Chapter 18: Tanya Schwartz

Roy was quite angry, partially at the situation, partially at himself but mostly at Paul Masters,

Yet he should have known better, he grew up sharing a home with Pau; Masters, who was according to human biology, Union law and common convention, his father,

Roy, at first never saw anything unusual in the rather unsocial behavior of his father, but when he started school and heard about how other fathers treated and connected with their offspring, Roy knew his father was indeed not what one would call a caring paternal figure. Roy did research other fathers and families occasionally, talked to teachers, friends and school counselors about it. Even though he excluded the many non-human societies, even narrowed his research to Terran human-based societies, Paul Masters did not score very high.

True, he was not abusive or even or used any physical violence, he was emotionally simply not equipped to be a parent. This was the reason young Roy escaped into the jungles of Green Hell, eventually find his way to Sam Brown, who became his real father in all, but the biological aspect.

Paul’s reaction and interaction during this GalNet call were quite normal for him.

Roy was angry at himself for investing all this emotion into the last weeks and months regarding his parents.

His mother wasn’t much different. She was the same unemotional, detached parent as Paul. All she ever cared about was her science career. Granted she had tried to amend her ways during the very last weeks they had to spend together as a family.

But it was certainly not enough to make up for sixteen years of emotional neglect and detachment.

Her apparent change during those last weeks wasn’t enough motivation for her to abandon her assignment to become the science lead on a science cruiser and leave her home and Roy behind forever.

She was not forced to take that position, the Institute on Green Hell would have been more than happy to retain her. However, that would have not advanced her career fast enough.

To Martha, her career and advancement in the Science Council was as important to her as the actual science, perhaps even more,

The more he was contemplating, the angrier he got at himself. If it wasn’t for that stupid dream, he would be on Sares a long time ago.

He got up from the GalNet console and looked at Partner. Filling the sleeping area of the small cabin.

Instead of demanding his friend to move, he simply laid down on the floor, right next to Partner, using one of the Beasts’ front legs as a headrest. Partner imminently moved his other leg and covered Roy in a gentle protective manner.

As he drifted into sleep, feeling the constant caring warmth of Partners’ mind, his inner eyes suddenly saw a metal corridor. There was a woman with bronze skin and a truly demonic-looking female creature.

Just as he saw these dream images, he felt suddenly very heavy and noticed a stinging sensation in his nose.

Panic of suffocation flooded his mind and he woke with a scream snapping for air.

Partner’s mind felt confused and certainly wasn’t the source of this dream.

Just as he was ready to divorce himself emotionally from his parents and especially his mother, there were another one of these vivid dreams. He also knew then that his mother was still alive.

He had no mind to go back to sleep. So he wrestled the heavy paw of his shoulders, kissed and cuddled Partner in an affectional way and got back up and behind the GalNet terminal.

According to the system, the courier ship was still in Quasi Space en route to Xanadu from where it would enter the Hyper Highway and exit at Sares Hub or in terms of travel time in seventy-two hours.

This was quite fast but left him with plenty of time. This time he traveled alone so to speak. Of course, there was Partner, but he had no personal connection to the two Union Fleet Officers that made up the entire crew of this courier ship.

Cara was not with him and he wondered how she was doing. He was certain he had to wait for her to call him.

So he made a connection to Green Hell and Ma Swanson. As always, Margit shared local gossip with him. I told him that Uncle Sam and Charles were still gone and to Roy’s surprise, Ma Swanson knew about Paul. It turned out Paul Masters had called her, right after he had talked to Roy. Margit, more commonly known as Ma Swanson had so it turned out, stored his family’s possessions in container storage she owned and maintained. Paul wanted the container shipped to Ribenna Colony.

It was apparent, his father had indeed defined his priorities and neither Martha his wife, nor Roy mattered much.

Roy ended the call and found that there was a connection request on the system for him. As expected it was from Tanya. His gloomy mood and sense of abandonment melted away as he saw her beautiful face graced by an open, sunny smile as she saw him. “Roy, you are on an Avatar enabled terminal, can you engage?”

He knew of the technology as it wasn’t exactly new and existed long before he was born, but he never used this feature before, “How do I do that?”

Before Tanya could explain, the system said in its pleasant, asexual voice. “Contactee requests Avatar presence. Do you accept?”

“Yes, I do.”

The very next moment, Tanya was right there across him. If it would not have been for the small GalNet logo floating over her head, indicating that this was an avatar projection, there was no visual indication that she wasn’t present.

This hard light projection, of course, lacked the true softness of human skin and there was no scent at all, as scents were very difficult to transmit.

She immediately hugged him. No, she sure didn’t feel right, but it was still very nice. He still knew very little about her, and truth to be told they had not spent much time together at all. Despite all this, he felt as if he knew her all his life.

Her face and even this artificial touch created a strange feeling of fluttering nerves all over his body. As if his sense of danger stimulated all his senses and nerves, but in a wonderful blissful way he could not describe. He felt the same deep love he received from Partner, but not via that strong psionic connection he had with his four-legged friend, but just looking in her eyes,

His arms embraced her hard light projection, and after a moment he could not say if it lasted a second or an hour he finally said. “I can not explain, but I am in love with you.”

She kissed him on the forehead.”Silly boy, that is one mystery that will elude science and reason to the end of times. Love does not need any explanation. I love you too.”

She then lowered her incredibly long lashes in a very demure and oh so sexy way. “I don’t want to Avatar kiss you, because it is fake and insubstantial.”

“Me neither. You feel really good, but not real at the same time.”

Tanya glanced over his shoulder and she laughed out loud. “I think your beautiful beast is jealous.” She reached out to touch Partner.

Roy shook his head. “No, he is not. He is my psionic twin. He loves you.”

“Where are you?”

“Aboard a Union courier on my way to Sares. I should hopefully be there in less than 72 hours.”

“Perfect,” she said. “I can be aboard a Space Train in less than an hour and arrive at Sares, even before you.”

He blinked. “You come to Sares?”

“Unless you don’t want me to, why not?”

“Of course, I want you there. I am still sort of a hick from a back-water planet, I still have no idea how easy travel seems to be.”

“You are perfect in my eyes.”

Roy told her about his father, but only hinted on what happened to Cara and why he was now on a Union Fleet ship.

When he was done she kissed him on the cheek, untangled herself from his embrace and hugged Partner; then with a smile and wave, she disappeared. Her image now on the field screen she said. “I better get going. See you on Sares.”

Tanya disconnected and he sat there with a silly grin on his face and his arm resting on Partner wh was now next to him. “She is awful nice. I think I am a really lucky guy after all.”

Partner squeezed his eyes and Roy was certain his friend agreed. He then leaned forward, “System, how much have I been charged? I can’t recall seeing any charge readouts or announcements.”

“Dear Customer, GalNet is a fully owned subsidiary of Schwartx Intergalactic Industries, all GalNet services are of course free of charge to you.”

He wondered if this was something Cara did. His train of thought was interrupted by another connection request. This time from Moke-Die.

Moments later he was connected to the floating gasbag of Humongous planet.

Roy greeted the being. “Good Sixthday to you Admiral, Sir.”

“Thank you for accepting my connect request, Roy. I hope you had a chance to communicate with the paternal part of your family unit.”

Roy frowned as he was remembered of that so recent event. “Yes, I spoke to my father. It appears he is safe and soon on his way back to Union space.”

“I am Bellebee and as you know not human. While we Bellebee utilize communal memory with the ability to recall the most minute detail, regardless of how distant in time this memory might be; while I am now in contact with humans and other Union beings for a very long time, I still have not mastered to analyze the finer nuances of human emotions, but am I wrong to detect a certain level of disappointment?”

“You are quite correct, Sir. It went not as I wished or hoped, but our communication went exactly as I should have expected it to go.”

“I do not completely understand, but if I correlate all the reports and memories recorded on Dr. Paul Masters I believe to see a pattern that reflects your father’s personality and social interaction.”

Roy smirked, not aware that facial expressions were completely lost to a Bellebee. “That’s a good way of putting it, Sir. Anyway if I understand you have been instrumental in locating him on Iteamh.”

“I told you, I am a friend and I will do what I can to help you.”

“Yes, I recall you did say that.”

“This was not just one of these well-meant, but meaningless aphorisms humans often use. We Bellebee always mean what we say. I have not rested or stopped acting on your behalf, young Roy.”

It was still not entirely clear to him, but he began to understand that this floating gas bag, of a planet it could never physically leave was much more than just an alien life form. “I begin to see this, Sir. I am deeply grateful.”

“And your decisive action ensured that I and all Bellebee still there. I am also a friend of your mother as you know.”

The frown on Roy’s face became even deeper. “I think I just got another one of these psionic dream messages from her, but I also begin to see that I may have invested way too much time and emotion into the fate of my parents. A recent interaction with my father made me realize they had never been the parents, I pretended to myself I had.”

“As mentioned, I am not an expert on these details of inter-human relation, and I am certainly not able to evaluate the quality of human parenthood, but Martha Masters is indeed a friend of mine. If you can not see special value in her and your fathers’ safety and life, see them as Union citizens.

As I understand, you place great personal value in Sam Brown.”

Roy’s frown melted as he heard the name of Sam. “Yes, more value than my own life.”

“Sam Brown dedicated his life to the service of the community and the welfare of Union Citizens. First as a Union Marine where he became one of the most decorated non commissioned officers, and then as a special branch agent of the Citizens Office as a RAvE operative.”

The Bellebee then explained to Roy what a Rescue, Avenge and Execute officer of the Citizen’s Office was and did.

Roy felt ashamed at himself and very proud of Sam at the same time. “I wondered how he ended up on Alvor’s Cove, finding father.”

“I supplied Mr. Brown with the information he then used to trace your parents to Alvor’s Cove. While there is no GalNet communication, I have access to all, even the most classified intelligence and to every bit of data reaching Union space from Freespace and Alvor’s Cove.”

“Thank you. Admiral Sir.”

“Your latest psionic dream correlates to other data and report fragments. Martha Masters was seen alive in the company of a Privileged and a being believed to be a Nega-Ker. The first sighting of such a creature,”

“And what do you recommend, I should do?”

“Do not give up on Martha Masters. I have not.”

Rex Schwartz handed Tanya a small docu-chip. “Here is your special invitation to Saresii College. Aunt Amija Soneri is expecting you and wants you to call. Can I ask why you suddenly want to study at Sares Prime? Not that I mind, but this seems a tad out of character for you.”

“Roy will be there, Dad. Besides, maybe I manage to get training from the Gray Cats. They are among the very best in matters of Martial Arts and psionic combat.”

The mega tycoon crossed his arms. “You are serious about that Greenie, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know why, Dad but I am.” She went on her toe tips and kissed the tall man on the cheek. “I somehow see a lot of you in him. Except for the ruthless, evil side of course.”

“He will be in for a ride with you then, my love. No one in our family comes closer to me than you.”

She smirked. “You do love Linda and I think you love me, as much as your black heart allows at least.”

He grunted something, ineligible kissed her on the forehead.