Seventeen Crimes

Two

Some time in the past:

Brie woke up early and stood on the roof of her building stretching before the sun. She woke up early enough, for who knows what reason, that she still took in the sight of morning stars. The sky burned red as the orb of light mounded over the eastern horizon.

The sunrise impressed her so, that after a few of her yoga stretches, Brie just dismissed her routine for the day, collected her water bottle and sat on the precipice of her building, watching as the eastern sky blazed its way through a palate of colors.

She even took note of Venus and Mercury's place, tiny notes of light before they were lost to the great waves of solar light and radiation that blocked them from view for most of the day.

Before Brie rose to continue her day, however, a speck of black appeared in the sky, followed seconds later by a loud crack that mimicked the sound of thunder.

The object didn't sit still, racing across the sky and nearly directly overhead, even as Brie traced its path with her thumb to try and size it.

It was gone, a blink, followed by another, this time larger, crack of thunder.

Car alarms went off below the building.

Brie's ears still rang slightly when she made her way down to the apartment that she shared with her partner, Dylan.

"Did you hear that loud boom?" Dylan asked, as Brie shut the door.

"Hear it? I saw what made it," Brie said, before kissing their lips.

"What was it? Government?" Dylan asked, clutching the edge of their robe.

"Not anything I have ever seen."

Brie opened her water, preparing to take a sip.

"A UFO? Oh, you know Congress is going to be having another meeting about UFO secrets if that's what it was."

"It seemed a little more obvious than that," Brie said, as her phone signaled a notification.

Dylan checked theirs' and gawped; "Mars is taking credit for that little bit of show, listen, listen." Dylan waved their hand at Brie, moving to sit on the back of the couch.

"'The Martian offices at the former NASA launch facilities in Cape Canaveral, Florida, have released a statement, stating that Martian pilots are conducting a series of tests that would take the travel time from nearly three years to three minutes.' Oh GAWD, oh Gawd."

They shook their hands, jumping on the back of the couch.

"Do you know what this means? You saw the first returning flight from Mars."

Brie stood quietly, thumbing her way through the page that she read.

"The Martian ambassador will be more than a figure head on another planet. They will have to come here and deal personally with the nations of the world. This will open doors for us, you know."

Dylan slid of the back of the couch and finished getting dressed for work.

"Hey, Bae, you hearing me?" Dylan asked, snapping their fingers before Brie's face. "Don't you think this is a good thing."

"I don't feel so good," Brie said, sinking to the couch.

"Hey – hey – hey," Dylan said, taking her hands. "You look a little pale." They brushed back Brie's hair from her forehead. "You don't feel feverish. You can't be pregnant, not unless you cheaten'."

"No, I'm not cheating on you," Brie said. "Not even though that new guy at the journal looks pretty tasty."

"Uh-huh."

"It might be my ears," Brie said. "Let me tell my boss I have to start a little later and go lay down."

"I'll bring you an electrolyte pack. Maybe you need some minerals or something."

"Maybe."

She went to the room, shut the shade to make the room as dark as she could, and accepted the electrolyte pack when Dylan brought it. But she waited until she knew that Dylan left to cry.

Another notification brought an apology issued from Mars; the first so-called 'jump' from Mars did, indeed happen, although the names of the pilot and co-pilot who flew the craft were being withheld for some time.

There was more. An article was published about a series of tests conducted by Mars for more than six months prior, first with smaller, unmanned probes, only instead of being sent in the immediate direction of Earth, they were sent further out of the solar system, towards Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, even one so far out as making it to the furthest edge of Pluto.

Another article caught Brie's eye: Dare-Devil pilot Trey 'Of Mars' Hodges, the eldest son of Stephan Hodges and Ginnifer Koperniak -Hodges piloted the first successful flight of the Martian Shuttle Resurrection, arriving to Jupiter's outer rings in approximately four minutes, did four successful orbits in order to preform diagnostics, and then returned home.

To Mars, of course.

But the name. Brie tapped the name and a hyperlink took her to the Martian office web page, which already had a bio of the man.

He was only nineteen Earth years old.

For the first time in her life, Brie saw a picture of her baby brother. He had to be. He had to be with all she knew and... all her mother ever told her.

"Mom?"

"What, Brie." Clarissa took a drag on her joint, before taking up again the controller for the XBOX.

Brie rocked, a little nervous with the question bursting in her chest.

"I wanted to ask if I could invite Dad to my graduation party," Brie said. "He hasn't come and see me in years. I haven't heard anything from in since I was a kid and I -."

"Its a waste of stamp to invite him," Clarissa said.

"What do you mean?" Brie asked, stepping closer. "He's alive, isn't he? Don't you think he would want to see me graduate?"

"I doubt it," Clarissa said. She stubbed out her joint and scratched her neck, before standing. "I told you Stephan left you for a reason, and the reason he ain't been in your life was he felt a trip to Mars was a better use of his time and money than sticking around for his little girl."

"He's on Mars?" Brie asked.

"Should be, by now. Knowing him, he's probably around got a new woman in his life. Or two."

"Or a whole family," Brie whispered, lightly tracing the cheek bones of the very young man she suspected was her brother.

(1074)