{Reipon}
Ross closed Bethany’s door after finding the girl already curled in bed. No need to wake her. She was often tired after her walks with Korac. Although Ross understood they weren’t intensive in terms of conversation or baring one’s soul, even wandering in silence next to such a force of personality with so much experience would exhaust someone raised on Earth as a human. Especially a human with a recent history of torture and abuse.
Maybe one day Bethany could write a Verse and share it with her family.
In the meantime, Ross traveled from room to room, pervaded by the sound of Korac’s voice with the occasional remark from Sagan. What a horrible childhood, mixed adolescence, and questionable adulthood.
It sent Ross retreating to the lounge with her brother and the boys. Sure, they listened to the Verse here, too, but they also moved on from games to critiquing action movies. Anything to distract from the lonesome quiet of the night hours around the big place.
Andrew asked the room, “Martial arts or gun movies?”
“I’m a fan of sword fights myself,” Jack confessed, with an approving nod from Kyle.
Twenty-One snorted, “Guns are inelegant and ineffective in combat.”
Bones stood and hushed the room to say, “And no race appreciates how much deadlier their women are than the males like the Icari.”
The remaining two—Iuo and Devis—shouted, “Cheers to that!” “Here, here!”
They all toasted their drinks.
Ross grinned at them as she shook her head incredulously. Now that they finally agreed on a Mon3 film, she grabbed a sweater that hung past her shorts and slipped onto the balcony with the door left open. The comforting din of their banter and raucous laughter filled her with warmth and love.
This was family.
With Ross’ heart wide open to the feeling, Oleen and John strayed into her thoughts. Pehton looked scooped out when she presented Oleen’s citrine eyes at the debriefing. Xelan promised to pay Eternity Rites tomorrow. It wasn’t long since the ceremony they held for John. They eventually carved him out of the ice, but, like Oleen, his nacre was too damaged to recover. Neither possessed a back up like Xelan.
Between Nox’s Verse and Xelan’s understanding of events, the Shadow guessed the Tritans somehow claimed his birth nacre that Nox had held onto for eight thousand years. There was still a question of how his hidden nacre maintained updates of the present, but that was one mystery that awaited them in Enki.
It was just another objective in their main quest to take down Imminent.
In the meantime, Ross downloaded memories from hundreds of people all at once, forcing them into unconsciousness. It was a useful ability, and one which Xelan encouraged her to exercise regularly. As much as she appreciated his guidance, he’d never understand what he asked of her.
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“All those people with all their lives in my mind,” she muttered to the green velvet night and its diamond littered sky.
A step sounded behind her. “What was that, Ross?”
Over her shoulder, Ross recognized Jack’s tall shadow in the doorway. He held a snack tray in his hands and shrugged with it before confessing, “I know there’s been little time to eat. I thought you might be hungry.”
Jack was so considerate, and the longer Ross stared at him, the more she made out his handsome features. Brown hair cut short but still soft, hazel eyes more brown than her own, and a pale complexion free of freckles or imperfections. He’d turned eighteen since they moved into the house, and every day his eyes looked older. Every day with Rayne’s uncertain fate looming over him like a dark cloud.
Ross smiled easily for the man who worked so hard to find her sister while ruling as King Regent of a planet. “Thanks. I could eat. Will you load me up—”
“A celery stick with nut butter?” Jack gave her a shy smile. “I noticed you like these so much I wanted to try them.”
Ross sat down on some patio furniture and took the snack from him. Simple and delicious. “Did you like it?”
“Not at all.”
A snort clogged some celery in her throat.
Jack reached to pat her back and stopped himself. Awkwardly, he wrung his heads. “Sorry. I need more training before I trust myself not to knock your eyes out.”
Right.
They both needed to work on their abilities. Softly, Ross asked, “What’s it like for you? The strength and speed.”
Jack’s breath left him on a shiver. She wasn’t sure if he was cold or unnerved. After a few heartbeats, he shared, “Sagan told me once what it was like for Rayne the first time. She was saving John’s life, but she was also scared and self-conscious about it. Now I know it feels like that every time. You feel like a freak, but at least you’re a useful one. You?”
Now it was Ross’ turn to let out a shaky breath. “Exactly the same. A scared, self-conscious freak with a sprinkling of too many lives in my head.”
“You wanna talk about ’em?”
Ross finished a celery stick and peered out over the sea, letting it sort the lives of those Lukemore refugees for her. “They were all very similar. Slaves raised by slaves or Gait Prisonborne or just unfortunates throughout the Vast Collective. Hard lives filled with strife and pain, abuse. And then nothing.”
Jack sat down beside her with a confused frown. “Nothing?”
Ross nodded slowly as the gentle waves carried her attention toward the shore. “Xelan said the emptiness is when Imminent recruited them and coded all knowledge of their existence in the memory bank. If we had more time, we could collect their nacres and decode them, but Xelan was sure we’d find them all the same. Imminent hires only desperate and downtrodden people and provides them with cryptic briefings on their objectives. They leave no trace of incriminating evidence behind.”
Jack caught on quick. “And like the guy we caught once in the Ecology, the nacre might hide a trap or trigger of some kind and endanger us. I didn’t realize the Reipon soldiers were Imminent.”
Chafing her arms, Ross corrected him. “A few were. Sleepers, I think. But the rest were all Lamias bred for their station. Good soldiers doing what they thought was honest work. No holes in their memories or any real indecency. Just the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Like so many others in the Vast Collective. Born to terrible circumstance. I want to help.” Jack’s sincerity never ceased to impress Ross. She opened her mouth to say so when he suddenly looked away from the night sky and faced her with an earnest purpose in his eyes. “I have an idea, and I want to run it by you before I bring it to the Phase II meeting with Xelan and Tumu.”
Infected by his excitement, Ross grinned. “What is it?”
“I think we should confiscate Enki and redistribute it for the good of the Vast Collective.”
Oh. Well, there’s an idea.