Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (12 page)

“Alright, just keep an eye on it.”

“Nyx is going to be pissed when she gets her
memories back and finds out what we did to her, even more so when
she learns about what we did to her beloved Vanguard.”

Cobra shrugged. “Our dear sister deserves
what she gets, that arrogant bitch, and if hurting or driving Ara
to her death makes her see sense in the end then that’s good.”

Cobra didn’t miss the look that crossed
Viper’s face.

He warned him, saying, “Don’t get soft on her
like Krait still is. Now, remember, there are still loyal Amatal
inside the test sites so we will need to apply our own pressure. We
are on a deadline.”

“Out of interest, do you remember meeting Ara
before she was placed in the biosuit?”

Cobra shook his head. “Those memories are
vague, maybe that’s why I’m immune to her. What was she like?”

“Similar, but cheekier now with that genotype
we added.” Viper put down his drink in disgust, shaking his head.
“This is horrible. Oh, I still can’t access Ara’s dream state.”

“I’m not surprised, Korbet applied a
mind-lock. But Trickster has access.”

Viper swore and leaned towards Cobra. “When
were you going to tell me about Trickster?” Not getting a reply, he
shoved his cup away. “If the Four of the Eight are working actively
against us…”

Cobra held up his hand. “They called
themselves the Consociation of the Eight. They are preventative,
not aggressive. Marc being there was just coincidental.”

“I don’t quite believe that. Could it be our
hidden assist working against us?” They were careful even now to
speak of the dictates. But Viper held a hard copy. He read the
first part:

Dictates of the Righteous

From this year, 77 000, on this day, 32nd
Years of Seven, Tartarus challenges Nyx who will ascertain the
validity of the Chaos Empire to replace the Old Technological
Regime.

Sub-Log IX resumed

“No, I’m sure she is loyal to our cause.”
Cobra sipped his tea thinking it not sweet enough and studied the
horse and carriage across the cobbled road. “Worry more for our
brethren.”

“Alright. One Sibella is worth more than the
lot of them anyway. Erebos never did see her potential.” Viper fell
back into his hard seat. “What’s the first plan … no, the most
delicious part?”

Cobra leaned forward. “I’m using Kavela, and
the work you’ve done, to screw with her—”

Viper was sitting up, craning his neck.
“There’s Karu and Balin. Let’s follow.”

They got up, leaving some coin, and followed
the red-haired Adonis and his colorful companion. “What a fop.”

“Balin’s a killer, don’t underestimate
him.”

“I won’t.” Viper felt a few drops of
rainfall. “Go on.”

Cobra outlined the plan and ended by saying,
“…when they get their memories back I hope that will help tip our
Nyx over the edge.” He tapped the table. “News on Krait? I had the
impression he didn’t get out of the Lacuna yet.”

“In another test site, preparing for our
arrival.” Viper saw Karu and Balin turn down an alley. They both
felt the energy used as they activated a transportal, probably to
go to another location on the planet or up to one of the many
rangers hovering in space like vultures.

“This is disgusting, a test site in a test
site.” Viper tried to turn his mind to a bit of relaxation but the
anger of the injustices always threatened to boil over especially
seeing a ragged little boy with skinny and dirty arms crying in an
alley.

Cobra pulled at his arm as he began to veer
off into the narrow smelly lane.

“Don’t.”

Viper yanked his arm away trying to control
the pain in his heart. “I was just going to put him out of his
misery, just like everyone in the Lacuna needs to be put down.”

“That’s why I stopped you. We don’t need you
in jail,” Cobra said grimly, “or breaking out of jail.”

“Do they even have jails?”

Cobra shrugged. “Evidently not for
parents.”

Iota

Station: Perza

Galactic System: Sarato (Spiral Galaxy)

Planetary System: Saratoga

Homestead

Marc sensed five-year-old Ara close by trying
to listen through the door. Cheeky brat. It was a few months after
the playground outing and they were talking about Tekko, Ara’s new
friend, in the small office. Ersen and Sacha were both with friends
but Marc joined in with the meeting. Jamie had come and gone,
already preparing for the new arrivals. They knew who Tekko’s
father was, of course, but were worried about introducing the Dark
Matter Beings into Ara’s life. Soon after the meeting, Tekko and
his family moved to Saratoga, orders of the Maya no doubt. They
lived close to the city on the beach rather than the farmlands
where Ara grew up. They were all mechanics, engineers and builders
so Ara’s world expanded to include the Saringtons.

Ara, who’d been caught lying and flipping her
fingers when angry, was counseled by a male who visited her
sometimes. She had been told to be honest and she was. He seemed
happy enough with her answers but eyed Marc, Sacha and Ersen off on
the way out. “If you are all worried, Ara wouldn’t say where she
learned to lie or give people the fingers. But she did inform me
that her younger brothers, um, Ashley and Henry, were picking up
both habits as well and maybe I should counsel them too.”

All three blushed. As Ara skipped out and
passed them with a cheesy grin, Pen and Terance joined them.

The counselor said, “There’s nothing to worry
about.”

Before their parents could start on them,
they scattered.

Marc lay on his bed that night aware that
Ara’s mind was busy thinking about Tekko and her talk with the
counselor. He lightly linked to her mind and heard a surprise
conversation between Ara and a male.

“…
I lie sometimes and kissed a
boy.”

“
Did you lie about kissing a boy?”

Marc relaxed, it was only Korbet. Jamie made
him learn the mental signature of the Planet of Law contact.

“
Huh?”

Korbet was “smiling”.
“Goodnight,
busybee.”

Ara used a tone Marc was too familiar with.
It was her “grownup stern mental” voice.

“
I want to talk.”

Marc dreaded that Ara would try to make
Korbet talk via the Cardinal Unit. Sure enough she did.

“
Ara, the CU isn’t your personal Voice.
And, I’m a little busy right now.”

“
But it’s sleepy time.”

“
For little girls, and so you should be
sleeping.”

“
Oh, nuts,”
she said in her best
voice, trying conventional means to charm Korbet.
“What are you
doing?”

“
Working on a new law for ranger cargo
transports as they…”

“
That’s boring!”

“
Enough to put you to sleep?”

“
I went farming today, there’s so much to
do!”

“
What did you farm?”

“
Um … strawberries.”

“
Did you eat them all?”

“
Only in my basket, and maybe some of
Marc’s and Dad’s when he wasn’t looking. I got told off and they
made me cry.”

Marc grinned; it was more like all of his
strawberries.

“
Poor baby.”

“
I’m not a baby … or a cry baby!”

“
Goodnight then, strawberry.”

She said grumbling,
“Night night said the
frog to the…”

“
Knight as he leans over to kiss…”

“
The princess of light.”

Her giggle filled Marc’s heart with joy.

“
I’m going to marry a knight or
a…”

“
Frog?”

She giggled again.
“No silly, the knight
kisses the princess.”

“
Are you sure? Who’s leaning over to kiss
the princess?”

“
Um…”

“
Goodnight, farmingbee.”

…

“
Hello, Marc.”

‘
Oops. Just keeping an eye on our
girl.”
Marc released his link with Ara.

‘
I know, she’s a handful.
Goodnight.”

“
Night.”

Marc mused over the contact. For Korbet to
have picked up on his presence meant he wasn’t muting his Aether
energy enough or Korbet was more than he seemed, or more than Jamie
told him. Sighing with resignation that this was just the start of
how complex things might become, he closed his eyes, willing
himself to go to sleep. He heard a knock on his door.

“Come in, Ara.”

The door opened and closed. Ara tiptoed over
and climbed into his bed. “I’m scared.”

He tucked her in and turned onto his side.
“Silly. You shouldn’t read those scary stories at night.”

She snuggled into his arms. “I love you,
Marc.”

“I love you, too.”

At some stage, Ara woke and found Marc gone.
She rubbed her eyes and headed out to the passage hearing quiet
voices filtering from downstairs. That was strange. She tiptoed and
carefully crept down the stairs to the family room. She recognized
Korbet’s voice. Why would he be here? And when she closed her eyes
and concentrated really hard she felt the heartbeat of her main
guard. She had to be very quiet and avoided all the creaky parts on
the stairs. She shuffled down on her bum, feeling the scratchy
carpet through her PJs. Reaching the bottom step, she peered around
the wooden bannister and she saw a light coming from Dad’s main
office. She glanced around in the dark, seeing cat eyes, and walked
slowly until she could hear what they were saying. Puddy Unit 2
followed her, brushing up against her leg and purring too loudly.
Ara absently patted her head.

“…the rumors going around about Ara being the
Mobile Unit are getting out of hand.”

Ara had never heard Mum so upset. Dad was
comforting her and murmuring something.

“What about the schools and her teachers?”
Marc was asking now.

“They know not to say anything. But she’s
going to find out, one of the kids will hear something and start
their own rumors. They all know she’s different, but they aren’t
sure why. Thankfully, she is well liked.”

“Of course she is, Terance! She’s always
helping them with something.”

Ara’s chewed on her finger. What were they
talking about? She always knew she was—

“They are saying that the Mobile Unit will
trigger an indiscriminate release of antimatter and it will kill
billions.”

“That’s ridic—”

“No!” Ara burst out at the same time and
clamped her hand over her mouth, but, luckily, the cat meowed
loudly. Ara ran back and froze on the first step, her mind drawing
a blank about which steps to avoid. She balled up her hands so
tightly it hurt. Which steps? Ara heard someone walking to the
door. “It’s just the cat.” Just as she heard Marc saying something
about checking on her she remembered the correct sequence and ran
up. Just in time, Ara jumped into bed, and pulled the sheet around
her. Her heart pounded and she silently begged Marc not to come in.
She hated to hurt things, why would she kill billions? Surely, Maya
wasn’t using her for that?

It was then that Ara received a data log from
the Cardinal Unit, and it confirmed her worst fears.

CARDINAL Unit 9 (CU) Cycle and
Logs

Reporting on MONITOR Mobile
Unit

1117317627853867

Results from CU scan

Matter/Antimatter +0.66

Difference Matter/Antimatter
+0.07

MONITOR returning to date 1%
feasible data

COLLATE data

COMPARE data

End check

Was this why Maya was so nice to her now,
because of what she was doing? Ara was determined to make sure—make
sure of what? Ara didn’t know who to talk to. She knew some people
seemed scared of her. Now she knew why. As her bottom lip wobbled,
she shoved the sheet in her mouth to stop herself from crying. She
shoved too much in and gagged.

“How long was Ara gone from Marc’s bed?”

“Just a few minutes. She went down the steps
and hovered at the door, I was about to tell you but saw her come
back.”

Jamie stared hard at the guard on duty. Since
Jamie hadn’t informed anyone of the meeting it was partially his
fault.

“Was she upset when she came in?”

“More worried about being caught I think,
shoved some sheet in her mouth to keep quiet maybe.”

Jamie nodded and decided to look over the
surveillance later but he asked Marc to keep an eye on Ara the next
day.

Beachside City

Jamie, Diane, and Peter, who was a new member of
their inner circle, studied the plans Terance had submitted. They
were in a small, plain room. Peter was blond, blue eyed, and
muscular. Jamie liked him because he had several ranger licenses.
Peter had also worked for hundreds of years with King Max and Togin
who was a loud but efficient warlord. Peter had a slightly offbeat
sense of humor that left them either laughing uproariously or
blushing with embarrassment.

“This is all pretty standard,” Diane
said.

Peter nodded. “Her eighth birthday is coming
up. Is it always just a few guests?”

Diane’s hazel eyes met Jamie’s for a moment.
“Maya sends regular data bursts to Queen Silvia that Ara must be
kept separate from main stream Pure-Gens. So, yes, mostly
family.”

“Only to Silvia? I mean, what about the other
Pure-Gens on Saratoga? I’m thinking mostly of the kings.”

Jamie shook his head and almost laughed.
“Only to King Delario to ensure his sons can play with Ara.”