Astra: Synchronicity (24 page)

She frowned. "The first planet is Xur."

"Bollocks. That's an eight-day trip, and we
certainly can't hide there. The thought of traveling to Xur is a
tempting one though. Imagine the knowledge, the possibilities we
could only dream of…"

"That's a long time to try and stay hidden.
If we get caught—"

"I know." He rubbed his forehead with his
hands. "But I get the feeling this isn't going to turn out well if
we stay here either. The AC is desperate to get their hands on my
research. And if I don't give them what they want, things will get
very ugly for the two of us indeed. I believe they'll take it with
or without my cooperation. It's your call, Amii. What do you
think?"

She considered their options. Stay behind and
do nothing. Escape on the
Schenectady
and risk imprisonment
at Caldos Minor. President Scheidecker had given them every reason
to help the AC and help themselves, but nothing could stop him from
using their intelligence agency to quietly acquire information
Xander didn't want to give them. At least with Caldos Minor a
future of hard labor was certain.

Amii wasn't sure if either choice could save
them, but she didn't plan to go down without a fight. "Okay. Let's
go."

"We should be able to find some uniforms in
the laundry room. Stay close and follow my lead."

The barracks made up the western side of the
base. A single security-keyed door protected the area, which did
not have patrols during the daytime. With most personnel on duty at
the moment, they had little trouble getting inside undetected.
Xander appeared to have the way memorized or he'd been there
before.

A row of two-tiered square machines lined the
walls. Clothes went in the top dirty and came out the bottom clean
ten minutes later. Amii fished through a number of driers while
Xander went through a pile of clothes on a table near the door.

"Here we go," he said as he held up a pair of
men's pants. "Looks like they belong to a midget but they'll do.
How's your search going?"

She yanked open a door and several pairs of
multicolored panties fell out. "I might have something." While
digging through it, she glimpsed khaki and wrested a shirt from the
darkness. She spotted pants next. "What about my feet?"

He drummed his fingers on his chin. "Wait
here. I'll be right back." He stuffed the uniform he'd taken under
his dark coat and disappeared out the door.

Amii ducked into a corner to hide. While she
was there, she changed into the uniform. It belonged to a much
smaller woman. The pants came up two inches too short, and the
shirt barely covered her stomach. Nevertheless, it would have to
do.

After ten minutes, Xander returned bearing
gifts. He set a duffle bag down on a chair and stuffed Amii's
clothes into it. She saw her book and their coats inside along with
enough rations to last several days. He dropped a pair of boots in
front of her, which she changed into.

She noticed him staring at her. "What's
wrong?"

"Your knockers look huge in that. Must be one
of those tricks they do with women's clothes for enhancement. I
feel like a dirty old man looking at you."

"Hopefully, I won't have to use them." When
he balked, she said, "You know, if we get in a tight
situation."

Xander looked as if he wanted to say more but
shook his head. He grabbed her old shoes and stuck them in the bag
before zipping it up. With a finger over his mouth, he nodded
toward the door, and she followed him out in silence.

They went through three restricted-area doors
before arriving at the hangar bay with the
Schenectady
. A
host of scientists and officers scurried around, and the few of
them that noticed their arrival paid no attention to their purpose
here. Refueling the ship took precedent. Once they went on board,
there'd be no going back. No claiming innocence. They'd be on their
own, without the protection of the AC to fall back upon.

Amii took a deep breath when Xander walked
toward the vessel. The large ship offered a foot of clearance from
the walls of the hangar. Its rear hatch had been left open and
unguarded. He made a beeline toward it and she followed close on
his heels. They slipped inside without being detected by the crew
and burrowed into the conduit system to hide.

The trip to Xur wouldn't be a pretty one, but
at least they'd make it.

Few things frightened Aliane in this day and
age, but crossing into PAU territory was one of them. Her tiny ship
would serve as nothing more than target practice for the destroyers
that patrolled between systems. Large vessels posed a unique
challenge for her telepathy; attempting to control that many people
would never achieve a hundred percent success. On military ships
crewmen were more prone to follow orders than risk challenging
their captain. Regardless, she did her best to avoid detection, a
task made easier by their small size and weak engine signature.

She'd ordinarily send Tiyuri alone on such a
mission, but the dynamics of the request demanded her presence.

The colossus sat next to her and stared at
the stars out the window ahead of them. He blanked his mind in a
meditative state so clear she forgot anyone else was around. Of
course, his psionic aura lingered, but not feeling that had grown
uncomfortable over time.

"Are you looking forward to seeing Valera
again?" she asked.

"I do miss her," he said without shifting his
eyes, "and I fear seeing her will only make those feelings worse.
So no, I am not."

Aliane had known Tiyuri for over a century
now and had not been able to broach the topic of their
relationship. She sensed it was a painful subject for him.

Valera's unique position made it rare to
leave the General Secretary's side so necessity required Aliane to
come to her. The Asian might not go along with the heinous act
she'd been plotting. Before they left Superbia, Tiyuri assured her
Valera would, but Aliane wasn't sure the woman stood ready to
betray her government and all of humanity.

"When did you meet Valera?" She turned toward
him, leaving it clear he had no choice but to answer.

"I didn't leave Vilcabamba under the best
circumstances. I stole a ship and was chased out of the system
relentlessly for days. If I headed into AC space, I'd be turned
back over to the government of Meru, likely for execution. The
other ships knew better than to follow me into PAU territory, and
my vessel was seized not long after I crossed into their space.

"To their credit, the crew was competent.
They were able to get out a distress call before I commandeered
their warship. Fearing I was some kind of AC spy, the PAU sent
Valera to secure the safe return of their vessel. I'd never had my
mind dominated before, and the next thing I remember is waking up
chained to the wall in a cell sedated to suppress my powers."

Aliane leaned toward him with her hand under
her chin. "What happened?"

"Valera was there everyday while they tested
me, to see what sort of a psion I really was. The government
decided I could be useful, so she persuaded me to stay on
Kashtivone. She touched my heart in a way no one ever had. But it
wasn't meant to be."

"Why not?"

"I wanted to get serious and she didn't." His
lingering silence told her that was all he planned to say on the
subject so she let the matter drop without contest.

His calculating and patient nature might have
paid off with Valera if he never stumbled upon Aliane that fateful
day. Part of her regretted using him as a tool of her own devices,
for depriving him of any semblance of a normal life. But he'd lost
that on Meru, where psions were exploited and forced to fight each
other to the death for sport. If he'd become a monster, it was by
their hand, not hers.

Few people nowadays would label him a victim
for his horrible deeds, but they didn't see his softer side: a
student of human nature, an artist of superlative quality. He
didn't take any joy in causing others to suffer; he used it as a
means to an end. That was his duty—the only life he'd ever
known.

Amoral, yes, but hardly evil in her eyes.

She'd been troubled since meeting back up
with Tiyuri in regards to Magnius. He'd managed to get away from
her assassin not just once but twice. The experience had humbled
Tiyuri before Aliane, and she could clearly see he wanted to kill
Magnius because of it. "Once our task on Kashtivone is finished, I
want you to continue looking for Magnius."

"To what end? He has no intentions of joining
you of his own accord. As far as I'm concerned, you should either
leave him be or let me kill him."

"Perhaps," she said. "And perhaps it was my
own failings with Magnius that led us to this point. I should've
had you hunt him down as soon as he left. But I didn't because I
felt like he'd already failed us. I figured he'd learn a valuable
lesson about how it felt to not fit in out there in the real world
and come running back. But he didn't. And then I'd learned he died
in a transport accident…" She closed her eyes and recalled the
moment like a fresh memory. "It made me regret giving him any
reason to run away in the first place."

"The decision was his," Tiyuri said,
returning his stony gaze to the large window at the front of the
ship.

"I was much too hard on him. He was just a
boy, confused and frustrated. Trying to make us happy but never
succeeding."

He was the closest thing she'd ever had to a
son. When he ran away, the last shred of humanity in her heart
withered to dust. She didn't have a good reason for wanting him to
return aside from selfish possessiveness.

"You cannot change the past," he reminded
her. "What's done is done. I do not think he presents any risk to
us."

She put her hand on Tiyuri's muscular
shoulder. "You're right. But this is not a time to be complacent.
If he's not under my control, he can be used against us, and I will
not allow that to happen. After the incident, you will return to
New England and continue your search."

"After I lost him, it seemed like he
disappeared. I don't know where he's hiding, but I think the task
would be better suited to a telepath."

"Who? Zingeri? Your talents in going
unnoticed exceed his. I'd prefer Magnius brought to us alive, after
all. He must've found someone willing to help him. Find him before
he decides to leave the planet."

He bowed his head. "Of course, Mistress. Your
wish is my will."

The voyage to Sirius took several days, but
they made it in good time. With any luck the return trip to
Superbia would take less than a week. Tiyuri might be loyal, but
his poor conversational skills made for long periods of insidious
silence. At least it gave her time to work on her memoirs.

As the ship descended through the thick
stratus clouds of Kashtivone over a large island continent, Aliane
felt fortunate the two of them wouldn't need to get through the
tight security around the palace. The PAU was notoriously paranoid
about psions and employed psions of their own to seek out
intruders. Valera was head of the government's psionic defense
system, but she wouldn't commit treason and let them inside.
Instead, she agreed to meet them in the great desert of Algiers
where they could talk unseen.

Monsoon season had come to the desert early.
When they neared the surface, a dark shade of taupe covered the
sandy ground and the arroyos spilled over with fresh water. Large
rain droplets rolled across the window obscuring the view while she
landed and taxied over to another small ship, at which point they
stopped and climbed out.

Valera waited for them under a wiry desert
tree that stood alone in the scrub grass. They headed through the
humid air toward her, wary that the sky would open up and produce
another deluge any moment. Its thick trunk and dense branches made
her seem tiny by comparison. Valera's long black hair cascaded over
her shoulders down to her waist. Her skin gleamed in bronzed olive,
and her short black dress showed off as much skin as it could.

When they approached her, Aliane saw that
Valera wasn't the perfect doll seemed from afar. Her eyes had a
strong slant, and her over-plucked eyebrows had been drawn on her
face. The skin on her body looked speckled and uneven as though she
had goose bumps that never went away.

"Hello, Tiyuri," she said. "I never thought I
would see you again. But here we are." Her flirtatious advances
were quite the opposite of his reserved nature.

The fact she'd spoken to him before
acknowledging Aliane annoyed her, but she bit her tongue. The
mission was far too important to be swept aside by meaningless
tripe. "How much do you know about the Xuranians, Valera?"

"Enough."

"They've denied a request I made to them for
an alliance with psions. One of their delegates took the request
back to their homeworld, but they decided we weren't different
enough from humans or persecuted enough to bother saving."

She furrowed her brow and glanced between
Aliane and Tiyuri. "What does this have to do with me?"

"No matter how good their intentions are,
somebody's going to draw first blood eventually. And what do you
think's going to happen when they attack? They are superior to
humans in every single way. There's no reason for them to keep us
around as slaves when they have mechanoids to do their bidding.
They could kill us all with something simple, like poisoning our
water supply. We wouldn't even know and there would be no way to
fight back. What if there was a way to keep my people and your
people safe from the Xuranian's wrath?"

Aliane already knew Valera didn't sympathize
with the plight of psions. She'd always been treated like royalty
by the government for her contributions to their security so she
had little incentive to help. Servants waited on her hand and foot
in the Imperial Palace. When she spoke to the General Secretary, he
listened. She feasted upon prisoners at will. An alliance between
the Xuranians and the psions would not improve her life in any
way.