But then one day–through an exchange between myself and my alternate twin doppelganger, the solitary shard belonging to the Source of Chaos had become lost in the other universe and it made things very difficult for everyone there.
From what I recalled, I would be sent to this universe to search for that shard while my twin remained behind in the other universe.
She knew that the sacrifice would be considerable and she would be out of touch with her family from this universe for a great many years, but Calis and my parents had no choice in the matter.
I was the only one who could be successful in this mission.
What I didn’t realize is that during the last crossover, something happened which blitzed out my memories and made me forget everything about my home, my parents, my family–practically everyone.
I came through the portal as a child lost–not realizing that my twin was supposed to have made the trip back herself while I remained behind.
And so…I grew up here in this universe–believing that this was my family, my friends, everyone I had known since I was a little girl. But every so often, I would wake up more and more confused and trying to get back home–smashing my fists up against the mirror in my bedroom and causing it to crack; breaking the connection between both our shared universes.
And I always believed I would be forever trapped in this one because I could not find my way back. And as the days, weeks, months, and yes–years–wore on, I started to forget about the other me, my parents, everyone I knew.
I started to believe I was her. I was the other Isis McGowan. I did not know that I was the genuine imposter from this universe. And I didn’t believe I was unique either until the accident in which a small part of the shard had been absorbed into my body through both Calis and Tarnek, while the rest mysteriously disappeared under odd circumstances.
Ten years ago…
I was a child from ten years ago!
What happened to me wasn’t my fucking fault!
Why did they insist that I be blamed for the accident which nearly took my life?
If it hadn’t been for Tarnek’s quick thinking…?
I sighed heavily, the tears fading away and I could remember more of what happened in a brief flash of light, energy, intense pain on a scale that dwarfed human imagination…and me–
Waking up days later in my own bed and having no real memories of my own. Of that day. Just a warm feeling in the pits of my stomach. But gradually–eventually–the pain would come back.
Fierce.
Unstoppable.
Ten-fold.
I would always end up crying in agony. In misery. My mom would always be there to console me, but even she didn’t know what to do.
Because I certainly did not.
And the days would wear on. The weeks would change. The months, everything would start getting better–not worse–and I would start to forget again like last time.
But every so often…I would catch glimpses of myself in the mirror. In my bedroom. The hairline cracks. Everything. And I would see…
A distorted image of myself. But with curiously darker, brown hair.
Not the red that I was so used to. And I would always think it was the light playing tricks on me. My tortured imagination. And I would leave it at that.
Then the messages would appear around the house. Wherever there was a small hand mirror. Or a large one. Even at Calis’s workshop.
Messages to me. Messages about me. Sometimes, they would be more. Sometimes…they would be less.
Others would be one word. Joined. The rest cryptic. Sometimes, I would find numbers buried in the words. Others, a straight formula.
I could not make much sense of what was being given to me. What was being shown.
At that point, I thought I was going to go mad with worry. With anxiety. Because of this experience. Because of the million ways by which both our lives might have lived and also died in either universe.
I was definitely not prepared for that eventuality.
Was she? The other me?
I had no way to tell. And not knowing left me feeling empty inside.
Hollow. Alone.
I don’t remember asking my mother about it all that often–except when she gave me some of her patented strange looks and told me not to worry.
“Things will pass when they pass.” She reminded me time and again.
But I think she was trying to reassure me that nothing bad would happen to me while I was here in this universe.
But why would she do that? Why would she not tell me that she wasn’t my real mother?
I somehow started to believe that somewhere between the two universes, my real mom was out there. Along with my real family. My friends. And everyone else that I knew from days past.
I just had to believe. And put faith in myself that things will turn out for the best.
Even if things right now were at their worst.
I can still remember the hushed voices surrounding me, the feel of wires and leads being threaded all across my body as I sank in and out of consciousness.
The murmurs of concern and worry permeated my immediate landscape.
A rebreather mask was fitted over my face. Then came the order to breathe. I don’t remember if I did or not. My mind was totally fried from my recent experience in the bathroom.
All I kept remembering was seeing myself floating before this giant moon shaped object–as it dwarfed the space complex. There had been an exchange of fire. Something was happening. Something bad.
Then moments of peace, calm, and serenity.
Everything came back to me as I felt myself floating on air.
The soft warmth of a blanket covering me.
More voices. Distant this time around. Then absolute peace and quiet.
I drifted off–not sure as to what was going on or what was happening.
But I definitely did not want to wake up. Not when I was this close to heaven.
***
Doctor Arlene Carlyle stepped into the waiting room where she found Fran and Bayen waiting for her.
“It was a bit touch and go, but she’s stabilized now.” The woman reported–removing the Med-I-Band scanner from her eyes and sliding it up on top of her.
It had been four hours since I was admitted into the emergency wing of the hospital complex and brought into surgery to take care of some lateral ruptures and blood loss. But Fran was sure it wasn’t because of the meal that she had made for Isis that was the main culprit. Something else was afoot that the woman wanted to know and she wanted to know everything there was about the incident from the attending surgeon–before Isis was wheeled into surgery.
But the doctor couldn’t spare her any free time for questions–forcing the two to wait. Healer Jensen Ferris came by later with a representative from the Medical Bureau on Level 1458–who came with questions of his own and it was a two hour oral disposition by vid scanner which of course was locked for confidentiality and security reasons.
Then someone from Praetorial Guard’s Liaison’s Office stopped by within the last forty-five minutes to take a record of the day’s events and both Bayen and Fran had to sign security and confidentiality statements swearing them to absolute secrecy over the matter–because it had become clear that something more was going on than just your average visit from a typical surface dweller.
And Fran wanted to know those reasons as well. But she couldn’t get any further information out of the woman other than a promise that her office would get in touch with them at the earliest opportunity.
The shopkeeper nodded, feeling less distraught than she was since she stepped foot inside Coeval Medical.
“I can’t believe everything that’s been happening,” the woman said off hand. “It was supposed to have been a quiet evening. Not a crazy and hectic morning.”
“You can never tell these days to be honest.” Arlene was telling her–taking a seat across from the pair; while noting that Bayen had decided to nod
off a bit in the last hour.
The woman looked at him before nodding. “Well, I’m going to keep this brief so that you two can be on your way.”
Fran looked at the surgeon in surprise.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’re not her mother–am I right?”
“Well, her mother–” the other woman began with fresh uncertainty.
“Don’t worry, we located her and have sent a transmission down to the surface. The Praetorial Guard has given her family special permission to come up and visit the complex for this one time emergency. Then she’s being shuttled back down as soon as she recovers.”
“She’s not taking a sky tube car back down?”
“No. For security reasons you understand. I’m sorry. But I can’t say anything more than that. Suffice to say, you managed to pick up someone that shouldn’t even be here to start.”
Fran was astonished by the woman’s statement. “What do you mean?”
Carlyle sighed. “All I can say is that we’ve been waiting for her arrival for quite some time.”
“We? Who’s we?”
The doctor looked at her for the longest second. “I’m not at liberty to say, Ms. Yelou.”
“Not a liberty or just don’t want to tell me for either government or security purposes?” The woman reasoned flatly.
“Well, you’re not wrong.” Arlene calmly pointed out. “But if you’d like, you can talk to your District Sector Senate representative. I’m sure they would be able to fill you in what’s going on. I would just be breaking my oath and violating my own security clearance in the process.”
“How the hell can one young woman be this important above–”
“–because it is. That’s all I’m allowed to say on the matter.” The doctor reiterated patiently. “But I will allow this one small concession: You and your son will be allowed to come back later today to see her when she awakens. But that‘s all I can legally do at this point. The rest is out of my hands.”
Fran sighed. “All right. I guess I can accept that.” She said, before gently shaking her son awake.
“I-is it time yet?” Bayen asked with a loud yawn of his own.
“Yes. Time to go home.” The woman said.
“What about Isis?”
“She’s in the best of hands. For now.” Fran said without missing a beat. Then she got up and stretched–feeling like her entire body had somehow molded itself into the ergonomic confines of the chair itself.
Bayen glanced over at the doctor whom smiled wanly, before she nodded in silent confirmation.
“Good enough for me.” He said without any preamble. “I was getting tired of all the waiting myself.”
Fran looked at her son sharply, but she couldn’t tell if he was just joking or not. But she decided that caution was on the better side of valor.
So she let things slide. For now.
“I’m sorry if I couldn’t bring you two any better news.” Arlene said at that point. “But the law is the law I’m afraid.”
Fran nodded mostly to herself.
“That much we do know.” She muttered unhappily. “All too well in fact. Isn’t that right, honey?”
Bayen nodded. “Yep.”
“Well, if there’s anything else, I’ll give you guys an escort to the front entrance.” The attending surgeon said, touching her comm bracelet and getting in touch with the complex’s security staff.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
~32~
Fran stepped outside the medical complex with her son in tow–thanking the security guard that had politely escorted them out.
They didn’t get more than one hundred feet from the place when the shopkeeper finally broke the silence between the two of them by asking her son a direct question.
“So what was that back there, Bayen? Normally, you’re more supportive than that when it comes to the general welfare of others–especially Isis.”
“I didn’t want to feel insensitive towards the issue, but I really didn’t want to go tipping off the head surgeon on my day to day plans, either.” Her son explained quietly.
“So you acted like you didn’t care in order to cover up something else?”
Bayen nodded. “Pretty much. Though I am surprised by the news. I thought Isis was just a regular girl. I didn’t expect her to be embroiled in this mess with the Praetorial Senate, the Guard and everyone else with an ax to grind.”
“So what can we do, honey? What can we do to rescue her from this predicament?”
“I have a few ideas. But it would mean getting in touch with my ex.”
“Leona? What possible help could she be of you? Especially considering the history you two share together?”
“Things may have ended on a sour note, Mother, but she’s pretty reliable and dependable when the situation calls for it.”
Fran nodded in the early morning sunlight–station time.
“Well, I hope she listens. But we still don’t have a full picture of why Isis is being treated in this fashion. Beyond the level and need for secrecy of course.”
“Well, I might be able to shed some light on that front. But it’s only a theory.”
Fran laughed at that statement of fact. “Ever since your father died, it’s been anything but.”
“Mom…I know how hard it’s been for the two of us to be kept out of the loop when it comes to the Praetorial Guard, but not all hope is lost. I still have some connections and a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“Does any of them involve breaking the law again?”
Bayen shrugged. “Can’t say. The skies have ears you know.” He said, nodding upwards.
“Honey…you can’t keep living your life as a law breaker. Even if it’s for the greater good.”
“Well, my customized web disrupter was good enough to uncover information about the legendary Starchild of Ancient Lore–wasn’t it? Or how about the time when we came into possession of those tomes?”
“I thought we wouldn’t speak of such things, honey. Especially considering how much trouble went into getting them in the first place?”
“Oh, I know,” the older man was quick to say, “but you can’t dismiss what’s been happening as of late. Things have started to get really interesting around here since Isis’s arrival. It’s probably been the best break in this tedious cycle which we haven’t had in quite awhile.”
Fran couldn’t reject what her son was trying to tell her at face value, but she couldn’t easily dismiss what she had seen first hand, experienced later on at her place, and then…this.
“I honestly don’t think this is the kind of break in the action that we’ve been needing, Bayen. Isis’s arrival has…thrown things completely out of whack for everyone.”
Bayen sighed heavily. “Yeah. I know. But once I get home, I have a plan to fix this problem smart quick and get her out of that hospital before the Praetorial’s Secret Guard Division gets a hold of her.”
“The black ops division? Why would they want her?” Fran asked in quiet disbelief.
Her son looked around for the longest second. Then he said: “Because it has something to do with the legendary Starchild of Ancient Lore.”
The shopkeeper snorted. “Oh, that again. It seems as though everyone is hung up on that old legend.”
“But the tomes–” Bayen quickly interjected smoothly.
His mother shook her head.
“It doesn’t matter what the tomes say. There hasn’t been a whiff of the legend in almost ten thousand years. Not since before the Fall of Man from what I remember.” She argued blithely.
“Well, what about now? What happened in the kitchen the other night? What would you call that?”
“I wasn’t there to see it, honey. Only going by what you told me later on.” Fran said. “But I’m still not putting all my money on one stupid legend–even if there is some connection between Isis and what’s going on.”
“Still not a believer–
huh?” Bayen threw back unhappily.
“Look, baby, just because you are doesn’t mean I’m a devout follower of the legend.”
Bayen went quiet after that. But he kept walking just the same for the next few minutes.
Fran noted his sudden change in demeanor and put a hand on his arm.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to come out that way.”
Bayen shrugged her off gently.
“It’s no real loss if you ask me.” He responded quietly. “I suppose there will always be some of us in this space complex that still believes–even if you don’t.”
Fran shrank back a bit from his scathing words.
“That’s not being fair, honey.” She charged unhappily.
“Like what dad said when he was alive: ‘Life is rarely fair.’ ” The older sky dancer returned without missing a beat.
“Yes, he did say that, but I don’t think he would easily apply that sentiment to this unusual situation.”
“Perhaps not, but what else is there to go on? What history? Life itself?” Bayen countered knowingly. “If we forget about the roots of our past–as painful as it may be–we literally have no future to look forward to.”
“Bayen…I don’t want you to go chasing shadows again–on either my behalf or Isis’s.”
“That may not be up to you to decide, mother. I am of age.” Her son reminded her aptly. “And I don’t feel like leaving Isis to the mercies of the Praetorial Guard–especially given her current state.”
Fran slowed down–meeting up with the corner structure of one of the closed sky tube terminals. She paused at the deactivated access platform and sighed heavily.
“I lost your father once because I put too much faith in him and his abilities to see the day through. You have had one too many close calls with the Praetorial Guard than I can count. Don’t do this to me again–not when things are just beginning to settle down.” She implored of her only flesh and blood.
Bayen paused for a moment to take in the sights around him.
“Mom…if we don’t do anything about Isis’s situation, we’ll lose more than we ever dared hope. I know you don’t want to believe in the myths, the stories, and even the legends themselves–but some of us haven’t given up on them.”
The Starchild Page 25