Kato's War: Book Two of the Kato's War series Read online

  Kato’s War

  Copyright 2015, Andrew Broderick.

  All rights reserved.

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  Chapter 1

  All I remember is an explosion through time, being catapulted out into the stars and back again. I have no clue who I am.

  The middle-aged Japanese-American woman finished writing, lifted the pen from the paper, and looked around her. At the edges of the huge, neatly manicured, grassy rectangle in which she sat cross-legged, giant, unearthly spires twisted into the orange sky. A small sun shone weakly. The fabric of her long black and red dress flowed over her and down onto the grass. She turned to the gray-haired, darker-skinned man on her left. “You said you were my father?”

  He nodded solemnly. “Yes.”

  “And I am…?”

  “Zara Sasake-Robbins.”

  “What is this place?”

  “Mars.”

  Zara’s face screwed up from the effort of thinking, and then relaxed into forlornness. Her shoulders slumped, and her thin eyebrows furrowed. “But we were never supposed to…”

  “Ever see another living person?” he said.

  “Yes. I wasn’t sure which was worse: living forever with no other human company, or sleeping and never waking up again.” She looked up at her father with empty, questioning eyes. “This place… I don’t recognize or know a thing. Friends, green grass, and trees. They’re all gone. I can’t believe they’re all gone!” She sat on the grass, her head in her hands, shaking and sobbing violently.

  Her father knelt down beside her, and placed his right arm around her. “It’s all my fault,” he said, gently. “I went off on a foolhardy quest. It went wrong, and I only have myself to blame. You saved me.”

  She looked up. “I did?”

  He nodded. “Yes. You gave up your life on Earth, and everything you held dear. You’re my feisty, brave, smart, headstrong daughter. You fought impossible odds to come to my rescue deep in space. Then we slept in hibernation on board my spaceship. Two hundred-plus years passed, and somehow we’re back among mankind.”

  People strolled through the large, rectangular park; some with dogs. Others flew above it, taking advantage of the weak gravity by using human-powered flying machines. Many of the people close by had stopped to watch, but a handful of bodyguards in dark blue uniforms with holstered handguns, kept moving them on.

  A pretty, young, dark-skinned woman who was wearing a white medical lab coat had been keeping a discreet distance. The name embroidered on her coat was Karla Baracnik. She walked over and knelt down on Zara’s right. “Guys, I think that might be enough for today. We should go back to the hospital.” She produced a tissue, and Zara blew her nose and wiped her eyes. She stood up. The man kept his right arm around her shoulder, as they walked to the road that bordered the park. A large white van, with three rows of seats, awaited them. They climbed in, followed by the doctor. The van set off automatically on a two-kilometer trip through the dense, high-rise city of Marineris. Policemen, in three separate squad cars, escorted them.

  Once they were back at the rectangular, four-story hospital, Karla escorted them to their large, second floor suite, which overlooked a rectangular central courtyard. It was much like a luxury apartment on Earth, except that the gently-curving walls were all active displays. Once they were in the living room, which was bathed in a gentle undulating blue pattern, Karla turned to leave. Zara’s father touched her elbow to stop her. Karla turned around, and saw the pleading in the old man’s eyes. They watched Zara until she left the room. “It is Kato, right?” he said.

  Karla nodded, looking sad. “Yes. That is your name.”

  “What will happen to us?”

  “You’ll be Renewed,” Karla said. “That means that both your bodies and your minds will be restored to a youthful state.”

  “Oh. And after that?”

  “You’ll be released.”

  Kato paused, looking afraid. “But… we don’t know anybody and we don’t know anything about how society functions now! And the police…”

  “They’re not police, they’re bodyguards. You need them.”

  Chapter 2

  Zara, dressed in a pink robe, examined her face in the mirror of the pleasantly decorated recovery area. Her hair was still long and black, but it now had no hints of gray. The person looking back at her was no longer middle aged. She touched the corners of her eyes, not a line in sight. Her mouth, chin and neck had tight, supple skin. “Holy cow!” she said. “Better than the best beauty treatment ever!” Then doubt and fear crossed her face. She exited the recovery room, into the Renewal chamber.

  “Dr. Jitendra?” she said.

  The old Indian doctor smiled. “How are you doing, Zara?”

  “Physically, I’m great, but my damn memory… it’s so fuzzy.”

  The doctor sighed. “Ah, yes. Your mind is sharp, as far as comprehension and processing go, but the one thing we can’t do is restore memories. Your brain was like Swiss cheese from spending two hundred and forty seven years in suspended animation. The chamber you were in was very primitive, and the interstellar radiation…”

  Tears began to form in the corners of Zara’s eyes. “But… I’m missing a huge part of myself! I know my name, but that’s about it. I’m still pretty fuzzy on how we even got here.”

  Dr. Jitendra nodded. “I’ll arrange counseling sessions for you. This has to be very difficult.”

  “Damn right!”

  “If you go back out, I believe someone’s waiting for you.”

  Zara went back out to the medical recovery area, with its pastel hues. “Dad! Oh, my God! You look so… young!”

  “God, Zara, you have no idea! I’m fit, and sharp-minded.” Kato, still wearing a hospital gown, couldn’t take his eyes off his reflection. He had the faintest lines around his eyes, and a few gray hairs. “I didn’t want them to make us the same age, otherwise being father and daughter would just have been weird. So, I’m forty again, to your new age of twenty.” He smiled.

  “It’s all… overwhelming,” Zara said, running her fingers through her hair.

  “How much do you remember about the past?” Zara asked Kato, as they sat down to dinner on their apartment’s balcony, which overlooked the hospital’s central courtyard.

  Kato looked up from his plate, which contained thinly sliced meats and vegetables, and away from Zara, out over the greenery below. “Enough.”

  “Then tell me!”

  “I was advised not to. They told me to wait for you to begin to recall it all yourself, otherwise it’ll overload you.”

  “Goddammit!” Zara turned away, and folded her arms. “Are we still in the witness protection program?”

  “Yes. Realistically, we probably always will be.”

  “Why?”

  Kato blew air out through puckered lips. “We… uh… witnessed something…”

  “And someone’s still mad about it after two hundred and forty-seven years?”

  “Yes.”

  Zara scowled. “This damn place! I wish we’d never come back! Sure, the clock would have run out by now, but at least we wouldn’t be living in fear.”

  “Put your fork down, and le
t’s take a walk,” Kato said.

  Ten minutes later, they were standing in the courtyard. The four-story building surrounding them cast a mid-afternoon shadow across the entire area. “I’m assured we’re safe here,” Kato said. Zara nodded. They were surrounded by a large Japanese garden. There were stone footpaths through low, geometrically-perfect bushes and shrubs. A bubbling stream ran through the middle of the garden, beside which were moss-covered rocks and lilac flowers. A small stone bridge crossed the stream. Low trees with colorful leaves were strategically placed so as to give the illusion of being in a sanctuary, a world removed from the busy city.

  Kato and Zara stood side by side on the bridge, looking down at the moving water. “I couldn’t have wished for a better daughter,” he said. “I’d hate to think it would have just been me now, had you not joined me in space. If you hadn’t risked your life then, you’d never have entered hibernation, and you wouldn’t be here now. That’s what means the most to me. You.”

  Zara smiled. “We flew through space for a long time, didn’t we? Before hibernating?”

  Kato nodded. “Yes, we did. On my selfish quest to be the first man to leave the Solar System.”

  “How did I end up there?”

  “You saved me.”

  “How?”

  Kato remained silent. An awkward minute passed before Karla entered the garden, and joined them on the bridge. “Wow, you two look good!”

  “Thanks,” Zara said.

  “I wanted to go over some stuff, now that you’re better physically.” She held a small, silver unit, about the size and shape of a large cigar. At a touch, it projected a rectangular display in midair. On it was displayed a shiny, silver object. It was shaped like a giant, half-flattened coffee bean on its side, which had been pushed up in the center. The bottom was concave, and the top convex. The background was filled with stars. “Do you know what it is?”

  Kato shook his head. “It’s a spacecraft, called the Interplanetary Interstellar Explorer,” Karla said. “It’s the first one ever built with a warp drive. That’s how we covered the vast distance to intercept you guys. I’m not really surprised you don’t remember…”

  “We?”

  “I was on board as the ship’s physician.” With a left swipe of her hand, a picture of a blue flight-suited ship’s crew, floating in zero gravity appeared. Nineteen men and women in all, bunched together, beaming with togetherness and accomplishment. Karla pointed. “There’s me, of course, hiding in the back. That’s Elias, the captain. To his right is Wilson, the ship’s engineer. That’s Elias, the pilot. The rest are scientists.”

  “Oh…”

  “You guys were in bad shape when we pulled your hibernation unit on board, and thawed you out.”

  Zara scowled. “Sorry for inconveniencing you.”

  Karla smiled. “It’s an honor to have worked with you, the oldest people alive. Certainly the only ones from the 21st century. You guys are the most famous people in the worlds. While you were gone, you became legends, and then slipped into an almost mythical status. You were popularly known as the Sleepers.” She swiped again. Another picture appeared, this time of an overweight, middle-aged man with a shock of receding black hair. “This is Martin Swiercynski. He invented the warp drive. He’s the real reason you’re back.”

  Kato studied the man’s face for a minute. “Did he build the ship?”

  “No. The Mars Science Foundation did. IIX is going to be used for more interstellar missions, once she’s been overhauled.”

  “More interstellar missions?” Kato said.

  “We picked you up en route to Alpha Centauri.”

  “So we’ve actually been to a star?!” Zara said.

  “Yes. It was the first human expedition to go that far. However, you guys are actually more interesting to most people than Alpha Centauri was, as living emissaries from the 21st century. The MSF is going to study you…”

  “What?” Zara said. “We’re not lab rats! Even if we were the Sleepers!”

  “But, you have unique genetics, and historians want firsthand accounts of…”

  “Like hell!”

  Karla put her hands on her hips. “I’m sorry, Zara, but that’s the way it is. You’ll be free to explore Marineris, with your bodyguards of course, and you have a virtually unlimited expense account.”

  “Pah! Besides, what am I supposed to give a firsthand account of? I can barely remember my own name.”

  In a square, stone room at the top of a tall, Mayan-style pyramid, Seung Yi awoke furiously. The bald, South Korean man would have flown straight out of his hibernation chamber and hit the ceiling, due to the near absence of gravity, had he not been restrained for just this reason. He wrenched and twisted. “Where are they?” he said, coldly. “I instructed that I should be revived only if the infidels were caught, or three hundred years had passed! Which has happened?” The veins on his forehead were visible.

  The two doctors who floated by his side exchanged frightened glances,. Then one of them addressed him, reverently: “Two hundred and forty seven years have passed since you entered hibernation, Master. They are alive, and are back in our Solar System.”

  Seung Yi’s eyes narrowed to slits, as he digested this news. “Hmm. Get these damn straps off me, then.”

  “Master, you should acclimate to your present surroundings…”

  “Nonsense!”

  The doctor bowed his head. “As you wish, Master.”

  “What is the gravity here?” Seung Yi asked, as he sat up slowly.

  “Around one-fortieth of Earth’s gravity, Master,” the head doctor said.

  Seung Yi nodded. He turned to look at the medic. “It seems there is much for me to catch up on,starting with my current whereabouts. But first, I want Zara and Kato Sasake-Robbins caught. The only reason I am even alive in this time and place is so I can exact revenge on them. They—the girl in particular—perpetrated a monstrous crime against me, and made me the laughing stock of the world.”

  A silver metal door slid open, and a Chinese man floated in, holding onto a handrail. “Welcome to the twenty-fourth century, Master. Your every wish is our command.”

  “Then see to it that they are caught.”

  “Agents have been dispatched, Master.”

  “Good.”

  “You’ll need these in order to do practically anything,” Karla said, the following day. She handed both Kato and Zara a small cream-colored box, resembling one that might contain earrings. They opened them. Both contained three tiny objects. “One’s an earpiece,” Karla said. “The others are smart contact lenses. You use them to call people, interface with nearby systems, and browse the nets. Go ahead and put them on.” Zara took out one tiny lens and looked at it hesitantly. “Don’t be afraid,” Karla said. “You don’t need a solution or anything.”

  Zara applied it to her right eye, and read the text it displayed. “Oh… it says awaiting earpiece.”

  “Put it in. And the other lens,” Karla said. Zara and Kato did so.

  “Welcome to Buzz. Initializing…” Kato said, repeating the words he could hear, as he watched a line of dots extend from left to right indicating progress.

  “Yep, it’s called Buzz,” Karla said. “You can speak or whisper commands to it. Just say ‘call’, and then the person’s name. It’ll know who you mean. To get started, say ‘Buzz: tutorial.’ I’ll let you do that whenever you’re ready.”

  “Does everyone use it?” Kato said.

  “Most people have neural implants that do the same things, plus some other functions,” Karla said. “We thought it best not to do that to you yet.”

  “Probably a good thing.”

  “Now, as you can imagine, a lot of people want to talk to you,” Karla said. “We’re screening them, of course. Lots of weirdos, fanatics, reporters, academics, politicians, religious leaders, you name it.” One wall turned into a screen. On it was displayed a list of names. Karla gestured towards it with her hand. “We whittled them d
own to these ten. You can watch them at your leisure. Just say ‘Buzz: play,’ and then their name.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Kato said.

  Once Karla had left, Zara turned to Kato and said: “I haven’t the remotest clue who they are, do you? The people on the screen, I mean.”

  “No. Actually, I do know that one: Martin Swiercynski. The warp drive guy. I’d quite like to talk to him. And that name looks kind of interesting: Philip Gansevoort.”

  “Play it then.”

  The room darkened, and the video began. It showed a graying man of around fifty. He sported a tan, and his hair was slicked back. He wore a white shirt, tuxedo, and bow tie, and sat on a red velvet couch, in what looked like a dark wood paneled drawing room. “Greetings, time travelers!” he began. His accent was an odd mixture of American and Dutch. “I would like to personally welcome you to the twenty-fourth century. I realize you have much to catch up on, so please forgive this intrusion. I’ll do my best to be as quick as possible. As ambassadors of a bygone age, and literally a different world, I would be humbled to make your acquaintance. It is my privilege to offer you passage on my space liner, the Gansevoort, from Mars to Earth, any time you feel like it. She boasts the finest amenities, and greatest speed, of any ship in service. You will, of course, be my guests. We fly between Earth and Mars every week, so pick any flight you feel like. Should you also wish to visit New York City, my luxury hotel there will accommodate you, again as my guests. Looking forward to hearing back from you!”

  The playback ended. Kato and Zara looked at each other, their expressions somewhat mystified. “Who is this guy?” Kato asked, at length.

  “No idea,” Zara shrugged. “Buzz, call Karla,” she said. The dots slowly appeared. “Dad! It’s working!”

  “Hi! I see you figured it out!” Karla said.

  “Who’s this Philip guy?”

  Karla chuckled. “Ah, well… he’s a bit of a character. He’s the heir to the luxury hotel in New York City that bears his name. He is extremely wealthy, and wants everyone to know it.”