Fractured Mind Episode One (A Galactic Coalition Academy Series) (5 page)

But Sarah was having a nightmare.

He took another hissed breath, and once more
Sarah violently twitched. Her hands grasped in and out as he if she
were holding something – or desperately trying to grab at
something.

Though he tried so hard to stop himself,
compassion started to well in his heart.

It was easy to ignore Sarah's wild
assertions when she was awake.

It was another thing to ignore her condition
when she was twitching at his feet.

No, that didn't mean he suddenly believed
her mind was being abducted by aliens.

It did mean he couldn't stop himself from
leaning down on his haunches and brushing her hair from her
face.

Sarah Sinclair was attractive. She had a
great build, and there was something powerfully stark about her
features.

That didn't mean his stomach kicked as he
shifted her clumped hair from her mouth; he was just worried she'd
choke on it.

He latched a hand on her shoulder again.
“Wake up?” he tried as he shoved her once more.

Her head flopped to the side, a muted but
still terrified half-cry pushing from her lips.

He locked his hand on her shoulder harder.
“Sarah, it's fine. You're just dreaming. It's just a nightmare. Now
wake up.”

As he clutched her shoulder, her collar
bunched against his fingers, and his gaze locked on the left side
of her neck.

... She'd dug the skin raw. He could see the
nail tracks pushing over the flesh.

... She was torturing herself.

Despite Sarah's wild tales, she always had a
smile on her face. When he wasn't telling her off, that was.

In between classes, he saw her occasionally
– and she always seemed fine.

This – her thrashing around and the nail
tracks through her skin – made him realize how much of an act it
had to be.

... Or maybe it wasn't an act. Maybe despite
the torture Sarah put herself through, she still found the strength
to find happiness in between the horror.

A skill he'd never mastered.

Just as he clenched his teeth and took
another sigh, she woke.

Her head twitched up, she jolted forward,
and her eyes shot wide.

She also struck out at him. Before he could
push her back, she locked her hands on his shoulders and shoved
him.

It was hard enough that he toppled over.

He was a big guy – though Sarah was
athletic, she didn't have the strength to down him.

And yet she did.

“Hey, what are you doing?” someone bellowed
from further down the laneway.

Karax jerked his gaze to the left just in
time to see a medical team finally arrive.

Sarah was panting, her eyes locked wide, her
chest heaving in and out with every breath.

“Did she just attack you?” one of the med
techs asked as they reached Karax and pushed a hand down to
him.

Karax took the hand and allowed the tech to
help him to his feet.

Sarah had withdrawn against the wall, her
arms wrapped tightly around her middle.

“We saw it, lieutenant – when you put in
your report, we can confirm—” the tech began.

“She was confused, she had no idea what she
was doing. She just woke up from a nightmare,” Karax said before he
could stop himself.

He'd been looking for a reason to get Sarah
kicked out of the Academy.

This, right here – her attacking an officer
– was it.

He wouldn't need anything more than the med
tech's witness report.

... And yet it didn't feel right.

Try as he might, Karax couldn't ignore the
terror playing through her gaze as she wrapped her arms so tightly
around her chest it looked like she was trying to cut herself in
half.

The med tech pressed his lips together in a
tight frown. “Are you sure, sir? We've,” he looked over his
shoulder at Sarah, “Investigated Sarah's illness many times. There
is no medical reason to justify her attack.”

Other than the fact she looks terrified,
Karax added in his mind.

When he caught himself defending Sarah, even
it if was only in his head, he clenched his teeth and sighed.

Once more, Sarah appeared to react to
it.

She jerked her head to the side, then locked
her gaze on him.

... There was something hard about that
look. No, not hard – hardened.

The technician appeared to be waiting for
him. He knew all eyes were on him, Sarah's too.

Karax half shook his head and realized he
had to do the right thing.

He cleared his throat. “I'll be making no
report,” he said in a deliberate, loud voice that could not be
misunderstood.

As the seconds ticked by, Sarah was growing
more aware of her surroundings. The white bloodless hands clutching
her knees gradually loosened. Soon she let them drop to her
side.

Both med techs turned to look at her, and
even though he couldn't see them fully, he saw enough of the sides
of their faces to note their derision.

Sarah wouldn't look at them. She wouldn't
look at him, either. Instead she locked her gaze on her hands,
tipped her head forward, and appeared to try to hide behind her
hair.

The med techs muttered something unkind
about her, then got to work.

“We've got this, sir. Please go about
whatever you were doing,” one of them said.

Karax went to turn. To head to Admiral
Forest – whilst he still had the time.

And yet... he hesitated.

For no other reason than this felt
wrong.

As soon as he caught himself thinking that,
he literally had to shake his head.

He was the one who hated Sarah Sinclair more
than anyone else at the Academy. And yet here he was, bile rising
up his throat at the way the techs were treating her.

Hadn't they seen the way she'd thrashed on
the ground? The confusion that had torn through her eyes when she'd
woken so violently?

“We've got this,” one of the techs turned
around and spoke directly, as if they thought Karax hadn't heard
them.

“Right,” Karax managed through a gruff
cough.

He pushed weight through his leg, pivoted on
his foot, and forced himself to walk away.

He didn't make it far. A few steps down the
resounding cobbled laneway, and he found his neck contracting and
turning to the side, his stare locking on her.

Though Sarah still had her arms tightly
wrapped around her knees, she was now looking up, that once defiant
gaze back as it locked on him.

... For some reason it affected him. Sent a
flurry of something close to nerves scattering up his back.

Before he could take any note of the
sensation, his WD beeped.

The noise was so unexpected, he jumped and
jerked around, slamming a hand a little too hard on the WD's
screen.

“Lieutenant, you're late,” Admiral Forest
said succinctly. “You better be dead or fighting the enemy.”

He half winced, pushed off into a quick jog,
and cleared his throat once more. “I'm on my way, admiral. I was
attending to an accident.”

“Alright, then. How long until you reach my
office?” Though her tone wasn't nervous – it would take the end of
the Milky Way for Admiral Forest to show fright – it was quick.
Snapped. You could hear the tension twisting through every word
like snakes writhing in a pit.

It clutched at his stomach, clenching every
muscle until his back was ramrod straight. “Two minutes,” he said,
even though he'd have to push into a full sprint to make it.

So he did. He dashed through the Academy
grounds. They were a startling sight, when you had the time to
appreciate them. More than anything, it was their scale that stole
away your attention. Coming from the colony worlds, he was used to
houses made from reclaimed containers. Pod-like structures only
large enough to safely contain a family. Anything else was largess.
You could use spare metal, spare bedding, spare anything on a
colony world to make yourself safer.

Out here, there was no question that the
Earth was safe, the Academy too. The Coalition Academy hadn't seen
a direct attack since the Axira incident. Even then, though it had
been extremely serious, it hadn't been as perilous as the attacks
he'd gone through on the colony worlds.

So as he tilted his head back, he
appreciated the enormity of the buildings as they reached for the
sky. The sun glinted off their smooth glass walls, making it feel
as if he was standing in a tall crystal forest.

And even if the scale of the buildings
wasn't alien enough, the view of the bay and the horizon above was.
Numerous ships darted in and out along the water, plunging up into
the sky above. Even though it was the middle of the day he could
still see the numerous installations in orbit. Not everything – not
the Earth defense security network – but the monolithic structures
like the shipbuilding yards and Station Zero. They were faint
outlines like the moon in the morning.

Realizing he was allowing himself to become
distracted, he tucked his head down and concentrated on darting
past every errant cadet and staff member as he powered towards
Admiral Forest's room.

When he reached it, slamming a hand on the
panel next to her door, he'd already caught his breath.

He was at the top of his fitness. And
considering the numerous cybernetic implants that littered his
body, even without armor, he was a match in most fights.

Yes, Doctor Wallace kept telling him to take
it easy. But no, there was no way that was ever going to
happen.

Lieutenant Karax had one goal in life – to
make the colony worlds safe. The only way to do that, would be to
make the Coalition as strong as it could be. To push back every
enemy, to take advantage of every resource.

And that meant no time for rest.

He patted a stiff hand down his uniform as
he walked through Admiral Forest's door.

It opened onto a dark office.

It was in the middle of the building, with
no windows, but that did not account for the gloom.

Admiral Forest often liked to work in the
dark, with only the bare illumination from her desk lamp.

The light coming off the lamp was only
sufficient to light up the underside of her chin, to play against
her cheek, and to deepen the shadows under her eyes.

Karax drew to a stop in the middle of her
room. He clasped his hands tightly behind his back, pushed his
shoulders straight, and cleared his throat.

He waited.

Admiral Forest had one hand clutched against
her cheek, the other rested on her desk as she drummed her fingers
into the wood. “We need an edge, lieutenant. I'm sick and tired of
losing good people to the Ornax.”

Karax felt his stomach clench, a sinking
feeling pushing down his shoulders. “What are the latest casualty
reports?”

Admiral Forest hadn't been in a bad mood
when he'd left her yesterday. That meant one thing.

More deaths. More Coalition soldiers lost to
the Ornax.

As he realized that, he clutched a hand into
such a tight fist it felt as if his cybernetic implants would tear
through the flesh and crush his bone to powder.

“Yes, more deaths. More casualties. More
injuries. More ships lost. More resources squandered on this
enemy,” her voice became tighter until she spoke in hisses through
her clenched teeth.

Involuntarily, it reminded him of Sarah. He
saw a flash of her lying at his feet, her body crumpled, hair a
mess over her face.

He shook his head to dislodge the
uncomfortable image and tried to focus on the admiral. “We're
trying our hardest. I'm trying my hardest,” his voice dropped as he
let his gaze drift down to the carpeted floor, “But we just can't
prepare our soldiers for the Ornax. Their attacks are
unconventional, their methods unlike anything we're used to.”

Admiral Forest lifted a hand. The fingers
were stiff, white, so straight they looked like stone. “I have not
brought you here to hear my troubles. I have brought you here,
because we have been offered a solution,” again, her voice dropped.
This time it became so low it felt as if it shifted through the
floor and powered up his legs.

“Solution?” He couldn't help but take a
jerked step forward, boots crushing the pile of her blue and black
carpet.

“You're right – we can't prepare our
soldiers to fight the Ornax unless we can replicate their
ingenuity, their unconventional methods, and their goddamn
unquenchable drive to survive.”

“... Admiral, what are you suggesting?”

“Are you familiar with the Corthanx
Traders?”

He tilted his head to the side. “Yes. What
have they got to do with this?”

“They claim to have replicated the same
training method the Ornax go through. The Corthanx Traders came
upon an abandoned Ornax training ship.”

Karax's hackles rose. They started at the
base of his spine and powered up his back, even sending cold
charges of energy sinking hard into his jaw.

His mouth jerked open. “Training
methods?”

The admiral stopped drumming her fingers on
her desk. Her stiff fingers slowly spread out until her palm
pressed flat against the wood. “They call them true intelligence
holograms. Holograms that can't only take tangible, solid form, but
possess so-called true intelligence – methods that replicate how a
sentient being may fight, not the mechanical precision of an
AI.”

He frowned, the move hard as it drove his
lips down into his chin. “Forgive me, admiral, but this sounds
far-fetched.”

Admiral Forest let out a bare chuckle. She
propped her chin in her hand, her fingers digging into her cheek.
“That's exactly what I thought, too. Until the Corthanx Traders
provided us with a demonstration.”

Though his mouth was open – another
objection readying on his tongue – he stopped. He swallowed.
“Demonstration?”