Jazon: An Omnes Videntes Novel Read online

  On the street, Tracy waved at a friend who drove past going in the opposite direction. Luckily, Jaimie turned around. “What are you doing out so late this evening,” Jaimie asked. “Going cock riding?”

  Tracy walked to the door and got inside of her friend’s transport. “No, I want to collect some samples.”

  “That’s better than collecting carpet burns.”

  “Rough night?” Tracy asked.

  “Yes, it was great,” Jaimie said with a naughty smile and a laugh. “He made me an offer, and I accepted. He’s going to speak to my….” There was an awkward silence. “I’m sorry, Tracy,” she whispered.

  “Don’t do that. Okay? You can say he’s speaking to your father without me freaking out. I’m happy for you. Once you’re married, I can use you and your new clout. I’ll put you on my applications as a personal reference.”

  “What applications?” Jaimie asked worriedly.

  “I’ve decided that I want to be a research assistant on Epopeus. I don’t want to get married.”

  “Go for it, as long as I can visit.”

  “Anytime. Hey, drive me to the edge of Fig Forest.”

  “That’s creepy.”

  Thinking fast, Tracy came up with an excuse. “Yes, but I’m searching for a particular pond-growing amoeba.” Tracy smiled at her beautiful, well-manicured friend.

  “Do you want me to wait?”

  “No, I want to take my time and have fun. After all, my parents are off world.”

  Jaimie said, “You sure do know how to party.”

  Tracy shrugged and listened to everything Jaimie’s future husband had promised her in his proposed marriage contract. Honestly, she was grateful for the distraction. When Jaimie pulled over to the side of the road where Tracy indicated, she asked, “Are you sure about this? It’s so dark, and it’s late. The bats are out.”

  “Jaimie, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I have my vid-screen and a sonic blaster.”

  “Alright. Ting me if you need me.”

  “I will. Again, congratulations!”

  Tracy got out of her friend’s transport and watched as she turned around to drive back to the affluent neighborhood from which they had come. Jaimie’s father was incredibly wealthy, and she and her mothers and brothers enjoyed spending that wealth. As the only daughter, Jaimie had been lavished with attention and affection. That had been Tracy until a few months ago. She owed it to her father to discover the truth. She stepped from the side of the road and into the grass. Then, she allowed her eyes a moment to adjust before stepping between the wild branches of fig trees and away from the road.

  Of all of the wild forests she had seen on Aurilius, this had always been the one she considered to be the most beautiful. It had been left alone for centuries to thrive and replenish itself. The weak trees died and were replaced by stronger saplings that grew up through their decomposition. The fig forest was a living example of what her father had believed. He had not approved of genetically modified plants or animals and had shared that belief with most of the scientific community.

  Carefully, Tracy walked for miles through the dark forest. Most of the fig leaves were the size of bath towels. The smell of ripe figs and rich soil filled the air. Occasionally, she passed by wild blueberry bushes where families of shrews searched for food. Not wanting sticky fingers, she left all of the ripening fruit to the bats and other small rodents that were active in the night. The animals avoided her while she followed the signal she received from her father’s last notes.

  Ahead, she saw a small amount of land that had been cleared around a grey cement building. A covered two-seater roller was parked outside. While she hadn’t even realized anything was located all of the way out in the middle of the forest, someone else did and had either stayed late or didn’t intend to leave. Indecisive about what to do, Tracy waited in the dark for over an hour before a man left the building.

  With her vid-screen, Tracy zoomed in and recorded him as he typed in a numerical code, 31215145, to lock the door. She waited another twenty minutes after he had driven off before sneaking up to the door and trying to code. Glancing around, she couldn’t find any visible signs of security. Obviously, somebody didn’t want this place pinging on any type of system. The barest illumination allowed her to see the data pad attached beside the door in the alcove. Silently, it slid open.

  Cautiously walking inside of the dark entry, she noticed another data pad on the other side of the door. Quickly, she reentered the code, and the door closed. A faint light grew brighter in increments allowing her eyes time to adjust. She was relieved that she had known what to expect with the door. While simple, the same type of security had been used effectively for centuries for shelters such as this. The shelters had been constructed underground and were well-hidden in case of alien attacks. Tracy wondered to which wealthy family this one belonged.

  Clutching her vid-screen, she continued to follow the small blip on her screen that was symbolic of her father’s last notes. In the shelter, codes were no longer needed. Doors slid open when she walked too close to them. The first door to frighten her opened onto a breakroom. The door slid closed again as she passed it and climbed down to another level.

  Tracy swallowed the saliva that had filled her mouth. It was the precursor to the nausea that now threatened to make her sick. This level was open but partitioned into different research sections with plasti-glass walls. To her left, clear, fluid-filled containers held humanoid arms at various stages of growth. On legs that shook with the strength of her revulsion, she forced herself to walk closer and read the vid-labels beneath each one. The arms had been cloned.

  “What horror is this?”

  Sickened, Tracy backed away, careful not to touch any of it. She left the section and jogged to the back-right corner of the lab where she found a desk. There she found her father’s data pad. It had been plugged into a console unlike anything she had ever seen. The technology seemed alien and far more advanced than anything at the academy. Tracy unplugged her father’s vid-pad, powered it off, and put it in her satchel along with her own vid-screen. She couldn’t go home. Duran would see into her mind. Then, he would know that she had discovered that he had killed her father and stolen his research and his family.

  Just as she turned to leave, her hair stood on end as the charged buzz of a blaster sounded directly behind her head. “Get your hands where I can see them,” a deep male voice ordered.

  Tracy couldn’t stop the trembling of her hands. Of course, there had been a guard. She silently admonished herself. Roughly, her wrists were seized and secured behind her back. The man moved around to face her, and her fears redoubled. It was worse than anything she ever could have imagined. She could feel the wrongness emanating from within him. In this lab, they had done something far more terrifying than cloning humanoid tissues. Tracy backed away, stumbled, and fell. She screamed as it reached for her. Then, everything went black, sound feeling, and consciousness abandoned her.

  Chapter Three

  Jazon had prepared for his mission for a week during the journey to Aurilius. The two inquisitors serving as his crew also served under Eli Beck. The two Parvac soldiers were eager to assist in the investigation of Felix Jiri’s clones. Felix, who had been disowned by House Jiri, had become the most reviled male in the history of the Parvac Empire. Jazon needed to stop associating the name Jiri with the male. House Jiri had renounced all familial ties with him. Had Felix been a Laconian, there could have been no worse punishment for him. Yukihyo, Teagan’s first husband, would know. He had managed to survive after having his empathic bonds severed. Jazon knew that in Yukihyo’s place, he would have put a blaster barrel in his mouth and ended it. Not even the thought of revenge would have been enough to save him.

  Even with the stability he got through his bonds with his brothers and their wives, Jazon had been struggling lately. His feelings for Teagan had left him raw. One moment, he had believed himself to be in love with the gorgeous blonde. In the next, S
ara Eos, the identity she had assumed for a mission, had captivated and enthralled him with her exotic sexuality. He continued to awaken painfully hard from his dreams of her. However, in the instant when the missile had struck Zared, and he and his brothers had feared Zared was lost to them, clarity had ensued.

  The brilliant but torturous love he had felt for Teagan had been phantom love, residual traces of the love Teagan and Zared shared. Once it had vanished, he was left with his own love, and it was tender and sweet. His true feelings for Teagan were very similar to the ones he felt for her children, protective, grateful, and pure. He wasn’t in love with her. He had never been in love with anyone.

  Jazon had used his time away from Parvac to study for his mission, train, and spar with a virtual opponent. By identifying and tracking a small delivery of a medical grade cell proliferation serum to a private entity on Aurilius, Jazon had been able to narrow his search. At great expense, a tracking agent had been added into the next shipment of the serum which had led him to the underground lab. He pondered how such brilliant scientists could be so stupid.

  He had bypassed the simple door code that had numerically spelled out the word clone based upon the human alphabet. He had snickered to himself at that stupidity alone. However, with that human code, a clear path led back to Felix’s Earth Loyalists. Inside the lab, the idiot female scientist hadn’t even had any guards for him to kill. Jazon felt disgruntled and cheated by the entire operation. Where was the challenge? Where was the danger?

  He stood across from her confinement cell onboard his ship and waited for her to snap out of the sleep he had sent her into. Captain Agata had taken them from Aurilius’ surface and set their course for Epopeus. Jazon and his crew were supposed to give the impression that they were merchants, so they were adhering to a standard star route for the duration of their investigation. Jazon sighed. He had only just returned to the Laconian Sector and had already completed half of his mission.

  Angry that she hadn’t posed a challenge, Jazon gave her mind a nudge to wake her. The containment cell had a plasti-berth attached to the wall, a waste unit, and a sink. She was sleeping on her side on the berth where he had left her. He watched as she opened big, solid black eyes. It took her a moment to realize where she was and that her restraints were off. Then, when she noticed him watching her from the other side of the cell’s shielding, she sat up, pushed herself back into the farthest corner of the berth, covered her head with her arms, and cried.

  Jazon started laughing. “You think covering your head with your arms will keep me out of it? You’re more stupid than I thought.”

  Tracy removed her arms from her head and wrapped them around her legs.

  “Where is the rest of your research?” Jazon asked.

  “You shouldn’t exist,” Tracy said with a shaking voice.

  “Don’t give me that crap, you little hypocrite. Tell me what I want to know, or I will tear it from your mind piece by piece.”

  Tracy stared at the hybrid soldier. Like the cloned arms in the lab, he was a nightmare given life. He was huge. She thought he must be six feet tall. His muscular arms were as big around as her thighs. He had blasters holstered at his sides. Her gazed traveled up to his clenched jaw, angry mouth, and short brown hair. She tried to avoid looking into the solid black eyes that he could use to steal her thoughts. She imagined she could feel him trying to steal her soul with his Enyo abilities.

  “Where is the research?” Jazon yelled. The deep boom of his voice made Tracy jump where she sat huddled in on herself.

  “I put it in my bag! It doesn’t belong to you!” Tracy screamed back at him while tears inspired by her terror streamed down her face.

  “This?” Jazon asked as he held up her father’s vid-pad. “Where is your cloning research facility located? The one where I found you is nothing but a relay station.”

  “Give that back! It isn’t yours! You have no right to his research. It wasn’t meant for you or your sick, twisted corruptions of nature!” This was the man Duran had hired to murder her father. Tracy was sure of it. He looked like he enjoyed destroying what was good and pure.

  Jazon had had enough of the self-righteous little Eriopis slut. He dropped the worthless vid-pad and the cell’s shielding. Enough time had been wasted exchanging insults, and he was sick of her ignorant act. Tracy rose shakily to her feet to stand on top of the berth. She still wore her thick-soled boots, but her sonic blaster was gone, not that it could have harmed the ruthless monster in front of her. He charged into the cell with such speed that she almost missed her opportunity to kick him. She threw up hasty mental shields, the ones girls were taught in the unlikely event of a rape attempt. Tracy managed to deliver a solid kick to his jaw before he grabbed her ankle and dragged her down to the berth. Her butt hit right before the back of her head hit the wall. Her ponytail had slipped from her tangled hair. With the heel of her shoe, she directed a hard kick to his crotch.

  He pivoted out of harm’s way and trapped her. Jazon was furious that she was able to keep the information hidden. Normally, when he or his brothers asked a question, a person would think the answer first and attempt to hide it second. Perhaps, this female was a skilled liar. With the female locked into a tight hold, he asked her his question again.

  “Where is the cloning facility?”

  Tracy couldn’t look away from the solid black eyes. She fell into them and became one with them. “In Fig Forest,” she answered.

  “Where is the cloning research?”

  “In the lab.”

  “Where is the lab?”

  “In Fig Forest.”

  “Where is the other cloning lab?” Jazon asked. This surely must be the most annoying female to have ever existed.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Why were you in the lab?” Maybe, changing his line of questioning would help.

  “I went to take back my father’s notes to prove Duran killed him, or maybe he had you do it.”

  Her answer surprised him. Jazon released his hold on the female and moved away to think. Shit. Had he arrested the wrong scientist?

  Tracy sprang from the plasti-berth and ran at Jazon’s back. She pummeled her fists into him with all of her strength. They had killed her father, the man she had loved with all of her heart and respected with all of her mind.

  “You killed my father! I hate you! You’re a filthy experiment who is living while my father is gone!”

  Jazon was doused by the female’s confusion and pain. He had made a mistake. As penance, he remained still and allowed the female to hit and kick him until she exhausted herself and crumpled into a heap on the floor to weep. Bending down, Jazon picked her up and stepped from the cell. Stooping down with her in his arms, he picked up her father’s vid-pad and carried her to his quarters. He put the hysterical female on the bed, removed her shoes, handed her the vid-pad which she clutched to her chest, and went into the bathroom. He returned with waste paper.

  Taking it from him, she blew her nose. When she had regained enough composure to draw in shuddering breaths, he said, “My name is Jazon Ponidi. I am a member of the Imperial Guard in service to Princess Probus of Parvac. I am on a mission to discover those responsible for creating dangerous clones that threaten the lives of the Imperial family. Who are you?”

  “Did you kill my father?”

  “I’m not sure. Do you have a picture?”

  “Do you kill so many?” Tracy asked appalled at his response.

  “Well, I am a filthy experiment,” Jazon said with a smirk.

  “I can’t show you a picture of him. My vid-screen is gone.”

  “Tell me his name,” Jazon ordered.

  “Dr. Nathan Heintz was my father’s name,” Tracy said quietly.

  Her sorrow tore at Jazon. Walking over to his vid-screen, he pulled up files on the man. He had black hair and a kindly face. Reading quickly, Jazon said, “Dr. Heintz has one daughter, Tracy. That must be you.”

  She nodded her head.


  Dr. Heintz wasn’t nefarious. The man had been studying star fish, and his daughter was an oceanographer, following in her father’s footsteps. Handing her more waste paper, he said, “Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me what happened?”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything! You have to let me go!” Tracy said.

  “I’d be happy to. Which airlock would you prefer?” Jazon asked with an unnerving smile.

  With a quick intake of breath and wide eyes, Tracy scooted off of the bed, walked around Jazon, giving him plenty of distance, and darted from the room and into the small habitation area. Across from his quarters was a small sitting area. She ran in her socks across it to the hull and the open viewport. Tracy pressed her hands to the thick plasti-glass and stared out at stars. Jazon walked to stand behind her. He was curious about the female. Her tangled black hair brushed her shoulders. She jumped when she noticed the reflection of his solid black eyes on the plasti-glass.

  Tracy turned. Outraged, she said, “You took me from the surface?” She had almost told him how much trouble he would be in with her father, but she stopped herself. Her father wouldn’t be coming to get her. He couldn’t make things all better anymore. Her mother was lost to her.

  Jazon felt Tracy’s emotions as she did. Noticing a small bit of torn fig leaf in her hair, he reached up to pull it free. It made Tracy furious, and she slapped at his hand repeatedly.

  “Don’t touch me! How dare you take me from Aurilius without my permission?”

  Jazon flicked the leaf away. “How about I take you back and leave you right where I found you?” Jazon yelled back.

  Remembering where she had been, with the arms that had floated within fluid-filled canisters, Tracy shuddered. “I suppose it would be okay if you let me out on Epopeus.”

  Jazon crowded Tracy against the viewport and put his hands against it to either side of her head. Tracy closed her eyes, turned her face away from him, and clutched her father’s vid-pad closer to her chest for comfort. “What were you doing in that bunker” Jazon asked menacingly.