Justice Keepers Saga - Books 4-6

Chapter 9

The large quarter-dome shaped window on the Observation Deck looked out on an endless void with only a single point of light in the distance. From what Jack had read, that was a strange quirk of warp travel. He"d always imagined stars that streaked past as the ship flew, but apparently that wasn"t how it worked.

The point of light broke apart into a million tiny stars, surrounding the ship on all sides, and then a planet seemed to expand from a single point, growing larger and larger until it almost filled the window.

Leyria.

It looked so very much like Earth, with vibrant blue oceans surrounding lush green continents. White clouds swirled playfully in the upper atmosphere, cutting off his view of the land below.

Off to his left, he saw a moon with a bright purple atmosphere. Summer perked up the instant his eyes fell upon it. The Nassai"s emotions reminded him of what it felt like to go home for Christmas. Or rather, what it should have felt like to go home for Christmas. He cringed at the thought of the argument he had sat through last December.

shouldJack stood by the window with his hands on his hips, smiling down at his own feet. “So this is it,” he muttered, taking a few steps forward. “You weren"t lying; it really is a beautiful world.”

Gabi was at his side in beige pants and a navy-blue t-shirt with a round neckline, her long black hair left to hang loose over her shoulders. “It"s been almost two years,” she murmured. “I"ve seen a dozen worlds in a dozen windows.”

“But?”

“Nothing feels as good as coming home.”

Jack touched his hand to the window pane and was surprised to find that it wasn"t cold. Not that it should have surprised him; he knew perfectly well that the idea of space being frigid was a myth. Space was nothing. It had no temperature.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” a voice came over the loud speaker. “This is your captain speaking. We"ve arrived in orbit of Leyria, and you will be allowed to disembark shortly. We ask that you gather your belongings and proceed to one of the two SlipGate chambers with appropriate customs documents.”

“Come on,” Gabi said. “We still have a ways to go.”

Through the train"s side window, Jack saw a clear blue sky with many skyscrapers glittering in the afternoon sunlight. A shuttle flew past overhead, descending toward some far off spot on the eastern horizon.

The train car was empty except for a few commuters who sat reading or listening to music. Enjoying their brief ride out to the suburbs. Leyrian cities were designed around public transit. In fact, if he looked out the window, he could sometimes catch glimpses of another monorail line in the distance, expanding out from the downtown core like a spoke on a wheel.

Jack leaned back in his seat with his arms crossed, turning his face up to the ceiling. “You"re sure your mother won"t mind me staying with you?” he asked. “I could just find a nice hotel.”

Gabi sat across from him with hands on her knees, smiling into her own lap. “It should be fine,” she replied with a shrug of her shoulders. “My mother has a guest room, and she likes company.”

Pressing a fist to his mouth, Jack closed his eyes. He cleared his throat with some force. “Yeah well, where I come from, the random house guest is very seldom greeted with a great big smile.”

Ben came shuffling through the aisle between seats, grabbing one of the metal bars that ran from floor to ceiling. “Oh it"s good to be back home,” he said. “Dude, you"ve got to come out with me tonight. I know this great little bar in Menara.”

Jack grinned, a touch of heat in his cheeks. He scrubbed a hand through his thick brown hair. “That"s all you ever do, man. You know, there"s more to life than just hanging out in bars.”

“Says the guy with no social life.”

“Oh, I don"t know about that,” Gabi cut in.

She was leaning back in her chair with her head turned to stare out the window, a vacant expression on her face. As if this topic was of little interest to her. “His social life has been pretty active lately.”

One perk of having a girlfriend? Someone was always there to defend your honour. At least in the presence of other guys. Then again, he still wasn"t entirely sure if the term "girlfriend" applied; Gabi wasn"t clear on that point, but she seemed to be showing a little more enthusiasm. The plan for him to stay with her at her mother"s house was something she had come up with just two days ago.

She lifted her chin and squinted when her eyes fell upon Ben. “Besides,” she said with a quick bob of her head. “He"s got a date tonight. No time for cheering you on while you hit on drunk Zero-G fans.”

Ben sat down in the seat across the aisle, raising both hands as if he was facing a cop with a g*n. “Hey, I"m a one-man guy,” he replied. “And not all of us get the pleasure of multiple detours to smoochyville on our interstellar voyage.”

“Smoochyville?” Jack asked.

“No good?”

“Your slanguage is a little off.”

A date, he thought to himself. That was a new development. Either she had come up with the idea just a few seconds ago, or she had been planning to surprise him. Either one suited him just fine. Summer approved. Amazing how the Nassai had taken on the role of his older sister in matters related to his love life. The emotions he felt from her were enough to let him puzzle out her thoughts on the matter. Well someone has to.

A date,Wellhas to.“Tyree Station,” a voice said over the loud speaker. “Approaching Tyree Station.”

Gabi"s mother lived in a small house just a few blocks from the monorail station, a dome-like structure with an arch-shaped overhang above the front entrance. There were round windows in the walls and something that looked like a skylight.

Large palm trees shielded the house from anyone who might come walking by on the street, and when you got past them, beds of flowers lined the perimeter of the front yard. It was truly a sight to see.

Jack puckered his lips and whistled. “Wow!” he said, shaking his head with some gusto. “I"ve seen a few pictures of Leyrian architecture, but they really don"t do justice to the live show.”

At his side, Gabi was smiling down at the ground, her cheeks strained by a touch of crimson. “I keep forgetting how new this is for you,” she said. “Come on.”

“Well then,” Jack said, his eyebrows climbing upward. “You think Charles Strouse will want royalties? Because I"m this close to busting out my own rendition of "I Think I"m Gonna Like it Here."”

thisShe glanced back at him.

“Never mind.”

At the porch, Gabi stepped underneath the overhang and rang the bell. Jack still felt a little off about this whole thing. There was no doubt in his mind that Gabi"s mother was a delightful woman, but no one liked surprise house guests. He thought about looking up the number of a good hotel, and then it hit him. How exactly did one do that on Leyria? Was there some kind of Leyrian Google? The computers back on Station Twelve received regular updates from the home world, but a live connection to the Link – what Leyrians called their Internet - simply wasn"t possible given the stellar distances involved. Even SlipGates couldn"t remain in active use all the time.

doall the time.The door swung open, allowing a woman in tan pants and a bright blue t-shirt to step out. Sareena Valtez looked very much like her daughter but with black hair that was slowly graying and a few wrinkles. “You made it!” she said, throwing her arms around Gabi. “I"ve been excited all week!”

Gabi stepped out of the hug.

She turned partway, gesturing to Jack. “The young man I told you to expect.” she said in smooth tones. So Gabi had made contact with her mother. “I"m sure you"ll find him very…entertaining.”

hadNo pressure, Jack.

No pressure, Jack.Sareena looked up at him with a great big smile, blinking as though unsure of what she saw. “Ah yes!” she exclaimed. “Your name sounded familiar when I read Gabrina"s message. So…are you the Jack Hunter?”

the“I"m a the?” Jack sputtered. “How did I become a the?”

“My dear boy, you are the first person from your world to bond a Nassai. Perhaps that doesn"t mean much to your people, but Justice Keepers hold a place of honour here on Leyria!” He was famous? Oh boy, that didn"t sit well with him. True, there had been accolades in the days after First Contact – he still cringed every time he recalled doing that damn interview with the CBC – but those had fizzled out when his natural tendency to turtle up and avoid social media had given people plenty of motivation to move on to the next passing fad. “Your name has already appeared in history textbooks,” Sareena went on. “Tell me, what was it that compelled you to accept a symbiont?”

Jack scrunched up his face into a painful grimace. He tried to ignore the blush he couldn"t fight off. “Not much of a story, really,” he said. “The geeks on my world have always loved aliens. Captain Kirk slept with a green woman; Commander Shepard slept with a blue woman, but me? I got it on with bacteria!”

blueHe expected a glare of disapproval.

Instead, Sareena threw her head back and roared with laughter. “My goodness!” she said, pressing a hand to her stomach. “Gabi, you didn"t tell me he was so witty! Oh, I can tell the next few days are going to be very amusing.”

Jack felt his lips curl, his cheeks burning noticeably. He closed his eyes and nodded to her. “Thank you for letting me stay here, and I promise to keep the snarky outbursts to a minimum.”

“Nonsense! Come inside!”

A dining room table positioned right beneath the skylight supported a large bowl full of salad. Jack wasn"t sure what really got him thinking: the similarity to a dish he might have tried on Earth or the fact that the entire meal was served by a human shaped robot who carried plates from the kitchen.

The bot – a five-foot tall creature with metal arms and legs – paused just in front of the table. It turned its camera lens to focus on Jack, then set a green plate down in front of him without a word.

He bit his lip as he studied the thing. “Um…Thank you?” he said, sliding his chair closer to the table. “Gabs, I"m a little confused by the customs here. Are we supposed to just ignore it?”

Gabi sat across from him with a fork in one hand, staring down at her empty plate. “Sweetie, it"s a piece of technology,” she murmured. “It doesn"t mind serving plates any more than your dishwasher minds cleaning them.”

Grinning at his girlfriend, Jack felt his eyebrows climb upward. “Well, just the same, I figure a little common courtesy goes a long way toward preventing a robot uprising.”

On his left, Sareena lifted a glass of wine and paused just before taking a sip. “You aren"t the only one to express such sentiments, Jack,” she said. “When human-form bots were introduced, many people grew uncomfortable with the notion.”

“I can see why.”

The robot turned and left them.

In truth, he recognized it as something of a perceptual bias. If you were going to fight for robot rights, then you should be equally willing to stick up for those cylindrical things that cut the grass on board the starliner. Houses were designed for humans, and thus robots with arms and legs would have an easier time maneuvering through them. It was simple utilitarianism and nothing else.

A device didn"t have a soul simply because it looked more like a human; sapience was a function of cognition, not appearance. In the early days of his Keeper training, he had read a bit of Leyrian history and learned that – almost two centuries ago – they had indeed created a real artificial intelligence. Fortunately, the people had been wise enough to treat it with respect.

lookedBut it was software, not hardware, a life-form that existed entirely in virtual space. As expected, its sapience had been an accident; the program had been created to oversee the resource management of an entire planet, and when it decided to forego those duties in favour of more fulfilling activities, the program had been kind enough to leave behind a replacement that could manage Leyria"s systems without feeling…well, anything.

Jack used a pair of tongs to scoop salad out of the bowl and drop it onto his plate. The dish had kind of a south-west flavour with lettuce drizzled with some spicy dressing, sweet corn, black beans and diced chicken.

Jack stabbed a piece with his fork.

Lifting the meat up in front of his face, he squinted at it. “This isn"t real chicken?” he asked.

“Genetically speaking, it"s chicken,” Sareena explained. “It"s just that no animals had to die to make that piece. We clone animal tissue for food.”

“There are still farms, of course,” Gabi added. She sat back in her chair, smiling at him. “After centuries of domestication, most animals can"t survive in the wild, but they aren"t slaughtered for their meat.”

Jack took a bite with more than a little apprehension – he had never eaten cloned meat before – but he very quickly let go of his concerns. It tasted like…Well, he wasn"t willing to repeat a worn-out cliché, but he couldn"t tell the difference between this and “the real thing.” This was going to be an interesting trip; he just hoped they managed to get the professor back to Earth without incident.

clonedAnd of course, even hoping for it jinxed him.