Mostly it was because, deep down somewhere she hadn't known existed before that day, something was awake. And somehow, that part of her knew that Scythe was still alive and out there somewhere, a thought that brought both horror and hope to her soul in a dichotomy that would haunt her dreams.
"Hey Grayson," Vax said at last. "It turns out that your daytime show guess about the patient was totally right. It was an AI Zombie."
The hallway roared with the sound of laughter.
That's when a vivid blue, goth Cecaelia came swishing down the hallway out of nowhere.
"Please tell me that somebody else sees her," Lyra said out loud, starting to suspect that she could add a concussion to her list of possible injuries. Then she remembered having seen her the other night at Chez Vray.
"Hello," the blue apparition with the sparkly tentacles said. "You guys haven't seen a weird guy in a Halloween mask come through here have you? Because I'm going to ring his scrawny little neck until his eyeballs pop out-"
She stopped as it just then occurred to her that something had happened here and that they were all paying more attention to her than she expected.
"Oh please," she continued, with a flourish of tentacle. "This jackass propositioned my client, saying he'd free him or something. Well, I know a two-bit huckster when I hear about one and if you ask me, he deserves whatever he gets. You guys are with me, right? Plus, I hear that security on this space station is nearly nonexistent."
"Hey," Crash objected. "I'm all the security this space station will ever need."
"Sure, sure," she said, looking down at him as he sat in the hallway. "Good for you, you keep trying."
"You just missed him," Lyra said. "He's gone."
The blue goth apparition came over to Lyra. "Hello, my name is Astrid, and you are?" She held out a tentacle, which Lyra happily shook.
Lyra found herself in a very punchy mood. Being surprised at still being alive will do that, apparently.
"Lyra. And I like your shiny tentacles."
Astrid frowned. "You people look awful. What the hell happened here?"
"Halloween mask guy," Lyra answered. "Did all of that. Well most of it, we helped a little." She pointed inside at the waiting room.
Astrid peeked her head in there and made a whistling sound. "Wow, that place is going to need a lot of work. Probably for the best. First thing I'd do is get rid of that lime Koolaid paint."
"Hey!" Gorb objected.
Astrid went back over to Lyra and kneeled. "Now when you say this guy is gone, do you mean I missed him by ten minutes and he went that way gone?" She pointed down the hall. "Or transported out of here gone or somebody shot him and he's dead gone?"
"Crash?" Lyra asked. Since he was the one who had seen it all go down, she figured he was the best one to answer.
"Lightning, star-wars, death battle where he vanished in front of my eyes clothes and all gone," Crash answered.
Lyra nodded.
"Well, then," Astrid said thoughtfully to Lyra. "Guess that's that. Here's my card, dearie, you look like you might need it."
A shiny business card appeared in her hand and she handed it to Lyra, who read it aloud. Astrid, short-term magic for real-world problems.
"Cool," Lyra said, but then the card vanished. "Hey! Where did it go?"
"It integrated my contact info into your cellphone, dearie. Get with the times, would you? Adorable robot by the way. I'm sure I'll be seeing you people later."
She turned her attention to Ian. “Hey, you look familiar, aren’t you that fear guy? From the web show?”
“Oh yeah,” said Nancy, snapping her finger, “that’s where I know him from. Lyra, you’ve been holding out on us.”
“Knew it,” said Astrid. “I never forget a face.” And with that she left, snaking a tentacle around Arthur's wrist as she went by. Lyra could have sworn she muttered. "Don't knock it until you've tried it, big boy."
Lyra entered the waiting room with Arthur. “Hi, Gorb!”
“Hi Lyra,” he answered, shimmying even more than usual. He had his radio turned up and a cup of fresh, steaming coffee at his desk. “No crazy singing patients or rat bites today.”
“Thank goodness for that,” she answered. “Unlike you, I like being bored. At least a little.”
Arthur came in the room. “Morning, Lyra. Good news.”
“Yeah?” Lyra asked.
“The rat bite victim, Steve, is conscious and almost back to normal. The increased brain activity eventually subsided, in much the same way as a case of inflammation.”
“That is good news,” Lyra said. “I’m sure you won’t be missing any of our weird scientist invasions or mutant rat infestations when you’re gone. I heard you got a cushy job back in the Omega system. Congratulations.”
“Well, they offered, but I turned them down.”
Lyra turned to him. “What?”
“I think I’ll stay here for a while.”
“Glad to hear it.” Lyra smiled at him. Her phone made a notification sound. She glanced down. The message was from Ian.
“Oh,” Gorb said, “going on another date tonight, I see.”
“Gorb, stop snooping! And it isn’t a date, exactly. Ian has volunteered to stay on the station for a while and set up an electronic perimeter using the disrupter that worked on Scythe. Hopefully that will keep him away.”
“What’ll keep him away is the fact that he’s probably dead.” Grayson practically materialized out of nowhere.
Lyra wished people would stop doing that to her. Lyra smiled at him. Then she leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for saving me, you old goat.”
His face turned red and he wandered off. Lyra just smiled, and swiped Gorb’s coffee again.
“Hey!” Gorb objected.
Just another day on Celestica.
About the Author
L.A. Johnson writes fun, original Sci-Fi you won’t find anywhere else.
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A.I. Zombie Page 16