"It's not what you think, Abram." Khan said in an effort to assure me that everything was okay.
I had made quite a scene after noticing the sequence PR-09 painted on the door down the hallway to our left. His attempt to calm me down hadn't worked in the slightest. I was still glancing furiously between Khan and the sequence on the door trying to figure out why the pattern matched Luma’s forearm.
"Where is she?” I asked.
"You have to understand, Abram, we're trying to help her," He paused before continuing, "We've been observing your efforts on Triton and intercepted your vessel before it could return to Earth. It wasn't easy hacking into The Hyperion's system and rerouting your destination. Even though your ship crashed due to our hasty reprogramming, I think we got lucky."
"Lucky?" I asked as anger slowly began to rise up through my body.
"Yes, quite so actually. I know we told you that both your partner and The Luminescence were killed in the crash, but The Luminescence is actually still alive. My condolences, however, as your partner did die on impact during the crash. We attempted to clear her body and get The Luminescence to the lab before you awoke so we could begin running tests. However, we didn't account for you waking up so quickly, so we lied in hopes this would all blow over. Now that you are aware of the situation, I need to correct myself and tell you that the people of Earth are fine, but both them and The Order have not been made aware that we've intercepted you."
I knew he had been lying, but I still sat in silence for a moment processing everything I was just told. I had a million questions flying through my brain so quickly, I was having trouble deciding what to ask first. Somehow, being told the truth only seemed to raise more questions.
"Why are you keeping The Luminescence from The Order?" I asked.
"The Order gave you strict instructions to take her to SouthPoint and to transfer her to The Order so you can reignite the sun and end this darkness." Khan smiled reassuringly. "But, because we want to save her, we can’t let her go back to The Order. The process used to extract her luminance would kill her, and we can’t let that happen."
To be honest, I hadn’t considered what would happen to her or what The Order’s plans were for her outside the vague term of “re-ignition.” With everything that had happened, I didn’t know if I could trust Khan, but his words made sense so I took a moment to think through it all.
“Elmcroft is a small organization of like-minded people, but we passionately believe that we can save The Luminescence.” He paused before continuing as his tone took a dark shift. “Abram, we can’t let you take her back.”
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wanted to say something, anything, but I couldn't find the words. Although it wasn't much, I had given up everything I had on Earth to pursue this mission. We had come so close to making it back to Earth and ending the darkness that had driven our planet underground. Yet this new piece of the puzzle had been revealed, and it wouldn't fit anywhere in our plans. We hadn't accounted for the possibility of a mutiny on one of the planets we were supposed to be in alliance with. We had just assumed everyone was on board with us, working together for what we considered to be the greater good. And now, to make matters even more complicated, I was beginning to experience a strong uncertainty about the morality of The Order’s plan. I had dedicated the last fifteen years of my life to this cause, but I hadn’t once stopped to think about from this angle. Was it right to offer up the life of one innocent being for the salvation of many?
Khan attempted to continue with his explanation, but before he could form anymore words he was interrupted by a voice calling through his radio. “Lt. Khan, we’ve just picked up the signal of a small unidentified vessel approaching our base. At the speed it’s going, it will crash into our west wing in less than two minutes.” Khan quickly called back and asked for two of his guards to meet him in the west wing.
“You’re coming with me,” He said as he pointed to me and turned to walk down the hall.
We walked through the hallway until we came to the door of the west wing. Khan’s two guards were already there when we arrived. Sliding his hand underneath his overcoat, Khan drew out a small handgun before nodding to the guard closest to the door, signaling for him to open it. The metal door slid open and Khan entered with his gun drawn. The two guards and I followed close behind him. We didn’t know what we were walking into, but once we entered the room we saw a small transportation capsule at the far end of the room. The capsule itself seemed to be in good condition, despite the fact that it had almost destroyed the entire wall it just crashed through. Khan motioned for us to move closer so we began to walk towards it slowly.
As we approached the capsule to inspect it closer we could see that there was a hibernation chamber inside. Khan put his gun back in its holster as he motioned to one of his guards to open the door to the capsule. Once it was open, he crawled inside and reached for the lever to open the hibernation chamber. A thin fog hissed out the seams as its door opened, and when the fog cleared I couldn’t believe my eyes. My surprise must have been pretty visible because Khan looked up at me and noticed.
“Abram, do you know this man?” He asked sharply as he stood up and climbed back out of the capsule.
“Yes, I do,” I replied slowly, still trying to understand what was going on, “His name is Parker.”
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