Chapter 19 Alive
Alive
“Can you breathe?” his mother asked as she moved her hands over the hard material.
“I imagine this is sort of like a corset,” Jace said.
“No, Jace, if this was a corset you would be asking to sit down,” his mother said with a twitch of a smile. “There were fainting couches back in the day for a reason.”
The suit suddenly adjusted, easing off his chest, and Jace could draw in a deep breath. “Ah! It’s better. I don’t know what changed.”
You complained, the Osiris responded.
He blinked and then laughed. When his mother looked up at him, he explained, “Osiris told a joke. Well, I think it was a joke. It seems it controls even the suits.”
His mother blinked. “It controls the suits?”
“Uhm, it made it looser.” Jace gestured to the white suit with the green markings along the sides. It pretty much matched his undersuit.
“That’s a lot of power, Jace,” she said suddenly and glanced over her shoulder, looking to see if anyone overheard them. “More than we had any idea it could have.”
They were alone in one of the Armory rooms away from the others while he dressed.
Khoth was also upgrading his suit, but he wasn’t with a wholly friendly audience.
The general was watching that Khoth didn’t take anything more than the suit and weapons that the Osiris offered.
Jace was pretty sure that the general would have preferred he take nothing. But that wasn’t going to happen.
A screen had alway appeared with chairs in the Armory for the others to watch them when they entered the Khul ship. He, Khoth and Gehenna would be taken out to the ship by soldiers in a Jeep. The others would stay behind. Safe. Sound.
Osiris had frosted the glass walls in this room to give them privacy. Of course, Jace had no idea such a thing could occur. One of so many things. They were solid white now and glowed softly. She looked back at him and gave out a soft laugh.
“You look good, honey. Like some space marine,” she said. “Just like we always… always dreamed.”
Jace grinned. “Do I?”
He struck a pose with hands on hips and chin lifted. She laughed and then shook her head.
“I can’t believe you’re…” Her expression crumpled for a minute. “Well. You look so well.”
She cupped his cheek and her eyes were wet with tears. She rarely cried. She was cast iron in a lot of ways. She had to be in order to run this facility. And now what he knew she really did, he was amazed at the weight of it on her shoulders.
“It’s okay, Mom. I’m okay. I’m better than that. I--”
She hugged him fiercely. Her face was pressed against the right side of his head.
She spoke with an almost desperation that she had been holding back before.
“I kept you away from the Osiris because of what happened here before you were born, but now I think… Jace, I think… did you suffer all this time needlessly?”
Jace swallowed. He probably had. The Osiris would have helped him when he was a boy.
All those days and nights of pain. The migraines that kept him imprisoned in darkness.
The tinnitus that had been like a drill in his head making it impossible to concentrate on anything.
The auras that had blinded him and had him backing away from the light.
The thought that he could have had this years ago.
That they wouldn’t just be discovering the Armory on the day the Khul came to kill them.
But that was all 20/20 and it was the past. There was no changing it. And there was too much good now to dwell on it. He was a freaking space marine.
“Mom, you didn’t know. You thought you were protecting me,” he told her as he pulled back from her embrace so that they were eye to eye.
“I can’t quite believe it's real,” she told him as she smoothed her hands over his head.
“Me neither. I don’t even know… this body hardly feels like it’s mine and yet… it feels so right too,” he told her.
The grin that seemed to be lurking behind every word since he had transformed came out as he realized that he was well and, more than that, he was athletic.
And he’d never been able to count on his body for his life!
But now he could use a laser sword against Khoth!
Khoth who was “superior” and could balance on one finger like a champ!
He used a laser rifle like a champ! He could control an entire space ship with his mind!
There were two AIs at his beck and call!
No, you are the Pilot, Osiris whispered.
Yeah, so I, uhm, pilot you, Jace pointed out.
So long as you are on mission, Osiris answered and Jace felt it drift away from him and knew he wouldn’t get it to answer anything more.
If this mission is about saving humanity and stopping the Khul, I’m on board with that, Jace thought.
He focused on his mother again. “Does the president know about this place? And the aliens and stuff?”
She gave him a wry look. “Now there may be some presidents that you want to know about this. But all of them? Think of their temperament.”
Jace grimaced. “Yeah, I can see why you wouldn’t want all of them to know. But that means… there’s really a Deep State?”
“Not like the conspiracy theorists think. But there are people in the government and private section who know and have passed that knowledge down to others who are deemed fit to know. Money from black bag projects funds us,” she explained.
Seeing something in his face, she added, “It’s been controversial that we’re not out in the open. ”
“People would love to know this. That we’re not alone,” he said.
“This will sound trite and you’ve heard it many times, but people are dumb, reactive creatures that fear what they don’t know,” she said with a sad smile.
“Individuals are smart and open minded and eager for something new. We couldn’t allow politics and fear to run this place, Jace. It was--and is--too dangerous.”
Jace nodded after a moment. “I understand. But this can’t stay secret any longer, I don’t think.”
She drew in a deep breath. “Yes, we have a contingency plan for that. It is already starting.”
Jace didn’t know if he felt relieved or worried. The more people who knew, the more people would want to control what he did, would want to examine him, experiment on him…
I will not let them, Osiris said.
Jace’s eyes opened. You won’t.
They would impede the mission.
What’s the mission? I didn’t get a change to ask you before, Jace said.
I will keep you safe, Osiris said and then submerged again.
His mother hadn’t noticed his inattention, but perhaps like had been the case when he was speaking to Gehenna, time slowed and for her it had been less than a second.
“I was thinking about what happened to you earlier when you fought Khoth,” she said.
“Yeah, what about it?” Jace didn’t like thinking about what had happened. It had just been low blood sugar and lack of hydration, but it had scared it. It had put him back to where he had been. He never wanted to go back. Never.
“Your new body needs more calories to operate, more hydration, and likely more sleep, too. We… you need to be more cognizant of that,” she said.
He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I need to be more careful. I’m sure that Khoth will have some space paste.”
He shuddered. His mother laughed.
“Don’t. Your poor father was so sick,” she said.
He grinned. “Is all alien food like that?”
“No, some of it is quite good. There is this fruit that is similar to grapes, but they’re this rich blue and they taste like a mixture of raspberries and bananas.
They’re delicious,” his mother said with a smile at the memory.
“The Alliance won’t share much with us, but they have shared their food. ”
“And clearly Thammah has loved ours.” Jace grinned.
“That is a woman of my own heart,” his mother said. “Her love of Slim Jims is second only to yours.”
“Khoth played food cop and threw one away!” Jace sounded absolutely outraged to his own ears.
“Yes, well, he probably saved you from yourself,” she said and ran her hands over his arms. She became sober again. “There’s so much we don’t know, Jace. There’s so much that’s going to happen.”
“I know.” He rolled his shoulders back. “A lot is at stake.”
“Yes. Yes.” She nodded looking overwhelmed for a moment before she pulled herself together.
Her eyes focused on his. “The desire to shield you is so strong. But I know that you’re so much smarter than I was at your age.
Everything you’ve gone through… in a way it's made you a prime candidate for this. You think deeply, Jace. You see people and their motivations. You’re brave and kind. ”
“Mom.” He grew uncomfortable with her compliments.
“I don’t give compliments easily or often, Jace. And I’m not just saying this as your mother. Because I have to be more than your mother and you have to be more--”
“Than your son? I think that’s a good part of me in this. It’s why I’m not freaking out. Well, not freaking out much.” He grinned and shrugged.
She chuckled and nodded. “I’m sure in a week we’ll freak out for real. But for right now, we need to keep it together.”
“Right. I can do that,” he said.
“I know you will.”
She embraced him once more and that was when he saw Khoth in the doorway with Gehenna hovering behind him with Thammah.
His exo-suit was similar to Jaces, mostly white with blue on the sides and patterned across the front.
His long hair hung over the shoulders of his suit.
The beads in his hair clicked together. His blue-on-blue eyes met Jace’s.
It was time.
He and his mother broke apart. His father brushed by Khoth and went to him and his mother. His father put a hand around the back of his neck and looked at him for long moments, saying nothing.
Finally, he said, “Whatever you see in there, Jace, in that ship--”
“You’ll see it with me,” Jace told him.
“Yes, but being there… Training is nothing like the reality of flying,” his father said and leaned forward, kissing his forehead. “If you need us… if you need anything…”