2.1.2

Two Sides of the Same Glass

She didn’t need to announce herself to the inmate she visited. The woman always sensed her.

“That’s the fourth time this week.” Rahna spoke from the back of her dim cell. “You can’t possibly be that bored.”

“You seem to be keeping time alright,” Astrid deflected.

The newly enlisted soldier came to stand before the chamber, parted by glass polymer. No lights or circuits burned within. Nothing the imprisoned Channeler could use.

“Two hundred and eighty-four days,” Rahna recounted. In the dark, the rogue Channeler turned. She swung her legs over her cot and to the floor. “I thought your Board would have exhausted its uses for me by now.”

“Perhaps they mean to make an example of you,” Astrid explained. “If the first Energy Specialist matters, so does the first Channeler Prisoner of War.”

“That’s what this is?” Rahna peered up through strands of wavy black hair.

Astrid held herself steady under Rahna’s provocation. “They don’t tell me. You’re alive, though. Which is better than the alternative, even if you don’t believe it.”

Rahna looked like she wanted to argue, but instead, she bowed her head. “How’s Walker?”

“Still on base. They’ve decided his Guardian experience makes him valuable to the program. Maybe a candidate for some kind of deal. He’s still under guard but… he’s getting sun and exercise now.”

Rahna kept a strained sigh behind her lips and Astrid took pity on her.

“He wanted me to mention him when I next saw you. To let you know… he’d be here if he could.”

“Mm.” It seemed to bring little comfort to the woman wrapped in plain clothes, trapped in the cell. “I know.”

Astrid already ran out of things to discuss. Dozens of these meetings came to pass, and most ended in heated debate. But she kept coming back.

“No word from your dear captain, then?” Rahna inquired.

Astrid shook her head.

“Let’s hope they did not leave you to rot here, same as me.”

“My training is complete. I suspect to hear any day now.”

“Hmph. Sure you will.”

“You’ve seen what we can do together. Captain London risked too much to cultivate his task force. He won’t bail on it now.”

“Come off it, Astrid. Besides, it’s not up to him. We’re Channelers. It wouldn’t be the first time we were segregated for ‘our own good’. Maybe the Board never intends to let you leave.”

“This is not a Sanctuary.”

“They tell you how to dress, when to eat, sleep,” Rahna listed while her deep blue eyes raked over Astrid’s pointed posture. “How to stand. Is that the ‘freedom’ you aspired to?”

“I chose this,” Astrid distinguished.

“So, the key to accepting servitude is to choose it? How elegantly crafted.”

“I’m not getting into this with you again.” Astrid folded her arms across her chest. “Why do you insist on trying to stir resentment?”

“I’m waiting for you to see what they are.”

Rahna rose from her place and drew closer to the window between them. Her skin lost color in her sun deprivation, but it only accentuated the drama of her dark hair and jeweled eyes.

“Why are you still coming here,” the woman pressed on, “if you detest my counsel so?”

“Maybe I’m here to offer counsel instead of take it.”

Rahna scoffed.

“I’m one of them, now,” Astrid tried. “You could have been, too.”

“They still suspect you.”

“Like your people suspected you?” Astrid reminded Rahna. The force on Tetris wholly turned on her at the first sign of weakness.

“That’s your defense? That your people are no worse than the Static Opposition?”

“You know that’s not what I-”

“So, does that mean we can expect your own men to burst in at any moment, and pull weapons on you, too? Will you also be deemed ‘too dangerous’?”

“Knock it off.”

“Gods, Astrid, can you imagine what Gi would think if he could see you now? Self-righteous and smug in your collar?”

The light above Astrid brightened, just a little, with her rising anger. But Rahna’s face split into a wider grin when a guard at the end of the hall roused to attention at the disturbance. He fell back into place to see Astrid manage her temper.

It grew more effortless to affect the world around her as her powers developed. And even more important to keep herself level.

“We don’t get to presume,” Astrid insisted, sharper. “He’s gone. And I would like to think he’d be proud I’ve found a home. People who will stand beside me.”

Rahna smirked. “I thought you said we don’t get to presume.”

Astrid didn’t know why Rahna got under her skin so much. Perhaps because she so badly wanted to reach her. Or maybe because their roles could have so easily been reversed.

Still, the flare up caused a faint sear behind her eyes, and Astrid winced. She pinched the bridge of her nose to steady herself before she continued.

“Whether you mean to use Gi to endear yourself to me, or to try to hurt me, it only serves to show how manipulative you are.”

No reply came. After a pensive moment, Rahna changed the subject.

“How are the headaches?”

No sign of mockery rode on the woman’s words and Astrid peeked her eyes open, in full control once more. But she found herself reluctant to answer.

“They’ll get worse the more powerful you become, you know,” Rahna warned her.

“I’ll endure it.”

With all trace of hostility on temporary suspension, Rahna advised, “Green tea.”

“How does that help?”

“Maybe it doesn’t. It could just be a placebo. But if it lessens the pain, does it matter?” Rahna reasoned. “Drugs just make our powers clumsy.”

Astrid wasn’t sure she believed the woman. But ever since their fight on Tetris, she couldn’t deny the ease with which they could read one another, even if they didn’t wish it.

“You don’t have to trust me,” Rahna finished. “If you insist on keeping this up, the time will come where you’ll try anything to make it more manageable. Think of it as lubricant for the nerves.”

“If you’re so against what I’m doing, why would you help me?”

“It’s not mutually exclusive. You are not the military. I remember that. Even if you don’t. We’ll be on the same side of this someday.”

“I want to believe that…” Astrid muttered back. Her reflection in the glass between them revealed sadness and doubt.

“Nothing has changed, Astrid,” Rahna insisted. “It is more likely you will find yourself in the cell next to mine, than either of us will break our chains.”

Deep, blue eyes, weighted with meaning, dropped to the dog tags that accompanied Astrid’s crystal.

The specialist parted her lips to speak, but the door behind her, flanked by its guards, split to admit new entry.

A familiar face now, Warrant Officer Ian Parrish stepped through, hawk-eyed as ever. Upon spotting Astrid, the man pulled aside the door in parade rest, hands behind his back, where he expectantly awaited her.

Parrish served as a Board-appointed “Project Manager” to Astrid’s assignment, and assessment, for the Service. Even Rahna eyed him with vague recognition. Not that Astrid could miss the subtle tension his presence brought her fellow Channeler.

He regularly checked in. But not unscheduled.

Teal eyes flicked to sapphire, and a pregnant pause passed between Channelers.

With the subtlest of nods, Astrid stepped from Rahna, who retreated deeper into her dim cell. The specialist joined Parrish at the door.

“Officer Parrish,” she addressed questioningly. “Is there something wrong?”

Parrish’s eyes darted to the holding cell Astrid departed. The specialist felt suspicion though his white noise, no matter how much he tried to mask it. Instead of answering, with a stoic glaze over his face, Parrish turned his attention back to Astrid, then inclined his head to the exit.

He escorted her back out, and away from prisoner ears.

“I didn’t expect to see you for report until later this week,” the Channeler tried again once they broke into the sunlight. But instead of heading for their usual meeting room, on the far end of the compound, Parrish walked her north, to the largest building and offices.

“I’m not here for a report,” he told her shortly. “You’ve been summoned by Admiral Mays.”

The words nearly made her skip into a stagger. Astrid quickened her pace.

Admiral Mays stood the highest-ranking supporter of Captain London’s Channeler Division Initiative. And the only one on the Board they truly knew to be on their side. To be requested by a woman so respected could only mean something significant.

“To headquarters?”

“No. She’s here.”