Aloha Orion’s Spur fans. “Sea of Salt” continues to move forward slowly. This week I wanted to share a piece of Chapter 8. Justin and Ada are enjoying their honeymoon on the island of Maui. They notice that they are being followed on the Road to Hana. Fearing a possible kidnapping attempt the couple decide to pull over and confront the people following them (not necessarily a bright idea). They are in for a surprise.
Note: Remember this is part of an extended rough draft and may not look like this after I go through three proofreading and editing steps 😊
The black sand and rocky beach against the blue sky was very inviting, but rather than moving toward the beach, Justin pulled over near several other cars with people entering and exiting.
The Toyota pulled over to the next available parking spot along the road, three parked cars back.
Justin wearing brightly colored swimming shorts and a t-shirt that did not quite cover his midriff, and Ada wearing full length white beachwear and a white straw hat walked back to the Toyota hand-in-hand. Justin stopped and tapped on the front driver side window of the car.
The electric motor of the window purred as it descended about three inches, and Justin could see the curly mop of hair of the driver.
“Why are you following us?” Justin asked bluntly.
The passenger leaned over the driver, “Dr and Mrs Nelson. We need to speak with you about an urgent matter.”
Ada growled, “What is so urgent that you want to interrupt our vacation?”
“Perhaps it would be better to discuss this somewhere private,” the curly headed man suggested.
“Why? So you can stuff us in a bag and ship us to the Yakuza?” Justin snapped.
“Yakuza?” both of the young men looked perplexed. “We wanted to talk about our fathers: Roger Eddington and Jake Rockwell. You might have known them better as Red and Rock.”
Justin stood mouth agape, Ada recovered more quickly, “We’re so sorry for your loss. They were great men.”
“We know, but they never finished what they started,” the curly headed man frowned. “We need your help.”
A municipal ballpark was nearby, so they moved their cars to the park and sat at a nearby picnic bench.
The curly haired man-boy started. He looked like he might be between 20 and 30, but sounded like he was still a teenager, I’m Jon-E and this is my friend E-tan. For starters, Roger and Jake were both pseudonyms and technically they weren’t parents as you know them but our guardians and sector leaders. R-kay and J-kay are closer to their real names.”
E-tan continued, “When we learned the destination of your mission, we realized that you had likely discovered the cache of Kolob, so they managed to get berths on the ship.
“We are not from Earth, although we have lived here for several generations,” Jon-E volunteered. “As we are refugees, so are you. We believe your ancestors came from Mars, most of ours were from Lantis, the planet that exploded creating what you refer to as the Asteroid Belt.”
Justin remained silent, but Ada quizzed, “You’re not from Earth? You claim we’re not from Earth? Where are you getting your information? What source?”
We can go into that later, but R-kay and J-kay were supposed to monitor your mission and if you were successful in retrieving kolob they were to either negotiate for, or if need be steal some kolob pearls.”
“Why?” Justin jumped back into the conversation.
“Our world, the moon you know as Enceladus, is dying. Our energy sources are nearly spent. It was by happenchance that we had a large research center in Enceladus when Lantis exploded,” Jon-E put his arms out open handed. “We need your help. We need to speak with your leader, Marshall Salt. We cannot get to him without your assistance. He always has bodyguards nearby to intercept and send us on our way.”