Astra: Synchronicity (7 page)

His attention drifted back toward his window.
The rain had stopped, and the violent squall appeared to have
passed. It was too late to send the boats out so he decided to head
home. He grabbed his black raincoat and walked out of his office.
If it started raining again on the way home, the trip would be
horrible on his hoverbike.

"Leaving early today?" Justine asked after he
passed by her desk. "When's the last time that happened?"

He glanced at her and smiled. "Not for
years."

"You should pick up some flowers for your
wife." She took a sip of tea from a ceramic mug on the desk.
"Remind her how much you love her."

The mention of Lyneea quickened his pulse. If
he thought the gesture would work, he'd do it in a heartbeat. But
she'd shredded gift bouquets on more than one occasion in a fit of
rage. "You have a wonderful evening, Justine."

"Thanks, Mr. Zoleki. You too."

Magnius walked through the front door and
breathed a sigh of relief. The fresh air revitalized his spirit and
reminded him life was too short to spend pining over the past.
What's done is done,
he thought.
If we can work it out,
we will. If not, I have only myself to blame.

He gazed up at the sky. A light mist
continued to fall, which covered his face and made him squint. He
shivered from a brisk gust off the ocean and slipped on his coat
before heading to his hoverbike.

"Great." The hoverbike dripped from the storm
in spite of its location. Water covered the seat and the display
console. He tilted it and watched the rain spill onto the ground
and collect in puddles on the pavement.

Before he could open the storage compartment
under the seat, large droplets splattered against the ground for a
few seconds before a torrential downpour came forth like the whim
of an angry God. He wanted to scream at the sky to vent his
frustration and had he been home right now, he would've. In a fit
of controlled rage, he slammed his hands onto the seat of his bike
and stooped over it. He closed his eyes and let the cool water
drench him. It streamed down his face and found its way under his
coat. Riding home and getting out of the clothes became his only
desire.

The rainfall tapered off in a steady
transition back to drizzle. When he reached toward the compartment,
an enervating aura washed over him. A rash of imaginary needles
pricked his skin, causing a stinging sensation over his entire body
for an instant before evaporating. He spun around but saw only
clusters of puddles and rainbow-hued vehicles in the parking lot.
No shady figures. No ghosts of the past.

Then he heard a voice behind him.
"Magnius."

He turned his head and saw a dark man
standing across from him on the other side of the hoverbike. His
heart leapt into his throat. "Tiyuri…I never expected to see you
again."

Memories returned from his childhood on
Superbia. As a youngster, the man kept him on a short leash and had
an even shorter fuse. He'd been a tyrant when it came to chores,
and Magnius lost count of the times he'd endured a beating for
ignoring his responsibilities to play with friends. And while
Aliane was never present for the punishment, he always felt her
invasive mental stare watching him.

Tiyuri crossed his bulging arms, covered with
a glistening sheen from the rain. "Most people don't live long
enough to tell me that. Why are you masquerading as your kid
brother?"

"I never had a brother. I worked in the Hall
of Records on DeSoto for years, which made forging the necessary
paperwork to change my name trivial. Faking my own death was the
hard part." The glossy pavement reflected cracks of sunlight in the
clouds above. "I look half my age. I don't want people to think I'm
a psion. That's easy enough for you to understand, right?"

"That would've never been a problem if you
stayed on Superbia."

"It's been a few years so it's easy to
forget, but I was an outcast there. It got to the point where if I
didn't leave, I was going to have to kill myself. So I have no
regrets about leaving. What are you doing here anyways?"

Tiyuri raised his eyebrows. "It has come to
our attention that you are no longer as powerless as was once
perceived. Aliane would very much like to speak with you about
it."

I'll bet she would
, he thought. He
clenched his fists to redirect his seething anger. "I hate to
continue to disappoint everyone after all this time, but I'm still
the poster child for failure. I'm pretty sure I'm just doomed to
live forever. Thank you for reminding me of that. I'm going home
and I suggest you do the same."

Before he could turn and mount the bike,
Tiyuri caught his shoulder and held it in his firm grip. "I'm
afraid you misunderstand. A reliable witness saw you using
telekinetic powers. If that truly is the case, we would like you to
come home and rejoin us as a brother in our quest to one day be
accepted as the psions we are."

Since Tiyuri was not a telepath, Magnius did
little to shield his inner contempt for Aliane. Once long ago she
might've felt like that. But recent news reports indicated she'd
become more aggressive, lashing out at psions who lived on Chara as
sell-outs and frauds. Part of him wondered if it was a veiled
attack on him. "I don't know, she's not the person I thought she
was."

"The Mistress has a vision that will reunite
us all," Tiyuri said and released his grasp. "She's on her way to a
Seer as we speak in order to find the path. If you resist, I will
be forced to eliminate you."

As long as he had any say in the matter,
Magnius didn't plan to return to Superbia. However, if Tiyuri
thought for an instant he had no intention of coming with him, he'd
make Magnius beg for death. If there was a way out of this, he sure
as hell didn't see it yet.

"Give me until tomorrow morning. I need to
take care of a few things before I go. And yes, I realize you'll be
watching me."

He hopped on the hoverbike, but when he
turned his attention back to Tiyuri, he'd vanished. No sooner had
he started its engine than the rain resumed its diabolical fury. If
his frustration could've flung him straight into space, he'd be in
orbit of Nuage about now.

***

Amii stood in the sickbay of the
Kearsarge
while the doctor gave her a thorough physical. The
unfinished bulkheads had been covered by green panels. A faint odor
of bleach lingered in the air. An examination table sat in the
center of the room, ringed with analytical tables and sophisticated
medical instruments. The cluttered workspace led her to the
conclusion the doctor was knee-deep in some kind of research,
though the nature of it was foreign to her.

Xander chewed on his bottom lip while he
paced around the sickbay and watched the doctor starting his second
test. "I thought I told you to stop touching her."

Dr. Jones sighed again and puffed up his
well-built chest, a move that made him look ready to pummel Xander
into oblivion. "I can't do the tests if I can't touch her. If you
won't pipe down, you need to leave."

"Bloody doctors." He skulked away and dropped
into a chair by the door.

The doctor's attention returned to his
patient. "Amii, is any of this bothering you? You can refuse the
tests at any time."

"Please continue," she said as she sat down
on the examination bed and smoothed out her blue gown.

"I need you to lay down for me," Dr. Jones
said. "Your vitals look normal, but I want to do some
high-resolution imaging of your head to check for recent trauma or
anything else that might indicate the cause of your memory
loss."

She nodded and stretched herself out across
the bed, the head of which was tilted up. The doctor rolled a large
device over to her, designed to fit around the bed and over her
head. It was an IMRI, a cutting-edge instrument that could detect
even the most minor brain trauma. If anything were wrong with her
head, this machine would sniff it out. The doctor pushed a few
buttons to calibrate it. She heard the quiet whir of the device as
it started.

The relief of being off Pisa soothed her. The
chances she'd run into a group from the Allied Fleet were slim at
best. She had no idea who Xander Adams was or how he seemed to know
her. But the idea that someone had an inkling of her past satisfied
her. She glanced over at him; he sat with his legs crossed and
shook his foot frantically as he bit his thumb and muttered to
himself. The sight made her smile.

"This is going to take about five minutes.
Xander, a word. In my office. Now."

The two men strode away, and the latch of the
door followed moments later. Because Amii needed to keep still, she
couldn't watch them, but between the chirps of the scanner, she
heard their muted voices.

"What did you say happened to her?"

"She was standing at my workbench making
adjustments to a cybernetic hand. There was a large apparatus on
one of the shelves next to her. I blame myself, really, for even
putting it there. It fell and hit her. I wasn't in the room when it
happened so I can't say where it hit her, but I heard the crash and
rushed to her aid. By that time she was lying on the floor
unconscious."

"I thought you said she fell."

"Well, she did. Something hit her and she
fell. Either one could've caused her memory loss. Look, I haven't
done anything wrong. I know my reputation has become sullied over
the years, but I truly am on the cusp of something miraculous. Amii
is more than just an assistant; she's been invaluable to my work
these past few years. After she's done with the test, if you'd
escort us to some quarters, we'll be no trouble to you at all for
the rest of the journey to Chara."

"I'm afraid I can't release Amii until I
finish a report on the matter for the captain. I want to run her
name through the database and maybe a few more tests. Until then,
you'll be confined to quarters. You can see her again when I'm
finished."

"What other tests do you plan to run on
her?"

"You don't really expect me to tell you that,
do you?"

"I suppose not, but I
will
tell you
this. If you do anything to her against her will, and I do mean
anything, I'll see to it that you're brought up on charges."

The doctor chuckled. "Feel free. I have
nothing to worry about. I really can't say the same for you
though."

At that moment Amii noticed a pair of crewmen
walk into the room toward the glass doors of the office and out of
sight.

"Security will see you to your quarters. Amii
is in good hands. You have nothing to worry about."

"I'll hold you to that. All right, gents,
I'll come willingly. Let's just get this over with."

Exactly who was Dr. Xander Adams? Criminal?
Scientist? He himself admitted to being a wanted man. Wanted for
what?

Dr. Jones followed the three of them into the
main medical center, watching discreetly as they exited into the
corridor and took a left turn. She'd sized him up the instant she
ran into them on Pisa. In the event she needed to run, only the
doctor looked athletic enough to keep pace with her, ironic since
he was the sole unarmed man of the lot. His uniform hid his
muscular definition, the sort of body it took years of training to
develop.

In a few moments the machine finished and he
poured over the results on the screen in front of him. His brow
furrowed, though she couldn't tell if the news might be good or
bad. Aside from minor confusion, she felt composed regarding her
predicament. After all, nothing could be done about her amnesia
until the cause of it was known. Like any other sane person, she
worried the memory loss might be permanent, but for the time being,
she chose to keep a positive outlook regardless of the odds or
prognosis.

"Did you find anything?" she asked.

A heavy sigh revealed the news before his
words did. "No. No signs of trauma. No abnormalities whatsoever. I
couldn't have asked for more normal results."

He swung the hulking machine away from her
bed and helped her sit up. "I'm going to see if I can find your
records in the database, but that could take a few hours. In the
meantime, the XO will be your escort around the ship. If there's
anything you need, let her know."

His implant distracted him for a few moments
before his attention returned to his patient. He picked up a small
light and shined it into her right eye to check pupil dilation. "I
realize you don't remember your past, but can you recall anything
about yourself?"

"Not much. I look at certain things and feel
like I understand how they work. And when we were in the transport
heading back to the ship, I felt like I knew how to pilot fairly
well…like I could've flown us here."

He turned off the light and put it back down
on the bench next to him. "True amnesia is quite rare. I've never
heard of a case where an IMRI didn't find something wrong. If I
didn't know any better, I'd say that you're making it all up."

She balked at his suspicion. "You think I'm
lying?" She had no reason to deceive anyone on board. In fact, she
disapproved of pretense in all forms. If one day humans woke up and
stopped lying to one another, Astra might not be a utopia, but it
would be a better place.

"No, I mean, we checked who you are. Any
outstanding warrants would've come up right away. There's no reason
for you to claim amnesia without having it unless you're deranged.
'Course living on Pisa…that place surpasses most people's
definitions of hell. I don't know what Xander was thinking when he
moved there."

"What can you tell me about him?"

He chuckled. "Most people would say if you
looked up the meaning of the word failure, his picture would be
right there. But I don't think that's quite fair. Misunderstood
genius is more apt. He became an overnight sensation when he was
still in college. Household robots were his brainchild and are
still based off of the design of his doctoral project. But he got
too ambitious in thinking he could craft a fully-functional android
in ten years. It never happened. Not only that, but he never had
anything to show for it. And once his wife died in that lab
accident, he just went off the deep end. I mean, stealing
high-grade electrum from the PAU and thinking he could get away
with it? He really has lost his mind."