She took out an old plastic tarp from her cross the body shoulder bag. Spreading is on the crumbling concrete floor, she lifted the strap of her heavy cloth bag over her head and laid it on the tarp for a pillow. She lowered her body to the floor and curled into a fetal position soon drifting to sleep.
Chapter Three
It seemed like a dream, yet not a dream. Calan walked through the city street alone, wary of any sound, moving from shadow to shadow. Progress was slow as he tried to make sure no one would see him.
Only Calan realized it wasn’t him. He saw it through the mind of a young woman. She had been an apparition in his dreams for a couple years now. Though he had barely admitted it to himself, he suspected that was why he felt so strongly about coming to Earth when he finished his studies.
In the back of his own mind, he could only think she must be his psi mate. His mother came from Earth, this very city. Unlike his father, Calan had never traveled by Earth in a starship. How could he have sensed her over such a distance from another star system?
Possibly because he and his siblings were some of the highest level of human psions born. Only the Wholaskans were more powerful. Yet, Calan had never been more powerful than his brother Jamerin---not that it mattered to him. It had never been a contest between them.
Calan’s in vitro conception was the culmination of his father’s research on genetic psion factor. The results of which remained hidden to this day. It never bothered him that he was conceived in vitro where his brother Jamerin and sister Lara were not. His parents had loved him from the moment they watched his father’s sperm fertilize his mother’s egg. They even showed the recording to Calan when he was old enough to understand.
Earth had always held a fascination for him since he’d learned that his mother was from here and his father had come to find her because they were psion mates.
Ajha---he finally knew her name. He opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He could touch her mind now, but not without her feeling his presence. He would be gentle, a whispered reassurance, an invitation to come and find him.
She was already heading toward this sanctuary he was building. He had decided to call it ‘The Refuge.’
Calan knew he could easily find her, only she didn’t seem ready to accept the implications of their connection. She had barely tapped her psionic ability, and she still didn’t quite know what to make of it. Ajha needed to see him in the flesh and look into his eyes to see the truth of their connection.
As long as she was not in imminent danger, he could be patient and let things unfold naturally. He wouldn’t make the mistake his father had done in taking his mother to Aledus. He was here to stay. Maybe the Federation was giving up on the mother world, Calan wasn’t.
Things might go faster if Jamerin and Parei would stay and help. But they preferred their itinerant lifestyle on their passenger freighter. Even Earth, whose population was decimated by the Procyon Wars had too many minds to block out. Not that Jamerin and Parei weren’t strong enough to do it; they didn’t want to be bothered.
Calan got out of bed and went into the bathroom in his cabin on theCelestra. He used the lav and got into the shower. He was going to miss Jamerin and Parei after spending six months with them. As the baby of the family, he and Jamerin hadn’t been close. Jamerin had left home when Calan was ten and visited infrequently.
However, when Jamerin heard that his brother had decided to practice healing on Earth, he practically jumped at the opportunity to take Calan there in his starship. Now that they were both adults they were able to relate on the same level.
Jamerin still thought of him as his baby brother but grown up.
Calan dried and got dressed then stopped in the dining room for a mug ofjerntea to take with him to the cargo bay. There he set the droids in motion hauling his materials and supplies to his hover tram which he moved to the loading dock by remote. He sipped hisjernand watched the droids’ progress. It wasn’t necessary, but he didn’t have anything else to do.
Jamerin and Parei were in privacy mode which meant they were probably having sex. He didn’t want any part of that. He just blocked it right out of his mind. When the droids finished, Calan went back to his cabin and did a walk through, checking drawers and closets for any of his belongings he might have missed while packing. Finding nothing, he closed the smart flap on his duffle and carried it with him.
Hopefully, by the time he was back for the second load, his brother and sister-in-law would be up and about so he could say goodbye.
He carried his bag to the loading dock and climbed into his hover tram, setting it in motion toward the complex. While en route, he signaled Rax on the tablet com. The cyborg was waiting at the front entrance when Calan touched down, turning the tram, so the cargo hold was facing the double steel doors.
“Good morning Rax,” Calan greeted him. “How did it go last night?”
“Everything was quiet. No intruders. I completed the inspection of the buildings and rechecked the building where I was left. I don’t understand why I was left behind. Cyborg Command has no record of my creation. The RXV line ended with 850 according to their records.”
“That’s perplexing,” Calan said. “I did some research as well. The RXV line was created in Peru just over two hundred years ago. They apparently kept producing cyborgs despite the Federation discontinuing the program.”
“From what Command told me, Peru did pretty much what they wanted, severing ties with the Federation when they were notified the program was no longer being supported.”
“They didn’t outlaw cyborgs, they just won’t finance them anymore,” Calan replied. “That still doesn’t tell us why you were left here.”
“I believe I was hidden deliberately so that I would not be removed when the other cyborgs pulled out.”
“Then, I think it was probably one gang lord or another who had you stashed to bring you online as an enforcer for them.”
“That would be against my programming,” said Rax.
“Programming can be changed---and that was probably part of the plan. Who knows what happened to the plan?” Calan shrugged. “Maybe they got killed in one of the gang wars. You are better off here, and I can use your help.”
“I have reviewed your plan and the history of the cyborg restoration project. It sounds like your plan is similar to the plan that they started in Chicago after the Procyon War. I agree to assist you with that.”
