City-Ship Ascension

Geostationary orbit

Michael woke up in a strange place and for a moment, he was not quite sure where he was. His eyes saw an endless black expanse with thousands of small points of light. In the next second, a small movement he made turned him a few degrees and the Earth majestically appeared before him.

“Max?”

“Good morning Michael, how are you feeling?”

“Surprisingly rested, even if I can’t stop thinking about dad… how are Elizabeth and Alice?”

“Alice is stable and the rebuild of her limbs is going as scheduled; Elizabeth should regain consciousness in about an hour.”

“Very good, I better hurry up, restore the gravity.”

He gently floated towards the floor and quickly went to Elizabeth’s and his apartment. He was still dressed in the clothes he wore yesterday; there was a five-o'clock shadow on his face, and he could sense a faint smell of old sweat. After a quick shower and a shave, he brewed himself a cup of coffee and made some quick toast. He wanted to be at the hospital when she woke up.

All the others came a few minutes after he was already there.

“Michael… why don’t you enter alone, it is your face she will want to see the most,” Anna said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I know she’s fine, and she’s not going anywhere.”

The others expressed the same sentiment and that is how he found himself alone with her in the room when Elizabeth’s eyes started to open. The medical nanites did an amazing job, no trace of her injuries were visible, but he had seen how bad she looked after the missile detonated. But some injuries were far deeper than those seen on the surface, and those wounds of the soul were hardest to heal.

“Good morning beautiful,” he said gently when she saw him and touched her lips with his.

“Michael… what happened?” Those were the first words she said after kissing him.

He held nothing back and told her every detail. From the moment they were attacked to his father saving her life… and his death.

She cried then; in previous months Robert Freeman and she had grown close. She told him how his father had talked to her recently, asking her when could he expect grandchildren that he wanted so much. They stayed there for more than an hour, holding each other before others came in.

***

City-Ship Ascension

Upper Landing Bay

More than two thousand people gathered for the funeral, to say a final farewell to a man who had changed so many lives.

The entire team, except for Alice, stood close to Michael; Anna and Elizabeth together with Jack, Dr. Ross, Dave, and Bob with his family. Emma was holding young Zizi with Tyron standing behind them. All of the ISS astronauts were among those present, with solemn expressions on their faces.

Michael stood before them all, facing the crowd.

“My father was a man of many talents, but above all, he was a man of honor and that was one of the first lessons I remember he taught me. After my mother died, he never remarried, always telling me that there could be no one who could replace her. So instead, he dedicated his life to science and helping others better their lives.

I wish I had more time with him, being here in space and pushing the boundaries… those were the things that made him happy. I will never stop missing him, and he will forever live in my heart and in the hearts of those he touched.

Many of you came to me in the past few days, telling me how much he helped you and how much he influenced your life and those of your children; I know that he would be glad that you thought so.

He will continue his voyage of discovery now, finding all those secrets behind the veil that we pass through after we transition from this world. I hope that he is with my mother now, and my grandparents… I hope he is happy.”

Michael signaled to Max, and a polished metal coffin lifted from the floor, slowly floating upwards until it passed through the energy screen and then accelerated towards the Sun. It was maybe not the most original funeral, but they all agreed that it was the best possible in their situation and was somehow appropriate and dignified. There was no place for cemeteries in the ship, and returning him back to Earth did not seem right.

He watched as the coffin grew smaller the farther it traveled from the City-ship until it completely disappeared in the distance.

“Bye Dad,” Michael whispered, and closed his eyes.

***

The next few days were hard on Michael; he grew dark and morose and it was very hard for him to smile at simple things. The rage inside him was simmering, waiting to explode. His father’s killers were still out there, free and alive; and that thought ate at him constantly.

He was going over the files Ares had found in his search for those that fired the missile, when Max said, “Michael, we just got a message on that number that was reserved for President Garner.”

“Did he wake up? The last thing we heard about him was that he is still in a coma.”

“The message was not from him, it’s from Martin, the secret service agent that was part of his security detail. It’s very short, only a set of coordinates, and that he wanted to be picked up ASAP.”

“Do you think it’s legit?”

“Even if it isn’t, we should still check it out. With enough precautions, we should be safe.”

Michael thought for a moment, considering all the possible reasons for Martin to contact them. “All right, send one transporter, an empty one, in case it is another trap. And scan him thoroughly; I don’t want this to be a Trojan horse situation.”

“I can send the one we have parked at the missile silo for emergencies; it can be at his coordinates in twenty minutes,” The AI replied.

Less than an hour later, Tyron, Pete, and Al escorted agent Martin to Michael’s office. That was a new development; Max, Elizabeth, and the others did not think the head of the Solarian Union should meet people in a conference room, so they built him an office. Nothing ostentatious or opulent, but at least it looked official.

“Mr. Freeman, thank you for your help; if you didn’t pick me up, I would be in jail by now… or worse.” The man said, shaking Michael’s hand.

“Martin, I’m sorry I don’t know your last name, what happened?”

“Fox, Sir, but Martin is fine. Let me start from the beginning,” he said as he sat down in the chair across Michael’s desk.

“Ever since your last conversation with President Garner at the ranch, things were slowly getting worse… now I know why… I wish I knew sooner.” Martin paused and took a deep breath. “It first began with a few people from the Secret Service giving their resignations for various reasons, and after that most of the military officials’ President Garner trusted, did the same. As well as all the people I counted on within the service, they were reassigned to out-of-the-way positions. Duncan and me, you met him at the ranch, were the only ones left close to the President, and we were getting paranoid. It went to such an extent that the President even ordered us to bug his office, both video, and audio. The thinking at the time was that if we could get some proof of those who originally placed those listening devices in his office, we would at least have some hard evidence in our hands. Well… the cameras did record something, just not what we planned.”

Martin sighed deeply and poured himself a glass of water from the table.

“When President Garner had his stroke, he was in the Oval Office with Vice President Cain; they were in a private meeting that lasted for a while. I was stationed at the door of it, so when the Vice President called for help, I was among the first to get inside. Something did not seem right about the whole scene, so while the medics were giving first aid to the President, I took the recording device we planted and slipped it into my pocket. Good thing I did, for that was the last time I was allowed inside the White House.”

Agent Martin took a drink from the glass he was holding in his hands and looked at Michael.

“Sir, you have no idea how things are back home, even the press kept quiet about the things that happened. It all started that night, and I can only call it a silent coup. It was like one of those purges we read about in history books, like when Josef Stalin eliminated those that were against him. Everybody who was loyal to President Garner was replaced by the next morning. A few who were stubborn about it and who threatened to go to the media had car accidents or heart failures and were forever silenced. Duncan and I were detained within the Secret Service without any reason and remained there all this time. I had that recording with me but there was no way for me to play it, our phones and laptops were the first things they confiscated. Finally, I managed to get them to let me go to my house, so I could get a new set of clothes. Our jailers were members of the Secret Service, people who were once my colleagues. I had an escort with me, a junior agent who took me to my house. Once there, I managed to take my tablet to the bathroom without being seen, and I played a few minutes of the recording.”

He was looking behind Michael as if he were lost in the memory of it.

“It was enough for me to realize what was going on; I felt like I was holding a live nuke in my hand. So I knocked out the agent and sent you a message to the number President Garner had me memorize, hoping you could help. Mr. Freeman… there was no one else I could turn to.”

Martin pulled from his pocket a small memory card and gave it to Michael.

He looked at it as it was laying in the palm of his hand, such a small thing, yet, he sensed that it had answers to some of the questions bothering him.

There was a card reader embedded in the desk surface and Michael slipped the card inside. The entire wall before him was a holo-screen, it lit up immediately showing a scene from the Oval Office. Nothing was happening yet, so Michael fast-forwarded it to the place where Vice President Cain entered.

***

The White House, Oval Office

(Video file)

“Craig, Michael Freeman needs to be taken out, he has become this country’s worst enemy,” Philip Cain said to the President, soon after entering the Oval Office.

“Not this again, Philip, I thought we had this conversation already,” President Garner said resignedly.

“You have been protecting him from the beginning but that has to stop immediately, don’t you see that he is costing us billions in revenue.”

The President looked at the man and shook his head, “Philip, I know that pharmaceutical companies are breathing down your neck, but can’t you see how much good he's doing. Give him some slack, he’s doing what we don’t have the balls to do, taking out terrorist organizations without wasting years in empty talk, and giving medicines to those who need them. How can you be against that?”

“But can’t you see that he is undermining our very way of life; in today’s world everything is interconnected and he is throwing a wrench into that big machine. He is like a mad dog without a leash; it is only a matter of time before he turns on us.”

They were at it for a few more minutes until it seemed as if the Vice President conceded.

“Fine Craig… maybe you’re right.” He got up from the chair and went to the liquor cabinet, pouring them both a glass of whiskey.

“Here’s to your health, I know when I’m beaten,” he said and gave a glass to the President.

They sat in the comfortable chairs and slowly sipped their drinks until the Vice President glanced at his watch and said. “You should be feeling the effects by now.”

He looked at the President who was sitting in the same position, not moving a muscle.

“In case you’re wondering, it’s a special concoction that induces paralysis first, and some twenty minutes later, a coma. I’m not an expert on these things but as I understand it, some chemicals will build toxic deposits in your brain, stopping signals between lobes or something. I’m sorry Craig, it had to come to this, but you were turning into a royal pain in the ass.”

Philip Cain stood up from the chair and took the President’s glass, then he went to the concealed sink and washed it carefully before pouring another shot of whiskey into it.

“We shouldn’t leave any evidence… that would be a monumental mistake.” He smiled at his own humor and returned to his chair, after making sure the President’s fingerprints were on the glass.

“You know, I rarely have an opportunity to be totally honest, without having to kill a person to whom I revealed my secret afterward. I guess this counts, because very soon you will lose consciousness and will never wake up again. Besides, we are in the most secure office in the world, funny how all that security didn’t help you one bit.

You see Craig, I am the head of the biggest and oldest criminal organization in the world,” he said proudly.

“It’s called the ‘High Council’ and I inherited that position from my father. In fact, a long line of Cains succeeded one after another for hundreds of years. It is true, I have a basement full of old records at the family house, and they go all the way back even before America was settled. One of the sacred family duties is to keep all those records up to date, for future generations.”

He took a sip of his whiskey.

“Oh, Craig, if you only knew how long my reach is, how great is my power. We control terrorist organizations, drug cartels; hell, we are even making a killing each year in the slave trade. Funny fact, it was one of my ancestors who brought the first slaves to this continent, and if we had simply killed Lincoln a bit sooner, this country would have had a very different history.”

He came closer to the President and looked in his eyes.

“In any case, that’s not your concern anymore; I will rule this country from now on, and who knows, in time, maybe even the whole world.”

He looked at his wristwatch and nodded to himself. “Any last words? No… Okay. Rest assured that I will kill Michael Freeman as soon as possible… goodbye Craig… pleasant dreams.”

Philip Cain waited a few minutes more until he was sure that the chemical cocktail did its work; then he pushed President Garner off the chair, and rushed towards the Oval Office door and started calling for help.

***

Michael stopped the recording, and the image froze, still showing the fallen body of President Craig Garner. If Philip Cain could see the looks in the eyes of those present in Michael’s office, it would be the stuff his nightmares were made of.

He took a few deep breaths, and got hold of his raging emotions; only with the utmost force of his will, he managed to relax his muscles that had gone tense in the middle of the video.

“So… now we know. It was him all along… son of a bitch.”

Agent Martin placed the empty glass on the table, his hands shaking. “Is there something you can do to help?”

Michael's smile didn’t have a trace of humor in it, in fact, it looked more like a grimace.

“Oh, there is plenty we can do; I’m trying to decide how I should kill him… a simple bullet to the head feels way too easy.”

The agent paled after hearing those words. “Sir, you do realize he is the acting President of the United States of America.”

Michael lifted his gaze and locked it with the agent’s eyes. “He won’t be for long, Martin… not for long at all.”

“Max, is there something we can do for President Garner?”

The AI didn’t show his hologram; they didn’t forget the fact that the agent was still working for, what was now, a different country.

“The security around him is extreme and the entire hospital wing he is on is isolated from the rest of the world. Using camouflage won’t work, there are motion sensors, pressure pads, and laser grids everywhere. However, I have an idea I have been working on for some time; micro drones with the size and appearance of regular mosquitoes. If I can get a few of them through that security, they could deliver small payloads of medical nanites. It’s going to be significantly slower than using an AutoDoc, but at least there is a chance we could save him.”

Agent Martin said, “If he wakes up too soon, Cain’s people are going to kill him.”

“We’re going to take care of the security for you,” Michael replied. “But I have a job for you to do. Max will help you gather all those you think are still loyal to President Garner; he will deal with all authorization and passes. When the time comes, your job will be to get to President Garner and to keep him safe. And since you will be among the first to see him when he awakes, I want you to deliver a message to him; tell him…to clean his own house.”

Agent Martin nodded. “I can do that. But… Philip Cain… what are you planning to do to him?

Michael slowly shook his head, “don’t worry yourself about it, Martin; as far as the world is concerned, Philip Cain will soon be out of the picture.”