Zara's Flight: Book One of the Kato's War series Read online

  The previous day, Zara had left her grandparents’ house for New York but, instead of heading back there with her stuff, she’d had a change of heart. After sending Martin a text saying she had decided to travel for a while and not to worry about her, she had stopped by Madam Fake-ID for a new disguise—one that made her look much older—and left for Australia. Once there, Zara had made for the most remote, roughneck place she could find. Kalgoorlie, a town with a vast gold mine called the Super Pit, was it. Home to thousands of miners and supporting trades and businesses, it was the perfect place to get lost.

  Zara had purchased some clothes at the Salvation Army and now looked the part of a drifter, wearing scuffed brown work boots, worn denim jeans, an old brown jacket with a hood, and a blue hooded sweatshirt. She now settled contentedly on the floor of the freight car and unzipped her jacket. She poured herself a cup from a flask of hot tea in her backpack and munched on an apple.

  Nobody here knew or cared who she was. There were no economic or space disasters to worry about. No designer labels or super-high technology were anywhere in sight. At that particular moment in time, the inside of a train car, thick with dust from traversing countless kilometers of desert, was heaven.

  As Zara sipped on the tea, to the constant roar of the traffic thirty meters away, she reflected on her life. Being the daughter of the richest man on Earth had been both a blessing and a curse. She still missed her mother desperately, despite it being nearly twenty years since Susan had died.

  Zara had recently begun carrying around a small photograph of Susan and herself, at age four, at a park. Susan was holding her in her arms. They were both wearing warm winter coats and hats, smiling at the camera. The fall wind whipped leaves around them. It was a perfect picture of love between a mother and daughter. It had been taken a month before Susan had met her fate.

  After Zara had done sweet nothing for an hour, a shunting sound in the distance moved rapidly towards her as the links between the cars went from being slack to being under tension. The railcar jerked forward and started rolling at about half walking speed as the faraway locomotives strained to move thousands of tons. The desert scrub and the highway moved by at increasing speed, and the train was soon doing seventy kilometers per hour. The wind blew Zara’s hair everywhere and she felt great.

  After half an hour, the highway started to diverge from the tracks until it was around one kilometer away. Low hills and rocky crags were visible beyond it. Watching it all go by was enough for Zara.

  Afternoon gave way to evening. Vehicles on the highway, which was still parallel to the tracks, became fewer and began turning their headlights on. Some of them were gigantic four-trailer road trains, of the type she remembered reading about as a little girl. Grizzled truckers still took pride in running them, even though they drove themselves. It was thrilling to see them for real.

  With hundreds of kilometers behind her, Zara began to feel hungry again. She poured another cup of tea, took a pre-packaged ham sandwich out of her backpack, and began to eat.

  A minute later, Zara heard movement at the front of the car, seventeen meters away. It was definitely a natural, not a mechanical, sound—some animal, or person, was scuffling around. She was frightened out of her mind.

  Zara grabbed her backpack and jumped onto the pile of lumber, kicking over her tin tea cup in the process. The source of the sound was moving her way. Zara was wide-eyed with fear as she clung like a frightened cat to the top of the lumber pile, hoping that whatever it was wouldn’t see her. The sound approached steadily until the shape of a man was visible in the diminishing daylight. He noticed the spilled tea and half-eaten sandwich and immediately spun around, on guard for an intruder. Scanning the lumber pile, it didn’t take long for him to spot Zara.

  “Holy crap, you had me scared there!” he said in a broad Australian accent.

  “You scared me, too,” Zara said, clutching a hand to her chest as though to calm her pounding heart.

  “This is normally my train car,” the man said. “However, sometimes other people get in, and then it becomes theirs, and I get in a different one, and so on… anyway, hi. The name’s Josh Yarra,” he said as he extended a hand. She could now see that he was young, with sandy brown, mid-length hair. He sported a couple of weeks’ worth of stubble.

  “I’m… Susan.”

  “Here, let me help you down.” She took his outstretched hand for balance as she hopped back to the floor.

  “So, what brings a girl like you to the wilds of Australia? You’re obviously not from here. Japanese?” Josh said.

  “Japanese-American.”

  “Ah.” He nodded and paused for a minute, looking out the door as he chewed on something. He turned back to Zara. “I meet all sorts of folk out here. You’d think they would be down-and-outers. However, most are here by choice. How about you?”

  “Not all who wander are lost,” Zara said matter-of-factly.

  “Exactly.” Josh nodded. “So… you’re done with school, and you’re doing some traveling, correct? That’s the usual story—unless they’re in midlife crisis.”

  “School.”

  “What major?”

  “Fine arts,” Zara replied.

  “Ah, the most employable major!” Josh quipped.

  Zara smiled. “Yeah, something like that.” I’m so glad I don’t have to be Zara right now, she thought.

  “I’m a physicist, from the University of Melbourne.”

  Josh sat, cross-legged, near the door. Zara supposed he was trying to put her at ease and hoped he wasn’t setting her up. She remained standing but leaned against the rear of the car.

  “Don’t worry; I’m perfectly safe,” he said. “Go ahead and finish your sandwich. I’m going to eat my dinner of celery sticks.”

  Zara was incredulous. “That’s your dinner?”

  “Yes,” Josh replied, jovially. “That and peanut butter. It’s all I could steal!”

  “You stole your dinner?”

  “Yes,” Josh said, dipping one of the sticks in the jar of peanut butter. “Physicists aren’t that well paid!” He paused for effect. “Actually, the real reason is that I’m trying to figure out just how long I can survive on my wits alone.”

  Zara nodded. “Okay, well… don’t let me stop you,” she said, in a slightly sing-song voice.

  “Right on.” Josh opened a jar of peanut butter, dipped a celery stick in it, and began to eat. Zara offered him a sandwich, but he declined.

  Josh gestured to the right side of the car. “I wish I could see out that side tonight.”

  “Why?”

  “There’s a phenomenon happening that you don’t see that often this far south.”

  Zara raised her eyebrows slightly in curiosity. “What’s that?”

  “The Near-Earth Complex will be visible for a few minutes, later on,” he said, looking back up at Zara. He shrugged. “I’m kind of a space nerd.”

  “Oh…” Zara nodded.

  “I’ve been following that one guy closely; the pilot of the Eternity.”

  “Oh really?” Zara said, now very curious.

  “Yes. You know his mission’s going to be cut short?” Josh said, with a trace of sadness in his voice.

  Zara’s expression darkened. “I heard something about that,” she replied, munching on the sandwich and hoping he would change the subject.

  “It’s that Chinese—or should I say, Korean—guy’s fault,” Josh said. “He sabotaged the mission—at least indirectly. You know about that whole deal?”

  “I know that huge robotics company failed,” Zara said, trying to steer the conversation away from her father.

  “Yes. Well, that was our astronaut’s company. That’s how he could afford to build his ship. The word is the Korean guy—Seung Yi—worked there, and planted a virus in the code before leaving. It’s now crippling the systems on the ship and there’s nothing they can do about it.”

  Zara was aghast. “I know he and the American robotics guy had a lo
ng-running court battle,” she said, trying to feign some level of ignorance. “I had no idea he’d crippled the company and the ship.”

  “Yeah,” Josh said and looked back down at his dinner.

  Zara began to boil inside at the thought that the systems failure was a deliberate act of sabotage. She kept her feelings hidden.

  “Hmm. So, there’s nothing that anybody can do to help him?” she said at last.

  Josh shook his head. “Nope. Not unless you happen to have the fastest spaceship in the world, since he’s now flying towards Saturn at an ungodly speed.”

  “Hmm.”

  Zara was quiet for a minute. Then she said, “Has there ever been a ship that could fly that fast?”

  “There are two,” Josh replied. “The International Mars Explorer II, which is now decommissioned in orbit around Mars, and Dawn, which happens to be Seung Yi’s own ship. They are both what are known as N-ships—so called because they use a special propulsion technology. Even with their capabilities, though, it would be a one-way trip: they’d spend so much fuel on the outbound trip they wouldn’t be able to get back to Earth.”

  “How much would it cost to build one?” Zara inquired. “Could you do it with two billion dollars?”

  Josh chuckled. “No way. More like two hundred billion! Plus, you need enriched uranium, which only governments can get in any quantity.”

  “Oh.” Zara was disappointed. The conversation stalled for a while as the train rumbled on.

  The ever-jovial Josh continued: “Of course, if you couldn’t build an N-ship, you’d steal Seung Yi’s! The guy’s a complete bastard. He’d have it coming, I reckon. He’s only going to Jupiter for the publicity, anyway.”

  Steal Dawn? Zara thought. “How the heck would you do that? Don’t they build them in space?”

  Josh shrugged. “Anybody can buy a ticket to the tourist part of the NEC, if they’re healthy and have the money… although they’d still be twenty kilometers from Dawn, and sightseers aren’t allowed over there.” Zara nodded, now intrigued. I’m crazy, she thought.

  “Where’s the next stop for this train?”

  “Probably Merredin, tomorrow.”

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  They talked through the rest of the evening. Josh was a perfect gentleman and didn’t try anything on her. Zara found herself attracted to him; mainly it was his easygoing, happy-go-lucky nature and free spirit, but his looks didn’t hurt anything either.

  They lay at opposite ends of the railcar that night. Zara couldn’t sleep. Her mind whirled with thoughts and feelings.

  The pain and frustration of all the years all coalesced into a decision, like a laser beam through a magnifying glass that burns the very air itself. She now knew what she must do. Zara bade Josh goodbye the next day when they stopped, but made sure to get his number.

  Once she’d snuck out of the railyard, she pulled out her phone and dialed Christopher. He was overwhelmed to hear from Zara, as he hadn’t seen or spoken to her in ten years. Once they had spent half an hour catching up and commiserating over Kato’s predicament, Zara dropped the bomb, “You’re an ex-astronaut and space engineering expert, and one of my dad’s best friends. I need someone like you. In fact, I could use several of you if possible.”

  There was silence at the other end of the line. At last, he asked, “What for?”

  “I’m going to steal the spaceship Dawn.”

  Part II

  Chapter 18

  The luxurious log cabin was located off an old logging road and had a grand, two-story lobby whose front was entirely glass. The view outside was a stunning panorama of the steep, snow-capped Mount Shasta. Four days after leaving the United States and traveling halfway around the world, Zara was in the home of Christopher Fay.

  After welcoming Zara and making her at home, they sat down in the intimidatingly large main living area, whose walls were decorated with hunting trophies. An enormous sectional couch lined two of the four long walls.

  “You can take the man out of Oregon, but you can’t take Oregon out of the man,” Christopher said, smiling. “I could have settled anywhere I chose to, but this place drew me back in the end. I’m starting to cut down my globe-trotting now.” His faraway gaze for a few seconds indicated that he was reflecting. “I’m eighty-five years old! Can you believe it?”

  “Well…” Zara replied, unsure of how much diplomacy was required. She perched on the edge of the couch, afraid to make herself too much at home.

  Christopher looked out of the window. “No, of course you can’t. I’m only kidding! My body is only about sixty-five in old money—that is, before the nanomedicine revolution started rebuilding us all from the inside out.” He paused for a moment and then looked directly at Zara. “So, you want to steal a spaceship, huh?” he asked, with a wry grin.

  “Kinda, yes.”

  “And not just any, but the largest and most complex ever built?”

  Zara nodded.

  “To go and rescue your father?”

  She nodded again.

  Christopher continued: “Now, as a respected explorer and scientist, I couldn’t possibly be party to such a thing.” He paused for effect. Zara’s face dropped.

  “However,” he continued, “as Kato’s godfather, and a badass of note, I have to have in on this.” Zara now smiled wider than she had in as long as she could remember. “I may only have another thirty years,” Christopher said, “and, as my good friend Alex Kozlov once told me, a person is remembered for the rules they broke rather than the ones they kept.”

  Christopher smiled and they connected eye-to-eye. He nodded slowly. “Kato raised a good one here, I can tell. You’ve got a great spirit, and you’ll go far, whether it’s on this earth or off it.”

  “Thanks.” Zara’s eyes moistened.

  Christopher continued in a more businesslike manner. “Now, what part I’ll play in this harebrained scheme has yet to be determined. However, I can offer any technical advice you could want, and I’ve got connections that can get most any information we need. The first thing you should know is that it’ll be a one-way trip.”

  He studied her face, to see her reaction. “I know,” she said with quiet determination.

  Christopher raised his gray eyebrows in surprise. “I take it you’ve already talked to someone about it?”

  “Yes.” Zara related her conversation with Josh. Christopher nodded.

  “I’ve had a few days to think about it, and the problems are legion,” he said. “First: Dawn’s docked to a space station that’s only home to scientists and technicians, plus people working on the logistics for Mars—about a hundred and fifty people in all. There’s no way to sneak on there. The security’s so tight you couldn’t get a razor blade in sideways. Remember how the civil liberties crowd kicked off at the suggestion that people have microchips implanted?” Zara nodded. “Well, there’s no such thing as civil liberties there. Everyone who boards the station has a chip in them and has to provide iris scans on arrival. That’s assuming you could get a ride up there in the first place. It’s not like a movie where you knock someone out, take their clothes, and pretend to be them. It would be easier to get into NORAD.”

  Zara nodded. She had suspected it wouldn’t be easy, even though the ISS2 wasn’t a military installation.“Second,” Christopher said, “there’s only a small window of time between Dawn being fully flight-ready and the time she leaves. That means there will be no second chance. Third: as I mentioned, she’s an extremely complex ship. I wouldn’t even pretend to know all her inner workings. Fourth: ground support. I’m sure she has a huge, dedicated mission control center, and I doubt they’d be understanding enough to help out someone who wanted to take her for a spin. And, fifth: you’d need some way to dock her with Eternity when she gets there. Last but not least: all the user interfaces and signs in the ship will likely be in Chinese!”

  Christopher sat back and folded his arms, to see how Zara would take all this
information.

  Zara pursed her lips and nodded, slowly.

  “Well, I never thought it would be easy,” she said at last. “I didn’t know it was that hard to get onto the ISS2, though, since you can just go to the other part nearby.”

  “Yeah. Things just aren’t as hijacker-friendly as they used to be!” Christopher quipped.

  Then a look of grave concern crossed his face. “You know, there is one other unknown here: onboard robots. The shape-shifters that both his and your dad’s company produces are one stop short of living things. Now, I doubt they’d be programmed right off the bat to defend the ship, since an attack by space pirates probably isn’t something they’re worried about. But, could they be put to that use in a hurry if the situation demanded it? They can adapt on a dime. TAON’s ones have Asimov’s famous laws built into them—not harming humans, and all that—but did Yi program them into his?”

  He sat back, reflected, and shook his head. “What you’re proposing is almost impossible. I’d never go as far as saying absolutely impossible, as one who’s been to another planet—fifty-seven years ago now!—but I’ll be darned if I can see a way through all this. We need more minds to tackle this problem. Groupthink is more than the sum of its parts, whether for good or evil. Whom do we involve, though? There are very few I know of that could be trusted to keep this secret—and even fewer who’d play an active part.” He shrugged. “Your grandparents are out. I know them better than anyone, and they could never do it. Their consciences wouldn’t let them, even if it meant they may save their son. Besides, they’d lose you.”

  Christopher chewed on that last thought for a minute as he stared off into the distance. Then he turned back to Zara. “Do they know you’re here?”

  “No. I just told them I was off traveling for a bit.”

  “Good. We have three years, one month, and one day to come up with a plan and execute it. After that, Dawn will be gone.”