Globe Tracers 6: Chaos Storm

Chapter 1: Disconnected

February 1972

Joran:

My son's last words to me played over and over in my head. I had told him, my love for him was unconditional. His response; "Mine... is not."

He had declared himself an orphan, disowning me and my wife Fay. The boy refused to even tell me what was happening. I left for the skies but stayed close enough to have the cloaked ship scan the area around him several times for hostile forces. I watched him from monitors on my cloaked vessel for several hours. What did I want to see? Did I really prefer him being in danger or hurt to reality?

Kyle was very apparently sad, and the werewolf Allen took care of him. There was his goofy bodyguard Jessica and another pharaoh boy who I didn't know, but nothing I saw indicated anyone around him was doing anything but comforting him in a troubled time.

I wanted to go back down and demand an explanation, to demand he take back what he said... but I knew I had no right. If Kyle declared himself done with me, he was old enough to do just that. He would be intelligent and able-bodied enough to survive on his own, difficult as it could be. One hundred years old was far from the age of an invalid.

I sat on my bed, the lights on the ceiling bathing the room in a dark blue light meant to simulate resting under a night sky. Laying back on my king-sized bed, I looked at the mirror over me. It showed my bed as grass. It also showed Kyle, when he was a toddler as if he were sleeping next to me in a field. It was a simulation of one of my favorite memories, staying up with little Kyle and counting the stars.

I wanted so badly to reach down and find the simulation real. I wanted to reach down and put my hand on my son's head and remind myself that he was there, that his subconscious love was... but no. The only thing real in that simulation were the tears I could see forming on my face. What was I to do? Go back on my knees and impotently beg? Force him back into my home and life? Make him my prisoner? No. I knew I had to accept this but...

My eyes closed and I slept most of the trip back to Triad.

My eyes opened as we came out of Q-ton space, a kind of vortex travel used to expedite travel between worlds. I barely understood the science of it myself, but I did remember Kyle traveling with me a few times and staring in wide-eyed wonder at the red colors cast through the holo-windows on the ship. Spaceships were fully contained in metal and alloys to protect the passengers from the void, so all views of the outside had to be shown on holograms on the walls of the rooms of the vessel. It was all somewhat fake, but that boy's reactions to everything were so genuine.

As I approached the planet itself, hundreds of vessels lay in front of me. Construction was ever going on as shipments of material constantly arrived from the nearby asteroid belt. I sailed by massive platforms surrounded by thousands of security drones of so many makes it was impossible to focus on just one. I remembered Kyle's first trip with me into the expanse just outside the home world. His mouth was fixed open as he ran around, pointing at different points on the wall, at the different parts of the hologram. He wanted to know what every drone was called, if or when each building would be done and the name of every platform. I could answer one in a hundred questions, but I did my best.

Memories played in my head of Kyle's antics. On my left he ran through a projection of a city platform he had somehow made go over the floor, pretending he was a monster crashing through the building projections. On my right he stared at the projection trying to pick out his favorite drone fighter- a small orb with large arms on either side that looked like the barrels of earth-made shotguns was the winner. That particular drone was actually only capable of firing a targeting laser to assist other drones in fighting attacking pirate vessels- he just liked to think it could be made to do more.

I even shook my head in laughter as a memory of him showing his bare butt to the moon came to mind. At the time I wanted so badly to tell him to behave and stop- mooning the moon- but I was laughing too hard.

Now I watched whole cities on metal platforms go by and... I just didn't care. It just doesn't matter how amazing something is if you have no one to share it with.

Time passed without meaning, and I fell asleep a few more times.

Fay met me at the door and... I told her what happened right away. I saw in her eyes as the emotions shot through them. Fay had hated letting her son travel to another world, even for a short time, even for his own safety. But this...

The purple-haired woman gritted her teeth at me, her tears running down the length of her light chocolate-brown cheeks. She pulled her own hair so hard the blonde roots were becoming visible as she turned around and gave a loud frustrated scream.

"What did you... what did I..."

"He wouldn't say."

"Well..." she let down her hands and folded them together as she pulled on the top of her blue blouse. "No... he had to be in trouble."

"I cloaked the ship and watched... Nothing."

"Well- send men to monitor him, maybe in a few days-"

"Fay- he has every right to do this. We can't just invade his privacy if he's a private citizen."

She walked away from me, head down. I slowly followed her into the executive home- the home of the president of all Triad. My home.

I walked into the building, my feet carrying me across a golden indoor bridge. I looked out over a massive pool, complete with diving boards. Ahead of me were some twenty or so rooms, many of them of historical significance. The home of the executive had hundreds of rooms and sat on fifty acres of land. In this home rested senators, guards, and servants along with visiting city-state governors. The structure itself was five stories, and the outdoors looked out over a mountainside into the capital city of Triad, the city of Victory.

I couldn't bare to look out the one-way windows over the city now. I just slowly walked across the bridge, following my wife to our sleeping chambers. Off and on she would pause, and so would I at other times. "My kingdom for my son," I said into the silence, remembering the old earth saying.

Fay finally looked back at me, tears running down her face. She just looked at me.

"You want to know if this is it... right? If we're going to accept this." She just stared for a little while, then turned away. "On the surface? We have to. I'll write him when I can, but Q-ton communication links to earth are only open once or twice a year, you know that. Maybe he'll change his mind, who knows?"

She tightened her fists and looked at the ground, still turned away from me.

"I... I have never wanted so badly to just say my own son's desires don't matter- to just march back to him and tell him his choices count for nothing but... I can't do that."

She walked over to a small table nearby and picked up a small butter knife.

"I don't know how to fix this," I said. She continued saying nothing.

Volts of energy traveled up her body and then down her right arm as it suddenly moved right and released the dull metal. The cheap utensil was suddenly stuck two inches into solid steel. Through gritted teeth, Fay spoke to me. "I still love you Jo."

"But... you can't talk now can you?"

She just walked away from me and headed for our room.

I now found myself alone, looking over my empty home. I had no one to turn to in that moment. There were times... times I wished I believed in a god.