A Fortunate Accident – Chapter 19

Filling out forms is annoying and tiresome work. There’s nothing I want to do more than crawl into bed and sleep, but I have calls to make.

The connection to the data access point is up and running at one-hundred percent, so I sign into my Estrela view and move access to the tablet to give my ocular implant a break. If I use it too much, I often get a headache, and I don’t have time for that today.

I want to call Amira. It’s been a long time since I talked to her, and I miss her. But she’s running shipments for her family in the Californikos System, and universal time puts her in the dead of night. I shoot off a quick text to her, telling her we’ll meet up soon. Maybe I can convince her to join me for a vacation on Laguna? I could really use a break.

When Marcelo’s face appears before me, everything relaxes. I sink down into my chair and smile. It’s nice to smile because I’m happy to see him.

“Oh, good,” he says with a deep sigh. “You’re alive.”

I throw my head back with a laugh. “That is so not the greeting I was expecting. Did you think I had perished in the jungle?”

“Yes. Yes, I had.” His face is serious, with a deep frown. “You would not believe what’s been happening here.”

My stomach jumps up into my throat. “What? What’s been happening?” My face cools as all the blood leaves my head. Whatever it is, it’s serious. “You got my update reports, right? I had to send plain text because our data access point was getting shitty reception to the satellites in our last camp.”

“We did get them, and that’s how I knew you were alive. But Dominic has been here three times, the last time with the local Rio police, saying they had found you dead in the jungle, and he owns the Amagi now.”

“What?” My voice cracks on the word.

Marcelo shrugs. “You were unreachable, and he had some kind of certificate? I’m not sure what he hoped to prove, but Lia and Carlos refused to open the ship for him each time. We all had your updates, but Dominic kept saying they were faked.”

I close my eyes and push out a long breath. “For fuck’s sake, that man is willing to kill me, both metaphorically and physically, in order to get his way. It’s insane.”

“You have to be careful, Skylar. If he doesn’t get the ship, he’ll come after you.” Marcelo rubs his chin. “You should have more security wherever you are.”

I shake my head. “I’m unreachable. We move every few days because the military catches up to us, but I don’t think he’d sneak through the jungles to find me.”

That would be suicide.

But didn’t I just say that he’s insane?

“Don’t put it past him.” Marcelo sighs. “It’s a good thing you got the AI upgraded on the ship. Nanci is watching the ship’s security night and day. And Ai, well, she’s trying to keep everyone entertained as we sit here under siege.”

“Are you not leaving at all?” Oh, now I feel bad. I’m out and about, and everyone back on the ship is stuck there when we’re sitting on a planet.

“Lia goes out to get groceries. You know she has no fear. I have powered up my shuttle and flown to Segundo a few times. We’re getting out. Carlos is the only one holed up with his work.”

I frown at this. Carlos is always in a better mood when he can get fresh air frequently. He goes stir crazy if he works too much. I will need to call him next.

“What did you go to Segundo for?”

His frown lightens, and he relaxes a little. “To see some family. One of my network brothers was in town. I also needed to meet up with someone I’m considering for your network. Then I went back to Segundo to pick up Yan Martinez.”

Yan Martinez is one of Carlos’s old friends. His hobby is reviving ancient Earth tech, but his main job is doing database work for security companies.

“Yan’s there? What’s Carlos got him doing?”

“Uh, looking at the videos he’s been mining from your family’s security network, I think.”

It’s telling that Marcelo doesn’t want to make eye contact with me through the call.

“You think? Did you see them?”

He sighs. “I’ll let Carlos fill you in.”

I run my fingers through my hair and consider his reply. Either he saw the videos where I’m abused, and it made him mad or uncomfortable or whatever. Or he saw doctored videos, and now he thinks I’m a big fat lying liar. I twist my hair up off my neck and tie it in a messy bun. My suite is air-conditioned, but it’s still too hot and humid in here at all times.

“Okay,” I say, drawing out the word into many syllables. “And what’s this about someone you’re considering for my network?”

This loosens him up a bit, and he produces a smile. “Believe it or not, this one stood out as a suitable candidate because you want to start your own shipping company. But I’m not going to tell you about him yet because he’s considering what he wants to do in the long run. Be patient. How are things going with you and Saif and Kalvin?”

“Well…” I grimace.

“Spill it, Skylar. Tell me everything.”

I roll my eyes, but I start with the disastrous trip to see Saif’s family, the ensuing fight, Kalvin’s time with me in the jungle, his family troubles, the starbats, the spiderphants, the kiss I shared with Takemo…

“And then I slept with Kalvin last night,” I say with a shrug and a smile.

“I can tell from your smile that went well.” He chuckles and shakes his head.

“We have good chemistry. He’s still the pretty boy high-flyer, but now he’s my pretty boy high-flyer.” I point to my palm. “I have him right here.” I close my hand into a fist. “That is until he flies off to somewhere else.”

“Do you really think he’d do that?” Marcelo asks, tipping his head to the side.

“Look at what Saif pulled. Most men leave me eventually. I become boring and annoying, and they salute, grab their bags, and head off into the sunset.”

“Skylar, the whole point of this exercise is to find men who are going to stick around for a place in your network. I know you haven’t had the best of luck in the past, but it’s different this time.”

I shake my head again. “I still have nothing valuable to offer them.”

“Let me remind you once again, it’s not just a business transaction. Even Vivian, who desperately needed the money, found men who fell in love with her and wanted to stay if she got the farm or not.”

I want to say, “But who is going to fall in love with me?” Because I still don’t see why anyone would. I’ve been told my whole life that I’m useless. That I’m a terrible person. That I don’t deserve what little I have. Maybe Dominic and my mother and the rest of my family are right. Maybe this is all a useless endeavor, and if I just let them have the Amagi, they’ll tell me I’m worthy again. My heart aches as I remember the times, long ago, when my mother and father would dote on me, hug me, tell me they loved me, no matter what. They had made me feel valued for a short time.

I turn my face from the vidcall and stare out the window. I’m only here because of some stupid gene that allows me to metabolize the plants. If that didn’t exist, I’d be living in the closet on Vivian’s farm, the Amagi would be in Dominic’s hands, and Saif and Kalvin? They’d be gone. I’m not here with India because I’m a great pilot, because my skills are second to none. I’m here because I’m abnormal. It’s completely pointless.

“You will find men who love you. I’m sure of it,” Marcelo says, his voice quiet.

I inhale and let the shaky breath out before I turn back to Marcelo. “Yeah, well, I guess we’ll see about that.”

I sniff up, angry that my emotions have gotten the better of me.

“Keep an eye on Dominic for me, okay? Oh! I forgot. I had Ai keep tabs on him before I left. I’m sure she’s got reports saved up in her queue. Why don’t you go to her and see what she’s been tracking on him?”

“Sure. I can do that. So, do you need anything?” he asks, raising his eyebrows. “Supplies? Chocolate? A trip to Laguna?”

I laugh. “All of that. I need it all.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” His eyes crinkle with humor. Good. I like to end calls on high notes.

“I need to call Carlos now, so I’m going to let you go. Stay safe, okay?”

“You too,” he says.

We wave to each other as the call ends.

I sigh and sit back in my chair, drumming my fingers on the desk. Calling Carlos will open a bucket of worms, and they’ll all come slithering out. But there’s nothing I can do about it. I set these events in motion. Now I have to deal with them.

Carlos answers right away.

“Hey, Skylar,” he says, melting into his chair. “You’re alive.”

My grin is too big to contain. “I didn’t realize everyone was going to be so worried about me. Sorry I didn’t check in sooner.”

He rubs his face with an open palm. “You didn’t think we’d be worried about our friend who also gives us a paycheck?”

“Consider me corrected.” I press my hand over my heart. “But in my defense, it’s been wild here.”

Yan Martinez slides into view next to Carlos. “Hey, Skylar,” he says with a wave. “Sorry to butt in, but I’m dying to hear about Rio, too.”

“Well, I’m happy to oblige. Regarding me being out of touch, we’ve had stampedes, and we’ve already moved once. And I’m not allowed to wear my wristlet when I’m testing the plants. The first plant I tried when I got here caused me to shock everyone and everything.”

Carlos’s eyes widen. “Whoa. Really? Tell me everything.”

I repeat the same story to Carlos and Yan that I told Marcelo, and it gets better and more lavish this time. Maybe I missed my calling as a storyteller because it’s a lot more fun to tell this story after the fact than it was to live it, that’s for sure. And I bet this is not the last time I tell it, so I should memorize it and store the tale away for later.

“That’s amazing,” Carlos says, his voice filled with awe. “I never want to spend time in Rio’s jungles. I barely want to leave the ship while I’m here. Ossun is more my speed.”

“I’m partial to space myself,” Yan says, and I nod my agreement.

“I definitely prefer space to this bullshit.” I blow out a deep breath. “But I’m getting used to it, and we’re making substantial progress here, so I’m not going to complain. I don’t know how long this job will even last, so I’m taking it day by day.”

We’re all silent and staring at each other for a moment when I decide to take the plunge.

“So, tell me, what have you found with the video?”

Carlos’s face loses its cheer, and Yan glances sideways at him.

“Uh oh. I guess it’s bad news?” I ask, trying to keep a smile on my face.

Inside, though, bitterness grows at an exponential rate. If I lose this path to the truth, then what’s next? What else will be taken away from me? What more will Dominic do to keep everything hidden and drive me mad with doubts? I drop my eyes and stare at the table for a moment. I already question my sanity every day about what I remember from my childhood and whether or not I imagined it.

“Well, it’s both good news and bad news, unfortunately.”

Yan clears his throat. “Skylar, the video surveillance from your mother’s ship is there in the family’s archives on Laguna. It’s decades’ worth of data, and we’ve combed through a lot of it already. But…” His voice trails off for a moment. “But there are no videos of the abuse you encountered.”

“Fucking hell,” I whisper. I turn my eyes from them both. Then I imagined it all? I’m going insane and remembering a life I never had?

“Here’s another ‘but.’ But it’s obvious to me, and to the two colleagues I’ve shown the videos to, that what’s in the family database has been tampered with.”

I turn back to them with raised eyebrows.

Yan continues, “There’s two decades’ worth of data that’s been fucked with. Some timestamps and logs show Dominic has been in the system almost every day for twenty years, making small edits.” He shakes his head. “The man was incredibly thorough. He never missed a day when you were on board the ship. I thought maybe he was just doing routine maintenance, but then Carlos had a good idea.”

Carlos raises his finger into the air. “I know you didn’t get off the ship much as a kid.” I nod in response. “But I knew that you went to far-school a few times and then to visit Vivian on occasion. So sometimes you were away, right? I found the receipts for one of your far-school visits, and then I cross-referenced that time with the logs.”

Yan butts in. “It will not surprise you to find out Dominic logged out for the time you were away. He went years making daily changes to the video surveillance, and then boom. Suddenly, he does nothing but only because you were off the ship. That’s pretty damning.” He pokes himself in the chest. “In my opinion, that means he was erasing the evidence every day, evidence of your abuse.”

A little of the tension I’ve been holding onto eases away.

Just a little.

“Does this mean the evidence is gone, though? What do the videos show now?”

“The videos are confusing,” Carlos says, swiping at something on his screen. “Many of them just cut away from conversations you had with Dominic. Others show you yelling at him or defying him somehow, but it’s apparent part of the conversation is missing.” He shrugs. “Nothing in there damns you, nor does any of it exonerate Dominic either. It’s obvious to me that Dominic worked hard to delete the evidence of his abusive behavior, but he didn’t build up a case to make him look like a saint, either. He just wanted it gone.”

He knew what he was doing was wrong, and if anyone saw the video, he would be out of my mom’s network.

“Hey, did you see if he had sent my mother video clips? Were those in the archive?”

Yan nods. “We found many of the doctored videos in archives of your mother’s inbox. Several of them are just like what we describe. Mostly you, young, less than ten? Angry and yelling with no context. There was a video of you smearing cake on Dominic?” A smile tips the corners of his lips. “That one was pretty epic, though it looks like it was bad for you.” He cringes. “The view count on it is over twenty. Your mother watched it several times. Her reply to Dominic was that he was in charge, and he could do whatever needed to be done to keep you behaving ‘in a proper manner.’”

“Uh,” Carlos interrupts, “the term she actually used was ‘keep you in line,’ as if you were some military soldier that just needed boot camp to fall into ranks.”

Yan nods. “Yeah, that was some bullshit.”

I have no words. Mom just handed me over to him. She thought I was some spoiled brat, and Dominic would cure me. I sigh, hang my head, and rub at my face with both hands.

Come on, Universe. Something needs to go right sometime soon.

“I need good news, guys, or I’m going to walk into the jungle and never come back out.” I’m not suicidal, but I’m not feeling very upbeat about my chances here.

“Okay, a little possible good news. Your family’s data archive is sitting on Laguna, and no one has ever come and dealt with the solid-state backups.” Carlos sits up and starts typing. “This means there may be archives of material that were sent to the backups before Dominic could alter them. They remove backups at this facility from the main network every five years and store them on solid-state drives. The company puts them in storage until someone comes and gets them. I’ve heard they have data drives from over three hundred years ago stored there.”

Laguna. Wasn’t Marcelo just saying I could have a trip to Laguna? Hmmm, maybe I can make that happen.

“So, there’s a chance we may obtain some original videos that weren’t tampered with before they were backed up,” Yan says, sliding back into view. “But it’s only a possibility. Dominic was pretty thorough, and he’s well aware of the backups, even if he’s never accessed them.”

“It’s worth a shot to go after them.” I feel deep down in my gut that this is my only option. It’s my word against Dominic’s and Mom’s, and with my reputation around the Duo Systems not being so stellar, no one would believe me. “In the meantime, you should follow any other clues you can find.”

Carlos smiles and salutes. “You’ve got it. I’m following other leads too. We’ll crack this case. I promise.”

“Thank you, Carlos. Make sure you go outside and get some fresh air, okay?”

He rolls his eyes. “Yes, Mom.”

Even though his smile sticks with me after I sign off, I can’t help but feel the doubt pull me down.

I need something to go right.

Soon.