[LEGACY VERSION] The Enemy of Time (Book 2 - The Kaireyeh Chronicles)

Chapter 25 - Damon

Damon sat on a cold metal stool in the ship's galley while at the counter, Alexi thunk thunk thunk-ed a knife onto a wooden cutting board, chopping carrots into coins. When Alexi had marched them in and announced he would be cooking, the galley staff peeled out, trying not to look at either of them.

Damon's hands were still too pale, a sickly gray. His hair was silver--and he'd seen himself through Alexi's eyes. His eyebrows and eyelashes were silver, too. He still wore the fancy coat that Elise and Milla had dressed him in what must have been a lifetime ago, but his mind rigidly told him had been nine hours, twenty-four minutes and eighteen seconds. He could count the nanoseconds.

Damon spread his hands on the metal counter, something that was real and solid to the touch. He was aware of his surroundings, but thoughts and snatches of sensation invaded him. He sensed Campa's fears on the bridge; saw flashes of gold walls as two crewers in engineering moved a heavy canister; heard Luc's voice and felt Luc's anger as he spoke with--Talina? And outside of everything, there was a vastness, an ocean so bright it threatened to blind him.

"That's Kaireyeh," Alexi said as he cut.

Damon flinched. He didn't like that Alexi could hear his thoughts, but he couldn't get upset about it. His mind wouldn't let him--it kept him in this state of almost-calm detachment. He shifted on the stool. "What is?"

Alexi swept the carrots into a pot boiling on the stove. He waved the knife around him. "Everything you feel outside the ship. Of course, everything within the ship is made of Kaireyeh as well. You are, I am, Campa is, Oji is. Kaireyeh is the code that makes all of us work. We are Kaireyeh. But outside--" He turned toward the wall, as if he could see through it.

Damon knew that he couldn't. Although Alexi had managed to wall most of himself off, Damon could still feel the general shape of his thoughts as well, like seeing shadows through rice paper.

"That is raw Kaireyeh out there," Alexi said, pointing the knife at the wall. He lowered his hand, but still stared at the wall. "You and I, we are more creatures of Kaireyeh than most."

"Then we are the same person?" Damon asked.

Alexi's lips tightened. "I am a lot older than you."

"You're thirteen thousand years older," Damon said. He'd pulled that fact from Alexi's memories--he had so many facts in his head but no idea how to sort through them all. It was Alexi's turn to flinch. Damon took small satisfaction in that; whatever Alexi had done to him, he had taken from Alexi as well.

Alexi set down the knife. "Yes. I have lived a long time. We are, genetically, the same. My human DNA is the same. But I'm not human."

Damon turned over his pale gray hands. "Am I?"

Damon felt Alexi's emotions swell, a complex mixture of concern and bitterness.

"You were on Hale," Alexi said. "I think you likely still are."

Campa had said Damon's DNA was in flux. He'd pulled the specifics from her mind, but he hadn't known what to do with her medical terminology, so he'd catalogued her fear. She was afraid of him. Maybe a little afraid for him, but she tried not to show it.

She was also terrified of how they were in Kaireyeh, scared of whoever was after them, and sick with dread about what had happened to Milla and her wife. Damon understood all of these things in the abstract, and on some level, felt them himself. But he didn't truly feel them. He didn't feel human.

Alexi hauled up a potato sack and dumped it onto the counter, darting his hands about to keep the potatoes from rolling onto the deck. He picked one and began to chop again.