February 11, 2559 C.E.

Tethys to Mars - Edith

The next day all four members of the ship went their separate ways. Tim sat in a room designed to prevent damage from assorted items breaking though the wall. It was a firing range, however the walls the impervious to manly things. Tim was in the room alone under bright lights. He was so angry with his memories. He remembered them all now. Terra Firma had imprisoned his family, and him, after what happened. He even killed her own mother. The frustration welled within him threatening to explode.

He was going to master what he never could before. However, his emotions had control. Every time he could conjure the same fire, he lost control of it. He stood there, staring at his own hand. To think his own actions caused these scars.

He channeled his own anger into his had he visualized a bit of fire in his hand and he could feel the energies swirling around him. They all compressed down to his palm. The fire generated in his palm. He sat down on the floor calmly. He held it close to his chest and tried to visualize it dissipating. He closed his eyes and sat. The idea of the training was to see the fire separating in all directions and the energy dissipating. He saw in his mind one pathway for the energy that was clearer than the rest. He was losing control. The fire was going to fly off in that direction and it was right toward his chest. He quickly dodged out of the way as the fire released and flung past him and hit the wall.

Tim sat calmly. He was beginning to see the energy. He started concentrating around him. He pushed his bubble of awareness out further and further. Inside the spaceship he was in he found three other people. He found that he could feel their minds by reading the energy circling around them. One soul was depression, the soul just found out that he had a much darker past then imagined. Another soul was sadness, it was empathy for those around her. The last soul on board was purpose and hope that the strife that embroiled humanity would now be ending. As he stretched his mind and consciousness out further, he stretched past the ship into space. He met with void.

He was curious if he could reach out to another populated planet. “Edith, what is our current location?”

“Traveling from Tethys to Mars, currently in the orbital disk of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.”

Tim sighed, “there is no hope of another soul nearby.” He tried anyway he reached out in a 360-degree bubble with his mind. He sensed emptiness and void. Then, behind his ship he found a feeling, a feeling of curiosity. It astounded him so much he came out of his concentration in shock.

“Mr. Mustang. Edith, please contact Mr. Mustang.” Suddenly, the line clicked open.

“Yes Tim? What do you need?”

“Can you meet me in the navigational room. I found something interesting.”

“Of course.”

Two minutes later they were in a large room with a table that had a holographic projection of their ship and all the objects around them. As Edith said they were within the asteroid field with Mars ahead of them and Jupiter behind. Tim pointed to an empty space behind them, the path they just came down. “There is another ship, or being, or something right here.” As he placed his finger inside the map, a set of coordinates popped up when he said the world ‘here.’

“Edith, I need a direct scan of that point at once.” Mr. Mustang commanded.

They both saw a sensor wave project from their ship it was visible on the map as it moved. When it reached that point, there was a slight reflection, but nothing large enough to show a ship, it could have even just been a tiny rock. Edith reported results, “False reading, sensors report no object.”

“Can you give me a visual?” wall lit of with a camera pointed outside the ship. The wall showed an Asteroid field with Jupiter looming in the background. “There doesn’t appear to be anything here.”

Tim briefly explained to Mr. Mustang what he sensed and how he sensed it.

“Edith, I need a P.A. broadcast.” The line clicked open, “Alestra, Samuel, can you both please come to the navigation room at once.”

Alestra arrived first. She was in a nightgown and bleary eyed. She had not slept well the night before. “What’s up?”

Then Sam arrived. If Alestra had not slept well. Sam had not slept at all. His eyes were red. He was wearing only boxers and really, did not care.

Jaedon was the one to explain. “Tim says he found an object trailing us in the asteroid field. I have no scientific proof it exists, a broad-spectrum sensor analysis proved negative, however I do trust him. The visual of where the object should be being on that wall.” He pointed to the wall with the images of the asteroid field. “Tim please explain further.”

Tim continued the explanation. “I suspect there is another spaceship behind us with a single soul on board. Each one of us projects an aura, an energy. I sense five, not four, nearby. I know it is hard to believe.”

Alestra interrupted, “no, it isn’t. I’ve seen crazier things. Keep going.”

“I was practicing sensing energy and controlling it. I sensed each one of you,” he pointed to each in turn as he identified them, “depression, empathy, and hope. However, I then sensed one more feeling. Curiosity. It did not come from inside this ship, but there is no way, with my skill it reached outside the asteroid field. I think it is right there. He again pointed to the point on the map he indicated before.” The coordinate point blinked.

“And there is one other thing. It is merely a hunch, but I don’t think it’s human.”