Lt. Dave Gibson peered dubiously into the Styrofoam cup. Though he knew it was irrational, not to mention ridiculous, he swore the hot, black liquid within was taunting him. He’d been on the force for five years now - according to his service record, anyway. But while all his fellow officers gulped down coffee with pleasure or at least resignation, he just couldn’t keep it down. He still tried it from time to time, though.
He originally thought it was the way the sergeants brewed it, and what they brewed it in. After all, the coffee machine in the Founders’ precinct was just as battered and worn as any grizzled war veteran…and the less said about how often they cleaned it, the better. However, after some experimentation, he’d learned he just couldn’t manage any coffee, not even that five-dollar-a-cup organic Kona blend at the Java Junction four blocks over.
Dave sighed, and glanced around the bustling precinct. Seeing no one watching him, he quickly dumped the offensive black liquid down the sink, and pitched the cup in the nearest wastebasket. There. He picked up his report from the nearby counter, and weaved his way through the loud and crowded lobby to the Awakened Division’s main office. The Transcended officer on duty gave him an odd look, but took his report with a nod.
“Uh, all right, Lieutenant. Good work. Dismissed.”
Dave replied, “Thank you, sir.” The officer gave him another odd look. Dave was used to them. He wished he knew what it was his fellow Peacebringers found so strange about him. He’d asked a few of them from time to time, but none of them could put their finger on it. Just another mystery he had to unravel when he had time.
Dave made his way back out, and exited the building into the clear, cold afternoon. The sun overhead was bright, but it didn’t seem very welcoming at all.
Welcoming? The sun? Dave shook his head. Thoughts like that probably had at least a bit to do with why he always felt so out of place. So…different. It’d help if he could remember more clearly the life he had before Starwarden came into it. As if thinking the name was enough to conjure him, Dave was treated to the now-familiar voice, both deep and hollow.
“I have told you before, David. Your trouble with past memory is not uncommon with a Kheldian’s new host. You will regain your full faculties in time.”
Dave sighed, and thought a response, “That’s just it, ‘Warden. I have all my memories, they just feel like…I don’t know. Like they don’t….mean…anything?”
Starwarden said nothing. He’d probably decided not to dignify that with a response.
Dave thought ‘up’ and sure enough, his body left the ground, arcing into the cold sky over Founders’. He decided to shower at his apartment before joining the other Zenith Force members for patrol, and his flight path changed obligingly. The wind was icy against his skin, but he barely registered it. All his sensations seemed like they came to him….filtered somehow. He chalked it up to Starwarden’s presence, but he hoped it wouldn’t always be like this. Though, he did have to admit that a dulled sense of pain had come in pretty handy working with Zenith Force, who routinely undertook some pretty intense ops.
Dave landed on the balcony of the apartment complex’s third floor stairwell, and walked to the door of his unit. He fumbled for his keys, wondering (not for the first time) if he really fit in with Zenith Force. Or anywhere, for that matter. He liked working with them, and was really impressed by their nerve and skill. And they were social enough, but it always felt as if he was a bit out of ‘step’ with the rest of them. Dave hoped that awkwardness wasn’t permanent. Lord knows he had enough of that in his life.
He opened his apartment door, and stepped in. A quick glance at his answering machine told him he had a message. Dave brightened, smiling a bit. Only one man would call his apartment, everyone else used his cell. He tapped the playback button, and the voice confirmed his suspicions.
“Hey Dave. Frank here. I guess you’re still at work. Anyway, I wanted to tell you I got that whole snafu with your physical squared away. Where the hell does the PPD find these doctors, right? So, yeah. You’re all good to go. Hey. We should do beers this week. Call me. Bye, Dave.”
Good ol’ Frank Winston. Dave had known him for as long as he could remember, and ever since he joined the force, Frank had been something of a guardian angel. Mind you, Dave had paid his dues and busted his ass like everyone else in the precinct. No free rides here, but every time there was some mix-up with his records, or his physical, or even that weird incident with the Void Rifle…Frank somehow made it all go away, and quietly.
Dave sometimes wondered how even a senior Psi-Lieutenant like Frank had so much pull in the Awakened Division. He asked him once over a couple of beers, but Frank just smiled, and said, “Hey. I’m a people person.” Dave chuckled at the memory, one of his few clear, good ones. He trusted his Zenith Force teammates. He even liked them. But Frank was probably the only person he felt comfortable around. Speaking of Zenith Force…
Dave switched on his comm. “Primalis here. Or Dave, whichever works. Right, then. I’ll be ready for duty in about 30 minutes. I’ll check in when I head out.”
He switched off his comm and headed for the shower, head held high.
However else he felt, Dave Gibson was proud to be part of the blue line separating the predator from the innocent. Those who'd threaten or exploit the people under his watch would come to know and fear Primalis's light.
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