by Eliza Green
Dom stared at the pieces of metal. They contained what Carissa recognised to be a control mechanism for the digging machine. She caught him glancing down at his arm before looking at the Inventor.
‘How will this machine help Anya?’ he asked.
The old man wagged his finger at him. ‘Not only Anya, but June too. I’m just not sure yet.’
A tense-looking Dom formed a fist with his left hand then relaxed it.
It must be hard to remember a person who thinks of you only as a stranger.
That had been Carissa’s relationship with the Inventor. They’d first met when she was a newborn, but a memory wipe at the moment of her connection to the Collective had robbed her of that week. She’d become a blank slate from that point on, but the Inventor had recalled Carissa’s wild newborn streak and her strong dislike of his wife, Mags.
She shuffled closer to the machine parts, hoping the Inventor would ask her to help. Her connection to Quintus had brought the orbs closer. She had to make it right.
Dom’s gaze never left the machine parts. ‘How long before you can build something?’
The Inventor shook his head. ‘I wish I knew. I only ever saw the inside of the replication machine once, so I’m not sure I can. But the digging machines have a power source, so I’m hoping to build a connection point to allow Anya to get her memories back.’ He patted Dom on the back. ‘Don’t worry. If there’s a way, I’ll find it.’
‘And if it doesn’t work?’ asked Thomas, looking up from his sorting. ‘Are there any replication machines in Praesidium?’
The Inventor shrugged. ‘The only working one I knew of was in Arcis. Once they take the urbano apart, they dismantle the machines.’
Dom frowned as if he remembered something. He looked up at the Inventor. ‘They used one to copy me.’
‘Where?’
‘In the medical facility, after they swapped out my tech. The process failed in Arcis, so they wanted to try again.’
The Inventor smiled, but it didn’t last. ‘There’s no way to access it without going back. If we can do this here, I’d like to try.’
Dom nodded. ‘Anything I can do to help—’
‘You’ll be the first I ask.’
Dom’s shoulders rounded as he left the workshop. Carissa watched him go, knowing how he felt. Without a solid plan, everything they attempted felt shaky at best. Carissa disliked variables she couldn’t control. She was like Quintus in that way.
Stepping closer to the dismantled pieces of the machine, she said, ‘I can help, Jacob.’
The Inventor looked at her a moment then waved off Jason and Thomas. ‘Carissa can help me sort through this. Get back to the workshop and see if you can locate the reprogrammed orb. We’ll need as much detail as possible about what’s going on out there.’
Both men departed, leaving just the Inventor and Carissa, much to Rover’s delight. His bum wiggled as he attempted to reach her, but his chain yanked him back. She walked over to him and patted him on his smooth exoskeleton shell.
‘I’m here, boy. Settle down.’
The beast lay down on the floor and rested its head on its metal legs. It closed its eyes, as if content.
Carissa turned her attention to the pile of metal and rolled up her sleeves. ‘What can I do?’
The Inventor separated a cover from a main component. The power source sparked; he yanked his hand back. ‘The control unit is a bit battered, but I was hoping we could remove its power source.’ He stood and stepped back. ‘It’s set to your frequency, Carissa. See if you can touch it.’
Carissa edged closer to what appeared to be a damaged power node. Rover whined suddenly as though he sensed the danger. She thought of Quintus’ actions against both Anya and June, and drew in a deep breath. She grabbed the node, which sparked in her hand, and yanked it free.
A flurry of breaths escaped her lips. She held it out to the Inventor. But he pointed to the floor.
‘Place it down there, gently. It’s possible the machine already sent back coordinates and details of the active anti-magnetic field. If that happened, the power node could be set to self-destruct.’
Carissa froze at the thought, but battled her fear to set the object down without compromising it. She wanted Anya to get her memories back as much as Anya did.
She shuffled back from it and looked at the Inventor. ‘What now?’
He perched his fists on his hips and examined the remaining collection of useless, metal components.
‘We need a new casing for our power node and its insulating compound. If I can design a crude mould fast, we should be able to melt the outer shell to fit both parts.’
Carissa thought back to the times they’d spent together in his workshop. It warmed her part-organic heart that they could still do this. The difference this time was that the Inventor worked because he wanted to, not because Quintus ordered him to.
Carissa realised the same situation applied to her. She was free to choose. She hadn’t been given that option in the city.
She pulled apart more of the machine, separating usable parts from scrap metal.
Locating the insulated wires that connected the power node to the digging machine, she held them up. ‘Will these help to connect to Anya?’
The Inventor nodded. ‘I’ll need to buffer the energy surge between it and Anya, but it might. Salvage what you can. We can go through everything after.’
They spent the next hour carefully picking through the remainder of the machine. Carissa was certain Quintus would notice it had not returned.
‘Should we return the unused parts to the entrance of the valley, Jacob?’
The Inventor frowned. ‘What’s the likelihood they’ll look for their machine?’
She shrugged. ‘My sense is Quintus and the Collective have become precious about their commodities since our escape.’
Including her.
The Inventor patted her on one shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, Carissa. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.’
‘Nor I you, Jacob.’
If the Collective sent more machines, she hoped she could keep that promise.
Max surprised her by showing up at the door, unannounced. ‘How long before Anya gets her memories back, Jacob?’
Carissa prepared to answer him, but the colonel refused to look at her. He still didn’t trust her.
‘It will take as long as it takes,’ said the Inventor.
Max entered the space. The wolf growled at him, jerking him to a stop. ‘I hate that thing.’
Carissa attempted to allay his fears. ‘He won’t hurt you. He’s just protecting his space.’
But Max ignored her and spoke to the old man. ‘When you restore them, I want to speak with her immediately.’
‘I’ll work faster without you standing over my shoulder.’
‘You don’t seem to appreciate the urgency.’
The Inventor looked up. ‘Indeed I do, Max, but if you’re not helping, you’re slowing me down.’
Max held his hands up. ‘Fair enough.’
‘Have you asked young Anya about the Beyond?’ said the Inventor.
Max nodded. ‘Anya says she doesn’t know anything. Vanessa has been trying to pin her down for a proper chat. But with everything else going on, it’s been difficult. It would help if we could skip a lengthy discussion and get straight to the information we need. This is the closest we’ve come to finding the coordinates. But my gut says they’re in the one place we haven’t looked.’
The Inventor frowned at him. ‘You think they’re in the city?’
Max folded his arms. ‘The search party turned up nothing close to this location. If the border was that easy to find, the machines would have found something already. Vanessa and I were chatting and we think it’s possible one of our members, someone who was preparing to cross, got caught and may have hidden them there. I’m hoping Anya will confirm who the last person was that her parents spoke to.’
‘It’s one possibility
,’ said the Inventor. ‘It all depends on what young Anya remembers. Your theory of them being in the city might amount to nothing. Without Anya’s memories, we could be following a hunch that turns out to be a dead end.’
‘I know, but we must consider it,’ said Max with a nod. ‘Either way, we’ll have to go there. Whatever happens next, our fate lies in that city.’
The thought of returning both excited and terrified Carissa.
29
Dom
Attacking the machine had released some of Dom’s stress. Exacting revenge on the city was exactly what he needed. But the depleting adrenaline left him with too much energy to burn and seeking a new distraction. He joined Julius’ training session. As afternoon slipped into evening, he battled against the temptation to look in on Jacob and the others. Even if Anya did get her memories back, it didn’t mean she would feel the same way about him as before.
When Max called Kaylie and Julius in to meet with him, Dom took over training both of their teams. He pushed them through a punishing set of drills to purge all thoughts of Anya from his mind. Imogen worked with another group, while nearer the back perimeter fence, Dom heard the newbies practising their shooting.
The soldiers dropped from exhaustion forcing Dom to call time on the session. Just in time, too. Kaylie and Julius returned to the yard. He observed Imogen and Sheila chatting with each other. They stood close together, Imogen leaning in to catch Sheila’s words, both smiling. It warmed his heart to finally see Sheila happy. He hadn’t taken to hard-edged Yasmin all that much.
Kaylie chatted with her team, glancing over at Dom on occasion. She waved at him, and he responded with a short wave back. Why hadn’t he given it a chance between him and Kaylie? While their time together had only happened a year ago, they’d been nothing more than a couple of kids. A year had transformed Dom from boy to man. He now saw things with greater clarity.
Dom’s muscles ached from the rough treatment the anti-magnetic field had given him. But it felt good to be useful, even better, to be in control of his destiny, no matter what the outcome. Without any new announcement from the workshop team about the reprogrammed orb or the possible invention for Anya, Dom called it a night.
He picked up his bottle, filled with a supply of collected rainwater. With no running water in the camp, he washed up in the bathroom using a basin of the same water from the limited supply. He settled down in one of the spare rooms Max kept aside for the commanders, which he knew hadn’t been used since his arrival. The noisy dorm made it impossible for Dom to think through their next steps in their fight with the city.
The cool and dark room was exactly what he needed. He lay down on the bed and draped his hand over his eyes. Someone opened the door.
‘Occupied,’ he said without opening his eyes.
The door closed and he settled back down to sleep. But a sudden weight on the bed displaced him. He shot his eyes open to see Kaylie sitting there.
Dom propped himself up on his elbow. ‘What are you doing here?’
Kaylie had coloured her lips with a light red stain. ‘I wanted to say goodnight.’
She had also changed from her army green uniform into a T-shirt with a floral pattern and a pair of black combats. He caught a hint of perfume from her. The smell of it, freesia and roses, brought back a flood of memories of their one night together.
She smiled, scooting closer to him. ‘Well? Aren’t you going to say goodnight to me?’
Dom sat up and gave her a curt nod. ‘Goodnight, Kaylie.’
But she didn’t leave. Instead, she took his hand and wove her fingers through his.
He frowned at their joined hands, then at her. ‘Kaylie, what are you doing?’
She smiled. ‘Reconnecting with an old friend.’
Sheila would roll her eyes at his stupidity for not catching Kaylie’s interest in him. In fact, she’d called it earlier.
‘What about your boyfriend?’
Kaylie bit her soft, stained lip. Her blonde hair partially covered her face. ‘I might have lied about that.’
He reclaimed his hand. ‘Lied? Why?’
Kaylie huffed and folded her arms. ‘Men really are dense. Because you were being weird about me arriving here, so I made it up. I wanted things to go back to the way they were before we, you know, hooked up.’
Dom hadn’t noticed her back then. It had taken Sheila to point her out before he did.
‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make things awkward or make you uncomfortable. I was surprised to see you, that’s all.’
‘Me too.’ Kaylie shifted closer. ‘I thought seeing you again would bring it all back. I mean, we slept together and you didn’t talk to me again. I was humiliated. But seeing you again has only strengthened my feelings for you.’
He’d stopped talking to her because of her reaction to his scars. It had nothing to do with the other stuff.
She placed her hands on either side of him. He didn’t need Sheila’s wisdom to know what Kaylie wanted. How had he been so blind to her attraction to him?
His thoughts shot to Anya, but only for a brief moment. He couldn’t keep chasing hope that everything would return to normal once her memories returned. If they returned.
Kaylie leaned forward, catching Dom unawares. He didn’t move as she neared her mouth to his. He didn’t stop her when her lips grazed his. And for a second, he kissed her back. He even liked it when she moaned a little and climbed onto his lap. But something didn’t feel right. His body wanted this, not his head.
He eased her off him.
Kaylie sat up, her cheeks reddening. ‘Did I do something wrong?’
He shook his head. ‘It’s me. I know it’s a cliché line that’s been used a million times, but it’s true. I’m not in a place where this can happen with anyone.’
Kaylie slid back to sit on the end of the bed.
‘I can wait,’ she whispered.
It wouldn’t be fair to her. He grabbed her hands and squeezed. ‘It has been great seeing you and if things were different, we would probably pick up where we left off, but the last few months have changed me.’
He wanted to say it was because of Anya. But that was only partially true. He’d also learned about his mother’s death and had been put through multiple surgeries that had not only hardened his body, but his mind too. If he was being truthful, he’d changed too much to be with anyone.
Kaylie eased her hands out of his, nodding. ‘I knew it was too good to be true, seeing you again.’
‘I’m sorry, Kaylie.’
She stood up and walked to the door. ‘Be happy, Dom.’
He watched her go and let the best advice he’d heard in a long time sink in. It was time to move on.
From Anya.
From all of it.
30
Carissa
With the Inventor’s help, Carissa managed to separate enough smaller operational parts from the scrap metal for him to make an attempt at inventing something.
They returned to the workshop. There, he melted and remoulded scrap metal to create new housing for the power node and its insulating compound. Next, he soldered the wires from the digging machine to the node itself. Jason melted more metal to make new connection circles that he then stuck to the inside of an old swimming cap, from the salvaged supplies of the towns. The Inventor then fed the wires through the cap and soldered them to the circles until all eight wires from the node were connected. A single wire from the power node connected to one of the monitoring machines on the workbench.
The Inventor said the cap would help to stimulate cortical responses.
Carissa nervously watched his attempts to improve the design. It was the reason why Quintus had kept him around for so long: his attention to detail.
But the perfection stage lasted longer than she could stand. She got to her feet and strode over to where the Inventor sat hunched over the chip, with a magnifying eyepiece on his head. He looked up at her, his eye suddenly magnified to comical prop
ortions.
‘Must you stand over me like that, Carissa? I’m trying to work.’
She pulled his hand away from the chip, eliciting a huff from the old man.
‘We should test it out.’
The Inventor huffed again and returned to his work. ‘When I know it’s perfect and will wake up the encoded memories. I don’t want to get young Anya’s hopes up.’
Jason, she noticed, looked as impatient as her. He rolled his eyes at her, then his hand at the Inventor. She grinned at his joke, but her irritation at how slow he worked pushed her to take action.
‘Test it out on me.’
The Inventor looked up at her. ‘You, miss?’
‘Yes. I don’t remember my first week as a newborn.’ She lifted her chin. ‘Try to unlock my memories of that time.’
The Inventor frowned and slipped the magnifying eye off his head. ‘Your memories were wiped, miss. I don’t think this will work.’
‘So were Anya’s,’ said Jason. ‘What’s to say the Collective didn’t use the same type of machine on Carissa?’
The Inventor stood up slowly and rested a finger on his lip. The cap remained on the table next to an interested Thomas. It frustrated Carissa how slowly the Inventor processed thoughts; all the Originals were the same. Would this be her life now, slowing her thoughts down just so she could fit in? Without the Collective’s constant intrusion and guidance, she’d experienced a shift in her own thinking. Now her ideas, including her plan to contact Quintus, were her own. Despite her evolution, however, she hadn’t lost her speed.
‘Hurry up,’ she squealed, briefly squeezing her eyes shut.
Dropping his finger, the Inventor flashed her a look. ‘I see not all of the newborn is lost, miss. Hold your horses while I think a moment longer.’
She tapped her foot in time to the slow wheel that appeared to turn the Inventor’s thoughts. It was so easy. Just put the cap on her and away they’d go. If he didn’t speed up, she’d do it herself.