“His name is Michael,” Fisher answered, keeping his cheek braced to her chest so Morrigan could get a good angle on his ear.
“He can’t hear,” Tommy interrupted. “His stupid ears are useless. He’s right to cut them off. He’s useless as anything but a cadaver.
“Tommy, that’s enough,” Fisher warned. “Go see if there’s a space in the lab for him—”
“But you said—” He stopped when he got a stern look from Fisher. “Fine. Coddle him like you always do. I don’t know why I ever thought you’d give up your favorite test subject!” he shouted, storming out of the room.
Morrigan flinched, but she recognized family drama and knew better than to butt in. Her brother, Demissie, would rag on her for self-medicating, but he understood her pain. If he hadn’t brought Tray to her and given her a chance to be a doctor again, she’d still be in Quin, strung out and waiting to die. She knew she could do well in a place like Cordova if they would give her a chance.
Michael shivered and clung to his mother. There were tear tracks through the blood on his cheeks. When Morrigan finished knitting the ear, Fisher made a bed for Michael on the floor with a few flimsy sheets and made him lie down. The pillow in the office suggested this wasn’t a new protocol.
“I need to wash my hands and… make some arrangements for him,” Fisher said, looking rattled.
“I can sit with him,” Morrigan said.
“I’d prefer you leave. I don’t want you seeing him like this,” Fisher said. “This isn’t how I wanted you to meet him.”
“I wasn’t exactly at my best when I met you, and you still liked me enough to invite me to talk to your staff,” Morrigan said.
Fisher prodded Morrigan out of the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Michael alone. The office connected to a lab area that had computers, refrigerators, and advanced scanners. Fisher could have probably grown Michael another ear with their lab technology. They went to a decontamination sink and Fisher held her hands under a bar. The bar lit up, giving off a humming sound as it sprayed her skin clean. Morrigan held her hands out, but the bar didn’t activate automatically for her. Fisher pushed a button on top to activate it.
“Do you know the way to your lodgings?” Fisher asked.
“I’ll just call someone to get me,” Morrigan said, shaking off her hands. They were dry, but the spray left a tingling sensation just like the Shenna lotion.
Morrigan trotted to the stairwell and waited on the other side of the door, counting to ten before peeking out again, checking for Jack or Tommy.
“Captain, can you hear me?” Morrigan whispered, tapping the comm bracelet she’d been given. She spoke Lanvarian in case the channel was being monitored.
“I hear you,” Danny said. “Are you getting creeped out by the body parts floating in gels?”
“No, we have those in Quin research labs, too,” Morrigan said, keeping her voice low. “I just met the two men of the city… and I think one of them just tried to kill the other one.”
“What kind of weapon?”
“Michael’s ear was partially severed. I’m guessing a sharp knife or a scalpel. Not fatal, but I believe Tommy hoped someone else would finish the job,” she said. “I remember Hawk was worried about being treated like a test subject, and I didn’t think anything of it, but we need to be very wary of the line they draw between patients and test subjects.”
“Understood. Can you get yourself to the gate?” Danny asked. Morrigan was surprised that they’d abandon this trip after coming so far.
“I don’t think I’m in danger. I think he’s in danger. He’s the test subject,” Morrigan said. “I’m going to talk to him.”
“Try to solve this with local law enforcement,” Danny said. “We don’t need to be taking any more strays onto my ship.”
“Hey, I resent that,” Morrigan teased. She was one of the strays who had found a home on Oriana after she’d lost her license to practice medicine in Quin, after all.
17
Amanda screamed and writhed on the table, her bloodied hands clamped over her ears. For a moment, she lost sense of her physical self, and watched as wisps of pulsing pain radiated from Michael’s sphere.
Then came the desperation to escape—from Michael, from herself. It was a need she had carried for a decade, and it had driven her back to the lunar surface. She’d needed to escape Galen because Galen was killing her.
“What are you doing? What are you doing?!” she screeched. Michael sought a world without pain, but this was not it. Trapped in her spirit sphere, she grabbed at the fog, summoning bricks from the ether, trying to patch up the holes that let his pain in.
“I’ll send help,” she promised, but got no response. The brick wall around her solidified, and she hugged her arms over her face, trying to block the sight and sound. She could dissolve in this realm and make herself a cloud. Time stopped, but she wanted it to move faster.
A burst of lightning penetrated her brick wall, sucking her essence through. Amanda resisted, but her arms were stiff and immovable, her face cold.
“Easy, Amanda. It’s not real,” Saskia soothed, her fingers tracing the shell of Amanda’s ear, making her shudder. She jerked her head away.
“Help him. Help Michael,” she whimpered.
“What is she seeing? Do you know?” The question was directed at someone else, but Saskia’s hand kept resting on Amanda’s ear. The movement was normally comforting, but Michael’s pain made it miserable. Amanda pulled away again.
“This doesn’t match any of the baselined triggers,” Ian said. “I’ve called Dr. Granger.”
“Can you release the restraints?” Saskia asked, running her hand down Amanda’s arm.
“I’d rather not,” Ian said.
“You medicated her,” Saskia said. “She’ll be fine, and she’ll recover more quickly if she’s not tied down.”
“What I gave her was a stopgap dose. It’ll wear off in ten minutes and then we’re starting again,” Ian argued.
“The machine is off,” Amanda realized.
“Yes, it is,” Saskia said.
“I like when it’s on. I like when it hums,” she said. She didn’t know how long she’d been in the NR machine, but it had been long enough for Danny to leave and Saskia to replace him. Her back ached and her legs felt numb. The peace of it had reminded her of Elysia. The ceiling glowed orange. Sparks of light flickered around her as synapses fired. The part of her mind that still remembered her years of confinement in Elysia kicked and screamed the entire time. Maybe it hadn’t been Michael at all.
“Can you tell me what happened? What did we trigger?” Ian asked, her expression open and gentle. She seemed to take on a dimension she hadn’t had before. Folded paper.
“I’m tied down. I don’t want to be tied down,” Amanda whispered. “Ian, let me go!”
Ian handed a device to Saskia and Saskia released Amanda’s arms.
“How long was I gone?” Amanda whispered, too stiff to move. “I can’t walk.”
“You can if you need,” Saskia said, taking both Amanda’s hands. “Can she?”
“The treatment can leave you disoriented. You might get dizzy when you sit up,” Ian explained to Amanda. “What did we trigger?”
“Pain,” Amanda said, forcing herself to roll off the bed. Her legs were weak and her joints ached. Saskia braced her arms, keeping her balanced. “I felt pain from everywhere. I was trapped and in pain.”
“The confinement memory?” Ian asked. “Is it clearer than it was before?”
Amanda limped in a circle around the bed, clinging to Saskia, hoping the movement could clear the haze in her mind. Ian still didn’t know the full truth about Elysia and Galen, but neither did Amanda.
“Do you have to know before you erase it? Can’t you just take it away?” Amanda whimpered. She didn’t understand why she had to keep all the bad memories. She’d forgotten so much of her life already.
“I’m not supposed to.”
&n
bsp; “But you want to. You want to erase me,” Amanda said, scratching her cheek, wanting to peel away her physical eyes and unveil whatever was beneath.
Ian pulled Amanda’s nails from her skin and pressed a cup of water into her palm. Amanda drank slowly, the cool water clearing the heat of anxiety. Ian wasn’t afraid of her, but Ian didn’t know how deadly Amanda was when she lost control.
Saskia clamped a hand over Amanda’s wrists, warning Ian back with a look. “That ten minutes passed quickly. Can you give her something stronger?”
“Yes, more,” Amanda said. “And coffee. Saskia brought us coffee.”
“We could stop for today,” Ian said sympathetically. “I don’t think we should, though. We’ll wind up triggering this again and again. I can fix this.”
“Erase it. It hurts. Please, just take it away. I’m ready to be done. I’m ready to ascend. I’m ready to not be here anymore,” Amanda said. She could tell those words were coming from Michael’s pain, but it appealed to her, too.
“Maybe we should stop for now,” Saskia said. “If it’s safe.”
Sky hurried up the steps to the genetics lab, making a beeline for Jack’s office. “Morrigan, are you okay?” she called, tapping Morrigan’s ID on the comm bracelet. “What is Michael doing?”
Danny had called her and warned her that something wasn’t right. They’d split up to gather the crew in preparation to run.
“Sky?” Jack called. She sat on the corner of the lab’s wide portico, holding her head in her hands. She had changed so much in the past fifteen years, and Sky was glad she didn’t have to feign interest or rekindle a romance to get what she wanted from Jack.
“Jack! Where is Michael?” Sky asked, taking Jack’s hands, encouraging her to stand.
“You heard already?”
“Morrigan called Danny,” Sky said. “She was concerned.”
“Dr. Zenzele treated Michael’s injuries and now I must—I must—” Jack clapped her hand over her mouth and broke down in tears.
“Jack, what’s going on with your kids?” Sky asked, putting her arm around Jack, anxious to get her inside so they could find Michael and Morrigan, but worried they’d attract attention with Jack crying. “Something is wrong.”
“It’s all wrong,” Jack agreed. “I spent years fighting for Tommy’s personhood—for his right to even go to school and no one will work with him. And Michael… I can’t even get him a hospital bed. If I put him on a lab table again, I don’t know if he’ll be alive in the morning.”
“Where is he? Where did you leave Michael?” Sky looked at the building behind her. The Cordovans had always been kind and generous with their medicine, and it was hard to believe they’d refuse to treat one of their own.
“He’s in my office. Sleeping, I dare hope. That’s all he ever seems to do these days.” Jack paused to wipe her tears away, burying her emotions. “I’ve been neglecting him since you arrived, and he needs me.”
“Then let’s go to him. Take me to Michael,” Sky said, pushing Jack into the rotunda.
Jack nodded, taking a moment to collect herself and look presentable. She didn’t used to worry about what other people thought. Now, she worried. There were whispers about her in the labs. Even Sky had heard rumors when she’d been looking to secure lodgings. Jack was too attached to her test subjects. She’d lost status fighting for Tommy’s personhood. Her taking an interest in Hawk—a patient, not a test subject—had subjected her to ridicule.
Jack kept her head high when they walked through the main floor of the genetics lab but stopped short at the entrance to her office. Sky’s heart raced, but then she heard laughter. Pushing in behind Jack, she saw Michael and Morrigan sitting on the floor, facing each other. Michael was wrapped in a blanket with a broad smile, making gestures with one hand. Morrigan laughed and reshaped his fingers. She was teaching him to sign letters.
“You couldn’t answer your comm?” Sky snapped at her. “I thought you were dead!”
Morrigan’s smile vanished and she looked confused for a moment, the way Amanda looked when she was coming out of a dissociative episode. She touched her ear, alarm flashing in her eyes when she realized her Feather was missing. Then she looked at the bracelet on her wrist.
“I didn’t get a message,” she said, then she looked at Michael and laughed again, nuzzling her nose against his. “Sorry, I didn’t check in. I was talking to Michael.”
“In gestures?” Jack cried. “Why not hang a sign on him that announces he’s different?”
“Look at him,” Morrigan said, running her hands over Michael’s face and arms. “He couldn’t blend in with the girls if he tried.”
Michael grabbed Morrigan roughly across the shoulders and Sky reached for her grav-gun. Morrigan laughed, but Sky kept her hand on her weapon just in case.
“Stay where, exactly? In our home that’s stained with your blood!” Jack cried.
“Jack, what?” Sky asked. Then she realized that Michael had been speaking—mouthing words. Either that, or the Fisher family really was telepathic.
“Tommy was right,” Jack ranted, slamming the office door closed. “I can’t keep trying to save him. I don’t know where to put him to keep him safe.”
“He can come with me. Back to Oriana,” Morrigan volunteered.
“Absolutely not. You can’t even handle a single schizophrenic girl!” Jack cried.
“You agreed with the treatment I gave her,” Morrigan countered.
Sky sucked in her cheeks and released her weapon. Morrigan and Michael were comfortable with each other. That glazed look in Michael’s eyes was pain, not violence. Morrigan’s easiness seemed odd, but it was pleasant, and Sky wanted to see her happy.
“It’s a decent option, Jack,” Sky said. “We have a bed in our infirmary. Morrigan has treated far more men than any of the doctors here. It’ll give him a chance to get real medical treatment and give us a chance to talk to Tommy and understand what happened.”
“Oh, my spirits. Tommy. I forgot about Tommy,” Jack wailed, turning to weep on Sky’s shoulder. “I’m a terrible mother.”
“You’re not a terrible mother. You’re a good mother in a terrible situation,” Sky said. “Morrigan’s offered to look after Michael for the evening. Help me find Tommy before anyone else gets hurt.”
18
Hawk raced through the city, a hastily packed duffel on his back, Corin’s hand firmly in his. They’d been prepared to flee every day before this one, and now they had too many people in the city and too few seats in their escape vehicle.
The street leading to the city gate was lined with tall buildings, small shops, and specialty services. They had all sorts of gadgets there, and if the women didn’t stare so much, Hawk would have spent more time exploring the shops.
The city’s gate was surrounded by a tall building that housed and protected the airlock mechanical structures. It was fascinating to look at with his spirit eyes, because it appeared as a swirling, purple vortex. The dome gleaned power from the constant rainfall outside. Danny stood in front of a giant rain barrel at the town square. (The water was used for science, they were told.)
Wary of a trap, Hawk dropped Corin’s hand and slowed his approach. He tapped the comm bracelet. “Captain, what’s going on?”
Danny looked at his wrist, then dropped down on one of the benches, looking spent. “False alarm. We’ll wait for the evening gate,” he replied.
Hawk glanced at Corin, warning him to stay back as he approached. Corin had a hand on his concealed shock-dart and gave him a nod.
“This isn’t like Nola where we want to leave, but we’ve been drugged and can’t, is it?” Hawk asked.
Danny looked around, and when he saw Hawk, he laid down. Hawk hadn’t seen depression hit him this hard in months. Coming to the bench, he lifted Danny’s head and stuffed the duffel underneath. It wasn’t a great pillow, but Danny hugged the duffel, making himself comfortable.
“Gate opens in three hours,” Danny said
. “Morrigan wants to take Michael back to the ship. I guess I’ll go with them. You two should leave. Hawk, they have your DNA. There’s not much more you can do here.”
Hawk whispered a prayer for him and kissed his head. “Three hours. Do you want to wait at the Eastwind?”
Danny shook his head. “We’re supposed to find Tommy.”
Hawk bit back a comment about Danny’s search methods. He sat on the ground in front of the bench and called Sky to get the real report on what was going on, then he looped Corin in with the news.
“We should check the monument park first. You’ve found Tommy there before,” Corin said. “And we should find his girlfriend. What was her name?”
“Libby. I don’t know the last name. Where does Tommy even live?” Hawk asked.
“He’s so cagey about his life. He has that job with test subjects,” Corin recalled.
“Sure. Stab your test subject brother, go to work,” Hawk commented, then cocked his head.
“What?” Corin asked.
“Stab,” Hawk said, the wheels turning in his brain. “It can’t be a coincidence—Amanda stabbing Morrigan, Tommy stabbing Michael, Michael having that weird summoning power.”
“Then shouldn’t Michael have done the stabbing? You don’t summon someone to stab you,” Corin pointed out.
“Maybe you do,” Danny whispered, his eyes drifting shut.
“I thought coffee was supposed to wake you up,” Hawk said dryly.
“I’ll stay with him. You help search,” Corin offered. “Tommy trusts you.”
“No. You two stay together. I’m going to talk to Morrigan and make sure this is the right thing to do,” Danny said, heaving himself off the bench and shouldering the bag.
But three hours later, they were back at the gate, disappointed, but not surprised. Tommy knew how to hide in his own city. Saskia and Amanda were sitting on a stone wall around one of the gardens. Amanda leaned wearily on Saskia’s shoulder, her eyes half-closed. She held Saskia’s hand, alternately squeezing and releasing Saskia’s fingers.
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