Path of Justice (Cadicle #6): An Epic Space Opera Series

by Amy DuBoff

  Kate left her place in the semicircle and came to meet Raena and Jason. “So you want a meet and greet, I hear?”

  “How did you…?” Jason began.

  Their grandmother smiled. “Telepathy, remember? Soon you’ll be in the fold in more ways than one.” She placed one hand on Raena’s shoulder and led her and Jason into the crowd. “Let’s see. Where to start…”

  * * *

  Wil watched his children disappear into the crowd with his mother. Their heads are going to be spinning by the time she’s done showing them around.

  He detected Saera approaching behind him. “Are they doing okay?” he asked her as she came to stand next to him.

  “I think so. They’re strong-willed, so I’m pretty sure they’ll take anything we can throw at them in stride.”

  “All the same, I’d rather not put that to the test just yet.”

  His wife nodded. “Agreed.” She glanced around them but there was no one standing nearby. “So, who is he?”

  “His name is Ryan. He’s been a Ward since he was six years old,” Wil replied telepathically.

  “Orphaned?”

  Wil shook his head. “I’m not sure. The program is something like permanent foster care so it could go either way. I’ll need to do some digging.”

  Saera thought for a moment. “But he has abilities?”

  “Definitely. And strong ones, if the cursory assessment is accurate.”

  “What passed between them…”

  “A resonance reaction, yes.”

  His wife released a slow breath. “I guess we were that age.”

  “Younger, actually,” Wil pointed out.

  “We should get to know him.”

  Wil nodded. “I already have something in mind.”

  Before he could share his plan, Wil spotted his father walking over. “What are you two scheming about?”

  “There’s been a… development,” Wil replied.

  Cris raised a quizzical eyebrow.

  “On our way over here, we had a chance encounter with a maintenance tech,” Wil explained. “He has abilities—strong ones. Nearly as much as with Jason and Raena. And, there appeared to be a resonance connection with Raena.”

  “That’s…” Cris started.

  “Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense,” Wil agreed. “I can’t decide if I think it’s the Priesthood’s doing or if there’s just a genuine connection.”

  Cris shrugged. “I’ll believe anything these days.”

  “In any case, there are two immediate courses of action,” Wil continued aloud. “First, I’d like to test if their connection is real. I was thinking we could arrange a seemingly chance encounter again to see if they really are drawn to each other.”

  “Isn’t that a bit strange, considering this is your daughter we’re talking about?” Cris asked.

  Wil chuckled. “Believe me, I’m trying not to think about it. I’m taking a purely scientific vantage and attempting to return to the mindset of a teenager and how I’d want the situation handled were the roles reversed.”

  “I guess I did nudge you toward Saera,” Cris realized.

  “Aww, you did?” she asked with a grin.

  “Anyway,” Wil cut in, “regardless of how that works out, I move that we pull him into the TSS.”

  “The timing is good,” Cris agreed, “with a new cohort about to start.”

  “Precisely.” Then Wil added telepathically, “And if he is part of a Priesthood plan, I’d rather have him close so we can keep an eye on him.”

  “Unless that’s what they want…” Saera countered.

  Wil shrugged. “If that’s what they were after, they’d make it happen one way or another.”

  “True,” Cris conceded. “So how do we proceed?”

  “Leave that to me.” He looked around the room. “Now, we should probably get back to the festivities before everyone becomes too suspicious of what we’re talking about.”

  “They should be suspicious.” Cris took a sip of his drink.

  “Covertly planning the future of others. We’ve become one of ‘them’!” Saera exclaimed in a whisper.

  Wil wrapped his arm around her and headed toward the crowd. “On that note, let’s try to get some more votes.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Raena stifled a yawn as she approached the door to her visitor’s suite. The time had passed quickly once she had become accustomed to the social etiquette and how she was expected to behave, but the challenges in the early portion of the evening had left her drained. I can’t imagine having this as my everyday life. I guess our parents really did do us a favor.

  She ran her wrist over the electronic lock panel next to the door and it clicked open. Surprisingly, the light was on inside.

  As she swung the door in the rest of the way, a clang of metal on stone sounded from the lounge room. Raena froze in the doorway. An intruder? She took a step backward and surveyed the room from afar, looking for the source of the sound.

  The head of a young man popped up from behind the couch. After a moment, Raena recognized him as the same dark-haired servant she’d almost collided with in the hall on her way to the ball.

  Her heart leaped as their eyes met, reigniting the inexplicable connection she felt with him at their first meeting. “What are you doing in here?” she demanded, heart racing.

  “My lady!” he exclaimed. “I wasn’t expecting you back yet.”

  “That doesn’t explain why you’re here.” Why do I feel so drawn to him?

  “Sorry.” He stood up behind the couch. “I got a notice that your viewscreen needed servicing. Didn’t you put in the request?”

  She looked him over properly, deciding that his appearance rivaled the best bred suitors at the party. “No… It was working fine when I left earlier.”

  The servant turned to the side to glare at the viewscreen mounted on the wall. A control panel was open beneath the monitor. “Well, someone put in the work order. And it’s definitely broken.”

  Who would do that? Now that she knew why he was in her quarters, Raena stepped inside. “What’s wrong with it?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure. When the screen is activated, it freezes on the VComm startup screen. After a minute, it restarts and does the same thing.”

  “Ah, an endless reboot loop. I’ve encountered that with computers back home.”

  “You mean on Earth?” he questioned.

  “Yeah.” She looked down. “Geez, it’s still so weird to think about that being a whole other planet. Does everyone around here know where we’re from?”

  “Word got around as soon as we were notified to prepare for the event tonight,” he replied. “Most people are eager to know the business of anyone with the last name Sietinen, my lady.”

  She smiled and let out a little laugh. “I guess they are. And you can call me Raena.”

  “I’m Ryan,” he replied. He glanced back at the viewscreen. “I’m really not supposed to work on this while you’re around.”

  “Why not?”

  “Something about maintaining the illusion of flawless operations.”

  “Well, I have no such illusions,” she said, catching his gaze. “In fact, I’d love to learn some more about the system. VComm is my maternal grandmother’s family company, after all.”

  Ryan swallowed and looked down, his face flushing slightly. “I shouldn’t even be talking to you.”

  “Well that’s a dumb rule.” Raena closed the door leading out into the hallway. Who is he? I’ve never felt like this around someone before. “Let me get out of this absurd dress and then you can give me an overview of the system. Maybe I can help you troubleshoot.”

  Ryan’s gray eyes widened. “I should go—”

  “No, I’ll just be a minute. Hang on.” She headed over to the bedroom and closed the door before she could lose her nerve, leaving bewildered-looking Ryan alone in the lounge room.

  As soon as she was in the relative privacy of the bedroom, Raena let o
ut a long breath. What am I doing? This is insane!

  Maybe it was, but she needed to take the chance. There was something about him that made her want to know more, to see if there really was a genuine connection between them. In just a few short moments in the hall earlier, she’d glimpsed an initial spark that she could see growing into much more. Though not one for quick judgments under normal circumstances, she felt compelled to follow through in this matter. Crazy or not, the person out in the lounge room wasn’t just a random stranger—instinct told her he had the potential to be someone of significance in her life. She owed it to herself to find out, despite the apparent unlikelihood.

  Raena carefully slipped out of her evening gown and changed into pajama pants and a tank top layered with a zip-up jacket. She was about to take down her hair but decided to leave it up.

  Taking a calming breath, she opened the door to the lounge room.

  Ryan was still over by the viewscreen, shifting awkwardly on his feet. He stopped fidgeting when he saw her. “I shouldn’t be here.”

  “I know this is all strange and unexpected,” Raena began, “but there’s something—”

  “You’re a Sietinen heir.”

  “So I can change the rules.”

  “But I’m just—”

  Raena walked over toward him. “Tell me this isn’t all in my head.”

  He searched her face for what seemed like an eternity as they stood in silence. “I feel it, too.”

  The words simultaneously reassured her and made her more nervous. “Do we know each other from somewhere?”

  “I’ve never been to Earth.”

  “Then why does it seem like I’ve known you for years?”

  Ryan took a slow breath. “I can’t explain it.”

  Raena bit her lower lip. “Okay. Well, let’s just chat like normal people and maybe we can figure this whole thing out.”

  “All right,” Ryan conceded. He looked her over. “Were you serious about wanting to learn how the viewscreen works?”

  She shrugged. “Seems like as good a place as any to start.”

  “Diving into the inner workings of electronic devices. Yeah, that’s totally chatting like normal people…”

  “I can think of way less normal things to talk about.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Such as?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Raena said, curling up on the couch facing the viewscreen. “Anything I’d reference would be lost on you anyway. Stupid Earth stuff.”

  “I guess that’s a pretty decent example, actually—chatting about growing up on a planet where the entire Taran civilization may as well not exist. That’s way less normal than viewscreen operations.”

  Raena narrowed her eyes playfully. “I’ve already built up an immunity to the ribbing about growing up on such a backwater planet. I know I have a lot of catching up to do.”

  “Excuses, excuses,” Ryan jested back.

  “That’s not very productive. Now come on! There’s a viewscreen mystery to be solved.”

  Ryan eyed her for another moment and then turned his attention to the uncooperative device. “All right. The screen you see is actually just a thin film on the wall. The control mechanism is a central receiver for all the telecommunications in the room. That makes it easy to sync your handheld with the viewscreen and use voice commands on any of the systems, but it also makes it more difficult to diagnose the root cause of a malfunction—not that things go wrong too often.”

  “So the issue now… it’s possible that it’s not actually a viewscreen malfunction but is just being expressed that way?”

  “Yes, that’s what I’m leaning toward at this point.” Ryan sighed and glared at the exposed panel. “The loading screen wouldn’t show up if there was an issue with the display panel itself. Voice commands are working for the lights and thermostat, so the problem must be isolated with the display. That’s strange, though, since it all routes through that one control module.”

  “Sounds more like software than hardware.”

  “Yes, it does, but…” Ryan trailed off.

  “But what?”

  “The only thing I can think of that would cause such specific interference would require modifying the code at the most basic level—essentially deleting or corrupting the boot sequence. Otherwise, the other systems would be acting up, too.”

  Raena frowned. Would someone have actually done that? “In that case, maybe it’s time to expand the investigation. Is there a way to check if anyone has come into the room since I left?”

  “Of course, that’s easy,” Ryan replied. “You think someone may have tampered with it?”

  If this was tampering, I bet I know why and I’m going to feel silly trying to explain it. Raena’s face felt warm. “How do these repair assignments work? Why did you reply to this particular service request?”

  “There’s a central dispatcher. Most assignments are based on who’s available at the time, but there are some specialists for certain issues.”

  “And what’s your specialization?”

  “Control interface coding.”

  Raena groaned inwardly. “Why is that not surprising? We should definitely have a look at the door entry log.”

  Ryan suddenly appeared concerned as he stepped over toward the door, removing a handheld from his pocket that was similar to the one Raena had received upon arrival to the TSS. “This will just take a couple seconds.” He placed the top of the handheld near the electronic lock and the device chirped. “Well, your father has been by, but there’s nothing else out of place.”

  This is ridiculous. “There you go.”

  “Pardon?”

  Raena shrank back into the couch. “My dad is behind this.”

  Ryan’s brow wrinkled. “Why in the stars would he do that?”

  She let out an exasperated sigh. “So we’d talk to each other, I guess. Maybe he wants me to convince you to join the TSS.” Or he saw what passed between us.

  “That seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to for one person.”

  “Compared to the displays I witnessed this evening, it’s nothing.”

  Ryan stared at the blank viewscreen. “Well, regardless of the motivations, this explains the viewscreen malfunction. Knowing the code was corrupted intentionally, I guess I should just run a fresh install of the operating system and resync everything. I wanted to rule out a hardware issue or a virus before I did that, and I guess this does.”

  “Will it take long?” Raena asked.

  “No, this is the easy part.”

  “Then do you have any other assignments?”

  “I’m not even officially on duty right now. So no.”

  “All right. Finish up and then we can talk properly,” Raena suggested. “We should see if there’s really something here.”

  Ryan gawked at her. “That’s a bit… forward.”

  “Well, unless you do join the TSS, I don’t see another opportunity for us to get to know each other. What happened earlier…”

  “…was nothing I should be thinking about,” Ryan completed. “The long and short of it is that people like you and people like me don’t ever sit down for a friendly chat.”

  “Maybe more should.”

  “I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but it isn’t realistic.”

  “We’re doing it right now,” Raena pointed out.

  Ryan sat down on the edge of the couch, keeping his distance from her. “You know this can’t go anywhere, right?”

  I’ve never felt this instantly drawn to someone. I can’t just ignore it. “I’m not ruling anything out yet.”

  “But this is mad! We ran into each other in a hallway.”

  Raena looked him in the eyes. “You admitted you felt it, too.”

  He looked down and swallowed. “I won’t deny it. But, of course, anyone would be attracted to someone like you. What you see in me, on the other hand—”

  “A smart, good-looking guy who’s been able to conquer his fear of talking
to me.”

  “I wouldn’t say that fear had been conquered,” he muttered.

  “See? Some humor, too. But whatever’s here isn’t something that can be readily put into words. I just… know, as weird or crazy as it sounds.”

  “Yes, it is crazy.”

  “Didn’t you just say—”

  “Yes, okay!” Ryan finally exclaimed. “I feel drawn to you, too—suddenly and inexplicably. But I have a life here, and this little development doesn’t exactly fit in with everything else that’s going on.”

  “I didn’t see this coming, either.”

  “Of course not.” Ryan tousled his hair. “Look, I can’t deal with this right now. There are other… complications that I don’t want to get into. So yeah, I’m going to go.” He bolted from the couch. “Another tech can come do the system reinstall.”

  I can’t be left wondering. Raena lunged from the couch and caught his hand before he could walked away. Standing before him with her hand still on his, she gazed up into his eyes. The connection she’d felt between them since their first encounter was overwhelming at that distance. A tangible electric charge filled the air, time almost seeming to stand still. Ever so slightly, she leaned up toward him.

  Finally, he gave into her advance. Their lips met, sending an energizing tingle all the way to her toes. Though still strangers, there was something familiar about his touch—like old lovers finally being reunited.

  They eased backward onto the couch, immediately comfortable in each other’s presence. In that gentle embrace, there was no pressure for it to be anything more than a chaste affirmation of something that was impossible to verbalize. Somehow, entwined in a virtual stranger’s arms, Raena felt completely at peace.

  She had no idea how much time had passed by the time they finally settled on the couch with her head on his chest. They lay together in silence for a long while, but she knew one of them would have to say something eventually, and it should probably be her.

  “We’ll find a way,” she murmured.

  He squeezed her. “I suspect a plan is already in progress.”

  “You’re probably right about that.” I bet none of the party guests would guess where I ended up tonight. She nestled closer to him on the couch.