“I’ll contact you if the project is a go,” Morgan says to the two scientists. “Do you have any more questions for Junior Officer Lawrence?”
“Not right now, but can we contact her?” Bertie asks.
“Only through me. For now,” Morgan says.
The ladies leave.
“Come on, I’ll walk back with you.” Beau hooks his arm through mine.
I glance at the door on the left wall. It leads to the monitoring room where Niall’s been watching the camera feeds of the base’s public areas and labs. There’s no audio and no cameras are allowed in the housing units—that would be creepy.
“You don’t have time to say hello,” Beau says.
Annoyed that he read me so well, I drop his arm and head for the exit.
Chuckling, Beau catches up in a few strides. “Too easy. You need to learn how to hide your emotions or Keir will keep slamming you down on the mat.”
Easier said than done. “How long?”
“For what?”
“Until I stop training all day and get to do something else.”
Beau slows. “What else do you want to do?”
I huff. Is he being dense on purpose? “Jarren’s out there. We need to find him and stop him.”
“It’s only been twenty days since you…” He clears his throat. “Actively searching for him may tip him off about you.”
We stop outside my unit. “Then we’ll just have to be subtle about it.”
“It’s not that simple. I can’t even determine where he’s gone in the Q-net or even a hint about his physical location.”
“Even more reason I should be helping you.” When he doesn’t say anything, my fingers itch with the desire to strangle the man. “You saw what I did. It was easy, Beau. You can’t say you weren’t impressed.”
He fights a smile. “I see your ego hasn’t been affected by your recent adventures.”
“Come on, face it, you need your partner.”
“I do.”
Ha! Progress finally. “And Radcliff did say that Junior Officer Lawrence would be helping you track down Jarren.”
“He did.”
Yes! “So what’s the problem?”
“Your parents.”
My excitement deflates. Everyone in my life is overprotective—boyfriend, boss, and my parents. Okay, yes my parents have the biological right to be, but…sheesh. They can’t see anything beyond my lifeless body on the floor. I’m not helpless. After all, I did manage to rescue the security team when Jarren locked them in detention. I sigh. Guess I need to have a private discussion with them.
Beau taps his chest with a finger. “And you didn’t hear it from me. Agreed?”
“Chicken.”
“Damn right. Your mother scares me.”
I can’t help it. I laugh.
Rushing into my room, I change into the comfortable training uniform. Not bothering with shoes, I hurry out into the hallway and stop in surprise. Niall is standing in front of his unit. His hand hovers over the lock mechanism. Oh-eight-hundred already?
“You’re late,” he says with a smile.
“Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the entrance to the pits?” I counter.
“I get thirty minutes to eat breakfast.”
Ah. He opens his door and I follow him inside.
“What do you think you’re doing? Keir’s gonna—”
“I’m already late. The damage is done. Besides, I need a hug.”
He raises an eyebrow. “The meeting didn’t go well?”
“It was fine. Just…” I rub my arms. “Memories.”
Niall pulls me in close. I’m pressed against his chest. Feeling safe and warm, I listen to his heartbeat. Strong and steady. He rests his cheek on the top of my head. We stay like that for…a while.
I draw back and meet his gaze.
“Better?” he asks.
“Yes, thanks.”
He dips his head down for a quick kiss. “Then you should skedaddle.”
“Is that a real word or did Beau make that up?” I ask.
“Knowing Beau, he found it in some obscure file. And you’re procrastinating.”
“I know, but I wanted to talk to you about tonight. After dinner, I need to have a conversation with my parents alone. Can I meet you in the rec room later instead of us hanging out on the couch?”
“Sure.” His forehead creases in concern. “Is something wrong?”
“No. I’ll tell you about it later.”
“All right. Now—”
“I’m going, I’m going.”
I race through the hallways until I reach the training room.
Officer Elese Keir is doing a kata with a knife. A kata is a predetermined set of moves, like a waltz, to help you when fighting. So you don’t just punch once and hope for the best, but follow that move up with a kick and a jab and a roundhouse because that combination has been drilled into you so it’s automatic. It’s a part of martial arts, which I’ve also been learning.
Elese is wearing a tank top instead of the standard long-sleeved tunic. Her arms and shoulders are wrapped with muscles. The fluorescent lights shine off a sheen of sweat on her dark skin. As I watch her, I learn two things. One, she’s been going easy on me, and, two, there’s a grace and deadly beauty to the kata. Her fluid movements make me question if she is who I should aspire to be. If I’m going to choose to stay in security when I reach my eighteenth birthday, this physical conditioning would be an integral part of my life. And she’s a perfect role model…well, no one’s perfect, but she’s close.
However, the star roads call to me. I learned how to dive deep into the Q-net and navigate the star roads during my internship with Chief Hoshi on the Interstellar Class space ship. And the view of the universe from the bridge…there isn’t a word to describe the overwhelming amazement it stirs deep inside me. But to join DES as a navigator means leaving my family and perhaps Niall—if he decided to stay on the planet—far in the past.
“You’re late, Recruit,” Elese barks at me. The knife is still in her hand and she waves it at me. “What happened? Couldn’t get your pampered ass out of bed? Did you need more beauty sleep?”
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
“What? No excuses?”
“No. It’s on me. Late is late.” I just quoted my mother. Kill. Me. Now.
“Refreshing. Too bad it won’t help you. You’re ten minutes late so times that by ten and…give me a hundred laps around the room, a hundred push-ups, and a hundred sit-ups. Go!”
Yikes. I jog around the training room. It’s not huge like the base’s port, but it’s a decent size. Running thirty laps has been a part of my training so I’m not winded right away. One thing about this type of physical exercise, it allows my mind to go in a different direction. I mull over the problem of Jarren. He’s managed to get deep within the Q-net. Before we identified him, we called him the super worm because of his mad skills entering secured DES areas and covering his tracks. And he must have access to the star roads. How else can he travel this far out?
Except there’s no indication that he used a star road or that he did a time jump. To get to Yulin, my family traveled on the ship for ninety days, but we jumped fifty Earth years into the future due to the time dilation. I’m actually a hundred and eighty-four Earth years old, but since I’ve done three time jumps, I’ve only lived seventeen Actual years. Confusing, right?
If Jarren did a time jump, he should be younger. Instead he appeared to be around thirty-eight A-years old, which lines up with his last trip being from Xinji to Suzhou. But what about the looter that said the time dilation sucked for us, implying not for them? He also mentioned an obscenely rich patron. Maybe they discovered a way to travel without causing a time dilation. Argh. Too many unknowns!
By my forty-fourth lap, I’m sucking air. Sweat drips from my forehead and my tunic sticks to my back. When I hit fifty, I count down instead of up. A mental trick that gives me some energy. The laps start to blur toge
ther. My tongue turns into a dried-out piece of jerky. The material of my uniform rubs painfully against my inner thighs. As a headache thumps in my temples and bile churns in my stomach, I’m glad I didn’t have time to eat breakfast this morning. My world shrinks to the blue mat right in front of my feet. I lose track of…everything.
Then I almost run into Elese. She’s standing in my way. I stop and stare at her.
“That’s one hundred,” she says.
“That’s…nice,” I pant. Then the mat rushes up to meet me.
Cold water splashes on my face, filling my nose. I gasp and sit up. Well, I try. Hands press on my shoulders, pushing me back down. Elese leans over me.
“Easy there.”
I stare at her. “What happened?”
“You fainted.”
Great. “I’m okay. Let me up.”
She moves off and I sit up, but the room tilts and I close my eyes until the floor steadies. A cold container is placed in my hand. I chug the water without opening my eyes.
“And eat this,” Elese says, shoving an energy bar in my other hand. “Let me guess, you didn’t eat this morning.”
I grunt between bites. The food and drink revive me and I peek out. The room remains still, but Elese is frowning. Glancing around, I spot a couple of the other officers watching me. Great, just great. They haven’t really accepted me yet and now I’ve gone and given them another reason to doubt me.
“Don’t tell my parents or Radcliff about this. Please,” I add because her frown deepens. “They’ve been so…”
“I know.” Her face smooths. She plops down next to me. “Why do you think I’ve been so hard on you?”
“’Cause you’re sadistic?” I joke.
She huffs. “Not my thing. Training gives you poise.”
“Poise?”
“Confidence, competence, remaining calm under pressure. Poise.” Elese taps my chest with a finger. “What it isn’t is being cocky. Rather, being careful and controlled at all times. Being aware of the dangers around you.”
Her comment reminds me of when I joined the mission to check the base for looters when we first arrived at Yulin. The body language of the security team was a calm confidence, while I fumbled with my harness and almost threw up in zero gee.
“That incident with Jarren has shaken you,” Elese says. “You need to get your poise back. Once you’ve reclaimed it, then everyone will stop being so careful with you.”
That surprises me. “You mean I actually had it at one point?”
“Girl, if you didn’t, you would have curled up into a ball in the pits when the enemy attacked and we’d all be dead.”
I mull it over. Now Beau’s comments make more sense. I’ve been waiting for someone to say, okay you’re good to go, while they’ve been waiting for me to say, I’m ready to go. If it wasn’t for the meeting with the astrophysicists, I wonder how much longer it would have taken me to figure it out.
Feeling better, I ask, “What is your thing?”
She smirks. “Dump Niall and I’ll show you.”
I laugh. “Not my thing.”
“Pity. But no worries, I’ve been getting to know one of the chemistry techs. She says my eyes are beautiful.” She flutters her long dark eyelashes at me.
“They are. It’s a shame your feet stink.”
“Uh-huh. I see you’re recovered. All right, Recruit. Time to finish your punishment.”
Groaning, I hand my water jug to Elese, and do a sit-up. Only ninety-nine more to go.
After a grueling day, I drag my sore and tired body back to my unit. I’ve learned two lessons. One, don’t be late. Ever. Two, don’t tease my instructor. It’s a bad combination. The fabric of my uniform is plastered to my body. Ugh. Staggering to my room, I’m focused on grabbing clean clothes and showering. The light switches on and—
I freeze, gaping at the marvel. Bright colors fill my walls. I blink and the colors form shapes…paintings. There must be twenty of them. Landscapes and cityscapes and nebula clusters and animals stalking through jungles all arranged in a pleasing manner. All inviting me to step closer and drink them in. Amazing.
When I’m able to think again, I realize these are Niall’s mother’s paintings. She died over two, maybe three A-years ago, leaving behind hundreds of them. Niall hasn’t said much about how or when she died and I’ve been reluctant to ask. His pain is obviously still raw.
Footsteps sound behind me. I turn. Radcliff stands there, staring into my room. His posture is stiff, expression flat.
“Did Niall do this?” I ask.
“Yes. He said you needed a change of scenery.”
My heart melts. So sweet. But Radcliff hasn’t relaxed. “Is it okay with you?” After all, this is Radcliff’s unit and these are his wife’s.
“Do you like it?” he asks.
“Very much!” My enthusiasm earns me a slight smile.
“Then I approve.” The tension in his shoulders disappears, but his nose crinkles. “Better shower before dinner. You stink.”
And just when I thought we were having a nice moment... I resist the urge to stick my tongue out at him. Instead, I clean up. The hot water loosens the knots in my muscles. By the time I’m finished, Radcliff is setting a steaming casserole on the kitchen table. Ravenous is too mild a word to describe my stomach’s sudden need for food.
My mother is the only person at the table.
“Where’s Dad?” I ask.
“Equipment troubles. I’m starting to miss the forests of Xinji. I’d rather roots in my pits than sand in the gears.”
I glance at the living room.
“Niall’s on duty until twenty-two hundred hours,” Radcliff says, sitting down. “Seems he switched shifts with Officer Tora so he’d have the afternoon off.”
Warmth flows through me. I’d have to return the favor…somehow. Plus Radcliff allowed it. Progress.
“He mentioned seeing you later?” Radcliff asks.
“We’re meeting in the rec room.”
He grunts. “He’ll only have a few hours to sleep before his next shift.”
And the Chief of Security is back. Funny I didn’t miss him.
My mom changes the subject and asks me about the meeting with the astrophysicists. As expected, she isn’t happy about my worming in the Q-net. And let’s just say her reaction to the possibility of me going into the pits makes an exploding star seem like a benign experience in comparison. Radcliff keeps quiet. Like Beau said, it’s up to me.
Not wanting to argue in front of Radcliff, I invite my mom to see my room after we finish eating.
“Oh my, these are wonderful! Did Niall paint them?” she asks, while moving slowly from one to another.
“No, his mother did.”
She sighs. “Such a shame about her. Oooh…look at the detail on this one.”
I join her in front of a leopard sitting on a branch. Its fur is so realistic, I’m tempted to reach out and stroke its back. Another part of me wishes to ask about Niall’s mother, but that’s not what I need to do now.
Straightening my spine, I think about what Elese said. I draw on my training and breathe in deep, exhaling stress and tension. Poise.
“Mom.”
She turns to me, probably sensing this is important. “No.”
So much for poise. “Please give me the courtesy of listening to me first.”
“All right.” Mom perches on the edge of my bed with her arms crossed.
“In one hundred and twenty-three days I will be eighteen and won’t need your permission.”
“I’m still in charge of the base,” she counters.
Poise. “But not security.” A mulish tightening of my mother’s jaw is a warning sign even though she knows I’m right. I continue, “In the time it takes to reach my birthday, anything can happen. The shadow-blobs could invade the base or looters could attack us again. You can’t put my safety above all the others who live here.”
I let that sink in for a moment. “You need to
trust me. I know my life is at stake, but I refuse to let Jarren win. That’s unacceptable.”
Mom’s arms relax into her lap as she studies me. “Is that what I look like when I’m being stubborn?”
I glance in the mirror. “No. It’s what you look like when you’re being confident and logical.”
“Nice.” Then she sighs. “It hasn’t been that long since the attack. Jarren could be monitoring all our activity on the Q-net.”
“He has been monitoring our activity since we arrived on Yulin, Mom. But now we know what he can do.”
“And he knows what you can do.”
Fair point. Except. “But Lyra is dead. He has no idea what Ara can do. She has a new perspective on navigating the Q-net.”
“Because of your internship with Chief Hoshi?”
“That certainly helped.”
She pins me with one of her I-know-you’re-not-telling-me-everything stares. If she pushes it, I might have to lie. I’m not ready to explain to anyone that my consciousness flew through the Q-net when I was officially dead—no terminal or tangs needed. Yes, I know all about hallucinations, but, deep inside my mind, past the area that normally denies things like this, I know it was real. Everyone thought those shadow-blobs were a figment of my concussed imagination and look how that turned out. However, I don’t have the energy to argue another this-really-happened-and-I’m-not-crazy situation.
When she doesn’t respond, I say, “You need to allow me to be an active member of the security team.”
“I’ll talk this over with your father,” Mom says.
“All right.” I keep my tone neutral even though excitement pumps through my heart. My father defers to Mom when it’s a family decision.
I get another look from her, but thankfully she doesn’t go into interrogation mode.
“I suggest you get to bed early tonight, Ara,” Radcliff says as I head toward the door. He’s sitting on the couch, reading from a portable.
There’s a hint of smugness in his tone so I stop and meet his gaze. He knows about earlier. “Who ratted me out?”
“The officer monitoring the security cameras.”
Chasing the Shadows (Sentinels of the Galaxy Book 2) Page 3