Being of the Field (24 page)

Lucian, although very curious as to how Ringbalin had got himself exempted, was also very grateful. ‘Keep an eye on things,’ he advised the botanist, before a soldier encouraged him to get moving by means of a shove.

AMIE’s crew were transported to the interrogation centre in Kotan-Bathaar, where they were split up and led into individual interrogation rooms to be drilled about their movements prior to the Maladaan incident. The rooms were mirrored on all walls and were an odd shape. They were each one-sixth of a hexagon, cut short at the narrow end by a mirrored wall—the door was located in the wall at the opposing and wider end of the room.

The master control room for the interrogation complex lay at the heart of the hexagon and it was from here that Jabez Anselm observed the interrogations.

He had sent a team back to AMIE to retrieve the ‘gardener’ and had given them strict instructions not to come into physical contact with him.

‘Get in touch with the Task Force on their way back to AMIE,’ Anselm said as he observed one of the interrogations. ‘This is not Dr Lennox. Tell them to find
Taren Lennox
. And release this girl. She is no one of consequence.’

Anselm moved to the next window, where Aurora was being questioned. ‘This one is as innocent as she looks.’ He kept moving and stopped at Kassa’s window. ‘However, this one is a seasoned telepath.’

‘How can you tell?’ his aide queried with interest.

‘She cannot prevent her eyes from wandering our way,’ Anselm pointed out. Inside the interrogation room, Kassa immediately looked away from the mirror and back to the man interviewing her. ‘Even though she cannot see us, she knows we’re here. Same goes for this fellow…’ Anselm moved on to Leal, who was blatantly staring past
the agent interrogating him into the mirror behind which Anselm and his associates stood.

‘No mistake there,’ replied his aide.

Anselm moved on and stopped to observe Lucian Gervaise.

‘The dear professor is very circumspect indeed and that alone tells us that he probably doesn’t possess any true Power, nor pose any real threat.’

‘The perfect scapegoat then,’ his aide concluded, punching notes into his memo-pod.

‘Now, our hero, Mr Gudrun, is a very different kettle of fish. I don’t know what he does, but he sure does something! From his heroic little display in the Maladaan system, my guess would be PK or at least TK. He could be well worth recruiting at some point.’

Back where he started, Anselm noticed that the agent interrogating their impostor was getting a little intimate with the female subject, much to her vehement protest.

‘Should I call him off?’ the aide proffered.

‘No,’ Anselm smiled. ‘Let’s see what our hero, Mr Gudrun, is really made of. Link the audio from interrogation room one into Gudrun’s room.’

The command was carried out at once, but something went awry with the patch and the audio from interrogation room one was piped into all the interrogation rooms.

‘
Get your hands off me, you pig!’
Kalayna was heard to roar.

‘Or you’ll what?’
the agent jeered nastily.
‘I just got word from my superiors that you’re not the girl they’re looking for. You’re
nobody,
sweet cheeks—’

‘Ah,’
Kalayna shrieked, repulsed, and the sounds of a terrible struggle ensued.

Anselm, although not impressed that their experiment was being broadcast to everyone, kept his focus concentrated on Zeven Gudrun. True to his hero form, the pilot jumped up at the sound of a damsel in distress.

‘Kalayna?’ He looked at his interrogator in horror. ‘Where is that audio coming from?’ He raised the agent from the chair by the man’s shirtfront.

‘I don’t know…next door?’ He took a guess when Zeven stared him down with daggers in his eyes.

‘Kalayna?’ he called again, releasing the agent.

Anselm gave the nod to his aide to have them patch the audio in Zeven’s room through to Kalayna’s.

‘Kalayna, are you in there?’ he yelled, thumping against the mirrored wall.

‘Zeven!’
The way she cried out his name let him know that he was her final hope in a very desperate situation.

He began kicking at the wall in an attempt to smash through it.

‘Hey, you can’t do that.’ The agent moved towards Zeven, but was deflected with great force into the opposing wall.

Zeven didn’t notice. He hadn’t flinched from his assault on the wall. ‘Ah, fuck this,’ he muttered angrily, and backing up to the other side of the room, he got really determined.

‘Starman, please…help!’

I’m going through,
he told himself as he charged the solid barrier and passed right through the mirror wall into the room where Kalayna was being assaulted.

When it registered in Zeven’s brain that he’d passed right through a solid wall, he realised he’d exposed his Power and now that it was out in the open, there was no point holding back.

Zeven grabbed the agent from on top of Kalayna and smashed him in the face several times before casting him into the mirror, behind which Anselm flinched and then watched as his unconscious agent slid down the wall.

Kalayna was crumpled in a corner, trying to straighten her clothes, and Zeven noted her trembling despite a brave face.

‘Need a hug?’ He held out a hand, which, after a moment’s hesitation, she took and launched herself at the pilot and held him tight. ‘It’s okay. It’s over.’

‘Thank you,
thank you
. I was just about to kick his butt,’ she said, wiping her tears and finding refuge in humour, ‘but you saved me the trouble.’ She looked about to see where Zeven had entered. She moved to the door and realised it was still locked. ‘How did you get in here, Starman?’

‘A very good question,’
Anselm commented through the intercom. At his order, all the walls between the interrogation rooms vanished and the crew were reunited under the watchful eyes of their captors.

Leal made haste to join Kassa, and Aurora overpowered Kalayna with a hug. ‘Now we’re more than even,’ Rory told Zeven with sincere appreciation, and quietly took Kalayna aside to comfort her.

Zeven walked over to join the captain, who was proud of his pilot’s heroism, but sorry for him too. ‘That was professional suicide, you realise?’

Zeven shrugged off what he had thought would be his most devastating moment. ‘What’s life without a few challenges, hey?’

One of the exterior doors opened and President Anselm entered, counting off their illegal crew on his fingers. ‘Two telepaths, a PK specialist—’

‘I wouldn’t say specialist,’ Starman stated in his own defence.

‘
Two
missing scientists—’ Anselm attempted to continue.

‘Two?’ Lucian frowned.

‘Taren Lennox and Eleazar Kestler,’ he replied.

‘But Eleazar Kestler’s pod misfired after it landed on Maladaan?’ Lucian said.

‘Right after a canister of mysterious gas was unloaded from the pod that was launched from
your
vessel,’ Anselm accused Lucian, ‘and that unquarantined canister is now suspected of being the cause of the entire planet’s disappearance!’

‘How could you know that?’ Lucian flung back without admitting to anything, at the same time realising that Swithin had probably been the source.

‘It doesn’t matter how I know. All that matters is that I have enough dirt on your project to have your vessel repossessed and your key crew incarcerated for life!’ Anselm made his position perfectly clear. ‘Now…I don’t want that. I can make this entire inquest nightmare disappear. Sermetica will even fund your project for the next ten years. All you have to do is tell me where Taren Lennox is hiding.’

One of the exterior doors opened and Ringbalin was escorted into the room at gunpoint.

‘Well, if it isn’t the suggestive sympathetic,’ Anselm announced upon his entry.

‘Sympathetic?’ Kassa had never heard this term used in such a context before. ‘Do you mean empathetic?’

‘No. An empath feels the emotions of others. This fellow influences the emotions of others, making him something of an emotional enchanter, actually.’

‘Where is Dr Portus?’ Ringbalin asked, and it was only then that the rest of the crew realised she was absent.

‘Dr Portus is a Phemorian spy and is to be extradited to Sermetica for trial and sentencing.’

‘What!’ Ringbalin nearly jumped out of his skin and would have taken a flying leap at the president if Zeven and the captain had not restrained him.

‘Dr Portus is not a spy, she is a serious scientist!’ Lucian objected.

Anselm smiled. ‘That’s what you thought about your wife.’

Now it was Ringbalin and Zeven holding the captain back. ‘Taren Lennox did not kill my wife,’ Lucian barked.

‘I know that, you know that, but nobody else knows or cares,’ Anselm taunted. ‘It’s just a means to an end.’

‘What do you want with Taren?’ Zeven was beginning to get riled himself.

‘Sedate him, the sympathetic and the telepaths,’ Anselm ordered one of his agents, pointing to Zeven, Ringbalin, Kassa and Leal, who dropped to the floor as soon as the agent fired his darts in quick succession.

‘Leal is a telepath?’ was the stunned conclusion Lucian reached.

‘You really don’t know your crew very well, professor,’ Anselm replied. ‘You know even less about your lover.’

Lucian’s eyes narrowed in defiance, but the chairman appeared very confident.

‘I can state that with certainty because I know more about Taren Lennox than even the good doctor knows about herself, for I am the guardian of her memories.’

‘You run the MSS?’ Lucian asked.

Anselm shied away from the accusation. ‘I advise many agencies. Therefore, I know a great many things.’

‘But not the whereabouts of Taren Lennox?’ Lucian challenged.

Anselm smiled in a determined manner, then strolled over to where the two young girls were huddled together. ‘But I know that you know where Dr Lennox is…’

Aurora flinched slightly as Anselm toyed with one of her short golden locks.

‘…and I am fairly confident that you
will
tell me where to find her.’

Voices brought Taren back to the land of the living. She recognised one voice as belonging to Lucian—he was asking Kassa if the banishing stone might have had something to do with Taren’s current altered state of being?

‘She could be having some sort of flashback to her recent transdimensional experience,’ Kassa said.

Taren gasped as she realised that she had heard this conversation before, and sat bolt upright.

‘Taren!’ Kassa recovered from the shock and moved to comfort her patient as Lucian’s communicator alerted him to a call.

‘Damn it.’ Upon viewing the screen he decided the call was urgent enough to take. ‘Hello…what do you want?’ Lucian moved into the next room.

‘Everything is fine,’ Kassa offered Taren a drink. ‘You just tranced out on—’

‘No.’ Taren was running over the details of what she’d perceived during her trance state. ‘Everything is not okay,’ she stressed. ‘That’s Swithin talking to Lucian on the phone right now, warning him that the MSS still exists and plans to make AMIE the scapegoat for Maladaan’s disappearance. The MSS will expose all those with the Powers amongst our crew, and attempt to pin Amie Gervaise’s death on me!’

Kassa was mortified. Under normal circumstances she would assume her patient had lost her tiny little mind, but not this patient.

Lucian returned to the room appearing a little upset.

‘Who was that on the phone?’ Kassa inquired, to put Taren’s claim to the test.

‘No one of importance,’ he said, wanting to quell his rising panic.

‘It was Swithin, warning you that the USS and MSS are coming for AMIE,’ Taren told him and Lucian went white with shock. ‘Believe it or not, he
is
telling the truth and we have about two hours to escape custody.’

‘That’s impossible…we’re too big, too slow!’ Lucian baulked at the task.

‘Not with our crew,’ Taren smiled, having being made aware of several others in their midst who also wielded a Power.

‘And where shall we go?’ Lucian queried, and when Taren smiled he realised the solution and they both replied, ‘Phemoria’.

Taren gave a nervous laugh. ‘Now I
am
seeking political asylum.’

Leal and Zeven were immediately recalled to AMIE. All the others who would be adversely affected by the events Taren had foreseen were already on board their craft. None of AMIE’s other staff were intimately involved in this debacle and would be better off finding new lives on Frujia. Aurora was the only crew member Lucian was undecided about. He knew she would be hurt he if didn’t at least tell her they were going. But Aurora was not really in any trouble and Lucian had no desire to lead her into any. In the end, he decided to call her, but was diverted to her message bank, where he bade her farewell.

Once Leal and Zeven arrived, Lucian, Kassa, Ayliscia and Ringbalin joined them in the cafeteria to hear Taren’s concerns.

‘I have had a vision of our future,’ she began a little awkwardly, ‘and in that vision many secrets about the people in this room were made known to me.’

Everyone present looked uncomfortable.

Taren went on to outline the intention of the USS and MSS to frame AMIE. ‘Everyone here will be arrested, exposed for who they really are, AMIE will be repossessed by the MSS and I am to be charged with the murder of Amie Gervaise.’

Her audience’s discomfort snowballed to disbelief!

Zeven whistled as he considered his own situation. ‘Hero of the USS one day, intergalactic terrorist the next.’

‘That’s politics for you,’ Kassa sympathised with a grin.

‘I believe I have a plan to escape the clutches of the inquest. Phemoria has already offered me sanctuary. But first we must get AMIE to Phemoria and in order to accomplish this, most of us would have to come clean about our hidden
resources
, so that we can work together and avert this disaster. So I guess my question to you all is this: Is there anyone here who strongly objects to being exposed at this time?’

Everyone present had a long hard think about this, and it was only Ringbalin who shyly lifted a finger.

‘Would you mind if I just have a quiet word with Dr Portus?’ he requested. Dr Portus was intrigued and Zeven frustrated.

‘In the name of the universe, Balin, haven’t you told her yet?’ the pilot grumbled.

‘There’re been a few interruptions!’ Ringbalin retorted as he walked out ahead of Dr Portus, who joined him out of sight of the others in the corridor.

‘What have you not told me?’ she asked, delightedly curious until Ringbalin explained his mysterious Power and how it worked. This had Dr Portus frowning and appearing hurt.

‘So, what I feel for you, this is not real?’ She panicked, hating to think she had been tricked into loving a man.

‘I can only influence a subject when I am touching them, and I never laid a finger on you,’ he pointed out in his own defence and Ayliscia was more than aware that this was true.

‘That’s why?’ She was visibly moved by his amazing restraint and when Ringbalin nodded, she took hold of his hands and placed them on her body. ‘No more prudence,
please
.’ She kissed him passionately and, being bombarded by his unbridled feelings of joyous desire, she felt compelled to fulfil their long-suffering lust for each other, right there and then.

A whistle from the doorway brought the botanists crashing back to earth. ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it,’ Starman reminded them, ‘and while I can well appreciate your sentiment there, we really
need to focus on being outlaws right now.’ Zeven disappeared back into the cafeteria.

‘Right.’ Ringbalin found his sensibilities. ‘Thank you for forgiving me for my secrecy.’

Ayliscia grinned. ‘My pleasure. I understand, as…I’m a Phemorian spy,’ she said, direct and forthright.

‘Really?’ Ringbalin was stunned and, finding the news an incredible turn-on, he kissed her again.

‘Guys!’ Zeven called, to move them along.

When Lucian learned the secrets of all of his crew, he felt a little bewildered. ‘Am I the only one among us who does not wield a Power then?’

‘Dr Portus doesn’t,’ Zeven pointed out, feeling far more at home now that he wasn’t part of the minority any more—even his best mate, Leal, was in the same boat, and he’d never even suspected.

Ayliscia broke into a guilty smile. ‘Not entirely true,’ she admitted. ‘My queen chose me for this mission because of my scientific qualifications, yes, but also because I am a channel…I can connect directly to the Phemoray from any region of space.’

Taren smiled as she heard this, not only because it would prove very useful to her plan, but because, in that other reality she had foreseen, where Dr Portus had been arrested as a spy, her incarceration would have served to further enlighten the Phemoray. ‘Just out of interest, what was your directive, doctor?’

‘I was to observe you,’ Ayliscia replied.

‘But we have barely crossed paths more than a few times.’ Either the good Doctor had been distracted from her mission by Ringbalin, or she was harbouring more talents than she cared to mention.

‘I can also remote-view,’ she confessed.

‘Whoa,’ Zeven said, ‘it’s always the quiet ones that surprise you.’

‘Why me in particular?’ Taren remained focused on the topic and the doctor shook her head.

‘I do not know.’

Not entirely believing her, Taren looked to Kassa and Leal.

‘She’s telling the truth,’ Kassa said warily, ‘but suspects—’

An alarm tone sounded from Lucian’s control belt, and at a glance he knew. ‘We’ve got company…someone is trying to enter through the dry dock door.’

The entire crew made for the closest monitors in the office area.

‘Correction,’ Lucian stated, as he consulted AMIE’s security systems on the monitor on Aurora’s desk. ‘They have entered…’ He waited for a visual. ‘It’s Aurora,’ he said, whereupon everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

‘I’ll go fetch her,’ Leal volunteered and headed off.

‘Whatever your plan is, we’d better get onto it pronto,’ Starman suggested. ‘I don’t want to be sitting here when the USS forces come calling. Can I at least get us out of dry dock?’ he requested of Lucian, who looked at Taren and she gave a nod.

‘You get us into space, and I’ll prep the others,’ she suggested.

‘To do what? What is the plan?’ Starman begged.

‘We are going to teleport this vessel straight to the Phemorian system,’ she smiled.

‘But none of us have that ability. Do we?’ If they were doing a runner from the USS, he wanted to ensure they had some hope of doing it, or they’d be caught and various other charges added to their list of supposed offences.

‘Teleportation is an extension of PK—’

‘Oh no,’ he backed off, fearful of anyone pinning their hopes on his abilities just yet. ‘I was wrong when I said I was more afraid of myself than anything…you scare me more.’

‘Don’t worry, you’ll have lots of help,’ Taren winked.

Zeven shook off his horror and made for the elevator to the flight deck. ‘I think you are the one who needs help.’ He pointed a finger to his temple and rotated it a few times to imply she was nuts.

‘Insane is as insane does,’ Taren replied, which baffled Zeven. He was spared more bafflement by the elevator doors opening and he immediately stepped inside and pushed the button.

‘The Phemoray can assist,’ Ayliscia assured Taren.

She smiled, appreciative of the aid. ‘I was banking on that.’

Aurora was led straight to Lucian’s office by Leal, who then left to assist Zeven with lift-off.

‘What’s going on? Why are you fleeing Frujia?’ Aurora demanded, rather angered that if she hadn’t come as soon as she’d got Lucian’s missive, they would have departed without her.

Lucian immediately turned Aurora about and began guiding her back towards the hatch. ‘AMIE is in a lot of trouble, Aurora, the extent of which I do not have time to explain right now, but as you are not yet involved I insist you remain here on Frujia.’

‘No!’ She dug her heels in and stopped them in their tracks. ‘I’ve worked long and hard to secure my place on this vessel. AMIE is my home. You guys are my family!’

‘We will be
outlaws
, Aurora.’ Lucian grabbed her arm and began hauling her towards the exit hatch even faster. ‘I don’t have time to debate the issue.’

As they turned a corner and the dry dock hatch came into view, Aurora broke away and ran back in the opposite direction.

‘Aurora!’ Lucian gave chase.

‘I can’t go without Kalayna,’ she wailed, beginning to yell out her girlfriend’s name, having no idea where she had chosen to hide.

‘Who the hell is Kalayna?’ Lucian demanded to know. ‘And how the hell did you sneak her on board?’

‘I told her to wait inside the hatch, under the security camera, until I had you all distracted,’ Aurora confessed. ‘Our plan obviously worked!’

The sound of Zeven preparing to detach from dry dock caused them both to freeze.

Lucian punched Zeven’s number into his communicator. ‘Not yet. Aurora is still on board.’

‘We’re out of time, Captain,’
the pilot explained.
‘USS forces are in the terminal.’

‘Continue, by all means.’ Lucian shook his head as he looked at his young assistant. ‘You had better find your friend and let her know how much trouble you’re both in. And then report to Dr Lennox and see what help you can be to her.’

Aurora nodded, very subdued. ‘Yes, captain.’ She moved off and then turned back. ‘I’m sorry—’

Lucian held up a hand. ‘You’ve harmed yourself and your friend, not me. I am the one who should apologise, for embroiling you in this mess.’

‘I embroiled myself.’ She took full responsibility and departed on her search.

Aurora had searched through all four of the mid-deck modules and the lower marine module, without finding Kalayna. She still had the upper flight area to search, and so decided to head up to check out the pod and launch bays at the rear of the flight deck.

The elevator doors opened and Aurora saw all the crew gathered on the bridge listening to the orders of the Frujian authorities via the com-link.

‘This is Special Agent Nikkos of the United Star System’s Task Force ordering you to return to dock. If you do not bring your craft around and confirm this order within the next five minutes, you will be fired upon.’

‘Oh shit,’ Aurora uttered, not realising their situation was quite
that
serious. She decided to give up on her search for her girlfriend. Maybe Kalayna had got cold feet about life in space and stayed behind on Frujia, although she had certainly seemed more than excited about the prospect this afternoon.

‘Shut down communication with Frujia,’ Taren advised, ‘or we’ll never be able to focus on our objective.’

Zeven did as suggested, happy not to have the arresting agent’s annoying voice in his ear. ‘There’s no way we can get out of here that fast.’

‘Sure we can,’ Taren assured him.

‘Shut off all the external lights and close all the window shields,’ Lucian ordered Leal. This tactic switched the ship into camouflage mode right as it passed to the night side of the planet.

Once this was done, Taren asked those not involved in the next part of the plan to leave the flight deck and Zeven rose quickly. ‘Not you, Starman.’ Taren pushed him back into his seat. ‘You’re still our pilot for this next leg.’

‘I really don’t think I’m capable of this,’ he appealed in all honesty. ‘Don’t you have a plan B?’

Taren swung his chair around so that she could speak with him directly. ‘In my vision, when I was seeing our alternative fate, I saw you deflect men into walls without even being conscious of it. You also passed right through a solid security wall to save Aurora’s new friend from being raped. That’s how you exposed your Power to the USS and the MSS.’

‘Really…he did that?’ Aurora came forth to smile very winningly at the pilot who she’d been so mad at earlier in the afternoon.

Zeven seemed just as surprised and proud of himself, but then he frowned. ‘Ah, correct me if I am wrong, but neither of those feats entail teleportation.’

‘Either you teleported through that wall or you cleared a path through quantum space,’ Taren argued confidently. ‘Either talent will serve our purpose here today.’