Dimension of Abnormality Part IV: The Rebel

By Rebecka Jones, Staff Writer

When Nova had decided to break the soldier out of prison and get him medical treatment, she hadn’t expected a tan, broad chest packed with muscles to be part of the plan. Yet, here she was.

She had successfully transported both of them into the medical wing of the bunker with the knowledge that no Alaptera would be down there – no major threat was present at the moment, so they wouldn’t have been needed. The medical wing had almost all the ointments and medications needed for physical treatment, as did the infirmary, so it worked out.

Except for the shirtless soldier part.

Nova knew about the human male anatomy, but she hadn’t seen a human in five years. She became akin to Alaptera anatomy and was familiar with nakedness because Alaptera did not wear many garments. Guards would wear metal plates on their chests and nobility would wear long, silk robes over their shoulders, but regular colonists tended to let their fur coats out for all to see.

Of course, the nakedness of Alaptera didn’t compare to the semi-nakedness of this man before her.

Initially, Nova offered to help the soldier treat the wound on his leg, but he insisted he’d do it, saying he had medical training from his service in the Caligean army…but she believed he was partly embarrassed from her carrying him as though he were weak. She stood back as he disinfected his wound and stitched it up before proceeding to remove the top of his uniform to check himself for other injuries. Nova saw no wounds, only scratches and old scars, for she observed his torso for an embarrassing amount of time.

She snapped herself out of it and mentally shooed the butterflies inside her stomach away. Having no idea why she was reacting this way, Nova began to believe she was coming down with an illness and would need medical treatment, too. That was the only explanation to this fuzziness inside her.

She wasn’t allowing herself to grow soft for a human, especially not this one. He was a soldier. Soldiers were the ones who took her away from her father. They worked for the Council, the terrible rulers of the evil species that is mankind. She was angry with them all, and she was angry with this soldier, but she had brought him here because she needed him alive and well enough to answer her questions and help her understand what was going on.

Nova turned her attention toward the discarded uniform top on the utility cart. Her eyes traveled up the torn sleeves and onto the chest area, where she stared at the embedded crescent moon with a sword slicing downward through it. Last time she saw that symbol, she was being dragged away from her father.

“How could they let me come back?” Nova found herself asking the soldier.

His silver eyes met hers, and he studied her for a moment. He must have registered concern on her face, so he replied, “The Council is respecting your father’s…dying wishes.” He cringed at the word dying as if it were a forbidden word. “I don’t know how the Council feels about this, but they put effort into sending me here to find you and bring you home.”

Home. It felt weird to label Caligo as her home after all these years. After all that happened before she was exiled. The Council hated her kind, so it didn’t make sense that they would allow her to come back, even if they were close to her father.

“They kill people like me when they get the chance,” she told the soldier. “I’m lucky to be alive right now because of my father, but I was exiled. It’s not possible they want me back.”

The soldier sighed and grabbed his uniform top, slipping it back on and hiding that tanned chest from Nova’s wandering eyes.

“I don’t question the Council’s orders – I listen and obey. If you want any chance at seeing your father one last time, you need to come with me. I know you don’t trust me, but I need you to know I’m only following orders. And I’m not ordered to hurt you, otherwise I would have done so already.”

Nova was already breaking a thousand promises to herself by getting this man out of prison and helping him. She should’ve left him to die in that cell or to whatever fate the Chieftess had in store for him, but she couldn’t bear the thought of her father dying without her being by his side.

She also couldn’t bear the thought of what Adira and the Chieftess would do if she left with a human, the kind they wanted to terminate for destroying their home.

Nova felt herself being tugged towards the soldier’s side, however. Her love for her father diminished all anger and rational thoughts about humanity. She would have to set those things aside until she was reunited with her father and figured out what had happened inside the ship with her power, which brought her back to the question…

“You’re sure you don’t know anything else? Anything about what happened with my power, or why I saw my father inside my portal?”

If the soldier was annoyed by her persistence on this, he gave no sign. He sank down onto a chair and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “I promise you I know nothing about that. Maybe your power is growing stronger. I’m assuming it’s never done this before?”

She shook her head and looked at her pale hands. “I’ve been opening up more portals now. I opened one to a moon, the dungeons, here, and to…” she drifted off, unsure if she should be trusting him with this. He could easily use this against her, giving the Council another reason to stop her from coming back. But they needed a way to get to Caligo, and her powers might be their only hope. 

“I almost opened up a portal to Caligo,” she finished.

The soldier’s silver eyes grew wide, and he shot up from his chair, seemingly unaffected by the stitches on his leg. “Then you can get us back.”

“I said almost,” she snapped. “I couldn’t form the portal entirely. It requires a lot of energy and strength to create a portal to a whole other solar system.”

“But we know it’s possible,” the soldier insisted, passing a hand through his greasy black locks. He looked towards the ceiling, jaw ticking as if he were in deep thought.

Nova imagined herself opening up that portal, walking back into her past where the world hated her and wanted her dead. She imagined seeing the reminder of what she did in the fearful eyes of her neighbors, in the revulsion of the Council, in the wildness of her power. She imagined seeing her father withering away, unable to comprehend the damage his daughter had caused to his life and to others.

Humans were the monsters, but the thought of going back to her birth planet ignited the memories of her academy years when she was the monster. She had first discovered her abilities and didn’t know how to use them. A group of students had been bullying her because of her odd eye color and she got angry, unintentionally sending one of the bullies into an abyss from which he was never seen again. 

Nova hadn’t entirely understood what she had done then, but these past years on Apricus gave her all the time to reflect on it. It still didn’t excuse humanity for its brutality towards innocent people with abilities. It didn’t excuse them from taking her away from her father who needed her because she was the only one left of their family. And she was only a child — she had no control over her power.

“Are you okay, Miss Armani?” The soldier’s deep voice broke her away from her thoughts. She looked at him and noticed him suddenly looming over her, silver eyes alight with concern. He was so close, Nova could count three freckles on his nose…not that it was important. “You look pale.”

“I have naturally pale skin.” It was true, but she was afraid of going back to Caligo, and the thought made her dizzy. Of course, a sudden warmth crept up her neck and onto her cheeks as the soldier gently took her arm and led her to a chair, pouring her a cup of water.

She shouldn’t have let him touch her. She would never let anyone touch her. But the electrical sensations rushing through her veins at his touch stunned her, and she couldn’t get herself to pull away. It almost felt like she was using her power to open a portal, but it was even better. Instead of the exhaustion and stress using her power brought her, this rush from the soldier’s touch left her wide awake and warm.

“Now your face is flushed,” the soldier commented as he handed her the cup. “Are you sure you’re not ill?”

Nova stared at the cup in his large hand for the longest moment, then she broke herself out of the spell and took the cup. She cleared her throat. “Yes.”

If he wasn’t convinced, he didn’t show it. “My name is Amias,” he said suddenly. When Nova looked at him with a raised brow, he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “You probably already knew that, but I thought it’d be best to be on a first-name basis since we’re working together to get back.”

Working together. Nova never worked in a team — she always ran solo. She had friends like Adira and other Alaptera who helped her along the way, but she never worked with anyone to mutually achieve a goal. This must be happening for real, she thought — they were going to get back to Caligo, and she was going to see her father.

“Nova, though you knew that, too,” she replied. “You believe I can make this portal?”

“I saw you open up a portal that almost swallowed me and my ship whole,” Amias said, his lips turning upward. “I think you’re capable.”

Nova felt the warmth come back to her cheeks. Besides her father, no human had faith in her. Why was this one so different?

“So what’s next?” He asked, sweeping his silver eyes around the room. “We need to get out of here and get you training on your power, right?”

She shot up from her seat. “Stars, no! The Chieftess will soon figure out you’re gone and come after you. You can’t be seen.”

Amias drew back at her outburst, but he quickly recovered. “Then what do you have in mind? I can’t exactly hide down here forever. Is there nowhere for me to stay while you train?”

Nova paced back and forth, working her brain for a plan. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Her goal was to get the soldier to answer her questions and decide if she was going to leave with him, and the only part she succeeded on was making her decision. However, she got an idea.

“I know a place you can stay,” she said, already forming a portal before them. “Follow me.”

---

“This is definitely not the most homey place,” Amias remarked as he stared into the shadows of the cave. “But it’ll work.”

“It’s just until I can form that portal,” Nova replied as she organized bedding and food along the floor of the cave. “Nobody knows about this place, not even the Chieftess.”

He turned his gaze toward her, and he tilted his head so his dark waves fell over his eyes. “You come here often to get away?”

Nova shrugged, looking away from those curious eyes. “You could say that.”

Silence fell between them, so Nova busied herself with starting a fire. She could feel Amias’s presence behind her, but she resisted the urge to turn around. She didn’t want his questions or pity – she liked him believing she was strong and capable.

However, her dreams immediately shattered when he asked, “What do these lines mean?”

Nova turned then, watching Amias as he looked at the walls and ceiling of the cave. The lines were glowing in the light of the fire she created, like eyes glaring down upon them — eyes that knew every detail of her past and served as reminders for the anger she was supposed to be feeling.

All she felt right now was exactly what she feared: weak and incapable.

She must’ve been silent for too long because Amias turned those piercing eyes on her. His face was swallowed by shadows, but the firelight made his metallic eyes glisten in the dark; Nova saw something flicker in those irises, though she could not catch what it meant. Concern for her again, perhaps? She didn’t need his concern.

She kept quiet and stepped away from the fire. “You should be warm for tonight,” she said. “I also brought you food and water. This place is far from the Great Tree and the colony, so don’t worry about any Alaptera roaming around here.”

Amias exhaled, his shoulders falling. “Sounds great. Thank you,” he said, nodding slightly. Nova mirrored the motion then stepped around him, heading towards the mouth of the cave. She was almost out into the night when his deep voice echoed in the cave. “Nova?”

She stilled, heart paused in her chest. She sucked in air through her teeth, clenching her fists in preparation for the questions. For the pity.

“Be safe,” Nova heard instead. She spun around and stared at the soldier, who had taken a few steps closer to her. Moonlight painted Amias’ face, shining in from the mouth of the cave they were nearing. His full lips were turned up into a grin. A grin that caused a fluttering sensation in Nova’s stomach.

Her face felt warm despite the chill of the cave, her gaze falling to the ground as she began counting every particle of dust so she didn’t have to look into his knowing eyes. She wanted to hate this feeling in her body, but it made her feel so alive and wanted that she didn’t want it to go away. 

Ever since she was cast out of Caligo, she lost part of herself. She was unwanted in her own home and didn’t fit in on Apricus. The Alaptera had cared for and helped her grow her power and blend with Aprican culture, but she never felt complete. She didn’t belong anywhere – she didn’t even feel that she belonged in her father’s arms anymore after what she did and what she was.

But she felt she belonged here, in this moment, with this human soldier who looked at her like she wasn’t weak and afraid. Though she couldn’t understand what was happening inside her or what she was going to do next, she knew this moment would live in her mind forever. Even in this cold cave, Nova felt warm and safe for the first time since her exile.

She didn’t tell Amias this, however. The only word that came out of her was a brief “Thanks.”

“Are you going back to the Great Tree?” Amias asked.

Nova turned towards the night and began forming a portal once again. “First, I have some tracks to cover.”

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