“Have you been sleeping at all?” Rachel asked as she walked into the hanger, her heels clicking loudly against the metal floor. She looked up at Gabriel, watching as he dangled precariously off the shoulder of his Kniv and continued to tinker with the wiring inside. There was a shower of sparks and Rachel took a step back, lifting her arm to protect her face. “You know you’re supposed to wear a harness when you do that?”
“I had them increase the structural integrity of the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints. The left arm felt slow during testing,” Gabriel replied quietly, ignoring both her questions as he finished with the wiring and slid the armour plate back into place.
“You added weight. It is natural it would feel different.”
Gabriel shook his head. “When they rebuilt it, someone didn’t wire it properly. The neural interface had latency even with an eighty-five percent sync.”
“I’m more than certain it was done exactly as it should have been,” Rachel said, though she knew it was a futile argument. Pilots were known to be very finicky when it came to their Knivs. Though, she figured, there was a good reason for that. With a shake of her head she let the issue go and held up the bag she had brought. “Come down and eat.”
“What time is it?” Gabriel asked as he slid off the Kniv and dropped down to the floor. He accepted the bottle Rachel tossed to him.
“It’s five-thirty in the morning,” said Rachel as Gabriel drained the water bottle. She pulled out another, handing it to him, along with a biscuit. “Jam?”
Gabriel shook his head as he devoured the biscuit, and the following one that Rachel offered him. When he was finished he leaned back against the leg of the Kniv and let out a long, tired sigh. Rachel dropped the bag beside him. Gabriel spied an orange and grabbed it.
“I have what you asked for on order,” Rachel said, pacing back and forth as she consulted her tablet. “Though are you sure this is what you need? It’s… mining equipment? And explosives?”
Gabriel nodded as he peeled the orange and popped a piece into his mouth. “It’s what I need.”
“The engineers have asked me to pass along the fact that the system is not designed to work this way. They wanted me to stress that.”
“I know.”
“And they want you to know that it will only work for a limited amount of time.”
“I know.”
“Very well, then.” Rachel nodded. “It should be here soon. I had to have it brought up from Earth, so I’m guessing late afternoon. That should give you enough time to get at least a few hours of sleep.”
“Not tired,” said Gabriel through a yawn.
“Come along,” Rachel said, reaching down and grabbing Gabriel under the arm. He resisted her for a moment before allowing himself to be dragged up to his feet. Rachel did not release his arm until they were well on their way back to the dorms.
“You really need to make sure you eat and sleep,” Rachel said as they exited the elevator.
The hallway was silent. It was still too early for most students to be up. Gabriel stumbled beside her and she returned her arm to his, holding him aloft until they reached his dorm room. Using her keycard she swiped into his room. Gabriel made a move towards the bed, but Rachel caught him by the back of his collar.
“Shower. You’re filthy,” she ordered.
Gabriel gave a small nod and dragged himself into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him with a soft click. As the shower turned on Rachel took the moment to look around the room. It had been a long time since she had last visited in person but still there wasn’t much to see.
The bedding was standard issue, as was the rest of the furniture in the room. The walls had been left a bare, stark white. In the entire room there was only one furnishing that proved a student lived there. A small, framed picture that sat on the corner of Gabriel’s desk. Curious, Rachel reached out and picked up it up.
Gabriel stood in between two other students. The girl on his right was slight, with long, ash blonde hair. Rachel recognized her as Thea Fairchild. It was the eyes that gave her away, the same pale blue as her father’s. The name of the raven-haired boy on Gabriel’s other side took Rachel a moment longer to remember. Reed Chance. He was in the year above Gabriel and Fairy, an A-class Pilot.
Gabriel looked happy, either of his arms thrown around his friend’s shoulders and small, but genuine smile turning up the corner of his mouth.
He looked like any other Novan teenager. But Gabriel could not be a normal boy anymore. He could only be the Archangel.
She was to blame for that.
Rachel put the picture down as the bathroom door opened and Gabriel exited, already dressed for bed with a towel hung loosely around his neck.
“Make sure you get some sleep,” Rachel ordered as he sat down at on the bed. “I’ll send you an update when the order arrives.” Gabriel nodded, but his brow had furrowed ever so slightly. “Something else you need?”
“The Alpha Squadron mission,” Gabriel said after a moment of thought. “I want to observe it.”
Rachel did not feign ignorance. “I will make sure to set it up. Now Sleep.”
“Thank you.” Gabriel fell back against his bed.
“Sleep well,” Rachel said quietly as she flicked the lights off and left the room. As the door shut behind her she reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose before making her way back to her car.
Her phone rang. She let it go for a few moment before answering without looking at the screen. Only a handful of people had this particular number and only one of them would be calling at this time.
“What is it, Sani?” said Rachel as she entered her car.
“Good morning to you too, Rachel,” Sani said. “How is he?”
“He’s sleeping, now.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Ah, you better make sure he stays rested,” Rachel could hear a hint of nervousness in his voice. Somehow, it made her feel better. “A mistake on any other day I can cover for, but I don’t have to tell you that if something happens to him, neither of us are going to be safe from Lucile.”
It did not escape Rachel that Sani did not mention the safety of Gabriel or Michael.
“Yes, you’re right. I don’t need you to tell me that.” Rachel ended the call and took in a calming breath through her nose. She tapped her fingers against the steering wheel.
If she went home right now she could probably squeeze in a few hours of sleep as well, but a nagging feeling of discontent made her feel like it would be a futile attempt. Sighing softly through her nose she piloted her car back to the office.
-
The building was empty save for the guard that buzzed her in. She made her way quickly to her office, removing her jacket and tossing it onto the couch before dropping into her chair. Her hand rubbed roughly at her eyes as she leaned back in the seat.
“Play GL Two Five Seven,” Rachel said softly.
The screen on the wall across from her pulsed to life and the video began. Rachel didn’t open her eyes. She did not need to. She had seen this video hundreds, maybe thousands of times.
Her teeth grit together as the screams began, only to be drown out by the sound of gunfire. Metal shrieked as it was ripped apart and alarms rang out at almost deafening levels. Slowly, her eyes opened and she watched the video continue to play out.
The HUD of the Kniv flashed with dozens of warning as the Pilot’s sync dropped down into a critical level. They were wiped away thoughtlessly as the life support systems activated. The sync was able to stabilize, but the screaming did not stop.
The image shook as the Pilot charged at the enemy combatants, ignoring or oblivious to the damage his Kniv was receiving.
Unarmed he met the first one, throwing his entire weight into the tackle and sending them both skidding through the burning battlefield. There was no finesse or grace to his movement as he began to rip at the enemies chest, finding purchase where he could and ripping the armour away in chunks.
He slammed his fist into the Coffin and crushed the Pilot inside before throwing himself towards the next, dragging his battered Kniv across the ground, using all four limb to propel himself through the wreckage.
It was simple and barbaric. Primitive to its core.
It was natural.
The video suddenly cut off as Rachel’s door opened and Sara stumbled in, her heels held loosely in one hand.
She gave Rachel a cheery wave before dropping her shoes and resting against the wall. “Hello!”
“You’re drunk,” Rachel sighed as Sara struggled to remove her coat, which joined her shoes on the floor. “Again.”
“Completely plastered!” Sara waved her hand. “Doesn’t matter though. So what if I kill my liver? I can just fix it. Or make a new one. That’s what I do. I’m a genius. That’s what makes me useful. Irreplaceable some might say.”
“Clearly,” Rachel watched as Sara made her way over to the counter and stared at the few bottles that were there.
“These are all water,” Sara said after a few minutes of investigation. “Why are none of them vodka? Why would you even bother putting water in a fancy bottle? Why flavor it?”
“I don’t drink, you know that.”
“Fair point,” Sara shrugged and unscrewed one of the bottles and took a long drink before she staggered to the couch. She waved to the screen. “Please, continue. Don’t let me intrude on your moping.”
Rachel ignored her. “So I take it your date did not go well?”
“Well I’m here on your couch instead of somewhere infinitely more fun, so I take it you are right.”
“What was wrong this time?”
“Boring!” Sara threw her arm out and spilled a large amount of water onto the floor. “Everyone is so boring. Men. Women. It doesn't matter what they do for a living. Accountant, Chef, Doctor, Pilot. They’re all so incredibly boring. They live in this perfect little bubble of ignorance and they don’t know. They don’t know!” Sara began to giggle. “They don’t know how close we are to the edge. They don’t realize that the most effective weapon we have against the ELA… That it’s a child! Of course that isn’t there fault. If they know that would be bad. It would shatter the illusion that everything is just perfect in Nova. That everything is exactly as it should be. But we know better. Oh, yes, we know better, don’t we Rachel? Or do you prefer Nova-Two?”
“Sara, this isn’t the time.”
“No! No, this is exactly the time! We never talk about this. All these years working together and we never talk about any of it.” Sara smiled at her. A joyless smile that came nowhere near reaching her eyes. “We know because it’s our fault. Because we did it.” Sara’s shook her head and her laughter came to a stop. “Play the video, Rachel.”
Rachel’s brow furrowed but she did as Sara asked. “Continue playback.”
Together they watched in silence. Gabriel’s screams echoed through the room as he pushed the Kniv that was just barely keeping him alive to the limits. He tore through the other two Knivs with no regard for his own safety, his Coffin pierced in multiple places. He did not stop until he had completely annihilated his targets.
“He should have died. It would have been better if he had died,” Sara said softly as the video came to an end. The sound of Gabriel’s sobs echoing one final time. “Do you know what I’ve done to that child, Rachel?”
“I have read the files.”
“Of course you have, but did you truly understand them? No offense, but I doubt you did.” Sara’s smile returned. “I stole his heart. Though that was the easy part. I knew the implant would be successful, I created it after all. It was what I did after, that was the real genius. Increased neural compatibility to the Neural Sync system, dulled pain receptor, improved cellular regeneration... Things we don’t even do to animals. Things we haven’t even begun to publicly research, I did all of that to him.”
“You did all that to keep him alive,” Rachel said. “If you hadn’t then-”
“No, no, no!” Sara slammed the bottle down, cutting Rachel off. “We’re talking, Rachel. This isn’t about making one another feel better; this is about speaking the truth. Don’t bore me like everyone else.”
“Sara…”
“Rachel,” Sara’s shoulders slumped. “Please.”
“I…” Rachel hesitated for a moment longer before steeling her nerves. “I put him through training that even Orbital Knights, Alpha Division members, couldn’t manage. I had him beaten and bloodied. I bruised his body and he healed. I broke his bones and he healed. I did everything I could think short of killing him and still and he refused to break, he didn’t even show a crack. He would take any order and complete the task. Never a question. Never a complaint.”
Sara ran her hand up her face and through her hair, pulling at the strands. “What have we done, Rachel?”
“We did what was necessary.”
Sara looked at her, hand still tightly gripping her hair. Her head tilted to the side and she released her grip, her black locks falling haphazardly over her face. “I thought we agreed no excuses.”
“It’s not an excuse,” Rachel spoke firmly. “The Archangel program was, and still is, a necessity that Nova can not afford to lose. It keeps the ELA in check and Novan moral from falling. So long as the Archangel can complete his missions, so long as he doesn’t fail we can keep the will of the people behind the war effort. We, Nova, can continue. ”
“And placing him back into the Academy, was that a necessity as well? Or was that a misguided attempt at kindness?” Sara tilted her head. “Was that your idea?”
“No…” Rachel hesitated. “No, I wanted to isolate him. It would have made things simpler for me, and maybe for him. Sani pushed to allow him to have a personal life. I agreed. I thought… I wanted to believe that letting him live, that maybe it would begin to make up for the things we had done, and the things he was going to have to do.”
“And did it?”
“You’d have to ask him.”
Sara actually laughed, the noise just barely tumbling over her lips. She let out a heavy sigh and slouched down along the back of the couch, her eyes closing. “That transplant should be my crowning achievement, you know. When Lucile gave me the go ahead to performed the operation I was practically giddy. A terrible thing to say, isn’t it? To be excited to have another person’s life in your hands? But oh God I was. Because I knew, I knew I could do it. But If I had known what Lucile was going to do to him after that, what you were going to do to him, I would have killed him myself that day.” Sara’s fingers lightly traced against the back of the couch. “I don’t disagree with what you said. The Archangel is a necessity. We’ve built too much around him to stop… But things are changing, Rachel. This fight you’ve set up on Earth… It’s not even war anymore. It’s a gladiator match. Entertainment.”
“Sara…”
“I don’t blame you. Not entirely. I know it’s too late to change the course of the ship this time. As frustrating as it may be, all I can do now is keep him alive and healthy, at least until you get him killed.”
Rachel said nothing.