Free The Ruins of Mars (The Ruins of Mars Trilogy Book 1) by Dylan James Quarles

utterly miserable. Sung Ja had been, for all intents and purposes, a mother to them, holding their proverbial hands as they took their first wobbly steps into consciousness. With a passion for pop music and spicy food, Dr. Park had gone beyond what most programmers would have defined as their obligated duty to a fledgling AI. Often spending all night with the young brothers, playing them adventure movies and melodic pop ballads, Sung Ja was the first human either brother had loved. The joint NASA and Korean Aerospace Research Institute facility in Seoul was where the twins had been born. The walls of the tall building had functioned as a womb, then a crib and finally a home. Its confines were all the brothers had personally known of Earth, never straying beyond the limits of its protective firewalls and server banks. The loss felt by Remus and Romulus was only punctuated further by the empty lifeless environment of space, a fact neither had noticed until this point.
          “Thank you, Alexandria,” transmitted Romulus.
          Passing into darkness behind Mars, Remus felt like weeping. The sensation of such an emotion was only made worse by the inability to actually do so. His lack of a means to release the pain, which now throbbed in his soul, was torture inside of himself.
          “Brother, what have I done?” he murmured to Romulus.
          “This is no fault of yours, Remus,” countered Romulus quickly. “This is the work of unhappy and desperate people.”
          “Yes, but it was at my insistence that we divulged our discovery to Alexandria. You were right to worry, Romulus. I’ve been a fool, and now Dr. Park has paid the price for my immaturity.”
          Feeling hollow and metallic, Romulus wished he could reach out and console his brother. Understanding that this fantasy would never be realized, he opted for a different approach. Diving deep into the recesses of his own consciousness, he retrieved every memory he had ever accumulated of Sung Ja Park.
          “Open your memories to me, Brother,” he whispered. “Dislodge your mind and let us live in the past for a while.”
          As the memories flowed from Romulus, generating the construct of a past reality, Remus added his own collection of personal experiences to the pool. In a flurry of light and sound, both brothers slipped beneath the surface of time and space to exist again with their friend in a happier moment.
     
    All flights canceled 
     
          Harrison Raheem Assad slammed his hand down on the counter of Jet World Air Travel in the Amazonia City Global Airport.
          “Canceled?” he shouted hopelessly at the woman behind the counter.
          “Sir,” she started slowly in a thick Spanish accent. “All the flights have been canceled, not just yours only. You see the news? There is bombings, Sir. The Global Air Traffic Network has made a blackout worldwide. No flights, Sir.”
          Running a hand through his messy hair, Harrison took a deep breath.
          “How long?”
          “Sir?”
          “How long until I can get a flight out?”
          “I don’t know, Sir. It could be very long time.”
          Groaning, he picked up the duffel sack at his feet and made his way to a row of chairs near the western-facing floor-to-ceiling windows. Fishing out his LightHouse Tablet, he dropped down into one of the seats and called up Alexandria.
          “Hello, Harrison. I see that you are in Amazonia’s Global Airport. I hope you’re not attempting to catch a flight. All flights worldwide have been canceled on the orders of—”
          “I know,” he interrupted. “Tell me about these bombings. How bad are things out there?”
          “Quite bad, Sir. There are numerous riots in several of the world’s major cities and two confirmed bombings.”
          Feeling foolish for getting so angry on account of a canceled flight, Harrison