Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 39 - part b

Lucius’s movements were mechanical as he psionically shoved himself into the air. His foot struck the side of a faux building, propelling him upward toward the opposing one. He pushed himself off the second building to landed upon the roof of the first. It had a flat stone surface with drainage near the outer walls. He didn’t stop there but was already bounding for the edge.

He was being over-precise with his actions, but Victoria knew it was intentional. She’s observed many of his sessions and past conversations with Mara. She watched as he leaped from the edge of the building, easily clearing the twenty-foot gap between it and the next one. He launched himself in the air with far more height than necessary to clear the gap. Mara had said he needed to experience more time in the air to get used to it, so that was exactly what he was doing.

As he landed, he let his momentum push him into a roll. He was off toward his end target as soon as his feet returned to the ground. The building he was running toward was three stories higher than the one he was racing across. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen him try this jump. Many times already, he’d failed. Reaching the top with a single jump was not possible with his current ability. He jumped. His eyes immediately went to a spot twenty feet higher up the side of the building he was aiming for. As his opposite foot caught his weight on the buildings side, his gaze shot up to the ledge of the roof above. Using mostly his physical strength, he judged the angle the best he could and leapt with a small psionic push at the end of the motion.

Seeing him grab ahold of the edge and muscle up to stand upon the six-story building, Victoria wasn’t surprised. It was still satisfying to see how far he’d come in a matter of weeks. She made some notes about how he could speed up his transition from building to building, and how it was safer to keep his leaps low and tight to remain less of a target. She’d give them to Peter to give to him.

Lucius walked toward the edge of the building and spotted Mara. She was on top of a two-story building directly below him. As soon as she saw him, she gave him an exaggerated slow clap.

“Incoming,” he yelled, before kicking off the edge and falling toward her. He’d been focusing more on his falls than anything else.

Unlike his awkward hop off Prodos’s hundred-foot inner wall during the day one event where he barely landed, this time he used Othisi to cradle his fall without the need to even bend at the knee.

Mara watched him casually, seemingly unimpressed. When she couldn’t hold it back any longer, she borderline tackled him. Holding on to his neck, she screamed. “Most Genesis guys won’t even try that.”

She pushed off of him and went right into to dancing something resembling the Hawaiian warrior haka with a belly roll, into a dozen other random moves in an increasing rhythm. Soon she was grabbing his arm and just hopping up and down.

He was hesitant but just as obviously enjoying the charismatic woman’s celebration on his behalf.

Victoria undid the strap on her headset before removing it. Her chair automatically moved to an upright position. She immediately noticed Peter had pulled up a chair and was watching her. She gave the command room a quick scan and found that the two of them were alone. His drones were already in position to give them some privacy.

“It could just as easily be you there with him right now,” he began.

Her mood instantly soured. “We’ve been over this. I’m not going to actively push him into another woman’s arms, but I won’t keep him from them either. If he falls for another, it would be for the best. I’d expect you more than anyone else to know this.”

“But isn’t that exactly what you’re doing with this girl? Out of all the people you could’ve chosen for him to partner with…”

“She is an ex-gymnast, professional dancer, and has parkour experience. Who exactly is a better choice?”

“Would it have been too hard to set him up with an actually combat parkour instructor, or even an impressive Genesis participant? And I haven’t even mentioned the best option.” He pointed to her.

There was a part of her that wanted to lash out. If she commanded, he’d change the subject or leave the room, but she really didn’t want to do that to him—ever if she could help it.

“You know it could push him away,” Peter insisted. “He could grow to hate you.”

She nodded her head without the surety that she thought he held. “If it keeps him from having to go through what you’ve been through. When we were in Freedom and spent every day together, I grew depended on him. Once I was out and I could breathe again without the weight of guild responsibility always bearing down on me, it was a little easier to go without that dependence. After a few weeks, I felt like I’d regained control. There will come a day when I can’t rely upon him. It will be forced upon the both of us. If I wait until then to act, it will mean nothing. And honestly, if I let things continue to go as they were, I know that when the time comes I won’t to be able to let him go.”

“And if he ends up leaving Prodos?”

It was something she’d already considered. Of course, she had. Still, she had to wet her mouth before responding. “Then I’ll let him.”

Peter let her sit with her thoughts for a while before replying. “I was married once.”

“You,” Victoria said, almost spitting in exasperation. “Why did you never say anything? Does mother know?”

“She knows. There’s never been a good reason to tell you. Here on Earth, at least in my day, the culture was split down the middle on the philosophy of marriage and dating. Half of the population practiced a traditional approach, while the other half was much more lavish. I grew up on the traditional side of things and got married when I was twenty-two. She was a year younger than me, and we were both virgins.”

“Really? I thought Earthlings were more, uh, open with their relationships?”

“Well, a lot of advertising and media is aimed at the more promiscuous half of the population, so the intel you’ve seen is skewed in that direction. Also, every generation emphasizes things differently. It changes back and forth. The Ekseliksi are much more conservative, with a few exceptions. Divorce is much rarer among our people, though polygamy is still mostly rejected on Earth while its more common with us. They also don’t genetically change themselves to the same extent, so even though Earthlings might be more unconventional on average, our people go to much further extremes. With that said, after I was married for ten years, my wife filed for divorce. There was nothing really wrong in our marriage, but she worked with women in the non-traditional camp and was persuaded by them to want something more.”

Leaning forward, Victoria gave him a tight squeeze. “I’m so sorry, Peter.”

“It was a long time ago, now. She was raised traditionally as I was, but her beliefs were never out of principle. It was just what she’d grown up with. It was the same with me.”

Sitting back in her seat, Victoria gave him a quizzical look.

“When she left me to be ‘free’ as she put it, I didn’t return to what I knew, but in my frustration, took her leaving me as a warped challenge. I started dating non-traditional women immediately. The first few dates were pretty bad, but after getting a basic idea how the game worked, my conquest began. My goal was to hook up with as many girls as possible. The only requirement was that they had to be more attractive than my ex-wife. I got very good at it.”

She became more uncomfortable with every word. This was not the Peter she knew. In her mind, he was the textbook definition of loyalty. But this…

“A few years later, I ran across my wife in public with another girl on my arm. She contacted me later and wanted to get back together. I rubbed it in her face and it devastated her. I never heard from her again. Years later, I looked her up just to see what had happened to her. She was married and had become a stay-at-home mom with a bunch of kids. She’d gained some weight, so I thought I’d won. By that point, I was convinced there was no such things as a good woman. At least, that’s what I told myself. On Earth, people rarely marry for status as many Ekseliksi do. Advancing our genome, bearing children, and creating a legacy doesn’t drive cultural norms either. I’d become jaded with the whole system. That’s when I met your mother.”

He looked fondly into her eyes. “You’re so much like her. Your default is to give everything of yourself, though never blindly. Even if you make what you believe to be a mistake, you always return to doing what’s best for others—for your people. I know you think I fell hopelessly in love with your mother, and I couldn’t help but follow her around like a lovesick puppy for the rest of my days, but that’s not how it worked. I was not a good man. I don’t know why, but I knew your mother was different as soon as I met her. Then I went to work seducing her to prove to myself that there really weren’t any good women out there. I was wrong. It’s very hard to find a person of good character, but after you’ve seen the reality of what people are like, there is nothing more attractive.”

“I know you fear Lucius will suffer the same things I have while I’ve pursued your mother. He is not me, Victoria. I’d already experienced the worst wound a relationship can inflict by the time I met her. He’s not the broke shell of a man I was, but similar to the younger me before I got married.”

She knew what he was implying. Any pain the Epithumia had caused him he had felt before. It made Peter numb to it to a limited extent. But any pain she caused Lucius would be felt at full force.

“There’s something you’re missing. He’s much stronger than I was. And I don’t mean physically. Do you remember how he was after he got hurt that first night?”

“Distant,” she replied. “We didn’t know him well then, but he seemed to cut himself off from everything.”

“No. Kept to himself, yes, but he also jumped at every chance he had to face his fear after that. Even after succumbing to fear, he went right out and faced it again. That’s not normal, Victoria, especially for someone that I would’ve still considered a boy. Boy don’t just jump into manhood. They need guidance. I helped a little. So did you. Kline helped more just by the sheer weight of his personality, but what struck me more than anything was that he didn’t need us. Not like he should have. That AI of his is probably mostly at fault…”

He sighed. “The point is, as much as he cares for you, he doesn’t need you. Not like you need him. Men who have an unhealthy obsession with a woman aren’t capable of focusing on improving themselves as thoroughly as he does. He’s far more principled, or disciplined, than I was. How many days has it been since you’ve really spoken to him besides outside of the daily report?”

She lowered her gaze. There was a growing weight on her chest. “Doesn’t that mean that his feelings toward me are healthy.”

“Yes. He loves you and wants some semblance of a life with you. You help motivate him. He’s even working at making the best future possible. But if you push him away, he will refocus, and keep doing exactly what he’s doing whether you’re a part of it or not.”

“Won’t that make it easier on him in the long run?”

“It will, but it also means that he deserves what I fear you’re pushing him toward far less. And to be clear. If you push him away, he’ll be free to pursue other options to his heart’s content, but you never will be.”

“I know,” she replied collapsing back into her chair. Unable to bear it any longer, she changed the subject. “Have you completed your investigation on Destiny?”

“Yes. Bio-synthetic computing isn’t new, neither is borrowing from the human brain’s design, but this is the closest things I’ve ever seen to fabricating a real one. Even the emotional aspects aren’t new, and the Jinhwa could probably match it, but she is certainly borderline sentient. It, or she, is not at the level of the Jinhwa abominations, but—”

“But to most Ekseliksi it won’t matter.”

“Lucius has every intention of speaking to us about this. He’s not hiding it.”

“I know.” She let her head fall about against the cushion of her chair and stared at the ceiling.

“Should I force a meeting?”

“No,” she said, imagining she was watching the stars instead of the ceiling. “We’ll let him, them, figure out what their relationship is going to be. If it disqualifies him from joining the Ekseliksi, maybe that’s for the best.”

“Do you plan to set him up for failure? He only understands a fraction of what our culture is like.”

“Then teach him. Open up the Ekseliksi archives to all of our officers with an excuse to learn about the enemy.”

“Everything? Are you sure?”

“Yes. He needs to learn the good, as well as the bad. Perhaps, he’ll decide on his own that he doesn’t want to be with me after he learns more of what my station entails. Let’s get back to business. I want a full update on Hectate’s estimated resource profile before Lucius begins training with the Krato. Also, have Harrison’s stealth squad proposal, Cornelius’s tactics review, and the remaining space station design plans ready.”

She grabbed her mobile headset from a tray table nearby and placed it on her crown. She noticed he hadn’t moved to do as she requested. He was struggling with whether he should say more but ended up doing as she requested instead. She already knew he was concerned with her own wellbeing and had heard all of his arguments before.

For a moment, she couldn’t help but to look at him differently because of what he’d revealed about his past, but that didn’t last for long. Maybe it had taken more for him become this man than she had known, but that didn’t change who he was.

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I almost went back and rearrange the last three to five chapters, but decided against it. I think I'm going to have to do a few read-throughs when I'm done with this section just to make sure the pacing works.