The Betwixt Book One (26 page)

I watched Jason motion his mother out of the room. I paid
careful attention to his face as he looked her way. When Doctor
Cole had her back to her son, I could see Jason's expression soften
– see the stiff angle of his jaw shift down, see the crinkles
around his eyes loosen. There it was again – the two faces of
Commander Jason Cole. It was obvious that, underneath, he still
loved his mother, regardless of how apparent his frustration with
her was.

He had a lot of levels, a rugged terrain to navigate – getting
to know Jason was hardly a walk in the park. But-

‘
So,’ he began, before he had even turned around, ‘I need to
ask you one more question.’

I sucked my bottom lip in so quick it made a watery pop. One
more question? Was this the bit where he would demand to know how
I'd gotten that gun back, or how I'd gotten on to his cruiser? Was
this the bit where he told me that once this was all over, once the
Rain Man had told him it was all a fantasy, that he'd be sending me
straight to the brig?

‘
You don't need to look like that,’ he said as he leaned
against the wall near the doors, arms crossed yet again. ‘I'm not
going to execute you.’

I tried for a cute, off-the-cuff laugh, but it wouldn't come
out. Instead, I smiled, and showed about as much tooth as a monkey
under attack.

‘
It's just one question,’ he moved off from the door and sat in
a seat opposite me, on the other side of the room.

‘
Oh, okay . . . what would you like to know?’ I
couldn't shift my distressed monkey-smile. It was obviously my
human side shining through – hearkening back to the days when a
good show of the pearly whites and a couple of gums was the
clearest indicator that someone thought they were about to get
ripped apart.

Jason looked at me then looked away, laughing quietly. ‘It's
honestly just a question, I'm not going to throw you out of the
airlock if you get it wrong. You can relax.’

Relax. Right . . . 

‘
Can you trust them?’ Jason's face changed, shifted back into
the serious Commander.

‘
Who?’ I clutched my hands tighter, but I already knew who he
meant.

‘
Your traveling companions. The Crag, the Kroplin, even my
mother – can you trust them?’

My team. My friends . . . if that's what they
were. One of the first things Od had told me was to be careful of
who I chose to trust. I guess that rule extended to the little
Kroplin too . . . 

Could I trust them? They hadn't given me any reason not to.
Crag'tal had helped us when he could have walked away, Od had
guided me when he could have sent me to assured peril, even the
Doctor had chosen to let us stay at her dig site when she could
have booted us out with a gang of angry post grads at her
side.

He was looking at my eyes – doing that thing were you pay such
close attention to the pupils, that you must constantly shift
between each. I watched his gaze dance to and fro, and tried to
think.

Could I trust them? Of . . . well, of course I
could trust them. They had helped me out this far, right? The only
reason I was alive was
because . . . .

‘
Mini, can you trust them?’ Jason repeated. ‘How long have you
known these people? Do you even know what you are doing with
them?’

Several weeks – that's all I'd known Od and Crag'tal for. And
as for the Doctor, barely a day. But did that matter? I may not be
bosom buddies with them, but did I need to know everything about
their personal histories to travel with them, to save the galaxy
with them . . . ?

‘
Some part you must realize this is . . . ‘ the
Commander paused as he obviously searched for the right word,
‘unusual. Kroplins aren't adventurous, they're a dispersed,
spiritual, quiet race. And Crags, well, they're usually just a
barrel of guns, fight, and fury. And even my mother, she doesn't
rally around causes, not unless she can see a research grant at the
end of them.’

I shrugged, but the move intended to show my casual reaction
to his statement was sullied by several quick blinks. I didn't want
him to see that his words were affecting me – that I could possibly
think for one moment that I couldn't trust my . . .
friends.

‘
I've been in the GAM a long time, I've been across the galaxy,
been to countless worlds, seen pretty much every race sophisticated
enough to hurl a titanium can through space at light speed. I
haven't ever seen anything like this.’

I shrugged again, but it died half way up my shoulders, just
leaving them to hang there, stiff and stuck like a computer frozen
in mid calculation. ‘That doesn't mean anything.
Sometimes . . . ‘ I took a calming breath,
‘sometimes we can't see everything that's there.’

He knew I was talking about the Twixts. He smiled wanly. ‘If
you can't see something, isn't that the only indication we have
that it isn't really there? Science, technology, this future – it
was built on observation, careful empirical observation and
experimentation. If you can't observe it, if you can't interact
with it – then it isn't there. Now, I'm not saying there wasn't a
creature down on that moon, or there wasn't some kind of anomaly in
the engineering bay. But does it make any sense to think it's some
long-lost entity that resides between dimensions, that feeds off
light, that is hell bent on destroying this galaxy—’

‘
No. Maybe it doesn't make sense,’ my voice was stronger, far
stronger. Because now I was talking about something, I was sure
about. Maybe I wasn’t one hundred percent certain I could trust
everyone, but they'd have time to prove that to me. But the
Twixts . . . I didn't need any more time, any more
fights, to know for certain they existed. I felt it, knew it, saw
it, with every part of me. The Commander could question me all day,
but I wasn't about to deny that. ‘But that doesn't matter. Not
everything in this universe is supposed to make sense. And
sometimes you just have to believe that things will work out.
You're right, I've only just met these guys – but I still trust
them,’ my voice was as certain and firm as it was going to get,
‘just as I know that the Twixts exist. And . . . and
just as I trust in you.’ I don't know why I added the last bit – it
just came out.

Jason looked surprised, confused, and something else. He sat
back, crossed his arms again, and looked for all the world like he
was gazing at some curious painting in a gallery. ‘You don't know
me – you hardly know anything about me.’

I shrugged; this time it really was easy, casual, indifferent.
‘That's okay. I hardly know anything about myself too.’

‘
You're a strange girl,’ Jason said as he stood up, tugging
firmly on his uniform top.

‘
These are strange times,’ the words came to my mind before I
could really think about them. That was one of the first things
he'd said to me, wasn't it? These are strange
times . . . 

Jason smiled – both sides of his mouth, both cheeks, both
eyes. ‘You remembered that. And, yes, these are strange times. But
I'll just have to wait and see if they are as strange as you'd have
me believe.’

He opened the door and started to leave.

‘
Hold on,’ I jumped to my feet, ‘what happens now?’

‘
I work,’ he didn't bother to turn, just let his voice filter
back into the room, ‘you wait.’

‘
For how long? I mean, is this going to take months, weeks,
days, hours—’

‘
Short answer is – I don't know. Depends where this Rain Man
is, and how long it will take to convince him that my request is
binding and very serious.’

‘
So . . . I just wait? But what do I do? There
must be something—’

‘
I can give you limited access to the core computer, limited.
It's not going to be anything like what the Rain Man has, but you
might be able to find something.’

He was half way out the door now.

‘
Jason – I mean Commander, just one more thing.’

He half turned.

‘
Why . . . why are you letting me
go?’

‘
These are strange times.’ With that, the doors closed behind
the Commander leaving me alone in the room.

Strange times . . . 

By the time I had been set up in my quarters, things had
quietened in my mind, at least a touch. Though things were still
new and raw – and I was having every problem settling in. Not only
had the Commander insisted on placing a guard outside my quarters,
but he'd also lumped me into a room with his mother. They couldn't
afford to waste space, the ensign who had directed me to my room
had said, nor guards.

I didn't mind so much for the company, though every now and
then Doctor Cole would get this far away look in her eyes as she'd
gaze at me. I would feel just like some sample under the
containment field – completely at the whim of the scientist peering
my way.

‘
Jason can be such a fool sometimes, ‘Doctor Cole said as she
shuffled a pile of datapads on the only desk in the small room,
‘but damn clever when he has to be – not that I'd ever say that to
his face, of course. Meeting with the Rain Man – if he actually
pulls it off, I'll . . . ‘ the Doctor's voice
trailed off as she became distracted by something on one of her
datapads.

I didn't reply, what was there to say? I didn't want to be
drawn into a fight between Doctor Cole and the Commander – I could
guarantee such a situation would be more fatal than meeting the
entire Twixt army head on. But the more I listened to Doctor Cole's
mumbles, the more I wondered. How had Jason grown up, why had he
become a GAM, why didn't he believe his mother?

‘
I don't know what he thinks he's going to achieve
with . . . ‘ the Doctor trailed off again, still
piling through her datapads, pulling them out and flicking through
them with such sharp concentration.

I just walked around the room, not that there was much to see.
There were two simple beds, a desk, and a small, round window that
looked out over one of the great port engine vents. I could see the
slight discharge ripple behind us as we ploughed through space at
speeds once thought impossible. And it was funny how things worked
like that – how concepts confined to our wildest imaginings could
one day become real.

Would the Twixts soon become as real to the galaxy as
hyperspeed?

‘
How do you know Jason, anyway?’ The Doctor's voice was a lot
stronger, a lot sharper – a lot less like a dreamy ramble at the
edge of her conversation.

‘
Oh,’ I turned from the window, ‘we met on the space station I
work . . . used to work at.’

‘
That's it?’ Doctor Cole was going to be relentless in her
questions, just like her son.

‘
He saved me from . . . an altercation. Made me
go to the Med Bay – that's the first time I met him.’

‘
Saving a damsel in distress,’ the Doctor snorted, ‘sounds like
Jason. Though, who am I kidding, saving anyone in distress sounds
like Jason. The boy is incorrigible.’

I frowned. That sounded like a strange thing to say for
someone who was obviously so smart. Was the Doctor really about to
admonish her son for being a hero? What kind of a mother wouldn't
want a son who swept around the galaxy saving people in
need?

‘
You should have seen him when he was a boy – he'd get into all
sorts of fights at school with the bullies. He'd see one of the
alien children, or one of the mixed breeds, being picked on – and
it would be fist cuffs at noon. I had to take him to the doctors so
often, put derma gel on his cuts and bruises.’ The Doctor had an
almost wistful look on her face. ‘It's no wonder he turned out the
way he did – traipsing around the galaxy putting his nose into
fights that don't concern him.’

‘
You aren't . . . proud of him?’ I crossed my
arms, cupping my elbows in my hands, not wanting the move to seem
too confrontational.

‘
Proud of him?’ the Doctor looked up, face about as shocked as
someone who has witnessed a purple elephant float past the view
screen of their cruiser. ‘Of course I'm proud of him. Doesn't mean
he isn't an idiot, though.’

‘
I don't get it,’ I let my arms swing gently by my sides, my
fingers catching at the hem of the very plain, very functional
clothes I'd borrowed off the Doctor.

‘
Contradictions make the galaxy spin, Mini, especially where
children are concerned. I'm guessing you aren't a mother
then.’

I shrugged.

‘
Though I guess you are more than old enough,’ the Doctor
chuckled, ‘far too old to be listening to the rambling wisdom of
someone like me.’

It took me a second to realize the Doctor was talking about
her theory that I was, in fact, thousands of years old, a point
that was going to take me a lot of convincing to
believe.

‘
But having children is like giving birth to little space-time
anomalies. No matter where they go, what they do, how smart you
held yourself to be before you had them – they will confuse you.
They will do the impossible, make you wonder every moment of every
day why they do what they do. I love Jason, of course I do, and I'm
proud of him. But that doesn't mean I have to understand everything
he does, or agree with it. I find his actions inconceivable at
times, illogical – but a part of me still respects him. I can bang
my head against the wall all I want, wailing about how hard he
seems to make things, how he has this knack for complicating, and
blowing things out of proportion. But in the end, that's just the
paradoxical love of a mother for her son.’