by A. C. Ellas
Gilly had transformed the living room. There were wreaths and decking on all the walls. Candles gave off the scents of cinnamon and pine trees. A large Christmas tree stood in the corner, ornaments, lights and tinsel glittering from its branches. Below the tree, spread on the red cloth, were brightly wrapped boxes. Evie grinned back at him. “See, there is a Santa Claus.”
Nick snorted to himself. The sight was a surprise, and it was impressive and beautiful, but it didn’t make him believe in anything as silly as Santa Claus. He smiled at his sister. “Evie, Mom must have worked her butt off to accomplish this.”
Evie nodded. “I know. But Mom claims Santa did it, so let’s just go along with her, ‘kay?”
Nick nodded back as he stepped off the bottom of the staircase, eyes devouring the details of the room.
Gilly came out of the kitchen, carrying a tray of steaming mugs. “Good morning, Nicky. Merry Christmas.”
Nick jumped to relieve her of the tray. “Merry Christmas, Mom. I like the tree.” He set the tray on the coffee table and himself on the couch next to Evie. There were three mugs on the tray, two looked like coffee, one looked like hot chocolate. Nick handed the chocolate to his sister and added cream to the first mug of coffee. “Sugar, Mom?”
Gilly shook her head. “No, just cream, thanks.” She accepted the mug from the boy and settled back in her seat as Nick added sugar and cream to his own coffee. “I thought you might like some coffee, given the earliness of the hour. You’re quite the night owl.”
Nick smiled at her after taking a long drink. “I find it’s easier to do homework late at night, after everyone’s gone to bed. It’s a habit, really.” He glanced around the room. “How’d you do this so quickly? I know what time I went to bed and none of this was up then…”
Gilly only smiled. “Santa did it.”
Nick raised an eyebrow at her, expressing polite disbelief, but he didn’t push the issue, having agreed already to play along. He stretched, leaning back as he sipped his coffee, eyes half closed. Evie curled up against his side, so Nick put an arm around her. He looked at Gilly and said quietly, “Thank you.”
Gilly smiled some more. “Oh, Nicky, we haven’t even gotten started yet. But, we have a couple of things to go over before we get to the presents. First, I want you to look this over,” she held up a manila folder. “I wouldn’t feel right submitting this without your consent.”
Nick took the folder with a raised eyebrow. He opened it and began to read through the papers. His expression had quickly grown serious, and after a moment, he looked up. “Are you certain that you want to do this?”
“I’m sure, but not if you’re unwilling, Nicky.”
Evie asked, “What is it, Nicky? What are you two talking about?”
Nick looked down at her. “Adoption papers, Evie. Mom is asking to be allowed to officially adopt us and make all this real. It would mean that she would be our mother for real, not just our legal guardian.”
Evie sat up, eyes large. “Nicky, if you say no, I’ll tell everyone I know that you’re a shitbag.”
Nick put a finger on her lips. “Quiet, you. My mind is already made up on this, and I won’t tolerate any lip from you, got it?”
Evie nodded after a long moment of staring into her brother’s eyes, her expression miserable as a tear spilled out of her eye to roll down her cheek.
* * * *
Gilly’s heart sunk to her feet as she came to the same conclusion that Evie had. She felt like she’d just managed to utterly ruin the holiday spirit in the house and wondered what on earth had possessed her to bring this subject up at all.
Nick offered her the folder back, and she took it with a hand that shook a little as she tried to hold back her own tears. Nick didn’t seem to notice Evie’s tears or Gilly’s near tears. He quietly spoke into the silence, “Please submit these papers as soon as you can, Mom. I think that this is the best thing we can do.”
Gilly gasped as his words finally penetrated her haze of depression. “You consent? You’re willing? Really?”
Nick nodded firmly, smiling a little in that way of his. “Of course I do! Of course I am! Really!” He rolled his eyes at her expression. “Mom, stop being silly, did you really think I’d say no?”
Evie squealed with delight and bounced off the couch to land on Gilly’s lap, giving her a big hug. “Oh, I’m so happy! What a wonderful present! We have a real mom again!”
Gilly sighed happily as Nick smiled at the two females. Then, she cleared her throat. “Unfortunately, I’m not done yet. A couple more items to discuss before we can get to the presents.”
Evie giggled as she retreated to her spot at Nick’s side.
Gilly looked at Nick, trying hard to maintain a very serious expression on her face. She was going to play this for everything she could. “Nick, one of your teachers called me earlier this week.”
She had Nick’s instant, full attention. She noted the slight furrow to his brow, the faint frown on his face. He was worried.
“Mom, I can’t think of any reason for a teacher to contact you. I’m not in trouble, am I?”
Gilly crossed her arms over her chest, trying to look strict. “What have you been up to in your classes, Nick?”
Evie looked at Gilly and then at Nick, eyes wide. “Ooo…Nicky, are in trouble? Did you fail something?”
Nick scowled. “I can’t have failed, it would be mathematically impossible at this point in the term. It must be something else, Evie, but I don’t know what. All I’ve done is my assigned work. I haven’t gotten into any altercations, and I haven’t hacked the school’s mainframe, though I must admit that it wouldn’t be all that hard.”
“Apparently you wrote a paper, Nick.” Gilly struggled not to laugh as she spoke. “And that paper was so good that a university panel wanted to fast track you into their doctoral program.” Nick’s eyes widened as she handed him another folder. “Here’s the comments of your teachers and the doctoral committee. We really need to talk about where you want to go for secondary ed, because your teacher also said that the results of this term will be out next week, and you’ve completed primary ed now. She said that you’re on the hot lists for several universities, and we can expect them to call as soon as the completion is official.”
Nick looked at the folder, but he didn’t open it. He shot a glance at Evie, who was so surprised that she seemed unable to do anything but stare at her brother. Nick looked back at Gilly. “Do you know which paper did it? I wrote several.”
“It was your excellent paper on predator-prey interactions.” Gilly grinned now, unable to restrain her own enthusiasm any longer. “Your teachers feel that you would do really well in the Life Sciences. Central University wants you in their Ecology doctoral program yesterday. And they’re probably not the only ones.”
“I’m only sixteen,” Nick murmured. He set the folder down on the coffee table before shrugging. “I still want the Academy if I can get in.”
Gilly nodded. “I know. Your age may be a stumbling block there, but we’ll see what we can do. You may end up needing to wait a couple years to get in, and if that’s going to be the case, you should consider accepting one of the offers that I’m sure you’ll be receiving shortly.”
Nick drained his coffee mug. “That’s a good point, Mom. I’ll certainly consider all the offers that come in.”
Gilly grinned, her happiness about ready to boil over. “Okay, last subject before the presents. Nick, you’re scheduled for surgery in two days.”
Nick’s eyes widened in surprise. “But it’s only been four months?”
Evie clutched his arm in delight as Gilly replied, “The cloning went faster than anticipated. It’s ready, and I’m sure you are, too.”
Chapter Ten: Cai
The boy sat on the bed in the small room. Really, there was nowhere else to sit. The walls were bare and the only furniture was the bed he sat on and the table beside the bed. The boy sat and st
ared at the crystal embedded in his right palm. He couldn’t remember…did I always have this pretty blue crystal in my hand? Where did it come from? What does it mean? For that matter, where am I? What is this place? He was positive that he’d never been in this room before in his life…but try as he might, he couldn’t remember anything before this present reality.
Why can’t I remember? He tried to think about this, but it made his head ache terribly. The more he concentrated on his questions, the more the inside of his head lanced with agony. He raised his hands to the sides of his head instinctively, gasping as his hands encountered a bandage. His fingers began to explore the bandage, trying to determine its extent, which was immense, for it covered his entire skull. Even that minimal movement awoke new depths of pain in his body. Everywhere he looked, everywhere he felt, there were bandages, accompanied by pain upon pain.
Frightened now, he leaped off the bed and ran for the door. He had to find someone, anyone, just so long as they could tell him what was happening. He discovered a moment later that the door was locked. He pushed and prodded at it, even kicked it, but the door remained stubbornly closed, and now, his bare foot hurt, too. He turned his back to the door as he searched frantically for any other route of escape, scraping along the cold stone walls of his prison, a sense of panic welling up in his chest, but he found nothing in the bare, windowless room.
There was no way out, nor was this some horrible dream. The texture of the granite blocks under his fingertips, the slightly musty, damp quality of the air, the clarity of the all-too bright light flooding the room from a recessed ceiling panel…all of it was foreign to him, but all-too real and richly detailed to be a dream. Besides, he was in too much pain to be dreaming. Somehow, he knew that he was awake, all-too awake.
Out of nowhere, a voice thundered, RELAX, CAI. NOW IS THE TIME TO SLEEP.
The boy clapped his hands over his ears, dropping to his knees and screaming in pain as the voice tried to rip his head in two. The volume was intolerable. The hands on his ears didn’t help, he abruptly realized, since he wasn’t hearing the voice with his ears. He whimpered in terror, pressing back against the stone wall as he was forced to acknowledge that he’d heard the voice in his mind alone.
The boy could feel something like a sense of surprise, hastily smothered, at the other end…the other end of what? his mind screamed.
The voice came back, much, much quieter this time, almost crooning at him, Easy, Cai, easy. It’s okay. Come, lay down now.
It was just too much…the sense of wrongness crystallized, for a moment he thought he saw a blinding light and he caught a whiff of something sweet…and then it was gone, fading back into the darkness of his mind. He wailed, clawing at the walls in desperation, fear overwhelming his ability to reason. He heard the echo of a voice screaming, rebounding off stone walls, and realized that it was himself. He stood on shaky legs and hurled himself at the door, the impact so hard it briefly stunned him. Bonelessly, he slid down the door to crumple on the floor, trying to catch his breath, trying to cope with the agony of his tortured body.
The voice crooned again, Easy, Cai. Don’t hurt yourself. Easy. Everything will be fine, you’ll see. Come, lay down. Lay down, Cai.
The boy blinked, shaking his head against the sense of the voice as he stood and walked toward the bed. Why am I obeying a voice in my head, he wondered, followed by, Why is there a voice in my head? Am I crazy? Have I lost my mind? Am I living in a waking dream? What is going on?
That’s right, Cai. Very good. Lay down now, Cai. It’s time to sleep, crooned the voice softly, as if it hadn’t heard his internal thoughts.
Can’t the voice hear me? He could certainly hear it, after all. How much room is there in my head? Enough room for both of us? Again the feeling of wrongness crystallized within, and he stopped dead in the center of the empty floor. “My name’s not Cai,” he said clearly. “It’s…” he paused, consumed with sudden horror as he discovered that he couldn’t remember. I can’t remember my own name? What is wrong with me? What is going on? The sense of panic came again, slamming into him with such force that he gasped, staring about with wild eyes.
The voice came back immediately, soothingly saying, Your name is Cai. You have always been Cai. Come, Cai, lay down now.
The boy frowned. “My name is Cai?” the voice seemed so sure, and yet…and yet what? How could he know what was true and what was false? He shook his head, certain that his name wasn’t Cai but lacking the knowledge to refute the voice.
Yes, Cai, of course it is. Would I call you that if it weren’t your name? Come, Cai, lay down. You must be tired if you can’t even remember your name.
The boy shook his head again in wild denial, setting off new waves of lancing pain. “Something’s not right. I can feel something…just out of reach. What’s going on?” He turned in a circle, looking for the source of the voice and finding nothing. He was alone. He could feel tears of frustration stinging his eyes. “Please, tell me…”
Easy, Cai. You had surgery today. That’s why you feel out of sorts. It’ll pass, Cai, I promise. Come, lay down and rest. You’ll feel better tomorrow.
The boy finally laid down on the bed, staring at the ceiling, still feeling confused, but no longer panicked. Surgery explained a lot; after all…the bandages and the pain would be expected, yes? And also, there was the fact that the more the voice spoke to him, the more right and proper it seemed to him. “Who are you?” He wondered why the voice didn’t feel familiar, since the voice obviously knew him.
I am Ortat, your trainer, said the voice calmly. Tomorrow, you will see me again. Now is the time to sleep, Cai.
Cai fought the gentle suggestion. “My trainer? What am I being trained for?”
Cai, Cai, Cai. Always with you the questions when you should be resting. The voice felt amused. But if it’ll help you sleep, Cai, you’re in training to become an Astrogator. You should be proud; becoming an Astrogator is a great honor.
Cai blinked at the blank ceiling, having thought for a moment he’d caught a glimpse of stars, the galaxy spread before him with mighty starships traversing the vast distances in the blink of an eye. He wondered if he’d imagined the sight but afraid to ask in case he had. Insanity was still a possibility, after all. “Thank you,” he said softly as he rolled over and buried his aching head into his pillow, trying to fall asleep despite the pain.
The voice murmured, Cai, there are pain meds on the table. Take them. They’ll help, I promise.
Cai rolled over again and stared at the table. The surface had been bare, he was certain of that much. But now, there were a pair of paper cups on the table. One held what smelled like water and the other a pair of white pills. “How did they get here?” he asked, greatly suspicious.
Telekinesis, Cai. Once trained, you should be able to do something similar. Take the pills; you need them. You’re broadcasting your pain at this point. Soon, we’ll have to work on your control but not tonight.
Cai complied bemusedly. At this point, he was so confused that he was obeying simply because he had no idea of what else to do. Once he’d drained the water from the cup, he returned his attention to the pillow. Eventually, the pain pills carried him off into a dreamless sleep.
* * * *
Ortat leaned back in his seat with a sigh but still watching the monitor screen that showed him the sleeping boy. The first awakening was always so delicate. He hoped that the boy hadn’t damaged anything when he’d slammed into the door. If they had to take him back to surgery, this would all have to be redone.
From behind him, Zriat asked, “How’s the new one doing?”
Ortat shrugged. “He’s understandably confused because he can’t remember shit, and his mind is rawly sensitive to the point where normal telepathic contact was enough to bring him screaming to his knees.” Ortat glanced over at Zriat, who looked rather concerned. “Don’t worry, he’ll heal. I don’t understand how you think we can tinker around in his br
ain and mind and not leave him sore afterwards!”
“You’re right, of course, but this one shows such promise...” Zriat studied the continuing EEG readout
Ortat returned his attention to the monitor. “I can already sense his power, and he’s just begun to develop his potential. He’s easily a level five, and if he develops to his fullest potential, he’ll be the strongest five we’ve ever had. Maybe we should just designate him a level six?”
Zriat’s forehead crinkled in confusion. “There is no level six.”
Ortat nodded. “I know. But perhaps, considering this one, there should be. In any case, once he’s healed, his training will begin. And then we’ll know.”
* * * *
Cai woke up abruptly in a pool of his own sweat. He was achingly cold, so why was he sweating? His body hurt in odd ways—the familiar lancing pain in his head and down his neck, plus now, there were throbbing pains along his bones and strange tingling sensations in his fingers and toes. He sat up slowly, because moving quickly just wasn’t possible. He was shaking like a dry leaf in a gale. It was hard to focus his eyes and painful to concentrate. A sudden noise shivered through him like nails on a chalkboard, and he fell back, wincing in pain as the door opened to admit three men.
Two of them were dressed in blue one-piece outfits, and they had odd silvery discs, about an inch in diameter, attached to their temples. The third was a solid man, dressed in a grey uniform with a vaguely military cut, and Cai had the sense that this was the owner of the voice he’d met last night.
The two men in blue approached him. The grey-haired one said, “Astrogator-elect Cai, we need to check your bandages. They should be ready to come off.”
Cai simply stared at them dully. He heard them, but his head felt all funny, and it was hard to really understand what they were saying to him. The man in grey commented, “He’s in withdrawal.”