I didn't want to think about the lifeless faces behind the GIA masks, but Scarlett putting up the face of the woman that I unmasked didn't leave me much choice.
I had to shove down my growing unease as I scooted closer to Kal on the gravity couch. His head tipped ever so slightly towards me, as if sensing my unease. Our thighs pressed together, and I couldn't help the urge to hide my face in his shoulder to block out the sight in front of us.
I didn't, but Maker it was tempting.
Instead, I tried to focus on the conversation between my squadmates.
"I am not well versed with human maladies," Kal says quietly. "But I assume this is not some common condition."
"No," Ty says, sounding as close to shaky as I've ever heard him. "You're telling me this woman was one of the GIA agents? She was walking and talking?"
"She was fighting against Kal when Scar and I got there." I spoke up, glancing at my friend who nodded in agreement.
"Tyler, I...I know her." Auri whispered, causing me to look over at her in surprise.
Ty looks at her, his scarred eyebrow raised. "You met her on Sempiternity?"
She frowns and shakes her head. "I used to know her. Before I ever got on the Hadfield."
Those words that I heard after touching that woman echoed in my head again, a shiver going down my spine.
"That's impossible," Scarlett says. "That would make her over two centuries old. Your cryo survival was a freak accident, Auri. Are you saying the same thing happened to her, on some other ship that never made headlines?"
"Either that, or she really must moisturize," Fin offers, but nobody laughs.
"I know," Auri whispers. "But this is Patrice Radke. She was a settler on Octavia III, the head of Exploration and Cartography. She would've been my boss, "Auri whispered. "I was going to do a practical apprenticeship in Exploration and Cartography under her. She and my dad...they..."
"I don't think that she's been herself for a long time, Auri." I say softly, drawing my squad's attention.
Tyler raises that scarred eyebrow at me, his gaze meeting mine.
"When I went to take the mask off of her, I must have touched her skin... I could feel something malicious and... It spoke to me."
"What the hells is that supposed to mean?" Cat demanded, nearly baring her teeth at me.
"It told me to join them... to become one with them. I don't know who they are but there were so many voices just echoing in my head." I try to explain, though my squadmates' frowns only got worse.
I could feel my shoulders trembling as I looked down at my hands. There was something so dark about the voice, the feeling of some impending doom.
Zila looked up from where she had been researching on her Uni, her gaze directed at Auri.
"Officially, there was no colony on Octavia III," Zila says. "Records indicate that you were bound for Lei Gong."
"Well, the records are wrong," Auri replied.
Zila tilts her head, studying our stow away in that way of hers. "And this Patrice was one of the original settlers for your expedition, some two hundred and twenty years ago."
"This sounds like I'm crazy," Auri says. "But I know I'm right."
And a part of me knows that she is too. I looked at my squad, seeing the varying amounts of disbelief on their faces.
