Astra: Synchronicity (14 page)

Aliane's eyes flashed a sharp shade of
violet. <ugly in here. I'd hate to spill blood all over your pretty
palace.>>

Kara closed her eyes and spoke in a low tone
as though chanting a prophecy: "When the summer moon passes through
Pavo, the viper descends from the East. In ten score days, a year
of darkness will consume the valley of eagles. The horse will meet
the rabbit on the day that never was, and when the planets of Chara
are in conjunction, united they will strike back. After one and
three days, the viper will fall."

The words didn't take the form of her formal
prophecies and made less sense than usual. "Why don't you just tell
me what that's supposed to mean…"

"When the southern pole star of Kashtivone
goes nova, the fox will be stricken from the throne to begin the
age of the seventh sin. The rabbit will burn the sky with tears for
three days after she is laid to rest."

The telepath's eyes boiled in anger. "Stop
patronizing me with riddles."

Kara ignored her idle threats. "During the
lunar eclipse of Vega, the horse and the rabbit will break bread in
the forbidden place and spend the winter navigating darkness. In
five and four, the horse will lead them home. The rabbit will fall
from the sky. And the people will mourn." She quickly raised her
hand for emphasis. "If you want to live, you'll stop the
rabbit."

Aliane balked. "Is this rabbit fellow going
to kill me?"

"I don't know. There are too many
possibilities for me to be sure." She took a deep breath before
continuing. "Keep your enemies close and your friends closer. Don't
put ambition before love. And use your power modestly."

"What happens if I kill the rabbit? Problem
solved, right?"

"I'm sure you'll try. But I'm telling you
now; you won't be able to kill the rabbit."

Her incredulous laugh echoed throughout the
hall. "There isn't a person in Astra strong enough to best me."

Kara smirked. "I didn't say they'd beat you.
I said you wouldn't be able to kill them."

Aliane wasn't sure what she should take from
all this. She'd come for answers but had more questions than ever.
She wanted to ask if they'd meet again but was afraid of the
answer.

"Trying to figure this out is going to muddle
my brain for weeks," she said and began walking away. "But I will
figure this out. You'll see. I've cheated death before and I will
again."

As Aliane exited the building, optimism
rejuvenated her spirit. For many years she'd felt vulnerable, a
victim of poor people skills and a sheltered upbringing. Since
taking Zingeri as her confidante, she'd become invincible. Kara had
been blathering on about nothing. Perhaps she wasn't the great Seer
she was purported to be. After all, if a person guessed about the
future often enough, they were bound to get something right every
once in a while.

While Nadine waited in the briefing room, she
stared out at the vast emptiness of space. She couldn't see Chara
from here, but they were close. The constellations she remembered
sharpened, and Vega faded into little more than a dappled golden
dot in the distant sky.

She looked forward to seeing her husband
again. She hated to be away from the man who saved her from life as
a test subject, but she realized it was necessary. She'd always
been his right-hand man when it came to diplomatic affairs since
she was so charismatic. While she never particularly cared for the
vocation, she put most people at ease with little effort, and as
such, she became an ideal ambassador for United Europe.

All of a sudden, she tilted her head and
winced. That feeling, again…the transient afterimage of a potent
mind. Every few hours, psionic energy saturated her mind. The
sensation made her heart race, and she had to catch her breath to
stay centered.

Her status as a diplomat allowed access to
the ship's manifest, including civilian passengers. She grabbed a
comtab and punched up the information she was interested in.
Several VIPs had been dropped off on their homeworlds, but only a
few people had been taken on since Nadine came aboard. Matt
Zoleki…the name seemed oddly familiar. As a matter of principle,
Nadine didn't pry into the thoughts of others without their
knowledge but in this case she would make an exception. Any psion
that had given her pause demanded investigation, for both the
safety of the ship and any humans unfortunate enough to get in his
or her way.

After taking a deep breath, she closed her
eyes and cleared her mind. She felt her consciousness wander across
the ship searching for him, letting the tingle in her frontal lobe
guide her way. It didn't take long for her to find him lying alone
in his cot. For a moment his aura blinded her. He guarded his mind
as a warning for lesser telepaths to keep their distance, though
her curiosity seduced her into looking deeper into his soul.

He turned out to be the last thing she
expected: a loner cursing his wretched existence as a psion.
Instead of being a force of evil, he was a pitiable man stuck in a
life of boredom that drove him closer to the edge of despair every
day. She tried to look closer, but all she could sense was his
potential. An inferno raged in his heart—quenched to an ember by
the anguish of life. Hiding from the truth would destroy him.

The second lady recoiled and reclaimed her
body. She shouldn't have cared about a person she didn't know. But
everything about this chance encounter seemed fated to be. No one
was assigned a role in life at random and certainly not a psion so
melancholic.

She paged him using her wrist implant. "This
is Nadine Taylor. Could you come to the briefing room for a few
minutes? I'd like to speak to you."

The unusual request gave him pause. "I'm on
my way."

But as far as she could tell, his genuine
curiosity led him to her.

When he strode through the doors, she
realized he was a lot better looking in person than he had been
through the periscope of her mind. His ageless features enhanced
his dashing brown eyes, and despite his rather dated choice in
apparel, a warm subdued presence lingered beneath his gruff
expression. He'd worked hard on his middle-aged appearance; the
charade would've convinced her had she not already wrested his true
identity.

Nadine felt an accidental reflection run
through his head in regards to Amii, and she tried to conceal her
smile. "You like her, don't you…Magnius," she said at long last.
Seeing the two of them—it makes sense now,
she thought.

He pointed his finger at her. Like most
everyone else, he objected to her telepathy. "Don't. Not to me. Not
ever
to me."

He used his mind to confound her, and a
dizzying fountain of images swept her thoughts clean. She turned
her head and grimaced before staring back at him. "I see. That
explains a lot. But if you're going to talk the talk, you'd better
be able to walk the walk too."

All of a sudden she channeled the burning
blast of a mind probe in his direction. He crossed his hands across
his face and braced for the contact. Sizzling waves of energy
surrounded him while he fought off the assault. He glared at Nadine
through his fingers. His resilience filled her with awe. She could
not believe such a potent ability failed to affect him. He focused
his energy on her side of the room and thrust her body hard against
the bulkhead behind her.

Nadine crawled back to her feet and took a
deep breath. "Telekinesis. Nice…very nice. And that sort of brings
us back to the reason I wanted to speak to you—since there aren't
any secrets between us anymore." She smoothed out her navy blue
pantsuit. "Why are you heading to Chara?"

"I'll answer your question if you first
answer one of mine," he said. "Amii isn't a psion by any chance, is
she?"

"No, she's not. You should be able to tell
she's not. Do you think if she were a psion she'd have anything to
do with you?"

The off-handed comment sent Magnius reeling.
"Excuse me?"

She sighed at him, not intending her words to
be insulting, but she realized they came out that way. "Don't
worry. You'll see her again. Eventually."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm not just a telepath; I'm also a Seer.
You can take it as a grain of salt. The future isn't written, but
sometimes…I see things. That's all."

"What did you see?" he probed.

All of a sudden, a vision invaded Nadine's
cognition. She furrowed her brow at the intrusion. In her mind she
saw an image of Amii and Magnius standing on an M-class world,
staring up at the sky, filled with something she could not make
out…something foreboding. A chill coursed over her when she saw
figures all around them that were not human. Then as fast as it
came, the vision was gone.

Unprovoked mental flashes were a rare
occurrence for her, yet she'd been having visions ever since
setting foot on the
Kearsarge
. None of them felt coherent,
like the memory of a fleeting dream. But now, the sense of dread
gripped her more urgently.

"If I thought you should know something, I'd
tell you."

True to his word, he answered her. "I'm on
the run from a psionic assassin named Tiyuri. And I'm heading to
New England because that's the only place Commander Mundammi would
take me."

She gasped. "Tiyuri? He's going to find you.
You must know that."

Magnius shrugged in apathy. "Then he'll find
me." And with nothing more to say, he turned and left her standing
alone in the room.

After the door closed in his wake, the ship
dropped out of hyperspace. She glanced out the window to see the
stars reveal their proper colors. Chara burned on the starboard
side of the ship during their approach to New England. Without
another thought, she hurried back to her quarters to pack.

Nadine didn't know for sure if she'd ever see
Magnius again. He didn't want any help; he'd made that abundantly
clear. If there were some way for her to set his feet on the right
path, she'd do so in a heartbeat. She closed her eyes and asked
fate to send her a sign.

***

Amii peered out the tiny viewport in her room
and watched the
Kearsarge
make its final descent toward the
capital city on New England, Chara. From their low orbit a wide
swath of ocean filled her field of vision. Specks of snow-capped
islands dotted the high northern hemisphere. A spiraling storm
system swirled westward near the equator. This would be her very
first trip into the heart of United Europe, and she looked forward
to seeing the glorious city.

Northampton was the largest metropolis in
Astra, home of more than 400,000 UE citizens. As the most populous
faction, United Europe boasted almost a million people across six
planets in two systems: Chara and Noàgal, both abundant in natural
resources. Their worlds consistently made the top-10 of all
habitable planets in Astra, along with Fantasti, DeSoto, and
Kashtivone.

Nadine stuffed her clothes back into her
suitcases. "I remember the first time I saw the city. The sight
was…exhilarating. There's no place else like it anywhere. The
skyscrapers. The restaurants. The arts and nightlife. There's a
reason it's the best. It's a symbol of pride for humanity. You will
love it. I promise."

Somehow, the prospect of finding herself in
the crowded city filled her with more trepidation than Pisa had.
Lawlessness had its advantages, but on New England, she would need
to be careful. Her own code of justice and morals didn't mesh with
the rules of their society. Here, someone like Deadhead could sue
her for pain and suffering despite the fact he intended to rape
her. They hadn't even touched down, and she already wanted to
leave.

Every instinct suggested she was very much
the opposite of Nadine. Since their meeting, she spent a great deal
of time with the second lady and found herself envious of her
elegant bearing. Nadine epitomized classic beauty in the truest
sense, and her savvy extended to political affairs. Her engaging
discourse provided an opinion on everything whether it was a
popular one or not. If only more people would aspire to such
qualities…

"I'm a little nervous," Amii said. "How do
you handle being around so many people?"

She chuckled and folded a green dress. "Well,
I ignore them for the most part. They do their thing. I do mine.
It's a busy place. And impersonal but that's city life. I suppose
I've gotten used to it. If you end up staying, you will too I'm
sure. There must be a good reason fate brought you here."

"You really think there's a purpose for my
being here?"

All of a sudden, Nadine closed her eyes and
cringed. Out of concern, Amii took Nadine's hands, which had become
cold. "Is everything ok?"

"No." She inhaled several times and shivered.
"I don't think it's going to be."

Amii leaned over with a sympathetic embrace,
holding Nadine's petite frame close in her arms. She wondered if
she'd had a vision but did not ask; if it were urgent, those words
would have already been spoken.

Nadine reached into her suitcase and dug
around. "There's something I want to give you." She pulled out a
book and thrust it into Amii's hands. "A gift from me to you."

She ran her fingers over the leather cover.
Gold letters had been stitched on it.
Razor's Edge
by Steve
Lawson. Paper books had a limited appeal nowadays, but elegant
limited editions still rolled off the presses. "Thank you. This
means a lot to me."

"It won't change your life or anything but…"
Her words drifted off in aimless dissolution. After locking the
suitcase, she turned toward her friend with a sense of finality.
"I've got to go."