Chaos Theory (14 page)

She bent to neatly fold the blanket, but Blue snatched it from
beneath her hands. He scrunched it into a ball and thrust it at her
to carry.

Something crunched underfoot, and with horror, Kali saw she
had stepped on his opticals. “Your–”

“
Doesn’t matter.”

He dragged her up by the elbow, slung the bag over his
shoulder, and stormed towards where he had parked his
FloBi.

The date had turned from wonderful to mystifying in so short a
time. Where in the universe had he learned to kiss like that? One
RecRom encounter her ass. Once again captivated by Blue’s lips,
Kali stubbed her toe on a piece of junk. Instead of slowing when
she cried out, Blue sped up, and just like that she’d had
enough.

She pulled from his grip, and rooted her feet stubbornly.
“What is your deal, Blue?”

“
Please move. Follow if you don’t want me to touch you, but
move.”

“
You stay right there and explain yourself.”

When he didn’t stop, she skipped to him and blocked his path.
She pushed out her palm planning to press it into his middle, but
he swerved to avoid her touch.

“
Need to get you home,” he insisted.

Kali walked backwards beside him. His body was tightly
controlled as he strolled away as if nothing untoward was
happening. The contradiction of his body and his words confused
her.

“
Pause for a nanosec. Can you do that? Tell
me what’s wrong because I’m not on the same wavelength as you. I …
things ... my impression of you is lowering a whole lot up here.”
She pointed to her temple. “I admit it got a bit weird.” She
giggled manically. “I’m not complaining because I have never felt
so
alive
,
but the way you’re reacting is just a whole new level of odd and
I–”

“
You’ll be standard if we stop now.”

Her jaw dropped. “
What does that
mean
?”

“
Kali–”

“
Do not take that placating tone with me, Blue.” Her foot got
stuck in a pothole and she tugged at it. “You give me answers. What
happened when we kissed? I saw–” Yanking her foot free she lurched,
loosing balance.

As she fell, Blue hooked an arm around her waist and turned
her into him, pressing her back into his chest.

Kali jolted as images of deep space, exploding stars, and
effervescent nebulas flashed in her mind. Meteorites slammed into
planetary dust rings and left scars. She saw cosmic storms of
purple and yellow, flashing across the inky vastness of space. An
emerald star collapsed into a black hole. She watched a brilliant
emerald supernova shine righter than the galaxies surrounding it
before fading into a twinkle. Flashes of a harsh language embossed
on metal scrawled across her vision. She understood it was
instructions. She saw equations far beyond her capability, and
solved them in seconds through Blue’s eyes. She read in this
language how the Human brain, her brain, worked, and how to access
all areas of it for maximum potential.

Kali gasped, and came back to herself.

Blue let go.

Kali hung suspended, frozen in shock and hunched. Staggering,
her legs lost the ability to stand upright and she keeled
over.

Blue grabbed her again and stopped her hitting the floor.
There was pressure on her body, his hands held her still. Through
the daze, Kali realised he hadn’t actually moved. Blue’s hands were
at his side.

So … what was holding her then?

A squeal managed to erupt past the blockade in her
throat.

She floated.

Kali was pushed upright, and lowered until her feet were
gently set on the ground. The pressure dissolved. She sank to the
prickly grass in a perplexed puddle. Kali wasn’t afraid, but
awfully aware what happened was hypothesized by intellectuals, and
never irrefutably proven to be possible. The laws of physics could
allow for such a phenomenon, but not with humankind’s current
evolutionary path.

Kali’s mind ping-ponged as it tried to reason what had
happened, such was the nature of the rational mind.

Concerned her lips moved, but she had yet to speak, Blue
crouched, stroking the side of her face. He let her think, and
after silence, Kali finally noticed him. He stared into her eyes,
his face a whisper from hers with an intense look of concentration.
He made no aggressive move towards her, and Kali concluded she was
safe.

“
You saw?” he asked quietly.

“
You’re not normal.” They eyed each other. “You aren’t denying
it, Blue.”

“
That would be pointless.”

She roused from her introspection to face reality. “You’re
telekinetic,” she said slowly. “You use psi-gamma brainwaves to
send commands to the molecules in other objects and therefore move
things with your mind. Oh my stars. You’re the most significant
evolutionary find since
Homo
Habilis
and the autonomization of the
trapeziometacarpal joint.”

His lips twitched. “Since the opposable thumb?”

“
You’re incredible.” Kali patted her throat. Despite best
efforts to remain calm, her mind wheeled through everything she had
experienced, and her excitement rose. Her heart thumped and
adrenaline raced through her veins making her shaky. “I don’t think
I’m breathing.” Running out of air, she choked the last words and
turned a funny colour.

Blue rubbed her back in circles as she worked on not
hyperventilating. He slowly set her upright and smoothed her top
over her stomach. Hesitating, his hand moved to rest on her hip
then he leaned to press his forehead to hers.

There was no hysterical screaming. She hadn’t kicked him and
run. Kali looped her arms around his neck and gazed at him, a hint
of desire still present.

“
You’re still here,” he murmured.

“
Am I expected somewhere?” Kali’s fingers played with the
whorls of hair on the nape of his neck.

They stood like that for a long time, lost to thought. Kali
was thinking up questions, and Blue was thinking up ways to avoid
answering her questions.

He wondered why he should avoid her inquisitiveness if she was
willing to learn about him. Maybe the idea that he could walk
around in her mind wouldn’t scare her if he explained he had firm
principles on how he used that ability. That he had never looked
inside hers, and never would unless she gave permission. She
already knew about how he could watch something then learn it, and
that had been before she’d gotten to know him more.

“
Need to get you home,” Blue said. “Something isn’t
right.”

Kali released him instantly suspicious. “What would that be
exactly?”

“
Don’t know. It is a knowing deep inside that someone is coming
for me. They saw us.” He became increasingly agitated. “Feels like
there is a spotlight on me, on us, and that cannot be
good.”

“
Spotlight? It’s dark out here.”

“
Now who is being literal?” Blue thumbed his forehead. “I sense
when people turn their attention to me. Their aura changes, and I
become sensitive to their thoughts because they are directed at
me.”

“
Aura?”

“
Psi-gamma brainwaves people naturally release. I see a
luminous glow, a natural radiation. I read it. You called me
telekinetic before, which isn’t accurate. Better descriptor is
psychokinetic.”

Kali’s scrunched face smoothed. “You’re talking
parapsychology. Stars, you’re cute. I understand. My third eye is
no good though, I’ve never seen a glow around anybody.”

“
Practice on your perceptions, reading auras can be
learned.”

“
You won’t help me?”

He hesitated to answer. Again, he looked up, concerned. “Feels
like I’m going away.”

“
It feels like you’re going away,” Kali repeated, voice
dubious. At his serious expression, she swallowed her pithy reply
about his lame attempt to avoid giving her a straight answer. “Why
do I get the feeling you’re talking about leaving the continent?”
He inclined his head, and his brow furrowed. “The planet?” she
corrected, wondering if he had to visit one of the Off-World
settlements. He winced. Her voice rose tremulously. “The
galaxy?”

Nobody left the galaxy. It was uncharted space and filled
with the Virgin knew what…. Kali’s mouth popped open.
“
Oh my stars
.”

Blue paced. “I’ve considered what you’re thinking too and it’s
not possible. I was born on Earth. I have a mother and a father. I
watched the HoloVid of my birth.”

“
I looked at your profile.” Not so much ‘looked’ but ‘studied
obsessively’ but Blue didn’t need to know that. “You left home as
soon as your adulthood license was issued. Why?”

“
My father left when I was a baby. Mother blamed me and wanted
me gone.”

“
You don’t talk to your mother but I get the feeling you want
to.”

“
She’s afraid of me.”

“
Why?” He did not answer. Kali softened. “It’s okay Blue, you
can tell me.”

He stopped moving. “She claims she was walking home when a red
light took her. That she was strapped down and needles inserted
into her skin by white humanoids. She woke on the street with a
fractured memory and lost time.” He rubbed his face. “Eight months
later she gave birth to me.”

“
Blue, your enhancements….”

He shot her a droll look and scrubbed a hand through his
flaxen hair. “Who would do this to themselves Kali?” Shaking his
head, he walked again, muttering under his breath.

She skipped after him and grabbed his hand. “Let me stay with
you.”

Jerking to a stop, he stared at her incredulously. Bright
spots of colour rode high on Kali’s cheeks and her eyes sparkled.
She was not afraid. Blue shook off his amazement to focus on the
unpleasant feeling demanding he get her home safely.

“
Not tonight. I have a bad feeling staying with me would not be
… good for you.” He lengthened his stride. “I’ll come for you
tomorrow. Promise.”

Mollified she’d see him the next day, Kali fell into step
beside him. “For someone who likes logic you have a lot of ominous
feelings.”

“
Extrasensory perception, beautiful. Not
superstition.”

Kali started at the endearment then beamed when he helped her
straddle the FloBi. He went to put the helmet on her head but she
took it from him and placed it on her lap.

She crooked a finger. “Come here.”

He eyed her lips. “Why?”

“
Please?”

Blue leaned closer, not curious as to what she wanted because
he was beginning to recognise the mischievous heat in her eyes.
Denying her wasn’t something he felt strong enough to do on a
regular basis, and he’d already refused her once that
evening.

Kali impaired his logic. She was trouble.

That thought was the last Blue had after he lowered his head
to hers and kissed her.

Kali wound her arms around his neck and clung on, loving his
embrace, and the possessive way he held her. His lips were
unyielding as they slanted over hers, but his hands achingly gentle
as they stroked her.

The feeling of being watched came back stronger than before.
Blue broke away. Kali was heavy-eyed but his senses were on alert.
He peered around, opening himself further to discover if someone
was actually watching them to cause the wrong feeling crawling over
his scalp.

“
We need to take off?” Kali murmured, noting his
uneasiness.

He grunted.

No sooner had Blue climbed onto the FloBi – Kali’s arms
winding around his waist – everything went eerily still and silent.
His head whipped up and his eyes were wide with horror.

He manhandled Kali off the bike, even as he yelled,
“
Get away
–”

Pebbles bounced as the ground shook and a shadow covered the
stars.

A blast of energy dropped from above and surrounded them in
dark red light, hot against the skin.

Shrill tinkling made Kali wince, and the erratic rhythm
vibrated her bones. The light shone brighter. She squinted and
shielded her face with her hands as she looked up, unable to see
past the reddish-purple radiance to the oddity that caused
it.

The stones caught in the light wobbled on the ground, and
smaller fragments lifted and floated past their heads.

Deepening in colour the beam began to burn.

Scared, Kali lurched to get away, and a dart of pain exploded
in the arch of her foot. A discarded piece of broken glass sliced
through her boot into her flesh. She cried out, but didn’t fall,
couldn’t fall. The light exerted a steady pressure that increased.
Slowly, as if being stretched, her hands came out to the side. Her
heels left the ground, then the balls of her feet, and finally her
toes.

Resembling the Vitruvian Man, Kali lifted from the ground,
suspended a foot in the air. Her body felt compressed, seized in an
unremitting clutch. Her hair drifted as if she were underwater. The
strands floated and writhed in the ray of light like
snakes.