“We got lucky,” Grant chided, looking down at her from where he still stood on the parapet.
She unwound her grey robe, taking it off, and shook it out stiffly, obviously avoiding Grant's look.
“What happened?” Alex went over to join them.
Grant shook his head, jumping down. He ran a hand through his hair. “There was a surveillance drone when they raided the protest. It got right in Sarrin’s face.”
“What?” Gal gasped before he could stop himself. Raid? Protest? Gods.
“They’re not following us,” Grant snapped. He scowled and turned away.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Gal, walking across the roof to join them. “What if you were seen?”
Grant looked at Alex. “Sarrin smashed it right away. Nothing followed us, I was watching the entire way back. Even if they did see her, they don’t know where we are”
“You shouldn’t have gone into the city,” Gal muttered.
“Did you find anything, at least?” asked Luca. “I saw you talking to someone.”
Grant shook his head.
Gal crossed his arms. "Of all the spread things to do."
Aaron glared at him.
“At least we tried!" Grant spun on his heel, suddenly in Gal's face. “What did you do all day?”
Gal gritted his teeth and stepped up to meet Grant. Augment or not, they were being fools. “I didn’t nearly get myself and everyone else caught.”
A finger poked into his chest, and Grant pushed him away easily. “I liked you better when you were a cracked drunk.”
Gal stumbled, his chest smarting as much as his pride.
“You deserve that,” said Aaron.
Into the silence that followed, a quiet voice spoke: “What’s going to happen to her?” Sarrin stood at the wall, looking out across the city.
“Who?” Alex asked, turning.
“The woman from the cafe. She was taken by the soldiers.”
"I don't know, Sar."
Gal sobered. They were here arguing, but at least they were here. If there has been a raid, and a protest, folk would have been taken. He shared a look with Aaron, remembering there last time he had seen him in the flesh, inside one of the cages at the Speakers' rehabilitation centre. "It depends on her,” he said, "how quickly she repents."
Sarrin nodded to say she understood. She probably did, the kid had been a living defiance since the day she was infected, only she didn’t have a chance to repent the way the woman in the streets did.
Her eyebrows twitched, and she frowned. “There's something else: I saw an Augment in the city. A baby.”
"A baby?" Gal sucked in breath sharply, and Aaron’s head snapped around.
“You don’t know that it was,” said Grant.
Sarrin shook her head. “I know. Her eyes were like ours, unnaturally blue."
“Is that possible?” whispered Aaron.
“There hasn’t been a case of Red Fever in twenty years,” said Grant. “The virus died out within a year of infecting all of us.”
“I know what I saw,” said Sarrin.
“How old?” said Luca.
Sarrin shook her head again. “Three months, maybe less.”
“Are you sure?” said Rayne. “If it was busy, and far away…. Maybe it just looked like the altered Xenoralia iris structure — babies are born with blue eyes that turn brown, perhaps the child was just too young.”
Sarrin shook her head. “She wasn’t that far away, and I’ve been staring into Red Fever eyes as long as I can remember. And….”
“And?” said Alex.
She squirmed, rubbing her arms. “I felt her.”
“Felt her?”
“I feel everyone, but her….”
Aaron turned to Gal. “Where did the Augment come from?”
Rayne echoed his question, adding, “Is there another outbreak?”
“The virus isn’t active.” Alex shook his head. “There are no reports of anyone getting sick. No quarantines in the city.”
“Not yet,” said Rayne, “but it could be coming. We don’t know how it spread last time.” She turned to Gal, “We have to warn someone.”
Gal felt his heart catch -- he had his suspicions about how the virus had spread. No, not suspicions, he and Aaron had learned the truth when they'd hacked into the Speakers' library: the Augments had been made, plain and simple. “No,” he said, clutching Rayne's arm, suddenly terrified she would try to go, shouting about Xenoralia and Augments in the streets, or worse, to her father.
“Gal!” She twisted away, clutching her arm. He'd hurt her again.
“No one leaves this rooftop,” he said, heart pounding in his chest.
"Gal," Rayne chided him, "if there's another outbreak, we have to tell someone."
“You don’t think…,” said Luca, draping to a whisper, “the child was bred.”
“Bred?” Grant repeated.
Alex looked between the others. “I don’t know of anyone that’s had a child. Anyone that could after Evangecore.”
“If they experimented…,” Luca cut off with a shudder.
Gal shut his eyes.
Sarrin shook her head, “This child had a mother — a normal, human mother.”
“And why would they bring it here?” asked Alex.
“A new Augment.” Aaron paced the roof, tugging on his hair. “It’s spread. Totally cracked.”
Gal bit his lip. “There’s nothing we can do about it,” he said finally.
“We have to find out more,” said Luca, “figure out where it came from.”
“This is bad, Gal,” agreed Aaron.
Gal shook his head. “No. No one goes back into the city.”
Aaron stared at him.
“I’m sure it’s fine. It’s nothing.” Gal waved it off, willing himself to believe it.
“It’s not nothing,” snapped Alex.
“If this is the virus, people could die,” said Rayne.
“There’s a vaccine now.”
Alex gasped. “Oh my Gods. Halud’s broadcasts.” He turned to Sarrin. “They’re vaccinating children.”
She went totally still.
“To protect them,” said Gal, feeling stupid even as the words left his mouth. Everything was spiralling out of control. It was happening again. It was all happening again.
“Don’t be an idiot, Gal,” said Aaron, disgust written plainly on his face. “Hap is making more Augments. You have to stop him.”
Gal spun wildly, slamming his hands on the con-plas half wall was he squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't want to. He couldn't. Just couldn't. “Why did Cordelia ever bring us here?”
“We should go check out the hospital,” said Luca, ignoring his outburst.
“Agreed,” said Alex.
“We’ll check it out tomorrow. At first light.”
There was a pause. Sarrin’s gravelly voice cut across the roof, and he felt her eyes on him. “You knew, didn’t you?”
He pressed his lips together, shaking his head. He refused to turn, to look at her.
“Why would they do it?”
His voice cracked, and he stressed at the faded lines drawn into the buildings. “I honestly don’t know.”
Grant cleared his throat, and Gal heard him rolling up his grey cloak and dropping it on the floor. “We’ll get some sleep and head out at first light.”
The others dropped onto the ground, preparing to sleep — but how could anyone sleep? “You can’t go out there again,” said Gal.
They all frowned at him, Rayne included.
“You nearly got caught today. This is nothing but dangerous and cracked. This place….” He shook his head and pulled his hands in his hair. “We never should have come. All of it is nothing but wishful thinking. You’re going to find Halud. You’re going to find this Augment baby. And then what?” He wanted to cry, shrieking into the night. “Nothing. Because there’s nothing you can do. They'll just keep coming and coming. The more you do, they more they'll c
ome after you.” Couldn’t they see he was trying to keep them all alive? He’d been here before. It wouldn’t do anyone any good. If anything, he’d only ever managed to make it worse.
“There are worse things than soldiers and drones,” said Sarrin.
“She’s right, Gal,” said Aaron. “You have to stop this.” He glanced in the direction of the grey-on-grey painted symbol. “You’re afraid. I get it. But do you really want the kids to give up? For Hap to win?”
Gal stilled himself. “It’s dangerous.”
“He’s up to something,” said Aaron. “Even you don’t know how far he could go.”
“I’m not going,” Gal shouted, "I won't, and you can't force me." Crossing his arms and turning away from Aaron.
“No one asked you to,” said Grant, and Gal flinched realizing he'd been arguing aloud with Aaron. “But we’re going." Grant pointed at the four Augments and Rayne. "You can sit here and hide if you want to.”
“Sometimes the better choice is to hide," he said, still looking out at the grey buildings. "There are some battles you just can’t win. Trust me.”
They said nothing, and he turned. They didn't spare him a glance as they laid out their goals on the roof, murmuring and signalling to each other.
“We’ll go to the outskirts of the city," Gal tried -- couldn't they are how cracked this was? He had to persuade them to stop. "We can hide until Cordelia returns for us. They’ll have your friends and we can go from there.”
They ignored him, climbing into their makeshift beds. Rayne took a spare cloak from Alex and bedded down beside them.
“You must see how much they need to do this, Gal. Just like we did.” Aaron said softly. “You don’t think anything you say is going to stop them.”
"They all think I'm just being ornery." Gal stepped to the parapet and clenched his hands on the half wall, Aaron leaning on it casually beside him. “But I don’t know what will happen if he catches them. I don’t know what Hap will do if there are Augments in his Central City. I just don't know. At one time, I thought I knew him, knew what he was capable of, but he's done far worse than I ever imagined.”
“Is that what’s got you so riled up and scared? I’ve never seen you like this.”
“The problem with Hap is, he thinks he’s doing the right thing. He thinks he’s a god. He thinks he could never do wrong. And he believes it so much everyone around him believes it too.” Gal bit his lip. “They made the Augments for a reason, Aaron. I don’t know why they did, but it didn’t go as planned. And look at everything Hap has done. God's, the secret facilities, hunting them across the stars….”
Aaron frowned.
“Time has only made it worse. I can’t even predict what delusions he’s convinced himself of. But there’s no way around him and his army. No way anyone survives this.”
“You survived,” Aaron whispered, staring at Gal, his gaze so full of awe and how.
Fall slammed his eyes shut. Couldn't Aaron understand that that didn't matter? “You didn’t!”
“Gal?” said Grant, the others staring at him across the roof. “Who are you talking to?”
SIX
KIERAN RUBBED AT THE SKIN on his forearms. He fought the urge to scratch outright — all he wanted to do was rip it off. The pain hadn’t been this bad for a while.
Cordelia frowned at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to sit in the tank?” she asked. “Just for a little while.”
He shook his head. To emphasize his point, he reached out his crispy hands and held onto some of the more tactile ship controls.
They had left Etar’s orbit immediately after the others had gone down. It was risky for Cordelia to get in close like that, especially given what the UEC soldiers had done to her travelling companion, Cornelius. Only a few of the Augments had volunteered to go to the surface in search of Halud. The rest of them milled around the large bridge Cordelia had constructed.
Hoepe glanced at him and shook his head, “Sorry, Kieran, you’re maxed out for pain meds.”
“I’m fine, really.” He needed something to keep him occupied, he was going crazy just sitting in the regen-tank. And they had just arrived at the first planet they thought could house captured Augments. He wasn’t about to sleep through that.
But Cordelia built-up a tank around him where he stood, filled with blue gel that would rehydrate his skin and ease some of the pain.
“I’m fine,” he sputtered as the tank filled up around his head, only a small oxygen bubble left for him to breathe.
“It’s okay, I’ll make it so you can hear everything. And if you just think what you want to say, I can tell them anything you want to add.”
“Cordelia,” he protested.
She sighed. “If you’re sure. I don’t like seeing you like this.” She brought the gel down to the level of his shoulders.
“The arms too,” he said. “You know I like to talk with my hands.”
She smirked — a human expression she must have picked up somewhere — and brought the tank down again.
“Leave the rest,” he said under his breath. The fluid pooled around his waist, but his head and arms were free and dry, even styled if he knew Cordelia.
The shape-shifting alien had taken a liking to him. It was a good thing too, because he had peppered her with questions every minute he was awake. In turn, she’d used him to learn everything she could about engines and FTL drives — she would need it to make the long trip home when this was all over.
Across the room, Rami snapped his gaze to a nearby console, pretending he hadn’t been staring at the exchange. The Augment had been on the exploding freightship with him and was still recovering from his own burns, but they weren’t nearly as extensive.
At least Rami hadn’t once called him a traitor since he woke up from his medically induced coma.
Hoepe peered into the tank, nodding his approval. Most ‘common humans’ would still be comatose if they hadn’t died outright. He credited Cordelia’s finely tuned healing gel, but Kieran had a suspicion he owed Sarrin for his remarkably quick improvement. And for his ongoing discomfort now that she was far away.
He tried not to let himself think about her, or worry too much. After all, she was an Augment, she could take care of herself. But he would have given anything to be on the planet with them.
For the research, he promised himself; it wasn’t every day you got to meet a real-life Augment. But it was more than that, she had asked to go home with him when his mission was over. She wanted to spend the rest of her life near the speed of light, recording the story of humanity. And he couldn’t wait, somehow a lifetime watching the world spin by seemed a little less daunting with her around.
“Hey, daydreamer.” Hoepe’s twin brother Leove loomed over the tank, but — the friendlier of the two — he winked. “Remind me why we decided to stop at this planet — C479-alpha?”
What a shock that must have been for Hoepe, to discover a brother you never knew you had. Kieran felt a pang, recalling his sister Lauren whom he would never see again. She had left the Observer ship, chose not to come back after her research mission, and died of old age in natural time.
Cordelia answered Leove’s question smoothly: “Galiant thought this would be a likely place for a secret Augment prison.”
Hoepe grunted, staring at the rotating, reddish-grey dust ball in the view screen. “It looks pretty bleak. Is it even terraformed?”
“I am reading an atmosphere,” said Cordelia. "Not much of one though. Gal indicated it was a prime candidate for terraformation when he explored it four years ago. Excellent soil composition rich in iron and manganese for agrarian pursuits. Pre-existing atmosphere and basic bacteria. And close to Etar 1. A UEC base was constructed, but colonization was not pursued beyond that point. However, shipping manifests do indicate there is a freight run here fairly regularly.”
“I see,” answered Leove.
Cordelia smiled and nodded once. “The UEC base is on the far side, southern con
tinent.”
“Take us around,” Hoepe ordered.
The pilot, Isuma, spun in her chair. But not before Cordelia had already engaged the shape-shifted thrusters and started them on their way. The frustration was evident on the pilot’s face. And fair enough, Kieran had been feeling the same. The engines purred too perfectly. There wasn’t anything to do to keep a guy from going crazy.
“Can you scan for life signs?” asked Leove.
Cordelia closed her eyes a second. “The sensors aren’t picking up anything. But I feel several people there.”
“How many?” asked one of the Augments, Thomas. He was already suited up in a type of battle armour. It looked thin and light, Cordelia’s design.
Cordelia closed her eyes again. “I can’t differentiate. A lot.”
Hoepe nodded at Thomas. “Have the teams ready.” There was no telling what they would encounter infiltrating the facility. If it was anything like Junk, it might be the entire contingent of elite black ribbon soldiers. But Thomas and the others were genetically enhanced, specially trained, child soldiers. They might be weak from their time in captivity, but they were still stronger, faster, and smarter than most men.
“Okay, Cordelia, time to get this tank off me,” Kieran said.
She raised an eyebrow, but the tank didn’t budge.
He tried to take a step forward. “Come on. We have to go soon.”
The others paused their preparations and turned to look at him.
“What?” he said, possibly more defensively than he should have.
“You’re not going,” said Cordelia.
Darn her that she could read his mind at all times.
“Kieran,” chided Hoepe, his voice stern like he was lecturing a child. A dumb one.
“I’m not an invalid,” said Kieran.
“You can’t be out of the tank for more than half an hour,” said Hoepe.
“You don’t know what’s down there. You might need an engineer.” There had to be something he could do. Something useful.
“Your skin will dehydrate and then tear and peel off.”
“You might need me.”
Across the bridge, Rami slowly tugged on his own combat suit. He sent Kieran a look of regret and turned back to his boots.
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