Astra: Synchronicity (13 page)

He got lost in the marvel of her eyes and
found himself tongue-tied. "You're right, but it would be wrong for
me not to want to."

Her gaze drifted onto the table, and a
pensive frown enveloped her facial features. Something had happened
to her; he could see it in her eyes. She sat hunched over as though
she wore an invisible mantle of lead. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I lost my memory. I'm lucky to have found
Xander at all. That was why I came over here and asked you. I
thought maybe…"

He stuck out his hand to her. "I'm Magnius
Zoleki."

She stared at it for a moment before shaking
it. "Amii. Martin." When she touched his hand, an icy chill
consumed him, and he had the overwhelming desire to warm her in his
arms.

"Where did you come on board?"

"Pisa."

He'd never been to Pisa, but stories of the
place ran wild the same way their drugs did. She looked too fragile
to last a minute in that cesspool of humanity on her own. "Has the
captain given you as hard of a time as he's given me?"

"Commander Mundammi? I think he's been quite
reasonable and accommodating given the situation. Has he mistreated
you?"

He shook his head. "I guess not. I just
figured he'd be more compassionate to someone being chased by a
psionic assassin."

Her eyes widened. "Someone's trying to kill
you?"

"Well, he wasn't going to. He came to take me
to see someone, and I know that always ends badly. So I ran. I feel
lucky I found this ship, actually. Would he have killed me? Maybe.
I mean, it's what he does after all." Carrying on about it spun up
his anxiety tenfold.

"What are you going to do?"

"I really don't know yet."

"That makes three of us."

In a way Magnius felt relieved to not be
alone. "I meant what I said about Xander. He's a psycho. I'm stuck
in the damned hold with him until we reach Chara. Any chance the
two of you can swap accommodations? Because I'd much rather spend
the next thirty hours with you."

She tilted her head in a coy gesture. "Why? I
would only break your heart."

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"Why would you let me?"

He bit his lip when she put her hand on his
thigh. She wasn't the only one who sought an answer to that
question. Her innocent stare made him wonder if she was oblivious
to her own advances, and he couldn't discount the possibility she
might be a psion. "I could be dead tomorrow or next week if that
assassin has his way. You can't blame a guy for trying."

Amii twisted her lips and stared at him
curiously. After a moment, she stood to leave. "You are a strange
person, Magnius Zoleki."

"That makes three of us. I'm sorry I didn't
know you. I hope you sort everything out someday."

She lingered there a few moments longer
before her eyes fell upon a ring he wore on his right middle
finger. Entranced by it, she sat back down. "Hemingway School of
Law, class of 2225?"

Most people had no idea it was a class ring,
let alone how to decipher the colored gemstones on the side. "It
was my father's." He lied without even realizing it. "How did
you…how…"

But it was plain to see that she didn't know.
It might've been something as simple as reading about it—one of
those silly facts that stick with someone their whole life. "Maybe
I'll remember one day. Good night." She offered him an endearing
smile before heading back to her table.

Magnius still knew nothing about her, yet she
continued to intrigue him, lingering in his thoughts long after she
and Xander left the mess hall. Amii hadn't cast another glance in
his direction. He doubted he'd see her again, which was more of a
pity than a relief.

He'd always considered the notion of love at
first sight one of the greatest myths of the universe, conceived of
only to woo couples into quick and repeated procreation. Humans
might be smart, but nature would forever be smarter. He couldn't
lie to himself and say he'd never been consumed by lust, but this
time, something was different. The strange visual effect, his
physical response to her, the idiotic words that fell off his
lips…

Who in Astra was that girl?

***

For many psions, getting around Astra could
be a daunting predicament. Psions had driven most worlds into a
state of intense xenophobia. Locals shunned civilians who traveled
the stars like interstellar pariahs, assuming they were psions
until proven otherwise. And even then, trust was hard to come by,
especially when faced with the notion of sharing a ship with a
potential murderer for days.

Aliane never had that problem. She traversed
Astra in the same small ship she'd owned for a hundred odd years.
Its engines were old and on the slow side but they always got her
where she needed to go. The most advanced technology would've
gotten her from Superbia to the Vega system in less than a day.
Instead, it took her two days and she enjoyed her time alone, away
from the perpetual madness of leading the colony.

She'd heard of the Seer on Rêve from a
variety of different sources. Every April, a collection of
prophecies sprung up from an anonymous Seer regarding the coming
year's events like a modern-day Nostradamus. No one in Astra had
any idea where they came from or who this eloquent Seer was. Some
prophecies were spot-on; while others didn't happen quite as
predicted, an element of truth could be gleaned from the words in
hindsight. Powerful Seers were rare because they disappeared into
human society much better than telepaths did. Aliane spent the last
decade searching for the Seer, and thanks to Kimber she'd located
her.

Her name was Kara Steinberg. She'd been wife
to a number of wealthy men across the American Federation, using
her keen insight and telepathy to always get her way. Her status as
a popular socialite veiled her psionic heritage. She'd married the
head-of-state, Davis Walsh, and they lived in the underground city
of Reia. A clever choice of venue since few visitors trekked to the
frigid moon for a vacation. Underestimating this woman would be a
mistake.

In many ways Aliane looked forward to meeting
her. She wondered if Kara had seen her imminent arrival and how
their exchange would unfold. She often coveted the sort of power
she'd be able to wield if she were able to see the future. Being an
imposing telepath had its advantages, but seeing through the
impenetrable barrier of time made it the ultimate psionic ability.
If she knew the future, she could manipulate it, saving her decades
of grief since the moment she departed Earth.

She descended into a channel toward Rêve's
core and parked her ship in the cavernous starport at its base.
After paying for the privilege to visit the gloomiest place in
Astra, she drove a small hovermobile through a narrow corridor of
rock twenty feet high. The passageways of cut granite glistened
from the brilliance of their endless facets. Chambers of
supercooled water glowed an unnatural blue, illuminated from below
by phosphorescent lichens. Mossy undergrowth clung to the walls,
able to garner enough light from their surroundings to survive.
Wapini mushrooms were the moon's only food export, and a few of the
wrinkled luxuries sprouted in the damp shadows.

In a matter of minutes, she arrived at the
gates of the city and stopped at a small guard shack. A tall guard
in a black uniform and cover approached her with an unimposing
smile. "Good morning. Identification please?"

Aliane stuck her arm out the window for the
guard, who scanned her implant using the front of his biometrics
scanner. He then used an infrared laser to fingerprint her retinas.
She'd never had her own genuine implant; they'd been swapped out
over the years from her victims. Using her psychometabolism, she
altered her own retinal scan until she achieved a perfect match.
The arduous task afforded her unquestioned ID but not free access.
Because she had no reason to be here, she expected he'd prod her
further, upon which she'd use her telepathy to gain entrance. Over
the past hundred years, the feat had become trivial.

"Thank you, Mrs. Worthington," he said. "Mrs.
Walsh has been expecting you. Reia Hall, building at the end of
Main, you can't miss it. Have a wonderful day."

Her jaw dropped as the guardsman returned to
his shack and opened the large gate in front of her with the push
of a few buttons. The fact she'd been on the list gave her every
reason to proceed with caution. Funny that such a small act could
be delivered with finesse and power.

Once the gate opened, Aliane headed to the
end of the street. Until today, she'd never been to Rêve. As a
psion, the last place she wanted to find herself was trapped under
a mile of rock if her identity were discovered. Only one passageway
broached the surface. The risks far outweighed the benefits of
visiting the place alone. Until now.

Shadowy doorways and backlit windows
punctuated the eye-catching fascia of the brownstones along the
main road. A master architect with an artful eye had sculpted them
out of the solid igneous stone that made up the crust of the moon.
Light from the neoclassical lampposts emphasized the faux brick and
decorative carvings. She'd seen many pictures of the Capitol, but
nothing prepared her for the sight of it. Its unimposing name, Reia
Hall, belied the fact it was one of the Seven Wonders of Astra.
Artisans spent fifteen years toiling over the façade, and they left
behind a tribute to human ingenuity.

Aliane parked at the southern entrance and
feasted her eyes on the raw intensity of the structure. The
building spanned just two stories, but each square inch had been
toiled over for months. The dark stone had been burnished to a
mirror finish. Flecks of mica gave it an otherworldly sparkle.
Illusory columns protruded at regular intervals, and golden streaks
of pyrite in the native rock wound from top to bottom in a helical
pattern. It was a Cinderella castle for the twenty-fourth
century.

A second security checkpoint waited inside
the door. Guards searched patrons thoroughly; no personal
belongings could be brought inside the capitol building. Because
she knew the standard operating procedure, Aliane gained entrance
without delay. As she passed a door that led to the legislative
chamber, she considered what it would feel like to wield political
authority. To control a world with a suggestion. To have a horde of
loyal supporters endorsing every policy. The mere idea intoxicated
her.

Continuing into the heart of the capitol, she
came upon a hall of marble statues, each of them leaders of Rêve at
some point in the colony's history. Most were stuffy-looking old
men but a few were women. A lady stood near one of the statues,
analyzing it pensively. She had short chocolate-colored hair and
wore a minimalistic navy dress. Judging by her relative height to
the statues, she had to be six feet tall.

"I've been expecting you my whole life,
Aliane," the woman said before turning around and meeting her
gaze.

"Do you really expect me to believe
that?"

Kara smiled knowingly. "It doesn't matter
what you believe. But you're not here to debate me philosophically,
are you…"

"I want you to join my cause, to be my
advisor," Aliane told her. She doubted the Seer would agree, but it
was worth a shot.

"Your cause died before it even began. Too
many people hate you in every corner of Astra. Stop pandering and
admit to yourself that all you've ever wanted was the subjugation
of humanity."

"That's putting it a bit melodramatically,
don't you think? Yes, my hate has grown steadily over the years,
but petty revenge is all it has ever been."

Kara took a deep breath and returned her
attention to the statue. "Do you know who this is?"

Aliane glanced up at the pale sculpture of a
man and frowned. "I've never had any interest in Rêve's
history."

"His name was Steven Bayer. He was Rêve's
first head-of-state. An amazing man. Thanks to his leadership, Rêve
got off to a great start. He wrote thousands of pages of political
science theory that were centuries ahead of their time. In fact,
Chara's current political model borrows heavily from his ideas. In
2101 there was an attack on the capitol; psionic dissidents were
suspected. Violence between psions and normals escalated until the
Equinox Massacre, where a hundred suspected psions were rounded up
and executed in front of the crowd. From that point on, psions were
guilty until proven innocent."

"What does any of that have to do with me? I
wasn't the one who killed him."

"Nothing. And everything. Lessons of the
future are often learned by remembering the mistakes of the past."
Kara turned to her companion. "A Seer doesn't know the future. I
see the players…the events and their potential consequences. The
only future I'm certain of is the immediate future."

"I didn't come here to learn the immediate
future."

She combed her hand through her hair. Every
finger bore rings with large gems, some with two or three. "You
should care about it. You obsess about it, in fact. Late at night,
it eats at you. It poisons your dreams. Fate is the one thing
you've never been able to control. You'd do anything to get destiny
to bend to your will."

"A lot of psions feel that way. Why should I
be any different?"

"Why did you never have children?"

"That is none of your damn business."

The question caused her heart to race, and
her mind immediately focused on Magnius. But with her next breath,
she swept the thought away. Kara played these games with her
because she could get away with them. Giving away her identity here
would be suicide for both of them. Aliane saw no reason to take
that kind of risk right now. The Seer held all the cards, and both
of them knew it.