CHAPTER 172: THE HANDYMAN’S SIXTH SENSE

Long-range sensors of the planet’s defense system had alerted them to an approaching vehicle from deep space. Through a prerecorded message, it identified the ship as an Earth Alliance cargo ship bringing supplies from far away.

The whole planet was abuzz. This was an unscheduled event, but it would be welcomed—they had two weeks to get ready for its arrival. According to what size cargo ship it was, it could have anywhere from 50 to 150 crew members plus its captain, pilot, medical staff, and a few others.

The day had arrived. The layover for the crew of the cargo freighter was to begin with landings near the sites. The cargo would come later, after everyone was notified that they did not have cargo onboard. Ed Hawthorne was one of the main ones waiting for specialized instrumentation and supplies for solar arrays. Zach went along as his guest, and they met with the inventory manager. They were also greeted by the navigator and chief pilot, Kevin Hollis—a young man only about 28 years old. Very young to be the main navigator. What they didn’t know was that Kevin had spent most of his life in cryogenic stasis, only waking up to pilot the ship into the ports, awake at the ports while he was there, ranging takeoff, setting course, and going back into stasis. He was much older than his 28 years—very much older.

Zach invited Kevin to come out and see the Z1 and to take a preemptive tour of the new Genmen Museum library and education areas, soon to be open to all. When Zach mentioned that there was a café restaurant that would be opening there with an impeccable chef running the place, making one-of-a-kind dishes of food, he was all on board.

Kevin was amazed to see all the Genmen and also hybrids living almost parallel to the humans. He longed for Walt, his true love that had passed away. If he could only see this place, he would be amazed.

Jake decided that it was Malcolm’s responsibility to go pick up Navigator First Class Kevin Hollis and bring him back to the ranches so that he could tour them.

Kevin got one look at Malcolm and almost backed out on the visit. Malcolm smiled at him and looked at him suspiciously.

"Don’t worry, I won’t bite. I got my own sweet thing at the house—he’s about three months along with our first child," Martin smiled and chuckled. "I’ll let you know right now he’s a hybrid, and I couldn’t be prouder." He pulled out his phone and flipped through it, showing him different pictures of him and Richie together, him holding Richie’s baby bump, which looked about like the size of a basketball. Talk about one proud daddy and equally proud father—they were in love.

All this made Kevin sad. He missed Walt and their family, and especially the youngest one who was missing, possibly lost forever.

"So, Kevin, you got a family somewhere? Someone special that makes your heart flutter?"

With a deep sigh, Kevin replied, "I had someone special and I once had a family, but I haven’t seen them in years, ever since the outpost was raided."

"Oh, dude, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry—I didn’t mean to bring up a painful event."

"No, it’s okay. It happened years ago. I was gone on one of my trips—I had been taking short trips because we had just had our last child. A set of raiders pierced the defense system, took who and what they wanted and left everyone to starve. Walt died of a broken heart. Our youngest one was kidnapped—he was only a month old and placed into a stasis pod. Two of the older boys were killed in a skirmish, as were two of my grandsons and a couple of sons-in-law. I relocated my family to a different planetary system that was habitable where they could farm, and I went back to search for the youngest. It’s been years and I don’t know if he’s even alive." Kevin paused. "I’ve got pictures of my family if you care to see them. I don’t mind because it makes me remember how much I love them."

He opened the electronic album to the picture of the baby—couldn’t have been more than a month old. Something hit Malcolm when he saw the picture. That child looked familiar. As he thumbed through the different photographs, Kevin showed him the oldest, Walter, and the next was Rayden. He almost lost control of the buggy because there was a resemblance to someone else, someone very close. He needed to get this young man to the main house—he needed to make a visit. Something wasn’t right here.

Malcolm dropped Kevin off at the main house and headed as fast as he could to Constantine’s. He entered the door and was out of breath.

"Constantine, I’ve got to ask you a question. What do you know about Stephen’s background?"

"Nobody knows anything. He was brought in for one of the breeding programs, then he left. He had two children when he escaped, so we gave them sanctuary here. He conceived another child when it was time for him to go into cycle years later, and he met Clark when he was pregnant and they converted the children. Why all these questions?"

"I just brought out the navigation specialist for the cruiser ship that’s orbiting. His name is Kevin Hollis—he’s about 28 years of age physically because he’s lived in stasis most of his life. But I found out that he has a family, and it’s a Genman family. He’s human, so all of his offspring are hybrid, and Mr. Stephen is also hybrid, correct?"

"He’s looking for a son that was taken and placed into a stasis pod when the outpost was attacked and raided. But what is scary is the two older boys, Walter and Rayden, are dead ringers for Stephen. In fact, if you superimposed the pictures, they would line up perfectly. I need some DNA, and Lex has to run it against each other to see if Stephen is this man’s son."

"Not a word to anyone, Malcolm. We need to go talk to Uncle Z and tell him what you saw."

Constantine and Malcolm made a beeline to the main house. Constantine could see what Malcolm meant by the resemblance of Kevin and Stephen. He asked to proceed for a private audience—he had something that he needed to talk to him about that was very important before a tour of the Z1 was allowed.

Kevin understood and went to the library and waited for their special meeting.