The Unknowing War (Optimum Project sequel)

Chapter 22

Blackouts

I've noticed, since Bastion's visit, that I've been having these blackouts...
Weird moments where I'll find myself in one room, talking to someone, and suddenly in another, alone and staring at a wall.
I've been keeping it under wraps, using Tom's memory indexing program to play back what timeframes I've lost, but it's happening more often... And for longer periods of time.

I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep it together.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Noah's been acting strange lately... He's been isolated, keeps to himself more. I'm not the only one who's noticed it either, Bree and Peter have noticed it too.

I sat down at the table with them both, watching Noah as he walked by with the same odd, vacant look in his eyes.
"What do you guys think is wrong with Noah?" I asked, staring at his back as he shuffled out the cafeteria.

Peter glanced at Bree and shrugged, "I don't know, he's been acting funny ever since the security breach a few days ago."

Bree spoke up, "I heard that he had been talking to Pix when it happened, and do you remember the bruises he had around his neck afterwards? What if he had been attacked?"

Peter nodded, "Maybe he's traumatized? Have either of you two spoken to him lately?"

Bree shook her head, "No, Sarah?"

I shook my head, "Not a full blown conversation, at most it's a 'Hello' and he continues on his way, I've been getting this vibe that he's avoiding me."

Peter nodded, "I feel like that too, and considering he doesn't bother to sit with us at lunch like today?  I think something's wrong."

"But who do we talk to?" I asked, "His CO?"

Bree shrugged and Peter pursed his lips, "Who is his CO anyway?" He asked.

I pulled up my tablet and logged into the personnel database, typing 'Noah Price' into the search bar and the system pulling up his information immediately.

I looked up, "Did you guys know that he has a higher security clearance than us?"
Both Bree and Peter raised their eyebrows and shook their heads, so I enlarged my screen slightly and angled it so we could all see the display.

Peter frowned, "huh, 'Security Clearance: Alpha, Delta, Echo'? I thought we used the landlock numeric system."

I looked at him and shrugged, "I think some officers use NATO encoding for security codes and stuff, but Noah's profile marks him as double duty fighter pilot and engineer, and he's still classified as the same rank as us."

Bree nodded, "That sounds right, sometimes his training squadron and ours will do mock skirmishes together, I can tell by the way he flies he's been keeping up with the training sims, in fact I think he's doing advanced level stuff. Do you remember the story of his first training sim? People were saying he was flying circles around the other cadets, and when
Commander Sharp saw the footage she was ecstatic that a cadet had that much... I think she said, 'natural affinity towards advanced 3-dimensional combat maneuvering.'"

Peter raised his hand to get our attention, "I've noticed he's always working on stuff, and when I ask he just says its 'a project Pix gave me.' You think he's doing some sort of training with Pix as well?"

I looked back at the tablet, "I guess..." I scanned the page a bit more before I finally found what I was looking for, "look here, his CO is Pix, not Commander Sharp or Drake."

Peter shrugged, "Then let's talk to Pix."