The Universe Parallel

  ‘It’s true, I was recruited by the MSS, because of my precognitive abilities.’ Taren found herself on her feet, defending herself. ‘That is —’

  ‘— the ability to see events before they happen,’ Zeven cut her off to announce, and Taren was surprised he’d know such a fact. ‘I told you I was into that stuff.’ He shrugged. ‘Continue.’

  ‘The MSS employed me for over ten years, and the only reason I am not working for them still is that I quit.’ Taren wanted to make that clear. ‘I do not agree with their politics and I saw too many good people die by their will and stupidity.’

  ‘So how do I know you are not here to spy on my project?’ Lucian folded his arms and raised his brows in an amorous fashion.

  ‘I have already spied on your project,’ she said, and shocked them all. ‘I know what will unfold on board this ship for quite some time in the future. I know why you have brought me here, I know you have spies on board this craft already, and I know that in a few weeks’ time your project will be responsible for the greatest disaster Maladaan has ever seen. But the first event along the road to that disaster takes place today. I am here to stop that from happening.’

  ‘Whoa!’ Leal held his head and gave a laugh.

  Lucian, however, was just baffled. ‘Okay, you’ve got my attention, Dr Lennox. Tell me about this event?’

  Taren took a deep breath. ‘You brought me here to show me an unusual gaseous cloud that is shrouding one part of an ocean planet —’

  ‘Goddamn it!’ Lucian was angered, ‘Bloody leaks!’

  ‘I did not acquire this information from the MSS,’ Taren stated again; she’d forgotten what a sceptic Lucian had been in the beginning — before he discovered most of his crew were psychic.

  ‘You discovered that in a vision?’ Lucian scoffed. ‘Give me a break — only people on board this craft know Oceane even exists!’

  Taren could see she was going to have to do some party tricks here if any of them were to believe her. ‘Well, I have never met any of you before and yet I can tell you that Mr Polson gets more minor ailments than any healthy man should.’ She winked at Leal.

  ‘It’s true,’ he confessed before she said more.

  ‘And Mr Gudrun believes that the entire meaning of evolution is so people can have sex.’

  ‘Absolutely true,’ Zeven admitted gladly and although Lucian was far from convinced, he was at least smiling.

  ‘Do you want me to tell you what you are thinking at this moment, Captain Gervaise?’ Taren asked with smouldering innuendo.

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Lucian burst into a grin.

  Taren regained her serious demeanour. ‘I can tell you this surely, and honestly: if you do not take what I tell you seriously, this project will be dismantled and some on this crew will pay with their lives.’

  The joviality slipped from Lucian’s face and he stood as he began to lose patience. ‘Who are you working for? Who sent you?’

  Taren was very tempted to say, ‘you sent me’, but refrained. ‘I am here on my own recognisance.’

  ‘Why?’ Lucian circled her, and it felt strange for him to be so distant and mistrusting.

  ‘Because I admire what you do here,’ she replied, and Lucian was about to scoff, dissatisfied. ‘Look, if you grant me one request, I will leave this vessel, and you won’t have to worry if I am MSS or not.’ Taren’s voice wavered with emotion — the idea of just walking away from everyone she ever cared about was absolutely gutting, but then if she was to take care of everything else on her hit list, she was going to have to leave AMIE sooner or later.

  ‘Steady on.’ Lucian toned down his inquisition, touched by her show of emotion. ‘I want you on this project, make no mistake about that, you’ve just thrown me for a loop with this future sight thing …’

  ‘Just one request,’ Taren repeated, her eyes glazed with tears.

  ‘All right,’ Lucian decided to buy in. ‘What is your request?’

  ‘You want to take a sample of the gaseous substance on Oceane?’ Taren waited to get a nod out of the captain. ‘Don’t.’

  ‘That’s it?’ Zeven seemed disenchanted with the anti-climax. ‘That’s all we have to do to prevent the greatest disaster Maladaan has ever seen? Sounds like a fair deal to me.’ Zeven put it to his comrades and they were baffled by his resolve.

  ‘But you’re the one who has been hassling for weeks to go bag a sample!’ Leal pointed out, and considering how badly Starman had wanted to do this mission last time around, Taren also thought this odd.

  ‘I know,’ Zeven admitted readily, ‘but to save all of Maladaan?’ He shrugged in conclusion and then, looking at Taren, he served her a wink.

  Why was Zeven so well-disposed towards her? She’d expected him to be more suspicious, as the others were; or perhaps his want to get laid overruled his commonsense?

  ‘You don’t want us to take a sample at all, or just not today?’ Lucian clarified.

  ‘You would have to wait a month for it to be safe,’ Taren advised, ‘and even then, anyone who breathes the air of Oceane will develop heightened psychic ability.’

  ‘Not good,’ said Leal, hiding the fact he was already telepathic.

  ‘Not good at all.’ Zeven cringed in accord.

  ‘But that is by far not the worst that will come from extracting even the tiniest sample of that gas,’ Taren told Lucian, and waited for him to process that information.

  ‘Is the gas volatile?’ Lucian assumed this must be the case.

  ‘Beyond your wildest imagining,’ Taren stated, knowing the captain was not yet ready to know the whole truth.

  Leal put his hand up. ‘Can I just ask, out of curiosity, what would happen should we not heed your advice?’

  ‘You can kiss your planet, and several crew members, goodbye,’ Taren responded surely.

  ‘That’s what you foresaw?’ Zeven queried and Taren nodded.

  Lucian was scratching his head, clearly not knowing what to make of Taren’s claims. ‘You said you were aware we have several spies on board … who?’

  ‘I am sure that is not news to you, Captain,’ Taren replied, ‘you are obviously already aware that you have leaks in your organisation.’

  ‘Who?’ Lucian repeated the question she had avoided.

  ‘I can hardly point the finger without proof,’ she reasoned, ‘and if you follow my advice there shall never be any proof of their treachery.’

  ‘But you claim to know who they are?’ Lucian probed further.

  Taren nodded. ‘I do.’

  ‘Then as your captain I would ask you to disclose that information.’

  ‘Do you plan to heed my warning?’ Taren stalled.

  Lucian considered this. ‘We can hold off a month?’ He put it to his pilots, who both nodded and Taren breathed an inward sigh of relief.

  ‘Now will you tell me what you think you know about my spy problem?’ Lucian requested politely.

  Taren took a few moments to scrape up her courage and then shook her head.

  Lucian was losing patience as he turned to his pilots to request, ‘Will you excuse us, please.’

  As the pilots rose, Taren thought to say, ‘Everyone present is faithful to the project.’

  The pilots then hesitated to go and Lucian relented. ‘On second thought … Dr Lennox, follow me please.’ Lucian headed out of the cafeteria.

  ‘Good luck,’ Zeven called in a whisper to Taren before she followed the captain out into the corridor, and as she turned back to give him a friendly wave of thanks, he served her a determined nod and a smile in return.

  She recalled the young pilot’s last words to her before she’d left for the past — that how well he knew her would not alter his support, and this was obviously true. But how could Zeven have predicted that? Taren pondered as she followed Lucian towards his office. Lucian also claimed he would be well-disposed towards me, but that was clearly not the case at present.

  Once they were safely shut up in his office, Lucian in
vited Taren to take a seat. ‘I feel we haven’t got off to a very good start.’ He offered her a drink, which Taren waved away as she sat down. ‘Despite how it might seem, your participation in the AMIE project has been greatly anticipated by me and many of the researchers here.’ Lucian poured himself a glass of water.

  ‘I know.’ She smiled warmly, despite the fact that none of the wonderful times she’d had with these people would probably ever come to pass now.

  ‘As captain of this vessel, I would like to think that you could trust me with any concerns you have about this project,’ he said.

  ‘I trust you, Lucian.’ Taren ventured to use his first name, as he’d invited her to do earlier.

  ‘Then why will you not tell me what you suspect?’ Lucian reasoned, taking a seat on his desk, facing her.

  ‘I told you, without proof I —’

  ‘Look, I know your MSS career was extraordinary,’ Lucian appealed, ‘it must have been for you to have psychic skill and still be walking around unrestrained.’

  ‘Are you implying I cut a deal to get here?’ Taren said this with no offence in her voice. ‘You invited me, if I recall?’

  ‘But that doesn’t mean the MSS didn’t try to take advantage of that.’ Lucian was just as calm and non-accusatory.

  ‘Well actually.’ Taren would be honest; that was her new resolution — no more lies! ‘The MSS did try to take advantage, but unfortunately for them, their brainwashing techniques no longer have any effect upon my memory, past or future. It is the MSS who are so keen to get their hands on a sample of that gas. So, you see I can hardly be working for them. However —’ Taren smiled on the inside — perhaps Lucian’s wife would inadvertently betray herself? ‘— you can pretty well guarantee that anyone very interested in obtaining a sample of that gas, is working for the MSS.’

  ‘Won’t you please tell me who you suspect? I can have them put under surveillance and perhaps gain proof that you are telling the truth,’ Lucian suggested.

  Taren again shook her head. ‘I can tell you that most are sleeper agents and don’t even know they are responding to implanted directions, save one agent who is manipulating the others,’ Taren said what she felt at liberty to say without proof. ‘Still, the people calling the shots are not on board this vessel.’

  ‘That does not really help me very much.’ Lucian was trying so hard to be patient; he was serving her that half-smile that she could never resist.

  ‘Lucian,’ Taren began and caught her breath as if to double-check what she was about to say, and then looked to the captain. ‘There is nothing I would love more than to tell you everything I know … but the truth is, that truth is going to hurt and I will not be the one to deal you that blow; I would rather resign from the project.’

  Lucian appeared somewhere between perturbed and perplexed. ‘And what have I done to inspire such loyality? What do you stand to gain from all of this?’

  ‘What I stand to gain is that Maladaan will not be harmed, and I can return there to deal with those who truly would have been responsible for the disaster, which they will try to pin on this project and me!’ Taren was starting to tear up and become emotional. ‘In regard to my loyalty to you, Lucian … you earned my respect the last time we went through this, and I shall never forget that, even if you have.’

  ‘So, you didn’t just foresee all this,’ Lucian reasoned. ‘You’re saying that you’ve actually lived all this before?’

  Taren nodded.

  ‘You’ve gone backwards in time?’ Lucian stated to be sure he had that claim right.

  ‘I have,’ Taren admitted, knowing she was probably sealing the lid on her own coffin as no psychic in history had ever claimed to have such a Power. ‘But the sequence of events I lived through before is already altering. I did not know then what I know now, and therefore I could not warn you of the pending disaster about to unfold at your expense.’

  Lucian was just mind-blown for a moment. ‘Is this a dream?’ he asked hopefully.

  ‘No.’ Taren shook her head. ‘I realise that you probably think I am some sort of lunatic and I understand that you will probably have concerns about letting me loose on your ship … but I would request to stay until the month is up, so that I can rest assured the event I wish to prevent passes without incident.’

  ‘Damn it.’ Lucian stood to pace, suddenly frustrated. ‘If you love this project so much, then why are you so determined to leave? I need your input.’

  ‘I just want to cause you as little grief as possible,’ Taren insisted, ‘the MSS will be watching me. When I accepted your invitation to work on AMIE I did not realise this would be the case or I would never have accepted. Still, had I not, I would not be here to warn you.’

  ‘But Dr Taren Lennox is passionate about her research, it is hard to believe she would just walk away from this golden opportunity.’ Lucian was really beginning to wonder if he had the right woman.

  ‘I found the answer I was seeking with my research, the last time we lived through this,’ she said, attempting to explain her ability to be indifferent in this instance.

  ‘And what was the question?’ Lucian was curious.

  Taren forced a grin, thinking it ironic now. ‘Can we affect the past?’

  Clearly Lucian didn’t know what to think. ‘It worries me that you paint such a dire picture of the future.’

  ‘It never has to be that way,’ Taren stressed, ‘but unfortunately for you, it’s your choice.’

  Lucian was still not convinced. ‘I’m sorry, Dr Lennox, but if you refuse to tell me who the spies are, I can only assume you are in league with them, so you will remain confined to quarters until further notice.’

  ‘But you will heed my warning?’ Taren pushed for an answer before she retired without a fight.

  Lucian pondered this and then nodded as he opened his office door. ‘Aurora, show Dr Lennox to her quarters, and see that she stays there.’

  ‘Oh?’ Aurora was surprised that their new researcher was being confined to quarters. ‘Okay.’ She regained her smile and rose to show Taren the way.

  Aurora launched into her standard spiel for someone confined to quarters as they headed out of the central office area and down the curving hallway. ‘If you need to leave your quarters for any reason, you must get clearance from the captain before doing so, and if you do obtain clearance, you may not wander anywhere on board without being accompanied by a key crew member.’ She punched a code into the panel on the outer wall of the hallway and the doors to an apartment opened. Aurora led Taren inside. ‘You can order meals from the cafeteria and they will be brought to your room; the same goes for the laundry service.’ She finished by showing Taren where the intercom system in the apartment was. ‘Any questions?’

  Taren, dazed and exhausted, shook her head. ‘I’ll be fine, thank you, Rory.’ She hoped Aurora was not in the mood for a chat, as Taren certainly wasn’t.

  Aurora usually got a bigger reaction when the new recruits first saw their magnificent, spacious accommodation with panoramic space views. ‘Well then … enjoy!’ She shrugged, and tried to sound as upbeat as possible, when clearly that was not the general mood.

  Thankfully Aurora headed for the door and when it closed, Taren made straight for the shower. As an MSS agent she had disciplined herself to never show her emotions, an art she had lost in the past ten years. However, if she did need to have a meltdown she had learnt the shower was the only place to do it.

  Inside the shower tube the pelting hot water hid her tears as she wept. It wasn’t the trauma of her backwards leap in time that had her so shaken, it wasn’t the pressure of having to prevent a catastrophe, or her sudden feeling of aloneness; it was the vast distance between herself and Lucian — she didn’t trust him and she suspected he trusted her even less. They had been so close prior to her leaving Kila, and the loss of his friendship pained her more than any other price she’d had to pay in order to return Maladaan to its rightful place. The one thing she treasured most had
been taken away from her, and Taren felt she had nothing left to lose. The realisation hardened her resolve considerably and her tears stopped. ‘Those responsible will pay.’

  Dressed, rested and fed, Taren felt more herself — that is, the Taren she’d been before her memory had been stolen from her. If she was to be confined to quarters, then she may as well use the time to brush up her warrior skills, as she suspected her MSS training would soon come in handy.

  There was a wonderful workout pole that ran across the archway through to the kitchen. Taren had never really noticed it last time around, it had just been an interesting feature, but now she knew exactly what it was for. The pole was just the right height to grab onto to do chin-ups, or to handstand up and lock your toes over to do sit ups.

  Taren was in the middle of just such an abdominal-crunching exercise, when her door chimed, and hanging upside down as she was, she called for her visitor to enter.

  ‘Hey, Taren, that’s a new look for you,’ Zeven commented as he entered and closed the door behind him.

  Palms on the floor, Taren went into a handstand, dropped her feet back to the floor and stood. ‘Zeven?’ Taren was puzzled. ‘How did you get in here, I thought only the captain and Aurora knew the lock code?’

  ‘Forget about that.’ He waved off her query. ‘We have a problem.’

  ‘We do?’ Taren shrugged, having no idea what he was talking about.

  ‘And I took you for a smart girl.’ The pilot grinned. ‘You still haven’t figured it out yet?’

  ‘Figured what out?’ Taren threw her hands up, bemused, and was doubly so when Zeven suddenly kissed her.

  ‘How dare you?’ Taren thrust him backwards, of a mind to punch his lights out, but Zeven was still sporting his cheeky grin.

  ‘You didn’t object last time,’ he defended his action.

  ‘What last time —’ Taren gasped and covered her mouth and her huge smile, as her excitement built. ‘You followed me back?’

  He winked. ‘I didn’t want you to have to do all this alone.’

  ‘You are insane.’ Taren’s eyes filled with tears as she threw herself at Zeven to hug him — so much for controlling her emotions! ‘You could have had your career back!’ She hit him for doing the wrong thing and then hugged him again, so relieved not to be all alone in the world.