Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (40 page)

“I have someone I need to know more
about.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll draw up a contract—”

“No. Allow me to do you this favor. Contracts
are lodged at the Planet of Law. Some things you need to be …
private.”

“Okay, it is—”

“I’ll contact you.” He lowered his arm and
took her hand. “It has been a lovely evening.”

“Thank you, Balin.”

He kissed her knuckles.

In that simple interaction, Ara learned about
awareness, covert actions and gathering intelligence. She tucked it
away in her mind, in her “Baby Girl” file, not offended by Balin’s
blunt directives.

***

A few years later, Ara was invited to be a
part of the Wildlife Rescuers and Rehabilitation Unit, WRRU, or WAR
Unit as they liked to call themselves. Like all moves, it meant
starting from the bottom and working up, something she had no
problems with. Nor, apparently, did her team of Denn, Xavier,
Karan, and Leoan. Ara suspected now they might also be doubling up
as some kind of protection unit but when she asked them they just
laughed at her. Xavier, who rarely talked, was the one to recover
first. “Ara, we like you. And, we work well as a team.”

Karan added, sounding annoyed, “We can’t work
as a team straight away though because we will be divided to work
in separate teams as we are learning.”

Ara put her worries to rest. Now, armed with
nets and tranquilizers, she was allocated to a team and they set
off using transportals, something they had to teach her upon her
first arrival because most of her life had been spent on Saratoga
and her Aryan Pure-Gen training had been limited. Because it still
excited her, they gave her charge over the device. While thrilled
with the responsibility of looking after the team’s travel it
annoyed her that she was able to use many of Caleb’s techniques
he’d talked about to capture the animals. On a rare visit, Caleb
fixed her strawberry looking techcon and Voice, with some
amusement, and she worked to save the wretched animals caught in
floods, fires, some abused, and other natural disasters. It was
rewarding work and they used slow release techniques to reintroduce
animals to the wild. However, some were too injured or old to
release so they lived with the teams in special enclosures.

Caleb wasn’t her only visitor over the years,
and she saw Bel, Terzon, even Jadan once or twice, family members,
and friends. Jesran came a few times, once with his latest
girlfriend. Her biggest surprise had been when Jesran bumped into
Karu. Jesran was into females and, as far as she knew, Karu was
too. So they both turned red and got busy at the bar, with females.
Ara and Balin had watched with some amusement. She’d even kept in
contact with Vin, and the others from the bar Ersen had taken her
to visit after Tricia’s Virgo. Unfortunately, thinking of that
particular visit to the bar triggered memories of Ike attacking
her. She rubbed her arms unconsciously feeling the pain from where
he gripped her. Ara shuddered and tried to move her thoughts along.
Mum and Dad often came and stayed for a week at a time, Dad usually
helped out with some of the farming animal enclosures they had. As
she worked her way up, she kept in contact with Korbet, requiring
advice about prosecuting abusers and those negligent. She also
helped set up special technologies, which Wilds was becoming famous
for, that tracked released animals and followed up complaints from
those concerned over an animal in need.

“Are you sure you want to go down this path?”
Korbet asked her over the Wilds ISVoice system as she sat in her
office. She had him on speaker.

“Yes. Thank you for your advice.”

“You are gaining a few fans here on the
Planet of Law.”

She laughed. “Nice to know.”

“Everything is signed off. Your campaign can
begin.”

She ended the call from Korbet and set aside
her ISVoice. Why did he always seem a little amused over her “Save
Earth” idea? But he was so helpful and supportive that she knew
whatever his reasons, they were honorable. Her WRRU team gave out
some
woots
and they called up the Aryan Broadcasters
Association. The ABCA arrived and the team leader was given a
makeover. Sacha had been disappointed that her team couldn’t
come.

They began to film in what was usually an
emergency operating room. It was being renovated but the lighting
was exceptional. Then they went out into the Wilds parklands with a
woodlands backdrop.

“This is Tasha Cain reporting direct from
Wilds. Today we are meeting with the Wildlife Rescuers and
Rehabilitation Unit, or WAR Unit as they like to call themselves.
They have begun a new campaign to help restore the planet Earth to
its former glory.” She turned to Denn. “Tell me about your new
campaign. We didn’t know the Earth test was near completion.”

He smiled into the camera, his light brown
eyes looking darker. “It’s not complete, Tasha. But what we are
doing is preparing for the day when Earth is to be welcomed back
into Aryan Society. Won’t that be a day to remember?”

“It will.” Tasha smiled into the camera.

“What we are doing is ensuring we aren’t
going to greet the humans empty handed and we call on other special
fields to do the same … but let me show you our first critter. It’s
a mammal from the Americas and it’s what we call a Zoion Template,
a process that has been carefully developed by our resident
specialists, Ara Katron from Saratoga Perza, zoologist, Tara
Delario from Xoria Prime Avalon, biomechanical developer, Robia
Latun from Vage in King’s Horn, specialist in breeding and seeding
and…”

Iota

Station: Perza

Galactic System: Sarato (Spiral Galaxy)

Planetary System: Saratoga

Ara was invited—via the Wilds to Saratoga public
transportal terminals—to Queen Silvia’s where Kavela wanted to meet
her and then show her his life’s work. After sixty-five years and
the Wilds broadcasts, she was surprised to hear that Kavela still
wanted to see her for planet engineering. The last campaign was
passive positive again, talking about how wonderful it would be
when Earth was free, thus putting the idea into everyone’s head
that it would be free. For this visit, he wanted to show her the
schematics from design to actual creations, he wanted to take her
to see some of the machinery on Kios. After her arrival, one of
Silvia’s staff picked her up and drove her to the palace. She sat
in the back of the long vehicle and listened to some music.

Kios was in Orixa Station, a large universe
with heavy elements. The station had four hundred and seventy-eight
million systems so, considering there were only just over sixty
billion in all of the Iota worlds, Aryans were spread pretty thin
even though many worlds were uninhabited. Aryan anthropologists did
not yet understand why the Eighth Race, mainly in Estancia, were
often grouped in towns and cities despite land being available for
all, along with effective transport. The Aryan Military had
operations in all worlds too, as Ara learned, and operatives, so
there was pressure to comply to the Aryan Laws and Aryan Society
mores. Bel told her that Estancia may have been all but ruined by
the last Regional Queen and Province Kings, and while initial
anthropological findings confirmed that fact, it was also
interesting to see how independent planets and their governments
rallied to protect themselves while still open to free trade and
Aryan Laws. They had rebelled, not against Aryan Society, but that
particular queen and those kings. Upon her arrival she greeted the
queen with a warm hug, a little surprised that the elegantly
dressed Silvia had been waiting at the top of the steps.

“Ara, it’s so good to see you. I’m sorry we
couldn’t bring you by means of our personal terminus.”

“It was fine. Thank you for arranging my
travel, my Queen.”

Silvia was dressed in a long, dark blue,
gown. Her auburn hair was long and she smelled like roses. “You may
call me ‘Silvia’, Ara.”

When Kavela finally stepped through the
shimmering arch, his eyes went immediately to Ara’s but he greeted
Silvia first and bowed to her. “Queen Silvia, thank you for
arranging this meeting.”

“You are most welcome, Kavela. I hope you
will be joining us for breakfast.”

“I appreciate the offer, Your Majesty.” He
looked back at Ara with a smile. “Ara, it is good to see you again.
We have never had the opportunity to speak properly. Not since our
little lunch date.”

Ara was nervous but she kept her smile bright
even while being annoyed at his “little” comment. “Thank you for
this opportunity, Kavela.”

He bowed his head graciously.

Silvia smiled at Ara. “Come along.”

Kavela stepped in line with Silvia but Ara
watched in fascination as his blue plasma stream immediately
searched out hers and they entwined. He glanced back now and then
as they walked through the wide passages, admiring the new
paintings Silvia had ordered. She suspected he couldn’t control
their connection and hoped in a way he didn’t want to. Kavela
turned to smile at Silvia. The queen was traditional in her beauty
and elegance, soft, oval face and warm eyes, while Ara felt a bit
provincial.

“You’ve been working at Wilds, Ara?”

She gave him an odd look. Was he playing some
game with her? She was sure Karu kept him up to date on what she
was doing, and if not Karu then the Cardinal Unit was fond of
sending data bursts to all Pure-Gens about her. “Yes, for a hundred
years now. I still work as a jeweler too. I make animal jewelry
based on the species I work with.”

“That’s right; Karu said you were managing
the breeding department.”

She gave him a withering look. “I was in the
breeding department seventy years ago, now I’m managing the WRR
Unit. But I have breeding on my mind.” She said with a lift to her
voice, and a hopeful sound.

“And she studies.” Silvia chuckled at Ara’s
last comment.

“Hmmmm, I’m a bit concerned over your
diversion from mechanics and engineering.”

Silvia laughed now. “Don’t be, Kavela.” She
slipped an arm under his. “Ara has technologized the entire planet,
and helped design—including upgrades—all the planetary defenses.
Her Robotica units are being adapted for many planets and spreading
over the stations.”

“Ah, I’d heard about those. What do you do
with the old models, Ara? Do people contract for them?”

“No, they are kept in a secured location,
even used at times.” That wasn’t any of his business.

“I wasn’t aware you’d been a major designer
in that project.”

Well, duh. “I thought it would have
interested a planet engineer,” she said tartly.

“Now, Ara.” Silvia glanced behind her again
but this time with a wink. She looked back up at her guest.
“Kavela, our Ara keeps low key.”

Ara almost gave an unladylike snort. At that
moment, Kavela looked behind and she smiled brightly. A small smile
played over his lips, and she maintained his gaze until he broke it
off with a smile.

“Somehow, after seeing several Wilds
broadcasts with our Ara sharing the ‘good news about Earth’, I
doubt low key is in her vocabulary.”

Silvia laughed gaily but Ara wasn’t fooled.
After spending a few days with Saratoga’s queen, Ara was aware of
several games played at court. She was having second thoughts about
the whole queen thing. Silvia made it look easy but Ara knew she’d
be struggling to be polite, and attentive, and a bunch of other
stuff. After breakfast and chit chat, Ara grew bored and impatient.
Kavela noticed and excused himself, kissing Silvia on the back of
her hand. A more intimate gesture for royals was kissing on the
palm. Ara wondered where he’d kiss her.

Kavela’s Mobile Space Station - Currently in
Perza

During the tour of Kavela’s labs, and then
the main space vessel he worked in which was currently docked with
his mobile station, Ara stood close and hung on his every word.
Wearing sensible boots, pants and a long-sleeve tunic, she was
careful to listen to the safety advice, and to ask before touching.
She made herself a captive audience, eager, and asked good
questions that Silvia helped her prepare.

“Don’t just ask about engineering, Ara. Think
much broader than that.”

“Like what?” She stopped chewing her
meat.

“The technology he uses, contract complexity,
laws, considerations regarding the cultural needs of a
species—”

As Queen Silvia continued to teach her, Ara’s
respect for the queen grew, while her own interest diminished.

Kavela was explaining some of the contract
complexities right now and she tried hard to stay focused. Still,
she felt tiny next to him, which was a unique experience being
tall, and found herself studying him, or his body, as much as the
machine and equipment. They moved to the observation deck, watching
the drones prepare a multilayered planetoid for an expansion. Ara
was glued to the screen, intrigued with the work. He smiled. “Why
don’t we sit down, Ara?”

Hmmm, planetoid expansion or possible Virgo
discussion? Ara struggled. But as he moved to a comfortable chair,
just big enough for two, she joined him. Their legs touched as she
turned to ask him questions. After a few, he volunteered some
information.

“Ara, I also feel that you should be fully
initiated into Pure-Gen Society, and take your place as queen, and
make your claim on a world, or worlds. It is our way.”

He was so very appealing to her. She was
aware he was watching her, waiting for something. “Pardon?”

He sighed. “You are like an impatient orphan
child; Pure-Gen life is slow, not rushed.”

Anger replaced her infatuation. “I’m happy
with my life, and I’d like to be a planet engineer.”