Alive
Jace let out a laugh that ended in a wheeze as the hard exo-suit synched over his synthskin undersuit. It reminded him of the Mass Effect armor mixed with the cool retractable helmet of the Lost in Space movie from 1998.
“Can you breathe?” his mother asked as she moved her hands over the hard material.
“I imagine this is sort of like a corset,” Jace said.
“No, Jace, if this was a corset you would be asking to sit down,” his mother said with a twitch of a smile. “There were fainting couches back in the day for a reason.”
The suit suddenly adjusted, easing off his chest, and Jace could draw in a deep breath. “Ah! It’s better. I don’t know what changed.”
You complained, the Osiris responded.
He blinked and then laughed. When his mother looked up at him, he explained, “Osiris told a joke. Well, I think it was a joke. It seems it controls even the suits.”
His mother blinked. “It controls the suits?”
“Uhm, it made it looser.” Jace gestured to the white suit with the green markings along the sides. It pretty much matched his undersuit.
“That’s a lot of power, Jace,” she said suddenly and glanced over her shoulder, looking to see if anyone overheard them. “More than we had any idea it could have.”
They were alone in one of the Armory rooms away from the others while he dressed. Khoth was also upgrading his suit, but he wasn’t with a wholly friendly audience. The general was watching that Khoth didn’t take anything more than the suit and weapons that the Osiris offered. Jace was pretty sure that the general would have preferred he take nothing. But that wasn’t going to happen.
A screen had alway appeared with chairs in the Armory for the others to watch them when they entered the Khul ship. He, Khoth and Gehenna would be taken out to the ship by soldiers in a Jeep. The others would stay behind. Safe. Sound.
Osiris had frosted the glass walls in this room to give them privacy. Of course, Jace had no idea such a thing could occur. One of so many things. They were solid white now and glowed softly. She looked back at him and gave out a soft laugh.
“You look good, honey. Like some space marine,” she said. “Just like we always… always dreamed.”
Jace grinned. “Do I?”
He struck a pose with hands on hips and chin lifted. She laughed and then shook her head.
“I can’t believe you’re…” Her expression crumpled for a minute. “Well. You look so well.”
She cupped his cheek and her eyes were wet with tears. She rarely cried. She was cast iron in a lot of ways. She had to be in order to run this facility. And now what he knew she really did, he was amazed at the weight of it on her shoulders.
“It’s okay, Mom. I’m okay. I’m better than that. I--”
She hugged him fiercely. Her face was pressed against the right side of his head. She spoke with an almost desperation that she had been holding back before. “I kept you away from the Osiris because of what happened here before you were born, but now I think… Jace, I think… did you suffer all this time needlessly?”
Jace swallowed. He probably had. The Osiris would have helped him when he was a boy. All those days and nights of pain. The migraines that kept him imprisoned in darkness. The tinnitus that had been like a drill in his head making it impossible to concentrate on anything. The auras that had blinded him and had him backing away from the light. The thought that he could have had this years ago. That they wouldn’t just be discovering the Armory on the day the Khul came to kill them.
But that was all 20/20 and it was the past. There was no changing it. And there was too much good now to dwell on it. He was a freaking space marine.
“Mom, you didn’t know. You thought you were protecting me,” he told her as he pulled back from her embrace so that they were eye to eye.
“I can’t quite believe it's real,” she told him as she smoothed her hands over his head.
“Me neither. I don’t even know… this body hardly feels like it’s mine and yet… it feels so right too,” he told her.
The grin that seemed to be lurking behind every word since he had transformed came out as he realized that he was well and, more than that, he was athletic. And he’d never been able to count on his body for his life! But now he could use a laser sword against Khoth! Khoth who was “superior” and could balance on one finger like a champ! He used a laser rifle like a champ! He could control an entire space ship with his mind! There were two AIs at his beck and call!
No, you are the Pilot, Osiris whispered.
Yeah, so I, uhm, pilot you, Jace pointed out.
So long as you are on mission, Osiris answered and Jace felt it drift away from him and knew he wouldn’t get it to answer anything more.
