Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (48 page)

Ara snorted.

A. I’ve got enough on without searching
but—

K. Ara?

A. It might be a love story

K. Or a horror

She splashed him and he pulled her under by
the feet.

That night, Ara tossed and turned alone in
her own bed.

She kept waking up hearing noises, and
creeping around the large room thinking someone was sneaking
around. All she achieved was scaring herself even more.

Ara spiked her exergon line.
“Korbet?”

…

He’d been asleep.

Korbet asked,
“Ara, what’s wrong?”

She felt stupid, and scared.

He seemed to pick that up.

Her Voice beeped making her jump and she
picked
that
up.

“Ara, how much of that time in the Perza
nursery do you remember?”

Should she tell him Maya had been fogging up
her mind? She decided not to. “Something about Purity’s Bridle, um
… your mother treating you like a baby.” She listed a few other
things.

“Mostly things where I had strong feelings.
Listen, you have plenty of guards.”

“But I … I think there’s someone … um …
dangerous after me, here, on the planet. He must be a Pure-Gen or
had that procedure.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“Ara, I’m going to have one of my guards step
out of the shadows. You’ll understand when you see it. Alright.
Don’t panic. They are Aryan Pure-Gen Vampires.”

Ara almost laughed, thinking he was teasing
her, but her memory again sharpened and she saw a form in the dark
pop out of the air almost, step forward and stop in front of the
bed. The woman was tall, slender, and Ara thought she had dark eyes
and hair.

“Hello Ara. I’m Saffron. My husband and I
have been your guardians since you were a baby. We will not allow
anything to harm you.”

Ara sighed and nodded as Saffron stepped back
into the shadows. Vampire? Earth had strange ideas about them.

“Ara?”

“I saw her. Thank you.”

“I think you are scared at the moment. We
know the two males you are worried about and they are nowhere near
you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good girl.”

She couldn’t even be bothered arguing.

“Get some sleep, honeybee.”

The next morning, gritty eyed still, Ara walked with
others up the broad marble stairs and moved in between the massive
Swords of Peace. Their society was built on Upper Trust, meaning,
while everyone had arms, peace existed. The Lower Trust had failed
as inevitably someone would want what the unarmed person had. But,
as Zarti had pointed out yesterday, this only applied to the Eighth
Race in a few places. The way his dark eyes had captured hers she
knew he was talking about Estancia, it had the highest crime rates.
Ara had learned Estancia had risen to 25% corruption while all
other stations were sitting under 4%.

However, agreed upon duels existed for a
slight, a contract broken and if the person had sufficient skill,
otherwise it had to be submitted to the Planet of Law. Duels had
simple rules, no projectile weapons and first blood drawn was the
winner. Killing was prohibited. All duels and results had to be
registered in the Planet of Law Duel section. Seconds could be
used. Ara went off on a fantasy of dueling over something, or Caleb
and Kavela dueling over her. She tripped, flushed, and cleared her
mind of stupid fantasies. But a type of crazed frenzy crept into
her mind making her want to laugh at all kinds of things. Trying to
control her growing sense of chaos, she stopped for a moment, and
she leaned on a pillar. She closed her eyes and tapped into the
Strike, the filament. It burned inside her for a microsecond but it
was enough to steady her.

Entering the massive lobby, statues of judges
lined the walls. Ara was directed to the left, up more stairs,
through a narrow opening and took her place at the very end. She
was on a row by herself. She was the last one ever made. Maybe
she’d always be on her own on this row, or there might be six other
Aryans after her—farmers, all of them. She giggled and clamped her
hand over her mouth. She then noticed a few Aryans were shrouded in
dark cloaks and hooded. How rude. Unless they were the registered
special guests and were disfigured from being bombarded with matter
and energy. How awful for them.

But she giggled again.

A shrouded figure entered her row and sat
next to her. She was one of the special people apparently, and she
knew her position was particularly dangerous. Ara felt her
heartbeat and his. It was her guard. He had undergone the treatment
because she could see a change in his energy, it was much brighter.
Fighting between the urge to giggle and cry was tough. Unable to
bear the thought of him going through that for her, she had to act
impervious, not wanting people to see her cry or hear her cackle.
Ignoring him, she looked down and around at the thousands, knowing
thousands more were looking in from their stadiums unable to attend
in person. She had been told only royal Pure-Gens attended this
main indoor stadium, but many weren’t royal, had Korbet made sure
she had people here that she knew? That seemed likely. A clanging
somewhere started the proceedings.

A tall figure rose on a central dais and
began to speak. She could see his face on her small monitor. Ara
kept telling herself that this was a court that held to high
ideals.

“Aryans of the Horizon, Maya has triggered
the Genocide Protocol. Exclusions include Pure, First, Second and
Lower Races.”

Silence filled the room.

A small whimper left her lips as her first
thoughts were of Tara who was classified as a Fourth-Gen. The
cloaked figure leaned over. “Be strong, Ara. I am with you.”

Would he die too? Lower—that was animals and
plant life. Was that why she was on Wilds? So, everyone in between?
Tara? Her parents? Siblings? Was that why Maya had disconnected
from her? Ara waited for information such as why it was triggered,
how they could address the issue, how to resolve it, and then vote
on the best solution. But people were already leaving the room.

Fear clutched her heart.

What was she the Mobile Unit to, the Cardinal
Unit or Maya, or something else? What was the other? Her mind
refused to work … the Chaos Unit? The sudden connections to
Trickster and the Quadrazaads alarmed her.

Trickster had said she might need Chaos one
day.

To what? Carry out annihilation?

She’d die before she’d do that.

Or to prevent it?

K. Breathe, honeybee

She almost laughed hysterically over Korbet
using short ArT. She slid her hand over and her guard gripped it.
His hand was hot to the touch. His thumb ran over her hand while
Ara sat stiffly in her seat, glued to it. She jumped as doors
slammed somewhere. Vinicus had said there would be time to consider
it. Consider Genocide? So, she’d be okay, Caleb would, and all the
plants and animals, but surely they weren’t serious? It was a way
to end the Avatara war she supposed; no doubt that would come up in
the arguments. Did that trigger the vote?

A laugh escaped her lips.

As she stood, her guard released her hand and
stood, leading her out. She numbly wandered back to her room and
found more books waiting for her.

Her support group met up with her in her
room.

Ziana and Zarti watched her pace around. “But
… how can Maya just decide on Genocide and we just vote on it? It
knows nothing about compassion or love or negotiation.” Hadn’t Maya
seen that through Ara’s eyes?

“Ara, we think you were the negotiation.”

“But I didn’t do anything!” She cried out,
clamping her hand over her mouth. “And if that was the case, I
failed. I would have protected the Eighth Race, not brought them
ruin!”

“That was the point we think. Maya drew data
from you and whatever it found allowed it to make its decision, or
trigger the program.”

“Something happened, Ara, in your life that
triggered it to end the function of the Mobile Unit, you. Can you
think what that might have been?”

She was appalled that she may have caused
Maya to consider genocide. Odd how they thought she wasn’t the
Mobile Unit now. Had they received a data burst? Thinking of odd
things, the only thing that was odd in her life was that court case
in Delario’s house. Raising it now would be useless. Knowing that
it might have changed things might have been useful earlier but
what was clear, genocide was on the tables. “There was something
but it won’t change anything.” She stared at them all. “I can’t
believe that was the only trigger. How does it … do it? How will—”
she paused for a moment almost calling Maya “she” “—it carry out
genocide?”

“It releases the Chaos Unit and then
antimatter. Once a race was used and armed with antimatter weapons,
we aren’t sure if that will happen again. But antimatter will be
dispersed somehow.”

Chaos Unit and the Proxy? The Jungar?

What if someone were to take control of
those? Could it be controlled? Was this why Kavela was acting
weird?

Ara opened up another book. “This says that
if matter reaches and stays high, the Maya must trigger antimatter
but there is a program that offers Pure-Gens an option that allows
them to save themselves … but why kill so many? There must be other
ways to reduce matter? We’re spread so thinly through Aryan Space,
surely we could antimatter a few planets and their systems instead?
The book said the Proxy was a unique species of Aryans who could
wield Chaos and handle antimatter, they are called Jungar.”

They stared at her.

“And why not send a transmission that
instructs us to reduce matter?” She had heartburn and clutched her
chest.

“How, Ara, and how would you decide who to
kill and who to allow life?”

That raised her fears again. “Our
anthropologists say Estancia have densely populated towns and
cities. We could do the same.”

“Ara—”

“So you’re saying that a general sweep is
better? And why is it so high? Why not reduce the trigger point and
then—” All those logs now started making sense. The figures on
matter levels … she’d been getting the readout for years. And Maya
had tried to balance it. But there were jumps in the scans, maybe
she didn’t get them all.

“Ara, we Pure-Gens are responsible for
maintaining it, if we don’t we must pay the penalty. That’s why we
have ten top queens and kings. It is a part of their duty.”

What a stupid system! “And penalty? Then we
should be exterminating us, not the others, the top ten, since they
failed?”

“I believe that can’t happen. We are all
linked in some way, it’s not just the units of matter but the
energy is connected too. If we die, they all die anyway.”

And yet animals and plants were different.
Had her stay on Wilds been some kind of way to work out how to
disconnect them from genocide? And why?

“How convenient,” she muttered angrily but
vaguely remembered Caleb telling her how energy was linked for
everyone to communicate. What did he say? She was like a big, fat
neuron. At the time she’d been worried he thought her fat. And then
Bel had told her to claim Earth and set up her kingdom with kings
to guard her space. They would filter down from her. So were those
links from Maya’s CU rearranged to be reconnected to and through
the queen? That would mean the queens were more than just space
guardians and administrators. There was an actual somatic and
exergonic and endergonic exchange. Then she stared at them,
wondering if that’s why they were being her friends. Shame filled
her with that thought. “Are you … all… Do you know what you will be
voting for?”

They bowed their heads.

Vin stood up. “Ara, that is private—”

“Damn it, Vin! You will all know how I
vote!”

Zarti nodded. “She’s right. But, Ara, we
cannot influence you.”

There were supporting nods.

“But you said that there would be debates and
discussion.” She stared at Vin.

“I was told for you that is incorrect.”

“We came to tell you that you must be
isolated. Ara, there are guards—”

Ara ran out and heard them calling behind
her. She ran to find Kavela but heard raised voices inside his
room. She went to leave when the door flung open.

“Are you sure it took?”

“Yes, it took. I checked, the virus…
Ara!”

Audrina, red faced, left with barely a
nod.

“Come in, Ara. This must be a shock for you
as it is for us all.”

She entered and he offered her a cool drink.
She’d barely sipped it when the guards stormed in.

Kavela stood and stepped between her and the
guards. “No need to panic, she is just finishing her drink.”

Ara put it down, barely able to swallow the
fluid in her mouth.

Kavela put his hand on her shoulder and
squeezed it. “They’ll look after you, Ara.” He lifted her chin. “If
you need anything just call.” He brushed her hair from her
face.

She walked and nodded to him while he was
blowing air out from his cheeks. Special Planet of Law officiates
took her to a new set of suites. But her guard was with her. They
directed her to a dark and sleek vehicle, driving them part way up
the first mountain. It was like a perch overlooking the entire
courthouse and blocks. Reluctantly, she climbed the steps and two
carved, wooden doors swung open. Silent attendants waited. She made
to step through to luxurious rooms. Her guard told her to stop as
he checked the rooms. Ara guessed he had already ordered that but
was doing it for her sake to make her feel better. Besides, while
he was in there someone might attack her outside. She felt him
brush her mind, he was
blushing
.

He re-joined her.

“It’s alright. It’s the thought that
counts.”