Copyright © 2010 by Cynthia J. Cordell.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2010908197

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-4500-8879-4

                eBook             978-1-4500-8880-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 10/14/2016

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Contents

Chapter One Eden

Chapter Two Pointe Armada

Chapter Three Getting To Know Her

Chapter Four Espionage

Chapter Five Case of the Graffiti Artist

Chapter Six Vexa

Chapter Seven Trip to Alecner

Chapter Eight Report On Eden Kkaelen

Chapter Nine The Wedding

Chapter Ten Making the Move to the Planet Voltaire.

Chapter Eleven Justice

Chapter Twelve Calla Spalding

Chapter Thirteen Alecner Drug Compound

Chapter Fourteen The Hearing

Chapter Fifteen Eden’s Background Report

Chapter Sixteen Return to Alecner

Chapter Seventeen Feature Story, by Eden Kkaelen

Chapter Eighteen The Answers

Chapter Nineteen The Winner

To my husband, Chris.

I’d like to thank my editor Steven Ward. I’d also like to thank Christopher Nyerges who as well, reviewed my manuscript in its infancy. Lastly, I’d like to thank my family and friends for their continued support.

Hubble cover image courtesy of NASA and STScl.

PROLOGUE

L ET ME TELL you a little about myself. My name is Barry, and I am a member of the Unusuals. We are non-corporeal beings, meaning that we do not have bodies made of flesh. We are intellectual life forms who reside at the heart of the universe, where we watch and observe life as it propels itself towards sophistication in the different regions of outer space. I am from the future, and quite some time ago, during a turbulent time on the planet Earth, I relocated some of its inhabitants to a group of planets that orbit the star Alpha Centauri. It was during the Third World War on that planet, and life was about to come to a devastating end. So, we, the Unusuals, sent an armada of spaceships to guide survivors to the Alpha Centauri sector of space. A few millennia have passed since then, and we find ourselves in the Earth-year 8105, where a young leader by the name of Riley Sinclaire has just been elected Chancellor of one of the main planets I monitor. This planet, the planet Voltaire, will take the technological lead in its system, because computers have re-emerged as invaluable tools, and, well basically, the planets I watch over are a microcosm of the universe at large. Whatever happens, this is a small-scale version of what is in store for all of life in the universe. Riley has some issues that he is working through, and I am here to mostly observe. But if need be, I will act on the Unusuals’ behalf to keep propelling life forward.

CHAPTER ONE

Eden

H E GLANCED AT the monorail and saw her. Beautiful, he thought. She was waving fanatically at someone in the crowd. He marveled at seeing her disembark, her long hair trailing along her backside. He wanted to say hello, but of course, he would have to get past his own guards. They were meant to keep hostile people away, not young ladies. She was striking, so poetic in her presence. She seemed to float from here to there, much as a rhyme does from one line to the next.

He wanted to tell her his name… Riley Sinclaire, and he wanted to know hers. He had seen many lovely faces, lots of pretty women, but he could not deny that the sheer beauty of this girl was breathtaking. If I could just touch her brown hair, he thought, I would drape it around her right shoulder and say, I want to see your cute earring. Her earring was the color of a lemon. It was shaped like a pear and peppered with blue speckles. It matched her lime-green tunic.

Riley had an eye for beauty, and even though it was trained to look at exquisite paintings, the appearance of her ensemble was worthy of a compliment, simply because it was reminiscent of lovely art. He assumed she was on her way upstate. She wasn’t a regular passenger of this monorail, because he was often there on the same day and at the same time, and this was the first he had seen of her. Given her inviting but unusual looks, he guessed she made her living in the arts. Probably a modern poet or an artist’s subject, he thought, perhaps a photographer’s model.

Paul Lowry, his head bodyguard, looked Riley’s way with a knowing smile when the girl stepped down from the monorail. Her tunic flowed in the breeze. As the cool air blew, her brown hair revealed her dancing yellow earrings.

Fascinating the way she carries herself, ehhh? Lowry said.

She intrigues me, Riley whispered. Go fetch her.

Riley watched as Lowry dove into the crowd and approached the girl. He could hear every word by means of remote sensors.

Hello, Miss, my name is Lowry, my I ask yours?

Eden.

Well, the Chancellor would like to meet you.

Me? Have I done something wrong? She batted her eyelids with a look of pure innocence. I just arrived here from Alecner.

Not at all, Miss Eden. He simply wants to meet his constituents, Lowry said.

This is my first time here, she said. I really hope I’m not in any trouble. The last thing I want to be is an inconvenience.

He likes to meet a sampling of the general population, that’s all. I promise. He continued to reassure her.

Where am I supposed to go? she questioned.

Just come along with me Ma’am. Lowry gestured.

The fifth planet, Alecner, was scheduled to be destroyed in only four days time. Of all the planets orbiting the star, Alpha Centauri, this particular one was known for a seedy drug culture. The use of drugs on Alecner had been around since time itself. Riley’s grandmother, Calla, had once been lured to narcotics by drug pirates there. As soon as she was addicted, they managed to exhaust much of the family fortune. Riley had an ax to grind and wanted the planet destroyed.

Since his ascension to power six months prior, there had been an arms race against Alecner. In four days Alecner would celebrate its Freedom Day which commemorated the day they began to embrace the new evolving computer concepts. All the inhabitants of Alecner would be home for the celebrations. In Riley’s mind, it would be their doomsday. The strategic planning phase of the attack on that ill-fated orb was top priority today, but Riley had cancelled the rest of his scheduled meetings. He was curious about this young lady. She fascinated him.

Lowry walked her over and waved her into Riley’s hover car.

Her name is Eden, sir.

Ahhh… yes.

Good sir… she spoke, but Riley put his hand to her lips. The three of them moved almost instantly to his office building in silence. They exited the car and entered the Chancellor’s domain.

Riley’s office was a discreet, out-of-the-way room that had the structure of a connector hub, a sort of wide, winding corridor that was S-shaped. Hovering objects defied gravity, suspended above the three computer stations. There was one movable chair that slid around on an invisible track. His office was dynamic, a sort of bachelor pad at the base of an office dwelling-complex high-rise. The outer wall was S-shaped as well to follow the curvature of his official workplace.

Riley loved the scenic surroundings that dominated the large windows. The office dwelling was where he strategized and wrote his speeches. He was definitely at home in this haven, where he spent close to ten hours a day. The most unusual aspect of the office was a half-wall adorned with wallpaper. Wallpaper on Voltaire was a souvenir memory taken away from Earth, when they migrated to the Alpha Centauri sectors of space. Riley’s half-wall was made of a synthetic polymer covered in wallpaper. It was truly a marvel. The covering depicted an artist’s rendering of three spaceships of the numerous vessels of the Pointe Armada as they veered towards the gravitation tunnels that led them to this sector.

All Riley had to do was look at this picture to feel grounded and proud of his family line. He was descended from Colin Holden, the young man who lost his mother in World War Three, the same mom who was the source of the ubiquitous computer voice.

Riley often pondered how many generations ago his ancestral grandmother lived. He knew the story well. Claire Holden had been a writer who loved her only son Colin. The calamity that befell Earth citizens in the year 5000, also took her life. The radiation from nuclear blasts had caught up to her as she struggled to make it to the underground bunkers.

Ensuing ages after, the attacks had uncovered her body among the rubble. No one had been expected to survive the onslaught. The Holden fortune had bought her son some time. Colin had made it to the underground bunkers, situated a hundred miles beneath the main city. His spaceship, the Altruism, was one of the ships depicted on the wallpaper scene on the half-wall now in Riley’s office. It always reminded Riley of where he came from. Trying to shake the memories out of his mind, he turned to Lowry and Eden.

Paul, would you please get us a table at the Planetary Restaurant?

She seemed flustered.

Thank you… I accept, she said graciously.

During the ride to the restaurant, Riley made small talk about the weather, and she nodded awkwardly.

Lovely day, isn’t it? Riley said. You seem a bit awestruck.

Yes, yes, it is a lovely day. You’ll have to excuse my lack of focus; this city is new to me, Eden replied.

I gathered as much. I hope you’re hungry, Riley said.

As they traveled the skyway to the restaurant, several security probes flew by them, snapping pictures with their ocular lenses. All they needed were intermittent shots to recreate any given time interval of the Chancellor’s day.

Do you normally invite strangers to lunch? Eden looked as though she was starting to warm up to the situation.

To tell you the truth, I like to keep to myself. But I overheard you telling Paul that you were from Alecner. I’ve never been there. You’ll have to tell me what it’s like.

Um… she hesitated.

Tell me, what was your normal day like… on Alecner? Riley asked.

Normal? I’m a mutagen. Ever since I became self aware, I’ve lost the meaning of normal.

I mean, what do you do? Err… normal activities?

Oh, well, that would include my work at the Scientific Institute… and then there is time spent with my parents and my best friend, Kelma, Eden said.

As they neared the restaurant, Riley thought he saw Eden shyly look him over. For the moment he was intrigued and grateful to have her at his side.

Barry 1.5

I will be popping in and out concurrently to give more clarity to the vast undertakings on Voltaire. Now, this chance meeting between Riley and Eden has happened just a little after the year 8100; it was 8105 to be exact. The government compound where Riley meets with his advisors is his home away from home. It all took place on Adana, the capital city of Voltaire. Riley had been going over war strategies when they devised a very effective, secret plan of attack on Alecner. Riley’s grandmother had been destroyed by the rampant drug pirates there, and he wanted revenge. Much of what is to take place has already happened in my timeframe, so I’m offering glimpses as we get caught up to the near present through computer logs.

From time to time I will take on a human form, so it might not seem so out of place when I tell you that Eden was actually pushed ahead of the pack of people on the monorail. As she waved at someone she thought she saw in the crowd, I gave her a little nudge to send her down the ramp. Mind you, I myself was in no hurry, but something about her told me the Chancellor might find her alluring.

I have been keeping a close watch on the Chancellor, and I know he has no ongoing relationships, meaning no love interest; he is unattached. His desire to attack Alecner, though, must be counter-checked with some sort of lure from the opposite sex, someone who will charm him. He knows nothing about the planet, except that his grandmother originated from there where drug pirates exhausted her family inheritance. Her drug habit created a mutagen which destroyed her.

What makes Eden unique is that she also has a mutagen, even though she has no obvious drug cravings. Her mutagen is not hooked on the weed, rreahla, and so, neither is she. Unlike Riley’s Nana Calla, Eden’s daily activities do not revolve around a drug habit. Eden fits nicely with the rest of society, but she is just a little shy and self-conscious.

Eden’s visit to Adana is a birthday present from her parents for recovering her drug-free life. Unlike many mutagens, she accepts the one within her. She even gave it the name, Companion. This fateful day Eden planned to take a connecting monorail upstate to her friend Kelma’s workplace. She met Kelma in college and, well, now the two are inseparable.

Riley often likes to shake hands with people while their relatives record everything on their viewing pods. Video diaries are common among the masses. A small cube box, one that would fit into a man’s palm, is what a viewing pod looks like. There is a small, round, flat device that looks like a colorful button attached to the front face, and the side panels each have a rounded handle. Inside there is an inner cube that stores daily events. It is synergistic in that the narrating voice is automatic. One simply activates it with a thumbprint, and it begins to narrate everything recorded. Only because the entire planet of Voltaire is so in-sync with everything and everyone, is this type of technology possible.

Viewing pods are now the norm on Voltaire, and it is one of the reasons that this planet has taken the technological lead in the Alpha Centauri system. Riley has a hatred for planets such as Alecner, mainly because they are vastly corrupt and inferior.

The colonists from Earth have really made a go of things here, and I am very proud of the fact that they are my charges. Personally, I feel that Alecner should be given a second chance, so