First Watch: A Watcher Bay Adventure (7 page)

They stared at each other for a few moments, wordlessly communicating grief, anger, hope, and reticence across the canyon of silence stretching between them. Then Levra nodded abruptly but refused to smile.

“You find out where it is and get approval for us to go with you, and I’ll think about it. But I’m not working in uncertainties here anymore, Gunnar. You find out. Today. Either we go with you, or you leave forever. I’m through waiting on you. I can’t put us through this again. I won’t.”

She resisted the urge to run into his arms. She missed him so much but stormed out of the room and left him standing there. She felt the smallest glimmer of hope and tried not to vomit as she made her way to wake up Enric.

Today, she needed to take care of Mera and Alena. She’d get the list of their abilities and submit it to the Bureau of Ddaeran Affairs for the villagers so the Founding Families would leave them alone. For the moment, she was grateful she had a task to focus on.

Taking on all of the Founders in defense of the Ddaerans seemed light years easier than resolving this conflict with her husband.

CHAPTER
7

Abramov Command headquarters

October 3, 12 AA

Gunnar rode Levra’s hover bike to Abramov’s headquarters in the military district of New Seattle to meet with Ana. After he parked in the staff garage, he rode the express elevator to the top floor of the Abramov Securities Building.

He strode into her office and sat across from her, placing his silver synthetic leather boots on her desk with a dramatic thud.

“We’ve got a problem, Ana. She lost it when I told her I’d signed up again.”

“Why did you tell her? You knew she would object.”

“She sort of pinned me down, metaphorically. At any rate, I told her I’d find a way to bring her. What should I do? I really don’t want her to come, but Blake Colton will have my ass if I jeopardize the mission at this stage. I think she’ll be suspicious about everything if I can’t smooth this over.”

Gunnar watched Ana's face as she took in the information he brought and then calculated a response on-point with the mission parameters. She was hot when she was being devious.

“You are going to have to bring her with. Levra can’t suspect anything is different. Bring the kid too. We can’t have her become suspicious about you this late in the game. It might actually work out in our favor. If we bring spouses and children along, the family feel of the mission will help our cover with the Ddaerans. In fact, it’s perfect. If I didn’t know you were a complete jackass, I’d congratulate you for adding this element of camouflage to the mission. In fact, you should encourage her to bring her friends from Dwyr—the one who helps Enric communicate. If we include other Ddaerans, it will help us create inroads with their kind in Rasia. And her abilities may help turn the conversation quickly to whatever abilities they may have.”

“You are cute when you are devious.” He pinched her ass as he passed by.

She rolled her eyes, but then he felt her respond to his rough kiss. With thoughts of what he’d like to do to Ana if only he had the time, he headed back to tell Levra the good news. He would be happy when the charade was up, so he could finally kick his whiny bitch of a wife and the kid to the curb.

CHAPTER 8

New Seattle, New Eden

October 3, 12 AA

Levra braced herself for bad news. Having allowed herself to hope while Gunnar was at Abramov Headquarters, now she regretted making room for optimism. She’d picked up the list from Alena and, with Enric in tow, had delivered it to the BDA’s main office. When she returned home, Gunnar was there waiting for her in the kitchen.

He strode across the room and pulled her to him. She tensed but returned his embrace.

“It’s set,” Gunnar whispered in her ear. “I spoke to command. They are sending me east—to Rasia—to explore a new village of Ddaeran. To investigate their abilities. There are rumors they have some exceptional skills. Got the go-ahead from the boss. You and Enric can come with me. I’ll be the mission commander.”

He pulled back and looked at Levra. On the inside, she was ecstatic. He worked it out. They could stay together.

“How wonderful, Gunnar.”

He leaned in again, nuzzling her ear, and whispered, “We leave in two weeks. Sound good?”

Levra turned away from him and opened a cabinet, removed a glass and then slammed the cupboard door shut. A little harder than she intended. She wasn’t exactly angry. More like frustrated. She felt like she’d been riding a rollercoaster for too long now. So much of her life wasn’t her own. The last twenty-four hours felt like a whirlwind. He was home, then he was leaving again, then she was leaving the marriage, now they would leave together. In only two weeks.

Her mind spun as she contemplated his announcement.

Deep breath, Levra. Think of Enric. He needs a father. And I need a husband.
Maybe they really could reconnect and capture—even partially—the magic they’d enjoyed at the beginning of their marriage.

Levra looked at Gunnar, who looked anxious as he waited for her answer. So she did matter to him. As quickly as she’d determined it was time for her to say goodbye, she reversed course.

“Okay. We’ll come with you.”

She would be able to keep her marriage together, a detail not very likely last night. The reminder of the disrespect he’d shown by signing up without talking to her wriggled into her mind, but she forced it out. She would let go of it. She had too.

As long as they were together. Together was everything. Now she had to figure out how to solve the problems with the Ddaerans at Dwyr in the next two weeks. She couldn’t leave knowing Alena and Mera were in danger of being arrested or worse.

“I need to know Alena and her family are safe. We took the paperwork listing the abilities to the BDA offices today like you recommended, but Mera’s family has been such a support for me while you were gone. I worry about leaving them in a potentially hostile situation.”

“Actually, I had a thought while I was out that might solve your problem,” Gunnar said. “I know how attached you got to Alena and Mera while I was gone. Would you consider bringing them with us? It would be great help to us as we interact with the Ddaerans on the east coast of Rasia, near Watcher Bay Outpost. I confirmed a plan with my contacts at the BDA. They will “lose” the registry, after officially acknowledging receipt and approving the list, which will make it look like the villagers at Dwyr have registered but won’t show their actual abilities. Your friends will be in the clear, but you might as well bring them with. It would be good for Enric, right?”

Just like that, the stars aligned. And both moons.

Gunnar, who only hours before had been at the top of her people-to-hate list, was now solving all of her problems.

She was beginning to get whiplash from his constant mood swings, but she supposed it was normal for there to be some adjustments upon his reentry to a normal life.

“What an excellent idea. Thank you for thinking of it.” She touched his hand gently. “Now I don’t have to worry. Then it’s settled. Let your boss know we’ll be ready to leave in two weeks.”

He smiled at her response, but it didn't reach his eyes.

“I’ll go first thing in the morning and give them the good news.”

Levra swallowed the suspicions that continued to plague her about Gunnar. What choice did she have?

Going with Gunnar seemed like the only option.

CHAPTER
9

Horizon Transport Ship

October 15, 12 AA

The last two weeks had passed in a whirlwind of preparations. New Seattle lay in the past. At least for now. Levra had said her goodbyes to her Ddaeran students and helped Mera and Alena prepare to accompany her and Gunnar’s crew to the Ddaeran village of Glanmorr that would be their home away from home for at least a couple of months. Gunnar made a phone call to Abramov, who in turn managed to get the BDA to agree to leave the villagers at Dwyr alone since they’d turned in their registry paperwork. It was a tentative peace for now, but peace was peace, and Levra added it to the plus column when she thought of the changes seen in Gunnar.

Alena and Mera were both thrilled at the prospect of seeing other Ddaerans, not to mention the excitement of seeing another area of New Eden. Neither of them had ever traveled farther from their home than New Seattle.

Now Gunnar and Levra, along with Enric, the two Ddaeran guests, and a small crew of 26 people, including Doctor Sanchez who'd already treated Enric for motion sickness, rode aboard the mid-sized spacecraft toward their remote destination at nearly a thousand miles an hour. The SS
Horizon
was a high-flying spacecraft that flew in the thinnest portion of the atmosphere high above New Eden. The ship would only need a few hours to get to the other side of the continent of Iantha, which separated New Seattle in Anthemia from the country of
Rasia
, specifically the village of Glanmorr. Waiting for them was Watcher Bay Outpost where Abramov built in preparation for this mission. They’d already been in the air for hours, and Levra expected they would be landing soon.

They flew high above the clouds, so there wasn’t much to see. Levra passed the time replaying events from the last two weeks since Gunnar had returned home.

She had plenty of time to think. Maybe too much time.

She recalled Gunnar’s explanation of their mission.

“The purpose,” he’d explained to her, “is to build a lasting bridge between the crew at Watcher Bay Outpost and the villagers at Glanmorr, and foster the beginnings of community between the local clan and the crew at Watcher Bay Outpost. We’ll also survey the neighboring lands for a site suitable to build a satellite city, similar to the proximity of New Seattle and the village of Dwyr. Abramov is committed to establishing strong ties with the Ddaeran community.”

As they flew across the expanses of New Eden she held high hopes for this mission and any part she might be able to play in it. She knew the Founders had much to learn from the Ddaeran natives and their simple way of life. Beyond their incredible psychic abilities, the villagers at Dwyr lived in harmony with the land and its natural resources.

Her thoughts turned to the nature of the relationship between her own people, the Founders, and the Ddaerans.

The Ddaerans could certainly benefit from some of the technology the Founders had to offer. The relationship between the two cultures had been a mostly positive one in New Seattle, and Levra looked forward to being instrumental in creating a similar relationship in this new area. She and Gunnar had decided not long after they’d arrived on New Eden that they wanted to spend their lives among the Ddaerans. They admired their simple yet rich lifestyle and had always planned to raise their children among them. It seemed that, in a strange twist of circumstances, she was nearer than she’d imagined possible to living among them.

She remembered her history classes back on Earth when she’d learned about the adversarial relationship between the European settlers and the Native Americans. One story that had always captivated her was the mysterious disappearance of the English colony at the island of Roanoke. As she traveled to uncharted territory with her own children, she had a surreal moment where she thought she might be able to relate to the feelings of those European settlers as they made their way to what would become America. She couldn’t imagine those immigrants had held ill-will toward the natives, and she knew she held New Eden’s native population in high regard.

Levra hoped desperately there would be a different outcome here with the Ddaeran clan than there had been with the Europeans and the Indians in sixteenth-century America. She had reason to be hopeful, because the arrangement in New Seattle had worked so well. Other than the last few weeks when the passage of the Disclosure Act required Ddaerans to register their abilities. Things had grown tense since then, and Levra was somewhat glad she and Mera were able to avoid anymore complications with the BDA, at least for now. The founding settlers of New Eden had worked very purposefully to avoid making the same mistakes as the Europeans who settled America. She’d heard rumors over the years about other Founder settlements who had encountered many issues with the native population, but she was intent on making sure it didn’t happen here.

Something she couldn’t quite identify felt off about this mission, though. Gunnar seemed rather vague on the purpose, and she felt an undertone of something sinister in his conversations about the Ddaeran people. She hoped this was her leftover irritation with him and the rushed nature of the situation clouding her judgment. He couldn’t have changed this much—a complete and total value shift—in five years, regardless of how many planets he’d encountered.

The aircraft began to experience turbulence and Levra fought the urge to vomit. Or to think about her sister’s last flight. Her mind slipped back to when she’d first boarded this aircraft a blond woman, a female officer, approached her.

Her visit with Morgan Moore didn’t help the nagging worry at the back of her mind.

“Mrs. Shield, it’s good to meet you.”