Brock chirped up again, taking another swig of the beer he’d been nursing and placing it on the mocha table. “My granddaddy used to tell me tales about how the nanocytes were responsible for the Were- and vampire conditions; somehow, in the beginning, they went wonky. If he’s right, she may come back wanting to feast on our blood.” His face was straight, and Joel didn’t know what to make of his comments.
Crash knocked him on the arm. “Cut it out, man,” he told him, pointing at Paige.
Brock realized what he’d just said, and got up. He walked over to Paige and hugged her where she sat. She cried quietly while he rocked her.
Joel’s holo beeped with a new message. He opened it up and read it. Then he announced to the group. “ADAM says that Molly is awake,” he told them. “She’s going for food, and then Sean will bring her back.”
Brock stood up straight. “What kind of food? Ask him if she’s a vampire!” he blurted out.
Everyone laughed. Even Paige snorted through her nose and started giggling.
Joel typed back to ADAM. “Is she a vampire?”
ADAM responded straight away.
NO, BUT SHE IS ENHANCED. WE’RE NOT SURE OF THE EFFECTS YET. SHE’LL BE ABLE TO TELL YOU MORE WHEN SHE GETS BACK.
Joel read it out.
Brock started clapping, and the others joined in. Paige wiped her eyes and brightened up a bit. “Okay. I should let Jack and Garet know…” She got up, rubbing Brock’s shoulder in thanks for his support.
“And then,” she added, “we should organize some proper food. I’ve suddenly realized how hungry I am!”
Brock answered quickly. “Yeah, I’ll be in on that. I vote Thai.”
Maya raised her hand. “I’m in on anything. Even pizza with pepperoni!”
The team laughed. Even Crash cracked a smile. Pieter seemed to well up with emotion, seeing the relief in his pack.
Joel sat back, happy that everything was alright in the world again.
ArchAngel3, Medical Facility
Sean sat opposite Molly in the plush dining room on the ArchAngel. The chefs had been able to replicate all kinds of salads and brain food; things ADAM had said would help her recover from the pod doc, and the injury they had patched her up from.
Molly couldn’t get food inside her fast enough. “I don’t know why everyone makes such a fuss about these Omega-threes,” she said through mouthfuls. “But this is just delicious.”
Sean watched her, amazed at how she was still shovelling food into her mouth. “You sure you’re not overdoing it?”
Molly shook her head. “Uh uh. I’ve been asleep and repairing for ancestors knows how long. I’m starving…”
ADAM piped in over her holo and in their auditory implants. “She should probably start slowing down soon, though. And no doubt, she’ll sleep again on the trip back to Gaitune.”
Molly shook her head again. “No way. I’ve never felt so energized!” she declared. “Even Oz is on fire in here,” she said, tapping at her head.
Well, actually, quite the opposite.
How do you mean?
Well, one of the things that seemed to be slowing down my abilities was generating excess heat. It seems I’ve had something of an upgrade.
How do you mean?
I think they upgraded my processing power and memory, and a whole bunch of stuff while we were under.
Molly stopped shovelling food, and frowned.
Sean looked at her concerned. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Oz just said he thinks he got an upgrade…”
ADAM chipped in again. “Yes. That’s right.”
I thought that was only something you could do if you took me out of Molly.
ADAM responded again over the implants. “Not quite. That was an option, but we still added stuff.”
You never said that was possible.
ADAM tried to qualify what had happened. “We wanted you to make a decision without having that cloud your choice. If you were going to stay, it had to be only because of the person you’re connected with. And now we know… but more importantly, you know, too.”
Molly grinned.
Sean looked at her. “What?”
She shook her head, and put another forkful of food in her mouth. “Nothing,” she smiled, chewing again.
Yeah. Thanks, ADAM. And now Molly knows…
Adam chuckled. Sean filled in the blanks from the bits of the conversation he could hear, and smiled.
ADAM changed the subject. “Sean, could you bring Ms. Bates up to see the General when she’s done eating?”
Molly’s face froze. “The General?” She looked down at her clothes and started brushing at her hair, which was still pulled back in a ponytail.
Sean winked at her. “It’s okay. He’s a crotchety old man; he doesn’t care what you look like. Especially after what you’ve been through.” Sean nodded at her hair. “Besides, he’ll probably be too distracted by your new color.”
Molly looked puzzled. “What do you mean?” she asked, a hand subconsciously drifting up to her head.
Sean grinned. “You haven’t seen yet?”
“No. What?” she asked, looking around, trying to find something to look at herself in, an air of slight panic creeping up on her.
She spotted a metal surface over by the serving area. She got up, leaving her fork in her bowl of food, and gravitated towards it. It wasn’t very shiny, but she could make out her features and her hair… enough to realize that her blonde experiment had been counteracted. Her hair had been returned to its original brunette color.
“Fuck me,” she whispered.
She spun round to look back at Sean. “Nanocytes?” she asked.
He nodded. “Guess they prefer you in your natural color,” he smiled, taking a swig of his mocha.
Molly shook her head. “Fuck my life,” she breathed, wandering back to her food.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Gaitune-67, Hangar deck
The team assembled around the ship as it came to a halt on the hangar deck.
Very shortly after touchdown, Molly appeared at the side door that appeared, and headed down the invisible steps from The Empress. She took one step at a time… carefully.
Joel watched intently from the bottom, assessing her movement. She seemed stronger. More sturdy. But almost like she wasn’t sure of her own movement.
It felt odd to watch her.
Plus, she didn’t have a scratch on her.
He had a flashback to seeing her on the bench in the lab, and wiped his face to bring himself back to the moment.
“Well, who is this, then?” he called up, pointing at her hair. As she neared the bottom, he noticed Sean coming down after her.
“They said you were going to be altered,” Joel continued, “but we were thinking Vamp abilities, super human powers-”
Brock interjected. “Blood-sucking hunger!”
The group laughed. Garet bit onto his fist, pretending to be terrified. Paige, who was standing next to him, noticed and whacked him playfully with her arm.
“But this?” Joel indicated at her hair, “we never expected you to come back brunette.”
Molly shrugged. “I’d say it was artificial intelligence, but it’s actually my natural color,” she admitted sheepishly in front of the whole team.
Paige walked over to her and hugged her. “Well, I think it looks darling on you,” she told her.
Joel stepped up and hugged her too, as Paige released her. “Heard you met the general,” he commented.
“Yeah,” she confirmed.
Crash stepped in to hug her without saying a word. He held her tight. Joel kept talking with her, as Molly allowed herself to be hugged just a little more tightly than was comfortable. “How was he?” Joel asked.
Molly tried to straighten up to release herself from Crash’s bear hug, but he didn’t let go. She tapped on his arm, and he still held on.
“He was, er, pretty much like he is on the holoscreen.” Mo
lly peeled herself away from Crash enough to look at him. He had buried his head into her shoulder. Molly wondered if he might be emotional. She freed herself a little more, looking back over at Joel. “Bit taller than I imagined.”
Crash finally released her and stepped aside, hiding his face. One by one, the rest of the team welcomed her back. Brock put his arm around Crash as they walked back up to the safe house, chattering quietly to him.
Maya and Paige trotted along next to Molly while Joel strode out just in front of them. Sean followed behind with Pieter. Sean put his arm over Pieter’s shoulder. “You doing alright, son?” he asked him.
Pieter looked up at Sean, and nodded, his now shaggy hair flopping as he moved. “Yeah. It was a bit scary here for a while, what with Molly and all.”
Sean took a deep breath. “Tell me about it,” he agreed.
Pieter was still looking up at him, a little awestruck. “Heard she was technically dead. How did you save her?”
Sean shook his head. “I can’t help but think we just got real lucky.”
Pieter shook his head. “I can’t imagine what might have happened if she…”
Sean patted him on the back and started walking normally. “Best not to think about it, mate.”
Pieter bobbed his head.
Molly nudged at Maya as Paige chatted away, about Thai food and ordering in, to anyone who would listen. Jack walked beside her, and was presumably listening intently.
“What’s that about?” Molly asked Maya, pointing ahead at Crash.
Maya stopped and looked at her. “Oh, my. You wouldn’t have seen…” Her mouth hung open in amazement for a moment.
Molly frowned a little. “Seen what?” she asked.
Maya linked Molly’s arm, and leaned in to whisper to her. “When you were shot, he rescued your body. Apparently you were dead, and he just kept trying to resuscitate you. Sean showed up eventually, and took you off to the General… but it must have been a while that Crash was trying to revive you, knowing that you were physically dead.”
Paige had realized that no one was listening to her planning the “after-party,” and had started listening to Maya explaining to Molly what had happened. “Yeah, I think it’s messed him up a bit,” Paige chipped in as quietly as she could.
Maya lowered her voice even more. “It’s got to do things to your head, right? Jack said he was in a bad way when Sean took your body.”
Molly shook her head, processing the concept. “… ‘took my body’. That hasn’t quite sunk in yet…” she admitted.
Maya squeezed her arm, then rubbed it with her other hand affectionately. “We’re just all glad to have you back.”
They had climbed the steps and were just entering the corridor, when Molly felt a little spacey. She held onto Maya’s arm a little more. Maya looked at her, sensing something was wrong. Paige also felt something was going on, but couldn’t put it together.
Just then Neechie appeared in front of Molly, walking in the direction of the group. Molly felt heady, like the world was unreal, and then the colors of everything went bluer. She felt a weird altered state of awareness click in. Then for a split second, her eyes flashed back to normal colors, and then back to the blue world again.
The others around her disappeared, but Neechie was still there, walking, not even looking at her. They took a couple of steps, and then the headiness went tighter and everything flashed back to the normal world. Neechie was there. Her eyes adjusted. Then Neechie wasn’t there.
Maya held her arm more tightly. “Molly, what is it?”
Paige had stopped and turned around. “Molly?”
Molly looked at Paige and then at where Neechie had been. “Can you see Neechie?” she asked.
Paige looked at the spot where Molly’s eyes fell. There was nothing there. She shook her head. “No. Was he here?”
Molly nodded.
Paige frowned. “That’s super odd. I just went a bit heady then. You okay?”
Molly nodded again and glanced at Maya. Maya was bobbing her head. “Yeah, I felt it, too. I think I know what is going on.” Maya started them walking again, just as Sean and Pieter caught up to them. “Let’s get her sitting down. And if you see that cat, grab it.”
Sean sensed something was going on. “What’s happening?” he asked.
Maya talked over her shoulder to him. “I think Molly’s brain has been repaired to the extent that she’s starting to access other states of awareness. How much do you know about the effects of the pod docs?” she asked him.
Sean shook his head, pushing his bottom lip out. “Not much. We get injured; we get put in there. It fixes us up. We go out, and shoot more shit. ADAM would know more, though.”
Maya was holding Molly with two hands, and Paige was fussing over her, too, now. “Let’s see if we can get ADAM on the line, then…” she told him.
Sean took charge. “Okay. We’ll have to be in the ops room,” he told them. He strode ahead of them and guided them into the ops room. Joel had realized that something else was going on. He ushered the others into the safe house, then doubled back to follow the others into the ops room.
“What’s going on?” he asked the small group that had assembled at the front console. His face was dark with concern again.
Maya explained. “Molly just experienced some kind of realm-shifting episode,” she told him. She glanced at Paige. “Paige and I both felt it. It was like our awareness went funny.”
Paige nodded. “I still feel spacey.”
Molly, who was perched on the step of the console next to Sean, piped up. “I just feel sick.”
Sean put a hand on her back. “Probably all that food you ate!”
She glared at him, and thumped at him playfully.
Joel stepped closer to the circle of teammates, looking concerned. “What does that mean?” he asked Maya.
Maya pulled her mouth to one side, before answering. “I’m not entirely sure, but it was something my grandmother was able to do in her meditation before she died.”
The last part of her statement sent a hush through the group. Joel put one hand out, flat. “Look, no one is going to die.” He glanced sideways at Molly sitting crumpled up. “Not now.”
Maya shook her head. “Yeah. No. I didn’t mean like that…” her own thoughts distracting her. “Although, she was starting to prepare for her own ascension…”
Just then Pieter strode in holding Neechie. “He was out in the workshop,” he told them. Maya beckoned him over, and he went to hand her the cat.
Maya put her hand up in front of her. “You hold on to him for a minute,” she told him.
The Sphinx struggled a little, and then relaxed, letting Pieter hold onto him.
Maya pointed at the Sphinx. “I think that something has happened to Molly, and that now that little guy is able to help her move through worlds.” She paused, looking at Paige. “Realms,” she corrected herself, using the Estarian terminology.
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