Chapter 314: Time to Leave
Salem blinked in surprise as she watched Jace walk quickly down the sidewalk. His mind was completely closed off from her at the moment. She could only assume that was intentional. "Salem, is something wrong?" Atlas asked as he walked past toward where there people were. She looked at him with surprise before she realized he had never seen him face-to-face before.
Atlas had mentioned encountering him on Vexical Prime. But it was clear Jace had worn armor the entire time that he was there. Because he had just seen Jace and did not react in the slightest aside from being momentarily surprised.
"Yes, but let’s hurry and get the others." She answered and then picked up her pace.
They arrived quickly at the front of the book store just as the others were stepping out of it. Marcus was already waiting outside of it along with a group of civilians who were checking out the commotion.
"Attilo, Yuti, are you okay?" Salem asked as they split away from the pack of civilians.
"Yeah, but what the hell was that?" Attilo responded but Yuti was frowning, probably running through the situation in her mind.
"A Spectre." Salem answered and looked down the street where a police vehicle pulled onto the street. "Did you get the thing?" Yuti waved a data pad in the air. "Good, we need to get off this planet. Let’s get back to the ship." Salem led the way as she moved at a speed walking pace.
"What did you mean by a Spectre?" Atlas ran after her. Walking beside her as they moved. But it was clear the others were listening in on their conversation. Which reminded her.
"Dag, get everything squared away with the dock so we can leave as soon as we arrive. Ram, scrub this channel we are going to have to go dark. No more digital communications until we are far away from this planet." Salem ordered as she realized she would have to play this cautiously since she had no idea of the reason that Jace was on this moon.
She then pulled out the listening device and put it in her pockets. The others did the same. "What is going on?" Attilo asked. But Marcus was oddly quiet.
Salem pulled the data pad from Yuti’s hand and began memorizing the information. "I am going to memorize the first part of this information. Then Atlas will memorize another part. Then Yuti will memorize the last portion of the information." Salem informed them as she memorized the information while she was walking. Making certain that every character was ingrained in her mind. She could actually see a piece of paper with what she was memorizing appear in her mind palace on a desk. It was still grainy but after a few minutes of walking and memorizing, the memory was complete and she could recall it easily. She passed the data pad to Atlas next.
She rounded a corner and flinched in surprise as they almost ran face first into a pair of police officers. She felt panicked for a moment before she smiled and slightly bowed. "Excuse us," She apologized and walked around them.
After a few more minutes Atlas passed the data pad to Yuti. They soon arrived at the space dock they landed at. It was a dock for smaller ships and was inexpensive. It had to be because they were operating on a budget. But it also meant that their hangar was shared with three other ships.
They walked right through but as they walked toward their ship they could see a set of police officers going around from ship to ship. Yuti handed forward the data pad. "Explain. Now." Atlas demanded as they walked up the ramp of their ship.
"Dag, Ram, have the officers come to our ship yet?" Salem asked as she pulled out the earbud and tossed it into a small open box. She then snapped her fingers and pointed at it. Making a point to catch the others attention, giving a wordless order.
"Not yet." Dag responded.
"Yuti, get to the controls. We are going to the edge of the system first." Salem informed her as she went to the ship ramp. Dag was getting a bit better at being a pilot. But she wanted someone with experience at the helm as well.
As Salem walked she was suddenly stopped as Atlas grabbed her arm. He glared at her. "You have a minute, so explain. How do you know a Spectre was involved? For all we know it could just be a foreign operative. I certainly did not see a fully armored soldier out there."
Salem let out a breath of air and glanced out of the ship. The police officers were not quite at their ship just yet. She then looked back at him. "A Spectre is not some armored soldier. If it was there would be dozens of them. They are an entirely new race of humans evolved from nanohumans. You met Jace on Vexical Prime right?" She asked as he and the others reeled back in shock at this revelation.
"I did, yeah." Atlas nodded his head.
"I think that is the one that caught me and Shepard as well." Marcus pointed out.
"That makes sense. Shepard mentioned that as well I think." Atlas agreed and looked back to Salem and then the information clicked for him. "That man we encountered while going to check on Attilo and Yuti. That was one of the Spectres and you recognized them on sight?"
"Not just any Spectre. That was Spectre Jace." Salem told them and saw the police officers were walking towards their ship ramp now.
"Why did they not come after us?" Marcus was the one who asked.
"Because they were not part of his orders." Salem answered as she stepped away to talk to the officers and get them to let them leave. Practicing a bit of mind control on them to influence them to let Salem’s group leave without an issue.