Ashlyn Chronicles 1: 2287 A.D. (15 page)

In the background, the crashing waves of a light surf grew louder, closer. A seagull squawked in the distance. The walls, floor, and furniture of the conference room suddenly shimmered out of existence, becoming a lush South Pacific island. Crystal-clear water and white-frothing waves lapped against the shore as a trio of gulls sailed on the breeze above them.

Steven stood in amazement, feeling the warm, salt scented breeze whisking against his face. Turning to Ashlyn, he saw that her arms were out to her sides, her eyes closed. She was basking, taking in the warm breeze that soothed her skin. Her cape and ponytail fluttered behind her. The palm tree fronds swayed back and forth as was the grass bowing rhythmically before the waves of gentle wind.

The fine, white sand beneath his feet shifted, scrunching under his weight. He knelt and scooped up a handful of sand, sifting it between his fingers. It had a natural, grainy texture and even some captured warmth from the sun. No detail was lacking, no nuance missing. It had all the ambiance of a real beach, a real ocean.

It stirred a distant childhood memory within him. When he looked to his left and saw a log lolling in the surf, a smile came to his face. “It’s Fiji—I was here when I was a kid.” Steven started walking toward the log. Just as he remembered, snagged in a piece of fishing-net on the other side was a small sea turtle. Steven’s mouth fell open.

“Ashlyn, how did you do this?” He turned to look at her. She smiled at him through the most sensually alluring eyes he had ever seen.
Everything about you is amazing.

Turning back to the snagged turtle, Steven knelt, and after freeing it from the fishing net, he carried the turtle out into the water. Giving it a gentle push, he watched it swim away into the deeper, almost glowing, turquoise-colored water. When he saw it dive below the surface, he smiled. It was exactly the way it happened before, when he was nine. Steven was dumbfounded. “Ash, this virtual re-enactment—how did you do it?”

“To explain this.” Ashlyn spun in a circle and extended her arms so that she encompassed the entire scene around them. “One night, when I came to you, I saw all of this in your dream. You had the biggest grin on your face. You were such a cute little boy. Being able to see you then was a blessing. Then, late one night I was searching the storage dome for the materials to make a few outfits when I came across an inventory list that showed that there were some advanced interactive holo-units gathering dust in storage. Apparently, they were part of the original design for the auditorium, but the attack interrupted things and they were never installed. I made a pet project out of it. Once installed, it was just a matter of giving Gena access to my memory of this moment and having her download it into the unit and, Voila! You have paradise.”

She gazed at him with affection. “This is my gift to you.”

“Steven, I wish this moment could last forever. I do—” Ashlyn seemed to slip away, lost in thought as she watched a large, crashing wave strike a rock just offshore. “But we have important matters to discuss.”

Steven took a deep breath preparing himself for the conversation that he had known was coming.

Ash continued, “Right now, time is our enemy and you have important decisions to make. When the time comes that we have our first—” Ashlyn paused as she fought to find the words.

Steven decided to fill in the gap, quoting directly from Tynabo, “Intimate contact.”

“Yes, intimate contact,” she parroted. “For as deep as our passions are now, they’ll expand a hundredfold.”

“That might just kill me,” said Steven with more seriousness than jest. His attention was drawn to Ashlyn’s inner thighs as he heard the long, swaying, lower strands of Ashlyn’s body-necklace softly
clinking
together, blown off to the side by the wind.

She saw his distraction. “If it helps, I’m every bit as desirous of you as you are of me.” Without her even realizing it, so inherent was her need to please him that she shifted her weight onto one leg and kicked the other leg out to the side. She widened her stance, opening herself to him.

“That’s not possible,” responded Steven as he smacked his lips in automated response to what he was seeing.

“Well, I am.” She paused, her tongue darting between her lips. “Just—take my word for it.”

Though her words were meant to be supportive, seeing Ashlyn basting her lips heightened his desires. Desperately in need of distraction, he sought out answers. “Ash, when you appeared to me aboard Avenger, you said that our encounters were real.”

“In all the important ways, they are. What the mind experiences in the fugue, the body perceives as reality. What is actually happening is that our physical auras are empowering a conduit between our minds to open. When the conduit is open, the metaphysical reality tries to satisfy the body’s physical needs and the mind’s desires. So, for all practical purposes, it is real. It’s just on a heightened plane that other people can’t experience in their isolated, singular consciousness.”

Steven sighed. “About what Tynabo said, am I really a creation of the Foundation?”

“Steven, didn’t you access the private files on the recorder?”

“Private files? I didn’t know there were any private files.”

Ashlyn chuckled. “Well, you did have your hands full.”

Steven’s eyes involuntarily dropped to her breasts.

Ashlyn frowned playfully. “There’s that sixteen-year-old again. I had meant saving the world. To answer your question though, the answer is, yes. Like me, you are one of Tynabo’s creations. As regards to your parents, it’s true. Biologically you weren’t theirs, but please understand, they were as much a victim in this as you were, maybe more so. Your parents raised you believing that you were their son, created from their genetic DNA. It is important for you to know that the Foundation picked them specifically for you, because they were good, moral people. Tynabo wanted you to have a good heart. He knew that powerful abilities without a solid foundation could easily lead to corruption. Even the president was proud of what your parents helped you to become.”

Steven interjected, “Speaking of President Tomlinson—he’d started to tell me about you as he was being attacked, but his transmission ended just as he was about to reveal your location. It’s hard to accept that because of one missing word, we were kept apart all these years.”

Ashlyn nodded. “What you missed in Tynabo’s file was his explanation about how the Foundation had been around for centuries, secretly operating under each presidential administration—but that it was under President Tomlinson’s forty-year term in office that you and I were finally created. You were President Tomlinson’s prize pupil. Out of all Tynabo’s creations, you were the only one who chose to go to the Academy. Only you wanted to go to the stars. Your parents made you into the man you are now. It was they who encouraged that dream within you. They loved you deeply.”

Steven grinned. “Thank you, Ash. My parents were good people. They had a lot of empathy for others. I miss them terribly.” Steven’s head dipped as he took a private moment to himself.

Broken from his silence by a gull that landed nearby, Steven continued, “Ash—did you always know about me?”

Ash shook her head. “I knew I had a genetic mate, but they never told me who it was. All they told me was that the two of us were going to be introduced on our twenty-fourth birthday, the day everyone takes the K9 serum. When our meeting was delayed, I knew something was wrong.”

It was because of Ren and I,
Steven thought to himself.
“Then the attack came,” added Steven, moving the conversation forward.

“Yes. Then the attack came and Tynabo put all of us into stasis.” Ashlyn drifted off, her thoughts deep, her sadness evident.

“I’m sorry, Ash. I never acknowledged your loss. My distractions are no excuse for my lack of compassion. I am truly sorry about Tynabo and your friends. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you.”

With a small nod, Ashlyn silently thanked him. “I don’t agree with Tynabo’s decision to terminate everyone to save us—but I know he did what he thought was best.”

Ashlyn’s words brought to mind the horrifying images of what he had seen minutes before. “Ash, what happened to us up on the podium? What I saw...” Steven trailed off.

“My best guess is that I had a vision, and because you were standing so close to me, with our mental sync, you experienced it as well. It was the second one I have had. The vision was showing me future moments in my life—but I think it is wise to use caution and not jump to conclusions. Interpretation of the future can be dangerous, not to mention frustrating.” Ashlyn rocked up onto her tippy-toes and began bouncing, a playful, childlike smile on her face. “The good news is that I’m going to the Sirius system with you.”

Though the visual of seeing her battle-ravaged body and himself crying over her grave was emotionally shattering, Ashlyn’s light-hearted enthusiasm was contagious. Steven grinned. “Yes, I guess you are.”

“Steven, I know you have hundreds of questions, and I’ll answer all of them for you in time, but right now, we really need to address the most important question.”

Steven, hanging on every word from her, was riddled with anxiety over what she would say next. He felt like a small child being told a ghost story, and the ghost was about to jump out and grab him.

“As you know, our lives are at risk.” Ash continued on, barely stopping to take a breath, “We have that one more, big step to take.”

Steven’s heart sped.

“We’re already pushing the envelope. I’ve been having severe headaches, dizziness—”

“Disorientation,” said Steven, finishing her sentence. “I’m experiencing all of those things too.”

“As genetic mates, we weren’t supposed to be facing the awkward situation we’re in now. It was supposed to be a beautiful melding of the two of us. Together, we’re stronger than we are separately.” Ash kicked at the sand, then continued, “We’re almost out of time, Steven—and it’s your right, your entitlement, to have this information before you take Avenger, or me, for that matter, into battle. You have the right to decide how much you are willing to risk and to decide what will happen to you, to us, and most importantly, to your family. I want to make it very clear that I will support any decision you make, regardless of the consequences. If there is any way to avoid this.”

“Being here with you—it feels, natural. It would be easier to deny my own existence,” acknowledged Steven with a soft, compassionate voice. His gaze drifted away, taking in the serenity of the island and the soothing sound of the surf. Steven knelt, his knees sinking into the sand. His legs felt numb and too weak to support him.

“Ash?”

Again, Ashlyn, seeing his anguish, stopped him. “You needn’t explain. Renee is an amazing woman. She has been a good friend to me. For the sake of her and your children, I wish there were an alternative. It breaks my heart that we’ve been given so little choice in this.”

“I don’t know how to handle this, Ash.”

“I don’t either. I have cried myself to sleep many nights. The last weeks have been excruciating. Each night, after the fugue has brought us together, I have to look into Renee’s eyes. She is my best friend. And as for your children, I’ve played with them in the park. I’ve laughed with them and read books to them while Renee is at work. I’ve come to love them. The last thing I want to do is break their hearts.” Ashlyn’s eyes watered and she wiped away a tear. “I also know that we are powerless to fight this.”

“Ash, I can’t hurt Renee. There must be a solution,” said Steven, completely confounded by what to do next.

“Steven, I know you have no choice but to search for an angle that can somehow make this terrible, awkward situation work—but I’ve had more time to digest this than you have, and there are solutions. It’s just that none are appealing. In reality, you only have two choices. You can tell Renee about us or you can hide our relationship from her.

And perhaps it is not my place to speak since she apparently hasn’t said anything to you, but she already knows about us. When they brought us back from Denver, she couldn’t explain how we survived. She ran tests on us. She discovered most everything.”

“Everything?”

“Most everything. She knows that we survived because our auras are synched into one, and that we are genetically matched to be together. That being said, I don’t think she knows the full depth and desperation of our passions or that failure to fulfill those passions will kill us. If there is one thing I have learned about Renee, it is that she has an immensely strong, internal strength. She is logical and smart. I think the decision she would make might surprise you.”

“Decision?” Steven repeated.

Ash nodded. “Like us, she has two choices. She can share you, or she can let you go. So, there are choices. It is just that neither choice is comforting for Renee. All of them involve distress, pain, and sacrifice. But, if I can offer a tiny bit of wisdom—time is an unusual commodity. Oddly enough, given enough time, many problems seem to find their own resolution, one that was not even considered or predictable. If you want to break this situation down into its simplest form, we start by putting one foot in front of the other. Tomorrow is the beginning of a journey that may bring you to the solution you are seeking. You will be taking Avenger out. We do not know if the mission will be successful. We don’t know if we will live or die—or even see Earth again.”

“What about the vision?” asked Steven.

“Personally, regardless of what we saw in the vision, I believe our fates and our destiny have yet to be written.”

Steven was just beginning to realize the full depth of what Ashlyn represented. She was much more than a woman of extreme beauty. She was also one of extreme intelligence and compassion. Her words had succeeded in quelling much of his worry. He knew that she was right; they should take it one day at time, one-step at a time. They did not know if there was going to be a tomorrow.

Ash then reiterated, “I will abide by any decision you make. I want what you want, and I will be happy with what makes you happy. You must make Renee and your children your first priority. Anything less will result in your heart being torn out, along with mine. If the pain can be avoided, we are obligated to do so. If there is a solution, I want you to find it. Otherwise, our guilt will never allow us to be free. It should not be forgotten that once we take the next step, we can’t go back. Our passions will be too strong to resist. My best guess is that we have a week, maybe ten days. So we still have a tiny window of time for you to find an alternative,” said Ashlyn. Kneeling beside him in the sand, she placed her hand atop his in a show of her sincerity and support.

With the first physical touch between them, they each received a small, electrifying shock. Unlike a shock of static electricity, though, where the pain inspires an instant reaction to pull away, this shock ignited a firestorm of unfathomable desire and need. It was the catalyst Tynabo had spoken of, designed to unleash the full power of the fugue, synchronizing every aspect of their mental and physical beings together. The first small step, however inadvertently, had been taken.