Eyes part 1. chapter 16

As Dr. Warren sat in the passenger seat of the traveling flyer that arrived at the camp, she did not look back at the place where the large settlement of the archaeological expedition had recently been located. In her toolbox was a file with an official invitation to work in one of the scientific departments of Cerberus. We had to think about how to combine work at the Center and work in this organization. It was a good thing that it was a few hours flight to the location of the University — there would be time to think about everything in sufficient detail. Now it will be possible to leave Eden Prime and possibly return to Earth.

Ashley finally received the file with the order from the command of her division. The document stated that the platoon should remain in its original location "until further instructions are received." I had to inform the personnel about the contents of the order her received, and give out dozens of instructions so that people would not be idle and looking for adventures in the camp and beyond. Then, personally inspect the site previously occupied by the archaeologists' camp for... Yes, just to prevent all sorts of difficulties that might otherwise arise in the future.

Ashley already knew that the archaeological expedition that excavated the Lighthouse would now be led not by Dr. Warren, but by Dr. Stashinsky, and sincerely regretted that she would not be able to communicate with this intelligent and extremely passionate man in the near future. He was very different from Dr. Warren, in whom Ashley constantly felt some kind of "double bottom". Williams didn't want to think about this "day" all the time, and she couldn't: the commander of the Marine platoon had plenty of worries that were much more important than the problems associated with a certain civilian administrator from archeology.

Sit in the same place? It wasn't difficult for Ashley and her people. After the attack by the frenzied drones, of course, several Marines had to be handed over to the military medics, including the soldier who tried to shoot so accurately at the incoming frigate shuttle. The aesculapians were currently studying the health status of the new patients, but so far they categorically refused to explain anything, much less comment in any detail. Ashley understood that what the Eden doctors had to deal with was too new. Therefore, a quick solution to the problem should not be expected.

There was still no communication, either with the Alliance's central marine base on Eden or with nearby settlements. Noting to herself that in order to filter such a dense information flow, the frigate must have impressive capacities, Ashley went to the hospital where military doctors housed the "problematic" marines.

The visit to the wards, accompanied by aesculapians, took Sergeant Williams several hours. It was only upon returning to the camp that she learned that the Lighthouse had been loaded aboard the frigate. None of the Idens really seemed to have any information about the fate of this artifact.

After checking the posts and attending the daily drill and combat training classes, Ashley returned to her tent and, sitting down on a folding chair, was finally able to relax a little.

My thoughts returned to Kayden. Sergeant Williams took out her omny-tool and began to dig through the contents of her wearable databases, intending to find at least some additional information about Alenko. After reading all the texts that were available, Ashley turned off and folded the screen of her wrist device, thinking, looking at the canopy of the tent entrance.

The information was clearly incomplete. The fact that Kayden is a strong biotic — she had the opportunity to see this personally, but everything else... It began to seem to her that a significant part of the data about Alenko had been "cleaned up" in the wearable databases.

What is Kayden hiding? More precisely, it's not what he's hiding, but why she, Marine Sergeant Williams, is haunted by the thought that Kayden had some kind of situation in the past, and perhaps more than one, that significantly affected his future life and fate, but about which there is no information in general or in general military databases. Okay, if she wasn't interested in Kayden Alenko as a person, she wouldn't have thought to waste time looking for additional information about him. After all, she is a sergeant, commands a platoon of Marines, she has her own path in army life, and Kayden Alenko, of course, has his own. So neither she nor he needs to establish any additional relationships that go beyond the scope of army service protocol. Besides, he's a biotic, and she's not a biotic, and frankly, she's a little afraid of biotics. Of course, you can read about them calmly and safely in books, but you can see a real person up close, who with a wave of his hand can break through a thick stone wall.... It's annoying.

Therefore, Ashley subconsciously was in no hurry to let go of her feelings and emotions. Kayden, yes, she likes him as a person and as a man, and she knows that for sure. You can't call it love at first sight, you can't. What kind of love is there? Someone liked someone, yes, but consider it love right away?! No, there are no prerequisites for this yet. Marveling at her clerical thoughts about Kayden, Ashley turned off the drone, got up, and walked around the tent.