A Stellar Affair (7 page)

“No, Mom,” she said. “You know me. I have my own little group of friends, and they suit me just fine. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Jack decided to take a chance. “I guess I’m worried about you. It doesn’t do you much good to be cooped up with me all the time. Have you thought about doing any traveling? You could go off-world and see what’s out there. Where’s the nearest planet from here?”

“I don’t want to travel by myself. Besides, we can’t afford it.” She studied him closely, and Jack could feel her fighting him again. “Why this sudden concern about me?”

He attempted to tighten his mental hold on her. Patting her arm, he looked at her sadly.

“I’m not going to be around forever,” he told her. “I want to know that I’ve prepared you for the future. It’s a lot easier to be strong if you have others to turn to. You should trust people more.”

He felt Ardra’s sorrow for a moment, but she seemed to study him.

He presented her with a playful smile. “Why don’t we play a little game? Let’s pretend you and I are rich with credits, and we want to take a trip together. Where are we going to go from here?”

She stayed silent.

“Come on,” Jack said. “We’ll dream up a whole make-believe vacation for ourselves and fly away. Won’t that be fun?”

“No.” Ardra glared at him.

Too late, Jack sensed her resistance again. He heard the thought running through her mind that something was wrong. Although he wasn’t sure how it had happened, she had become aware of his influence again. Maybe there was a characteristic or mannerism that was giving him away.

Ardra jumped up and knocked over her chair. There should have been a loud crack as it hit the floor, but instead everything swirled into fog. He opened his eyes to his house in the same moment that she awoke.

Having once again slipped out of an altered memory, she was disoriented at first. She whispered his name, but he wasn’t sure if it was a curse or a plea for help. Then she released a small cry.

“Mom,” she said. “My mom is dead.”

He was sure she meant her real mother this time. The memory he had seen was true. Recollections that strong couldn’t be artificially produced, and her memory had been filled with touch and smell, as well as sight. He had gotten a good look at a complete home. The only problem now was that these real recollections conflicted with the programming.

“Everything will be okay,” he told her. “I’ve got you.”

To his surprise, she let him pull her into his arms. As he held her, he felt a surge of protectiveness, along with a much more dangerous emotion.

Chapter Six

The next week, Jack had a visitor drop in on him. Damek, his favorite precept-in-training, came to his house after he finished another session with Tarrin Thales. Fatigue weighed Jack down after what had proven to be an emotional encounter. He was glad to take a break.

“Damek, it’s good to see you,” Jack said. “How’s the training going?”

The young man smiled. “I think I’m starting to get the hang of things. Terrah is even letting me help with some of her sessions. She says I’m especially good with children.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. How is Terrah, by the way?” Jack still hadn’t seen her since her return to Ryso.

“She’s fine,” Damek answered. “She’s working as hard as ever. Actually, she suggested I come here. We’ve been meaning to stop by and see you anyhow, but then we heard the news. Just about the whole planet is gossiping about what you’re working on.”

“You’re kidding.”

Damek shook his head. “A secret like that doesn’t stay a secret for long, Jack.”

“No wonder I’m getting so much pressure.”

“You’re a celebrity,” Damek agreed. “So how’s it going?”

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’ve got three prisoners, and I’m handling all of them by myself. I can’t give any of them the attention I should, and it’s tough to keep up my energy. I can only concentrate so hard for so long. What’s more, I’m now convinced that all three of them are carriers.”

“Are they all carrying part of the new strike coordinates?” Damek asked.

Word really had traveled fast.

“No. I think there are three different messages. I’m close to finding out the intel from the two men, but the girl is giving me problems.”

“Girl?” Damek smiled. Had he picked up on some emotional vibe?

“The woman, Ardra Kelly,” Jack said. “She’s getting harder to put under. I’m stronger, but she has endurance like you wouldn’t believe. I think she figured out that all my mental pushing is exhausting, and now she keeps trying to outlast me. Even so, I’m getting through to her. At the very least, she has to realize she has some pretty inconsistent memories. If only she would trust me.”

“Trust,” Damek repeated. “A word that’s completely foreign to your superintendent, right?”

Jack returned a wry smile. “Walter wants me to sleep deprive her. Can you believe that? He actually wants to torture these people like they’re his personal enemies.”

“Well, they are Tetch.”

“Oh come on, Damek. These people?” He pointed in the general direction of the holding cells. “These people are just pawns. Don’t you think they and the rest of the Tetch citizens believe they’re right when they oppose us? They’re fed propaganda until it’s all they can see or hear. They really believe that
we
are the evil ones, that
we
mean to undo civilization. It’s too easy for us to forget they’re our fellow human beings. We can hate what they do, but we shouldn’t hate them. It’s too hard to change those feelings later on.”

Damek crossed his arms and leaned farther back. “I wish Terrah were here to listen to this.”

Jack calmed down. This was the sort of debate he and Terrah used to get into when they were in school. The two of them had been ready to change the universe back then. Now, Jack wasn’t sure he knew what the right thing was anymore.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to go off on a tirade. It’s just that Walter drives me crazy. He’s not really a bad guy, but sometimes I swear he doesn’t have a single ounce of human compassion. These are real individuals we’re dealing with, and they should be shown some kind of consideration.”

“I know.” Damek gave him a sympathetic look. “It sounds like you’ve had a bad time of it.”

That was a bit of an understatement.

“Why don’t you come over and visit Terrah?” Damek suggested. “She always likes to see you, and I think she already sensed that something was disturbing you. You should go see her.”

“I’ll try to get over there in a few weeks,” he agreed, “but my schedule is tight. Give her my love, will you?”

“I will,” Damek promised. “As for me, I’ll stop by again as soon as I can. My days aren’t quite as full.”

“You enjoy my company that much, eh?” Jack teased him.

“Nah. I’m just too curious to pass up the chance to get the inside scoop.”

Jack sent the younger precept on his way with a laugh.

Left to himself, he returned his attention to more serious thoughts. If he added in the time the
Oberon
had been away from Simos before the Roimirans had picked it up, the carriers had been gone from the space station for about a month and a half. That meant they should have been nearly halfway to Algoron by now. If the Tetch hadn’t set up any intervening checkpoints, Jack now had ten weeks to get the intel before the
Oberon
reached its destination and the buyer discovered the ship was nothing but an empty shell. He suspected making that deadline was going to be tight.

Taking a deep breath, he cleared his thoughts. It was time to concentrate on the task at hand. Mr. Slade was coming in for another session, and then he would have the rest of the night to plan for his next meeting with Ardra. Her increased resistance to his telepathy meant he needed a strategy and a whole lot of willpower if he was going to prevent a repeat of his earlier mistakes. He already had a general idea of what he would try next.

Downtown, Ardra spotted Sonja waiting for her in the middle of the plaza. She couldn’t believe she had really made it back to Nintu V. Her escape from her cell and the journey here were a blur, and she knew she wasn’t safe yet. She ran directly to Sonja and caught her friend’s hands.

“Thank goodness you got my message,” she told her. “You have to help me. You have to hide me.”

Sonja looked worried. “All right. Calm down. Why do you need to hide? What’s wrong?”

Ardra looked around, nervous about standing in plain sight. “He’s after me.”

“Who?”

“The Roimiran precept,” she said. “He’s trying to confuse me.”

Her friend winced. “It’s all right. You’re safe with me. We can go back to my place.”

Ardra peered over her shoulder, but no one met her gaze from the light procession of passersby.

“Come on,” her friend urged her.

They wound their way through a honeycomb of dwellings until they reached Sonja’s door. She found herself inside without recalling having crossed the threshold. There was nothing but the same white walls and silver furniture that had always given her friend’s place a sterile feeling.

“Sit down,” Sonja told her. “You’re shaking.”

With a sigh, Ardra moved to the nearest sofa and plopped down, but she couldn’t stop fidgeting. She was sure she was being tracked, and men in uniforms might burst through the door at any moment.

Sonja sank into the chair perpendicular to her. “What’s wrong? I’ve never seen you like this.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Ardra admitted. “The Roimirans are after me, and you were the only one I could think of to turn to.”

Sonja looked concerned. “It’s all right. You’re safe here. I don’t understand, though. Why are they after you?”

“They think I know some kind of number or code or something.” She rubbed her temples.

“Do you?”

“No!”

“Well, they must have some reason for thinking you do,” Sonja pointed out. “Is there any way you could have this number and not know it?”

Ardra shook her head. “This isn’t the kind of thing someone could have slipped into my pocket. They think this stuff was implanted in my brain. I think I’d remember that.”

“Would you?” Her friend studied her closely. “If someone did want to hide something in your head, they might have wiped your memory to protect it. Think. Is there anything that doesn’t make sense or doesn’t match up? When could someone have gotten to you?”

“I don’t know. I had a full medical evaluation before I left for Algoron, and that didn’t turn up anything. Everything is so jumbled and confusing now. I have these memories that—” Ardra stopped short. “Why are you asking me all of these questions?”

For the first time, Sonja shifted uncomfortably. “I’m trying to figure out why they’re after you.”

She leaned forward to grab Ardra’s hands, but she wasn’t fast enough.

Ardra stood and backed away. “You’re with them, aren’t you? You told them where I am.”

Sonja rose to her feet and tried to draw closer. “You know better than that. I’m your friend. I’m here to help you.”

“No, you’re not.” Her head hurt, and she felt a little dizzy. For the first time, she looked her friend deeply in the eyes—really looked—and in that moment, she knew. “You’re him!”

Ardra charged the imposter with fists flying. She punched and scratched until she was suddenly battering against Jack’s chest. Half the furniture in his living room had been bumped or upended, but she kept attacking. He crushed her whole body against him to subdue the fight. His strong arms were too much for her, and she ended up struggling futilely in his embrace.

“Easy.” He held her tight as he lowered her back onto the sofa.

She gripped his shirt and buried her face against his shoulder. “Damn you.”

Ardra was furious with him for tricking her again, but she was also mad at herself for falling for it.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She pushed Jack away and felt him send calming vibes in her direction. Her breathing slowed and some of the tension flowed out of her body.

“It’s okay,” he told her. “We won’t do anything more today. You can take a break and get some rest. You’ll be all right.
Please don’t hate me.
”

His last statement flowed right into her mind. She wished she could hate him. He would have been easier to resist if she did. Too bad she couldn’t use some mental persuasion on herself.

He stood and called the guard, who escorted her back to her room. In the quiet of her holding cell, she had too much time to think. She had been kidnapped and was being held captive, yet she knew no one in the universe was even looking for her. No one knew she was in trouble, including the real Sonja who was probably relaxing back on Nintu V right now. Even if people did know, Ardra wasn’t sure anyone would bother launching a rescue mission for her. She was left wondering how she had wound up so alone.

Then hazel eyes popped into her mind and pushed back some of her loneliness. That was even more disturbing. How could she be attracted to someone she didn’t trust? It was Jack’s job to deceive her, but he acted so nice. She doubted he held Tarrin or Slade in his arms and tried to comfort them the way he did her.

It seemed like maybe he was trying to have it both ways. He needed to be the good, friendly Jackson Deimos who repaired the broken victims of the universe, but his own people required him to be the cunning precept who protected them. Ardra couldn’t even fault his motives. She didn’t want to see anyone attacked, even if they were supposed to be the enemy.

“Stay focused,” she reminded herself.

She dragged the chair over to the window. Picking up her makeshift tool, she returned to her escape work.

Nine weeks until deadline

Jack looked at Basner Slade sitting across from him. “Make no mistake,” he told the elderly man. “This war isn’t about whether or not to use technology or artificial means to extend human life. That’s just what the politicians say to stir up moral outrage and gain support for the war. What this conflict is about is territory and resources and an age-old sin called greed.”

The old fellow couldn’t accept this. Apparently, ninety-seven years of Tetch propaganda had brainwashed him beyond repair.

“If it weren’t for our technology,” Slade argued, “I wouldn’t be alive right now. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a bunch of self-righteous Roimirans tell me I’m better off dead.”

Jack decided to take another tack. “I’m not judging you, sir. I’m very happy you’re alive. But let me ask you something. How much of a human being can you replace before he or she ceases to be human? A heart and kidney, and you still believe you’re you. How about all of your limbs? Lungs and liver? How about the face and eyes? Or what about part of the brain, maybe to boost memory and motor functions? How long before you start to lose your soul? At what point does it become wrong? Everyone has to draw a line in the sand somewhere. We just err more on the side of caution than you do.”

Such was how their session began. It somehow managed to get progressively worse from there.

Now, hours later, Jack waved the bartender over for a drink as Damek waited for him to share what was on his mind. They sat at one of the back tables in the renovated storage building that served as the local tavern. Damek had come to hear the latest news and had instead found his fellow precept dealing with his own woes. He had joined Jack to keep him company so he didn’t have to drink alone.

“I’ve hit an all-time low,” Jack confessed. “Today, I actually made someone throw up.”

Damek looked surprised. “Who?”

“That old man. I got him so worked up he was physically sick. And for what? Some black-market dealers programmed him over two years ago with intel on one of our bases that isn’t even there anymore. Useless.” He took another swig. “You know, sometimes I think I really am the monster the Tetch make me out to be.”

“You wouldn’t be feeling guilty right now if you were really that kind of bully. It’s because of people like you that we stay on the side of right and keep our humanity.” Damek patted him on the arm. “Feel pity for the old man, but not guilt. His own people set him up for this.”

“I know,” Jack said. “It’s just that I’m starting to feel like I’m not doing the right thing anymore. It feels like I’m hurting people more than I’m helping them.”

“Hang in there. Hey, it can’t get any worse, right?”

Jack gave a rap on the wooden table, but that gesture was lost on the younger generation.

“Walter is pushing me,” he told Damek. “Time is growing shorter, and he’s getting nervous. He wants me to rip open her mind just like the Tetch did.”

“Her?”

“Ardra.” He repeated his last conversation with his superintendent.