“I know I did, but I stole top secret government material to do so,” Karen said and smiled kindly at Keira. “But, remember, you were always loved and wanted. I wanted you.”
Keira smiled back at her mother.
“I wish I could have been there when you met UBE,” Karen said, changing the subject.
“I miss him,” Keira said as she pulled back her long red hair. “At first, I thought I’d be afraid of him. I mean, I’ve never met someone from the Zeta Reticuli star system before. Those huge black eyes of his look right into your soul. But now I see why you like him so much.”
“He was my best friend all those years ago at Paragon. I think I would have lost my mind without him.” Karen removed the beaker from the centrifuge and looked at its contents. “Did he return to his home planet?” she asked.
“Yeah, after we rescued him. He was being held at Oak Knoll Army Hospital, just like you said in your letter. EBE came in their timeship and got him.”
“What did that look like?” Karen asked, very interested. “I’m curious about how much we got right with our copy.”
“It looked like a silver bubble.”
“That’s not like the Sun Stone,” Karen said with a laugh as she poured the blue fluid into the side of a white machine and switched it on. “Ours looks more like a giant scallop shell.”
“When do I get to go inside it?” Keira asked.
“Soon. Cedric will show you. But you all have a lot of training to go through beforehand.”
Keira shifted in her chair.
“Don’t look so worried. It’s all been taken care of on this end. You just have to fly up and meet Nibiru, and then the ship will deploy the explosive device automatically.”
“And that’s it?”
“That’s it,” Karen said and turned away from the machine to face her daughter. “The ship is preprogrammed. It flies itself to the rendezvous point, and afterward it will return right here to Fort Bragg.”
Keira looked at her mother silently for a few seconds, her eyebrow raised. “Why do we all have to go?”
“Because your individual powers run the ship. Without all of you onboard, the ship won’t function properly,” Karen said and turned in her swivel chair. “It’s like all the parts that make up a cell. It has a nucleus, cytoplasm, rhizomes. All those pieces make up the whole, so the cell can function. Each has its job. Just like each of you. If you take one away….”
“The cell dies.”
“Exactly.”
Keira sat up on the edge of her chair. “I wanted to ask you something else.”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Where does our last name come from? Is it Native American?”
“Ah, that,” Karen said with a gleam in her eye. “That was your great-grandmother’s stage name, Delphine Darkfeather. She was a movie star in the 1930s. All her children have that surname.”
“Wow!” Keira said with real enthusiasm. “Was she in any famous movies?”
“She did mostly low-budget noir films. I don’t think anyone has them anymore, not even Netflix.” Karen took a scrap of paper off her desk and wrote something on it quickly. She looked up at the security camera in the corner and then carefully slipped the note to Keira.
We need to meet before the launch. All of us. Okay?
Keira read the note and crumpled it up and put it in her pocket. She would find a safe place to dispose of it later. Karen smiled at her. Keira nodded. They were both used to keeping secrets from Dr. Albion and Project Jedi. They were constantly being listened to and watched: every word, every movement.
“Should we see what Lumen and Cedric are up to?” Keira asked.
“You go ahead and find them,” Karen said. “I have to finish this little bit of work before I can join you. Ask him to show you the Sun Stone.”
Keira stood up and moved toward the laboratory door and then stopped and turned toward her mother. “I’m glad we found each other.”
“Me too,” Karen replied as she looked up from her experiment and smiled. “You are my greatest achievement.”
Keira blushed.
“You’ll find Cedric in Lab G on the next floor down. Just turn left outside my lab and go down the hall to the elevator. Take it to the Green Level, then follow the green line on the floor to Lab G,” Karen said as she pointed toward her left.
“See you later,” Keira said and walked away.
“KEIRA IS so amazing,” Lumen said as she sat on the lumpy couch in Lab G waiting for Cedric to finish his notes on the latest tests with the Sun Stone.
He typed into an intranet computer. “I didn’t know you liked girls too,” Cedric said.
“It’s not about gender. She’s just super cool whether she was a girl or a boy or whatever,” Lumen said and laughed. “And she’s super pretty too.”
“That’s cool.”
“I really missed you, though,” Lumen said. “I cried for a week when you disappeared.”
“It’s funny how quickly we forget about our freedom of choice and just do what they tell us to do.”
“What do you mean?” Lumen asked as she rolled over onto her stomach.
“I mean, they transferred me, and I just left. I’d rather have stayed with you, but I forgot I had any choice,” Cedric said and hit the Return key to save his file. “It’s so different now with this Nibiru event. We have so much more freedom. We can go on and off the base as we wish too.”
“I know,” Lumen replied. “It’s great not having to wear those stupid cuffs.”
“It’s like they figured out that if they let us go free, we’d come back.”
“I’m only sticking around because Keira’s mom is here, and she wants to stay,” Lumen said cautiously. “And also, maybe, because you’re here.” She got up from the couch and walked over behind Cedric. Without thinking, she sent her thoughts into his mind, trying to figure out if he was a plant for Dr. Albion, just another trap to keep her there. Lumen came up against it immediately. Cedric had taken the pills that block psychic intrusion. She decided another tactic might work better. “So, are you seeing anyone right now?”
Cedric turned in his swivel chair to face Lumen. “Why do you ask? Are you interested?”
“Maybe.” She twirled her finger through her hair.
“We never saw where we could go with it back then,” Cedric said and then put the computer to sleep.
“Plus, we were only fifteen then. We’re seventeen now.”
“Almost eighteen,” Cedric replied and then looked Lumen up and down. He pulled something from his pocket and unwrapped it on the table. It glittered in the lab light.
“Is that a Cube?” Lumen asked.
“Yep. I kept it. I’ve been waiting for the right time to use it again. When I heard you were here, I brought it out.”
“That’s so cool. I can’t wait for Keira to try it.”
“Knock, knock,” Keira said as she rapped her knuckles on the door frame. “Am I interrupting something?”
Cedric and Lumen looked over at the doorway.
“No, not at all,” Lumen said and turned toward Keira. “In fact, I was just telling Cedric about you.”
“Oh, yeah?” Keira walked over and pulled up a chair. “What have you guys been doing?”
“Not much. More preflight prep. But look, Cedric has something to show you,” Lumen said and elbowed him.
He lifted the black cube carefully from the table and extended toward Keira.
“What is it?”
“It’s how Zetans get high,” Cedric replied.
“What?”
“Well, not ‘high’ exactly,” Lumen explained. “It expands your consciousness.”
Keira leaned forward to examine the object. “How does it work?”
“It goes right into the pleasure center of your brain and amplifies that.”
Keira looked at the shiny cube Cedric held between his thumb and forefinger. Then she glanced up at him. He smiled at her. He’s very cute, she thought. It’s kind of wei
rd feeling this in front of Lumen. I hope she’s not reading my thoughts. Keira glanced over at Lumen, but she didn’t seem to notice anything.
“Didn’t you say that Keira can amplify our powers?” Cedric asked.
“Yes.”
“What would happen if we were all on the Cube together?”
“You mean, would she be able to amplify that between us?” Lumen asked.
“Yeah. I wonder what would happen.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Keira said and took the Cube from Cedric. “Where should we do this?”
“Let’s go to the Rec Room at the end of the hall,” Cedric suggested and pointed to his right. “There’re sofas and padded mats we can lie down on. It’s really old school. That’s the perfect place for an experiment. Nice and cozy.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Lumen said as she grabbed Keira’s free hand and gave it a squeeze. They both giggled and hurried out of the lab with Cedric following close behind.
“Which one is it?” Lumen asked.
“The next door on the right.”
Through the open doorway the girls discovered a perfectly preserved 1970s recreation room complete with a sunken fire pit. Green shag carpet ran wall to wall. Potted plants’ tendrils slithered into the corners. Gaudily upholstered benches and huge pillows surrounded the fire pit beneath its metallic hood and vent. Odd shaped mirrors ran the walls like splashes of mercury. The only source of lighting was an assortment of multicolored hanging lamps made from stained glass and covered with delicate filigree. They gave the room an eerie psychedelic glow.
“Oh my God,” Keira gushed. “It’s so cool.”
Lumen looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
“I mean, in a kitchy, retro-kind-of way.”
“I know, right?” Cedric replied.
“It’s like stepping back in time,” Lumen said. “All we need is a bong and some Led Zeppelin.”
Keira laughed.
“They built this Army base so long ago,” Cedric said.
“It sure looks like it.”
“Let’s go sit by the fire pit,” Lumen suggested.
Keira went down the stairs and sank into a huge blue pillow and snuggled in. Lumen curled up on a bench among the overstuffed cushions. Cedric sat on the shaggy floor between them.
“Cedric and I were an item when I first came to Paragon,” Lumen said and winked at him. “He was the first guy I’d been with.”
“I know,” Keira replied. “You told me.”
“I did?”
“Yeah, it was part of your ‘I like girls and boys’ speech when we started hanging out.”
“Just trying to cover all the bases.”
“How long have you two been a couple?” Cedric asked as he stretched his legs out in front of him. “It seems like it’s been a while.”
“Only a couple of months,” Keira said, sweeping her red hair off her forehead and tucking it behind her right ear. She looked over at Lumen. “And I don’t think of us as a couple, anyway. We just really like each other.”
“Yeah, we’re not into all those labels and definitions. They’re so limiting.”
“That’s cool,” Cedric said with a wry smile. “You two ever think of dating someone together?”
“What?” Keira asked and then blushed.
“You mean, us with… you?” Lumen asked.
“Polyamory.”
The word hung in the air between them for a few moments.
“I mean, we’re not like everyone else,” Cedric continued. “Why should we have relationships like everyone else too?”
“It never crossed my mind,” Lumen began to say. “But it is a very interesting idea.”
“One worth exploring?” Cedric asked.
“I’ve never been in this situation before,” Keira said and smiled at both of them. “You are both so cute. It’s tempting.”
Cedric grinned bashfully.
“Kiss Cedric,” Lumen suggested.
“What?”
“Kiss him!”
“Right now?”
“Yeah,” Lumen said. “I want to see what it looks like when you two kiss each other.”
Keira hesitated. For the first time, she felt very awkward in her formfitting white jumpsuit. She was being scrutinized, sexualized. Keira had never been with a guy before. This was all new territory. She looked down at Cedric, who was sitting at her knees. His eyes were bright and warm like his smile. He had nice cheekbones and short cropped hair. He placed his hand on Keira’s thigh. She felt a tingling in her stomach that made her anxious. She leaned down. She parted her lips and kissed Cedric. He flicked his tongue gently in and out of her mouth. The kiss was suddenly happening, and Keira’s mind whirled. He’s such a good kisser. It feels so organic like we were meant to do this. I wonder how it feels for him? Is Lumen watching? Is she enjoying this? Before she could answer her own thoughts, Cedric suddenly disappeared in a hissing cloud of steam. His white jumpsuit crumpled to the shag carpet. Keira stood up from the pillow.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Lumen said. “He just transformed.”
The swirling mist reemerged from the carpet and began to fill the empty jumpsuit. Cedric sat up and rubbed his forehead.
“Sorry about that,” he said, flustered. “Sometimes I have a hard time staying together when I’m having fun. When something feels really good.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Keira said and smiled at Lumen.
“That was intense. When our lips met, I could feel your power surge into me,” Cedric said. “I guess I got overstimulated.”
“It was totally cute,” Lumen said. “You guys look so good together. It made me want to kiss you two at the same time.”
“I’ve got an idea how we can do that,” Cedric said and stood up. He was taller than both girls by about a foot. He sat on the padded bench next to Lumen. He waved Keira over, and she sat next to him on the other side. Keira and Lumen got the picture. They leaned across Cedric’s lap and began making out. Cedric bent forward and joined in, their lips sliding over each other’s, tongues darting back and forth and wrestling with each other. It felt fantastic for them all: Keira’s power amplified the feelings among the three teenagers. Cedric placed his arms around the two girls. They circled their arms around him in return.
Red sparks flashed and popped all around their entangled bodies. A deepening chill filled the room with a frozen hush, as a gentle snow began to fall over them. A wintery draft sent the hanging lanterns swaying back and forth, their twisting shadows dancing along the walls. The snowflakes melted on the backs of their necks, the tips of their ears, and their cheeks as it swirled around them. It began collecting along the benches and left a fine powder over the pillows and the fire pit hood.
Lumen pulled away. “Weird! Our combined powers must make weather!”
“That’s so cool,” Keira said.
“Too cool!” Cedric added.
They all laughed.
“Brrrr! Let me fix this,” Keira said and held up her right hand. Sparks again snapped through the air, and the snowflake flurries turned to swirls of downy feathers that drifted off into the corners of the room. The lanterns continued to sway and cast their rainbows and shadows.
“Do you still have the Cube?” Lumen asked Keira.
“Yeah, right here,” she said and produced it from her pocket.
“Let’s all touch it at the same time, and keep this thing going,” Lumen suggested.
“Yes!” Cedric answered.
Keira held out the Cube. Lumen placed her hand on one side of it, and Cedric did the same on the other side.
“How are we going to press our foreheads up against it?” Cedric asked.
“Keira, press it against yours, and your power will send it out to us.”
“Okay,” Keira said, lifting the Cube and their hands up. “Now what?”
“Press it there and concentrate.”
Keira did as she was inst
ructed. The Cube warmed against her skin, and then it gave off a quick blue electric pulse, a wave of energy. It rippled through Keira’s entire body. She felt it vibrating outward, leaving her fingertips and entering her companions. It felt like unbridled joy, like elation.
Cedric moaned, and Lumen gasped.
“Oh my God! This is so awesome!”
Keira felt their energy returning to her, like waves of love flooding into her body. She closed her eyes and let the Cube drop from her forehead. A flash of light was followed by complete darkness. She was falling into a bottomless well of black. Keira saw a huge mouth opening and then someone, a redheaded boy, ran up to her, but she couldn’t touch him. A glass wall kept them apart. Keira looked out a window to her left. A galaxy spread off into the distance. A red light flashed above her head. Lumen and James were running around in front of her in complete panic. The glass wall lifted, and someone tumbled toward her, falling into her arms. When she touched them, a great flame blazed up around her. Everything burned brilliant orange and searing hot. A sound screamed through the room like the roar of a thousand atoms splitting. She was blinded by the brightness as the raging heat burned her eyes out of their sockets.
Keira sat up gasping and grabbing at her face. Her head had been in Lumen’s lap. Cedric stared down at her from above, his face full of concern.
“What happened to me?” Keira asked, afraid.
“We couldn’t wake you up,” Lumen explained. “I was just about to get your mother.”
Keira rubbed her face and shook her head.
“Where did you go?” Cedric asked.
“Go?”
“Yeah, sometimes the Cube makes you go places.”
Keira sat silently for a moment, letting her breathing fall back into its natural rhythm. “I don’t know. I saw someone, a little boy. I was on the Sun Stone in space.”
“How do you know it was the Sun Stone?”
“I just do.”
“Go on,” Cedric urged.
“It doesn’t make any sense. I saw something that looked like a big mouth opening, and there was a loud noise like an explosion.”
“Weird,” Lumen said. “I wonder what that could mean?”
“I don’t know,” Cedric said. “But it sounds like she saw something in the future.”
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