The Light - 2nd Novel in the Shadow Series

Chapter 3 .

Vai

I logged off the ansible to a metal finger tapping my shoulder. I was still on my bed - still had my okulus over my head.

My father spied on me again. It seemed to happen about once a week - usually in the evening. If he had checked earlier, he would have seen me on a restricted level sparring with the mystery girl security was after. We really needed to come up with a better system.

We could mock spar in the ansible, but it really wasn't the same, especially because the light couldn't be emulated in the ansible. The light was really what we were practicing to control - to discover.

I finally took off the okulus, mainly because Warpaint poked my shoulder with his metal finger in the exact same spot over and over and it was beginning to hurt. He stopped when I took off the okulus. I reshaped it to fit around my wrist. My volo hovered around my head.

My fingers lingered on my okulus. I had planned to call Shel immediately to try to talk him out of speaking with his mom. My father couldn't find out about any of this and I thought his mom would tell my father. I couldn't call and tell him all that with my father spying on me. Warpaint hadn't yet given me the signal that my father had stopped.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

"Are you hungry, sir?" Warpaint asked.

It was 19:34 Gathering standard time and I hadn't eaten since lunch. And I had just used a lot of energy in sparring with Esther and Owen. Luckily Warpaint didn't vocalize that part. I had convinced him that the sparring would help me protect myself if for some reason he wasn't able to. Warpaint couldn't fathom a circumstance where he couldn't guard me, but I had also convinced him if Owen died I would die of heartache. Warpaint didn't understand how that could happen either, but I had convinced him it was possible with my fine acting.

"Famished," I said.

"Is there something in particular you want from the food terminal? Mashed potatoes and steak maybe? Teriyaki chicken? Burritos?"

I tried not to roll my eyes. "It all has the aftertaste of algae anyway. It doesn't matter."

"But the initial taste is what the food is supposed to be," Warpaint offered helpfully.

He patted my shoulder. The signal my father stopped spying on me.

"Teriyaki chicken I guess," I said.

"That's a tasty choice, sir," Warpaint said. He moved towards the food terminal.

"You can't eat or taste," I said. "How do you know it's tasty?"

"Your father said, sir."

Of course he did. My okulus chirped. "Wait, Warpaint, my father is calling."

It was highly doubtful he was calling to take me out to dinner since we had only been once since I had woken up from my almost 80 years sleep, but that once wasn't that long ago. I was hopeful for real food.

Warpaint stopped where he was. I answered the call.

My father's image was projected through my volo. He was still in his lab. Not surprising. He always worked late.

"Hello, father," I said. There was a time I called him dad, but that was before my sixteenth birthday, before he stole my life away.

"Hello, son." He didn't seem to realize I called him father out of anger now. He never did. "I can take a little break from work. Want to meet me at the Starrise for dinner?"