by Selina Brown
“This is all pretty standard,” Diane said.
Peter nodded. “Her eighth birthday is coming up. Is it always just a few guests?”
Diane’s hazel eyes met Jamie’s for a moment. “Maya sends regular data bursts to Queen Silvia that Ara must be kept separate from main stream Pure-Gens. So, yes, mostly family.”
“Only to Silvia? I mean, what about the other Pure-Gens on Saratoga? I’m thinking mostly of the kings.”
Jamie shook his head and almost laughed. “Only to King Delario to ensure his sons can play with Ara.”
Diane was trying not to laugh but Peter didn’t pick up on the oddity of that command from “Maya”.
A frown appeared on Peter’s pale forehead. Unlike Jamie, Peter kept himself out of the sun. “And there’s never an explanation?”
Jamie shook his head and leaned back, resting his arms on the small table they were hunched over. “We have a number of theories, which Diane will show you after this meeting. For now, just concentrate on general security. Before any event, connect to planet-side, air traffic, space traffic security, along with PDD, the Planetary Defenses Division, stationed in Toga City, and Perza Space Station.”
‘Ah, that’s where the Aryan Military coordinate from?”
Diane nodded while Jamie watched Peter’s expressions. Diane said, elaborating, “Jamie will take care of security on the premises, and I coordinate.”
Peter looked at Jamie, his blue eyes wide. “You are on site? Shouldn’t you be … um…”
Jamie smiled, relieved that Peter saw a flaw in that plan. “We all have to keep current on our various duties, but I encourage you to broaden your skills. One day we may need to cover other roles.”
“Ah, I see.” Peter rubbed his head. “Ara is not the usual charge then.”
Jamie stood and stretched. He looked out the window, hearing the tinkling pitter-patter of rain on the glass. “No.” He hadn’t told anyone except his immediate supervisors what he had learned on Perza Space Station. A special military team had been created ready to cover anything, they looked at Ara as the Vanguard, despite not really knowing what that meant, but it was enough she had an enemy. Some of their training seemed bizarre to Jamie but he was relieved all the same. “Let’s concentrate on her birthday and then we’ll debrief.”
Diane handed Peter a tablet. “Your first side-mission. Caleb and Ara are thick as thieves. Their last declaration was that they are boyfriend and girlfriend. In fact, King Delario and Queen Silvia both received that information from Maya—” this time Peter did realize what Ara was doing and burst out laughing “—so sneak in King Delario’s palace and examine the gift Caleb made for our honeybee.”
Peter’s mouth dropped open. Jamie laughed and slapped him on the back. “It’s your initiation. Complete this mission and you are in.”
Peter stopped smiling and grumbled, “I thought I was in.”
Diane stood and smiled. ‘That was your probation. Before we can swear you in, you must complete this one little thing.” She glanced at Jamie and then laughed. “You’re allowed to cheat.”
“Cheat?” Peter sounded offended over that idea.
“There’s a job going at the palace.” Diane shrugged. “But, it’s up to you.”
They moved out of the secured room and into Jamie’s main office. He glanced at the picture of Ara on his desk. There was a guarded look in her eyes that he worried about and faint, dark smudges under her eyes. They had reports that nightmares were increasing and that Ara was gradually becoming more wayward. He was sure Ara had overheard their conversation during that ill-fated meeting now.
***
King Delario’s Palace
Caleb’s Room
Over the years, Ara’s fears grew. Every day she wondered what she might be seeing or doing that would make Maya kill billions of people. Ara made a special effort to learn how many a billion was and it was a lot. Whenever she saw Caleb, she wanted to talk to him about her worries. Mostly they saw each other at other parties and playgrounds but her eighth birthday was special. They exchanged presents, sometimes things they made, sometimes old stuff they didn’t want anymore, rarely something new.
He was always showing off and tripping over or dropping things. She found she lied more making it so they could spend time together. “Yes, I finished my homework,” and “Yes, I’m allowed to play in the pond,” and “They said I could play in Caleb’s/Ara’s room.”
Usually she was found out and it took her years to find out how to lie and not be caught. Caleb and Terzon were very helpful with their advice having spent years evading their father, King Delario, and the domestic staff. They were sitting on his large bed, both cross-legged with e-readers scattered between them. They were hunting for an old fairy tale about some finger story that Ashley, a year-younger brother, had heard of from one of his friends. Caleb was sure he had the story in the library. He complained about some new help at the palace, after he complained about the new green and cream colors of his room.
“His name is ‘Peter’ and he’s an indoor plant guy.”
Ara giggled. “What’s the problem? Accidently watered you instead of the plant?”
Caleb leaned forward, his long, red hair falling over his shoulder, and gave her a gentle shove and pointed to the plants in his room. “I keep telling him I don’t want plants in here but there’s always some new plant. I think he’s simple. He thinks I don’t like the plants he puts in my room, when I just don’t want plants full stop.” He eyed off her braid and grinned suddenly.
She and Caleb had come up with a secret language. They would braid their hair with messages. To achieve it they came up with a short language and then had to work out which braid style fit that message. They used beads too, in different ways, as they grew older and created more complex messages.
“So, what’s Tekko up to?” His ice-green eyes narrowed.
“Making robots.”
Ara stared at him. Caleb was jealous of her and Tekko spending so much time together. There was a knock on the door. “Prince Caleb, Lady Ara’s … brother is here.”
Ara giggled when Caleb rolled his eyes. He walked her down to Ersen’s roader and waved her off.
“Did you have a nice time, Ara?”
“I did.” She waved until she couldn’t see Caleb anymore and smiled at Ersen who was driving very slowly.
She wondered why Caleb was so jealous of her and Tekko. Tekko and she would play mostly with tools and things. She even tried to make a robot for Ersen, called “Zeke”. She was disappointed with the end result but Ersen loved it. He kept it with him on his dresser and took it when he went back to school.
“Why do you love it so much?” In her mind, she couldn’t work out why he liked it, one eye was cockeyed, and it kept falling over after three steps. Over the years, she and Tekko built all kinds of robots and machines to drive over the rough ground.
Ersen had smiled down at her and ruffled her hair. “Because you put your heart and soul into making it for me.” He had knelt down and touched her cheek. “And because Mum gave you detention for two weeks for stealing her Lygon Filaments.”
Ara grinned. It hadn’t been that funny at the time and she didn’t really think it was “stealing”. Her argument was that Mum once told her and her siblings that families shared things so that’s what Ara applied to her decision to dig and use, not pilfer, Mum’s electronic stuff. One week’s detention had been the “stealing” and one week had been the “whiny argument”.
Homestead
Ersen parked under the house.
Ara jumped out, slammed the door, and rushed around having spotted Tek coming out of the barn with something in his arms. Her brother Ashley liked to test her and Tekko’s machines though sometimes his fingers would get caught and hurt. She and Tekko were told off a few times. If Tekko became her best friend, Ashley became her best brother. Marc was away more with Tricia, his new girlfriend. Her older siblings would still take her out if they were home, often inviting
Tekko.
“Hi, Tek,” Ara yelled, “What have you got?”
He held up a dozer they’d been modifying. “I think I’ve got it working.” His light green skin looked darker in the light of the overcast day and his dreadlocks dangled around his already broad shoulders.
She and Tekko were still outside in the play dirt when she heard Mum arrive home. “She’s here!” Ara squealed, hoping Maya would see how happy she was that the baby had arrived. Maya wouldn’t kill a baby. Ara ran inside followed by Tekko; she clenched her hands, trying not to jump and down waiting for the baby to be put on the floor in the lounge.
Ara fell to her knees, inspecting the parcel. “She’s so pretty.”
“She is the last child, Ara. Like you.” Mum straightened the baby blanket.
“Like me?”
“You are the last child of the Maya; Meg is the last child for Terance and I.”
“Ooooh, so she’s special too.” Finally, a girl! Ara had three younger brothers, Ashley, Henry and Gralten.
Tekko peered at the baby. “It’s small.”
“It’s a ‘she’, Tek. How big were you?”
He held out his hands.
“That’s huge!”
He nodded solemnly.
“Will you grow up big like your dad?”
He nodded. “At least, um, eight foot.”
“That’s like a giant.”
“There’s no such thing.”
“Is to.”
“Is not.”
“Children.” Mum’s stern voice came from the kitchen.
Ara grumbled.
Tekko smiled then. “How about you? How big will you grow?”
“I don’t know. Mum!” she yelled. “How big is Maya?”
Mum’s mouth dropped open as she came back into the lounge with a cup in hand. Ara heard laughter in the doorway. She spun around. “Marc!” She jumped up and ran into his arms.
“Hey, little baby.”
“I’m not little, or a baby.”
“Then, my PuG.”
“Marc!” Mum shook her head having recovered from her question.
“What’s a PuG?”
“Pure-Gen, silly billy.”
Ara giggled at him as he winked at her, his dark eyes amused. “I came to see the new addition.” He pulled her over with him to sit next to the baby.
“Her name is Meg.”
“Can’t shorten that, Ara,” Marc said, touching Meg’s nose.
“I can, but Eg isn’t very nice.”
“Her head is bit of an egg shape,” Tekko observed.
Ara looked at it. “It is.”
Mum said quickly, “You’re not calling her Eg, Ara. And you won’t grow up big like the Maya, the diametron is over seven thousand kilometrons … Never mind, you’ll be more queen size, like Queen Silvia.”
An image of the queen was tossed on the floor near her. She picked it up. The queen’s auburn hair was up, showing a long, creamy neck and large, brown eyes. She was wearing dark hunting clothes and held a bow. Ara frowned.
“I don’t like them, especially the queens because they are stuck up—”
“Ara! Go to your room.”
Ara grumbled, tossing aside the image, stalled and tried to look small. Tekko moved around, trying to hide her.
“Now, young lady.”
She muttered and shuffled to her room while Tekko was asked to leave the house and come back later. The baby started crying. Ara had been sitting on her bed for a while when Mum came in. She smiled then. “Waiting to be released from your prison?”
After her last lock up, she claimed she was being held prisoner. Her family had laughed at the dinner table. She wasn’t sure why they found that funny but they often referenced it in conversations. But she was released on her own recognizance. She picked that up from Korbet because she told him she was in prison and asked if it was legal.
“I’m sure being in your bedroom for an hour is quite legal.”
“It’s mean. I’m not going to do that to my children.”
“How many children will you have? I ask because you are going to marry quite a few people and animals.”
“Hmmm, not animals anymore they’re dumb to talk to, and it’ll be over six hundred because I think I’ll grow big like the Cardinal Unit, although Mum says I’ll be queen size, but I came from there so I think I will be that big, I don’t like the stuck up queens and Tekko says…”
He had laughed again and she couldn’t get anything more from him other than laughter.
Jamie did his usual patrol as Ara and her family slept. He stood watching Ara’s face as she lay dreaming. Already her covers were half way down and her arm was flung out. His eyes had adjusted to the dark but Ara’s room was lit by the moonlight streaming in from her high placed window. Outside he could make out the mountains in the dark. He very carefully linked with her mind, using his implant, and found Marc linked and directed his voice at him.
“What do you think you are doing?”
“She’s starting an Aryan Dream.”
Jamie was irrationally angry but took a deep breath, and lifted his Voice messaging the team on roster to sever Marc’s link. He knew that, in the mountain installation, at least three technicians would be in a flurry to access the CU and Marc’s EL, following the exergon plasma strand to the branch as it connected to Ara.
“What the hell do you think—”
Jamie cut him off. “This is my job, Marc. Now leave it while I do my job.”
Jamie sat on the floor next to Ara’s bed as he felt his team strengthen his own connection, and closed his eyes. He slipped in behind Ara’s Aryan Dream and watched.
Aryan Dream – Savacia
There was a man sitting on a ledge overlooking a golden canyon. Forests adorned the plateaus around but the canyon was rocky and steep. Well below where Ara was standing, a fast-moving river meandered.
“Where are we?” Ara asked.
The male didn’t seem surprised at her sudden appearance, but then, it was just a dream!
Jamie had suspected Ara didn’t understand that this was more than a dream. His suspicions had risen after a casual comment Marc had made. It surprised him that Pen and Terance hadn’t picked up on some of Ara’s dreams, instead they would tell her off for running around the farm at night.
“Savacia Planet System, it’s a Canyon Habitat.”
“It’s pretty.” The rugged cliffs on either side of a raging river were golden with some reds and browns.
“I think so.”
She sat quietly and then became bored so she looked up at him and gave him not her best smile but a good one.
Jamie tried not to laugh.
The male had brown skin, brown hair, and nice brown eyes. “What’s your name?
“Trickster.”
Jamie’s heart skipped a beat. The Snakes had mentioned Trickster as their enemy.
She giggled. “What’s a habitat?”
“A place for things to live.”
“What lives here?” She looked out, seeing plants but no… Ooh, a big bird glided high above them.
“People, animals, and plants.”
She found his eyes on her.
He asked, “What are you wearing?”
Ara looked down, pulling at her pink, fluffy top. “Snuggles.”
“Oh.”
“That’s what my big brother calls them.” She swung her legs back and forward. The man copied her.
“I can turn into a wolf.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You can … not!”
He frowned. “I can too.”
“Show me then!” She scrambled up, and stomped to get the dirt off her bum.
As she watched, he morphed into a big, grey wolf, looked at her with brown eyes, and then changed back. She jumped up and down in excitement. “I want to do that too!”
He patted the ground but she shook her head and looked around behind at the desert.
“This is a funny dream.” She put her hands
on her hips and looked back down at the canyon. “I wonder if I can change into a bird.” If she could fly in her dream, she might be able to fly to see Maya and tell her not to kill people.
Jamie cringed. Ara had heard them that night!
She lifted her arms and ran around, flapping. She decided to run over the cliff and ran past Trickster, laughing as she did. But she fell.
Jamie was sure his heart stopped.
She started screaming, “Wake up!”
But the air was pushing her cheeks away from her mouth, and her eyes were frozen on the ever—suddenly, she was flying! She looked to the left and saw a brown wing but it wasn’t flapping, it looked like it was trying to slow them. She was disappointed that it was Trickster flying but since her dream failed to fulfil her fantasy of flying, she had to be content. Ara looked again at the brown feathers, straining she thought. With a massive jerk, the wing flapped, yanking her around, and she bit her tongue. It stung like crazy. “Ouch!”
The flight stabilized and she began to enjoy the sensation despite her tongue distracting her.
“I’m flying,” she yelled and laughed again as they flew along the raging water below.
By now, Jamie had his hands over his face, groaning with relief. He opened his eyes and saw Ara was still in her bed. He sighed in relief. The implants apparently allowed Pure-Gens to project their image. But as he watched there was a flash of energy and she was gone, no, there was a projection in the bed to maintain a link. Shit! She could switch. Jamie quickly closed his eyes, ignoring his thumping heart and sweaty palms. She was still with Trickster, but solid. The male set them down near the quieter part of the river. As her feet touched the ground, his hands released her and she turned, holding her hand to her mouth, touching her tongue.
Pain must have triggered the switch.
Trickster was naked. She giggled but had seen lots of penises anyway at the bathing ponds, sometimes they were soft and floppy, sometimes they looked hard and up. His was soft.