Gus soon threw one of the doors open. “Hey, it’s you… you survived!” he said awkwardly. He saw her vivid sea-green eyes widen at his sudden appearance.
Amazing, he thought, transfixed momentarily. Gus barely pulled his eyes away before his stare got to the uncomfortable stage, and scratched the back of his head.
“You did too, congratulations.” She looked around furtively. “May I come inside? I don’t think there’s anyone else coming right yet, but I’d rather they know as little about us here as possible.”
“Oh yeah, sure, come on in,” he said, leaning out and trying to hold the door like a gentleman but getting more in the way than making it easier for her to enter. “Are you hungry? I haven’t eaten yet and we have a cafeteria…”
Aurora couldn’t remember the last time she ate a normal meal, and her stomach growled its assent. “Some food sounds great. Lead the way.” Gus seemed happy to see her but also tense and on edge. “So Gus, I saw you take down those supers just now. Obviously, a lot has gone on with you. With me as well, to be honest. I came in on the transport that brought the other supers to a nearby island.”
“Really? How many are there?”
“A lot, unfortunately.” Gus’ shoulders slumped at the news. Aurora pressed on. “So who should go first with their story, me or you?”
They arrived at the cafeteria and a robot came and assessed them. It headed back into the kitchen as the two sat down. “I guess I can go first. What do you want to know?” Gus asked.
“Why don’t you start with the powers? That’s pretty new. Did you always have them and just chose to be a janitor?”
“I wasn’t a janitor.” His face soured at the thought that that was how he’d been perceived. “I was a henchman, but I did seem to get custodial more than everyone else. That may be partly my fault. I really didn’t know anyone and kept to myself rather than getting to know the other henchmen; they all had their established cliques and I didn’t expect to be on the station long enough to really make the effort worthwhile.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend.”
Gus waved it away. “For all intents and purposes, I was a janitor. Anyway, you might have seen me jump into the escape pod. Maybe not. You had your hands full.” Gus flushed a bit, hoping she didn’t remember it was his barf she’d had to deal with.
Who am I kidding, how could anyone forget that? He hurried on, hoping the topic wouldn’t arise. “I managed to get into one of the space suits and crash landed. The pod was destroyed and I got pretty beat up in the process. The suit was equipped with Nth who kept me alive and repaired a lot of the damage. And that was the day my powers came.”
“Did he just say Nth?” the voice in Aurora’s head asked.
Not wanting to seem crazy for talking to herself, she decided to ask Gus herself. “What are Nth?”
“What do you mean? You’re a super, don’t you talk to your Nth?”
“I don’t know what the hell Nth are!”
“Oh, really? How is that possible? I guess they’re extraterrestrial nanobots that help the highest lifeforms on a planet evolve and develop abilities using a game-like interface. Does that sum it up accurately, Nick?”
“Oooh, I see what he did there. N-I-C for Nick. I like this guy,” the voice in Aurora’s head cooed.
“Gus, do you ever hear voices? Ones that talk to you about your powers?” Aurora asked tentatively.
“Yeah, I thought everyone with powers did, but Nick told me that some places train supers not to listen to their Nth interface, which limits how much they can help their hosts.”
“Oh, whoever could he be talking about?” the female voice asked, irritating Aurora. On one hand, it was a relief to hear that she wasn’t cracked in the head, but she worried if she could get along with this personality in her head.
“How do you get along with Nick?” Aurora pressed.
“Oh, he’s great. He busts my balls sometimes, but I wouldn’t have leveled and gained skills if I didn’t have him around.” He suddenly turned red. “Sorry if that was offensive.”
Aurora waved it away. “You don’t have to be formal around me. That’s nothing compared to the average conversation at the academy. But getting back on topic. How does Nick help you? I just escaped a sociopath’s torture dungeon and only because of that experience was I able to reconnect with my Nth, as you call it. I have been using my powers for years without even knowing about an Nth, so what does it do for you?” She leaned forward, intent on the answer.
“For one, he’s answered a ton of questions. There’s a lot of things regs think they know about supers that are totally wrong. And maybe that is done on purpose. He’s taught me a lot of things, both how to survive on this island all alone, and to develop some skills. He even helped me get my head straight when the zombies took the manor. Sometimes he leaves me alone to figure out things, but it’s been—”
“Wait, zombies?” Aurora threw her hands up. “Okay, why don’t we start at the beginning and explain what’s happened since the station to each of us and I think that’ll answer a lot of questions along the way. You go first, your story sounds much more interesting than mine.”
Gus started his tale and the robot waiter returned with two plates of food.
Aurora was a little disappointed that it was fish, as she wasn’t a big fan of seafood in general. After one bite though, she changed her mind. It had the texture of fish, but the flavor was something else altogether. She ate mechanically as Gus explained the crash, getting out of the suit, developing
