Eomix Galaxy Books: Illusion

by Christa Yelich-Koth

  “What kind of help?”

  “First, I have something to show you.”

  Dru eyed him, suspicious. It’s a trap. This meeting has to be a trap. He shook the thought away, angry his first notion was one of mistrust.

  Trey pulled up a file on his vidlink and a yellow-lined, three-dimensional image appeared. Dru strained to adjust to the grainy picture. The display showed the inside of a room, small, with a bed and a door to a washroom. A figure lay on the bed, a woman, her breathing the slow and steady rhythm of someone asleep.

  “You brought me here because of a woman?” Dru asked.

  “Not any woman,” Trey said with a tight-lipped smile. “We believe she is Jacin Jaxx’s youngest daughter, Daith.”

  Dru leaned closer, his suspicion replaced by excitement. “Really? How did you find her?”

  “We used a patterning buffer to track movement in the past four years of two women around the ages of Jaxx’s daughters. The search took close to a year, but after some surveillance, this girl seemed to be the most likely candidate. That’s why I need your help, to determine if she really is who we think.”

  “How do you expect me to do find out?” Dru asked.

  “By determining if she has her father’s abilities.”

  Dru chose his next words carefully, not wanting to incite an argument. “I’m not sure why you asked me to help you with this. We can’t pretend our last encounter wasn’t…strained.”

  Trey leaned back in his chair and laced his hands behind his head. “Simply put, you’re the most qualified. I did my research. Not only do you have an extensive background working with empaths and telepaths, but there are only two individuals who have ever worked with Jacin and his abilities. One of them is dead.” Trey stopped short at the word, a shadow passing over his face. The change only lasted a moment, but a chill ran through Dru all the same. “The other is you.”

  “I take it there’s a catch.”

  “The catch is she has no memory. She doesn’t know who she is and she has no idea she might possess any of these abilities. I know you have worked extensively with memory-loss patients, so this shouldn’t be difficult for you.

  “I’m not asking for a favor,” Trey continued. “I don’t want you to do this out of some sense of obligation or because you’re my younger brother and we’re family. I want to hire you. You’d be a paid employee and that’s all. No strings attached.”

  Dru stared at the image of the girl. The offer tempted him, but he had to know more. Working with a descendant of Jacin Jaxx wasn’t something to do without careful consideration. “I’d need to meet her first. Then I can give you an answer.”

  Trey nodded sharply. He opened up a map of the ship and showed Dru where he could work. “You’re more than welcome to stay on your own ship, of course, but we converted one of the conference rooms on the third floor for you if you’d prefer. I figured the luxury suite would be a little much and the conference rooms are on the same level as the simulation rooms.”

  Dru thought of his cramped little ship and welcomed the open space. “Thanks.”

  “Good,” Trey said as he stood. “I’ll see you with Daith in the first meeting room on the other side of your floor tomorrow at 0700. We’ll go from there.” Trey awkwardly patted him on the back. “It is,” he paused, “it is good to see you, Brother.”

  Dru left Trey’s office and made his way to the quarters provided for him. The first part of the suite boasted a shiny metallic desk, a vidlink system, three chairs, and a sofa. Moving through, Dru went into the smaller room, which had a hefty-sized bed, a shelving unit for extra storage, and a smaller table. A washroom was located off to the right.

  After he’d undressed and used the facilities to wash away some of the day’s travel, Dru slipped into bed. He couldn’t believe he might get to work with Jacin Jaxx’s daughter. If she had even half the power and abilities of her late father, who knew what she could accomplish. And he would be the first to work with her to help her relearn her abilities. His influence would ensure her gifts didn’t get out of control the way her father’s had.

  But what to do about his brother? Did Trey really believe the two of them could work together after what had happened? That personal feelings wouldn’t get in the way?

  Dru’s eyelids closed and listened to the silence around him. His stomach roiled with nervous excitement. He tried to think of questions for the next morning, but what do you ask someone who might be related to the

  Jacin Jaxx? Even though his brain wanted to stay awake and think, the weariness from the long day’s travel washed over him and sleep pulled him under.

  Chapter 5

  Trey’s eyelids drooped. His head jerked back, kinking his neck as he started.

  I need to finish this report. His fingertips massaged the ache. Then I need to talk to Cadet Mip. I can sleep after. He noticed the hair on his neck felt a bit too long and added a mental note to get a trim when he had time.

  Time. Right, he thought sarcastically.

  Trey’s hand became a prop underneath his chin to hold up his head as he reviewed the datapad report on his desk. His objective seemed tantalizingly close. If he could hang on a little longer…

  Trey knew he was dreaming, but the knowledge changed nothing. The memory would continue, unless something from the outside woke him. The last moments before Jacin’s death would play for him, like a vivid viewscreen presentation.

  But something was different. This memory wasn’t the same. Jacin appeared young, before he had even considered creating the Aleet Army….

  Jacin Jaxx stood in front of his history class. Rain popped angrily outside against the windowpanes. His students scrambled to put finishing touches on their presentations, to be shown shortly.

  Jacin gazed out into the dark, stormy day and his thoughts drifted toward his own family—his wife, Elor, and their two daughters. He wondered what they were doing right now. He’d recently gone back to teaching and missed staying home to take care of them. But Elor’s grant money had dried up and bills needed to be paid.

  Someone screamed.

  Jacin yanked himself from his thoughts. One of his students had collapsed, hand clutching her chest. Sending another student to get help, Jacin rushed over to hold the paled, shaking girl. She trembled in his grasp, eye rolled back into its socket, teeth chattering under blued lips.

  Before his own panic could take over, Jacin felt a warmth fill him. Heat spread through his body, attempting to make its way to the point where his hands touched the girl.

  The sensation was intense, like a fever. Perspiration coated Jacin’s face and nausea threatened to overwhelm him. But the girl needed him.

  What can I do? How can I find out what’s wrong with her?

  A strange pressure settled over him. He could see the back of his eyelids—dark, but not completely black—as sparks jumped around in front of him. Jacin’s eyes flipped open. He no longer saw the rain-streaked windows of the classroom. Instead, electrical discharges shot through tubes in front of his him. Pink, globular shapes filled his view while the bolts streaked from one section to another.

  He could see inside the girl’s brain. Nerve impulses flashed through translucent tubes of tissue, issuing orders from her mind to the rest of her body.

  This is crazy! How can I be in her brain? What’s happening to me? What’s happening to her?

  Jacin’s mind hurled into one of the tubes. In less time than it took him to think the thought, the ride was over, and he could see the girl’s 5-chambered, magenta heart. It beat, but erratically. Jacin felt a sudden pull toward its left side. There. He could see the problem. A sizable tear in one of the chambers.

  The warmth inside of him increased, swirling into chaotic patterns of flame. Jacin half-imagined, half-viewed the heart in front of him. Waves of fiery energy flowed from him.

  He knew what to do. He could heal her.

  Jacin directed the heat toward her heart. He could see the muscle fibers wind together, repair t
hemselves, and close the hole. After the heart healed, Jacin jolted back into himself. The last thing he remembered before blackness took him was the girl, pale but calm, opening her eye….

  “Commander?”

  Trey’s eyes snapped open at the tentative voice. Confusion buffeted him for a moment.

  “Yes?” he said, automatically. His mind cleared. A young man, about a head shorter than himself, stood upright with his hands behind his back.

  “Cadet Mip reporting, Commander.”

  Trey rubbed the bottom of his face—disgusted to find a trace amount of saliva—and motioned the cadet to sit. Mip sat, posture rigid, dark yellowish-green eyes quivering in their sockets.

  “Cadet Mip,” Trey said. He shook away the dream and focused on the task at hand. He’d forgotten he’d asked Cadet Mip to report to him. This was not a conversation he wanted to have half-asleep.

  “You and Cadet Roilster were the two members of the team who went to retrieve Miss Tocc from Fior, correct?” Trey asked.

  “Correct, Commander.”

  Trey pulled up a file on his datapad and read a segment out loud.

  “‘Roilster and I retrieved the subject at the predetermined destination. We injected the subject with a sedative to insure safe passage. A witness was discovered. Witness was injected with targeting memory blockers, but escaped custody before entire mixture was delivered. Witness fled into a non-designated area. Allotted amount of time for capture of subject expired. Roilster and I boarded with subject and departed.’ This is your report?”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  “Your responsibility included witnesses, correct?”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  Trey’s jaw clenched. “Tell me, Cadet, why did you think letting a witness go without a full injection of memory blockers was acceptable?”

  Cadet Mip swallowed. “We ran out of time, Commander, and didn’t want to risk exposure, but—but I’m sure I injected the witness with enough serum to prevent any memories from resurfacing.”

  “Did you follow up on the witness?”

  Cadet Mip appeared confused. “No, Commander. I didn’t know his identity.”

  “Did you capture his facial image for further identification? Did you use a genetic sample from the tip of the syringe to determine his profile?” Trey’s fingertips whitened from pressing them on the table.

  “N-n-nuh-no, Commander.”

  “Of course not,” Trey snapped. “Know why? Because I’m surrounded by a bunch of young, untrained, children who have no idea what they are doing. Do you have any idea how much damage you may have done if this witness does remember anything?”

  “Commander, I—”

  “You are dismissed from my service.”

  Cadet Mip didn’t move for a moment. Then his body sagged.

  “No, Commander, please. You can’t do this. I didn’t know.”

  “It’s already done.”

  Cadet Mip arched in his chair. The yellow of his eyes intensified before a whitish liquid oozed from their sockets. He twitched once, then again, before he fell onto the arm of the chair, his gaze vacant, his mouth open in an unheard scream.

  Trey removed his hand from a small button under his desk and the two prongs in the back of the cadet’s chair retracted into the plush cushion. The nerve toxin injected into the cadet’s body was no longer a threat for Trey’s next visitor.

  Trey skirted around his desk to Cadet Mip’s body, reached under the armpits, and pulled forward, heaving the dead weight out of the chair, and toward the door. He pushed the call button for Doctor Ludd. The doctor answered with his usual peppy tone and Trey interrupted him before he could say more than a few words.

  “I have one for you, Doctor. Nerve toxin. Dispose of the body.”

  Doctor Ludd murmured an acknowledgement and Trey cut the line. A medical orderly came to Trey’s office moments later and removed the corpse.

  Trey pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew he couldn’t take care of everything himself, but this situation made him wish he had been there for Daith’s pick-up. He couldn’t believe a witness had been left behind. And a witness meant a possibility of others knowing about Daith’s disappearance.

  Trey had hoped he wouldn’t need to erase the sister’s memories, that Daith would simply be another unsolved missing citizens report, but if the witness alerted her that Daith had been kidnapped, the investigation could continue.

  He did not have time for this.

  Trey called for Cadet Roilster to come to his office. Roilster showed up a few standard minutes later, his face flushed.

  “You sent for me, Commander?”

  “Cadet, I have a three-part assignment for you. I need you to return to Fior. Our plan has been compromised due to the witness who remained after your retrieval of Miss Tocc. I need you to contact the authorities and find out if a report has been filed of Miss Tocc’s disappearance. If so, you are to delete the report and erase the memories of the individual heading the investigation.

  “Your second task is to locate Miss Tocc’s sister, Valendra Tocc. Pertinent information will be in your shuttle’s database. Her memories pertaining to Daith must be eradicated.

  “And third, you are then to find the witness, erase his memories, and report back to me. You are not allowed to vacate Fior until all tasks have been completed. This is confidential and any communication on this subject with any other crewmember will result in your immediate dismissal. Understood?”

  After Roilster agreed and left the office, a wave of despair washed over Trey. What was I thinking? Why did I think I could ever pull this off? Trey’s body shook with fear. Fear of failure, of making the wrong move.

  Trey willed himself to stop shaking and forced his fists to unclench. No, I’m doing fine. Set-backs are to be expected. This operation is too big not to think there would be mistakes. I have to focus. Keep going. Focus. keep going focus going focus….

  The words blurred together in a twisted mantra as Trey read the next task, his brief dream of Jacin’s memory about saving the girl gone like a wisp of smoke.

  *

  Daith’s feet moved beneath her.

  Where am I?

  The sun beat down from above. A layer of sweat coated her body.

  She took in her surroundings, the motion slow.

  Happiness filled her. This was a good moment. A moment with a friend.

  The scene shifted. A gust of wind struck her face. She staggered backwards, the shadow next to hers pulled in the opposite direction.

  She fell. Dry, tasteless dirt filled her mouth. Pressure on her arm. She turned toward the pain. Red liquid swirl underneath her skin.

  Am I bleeding?

  Her gaze flickered upward and her throat tightened. A large silver mass hung suspended in the air above her.

  A ship?

  Her face pressed further into the dirt. She struggled to breathe, but she could do nothing except feel the heat from the sun and a fire inside her—

  Daith awoke with a start, gasping. A chill reached her bones though a film of sweat covered her shuddering body. She wiped her forehead with a clammy arm and inhaled deeply to calm down. The vague flashes of her dream slipped away.

  “Just a dream.” she muttered. But the images had been so powerful, so real. She couldn’t remember much, except the intense heat and something hanging above her. A shiny and silver shape, but she couldn’t place it. A machine? A piece of metal?

  After cracking her neck, she lay back down. Her stomach clenched with a feeling of dread she couldn’t shake. “It doesn’t matter. It was a dream.” She said the words, but sleep came uneasily.

  Chapter 6

  Dru Xiven paced under the cheap lights of the meeting room, his shadow following him back and forth across the gleaming table. His sleep hadn’t exactly been restful—punctuated with moments of revelation or anticipation jolting him awake—but this morning he jittered with pure adrenaline.

  Jacin Jaxx’s daughter. I can’t believe it might b
e her.

  He forced himself to calm down, taking in and letting out deep breaths. He didn’t want to get too excited until he actually met her, but he understood the body didn’t always respond to logic.

  Daith might have her father’s abilities. And if guided in the proper way, she could succeed where he’d failed. Dru could be a part of that.

  He grinned to himself. I wish Riel were here.

  The thought caught him off guard and he stopped mid-step. Under the circumstances, Riel would probably not have wanted to be here.

  A pang of guilt hit him, tightening his chest. He hadn’t thought about her all morning. This was the first time he could remember since her death when she wasn’t the first thought he had when he awoke.

  Dru’s feelings dissipated as the door slid open. He slapped a nervous grin on his face, wanting to seem comforting to the girl. The smile faded as Trey entered, alone.

  “Morning.”

  “Morning.”

  Silence fell over the two brothers.

  “So where is she?” Dru asked, taking a seat.

  “She’s on her way.” Trey remained upright, his hand resting on the back of the chair across from his brother.

  Tension mounted in the room.

  “Trey,” Dru said, “how have things been?” The question sounded stupid and vague. Dru wiped his sweaty palms on his pants.

  “Things couldn’t be better,” Trey said, his face a complete blank. “Before Daith arrives, I thought you should know I haven’t given her any foreknowledge about these abilities she might have.”

  Dru raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

  “Think of the situation like a blind test. If she isn’t Jaxx’s daughter, I don’t want to confuse her by telling her untruths. I also don’t want her to know we’ve searched for Jaxx’s heir so she can’t tell anyone if we let her go.”

  “Then what will she think I’m here for?”

  Trey fluttered his fingers through the air. “Tell her you are here to work on restoring her memory.”