Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (9 page)

“Before I go, boss, are you ready for your
first meeting?”

“With the parents or the Aether?”

She shrugged. “The baby I was thinking.” Her
hazel eyes, oval face, slender build, and blonde hair were replicas
of Ryama, except she had the necessary curves and softer features
for the female version. Aside from that, where Ryama had been
quietly witty and calm, Diane was quick witted, loud and
vivacious.

“I am ready for both, including the baby. How
difficult can she be?”

“Simon said to remember to keep a look out
for our mystery player.”

Jamie sighed. Apparently, someone was
interfering with the Cardinal Unit but they couldn’t trace the
person, or people. Simon had little to say but Jamie knew he knew
more. The mission was to unfold, like a bloody story.

In a month he would be ready for his
charge.

Babysitting. Baby bloody sitting.

Crack.

Kyle shook his head at him.

“I know. Stop cracking my knuckles.” Jamie
left the room in annoyance.

***

Perza Space Station

The main impression he received from the
Aether, especially in regards to Pen, Terance, Marc, Ersen and
Sacha, was that they were mostly excited about their new life.
Jamie felt confident they would look after his charge as if she was
their own. He wasn’t sure about Aven, Marc’s twin sister. They
looked a little alike but Aven was a withdrawn and angry person.
But he found out she had access to the Cardinal Unit. Six of them
returned to Saratoga together, and while they headed to the
homestead Jamie went to his cabin and the work began in
earnest.

His list was already long.

He flew his ranger to Perza Space Station,
and then tucked it into one of the open hangar bays, shutting down
all the systems and masking it, making it look like part of the
station. He cycled through the hatch and sealed it. If he had to,
he could escape with the babe rather than be limited to the Space
Lift or using a transportal, which would be difficult to set up
while engaging in close combat.

Jamie strode down a wide corridor with curved
walls, checking the monitors to see where he was. At a junction, he
went to the left, up a narrow companionway and headed down a
ladder. His team members were posted around the station and had
already conducted the preliminary reconnaissance. Marc had also
assured him that Aven made Jamie invisible to the Perza Station’s
internal sensors. He felt a little uncomfortable leaving that kind
of security to her but the girl had mad skills and Simon reported
no one else could do what Jamie wanted, at least not in the
timeframe he wanted it.

Valan, a Kavakar, was considering attacking
Perza Space Station. Something or someone had already nibbled at
the Saratoga Space Security Net. The Triple S&N teams under
Cyrus were sending out military rangers to check. Max was out in
deep space, monitoring and scanning the region, coordinating with
Cyrus, while King Delario, who was supposed to be in charge, held a
tea party to welcome the Pure-Gen. At least he was a doting father
and had two boys, one just a year older than Jamie’s charge.

Jamie walked through the nursery and scanned
the data trailing down a white wall. It didn’t make sense to him.
But the Cardinal Unit and Maya were exchanging data repeatedly
about the babies. Jamie was growing concerned as some of the logs
looked like “elimination” commands for the third baby. He wasn’t
sure what to do as he stared at the images of the babes. Two babes
looked similar to each other but his charge looked different.

He reached out to pull the commands into full
viewing mode but froze. One of the images, along with the data, was
enlarged saying the baby was shunted in a capsule to be destroyed.
In the seconds he tried to work out what to do to stop it, the deed
was done. Jamie shook his head and held his stomach. Breathe
slowly. Never in history had three Pure-Gen babies been fabricated
but this was reprehensible.

Jamie stared at the image of the “Mobile
Unit”. According to that log he had read, her memories had been
blocked. He surmised she must be connected to something outside the
test site and that she had something to do inside. But why would
her memories be blocked and why placed into a baby biosuit? Was her
real form so different? There were too many questions and he forced
himself to focus on his mission. That’s all she was.

His assignment.

Lacuna

Iota Test Site

Assigned Sub-Maya Unit 9, Cardinal Unit 9

Iota Test Site – Vakar seeded and overlap

Mobile Unit 1

For Aryan Pure-Gens, the First Race, being
fabricated was light, energy, and efficiency. Ara knew her name
even as the Cardinal Unit deposited her safely into her artificial
womb in the small space station near Perza’s new central planetary
system, Saratoga. She was due for rupture and gently floated in her
liquid pond. And while she felt warm, there was a sense of loss and
grief. “Gah?”

Ara waved her hands, the feeling gradually
receded as Maya connected with her, driving the sadness away, and
injecting something into her fluidic sac that cut her off from
those feelings. It did not, however, stop the intriguing incandesce
of heat and color visible to her that was gracefully swirling
around her body.

As Ara floated with sleep beckoning, her mind
opened wide. There was danger outside in soupy space in the form of
a cloaked war ranger. Accessing data from the Cardinal Unit was as
natural to her as breathing. But that danger was only a trifle
compared to the danger that lay tantalizing out of her reach and
she dared not draw attention to herself just yet. Drawing on latent
abilities, she began to weave her own protection and, by reaching
far, she found two who could help.

CARDINAL Unit 9 (CU), sub-Maya 9,
Ara’s Logs

0001

PING danger: Valan Taka, Kavakar,
Ji’hathlo

PING help: Kavela Istonia, Planet
Engineer, Kios

PING help: Korbet/Randall West,
Planet of Law/Lavenia Imperia

OVERRIDE

End check

It was not consciously that she chose Aryans
instead of Maya, or Cardinal Unit with killer sentries; it was
that, somehow, the desire to connect to flesh, blood, and bone were
more necessary than relying on energy or machine. Maya allowed the
contact, for how could the entity or machine really understand the
needs of a babe? There was fear close by now, and she identified it
as coming from Maya. Why would Maya fear her? She soothed the
ancient sentient energy waiting for help to arrive.

“Gah.”

Robotic arms gently encased her sac and the
capsule began to trundle along smooth rails in a dark tube. Her
time for rupture was close and in the deep recesses of her mind,
she was sure she had broken through a much darker tunnel and been
welcomed into the world. She remembered warm breath, gentle hands,
and overwhelming feelings of love.

“Welcome to life.” The voice had been low and
deep, loving.

“Our baby girl.” The voice had been higher
pitched, tender but protective.

Before the Maya detected those memories, and
the warm feelings associated with them, she bundled the tiny
neurons and pathways and tucked them in a part of her brain Maya
was struggling to access and called it: “Baby Girl”.

The capsule slowed and Ara heard noises now
even as her body undulated in the viscous fluid. A light appeared
at her feet. Robotic arms positioned the capsule and the
transparent section allowed her to see a bright room. Her cradle
like capsule, which the Cardinal Unit had inserted her into, slid
inside with the small, white triple hatch sealing one after the
other in the long tube to outer space.

Iota

Station: Perza

Galactic System: Sarato (Spiral Galaxy)

Planetary System: Saratoga

Perza Space Station

Nursery

Jamie’s frontal node gave him a little buzz. Someone
or something was incoming and had activated an external
transportal. During the briefing regarding the initial checks his
team reported that explosive devices could be blocked and/or
removed quickly. Scans revealed that flesh and blood entered the
portal but had not registered. He slipped into a nearby lab and
checked by tapping on the wall icons. It was coming from the Planet
of Law. That was odd. Jamie’s scan came up with “Korbet West”. He
was Silvia’s contact and was cleared by the Aryan Military. Jamie
listened in on the monologue as he talked to baby Ara.

Jamie stared at the series of commands Maya
was playing back. “That can’t be right.” He gave a bark of
laughter. Well, he’d keep it quiet. He had the right to keep some
secrets himself and unravel them before reporting. Since it looked
like Korbet came because Ara commanded him to, he decided to keep
an eye on the notary official himself. He withdrew the “kill”
signal and then wiped the perspiration from his brow. So far,
nothing had gone to plan.

Jamie watched as Korbet checked logs, and
then created a mindlock and wiped the CU logs. Jamie saw the CU and
Maya logs decrease rapidly. The mindlock was what his therapist had
offered him to block memories of Leanne’s intrusions. He’d refused
because it also acted like a canal lock that controlled the
fluctuations of energy and mental processing. Effectively, it
dampened the Superlunary and Nexus parts of an Aryan’s Triad. A
square-framed holo appeared to his left, next to the data stream
and image feeds, and expanded into view overlaying what he had been
watching. Aven peered at him from her place on the CU. The words,
“I can remove the mindlock, yes or no?” appeared beneath her
image.

He shook his head and the box minimized. He
wanted time to study what Korbet had included in the mindlock—was
it just a memory gate or something more?

Another holo popped up. Aven had typed, “Ara
is tapping into Maya and using heat and color to map her own plasma
links.”

Jamie nodded without really understanding.
There was little information regarding the fabrication of
Pure-Gens, but he was sure that normally Maya made the links, not
the Pure-Gen. He asked softly, “Is that unusual?”

Her voice came from somewhere to his left;
she said, “Not with Pure-Gens. They have their own links to Maya,
and strong.”

“What for?”

The image showed Aven shrugging. “To talk to
Maya or other Pure-Gens. Think of it like two cans with wire in
between. The plasma stream is the wire obviously.”

Jamie grinned at that old Aryan child’s game.
He resumed watching Korbet who was reading the blaze of data
running down the walls. He said to Ara, “Survey pragmatically,
Mobile Unit One? What’s that and what’s that around your neck, baby
girl?”

“Gah?”

Jamie watched his display as a strange
looking necklace appeared on Ara’s neck. He looked away and when he
looked again, it was gone. That was odd. Korbet lifted the pod lid.
Jamie tensed. The thick wall of the womb was transparent and well
supported by the low walls of the capsule.

“Hello, Ara Honeybee.” Korbet smiled, leaned
over and stared at Ara. “You have beautiful, big, blue eyes.”

Jamie relaxed a lot more as Korbet made baby
noises. Jamie’s attention spiked again minutes later.

“…made a plasmic connection?” Korbet’s eyes
were wide. “Your first I think. I’m honored. Look at that, the
exergon, or plasma as many call it, is now stringing between
us.”

An image of what Korbet was doing displayed
on his main monitor. Aven had tapped into Maya’s visual files and
typed “Usual for Pure-Gens to link to others”. Korbet appeared to
be playing with the strings that were blue in color and thick. Not
only that; Jamie saw an incandescence of heat and color swirling
around Ara, not just around her body, but outside the sac. He was
about to ask Aven if that was usual but Korbet was saying, “I
wonder how strong it is? I’m not sure but, technically, you can
spike a plasma impulse to me.” He eyed Ara with a smile. “It’s
called the Aryan Transmission or ArT.” He studied his fingers
again, leaning casually against the pod watching the exergon
disappear into his fingers making deeper connections. He mused a
little, saying, “I should sever it.”

Jamie watched as Korbet thought about it.

“I should feel violated you know, normally
you ask to make a link. But—” he grinned down at her “—you are the
Vanguard so as long as you don’t goo or gah too loudly it won’t
distract me.” Looking down at her, Korbet watched as she was moving
her hands and tiny fingers. She made an “ooh” sound.

Vanguard? Jamie jotted that down on his
list.

“…you can see plasma energy too. Well, after
a while you’ll be able to ignore it unless you bring it back into
focus…”

Now that was interesting. Ara could see what
only two others could see, and they were the two she called for:
Korbet West and Kavela Istonia. He knew Kavela was part of a
Pure-Gen pair and he bet that Korbet was fabricated with another as
well. Sure enough, Korbet said something about his brother, Aki.
Aki and Ara. Korbet and Kavela. Seriously?

“Please let this not be the pattern!”
Muttering, Jamie half listened to the rest of conversation and
noted the male’s exit. The transportal had a strange signature,
which Jamie logged. Shortly, the new family cycled through the
hatches.

“Aven, before you go, did the other baby make
similar connections?”

Aven checked and nodded. “Yep … rather, Maya
made the connections. Is that significant?”

“Don’t know but keep feeding me data like
that.”