“OK,” Cassie shuffled forwards. “Is this right?” Her voice became muffled as she pressed her face tight up to the viewer.
“That should be perfect. I’m just going to get this bit started…” I leaned over and switched on the small pump that would spray the water droplets into the air, at a right angle to where Cassie was viewing. There was a low hiss as it started to work. I let it run for a few seconds to ensure that there was a good arc of water flowing inside the box.
“Are you ready?” I asked, perhaps overdoing the drama a little.
“Um-huh,” came the reply.
Reaching beneath Cassie, I switched the tiny lamp on, that was inside the box, and would produce the rainbow.
“Oh!” She exclaimed a second or so later. “I can see it!” She laughed.
“Is it clear?”
“Yes – really bright and clear. The colours are so beautiful.” There was a definite smile in her voice; I couldn’t see her face. Leaning against one of the nearby rocks, I settled back and watched Cassie as she watched the rainbows.
“It’s perfect,” she said.
Perfect. Yes, I think it is.
We were sitting on the grass, our knees touching as we faced each other. The Rainbow Maker lay over to one side, where we’d left it after the water in the pump ran dry. At that moment, I found it funny just watching Cassie. Her eyes were shining with an excited vitality I hadn’t really seen in her before. She seemed so giddy, almost child-like.
“What?!” I asked, laughing. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
“I’m not staring.” She disagreed immediately, but continued staring.
“Yes, you are.”
“OK, so maybe I am.” Cassie smiled at me, before glancing down to her hands. “I just – no one – I mean – ”
“What?” I asked, interrupting her stuttering, placing my hand over hers.
Cassie took a deep breath and let it out. “Thank you,” she smiled, looking me in the eye. “I was just trying to say thank you. For doing this, for me.”
I felt the magnetic draw again, pulling me closer to her. This time I knew what I was doing, and didn’t stall. Cassie’s eyes closed slowly as my face drew into hers and I found her lips. “You’re welcome,” I murmured.
Chapter 14
Cassie lay beside me. We were on the overhang, both flat on our backs. She had closed her eyes a few minutes earlier, but I could tell she wasn’t snoozing. I waited and let random thoughts float around my head, as I stared at the whitey-blue ceiling-sky above us.
When we first dropped to the ground after messing around fighting, Cassie’s breathing had been loud and rapid. We’d certainly been going at it, pushing and pulling one another, testing out what worked and what didn’t. When I showed her, I had hoped she would understand why I wanted to know how humans might have fought one another; I never expected her to want to try it out.
Cassie may have learnt something new today, but then, so had I. I’d never done this with a real person before, and understanding what differences the weight and movements of your opponents would make, was interesting.
Mirroring Cassie, I closed my eyes, blocking out the bright daylight and generating funny white shapes against the dark inside my eyelids. The shapes swirled and rolled around in the blackness, never forming a clear picture or anything sensible.
I sensed Cassie moving beside me and opened my eyes, turning in her direction as I did so.
“Hey,” I was surprised to find her face mere inches from mine. The noise had been her rolling over.
“Hey,” she echoed softly.
I watched Cassie, watching me, her eyes searching for mine. At first they didn’t find them, because my eyes were busy, drinking in every aspect of her as she lay tilted towards me. The residual pink in her cheeks from exercise, made her green eyes even more vibrant than normal. She was looking up at me through her eyelashes, as if they might hide some of her intentions; but eyelashes were too thin a shield when we were this close to one another. I realised then, that Cassie was going to kiss me. My eyes found hers and something opened up between us. It was as if I was seeing something deeper inside her, than I ever had before. Without any words – forgetting what I knew about our vitamins – I think what I was seeing in that moment, was that Cassie loved me.
Slowly, Cassie’s face drew closer. Tiny freckles on her nose, merged into a creamy blur before my eyes as I waited, frozen in place. Slowly – so slow – the suspense was electric. I knew what it felt like to kiss her, but for Cassie to want me back, to be leaning into me now – that was something else altogether.
Finally, we touched. Her nose grazed along the side of mine, as our faces came together, and she paused a moment before our lips touched. The sliver of air in that tiny space prickled with static, before Cassie closed the gap and brought her mouth onto mine. As first she moved gently, but as my lips parted beneath hers, I felt her fingers winding into my hair and she pulled me closer, our bodies pressing into one another. Automatically, my arm circled around her hips, holding us together. It was a long while before I let go.
* * *
Cassie and I were lying facing one another. One of my arms still held her loosely, whilst the other was angled beneath my head as a pillow. We’d broken apart a few seconds before, and I was watching her face again – in super close-up – seeing tiny details I’d never noticed before.
At the centre of her eyes, just around the pupils, were tiny, yellow-gold flecks. Maybe you didn’t see them normally, because it was dimmer inside the station buildings and so her pupils were more dilated. Even her eyelashes were different shades of brown, black and gold, when you saw them at this distance. Such detail, in such a tiny thing.
Cassie’s lips looked soft and rosy, fuller from their recent activity. I smiled at that, before noticing that her cheeks had a different kind of warmth, from the earlier pinkiness of exercise.
“You’re not bad at this.”
Cassie chuckled, but didn’t move away. “That’s flattering, but a bit weird.”
I laughed myself, realising what she meant, and that she had not been privy to the thought process, inside my head, that had got me to that observation. “I meant your fighting ability, not your kissing. Although, both are good.”
Cassie tried to pull a face at my corny compliment, but could only smile at me. She wasn’t quite as cool as she like to pretend she was.
“Thanks. You’re not half-bad yourself,” she said, then clarified a moment later. “I meant the fighting thing, obviously.”
Obviously. Cassie rolled off my chest and snuggled in, to lie beside me.
“It must have taken you a long time to work these things out,” she said, once she was re-settled.
“I suppose.” I turned onto my side. Pulling Cassie’s hand into mine, I stroked the soft skin on the side of her palm as I answered her unasked question. “I’ve learnt more in the last few weeks since starting at The Clinic, especially about strong parts of the body, that I would never have thought of using before, and weak points to target.”
A shadow crossed her features, and I waited for words to explain whatever it was that had made her unhappy. They didn’t come.
“You’re drifting,” I whispered into her ear. “Where have you gone to this time?”
Cassie tilted her hand out of mine and began twisting my fingers between hers instead. "I was just wondering, why you’re always so interested in finding out how everything works.”
"Why are you happy to go along with what you're told without stopping to wonder why it is that way, or whether it even makes sense?" I replied, mimicking her slightly dreamy tone of voice.
"Fair point.” She pulled herself up to a sitting position. "But, can you tell me something that I’ve been told and believe, that's actually incorrect?"
I didn’t miss the defiant way her chin rose, as she issued me this challenge. Cassie only seemed half-serious, but the problem for me was that I had uncovered so many lies, there was almost
too much to choose from.
In the end, I left it up to her. "You can take your pick,” I offered.
"My pick from what...?"
The long list of lies we’re told about the world we live in.
It was true, but maybe a little harsh. I decided to go with one of my more recent discoveries, as an example. It would test how much Cassie could actually question the way we lived, and maybe also give me the chance to show her one of my biggest secrets.
"How about this?” I paused for a moment, making sure Cassie was listening. “The viewing screens do more than transmit conversations and messages. They monitor us, as well."
"They do what?!" Cassie scoffed, rolling her eyes at the sky.
I frowned, turning away. "You think this is a joke!"
Maybe I should have expected her disbelief, even though it was Cassie who had asked me. Her reaction disappointed me – I wanted to share this with her.
"I'm sorry.” Cassie apologised.
I felt her fingers on my shoulder, trying to get me to turn around. But, I couldn’t move.
She tried again. "Tell me how...? Tell me how you know...?"
"You won't like it."
"Try me," she insisted.
I took a deep breath, and began again. “A few months ago I broke the viewing screen in my room. I was messing around, doing something like we’ve done today, and caught the edge of the screen with my fist, pushing it out of place – ”
“How hard did you hit it?”
“Hard enough,” I shrugged the question off. “Anyway, I was worried I’d get into trouble for breaking it. So, I got some of Father’s tools from his office and undid the screen, with the intention of re-setting it in the frame. I hoped no one would be able to tell that anything had happened and I wouldn’t get any hassle from my parents.”
Cassie nodded for me to continue, not offering any further questions.
“When I pulled the screen out, I’ll admit I didn’t finish what I’d started off doing straight away. There were all sorts of wires and circuits in there, which distracted me and, well, you know me…”
“You had a dig around to see how it worked.”
When Cassie finished my sentence, I couldn’t help but smile at how well she knew me.
“So…” I continued, “I got some more tools out and dismantled the screen and speakers, making sure I remembered where everything went so that I could put it back together afterwards – ”
“I can’t believe you did that!” She looked over to me. “What would have happened if you couldn’t get it back together?”
“I thought you said I was good at engineering?” I pouted and tried to sound offended. It was a good attempt, but I didn’t really pull it off. Or, so I thought.
“Well you are – but you might not have been able to – ”
Cassie was scrambling for words. She had fallen for it, I realised with a smirk. She looked over at me and I quickly wiped the smile off my face, but it was too late. Cassie’s sharp eyes re-focused on me with a glare.
“You didn’t know you could put it back together!” She accused, smacking me lightly on the arm.
“Nope,” I grinned. “But, I figured I’d just trash the screen beyond repair if that happened and say that I fell into it… Anyway, that’s not the point. When I was working through the speaker components, alongside the coil that transmits the signal there are the receivers that act as a microphone. What was odd, was that there were two microphones, not one as you would expect.”
“Two?” Cassie echoed.
I nodded.
“Could it be to give a better reception – pick up more from the room when transmitting?”
It was a good suggestion. “To be honest, I did wonder that myself at first when I saw them. Although, the microphones are so sensitive that shouldn’t be necessary. Then, I wondered if it might have been a back up to the main microphone – to save any maintenance being done immediately, if one part failed.”
Cassie jumped on the idea. “Maybe that’s what it was,”
“Not really,” I shook my head, wishing it could be that simple. “I followed the circuits they were fitted to. Only one ran into the standard communication system that operates throughout the space station.”
“What was the other attached to?”
Cassie sounded intrigued. It was shame I didn’t have a better answer for her.
“I don’t know. All I could do was trace the connection back to its origin point. It was transmitting along a completely separate system…one I had never seen before.”
“That is odd,” Cassie agreed, twisting her fingers absent-mindedly through the grass.
“That wasn’t the only odd part. The second microphone was also on a different kind of switching system to the first one. It appeared to be automatically triggered by movement or sound, rather than the main manual controls of the viewing screen.”
“Could it be a fault on the system? Connected into the station incorrectly or an earlier model or something...?”
I stared at her, impressed by how easily she had taken the information in her stride. How she immediately tried to work out why something was, the way it was. She glanced up, aware of my scrutiny, warmth flushing her cheeks when her eyes met mine.
“That’s one of the things I love about you,” I smiled. “You’re always looking for the alternative. Nothing’s ever black and white –”
“I know – I’m sorry – I’m always asking a dozen questions when you’re just trying to tell me something. It’s a bad thing.”
Why was she apologising?
“No, it’s a good thing – a useful thing,” I reassured her. “As much as I like to look into how things work, it’s the why that usually frustrates me. You always seem to be able to look at things in a different way and come up with the why…”
Perhaps Cassie’s alternative perspective would offer something I hadn’t thought of, on this subject.
“So…what do you think the why would be in this case? Why would there be a transmitter in every viewing screen that doesn’t relate to the normal uses we have for them? And why would it automatically trigger on movement or sound within the space?”
Cassie didn’t flinch under my barrage of questions, she just came right back at me.
“It’s not every screen is it – you’ve only seen it in the one you broke haven’t you – could it be a mistake?”
It was a rational suggestion and it would have been a sound place to start, except that Cassie had forgotten that she was speaking to me. As soon as she finished asking the question, she guessed what I had done.
“How many screens have you dismantled to check?” she demanded.
“A few,” I admitted, trying to downplay, because Cassie looked quite shocked. But, then I laughed, suddenly angry with myself for lying to her.
What was the point?
I sighed, and told the truth. “Not a few; a lot.”
Cassie frowned. “All of them have the second transmitter?”
“All of them,” I confirmed.
“How did you even find that out? When did you get the chance to take apart any screens outside your apartment?”
“I told you before, my parents work long hours – just like yours.”
“Still – how did you get into other places to take apart screens without anyone seeing you?”
I should have known she would have realised there were gaps in my story. Every gap was a secret, and I certainly had a lot of those. I gave myself a shake. If I was committed to telling her the truth, I might as well get on with it.
“I used this,” I said, reaching into my trouser pocket and pulling out the wristband I always kept there. I held it out for Cassie to see.
For a few moments, she silently examined the band. Her gaze ran back and forth, taking in the two short plastic threads attached to each side of the rectangular sliver of metal.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I think it’s metal, although I couldn’t t
ell you what kind.”
“Metal?” Cassie stroked her finger over the surface of the small sheet that sat on my palm. “What makes you think it’s made of metal?”
“Even though we’ve never worked with solid metals it seems to fulfil several of the properties we’re told they have.”
I turned the wristband over to show Cassie the other side. As I did, I found my own finger brushing the smooth, cool surface. I relished the sensation: different to how any other material in the Family Quarter felt. For some reason, I always found the feel of the metal reassuring: as if my discovery of it and what it could do really meant something.
“Where did it come from?”
Of course, she would ask me the most difficult question first.
“I found it in Father’s office – among some of his work tools – I’ve seen a few similar things since, but this is the only one I found that did anything.”
Cassie’s eyes widened with surprise. “Why were you searching through his office?”
“I know – I shouldn’t have been doing it.” I stopped myself from adding that I wasn’t sorry. “The first time it happened, I was looking for a tool to help me with an experiment for school, and I found another piece of metal lodged inside his toolkit. I’d never seen anything like it before and wanted to find out what it was, what it could do…”
“And what did it do?”
“Nothing…nothing at all,” I confessed, my memories of disappointment at my first failed experiments colouring my tone, before I shook them off and continued with the story. “But, I couldn’t believe Father even had something like that. He’s always told me he worked on the internal systems of the space station, within the Family Quarter and there’s no metal here at all – the only place we’re told they used metal is in the outer structure.”
“So what does that mean?”
The Rainbow Maker's Tale Page 22
