The Crucible: Leap of Faith by Odette C. Bell Page B

movement she made was
quicker and less smooth than usual. There was a constant niggling
at the base of her spine, too.
    Sighing through frustration –
angry at herself more than anything – she swiped a hand over her
helmet again.
    The delicate work of this dig
sight did not call for a mech suit, but she wouldn’t take it
off.
    Her gaze drew towards the wall one
last time.
    It was mesmerizing. She’d never
seen anything like it.
    …
    Ensign Jenks
    I was on
maintenance duty. It seemed that my skills – or lack thereof –
would not be utilized on the Ra’xon .
    I’d been given one of the simplest
tasks my superior could think of – a proximity scan. My task was to
scan certain sectors of the ship with a handheld device, so that
information could be compared with the ship’s internal scanners. If
there was any discrepancy, the internal scanners should be
recalibrated.
    It was boring work and considered
menial, but that didn’t bother me.
    It would give me
a chance to become better acquainted with the Ra’xon . It may even help me locate
areas that could be hiding Omega class weapons. Though I doubted I
would detect them with a hand scanner, I may be able to find areas
of interest.
    I threw myself into the task, glad
for the simple distraction.
    I slowly made my way around the
various sectors of the ship. She really was massive. It was easily
the largest vessel I’d ever served on.
    It was, however, not the largest
vessel I had ever travelled on.
    Professor Axis’ facility was
aboard the Alliance’s greatest starship. One barely anyone knew
about. Its existence was a top secret amongst the Star Forces
Central Command.
    It was called
the Miracle. And
it was anything but.
    It was where Professor Axis and
the other stooges of the Alliance conducted their most secret,
illegal, and inhumane experiments. Far from prying eyes.
    I barely had to concentrate on my
task as I walked, keeping a slow step as I methodically scanned a
wall to my side. With a distracted gaze, I looked at my reflection
in the shiny panel before me.
    I looked at least 10 years older
than I was. But I felt at least 50 years older than that. To think,
only five short years ago I had been filled with the passion and
hope of a new recruit.
    Now there was nothing left but
bitter anger at what had happened to me.
    I turned a corner and entered the
next room I had to scan. It had a small viewing portal and a single
small red couch. I’d already overheard a few crew referring to it
as the lovers’ seat.
    It was currently occupied. Not by
a couple, but by none other than Lieutenant Commander Nathan
Shepherd.
    He barely looked up as I entered,
then, as if realizing who I was, he snapped his gaze my
way.
    There was a definite haunted edge
to his expression. Though I tried to reason it was stress over
losing his ship, he looked far worse than when I had seen him
last.
    His cheeks were pale, lips softly
turned into a weak frown, his gaze as dead as the wastelands of
space.
    Maybe I gazed at him too long,
because he cleared his throat, mistakenly believing I wished to
converse with him.
    “What are you doing here?” he
asked quietly.
    I brought my scanner up and
gestured with it. “We are recalibrating the internal
scanners.”
    “Fun,” he managed. Then, rather
than asking me questions relentlessly, he hunched his shoulders in,
clasped his hands roughly in his lap, and stared at the floor. Not
the view of the stars streaking past as we travelled beyond light
speed, but his hands. He paid especial attention to his thumbs as
he rolled them over one another. You would think that the secrets
of the universe were written there in every whorl and
mark.
    I frowned.
    If it were up to me, I would’ve
turned around and walked out. But it was critical that I scan each
section of the ship in order.
    So I had no option but to return
to my work.
    Though this room was small, my
scans had to be meticulous. I would take a slow step every five
seconds or so, sometimes