by Selina Brown
“Good. You know it’s Ara Katron?”
“Yes, Simon briefed me but said you’ll give me the details.”
“It’s pretty easy. Become her friend and become as close as makes you comfortable because she’ll pick up on disingenuous behavior.”
Jesran nodded but remained quiet.
“You’ll need to become ‘young’ again.”
“I have no problems with that. You know I grew up on a farm?”
“It is what nudged you past the three other candidates.”
Jesran chuckled. “Anything I need to be especially careful of?”
“If she asks you if she is your mission, be honest.”
“Ah.”
Jamie studied him for a moment, confirming in his own mind that Jesran had been the right choice. “We need her to learn greater self-awareness, trained to fight would be best.”
“Methods?”
Jamie leaned forward and rested his arms on his desk. “Would you consider a rigged event to force the issue?”
Jesran considered this but said, “No. That might increase her fear, rather than her confidence. She’d remember the self-doubt and vulnerability being a Pure-Gen. Their neural pathways rarely degrade and memory engrams are resistant to decay.”
Jamie nodded, pleased with the response.
“I will need to work in with her for a few years before I can really make that decision. If an event crops up then I will protect her, but not pressure her.” He gave Jamie a measured look telling him he wouldn’t approve of any rigged events.
Jamie smiled and stood. He walked around his desk and held out his hand. Jesran shook it and followed him to the more comfortable seats. “Good. Let’s talk a bit more, and then you can move into the observation room and watch when Ara comes in with her parents.”
Since Jesran just nodded, Jamie grinned. It seemed Jesran didn’t mind the spying part, which was exactly what they needed. Jesran would need all his wits about him to tackle Ara and help her to shift her perspective. An hour later, Jesran observed Ara and Jamie observed Jesran observing Ara. A smile appeared on Jesran’s face and Jamie glanced into the office. Diane was still chatting to Ara who had crossed her arms over her chest and yawned.
Ara walked through one of the schools situated in the city. Saratoga City was laced with tall and elegant buildings, grand parks and few vehicles. It was right at the edge of the ocean and Ara wanted to choose the school near to the water. She had choice of four. Mum and Dad walked around and they sat through numerous meetings about what the schools had to offer. Dad was muttering about having to find a new mechanic.
“I’ll still do that!”
“Ara, are you sure?”
“I have plenty of time.” Indeed, after her stupid talk with that woman she decided to make sure she was too busy for the defense classes and self-awareness courses. How boring!
Pen nodded. “Her efficiency timetable is quite impressive.”
Mum and Dad grinned at each other.
Ara shook her head. “Making fun of me again?”
“Just a little, darling.” Pen hugged her.
Ara was into her skills training. And one of these schools would link her to the skills she favored. She completed the basics, and needed to take another major. She chose zoology after a good talk with Dad. She liked farm animals but he suggested she look beyond agriculture. They had worked hard on maintaining their wildlife corridors across the farmlands and had recently taken part in a survey to register and log the types and quantity of animals that used them.
Caleb had been away a lot and she tried not to miss him too much. He said his father was moving to a new province. She felt some pain at that remembering Marc’s separation from his first love. Not that she compared him to her and Caleb because they hadn’t really seen that much of each other. She was into a lot of climbing, caving, spelunking, and volunteering with various Inferor communities while Caleb partied, hunted, participated in dangerous sports, and preferred to spend time with peers and girls.
When they arrived home, talking about Ara’s choice for her skills training, she found an invitation to King Slavian’s for a party.
“Apparently Caleb is there hunting. He’s been there for a week.”
Ara turned around, hugging Sacha tightly. “You’re home, how long?”
“Long enough for us to go camping I hope.”
Ara nodded and smiled.
Sacha pointed to the gold lettered and black card invitation. “I’ll do your makeup and hair.”
For once Ara didn’t complain and Sacha grew excited at her lack of resistance.
Void
Consortium
On board the Crusader
One night, soon after the ball, Ara woke to a nightmare.
She was in some kind of space station from what she could work out, in her nightie, but no one noticed with the sirens, the lights blinking on and off, smoke, fires, and the smell! Burning flesh assaulted her senses; the smell almost propelled her from the scene. She reached out to steady herself and distract her from her heaving gut.
“Ara!”
She turned seeing Trickster trying to move a beam and heard someone moaning under that beam.
“Ara! Come.”
It was a distraction from the carnage around her. While annoyance was her primary emotion and the need to lecture Trickster as to his absence, she gingerly moved forward aware of her bare feet, seeing Trickster was barefoot as well but in his loin cloth only. The man was being ridiculous! Grey particles were settling over his brown flesh, though it was greener in this light, and her own skin was slowly being coated.
“What are we doing here?”
“What do you mean?” He gave her an indecipherable look.
Was he nuts? She gave him a glare. “I mean what are we doing here?”
He seemed disappointed with her response. “Help me.”
She moved to the other side of the beam and took hold, seeing that she could actually lift it while Trickster pulled a body out. He checked the male but Ara released the beam carefully. Around them voices were screaming, yelling instructions.
“Close the outer hatch!”
“Fire in environment compartment,” the mechanical voice of the station’s comms boomed out.
A flurry of movement told her that wasn’t a good thing.
“Get teams down there…”
“Ara … Ara!”
She turned and saw Trickster gazing up at her.
“His legs are broken; he’s in a lot of pain.”
Ara didn’t understand why she was there. After her guard’s lecture on having a greater perspective on what was going on around her she was suspicious. But Trickster wouldn’t be working in with them, would he? He was mysterious, but it was “odd”, not “operative”. A wave of nausea hit her after seeing another crushed body.
“I should send you back.”
Ara leaned down. “Is this because of me somehow?”
He met her eyes but said nothing.
Dust was settling, but the burnt smells permeated the air. Lights continued to flash around as power was out. Ara was about to talk again when the male struggled and grabbed her am. “Nila … where’s Nila?” He tried to look to his left.
Ara looked around seeing the crushed body again; this time taking a longer look, she saw it was a female crushed under equipment. She heard the male wail and carefully went over to check on the body. The tag said, “N. Cason,” and her eyes stared up at Ara without life. Her Nexus, Superlunary and Sawol had travelled back to their origins leaving the husk. Ara gently closed the lids but hid her grimace at how it felt as the lids slid over the hard eyeballs.
“Rangers are here! Medics to the bridge. Medics to the bridge.”
Trickster stabilized the male.
Not only was Ara in shock but she felt useless and then cut her foot when trying to find something to help him as he tried to stop the bleeding.
“Just come here, and stay. Apply pressure.”
<
br /> She moved over to them, ducking under a part of the ceiling that had collapsed, and took over Trickster’s position. “Here.” He gently placed her hands over some cloth he’d found for the wounds. “Press.”
Nodding, she pressed while he went in search of some supplies. How he moved around without cutting his feet or touching anything, she wasn’t sure.
“Is she dead?”
Ara focused on the grey covered face, blood seeping from various wounds, his left eye almost closed shut. “I’m sorry.”
“We were together for ten years. We were on the space station waiting for transfer to the next mission.”
“Dusty?” Someone called. “Dusty?”
Dusty? Why did that sound familiar?
His hand clenched over Ara’s arm, he croaked out, “That’s me.”
Ara raised her head, blinking out debris falling from the crack overhead. She yelled, “He’s over here!” As she called out, she breathed in particles that made her cough.
Relieved voices filled the bridge, and while some gave Ara a strange look, most attended to Dusty. Startled at someone tugging at her nightie, she turned when Trickster became more insistent. Ara kept coughing as her body tried to eject the particles from her lungs. She followed him into a passage almost devoid of people; it was dark with blinking lights and alarms.
“Ara, you must heal him.”
“Heal?”
“Like Gralten.”
She stepped back. “How do you know about that?”
“There is no time. Will you do it?”
She wanted to ask why, and demand who he was, but there was a sense that she could make it up to Trickster for telling Caleb her secrets. After a visit to Caleb and sharing everything with him, Trickster had not visited again in her dreams. Once she had even managed to get to his jungle den on her own, but he did not appear. Dusty was in need too, and it must be important if Trickster was talking to her again. It had been a long time since she had saved Gralten’s life after he was born. “It’s more that I connected to Maya and the Cardinal Unit.”
For a moment, she felt some relief. Maybe this didn’t have anything to do with her, but Trickster knew she could make the Maya do things for her. So, after a slight nod, she expected to re-enter the damaged area but Trickster pulled out a techcon and activated it. Her mouth hung open and he pulled her through a portal into a hut. She staggered and found her footing on the matted flooring. Next, he sat her down and fed her bread, cheese, nuts, fruits, and dried meat. Normally she loved to eat, but this was ridiculous, especially when she was still coughing. He handed her a cup of water with juice that helped.
“Trickster … I can’t fit another thing in.” At the most bizarre moments, the devastation flashed in her mind, making chewing and swallowing difficult. She pushed the memories down, and tried to gain some control.
Trickster moved to one side of his almost bare hut, which really just looked like his hunting spot except it had four straight walls and a roof. No, it did have a single bed, more of a mattress on the floor with woven bedcovers. Flash! Another gruesome memory branded itself on her retinas. Focus on the hut, Ara. Light filtered through the sticks that comprised the hut. How sturdy was it when windy?
He was leaning over something behind the bed, and her eyes were drawn to his bare legs and part of his arse that she could see. Both were brown and muscular. She forgot to chew and lost even more interest in her food.
“Where are we?” When the answer came it seemed obvious.
“Tuan.” He stood and the muscles in his back were flexing. His back narrowed slightly to his waist and then flared out again to where his loin cloth wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding his body … his arse.
“I know, don’t ask so many questions.” The food she was trying to chew was dry so she drank some more water.
He turned and her eyes were drawn to the Quadrazaad he was holding.
Ara froze for a moment. “Sulture?”
He nodded, looking pleased that she recognized it.
“But mine was the Strike,” she said somewhat self-importantly.
His eyes rebuked her. “Ara. This is to heal that male. Sulture.”
She flushed because of her arrogant announcement and assumptions. But it was only to cover her growing fear that the male and the disaster had something to do with her after all. The male was linked to the Sulture?
He walked over and she barely noticed his muscles play under his brown skin. Barely. He squatted down in front of her. She looked him in the eye, but his eyes were elsewhere on her body. She realized he was interested in her and smiled as his eyes met hers. Anything to distract her from the growing trepidation inside her.
Sighing, he stood and moved back to the end of his bed.
She looked away as he turned, embarrassed that she was perving, had assumed he had been, set down her plate, and then found clothes shoved in her arms along with soft shoes. “Wear those over your—dress.”
“It’s a nightie.” It was lame but she quickly pulled on the long pants and long sleeve top as he was using some kind of device, with maps or … data she couldn’t quite make out. The technology was odd to her. It looked like he transferred data from the device to his techcon. He quickly packed it back in his chest and closed the lid. The shoes fit her well, too well, but she didn’t complain. She fingered the material, had he made her these clothes?
He activated another portal and pushed her through.
“Hey!”
They were in a dark hospital room, the end where they stood was in deep shadow, but she could just hear sirens so they were still on the space station.
“Where is everyone and why aren’t they attending him?”
“They have triaged him.” Trickster checked the toe tag. “They know Dusty is special. This is best for him.”
“Whatever.” It seemed irresponsible to Ara. Her heart actually scrunched as she heard the sobs and she made to move but Trickster held her back.
“The pain in his legs and back is nothing compared to the pain in his heart.”
Ara nodded but said defensively, “I’m not stupid.”
“Shhhh.”
She grumbled at him.
They waited for some time before Trickster shoved her out. “Hey!”
“He’s sleeping. Curl up next to him.”
Ara didn’t bother asking what Trickster did to make the sobbing male sleep but carefully climbed on the bed and found Trickster placing the Quadrazaad over the chest of the male and then placing Ara’s hand at the base. It was then she noticed how large the male was. Tekko was the only one that had made her feel tiny, and that’s how she felt now. “I’ve never seen his species in Iota.”
“We aren’t in Iota.”
Ara jerked up but Trickster shoved her down again. She should try to see Dusty’s energy and—
“Hold it there.”
While she lay there, she felt the warm pulse of the Sulture. Trickster stood over them both, probably to make sure she stayed put and behaved, but then wandered around the room. Ara grew sleepy and released herself to the Sulture, feeling warmth spreading over the male and her. But when she connected to the Cardinal Unit, running her mind along the ELs, it was so far away. She identified something odd—another, newer, connection. Ara followed that, streaking the pulse up through the inky space and connected to Maya, and the Cardinal Unit. But … it wasn’t her Maya and Cardinal Unit. That was so odd! Curious, she found she was able to activate the same programs, and Maya healed the male. Ara was too shocked to learn how that happened and she promised herself if she had to do this again she’d pay more attention to the CU’s operation capabilities. All she remembered were flashes of labs and robots working. Ara lost her connection as it was only supposed to trigger a program, and she was again on the bed. At some point, she felt a hand stroking her head and for a moment she thought it was Trickster touching her.
“Nyx? Is that you healing me?”
“Ah—”
But the
male slipped back into sleep and Ara lifted her head seeing Trickster pressing on his drug button and lifting the Quadrazaad.
“Ara, we must go.”
She rolled off and almost fell, her limbs were like jelly.
His hand firmly grasped hers and he said, annoyed, “You should have eaten more.”
“Trickster?”
They stepped through the portal.
“Hmmmm?”
She sat heavily on his pallet as Trickster tucked the Quadrazaad away. “I connected to Maya, and the Cardinal Unit, but they were different. You said we weren’t in Iota?”
He squatted down and touched her forehead. “Did that frighten you?”
She considered this. “At first I was a little shocked because I couldn’t reach … um … the Maya I usually connect to. And then finding a different one was strange but I could still do the same things. There’s more than one Maya and Cardinal Unit?”
Trickster’s brown eyes were wary, but he nodded even as he gently pushed her down and stroked her head.
“Can I go home now?” She thought of something else. “Why did he think ‘Nyx’ was healing him … who is she or he for that matter?”
“When I am not with you I am usually with Nyx. Perhaps that confused him.”
“But who is she?”
He refused to answer and she fell asleep.
Sub-Log XV
Iota
Station: Perza
Galactic System: Sarato (Spiral Galaxy)
Planetary System: Saratoga
Homestead
“Ara, get up!”
She dragged her cover back over her head and complained, “I’m bushed.”
“Ara, please don’t be difficult—” Mum pulled her quilt down and gasped. “Ara … what happened?”
“Huh? I’m tired, that’s all.”
Pen touched her face and felt her forehead. “Alright, I’ll get the doctor.”
“No, Mum. I’m just exhausted. I had a strange dream.”
She sat on the bed and gently pushed Ara down. “What was it about? Not that unsmiling man again?”
“Someone was in a lot of pain, and I think I healed him.” But she hadn’t. “I didn’t heal him, but helped I think.”
