‘I will get you out,’ Taren vowed.
Jazmay nodded, far more accepting than she had been yesterday. ‘When shall I expect you?’
Her comeback made Taren smile. ‘Around the same time Maladaan made the shift, I expect.’
‘So you will return to Maladaan?’ she asked.
Taren grinned. ‘With the connections I have, I won’t have to.’
‘Farewell then.’ Jazmay stood. ‘I won’t stay for the meeting, I don’t need to know all the gory details; better to make the best of however long I still have here.’
As that was probably no more than a few hours, Taren nodded to grant her leave. ‘Thank you for giving me my memory back.’
Jazmay gave a twisted smile in leaving. ‘We all make mistakes.’
16
TIME’S UP
The meeting was delayed on account of the governor being held up elsewhere, and Rhun was not the only one running late; Zeven was also mysteriously absent.
While they waited for their master of ceremonies, Floyd and Kestler ran through the schematics they had drawn up of the Orion’s weapon, and the composition of their anion spray adhesive with Taren and Fallon. Taren was struggling to keep up with the engineering lesson, but as she had something of a photographic memory she felt confident of reproducing the blueprint, even if she didn’t completely understand it. The chemistry compound formula made much more sense, and she committed it to memory also.
Once Fallon was confident that she had absorbed the information, the Lord of the Otherworld insisted she retreat to safety.
As Taren watched the couple embrace she was teary, relating to the uncertainness of their separation. But on another level, in another life, it was the life of Tory Alexander’s, and thus Taren’s, grandchild they were endeavouring to save — a rather insane thought, being that Taren’s current incarnation had yet to have a child.
‘I’ll see you both soon,’ Avery told Fallon, and the statement brought a large smile to his wife’s face.
‘And you’re not going to believe the news I have for you,’ she teased, only partially joking, and with a kiss, the denizens of the air carried Fallon back to their realm of origin.
When the governor did arrive, two hours late, he appeared very sombre. ‘I’m sorry, folks, but we are all out of time.’ Rhun descended the stairs to stand in the middle of the small lecture hall where they had held their last few meetings. ‘There is a large force of spacecraft coming our way from Maladaan.’
The news was gasp-worthy, but Rhun’s eyes were fixed on Taren and Lucian. ‘Believe me, I am the last person who would want to come between you two fine people, but I’m afraid I must.’
The panic tore through Taren’s being once, and then she was okay. In a way it was a relief to know there would be no more stalling; the long, drawn-out goodbye was breaking her heart. ‘I am ready.’ She stood to take her leave, and Lucian remained seated knowing he would be the last on her long hit list of goodbyes. ‘Thank you, Governor, for your generosity, and patience, and —’
Rhun held up a hand. ‘It was and will always be my pleasure to have you here, and I greatly look forward to seeing you when you return.’ He hugged Taren and then stepped back out of the way, as her sights turned to En Noah and Ringbalin.
‘My friend, I’ll see you in the past.’ She kissed Ringbalin’s cheek, and then looked to En Noah. ‘And I’ll see you in the future.’ She kissed his cheek also.
‘I don’t doubt it,’ said Noah gladly.
‘Nor I,’ Ringbalin agreed, as Taren moved on to Telmo, who was looking decidedly happier today.
‘Mr Dacre, it’s been a pleasure making your acquaintance.’ She shook his hand.
‘Oh, I have a feeling I might be seeing you again,’ he said surely, and Ringbalin gave a laugh.
Taren was about to question his amusement when Cadfan entered with another young man in tow — the same young man she had seen arguing with Jazmay earlier in the week. But now, with her memory restored he was no longer a stranger to her eyes. ‘No,’ Taren uttered, aghast; he was younger, his hair longer, and his demeanour was far less threatening, but it was him. ‘Yasper.’
Lucian was alarmed by the news. ‘He was your lover?’
‘You’ve got the wrong guy,’ Jahan was quick to vindicate himself, although he was flattered by the suggestion he had been involved in an affair. ‘I have only ever seen this woman once. I swear, and that was from a distance. I’m Jahan.’
‘Jazmay’s love interest.’ Taren’s mind was ticking over and none of her conclusions were good. ‘Where is Jazmay?’ Taren asked, as she’d assumed the Phemorian was leaving to be with Jahan.
‘I cannot find her, that’s why I am here,’ he explained.
‘Will yourself to her?’ Rhun thought the solution obvious.
‘I’ve tried that already, but she’s blocking me somehow.’ Jahan explained why he’d interrupted the meeting. ‘I’m afraid she might be going to do something regrettable.’
‘I should go, before she does.’ Taren made a move towards Lucian.
‘Hey, hold on.’ Jahan grabbed her arm. ‘You’re from Maladaan?’
Taren glared at him until he let go of her arm. ‘Yes.’
‘Was this guy, Yasper, me where you come from?’ Jahan rolled his eyes at his own insane question.
Taren nodded. ‘He was.’
‘Past tense?’ Jahan queried.
She was slower to nod this time. ‘He was killed ten years ago.’
‘Ten years ago!’ Jahan was furious, and his dark sights turned towards the Lord of the Otherworld. ‘Trust in the universe?’ Jahan put it to Avery. ‘How is Jazmay supposed to find happiness with my rotting corpse?’
‘Gentlemen,’ Rhun hollered, as Jahan launched himself in Avery’s direction, but at the governor’s word he froze. ‘We don’t have time for this today.’
‘My cue to leave,’ Taren uttered quietly to Lucian, while Rhun had the others distracted. ‘I love you,’ she whispered and kissed him for the last time in a long, long time, and when their lips parted she was hard pressed not to burst into tears.
‘Never give up on us,’ he requested, and she nodded. ‘Promise me.’
‘I promise you, on my life, that you will always be my primary objective … so long as I live.’ Taren stole another quick kiss before she stepped away and vanished.
‘Please, don’t do this until I find Jazmay,’ Jahan was appealing when he saw Taren vanish. ‘No, stop!’
‘Jahan!’ Rhun yelled in warning, so he would refrain from pursuing Taren. ‘Leave it be. That’s an order.’
‘As you wish, Governor.’ Frustrated, Jahan left the healing centre.
When Taren arrived in the abandoned medical chambers on AMIE, everything was in darkness. ‘Lights,’ she requested. The ship’s system responded at once and she wandered through from the office into one of the adjoining recovery rooms.
This had been where Taren’s voyage with AMIE had really started, and as she recalled waking in this chamber to meet Dr Madri, she smiled. How she had missed Kassa — these rooms seemed cold and empty without her warm, sunny presence.
Taren took a seat on the recovery bed and paused a moment to mentally prepare herself for her quantum leap into the past.
‘Please, don’t do this.’
She was startled to find Jahan in the room with her. ‘You followed me?’ Taren was angered. ‘What if I had gone directly back into the past?’
‘I thought Jaz would find me in your universe, but if she cannot, just give me a little time to find another solution.’ He gripped Taren, knowing she would not go anywhere while he had hold of her.
‘There is no time, by nightfall in Chailida your people will be at war … I have to go now.’ Taren attempted to wriggle free from his restraint without becoming violent — he looked so much like Yasper she couldn’t bring herself to hit him — but he held fast. ‘Let me go. I may have loved you once but that won’t stop me flattening you if I have to.’
‘Can’t you help us?’ Jahan appealed, right before he was hit over the head with a metal handgun and dropped to the floor like a stone.
‘Was he bothering you?’ Zeven grinned as he put his weapon away.
‘Starman?’ Taren was stunned but pleased to see him. ‘How did you get here?’
‘He brought me.’ He pointed to the unconscious fellow. ‘What did you mean you loved him once?’ Then Zeven gasped on his own question. ‘He’s the other guy?’ Zeven sized him up.
‘No, not exactly — hey, hold on.’ Taren frowned. ‘How do you know about —’
‘Lucian mentioned there was another man in your past.’ Zeven gave half a laugh, ‘I thought he meant Telmo.’
‘Telmo!’ He’d lost her. ‘Why Telmo?’
‘Because the little memory whiz saw himself kissing you.’
‘What?’ Taren quizzed, becoming more frustrated by the second.
‘Ooops.’ Zeven covered his mouth. ‘I wasn’t supposed to tell you that … although Telmo actually thought the encounter took place in the future.’
‘I’m confused.’ Taren frowned.
‘Me too,’ said Zeven, ‘I always assumed that if you took a lover it would be me.’ He grinned — Taren did too and rolled her eyes; he really was a relentless flirt.
‘So, who is this guy?’ Zeven filled the awkward silence.
Taren took a deep breath and shook her head. ‘It’s a long story and we are all out of time, an attack on Kila from Maladaan is imminent.’
‘Shit!’ This was news to Zeven. ‘So this is it then?’ He forced a smile, as Taren nodded to confirm.
Zeven looked about at the vacated spacecraft. ‘I thought Lucian would be here to see you off?’
‘I didn’t tell anyone I was coming here first,’ Taren explained, ‘but I thought it would be good to launch myself from the very place I’m aiming to reach.’
‘In that case.’ Zeven shrugged, took Taren in hand and kissed her.
Taren was going to object, but the moment was so tender and sweet, that she thought, what the hell. She did adore Zeven, and found him desirable, despite that he was twenty years her junior; were it not for the fact of Lucian, they probably would have been lovers long ago and Zeven knew it too.
When the kiss came to an end, Zeven was a little stunned, albeit pleased that it had lasted so long. ‘You were supposed to object.’
Taren smiled, and placing both hands on his chest, she pushed him backwards. ‘You’ll never remember it anyway.’
‘Well, you know, you could have sex with me and I wouldn’t remember that either …’ he suggested cheekily.
Taren gasped at his gall. ‘Lucian is your best friend!’
‘No, you are,’ he corrected, and Taren was touched. He removed her hands from his chest to urge her closer once more.
‘Oh no.’ Taren freed herself and backed away. ‘And what about Aurora?’
‘She’s not my Chosen other,’ he insisted. ‘Cadfan said the woman I was meant to be with would encourage my thrill-seeking ways, so that surely isn’t Aurora, or Ibis, or any other incarnation of her.’
Taren had to concede that maybe Aurora was not his perfect match after all.
‘You’re much closer to the mark.’ Zeven became amorous again.
‘But we’re probably related.’
‘We don’t know that,’ Zeven rejected the argument. ‘I wouldn’t believe anything Khalid Mansur said.’
‘Teleportation is unique to the Phemorian royal line,’ Taren pointed out. ‘You have to be in my family line somewhere.’
‘Aw,’ he groaned, resigning himself to the fact that she was not going to oblige his fantasy.
‘Now, are you going to let me do this, or do I have to knock you out too?’ Taren jumped back onto the recovery bed and lay down.
Zeven wandered over to quietly admire her horizontal form. ‘Oceane will never happen,’ he realised.
‘Sad, but true.’ Taren reached up and patted his cheek, clearly not as disappointed about that as he was.
Zeven grabbed her hand and held it in both his own. ‘You take care back there.’ He was suddenly deadly serious. ‘If you need anything you come and see me.’
She nodded. ‘I’ll be a stranger, you realise?’
‘That won’t matter,’ he reassured her, forcing a smile, as he let her hand go. ‘I’ll be seeing you.’
Taren smiled, despite that she was tearing up again. ‘Catch you round, Starman.’
‘I’m going to leave you to focus.’ Zeven gave her two thumbs up, backed up with unusual pace and with a quick wave, he took off elsewhere.
It felt to Taren that he was rushing off to do something, although she couldn’t imagine what at this late stage of the game, but having no time to contemplate the matter, she breathed deeply to steady her emotions; she had to want to do this and her focus must be precise.
It wasn’t hard to bring the recovery room to mind, being that she was already there, but Taren cast her mind back to that first day on AMIE and the disorientated feeling of emerging from weeks in stasis — a supposedly non-dream state. Yet Taren had dreamed of grand and tragic events on her way to AMIE from Maladaan that she must never allow to unfold in her new reality.
As her shift through time began it was preceded by darkness as before and then a great white light …
PART 4
A.M.I.E. ASTRO-MARINE INSTITUTE EXPLORER
17
ALL THINGS UNEXPECTED
The light. Now she remembered; that was all Taren had seen when she’d first come out of stasis — her eyes had been closed so long that the light inside the recovery room had blinded her to a squint. Taren’s recollection of arriving on AMIE solidified into reality and she breathlessly awaited the soothing sound of Kassa’s velvety voice.
‘Welcome to AMIE.’ Taren heard the doctor approach.
That was the sign she’d been hoping for and Taren was exhilarated to know that Maladaan was back where it should be, while her heart broke — there was no going back to the way things were, now that her arrival in the past was confirmed.
‘You have arrived safely and are in fine health. The perception of white light in your eyes will pass …’
Taren had forgotten just how much she loved the sound of Kassa’s voice; it truly felt like coming home to Mother, or at least an older sister whom she adored. ‘You must be AMIE’s medical officer, Dr Madri?’ Taren croaked after Kassa had finished explaining that Taren was only temporarily blind.
‘Call me Kassa,’ she insisted, friendly, as always. ‘And you are the infamous Dr Lennox.’ She gave a laugh. ‘I’ve been telling Lucian to get you on the AMIE project for years!’
This was just too weird, Taren remembered this conversation as clearly as if it had happened yesterday; should she follow the script?
In a few hours from now Taren would have a meeting with Lucian, Zeven and Leal, where they would decide to go and get a sample of the gas shrouding Oceane. Until that happened, Taren decided it was best not to change a thing. In any case, this had been a very important conversation for Kassa as it was the first time she had admitted to anyone that she was a telepath. She had confided in Taren, as a fellow psychic, and this created a lasting bond between them.
Thus Taren discussed her dubious, but well-funded, scientific career, and the fact that people in stasis don’t dream — something Taren thought to dispute, but decided not to get off-track so that Kassa’s secret was disclosed just as before. Taren needed allies badly and Kassa was one she knew she could trust.
After Taren had recovered her eyesight and muscle function she was taken to a change room, where she showered and got changed into her crew uniform, which she felt far more at ease in this time around.
As she perused her reflection in the mirror, she had to laugh — it was some time since she’d worn the two purple streaks in her hair. As she tied it back in a braid, she thought back to the kerfuffle she’d left behind her on Maladaan; her past lover,
her current lover, other potential lovers? What had Zeven been on about? ‘Ah, bugger men.’ She waved off the relevance of any of it now, and then had to laugh. ‘That’s what you said last time around,’ she told herself in the mirror. ‘But then you didn’t say that or this last time,’ Taren noted and made herself laugh again.
She didn’t need to use the electronic map on the wall to find her way to the closest eatery this time, she headed straight out into the corridor and then pulled herself up short of bumping into Aurora.
Aurora was Lucian’s terribly efficient and chatty assistant, who was here to guide Taren to the cafeteria where the fateful meeting would take place. So Taren politely listened to Rory babble out everything she needed to say, as they strolled along; Zeven had once said of Aurora that she had to get a paragraph out in every sentence, and he wasn’t far wrong! But Taren adored Aurora right from the first and whether Zeven cared to admit it, he did too.
Just as before, Zeven was the first in line at the cafeteria to introduce himself to Taren, with Leal close behind. The pilots informed her they’d be working together, and after Zeven and Rory had a tiff over who was more childish, Rory left Taren to discuss metaphysics and quantum theory with the pilot and his co-pilot, a subject that was raised because Zeven had also heard that Taren had a Power, but at this stage he had no idea what that Power was.
And then there he was — Lucian Gervaise, standing there telling her that she was the answer to his prayers. She hadn’t noticed him flirting with her last time around, but she did this time.
‘As you are the answer to mine,’ she flirted right back.
However, the mutual admiration society soon gave way to what Rhun’s people would have called a witch hunt, when the captain raised the subject of Taren’s MSS background and it was here that history would make its long-anticipated U-turn.
‘She’s a spy,’ Zeven concluded, when Taren did not defend their allegations straight away.
The Universe Parallel Page 28
