Rose met my eye. I held her gaze. Waited.
“You’re wrong,” she said finally. “If they wanted us dead, they didn’t need to regenerate us in the first place.”
“There’s a way to find out.”
Her head tilted. “How?”
“We look behind the curtain.”
Rose stood and smoothed her jumpsuit. “You want me to help you escape again.”
“I want you to open your eyes.” Emotion thickened my voice. “Yesterday, I watched a classmate drown. Another died after dinner because she couldn’t decipher silly clues fast enough. And for what? Colonial fitness? It’s a lie! Something else is going on, and we’re expendable parts.”
“If what you say were true,” Gray shot back, “why would they use us, huh? Why would they allow any Nemesis survivors to run around their station if the colony wasn’t real?”
I stood. “I honestly don’t know. Don’t you think we should find out?”
Cyrus rose as well, followed by Jerica and Parisa. There was a moment of charged silence as we all faced off across the coffee table. The mood balanced on a razor’s edge.
After what seemed like an eternity, Rose nodded. “Fine. How do we test your theory?”
A smile of relief spread across my face. I ignored Gray’s grunt of displeasure. “Maybe hide in their closet and take a peek?”
She flushed scarlet, with the smallest tilting of her lips. “Jackass,” she muttered. Gray shifted to see her face, then his heated gaze impaled me. But he didn’t speak out.
“What convinced you?” I asked, honestly curious.
Rosed closed her eyes, then opened them. “I didn’t know about the copies. Who the hell is Sophia?”
She swiveled and strode for the door. “There are fewer troopers about this time of day. I don’t know why, but it’s a fact.”
“That’s where we should go,” Cyrus said. “Let’s scope out the crew’s quarters. Maybe we can grab someone and verify that a colony exists.”
Gray raced over and whispered furiously into Rose’s ear, but she silenced him with a sharp word. Then she faced us. “Is everyone coming?”
I glanced at Parisa and Jerica. Both nodded vigorously. I looked back at Rose, and our gazes locked. My skin began to tingle. I swallowed, the image of Min trapped in a gas-filled room floating before my eyes.
I had work to do. Friends to save. I was the only one who could stop this.
“Lead the way.”
* * *
• • •
“In there?” I whispered.
Rose nodded.
I peered through a small glass window in the portal. The corridor beyond was empty but I could see panel lights along its length. I turned back to Rose. “You can open this?”
She shook her head. “My access ends right here.”
“Then why’d you bring us?” Jerica hissed. “We’ve never been past these doors.”
Rose glared at her classmate, and I watched Jerica wilt. “You wanted to visit the crew’s living quarters. Well, this is it.”
“Doesn’t seem very homey,” Parisa muttered, peeking through the glass beside me. “Looks like a cargo bay.”
I silently agreed. I’d expected to enter a cozier section of the station, like Rose’s quarters, but this felt more like a storage area. The walls and floor were metal, without embellishments. The air was cold and antiseptic. This felt like the least comfortable sector aboard Chrysalis, yet Rose was certain we were in the right place.
Suddenly, the door swished open in our faces. I stared in shock until Rose dragged me in reverse down a side corridor. We flattened against the wall as marching feet swept past.
Then Rose darted around the corner and through the opening just before the portal whooshed shut. I scurried over and pressed my nose against the glass, watched as Rose shrank into a corner and went still. After a thirty count, she popped up and began fiddling with a keypad. The door opened. We were in.
“Nice work,” I said.
Rose snorted.
We crept along the dimly lit corridor. Whoever lived there felt zero need for creature comforts. The passage had all the cheeriness of a factory loading dock.
“We must be in the wrong place,” Parisa muttered.
Rose shook her head firmly. “No. This is where they go after shifts.” A hesitation, then, “I’ve watched.”
Gray jerked around to stare at her, but she ignored him.
So. Rose has her own doubts.
Alcoves on both sides of the corridor housed large machines, almost like the regeneration pods back in the silo, but these were open-faced and crowded with dangling wires. They all seemed to be powered down. I shook my head, kept creeping toward the next portal. It was similar to the last one but with an access panel on our side.
Rose looked at me, and I nodded.
She pressed something. The door hissed open and we stepped into a cavernous chamber.
I felt an intense wave of déjà vu.
Wall to wall were more of the strange machines. I walked to the closest and glanced inside, then nearly collided with Jerica as I leapt backward in surprise. A blond-haired trooper stood rigidly within the contraption, eyes closed, a bundle of wires attached to the back of his head. A screen beside his chest read 68%.
“What is this place?” Gray whispered.
“Holy crap,” Rose said. “Look around.”
I spun quickly and nearly gasped.
Troopers. Everywhere. Rows upon rows of them, jacked into the odd machines.
Some wore different faces, but some wore the same. I felt my stomach do a cartwheel.
“More clones?” Cyrus growled, but I shook my head. These people seemed different from Sophia. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I took a closer look at one of the stations and my eyes popped.
“This is a charging station,” I hissed, fending off a bout of shivers. “These troopers—I think they’re synthetic.” I spun to stare at Rose. “The Chrysalis guards are androids or something!”
Rose seemed mesmerized. “Okay, that’s wild. But it doesn’t prove anything bad.”
I stared at her. “There’s no reason to build a force of storm troopers to police the last seeds of humanity you’re allegedly trying to protect.” I waved a hand. “This is all useless for a colony.”
“Rose, what’s this?” Gray had drifted to a bank of monitors and woken a display. Symbols were streaming across the screen in discordant rows. They weren’t letters and numbers. They weren’t anything I’d ever seen.
A cold ball formed in my chest. It filtered outward to every square inch of my body.
“Guys, that doesn’t look like something NASA wrote.”
Everyone went still.
Cyrus was the first to speak again. “We know an artificial intelligence was written to build Chrysalis. Once the station was completed, it regenerated the crew. Decades later our Programs finished Phase Two, and the station cloned our classes inside the Terrarium. We assumed this was all the work of Nemesis technology.” He nodded at the display. “Before we regenerated, our Guardian showed me a bit of what the MegaCom source code looked like. This isn’t what I remember at all.”
Rose stiffened. Gray swallowed hard. Parisa licked her lips, while Jerica looked like she might be sick.
“What are you saying?” Parisa asked.
“We might not know this AI,” I answered for him.
Jerica shook her head slowly. “What does that mean?”
Rose was staring at the floor. “It means Chrysalis might not be human.”
Cyrus ran a hand over his scalp, then gripped my forearm tightly. “I never . . . What do we do now, Noah? How would an alien technology get aboard Chrysalis? How can we fight back?”
My head spun. I began counting up betrayals and quickly ran out of fingers.
We were cat’s toys once again, perhaps to something unknowable, and had nowhere safe to run.
Fine. We’ll do as much damage as we can.
I walked to the closest charging station and gazed at the trooper inside.
What are you really?
It didn’t matter.
“Their security force seems to be offline for the moment,” I said. “Look around. Almost every machine is filled.”
A smoldering anger coursed through me.
“Let’s keep it that way.”
33
MIN
“Hey, Melinda. You cut that one awful close.”
My lips formed a snarl. I surged to my feet and lunged at Toby, hands outstretched like a cartoon monster intent on gouging human eyes. Who knows? Maybe that was my plan.
Toby sidestepped and I tripped, crashing to the floor. Breath exploded from my lungs. I lay there gasping, unable to move. The gas still muddled my thoughts, and my limbs felt lethargic, but he was really there.
“That was dumb,” Toby said matter-of-factly.
“How?” I wheezed. I’d left him unconscious on a pitch-black catwalk moments before the silo flooded completely. There was no way he could’ve escaped.
“You’re not the only dog with tricks.” Toby smiled. “I told you, I had my own way in and out of there, thanks to Sophia.” His face slackened. “Some of my guys weren’t so lucky. Tucker and Cole didn’t make it. Plus that little weasel Kyle, although nobody’s gonna miss him.”
The stars receded, and I could finally breathe again. I glanced at his black uniform. “You’re working for the enemy, too?”
Toby laughed with genuine amusement, rubbing his hairless scalp. “There’s no other game in town. Unless you’ve got a space station stashed somewhere, orbiting the only habitable world in the universe.” He snorted. “Classic Min. Always thinking you get to set the rules, even in outer space. Even against them.”
I rose carefully, making no threatening moves. Toby had seen behind the curtain aboard Chrysalis more than once. Maybe he knew things I could use. “What are you doing here?”
“Sophia put me on with the Nemesis Three kids, same as the twins and Josh. She lost some Wyoming folks in the Terrarium, and some of the others are turning out to be disloyal.” Toby gave a rueful smirk. “Truth is, I’ve been inside some kind of fix-you-up pod since the silo got flushed. Just woke up today.” He smiled brightly. “Now I’m security. That means taking care of you guys.”
“You’d sell out your whole class to strangers, Toby?” I shot him my most disdainful look, only ruining it a little by blowing my nose. “Even after they lied to us about the MegaCom? About Earth itself, for God’s sake! They kept us in a habitat like gerbils. You know Sophia might not even be human?”
Toby’s smile evaporated. “I’m a survivor over everything, Min. Believe that. You know Mike went missing yesterday? Just up and disappeared after losing a ropes game to Akio.” Toby shook his head sharply. “That will not be me. I’ll be down on the planet crafting my own little kingdom while you and Honey Boy get repurposed. Rebellion is mostly about not getting squashed, but you’ve never understood that. You’re terrible at it.”
Honey Boy? My heart leapt. He must be talking about Noah.
“Where is he?” I asked, trying not to give away how badly I needed to know.
Toby didn’t miss it, however. “He’s been worse-behaved than you, if you can believe it. But that’s all I’m gonna say. I have a job right now, and that’s to get you up to the boss lady for a chat.” He heaved a sigh. “I have a feeling this may be our last talk, Melinda. That makes me sad.”
“Go to hell, Toby.”
“I’ll miss you, too. The flirting, mainly.”
I held my tongue. Toby tsked in disappointment. He turned and swept a hand toward the far door. “This way, then. You could try something, but I’m well rested and bored. I wouldn’t recommend it. Plus . . .” He drew a long-barreled weapon from a sheath at his side. “Pew pew! Got it?”
“Just tell me what you want,” I said, stalling for time. “Why are you helping them after what they did to us?”
“Like you guys were so wonderful.” Toby made an exasperated noise. “There is no choice, Min. Whoever runs Chrysalis controls every aspect of human life, now and in the future. You need to accept that and submit.” He took a step closer and lowered his voice. “They need us in some way. I don’t understand why, but it’s as obvious as your crush on me. Otherwise they wouldn’t go through all this trouble. Just do what they want. You could have a black suit, too.”
His words disturbed me enough that I didn’t reply. There was too much truth in them. But I thought of the testing I’d endured. Darren’s body on the common room floor.
No. They’d get nothing from me.
Toby must’ve read it in my eyes. “Come on, let’s go. I kinda admire you, Min. Always have. Even though you’re incredibly dumb. Like a pit bull that can flush the toilet.”
“Screw you.”
“Of course.”
Toby pushed lightly on my forearm. I shrugged away, but in truth, I was too weak from the gas to resist. Plus I secretly wanted to see Sophia. I needed another shot at figuring out what she intended, and where the others were being held. I’d saved the Fire Lake sophomore class from one pitiless system. Maybe I could do it again.
The walk seemed endless. Toby led me to a far section of the outer ring. “Where are we going?”
“A special place,” Toby said smugly. “But I promised not to tell, so mum’s the word.”
I bit my tongue. My temperature rose several degrees.
We reached a thick hermetically-sealed door. Toby pressed the access panel, bowed, and stepped backward. “I leave you in good health.” Then he surprised me by placing a hand on my shoulder. My skin crawled, but I didn’t move. “Look, we’ve never gotten along, not even back in school. But I’m giving you the straight truth here. Take my advice and do whatever they want. Join the winning team. I’d prefer you alive and wishing me dead over . . . the alternatives. Wise up, hear?” He winked and headed off, whistling as he strolled away down the corridor.
The door before me glided open. I took a deep breath. Stepped inside.
I entered a sterile chamber with a sleek glass desk at one end, like an office reception. Sophia was sitting behind it, reading her tablet. She looked up and smiled, rising and coming around to stand before me.
I said nothing. I wanted her to make the first move.
“Min,” Sophia greeted warmly, her ageless countenance revealing two rows of perfectly white teeth. “I was watching footage of your latest test. You certainly made it exciting, but showed grit and determination. I have every confidence you could be a leader in the colony.”
I didn’t know how to react, so I chose not to. Are the copies alien, too? Do they even know?
If Sophia was surprised by my silence, she gave no sign. “You did so well, in fact, that I’ve decided to suspend further testing in your case.” Her blue eyes sparkled. “Congratulations. You’ve been selected for colony insertion.”
I swallowed, unsure. Remember what she did. “And the others?”
“Interesting you should mention that, for there is one condition to your advancement.” She walked back to the desk. “We have a problem you can help with. Do so, and your advancement is confirmed.”
Here it comes.
“Noah Livingston has proven to be . . . an irritant.” Sophia’s face was suddenly all hard lines. “I gave him every opportunity, but he refused to take them. You know him well, yet he betrayed you in the Program. Would you like to see the footage?”
Before I could blink, she lifted the tablet. A scene played out on its screen.
Noah, arguing with me on the steps of Town Hall.
Me, turning away in anger.
Noah, lifting his weapon an
d shooting me in the back.
Noah, standing over me. Shooting again.
The pain was as fresh as when it happened. Hot tears spilled onto my cheeks. Watching Noah’s betrayal from a distance somehow made it worse. I could see his expression as he pulled the trigger. I could feel his lack of empathy. His slavish devotion to the Program. He’d shot me without hesitation. Twice.
But he changed after that! He gave his own life for mine more than once.
Sophia closed in like a rattlesnake. “Noah murdered you, Min. Gunned you down without a second thought. We just need your help cleaning him up.”
I blinked wetly, unable to speak.
“Help us, Min. We’ll put you in a secure room and you can send a message. He will come, and we will capture him. Easy. Then he’ll be off to a useful and noble repurposement, and you’ll be free of someone who could do such a horrible thing to you. You can head to the surface and begin an exciting new life in the colony.”
Sophia’s voice was a caress in my ear. There was a seductive logic to her words.
I thought of Toby’s warning. Why was I fighting the inevitable? Say yes and it would all be over.
She killed my father.
I jerked away, shaking from head to foot. What was I thinking?
“Get away from me,” I hissed.
Sophia’s expression turned to stone. “Think this through carefully, Min.”
“You’re all monsters here. I’ll never help you.”
“Very well.” Sophia reached under the desktop and pressed a button. “You prefer the stick, I see.”
The wall behind her lowered, revealing a floor-to-ceiling window. We were looking down into a two-story room that appeared to be some kind of factory. “Good,” Sophia said, turning to peer through the glass. “We’re just in time. One of your classmates is about to experience repurposement. Watch respectfully, Min. This is the highest honor someone not chosen for the colony can receive.”
I didn’t want to look, but had to. I stood beside her by the window, keeping my distance.
Cenisa Davis was marched into the room, wearing the standard white jumpsuit. She was a big girl, with light brown skin and pretty eyes, but her shoulders slumped as a trooper led her to a large red X painted on the floor. Cenisa said something I couldn’t hear—arguing, maybe, or pleading—but the guard paid no attention. He stepped back and the X flashed bright yellow.
Chrysalis Page 26
