Diana Fenton
She was sedated. Technically. According to the medical doctors around her, she was so heavily under, even if she did have an elastic consciousness, none of her psyche could operate.
They were wrong. For the Coalition had never seen a mind like Diana’s. But Diana? She was just the beginning.
As her mind spiraled through despair, every now and then, she glimpsed glimmers of hope. For every now and then, her mind would spread out from her body, extend through the thick, impenetrable walls of the Academy facility, and reach out to one place and one man.
Sampson.
She now had absolutely no doubt in her mind that he was Sampson Ventura. Cadet Mark Ray had never been anything more than an alibi crafted to allow him to spy on the students.
She didn’t know why. Not yet.
She didn’t need to, either. One fact took preeminence – she felt connected to Sampson. This wasn’t some mere emotional connection, either. It was psychic.
And it was growing.
“Her perspiration has increased by a factor of 50 percent,” a doctor said in a strict, harsh tone.
Everyone who attended to her got steadily more stressed. It wasn’t hard to figure out why. No matter what they tried, they couldn’t stop what was happening to her mind. Because what was happening to her mind was way, way beyond the Coalition’s control.
It tracked back to the day Diana Fenton had lost her family but had gained a destiny. She couldn’t remember anything more about that fateful day, but that certainty shone through like a light brighter than any other.
Diana had to do something. She had to buy the Coalition a chance – a chance they desperately needed.
For the Force were days away. She’d already thought that, but now she acknowledged it with greater conviction as a shudder ran through her body.
“Jesus, her muscles are still contracting. We can’t give her any more sedatives. What the hell is happening?” a doctor barked.
She tuned out their worried chatter as she focused instead on a sudden warm pressure that melted through her chest. It was wholly different to the fear that kept spiraling through her mind, threatening to send her flying off into the darkened melancholy she’d been subjected to ever since the doctors had sedated her.
… It felt like she could feel Sampson’s hand pressing against her chest. Like his fingers had reached out between matter itself to hold her in place.
That wasn’t the only impression that flooded her mind. Suddenly, as sharp as a bone breaking underneath her, fear stabbed her heart. It rose up from some place unknown and swamped her with all the pernicious force of a virus claiming her every cell.
Diana might’ve been sedated, but that didn’t stop her head from snapping up, her mouth gaping open, and a scream splitting from her chest.
It echoed around the room.
And it told her the battle was about to begin.