Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (17 page)

“Honesty, Terance. Where is she now?”

“In the boys’ section.” Her dad’s voice was
bored.

The family rarely went to Toga City, the main
northern city, preferring the beachside city. Usually they stopped
for hot chips and spent some time at the beach. As Ara was dragged
back into the girls’ section he wondered why Trickster hadn’t
stopped them from placing Ara in a baby biosuit. He was sure he
could have, or transferred the Vanguard into an adult biosuit and,
while he expressed his concerns to Cobra, Viper, and the Chaos
Brethren, they all told him it didn’t matter, that they needed the
time to prepare to get out of the Alien Crucible. He had found data
that revealed Maya had been injecting Ara with a chemical to keep
her Sawol and Nexus in line with her biosuit’s age, but not her
Superlunary component. Tarus wondered if it had to do with the
Chaos inside her.

He pulled out a blue shirt, finding it too
big; he’d have to search the teens’ section. For some reason,
during the splitting stages of their Triad, he’d kept the blond
hair and blue eyes but was only five three and of slender build.
The shirt hung on him so he returned it to the rack but found
another rack of smaller sizes. He took three shirts of varying
colors and styles, trying them on in front of a mirror over his
blue t-shirt. In the reflection, he smiled as he watched Ara stomp
her way into the girls’ dressing room. He hadn’t noticed her
corrupting at all, not physically or mentally, and was puzzled by
that. Had Trickster added something to the biosuit that helped Ara?
It made sense because Nyx was doubling up on missions in an attempt
to make good use of her Vanguard’s time while Nyx herself was
hidden in the system. After being placed in the baby biosuit, as
well as the Vanguard, Nyx baby had disappeared but nothing said
that Nyx had to engage with them at all. There were no rules after
all. Since Trickster was rarely with the Vanguard, they assumed he
was with Nyx, determining Nyx’s primary mission—was the Alien
Crucible causing too much suffering?

Staring out at the domestic scene, with Ara
now allowed to go to the toy section with the boys, and grinning
like a loon, he struggled to see the “suffering”. But it was
prevalent, simmering under the nice veneer of Aryan Society. And
when he compared it to the Consortium in the Void, who left their
doors unlocked—if they had doors—where there was enough for
everyone there was an obvious drop in quality of life in Iota
especially. Their days were filled with making life better, more
enjoyable and spending time alone or in company. The main pursuit
of one, or more, of the Five Expressions—consisting of the so named
Arts, Literature, Music, Dance, and Plays—was considered a
necessity in life. Each one of those had special significance and
meaning in their lives. Everyone had to take part in the basics
such as agriculture, education, sports, games, and such like, and
there were no major conflicts, and no wars. Of course, that’s why
there were test sites in the—

“You should wear that blue one.”

Tarus blinked, finding large, blue eyes
staring at him in the mirror. He nodded and took off the grey one
draping it on the chair while his heart pounded. Once he’d put it
on, and fumbled with the buttons, he locked gazes with her
again.

Ara nodded and smiled. “See, that looks
nice.”

Even at eleven Ara was tall, almost as tall
as he was. She was wearing baggy pants, sandals, and a halter top,
evidently hoping for that beach trip. That was when he noticed the
bruises on her arms where the Avatara had gripped them. Rage filled
him but he quickly suppressed it.

“Thank you. Do you work here?” He smiled at
her, confirming in his mind now who she was. Tarus was relieved
when she giggled, very much a young girl still.

“No! I’m a farmer.”

“A farmer?” He smiled just a little. Chaos
had backwashed again, making Ara younger.

“She eats all the farm stuff.” Ashley burst
through some racks, pulling at Ara’s arm after eyeballing Tarus.
“Come on, Dad said we can go to the beach today.”

“And fish and chip night after?”

Ashley pulled a face. “If we are good.”

Ara groaned but glanced back. “Bye!”

“Bye.”

It was good her brother was protective of
her. Like Ara, Ashley would be tall and slender too, and the pang
he felt watching them leave hand in hand reminded him sharply of
when they used to do that when they grew up. As Tartarus, he had
loved her from the start, but their love would and could never be.
Nyx hadn’t allowed it to bloom.

Pen and Terance were adding the clothes to
their account. He took another side-long look at Ara before heading
out. He flushed slightly thinking of the change he, Cobra, and
Viper made to Nyx and the Vanguard’s genotype. He heard Ara
laughing again, and the three ran ahead of Pen and Terance, who
were holding hands, as they headed for the beach. Tarus worried for
Ara too. The pressure on her regarding being the Mobile Unit would
mount. She must be bothered about it even as young as she was. He
would apply a little pressure to Viper and Cobra to tell her she
was more than the Mobile Unit. His EBrain beeped at him and he
pulled the tablet-sized device out of his bag. Aryan technology
wasn’t too bad. He touched the screen to activate it, and flicked
through the data that made him fearful. He called Cobra using his
sleek new Voice—it was oblong, blue colored with a small screen and
white touchpads that sat nicely in his hand—and told him.

“Alright,” Cobra said with disbelief. “Just
to clarify, every time we behave dishonorably the Chaos Entity has
shifted in the Safeguard?”

Tarus flushed at his tone. “I know what it
sounds like.”

“If you mean it sounds like you are trying to
fuck us with that crap, you are right…”

He held the Voice away from his ear and tried
to get to a quieter location, he ducked down an alley as Cobra was
now yelling at him.

“…one job, all you have to do is steal the
Artifact and switch it out. If you fail, the Natal will shut us all
down. Get it done!”

Tarus pressed on the “end call” icon, leaned
on the wall and closed his eyes.

Marc was used to the steely gaze of Jamie and
Diane by now. At least Jamie had calmed down. He’d been ranting
about Ara being attacked by Ike even though Ersen had taken care of
it and the CU logs she’d been receiving but they couldn’t do
anything about those. Marc had always suspected Jamie had been
through something serious when he was younger but he never talked
about it, not now, not on the Repco, or any of the times they had
been stuck on rangers together travelling long distances. While Pen
and Terance took the kids shopping, Marc had agreed to this
meeting.

“What?” He saw them both staring at him.

“You have to show her this.” Diane waved the
EBrain in front of his face. They were sitting in her office in
Saratoga City. It was filled with mostly dark brown furniture and
blue carpets but colorful abstract paintings lined all the
walls.

“That’s Dad’s job.” Even to his ears, he
sounded petulant.

Jamie looked amused. “He told us to tell you
that now you are activated in her protective detail it’s your
job.”

Marc leaned over and accepted the EBrain. He
couldn’t really complain. He’d asked for it. “So, she needs to
check this before she goes anywhere, does anything, and before she
farts?”

“Pretty much.”

Marc lifted his eyes to Jamie’s. They both
remembered Marc’s rude rendition of what Jamie could and couldn’t
do on the Repco. Diane glanced from him to Jamie but kept
quiet.

He sighed and nodded. “Alright, I’ll give her
the speech and show her the code.”

Diane’s hazel eyes held her relief and a
smile broke out on her oval face. “Thank you. Now that she’s
getting older we need to make more and more adjustments.”

Ara’s mountain climbing had been the toughest
to roster but Jamie had found several climbers and designated them
the climbing detail. Rather than have one team follow Ara around
they had several, which allowed for specialization and less fuck
ups. While most Pure-Gens had protection details, Ara’s was over
the top. Her “Mobile Unit” designation, the instructions from Maya
for her to be protected, and hints of Ara’s main purpose linked
somehow to matter levels rising created tension amongst all the
races. No one wanted genocide or for the Maya to release antimatter
from the Cardinal Unit. By the time Marc left and decided to walk
to his car in the outskirts of town, he was feeling tense himself.
He was glad Jamie hadn’t asked him to contact Aven. Every time he
did, he had to put up with Aven’s scathing comments about Ara, and
digs about his own betrayal.

Homestead

Marc drove home along the main road, and
waved to a few people along the way. Slowly sprawling homes with
smallish properties gave way to farmland and shortly he turned
right onto the windy and long, dirt driveway that led to their
home. He parked under the homestead in one of the open carports and
sat for some time. Finally, he got out and walked up the steps that
were dug into the hill and attached to the side of the homestead.
It didn’t take long to find Ara and he drew up a chair by her nook
while she packed up her homework. Math by the looks.

“Ara”—he placed the EBrain down in front of
her—“this is a security communication that you’ll need to check
before you do anything or go anywhere.” He glanced at her seeing
her stare at him, not at what was appearing on the EBrain monitor.
“Ara?”

“Are you a guard now?”

He sat up a little straighter, hearing her
tone as being genuinely interested. But Marc knew her too, she was
a practiced liar. Suddenly, she was grinning. He laughed lightly
and draped an arm around her slender shoulders.

“Come on, sis. What do you think?” He tapped
a finger on the monitor.

Ara turned her attention to the EBrain and
nodded. “I won’t use—”

Anger filled him; his mental touch became
aggressive, surprising them both. “You will use it and you will
report to me or Dad.”

Tears filled her eyes and shame filled him.
“Ara, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” But he did know.
Aven had been particularly scathing of Ara, telling Marc he had
given up most of his life for her and for little thanks. That
wasn’t Ara’s fault. Marc had made the choice and for Pargo’s sake,
she was only twelve.

Ara sucked in her lips, trying to control her
tears.

He felt a complete jerk especially after how
brave she had tried to be after Ike.

“I meant I won’t use it in that format. I’ll
forget to look at it. I’ll make a color coded holo stream so that
I’ll notice it.” She flicked her finger over the data and nodded.
“I’ll add an alert system too so that if I forget to look it’ll
beep. A recognition scanner or something. Tekko can help me.”

Marc swallowed the lump in his throat,
grateful Ara was trying to breach the awkward gap that had formed
between them. “That’s a great idea.” He didn’t know what else to
say and withdrew his arm. He should have mussed up her hair as he
usually did but, for once, Ara had acted more maturely than he
had.

That night he tossed and turned in his bed
thinking of Aven and their last mission together. It was just
before he had speared off to help with Ara, just having learnt the
Maya had fabricated the baby. For some reason he couldn’t remember
why it had been so important. But it had to be important, surely?
Because he had left Aven to complete the mission on her own. And
that had been a grave mistake and, even now, Aven wouldn’t tell him
the details of what went wrong.

Ersen, her Aether brother of the Nexus sHe, sat on
the bed behind her. Ara had learned that Ersen’s real parents were
Senta and Kel. His ability to fight Ike made sense now and his
reluctance to explain how he did what he did. Sacha’s real parents
were of the Sawol, and they were named Nalia and Craig. Marc said
she had to keep that secret after releasing that data for her. He
helped her to modify her Inner Guardian and barricade to place the
data into a special neural network with gates. In the end, Ara
developed a program and neural interface because it was easier for
her to use technology than use her Aryan mental prowess.

Ersen was waiting while she studied herself
in the mirror. He had his sandy hair cut again. He was almost
finished with his apprenticeship to the Aryan Government as an
Administrator for Space Ways Org. His office was always filled with
model rangers and mapping systems, which was handy because Marc was
now a fully qualified cartographer, just branching out to
space.

“Three hundred and eighty-nine.”

“So precise?”

“Well, if no one interesting presents for my
Virgo then it may be give or take a year or two. But I drew the
information from Maya. That’s what she says.” She was now taller
than her parents and everyone in the family except six-foot
Marc.

She straightened her dress again. “It’s a
jungle party. Are you sure this is alright?”

“I’m sure.”

Marc popped his head in. “You look nice,
party?”

She looked back at herself. She was almost at
her full height, leggy, at five eleven. Lithe figure honed by hours
of climbing every month. She was too thin, but strong. Her boobs
had developed slightly, but she feared that was it for them. Caleb
was more into hunting than climbing but Terzon and Tekko often
joined her, so did Ashley. Oaran was a Second-Gen prince with a
brilliant mind from the queen’s palace and had started joining them
too. He was a sweet male and smitten with Ara. Too smitten. It got
Caleb’s back up. She wasn’t sure whether it was because she got on
well with the lower Gen or that Caleb himself was feeling insecure
with her.