Page 26 of Souls of Steel
I found her jumpsuit lying abandoned on a nearby cot and tried to put it back on without waking her. With Pollux helping, we managed, although it was a bit of a challenge.
Selene stirred just as we were zipping up the uniform. She cracked her eyes open and blinked owlishly, trying to clear her vision. “W-What?” she stammered, sounding dazed and drunk. “August? What’s happening?”
“You were in an accident in class,” I answered. “You came to the med bay for treatment.”
“I remember.” Selene furrowed her brow, visibly confused. “But… Professor Strange was the one injured, not me. I was fine.”
“See what I mean?” Dr. Bell asked with a sigh. “She’s delusional on top of everything else.”
Somehow, I doubted that very much. It wouldn’t be the first time an official of The Grand Judiciary used a woman for his own purposes. If Professor Strange had been hurt, it was entirely possible that they’d decided to use Selene as a vessel to absorb the leftover tachyons, to make sure he was safe.
After all, he was a noble, his family almost as old as Brendan’s. He’d never been a Grand Chimera pilot, but that hadn’t kept him from becoming a tutor for us, and that was no coincidence.
Rumor had it that his marriage with his noble wife had been on the rocks for years. I’d never seen him in The Titans’ Pit, but he’d been pretty vocal in the past about his opinions on Terran women.
Between that and our prejudiced medic, Selene wasn’t safe here. At this rate, she wouldn’t survive the week.
But what could we do? It would take a while for us to convince her to leave. We needed a new strategy, something that would allow us to keep her physically safe and still determine her to return to Earth.
“I’m not delusional,” she argued, her defiance returning to her voice as she started to recover. “I remember what happened perfectly well.”
“Really?” Dr. Bell asked. “So you remember attacking your own teacher and the rest of the students in your Introduction to Tachyon Manipulation class?”
“I didn’t attack anyone,” Selene insisted. “I was merely completing a task from Professor Strange.”
“That may be, but you did hurt those present, and we don’t allow—”
“Be silent already,” Pollux snapped at him. “I’ve heard enough. You’ve already admitted that what happened was an accident. Besides, the incident can’t have been too serious, since no one else is receiving treatment.”
For a few seconds, Dr. Bell fell silent, which confirmed my previous suspicions. Whatever he’d done to help the others had harmed Selene. But again, we couldn’t prove it, because he just waved it off. “You know how women are, especially when they’re Terran. They have weak physiques. You can’t expect them to be as strong and qualified as a Tartarus male.”
“This man is beginning to get on my nerves,”Charybdis whispered at the back of my mind.“Can you immobilize him and bring him to me? I’ll eat him.”
“You don’t eat meat, Char, not anymore.”
“I’ll make an exception, for trash like that.”
I wanted to make an exception too and crush this idiot to pieces. But if I did that, I’d be expelled and things would get even worse.
“We’ll take Selene to the dorm now. She doesn’t need any further treatment, just rest. Thank you for your help.”
“Don’t mention it,” Dr. Bell drawled, “but do remember my words. Ms. Renard doesn’t belong here.”
Selene opened her mouth to defend herself, but Pollux picked her up in his arms before she could do so. “Your advice is neither wanted nor needed,” he said in her stead.
As he carried her out of the med bay, Selene started to argue with us. “You shouldn’t have gotten in my way. I can speak for myself.”
“You can, yes, but someone else needs to speak for you too,” Pollux reasoned. “You won’t change their minds in a day. Until they see you’re an asset, they’ll keep treating you like trash, so we have to be there to cushion the blows.”
“I’m sorry you don’t like our decision, but the alternative is abandoning you, and I don’t think that would go over well.”
Selene clenched her jaw, obviously realizing we were right, but still frustrated about it. “Why are you helping me? You don’t think I belong here either, do you?”
“Yes, but you’re still a Grand Chimera Warrior, the tamer of the Sphinx,” I offered. “Everyone in our unit sticks together. That’s the rule.”
“We might have our disagreements, but at the end of the day, we have to keep each other safe,” Pollux added. “That’s what we’re trying to do for you.”
“Oh.” Selene shot us a shaky smile. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
