by A. K. DuBoff
Kaiden pursed his lips. “Say that they were designed, though. Why have such a creature when the native population has already been turned into a pile of soot?”
“We don’t yet have enough information to even hazard a guess,” Colren replied with a dejected shake of his head. He gathered himself. “Let’s just get you back to the Archive. That’s one part in all of this we can control.” He rose from the table and smoothed his black uniform jacket.
“We’ll be ready to head out right away,” I said.
“It’ll be at least another three hours before we can jump,” he replied. “They’re still tending to the shuttle. We don’t want to leave anything to chance, and we can’t jump until the crew is finished and can go to their pods.”
Kaiden cracked a smile. “A little R&R, then?”
I nodded. “I could certainly use it. And a stop by the equipment room to get a new scabbard.”
“Tend to your business. We’ll announce the jump time when the maintenance crew is nearing completion.”
“Thank you, Commander. We’ll see you on the other side,” Kaiden acknowledged.
We departed the conference room in Central Command and nodded to the crew on our way out. There were smiles on their faces and their eyes were alight with hope that hadn’t been there when I’d first met them.
Though I didn’t feel like we’d accomplished much, we were delivering on the promise we’d made to try, and that counted for something. I wouldn’t feel better until the Master Archive was sealed—the artifacts were next to meaningless without that step.
“I’m going to see if my sword has been cleaned yet so I can size a new scabbard for it,” I said once we were out in the main corridor.
Kaiden nodded. “I’d like to browse through the equipment inventory again now that we’ve been through a few fights. Mind if I join you?”
“Of course not.”
“Well, I’m going to relax,” Maris stated, not shocking me in the least.
“I could use some down time, myself,” Toran admitted. “I’ll be in our common room.”
“Okay, see you there later,” I said.
Kaiden and I headed for the lift.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked me when we were alone. “You seemed pretty shaken up after that fight.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
He didn’t say anything else for the lift ride down, only casting me the occasional sidelong glance. When we reached the lower deck, we strolled down to the hangar. Tami and the crew were out of their hazsuits, and we found them arranging our equipment near where our shuttle was typically berthed.
“What can I do for you?” Tami asked when she saw us approaching.
“I was hoping to get my new sword,” I said. “I need a scabbard for it.”
“Ah. Well, it’s all cleaned up,” she replied with a frown. “Looks like things got messy down there.”
“It’s been quite an eventful day or three.” I forced a smile.
“We’ll be back to the Archive soon, as I understand it,” she said.
Kaiden nodded. “Not sure what will happen after that, but we’re making progress.”
“And we’re grateful for it,” the engineer responded. She paused. “Well, help yourself to your things. Holler if you need anything else.”
“Thanks.”
I grabbed my sword and Kaiden took his circlet.
“I knew it!” I teased. “You’re addicted to your crown.”
“It’s not a—” He sighed, shaking his head.
I nudged him. “Come on, let’s go see if any new items are available to us now that we have some combat experience.
We traced the corridor back to the equipment room with the 3D printer.
As soon as we were inside the privacy of the room, Kaiden stopped and looked me in the eyes. “Elle, are you sure everything is okay? You’ve seemed a little… off since Maris joined the team.”
“We’ve had a lot going on,” I replied.
He crossed his arms. “Don’t be evasive. I can tell something is bothering you.”
“I don’t think you’ve known me for long enough to be able to read my mind.”
“Who says I’m not telepathic?”
My mouth fell open a little, and my pulse spiked as I recounted some of the things I’d thought over the last several days. “I—”
He laughed and reached out his hand to place it reassuringly on my shoulder. “Relax, I’m just messing with you. But seriously, what’s wrong—aside from everything?”
I took a deep breath and looked down. His touch on my shoulder was warm and comforting, and I fought the impulse to go in for a hug. So much had happened over the past few days, I could feel myself fraying around the edges. But the group dynamic was already strained as it was, and the last thing I needed was for him to react awkwardly about it. It was better to keep my concerns to myself and let my emotions fall back in line on their own.
“We had our trio thing going, and it worked. Now, the balance is weird,” I replied, trying to sound diplomatic.
“Yeah, that addition caught me by surprise, too.”
“And, if I’m being honest, it bothers me that she’ll just kind of give up midway through. A moment of brilliance followed by ‘I can’t’ rather than trying to push through.”
He dropped his hand from my shoulder and shook his head. “Yeah, she’s an odd one, isn’t she?”
I eyed him. “What do you think of her?”
“A little too high maintenance for my taste. You and Toran have taken everything in stride, and she… hasn’t. Then again, you seem more resilient than most.”
“I thought maybe I was just being petty.”
He nodded. “No, I hear you. I do think she’s starting to get it, though.”
“I’m…” I hesitated. “I’m concerned about you with her—”
Kaiden raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
My cheeks flushed. “You cut me off! I’m concerned about her as a fellow caster—being your backup for an offensive spell. I worry that she could freeze while we’re in the Archive when the pressure is really on.”
“That could happen to any of us, Elle. Are you sure that’s the only thing on your mind?”
I sighed.
“Come on, if we can’t be honest with each other, then how are we supposed to work together?”
“Well,” I mumbled, “I’ve seen the way she looks at you. You haven’t exactly stopped her.”
“Ah.”
I crossed my arms. “What I mean is, this isn’t remotely the right situation to be having those kind of thoughts. We can’t afford distractions.”
“Is it bad of me to point out that you’re distracted by worrying about potential distractions?”
I glared at him.
“Sorry.” Kaiden cracked a smile. “In all seriousness, though,” he continued, “there’s too much going on right now to have attention divided. Yeah, Maris puts on a show, but that’s just how she is. It doesn’t change what’s important—what we’re trying to do here.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Kaiden dropped his voice to a whisper and looked me in the eyes. “Besides, Elle, if anyone had a chance of distracting me in that way, it wouldn’t be her.”
My heart warmed with the words—the kind of fulfilling flutter my friends had described but I’d never experienced for myself. I stayed focused on his intent gaze and I gave him a coy smile. “That’s good to know.”
He returned the smile. “You shouldn’t have had any doubts.”
“I have a bad tendency of overthinking things.”
Kaiden brushed his hand down my arm. “Don’t. We should probably focus on getting through this Archive sealing before… whatever might happen happens.”
I nodded. “Getting all happening-y…” I bit my tongue. “Sorry, that went better in my head.”
He chuckled. “It’s fine. You’re just overthin
king it again.”
“I’m bad at this stuff.”
“Clearly I am, too, if you genuinely thought I had a thing for Maris.”
“Okay, maybe not that much,” I admitted.
“Still, I could have handled things better so you’d never have doubted my interest in you.”
“It’s only been a few days. I wasn’t expecting anything.”
Kaiden searched my face. “But it’s been plenty of time to form an impression.”
“That can happen in a moment.”
“I know that feeling.” He took half a step closer to me. “Any thoughts you’d like to share?”
There was a lot I wanted to say, though I knew I shouldn’t… How at first I’d been drawn in by his looks, then questioned the attraction when his initial cavalier attitude came to light. But then I’d gotten to know his intelligence and heart, and it was clear he cared—not just about what we were doing, but those around him. And the more I learned, the more I liked what I saw.
We hadn’t known each other for long enough to gauge how our viewpoints aligned on all matters, but there was no denying that a spark had been there from the beginning. I’d ignored it at times and misinterpreted it at others, but standing centimeters apart now, it was the most certain thing amid the present chaos.
I swallowed. “Didn’t we just say what bad timing this is?”
“I’m also bad at listening to my own advice.”
“Hey, we have that in common.” I smiled.
He leaned closer to me the slightest measure. “I mean, if a distraction is there anyway, it might be better to get it out in the open.”
I ran my fingers through the ends of my hair, suddenly feeling exposed with only my white shipsuit on. “Won’t it be weird for the others if we…”
“You can only spend so much time worrying about other people before you go crazy.”
“That’s true.” My heart pounded in my chest.
He brushed my hair away from my face with his index finger. “What would make the next trials easier for you? You don’t have to ignore your own needs while looking after others.”
“I don’t know.” A tingle spread throughout me, radiating from his touch. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to happen next, but I knew I wanted more.
His eyes locked on mine. “Well, I’d like—”
The door slid open, breaking the moment.
Maris barged in, and Kaiden and I instantly took a step back from each other.
“I decided I really need more practical sho—” She cut off when she saw us standing away from the scanner. “Sorry, am I interrupting?”
“Not at all. New shoes are always top priority,” I replied, hoping the dim lighting in the room hid the flush in my face. Whatever had almost happened, she didn’t need to know about it.
She gestured to the scanner. “Have you already…?”
“No, go ahead,” I told her.
Maris looked us over again but wisely said nothing.
When she turned her back, Kaiden cast me a knowing glance and subtle smile, which I returned.
I didn’t have much experience in relationships of the romantic nature, but I did know that a solid friendship was the foundation of any worthwhile partnership. If nothing else, the challenges ahead would be very informative about what kind of future we could possibly have together; if this madness didn’t test a bond, nothing would.
Maris stepped into the scanner and made her new footwear selection while we waited. She picked a pair of boots with only a slight heel, not too dissimilar from mine. I wanted to make a snide ‘I-told-you-so’ comment about her original footwear, but I didn’t since I knew it wouldn’t be helpful—especially since I hadn’t cautioned against it before when I had the chance.
She sent the production request to the 3D printer. “All yours. Thanks for letting me jump ahead.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Kaiden acknowledged. “Elle, you want to get set up?”
“Sure.”
While Maris waited for her new boots to print, I held up my sword in the holographic scanner and used the interface to customize a scabbard for it using one of the base designs.
“May as well see if anything else catches your eye,” Kaiden suggested when I’d sent the scabbard to the printer.
“You don’t mind?”
“That’s all I came down here to do. I’ll watch for anything that looks interesting.”
A chime at the back of the room beeped and the panel slid open to expose Maris’ new black boots.
“These will do,” she murmured, admiring them. She scooped them up in her arms. “Have fun with your shopping. See you upstairs.”
“See ya,” I bid her as she left the room.
I waited for the door to close. “Browsing the inventory is the only thing you came down here to do?” I asked Kaiden.
“Well, I did also want to make sure you were doing okay.”
“Then the conversation kind of took a turn.”
“It did.” He paused. “Should I finish saying what I was about to when Maris showed up?”
Almost every part of me wanted to shout a resounding ‘yes’, but the logic part of my brain had had a chance to regain a foothold. “I want to see where this can go, but we’ll be at the Archive in a few hours. We can resume this after it’s sealed.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
I sensed his disappointment, but it was the kind that came from accepting a harsh truth. And, realistically, we were only hitting pause for a day. If we couldn’t exhibit that measure of self-control, then we had no business getting involved in the first place.
With the tension temporarily diffused, I turned my attention to the holographic menu system. I was content with my present clothing, so I decided to focus on potential accessories.
Most of the items were useless for our mission, but a glove caught my eye. It was classified as an accessory, but the description struck me as a weapon.
“Is this right?” I questioned. “Can it really fire a blast capable of knocking an enemy back?”
Kaiden read the description from next to me. “Certainly makes it sound that way.”
The rendering of the glove was dark gray in color with teal accents along the fingers and knuckles. Its palm contained a white patch ringed in the same teal accent color.
“I don’t get how that could produce a physical blast,” I insisted.
“Maybe it has something to do with your abilities? This magic-tech likes to bend the rules.”
“That it does.” I shrugged. “Well, only one way to find out if it works, right?”
“Very true,” Kaiden agreed.
I sent the item to the printer.
“All right, let me take a quick look to see if there’s anything else open to me that wasn’t showing up for you.” Kaiden took my place on the platform and started browsing through the inventory to see what was available for the skills in his discipline.
“Huh, that’s weird,” he said after a minute.
“What?”
“That glove you got is marked in my menu as being only for casters.”
“Really?” I walked up behind him. “That can’t be right.”
“Take a look.” He pointed to it.
There was no mistaking the notation. My brow knit. “Then why did it let me select it?”
“That’s a very good question.”
23
Our relaxation time was short-lived before the jump, but I was eager for us to get back to the Archive. I tried to nap as much as possible during our time in hyperspace in my pod; though it was next to impossible to sleep unless one was passed out, I at least managed to clear my mind.
We were about to enter the final push. There could be anything waiting for us in the Archive—a single button to push, an endless string of monsters, a labyrinth. I wasn’t about to rule out any possibility after what we’d been through over the past several days.
&nb
sp; I was also happy to have the time to reflect on my conversation with Kaiden. After thinking it through, I decided it was ultimately a good thing Maris had shown up when she did. As curious as I was to explore our growing connection, this really wasn’t the time to test that out; after all, if we decided we hated each other, it’d make for a pretty awkward trek through whatever caves or fields we might find ourselves traversing in the future. Still, I looked forward to a time when we were settled enough to give a relationship a chance.
When the Evangiel arrived at Crystallis, we exited our pods and began dressing in our clean gear, which we’d retrieved before the jump. In the case of my boots, however, apparently the treads had been so caked in guts from the alien creatures that the crew had deemed it easier to manufacture a new pair using my saved template rather than clean them.
I wiggled my toes in the replacement shoes. “Damn, I’d just gotten the other ones properly broken in.”
Kaiden buckled his belt. “I’m sure these will be seasoned in no time.”
“Please tell me there isn’t another ten kilometer hike in our future,” Maris moaned.
I slipped my coat over my white base layer. “Oh, come now! Don’t you want to test out your new boots?”
“I can do that quite successfully by staying within a reasonable distance from the shuttle,” she replied.
“We can land close to the cave,” Toran said as he secured his pauldrons. “However, we have no idea how deep we’ll need to go inside.”
“Great.” She sighed. “The only thing better than going on a long hike is going on a long hike into a creepy cave.”
“I wouldn’t call it creepy, per se,” I interjected. “More… mysterious, perhaps?”
“Yeah, let’s go with that,” Kaiden agreed.
“Creepy, mysterious, whatever it is, I don’t like confined places,” Maris said.
“It’ll be fine,” I tried to assure her. “I’m sure we’ll be in and out in no time.”
We finished dressing and then headed for the hangar. Our bags were waiting for us at the base of the shuttle’s ramp, and we gathered them.
“Good luck down there,” Tami said to us. “We made some upgrades to the shuttle’s sensor suite, which should help with your landing. We’ll be cheering you on from here.”
