The Lifeline Signal

by RoAnna Sylver

  Even hanging upside-down, the girl in the chair remained in constant motion, bright bubblegum-pink hair in pigtails swaying back and forth. As she spoke, dozens of echoes followed, sometimes repeating her last phrase, and sometimes what sounded like entirely different conversations. Some were in different languages; Shiloh caught snippets of Spanish and what might have been French underneath her out-loud English. But they were all definitely her voice. “Probably wouldn’t say if I knew anyway, no secrets over the airwaves, because—why? Everybody, say it with me!” She waved her fingers like conducting an orchestra. “You can never know who’s listening!”

  Shiloh almost laughed—xie’d mouthed the words along automatically. Xie looked up to see if Annie and Indra had done the same. It didn’t look like they had; Annie was just leaning against the far wall with the most relaxed smile xie’d seen on her face the entire trip. Indra stared in what looked like unabashed awe as the girl with Parole’s most famous speaking voice (Evelyn Calliope had the top singing spot) kept the show rolling.

  “That, and, gotta say, we haven’t heard from anyone in a long time, and we’re getting a little worried about all of you back home. If you’re talking, we’re not hearing it.” A plump ball of pink energy, she was never still, entire body working toward one goal: getting a clear signal. She had a microphone in one hand, other hand pressing one earphone against one ear. She gingerly stretched out a leg—Shiloh caught a glimpse of what looked like burn scarring on her bare ankle—and hit a button with her big toe, then waited expectantly. When nothing happened and the static remained unbroken, she sighed, and slumped a little. When she spoke again, her voice sounded a little less cheery and more tired. “But we’re still listening! So keep trying, I’m here! I’m always here.”

  She stopped talking and waited. After around five seconds of silence, she shut her eyes and let herself go limp. Even her toes stopped moving.

  “Hi, Kari,” Annie called in a soft voice Shiloh had never heard her use before. It went nicely with her smile.

  Slowly, Radio Angel raised her head, then carefully sat right-side-up to face the three people in the doorway to her small realm. “Wow,” she said quietly, as a smile slowly spread across her own face. “That was fast.”

  “Not really.” Annie smiled back, blinking hard as she stepped over the raised metal threshold. “Would have been home a lot sooner, but—”

  “It’s fine. You’re home now.” She clasped her hands above her head, stretching out an ache along her spine, and they could see the front of her pink T-shirt now. Handwritten in black sharpie, it read: EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY.

  “Sorry,” Annie said, taking another slow step. Her voice sounded thick, like the words were suddenly hard to get out once she found them. “I know you’ve had… a hard month too.”

  “Oh, honey.” Kari sank back down into her chair with a sigh that might have been from fatigue, or relief, or both. “You’re back. That kinda makes it a good year. Now come here!” She flung her arms out. “Every second you spend not hugging me is unacceptable!”

  Annie laughed and rushed into her arms, only pausing to avoid jostling her legs. The floating chair rotated from the momentum, and Annie lifted up her feet to let it take her along for the ride. Life in Parole tended to age people hard and fast. Even teenagers could seem twice their age after what they’d endured. But sometimes, in moments like these, when Radio Angel pulled Annie close, pressing a kiss to her cheek as they spun, years fell away. The children they hadn’t gotten the chance to be shone through.

  “There,” Radio Angel said when they finally stopped spinning and Annie’s feet were back on the floor. “That better?”

  “Yeah.” Annie nodded but didn’t move away or release the hug after she touched down. Instead she rested her head on the other girl’s shoulder, looking up into her face as she spoke. “A lot. Sorry, that wasn’t too rough, was it?”

  “No, no, never stop tackling me!” Kari laughed, pink pigtails swaying as she shook her head. “My legs feel a lot better! They hardly hurt at all anymore. And walking’s getting easier too. Can’t complain.”

  “Really?” Annie took a step back now, looking her over with a skeptical gaze. She rapped her knuckles on one of her metallic shoulder braces. “I sure can. And I don’t even have any burns.”

  “Fine, I’ll complain.” Kari sighed, smile fading. “It sucks. EDS sucks. Wiggly, sore joints suck, bruises and bleeding if I bump into something wrong sucks, and it’s super cramped in here, so I bump into stuff a lot more now. It’s never not gonna suck. And it sucks even more with burns on top of it. But I’m dealing, and you’re sweet for asking. I’m ridic lucky for even getting out at all. And look!” She stuck her leg out, pulling up her legging a little to show off more of the fading burn scars. She wiggled her toes at Annie and smiled again, almost as convincingly as before. “I can do that without screaming, couldn’t do that before you left. They’re good for button-pushing too.”

  “I saw.” Annie nodded, looking caught between fondness and impressed wonder. “You haven’t changed at all.”

  “Everything’s changing too much, too fast.” Kari dipped her head down to touch her forehead against Annie’s. “Somebody’s gotta stay the same.”

  “Yeah they do. Oh,” Annie said, like she’d just remembered something important. “I was gonna say, we would’ve been here sooner, but my shield broke down.”

  “Oh no, I hope you got a new one! Running around with no shield is super dangerous.”

  “Uh-huh,” Annie said, nodding slowly. “We had to stop at Radiance HQ for a new one.”

  “You did?” Kari’s eyes widened; she might have been alarmed, intrigued, or something else Shiloh couldn’t quite identify.

  “Lucky for us, Lakshanya’s helpful as ever.”

  Kari took in a quick breath. “She helped you?”

  “She gave us a new shield, yeah. I’m glad she worked with me—Celeste probably could have gotten more, but she’s still out of commission.”

  “You did great,” Kari said after a split-second pause. She seemed deep in thought. “Maybe I should try getting in touch too.”

  “Good idea. But first,” Annie rolled her head to the side to look at Shiloh, who still hung by the doorway, not sure yet if they were invited or intruders. Indra hadn’t even come in from the hall. “I brought some new friends. Guys?”

  “Hi,” Shiloh said, still smiling as xie stepped over the threshold. Ever since xie’d heard her voice in person, xie hadn’t been able to stop. “I—I know you. From the radio.”

  “You sure do, hon.” Kari’s pensive expression faded, replaced by a warm smile. She managed to wrestle one arm free from Annie’s continued hug and extend a hand to Shiloh. “Hi. They call me Radio Angel. But I call me Kari.”

  “Nice to see your…face.” Shiloh immediately internally kicked xirself. Why had every coherent word suddenly dropped out of xir head? It was a very good thing xie’d worn xir sunglasses inside today, because she couldn’t see xir eyes widen in horror. After a moment of blank-minded paralysis, Shiloh realized her hand was still waiting, and quickly took it. There, that part was done. The next part was easy, xie knew this information at least. “Shiloh!”

  Annie shook her head, not bothering to hide her own grin. She turned toward the open door, where Indra still remained in the corridor. “Anyway, there’s one more out there. Come on in!”

  “Hey,” Indra called, but didn’t step inside. “Sorry, I’ll be right in. I just—I’m not entirely great with closed-in spaces, that’s all.”

  “Oh wow, you doing okay on the ship?” Kari called. “I know we’ve got some tight halls and rooms, especially down here. You totally didn’t have to come all the way down here just to see me!”

  “Pff—it’s fine! I’m okay, mostly, but this one room is just—no offense, it’s a great room, it’ll just take me a minute here.”

  “Take all the time you need!” Her tone stayed light and airy but her expression turned puzzled a
nd a little troubled. It looked like she was trying to place his voice like the melody to a half-forgotten song.

  “No, I’m good,” Indra said, audibly taking a deep breath outside and letting it out fast. “I am good. And I’m coming in.” A moment later he strode inside looking perfectly cool, confident, and in-control as if there were no walls around him, closing-in or otherwise.

  Kari looked up into his face. Her mouth fell open, but no sound came out.

  “Pleased to meet you, Miss Angel,” he said, giving her an easy smile. “I’m Indra. Lakshanya’s my sister, heard you know her already. And from what I’ve heard of you, you more than live up to your name.”

  Her blue-green eyes were huge and round, pink-glossed mouth hanging open. The constant white-noise background chatter of the other radio signals and Kari’s voice, carrying on its dozens of conversations at once, had fallen silent. Her distress-call multitasking and whatever telepathic link she had with her radio frequencies had been severed or at least interrupted, all because of seeing his face.

  “Um… is everything okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Kari said quietly. Behind her, the speakers slowly began whispering her messages again. Her voice requesting help crackled back onto the airwaves. She made herself smile, but it was shaky. “You remind me of someone, that’s all.”

  “Well, I am a twin,” he said, smile dimming somewhat. “If you’ve worked with my sister, that’s probably where you’ve seen me before.”

  “I haven’t seen…” she trailed off, still staring.

  Indra gave a resigned sigh, not looking nearly as happy anymore. “So it’s gotta be my brother right?”

  “Well, y—” She cut herself off. Kari stared for another second, then shook her head as if to clear it of cobwebs. “I mean yeah, you really do look like him. That’s—wow. Wow. Does Jay know? Have you talked to him yet?”

  “Jay as in Shiloh’s uncle, right?” Indra shot xir a puzzled glance. “I haven’t seen him at all, unless he was around when I was all sick and out of it. Why?”

  “Uh… I think I’ll let him tell you.” Kari let her eyes travel over the three of them and, now that she’d overcome her momentary shock, her happiness was clear and genuine. “Wow. I don’t remember seeing this many people in person before. Or talking with them, since Parole stopped answering.”

  “You’ll hear from Parole again,” Annie reassured her. “On the radio or in person. A lot of people will want to thank you to your face. Maybe even see your face.”

  Kari smiled and shook her head. “That’s sweet, but it’s okay. I don’t think people really think of me as a person, if that makes sense. And I’m fine with just being a friendly voice on the radio.”

  “You’re more than that,” Shiloh insisted, relieved to note that xie could speak in complete sentences again. “Everybody knows your voice. My mom and I listened to you every day and I know everyone in Parole does too. You’re a real superhero.”

  “Ugh, I never liked that word.” She rolled her eyes—then gasped, as if realizing something of incredible importance. “Hey, did I hear right? You can boost signals?”

  “Yeah!” Xie nodded, unable to stop the huge grin that spread across xir face. “That's how my mom and I heard you all the way in Meridian. But that’s just for every day. The super-concentrated energy blasts are for more—”

  “Special occasions?” Kari was smiling too, and seeming like she was trying not to giggle. Shiloh couldn’t tell whether she was laughing with or at xir, then decided xie didn’t care. She was smiling.

  “Well, I was going to say ‘emergencies’, but sure, special occasions are good too!”

  “We have to try working together,” she said, and the urgency in her voice made it clear that this wasn’t just a request for fun. “We just have to. I’ve been trying to get through to Parole for weeks—but I haven’t heard a word. That’s never happened, not getting an answer. I’ve never had to deal with silence before. But this whole time, I haven’t heard a single…” She stopped, eyes widening in what looked like fear for the first time. “That’s not true. I did hear something once.”

  “So did we,” Shiloh said, feeling xir own excited happiness slip away along with xir smile. “I tried boosting our radio signal once, so we could talk to you. Don’t think it really worked, but we did hear a man—”

  “Sharpe.” Annie spoke the name in a whisper, but it cut through the small space and left an uneasy silence in its wake.

  “We couldn’t tell who it was,” Kari said at last. The room was oddly quiet, Shiloh realized. All the voices that had been talking over one another when they’d come in had fallen silent. “Just that he had to be talking about you. And that meant…one of you was dead. We didn’t know wh—”

  “Yeah.” Annie folded her arms and looked at the floor. “I know.”

  “Um, I just remembered something.” Indra reached into his pocket, seeming grateful to break the awkward stillness. He pulled out the small envelope Lakshanya had given him and handed it to Kari. “So here, before I forget.”

  “What is it?” Her pink eyebrows came down as she took the envelope and turned it over in her hands, looking for some identifying writing but finding none.

  “I don’t actually know,” Indra said, clearing his throat. “But my sister said to get it to you. She hopes it helps. And so do I.”

  Without waiting another moment, Kari tore open the envelope and shook out its contents. A small black cylinder with a red button on one end fell out into her hand.

  “Hey, that’s one of my mom’s mini teleporters,” Shiloh said with rising excitement. “Could she have—”

  “Wait, stop!” Annie shouted, reaching out toward Kari, but it was too late. She’d pushed the button.

  They all held perfectly still. They also held their breath. But the room remained silent except for the constant static hiss. Slowly, Kari lifted her thumb from the button and sheepishly looked up at the others.

  “Sorry,” she said, giving an apologetic shrug. “I just… got kind of excited.”

  “I was just going to say,” Annie sounded relieved and exhausted at the same time. “Wait until Jay can scan the thing at least. Then push the button.”

  “Well, at least it didn’t explode or anything,” Indra sighed. “Which is what I was kind of afraid of this whole time.”

  “No, it wouldn’t…” Kari started, then trailed off. Slowly, she put the device back in its envelope and put it aside, as if she didn’t want to even look at it anymore.

  “What was supposed to happen?” Indra couldn’t help asking.

  “I don’t know. It didn’t happen.” Kari turned back to her radio controls and started manipulating dials seemingly at random. She didn’t look up at Annie, but she wasn’t looking at what she was doing either. She didn’t seem to be seeing anything at all. “Listen, I’m going to keep trying to get a signal out.”

  “I’m sorry, Kari, we’ll go in a minute,” Annie looked almost as disappointed at the button’s failure, but worry had entered her voice for the first time since they’d entered the small room. “But you really don’t know what’s blocking our signal?”

  “No,” Kari said, voice short, a vast departure from her usual bubbly chatter. “I don’t know if the problem’s on their end or mine. Starting to think it’s mine. Maybe Tartarus interference, maybe something else.”

  “So then,” Shiloh said hesitantly, refusing to let xirself hope. “You haven’t heard from my mom and dad either? Captain Aliyah said if anyone would know, it’d be you.”

  Kari was quiet for a moment, then shook her head without looking up. “I’m sorry. I’ll tell you if that changes.”

  “And I’ll tell you if we hear anything more from Celeste,” Annie said, steering Shiloh out into the hall, and nodding for Indra to follow. “Come on, guys. Lots more to see.”

  “Um, I’ll help you with that signal boosting later,” Shiloh called, casting one last glance over xir shoulder. “If you want!”

  �
�Cool-great-thank you.” Kari answered so quickly Shiloh wasn’t sure if she’d heard at all. Slowly, she tipped over to hang upside-down again and pointed her toes toward the ceiling.

  “Is she gonna be okay?” Indra sounded slightly concerned as they headed toward their next destination. “I mean, I know she’s Radio Angel and all, but nobody can handle everyth—”

  Somebody coming around the next corner walked directly into Indra, effectively interrupting that sentence, and nearly knocking them both to the floor. Annie and Shiloh narrowly avoided being dragged in and toppled like dominoes, and in the confusion it took a moment to even see who they’d so unexpectedly met. But they did hear him right away.

  “Sorry, sorry!” Jay said with only a little embarrassment as they all attempted to untangle and regain their balance. “Totally my fault, I got turned around again, this place is a freaking maze. And I never expect to run into anybody down here, or at least nobody sneaks up on you, Radio Angel hovers, and you can hear Rowan coming a mile aw—”

  He stopped mid-word.

  “It’s okay, don’t worry about it,” Indra assured him with an equally embarrassed chuckle. “I’d get lost every day even if I lived here. Maybe we should start… carrying around some balls of string…” His smile faded, replaced by concern. “Hey, you okay?”

  Everyone else had found their feet quickly. Jay, however, didn’t seem nearly as steady. He wavered like he’d lost his equilibrium, like he stood on the pitching deck of a ship in a high gale at sea, still holding onto Indra's shoulders.

  “Uncle Jay?” Shiloh stepped closer, trying to get a better look into his face. Worryingly, he seemed almost sick or disoriented, at the very least. “Are you all right?”

  Jay didn’t answer or look up, not even registering that he’d heard at all. He was staring directly at Indra, for the first time since any of them had come on board. His eyes were wide and fixed on Indra’s face in what looked like shock, or maybe horror. Now, he slowly pushed Indra away to arm’s length, then stepped back. He continued to back away slowly, then, without a word, turned and walked quickly back way he’d come. When he reached the end of the corridor, he sped up, rounding the corner at almost a flat-out run.