Slavers of Antar

By DocPaul

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Chapter Five: Mentalism

“The All is Mind; The Universe is Mental.”

“How long are you going to be gone?” Max asked as Michael packed things he needed.

“Not sure. Maria is looking for something. I don’t think even she knows what it is. According to her, she wishes to remain open minded about it, so that the possibilities becomes more than the potential.”

“What?”

“That inertial modalities move to areas of balance.”

Max sniffed. “And that means?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know? Maria is whacked. Always has been. Always will be. Contrary.”

Max smiled at that. Michael needed his Universe to be well ordered, and recognizing that he was married to a raving loon was part of the package. “I think I saw Alex.”

Michael looked up from his packing. “Really? Were you drinking?”

“No. It was as the world below burned, he stood beside the view screen for an instant, then he was gone.”

Michael made a snorting noise. “Damn Eminents. Think they’re gone, and they start hanging around.” He sniffed a shirt. Shrugging he tossed it in anyway. Him being sweaty made Maria—happy—horny. Same difference. “So, did you find out about Eoin?”

“The twins seem to think he’s their brother too. I guess he’s been hanging out with them for as long as they can remember. His coming and goings are natural to them.”

“Great. Ghost kid having a good time with the nephews.” Michael looked around to make sure Maria wasn’t watching. He quickly glanced into her bag, removing half her stuff and adding a few items he really needed. “Gives me the heebee jeebees.”

“Maria mind you repacking her stuff?” asked Max curiously.

“What?” asked Michael, scratching his eyebrow innocently.

“Uh-huh. Thought so.” Max sat on the side of the table watching his brother. “How long until your ship is finished?”

“Forever at this rate. We don’t get enough down time here on Karnak to work on it.” Three years ago, Maria gave Michael a ship like her Zephyr. Or at least, she offered to build him one. Three years later, they were still struggling with it. The Universe had been a busy place.

“Bring it aboard the Shiva.”

“I suggested that.” Michael looked at the door to make sure Maria wasn’t around to hear his whining. “Maria says no. She says Sean is a mooch, and he’s a bad influence on Liz, his mooch in training. She doesn’t trust those two not to pirate the systems and strip the technology.”

Max wiped his face, amused. “She has a point. Liz and Sean have been ‘borrowing’ things from her Astrolab for a long time.”

Michael held up his hand. The last thing he needed was to hear another bout of ‘Sean the Evil.’ “So why did you deviate to Karnak ? Maria and I could’ve journeyed here alone.”

“I’m leaving Isabel and the twins here. With Lonnie.”

Michael whistled. Looking out at Karnak below, he was amazed at all motion and activity. In three years a thriving city below the ruins had grown to a modern day metropolis, and new cities were fast being populated. Maria had strict rules about who could live there. Mostly, the families of the crew of Shiva, and the ambassadors to many worlds. Out of the increased population came a need for artisans, vendors, and other support services. Before she knew it, her once quiet world grew into something beyond what she expected.

“Does Isabel know?”

It was Max’s turn to look innocent as he ignored the fact that his wife would not appreciate being left behind. “Well…”

“Uh-huh.” Michael said sounding much like his twin. “Tell her to leave the body parts someplace convenient. I’ll bury you when I get back.”

Maria came in the door. “Michael, are you ready?” She frowned. Strange that of the two of them, Michael was always the one who took the longest to get ready.

“Coming. Just taking one last look at Max since I might never see him again.”

“Huh?” Maria said in confusion as Michael grabbed their bags.

“Ignore him. He’s been a little strange lately.” Max suggested.

Maria looked at her husband. “You’re telling me?”

“Brat! Let’s go.” Michael shook a finger at his brother.

~~~

“So you sure you got everything that you need?”

“Check.” Kyle looked through his stuff one more time. “Hopefully I won’t be gone that long, and if you have any problems…”

“It’ll be fine.” Julia sat on the edge of the table, swinging her leg. This was too strange. One day back at Karnak , and it seemed everyone had dissolved to the different areas of the planet. Kyle was leaving for his home world, and the medical bay was her responsibility now.

“I’m trusting you to take care of everything. If anything arises—unexpected, I left special notes in my files, but only access them if you have to—life or death.”

“Understood.” Julia smiled. “Though you hiding all those horrendous warts that Sean has won’t do any good. He’s too happy to tell me every gruesome detail of his physiology. Scars. Everything.”

Kyle laughed. “Sean is subtle.”

“Hmmm, is that what it looks like?” Julia cleared her throat. “I hope you feel better soon, Kyle.”

Kyle hands faltered. “Julia, it’s not something that I really want to not tell you.” Julia raised an eyebrow. “Really. It more like something even I don’t understand. I need to go home, to specialist.”

Julia closed her eyes and nodded. She suspected as much. Leaving Shiva and going home to Agape was a big step for Kyle. A last step. An admission of his problem being beyond his own abilities. Scary thought. Kyle was quite honestly one of the more brilliant doctors she ever met or worked with, and imagining something beyond him was more than she cared to do.

Julia put her hand on his arm. “I understand. I’ll watch over your people.” Kyle squeezed her hand in gratitude. “But, couldn’t you take Sean with you?”

Kyle laughed and kissed her on the forehead. He stopped one last time to look around the medical bay that had been his life for over nine years. Leaving, the door shut behind him.

“Good luck, doctor.” Julia said quietly.

~~~

“No!”

“Michael, man, don’t be that way!”

“I am that way.” Michael shoved Sean off him. “You can’t come.”

“Tell him, Liz,” Sean pleaded. Liz just shrugged. It was his thing. She had plans, and those didn’t include following Sean into the past so he could look through Maria’s stockpile.

“Your party. You arrange it.” Liz sighed in relief. Jonesy entered the bay prepared to join her on the transport to the planet. Finally! The Shiva was leaving in forty-eight hours. Sean was cutting into her off time. She rolled her eyes analyzing the fact that she had gone from being under the watchful eyes of Monks to the duty protected by Maria, and now she was hounded by Sean. “I want a raise.”

“What?” Sean scratched his head in confusion. “What is it with you? You used to be so timid, unassuming—nice!” He spied Jonesy. A Ha! “Jonesy, get your ass over here! What the hell did you do to my Immaculate to make her so disagreeable? I want your answer now!”

Liz huffed. “Who told me I needed to learn to spit?” Sean’s blank look of assumed innocence didn’t wash. It was the curly hair and clownish attitude. “You!” Jonesy snickered. Michael in irritation, just tried to avoid the rabble. Maria was off talking to the deck officer. “Who said I had to learn to play poker? Three tier poker, no less, then kept changing the rules when I kept beating him?” Sean his weight from foot to foot. “You! Who got me drunk on that rot gut acid engine backwash you call your ‘special mix’, and then talked me into helping you steal those components from Maria’s lab?”

Sean bristled. “Steal! I do not steal.” He smiled charmingly. “I—we borrowed a few things she wasn’t using.”

“Who started a fight in that sleazy bar in Baalbek , rolled around on the bar, then calmly disappeared with three of the serving wenches, leaving the rest of us in chaos with flying bottles and fists?”

Sean scratched his neck. “I don’t recall a fight.” Liz huffed again, stamping her foot. Taking Jonesy’s arm, she actually stuck her tongue out at Sean before stomping away in a huff.

Michael’s eyebrow rose. “I think I might actually get to like your buggy eyed assistant—someday.”

“Second in Command.” Sean said absently.

“You promoted her?”

“She was talking about transferring to another department. So I made her a Lieutenant. As an officer, she’s a total failure. She doesn’t listen to a damn word I say.”

“When did this happen?”

“Oh, um, after I got her arrested on Lira. She was a little ticked at me. Highly emotional and unreasonable. I told her there is no room for sentimentality with a good engineer, but does she listen? No! No one listens to Sean. No one.”

“Have you always been this whiny?” Michael asked.

“Huh?”

“Yeah. Thought so.” Maria. Finally! “Looks like it’s time to go. Have fun, Sean.”

“That’s my damn point! How am I supposed to have fun when you won’t let me go to Karnak with you and my Princess?”

Maria laughed kissing Sean on the cheek. “Sean, two days is too much time. The amount of damage you could do is staggering. Maybe sometime when we only have a few hours.”

“But…”

Maria looked at Michael and winked. “Of course, it has been a while since we let you come with us. I thought you would want to stay onboard and all, but since you really want to come…”

Sean interrupted Maria. “Why would I want to stay onboard?”

Maria shrugged. “No reason. Not really. It’s just that Julia is refitting the Medical bay, and so she can’t go down to planet.” Maria sighed. “She’ll probably be the only person left eating in the Officer’s Mess. I’m sure she won’t mind the solitude. All alone—No one around—It’s probably….”

Sean was gone in a fast gallop. Michael took Maria’s arm. “You are one mean woman. Putting Julia in harm’s way so we could dump Sean.”

“She’s a doctor. She understands suffering.” Maria smiled on their way to the Zephyr. “Keeps her frosty! On top of things, you know—things.”

“Uh-huh.” Michael looked back where Sean’s receding back once had been. “Nothing like first hand experience.”

“Exactly. She’ll thank us later.”

“Sure she will.”

~~~

“Babies!” Lonnie screeched when she saw her nephews, their little cubby bodies fighting to get to their aunt first. Isabel smiled at her twin sister as she hugged and tickled the boys. Looking up from a sea of hands and feet, Lonnie smiled at Isabel. “Hey Iz! I wasn’t expecting the Shiva back so soon.”

“I know. Max decided to detour here.” Isabel laughed at the twins rushing around trying to keep their aunt’s attention. “How is everything going here?”

“So-so. It never changes. Legislation was adjourned again. Fighting between the system Lords in the Outer Rim. They want trade negotiations and rights to free passage. Other systems say no due to the type of traders that run through the area.”

“Aw. Property values going down in the region?”

Lonnie rolled her eyes. “I think it’s good that the more volatile areas want to join the New Federation. They have to agree to laws and such, and it makes it easier to establish lasting peace. The road along the way is the problem.”

“It always is.” Isabel smiled to herself. Lonnie had changed. She was free to pursue her life, and who knew she would find being a representative of their world an added bonus. Her sister, the politician was sometimes hard to fathom.

“Is Max down here too?”

“He’s at the Council. We’re going to track the traders to the Outer Rim area. Rumor has it that some of the missing people are showing up in flesh markets and such.”

“You sure you want to go with him? It sounds pretty seedy. Maybe you and the boys would like to sit this trip out, stay with me?”

“I’ll think about it.” No way in hell. Isabel smiled politely, but she had no intention of abandoning her husband. This concerned her too, and she wasn’t being left behind. No matter what.

~~~

“So did they elude us again?” The acting Premiere of the New Royal Federation frowned at the report he received. Max stood waiting patiently. Heron of Hibernia was a fair man, a remnant of the long dead Federation before Khivar. He had been the High Commander of the Royal Resistance in the first war, and in the second.

“They use a stealth technology and cloaking fields to evade detection and capture.”

“Your systems can’t penetrate their shielding?”

Max sighed heavily. “No.” But their Princess could. Max kept that to himself. Maria wouldn’t like the notoriety.

Heron stood from his chair and paced behind his desk. “This disturbs me. Whoever they are, they can enter any and all systems at will, undetected. By the time that system is aware of their presence…”

“It’s too late,” said Max softly.

Heron nodded. “It’s too late.” Sighing, he looked out over the beautiful lush green of a world opposite his own homeworld. “What are we to do, my Lord?”

Max startled. Looking down at the amulet he wore around his neck that matched both of the ones Maria and Michael wore, he forgot that he was considered part of The One, the Royalty of Anterra.

“We find them. We must.” Max paused as Jim, Kyle’s father from Agape, entered the Council Chambers with Amy, his wife. Heron smiled at the two.

“Jim. Amy.” He quickly went to them expressing genuine warmth. “I take it that this is goodbye then?”

Jim shook his hand vigorously and hit him on the shoulder. “H, we’ll be back for the next session. Returning home seems imperative.”

“I understand.” Heron indicated Max. “Max tells me that your son is returning home with you.”

“He’s already onboard settling in. I’m sure he’ll complain the entire time on how long the trip takes. Kyle is used to the Shiva, and nothing moves through space like she does.” Jim smiled kindly at Max.

“The Shiva would be happy to transport you and your aides home, Ambassador.”

“Not necessary.” Jim shook his head. “I believe your task is a more pressing matter. We’ll make it at top speeds.”

Amy looked at Heron. “We didn’t want to leave without giving you our schedule and the list of our World’s alternatives, should the Council need to meet before we return.”

“Thank you, Amy.”

Max watched as Kyle’s parents said their goodbyes. Watching them leave he worried about Kyle, and what Kyle wasn’t saying. Whatever it was, it was serious enough to send Kyle’s parents home to Agape with him.

“Max, when are you leaving?”

“Within forty-eight hours. We’ve got information from a Tellurian ship that the slave market in the Kolsak area has been teaming in new breeds. We’ll start there.”

Heron smiled slightly. “Send Sean and Michael to ferret out the deviants.”

“Well—at least Sean. Michael and Maria are returning to the Ruins. There’s something about the situation bothers the Princess. She wishes to consult her people’s history records.”

Heron nodded. “As always, as guest to the world of Karnak , we are humbled at their presence.”

Max laughed in glee. “I hope you tell them that. It should sour their disposition.”

Heron led Max to the Great Hall for refreshments. “Always. Never had there been two people more unlikely to rule. They hate it with a passion.”

“Noticed that did you?”

“Hard to miss.” Heron laughed with Max. Michael and Maria’s hatred of politics was well known by all, but watched with great amusement. “So how are Isabel and the children?”

~~~

The world of Karnak of the now faded into the past, as the Ancient world came alive. Michael breathed easier. Home. Amazing how easy it was to accept the strange world Maria had come from as his own adopted world. Not that Attila wasn’t home, but Karnak had something Attila did not. Blessed peace.

His mother was on Attila. Here she was not.

“What do you want to do first?”

Maria stretched. “Sleep, food, and then sex. The triad of healthy living, the order is your choice.”

“Food, sex, and then sleep. Or maybe, food, sex, more food, more sex, more sex, then sleep.”

“Aw, my gluttonous husband.” Maria kissed him. Leading him to the Temple , and their rooms.

“Wait. Really, Maria. What are we looking for?”

“Something ancient.  You can’t understand the present or the future without understanding the past. That ship and the entities onboard were familiar to me. There has to be a reason for that. Maybe O’Jah will tell me, or even Alex.”

“Alex?”

“Sure. He comes to Karnak often.”

Michael stopped them. “Why didn’t you tell me that? I thought Alex was gone.”

“The door is there. It needs only to be opened.” Maria said pulling him with her.

“What is it with you and doors lately?”

Maria stopped at the Temple . O’Jah stood a few feet away. “I’ll tell you my secrets if you tell me yours.”

They stood, neither wavering. Their stare was long and penetrating. “I can’t, Princess. Not right now. Later.”

“The same.” Maria moved towards her mentor. “Jonnie!”

“The eagle screams as the lion roars. Your arrival was foretold.”

“Yeah, uh-huh.” Michael moved past another annoying parable speaker. It wasn’t like they ever made one iota of sense either way. “Where’s the grub, J-Man, I’m dying here.”

“As always, my Lord, it is in the Great Hall awaiting your arrival.”

“Tasty. Princess, you stay and talk in tongues. I’ll be grubbing in the Great Hall.”

“Gotcha.” Maria waited until Michael took himself off to find sustenance. “My mentor, there is a breeze in the Understanding. The Path dims.”

“Yes.”

“It blows through and fro. I can feel the disturbance.”

O’Jah moved with Maria through the Temple . “For every tree there began a seed to sapling. Nothing in life is more important than continuity.”

“Rushes break to the wind.”

“Yes.”

“Alex said it was a word of old. The meaning is the same, but the word changes.”

“A leaf that changes in Autumn remembers being green.”

Maria stopped outside the Great Hall. “The histories. I never bothered with them much, outside of the basics. My duty was to the science of the Granilith. Not to its history.”

O’Jah bowed. Maria watched as he moved down the hall soundless, his figure merging into the shadows.

Michael had a plate full of food. He waved a drumstick at Maria. “Hungry?”

“Starved.”

“Where did JJ go?”

Maria smiled at the ever changing nicknames Michael had for O’Jah. “He went to consult a higher power.”

“A higher power?”

Maria nodded. It was hard to explain, but in all realities there were rules to be followed. Even those who ascended lived by a code that was unbreakable. The histories of the Ancients would not be shared with her unless it was approved.

Michael chewed thoughtfully. “Don’t think I’d like to meet what OJ thinks is his boss.”

Maria kissed Michael’s head as she sat down. “Don’t worry, honey. You won’t.”

“Why?”

“Too primitive.” Maria laughed at the look of outrage on Michael’s face.

~~~

“Alex.”

“Here. Where is Michael?”

“Sleeping.” Maria moved through the shadows to sit on the side of the fountain. Alex was there. “You come here often. Why?”

“Peace. Connection.” Alex looked at Maria. “My old world calls me back. Kyle. You. Isabel.”

“The three of us?”

“All of you. All you are. All you are to become.”

Maria paused. “All that we once were?”

Alex’s dark eyes flashed. “Yes. The past has come forward. The future set the path.”

“You know?”

“I know many things; and nothing at the same time.” Alex sat next to Maria. His hand reached for hers. It was warm. Alive. Her glance looked at their joined hands in shock. She could never touch O’Jah. Somehow she thought it would be the same with Alex.

“How real are you?”

Alex smiled slightly. “How real do you need me to be?”

“More than dreams. It does no good to live in dreams, Alex. I need you in the here and the now. Can you come?”

“If it is what you need, then yes.” Alex’s eyes were kind, but he was never meant to walk all his life with them, not in this reality or any other. His was a lonely walk.

“ Lena and Eoin?”

Alex sighed heavily. “That is a little more difficult. Lena is bound to this plane only through me. She can see Isabel, because of the common blood that we share. Isabel. Lonnie. The twins. But, Lena died on this plane. She can not walk it alive and breathing. Only as a spirit of form.”

“And Eoin?”

Alex laughed a small laugh. “My son. He is more than I ever imagined. So much more. Beyond me. Beyond Lena .” Alex smiled thinking of his young child. “His powers are growing. Strange to see the mixture of innocent child and aged sage. Something timeless. He is impossible at times to control.”

“At three?”

“At a hundred. What is age to us?”

“Indeed.” Maria hugged her knees. “Michael is hiding things from me.”

“Already?”

Maria laughed. “I expected it to start happening sooner, but either way, it still bothers me.” Maria frowned. “I am his partner. He should be able to tell me anything.”

Alex turned her arm, admiring the tattoo of the entwined eagle in flight merging into the lion. “Duality of nature. Two that merge into one. It was never the nature of the eagle to mate with the lion, and yet, it has been done. Fighting nature seems to be the one thing you two have completely in common beyond your stubbornness.”

“He’s stubborn. I’m resolved.”

Alex laughed at that. Sure she was. “Michael went against his nature to love you. A man from a world whose language contained no name for love, no want of those emotions, and yet, he broke away from his genetic breeding to chose you, to bond to an Offworlder.”

“He did.” Maria smiled at that. He stood little chance against her. But to love her? That was something he did on his own. She would love him forever for that one selfless act of pure love—the act of choice.

“And you?” Alex said softly, smiling as Maria tilted her head, confused. “A woman bound to a destiny. One that was to lead her to the very end of her life, and her people’s existence. The last. You had embraced death, Maria. Walked at its side, accepting that two particles in space collide. How is it that a woman who had a higher purpose could find a deeper, more meaningful one in mating with a man who was beyond you and your destiny? You were never destined to find love, and yet, you chose him. You found him, breaking your training and duty, to see only him.”

Maria bent her head. “I did. Air breathes. Honey that tastes. I saw him, and it was as if my heart learned how to beat, and my cold body found warmth. I chose him. For him, I almost gave up my duty.”

“Almost. You redefined it, and allowed him into what must be done. A partner. An equal.” Alex looked at the tattoo. “You merged what was you into what was him, and in the process, you bound the two of you together for all eternity.”

“And now? His secrets?”

“Are his. He will find a way to let you in when he resolves in himself, that which he can’t deny.”

“What is that?”

“That there are choices along a path, but sometimes there is only one path, and the choice is merely academic.”

“He rages…”

“Against nature. He changed his nature once, Maria. Perhaps he wants to do it again. It stands to reason, that sometimes a man must fight for his own needs. His path was set in so many generations, along a self made path. He fights to choose a different one. Leave him to work out what can be changed and what cannot, and to accept what is inevitable.”

“Inevitability.” Maria sighed closing her eyes. “Always a concept to fear.”

“What is?” asked Michael.

Maria opened her eyes, and looked around. Alex was gone. Michael arched a brow at her in question.

“Nothing. I thought you were sleeping.”

“I was. I woke to find you gone.”

Maria smiled slightly. “I couldn’t sleep. Imagine that? You wore me out, and yet, the smells of Karnak woke me. There is a storm in the distance. I can feel it in my bones.”

Michael’s arms came around her, and he held her tight to his front as they watched the coming storm over the mountains. Children of storm, children of sorrow—ever was destiny just a shadow barely over their shoulders.

~~~

Julia walked the quiet corridors of the Shiva. Her crew was mostly on planet. Many had families there, or homes. They took the downtime to do what they put off during months of space duty. The quiet was welcome. Food. No cooks in the galley, but the replicator units would provide a nice meal.

Julia frowned at a pad she read in her hand as she walked. Too much to do. So little time. She was in a hurry to have it done. To be on their way. So much space to cover, and time always seemed a wasting.

The galley was strangely dark, but not completely. There was a soft glow in the Officer’s Mess. Julia entered the room cautiously. The sight stilled her feet, and before she could flee, he saw her.

“Julia! About time you got here!” Sean came out of the galley. “I was afraid I was going to have to fetch you.”

“Fetch me?” Julia’s voice squeaked. The room—oh goodness, the room! The table was set for two with long tapered candles burning, adding the soft glow to the room as it cast the rest of the room into shadow. The table was beautifully set, and Sean held out her chair.

“Um….” Julia’s tongue stuck in her throat. Unable to find a real excuse to run, she reluctantly let Sean seat her at the table. Clearing her throat, she looked around in fright, like a small animal caught in a snare.

“I made dinner. For us.” Sean smiled charmingly. It didn’t take much to convince the other people using the dining room to leave once they realized he was cooking. He showed her a bottle of Tellurian wine, illegal due to its high alcohol content, and the added neurotoxins that numbed the body, too much could be lethal.

“Dinner?” Julia quickly gulped a large mouthful of the wine, topping off the glass again.

“One of my specialties!”

“Specialties? You have specialties?” Sean laughed. Big tease. Of course he did!

“You’re going to love this! When your taste buds have this delicacy adorn them, they’ll be in heaven!”

Julia gulped more of her wine as Sean went to get his ‘specialty’. Oh God! He just threatened her with death, her and her taste buds. Heaven? She had to die first to get there. Julia quickly rose to her feet, but the arrival of Sean and a huge platter had her dropping back in her seat before he noticed her planned getaway.

Sean placed the huge platter swimming in a greasy looking gravy in front of her.

“What is it?” Julia asked in horror as her stomach turned. The smell! The smell was—damn. Her hair was going to curl.

“Galactic wild boar shanks braised in the nutbutter of the Rigellian gak, smothered in pinon cheese sauce.” Sean smiled happily at her making a face. “Yum!”

Julia quickly stood to run, but Sean’s hand pushed her back in the chair. “No! Stay seated! I’ll serve.”

Julia moaned, a film of sweat on her lip was quickly licked away. Why did he hate her so much?