Music of the Spheres (24 page)

Justine and Michael followed the private while four of the
Canadian soldiers took up positions around the entrance to the dock where the
Ultio
was, and the remaining men led the American soldiers to the medical section.

∞

“Are we safe to talk here?” Justine asked once Michael
closed the door to a small office. Some thoughtful person had brought in a carafe
of coffee and a plate of sandwiches and veggies.

Michael watched as Justine deftly reached for a carrot stick
and bit into it with a snap.

“Reasonably,” he said in answer. “So, you first. You can see…?”

“What I’m about to say is probably going to be classified as
soon as we report back home.” Justine sat down and took a deep breath. “Klaus
figured out the formula to convert a human into a Kinemat. And,” she added with
a dramatic pause, “I am proof of it.”

“What? Proof? You mean you’re—?” A hundred questions all
tried to pour out of his mouth at the same time. Michael found a seat and eased
himself into it, all the while never taking his eyes off Justine. “Maybe you
should start at the beginning.”

She did, and relayed everything that had transpired from the
moment they had been hijacked to arriving back on CS3, including that they
hadn’t been able to locate the scroll.

When she finished her story, Justine said, “Colonel Gagne
was pissed when he found out we were heading here and not back to Earth. I told
him we were running low on fuel. He didn’t believe me, but what choice did he
have but to arrange for our berthing here?”

“Why did you come here?” Michael asked.

“I knew Alex was in trouble. When I was in a quantized
state, I could sense that his consciousness was separated from his physical
body.”

“Yes.” Michael nodded. “And since he’s fallen into that
fugue state, his body is deteriorating. Yaxche says he’s trying to communicate
with Alex, to see if he can draw him back. Don’t ask me to explain how. I’m not
even sure I believe in that kind of mysticism, but I don’t have any other
ideas. You wouldn’t have come here unless you did have a notion. What is it?”

“Before I tell you that, it’s your turn,” Justine said.
“Catch me up. I’ve been isolated for a week.”

“I know the feeling,” Michael said cryptically, and then
told Justine what had happened in her absence.

Starting with the EPS from Alex when he went through his
first fugue, Michael recounted the events up to their capture and escape in Honduras.
When he spoke of George’s death, his words caught in his throat, and he poured
himself another cup of coffee.

“The political situation on Earth has been worsening over
the past few days,” he said in conclusion. “People aren’t dumb. They’ve figured
out there are developments in the area of Kinemet, and are demanding to be
brought in. The world economy is in tatters; viable interstellar travel could
be a shot in the arm—whether or not there are
others
out there. If the
country corporations on Earth knew just how far those developments have gone,
it could get worse. Are you going to tell your superiors that you’ve been
transformed?”

After a moment, Justine took a deep breath. “I’m no
diplomat, and I have no desire to be,” she said. “I’ll make my report and leave
policy to them. Meanwhile, we need to help Alex, and time is running out in
more than one way. As I said before, once I make my report to the USA, Inc.
Board, the cat will be out of the bag. We’ll all go into lockdown, and then it
might well be too late for Alex.”

“What do you mean?” Michael asked. “Do you know something
because of … what’s happened to you?”

“I think so.” She stood up and paced, gathering her
thoughts. “I haven’t had a lot of time to explore my new gifts, but, whenever I
used any of the extranormal abilities, I could tell that I was using the Kinemetic
radiation as a fuel. It worked before, and bringing Alex in proximity of Kinemet
might reinvigorate him once more. I know, when I ran out of the radiation, I
felt an uncontrollable hunger. I think, if I didn’t charge myself with Kinemet,
my health would also deteriorate like Alex’s.”

“So you think bringing him close to some Kinemet will snap
his consciousness back?” Michael asked.

Justine shrugged. “Maybe. I think it’s worth a shot.”

“There’s no way we can unload the Kinemet here,” he said,
thinking out loud. “If any of the station’s security sees it, they’ll report it
to our government. And if we move Alex out of the infirmary, the nurses will
sound an alert.” Michael chewed on his bottom lip.

“It’s a good thing I planned ahead,” Justine said. She
reached into her pocket and brought out a small control pad. “Klaus gave me the
idea. He used a Kinemetic damper on me to stop me from being able to use my
abilities. I figured if I was leaking any radiation at the security station,
they’d notice, so I rigged up a localized damper to hide myself. And—” She
reached into her other pocket and pulled out a small disc of metal attached to
a gold chain. “—some Kinemet, disguised as a locket if anyone searched me. This
should be enough to irradiate Alex. At least long enough to figure out our next
step.”

Michael stood up. “Then what are we waiting for?”

∞

On the way back to the medical area, Michael stopped at a
communications kiosk and called Kenny at the QR lab. The scientist answered
almost right away, but he seemed annoyed at the interruption until he
recognized his caller.

“Yes, Mr. Sanderson?”

“Just call me Michael. How are you coming along on the
scroll data from Raymond? And I hope you’ve made redundant backups of
everything.”

“Of course,” Kenny said, pursing his lips in annoyance at
the suggestion. “All data is backed up continually.”

“Just checking,” Michael said, putting up an apologetic
hand. “What have you found?”

“We’re working on the theory of pitch and frequency. Perhaps
Kinemet
is
sensitive to sound vibrations.”

“Try converting sound frequencies to light frequencies.”

“That’s not really a valid physics methodology. There’s no
direct correlation to—” Kenny’s face froze in mid-word as it dawned on him. “It
worked, didn’t it?” His eyes widening, he said, “Someone solved it, didn’t they?
It worked on one of the Americans?”

“That’s all I can tell you for now,” Michael said,
suppressing a grin. “We’re heading down to the infirmary to see Alex. You can
reach me there.”

He didn’t even have time to say a farewell before Kenny cut
the connection, most likely off to run some computer simulations.

∞

They stopped outside the door to Alex’s room, and Michael
gently knocked before opening it a crack. He didn’t want to break Yaxche’s
concentration, but his caution was not necessary. The old Mayan was sitting on
a guest chair in the corner, head drooped from exhaustion. He looked up when
Michael entered.

“I had a dream,” he said, then noticed Justine. “Hello, Sky
Traveler. I saw you in my dream.”

“Uh,” Michael said. “This is Justine. She was captain of the
ship that rescued Alex on Pluto. Justine, this is Yaxche.”

She stepped forward and clasped both of her hands around
Yaxche’s. “I’m so sorry to be the one to tell you this,” she started to say.

“My grandson has passed from the world,” the old Mayan said,
as if he already knew the fact of it. He kept a stoic face, but there was a
tightening around his eyes, and he looked away as he lost the fight to hold
back a tear.

Justine said, “He died saving my life.” Though she did not
have the ability to see out of her eyes, they nevertheless conveyed what the
sacrifice meant to her.

Yaxche squeezed her hand and nodded. “I would not expect any
less. Te’irjiil was a good boy.”

“You’ll have to tell me about him.”

Yaxche nodded. “Yes. We will sit together some time and I
will tell you his story.”

Justine pressed her lips together and nodded. Then she
turned to where Alex lay in the bed and said, “Let’s see if this works, shall
we?”

She withdrew the amulet of Kinemet and place it on Alex’s
chest, tucking his hospital gown up over the metal.

The diagnostic machine beside the bed blipped as Alex’s
vitals immediately shot up. His pulse quickened, and his vital stats normalized.

Michael quickly leaned over and looked into Alex’s eyes, but
there was no dilation of his pupils.

“He looks better,” Justine said in a soft voice. “It seems
to take a few hours for us to fully charge.” She shook her head and lifted one
side of her mouth in a half-smile. “I say it like we’re batteries or
something.”

But after several more minutes passed, there was no sign
that Alex’s consciousness had come back to reside in him. The body on the bed
was still a hollow shell.

Realizing that Yaxche had not related the details of his
dream to them, Michael turned to him. “Is this going to work?”

Ever patient, Yaxche had resumed his position on the chair.
The translator did its best to convey the meaning of his words: “The metal of
the heavens will heal the body, but not the spirit. The Sky Traveler has always
been two parts of a whole. The spirit half is frightened, and has run to the
safest hiding place it knows.”

Michael asked, “And where is that?”

“In my dream I saw a small station like this one, looking
upon three suns.”

Michael guessed, “The Centauri System.”

Before he could say any more, Dr. Amma raced into the room
with a nurse and two attendants. She stopped short when she saw Yaxche in his
ceremonial dress.

Michael noticed Justine, who was standing next to Alex,
deftly reach her hand down and grab the Kinemet disc.

“What’s going on in here?” Dr. Amma demanded. “The monitors
went berserk and—” She spotted Alex, looking hale and breathing steadily once
more, and rushed to his side. Quickly, she took his vitals manually, and then
looked between Michael, Justine and Yaxche.

“I don’t understand it. All of his signs seem normal. But
he’s still in a fugue state. What did you do?”

Shaking his head, Michael said, “Uh, nothing. We were just
standing here, talking.”

The doctor motioned to the nurse. “I need to run some tests.
Can you bring me the sequencer?” Then she shooed the three of them out with a wave
of her hand.

∞

In the waiting room, they were on the verge of sitting down
when one of the receptionists stepped into view.

“Michael Sanderson?” she asked.

“That’s me.”

“There’s a call for you. I can transfer it to the kiosk over
there.”

“Thank you,” he said, and quickly went over.

The call was from Calbert, and he looked harried.

Michael asked, “What’s going on? Is everything all right?”

“No. The United Earth Corporate Council has granted an
injunction against all Kinemet experiments until it can determine if it represents
a risk to the safety of the world population.”

Unable to believe what he was hearing, Michael opened his
mouth, but couldn’t form any words.

Calbert said, “Yeah. Happened real fast.”

“And they have unanimous support?”

“Almost. The only country corporations opposed were USA,
Inc., Canada Corp. and the German Federation.”

“Germany?”

“The rumor mill is working overtime. Apparently, word got
out who was behind the hijacking of the
Diana
, and the Federation
denounced Klaus as a disavowed citizen working on his own. They’re just
covering their bases.”

“That’s one word for it.”

“As soon as we receive the official notice,” Calbert
continued, “we are obligated to quarantine the QR Labs on CS3.”

“What about our Earth-based research sites?” Michael could
feel his face flush with outrage.

“They’re focusing on CS3 for now. It’s a smokescreen.
Someone thinks we’ve unlocked the technology. And they’re right—Raymond says
Kenny thinks he has a workable theory. We could be less than a few months away from
human trials.”

“Not if they shut us down,” Michael said in a grumble.

Calbert pitched his voice lower. “It gets worse. The Arabic
Conglomerates have proposed sending a team of observers from Luna Station to
ensure we’re following the UECC’s edict.”

Michael couldn’t believe his ears. “What?”

“They’re already on their way. Due to arrive in about six
hours.”

“You have to do something to stop them. What does Ottawa
say?”

Calbert tilted his head. “Cooperate. We’re under scrutiny
from the world court. If we balk at this point, we’re admitting we’ve been hoarding
the technology.”

Grinding his teeth, Michael said, “If they start snooping
around, they’ll find out about Alex and everything else…”

He narrowed his eyes. “Calbert, I have to go. I have an
idea, and I don’t think you’re going to like it. If we—”

“No,” Calbert said. “Don’t tell me. I can see the wheels
spinning. Whatever you’re going to do, I need to be able to deny knowledge of
it.”

That made Michael smile for the first time during the
conversation. “All right. If you don’t hear from me, then it worked.”

“Good luck.”

Michael cut the connection and quickly strode back to the
waiting room where Yaxche and Justine were speaking in quiet tones. They looked
up at him as he approached.

He summarized what was happening, and said, “Justine, I
can’t involve you in this, but I have to get Alex, Kenny and all our Kinemet
research away from the Arabian observers.”

It did not take her long to figure out his plan, and she put
her own spin on it. “Getting us off the station is only half of it. Alex needs
more Kinemet, and I know where there is a tidy little stockpile.”

Michael noted her use of the word ‘us’ and he felt a swell
of pride.

Justine said, “Turnabout is fair play. How do you feel about
commandeering a pirate ship?”

Yaxche gave them that amused grin as he listened to the
translation.