by L B Garrison
Mandy scanned the platform. It took a moment, but she found a discreetly located air vent on the far side. Through the girl, Mandy could see the dandelion-spiders gathering on the vent and jumping into the air stream formed by the station’s cooling system.
“Why aren’t we moving?” Mandy mumbled.
Cisco stood beside her. “It might be waiting to see if anyone else shows up.”
The girl sat in a seat by the door, with her fingers curled around one of the poles. “The further it spreads, the faster it goes, the stronger It becomes and the more lives it threatens.”
The little machines were too small to see, but Mandy knew where each one was. They drifted in the air, hopping from walls to floating dust motes on a trajectory for the open train door.
Cisco stood next to Mandy. “There isn’t anything we can do. The train will leave when it wants to.”
The lights blinked.
A dozen of the dandelion-spiders tumbled towards the open door.
“And here we go,” said the happy train. The doors folded shut.
The spiders landed on the window, which was slick on the molecular level. They clawed, trying to find a niche.
Mandy punched the glass, sending them tumbling as the train pulled away. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath, until it came out in a rush.
Cisco sat on the bench across from Mandy, a more aloof social distance than he had been keeping. “The hard part is over. We’ll be back with Bailey and Alex in a few minutes.”
They left the station behind and accelerated until the lights along the tunnel melded together into a glowing line. Strange, Mandy didn’t feel the train move at all and it was nearly silent. Not completely a good thing, since Cisco had evidently given up on conversation. Who could blame him, really? She should make an effort.
Mandy dropped the drink bottle in a cup holder and took a seat. The train’s tunnel merged with others until they were in a stone cavern with tracks stretching into the distance. Tracks flexed and moved, constantly switching routes.
Cisco turned to watch the shifting tracks.
The girl crossed her legs and stared out the window. “Each worker assigned to the city’s construction had a Tamashii. I can’t find any active signals. In days this planet will be lifeless. Other worlds will follow.”
Mandy laid her hands in her lap. The girl had motivation to lie, but was she?
“Do you wish to stay because of him?” the girl asked. “He’ll never be Landin and you aren’t human. To Cisco you’re just a doll, not worth emotional attachment. Can you justify the cost of delaying?”
The girl knew just where to attack. How to crush the secret hopes of finding love and acceptance that Mandy wouldn’t admit to herself. All to push Mandy toward suicide when she was vulnerable.
“You’ll always be alone,” the girl said.
“You’re a monster,” Mandy snapped. Her words had explosive force in the quiet cabin.
Cisco looked over from the window to stare at her.
He must think she’d gone insane. If she told him everything, he would have no doubts. As impractical as it seemed, the truth had to come out. “Cisco, I’m going to tell you something. Promise me you won’t completely lose it.”
Cisco turned from the window, his feet pointed toward Mandy. At least she had his attention.
“We have a few minutes,” he said. “I make no promises though.”
“Fair enough.” Mandy rubbed her palms on her jeans. Why so sweaty? Was she broken? “I’m just going to say it.”
The train switched tracks and moved smoothly around a curve into another tunnel. The windows went dark.
The girl sat on the edge of her seat. “Well, go on. This is destine to be the highlight of my night.”
Mandy wanted to roll her eyes so hard. Her mouth dried up like the Arabian Desert as she formed her next words. “Cisco, I’m a machine.”
Cisco stayed perfectly still for a moment, then slid back in his seat. “So, Bailey was right.”
Psycho-girl sat up in her seat. “What?”
Mandy glanced at the girl. ”I don’t understand.”
Cisco paused a moment, as if choosing his words. “Remember, I was talking to Bailey when we were in the tunnel waiting for her to open the grating? I told her how you stopped those animal-things. Bailey pointed something out. Even with enhancements a person couldn’t move as fast as you. Their brains couldn’t keep up.”
So he knew or suspected? Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. After all, it was the future, and strange things must be possible. But the silence stretched and Cisco didn’t move. Didn’t make eye contact.
Pressure built in Mandy’s chest until she thought she’d pop. “Whatever you’re feeling is legitimate. It’s okay to say it.”
Cisco virtually leaped from his seat and started pacing the length of the train car with his back to Mandy. It was as if he couldn’t stand to be close to her anymore.
The girl watched him pass and stayed quiet.
“You lied to us Mandy. At least through omission and I thought we trusted each other.” He paused, then sped up in his journey to a dead-end. “You act like you don’t know anything, and then you pretend to drown. I don’t understand what game you’re playing. Was Alex right in the beginning? Are you part of this invasion? That doesn’t make sense either. What are you hiding? Or should I say what else?”
The raw emotion in his tone punched her in the stomach. She had started this. She needed to finish. “It’s a long story, but basically I’m a copy of a person who lived a long time ago. That’s why everything is new to me. I really don’t know. And, I guess, because I think I’m human, I react like one. I still feel pain. Physical and emotional.”
He reached the end of the car, pivoted and just stood there.
Mandy rubbed her eyes. “Ask yourself this, Cisco, why would I lie then, and tell you the truth now? I didn’t know before. God, I thought convincing you I was a machine would be the hard part.”
He started the return trip. “The Orion Union has laws against technologies that could dehumanize, as they call it. Outside the Union I know there are human like AIs and androids that look like people.”
He paused and sat across from her again. “I’ve just never met one.”
Mandy gave him a slight waved of her hand. “Oh, uh . . . hi.”
Cisco’s eyes smiled and eventually, it spread to the rest of his face. “Hi.”
“Cisco, I’m not part of what’s going on. Maybe I’m being presumptuous, but I consider you a friend. I wouldn’t do anything against your best interests. I think I proved that when you were unconscious. And I wouldn’t deceive you. Well, except when I said I wanted a drink, but I felt bad about even that. ”
Beads of condensate tricked across the burgundy cherry symbol.
Cisco looked at the untouched bottle in the cup holder. “I knew you didn’t want it. You wanted to be alone for some reason. I gather it was so you could talk to yourself. That’s new and significant.”
“You can read me, can’t you? The reason I know all this now and didn’t before is that the AI that belongs to this body woke up and told me. I’m guessing she uses some kind of direct feed into my senses, like a retinal projection, or something. Only I can see and hear her. She’s sitting over there.” Mandy nodded to the bench seat on the other side of the doorway.
The girl leaned forward. “Why is he still talking to you like you’re human?”
Cisco followed Mandy’s gaze. “Who is she?”
Mandy met the girl’s eyes, but got nothing. “I don’t know much about her. Not even her name. I’ve come to think of her as Psycho-girl, because she’s got her panties in a perpetual wad.”
The girl huffed. “Machines don’t wear—Rin. The name is Rin.”
Mandy bit her lower lip for a moment, then tried to relax. She couldn’t show anxiety. She had to be confident. “Sorry about the moniker, but you didn’t get me anything to go on. It’s kind of like we’re meeting ea
ch other for the first time, isn’t it? Could we start over?”
“Stop it, Mandy,” Rin whispered, staring at the floor. “Don’t try to humanize yourself to gain my sympathy. Only one of us can inhabit this body and it should be the one who can make the best use of it. That isn’t you. For the greater good, you have to be neutralized and the time is coming soon.”
Rin faded into nothing.
Mandy’s chest tightened, making breathing a little harder. Other versions of Mandy had existed once—and didn’t anymore. How could she hope to escape a fate others just like her hadn’t? And should she even try?
“What happened?” Cisco asked.
“I don’t know,” Mandy whispered.
“What?”
“Sorry. Her name is Rin, apparently. She confirmed her panties are indeed in a wad, then she threatened me and left. It’s kind of our thing.” Mandy leaned back to let her head bump against the window and closed her eyes. “I guess I’m going to have to repeat all this for Alex. My afterlife is so exhausting.”
Fabric shifted. Cisco must have changed position. “I think Alex suspects you’re more than an enhanced human. It would take a lot of equipment to do what you do and there isn’t enough room in a trim little package for it.”
“Trim little package?”
“I hoped you wouldn’t notice that. It slipped out.”
Yeah, she had noticed how handsome he was. “It sounds like a compliment, so I’ll take it, though it’s not my body. I’ll have you know I was cute, when I was a real girl. I got free nachos once.”
“It must be so hard for you.”
Mandy frowned. “No. I was sitting by myself, dressed conservatively and they just showed up. I wasn’t doing anything to solicit Mexican fare. Why nachos anyway? If I was a guy, I’d think sopapillas. I guess the honey would be sticky, though. Maybe that’s why?”
“I meant, all this must be hard for you. You told me it was the people that made home special for you.”
Her heart bumped, like it had misfired. God, he listens. He understands. It was so wonderful and sad in one bite. She sat up. “Yeah. For everyone else, it’s been a thousand years, but for me, it’s been a few days. It’s like my life was just getting started and I missed out on the adventure. I’ll never know if Sage and Austin stayed together or if Mom and Daddy got back together.”
“Bailey could do a search and find out what happened,” Cisco suggested.
They moved into a wider tunnel. A second train, with empty cars, ran alongside them on Cisco’s side.
She watched the other train veer off into the darkness along its own path. Her words tumbled out and she didn’t really know what they would be. “I loved my Daddy, but he wasn’t the most responsible guy. Then something happened to me. Bills mounted. It looked like they would spend their lives taking care of me. So—he left. I’ve never told anyone, not even Sage this next part, I was showing off for him that day. Doing a front wheelie when he specifically told me not to.”
Cisco sat beside Mandy, pressing the cushions down. “It was his decision to leave and not your fault.”
“I know. Sometimes what you think and feel don’t line up. He might have left later anyway, or he might have stayed, but he did leave because of my mistake. Mom is—was alone because of me. Anyways, neither of them remarried and I always thought they would get back together. If it happened, I missed it. Reading about it wouldn’t be the same.”
The soft hum of the train’s drive fields filled the silence. Odd. With Landin, she usually tried to keep the conversation going, but there seemed no need to break the silence. It wasn’t awkward, but comforting, like an old quilt on a cold night. Cisco probably wouldn’t like the analogy. Was she compensating for under-sharing in her last life? Maybe. Or perhaps by telling her deepest secret, she was burying her old life for good. Introspection could be a twisted path.
“You know about Bailey,” Cisco asked.
“I know she’s here as some kind of punishment.”
“There is more to it. She is the heiress to the Timesmith fortune and her family disowned her. At least officially. My branch of the De La Rosa family ran Glint until the minor branches took advantage of a power vacuum and exiled us.”
“I’m sorry, Cisco. So, you’re all sort of royalty.”
“In a way. Our exile is why Bailey and I became close. No one has lost as much as you have, but we have something in common.” He took Mandy’s hand. “I’m here for you. You aren’t alone. I just want you to know that.”
Mandy squeezed his hand. “I just wish . . .”
“Wish what?”
That I was still real. Mandy let go. “I just want everyone safe.”
The train ran through an arching brace with lacy fingers that spread across the tunnel’s roof. The walls squirmed like windblown leaves. Something struck the roof and bounced down the length of the cabin.
Cisco pressed close to the window. “Building weavers. The city should be brimming with them, but Bailey couldn’t find any to dig us out. This is where they all went.”
Looking into the dark tunnel from the train’s bright interior meant staring through Rin’s reflection. No thanks. “Why are they here?”
More chunks hit the train and a layer of gray powder dusted the windows.
Cisco shook his head. “It looks like they’re taking the supports apart. That would cause the quakes. They’re supposed to build cities.”
The train passed through the brace and from the multitrack room into an individual tunnel. It decelerated quickly.
“We’re approaching Eden Park Station, folks,” said the train. “Prepare to disembark and enjoy the rest of your day.”
Mandy frowned, remembering the vision Rin had shown her of the nanomechs destroying the city. “I think they’re breaking the things apart to increase the surface area for digestion.”
Far down the tunnel, an amber glow swallowed the darkness. The whizzing tunnel lights slowed as the train moved into the station. Platform columns slid past with the same curious lack of sensation, until they stopped in front of a wall of glossy oak planks.
“Cisco, can you get off Demeter?”
He gave Mandy a sideways glance. “You just need to buy a ticket. Persephone’s Landing is the biggest space port on Demeter and probably where we’re headed next.”
Mandy gave him a fleeting smile. “We’ve got to get you, Bailey and Alex to Persephone’s Landing before people start figuring out how bad things are.”
“If things get that bad, you can’t stay either.”
Mandy glanced at the spot where Rin had been. “Yeah, that’s what she said. Do me a favor. I should be the one to tell Alex about me, but the truth has to wait. It’s important for her to focus on the real danger, instead of worrying about a rear attack by some robo-girl. Will you let me choose the time?”
“Well, since we’re friends now.”
Her hand had slipped onto his shoulder all on its own. She withdrew as nonchalantly as she could. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”
“A little.” He smiled.
She had known Landin for weeks before she dared break the plane of his personal space, much less do it spontaneously. Had dying loosened her up? It didn’t matter. There could be no future with Cisco or any boy. Still, Mandy kept returning to the same thought — Cisco hadn’t moved away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
A
n infinite maze of red lacquered pylons and jade dragon statues formed Eden Park Station. Overhead, branches, heavy with pink cherry blossoms, swayed it a soundless wind. Swirling patches of shadow and light played across the stone floor. Cicadas buzzed.
“Cisco!” Bailey ran down the rows of lacquered black benches. She embraced Cisco, pulling him off balance.
“So. How have you been?” Cisco chuckled, warm and rich.
“I was genuinely worried, Cisco, and with good cause,” Bailey said.
Mandy watched white and orange coy swish in a dark pond surrounded by benches. A bre
athless ache for Sage and Landin permeated her.
Bailey reached out and pulled Mandy into the embrace with Cisco. “I assume you’re fine as well.”
Mandy put her arms around the two of them. It just happened. Like hopping on a bike after ten years and just letting the wind flow through her hair. “Well, it’s about time you got around to asking.”
Bailey rolled her eyes.
“Get moving.” Alex stood sideways to them at the end of the sloping path with her rifle pointed up. A wisp of a smile softened her scowl. “We’ll get caught up on the way to the Biblioteca.”
At the top of the stairs, streetlamps glowed in Demeter’s perpetual drizzle. The rain was warm. Even at midday, the temperature had never been more than fifty degrees, but vapor rose from the damp sidewalks. On the far side of the onyx road, wilted scarlet trees shed leaves that whirled in the hot night wind.
Orange lightning shattered the night and thunder echoed. Above the city, a purple stain reflected flashes of lightning and rolled over the buildings like a slow tidal wave. The waste heat from the nanomechs warmed the air. The cloud was so vast and turbulent, it created its own weather and drove the wind before it.
Cisco grabbed Mandy’s arm. “We have to leave.”
Mandy shook herself and ran back to the T30 with the others. She sat in the back seat behind Bailey with Cisco beside her.
Alex locked her rifle into a slot between the front seats. As soon as the others were aboard, she peeled away from the curb and onto a forested road. They sped down the onyx path through ruby trees, past slides and swings in a park where children would never play.
Mandy turned back and gripped the headrest as Alex whipped around a curve in the road. Buildings crumbled in the mist before her view of the rolling cloud was hidden by the trees. Mandy had thought she could protect them, though her strength was inconsistent. She was a fool.
Rin sat next to the window. “The city’s resources can’t fall to them.”
Alex clutched the wheel, intent on the road and mumbling about the auto-pilot not being motivated enough. Bailey sat next to Alex with a death grip on the armrest.
“What are you going to do?” Mandy whispered.
