Log 1 Matter | Antimatter (34 page)

“Damn, there go the ice fields.”

But Caleb nudged her mind to where he wanted.
He said roughly, “Forget that. Love me.”

She wrapped her arms around him, running her
fingers down his back. In the throes of their passion, their love,
that had nothing to do with the three pleasures they connected at
some level that reminded her of the Strike. Higher and higher they
went. There were no acrobats or acts of contortion, just kissing
and pressing their bodies together. Ara felt completely safe and
erotic; Caleb’s mind surged with energy, somehow connecting to the
Strike with her.

At the end, still wrapped in each other’s
arms, they fell asleep. Next thing Ara awoke to the sound of
someone in the kitchen. Caleb was curled into her back and she
smelled coffee. There was a light knock.

“
I have coffee, Aunty.”

Caleb whispered, “She’s very proper with
ArT.”

“
Come in, Tara.”

Tara came in, smiling. “I was going to say I
had a good night, but it looks like you had one too.”

Caleb stirred. “Better have a cup for
me.”

“Coming up. Hope you both behaved yourselves.
Auntie’s Virgo is after mine.”

Ara turned her head, avoiding the sparkling
blue eyes, and heard Tara tut tutting as she left the room. Caleb
tugged at her as she rolled on to her back. “Oops.”

“That’s probably why they register
everything.”

Ara didn’t care though. She doubted her Virgo
night would be as good as it was that night.

C. Are you happy?

A. I am, you?

C. Very, that was … wonderful

But a tiny seed of annoyance crept in
remembering Meg’s words. “Caleb made it special.” Ara felt like
crying and dashed off to the toilet to hide her hurt. She stared at
herself in the mirror. “Why raise that, you moron?” But Meg didn’t
have Virgo either, she hated the comparison as it sullied their
experience. She splashed cold water on her face and dried it before
using the latrine. After washing her hands, she left the bathroom.
Seeing Caleb leaning on the back wall, patting the bed, her
annoyance fled.

He said, “I don’t think we should push it any
further, but you should know the ice fields are still sound. We can
go climbing today.”

She nodded, crawled over the bed and noted a
second cup already on the table. Caleb handed her a cup and she
heard singing in the kitchen. He said, “Tara is a bit happy about
this.”

“I noticed.”

They had a wonderful day ice climbing but Ara
tired half way, and headed down the ice wall, content to watch
father and daughter climb. Caleb had a lot of patience with Tara,
and looked back to check to see if she was okay.

The day after Caleb left, Trickster’s words
came crashing back to Ara. In an almighty fit, poor Tara witnessed
Ara as she was a girl, throwing a tantrum. They giggled after but
Tara never forgot it.

Tarus sculled a drink and it burned all the
way down.

He slid off his stool, walked over to the
foyer to go to the bathroom, heard a door open and when he glanced
over his shoulder, Ara walked in. She shied away from the ruckus as
he shied away from her. That was close. The females had been
talking about the Adonis and the last thing he wanted to hear about
was some drop dead gorgeous Avatara. Evidently, Ara didn’t want to
hear about it either. Since neither Caleb nor Tara was present, he
guessed it was a short visit and decided to stay. He left the
bathroom and returned to the warm tavern, finding his meal on the
counter with a beer. He was going to attend a play in a few nights
held by the resort. He thanked the barman and took his meal over to
a corner table.

“It’s quieter in here now.”

The thin, cleanly shaven barman laughed.
“Yeah, they spotted Lady Ara trying to sneak in and headed towards
her.”

Tarus laughed. “Poor thing.”

They both heard some squealing from the other
room.

“Ara will hate it at the moment, she was
sick—” the barman saw his expression but mistook it and said
sharply “—not from the food.”

Tarus smiled. “I’m sure the food’s fine. Is
she alright?”

“Some allergic reaction, bitten by something
the medic says.” The barman turned red as if thinking he’d said too
much. “I’ll leave you to your meal.”

“Thanks.” He sat down and began to eat,
seeing the barman send him the occasional glance but then resumed
whistling again, satisfied Tarus wasn’t put off by his comment.
Tarus ordered dessert too.

He contacted Viper on his new slim-line Voice
while he waited for his dessert and coffee. Cobra answered.

“Did either of you do something to the
target?” He explained what he knew.

“Not I.” Cobra said but, with his voice
fainter, asked, “Viper, did you do something to Ara? She was bitten
or something, had an allergic reaction.”

Tarus heard something that made his guts
churn. In the background, Viper was saying, “No, but that gives me
an idea for one of the Function Tests … did you hear that?” Cobra
was back, louder, while Viper was still talking in the
background.

“Got it.”

“Any other updates?”

“No.”

“We’re not yet sending insects to attack her
body.”

Cobra’s voice was sardonic, getting Tarus’s
back up, but he had to laugh as well.

“Don’t blame us for messing with one of your
moves.”

Tarus was back to feeling aggravated over
Cobra’s comments. As if sensing his mood shift, Cobra apologized.
Tarus ended the call, just as dessert came in and Ara was sneaking
in the open door. The barman nodded and pointed to a side door.
Relief filled the strained face and she headed out. There was
something different about her other than the faint dark smudges
beneath her eyes. It was hard to determine the change in her, but
something had happened sexually with her. Even as the Sawol part of
the Triad, the sex restriction still applied to him because, at the
Triad Core, all three parts still locked them together. Tarus could
only draw on sexual energy to wield Chaos, just as the other two
were restricted. Viewing her as she reached the side door and
waving to the barman, he connected to the sexual energies, from the
sexually charged males and females in the room across the hall, to
draw on Chaos and saw the incandescence around her was darker now,
with flecks of ice-green, indicating Ara was sexually mature with
Caleb. But it was the Chaos way, not Iotan way. His fingers hovered
over the Voice keypad. He should tell Cobra and Viper, they had all
agreed to notify the others when that happened. Tarus sent the
message and used the fork to slice his cake; it was caramel, his
favorite, with fresh whipped cream. His Voice beeped so he read the
message and replied, “Don’t know who with. Color not
definitive.”

Tarus felt the Caleb and Ara games had gone
on long enough. They would either repair the damage or not, but
that avenue was now closed. And that led to the first major
argument when Viper checked in a day later and saw the ice-green
streams.

Watching the play, Tarus laughed at the witty
dialogue of the actors when he felt Viper somewhere in the small
theatre. Since it was unannounced it was probably urgent but he
waited until the intermission before he sought out his counterpart.
Viper was leaning on a wall in the foyer. From the narrowed eyes
and sly smile, Tarus knew he’d blown it.

They went to his room and Viper poured
himself a measure of vodka, from the Russian continent on Gorgo, a
planet in Estancia Station. “Why lie to us about Caleb and Ara?
Before you lie again, I saw the ice-green stream.”

Tarus shrugged and sat down on the soft sofa.
Viper joined him and sipped his drink.

“You’ve lost our trust. Cobra couldn’t even
face you.”

“I still support the Chaos Brethren. What I
don’t support is the underhandedness.”

“Then I suggest you get on with your job and
remove yourself. This is just the start and we didn’t ask you to
monitor our corruption, it won’t help if we are always questioning
our bloody morals.”

“You are headed up a glassy route with few
hand and foot holds.” But at least Viper hadn’t noticed the strange
bright filament in both Ara and Caleb. It was Chaos, Tarus was now
sure of that.

“One more chance, Tarus.” Viper sculled the
rest of his vodka. “The Chaos Brethren are breaking away from their
duties under the reign of the Natal and rallying in one of the test
sites. Finally, they are forging their future and ready to risk all
to free the Chaos Entity and win the war.”

“Good, now think on this.” Tarus leaned
towards him to make his point clear. “The Chaos Brethren will call
us, and we will account for our actions.” Even saying it aloud, a
biting sensation coursed down Tarus’s body.

Viper shuddered and rubbed the back of his
neck.

“Try the alliance, Viper. At least you can
temper your actions with that. I know you love her as much as
I.”

Saratoga City

After the wonderful night, and then years where they
parted ways again, Ara found Caleb back in her life as he taught
one of her classes. It was almost embarrassing being the oldest
student, a year younger than the tutor.

Tara, very much a pretty, blonde adult poked
her head through the door. “Caleb, are we still on for dinner? Oh,
sorry.” The blue eyes took in their body language. “I’ve
interrupted something.”

Caleb said, “I’ll see you on time.”

The blue eyes honed in on Ara who was
grinning. “Ara!”

She burst in and Ara caught her in a tight
hug. “Tara. Cheeky girl.”

“Like my dad.”

“And your mum, Meg was quite the brat.”

She laughed and glanced at her dad and then
back at Ara. “You are coming to my 70th aren’t you?”

Ara had missed Tara a lot over the few years
she had been off world. Meg’s orders. Tara connected with her
implant to communicate mind to mind—proper like.

“
I have to invite Mum. Oh, she thinks you
are responsible for the strange fluctuations in my age.”

“
Huh?”

Tara giggled. “I’ll tell you later.”

Caleb coughed.

C. Watch this, Ara. This will prove how much
she hates short cut ArT

Caleb smiled at his daughter.

C. Tara, did you—

“Dad!” Tara gave her dad a stern look.

“Of course.” Ara tried not to laugh.

Tara shook her head at Caleb, leaned in and
whispered to Ara, “I think Dad’s made me a ranger, like your
Seeker.”

Ara smiled. She’d helped design it. “Don’t
think so, you’re too young.”

Tara screwed up her face and then looked
around the room. “What are you two up too?”

Ara sighed. “It seems your father is my
teacher for this class.”

Tara’s mouth gaped open. “No way!”

She and Caleb laughed softly.

“You give him grief, Aunty.”

“I will.”

“Dad will be busier than ever with his new
girlfriend too,” Tara said sharply.

Caleb flushed.

Tara smiled and leaned in and kissed his
cheek. She waved airily and left them.

Ara turned to him. “New love?”

“Lover.”

She didn’t know why she even cared still but
she didn’t mask her irritation quickly enough. Caleb was grinning
and he walked to the desk trying to hide his pleasure.

Caleb looked up at her. “Tara still loves you
a lot.”

“She’s adorable. But any child of yours would
be.” Ara changed the topic, not wanting to give him ideas. “Still
hunting?”

He nodded. “My err … new lover is a hunter
too. We’re hitting one of the new planets made for the—”

She put a hand on his arm, interrupting him
with her concern. “Caleb, I’ve heard those planets are
dangerous.”

He smiled tersely. “I hear that all the time
but it’s my life, Ara.” He blew his cheeks out. “Let’s not start
that argument again; I know what I’m doing.”

“Please be careful.” It was why they had
broken up again. Hunting. It was simply a dichotomy that would not
resolve. Caleb loved it and Ara hated it.

“I will.”

“So bored with your hunting girlfriend you
need the thrilling life?”

They both grimaced at her biting tone.

“Sorry, Monkey.” She flushed, having used his
nickname.

“No, not yet, Baby. But soon.” He grinned at
the shock on her face and left the classroom.

***

Saratoga Wildlife Park

Some fifty-three years later, Ara was in the
tearoom making herself a cup of coffee. They had just returned from
trapping a special marsupial that was struggling to breed on King
Cyrus’s continent and they were to run tests. At that point she’d
been in contact with specialists around the Aryan Worlds. She had
no contact with Trickster and, selfishly, maybe, she was glad.
There were no Natal, no enemy traces, nothing. For the first time
in her life, there were no logs. But she had no other physical
relationships either. Ara attended Tara’s Virgo and met Korbet face
to face. She reacted to him as she had with Kavela—like a love sick
idiot—and she refused to put herself in the same category as Tara’s
drooling friends.

Where once fear kept her company at night,
now a pervading loneliness did. Occasionally she even wondered what
it would be like to have other Pure-Gens her age to grow with but
that made things harder when reality came knocking.

“I’m off, Ara,” a deep voice boomed from the
passage.

“See you next month,” she called out. “Enjoy
your holiday.” Lucky bastard. Ara sighed.

Most of her family was off, and rarely home.
So much for their protective—Ara stopped herself. She was happy for
them, and happy that life at the homestead wasn’t centered around
her. But then, she thought a little nastily, it wouldn’t be good if
the entire Aether family were housebound, it was sure to draw
unwanted attention. In fact, if she was a honeypot, the seemingly
unguarded honey must look very tempting now.