The Light-Field (27 page)

‘I wouldn't let him,' Yasper interrupted.

‘That's a good thing,' Taren explained to Lucian, ‘as I thought of you to return here and I would have materialised right beside you, in front of our guest.'

‘See,' Yasper concluded his case, and Lucian had to concede that when it came to political and psychic warfare, he was still rather clueless.

Taren moved to check the monitor and then returned, speaking in a hushed tone. ‘It's Amie.'

Lucian frowned. ‘What could she want at this time in the morning?' It was barely dawn here in the capital of Frujia, which was a few hours behind Sermetica's capital, Heavensgate.

‘Quickly, we don't have much time,' she directed them all to the bedroom. ‘I'll find out what the story is. She might just want to check on how I am.'

Lucian nodded to concur that she was probably right, and closed the bedroom door to conceal Jazmay, Yasper and himself.

Taren rushed to the door and opened it to find no one, and stepping out onto the walkway, she saw Amie walking away. When Taren thought about letting her leave she felt panicked and so following her gut, she called out: ‘Amie.'

Amie turned. ‘Thank heavens!' She ran back to Taren. ‘Khalid was here last night,' she said. Taren immediately hauled her inside and closed the door.

‘What did he want?' Taren asked, repressing an urge to panic or jump to conclusions.

‘He wanted to give me this.' Amie handed over the photon-camera. ‘He said the MSS had developed it from one of your inventions.'

The news was like a dagger in the back for Taren, and she went into momentary shock.

‘It photographs the light field around a person,' Amie elaborated to fill the silent void. ‘The bigger your light field the more psychic you are, because you reject and emit more photons.'

Taren's mouth was gaping as she nodded to confirm the theory was correct, and accepted the weapon from Amie; this was how Khalid had identified Chief Ronan as a psychic!

‘Point of interest, though,' Amie tried to take some of the sting out of the news. ‘I believe your Phemorian stone interferes with the process and, if worn next to the skin, as you said, it renders your aura to appear completely average.'

Taren's eyes shot up to meet Amie's — the news was inspiring.

‘You also weren't kidding when you said it would protect me from him,' Amie added. ‘He couldn't come within a couple of feet of me without wanting to throw up.'

‘You made him sick?' Taren spirits lifted a little.

‘Even sicker than he makes me,' Amie assured with a smile. ‘But only when the stone was on my person.'

Taren was infused with a greater sense of confidence about the confrontation ahead. ‘You did the right thing, bringing this to me,' Taren assured her, as her own Juju stone began to pulse with her father's energy — and that was her cue.

‘I know,' Amie replied, ‘and I'm not even going to ask why, but Khalid wants photos of all of you, real soon.'

Taren showed her to the door. ‘Leave it with me,' she said. ‘I think he deserves so much more than just a photo.'

‘Look, I don't know what your beef with him is, but …' Amie stopped outside and turned back to Taren. ‘…
be careful
, he is a very
sick
man.'

Taren's resentment at having unwittingly aided the MSS in the persecution of psychics was welling into fury. ‘Oh, he will be even sicker … by the time I'm done with him.'

 

After a few blood sacrifices to bring Chironjivi's dark Powers up to scratch, the captain ordered his crew forth to seek out Anselm and scan the immediate area around him for anything or anyone out of the ordinary.

Chironjivi sat his body down in his favourite booth at Dead Man Downs, and Khalid sat there also. After a moment of silent concentration, the captain advised, ‘The boys are giving us the all clear — Anselm is alone.'

‘Then get on with it.' Khalid was eager to have this merger over and done with, so he could get on with tracking down and killing the Zagriata — whatever the fuck that was!

‘As you wish.' Chironjivi's blood-splattered face fell dead of expression as his head rested against the high back of the seat.

A great wave of revulsion and hatred swept through Khalid, and he began to convulse as the dark horrors of his father's past infused him with a far deeper sense of revengeful resolve and contempt for all things living.

As he regained his composure, Khalid's thoughts turned to his target, and the memories of his past treacheries against the Sermetic president made him smile.
I severed your lover from your life, estranged your child, and primed myself to step into your esteemed position.
‘Jabez Anselm …' his father's evil chorus echoed Khalid's voice, ‘time to die.'

 

‘Hello, Mansur,' said Anselm, from the comfort of his sofa, as Khalid appeared before him. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure of this
unexpected
appearance?' In one hand the president held a drink — his other hand was sunk deep in the pocket of his jacket. ‘Have you come to pass on your condolences on the passing of my dear great aunt?' Anselm's steely glare seemed to indicate that he already knew the truth on that count.

‘Such a shame … I just loved dear Nanny Mai to
death
,' replied Khalid with a grin. The additional voices in Khalid's tone startled Anselm; Chironjivi's acute sense of fear detected this and hence so did Khalid. Anselm was not as fearless as Maiara had been — this additional boost of dark power was working a treat.

‘So, you've come to kill me now, is that it?' Anselm concluded, throwing open the arm that held his drink. ‘Well then, do your best.'

‘Why are you all in such a hurry to die?' Khalid was in Anselm's face in a second, but Jabez did not flinch. ‘You wouldn't be trying to hide something, would you?'

As Khalid gripped Anselm to take him back to Dead Man Downs, the president exploded with light, and Khalid felt immediately crippled by illness.

As four other glowing beings of light suddenly appeared in the room and were spotted by the ghostly pirates who were Khalid's eyes in the celestial world, the dark force began to whip up the atmosphere in the room in protest.

‘What's wrong, my old
friend
,' Anselm jeered. ‘Are you not up to this assassination at present?'

The light-filled agents quickly descended upon Khalid, completely paralysing him with their presence. As one of them slapped a psychic
neutraliser on Khalid's ankle, his ghostly crew fled and the disturbance in the room ceased.

‘No!' Khalid screeched in protest. As the last ounce of psychic power drained from his being, in his mind's eye he and Chironjivi perceived their rogue crew, now severed from their control by the restraining device on their ankle, racing back to Dead Men Downs to lay claim to the body of Chironjivi first. In their frenzied attempt to enter the ancient corpse at once, the body of the lost Prince of Phemoria was completely destroyed — just as Maiara had predicted.

‘And what's this?' Anselm used his handkerchief to retrieve a dagger from Khalid's hilt that still had traces of blood on it.

‘There's no death penalty on Sermetica.' Khalid grinned, his voice back to normal.

Tell him, boy.
Chironjivi was fuming in Khalid's mind.
Tell him we are going to fuck his entire family into oblivion!

‘Shut the fuck up!' Khalid yelled in frustration. ‘I can't hear myself think!'

‘Tyra!' Anselm called for his security guard and then quietly uttered, ‘Crew dismissed, we can handle things from here!'

‘I am going to find your precious light source and then I'm going to destroy every last
mother-fucking
one of you!' Khalid roared — all his new powers of perception gone, along with his own power. He had no idea if his illuminated attackers were still here or not. ‘Now get the fuck away and stop making me ill!' he moaned, as Tyra raced over to put him in binders and drag him away from the president.

 

Once Anselm was alone in the room he drew a deep breath to try and control his shock. He'd expected Khalid, but not whatever other dark force he'd brought along with him.

‘Are you all right?' Taren appeared, and startled the life out of her father.

‘You're not supposed to be here,' he protested, so Taren made herself invisible.

‘So, what's to be done with him?' Taren asked.

‘He'll be locked up for murder, where the sun shines brightly,' Anselm commented. ‘He seems to like the darkness far too much.'

Taren was very quiet.

‘You think we should kill him while we have the chance?' Anselm guessed at her thoughts.

‘No,' Taren reluctantly objected. ‘We were put here to create, not destroy, so as much as we would like to kill him, that's really the universe's call, don't you think?'

‘I do.' Anselm was proud of her resolve. ‘Which is why there is no death penalty on Sermetica. And besides, Maiara predicted who would bring about Khalid's demise —'

‘That's right.' Taren remembered Mythric naming this as Zeven's destiny; but with Zeven's fall from grace, she wondered if fate had changed its course. ‘I guess all we can do now is wait and see. In ten short years, a lot of the pressure will be off.'

‘And the psychic rights bill will have a far greater chance of succeeding in at least three star systems,' Anselm pointed out the bright side. ‘And should Mansur ever escape, he will find a very different world awaits him, for I will ensure Maladaan knows of his hidden psychic talent and he will not find a safe harbour with the MSS again.'

‘He'll be completely outcast.' Taren breathed a sigh of relief, obviously comforted by that. ‘And we have some breathing space to make some progress on other fronts.'

‘Indeed.' Anselm smiled, proudly, astounded by how easily he could have lost everything, had his daughter not been around to prevent it; and she'd removed quite a few more obstacles from the path to psychic freedom in the process. ‘Once again, a job
well
done.'

‘Ta. I guess I should go before the authorities arrive.'

Anselm felt Taren kiss his cheek and give him a squeeze.

‘Oh, by the way, I got married,' she announced as she let him go.

Anselm's draw dropped but only for a moment. ‘Well, congratulations! I'm sure your mother won't be proud.'

‘She'll come round,' Taren stated — and probably a lot sooner now that Khalid had not rendered the psychic bill of rights dead in the water.

‘Onward and upward,' Anselm resolved.

 

It was mid-morning on Frujia, and the sun was blazing with full force as Taren joined Lucian, Jazmay and Yasper on the balcony of her unit.

‘Congratulations!' Yasper held up his glass of juice to her, looking rather pleased with himself, just as Jazmay and Lucian did. ‘We just bagged the biggest bad guy in existence!' He was so relieved about that.

‘But now we have an entirely new problem.' Taren was not as cheerful, as she wandered inside and returned with the camera that Amie had handed her this morning. ‘This is how Khalid identified your father as having the Powers.' She handed it over for him to look at. ‘The MSS created it using a patent that
I
lodged, at the time I first approached Lucian about the project. This did not happen in the last time line, hence … whole new problem.'

‘Damn.' Jazmay felt Taren's guilt. ‘You're not planning on going back in time to un-patent it, are you?'

Taren hazarded a head shake, not entirely sure. ‘Either the MSS keep their weapon and its use is restricted to Maladaan by the psychic bill of rights, that will stop persecution on
three
other planets,' she wagered. ‘Or, we go back in time, the MSS don't get their weapon, but Khalid is free to wreak havoc
everywhere
once more, and we all go back to square one with the project … I can't decide what is worse.'

‘What's worse, is that every time we go back in time and attempt to change something, the harder it gets to sway events to our favour,' Jazmay reminded Taren, who nodded. ‘
And
you vowed you'd never do it again.'

‘It's true,' Taren concurred, deeply disturbed by the suffering her brilliant invention would now bring to the psychics on Maladaan in the next ten years.

‘You did not invent this.' Yasper knew what Taren was thinking by the look on her face. ‘It is not your fault.'

‘He's right.' Lucian took hold of her, perhaps disturbed that Yasper knew her so well. ‘What you achieved today has never been done before! Using our combined talents to protect one another, literally fighting darkness with light, it was brilliant! If we can continue to build our force and hone our skills, we'll be able to stop any injustice the MSS can dish out.'

‘Hear, hear,' Jazmay agreed.

‘Shit yeah.' Yasper made the decision unanimous.

In this instance Taren knew there were many personal concerns motivating the decision to let things lie — Jazmay and Jasper were expecting a child; Zelimir Ronan was safe from the MSS; and Zeven no longer had a power and could not accompany Taren back to the past — but the greatest motivating factor to sit tight was knowing that Khalid and his spies were no longer breathing down their necks.

‘The future is in the hands of the universe now.' Taren resolved to cement their decision and her comrades were most glad to hear it.

Since he'd decided what to do with the next five years, life was looking better every day.

Already a qualified pilot, Zeven had given a lot of thought as to how he could be of benefit to the AMIE project, beyond his flight skills, and the answer had become glaringly obvious to him. One of the main problems in the future lay in the fact that AMIE's main systems technician, Bonar Colbars, had been an MSS sleeper agent. So, as Zeven already had a love of all things mechanical, he'd decided to get qualified as an engineer — then he could work on his own spacecraft and eliminate the need to hire Colbars. This degree usually took ten years to complete, but Zeven's aim was to achieve the degree in just a little under half that time. This goal would seriously eat into his spare time and hopefully keep him out of trouble. With ‘keeping a low profile' in mind, Zeven avoided all the more prestigious universities and flight schools that offered the course, and opted to take the poor man's option — he applied to do his degree with the Frujian pod-link system, which offered a combined job and degree in one. This decision had thrilled Mythric no end, as he finally got, not just a holiday, but to live on Frujia and was opting to be a stay-at-home father for a while.

Zeven loved living on Frujia too. He felt closer to Taren here, even though the project offices were hours away, at a more remote end of the island to the main city. He and Mythric had opted for living on one of the tiny island communities that dotted the expansive harbour of Kotan Bathaar. Of course it was impossible to gain residency here, but as Mythric's Powers were still up to par, they had no problem conjuring up any of the official papers they needed. Their humble hut was right on the beach and had a long jetty that ran out over the water from the front door.

It hadn't been too difficult coming up with new names for themselves, as the locals on the island had done that for them. They called Zeven, Kale Tane, which meant ‘warrior man'; since they had arrived, Zeven had been working on keeping himself in shape, and although Zeven was not a tall man, he towered over the locals. As Mythric had been busy in their greenhouse out the back, growing fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs, the locals had called him Bakar Aitor Tane, meaning ‘alone good-father man' — so Zeven had taken to addressing Mythric as BA. Mythric didn't mind that his new name advertised the fact that he was single, as it fetched him plenty of attention from the local ladies.

They had a small power boat that got them to and from the main island, and that's where Zeven was at present — down at the end of the jetty, waiting eagerly for Mythric to get his shit together and come drop him to work. Zeven would have just taken himself, but doing so left Mythric without transport, should he require it.

As much as Zeven did not want to be late for his first day at work, the water was super sparkling clear this morning. The breeze had yet to heat up and was cool and fresh, so Zeven just sat there for a moment taking in the majesty and missing Aurora deeply. It seemed he always missed her when he felt good, which killed the joy in his life and he wondered how he was ever going to survive the five years between now and when he would see her again.
That's a selfish thought,
he noted and put it aside, just as he heard Mythric cry out.

‘Un-frickin-real!'

Zeven jumped up and raced back down the jetty as Mythric yelled.

‘You won't believe this!' Mythric waved him inside and then directed Zeven's attention to the screen of their entertainment unit. It was currently running the news story on Khalid's arrest for the attempted kidnapping of President Anselm, using psychic means, and the murder of the Dowager Duchess of Sermetica.

Neither man knew whether to laugh or cry.

‘He killed Maiara.' Mythric was stunned beyond belief, riled and saddened.

‘How the hell did they catch him?' Zeven was having difficulty believing what he was hearing, until Anselm came on-screen to make a statement.

‘When my intel learnt that there was a high probability that there would be a psychic attack on my life,' the president began, ‘it was clear that extraordinary measures were required to ensure my safety and thus a team of psychics were engaged for my protection. As you can see, I am still here, alive and well due to their efforts on my behalf. This, I believe, only further supports my proposal to give those with the Powers a chance to use their gifts constructively for the greater good. Thank you.'

‘The boss pulled a mission without us,' Zeven said, devastated to be missing out on the action.

‘Get used to it.' Mythric gave him a chug on the shoulder. ‘We're in the backwater now, buddy.' He walked out onto the veranda to bask in the sun. ‘Praise be the universe.'

‘Well, I guess if they've confined Khalid, there won't be that much to do from here on in.' Zeven followed his father back out onto the jetty.

‘You got that right.' Mythric gazed out to sea a moment, and Zeven guessed his thoughts were with Maiara. ‘Son-of-a-bitch,' he uttered under his breath, then, shaking off his regret, Mythric jumped into the boat and started up the engine. ‘Come on, you don't want to be late for school.'

‘Work,' Zeven corrected the dig as he jumped into the dinghy. ‘I'm going to
work
… unlike you, you lazy —'

Mythric shifted into gear and took off, sending Zeven back into his seat.

 

There was no real induction day for Zeven, who was starting the year slightly behind the other students. The university at the pod-link system ran in alternating four-hour shifts in the morning and afternoon. One shift was theory (classes), and one shift was practical (work), with lunch in between. First up today, Zeven was tossed straight into a class where they were stripping an engine.

Zeven was happy to hear this, as he had actually had to do this once before, long ago. ‘No worries,' he told Hoku-Lani, his new instructor, whose name might have been Frujian, but he was as Sermetic as Zeven was. Actually, from a quick glance around, there weren't any of the native races in the class. All were fair-skinned, bright-eyed, dark-and blonde-haired, Sermetic types — here in paradise; even the poor man's option for a degree was filled with the elitist, privileged class.

Deeply engrossed in his task, Zeven noticed the noise level in the room rising, and looked up to see that the instructor had left the room. Most of the class had gathered around one student down the back and were jeering and laughing.

‘Give it up, cupcake … if you want to screw something, you can screw me!'

As much as Zeven wanted to stay in his seat, do his work and not get involved in the discord, he put down his tools and wandered over. ‘What's happening?' he asked one of boys at the back of the huddle.

‘It's the class pussy,' he explained, ‘she thinks she is a man, but she's
so
not.' He cupped his hands in front of his chest to indicate she had large breasts.

A pang of realisation shot through Zeven's body! He'd once known a girl who did her engineering apprenticeship through the
Frujian pod-link and had complained of the harassment she'd received from her all-male classmates. She had eventually been done out of her degree just one year shy of finishing it, and Zeven suspected that the bullying had been the reason why she was a lesbian when they met.

He barged through the gathering to the front to see a very young Kalayna Zuri stripping her engine with ease and totally ignoring the taunting crowd.

‘You're going to quit this course before the year's end, sweet cheeks,' said the ringleader. ‘I'm going to make you look like the girl you are and kick your arse!'

Zeven found this amusing.

‘What's so funny, new boy?' The burly bloke swiftly turned his attention to Zeven.

‘How do you all figure you're going to kick her arse, when she's the only one in here getting the assignment done?' Zeven threw his hands up and went back to his work and, seeing the logic, quite a few of his classmates followed suit.

When Hoku-Lani returned to the classroom, it was clear what had been going on in his absence, as several of the class were still standing around observing Kalayna when he entered. ‘Playtime is over, get to work. Jadik.' He singled out the ringleader who was still lingering.

The students reluctantly tore themselves away, still blowing kisses and whispering jeers as they returned to their engines, which had hardly been touched.

Just as the chime sounded that ended the lesson, Zeven's instructor approached and handed him a few boxes of software. ‘I hear that you are hoping to take the express ride through here? It's never been done.' He raised a brow in doubt. ‘But that's the software for the first two years' semesters.'

‘Thanks for that.' Zeven threw the software in his bag.

‘Why the rush?' his instructor asked.

‘I have a job on a project to go to in five years, so I need to finish up by then, and I will.' Zeven looked about to make sure no one was listening and when his eyes came to rest on Kalayna lingering nearby, she quickly made a move for the door.

‘Well, good for you,' Hoku-Lani said. ‘I wish all my students were as ambitious.'

‘Cheers.' Zeven grabbed his bag and left the room — the last thing he wanted was to become the teacher's pet.

 

A little freaked by bumping into another of his ex-lovers, Zeven hid himself away in the study hall all lunch. It had not entered his mind that he would find Kalayna here! The last time he'd seen her, she was a corpse — dead by Khalid's hand. Her murder brought to an end a wonderful love triangle that had been transpiring between Kalayna, Aurora and himself.

Those were the days.
He sighed heavily as he recalled being tucked up in bed between the girls.
But times are different now.
Zeven was quick to remind himself. He was, under no circumstances, to fall for Kalayna again. He loved Aurora now, but at the same time he couldn't just stand around and let his old friend be bullied. For he also knew Kalayna had a brilliant mind for technology and would go on to develop a Power that enabled her to create technology beyond all current reasonable comprehension.
She
would be a great asset to AMIE, and had seemed to belong there during her short time with the crew.
Just focus on the work and keep a quiet eye on her.
He nodded in agreement with himself, feeling calmer and in control.

In the afternoon, they were to be working in teams, thus Kalayna took a big step in Zeven's direction and got herself paired up with him. As they were assigned to washing the inbound pods, the other guys in the class laughed at them.

‘Sorry.' Kalayna flashed him an apologetic grin and led him to the pod wash. ‘You should know that I always get the shit jobs. Suds or water?'

Zeven shrugged. ‘I'll do suds.' He took the long cleaning tool, filled with soapy water and topped by a twirling brush, from her and stood back while she hosed the pod off.

‘Where did you get to at lunch? I was looking for you,' Kalayna asked, as she finished up her pre-rinse.

‘Study hall,' he replied, and got on with soaping up the dripping pod; he wasn't game to ask why she'd wanted the see him.

‘So, it's true then … you are seriously going to do two units a year?'

There were ten units to the course — one a year, usually.

‘I have to.' Zeven shrugged. ‘Whether I'm qualified or not, I'm leaving in five years.'

‘But will you still be given the job if you're not qualified?' Kalayna queried and Zeven had a laugh to himself about the answer.

‘Yeah … the job is for a pilot, and I'm already qualified.'

Clearly, Kalayna was impressed, as he appeared so young. ‘Then why do engineering?'

‘Just thought it would come in handy.'

‘If you manage to do it, you'll jump
two grades
at the end of the year.'

Kalayna looked mournful as she said this, and Zeven stopped what he was doing to ask, ‘Are you looking to escape Jadik and the rest of his dipshits?'

A look of relief swept Kalayna's face. ‘You have no idea!'

‘I think I do.' He got back on with cleaning. ‘There's nothing stopping you from setting the same goal as me.'

‘Yeah right!' Kalayna scoffed. ‘You ought to have heard how loud they laughed when I applied for this degree — it's a miracle I am here at all! There's no way they'll let me ace it.'

‘They don't have to know, until the end of year exam,' Zeven pointed out. ‘I already have all the text data for the first two units.'

Kalayna smiled like she was delighted — but he was nuts! ‘If you help me, Jadik and his cronies are going to make your life hell, you know that, right?'

‘Only for a year, if we pass.' He grinned. ‘Then we could leave them behind.'

‘Where did you come from?' Kalayna shook her head amazed. ‘You must have a girl,' she decided.

‘I certainly do.' He was glad to have that out in the open.

‘The polite ones are always taken,' she explained.

‘How about you?' Zeven continued with his washing. ‘Do you have a girlfriend at present?'

‘You think I'm gay?' Kalayna burst out laughing and shook her head at once. ‘No … I like
guys
… just not any of the guys around here, obviously.'

Zeven could have hit himself for just assuming she'd always been gay — that was like assuming Aurora had always been timid, but that couldn't have proved further from the truth. ‘Sorry, no offence intended.'

‘None taken.' She chuckled at his embarrassment, as he stepped away from the pod and gave her leave to hose it off. ‘Do you have a name?'

‘Kale, Kale Tane.' He reached out and offered her his hand to shake, and when she gripped it he felt the spark of a kindred soul rush through him.

‘Kalayna Zuri,' she said, appearing rather beguiled by him suddenly — she'd felt the connection too.