Transcender Trilogy Complete Box Set

by Vicky Savage

  I take my seat as my remaining classmates trickle in. Gil’s lecture is fascinating once again. I’m mesmerized by the amazing and diverse parallel earths that exist out there. It’s awesome to know I’ll actually get to see some of them for myself.

  Science of Transcending class is a different story. Five minutes in and I’m lost at sea. The professor is an elder Transcender named Martin. He has a long gray beard and nearly colorless eyes. He occupies the same corner of the dinner table every night surrounded by a small cult of followers. They usually discuss arcane matters, and the younger Transcenders hang on Martin’s every word. I’ve always avoided that corner. Now I’m thinking maybe I should have sat in on a few of those discussions.

  The class is fairly full of students—some Transcenders, some not. Most of the civilians are college students, but a few look like business people or professors. After the first class, I realize it’s essentially a course in quantum mechanics, and it’s pretty clear my high school science and math skills are not up to snuff. I’m going to need some serious tutoring help with this material.

  I may have been born with Transcender abilities, but learning the ropes isn’t going to be easy. After my second day of training, I’m feeling slightly beleaguered and distinctly inadequate.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  My apartment phone is ringing as I step through the door after class. “Narowyn Du Lac calling,” Vasa says.

  “Thanks, I’ll take it.” I set my things on the hall table. “Hi Narowyn.” I don’t know where the mics for the speaker phone are, but each room seems to have one, and they work great for hands free.

  “Jaden, I’m happy I found you at home. Do you have a few minutes to come by my office?”

  “Right now?”

  “Yes, if it’s convenient.”

  “Okay, sure. I’ll be there in five.”

  A man and woman stand chatting with Narowyn in her office when I arrive. They both wear dove gray robes similar to judges’ robes. I’ve noticed people in town wearing them.

  “Jaden, please come in,” Narowyn says. This is Corinne Barker and Ted King. They are our lawyers in our suit against IUGA.”

  I shake hands with them both. “Nice to meet you.”

  “I’m afraid we’ve had an unpleasant development in our case,” Narowyn says. “This morning IUGA filed counterclaims against the Transcenders, and you have been named individually.”

  Icy fingers of fear grip my insides. “What does that mean?”

  “Why don’t we sit down?” she says. “Corinne and Teddy will explain it all to you and answer your questions.”

  Ted is a tall slim man with a thatch of reddish-blond hair. He opens his valise and removes a stack of papers and an electronic notebook. We all take seats at the conference table, and Ted passes copies of a document to each of us.

  “This is the counterclaim filed by IUGA,” he says to me. “You may keep that copy. It contains a fair amount of legalese, but we’ll summarize it for you.”

  “Essentially it alleges three things,” Corinne says. “First, that when the automaton known as Constantine Ralston was in your service in Domerica, you unlawfully altered his program to obtain confidential proprietary information and to cause him to deceive his owner, IUGA.”

  Ted chimes in, “The second claim states you used this information to thwart the natural unfolding of events in Domerica, thus altering the fate of the entire Earth H87D.”

  “And third,” Corinne says. “They accuse you of breach of contract. The complaint alleges that you signed an irrevocable contract promising to remain in Domerica for life, and to never return to either your home in Connecticut or to Arumel.”

  I slump back in my chair. “Am I in trouble?” I look back and forth between the lawyers.

  Corinne smiles. Her make-up is flawless, and she’d be sort of pretty if her dark hair wasn’t stiffly gelled to her scalp. “At this time we don’t believe you have anything to worry about, but we’d like to ask you a few questions so we may file an answer on your behalf.”

  “Sure, ask away.” I prop my elbows on the table.

  “Did you at any time alter the automaton’s program?” Corinne asks.

  “Please call him Ralston,” I say. “He’s a good friend of mine.”

  She shoots Ted a look I can’t decipher.

  “No. I never altered his program. That’s ridiculous. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t know how. Ralston told me he rewrote his own program so he could exercise free will. He says lots of IUGA’s automatons do it.”

  Ted makes a note on his tablet. “Do you know how he accomplished that?”

  “No idea. You should ask him.”

  His eyebrows fly up. “Wait a minute, you know where he is?”

  I glance at Narowyn to make sure I’m not talking out of turn. She nods giving me the go-ahead.

  “Yeah. He’s here at the Chateau. Well not all of him. The techs backed up his mass storage and transplanted his memory module, eyes, and voice box into another automaton body. The rest of him was returned to the refuse pile where we found him.”

  Ted leans back in his chair and tosses his stylus on the table. Amusement glimmers in his gray eyes. “Were you ever going to tell us about this, Nary? Or were you waiting to see how well we handle surprises in open court?”

  Narowyn smiles at him fondly. “I didn’t assume the information was relevant, Teddy. But I suppose with this new counterclaim, we’ll need to involve him. Believe me, IUGA has no idea he’s here. In fact they believe they’ve confirmed just the opposite.”

  “Is that so?” Ted says. “Well, we need to disclose his whereabouts in our answer. I trust you’ll arrange for us to speak with the au… er, with Ralston after we’re finished here? And I can’t wait to hear the story of how he got here.”

  “You shall have as much access to Ralston as you wish,” she says. “And as for the rescue operation, that was well within Transcender Police jurisdiction. Captain Watterson can fill you in on that.”

  “Thanks, Nary,” he says. He picks up his stylus again and refocuses his attention on me. “Jaden, we’ve already collected the facts on the plot to assassinate you and all the unfortunate events of that day in Domerica, so I won’t ask you to go over all that again at this time. But do you know why Ralston turned against IUGA in the first place and decided to save you and your family instead of following through with IUGA’s orders?”

  “Look, I know you guys think he’s just a machine.” My chin quivers slightly while I speak. “But after you meet him, I hope you’ll change your mind. He has a conscience, and he has the ability to love. He really does.”

  I swallow to loosen the log jam of emotion in my throat. “He loves me as a friend, and he knew that what IUGA was doing was morally wrong. They were attempting to kill me to save their own asses. He refused to be a part of that.”

  Corinne leans in toward Ted. “That’s going to be difficult to prove in court.”

  He holds up his hand like don’t be such a downer. “We’ll see,” he says.

  “Regarding the breach of contract claim,” Corinne says. “We have a copy of the contract Narowyn filed with the Arumel Office of Records. It clearly indicates that you chose to relocate to Arumel.”

  She slides a copy of the agreement over to me. “Is that the contract you signed?

  I flip to the signature page. “Yes. That’s my signature. This looks like the agreement.”

  “Do you know why IUGA is alleging that you signed a contract opting to remain in Domerica?”

  I think back on the day Ralston had me sign three copies of the contract and he mysteriously kept a fourth unsigned copy for himself. He said he wanted me to have “plausible deniability.” I guess this is what he was talking about.

  “No. I don’t know why IUGA is alleging that.”

  Ted jots a couple of notes on his tablet. “All right. I believe that’s all we need for now.” He looks to Corinne who nods in agreement. “We’ll meet again at some point prior to the
hearing. Do you have questions for us?”

  “A few,” I say. “What’s the worst case scenario? How bad is this going to get?”

  “No criminal charges have been filed as yet,” Ted says. “But if IUGA wants to play hardball, it might file a theft charge with the local police after we disclose that certain vital parts of Ralston are present in Arumel. It sounds as if Captain Watterson has that covered, though. We’ll interview him to make sure.”

  “The breach of contract issue should be disposed of easily,” Corinne says. “As far as these other issues go, they have no plausible way to prove you altered Ralston’s programs or unlawfully took information. I’m not certain whether Ralston’s presence in Arumel works for us or against us. But it’s possible the court will order him to be returned to IUGA.”

  “What? No!” Panic thrashes in my belly. “Narowyn, we can’t let that happen.”

  “Teddy, she’s right,” Narowyn says, taking hold of my hand. “IUGA wanted him out of the way because of the damaging information he possesses. If they’re allowed access to him now, all of that will be destroyed. It could severely impair our case.”

  “I’m well aware of that, Nary. I have some ideas on the subject. Let us speak with Ralston first, and then we’ll talk strategy.”

  “That’s reasonable.” She pats my hand. “Ted why don’t you tell us what our next step will be.”

  “We’ll file your answer to the counterclaims on Friday, and request a postponement of the hearing to give us time to prepare your defense.”

  “Do you think they’ll grant the postponement?” Narowyn asks.

  “They’ll probably give us ninety days. That’s standard. If their docket’s jammed, they may push it back until sometime after the holidays.”

  “What’ll the hearing be like?” I ask. “Is it a trial with a jury and all?”

  “No,” Ted says. “Hearings before the IGC Court are conducted in an entirely different manner. No right to a jury exists at the inter-galactic level. The hearing will be presided over by a five-justice panel. The justices are chosen from the best judicial minds in the galaxy.”

  “So they’re not all human?” I ask.

  “Since this matter involves events that occurred on different earths, we assume they’ll all be human. In any event, both sides will present witnesses and make arguments to the court. Once everything has been reviewed, the Justices confer with each other and render a decision. Three of the five must agree on the final outcome.”

  “How soon will we know their decision?”

  “Candidly, it can sometimes take months for the final judgment to be filed,” he says. “All the justices will have an opportunity to read it and offer comments before it’s released.”

  “But the final decisions are usually just and fair,” Corinne adds.

  Usually just and fair doesn’t give me a lot of comfort. Both lawyers pass me their business cards.

  “Call us if you think of anything else,” Ted says.

  “Thank you, Jaden,” Narowyn says. “Don’t fret about this. You’re in good hands with Ted and Corinne.”

  Callie waits outside my apartment door when I return to the third floor. Her wagging tail and happy eyes do nothing to calm my anxious nerves. We climb up on the couch together.

  “Vasa, TV on,” I say, hoping for some distracting, mindless entertainment.

  “Good afternoon, Jaden. What do you wish to watch?”

  “Just flip through the channels until I tell you to stop.”

  “Commencing scan.”

  When I see a show with a bunch of dogs romping in a field, I tell her to stop. “Look at this Callie.” Her ears perk up, and she checks out the frolicking pups on the screen.

  The film is a poignant and humorous documentary about a community dog named Buddy who adopts a little autistic boy in the city. It chronicles the ways Buddy has helped the little boy adapt socially and academically to public school. The love between the boy and his dog is sweetly touching, and I find myself tearing up as the closing credits scroll up the screen.

  “We need to officially adopt each other,” I tell Callie. She licks my ear in reply.

  Something at the end of the credits catches my eye: A film by Blackthorn Productions. The feel of Ryder momentarily washes over me. Strange how just the sight of his name can bring his strong presence flooding back.

  I shake off the temptation to dwell on missing him, and I pull out my tablet to look over this evening’s homework. I have a couple of three-dimensional maps to study for Cartography, some reading in Alternate Earths, and an intimidating looking article on quantum entanglements for Science of Transcending. Ugh.

  “Jaden, are you here?” Ralston calls from my front hall.

  Callie bounds from the couch and meets him at the door. He looks handsome in black pants and a white linen shirt.

  “Hey, Rals, come in. You look nice.”

  “Thank you, my dear. I hope I’m not intruding, but I’ve just come from meeting with Narowyn and the lawyers.”

  We take seats in my living room. The lines of his face are taut.

  “How’d it go? Is everything okay?”

  “They wish me to testify at the IGC Court hearing, which means revealing my existence to IUGA in the court filings. The woman, Ms. Barker, believes IUGA will ask the court to return me to their custody.”

  “I won’t let that happen, Rals. I’ll just tell them you can’t testify.”

  “But I must. Don’t you see? I must refute the claims they’ve made against you. Also, without my testimony, the Transcenders’ case against IUGA will be difficult to prove. Mr. King and Narowyn both feel they can convince the court to allow me to stay with the Transcenders.”

  “But you don’t believe that they can?”

  “The point is, no one can be certain. I’ve come here to ask something of you. Something I have no right to ask.”

  “Sure, Rals. I’ll do whatever you want me to. You know that.”

  He pinches the bridge of his nose. “I will not go back to IUGA. We both know what they would do to me. Accordingly, should the court order that I be returned to them, I’ll need to make a quick exit from Arumel.”

  I gaze at him for a moment. “If that happens, Rals, we’ll work it out. I promise. I can’t transport you by myself. We had to use a team shift to get you out of that scrap yard. But I’ll find a way to get you away from here.”

  He shakes his head. “You won’t need to transport my entire body, just my memory. I’ll show you how to extract it. If the court orders my return to IUGA, I beg you please, remove my stored memory and keep it hidden somewhere. Then, at some future date, if you can safely do so, perhaps you will transport me to a different world where I stand a chance at having a life again.”

  “Oh god, Rals, don’t talk like that. Yes, absolutely. If it comes to that, I swear I won’t let them send you back to IUGA. If I can’t get all of you out of Arumel, I’ll remove all your memory and keep it safe.”

  His eyebrows squish together. “I’m so sorry to place this burden on you, my dear. You could find yourself in considerable legal difficulty if you help me.”

  “Look, you’ve already saved my life once, and now you’re risking your life for me again by testifying in this stupid lawsuit. You have my word I’ll get you out, and I won’t get caught.”

  His facial muscles relax. “Thank you, Jaden. This means so much to me.”

  “You mean a lot to me, Rals.” I scoot close to him and put a comforting arm around his shoulder. I’ve finally gotten beyond the change in his appearance. I hope we don’t have to go through that again.

  “Shall we have a cup of tea to seal our pact?” I say.

  “That’s not necessary, old girl, and I really must be going soon. But first, tell me about your week. How is your training progressing?”

  “Well, I enjoy Firearms Training very much. My instructor is a hoot. Cartography’s boring and Spontaneous Shifting is a challenge. But I just love my Alternate Earths cla
ss. Your roommate is a great lecturer, and the subject matter couldn’t be more interesting.”

  “Gil can be rather eloquent when he’s passionate about something.”

  “Science of Transcending is kind of rough, though. It’s mostly quantum mechanics, which I know nothing about. Rals, do you think you might have some time to tutor me during the week?”

  “It would be my pleasure.” He smiles warmly. “Narowyn has assigned me some duties, but I’m free most evenings.”