by Natalie Reid
The door shut behind her with a definitive thud. Ual waited a moment before walking up to his boss and offering him a smile.
“She’ll come around.”
“No, Ual,” Ward said, clapping him on the back. “I don’t think she will.”
“Are you worried? Would you like me to go over to BLES to keep an eye on Jessie?”
“In due time,” he replied, tiredly rubbing a hand across his forehead. “We need to wait and see how this thing plays out. I just can’t shake the feeling that she’s right about all this.”
“I wouldn’t tell her that.”
Ward chuckled. “That woman’s right about a lot of things. It doesn’t mean I want her to be.”
Ual gave his boss a respectful nod before exiting the white room as well. Going down the hall, he punched in the code for the elevator and rode down several flights to his office. Inside his study there was only one camera, yet it could not cover the corner of the room over where it directly stood. After shutting the door, he promptly went over to that corner and buried his head in the wall. Placing a hand over his mouth to muffle the sounds that might come out, he allowed himself to cry for the first time since hearing of Jessie’s crash.
* * *
A soft glowing haze washed through Jessie’s mind. Amidst the clouds and ever elusive forms of this strange half-way place, she could see her mother’s face. In that room. In that clean white room where a man in a lab coat had taken off the Potentian Band from around her neck, separating her from her mother for the very first time. He told her that things would be different now. A phantom remainder, he had called it.
The Aero Complex.
That was what was left behind when he took off the band. A vague and constant desire for something that was not there and would never be there again.
He even explained all the ways that this would manifest itself. She could expect to find her hand curling up towards her neck, as if on its own will, searching for the band that was no longer there, or to wake up frantically in the middle of the night, walk out the front door, and go looking through the streets.
All throughout his explanation, her mother had gripped onto her hand and wiped away the tears in her eyes. Jessie had tried to assure her that she was alright, that it didn’t hurt when they took off the band, but Sarah had shaken her head and cradled her daughter’s face in her hands.
“Remember your promise to me,” she had whispered.
Jessie remembered nodding, dumbfounded and unaware of what was happening. She knew what her mother’s promise was. It was something she had been made to swear to every night before going to bed. Her mother would place Jessie’s hand on her wrist and make her feel her heart-beat and tell her that as long as someone had this beat, they had to be treated as special.
She had sworn this oath so often that she hadn’t thought anything of it this time; hadn’t felt some nagging feeling that told her to swear extra hard and hold onto her mother’s hand to keep her from leaving. For the first time in her life she was human, and that was all she could think about.
The lazy haze behind her eyes dipped and swirled, dancing about so that she grew dizzy and pained.
The Aero Complex, the man in the lab coat had said, was a feeling easily overcome with a little time and effort.
The glowing cloud turned into black smoke, and her mother’s face vanished behind a white door.
It had been nearly ten years later. Jessie finally realized that the man in the lab coat had lied.
Chapter 2
Soldiers and Scientists
It was precisely seventy-two point five degrees inside the private recovery rooms of BLES headquarters. Yet, despite this fact, Jessie felt as if it might as well have been point five degrees. Before she even opened her eyes, she felt the cold seeping around her bones, numbing her arms and legs and heart, especially her heart, and causing her to shake as fast as a humming engine.
How will I know when I’m human, mom?
She opened her mouth and tried to take a deep breath. The contact of the air in her lungs made her feel like she had swallowed ice instead of oxygen.
When you’re cold, sweetheart…
She opened her eyes, but the brightness of the room made them burn, and she began to breathe faster. But it didn’t feel like breathing. Nothing felt familiar anymore. The only thing that thrummed in her mind was this exquisitely alien and agonizing sense of pain.
When I’m cold mom?
For a brief, terrible moment, she thought that she might have been taken up to The Black, and this was what it felt like to be racked. Then a pair of hands gently rested on her shoulders. The contact felt so familiar, so human.
When you’re cold, sweetheart, and somebody warms you up…
A soft hand pressed against her forehead and a quiet voice whispered to her. “You’re alright, Jessie. Calm down.”
She forced herself to peel open her eyelids and brave the light. This new life stung, but she suffered through the pain so she could see the blurry image of the person above her. He was a young man with worried blue-green eyes and light brown hair that stuck out in all directions. She shut her eyes and attempted to say something, but trying to form words was like scratching a match on the inside of her lungs and irrationally hoping for water to spring forth.
“Don’t try to talk,” the young man said. “We had to replace your left lung and a small part of your heart in order to save you. You’re going to feel very strange for a little while.”
Jessie chanced another deep breath and tried to bite back the panic that came with realizing how different it would feel to breathe for the rest of her life. Her hand rose up from her side, defying her weakness and acting almost on instinct, and grasped the hand that was still on her shoulder. She could feel the small pulse of the young man’s heart through his skin. It grew faster with the presence of her hand, but the beat reassured her.
“M-my name’s Tom,” the young man said, a little flustered now. “Doctor Tom, Forty-nine-Fifty-seven.”
When Jessie let go of his hand, she could hear him take a quick step back.
“I… I’m going to give you a drug now. It will make you feel better, and you should be able to talk.”
She waited for the prick of a needle or any sign that would have told her that he had given her something, but she felt nothing. However, after a few moments, she realized that the shaking in her arms and legs had stopped. She licked her tongue to her dry lips and tried to speak.
“Aaron,” she breathed out. She gulped and then added, “Trid. Are they alright?”
Tom took a step closer to her bed. “Are they in your squadron?”
She nodded.
“You were the only casualty we received. I’m sure they’re fine.”
She let out a tired and slow sigh. When she opened her eyes again, blue-green eyes stared back behind a pair of large-rimmed glasses. She was slightly surprised by this. No one ever wore glasses when they could have their eyes fixed in a few short minutes. She thought about asking him why he was wearing them, but she knew her breath was far too important to ask such a trivial question. Instead, she held his gaze and croaked out the words, “Thank you.”
Tom blinked and looked to the door behind him. “Doctor Tag was the one that saved you. I just assisted.”
When he had checked behind him, Jessie let her eyes follow. That was when she saw the handful of men standing to attention by the door.
Task Force.
She knew what had happened to her, but their presence made it seem all the more real. They were there to see if she had given into the Bandit, to see if she was human or not.
“I’m really cold,” she decided to tell Tom.
“That’s a natural side-effect of the procedure you just underwent. The body needs some time to get used to its new parts.”
“They don’t come with a user-friendly guide, do they?” she asked.
Tom blinked in confusion. She tried to tell him it was a joke, but the words j
umbled and stuck in her mouth, and it just came out as, “jo-o-ke.”
Suddenly the door to the room opened, and an angry voice announced, “This soldier is my responsibility. Let me pass or I will hurt you.”
Sergeant Denneck nearly bowled past the line of government men to reach the edge of her bed. He looked her over for a second before asking in a strained voice, “How are you feeling?”
“Alive,” she croaked out with a smile. Her lips felt cracked and she could taste the coppery flavor of blood from where it had dried onto her teeth.
Denneck ran a hand through his hair and gripped the bridge of his nose.
“I must look pretty bad, huh?” she asked, trying to keep the tone in her voice light.
He clamped his lips in a tight line and shook his head. “No, don’t… don’t you joke about…” He took in a quick breath. “I have a right mind to hit you for what you did.”
“You saw?”
“Trid’s camera picked up the whole thing. Aaron was about ready to tear right through deep Bandit territory when he realized you had taken a shot meant for him.”
“But he’s okay?” she breathed out, more reassuring herself than asking a question.
“He’s furious!”
She allowed herself a moment to picture Aaron’s blonde hair sticking up in tufts as he took off his pilot helmet and smiled over at her like he did after each flight they took together. It filled her with an unbelievable sense of relief to realize she had saved him.
“The Bandit,” she asked. “Did they get it?”
When there was no answer from Denneck, she opened her eyes to look up at him. His expression was dark and he was staring at the knuckles of his hands.
“No,” he finally answered. “I’m afraid it got away.”
She wanted to ask him more questions, but Tom stepped in, saying, “She should rest now. It’s amazing that she woke up when she did.”
Jessie closed her eyes, but Denneck did not move from where he stood.
“They’ll want to know how she’s doing,” Tom whispered quietly to him, as if she might take it as an insult if she heard.
Denneck let his hand hover over hers for a moment before nodding and leaving the room. The Task Force agents parted for him, a gray sea of coats, and then quickly re-formed into a solid line.
When Jessie heard Tom’s footsteps heading towards the door as well, she called out a weak, “Wait.”
The young scientist looked back to her, staying close to the agents as he did so. She didn’t want him to leave, she realized. If he left, she would be in the room alone with the agents, right in the middle of their kill-circle. Even before her crash, she had had nightmares about finding herself in that circle. Every pilot did. In them, a Task Force agent would step forward, shouting their name and claiming that they had been found guilty of giving into the Bandit. You are to come with us to the place of your execution. She had lost count of how many times she had awakened after hearing those words.
Jessie tried to ignore the men in gray uniforms as she addressed the young scientist. “Stay a little longer?”
He cleared his throat and glanced behind him at the door. “You should really try to go to sleep.”
Her eyes dropped in disappointment. From below the thin sheet covering her, she could see that she had been clothed in a thin blue gown.
“My uniform,” she said suddenly. Her voice was tired and scratchy, but it was charged with the slightest hint of panic. “The one I was wearing. Do you still have it?”
Tom shook his head and offered her a look of remorse. “I’m afraid it was pretty burnt up.”
“Did you find anything inside of it?”
He had been about to turn for the door again, but her eyes pleaded with him to answer her.
“There was a paper fish in one of the pockets,” she explained. She lifted a pallid hand to her chest and let it hover over the spot where the fish normally would have been.
He winced and ran a hand up the side of his head. “I’m sorry. It would have been destroyed.”
Her hand dropped down to the bed, and she nodded in painful resignation. Exhaustion hit her, and she lapsed back into sleep as the young scientists hurried past the guards and out the room.
* * *
The moment Sergeant Denneck had exited his soldier’s recovery room, he ran to the nearest bathroom and stuck his head under a facet. Without bothering to dry off his short, dripping dark hair, he took out his tablet and called his Lieutenant, Carver Forty-Twenty-two.
The line was answered with a brief, “Carver.”
“She’s awake, Lieutenant. I thought you’d like to know right away.”
There was silence on the line.
“How does she seem?”
“Very human, sir,” Denneck replied. “I’d bet my life on it.”
More silence.
Denneck cleared his throat and continued. “She was dead for several minutes, sir. The doctors think that’s what saved her.”
“Let’s not come to any conclusions yet,” Carver replied tersely. “Keep me informed of her progress. When the time comes, I’ll need to see her to asses her condition.”
There was a click, and the line went dead. Denneck pulled the tablet away from his ear and was about to stuff it back into his pocket, when he noticed that someone else was trying to call him. He shook his head and gave out a tired sigh, recognizing his cousin’s number.
He accepted the call and said in a curt and reprimanding voice, “This isn’t a good time Harper. And I told you never to call me when I’m on duty. How do you know I’m not in combat right now?”
His cousin’s proud voice answered, “A fair question. Now how about answering me one? What’s it like inside of BLES?”
Denneck nearly growled over the line. He gripped his tablet tighter, saying “I told you to stop messing around inside the phone’s GPS system. If they catch you hacking inside, you’ll get into more trouble than you can imagine.”
“But you’re my cousin,” she insisted. “You won’t tell on me!”
Denneck closed his eyes and could picture the smirk his cousin was giving him.
“Well your cousin won’t be able to do a single thing once you’re caught. Now stop messing around!”
* * *
Harper pounded on her computer desk, realizing that Denneck had hung up on her, and gave out a frustrated growl.
“Nothing?” her friend Griffin asked from the corner of her room.
Harper spun around in her chair and shook her head. All the shades in her apartment were drawn, and the room was dark. The light from her computer screen was just bright enough to reach back to her roommate in the corner, stuffed in a chair between her bed and an old computer monitor. Though their apartment was big enough for two, it gave the impression of being cramped because of all of the junk both of them had lying around. Some of it worked and some of it didn’t, and sometimes different parts would start making noise out of the blue, scaring the sense out of them.
This was the only way Harper could live. She needed a mess around her. She had tried to explain it to the other girl roommates that had come and gone over the years. It wasn’t until she met Griffin, this young man with messy brown hair that had accidentally walked right into her on the street one day, that she found someone else that lived like she did.
“Denneck used to be so much cooler,” Harper complained from her computer desk, resting her head in her hands. “But now, ever since his girl got racked, he’s been this, this—”
Griffin cut her off, saying, “I don’t think you should joke about that. The only thing worse than getting racked is loving someone and seeing them get racked.”
He let his head sag to his chest.
Harper eyed him curiously and let out a slow breath that blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. She had side swept bangs that often fell into her eyes and annoyed her when she was in the middle of working on something important. The rest of her black hair had been cut so short that
it made her look like a boy from certain angles.
“And you’ve known someone that’s gotten racked?” she asked.
When he made no comment, she turned back to her computer, muttering, “You were the one that wanted me to ask about BLES in the first place.”
Griffin slowly ran his hand along the old computer monitor next to him and said aloud to himself, “I bet they have a whole section dedicated to inventions. And machines that can follow any command you give them. Probably even weld two pieces of metal together in the blink of an eye.”
Harper hurriedly typed on her keyboard as she called back to her friend, saying, “It’s just a bunch of scientists and politicians trying to play with the military and Aero government and see how much money they can make out of their hatred for each other. Trust me Griff, your inventions are too good for them. Now, who you should be trying to impress is that girl who lives in the apartment complex down the street… room number forty-three B.”
Griffin got up from his seat and rushed over to her, saying, “How did…” He trailed off when he saw a blue dot blinking on the monitor of her screen. It was located inside a maze of the map of Aero City.
He pointed a finger at Harper, saying, “If you ever spy on her, I swear I will come in here and smash everything to pieces.”
She pushed a button on the screen and the blue dot went away. “Just trying to help you, Griff.” When she was sure that he had walked away and was at least halfway down the hall, she called back out, saying, “Her name’s Melissa by the way, and her father’s in Aero prison, and she works at Division Bank, and I swear I won’t spy on her anymore!”
As she yelled this, Griffin ran back down the hall, but Harper sprinted to her door fast enough so that she could close it before he came back in. Griffin pounded his fist on the closed door.
“You’re welcome!” Harper said through the wood. “Now please stop moping about her!”
Outside the apartment, the humming sound of a Task Force hover bike raced by. The discarded scrap metal littering the floor of the apartment rattled. Griffin ran a hand through his hair and rested his head on the dry-wall, thinking about the gravity of the name Melissa.
