I forced myself to take my first deep breath in two hours. I’d sprained Dave’s wrist badly, but I hadn’t known it would happen. Except I did. I did because the entire time I’d sat with Helen, I’d thought about what happened at the Franklin and hadn’t said anything. And now I couldn’t imagine telling her, couldn’t imagine being here anymore because what the hell could these people do for me? Try to smooth out my edges with kind words and attempt training me and my powers like an old dog in obedience school for the first time? No. I’d go to the Captain, rescind my contract, and leave. For good. I’d figure it out on my own where no one else could get hurt. My super strength… it wasn’t normal, and it’d already put one man in a doctor’s care.
“Calm down,” I told myself.
My eyes wandered the walls and I tried orientating myself. A sign on one wall read REACTOR/LS with an arrow to the right, and another had the words ENGINEERING and an arrow pointing to stairs. I wracked my brain for a memory of the schematic Trevor showed me. Great. I was several decks away from the science area, even farther from my guest quarters. Fucking hell.
“Can I help you?” someone asked from behind me.
Lieutenant Trigger-Happy scrutinized me like I was sneaking around on purpose. I wasn’t supposed to wander alone, but that rule had broken the second I’d teleported out of the bathroom to Trevor.
I sighed and resigned to needing help, even if it came from him. “I need to get back to the science decks. I’m lost.”
“How’d you end up down here?” he asked, arms crossing at his chest like he wouldn’t believe a word I said, even if it were the truth.
“My work with Helen went badly. I freaked and teleported again, which I’m sure you’re ecstatic to hear.”
Lieutenant Weyland sucked in a shallow breath and pointed toward the Lift at the end of the corridor. “You’re on the wrong Level. I’ll walk you there.”
“Thank you.”
I tried to be pleasant, but I knew he didn’t like me. He waited for me to start moving then stalked behind me like a prison guard. He stepped in front of me to press the CALL button on the Lift then ushered me inside when the Lift arrived and selected the Level I was supposed to be on. The doors closed, and we were off.
“Next time, do me a favor and use that radio of yours to call for help if you’re lost?” he asked.
“Sure.”
The Lift doors opened at the correct floor.
“This is the main science deck,” Lieutenant Weyland said as we stepped out. “Dr. Gordon will likely be in her office, two doors down on your right.” He pointed down the hallway.
“Thank you,” I said again, turning to stroll away.
He cleared his throat, stopping me. “We got off on the wrong foot when you teleported here.”
I eyed him. “You think?”
Lieutenant Weyland shook his head, an unfitting smile forming. “The second Captain Marks signed you on as a member of this crew, I should have let the grudge go. But you broke through some of the most secure protocols known to this military.”
And thwarted his role as Security Officer in the process.
“Uh… yeah. Sorry. The whole teleporting thing was unintentional, I assure you.” Anyone who still thought I purposely teleported onto military property to see a guy I met once was, at this point, definitely insane.
“I don’t want you to think I’m the bad guy.”
To be honest, I didn’t. He had done his job, something I couldn’t—and wouldn’t—fault him for. What I hadn’t liked was him almost shooting me despite the Captain not finding me a threat.
“I’m the Head of Security,” Lieutenant Weyland said. “I can’t have misunderstandings with the crew. That’s all.”
That was the closest thing to an apology as I was liable to get, so I accepted it in full. “None here. You were doing your job. Thank you for escorting me to the Science Decks.”
Lieutenant Weyland nodded. “Good day, Ms. Danning.”
I flashed him a smile and pushed open the doors to Helen’s office. She wasn’t alone inside.
“Oh, thank god,” Valerie said. She jumped out of a chair and tackle-hugged me. “We were worried!”
“Worried?” I asked, extricating myself from her lanky arms. “We’re half a mile under the ocean. Where would I have gone?”
Valerie made a weird motion with her hands, like she was doing a magic trick and lacked the special effects to make a rabbit appear. “You can teleport.”
“Not on command.”
“Exactly why we worried,” Helen said. “What happened after our call?”
“It’s been longer than a few minutes,” Valerie added. Her eyes rounded around genuine concern, and I felt bad. Kind of.
“I needed to walk around, clear my head. I figured it was okay.” Total lie. I knew it wasn’t fine for me to waltz around a classified military station unattended.
Valerie reached out and held my arm. “Helen told me about Dave. Are you okay?”
“Not really. Does Trevor know I disappeared for two hours?”
“No,” Helen said, shaking her head. “Given all that transpired, I figured it best not to tell him.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Helen leveled me with a look. “I think we’ve discovered a second ability of yours.”
“Second?”
She nodded. “My other associate exhibited super strength, as well. She’s the only other person I’ve seen with Atlantean lineage that has two powers, though we hadn’t had time to explore this one very much.”
Great. Two powers. One to get me lost in the middle of nowhere, and the other to sprain men’s arms. Where was this power three months ago in the Franklin’s back alley?
A lump solidified in my throat. It had been there. I had flung that dude into a wall.
“Why don’t we go grab some lunch or coffee or something,” Valerie suggested. “Get you out of the lab and away from this for a bit.”
My stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and maybe all those stairs had gotten to me. “Yeah, that sounds good.”
Helen locked her hands together in front of her, like she had more to say but wasn’t sure she wanted to. I didn’t give her a chance.
“I’ll see you after, okay?” I asked.
Helen nodded. “Before you leave today, if you can, so we can talk about this. Otherwise I’ll see you when you return.”
I nodded. “Sounds good.”
Valerie and I coasted through the food line on the Dining Decks and retreated to her quarters. Or, I supposed, my quarters, too, if I came back. We sat at a small table to eat, music from a radio playing in the background.
“I know it’s not quite your speed,” Valerie said, referring to the country pouring out of the speakers. “But it’s all I brought with me.”
“Guessing you don’t get good signal down here, either,” I said.
“I wish. Sometimes I throw on a music streaming service. I could do that, if you want.”
I shook my head. “Country’s fine.” She didn’t have to cater to me because I’m her guest. And, country or not, the music soothed my ears, which had gone too long without tunes. If music could be called a drug, I’d be its number one addict. A few hours without music made me stir crazy. But until the country music had graced my ears, I hadn’t even noticed how long it’d actually been, with all the madness going on.
My fingers contorted around the strange chords, itching for my real guitar instead of one made of air. My heartbeat relaxed, along with my mind, and, in a matter of seconds, I’d made up my mind.
“In fact, you can keep playing what you want,” I said. “I don’t think I’m coming back.”
Valerie’s eyes met mine, and I swore a flash of relief flashed across her golden brown irises.
Quickly, she snapped her gaze elsewhere, blinking away whatever thought had passed through her mind. “What? Why? Yesterday you were all for it.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
She
put her sandwich down and leveled her stare. Her dark eyes pinned me to the chair like a predator asking its prey to stay longer before being devoured.
“Because you don’t agree with the ‘cloak and dagger’ business?” she asked. “Everyone has issues with that at some point. You think the bio engineering work I do isn’t subject to questioning because of how we conduct research, under a cloak and a mile of ocean?”
“That’s not what I—” I hadn’t meant to offend her, and that’s not what I didn’t want to stay. “Yeah, that stuff weirds me out, but I get why SeaSatellite5 is classified.”
“Then what’s the problem? You have an once-in-a-lifetime, career-launching opportunity. You’re one of the few, probably only, undergraduates to be given a position on board, and you’re in the very place you need to be to understand your teleportation power. Helen’s the only person on the planet capable of helping you with that.”
“She said there was another—”
Valerie flicked her hand, karate-chopping the air, to cut me off. “She’s studied her ancestral roots to Atlantis practically her entire life. If you want to understand your own ties to the city, you need her. And from what I know about the archaeology field, you need this job to make it.” She paused, letting her words sink in. “So, Chelsea, what’s the problem?”
Blunt much? What if it wasn’t about my career? “I’m a freak.” But even to me, the excuse was getting old. I didn’t want to talk about the real reason.
Valerie’s eyes narrowed. “We all have problems. I wanted to leave when I first boarded, too, because Trevor has the job I should have.” She swallowed hard, her hand clenching around her drink. “But luck sided with him; he got the honors, had the idea, and look where he is.”
Trevor mentioned Valerie’s jealous streak. But how much of it was her fault? Trevor did seem pretty damn lucky, that his doodle freshman year turned into a high profile, albeit classified, career.
“My problem is exactly what happened today,” I amended, skirting around the real issue.
“Teleporting?”
“No. I put Dave in the freaking Infirmary.” My cheeks warmed at the memory. I shook my head. “Yeah, I need this job. And I want it. But not if people are going to get hurt because I’m here and can’t control how hard I hit or touch something, or, I don’t know, hug somebody.”
“And?”
“And what?”
Her lip quirked, not in a laughing sort of way, but like she was egging me on. “Felt like there was an ‘and’ coming.”
So much had been shoved into that unspoken ‘and’ that I didn’t want to touch the subject with a ten-foot pole. But Valerie didn’t back down.
“And,” I said, my hands shaking, “Maybe, for once in my life, I just want normal. Because nothing’s been normal for years. Not since college. Now, I teleport all over, to a guy who’s probably faking his ability to handle it all, and the only job I can find after graduation is as a research assistant on a classified Navy vessel. Where did normal go?”
I sucked in deep breath. It didn’t calm my shaking hands, only added weight onto my already heavy chest. “All I wanted to do after college was archaeology during the day and play shows at night. Somehow get the band a record deal.”
“Then what?” Valerie asked, leaning in.
“That’s it,” I said. “There’s no long-term plan, because any long-term plans I make fail. So, normal for me was that plan, and that’s all I wanted.”
“Life doesn’t always agree with your plans. And rarely does ‘normal’ stay the status quo. I would know.” She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping. “I can’t tell you what to do, and, clearly, anyone who tries is fighting the hardest upward battle known to mankind.”
My face scrunched up. Should I be offended by that? “Thanks?”
A smile edged her lips. “My point is: take the risk. Seize this opportunity while it’s here, because, despite everything else—and I know there’s a lot of everything else—SeaSatellite5 is a fascinating place to be. You’ll be able to gain lab experience, and if we come across any shipwrecks or anything, you’ll be the first one to see them. Board them, if we can. And you’re in the very best place in the world to learn how to control your abilities. Helen’s the best there is. Will it be challenging? Hell yeah.”
Her hand curled into a fist on the table. “I think you’d be stupid to turn this down, or to run because things aren’t working out. The more you work with Helen and practice teleporting, the better you’ll get at it. And if it’s Trevor you’re worried about…” She stuck her tongue in her cheek, mulling over her next words carefully. “He’s a good guy, and he’s not scared away that easily when there’s something he wants at the other end.”
My face flushed hotter. Was I that something he wanted? I hoped so. I hadn’t really noticed it until earlier this morning. I’d been attracted to him since I saw him at the crowd at the Franklin. And the sight of him in the alleyway, tackling the mugger, had taken my breath away. That a complete stranger would put themselves in harm’s way for me—I hadn’t expected it to happen in Boston. Or anywhere.
How stupid I’d been, thinking my feelings for Trevor burned gradually. The magnetism was a sledgehammer, a wrecking ball that slammed into me at the Franklin, with aftershocks that struck every time our eyes met. The feelings weren’t gradual, weren’t grown. They had burst into a slow motion chorus that shattered a quiet song, bringing the rest of the music to life. And maybe, just maybe, Helen’s theory wasn’t bat-shit crazy after all. Maybe Trevor and I were connected on some level, deeply. And maybe, possibly, I liked it.
Would I forever be afraid of hurting someone else? Yes. But maybe teleporting to the one guy who made me feel safe wasn’t such a bad thing. Like Valerie said, life didn’t let us choose whether or not to be normal. And maybe that was okay. Maybe I’d been running for so long that chaos was my new normal. But could chaos be sustainable? Could I hold onto that forever?
“Good to know,” I managed to squeak out. I hoped she couldn’t read my thoughts on my face. If Valerie could, she didn’t say anything about it.
She grinned and said, “Besides, trust me. He’s used dealing with interesting women. He grew up with me, after all.” She winked.
I relaxed into my chair and met Valerie’s eyes. She didn’t look away or say anything, only waited.
“Maybe you’re right,” I said.
“I’ve been known to occasionally be correct, yes,” she replied with a smirk.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks for talking me down. I know we didn’t exactly get off on the right foot.” Which killed me to admit. “You, uh, kind of reminded me of someone I don’t get along with.”
She shrugged it off. “It’s fine. I egged you on about the cloak stuff. And maybe I knew someone once who didn’t have anyone to talk her down.”
“What do you mean?”
“A family friend. Some crazy stuff happened to her, too. She had amazing gifts. Things got rough, and no one was there for her.”
“I didn’t know,” I said, frowning. “I’m sorry. I hope she’s okay.” I almost regretted asking.
Valerie nodded and stretched her arms out before her. “She’s okay now, but I regret not being there. So I’m glad we talked, Chelsea.”
“Me too.” I didn’t know what else to say. Heart-to-hearts weren’t my thing. Thankfully, Valerie seemed to end the conversation. But there was one thing I wondered about. “So, uh, back home, I’m used to partying my nights away.”
Valerie’s eyes lifted to mine, questioning. “Yeah?”
“What do you all do for fun around here?”
She grinned, stood, and turned on her tablet. “Oh, wait until you see this.”
Trevor
ate. That was the name of the game lately. Stuck in work with systems flying off the hook with issues, I’d missed the whole day. Now I was late for dinner, or at least dinner eaten at a normal time.
I glanced at my watch and climbed the last stairc
ase to Valerie’s cabin. Soon to be shared with Chelsea. Frustration had me rubbing my eyes with vigor. I’d eavesdropped on that bit of information while in Engineering all afternoon; one of the other interns complained Valerie no longer had solo quarters and how inconvenient that’d be for them. Supposedly, Valerie invited Chelsea there to start rearranging the room.
Now it was half past seven. Chelsea had to be waiting for me, right?
No, idiot. She didn’t.
The door to Valerie and Chelsea’s cabin stood ajar. Laughter emanated from within. I pushed open the door with two fingers and knocked on the exposed frame. Two heads turned, their laughter stopping. Awkward.
“Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” Valerie replied.
Chelsea gave a wave, smiling from ear to ear. They huddled on the floor around Valerie’s tablet, watching Mega Rush 2. Looked like Michael was still leading the pack.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” I said. “I was looking for Chelsea.”
“Well, you found me.” Chelsea smiled and pointed to the tablet. “You made this game?”
How’d they even patch into it from here? Easy answer: Valerie. Of course.
“Yeah,” I answered.
Amusement and awe danced in her eyes. “This is the coolest game I have ever seen. Ever. And I worked in an arcade for years.”
She worked in an arcade? Closet gamer. Hell if that wasn’t a turn on. And she liked my game, something I’d poured everything into creating. Warmth flooded my chest. The reaction caught me so suddenly, so unexpectedly, I had no response. She liked my game.
“Looks like you screwed them over this time, Trevor,” Valerie said, halting my thoughts. “Michael talked about nothing else when we saw him at lunch, and it’s the first day. What the hell did you do to them?”
I shrugged. “I made the game harder, like they wanted. They should be careful what they wish for next time.”
Valerie chuckled. “Yeah. Definitely. I’m almost glad I’m not playing this time around.”
Gyre (Atlas Link Series Book 1) Page 10