Fractal

by Rachel J Mannino

  “I know who the Protector is, but who is the Initiator?”

  Oman raised his head and turned his eyes toward the door. A second later, the door to the room opened. She twisted around to see Faycen escorting Varick and Hannah down the sloping center of the room.

  She fought the rising frustration bubbling in her throat. She needed more time with Oman, more time to understand what he said. Anna didn’t know when this man’s opinion began to matter so much to her, but she found herself taking apart every word as she waited for Varick and Hannah to reach her.

  Varick approached, eyes alight. Hannah, on the other hand, seemed as perplexed and uncomfortable as possible. Faycen bade them sit beside her. Then he pivoted away and left. Varick bowed low, and took his seat while Hannah sank onto her cushion, her eyes narrowing as she gazed at Oman.

  “Greetings, Varick and Hannah. I have waited such a very long time to meet you.” Oman bowed low to them.

  “Greetings, Oman. I am honored to be called before you.” Varick mirrored his bow.

  “It is I who am honored to be with you, Protector. For you are the guardian of our future. You have protected and sheltered the Vadana as the hope of our people. Keep her safe—guard her well, and let nothing stand between you and this duty.”

  Varick nodded, his brow furrowed in contemplation. Oman surveyed Hannah. He met her wary frown with a cheerful smile.

  “Hannah, the Initiator. The universe has not forgotten you. Your part to play in this journey will reveal your truest self, and all will know you for who you really are.”

  Hannah sat up like prey sensing a predator. Every muscle primed to move at a moment’s notice. “What sort of game is this old man? I am not one for riddles.”

  Oman erupted into a fit of laughter, his chest heaving. The melodious sound echoed off the walls of the chamber until it boomed in their ears. His laughter wound down to a musical chuckle that mixed with the soft lapping of the lake beside him.

  “The universe spoke true—you are ever one to speak your mind.” Oman clapped his hands. “There is no riddle in my words. I know no more than the universe tells me. All I know is that if our world can be set right, all of you will play a pivotal part. The time is almost at hand.”

  “You’re wrong. I won’t even be on that planet. Our ship won’t even enter the solar system.” Hannah launched to her feet, fists clenched

  Oman smiled a knowing smile, and Hannah stiffened. Anna was seconds away from grabbing Hannah and wringing her neck. Only Oman’s good-natured response held her in check.

  “I know not how you get there, but I know if you are to succeed the three of you must be there to do it.”

  “No,” Varick’s voice was flat and stern.

  Oman’s eyes widened in surprise. He frowned for the first time

  “I will not let Anna anywhere near that planet. It is far too dangerous. I will go myself if I have to, but not her.” He sliced a hand through the air

  Oman shook his head, his frown deepening. His age caught up to him, the wrinkles on his brow and at his eyes deepened to sharp ravines in the dim light of the cavern. “It will not be this way, Protector.”

  “No, you’re wrong. You just told me to protect her and keep her safe. Now you tell me that I must let her go to the science station’s surface. Absolutely not.” He slapped his thigh

  “Varick,” she hissed.

  “No, I will not.” He faced her, his eyes blazing in the dim light. “Neither of you will go there. I will not allow it. We will find another way.” Varick bounded up off the floor.

  “Protector, if you will not allow this, then all is lost,” Oman pleaded. “Please, you must—”

  “We will find another way. We should be leaving.” He held his hand out to her.

  Anna caught Oman’s horrified expression. Worry settled deep in her chest. How was she going to accomplish her mission now? Oman’s alarm became a silent plea as he stared at her. Anna took a deep breath. She would have to find a way through this mess. “I’m sorry.”

  She accepted Varick’s hand and he hauled her to her feet, refusing to let her go. He dragged her along as he stalked out the door to Oman’s room, down the entire length of the corridor, and outside, with Hannah trying to jog behind them the entire way.

  “Varick.” She tugged on his hand. They attracted the attention of the soldiers and crew as they sped past.

  Varick refused to part with her hand until they were ensconced in her room. Once there he pulled her into his arms and refused to discuss anything to do with Oman.

  Chapter Nine

  “No,” Varick said.

  “Has that become your favorite word now?” Anna glared at him over the crisilum plant she was repotting.

  “No.”

  She let out an exasperated sigh, and sent her eyes skyward. They were alone in the atrium. It had been a week since they visited the oracle. “All I’m saying is that we should at least consider what Oman said, not that we have to do it.”

  “I have considered it. It is impossible for me to protect you on this mission, and therefore, it isn’t going to move forward. I will go. You and Hannah will stay.”

  “What if it isn’t dangerous? What if there is nothing on the science station to cause us harm?”

  He answered with a derisive snort, as he paced by her worktable. She took off her gloves and tossed them onto the table before she intercepted him mid-step. Gazing up into his eyes, she laid a hand on his chest. “I’m just saying it might not be dangerous anymore. Decana built us the shielding device, so we’re safe from the experiment’s radio waves. Other than that, no one has set foot in this science station for more than twenty-five years. The chaos that erupted there could have killed everything there. There might be nothing left that is dangerous or harmful.”

  “But we won’t know that until we land there.”

  “So then send out a scouting party. If they find nothing to worry about, then you and Hannah and I can go down to the surface. Perhaps that’s how Oman saw it as a possibility to begin with.”

  His eyes narrowed in on hers. “If it is dangerous after all?”

  “Then we find another way.”

  Varick offered her a half-smile. He slid his hands into her hair and tilted her face up to his. He imparted a long, passionate kiss

  “Varick. Someone might see.” She clutched at his breastplate.

  “No one ever comes up here.”

  He kissed her again, stroking her tongue with his. Clinging to him, she pressed her fingers into the hard muscles of his shoulders. As he kissed a path down her neck, he pushed her up against the wall of the councilman’s storeroom.

  “Let’s take this to my room.” Her voice came out in a breathless whisper.

  “Whatever you wish, Your Majesty.” A wicked grin lit up his eyes.

  He let her slide down his body until her feet touched the floor. Then he took her hand and half-jogged with her until they got to the elevators. Varick slammed the door to the elevator and pressed a few buttons before they shot downward toward her floor.

  After they left, Captain Fayn stepped out from behind a row of bushes. He grinned to himself.

  ~ * ~

  “Varick, how could you be so foolish?” Councilman Meroca shouted.

  Varick flinched.

  “Not only did you bed our one and only sovereign, but then you have the nerve to romance her in public? You’re flaunting one of the highest laws our world has.”

  He studied the councilman’s desk in silence, his heart sinking with dread. Meroca must have seen them together in the atrium. He had barely finished making love to Anna when the councilman interrupted and demanded that Varick come to his office. Varick had hoped it was a matter of disciplining a member of his guard, but now his thoughts veered toward despair. Councilman Meroca paced behind his desk, unable to look at him

  “You have disappointed me, Varick. Thoroughly, incredibly disappointed me. To think that you, of all people, would be ambitious enough to climb
into the Vadana’s bed. Do you think you’ll gain status or power out of that?”

  “That was not the reason,” He snarled, standing up. “I won’t listen to you accuse me of that.”

  “Then exactly what was the reason for your lunacy?”

  Varick shifted on his feet. He didn’t want this to be the first time he admitted it, but it was the only truthful reason he had for being with Anna. “I love her.” His expression softened as he gazed at the councilman. “I didn’t mean for it to happen, but I…fell in love with her.”

  “You love her? Oh, well, that makes everything all better, then.” Meroca sneered at him.

  He scowled. It was too raw to have the councilman examining and poking fun at his love for Anna. He tensed. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  “Perhaps not, but it did happen, and I am at a loss for what to do about it. If we were at home and our world was at peace, then you can damn well be sure you’d be in jail right now awaiting your execution.”

  Varick didn’t move, he hardly breathed. He glared at Councilman Meroca and gritted his teeth.

  “Yet, Oman made it clear to me that you, the Vadana, and Hannah were all necessary to restore Dahrel to the greatness it once was.” The councilman paused in his steps and lifted his hands.

  He let all the air out of his lungs, and his shoulders relaxed just a hair. For the first time in a week, he was embarrassed about how rude he was to Oman. “Then you don’t mean to have me executed?”

  Meroca contemplated him for a long moment. “No, I do not.” He shook his head. “But your affair with the Vadana must end today, or I will ignore Oman’s warnings and change my mind.”

  “Then it is better that you have me executed today. I cannot imagine my life without her now.” Varick balled his fists against his sides.

  Councilman Meroca leveled him with a stern look. “Sit.”

  Varick sank into the chair. The councilman dropped down into the chair across from him and folded his hands, his final argument written across the frown lines of his forehead and the cold stare of his eyes. He braced himself.

  “Where do you think this love will end, Varick?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “What do you expect to happen? I can see that you care for her. Suppose that she loves you just as passionately, and suppose that we all survive this mission and our world is reunited. Where does that leave you? Do you expect to marry her? To have a family with her?”

  His gaze skittered around the room. He hadn’t thought that far. He didn’t think beyond the pleasure of her company and the impending exploration of the science station.

  “Again, suppose that we are successful in our quest, and our people are all called home. You and the Vadana are in love with each other. The Council returns to the palace in full measure. Once all the joyous celebrating is over, the first task the Council and the oracles will take up is finding the Vadana a husband. He will be a councilman. He will marry the Vadana. Tell me, will you protect her then? Will you protect them both, as your duty calls you to do?”

  He gulped down the bile forming in his throat. The councilman weaved a sickening vision together. The thought of Anna with another man, any man, made Varick hot and cold and filled with dread.

  “Will you, Protector, stand watch at their bedroom door while he makes love to her?”

  His eyes snapped to Councilman Meroca’s face in horror. Anger tensed every muscle in his body

  “Will you watch as her body grows heavy with his child? Will you be there while she gives birth to his son or daughter?”

  “Enough.” Varick shot out of his chair. He paced away from the desk—away from the horrible visions pouring from the councilman’s mouth. He leaned against the wall, touching his burning forehead to the cool metal.

  “We don’t even know that any members of the Council have survived. No one has heard from their ship or seen them in decades.” His voice a strained, miserable whisper

  “Can you afford to take the chance they have survived? You can barely imagine the outcome. How much pain will you endure to live it? How much pain will the Vadana have to endure to live it?”

  He closed his eyes against the tears that formed. This was crueler than death—Meroca’s soft-spoken words ripping his heart out.

  “I know that you did not mean to fall in love with her, Varick. I only wish to protect you and the Vadana from the incredible pain that I know is to come. It is much better for you to end this now. The more this illicit affair is allowed to grow, the harder it will be to face the inevitable.”

  His throat closed. He couldn’t reply. He fought the rising tide of his emotions with all his strength

  “I need you to swear to me that you will end it today, and you will never let it rekindle again.”

  Varick faced the councilman, his limbs weak and heavy. He met the older man’s eyes with such sorrow that Meroca winced. “I swear it.” He choked on the words.

  The councilman rose and came around the desk. He placed his hand on Varick’s shoulder, and Verick hung his head. “You’re doing the right thing. It will save both of you a lifetime of pain. Now go. We will speak of this matter no more.”

  ~ * ~

  “I haven’t seen or heard a word from him in two days.” Anna spoke to Hannah as she paced the floor between her dining table and the door. “Two days.”

  “Maybe he’s busy.”

  Anna scowled at her. “That makes me feel a whole lot better.”

  Hannah shrugged. “He is preparing for a dangerous mission.”

  “But for him to say nothing to me? To not even leave me a note?”

  Hannah let out an exasperated sigh. “Okay, so if you want to see him, why don’t you find out where he is and go to him?”

  “That’s not my point.”

  Anna stopped pacing long enough to cross her arms. She had been on edge since Varick had failed to come to her room two nights ago. Since they had become lovers, he hadn’t gone a single night without holding her in his arms. Why was he absent?

  “The last time I saw him, he was on the way to Councilman Meroca’s office, and…” She trailed off as the breath caught in her throat. Her vision blurred as the blood drained from her face. It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.

  “What? What’s the matter?”

  “The councilman. When he called for Varick, he sounded angry. What if he found out, Hannah? What if they…what if they executed him?” She gripped the thin fabric of the dress over her heart

  “No, they wouldn’t do that. Councilman Meroca? I’d have a hard time believing he’d kill a fly.”

  “Varick said they would. They wouldn’t even tell me. It was the council’s decision alone.”

  “No…” Hannah said, shaking her head.

  “I have to go find him.”

  Anna’s heart hammered in her chest as she raced from her room. She sent a silent prayer to whatever deity governed this vast stretch of space that Varick was whole and unharmed. She didn’t know what she’d do if he wasn’t…

  She ran to Varick’s door so fast the door barely had time to recognize her hand print before her body pressed into it. The door disappeared and Anna stumbled forward into the room. She wobbled for a moment then regained her footing and took in her surroundings.

  Varick’s room was sparse, utilitarian, smaller than her own, but with similar metal and purple coloring. A bed rested in the right hand corner. Instead of a dining table and chairs, he had an “L” shaped desk. There were two chairs placed in front of the desk, and one chair on the other side of the desk in front of a computer terminal. Varick sat there now, staring up at her, startled.

  “Where have you been?” She cringed inside. She hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, but she had just gone from terror to shock to relief, and now finally anger in the space of a few minutes

  He stiffened. “I’ve been preparing for our mission to the science station.”

  His expression shuttered. The hard line of his mou
th drew into a frown. It was wrong. It was all wrong. She shouldn’t have gone looking for him. Her heart froze in her chest.

  “These preparations must be taking up a great deal of your time if you can’t even come to bed.” Her vision narrowed, and she crossed her arms

  Varick cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. “I don’t think that I will come to your bed anymore.”

  A dagger of ice sank into her heart. “Is that so?” Her voice didn’t waver or give away the slightest hint of the emotions raging inside her

  “Yes. Our…affair was foolish. It should’ve never happened.”

  Anna trembled with pent up rage. He was breaking it off with her. His callousness words grated every nerve. He was tossing her aside like some cheap harlot. She raised her chin. She would not let him see the pain he caused as he tore her heart in two. She would give in to her rage first. “Yes, I suppose your right.” She adopted a polite smile.

  He sucked in a breath. Ha. Yes. He probably expected tears and pleading. Not from her. She wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. “I suppose it was just a matter of convenience, our affair. It was fun while it lasted. But you’re right, it’s time we put it aside.”

  The color drained from his face. “Yes, exactly.” His voice came out as a cracked whisper.

  She gave a sigh of feigned contentment, and then flashed Varick a predatory smile. “I’m glad we cleared that up. I’d been meaning to tell you the same thing for days. I thought you cared for me, so I held it in check. But now I see that I was just another lover for you as you were for me, so there’s no hard feelings. Have a good night.”

  She spun on her heel and left. She waited until returning to her room before she crumbled into Hannah’s shoulder and tearfully related the entire conversation.

  Chapter Ten

  The next morning, Varick winced as the clapping in the control room commenced. Anna was making an official visit to buoy the spirits of the crew as they approached their solar system. The moment was historic, momentous even, but he wished he were anywhere else in the universe. He had a raging hangover, and every time his eyes rested on Anna, his heart squeezed in his chest.