by Corey Ostman
“Will do,” said Anna, heading toward the kitchen.
“I’ll get the rifles,” said Raj. The closet by the door. He should have checked there first.
“What about me?” said Avonaco.
“Stand by Dad’s recliner.” She pointed. “Cover the other side of the house.”
“I will only shoot those who are shooting at us.” Avonaco’s voice was measured, almost a chant. But Raj recognized the pride in Avonaco’s tone: the kid was a healer in every sense of the word.
“Fair enough,” said Grace. “Raj?”
“Got them,” said Raj, handing her the guns.
“There’s a pistol in a panel on the stairway,” said Grace as she gave one of the rifles to Avo. “It’s old, but—”
“I’m a bad shot, Grace,” said Raj. “Just tell me where the bullets are, and I’ll be your supplier. Someone has to monitor your and Dan’s vitals anyway.”
“Just keep low, ok?”
Tim entered through one of the open windows.
“I took care of the—Grace!” Tim exclaimed. He trotted up to her, his tail high.
Grace smiled and ran her fingers through his fur.
“Are you—?”
“Ok for now.”
“Did you see any aposti?” asked Raj.
“Yes. They’re closer than before, but they have run out of cover,” said Tim. “We should keep the lights out. It is hard for them to get a good shot on us without infrared. And aposti—”
“Could use infrared. They’ve used tech before,” said Grace.
“True,” said Tim.
“Maybe you should help Anna,” Raj said to Tim. “Everyone with night vision is clustered on this side of the house. She won’t see much in the dark.”
“Ok.” Tim nuzzled Grace and left for the kitchen.
Raj crouched below the windows with Avonaco and Grace. It was quiet. Oddly so: even the prairie wind seemed to have stopped.
Another sound of glass breaking in the kitchen.
“Anna! Are you—” Raj began.
The crackle of Anna’s LEMP snatched the breath from Raj’s throat. He spun in his crouch, ready to spring up and run to the kitchen, when Anna’s voice rang out.
“I think I got one!” she screamed. There wasn’t pleasure in her voice, and there wasn’t relief. She sounded upset.
“There is another one,” Avonaco whispered. “Coming up the winding path.”
“I can’t see a damn thing,” Grace grumbled. She blinked a lot, and Raj worried about her concussion.
“I can,” Avonaco said. He wasn’t tense. Indeed, he seemed almost relaxed as he reached up to the window catch, rotated it, and raised just enough of the window to slide the barrel of the gun through.
Two rifle cracks sounded. The first was outside the house, too close. The second was Avonaco’s.
“The aposti is down,” Avonaco said.
Anna called in from the kitchen. “Tim says they’re backing off. What’s on your side?”
“A couple of infrared hits taking cover,” Raj said.
“Is that it?”
Raj and Grace looked at each other.
“I doubt it,” said Grace.
Dan stirred beside Raj. “Grace?”
“Dad!” Grace yelled, stumbling over the furniture and kneeling by her father. “How’s your head?”
“I’ve had worse,” he grumbled, rubbing his forehead. Dan felt at the medbind, but to Raj’s relief, he didn’t remove it.
“We gettin’ shot at?”
“Aposti,” said Grace.
“On my ranch?”
“At least two of your hands were aposti, Dad.”
Dan began to stand. Raj put a hand on his shoulder, but the elder Donner brushed it aside. He walked slowly to a window and looked out. Raj wondered what he saw with his inborn eyes.
“Hey, what’s your face!” Dan bellowed out the window. “Get off’n my land!”
“You should get some rest, Dad,” Grace said.
Dan looked at Raj. “They movin’? The aposti?”
Raj looked out. “No.”
Dan grunted. “We gotta call the clan together.”
Raj monitored Dan’s deliberate walk into the living room. Stiff, but no obvious injuries. He was lucky. He had encountered an aposti in full combat mode and had lived to tell the tale.
Once in the room, Dan ignored the vid display and reached for his ancient telephone. He removed the mouthpiece from its cradle, dialed a twelve-digit number, and grumbled something Raj couldn’t hear. It didn’t last long.
“There.” Dan said, replacing the mouthpiece. “The Donner clan should be here by morning light.”
“That quick?” said Avonaco.
“It’s clan,” said Dan.
“Do they know what they are protecting?” Avonaco asked.
Dan frowned. “Maybe not.” He began his slow walk back. “But it’s still clan.”
As long as they’re not aposti, thought Raj.
Dan made it most of the way back. He teetered as he neared the couch. Avonaco sprang to his side.
“You should go upstairs and get some rest, sir,” he said.
Raj nodded. “Let the medbind do its work.”
“I’ll go upstairs, but I ain’t gonna sleep,” Dan huffed. “I’ll sit in the easy chair in my bedroom by the window with my rifle.”
“Shall I carry the gun for you?” said Avonaco.
“Fine.”
Raj smiled as his doctor-in-training escorted his patient upstairs.
Grace tapped him on the shoulder.
“I’m going up too.”
“Why?”
“More scope,” said Grace. “And I can keep an eye on Dad. Tell Tim to come up—he can take the other side of the house. You and Anna remain on the first floor and keep watch. Close as many of the doors as you can so that you have a smaller area of defense.”
“All right,” said Raj. “But…Grace?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think the Donner clan will help? A lot of cloisterfolk are sympathetic to aposti.”
“They’ll be here,” she said firmly.
Chapter 31
A muffled sizzle came from downstairs, causing Grace’s heart to skip a beat. She left her window outpost and crept to the top of the stairs.
“Get another, Anna?” Grace said into the blackness.
“Yes, she did,” came Raj’s hushed voice from below.
“Good aim.”
“I learned how to target in Martian storms.” Anna’s voice. “This is nothing.”
Grace smiled. She walked to the end of the hall and peeked in on her father, seeing his familiar form silhouetted in the predawn light of his window. He sat in his bedroom recliner, a shotgun across his lap and a rifle against the wall.
Avo held another rifle, aiming it out the window.
“You ok, Dad?”
“If he keeps his medbind on, gets some rest, and—” Avo began.
“I’m fine, Gracie,” Dad said. “Just a couple of bruises.”
“I’ll bet—” Grace began, but a deep rumbling from her bedroom took the breath from her lungs.
“What the hell was that?” Dad asked.
“Tim!” Grace said, sprinting down the hall. Ahead, dust and smoke filled the doorway to her room. A pulsing white light throbbed from deeper inside.
“Tim?”
“I’m here,” came the calm voice in her dermal dot. “But the aposti who crawled through the window most certainly is not.”
As the dust settled, she noticed one of the windows facing west was gone, and a ragged oval gash stood in its place. She recognized the organic debris on the floor beneath the window, the result of a massive LEMP blast at close range.
“I’m sorry,” Tim said, trotting to her side. “I didn’t see him coming. I overreacted.”
“I’m worried about how close they’re getting to the house before we sight them. Did you see any tech on him?”
“Nothing vi
sible,” said Tim.
The boom of her father’s shotgun reverberated in the hall.
“Dad?”
“That scared him! He’s off’n a run!” said Dad.
“Grace!” Avo shouted.
She spun around and saw Avo running up to her, his eyes wide, his body shivering.
“The aposti are coming too fast,” he said.
She knelt and wrapped her arms around him.
“We’ll be ok,” she said.
“I’m not safe here,” Avo said. “If the aposti find me—”
“Over my dead body.”
“I don’t want anyone to die. I could leave. Slip out—”
“What?”
“I could get halfway to Wheatland by sunrise.”
“What?” Grace repeated. It was all she could muster.
He looked up at her, that sweet face, those kind brown eyes. He smiled, but it wasn’t from happiness. The crinkles were all wrong.
“If I’m right, you’ll hold off the aposti,” Avo said. “Tim is more than capable, he’s ruthless. He’ll drop an aposti point-blank where I might delay and worry about the moral implications,” he continued, dipping his hand into his pocket and pulling out Jaya’s crushed grafty, now wrapped in a storage pouch. “All I’ve got is this. It’s always been about Tim Trouncer, and I’ve hated him for it. But Jaya’s gone, I think it’s time for me to head back home. Soon enough, you’ll have surgery on your face and that’ll be it,” he added, thumbing the grafty in his palm before he returned it to his pocket.
The house grew quiet.
“No, Avo, that isn’t it. And Jaya isn’t gone,” Grace said, holding out her arms. “Come here. Please.”
He turned toward her. She hugged him, at first feeling tension in his body, but then his limbs went limp as he relaxed. At least a little.
“You left me when you saw Tim running toward you. Soon, you and he will be off on your next adventure, and I’ll be left alone,” Avo said. “Forever.”
Grace shook her head. “No. I’ll never leave you.”
But the words seemed to bring back his doubt, his shoulders tensed again. She needed a different tack.
“We need you, Avo. Look what you did! You found Bloom, pulled off Ephron, steered the herd away from us, and used a bull to protect me from an aposti,” she said. “You have a moral code to be proud of.”
“I have a moral code, too, it’s just that I think fas—” Tim began.
Grace raised a finger to silence the PodPooch. She took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts, hoping there would be some semblance of logic.
“Avo: I’m here, and Jaya’s here, too.” She tapped her chest. “When the grafty was installed and Jaya took over, my mind didn’t just go away. I controlled my body, though it was under her direction. But I didn’t have to think too much, and it left me free to explore, and to explore at a pace that felt almost devoid of time.”
Avo cocked his head, staring at her. Tim, too, came alongside.
“In my days with the grafty, I spent years inside Jaya’s memories. I know everything about the time you’ve spent together. More than know, I lived them, too. And I understand how much she loved you because I feel the same way. I love you.
“Please, Avo. Don’t go. I want you to stay with me.” Grace said.
“With us,” Tim said, bumping his snoot against Avo’s arm. “All of us: Grace and me, Raj and Anna.”
Grace cradled Avo’s face, using her thumbs to wipe away his tears.
“MariDora said you should try to make new friends,” she reminded. “And though we’re an odd lot, we’ll always be there for you. So, please, stay.”
She watched him: so still, so quiet. She wondered if her words were enough, if they bridged meaning and understanding.
He opened his eyes and looked at her.
“Ok,” he said.
“Thank you, Avo,” she said. He leaned into her and she circled her arms around him. She stroked his hair, thinking how strange and wonderful her life was. In the middle of a gunfight.
“W-Who goes there?” Raj’s stutter downstairs jolted Grace.
Tim’s eyes flashed.
“Take Avo and hide,” she subvocalized to the PodPooch.
Grace raced down the hall. At the top of the stairs, she looked back in time to see Tim and Avo disappear into her bedroom.
She pulled her phasewave from its holster and stalked down the stairs. Raj stood frozen in the middle of the living room, facing the front door.
“Raj?”
“I heard someone come around the porch.” He pointed.
“Who’s there?” Grace shouted at the door. A faint shadow shifted on the other side of the curtains.
“It’s Zeb, Protector Donner, Ma’am,” said a familiar voice.
“What’re you doing out there, Zeb? The aposti let you through?” It was hard for Grace to say it. She’d known Zeb for a long time. But how strong were his convictions for a family he knew harbored synthetics?
“I ain’t no aposti, ma’am,” said Zeb. “And I’m not armed. See?”
“Hold on,” she said, cracking open the door to the porch. “Raj, could you give us a little light?”
The doctor came behind her, a dull glow radiating from his upgraded eyelids. Zeb’s hands were outstretched, his fingers spread.
“No hidden weapons or upgrades,” murmured Raj.
Grace opened the door the rest of the way. “What’s going on, Zeb?”
“I came up to the house to see if you were all right, ma’am,” he said. “Some of the clan arrived. Spooked the shooters, seems like.”
“How bad is it?” Grace asked.
“Well, Lyle’s dead. Ephron’s missing. And it looks like y’all killed three aposti out here. Everybody else is ok,” Zeb said. “About twenty head of cattle killed. Calves. The rest are starting to recover from whatever you used to stun ‘em.”
“Where’s the clan?” Grace asked, looking past Zeb.
“Waiting for the all-clear before cleaning out the hiding spots.”
“Password?”
“Noodtoestand,” said Zeb. “Tell your folks not to shoot.”
“I will. And thanks,” Grace said, closing the door.
Anna had joined them from the kitchen, and Grace saw her father, Avo, and Tim on the stairs.
“Apparently we’re not supposed to shoot,” said Grace with a smile. “Sounds like it’s the perfect time to get some sleep.”
Chapter 32
Smoky, tangy and sweet. Grace inhaled again, making sure she wasn’t dreaming. Bacon! But not just any bacon. This was Donner Ranch bacon, from pigs raised at home. She listened, imagining the sizzle coming from the kitchen. The aroma meant eggs and flapjacks and rich, hot coffee. No pucks, no synthetic meat: just good, honest ranch cooking.
Grace opened her eyes and sat up. No dizziness. She turned the tassel of the medbind around her head and saw its green indicator: treatment was done. She unwrapped it, tossing it on the wicker chair beside the bed.
She was alone in the room, but she heard people talking below, and outside. There was a gentle breeze blowing the curtains, carrying the sweet smell of grass. Judging from the sunlight, it was about mid-morning.
Grace bounced out of bed. She stretched, jumped in place a few times, and stepped over to the dresser. In the mirror, Jaya’s dark eyes stared back. There were circles under them, though Grace didn’t feel very tired. The promise of flapjacks had driven all notions of sleep from her head. She smoothed her hair back, then reached for her jumper on the back of the door and stepped into it.
She watched Jaya’s movements in the mirror as she got dressed. She’d gotten used to seeing Jaya’s arms, but seeing herself in the mirror was more distracting and dysphoric. She’d have to change back soon. Her body, anyway. She wondered if she and Jaya would ever be separated in her mind. While she was reconciled to it, Jaya was not just a mod, the way a new pair of eyes or a mechflesh arm would be. Jaya was a person. Could she just conti
nue wearing the mind of someone else? And if she did—if there was no way around it—what if Avo retrieved Jaya from the grafty? What would happen to her version of Jaya?
“Gracie! Bacon’s almost done!” shouted Dad.
She grabbed Marty from the dresser and strapped it to her waist. She’d worry about this after bacon.
Grace opened the door and walked down the hallway. Voices filtered up from below. To her surprise, she could hear Avo babbling just as much as any of the others. She descended the stairs to find everyone sitting in the living room. Avo was wearing a cowboy hat and talking to Tim’s flank. He was smiling!
As she moved into the living room and behind Avo, Grace saw that Tim’s mimic fabric had transformed from canine fur to a vid screen. She could see MariDora’s grinning face.
“I think staying with Grace and Tim is a wonderful idea,” MariDora said.
“Me, too,” Grace said, plopping down beside Avo.
“There she is!” MariDora smiled at Grace. “How’re you doing, honey?”
Grace grinned. “I’m fine. Avo and I make a good team.”
“I told you he’d come in handy.” MariDora’s smile sparkled, then grew serious. “We all just want to participate, to live outside like everybody else. Port Casper needs to do right by its synthetic citizens.” She gestured at them. “Folks like you can help bridge the divide.”
Grace nodded, but she thought of the aposti spreading across Wyoming Compstate. They would need more than a bridge.
Dad stuck his head out from the kitchen. He looked much better than last night. “Set the table, kids!”
Breakfast! “Gotta go. I’ll see you and Hitch when I’m back in Port Casper.”
“Goodbye, Grace,” MariDora blew her a kiss.
“I will see you soon,” Avonaco said, reaching his fingers out to MariDora’s image and touching her hair.
Grace was up and running to get dishes from the china cabinet before the vid screen faded.
“Did I miss anything?” Raj asked, coming in from the porch.
“You will if you don’t start bringing the food out!” Dad yelled from the kitchen.
Grace scooted out of the way so Raj could get past her and into the kitchen, then started laying down plates, silverware, and mugs. Something as routine as setting the table felt wonderful, a simple pleasure that Grace had missed.
