Alyssa Redd's Arc

Chapter 10 of 15

The relay held for another minute after Alyssa gave the word. Then the blue light on Chen's panel doubled. A new voice cut in over the Truth Movement's line — older, tired, female. "Alyssa. Don't move. I'm patching in from a safehouse. My name is Selene Aris. I built the ships that took your family." Alyssa's hand went flat on the pedestal. Marla stepped closer. On the shared screen a second window opened. A woman in a lab coat, gray hair pulled back, glasses catching a lamp behind her. She looked straight into the lens like she had rehearsed this for months. "I designed the transit for travel," Aris said. "Someone rewrote the specs. They used it to move people. Your grandmother. Your mother. You were supposed to be next." "Why me," Alyssa said. "Because of what's in you." Aris looked off camera, then back. "The colony was seeded from a narrow pool. Your bloodline wasn't in it. You carry Earth markers they can't fake or grow. As long as you're breathing, their story that Earth is empty falls apart. That's why the ship is coming." A third window opened without asking. A younger woman, dark ponytail, thinner coat. "Elara Voss," she said. "I helped build Shrumella. I found the memo. Repopulation was crossed out. Preservation stock was written in. The colony was never meant to replace Earth. It was meant to hold what they took from it." "Hold," Alyssa said. "Like a vault," Voss said. "There is a real one. Stone walls. Under the civic district. That's where the defectors went. That's where your mother is." Marla made a small sound. Alyssa did not look at her. A fourth window. White hair, black uniform, blue seams. He did not introduce himself. He did not need to. Marla whispered the name anyway. Director Caelum Orr. "I signed the order," Orr said. "Forty years ago. The people who used the ships are dead. I am not. I am giving you the list." A file dropped into the relay. Names. Dates. Signatures next to Alyssa's family name. "Why now," Alyssa said. "Because you're still alive," Orr said. "And they sent a ship. I did not authorize it." The Truth Movement's clipped voice came back on. "We have the file. We have the scientists. We have you on camera. We push all of it in ten minutes." Alyssa looked at the pedestal. At Marla. At the frozen transfer log with her family's name still stamped sealed. "Push it," she said. Chen's voice broke through, tight. "Alyssa. The Bureau ship just entered atmosphere. Six minutes out. Commander Rhyne on the hail. He's not answering Orr." Orr's face did not move. "Then he isn't mine anymore." Alyssa stepped back from the pedestal. The bunker felt smaller. "Marla," she said. "Run."