The crew around the table was silent now, all eyes on Captain Warwick. He looked around at each person individually again, before he gestured to the map, which was slowly lighting up with routes and other ships.
“If anyone has a problem with these plans, you might just make it to the Cove before your head explodes.” No one spoke. “Good. Zimir, Weed and Speed, check the guns for damage and make sure everything is charged up and ready to go. Becce, I’ll need you as my right-hand woman while we map out the current trade routes. Everyone else, as you were.” The crew rose and began to wander out of the room. “Miss Strange, please wait.”
Vely froze in place, and slowly lowered herself back down to the chair. Becce patted her shoulder and gave her a smile before leaving the room. Captain Warwick remained seated as well. Once the room was empty, he spoke.
“I assume that you can be as useful as your sister?” he asked. Vely nodded vigorously, not wanting to give him any reason to toss her off the ship. “Good. I expect you to work to earn your keep here, just as Liza did. And in the meantime, you may take her room.” Vely rose and bowed at the waist, though she hardly knew if this was how you showed respect to a pirate captain.
“Thank you for not throwing me off the ship,” she said, stumbling over her words. This brought a smile to Captain Warwick’s face.
“I do have sympathy for those in need,” he said, now rising and moving towards the door. “Seek out Dr. D and Corbin. They need the most help,” he said, and left Vely alone. With her heart fluttering and her stomach twisted in knots, Vely lowered her head down to the table and let out a long sigh.
29
Liza Strange had quite enough of being jostled around. She was blindfolded, her hands and legs bound together. She’d been trussed up this way after she’d made too much of commotion while being loaded onto whatever ship she was on, throwing cargo bins around, and from the sound of it, people too, until they knocked her out with another blow to the head. But now she was awake, being jostled once more. The ship had docked somewhere not long ago, and she was being unloaded by strong hands that circled around her forearms as they pushed her down a ramp.
Her current situation was no surprise to her. When she’d made eye contact with Cedrick, she’d inadvertently pushed her way into his mind while his guard was down. She saw something in his mind that she’d be hauled away by someone in a whir of chaos and dragged onto a ship and left in a dark room, along with some sort of exchange of money. If only she’d seen it sooner, or understood it sooner, she may have been able to avoid being captured. But the surprise of seeing her sister again wiped most of her forethought from her mind, and the vision came true.
Behind her, someone else was sniffing and crying. It sounded male, but she couldn’t be sure. Whoever it was had been making those pathetic noises during the entire trip. Liza almost wished she’d been knocked out again, but her head was already sore and throbbing. She probably could have caused a disruption then too, but the pain in her head made it difficult to concentrate. And she was too reliant on using her hand motions to make something happen.
“What’ve you got?” a bored voice asked. Liza was shoved forward, hard, and she bumped into someone in the shoulder. The person beside her was quaking with fear.
“A katho and an augur,” a voice behind her said. Liza heard tapping on a tablet. Augur. Cedrick? Liza wondered.
“Alright. Go that way to receive your payment,” the bored voice said, and two sets of footsteps faded down a hallway. Liza and the other person were shoved forward until they entered a cold hall, at least, that’s what Liza assumed it was. It felt like that.
They walked for several minutes, until a new voice told them to halt. A door opened with a woosh, and Liza was shoved in, and the other person rammed hard into her back. Her blindfold was ripped from her face, and for a moment, she was blinded by glaring white lights above.
When her eyes adjusted to the light, Liza blinked and looked around. She was in a huge room, with a ceiling that had to be tens of meters high. The walls and ceiling were gleaming metal, and the floor was made of some multicolored stone tiles. Liza had never seen anything like it before. All around the room, there were other people in uniforms, standing completely still. They didn’t even move to look at the new arrivals.
Liza glanced to her side. Cedrick was indeed standing beside her, gazing around the room in awe. Once Liza’s bonds were removed by a man wearing the uniform of a high ranking SSA official, Liza whirled on Cedrick and gave him a blast, sending him skidding across the floor several meters.
“This is your fault,” she shouted, storming towards him, hands poised to wrap around his skinny, pathetic neck. Cedrick stared up at her, fear in his eyes. Liza was about to hit him again when invisible hands clasped around her wrists and held her in place. She looked back to see the SSA officer smiling at her. He was tall, well-built, with short brown hair and dark brown eyes. She could almost feel his power overwhelming her own as she stared at him.
“Cease, Miss Strange. Cedrick came here on his own volition,” he said. Liza frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s a criminal. It’s only a plus that he’s also an augur,” the man explained. “I’ll let you two work out your issues later. Come with me.”
The invisible hands released Liza’s arms, and they dropped to her sides. Cedrick pushed himself up from the floor, his face red. “I don’t want to be here either,” he whispered to her as they followed in the path of the officer.
“I knew my sister shouldn’t have trusted you,” Liza whispered back.
“This has nothing to do with your sister,” he grumbled. “I had a vision…”
“I saw it,” she said, cutting him off. “Just shut up.” Liza quickened her pace so that Cedrick was behind her. With a moment free, Liza looked around the room. The people standing along the walls of the room were dressed in similar uniforms as the Enforcers, but instead of orange, they were brown. They continued to remain standing, unblinking, during the long walk to a door at the other end of the huge room.
The SSA officer unlocked the door and gestured the two of them through. Another hallway and turn after turn until Liza completely lost track of where they were, and what direction they were going relative to the large room.
“Not to worry, Miss Strange. You’ll become quite familiar with these hallways in no time,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder with a smile. The officer had apparently been sneaking around her thoughts. Liza’s frown deepened. With her eyes aimed at his head, Liza tried to push her way into his mind, but she felt the same kind of resistance she’d felt in Cedrick’s mind. “No eavesdropping,” he added without turning to look at her. Liza’s fists clenched.
The officer finally stopped at a door and unlocked it using a retina scanner. When the door slid open, Liza and Cedrick stepped inside, followed by the officer. The room was plain, with a large table and several chairs surrounding it. There was a holoprojector in the middle of the table, and several screens built into the walls around the room. Two other people were already inside, wearing similar red outfits as the officer who brought them here. One was a woman, with long brown hair braided over her shoulder, and the other was a much older man, his hair greying, and his face covered in fine wrinkles.
Liza and Cedrick were instructed to sit down, and the third officer sat down across from them at the table. Silence enveloped the room for a moment, until Liza squirmed.
“My name is Colonel Jeffry Morre, and these are my comrades, Lieutenant Carte,” he said, gesturing to the female officer, “and Lieutenant Howards.” The older man nodded his head. “You are here because you are now cadets of the Solar System Authority, under our Supersensory Division.”
Liza crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “I don’t remember signing up for this,” she said. Colonel Morre smiled.
“No, you’re right. You were drafted,” he said with that ever-present smile. It made Liza cringe. “While here, you will lear
n to control and expand your abilities, so that we may combat the largest nuisance in our solar system, the Galactic Syndicate.” Liza raised an eyebrow.
“You want us to fight the pirates?” she asked. Carte rose up from her chair quickly, hands splayed on the table. Something struck Liza on the face like a whip. The muscles in her jaw went slack, and she couldn’t talk. Morre held up a hand, and Carte sat back down.
“Enough, Carte. Your muscles will regain their use in a little while, Miss Strange. And yes, we’ll be fighting the pirates, as you say.” Morre’s eyes turned on Cedrick while Liza absently rubbed at her jaw. “You, Cedrick Sones, are here to atone for your crimes. It was suspected that you had abilities for some time, and we are pleasantly surprised to find that you do, though your ability is weak and untrained.” Cedrick opened his mouth to speak but chose to remain silent and slumped back in his chair. “You will be working with Lieutenant Howards, our highest-ranking Augur. And you, Miss Strange, will be working with me.”
No surprise there, Liza thought.
Indeed. Liza winced at the sound of his voice in her mind. When she looked up to meet his eyes, she found him smirking at her. She was going to have to learn to block him out of her mind.
30
On her way down to the galley, Vely passed by an open door that was labeled as the medical bay. Inside the room, she could hear Dr. D talking to someone, seemingly having a one-sided conversation. Vely slowed her walk and stopped at the door. Inside the room, she could see Dr. D working at a table, still talking. Beside him was a tall, slender girl with a head of brown dreads.
“Liza?!” Vely cried, rushing into the room. Dr. D looked up from his task, and his face crumpled slightly. Liza turned, and Vely skidded to a stop when she was met with a pair of glassy black eyes. Vely screamed, stepping back in horror.
“Vely,” Dr. D said. Vely hands clutching at her chest as she tried to regain her erratic, frightened breathing. “That’s not Liza.” A heavy hand came down on Vely’s shoulder, steadying her. She looked up at the crew doctor. “What?” Dr. D waved at the Liza impersonator.
“That’s Tsuto. He’s a shapeshifter. He’s been Liza for a few hours now; we think it means he misses her,” Dr. D said. Vely pressed her lips into a thin line and stared up at the glassy black eyes staring back at her. Despite their lack of color, Vely thought she could see something like compassion or sadness in those black eyes. She waited for her heart to slow down and ducked her head to hide tears that threatened to spill.
“I miss her, too,” Vely said, reaching her hand out to Tsuto, who took Vely’s hand. Dr. D smiled sadly and clapped both of them on the shoulders.
“We’ll figure out what happened to her,” he said. “Don’t worry.” Vely looked up at him and tried to smile, but it was nearly useless. Instead, she just nodded her head. “You’re on your way to Corbin?”
“Yes,” Vely answered. Her heart constricted as if someone were squeezing it tightly. “Excuse me…” Vely cried, and turned away from Dr. D and Tsuto, and fled into the hallway. Denny was dead. Cedrick and Liza were both missing. She was on a strange ship with strange people…
Never in a million years had Vely expected her life to take such turns. With her back pressed to the wall, she slid down until she sat, and pulled her knees up to her face. She allowed herself to cry, though a small part of her mind reprimanded her for it. Back on the Moon, she’d been the levelheaded one, while Liza was the one to act quickly on emotions. Vely couldn’t even imagine trying to live life without her sister, so they could balance each other out, like Cedrick had said.
And Cedrick? Those pirates had acted like they’d known who he was. But how? Unless the story he told her on the Moon was false.
Vely groaned into her knees and tried to stop the tears. She heard footsteps approaching down the hall. Quickly, she wiped her face and glanced up. Becce and Dom were walking together, whispering. Vely averted her eyes, but they knew she was there.
“Vely, what’s wrong?” Becce asked.
“Tsuto… he looks like my sister,” she said. Dom and Becce exchanged knowing looks, then directed sympathy towards her. Becce knelt down at Vely’s side and rested a hand on her shoulder.
“We’ll get her back. Don’t worry,” Becce said with a weak smile on her face. Vely glanced up at Dom, whose expression was a mixture of sadness and anger. One of his hands was closed in such a tight fist that his knuckles were turning white. The words fell from her mouth before she could stop.
“Liza said she cared for you.”
Dom’s gaze snapped to hers, and Vely winced. Maybe she shouldn’t have said that. But Dom’s face softened, and his fist unclenched. “I tried to convince her to leave with us at the Cove, but she didn’t want to leave you behind.” Becce too looked up at Dom.
“Told you,” she murmured. His lips twitched into a brief smile, but the scowl returned to his face.
“I’ll kill whoever was involved with her being taken,” he said, and stormed off, leaving the two girls in the hallway. Vely looked at Becce.
“Should I not have said anything?”
Becce shook her head.
“He needed to hear it. He just feels responsible for her disappearance. Don’t worry, Vely,” Becce said, rising up and offering a hand to Vely, who took it and rose to her feet. A grin spread on Becce’s face. “As long as we have one Strange, we’re bound to find the other.”
Vely grew accustomed to the crew of the Gypsy Star. She found the twins, Weed and Speed, very entertaining, and they told her stories about her sister and some of their other adventures. Tsuto still managed to scare Vely every time he showed up, sometimes morphing into creatures that were like nothing she’d ever seen or heard of before. She found most everyone to be relatively friendly, which challenged her original expectations of a pirate crew.
Except for Zimir. She rarely saw him, but when she did, he kept his eyes on her the entire time, his expression always a dark smirk. He made her feel like he was staring into her mind, but she didn’t think he had the same powers as Liza. Either way, Vely tried to avoid him as much as possible.
31
A young man in a brown uniform escorted Liza to her living quarters. She was surprised that it wasn’t a prison cell. Instead, it was a small room with a bunk bed, two wardrobes, and a sink. The bathrooms were down the hall from the room. Judging by the unkempt blankets on the upper bunk and the clothes hanging from the wardrobe, Liza had a roommate.
With a sigh, Liza tossed her pile of “standard issue” clothes into the empty wardrobe. They were simply several sets of gray pants and button downs, along with some short sleeve shirts to wear underneath, socks, and black boots.
Liza and Cedrick had been forced to part ways, and Liza wondered where his room was located. Her fingers itched to strangle him. He was a criminal, and he’d been hanging around Vely and none of that sat well with Liza.
She was about to leave her room and explore the area when the door slid open with a woosh. A woman stepped in, wearing a gray towel around her body, her hair dripping water on her shoulders. Liza tried not to stare. The woman’s skin was so dark, it was almost black, and her black hair was braided in many thick strands that Liza immediately envied. Her dark eyes darted to Liza, and a frown formed on her lips.
“Who are you?” she asked. Her voice was raspy and gruff, and Liza could see a dark mark of skin on her neck. Almost like a bruise. Liza opened her mouth to reply but was silenced when the woman dropped her towel on the floor, and unabashedly began to dress in front of her. “Well?”
Liza averted her eyes. “Liza Strange.” The woman snorted.
“Strange, huh?” Liza waited to speak again until the woman had finished dressing. She threw herself onto the lower bunk and began to lace up her black boots. “What makes you so strange?”
“I’ve never heard that one before,” Liza muttered, leaning a hand onto her hip. The woman smiled and toweled her dripping braids.
“Funny. You must be my new room
mate,” the woman said, looking up to meet Liza’s eyes. “I’m Gwen Adan. Let’s not get too friendly, though. My last roommate died. Don’t think I could take the heartbreak,” she said. Liza thought she heard a bit of sarcasm in her voice. Her last roommate died?
“How?” asked Liza. Gwen rose and smoothed out her uniform. Gray really wasn’t her color.
“During a research session. Those bastards pushed her to her limit, to find out just how powerful she was. They fired a gamma pistol at her, nearly point blank, and she failed to protect herself,” Gwen said, her voice more emotionless than Liza would have expected. Gwen’s dark eyes met Liza’s. “Don’t get too chummy with anyone here. We’re all gonna end up dead, one way or another.”
Liza swallowed hard but firmed her resolve to get away from the SSA as soon as possible. Gwen headed for the door. “I’m going to the med bay. Got hit in the throat today during testing,” she said. “See ya.” Liza watched her go with mounting dread in her stomach.
Liza received her first-hand experience later that day of how awful of a situation she’d gotten herself into. A man dressed in the same gray uniform as hers stopped by and handed her a schedule. Her days were broken into blocks of time over ten hours, each labeled with the words Test, Train, Research, and Meal, while the rest of her day would be Sleep. Liza’s first block of the day, now that she was wearing her gray uniform, was a block of testing. The man in the gray uniform led her through a winding route of corridors, with Gwen following behind.
The testing room was a wide-open room with smooth tiled floors and metal walls. Unpleasant lights shone down from the ceiling, bathing the room in a glaring white light. It made Liza’s head swim for several minutes until her eyes adjusted. She waited while the room filled with a few more gray-uniformed people, followed by a few SSA officers, and more uniformed people, only these ones wore brown with stripes of gray around both biceps.
Psychogen (Galactic Syndicate Cycle Book 1) Page 18
