by Niranjan K
“Isn’t it required by law?” Joyce had asked, looking very disapproving.
“Yes, but only if the State knows I have a Sentient,” Alexander had responded calmly. “Miley, the Sentient I use in my office is a customised version of December, and as per records, it is owned by the company as are all the other Sentients provided to my employees. They don’t know about Quinn, though they may suspect.”
Lucas took out the pad that Alexander had given him before he had left Ignis, so he could talk to Niek every day. Despite his wish to talk to his son, Lucas wouldn’t have accepted if Alexander hadn’t told him about Llewllyn and Niek’s nightmares. He hadn’t told Joyce or Amir about that conversation, but had asked Amir to check for any data pertaining to an anarchist named Conway Llewllyn. He had dug up some information including the fact that he was in a Stasis cell, but there was nothing else. Amir said it looked like someone had purged the data pertaining to Llewllyn. The records they had uncovered were not very extensive, and only stated that he was the leader of the group calling themselves the Anarchists and had been responsible for several acts of terrorism on Hafi and Prith. Lucas couldn’t help but be happy and grateful that the bastard was in prison. The thought of him made his blood boil.
He checked the time. It was 0130. It was the second night running that he had opted for the night shift. Niek was free in the evenings, and he could talk to him without disturbance.
“Quinn,” he said, hesitant. Though he’d been using Quinn to talk to Niek for a week now, he was still unsure on how to treat the Sentient. “Can you call Niek?”
“Young Mr. Hendriks is having a shower right now,” Quinn said. “I shall inform him that you wish to talk to him.”
“Thank you,” he said.
It would be 2200 in the night in Nizhoni. It was the best time for talking to Niek. Since it was the autumn break, Niek was mostly free during the day too, but he still had holiday assignments and projects. By 2200, he would have finished everything including dinner, and on school nights homework too, so they could talk until his bed time which Niek had arbitrarily extended to 2600 from the 2500 that it was earlier. Alexander hadn’tobjected, probably realising that Niek needed to talk to Lucas more than he needed sleep.
“At least,” he had told Lucas the last time they talked. “Quinn isn’t waking me in the night about Niek’s nightmares. It does him good, and believe me, he’s not losing out on sleep. What with the nightmares and all that he used to get before, he’s still getting the same amount of sleep.”
That was the reason Lucas had volunteered for the night shift. Niek’s school would be reopening in a couple of days, and then the nights would be his only chance to talk to his son. It was not as good as having Niek there, but it was the next best thing.
“You’re sitting there, daydreaming?” Joyce asked as she took the seat next to him. She was in her pyjamas and was yawning, her voice thick with sleep, and her eyes heavy.
“What are you doing up?” he asked her.
“Woke up,” she said. “Couldn’t fall back asleep. Thought I’d come check on you. Give you some company. What were you thinking about so seriously?”
“I was just thinking of Niek,” he said.
Strange how easily and quickly Joyce and Amir had become part of the few people he trusted completely.
“I’m glad you’re getting a chance to talk to your son,” she said.
“So am I,” he said.
“So sad about Sergio,” she said, yawning again. “You knew him?”
“Not personally. You?”
“Knew him by reputation,” she said.”It was a good one.”
They were both silent, thinking of Amir. He hadn’t wept or showed any signs of outward grief, but Lucas could see how much it affected him. Amir looked miserable; his whole posture radiated grief, and he had become withdrawn and quiet, lashing out if they ventured to ask what was wrong.
“Sergio was like a father to him,” Zain had said.
Amir was in Tkih now since Zain thought a change of scenery would do him good. What change of scenery? One part of Ignis was very much like the other, dry and rocky, and all habitats had walls of the same dull grey and white. Of course, Amir would be among different people. Perhaps that would help.
One of their monitors beeped, and they both turned to it. It was a news report on the arrest of an Enemy of the State in Hafi. They both stared at the screen, aghast, as two of the Elite pushed a handcuffed man to a hovercar.
“That’s Colin Blythe,” Joyce said.
“And those are the Ansari brothers,” Lucas muttered, staring at the two Elite, his fists clenched.
“Are we safe nowhere except on Ignis?” Joyce asked, her voice sounding strange. Lucas turned his head to look at her. She was very pale, even in the indifferent light from the monitors.
“Do you know this Colin Blythe?” he asked, curious. Surely, Joyce wasn’t freaking out so much over the arrest of a stranger?
“I know him. I knew his brother too. He and his wife were publicly executed, and in all probability, that’s going to be Colin’s fate too!”
“What can we do?” he muttered.
As much as they would have liked to stop that, there were some things they were helpless to do.
“I can’t believe you said that!” she snapped. “What the hell are we resisting if we can’t even save our own people?”
“Save them how?” he snapped back. “Every person here is wanted for one thing or another! We go out there to stage a jailbreak and the State will follow us right back to Ignis!”
She glowered at him, but didn’t argue. He sighed.
“Jo,” he said. “I understand, and I feel the same, but we’re still not secure enough or powerful enough to do things like that.” He paused. “The work on the habitat starts in two days with the funds that Alexander gave Raul initially. Raul told me Alexander has a technology that could protect us. DNA masking.”
“You mean a DNA tracker won’t work.”
“Not if you’re in one of the habitats he’s building on Ignis, and Raul is negotiating with him about having it built into the new habitats for free.”
“Selwood isn’t going to just give away a tech like that,” Joyce said. “If we’re not careful, he’ll take Raul’s tech and boot him out, and us with him.”
Not as long as I’m here and Niek is with him.
Lucas didn’t say the words aloud, glad that Joyce wasn’t thinking of Blythe any more. It was a tragedy, but it wasn’t as if they could help. Was it his immortality that made him feel that they should rather let Blythe die than risk exposing themselves?
“The habitats will take time to complete,” Joyce muttered. “Colin won’t have that much time.” She turned her gaze on him. “What about that solution you developed? The one that fools the DNA scanners?”
“That’s how we’re getting people on to Ignis without the State realising, but it’s expensive to create, and lasts only for a few hours.”
She nodded. “We have to help him,” she said, her voice shaking now.
“Hey,” he said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder. “This isn’t your fault.”
“It is,” she said, turning to him, and he was surprised to see tears glistening in her eyes. “I was the one who dragged Colin into the Resistance. Everyone assumes that Colin became a part of it because of his brother, but that isn’t the truth. We... Colin and I... we were friends, and I... I literally dragged his ass into it. He didn’t want any part of it, believe me, but I... I wouldn’t let him be.... and now, they have him, and it is my fault!”
“Jo,” he said, speaking carefully. He had no idea what to say, but he didn’t want her to feel guilty. “Even if he was not part of the Resistance, they still would have taken him sooner or later because of his brother. That’s how they work. I know it, I’ve seen it. This is not your fault.”
His pad beeped. “Young Mr. Hendriks is calling, Mr. Hendriks,” Quinn spoke.
Joyce rose. “Talk to y
our son,” she said, as she went back to her room, wiping her eyes in a furious motion. Lucas looked at the pad.
“Quinn,” he said. “Please interface with the monitor A12.”
“Interfacing,” Quinn said, and Niek’s smiling face was on the screen.
“Hey Dad,” Niek sounded cheerful.
“Hey,” he said, wishing that he could just touch his son, hold him tight, and never let him go again. “So, how were things today?”
Twenty Nine
The chiming sound of the doorbell reverberated through the house. Kaylee had just settled down into her chair with Paige opposite her in the room that David had converted into a study-cum-library. It was not a large room, but it had a simulator, two chairs, one desk that was large enough for both of them, and a comfortable couch on which Paige and Kaylee lounged during some of the simulations that only needed them to watch.
“I’ll just see who that is, okay?” She smiled at Paige who nodded, her blonde pigtails bobbing. Her eyes were a strange amber in colour, and she had the cutest button nose. She was tall for her age, taking more after Ellen than David. She was also chubby, but most of it was puppy fat and Kaylee found her adorable.
Despite the high handed way in which Mr. Selwood had behaved, Kaylee could never be sufficiently grateful to him for this job. It paid just as much as the Houghtons’ and she liked the family she worked for. The Fletts were as different from the Houghtons as it was possible to be. They insisted she call them by their first names, and treated her like one of the family.
She opened the study and stepped into a large room which was used as a drawing-cum-living room, though no one used it much since Ellen was still recovering, and David divided his time between work, his study-cum-workshop at the back of the house, and Ellen’s bedside. He also managed to find time for Paige, tucking her into bed with a cup of hot chocolate and a bedtime story every night.
It was such a pity that the family could no longer sit in the drawing room, watching old movies or cartoons on the media wall, and talk about their days as Paige had told her they used to before Ellen was diagnosed with cancer. It was a beautiful room, with a large glass wall that could be tinted if the need arose. The other walls were bright yellow, and the furniture consisted of an armchair, a couch, a couple of cushioned chairs and a teapoe. There was a door on the right which led to Paige’s study room, a door at right angles to it which led to the kitchen and the stairs next to the glass wall that led to the bedrooms. David’s study was at the back of the house, tucked into a corner between the guest room and Paige’s.
Kaylee turned left at the door to reach a short corridor leading to the front door. There was a coat rack on her left side, and a faded rug on the floor. Other than the media wall, the simulator she used, and the more advanced one David used in his study, there was no 30th century tech in the house. David didn’t even use a Sentient or bots, preferring to hire a woman to come clean the house everyday.
Not that Kaylee minded occasionally answering the door too much. She was quite at home and her workload was light, so it didn’t matter. She had a longer commute to her apartment, and had to use public transport now. Though it was a damned nuisance, her employers made no fuss if she was a couple of minutes late. Also, if one day she worked late, they were more than happy to let her stay in their guest room. On any other day, she would have been home much earlier, but David was working late and he had asked her if she could stay with Paige and she had been happy to agree. Ever since Sonja had moved away, she hadn’t had any friends in her building and no incentive to go back to the empty apartment.
She opened the door to find a bot from the parcel company with a package for David, which she accepted with her fingerprint as verification. When she’d first got her new prints, she’d been nervous about using them for authenticating anything except what was absolutely necessary, but over time she’d grown comfortable with it.
It had been five years since she had run away, and she had grown more relaxed and confident in her new identity. She had debated changing her appearance, but there was only enough money for either fingerprints or appearance, and Kaylee had opted for the new fingerprints. She had grown her hair, got a tattoo, pierced her ears and nose, refused to wear heels, and hoped that all of it would keep anyone from identifying her. She’d also got her teeth changed, making them crooked so that she would look even more different. Her body had also filled out in the intervening years, and she was fairly certain that anyone who’d known her on Hafi as a gangly eighteen year old would be hard pressed to recognise her now.
As she stepped into the living room, she saw Jia coming downstairs. Jia had a certain fluidity and sedateness about her movements that Kaylee envied. It was restful just to spend time with Jia, and Kaylee smiled at the older woman.
“It’s a package for David,” she said.
“I’ll leave it in his study,” Jia smiled back. “You shouldn't leave the little one alone.”
Kaylee thanked Jia while handing the parcel to her and asked. “How’s Ellen?”
“She’s much better. The cancer drained her, but she’s on the mend now. She’ll be back on her feet in no time.”
“I’ll be sorry to see you go,” Kaylee said, and meant it.
Jia was a nice woman, not like the bitch Kaylee had for a neighbour who was also a nurse. She missed Sonja, who had been both her neighbour and her best friend for two years, ever since Kaylee had moved into her present apartment. It had been a bold move, to get an apartment in a complex owned by an Elite, but Luis Cobian was rarely home and Kaylee had been tired of sleeping in hotel rooms.
She got dragged into some wild parties by Sonja, but she still missed her. Sonja was always cheerful, but was also a good listener. She’d helped Kaylee feel at home, showed her around Nizhoni and had listened to her tirades about the Houghtons. She also always had a hangover remedy at her apartment after one of the parties. Kaylee sighed. She really liked Sonja, but Sonja had got a job on Hafi and had to leave and the bitch had moved into her vacant apartment.
“I’ll be sorry to leave,” Jia looked around the house a bit wistfully. “It’s not every day that I get people as nice as this to look after.”
Kaylee smiled. “I know. Anyway, I better get back to Paige,”
“And I’ve to get back to Mrs. Flett,”
Jia never called anyone by their first names, except Paige though she insisted that they all use hers. She went up the stairs and Kaylee opened the study door, only to find Paige on the couch, running a simulation of a night sky.
Kaylee sank down on the floor next to her, and looked at the constellations- the dog, the clover, the swordsman, the sphinx, the eagle.
“Do you think there are people up there?” Paige asked.
“We know there are, at least in some,” she said, leaning against the couch, as Paige pressed a switch on the simulator that caused a twin moon and two separate moons to appear in the night sky. “We were supposed to be learning about them today.”
“I would like to live there,” Paige said, pointing at the twin moons. “We went there for a holiday before mom got sick, and it was beautiful.”
“I know, honey,” Kaylee said, looking wistfully at the moons. Her last vacation with her parents had been to the twin moons of Ahur. All four moons were holiday resorts, catering to all classes from working to the very wealthy. Perhaps one day she would be able to go there again, and visit all the places and make new memories.
“Shall we get back to our lessons?” she asked the child softly. “Learn about the aliens?”
“Must we? Let me watch the sky for a bit, please.”
Paige turned her melting eyes to her and Kaylee smiled as she leaned over to brush her nose against hers. Paige giggled as she traced the stud on Kaylee’s nose.
“Did it hurt?” she asked, and Kaylee sighed.
“No, it didn’t, as I have told you so many times before.”
“I forget,” Paige said looking at Kaylee from under her lashes.
>
“Little monkey,” Kaylee flicked her nose lightly with her finger and straightened to stand on her knees. “I’ll just go and watch the news, okay?”
“News is boring,” Paige grimaced.
“News is information,” Kaylee smiled as she rose to her feet.
She sat down on one of the cushioned chairs and turned on the media wall, tuning into the news, and keeping the volume low so as not to disturb Ellen. It was strange having to use a remote, but Kaylee had got used to it, though she sometimes wished David would get a Sentient.
Despite her words to Paige, Kaylee wasn’t paying much attention to the news until the images of Colin Blythe and the footage of him being arrested came on the screen. She stared at the screen, transfixed, and she couldn’t even hear what the newscast was saying; she was seeing a day five years ago when her parents had been dragged off by the same two people who were now dragging Colin off. She could feel her hands becoming clammy where she gripped the arms of her chair, and her shirt becoming wet from sweat. She blinked her eyes, not certain if it was sweat or tears that were flowing down her face and causing her vision to blur. She lifted a hand to wipe her face, but her hand shook, and she dropped it.
“Oh, Uncle Colin!” she whispered, but she could hardly recognise her own voice.
Thirty
The canvas was ruined. Dylan stared at it, at the smear of paint across the face, and swore. Most of his contemporaries preferred using their pads to paint, but Dylan belonged to a group that were trying to revive the old ways of painting. It was hard, using brush on canvas and most of his early attempts had been no better than blobs of paint on canvas, and times more than could be counted, his attempts had torn the canvas.
At least it wasn’t ripped this time. The face underneath the black smear was his mother’s. He was planning it for a birthday surprise. His eyes moved over her face, and he knew he had done justice to her. Even underneath the smear her violet eyes were visible with tiny crow’s feet in the corners, her upturned nose just like his, and her smiling mouth with tiny dimples at their corners. He had captured the sweetness of her expression, and the fond smile in her eyes perfectly. Her curly blonde hair was pinned on top of her head carelessly, as she often did. It was a work he’d been proud of, and now it was ruined utterly. He wanted to rip it off, and to tear it to pieces.
