Cross turns and looks at me, his mouth open ready to spout some nonsense again. I don’t want to hear it this time. I’ve just started liking him again after he told me it’s time to return on Yaerus, but I don’t plan on cutting him any slack for that. It’s his fault people died on Yaerus and his fault that a whole planet is now in danger because he didn’t do anything to stop the disease from spreading even though he knew everything about it.
I’m sure he can sense my animosity towards him; he doesn’t say a thing. He nods and opens the door for us to head outside. Cross gets out first; I wait for his signal before I follow him, both our heads lowered, our hoods on.
It’s night on Caso. Living in an underground settlement makes it difficult to tell the difference, but after two months staying here, I’m confident I can understand it. The ceiling of the underground chamber the city is built in is full of strong floodlights. During the day, the majority of them work in full strength, shedding their light above the city, calling it a day.
The night, however, the administration shuts down more than half of them and lowers the intensity of the ones still on, calling that state of dim lightness a night. It’s really difficult to walk around the complex pathways of Caso when that happens, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the city. But, for some reason, Cross never quite gets lost, not here, not anywhere else. He always seems to know where he’s going, like he’s following a mental map inside his head.
It takes us some time to get to the spaceport close to our hideout. It has been over a week since the last time I came to check our spaceship. At that time, I remember feeling miserable as hell. It has been almost a year since we got separated from the rest of the gang back on that strange planet. I thought we would never return to Yaerus and that I’ll die running away from those black-maskers.
That’s why, getting closer, I can’t keep my head down any longer. I want to have a better view of the port, to savor our win. I slow down a bit and raise my upper body. I smile at the sight of the big, cylindrical building towering above the rest of the city.
“Get down,” Cross suddenly hisses at me.
I hear Cross’ warning, but it’s already too late. A strong headlight suddenly compromises my location; it’s the black-maskers again.
“Shit,” I swear loudly. I quickly pick up my pace.
I hear the dissonant sound of bullets raining above me. Luckily, Caso doesn’t allow for laser guns on its premises or I would have been dead already without never knowing what hit me.
Cross is running ahead, plainly heading towards the hidden passage we discovered the first week we arrived on Caso. Of course, Cross was the one that found it back then, and he’s the one that finds it again today. Up to this day, I have no idea how he manages to do it so fast, but I’m sure it has something to do with his vast experience as an operative of the Organization.
Fortunately, the city is built on many levels, so the black-maskers shooting us from above have no good field of view. And by running below all these metallic columns, makes avoiding the bullets easy.
“Faster Eladia. We’re almost there,” Cross shouts at me.
I decide that there’s no time to play games anymore. I don’t want to die before seeing him again, before touching his big hands, caress his silver hair. I can’t stop thinking of Dark Jay throughout all this ordeal.
When we both pass through the tight pathway, I run ahead and find our spaceship on the edge of a long line of spaceships, most of them class 1 vehicles suitable for five people, max. For a moment, I lose Cross from my eyes. I turn around only to see him pull something next to the exit of the passage.
“What are you doing? We have to go!” I yell at him.
He doesn’t hear me. I decide to run to his side and help him do whatever he’s trying to do when suddenly a shrieking noise stops me from getting any closer to him. Sudden movement coming from above the hidden passage draws my attention. The rope that Cross pulled was the only thing keeping a big chunk of metal garbage from closing the pathway’s exit to the spaceport.
Cross, as always, was two steps ahead of everyone, and he proved it by having set up a trap for the black-maskers.
When he runs to my side, I stop him, grabbing his hand.
“What?” He seems surprised.
I take a breath and open my mouth. “Thank you, Dale. For everything.”
I don’t know why I felt the need to say this to him now, but it was the only thing that came to my mind. It doesn’t change anything between us, but now, seeing him take care of me even after everything we went through, I feel gratitude towards him.
This nightmare is almost over, and he’s the one that kept me safe and sane for this long after all.
“It’s okay, Eladia. We have to go now. We’ll talk about everything as soon as we get on the ship.”
He doesn’t wait for me to say anything else. He gently frees himself from my grip and runs towards the spaceship. I follow him close behind. Five minutes later, we’re on our way away off Xioria.
A fierce sandstorm has covered the main exit of the spaceport with tons of gold sand. A small waterfall splashes on the main pane of the cockpit, giving us the impression that we emerged from a sea of sand.
Historically, Caso was built underground to avoid the extreme weather effects whipping the planet’s surface at frequent intervals. There wasn’t a day that we didn’t feel the effects of those extreme weather conditions underground, with vast amounts of sand covering the metal ceiling of the settlement. Back in the days, when they used to open the cover during the calm days, the whole city was being hit by natural sunlight enough to even have some minor agricultural activities started down there.
Nowadays, everything is covered in sand and stone. Strangely, this is the only place of the one’s we visited that I’ll actually miss. It is, after all, the only place that I felt comfortable being myself—my new self.
We’re off orbit already, heading towards Yaerus. For the first time after nine months of seclusion from the Grid, I can finally see what’s going on with the rest of the galaxy. I open the monitor and type the word Yaerus on the screen.
I cup my mouth with my hand almost immediately. The first result of my search is that big, bold headline saying: “Yaerus in danger of a Purge. The local solar system in danger of an uber-demic. The council is devastated by the recent kidnapping of the Phadh ambassador’s daughter in the middle of talks regarding Ecli System’s safety.”
Honestly, what the fuck it’s going on out there?.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Jay
I walk into the command deck. I’ve been searching for Pyro for some time now but he’s nowhere to be found. I can’t imagine where he might be hiding this time. This man really gets on my nerves when vanishing like that.
I see Silver and Zan in the cockpit. The cockpit isn’t exactly secluded from the rest of the bridge, but when these two are in there, it’s like there’s no one around them. Even so, they still go out of their way to talk to me when they spot me.
“Hey, Jasih. Long time no see,” Zan says.
The boy has grown to be a man. Nowadays, he has muscles in all the right places, and he takes care of his super-growing hair all by himself. It’s not like Silver, the friendly Chronicler’s assistant doesn’t want to help him, but the boy seems to have become kinda shy around her now that he has acquired some sense of modern consciousness.
“What are you talking about? I had just seen you yesterday. It’s not that long ago,” I reply. Sometimes, I don’t understand what he means when he says these things.
He shakes his head, hides his face behind his palm, and laughs. “It was meant to be a joke, Jasih. You still don’t get humor?”
No, he doesn’t, Dark Jay comments in my head. Let me out! I want to have fun with them, too. I’m bored in here.
I can’t answer to him so I just ignore him.
“I don’t get why humor exists in the first place. It’s not like it offers me something intellec
tually or helps me collect information about the current situation. It doesn’t even help me feel better about anything. So no. My answer is that I still don’t get it.”
I’m a bit too rough on the boy, I admit it. But that Phadh girl, Alyce, is really a pain in the ass. She drives me seriously crazy. Zan is sulking on his seat when I’m over, looking for something to avoid continuing our conversation.
“What’s going, Jasih? How can we help you?” Silver joins the conversation.
To be honest, I never believed that a robot could change. Recently, though, I get the feeling that this one has almost become sentient, especially when around that Earth boy. It’s like for every minute they spend talking to each other, she gets closer to becoming human.
“I’m looking for Pyro. Can you track him using the ship’s sensors?”
Silver has been good with me since we got separated from Eladia and the doctor. I’m not sure why, but I’m in better terms with her now that the three of us are all that remained from the original bunch. It kinda feels like she’s my only true connection to Eladia and I want to cherish it as long as I can.
“Hmm. This is strange. I don’t have access to the sensors. It looks like someone raised a firewall last night limiting my access rights to the ship’s control sensors. I’m sorry, Jasih. I can’t really help you,” she says.
Frankly, I do believe her. She’s a robot after all, and robots can’t lie.
I’m ready to thank her and turn back to my search when something suddenly buzzes in my pocket. At first, I thought it was the Cube, but soon I notice that it’s something else entirely.
“Shit. Who the fuck came up with the idea of giving that girl a notifier? That thing vibrates in my pocket every ten minutes. It’s like she’s playing a twisted mind game with me, trying to drive me crazy!” I say.
Neither Silver nor Zan reply to me. They’re still afraid of my outbursts, scared that if something goes wrong, the other Jasih will come out and kill them. I have to hand it to them, though, they don’t show it as plainly as they did a year ago. It was the first time they ended up alone with me, without Eladia to help them if needed be.
“You should get to her. If Pyro finds out, you’re not following his orders...” Zan says.
I’m not glad that I agree with him.
He’s right. Unfortunately, Pyro is my only chance to solve this Nusae bullshit and find Eladia. If I don’t follow his orders, then he’ll make sure to dispose of me.
I leave the room without saying a thing. I walk all the way to the elevator and head downstairs, towards Alyce’s room. I’m still pissed off at the world, and when that happens, the other Jasih seems like he’s in turmoil. It’s like a window opens in my mind and he’s using it to take control of my body.
You don’t have to follow his orders. Let me out and I’ll take care of him for you. You know that I can, right? You just have to let me out!
“If you kill him, then you kill our only chance to see Eladia again. How many times do I have to tell you?”
Since I found out that Dark Jay has the same soft spot for Eladia as I do, I started using it to appease his anger. It still takes some effort not to hit myself trying to hurt him for having all those illicit thoughts about her, but living with him—my symbiote—has become way easier.
I feel the disturbance inside me calm down; it seems even he can’t risk losing her.
A subtle ring notifies me that I’m on the right floor. The Class 5 spaceship Enigma is big enough for almost ten times its current population, so there are many floors to explore. Even so, I was just called to this particular one.
“I hope this isn’t another stupid chore,” I mumble to myself.
Honestly, I’m at my limit with this young girl, Alyce. It has been a week already and instead of becoming less feisty she’s more of a hindrance than when we first closed her in there. I understand that being imprisoned against your will can do that to you, but this relationship of ours has been getting out of hand.
I carefully enter the code on the control panel next to the door to unlock it and get inside. She’s lying on her bed, reading a book, waiting for me to arrive with that arrogant smug of hers.
“It took you long enough,” she says.
“I was busy. What do you want?” I keep all the nice words out of this conversation.
“Nothing. I just want you to get me a glass of water.”
I turn and see that the glass I got her earlier is still intact. “Are you kidding me?”
I almost growl at her.
“No, I’m not. That is mineral water. I want natural, unprocessed one. The kind you have here is making me sick.”
I’m not sure what happened after that. I blink, and I’m standing next to her, roaring on her face, actually being over her shit. The gutsy girl doesn’t even flinch.
“I could kill you, you know? I could make you choke on your blood while slicing your throat with my teeth. Do you want that?” I say, aiming to intimidate her, but her eyes suddenly fall behind me.
“Can you please hold your dog? You don’t want him to kill your most important asset, right?” she says to someone standing behind me.
I slightly turn my head to see who’s the one standing there, but it’s too late. I feel something pulling me closer to Alyce, a force strong enough to almost sever my hands from the rest of my body. I try to pull back, but I can’t.
I close my eyes, and then there’s α feeling of falling into the void. I scream for a moment but soon, it feels like everything is over. Once again, I’m standing on solid ground. Quickly, I pull my hands away from Alyce and look around me. We’re in the middle of a forest with gigantic trees surrounding us, a forest thick enough that light doesn’t get all the way to the ground.
“What did you do? Where are we?” I ask her immediately, getting even more intimidated by her calm smudge.
“Welcome to my home planet, Zeania. It seems your boss’ plan is going exactly as he intended to.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Eladia
Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out. Don’t forget that every body movement relies on your breathing, Eladia. Cross has his green mask back on. I hate it when he does that. He acts like I’m the enemy and doesn’t hold back.
Of course, I wouldn’t like him to go easy on me, especially not now that I’m fully trained. I want to test my skills, to see how strong I’ve become throughout this last year. Still, these short, plastic clubs we’re using for today’s training are heavy and impractical, unlike my staff.
“Don’t think too much, Eladia. Embrace your instincts. Attack!” he bellows.
He immediately vanishes from my field of view, but I can guess his next move. I know his every move now since we spar every day. I turn around and protect my back by raising both the clubs I have in my hands. This is one of his opening attacks, to go for my weak spot in the back. I expect to see him try to kick me, but the only thing I protect myself from is a small paper ball.
“How many times have I told you to improvise and think creatively when fighting? I won’t be the only enemy you face,” he says, whispering from behind.
I manage to quickly free myself from his grip, but I’m agitated and confused. “How the hell did you do that?” I ask him.
Usually, he would answer me straight away, but today he’s extra rough. He wants to prove a point to me, maybe to test me himself. “Figure it out yourself, Eladia. If you do, then I don’t have anything else to teach you,” he says and stands down. He lowers his guard, which is nice of him, but he does it to further confuse me.
I use my brain to retrace his every step. I was trying to regulate my breathing; he used the time to vanish from my sight; the training area is circular, meaning that the only way to go was up. He jumped over me at the exact moment I opened my eyes. But, even though I expected him to come at me from behind, he returned to his first position faster than I anticipated. So, either he never moved, or he was above me the whole time.
Or
...
“You jumped above me, tossed the paper from your vantage point, and jumped back in your place to confuse me. Your trick wouldn’t have worked if you didn’t toss the paper ball to me,” I say.
“Why?” he asks me.
“I expected an attack from behind. So, by giving me exactly what I wanted, you confused me. With the time you earned while I was trying to understand what’s going on, you sneaked behind me and got me.”
I don’t ask if I’m right. I know that I am. So, when he nods, I feel proud of myself.
“You’re something else, do you know that Eladia? I had many students throughout my years with the Organization, but you’re the most promising one. It’s almost disappointing that you’re a Chronicler. You would do better as a soldier or an agent of the Organization.”
Alien Romance Box Set: Romantic Suspense: Alien Destiny: Scifi Alien Romance Adventure Romantic Suspence Trilogy (Complete Series Box Set Books 1-3) Page 92
