"I’m not sure they understand it either. But one of them is more agitated than the other. The memories . . . I’ve got nothing to work with for this situation."
"Just do your best, Mira. What do they want you to say?"
Mira’s voice dropped to almost a whisper, and seemed even more distant than before.
"Cold. Cold star rising. Fire and death. S-A-198 must be awakened. It has been too long."
Jantine wanted to look Mira in the eyes, even if the other woman wasn’t the one really speaking. Doria usually stood between the Omegas and whomever they were speaking to, but Mira had assumed a subordinate’s position behind her. But Jantine’s gaze was locked on the Omega’s black eyes, and she felt if she looked away something bad was going to happen.
"And do you have any idea at all what that means?"
Mira’s reply was a bit tentative, and as she spoke the differences between her and Doria became even more evident.
"Nope. They not using words per se to communicate; it’s more like they’re suggesting meanings and letting me know when I’ve got the right ones. But the images they’re sharing with me don’t many any sense at all. I’m seeing a sky full of stars, some mountains maybe. About all I can tell you for sure is that when you mentioned the sleepers, one of them was happy, and the other one was afraid."
Eyes still locked on the Omega’s broad face, Jantine nodded. Delays in communication were common with Omegas, but Mira’s different worldview was both helpful and a hindrance in this situation. When she thought of the right words to say, Jantine used her best command voice.
"I told you, it’s not safe here. That distress signal will bring our enemies to us. We have to find a way to turn it off, and then we need to get to a place we can protect her."
"No danger. Safe here. S-A-198 must be awakened. They’re . . . Jantine, he’s lying!"
"What?"
"The one facing the unit, he believes you. But the other one. . . I think something is wrong with him. I think. . . he’s scared."
Jantine’s world was coming apart, one piece at a time. Not only was she on the verge of losing her command to an unknown, but now the Omegas were actively working against her. Lying to her. There were always things they did that didn’t make sense, but this. . .
The Omega in question was on its feet before she could finish her thought. It was almost twice her height, and just one of its arms massed more than her entire body. In the dim light of the setting sun, shadows drew dark lines on its face, and Jantine felt Mira’s fear pulling at her own.
She took a step back, chiding herself for the unconscious gesture. After seeing the Omegas in action aboard the Valiant, she knew there was nothing she could do to stop them if they really wanted to hurt her. Artemus couldn’t possibly get to her in time, and even if he could get past the second Omega, it would only be to collect her corpse.
Then her fear was gone, replaced by a wave of support and confidence. Whatever it was seemed right, and as the feeling wrapped itself around the base of her mind, Jantine stood a little bit taller.
"I’ve made my decision. We must find a way to disable the transmitter, and once we are in a secure location, Carlton and JonB will—"
A hand touched her shoulder, and Mira’s whispered words came from right behind her.
"Jantine, let me talk to him. I think I can get us out of this."
Angered by the interruption, Jantine shrugged the hand off.
"No. Don’t do anything else. It won’t hurt me. It can’t."
"Are you sure about that? Because he’s not."
Jantine didn’t have any time to consider the implications of Mira’s statement before a new voice added an unexpected complication to the situation.
"Commander, a word?"
The Omega spun its head to stare at JonB, who paled under its four-eyed scrutiny. The scientist was standing just inside the hole leading to the cargo area, holding himself steady on the sloping floor by gripping a protruding piece of conduit. He still had a few drops of Katra’s blood on his face, but otherwise looked fine.
"What is it, JonB?" The words sounded a lot more confident than she felt, but Jantine refused to back down.
"Uh, not you, boss. Her." Without loosening his death grip on the conduit, JonB doubled up his right arm, pulling his wrist almost level with his shoulder and pointing at Mira.
"He’s awake. Captain Martin, that is, and he wants to talk with you. If you can spare the time."
And now you’re starting to do it. I’m still in charge here, JonB. Not the Omegas. And certainly not Mira Harlan!
"I think we’re good, right? Everyone’s said what they have to say?" Mira stepped in front of Jantine, staring down the Omega with steely eyes. Jantine felt a fresh wave of confidence as she passed by, one with familiar undertones.
But then she did something Doria would never have attempted; Mira reached up a hand and made a snapping noise with her fingers until the Omega turned away from JonB. Behind it, the second Omega rose to its feet, and Jantine thought she saw something like concern in its eyes.
The sound wasn’t loud enough to be painful, and even with her muscular build Mira didn’t appear to be a real threat to the Omega. But her intent to scold was apparent to everyone, and she didn’t let it go with just the one gesture. She pointed a finger up at the Omega’s face, and shook it several times for emphasis while she spoke.
"It’s not nice to ignore someone when they’re talking to you. Commander Jantine has very real concerns for your safety, for all of us. I know you’re frustrated, but this is not the way." Lowering her finger, she nodded in JonB’s direction.
"And you leave him alone; he’s only trying to help. I’ll be gone a few minutes, but we’re not done talking about this."
Mira spun on her heel and walked over to the shuttle. The Omega followed Mira to the side of the ship and then gently boosted her up through the hole. Jantine heard the Earther say "thank you" before she leaned out over the edge of the hull and kissed the top of the Omega’s orange head.
The Omega stood there with its hands spread out on the hull for almost a minute after JonB and Mira made their way further into the ship, just watching the space where she had been. When it turned around, its tiny mouth was pressed tight in something approximating a smile. It could have been the last sliver of sunlight painting everything with warm colors, but Jantine could have sworn its skin was a deeper shade, almost red in places.
Carlton started to say something, but Jantine waved her hand without looking at him, not wanting to spoil the moment.
Just then, work lights along the hull warmed to life, bathing the area in the broad-spectrum light of Colony A’s secondary star. After so many hours basking in the warm yellow radiance of Sol, it was like gray paint had been splashed over everything.
By the time Jantine could distinguish colors again the Omega’s face was back to normal. It walked over to the sleeper unit to rejoin its companion, but instead of turning to stare at Jantine, it raised its hand to the spot Mira had kissed. The second Omega did the same thing, and Jantine wondered how much of Mira’s scolding had been delivered mentally so the Omegas could save some face in front of the other mods.
Whatever she’s becoming, it’s definitely not a Gamma. And the rest of us are going to have to change almost as much just to keep up with her. . .
Mira
"IS SOMEONE GOING TO TELL ME WHAT ALL OF THAT WAS about? Or should I just stay terrified until my heart explodes?"
Janbi’s question made Mira smile. He’d been busy since she last saw him, restoring grav in the corridors and completing an amazing clean-up job. The walls and floors no longer dripped with gore, and she wagered he’d done a better job than any middie work detail could have managed in the same amount of time.
Give this one another few hours, he’ll probably come up with something to patch the hull as well.
In regards to his question, she could still feel the Builder’s seething confusion behind her, a deep well of
frustration that wouldn’t be satisfied until the universe returned to the way it used to be. Mira’s Gamma memories told her that most mods had difficulty distinguishing between one Omega and another, but she didn’t need to see them to know who was who.
There was the one who’d changed her, and the one who thought doing so was a bad idea. The angry one, who still wanted to punch something with those big hands.
"I’m not exactly sure, Janbi. The Builders are . . . complex."
The boy’s laugh was like a warm shower, setting her mind at ease. There was a small spike of annoyance when she’d spoken, but it faded quickly into the general aura of unshakable confidence he was projecting.
Oh, boyo. If you weren’t half my age, Mama Harlan’s little girl would be in trouble right now.
It wasn’t just his looks that Mira found fascinating. Janbi’s whole outlook was as different from the other mods as Artemus was physically from Carlton. He seemed out of place among the dour and brooding Colonials, though the longer she talked with Jantine the more she suspected the young leader was also a breed apart.
Maybe it’s a Beta thing. Carlton seems fairly normal, but he can still get pretty intense at times.
"Well, if you figure it out, let me know. I never want to be on the wrong end of those two."
Mira thought about the perpetual dark mood the one she’d taken to calling "Grumpy" was in. The Omegas had experienced significant emotional trauma in the last few hours, but it had changed them in very different ways.
When "Happy" forced her body’s transformation it was more of an accident than anything else. At first he’d just been curious about the different taste of her thoughts. But once he’d seen her up close, he acted on instinct, giving her both the Transgenic virus and the Gamma memories.
Including those of Doria. Wherever I go with these people, they’re always going to be thinking of her. I don’t even know what she looked like, and I feel like I’ll never match up to their memories.
It seemed silly to be jealous of a fifteen-year-old girl she’d never met, but that’s definitely how it felt. Having a selection of Doria’s memories wasn’t the same as talking with the Gamma or experiencing her thoughts, something every other personality fragment bouncing around in her head had done before passing on its knowledge to Doria.
Mira reached out to Janbi’s shoulder, and a wave of raw desire rolled off him when they touched. Images that could make a courtesan blush flashed through his mind, and Mira couldn’t help but be flattered.
Well that’s good to know. They have normal human responses after all.
A memory fragment bubbled up—a private conversation between Doria and Malik—and Mira felt a touch of shame. It wasn’t her fault the Gamma had assigned such an important meaning to the encounter. But it was something personal, something intense that was never meant to be shared with another. Mira was pretty sure the Builders didn’t know about it either. Happy had just been carrying the memories; he didn’t have the emotional vocabulary to understand them. But Mira did, and their meaning was clear to her. The Betas on this mission were different. Very different than those back "home."
"Janbi, tell me something. Why were you selected for this mission?"
Confusion warred with curiosity and passion in his mind, but the analytical ability that was his greatest strength trumped them all. Janbi considered her question carefully before answering.
"Actually, it’s . . . never mind. I was chosen because I am the best."
"Best? Best at what?"
"Everything."
Janbi’s confusion mixed with pride, and the combination twisted his face into something she wanted to stare at forever.
Oof, those eyes.
Pulling herself back to task, Mira pressed for more.
"Surely, there has to be more to it than that?"
Thinking about who in the Colonies would have made that decision, Mira was more afraid than ever of waking up S-A-198.
"My entire crèche was tested. I was selected, trained, and prepared to be a civilian adjunct to Jantine. Specifically Jantine, to answer your next question. One of the sleeper Betas is . . . was Malik’s match."
Something in the way he said the word made her want to know more, but Janbi was already moving on to another topic.
"We should continue. Captain Martin—"
Mira pictured the captain as she’d last seen him, breathing uneasily in his cabin with Carlton removing a scanner from his head. She’d felt the pain he was in since re-entering the shuttle, but so far it was manageable.
"He’s dying. I know, Janbi, and so does he. But this is important. I need to understand Jantine if I’m going to work with her. With all of you."
"My training tells me you are enemy combatants, but what I’ve seen—what I’ve learned in just a few hours with you—tells me a completely different story than the one our leaders have been feeding us. I have to know more."
The concern on Janbi’s perfect features was real, and most of his salacious thoughts receded as he studied her face. Carlton had done something similar outside, and now that she’d experienced it again in his mind, she understood the feeling for what it was.
Pity. He knows I can never fully understand him, and that there’s nothing he can do about it.
She could feel the captain down the corridor, managing his pain with thoughts of duty and how he could best make his death serve the human race. She might not agree with his decisions so far, but she could at least understand them, and that was a feeling she knew she’d have less and less during her time with the gennies.
"I’ll help you if I can. But you’re not one of us. Not yet. You’re still an Earther at your core; you believe everything’s going to work out for the best. It won’t."
Janbi’s stark acceptance of a futile universe seemed at odds with his deep curiosity about how it worked. She knew his mind was always seeking alternatives, and that he was capable of incredible intuitive leaps. But underneath it all was the cold certainty of his inevitable failure, and he was okay with that.
"But, we still have to try, Janbi. It’s what makes us human."
"Are we, Commander? Are we really? What do you think those people on the ship thought when the Omegas tore them apart? I’ve lived my entire life with them, and I still can’t believe what I saw. Think about when you first saw the Deltas. Did you think they were human, or monsters?"
Mira was about to say "human" but realized it would have been the Gamma memories talking. Janbi was right, they were monsters at first, and she’d recoiled from the Omega too until he shoved a dozen lifetimes of tolerance into her brain. Part of Mira wanted to believe she was a better person than that, but she’d been an officer long enough to know that people don’t really change.
They just get better at fitting in.
Janbi took her silence as an invitation to continue.
"I don’t think we are human, at least not what you mean by the term. We’re something else. Something better. And until you accept that you’re not one of them anymore, you’ll never understand Jantine."
Mira detected nothing but honesty in Janbi’s mind, wondered if she could do what he said. The longer she talked with any of the mods, the more her universe expanded. And locating her exact place in it was getting harder to do.
"We really shouldn’t keep Captain Martin waiting." Janbi gestured down the corridor.
As much as Mira wanted to talk to the captain, there was still something she needed to ask Janbi. And given how much he’d altered her worldview already, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to hear his answer.
"In a minute. This is important. When I asked you earlier why you were chosen for the mission, what I really meant was, why are you different from the others? None of them want to talk about this, or accept me without questions the way you do."
Janbi’s mind went into overdrive, but Mira detected no particular emotion from him. It was a refreshing change, but she was a bit apprehensive about what kind of response required s
uch intense contemplation.
"I don’t think it was me in particular, although out of all my crèche I was the best suited for the mission. It was the combination of myself and Jantine that made me the only choice. We are compatible."
The nagging feeling was back. Janbi was saying more with the word "compatible" than she was hearing, and it was more than just a Beta vs human thing.
Or is it? Match. Compatible? It can’t be. They’re just kids!
"Janbi, are you married to her?"
Things that he’d said, that Jantine mentioned in passing, that Mira had seen but not understood in the Gamma memory dump started falling into place.
"I don’t know what married means, but your context is correct. We are paired, or we will be if we can complete the mission and establish a colony. Our children, when it’s safe to have them, will be of this world, and their children will be our ambassadors to humanity.
"Your other question is more interesting. I like you, Commander. I like you because you’re not one of us. Not Beta, not Gamma. You’re something different, something new, and I enjoy speaking with you. You almost make me believe I can change our fate, and that makes you a puzzle worth solving."
Mira knew he meant it, and as much as she hated herself for asking, she had to know for sure.
"Are you sure that’s all of it? You have no other motives?"
Right on cue, all the boy’s salacious thoughts resurfaced. And the knowledge that he knew she could sense their content was both embarrassing and very attractive. What’s worse, she felt herself respond, if only as a courtesy to his wonderful smile.
Trou-ble.
"Oh, that. We will have sex, you and I. And our children will be even more impressive, I think, than those I will have with Jantine. But we don’t have time for that right now. There are more important things to worry about than your pleasure."
Janbi took her hand from his shoulder, and raised it to his lips for a kiss. Mira felt her cheeks redden, embarrassed not only by the fact that she’d left it there throughout their conversation, but at the electric charge she felt when his breath touched her skin.
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