Dragon Wave

by Valerie Emerson

  Jack found Dante in the galley, trying to build a house of cards with a deck of worn-out, warped cards. He stood back and waited while Dante got two of the cards to lean against each other. As soon as he let go to make another pair, the first pair collapsed. Dante let them lay there and pulled a new pair from the deck.

  Jack claimed a seat across from the other Mystic. The last few months lay heavy on Dante. He had creases around his eyes, and stress lines had appeared between his brows. He still had his boyish charm, though tempered from living with hard choices.

  “We need to talk,” Jack said.

  Dante shrugged, then pulled his hands away from the two cards he’d been balancing. They stayed up for the moment. “As you can see, I have some time on my hands.”

  Jack waited, but Dante didn’t look up again. Instead, he continued with his house of cards. Another pair went up and stayed that way, at least until Dante tried to use a new card to make a bridge between the two pairs. Everything collapsed, and Dante started again.

  Jack could see that this was one-sided. That was fine. He’d say his piece, then maybe Dante would have something to say in return.

  “I know what you did, and I know you thought you were doing the right thing. Maybe you were, I don’t know. Maybe we should have listened to the dragons.”

  Jack picked up a card; it was too warped to be of use. The King of Spades’ profile looked at him with his single-sided eyes.

  “It’s too late for that now,” Dante said.

  “It doesn’t matter who was right. It matters that we don’t cut you out.” Jack picked up the deck of unused cards and shuffled in the warped one. “You were my friend before, and you’re my friend now.”

  Dante watched him shuffle for a moment, the corner of his mouth twitching like it wanted to smile but didn’t quite trust itself. After a moment, Dante gathered the remaining cards and handed them over to Jack. “Want me to grab the cribbage board?”

  “If you’re not too busy.” Jack smirked, and Dante finally smiled back.

  Jack felt a little tension unravel as Dante left the table. Maybe things were strained between them all, but they didn’t have to stay that way. He’d do his part to start the healing process, soothing hurt feelings, egos, and trust.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Getting pummeled in the Astral Plane didn’t leave physical marks, but Julia felt as if she were covered with bruises anyway. She needed more sleep. She just didn’t have the energy to stay in the Astral Plane long, so she agreed when Coraolis suggested giving her Mystic abilities a break.

  That meant she was at loose ends. She walked the halls of EFS Hesse, determined to exercise her body even if her spirit was tapped out. Sometimes Coraolis joined her; occasionally, Barbara or Jack. Normally, she walked alone and pretended she didn’t see the crew’s suspicious stares. She expected them. The best thing was to let it roll off. She’d done the right thing. She was still sure of that, and she was willing to face the consequences.

  It turned out that having a worn-out spirit did something to her body too. When she ran out of steam, she found a place to take a break. Every day she could walk a little farther and didn’t sleep quite so much. By the time a week had passed, she could make a full circuit of the ship without stopping.

  Then, she hit a wall—hard. Her knees turned to jelly just outside the galley. Julia hoped to grab a seat before anyone noticed, but it was too late. Her legs buckled, and she prepared herself for the spectacle she’d make when she hit the floor.

  Except, she didn’t fall. Dante wrapped an arm around her waist, stopping her. He draped her arm around his shoulders. He helped her to the nearest table, then hovered like he thought she’d fall out of her chair.

  “I’ll be fine,” she told him. “Thank you.”

  “Okay.” He shifted his feet but didn’t go anywhere.

  If she told him to go, he would, she realized. He knew what he’d done, same as she did.

  But she’d forgiven him back on the space station, and even if she was flawed and human again, any grudge she might have had was gone. She didn’t want to go back on her word.

  “Do you want to sit down?” she asked.

  “If you don’t mind.”

  She gestured at the seat across from her, and he dropped into it. He opened his mouth, as if to speak, then closed it again.

  “I haven’t been avoiding you. I’ve been recovering, that’s all,” she told him.

  “I didn’t think that. I guess I thought if you wanted to talk, you’d reach out.” He pulled a deck of cards from his pocket and started fidgeting with it. “I didn’t think you were dodging me.”

  “That’s good,” she said.

  “I’m also not going to apologize for what I did.” He riffled the cards without looking at them. It looked like he’d picked up a nervous habit.

  “You know, it hurt when you turned on us. You thought you knew better, we thought we knew better. That doesn’t matter. You turned your back on us. That’s what I keep coming back to.”

  “I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I am sorry for that,” he said.

  She waited, but he didn’t offer anything else. She half expected him to say the same, that it hurt when they left him behind. She’d be surprised if it hadn’t.

  “We felt like we had to leave you, you know. We didn’t know what you’d do if you came with us,” she told him.

  “No, I know.” He went on playing with the cards, keeping his hands busy. “You told me.”

  “I guess I did.” She rubbed her tired eyes. “I wish that hadn’t happened.”

  “We can’t wish the past away. It’s okay.” Dante stopped shuffling and put the deck on the table. “If there was anything to forgive, I let it go a long time ago. You did what you had to, just like me. I want you to know that I still care about you, Julia. You, Coraolis, Jack, Barb – you’re the only family I have.”

  “Same here.” She tentatively reached out and patted his arm. “We’ll have a lot of time on Earth to work this out.”

  “Sure we will.” He smiled at her and stood up. “Do you want me to get Cor? You looked pretty wobbly back there.”

  She shook her head. “I just need to sit a while.”

  “All right. I’ll swing by later in case you change your mind.” He smiled. It wasn’t his usual devil-may-care grin. There was something softer in it. “I’ll see you around, Ronasuli.”

  She watched him go, trying not to frown in case he turned back. What they’d said was true. Her bond with Dante was unbreakable, even if she felt wrong-footed when she talked to him.

  Maybe that would change…with time. They’d be working together after this. The shared experience would help them mend their friendship. She hoped that was true. She felt like her apology was sincere.

  She looked down and realized Dante had left his deck behind. She smiled. She’d get it back to him; in the meantime, it was nice to have something to do while she recharged. She gave the deck a shuffle and dealt a game of solitaire.

  ***

  The rest of the trip went the same and, by the end, Julia was her old self. She exercised and meditated without going into the Astral Plane. Barbara joined her in the weight room, and Jack was usually up for a run around the ship’s corridors.

  Before she knew it, they were in orbit around Earth. Barbara boarded a shuttle to join the EFS Siren as its new captain. Her pardon had been as sweeping as they could have hoped for, and she resumed her career where she’d left off. Julia was surprised by her own envy at Barbara’s renewed commission. She’d left all that behind; yet, there was something to be said for going back to familiar things instead of facing an unknown future. She boarded the next shuttle with Coraolis, Jack, and Dante and sat across from Jack.

  “I know this is all state of the art and our chances of crashing are nil, but I still hate this part,” Jack groaned. “There’s nothing worse than turbulence.”

  “You’ll be fine. Your chances are better since I’m not flying,” Julia told him. S
he reached across the aisle to project a feeling of calm. He relaxed his grip on the chair and sat back. He knew the feeling was artificial, but he felt good enough to land the shuttle himself.

  “If you could bottle that, you’d be a millionaire,” he joked.

  “They have bottled it, you just need a prescription.” She grinned when he laughed and sat back in her seat next to Coraolis.

  The landing was smooth and they were back on Earth. Home. It wasn’t until she breathed the air and stood on the grass that she realized how much she’d missed it. She’d always felt comfortable among the stars, but nothing like terra firma helped one feel ‘grounded.’

  Cor tugged her hand, and they walked in the pale winter sunlight to EFHQ’s administrative building to re-occupy their old life.

  ***

  The moment he stepped into the bar, Jack felt off. He’d been knocking around his new Academy-provided apartment trying to figure out what to do with himself. Space had come at a premium on Hesse and, now, he had too much of it.

  There was no food in the bar. His first thought was to hit the grocery store, but he wound up heading for his old stomping grounds. If things hadn’t changed much, his friends would be at Pete’s about then.

  Harry and Leah talked over drinks in the dimly-lit corner booth. They both looked up and Leah’s face froze, stuck in the smile she’d had before she looked up. Harry stared up at him.

  Jack was confused, then it clicked. He kept his hands at his side, willing himself not to touch his face. He possessed all his old flaws, however his features retained a draconic cast. In the dim setting, his eyes caught light like a cat’s.

  Jack waved, then pointed at the bar. He didn’t need to intrude if they were busy, but the gesture broke Harry out of his paralysis. His buddy pointed at the seat across from them. Leah’s face relaxed into a more natural smile, and she copied Harry’s gesture.

  “Good to see you, Jack.” Harry stood and shook hands, then Leah did the same before they all sat. It felt oddly formal, like walking into a job interview.

  “Jack, I almost didn’t recognize you,” Leah said.

  Harry elbowed her.

  “What? Are we not going to acknowledge that?” she asked, waving her hand around her own face.

  Jack chuckled. “I know what I look like. It’s just a side effect.”

  “A side effect of what?” she asked.

  “Too much NyQuil and gamma rays.”

  A waiter came by, and Jack ordered his usual. Or maybe it wasn’t usual, after being away for so long, but ordering a whiskey sour was still ingrained. When the waiter disappeared, he turned back to see the bald anger on Leah’s face.

  “You must think this is funny.”

  Harry winced. “Leah, he just got back.”

  “And you were agreeing with everything I said not thirty minutes ago,” she snapped. “Here’s this guy we thought we knew. He goes off to become a Mystic then runs away to…what? Undermine Earth Fleet? What were you doing out there, Jack?”

  “I wasn’t undermining—” he started.

  Leah plowed on. “And after all this time, you walk in here like you never left, like you never disappeared for months without letting us know you were alive.” Her voice climbed in pitch and volume with every word. She refused to hear Jack’s attempts to break in and apologize. By the time she was done, her voice shook, and she shoved herself out of her seat. “I need to freshen up. Be gone when I get back, Gagnon.”

  Harry and Jack watched her go, Jack with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. She was right. He’d ditched her, and everything he knew, because he’d found a new calling. He hadn’t meant to trade in the people with the job, but here he was.

  “She’s upset,” Harry said.

  “I see that.” Jack sent payment through his datapad. He’d be gone before his drink came, and he didn’t want to dump the tab for his drink on them.

  “She was worried about you, Jack.”

  “Was she? What about you?”

  “When I got your message, I flipped out. Leah was the one who talked me down.” Harry laughed humorlessly. “I’m glad I could be of service, but I don’t want to only be of service. You get me?”

  Jack nodded. He got it. He wished he didn’t. He’d like to take the moral high ground, but the fact was he’d been busy. Even before he left Earth the first time, he’d had different priorities.

  He stood. “Maybe we can talk sometime, Harry. It’s a little hard to send messages from the other side of the galaxy, you know…but I should have tried harder.”

  “Yes, you could have.” Harry saluted him with his glass. “Now get out of here before Leah comes back. She got mean the last few months.”

  Jack wasn’t sure if that was a joke or not. At least they hadn’t done a song and dance about treason, but that was in the background.

  A ground shuttle was at the curb, so he got in and took a seat by the window. The bus was mostly empty, with only a pair of elderly men in the back. Then three young guys smelling of alcohol got on and sat across the aisle. The center seats faced the aisle, so he got to watch them stare at him.

  “Hey, buddy,” one of them grinned.

  “Evening,” Jack said.

  “What the hell are you?” one of them demanded.

  “Human. If you want to get specific, I’m a Mystic.” Jack smiled. He wanted to keep this pleasant. Winter hadn’t sunk its fangs in yet, but it was still chilly, and he didn’t have a good winter jacket.

  “Liar,” the first one growled. “No human looks like that. Not even a Mystic.”

  “I dunno, maybe all of them should get marked like this. Then we can tell the freaks apart.”

  “Or you could tattoo our foreheads,” Jack said. “I assure you, I’m as human as you are.”

  “Wait a minute. You’re one of them runaway Mystics, ain’t you?”

  Jack winced, and that was all it took to convince them. They started whispering among themselves, glancing in his direction occasionally. After the second time, he stood up, stretched, and sauntered to the front of the bus.

  “Hey, you gotta sit down,” the driver snapped.

  Jack dropped into the nearest seat and glanced back. His fan club was just sitting down again. That wasn’t good. If they were planning to follow him off the bus, that meant trouble.

  “Don’t look at me for help. In my day, traitors got the firing squad.”

  Jack blinked and realized he was staring in the general direction of the older men. They were both frowning.

  “Sorry?” he said.

  “You. Jack Gagnon. Butcher of Ian’s World? I read the paper. You come back here and aren’t in jail? There’s something wrong with the world.”

  “I guess the retraction and clarification didn’t get as much air time. No matter, I’m just trying to get home.” He didn’t want any trouble. He wanted to go to the bodega across from his apartment, get the makings of a cheese sandwich, and go home. He could live on sandwiches until he got to a grocery store.

  He noticed the vehicle had stopped. The driver shot him a dirty look. Jack’s stomach sank as he realized what this meant before the man even opened his mouth.

  “Guess I’ll walk from here.”

  Jack stepped off into a busy shopping district. His gaze met a brown-haired woman’s stare, and she flinched away. He ducked his head and turned away. There was a time he could blend in with a crowd, but that was over, and he didn’t want to cause a riot. He turned onto a side street, hoping to put some distance between him and the shuttle before his ‘admirers’ followed.

  “Hey, where you going? We just want to talk!”

  Crap. He broke into a run. Their footsteps pounded the sidewalk behind him. He might be able to lose them if he went all out, but he had a better idea. He cut into an alley and stopped. It was a dead end. He ducked behind the dumpster and crouched.

  Back on January, he’d figured out how to keep from being noticed. It wasn’t invisibility. He’d show up on camera, but wh
ile an observer was within range, they just wouldn’t notice him. Their focus bounced away to the nearest object or person, and their minds erased his presence.

  The trio stopped at the entrance to the alley. He heard them laughing. They knew he’d be behind the dumpster. There was nowhere else to hide, except maybe inside of it. Their footsteps echoed as they came closer, taking their time because they’d already won.

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Feet in a pair of worn sneakers walked out in front of him and turned. He risked a glance up. The group’s spokesman was staring almost directly at him, only with his focus slightly to the left. He grimaced, his physical senses fighting the mental compulsion. Jack felt the struggle, but he couldn’t fix it without moving, and moving might tip the scales against him.

  Nothing to see here. He kept projecting that thought, visualizing it as a tattoo on the guy’s forehead. I didn’t turn when you thought I did. C’mon.

  The guy rubbed his eyes, then reached for the dumpster. He got one whiff of the contents and reeled back.

  “This ain’t worth it,” he muttered and walked away. “Guys. He’s gone. Let’s get a drink, huh?”

  “What do you mean he’s gone? He ran in here. I saw him!”

  “Yeah, well, he’s gone now. Either he climbed the wall like a freakin’ gecko, or he can fly.”

  “I don’t flippin’ believe it.” Heavy boots stomped into the alley. Jack watched them come into sight, turn in a slow circle, then move up on the dumpster. A wave of stench hit him again, then the lid crashed shut.

  “Whatever,” the doubter muttered, then clomped out of the alley. “We getting a drink or what?”

  He kept up the ‘look away’ vibe until their voices faded to nothing. He waited another few minutes to satisfy his paranoia, then stood. Maybe he could use his mojo to hide his less-human features. He’d never tried a disguise.

  That idea washed away when the dizziness hit him like a tsunami. He was almost tapped out; apparently, it was harder to fool people when their gut told them the truth. Maybe he should spring for a taxi.

  “There you are.”