The Solar Wind (32 page)

“I wanted to stop by to see how you were feeling. I saw you cancelled your second follow up visit.”

“Yes, I did. Sorry about that. I’m doing okay,” she stretched the truth a little on that one. “Things have been a little crazy at work lately.”

“Yes, I know. It seems now that the virus has virtually disappeared off of the station we’ve been plagued with a variety of other strange things.” He smiled casually at her.

“You haven’t had any new cases of the virus?”

“Not for a few weeks now, thank goodness. Although, I hear that Capri has had a case that sounds very similar. A colleague of mine contacted me about it, looking for ideas on how to treat it.”

“That’s terrible. I hope it’s not the same thing.” She shivered slightly as she recalled how awful she felt when she was in its grip, before the transfusion.

“Ava, I wanted to ask you again if you could convince Mr. Gaines to allow us to test his blood to try and find a cure for this thing.”

“Dr. Tom, I know how important this is to you. It would be a breakthrough I know. However, at this point, I think that it is out of the question. Justin only went through the testing and transfusion to help me out. I’ve already asked him and he has declined. I don’t know what else to say.”

“What about you Ava?”

“I’m really not interested, besides, you already have tested me. What else do you want me to do?” She didn’t mean to sound annoyed, but that’s how it came out.

“I’ve noticed that you seem somewhat different since that transfusion.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your mood for one thing. It’s almost bi-polar. One minute you seem delightfully happy and the next, like now, you seem like you’ve hit rock bottom.”

“I have a lot on my plate right now.” She turned slightly away from him.

“I don’t doubt that, but perhaps I can help you sort things out. . . over dinner maybe. I’ll be finished here in a little over an hour. What do you say?”

What was that? Did he actually ask her out? She remembered when he first started in the clinic that he seemed flirty with her, but all of that died down when she did not return the effort. He was a good man, and she was grateful for his care during her illness, however she had no interest, despite her current uncertainties regarding Wesley.

“No thank you Dr. Tom. I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine, and you forget, I’m in a relationship, you remember my boyfriend, Captain Robinson?”

“Your boyfriend that’s never around? Ava I am not trying to pressure you, but only offer you some friendly advice. What kind of a relationship is it if you only see each other on the weekends?” His voice was calm and gentle.

Ava could not hold the anxious energy building from within any more. She ignored his last irritating comment. “I am not interested. Do you understand?” She said the words slowly and firmly. Her eyes burned with contempt as she looked at him. The look on his face turned from hopefulness to disappointment.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you Ava. You’ve certainly been through enough. I shall bother you no more.”

Ava didn’t respond, but watched him as he slowly walked away. She turned back to her computer. Two more patients and then she’d be done for the day. She focused on taking a few deep breaths and calming herself down before it was time to get started. She bolted out of the clinic when she closed the last chart.

Ava felt too worked up to go home right away. She couldn’t go to the gym either, as Dr. Alanis had warned her to take it easy on her leg, which was now feeling much better. She decided to take the tram to the lifts and make her way down to Infinity on Level 9. Might as well get some shopping done, she thought. Since being released from the hospital she had been eating a lot more than usual, creating the need to visit the grocery store more often.

Wednesday nights were always busy on the lifts. Wesley had explained to her that many of the cargo ships dock for delivery on this day of the week. The line for the civilian lifts seemed to go on forever. On occasions such as these civilians would sometimes squeeze in with the cargo lifts to be dropped off on the way down. The line was much shorter for this, and since Ava had no patience these days, chose that same route.

After a few minutes of waiting, Ava was able to squeeze in the cargo lift with a few other civilians and two tall men with a large metal crate on a cart with wheels. Ava couldn’t help but notice the two men, leaning casually on the crate. One of the men looked tougher than nails. Tall, muscular, with steely gray eyes and platinum blonde hair cut into the crew cut styling. Her eyes glanced at the large faded scar that ran down his right forehead and through his eyebrow. She almost sensed something strange about them. The other man appeared less menacing, however still creepy. He was tall, slim, had short dark brown hair and blue eyes. He desperately needs a shave, Ava thought, looking at the dark five o’clock shadow on his face. She noticed what looked like healed burn scars on the tops of his hands and forearms. He avoided her gaze. Both men were dressed in distressed dark gray jumpsuit-uniform type attire with the words “technician” printed on the left side of their chests. The descent down to level 9 seemed to take forever. The blonde man stared hard at Ava when she turned her back to them. She could feel his gaze on her. She began to feel very uncomfortable. Having never suffered from claustrophobia in the past, Ava began to sense what it would feel like now. She concentrated on her breathing, which had quickened and subconsciously moved as close to the side of the lift and up towards the front with the other people as she could. The other people seemed not to notice the two men, or her anxiety. Ava started to feel as though she were having a panic attack, her mind kept telling her she was in danger. But in danger from what? Only a few more levels until nine, she thought.

Kaden studied this young woman with hard, narrowed eyes. He sensed the energy emitting from her. She was no ordinary human, but was she one of them? No, she couldn’t be, the potency wasn’t there. This is very odd, if I touched her I would know for sure, he thought. The lift began to slow for the stop on nine. Kaden slowly raised his right arm, getting ready to reach out towards this strange woman. Ava felt the hair on the back of her neck starting to stand up. The doors opened and Ava practically shoved her way out through the people in front of her, narrowly missing Kaden’s hand on her shoulder. As the other people cursed her for her rudeness, she stared at the two men staring back at her as the doors shut and the lift continued its way down. She sighed a breath of relief, feeling as though she wanted to cry, and ran to infinity. She wanted to get her shopping done and get home as soon as possible.

Kaden looked at Torian when the doors closed. “What do you suppose she was?” He asked.

“Don’t know. She had the strangest energy for a human . . . almost like ours, but much weaker.”

“She didn’t feel like one of us. We would have sensed it for certain.”

“Well, whatever she is, she’s going to be toast in a few days.” Torian laughed heartily. Kaden joined him as the lift slowed to their destination, Level 12, the core of Orionis. The two men wheeled their crate out of the lift and down towards the main energy core, preparing to get started. They had much to do prior to their departure Friday afternoon before the Andromeda was scheduled to dock.

Ava could not put her conflicting thoughts behind her as the door silently slid shut behind her when she arrived home. She could still recall the strange sensation she felt when she was in the cargo elevator. She tried to pull her thoughts together while she put her groceries away. She did not remember sensing anything from the people in front of her, they seemed like any other group of people she had ever been around. And then there were the two “technicians” behind her. Ava had trouble deciding if it was their rough appearance that bothered her of if there was something else. Since her release from the hospital she had been more sensitive in general. She had noticed the pain in her leg more recently and had become, in her opinion, much more emotional since then.

Ava had been creeped out before by strangers, especially when she first arrived on Orionis. That was more of a feeling. She realized what she noticed was more of a sensation. It was similar to the sensation she used to feel when Wesley embraced her after they first started dating, only with a profound negative twist. Was it possible to feel energy emulating off of someone or something? Is there such a thing as bad energy? Ava’s only tangible contact with energy was electricity, either static electricity or when not properly drying her hands after washing and pushing the button to turn off a light. Mild electric shocks, not harmful, but strong enough to get your attention. Ava again thought of Wesley, Naomi, and the others and recalled their handshakes with what seemed like mild electric shocks. Then with Wesley, a sensation that seemed to fill her, to warm her, and slowly fade when he was gone. What did it all mean? All Ava knew was that the energy that filled the elevator seemed very negative, almost evil. “Am I losing my mind?” she thought. She sat down on her couch and rubbed her left hand on her forehead. “What is happening to me? I feel so lost” she thought. Ava decided to kick these thoughts out of her head, they sounded ludicrous to her. She got up and marched into the bathroom to take a hot shower, hoping that the heat would soothe her raw nerves.

Chapter 20: Choices

Somehow Ava made it to Friday. Seeing, and feeling, those two men in the lift on Wednesday night really shook her up. Ava knew it was crazy, but it just
felt
like they were bad people. Her nerves started up again. I never used to be this worked up, Ava thought, remembering when life seemed much more simple, before her illness. Wesley will be coming tonight, she knew. Part of her felt overjoyed, she knew she was always safe with him, and she did love him. However, part of her was still angry over the three things she wanted answers for. She still had not decided on how to approach him for the explanation of things. She would have to take it slow tonight and go with the flow and seize an opportunity for discussion when one surfaced. I can be patient, she told herself, I just need to be calm.

Kaden and Torian spent the entire day Thursday unpacking their crate and creating a hook up for their master creation, their bomb. With very few interruptions from Orionis residents, they pretty much had the place to themselves on Level 12. Much to their surprise, no one questioned what they were doing. People just assumed that they were working on repairing the system. It did not matter. Kaden was prepared to remove any human threat to his plan. Humans did not matter to him. He began to wonder, perhaps once Kyanos was his, he might go around and take care of all of the space stations. He chuckled at the thought.

Friday. Tonight is the night, Ava thought. Since she did not eat much of a dinner the previous evening, she felt ravenous this morning. Ava pulled a container of oatmeal out of her cabinet. She hadn’t touched it in weeks. For one, she had been consuming protein shakes left and right to quell her hunger, and two, for it was extremely hard to open. The snap never seemed to give on it. Of course, Wesley had absolutely no problem opening it for her. Since she wasn’t in the mood for a cool shake, preferring a warm start to her day, she grasped the container firmly between her hands and pulled with all of her might. Pop! The container opened almost effortlessly for her and in her effort completely pulled apart, throwing oatmeal all over her and her small kitchen. She couldn’t believe it! Ava sighed as she looked at her hands, each holding one side of the container, and then at the floor, now dusted with a fine layer of flakes. She did not have time to deal with this now. She shook the oatmeal off her clothes and out of her hair, opened the fridge and took out the pitcher of protein shake mix she always kept ready. After downing a full glass, Ava walked out the door, making her way to work.

The moist heat near the core of Orionis had begun to irritate Kaden. He preferred the cold dry air of his ship, maneuvering around in space. Torian had completed welding the bomb into one of the exterior support beams of the reactors. Now they had only a few hours to complete the delicate soldering of the wires together and program the detonation time. He wanted to make sure that he and Torian were well on their way back to Sceptrum before the bomb went off. He smiled a crooked smile as he worked, imagining the horror and confusion that the humans would go through, and hopefully, the destruction of the Andromeda, with its captain and crew. “Even if they survive”, he thought, “it won’t be long before I find them and finish them off.” Torian, sensing Kaden’s satisfaction nearing the completion of their task, chuckled under his breath.

Ava’s day passed pretty quickly despite her thoughts wandering back and forth from the episode of super strength she had this morning and then to what she planned to say to Wesley tonight. Over all it was a quiet day at the clinic and before she knew it, it was time to go home.

During the day Kaden and Torian had completed their task at hand and made their way back to the hangar for their scheduled departure back to Sceptrum. They didn’t flinch as they passed through the ITO security station for clearance. Long after they had gone, the Andromeda arrived, as scheduled into the hangar. Wesley promptly exited the ship, eager to pass through security and be with Ava once again. He wondered how she was coping with the increased energy she now possessed.

Ava arrived home and showered. She put on some nice, but casual clothes, anticipating Wesley’s arrival. She cleaned up the spilled oatmeal from this morning, she didn’t want Wesley to see it. She sat down on her couch for a few moments to collect her thoughts and practically jumped when Wesley rang the doorbell.