Athena Lee Chronicles 7: The Martian Inheritance Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Copyrights

  Authors Notes

  Chapter 1

  The music was loud, the lights were flashing, and the dancers were hot and sweaty. And I was having what had to be one of the best times of my entire life. The new nightclub we were in was jumping! Dar and I were out on the dance floor with several dozen other couples trying to keep up with the dance moves flashing on the big screens on the walls. It was something new called ‘line dancing.’ The dances moved with the flow of the music. Left-foot, right-foot, thrust, wave your arms, the dances were filled with similar movements. I like to think we were a striking couple out on the floor. Dar looked particularly good in her dance outfit. Clothing with sparkles built into it was all the rage, and every time the lights flashed we sparkled. The club had a huge mirror ball in the ceiling that was throwing flashing lights and sparks in every direction.

  “Athena, how did you get tickets to this place? I heard from one on my Marines this is the hottest new club on the planet!”

  “Dar I just knew someone.”

  “You just have to tell me who! Just the tickets would have been enough, but a private box and all those free drinks? Hon, who do you know to swing something like this?” Since it was obviously bugging her, I grabbed her arm and dragged her back to the VIP section. We had a private booth and our own waiters.

  I pushed her down on the bench, and gave her a big kiss. Wrapping my arms around her shoulders I threw in a big hug. “Thanks for looking out for me. This club is owned by the author of those new business books that everyone is talking about? The guy that somehow screwed that publishing company over?”

  “I remember that guy. It was on the news Vid how nobody knows who he really is.”

  “Yeah, him. He gave me the tickets and arranged for all this. The employees here are in awe that we ‘know’ the guy that employs them. No one here has ever met him.”

  “Who the hell is this guy? If he tries something you’ll tell me right? I mean…”

  I started laughing. My big protective teddy bear. I leaned over and gave her another toe curling kiss. I put my lips next to her ear and whispered. “It’s not like that. You know him too.”

  She pulled back from me and stared incredulously at me. “I do?”

  I settled her back down and continued to whisper. “I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out. The Author and owner’s name is Wilson Theai.”

  “Theai? What kind of name is that?”

  I laughed again. “Think about it, sweetie.”

  He face got all scrunched up as she thought about it, then she froze and looked at me. “No! Really?”

  “He told me that he got the credits for the club from some project that he had. You know how he is. He evades answering most questions.”

  “But how? He'd have to talk and communicate with inspectors and officials. And how did he hire all these people?”

  “He can do this hologram that is pretty impressive, if he has to everything else can be done by vid. I mean, he did it didn’t he?”

  Dar started laughing with me. “Only you Athena! Only you could have an AI that opened his own Disco club!”

  “I thought for sure that the robotic bartenders would have given it away? Well, that and this archaic music that he’s playing.”

  Dar was watching the RAM robots as they served drinks. They were pretty good at keeping up. “I really don’t like the new name for those robots of yours.”

  “Well, the factory president thought that it was ‘catchy.’ I really don’t care. The credits from the sales let me fund the tech schools and help the orphans that the revolution created.”

  “You really should take credit for all that.”

  “No, I have enough notoriety around here. Let the foundation we set up take the credit.” I smiled at Dar. She was having a really good time. It was time for more dancing. I pulled her up off the bench and we joined the others out on the dance floor. The DJ was mixing some of the newer dance music in with the much older stuff. The song playing had a good beat and we could dance to it. It was something about ‘family’ but it was so loud in here that I couldn’t hear the words properly. The louder music faded out and a slower tune came on. Dar wrapped her strong arms around me and we danced with the other couples out on the floor. This night just could not get any more perfect. The music ended and more upbeat music began. I pulled Dar off the dance floor and we went up to the bar. The RAM robot was spinning around on the floor and dancing to the music. This particular one seemed to be a bit more articulated than the others.

  “Wilson, if you keep shaking the rear end of that robot, it’ll just fall off!” I knew that he just had to be in here somewhere, the little devil can’t stay away from this music for some reason.

  The robot froze at my words and turned in my direction. “Athena, how did you know it was me?”

  Those words came from inside my head. I noticed that the robot had returned to making drinks. The beat of the music had changed and it was more poppy sounding. I took the drink and turned back to Dar, nodding my head back toward the VIP area. She followed me back and we sat down facing each other. “Wilson I knew you just had to be in here somewhere, you can’t pass up good music.”

  He laughed and my whole head vibrated. “I think one of my creators programmed it into me long ago. Something about this music seems right to me?” Anyway, how are two enjoying the club?”

  I relayed what he’d said to Dar. She asked him, “How did you do all of this? It must have cost a fortune!”

  “I ‘found’ some credits and was already planning this when the Cabal attacked the planet. This building used to belong to Hannibal. I bought it cheap, no one wanted to own something that a known traitor had. Everything was really easy. I made a whole bunch of credits when I swindled, I mean published those books.”

  “We know what you did to that publisher. We both appreciate you protecting me, you know that right? But I can take care of myself.”

  I could almost hear the smirk in his voice. “Right, of course you can. I like to watch out for my big sister.”

  “Well, however you did it this club is very impressive. What are you going to do when we leave for Mars next week?”

  “That’s what I have managers for. Besides none of them have actually seen me. So how could they miss me? You girls have fun. It’s time for the robot dance!” Just like that, I could feel his presence gone from my head. Out in the club the lights were beginning to spin around and the DJ began to speak.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Thank you for this wonderful evening at The Robot Rebellion! We’re the hottest dance club this side of New Texas!” The crowd was cheering and raising their glasses high. “Now it’s time for the highlight of the evening the robot dance-a-thon!”

  All the robots had come out from behind the bar and were lining up on the dance floor. The music started, this time it was a mix tape of all he really good stuff. The RAM robots began swinging their arms to the beat and doing their version of dancing. They were pretty good! Wilson built himself a club just so he could do the robot dance,
with an audience no less! Dar and I joined the crowd and we yelled and clapped along with them.

  It was really late when we eventually arrived back at the mansion. Wilson had even arranged for a limo. The really fancy limousine came complete with an interesting driver. The extremely large man with a bald head climbed out of the front. He was dressed in a new looking tuxedo. He opened our door and helped us out of the fancy aircar. “You ladies have a nice evening” he said as he drove off. What an incredible night.

  Chapter 2

  The next morning I was extremely hung over and not feeling well. It might have been all the free alcohol that ‘Wilson’ had been pouring into me. Dar didn’t look good either, but was playing the big-tough-Marine card and wouldn’t admit to it. We got off the elevator together and walked down the hall to the main kitchen. My family had grown less formal since the revolution. Instead of big and overly formal dressy events, we now had nice quiet meals together in the breakfast nook off the kitchen. As I opened the door, the bright light shining through the windows practically blinded me and a sharp pain entered my head. “Ooh, sun…”

  My father and sister were already sitting at the table. Standing off to one side were their permanent bodyguards. When we opened the door, both of those had become very alert, seeing it was us, they stood down a bit.

  “Little sister, you need to learn how to hold your alcohol better. Look at Dar. The sun isn’t bothering her at all.” Minerva pointed at my girlfriend who was trying not to shield her eyes.

  Dar pushed past me and sat next to my sister lightly punching her on the shoulder. A stray ray of light hit Dar in the face as she sat down causing her to wince. Like me she was hurting.

  ‘Good morning Min.” I kissed her cheek. “Good morning, father.” I kissed his cheek to. This had become a sort of morning ritual for the four of us.

  As I sat at the table Sara, one of the cooks, brought me a nice cup of tea. “Ma’am, would you like a light breakfast this morning?” She had a slight gleam in her eye.

  “Thank you Sara, but no thanks. I’ll just have a piece of fruit this morning.” I reached into the bowl on the table and took a Langerine. When this planet was first colonized, a collection of fruit trees were part of the crops available. None of them would produce any fruit. Several attempts by local gardeners to try cross pollination or grafting all failed. Samples of the types of fruit trees were sent off to one of the other already established colonies to try using gene splicing to fix them. The freighter captain that took the assignment got drunk one night during transit and accidentally mixed up all the samples. In later years he would swear that the Gods made him do it. When the newly altered plants came back the fruits that grew from them were very different. The company that did the alterations even stated in court that showed their records showed that they did the process correctly. The plants thrived after alteration and now the planet boasted langerine’s, organgefruits, and Limons. The langerine’s were my favorite, I enjoyed the sharp tangy lemon testing fruit.

  I peeled my fruit and watched the interplay between Min and Dar. For all their differences the two women had become pretty good friends.

  “Did you have a good time last night?”

  “We did, thank you Min. We had the best seats in the house.”

  “I meant to ask you about that. Just how did you get tickets to that new club anyway?”

  I laughed and in a roundabout way told min how. “I know the owner, he supplied the tickets, the limo, food, and alcohol.”

  “You’ve met this guy? He’s the most mysterious man on the planet! One of the guys at the building commission said that he thought that he was some big shot from New Texas.”

  “Why would he say that he was from New Texas?”

  “What he told me was that this guy did all his business on the vid and that it was a big man wearing a cowboy hat with a ‘western accent’ that made the call.” I had to chuckle at her. Dar was snickering too.

  “OK you two, what did I say that was so funny?”

  “Min, why were you checking up on Mr Theai?”

  “I wanted to thank him for hiring so many veterans and to ask if we can use his club for a Militia fundraiser next month.”

  Laughing I pointed at the Vid screen in the kitchen. “Min, ask his yourself. He’s right there.”

  The image of a tall, thin man in blue jeans and a yellow western shirt wearing what looked like a leather vest, neckerchief, and a cowboy hat appeared on the screen. His face was long and he had deep brown eyes. “Howdy? I heard you were looking to speak with me Miss Lee.”

  Min glanced at me and silently mouthed. “How?” to me. She turned back to the screen and responded. “Yes, Mr Theai, I wanted to thank you for hiring all the Militia veterans who work at your club. I also wanted to know if we can host a charity event from there sometime next month?”

  “Well Miss Lee, I think we could do that. Give my business manager Andy White a call to set it up. I’ll let him know it’s OK from my end and the club will be all yours. Anything else I can do for you?” The cowboy had a beaming face now.

  “Will you join us for the fundraiser? I am sure that a man of your stature will solicit lots of donations.”

  “Well, darling, I would love to do that, but I’m shipping out next week for an unknown period of time.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Do you have business elsewhere to take care of?”

  The cowboy began to laugh. “No, no business. I’m on my way to Mars. In fact I’m leaving at the same time as Athena.”

  Minerva looked at me with a strange look on her face. “Athena, is this man one of your shipmates from the James Cook?”

  When she said that Dar, almost fell off her chair she was laughing so hard. I looked over at my father who had been watching us this whole time. He had a smile on his face like he knew.

  “You need to explain this to me right now! Why is what I said so funny?” She looked back at the screen and the cowboy was gone. In his place was one of the RAM units except this one had a smiley face drawn on it. “Sorry for the deception Minerva but it was too funny not to play it up.”

  “Minerva meet Wilson.” I pointed at the screen. The robot was now dancing and jumping around.

  “Your Wilson? The AI, that Wilson?” she looked over at father.

  He looked back at her and said, “You’re not thinking daughter. I suspected it the first time I heard the name. Write it out if you have to. Wilson Theai. Wilson the AI. Made sense to me. It reminded me of the word games your mother used to play.”

  He did not look too sad for once when he said that. Usually any mention of our mother shut him down completely.

  Min looked at me. “How did your AI come to own the hottest dance club on the planet?”

  “Ask him. He might even tell you.” I looked over at my father. “Dad, are you OK?”

  I rarely called him anything other than father. He looked over at me and smiled. “You haven’t called me that since you were tiny. I mentioned your mom because of where you’re going next week. As you might remember, your mother was a Martian.”

  I could vaguely remember the stories that both Min and Han had told me as a child about our mother. She had been a city girl that father had met on a trip to Mars. They had met and fallen in love. She had gone against her family and come home with him to Hong Kong. Min had played it up as like a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ style play. Our mother’s family against that of Dad’s. I'd always dismissed that aspect of the story as an exaggeration for the sake of good storytelling. But was there more that I did not know about?

  Chapter 3

  It had been a long time since I’d last seen a real smile on my father’s face. Too many years of playing politics had changed him or so I’d thought- for the worse. He had seen too much, and been responsible for too much to relax properly. But, even with all the turmoil and rebellion the last year has been somehow good for him.

  My mother. I hadn’t really thought about her at all for a long time. She had d
ied when I was almost too young to remember her. We have vids and pictures of her around here somewhere, I’ll have to ask Min for some of them.

  Alexander Lee looked at his two daughters and smiled some more. They had turned out so well! Amelia would be proud of them both. “Athena, Minerva let me tell you a bit more about your mother.” He paused. Both girls were now watching him. “I know the past … I know that in the past I have ignored or stopped you both from asking questions about her. I’m sorry about that. The pain of losing her was just too great. She would be proud of you both, you know. She loved all her children, even Hannibal. Yes, I can say his name. He was always a difficult child, easily led astray”

  “Dad, Han made his own choices and you know it.” I wasn’t going to let him believe that BS about my idiot brother.

  “Athena’s right, father. He was a little shit as a child and grew up to be a bigger one. You were too wrapped up in getting the Militia organized after the war to notice what an ass he’d become. But it’s not your fault. He just made the wrong choices.” Minerva had a grim look on her face. She had tracked down some of his friends and beaten the truth out of them. The idiots had kept records.