An Officer’s Duty (38 page)

SEPTEMBER 1, 2493 T.S.
SOUTHEAST OF SINES, PORTUGAL, WESTERN EUROPROVINCE EARTH

“I don’t believe you,” Meyun dismissed. Head propped up on one palm, the other covering the muscles of her stomach, he shook his head slightly. “An entire planet of colonists experiences massive, widespread, spontaneous bouts of precognition? Even the non-gifted members of sentiency?”

“It’s true. The Gatsugi, the K’katta, the Solaricans, and the Tlassians have all experienced it, the same as the Humans,” Ia told him, shrugging. “The Chinsoiy don’t like the electrosphere’s energies, the Dlmvla can’t tolerate the atmosphere, and the Salik have been Blockaded all this time, so we don’t have any information on them, of course.”

“What about the Choya?” he asked.

She rested her head back against the pillows of their shared bed and sighed. “Of all the sentient species, the Choya—and the Salik—are
truly
mind-blind. Zero psychic sensitivities,
and zero abilities whatsoever. I think it’s something biological, some neural wiring or protein combination they’re missing…Anyway, the few rare Choya to risk the high gravity didn’t sense a thing. Not during
any
visits, not that we know about. The Fire Girl Prophecies are truly the single weirdest thing about my homeworld.”

“Well, how do they
know
these prophecies are truly prophetic?” Meyun pressed.

“When the Elders of the Church of the One True God arrived on Sanctuary, they had already designed plans for the Great Cathedral. The holopics of the mock-up matched
exactly
to the visions everyone was having, of a great cathedral catching on fire. Only they hadn’t
shown
everyone the final draft of the models before that point, just the few on the Church Council,” Ia told him. “When they discovered people who didn’t even know what the cathedral would look like were having visions of it being built, and then possibly destroyed—the images aren’t entirely clear as to which will actually happen, which is the usual nature of precognition—well, they realized these were true psychic visions.”

Meyun shook his head, frowning slightly. “How is it a whole planet of colonists can experience these visions? Is it something in the water? In the air? In the food? If even the tourists get it, it’s obviously not a genetic mutation.”

Ia shrugged eloquently. “No one can say. And you can experience it the moment you come into the troposphere, never mind actually land on the planet, breathe the air, drink the water, or eat the food. In fact, it could even be a side effect of the planet’s electrosphere meddling with our brains. So. Your turn. What is the single weirdest thing about Dabin, in your opinion?”

“I’ll have to think about that one. My home’s not nearly as strange as yours,” he demurred.

Ia nodded, letting him think. This cottage, tucked into the hills overlooking some of the villages south of Sines, was quiet, peaceful, and secluded. Perfect for a four-day tryst. It had taken her most of a day to quell the guilt over taking this time for herself, but Meyun had proven to be quite distracting when he put his mind to it.

In fact, his hand on her stomach, thumb subtly caressing her bare skin, was still quite distracting. It reminded her of all
the other things his hands had done with her in the last two days, as well as other body parts. The things he had showed her…

“Passion moss,” he stated out of the blue.

“Hmm?”
She looked at his face.

“Passion moss,” Meyun repeated. “It grows on the northwest continent, and comes in shades of yellow and orange and red, and even hints of purple, and the oil it secretes when it’s in bloom—if a moss-like plant could be said to bloom—enhances the fertility cycles of all the native animals around it. In fact, biologists have even been able to artificially induce fertility by coaxing the moss to bloom and ooze its oil. But only in the native animals. It doesn’t do anything for the imported livestock.”

“How does it smell to nonnatives?” she asked, curious.

He wrinkled his nose. “Like oily, burnt plexi with hints of sugar. Some people like it, but most can’t stand it. There are rumors that some of the newest generations are starting to be affected by it,” he added, subtly rubbing her stomach, “but it’s such a subjective thing, the scientists aren’t yet convinced it’s a planetary adaptation. It’s probably just a placebo effect.”

Ia chuckled. “If they ever do adapt, your homeworld will have a major population explosion.”

“Well, it’s rare for a genetic mutation to crop up so quickly, so I think it’s just psychosomatic at best, like most so-called aphrodisiacs,” he dismissed. Then grinned and slid his hand upward, exploring a different part of her skin. “I suppose we’ll just have to rely on the old-fashioned methods of rousing passion.”

Smirking back at him, she slid a hand down his chest, doing some exploring of her own. Her smile turned wry, wistful. “I am going to miss you, you know. Not just this,” she added, tickling his bare stomach, making him squirm and grin, “but everything else. Talking with you, laughing with you, getting to know you…and even being surprised by you. Meyun…You have
no
idea just how rare that is.”

“Maybe I can convince you to save up some of your Leave time for me.” He leaned forward and kissed the corner of her mouth. “In the meantime, let me surprise you some more…unless you can guess what’s on my mind?”

She grinned and pulled him closer. “I don’t have to be a telepath to guess
that
.”

SEPTEMBER 3, 2493 T.S.

Bliss. Sweet, aching bliss. For the first time in a very, very long time, nothing existed for Ia but this: The moment of
now
. No past, no future, just right
now
.

Rational thought had been replaced by pure feeling. This close to him, this intimate, she could sense his every thought, his every emotion. Yet never had she felt so safe, so free. Euphoria filled her with soul-deep longing.
Ohhh…if only I could stay here forever…

Meyun groaned and kissed her throat. “I don’t want you to leave.”

“I don’t
want
to leave.” The confession escaped her in a whisper, bittersweet bliss. So many possibilities hovered on the edge of her consciousness, the timeplains so close, so many potentialities almost within her grasp. No thought existed of caution, nor of control, only of wistful wishes. Such closeness bred a level of comfort and trust Ia hadn’t expected.

Clinging to him, she let the bliss carry her forward, deep into herself. Deep into him. Like her limbs, her mind entwined itself around him, cradling him in this precious moment.
If only we had more Time…

A unity of thought, as much his own as hers. Shuddering, he whispered fervently, “If only we had more
time
together…”

Time.

Time.
Word and thought, sense and psyche. They dragged her—both of them—onto the timeplains. Ruthless, remorseless Time.

Meyun gasped, eyes wide. A golden explosion of amber-hued water enveloped them, a tsunami of possibilities. Caught off guard, too closely entwined, it was all Ia could do to cling to him, to try and keep him from drowning. It didn’t work. Flailing for purchase, for understanding, for anything, Meyun dragged both of them under.

Them.
That was the key word. Images flashed through the waves crashing through their senses. Scenes of him, of her. Intimate moments, public moments, laughing with friends, weeping over deaths, scenes of battle, scenes of domestic bliss. Children—the children they could have, should have, would have. Enemies—
tearing them apart, carving them up, scorching the universe
and stealing their last breath. Pride in accomplishments…and regret. Regret for the deaths of innocents…and the madness that surged up because of it.

Regret.
That wasn’t the word for it.

Madness, death, despair, destruction. The golden light withered and turned an arid, lifeless, fiery brown. The water chilled and froze, filled with the bodies of untold lives, slaughtered and
wasted. They pressed in, ice-cold and clammy, bumping closer and closer in the sloshing waters of Time with inexorable horror. Their arms, their legs, their corpses pushes against the two lovers. Pushed them apart, though Meyun screamed in wordless bubbles and tried to cling to her.

The galaxy burned, the dead froze, her lover lived and died, lived and died, lived and died…all because she wanted to reshape Time for herself.

Climbing onto the banks, saving a future for her and Meyun, that would only be met by the fires of her conscience. The flames of destruction would burn away her sanity. If she stayed in the water, the ice of her duty would freeze everything else she wanted right out of her life. If she stayed immersed in the waters, she would drown from the effort of trying to push everyone else out. If she climbed onto the bank…every world would burn, and the stars would be snuffed out.

Everything would die, because she wanted things for
herself.

“NO!”

Desperation thrust them out of the timeplains. Thrust them out of the water. Thrust him physically and mentally away from her, off of the bed. He hit the wall with an
oof
and thumped to the carpeted floor.

Once again, she had chosen the ice over the fire. To drown, rather than let everything burn. And it
hurt
. It hurt because this time, she had
seen
the personal cost to her…and to the one she loved. Now Ia
knew
why she hadn’t been able to see him in Time. Not because he somehow didn’t exist, but because he was the single greatest threat to her plans. Her gifts had protected her by sheer instinct, until now.

Love was the one thing that
could
sway her from her path, as well as keep her on her self-imposed course. Love for this wonderful man, a very concrete, tangible, and real love that would
be returned wholeheartedly…versus love for the untouchable, unknowing, uncaring, unrequiting universe.

Love that could save her sanity, or love that would steal it away.

Tears welled up and spilled over in a silent rain of regret. On the floor at the foot of the bed, Meyun groaned, recovering from his stupor of too many visions, too much information. “Oh, god…oh, god…what…what am I seeing? Ia, what am I
seeing
?”

Concerned by his dazed demand, she scrambled to the end of the bed, scrubbing at her tears. He had pushed himself onto all fours, but his dark brown eyes gazed through the foot of the bed. He wasn’t seeing anything in
this
world. Warily, she extended a hand. Her fingertips brushed against the locks of his hair, connected with his brow.

He was still on the timeplains, immersed in the waters of his own multiple lifestreams. Of
their
multiple lifestreams…

Shock snatched her hand back from his brow. Panic sent her mind racing. This was nothing she had experienced before—none of her brothers, none of her followers, no one she had touched had ever been trapped on the timeplains once she withdrew her touch.

“Ia?” he asked, pushing up onto his knees, only to sag to one side, visibly disoriented. “
Ia?
Why can’t I see you anymore?”

“It…it’s going to be alright—I can fix this,” she muttered, mind racing in frantic circles. “I
can
fix it…I think…” She castigated herself a moment later.
Stupid stupid stupid!

Closing her eyes, Ia blocked out his sightless gaze, his groping hand. The first step was to fix
herself
, to stop the useless, energy-draining panic. Reaching for the old centering exercises, she breathed in deep, gathering in her scattered sense of self. Exhaling, she reabsorbed her fragmented thoughts, her faceted personalities, and pushed out the negativity and fear. In again to blend, out again to cleanse. By the third breath, her thoughts were stabilized. By the fourth, she was calm.

Or at least calm enough to act. Slipping off the end of the bed, Ia caught his hand. He clutched at her, mind still racing too fast, too full. Cupping the side of his face, she insinuated her thoughts into his. Dove gently back into the waters, rather than plunging without control as before.

…He was swimming. Stormy waters crashed and sloshed, and he was barely afloat, but he was somehow swimming. Ia swam as well, used to the waters. Getting close to him, she reached for Meyun’s hand as lightning flashed, bringing with it another stream of possibilities.

“I can help you out!” she shouted, trying to catch his attention as well as his hand. “Meyun, I can get you out of the water! But you have to trust me!”

That focused him on her, not on the visions swirling in the waters around them.
“You? Trust you?” he shouted back. “You’re going to leave me in here!—You’re going to leave me to die!”

“
Shakk
that, I love you too much to
let
you die!”

Grabbing his hand, Ia pulled them out of the raging lake the timestreams had become. By sheer force of will, she separated each potential-probable-possible future back into its own unique, disparate streambed. Holding on to him grimly, she reorganized Time itself, water and wind whipping around them, grass and storm and streaks of light forced into separation until the amber-drenched grasslands unrolled around them, resettling into an orderly network of life and light.

“What…what
is
this place?” Meyun asked her, peering at the rolling fields and interweaving waters.

“Time.” The word echoed as it always did, like thunder, though this time it darkened the skies in memory of the storm that had swept him up and held him prisoner. Ia forced the skies to stay clear and free of dusk’s gloom, to brighten in the golden light of afternoon. “I’m never quite sure if it’s all in my head…or if I’ve somehow tapped into the actual dimension…I never told you what I am, nor what I can do. I couldn’t risk it. I didn’t…

“Meyun, I couldn’t
see
you,” Ia confessed awkwardly, looking at him warily. “Of all the lives and life-choices around me, of all the possible, potential, probable paths in the future, I couldn’t see
you
.” She looked down at the waters beyond their feet, orderly streams of images like liquefied vids. Rippling snapshots of existence, they surfaced and sunk almost randomly. “Any grey spot, any blank, any anomaly, was and is a danger to my task.”