Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (14 page)

“Savacia Planet System, it’s a Canyon
Habitat.”

“It’s pretty.” The rugged cliffs on either
side of a raging river were golden with some reds and browns.

“I think so.”

She sat quietly and then became bored so she
looked up at him and gave him not her best smile but a good
one.

Jamie tried not to laugh.

The male had brown skin, brown hair, and nice
brown eyes. “What’s your name?

“Trickster.”

Jamie’s heart skipped a beat. The Snakes had
mentioned Trickster as their enemy.

She giggled. “What’s a habitat?”

“A place for things to live.”

“What lives here?” She looked out, seeing
plants but no… Ooh, a big bird glided high above them.

“People, animals, and plants.”

She found his eyes on her.

He asked, “What are you wearing?”

Ara looked down, pulling at her pink, fluffy
top. “Snuggles.”

“Oh.”

“That’s what my big brother calls them.” She
swung her legs back and forward. The man copied her.

“I can turn into a wolf.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You can … not!”

He frowned. “I can too.”

“Show me then!” She scrambled up, and stomped
to get the dirt off her bum.

As she watched, he morphed into a big, grey
wolf, looked at her with brown eyes, and then changed back. She
jumped up and down in excitement. “I want to do that too!”

He patted the ground but she shook her head
and looked around behind at the desert.

“This is a funny dream.” She put her hands on
her hips and looked back down at the canyon. “I wonder if I can
change into a bird.” If she could fly in her dream, she might be
able to fly to see Maya and tell her not to kill people.

Jamie cringed. Ara had heard them that
night!

She lifted her arms and ran around, flapping.
She decided to run over the cliff and ran past Trickster, laughing
as she did. But she fell.

Jamie was sure his heart stopped.

She started screaming, “Wake up!”

But the air was pushing her cheeks away from
her mouth, and her eyes were frozen on the ever—suddenly, she was
flying! She looked to the left and saw a brown wing but it wasn’t
flapping, it looked like it was trying to slow them. She was
disappointed that it was Trickster flying but since her dream
failed to fulfil her fantasy of flying, she had to be content. Ara
looked again at the brown feathers, straining she thought. With a
massive jerk, the wing flapped, yanking her around, and she bit her
tongue. It stung like crazy. “Ouch!”

The flight stabilized and she began to enjoy
the sensation despite her tongue distracting her.

“I’m flying,” she yelled and laughed again as
they flew along the raging water below.

By now, Jamie had his hands over his face,
groaning with relief. He opened his eyes and saw Ara was still in
her bed. He sighed in relief. The implants apparently allowed
Pure-Gens to project their image. But as he watched there was a
flash of energy and she was gone, no, there was a projection in the
bed to maintain a link. Shit! She could switch. Jamie quickly
closed his eyes, ignoring his thumping heart and sweaty palms. She
was still with Trickster, but solid. The male set them down near
the quieter part of the river. As her feet touched the ground, his
hands released her and she turned, holding her hand to her mouth,
touching her tongue.

Pain must have triggered the switch.

Trickster was naked. She giggled but had seen
lots of penises anyway at the bathing ponds, sometimes they were
soft and floppy, sometimes they looked hard and up. His was
soft.

Jamie decided, had it not been soft, he may
have to kill Trickster.

Ara smiled, pointing to his back. “Can … I
mean may I see them?”

“I’d like to be your friend, Ara.”

“Okay.”

“It has to stay a secret though.”

“Hmmmm.” Ara thought about it, and shuffled
on the cold rock. She thought it might be okay, and he let her
touch his mind. He was very kind, but wanted to help her. “Okay.
What do you want to help me with?”

Jamie’s own fear washed over him. His skin
crawled. It sounded like Trickster was grooming her but there was
something innocent about the male. Jamie fought his emotions and
initial instincts.

“Tartarus. Now he is three Snakes.”

“Who’s that and why?” For some reason the
name tickled her mind. That startled Jamie; had Ara linked to his
own thoughts then or was she accessing some of her own repressed
memories?

“Someone you need to be wary of.” He pushed
his wings out and kneeled down. “It’s complicated.”

This confirmed what little Jamie had.
Trickster was in opposition to the Snakes.

A little shyly, Ara moved closer and touched
them. “I like your wings.”

Trickster nodded. “You always did.”

Suddenly, Trickster was smiling, somehow
smiling through Ara’s mind, at him. Shit. Now that Jamie realized
Trickster saw him, Jamie had to accept that Trickster might be
trying to deceive him too. Maybe Trickster wasn’t really an enemy
of the Snakes. But Trickster knew he was there, and approved. Jamie
was sure the male could have blocked him. And what did he mean by
those words? He knew Ara before … before now? That made sense with
his limited data. Trickster was confirming to Jamie that he knew
Ara before she was a baby. There was another flash and Ara was
back. He noted her heavier breathing as her projection faded from
the Aryan Dream. That was not a usual Aryan Dream. Unlike Pure-Gens
and First-Gens who used ArT a lot, most people used other devices
to communicate. So when his cortical node buzzed it was Diane’s
voice in his “ear”, not in his mind.

She said,
“The team woke me. Somehow our
honeybee can travel like an Aether Being following the
ELs.”

Jamie picked up his Voice; already he was
developing a headache. He typed, “I’m coming back.” He stood and
checked on Ara, now smiling in her sleep. He left via the panel in
her room, and nodded to the guard there. “I’ll be back to talk to
Marc.”

The guard nodded and resumed his watch.

When Jamie neared the installation
underground, he saw Diane waiting at the junction. One dimly lit
passage led to his cabin and one to the mountain installation. She
held up a new bulwark device, designed to interrupt all kinds of
transmissions. He saw it was on and smiled tiredly at her. “Not
Aether, Diane, she moves like Chaos might.”

“Chaos?”

“Think about how her age seems to fluctuate.
Chaos is disorder in order and order in disorder.”

She studied him for a moment. “Alright, I’m
listening.”

After explaining, and by the time Jamie
entered Marc’s room from the house passage door, he was exhausted.
Marc was sitting on his bed, dressed only in shorts.

“Don’t ever compromise my protection duty
again.” Jamie didn’t mean to sound so harsh but he was so drained
he wasn’t able to control his emotions. He’d expected more from
Marc.

“What’s with you?”

Marc was being smart mouthed and Jamie wasn’t
sure if it was from embarrassment or just straight possessiveness.
“What I mean is your job is to raise her. My job is to guard her
and that includes understanding all her activities. You should have
told Pen and Terance about the dreams, and they should have told
me.”

Marc chewed his lip now. “Was she in
danger?”

Jamie wanted to allow his anger loose but
said tightly, “No, not this time. But there can’t be another lapse
in communications. Tomorrow, I’ll speak to your parents.”

Marc stood and Jamie tried to keep his eyes
on Marc’s face. Marc grinned suddenly and walked past him, opening
the door again. He stood waiting. Jamie got the message and walked
out; he should have approached Marc in the morning, officially.

Upon his return to the cabin, he showered
quickly and went to bed. Sleep didn’t come easily and Marc’s dark
eyes seemed to haunt him in his own dreams. In the morning, he
identified a contradiction. The Snakes had said something about the
Chaos Empire but if Ara was Chaos then why would she be against it?
Was it some civil war? Some Chaos War with people who were
honorable? Jamie knew that, even if some people were honorable, the
Snakes may be able to manipulate things so that while honor was
maintained by their brethren, betrayal might exist to work another
agenda. He sat up and rubbed at his gritty eyes. The sun was
streaming through the window. He’d forgotten to close the blinds
and curtains for sleeping. He liked working the nights but never
slept well during the day or the Saratoga summers. It was going to
be a warm and sunny day, perfect for Ara’s farming week at
least.

Marc was still smarting over Jamie’s discipline from
a year ago. He had stood in his parents’ office while Jamie dressed
him down. And then Jamie had a go at Pen and Terance too. It hadn’t
been pleasant. Marc wondered at times if Pen and Terance regretted
taking on the mission as the Inferor Guardians.

Ara was nine now, and picked up on most of
her siblings’ bad habits and smart mouths. The poor kid didn’t
stand a chance. She was clever at mimicking too, and in his own
smart mouthed way, reported that to Jamie. Marc strode up to
Jamie’s cabin on a cool, wet morning and banged on the door knowing
Jamie had worked a night shift.

The wooden door swung open and Jamie stared
at him. Marc noted the short hair was a little mussed, the dark
eyes sleepy, and lips slightly open in annoyance. Marc said
cheerfully, “Hi.”

Jamie leaned on the door. “What do you
want?”

“Just want to report that Ara has a tendency
to mimic people well. Thought you should know.”

Marc waited for the explosion but was
surprised when Jamie suddenly laughed. Marc was annoyed that he
found himself responding to the male after all this time. Jamie had
a good, hard body, was ruggedly handsome, and it seemed his decent
sense of humor hadn’t been lost. Marc remembered Jamie being good
company on board the Repco and at all the boring Bellus meetings
with the Three Empire and Grands reps.

“Coffee?”

Marc nodded. “Sure.” As he walked in, he grew
uncomfortably aware that he’d spent a bit more time on his
appearance than he usually did. He knew that because Ara had asked
him if he was going to see Tricia.

After Marc left all dressed up, Ara wondered
why he lied about seeing Tricia. She didn’t really care though and
observed her slender mother multi-tasking. “That’s very efficient,
Mum.”

Mum stopped what she was doing to laugh.
“Thank you, Ara. I like being efficient.”

“Because there’s so much to do!” Ara looked
down at Meg playing with her toys. “I’m going to be more efficient
too.” Ara tried being efficient in different ways but it didn’t
always work. She’d heard Dad say Maya was efficient. Probably
efficient at killing!

One week later, Ara headed for dinner already
hearing the babble of voices often lifting in excitement. She ran
up the steps from her room, turned right at the kitchen and down
the passage to the formal dining room, which was halfway down. The
dining room, like the kitchen, had been partially dug into the hill
their homestead was attached to. Further along, right at the end,
was the quiet reading room with views out to the far ocean. Ara
took her seat and smiled at everyone. Since all the family was
present, and she’d finished her dinner, she raised the topic of
Virgo. Choking, laughing and coughing swept around the table.

“Ara, I don’t think that’s appropriate for a
dinner conversation.”

“But it’s an efficient use of our time.” She
turned to Sacha’s boyfriend, Jace, who seemed in some kind of
paralysis. His blue eyes were huge, and his brown hair falling over
his red cheeks. “Now, you two were talking about Virgo and when to
raise it. Now is a good time. We are all here, having a nice time.
Dad is relaxed, was relaxed, and while you are raising that, Ersen
can pick up any tips for when he is wanting the Virgo, I heard it’s
very good, and Tricia was teasing—”

“Ara!”

Since this was yelled out by several of her
family members at the same time she wasn’t sure who to look at. But
Sacha, and even Marc, was telling Dad to send her to her room.
Tears welled up but Ashley and Henry sent her sympathetic
looks.

But Tricia sent a firm look to Marc who shut
up and asked her, “Ara, do you know what Virgo is?”

“It’s that new land vehicle isn’t it?” Her
voice was high from worry but Ashley and Henry were both nodding
their agreement. Much encouraged, she said, “By Palaz? Jace was
saying he wanted one.” He’d also made some jokes about it she
didn’t understand.

Deathly silence filled the room followed by
nervous giggles and then bursts of laughter. Her mum and dad locked
gazes and started laughing.

Relief spread through Ara’s body.

Marc shook his head. “Haven’t you told
her?”

“Marc, she’s too young.”

Ashley and Henry were as confused as she was.
Gralten and little Meg were too busy eating again to care.

“She’s nine, in PuG terms that’s old
enough.”

“I thought relatively speaking that time is
slower for them?” Tricia asked.

“Time maybe, but not their mind. And Ara’s is
pretty sharp.”

Ara poked her tongue out at Marc causing
Tricia to giggle. As she sat and waited, she felt the tension in
the air while the adults made up their minds.

Quickly, Sacha stood up, followed by Tricia.
“We’ll tell her. Keep having dinner.”

“Can we come?” Ashley begged, with Henry
holding his breath.

“No!” Both Sacha and Tricia said at the same
time.

Their shoulders slumped but Ara winked at
them. They knew she would tell them but they were careful to hide
their sudden glee.