Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder)

by Scott Rhine

  They both tasted candy canes at Christmas.

  His breath came in rapid, short bursts. He pulled back to admire her eyes one last time and yielded to the tsunami. The wash of echoed pleasure left her stupefied as he slumped unconscious.

  Chapter 33 – Side-Effects May Include

  Mira fell asleep by Zeiss’s hospital bed. Daniel woke her by rubbing her back. The young woman snapped awake. “I just drooled on his pillow. I guess it’s a day for gross things.”

  “Are you ready to talk about it yet?” her uncle asked.

  “No. Where’s the thieving whore?”

  “In the brig, dressed in the neoprene and psi-shield suit they made for me to travel in. We had to gag her because one of the guards opened the door when she asked. She targeted Quantum Computing candidates because they could see her while she was spying Out of Body and blow the whistle.”

  “That explains our run of bad luck.”

  Daniel whispered, “Nobody else knows we’ve caught her, especially not her father. Her phone had a lot of interesting numbers in it. We’re rolling up others in her ring as they attempt contact.”

  Disappointed, Mira said, “You could’ve lied and told me you beat the information out of her.”

  “The whole security team will be working double shifts for a week. Trina will visit when she can. This web is huge, worse than dandelion seeds in the wind. Sojiro cracked Kaguya’s videogame machine. That was the quantum crypto machine Mori built from Z’s design. Sojiro’s using her toy to translate everything Z collected before the fire. We’re finding more of Kaguya’s puppets all over. If Mori corporate is involved, we have to insulate ourselves before we can tell the UN. Hell, I might have to broker a deal with old man Mori myself. But we need all the information first.”

  “They don’t get rewarded for this!”

  “You have to let the anger out or it’ll poison you.”

  “The one person who finally loves me and she takes him, too!” the young woman shouted. She pointed to the smile on Zeiss’s face.

  “We don’t know what happened inside him yet. Doc Marsh found the same hallucinogens as in Green, but in much higher dosages. He could be unconscious for a while from that alone. If he really did become an Active, it could be days.”

  “He is Active; I felt it. He’s just hiding.”

  Daniel shook his head. “I can’t sense any trace of talent. We don’t know how the Mori conditioning process works. He might’ve already bonded to her.”

  “Or?”

  Her uncle bit his lower lip. “We have to face the possibility that Conrad’s stuck in navel-staring mode like Lazlo. We won’t know until he wakes, if he ever does,” Daniel whispered.

  Tears welled up in the young woman’s eyes. “It happens every time I care about someone.”

  “It’s not you, Kitten. Get some food and rest. I’ll stay with Z. Herk will take the shift after me.”

  After yawning in mid-protest, the young woman decided to obey her uncle just this once and went back to her pod. Microwaving a random package from her freezer, she ate without looking or tasting. Still clothed, she curled up on her bunk and cried herself to sleep.

  ****

  Trina woke Mira.

  The young woman’s first frantic words were, “Who’s dead this time?”

  Her aunt wore a quirky smile. “Not that, Mira. Something good and weird. Change your clothes, brush your hair, and then I’ll show you.”

  “What?”

  “You’ll have to see it to believe it.”

  Mira followed her to the escape ladder and onto the roof of the pod. Zeiss was curled directly over her bedroom, still wearing his hospital gown. An orderly stood on each side of him, but they were watching the ocean, not their patient. “How?” asked the young woman.

  Trina’s smile grew wider. “He walked in his sleep. Daniel couldn’t catch him.”

  “Why?”

  “When two people are pair-bonded, sweetie, they have to be together, as close as humanly possible,” Trina explained. Mira burst out into a grin and put her hands over her face. “Conrad chose you, baby. He managed to hold her off till you arrived. I spoke to Dr. Marsh and he’s agreed to let you sleep in the clinic so this doesn’t happen again.”

  “Then why are the hospital people still here?”

  An orderly pointed to the ocean. Mira saw a whale breaching the water, then another, and a third. “I’ve never seen so many whales in one place!” She glanced down at Zeiss. “You don’t think he has anything to do with this gathering do you?”

  “Welcome to weird. The island is at a dead stop and we’re flying in cetacean experts.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “Honey, every talent manifests a little different, depending on the person. Conrad was a lot different to start with.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Daniel suspects he’s Active, but on their frequency instead of ours.”

  “Ultra-low-frequency talent? Could be,” Mira said, her voice tinged with doubt.

  “Do you have a better theory?”

  “It’s far-fetched,” the young woman warned.

  Her aunt snickered and pointed to the circle of whales around them. “And this isn’t?”

  Mira pulled her aunt aside. “His flare was the longest I’ve ever seen, and he was still conscious until that song pushed him over the edge. Most people only read a line or two of the Collective Unconscious page. I think that between Kaguya, Sojiro, the whales, and I, Z may have learned the entire page. Maybe other people are seen as Active because they’re still in progress.”

  “He’d be the first human to finish it,” Trina stated. “If that’s the case, we have nothing to compare him to.”

  Mira said, “There’s no one who compares to him either way.”

  Trina watched Mira gaze at Zeiss. Both women sighed contentedly. To the orderlies, she said, “Ease him down, boys.”

  ****

  A balding cetacean expert arrived three hours later. He took hours of sound and video samples. But near dark, when Mira spooned in Zeiss’s hospital bed, the whales dispersed.

  The expert was astounded by both events. He explained to a room full of faculty and Commander Taggart, “Most of the new whales were young and female.”

  “What drew them?” asked the dean.

  “This sometimes happens when a new male sings that he’s . . . lonely.”

  Trina started giggling.

  “What?” whispered Daniel.

  “Massive Sperm Whale Buildup.” She barely got the phrase out before Daniel burst out guffawing as well. They had to leave the conference room.

  “Is that a whale in your pocket or are you just happy to see me,” Daniel said on the way out. They traded double entendres the whole way to the clinic. By the time they arrived, they were laughing so hard, tears were flowing.

  When they explained the theory to Mira, she seemed less amused. “So when I go anywhere, he’s going to tag along, and the whales are going to follow him like some horny parade? I’m not ready for this. Every time he wants . . . something, it’ll be like this elephant in the room that no one talks about.”

  Daniel tried to hold in the laughter, but started crying again. “Stop!”

  Mira made her uncle leave.

  “Honey, we all know Conrad buries his feelings,” Trina explained. “That’s something he’ll have to work on. But he’s learning to communicate with women. Now we’ll just have to work on the species.”

  “Not funny,” Mira complained.

  “All men need to be trained, dear heart,” Trina lamented. “This isn’t so bad. You won’t mind his attention once you’re glowing, too.”

  “There’s another problem. I need you to be serious for a moment,” Mira insisted.

  “Is it about sex?” asked Trina, eager to help with advice.

  “Sort of. Right now, his body is sort of . . . programmed,” Mira explained, whispering. “Whenever I kiss him on the lips for a few minutes, he
has a . . . thing.”

  “Erection?”

  “No . . . a gooey, epilepsy, almost heart-attack thing. What do we give him for it?”

  “Lip balm?” her aunt suggested.

  “What?”

  “It’s an old joke. Doctor, I have an orgasm every time I sneeze. What can you give me for it? The doctor replies: Pepper.”

  “O.”

  “Exactly,” Trina chuckled. “I like to listen to Daniel’s excitement through our link. But he has much more fun listening to mine.”

  “Why?”

  “Because women don’t really have a limit to how many times they can sneeze,” Trina said. “I’ll give you some books. The two of you will need to practice kissing so he can learn to hold back.”

  “Sounds . . .” Mira stopped when she realized the implications. “Shouldn’t you be talking me out of sex?”

  Trina grinned wickedly. “Once you make love to your soul mate, you’ll be asking why I didn’t tell you to try it sooner.”

  “Well, why didn’t you?”

  “You both have to be ready. You’re not there yet, but oh, I can tell you’re going to have world-shaking fun even before you go all the way.”

  ****

  On the third day, Mira woke to find Zeiss’s fingers interlaced with her own. He was awake, propped on his elbow, and watching her. When he saw her stir, he recited, “Tyger, tyger, burning bright.”

  “Z!” she said gleefully.

  “I think you can call me Conrad now,” he said with a deeper than normal voice.

  The way he said it tickled her insides. “Okay, Conrad.” After two years of constant conversation, she found herself with nothing significant to say. His eyes kept roving over her like gentle hands. She opened her special ears and listened to his emotions—steak on the grill. She stammered, “Um . . . I read your dissertation.”

  “What did you think of it, beautiful?”

  Without thinking, she kissed him full on the mouth. Both of them were speechless from the aftershocks. A nurse ran in to see what was causing the monitors to spike.

  “Pepper,” Mira panted as he gripped her tightly against him.

  Nurse Betsy smiled, switched off the alarm, and left.

  Chapter 34 – Belated Birthday

  Trina and Red worked out on one set of equipment while Zeiss made a pretense of helping Daniel. Red wore a black and maroon Lycra outfit that highlighted her curves.

  “That’s a nice new outfit she has,” Zeiss noted during one exercise. During the next, he observed, “I’ve never noticed how gorgeous that curl is over her right ear.”

  “Conrad, focus. Don’t let the mean, metal bar crush your future in-law.”

  “Sorry,” Zeiss said, spotting the weight properly.

  Red smiled and waved when she noticed Zeiss’s attention. Trina stretched, watching the joy in her niece’s eyes. “What are they talking about?” Red wondered.

  “How lucky they are,” Trina guessed.

  “Seriously. Z might be telling him about the present he got me for my birthday.”

  “That was last week,” Trina said, teasing.

  “We never really celebrated,” Red explained. When Trina waggled her eyebrows, the young woman said, “Stop! He had it ready for the party, but I was such a brat, he never got the chance to give it to me.”

  Trina said, “How does it compare to the proxy options you received for turning eighteen?”

  “Those were a lot of added responsibility. I don’t have time for voting.”

  “Honey, a company needs running.”

  Red squinched her faced. “Not by me.”

  “Then who?”

  “Um . . . Z says Mary Smith has been getting her MBA.”

  “Those options were left by your mother for you,” Trina accused.

  “But Mary’s playing me in Paris as we speak. It’ll look suspicious if she doesn’t exercise the options.”

  “What’re you leading up to?”

  “Math proofs. He’s infected me. Z says he doesn’t think we’re coming back from the artifact, at least not for a few years. His dissertation backs that up.”

  The ramifications trickled through to Trina. “You need someone to impersonate you long-term, just in case.”

  Red nodded. “Someone we trust.”

  “I’ll talk to Daniel. Maybe,” Trina promised. Then, like a girl Red’s age, she asked, “What’d he get you, a ring?”

  “No, but he has been staring at his mother’s ring a lot when he thinks I’m not looking. He gave me the set of extra-credit problems he made for me in his class.”

  “Cuddly.”

  “Trina. He’s a genius,” she said, smiling. “He figured out that the drive flash from four Cassavettis engines can release an electromagnetic pulse stronger than any shielding in orbit. Every eye and computer in range of our launch could be blinded for at least five minutes.”

  “So?”

  “He gave me the five minutes my team needed to reach the artifact.”

  “The five minutes you’ve been trying to get for the last seven weeks?” asked Trina, excited. The young woman nodded in response. “I hope you gave him a deep kiss for that one.”

  Mira smiled wistfully. “Yeah. The best thing for me is when he puts his arm around me and makes that sound in his mind like Dad did when he got home after a long trip and spun me around. Cotton candy.”

  “Love,” Trina agreed. “What else did he get you?”

  “The next problem in the set told me we need to do a run on the artifact immediately after one of the scheduled orbital test runs to leverage the velocity and position we already have. The last problem he gave me is our team research project for this semester. The four drives use four times as much fuel, even though only one is providing thrust in our configuration. We have to find away to carry more fuel or resupply during the mission.”

  “So he’s talking that much for you? Dr. Marsh is happy when Z uses three syllable words.”

  “No, Conrad’s still quiet. He makes me figure things out for myself. It’s like an Easter egg hunt. Every problem answers some question I asked or one I needed but didn’t realize yet. It’s exciting that he knows me so well and spends so much time thinking about me.”

  “Math as foreplay. That’s a new one on me.”

  “Not everything is about sex,” Red chastised.

  Her aunt laid a hand on her arm. “It’s another way for him to say he loves you without words. It’s beautiful. Like him riding along during your flight time to play navigator, when it’s really a date. How did Australia go?” Trina asked, eager for more vicarious romance.

  “We talked about our families. It felt good to trust someone with those secrets.”

  “Good. Building trust is essential at this stage. Daniel is overseeing his anti-interrogation Theta training.”

  “Conrad taught me how to shop for produce. It was kind of cool, but . . . you know how whales follow him?”

  “Yes?”

  “Babies fall silent around him and track his movements—everywhere we go.”

  “Eerie. But it supports your theory about the complete Collective Unconscious. He’ll be a good daddy.”

  Mira chose that moment to look away. Her aunt asked, “You’ve discussed children, right?”

  “No.”

  “Have either of you said the L word yet?”

  “No.”

  “I think he’s waiting for you. Everyone knows how he feels. But he’s afraid you’ll beat him up again.”

  “That was only a few times.”

  “Did you at least ask him to join your team?”

  “No,” the young woman whispered.

  “If you were a boy, I’d slap you,” Trina scolded.

  “Oh yeah, old woman, what’re you going to do instead?”

  Trina shouted to the men on the other side of the room. “Mira says you can be on her team if you convince Lou to be her copilot.”

  Zeiss lit up and ran out of the room.

>   Daniel complained, “I’m not finished here!”

  “Go spot your uncle while he stares at me,” Trina ordered.

  Reluctantly, Red went to help Daniel. It didn’t take long for her to drop an obvious hint about birthday gifts. He smiled, “Your party was a big gift.”

  “But I didn’t know it was for my birthday, so it shouldn’t count!” she protested.

  “I have two presents for you, but I want a promise from you first.”

  She brightened. “Sure.”

  “The first gift is from me. I’ve put Smith’s R&D lab into high gear so they can have a prototype of the tetra engine the same month as your first team training flight in orbit. If you make command rank, your team will be the first ones to fly the tetra.”

  She shrieked and jumped up and down, almost splashing him with water as she squeezed her bottle in excitement.

  He continued, stressing, “If you pass leadership training and earn team status. I’m warning you: that class has long hours and several field trips. Prolonged separation this early is going to be too rough on Conrad, so I want you to take him with you as your second-in-command.”

  “He’d be a great choice, but they only accept people who have their first talent; Collective Unconscious doesn’t count, no matter how unique his is.”

  “You know he’ll be the best Quantum Computer ever,” Daniel said. “Now that he’s anchored to this world with you, we don’t have to worry about losing him. There’s no excuse not to give him the talent.”

  Red considered long and hard before agreeing. “Fine. Why do you need my approval anyway?”

  “Because your classes start tomorrow and the wait for the physical page from the UN vault is three months.”

  “Then how can he read it in time?”

  “That’s where the second gift comes in—the one from your mother.”

  The young woman stared at him, dumbfounded. “To be opened on your eighteenth birthday, or the day of your marriage, whichever came first. I’ve been holding the DVD in my safe in the sublevel. The alpha-combination for the safe is your given name.”