Adrift

by W. Michael Gear

The job was important. Felix was fully aware of the terrible responsibility that was his. Because he was eight, and oldest, he was in charge while the grownups had some important meeting in the cafeteria. The little kids and babies, including two-year-old Kayle, and the infants Saleen and Vetch—just months old—got to go to the meeting with their mothers.

  That left Felix in charge of Sheena, Felicity, Breez, Tomaya, and little Toni, who was three. Toni was the potential problem. The little boy—barely toilet trained—liked to get into things. Not that the observation dome offered much to get into. It was, after all, a big transparent bubble with padded benches around the circumference so people could sit and look out at the sea.

  Fortunately, Sheena—and to a lesser extent Tomaya—helped with the little brat. Felicity always insisted that she wanted nothing to do with the irritating tile crawler. The problem was that Toni was Yosh’s son. Yosh, after Shin, was one of the important people. When he spoke, others listened, and the Director herself often deferred to him. Yosh’s wife, Mikoru Yamasaki, took care of the personal quarters. She did the laundry, cleaning, and managed all the housekeeping things the scientists were supposed to be too busy to do. She also had plenty of time to ensure that Toni received constant attention, that his every demand was met.

  Mother said Toni was spoiled.

  “Can’t wait until we get him in school,” Sheena had confided. “Wait till he has to learn alphabet and Mama can’t come say it for him.”

  That wouldn’t be for another year.

  “Bad meeting,” Breez noted as she climbed up on the cushions and swung her legs. “Mom said it was a Rubicon. What’s that?”

  “Rubbercon?” Tomaya asked, her disapproving gaze on Toni as he giggled happily, jumped up and down, and pounded one of the cushion tops with a knotted fist.

  Felix pulled out his pad, spelling, “R, U, B, I. . . . You think it’s a K or a C?”

  “Try C,” Sheena told him. “More words are spelled with C.”

  “C.” Felix frowned. “A or O?”

  “Try O,” Felicity came over to stare at Felix’s pad. “I like O better. It’s easier to draw.”

  “O, N.” Felix frowned as the information filled his pad. “Rubicon. It’s river in Italy. Says Ca . . . e . . . sar. . . . How do you pronounce that?” His pad dutifully said, “Caesar, Julius. Pretender seeking to become the first emperor of Rome, murdered 44 B.C.E.. Crossed the Rubicon in defiance of the Roman Senate.”

  “Zambo.” Sheena muttered. “Never heard of it. Michaela called a meeting about this? Why?”

  “Don’t know,” Felicity told her. “But Mom was really worried. Said it might take all afternoon.”

  “No telling.” Felix agreed, watching the pictures of Rome, Caesar, and people in armor and dresses flash across his screen. He muted the sound so he didn’t have to listen to a lecture about all the stuff the pad would tell him about Rome. What wasn’t even a country anymore, but a city. He had trouble with the notion of cities, didn’t seem possible after Ashanti and now the Pod.

  “All afternoon?” Tomaya cried. “What are we supposed to do? Sit here? There’s not even a holovid. We just supposed to look at the stupid waves?”

  Sheena, who’d been acting canny the entire time, took the center of the room, shooting a wary eye at Toni, who had dropped to his butt and was trying to pull the cushion off the bench. His fingers kept slipping off the fabric as he cried, “No! No! No!” over and over.

  “Sometimes he acts like he’s still two,” Tomaya muttered in disgust.

  “Just think. He’s going to grow up someday and one of us is going to have to marry him.” Felicity had a stricken look on her face.

  “Uuck!” Breez cried and made a “get-away-from-me” gesture with her hands in Toni’s direction. The little boy reacted with a goofy smile that let drool run down the side of his chin.

  Felicity, her disapproving eyes on Toni, sang,

  “London bridge is broken down, broken down, broken down.

  “Gonna toss Toni down, toss him down, toss him down.

  “Gonna watch little Toni drown, Toni drown.

  “My fair lady!”

  In response, Toni just gave them his “idiot” look.

  Sheena announced. “I know what we’re going to do. We’re going to start a science club. But it’s just for us. Nobody who’s not five can be in it.” She looked scathingly at Toni.

  “What are we going to do in science club?” Felix asked, launching himself onto the cushions so that he could press against the transparent curve of the bubble and look down at the waves passing below. From here, he could see the patterns of plants and stuff shift on the rocky bottom as the swells rolled over.

  “We’re going to do science, Felix. Just like the grownups. Mom’s a microbiologist. She studies life-forms that you can only see through a microscope. You know, itty bitty.” She made a scrunching with her thumb and forefinger to show just how small she meant.

  “Okay,” Felicity said with a shrug. “What do we do?”

  “Well, first”—Sheena crossed her arms defiantly—“I’m the Director.”

  “Why you?” Felix demanded, turning back from the transparency.

  “Because it’s my club, space gunk.” Space gunk. That was what they’d heard one of the crewmen on Ashanti call one of the not-so-smart cargo techs.

  “And,” Sheena declared, “I brought the first specimen for us to study.”

  “You did?” Breez seemed absolutely dazzled by the concept.

  But, being only five—as Felix’s mom said—she bought into anything.

  “I did.” With a flourish, Sheena produced a small 10cc sample jar from her overall pocket.

  Felix crawled across the cushion, looking closely at it through the jar’s transparent sides. Even with Sheena’s fingers blocking most of the contents, he knew what it was. “That’s algae.”

  “Like what’s on our fingers?” Felicity asked. “You know, that stuff never comes off. My fingers are still slippery from when I rubbed yours. I barely touched you. And I washed and washed.” She lifted her hand. “And worse. It’s spreading across my palm and it itches.”

  “That’s what science club is all about,” Sheena said with certainty. “We’re going to find out what this stuff is and why it doesn’t wash off.”

  “And why it tingles on our fingers.” Breez held her hand up, played like she was trying to pull her slippery fingers clear off.

  “Where did you get that?” Felix asked, dropping to his feet to stand next to Sheena. The little jar fascinated him.

  “Michaela canceled everybody’s work, remember? Everybody was up in the cafeteria talking about Shin getting killed. So I went down to the Underwater Bay and got some. There’s more of it now. Spots of it growing along the dock. I didn’t even need to reach. I just scooped it up and put it in the jar.”

  “So, what are we going to do with it?” Tomaya was crowding close beside Felicity to stare at the jar. Breez started jumping, trying to get high enough to see past the older kids.

  “First, as scientists, we have to look at it.” Sheena opened the lid and let each of them peer down at the bluish-green contents.

  “Looks like algae. I’d know. I found it first.” Felix swelled his chest to emphasize his importance.

  “Does it have a smell?” Sheena asked. “We should record this. A scientist keeps lots of records.”

  “All I’ve got is my pad,” Felix protested. “It doesn’t record.”

  “Well, we’ll do that when we get to the lab,” Sheena told them.

  “We can’t go up to the lab level,” Felicity reminded. “That’s on the second floor. We’ll get in trouble.”

  Sheena airily replied, “That’s why we have a science club. I bet I can get Mom to take us up to the lab. If we’re a science club, we’re not just kids. Then we can all look at
the algae under the microscope. See what it really looks like.”

  Breez reached out, stuck her finger in the jar before Sheena could stop her. Pulling it back, she looked at the glistening blue-green coating. Rubbed it vigorously between her fingers. “I mean, yuk. You feel how slippery it is? That’s nasty.” She began scrubbing her fingers on her coveralls.

  “Let me try!” Tomaya insisted. “If you don’t, I’ll tell where you got it.”

  Sheena, looking incensed, let Tomaya dip some out.

  “Ooo. It feels like fresh snot.” Tomaya danced around, shaking her gooey fingers. “Snot. Snot. Snot.”

  Toni, having failed to pull a cushion off the bench, was now watching them from his sprawled seat on the floor. “What?” he asked, eyes on the jar.

  “You can’t see it.” Sheena turned away. “You’re not in the club.”

  “What?” Toni demanded louder.

  Felix had seen this before. The little rat was going to scream any second now. “Oh, let him see it. He won’t know what it is anyway. Then he’ll go back to drooling on the deck plates.”

  Sheena leaned down, extending the jar. “See! Nothing there, you little creep. Just blue goo. I like that. Blue goo. Blue goo. Blue goo. We all got blue goo.”

  Sheena should have known better. She’d been babysitting Toni on the odd occasion over the years.

  The movement was so fast, Felix almost missed it. Toni whipped his right arm in an overhand arc. The movement a blur, he almost slapped the jar completely out of Sheena’s hand. As it was, the contents splashed all over. Most of it landing on Toni.

  Sheena cried out in horror, jerking the jar back.

  Toni grinned in triumph, the loud “Gaaaaaa” of his laughter like thorn in Felix’s hearing.

  “Little creep beast!” Sheena cried, shifting the jar to her left hand as she tried to shake the slimy goo off her right. Not much was slung from her blue-green-coated fingers. Instead, she rubbed her hand hard on her overalls, spreading the stuff.

  Toni, seeing the consternation, burst into tears, crying in a loud “Waaaayaaaa.”

  “What a baby.” Felicity grimaced as she wiped at the spots of algae that had splashed onto her face. She touched her tongue to where a glob had landed on her lips, cried, “Uuuck!” And scrubbed at her face with her already-smeared hands.

  Felix grabbed the jar from Sheena, ordering, “You got him crying. You gotta make him stop.”

  Sheena rolled her eyes, bent down, and lifted Toni from the floor, struggling to perch him on the cushions. “Hey, there! It’s okay. Here, let’s play spaceship and dock.” She made a fist, swinging it around in circles over Toni’s head as she made shushing spaceship sounds with her mouth.

  Toni fixed on her, his eyes clearing as he looked up. Grinning he followed her fist in the ever-lowering circles over his head. “Spaaaziiip!” he cried.

  “And it’s going to land!” Sheena whipped it down, play-grinding it into his tummy. Then she tickled him until he was laughing and squirming.

  “Blessed ions,” Tomaya said with overemphasized relief. “I thought he was going to cry all afternoon.”

  “We’ve got to clean this up,” Felix said, looking at the splotches of algae on the floor.

  They all bent down, trying to wipe up the slippery stuff with their hands, which only spread it wider.

  “Use your sleeve,” Breez suggested.

  That seemed to work a little better, but not much.

  “What about Toni?” Tomaya asked, sitting up. “It’s all over his jumper and hands.”

  “It’s all over all of us,” Felicity snapped as she kept wiping at her face.

  “Not anymore,” Felix told her.

  Toni, eyes fixed on the waves he could see through the transparency, was sucking absently on his algae-covered fingers. Most of the blue-green slime was gone.

  That just left the spots on his jumper, and Felix wasn’t too worried about that. Little kids got stuff on them all the time. Yosh and Mikoru would hardly know the difference.

  24

  “I want to kill something!” Talina managed to growl through gritted teeth as she perched on her barstool in Inga’s. She knotted her fists, struggled to still the rampaging hormones, quiet the anger and frustration that raged inside her.

  When the fuck had she felt this chaotic inside? Demon vibrated with laughter down in her belly.

  The tavern thundered with sound. The nightly crowd—along with the latest rotation from Corporate Mine—had packed into the subterranean dome. Talina sat reversed on her stool, her elbows on the bar behind her so she could look out into the big room. She’d often sat thus in order to keep a watchful eye on her people. After the stormy departure from Dek Taglioni’s burning embrace . . . well, okay, her burning embrace, too, it felt reassuring, something comfortable and normal.

  Hofer’s voice, from down the bar, set her off like the squeal of rusty hinges. An image formed of her walking down, pulling her pistol, and clubbing the loudmouth to death.

  “Yes! Kill!” Demon hissed as her stomach tightened.

  “He’s using you,” Rocket replied in warning. “We did the smartest thing we could with Dek.”

  “We just condemned the guy,” she growled. “We filled his mouth with a hot load of TriNA.”

  “Our TriNA,” Rocket’s reasonable voice insisted from her shoulder.

  Talina shot a slitted sidelong look at her shoulder, half expecting to see the spectral quetzal perched there. He wasn’t of course. No more than Demon was a physical entity down behind her stomach.

  “You’re a clap-trapping hallucination. It’s just how my brain deals with it,” she reminded herself.

  Clenching her teeth, she fought the sudden urge to scream in expression of her frustration, conflicting emotions, and overall pissed-offishness at things in general. Never, in all of her life, had she felt this sexually frustrated. She’d barely torn herself away from the guy. Ached to race back, rip his clothes off, and screw him to within an inch of his life. Just because Demon kept tinkering with her limbic system, making her pulsing lust worse, didn’t lessen the fact that she was naturally attracted to the man.

  “I just won’t be your plaything, you piece of shit.”

  “You will . . . in time.”

  “Go suck piss out of a boot.”

  Demon chittered another staccato of quetzal laughter.

  Not to mention that she was disgusted with herself. She’d just played God with Derek Taglioni’s future by giving him that hot kiss. The bizarre irony was that she’d essentially impregnated the poor guy. Shot him full of genetic material as surely as if she’d ejaculated. And unlike human copulation, she didn’t need him to be ovulating for it to take. All that TriNA she had secreted through her salivary glands was circulating through his mouth, passing through the mesoderm in his cheeks and lips, and the permeable tissue beneath his tongue, integrating with his cells and bloodstream.

  God damn her! As bad as what she’d done out at his claim, this was worse. She’d given him no choice. Just fucked him over. In human sex, a pregnancy could be terminated. This couldn’t. The deed was done. Dek was back at her house, lying in her bed, as that flood of genetic material was coursing through his body. No stopping it now.

  I am a shit-sucking monster.

  Again, she wanted to scream in frustration. Would have but for the fact that the whole bar would stop, gone suddenly quiet, as every eye in the place turned her way. Hell, as much as people feared her these days, it would probably empty the whole fricking tavern.

  Inga came striding down behind the bar, a towel over her shoulder. “Tal, you need another?”

  “Damn straight.”

  Inga paused long enough to grab up Talina’s empty mug, take a swipe at the dented chabacho wood with her towel, and retreat back to the line of taps.

  Down the line, Hofe
r was bellowing laughter at some joke Tyrell Lawson told him.

  Tal was wondering if—given Hofer’s early verbosity—she was going to have to clock him one before the night was through.

  “Yes, please,” Demon hissed.

  She was fighting the urge to walk down and strangle the guy when she noticed Shig Mosadek descending the stairs. Tonight, Shig wore a quetzal-hide cape over his shoulders. A tunic-like claw-shrub-fiber shirt that Yvette Dushane had embroidered with squash flowers and patterns was belted at the waist. Loose trousers, tucked into brand-new quetzal-hide boots, completed the ensemble.

  Shig called amiable greetings out to various patrons as he passed, stopped to share some words with Toby Montoya, and grinned as he spotted Talina.

  Making his way over, he climbed onto the stool beside hers, gave her a pleasant smile, and motioned with his fingers to Inga, giving the big woman an “I’ll take one” gesture.

  “Red or my new white?” Inga’s bellow even drowned the latest of Hofer’s garrulous guffaws.

  “Red,” Shig tried to shout back, as if it would be heard over the din.

  Inga—used to reading lips—nodded and turned back to where she was filling Tal’s mug with rich black stout.

  Shig’s amiable gaze fixed on Talina, paused. “From your expression, I would say you were upset. Anything I need to know before you murder someone?”

  “Just enraged with myself, Shig. Dek’s at my place while his leg heals. I think I just ruined the rest of his life. What really sucks toilet water is that I did it out of fear. That, and Demon pushed me into it.”

  “How?”

  “Okay, so the guy stopped breathing out at his claim. I gave him CPR, right? Now, he had already traded blood with Flute. So he was infected to start with. But Flute’s TriNA, we suspect, is benign. No telling how it affects humans yet. When I resuscitated the guy, he got a load of my TriNA.”

  “And that’s a problem because . . . ?” Shig lifted a thick eyebrow.

  “According to Dek, Demon was starting to manifest, which makes sense because his TriNA has an in-depth knowledge of human physiology. Now, that’s not to say that Flute’s TriNA wouldn’t have squelched Demon’s in the end, given that there’s more of it floating around in Dek’s body after the transfusion, but I sort of didn’t want to take the chance.”