Alyssa Redd's Arc

Chapter 9 of 15

The pink light on Chen's screen brightened, then split into a second window. A woman's face filled it. Sasha B. Bureau agent, still wearing the badge, black hair pulled tight, one earring catching the alley light behind Chen. Nine days of blackout showed in the shadow under her eyes. "Alyssa," Sasha said. Flat. "You're alive." "I'm on Earth," Alyssa said. "I'm standing where my family stood." Sasha didn't blink. "Say that again. Slow." Alyssa said it slow. Marla kept hold of her hand. The brass cylinder on the pedestal still glowed faint behind them, the recording spent but warm. "I have proof," Alyssa said. "Transport records. Family unit. Earth to Shrumella. Sealed forty years. My grandmother's voice on top of it." Sasha's jaw moved once. "Send it. Now. While the relay holds." Chen crouched by the case in the alley. He tapped the panel. Indicator lights ran red, yellow, green. "Channel's clean for maybe six minutes," he said. "After that they trace it to me." Alyssa fed the crystal reader into the relay port the Hollow Man opened for her. The classified transfer log lifted onto the shared screen — CLASSIFIED, SEALED, NO CONSENT stamped across her family name. Under it, the old survivor's testimony began to play in a thin, steady voice: an elderly woman describing the night the ships came, the count of families taken, the doors sealed behind them on Shrumella. Sasha listened without moving. When it ended she said, "That's enough to bury them." Then her eyes cut sideways, off camera. Her hand went to her hip. Not to the badge. "Chen," she said. "Someone's on your relay." Chen looked down. A sixth light had come on that Alyssa hadn't seen him touch. Blue. Steady. "That's not mine," he said. A new voice came through — not Sasha, not Chen. Young. Clipped. Behind it, other people breathing in a small room. "We have you," the voice said. "We're the ones who saved your fourteen seconds. There are twelve of us. We made three copies. We've been looking for the rest." Alyssa saw the room in her head before she asked. "Where are you broadcasting from?" "Civic screen substation," the voice said. "We can push what you just sent to every screen still lit on Shrumella. Tonight." Sasha's face went hard. "Alyssa. Listen." "I'm listening." "The blackout wasn't the Bureau covering the leak," Sasha said. "It was cover for a launch. They moved a ship four days ago. Coordinates match yours." Marla's hand tightened. "They're coming to Earth," Sasha said. "For you. They'll be there inside a day." The relay lights held steady. Chen stared up into the camera. The Truth Movement waited on the open line. The brass cylinder pulsed once behind Alyssa like it had heard. Alyssa let go of Marla's hand. She looked at the transfer log frozen on the screen — her family's name, sealed, stamped, true. "Push it," she said. "Tonight. All of it."