Unity by Carl Stubblefield (epub read online books TXT) 📕

you, or put you through orientation or whatever.” Aurora gripped Anastasia by the arms, worried eyes peering at her desperately.

“No, they locked me in here like a prisoner. No explanations.” Her stance relaxed, but she was still on guard. Aurora thought that must have been the most words she had heard the super string together in, well, as long as she had known her. Her thick Russian accent indicated that English wasn’t her first language.

“Rory is with me. You probably don’t know him, but he works on transports. They have some ceremony that has done something to him, and they plan on doing it to us. We need to get out of here before we can’t.”

Anastasia just nodded and beckoned to the door.

Finding Pulse’s room, Aurora made quick work of the box-lock and squirreled it away like the first. Heavy footfalls sounded on the steps, but it turned out to only be Rory, Yuki, and Darik hustling to keep up. Aurora opened the door, and found Pulse’s exceptionally organized room. His boots were neatly positioned at the foot of his bunk and he sat there calmly reading a journal of some sort.

“C’mon, Pulse, we need to go, I’ll explain on the way.”

“I don’t think I will, actually.” Not taking his eyes away from his reading.

“What do you mean? We’ve got to get out of here,” Aurora urged.

The others came into the doorway, to see how their teammate was faring.

“They told us to stay in our quarters until they had further directions, and that’s what I intend to do,” Pulse replied calmly.

“This is for your own good! We need to get out of here and reassess the situation. Something has definitely changed here; you can’t say you don’t notice it. They locked you inside!”

He closed the magazine he was reading and stood up. “I wouldn’t know, I haven’t tried to leave. But you’re completely right. I’m seeing a big change. People are acting with discipline now. I don’t see a ton of lambs running around giggling and talking with their friends. Wasting time.”

“They’re still human, even though they have powers, Pulse. This isn’t a military compound.”

“It’s inefficient. They could all be through the Academy in three years and on to active duty, but we take four on account of the constant breaks and coddling. Just like this whole escapade we wasted almost a month doing. I didn’t even do anything worthwhile the whole time. I got shot at and then just sat on the ship in Hinansho while you and a couple others ran around. Do you realize what I could have accomplished in that time?”

“You’re complaining that you got a little break?”

“Tempest wasted his marker with me by requesting that I come along. If I wasn’t a man of my word, I would have sat this one out. Especially with what I know now. But with his fall from grace, he probably felt he had to cash in before he totally fell out of favor and had to leave the Faction. But what’s done is done, and all accounts are settled.” His eyes turned cold as he peered at Aurora.

“Besides, it’s not as easy for some of us to be as loose and free with the rules as you are.”

“What does that mean?” she replied indignantly.

“Where is your loyalty? After the Faction dragged you out of the gutter like a piece of trash and turned you into what you are now. Now you’re ready to abandon them because you ‘feel a little weird’ or that ‘things have changed’?”

Aurora wanted to break his little air-quoting fingers. “Loyalty is why I’m here, you insufferable prick! Come or don’t come, I don’t care, but right now you have a choice—that will probably change. Rory is not himself; they’ve done something to him. To one of our own. He’s been here a lot longer than any one of us, so what makes you think they’ll treat us any differently?”

“I don’t know that grease monkey,” Pulse said with a shrug, plopping down on his bunk and reached for his magazine again. “Do what you want, I’m not being a part of it.”

The others in the Crew looked back and forth between the two, now uncertain what to do.

Rory shrugged and pointed to his watch.

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Sucker Punch

“Oh, I see you’re back with us, Gus. I thought you had broken long ago. Now I am really impressed. I love the challenge of pushing someone to the utter limits, and it is very unfulfilling when people give up too soon. The younger generations lack the… resilience of their ancestors. They were made of stronger stuff. Tempered by suffering, they were refined into something durable. I did not expect that of you, however. I thought you had broken days ago. You’ve been fairly unresponsive since shortly after we began.”

“What now?” Gus slurred through dry, cracked lips.

“This opens up so many new possibilities though. I don’t want to get your hopes up, however. Everyone breaks eventually. But take solace in the fact that you have withstood more than many in your same situation.

“You know, I’ve been thinking. Maybe we’re more alike than I initially gave you credit for. You decided to come alone. I like to be alone. I’ll bet you thought you would do some unsavory things to me, and didn’t want your friends to see you that way. Either that or you prefer solitude. No one to limit you, or hold you back. Believe me, I do know what that is like.

“So many people want to be your conscience and dictate what is right and what is wrong, as if those concepts even really exist. There is no need to ascribe value to a behavior, is there? It all seems like an artificial construct we humans have erected, for some reason. Does the behavior accomplish its intended purpose in the most efficient way possible? That is what needs to be sought.

“Is that not the basis for natural selection? The strongest survive? If I were weak, do