Slate eyes flicked down to her lips and back up. He smiled. It was the Devil’s smile.
“It was a pleasure seeing you again, Aimee.” He took a step back. “I’m sure we’ll run into each other real soon. With Zak gone, you might consider looking elsewhere for ummm—” his lips pursed in consideration, “—companionship. There is only so much a JOH can handle.”
Revulsion made the bile rise in her throat.
“Back off.” She crowded him again, their eyes locked in a duel.
A familiar flutter of fall leaves marked the opening of the training chamber.
Heavy footfalls sounded and the flash of a mirror collided with the panorama of stars.
“Is there a problem here?” Corluss asked in a husky tone.
Salvan strode up to him and waved his hand before the silver band around Corluss’s head. “What would you know? You are blind and you are old. Do you think you’re keeping it a secret that you’re training these rejects? Do you think people care?” Salvan’s voice pitched. “They pity you. They believe you and your students are pathetic.” Stepping aside, he tossed Aimee a cold smile. “So no need to be so secretive. None of you will ever set foot in a terra angel.”
On a screech of boot against marble, Salvan turned and marched towards the door. Only after the confirming click that it had closed did Aimee release the adrenaline. It flooded out so fast and so hard she staggered a step, seeking something to hold onto, but there was nothing. Only Corluss, and he looked as congenial as a riled porcupine.
She bent over, planting her hands on her knees as she gulped in a deep breath.
“That’s it. One more.”
Aimee shot an incredulous glance up at the gleaming scalp.
“One more what?”
“Deep breath. You lost a lot of tension with that last one.”
How the hell do you know?
“When you released your breath it was very ragged, but it smoothed out towards the end,” he answered her unvoiced question. “One more and you should reduce some of your blood pressure.”
“You’re a doctor too?”
She wasn’t in the mood for this magician’s parlor tricks. The blood he spoke of pounded inside her head, and the beat kept repeating, he’s dead, he’s dead.
“I wouldn’t have let him hurt you, but you were doing fine on your own.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” She rounded on him.
“I entered the chamber from an alternate access a few minutes ago. I moved to the front door and waited to make my presence known.”
Aimee searched the murky walls, but she wasn’t in the mood to relax and try to read them. “What alternate entrance? I thought there was only one way in and one way out.”
“You thought wrong.” He smiled.
She realized it was the first full-fledged smile she had ever seen on Corluss. Too bad she didn’t share in his mirth.
“You were spying on me?” she accused.
“No. I had come to see how you were making out with the star laser when I realized that scientist was in here. It didn’t take a sighted man to pick up the vibes of hostility in the room.” Corluss crossed his arms, which yanked his suit tight across his biceps. “I must admit, I wanted to see how you handled yourself.”
“Son of a—”
“Excuse me?” He signaled towards the far wall. “Shoot that vora symbol, Aimee.”
“What?” Anger impaired her hearing.
“Shoot it. Now.”
With her feet still planted firmly in the opposite direction, Aimee swung her shoulder back, hefted the star laser, and fired at the mushroom. The baseball-sized orb of light fell dead-center of the emblem.
Corluss looked pleased. “Well done.”
Dumbfounded, she gazed at the star laser and then the tarnished ring inside the mushroom. “I’ll be damned,” she whispered.
“I would have stopped him, you know.” Corluss stared straight ahead. “If he had tried anything more than verbal intimidation, I would have stopped him.”
The heavy weapon dropped to her thigh. “You wouldn’t have had to.”
They shared an unspoken understanding, and then Corluss added, “You will make a good Warrior, Aimee.”
“He tried to kill me once.” That pulsing blue wand had come so close to slicing her abdomen.
Corluss let his arms fall. “Yes. I am aware of the history there.”
“Why did they release him?”
“It just happened recently. His time was up and he was freed from the detention satellite, but with no credentials and no access to the labs. They say he wanders the corridors of the Horus talking to himself.” Corluss cleared his throat. “It’s just a matter of time before he enters the mental health wing.”
That didn’t pacify her, but a more pressing thought was on her mind. “He said that none of us will ever set foot in a terra angel. I realize his words stem from malice, but—”
“I’m not going to lie. It isn’t going to be easy to get onto one. We are not far from Ziratak now and the Warriors have met to select the team. There are but a few who have volunteered for the mission.”
Her free hand curled into a fist. “How quickly they forget him.”
“In their defense, Aimee, there is a good chance that this is a one-way mission.”
“Bah.” She whirled away and stalked towards the glass wall, searching the conflux of planets for inhabitable signs...clouds...water. There were none. “You can all keep your negativity. I won’t have any of it. I will believe, Corluss. I will believe that I am going to find Zak and bring him back here.”
“What if he doesn’t want to come back?”
“Five years. Nothing will keep me away. But if you are not in those woods, I will understand. I will understand that you have a new life.”
Zak’s last declaration haunted her. Had he found a new life? Was that why he did not come back?
“Then I need to hear that from his lips.” She turned around and strode up to the blind man. “Find me a terra angel—and teach me how to fly it.”
To see herself in his reflective lens was disconcerting. Shadows lingered within normally vibrant eyes. Her cheeks were flushed with anger, and the sparkly white shirt clung to a chest still heaving with anxiety.
Looking into that mirror, it felt as if Corluss was staring back at her—yet, she was painfully aware that the eyes behind this barrier were lifeless.
“Your co-Warrior is already ahead of you,” his deep tone rumbled.
In the reflection her dark eyebrows knotted into a frown. “What are you talking about?”
Up close, Aimee realized that Corluss’s face wasn’t so much old as it was weathered. A beard of tiny white scars circled his jaw as if a pane of glass had exploded in his face, and the bald cranium did not seem a byproduct of age, as it too possessed a cap of precise scars. What could have blinded this man, scarred his face, and nearly destroyed his head?
The Koron’s solar ray.
And she was about to put herself in the path of one.
“What are you talking about?” she repeated.
“Gordeelum,” Corluss explained. “He has a ship he wants to pilot.”
Something about the twist of the man’s lips told Aimee that he was suppressing vital information.
“Can you take me to this ship?”
“Of course.” Corluss bowed and stepped back.
“How,” she challenged. “How do you find your way around if you are blind? Are you even really blind, or is this all a big hoax?”
She regretted the question the second it was out, but she was in pain—emotionally wounded. In that state, little consideration went into her words.
For a moment, all Aimee heard was the sprinkling of pebble-sized meteorites tapping against the glass wall. Celestial snowfall. Then she heard the fabric of Corluss’s shirt as he lifted his arm and hefted off his eye shield. Crowding her, stark, lifeless eyes glared at her shoulder. She was grateful for that trajectory because
if they had hit their mark she feared she would have lost her soul in the empty orbs.
Yes, she regretted her question. There was no denying that these eyes were dead. No matter a person’s eye color, if you delve into their irises, you will find a thousand distinct specks blending to form the overall hue. Each grain represents a unique thumbprint—a trace of heritage. One’s eyes might be blue, but that single brown spot came from a grandmother, or that short sliver of green came from great-grandparents, or the mottled yellow dots wormed their way in from relatives never heard of. No matter what—the iris was a diverse canvas filled with the paint of a thousand generations.
But not in this man. In this man she saw no past. She saw no future. It was a stark white slate. Curse the Korons for taking that beauty away.
“This is no hoax, Aimee.” He hauled the silver band back over his eyes, severing that disturbing view. “If you lost an arm, would you not adapt and use your other? If you lost your ears would you not read the breaths across other’s lips?”
The band of muscles atop his thin eyebrows relaxed. “We adapt Aimee. It’s what we do.”
“If I could not fly a terra angel,” she murmured, “Would I not adapt and find another way to get to Ziratak?”
When the smile tugged at the corners of Corluss’s lips, Aimee saw the reflection of her own in his mirrored shield.
“Exactly,” he nodded. “You have done good here today. Let’s go see what your compromise is.”
* * *
To his credit, Corluss was very adept in the halls. If you passed by him you would never know he was visually impaired—well, except for the bright silver halo across the bridge of his nose like an angel on steroids.
Inside the linear transport she posed a challenge, “How do you know when to stop?”
“You don’t have to wait until your destination symbol scrolls by. You can key it in when you board the transport.”
Huh? Five years aboard this ship, and all that time she had slammed her hand down on the rapidly scrolling images to catch the one she wanted to disembark at.
“Show me how.” Great. She was asking a blind man. What did that say about her skills?
He reached up to the strip of flashing symbols and ran his fingertips along the right-hand rim of the frame. Sliding those fingers in about an inch, he traced a diagonal line. It looked like a backslash. When he pressed on it another horizontal bar appeared with static symbols. Sliding his fingertips down this bar he scanned until he found the image he was looking for and depressed it. The linear transport began to move and was soon sliding alongside the Horus on its way to—she identified the symbol—the flight deck.
“Sit back and enjoy the ride.”
That would be nice, but there were no chairs inside the transport. Instead, Aimee placed her hands on the bar in front of the glass panel and watched the conflux of planets reduce in size as the Horus passed them by on its quest to a new galaxy. A galaxy not very far from Ziratak.
Her heart beat in triple time.
Unstable, she stumbled two steps to the right. Dammit. For all the sophistication of this vessel, couldn’t someone have engineered better brakes?
“Follow me, Aimee.”
Follow the blind man.
To her left was the entrance to the launch bay. It was marked with murals of past missions. It was also identified by the rugged tympani of power modules and the chorus of orders volleyed in a foreign dialect. At this distance it was just a milieu of undertones, but Aimee was anxious to be a part of that activity. For her, the launch bay was a mecca for engineers with its sleek-designed space craft not yet conceived on Earth. It was a technology to make her mouth water—an adrenalin rush.
Here, everyone’s role was equally important. Each took part in something so epic with the launch of these exquisite vessels. And these men, these talented mechanics, engineers, Warriors…these men had all banded together to save her and Zak when they crash-landed on this very flight deck. Their skills humbled her and she wanted to be out there with them, soaking up their knowledge.
“This way.”
Doing a double-take, Aimee was confused when Corluss started off in the opposite direction. So much for following a blind man.
“Corluss, the launch bay is this way.” How could he not hear it?
He didn’t bother to turn his head. “We’re not going there.”
Trailing after him on sluggish steps, she saw a group of three men dressed in sleek silver bodysuits approach from the opposite direction. They were engaged in conversation when one noticed Corluss and Aimee. He nodded at Corluss and then chuckled when the gesture wasn’t reciprocated.
“Hanging out with a different crowd, Corluss?” The man eyed Aimee.
Corluss halted. His head inclined and slowly swerved towards the voice. “She’s much prettier than any of you.”
The group snickered and continued towards the launch bay. Perhaps they represented the utmost in strength and agility. But they weren’t Zak.
“Come on,” Corluss encouraged.
Aimee lengthened her stride so that she could stand abreast of him.
“They disrespect you? Why? Aren’t you a hero?”
The fleshy ridge behind Corluss’s ear pumped in spasm. “Warriors are heroes. I am no longer a Warrior. This generation of Warriors does not pity me. They do not know me.”
Undeterred, Aimee persisted. “What happened? What happened the day you were injured?”
He laughed. “Injured.”
“Blinded, then.”
A JOH floated by and called out, “Hello Aimee” as it continued down the corridor.
Distracted, she turned to discover that Corluss was gone. Where the hell did he go? She paused and inhaled deeply, relaxing and taking a second visual sweep of the walls of the long corridor. There, to her left was the hazy blue outline of a portal, and beyond it, the vague silhouette of a man. She reached out and swiped her hand to draw the panel open and immediately located Corluss on the other side.
“Keep up, Aimee. We have deadlines now. Ziratak is approaching.”
Aimee hurried inside, barely giving the small alley a second glance in her haste to pursue the man that passed through the narrow channel at a brisk pace.
He stopped so abruptly that she collided with him and mumbled an apology. The momentum was enough to push him off his mark. He reached for the wall and ran his hand down it, and then to the right.
“Here.” Aimee reached around him and swiped the handle listening to the rustle of the panel as it evaporated to form an open doorway.
“Thanks,” he muttered. “Get in.”
Aimee followed him into the chamber and almost cried out when she felt motion beneath her feet. The tumble of her stomach indicated they were moving…this time in a vertical ascent.
“Wh-where are we?”
“We’re behind the launch bay.”
“Where are we going?”
“Up.”
Settling into the motion, she responded, “I can tell that, but up to where?”
Slouched in the corner of the tight compartment, he disregarded her question and instead broached another topic. “So you want to know about the Koron battle?”
In the curved angle of his glasses she looked like a dwarf. A confused dwarf.
Crossing her arms, she said, “I gather this means we will be traveling up for a while?”
“It takes two of your seconds for a solar ray to blind a man and destroy his life. We have time.”
The bitterness was a show, she determined. This man harbored great sorrow. “Where did this happen?”
“Out there.” He tipped his head.
In this tight chamber and under this harsh lighting, Aimee could peruse the starburst of scars across his face.
“Korons carry solar rays,” he recited. “But large-scale models are mounted to the face of their war crafts. Our terra angels possess shields to deflect the retina-searing rays. However, in this case, their combat lasers had already batter
ed my windshield. As strong as our screens are, a tiny crack manifested. I was busy readying the oxygen helmet. When the next blast came, it completely shattered the windshield. The explosion ripped through the cabin and destroyed my helmet—and with my face exposed, there was nothing to stop the assault of thousands of shards of alorium from raining down on me.”
Even as he spoke she noticed his hand reach up to rub his blemished chin. He continued in a subdued voice. “All it took was that split second. The pain was so intense I was shocked into opening my eyes and that is when the solar ray hit. To this day I don’t know if it was the agony, the trauma, or the lack of oxygen that knocked me out. The terra angels have sensors to know when the pilot is incapacitated. They are programmed to return to the Horus in such a state. I guess I made it back in enough time for them to revive me and mend some of the wounds to my face. But to this day, no one has ever been able to correct the damage inflicted by a solar ray.”
Aimee jumped when the compartment fell still.
“We’re here.” Corluss stepped up to the door. Her hand on his arm halted him.
“What happened next?”
He froze and stared straight ahead. A muscle jerked above his temple.
“There is nothing more to add. I was blind, and I would never fly again.”
Something about the simplicity of his tale contradicted his assessment. When the door slipped open Aimee did not follow him. Sensing this with a quirk of his head, he listened and waited.
“Is there a problem?” he asked.
“I am trusting you to teach me how to survive as a Warrior.” She saw his shoulders bunch. “I don’t offer up trust like that lightly. I need to know I am being trained by someone that deserves my confidence.”
In a slow pivot, he reached for the doorframe with both his hands. The silver band tilted in her direction. “I was labeled a coward.” His lips thinned. “Is that what you want to hear?”
“For heaven’s sake, why?” She stood ramrod straight in the back corner of the elevator.
Corluss reached up and massaged the skin just above the lenses.
“I really don’t want to talk about it, but you are right. You need to be certain you want to pursue your training with me based on the facts.” A deep breath seemed to settle him. “The TA, the terra angel behind me was exposed when my craft retreated to the Horus. The Korons destroyed it.”
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