by Aaron Hubble
Standing, he began to work through familiar combat poses, striking at imaginary foes who assaulted him. He imagined them coming from all sides. He parried a punch to the face with a forearm block and dispatched a vapor combatant by sweeping his legs out from beneath him. Feinting to the right, he dodged an invisible jab and countered with a quick uppercut that crumpled the shade to the ground. Twirling, Andy caught another imaginary arm and flipped the unseen adversary over his shoulder.
The ever-present guards watched him from their position beside the only exit. They stood motionless and expressionless. He had expected them to try to stop his exercises when he’d first begun doing them, but they’d remained in their spots, allowing him to practice and exercise however he wanted during the two hours he was allowed in the courtyard.
They wouldn’t be expressionless on the day he decided to use the same moves on them to escape this little prison, he thought.
Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he moved through several combinations of uppercuts, jabs, and crosses, working his way toward the opposite wall. Once there, he pulled his thin white shirt over his head and used it as a towel to mop the sweat from his forehead and chest. Scars crisscrossed his torso and upper arms, with one rather large scar dominating. He considered them for a while and could tell the story of how he’d gotten all of them.
He tossed the shirt over one shoulder, then placed his hands on his hips and took several long breaths, using deep-breathing techniques to slow his racing heart. After several moments he had the feeling someone was watching him. It was a sense most soldiers, the ones who lived long, anyway, usually developed.
Probably just the guards.
He turned and saw two women standing in the doorway of the courtyard. He squinted, trying to make out who it could be. The first had dark brown hair dominated by a large purple flower. It was the female doctor. He groaned inwardly. The woman never missed the chance to direct acid-laced barbs about him and the rest of humanity his way. He didn’t look forward to the vitriol he knew was coming.
The other woman was harder to make out. She was wearing dark pants and a white shirt like he was. Her hair was very short, much like a man’s haircut. Recognition dawned on him.
It was the Pilot, but she was standing. How was she standing? Had they given her prosthetic legs? She smiled and waved to him. Leaning on the doctor, the two women slowly made their way toward him.
He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the mental battle coming. One woman hated him. The other thought she was his wife in another life.
Andy wasn’t sure which was worse.
****
Evie’s breath caught in her throat, just like it did every time she saw him.
Just like it had every time he’d held her, kissed her, or said her name. A flood of memories rushed through her, and she fought back the emotional tidal wave. Desperately, Evie hoped he would remember who she was and who he had been.
My husband. That’s who he is.
One of the guards at the door held up a thick arm and stopped them as they entered the courtyard.
“Good morning,” he greeted them. “The same rules apply. There’s no talk of the city beyond the courtyard or that we’re under the lake or in the forest. Is that understood?”
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“Good. We’re going to search you to make sure you have nothing that could be used as a weapon.”
They spread their arms and allowed the guard to do a quick pat-down.
The guard nodded to them. “You’re free to visit with the human.” His face reddened as he looked at Evie. “I mean with the prisoner. He has thirty minutes left in his exercise time.”
Evie smiled at the guard, trying to let him know she wasn’t offended. She’d noticed the word “human” had become a derogatory term among the Ma’Ha’Nae. Evie couldn’t blame them. Look at what the people of Earth had done to their planet. What she’d helped to do.
No. Not what the people of the Earth have done. It’s what the CPF has done.
She hoped that would change. One day, after Aereas had been liberated from the CPF, the peoples of these two great worlds could be friends. There was so much to share, so much to learn from the people of Aereas. Evie tried to imagine a world which hadn’t experienced war for five hundred years. On Earth, war and conflict was all she’d ever known. Her home planet had been scarred by genocide, world war, and rampant sickness. Survival was a daily fight.
Evie took a step forward and felt the resistance of Mirala’s arm as the woman remained rooted in her place. Evie turned toward the doctor.
“Are you coming?”
Mirala sighed. “Are you sure this is who you want to spend your time with?”
“I am.”
Mirala’s dark eyes looked into hers and held her gaze. Evie knew Mirala didn’t understand the connection she had with the man in the courtyard, but she needed the woman’s support more than she knew.
“Okay.” Mirala sighed with more than a little exasperation in her voice. “Let’s get this over with. I may be able to remain civil for thirty minutes, but it will tax every bit of patience I have.”
“Do you have your translator?”
Mirala pointed to the small earpiece. “I do. Not that I really care what he has to say.”
Evie smiled and began walking on her still wobbly legs. She could just hear the low whir of gears and metallic joints moving, flexing, giving her the freedom she never thought she’d experience again.
Looking up, her eyes drank in the man she’d come to see. She almost stopped walking.
He stood near the far wall, his shirt off and sweat glistening on his well-defined chest and arms. That was one thing that had changed about him. Her husband had always been in shape, in an athletic sort of way, but never had he been so bulky, so muscular. A life in the CPF must have done that for him.
How long had they been apart?
He pulled the t-shirt back over his head, covering his chest, and began walking toward them. He still moved the same way he always had, with the fluid grace that had made him so successful as a thief back on Earth. After several long strides he stopped in front of them.
“Wow, Pilot, you’ve…” he stammered, clearly taken aback by what he was seeing. “You’re walking. How…”
“Evie,” she said.
“What?”
“Please, call me Evie. It’s my name.”
He looked at her for a moment, silent, slightly embarrassed. “Right…yeah…Evie. I keep forgetting. So.” He gestured toward her legs. “How did this happen?”
Evie hiked up one pant leg, revealing the neatly ordered array of metal and wires. “It was a gift from Mirala and some of the people in the hospital.”
Andy looked at Mirala and nodded a greeting as if seeing her for the first time. “Doctor.”
“Miscreant,” returned Mirala.
Andy smiled. The translator he wore over one ear apparently had no trouble translating the dig.
An awkward silence followed. Evie quickly jumped in to fill the void.
“Would you mind if I walked with you around the courtyard? I’m still trying to get used to these legs, and the only way to do that is to keep walking.”
He nodded. “Yeah, sure. Why don’t we walk around the perimeter to that bench at the opposite side. We can rest there if you get tired.”
The three of them began walking. No one spoke, and the awkwardness of the trio was not exactly what Evie had wanted. She stopped and turned toward Mirala.
“Mirala, I’m sure you have a lot of work to do at the hospital. You have much better ways to spend your time than babysitting me.”
Mirala looked at Andy and then back to Evie. “Are you sure you’re okay being alone? I can stay.”
“No, it’s not necessary. If I need help getting back to the apartment, I’m sure one of the guards can help me or can find someone who will. Please, get some work done.”
The doctor regarded her for a moment. E
vie could see the objections forming on her lips, but Mirala kept them to herself. She didn’t like Andy, didn’t trust him, but Evie did, and Evie was a grown woman.
“Okay.” She pulled Evie into an embrace. “Call the hospital if you have any problems with the prosthetics or if you need me.”
Evie returned the hug, emotion almost overwhelming her again. “I will. Thank you, Mirala. You don’t know what you’ve given me.”
Mirala turned to go. Andy called after her, “Nice to see you again, Doctor.”
“Make sure you don’t walk in front of a transport, miscreant. Or do.” Mirala walked away and disappeared through the shadowed exit.
“Why do I get the feeling she’s not a fan of mine?” Andy said.
“It could be because she isn’t,” Evie replied.
“Yeah,” Andy said, looking at her. “I guess I’ll need to turn up the charm a little more when she’s around.”
The pair looked at each other. Evie took a step. “Shall we?”
Andy nodded and they began to walk slowly around the courtyard.
“You move well on those legs. How long have you been using them?”
Evie stepped over a fern. “Oh, about an hour.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“I wouldn’t kid you, Lucas.”
He stopped. “It’s Andy. My name is Andy.”
“I…I know. I’m sorry. It’s hard for me to remember that as well.” She smiled at him, trying to relieve the tension between them. “I guess we both have adjustments to make.”
Andy nodded. “That’s the truth. Well…anyway, you’re doing very well on the legs.”
They turned to the left when they reached one of the corners. Her hand brushed his accidentally when they made the turn. She longed to reach out and take hold of his hand, to feel the comfort and security of his fingers entwined in hers. Of course she couldn’t do that.
“Are they treating you well?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes, and it’s driving me crazy.”
Evie laughed and smiled at him. “How so?”
“If I was a prisoner of the CPF, they would have used every interrogation tactic known to man by now to extract information out of me. They…these people seem to be trying to wear me down with kindness or break me with boredom. It’s kind of unnerving.”
“Why don’t you just tell them what you know? Get it over with.”
“Then what?” Andy shrugged. “After I’m no more use to them, what will they do with me?”
“I doubt they’ll do anything horrible to you. If they won’t torture you for information, I doubt they’ll kill you after you give them what they need.”
Andy was silent. He seemed to be considering what she was saying. “I can’t betray the CPF. They’ve given me a home and a purpose.”
Evie stopped and turned toward him. “The Continental Peace Federation are nothing but murderers, liars and thieves.” Her voice trembled a bit. “You and I had plans to join the resistance on Earth.”
“I think you have me confused with someone else. I wouldn’t join R3. I’ve spent the last couple of years fighting them. You understand that, right?”
She looked into his vivid blue eyes. “Andy Dillon may have fought the resistance, but Lucas Kreg would not. I know he wouldn’t.”
The eyes she used to know turned hard and steely. His voice was sharp. “Look, no matter how much you try to convince me or yourself, the reality is I’m not that man.”
Evie’s heart dropped, his words cutting her soul into ribbons. She turned her head, fighting the tears. Mere inches from her was the man who could make all of this insanity easier for her, and yet he seemed light years away. Maybe even gone forever, replaced by an alternate reality version of her husband.
He sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to raise my voice. It’s just that…well, I have no memories, no feelings, nothing about what you’re claiming. You understand, right?”
She nodded, taking another careful circuit around the courtyard.
“But you don’t accept it, do you?”
Evie looked at him, and searched his face. He was there, somewhere and she saw it in every feature she knew so well. His lips pressed in a thin line, and he narrowed his eyes. She could see he was trying to understand, trying to remember what she did. Evie gave him a pained smile.
“Oh, how you vex me, woman,” he chuckled, shaking his head.
Evie stopped in her tracks. Her heart fairly melted in her chest at the words that had so carelessly escaped his lips. “You used to say that every time I would be stubborn about something. You always said it half in jest and half in truth. You said it just before we left for our last heist.”
“Heist?”
She smiled at him. “I haven’t told you yet?” She took a few more steps. “You and I, we were criminal masterminds,” she said with a lopsided smile. “Regular modern-day Robin Hoods who stole from the CPF and gave to the needy. For a profit, of course. Our biggest customer was the resistance. They would take anything we gave them, food, medicine, supplies. It was a pretty good gig. We had two other partners, a young man named Bobby and a sweet older man named Paul. And we were happy.”
He was silent for a moment and Evie watched him turning over the words in his mind. “So, what happened? How did we end up in the employ of the evil organization you say we despised?”
Evie shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I remember leaving our shop for a heist and that’s all I have. The rest is blank until I woke up in the hospital. There are hazy snippets of conversations when I was in the ship that are just out of my grasp.” She sighed. “Did you know I can sit in that Valkyrie and tell you how to fly it, but I don’t remember ever learning any of it? The hardwiring must affect memory.”
“Well, it’s a good story, anyway,” Andy said.
“It’s not a…” Evie felt her foot slide out from underneath her and she began to fall. Her arms pinwheeled to try to regain her balance, but she wasn’t quick enough on her new appendages to catch herself. Andy caught her. His arms held her close to him. Surprised, she looked up into his face, a face burned into her memory like it had been etched in stone. This man was a part of her, always had been and always would be, no matter what he believed.
Losing herself in the past and in the strong embrace of his arms, she reached up and brushed her hand over the stubble on his face. She saw him hesitate, and she felt a flutter of hope as his eyes softened.
Then it was gone. He pulled her hand away from his face and pulled her into a standing position. Taking several steps backward, Andy looked toward the guards.
“I think my time is almost up. I should probably go.” He began to walk away and then turned back hastily. “Thanks for the visit.”
He turned stiffly and walked toward the exit. She watched him vanish through the door, sandwiched between the two guards, then she sat down on the nearby bench.
Her chest heaved, and her breath caught in her throat. Tears coursed down her face. Her memories of him were so vivid, so alive. He was the man she’d loved, did love. He was so close to her, yet somehow inaccessible. What if he never loved her again?
Evie pressed her face into her hands and let the tears come. All of the loss and the confusion poured out of her. Her husband was alive, but he was rejecting her. Why had she been left with the memories? Evie wished they were gone and she was like Andy.
No memory. No feelings. Just duty.
She felt as if her soul were being separated from her body. A black hole of emptiness was swirled in the middle of her being and greedily took away everything of worth but left the pain.
CHAPTER TEN
Aereas - Human base in Homa former Am’Segid great city
Lieutenant Commander Aedean Morris waited patiently.
Absently, he fingered the pips fixed to his collar signifying his rank. It had been two months since the admiral had given him his new rank and commission, but he still liked to revisit that day in his mind. True, he�
�d been given the assignment because the rest of his squad had died and the Continental Peace Federation now had need not only for a new team, but for the right man to lead that team. Morris liked to think he’d been on the road to this rank anyway. It was only a matter of time. His destiny was always to lead a team into battle for the glory of the CPF.
The sun was shining outside the window in front of him. Over the last week or two the weather had improved dramatically, the ever-present rain clouds replaced by warm sunshine and clear skies. He liked this much better, and he especially liked walking to the edge of the air base, standing on the cliff, and feeling the gentle breeze blow in from the sea. Earth might be his home, but Morris knew that it wouldn’t take long before this planet, with its pristine atmosphere, untainted water and abundant resources, took the place of that other blue and green world light years away.
Yes, this would be a good place to build a career, and he was doing his best with the assignment the admiral had given him.
He knew there was somebody, or a group of somebodies, hiding in the massive forest that dominated the middle of the continent, but his team had been unable to locate them. Whoever was out there had grown bolder, striking camps and mines with a stolen Valkyrie and then running and hiding in the hole from which they’d come. Morris clenched his fist and gritted his teeth because they’d eluded him often in the last two months. The admiral had charged him with the task of finding these insurgents, but so far he’d failed. He felt like he was grasping at straws in the dark trying to find the one with the answers. Perhaps today would be different. If not, at least the next few minutes would bring a measure of enjoyment.
The door behind him slid open. Turning, he watched Knapp and Corben, two members of the new Hildr Team, lead in a native man. The Am’Segid, (Morris had taken to calling them by the name they gave themselves) couldn’t have been more than twenty-five years old, roughly the same age as Morris himself. The man was dirty. Not just dirty, Morris noted, but filthy in a way that suggested he’d lived like an animal for three months. His hair was shaggy and unkempt, and the burnt orange streaks were matted in spots suggesting that the only way to ever get it back to looking decent would be to shave it all off and start over again. The shackles that bound his hands hung on him as did the tattered remnants of his clothes. A blindfold hid his eyes.
