The Universe Parallel

by Traci Harding

  ‘I knew Lucian would have accompanied you if he could have,’ he whispered and squeezed her in return. ‘And after a day in the bio-lab with Ringbalin’s tundrell, I could, so I did.’

  That’s where you were. She recalled that Zeven had been nowhere to be found on Chailida the day before she’d departed, but he had shown up on AMIE to kiss her goodbye. Obviously, after learning of her plans to travel back in time, Zeven had hatched his own plan to accompany her, and the fact choked her up with emotion.

  ‘You’re my best friend.’ Zeven began to tear up himself, as he attempted to explain his reasons. ‘You were the reason I left Sermetica for Kila, and you are the reason I left there for here. I can’t explain the connection I feel to you, maybe it is genetic, I don’t know —’

  ‘You mean you didn’t do this to get laid?’ Taren teased him, but the query was not entirely irrelevant.

  ‘Well … although I have always felt we are far more suited to each other’s lifestyle, and doubly so now, sex was not my primary motivating factor,’ he had to admit.

  Taren was surprised and most curious. ‘What, in the world according to Starman, could possibly be more important than sex?’

  Zeven looked her straight in the eye. ‘I love having this Power. You help me channel this Power into beneficial endeavours, unlike the secret service. Bottom line … I want to be on your team, Taren, that’s it.’

  ‘Bravo.’ Taren was touched and very, very relieved on many levels. ‘I —’

  ‘Did I not mention that crew members confined to quarters are not permitted visitors, without prior consent from the captain?’ Aurora strolled in, looking very perturbed to find Zeven and Taren locked in a close embrace.

  ‘Give us a break, Aurora,’ Zeven said, as Taren pulled away from him, embarrassed. ‘We are friends from way back.’

  ‘From secret service days?’ Aurora asked, having overheard the end of the conversation, and Taren was horrified.

  ‘No,’ Zeven denied the accusation. ‘The MSS are the enemy.’

  ‘Prove it?’ Aurora challenged, believing the claim was impossible to confirm.

  ‘All right, I will,’ Zeven called her bluff, and softening his stance he approached her to appeal, ‘what I am about to show you could end my career —’

  ‘No, Zeven, don’t —’ Taren urged him to reconsider spilling the beans, to build the suspense — she knew they could trust Aurora, because Aurora adored Zeven.

  ‘Aurora’s cool,’ Zeven assured Taren, ‘I don’t think she would ever betray me to the MSS.’

  ‘You know how this project feels about the secret service.’ Aurora took the bait and more than willingly stepped into their circle of confidence. ‘You may piss me off ten times a day, but I’d never betray you, Starman, and especially not to the MSS. Tell me, what’s going on with you?’

  ‘Okay.’ Zeven beckoned her closer, and as Aurora curiously complied, the pilot placed his arms around her. ‘Are you ready?’

  Aurora was very much enjoying his confession so far. ‘Yes,’ she replied with great anticipation, whereby Zeven vanished across the room with her.

  ‘Ahhh!’ Aurora jumped with fright away from Zeven when she realised they had shifted location without moving. ‘How did you do that?’

  ‘I have a secret,’ he explained, his eyes appealing for her mercy, but he need not have worried.

  ‘Yes, you do,’ Aurora agreed, bursting into a huge smile and hugging him tight. ‘I’m just so glad you’re not a spy.’ If Zeven had a Power, there was no way he worked for the MSS, or he would have been restrained.

  ‘Me too,’ Zeven assured her. ‘And neither is Taren, Lucian has it wrong.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Taren was not surprised but she was disappointed. ‘Lucian thinks I’m a spy?’

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ Zeven advised. ‘That’s why I am here, to tell you that because you would not tell him who the spies were, he felt the only way to catch them was to bait them himself.’

  Waves of fear began reverberating through Taren’s body. ‘Please tell me he has not ordered you to get a sample.’

  Zeven shook his head. ‘I refused,’ he advised and Taren was again touched that Zeven would keep walking out on limbs for her. ‘So the captain sent Leal to fetch a sample.’

  ‘Lucian, you idiot!’ Taren was positively fuming.

  ‘I only just found out,’ Zeven informed so as not to incur her wrath, ‘but apparently Leal is already back.’

  ‘Is Kestler booked to depart today?’ Taren queried; she put the question to Zeven, but he only shrugged.

  ‘No,’ Aurora informed, ‘he decided to extend his stay; only his assistant, Dr Cordea, is leaving.’

  ‘Cordea!’ Both Taren and Zeven echoed the name.

  ‘Jazmay Cordea?’ Taren queried, hoping she was wrong.

  ‘Yes.’ Aurora smiled. ‘Do you know each other?’

  Taren couldn’t answer straightaway, she was completely winded by the news. ‘She must have touched my bare skin during the mission to the MSS memory bank,’ Taren theorised and Zeven gasped too.

  ‘She stole your genetic memory,’ Zeven concluded, mind-blown by the news.

  ‘I have a nemesis,’ Taren realised.

  ‘One who can shape-shift into many forms,’ Zeven added. ‘Not good.’

  ‘And she has Ronan’s memory as well!’ Taren gasped as she realised what a formidable foe Jazmay was.

  ‘But why would she want the event to go ahead?’ Zeven had missed a lot of the drama on Kila prior to leaving.

  ‘She wants her lover back,’ Taren concluded, ‘and if Maladaan doesn’t shift universes, she’ll never meet him; in this universe he died ten years ago.’

  ‘Whoa,’ Aurora said. ‘The stuff you guys are saying sounds nuts!’ She backed away from them, a little freaked out.

  ‘Aurora, I know you’re not much of a risk taker,’ said Zeven, ‘but I really need for you to take a chance on me right now, knowing I would never steer you wrong or tell you a lie.’

  She considered this a moment. ‘What do you want me to do?’

  ‘Don’t tell the captain about any of this,’ Zeven requested, but she was wary. ‘Please! If you do, he’ll think I’m a spy too and then there will be no one to prevent him from making a huge mistake.’

  ‘He’s made a huge one already,’ Taren muttered.

  ‘All right,’ Aurora agreed, ‘I’ll hush up, for now.’

  Zeven kissed her unexpectedly. ‘Thanks, you’re a champion,’ he said as he guided her to the door, and Aurora was so over the moon about the kiss, she left without further objection.

  ‘You are a manipulative bastard, you know that, don’t you?’ Taren could hardly believe how quickly he’d brought that crisis under control.

  ‘Thank your lucky stars,’ he replied.

  ‘We need to get to the launch bay office.’ Taren’s focus jumped back to their mission — the launch bay office was where Amie had handed over the sample to Bonar Colbers, and following a dispute Amie had wound up dead.

  Zeven held out a hand to Taren and she took hold. ‘We’re there.’

  18

  AN UNACCEPTABLE LOSS

  Lucian awoke slouched in his desk chair. He had been privately monitoring the bio-containment room where the sample from Oceane was being housed.

  ‘Shit!’ The captain sat forward to see if his monitor had recorded a disturbance in bio-containment while he’d slept.

  Hours of footage streamed backwards before his eyes and then Lucian spotted an anomaly and slowed the recording to normal speed — someone was in the lab wearing a bio-suit.

  The labs weren’t usually monitored; Lucian had quietly set up this arrangement himself and told no one of his intention to do so. Still, he could have hit himself when he realised he couldn’t see the identity of the thief due to the bio-suit they were wearing, but clearly a theft had taken place hours ago!

  AMIE had no security staff, as in his naive optimism Lucian had decreed his project wouldn’t
need any. It was a long time since he’d fired a phaser at anyone, but if he encountered a threat to his project he would not hesitate.

  For some strange reason, Lucian had been moved by Taren Lennox’s confessions yesterday — if the story she was telling was true, then AMIE owed her a great debt indeed. However, Lucian was very mindful that Dr Lennox was also very beautiful and, as an ex-MSS agent probably very dangerous, and a consummate actress.

  ‘You’re a happily married man,’ he told himself, standing to holster his weapon — he couldn’t deny he’d been thinking about the mysterious Taren Lennox all night.

  In the five years he’d been married to Amie he’d never had any desire to be unfaithful, but Taren Lennox had him obsessing like a school boy and, even fully aware of how dangerous that was, he just couldn’t keep the lustful thoughts from his mind. Lucian hoped for his project’s sake, that Taren was telling him the truth and once they caught her spies, she could stay on with the project as originally planned.

  ‘For the project’s sake,’ he told himself and then shook his head at how far in denial he already was.

  When Taren and Zeven materialised in the office of Bonar Colbers — chief technician on AMIE — they found it empty, no evidence of a struggle. Beyond the glass windows of the office in the loading bay, Zeven spotted the captain’s wife speaking with Colbers and she didn’t look very happy as they both focused on something on the ground.

  Taren had spotted them too and quietly opened the office door a crack to hear what they were saying.

  ‘I told you to forget about the decoy, we were home and hosed! Now, he’s seen and heard way too much,’ said the overweight hulk of a technician. ‘So unless you want to be exposed, princess, we have to kill him.’

  ‘Oh no,’ Taren muttered to Zeven, ‘it’s Leal on the ground … this wasn’t supposed to happen!’

  Amie crouched beside the already wounded and bleeding co-pilot. ‘Nothing personal, Leal, but it’s you or me.’

  Leal was a little teary, as he stared down the barrel of Bonar’s gun at the bullet set to kill him and then looked to the captain’s wife. ‘Amie, you of all people.’ He shook his head, blindsided by his discovery. ‘Lucian will be devastated.’

  ‘Lucian will never find out,’ she replied coldly as she stood back to give Bonar a clean shot.

  The big tech had taken aim when Taren kicked the gun from his hand and it landed in Starman’s possession.

  ‘Don’t move.’ Zeven aimed the weapon at Amie and Bonar as Taren crouched down to check on Leal, who had a stomach wound.

  ‘That gun shoots to kill,’ Bonar called Zeven’s bluff and went for the weapon, but Zeven shot the huge fellow in the shin and he fell like a mighty tree chopped at the base.

  ‘So it does.’ Zeven’s short time with the secret service had taught him to shoot first, think later.

  ‘You little fucker!’ Bonar moaned, as he rolled around in agony on the floor.

  ‘I’m okay.’ Leal, pale and almost non-coherent, motioned Taren towards his attackers with a wave of his finger. ‘The sample …’

  ‘Where is it?’ Taren stood to look at Amie, wanting so badly to smack her in the jaw for all the pain she was about to cause Lucian and this project.

  ‘Dr Lennox, I presume?’ Amie did not appear worried. ‘Our little psychic puppet.’

  This had once been Taren’s sleeper code name, but she’d broken that conditioning a long time ago, and the attempt at manipulation only made Taren madder. ‘Amie Gervaise, I presume. Two-timing bitch and MSS stooge.’ Taren surrendered to her desire to punch Amie in the jaw and sent the spy reeling. ‘I am not your puppet any more!’

  Clearly, Amie was a little stunned by the surety behind Taren’s accusations, her apparent immunity to her sleeper code name, and her right hook.

  ‘I know all about you,’ Taren taunted, ‘you’re even two-timing your lover with someone else!’

  Amie gasped.

  Taren grinned, so pleased to be the one to deliver the tidings. ‘Well, sweetness, what goes around comes around … the man you truly lust for is cheating on you.’

  ‘Liar!’ Amie protested, not denying or confirming the allegations.

  Taren nodded to confirm she was not lying. ‘Khalid has tossed you aside for the Viceroy of Phemoria, Jalila Lamus.’

  ‘No!’ Amie took a swing at Taren, who dodged the attack and kneed her in the stomach.

  ‘Enough!’ The captain spoke up.

  Taren and Amie froze and looked to Lucian who was standing near the doorway that led to bio-containment and the bridge.

  ‘Where is the sample?’ His dark sights were rested upon Amie.

  ‘Ask them.’ She motioned to Taren and Zeven, hoping Lucian had only just showed up. ‘They are working together.’

  ‘It’s true, boss,’ Colbers concurred, as he nursed his wound, but Lucian shot the tech with his phaser and he was stunned to silence.

  ‘Where is the sample?’ he asked Amie again — by the look on Lucian’s face she could tell he’d overheard more of Taren’s accusations than she would have liked.

  From inside her jacket Amie pulled a long, sleek container, which she opened to display the thin tube containing a sample of the gas inside. ‘Is this what you are looking for?’

  ‘No,’ wheezed Leal from the ground, fading fast.

  ‘Get Kassa,’ Lucian instructed Zeven and he complied at once — he probably teleported as soon as he was out of Amie’s eyeline.

  Taren went down beside Leal to whisper in his ear, ‘Hold on, my friend, you have a lot to live for, I promise you.’

  ‘Don’t trust Am …’ His eyes rolled around in his head, as he struggled to remain conscious. ‘… the sample is …’

  ‘Leal?’ Taren knew he was trying to tell her something and gripped his hand to see if she could telepathically perceive his woes. Telepathy was not Taren’s forte and all she felt was the intense pain of his injury.

  Lucian had retrieved the sample from Amie, which Taren rose to inspect. ‘May I see?’

  The captain handed it to her at her request and once she had the container in hand Taren removed the sealed glass tube from inside and by all appearances it was authentic. She threw the tube to the ground and stomped down hard, smashing the item to pieces and releasing the gas.

  ‘Dr Lennox,’ Lucian was surprised at her, ‘that’s a bio-risk —’

  ‘No it isn’t, I’ve breathed this stuff myself,’ Taren claimed. ‘It is only volatile when contained. We must release the other sample as soon as possible too.’

  ‘She’s right.’ Zeven came through the door behind Kassa with a hover-stretcher.

  The doctor rushed to Leal’s side, and was momentarily too emotional to treat him. They may not have fully realised their love as yet, but they had been silently romanticising each other for years before Taren arrived.

  Kassa looked to Amie and glared at her — as a telepath Kassa suspected she was responsible for Leal’s injury. Kassa had known about Amie’s treachery for years, but had not told anyone, to avoid exposing her Power. ‘I have to get him into surgery now.’ Kassa motioned Zeven over to help her load Leal on the stretcher, and as he was lifted the co-pilot stirred again.

  ‘No,’ he blearily protested and grabbed Kassa’s hand.

  Kassa frowned and focused on Leal as if he were speaking to her, right before he lost consciousness. ‘Let’s go!’ She urged Zeven to assist her to get Leal to her surgery. ‘I’ll send one of my nurses in to look at Colbers presently,’ she said on her way out of the dock.

  Once they had gone, Taren was left in a very uncomfortable position between the captain and his wife, whom he still held at gunpoint.

  ‘Is what Dr Lennox said true?’ Lucian asked Amie. ‘Do you have a lover?’

  ‘I should go.’ Taren backed up to make herself scarce.

  ‘No,’ Lucian requested gently. ‘Please stay. I can see now why you did not want to name the mole on the project … and as pathetic as it may sound, I ne
ed you to tell me if my wife is telling me the truth — clearly you know far more about her than I do.’

  Taren couldn’t really argue with that, and looked to Amie. ‘Then I suggest you answer the captain honestly, because I know everything about your past and present.’

  ‘No future?’ Amie jibed, knowing Taren was a famed pre-cog within the MSS.

  ‘No.’ Taren shook her head. ‘Not for you, not at this rate.’

  ‘You wouldn’t kill me,’ she scoffed, more at Lucian than Taren.

  ‘We don’t have to,’ Taren explained. ‘The Puppet Master already wants you dead.’

  Again Amie gasped.

  ‘Colbers over there —’ Taren motioned to the petrified tech, ‘— was to kill you as soon as you didn’t toe the line. So basically, Dr Gervaise, we are the only hope you’ve got. And as you’re due to have your throat cut anyway, I won’t really be stepping out of line with Cosmic Law by just speeding things along. I have killed for a living and have no aversion whatsoever to killing you.’

  ‘So, do you have a lover?’ Lucian repeated.

  ‘Yes.’ She looked Lucian in the eye to reply, with no remorse evident.

  The captain’s jaw clenched as he processed her confession. ‘How long?’

  ‘Not for years,’ she appealed in her own defence, becoming teary. ‘I swear to you.’

  Lucian looked to Taren who was rolling her eyes and when caught out she apologised. ‘Sorry, Captain, but I believe what Amie means to say is, you’ve been in space for years. So, it would be more accurate to answer, since before you met, until you launched AMIE into space, long after you were wed.’

  Lucian was deeply hurt to learn this, and Taren really didn’t want to be the messenger in this case, but when the truth was all out in the open, she would help him heal.

  ‘Someone back on Maladaan then,’ he assumed, looking back to his wife, who nodded. ‘Anyone I know?’