"Elundi Chapters 1-4" by James Sterling Scott

Chapter 1

            Rows of monitors stretch out before my eyes in a seemingly endless stream of useless photocopied images.  Aside from a few burnt out light bulbs and a painting tilted a few inches the wrong way all the screens reflect the same thing…. The sterilized hallways of the Icarus.  Granted myself and the rest of the security officers on board had other options to pass the time but when the choice is wandering mile after mile of hallway making sure doors were locked and no passengers were lost or sitting in the security office in a high back leather chair sipping coffee for hours well which would you choose.  The neon red numbers of the clock on the wall flash three am across my vision reminding me that there is still another five hours left on my shift.  The gentle tap tap, tap tap of plastic against metal brings my attention away from the clock as my night shift partner William Gant insists on drumming his pen against the desk.  The first few weeks I somehow managed to ignore it but night after night like a broken record he starts again tap tap, tap tap.  It takes all my energy not to smash my coffee cup against the side of his head and beat him to death.  With a heavy sigh I push to my feet determined to escape the dreaded tap tap, tap tap.

“I need to get some fresh air Gant, radio me if pigs fly and something actually happens around here.”  I force a smile onto my lips to mask my utter disdain for the man.

“In case you haven’t noticed Lieutenant were in space.”  He laughs lightly “The air is recycled and scrubbed through the filters.  Where is this magical place you’re going to find fresh air from Lieutenant?”  My eyes flicker back to the metal coffee cup then to his skull and back again before I take a breath and reign in my annoyance.

“Fine then Gant I am going for fresh scenery and a change of company.”  I see his lips starting to form a reply but I beat a hasty retreat out the door before I have to listen to him call me Lieutenant once more.  Lieutenant… an arbitrary title given out to me seemingly at random.  Gant had been working security aboard the Icarus nearly five years while I only had two tucked under my belt and still the promotion had gone to me a fact that Gant simply couldn’t let slip.  For me it was simply a job, a paycheck, a dull distraction from reality that kept the lights on and food in the fridge. 

When most kids are growing up they have dreams and ambitions, some sense of what direction they want there lives to take but not me, no not for Aelin Stephens.  When I was a little kid my response to that question was easy.  So what did I want to be? Retired at least that’s the story my mother tells.  So for me this is just another job and Lieutenant just another nickname I’m stuck with.  If I could pass it over to Gant I would in a heartbeat but until then I must resign myself to Lieutenant this and Lieutenant that day in and day out.

The drab corridors are empty as I stroll through on my way to the cafeteria.  Neon signs above the doorways paint a depressing picture of the good old days when the Icarus was a place people actually enjoyed visiting.  The Icarus was once the pride and joy of Sol Enterprises.  A luxury cruise ship that carried passengers from Earth to Miridian some twenty light years away.  Our faster than light engines meant we could make the trip in around forty five days but that’s a long time to spend locked up in your quarters with nothing to do.  Sol Enterprises outfitted the Icarus with a full dining hall, ballroom, two recreation rooms for exercise, and a dozen or so pools decorated in different motifs from around Earth and the colonies.  There were even two bars for the passengers that preferred to spend the trip drunk out of their skulls but now thanks to the Gorin Plague nobody wants to travel anymore.  It’s not that Miridian isn’t still a paradise full of sandy beaches and cool oceans it’s simply that the new quarantine procedures dictate 180 days in quarantine before being allowed onto the planets surface and another 180 when they get back home.  So where does that leave the Icarus?  Well it leaves us with twelve passengers, nine crew, six security personnel counting myself and a cargo hold full of who knows what cheap crap the company is carrying to make the trip cost effective for Sol Enterprises.

            The sliding glass doors to one of the ships two bars open with the ships three custodians inside trading jokes and shots of stolen whisky from behind the bar.  I should say something to them about drinking on the job but honestly who are they really hurting by having a couple of drinks.  The worse that could happen was if they put a few extra coats of wax on the ballroom floor for crying out loud.

            “Any luck finding that fresh air Lieutenant?”  Gant’s voice crackles across the radio clipped at my belt a gentle tap tap, tap tap coming through in the background.

            “Keep the airwaves clear Gant or I’ll file a formal complaint against you when I come back to the office.”

            “Yes sir Lieutenant, of course Lieutenant, whatever you say Lieutenant.”  The radio dies off with a hiss of static and I’m left considering whether or not to turn it completely off but something tells me to leave it on.  That same something that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck sending a shiver down my spine.  The sensation of eyes watching me but for a hundred yards in both directions the corridor is clear.  For most people it’s just there mind playing tricks on them.  Something about walking a nearly empty ship in the middle of the night gives people the sensation but for me it’s more then that, for me it’s a warning.

            A gift of birth that marks me as one of the millions of freaks in the universe.  Those of us born differently from the rest of humanity.  Those of us born not as humans but as Psionic's.  Some extra piece of our brains switched on at birth by accident, mutation, or simply a birth defect that allows us to do things that normal humans can’t.  Branded at birth after our brain scans are finished and we are discovered to be different.  A twisting set of lines that stretches from our hairline and down over our left eye before stopping midway down the cheek, the lines connecting to form a crude design of a double helix strand of DNA.  Branded across the face to show the world what we are so they know who to fear and hate.  I hated it growing up but as I grew older and met others like myself with the mark of the OPR (Office of Psionic Regulation) I grew to understand the reasons for the marks.

            The odds of being born with enhanced brain activity are one in a million.  The odds of being born with an ability considered dangerous is around one in ten million.  With over twelve billion humans running around the universe however that means there are thousands of dangerous Psionic’s running around.

            For most of us it’s nothing more then harmless little parlor tricks like bending a spoon or being able to communicate with the cells in your body to heal quickly.  Take that to the extreme however and bending a spoon can turn into crushing buildings with a single thought.  Being able to control the cells in your own body is one thing but what if you could tell the cells in someone else’s body to simply shut down?  When Psionic’s first started popping up it was pandemonium.  A modern day witch hunt where every strange occurrence or accident simply must be the work of some nefarious Psionic.  People killed there own neighbors and feared there own children.  The answer was to start the OPR.

            The laws were changed to reflect the changing times.  At birth all new born children are forced to get a brain scan to determine how much activity there is.  A normal person only uses around ten to twelve percent while it is rare there have been recordings of Psionic’s using as much as sixty to seventy percent.  Under twenty you get a black ink mark like mine, between twenty and thirty your mark is blue, between thirty and forty your mark is green, anything over forty gets red.  Those with plain black like mine are mostly overlooked in society with no restrictions other then our mark.  All the rest have to report in with the OPR every single week for their entire lives.  The vast majority of blue and greens end up working as agents for the OPR.  Seeing as how most companies won’t hire them despite the discrimination laws.  As for reds well there a different story all together.

            If you’re born red you’re basically screwed from birth, well if you’re born on Earth at least.  House arrest a friendly name for prison from birth to death.  Shipped off to the Nurel colony light years away from any normal upstanding members of society.  Using trusted blue and green OPR officers to keep the reds in check with there abilities suppressed by drugs that leave them in a trance like state barely able to feed and bathe themselves.  There was a rumor a few years ago that a group of Psionic’s staged a rebellion and actually managed to escape from Nurel but the OPR of course denies it.  Of course it’s not like they’re going to admit to letting a group of walking time bombs slip out of the front door.

            Of course it’s impossible to completely regulate us all.  Humans have stretched across the galaxy in every direction and after all the OPR can’t be everywhere at once.  There are colonies full of Psionic’s without OPR interference or brands on their faces.  A cold war of brain power between the outer colonies and the OPR.  The OPR could probably take down the outer colonies of Psionic's but it would be a war with who knows how many casualties on each side.  They keep to themselves and as long as they don’t enter United Nations space the OPR lets them be.

            So what about me?  Well I can sense people.  I don’t mean I can read there minds or even know when they’re lying to me I just mean that I can feel them.  I can tell where people are but aside from making me good at hide and seek it’s pretty useless.  If I was more powerful I could have gotten a job with some search and rescue outfit or maybe fugitive retrieval but my range is limited to only around a hundred feet.  I was well past the trio of drinking custodians in the bar but I was defiantly not alone.

            My eyes drifted across the empty corridor filled with locked doors leading to the rec rooms letting them come to rest on an art deco painting of a woman standing on the bow of a boat.  A simple decoration like the rest of the paintings that lined the walls every dozen or so feet but something was defiantly not right and the only logical answer meant that the Icarus was in serious trouble.  I forced my gaze away from the painting as I fumbled my security keycard into the reader beside the locked rec room doing my best to pretend I was not interested in the painting.  I let the door shut behind me sealing myself inside the pitch black recreation room making sure it was sealed before fumbling in the dark for the radio clipped to my waist.

            “Gant are you still in the office?”

            “Yes sir Lieutenant.  What can I do for you Lieutenant?”

            “Well for starters you can act serious for a minute Gant.  I think we might have a real problem here.”  At a time like this the last thing I needed was to have to depend on Gant for help but I wasn’t about to wake up the captain unless I was sure.  “Go to the camera outside the A2 recreation room and tell me what you see.”

            “Alright give me one second to pull it up.”  Time seemed to slow as I waited nervously a few beads of sweat starting to form on my brow.  “I don’t see anything there Aelin.  What should I be looking at?”

            “It could be nothing.”  But still I could feel someone there on the other side of the wall.  My ability had only been wrong a few times before I don’t know why it would be acting up now.  “Then again it could be serious.  I am going to go back in the hall after you see me on the camera I want you to set the emergency alarm off.”

            “All over the ship or just in the hallway outside the rec room Lieutenant?”  It certainly didn’t take him long to loose his moment of being serious.

            “Just the hallway Gant.  I don’t want to have to explain to the captain why we disturbed everyone on board do you?”  I waited for a response but one never came I suppose that meant he got the message.  I slipped out the door as casual as possible and turned back towards the painting just as the shrill scream of the emergency alarm pierced the silence of the hallway.  Even though I knew it was coming I still jumped a little and as I had guessed the alarm had the same reaction on my empty patch of wall.

            A blinding burst of light flashed into my eyes.  The painting was still hanging on the wall but where there had been empty space there now stood a girl.  I don’t mean a woman I mean a girl, a child; she could not have been more then fifteen or sixteen year old.  A pair of pink designer jeans and a grey t-shirt with the words “Rebel” written across the front were her only clothes.  Her feet bare probably in an effort to mask the sound of her feet running up and down the halls.  Her blond hair was cut short stopping even with the bottom of her chin.  Her lips were covered by a shade of deep blue that I can only guess was picked to match the color of the double helix tattoo that ran down the left side of her face.  I had guessed it was a Psionic but it hadn’t occurred to me that it might be a kid.  I simply stood there at a loss for words and in the end with a small smile plastered across her lips she spoke first.

            “Ummmm hello!”  She didn’t run or try and escape she simply stood there staring at me as I started right back.

            “Gant kill the alarm.”  Around us an eerie silence settled as the blaring siren stopped screaming through the hall.  Gant was probably just as surprised as I was and didn’t even bother with a response.  I stared at the girl still trying to work through my surprise. 

            “I’m Victoria… but you can call me V all my friends do.  Well at least that’s what they would call me if I had any.”  Her words came out rushed and nervous with a tone that felt more exited then afraid.  The seconds dragged on as I tried to think of what to do with her.  She was obviously a stowaway but she is also a blue class Psionic.  God only knows why she was heading to Miridian or how she thought she was going to sneak past the OPR when we landed but I guess she had not thought that far ahead.  “Don’t be rude now I introduced myself you could….”  Her smart ass comment was cut off by the sound of the emergency alarm once again blaring into my ears.

            “Damnit Gant I told you to turn that damn alarm off!”

            “I did turn it off Aelin.  That’s the ship wide.  Someone on the bridge must have set it off.”  The fact that he had used my name meant he was serious.  The girl giggled lightly as she crossed her arms over her chest.

            “Your in enough trouble as it is already kid if you have anything to do with the alarm save us both the trouble and tell me now.”

            “Cross my heart and hope to die Aelin it wasn’t me.”  She let my name roll off her tongue with a slight purr in her voice.  A silent curse given to Gant for actually using my name for once instead of Lieutenant.  She tried to act innocent by batting her lashes and trying to look harmless with that smile still plastered on her blue lips.  “I have been standing here with you this whole time handsome what could I have to do with the alarm?”  She took a step forward at the same time that I moved back.  “So tell me Aelin what is there to do for fun on this ship?  I mean I’ve been sneaking around here for nearly a month staying out of sight but I didn’t know they had another Psi working security.  Now that you have found me though maybe we can hang out maybe get to know each other a little better?”

            “Gant I’ll meet you up on the bridge.”  I let a sigh slip past my lips as I reached down and put a hand onto her shoulder squeezing lightly.  I spun her around to face away from me and gave a light push.  The radio was returned to it’s spot on my waist as the two of us moved down the corridor towards the lift that would take us to the bridge.

            “So Aelin what about us hanging out?  You never did answer me.”

            “We are going to see what the problem is on the bridge then I’m going to find some place to hold you till we get to Miridian.”

            “You can hold me anytime you want Aelin.”  Her back may have been to me but somehow I knew she still had that smile plastered to her lips.  An emergency alarm on the bridge, a blue class stowaway Psionic is flirting with me and there’s still four hours left to go on my shift….

Chapter 2

            Self titled hero, savior, joke, kid, flirt, mommy and daddies little embarrassment Victoria Elizabeth Robb but you can call me V.  I guess it’s not really fair to say I’m an embarrassment to my parents I mean how the hell should I know since I never met them.  I have always assumed it was the reason they quite literally tossed me onto the side of the road when I was a baby.  I guess you could say I am just assuming and you know when you assume something you make an ass out of u and me.  I can’t really blame them though I mean who in their right mind wants to raise a freak Psi.  For all they knew I could have grown up to be some nut job psycho killer.

            In this day and age of brain scans and DNA tests it would have been a simple matter for the police to arrest them for child endangerment but I guess they saw the blue double helix tattoo across my face and figured why bother.  Just another Psi for the OPR to deal with, just another piece of garbage thrown in the street.  I could be wrong of course maybe mom and pop Robb were just assholes who weren’t ready for a kid.  Maybe they were happy I was born a freak knowing they could just toss me out and not have to worry about what people would think.  I can imagine how the conversation probably went.  Mr. Robb did you throw a baby onto the side of the road?  Well yes sir officer I did but she was just one of those Psi freaks.  Oh well sorry for bothering you Mr. Robb have a nice night. 

            The OPR probably raised the issue on the steps of the senate.  A few cries of outrage were probably heard.  Some politician most likely made it an issue for his campaign then quickly forgot about it after his election.  In the end nothing ever changes.  Not all norms are so callus I know it’s simply human nature to hate anything that’s different.

            The Office of Psionic Regulation had no choice but to take me in.  Psi children have even less chance at getting adopted then a norm and the orphanages aren’t really equipped to deal with Psi kids.  I didn’t really have an adopted mother or father in the OPR but I did have a bunch of people who I called uncle or Aunt whether we had any actual relationship or not.  The best schools and medical care that United Nations money can buy.  I may have been born in a hospital on the east coast of America but the OPR is a United Nations organization with ties to every government and colony in the galaxy.  I’m not really from anywhere. A year on this planet a year on another, a month on some rock learning to better use my abilities then a week spent in a colony learning how to not use them.  It’s like walking around with a loaded gun, every norm knows we have powers but we are not meant to use them. 

            I don’t hate norms though despite what people believe.  They think that because we are hated and feared by them it must mean that we hate them in return.  I think there idiots who refuse to see the truth but myself and the OPR can only do so much to make a difference.  If we were really as bad as they believed then we would simply take over the senate and change the laws to suit us.  We Psi’s are spread out in every corner of the galaxy, in every branch of the military and no matter how much the norms think they have us in check the truth is that if we wanted we really could kill them all with just a thought.

            Unfortunately for everyone the problem isn’t just with the norms but with certain members of the Psi community too.  Terrorists and Rebels hate mongers and freedom fighters.  The outer colonies those far outside the reach of United Nations controlled space.  Back before the OPR in the dark days of Psi’s being beaten to death in the streets the vast emptiness appealed to some of my kind.  They boarded freighters, battleships, cruisers, and even single passenger shuttles and shot off into the unknown of space.  They discovered planets, asteroid fields, and empty moons outside of UN controlled space and slowly but surely they began to settle in.

            Despite what the media reports they are not all bad in fact most are more peaceful then any city on Earth.  Settled as a place where Psi’s could come and live outside of the persecution and regulation of the United Nations.  At first the colonies were made up entirely of Psi’s but the nature of genetics meant that would change with the second generation of colonist.  Although two Psi parents mean your odds of having a freak are high it doesn’t guarantee that your baby won’t be born a norm.  Without OPR tattoo’s you can’t even tell whose norm and who isn’t but that’s exactly  how they want it.  Humans and Psi’s working together in harmony doesn’t it just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?  Where’s the fun in peace and harmony I say though.  Life would be pretty boring if we all got along all the time.

            Sometimes you have to throw a little chaos into the mix.  That’s where the other colonies come into play.  There are places in the galaxy where red classified Psi’s rule over there cities like Kings and Emperors.  Some believe that they are the next and only logical step of human evolution.  Superior to humans and therefore they should be the rulers.  Norms are kept as slaves and pets or in some places just killed outright at birth.  That is the nature of the galaxy though a buffet of taste with a little something for everyone and plenty of stuff that should probably be brought back to the kitchen.

            Keeping these militant Psi colonies from destroying the way of life in UN space is the primary function of the OPR these days.  The OPR won’t try and force there rules and regulations on the colonies but they sure as hell won’t allow the colonies take control of any UN space either.  The OPR knows firsthand what a Psi can really do and it’s there job to keep the norms safe whether they like it or not.  The OPR serves as the invisible wall in the Universe.  People think it’s a standoff between the colonies and the OPR but that’s only because the OPR controls the media and they know the norms would panic if they know the reality of the situation.

            The war has been going on for years with death banging on the doorstep at every turn.  Everyday people die on both sides.  Entire human colonies wiped out overnight.  The rebel colonies kill humans and the OPR strikes back against them whenever possible.  People loose touch with there loved ones and panic by the millions wanting to know why there messages are no longer going through.  The OPR couldn’t tell the public the truth couldn’t let them know that crazy Psi’s were running through space killing and enslaving humans.  So the OPR began spinning there web of lies to keep the poor little human children ignorant so they can sleep at night.

            The Gorin Plague was the answer.  A killer microbe that is capable of killing millions upon millions.  A fantasy created by the OPR.  What’s that you say little human, you can’t reach your son?  Oh well I guess the Gorin Plague killed him.  You say you want to send a ship out to check on him well no sir we can’t allow that there could be infected people there we can’t risk you getting contaminated.  Why don’t you just stay home and wait.  We are sending a team to investigate and will get back to you in a few weeks when we know for sure.  Ah the gullibility of people never amazes me.  There have been survivors of rebel attacks of course but with an army of telepaths at it’s disposal the OPR can easily plant false memories in there heads.  The survivors go home with memories of sickness and death not war between rebel Psi’s and the Office of Psionic Regulation.

            But back to me, back to the always to hasty Victoria Elizabeth Robb.  So what brings me out to the middle of nowhere stowing away on board a run down piece of crap like the Icarus?  Well I would tell you but that’s a secret for friends only and I don’t think that I can call you that just yet.  Let’s just say that I got tired of being treated like a little kid by my family at the OPR and decided to prove that I wasn’t useless.

            I had hoped to stay hidden until we got to Miridian but hey I guess I’m not as perfect as I thought.  I’ve managed to hide from the bio metric scanners, the passengers, and the crew for weeks and now I finally get nabbed by a damn rent a cop while I was heading for the bathroom.  I guess it’s my fault for not checking to see if there were any other Psi’s on board but then again he is just a black class Psi what kind of luck do I have that he found me.  I can bend rays of light around my body making myself invisible to everything except infrared.  I can conceal myself better than any optical camo the military has and I stumble on the one damn black class Psi in the galaxy that can see me. 

            I guess it could be worse I mean getting all the way to Miridian without being spotted was a long shot.  At least he is kind of cute in a classical sense of the word at least.  Mid twenties maybe twenty four with a muscular athletic build that shows he spends way too much time in the ships rec rooms.  Clean shaven with jet black hair slicked back over his head with who knows how much industrial strength hair gel.  His white military dress uniform is pressed and neat with what appears to be too much starch.  Normally I would say he was defiantly not my type but his eyes paint a picture of someone with definite potential.

            His eyes match his hair, perfect jet black.  A retinal laser job that must have cost him a pretty penny.  I have seen it on others before but usually it’s just to change there eye color permanently to a nice shade of blue or green, but not him not this Aelin fellow.  He has had the work done on his entire eyeball, changing every spec of white to match his hair.  They say that eyes are the windows to the soul but with him his eyes look like two bottomless pits that I would just love to fall into.  Despite the rest of his appearance his eyes show that at least at some point in his life he had a little piece of chaos and mystery in him.  If there is one thing I can say about myself it’s that I always did love a good mystery.

Chapter 3

            Alright so maybe I have had a few drinks too many but does that damn emergency alarm really have to be so damn loud.  Paul and Ryan bolted off when the thing went off leaving me to clean up the mess.  I had everything under control till I knocked the whiskey on the ground.  They can make a ship go faster then the speed of light but you mean to tell me they can’t make a bottle that won’t break from a little fall.  I had to drag myself all the way back to the cargo hold just to get my mop.

            Ever since the Icarus started losing customers the cargo hold has been getting bigger and bigger.  All the crates of food and supplies tucked back to fit into one small corner of the football field shaped room.  The damn thing takes hours to mop when it’s empty which is why I am sure as hell glad the Captain has filled it up for this trip.  I am sure the company doesn’t know he is renting out the empty space to run freight but I’m sure as hell not gonna say anything.

            It’s filled to the brim with large iron containers standing nearly ten feet tall each and stacked three high as far as the eye can see.  Normally I would have already had a peak inside the things but whatever it was the Captain didn’t want me getting inside.  Each of the containers was fitted with a keypad lock on the front of the heavy iron doors.  Of course in the long run something like that wasn’t going to stop me.  When I was cleaning earlier I had noticed one of them was patched into the ships power supply through a thin cord.  I may not be an engineer but it only took a second to yank the cord from the wall.  I figured I would have to wait for the damn thing to run out of juice.  That had been hours ago surely it would be dead by now and with a little luck the keypad lock would be dead as well. 

            As I moved through the rows of containers I could already see there was gonna be trouble.  A stretch of florescent bulbs that lined the ceiling had burnt out for a dozen feet in every direction away from the container I was looking for.  Maintenance was gonna be pissed when I told them I had caused a damn power surge in the cargo hold.  It was dark near the container but the lights further down the aisle still provided enough light for me to just barely make out the outline of my rolling mop bucket where I had left it but my mop was nowhere in sight.

            “Where am I?”  The voice was low and gruff like sandpaper scrapping off stone.  I could just barely see him slouched down against the side of one of the containers not nearly enough light to make out who it was.  Damn passengers always wandering off where they don’t belong.

            “Y….yoush seens my mop a…around heres anywhere?”  I stumbled a little as I reached down to take hold of my mop bucket nearly falling over.  I had to steady myself against the container near the stranger as the alcohol began to take its hold on my motor functions.  “Ish was right here earlier.”

            “I asked you a question.”  A sharp pain gripped my chest like the air was being squeezed out of my lungs.  I could feel something warm and liquid flowing down my stomach.  I glanced down and saw the wooden handle of my mop protruding out of my chest.  I looked towards the stranger but he was only just now starting to push himself to his feet.  I stumbled away from him the pain in my chest already fading away as my body must have been slipping into shock.  I managed to pull myself into the light as if it would somehow protect me.  I could feel the life draining from my fingertips and an odd sensation of weightlessness as my feet lifted off the deck of the ship.  “It’s not nice to walk away when someone is speaking to you.”

            I spun around in mid air as I was thrown to the nearest of the containers my back pressed against the cool iron.  I could hear the tearing of flesh and the crack of bone as the wooden handle of the mop punched its way through the back of my rib cage and into the iron wall of the container.  I tried to speak but could feel blood running down the corner of my mouth and knew I had a punctured lung.  My head sagged to the ground and my eyelids felt heavy.  I could see now that the door of the container was open and could not help but let out a gurgle of a laugh.  I guess I had managed to get the damn thing open after all.  He shuffled forward out of the shadows of the broken lights.  Another chuckle worked its way past my blood stained lips.  I found it funny that the puddle of crimson red blood beneath my dangling feet matched the color of the tattoo that was stretched across the left side of his face. 

Chapter 4

            Victoria and I stepped off the lift just in time to see the Captain shouting at Benson Hodges the co-pilot to shut the emergency alarm off.  Captain Samson was in his mid seventies but thanks to modern day medicine he didn’t look a day over forty.  He should have retired years ago but for him the Icarus was the only home he had known for the past few decades.  One glance at the Captain told me Hodges better have a damn good excuse or he was gonna be in some serious trouble.  The Captain was wearing nothing but a white V neck t-shirt and a pair of black boxer shorts covered with tiny red hearts.  His lack of pants showed that he had been asleep but at this time of the morning where else would he be.  I gave Victoria a gentle shove towards the nearest wall.

            “Stand here and shut up kid ill deal with you in a minute.”  She gave a quick nod of understanding but I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was only half paying attention to me.

            The bridge had been built to try and resemble one of the antique cruise ships back on Earth.  The far wall was in the shape of a crescent moon turned horizontally.  It was lined with a set of large floor to ceiling vid screens where the windows should have been.  The screens were direct links to cameras on the outside of the hull.  It gave one the feeling of being near the bow of the ship whereas in reality the bridge was buried deep within the hull nearly dead center within the Icarus.

            There were computer consoles spread sporadically around the small room showing system information from all over the ship.  Resting comfortably in the center of the room was the Captain’s high back leather chair currently occupied by Hodges.  A stocky fellow with short brown hair and a physique that was the result of too many hours sitting on the bridge with nothing to do except stare at the emptiness of space.  In that way our jobs had a lot in common.  At least working security meant I could get a little exercise walking the halls on patrol.  Twelve hours on and twelve hours off for Samson and Hodges.  One of them needed to remain on the bridge at all times now that the crew had been downgraded do to cost issues.  The bridge had become a one man job somewhere down the line.  I could think of no way the Captain had stayed in such good shape unless he spent his shift doing push ups and sit ups on the bridge floor to pass the time.

            Hodges cleared his throat as he quickly tapped a control built into the arm rest of his chair.  One of the vid screens on the wall flickered and changed views giving us a glimpse of the back of the ship.  At first all I could see was more of the same empty black space but as Hodges tapped at his control I could see a small shape starting to enlarge across the screen.

            “What the hell is that?”  The Captain and I muttered the words simultaneously.  He looked in my direction for the first time as if he had not even noticed I had come in.  I found myself wondering what the hell was taking Gant so long.

            “Good of you to join us Lieutenant Stephens.”  He hesitated for a brief moment.  “Where is your partner Lieutenant?”

            “I’m here!  I’m here!”  As if on cue Gant stepped off the lift his face red and flushed a few beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.  He carried a black duffle bag gripped tightly in his right hand.  I was just getting ready to ask about it when Gant let his eyes focus past the Captain at the object on the screen.  “What the hell is that?”  All eyes in the room flicked back to Hodges for an answer.

            The thing was just floating there behind us or at least that’s how it appeared.  Looking out at space it’s impossible to tell if the ship is even moving.  The stars are so far away from us that they appear still on the screens even though I know we are still moving forward at somewhere around 162 times the speed of light.  The dark matter engines that the Icarus uses doesn’t even have any visible propulsion.  It creates a gravity field that pushes objects away from it in the reverse of the way a planets gravity works.  Our scientist believe it’s what’s responsible for the big bang and the expansion of the universe but don’t ask me to explain it I’m no scientist.  The fact that it was floating behind us meant that it was traveling at the exact same speed as us.

            If the scale on the screen was correct then it was way too small to be a ship.  It was a sphere no bigger then a basketball and I would be willing to bet that if you took a laser to it you would find it was a perfect sphere down to the last micron.  What made it even stranger was that it appeared to be made of glass.  Violet purple glass that reminded me of an old amethyst crystal I had when I was a kid.

            “Whatever it is Hodges it’s just stuck in our gravity well.  It’s weird but don’t wake me up for every piece of trash that gets stuck in the tires son.”  Hodges may have been a suck up and a wannabe boss but I knew Hodges wasn’t an idiot.  I watched the smile spread across his lips like a rat that just found the world’s largest piece of cheese.

            “With all due respect Captain it’s not caught in the gravity well.  Don’t ask me how to explain it sir but it’s following us.  Hell it’s been on our ass for the past hour.”

            “Hodges you know just as well as I do that the size of the dark matter drive is proportionate to the speed it can go.  Even if that entire thing was nothing but a gravity drive it still couldn’t come close to our speed.”  Captain Samson folded his arms across his t-shirt in curiosity about how Hodges had come to his conclusions.

            “Of course your right sir but that doesn’t change the face that it is following us.”  He saw the Captain was getting ready to say something and quickly put up a hand to politely halt the Captain’s response.  “I took the gravity drive off line.  At first the thing stopped and I assumed that was because it had fallen out of our wake.  To be certain I kicked in the docking thrusters to see what would happen if I took the gravity well out of the equation.  I tried to move away but it matched our speed.  I threw the gravity drive back online and it sped up again matching our speed without missing a beat.  I don’t know what that thing is sir but it’s producing its own propulsion and it’s doing it with an engine a thousand times smaller then ours.”  Hodges looked about ready to jump out of his seat with excitement.  If what he was saying were true then he just discovered something that would make our huge dark matter engines a thing of the past.  The Captain on the other hand just looked worried.

            “What do the sensors say?”  That remark given by Gant of all people.  The Captain gave him a look that I guess was contempt for Gant thinking of it first.  Hodges was all too happy to answer.

            “The sensors say it isn’t there and yet they do register the disturbance caused by the displacement of space in our gravity well.”  I could see the Captain letting the situation roll through his head.  He had enough to worry about already but I still had to tell him about Victoria.

            “Sir we have another problem I’m afraid.  I found this girl hiding near the A2 recreation room right before the alarm went off.”  I motioned over my shoulder towards the wall where I had left Victoria to wait.

            “What girl?”  I saw a confused look come across his face as he looked over my shoulder.  As I turned I already knew what I would see.  Nothing.  She pulled her vanishing act when my back was turned but I could still tell she was there even if I couldn’t see her.

            “Victoria!”  No response but that didn’t really surprise me.  “Just because you’re a kid doesn’t mean you have to act like a child.”  Still nothing.  I must have looked pretty crazy to Captain Samson and Hodges but I didn’t care I knew she was there just trying her best to piss me off.  Unfortunately it was working.

            “Don’t say I never did nothing for you Lieutenant.”  Gant set the duffel bag near my feet.  “I figured this might come up.”  I gave him a questioning look before I dropped down onto one knee to work the zipper on the bag.  I couldn’t help but laugh as I looked inside all the while a little annoyed with myself for not thinking of it first.  I looked back up at the empty wall while still kneeling on the ground careful not to let her see inside the bag.

            “Last chance kid.”  Still nothing but that was fine with me.  If she was going to be stubborn I was going to be an asshole.  I reached into the bag and came back out with a small red portable fire extinguisher.  I flicked the safety release with one hand while aiming the short tube towards her with the other.  I guess she figured I was bluffing because she still remained hidden.  “Suit yourself kid.”  The nozzle erupted in a stream of white foam.  I was surprised to see that as the foam reached her it to disappeared, blinking out of existence right before my eyes.  My aim wasn’t quite perfect though as I could see droplets of the foam splatter against the wall around her making a crude outline of her body.  As the droplets hit they expanded doing what they were intended to do, trying to smother a fire that didn’t exist.

            The Captain jumped lightly at the sound of her strangled breathing and coughs.  I knew the foam was expanding on her literally ripping the air from her lungs.  Within a matter of moments my eyes were assaulted with a familiar flash of blinding light as she popped back into reality.  It was amusing to watch the Captain and Hodges jump.  It was even more amusing as the Captain moved behind Hodges suddenly self conscious about his disheveled appearance now that there was a lady present.

            Victoria was bent over with her hands on her knees looking like a drunk melting snowman that was about to puke.  As funny as the image was the sound of her gasping for air brought me back to reality.  I dropped the now empty extinguisher onto the duffle bag and went to her with a sigh.  My boots tried to slip out under my feet as I stepped through the growing puddle of melting foam.  I slapped her in the back with one hand while I used my sleeve to wipe the remainder of the chemical off her face.  She coughed once more before standing with a nod of her blond head, her eyes bloodshot from rubbing at the stuff in her face.  She glared up at me folding her arms across her now soaking wet t-shirt.  I couldn’t help but smile.

            “Hey I did warn you.”  I noticed that everyone was staring at the two of us and it became suddenly uncomfortable.  It suddenly occurred to me that for them this was not just a kid but a Psionic.  The look they gave me lead me to the conclusion that even though I thought I had earned their trust they still looked at me the same way.  No doubt even though they wouldn’t say it they were wondering if I had anything to do with her getting on board.  In there minds there was some great Psionic conspiracy that we were all in on.  I let my face turn serious as I straightened my stance.  “As you can see Captain she’s a blue class.  OPR is probably already looking for her.  We should proceed to the nearest colony and drop her off.”

            We have a schedule to keep Lieutenant.  It would take us days out of the way to drop her off.  We will just have to keep her secured until we reach Miridian.”  Hodges in typical suck up manner gave the Captain a nod of agreement.

            “Sir you know the regulations.  Blue and green class Psionics need to check in with the OPR every week.  We have been in flight for more then three so she’s is most certainly a fugitive at this point.”  I half expected Victoria to kick me but I was surprised to see she was staring at the Captain.  She should be doing whatever she could to escape.  Being a kid doesn’t mean anything when you’re a Psionic.  The OPR would probably lock her up and throw away the key.

            “Don’t try and tell me how to run my own ship Lieutenant.  Like you said.  The OPR doesn’t know she’s here.  When we get to Miridian we will turn her over and just tell OPR we didn’t find her until we were almost to Miridian.”  He nodded towards Victoria.  “Even if she says anything she is a fugitive it’s not like they’re going to believe her.”

            “What about that thing that’s following us Captain?”  Hodges hadn’t forgotten about his discovery.

            “It can wait till we hit Miridian as well.”

            “But sir it could be a weapon or something.”

            “Hodges we don’t have any external weapons on this ship so we can’t shoot it down, and we don’t have any way to bring it on board so just let the damn thing keep following us.”  The Captain moved from around his chair towards the door still looking a bit uncomfortable walking around in his boxers.  He stepped into the lift but held the door open with a hand on the sensor.  “The kid is your responsibility Lieutenant.  Her little trick doesn’t seem to work on you so you’re responsible for her.”  He started to let the door close but caught it at the last second.  “Oh and Hodges make sure this mess is cleaned off my Bridge before your shift ends.”  He let the door shut and left us to worry about how to proceed.

            I had never seen him so concerned with keeping on schedule and found myself wondering what the hell he had down in the cargo hold.  I watched Hodges fidget with the controls on his chair and he looked even more pissed off then I did.

            “Will I can’t get any of the custodians to respond over the radio.  Could you go find one of them to clean up this mess.”

            “Sure thing Ben.  Where are they?”  It was amazing how quickly Gant and Hodges dropped the formalities when the Captain wasn’t around.  I couldn’t say for certain but the way they acted I got the feeling that they were friends before they joined the Icarus crew.

            “Two of them are in there quarters and Marcus is down in the cargo hold.”  Marcus huh funny I never did know their names.  Gant turned to leave but I quickly grabbed him by the arm.

            “Actually Gant right before I found the kid I saw them drinking at the bar down on A2.  They’re probably passed out.  You check on the other two I’ll head down to the cargo hold and see if I can track down Marcus.”

            “What about the kid Lieutenant?”

            “Well you heard the Captain.”  I grabbed Victoria by the shoulder pushing her towards the lift.  “It looks like I’m stuck with her for now.  When I am looking for Marcus I’ll grab another fire extinguisher from the supplies.”  The heel of Victoria’s bare foot cam back and slammed into my leg just below my knee.  I winced slightly from the pain.

            “That’s not funny!”

            “I wasn’t joking.”  I gave her a quick smack to the back of her head.  Not enough to hurt her just to get her to step onto the lift.  It was past time I got a look at the cargo hold for myself.  I don’t know what we could be transporting that has the Captain in such a rush but I intended to find out.  “Oh and Gant you might want to make an announcement letting the passengers know that the so called emergency is over and they can go about there business.”

            “Well yes sir Lieutenant.  I’ll get right on that Lieutenant.”  As the lift doors closed between us I could see Gant giving me a mock military salute.

            “So Aelin I don’t suppose you know where I can get out of these wet clothes?”  I gave the back of her head another smack.  I’ve been assigned babysitting duty, the Icarus is being chased by a crystal basketball, and now I get to go track down a drunken janitor… three hours left to go on my shift.