by Gun Brooke
“Someone aboard the jumper had to have seen her. What about the surveillance at the jumper gates? There are cameras aboard the cars, right? I want to see every single piece of footage of Caya when she’s on the jumper cars.” She knew her stark voice didn’t leave any room for objections.
“Yes, Madam President,” Commander KahSandra said rapidly. “I will page you once my unit has rerouted all the different camera angles to your office. It won’t take long, sir.”
“Good. And keep at it. You all know why it’s imperative that we find her. We can surmise the terrorists are behind this, but we need confirmation. How did Diobring pass all the screening and become part of my inner circle among the military? Was he coerced, paid, what?”
“Senior Agent Tarason here, Madam President,” a gruff male voice said. Thea vaguely remembered a short, stocky man with white hair. “Both our agency and the military overseers will scrutinize Lieutenant Diobring’s motives.”
“Good. Report back to me every fifteen minutes, or more often than that, if something of importance occurs. Anything, anything regarding Caya Lindemay is of importance. Do I make myself clear?”
Affirmative answers echoed over the communication system.
“Madam President, before we go, there’s one more thing,” Senior Agent Tarason said. “Before we even learned about Ms. Lindemay’s attempted abduction, we received intel about a locale where individuals have been gathering regularly. I’ve deployed agents to investigate. It’s our first major break since the last attack at the hospital.”
“I will await your report on that matter as well, Agent Tarason.”
They closed the communication conference, and Thea remained seated for another full minute before she rose and rounded her desk. She didn’t want to remain in her office while everyone else searched for Caya. Thea wished she could just leave and be part of the search, walk along the corridors, streets, and squares, look through shops, libraries, and every hospital bed aboard Pathfinder. She turned her chair away from the door, since doing so made her feel a little more private.
Thinking of Caya made her vulnerable. It took her away from being the president and allowed her to just be Thea, a woman in love with another woman. She only had to close her eyes to see the image of Caya in the early morning, asleep while lying on her stomach, her amazing hair covering most of her face and half her back. Thea had carefully nudged the hair away, pressed a gentle, lingering kiss on her temple. She had never seen anything or anyone more beautiful in all her life than Caya Lindemay sleeping, entirely spent after a night of making love.
Forcing herself back to the present and its grim reality, Thea turned her chair back to face the desk and the door. Her people had their work to do, and she had hers. She was just pulling up her list of messages on her computer tablet when her communicator beeped again. Her heart began to race as she answered.
“Madam President, Admiral Heigel here.” Korrian’s tone, official and stern, made Thea square her shoulders and stand up. There was no chance of this being good news.
“Go ahead, Admiral,” Thea said.
“We haven’t received proper telemetry from our next buoy, but we assumed it was a malfunction, nothing else. Now we have good reason to believe it has been sabotaged. This means we cannot communicate with Gemocon until we’re in range of the next subspace buoy.”
“What else will go wrong today?” Thea rubbed her temples, as a tension headache was spreading like fire through her mind.
“I know, Thea.” Korrian’s voice grew milder. “Any luck finding out where Caya is?”
“None so far. I’m hoping surveillance will pick up on her or her sister will manage to pinpoint her location via her abilities. She’s completely unprotected out there.”
“Perhaps Red Angel needs to make a public appeal?” Korrian asked.
“It might come to that if I don’t hear anything within the very near future. As for the buoy problem, is it possible to deploy a team to retrieve it?”
“No. It takes far too long for the ship to break out of magnetar drive. We’re collecting what data we can from it, as parts of it are still functioning. I’ll have more for you shortly.”
“Good.” Thea thought about the ramifications regarding their domestic issues as well as the intergalactic ones. “Korrian, we also need to ask ourselves why it was sabotaged, and by whom.”
Chapter Sixteen
Caya stood at the far end of a public restroom, washing her hands. When someone opened the door, she pulled up the hood of the coat she had changed into. It was a rather threadbare, mid-calf-length coat, and the young woman who had owned it previously had not thought twice about switching it for Caya’s light-blue caftan. Caya knew people were looking for her, some of them benevolent, but some of them with harmful intent. She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in time if they spotted her.
Caya wore her trademark long, blond hair in an austere updo. She didn’t look anyone in the eye but kept moving, trying to find a place to induce a vision. If that happened where anyone in the general public, or worse, any of Diobring’s associates, found her while she was in the throes of one—she’d be vulnerable and unable to defend herself. She had thought she might be able to do it here, in the bathroom, but too many people came and went in here. Caya simply wouldn’t be able to focus.
Stepping outside, she kept her hood up. The coat touched the back of her calves, and Caya was grateful it covered almost her entire body, more or less. She could still feel the stinging sensation when the window had shattered just above her when Diobring fired. Caya had glimpsed his face before he shot at her, and the blank stare in his eyes gave her cold shivers just thinking about it. Who could have gotten to Diobring, such a high-ranking officer in the fleet, and turned him into a traitor?
Caya wanted to page her sister more than anything, but the first thing she did after the jumper car left the gate was to destroy her communicator. If Diobring had culprits among his subordinates, they could use it to track her. Caya hardly dared think about Thea. She could only imagine how this might affect her. If only Thea had woken her up before she left. Perhaps Caya would have opted to go with her into work and wait for Briar there? It was a fruitless thought, but Caya was trying not to end up in the middle of a full-blown panic attack, and wishful thinking was one-way if not very practical.
She walked along the streets of cube fifteen, where she was positive she didn’t know a single person. Nobody paid attention to her as everyone went about their day and had little time to notice one lonely young woman roaming the streets and alleys. Caya was getting hungry and looked for a public food dispenser, available to everyone. All the cubes boasted restaurants, mainly in the squares, where you had to barter or use credits to eat, but the simple food dispensers ensured that nobody went hungry aboard Pathfinder.
Two blocks farther down the street, Caya saw a line to a food dispenser and tried to look inconspicuous. She adjusted the hood and kept her eyes turned down, well aware of their unique coloring.
“Hello there,” a woman said from behind her, making Caya jump. “Just stay calm. I wish you no harm. You’re in danger of being discovered, but I can help.” The woman spoke so quietly, Caya could barely make out what she was saying.
“I think you mistake me for someone else,” Caya said and tried to sound indifferent.
“Shh. We don’t have time to go back and forth trying to convince each other. I know who you are, and if you don’t want to end up in the hands of the people you’ve kept us safe from, Caya, you need to come with me. Wait until you get your food and then follow me.”
Caya wondered how far she’d get if she began running. The woman behind her had a nice, reassuring voice, but that meant nothing.
“Who are you?” Caya didn’t even attempt to protest. It seemed futile.
“I will tell you everything, but we need to hurry once we have our food. We can’t let the military find you. I’m sure you realize the lieutenant must have had help.”<
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Caya’s heart thundered, and she wanted badly to find a place to hide. More than that, she wished she were back with Thea, or Briar, and not alone in a cube where she had nobody to turn to.
The man in front of Caya nodded politely at her as he stepped away with his food. Caya looked at the machine but couldn’t even raise her hand to press the sensors.
“Let me help you.” The woman spoke again and stepped up to stand by her side. “Vegetables and dolzi-rice sound good?”
“Sure.” Caya glanced sideways and gasped. A thin, red-haired woman dressed in white trousers and a blue tunic stood next to her, and she wasn’t the stranger Caya had thought she was. As she accepted the food boxes, Caya could only remain as if frozen in time while the woman she had seen dead by the terrorists’ hands in her vision received her food.
“I can tell you recognize me,” the woman murmured. “It’s all right. I knew you would. Just walk with me, please. She smiled casually and nudged at Caya to start walking. “Please.”
It was Caya’s best option all day. She walked next to the woman, unwilling to speak and prepared to bolt if she had to, trying to memorize which streets the woman used to reach her destination. Eventually, they stopped by a row of smaller quarters. The woman pressed her hand against a sensor and let it scan her retina. It opened, and she nodded for Caya to step inside.
Cautiously, Caya stopped on the threshold and glanced around the room. Two young men sat on a couch, both holding some game cards. They looked up at her and flinched, both of them frowning at the red-haired woman next to her.
“Tomita? Who’s this?” the man to the left asked.
“It’s her. Finally.” The woman called Tomita put her boxes on the table between the men.
“What?” The man to the left sat up straight. “You mean her her? Caya Lindemay?”
“Yes. I couldn’t believe my own senses when I felt her on my way to the dispenser. I mean, what are the odds?”
“Who the hell is talking about odds? I’ve been burning my potion ever since the hospital incident,” the man to the right said.
Caya couldn’t fathom how they knew her name or that it was her, and what were they talking about? Potions? Senses? What was going on? Just as she was about to head for the door, make her escape, and hopefully disappear into the narrow alleyways, an unavoidable vision hit her. She fell to her knees, dropping her boxes of food, but she was too far gone into her vision to hear them hit the floor.
The man on the left and Tomita were running through a jumper car, calling out to Caya to follow. She ran after them, calling out warnings, asking them to stop, but they merely waved her on, telling her it wasn’t too late. They could still save the people, but she needed to stay back. Caya knew they couldn’t, knew it in her heart, but she kept running after them, hoping against every sign hinting at the opposite that it wasn’t. Then everything went black, and she was in limbo for several moments.
Hands held her, pulled her up into an embrace. The vision changed, moved backward like a reversed video. Tomita, although much younger, stood outside what looked like a learning facility, her face pressed to the bars in the fence.
“Come on, my girl. No need to wish for what we cannot have.” A woman pulled at Tomita. “You too, Aldan. Neither of you will ever be accepted into a school like that, and you have to accept it. You will know so much more about life than these privileged children. Once you learn to make the most of your gifts, you will do more for the Oconodians than they ever did for you. It’s not fair, but it’s reality.”
Tomita looked longingly at the children playing in the schoolyard. “But…”
“Tomita. You’re going to help save them one day.” The woman, perhaps their mother, began walking, holding one child by each hand. “My predictions are never wrong, and that’s why we must start preparing how to get you aboard one of the Exodus cubes someday. If we don’t, hundreds of thousands of Oconodians will die.”
The vision ended so abruptly, Caya cried out and held her head.
“Caya? Caya? Are you all right?” Tomita called from a distance, and this time Caya knew she was back in the quarters. Gentle hands lifted her and placed her on a soft surface, perhaps a bed or the couch. Caya opened her eyes slowly, afraid she might have a migraine coming on, as that sometimes happened when a vision was this violent.
Tomita sat on the side of the bed where they had placed Caya, placing a cold washcloth on her forehead. “There, Caya. You’ll be fine. That vision was massive, wasn’t it?”
“You’re changers.” Caya sat up and the washcloth fell away. Tomita took it and placed it against the back of Caya’s neck.
“Yes, of course.”
“But…but how?” Caya wasn’t afraid. Somehow as soon as she’d figured out they were indeed changers, her fear of being assassinated or otherwise hurt went away.
“I would imagine in a similar manner as you and Red Angel. A well-placed bribe and a genetic resequencer and there you go—changed records. I’m Tomita Gochia.” She pointed to the man on the right. “This is my brother Aldan,” she said, then indicated the man on the left. “And this is Foy, his husband. I’m a tracker.”
“What’s a tracker?” Caya’s brain still felt thick and slow.
“Interesting that you don’t know.” Tomita tilted her head. “You have been quite sheltered, or so we hear. Anyway, a tracker is just that. I can pick up scents, traces, and literally any sign available that most others would miss. I tracked you for an hour to establish your identity. Your hooded coat fooled most people, I’m sure, but for someone like me, you’re easy to find.”
“I see. And you move around outside, completely unprotected? How does that work?” Caya asked. “Aren’t you worried you will be found out?”
“Every day,” Foy said grimly, but we have a mission and a strong conviction that we’re nearing the moment when our services will save the Oconodian and Gemosian people.”
Foy, a tall, gangly young man, moved with economic, measured movements. Caya was reluctantly intrigued. “What’s your gift?”
“I’m a master telekinetic. That means I’m not just a telekinetic, but I attended underground changer education back on Oconodos, which helped me perfect my abilities. So did Aldan, and that’s where we met. He’s a potion master and charmer. He would be the first one to claim he’s a charmer in every sense of the word, but that’s his ego talking. We got married right after school, and when Aldan and Tomita’s mother died in one of the riots, we stuck together to be able to carry out her plan.”
“We had no idea at first how to proceed without Mother.” Tomita bit into her lower lip. “She was our seer. Without her to guide us we’ve been flying blind. Then we learned of you and your sister. It was such a revelation as you’re a seer as well.”
This was almost too much to process. Caya sat there on the bed, looking back and forth among the people in the room. They were slightly older than she was, but not by much. The two men both had open and honest faces, not that this in itself meant very much when it came to someone’s reliability. Caya had learned to trust her vision and the knowledge and intuition that came from them. These three were fighting the good fight. Unlike the terrorists who didn’t think twice about hurting anyone to reach their objective, Tomita, Aldan, and Foy were ready to do anything to keep the people aboard Pathfinder safe. Then there was the fact that Tomita was indeed the dying woman Caya had seen in her vision, but here she was, alive and well. “I saw you dying.” Caya didn’t bother with niceties. “When the hospital was attacked, I saw you dying.”
“I almost did. Aldan and Foy found me, and they have connections as they work at one of the smaller hospitals. They managed to get a friend who is a doctor to help me. That white-garnet solution…It nearly killed me, and if I never have to live through that pain again, that’s fine with me.” Tomita pulled up her shirt and showed two scars that looked like they had been stitched up rather than fused. “We had to use a bit of a mix of traditionalist medicine and new tech
nology, but at least it’s proof of what I went through.”
“I’m glad you’re alive.” Caya rubbed her forehead. She had a headache, but not a migraine, which was a blessing. “I was attacked today. I barely got away.”
“We know. Our contact at the governmental building was actually at the gate when the guy with you started firing. Our friend tried to get on the same jumper as you to help you, but he couldn’t get to it fast enough.” Tomita poured a glass of water. “Here. Drink some. If you’re like us, you get thirsty after your vision.”
“Yes, I do.” Caya drank some water. “And this friend of yours, is he a changer also?”
“Yes. He’s a receiver.”
“A what?” Caya put the glass down on a small shelf by the bed. “A receiver of what?”
“Of any transmission. He has learned to filter out irrelevant conversations, and he’s very accurate these days. This has made it possible for our group to keep tabs on you.”
“Not to mention the other group you’re such a proud member of,” Aldan said acerbically and sat down at the foot of the bed. “I wish you’d never done that. If they find out you’re alive, you won’t just be a target again. You’ll draw attention to the rest of us.”
“I know. Good thing nobody knows you’re my brother.” Tomita had paled.
“What are you talking about?” Caya looked back and forth between the siblings. “What group?”
“I managed to track and infiltrate a group that turned out to be one of four sleeper cells. And yes, before you ask, they sure aren’t sleeping now. They were not aware of their purpose when they boarded the ship with their families, but now they are. One of their tasks is to recruit enough members to double their numbers. After I did some major playacting, they bought into my story and made me a member.” Tomita sighed and ruffled her red bangs.
“Wait. What sleeper cells?” Her stomach in cold knots now, Caya pulled her knees close and wrapped her arms around them.