Free He Without Sin by Ed Hyde Page B

just for Wes’ ground team. Make it a private channel and test it as well when you do the other business.”
    I look at David to see if I can catch any glimpse of emotion or other telltale sign. The lower lip bulges out, the pucker resets it. Nothing. Brachus is fooling with his communicator.
    “Sorry David, but Wes, we’ve got the…” Tracy says, appearing at the door.
    “Oops, gotta go, David,” Brachus says displaying his biggest, most genial grin while standing up.
    “All right, thanks, both of you,” concludes David. He gets up and leaves right after the Resource team leader without saying another word.
    I remain sitting for a few minutes stewing, tapping my fingers slowly on the table. We all have things to do I guess, some more distasteful than the rest. I finally get up and go about my usual business in an effort to settle my mind.
    ______
    “He looks normal, but he’s not. I mean, he could visually pass for a mature adult but his actions remind me of a spiteful rude child,” I say to Carol when we are alone. “It’s incredible. I can’t imagine what hold he has over David. He ran right to David to get his way and David listened. It’s stunning.”
    Carol leans in and speaks carefully, “Not just David. You remember how he was shoehorned into the mission at almost literally the last second? He must have pull that goes above and beyond David.”
    She has a point. And of course she’s right. But what is his game? And how high do you have to go to get this kind of pull? It seems evident that the compatibility matrix was not rechecked. If it was, there is no possible way the index remained the same let alone went up. I got along great with Big Steve and although I never had dealings with Steve the younger, he couldn’t have been worse than the greasy grinning Lester.
    To Carol I confide, “It’s a shame how the Steves were booted out for this lot. With all we’ve got going on, we don’t need issues amongst the crew added to the mix. I am definitely keeping a record of this in my log; in my personal one at least.”
    Carol nods thoughtfully but doesn’t respond otherwise. We both have a lot to do before landing, and agree to try to not let any of the recent events get in our way.
    ______
    It’s a busy time. Tiring but exciting. Tomorrow will be the first trip to the surface! We are going down in stages as the base camp is set up and begins to be able to support us. David has been adjusting the day–night schedule aboard ship to match what we will find down below.
    The darkness in my tiny quarters is, as always, refreshing. There are new sounds in the ship; no, not so much sounds as vibrations and small jolts. But, yes, sounds too. When you close your eyes and relax other senses seem enhanced.
    I need to rest; the real meat of the mission begins soon. >Got the last Gleshert treatment and warnings from Vanessa today. David and Mark don’t seem worried; Dylan’s positively enthusiastic. Stepping out onto a strange world will begin the next phase in our adventure among the stars.
    I am relaxing now but still awake in the darkness on my bunk. With my eyes closed I see again the faint deep blue light that I’ve seen before. I open my eyes to see if there is an external cause. No. Nothing. And I knew there wouldn’t be. There never is. Close again and there it is, faint but there. I can see it mostly at the edge of the right side of my right visual field. That is, it emanates from the edge but dims rapidly as it shines outward. It appears on the left edge too but much dimmer. When I look to the edge to see it, it doesn’t move with my eyes. It seems a fixed phenomenon. In spite of the dimness, the blue is not pale or washed out; it is a vibrant steady deep color. Is it an artifact of the visual apparatus? Perhaps the retina, in the darkness, as it regularly rejuvenates itself for another day, has this subtle but noticeable side effect. But why doesn’t it follow with eye movement? Or—can it