Hide And Seek

0300

Terra’s mind awakens slowly, still wading in from the shores of her vivid dream that ended just moments before. She turns to her side allowing the clock by her bed to illuminate her tired face. 3:33. Figures. She gazes out of her window at the vast sky blanketed with stars home to systems she hopes to visit one day. As her gaze drifts down towards the rocky Martian surface, she’s reminded of the stark reality of her world. One in which her kind clings to the hope that they will eventually acclimate to their new alien home. 200 years down, a trillion more to go, she thinks as she begins to drift off to sleep, not knowing it would be her last slumber on humanities planetary host.

A loud ringing wakes her again, this time sending her bolt upright in bed. She reaches for her phone without looking as it hovers over its charging station. “ALERT LEVEL 3: REPORT TO TERMINAL ZERO IMMEDIATLEY.” Without hesitating she swings her legs out of bed and presses a button on the wall above her.

“CATO, get us a shuttle and meet me at the station. We’re going up to headquarters.”

0400

Terra discreetly takes her hand out from her jacket pocket and wipes her clammy palm on the back of her pants, telling herself that the elevator is just a little warm, that’s all. She swiftly tears off her jacket and ties it around her waist.

“If I knew I was going to make you this nervous I would have worn my nice screensaver.” Even for an AI droid, CATO always had a knack for humor and while Terra insisted that she couldn’t stand it, deep down she knew it was the only reason she was still alive.

“I’m fine, this elevator’s just a little warm, that’s all. And shouldn’t you be debriefing me anyways?” As they ascend the 112 stories of the ship leading to the headquarters of the Mars Intelligence Unit, circular windows flying by offer a passing glimpse of the eternal night sky that lay just outside.

“Chief Vic was very clear in her instructions to remain reticent. I’m in the dark same as you.” CATO pivots his boxy metal frame towards Terra and displays her vitals on his front screen. “I think you should bundle up. You’re as cold as ice.” She sighs loudly and puts her jacket back on.

“God, you sound like Rick.” The sound of a mechanical chuckle emanates from CATO’s speaker.

“Just try to play nice.” A soft automated voice fills the capsule.

“Welcome to Terminal Zero.”

0500

As the elevator door disappears into the floor, Terra sees Chief Vic sitting at the end of a long conference table. Glowing red underneath, the impressive surface displays several digital documents on its large screen.

“Agent Asteri. You made good time. Please, have a seat.” The Chief motions towards one of the myriads of hovering chairs orbiting the perimeter of the table. “CATO, good to see you.” He flashes his screen in response. “Well now that you’re both here I won’t waste any more time.” Vic stands and turns off the lights. An animation begins to play out on the table.

“One hour ago, a bomb was detonated at Brando Mining’s Central facility in the southern hemisphere, thankfully leaving no causalities and only one security guard injured. We believe the bomber is an employee of the company. A heat signature was detected leaving the bomb zone in the opposite direction of evacuation efforts and M.I.U. reported a stolen craft minutes later.” As the animation plays, Terra wipes her hands on her pants discreetly under the table.

“Chief no offense, but it's five in the morning, we have zero deaths from a crash that happened in the middle of nowhere, and an identified craft leaving the atmosphere that M.I.U. could track down in their sleep.” CATO tries and fails to get Terra’s attention by flashing his screen from across the room. “Why are we here?” The chief lets out a long exhale and erases everything on the table with a wave of her hand. Typing in something on the screen, she summons another document.

“This is why I’ve called the two of you here.” Before them a peculiar message fills the screen, a paragraph of letters in cut out shapes of various color, size, and typography. “The timing of the detonation leaves much to be desired. 3:33 AM to be exact.”

Deep inside Terra, something stirs. She pushes it back down.

“If this was truly a terrorist attack and the suspect knew the operating hours, why did he strike when he knew no one would be working? This message was sent directly to M.I.U. minutes before the explosion. We believe this was a warning, and the real attack might be underway.” The chief points to the screen. “Tell me what this means.” Standing, Terra takes the message fully into her view.

"Would you like to play with me, a stellar game of hide and seek?

Home is where the heart weighs more, twelve pirouettes on God’s dance floor.

Drink her tears and burn her flesh, a miracle pillaged ‘til nothings left.

Baby Blue’s cradle is about to fly, Leave her embrace and wait to die.

Who am I?"

The room fills with profound stillness before Terra slowly sits back down.

“A riddle?” Terra asks, half to the chief and half to herself.

“I have brought you in here today because of your unique strengths and weaknesses–”

“Weaknesses like a crippling fear of space?” Terra interrupts. The chief smiles.

“You are one of the brightest minds our colony has seen, and I am confident that a simple riddle will not be a challenge for you. I am giving the two of you three days to decipher the message and–”

“Earth.” Vic looks up at Terra who unzips her jacket and places it on the chair beside her.

“Excuse me?”

“The answer to the riddle. It's Earth. ‘Home is where the heart weighs more.’ Earth’s gravity is sixty percent greater. ‘Twelve pirouettes’ as in twelve laps around the sun. 'Baby Blue?' Pretty sure even CATO could’ve figured this one out.” CATO rolls toward her.

“You do know I am a computer, right?”

“Technically a human context of allegory and imagery is still necessary to–”

“Agent Asteri, why would a terrorist blow up a mine and then send us a riddle about Earth?” She thinks for a moment, glancing at CATO. A small bead of sweat succumbs to the ships artificial gravity and rolls down her temple.

“Because that’s his next target. He clearly doesn’t care about harming anyone and his tone in the riddle indicates he has some twisted bone to pick with Earth, not us. I would advise that M.I.U. let him carry out whatever nonsensical plan he has on Earth and then succumb to the elements. He’s clearly not in the right state of mind to know its supercell season and it’s not worth the resources to chase him right off the cliff, metaphorically speaking. In the meantime, we suspend all mining operations and tighten security down on the colony.”

Chief Vic smiles and nods, satisfied with the story described to her. Something in her smile makes the hairs on Terra’s neck stand up.

“I want a full and thorough investigation done on the mine and I want to know exactly how he did it. I’m assigning you and CATO as the leads.” For the first time since she woke up that morning, Terra’s hands stop shaking.

“Yes Chief.”

The room goes pitch black and CATO rolls to her side, illuminating a path to the elevator.

“You are dismissed.”

0600

Terra pushes through the burn in her legs with CATO matching her speed as they race down the corridor to their shuttle.

“You want to tell me what’s going on, seeing as that story you gave the chief about that guy was a load of crap.”

“Hey, language.” As they enter the cabin, the ship comes to life. Terra goes straight to the navigation system and ducts underneath as if performing surgery on a Chevy. “Computer, chart a course for Earth.” CATO rolls towards her as a soft female voice retorts.

“I’m sorry, navigation to Earth is currently restricted.”

“You knew that wasn’t going to work.” She pulls a microchip out of the bottom of the desk and tosses it to the side.

“Had to give it a try. Do you have it?”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on, Terra.” She sighs and sits up to face CATO.

“It’s them. I know it is.”

“Terra they’re conspiracy theorists. They’re considered clinically insane by people down on the colony. You really want to risk your job, and quite literally everything, because one of them went crazy enough to blow something up?” She closes her eyes, performing a momentary meditation.

“And what if they’re right?” CATO doesn’t respond. “What if this whole time, we’ve been lied to about what really happened on Earth. The so called ‘Solar Flare’ incident, the freak weather that came after? We’ve been tracking these guys for years CATO I mean what if... what if we actually did this? I know you said before you don’t think there’s any way that humans could possibly produce anything catastrophic enough to ruin an entire planet but what if this guy is on to something? That riddle was about Earth, yes, but the answer to it was us. He wants us to come find him, don’t you see?” She places her hands on either side of his screen and pulls him close.

“I know you’re at least curious. If I’m wrong, we come back, I turn in my badge, and we start looking for jobs at the station. If I’m right, then that means our species ruined the one perfect home that life has ever had, and we brought the same problems here with us. Now you can choose to stay if you want to. You are my best friend, and I don’t want to do this without you, but I respect your decision either way.” For a moment, CATO pulls back seeming to stare at her with eyes that are not there. He turns, folds out one of his robotic “arms” and rolls towards the storage locker in the back of the shuttle. On his way back to her, Terra smiles when she sees what is hanging off his arm.

“Where you go, I go.” She takes the delicate piece of metal from him and holds it in her hands. It has rusted even more than the last time she saw it but still looks just as beautiful as when her father first gave it to her. Tracing her initials on the front of the silver heart shaped locket, she delicately opens it. A small blue microchip sits within the heart and she takes it and dives back underneath the desk.

“Fingers crossed.” Several moments go by before the computers soft female voice speaks again.

“Charting course to Earth, duration approximately three days, sixteen hours, forty-seven minuets.” Terra practically leaps up from the ground and straps herself into the captain’s chair. CATO rolls next to her and locks himself into place.

“Is this a bad time to tell you I get really bad space sickness?” Terra laughs for what feels like the first time in her life as she places the locket around her neck. A real time projection of earth appears in front of them as if they are looking through a large telescope and the computer speaks again.

“Please chose a landing point.” Terra twirls the globe with her finger, the surface littered with massive moving weather systems.

“How do we know we’ll find him?”

She looks at CATO and then back at the abandoned world.

“We’ll find him.”

Taking manual control of the ship, she adjusts their trajectory and aims for the eye of the storm.