Taren wondered why Jazmay had sought her out in the first place. ‘Are you here to kill me?’
Jazmay accepted the cup of warm liquid from Taren and sniffled back her tears of regret before they fell. ‘What other reason would I have to be here?’
Taren shrugged, picked up her stone and her cup and led Jazmay back to the lounge. ‘Maybe you, like me, have begun to wonder at your right to toy with the lives of so many other people?’ She took a seat and Jazmay did too. ‘Or maybe you just wanted to have a chat to another person who can relate to where you’re coming from?’
Jazmay appeared sad and on the verge of crying — very unusual behaviour as Phemorians normally hid their emotions well. ‘The truth is I’ve spent most of my life on my own.’ She sniffled back her tears. ‘The only time I ever felt like I was really part of something beneficial, was with you people.’ Tears began to roll down Jazmay’s cheeks. ‘You are a Princess of Phemoria and when I stole this Power from you, I betrayed my people and my planet … now I have no homeland.’
‘No one knows I exist.’ Taren downplayed the concern.
‘I know,’ Jazmay replied with conviction. ‘And as I am about the only Phemorian who does know about you, that is all the more reason why I should be protecting you, not exploiting you. Please, forgive me.’ Jazmay bowed down before Taren on the lounge and sobbed her heart out.
Taren suspected it was the stone that had brought this change of heart about — the pure energy of her soul source was purging Jazmay of her hate, fear and confusion. She placed a hand upon Jazmay’s head and the warrioress cried even harder, and keeping her head bowed she reached out and gripped Taren’s hand with both her own, to revel in the touch of another human being. The trouble with having Jazmay’s psychic talent was that anyone who knew her was afraid of having any physical contact with her; no wonder she ached to get back to her lover so badly.
‘I forgive you, Jazmay.’ Taren urged her to sit upright and then hugged her, whereupon Jazmay was again overwhelmed by the gesture of good faith. ‘I trust that what you did in deceit can now serve the greater good, if you are willing?’ Taren voiced the words she felt Jazmay needed to hear and pulled back to look her new ally in the eye, so that she would know her words came straight from the heart. ‘Come back to the past with me, and if we get back to this point in time and you are not happily plighted with Yasper, I will give you the means to return to Kila, and Jahan, without taking Maladaan with you.’
‘You worked it out?’ Jazmay asked, amazed, as she had been trying to find the solution to that problem for ten years! ‘Why didn’t you tell me — none of this need have happened!’
‘I only just realised … it was only through trying to outsmart you, that I figured out how to help you,’ Taren advised in a sadly ironic manner.
‘It’s the stone, isn’t it?’ Jazmay wished she’d held onto it now, Taren could tell.
‘The spirit of the stone and I are allied,’ Taren said, and passed the stone back to Jazmay. ‘And I can tell you that it will not support your desire for another life, in another universe, until you at least sample the life you might have lived in this one. And now that I have my memory intact, it seems only fitting that I should be able to reclaim those ten years taken from me and see how my life could have turned out too.’
‘If I might say so, there is a problem with your plan: you cannot take anything but your memory back in time with you?’ Jazmay held up the stone that Taren would need to keep her end of the bargain.
‘I can make others, when we get back.’ Taren had thought that part through. ‘But I need at least two people to cut my deal with Chief Ronan, and hopefully spare the AMIE project from the MSS.’
After the devastating loss of the captain, Zeven and Rory gathered the crew for a meeting.
In the absence of the captain and his wife, Kassa, as the medical officer, was in charge, and as they had three crew members dead and one missing, her order was to head AMIE back to Maladaan as swiftly as was safe for the ship in her damaged condition. With the future of the project now up in the air, the atmosphere on AMIE was very sombre indeed. Leal took the first shift in the pilot’s seat, to award Zeven some badly needed down time.
Along the corridor where the sleeping quarters were located, Aurora and Zeven meandered in a tired, shocked daze.
‘This is you,’ Zeven told Aurora that she had just passed her unit. ‘Are you going to be okay?’
Aurora snapped out of her trance to take advantage of the moment, and took hold of Zeven’s hand. ‘Stay with me?’
When he appeared not entirely opposed to the idea, Aurora was thrilled. How could it happen that on the day of this terrible tragedy, she was having the best time of her life!
Zeven had practically ignored her since they’d met and then yesterday he’d confided to her that he was a psychic vigilante that she’d be better off without. His reasons for avoiding her, Rory found to be the ultimate turn-on, and despite that he was leaving and she may never see him again, she’d invited an impassioned encounter that she would never forget nor regret. And now he was back — an inspiring, reassuring energy amid the chaos of the day; she felt safer in his company than anywhere.
‘Don’t you need to sleep?’
‘I’ll sleep when you’re gone,’ Aurora said with a grin, opening her door and leading him inside.
As soon as the door closed behind them, Aurora overpowered Zeven with a kiss — but pretty soon it was she who felt overpowered, quite literally. For his kiss was a surge of pure life-force, and she felt that everything she would ever need to sustain her wellbeing was right here. There was an out-of-body experience taking place that made Aurora feel like her consciousness was expanding beyond her physical being and it was better than any rush or drug she’d ever experienced. Despite how awe-inspiring it felt, the energy was overwhelming to her — she was going to pass out.
Aurora pulled away to catch her breath and forced Zeven back. ‘I feel so much … too much,’ she panted; she wanted to take the encounter further but her head was spinning as she staggered about with all her physical senses on overload.
‘Aurora?’ Zeven was stunned and a little amused. ‘You must be more tired than you thought.’ He moved to steady her and as soon as he made contact, she felt the intense tantalising buzz he was exuding, and she had to kiss him again.
By the time they landed on the sleeping pod, Aurora was in such a state of bliss that she thought she might just float off into the cosmos and never come back. Her previous sexual encounters, even the last one with Zeven, hadn’t felt like this. For her, sex was a very physical act that she liked to be mentally present for, but in this instance her consciousness was distanced from her body, having retreated to a vast utopia inside her own mind.
It was both disappointing and alarming to Zeven when Aurora fell unconscious.
‘Aurora?’ He shook her, feeling a little guilty, as he suspected that she had not just fallen asleep on him, but had in fact blacked out. ‘I should have backed off when she started staggering.’
Zeven already had a theory. He suspected the stone he was wearing might have a quickening effect on others — just as the atmosphere on Oceane had had a quickening effect on him after his stay there. Sure, it was probably a little unethical to covertly instil superpowers in his girlfriend without her knowledge, but it wasn’t like this timeline was going to be in reality for any great length of time as Taren would not allow Lucian to remain dead for long. So he’d figured what harm could it do to expose Aurora to the energy of the being on Oceane and see what psychic power might be lying dormant within her?
He took the Juju stone out of the upper sleeve of his suit where he’d been hiding it and placed it aside before trying to wake Aurora again — quite obviously the high vibratory energy of the stone was too much for her.
‘Mmmm, Starman.’ Aurora smiled as she stirred to find him sitting beside her, but as she moved to sit up her head started spinning and she decided to stay horizontal. ‘Y
ou’ve got me seeing stars.’ She closed her eyes in the hope of regaining her equilibrium, and breathed deeply.
‘Perhaps I should fetch Dr Madri?’ Zeven suggested.
‘No, don’t,’ Aurora waylaid him, ‘she’s having an intimate moment with Leal in the bridge.’
‘How do you know about Kassa and Leal?’ Zeven wondered, as in this timeline Kassa and Leal had only just discovered their mutual hidden talent and attraction for one another. How could Aurora know already?
‘Kassa is with Leal?’ Aurora realised that she didn’t know they were an item. ‘I saw them together in my mind, like a memory,’ she explained, perplexed, ‘only it isn’t a memory, just something I … know.’
Zeven’s heart started pounding in his chest, as he began to suspect that Aurora’s hidden psychic talent was in fact ‘remote vision’, which could prove a real worry. If, as his steady girlfriend, Aurora acquired this talent, then there would be no more flirting with women or death that she would not know about. Confirm the experiment. He recalled Taren’s number one rule. ‘Tell me, what do you see when you think of Dr Lennox?’
Aurora, although a little perplexed by the question, obliged him. ‘I see her in her quarters speaking with —’ Aurora gasped at her perception. ‘Dr Cardea. But I thought she was an MSS operative?’
‘That she is.’ Zeven stood, most annoyed as he retrieved his stone and placed it back in the tight upper sleeve of his crew suit. ‘I’ll be right back.’
‘Starman?’ Aurora objected to his untimely retreat. ‘What have you done to me?’
He held up a finger to implore her patience as he vanished from her presence.
Taren had outlined her plan to save Yasper and AMIE to Jazmay, who, after hearing the proposal, had only one question to ask.
‘Will Starman not go with you?’
The query made Taren feel both guilty and sad. ‘I cannot ask him to go back ten years, he’ll be barely out of flight school!’
‘In any case, I pledge myself to your service and protection, Highness, for I have much amending to do,’ Jazmay avowed. ‘Where you go, I go, for I trust now that you know what is in the best interests of all.’ The pressure of making universal decisions had been weighing on the young Phemorian woman’s shoulders, it seemed.
The responsibility had been a weight around Taren’s neck too, but her Juju rock had given her new insight. Like an emotional compass, the stone made her feel bad when something was wrong, and elated when she was going in the right direction. Now, instead of only having a couple of weeks of the Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi’s guidance and protection, Taren could benefit from ten years of her guardian’s Juju! She felt in her gut that this was the solution she had been searching for.
‘You ladies aren’t thinking about going anywhere without me, are you?’
Zeven’s voice startled them both, but looking about he was not in apparent view, and so the two women rose to look over the back of the lounge.
‘Busted!’ He sprang up and made them both jump, ahead of darting backwards to avoid any swings in his direction.
‘How long have you been down there?’ Taren demanded to know.
‘Long enough to know that you intended to leave me behind!’
‘I didn’t think you’d want to go through puberty again.’ Taren was sarcastic.
‘Ten years ago I was nearly twenty,’ Zeven corrected her math, ‘and contrary to what you might think, I was having a rip-roaring good time and would love to go back there.’
‘Great, so instead of risking your life at thirty, I’ll have the opportunity to get you killed ten years younger!’
‘This is not about you and your choices,’ Zeven said emphatically, ‘this is about me and my choices. If I don’t keep pace in time and space with you, then one morning I am going to wake up in a reality where these Powers I have are gone, along with all the knowledge I accumulated with them. I want you to promise me that you will never attempt to take that choice away from me … you owe me that much.’
Selfish was how she felt in the wake of the lecture. ‘I don’t know how involved you can be in what we have to do there,’ Taren warned him.
‘I just want in. I’ll do as little or as much as you tell me to, I swear,’ he insisted, looking to the Phemorian for support.
‘If the Starman comes, that would free me to accompany you to save Yasper,’ Jazmay suggested, keen on that idea.
‘Who is Yasper?’ Zeven needed to catch up on what he’d missed. ‘And why are we going back ten years in time?’
‘Ten years!’ Aurora had crept into the room, as she knew the master codes for everywhere. ‘You’re just going to take off with these two and leave me here like this? I can see where everyone is, just by thinking about them! You’ve made me psychic, haven’t you?’ she cried, as if he had given her a killer disease. ‘You bastard!’
‘It’s only temporary,’ Zeven assured her, ‘when we go back in time, none of this will have happened.’ He walked over to see if he could pacify her.
Aurora frowned. ‘It frightens me when you talk like that.’
‘Sorry.’ Zeven realised he was getting a bit blasé about it all. ‘We’re just trying to make this come out as best we can for everybody involved.’
‘Well, no offence —’ Aurora looked to the two women and then back to Starman, ‘— but you suck at it!’ She stormed from the room once more.
‘How could you have activated Aurora’s psychic ability?’ Taren queried, as Zeven made after Rory.
‘Juju,’ he said, ‘if anyone gets too close it seems to —’
‘Yes, I see.’ Taren didn’t need to hear more, and that was why Lucian had been so dazed by her kiss and could not find his focus. The ability to activate the psychic ability of others, that was an unexpected side effect of their Juju stones. Taren suspected, however, that this possibility would only extend to those incarnations who belonged to the soul group of Azazèl-mindos-coomra-dorchi. Still, judging from Aurora’s reaction, just because they could activate the psychic ability of others in their soul group, that didn’t mean they should.
‘Wait for me,’ Zeven demanded of Taren, as he pursued Aurora.
‘This is chaos.’ Taren took a seat once more, heartened that Starman was still so keen to accompany her on yet another history-altering adventure.
‘He’s very … energetic.’ Jazmay seemed to be warming to Zeven.
‘Just imagine what he’ll be like ten years younger,’ Taren said, as she adjusted her plan in light of Zeven’s involvement. ‘Okay then … I guess the first thing we need to do is re-map our timeline.’
‘Aurora!’ Zeven called down the corridor after her.
‘Being psychic is the worst social disease of all! I am not a superhero, I do not have MSS protection!’ She continued to storm towards her quarters. ‘And to think I felt safe with you!’ She threw her hands up, staggered by her own stupidity.
‘Please don’t be pissed off at me about this … I just wanted to know if you were one of us.’ Zeven attempted to explain why he had done what he did.
‘I don’t want to be one of you!’ She ceased to flee and turned to confront him.
‘Yes, that is now blatantly obvious!’ Zeven was fed up and affronted. ‘I’m sorry, okay? I am sorry that I hoped we might actually have a future together, but clearly I was dreaming!’ He turned and headed back in the direction that he’d come.
‘Why do I have to be a psychic in order to be with you?’ Aurora appealed, having softened her stance. ‘Can’t you just love me the way I am?’
‘I do love you the way you are.’ Zeven turned around to pursue the argument. ‘It is you who does not love me! Without the inner knowing and determination that comes with psychic expertise, you suffocate me with your fear! I have to follow my destiny, dangerous as it is … how can you ask me to choose between my life purpose and you?’
‘I haven’t,’ Aurora cried in her own defence.
‘But you will,’ Zeven told her sincerel
y. ‘I’ve already been there, chosen you, lived with you and guess what?’
Aurora was bewildered, delighted, and scared of what he would say next. ‘What?’
‘You left me,’ he said, ‘because you couldn’t handle the fact that I longed to attempt what no one had ever tried before! You would not support me, you let your fear drive us apart. So I figured, perhaps if you had a psychic talent, then maybe you would understand this urge I have to serve the higher power that gave me this gift and that maybe you might even want to accompany me on this adventure that is my life? But no, I see now that we can never be.’
Aurora was rather winded by his words, but sniffled back her tears to defend herself more amicably. ‘I’m sure my fear only stemmed from being concerned for your safety … I don’t want to lose you, Starman.’ She took a step towards him.
Zeven shook his head and stepped back, this was not really the response he’d been hoping for — if she was so afraid of losing him then how could she leave? ‘Too late, I’m gone.’ He turned and walked away from Aurora, who burst into tears.
Yes, his words were harsh and yes, he’d hurt Aurora yet again. But now Zeven was heading back to a time before they had met. I’ll never hurt her again, he decided, and resolved to respect her wishes. So long as he carried the stone Zeven could not, and would not, allow Aurora to get close to him.
PART 5
THE MSS: THE MALADAAN SECRET SERVICE
23
TIME-CHEATS
The first rendezvous point in the past was the day after Yasper’s death. That was the morning Taren stormed into Chief Ronan’s office to find him and her father deciding her future — the same day her memory was taken from her.
Ironic and yet logical that this pivotal point in her life should mark the beginning of a whole new future for Maladaan; it allied to En Noah’s claim that her destiny and Maladaan’s were very closely entwined.