Sci-Ops- Nova

by Jedi Reach

  “Very funny guys. If you don’t mind, we’re here on work duties.” Stone snarled.

  “Oh yes, yes, she did say you were coming.” Agent 33 turned around, scanned his hand over the door and it opened.

  “There’s just one thing,” Agent 36 added. “She only wants to see him.” he pointed at Jace.

  “Not surprising.” Stone nodded at Jace to go on alone. Jace moved past the agents and entered the dark room alone. The doors closed behind him.

  “Hello?” Jace said aloud.

  ‘Come.’ a woman’s voice entered his mind.

  Jace followed the call. As he walked in the direction toward the swinging waves of the telepathic pull, light came to the area, revealing a large, minimalist living room with a bed, couch and bath nearby. To the far end of the room, seated on a small pillow in a half lotus pose, a nude, pale woman with very long light blonde hair meditated with open eyes, her back turned to Jace. Her eyes radiated with an otherworldly, green glow.

  “Xenia.” Jace blurted her name.

  Xenia halted her meditation, reached with her left hand and telekinetically pulled a blindfold. As she stood up, tying the blindfold around her eyes, she telekinetically pulled a silk night robe from the other side. Jace couldn’t help but notice her elegant curves.

  It’s been too long I’ve been dreaming about this, he thought to himself.

  “Has it?” Xenia said aloud as she dressed herself and walked toward Jace. The closer she got, the more Jace could feel her presence. It was as if time froze, and in that moment, Jace had forgotten why he was even there.

  “There’s not one day that went by that I haven’t thought about you.” he confessed.

  “I know,” Xenia looked at the floor. “Me too.”

  She moved to the small kitchen counter to prepare herself a cup of a tea. Jace stood still, wondering if she had given him a cold shoulder. It was confusing. He could tell she was aching to jump on him and make love, and yet, she wouldn’t dare do it. Not in these circumstances.

  “How have you been?” Jace followed her.

  “Fine, and you?” Xenia asked while she took a sip of her tea.

  “Wandering, trying to make sense of what happened.”

  “Me too.”

  “You wander too? They actually let you out?”

  Xenia unexpectedly erupted with laughter at his twisted humor. It was too long since she heard his voice in person.

  “Sometimes. When I feel like it you can say.” she replied.

  Jace chuckled and took a seat next to her. He observed her like a lost pearl from the sea.

  “What?” Xenia noticed him staring.

  “I missed you so much.” he confessed.

  Xenia took another sip of her tea and placed it on the counter.

  “I missed you too. I was worried you’d replace me.” she nervously said.

  “You know just as much as me that’s impossible.” Jace placed his hand on hers. Xenia gazed at him, feeling the sincerity of his touch and words.

  “I know. I just,” Xenia paused. “With my sentence. I didn’t think you’d wait.”

  “That’s actually why I came here. Your sentence.”

  Xenia tilted her head curiously.

  “You know as well as I do this wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for Stone. Did he talk to you?” Jace asked.

  “He did.” Xenia took a sip of her tea.

  “And?”

  “I’m not interested.” she took another sip.

  Jace shook his head. “Why?”

  Xenia placed her tea aside and looked at Jace. Though she wore a blindfold, her radiant green eyes shone through the black fabric like a light in darkness.

  “I’m uninterested in assisting earth governments,” she waved her hand to show the surroundings. “I did that before with you and you remember how that turned out? Sure, we arrested those Scions, but we only ended up empowering an evil empire even more. Between the absurd politics, the greed and might over others; it seems the more we help, especially an extraterrestrial like me, the more complicated things get. That’s why I placed myself in here and allowed them to have their sentence over me. I can live for over a thousand years. These empires won’t last that long.”

  Jace twisted his face.

  “You decided to give up and you still are deciding to give up.” he challenged.

  Xenia looked at him again and shook her head.

  “I didn’t give up; I did the only reasonable thing to prevent an interstellar conflict and to keep you safe.”

  Jace calmed himself before speaking again. “At the cost of your own life? Xenia, you don’t need to continue rotting behind these walls. What you did saved thousands of lives.”

  “What I did was against the directives of my federation. I acted against a collective decision to intervene in terrestrial matters after my federation knew there was no hope for earthlings any longer.”

  “What you did was the right thing, even if your people don’t agree with it!” Jace raised his voice.

  The two stopped and stared at each other, exchanging a thousand words without speaking. Xenia reached for Jace’s face, tenderly feeling his rugged jawline with her fingertips.

  “I know, love. But this is my destiny as a Herald. I have to uphold my principles.” she said.

  Jace grasped her fingers, his eyes gazing into hers, past the blindfold, pleading for reason. “You once told me with great power comes great responsibility. Well, our responsibility isn’t over. You wear that blindfold, holding back your full power because of what? Fear of the past?”

  “I wear this blindfold because if it comes off, there won’t be anything to hold me back. You know that.”

  “That’s why I want it off, just like I want you out of here. You aren’t using your full potential because of what? Past mistakes? Xenia, I failed too but guess what? We have a second chance.”

  Xenia remained quiet.

  She simply absorbed what Jace said to her.

  “Think about it. Can you do that for me at least?” he asked.

  “I will.” she nodded.

  Jace leaned into Xenia and kissed her. Xenia was surprised at first but a second into the kiss, she evaporated into his advance.

  “I still love you.” Jace confessed.

  “And I still love you.” Xenia held his hand.

  “I’m not sure they’ll let me see you again. So, I had to do that.” Jace got up and walked to the entrance. He looked back at Xenia while Xenia stared at him. Neither wanted the other to leave, but it wasn’t the time or place for this. Jace reluctantly left and a few seconds after he left, Xenia telekinetically grabbed a nearby locket and opened it. Inside had a picture she had taken with Jace. The alien beauty studied the picture while reflecting over their conversation.

  **************

  “How’d it go?” Stone asked Jace as he walked out.

  “Didn’t you see it?” Jace pointed at the wall cameras.

  “Xenia tends to distort our feeds.” Stone showed a hologram of a still camera feed inside the room. It was completely dark.

  “She said no.” Jace said, annoyed.

  Stone folded his arms, locked in deep thought.

  “Does that mean Nova is a no-go?” he asked.

  Jace felt a rebellious surge kick up in him.

  “No, Nova will go on…” Jace thought about Lea. It was once his job to track down Scions. If Xenia wouldn’t budge, that would be her own problem. “…this mess you guys started needs to be cleaned up, and I can’t trust anyone else to do it.”

  Stone almost felt relieved, then he remembered business.

  “What’s your terms?” the Doctor asked.

  “I’ll need full access to perform my duties, unbothered and without jurisdiction issues.”

  “Now hold on a second-” Bakker blurted.

  “Bakker.” Stone stopped him.

  “If I don’t get the full capability to perform my job, then you can forget finding Lea, and you can fo
rget stopping that creature.”

  “What exactly do you want?” Stone reached for his box of cigarettes.

  “Nova is to be reinstated full access, and we operate as our own entity with properly due funding from previous experimental incidents.”

  Bakker bit his tongue.

  Stone took his time to light a cigarette while he thought over the possible repercussions. Jace squared him in the eyes. If the Doctor wasn’t going to agree, then Jace wouldn’t budge.

  “You’ll be given a new base, new funding, and the resources and connections to operate. They’ll be under our sponsorship of course.” Stone replied.

  “Fine. There’s one more thing – all Nova personnel, past or present, go free after we complete this mission. No bullshit, no strings or loops. We get real identities and we get to be normal people if we survive.” Jace added.

  Stone looked at Bakker. Bakker looked at Stone.

  Stone offered Jace a handshake.

  “Fair deal.” the Doctor said.

  CHAPTER 3

  Stone granted Jace access to all Nova personnel and their current whereabouts. For Jace it was a partial dream come true seeing old faces on the holographic screens. These were people he’d been through hell and back with. He knew he could depend on them.

  Hope you’re still out there, Jace contemplated while he zeroed in on their locations. The Nova Leader took some time to shave and clean up at the Arizona base before getting ready to go out and find his crew. Stone had given Jace the authority and access in the Arizona base under the impression that Jace would move his team to Site X, a secret base alongside an inactive volcano on a remote island in the Caribbean.

  ‘Use whatever you need,’ the Doctor’s voice played in his head, ‘Find your crew and get your stuff together because time’s running out for all of us.’

  Jace wore a black, hooded leather trench coat he requested from Agents 33 and 36; his old outwear from past exploits. On his way out to the waiting helicopter glanced at the Arizona base and halted. Xenia was still in there.

  I want you out here, Jace thought.

  He knew Xenia could read his thoughts if he pushed hard enough. Maybe that’s exactly what he wanted.

  **************

  Far out in the snowy Alaskan plains by a half-frozen river, a tall, hulking, bare chested man with long hair emerged out of the water, kneeled on one knee, and calmed his breathing. The cold didn’t seem to affect the bearded Viking. As a matter of fact, he found solace in it. Aiden slowly rose to his feet and opened his eyes. A strange gust passed by.

  What was that? He became alerted.

  The hulk clenched his fists and moved toward the area. Each step he took, he readied himself for a possible ambush. The closer he moved to the trees, the more he felt a strong surge of energy, drawing him in.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ he stopped himself. ‘I know that energy.’

  “What are you doing out here,” the Viking stopped and turned around. “Jace?”

  Jace suddenly appeared, pressing some buttons on his belt to fully disable his invisibility cloak.

  “It’s been a long time Aiden.” Jace smiled.

  “How’d you find me?” Aiden quizzed.

  “I knew you wouldn’t be a fan of me dropping in on a chopper, so I came on foot.”

  Aiden crossed his arms.

  “What’s this about?” he asked.

  “Grab your coat and let’s get some beers. First round is on me.”

  **************

  Six beers later at a local pub, Aiden smashed his finished glass on the bar and belched loudly. Jace was still on his second as he watched his old friend loosen up. Aiden signaled the bartender to bring him another beer.

  “Let me get this straight,” Aiden belched. “Stone came to you, said some…” he looked around the room to see if anyone else was listening. They were probably too drunk to care or better yet, wouldn’t believe him anyway. “…’thing’, came from a portal, kidnapped Lea and is out on the loose.”

  Jace nodded and took another sip.

  “And now he wants to reactive Nova.” Aiden paused before bursting with laughter.

  “Ironic, isn’t it?” Jace replied.

  “Hilarious.” Aiden said.

  “You don’t believe me, do you?” Jace glanced at him.

  “Jace, Jace, Jace…” Aiden rested his hand on Jace’s shoulder. Although Aiden wasn’t using as much as a hundredth of his strength, Jace could feel just how strong the man really was. If Aiden wanted, he could break Jace’s shoulder like a toothpick. “…we were both blackmailed into being guinea pigs in a lab. Why would you wanna’ help the guys that put us there, again? Wasn’t that the point of arresting those other kids? To give us freedom from the government?”

  Jace thought well before he responded.

  “You remember how many Scions went into hiding before Stone and co asked us to arrest them?”

  Aiden listened carefully.

  “We were one of them, all of us before Nova – out there, alone,” Jace continued as he thought about Lea. “Hiding, with no one else to turn to. Then we found each other.”

  “That’s a pretty modest way of putting it. If I remember right, you had a way with people. That’s why the suits came to you and asked you to track down the rest of us.”

  “And what did I do?” Jace shrugged.

  Aiden grinned. “You found us. Some of us at least, and instead of handing us over to them, we joined you to find more like us. Is there a point to this exercise? You sound like a damn biology teacher or something.”

  “Biology teacher, that’s rich,” Jace chuckled. “Anyway, can you imagine when Stone came to me and told me, ‘hey, Lea is missing we need your help’, why I feel a sense of duty to do it?”

  Aiden recalled their past.

  “Dragging me along because of your guilt trip isn’t gonna’ cut it. If it makes you feel better, I was the one who told you to leave the bitch behind.”

  “Fair enough, but you know you’re not truly freed, right?”

  Aiden raised an eyebrow.

  “What are you talking about?” the Viking quizzed.

  “How do you think I tracked you here?” Jace challenged.

  The bartender handed Aiden a filled glass and went back to his duties. Aiden momentarily froze before taking a huge gulp on his beer.

  “Okay,” he placed the beer aside. “I see what you’re getting at. They still keep tabs on us. So that last job we did for them was what? Bullshit? What makes this one any different?”

  “This time we walk free for real.” Jace said confidently.

  Aiden erupted with laughter.

  “I heard that one before bud.” he took a sip on his beer.

  Jace felt a sting from Aiden’s pessimism.

  “Aiden, how long do you want to be out there in the snow, running, pissed at the past?”

  “The cold doesn’t bother me none brother. I got used to the hermit life, thought you would too.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t. Something about being a monk out in the middle of the bushes didn’t sit well with me. Something about not seeing the friend who went through hell with me or the woman I love ain’t okay.”

  Aiden looked at Jace and sensed the Nova Leader was being genuine. Jace got out of his seat and paid the tab while Aiden’s eyes trailed to the bill, contemplating the fact that his friend came back to see him.

  “I’m not gonna’ force you Aiden. If you don’t want in, fine. But I’ll tell you this – I’m not going to live the rest of my life in a shell. This time I’m going to make things right, with or without you.”

  Jace walked out of the bar.

  “Ah, shit!” Aiden finished his beer and darted outside after his friend.

  “Jace, wait!” the Viking halted him out in the snow.

  The Nova Leader turned around and glanced at him.

  “I remember what Nova was supposed to be before you joined forces with the dark side. I get it, you did what you had to do t
o buy our freedom. Whatever. But I remember Nova was supposed to be a haven for people like us. Let’s say we do this job, we get to walk free, for real this time, what next? Are you going to build what you originally set out to achieve?” Aiden confronted his friend.

  “That’s the plan, you have my word on that.” Jace said.

  Aiden looked back at the bar, thinking over just how long he’d been out in the snow and how comfortable he became with it. Deep down, despite being supposedly free, Aiden hated his life.

  “Tell me about the job.” Aiden said.

  CHAPTER 4

  While Jace continued his search for Nova personnel, Xenia wrestled with conflicting ideas in her prison. It was years since she saw her lover. The meeting had her mind on overdrive. Part of what annoyed her was that she knew Stone sent Jace to convince her, and mostly because of that, she refused.

  Suits had a way of using people’s interests against them to get what they want, Xenia assumed she wouldn’t be an exception. The elven-looking extraterrestrial, despite her capabilities and discipline, was still human, and still, a woman. She knew those vulnerabilities could be leveraged in the wrong hands. Jace had found his way into her heart; she couldn’t let that be used against them, especially when it involved psychic weapons of mass destruction.

  The refusal to rejoin Nova was tough but she figured it was logical. Yet she couldn’t come to peace with that decision. Both Jace and Xenia knew almost everything Stone and his colleagues had done, but now, a greater threat slipped into the picture and Xenia felt a sense of urgency to act. It drove her crazy, torn between her principles and her gut.

  After a while pacing back and forth, the alien beauty concluded her answer would come from meditation. She stripped herself of her clothing, reminding herself that her bare body needed as much of the cosmic-electromagnetic energies as possible, and fixed herself in a half-lotus position. The lights dimmed and flickered as she entered a deep concentration. It didn’t take much time for Xenia’s consciousness to drift into the void. Soon, she was no longer there.