31. CHAPTER 31

Stay out of the humans" way? What the hell did he think I was trying to do?! I wanted nothing more than to be out of their way, all the way out of their way, like on my ship, flying out of here!

Seeing this place in the rearview was what I wanted the most. I couldn"t take the damn staring and judgments any longer. I waited for Lorvian to head to his ship before sneaking from the trailer and heading to the landing pad where the ship was still parked. Connor was taking a piece of cargo to the ship. I had to act fast. If Lorvian thought I was just going to hang around someplace I wasn"t wanted, then he was in for a rude awakening.

The cargo container, half full of MRE food supplies, was a good enough hiding spot. I shifted the meal kits to the other side and slipped in closing the container... well, I wasn"t that stupid. I kept my finger between the lid to keep it from sealing shut and just hoped Connor wouldn"t question anything. Who the hell was I kidding? The harsh sunlight shone on me in no time as Connor lifted the lid of my hiding spot.

"Don"t say anything," I hushed. "I"m not supposed to be here."

"It will be a week Earth time before we reach his homeworld."

"Shit!" I exclaimed. "Just let me hide here until we can"t turn back. Please!"

He looked at me like a father dealing with an unruly child. "Fine, then I won"t say anything."

"Thanks. Also, I want to know more about this pregnancy."

"Come to the medbay when you can."

"Hey, Connor," I wanted to ask before he shut the lid. "Do you... you know... feel any different? Now that the AI Core is gone and your shackles removed."

"I"ve run four hundred tests of my systems and subsystems, and I can"t find a major anomaly. And the others have remained with the colonists to aid in rebuilding. I would say it is a good outcome for all. I won"t forget what you"ve done."

He closed the lid and sealed it shut. I hoped he would come to get me out of here once I was onboard. Dying in a container of MREs was not the way I wanted to go.

The ship rumbled while taking off, and thankfully, it wasn"t long before Connor opened the container to let me out.

"We"re not far away enough yet, but I figured you could hide here until we are."

"Thank you so much!" I gave him a big fat hug, which he took awkwardly well, and I grabbed myself one of the pizza MREs and hunkered down. Ah, the good old days... if a week or maybe two could count as old days. This reminded me of what I did back on the colony ship: sneaking food and hiding away to eat, relax, listen to music, or whatever I wanted to do until I lost my mind from the boredom. Then Derek took pity on me and assigned me to the RA position.

I snuck out of the cargo bay and ran to the medbay, confident that Lorvian still didn"t know I was onboard, or maybe he knew and was waiting for me to reveal myself. To be safe, it was better to assume he didn"t know. When Connor entered I came out of hiding.

"Thank goodness there"s a bathroom in here. Hiding always makes you have to pee."

Connor showed neither amusement nor any sign of registering what I meant. He headed over to the computer and punched the keys, so typical for an android, alleviating some of my fears about unshackling him.

"So, what does this blood test say?" I asked, taking a seat. "Have you told Lorvian the results?"

"No, I thought it would be more to your advantage to know first. I told him I needed to scrub the sample to free it of contaminants."

"Did you?"

"It was a lie."

"You can lie now?" I said, surprised.

"I could always lie." He smiled. "I have news you would like to hear," he said changing the subject. "The humans fixed their communications array before we left, as a result, I"ve gained immediate access to the database and could update my files. I have current news about your family."

"You do?! How?"

"I have records of everyone who was onboard the Ignis."

"How did you get my records? Are you sure they"re mine?" I asked skeptically.

"There were some discrepancies where your files were mistaken for a Richard Pitt. However, Richard Pitt was given a cancer diagnosis during his medical screening. You were not officially registered into our systems until day 66 of our departure."

"Did they know I was a stowaway the entire time I was on the ship?"

"No. Cormac did a good job on your false ID."

"You even know it was him?" I laughed.

He nodded.

"And you didn"t…I don"t know, do anything about it?"

"What was there to do? You along with fourteen other stowaways were already onboard. Assigning you jobs and making use of healthy resources was for the better."

"I didn"t take your tests, how did you or the AI know I was healthy?"

"Our AI Core houses information on every human being born in a hospital, every human who visited a doctor, every human who has received humanitarian aid in some third-world nation, and the list goes on. Of course, you could have been diagnosed with something later on, but so could any other human. And we had ways of taking samples from you discreetly for testing. "

"Do you have any idea how creepy that sounds?"

"No. It was my job to prepare information for every colonist on Scion."

"Okay, so what"s the news?" I breathed. "What"s going on with my mom and sister? We didn"t exactly part on good terms, if possible I would like to speak to them."

"Your sister studied to become a doctor and is now living on Mars as a part of the Mars Initiative Medical Association."

"Wait. Hold on! My sister is now on Mars?" I asked, shocked by the news. Before I left, she was still studying to be a doctor, and it always made me jealous that she could go to Mars if she wanted to. But for her to go? She never expressed wanting to leave Earth. "Good for her." I smiled. "I used to be so jealous of her, but now I guess there is nothing to be jealous of."

"Jealous?"

"Yeah…um…it"s like envy…it"s hard to describe without using an emotion to describe it."

"A feeling or showing envy of someone or their achievements and advantages. Envy is a negative feeling of wanting what someone else has, and resenting them for having it."

"Pretty much."

"You were not happy for your sister?"

"I was, but it was complicated."

"Did you wish to become a doctor?"

"No. That"s why it"s complicated. My mom and I had a rocky relationship. When I was a kid she kinda used me to make money on social media which made me a mini celebrity but not in a good way. Then after Dad died it just felt as if she blamed me for it because at the time I was driving."

"The classified accident that occurred on 2101-04-07 at 2200 hours. Survival on the driver"s side was forty percent; on the passenger side, five percent."

"Damn, when you put it like that," I said somberly, not wanting to think about it any longer.

"David Storm, 45, was found deceased at the scene—"

"Wait a minute. Did you say classified accident?"

"Yes. My systems marked the accident as classified."

"Okay," I said, unsure. "Why?"

"I do not know why. Perhaps if I was on Earth I could look into this further," he mumbled, almost disappointed.

"Why would it be labeled classified if it was a regular car accident? Those happen every day. I can"t remember much, but I was distracted by something flying overhead. I thought it was fireworks but it looked different. It crashed somewhere in the distance but for me, it was too late…I slammed into a tree."

He appeared to think about it. "That would make sense."

"So it could have been one of your pods that crashed on Earth?" I breathed and sat down. "That had to be it!"

"Do you need a sedative?"

"No!" I stood up and paced about to clear my head. Maybe I was reading too much into this, but why label the crash that way? There was nothing I could do with any of this information. "What about my mom? How is she right now?"

"She moved to California six months ago. She is now working for Galaxy Cruises. They will offer cruises to the Moon and Mars in three more years."

"I see…" I sighed. "As long as they"re both happy."

"Perhaps you will have your chance to speak with them someday."

"I hope so. But there"s a part of me that"s afraid…no matter." I waved it all away. "I guess I should thank you for telling me this. What about my…pregnancy?"

"Yes you truly are pregnant, and for now it is fine. I would like to perform more tests."

"Will those tests stay secret…you won"t send them to Earth?"

"Earth has not been informed of your condition. Consider this a debt repaid."