by Jessica Gunn
Josh pressed his lips together, struggling not to laugh. He shook his head.
I didn’t get it. “What?”
He straightened up and kissed my forehead. “Nothing. I’m just happy you’re awake and alive. For a second I thought I lost you…” His eyes flicked away and he swallowed down emotion he didn’t want me to see.
Too bad I caught it. Anxiety flashed through me. “How long have I been out? Was there a chance I wouldn’t wake up?” What went wrong? It was more than Sophia and I usually moved, and we knew we’d be down for the count, but it couldn’t have been that bad.
Josh put a hand to either side of my face. “Everything’s fine, Chels. You were only out for a few hours. Sophia’s awake, too. We were just waiting for you is all. I love you.”
Everything was fine. Everything—even Josh and me.
I drew Josh in and kissed him, tender and slow. Like nothing could break us apart, like nothing ever would. Everyone was safe, SeaSatellite5 crew and otherwise. That was something to celebrate. Something to cherish.
After a few moments, Josh pulled back. He licked his lips and smiled. “Think you can walk?”
My legs weren’t aching as much as my head. I nodded and moved my hand to his shoulder. “Help me sit up?”
He snaked his arm around my side, under my arms, and helped me stand up from the gurney.
“Much better,” I said. “And look at me, still wearing a uniform and not a hospital gown.”
So quick I almost missed it, a wicked, mischievous grin flashed across Josh’s lips. “Shame. Easier that way,” he said, then spun for the door.
I reached out and pulled him back to me. Being stronger than him, the action turned him around. I caught his lips with mine and threw fire behind it. His hands danced down my back to my lips, pulling me closer. I looked into his deep caramel eyes, raw need blooming inside me. His strength after battle, this leftover adrenaline, all of it was too much. I wanted to get him alone and behind a locked door as soon as possible, but knew it wouldn’t happen until after debriefings and repairs. This would have to be enough for now. I kissed him again, tangling my fingers in his hair.
“I love you,” I whispered. At least I think I did.
He didn’t respond, and the words were lost to a toe-curling encounter.
“Things have grown complicated since you’ve been gone,” I said to the room. I stood before Captain Marks and his senior staff in the Briefing Room. Captain Marks sat in his usual chair at the end of the table, flanked by Commander Devins and Weyland, his old Head of Security. Weyland wasn’t rejoining SeaSatellite5, but because he was on board when the station was hijacked—the event that catalyzed this snowball down its first of many slopes—he was invited to attend the debriefing.
Trevor stood next to me, carefully masking his thoughts. I attempted the same. I wasn’t sure how he had learned hide his thoughts so suddenly, but I couldn’t read him even when I tried. It felt like he’d put up a screen in his mind, blocking me from catching a feeling or thought. But then a single image broke through. Me punching an Atlantean into SeaSat5’s hull with all the force of a wrecking ball.
I startled and gripped the top of the chair in front of me. How did I hit that hard? I didn’t hit that hard. My strength wasn’t that strong.
Sophia thinks you have a fourth power, Trevor’s thoughts seeped into my head.
My jaw set hard. A fourth. Teleportation, healing, water, and strength. And now something more?
Like what?
He gave the slightest shrug. Not sure. Maybe telekinesis? Fits the powers Dr. Gordon’s studied all along.
I slipped my hands from the chair and into my pockets. Telekinesis. Freaking weird.
Yeah, Trevor thought. I’d keep them in your pockets, too. Don’t move them too fast or anything.
The Captain cleared his throat, like he could tell Trevor and I were having a silent conversation and wanted us to stop. He wanted answers, and only we had them.
“Should we start with how you two have apparently joined the military?” Lieutenant Commander Christa Jackson asked from her seat between Commander Devins and Freddy.
Seated opposite Christa, Helen nodded. “I’d like to know how that happened, too. And how you met up with Sophia.”
I glanced quickly at her. “You told me you’d never seen my teleportation power before. Truth for a truth?”
She folded her hands on the tabletop and looked to me with those “good doctor” eyes she’d used on me the day we first met. “That’s because I hadn’t. When I met and subsequently worked with Sophia Burns, she only had super strength and superior healing abilities.”
Then why’d she act so surprised when I sprouted healing powers?
Trevor coughed.
If you could stay out of my head for the briefing, that’d be awesome, I told him.
He stretched his arms.
“Sophia works for the same organization as Dr. Connor Hill,” I answered Helen. “He knew more than he let on during the outpost investigation.”
“I’m beginning to gather that,” Captain Marks said. His brow was scrunched up pensively. Aside from the scare when Josh found him, Captain Marks was okay. Shocked and confused, but okay.
Trevor shifted beside me. “We didn’t necessarily join the military. We wear the uniform but, like Dr. Hill said when he first boarded SeaSat5, we’re basically independent contractors. We signed up to find you guys.”
“At TAO at least,” Weyland joined in. Commander Devins gave him a weird stare, so Weyland elaborated, saying, “Chelsea’s considered as good as joined as far as TruGates goes. We’re all ex-military and she’s got better skills than half the vets there.”
Commander Devins’s eyebrow rose. He so didn’t believe it. To be honest, neither did I. In my whole time with TruGates, I’d never considered myself ex-military or anything close to that. I just was. “I’ve only been with you for a few weeks, Weyland.”
He nodded. “And you got us out of some sticky situations.”
I eyed him down. No, I hadn’t. I’d gotten Truman killed, and now Weyland knew exactly how and why. He didn’t verbally respond. Instead, he gave me that same caring, pushy look he’d given me at the club the night I botched their job. It said, I know what’s going on and it’s okay. Don’t worry. Didn’t he know how hard that was to do when so many bad things had been my fault?
“So if Dr. Hill knew more than he let on during the outpost investigation, what does that change about the hijacking?” Captain Marks asked.
“You mean why was Dr. Hill in the Brig the whole time?” I asked.
“He didn’t know Thompson,” Trevor answered. “But he knew about the Lemurians. SeaSatellite5 was apparently funded in part by TAO, and TAO is sided with Atlantis—or was sided with Atlantis—so…”
“He knew, and they didn’t like it,” I concluded.
“And I knew more than I let on, too,” Trevor said.
Commander Devins pinned him with a stare that had me quaking in my TAO-grade boots. “Excuse me?”
Trevor nodded at Captain Marks. “You know some of it, Captain, obviously. I knew what my parents were—are—into, and I knew Thompson, what we had really found, and that Atlantis probably still existed right alongside Lemuria. I knew there was a chance we’d be hijacked. What I didn’t know was who Dr. Hill really was, or what his affiliation with TAO meant, or the real extent of the Lemurian-Atlantean war.” He shook his head. “I thought I did. I thought I could’ve protected the station. I was wrong, and for that, I am more sorry than you can ever know.”
I believed him. Dread and guilt washed over me, and it wasn’t mine this time.
Captain Marks and his Commander shared a lengthy look. They weren’t telepathic like me and Trevor were now, but their unspoken conversation was palpable.
After a few moments, Captain Marks looked back to us. “How much danger is SeaSatellite5 in right now?”
I really hoped he wouldn’t ask that. But he deserved to know. They
all did. “During the rescue it became apparent there was, probably, a third reason why Thompson wanted the station.”
“A third?” Helen asked.
I lifted my hand and ticked off the reasons on my fingers. “The artifacts, which are actually Link Pieces and tools used for time-travel. Me, because I’m an Atlantean super soldier—and that’s something else we need to talk about eventually. And three, the station itself is apparently a Link Piece and it’s connected to something big.”
A thick silence bathed the room so quickly you’d have thought we’d entered vacuum space. No one spoke until Trevor cleared his throat and said, “I can’t see Link Pieces, so I never knew. And until earlier, Chelsea had never seen SeaSat5 from the outside.”
Freddy, who’d been silent the whole time, sat up straight in his chair. “You’ve taken shuttles to and from the station, and didn’t you take a helicopter from here once?”
“I’m terrified of heights,” I said. “I kept my eyes shut the whole time.”
“Of course you did,” he said. “And you were passed out cold the night Trevor and I took you back.”
“And she and I were talking when I picked her up from port the day she first boarded,” Helen said.
“The two times I’ve taken a shuttle here, we were deep in planning,” Sophia said. “Once to rescue you, and once trying to figure out how to convince Chelsea to join TAO. I never saw it from the outside, either.”
“Believe me,” I said. “If I’d known…” Then what? Even if I’d seen the damn station shimmering like hot pavement, I would have never known what to do about it back then. And maybe not now. Short of locking SeaSatellite5 up in our own underground complex, there was very little we could do to protect her.
Unless Trevor’s new shield idea could be carried out. Then, and only then, we’d maybe have a shot. I mean, short of Sophia and I camping out on SeaSat5. I didn’t know what she thought of that, but I knew I sure as hell wanted to stay with Josh as long as possible. Staying at TruGates might not have been the plan—and I did not want to deal with General Allen—but my feelings for Josh had grown ten-fold since meeting him, and I fell hard. Which was fine… if it didn’t mean now splitting my life in potentially four different ways.
Given TruGates now knew the people they used to hunt were actually Lemurians—something General Allen already knew—there was a good chance their main directives would change, and maybe they’d even partner up with TAO to explore Link Pieces instead, if the General could be removed from the picture. If the partnership happened, I could probably swing working for both. But SeaSatellite5 needed repairs and a good old-fashioned overhaul of her technology. Her crew also needed to be brought up to speed. Just as we’d been perfect to plan the mission, Trevor and I were the perfect two people to do most of the upgrades and debriefings.
And then there was the band. The one General Allen worried would get too big, and if it got too big, I’d have to quit TruGates. I wasn’t sure what I’d do about that yet. Maybe while we’d been gone the attention from Juxe had died down and all of that wasn’t a problem anymore. I wouldn’t know until after this debriefing and most of the imperative repairs had been completed. Hell, I probably wouldn’t be sleeping until all of that was finished.
Still, through it all, my feelings for Josh were clear. He was a breath of fresh air on a stormy sea, the eye of the storm in the middle of the Atlantic. While TruGates hadn’t been the safest choice, it was the most straightforward. Josh had been the same. He was an easy man to understand; dark past, bright hope for the future, and skilled in the same things I was. He understood why I was the way I was, and had patience with me while I figured out the rest of my mess. I could see myself with him, able to do all the things I wanted once our time with TruGates was up. I could teach archaeology and play in the band. He could open his Mr. Fix-It’s repair and pawnshop. It could work.
That was all I knew.
Captain Marks was the first to speak. “So what you’re saying is, SeaSatellite5, now known to the public eye to have disappeared and be found, is also a pawn in a war between three civilizations bent on controlling time itself?”
Well, when you put it that way…
“Yes,” Trevor said.
“Basically,” I added.
Captain Marks didn’t respond right away. His jaw worked left, then right. “Trevor, this new shield idea you have, how well do you think it’ll do against people teleporting on and off SeaSatellite5?”
Trevor didn’t know how well it’d work, that much I knew. Right now it was as Captain Marks said: an idea. Trevor wanted to block all teleportation period, including Sophia’s and my own, and then work backward to allow only us in. That’d require Trevor to pinpoint our exact resonance when we teleported because apparently it was all related to vibrations or frequencies. Honestly, science wasn’t my thing. Where Trevor saw an engineering project as fun, I saw a headache I’d rather not get into. All I wanted out of his idea was to be able to push a button that would allow me to teleport onto and off of SeaSatellite5 at free will.
“If we can get it to work how we want, it’ll keep unwanted visitors out,” Trevor said. “I can block all teleportation right now in a few keystrokes, but then Chelsea and Sophia won’t be able to get in. So if someone slips past it like Chelsea did two years ago because I calibrated poorly, they wouldn’t be able to come in and help. You see my problem.”
Captain Marks nodded. “Then we’ll take it in steps. Dr. Gordon, I want you to give the crew a full medical run-down: physicals, psych evaluations, everything. I want to make sure everyone’s doing okay. Commanders Devins and Jackson, you will debrief the crew in groups. Tell them I’m working on getting leave time for everyone once the station is restored.”
Captain Marks looked to Trevor and I. “You two had this planned every step of the way. Work with the senior staff to get the repairs done on the station, and be ready to make yourselves available at a moment’s notice if the Admiral or anyone else needs an explanation or update.”
We both nodded, then Captain Marks’s hard, order-giving expression left, giving away to a much softer side of him. “Thank you for never giving up on us,” he said to Trevor and me. “I can guess the reason you’re both wound up right now is because you think I’m angry it took two years to get to us. I can assure you I would only be disappointed if you never tried. The situation was beyond your control and knowledge. But I’ve spoken with both Major Pike and Mr. Eric Talmont regarding the work you both put into this rescue, and it will be rewarded.”
I was shaking my head before he even finished his sentence. “We don’t deserve an award. You would have done the same for us.”
Trevor appeared to be in agreement. “Half the reason SeaSat5 was taken in the first place was because of us—because of me. No reward. You and the crew being here safe and sound is reward enough.”
With them back, everything almost felt right again.
When I exited the Briefing Room, Josh was there like he always was lately. Only, he wasn’t happy this time. Something had his brow and mouth drawn, arms crossed at his chest.
I walked up to him on light feet. “What’s wrong?”
His eyes darted to the people filing out of the room behind me. “Not here.” He took my hand and guided me the other way. When we were a few corridors down, he stopped and said, “We need to talk.”
My body numbed. Talk? About what? That phrase was never good. Had he changed his mind about us? My heartbeat thudded in my ears so loudly it blocked everything else out. Even my own words seemed far away, or like fog on a warm winter’s morning—dense and thick and impenetrable. “Talk about what?”
Josh’s eyes narrowed and my world crashed. He’s breaking up with me.
He rested his hands on my shoulders. “General Allen’s worried your cover might be blown.” He paused a beat, like his next words would ruin me. “Because of Phoenix and Lobster.”
Relief crashed through me, lifting all weight from my body. He didn�
��t want to end things. But what he did say… I knew it was coming. I’d stolen the General’s team for my own war-fighting purposes, exposed TruGates’ real mission, and this was my punishment. “So I don’t run with TruGates anymore, big deal.” Especially if we couldn’t get General Allen out of the picture right away.
But I could still live with Josh, see him every night he was free. I’m sure there was something I could do. Besides, I still needed to solve that secret chamber mystery. It was the only piece of the puzzle that didn’t make sense. Well, that and why the General hated Atlantean super soldiers so much. I couldn’t help the nagging feeling that the two were related.
Josh’s frown deepened. There was more he wasn’t telling me, and my heart fractured. It had to be bad. Real bad. Bad enough that even Josh’s tongue tangled around the words.
I sucked in a deep breath, pulling oxygen into every possible part of me. “Phoenix and Lobster won’t get too big.” My words were barely a whisper. “I could leave the band now in case they do. I’d still be a no one.” Were those words even my own? I’d thought about it, sure, but could I actually do it? Could I desert my sister and life-long friends?
“The Lemurians know your face,” he said. “And if they still intend to screw with our world even while being allied with some of us, we don’t have a choice but to fight them. And there’s always… other work paramilitary companies do. And it’s not so nice. Or moral.”
I shrugged. “Why can’t TruGates drop that part of their organization and combine with TAO, then?”
He bit his lip as a stall. I pressed him on with my eyes. How can he just agree with General Allen after everything? I had to go back, to find the rest of the answers to my questions. But Josh, Mara, and Eric… they didn’t. Why were they going back to the General? I knew they had a contract with TruGates. What would happen to them if they broke it? Still, I couldn’t just let them go back without at least trying to show Josh who General Allen really was.
And I did have one secret weapon left.