Condition Evolution 4 by Kevin Sinclair (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

at three different points. It took around ten minutes again, and looked even more pathetic than my first attempt. I looked down to Ialos, barely containing the frustration written all over me.

She smiled again, a peace offering of sorts but it didn’t soothe my pride. “You should keep tackling the course, Vakuna. Don’t be hard on yourself. You levitated for the first time only a few hours ago,” were her words of encouragement.

“I’ve a long way to go,” I grumbled, and set off again, spending the rest of the day floating pathetically around the course.

Chapter 7

Going Nowhere Fast

“Those dirty fucking bastards!” I repeated for the tenth time since waking.

“Ember, let go of your anger,” Ogun said without emotion, from the other bed. “It will achieve nothing. Let’s first try to ascertain what exactly has happened.”

“Don’t give me that shit, Ogun,” I retorted, rage spilling over.

He smiled gently at me, an ocean of calm.

I began looking around the room we were trapped in... again. I’d tried the door every five minutes. By tried, I mean I booted it repeatedly until my foot hurt too much to continue. Then sat back on the bed to fume.

We had been awake for around half an hour. The last thing I could remember was standing next to Shaun on the Uprising, in the middle of a meeting, then abraca-fucking-dabra, waking up here, next to Ogun of all people, whose hands and feet were all healed up.

“We can’t ascertain jack-shit stuck in this box. Do you think we’ve been arrested for some reason? I just can't make heads nor tails of it.”

“Would you like to hear my thoughts, or would you like to keep ranting and raving?” Ogun asked.

“I dunno, ranting and raving, as you so eloquently put it, makes me feel like I'm at least doing something. I don’t know how you can just sit there cool as a cucumber, like nothing is wrong.”

He ignored my next wave of ranting and began laying out his thoughts. “The first thing of note is that I am fully healed.”

“Yes, Ogun. We’ve covered that. It's not all about you, though.”

The lanky bastard laughed at me, which didn’t help my mood.

“The Apochros physician had predicted that it would take at least a week for me to be completely restored. What I am trying to say is that we’ve been unconscious for at least a week since we last met. Even if it only feels like an hour ago.”

“That's actually some good thinking, Ogun.” I perked up, looking at him expectantly. “What else you got?”

“I can tell by the air pressure, smell, etcetera, that we are in a spaceship of some kind and no longer on the Apochros planet, or any other planet for that matter. But it’s clear to me we are also not onboard the Thoth, Seshat, or one of the Hunter ships. Could we be onboard the Uprising?” he asked.

“It’s definitely not the Uprising,” I replied with absolute certainty.

“Then we must be onboard one of the Apochros ships. The next thing I surmise, is you are in here with me because they know we have a bond. Why Shaun is not here too, I’ve yet to figure out. I am assuming they do not intend to kill us. They could have done that already if that was their aim, yet they even went so far as to continue with healing me, so they clearly have some sense for our wellbeing.”

“That’s all well and good, but as much as I respect and trust you, I’d feel a hell of a lot better if Shaun was here.”

Ogun chuckled at me again. “He really inspires confidence in you?”

“Ogun,” I said slowly, “if Shaun was here, I’d be lying back chillin’ like a villain on this bed, taking the piss out of him, while he stomped around angrily before he somehow accidentally broke the door open, took over whatever ship this is, and whatever else popped into his head as he went.”

“As we’ve sat here, I’ve given much thought to your accomplishments. You have achieved so much, and I can’t help but wonder, would you have excelled in this way if we had not parted company? Would your ability to effect change have been stifled in the safety and command structure of the Thoth? I don’t know the answer.”

“I do. The answer is no way. That's just not how Shaun works, if you hadn’t noticed. And thanks for lumping me in along with what happens around him, but seriously. I’m a passenger.”

“You do yourself a disservice, Ember. You have been by his side the entire time.”

“I wasn’t with him when he killed all those people on Xonico.”

“Perhaps not, yet you were still the catalyst. He did it for you.”

“I sometimes wish he hadn’t. I still have nightmares. All those bodies. I keep going over how he ran over to hug me after it all. Covered in the blood and guts of hundreds, and it was like he didn’t even see any of it.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“As a friend, a lover? Yes, it’s fucking terrifying. But seeing as we’re in constant fear for our lives, I’m not complaining. I should’ve been dead at least twenty times over. Literally the whole damn galaxy is hunting us, from the Fystr to the Galactic Empire, and now the fucking Apochros have turned on us. And do you know what? I almost feel sorry for them. Because somehow, I know he’s gonna find a way to fuck them all up. I’ve no idea how, but I know, without a doubt, he is.”

I’d started to tear up, talking about my real thoughts on Shaun, and struggled to make eye contact with Ogun, not wanting to see his belittling expression. They all thought they were so much better than us, but they were wrong. My eyes stopped stinging and finally settled on him. His expression was not what I expected. It was one of consternation.

“I think—even hope—you are right, Ember. He is undoubtedly an anomaly.