19 Penny #2
I was a confident woman, but for a split second, I felt entirely inadequate.
Not because I felt weak or unattractive in comparison to these people, but because it was obvious I wasn’t even worth a second thought to a single one of them.
They were highly evolved. Advanced. They were beyond what Earth could even imagine, traversing space like they were on a highway heading to work.
Looking ahead, I noticed Sunhai taking me down another hallway. It was darker there, lit by more floor lights. A few monrian crew members passed us by, but for the most part, it looked like we were heading to a less occupied area again.
“This place is huge,” I commented.
“It is a Continuum Vessel. One ship made from many. We left Mekah in small ship and joined this one when you were unconscious. Most monrian ships are that way. Old. Very old.”
“It looks brand new.”
She chuffed. “Well maintained. Continuum ships are very ancient.”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“To training chamber.”
“Training? Now?”
Just then, we turned a corner into a massive room alight with holographic charts, stats, and an array of 3D landscapes across an uneven floor.
And only one figure occupied the space, his hand moving casually over a control screen of some kind near the far wall.
In his other hand was a weapon of some sort, it’s blade glowing.
“Thilar,” Sunhai called from the doorway.
He glanced over his shoulder at us, a subtle sheen of sweat coating his bare chest.
Sunhai gestured toward me, leaning herself lazily against the doorframe.
“She wanted to see you,” she said. “And I believe it is time to stop avoiding your duties.”
I whipped my head toward her. “I didn’t say I wanted to see him.”
Heat flooded my cheeks again and I knew they were turning bright red at the mere notion.
Thilar turned his whole body toward us and started slowly heading in my direction, a pair of black fatigues hugging his muscular legs far too tightly for me not to notice. Sunhai sighed, bored, and spun around, heading back out into the hall as if she smelled something delicious and left us alone.
“Sunhai,” I complained.
“He is supposed to take care of you. Not me,” she waved over her shoulder.
Swallowing nervously, I glanced back at Thilar as his thumb pressed something on the hilt of his weapon, causing the holographic blade to disappear. His snake-like eyes looked me up and down as if searching for an injury.
“Are you alright?” he asked.”
“Yeah, of course I am,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “I don’t know why Sunhai brought me here. I just wanted to see the crew side of the ship.”
“I know why she brought you.” He straightened, somehow looking taller than he already was. “I was ordered to look after you. Admittedly, however, I needed to gather my thoughts before I could effectively do that.”
I locked eyes with him, biting my tongue to keep from blurting something out that might get me in trouble.
“You were charged with taking care of me?”
“Yuros believes I’m better suited because I took time to study your wrist device. And… because we were close on Mekah Prime.”
“I mean… he has a point. I don’t want to be anyone’s burden, though. Trust me. If you don’t have the time, I know where the baths are. I know where food is. I—”
“It is not a burden to look after you, Penny.”
“Ok, then where have you been?” I slipped, snapping my mouth shut as soon as I said it.
I sounded like a bitter wife.
Thilar did not back down from my tone, though. He just studied my face, watching every little micromovement in my expression in a manner that would have been creepy and uncomfortable were it anyone else. But, because it was him, I just felt warmth.
“As I said, I needed a little time to find my bearings,” he said softly. “To assume responsibility for you, I wanted to have a clear mind.”
I had no idea what that meant, but I didn’t have the composure to wonder about it at the moment. His mere presence and his proximity were clouding my head. The smell of him—masculine and rugged from hard physical activity—was making my pulse quicken.
I needed the conversation to lighten up.
Without my clothes, I suspected that room was cold as ice. I could feel it on my face and as I looked around, I noticed the holographic landscape had changed already from when we walked in. It looked more mountainous and crowded with trees, the tops of which disappeared into the ceiling.
“What is this place?”
“This is a training simulation.”
“How’s that work?”
I stepped into the room further, moving through one of the holographic branches. The floor was uneven as if it had become a rocky forest path.
Thilar reactivated the holographic blade in his hand. “With this. Contact with the images will read as damage.”
“But it won’t train you in actual contact?”
“Not without the suit. The suit has pain receptors to mimic real contact, but I was not training for contact. I was training for balance and awareness.”
“You training for something in particular or just passing time?”
“Monrians are always training for something.”
“Why didn’t I see that answer coming?”
“Are you gaining your strength, Penny? Or do you prefer Amelia?”
“Yes. And Penny is fine. Amelia was…” I sighed. “Another life. Your food tastes like shit, by the way, but I’m feeling much better.”
“I asked Luca to find out what your body needs and she’s fashioned your food to match.”
“Oh,” I nodded. “Thank you.”
“Monrian food, however, is bland. We do not make the effort valerians do.”
“I imagine taste is the last thing on your mind when you’re training to be super soldiers. Speaking of training, show me this room’s function.”
“It is meant to mimic any situation you want.”
“What’s that mean?”
The corner of his lips rose, and he walked across the room to the same control display he was toying with when we arrived.
After hitting a few indicators, the holograms surrounding us began to change, and reshape themselves, creating a false world with winding vines and low clouds that moved realistically and slowly across the space.
“Wow,” I gawked, fascinated. “The Nexus could use something like this.”
I scanned the changed, warehouse-sized chamber, curious what else it could do.
In all my years on Earth, I thought I would be prepared for anything. Mekah Prime proved I wasn’t and I hated how vulnerable I was in the expanse. How small I was. How wildly unfit I was to survive on my own.
“Ok, let’s train,” I exhaled sharply.
Thilar cocked his head at me. “Train?”
“Yeah. It’s a training simulation. Let’s train.”
“You are still recovering.”
“No, I’m recovered and I’m bored. So, let’s train.”
Thilar’s eyes wandered across the length of my body as if he was checking me for injuries and then he smirked.
“I can tell you have had training of some kind in your past. You move well. What is an environment that would challenge you, Penelope?”
The sound of my full name made me pause again and I blinked, momentarily caught off guard. How a man could say a name like it was a proposal for marriage was beyond me, but it made my insides flutter every time.
“Uh, I would say something very uneven. Something layered.”
“Yes, you’re fast on flat ground, but perhaps you can work on balance. What about lighting?”
“Well, light is obvious. Humans don’t see well in the dark.”
“And I know the cold bothers you. So let me test you.”
I watched as he loaded settings into the dimly lit control screen full of foreign symbols.
“Monrian children are trained in settings like this,” he explained. “Or we are dropped on a hostile planet to survive. Once by ourselves and again with a team of others to test our ability to work both independently and with a unit.”
“So, you just train from the day you’re born?”
“From the day we are born,” he said, turning to look at me. “We are judged for our usefulness. So, yes.”
The room began to shift. The vines and clouds were joined by sharp, vertical rocks.
The floor undulated, reshaping itself into something even more uneven and harsh with fissures, nulls, and dips.
From overhead, tiny white particles began to float down from the ceiling like snow and with them came an even colder draft that pierced the material of my suit.
And finally, the light of the room faded into something akin to a moonlit night.
I could see everything, but vaguely. Not enough to feel confident.
“Ok, what now?” I asked, wrapping myself in my arms.
“Now,” Thilar said, striding past me and disappearing around part of the upraised floor and holographic trees. “You try to get to the other side of the room.”
“Wait, really?”
Immediately, my confidence waned. The cold was quickly seizing me, and the darkness was too much of a disadvantage now that I thought about it.
“Isn’t there a beginner course?” I called after him, unsure where he’d ended up.
“A beginner course would not test you. Focus, Penny,” he said from somewhere deep within the obstacle of rocks and corners.
I took a few deep breaths, closing my eyes long enough to adjust my sight.
I tried to remember the woman I was on Earth.
That woman was confident, strong, and ready for anything.
At least, she thought she was. Then she lost the one person that meant anything to her.
Then she was launched into space. And then she was thrust into an alien dome to play a game that only ended in death for most opponents.
But the games were over and I survived. In a situation where I had a choice, I was not a woman to let a challenge go unanswered. Nothing was easy, on Earth or in the stars.