Astra: Synchronicity

by Lisa Eskra

  In her visions the two always appeared together, never apart. And for some reason, here and now, the energy between the two of them filled the ballroom. Their aura felt almost blinding.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Xander schmoozing it up with Lyneea, and the thought frightened her. The scientist acknowledged her with a nod when she came up beside him, but Lyneea seemed oblivious to the presence of anyone besides the present focus of her attention. The focus of many around the room it seemed. Magnius and Amii.

  "That woman sticks out like a sore thumb with that hair of hers," Lyneea said. "Do you think it's real?"

  He seemed quite annoyed by the question. "Of course it's real."

  "And she's so unattractive. That body of hers…she's built like a damn man. How can he be in love with her?" A robotic waiter brought her a drink, which Lyneea snatched and began to chug.

  "I thought you didn't care."

  "Do you think he's the one making all the moves on her or the other way around?"

  Xander took a deep breath. "It's all him. Trust me."

  "How can you be sure of that?" she asked. "I mean, look at the two of them."

  He stood up next to Nadine and glanced out at them, quickly spotting Amii in her sparkling gown. She followed Magnius' lead well as he tossed her out and spun her around. A small part of Nadine envied the attention their dancing garnered.

  Lyneea cast the pair an evil stare. "He used to look at me that way…smile at me that way. Asshole." She buried her head in her arms out of disgust.

  Xander furrowed his brow at her. "There are a thousand other men who'd be better for you than him. Get over it already. Shag someone else and move on."

  The stunning grace of Amii and Magnius on the dance floor captivated Nadine, who had been unable to do anything other than watch them. The music had long since changed, and they now danced a sultry tango. Lust oozed with each step and every longing stare. Their movements had become less technical and conveyed raw passion. She knew Magnius' feelings went beyond theatrics but Amii…she couldn't tell how the woman felt about him.

  Nadine turned to Xander. "I didn't know Amii was such an amazing dancer."

  He took a deep breath before answering. "Neither did I. She's right. Amii probably is the one seducing him out there. Best put a stop to it right now. If you'll excuse me."

  ***

  "I'd appreciate it if you took your hands off her."

  The tone startled Magnius, and when he spun around, Xander stood right behind him. Although the scientist was tall and slender, his loud voice projected through the crowd. Magnius backed away from Amii, a bit surprised he'd allowed the two of them to dance for this long. She offered him a weak smile as Xander took her hand and led her away.

  Magnius walked to the bar, where he sat on a stool and caught his breath. How had Amii been able to keep pace with him out there? His parents had been competitive dancers before the Great Holocaust, and they taught him everything they knew since he was a young child. The art of classical dance had almost been lost to more practical hobbies and art forms. Most people treated the dance floor as a place to wriggle and bounce and have a good time doing so.

  He didn't see the chairman approach and take the seat next to him. "One of those nights, eh Matt?"

  His head snapped in the direction of the voice, and when he saw the chairman, he exhaled. "Seems like it. Where's Isabelle?"

  "Dancing the night away with some Asian fellow. You know me—two left feet." He ordered a drink before turning around and glancing out toward the dance floor. "So who's your sister? Really?"

  "Some robotics scientist I met on the Kearsarge last month."

  "Sleeping with her?" the chairman discreetly inquired.

  He shook his head.

  Chairman Dodd collected his drink from the bartender. "Well, what's stopping you? Don't expect Lyneea to have a change of heart. They never do."

  While he took a long drink of the clear liquor, Magnius could see why the man had been married five times in the last twenty years. He'd disliked the chairman since the moment he met him—an opinion unlikely to change. Dodd wielded the seductive charms of his office like a perk the position offered him with airtight premarital agreements that left him unscathed. Underneath his unimposing façade lied a master of manipulation the likes of which the AC had never seen before.

  "You should know that Leslie White was inquiring about you."

  Magnius shouldn't have been surprised, but his curiosity piqued. "What did she want?"

  "She asked about your sister and what I knew about your parents' death. I doubt I told her anything she didn't already know. I've always had the feeling her interest in you went beyond the mundane…"

  But Magnius stopped listening. Thirty years had passed since his parents were found murdered in their home. Both had been gutted and diced after being force-fed a wide range of internal organs and excrement—evidence suggesting they'd been tortured for days. The entire living room had been painted in their blood. Their heads were found on stakes in the front yard, having been garroted and carved up with a bone saw. The house needed to be burned due to its permanent stench of death. No similar cases were ever reported, and to this day the case remained unsolved.

  "I'm sorry, Chairman." The sudden memory of his parents' death made his stomach writhe. "I think I'm going to call it a night. My head's been killing me for the past couple hours."

  "Take it easy." With that Dodd put his hand on Magnius's shoulder and left him alone at the bar once more.

  He glanced toward the dance floor, where he noticed Amii dancing with Xander in an awkward display. At first glance, he figured Xander was to blame, but upon closer inspection, he realized Amii was the one mistiming her steps and not taking cues from his lead. She stumbled over his shoes and grimaced at her error before continuing on. Her movements looked negligent as if she was unsure of the steps.

  "How is that possible?" Magnius wondered. He'd just led her in a magnificent tango that set his heart on fire, and now a slow waltz gave her trouble. The simplest dance there was and she couldn't handle it. The paradox defied logic.

  He saw Nadine shuffle across the room toward him with her crimson lips drawn into a coy smirk. "It's a beautiful night. I'm going to send Amii back to my room. Wait ten minutes and meet her there."

  The idea roused his soul, but her eager coupling of them tonight made him wonder. "Why are you trying to make something happen between us?"

  The second lady sighed. "Then stay here. Or go back to your room. But both of us know you won't."

  Nadine headed out to the dance floor and talked to Amii and Xander for about a minute. Afterwards, the two of them left the large ballroom. He'd seen the Vice President not long ago and wondered if that had been her motivation to usher them out. But he couldn't help thinking there was some other method to her madness. Part of him felt her pulling on the strings of fate in order to make something happen. She knew he was lonely and about his infatuation with Amii, and in her own way she wanted to bring him some measure of happiness.

  He waited ten minutes just as Nadine asked him to before heading down to the Vice President's room. Before he knocked, he hesitated. Part of him was perturbed she'd manipulated him into doing this without admitting she'd had a vision. Even if Nadine hadn't said anything, he would've tailed her. He wanted something to happen yet had a hard time willing himself to let it happen.

  Suddenly, the door opened, and Amii gasped when she saw him standing outside. She'd changed back into her black catsuit and jacket. His leather jacket. She would've looked stunning wearing anything. Or nothing at all.

  "Would you like to go for a walk?" he asked her.

  "Sure."

  They walked toward the nearest exit at the brisk pace set by her long stride. Magnius held the door open for Amii when they stepped out of the palace. A brisk gust of warm air blew Amii's hair around her head, and she combed it behind her ears to keep it in place. The moon smoldered in the sky as dusk settl
ed across the land. The dappled dot of light punctuated the clear night with its heady view of the stars. But being alone with her thrilled him more.

  "I was rather disappointed the Xuranians haven't given us a tour of the city," she said.

  "Only the real politicians got that. At least they didn't make the rest of us sleep in tents outside. Thank Astra we weren't born a thousand years ago, right?"

  Her continued vacant stare made him uncomfortable. He felt like she was busy judging him for the numerous flaws and mistakes he'd made his whole life without even being privy to them.

  He glanced into the heavens and sought solace in the pale light bathing the city. "My parents could never get over how different the stars looked in the sky compared with from Earth. Hell, the fact that people lived on stars that only used to be a tiny spot of light in the sky astonished them. Have you ever been on a planet where you couldn't see Sirius in the sky? I couldn't even tell you what any of these stars are."

  She watched him for a few moments before responding. "Has anyone been back to Earth since the Exodus?"

  "Not that I know of. People think it turned into a post-apocalyptic nightmare. The amount of radiation in the atmosphere is consistent with a nuclear winter. Nobody likes to think about it."

  "I wonder if anyone's still alive there."

  "I don't see how."

  Thoughts of death and destruction prompted an image of his hoverbike to pop into his head. He'd vowed not to ride it, but the urge proved too strong to resist. Nadine assured him it would be okay. He had no reason to doubt a woman who'd saved him from Tiyuri's iron grasp.

  "Would you like to go for a ride with me?"

  She raised her brow at him. "Do you bring that bike everywhere you go?"

  "Not everywhere. I'd sleep with it every night though if I could."

  "I wouldn't want to come between the two of you…you know, in case you need some alone time with it."

  He took her hand. "Come on."

  The two of them headed to the landing area. Magnius was well aware of the law that permitted no motorized vehicles on the streets. But being here with her…the temptation won him over.

  Amii waited near a few crewmen while Magnius walked the hulking bike off of the ship. Its violet paint shimmered in the soft moonlight. He turned it on and was greeted by its familiar roar and the ionic yellow glow that radiated underneath on the paved lot.

  She stared at it with awestruck curiosity before she approached and tossed her left leg over the seat behind him. After she'd settled into place, he felt her chilly arms around his chest as she scooted close to him. "Xander warned me about hoverbikes. And in my own rebellious way, I hoped you'd take me for a spin."

  Magnius turned his head to look at her and felt her hair graze the side of his face. She smelled like honeysuckle, a scent he'd found intoxicating since he first experienced it as a teenager. He closed his eyes for a moment to center himself because he desperately longed to kiss her and knew that no matter what, he could not.

  He handed her his helmet, which she put on without hesitation. "Hang on baby, and whatever you do, don't look down." With that, he grabbed the handlebars and sped away from the palace, leaving behind nothing but the lingering glow of his machine.

  He hadn't had the chance to take a midnight romp through the streets on his bike for a long time. Not since he'd been married, in fact. Lyneea frowned on him riding the hoverbike at all because she thought it was too dangerous. For normals, he agreed with her. But Magnius used his telekinesis to keep the bike upright, and he had as much control with it at high speeds as at low ones.

  Whipping around the square, he didn't give much of a thought to the idea he'd get caught. He just wanted to take a fantastic ride with the wonderful woman behind him. The intersection of his two desires sent a surge of adrenaline through his body; the lust flowed through his hands and translated into acceleration.

  The only illumination came from his headlights and the moon when he rode down the streets. Not a single Xuranian roamed the capital city at this hour. He wove through the great archways like a slalom run, and the rush left him hungry for more. He sped through the banked streets, picking up speed and freeing his mind of everything that bothered him.

  For a while he forgot Amii was behind him. Her body fused with his. Her breath on the back of his neck made him shiver with desire. She'd been the first woman not afraid to mount the bike and ride with him, and he fell even harder for her because of it. His eyes might've been on the road ahead of him, but she'd wrapped up his mind with sweet thoughts of her.

  He decided to do something he hadn't done on a bike since he was much younger and far less experienced than he was now. Hoverbikes weren't just designed to glide over the ground; they could hover over any solid surface. With enough momentum a hoverbike would hover on the sides of buildings and around corners. Though it was dangerous, the spectacular feats were the most fun a person could have with their clothes on.

  Magnius turned down a long street leading back to the palace and leaned hard on the accelerator. He watched his speed climb on the display below him. With one final surge he held his breath and banked the bike sharply toward the sky. Counteracting gravity was the least of his worries while he rode upward in a spiral around one of the palace's towers. He used his telekinesis to keep it from flipping and buoyed it on helium dreams.

  From above, the city looked small. They'd been told almost a billion Xuranians lived on Xur, but no more than several thousand inhabited this city, making Northampton look like the Capital of the Universe. The breathtaking view of the ocean reminded him how much he missed Fantasti. But he didn't want to go back in time and change things anymore. Too much had happened.

  Once he reached the top, he heard Amii gasp. The noise surprised him for a moment during his transition toward the ground in the safest way possible. The bike accelerated down the building in near free-fall. He pitched the nose up and banked to the left, using his speed and the sides of the buildings nearby to buffer their descent. Fragments of broken shingles kicked off several roofs underneath the bike before it returned to the street.

  He pointed the hoverbike straight south and accelerated out of the city as fast as he could. A rocky path led through the dense forest; he felt grateful they wouldn't have to experience the trek on four wheels. The headlights were inadequate for their surroundings but with no one else around to share the road with, it didn't concern him. He checked his fuel reserves. In Astra magnetic compounds had been embedded in the pavement, drastically reducing energy consumption. At sixty-five percent he had enough to ride for several more hours due to a hoverbike's inherent efficiency.

  After thirty minutes, the lush forest gave way to healthy farmland with fields of edibles as far as the eye could see. As they passed through it, she called out for him to stop. At first he didn't understand why, but the reasoning became apparent when he slowed.

  She pointed out into a field on their right. Several dozen white figures worked diligently to harvest root vegetables. "Mechanoids," Amii said.

  The automatons had a humanoid shape but bore no distinguishing features whatsoever. Like mannequins with a single black eye, they hunched over the ground and combed it with handheld tools to dig up the plants. Part of him expected to see automated hydroponics facilities under domes hovering in the sky. But the thought of it did seem to be a lot of work for minimal gains. Perhaps the old ways really were the best ways.

  If Xander were here, he'd probably try to snatch one of them and smuggle it back to Astra for study. "You're not thinking of taking one of these guys back with us, are you?"

  He couldn't judge her reaction through the tinted visor. "No. Let's go."

  They headed out farther until the city's presence left a soft glow on the horizon behind them. The cropland became sparse and dry until they stopped seeing it altogether. The road beneath the bike faded, replaced by wisps of sand and cracked hardpan. The faint outline of blue-black mountains hung in the distance. Aside from some
patches of scrub grass and several boulders, the fissured track of earth resembled a valley of death.

  The two of them got off the bike and looked around. Amii knelt down and scooped up a handful of dirt before letting it sift through her fingers and blow away in the stiffening breeze. "What did this?" she asked.

  "It just looks like an average desert to me."

  "This whole place is just…dead."

  He sat down next to her. His mind switched gears, recalling the first night he'd been alone with Lyneea and the one thing he'd asked her all those years ago: "Amii…how do you feel about psions?"

  She turned her whole body toward him and stared into his eyes. "I think they're just like everyone else, trying to get by in a hostile universe. I feel sorry for what they have to go through. I see Nadine and know how isolated she feels."

  "You're not afraid of them? Not even a little?"

  "I don't have any reason to…do I?" Amii blinked at him several times as though she didn't understand what it meant to fear someone forcefully invading her mind and reading her most personal memories. "I don't have anything to hide."

  He smiled. "We all have something to hide. You just don't remember any of them."

  "What about you, Magnius? What secrets do you have?"

  He closed his eyes and clenched his brow. He wanted to tell her. For the love of Astra, he just wanted to get them all out in the open. "Too many," he whispered. He didn't need to hide the fact he was a psion from her the way he did from Lyneea and the rest of the world. "Amii, there's something I want to tell you. Something I need to tell you." He paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "I…I'm a psion."

  While she stared at him in silence, he wondered if telling her had been a mistake. He'd never felt quite so vulnerable. Being a psion was his darkest secret, one he guarded fervently because it could ruin his life. The admission had been heart wrenching, knowing it had driven Lyneea out of his life without so much as a second chance. He'd bared his soul to Amii, and her quietness pained him. The fact that she already knew and said nothing tortured his exposed heart.