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by Scott James Magner

  "Carlton. Wait. Let her finish . . ."

  The Beta’s eyes narrowed, but he paused.

  "There is no wait, Mira. I’m going to lose her if I don’t intubate. Plus, the longer she’s awake, the worse her pain gets. It’s already making the rest of them crazy, do you think we can deal with them if she dies?"

  Mira’s thoughts went immediately to Serene. She knew it was bad, but through Carlton’s eyes, she saw just how close to death the child was. But Serene’s fear of the injector was stronger even than her fear of death, and the Alpha bolstered Mira’s efforts to remain calm. O-6913 seemed to relax a bit as well, but the Omega’s shattered mind threatened to suck Mira in at any moment.

  ~Think about clouds, Mira. Big, white, fluffy clouds. That’s all they need right now, something to distract them. But you have to help O-6913. It’s all too much for him, what he did, what he wants to do. You have to—~

  The injector hissed in Carlton’s hands, and Mira felt the child’s mind floating away.

  "Dammit, Carlton! Not yet! Serene, I can’t do this on my own. I don’t know how—"

  ~Yes you do. You just don’t . . . remember . . .~

  Mira screamed as thoughts and images from over a dozen lifetimes exploded in her head.

  Again. And this time, she had Serene’s memories of the last few days as well. She was vaguely aware of Carlton yelling, but she couldn’t make out the words over the rush of information trying to find a home in her already battered brain. It was worse this time, much worse, and even though all of her own memories were settling back into familiar places, they didn’t quite fit the same way as they once had.

  Mira collapsed onto O-6913’s chest. That she no longer heard every stray thought in the room was a small comfort, but the continuing chaos in the Omega’s mind was mounting a serious challenge on her renewed mental defenses.

  So she thought about clouds instead. Billowing, fluffy clouds, dancing across the sky and sparkling in the sun. Above them was the deep blue of a Colorado sky over the mountains, and the feel of the wind in her hair as she sailed an ultralight over the plains helped smooth out the rough edges of two dozen very scared mods.

  The storm in O-6913’s head dissipated, as did the rumble of the crowd. Mira felt another mind nearby, and she opened her eyes to see Jason staring down at her, his right hand extended for support.

  Mira smiled and sent him her thanks, taking another small pleasure in his realization that for the first time communicating directly with her mind didn’t include pain. With the Omega’s help, she sat up and took in the room.

  Artemus had pushed the Gammas back, and on the other side of the crowd, Jantine had Tommy sprawled facedown on the floor with one slugthrower pressed into the middle of his spine and another against the back of his head.

  A fresh wave of anger toward her former lover almost undid her newfound calm, but the Gamma memories were back and offering suggestions about how deal with her emotions. Mira found it amusing that almost all of them suggested using her rage to build a wall, and then went a step further by expanding her previous efforts to include a courtyard, a moat, and a grand dining hall.

  If I’m going to save a princess, I might as well have a castle.

  Carlton rolled Serene onto her stomach and began massaging her lower back. Despite O-6913’s distress, and the very real possibility that Serene might die from whatever had been in the injector, it was Carlton and Katra who were Mira’s immediate concerns.

  The Beta was sweating profusely, and though his hands were fast and sure as he worked to keep the Alpha alive, his emotions were running wild. Mira recognized the symptoms; she’d experienced them herself when Jason activated her latent T-Virus. Whatever Serene had done to give her back her memories must have affected him as well, and there wasn’t anything she could do to help him with the extra voices in his head other than to continue projecting an aura of calm she didn’t share. His thoughts were more focused than ever, and the one that was foremost in his mind was also in Mira’s.

  She looks so small . . .

  Katra was on the verge of fighting her way through her own people to kill Tommy, and although Mira mostly agreed with her, she owed it to Serene to find a peaceful solution.

  "Katra," she said, "please come help Carlton. You can’t do anything there."

  The Gamma turned to her, incredulous, as if by even suggesting that she not carve her way through the press of bodies and wring Tommy’s neck Mira was guilty by association. But after a moment, Katra’s thoughts fell into a pattern that Mira had learned to associate with risk assessment.

  "Trust me," Mira said, "he will face judgment for this. But if we kill him now, no one will ever know what he’s done. I claim his life—for this, and other harms done to me."

  Katra’s eyes widened, and Mira wasn’t sure if it was her use of "we" or "me" that most affected the Gamma. Whichever it was, Katra approved, and the visions in her head about what she wanted to do to Tommy were enough to add a drawbridge to her castle.

  Mira drew back into herself, clinging desperately to Jason’s towering sense of identity. Now that she was whole again, or at least mostly so, she could finally appreciate the incredible journey the Omega had taken in the last few days. From being the elder statesman of a doomed expedition, to a marginalized outsider, and back again to a trusted counselor, his transformation rivaled Janbi’s in its completeness, and the Omega still didn’t consider himself exceptional.

  My friend, will you help me again? Our brother needs us.

  In lieu of an answer, Mira found herself on a broad white plain, with her castle at her back and Jason by her side. The child version of O-6913 was several meters away, blurring in and out of sight. Mira reached one of her hands up to Jason, who shrank until one of his hands was barely larger than hers. Hand in hand, they walked forward and knelt beside O-6913’s flickering form.

  One of O-6913’s arms was stretched out, and Mira opened herself to his perceptions. She was already accustomed to the confusion and pain in his mind, but she was not prepared for the thought-image he was trapped inside.

  Kołodziejski was alive, and threatening Serene once more. But the Alpha’s face kept shifting, becoming Crassus, then Jarl, then Doria.

  "It’s not his fault, you know," said an almost-familiar woman’s voice from behind her. "He’s so young, to have all this thrust upon him. His mind is shutting down, and you have to help him move on."

  Mira expanded her perceptions until she could see the speaker without taking her eyes off of O-6913. To her surprise, it was a young girl with dark eyes and a wide smile whom she’d seen only in other people’s minds.

  "Doria?"

  A slim boy about as tall as Jantine appeared next to Doria and spoke. "She worries a lot, doesn’t she. It’s a shame that she can’t accept her strength."

  "Hush, Malik. She’s still alive, still finding her way. The clarity we have is denied her. For now."

  Mira manifested another arm so she could take one of O-6913’s hands in two of her own without letting go of Jason’s. Drawing on the experience of the Gamma shards, she left the greater part of herself with the Omegas, and let her inner self rise up out of her body.

  Mira turned, reveling in the freedom of an unencumbered mind. She could go anywhere, do anything, but she fought the urge to spread herself across the universe. Standing naked above the Omegas and herself, she was finally free to confront the one voice in her head that all of her friends wanted to hear.

  "See," said Malik. "She understands now. Can we go?"

  "No, Malik. We still have more to do, and in any event, I must stay behind."

  "That hardly seems fair. Let the living sort out the living. Haven’t we done enough?"

  Mira smiled, taking in the truth of Malik’s words. The image of Doria smiled in return, and the memory of the Beta dissipated, flowing back into her subconscious mind where it belonged.

  "Hello, Mira. I’m Doria. I’m glad you’re here to help my friends. None of this is you
r fault, but if I’d known of your existence, I’d have approved."

  Doria floated over to Mira, impossibly beautiful and far more corporeal than a memory had any right to be. Mira felt awkward and ashamed and unworthy in comparison, until Doria touched her on the shoulder, and Mira realized that all her doubts were holding her back from a deeper understanding.

  Doria flowed into her arms, kissing her neck and whispering into her ear.

  "It’s all right. I’m here with you. And we have work to do."

  Mira had no idea how long they stayed like that. In the mindscape, it could have been a heartbeat or a lifetime. She had no memory of breaking their embrace, but her next thoughts were of O-6913, and how weak his thoughts were.

  The Omega was still reaching out for Serene, Crassus, Jarl, and the rest, but he could no longer articulate his desires. Mira felt a sense of deep responsibility for those deaths, and when O-6913 recognized the tenor of her thoughts, she sensed his inescapable guilt.

  "It’s all right," said Mira. "Doria helped me, just as you did. We’re all here with you now, and you don’t have to face this alone."

  Serene’s three-day old sense of self separated from Mira, keeping one hand on her shoulder and reaching toward the Omega with the other.

  "I’m going to be all right. He was a bad man, and if you hadn’t done it, one of the rest of us would have. It’s not your fault, and no matter what happens, we will be together always."

  Mira wondered how much of Serene’s words were her own, or carried over from the Alpha’s inexpert attempt to heal her. Doria’s image knelt beside Mira, and guided her hands to the Omega’s face.

  "Rest now, my friend. Let us carry your burden for a while, until it is time to pass it on."

  Doria and Serene and Mira and a dozen other memory shards took form and placed their hands on the dying Omega, taking away his pain and confusion and sifting through all of his happiest memories. Mira saw her Doria-self as a child, reaching up with a shaking hand to greet him for the first time. Saw Jason pulling him from the floor of the crèche and enveloping him in a warm sense of belonging, explaining to him about Jantine and Janbi and Carlton and Katra and Artemus. As Mira watched O-6913 fade away, Doria hugged her, pulling all the parts of her mind back into one coherent whole named Mirabelle Agnes Harlan.

  Kneeling alone in front of her castle, Mira spoke to no one in particular. "He should have had a name. Serene never needed one for him, and he didn’t want the rest of us to know. But I refuse to remember him as Grumpy. He deserves better than that."

  "Mira Darling, we all do."

  The sound of her father’s voice filled her mind, and despite the pain of her last memory of him, she looked up to see Captain Emmanuel Rogers Harlan in his dress blacks.

  "There’s my girl."

  "Daddy, I—"

  "It’s all right, Mira Darling. I’m always here, just like Doria and all the rest. Ask us for help, and we’ll give it."

  Mira stood, now wearing a set of her own blacks. Mira thought she could see Captain Martin peeking around the corner of her castle, but she kept her attention on the man who was never there.

  "Daddy, I’m not sure I can do this. I’m not a Gamma, not like she was. They need more than I can give them, and even though I have the memories, it’s just too hard."

  Emmanuel gave one of his infrequent smiles, and Mira saw more than a little of Brian in his face.

  "I thought you understood, daughter-mine. Of course you’re not a Gamma. That’s not what they need. You’re an Alpha. A new kind of Alpha, just like the rest of them. Jantine, Carlton, Katra, Janbi, they’re so much more than their programming now, and it’s all because of you. You’ve shown them another way to live, a way to choose their own futures.

  "Jason will help you make them understand, as will Serene. But you have to go back now. She doesn’t have much time left, and Carlton will need help understanding what’s happening to him."

  Mira knew he wasn’t real. She knew her father was ten years dead, and that Doria and Aloysius Martin and Malik and all the others were just memories trying to help her get by. But the thought of letting her father fade away into white nothingness was too much to bear, and she crushed him to her with all her strength.

  "I love you, Daddy. Please don’t leave me alone again."

  "You’re not alone, Mira. I’m with you, now and forever. But you have to go now, before it’s too late."

  Emmanuel Harlan’s embroidered chest melted away, shifting into a bloody and tattered coverall. Mira looked up into O-6913’s face, and a despite the chaos around them, a sense of absolute peace spread through her.

  "Goodbye, Brian. I forgive you."

  The Omega’s thin mouth closed in a smile, something his living flesh could never do. Then he was gone too, leaving her alone.

  No. I’ll never be alone again.

  The real world snapped back into focus around her, but this time the chaos of the lab was well within her ability to cope. The hurricane in her head was gone, and everything was exactly as Mira had seen it last.

  Damn.

  "Carlton?"

  ~Mira? I’m losing her. I can feel her slipping away. Doria says not to worry, and Harren is here and—~

  ~I know. It’s going to be all right. I’m here with you. Here’s what we have to do.~

  Jantine

  "MARIUS, KATRA, HELP US GET HER ON THE TABLE. WE don’t have much time."

  Mira’s sudden order startled Jantine, and she nearly pulled the triggers on her weapons. It wasn’t that she’d have minded killing the human, but Serene and Mira seemed to think he was worth keeping alive, and he was probably the only one left alive who knew what was in that vial.

  From her vantage point, it was hard to see exactly what was going on, but then a crowd of legs parted and Serene rose up from the blood-soaked floor in Carlton’s arms.

  ~Jantine, are you with me?~

  ~Yes, Mira.~

  ~Take a couple Gammas and secure Tommy in the next room. If the information Serene got from his mind is correct, there’s maybe a dozen personnel left on base, and only a handful are troopers. The rest are either away in Tycho City, or launched with the Indomitable a few minutes ago.~

  Jantine pulled one of the hand weapons away from the human’s back and returned it to its place on her chestplate. Using her now-free hand, she grabbed the human’s neck and pulled him from the floor. The room spun around her, and she altered her stance slightly to adjust for her damaged ear.

  Still pressing the other weapon into his back, she leaned in and gave her best impression of Jarl’s threatening whisper.

  "One wrong move, and you’re dead, human."

  Whether out of fear or enlightened self-interest, the human complied, letting Jantine turn him away from the carnage and push him toward an exit on the far side of the laboratory.

  Jantine gestured for two of the Gammas to follow, then shoved him a shuffling step forward. Even with the room spinning around her, Jantine was more graceful than Tommy, though being unable to hear out of her left ear would be a problem in a fight. She felt blood running down that side of her face, and wondered if Janbi’s miracle doctor could build her a new ear.

  "Open it. And no tricks, or you’ll join your captain in whatever hell you two have made for yourselves."

  The human raised a shaking hand to the door panel, but he paused before activating it.

  "He wasn’t my captain. He made us . . . this isn’t what we set out to do. You have to believe me, I never meant to—"

  Jantine smashed his face into the door and shoved the gun into his back so hard she worried that she might push it all the way through.

  "Intentions mean nothing, human. I saw what you did. No one had a gun to your head, though if you’d prefer that I’ll be happy to comply. Now open the door, or I’ll pull this trigger and leave you to drown in your own blood. One more death isn’t going to matter today."

  The human’s fingers fumbled blindly with the panel, opening it on his
second try. The door opened, and he fell through into a sparsely furnished office. Keeping her weapon trained on him, Jantine waved one of the Gammas forward to cover the room’s far exit. Jantine tipped her head toward the other mod, careful not to take her eyes off the blubbering human on the floor.

  "What are you called?"

  "Yesha, Commander. Are we going to execute this human?"

  "No, please! It’s not my fault!" Tommy whined. "They made me do it. I was trying to help you, honestly! Oh, God, please don’t kill me pleasepleaseplease . . ."

  "It’s always excuses with you, isn’t it Tommy?" Mira’s voice from the doorway was flat and hard. "Never your fault. Well fuck you and your excuses. This time, you’re the helpless victim, and it’s us women who are in charge. Tell me where the antidote is, or I’ll let Katra come in here and finish what she started."

  "M-Mira?" The man—Tommy—sounded surprised to see her.

  "Yes, that’s right. M-Mira. Are you going to give me an answer, or do I have to go into your mind and rip it out?"

  Jantine’s eyes widened, and she turned away from the human to gauge Mira’s intentions. The look of pure fury on her face was more pronounced than it had been at their first meeting, and even Jantine was surprised when she stepped forward and hauled Tommy to his feet.

  "Well? Nothing to say? Oh, that’s right, you don’t speak Decent Human Being, do you? Only Chickenshit. Well maybe this will jog your memory."

  Even without her suit, Mira was stronger than most humans, and her slap knocked his head back. Her next blow was a punch to his midsection, then her knee smashed into his groin. He dropped to the floor and curled up into a sobbing ball, but Mira wasn’t done with him yet.

  "Where is it? Where is the antidote! If that girl dies, they’ll tear this system apart, and the universe will run red with blood. Tell me where it is!"

  Mira punctuated each sentence with a kick, the last one coming dangerously close to the human’s neck. He was barely able to speak, and what words he did get out weren’t what she wanted to hear.

  "I’m sorry . . . I’m sorry . . . I’m sorry . . ."

  "Mira. Enough."