Did I want a shot with Chelsea? We barely knew each other. I’d tackled her attacker and gotten my face smashed in. He’d run off, then we’d walked away, and that was it. I hadn’t really done anything to help her, but she’d convinced herself I had. Already, I’d failed to live up to that guy I’d been in the alley. Would she even be interested in me if she knew how non-hero-like I was? And could I risk starting something with her, knowing she was Atlantean—someone my own parents wouldn’t hesitate to destroy?
The doors slid open on Level 2. I came to a stop outside the Briefing Room door. Maybe meeting her months ago wasn’t random, and maybe that’s why I couldn’t let it go now. Something tugged on my brain, like I had the answer buried deep inside somewhere, but nothing burrowed forward.
I gave up and looked through the porthole window on the door. Chelsea wasn’t inside. No one was. My surge of courage dissipated in an instant.
I trailed back to the Lift, determined to find out who’d escorted her. Dave, probably. He’d found her in the storage closet. But if Valerie had gotten to Chelsea before me and filled her head with thoughts of Lemuria, I didn’t know what I’d do.
I jabbed the Dining Decks button on the Lift’s control panel. It shouted a long, high-pitched beep at me before complying.
“Yeah, whatever.”
Every piece of machinery on this station was fighting me today.
The Dining Decks contained two floors connected by stairs, with food lines on each. They weren’t segregated for military and civilian, though birds of a feather and whatever. I always ate on the main deck, oftentimes alone.
Chelsea sat across from Dave with a near-empty tray of food. Seeing her was like hearing a slow song accelerate. It squeezed my lungs then released them at the sight of her. I grabbed a dish of mystery meat and mashed potatoes and approached their table. “Hey.”
They both looked up. Dave gestured for a chair. “Evening, sunshine. Finally decide to join the land of the waking?”
I ignored him and turned to Chelsea. “I meant to come by earlier to take you to dinner.” Translated: I could have come by, but my computer work was more important. I couldn’t keep eye contact with her, knowing the truth.
She either didn’t notice or chose not to call me on it. “It’s fine. I worked on my thesis until Dave came. What I could do from memory, anyway.”
“I barely dragged her away from the computer.” Dave pointed the end of his fork at me. “It’s like you and your work, I swear.”
“Workaholic?” Chelsea asked.
“More like it seems to pile up no matter what I do,” I replied. Which was truer now than ever before. I foresaw many nights at the Humming Bird console in Engineering. “Besides,” I said to Dave, “You’ve got at least a novel’s worth of a to-do list written on your hand. It’s the most professional I’ve ever seen you.”
He looked down at the words with a smirk. “Whatever. Speaking of your work, maybe she’ll listen to you. Chelsea doesn’t trust submarines.”
I gave her a sidelong glance, rewarded by a flush of her cheeks. Maybe I had a shot after all. “Why not?”
“It’s just not natural, okay?” She folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t like flying, either. Humans are meant for solid ground.”
I swallowed a laugh. If I’d never been on a submarine before either, I supposed I’d be just as nervous. “The station’s completely safe. It’s not going to sink.”
“Yeah, whatever. I’m more worried about teleporting across the globe again, anyway, Dave.” She pinned him with a look caught between a glare and a smile.
He grinned and raised his hands. “Just wanted to get it out there, that’s all.”
I couldn’t hold it in anymore, and Dave laughed along with me. Chelsea’s arms dropped. She smiled, small and guarded.
“For the record, Helen thinks the powers are event-based,” I pulled out of my ass. Chelsea clearly needed some kind of reassurance, and, although I couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t teleport again, Helen always said her powers had first appeared in a combination of something bad happening and emotional strain. “As long as you don’t go through the same emotional stress, you should be okay.”
Chelsea sat up straighter, one eyebrow rising a centimeter in time with her upper lip. “Well, that’ll be easy since Lexi isn’t here,” she mumbled.
A cough came from Dave’s direction, and he gathered his things. “I have to get to Engineering. If you need anything, Chelsea, have Trevor let me know.” He stood and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
She nodded, but her heavy sigh told a different story.
Dave left on purpose. He didn’t do girl drama. He was into some Navigation and Analytics (or NANA) worker here a few months ago, but she’d played way too many mind-games for someone who worked in NANA. I hadn’t blamed him for ending it. Dave was a nice guy, and, at thirty-seven, he deserved to find someone who wasn’t incapable of holding down a relationship. Not that being a sailor helped that any.
Chelsea seethed in silence beside me.
I took a bite of mystery meat before approaching the topic. “So, what happened with this Lexi?”
She didn’t say anything.
“I mean, it’s not any of my business or anything. I—”
“She’s a bitch, all right? Stuff happened right before that guy attacked me behind the Franklin. Cheating boyfriend and a mugger.”
“Oh. Sorry.” I shouldn’t have asked.
She waved me off. “It’s fine. I keep trying to get over it, but she makes it impossible.”
“How so?” Though I suppose the answer was related to what brought Chelsea here to begin with.
Her cheeks reddened again. “Let’s just say Lexi knows how to make a spectacle of us—and not in a good way.”
Air filled my cheeks. I blew it out slowly. “I wish I’d been there to stop it, like last time.” I startled. Really, Trevor? Our eyes met, hers wide and questioning. Foot in mouth again, I raised a hand. “I didn’t—”
She shed a small smile. “Thanks.”
I smiled back. I did wish I’d been there. Even on the night at the Franklin, I’d wondered what might have happened differently if I’d gotten outside sooner than I did… or if I’d arrived later. I shuddered at thoughts of the latter. No one would hurt her ever again. Not on my watch.
A flash of red hair and a pale yellow uniform reset the tension as quickly as losing a boss fight on the last level of a new game. Valerie stood behind Chelsea, coffee in hand, with a grin that gave the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland a run for its money. The arrogance—a promise to ruin my day, I was sure—hitched my breath. Chelsea’s eyes shrank, and her eyebrows furrowed at my sharp inhale. She followed my gaze to Valerie.
“Can I help you?” I asked Valerie, my tone cold.
She shrugged, circling the table until she sat in the seat Dave had vacated. “I came to keep Chelsea company. Chief Tanner said your pet bird is on the fritz again, so here I am.” She sipped her coffee, smiling around the edge of the cup before extending a hand to Chelsea. “I’m Valerie. Bio engineering.”
Chelsea offered Valerie a tight smile along with her hand, her eyes skeptical. Valerie wouldn’t win Chelsea over right away. I breathed easier, knowing our secrets might stay hidden for that much longer.
“Hi,” Chelsea said, clipped.
“So, archaeology, yeah?” Valerie asked. “I almost studied that in college, but bio engineering took up a lot of my time. Maybe you can teach me a thing or two.”
Chelsea leaned back in her chair, unenthused and uninterested. “Sure. I’m not big on bio engineering, though. I won’t have questions to swap.”
Valerie waved her hand. “I’m sure there’s something we could exchange.”
I choked on my soda at Valerie’s thinly veiled intentions. She thought Chelsea lied about not knowing her ancestry, and that she had war secrets to share. The carbonated liquid jumped pipes, drowning my lungs instead of fi
lling my stomach. They both watched me, amusement wrinkling their eyes, and even Chelsea didn’t seem concerned.
My eyes met Valerie’s, daring her to continue her train of thought, as I beat my chest. She kept grinning. She wouldn’t tell Chelsea everything, would she? Or corner her? Threaten her?
I gulped and counted the ways I could get in trouble for not assisting Chief Tanner, for not leaving for Engineering this very moment. Answer: too many. Dammit.
Chelsea
’d like to think I’m not one to jump to conclusions, but the thought made me a liar. All I knew for sure was Valerie made Trevor uncomfortable, which sent my hands into a jittery frenzy. Aside from Dave, the only other person I trusted on this stupid satellite station was Trevor. Dave hadn’t sent me directly to the Brig, and Trevor had come clean about lying and undone my cuffs. So, anyone who made my champions uneasy didn’t sit well with me, either.
Our shoes clanged against the metal grating as we walked the corridors of SeaSat5. Valerie reminded me of all the girls on orientation day my first week of college. Nice and friendly, all wanting to establish some sort of pecking order on campus. Her questions seemed innocent—how are you doing; crazy stuff that’s happening, huh?—but the winding way she steered me around the station left me wondering about SeaSatellite5 itself and their mission directive. How many people worked here? How many “interns” did this place employ? Why all the interns in the first place for something supposedly super top secret?
Nothing on this research station made sense. Doctors who studied people with powers. Kid geniuses and recent graduates working internships out of their league. Civilians employed on a military base. What had I gotten myself into?
“The ship is designed in Levels,” Valerie said. She pressed her hands behind her like a soldier, left hand clasping the right, but her hair cascaded in a fiery mane right down to her shoulders.
“There’s five of them,” she continued, “although, you’ll spend most of your time on levels three and four, Science and Residency. You’ll actually be rooming with me—I found out before I came to get you.”
“We’re roomies?” I asked. No one had told me. Though I supposed no one had to.
Valerie nodded. “I have the open space and volunteered. Better than ending up in a triple, and you’ll be only a deck away from Trevor.”
“I guess.” I’d never had a dorm room in college. Never lived anywhere but home, either. I wasn’t sure I could handle a roommate. “What about the rest of the decks?”
“There’s a dozen or so single-quarters for the senior officers, senior civilian staff, and those of us who happened to luck into it. Some of the work Trevor and I do is high up, like his Humming Bird system.”
“So he doesn’t have a pet bird?” That he owned a bird underwater made little sense, but they had all talked like the bird existed. Did that mean Trevor had a single room? My stomach fluttered, and my face warmed. Who said he even thought that way about me?
“No,” Valerie said. “That’s what we call the ballast system responsible for SeaSatellite5 changing between a fast-moving sub and an anchored stationary research outpost for long-term missions. The ship’s basically a mobile science station, hence the term ‘satellite.’”
“So, if the ship can remain stationary, with parts above the surface, then how is SeaSat5 a top secret station?” I asked.
“Good question.” She stopped walking and clapped her hands together, a bright smirk on her lips. “We have a cloak. Pretty sci-fi, right?”
Well, they had every solution ready to go, didn’t they? “Yeah, sure.” Sci-fi, indeed. And, quite unfortunately, military. Cloaks meant no transparency. Even if for the right reasons, non-transparent projects made me cringe.
“You don’t look as excited as most newbies,” Valerie said, bumping her shoulder into mine.
I swallowed down my first retort: It’s been my experience that if you can’t say what you’re doing, then you shouldn’t be doing it at all. They probably had their reasons, so whatever. But I had to know.
“The secrecy just makes me question what’s going on here,” I said. “I mean, you’ve got a scientist on board happily conducting human research on people like me, who don’t come around often enough to warrant her working here at all.” I was sure Dr. Gordon had other research interests, and that’s how she’d become employed. Dr. Gordon’s research wasn’t what I questioned. I hoped Valerie read between the lines, the ones suggesting the military’s condoning of Dr. Gordon’s research wasn’t entirely ethical.
Valerie started walking again, so I followed.
“That’s not your real question,” she said.
“No.”
“Dr. Gordon has a wide variety of interests, mostly sea creatures. But her side project, my guess, is her true passion: understanding her abilities and those of people like you. As for the question you’re not asking, no, the military isn’t trying to weaponize them.”
I would. Black-ops with the power to teleport in and out of hazardous missions? It was a no-brainer.
“Then why all the secrecy?” I asked.
She stopped again, eyeing me like an impatient parent. Her glance curled my fists out of habit, out of experience dealing with Lexi.
“SeaSatellite5 is a multi-million-dollar endeavor,” she said. “The station consists of technology not yet known—at least publically—to most of the world. Take Trevor’s rotational ballast system, for example, or his resulting shield capable of thwarting torpedo strikes like nothing else the Navy has on tap. This station is a bypr—” Valerie shook her head. “This station is part of a concerted effort to look for viable oceanic energy, residency, and research alternatives to many of the U.S.’s land-based programs. Should we be fully equipped for war? No. But what do you expect when scientists pair up with the military to exploit their funding?”
I froze mid-step, unable to agree. “Hide the boat, cover up the expenditures to build it… in return for what? The U.S. sharing research?” So backhanded when the work they did here was so innovative.
Her eyebrows popped up. “Try not to dig so deep into something that’s only politics. We’re here, and we’re doing research. Enjoy the internship while you can.”
I set my eyes on some distant point down the steel-coated corridor. “I will.”
We continued in silence to the end of hallway and turned right, following a sign pointing to stairs. Painted lines adorned some of the walls and continued around corners. A string of numbers and letters embellished a sign at the start of every new hallway. How anyone never got lost, I didn’t understand.
“So, powers, huh?” Valerie asked out of the blue. “Cool.”
I forced myself to breathe before responding. This misplaced frustration needed to go away. “Not really. I keep thinking I’m going to do it again and teleport somewhere else I shouldn’t be.” The word still tasted weird on my tongue. Foreign. Wrong.
“Have you always been able to teleport?” Valerie, however, had no issue with the word. What did she say her internship here was in, bio engineering?
“No. Today’s the first time it’s happened.”
“Interesting.”
I rolled my eyes as we climbed a flight of stairs. “I wish people would stop using that word. It’s not interesting or cool.”
“Then what do you call it?”
“Inconvenient.” Mortifying. The proverbial straw on an already bad day. Why does she even care?
Valerie remained quiet until we stopped outside a set of doors inlaid on a wall, halfway down the corridor. She spun to me and smiled. “Here’s your quarters for tonight.” She pointed to a sign—GUEST QUARTERS A. “You can move into our shared room when you return for the start of your internship. I’m sure Trevor or Dr. Gordon will come by later to check on you, but I can go ahead and show you around.”
At this point, I almost wanted no one to come. If Valerie left soon, it’d be my first time alone since accepting Dr. Gordon’s ridiculous job offer. I needed time to
think, to regroup. To figure out how the hell I’d ever play a show with Phoenix and Lobster again without dematerializing mid-chorus. Assuming, of course, they still wanted me to front their band after ditching the Battle of the Bands show.
Valerie dug into her pockets, pulled out a white, plastic keycard, and swiped it through a reader to the right of GUEST QUARTERS A’s door. The light on the reader blinked from yellow to green, then the door slid open. A grey-walled room greeted me, with lead-colored flooring and basic furniture. A splash of navy blue colored the pillows on the bed, off-setting all the grey.
So simple. So… dorm room.
“I know, it’s nothing fancy,” Valerie said. “Bathroom’s through that side door, and there are uniforms in the dresser. They took a guess on the size. If you need something else, let me know. I think that’s it.”
I nodded despite my whirring thoughts about the job, Valerie, Trevor, and the station itself. “Thank you for showing me around. I think I actually want to rest now.” And figure out what happened to my life over the past twelve hours.
Valerie nodded. “Long day?”
“You have no idea. It’s also like two in the morning for me.”
“Time zones, right. I’ll leave you, then.” She took a few steps toward the door and then turned around. “Look, I get a feeling we got off on the wrong foot.”
Gee, I wonder why? “I didn’t mean to push the cloak stuff,” I offered.
She tapped her open palm on the doorframe. “You looked uncomfortable on the Dining Decks earlier.”
I lifted my hands in surrender. “Seriously, this has been the most confusing day of my life. Let’s call it even and start over, okay?” I tried to smile, to make the peace seem genuine when really I just wanted to be left alone.
Valerie returned the smile and stuck out her hand. “I’m Valerie McAllister.”
“Chelsea Danning.”
“Welcome to the SeaSat5 crew, Chelsea. We might not get to work together a lot, but know you can find a friend in me. There are a lot of interns here, older than us and fresh out of masters programs, so you won’t be as out of place as you believe you are, even as an undergrad.”
Gyre (Atlas Link Series Book 1) Page 6