Read Online Start by Odette C. Bell - Free Book Online Page B

side of her parted lips.
    She'd
just been struck by a speeding training block.
    She
was lucky to be alive.
    “Blake, you deal with my students,” Sharpe snapped as he stood
over Harper protectively, waiting for the medical team to arrive.
“And figure out what just happened,” he growled under his
breath.
    Carson
wanted to point out he could take Harper to the medical bay, but he
soon realised Sharpe had no intention of letting him. For all
Sharpe's apparent hatred of Harper, he clearly felt responsible for
her too, and right now, he looked exactly like a protective father.
So, silently Carson stood back, watching as the medical team rushed
in, placed Harper on a hovering stretcher, and took her
away.
    For
far too long Carson stood there staring at the doors as they closed
behind Sharpe.
    Then
he shook his head and forced himself to turn.
    “Oh
no, what did I do?” Cadet J’Etem croaked as she clapped her hands
over her lips. Her eyes were wide and trembling with
tears.
    He
turned to her and slowly glanced out at the rest of the
cadets.
    Everyone looked surprised.
    And
fair enough, though you often did have training accidents, that had
been . . . terrible. That block had shot off
towards Harper with unfathomable speed.
    It
could have killed her.
    If
Sharpe hadn’t managed to disengage the block and pull it from her
chest, it would have.
    “What
did I do?” J’Etem whimpered again.
    Even
though Cadet J’Etem was a particularly skilled TI practitioner,
Carson knew she hadn’t caused the accident. She didn’t have the
power or the skill.
    “It's
fine,” he tried, giving J’Etem what he hoped was a commiserating
nod, “she’ll be fine,” he added under his breath.
    “What
happened?” one of the other cadets asked, walking over to the
offending training block. It still lay exactly where Sharpe had
dumped it after pulling it off Harper's chest.
    Frowning, Carson walked up to it and looked down. He lifted it
up and turned it around in his hands.
    It
looked and felt normal, and as he quickly scanned it with his wrist
device, he realised there wasn't anything overtly wrong with it.
“It'll have to be tested. It's probably
just . . . an imbalance in the magnetised
material,” he tried, realising his explanation sounded implausible.
Right now, he couldn’t come up with anything better
though.
    “I'm
so sorry,” Cadet J’Etem said, her hands still gripped over her
mouth as her stunning eyes widened further.
    “It
wasn't your fault. This was an accident,” Carson told her with a
firm nod. “Now, I’m cancelling this class. Return to your rooms,
and head to your next class when it's time.” With that, he nodded
at Cadet J’Etem once more, hooked the training block under his arm,
and headed for the doors. He’d take the block to one of the labs,
to see if it really was malfunctioning in some way. Then he'd head
up to the medical bay to see how Harper was.
    Unfortunately something came up, and by the time he reached
the medical facility later that afternoon, Harper had already been
discharged. Though the training block had broken several of her
ribs and given her extensive internal bleeding, the wonders of
modern medical technology had fixed her up immediately.
    Apparently, she’d already been sent home.
    Feeling disappointed that he hadn't been able to see her,
Carson promised himself that at the next opportunity he would get,
he would drop in to see how she was.
    And
yes, this time he would find the time to ask exactly what had
happened down on that planet and what exactly she had been dreaming
of.
     

Chapter
7
    Cadet
Nida Harper
    She
sat on the edge of her bed, pressing her fingers into her
ribs.
    They'd
been fixed, but they still tingled.
    Unpleasantly.
    In
fact, her whole body vibrated with pins and needles.
    Pressing her lips together, she indulged in a
groan.
    Wow,
hadn't today been one for the books.
    She
was usually unlucky, but this was extreme, even for her.
    Not
only had she overslept