“That’s all we can do for him right now,” the doctor said.
They continued to speak with each other in low tones, the doctor showing Barrett a tablet and going over some figures.
Carmen’s stomach grumbled. She realized she hadn’t eaten since breakfast and doubted she would be allowed to leave anytime soon. Sipped the last of her water. Escaping to return to the sphere wasn’t an option. There were too many spacemen in the next tent and others lingered in the corridor leading to the Bumbleberry restaurant.
Then Peter’s eyes were open and he was staring at her. Carmen moved to take his hand.
His voice was a halting whisper but she could read his lips. “I was dead.”
“You’re alive. You’re okay. These men are with the government. They saved your life.”
“You don’t understand. I died. I was in hell. You were there too. Your mom…she…”
“We don’t know what’s happened to my mom.”
“I hurt her. But then I saw what she saw. I saw what lies below. The fires. A burning place. And your mother? She’s Him. The Devil. Why was I there?”
“What does that mean? What did you see?”
He was crying. “She’s in the dark place. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
She forced herself to remain calm as she listened to him. “What happened was an accident. Our minds were taken someplace. It happened to me too and to Jenna. You’re going to be okay. Don’t worry about what you did. Try to forget it. But Peter, where is she? Where did my mom go after you attacked the robot that last time?”
“Forgive me. Oh God, forgive me.”
“He does. Don’t worry, Peter. He does and He will.”
She could only hope it was the right thing to say. Peter was a creep but she didn’t like to see him hurting. And maybe if he calmed down enough he might pull himself together and answer her questions. Where else had he gone? Was her mom still alive? Jenna might never be disconnected from the sphere if she couldn’t get him to open up.
Agent Barrett and the doctor finished their conversation. The agent motioned for her to join him at her bed. She went to sit.
“Let’s try to unravel what happened to you. Your mother contacted you?”
“I don’t know. It started with emails. Then a voice which sounded like her called me using her old phone. Jenna was contacted too. The last message told us to meet here.”
“Why did you come if you thought it wasn’t real?”
Carmen was tired but she felt her pent-up frustration simmer. She had been stonewalled by NASA regarding any news of her mother’s fate, and now this cop was acting surprised that Carmen would jump at a sliver of a chance that her mother was still alive?
“She knew things about our childhood that aren’t common knowledge, including this location. So we came. We were ambushed by a robot which stepped out of the sphere. I don’t remember anything after that.”
“Surely you can recall something. You were taken into the sphere. What happened there?”
“It was like a light switch in my head turning off.”
“What can you tell me about this robot?”
“Thin body, like a stick figure, but tall. Its head was like a monitor with lights inside it.”
“Did it say anything?”
“If it did, I didn’t hear it. I’m hard of hearing.”
“Yes, your father mentioned that.”
She bristled at the thought of the agent having investigated her and interrogating her dad, even if it was through a closed door. With the space suit she couldn’t see his expression. But he was studying her.
“Let’s say you can’t remember,” he continued. “But it’s important that you try. Because we believe your mother, or someone pretending to be her, has come a very long distance to be here. And besides visiting her two daughters, we don’t know why.”
She shrugged. How much of her memory of what had happened on board the spaceship was real? All of it, she feared. She could only wonder if Peter had experienced the same thing and why his mind had slipped. Apparently he had seen more after killing the mom-creature.
A fire. A burning place.
But relating the contents of the conversation with her mom might make Agent Barrett suspicious or disbelieve everything. She had to be careful.
“Your mother didn’t just send messages to you and your sister. She also contacted us two months ago. The message was brief. ‘I’m coming home.’ The transmission came via the mission radio frequency. But then a few days later the message appeared on NASA’s private servers. Everyone in the organization got an email or instant message. We thought this was a matter of the server being hacked. Seeing the message signed as Sylvia Vincent and coming from her user login caused a stir, especially since she’s been dead for two years.”
Carmen’s chest grew tight. “What happened to her?”
“I know you’ve been kept in the dark. We’ve had no choice. There’s some things I still can’t tell you.”
“Then start with the things that you can.”
“The Mars Discovery orbital, all planetary assets including the base, and the Constellation Three were all lost within seconds of each other. What everyone calls the Big Wipe hit us fifteen minutes and forty seconds later. Our astronauts in the space habs in Earth orbit, the moon base, and the
