AEGIS EVOLUTION

by S. S. Segran

  “You’d think,” Tegan said, “that an outbreak like this would slow down this stupid war.”

  Marshall shook his head. “They’re just soldiers following orders, doing what they think is necessary for the survival of their country. Besides, most of these skirmishes are taking place in farmlands away from populated areas. They probably haven’t seen the effects of the outbreak up close.”

  “Which means small villages and rural areas could still be safe?”

  “Potentially, yes. And they might put up fences and security along their borders to keep away people fleeing the big cities.”

  On the screen, the anchor attempted to perk up. “In other news, a new phone app has started to make waves in Korea, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, and is steadily being downloaded by countless users around the world. The app, Soteria, allows people to remain safely at home while government-sanctioned delivery mechanisms for food and other essentials are coordinated to minimize public exposure to the virus. This is a very helpful addition to the Israeli-provided test kits that help detect the virus in your system.”

  Jag breathed in relief. “That’s good. It’s like Meals on Wheels on a global scale. If we can minimize people’s movement, it’ll help slow the spread of the disease and buy us more time to find the cure.”

  “Maybe,” Marshall said. “But there are always more than a few morons who’ll jack this up.”

  Tegan glanced at the front door, then passed the remote to Jag and walked outside. She found Aari and Kody sitting together on the steps in the cool morning and plunked herself beside them. “Found anything, Kody?” she asked.

  Kody’s head moved as if on a swivel. “Maybe, but I’m not going to jump to a conclusion just yet. Also, if you’re wondering why Aari looks like he might puke, I’d highly recommend listening to what he has to say.”

  Aari did indeed look nauseous. Tegan rubbed his back. “Hey, Brainiac,” she said. “Talk to me.”

  Aari pinched his eyebrows between his fingers. “Ugh… I wanted to ask Marshall that night on Masada, but then he nearly got killed and ever since then we’ve been busy, so I just put it on the backburner.”

  “Put what on the backburner?”

  “On Masada, I picked up this old broken stone that I think might have been an arrowhead. When I did, I looked around and saw…” He gritted his teeth, pressing his palms to his face. “… I saw hundreds of people, all dead. I could smell the blood soaking the air, feel the wind in my face. It’s like I was there, Teegs. It’s like I was there right after the mass suicide happened. It’s just been festering in the back of my mind ever since, but when they showed the Moscow massacre on TV, it all came rushing back.”

  Tegan turned his head toward her and searched his face. “You’re shaking, Aari.”

  “I told you. It’s like I was there. No, I was there. I don’t know how.”

  “You saw into the past, then?”

  “You believe me?”

  “I would be stupid not to after all we’ve seen and experienced.” She hoisted him up. “Come on. Let’s talk to Marshall. You joining us, Kody?”

  “One sec,” he said. “Gotta readjust my vision back to normal.” He blinked a few times, then followed Tegan and Aari inside.

  “Marshall!” Tegan called.

  The Sentry stepped out of the bathroom, startled. “Yeah?”

  “Aari thinks he saw into the past when we were in Masada. Possible, yea or nay?”

  “You what?” Marshall grabbed Aari’s arm as everyone crowded around them. “Are you serious?”

  Aari seemed to wilt. “Is it… is it bad? What’s going on?”

  “No! No, it’s not bad. I’ve just never heard of anyone being able to do that.”

  “So either this is really cool,” Kody said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, “or the dude’s a freak.”

  Tegan pushed him away. “Oh, go brush your teeth. Marshall, Aari said it happened when he picked up a really old arrowhead. My guess is that maybe this ability activates by touch.”

  “Could be.” Marshall picked up a decorative vase from the living room and handed it to Aari. “Anything?”

  Aari stood still for a minute as everyone held their breaths. Then he passed the vase back. “Nothing.”

  Jag handed him the gold cross he wore around his neck along with his Dema-Ki pendant. “Here, try this. Belonged to my granddad.”

  Again, Aari indicated no.

  “This is so strange,” Mariah said. “Maybe it was a fluke or something.”

  “Maybe not,” Tegan disagreed. “You guys remember during the summer when Kody discovered another layer to his sensory abilities?”

  “It was terrifying,” Kody called from the kitchen as he started making breakfast for the group. “I had absolutely no control over it at the beginning. Do you know how disturbing it was seeing that dog in thermal vision? I almost had a heart attack.”

  Jag clicked his fingers. “I get it. Maybe what happened to Aari is the same thing that happened to Kody. His new ability is still developing, going through a metamorphosis, so it comes and goes when it wants.”

  Tegan smiled. “That’s what I’m thinking.”

  “Let me check with the Elders,” Marshall said.

  As the Sentry retreated into his mind, the others threw different items at Aari hoping to find one that would open up his new ability again. Their efforts were in vain, though, and as they gave up, Marshall returned to them. “Elder Nageau wants to speak with you, Aari,” he said. “I’ll be the… let’s call it intermediary. Go ahead.”

  Aari locked his fingers together. “Um, hi, Elder Nageau.”

  “Greetings, youngling. Marshall has given me some stunning news.”

  “So is it a real ability?”

  “It is, Aari, but this power has not been seen since my Island ancestors were displaced from their home. It is even considered a myth by many in Dema-Ki. Youngling, what you have is a kind of extrasensory perception.”

  “Extrasensory… like, a sixth sense?”

  “Not just any sixth sense. In your language, I believe it is called retrocog—”

  “Retrocognition!”

  “Yes.” Nageau chuckled. “Leave it to you to know these things. We do not have much insight about this ability, but I think I have enough for you to begin with. When you pick up an object whilst connected to the novasphere, glimpses of historical memories belonging to the object’s owner will be made available to you. There are, however, two conditions for this to work. The first is that the owner or creator of the object must be deeply bound to the item or must have created it at an intense emotional and spiritual level. In other words, for your ability to work, the person behind the object must be uniquely and powerfully connected to it.”

  “Alright… and the second?”

  “The second is that the owner or creator of the object cannot be presently linked to it in this, the biosphere.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The person must have passed on. If he or she is still alive, the physical connection between them and their artifact will prohibit you from retrieving their memories. Once they have departed from this plane of existence, you may tap into the novasphere to access their memories. Even then these memories may only appear in bits and pieces, usually close to locations where significant events had transpired in their lives. A curious thing I have heard is that sometimes there tend to be brief flash-forwards to the next emotional geographical markers in the person’s life.”

  Tegan was only half-listening by the time Aari had given his gratitude and goodbyes to the Elder. She felt a gentle knock on her mind and opened up. Hey, Jag.

  I see it on your face, he said.

  And I see it on yours.

  We’re thinking the same thing.

  Yes, we are.

  Should I bring it up, or do you want to?

  You gave me the reins while you’re out of commission, bucko. But it’s your call.

  Jag gave her an acquiescent grin. Go
on, then.

  Tegan put an arm around Aari’s waist and wiggled him back and forth. “This is awesome, Brainiac. You know why? Shut up, I’ll tell you why. Because we have hope again.”

  Aari looked like he was still trying to absorb the potentials of his newfound capability. “Huh?”

  “Really? Smart guy like you still hasn’t caught up?”

  “Asa!” Kody yelled from the kitchen where he was furiously cooking over the stove. “We go back to Asa and get him to hand over the Roman letters so you can do your freaky-deaky thing on them. Jeez, he’s slow today.”

  “I think we can forgive him this one time,” Jag said, grinning slightly.

  Mariah snorted. “And you really think Asa will just hand over something from his prized collections? We’ll probably have to resort to theft.”

  “You’re right,” Tegan said. “He almost certainly won’t give it up. But it’s still worth a shot.”

  “And if it doesn’t work?” Aari asked, finally coming around.

  “I think I know what to do if he resists us.” Tegan looked at the Sentry across from her. “And I’m gonna need your help, Marshall.”

  40

  “No! Absolutely not!”

  Asa stormed through the swinging door into his kitchen as Tegan, Mariah, Kody and Marshall hounded the poor man. Aari sat in the living room; he’d stopped watching their parade around the house twenty minutes ago.

  Eh, who were we kidding? he thought, slouching all the way down. Like he’d ever agree if we don’t tell him why we need the letters. And if we do tell him, he’d probably think we’re completely nuts and kick us out anyway.

  Asa threw open the door and raged back into the living room, uttering a string of Hebrew phrases, most of which Aari understood to be curses. He ducked behind Aari’s chair to use it as a buffer and looked down at the teenager. “I like you,” he grunted. “You’re the only one not pestering me with this stupid request.”

  “Actually—” Aari started.

  “No!” Before Asa could scurry away, Marshall and Tegan emerged from the kitchen.

  “Asa,” Marshall said, “if we could just see the letters out of their protective coverings—”

  “Why?” Asa demanded as the pair cut off his escape route and closed in. “How does that help anyone? What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Please,” the Sentry implored. “Asa, we just—”

  “No! These are precious, fragile artifacts from two millennia ago. There’s nothing on earth that will make me put them at mortal risk.”

  “Okay, that’s it!” Tegan whirled around, her dark, wavy locks splaying out like a cape. She pointed at Marshall and growled. “Do it.”

  Marshall’s expression hardened. He reached into his back pocket. Asa’s gaze darted from the Sentry to Tegan. As Marshall approached him, the Israeli brought his fists up in a fighting stance. Marshall held up one hand, then pulled the other out of his pocket and held out his phone to Asa. The man, confounded, stared at the device, his hands still balled. “What is this?”

  “Gareth and Deverell are on a conference call,” Tegan explained. “They’d like to speak with you.”

  Asa shot them a suspicious look and snatched the phone before retreating to his bedroom on the other side of the house and slamming the door shut. Mariah and Kody trotted out of the kitchen to join the group as they heard Asa shouting through the walls in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

  Aari bit his thumb. “Wow, he sounds really peeved.”

  “I hope the guys will get him to agree,” Mariah said. “Hey, Kody, where are you going?”

  Kody adjusted his baseball cap and oversized green sweatshirt. “I’m gonna look around for our tail.”

  Marshall stopped him. “Maybe it’s not a good idea to step out. Can you get a look through the windows instead?”

  Kody lifted the blinds from a window that overlooked the front lawn. “I can give it a try.”

  As the others chattered amongst themselves, Aari sat with his hands clasped together in his lap. He could still hear Asa shouting, but the intervals between yells had lengthened. That’s a good sign, he thought. Right?

  A quarter of an hour later, Asa reappeared. He tossed Marshall his phone and rumbled, “Close all the windows and blinds and start boiling big pots of water. Don’t cover them. Shut the kitchen door and turn off the lights.”

  He disappeared upstairs. The group, though unsure about what was going to happen, obeyed Asa’s orders. As Kody and Mariah blacked out the kitchen windows, Tegan and Aari took turns filling large pots from the tap and setting the burners on the stove to their highest flame.

  “I wonder what he wants,” Tegan said, wiping spilled water from the counter and floor. “You gotta admit, those are some weird instructions.”

  “I hope this isn’t some sort of Norman Bates thing,” Kody said, shuddering. “Where’s Jag when you need him?”

  Asa returned with a large plastic tub and placed it on the table. With gloved hands, he pulled out long parchments in polyester coverings.

  “Are those the letters?” Marshall asked delicately, as though Asa might suddenly lash out.

  “Yes.” Asa, aggrieved, removed the parchments from their protective casings. “I will leave the letters on the table. The boiling water will create just enough moisture in the air so that I can roll them up without damaging them.” He placed the final letter down, then put a hand over his heart as if he’d just laid the artifacts to rest. “You may have these for only one week. When they are returned, I don’t want to find a single tear in them. Understand?”

  Marshall gave Asa’s shoulder a quick squeeze. “Thank you. I know this is difficult for you, but believe me, it’s a great help to everyone.”

  We hope so, anyway, Aari thought. Since discussing his new ability with Elder Nageau earlier in the day, he’d been wracked with nervousness. His first impression of retrocognition had been ghastly and didn’t leave a particularly delightful taste in his mouth. I’d really rather not see any more dead people.

  Asa rolled up the letters, separating them with opaque polyester sheets, and slipped them into an airtight cylindrical canister. As Aari slung the canister’s strap over his shoulder, he gave their host a firm handshake. “We’ll take good care of them,” he promised. “You won’t be sorry, Asa.”

  Asa managed a wavering smile. “Go, all of you. Find what you need to find.”

  * * *

  The group was already on their way out of Haifa when Tegan said, “Question. Why wait to get to Daniel’s house when we can just find a place here and let Aari have a go at the letters?”

  “I saw an empty outdoor café some ways back,” Mariah said, motioning toward a sandy stretch to their right. The royal blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea waved at the group as they raced past.

  Marshall swerved off the highway and sped along a road leading up to the beach. “Let’s do it.”

  Soon they were seated around an oval table under a spacious wooden overhang. Aari breathed in deeply; the briny scent of the beach under a bright sky always flushed him with a sense of openness and freedom. Beside him, Kody scanned the beach, concentration darkening his eyes. He was in his own world for a while before he snapped back and nudged Aari. “Well? Pick a letter.”

  “Yeah, yeah, don’t get your boxers in a twist.” Aari eyeballed the long parchments laid out on the table, then readied himself and touched one of the letters with his index finger, already flinching.

  “You see anything?” Marshall asked.

  Aari tucked his digits into a fist. “No.”

  “Try again, kiddo.”

  The teenager reached out with two fingers this time and sharpened his attention. He thought he felt something scratch the back of his head and dig through his skull, but nothing happened. He withdrew. “No dice.”

  “Hold your hands out,” Tegan directed.

  He tentatively complied. Kody and Marshall on either side of him thumped his back encouragingly. Mariah, at the end of the
table, observed intently as Tegan picked up a letter and placed it atop Aari’s open palms.

  There was a sudden flash behind his eyes, simultaneously bright and dark. A blonde girl not much older than him appeared in his vision, so real that if he reached out, he might have been able to touch her. When she locked eyes with him, a sudden jolt shot through Aari. He recoiled, flinging the letter away.

  Kody yelped and dove off his chair, catching the parchment before it hit the ground. “Dude! What the heck? Asa will murder us if we harm his artifacts!”

  “You saw something,” Mariah guessed excitedly. “You’ve got that same look you had on Masada.”

  “It worked,” Aari mumbled, wiping his brow. “I saw a girl. Long blonde hair, kinda pale, had a bit of dirt on her face. She… she was an absolute babe.”

  Mariah snorted. “Bah, typical male.”

  “Oh, please. I’ve seen the way you and Tegan eyeball some of the guys back home.”

  “Why did you flip?” Kody asked, gingerly placing the paper back on the table.

  “Because it caught me by surprise!” Aari snapped. “And it felt so real!”

  “You need to go back there,” Tegan said. “Can you do it?”

  It took two tries before he slid back into the vision. The heat of the desert was almost unbearable and he could feel sweat rolling down his back. He saw the blonde girl again; this time she wore a colorful shawl over her shoulders. Her turquoise eyes bore the weight of sorrow and loss as she looked away from him. Sunlight glinted off something gold around her throat—a necklace. He squinted, making out an inscription on the rectangular pendant.

  That’s block script, he realized. Hebrew. C’mon, Grandpa, don’t let your lessons fail me now…

  He struggled with the right-to-left alphabet just a bit before he got a name: Carmel.

  Behind the girl, a small but busy village teemed with life. A vast, glittering body of water speckled with small fishing boats rolled toward the shore in the background. It struck him, then, why this place looked familiar. That’s the Bay of Haifa! That’s where we are right now! It’s Haifa before it was Haifa!