CANAISIS ∞ Chronicle One ∞ 3: A Shard Of Code

101 ∞ A Shot in the Dark

Day 00011 Mission Nilex


A grab on the elbow startled Ayla.

"Come on," Lina tugged at her, "we've got to hurry!"

"What's going on?" Ayla shook the water off her other arm over the aquarium tank before stepping down from the ladder.

"The ship told Ahmid his request for pleading has been granted. We're to meet in the Stateroom—wherever that is."

"We?"

"Ahmid requested Nura, Tahsin, you, and me as witnesses. We're all going to meet the Captain."

Both glad to hear the news and disappointed, Ayla dried her hands and arms with a towel. Canaisis had spoken to Ahmid instead of going through her, and that was most likely the Captain's doing.

Lina rested her hand on Ayla's arm, looking up at her. "Remember what I told you, Ayla," she said, her voice softening, "he feels the same. But to some, the Gift can look like, feel like an invasion of privacy. Plus, you did use an override command. He has a right to be angry and suspicious. It's only natural he pulls away from us."

Ayla damped her emotions as hard as she could, pulling off her apron. "I'm sorry, Lina. I didn't know I was projecting so loudly."

Lina threw her a beaming smile, revealing her dimples. "You weren't. You just forgot who you're talking to. I'm your sister, and I know everything." She stepped back. "Come on. We're supposed to meet Ahmid outside."

"Alright, let me secure this pump."

Ayla latched the tank cover, detached the harvester hose, and hung it up. Lina walked away in the opposite direction as Ayla picked up the pump and tank to dump the harvested eggs into cold storage before stowing the machine. After checking on her appearance at her bunk, retying her Laaj, and affixing the butterfly hairpin behind her right ear, she hurried outside to find Ahmid, Nura, and Lina waiting.

Ayla gave Ahmid a respectful bow of her head. He was about to say something when Tahsin walked up from behind her, carrying the two children's toys. He bowed, and Ahmid took the kaleidoscope from him and slipped it into a pocket within his robe, motioning for Tahsin to hand the other toy to Ayla. She received the mnemonic box with reverence and held it with both hands. With another gesture, Ahmid turned and started walking, and everyone followed. No one said a word as they made their way through the hangar to the exit, to eventually stop at the transit tube.

With a deep breath, Ahmid straightened his robe with a tug, entered the tube, and was whisked up out of sight.

Ayla was next, so she tightened her grip on the toy and thought, «Slowly, Canaisis. I don't want to drop this box.»

«Of course, Ayla. But I detect ferrous qualities inside it, so I can keep it safe even if you did. Do you want me to go slow with Lina, too?»

Ayla smiled at the chance to play a joke on her sister, but she resisted the temptation. «Yes, please. Now is not the time.»

«I understand.»

Ayla stepped inside, and her robe tightened around her before she rose in the tube. When they'd all arrived at the antechamber, Ahmid stepped over the airlock door sill. Ayla followed, then Lina and Nura side by side, and lastly, Tahsin, in order of rank. Double doors waited at the other end of the short corridor, the Canaisis constellation with the Morrígna triad sparkling at them at every step.

Ahmid paused at the doors to take a breath before he swung them open and bowed, giving Ayla an unobstructed view of the Captain. He stood facing them at the end of a long oval table, dressed in his dark blue jacket over white shirt. Ayla knew he was wearing the gray pants with two pin-stripes that went with that uniform, despite it being hidden behind the table. But her eyes were drawn to the gold glinting from his collar and remembered their time in the Garden when he'd shown it to her. And then, the experience of standing at attention as Gareth during the captains' ceremony flashed in her mind, when it was first pinned onto his uniform. His entire world had been tinted to a darker shade then by his wife's illness and suicide three years earlier. The hole in his heart was still fresh to her.