Which was a very large hope when he realized he was travelling with none other than Nida Harper.
As he continued to check out his disguise via his reflection, he heard soft footsteps.
Turning, he saw Nida walk slowly towards him. She looked sleepy, and her eyes were half closed. Yawning, she stretched her arms out, and promptly banged her hand against the wall. She muttered, shook out her knuckles, and tried for a sheepish smile.
. . . .
She was an accident on legs, and he was about to take her out onto a completely unknown alien world.
Suddenly he felt a cold sweat pick up across his brow, and he swallowed hard.
‘Oh, wow,’ she said as she neared, her eyes opening wide as she considered his disguise. ‘That's amazing. Hold on, you are Carson, right?’ She asked in a high-pitched voice.
He stared at her disbelievingly, eventually shaking his head. ‘Yeah, I'm Carson.’
She looked sheepish again. ‘You've been busy. How long have I been sleeping for?’
‘About eight hours,’ he said as he patted one of his neck ridges. It felt suitably strange.
He had taken his armor off, or at least he had partly taken it off. He’d forced the ablative plating to recede into two metal bands around his wrists. They were thick and heavy, but with a single command, he could activate the armor, and in several seconds, it would grow up over his skin.
It was unbelievably reassuring to have it there.
But while he could hide the armor, his gun and the scanner and the device weren’t going to be as easy.
Nida took a small but still clumsy step towards him. ‘Really, I was out for eight hours?’
He gestured to the small window behind him. ‘It will be dusk soon. As far as I can tell, this planet has roughly a 28-hour day.’
‘I can't believe I wasted so much time,’ she began, looking guilty.
‘You rested; you needed to rest. That is not wasting time,’ he said firmly. ‘Plus, it has taken me this long to manufacture our disguises.’
‘You made one for me too?’
He nodded.
Though he had briefly thought of leaving Nida here whilst he went out and did all the investigating, he quickly realized it was a poor idea. For one, he didn't want to take his eyes off her, and for another, he doubted the entity would let him. And he didn't want to piss it off, because every time he pissed it off, it took control of Nida, and he knew that sapped up the precious little energy the entity had left.
‘Wow, I can't believe we’re really going out there,’ she noted, biting her lip as she did.
It was a cute move, but it couldn't hide how nervous she looked.
‘Yes, we are,’ he said carefully as he turned to her fully. ‘And now it's time to get you ready.’
She looked up at him. It wasn’t a sharp move; in fact, it was small. But the effect it had on him was far out of proportion.
He felt a little giddy, and, god dammit, it had been years since Carson Blake had felt giddy.
He was a grown man, for crying out loud, he wasn't a schoolboy.
Concluding it must have something to do with how tired he was, he cleared his throat properly, and got to work.
Though he indicated to Nida how to assemble her own disguise, he quickly realized she was a little too clumsy to manage it, and he had to step in.
Quite close to her.
In fact, right up against her as he carefully applied prosthetic neck ridges, blue spots, and white dye to her hair.
It was a lengthy process, and through the whole thing, she simply stood or sat quietly.
Though her skin didn't glow any more, it was still peculiarly warm.
Or maybe he was warm, maybe her proximity made him flush with heat—he didn't know. And once again, those were entirely inappropriate thoughts, and he chased them away as soon as they arose.
Instead, he concentrated until the task was over.
But no matter how hard he tried to focus on assembling her disguise, he couldn't ignore how . . . tender the entire experience was.
From dying her hair, to applying blue dots to her cheeks, the physical barriers between them were broken for those few minutes.
Though she hadn't said a word, that hadn't nullified the intensity of the experience. In fact, in many ways, it had only increased it.
But finally, it was over, and Carson stood back, pretending he could breathe easily, and chasing away any latent tingle over his fingers by pumping them hard. ‘We are all done,’ he croaked.
She gently touched her cheek, then ran a hand through her fresh white hair.
She blinked at him quickly, and her entirely black irises couldn't hide her surprise. ‘Wow,’ she managed as she ran a hand up and down her throat. Turning, she looked at the mirror, and twisted on the spot, that long skirt of hers flaring around her ankles.
He cleared his throat, and looked away.
‘You know, if things don't work out for you as the legendary hero of the Galactic Coalition Academy, you could move into costume design,’ she laughed lightly.
He liked listening to that laugh.
Then he caught up to what she had just said. He raised an eyebrow pointedly. ‘Sorry, legendary hero of the Academy?’
She looked sprung, as if she hadn't intended to say that out loud. ‘I just meant . . . okay, come on, you must know that you are . . . seriously popular,’ she stumbled over her words like she usually stumbled over her feet.
‘Seriously popular?’ he questioned again.
She threw up her hands. ‘You're in the E Club, you're the head of the Force, and every damn recruit worships you.’
‘Does that include you?’
He shouldn't have asked that question, or at least not with that particular tension to his tone.
She blinked quickly. ‘Every cadet except for me,’ she clarified, her voice squeaking a little. ‘But that's not the point. This is an incredible disguise. How exactly did you learn to do things like this?’ she asked as she leaned towards the mirror, dragging her fingers delicately across the ridges on her cheeks.
He watched her as she pressed herself close to the mirror, and it took him a while to realize she’d asked a question. He cleared his throat way too awkwardly. ‘Survival training. I used the scanner to help me figure out what substances around this building I could use to manufacture prosthetics and glue,’ he began.
She turned and smiled. ‘I know,’ she shrugged her shoulders. ‘I’ve been to the Academy too. But the point is, you did a good job. Which I guess isn’t surprising considering you’re Carson Blake,’ she added.
He couldn't help but laugh again, yet this time he couldn't hide the tight, uneasy edge to it. ‘Why do you keep going on about me as if I'm not in the room?’
She looked sprung and blinked quickly. ‘Why do you keep pretending that you’re not, well, Carson—’ she began.
‘Blake?’ he finished. ‘You keep referring to me as if I’m a thing,’ he challenged.
She started to blush, and she ran her hand up and down the long black sleeve of her arm. ‘Sorry,’ she stuttered, ‘it's just, well, in the Academy, you have it drummed into your head that Carson Blake is the best of the best.’
‘I’m standing right here, and you don't need to refer to me by my full name.’ He was aware that he should just drop it; it was clear she wasn't trying to insult him. She was just stumbling over her words as usual.
But he couldn't drop it. And maybe the reason he couldn't drop it was that he didn't entirely understand what he was feeling, and that scared him.
He’d been on multiple missions before, with a whole range of different people, and yet none of them had ever been this intense.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said in a clearer voice now, ‘don’t mind me.’
She sounded and looked apologetic.
Which made him realize he was being a total ass.
He’d robbed her of a brief moment of levity, something she deserved, considering what had happened
to her. An entity from another dimension had possessed her body, she was on a run through time and space, and all he could think of was how awkward it was to be referred to as Carson Blake, the hero of the Galactic Coalition Academy.
He clutched his neck, and let his stiff, sweaty fingers drag across the muscles. ‘Sorry,’ he managed, ‘I’ve just never been comfortable with . . .’ he trailed off.
‘You don’t have to explain yourself,’ she said lightly, but it was clear she was only trying to be polite.
‘No, I think I do. Look, my life is quite different to the one you probably think I have. I am not the legend of the Galactic Coalition Academy. I work hard, just like everybody else. That’s it. I do my job.’
She pressed her lips together and nodded, but she didn’t look at him.
It was clear she didn’t believe him.
And just for a second, that irritated him again. Before he could stop himself, another wave of frustration billowed through his chest, snapping his mouth open as it did. ‘I’m just an ordinary guy, honest. I’m not a captain, an admiral, or even a commander. I’m only a lieutenant. I’m just ordinary,’ he repeated. Because, for some reason, it was critically important Nida understood he was normal. He wasn’t some untouchable legend. He was just a guy. Not that different from her, or, at least, a little more coordinated, but still ordinary.
She finally looked up at him. It was clear that he had made this once light interaction into something uncomfortably intense. She stopped rubbing her arms and instead held her hands tightly in front of her, as if she were on parade. ‘Okay,’ she said simply.
‘I’m just ordinary,’ he repeated again, kicking himself for being so pigheaded. He had to stop saying that, and he had to drop this before he freaked Nida out even further.
But she now flicked her gaze up and held his. ‘Except you’re not,’ she said in a soft tone that was nonetheless steady.
‘What?’
‘You are the head of the Force, and you have mastered the use of the telekinetic implant. People rely on you. People trust you. And you get things done. Carson, you’re not ordinary,’ she still spoke in that same deceptively quiet tone that nonetheless rang with certainty.
He swallowed. ‘Yes I am,’ he began, sounding as petulant as a child.
‘You’re not, and that’s a good thing. If you weren’t here, if you hadn’t been so persistent in looking out for me on Earth, I would be dead. You, Carson Blake, are why we are both here. You’re not ordinary, and that’s a good thing,’ she looked at him as she spoke, and she didn’t once blink, and neither did she drop her gaze. She also still held her hands tightly in front of her.
From her body language to her calm certainty, watching her was transfixing.
He swallowed. He tried to defend himself, but he couldn’t think of anything to say.
Because concealed in her statement and the way she had said it was a compliment. Okay, it hadn’t even been concealed. She had outright said that if he’d been anyone else, she wouldn’t be alive.
He swallowed again. Then he managed to shake his head. ‘You’re overstating things. Anybody else could have done what I did.’
‘Except for me,’ she laughed lightly, but if the move had been intended as carefree, it wasn’t. She looked unusually small in that moment, and she finally unhooked her hands from in front of her, and brushed the fingers of her right hand over her left palm. ‘Maybe if I had been somebody else, things would never have gotten this far. I mean, a real cadet, someone not as useless as I am, wouldn’t have made the same mistakes. They wouldn’t have touched the blue orb in that statue room,’ she picked over her words slowly, as if she were trying to hide her emotion, ‘they wouldn’t have kept everything to themselves. They would have figured out what was going on sooner, and they would have gotten the appropriate help before it was too late.’
She no longer looked at him. Instead, she stared at some innocuous patch of dirt on the cold, grey, stone floor.
Without thinking, he stepped right in front of her, breaking her gaze. He dipped his head down, until she looked up into his eyes. He simply shook his head. ‘This is not your fault. And you did everything you could to stop this. People didn’t believe you,’ he stabbed a finger at the ground as he spoke, unable to keep his passion from poisoning his calm resolve. Though he wanted to speak with authority, he ended up talking with an unmistakable note of frustration instead. ‘You are the last person who can be blamed for this.’
She pressed her lips together, but didn’t say anything more. Instead, she dropped her gaze and stared at her left palm.
Again, without thinking, he grabbed it and held it in his own hand, covering that faint dancing blue glow with the girth of his palm and fingers.
She was a cadet and he was a lieutenant, and he really had to stop touching her. Okay, you were permitted to engage in bodily contact when it was necessary, like when you were tackling somebody out of the way of an enormous Barbarian. But the point was, he had to stop touching her in moments like this.
Emotional, poignant, almost scary moments. Moments that stretched like time shouldn’t, and that practically vibrated around him with strange, unknown promises.
It took a lot of effort, but he finally dropped her hand and stepped back, reinstating their personal space.
She was still staring at her hand, but there was the slightest of smiles warming her cheeks. ‘Okay,’ she whispered.
‘Okay?’ he croaked, completely unsure of what she was agreeing to.
‘Okay, so maybe it wasn’t all my fault, and maybe I did try hard to let people know what was happening. But,’ she took a steadying breath, ‘I still don’t think you’re normal. And thank you, for not being normal,’ she added, awkwardly.
He opened his mouth, but he couldn’t say anything.
He wasn’t sure whether he should thank her, argue further that he was normal, or tell her it was time to change the subject of this conversation.
But she made the next move. ‘I guess now that we both have disguises, we can’t put it off any longer. We should . . . go out.’
Briefly, he took that to mean something else, and blinked hard, but soon realized what she meant. Nodding his head entirely too quickly, he cleared his throat and tried to straighten up. ‘I think you’re right. We can’t waste any more time.’ He closed his eyes and sighed. ‘I can’t believe I just said that. We are about to go out on an unknown alien planet, and mingle with the inhabitants. We are so screwed.’
‘The Academy teaches that a good cadet never gives up,’ Nida said as she shifted past him and towards the door. The heels of her shoes clicked against the hard stone, and the elegant skirt she wore swished around her ankles. She turned over her shoulder, her new white hair cascading around her. ‘So, come on. If Commander Sharpe were to ever find out that we gave up,’ she whistled through her teeth.
He chuckled. It wasn’t the best joke he’d ever heard, in fact, it wasn’t even funny, but she’d made it. So he laughed.
Then they did it, they headed out.
It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. It was at once completely different from every proper United Galactic Coalition mission he had ever been on, and yet exactly the same as the incredible adventure stories he’d enjoy as a child.
Tales that had been filled with crazy scientific explanations, unfeasible amounts of danger, ludicrously violent enemies, and stupidly specific missions.
Realizing how ironic that was did not, however, dampen how serious this situation was.
Because nothing could.
That thought steeled him, and Carson rustled up what determination and courage he would need for what he knew would come next.
Chapter 4
Cadet Nida Harper
She was strangely distracted.
It was strange, because she had a lot that should be commanding her attention. An entity from another dimension resided within her body, and if she did not return it to its home, all of reality could be destr
oyed.
. . . .
And yet, she couldn’t help but recall, in exact and exquisite detail, how tenderly Carson had applied the disguise. From the neck ridges, to the spots, to the hair, her cheeks and scalp still tingled from his precise touch.
Which was just stupid. For one, he was Carson Blake, and for another, hello, she had the weight of the universe on her shoulders. She was allowing herself to be distracted by the most trivial of facts, and she had to push all memory of him away.
Which was very, very hard, considering he was right by her side.
They had finally left the house. And it felt strangely like leaving her home, even though she’d only resided in it for half a day. Still, it was undeniably scary to leave those solid stone walls and step out into the world around.
Dusk was starting to settle in, and it was longer and filled with more vibrant reds and gem-like purples and oranges than its equivalent on Earth.
She did not have the time to appreciate it though. Neither did she have the opportunity to judge just how lovely the meadow and forests around her were.
They were lush, and the grass was soft, long, and looked almost exactly like the lawns and pastures of her home world.
The trees were somewhat different though, taller, lanky, and their foliage was tinged with orange and blue.
Still, just like trees everywhere, they had a lovely, age old, calming presence.
She would have adored the chance to pluck Carson’s scanner up, and spend the rest of the night investigating them. That, after all, was what a good cadet of the Galactic Coalition Academy should do. Her primary ream it was exploration. But somehow she doubted that Carson would let her lounge around in the forest for the rest of the day.
‘There is a densely packed populace approximately 20 kilometers from this position,’ he suddenly announced as he regarded his scanner.
‘20 kilometers?’
He closed the scanner and nodded at her. ‘If we walk fast, we will be able to make it tonight,’ he said, sounding exactly like a determined Academy lieutenant.
She made a face though. She couldn’t help it. She was still, despite her eight hours slumber, tired. There was this . . . aching weariness in her bones. Though she could move, and in a pinch, she could run, she was aware she had to be careful.
Ouroboros- The Complete Series Page 30
