Astra: Synchronicity (38 page)

The Vice President paused for a long time,
hoping she hadn't meant what she'd said. But she did, and both of
them knew it. "President Scheidecker told me to bring you."

"No, he didn't. But I'll come." She stood and
straightened her lilac dress before he led them out of their suite
toward the President's office in the west wing.

He'd never lied to her so blatantly before.
His deteriorating mental state concerned her, but she could do
little about it. Even now, no one else was suited to take his place
in what might be the fall of their wonderful society. Every day she
longed for a vision to assure her everything would blow over, but
she never got one.

All the fair-weather pacifists had jumped
onto the war bandwagon out of fear. Few people thought it was worth
the bother to talk to the Xuranians because it made the AC look
weak. All these years of trade restrictions and demands against the
PAU had taught them nothing. Humankind looked damned to continue
making the same mistakes over and over again. They'd forgotten how
precious liberty was after all this time, and no one could save
them from themselves.

The President greeted them when they arrived
at his office. "Thank you for coming, Bryan. Nadine." He gestured
to a plate of small crustless sandwiches on a coffee table.
"Please, help yourselves. The chairman will be on the comm
shortly."

She watched Bryan sit down on the couch and
eat the hors d'oeuvres, but her hunger waned these past few weeks
due to the stress. She walked over to the large bay windows
overlooking the plaza outside and gazed outside. The heat of summer
descended on the city faster than anyone expected. Tourists in
shorts and t-shirts snapped pictures of the Capitol Building and
explored the City of Dreams. With the onslaught of war at hand, she
didn't think she'd be able to relax for a long time.

The President approached the window and stood
beside her. Though he was an obese man, his studied demeanor always
garnered respect. Everyone who knew Admiral Scheidecker had a very
high opinion of him because of his fairness and honesty. "How's he
holding up?" he whispered while he stared outside.

Nadine sighed. She didn't want to give him
the impression Bryan couldn't deal with the pressure even if it was
the truth. "I'm doing everything I can to help. He's managing. What
about you? Did you think anything like this would happen?"

"I've learned to expect the worst. That way
when things turn out well, you're never disappointed. But being a
chronic pessimist hasn't been easy. I've wasted far too much of my
life worrying about things that've never come to pass. Yet here we
are, facing a bloody war led by councilmen who've never fired a
weapon in their life." He shook his head in dismay.

The console on the wall across the room
started to beep and he turned to head toward it. The Vice President
joined him, but Nadine remained where she was like a spider on the
wall to listen to the conversation.

"Good morning, gentlemen," Chairman Dodd
bellowed. The second lady cast a sidelong glance in the direction
of the viewscreen where she saw his bulbous face and blackened
soul. "I plan to bring a proposal to the council today regarding
the hostile alien mothership assaulting Astra. Admiral McKirin has
had his hands full with battle simulations and possible strategies
against the Xuranians thanks to data gathered by our probes."

"Chairman," Bryan interrupted, "I'd like to
remind you that the war is not a precondition. Diplomacy is still
an option we should not take off the table."

"On the contrary, Mr. Taylor," the chairman
snapped. "The council vote was nearly unanimous. War has been
declared, and there's nothing you can do to change that. Bring it
up again and I'll see that you're removed from the council."

He narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw but
said nothing. Nadine had never expected war to make a dictator out
of Kenneth Dodd, yet it had done just that and no one would be able
to stop his agenda.

"Admiral McKirin made an unusual request of
me during our conversation last night. He asked if you, President
Scheidecker, could be reinstated into the military to assist the
war effort. I can think of no one with more leadership experience
to gear up the fleet for the conflict ahead of us."

The statement puzzled the President. "Are you
asking me to step down as President of Chara to lead the Allied
Fleet?"

"Of course not. This is purely temporary. I
want you to coordinate with Admiral McKirin and assist the
military. Help them strategize. I'd like a solid plan of attack as
soon as possible, and we can't waste time or resources on issues
that don't affect the AC as a whole. Make it your top priority.
Vice President Taylor should be able to handle the UE until the
Xuranian threat is gone."

The leaders of Chara stared at one another.
"You should probably take the reins, Tom."

"We need the hero of Tau Ceti, the man who
faced off against six PAU battleships with a single cruiser and
lived to tell of his tactical genius," Dodd beamed. "I plan to open
the subject to the council for debate, but I'm certain the proposal
would be supported. Your contribution toward humanity will not go
unrewarded, I assure you."

Scheidecker nodded. "Anything to help the
fleet."

The chairman smirked. "Excellent. I'll see
the two of you then during the council session at 1400 hours." His
image vanished and the cool gray screen was once again blank.

What in all of Astra was Chairman Dodd
getting the AC into? They needed to negotiate now before anyone got
killed—before there was too much hate in everyone's hearts to reach
a modest agreement. But perhaps that time had already passed. The
AC had been itching to pick a fight for years. And the Xuranians
were furious at the nonsensical death of their beloved queen,
Luxina. The closest to divine there was. Killed by these reckless
savages they'd extended a hand in friendship.

She knew the Xuranians weren't evil,
otherwise they would've already ravaged Astra and laid its systems
to waste. Perhaps they wanted to see if humans were willing to
compromise in the face of certain doom or if they'd send every last
ship after them in a hopeless battle to the death. It was only a
matter of time before the sky was streaked with blood so thick that
humans would lose all hope. That was the prophecy. Those were her
visions.

The future was already written. What future?
Who knew. And who would live to see it was anybody's guess.

***

After sharing a sense of mutual dread with
the leaders of Chara, Nadine headed out to a quiet spot in the Red
Room to recover. Only cabinet members had access to the third story
of the Capitol Building, and for the time being the area remained
vacant. The circular chamber had a high ceiling painted with a
celestial mural. Garish drapes in a faded shade of crimson framed
the large windows overlooking the street. Golden sconces adorned
the walls at five-foot intervals; the warm luminescent light they
exuded made her feel at home.

She stayed on edge all morning from Dodd's
transmission. Visions of chaos and mayhem clouded her mind and made
it difficult to focus on her voyage to the Academy. A few times she
fought back her tears as she curled up on a velvet couch, but the
images persisted. Full-scale combat. Bodies strewn in the streets
of Northampton. Amii and Magnius standing together crying in the
snow. Nadine pulled her knees to her chest as her heart raced with
anxiety.

She feared the unwavering path of fate now
more than ever.

To take her mind off the future, she leaned
toward the window and stared down at the lunchtime crowd scurrying
past. Men in dark suits sweltered from the noonday sun. They toted
their briefcases on their way to business lunches without worry of
the war brewing on the horizon. Parents visited the capital with
their kids, who stared with awestruck wonder on these reverent
grounds. It depressed her to know the months ahead would bring them
nothing but sorrow.

She lost herself in the sights and sounds of
the city. A flock of quilled pigeons soared past the window and
settled into a large orange tree on the lawn of the Westwood
Estate. A teacher guided a dozen excited elementary school students
up the steps of the Capitol. An even distribution of yellow taxis
mingled with personal hovermobiles at the congested intersection of
Westminster and 85
^th
Street.

A thunderous growl from the north broke the
rumble of ordinary street traffic. When she glanced in that
direction, she spotted a hoverbike turning right onto Westminster
and smiled. It was Magnius and Amii, though their helmets hid their
faces from the prying eyes of the city. Traffic slowed as drivers
stared at the bike, which gleamed under the bright sun like a
faceted amethyst. It passed the Capitol and turned left on
87
^th
Street, where the hyperdiamond fence soon obscured
it from her view.

Her heart lightened at the sight of the two
getting along. They gave her hope the future wouldn't be doomed
after all.

She brushed herself off and headed downstairs
to make one final stop before she boarded her transport to the
Academy. Prior to leaving, she needed to make a quick detour to her
office. She'd forgotten her itinerary for the trip on her desk, and
while she didn't need it, having the information would make her
life easier.

The blustery spring breeze dissimilated her
perfect curls in one fell swoop after she stepped outside, but she
tucked her hair behind her ears and pressed onward. She jogged
across the street in spite of her white heels and headed toward the
side entrance of the Westwood Estate. Security allowed her
immediate access, and she hurried up the stairs to her office.

All at once an urgent sense of foreboding
consumed her. She grabbed the handrail and slowed her pace to give
herself a chance to assess the sensation. A calculating persona.
Merciless and unrelenting. In search of something…anything. When
she closed her eyes, Tiyuri's face formed in her mind. He was
here.

Her heart kicked into overdrive. Fortunately,
Magnius was out cruising the streets. The assassin had no doubt
searched the premises for him already while she'd been away and had
remained on an investigative mission for information on his
whereabouts.

His trail led straight to her office. She'd
left nothing incriminating out in the open, but he had extensive
experience tracking down psions who didn't want to be found. He
wasn't a hacker but had close ties to people who were. While her
careful subterfuge would be invisible to the UE government, a hound
like Tiyuri would root Magnius out in a day or two.

As she approached room 217, she took a series
of deep breaths, but the act did nothing to calm her fraying
nerves. Tiyuri invaded her visions more than he should have, and
now she understood why. He wouldn't stop until he returned to
Superbia with Magnius in his custody, yet how he would or even if
he would remained a mystery.

She waved her implant in front of the handle
to the door and heard the latch disengage, but the door remained
shut. After summoning all her courage, she wrapped her fingers
around the knob, turned it, and pushed. The door didn't budge.
Something prevented it from opening. When she put more force into
the act, the door began to give slightly. She spotted a metallic
rod barring the other side of the door and heard the sound of
footsteps beyond.

The more she pushed, the more the rod bowed
from the strain. No movement caught her eye in the space beyond,
but she still sensed his overwhelming psionic aura in the room. She
put all her weight behind it and after several seconds, the
obstruction broke. The suddenness of it plunged her into the room,
and she stumbled into the pair of chairs fronting her desk before
she had a chance to regain her bearings.

The gauze curtains of a window behind her
desk fluttered in the breeze. She darted toward it and glanced down
into the garden for any glimpse of him. But he was gone. His mind
slipped away from hers as she tried to pinpoint him, which his
rapid escape made possible.

Tonight, he'd kill the telepath who'd
replaced the IDs.

Tomorrow, he'd be back for Magnius.

She promptly cancelled her trip to the
Academy and contacted Amii.

"Get back to your room and pack your bags.
The two of you are leaving tomorrow."

Amii watched Magnius pace back and forth
around their room as she sat in the kitchen eating a bowl of
unsweetened porridge with raisins. Night had fallen over
Northampton hours ago in a blanket of warm, black silk. They'd met
with Nadine upon returning to the Westwood Estate, and her ominous
words made their last night in the city a quiet one.

As expected, they'd been tense all evening
after their romantic afternoon together. At long last he approached
the table and sat in the chair next to her. She glanced at his arm
where he'd been cut almost thirty hours ago. The gouge had faded a
bit but left an ugly mark. "How long is that going to take to
heal?"

He rubbed his wrist. "In another day it'll
look better. In a few more it will be gone. My psychometabolism
isn't half as good as Aliane's or Tiyuri's. This was your fault,
you know."

"That's not how I recall things happening.
You were the one who moved."

"Well, if you hadn't—" He caught himself and
curled his hand around his mouth to shut up.

Once she finished eating, Amii put down her
spoon and knitted her hands together. "What's wrong?"

"You didn't have to…"

"To what? Since you think you know me so
well."

Magnius directed an angry stare at the table.
"I'm mad enough that you're dragging me to Xur. We might as well
just shoot ourselves now."