Prodigy Returns (book 3)

Chapter Thirty-Three

"You mentioned equipment failure," Alex said, still sitting with her father, "but you never stated how you got the transporter to work."

"Excellent question," Maxim said. "It had to do with two things. First, the walls in the transporter room were encased with a special kind of metal that could withstand electromagnetic pulses. So whatever the machines did to kill our equipment, it didn't affect the transporter. As it turned out, I could get most of the equipment to work again by removing it from the Pegasus and repairing it. When I would go anywhere near the ship, the equipment wouldn't work again. I figured the machines placed something nearby that interfered with the electronics. So with the transporter undamaged, I decided to relocate it to somewhere safe."

"Why didn't you just transport back to Earth."

"Going back was never an option. In my mind, Earth was doomed, and living in an apocalyptic wasteland would make life nasty, brutish, and short," Maxim said, stealing a famous line from Thomas Hobbes. Alex recognized the thievery, but let it go.

"So I'm curious to know, what has the past sixty years been like for you?" Alex asked. "I'm especially interested to know how Kyodin and Olivia came to be."

"The robots eventually retreated, leaving just Jacey and I. We waited in that room until we were sure nothing was out there. When we finally came out, we were both in complete shock. Our ship no longer functioned, our entire crew was slaughtered, and I had to be a leader in a time when quite simply, I wasn't sure what to do. I was scared and very saddened by what had happened.

"In the morning, we found a cave some hundred yards from the ship and had the transporter relocated. On our way out, we saw Andrew, Jacey's husband, crawling toward us. He was wounded and bleeding badly. I'm not even sure how he survived the night. We brought him back to the ship and administered medical treatment. As I'm sure you can imagine, this put everyone in an awkward situation. Jacey and I were falling in love and were sick of hiding it, but we also needed Andrew for our survival.

"Prioritizing our tasks, we decided to set that issue aside and focus on our survival. The best course of action for us was to establish a new camp, somewhere far enough away from the ship where we would not become a target, but close enough so that we could still go back and extract all the equipment we needed."

"What about all the animals on the ship?"

"Unfortunately, they too were slaughtered. We were able to salvage some of the meat, but most of it had spoiled before we could eat it."

"What a shame," Alex said.

"Indeed. We packed up what we could carry and then set off. Within a couple of days, we came across a large stone door embedded in the side of a hill. I believe Kyo took you here as well."

"Yes, it was a fascinating place. I'm sure you were very excited to come across it."

"We had mixed emotions since we had no idea what it was. For all we knew, it was a lair for all those bots that we had encountered earlier. But with little to lose, we decided to venture inside for a closer look.

"I assume you had the same experience as we did so I won't need to go into great detail. As you can imagine, it was a very intriguing to walk the halls and inspect the caverns. It became clear we were the only ones down there, but I never once felt relaxed. I had been the Leader of the New World and had been in some hair raising situations, but for some reason, leading just two others in hostile territory made me incredibly nervous. I couldn't settle myself." Maxim took a moment and let out a deep breath.

"I always thought of myself as this great, powerful leader, but truthfully, I was afraid. It was in that moment when I had to confront myself in an honest way. I was not qualified to be their leader, I was nothing more than a coward masquerading as a leader."

"Don't say that," Alex said, putting her arm around her father as he bowed his head in shame. "You're a human being with a complexity of different emotions and states of mind. You are a great leader, but that's not all you are. It's okay to be afraid or cowardly and nobody would think any less of you, so you shouldn't feel less about yourself."

Maxim laughed. "I'm not used to hearing advice, let alone from a teenager, but in this case, I suppose you're right."

"So you're with this lady, Jacey, and her husband. What happened with that whole situation?" Alex asked.

"We had been surviving on the planet for a few weeks, counting every day as blessing, but there was an awkward tension that needed to be addressed. At first, Jacey told Andrew that she no longer wanted to be with him. As you can probably imagine, he didn't take the news too well. He questioned her about having an affair with me and she told him the truth."

"How did he take it?" Alex asked, engrossed in the story.

"Not well. He attacked me," Maxim said with sorrow.

"Do you care to elaborate?"

"I haven't told this to the others so I'd appreciate if you kept it our little secret."

"Of course," Alex said.

"In hindsight, perhaps we chose the wrong time to spring this news on him. All our emotions were revving high. So in a lot of ways, I can't really blame his actions. Looking back, it was the catalyst that led to his demise."

"Did you..." Alex asked, wondering if her father was about to confess to killing a man.

"I may as well have," Maxim said. "My actions were no different than putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. The moment we told him, I knew his fate was sealed. He came at me, and I protected myself. I hardly fought back. I let him get some good punches in, hoping it would help calm his temper. He eventually got off of me and had some choice words for the both of us. That's when he decided to go off on his own."

"Do you suppose he's still out there?"

"Three days later we found his boots and the rest of his gear scattered across the shore of a creek."

"Maybe he went in for a dip and got swept away by the current."

Maxim shook his head. "Parts of him were still in the boots."

Alex was saddened by the thought of her father's companions, even though she had only met them briefly. It seemed as though misfortune surrounded those around her and her family and she wondered if she was lucky to have survived when others did not, or if she was cursed.

"What about Jacey?" Alex asked. "What happened to her?"