I’m not a hero of their resistance. I’m not even in the resistance.
I’m not sure what I am.
I duck my head, avoid Delphina’s steady gaze, and catch up to Leopold. “Where’s Lenora?” I say in a harsh whisper so it won’t carry, but he’ll hear me over the subsiding applause. “I want to leave as soon as possible.”
He frowns. “Probably in the medical pod. I ordered the bot to do a work-up on her bodyform to make sure Marcus hadn’t tampered with it.”
“Great.” I glance around, and I’m relieved to see the militia members going about their business again.
When we reach the medical pod, I’m all set to demand Lenora tell me where my mom is and then leave as quickly as possible. But there are far more people inside than I expect.
Of course Cyrus is there—a surge of guilt spears my gut that I had completely forgotten about him. He’s sitting up, smiling and holding Basha’s hand. She must have forgiven him for everything that’s happened, what seemed like a million years ago, but was only earlier this afternoon. She looks a little better than on the pier, mostly because of the smile beaming from her face.
“Eli!” she says in her over-excited voice. But she stays by Cyrus’s side as he struggles to get up off the bed.
Kamali’s not far from Basha, and next to her is Tristan. They’re standing close, like they’ve been talking amongst themselves, but when he sees me, Tristan breaks out a grin. Kamali’s harried demeanor stays even. I can’t face her chocolate brown eyes for more than a second before I have to look away.
Then I see Lenora on one of the beds with the med bot nearby. She leaps off it with ascender speed, and she’s the first to reach me at the door, where I’m standing frozen.
“Eli,” she says, and it’s a gasp of relief. She scans me up and down like she can’t believe I’m standing in front of her. When her gaze finally comes back to meet mine, she puts her soft hands gently to my face. “I thought I had lost you.”
I wrench my face free of her grasp. “I’m fine.”
She frowns, chastened, and drops her hands.
I step back to put space between us. “Tell me where my mother is.”
“Eli, I’m sorry for…” She stalls out, looks to Leopold for help, but he’s standing coolly next to me and offers none. “Did Marcus tell you—”
“Where is she?” I shout her down. My voice bounces off the hard surfaces of the pod, making it even louder in the silence that’s fallen. I drop my voice low again. “Tell me now, Lenora.”
She nods, biting her lip. “I’ll take you to her.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head so there’s no confusion. “Give Leopold the coordinates. If she’s not there or anything has happened to her—” I’m biting my words off in angry chunks and throwing them at her. My blood pounds in my ears, and my head feels like it’s full to brimming again. I’m venting at Lenora, all the anger and confusion and… fear… about what she’s done to me. I struggle to rein it in. I’ll have all the time in the world to tell her what I think of her and her experiments and her pursuit of The Question after I have my mother safe again. She’ll have to come back here for the gen tech cure anyway. “I’ll be back later,” I say simply and leave it at that.
I turn away from her, fully planning on marching out of the pod and waiting for Leopold in the transport, but Cyrus is by the door. I nearly run into him. I force myself to peer up into his face. His concerned look deflates all my turmoil in one sweep.
“Cy, I’m sorry, I had to—” He cuts me off with a hug that squeezes all the air out of me. I blink back tears, and thankfully, he releases me before I have to figure out whether I need to hug him back.
He holds me by the shoulders. “Oh sure, run off, be a hero, and take all the glory for yourself. Have I told you how much of a pain in the ass it is to be your friend?”
A strangled laugh escapes me, in spite of feeling like I might break down at any moment. But I can’t look him in the eye right now. “I’m going to get my mom, Cy. I’ll be back.”
“The hell you are. I’m going with you.”
I ball up a fist and press it to my mouth. I’m desperate to be alone right now, simply because I’m barely holding it together. But I don’t think I can argue with him, not without breaking down. And my mother is his mother, at least in all the ways that matter. I relax my hand and peer up to look him in the face. “Okay.”
He frowns, and I know he knows: that something’s not right with me. That something’s not ever going to be right with me again. He puts his heavy hand on my shoulder, but it doesn’t weigh me down, it lifts me up. He pulls me into a one-armed Cyrus hug and gives me a sharp nod.
“Let’s go get your mom,” he says.
We leave the pod, Cyrus’s arm holding me up all the way to the transport.
We fly to Seattle. It’s just me, Cyrus, Leopold, and the pilot, with a mini med bay set up in the hold, complete with the dissenters’ med bot. I’m sitting in the third seat of the cockpit, staring out the window. I don’t speak. The ride is smooth, and there’s nothing but fertile restored habitats and the clear blue sky to look at, broken up by the occasional ascender city, each a major metropolis shining in the sun. As we cross Oregon, it gets darker, both due to the writhing storm clouds ahead in Washington, and the sun sinking lower in the West, adding a fiery red to the mix.
By the time we land at the coordinates Lenora gave us, the sun is hovering above the horizon, a churning orb that lights the hanging dark clouds from below. I don’t realize exactly where we are until we step out of the transport… onto the beach.
I freeze in place, my sneakers digging into the sand. Cyrus nearly runs into me from behind. I blink and look around, but it’s not the same beach. The kayaks and abandoned blankets are gone, and I can see the skyline of Seattle in the distance. In my fugue hallucination, there were only rolling hills over the water. I shake my head to clear it and force my legs to unlock and march forward. Leopold has skirted around me and Cyrus, leading the way to a small bungalow set back from the water. It’s separated from the sand by a narrow concrete walkway that’s broken into uneven bits, the waterfront having been long abandoned since the Singularity. It makes sense to me that Lenora would stash my mom here for safe keeping—somewhere no ascender would naturally stumble upon.
There’s no one visible in the adjacent abandoned bungalows, and most of the buildings here are in the same state of disrepair as the sidewalk. The one next door has a roof caved in, and the wooden porch of the house we’re approaching looks like it will barely hold me or Cyrus, much less Leopold’s more substantial ascender weight. He looks skeptical of it, too, but he gingerly crosses it and pulls open the screen door. It comes off in his hands, which makes him frown in an almost comical way. He sets the screen aside, knocks, then pushes open the door.
He peers inside, decides it’s safe or something, then lets me go first.
Cyrus shadows me on the way in. My heart has jumped up into my throat and starts pulsing there as I pick my way around the musty abandoned furniture that crams nearly every inch of floor space in the main room. I peek into the kitchen, but there’s nothing there. Cyrus is ahead of me, heading toward the back bedroom.
My heart is knocking in my ears by the time I reach the back. Cyrus is kneeling by my mom’s bedside. A rush of breath I didn’t know I was holding washes out of me when I see her.
She’s sleeping. At least I think she’s sleeping. I stumble to Cyrus’s side and work hard to keep the tears out of my eyes. We both watch as her chest slowly rises and falls.
Cyrus stands and puts a hand on my shoulder. “She’s okay.”
I nod, too much. Then I squeeze his shoulder. “Can you give us a minute, Cy?”
He lets out a long breath, but I think he’s relieved. “You got it.”
I wait until he leaves and slides the door shut behind him. There’s a small med bot, the non-sentient, non-android kind in sleep mode in the corner. A shallow dish next to my mother’s be
d has remnants of oatmeal, with a half-filled glass of water nearby. My relief that she’s actually eaten something recently fills me with a kind of glowing joy that almost starts the tears again.
I am such a mess.
I take a couple deep breaths before I kneel by the bed and gently place my hand on hers to wake her. It takes a full heart-stopping minute of gentle taps and calling her name to rouse her.
When she opens her eyes and smiles, I give up the fight and bow my head, pressing her hand to my forehead and letting the tears fall.
“Elijah,” she says, surprised. Her voice is stronger than I expect, and she pats my head with one hand before pulling the other from mine and struggling to sit up. I duck my head away, wipe my face as quickly as I can, and have a smile for her when I turn back.
“How are you feeling?” I ease up to sit on the creaky mattress next to her. She adjusts a pillow, propping herself up, so she can sit next to me.
“Good. You know,” she says. “How long have you been gone? I’ve been sleeping a lot. Kind of lost track of the days.”
How long? Forever. A lifetime. I think back on it. “About five days.”
She nods like this makes sense, even though it seems crazy to me. Then she frowns and studies her hands. “I didn’t watch the competition, Elijah,” she says quietly. “I couldn’t. I just—”
“Hey,” I cut her off. “Don’t worry about that.”
“Lenora said you were doing well, when she arranged to have me moved. And now… you’re already back.” She hesitates again, staring at her hands. “Did you win?” Her question is a whisper.
I let out a small laugh. “Yes.”
She looks up, a dire look on her face.
“And no,” I add quickly. “I’m not going to ascend, Mom. But I am here to take you somewhere you can get a cure. A real cure. The kind that will actually work.”
A kaleidoscope of emotions cross her face, and she seems to struggle for words. Finally, she says, “Lenora said it would be better for me to rest here by the seaside…”
“Lenora’s not in charge of this.” I wait for her to look up at me. “I know, Mom. I know everything.”
She looks genuinely puzzled, and for a moment, I think, maybe, she doesn’t really know. Maybe they drugged her and made her pregnant without her knowledge or consent. That springs up an anger that chokes me, but then I know that can’t be right. She had to know, even if only afterward. And if she doesn’t… she should.
“I know about Lenora and the experiment,” I say quietly, watching her reaction.
Her eyes widen, and she drops her gaze.
She knows.
“I just… I just want to know why, Mom,” I say, my voice cracking. “Why would you let them do that?” Why would you let them put something not human inside you? I can’t force it from my lips.
Her face scrunches up, like she’s trying not to cry, and it just about kills me. I want to take the question back. I want to erase all of it and just hug her. But, at the same time, I have to know. I need to know—like my sanity is hinging on her answer.
She twists and twists the sheet in her lap, starts to speak a couple times, then stops.
I wait, unable to say anything more.
Finally, she looks up at me, eyes shining, and says, with a small shrug, “I did it for love.”
I pull back. “For love.” I have no idea what she means.
“I was in love with my patron.” She says it like she’s surprised I haven’t guessed it already.
I’m genuinely shocked. “I didn’t know you even had a patron.”
“Well, it was before you were born.” She gives a teasing sort of smile that slowly melts into sadness. “He was brilliant and charming and… well, you know how they are.”
I do, but my brain is overwhelmed with the idea of my mother… as a domestic. My throat is closing up.
She keeps talking. “I was convinced he loved me. That he saw something special in me. I was too old for the games, but I was sure that one day he would find a way for us to be together. Because we were meant to be together. That was obvious to my twenty-year-old heart.” She shakes her head and gives a dry chuckle that makes her cough. “I was a fool, of course.”
I can hardly listen to this. The agitation is crawling up my legs, and I have to stand. I pace to one side of the tiny room, cross my arms, and stare at her, waiting for her to go on.
“Eli, you have to understand. I was young. I was in love. And when he asked me to… well… basically carry his child, I didn’t hesitate. I thought he wanted it because he wanted me.”
I fist up both hands and press them to my forehead. I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want to know this.
“I thought, once the baby was born, that he would find a way to ascend me, and we would raise our child together. But once I was pregnant with you…” She looks away quickly, but I see it: the pain in her eyes. It makes me want to hunt down and kill the ascender who did this to her. She clears her throat and looks back to me. “After that, I found out he had taken a second. Soon after, he left Seattle. I’ve never heard from him again.”
I turn away from her and drive my fist into the flimsy paperboard wall of her room. It hurts, but nowhere near as bad as the pain I want to inflict on this… patron. This ascender who used my mother like breeding cattle for his experiment, breaking her heart in the process.
I lean my forehead against the wall and pull my fist from it, breathing out the anger in short bursts. Someday, I vow to myself, someday… I’m going to find that bastard and make him pay. Meanwhile… my mom needs me.
I turn away from the wall. My mom’s shoulders droop with the burden she’s laid on me, this knowledge of how I came to be. And why. I rush over and hug her as hard as I dare with her disease-ravaged body. A disease this patron of hers doesn’t know or care about, having abandoned her… and me… long ago. She sobs quietly into my shoulder, and I feel her tears through my uniform.
When she pulls back, she puts a cool hand to my cheek. “I never once regretted it, Elijah. Never once. Because I have you. And I love you so much.”
“I know, Mom,” I say, barely choking it out. “C’mon. I have a place I’m going to take you. Somewhere they can cure you.”
I help her up from the bed. She’s so unsteady and frail in my hands, but I can see her determination to stand on her own. I think about how much she’s had to do on her own, all this time. Raising me. Worrying about me. Not wanting to lose me to the ascenders who created me in the first place.
She holds tight onto my arm for balance. “Lenora said she would look out for you.” She gingerly works her way across the room with my help. “She said she would bring you back to me.” She pats my arm. “And she did.”
In that moment, I forgive Lenora just a little—for taking care of my mom in a way I didn’t even understand she needed.
I shift forward to open the door for her, and Cyrus is waiting just outside.
“Mrs. B,” he says. The tear tracks are still wet on his face. “I’ve got a stretcher waiting right here for you.” He shuffles into the furniture-stuffed living room, where Leopold is waiting for us with a solemn face, a militia member, and a maglev stretcher.
“We’re going to see Lenora now,” I say quietly to my mom, holding her arm as we slowly walk the hallway. “But we’re going to have to leave Seattle to do it. And once we leave, we’re not going to be able to come back.”
I nod to Cyrus to let him know we’re ready.
“Where are we going?” my mom asks, taking in Leopold, the stretcher, and the black-garbed dissenter pilot holding it with surprising calmness.
“Somewhere safe,” I say. “Somewhere you don’t have to ascend to live.”
She smiles at me. It’s weakened by sickness and takes as much effort as her slow steps across the floor.
But it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in a long time.
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Eli's journey is far from over.
There are six planned novels in the Singularity Series, plus the prequel Day Zero, which covers the Singularity event, and
Stories of Singularity, a collection of short novellas to accompany the series.
Restore (Stories of Singularity #1) has just been released!
a short story about artificial intelligence and love
Amazon
What if the three laws of robotics were replaced by a single emotion: unconditional love. Restorative Human Medical Care Unit 7435, sentience level fifty, wants to heal the human master it loves, but Unit 7435 finds there is a price to be paid for love… and for failing in its primary mission. Restore is the first in a collection of short SF novellas (Stories of Singularity) that will accompany Susan Kaye Quinn's Singularity novel series.
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The Legacy Human (Singularity #1) (Singularity Series) Page 30
