The Light-Field (12 page)

‘The agent who took you for coffee?' Zeven guessed. Aurora nodded and there was a long silence as they thought.

‘So,' Aurora looked to Zeven once more, ‘we've changed our future?'

‘Looks that way,' he resolved.

‘Judging from that kiss, I'm guessing I'm to be your girl?' Aurora grinned.

‘We've had our moments.' Zeven couldn't say for sure; sometimes she was his girl, sometimes she wasn't. ‘You were different in the future.'

‘How so?' Aurora pulled away from him.

‘You were more fearful,' he explained, and her frown deepened. ‘To be frank, you didn't share my appetite for danger.'

‘But I do!' Aurora stressed.

‘You do now,' Zeven agreed, not understanding it himself, ‘but you don't then. Something must happen between now and then that suppresses this amazing spirit you have. And I am beginning to fear that episode may cause you to suppress your Power also.'

‘I don't actually know that it is a Power; it only seems to work with you.' Aurora shrugged. ‘It was your picture in the paper that triggered it. Apart from that, I have never had anything even slightly supernatural happen to me. Still, I rather like the adrenaline rush I get from the danger of it all.'

‘What if the change in your attitude has something to do with me?'

‘How could it have, if we haven't met before?' Aurora appealed, hoping she was following the scenario correctly.

‘But now we have met,' he pointed out, and he could see what their immediate future held and Aurora could not.

‘I know you are trying to tell me something.' Aurora was worried now. ‘What is it?'

‘I just don't want to hurt you anymore,' Zeven appealed, sincerely, tears framing his eyes.

‘It's okay, Starman, I forgive you!' She took hold of his arms. ‘The presidential apartment really isn't so bad.'

‘No, there's more.' He gently pulled away from her. ‘A lot more, that you don't know about. You just keep saving my arse, and I just keep breaking your heart. Not through my own will, but when forced to choose between my destiny and you.'

‘I would never …' Aurora insisted, but Zeven nodded to assure her she would. ‘Look, Starman, when I met you, I knew you were going to be an apparition …'

Zeven frowned at this.

‘… here today, gone tomorrow,' she explained. ‘But the point is, you
are here
today and I'd really like to make the most of that.' She kissed him and pressed her body close to his. ‘If that is okay with you?'

As sex-starved and enraptured as Zeven was at this moment, he had to warn her. ‘A little joy now could mean a lot of grief later. That's usually the way of it for us.'

The delight drained from Aurora's face. ‘I'd rather my grief later than sooner, how about you?'

Clearly, Aurora feared he lacked the desire to seize the moment. Zeven thought it crueller to leave her thinking he didn't care than to fill her full of happiness and vanish from her life.

 

It was a delightful awakening to a brand new day, until Aurora realised she was alone in Starman's bed.

When he was not in the bathroom either, she showered and dressed quickly before heading out to the kitchen to find out from the twins what the buzz for the day was.

‘Are you looking for Starman?' Rebi poured a coffee for Aurora, who nodded.

‘He had to go to work today,' Rada cut in, presenting an envelope containing something solid. ‘But he left you this.'

Rebi held out the coffee, which Aurora accepted, and found herself with an offering in each hand.

‘Thank you.' She sipped the coffee and put it aside as the twins grinned broadly in expectation of her opening the envelope.

‘Well, open it!' Rada, the blonde, twitched impatiently.

Aurora grinned. ‘Why are you so interested?'

‘Because I think I know what it is.' She barely contained a squeal.

Ripping the envelope open, Starman's apartment key and car key fell out onto the bench.

‘He left you the key to the Borealis!' Rada jumped up and down.

There was a note also, which Aurora read to herself.
Here are the keys to our apartment and our car — take good care of them until we can get another set for you. In love and loving it! Zeven.

‘Zeven,' she uttered, having never known his real name. She couldn't keep the smile of delight from her face, which was a frightful tease for the twins.

‘May we see?' Rebi begged, and Rory handed the note over, whereupon the twins gobbled up the sentiment in seconds.

‘You lucky bitch!' Rada was clearly green with envy and yet so excited at once. ‘We should definitely take your new car for a spin.'

Aurora was hesitant. ‘I don't think I'm allowed to leave here —'

‘
On your own
. But with us, no problem,' Rada assured, before lowering her voice so that Tyra wouldn't overhear. ‘Besides, we know that Starman will be test driving Hunzo's new aircraft in the desert today.'

‘And we know where to get a great view of the event,' Rebi encouraged.

Aurora's jaw dropped. ‘We cannot just go sightseeing to a secret government facility!'

‘Sure we can.' Rada shrugged. ‘We do it all the time!'

‘Really?' Aurora frowned and grinned, whereupon both girls nodded furiously. ‘But I can't take that beautiful car off-road into the desert —'

‘Three words.' Rebi gave her closing argument. ‘
No speed limit
.'

 

From the time Zeven had awoken all wrapped in Rory, to now, landing at the test facility, his mood had gone from euphoric to completely foul.

‘What's eating you today?' Mythric wondered. ‘I thought you'd be psyched about this.'

‘Oh … I'm psyched all right,' he grumbled.

For the first time in his life, if Zeven could have chosen between Aurora and his destiny, he would have picked Aurora and been happy, but today no one was going to give him that option. He was just considering how much he resented Khalid Mansur screwing up his life when he entered the launch bay to find Hunzo awaiting him, with a guy in a suit he'd never seen before.

‘Here's our test pilot now,' Hunzo said to the suit beside him. ‘Starman, this is Agent Jack Strong from head office, who'll be overseeing our trial this morning.' Hunzo seemed a little nervous as Zeven came to a stop in front of them. He'd obviously expected to be in the pilot's good favour after the gift of the car, but Zeven's scowl suggested otherwise.

The suit sure didn't look like a pencil pusher, and his name was such an obvious fake that Zeven could only assume this was Khalid's man, here to see that Starman's life was snuffed out. He might have even been the shape-shifter who had taken Aurora to lunch.

The suit held out a hand to shake Zeven's and, as he was already wearing his leather flight gloves, Zeven shook his hand firmly. ‘I hope you enjoy the show.'

‘Look forward to it.' The agent forced a grin.

Hunzo moved to introduce Agent Strong to Mythric, who was not wearing gloves. Zeven couldn't warn his partner that the agent might be capable of stealing his DNA blueprint upon making skin contact
with him, and so put an end to the niceties. ‘Can we please just get on with this?' He pushed between the agent and Mythric, as they were about to shake hands, and grabbed Mythric by the shoulder to walk away with him.

‘Steady on.' Mythric was about to lecture him on being rude, but Zeven served him a look of caution that alerted Mythric enough to know that he needed to be wary of their visitor. ‘Have you got something you want to tell me?'

‘Later.' Zeven smiled warmly, as if he'd never been annoyed. ‘We'll do dinner.' He winked, leaving Mythric totally bemused.

Zeven took a walk under the belly of the craft to look at the structural changes and there were none as far as he could see.

‘We altered the output of the engine, not the fuselage,' Hunzo advised with a grin and a nod of assurance.

Sure you did
, Zeven thought to himself.
Well, at least he knew exactly what to expect.
Zeven recalled reading the report on the incident, released many years after the fact, but he knew that after half an hour at full speed he would be flying without wings. Rivets popping would be his cue to make himself absent.

In the cockpit, Zeven strapped in and ran through his system checks with Mythric in the control room. He regretted he'd not been able to tell him about what he expected would happen next, but he'd bring him up to speed after the fact — Zeven had meant what he said about joining him for dinner.

‘
You are clear for launch
,' Mythric advised. ‘
And please be nice with Hunzo's very pretty aircraft
.'

Zeven rolled his eyes. ‘If she's good to me, I'll be good to her.' He hit the ignition key, and the interceptor shot down the runway tunnel and out over the canyon.

He was laughing now. ‘I love that bit!' Starman tried to get a feel for the controls, but the craft had a slight lean to one side. ‘The balance is off,' he voiced his observation.
Like she's carrying something she wasn't designed to.

The hairs on the back of Zeven's neck prickled to attention, as the stone on his upper arm began to make it ache and he felt sick in his gut.

‘
A mid-flight explosion.
'

Zeven recalled Taren's description of the event and decided that sounded a little more dramatic than the plane falling apart, and his panic snowballed.
No way will Khalid trust my hunch that this plane will break up, he will have taken extra precautions.
It was a lot more discomfiting knowing there would be no warning; he could get blown sky high any second! But if he departed too soon and the plane crashed without any communication from him, Khalid would have suspicions about his death and an inkling as to his capabilities. ‘Something's not right,' Zeven reported, easing off the accelerator.

‘
Everything looks fine from here?
' Mythric queried through the headset.

‘It doesn't feel fine from up here.' As the aircraft had slowed, Zeven thought to admire the view below. He spotted his unmistakable vehicle parked on the ridge overlooking the canyon and three tiny figures jumping up and down nearby.

‘Oh no,' he uttered as he realised Aurora would witness his death first-hand. Before he could think how to take evasive action, a white light exploded behind him and he felt cocooned as he was swept away from the fire and noise of the explosion.

 

One minute the three girls were all laughing, jumping and cheering and the next moment time slowed to an almost standstill, as Starman's aircraft blew apart and scattered across the sky like a huge firecracker.

‘Oh no,' Rada gasped, raising both hands to her mouth.

In the surreal moment, Aurora could not believe her eyes, her heartbeat was pounding in her ears and she stopped breathing.

‘Aurora!' Rebi was immediately on the move, although it seemed to take an age to reach her.

As Rebi clasped Aurora to her, she finally drew a breath. Time sped up to normal and Aurora released her horror with the full force of her lungs. ‘Zeven!' In a blind fit of grief, she wanted to launch herself off the canyon cliff after him, but the twins restrained her until she finally collapsed into a crying heap on the ground.

 

It wasn't Aurora's nature to weep and, on the way home in the back of the Borealis, she allowed the shock to pass over her and nullify her emotions. Although she and Zeven had not done a whole lot of talking in the one day they'd had alone together, she thought back over some of the more unbelievable claims Zeven had made about the future.

‘
You were different, you didn't share my appetite for danger.
'

That really wasn't so unbelievable right now.

‘
Something must happen between now and then that suppresses this amazing spirit you have.
'

Aurora's eyes opened wide as she recalled Zeven saying this.

‘
What if the change in your attitude has something to do with me?
'

She gasped on the thought.
He knew this was going to happen
. She realised that she could easily allow her fear to consume her in this instance and become the fearful, subdued person that Zeven had predicted she'd become.

Well, she would not succumb to destiny's plan for her so easily; if she was an adrenaline junkie now, she would up her addiction! And rather than suppress her Power, she would endeavour with all her will to master it.

Aurora nodded firmly in agreement with herself, and then something else Zeven had said gave her some hope that perhaps all was not as it appeared to be.

I too have a Power.

Judging by Zeven's clear knowledge of their future, he could either look into the future or change it. Either way he would have seen this event coming, and in that conclusion, Aurora's writhing heart gave a little jolt of hope.

Yes, we were destined to meet, but not for another five years.

He's not dead!
Could she dare to believe it, or was she really clutching at straws this time?

Even if he could have seen the explosion coming, no one jettisoned the aircraft before it exploded! But if he did see it coming, then why fly the test at all?

Tears flooded Aurora's eyes afresh, as her heart dared to engage in feeling once more.
Please, send me a vision, some sign he's okay.

Aurora had no idea who she was appealing to in this instance — the source of her Power,
all Powers
, she supposed. She felt that there had been some force beyond herself driving her to seek Zeven, and with all that he'd told her of their future, surely fate was not so cruel as too reward her trust with this heartbreak?