JAAJERN By Fredrick Obermeyer 
"I FORBID you to go to Jaajern," Elizabeth Inestra said.
Brian Seams heard Elizabeth's decree and clenched the armrests of his seat. He was sitting in her tan-walled office at the Institute, expecting her to let him go to the planet Jaajern without any hassle. For many years he had considered Elizabeth to be more than just his adopted mother and usually he respected her decisions. But this time he couldn't mask the anger that burned on his face.
"Why not?" Brian said. "I made a legitimate request."
"And I denied it," Elizabeth said. "You will remain here on Levonia to complete your training and--"
"Why you won't let me go there?"
Elizabeth frowned. Even with anti-geriatric therapies, her face still looked wrinkled and her black hair was beginning to turn gray. Almost nobody at the Institute knew her true age, though, and the ones who did know kept quiet about it.
"Because I don't want you remembering your parents' memories," Elizabeth said.
Brian frowned. Jaajern was his last hope. On the planet's surface, normal humans could remember the memories of their biological parents, but they couldn't remember their own memories. Scientists called it the Jaajern effect.
"Why not?" Brian said.
"I can't tell you the specific reasons." Her cheek twitched.
"Can't or won't?"
"Both."
"Look, I just want to know who they were and how they died. Were they orphans like me? Did the Institution adopt them and train them to be agents? Were they lost on some classified mission? Were they even named Seams for that matter?" Brian sighed and shifted in his seat. "I already checked gene-identification records and all I keep getting are dead ends. It's like my parents never even existed at all."
"I'm only keeping you in the dark to keep you safe. If you found out anything about them, your life and the future of the Institution could be at stake."
"How so?" Brian said.
"I'm not telling you."
"That's not good enough. I want a reason."
"You want a reason? Well, how would like me to terminate all of your course work right now and ship you off to the nearest labor camp on some godforsaken asteroid belt? Is that a good enough reason for you?"
Brian swallowed hard, struggling to control his temper.
"I want to serve the Institution to the best of my abilities." Deep down Brian did want to serve it as he said, yet he couldn't bear the thought of giving up the last link to knowing who his parents were.
"Then let it go. I don't want to see a future career as brilliant as yours wasted on this futile endeavor." Her cheek twitched again. "Will you promise me that you'll never go to Jaajern?"
Brian hesitated a second before he said, "Yes, I promise." Even as he made the promise, he knew he couldn't keep it. He didn't care what the risks were. He would reach Jaajern and remember his parents' memories no matter what it took.
"I'm glad to hear that," Elizabeth said. "You may return to your class now. You're dismissed."
* * * *
BRIAN skipped class and planned how he would get to Jaajern as he walked across the Institute's main plaza back to his dormitory. By the time he arrived back there, he had an idea how to do it.
Inside his dorm room, he shrink-packed all of his belongings down into a micro-bag, then grabbed his solid credit chits and slipped them into his jacket. He didn't want to be caught using e-money.
When he finished packing, he looked around the room. His roommates were currently in classes and wouldn't be back until late. Still, he didn't want to waste any time, figuring that the quicker he moved the less chance they'd have of catching him.
He dialed up his Covert Monitoring professor and subordinate overseer, Terence Henniger, on his dermaphone. He appeared in a holographic screen in front of him. He was a fat man with bushy red hair.
"Professor, I was wondering if I could talk with you about my next semester's classes," Brian said.
"I don't have anything scheduled then. Sure, why not? If you come to my office--"
"Actually, I was kind of busy with work and not feeling so good today. How about my dorm room?"
"All right. In a half hour then."
"Thanks."
He hung up, then reached under his desk and pulled out a gene swapper pad he had hidden there. Some students stole overseers' genetic identities and used them to get through genelocked intergalactic travel gates without paying student rates. Any student caught with one could be expelled from the Institution. Yet many students risked it and only a few got caught, so long as they didn't abuse the system too much.
Brian also took out a tranq patch that helped him sleep some of the more restless nights, set it to the maximum dosage and then waited for the professor to arrive. When he did, Brian slapped the patch on the back of his neck.
"What are you do--" Henniger said, and then fell unconscious to the floor.
Brian's heart raced with fear as he dragged Henniger over to the gelbed, flopped him onto it and took out his gene swapper pad. He scanned Henniger's genetic pattern, then transferred it to a flesh glove that he slipped over his right hand. Afterwards he tucked Henniger in, stuck a large hat on his head and slipped out of the room with his bag.
* * * *
THE travel gates stood on a transit platform on the north side of the Institute, their white and lavender portals flashing on and off as commuters passed through them. Human security guards and holocameras watched over everything.
Brian looked straight ahead as he walked towards the platform, trying not to draw any suspicion. He planned two trips through the gates. One three-quarters of the way to Farlight Space Station and then another trip straight through to Preskan Port on Jaajern's surface. He figured that direct travel from Levonia to Jaajern would need prior approval from Elizabeth, even from other overseers. But he thought he could circumvent that problem by travelling to Farlight and then back around to Jaajern.
He smiled at the thought. He would be on Jaajern in less than five minutes and there wasn't anything Elizabeth could do about it.
His heart raced as he climbed up the platform steps and walked towards the first vacant gate, hoping that nobody would recognize him. Nobody did, apparently. Still his muscles tightened with fear. At the gate, he pressed his flesh glove against the pad. It scanned the gene pattern and then said, "Henniger, Terence B, access granted. Please input destination."
He pressed the button for Farlight Station and the computer said, "Destination approved. Please step through the gate."
He walked through the gate. Blue and white light slashed through his eyes and his body rippled as he traveled eighty thousand light-years across the galaxy to Farlight Station in just two seconds. He emerged on the other side of the gate seconds later and shook his head, seeing double for a moment. Travelling across the galaxy didn't always agree with him.
He smiled, though, when he saw the departure gates across from him. Just one more gate and he would be on Jaajern. Feeling confident, he strode across the T-shaped terminal to the departure gates on the other side. There was a small line in front of them. Brian waited his turn and then placed his hand on the pad.
"Henniger, Terence B., access denied," the pad said. "Unauthorized transfer attempted. Initiating lockdown on all gates and alerting security personnel. Please remain where you are."
Brian's heart leaped into his throat as the gates began closing up around him. Some of the commuters gasped and cried out and backed away from him while a few of the approved commuters panicked and rushed through the gates. Deep down Brian cursed himself for thinking it would be easy.
Security officers with sonic pistols raced around the corner of the T and shouted for him to stop. He dropped his bag, ran to the nearest approved commuters trying to flee through the closing gate, hugged him tight and dove through with him.
Stuck with two people close together, one confirmed and one not, the gate was forced to pass them to insure the integrity of both bodies. When they emerged, he dropped the commuter and found himself surrounded by a massive cityscape with cylindrical chrome towers and silver obelisks rising high into the pink and blue skies.
He was standing on a transit platform. It was located on the roof of a building several hundred stories above the city floor. Millions of vehicles raced back and forth across the city skies along with blimps and suicide prevention drones. The air reeked from a blanket of smog that covered the city.
The gates finished closing and security officers rushed in to arrest him. Trembling with fear, Brian turned and saw the railing at the edge of the platform across from him. He ran over there, vaulted over the side, hung on to the railing and then looked down. Just a foot below him was a steelglass roof that slanted downward at an angle and ended in a long drop. A hovertrain flew towards the building and he figured that if he let go and slid down at the right second, he could fall right onto the roof of the train and ride it to safety.
When he faced forward, though, the security police were almost on them, one of them shouting, "Hang on, kid."
He glanced back. The train was almost in range.
He looked forward and the first security officer reached for his hand, but Brian let go and fell. He hit the roof on his back and drove pain through his spine, but it hardly mattered to him since he slid down the roof and tumbled off the edge. He missed the last car of the hovertrain and fell screaming to the streets below.
Ten suicide prevention drones rushed in and fired anti-gravity beams at him. The beams surrounded his body and slowly reduced his rate of descent until he hung motionless in the air. Then one of the drones reeled him in, dropped him into a net and slipped into one of the traffic lanes.
"Please do not risk your life any further," the drone said. "You are a valuable member of society and can continue to lead a long and productive life full of happiness and prosperity. Please do not risk your life any further..." The drone continued on with its suicide prevention spiel and Brian wondered if these drones didn't contribute to as many suicides as they prevented. But at least he was happy to be alive.
But his happiness soon faded when he saw their destination: one of the local hospitals. Once they arrived in the psych ward, they'd gene-identify him and that would be the end of his escape attempt.
Brian struggled to pull out of the way of the netting, but he was tangled up in it. After some wiggling, though, he slipped out of the net and climbed on top of the drone. Its multi-fingered manipulator arms tried to grab him, but he dodged them, saw a passing blimp floating below him and dove off the drone's edge.
He hit the roof of the blimp on his feet and spread his arms out to keep his balance. The drones raced down to retrieve him again.
Do they ever quit? Brian wondered.
Gasping for breath, he ran across to the edge of the blimp and looked for some way out. In the distance more drones flew towards him. But the blimp was cruising towards the rooftop platform on a trapezoid-shaped building and there were hovertaxis there.
When the blimp rose up to the edge of the roof, he jumped onto the platform and landed on his feet. By now his knees were killing him from all the jumping and falling. He staggered to the first available taxi and slipped inside before the drones closed in.
The driver was human, thankfully. He didn't want to haggle with a machine.
"Let's go," Brian said.
"Yes, sir."
The taxi took off and left the drones behind on the platform.
"Where are you heading?" the driver said.
"Where's the nearest spaceport?" Brian said.
"Aurora Fields."
"Then that's where I'm heading."
"Yes, sir."
The hovertaxi took off and he looked back. No drone or cops were following them. He sighed with relief.
"By the way, what planet is this?"
"Vaore. Why, did you get lost someplace?"
"Yeah. Gate lag, I guess." He recalled the planet's location. It was only three days there on a spaceship with an FTL drive. Although he'd lost his bag, he still had his chits. He just hoped it was enough to buy passage on a private spaceship.
As he relaxed in his seat, his dermaphone tingled under his skin, indicating an incoming call. The caller ID said it was Elizabeth. He activated the phone with a thought and adjusted its frequencies, so they couldn't use it to track him.
A holographic screen appeared in front of him.
"Found me, huh?" Brian said.
"I called to try and talk some sense into you, Brian," Elizabeth said.
"How'd you stop me back at Farlight anyway?"
"Do you think I'd be stupid enough to let you just waltz right through the gates to Jaajern? Henniger and the other overseers weren't allowed to go to Jaajern without my prior authorization. I had Institution agents genelock our people out of all the gates I thought you might try as a safety precaution."
"Funny, I thought you wouldn't lock out Farlight. I guess I was wrong."
"Yes, you were. But it's not too late for you to stop. Brian, I want to turn yourself over to the authorities immediately. I can get you a brief sentence in a camp. It won't be pleasant, but at least--"
"I don't care what you want, I'm getting on Jaajern no matter what."
"How? The Institution has already posted guards around every gate on and around Jaajern, so even if you try to swap another gene-identity, they'll kill you as soon as you arrive there. And they've already posted spaceships in orbit under the planet and they are under orders to fire on any ship which doesn't stop for an inspection. Plus we're displaying your image and gene pattern on every colonized world."
"So I take it you're not laying out the red carpet for me."
"Very perceptive." Elizabeth folded her arms. "If you want to stay alive, I suggest you accept my proposal."
Brian frowned. He knew how far the Institution would go to stop him, but he couldn't afford to back down now.
"I have a counterproposal," Brian said. "You tell me everything I want to know about my parents, and maybe then I'll surrender."
"No."
"What are you hiding, Elizabeth?"
"I'm not telling you and you won't reach Jaajern to find out. Your only chance for survival is to give up."
"I'd rather die than live the rest of my life without knowing about my parents."
"That's it then? You won't listen to reason?"
"What you offer isn't reasonable. All I want is the truth and all you're giving me is lies. And I'm not going to settle for that." He ran a hand through his hair. "Goodbye, Elizabeth."
"Brian--"
He ended the call. If she had just told him what he wanted to know in the first place, then none of this would have been necessary. Yet here he was. And he knew that he didn't have much time before they spread his face and gene pattern across the interplanetary network. He had to disguise himself before he bought passage onto a ship.
"Driver, do you know any nearby shops that carry any nano-cosmetics?"
"Yes, I do. Do you want me to go there?"
"Yes." He leaned back in his seat. "I'm thinking about giving myself a new look."
* * * *
AFTER Brian altered his appearance, he continued on to the Aurora Fields and bought passage on a private spaceship called the Enduring Glory with the rest of his chits. He made sure that it was one that didn't require registering one's genetic pattern before he boarded, and he gave a false name, Shawn Mayford.
The pilot's name was Captain Ian Thane. Ian was a tall, old man with a grizzled white hair and beard. He had medals of honor on his jacket and tattoos on his arms, indicating the combat tours that he had served in. His body looked pitted and scarred, like one of the battlefields he must have fought on.
"Why did you bother to my ship, kid?" Ian asked him as they approached the ship. "From the money here, looks like you could have afforded first class passage on one of them luxury ships. And I can tell you right now, my ship ain't nearly as comfortable."
"I had to run away from my parents," Brian said.
"Oh. You sure it was the right choice?"
"I hope so."
"I don't blame you. I ran away from my home when I was seventeen to join the Service. My parents didn't approve, but hell, I figured they didn't have the right to tell me how to live my life." He clapped Brian on the back as he led him through the airlock and into the ship. "So where are we going again?"
"Jaajern."
"I haven't been there before. It ought to be an interesting trip."
Brian smiled.
* * * *
AN hour later the Enduring Glory flew away from the planet Vaore and then slipped into hyperspace.
Brian was nervous throughout the whole three-day trip, trying to decide whether or not to tell the truth to Ian as well as thinking of ways to slip past the blockade around Jaajern. Even though Ian was friendly, he wasn't sure the old man would risk his ship against the Institution. With their political influence, not many would.
After two days travel, he must have seen something on the newsnets and figured out that something was amiss. Yet he remained silent and so Brian didn't bring it up.
On the third day Brian was sitting alone in his cabin when the door creaked open. Brian expected Ian to bring in lunch as he had the other days. Instead he brought an old e-pistol into the cabin.
"I have to turn you in when we reach Jaajern," Ian said.
Brian stood up from his bunk.
"You know?" Brian said.
"I saw the newsnets the day after we left. It wasn't hard to figure out, seeing your age and your destination."
"Couldn't you have said something sooner?"
"I thought about dumping you on another world, but they'd find out."
"Why are you turning me in now? Is the reward that big?"
"No." He shook his head. "At my age, I can't afford to go against the Institution."
"You're a soldier, though. You fought for--"
"Was, a soldier. Now I'm just an old man. Besides, if I go against them, they'd go after my daughter and her boy. And I can't let that happen." He lowered his head a bit. "I'm sorry."
Brian glanced around and saw a heavy metal tray on the nearby table.
"Don't even try it, son," Ian said. "I don't want to have to hurt you, but I'll drop you if you make any sudden moves."
Brian relaxed his guard. Ian frowned, reached behind him and pulled out a pair of energy cuffs from his back pocket. "I'll have to lock you in for the--"
Brian dove for the tray. Ian caught him in mid-sentence and fired. Brian threw himself down on the floor and the shot struck the hull just above his head. He rolled to his right, snatched the tray up and flung it at Ian's face before he fired another shot. It struck him in the nose and he tumbled to the floor, dropping the gun as he fell.
Brian ran over, snatched the pistol off the floor and aimed it, but Ian kicked him in the stomach and knocked him back against the floor. Ian stood on shaky legs, his nose broken, blood dripping down his chin. He laughed and wiped the blood away with the back of his hand.
"Reflexes ain't what they used to be," Ian said as he walked towards him. "Twenty years ago, you'd have never gotten the drop on me like that. Now hand over the gun."
Pain burned through Brian's gut and he curled up into a ball, struggling to regain his breath. Boy, could that old man kick.
"Come on, hand it over!"
Ian stopped next to him and flipped him onto his back with one foot. As he fell sideways, he raised the gun and fired. The electric charge struck Ian in the chest and dropped him. After the initial shock passed, Brian checked the pistol's setting. It was at minimal charge. He felt angry at Ian's betrayal, yet he could sympathize with him. The man was only trying to keep his family safe.
He pulled the cuffs out of Ian's hands, dragged his body over to the bulkhead and cuffed him to the wall. Then he stepped over the body, tucked the e-pistol in his waistband, walked out of the cabin and sealed the door behind him.
* * * *
LESS than three hours later, the Glory came within range of Jaajern. It was a large amber-colored planet. When Brian came onto the bridge and saw it, he smiled. He was wearing a spaceskin with magnetic pads and an air-recycling mask. He walked over to the pilot's chair and sat.
The Glory's long range scanners indicated over fifty-three Institution ships orbiting the planet. By now he knew that they had scanned him and were expecting him to signal them and stand by for an inspection.
Heading straight for the planet's surface was suicide, but he had another idea. He stopped the ship less than five thousand kilometers from the blockade and stayed there. On the Glory's comline, an officer requested his status. Brian left the comline on, but he didn't respond. He hoped that Institution officers wouldn't fire on his ship unless he ran for the planet.
He left the bridge and headed downship, his heart racing.
On the fifth deck, he slipped out through the starboard airlock, crawled under the belly of the ship with the help of the magnetic pads, slipped passed the emergency escape shuttle attached to the ship, hid within a dark niche in the hull and waited. His heart raced in his chest and sweat made his spaceskin stick to his real skin. He hoped that the boarding party would think the ship was a decoy or that he was still on it. They'd find Ian and question him, but he'd know nothing. He only hoped they weren't too rough on the old man. As a decorated veteran, he deserved better.
Brian would have gone into the emergency shuttle to begin with, but he knew that would be one of the first places they would look for him.
So he stayed outship.
Sometime later the ship began to move again. When he peered out of his niche, he saw one of the larger spaceships pulling the Glory back to the planet with grappling cables, right through the heart of the blockade. He crawled out from the niche, back across the underbelly of the ship, onto the shuttle and inside its airlock.
The shuttle was deserted.
Once Brian entered the cockpit, he waited until he was within the blockade. Then he activated the shuttle's engines, released the docking clamps and raced down to the planet through the atmosphere. Flames licked the shuttle's hull as it hurtled towards the surface. The ship shuddered and thrashed like a dying beast. An EM blast came from one of the orbiting ships and struck the shuttle, burning out the consoles and controls. Sparks burst out from the failing machines. His stomach slammed into his throat as he struggled to regain control of the craft. But it was useless.
Before he knew it, he had blacked out.
* * * *
BRIAN remembered dying twice, yet it was not his death that he remembered. When Brian awoke, he was covered in safety foam. He kicked it off, struggled out of his chair, tore open his spaceskin and threw away his air mask. The shuttle had crashed on Jaajern. Tall lavender grasses swayed on the plains in front of him.
He shook his head, feeling strange. He still had his own thoughts of Brian Seams, and yet he remembered with the memories of his parents, Alexander and Julianne Crailmere.
He ran out of the cockpit and to the shuttle airlock, struggling with the fusion from two different and yet connected lives. His parents' memories flooded through his mind like water from a swollen river. They came so fast that it was almost impossible for him to comprehend. Yet one part of their memories remained clear.
Elizabeth had killed his parents on the surface of the vacation world Mervanua seventeen years ago, far away from the prying eyes of the Institution. He remembered sitting together on the grass amidst the buzzing bees. It had been a warm, sunny day. They were enjoying a family picnic, the first with their year-old son. Then came a sharp, black end to his father's memories when someone shot him from behind.
Julianne screamed as her beloved husband slumped forward onto the checkered blanket. Alexander lay dead next to his cooing infant son, the back of his skull blasted open. She looked back and faced Elizabeth, who held the gun right in Julianne's face.
"You..." Julianne whispered.
It was the last word his mother ever said.
Elizabeth shot her in the face and everything slammed to black in his mind.
It was all so overwhelming that Brian could hardly even think with his own thoughts. He stumbled out of the airlock and onto the grass, in a field that was almost identical to the one where his parents had been murdered. Tears trickled down his cheeks as he collapsed in the grass.
He thrashed in the grass for a while, the memories of their deaths playing repeatedly in his mind in an endless, terrible loop. They had never known why their former best friend had killed them. It came too suddenly for them to ever ask questions. But Brian had a suspicion as to why Elizabeth had done it.
Later on his dermaphone tingled under his skin. He knew who it would be before he answered it.
"Why?" Brian whispered to Elizabeth. "Why did you kill us?" He spoke not only with his voice, but the voice of his dead parents as well. Thus he used 'us.'
"You must remember."
"We want to hear you tell our son yourself."
"Because I loved Brian and I wanted him for myself," Elizabeth said. "Brian, I carried you as a favor to your mother when we were close friends, after she had the accident in the hovertrain and couldn't bear children in her own womb. I carried you for her and took care of you while you were inside me. I was your mother for a time."
He closed his eyes, pushed back the memories of their deaths and recalled Elizabeth carrying him for his parents. Yet he never recalled any of Elizabeth's memories.
"You weren't my real mother," Brian said. "If you were, I'd be genetically linked to your memories through the Jaajern effect."
"Julianne may have given me one of her ova, but I was the one who actually gave birth to you, and I was the one who wanted to help them raise you. But they took me away from you soon after you were born. They stole you from me just because I wanted to bring you into the Institution and give you a real future. And they kept me from seeing you!" She gritted her teeth. "I had to kill them and have the Institution wipe away all traces of their existence so I could raise you and mold you into the man I wanted you to become, rather than what they wanted you to be."
They had been archaeologists and pacifists, unlike Elizabeth. Yet Julianne had become friends when she briefly joined the Institution. They had remained so even after she had quit and went to college back on her home planet, until the birth of Julianne's son came between their longstanding friendship.
"And that's why you never wanted me to come here?" Brian said. "Not because of the fate of the Institution. That was just a lie, wasn't it?"
"I had to tell you something to stop you," Elizabeth said. "I had to threaten you with something important so that you would stay away. But I guess it didn't work."
"You said you were going to kill me."
"I'd never do anything to hurt you, Brian. I've always loved you and I only want what's best for you."
Brian stood up, shaking with rage. If he could have reached through the screen and strangled her, then he would have.
"We have sent Institution drones down to retrieve you," Elizabeth said. "Once you're offworld, the Jaajern effect will pass and we can be together again--"
"No." Brian clenched his fists. "Someday soon I'm going to catch up with you and I'm going to kill you."
"Brian..."
He turned off his dermaphone with a thought and headed back to the shuttle with a new purpose in his life. No matter what it took, he'd get revenge for his parents' deaths.
It was only a matter of time.