“Fine by me,” I said.
“And fine by me, unless she tries anything like that again,” Ember said warily.
“Good, good. Well, I’m impressed with what you have achieved so far. Continue to work together for the rest of the day and we will speak after dinner.”
C3
Mind your own Business
Ember and I continued to practice rejecting each other from our minds when a green light flashed twice in my room. I hadn’t even noticed that there was a light above the door.
“Come on. I’m hungry anyway,” she said, getting up.
“Me too. But why now? What was the green light?”
“Goes off every six hours or so: Wake up times, mealtimes and change of shift. It’s a way to indicate time of day on the ship.”
“So, for us it’s time to eat?”
“Sure is. Come on.”
Ember took me to the canteen where we could choose from a variety of meals. I’m not sure why, but I expected, like, a dinner lady with some big metal trays of lasagne and fries. What I was faced with instead, was a truly amazing machine. The food synthesizer unit, or FSU, as Ember informed me. The food from it looked and smelled amazing. To my devastation, I found out it had no taste. Unless you classed sweet, bitter, or cardboard as tastes.
This would be the first time I’d eaten solid food in nine months, but Ember had assured me it would be okay after the pouches. I dug into the cardboard pork chops and mixed vegetables, which perhaps tasted of water, I couldn’t be sure.
The canteen was full. I imagined almost everyone on board the ship must have been here. There was quite a bit of noise from people talking, but when Ogun came in the whole place fell silent.
“Hello everyone. Time for your daily update,” he said with a big smile. “It appears our evasion of the Fystr has been successful after we took out their Hunter Ship. Providing the situation does not change, we will travel for one more day to reach the supply depot. For those of you who don’t know, the supply depot is a stop-off point for Fystr travelers to refuel and restock. They contain everything from weapons, armor, FSU stock, fuel, and everything in between.” He paused to let those gathered take in what he had said so far.
“It is unclear from our early scans, whether there are any other visitors. While we should hope we will be alone, we must prepare as if we will encounter some resistance. With that in mind, we need everyone to put maximum effort into their training. We must be at our strongest. Good luck everyone.”
When he finished up his address, Ogun came over to us and said, “Okay, you two. Tomorrow, I will spend an hour teaching you telekinesis with an emphasis on basic levitation. I normally wait much longer before teaching levitation, but you two are going to need a crash course. I’m sure you can handle it.
“After that hour with me, I want you to put in every minute until we land, training those abilities in combat. Combined with your mental defenses of course. When you begin, it will seem like an impossible task, but with practice and determination you will excel. I’m sure.
“For the rest of the evening focus on defense. Try to make a wall in your mind to block enemies from entering in the first place.”
“Sure thing, Ogun. We’ll do our best to make sure we're ready,” I said, then for some random reason I don’t even know, I fucking saluted him.
He gave me an odd look, then laughed. “I am sure you will Shaun. See you both tomorrow.” Then he was off to talk to people at another table.
“What was that Shaun? You dick. Why did you salute?” she said, sniggering at me.
I groaned. I hated giving her even more ammo to take the piss. “Come on, I feel like getting back to work.”
Back in my room, I went and sat on the bed. Ember took the chair.
“So, how do you want to begin this?” I asked.
“Jump straight in, I suppose. That’s what you normally do, right?”
“Yeah, true. But I’ve got nothing.”
“Try to enter my head first, I’ll try to form a block against you.”
Nodding in agreement, I did as she said and got into her head, no problem.
“Well, that didn’t work,” she said, and I was expelled a moment later. “I didn’t manage to block you at all.”
“Try me,” I said. Within seconds, she had gotten into my head. I didn’t even try to eject her. “Can you control my body like Cassia did?”
“No. I’ve no idea how it’s done. Your mind is like mine. Like this massive, dark, empty place. Ever since I woke up.”
“I know what you mean. It’s like I’m on the edge of a cliff,” I said.
“Can you see anything when you look in my mind?” she asked me.
“No. Unless, you mean the back of my own eyelids.”
“It would be amazing if you could see something.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not sure. It’s like I can’t see because I don’t know how to open my eyes yet. Might be something to ask Ogun tomorrow.”
I didn’t respond, yet I knew exactly what she meant. There was like a barrier of darkness in my mind that I felt like I should be able to pass through.
A determination rose up in me to cross whatever barrier was there. It was a very strange feeling, like I knew for certain there was something behind the veil of darkness covering my mind.
I focused with all my heart and soul. I wanted to see whatever manifestation of Ember was inside my head. The projection of herself that must be there. I concentrated so hard on seeing her, that I thought I could feel something tear. I don’t know if it was real or imagined, but I’d come this far so I pushed on anyway. What’s the worst that could happen.
Unexpectedly, a blinding light flared in the absolute darkness.
