The Eight of Earth

14: Leo Abernathy- *Blind Love*

Patawa is seated at her workstation, a dataplate stretches in a ring around her. She swivels to face me and stands up, peeking her eyes over the top of the dataplate.

"Leo! There he is!" A wide smile stretches across her fragile Heplin face, and she waves excitedly. "We were starting to get worried."

"I'm fine."

Bryl stands over a long table with weapons scattered across it. He holds a railcannon, polishing the inside of its chamber. He turns toward me, raising his gun in acknowledgment.

"Hey, boss." He double-takes when he notices how awful I look. "The hell happened to you?"

"Long story..."

He doesn't pry. Never does.

Spri sits in the middle of the room on a square couch sunk into the floor. The fins along his head squirming as he concentrates. A hologram projects up in the middle, Spri examining it diligently. He barely notices me.

"Spri..." I pat him on the shoulder as I walk by.

"Not now." He flails his arm behind him, shooing away whoever he thinks is talking to him. I'm not sure he's blinked in hours.

My room is in the back corner of the first floor of our living space. Walls covered top to bottom with copied pieces of my father's journal. Notes on Redemption discoveries. Genetic formula theories. Artificial womb schematics. The inner workings of my compulsive brain spewed onto the walls like graffiti. Thankfully, few are allowed in here, so I can keep the extent of my obsessive savior complex a secret.

I melt into my chair.

Glass windows encase our three-story penthouse from floor to ceiling. We have the best view in the city. Above the bright lights and commotion of the busy streets. Nothing, but beautiful sky and the crests of other skyscrapers that make it above the vapor line. From this high up, I can vaguely make out the Valley, and Berban falls, Groga Ivolo and Groga Oilsterr, a sliver of the Rift, and the snowy edges of northern Su Hoz. We are literally on top of the world. Sometimes I'll open the hangar doors on the third floor and just stand on the landing pad, soaking in how mesmerizing Valenia can be. That is until I get dizzy from how thin the air is and come back inside.

I still can't stop thinking about the Vault. About the mysteries that lay inside. The possibilities excite me beyond containment. The crew won't believe it!

I begin to walk out to the main room, but something stops me. I don't know why, but for some reason, I don't want to tell them. I trust these three with my life. Have multiple times. Yet, a voice from within urges me to have patience. To wait. I can't reason why, but the voice grows stronger, and I begin to agree with it. I put it off for now and move on to other business.

Spri is still engrossed with the hologram map as I approach.

"Spri!" I nudge him firmer this time to wake him from his trance. He flinches and seems bothered.

"What is it?!" He turns around, annoyed. He sees me and gets slightly embarrassed, his eyes instantly avoiding mine. "Oh... Hello Leo. Didn't see you come in." He's a neurotic sort. Hyperactive and buggy, but brilliant. A tech savant with an eidetic memory stored with every historical archive we could need, and an expert geographer. The one area he lacks, social skills.

"I need you to take a look at my comm. It's fried. Can you salvage it? Or should I use my older back up in storage?" I hand it to him, and he immediately starts disassembling it. I wait for an answer but never get one. "I'll come back later."

Next, I head over to Patawa's workstation.

"Leo! Hey!" She hops off her chair and ducks under the dataplate to greet me, squeezing me into a tight hug. She's always enjoyed human gestures more than her own. I groan in pain. She recoils immediately. "What's wrong?"