by A. K. DuBoff
Kira clipped the badge to the front of her dress. “You’ve got it, Martha. Thanks for your help.”
“Enjoy your time!”
Leon headed toward a security archway to the right. He flashed his badge at the guard standing next to the arch and was beckoned through.
Kira smiled at the guard while she pointed to her badge and followed Leon.
The guard held up his hand to stop her. “Please remove the ID card and hand it to me, miss.”
Yep, definitely not waltzing in here without an express invitation. Remaining calm, she did as she was told.
The guard studied the ID and consulted a hidden monitor on a kiosk in front of him. “Says here you’re active duty Tararian Guard.”
“On personal leave at the moment,” Kira replied.
“No foreign military is allowed into the facility.”
Kira glanced at Leon. “Oh, come now. We’ll all be part of the Empire soon enough, right?”
“They issued her credentials. The system would have flagged her if it was a problem,” Leon interjected.
“You a native of Valta?” the guard asked Kira.
“I am.”
“Ah, that’s it. Locals are an exception.”
She breathed an inward sigh of relief. “I’m excited to see what new industry has come to my hometown,” she said with a cheery tone to mask the sarcasm behind her words.
“Enjoy your visit.” The guard handed back her badge.
“Thanks, have a good afternoon.” Kira stepped through the archway after Leon.
They passed through a secured entry and entered a white hallway lined with doors.
“That was more intense than I expected,” Kira said as soon as the outer door was closed.
“Lots of IP in there. Just want to make sure nothing walks out that’s not supposed to,” Leon replied. An upward shift in his eyes indicated that he was filtering his response for the benefit of the surveillance system.
“I appreciate their dedication.”
Leon picked up his pace. “It’s a top-notch group.”
“You’re just saying that because you work here,” Kira jested.
“Hey, I never said the opinion wasn’t biased.” He winked at her.
“Yeah, whatever. Get this tour going.”
Leon led her down the hall to an intersection and took a left. The hall opened into a common room filled with round tables. A buffet line was set up along the back wall, and along the right wall was an expansive screen depicting nature images ranging from majestic landscapes to little fuzzy critters.
He held out his arm in grand fashion. “I present to you… the cafeteria.”
Kira had made up the lunch room ruse at the front desk, but she did have to admit the cafeteria beat the mess hall at Orion Station hands down. “All right, I’m impressed.”
“But I know what you really wanted to see was my workspace.” Leon crossed the cafeteria, heading for a door on the opposite wall.
“Just curious how you spend your day,” she replied for the camera’s benefit. And getting some time on the network wouldn’t be all bad…
After a brief walk down the hall beyond the cafeteria, the corridor terminated in an open space filled with workstations. A dozen individuals were scattered around the room, and they looked up with curious expressions when Kira entered.
“Everyone, this is Kira,” Leon introduced. “She’s an old friend of mine. We grew up together.”
“Oh, another Valtan native?” a thin man with dark complexion commented from a nearby station.
“Yeah, I am,” Kira replied.
“You have any of those special gifts everyone’s always talking about?” he asked.
“She does,” Leon replied before Kira had a chance to stop him.
“Really?” the man’s eyes widened. “What can you do?”
“Oh, nothing too special,” Kira replied, casting a silencing glare toward Leon.
“A Reader, huh?” a musical female voice said from across the room. “Now that’s something I have yet to experience.”
“Dr. Waylon!” Leon’s face flushed. “I wasn’t expecting to see you over here.”
“You know how I like to make the rounds.” The brown-haired woman fixed her gaze on Kira. “Who’s your friend?”
“Kira, ma’am,” she replied. “And you are…?”
“Monica Waylon. You might consider me the director of this facility.”
“Well, it’s a lovely place you have here,” Kira said. “I can’t believe how much has changed since I was last in Tribeca.”
“MTech always hopes to leave a positive impact on our communities,” Monica responded with a too-sweet smile. “I’ve been so curious about the abilities of the native population here.”
“We’re not exactly native,” Kira corrected. “Our people colonized here the same time as the other Taran-occupied worlds in this sector.”
“Of course. And that makes it all the more fascinating that you so rapidly developed your unique telepathic abilities.” She folded her hands in front of her. “How old were you when your gifts emerged?”
Kira shrugged. “Around eight.”
“That’s young, isn’t it? You must be very talented.”
“There isn’t necessarily a link between the age when abilities emerge and their strength,” Kira said, skirting the truth. While it wasn’t always linked, in her case that had very much been the reality. Whereas the average age for a first Reading came around twelve, the early emergence of abilities had given her extra time with the elders to learn and study the craft.
Had she stayed with them, she likely would have been the most powerful Reader in two generations.
“I didn’t mean to imply,” Monica said in that sickeningly sweet tone. “You must forgive me—I’ve never had the chance to meet anyone of your talents before.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve met far more interesting people than me.” Kira took a subconscious step back and instinctually bolstered her mental guards.
“We were in the middle of our tour, ma’am,” Leon said, seeming to pick up on Kira’s discomfort. “We have to be out of here by 17:00.”
“Nonsense. We wouldn’t be here without the support of the Valtans,” Monica replied. “Kira, you’re welcome any time.”
“That’s very generous of you, ma’am. Thank you.”
“In fact,” the director continued, “I’d love to have the chance to meet with you in a more formal capacity.”
The question caught Kira off-guard. “Uh… Well, I’m here on vacation, actually.”
“I’d compensate you for your time, of course. I’d just like to better understand how you do what you can do.”
The last thing I need is the director of this freakshow tracking my every move. Kira gave a polite bow of her head. “I appreciate your interest, but I’m—”
“That’s a generous offer, Dr. Waylon,” Leon cut in. “I think that might be just what Kira needs to reconnect with herself. That is why you came back here, right?” he asked while turning toward her.
Kira resisted the urge to punch him in that gorgeous jaw of his. “Yes, just what I need,” she responded to him tightly, and returned her focus to the director. “Thank you, Dr. Waylon.”
“Call me Monica, please.” She flashed a smile bordering on predatory. “Come in with Leon tomorrow morning and we’ll get to know each other.”
“Can’t wait.”
“If you’ll excuse me.” Monica passed by them with a nod of farewell and disappeared into the hall.
Kira glared at Leon and mouthed, “The fok…?”
He took her by the arm and led her toward a private office. “Now, Kira, aren’t you looking forward to being a guest in this facility? You’ll get to see so much more of it.”
“Yes, right alongside the director.”
“Dr. Waylon is very busy, unfortunately. I doubt she’ll be able to spend all her time with you.”
Kira caught on. And might leave me unattend
ed in a place I couldn’t access otherwise. There were no guarantees, but it was worth a shot. She chose her words carefully in case anyone was listening in. “I look forward to whatever time with her I can get.”
Leon looked around the room. “So, anyway, this is my office.”
The room was approximately three meters square and contained a desk, a holographic workboard, and two visitor chairs.
“It’s nice.” Kira eyed the desk. “I bet with a setup like this, you don’t have to leave to access all the files you might need for a project.”
“My login is restricted, of course, but the facility is networked.”
What I wouldn’t give to have Nia or Kyle here right now, Kira lamented. Her own hacking skills were nothing to dismiss, but her Guard teammates were the real masters. She only nodded in response.
Leon waved her forward. “Come on, let’s finish the tour.”
— — —
Monica smiled to herself as she walked away from the lab’s latest visitor. In all her research, she hadn’t had access to someone of Kira’s talents; it was the one gap in her otherwise rigorous exercise of the scientific method. With all the potential knowledge to be gained, Kira might be someone worthy of Monica’s attention.
She strolled to her office deep within the facility—down in the secret D Wing only a select few knew how to access. Monica had overseen the design and construction personally to make sure it fulfilled her vision.
The observation room only had a single occupant: a brown-haired man named Jared who had replaced Tim after his unfortunate ‘accident’.
“Jared,” Monica addressed as she walked through the room, “I’d like you to look into a new visitor for me.”
“Who, ma’am?”
“First name is ‘Kira’. You should be able to find out the rest from her records at the front desk.”
Jared made several entries on his monitor. “Full name is Kira Elsar. According to her public biodata records, she’s an active duty captain in the Tararian Guard.”
Monica nodded thoughtfully. “Does it say anything about her past assignments?”
“No, sorry, ma’am. There’s a note that she’s on leave at the moment, but otherwise the details of her service records are classified.”
“Of course. Anyone working in military intelligence can’t have their mission history out there on display.”
“Would you like me to look into her?” Jared offered.
Monica shook her head. “It doesn’t take much speculation to figure out what a telepath with the Guard might specialize in.”
Jared’s eyes lit up. “Oh, she’s one of the Readers?”
“So I’ve heard. A Valtan Reader with specialized military training.”
A slow smile spread across the other scientist’s face. “That makes things interesting.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Monica had a feeling Jared was going to work out much better than his predecessor. “Keep an eye on her. I believe we’ve been handed the perfect case study.”
“I will.” Jared paused. “And what about that information regarding the Guard mobilization around Mysar?”
“Don’t worry about that. Focus on our task at hand. Our benefactors won’t wait much longer.”
She moseyed across the observation room to the corridor containing the holding cells for her test subjects.
The one hundred subjects with innate telekinetic abilities had taken years and significant resources to apprehend, but studying their genetic profiles had given Monica the breakthrough she needed to begin customizing the alien nanotech at the core of their research. Coupled with the technical specifications furnished by her outside collaborators, she had been able to drill down to the base level of nanite programming and design.
Monica approached the front plexiglass wall of Melissa’s cell—the spirited woman who would have had Tim free her and unleash the unstable nanotech into the universe. “How are you feeling today?”
Melissa glared back from her cot. “Where’s Tim? I know you found out about us.”
“I’m afraid Tim no longer works here.”
“What did you do to him?!” Melissa launched toward the plexiglass. Her nails had transformed into silvery claws by the time she struck her hands against the transparent wall. Her eyes raged orange, the natural bioluminescent glow of her innate telekinetic abilities augmented by the effects of the experimental nanites.
“I killed him with my bare hands.”
Melissa raked her claws against the glass. “I’ll foking kill you, bitch!” The words were barely intelligible.
“He didn’t even put up a fight.”
A silvery sheen covered Melissa’s pale skin as nanites flooded out from inside her to begin transforming her into a hybrid alien state. The metallic film thickened into scales, which broadened her shoulders and limbs, ripping the pale gown that clothed her. She howled in agony, her claws tearing ribbons from the white plastic sheeting around the cell. Her movements accelerated—fast, precise, vicious.
Monica observed the Robus’ movements, a pleased smile curling her lips. The fluidity and deadly force was a more perfect hybrid of abilities than she could have ever hoped to achieve.
After two minutes of struggling, Melissa collapsed to the floor panting. She returned to her standard state, her gown torn around the neck.
“Thank you for the demonstration. It was quite enlightening.” Monica turned from the glass. “You’ll be reunited with your Tim soon enough.”
CHAPTER 8
What in the stars is the Guard up to? The classified fleet orders that had passed over Ellen’s desk on the way to her media contact had left her confused and worried. There wasn’t supposed to be any military action against the Mysarans—at least, not yet.
She drummed her fingers on her desktop, trying to predict what would happen next.
With the trade negotiations to rejoin the Taran Empire in full swing, any political or military move would be magnified—it’s what they had been counting on with Ellen’s placement in the president’s office—but any unanticipated actions also threatened their plans. The timing needed to be right.
The shared history of Mysarans and Elusians forever tied the two groups together, tracing back to when the worlds had been settled hundreds of years prior. With the Elusians committed to rejoining the Empire, the Mysarans had little choice other than to go along for the ride—unless they took drastic action.
Ellen’s role would accomplish that—a presidential assassination staged to look like a betrayal by the Empire. If handled correctly, it would be enough to reverse the discussions and guarantee the system’s independence. However, that groundwork would all be undone if the Empire wiped out Mysar before Elusia had a chance to withdraw from the reunification agreement.
Ellen knew how much was riding on her, but the latest development with Guard activity could make all of her preparations moot. A Tararian Guard move against the Mysarans meant that Elusia and Mysar were no longer being treated as an inseparable pair—one was now on its way into the Empire, and the other was out. If the Mysarans were left on their own… it wouldn’t go well.
Uncertainty got the better of her, and she sent an encrypted message to her anonymous contact: >>Does this change the timeline?<<
The reply came back a minute later: >>We will let you know when to act.<<
She bit back her frustration.
“Ellen Calleti,” the voice over the intercom interrupted her brooding. “Your services are needed in the president’s office.”
Her heart leaped. They just told me to wait! Then she remembered her place and the other job she was there to do. “On my way,” she replied.
Ellen grabbed her tablet and hurried from her office.
She took the elevator up two floors to the president’s suite, swiping her hand over the biometric lock. In seconds, the doors opened to a lobby floored with marble. Holographic overlays of news reports scrolled across the left wall. To the right, a slim young man sat at a
reception desk.
“Hi, Nico,” Ellen greeted. “The president wanted to see me?”
“Yes, go right in.”
Ellen took a steadying breath and walked straight ahead to the double-doors, passing by two security guards dressed in black. They nodded to her.
She rapped on the door.
“Come in.”
Swinging the door inward, Ellen composed her face in a polite smile. “How may I assist you, Mr. President?” She closed the door behind her.
The roomy office had windows looking out over the city and the ice-filled river along the southern border. Afternoon winter sun cast long shadows across the icy landscape, illuminating the city in an uncharacteristically warm glow. The reflecting light gave the president a vibrant appearance, which was at odds in Ellen’s mind with her knowledge of his imminent death.
“I need to prepare a statement,” President Joris replied.
Ellen activated her tablet. “Subject, sir?”
“That bomaxed information leak about the Guard making a move on Mysar.”
“What do you mean, sir? I thought—”
“Those weren’t genuine orders,” the president grunted. “A foking colossal miscommunication.”
It went without saying that particular phrasing wouldn’t make it into the press release. “How do you want to play this, sir?”
Ellen would need to put her own spin on it, regardless of what was released in the official statement. Someone had intentionally fed her false information. If that wasn’t genuine, how much else has been doctored?
She swallowed and gripped her stylus tighter.
President Joris stroked his chin. “We need to look unified. The Elusians and Mysarans settled our homeworlds at the same time, and we are bound to each other. We must stand by one another and approach the future with our mutual interests at the forefront. Though we have not always agreed on every matter, we have made great strides toward establishing that shared vision for a better future. With the opportunity to strengthen our great nations by reuniting with the Taran Empire, we will soon be able to take an even greater step forward.
“The rumors about Guard fleet movement toward Mysar are false. Elusia stands with Mysar now and into the future. We would not have reached this stage of negotiations with the Empire if we did not believe it would bring us a better future, and we will continue in good faith knowing that our new allies can be trusted with our lives.
