Astra: Synchronicity (19 page)

"When I learned she was a student at the
university, I knew I had to make a change with my life. I didn't
want to be a loser and piss my whole life away. Of course, the
stronger motivation was to attract Lisara's attention, and the best
way I could think of to do that was to put my heart and soul into
my studies. Fortunately, I've always been a very good computer
programmer and came into my own when I applied myself to
cybernetics."

Martin
. Amii began to feel her pulse
throbbing in her neck. "You told me my last name was Martin. Who am
I, Xander?"

He took a deep breath and sniffled his nose.
"You're our daughter. You have her last name because I thought Amii
Adams sounded ridiculously indulgent."

His daughter? Their only common feature was
their grayish-blue eyes. Knowing they were related by blood
propelled her sense of self into a tailspin. "Why didn't you tell
me?"

"I didn't want anyone to know," he said and
looked across the room to avoid her upsetting gaze. "There are too
many people after me, and I didn't want to put you in danger." He
forced himself to glance back at her. "I'm sorry. It was a selfish
thing to do to you."

Amii couldn't will herself to say another
word. She was surprised. And baffled and distraught and all those
other emotions a person channels when someone they trust with their
life drops a bomb and upsets the fragile balance of their world.
Since his reasons were logical, she had a hard time feeling any
anger. Being a great scientist did not mean he was a moral person.
Or a good person, for that matter.

"Did I ever know my mother?"

He shook his head. "No. You were seven months
old when she died. Your growing up was hard. For both of us. We
were always moving from one place to the next. You never went to
school; I taught you everything you'd need to know to help me. And
then we ended up on Pisa, but at least we were safe there for a few
years."

He scooted toward her and lowered his voice
to a whisper. "I found something in one of their secret hangars.
I'll show it to you tonight, when most of these wankers are
asleep."

He waited until the dead of night to sneak
out. One patrol guarded the facility during the late watches, and
they ate lunch for a half hour at midnight. But anyone could avoid
the guards. Getting into restricted areas took more expertise.

Xander's innate computer skills came in
handy. Whenever they approached a secure area, he'd override the
security access panels. He punched the same eight-digit code into
all three consoles. And they slid past security with a nod and a
wink.

She wondered if he did this every night while
she slept. "Where did you learn the code?"

"Those mentally-handicapped scientists left
me alone with one of their computers for a few minutes. Anyone with
more than a rudimentary understanding of machines can hack
them."

She had a feeling that was a gross distortion
of the truth.

After several lengths of corridor, they
entered a dark hangar on the outskirts of the base. The air felt
much colder here than at the heart of the complex. She pulled the
leather coat around her and pressed her chin to her chest. When she
smelled the faint odor of volcanic rocks and rain, she thought of
Magnius and hoped to see him again someday. Of course, she never
would in this prison.

Before them, a vessel of unusual design
spanned the length of the room and perched on three small feet. The
ship resembled a voluptuous silver bullet with eagle's wings and a
giant crystal. From their vantage point it appeared to have no
windows and measured a quarter the size of the
Kearsarge
.
The engines had been integrated into its design in a seamless
fashion, flanking the long sides of the hull. Nozzles of the laser
system broke its streamlined shape. She had a hard time taking her
eyes off the marvel.

Xander gazed up at the ship fondly. "This
might be our ticket out of here."

Steal a ship from the AC? "You're joking,
right?"

"Of course I'm not joking," he said and
headed over to a dim computer console. When he touched it, the
display lit up, requesting his username and password to access the
terminal. He chortled as he hacked into their mainframe and brought
up the vessel's specifications and design. "Hello, gorgeous."

The ship represented years of cutting-edge
technology in every realm of space travel from a sophisticated
engine design to its ablated armor hull. It was several times
larger than a petaflop, which according to Xander's stories barely
held both of them let alone the amount of cargo they smuggled onto
Pisa. This vessel had a rear cargo area and packed a lot of
firepower: two sophisticated Phoenix II laser systems and an X23
Railgun. The technology made vessels of the Allied Fleet look
archaic in comparison.

Amii pointed at the screen when he browsed
through information on the ship's engines. "Adrenaline wave
technology?" she said as she scanned the screen. "A plasma emulsion
with two stable reactants fueled by electrum as an energetic
catalyst." She scrolled through a series of chemical equations that
would've been gibberish to most people. "The reaction mechanism is
astounding."

He raised his eyebrow. "Since when did you
become a chemist and a propulsion engineer?"

Without glancing away from the screen, she
said, "I hope that was a rhetorical question. The armor is an
interesting alloy as well…dangerous to produce from the looks of
it, but supposedly able to withstand heavy fire without damage.
Nice."

"I wonder if it's space-worthy," he mulled as
he gazed across the hangar at the craft. "I'll see if I can find
out more about it before we're cast off this wretched planet."

"Navigation looks a bit sketchy. It's not
familiar to me, and from what I can tell, they've had a hard time
trying to get the ship off the ground."

"Well, I rather doubt they have anyone of
your skill here when it comes to piloting a ship. It's like the
sword in the stone, waiting for you to wrest it free." His eyes lit
up with a fiery passion. "The
Excalibur
."

"I somehow doubt my abilities are half as
good as you claim them to be."

"You're right. Don't take my word for it.
Prove it to yourself. Anyways, we'd best return to our quarters
before we're suspected of treason. President Scheidecker would have
no qualms about sending both of us straight to Caldos Minor."

"The President seemed reasonable to me."

"On the surface most politicians are," Xander
said and led them back out the same way they'd come in. "But even
those with the most pure of hearts are sullied, bowing to the
pressure of the corruption all around them. The power, the money,
the prestige…the environment breeds nothing but immorality.
Chairman Dodd is the best example of all…the king of inaction."

By all accounts the chairman appeared to be
seeking a resolution on the Xuranian situation. She doubted she
could put much weight on Xander's words; over the past week she'd
been inundated by conspiracy theories and his strong sense of
governmental paranoia. Even so, he was the only person she had in
this friendless place. And while she didn't agree with his tactics
or methods, she'd grudgingly go along with them. After all, he
hadn't steered them wrong before.

Nadine stood at her third-story bedroom
window and gazed outside at the active night street below. Spring
hit the capital in full force almost a week ago, and every evening
she noticed more young couples out and about, as though winter
stifled their romance. Their laughter danced on the fresh breeze,
and their eyes twinkled from the shine of lampposts that lined the
bustling street until it faded from sight. She missed the freedom
to take in a show or go out to dinner on a whim since they'd moved
to the Westwood Estate, but she wouldn't trade being in a position
to do so much good for anything in Astra.

Another exhausting day had passed by for her
husband. He'd fallen asleep moments after walking through the door
and dropping into a heap on their bed. Long days of negotiating had
been grueling but fruitful; in five days a peace delegation from
both Sirius and Xur would arrive. They wanted to help humankind
forge a lasting peace between the AC and the PAU. For a short time
the second lady thought the Xuranians had upstaged her in that
regard. She'd done so much work laying the foundations of goodwill
and building a rapport among PAU ranks. But she'd never had much of
an ego to crack when it came to the greater good.

As she returned her focus to the street, she
watched a group of expensive hovermobiles pass by in shades of
ivory and obsidian, and in that moment all she could think about
was
him
. Magnius Zoleki. Nadine tried to purge the psionic
essence he exuded, but until he left the city it would linger. He
haunted her from the shadows of his mind, so full of secrets the
mere act of scrutiny would drive her mad. His power scared her in
ways she didn't think were possible.

She washed her face with ice-cold water
before lying down to bed. And for a time, all was well. Her dreams
were her domain.

***

After she fell into deep slumber, she found
herself at the Autumn Harvest Festival outside the city. While she
devoured blue cotton candy, she walked between the food stalls and
heard cheerful mandolins and fiddles in the distance. Children
raced around the haystacks in blissful delight. The actual festival
drew hordes of people, but in her dreams she could enjoy it without
fear of being recognized.

After a time basking in the sun and studying
the multitudes enjoying their day, she noticed something peculiar
making its way toward them from the city. From afar it appeared to
be a herd of small black animals. But when they drew near, the
reality horrified her. A swarm of hideous insects the size of
wolves scampered to the fairgrounds. They had eight glossy black
legs and transparent wings protruding from furry elongated bodies,
four glistening compound eyes, and a venomous tail similar to a
scorpion. She didn't know what the hell they were and how in Astra
her mind had come up with such an aberration, but she needed to get
rid of them.

Ordinarily in her lucid dreams, she could
stop a potential nightmare with nothing more than a thought. If she
wanted them dead, then boom…they would be dead. But tonight she
couldn't wrest control away from her runaway mind. So the awful
insects ran amuck in a gruesome rampage. Humans unfortunate enough
to get in their way fell paralyzed by meat-hook stingers and
feasted on by fangs the size of daggers. Victims screamed all
around her when they were sheared by the horrendous lawn mowers,
and blood splattered everywhere as random severed limbs sailed
haphazardly through the air.

Nadine sought higher ground, using an ice
chest to reach the unstable roof of a small shed. One particular
insect caught a whiff of her blood, and suddenly it craved lunch.
Its hair glistened like silver mink, and saliva dripped off its
mandibles while it ground them at her. The creature tried to fly up
to the roof, but she beat it away with a metal tray. Still it
persisted, more determined than ever to feast on her delicious
sinew.

Without warning, a barrel soared in front of
her and slammed into the insect. It fell to the ground dead before
it even hit the dirt below. Nadine turned to see where the barrel
had come from and stared in disbelief when she saw Magnius below
battling the beasts back with a four-by-four. He beat them to a
bloody pulp one at a time with ruthless fanaticism, but he could
not slay this many by himself. Once they decided to focus their
attention onto him, he'd be a goner.

She tried again to alter the course of the
dream, but it remained unchanged. Magnius grabbed the people
fleeing around him and returned them to the fight. "For Astra!" he
yelled. Every person he touched repeated his cry and turned on the
creatures. He continued through the masses and inspired survivors
to greatness all around him. After several minutes, humans took the
offensive, killing every insect in sight. Some got tossed onto a
bonfire and ran around in a blaze before collapsing dead. People
used bats, pool cues, chains…whatever they could find. And at the
end of the epic struggle, humankind stood triumphant.

After the brawl, Magnius helped her down from
her precarious perch, and she realized he wasn't the man she
thought she knew. Sure, he still looked fabulous, as a few eligible
women in the background swooning could attest. But more than that,
he'd gained confidence. He grabbed the bull of life by the horns
and wrestled it to the ground until it screamed for mercy. He'd
become a man of the people…a hero.

***

Nadine woke with a start and wiped the beads
of sweat off her brow. She slid out of bed and returned to the
window. No more than an hour had passed since she'd closed her eyes
to sleep, but now she couldn't. She thought he might've invaded her
dreamscape, yet no psionic presence lingered. Nothing felt unusual
or different. It had just been a very strange dream.

Until she'd met Amii aboard the
Kearsarge
, she'd never had a vision in a dream that she was
consciously aware of. It happened to other Seers, but her visions
never seemed to work that way. Her glimpses always occurred while
she was awake. Even so, she couldn't ignore what she'd
seen—Magnius, a broken hero who'd never achieved his potential.

A part of her wondered why she even cared.
His brooding iciness toward telepaths made him nothing more than a
shallow hypocrite whom she had a hard time feeling sorry for. His
life was nothing more than the mess he'd made of it. But despite
all that had happened to her, Nadine's bleeding heart realized the
inherent goodness in everyone. If she could help him take the first
few steps in order to make his life worth living again, it would be
worth it in the end.