Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (10 page)

Ara watched as her blue strings followed the
man into the black hole. But she saw brown strings too and they
went with him. What did he say? Another body? Why did he have two?
He had two names Korbet/Randall so that made sense to her. She
waved her tiny hand and wondered why she thought it was tiny.

Within her mind a male said,
“I’m
Trickster. What are you doing, little baby?”

“
Habah.”

He “smiled” back at her.

Ara locked that signature away, inside her
mind, along with the time with Korbet in her special place. Maya
tried to connect to Korbet but Ara wanted her special place to be
just hers. Trickster helped her when she showed him Korbet had some
kind of wall in his mind, and he had labelled it “Inner Guardian”.
So Ara told Trickster she wanted her Inner Guardian like that too,
aware the male was close by and accessing the Cardinal Unit’s
mainframe.

“Oooh.” Trickster, she saw, made sure the
plasma lines split properly by checking with the complex Cardinal
Unit database. Maya was like a big neural hub, connected to
everything and everyone in Aryan Space by plasma nodes and lines.
The Cardinal Unit was where Maya resided and used the CU to “do”
things.

Ara identified the other energies that came
as waves of excitement entered the nursery. Mechanisms on the hub
opened and closed. Eventually, she heard voices. By their pitch and
volume, the arrivals were happy. They reached her pod and peered
in. Two adults, male aged 689 and female 786, and two older
children, male 256 and female 278, one younger male 123. The Maya
told her they were her family. The older female was pregnant at
around 3 months. She waved her arm in the viscous fluid and saw
more facial contortions, not just smiles, appearing on their faces
at different times as they looked around and at her.

“She’s smiling at us, Mum.”

Ara liked the curly, red hair, bright green
cat eyes, and almost “v” shaped eyebrows.

“She’s very special, Sacha. We’ve been chosen
by the Cardinal Unit…”

“Goo, gah, gah, ooh.”

“Maya, Pen.” The voice was deep. “Inferor
Aryans don’t call the Maya the ‘Cardinal Unit’.”

Inferor? That meant low matter and energy
levels. Ara watched as they hovered around the pod.

There was muffled laughter as Pen put her
hand over her mouth, and then shook her head, looking at her
daughter. “I thought the baby might have cried seeing you,
poppet.”

Sacha sighed. “I’m a beautician, Mum. I have
to practice on myself. Besides, I think she likes it.”

Mum grumbled in annoyance.

The cat green eyes met Ara’s. “I’m going to
make you a little…”

“No you will not, youngling.”

“Daaad!” Sacha left the pod’s side and
started moaning about something but then returned finding something
on a bench.

“Is that the instruction pad?” Sacha was
smiling at her but holding up a rectangular device and waving it
around.

“I think so. We’ll read it on the
ranger.”

Ara watched them move around the nursery
taking out blankets, a bath, adding water, and they readied the
room. Soft music played, the lights were dimmed and they opened the
pod.

“What’s Maya doing, Terance?” Pen asked, her
voice deeper with concern.

“Injecting nutrients?” Terance responded.
“Just wait for a moment.”

Ara felt no fear now and with her new
connection to Korbet, she could pulse little sounds of content to
him. Her mind grew foggy. Memories of “Ara Honeybee”, Valan danger,
and warm, brown eyes remained firm in her neural pathways.
Trickster was like a “smudge” in her mind. But her guardian was
strong still, she liked his heartbeat.

Ara’s new father gently took hold of the womb
and her new mother punctured it. She felt the fluid wash away, and
the gentle rubbing of her back encouraging her lungs to clear. She
gave a wail expelling leftover fluid and then felt warm water wash
over her body. All the faces were smiling down at her. Waving her
arms and legs made them laugh as she splashed. Hands wrapped her in
a soft blanket, her arms carefully tucked in. She grizzled with
that.

“Mum, leave her arms out.”

Pen adjusted the blanket. Ara smiled again,
trying to talk, gurgling noises followed by “gah-ing”. Her new
family stared down at her.

“She’s laughing!”

“She sure is, Marc.” Pen kissed her cheek and
Ara latched on to a strand of blonde hair, but it was so silky it
slipped through her chubby fingers.

Ara blew some bubbles instead, causing her
family to laugh. They took turns looking at her and her new mother
ran a loving hand over her head. Ara liked that and yawned. She
felt very safe and sleepy.

“She’s adorable.” Sacha touched Ara’s cheek
and then yelped as she was able to latch on to a hard curl.

Pen laughed but saved Sacha’s head by gently
disengaging Ara’s iron grip from the strand.

“What’s her name, Dad?” A male’s face came
into view.

“Ara Katron, Ersen.”

Ara Katron? Not Ara Honeybee?

Not Mobile Unit? Vanguard?

The voices faded and her eyes closed. She
fell asleep.

Only once did she awaken to the comforting
rumbling of the ranger engines, with voices telling her new father
that the planetary defenses in grid S35 on the arc were lowered.
After that, Ara listened as they were told to dock, and then, an
hour later, they were walking through narrow corridors.

A soft, feminine voice crooned while rubbing
her back. “We’re almost home, little Ara. Saratoga. We just need to
take an atmospheric lift down to the planet and pick up our over
lander to go home.”

“Go home.” For some reason that resonated
with Ara.

Jamie saw Marc via the monitor. The grin
eased him a little. Valan left the system. Max reported all clear.
Ara Honeybee was what Korbet had called her. Jamie made a mental
note of that and watched as her sac was ruptured, and she gurgled
happily, waving her arms around. As Pen washed the tiny girl, Jamie
turned to leave the booth and felt an infantile connection. Korbet
had mentioned it as well. Ara had connected to him, identifying him
as her sentinel. He wished he could see what it looked like.

Heart in throat, Jamie sent a gentle mind
pulse back.
“Clever bee.”

“Cah beh.” He heard this from his room’s
intercom.

Who was she?

Iota

Station: Perza

Galactic System: Sarato (Spiral Galaxy)

Planetary System: Saratoga

Homestead

When Ara woke, her connection to the CU was
slightly weaker, her blue string was thinner, and now she could see
other plasma filaments everywhere; her mother was smiling down at
her. She waved her arms and closed her fists and opened her fists.
She spiked a plasma impulse down the blue string. “Gah, Gah.”

Ara received a little “smile” and “kiss” back
from Korbet. She giggled inside, her mouth and vocal chords not
quite able to make the sound. It came out, “Ooohhoo.”

“What does she eat, Mum?”

“We have a special mixture. Would you like to
feed her, Marc?” Pen bustled around the large, woody kitchen. It
had all the modern appliances but Ara detected Pen liked the
country feel. The large window looked out over the stables and
mountain backdrop. A large bench separated the kitchen from the
family kitchen table.

“May I?”

Ara was put into the strong arms of her
brother. He was handsome, dark-haired, with dark eyes and an easy
smile. He looked like her new Dad but Marc had a warmer smile. She
opened her mouth but there was no food. She frowned and grumbled.
She tried puffing her cheeks out.

“Better hurry up, Mum. I think she’s going to
explode.”

There was laughter and Marc turned his face
away, smiling.

“She’s smiling now. She thinks I’m
funny.”

“You
are
funny.” But Ara saw her put a
hand lovingly on Marc’s shoulder. “There you go.”

He turned back and she saw something in her
view, a soft, warm nip was on her lips and she latched on, sucking.
“She’s hungry.”

“That’s good.”

Ara drank until she was full, almost sick,
and waited patiently until he took out the nip. She wiggled and he
carefully moved her and rubbed her back. She felt air rising.
Burrp
.

Ara was jostled as the shoulder moved up and
down as Marc chuckled. Her world rose and expanded as Marc stood
and walked while supporting her head. He lifted her around and held
her to see outside. “See that mountain range, Ara, that’s named
after you. Katron Mountains. This planet, Saratoga, is new and
houses four additional royal families when normally they each have
their own planet. One queen is here permanently, she’s the Eighth
Regional Queen. Her name is Silvia and she lives to the south of
our home. We have our own farmland thanks to you, little baby, as
far as you can see.”

Ara smiled as she looked outside seeing a
colorful bird sitting on a rail. She waved her hand towards it and
tried to grab it. Her hand was bigger than the bird but she saw in
her mind that the bird was far away and, with an adjustment in her
mind, the bird was much bigger than she first thought. Startled,
she jerked in Marc’s arms and her eyes widened. Ara noticed her
fingers again and shoved them in her mouth. He kissed her cheek and
she tried shoving her slobbery hand into his mouth.

“I need a cloth, Mum. She’s full of drool
already and making interesting mathematical calculations
instinctively.”

“Not your usual type of baby then?” Pen’s
blue-green eyes were twinkling as she handed him a cloth.

***

Undisclosed Location

Bellus

Years later Jamie attended the first meeting
inside the Bellus with Marc. It was essentially a large orb they
called a ranger space station. Marc called it the “Ballus”. The
ranger trip took far longer than Jamie desired. HaV was slow at
best via ranger but the personal transportals were not yet approved
by the Ballus Trustees. Still, a trip to the Core took them only
three weeks. They’d spent the trip playing games, working in the
gym, watching shows, and talking. Marc had tried to explain the
science but Jamie waved him off. Understanding and thinking in
terms of “gophers” was one thing, the whole short cut routes via
spatial anomalies made him feel dense. “You’re giving me a
headache.”

He and Marc sat in the renovated Matter Being
section, and glanced down at some crates.

“Was this the store room?”

Marc nodded. “This whole room was and they’ve
only gotten around to prettying up their wedges. Feeling second
rate?”

Jamie shrugged. The other, nicer, sections
were for the Antimatter, Dark Matter, and Energy-matter Beings. He
tried not to yawn and amused himself with studying the ten others
in their wedge. Diane was looking after Ara while he was away. At
least he wasn’t worried about that side of things. Jamie wasn’t
impressed with the long, drawn out procedures. And they sat outside
the “inner circle” listening and watching the screen in front of
them bring up the transcript.

“Hey, isn’t that Korbet in the special
section?” Marc pointed down to the narrow part of the wedge to
their right.

“It is.” Jamie eyed off the brown-haired
male. Korbet turned his head to look around; he looked as bored as
they were. Jamie must have dozed off because Marc’s voice woke him.
He rubbed at his eyes.

Marc drawled, saying, “Well, that was
exciting.”

Jamie had come to appreciate Marc’s dry sense
of humor.

“Why are they calling themselves ‘Artifacts’?
Maybe it’s because we’re not quite Aether or Aryans.”

“Don’t know, don’t care.” Jamie yawned. He
took out his EBrain and checked Ara’s schedule. He decided to go
straight home. “Make sure you log in what you plan to do with Ara
this month.”

People began to file past them. Korbet barely
looked at them as he walked out.

Marc groaned. “Even the horse rides and
picnics?”

Jamie gave Marc his no-nonsense look and Marc
grimaced.

“Fine,” he muttered but then grinned. “Good
thing she’s so darn cute.”

“She’s two,” Jamie said sharply but laughed a
moment later thinking the same thing. “But cheeky.”

Marc handed him a tiny, rectangular flash
drive.

“What’s in this?”

“My outings with Ara, of course.”

“Smartarse.”

***

Iota

Station: Perza

Galactic System: Sarato (Spiral Galaxy)

Planetary System: Saratoga

Homestead

Over the years, Jamie completed sweeps of Ara’s
bedroom as she slept.

Ara was already three and mischievous. He
took his holidays but found his mind drifting to her, and he
demanded daily reports regardless. He had just finished a sweep of
the homestead and now stood in her room. He glanced around at the
large bed against one wall, untidy shelves on two walls and toy
boxes around on the floor. Beauty, elegance, a gentle soul and
intelligence was a combination highly prized in Pure-Gen society.
But Ara was as untidy and cheeky as they came. And adventurous.
“Menace” became a term of endearment. “Honeybee” only stuck with
Korbet and Jamie and his team. He’d gotten to know the male over
the years and they struck up a working relationship. The male was
part of a different circle of issues but one where protection of
Ara was critical, more closely linked to genocide than to the Three
Empires and Grands issue. And yet Jamie found the issues more
closely linked than some thought. There were too many overlaps for
his peace of mind. He picked up Ara’s latest project. She had
connected several colorful pieces of a special building set to form
a robot skeleton, at least that’s what he thought it looked like.
He put it down and walked to the bed.