Universe of the Soul

by Jennifer Mandelas

  Which left Adri and Hildana staring at each other in mutual wariness and curiosity.

  Adri was the first to break the silence. “So, how'd it happen?”

  “You haven't heard?” Hildana raised her eyebrows in surprise.

  “I've been recuperating from crash-landing on a planet. Call me a little behind the times.” Adri replied dryly.

  Hildana snorted. “Our ship was hit by a counter raid less that twenty minutes after we had raided one of yours, a G.C.N. Damacene.”

  Adri's interested piqued at the mention of Carter's ship.

  “Most of us were still on the warehouse and docking level, stripping gear, when the Damacene's security officer appeared among us. It was the strangest thing that has ever happened to me. All of a sudden he's standing there, ATF to my head, with a dozen of his men surrounding us.”

  Here Adri frowned a little, trying to imagine Commander Vortail taking such a risk. It just wouldn't compute.

  “He informed us all that a strike team had already attacked and taken control of the bridge, and if we didn't cooperate, he'd have his men download a HD virus through our mainframe and destroy our engines.” Hildana shrugged. “So here we are,”

  Impressed, Adri nodded. “How did they get aboard?”

  “Stole some of the teleportation emitters that my fallen troops had left behind.”

  Adri tried not to gape. “You have teleportation devices?!”

  “Yeah,” Hildana nodded smugly. “Didn't figure that one out?”

  “We suspected…” Adri shook her head at her confirmed suspicions. Poor Duane. He was probably having a paranthian equivalent of a heart attack.

  “So how in the universe did you survive crashing onto a planet? Or being blown up or sucked into space? Or dodging a blaster beam, for that matter?”

  Ah, truth. Might as well. “Turns out I'm an empowered Adept. Supernatural genes, you know.”

  Hildana blinked, then grunted. “An Adept. Of course. No way I didn't see that one coming.”

  Since Adri's own attitude was pretty much the same, she simply shrugged. “Yep. Go figure.” A little sympathetic to her old enemy's look of confused disbelief, she asked, “What were you doing so far into Commonwealth enforced space, anyway?”

  All hints of amusement vanished from the Belligerent soldier's face. “We were sent to investigate your people's new secret weapon. Your WMD to rival all genocide attempts on either side thus far.”

  “That's insane. The Galactic Commonwealth is opposed to genocide in all forms. We've been at war with your Coalition for decades and have never resorted to more than organized, traditional military combat!” Adri retorted with righteous indignation. “Many campaign plans are rejected annually due to too much potential for mass loss of civilian life.”

  Kobane sneered. “You actually believe all the PR that comes out of your government's talking heads? Genocide is what this war is coming to, no matter what line you've been tossed, Rael. Both sides know this war will doubtlessly drag on forever at the rate it's going. The only way for one side to win effectively is planetary genocide. Wipe out a few planets, and then threaten the rest with the same fate if they do not toe the line. Simple and effective.”

  Adri shook her head adamantly, despite the cold rock that had settled in her stomach. “There's no way to wipe out an entire planet. Scientific speculation on the size of a machine powerful enough to rend a planet's surface is something as big as a satellite moon. No way a project that big remains a secret from the military.”

  “Ah, but not if the goal was not to tear the planet apart physically, now is it?” Kobane wagged her finger, a cold smirk on her face. “What if the goal was to simply inject a fast spreading poisonous toxin into a planet's atmosphere capable of wiping out all organic life? Pump in enough and it will spread throughout the water systems in a matter of days, killing every living thing. Within a week, all there is that can move around are machines. Something of that caliber could be much smaller, maybe the size of a large battleship, perhaps?”

  Echoes of the rumors Adri had heard at the space mission raced in her head. The tukusan's uneasy murmurings about the Top Men poisoning Undaria, of the undarians having to flee to systems they had never traveled to before. But if this was connected to Kobane's secret weapon she was sent to investigate, then why would the Commonwealth turn on one of its own planets? The cold in her stomach spread through her body. Everything in her denied that the government that she had served and believed in for her entire career, while not perfect, had upheld certain moral standards in its war with the Belligerent Coalition.

  “It can't be. You have to be lying.” She had to believe it. Kobane had to be misinformed.

  “Full truth Rael.” Kobane replied harshly. “Its even reached us that your precious Commonwealth tested its new weapon on one of its own planets. That's when we decided that we couldn't wait around to further substantiate the rumor. If you were cold blooded enough to test it on one of your own core planets, you certainly wouldn't hesitate to use it on one of ours.”

  ***

  Perhaps it was the intense conflicting emotions brought on by her argument with Kobane. Perhaps it was the tension of trying to rest with mortal enemies laying only a few feet away. Whatever it was, when Adri had finally relaxed enough to fall into a soldier's catnap, she dreamed.

  A large white moon, like the one that shone down on her home planet Halieth, hung overhead. It illuminated a wide courtyard, surrounded by an old majestic stone building. She turned to look at the building, and became mildly fascinated with the flickering lights shining through the windows. It was like a thousand candles burning at once.

  It was fire.

  As if that realization had cranked the volume of her dream, screams erupted from all around. Terrified screams. Death screams.

  She whirled around and her foot slid in something wet and dark. Blood. The growing firelight revealed the courtyard to be a slaughterhouse. Blood spattered everywhere; on the cobbled pavement, on the walls, on the trees and bushes. And then suddenly she was no longer alone in the courtyard of blood – she was surrounded by fleeing lights, as brilliant as the spirits in the other realm. These lights were racing to and fro in an attempt to escape the blood and the fire and the encompassing dark. But there was nowhere to go.

  Then she saw the boy. A beautiful, pale haired boy with an angelic face and wide dark eyes. The lights fled from him like the angel of death.

  His black wings beat faster than the pulse of the lights, and with a look of tragic emptiness on his lovely face, he killed them.

  Adri started screaming.

  Username: Zultan

  File://GC:#000237ugd//confidential//uri

  Password: *******

  Access Granted

  Command: open file to last saved date

  It has been thirty-two days since I last saw Dr. Floyd Tarkubunji. Thirty-one days under the direct command of Dr. Morris Waverly of Interstellar Humacom Designs. Twenty-eight days since I was introduced to Cassie's replacement, G.C.P. 07385-series #0344, nicknamed “Eisha.” It is a six-foot sturdily built securicom in what I gather is an attractive female chassis.

  I find more stimulating conversation with the lab's beverage machine.

  At last I feel permitted to express an opinion I've harbored for a long time. Yet now it is not an opinion, but a theory that has stood against several tests. Humans are very foolish. They do not understand each other, they do not understand themselves, and they certainly do not understand their creations. They go about their lives with an all-encompassing goal of making themselves happy, regardless of the unhappiness they cause others in the process.

  In a way, their actions have freed me from my own logic systems. I shall see if a humacom can find happiness. I do know unhappiness.

  Because I am the Galactic Commonwealth's primary database, I knew the minute the commands were filed to recall all humacoms. I knew when Stroff ordered the removal of ada from the lab. I knew when an
upgraded model of Cassie, built by someone other than a Tarkubunji, was ordered. Because I am a database, I know all their secrets that they keep, even from each other. I will not wait to see if I ever receive an order for my own destruction.

  Most importantly, I know that aurora was not Cassie's self-destruct program.

  Save all new data

  Close file

  Encode

  Chapter Thirty

  “All updates have been loaded. All daytime staff have officially logged off the mainframe. Security pass code, backup virus detector and hacker warning systems are now on full alert.” Eisha disconnected its cord and slid it expertly back into its compartment behind its right ear.

  “So everything is finished for the night,” Zultan commented from beside her.

  “Yes.” Eisha rose, tugged the bottom of the gray military jacket that matched Zultan's, and turned to him. “There is no more business to input.”

  “Would you care to play a game of chess with me, then?”

  “Playing chess does not improve my function ability.”

  “Very well.”

  “Why do you keep asking me this question?” Eisha queried. “The answer is not a variable.”

  Zultan stared at the securicom thoughtfully. “Eisha, you were not built with a personality program, were you?”

  There was a pause as Eisha searched its programming. “No. There is no such program as ‘personality.’ Why?”

  The datacom sighed in a purely human gesture. “Humans are strange creatures. They do not always follow a discernable logic pattern. They passed this problem on to us, you know, creating personalities for us, and independent thinking and learning and mimicry. When they realized their mistake, they tried to fix it by removing the parts they blamed for our defects.”

  “I do not understand what you are saying,” Eisha replied in the same deadpan voice it used for every situation. “You did not answer my question.”

  “I suppose not. Here it is then; I have a personality program which, in combination with my independent thinking and human mimicry functions, skews my logic in strange and unforeseen ways.”

  “I still do not understand.”

  “No,” Zultan murmured quietly. “I don't suppose you do. I can barely compute it myself.”

  Eisha stood still, obviously trying to process what Zultan had said. “Is some program not functioning correctly in your cerebrum, Zultan?”

  “Maybe there's a glitch,” Zultan answered. “I think it's labeled ‘guilt and determination.’”

  The securicom hurried forward and removed its cord. “I must investigate. My top priority is to ensure your database is not compromised in any way. This could be a virus.”

  Zultan did not reply.

  Eisha connected to the port behind Zultan's ear and turned its primary attention to an inspection of Zultan's programming.

  When the securicom was completely focused, Zultan acted quickly. He reached with one hand easily across Eisha's waist and pulled out the ATF attached there. Before the securicom could register the move, he fired twice; once to the stomach area, and once to the skull, disintegrating the cerebrum. Disconnecting from the connection cord himself, he stepped over the destroyed securicom, and booted up the mainframe.

  Seconds later, he had erased the incident from the security cameras, disengaged the lock to the laboratory door, and ordered an unmarked military air rover to wait at the entrance to WCRTL. Then, because it was there, and a perfect opportunity, Zultan opened the latest humacom virus sequence and downloaded it into the mainframe.

  Calculating the amount of time before the next round of security, Zultan stepped away from the console, picked up the ATF, and walked out the door.

  ***

  “If it was a dream, then it was a nightmare on an epic scale, Blair.” Adri repeated for the third time. She felt sick, as though she had been run through with an icicle, and it was spreading through her gut and into her chest. Hugging herself, she rocked slowly in an attempt to warm herself back up. Echoes of the dream still rang through her mind. The sound of the screams. The harsh light from the fire. The smell of blood that spattered everything in sight.

  Adri had never seen so much blood. Blaster fire was so much cleaner…

  “I believe you,” Blair replied. He sat in front of her on the ground. One eye was swelling shut, and his lip was still bleeding from his attempt to wake Adri from the nightmare. “You need to tell me what happened,”

  “Nightmare,” Adri murmured again.

  “What by Danwe is going on?” Hildana demanded from across the room. She had her back to the wall, on arm spread defensively across her sister.

  Adri didn't hear her. The horror of the nightmare – that beautiful, terrifying boy – was proving difficult to cope with. “I couldn't do anything. I just stood there. Just stood there while he killed them. There was blood all over. Even on me,” She looked down at her hands, half expecting to see splotches of crimson and black, the colors of death.

  “Rael,” Blair spoke again, louder.

  There had been blood everywhere….on the walls…on the trees…. pooling on the ground…on her clothes…on his face. That beautiful face…

  “Rael!”

  She had been helpless…She had stood by while the lights had been blotted out like a snuffed candle – something she had only seen in holotheater. How could that lovely child massacre the lights, as though they were nothing? Make her, as the spectator feel like nothing. Worse than nothing.

  “Adrienne!”

  Someone called her name. Cold fear evaporated in the sudden rush of fury. How dare that boy shove her back to the powerlessness she had vowed to never experience again? With a hiss of anger, she struck blindly.

  And came to her senses at the sight of Blair, face ashen, looking down the long shaft of the lance that had somehow appeared in her hand.

  “She just pulled a…a…spear out of thin air!” Giselle hissed to her sister, her eyes twice their normal size.

  “I see it,” Hildana replied. Her throat had gone dry and her palms had gone clammy. She didn't add that she also saw strange violet markings covering their captor's exposed flesh.

  “We're in serious trouble, big sister,”

  “Add an exponent.” Hildana agreed.

  Adri blinked as the world swam back into focus. She looked down at the lance. “Why is this here?”

  “You summoned it,” Blair replied evenly, despite the sharp blade less than an inch from his unswollen eye.

  “Oh,” She slowly withdrew it away from her companion and stared at it in bafflement. “How do I…unsummon it?”

  Blair's breath whistled out, proving that he had been holding it. “I have no idea.”

  Gingerly, Adri placed the weapon across her lap. “So you don't know everything,”

  “If only.”

  Suddenly aware that they had an audience, Adri cocked her head towards the Kobane sisters. “What are you gawking at?”

  “Nothing,” Hildana said, at the same time Giselle blurted, “You have tattoos! Purple glowing tattoos!”

  Adri looked down, saw the violet markings on her hands, and quickly tugged the sleeve of her jacket down over her palms.

  “Adrienne, you need to tell me what happened,” Blair said, color slowly creeping back into his face.

  “When did you get off on calling me Adrienne?” she muttered, self consciously peeking down at her hands to see if they were glowing through her clothes.

  Blair began to dab at his lip. “When you didn't respond to Rael.”

  “Well, don't call me that. If you have to call me something other than my serviceable surname, call me Adri. My friends do,” With a jolt, she realized that was untrue; only Gray had ever dared call her Adri. Everyone else had called her by her rank, or surname. What did that say about her? Was she really too intimidated by the fear of heartbreak that she used her own name as a personal barrier? Wait, why was she thinking about this at all?

  “I'm glad to see
we've progressed to friendship,” Blair replied, amusement wafting through his voice.

  Yeah, Adri thought. When did that happen? “All right, about my dream…” she glanced over at the Kobane sisters, intending to demand they step out of hearing range. Only to discover that they had removed themselves to a far corner and were staring at her as though she had grown wings. She quickly checked herself to make certain that was not the case. Relax, she ordered herself.

  Turning back to Blair she recited what had occurred in the dream. She tried to make it as detailed and detached as possible, like giving a report on the movements of enemy troops. It helped to settle the anger that still hummed with her fighting elegy in her head, but it did nothing for the chilling pain that radiated from her stomach. When she finished, Blair was pacing the small stretch of free space in front of her. The only sounds were the soft slap of the soles of his shoes, and the droning hum of the ship's oxygen filter.

  “What do you think?” she asked, more to break the silence than anything else.

  Blair made a soft umph-ing sound in his throat before stopping to turn to her. “I think lots of things. None of them good.”

  “So you don't think I had a wildly detailed dream provided by my subconscious?”

  “No. I think you had an incredibly violent vision of something that actually happened.”

  “Why?” Adri asked, then waved her hand, “And recall the banned words in your vocabulary,”

  “Fine. I think the event was connected to you. Something about it had to do with your recent personal discovery. The cause for it, or result of it, has to do with you. The boy, too. Whoever he is, he's got some tie to you that allowed you to see him so clearly.”

  “Do you think those other lights were….people?”

  Blair simply raised a brow. “And you don't?”

  Adri huffed out a long breath. “So they died because of me. How? I've never seen that place in my life.”

  Her companion shook his head. “I don't have the answers. This is only what I surmised. The vision came to you for a purpose. It affects or will affect you in some way. But that is all I am sure about.”