by Aaron Bunce
“Two thirty-five?” Soraya asked, looking to Jacoby.
“Is Anna the only one of you that paid attention in Chemistry? Seriously?” Poole cried out.
“The atomic number for uranium. He thinks I’m dense and likes finding subtle ways to remind everyone,” Jacoby said quietly.
“Oh. Wow. That’s mean.”
“Subjective, corn cakes, but sadly true,” Poole laughed.
“Okra Cakes? Corn cakes?” Soraya asked. He felt her irritation grow–a noticeable heat radiating just beneath her normally cool and calm exterior.
“I am who I am,” Jacoby interrupted before she could respond. “I’m not a rocket scientist. I’m just a guy that cracked the wrong rock. I won’t apologize for trying to help Anna. I don’t regret that. I love her and will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. I’d do…no, I will do the same for all of you. My one regret is pulling the doc and Emiko into harm’s way. If I had taken her by myself, doc Reeds might still be with us.”
Poole groaned, his eyebrows arching. “Just when I think you’re making progress you get into the potty and finger paint with poo all over the walls!”
“Shut up,” Jacoby spat back.
Poole leaned forward, a small pair of spectacles appearing on the tip of his nose. He waggled a finger in Jacoby’s face and said, “If you had taken her to the hospital block by yourself, mister Jack, you both would have been torn apart. Or…or, you would have gotten there and realized that the surgical pod isn’t controlled by beating a stick against the screen or licking a rock and sticking it up your nose.”
Jacoby’s face grew hot almost immediately, a startling wave of fire and angst flooding out through his core, out into his arms, and up his neck. He took a step forward.
“Stop,” Soraya snarled, hooking her other hand around his waist, and wrenching him back. “How do you two expect to ever make this work if you can’t stop insulting each other. For god’s sake, you’re like a couple of fucking kids.”
“He started it,” Poole spat, smirking.
“Just…stop!”
“You don’t get to call me stupid,” Jacoby rumbled, the faintest bit of golden hue tainting his vision. His voice was different in his ears–dark, deep, and unfamiliarly resonant.
His anger bubbled, surging, and spiking like a rearing, out-of-control beast. He tried to fight it, to refuse the violent urges, but it was taking on a life of its own. The dark veins filled the skin around Poole’s eyes as he stepped forward, mirroring Jacoby’s movement. They were connected, after all, one’s anger polluting the other.
“Enough!” Soraya yelled and pulled Jacoby back again. “Honestly. This shit is what almost got all of us killed back there. How many could we have saved if you two were just able to accept your differences and work together? How many people could have benefited from your strength, Jacoby?” she twisted Jacoby’s head around. He fought to look away and not meet her eyes, but she wrestled his face in close.
“Stop dwelling and stop letting him…get…under…your…skin.”
“Stellar advice, Jacky-Boy. You should really–” Poole started to say, but Soraya rounded on him.
“You need to just…stop! You are like an alien S.T.D with a bad attitude and the inability to recognize when you’ve gone too far. Would it kill you to say something nice to him every once in a while?” Soraya said. She held Jacoby by the arms, her grip so tight he could feel his heart beating in his fingers.
She lost her husband! Lost everything. All those people…they’re just gone. None of them are coming back. We’re alive.
Soraya’s exasperation, desperation, and irritation crashed into him. Jacoby didn’t just feel it, but he actually heard her. His anger bled away, replaced by more than a little shame. It was a subtle reminder that she was there, and he didn’t have to fight any battles, or sort out the complexities on his own.
“You’re not the only one dealing with some new shit, Poole. Can you at least acknowledge that much?”
Poole considered Soraya for a moment, his eyes wide and mouth held open. After an extended silence, he nodded.
“If we’re going to make this work…for you two to share Jacoby’s head, for all of us to have this crazy…I don’t even know what to call it. A link? Then you need to understand one thing. You can’t simply do whatever you want to people. We have a right to know and make the choice. Especially if it could kill them. We’re not like you. We make bad choices. We go into dark places for boots when we should run. We scream when we should be quiet. That’s just how we are. Sometimes we’re irrational, especially when backed into a corner. And that’s pretty much what happened back there. None of us were given much of a choice…for anything. And it goes for you, too. You have a voice as well as the right to make choices.”
“Hmm,” Poole said, continuing to twist his mustache. He closed his eyes, looked to the ceiling for a moment, and dropped his head again. “So, what you’re saying is, you’d like me to obtain consent before making any biological or genetic modifications. Even if the result is positive, or, if it is in response to a dire and immediate need to survive. Is that correct?”
“Yes. In a nutshell.”
Jacoby watched Poole and Soraya talk. She had a unique ability, a cool and collected reserve that he was lacking. He surely would have flown off into a rage without her and completely sabotaged the entire conversation. Shit, he was well on his way to going thermonuclear again.
Poole looked to the floor this time, as if engrossed in a silent conversation. This went on for several long moments before he lifted his head again and looked to Soraya.
“But what if I can give you…”
Soraya didn’t speak. She simply shook her head, the motion cutting him off. “We have a right to know before you start doing any of your little experiments.”
“But just say we’re in another pickle of a scenario, a real ‘Poole needs to pull one out of Jacky-Boy’s backside or everyone dies screaming in a graphic, blood, guts, and exploding bodily fluids’ kind of humdinger. What about then? I might not have time to fill out the correct paperwork and send it up the chain of command for consideration. Lives could be lost! Like, our lives.”
“Would you like to know if I decided to stick a red-hot poker into my skull to try and scramble you up?” Jacoby asked, cutting in. Soraya’s grip on his arm tightened.
“What’s going on in here?” a voice cut in behind them. Jacoby turned to find Anna hovering half-in the small doorway.
“Ah, Anna darling. The whole family is coming together,” Poole said.
Anna stepped in, a small shadow hovering tentatively in the hall. It was Emiko. She moved closer to the door but refused to enter. More people were moving down the ladder, but it was too dark to see how many or who they were.
Shit. Nothing like airing all our dirty laundry in front of everyone!
“My darling,” Poole cooed, and gestured Anna forward. She returned his smile and approached. Jacoby smiled and half-lifted a hand to her, but she seemed to look right through him, like he wasn’t even there. The anger, resentment, and jealousy bubbled back up and he silently wondered if they were engrossed in a silent conversation. Perhaps they were talking and laughing at him.
“Jacoby was just telling us that he struggles with dark thoughts. Like the ‘shove a hot poker into his skull and deep fry his brains’ kind,” Poole said, talking loudly into his fist, as if he were holding an invisible microphone. “And, Jacky. If you continue to have those kinds of thoughts, we’re going to have to readdress our room and board situation like…right away. Honestly, they have toll free numbers you can call when you have feelings like that. But seriously.” Poole winked, and a bowler hat appeared on his head. He still wore the miner’s jumpsuit, but a scarf was tied around his neck. It was an odd combination. Not that Poole wasn’t a patchwork quilt made up entirely of odd combinations.
Anna finally turned and considered him, the skin around her eyes and mouth pulling tight in alarm. But she quickly look
ed away.
“No. You ask before doing anything. It is the only way this is going to work. We have to know that we can trust you and that certain parts of our bodies are off limits,” Jacoby said, forcing his attention forward again.
“You meat sacks and your autonomy. Seriously. I could just be slipping around behind the scenes, innocently eradicating pre-cancer cells, killing every known disease and contagion your infection-absorbing blood bags collect, and you’d still be like: stop it, we’ve got a right to be sick. Stop making us healthier and stronger and perfect without our consent. We don’t want to live disgustingly long lives and basically be super people. Honestly, when I’m done with you, you all will basically be gods amongst the mortals,” Poole said, his voice rising in a whiny, mock falsetto.
“You’re doing all that?” Anna asked, laughing quietly. She reached up and scratched her cheek, a subtle ripple of blue light cascading down the circuitry embedded in her skin.
“Yes, my moonlight blossom,” Poole said, just as a wave of Anna’s emotions cascaded down his spine. It was a more complicated and jumbled mixture than what he felt from Soraya. As if they were not just Anna’s.
She half-turned a heartbeat later, her remarkably blue eyes shifting towards him but stopping just short. He felt her mood morph, the stream of emotions streamlining. But it was masked.
Was she hiding something from him? Was it Poole? Was he trying to block him out? What could they possibly not want him to know?
Poole cleared his throat. “How else am I supposed to spend my time? Listen in on your incredibly enlightening thoughts? I’m definitely not knitting in there, you know,” he said, pointing right at Jacoby’s forehead, “I do find Jacoby’s eagerness to learn how to use knitting needles quite endearing!”
“I do not…!”
“Relax, Jacky-Boy. I don’t think the ladies will judge you too harshly if they…well, shit. I guess the cat is out of the bag now. Now Red? She would never stop making fun of you. Yeah, she’d never live it down. Maybe get you a rocking chair. She’d probably give you a special nickname, like ‘knitting Nancy’ or ‘Granny’…something like that.”
“I don’t…” Jacoby groaned. “Listen. For now, let’s just say, before you do anything, just pop in and ask. It isn’t a big deal to you, but it is to us.”
“Anything? Like…anything?” Poole asked, turning and letting go of his mustache.
Jacoby nodded, grimacing as he tried to straighten again. Soraya added her agreement, but when he looked to Anna, she remained silent. He tried to read her eyes, but they didn’t move. Was she gone again?
Jacoby looked to Poole and found his alien half’s gaze locked intently on Anna. They both didn’t move for several long moments, neither talking, the reactor’s gentle hum the only sound.
He turned and locked eyes with Soraya. She saw it, too.
“Hello?” she said, moving between them and waving a hand before Anna’s face. She didn’t flinch.
“Okay. That’s new and…unsettling.”
“Fine. Fine. Fine! I guess that’s okay,” Poole said, moving abruptly.
Soraya cursed and jumped back. Anna gasped, as if startled awake.
“We have an accord, I guess. For now, at least. But when we reconvene this committee later, there will be some addendums. Maybe y’all will have had time to percolate on and better appreciate the truly astounding cellular advancements you’ve undergone, thanks to me. And…and…how much of a wonder I truly am. Honestly, I am so woefully…truly woefully underappreciated.”
“Addendums?”
“Stipulations…you know? Negotiated points of interest? Sorry, I keep forgetting your syllabic word limit is two or less…with emphasis on ‘less’. I should have expected you to key in on a single word out of that whole spiel. This is so much harder than I ever imagined! Ugh. Fine. Fine. Fine. Sisyphus had it sooo easy.”
“It’s only hard because you are an arrogant asshole.”
Poole laughed, tipping back and holding his gut. “What? That’s three. Oh my god. You’re growing! My work might not be wasted after all!”
Jacoby smiled and bit his tongue. He filled his head with images of stepping into an airlock and cycling it open, space’s cold vacuum almost immediately freezing him solid.
“Ohhh, and there’s the dark. I fall in love with you a little more every day, Jacky. You aren’t just a cozy, ninety-eight-point six-degree safe space for me to call home, but a comedian and a rippin’ mass murderer in the making.”
“Now that we’ve agreed on some boundaries, can we talk about what that was back there with Lana?”
“I was wondering. I felt a tremendous rush of…well, I can’t really explain it without coming off as crude,” Soraya said.
“I always envisioned us talking about something more…important. We’re a team now. In all the old movies they gathered around a table or some cool place and talked very dramatically about the next move in their plan. Like…oh, I know. What rest stops you organic water filtration devices want to hit up to use the potty before we get to our next stop. Or, maybe, I don’t know, come up with a plan B, C, or D if things don’t work out like you want? What you’re going to tell the authorities? Ya know? Cause things don’t seem to ever go your way. Like…ever!”
“What do you think they’ll do? I mean, how does jurisdiction work? Will they try and pin the whole thing on us?” Anna asked. She moved and looked right at Jacoby, her arm brushing against his. He smelled her and felt her warmth. A little bit of the old Anna crept back in. It was just a moment–the span between heartbeats, but she looked away again and the warmth was gone.
“Good questions,” Poole whispered. He shrunk back from Anna, disappeared, and promptly reappeared on top of the reactor vessel. He kicked his feet up like a child on a swing and slid headfirst out of sight.
“Stop messing around. You know what I was talking about. I’m honestly not that crazy about talking about this in front of anyone else, but it affects more than just me now. Tell me the truth. Lana and I were just talking one moment, and then it was like you flipped a switch. She started, I don’t know, doing sexy things in my mind. And my…the pressure, it filled my…”
“Hey, easy, Jacky. We don’t necessarily need to say those things out loud. You’ll scare the children. I mean, let’s not be pervy. I didn’t do anything. A part of me simply reacted to the chemical impulses firing in your brain,” Poole said with a laugh. He walked back out from behind the reactor vessel, this time standing on the wall.
“What does that mean?” Soraya asked before Jacoby could snap back.
He turned back to his double, self-consciously rubbing a sore, throbbing spot just above his pelvis. It felt like his privates would blow up.
Poole considered him for a moment, actively curling and twisting his mustache.
“Do you have to do that? It’s weird enough talking to you when you’re just standing there normal…on the ground.”
“Um, yes. As a matter of fact, I do. I like the walls better than the floor. It’s my way of laughing in the face of physics. But to answer your questions, honey cakes,” Poole said, looking from Jacoby to Soraya. “It is simple biology. When he looked at Lana, a series of neurons fired in his brain. A chemical response followed–his nervous system reacting, working to prepare his body for the act of…well, to err, mate with her.”
“Mate with her?” Soraya grunted loudly. He felt Anna go tense.
“Indeed! Bobbing the ole’ burrito, parking the porpoise, bumping uglies, banging, putting dough in the oven, slipping the sauce, knocking’ her boots,” Poole replied. He lifted one eyebrow and made a circle with the index finger and thumb of his right hand and slowly slid the index finger of his other hand slowly into it.
“Wait! No, I didn’t want to…that’s not right. You did that. You turned my head around and made me feel that,” Jacoby argued.
“You’re adorable. Especially when you get nervous. I knew this whole conversation would be awkward as hell! And
to be honest, I was terrrrrrified by the idea. All that cortisol and adrenaline flooding your blood stream and turning your body into a toxic swamp. Ugh, perspiration and body odor central! But now, I think it might just be the…best…thing…ever!” Poole started to laugh.
“You turned my head around. It’s been that way since I first saw Lex in the commissary. You put thoughts, images, urges into my head.”
“No, buddy-boy. You still control your neck, and thus, the direction your head is facing. And furthermore, you’ve been a teenager once, so you know that your balls do the majority of your decision making. There have been times where I wanted you to feel something. But that wasn’t it. I’m dug in deep…like tick-deep in your brain now. That makes me intimately aware of the subtle and not-so subtle chemical changes in your body. Before, I could feel and sometimes respond to them. Yes, before you interrupt, I could alter or enhance them to an extent. But now, when part of you responds to stimuli, so will I…automatically. Our natures are becoming intertwined, much like the connection between your brain and pain receptors. There is a designed response. Something hits or cuts you, and those cells send out a signal to your brain. The result is you feel pain. With us, a part of your brain interpreted Lana’s presence—how she looked, her response to your proximity, her temperature, and the pheromones her body was producing. The underlying chemical response in your brain was the drive to reproduce. I responded sympathetically, in a manner of my design. And yes, just as it happened with Red in the commissary, but also with Anna in your quarters. The result of our connection simply makes your reproductive response somewhat more complicated and robust. The truth is, yes. A part of you, albeit a very primitive part, wanted to mate with Lana.”
“It can’t be. But with Soraya. It didn’t happen then.”
“Yes, it did. The only difference was little miss honey cornbread muffins here responded differently. Her body keyed in on the chemo-signals your body produced, and she replied…well, let’s just say she jumped harder on the opportunity than you did. And, oh boy, was it exciting to watch!”
