A Hero for WondLa

by Tony DiTerlizzi

  “Bye, Father,” Gen said. “Will I see ya tonight?”

  “Of course.” Cadmus gave her a peck on the head. “Now go. Enjoy my city. Enjoy your city.”

  Eva glanced back over her shoulder as she exited the office lobby with Gen. Cadmus and the others were laughing and talking loudly as the door closed to his headquarters.

  CHAPTER 11: ORIENTATION

  I can’t believe you’re a reboot! And you have a fully stocked quotacard!” Gen led the way out of Attican Hall. “Wait till the other Gens meet you. They are going to completely short out!”

  “What’s a quotacard?” Eva asked.

  “It’s a card that records what products you consume. It regulates what you get, but only after it monitors you for a while to see if you’re going to be a consumption freak. But you won’t be, because—” Gen stopped and held her right hand up as if she were taking an oath. She recited, “New Attica provides all that we want, because all that we want is all that we need.” She burst out laughing and grabbed Eva’s hand as they exited Attican Hall.

  Eva felt something tickle her leg. She looked down to see a striped fuzzy tail swishing around from under Gen’s ruffled miniskirt. “Do you have . . . a tail?” Eva asked.

  “Isn’t it rocket?” Gen giggled. “It’s a robotail! They come in a million-zillion colors. We’ll get you one at the Attican Galleria, my homecube away from home. It’s not far. You can even get your lip done while we’re there too.” Gen pointed to her upper lip.

  Eva realized that the cleft between Gen’s lip and nose had been partially split, creating a felinelike smile. Eva winced. “Did it hurt?”

  “Not at all. Father let me get it done for the Awakening celebration last year. My mother shorted out when she saw it.”

  Eva wondered if Muthr would have cared if she had her lip split—not that she would have asked to have it done.

  “You didn’t have any parents in your Sanctuary, did you?” Gen asked. “That is so jolt. Now that you’re here, you can just come and go as you please and never answer to anyone. Just be your own person, right?”

  “I guess,” Eva replied. The independence to come and go as she pleased also meant not having anyone around to help or guide her. I hope Rovee gets here soon, Eva thought.

  Gen and Eva walked along the bridge that took them over the central pond and toward the park. Eva noticed a group of locals, including several robots, feeding giant brightly colored fish from the bridge.

  “Are they fishing?” Eva thought of how delicious the spiderfish platter had been at Hostia Havenport’s home back in Lacus. The fish here under the bridge were the size of the Havenport’s living room, large enough to feed a village.

  “Fishing?” Gen seemed perplexed. “Oh, no. Not father’s koi. Some of them are almost three hundred years old. But if you’re hungry for seafood, there is a tiny synthsushi bar I know. They make the best pellet wraps.”

  At the park entrance a beeping gondola landed, and the bubble doors opened to reveal two other teenage girls. Both looked nearly identical to Gen.

  “Is this her?” one of the new girls said.

  “Yes!” replied Gen. “Girls, this is no holo. She is an actual reboot!”

  “Clone me! Her hair is its natural color,” the second new girl said. “And her eyes still dilate.”

  “Just like a baby’s!” the first girl said. At this point Eva could hardly tell who was who.

  “So,” Gen said, locking arms with the other girls. “These are my two darlings—Gen and Gen.”

  “We are known as the three Gens!” they said in unison.

  “Look at her O-pod!” The second Gen pointed at Eva’s Omnipod. “It’s a handheld vintage edition! That is so jolt!”

  “What do you mean?” Eva asked. “What does your O-pod look like?”

  “Like this.” They all opened their right hands to reveal small Omnipod-like eyes implanted in their palms. Under the skin delicate electrodes and wires could be seen like electronic blood vessels. “Carrying this thing must be so cumbersome,” Gen said, running her manicured fingers over the tarnished device. “But I guess that’s part of the mystique with antiques, right?”

  Eva winced at the idea of having her Omnipod implanted into her hand, though somehow it now felt heavier in her grasp.

  “And she’s been on the outside. Can you believe it?” Gen said. She seemed proud, as if she’d rescued Eva herself.

  “What a relic. A true treasure,” another Gen said, stroking Eva’s arm.

  “It’s like she’s an actual time traveler.” The third Gen played with Eva’s hair.

  Dizzy, Eva dropped down onto the cushy green turf. She felt numb and useless, like she was on the wrong planet. How could Rovender go out exploring? she thought. I am seeing Muthr everywhere I look, and Hailey . . .

  You got what you wanted and I got what I needed.

  “Beeboo, what is it?” Gen sat down and placed her arm around Eva. “Are you sick?”

  “No.” Eva concealed her emotion. “I’m fine.”

  “You are going to love it here. You’re going to be one of us,” Gen said.

  “Yeah, you just need to fit in,” another Gen added.

  “And if anyone can help you with that . . .”

  “It’s us!” the three Gens said in unison.

  “Come on.” The Gens helped Eva up. “Let’s grab some pellet wraps and get you upgraded.”

  The girls walked leisurely through the park toward the galleria, jabbering away with one another. Eva’s eyes wandered about the meticulously manicured paradise. She watched children play games in the grass and picnic in the open field. There were adults around, but no one seemed to pay any mind to the children, nor were any Muthrs present to look over them. The girls strolled under the shade of a large tree.

  “What a beautiful big tree.” Eva stopped to stroke the rough crackled bark of an oak. “You must be glad it’s the sort that doesn’t walk. There’s not much room for it to move around here.”

  The girls giggled. “A tree that walks?”

  “You’re funny, Eva. I like that,” Gen said.

  They continued along the shady path, passing by the entrance to the Attican Aviary. The sound of chirping birds sang out from the domed enclosure. Wow, birds that I would actually recognize, Eva thought. Not some six-winged alien species. “Hey, can we go in there?” she asked.

  “Um, sure,” Gen replied. “Why don’t you go take a wander, and we’ll wait for you right here?”

  “It’s okay,” Eva said. “You guys want to go to the galleria, right? Let’s do that.”

  “No, it’s all right,” Gen said. “If you want to see the birds, go on. I’ve seen them before.”

  “Yeah, they are so jolt.” The second Gen tapped a beauty mark on her chin, changing the tint on the lipstick coating her pouty mouth.

  “They are so beautiful,” the third Gen said.

  “Besides, I’ve got a million-zillion vidcalls to go through anyways,” Gen added.

  “Me too,” the others chimed.

  Eva watched people line up to enter the aviary. Among them she caught the glance of a woman with short ash-blond hair staring back at her. “Naw. Maybe I’ll visit it later,” Eva said. “Besides, I can come and go anytime I want to now, right?”

  “That’s right,” Gen said, locking arms with Eva. “Come on. The Attican Galleria is just up ahead.”

  “You are going to short out on this place!” Gen said as the girls wandered along the promenade that took them past a variety of shops and eateries. “Even though you really don’t need a store to get stuff, my dad wanted this place to be like an old-fashioned mall, where people could shop and meet.”

  “Yeah, by ‘meet’ she means ‘meet boys,’” the third Gen said. The second Gen tittered.

  Gen rolled her eyes and pointed to a clothing store. “First stop for you, Eva. The Duds Factory. You need some Emote-Attire like us.”

  “Yes, it will show your true feelings,” the second added
.

  “Your true colors, for all the world to see!” all three sang in unison, and then began to giggle.

  The third Gen jabbed the sleeve of Eva’s flight suit. “This old rag doesn’t tell us anything at all.”

  “You’re right,” Gen said. “Is that what they gave you to wear at the medlab?”

  Eva looked at the baggy blue garment that hung over her bony frame. “It’s not even mine,” she confessed. “It was one of Hailey’s spares.”

  “Hailey?” The girls crowded Eva. “Who’s Hailey?”

  “The pilot who brought me here on his ship.” Eva wished she hadn’t mentioned his name. She didn’t really want to think about Hailey right now.

  “Pilot? Where is he? Why isn’t he with us?”

  “He’s back home . . . I guess.” Eva wondered when she’d hear from him with news of Rovender. “He lives outside of the city in the hills.”

  “You are completely shorting me out right now!” Gen said.

  “Shoot me with a SHOCdart!” added the second.

  “Are you telling me that you were brought here by a Toiler?” asked the third Gen.

  Eva remembered the phrase that Van Turner had used. “Yeah. That’s what he is. A Toiler.”

  “Disgusto!” Gen scowled. “Those Toilers are nasty.”

  “Yeah,” the second Gen said. “My mother said they didn’t know a good thing when they had it.”

  “I heard they steal children and eat them. Is that true?” the third Gen asked.

  “I—I don’t think so,” Eva replied. “But Hailey was nasty. He traded me for ship parts.”

  “What! Oh, Beeboo, that’s terrible.” The three Gens huddled and hugged Eva.

  This was a sensation Eva had never experienced before. These three human girls had taken her in as one of their own, as one of their flock. She felt safe in the huddle and clutched the other girls tight.

  “Thanks, Gen,” Eva said. “Now let’s get me upgraded.”

  CHAPTER 12: VISION

  It was early evening when the four girls sat down at a corner booth at Pel Palace, a busy restaurant with a fairy tale theme. Holograms of fairies floated here and there while dragons roared from the castle tops. The three Gens placed their right palms flat on the shield-shaped tabletop to activate the interactive menu. On the adjacent wall hung an ornate mirror.

  “Welcome back, miladies,” the mirror greeted them in a dramatic foreign accent. An amorphous smiling face floated in its center. “Will it be the usual gruel and ale?”

  “Yes!” the three Gens chimed. “But wait a nano. We’ve got one more order to place.”

  “As you wish,” said the mirror.

  “Okay, Eva,” Gen said. “What you do is pick your favorite foods from this menu, and then they custom make your order. They even have a million-zillion ice cream flavors.”

  Eva glanced down and caught her reflection in the monitor set inside the tabletop. With her dyed iridescent blue hair, makeup, and new clothing, she looked just like one of the Gens. The store’s autoserver said she was a “true vision of beauty,” despite the fact that she looked just like all the other girls she had seen shopping in the galleria. Though she had decided against getting her cleft split, Eva touched her glossy lips and marveled at the person looking back at her. She decided she liked her look. It made her feel just like one of the citizens here.

  “Oh, zappers! My quotacard is spent for the day,” Gen said.

  “Mine too,” the second Gen added.

  “Make that three,” the third Gen said.

  “Can you spot us, Eva?” Gen asked.

  Eva shrugged her shoulders. “Sure.”

  “Rocket! Okay. We are going to order for you, too. I want to get you something really special.” Gen tapped through the menu at a rapid pace. “There you go.” Gen addressed the mirror. “All done.”

  “Your wish is my command, my lovelies,” the mirror said. From the wall four empty test tubes—as long as Eva’s forearm—rolled out onto the table. Eva grabbed one.

  “Your feast is served, Gen,” the mirror announced. Gen snapped the mouth of the tube into the wall dispenser and watched it fill up with pastel-colored pills and pellets. This action repeated three more times until the order was filled.

  “Bottoms up!” Gen squealed, and the three girls filled their mouths. Eva picked one of the pellets out from her tube and tasted it. A sweet vanilla flavor coated her tongue as the pellet melted away. She could hear Rovender criticizing her for this, but he was not there. He’d had better things to do. She tilted the tube upward and filled her mouth with the entire contents. It tasted like chocolate fudge cake with vanilla crème icing and Neapolitan ice cream.

  “My birthday,” Eva said. “You remembered.”

  “No,” Gen said, and giggled. “It’s not your birthday, but it’s—”

  “Happy Arrival Day!” all three squealed.

  “Aw, thanks.” Eva smiled. She swallowed down her mixture of feelings and finished her meal.

  “Clone me. Did you see Paige Trundle’s new dye?” Gen asked the group.

  “No, I missed it,” replied the third Gen.

  “Hold on a nano. You have to see it. I’ll transfer it here so we can all look.” Gen exited the main menu on the tabletop and brought up a hologram of a girl the same age as the Gens. “I snuck a shot of her when she was coming into the galleria.”

  “Liquid black with white weave-tufts? What a short-out,” the second Gen said. “Her hair looks like a dud-cloned animal.”

  “Put her into Identicapture,” the third Gen said.

  “Oh, yes! Yes! Yes!” The second bounced up and down in her seat.

  Eva watched the hologram rotate over the table. Why would they open Identicapture? Are they really different species, after all?

  “Homo sapiens neo,” the table reported. “Otherwise known as the new man, conceived by the—”

  “No. That is incorrect,” Gen said in a patronizing tone. “Please try again.”

  “It could be Callithrix jacchus, or the common marmoset. A species of New World monkey, originally indigenous to South America,” the table announced.

  The girls burst into peals of laughter.

  “A monkey!”

  “That is so jolt!”

  “Isn’t that hysterical, Eva?” Gen asked. She wiped the tear-smudged mascara from her eyes.

  “Yeah, I get it.” Eva faked a laugh. “That’s funny.”

  The three Gens looked at one another and giggled.

  “I am completely dehy. I need a Pow-R-drink,” Gen said. “Anybody else?”

  While one of the girls placed a drinks order, Gen led Eva to the back of the black-lit restaurant, which was fashioned after a castle courtyard and full of assorted games. Spectators huddled around a life-size animated chessboard while others engaged in a game of charades with a holographic dragon. A small gang of kids ran after a fluttering fairy with nets in hand.

  “Oh, this is pretty rocket,” Gen said, leading Eva by the hand. She took her to the back of the courtyard, where the royal throne sat. As she stepped onto the dais toward the throne, Eva realized it was an old salon chair with colorful lights running up and down its sides. A dinged-up helmet was attached to the headrest, and the words “The Divination Machine” were printed under the armrests in fancy old lettering. On the large banner behind the chair read, “Your life—past, present, and future—at a glance.”

  “It’s an old-fashioned fortune-teller,” Gen said. “You sit in the throne, put the helmet on, and your future is projected on a window in front of you. This was really popular eons ago.”

  Eva looked over the bundled coils of wire snaking out of the helmet and the tattered armrests.

  “Go ahead. Get in,” Gen said. “You’ll love it.”

  Eva thought of Arius prophesying through her cryptic chants and how uneasy it had made her feel. “I don’t know,” she said, picking at her newly painted fingernails.

  “Are you afraid of this old antique?�
� Gen said. “Or is it what it may tell you about your future? Your future with . . . Hailey?” She let out a giggle.

  “I guess it is just a machine, right?” Eva pretended she wasn’t nervous and climbed up into the chair. She wrangled her newly attached robotail and sat on the worn-out cushion.

  Gen put the helmet down over Eva’s new hairstyle and started up the machine. A holo-program flickered on, and an electronic fuzzy voice spoke from speakers within the helmet. “Welcome to the Divination Machine and your life, Eva Nine. Before we look into your future, let us take a peek at your past.”

  In the hologram window Eva saw images of her upbringing in the Sanctuary, similar to those that had been projected in the medlab. A scene of Muthr mashing up pellets for her to eat shifted to a scene of a young Eva playing with blocks, which changed once more into an image of Eva, obscured by shadow in her dimly lit bedroom, arguing with Muthr.

  “Now let us look at today. The present,” the machine said.

  Eva watched the visions of her past evaporate into an image of her shopping and eating with the Gens. It stopped on a fixed image of her sitting in the Divination Machine with the helmet on.

  “And now,” the machine announced, “let us look into your future, Eva Nine.” A scene materialized depicting Eva walking hand in hand with Cadmus. Together they were leading a gathering a thousand people strong. The mass traveled through a rolling field of tall grass, and finally arrived at a vast lake. This reminded Eva of Lake Concors, where the towers of Lacus stood just offshore—but Lacus was nowhere to be seen.

  “What happened to Lacus? Where’s Hostia?” Eva asked aloud. The Divination Machine did not reply. The vision continued with Cadmus and Eva leading their followers around the lake’s edge to the northwest, where the city of Solas lay. But in place of Solas there now rose a grand and wondrous human city, a clear-domed duplicate of New Attica. Eva scanned the area, searching for a familiar landmark. Poking out from the depths of the lake, the spire of Queen Ojo’s palace could be seen, covered in clumps of wet algae. Eva’s sweaty palms gripped the armrests tight as dread slithered its way into her.