Sorry this took so long. I've been swamped lately with exams and work. Updates should be more frequent from this point forward. This one's just a little longer than previous chapters, partly because I felt bad about the delay and party because I just couldn't think of a good way to end it faster.
Chapter 8: The Calm
“And that's the last I saw of him.”
“I am... sorry, Roderick.”
“It's not your fault. I shouldn't have kept it from you,” Roderick says, finally picking his head up.
“Speaking of keeping things,” Remi says, attempting to move the conversation in a lighter direction, “I have something for you.”
“What's this?” Roderick asks, taking the small microchip Remi offers him.
“It is a line shield,” Remi answers.
“Another one? I'll pay you guys back.”
“No need,” Remi reassures Roderick, “this one is complimentary.”
Roderick removes the chip from the nanotransformer on his wrist and inserts the one given to him. There's no visual change, however, and he blushes in embarrassment, muttering “I don't get it,” to himself under his breath.
“Keep it. Perhaps it will begin working later. Just remember that you are unshielded,” Remi warns.
“I'll be careful, I promise.”
“Yes, please do. While we are on the topic of caution, I understand you have met Eliza's brother.”
“If you can call him that,” Roderick says bitterly.
“They share blood and little else,” Remi explains. “Regardless, among the Guardians he is one of the elite. He has a very short temper and a strong contempt for all other races. You would be wise not to provoke him.”
“If he has something to say to me, he can come find me,” Roderick shrugs. “The way he treated Eli wasn't right, and I'm not going to pretend it was.”
“Roderick, if not for your sake...” Remi pauses, “do it for ours.”
Apparently she pressed the right button. Roderick bows his head in defeat before saying, “I'll do my best.”
“Sorry, am I interrupting a personal moment?” asks a voice from behind them. Roderick and Remi turn to see Eli leaning against the frame of the door, looking haggard but putting on a weak smile anyway.
“Eli? Are you all right?” Roderick asks, “you don't look so good.”
“I'll be fine.”
“Replacing a large number of photons at once is hard on the body,” Remi explains, “it takes time and energy for the body to assimilate the new photons. Stimulating rapid tissue regeneration only adds to the strain.”
“I'll be good by tomorrow,” Eli insists. “Some sleep is all I need.”
“If you say so,” Roderick says. He then kneels down with his back to Eli.
“What are you doing?”
“You're not leaning on the wall because you're lazy,” Roderick answers.
“Roderick, she can wa-”
“How thoughtful of you, pup,” Eli interrupts, shooting a death stare Remi's way and shaking her head vigorously. Remi sighs while Eli moves forward and collapses on top of Roderick, who nearly faceplants when the force of Eli's fall throws him off balance.
After managing to get her arms to dangle over his torso, Roderick adjusts his posture so Eli's head will rest on his shoulder. Once he's satisfied the now snoring Eli won't slide off his back, he turns to Remi to ask, “can you show me how to get her home?”
“Yes, this way,” Remi says, gesturing down the end of the corridor.
==========
Together, they make their way through the Colony. The streets are crowded by people from every race heading home from a hard day's work. Roderick occasionally looks down through the transparent floors to see that it's much of the same on every floor. Buildings reach from well below him to far above him, covered in vibrant store fronts, advertisements and neon lights at every level, which helps to break up the dull slate gray that would otherwise dominate the view. Eli snores quietly while they make their way to the central table.
“So... how did you two come to be partners?” Roderick asks, finally breaking the silence between them.
“Originally, we were paired together for our compatible combat styles. We compliment each other well, so we have been partners since graduation.”
“Have you guys trained a lot of Guardians?”
“Prior to you... just one,” Remi's voice trails off.
“Oh. What kind of person were they?”
“He was... nothing like you.”
Roderick laughs, “I'll take that as a compliment.”
“As you should,” Remi confirms. She stops abruptly at a door to type in a passcode before saying, “we are here.”
As the door retracts, Roderick is somewhat taken aback by the size of their living space. On one side, a modest kitchen and bar, complete with matching stools. Across the room lie two beds, pushed up against the edge of a counter-top that runs underneath a large glass window offering a view of the emptiness outside the Colony. The interior color scheme isn't what he expected either, surprised by the warm white and green walls and trimmings. Dotting the walls and counter-top are pictures of Remi and Eli. Beyond that area is a door that Roderick assumes leads to some sort of closet.
Roderick walks quietly across to the bedroom area of the space. Deciding which bed to set Eli down on isn't difficult; The shelves above hers are overloaded with plushies and stuffed animals of all kinds. After pulling her comforter and sheets back, he lays her down on the mattress as gently as he can before covering her back up.
“Roderick, your coat.”
“Not worth waking her up for it,” Roderick shrugs, heading back towards the door, “I have plenty of them, it's no big deal.”
“That is not what I meant,” Remi says, fishing around to extract a small black picture frame from inside the coat. Amazingly, she manages to get it without waking up Eli, who begins to snore even louder.
“Ah...”
“We found it in the laboratory. It must be of some importance for you to carry it with you.”
“It is,” Roderick says, taking the frame from Remi and looking at it intently for a few moments, “thank you.”
“We are off duty tomorrow,” Remi adds, “you are free to do as you wish.”
“Good night, Remi,” Roderick says, before the door slides shut behind him.
==========
“Eh? Hold on, I'm coming!”
Roderick scrambles to pull himself out of bed to meet whoever is ringing his doorbell like it's going out of style. When he finally reaches the door and opens it, he stares blankly for a few seconds while his brain attempts to catch up.
“Took you long enough.”
“Uh... Eli?” Roderick mumbles, still trying to figure out what's happening, “what are you doing here?”
“We're starting your workout,” Eli says, sounding almost confused, “did you forget you asked me for help in Tarcus?”
“Well, no...”
“You're good, pup, but you've got some work to do before you can back up that big mouth of yours.”
“Er, all right, hang on,” Roderick says, rubbing the last of the sleep out of his eyes, “let me get dressed.”
“Hey,” Eli calls after him. Roderick turns just in time to be blinded by the coat Eli throws at him, “you forgot this yesterday.”
“Thanks,” Roderick says, peeling the coat off his face. As he does, he notices the bandage still wrapped around his hand. No longer feeling the dull throbbing, he makes a mental note to remove the wrap while he gets dressed.
“So, where's Remi?” he shouts from his room.
“She does her maintenance on our off days. Why? Got robot on the brain?”
“Er, no,” Roderick continues to shout, “it's just, you guys seem really close. I never see one of you without the other.”
“We are close, that's how I know when to give her some space,” Eli says. She then continues to holler, “That reminds me. Bring a bathing suit with you. We're gonna cool off at the Paracabana Coast! If you're lucky, Remi'll show up.”
==========
“Well, she never was a fan of the beach...” Eli says to herself.
“Couldn't we have... worked out... on Colony?” Roderick gasps, catching up to Eli and doubling over. “It's so... hot...”
“Parum's gravitational pull is the strongest out of the three planets. The Colony's simulated gravity is an average between them. You get the most bang for your buck down here.”
“Oh...” Roderick says, sucking in some more wind before standing himself back up.
“Welp, might as well get changed and enjoy the rest of our day off. I think you could use a bit of a tan,” Eli teases, poking Roderick in the shoulder. “Meet me back here in like, five minutes.”
Five minutes later, Roderick and Eli reunite, more aptly dressed for a day at the beach. Roderick sports a pair of black and green boarder shorts and a bright red face, unable to keep himself from blushing while standing beside Eli, whose shorts are a similar style to his, but white and yellow, and whose yellow bikini top leaves little to the imagination. Both garner plenty of stares from other beach-goers for their well-toned bodies as they make their way to a vacant patch of sand to set up camp.
“So... what do we do now?” Roderick asks.
“We get tanned,” Eli says, unfurling her tower and setting it down, “and we gossip.”
“Er, gossip?” Roderick panics, “gossip about what?”
“You,” Eli says slyly.
“Me? There's nothing to say-”
Thankfully, Roderick gets some much needed help by way of several angry shouts coming from behind him. Eli looks past Roderick over his shoulder and shouts, “Noble!”
Roderick turns to see a huge Cast barreling towards him and Eli, and manages to snap back around in time to avoid being sprayed in the face with all the sand the Cast kicks up as he comes to a stop.
“Greetings, fleshbags,” the Cast says cheerfully, in a higher pitch than Roderick was expecting, given his size.
“Who are you calling fleshbags, nutsack?” Eli laughs, “what are you doing here?”
“Hardware upgrade. I was taking the shortcut back to Holtes when I spotted you. Where's this new recruit everyone's talking about?”
“You just about buried him,” Eli says, pointing to Roderick, peeking out from the mountain of sand Noble displaced.
“Woops,” Noble says sheepishly, grabbing Roderick's free arm and pulling him up out of the new sand dune, “sorry about that. I'm Noble.”
“No problem,” Roderick says, brushing himself off before shaking Noble's outstretched hand and looking him over. He stands half a head taller than Roderick, and although the black and white miyabi-kata he's wearing is fit loosely, Roderick can tell he's built like a brick house underneath. “I'm Roderick.”
“So this is the kid Ben was freaking out over, huh?” Noble says to himself, taking a step back to size Roderick up. From where they now stand, Roderick gets a better view of Noble's face, noting the soft features by Cast standards. Indeed, the only things that reaffirm Noble is indeed a cast outside of the cold blue skin tone are the large black triangles occupying the spaces where his ears ought to be. They remind Roderick of Remi's.
“Well,” Noble says, snapping Roderick out of his own little world, “anyone who gets on the wrong side of Ben is on the right side of me.”
“Come on, that's my brother,” Eli sighs.
“Not if you ask him. You should tell him to take some anger management classes. I heard he caused a lot of trouble on his mission yesterday.”
“Pfft, you do it. At least you're repairable.”
“That assumes there's enough of me left to rebuild,” Noble chuckles, running a hand through his short blonde hair.
“Yeah well, enough about him. What kind of trouble can the three of us get into?” Eli asks.
“Why are you looking for trouble?”
Eli, Noble, and Roderick all spin around at the sound of Remi's voice. Eli exclaims, “Remi!”, Noble waves enthusiastically, and Roderick is praying that the sensation of his jaw hitting the sand was an imaginary one. Remi stands before them clad not in metal parts, but in a simple red bikini, her hair tied in one long braid reaching down to the small of her back.
While Roderick powercycles his brain, Eli greets her friend, “I didn't think you were coming!”
“Maintenance took longer than I expected,” Remi says, before donning a skeptical look, “what is this talk of finding trouble about?”
“Nothing!” Eli says with a mischievous grin, “now that you're here we have even teams for...” she pauses for dramatic effect, “beach volleyball!” She then produces a volleyball from her nanotransformer and starts off towards a nearby vacant court. With nothing else to do, the others follow.
“How are we going to decide the teams?” Roderick asks.
“We should pair off with the Casts to keep it fair.”
“Who gets to pick then?”
“Remi and Noble can play rock paper scissors to decide it,” Eli answers.
Noble shrugs, “fine by me.” Remi nods in agreement, and so they move together to decide the fates of their fleshy companions.
After five stalemates, Remi finally pulls out a win with paper. After a moment of careful consideration, she announces her decision, “I choose Roderick.”
“Huh?”
“Fine, be that way,” Eli says in a mocking tone. She walks over to meet Noble with a high five.
“Why'd you pick me?” Roderick asks as he approaches Remi.
“I play to win. You are the only left hand-dominant person here. Together we can serve to the outside of the court,” Remi explains as they arrive on their side of the net.
“Since you picked your teammate, we get first serve!” Eli calls from her side of the net. All four of them take their positions, and Noble lines up to serve to Roderick. Standing several feet back from the base line, he tosses the volleyball high into the air and then runs after it. He launches himself into the air as the ball reaches the apex of its arc and fires a missile over the net with a thunderous smack towards Roderick, who is barely able to get his arms in front of him fast enough to receive the serve. Keeping the ball in play is about all Roderick can manage; the force of the impact actually staggers him. Remi crosses the court to reach the net, where she jumps and spikes the ball cross-court with just as much heat as Noble's serve. Eli dives in an attempt to keep the rally going, but comes up short.
“Excellent work, Roderick,” Remi says as everybody resets. She also holds up her hand, and it takes Roderick a moment to realize she's holding it there for a high-five. Not wanting to leave her hanging, he nervously slaps his palm against hers before setting up for a serve.
After many long lasting rallies and blistering serves, Roderick and Remi have a chance to put the game away. Roderick gets the rally started by firing the ball over the net with a jump serve of his own. Eli bumps the ball high towards the net for Noble to smash back towards Roderick, who fights to keep the ball in play. Remi moves towards the net, volleying the ball straight up and sky high. She then gets down on one knee and clasps her hands together. Roderick runs forward, stepping on Remi's hands so she can throw him high into the air. From this height, he's able to spike the ball almost straight down, and so he does. He crushes the volleyball with such authority and at such a steep angle that Noble is unable to move in time to avoid being hit right in the head, where the ball impales itself on the black antenna protruding from his forehead.
“78-76. We win,” Remi states matter-of-factly. She and Roderick share another high five as they walk around the net.
“There has to be a rule against that,” Eli sighs.
“Nope. They beat us good,” Noble says, peeling the deflated volleyball off his head and looking at it dejectedly, “I'm not paying for the ball though.”
“Ah, I'll cover that,” Roderick says sheepishly. After a moment spent looking at each other, everyone bursts into laughter. Even Remi chuckles.
“Today was a good day,” Eli says, looking out over the water where the sun is slowly setting.
“Yeah, I haven't had that much fun in a while,” Noble agrees, “you guys should send me a mail next time you're doing something. Ben's not really the type of partner who likes to hang out.”
“You are always welcome with us,” Remi assures him. “We should head back to the Colony. We have already been assigned a mission for tomorrow, and Eli still requires rest.”
As the group sets off, Roderick remains, fixated on the sun as it sinks below the horizon. Eli calls out to him, “pup? Something wrong?” which appears to snap him out of his daze, as he gives his head a shake and runs to catch up.
“Nah, nothing's wrong.”
Connect With Us