Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (13 page)

Diane was trying not to laugh but Peter
didn’t pick up on the oddity of that command from “Maya”.

A frown appeared on Peter’s pale forehead.
Unlike Jamie, Peter kept himself out of the sun. “And there’s never
an explanation?”

Jamie shook his head and leaned back, resting
his arms on the small table they were hunched over. “We have a
number of theories, which Diane will show you after this meeting.
For now, just concentrate on general security. Before any event,
connect to planet-side, air traffic, space traffic security, along
with PDD, the Planetary Defenses Division, stationed in Toga City,
and Perza Space Station.”

‘Ah, that’s where the Aryan Military
coordinate from?”

Diane nodded while Jamie watched Peter’s
expressions. Diane said, elaborating, “Jamie will take care of
security on the premises, and I coordinate.”

Peter looked at Jamie, his blue eyes wide.
“You are on site? Shouldn’t you be … um…”

Jamie smiled, relieved that Peter saw a flaw
in that plan. “We all have to keep current on our various duties,
but I encourage you to broaden your skills. One day we may need to
cover other roles.”

“Ah, I see.” Peter rubbed his head. “Ara is
not the usual charge then.”

Jamie stood and stretched. He looked out the
window, hearing the tinkling pitter-patter of rain on the glass.
“No.” He hadn’t told anyone except his immediate supervisors what
he had learned on Perza Space Station. A special military team had
been created ready to cover anything, they looked at Ara as the
Vanguard, despite not really knowing what that meant, but it was
enough she had an enemy. Some of their training seemed bizarre to
Jamie but he was relieved all the same. “Let’s concentrate on her
birthday and then we’ll debrief.”

Diane handed Peter a tablet. “Your first
side-mission. Caleb and Ara are thick as thieves. Their last
declaration was that they are boyfriend and girlfriend. In fact,
King Delario and Queen Silvia both received that information from
Maya—” this time Peter did realize what Ara was doing and burst out
laughing “—so sneak in King Delario’s palace and examine the gift
Caleb made for our honeybee.”

Peter’s mouth dropped open. Jamie laughed and
slapped him on the back. “It’s your initiation. Complete this
mission and you are in.”

Peter stopped smiling and grumbled, “I
thought I was in.”

Diane stood and smiled. ‘That was your
probation. Before we can swear you in, you must complete this one
little thing.” She glanced at Jamie and then laughed. “You’re
allowed to cheat.”

“Cheat?” Peter sounded offended over that
idea.

“There’s a job going at the palace.” Diane
shrugged. “But, it’s up to you.”

They moved out of the secured room and into
Jamie’s main office. He glanced at the picture of Ara on his desk.
There was a guarded look in her eyes that he worried about and
faint, dark smudges under her eyes. They had reports that
nightmares were increasing and that Ara was gradually becoming more
wayward. He was sure Ara had overheard their conversation during
that ill-fated meeting now.

***

King Delario’s Palace

Caleb’s Room

Over the years, Ara’s fears grew. Every day
she wondered what she might be seeing or doing that would make Maya
kill billions of people. Ara made a special effort to learn how
many a billion was and it was a lot. Whenever she saw Caleb, she
wanted to talk to him about her worries. Mostly they saw each other
at other parties and playgrounds but her eighth birthday was
special. They exchanged presents, sometimes things they made,
sometimes old stuff they didn’t want anymore, rarely something
new.

He was always showing off and tripping over
or dropping things. She found she lied more making it so they could
spend time together. “Yes, I finished my homework,” and “Yes, I’m
allowed to play in the pond,” and “They said I could play in
Caleb’s/Ara’s room.”

Usually she was found out and it took her
years to find out how to lie and not be caught. Caleb and Terzon
were very helpful with their advice having spent years evading
their father, King Delario, and the domestic staff. They were
sitting on his large bed, both cross-legged with e-readers
scattered between them. They were hunting for an old fairy tale
about some finger story that Ashley, a year-younger brother, had
heard of from one of his friends. Caleb was sure he had the story
in the library. He complained about some new help at the palace,
after he complained about the new green and cream colors of his
room.

“His name is ‘Peter’ and he’s an indoor plant
guy.”

Ara giggled. “What’s the problem? Accidently
watered you instead of the plant?”

Caleb leaned forward, his long, red hair
falling over his shoulder, and gave her a gentle shove and pointed
to the plants in his room. “I keep telling him I don’t want plants
in here but there’s always some new plant. I think he’s simple. He
thinks I don’t like the plants he puts in my room, when I just
don’t want plants full stop.” He eyed off her braid and grinned
suddenly.

She and Caleb had come up with a secret
language. They would braid their hair with messages. To achieve it
they came up with a short language and then had to work out which
braid style fit that message. They used beads too, in different
ways, as they grew older and created more complex messages.

“So, what’s Tekko up to?” His ice-green eyes
narrowed.

“Making robots.”

Ara stared at him. Caleb was jealous of her
and Tekko spending so much time together. There was a knock on the
door. “Prince Caleb, Lady Ara’s … brother is here.”

Ara giggled when Caleb rolled his eyes. He
walked her down to Ersen’s roader and waved her off.

“Did you have a nice time, Ara?”

“I did.” She waved until she couldn’t see
Caleb anymore and smiled at Ersen who was driving very slowly.

She wondered why Caleb was so jealous of her
and Tekko. Tekko and she would play mostly with tools and things.
She even tried to make a robot for Ersen, called “Zeke”. She was
disappointed with the end result but Ersen loved it. He kept it
with him on his dresser and took it when he went back to
school.

“Why do you love it so much?” In her mind,
she couldn’t work out why he liked it, one eye was cockeyed, and it
kept falling over after three steps. Over the years, she and Tekko
built all kinds of robots and machines to drive over the rough
ground.

Ersen had smiled down at her and ruffled her
hair. “Because you put your heart and soul into making it for me.”
He had knelt down and touched her cheek. “And because Mum gave you
detention for two weeks for stealing her Lygon Filaments.”

Ara grinned. It hadn’t been that funny at the
time and she didn’t really think it was “stealing”. Her argument
was that Mum once told her and her siblings that families shared
things so that’s what Ara applied to her decision to dig and use,
not pilfer, Mum’s electronic stuff. One week’s detention had been
the “stealing” and one week had been the “whiny argument”.

Homestead

Ersen parked under the house.

Ara jumped out, slammed the door, and rushed
around having spotted Tek coming out of the barn with something in
his arms. Her brother Ashley liked to test her and Tekko’s machines
though sometimes his fingers would get caught and hurt. She and
Tekko were told off a few times. If Tekko became her best friend,
Ashley became her best brother. Marc was away more with Tricia, his
new girlfriend. Her older siblings would still take her out if they
were home, often inviting Tekko.

“Hi, Tek,” Ara yelled, “What have you
got?”

He held up a dozer they’d been modifying. “I
think I’ve got it working.” His light green skin looked darker in
the light of the overcast day and his dreadlocks dangled around his
already broad shoulders.

She and Tekko were still outside in the play
dirt when she heard Mum arrive home. “She’s here!” Ara squealed,
hoping Maya would see how happy she was that the baby had arrived.
Maya wouldn’t kill a baby. Ara ran inside followed by Tekko; she
clenched her hands, trying not to jump and down waiting for the
baby to be put on the floor in the lounge.

Ara fell to her knees, inspecting the parcel.
“She’s so pretty.”

“She is the last child, Ara. Like you.” Mum
straightened the baby blanket.

“Like me?”

“You are the last child of the Maya; Meg is
the last child for Terance and I.”

“Ooooh, so she’s special too.” Finally, a
girl! Ara had three younger brothers, Ashley, Henry and
Gralten.

Tekko peered at the baby. “It’s small.”

“It’s a ‘she’, Tek. How big were you?”

He held out his hands.

“That’s huge!”

He nodded solemnly.

“Will you grow up big like your dad?”

He nodded. “At least, um, eight foot.”

“That’s like a giant.”

“There’s no such thing.”

“Is to.”

“Is not.”

“Children.” Mum’s stern voice came from the
kitchen.

Ara grumbled.

Tekko smiled then. “How about you? How big
will you grow?”

“I don’t know. Mum!” she yelled. “How big is
Maya?”

Mum’s mouth dropped open as she came back
into the lounge with a cup in hand. Ara heard laughter in the
doorway. She spun around. “Marc!” She jumped up and ran into his
arms.

“Hey, little baby.”

“I’m not little, or a baby.”

“Then, my PuG.”

“Marc!” Mum shook her head having recovered
from her question.

“What’s a PuG?”

“Pure-Gen, silly billy.”

Ara giggled at him as he winked at her, his
dark eyes amused. “I came to see the new addition.” He pulled her
over with him to sit next to the baby.

“Her name is Meg.”

“Can’t shorten that, Ara,” Marc said,
touching Meg’s nose.

“I can, but Eg isn’t very nice.”

“Her head is bit of an egg shape,” Tekko
observed.

Ara looked at it. “It is.”

Mum said quickly, “You’re not calling her Eg,
Ara. And you won’t grow up big like the Maya, the diametron is over
seven thousand kilometrons … Never mind, you’ll be more queen size,
like Queen Silvia.”

An image of the queen was tossed on the floor
near her. She picked it up. The queen’s auburn hair was up, showing
a long, creamy neck and large, brown eyes. She was wearing dark
hunting clothes and held a bow. Ara frowned.

“I don’t like them, especially the queens
because they are stuck up—”

“Ara! Go to your room.”

Ara grumbled, tossing aside the image,
stalled and tried to look small. Tekko moved around, trying to hide
her.

“Now, young lady.”

She muttered and shuffled to her room while
Tekko was asked to leave the house and come back later. The baby
started crying. Ara had been sitting on her bed for a while when
Mum came in. She smiled then. “Waiting to be released from your
prison?”

After her last lock up, she claimed she was
being held prisoner. Her family had laughed at the dinner table.
She wasn’t sure why they found that funny but they often referenced
it in conversations. But she was released on her own recognizance.
She picked that up from Korbet because she told him she was in
prison and asked if it was legal.

“
I’m sure being in your bedroom for an
hour is quite legal.”

“
It’s mean. I’m not going to do that to my
children.”

“
How many children will you have? I ask
because you are going to marry quite a few people and
animals.”

“
Hmmm, not animals anymore they’re dumb to
talk to, and it’ll be over six hundred because I think I’ll grow
big like the Cardinal Unit, although Mum says I’ll be queen size,
but I came from there so I think I will be that big, I don’t like
the stuck up queens and Tekko says…”

He had laughed again and she couldn’t get
anything more from him other than laughter.

Jamie did his usual patrol as Ara and her
family slept. He stood watching Ara’s face as she lay dreaming.
Already her covers were half way down and her arm was flung out.
His eyes had adjusted to the dark but Ara’s room was lit by the
moonlight streaming in from her high placed window. Outside he
could make out the mountains in the dark. He very carefully linked
with her mind, using his implant, and found Marc linked and
directed his voice at him.

“
What do you think you are doing?”

“
She’s starting an Aryan Dream.”

Jamie was irrationally angry but took a deep
breath, and lifted his Voice messaging the team on roster to sever
Marc’s link. He knew that, in the mountain installation, at least
three technicians would be in a flurry to access the CU and Marc’s
EL, following the exergon plasma strand to the branch as it
connected to Ara.

“
What the hell do you think—”

Jamie cut him off.
“This is my job, Marc.
Now leave it while I do my job.”

Jamie sat on the floor next to Ara’s bed as
he felt his team strengthen his own connection, and closed his
eyes. He slipped in behind Ara’s Aryan Dream and watched.

Aryan Dream – Savacia

There was a man sitting on a ledge
overlooking a golden canyon. Forests adorned the plateaus around
but the canyon was rocky and steep. Well below where Ara was
standing, a fast-moving river meandered.

“Where are we?” Ara asked.

The male didn’t seem surprised at her sudden
appearance, but then, it was just a dream!

Jamie had suspected Ara didn’t understand
that this was more than a dream. His suspicions had risen after a
casual comment Marc had made. It surprised him that Pen and Terance
hadn’t picked up on some of Ara’s dreams, instead they would tell
her off for running around the farm at night.