Reavers (Book 3) (41 page)

“It’s a long story,” Hiroko said warmly.  “But there will be time for that later.  For now, rest and get your strength back.”

“Do I look that weak?” he asked in surprise.  “I feel great.  Better than ever, in fact.”

She tried to stop him, but Owen managed to shuffle off the bed and stand on his own.

“See?  Fit as a fiddle,” he said with pride.

Hiroko stared at him in amazement and quickly turned her glance on Brent.

“Don’t look at me.  If he’s up to walking around, I say let him do it.  I never was one for sitting idly by.”

“Good enough for me,” Owen said with a grin.  “Now, where is the kitchen I wonder?  I feel like I haven’t had real food in years.”

“Down the hall.  Turn right at the third door.  Then turn left after the second arch.  Follow that hallway all the way down, and it will be the last door on the right.”

Owen blinked a couple times at the elaborate directions before turning and leaving the room.  Hiroko quickly followed, protesting he needed to rest she went.  Brent chuckled to himself.  The scene reminded him of countless similar ones he and Cassandra had shared.

Now that he was alone, he tried again to stand.  His legs were sluggish and refused to bear his weight.  Apparently he still needed a
lot
of practice with his abilities.  Although, to his credit, he hadn’t blacked out, and that was a welcome change.  Mustering all his remaining strength, Brent demanded his legs move.  Begrudgingly, they responded. 

Taking a few steps felt like climbing an entire mountain.  The sensation was vaguely familiar to the one he had first experienced after moving to Jeirude.  Thankfully, he barely noticed the strain of the increased gravity anymore.  Reaching the door seemed to take days.  He knew that it had only taken him a few minutes, but knowing and feeling are two different things.

As he continued to walk, his strength slowly returned.  By the time he had reached the foyer again, his body felt a dozen times lighter.  Stretching, he suddenly realized the vehicles in front of the house were long gone.  Everyone must have gotten settled while he had assisted Owen.  Letting his Weaver ability creep outward, Brent searched for his guests.  To his surprise he found all of them gathered in one of the living rooms - with Octavia.  Forcing his still fatigued muscles to move again, he slowly made his way to their gathering.

“. . . not really,” Tyra said in the distance.  “I always found it beautiful.”

“But there isn’t an atmosphere on half those worlds,” Marie said.  “I’d think they would be terribly lonely.”

“True, there wasn’t local flora or fauna, but there were plenty of other sights to keep us interested,” Ronald said matter-of-factly.

“Oh?  Like what?” Cain asked.

“Well, once there was this giant crystal formation,” Tyra said, trying to remember it.  “Huge thing, towered over the rest.  When the light of dawn hit it, the crystal refracted the light into millions of colors and patterns.  Lit up everything like some giant party.”

“Sounds amazing,” Liz said.

“I’m sure what you’ve been up to is equally impressive,” Brent said as he finally joined them.

“There you are!” Cain shouted.  “Owen’s been bouncing around like the rooms are made of rubber.  We were beginning to wonder if he’d traded places with you.”

“Well Owen
has
been laying in a bed for who knows how long,” Angela said over him.

“Are you alright?” Octavia asked Brent, ignoring everyone else momentarily.

“I’m fine,” he said with a wink.

“Keeping secrets already?” Marie asked.  “We haven’t even been here an hour yet.”

“Speaking of which, what have I missed?” Brent asked.  “I haven’t seen most of you in a year, others longer.  How much catching up did I miss out on?”

“Not much really,” Doug said.  “Tyra and Ronald were just talking about their assignment.

“Patrolling the lifeless rocks along the Great Divide,” Cain said as he nudged Ronald.  “You must be bored stiff.”

“Don’t heckle your guests,” Angela reprimanded him.

“I see you two still fight more than anything,” Tyra said with a smirk.

“We each show our affections in different ways,” Brent said.

“I suppose,” Marie said, “although I have to admit they do sound like an old married couple.”

“So what have you been up to?” Doug asked Marie.

“Cue the anti-relationship king,” Humphrey mumbled with a slight chuckle.

“We haven’t seen one another in forever!” Doug protested.  “If you want to go back to playing matchmaker, that’s your business.  I for one want some stories that don’t involve romance.”

“So you ask
me
what I’ve been doing?” Marie asked, sounding clearly annoyed.  “Just assumed there was no way I’d be involved in a romance?”

“I’m doomed no matter what I say now.”  Doug hung his head in defeat as Liz started chuckling.

“If you must know, I’ve been working on weapon modification and adaptation,” Marie said.  “Have a whole staff assigned to me and everything.”

“I know you want to show him up, but at least think up a passable story,” Rhea scoffed.

“It’s true!” Liz said quickly.  “I work with her, too.  There are about a dozen of us that test out her team’s work.  She’s more than doubled the range on a standard rifle.”

“With some loss of accuracy,” Marie said humbly.  “I’m still working out the bugs.”

“Let me guess, you aim at something in front of you, but miss so badly that you actually hit something
behind
you,” Doug said.

“I’d like to see you try to . . .” Marie started.

“That’s enough of that,” Owen said as he entered the room, a large half-eaten sandwich in hand.  “No fighting allowed around me or Hiroko.  I’m in too good of a mood to grouse over old animosities.”

“You’re up!” Janet shouted as she jumped out of the chair she had been resting in.  Brent hadn’t even noticed her in the corner of the room - Cain’s tour must not have gotten far.  “I didn’t believe them, but there you are.”

Immediately, she pulled out a few tools she had stashed away and started checking out Owen.

“I’m fine, really,” he protested as the doctor looked him over.

“What’s wrong with you?” Rhea asked.

“I told you I’m fine!” Owen repeated.

“Not you, Humphrey.”

They turned to find him standing perfectly still, an expression of shock and fear covering his face.

“What about me?” Janet asked as she slowly turned to face Rhea.

Humphrey’s eyes widened even further as Janet made eye contact with him.

“
Douglas
?” she shouted.  “Is that you?”

“Don’t call me that,” he mumbled, flinching at the use of his first name.

“It
is
you!”  Janet quickly moved toward him and embraced him in a tight hug.  “It’s been years.  I had feared the worst after the Shard invaded.  Worried they had got you.”

“I’m alright,” Humphrey mumbled uncomfortably as he tried to push her away.  “If I could survive
you
, I can survive anything.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”  She quickly let go of him.  “I got carried away again, didn’t I?”

He stared at her in confusion; he hadn’t expected her to distance herself.

“So you know our mumbling idiot?” Rhea asked.

“Of course.”  Janet smiled warmly.  “Dou . . . that’s right, you don’t like being called that. 
Humphrey
is my little brother.”

He took a step away from her and slowly narrowed his eyes, as if he was studying a stranger.

“I didn’t know you had a sister,” Rhea said as she nudged Humphrey.

“I have a sister, but you aren’t her,” he mumbled coldly at Janet.

“What do you mean?” she asked, obviously hurt.  “Of course I’m your sister.  Don’t you recognize me?”

“You might look like her, but you can’t be here.  You just
can’t
.”

“What’s wrong?” Ronald asked, studying the doctor.

“My sister makes
Rhea
look humble in comparison,” Humphrey mumbled with a hint of venom in his voice.  “She would never,
ever
apologize.  Miss Perfect would never lower herself to calling me Humphrey.  In fact, she loved nothing more than to make me uncomfortable.”

As Brent watched the interchange, a flash of memory arced through his mind.  Janet Humphrey.  Somehow, he knew that name.  More than that, he was certain he had met her before.  The familiarity was beyond a random stranger; it was on the level of a coworker or perhaps a childhood friend long forgotten.  A sickening thought hit him.  Closing his eyes, he gingerly let himself look over Janet’s emotions.

His fears were right on the mark.  Her emotions had been altered, permanently.  In the entire Commonwealth, only he had that unique quality.  Any other Weaver’s alterations would have been temporary and faded away long ago.  Brent couldn’t be sure which was more disconcerting.  The idea he had permanently altered someone, or the fact he had no memory of doing it.

“. . . you could have forged these!” Humphrey mumbled angrily as he violently threw something at the ground.

Brent blinked.  He had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he had missed the entire argument.  Leaning over, he retrieved the object Humphrey had tossed.  It was Janet’s pad with her personnel file being displayed.

“I swear that’s not the case!” she pleaded.

“I don’t want to hear . . .”

“That’s enough, Humphrey,” Brent said loud enough to silence the others.  “She is who she claims to be.”

“Finally, a clear headed person,” Janet said thankfully.

“How can you be sure?” Humphrey mumbled.

“Trust me, I
know
.  This is your sister.  Although, she’s been through . . . a lot.”  Brent sighed as he returned the pad to her.  “The two of us need to have a chat.  Alone.”

The others exchanged uncertain glances as Janet nodded in acceptance.

“That will have to wait,” Octavia said abruptly.

“What’s wrong?” Cain asked as he patted the little girl’s head.

“It’s time,” she said flatly.

“Time for what?” Tyra asked, slightly tilting her head.

A loud commotion filled the room.  Dozens of students rushed in and darted about.  They feverishly gathered seemingly random items.  They all were clearly in a panic.  The troopers watched enviously as they moved so easily in the heavy gravity.

“What’s going on?” Brent asked.

Not one of the students paused to explain.  They moved with a purpose that clearly wouldn’t wait.

“Cassandra!” Hiroko shouted.  “You’re as big as a house!”

Everyone turned to find her in the doorway.  She seemed to be breathing in a forced rhythm.  While everyone else locked on her very obvious pregnancy, Brent’s eyes widened as he realized what was going on.

“Brent,” Cassandra puffed.  “We’ve got to go; it’s time.  They are coming.”

Gazsi let out a simple sigh as he watched the Wall pass through his section of the ship.  They had been jumping for what seemed like forever.  He had known that the regional command for Military Intelligence hadn’t been a station but a ship, however, it never dawned on him that it would ever move.  It was his understanding that while he had been fighting off the Shard invasion this ship had remained in the same out-of-the-way patch of space.  If
that
wasn’t reason enough, he assumed it would never move.

  As Nobue told it, the ship had been in that same spot since before either of them had even been born - an ideal location that gave their operatives easy access to dozens of sectors while remaining discreet and undetectable.  If this current business ever resolved itself, the ship would most likely return to that same exact spot - to remain until the next calamity.

Glancing down at the thin rectangle in his hands, Gazsi let out a second sigh.  He disliked waiting to report information, trivial or otherwise.  However, he always waited until after a jump to report to Nobue.  He had learned from recent experience not to present important matters just before the ship jumped.  Nobue despised the Wall and couldn’t think of anything else until after it passed.  Any information handed to him ten or so minutes before a jump would be completely ignored and quickly forgotten, usually resulting in pain for the reporting trooper when Nobue later realized what happened.

The only thing Nobue hated more than the Wall was looking like a fool to his superiors.  As the Wall finally dissipated and the ship completed the jump, Gazsi headed to Nobue’s overly grand office.  For some reason beyond Gazsi, MI leaders delighted in absurdly large and ostentatious offices for themselves.  While Nobue was the official overseer of the ship, he was not the head of MI.  A chuckle always escaped from Gazsi’s tight lips as he imagined how stupidly large
that
office had to be.