was able to twist his body in mid-air and land squarely on his feet again.
Gabriel looked around the chamber with his weapon at the ready, scanning for threats. But there were no targets to be seen; in fact, he was the only person present. Viker, Cato, and Bale had all jumped into the gravitic tunnel before him and should be here already. So why weren’t they here?
“Squad, sound off!” Gabriel ordered them.
There was no response. In fact, his squad members’ comm. signals weren’t showing up in his HUD at all, and neither were their tracking signals or bio-readings. It was as if the three of them had completely vanished.