Read Online Lacuna: The Prelude to Eternity by David Adams - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: David Adams
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recovered. Light in the ultraviolet spectrum. Her prosthetic eyes struggled to translate the feedback into a sane format. Processing a new colour was a unique experience—it could not be imagined, only experienced. It was as though she could see the world through a black light. A strange, lurid, out-of-place sheen lit things up in a strange, otherworldly hue. It was opalescence, every spectrum at once, depending on how it was viewed, and every surface shimmered slightly.
She had adjusted quickly—the initial headaches and nausea had faded to a dull roar—but it was still disconcerting. Captain Williams had tried to remove as much of the ultraviolet light as possible, but Toralii used purple and ultraviolet as warning colours, presumably because their blood was purple, in the same way Humans used red as warning.
“Jump complete,” she said.
“Excellent, Ensign.” Williams gave her a just-a-little-more-than-entirely-professional smile. She just-a-little-more-than-entirely-professionally smiled back.
Would this be a problem in the future, them working together? Maybe. She had considered the problem. Would Mike be strong enough to be only ‘Captain Williams’?
Would she?
Shaba spoke up. “Mags, we’re in position. Holding at the Perth-L2 Lagrange point.”
Lieutenant Rachel “Shaba” Kollek. Penny had, for some time, hated her from afar—hated her because she was so lovable. Who wouldn’t love her? She was pretty, smart, trilingual… a gifted pilot and working closely with Captain Williams—intimately, even.
And she had sharp eyesight.
Penny knew pilots were randy individuals, and Captain Williams’s deployment often took him away from her for months at a time. She had accepted, on some level, that Shaba and her husband would have probably shacked up at some point. When Captain Williams had returned from one mission, guilt ridden and depressed, she had expected the worst and steeled herself to receive it.
Her fears, though, were not to be. Her then-boyfriend had instead accidentally shot down a friendly gunship, the Scarecrow —in that very system, no less.
“Launch the CAP,” ordered Captain Williams. “Long-range scout. I want pings to sweep the planetary system. Make sure there’s nothing hiding on the other side of this moon or in the planet’s shadow. Prep the ship for emergency egress if we detect anything Toralii.”
“Aye aye,” said Shaba. “CAP away.”
Over the time of their deployment, Penny had come to love Shaba as a sister and felt intensely guilty whenever she thought of her past suspicions. It wasn’t fair to either of them: they had both been silently accused of something they hadn’t done. She disliked having doubted.
Her console lit up, chasing away the pesky thoughts. She scanned it, drinking in the huge volume of information presented to her. Getting her sight back was truly an odd experience. In the beginning, the world was awash with colour, and everything she saw was blurry, indistinct, and overly saturated by brightness. Nothing made sense as a shape or a face or anything recognisable. Existence was just bright splatterings of light.
Initially, it was thought to be a problem with the eyes and an incompatibility between Toralii and Human biology, but a review of the direct feed showed it was normal. Instead, it was how her brain perceived the image.
She found closing one eye helped. Penny knew that many of the seemingly natural qualities of everyday vision were not innate but instead learnt through experience. She had not always been blind, but so many years of sightlessness had moulded her brain a certain way. Stereo vision—which required the eyes to combine the two slightly different images that they receive into a single, sharp percept—became a foreign concept. When one had fingers for eyes, a shape did not become smaller as it went farther away. This was an entirely rational concept for someone who couldn’t see: a held box did not change “size”
She had adjusted quickly—the initial headaches and nausea had faded to a dull roar—but it was still disconcerting. Captain Williams had tried to remove as much of the ultraviolet light as possible, but Toralii used purple and ultraviolet as warning colours, presumably because their blood was purple, in the same way Humans used red as warning.
“Jump complete,” she said.
“Excellent, Ensign.” Williams gave her a just-a-little-more-than-entirely-professional smile. She just-a-little-more-than-entirely-professionally smiled back.
Would this be a problem in the future, them working together? Maybe. She had considered the problem. Would Mike be strong enough to be only ‘Captain Williams’?
Would she?
Shaba spoke up. “Mags, we’re in position. Holding at the Perth-L2 Lagrange point.”
Lieutenant Rachel “Shaba” Kollek. Penny had, for some time, hated her from afar—hated her because she was so lovable. Who wouldn’t love her? She was pretty, smart, trilingual… a gifted pilot and working closely with Captain Williams—intimately, even.
And she had sharp eyesight.
Penny knew pilots were randy individuals, and Captain Williams’s deployment often took him away from her for months at a time. She had accepted, on some level, that Shaba and her husband would have probably shacked up at some point. When Captain Williams had returned from one mission, guilt ridden and depressed, she had expected the worst and steeled herself to receive it.
Her fears, though, were not to be. Her then-boyfriend had instead accidentally shot down a friendly gunship, the Scarecrow —in that very system, no less.
“Launch the CAP,” ordered Captain Williams. “Long-range scout. I want pings to sweep the planetary system. Make sure there’s nothing hiding on the other side of this moon or in the planet’s shadow. Prep the ship for emergency egress if we detect anything Toralii.”
“Aye aye,” said Shaba. “CAP away.”
Over the time of their deployment, Penny had come to love Shaba as a sister and felt intensely guilty whenever she thought of her past suspicions. It wasn’t fair to either of them: they had both been silently accused of something they hadn’t done. She disliked having doubted.
Her console lit up, chasing away the pesky thoughts. She scanned it, drinking in the huge volume of information presented to her. Getting her sight back was truly an odd experience. In the beginning, the world was awash with colour, and everything she saw was blurry, indistinct, and overly saturated by brightness. Nothing made sense as a shape or a face or anything recognisable. Existence was just bright splatterings of light.
Initially, it was thought to be a problem with the eyes and an incompatibility between Toralii and Human biology, but a review of the direct feed showed it was normal. Instead, it was how her brain perceived the image.
She found closing one eye helped. Penny knew that many of the seemingly natural qualities of everyday vision were not innate but instead learnt through experience. She had not always been blind, but so many years of sightlessness had moulded her brain a certain way. Stereo vision—which required the eyes to combine the two slightly different images that they receive into a single, sharp percept—became a foreign concept. When one had fingers for eyes, a shape did not become smaller as it went farther away. This was an entirely rational concept for someone who couldn’t see: a held box did not change “size”
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