Shaping Faith: Chapter 15, Part 1

Once again, Verona was surprised by how quickly the Absolutes moved. That night was the last night she slept in that dorm, which over the past few weeks had had an influx of new people, so nearly all the beds were full.

The next day, Verona signed out at the exit where, nearly a month ago, she had landed outside with Lani, dazed and in shock. She carried nothing with her besides the clothes on her back and the timepiece on her wrist - she had no personal items, and she was getting promoted anyway, so her even clothing was out of date.

At least I have Kyle and Merea with me, she thought, glancing back at them as they were scanned by the security probe. Kyle had also accepted the offer to be an assassin, and Merea would be a technician at the base where they would be trained. They would be separated from most of the others, though. Some of them, like Merea and Kyle, were being promoted early, but going to another base. Others were still rookies, and were going to a different base.

Kyle carried a small backpack slung over his shoulder. Verona had seen it by his bed before, but she had no idea what was inside. She assumed it just held personal effects, though she had never seen him looking at them.

Nyra was there to guide them with her Room, though Verona was sure that was just because she needed to head back to the base too. A moment later, the door hissed open, and the small group stepped outside, just out of range of the Blocking field.

Verona’s heart pounded as she felt her connection with Analia blossom into full being again. It was like one of her limbs had been numb and only just regained feeling. Thoughts and emotions flooded over her - Analia had been growing sloppy while the wall was up, letting her emotions spill every which way. A bitter mixture of stress, fatigue, and sadness washed over Verona and dampened her mood.

As quickly as the emotions had come, they receded, penned back inside Analia’s mind. Verona’s stomach twisted with worry. The stress and fatigue she had felt in that brief moment was alarming. Analia must have realized the connection was open again and restrained her emotions. All Verona wanted to do was find out what on earth was wrong, but the fact that Analia hadn’t said anything to her yet didn’t bode well. And could Verona blame her, after their last meeting?

Nyra’s irritated voice interrupted Verona’s thoughts. “Are you coming or not?” she demanded. “Drop your barriers so I can pull you in.”

Verona swallowed. Would the new base have a Blocking field? She made a snap decision and sent one message to Analia. /I love you. And I miss you. Please talk to me./

Then she dropped her mental barriers and allowed Nyra to pull her into her Room of a Thousand Worlds. The world dissolved around her and reformed to show a Room with many more globes than Verona’s, displayed on mahogany shelves. The floor was carpeted with an intricate pattern of leaves and vines in a deep green and red, and the ceiling supported a magnificent chandelier.

“Wow, you’ve been to a lot of places,” Merea said, craning her neck to see all of the globes. “That’s got to be at least half of the Hundred Worlds.”

“I’ve traveled, yes,” said Nyra, busy summoning the globe where strike teams’ base was. “You tend to build up travel time in this line of work.”

“You’ve customized it, too” Kyle pointed out.

“Yes, I’ve always liked the style,” murmured Nyra, ignoring the implied question. “It took a while to shape.” A well-mapped globe floated in front of her, and she was turning it and zooming in to find the right spot. Kyle watched Nyra closely, probably hoping to try and figure out what planet the base was on.

Even the prospect of customizing Rooms of a Thousand Worlds failed to fully engage Verona. She was hardly paying attention to what the others were doing, waiting and half-hoping for a response from Analia.

She felt nothing - no response and hardly any detectable change in mood. Maybe she’s asleep, Verona tried to convince herself. We are on completely different planets - who knows what time it is there.

She knew she was lying to herself - if her own sleep schedules were anything to go by, the base’s artificial day/night rotations were only a few hours off of her old timezone on Rithane. But she’d rather believe the lie than admit that Analia probably wanted nothing to do with her.

Then Nyra found the right place, and the group was whisked away. Verona had only done this once before, and it had felt the same then - like Verona’s insides were collapsing down to a tiny point, then expanding again.

A second later, Verona felt her feet hit the ground, and she pulled herself out of Nyra’s Room, staggering slightly. She tried to catch her balance, but her weight felt all wrong, like she was suddenly fifty pounds lighter. She wound up putting her foot down too hard, and had to stumble another couple of steps before she steadied herself and realized what was wrong.

“It’s the gravity!” she said, surprised, straightening up and looking around. They were inside a dome several yards across. It was made entirely of some hard, clear substance. Outside, there a dusty, pitted landscape as far as the eye could see and a sky populated with stars, more than Verona had ever seen at once before. It was breathtaking.

“We’re on the moon!” Verona heard Merea gasp.

“Don’t be silly,” Kyle scoffed. “It’s just a random planet.”

Truth be told, that had been Verona’s reaction too, but she had quickly realized it was just a little-known planet with no life or atmosphere. Judging by the gravity, it was small too. No wonder no one had tried terraforming it.

A corner of Nyra’s mouth twitched upwards. “Yes, the gravity here is only about half a gee. Don’t worry, inside it’s normal.”

A bulkhead hissed open behind Kyle. “We’re in,” said Nyra. They followed her, taking long, bouncy steps until they passed the bulkhead, at which point gravity normalized.

They walked for several minutes without passing anyone. While that had been normal back at the main base, Verona’s timepiece had downloaded the map for this one when they arrived, and upon purusing it realized that this base was much smaller.

“Where is everyone?” Verona asked.

Nyra shot her a look. “You’re reinforcements, remember?”

Verona swallowed. Dead, then.Or in the infirmary back home.

“We’ve still got a few teams.” Nyra assured her. “They’re probably busy. I’ll show you to your rooms and give you an idea of how we work here.”

“Wait, so you’re staying?” asked Verona.

“Yes, of course,” Nyra said. “Didn’t you know? I’m the head of the strike teams.”