by Selina Brown
Jamie decided, had it not been soft, he may have to kill Trickster.
Ara smiled, pointing to his back. “Can … I mean may I see them?”
“I’d like to be your friend, Ara.”
“Okay.”
“It has to stay a secret though.”
“Hmmmm.” Ara thought about it, and shuffled on the cold rock. She thought it might be okay, and he let her touch his mind. He was very kind, but wanted to help her. “Okay. What do you want to help me with?”
Jamie’s own fear washed over him. His skin crawled. It sounded like Trickster was grooming her but there was something innocent about the male. Jamie fought his emotions and initial instincts.
“Tartarus. Now he is three Snakes.”
“Who’s that and why?” For some reason the name tickled her mind. That startled Jamie; had Ara linked to his own thoughts then or was she accessing some of her own repressed memories?
“Someone you need to be wary of.” He pushed his wings out and kneeled down. “It’s complicated.”
This confirmed what little Jamie had. Trickster was in opposition to the Snakes.
A little shyly, Ara moved closer and touched them. “I like your wings.”
Trickster nodded. “You always did.”
Suddenly, Trickster was smiling, somehow smiling through Ara’s mind, at him. Shit. Now that Jamie realized Trickster saw him, Jamie had to accept that Trickster might be trying to deceive him too. Maybe Trickster wasn’t really an enemy of the Snakes. But Trickster knew he was there, and approved. Jamie was sure the male could have blocked him. And what did he mean by those words? He knew Ara before … before now? That made sense with his limited data. Trickster was confirming to Jamie that he knew Ara before she was a baby. There was another flash and Ara was back. He noted her heavier breathing as her projection faded from the Aryan Dream. That was not a usual Aryan Dream. Unlike Pure-Gens and First-Gens who used ArT a lot, most people used other devices to communicate. So when his cortical node buzzed it was Diane’s voice in his “ear”, not in his mind.
She said, “The team woke me. Somehow our honeybee can travel like an Aether Being following the ELs.”
Jamie picked up his Voice; already he was developing a headache. He typed, “I’m coming back.” He stood and checked on Ara, now smiling in her sleep. He left via the panel in her room, and nodded to the guard there. “I’ll be back to talk to Marc.”
The guard nodded and resumed his watch.
When Jamie neared the installation underground, he saw Diane waiting at the junction. One dimly lit passage led to his cabin and one to the mountain installation. She held up a new bulwark device, designed to interrupt all kinds of transmissions. He saw it was on and smiled tiredly at her. “Not Aether, Diane, she moves like Chaos might.”
“Chaos?”
“Think about how her age seems to fluctuate. Chaos is disorder in order and order in disorder.”
She studied him for a moment. “Alright, I’m listening.”
After explaining, and by the time Jamie entered Marc’s room from the house passage door, he was exhausted. Marc was sitting on his bed, dressed only in shorts.
“Don’t ever compromise my protection duty again.” Jamie didn’t mean to sound so harsh but he was so drained he wasn’t able to control his emotions. He’d expected more from Marc.
“What’s with you?”
Marc was being smart mouthed and Jamie wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or just straight possessiveness. “What I mean is your job is to raise her. My job is to guard her and that includes understanding all her activities. You should have told Pen and Terance about the dreams, and they should have told me.”
Marc chewed his lip now. “Was she in danger?”
Jamie wanted to allow his anger loose but said tightly, “No, not this time. But there can’t be another lapse in communications. Tomorrow, I’ll speak to your parents.”
Marc stood and Jamie tried to keep his eyes on Marc’s face. Marc grinned suddenly and walked past him, opening the door again. He stood waiting. Jamie got the message and walked out; he should have approached Marc in the morning, officially.
Upon his return to the cabin, he showered quickly and went to bed. Sleep didn’t come easily and Marc’s dark eyes seemed to haunt him in his own dreams. In the morning, he identified a contradiction. The Snakes had said something about the Chaos Empire but if Ara was Chaos then why would she be against it? Was it some civil war? Some Chaos War with people who were honorable? Jamie knew that, even if some people were honorable, the Snakes may be able to manipulate things so that while honor was maintained by their brethren, betrayal might exist to work another agenda. He sat up and rubbed at his gritty eyes. The sun was streaming through the window. He’d forgotten to close the blinds and curtains for sleeping. He liked working the nights but never slept well during the day or the Saratoga summers. It was going to be a warm and sunny day, perfect for Ara’s farming week at least.
Sub-Log XI
Marc was still smarting over Jamie’s discipline from a year ago. He had stood in his parents’ office while Jamie dressed him down. And then Jamie had a go at Pen and Terance too. It hadn’t been pleasant. Marc wondered at times if Pen and Terance regretted taking on the mission as the Inferor Guardians.
Ara was nine now, and picked up on most of her siblings’ bad habits and smart mouths. The poor kid didn’t stand a chance. She was clever at mimicking too, and in his own smart mouthed way, reported that to Jamie. Marc strode up to Jamie’s cabin on a cool, wet morning and banged on the door knowing Jamie had worked a night shift.
The wooden door swung open and Jamie stared at him. Marc noted the short hair was a little mussed, the dark eyes sleepy, and lips slightly open in annoyance. Marc said cheerfully, “Hi.”
Jamie leaned on the door. “What do you want?”
“Just want to report that Ara has a tendency to mimic people well. Thought you should know.”
Marc waited for the explosion but was surprised when Jamie suddenly laughed. Marc was annoyed that he found himself responding to the male after all this time. Jamie had a good, hard body, was ruggedly handsome, and it seemed his decent sense of humor hadn’t been lost. Marc remembered Jamie being good company on board the Repco and at all the boring Bellus meetings with the Three Empire and Grands reps.
“Coffee?”
Marc nodded. “Sure.” As he walked in, he grew uncomfortably aware that he’d spent a bit more time on his appearance than he usually did. He knew that because Ara had asked him if he was going to see Tricia.
After Marc left all dressed up, Ara wondered why he lied about seeing Tricia. She didn’t really care though and observed her slender mother multi-tasking. “That’s very efficient, Mum.”
Mum stopped what she was doing to laugh. “Thank you, Ara. I like being efficient.”
“Because there’s so much to do!” Ara looked down at Meg playing with her toys. “I’m going to be more efficient too.” Ara tried being efficient in different ways but it didn’t always work. She’d heard Dad say Maya was efficient. Probably efficient at killing!
One week later, Ara headed for dinner already hearing the babble of voices often lifting in excitement. She ran up the steps from her room, turned right at the kitchen and down the passage to the formal dining room, which was halfway down. The dining room, like the kitchen, had been partially dug into the hill their homestead was attached to. Further along, right at the end, was the quiet reading room with views out to the far ocean. Ara took her seat and smiled at everyone. Since all the family was present, and she’d finished her dinner, she raised the topic of Virgo. Choking, laughing and coughing swept around the table.
“Ara, I don’t think that’s appropriate for a dinner conversation.”
“But it’s an efficient use of our time.” She turned to Sacha’s boyfriend, Jace, who seemed in some kind of paralysis. His blue eyes were huge, and his brown hair falling over his red cheeks. “Now, you two were talking ab
out Virgo and when to raise it. Now is a good time. We are all here, having a nice time. Dad is relaxed, was relaxed, and while you are raising that, Ersen can pick up any tips for when he is wanting the Virgo, I heard it’s very good, and Tricia was teasing—”
“Ara!”
Since this was yelled out by several of her family members at the same time she wasn’t sure who to look at. But Sacha, and even Marc, was telling Dad to send her to her room. Tears welled up but Ashley and Henry sent her sympathetic looks.
But Tricia sent a firm look to Marc who shut up and asked her, “Ara, do you know what Virgo is?”
“It’s that new land vehicle isn’t it?” Her voice was high from worry but Ashley and Henry were both nodding their agreement. Much encouraged, she said, “By Palaz? Jace was saying he wanted one.” He’d also made some jokes about it she didn’t understand.
Deathly silence filled the room followed by nervous giggles and then bursts of laughter. Her mum and dad locked gazes and started laughing.
Relief spread through Ara’s body.
Marc shook his head. “Haven’t you told her?”
“Marc, she’s too young.”
Ashley and Henry were as confused as she was. Gralten and little Meg were too busy eating again to care.
“She’s nine, in PuG terms that’s old enough.”
“I thought relatively speaking that time is slower for them?” Tricia asked.
“Time maybe, but not their mind. And Ara’s is pretty sharp.”
Ara poked her tongue out at Marc causing Tricia to giggle. As she sat and waited, she felt the tension in the air while the adults made up their minds.
Quickly, Sacha stood up, followed by Tricia. “We’ll tell her. Keep having dinner.”
“Can we come?” Ashley begged, with Henry holding his breath.
“No!” Both Sacha and Tricia said at the same time.
Their shoulders slumped but Ara winked at them. They knew she would tell them but they were careful to hide their sudden glee.
Tricia pulled her off the chair and they headed back down past her room then Marc’s, Ashley and Henry’s, and finally to Sacha’s end room, which was a lovely, warm room filled with deep reds and dark wood furnishings. Ersen, Meg, and Gralten were all on the bottom floor close to Mum and Dad’s end room. They sat on the thick floor rugs since Sacha preferred wood floors. As usual, everything was tidy, even her study nook.
As Sacha explained Virgo, Ara’s mouth dropped open. She squeaked, saying, “It’s losing your virginity?”
“Yes, Ara. It’s followed by all Pure-Gens, first and second generations, their households and families like us that live on their planets. Other Inferors have their own traditions. What we follow is close to the Pure-Gen way and the most common way to lose virginity across all the races, but ages vary. When you are old enough you will spend time with us females, while your handsome man will be with the males—”
“What if I like girls?” Ara thought about one of her female teachers who was married to a female model.
Sacha blushed and her voice was unnaturally high. “Um, I’m not sure. I never really thought about it.”
Ara disapproved. Sacha was a nice flirt, or so she had overheard one day, but always reading romance novels of the male hero and feeble female kind. Boring!
Even Tricia shrugged. “I heard that they still spend time with the males. I’m sure it’s the non-relation that goes to the male side but I can’t remember why and I think it doesn’t have anything to do with the sex or gender of a person.”
“But what if I spent half the day with girls and then the other half with boys, wouldn’t that be better?” Ara decided that was better, and more fun. “It’s more efficient that way.”
Sacha cringed. “Where was I? For the sake of making it through this discussion, let’s say you will spend time, all day—”
“That’s a waste of a whole day!”
“Ara, your efficiency monitoring is getting on everyone’s nerves a little.”
She looked at each of them, her eyebrows raised. “Is it?”
“Yes. We’ve tried hinting but that doesn’t work with you does it?” Sacha asked.
“No.” Ara thought about the comments now, it made more sense but she had categorized it as “Inferor Quirks”. The times she’d spent in the palace, which were more frequent of late, showed her those more like her were blunter.
“Ara, when I have Virgo—” Sacha winked at Tricia “—I’d like you to waste that whole day with me.”
Ara smiled then, pitched her voice to the correct frequency, and lied. “I would like that.”
Sacha beamed at her.
When they returned, Ara concentrated on her dessert avoiding Ashley’s dark blue eyes and Henry’s green ones, both beseeching her. She was a little hurt over Marc’s yelling that she should be sent to her room. That night, she confided in Korbet after he barely managed a mental, “Honeybee, I’m…”
She said, cutting him off, “I raised Virgo, the land vehicle, at the dinner table because it was an efficient use of our time, but they were all upset and then I found out Virgo is also to do with sex and they were all like, ‘Ara, go to your room.’ I still think it’s mean imprisoning children. But I’m nine now.”
He said with a smile in his mind, “Will you still have six hundred children?”
“No, a few hundred. Six hundred is not an efficient use of my time.”
He was laughing again. “You’ll be registering a lot of Virgo then?”
“What! No! Oh, for them, I guess … does Virgo have to be registered?”
“With the Planet of Law. I’m friends with the lawyer who looks after all matters pertaining to the sexual activities of Aryans. It might come in handy for you—”
She said indignantly, “You’re teasing me!”
“Just a little, honeybee. I have to go, I’m in the middle of—”
“A meeting, I know.”
“Lunch, actually, but with friends. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Her door opened revealing Ashely and Henry sneaking around in the dark. She yawned. “It’s boring. Virgo is about losing your virginity.”
“What’s that?” Henry asked in the darkness of her room.
Ara shrugged. “Don’t know exactly but it has something to do with sex.”
After Ashley and Henry left her room, nattering away to each other, Ara lay down, still unhappy.
***
A few weeks later, Marc caught up with her on the dirt track heading down to the valley, the Katron Ranges were on his right. The tall trees kept it cool and her feet made little noise over the damp leaves lying on the path. She walked while he was on horseback. He’d seen her leave and her little face looked decidedly unhappy. “Ara, wait up!”
She turned, shoulders slumped, and watched him. He linked to her mind as she struggled to raise her lips for a smile. He frowned a little and slid off his new black and white horse, Whack. “What have you been doing lately? I’ve hardly seen you.”
She shrugged and patted Whack’s head, he was grinding on the bit. “Studying, playing with Tek.”
He draped an arm around her and they started walking. Whack trailed behind and swished his tail. Marc said, “You’re angry at me.”
“No.”
“Hurt then, over what?”
He stopped and turned her but she averted her face and a hand brushed something away from her cheek. “Hey, what’s with the tears?”
“Nothing, I’m being silly.”
“You’re rarely silly, Ara. Or quiet.” He teased but studied her face as she glanced around seeking to change the topic. He knew that she felt awkward. She wasn’t very good at things like this.
“Was it the whole Virgo thing?”
She shrugged.
“Ara, I overreacted because Tricia raised it the day before the dinner and I panicked.”
She studied his face now, worried for him. But the truth was he had been embarrassed because he had been think
ing of Jamie, not Tricia. She hadn’t picked up on that stray thought and he had to be careful. Ara hadn’t actually met her guards; she had just ordered them about. Ara’s face turned sharp as she tried to calculate something.
“But you’re only one hundred and thirty-three calculating the age Maya has given”—Marc started at that—“and your recent birthday. So, she’s older?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, she’s ready?”
“Virgo is rarely conducted with the one you love. They must be mature and experienced, caring … I don’t know.”
From her stubborn look, Ara didn’t understand. He saw her confusion but, in truth, he was as confused as she was. He wasn’t really that young, but locked into a biosuit made inside the Cardinal Unit. They all were. Pen, Terance, Sacha, and Ersen, to trick Maya. However, his younger siblings weren’t Aether enough and had actual bodies. The matter in this region of space bonded with their embryos and because Aryans were too close to the Core they were not what they were supposed to be. Marc had seen research from those trying to determine what the Aryan would have been without the matter heavy and high-energy properties. The test results were unclear.
“I’m worried she may look at me differently afterwards.”
“Oh. I suck at this.”
“We know.” But he was teasing her. “Tricia wants to invite you too. She thought it might help you understand. It’s common for young ones to watch.”
She screwed up her face. “So, I’d have to spend all day with giggling females, and then watch Tricia do it with others looking on behind a trellis?”
“Horrible, I know.”
She glanced up, startled, and saw his grin. “Marc!”
“Ara, you’ll come to realize people will generally react based on their own perceptions and experiences, things that have happened to them in the past or present making them feel vulnerable, and when locked in those perceptions it is hard to see beyond.”
