5
The paradox pocket is a curious thing. It seems to stretch and stretch, ever-so dark and vast, a true void exists outside of space-time, yet only for brief moments in the everlasting stretch-snap of the universe. They have only been in the pocket for moments and already Eden can feel the minute quiver beneath her heels - the tingle of the paradox trying to snap back. Eden turns from staring at the black nothingness and meets Orion's gaze.
His expression is unreadable, the iridescent shine of his eyes almost eerie in the grayscale of the paradox. His face is not impassive like her own, but utterly devoid of feeling. And yet, she thinks he probably is feeling a lot of things. Anyone who has just shouted at her to shut up not so long ago must certainly be feeling, at the very least, some frustration.
Eden thinks she's right about him. She thinks he's so focused on his mission because of what it means to him, not necessarily for what it means for the future. She doesn't think this is a bad thing. Motivations are inherently selfish, after all, and she won't pretend that she has never been selfish. She does think, however, that his motivations are tainting his responses. He is so intense about things, about keeping Eden under lock and key, hidden in the ostensible safety of a guarded room, that he must surely have a deep, burning motivation that keeps him going. She is concerned only for what it will mean for her and her ability to be independent for however long they are companions.
Eden may be able to negotiate with someone motivated by altruism. She may not be able to negotiate with someone motivated by revenge.
And yet - he hadn't put up too much of a fight in the end, had he? He'd knocked her unconscious, and her neck still aches from that pinch, but he had also followed her through that cave system and allowed her to detonate an entire cavern.
She doesn't understand him or his changing mind. The only way she ever could is to allow even the briefest touch of his bare skin, but she won't do that. Not only because it would be an invasion of his privacy, but also because she is certain Orion has a mind that is louder than most. If she concentrates - if she lets herself - she can almost hear the rumbling of his mind if she stands too close. His race is not psi-null, she knows. She wonders if he is louder than others of his kind, or if his silent projection is something unique to him.
And she wants to know, rather pragmatically, if it matters at all. Her odds of surviving in this time-traveling limbo are rather slim, after all. She was not lying when she said she would want to make the most of her time, so she will not think over much about anything too far beyond her control. Orion is one of those things - he's too…
She isn't sure. It's odd.
Eden sighs and crosses the void space. "Where will we go next? Back to Telleru?"
Orion's expression twists. "Telleru is off limits now - in any time. The Alliance will be on our tail sooner or later after what happened there. The best thing we can do is pick a random location and time."
Eden doesn't flinch from the accusation in his tone. Instead, she places her hand on his black-clothed elbow, curling her fingers in tightly, and braces herself for the shimmering, twisting pull behind her navel when Orion activates the time travel device.
Kkitu
5645
They arrive feet-first in an alleyway just off a harried marketplace, the happy voices of eager sellers and bidding buyers easily reaching their ears. As soon as she is stable, Eden removes her hand from Orion's elbow and steps away - and each one of his Xianian senses simmers down, relieved of the closeness of her energy still brimming with adrenaline from their timely escape of the collapsing cave systems and the ensuing...disagreement. Orion takes a careful scope of their surroundings, watching Eden do the same out of the corner of his eye.
The sky is a lush shade of amber, twin suns setting between the uneven skyline of a city proper. The air carries a tinge of ocean, a certain salt-rich scent common to all planets, and there is a faint heat in the air that indicates the season. But more than that, there is an overwhelming force that buffers against his senses and he has to fight against his Xianian senses to build up a stronger barrier, his markings briefly flashing blue-green in the fading sunlight. The psychic pressure is both extreme and just out of reach.
It only takes him a glimpse of the native people to understand where they have landed and his stomach promptly drops, leaden with dread. He's only ever seen one Lekkitu in his life - a cadet who succumbed to the loss of the hive mind and who was never seen again - but the people are unmistakable with their alabaster skin, blazing orange hair, and trio of eyes set in a perfect triangle above their small, ridged noses.
"Kkitu," he says aloud. He taps at the jumper to get a read on the year and promptly feels his stomach twist with dread again. 5645, the same year as the destruction of the planet.
His eyes cut to Eden, who is peering at the crowd in the marketplace with tepid, bird-like curiosity, and wonders if they've really been pulled to this time because of her. Was she pulling them toward other singularities? It would seem like it, even if two jumps isn't nearly enough evidence to prove it.
But why else would the randomized settings of the jumper send them first to Telleru, facing planetary destruction from Alliance greed, and then to Kkitu, a planet that would be wiped out in only a few months? Orion is too much of a skeptic to believe in coincidence.
Fuck. He would really like advice from Vo'ongi right now - but there hasn't been any communication so far and he knows well enough that if they had to, if they wanted to, that Matthis could track them down one way or another. His group must still be working on things on their end, so Orion needs to stick to the plan. Keep the scientist - the infuriating scientist - safe.
Eden looks back at him. "What did you say?"
"Kkitu," he repeats, stepping up beside her. He watches the market operate and can almost see the connections made between the Lekkitu people - can almost see the hive mind at work. Even though they talk and make pleasantries, there is a certain synergy to the way they move around each other, filling in gaps between bodies, never bumping, always in harmony, that betrays their psychic connection. "They're a hive mind, the Lekkitu," he shares, his voice dropping into a stern tone. "What one knows, they all can know in an instant. Which means you need to stay under the radar."
Eden's keen eyes, the grey so clear and unemotional, watch him without judgment. She nods, folding her hands behind her back, and states, "You're uncomfortable here."
Orion gnashes his teeth together. She sees everything. If he didn't know better, he would think she was reading his mind - but she hasn't touched his skin. He would have noticed that. She's very careful, even for a Giidas.
Instead of denying his discomfort, he says, "This planet is complicated. It doesn't matter. We need to get ourselves sorted."
Eden appears vaguely displeased by his evasion, but she doesn't argue when Orion leads them through the marketplace and she remains silent as he secures a hotel room for them. The hotel is the same sandy-smooth stone as other buildings in the area, with tall, narrow windows made with amber-tinged glass that filters out most of the heat of the dual suns. The owner of the small hotel is a Lekkitu woman with a kind bearing who assumes, for reasons beyond Orion, that he and Eden are intimately involved.
"We have a lovely room for you and your wife," she informs him in accented Standard.
Eden, who can surely understand this, does nothing but blink placidly at the woman. Orion, on the other hand, is quick to correct the assumption, ignoring the jolt he feels at the very thought. "We aren't married," he says firmly, leaving zero room for misinterpretation. "Two beds. And a meal to the room, if your kitchens are still open."
The Lekkitu woman looks mildly embarrassed, glancing at Eden's disinterested expression sheepishly. "Oh! Of course. My son will send a tray right away…" she trails off, passing an electronic key across the counter.
Orion thanks her curtly, then ushers Eden to their room. This hotel is more comfortable than the one on Telleru, the beds larger and the windows airier, the entire room shaded in orange-gold hues from the setting suns. Orion does a brief scan of the room, locks the windows, and releases a controlled breath. The room is safe enough, the location is secure, and he can relax just a bit, sensing that Eden is tired enough to be on her best behavior, at least for now. Her energy, at the very least, has been muted since they left Telleru.
He tries not to think about what must be going through her mind - and tries even harder to forget their confrontation, the vitriol that swam through his blood at her (correct) assertions. It isn't important. They don't need to get along for his mission to be successful.
Eden has silently drifted to the bathroom to clean up by the time their meal arrives. Orion answers the door, expecting to simply take the tray, but he stops in his tracks, his eyes widening minutely.
He recognizes this face - it's only a year or so younger than what he remembers. It's the Lekkitu cadet, the one that -
Orion schools his expression and stiffly thanks the boy, who seems blissfully unaware of Orion's strange reaction. The Lekkitu boy smiles. Orion doesn't remember him ever smiling as a cadet - but then, most of them didn't. Most of them still don't, Orion included.
He doesn't close the door right away, stupefied in the doorway as he tries to square the likelihood that he would run into someone he has actually met before, someone who disappeared, someone who was likely killed by the Alliance, either directly or indirectly. The likelihood is staggeringly low, he thinks. It's never happened before.
"You know him."
Orion is too well-trained to jump at the sudden sound of Eden's voice behind him, but his shoulders do stiffen, just slightly. He closes and locks the door, and turns, fingers tight on the tray he sets down on the tiny table in the suite. He darts a glance at Eden, taking in the loose robe wrapped around her slight frame with dim shock, his gaze skittering away from the milky skin of her neck and her vaguely searching expression.
"You eat first. I'm going to shower," he says woodenly, avoiding the unasked question.
"Hn."
Orion closes the bathroom door behind him and shuts his eyes, dropping his head back. Stress is creeping up his spine and settling between his brows. He's not equipped to handle any of this. Leta would have been a better choice for this mission. She wouldn't be so reactive - not by the appearance of someone who, in a year from now, might recognize Orion's older face in his younger self, and not by the sight of the scientist in that robe. His hands tighten into fists, drawing steady air into his lungs, slowing the wild spin of his internal energies until they settle, calm and cool. When he looks at himself in the mirror, he doesn't know whether he should be gratified or not to see that he appears utterly unaffected.
Orion disrobes, kicking his clothes into the corner of the bathroom. His pants are heavy with dust, the soles of his shoes pressed with fine gravel. As he unstraps the jumper from his wrist and sets it carefully alongside the hidden weapons usually strapped to his body, he reflects that they will once again need provisions. Eden had folded her own clothes neatly, the brilliant white of them tinged with red dirt. He'll need to shop for them again, and likely do a better job of preparing for the weeks ahead.
Nothing has gone to plan. He doesn't think it will, either, not with Eden as a factor.
He is pleasantly surprised by the warm water that rushes out of the overhead faucet in the shower. Water is a luxury most planets save for crop growth and drinking, so most places this far in the future, including his own home planet, don't provide old-fashioned showers. But Orion is weak for the hot press of water against his tense muscles and he lingers for several minutes longer than necessary, his neck bent to and arms braced on the smooth tile. He tries to get his mind together, tries to resolve his priorities and objectives. He hasn't been this discombobulated since Vo'ongi recruited him.
Out of the shower, Orion halfheartedly rubs a towel over the dark of his hair, the color more black than usual with wetness. He tugs the remaining robe onto his body, tying it tightly into place, and then emerges from the bathroom amid steam. In the suite, Eden has already cleared her plate and is sitting primly on one of the beds, her legs folded beneath her as she appears to meditate. He's never seen her do it before, but he does recall that meditation is an important tool to Giidas. Something about settling the mind.
He turns away and digs into his own meal, the Kkitu cuisine mildly spicy with smoked meat and crunchy flatbread. There is more meat on his plate than he recalls before the shower, but then he recalls that Giidas are primarily vegetarians. He should have remembered that and made a specific request…
"Who was that boy?" Eden asks quietly, breaking into his thoughts.
Orion eats his food and does not answer her question. Instead, he says, "Go to sleep. We're getting up early to gather supplies."
Behind him, Eden sighs. He expects her to continue pushing, but when he turns around after eating his meal, Eden is already laying down, her hands crossed over her stomach and her features relaxed as sleep takes her.
It takes much longer for Orion to find his own rest.
"White isn't the best choice," Orion says lowly as Eden flicks through a rack of clothes at the local marketplace. "Too bright. Shows too many stains. It isn't practical."
"Irrelevant," she says. "I like white."
"Pick something else."
Eden pulls another white garment from the rack, this one a jumpsuit with narrow legs and wide shoulder straps. She folds it over her arm wordlessly, ignoring the aggrieved sigh Orion releases, and continues on to another rack in search of more clothing. Orion declared early this morning that they would need a few changes of clothing and other provisions. Eden is merely following his directions and selecting articles as instructed.
The fact that she is taking her time with this task has less to do with her pickiness about clothing and more to do with the opportunity to observe the Lekkitu people as they interact with each other. This planet and its people are remarkably peaceful, something she chalks up to their shared hive mind. The evidence of the psychic connection had been present time and time again as she and Orion made their way through this marketplace; sellers frequently had similar wares already prepared for them to look at each time they passed through another stall.
She finds it so fascinating - and inspirational. Her nanobots have a similar function, at least in her notes and the prototypes left back on Terra of the past. She would like the opportunity to work on her nanos again. It is surprisingly difficult to be away from her projects. Eden hasn't ever experienced boredom before and she doesn't think she likes being idle in this way. Perhaps she could find some supplies in this marketplace.
She is just about to mention this idea to Orion, but as she turns to look at him, she catches the terse expression on his face as he looks at two Lekkitu speaking in tones that are not low at all, considering the topic of their discussion.
"...how bold it is of them to occupy our space," one says.
"They say it's because rebels are courting our favor," the other responds.
"The Alliance always has something to say, true or not."
"But it is true, is it not? The rebels have been speaking with the crown, just as the Alliance has. The position of our planet is between the central zone in the feud. One way or another, a side must be picked."
"Well, we know the crown chafes at the audacity of the Alliance. We're still in talks to join, but the Alliance has already set military outposts in our capital and in our orbit."
"You assume this is because they assume they will win our hand," the other points out.
The first Lekkitu snorts. "All the more reason to join with the rebels, I suppose…"
Eden blinks, her gaze shifting to the tick in Orion's jaw, and she comes to a mute realization. This planet is complicated, he'd said. Now, she understands what he meant by that. This planet is clearly one that, at some point, will be caught in the crosshairs of the Alliance's corruption. After all, she cannot imagine the Alliance of her own time, or the Federation of her parent's, that would have allowed the blatant military pressure the Lekkitu are apparently withstanding.
Eden's mind makes the razor-sharp connection between the weight of her singularity and the time they arrived in. Whatever it is that happens to this planet, she suspects it happens soon. The thought is saddening.
On their way back to the hotel, Eden happens across a scrap shop in the marketplace, where she quietly insists on spending several minutes picking out metals and wires she finds useful. She can do a lot with scraps. Orion's grudging acceptance of this task is a sufficient distraction, as he spends the next several minutes on the way back to the hotel grumbling about carrying around unnecessary supplies. Eden allows this without pointing out that her small bag is hardly burdensome compared to the other supplies that have been purchased for the inevitable emergency that will be upon them. He seems to need the distraction and Eden is not one for wasting her breath.
But the moment the hotel door is closed behind them and Orion has checked the security of their room, Eden pries bluntly into the topic that he has been avoiding since the night before.
"You know that boy," she says. "You know about this planet. Have we landed in the past?" In your past, she doesn't ask.
Orion's shoulders tense. He stares at her with sharp, iridescent blue eyes, his lips pressed together.
Eden stares back. "Stubborn," she comments, breezing to her bed to unpack and sort the scraps she has found. "I suppose the conversation we overheard has something to do with what you won't speak about."
Orion breathes out harshly through his nose, every inch of his body broadcasting his reluctance to speak with her about this. "What happens to Kkitu has no bearing on our mission."
Eden tilts her head, mind whirring a mile in mere seconds. Orion speaks of the planet, not necessarily the people - although, considering the people are connected psychically, these two concepts are likely one and the same.
"Kkitu is destroyed, then," she deduces. "But not completely, because you know the boy."
Orion's jaw tightens.
"Why can't we save these people?" Eden asks point-blank. "I'm sure there must be a way -"
"We can't save everyone," Orion bites out. "Singularities must happen. There are events that have to happen, and the destruction of an entire planet is one of them. What happened on Telleru - that planet should have been left alone. You shouldn't have gotten your way."
Eden frowns at him. "You're fine with this great loss of life?"
"No!" Orion says angrily, pacing like a trapped predator, which he very much is. "But there is nothing to be done. If too many events are changed - the timeline needs to be maintained. And this is even assuming you would be able to save a planet like this one from itself. What happens here must happen."
It's personal to him, Eden realizes belatedly. Somehow, the fate of this planet will personally impact him. And it must have to do with the boy.
"Why must this event happen?"
Orion closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. After a moment, his shoulders release all of their tension, slumping forward as he sits on the edge of his bed. "Because it's already happened, in my past. That Lekkitu boy, I know him in my past, in his future. Briefly. He...disappears when we're both cadets."
"Killed by the Alliance," Eden says. It's both incredibly difficult and incredibly easy to imagine.
"He questioned the destruction of his planet, where he was one of only a few survivors." Orion closes his eyes. "The loss of the hive mind overcame him."
"This radicalized you," she says, because it must have. Such a thing would radicalize anyone.
But Orion shakes his head. "No, I wouldn't say that...but it was a tipping point," he tells her, sounding very tired. "A lesson to be learned about what happens to those who make an enemy of the Alliance."
Eden studies the strong planes of Orion's face, the mole-like markings on his starlight-bright skin, the untamed curl of his dark hair. He is older than her, perhaps by ten years, and very suddenly he looks even older than that. She can recognize the grief pulling at him in the furrow of his brow. Eden sits on her own bed, trying to decode this male in front of her - trying to decide why she cares at all.
"You identify with him," she says quietly, a gentle prod.
Orion doesn't meet her gaze. "Our planets share similar fates."
Eden inhales sharply, not quite a gasp. Pieces are falling into place, and of course, it makes sense. Orion is a survivor of a terrible catastrophe and he has turned all of that anger and grief into vengeance - and no wonder he is the way he is. No wonder he speaks the way he does. No wonder his actions have been what they are. No wonder she struck a chord on Telleru about revenge being his motivation.
It all makes sense now. Even his outright refusal to even entertain the thought of saving this planet from its looming destructive fate. Saving this planet might disrupt too much of the timeline, given that this point in time is firmly in Orion's past. Causing such a change that was clearly important may mean Orion is never radicalized, which can cause larger ripples that may result in nobody saving Eden from her assassination - and by extension, possibly saving the future of the universe. It's different from Telleru, where at most Eden only put a temporary hold on what was happening. She doubts she did much to prevent the eventual collapse of the moon planet, but she acted anyway, more than a bit impulsive because it was the right thing to do. She is confident she bought the Tellerites time.
Here, there is no option to slow the wheels that are already in motion.
Eden understands all of this, but it creates a pinch in her stomach. It doesn't sit right, not even trying - but…others have decided her life is important enough to alter the very course of time. By staying her hand now, Eden might survive long enough to make a change in her own present that will prevent the destruction of Kkitu in the future. Action is not necessary here. Not yet. Not for her, not in this time.
"What will we do here, then?" Eden asks, compartmentalizing her thoughts.
Mild surprise briefly crosses Orion's face. "We remain undercover," he says. "Stay away from the Alliance."
He makes it sound so simple. She wonders if it will be.
When Orion first became a Specialist, he was given access to advanced tools and weaponry to make his assignments easier. One of the most useful tools was a fixed pocket of distorted space where he could store a limited number of supplies. This pocket has always been strapped onto his thigh and packed with extra ammunition, clothing, water pods, and dehydrated food tabs. Now, he adds to this stock with extra clothing for Eden and more provisions in case of emergency. It's always beneficial to be prepared.
Orion had half-expected Eden to express some curiosity about this pocket, but she hadn't even blinked when he began organizing their supplies. Instead, it had been Orion who had paused, a bit dumbfounded, as Eden unclipped a slim silver case from her hip, flipping it open to reveal her own pocket dimension of sorts.
He doesn't know why he's surprised. Eden probably invented the very ones the Alliance still uses in Orion's time. He wouldn't be shocked to learn that Eden's is still more advanced than his, even though it was 3000 years older. When he asks what she keeps in her pocket, she rolls her shoulders gracefully and answers, "Useful things."
Useful things, to Eden, seem to be a dozen half-finished projects, a collection of tools, scrap metals, and other odds and ends that aren't, as far as Orion can tell, useful for survival. But he keeps his mouth shut. With the unveiling of Eden's pocket, he is treated to the discovery that she has no problem at all staying in place as long as she's occupied. And right now, it seems she's occupied working on some kind of nano robot.
It's interesting watching her work. She can spend hours with a tiny mess of metals and wires, quietly soldering pieces together under the protection of slim silver glasses; she can spend even longer tapping away at a holo screen, running some kind of programming on whatever her project is. The intensity of her focus is astounding to him. He has to repeatedly prompt her to eat and she does reluctantly, not even looking up from her project while she takes tiny bites of the Lekkitu food delivered to their room.
Why hadn't she done this on Telleru? There, she had spent her time practically glued to news transmissions - but then, in Telleru, she had been fixated on solving the earthquake problem. Here, he has made it clear that nothing can be done, so he supposes she has found another way to occupy her time.
Not for the first time, Orion realizes that Eden is really peculiar. But her fixedness on her projects is soothing in its own way. When her attention is focused on her work, the ambiance of her energy slows and gentles into something soft and cloud-like to his Xianian senses. He tries not to bask in it.
Several days pass like this, almost a week maybe. He can't tell whether or not Eden is making progress with her project. One day, the nano chirps around the room, buzzing near-silently as Eden frowns after it; the next, she has cracked the tiny thing open again and is back with the soldering iron. He supposes she's aiming for perfection, maybe, but he doesn't ask. She isn't causing him trouble, so he'll return the favor. For his own preoccupation, he services his weapons and doubles up the charge on the time-jumper, just in case. More often than not, they share a companionable silence.
And then Eden wakes up one morning and tells him she wants to go back to the marketplace. Orion thins his lips but agrees. It's a simple request, and if the results of their outing will keep Eden entertained for another week, then Orion thinks it's a good idea.
"Stay with me," he reminds her as they leave the hotel room.
Eden's placid grey eyes cut toward him, but she dips her head in acknowledgment and stays at his elbow as they venture back to the marketplace.
Just like last time, the marketplace is a quiet buzz of coordinated activity. Eden stops at a market selling tools, scraps, and electronics; she spends a good ten minutes there, softly haggling prices, before Orion pays for her purchases with his chip. Eden seems pleased with her purchases and indicates they can return to the hotel, much to Orion's relief.
But when they do, they come across the Lekkitu boy, the one who would become a reluctant - and then disappeared - cadet in the near future. He and his agemates are in front of the hotel. They are, to Orion's horrified amazement, openly discussing the Alliance presence on the planet in broad daylight.
"I wish they would just leave," the would-be cadet says. "They aren't doing any good here except slowing down business."
"My papa says the Alliance is getting too bold."
"Did you hear what they said to the monarch?" another asks.
"We all heard," the boy confirms grimly, his expression twisted. "They aren't making the case for being better than the rebels."
"All the rebels care about is taking down the Alliance."
"Well, that's understandable."
"But do the rebels care about us or our resources?"
"They care more than the Alliance," the boy declares boldly. "We will never ally with them. We -"
"Aapwin!" comes the hotel owner's voice, strict and strained as she emerges from the building. She looks at her son with wide eyes, then shoos away the other children, who scatter like dust in the wind. From Orion's vantage point, he can clearly see the hotel owner send several wary looks around the street, her skin blanching as she sees something in the distance before she ushers her child back into the hotel room.
Orion's gaze traces down the street and he sees a familiar flash of militant black clothing turning a corner. His jaw tenses.
"Orion," Eden starts slowly. "Why was this planet destroyed?"
"They were too vocal," Orion answers. "Like him."
And so the Alliance destroyed them, goes unsaid, as undeniable truths often do.
"They blamed it on the rebels, of course. Claimed that the Lekkitu monarchs were allying with the rebels against the Alliance and that the Lekkitu had resources that would threaten the wellness of other planets," Orion adds, bitter deep in his burning gut. "Lies."
Eden makes a considering noise. "Who are the rebels?"
Orion shrugs. Who are the rebels, indeed? It's something that not even Matthis has been able to uncover. As far as anyone can tell, the rebels have been operating for at least the last five hundred years against the Alliance, but it's unclear who heads the organization, where they are based, or even how they operate. Orion honestly isn't even sure the rebels actually exist. They would very well be a product of the Alliance to give a convenient excuse for why they so unceremoniously commit violence against unprotected peoples in the name of so-called peace. After all, Orion's planet supposedly had rebels, too - something he knows isn't true.
"We don't know," Orion answers. "They're not my group."
Eden hums. "Are these rebels a true threat to the Alliance?"
Orion's voice is dark when he answers. "A threat is a threat if the Alliance says so."
Eden hums again, tilting her head at him as she studies the tension he holds in his body. She doesn't say anything, though.
Orion wonders what it is she's thinking about. But he isn't sure he wants to know. Her estimate of the situation is so much more objective than his - and she sees so much more than he does. Patterns that he might have overlooked; links that he doesn't want to acknowledge.
He lets the silence rest.
In the end, Orion isn't sure what happens. It's the dark hours of the night and he has allowed himself to close his eyes, resting in the meditative place between slumber and wakefulness a Xianian can use in lieu of sleep to circulate new energy. And then breaking into the calm of the night is the violent quivering of the building, of the floor beneath him, and the bright flashes of red-hued light outside.
For a moment, Orion is fifteen again, standing in the wreckage of the red mercury bomb that destroyed his home -
Another bomb drops and the city outside fills with screams.
Orion leaps from the bed, glad for his paranoia that made him sleep with all of his supplies strapped to his body. It takes one stride for Orion to scoop Eden out of her bed and other for him to pick up the little quantum case holding all of her belongings, which he pockets even as she struggles in his hold.
"What - let me go -"
The building rocks again. Orion holds Eden close to his chest and tries to input a directive into the jumper - but then there is another bomb, another flash of red that will leave a starburst scar of a crater in the ground, and Orion knows it's the fucking red mercury interfering with the jumper. He doesn't understand the mechanics of it even after Matthis explained, but something about the red mercury bombs interferes with the battery of the jumper. All it really means is that Orion has to get Eden the fuck out of this building and far enough away from the bombs to be able to jump them to someplace safer.
Eden, by this time, has gone still, her eyes trained on the window where only flashes of red color the darkness of the night. Orion has no trouble at all physically dragging her out of the room, his hand clamped above her elbow, keeping her tucked close to his side but just slightly behind his body.
The power in the building isn't working. Orion bets it's the same for the rest of the area. His heart hammering with adrenaline - with the flashbacks of Xiania in the aftermath - Orion hastily guides them down to the first floor and out of the hotel.
"Wait!" Eden protests, trying to halt his progress. "Shouldn't we -"
"No," Orion says sharply. He knows what she wants to do - she wants to save the Lekkitu, if not all the people, then at least one life, maybe even the life of the cadet that would leave such a mark on Orion's memory. But he can't allow that to happen. They can't linger here. They need to move, they need to get out and get gone.
Eden sends him a sharp look, but firms her jaw and doesn't say anything. Just for a second, he thinks he sees a tinge of red aggression in her cool grey eyes, but he writes it off as a reflection of the red mercury bringing this city to its knees.
Outside, the scent of smoke and ozone is acrid in his nose. There are dead in the streets, many already buried in the rubble. Orion does not spare them more than a glance, his eyes peeled for danger. Between the red bombs going off in this distance, there is only silence.
It doesn't occur to Orion that the silence is strange. But it should. On the day of his planet's demise, the skies were loud with the jets that dropped loads of red mercury onto his home. Here, there is no sound in the sky except for booms and the screams of the people.
He notices this too late.
Eden doesn't.
"Grenades," she says abruptly, pulling Orion to a halt. "Orion, there must be soldiers -"
As if on cue, the high-pitched whir of a laser gun discharging streaks through the night, the beam of blue coming right for them. In the space of a second, a swell of dense energy slams forward from Eden, an instinctual shield against laser fire. But that's all it is - instinct, something there and gone in an instant, and only halfway effective. The laser fire slows, but it doesn't bounce off Eden's psychic energy - maybe it would have if she were trained, if she had done it on purpose - but it doesn't -
The laser passes through and Eden gasps and Orion has a split second of awareness to unlatch his own weapon from the holster on his thigh, raising an unflinching hand against the three Alliance soldiers shooting at them from across the street. His aim is as deadly as ever, a quick beam-beam-beam that eliminates his enemy with seamless grace. They slump on top of each other, and from their bodies roll small greyish balls marked with a red M - the red mercury grenades Eden deduced the existence of only moments before.
Orion doesn't pause. He strengthens his grasp on Eden's arm and hauls her along, keeping her body closest to the building while he aims his gun steady with one hand, each one of his senses honed on any signs of danger. Unlike other times in the field when he only had himself to protect, Orion allows his marks to flicker and glow blue-silver, drawing on as much of his Xianian core as he can to shield them. Unlike Eden, his shield is sturdy and unyielding, a dome close around them that insulates them from death in the air.
He should have had this up earlier. But he wasn't thinking - he wasn't truly present, half his mind caught in a damn nightmare from his memory. He has to actively remind himself that this isn't Xiania. His planet in this time must already be gone. Kkitu and Xiania were destroyed only weeks apart.
It doesn't take him long at all to drag them through dark side streets and into the outskirts of the city. This far out, the screams of the Lekkitu people are weaker. Or maybe there are simply fewer left alive to scream and wail their grief. Orion doesn't care. He holsters his gun and taps at the jumper, tugging Eden into his chest right as the white shimmer whisks them into the safety of a paradox pocket.
There, after his feet materialize in the dense black, he releases a tense breath and releases Eden. Only, Eden stumbles back from him and loses her balance, landing on the ground with pale skin and wide grey eyes so dark they're almost black. Her hand is pressed to her side and, as she wears white, there is nothing to hide the gush of purple blood spilling beneath the span of her spindly fingers.
Orion falls to his knees at her side, already ripping at his coat to press the fabric into the snowy skin above her hip. "You've been shot."
Eden presses down on her wound, her hand dwarfed by the size of his own. Her breaths are a little tight. "It's just a flesh wound. In and out. The laser - "
"This is a three-inch shot," Orion emphasizes. He can't believe that she's trying to minimize her pain. Orion has been shot with a laser before. It's like being boiled from the inside in a single, isolated spot. It's not pleasant at all.
Eden takes a deep breath, a furrow between her brows. "Yes, but it isn't bleeding that much."
Orion's hands are stained purple, tacky with Giidas blood, so he elects to ignore that obvious lie. "You need a medic. I can get us to one, so -"
"One who won't ask questions?" she asks pointedly.
Orion tenses his jaw. It's not an unreasonable point. There are medics across every galaxy in the past three thousand years who are familiar with laser wounds, but the chances of finding one who would blithely ignore the ethics of medicine to report patients with those wounds to the proper authorities - Even in Eden's time, the chances of finding a physician like that is rare.
"A medic droid," he amends.
"I can fix it myself," Eden tells him, stubbornly. "I have a degree in -"
"Can you regenerate flesh?" he cuts her off. "Because this large of a wound needs substantial regeneration. A medic droid can do that."
Eden falls silent and stares at him flatly, a pinch around her eyes that belies her discomfort. Orion lifts a brow and her eyes fall to the jumper on his arm.
"Fine," she says with a sigh, closing her eyes, her shoulders slumping. "Take me to a medic."
Orion complies immediately, tapping in coordinates he's confident will be safe for them for the moment and then curling around her back, crouched behind her to support her weight without ever letting pressure up on her wound.
He ignores that deep Xianian instinct, the one that relishes in every brush of her energy, that tells him he's exactly where he needs to be.
A/N: Our protagonists have found themselves almost in the epicenter again, although this one was an accident! My botched up time travel mechanics are at work here - I have Frankensteined a theory that makes absolutely no theoretical sense, but at least it should be fun to read. The action will probably be picking up from here. Do you think Eden and Orion have a better understanding of each other from here?
As always, be honest. I can take it.
~Rae