I listened to his words, the ones addressed to me.
“We are destined for great things, and the Lewises are no longer limited to the foolish maneuvering of Earth. Corporate dominance was the downfall of humanity. The moment I met the Velibar, everything changed.”
I paused it. He was standing facing Obelisk’s viewscreen, and a computer monitor was flashing behind him. There was something written on it.
My heart raced as I started the clip again.
I zoomed and let the video play out at regular speed, hearing his words but reading a different set. “They demanded we give up our world, and that fell upon my shoulders. The Velibar assure me Earth will continue to exist, with them in charge. Don’t worry, Arlo. I wouldn’t sacrifice our entire species, just our leaders. They were the necessary concession. The people will be salvaged.”
He was trying to get my attention. He used my name. The information on the screen was blurry, but I thought I saw coordinates, as well as a series of words. They were illegible.
My gaze lingered on his computer monitor. I felt his eyes boring into me when I zoomed out.
I let the feed continue, catching another interesting part. “I won’t be sticking around. Earth is but a distant memory. My family and I will be moving on.” He pointed to his side. The movement was barely noticeable. He was indicating the screen behind him. My family and I will be moving on.
“What’s going on?” Jade’s voice startled me, and I flinched.
“Jade, did you see that?” I replayed it, and craned my neck to watch her reaction.
“See what?”
I took her through the entire clip. “Could be nothing. Are you able to optimize this footage? It’s too blurry from this angle.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. Can you transfer it to my dash?” she asked.
I confirmed our course was set and walked over to her chair with her, easing into Luther’s seat next door.
“All I have to do is centralize the focus on the screen, clear pixilation issues, and…” Already the message was clearer. “There you go.”
We watched the letters skip over the screen, but they weren’t even real words. “Damn it. I was certain this was a message from him.”
“Let’s try another tactic.” Jade’s curly brown hair was freshly washed, and I could smell her lavender soap. I tried not to stare at her. We’d been spending a lot of time together, but she hadn’t really expressed any interest in me beyond our roles on Pilgrim. I assumed she thought of us as friends, and so did I. If I ever made a move, I’d just be another schlub trying to get close. The last thing either of us needed was that distraction.
The information transposed from the screen on Obelisk’s bridge into another program. The same letters and numbers appeared in a document, and I instantly detected something odd about them.
“Why are those in a different font?” I asked.
“Good question,” Jade replied. “Let’s isolate the dissimilar letters.” She set to work, placing the darker and wider letters into a separate file. When she was done, I’d hoped we could read a secret message. The words didn’t make sense. They were random…
“Wait.” I tapped the desk with my finger. “They’re reversed. Can you rotate that?”
She did, and the message appeared like magic.
I read it out loud. “I am sorry. Arlo, forgive me. I had no choice. Do not trust…”
That was it. “Where’s the rest? Do not trust whom?” Jade asked.
We played the footage again, but Preston was blocking the screen at that part. “Are there additional angles? Can we read any more?”
Jade tried, but this was as far as we could get. “No chance. Arlo, do you know what this means?”
I stared at the footage of my grandfather, ignoring the bravado, and watched his face. “First, they’ll disable your ships. They’ll board them, boots on the ground, and they’ll gather you into a holding bay. You will lose all dignity. You’ll watch them torture your loved ones. You don’t understand their culture. I do. You may consider it barbaric, but it’s allowed them to dominate for millions of years.” He swallowed halfway through, and his left eye twitched.
“He didn’t want to cooperate. He’s working with them out of desperation!” I was so happy, I could have cried.
“But he’s still doing it,” Jade reminded me.
“Maybe there’s hope. He sent a message. He said my name!” I was ecstatic. I doubted my grandfather would have betrayed his own people. There was no possible way.
“How did he even know you’d be able to view it?” Jade asked.
“I…” And I understood what she was implying the second I said it. “He had a pre-recorded message to me. How did he know that I’d be at the invasion site?”
“You figure that out, you learn who it is you can’t trust.” Jade turned in her chair, and we faced one another.
“You think someone is working with the Velibar? From the inside?” The odds were good she was right.
“How else? Somebody told Preston that you’d be there. That you were in the great Space Race, heading for the finish line. Maybe that’s why he chose that moment to invade,” Jade said.
We watched the feed a few more times, me no longer loathing the man on the screen. One thing was for certain: the Velibar were being fed information from Earth.
But who was stupid enough to betray Earth?
EIGHT
Fifteen Years Ago
The trip from Proxima to Biks was a trying time in Preston Lewis’ life. Oleth was bringing Obelisk to their base colony. The world was one of a dozen outposts the Velibar leader claimed they occupied. Some had been taken by force, others with the acceptance of the local beings, and a few were barren wastelands, terraformed over centuries to be habitable.
As much as Preston had wanted to hate the Velibar, he and the crew
