Lost in Amber

by Esther Rabbit

  “You know what? The only thing that makes your species superior to ours is time. I wouldn’t be so stuck up just because the universe gave you a head start! You’re stuck with me tomorrow and I intend to do whatever I can to help save Sam. She’ll be ok!”

  “There’s no room for anything other than ok, Emma. We’ll be here monitoring and you’ll do great. You’re a fast learner.”

  She did not expect anything nice coming out of a Grinch like himself. In the small corridor leading to the bedroom, Alex kept his distance and his hands in his pockets, well aware he’d crossed the line just hours before. Relating to humans was something he’d never done, and this was too new to behave naturally. He didn’t know the protocol or if she wanted to be patted on the back, offered a beverage, or allowed to sulk alone, but he was no stranger to how tension affected human focus. All primitive intelligent species were subjected to emotions and allowed drama to take control of their performance. If they were to work together, Emma had to find her focus. Their species were similar, yet slightly different after all. Optans didn’t touch as much as humans, didn’t talk as much, and definitely did not rely as much on emotional comfort. Not him at least. He’d been the best strategist on Opt, his fingers working meticulous tactics on intersats in the privacy of his station. Alexandre was not easily adaptable to change, but he was smart enough to know that a tense human would add more to the problem than to the solution.

  In the guest bedroom, Rufus was staring out the window and pretended he wasn’t crying when he heard footsteps walking in. He felt torn from the inside out.

  “You love her.” Jasper stopped by the foot of the bed. Rufus turned to face him, half surprised at his words.

  “More than you know.” His mind was suddenly filled with images of Mia laughing, nursing him to life, and himself running off without saying a word.

  “She’ll understand why you left when you come for her tomorrow. She knows your reasons. You’ll still be a liability but I see your reasoning. You’ll be there, and she’ll know.” Jasper tried to comfort him.

  “How do I know she doesn’t think I was selfish enough to leave her behind?” His words were full of doubt and self-loathing, yet somehow, there was the smallest grain of hope and Jasper sensed it fully.

  “Humans live on hope. I give you my word, we’ll all fight for her. I granted you the risk of attending this mission—that alone should earn me some trust, right?” He tried to lift the mood.

  “I trusted you with my life from the moment I met you. We’re in this together,” Rufus said as he launched himself onto the bed only to slide under the green covers. “I hope Alex isn’t a night farter, for his own good.” He pulled at the duvet and peeped his toes out.

  “The cat is fine, by the way. I got a food dispenser and everything. I hope you’ll gather some guts to speak to Zoey at some point; she really doesn’t hate you.”

  “I will…” Rufus didn’t sound very convinced as he turned to the side and pulled the blanket over his head. It took two steps out of the bedroom and Jasper could already hear him snoring heavily.

  Zoey’s bed fit the three of them just fine. Emma took the window side, Lilou the middle, and Zoey by the door as usual. She lay awake imagining all possible scenarios and thinking how Sam must have fought her kidnapper. She now imagined her scared, hungry, and bruised. In the calmness of her bedroom, she felt the steady breathing of Emma, who had fallen asleep with a hand resting on Lilou’s shoulder.

  Where is Sam? She wondered relentlessly until her anxiety had her out of bed and tiptoeing into the kitchen, careful not to wake Jasper up.

  Trying to make herself some tea to calm her nerves was hard:

  1. It was dark.

  2. Her kettle was silent but not silent enough.

  3. She'd have to open and close drawers blindly looking for mug and spoon and sugar.

  She gave up the idea as she reached the kettle on the counter and turned on her heels to make her tippy-toe way back to the bedroom and set her first toe out of the kitchen area only to bump nose-first into Jasper’s chest, which resulted in a very startled jump back in the manner of alley cats bumping into stray dogs.

  Shit. “You’re awake!” she whispered, all flustered. She couldn’t see him properly, but he smelled like something in between softener and rain.

  “You’re not precisely the delicate swan you think you are!” Jasper whispered back. “Why are you awake?” he demanded.

  “Sam.”

  “Whatever you’re doing right now is not going to improve Sam’s wellbeing, it’s only going to worsen yours, and I need you to have a clear head tomorrow!” There it was, he was being authoritarian again.

  “Stop telling me things I already know!” It was too dark to see his face and give him the stink eye he deserved.

  “You can’t pretend to be feisty while you whisper, it defeats the purpose.” he whispered back. “Look, if you’re here you either need a hug, a hot beverage, or some sort of comfort. Is it food? There’s some pizza left, I can get it for you.”

  “What?! Does it, like, come in a manual?! What humans do for comfort?! Can you be yourself and not some kind of weird human whisperer? You’re not even being that assertive in the first place!” Zoey jumped when she felt fingers brushing against her shoulder.

  “I touched your shoulder before and it seemed to work!” Jasper was genuinely confused. He had the training. He bumped shoulders with her in the walk-in closet. Humans responded to touch: the shoulder bump, the pat on the back, the hug, the wrist squeeze, he’d memorized them all. There were over fifteen types of pats on the back, but only two or three acceptable given the degree of their social interaction.

  Which one was it, dammit?

  “What is it about you optans? Is self-comfort built in your DNA? Don’t you have feelings and worries?”

  “Of course we do!” How weird would it be to tell her he had intensive training on human behavioral patterns, proximity, social integration…all useless?

  “Do you now? Because, fancy enhancements aside, it seems to me you have the emotional intelligence of a potato!” As soon as she said it, she regretted it. She had been harsh. She wanted to hurt him because she was hurting.

  Shit. Now he’s quiet...

  “I’m sorry…” they both echoed at the same time. She was almost glad he couldn’t see her well in the darkness of the living room.

  Silence made its way between them as they steadied their breath.

  More silence followed.

  “Can I show you?” Jasper broke the awkward stillness. “What we do for comfort, I mean.”

  “Yes,” she said in a small voice and took two steps back to turn on the light of the extractor hood. It was enough to allow them to see each other and dim enough not to be classified as proper light. Zoey turned to face him, half distracted by the sand-colored hair overflowing his shoulders in waves. There was something about the way that soft light fell on his jawline, hallmarking his face. She found her fingers aching for a pencil at the line of the masseter, his features practically begging to be on canvas.

  Jasper took a step closer, narrowing the space between them, his gaze falling on her white noodle-strap pajama top and flamingo-patterned shorts, her pointy nose and curious freckles.

  He got closer, tracing his fingers on her collarbone, and gently pressed his thumb in the hollow between her clavicles, resting his fingers around her neck.

  She then noticed a slight pulse synchronizing with her breath as she felt his hand, warm and soft at the base of her neck. She heard herself gasp as she raised her eyes to meet his at the distance of a pencil, amber and flickering. She held her breath and felt his thumb pressing and moving up and down in that same hollow until it gave her goosebumps and an accelerated pulse, his movements echoing in her stomach and beaming throughout her whole body like a soft flutter. Up and down. Intensifying. Washing over her in waves.

  Whatever it was, she didn’t want him to stop.

  “And now I would hu
g you…if you’d let me,” Jasper whispered in a low voice, his eyes glued on hers. She nodded, unable to detach herself from something that seemed so intimate coming from someone she barely knew. It was hypnotic, like the work of magic pulling her into his touch and rendering her spellbound under his fingers.

  Before she made sense of it all, he draped his arms around her and pulled her into the warmth of him. He squeezed a fraction harder and she gave into his chest, careful at the tightness of her hold. There was nothing but the smell of softener and rain invading her senses as she pressed her eyelashes onto his t-shirt.

  And just like that, with a hand he cupped her head and worked his fingers in her curls while running a pressing arm from her lower to her middle back, burying his face in her hair and running his fingers over her shoulder blades until there was nothing except the sound of their pounding heartbeats cascading into each other.

  “…Ahem!” Rufus cleared his throat to announce his presence. It made both Zoey and Jasper jump, quickly detaching from each other’s grasp and with no time to wipe away the awkwardness.

  “I’d head back to the room in perfect silence if I didn’t have this killing thirst…” Rufus tried to whisper in a hoarse, sleepy voice, almost embarrassed at the sight of them.

  “Um…I—I was just here for tea myself!” Zoey whispered back, all flurried, and launched herself to fill the electric kettle, press the button, grab mugs, honey, sugar, and spoons in precipitated movements, hyper from earlier happenings. It left Jasper and Rufus staring at her inquisitively while pulling themselves onto the bar stools on the other side of the counter. If eyes could talk, they’d be having the most confusing of conversations with Rufus giving him all the dancing eyebrows and fluttering lashes under the accords of cabinets opening and closing.

  Not getting any juice, Rufus rubbed his eyes and pulled at the pink t-shirt covering his muffin top and eagerly scraped his calf with a bare foot, almost glad he didn’t clip his toenails the day before. He wore the red shorts Lilou had picked out for him, saying they matched his beard. He knew then and there he’d never allow another optan lady to pick clothes for him ever again.

  Next to him, Jasper was pulling at the sleeves of his white t-shirt, seemingly uncomfortable with being seen without his waistcoat and scrutinized by Rufus’s brows.

  “Here you go!” Zoey aligned three mugs. “It’s cinnamon tea, and here you have regular sugar, brown sugar, and Manuka honey.” She kept her voice down and took the stool on the other side, facing both of them.

  “Zoey, I…didn’t mean to startle you before,” Rufus broke. “I mean, when I saw you for the first time. I apologize if I came off as rough.”

  “Don’t sweat it, I’ve been through worse in just twenty-four hours. I’ll find it in my heart to forgive you. Can you really practice mind control?” she gathered the courage to ask, but before she even started, she felt her arms had a mind of their own and watched, baffled, as she, without any control over her limbs, managed to take the tea spoon, dip it into the brown sugar and into Rufus’s mug. She watched her hand stir eagerly before handing him the mug. He then broke the hold on her limbs and watched her hands drop to the counter. She pulled them away and stared at them in utter disbelief.

  Jasper shot Rufus the kind of look parents give their disobedient children.

  “What? I didn’t take over her mind, just her arms! It comes in handy at times.” he replied with a wink and grin.

  “Can you make Jasper hand me the cookie jar to your left?” Zoey’s eyes widened.

  “I could make Jasper dance the lambada if I wanted to!” Rufus displayed a mischievous grin as he watched Jasper dance his way to the cookie jar, the horror on Jasper’s face almost palpable as he swayed to retrieve it and wiggled his shoulders while passing the jar down to Zoey.

  She draped a hand over her mouth and muffled a laugh. The dancing limbs were such a contrast to his features.

  She watched Jasper sway back to his stool, bemused as she shoved her hand down the jar to retrieve not one but two cookies, handing one to Rufus.

  “Are you done impressing our hostess?” Jasper had a full hold of himself again and was obviously not pleased with the vulnerability of his mind and body around Rufus.

  “I recently learned to detach controlling the mind from controlling the body, so he can now be fully aware of what I can do to him if he pisses me off!” Rufus dipped his cookie in the hot tea and took a greedy bite.

  “And while he did that, he discovered his body dilated during the switch just enough to allow small animals to crawl into his mouth—hence the cat incident.” Jasper protested.

  “We don’t know if it’s a side effect or intended, but my body can liquefy to a certain extent, kind of like dough, but I don’t know if you’re quite ready to see that.”

  “Why do you have a kalenium band?” Zoey’s eyes stared at the evidence.

  “So he can find the focus to control his powers, and for me to be able to reach him. Optans wear these throughout their youth until they have full and responsible control of their enhancements. Rufus is now a good friend and sometimes annoying hybrid.” Jasper patted his back, right in between the shoulder blades.

  “As flattered as I am by your display of endearment, I have a big day tomorrow. I’m getting my girl back, Zoey.” He watched her mouth drop, so he felt compelled to continue, “She’s one of us, one of the altered. When I escaped Beck’s lab, I was weak and drugged and my enhancements helped just enough to subdue one of Beck’s men to set me free. I took my chance like the coward bastard that I was and left her behind.” He trailed off with a sigh.

  “How did Jasper find you?” She wrapped both hands around her mug.

  “Apparently it takes a while for the enhancements to fall in perfect sync with the DNA sequencing and become undetectable to their radars. They picked up the faintest signal of whatever’s in me and ambushed me like an animal.” A playful elbow tore through the ambassador’s ribs.

  Jasper fixed Zoey with a stare. “You’ve been altered for longer than Rufus. I won’t know any other details until we get your results back, but nothing showed up on our radars and we’ve been living in the same building for months.” His look was almost apologetic.

  “We’ll get your girl and my Sam, Rufus.” Zoey placed a hand on his wrist and gave a light squeeze as she watched him hop off the stool and head to the bedroom.

  “Night!” he whispered as he walked back to the guest bedroom.

  Jasper quickly grabbed the mugs, emptied them in the sink, and placed them in the dishwasher while Zoey returned the sugar and honey to their cabinets. They moved swiftly, careful not to bump into each other and slightly avoiding eye contact.

  “Night!” Jasper said, making his way back to the couch.

  “Night!” Zoey turned off the light on extractor hood and tiptoed back to her bedroom.

  Newton’s First Law of Motion

  An object at rest remains at rest, or, if in motion, remains in motion at a constant velocity unless acted on by a net external force.

  Mia awoke from what seemed like an eternally sleepless night. She stretched her aching body and poked at her visible bruises in an attempt to see if they hurt any less than they did yesterday. She opened her closet only to stare at the infinity of designer clothes, accessories and dreaming of the second she’d never see them again.

  “Today is a good day for Prada!” Beck announced as he walked into the room tucking his shirt in and arranging his collar. He wore dark grey from head to toe.

  “Will you let us go today?” Mia asked impatiently.

  “All in due time, Mia. If both Rufus and yourself respond to the receptors, you’ll be well enough to be back on your feet and out of here by tomorrow morning.” There was satisfaction in his voice, victory even.

  “You won’t hurt him!” she threatened.

  “Far beyond me the thought. I’m after your skills, not your life,” Beck assured matter-of-factly and left in a giddy pace.

 
Mia grabbed a pair of white jeans and a white cashmere sweater. She styled her hair in a bun and put on her best makeup for the occasion.

  Humans lived on hope. Etienne’s words echoed in her head, and if anything she’d ever heard had any truth, this was it.

  γ

  “Top of the morning to you, handsome!” Lilou waltzed into the living room, handing Alex a steaming coffee mug. “Hold this for me, will you?”

  “You sound so weird when you’re around them.” Alex, who was already geared up, stared at Lilou’s PJs and rolled his eyes.

  “Don’t sweat Lilou, his tidy-whities might be a li’l tight on him this morning.” Rufus grinned, still in his red shorts and pink t-shirt, stretching to reveal a bit of that underbelly charm. “I see what you did there,” he said, referring to Lilou, who was sniffing her armpits, nose tucked under her shirt. “When someone says ‘don’t sweat,’ it means ‘relax,’ ‘take it easy’…” He broke into a belly laugh. “I thought you guys spoke all the languages in the universe, multiverse and beyond!”

  “That’s in fact not my highest percentage enhancement, to be honest, and idioms are a different thing altogether, buddy!” she teased.

  “Where is everybody?” Alex scanned the room.

  “Between showering and getting dressed.” Emma announced, making her way gracefully into the living room in her heels and all ready for monitoring. Back in her pencil skirt and silk blouse, she wore a low bun for the occasion.

  “Looks like we might need to shower together to save us some time.” Alex raised a frisky brow at Rufus.

  “How do I get myself out of this one?” Rufus muttered and turned to him, pressing his fingers to his mouth while searching for the right words. “Citizens of planet Earth do not shower together unless they are romantically involved or under the age of seven.” He was gesturing hearts and short stature while explaining only to find both Lilou and Alex elbowing each other and cracking a laugh at his expense.