the twins looked at each other for a moment as they stood in the empty room. Josette shrugged, Ty shrugged and they both laughed. It might not have been said but that was probably the biggest "I miss you" nobody has ever said.
"This place is so cool dude. You have no idea" Ty began
"Yeah, you gonna tell me or you're gonna hog all the information." Josette said as they began to walk out the room into the hallway.
"The planets here are so crazy, everything is so interesting ...so different. The planets draw energy from Jupiter's storms and the atmospheres absorbs the heat friction and by Jove you wont believe what keeps the planets atmosphere intact..." Ty babbled
"Do tell, because by my logic there's planets are to small and seem way to slow to have their own magnet fields or atmospheres." Josette was sucked in an interested. They boarded a lift which took them to the ground floor.
"That's what I said...Get this...magnetars and neutron stars," He paused, Josette stooped dead in her tracks
"No way, that's way too advanced to pull off..." she was befuddled
"Yes way, Bianca and I made a whole holographic projection for it and presented it to the Brotherhood founders."
"Bianca? White hair, strawberry perfume, loves computers and math? That's the girlfriend?" Josette paused and looked at her brother wide eyed. He shrugged.
"I should have seen that one coming. You weren't helping her with assignments only huh." she joked. Ty sighed and continued walking
"That guy told you huh? Jerk."
"Right..." She agreed. They continued walking till they were out the building
"Oh Josette, Oh Josette. I got distracted and I did science for fun because I wanted to know more I wanted to know it all. The planets are so beautiful especially the ones with rings Josette. We get to see true biodiversity. How light and gravity effect ecosystems, why certain creatures are the way they are and its...just pure science all day. And the sunsets and spectrums oh my lord Josette you have to see these for yourself. Look," he pointed out to a forest in the distance. "Those trees are massive because there is such low gravity and the oxygen is so rich. The mini- Saturn planets are the best. And we have houses and labs and everything is free basically."
Ty paused for a moment and looked at his sister as her eyes glassed up. They were both seeing the same thing. The Jupiter system for what it truly was. Josette turned to Ty with a lump in her throat and punched him across the face
"And when did you plan on telling me Ty. I was alone. I was suffering there without you, I dreaded every moment thinking you were wasting away back on Earth. Meanwhile you were living it up in a scientific paradise WE dreamed of Ty," by now her eyes welled up with tears. "Its always been me and you against everything Ty, so when were you gonna tell me. I'm not upset that you found this place or whatever. I'm just upset that you did it and enjoyed it without me. Not because of Bianca but you did it WITHOUT ME TY. WE'RE ONE EMBRYO TY!" she continued ranting, Ty felt his eyes water up, his throat getting lumpy
"I'm you Ty. You're me. If you win I win and vice versa. We only have each other no matter what i need you to promise me that. Word of our mama." Ty came to a slow painful realization of what he'd done. He tenderly embraced his sister.
"Where you go I go...no matter what. We may have different ideas but you're my number one motivator because you're my number one competitor."
"Nearly a whole year without you Ty..."
Ty took a brief pause.
"Its been three months" He corrected
"No. Its November...we last saw each other in...
"January..." they said in unison
"Yeah its almost April..." a brief silence filled the air. They exchanged very confused looks and one more look of enlightenment
"Gravitational time difference," they agreed in unison.
***
The shuttles prepared to take off but these were no regular shuttle, they were interplanetary shuttles, one back to Mars and the other to Saturn. The matter at hand was dire as to need Jupiter intervention however it was nowhere near Saturn level threat.
Mr. Dynos was on his way to Mars for peace talks and the other two Brotherhood members were en route to Saturn to meet up with the fourth Brotherhood Founder. Jupiter was a large society and needed a large, off-home world fleet to protect it and hence the Saturn project was born.
The interplanetary shuttled docked on an inner planet of Saturn, the two systems functioned similarly however unlike its bigger more utopian counterpart, the Saturn planets were barren of life only machines that operated drawing power from the planet Saturn's winds and searing hot core. And unlike the Jupiter counterpart, the Saturn system wasn't limited to just 18 inner planets. It had upwards of 70 inner planets all whizzing around in calculated concentric circles. Stain and Starrk exited the shuttle greeted by a familiar face
"Pryde, its been a while." Stain began. The man smiled and greeted them with open arms
"Brothers, what a lovely surprise." They briefly embraced each other in greeting.
"What bring you...old enemies?" Pryde began as they walked away from the shuttle. Stain let out a chuckle
"Ahhh no friend. We have eyes out for THOSE old enemies. For now were playing peacekeeper again." Starrk explained.
" Mars and Earth are at it again, I see. So I assume Brother Dynos is done there doing the peace-keeping?"
Stain nodded in agreement. They continued walking on
"You've been keeping well?" Stain began
"AHHH, as well as I've been keeping this AI in check..." as dreaded silence filled the air then flushed out by laughter.
***
Mr. Dynos hands were up in surrender as hundreds of railguns pointed at him.
"Please, this doesn't have to be done. There has to be a compromise."
The chief was infuriated to see a non Martian vessel on Mars
"GO BACK TO YOUR SHUTTLE. DELIVER A MESSAGE TO EARTH. THIS ISNT ABOUT COMPROMISE ITS ABOUT MARTIAN SUPREMACY." He spat. Mr. Dynos ran Back into the shuttle, blood running cold, seeing the Chief had gone mad with power. As soon as the shuttle locked and prepared for take off, he booted up comms to Saturn.
"Saturn, come in. This is Dynos. They cant be reasoned with, the situation has escalated too far. Send in the Sub-Keter Mothership. I repeat send in Sub-Keter Mothership"
end of transmission
YOU ARE READING
Journey: 1
Science FictionWe've all heard about the first space race to the moon between America and Russia...then came the Billionaire boys space race to Mars and convenient space tourism. A lot has been happening since the very first Mars landing...both science and humanit...
