Chapter 15
Is That Supposed to be Part of the Plan?
[Aria]
Aria found her tools slipping from her hand as she worked on the last bit of the day's work work. She was still feeling strangely lost, a feeling that had been a constant companion since the previous night. Today was a day that she'd truly never thought would come and yet here she was, waking up to a day where the were going to attempt an escape, and she of all people would be leading the charge. She was far from convinced that things would work out perfectly, but she had to admit that her mother and the rest of them had worked out a very foolproof plan. She ran the events of the night before in her head once again.
*******
"To..to..tomorrow," stuttered Harry, eyes wide with shock.
Aria herself couldn't utter a word. Sure they'd been told that there was a very real possibility that tomorrow was the day, but to see it actually happen was something else entirely. If the dampness around their mother's eyes was anything to go by, it didn't look like she'd quite realized the magnitude either.
"Yes," said Mrs. Kane, "look, I know you guys are going to want to process this in a minute, but let's all try and put aside our emotions for a second and get through this quickly. A decision has been made and we can't delay it any longer than tomorrow night." She moved to dab her eyes with a small tissue before giving them both a pleading look.
Aria and Harry exchanged a look and a silent pact passed between them and they turned to face their mother with a determined expression and a nod.
*******
Their mother had quickly pointed out the route that they would have to follow, mostly glossing over it. As their mother had said, it was pretty self explanatory, and Harry had probably already memorized it by now. It wouldn't be too hard for Aria with his help to lead the rest of their little group out towards the outer wall. The difficult part would be finding a time to discuss all of this with the other three.
Aria had tried to point out why doing all of this so fast would be a terrible idea but her mother's reasoning was sound as always. The data that they'd managed to siphon in the mission run by the tech team behind the escape couldn't be allowed to sit for more than a day or else the data codes would give them away before they had a chance to get out. They'd only discovered that once the data had been acquired which had been the cause of the unusually short notice that had caught all of them by surprise.
As Aria mechanically moved about her task, she remembered the next bit of shocking news that had been delivered along with the small device currently tucked securely into one of her pockets. A rather fragile device that held humanity's one last hope.
*******
"Okay, that's the route out. It's not too important. All five of you are very smart kids. You won't have much trouble there. This," began Mrs. Kane, presenting Aria with the long thing device," is where things get a bit more complicated."
Aria had simply nodded, allowing her mother to continue.
"Let's all be honest, getting outside is one thing, but all it really accomplishes is putting the five of you in arguably more danger with no real payoff unless there is a way for us to try and fully free ourselves," said Mrs. Kane.
Aria nodded. She'd refrained from acknowledging that earlier at the meeting, but it felt good to have her mother actually acknowledge that rather large elephant in the room.
"Well, this time why we're all so excited about this is because we have a plan finally," said Mrs. Kane, "we actually had one in the works for a long time but we had not enough evidence to act on it, but that pod that crashed. It changes everything. Do you know what the designation MWSC stands for?"
Harry shook his head. "Milky Way something, but that's all I managed to think of."
"It stands for Milky Way Space Cruiser," she began, "and The Rainbow is a very particular kind of space cruiser, designed and built on Earth."
"What?" said both siblings at once.
"There's more than one Earth," began Mrs. Kane.
*******
The conversation that had followed had been hands down the craziest one Aria had ever had in her short life.
The torch in her hand sparked and Aria was pulled away from her thoughts on the events of last night. She tried to focus on the task at hand. The last thing I will ever do for them. The gravity of that
statement was getting ever more powerful as the clock ticked down to the last
moments to their plan. In a few short minutes, they'd finish their shift and go meet the other two where this route would be discussed. Then in less than an hour considering depending on how long it would take to finish that discussion, they'd be on their way out. Aria and Harry had already told Daisy about the GPS device currently in her pocket, but they'd decided not to waste time explaining all of that to Kate and Ryan just yet. That plan could be discussed if they made it out. There was no point wasting time on that until they were outside and said plan was viable.
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