Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (36 page)

Iota

Station: Perza

Galactic System: Sarato (Spiral Galaxy)

Planetary System: Saratoga

Homestead

Jamie was relieved that her work for the Saratoga
Wildlife Park had become a stepping stone and it was still good
that she was offered a dream job while waiting for her application
to become a Planet and Systems Engineer to be approved and
organized. Caleb was already almost done with his hundred-year
Spatial Anomaly Apprenticeship and Jamie knew that irked Ara. While
Tara continually tried to stall her own growing up to match Ara’s
slow one, Caleb continued his life. Ara had, of course, loved Tara
all the more for that, but urged her to live her life. For a
hundred years Ara would have to study and work under Kavela, the
Aryans’ only Planet and System Engineer. His teams were already
preparing the way.

Security for Wilds had been tricky. The
entire planet was a wildlife resort, breeding institution, and
rehabilitation for all kinds of animals. When Tara joined Ara on
Kovac his staff had paid up their bets to him after he declared
Tara would follow her. Of course, they had moved too, leaving a
small contingent on Saratoga for when Ara went home to visit, like
now, for her Virgo. Jamie was back on Saratoga and looked at his
watch, aware of some tension with Ara’s parents. He met with
Terance.

“Jamie, come in.”

Ara’s father handed him a schedule on a
tablet.

“The Koen are coming on those dates. I wanted
to give you plenty of warning. Three. One is Karu, the Adonis. He’s
interested in Ara and I believe Kavela suggested him for Ara’s
Virgo.”

Jamie did not approve of Terance’s
involvement with the Koen. But, again, it was not his place to
protest unless it endangered Ara. Jamie did not approve of Kavela,
the illegal Pure-Gen with the crazy sister, Sibella, who they
believed were under the influence of the Establishment.

He felt as if a hand squeezed his heart.
“Very well. We’ll prepare. What level of contact is Karu to have
with Ara?”

“All going well, they are pre-approved for
TAP, and then Virgo.”

“Does Ara know?”

The male blushed, his dark eyes wary. “Not
yet.”

Jamie kept his face passive. “Is there
anything else?”

“No.”

Mountain Installation

Jamie visited the command room, accessing it
via the back of his cabin in the mountain. “What do we have on Karu
Gravlon that’s not public?”

“The Adonis?” One of the females giggled and
quickly turned to find the information seeing Jamie’s stern eye.
“Everything. What do you want?”

Jamie tried not to smile then. Viki was a
challenge but always found what they needed. She was their
logistics expert. Many years ago, Jamie stopped asking where she
acquired stuff.

“The usual.”

She smiled. “Well … let’s not start with his
history as it’s his involvement with the Koen that is more
interesting and relevant. The Koen are a branch of Avatara fighting
to improve the conditions of Earth but not stop the experiment.
They also envisage a time when Earth will be merged with Aryan
Society, but the other mainstream Avatara want genocide.”

Jamie groaned as he listened.

“Cut the crap, Viki. Jamie knows all that
shit.” Diane strolled in and shook her head. “Just give Jamie what
he needs, as I already prepared.”

Viki pouted but brought up the much shorter
presentation. “There. You can read it yourself.”

Diane’s hazel eyes held an apology. Jamie
rolled his eyes and read Diane’s succinct report. After he read it,
he turned to Viki. “Did you get the dagger?”

She jumped up and brought him the intricate
box with satin-covered weapon and silk rope. He almost discarded it
but remembered that, as the boss, he had to allow for some
variation. “Thank you, V. Nice packaging. Excellent dagger.”

She smiled then, winking as she left. “Ara
will love it. I’ll send it off now.”

Jamie walked to his office, seeing it empty.
He blinked and then remembered it was being redecorated. He headed
down the passage and found his new office. Most of his things were
in boxes still. He moved to the back of his desk finding most of
the essential things in place.

He palmed the GELpad on the desk because he
wanted to access the military files on the Cardinal Unit. Marc’s
idea of how to work Sacha’s idea about the honeypot had been
building in Jamie’s head, interrupted because of her and their move
to Kovac. If Ara had been some kind of draw card, her security
would have to be increased. But then while Maya had not sent out
any Cardinal Sentries that did not mean she wouldn’t do it in the
future to protect her Mobile Unit asset. But once that happened the
trap would be triggered and what did that mean for Ara?

The first thing he did was to access the
matter level records. Yes, they were still rising and reaching the
levels that might trigger genocide. His fingers paused over the
keyboard and then he cursed. “Nuts!”

A laugh made him look up.

He jumped up. “Diane, no time for laughter.
Ara was sent to Wilds by Maya.”

She moved out his way and ran down the main
passage into the command and control room. “Jamie, we’ve got—”

“Listen everyone. Ara was sent to Saratoga
for a reason, to draw those in Iota curious as to her purpose. We
all know it’s somehow linked to matter levels. Think of honey
drawing bees. I believe that Maya sent Ara to Wilds for another
similar mission.”

“What’s the panic?” Diane asked. She looked
bewildered.

Jamie calmed himself. “The panic is that,
while the trap was near invisible until Sacha worked it out from
Maya’s manipulation of Ara, it won’t be so invisible now. People
who were worried about Ara being on Saratoga—”

“Will be worried about Ara being sent to
Wilds.” Kyle finished for him, nodding. “Once is fluky, twice is
spooky.”

Jamie and a few others chuckled at the rhyme.
Diane’s hazel eyes were wide.

Peter said quickly, “We’re going with your
gut?”

Jamie stared at him and nodded. “We are.
Better safer than sorrier. The fact is the Cardinal Unit is only
downloading data Maya wants it to, and she’s not above deception.
Get moving. I want increased security. I want scans of the planet
itself. I want to know what exactly they do on that planet that’s
not public.”

“Got it, boss.”

“On it.”

“Roger.”

Diane nodded. “Right. But why Ara? Why not
just… Oh, a CU sentry is too obvious and scans will be detected.
Ara’s like an injured queen bee.”

“Or because she’s a Pure-Gen it confuses the
purpose behind what Maya is doing?” Peter added. “Ara may be, for
example, a new model that Maya is designing.”

Jamie nodded. “Or someone is actually messing
with the Cardinal Unit using the Mobile Unit for their own
purposes. Listen, we can storm this out later. It’s not going to
hurt ramping up security. Now, get on it.”

Diane watched with him while everyone got
busy. “Has the trap been sprung yet?”

“This is putting Ara in greater danger but,
no, I don’t think so.” For some reason Jamie worried that Aven was
working against Marc in some way, that Aven was the Snakes’ helper.
He watched Diane head off to her desk in the center of the activity
and contacted Marc.

“We need to talk about Aven.”

“Jamie, I can’t.”

“You told me that Aven hated Ara. What
lengths would she go to in order to hurt her?”

Marc’s voice was dull over the Voice. “Not
kill, I’m sure of it. But maybe harm or hinder. But why would she
do that?”

Jamie considered extracting from Marc. It
would be painful but necessary. “I want you to come in.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Marc?”

“I can’t work against my own sister!”

“I’m not—”

“Don’t bullshit me, Jamie. I’ve known you for
a long time now. Don’t play those shitty games with me.”

“Marc?”

…

“Marc?” Jamie swore again as he hung up.

Diane wandered back to him reading from an
EBrain. “Jamie, this says that there has been no unusual communique
from Maya—that we know of. So she must not want the trap sprung
yet, and may play it down for some years until those worried about
Ara’s move relax a little. But those responsible for matter growths
won’t think it’s a coincidence, which makes me wonder if Maya is
being dumb or very smart, so they’ll try to move whatever it is
they are doing off planet, destroy it, hide it, or use it—” she
frowned at something “—which may be what Maya wants. It can’t be
just a warning because Maya would send down a data burst… Oh,
that’s why you think it’s someone interfering.”

Jamie considered this and studied Diane’s
face as she continued to read. “You’ve made good points. Contact
the warlords and brief them. We’ll need to watch all the space
routes. We’ll leave it up to them to bring in AM, AG, and the ACA.”
He looked around seeing harassed faces. Most had been working full
shifts already. “Peter?”

The blond head appeared over a table ledge.
He’d been connecting something. “Yeah, boss?”

“Bring in the Fifth Wheel. We’ll need
them.”

“On it. I think they called themselves the
Third Wheel with Ara’s motorbi—” he saw Jamie’s expression “—never
mind.”

“And I want Sacha and Ersen in here too.”

“I’ll do that.” Vicky walked into the command
room with tray of steaming drinks. A few cheered her.

Jamie took his cup off the tray. “Thank
you.”

“I’ll get them here a.s.a.p. and call in my
logistics team.”

A few hours later, Diane entered Jamie’s
office where he was debating if he should try to warn Ara.

“You know who should know what’s going on?”
she said with a challenge to her voice.

“Ara?”

Diane slumped on one of the chairs in front
of Jamie’s large, wooden desk. One of his early attempts. “You’ve
already been considering it.”

“I’m going to—” His Voice interrupted him. He
lifted it, seeing the familiar name on the screen. “Korbet, nice of
you to call.” Jamie studied Diane on the other side. She was
already dozing off, only a little intrigued over the timing of the
call. “Uh huh. Hmmmm—” he listened carefully as Korbet talked
“—alright. Bye.” Jamie saw Diane’s eye open. “We’re not to tell
Ara.”

The other eye popped open with concern.

“Relax, Maya sent a data burst to
Korbet.”

“Why him, and why not us? We’ve got
equipment, implants—” She waved her hand vaguely in the air.

Jamie laughed. “You need to get some sleep.
Write Korbet up on our Consociation of Eight.”

This time Diane did wake up properly. “He
told you?”

“He said I wouldn’t believe him if I didn’t
know that.”

“Well, that’s interesting. We’ve identified
three now, possibly five.” Her eyelids drooped again. “Some …
greater … purpose—” She yawned and fell asleep.

While she snored with her chin on her chest,
Jamie organized for an Avatara spy to get up close and personal
with the Adonis. He had to prepare for Ara’s Virgo as well. He
didn’t want another Ike incident and at least this was more
concrete, not like the crap with Ara being a honeypot.

Finally, he contacted Trickster who made some
alteration to his cerebral implant—using some strange spidery
looking piece of technology that would connect to his ISVoice—and
had given him a number to call him on. Jamie had laughed at first
seeing the number but Trickster was quite pleased with his joke.
“No one else can use it.”

Jamie had rubbed his head from the procedure
as he looked at the unsmiling man. “Any restrictions on when I can
call you?”

“No restrictions, Jamie Raner.”

Now Trickster’s voice held a surprised tone
as he asked, “Did Ara not tell you?”

Jamie fumed. “No, but you should have. You
yourself said she was like a child at times. You are—” Jamie
unclenched his hand from the paper he’d scrunched “—it’s my fault.
If you want Ara to pass on messages then it’s important enough to
come to me directly. I never explained that to you. Ara is my
charge, and until she is trained she is considered ineffective to
be used as part of the operation. Understood?”

‘I understand, Jamie. As Sentinel, I accept
your decisions on this. I will not make that mistake again.”

“Good.”

After Trickster, Jamie called Merlin, Caleb’s
nephew. “I have a favor to ask.”

“Are you asking me as a friend or a
warlord?”

Jamie considered this and said hopefully,
“Both?”

Merlin laughed. “Alright, go ahead.”

Iota

Station: Kovac

Galactic System: The Eye

Planetary System: Wilds

Ara’s Home

“Home at last!” Ara parked under a tree and opened
the jeep’s door to breathe in and out deeply, happy to be home
smelling the sea air. It surprised her she didn’t miss mountains
but her coastline view was quite rugged. Three of them had been on
a conference and just arrived back having used Wilds transportal
system.

Tara stepped onto their wooden pathway, which
branched up, to head to her home. Kee nodded to Ara following after
Tara. “I’d wave but”—he gave her a helpless look of a man sadly
overrun—“I’m sorry I couldn’t help you with your two small bags,
Ara.”

“No problem, Kee.” She laughed at him, with a
bag in either hand, two strung on one shoulder, another—his one
bag—on the other shoulder. Tara was lugging up two bags as well. It
had been a little bit embarrassing checking out of their
accommodation and lining up in the public terminus to get back
home.

Tara yelled back. “Very funny. Come on, it’s
starting to rain. I don’t want my new outfits getting wet.”

Ara waved and headed down onto the solid
packed dirt path, winding around the cliff. The ocean was rough
this late afternoon and curling waves crashed with great splashes
onto sharp rocks jutting out from the rock platform. She headed up
the path, now getting wet from the rain, seeing her home around the
corner. Her view was of the ocean and cove. Tara and Kee’s was over
the top on the plateau, but Ara couldn’t see them, and their view
consisted of the plains and forest. Kee was visiting but Ara
suspected he’d move in soon enough.