Bird of a Cage [BoW 4]

Chapter 14

Metallic bangs and annoyed muttering work Taidra up, the hug ache of his shoulders and the pain where the edge of the desk bitting into his chest stopped him from snapping upright. Paper scuffled as he sat up, rubbing the back of his neck as everything hummed in protest at the movement. Screens flickered in front of them, showing various areas of the base. It didn't cover as much as the base as he liked, but materials were limited.

He stretched, letting his bones pop back into place and revelling in the burn for a moment. His hair fell next to his face, freed from the ribbon he'd tied it up in. He'd taken a leaf from Wiljam's book and let his hair grow out. He preferred it to needing to get it cut regularly. Feno had ... The paper had a crease on it now. He grimaced, flattening it out to try to save it. Maybe if he left it under one of the heavy books? Yuin would care, but he did.

"Taidra! I will go find Innofe!"

It was a decent threat with that silly rule about not being allowed to work without sleeping in a bed for eight hours. Innofe enforced the rule on Taidra despite him not being a scientist or engineer. Taidra yawned again, rolling his shoulder and flicked the lock of the door. The office wasn't so much an office as it was a cupboard that Taidra had commandeered to wire a console.

The door slid open behind him with a painful grating sound, and Oira squeezed into the tight space before shutting it again.

"Yuin will take the door off if you keep doing this. You have a perfectly good bed," Oira said, placing a mug of heaven onto a clear part of the desk.

Taidra grunted, sweeping it up. He took a deep sip of the hot bitterness, and letting it charge through him. No sugar, no milk, nothing to ruin the taste nor the potential running through it. Taidra sunk deeper into the chair, swirling it to the side ever so slightly to let Orin rest against the desktop. Sek, one of the scientists, was being herded back to the residential section by the base commander with a look of displeasure. Yuin checked the labs every morning to ensure no one had tried to work overnight without notifying him first.

"Wasn't planning to, got caught up with Brett's proposals."

"Since when has that ever worked with the boss?" Oira's eyes darted over the papers with the slow check of someone not interested but bored. Oira's latest project had proved a dead-end, and the scientist needed to find a way to either salvage his materials, or re-purpose the thing to something more valuable than changing the hair colour of anyone the beam hit.

Taidra shrugged, pulling a page out for Oira to read. It was schematics for an updated version for his leg brace. Wiljam's fingerprints were all over the thing, and Taidra didn't have the bandwidth to consider the implications right now.

"Your pain's getting worse?"

"Only if I try to stand or walk," Taidra watched the screens rather than Oira. Sek tried to dodge Yuin as Yuin located yet another person working when they should be. Railin this time, the man complained loudly to the Commander, who grabbed Sek again before he could get far. A flare of something more physiological than actual shot up his back and spread over his shoulder. He gripped the shoulder and willed it away.

Oira's rested his hand on top of his and squeezed tighter for a moment. Taidra leaned his head against it.