The Betwixt Book One Read Online Free PDF Page A

then?’ I was aware of the
Commander as he gave a frustrated sigh. He obviously thought I was
an idiot for heading further down this rabbit hole.
    ‘ Back in-between.’
    ‘ No, because that doesn't make any sense.’ The Commander
interrupted, ‘in-between isn't anywhere, it's not a location in
space, it's a relative comparison between points. Twixts don't
exist.’
    Apparently, we had hit a nerve. The Commander's voice dropped
that little bit and wavered towards the end. Was he sick of trying
to convince me these mysterious monsters didn't exist, had he had
enough of telling the recruits to stop spreading horror stories, or
was there something more to this?
    I wasn't going to get a chance to find out.
    ‘ Another,’ the Crag growled, spinning his plate in my
direction. I managed to catch it before it toppled off my end of
the bench, but the slop his sea bass was drowning in, splashed all
over my chest.
    ‘ Ehhh.’ I looked at the green and yellow gunk as it dripped and
pooled down my front. How attractive.
    I could see Commander Cole recede back at the
smell.
    Eh, why did stuff like this always have to happen to me? Just
when I was having the most interesting conversation I'd had all
week, I get covered in the rotted remains of an alien
fish.
    It didn't matter anyway, because just as soon as I'd properly
secured the plate, the Commander leaned back, a hand at his ear. He
had a mumbled conversation then stood up as quickly as a spring
snapping back into place. ‘Sorry,’ he said as he turned, ‘cancel my
order.’
    And there he left me, covered in slops.
    The rest of the shift went slowly, somehow. I was still rushed
off my feet, but somehow it dragged on. I had a moment to change
uniforms, but I still smelled the stench of buttery, sugary death.
For some reason I was itching to just get out and have a walk
around the station. I never usually did it – just walked the
distance to the lift, then back to my quarters. There wasn't much
to see, once you'd seen it all before. But things were different
today; they were quicker, more edgy, and strange.
    The air that had been in the diner, the one of palpable,
pressured excitement – it was out in the rest of the station too.
So I found myself walking down one of the numerous corridors that
offered a view of the docking station where they dragged in ships
for repair. Was it out there? I wondered to myself as I rested my
elbows on a hand railing and stared out a porthole. Was that ghost
ship in the docking station right now, the GAMs going through it,
because no other sane being would go anywhere near her? Was that
why the Commander had been called off? Had there been an incident,
had his superiors told him to go over the ship and leave no cargo
box unturned?
    In-between. They exist in-between things. The Commander was
right, that didn't make any sense. Things either exist or they
don't, there's nothing that exists in the middle.
    I made my slow way back to my quarters, mostly in a daydream,
mind twisting and whirling over the day's happenings. Maybe I was
spending an undue amount of time recounting my conversation with
the Commander, maybe I shouldn't let the strange vibe of the
station bother me . . . .
    I opened my door with a mega sigh. I was tiring myself out
with all these what ifs. I needed to sit down and veg out – play
with Hipop and download the latest episode of Galaxy
Chef.
    My room was just how I always left it – in a state of
half-clean, half-messy. Certain parts were pristine – my bed made
with symmetrical precision, the vintage cloth covering on my table
straight and perfect. But then there was the couch, which was knee
deep in crumbs, and had various data pads strewn across it. And my
assortment of pot plants were sending their shoots and leaves out
everywhere, threatening to take over the walls like my quarters
were a tropical jungle planet.
    ‘ Hipop,’ I called as I kicked off my shoes, careful not to send
them into the beautiful, huge