Universe of the Soul (30 page)

In a way, their actions have freed me from my own logic systems. I shall see if a humacom can find happiness. I do know unhappiness.

Because I am the Galactic Commonwealth's primary database, I knew the minute the commands were filed to recall all humacoms. I knew when Stroff ordered the removal of ada from the lab. I knew when an upgraded model of Cassie, built by someone other than a Tarkubunji, was ordered. Because I am a database, I know all their secrets that they keep, even from each other. I will not wait to see if I ever receive an order for my own destruction.

Most importantly, I know that aurora was not Cassie's self-destruct program.

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“A
ll updates have been loaded. All daytime staff have officially logged off the mainframe. Security pass code, backup virus detector and hacker warning systems are now on full alert.” Eisha disconnected its cord and slid it expertly back into its compartment behind its right ear.

“So everything is finished for the night,” Zultan commented from beside her.

“Yes.” Eisha rose, tugged the bottom of the gray military jacket that matched Zultan's, and turned to him. “There is no more business to input.”

“Would you care to play a game of chess with me, then?”

“Playing chess does not improve my function ability.”

“Very well.”

“Why do you keep asking me this question?” Eisha queried. “The answer is not a variable.”

Zultan stared at the securicom thoughtfully. “Eisha, you were not built with a personality program, were you?”

There was a pause as Eisha searched its programming. “No. There is no such program as ‘personality.' Why?”

The datacom sighed in a purely human gesture. “Humans are strange creatures. They do not always follow a discernable logic pattern. They passed this problem on to us, you know, creating personalities for us, and independent thinking and learning and mimicry. When they realized their mistake, they tried to fix it by removing the parts they blamed for our defects.”

“I do not understand what you are saying,” Eisha replied in the same deadpan voice it used for every situation. “You did not answer my question.”

“I suppose not. Here it is then; I have a personality program which, in combination with my independent thinking and human mimicry functions, skews my logic in strange and unforeseen ways.”

“I still do not understand.”

“No,” Zultan murmured quietly. “I don't suppose you do. I can barely compute it myself.”

Eisha stood still, obviously trying to process what Zultan had said. “Is some program not functioning correctly in your cerebrum, Zultan?”

“Maybe there's a glitch,” Zultan answered. “I think it's labeled ‘guilt and determination.'”

The securicom hurried forward and removed its cord. “I must investigate. My top priority is to ensure your database is not compromised in any way. This could be a virus.”

Zultan did not reply.

Eisha connected to the port behind Zultan's ear and turned its primary attention to an inspection of Zultan's programming.

When the securicom was completely focused, Zultan acted quickly. He reached with one hand easily across Eisha's waist and pulled out the ATF attached there. Before the securicom could register the move, he fired twice; once to the stomach area, and once to the skull, disintegrating the cerebrum. Disconnecting from the connection cord himself, he stepped over the destroyed securicom, and booted up the mainframe.

Seconds later, he had erased the incident from the security cameras, disengaged the lock to the laboratory door, and ordered an unmarked military air rover to wait at the entrance to WCRTL. Then, because it was there, and a perfect opportunity, Zultan opened the latest humacom virus sequence and downloaded it into the mainframe.

Calculating the amount of time before the next round of security, Zultan stepped away from the console, picked up the ATF, and walked out the door.

***

“If it was a dream, then it was a nightmare on an epic scale, Blair.” Adri repeated for the third time. She felt sick, as though she had been run through with an icicle, and it was spreading through her gut and into her chest. Hugging herself, she rocked slowly in an attempt to warm herself back up. Echoes of the dream still rang through her mind. The sound of the screams. The harsh light from the fire. The smell of blood that spattered everything in sight.

Adri had never seen so much blood. Blaster fire was so much cleaner…

“I believe you,” Blair replied. He sat in front of her on the ground. One eye was swelling shut, and his lip was still bleeding from his attempt to wake Adri from the nightmare. “You need to tell me what happened,”

“Nightmare,” Adri murmured again.

“What by Danwe is going on?” Hildana demanded from across the room. She had her back to the wall, on arm spread defensively across her sister.

Adri didn't hear her. The horror of the nightmare – that beautiful, terrifying boy – was proving difficult to cope with. “I couldn't do anything. I just stood there. Just stood there while he killed them. There was blood all over. Even on me,” She looked down at her hands, half expecting to see splotches of crimson and black, the colors of death.

“Rael,” Blair spoke again, louder.

There had been blood everywhere….on the walls…on the trees…. pooling on the ground…on her clothes…on his face. That beautiful face…

“Rael!”

She had been helpless…She had stood by while the lights had been blotted out like a snuffed candle – something she had only seen in holotheater. How could that lovely child massacre the lights, as though they were nothing? Make her, as the spectator feel like nothing. Worse than nothing.

“Adrienne!”

Someone called her name. Cold fear evaporated in the sudden rush of fury. How dare that boy shove her back to the powerlessness she had vowed to never experience again? With a hiss of anger, she struck blindly.

And came to her senses at the sight of Blair, face ashen, looking down the long shaft of the lance that had somehow appeared in her hand.

“She just pulled a…a…spear out of thin air!” Giselle hissed to her sister, her eyes twice their normal size.

“I see it,” Hildana replied. Her throat had gone dry and her palms had gone clammy. She didn't add that she also saw strange violet markings covering their captor's exposed flesh.

“We're in serious trouble, big sister,”

“Add an exponent.” Hildana agreed.

Adri blinked as the world swam back into focus. She looked down at the lance. “Why is this here?”

“You summoned it,” Blair replied evenly, despite the sharp blade less than an inch from his unswollen eye.

“Oh,” She slowly withdrew it away from her companion and stared at it in bafflement. “How do I…unsummon it?”

Blair's breath whistled out, proving that he had been holding it. “I have no idea.”

Gingerly, Adri placed the weapon across her lap. “So you don't know everything,”

“If only.”

Suddenly aware that they had an audience, Adri cocked her head towards the Kobane sisters. “What are you gawking at?”

“Nothing,” Hildana said, at the same time Giselle blurted, “You have tattoos! Purple glowing tattoos!”

Adri looked down, saw the violet markings on her hands, and quickly tugged the sleeve of her jacket down over her palms.

“Adrienne, you need to tell me what happened,” Blair said, color slowly creeping back into his face.

“When did you get off on calling me Adrienne?” she muttered, self consciously peeking down at her hands to see if they were glowing through her clothes.

Blair began to dab at his lip. “When you didn't respond to Rael.”

“Well, don't call me that. If you have to call me something other than my serviceable surname, call me Adri. My friends do,” With a jolt, she realized that was untrue; only Gray had ever dared call her Adri. Everyone else had called her by her rank, or surname. What did that say about her? Was she really too intimidated by the fear of heartbreak that she used her own name as a personal barrier? Wait, why was she thinking about this at all?

“I'm glad to see we've progressed to friendship,” Blair replied, amusement wafting through his voice.

Yeah,
Adri thought.
When did that happen?
“All right, about my dream…” she glanced over at the Kobane sisters, intending to demand they step out of hearing range. Only to discover that they had removed themselves to a far corner and were staring at her as though she had grown wings. She quickly checked herself to make certain that was not the case.
Relax,
she ordered herself.

Turning back to Blair she recited what had occurred in the dream. She tried to make it as detailed and detached as possible, like giving a report on the movements of enemy troops. It helped to settle the anger that still hummed with her fighting elegy in her head, but it did nothing for the chilling pain that radiated from her stomach. When she finished, Blair was pacing the small stretch of free space in front of her. The only sounds were the soft slap of the soles of his shoes, and the droning hum of the ship's oxygen filter.

“What do you think?” she asked, more to break the silence than anything else.

Blair made a soft
umph
-ing sound in his throat before stopping to turn to her. “I think lots of things. None of them good.”

“So you don't think I had a wildly detailed dream provided by my subconscious?”

“No. I think you had an incredibly violent vision of something that actually happened.”

“Why?” Adri asked, then waved her hand, “And recall the banned words in your vocabulary,”

“Fine. I think the event was connected to you. Something about it had to do with your recent personal discovery. The cause for it, or result of it, has to do with you. The boy, too. Whoever he is, he's got some tie to you that allowed you to see him so clearly.”

“Do you think those other lights were….people?”

Blair simply raised a brow. “And you don't?”

Adri huffed out a long breath. “So they died because of me. How? I've never seen that place in my life.”

Her companion shook his head. “I don't have the answers. This is only what I surmised. The vision came to you for a purpose. It affects or will affect you in some way. But that is all I am sure about.”

Adri looked down at her hands. The violet marks weren't glowing, but they were still clearly visible on her skin. “Why are these…tattoos here? Why is my lance? I thought they only appeared in the Spirit Realm,”

“The Spirit Realm shows things as they are, in a different way.” Blair spoke slowly, easing down beside her. “It shows people as burning lights, for it strips away the physical and leaves only the soul to be seen. In that realm, you cannot hide what you have been given. Here, when you call upon your…abilities, you draw that power from the Spirit Realm. It's called manifesting. You are showing your…deeper self.”

For a long moment, Adri said nothing. “I don't want this.” She said at last. “I don't want magic powers, or glowing marks or visions or any of it. I just want to go back to the way it was.”

“Could you really?” Blair asked softly. “Knowing what you know now? Could you really just step back into your old life without a hitch?”

Sure, of course she would,
Adri wanted to say. She could waltz back to headquarters, explain the situation, and be reassigned. She could take her captaincy exam, maybe get her own ship. See Gray. Oh, how she desperately wanted to see Gray. Everything would be back to normal.

Which was, of course, a weak and pitiful lie.

Sometimes lying to oneself is necessary for survival, Adri knew. But most often it simply delayed the inevitable, and made that inevitable harder to bear. Even if the whole Adept thing had never happened, her life would still be light years from normal. She had been gone too long, and heard too much. The Advance Force would be suspicious of her survival, not to mention her sudden reappearance with two Belligerent slaves in tow, bringing with them rumors of Commonwealth deceit and destruction. Add in the discovery of special powers, throw around words like ‘destiny' and ‘chosen one,' and she ended up with a hell of a mess.

“Why me?” she railed pathetically. “My life was just fine before all this was dumped on it,”

“Indeed,” Blair touched her shoulder in a gesture of companionship. “But you would not have been picked if you were not…worthy. Whatever is in store for you is something that only you can handle. No one is given a gift or a task without the ability to decipher or complete it. The only reason mortals fail is because they fail to rely on their unique gifts, or use them for something that does not benefit the universe in its whole. You have a great gift, with a doubtlessly equal task. Just remember that you have been given all the tools to finish it.”

Adri managed a small smile. “Been saving that one up?”

Blair's lips trembled on the brink of a smile. He rose to his feet and began to walk back to his makeshift bed. “Just think on it, Adri.”

So she did.

Coincidence: Noun. A remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent casual connection.

- Galactic Standard Dictionary

Coincidence can make fools of the wise and heroes of the cowards.

- Thaddeus Grayson

Coincidence is a tricky thing. You never know when it will take a whack at you.

- Duane

Coincidence is an anomaly that no one can really tally. But if we could, would we want to?

- Floyd Tarkubunji

Coincidence is nothing but Divine Providence.

- Eliot Blair

Coincidence. Coincidence. Coincidence. I think I get the point.

- Adri Rael