Ghost of Mind Episode One Read Online Free

there was a moment when he teetered on his feet,
his large eyes closing, that massive tongue of his slapping to the
side as his body grew slack. And then he fell. And of course Alice
fell with him. Still stuck in his arm, still unwilling to use her
own strength to muscle free, she found herself slanting towards the
ground.
    She did not
reach it though.
    Someone caught
her instead.
    In a burst of
speed, their shoes making a loud scratching noise against the
already scratched floor, somebody jumped. They leapt right at her.
They grabbed her, and they pulled her out of the creature’s arm.
Swift, fast, and very strong.
    Then Alice
found herself in a strange position. She found herself in a
position she had never been in. In a human man’s arms.
    Confused, but
still a little angry, she looked up to the guy’s face.
    ‘It’s okay,
ma’am; I have you now,’ he assured her.
    Was he trying
to be gallant? Was that why he had that particular silly smile on
his face? Or was that just what humans looked like? Though Alice
had seen her fair share of them in the news and from the movies she
watched, there weren’t that many humans around Orion Minor. It was
a very long way from Earth, after all.
    And then Alice
stopped.
    Because
recognition began to flicker within her. A sharp, painful
recognition. It felt like a spear had been stabbed and rammed into
her ribs.
    She knew that
face. She’d seen it many times before.
    She knew the
name too. John Doe. Commander John Doe.
    Damn it. About
the one person in the world, about the one person in the galaxy,
the one person in the entire universe, that Alice absolutely could
not afford to run into. And now she was tucked neatly in his
arms.
    ‘Put me down,’
she said, inhaling fast. Her voice was snapped, quick, gasped, and
strangled.
    The man
blinked, receding slightly, looking shocked. Perhaps that was not
how people were meant to react. Perhaps when somebody shot an alien
that was trying to strangle you and caught you in their arms, you
weren’t meant to snap at them to put you down.
    ‘Of course,’ he
mumbled, and then he complied by putting her down, but gently and
carefully, as if ensuring that she didn't suddenly fall over from
surprise or anything.
    Alice stood
with her back as stiff as possible. Her hands clutched into tight
fists, the blood pumping around her body, her ears ringing. She was
most definitely sure she had a frantic, unfriendly look on her
face.
    Maybe the guy
paled, maybe he stood a little straighter, maybe he started to get
a mildly suspicious, worried look on his face.
    And why
wouldn't he? That was John Doe, Commander John Doe, one of the men
responsible for heading up the new wave of security into the Rim.
He didn’t belong in the slums, that was for sure. While everyone
around here would have been content to see Alice squeezed to death
by the alien, he was a member of the Union Forces. They were there
to ensure peace. Even if they had to beat it out of you.
    She’d read
about him in the news, she'd seen the feeds, she’d heard the audio.
She knew who this man was.
    No doubt he
would truly believe in justice, no doubt he was the kind of guy who
would throw himself into any altercation, regardless of whether it
had anything to do with him, no matter how seedy and scummy the
combatants were. Because no doubt John Doe would believe in
heroes.
    And no doubt
right now he was wondering whether Alice herself was the criminal,
not the victim.
    ‘Are you okay?
You should get to a medical facility. The grip of a Parsi arm can
be ferocious,’ he nodded down at her, indicating her middle.
    She understood
that. She knew what species the alien was behind her, and she could
appreciate the exact mechanical attributes of its grip.
    But she did not
need to go to the medical bay. Because if Alice ever went to the
medical bay, well, her life would soon end afterwards.
    She shook her
head very quickly, the tendrils or her blue-black hair flying
around and up, slapping against