Defying Mars (The Saving Mars Series) - By Cidney Swanson Page 0,17
Yes. Ethan sent a message. It was weird, but it’s all the proof I need to know he’s okay. He couldn’t have done it if he’d been caught again, which means he must be okay. He’s with two very good Terrans.”
Her mother made a noise of derision and Jess found herself in the strange position of having to defend members of the Terran race.
“Good Terrans exist, Mom.”
“What did Ethan say?” asked Lillian, her voice soft. “In his message?”
Jessamyn frowned. “I didn’t memorize it. I’ll have to get it for you.”
Back in her room, she found her brother’s wafer and brought it to the rations table where she read aloud the strange message: “When you pass through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. So says Ethan.”
Lillian’s face drained of all color. “It was the laser array,” she said.
Jessamyn stared at her mother, who had evidently decided to stop making sense.
“So that’s why Mei Lo wanted his expertise with ancient Terran computer code,” said Jessamyn’s father, nodding, his brow drawn tight.
“She sent him on a suicide mission to disable the lasers,” said Jess’s mother.
Jess’s eyes grew wide. Her mother figured that out from a bit of garbled poetry? “How do you know the lasers are disabled?”
Her father held up one hand. “We’re not asking you anything about your mission. I’m sure MCC has not authorized you to speak upon the subject. However, two weeks ago, a rumor began circulating that the satellites would no longer fire upon ships leaving Mars orbit.”
“It’s created a public-relations nightmare for Mei Lo,” said Jess’s mother, rubbing her temples.
Jessamyn ignored her mother’s statement—which sounded unrelated—and returned instead to the message from Ethan. “Why did you immediately assume Ethan’s message had something to do with the Terran satellite lasers?”
“His message—it’s a quote from a story we used to read to Ethan,” said Jess’s father. “Before you were born. The story of three men condemned to pass through a fiery furnace who survived the ordeal without so much as the smell of smoke upon their garments.”
“If we’re right about the laser disabling—and you don’t have to tell us anything,” continued Jess’s father, “Then the message you received is simply a confirmation that he was the one to disable the lasers’ ability to target ships departing Mars.”
Jess shook her head slowly. “No one was supposed to know except the five Mars Raiders aboard the Galleon, and Mei Lo.”
“We’re not asking you to confirm anything, Jessie,” said her father.
“No, no,” said Jess. “If people know about the lasers, I don’t see the point hiding it from you. I never got the chance to ask him if he succeeded—” She stopped abruptly. Memories of leaving her brother behind threatened to swallow her whole.
“So Ethan is alive,” whispered Lillian.
Jess forced herself to come back to the present, to her hope of rescuing her brother. “Yes,” she replied. “Yes, he is. And I intend to find him.”
“Oh, Jessamyn,” said her mother, shaking her head slowly. “You’re so young.”
“What?” demanded Jess, hands upon her hips. “Is it too much to expect a little support here? You’re his parents. First Mei Lo gives me a bunch of flimsy excuses and now you’re saying no, too? We owe it to them.”
“They’ll never let you go,” Lillian said dully. “Not now.”
“Why not?”
Her father sighed and ran a hand through his thinning hair. “Mei Lo is under a lot of pressure right now,” he began.
“You want to know pressure?” asked Jess. Within her a frantic desperation built to tell her brother’s story. She was done with holding things in for the sake of others. “Try standing in front of a firing squad of Terran Red Forces!”
Lillian froze.
“They lined him up with Harpreet, and they shot them, Mom,” said Jess, a tear coursing down her face. “I didn’t know if they were both dead or alive or what. And I broke into the hospital to try to get him back. I tried, Mom, I tried so hard. And it wasn’t enough. Ethan’s stuck inside someone else’s body on Earth because I wasn’t smart enough to save him. But I’m not going to make the same mistakes next time.”
Jess’s mother, her face pale white, rose slowly from her chair. “You talk to her,” she said to Jess’s father. “I can’t.” Lillian walked out of the room.
Jessamyn’s father frowned, uncertain whether to follow his stricken wife or remain with his daughter.
“What is going on?” asked Jess. “I thought Mom would be grateful.”