His vision returned and he found himself the next day. After a hastily eaten meal, he had gone to sit down again on the bench from the day before. If the pain of sadness was still present, his mind was wide awake again, searching for interesting questions. For example, why was there an artificial day/night cycle in the station?

He saw Xini burst out of a corridor and jump next to him. Jostling him, she enthusiastically showed him her tablet.

“Look! I fixed everything that was wrong. And, better, I developed this little subprogram, absolutely revolutionary. Look: it can do this… and now I trap the counterattack software, and I use it against…”

Hadn’t she said she didn’t want to talk to him anymore?

“So? What do you think? Did I forget something?”

Concentrating on the program, he began to reread it, commenting on the strengths and weaknesses he found in it. This time, Xini didn't get angry too often...

“Hey! Are you listening to me?”

Oh, the dream had changed again. About fifteen years had passed. They were both approaching their twenties...

“You know,” Xini reproached him, “if you concentrated a little, you could remember our exact ages...”

“But, it's a dream...”

“It's not because it's a dream that you can allow yourself to do whatever you want! Seriously: I don't recognize you anymore. Usually, you do everything a little more seriously.”

“It's your fault too...”

“This comment is for later in the dream! Okay. I told you that this assassination is not normal at all.”

“Of course it's not normal...”

“Oh, you really totally disrupted the normal course of the dream. And on top of that, you're imagining these idiotic dialogues... You'll probably wake up soon. Well, let's do it in fast forward then: your brain is thinking about a crucial point, which explains the emergence of these memories.”

“I know.”

“Of course you know: it's all in your head. Let's speed up the reminiscence a little...”

She then explained her theory to him, that no one could have penetrated her defense systems, at least not without the help of a member of their people. Xerina was safe, in the most powerful place in the universe... with two or three exceptions...

Both were aware of the void that the disappearance of this adored figure suddenly left. Both were suffering from it...

Xini expressed suspicions about the new Xerina, saying she was looking for who was benefiting from the crime. Of course, he didn't agree with this risky reasoning. Amplified by the sadness over the death of their queen, their argument quickly escalated.

“Stop your idiotic theories! It's perfectly possible that someone just managed to break through your defense systems... And then, you wouldn't be responsible: many others worked on this security. In any case, I don't allow you to accuse the new Xerina. No one from our people would be vicious enough to murder their own mother!”

“I didn't say she did it! I said I suspect her, that's all. I have leads to find the killers. Traces of their actions on the Network...”

“Yes, I saw: you have nothing convincing. What are you going to do? Hack all the most secure systems of the Administration until you find, by chance, a real lead?”

“You're getting on my nerves! So, are you coming with me or not?”

“I'm not coming. I applied to the Black Guard. I'm going to serve in the detached forces within the Administration. There, I might learn...”

“So, you're leaving me? You're leaving me alone? After all these years of working together, now that I really need your help, you're going to leave me all alone?”

“You should just stay. Stop doing what you want!”

“What I want? I only do what I want?”

“And you're stubborn too.”

“And I'm stubborn too...”

She stood there stunned for a moment, then exploded, words flying, which he preferred to erase from his dream. However, he was unable to erase one last image. Xini had her back to him, walking quickly down the base corridor. Several pairs of eyes were watching the scene that had left the laboratory to expose itself to everyone's view.

“Well, stay!” she shouted without turning around. “I don't need you! I hate you, Azxaron! Since that's how it is, I never want to see you again!”

The scene lurched as the view switched to third person. Azxaron saw himself, fists clenched, furiously watching Xini's agitated figure as she headed toward the hangars, shoving people along the way and exchanging furious shouts with them before continuing on her way. In this distant view, in this dream, he saw tears running down the young woman's cheeks...

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Xini... Why are you always so extreme? ...”

The dream flashed back into the past. The way it shifted from one moment to the next was unsettling: the shock that had knocked him out must have been violent enough to disrupt his control of his cognition.

He saw himself back in the lab. Xini had just finished a new computer program. This one was a bit outside her field of expertise, since it was a control system for an experimental reactor rather than computer security. However, Xini was still gifted in anything to do with programming.

They had worked together several times before. His specialty was the adaptation of “T” energy information between the machines using it and the computer systems. So, of course, the engine ran on “T” energy, based on an Elunadoran model stolen by the secret services.

If their people had no sensitivity to “T” energy, that didn't mean it couldn't hurt them. He nevertheless looked with concern at the containment field that glowed around the prototype.

“Xini,” he said, “the parameters you are using are much too high...”

“No: I did the calculations and there is no problem. Shut up and activate phase one!”

He growled, glancing at the other experimenters. Although older than them, they were only volunteers belonging to other specialties: they were careful not to interfere in their argument.

He pulled the lever, triggering phase one. Maybe Xini was right after all.

The engine ignited, vibrating in the air. The devices registered the strange emanations and the containment field confirmed the theoretical speed the object would have reached outside its protection.

“Perfect,” Xini smiled, “phase two now…”

Azxaron picked up a component that was almost intact between two piles of rubble. The circuits were clearly fried, but some of the more complex elements could be reused. He placed it in the recyclable pile and sighed as he looked at the ruins of the laboratory.

A huge hole pierced the wall where the containment field had given way, opening a clear view of the neighboring laboratory, through several layers of pierced shielding. Fortunately, their own protective shield had held up, or the damage would have been truly catastrophic.

“So, is the clearing progressing?”

Surprised, he turned and crossed his arms over his chest, greeting Xerina.

She was dressed in a long, sturdy dress that hid her feet and a flying platform that allowed her to be raised. She did not seem angry, but rather sad as she contemplated the damage.

“I... I'm managing. And Xini? How is she?”

She had only had a few minor bruises, but what worried him most was that the Black Guard had taken her away as the one responsible for the accident.

“Oh... she's calmed down. I'll check on her in her cell a little later, but I think she'll stay there for a few weeks as punishment. Without being allowed to work.”

Azxaron shuddered: if he had to clear the damage by hand, he was at least allowed to continue working during his breaks. At the same time, Xini had deserved her punishment... but he felt obliged to defend her.

“You know, Xini wasn't entirely wrong. With slightly stronger materials, her settings would have worked...”

“And people almost died. I'm glad they were only ‘almost’, so you'll agree that there's also a big difference between succeeding and almost succeeding?”

He lowered his ears in shame.

“Personally,” the queen continued, “I find it unfair to punish you when you tried to warn her… however, since you failed to prevent the catastrophe…”

The sentence hung in the air. Shocked, he saw Xerina bend down and pick up a component that she threw into the pile of recyclable materials.

“What… what are you doing?”

“I have some time before my next meeting… I decided to talk to you a bit, but I have the right to be active at the same time, right?”

“I… suppose… But you are Xerina…”

“And, therefore, I can do what I want.”

Yes, the argument was logical.

“Azxaron of the Xerbat clan.”

He pricked up his ears with concern. The queen’s voice was solemn.

“You know that this is not the first time Xini has caused trouble. Some are asking that she no longer be allowed to run a laboratory... I think that she should indeed continue her experiments elsewhere. Perhaps in a more remote base. For now, I will give her another chance... If I ever end up giving her a position outside the capital... Would you agree to leave with her? Of course, you are free to refuse if it does not suit you, but I would be very reassured if there was someone reliable to watch over her.”

He lifted a huge block and brought it to the pile of non-reusable materials, those that would be melted down in the synthesizer, in order to have more time to think. But his decision was already made: he did not want to let down the queen, or Xini...

“Yes, of course. I just hope that… if it came to that, it wouldn’t have more serious consequences…”

She could inadvertently blow up a solar system and it wouldn’t surprise him. The queen’s half-amused, half-worried smile seemed to indicate that she had had a similar thought. However, she became serious again, grave even. Straightening, she fixed her gaze, burdened with years of responsibility, as the one who had saved their people, then the one who had established their new nation, and now the one who presided over the destiny of the entire universe.

“Azxaron. Of all the peoples in the universe, ours is one of the fewest. There are only a few millions of us.”

She was the only one who knew the exact number of their people living outside the legendary planet Xura. It was a royal privilege, perhaps a little ridiculous, but nonetheless symbolic: the queen was the one who watched over the people.

“The universe is hostile,” she continued, “our enemies are numerous. The actions of our people can reflect positively or negatively on the rest of our species… Perhaps even endanger Xura… Xini has proven on several occasions that she can be… a little…”

“Stubborn? Quick in her reactions? Arrogant?”

“I might not have put it that way… It’s a good thing that you like her despite everything.”

“She’s an admirable person the rest of the time!”

“Yes. When I see you two, I think that your collaboration bodes well for the future of our people. I’m going to entrust you with a personal mission… You’re going to watch over Xini. You’ll keep an eye on her and prevent her from making any mistakes. Watch out for her, and if she ever goes too far again… do what it takes to eliminate the problem…”

Azxaron frowned, unsure of what to make of that sentence. Perhaps it was intentionally ambiguous, to stimulate a specific reaction from him? Xerina was one of the few people gifted in social sciences after all.

“What do you mean? You’re thinking of… eliminating her physically?”

The queen snickered.

“You can also marry her, if you prefer.”

He blushed at the unexpected joke, his ears each twitching in a different direction in perplexity. Oddly enough, the idea didn’t seem entirely stupid to him… but no, it was just a joke…

But, while he saw himself from afar, quickly adding some debris to the piles, looking very busy, the Azxaron of the present saw the queen silently move away, her movement inaudible thanks to her flying platform. He then heard the words she had spoken quietly, which his subconscious had registered without his consciousness, busy elsewhere, noticing.

“Then, maybe she would stop always trying to make you believe that she is perfect. Your opinion of her means a lot to her... Even if it only explains half of the nonsense she causes...”