Bound by Patrick Sullivan

Author:Patrick Sullivan [SULLIVAN, P. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indie Author Project

* * *

“Darci,” said Adin. “Do you have an update on the Gauntlet’s return time?” She paced back and forth in the service alcove near Cale’s apartment, watching the scanner feed relayed by Darci. Overlaid on her normal vision, Cale, Jinis, and the children showed up as grey ghosts inhabiting a world of shadowy objects.

“Four hours. The captain enjoyed the chance to run your little errand and give his crew something to do other than running drills. The challenge to treat your three tourists like honored guests while completely isolating them from the ship’s operations areas created a much more enjoyable problem for him.”

“Good.”

No flashing red threats in Darci’s scanner feed. It showed only one orange tag—a blade weapon. She would get that dagger back from Cale; she shouldn’t have left such a thing behind at BarKant. She hadn’t been thinking very clearly at the time. Expelled from the BarKant Institute on the eve of graduation and then forced to watch Cale break Shennan’s heart might have had something to do with it.

No other sign of danger. Then again, no sensor had been found yet to detect the glyphs she saw on the Ril. She rolled her neck to relieve the tightness in her shoulders. Cale and Jinis ushered the children toward the apartment door, getting the children ready to leave.

Shennan, you ready?

Yes. I’ll take it from here.

“Darci,” said Shennan, “it’s time. Let’s go.”

Cale’s cream-colored apartment door, one of many identical doors in a corridor decorated in tans and browns, characterized his life at DeepStudy. Blend in with the rest of the Polis, don’t get involved with those fringe types, those explorers. Not anymore.

Shennan didn’t believe it. Cale didn’t belong here. The only touch of imagination came from illumination strips set high into the wall on each side. Thousands of glass beads pressed into irregular shapes, each the size of her palm, swept in a flowing curve, like the silhouette of a gentle sea along the wall. Light diffused through the beads into a subtle pattern on the walls and ceiling.

The shadowy shapes of Jinis, followed by Cale and the two children, stepped toward the door from the other side; the children were ready to leave for their party. Darci and her partners took their stations in the hallway, and Shennan signaled a generic Keld admission request to Cale’s door.

She settled into a friendly but confident smile. After the door slid open, she reached out for a formal palm touch with Jinis.

“Hello, I’m Shennan Rayne. You must be Jinis. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m here to speak with Cale.”

At the sound of her voice, Cale turned and now stood momentarily frozen in an awkward pose. He recovered and reached out to meet her palm touch.

“Hello, Cale. May I come in?”

Jinis, sensing the tension in the air, draped her arms around the shoulders of her children and looked from Shennan to Cale and back.

Seeing Cale in person disturbed Shennan more than she’d anticipated. He’d loved her, and he’d been her first love.

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