Sanctuary Falling

by Pamela Foland

  Annette glanced down at herself and darted back into the bathroom. She showered and returned to the bedroom wrapped in a towel. “I don’t have any clothing, at least none that will fit anymore.”

  Tawny’s speakers burbled with electronic laughter, “Not a problem, I’ve anticipated your needs. Pardon the privacy issue but I got a good scan of you and there is a new outfit in the cupboard for you in your new size.”

  Shy but grateful, Annette opened the cupboard door revealing a new purple jumpsuit, shoes and womanly undergarments. On the lapel was Tawny’s spider-like remote pin. “I can’t wear that, it’s the wrong color!”

  “I know your brain is a bit fuzzy, but don’t you recognize a second year trainee’s coverall?” Tawny responded with another electronic laugh.

  Annette paused, then snatched up the clothes and returned to the bathroom to change. She felt guilty, seeing as she hadn’t been officially issued the outfit, but she was a second year student. Indisputably so, seeing as she’d been promoted to it by the chief factor herself. Annette pulled on the clothes and zipped up the front of the coverall.

  When she came out of the bathroom she found a meal waiting for her on the desk. The smell seemed to reach down into her stomach telling it to growl. Whatever was the case, she crossed the room and began shoveling food, a kind of fruity stew, into her mouth before the intention to had formed in her brain. With one hand furiously transporting spoon between the plate and her face it took concentration to get the other to pull out the chair to sit and eat. Once that small roadblock was past, the spare hand grabbed the slice of rustic wheat bread and began punctuating the stew with it. Annette emptied the bowl with single minded attentiveness and it instantly refilled without a request to Tawny. Two bowls later Annette came to her senses enough to casually wonder what she had been eating, but was smart enough not to ask. Finally, she regained control of the spoon.

  “Better?” Tawny asked once the spoon stopped.

  Annette had to think a moment, she hadn’t realized she had been starving until the food was there. Annette was going to miss Tawny when she moved to her new quarters. “Yes, how did you know?”

  “I’ve taken care of a Briaunti before,” Tawny added in a machine’s best imitation of a wistful tone.

  “You miss her,” Annette said.

  “I miss . . . everything. Until you came along it had been 4.512 years since anyone bothered to address me and then it was to inform me I was being erased. I have enjoyed interacting with you and observing others through my remote pin.” Tawny’s speakers fell strangely quiet, and the pin disappeared from Annette’s lapel suddenly.

  The silence scared Annette, “Tawny?”

  “I am still here, I have informed Tina that you are on your way to the clinic and have contacted Niri. She will meet you after you have seen Tina, I have also taken the liberty of sending your belongings forward to your new quarters. Congratulations on becoming a factor trainee,” Tawny’s voice came only through the suddenly hollow sounding room speakers.

  Annette wished she could stay, and realized that if she made the request Niri just might allow it, “Tawny I could . . .”

  “No! You have places to go and people to impress! I agreed to offer you shelter until your testing was over and you have overstayed. Time for you to get out!”

  “But!” Annette protested.

  “You have an appointment with Tina and she is a very busy woman,” Tawny replied. Annette heard the snick of the door unlocking.

  Annette frowned and walked to the door. She wanted to protest but there was nothing to be said. “Goodbye Tawny.” Annette opened the door and walked out without another word. It hurt when the lock snicked behind her. Annette felt like an alien in her own body. Her legs were all wrong. Each step felt like she was stepping off the last unexpected stair of a flight of stairs. Worse everything seemed so much smaller than it had been yesterday.

  When she reached the practice cavern at least it was still reassuringly enormous. It still made her feel small. One thing disturbed her though, it was unusually empty. This time of day the room should be filled with the full rainbow of jumpsuits plus a spattering of street clothes. Fewer than twenty other people were in the room and all but one of them were wearing red. The red jumpsuits were gathered together at the far end their attention on a remote control hover plane doing tricks. Annette thought about inquiring about the absence, instead she set for the exit. It was too far to walk for information she would come across eventually. Especially considering it probably had a lot to do with the recent power shift. She kept her focus on the exit, trying to let her feet work unsupervised. She paid special attention to avoiding the obstacle course support which had such an auspicious impact on her life.

  Dimly she heard the pattering of approaching feet, “Annette?”

  She stopped and glanced at the approaching flash of purple, the only other second year trainee in the room. “Yes?”

  “I knew it!” He shouted, voice and face registered in Annette’s mind as Carl. “I was sure it had to be you! When did you metamorphose?”

  “Last night,” Annette paused. She was fairly certain it had only been one night. Just the question made her feel Tawny’s absence keenly. “What day is today?”

  “April 22nd,” Carl answered.

  That confirmed for her that she’d only slept for twenty-four hours. It also reminded her that she was now officially one year older. Today was her fourteenth birthday. “Happy birthday me,” She mumbled to herself.

  “Really?” Carl asked, “It’s your first as a woman. I have a gift for you.”

  Before she could ask what, one of the first year trainees shouted “Look out!” The object of the warning, the small remote control hovercraft rammed into the side of Annette’s head. Annette blinked, strangely the floor seemed to rise to meet her. Then she realized, as her head hit the floor that she was falling to meet it. As she lost consciousness she could only think, “It wasn’t fair, she had avoided the pole this time.”

  Annette’s eyes slowly came back into focus. She recognized the flat flawless white of the clinic ceiling. Her head throbbed and swam, with the ringing in her ears. Her first thought, other than that she was awake, was that she was late for something. She tried to shove herself up, but fell back, flattened by a wave of nausea. She briefly worried Niri would be angry, before the memories of how she lost consciousness came back to her.

  She’d been the victim of a air to floor collision. Annette lifted a hand to her forehead, no lump this time though, at least not up front. Well, she was in the clinic. She closed her eyes to the blank clinic ceiling and willed them not to open again. Blindly she heard the door hiss open.

  “How’s my patient?” A sickeningly upbeat female voice asked.

  “I’m swell Tina!” Annette growled, and glared at Tina.

  “Okay, now do you want to tell me why you didn’t come to see me of your own volition about your metamorphosis?” Tina asked.

  “Why didn’t you ever get around to telling me I was Briaunti?” Annette parried.

  “Touché,” Tina replied, “but seriously metamorphoses can be very dangerous and should be properly supervised.”

  “Well, for one I didn’t know I was having a metamorphosis until it was over, and for two, I was properly supervised. Tawny was keeping her >eye’ on me,” Annette said on the defensive.

  “Who is Tawny?”

  Annette grimaced, her head hurt and Tina was grilling her not healing, “The program in Corrine Dayton’s old room.”

  “And it’s an expert?” Tina asked retrieving a device from the cupboard and placing it on Annette’s forehead, “Hold still, but let me know if this makes you dizzy or nauseous.”

  Annette felt a slight vibration through her back teeth and the pain abated slightly.

  “Ready to sit up?” Tina asked lifting the device.

  Annette sat, no dizziness but the pain remained. “What about the pain?”

  Tina turned back in the act of put
ting away the device. “It should be gone.”

  “Guess again,” Annette held hand to the side of her head the toy had impacted. The pain didn’t seem to be coming from there, because the touch had no effect. Instead it was more of a generalized pressure on the back of her mind.

  Tina scanned Annette’s head, and frowned, “Can’t find anything.” Annette heard a soft pop halfway through “can’t” and the rest of Tina’s words seemed to echo loudly. Then minus the echo Annette heard, “Could be a slight mis-calibration, or maybe an alternate neural concern, possibly . . .”

  Annette shook her head and made a guess, “You’re thinking awfully loudly.”

  “I’m sorry . . .What did you say!?” Tina echoed painfully in Annette’s ears and mind.

  “You know what you heard,” Annette massaged her temples as Tina’s internal speculations exploded in a hundred directions at once. “Oh, ouch!”

  Tina’s thoughts quieted but didn’t disappear from the edges of Annette’s mind. “Is that better?”

  Annette could only nod.

  Tina opened a panel on a cupboard door revealing an order screen, she tapped at the screen until apparently satisfied. Then she opened the cupboard and retrieved the headband inside. “I hope this will work. I’m honestly not sure if it will be powerful enough. The only way I could be sure would be to run an Everett. I don’t know if you could handle the test, and it wouldn’t be of any help if you’re too far off scale. Hopefully, you’ll scale down once your metamorphosis is over.” There was no echo to Tina’s words, and her lips were definitely not moving. APut this on.”

  Annette did as she was told and felt the pain-pressure dissipated. She realized, only from its absence that, it had been building for months. Her head felt almost empty without the pressure. It was like her head was ten pounds lighter, or like it held up her body rather than the other way around.

  Tina smiled, then spoke, “I will assume you didn’t hear me ask you if you heard me.”

  Annette smiled back, “No, and I’ve never been happier not to hear someone else’s thoughts.”

  Tina’s eyebrows rose, “It was that bad?”

  Annette offered a meek nod in response.

  Tina smiled weakly, “Well, the good news is we have a temporary solution. The bad news is that your subconscious is already striving to hear what it is now missing and it will find a way around the suppressor if we don’t wean you off gradually. Now the really scary news, my past experience suggests that if your levels don’t reduce on their own, I will have to intervene. I don’t want to do that. Namely because I only have a rough idea what you are. Yes, you are briaunti, but not from any of the known lineages.”

  Less than encouraged, Annette slipped into fear when her reading of Tina’s face spoke of the woman’s worry. Was she peeking around the suppressor already, or was she reading body language? Annette shifted her thoughts to other concerns, avoiding the unpleasant. “What about training, can I start training?”

  Tina laughed, shaking her head, “I’m telling you I might have to do a serious procedure and you’re still worried about becoming a factor. Yes, you can begin training, but no amplifier or psychokinetic training until I say so! And if you experience any dizziness, nausea or headaches I want to know immediately! By the way, congratulations on the purple.” Tina closed the cupboard and the panel before heading towards the door. “I have other emergencies to take care of, I’ll send Niri in on my way out.”

  No amp or kinetics, Annette shook her head at the idea, until very recently she hadn’t considered either as much of an option. Now they were two of the things she was curious to try. Could she maybe move things with her mind now? Could that ability have come with telepathy?

  “How are you doing?” Niri asked from the hall as she entered the room. The surprised look on her face and sudden speechlessness once she saw Annette was priceless.

  Annette rose to a standing position and found herself taller than her mentor. “I’m fine, and the weather up here is clear and sunny.”

  “W-w-what did you do?” Niri barely managed to stutter.

  “I had a metamorphosis, turns out I am a very rare form of Briaunti,” Annette wasn’t sure if she was boasting or not, or even if it was something worth boasting about.

  Niri smiled, “Chavez would crap a brick! Heck he probably will. Ooooh, can I be there when he sees you for the first time? Talk about hidden potential! Did Tina tell you what your rating is?”

  “No, she didn’t run an Everett, she was afraid of what it might do to me. What she did do is give me this,” Annette tapped her headband, “and make dire proclamations about what could happen if my rating didn’t back down a bit.”

  Niri chewed on her bottom lip, “I guess that means rest and relaxation for you.”

  Annette spoke up quickly, “No, I checked as long as I stay away from kinetics or amps and don’t strain my brain in that way I can begin my official factor training.”

  Niri closed her eyes and shook her head. “You don’t have to try so hard anymore, you’re in and nobody is going to take it away from you now. The only person intent on trying probably wouldn’t even object now. Come on let’s get you some quarters, and officially requisition you some more of those purple jumpsuits. Let me guess, Tawny got you that one. I think that room is going to miss you. Maybe I should make an exception and let you stay there,” Niri said opening her eyes to look Annette over.

  “No, Tawny made noises that I was no longer welcome. She said she already sent my things on to my new quarters,” Annette replied, sorry to think about the move.

  “Okay, Did she mention which quarters it was that I’m going to assign you to?” Niri asked, “Oh never mind, I’m guaranteed to pick the right ones. I know! I’ll put you on the alpha two floor you’ll be the first one, your floor mates will join you after everyone has finished reassessment.”

  “Is that where everyone was this morning?” Annette asked heading towards the door.

  “Yeah, everybody is testing so I can place them properly, as opposed to Chavez-style. Some of them are going to receive well deserved demotions. I’m also trying to locate everyone Chavez rejected out of hand. Trouble is his reject pile is large and not every one of them is like you. Some of them actually shouldn’t be factors. Worse is the group like Tony, those ill equipped to be factors that have been lulled into the false belief they’re doing alright. I have so much to do!” Niri exhaled violently and stepped back out into the hall, “So do you, Angela meant it when she said she wanted you to start training today. I have a ton of actual books waiting for you in my office. Angela sent them over this morning. Though some of them don’t quite make sense. I mean really what does Tom Sawyer have to do with factoring? And why not just send the files on pad?” Niri shook her head again.

  Annette was elated, real books were a treasure most people in Sanctuary didn’t appreciate, like Niri implied they were heavy and could be better replaced by files on a pop-pad that is unless a person took into account the psychological satisfaction of turning the pages and the smell of the paper. Annette smiled spontaneously. Of course Angela had real books.

  Niri was still mumbling half to herself and had started off down the hall. Annette had to rush to catch up, though her newly longer legs took less time to do it. She even found it necessary to slow her pace once she caught up to Niri. “What am I going to do about my replacement?” Niri asked an elevator door while they waited for the elevator to arrive.

  Annette knew better than to even try to answer. She wasn’t sure Niri needed a replacement, after all the woman had practically run the department before, the only difference was now she was giving the orders too. The elevator door snuck up on them, and they entered. It took them swiftly to the residential level where most quarters and shops were located. It was a departure from Annette’s expectations. “Why are we coming here?”

  Niri smiled, “You are an official factor trainee now. You have control of your own allotment and you could use a few outfits, s
omething nice. You can credit any outfit you like.”

  Annette considered it. She really had nothing that fit anymore, then again the only outfit she’d wanted for so long was the one she was wearing. “Actually, I’d rather go to my quarters. I still need some time to process.”

  Niri looked disappointed, it seemed like she wanted to do the shopping thing more than she wanted to get back to the business at hand. It was far different from the focused Niri of even one day ago.

  “Maybe you need time to process too,” Annette added, in response to the insight.

  Niri paused, stopped. Her mouth didn’t move, speechless again. Tears began welling from her eyes. “I don’t know how to do this.”

  “Yes, you do, you do the same things you’ve always done. You don’t have to teach every class. You have people to do that. All you have to do is make sure everyone is where they belong and that they keep doing their job. It isn’t hard. It isn’t scary. It is just what you do,” Annette said leading Niri to a bench to sit. People walked by them on the sidewalk, glancing at Niri’s tears. Some flashed smiles of sympathy others glared at such blatant emotionalism in public. Annette knew it was a side-effect of the telepathic culture.

  Niri managed to regain her composure, “When did you get so smart?”

  Annette smiled, “I’ve always been smart. Remember! It’s what got you into this mess.”

  Niri smiled again, “Let’s get you into those quarters kid.” Niri went straight for the nearest transport booth. Annette squeezed in with her. “Alpha Two trainee quarters please.” The booth control screen showed a map of Sanctuary with the appropriate floor and room of the complex highlighted. Niri nodded and tapped the activation key.

  This time the trip pulled at Annette’s mind differently than it had ever before. She’d noticed strange sensations but never the strong dizzying force that this trip through the transport system gave her. Fortunately it didn’t persist beyond their arrival.