Monday, November 26, 2018 (Johnday, Aries 28, 0031)<\/p>\n
08:40 – When Tom knocked on the door to the stateroom, Carl had been asleep for a mere three-and-a-half hours. Groggily he yawned, “Are we there yet?”<\/p>\n
Tom smiled wryly and replied seriously, “Yeah, but we may be leaving soon. Get dressed and meet us in the control center. We have a sticky situation we need to discuss. Come on down and we’ll fill you in.”<\/p>\n
Four minutes later, Carl popped out of the ladder-well on the first deck, his left cheek still red and wrinkled from resting on his pillow. “What do you mean, we’re leaving? What’s up, Doc?” he punned, lightly punching Jackie on the shoulder. She turned her head and gave him a weak trembling smile. He could see by the redness in her eyes and trail of tears on her cheeks, that she had been crying. “No, seriously, what is it?” Alarmed, he pulled up the empty stool next to Jackie and sank down to the seat.<\/p>\n
Everyone was now here. Valerie stood up and, addressing the group, relayed the contents of the emails Jackie had received and explained everything that had occurred during the past few hours. “Has Mission Support been notified?” Carl queried.<\/p>\n
Tom replied, “I’m not so sure we can do that… not just yet, anyway. In the message there was something mentioned about plans being made as far back as two years ago.” He turned and asked Jackie, “Do you know who it was that brought you into the program, maybe a sponsor?”<\/p>\n
Jackie thought intently for a moment, her brow furrowing, “I’m not sure, but my dad said a friend of his was one of the mission developers, and he had suggested I apply for admission to the program. But he said if anyone found out he had said anything, it might look like he was playing favorites. So my dad never even told me who it was. But that was several months before the mission was even announced to the public.”<\/p>\n
Tom continued his train of thought, “Val showed me all of the messages, and it appears there is someone of high rank in the program that is in on this and controlling our moves. We’re not sure how far up in the command chain this goes. I suppose the traitor could be a mission developer. But, it appears a big name has apparently recruited Jackie and arranged for her to be on this ship, to replace Commander Cody… ” Tom’s voice trailed off. Then he turned to face Jackie straight on, “Wait, you said you were contacted prior to the mission being announced? None of us had backups prior to the announcement, not until about three months into the preparations. I mean, it could be just a coincidence that you had the same chemistry and medical background as him, but…”<\/p>\n
Tom’s mental deliberations abruptly headed in another direction: Ty and Claire’s accident may not have been an accident, after all, and what about Penny? Could someone have actually killed her trying to get him to abort the mission? Was there a previous plot meant to take her hostage that went awry? Could they have now taken Mike hostage after their failure to capture Penny?<\/p>\n
“Penny,” A cold sweat broke out over Tom’s body as bile rose into his throat. His eyes stared around the room, seeing nothing, as his mind whirled in horror, and he exclaimed, “Do you think someone attempted to kill Ty to replace him with Jackie?” After a moment, Jackie’s face went ashen and then to green as she realized the implications of Tom’s statement. She suddenly lurched forward and sprinted toward the lavatory, not quite making it before vomiting noisily on the floor, spattering the toilet.<\/p>\n
“I’d take that as a yes,” Carl stated, as Sally jumped up and moved quickly, following Jackie, to assist.<\/p>\n
After taking a deep breath to calm himself Tom began, “So no, I don’t think we can let on that we are aware of their plan, just yet. But, I know it is up to us as a team to find a solution to this situation. I just don’t have a clue, at this moment as to what it may be that we can do out here, on our way to Mars to stop kidnappers back on Earth.”<\/p>\n
Brandon considered this a moment, “You’re right, what the hell can we do way out here? We’re at their mercy.” Then he had a notion flash through his mind, “Wow! If Ty had any idea his wife may have been murdered in an attempt on his life… he’d be on the next flight to… well, anywhere after those bastards, even if it led him straight into Hell.”<\/p>\n
Then, Valerie had an inspiration. “I’ve got an idea for us to consider. We may just have a couple of aces up our sleeve they aren’t counting on. Perhaps Ty should be informed,” she started to say.<\/p>\n
“Are you space happy?” Brandon broke in, almost shouting as he jumped up to his feet. “That would really shove him over the edge.”<\/p>\n
Valerie raised her hand. “Hear me out…” she paused. “Ty lives in Richmond, Jackie and Mike, in Charlottesville. So he’s only about an hour away by car. I think assisting us could do him a lot of good. Maybe even make him feel better by knowing he is taking part in resolving our problem and striking back at those who snatched Claire from him. It’ll make him feel like his life has purpose again, and that his loss was not in vain.<\/p>\n
“Of course, I’m only speculating about Claire, so we need to be careful in what we say to him. His accident might really just be a big coincidence, after all…” Valerie paused wondering how much she should say next. “Remember on the day we launched, there was a second big news story involving a terrorist cell being taken down in Chicago? Well, that was my husband Steve and his team.”<\/p>\n
Brandon smiled wryly, “The military or the terrorists?”<\/p>\n
Valerie snorted, “Cute. The military, or more accurately, extra-military. They are an ATAC team, which stands for Armored Tactical Assault Command,” and she pronounced it ‘EH tack’, putting the accent on the first part of the word. “I’m going to contact Steve, and see if he and his team can lend a hand. I know I mentioned that he is a federal civilian employee, but it’s a bit more than that. The ATAC is a covert ops division,” she made air quotation marks with her fingers to emphasize the term covert ops. “I’m not allowed to talk about what he does, but if he can help, I’m sure he will.<\/p>\n
“We can have him co-ordinate with Ty on site and strategize. But it may take a few days until Steve and company can get their gear together and get to Jackie and Mike’s place. Ty could go in and stake out the neighborhood, keeping an eye on the house and report back to Steve if they try to move Mike.”<\/p>\n
Jackie and Sally were just starting on their way back over to the group, and overheard the conversation. “I think that’s a great idea,” Sally said. “It’s like we have our own ‘A-Team’ riding to the rescue.” She was speaking mainly to bolster Jackie’s spirits, as she referred to the old TV show. Little did Sally know just how right she was. The Armored Tactical Assault Command team that Steve leads is basically the A-Team: highly skilled in the three I’s: infiltration, interrogation, and intimidation, as well as possessing the usual marksmanship and combat expertise. Each team member has been handpicked from the best of the best: all former Special Forces (Green Berets, Airborne Rangers, Seals).<\/p>\n
Standing near the pressure hatch to the ladder-well, Tom suddenly dropped down onto one of the stools, looking distraught, face twisted with inner anguish. “What is it, Tom?” Brandon asked, concern mirrored on his face.<\/p>\n
“I’m just wondering if Penny might also have been slain by someone attempting to force me to abort the mission through sabotage or by other means. Mission Support was pretty damn quick to identify an abort maneuver, and not offering alternative tactics. What if that was part of their grand design? First Ty and Claire, then Penny, now they’re working on Jackie and Mike. There could be a person right in Mission Support that’s trying to stop us from landing.”<\/p>\n
“What about Emma and Mary?” Brandon asked. “They could be in danger, too.”<\/p>\n
Valerie considered that for a moment. “I doubt that we will have to worry about them, just yet. Typically, subversive groups usually target a single objective at a time. Hypothetically speaking, if they fail in one objective, then they move on to the next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monday, November 26, 2018 (Johnday, Aries 28, 0031) 08:40 – When Tom knocked on the door to the stateroom, Carl had been asleep for a mere three-and-a-half hours. Groggily he yawned, “Are we there yet?” Tom smiled wryly and replied seriously, “Yeah, but we may be leaving soon. Get dressed and meet us in the control center. We have a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chapter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.emailfrommars.com\/outbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}