Elysium Shining

  “I think I got it,” she said.

  “Easy, huh?”

  “Too easy. I keep thinking I might be missing a step or two when things are this easy. Alright, you head up first. I’ll be right here in case something goes wrong.”

  “Yeah, right. Watch this.”

  Il’lyse pulled herself up with her arms, using her good leg to rest on each rung of the ladder. One arm went up, the second followed and then pulled, the left foot rested, and she repeated without her right leg touching any of the metal bars. She made it out of the opening in an impressive level of haste.

  Remarking internally that her sister was a showoff, Zoey ascended the ladder’s height again. This time she emerged through the rectangular hole. Daylight greeted Zoey in its blinding glory now that she had returned to the surface from two tunnels.

  Her sister sat a few meters away from her, which gave Zoey the room she needed to climb out of the opening. She wondered how to close it from this side, but nothing she could think of solved that issue. Zoey twisted her mouth at the thing and knew she would have to leave it alone for now.

  “I am so going to love taking a shower when I get home,” Zoey said. She helped Il’lyse up off of the ground. “Thanks for not trying to run off.”

  “With my luck?” said Il’lyse, “I’d hobble back to the condo if I tried that.”

  They resumed the journey home, but they hadn’t gotten far when a red car screeched and pulled over. A dog barked and panted their way from the front passenger seat. The driver was Sut’hout.

  He said, “Do you both need a lift?”

  “Suuto!” Il’lyse said.

  “The whole world’s gone crazy. Get in.”

  The girls shrugged at one another and moved toward the vehicle. Zoey opened the door for Il’lyse. Her sister had to spin on her left leg and slide across the edge of the seat in order to get into the car without further injuring herself. Zoey hustled around to the other side and entered the back passenger seat that way.

  Once the car was moving again, Zoey said, “Thank you. We’re headed to Dasos’s condo. I don’t know if you know where that is or not.”

  “I vaguely recall going there once,” said Sut’hout. “Come to think of it, I believe the Allied Peacekeepers and Trullwick Police have organized a medical camp in that park across the street.”

  “Why there, I wonder?”

  “People ran scared from the university and surrounding areas. Those Hulda’fi have destroyed many buildings and killed more people than have been properly tallied so far, and that’s just in this city alone. There are other major cities on Elysium IX, VIII, Ginserei Prime, Dee Su, Lutoume, and Natt Grans; all hit like this in a single afternoon.”

  Il’lyse groaned.

  “And you, young lady,” said Sut’hout, “are you going to try telling me you’re a third sister from another planet no one has been to, or are you going to tell me where you’ve been for the last two revolutions?”

  “I’ve been fucking shit up for everyone else,” Il’lyse said. “I tried doing so much for them and they still tried to kill me. They bent me to their every whim, and I was as disposable to the Hallowed Lord and Lady as their daily garbage.”

  “That’s some weight you’re going to carry. Your folks think you’re dead, too.”

  “Not for long. I still don’t know if I’m ready for them to see me, especially like this. Especially after all of the things I did, and might still do. I still think about doing more, and it hurts now. It actually hurts.”

  “Hey! You’re the closest I ever had to a daughter. Don’t go beating yourself up over whatever kind of monster they made you into. You’re free now, and that shows that you’re better than the lot of them. It shows you don’t have to be a monster.”

  “Maybe, Suuto. I don’t even know anymore.”

  “Well, tell you what; since we have law enforcement around the front side of the condominium, I’ll give you time to figure it out by dropping you off at the back side of the building. How about that? When you have yourself figured out, let me know. I miss having my favorite little muse around when I am at work.”

  His dog whined and shook. Zoey reached forward and gave it a rub on one side now that the remainder of the ride had fallen silent. It didn’t take long for them to reach their destination, and the girls got out of the car. Zoey helped her sister out, and they thanked Sut’hout one last time before heading for the elevator.

  Zoey looked around every few paces that they traveled. When they were on the elevator and heading up, she saw a woman pass on the ground floor. It was Veran’uvia, and she glanced their way with no more than a nod. The elevator went up three floors, during which time Zoey was unsure if the Peacekeepers were being told about the two women up here, or if they were in the clear by some miracle. She had aided her sister as far as the door of the unit that Zoey lived in when the footsteps sounded behind them.

  Laeknar Saludalta caught her breath, and she carried a kit. She came alone, and her stare was focused and intent on Il’lyse.

  [ 51]

  No one else was home yet. The laeknar stayed back and let her medical kit hold the door open while Zoey helped her sister inside. She thought someone else would have been here by now.

  The girls had reached the living room couch that faced away from the front door when Veran’uvia followed them inside, grabbing her leather case on the way. She shut the door and crossed the black-tiled floor to their side of the room. Zoey laid her sister upon the sofa with her ears pointed toward the windows so that it was her right leg that sat next to the edge where the laeknar could get to it. Il’lyse lied back and folded an arm over her eyes.

  “You’re sure no one else followed you?” Zoey said.

  Veran’uvia said, “I’m positive. Until you are ready for your sister to come out in the public eye, if ever, we’ll chalk this silence up to laeknar-patient confidentiality. In other words, I won’t have any idea what anyone is talking about.”

  “You knew, though. You knew she was alive.”

  “I suspected it until your brother asked me the same sort of question when I saw him a few days ago. Now then, before I get started, I’m fairly certain I once asked you and your family to stop trying to kill one another. The two of you fighting, your mother being treated for minor injuries; what’s next?” She brought out a handheld device that cast an indigo light along Il’lyse’s injured leg. “Did you forget to set her bones before tying this splint on her?”

  “Set her bones?”

  There was a sigh and a shake of the laeknar’s head. “Her tibia is fractured in two places as many centimeters apart. The fibula is cracked as well along the one side. I can mend this and keep the pain down, right here where we’re sitting, but there is ample damage here that she is going to feel sore and ornery once the anesthetic effect wears off.”

  Il’lyse said, “Nothing says ‘full recovery’ like a murder spree in broad daylight. Ugh! Cold, infinite beyond, laeknar, go ahead and do it. I’ll be fine, I promise.”

  “Promises from dead people, I swear.”

  Veran’uvia put away her scanning device and pulled out a round wire with four round nodes along the ring. She flexed the coil with what appeared to be little or no exertion. She grabbed a vinyl strap and hooked it to one side of the device before she rested the four nodes against Il’lyse’s leg, encircling the bruised region; the splint came off next before she moved on. Veran’uvia slipped the vinyl beneath the leg and hooked it to the other side of the contraption.

  “I can see you gazing at this with amazement there, Zoey,” said the woman who otherwise seemed focused on treating her sister. “I have a funny history tale for you if you’re interested, since it will pass the time while I work.”

  “Sure?” said Zoey. Il’lyse raised her arm and looked with one eye as well.

  “Centuries ago, before we Aelfs developed our space travel to a reliable degree, we had urban myths around Elysium about aliens who would show up and examine people at r
andom. For some uncanny reason or another it was always the same test on the same kind of people.”

  “What, you mean like anal probes?”

  “Among other things. Good guess. Anyways, we discovered over the revolutions that these folks who were being abducted and examined were older men without much knowledge as to how science and medicine looked, because they spent so much time on their farms or ranches without venturing anywhere else in the world. We looked further into this phenomenon and discovered that their abductors were none other than their own loved ones, and the tests were their laeknir providing physical exams. The drug we used to use for prostate exams did not account for hallucinations. The men who thought aliens took them away were, however, under the influence of something to make them feel more friendly. So, really, the technology they saw from another world was no more than what was our then-modern technology, and those men never learned the wiser.”

  Il’lyse said, “Have there ever been many cases of alien abduction, for real?”

  “Not many.”

  Zoey raised a hand and said, “Present company included.”

  “That reminds me, Il’lyse, I will need to see your abdomen in a moment. It might confirm a suspicion that I have had for the last two months. That’s, of course, assuming that you still have the scars there.”

  Veran’uvia poked her patient’s leg with a needle that was long and thick, the end of it sinking into the skin and muscle. She didn’t go too deep with the tip of the needle, but the puncture should have hurt. Il’lyse didn’t flinch.

  “You’re leaving another one now,” Il’lyse said.

  “This will heal in no time. Do you have puncture scars from another procedure?” said the laeknar.

  “Yes. The laeknar working for the Hulda’fi said that it was meant to treat us for something she had caught early. She said it was necessary, and we all listened. I had it twice.”

  “Did you feel sick afterward?”

  “For a day or two each time. Why? What was it?”

  “Let me see your scars and I’ll tell you. Furthermore, I’m surprised that you were allowed to keep your scars. If this procedure is what I think it is then they were foolish to leave this clue for everyone to find.”

  “I can show you, but there’s something you should know.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m naked under this suit. Taking off the front of my stomach will be awkward, and it’s not like I can roll up the top as if it were a shirt. So yeah, if you need to see my scars, any of them, then I may need to remove more than you’re asking.”

  “Completely naked?” said Zoey and Veran’uvia at once.

  “I mean, I also have on a pair of pads strapped to my waist to hide my hips and gender, but we Hulda’fi never really wear underwear except when we . . . they feel like wearing anything at all.”

  As her sister explained about the nudity, Zoey looked at the Hulda’fi suit for an opening, a seam, or anything of that manner. There were a few brown patches on the arms and legs. The garment as a whole started with the hood and neck, and stopped at the wrists and knees, but had no sign of opening anywhere unless she were to count the black band on one arm or harness on her torso that could both be removed with ease. It made no sense to Zoey, but the thing needed to come off.

  Zoey dug through her book bag and found the ring that they had used to make incisions to the suit. She hurried back to the couch with the ring in hand and held it up.

  She said, “Before I hand this to you I have two questions. How did you get into that suit in the first place? And what other scars do you have?”

  Il’lyse said, “There are tools that are kept in Hulda’fi craft and sleeping quarters. These tools cut any fabric or similar materials like that ring does, but they can fuse such fibers together on a molecular level.”

  “And your scars?”

  “Being the scourge of the galaxy has its risks. Earning the favor of the Hallowed Lady is even harder. I wish I could tell you every little thing I’ve experienced, good and bad. I never bothered to have them removed.”

  “Your suit, all of it; I want you to take it off.” She handed over the ring.

  Her sister regarded her for a moment and took off the harness first before taking the ring from her. Il’lyse dropped the straps and pouches to the ground between the couch and table. She then looked at Veran’uvia as thought she were waiting for her to say or do something.

  Laeknar Saludalta extracted the needle she was using and wiped it clean with a sanitizing wipe that she had ready. Her discard pile on the coffee table grew with the additional packet and cloth.

  “Most of the damage has been undone,” she said, removing the circular device and turning the nodes. “Give it time to heal normally, and don’t put too much pressure on your right leg for the next two days.”

  Il’lyse squeezed her eyes tight and pressed the ring close to her neck. She glided the ring through her suit. Zippers, in Zoey’s memory, weren’t as smooth as the ring that now made its incision from her collar down to below her waist. Her form was every bit the same as Zoey’s, down to the tiny freckles, curves, and size of areolas. With a nod at this one affirmation she was not expecting today, Zoey went to her room and grabbed both a shirt and a pair of briefs.

  She returned and handed Il’lyse the underwear. “Remind me later to do a load of laundry,” Zoey said. “This is my last clean shirt, which I’ll hand you in a moment.”

  The suit had come off while Zoey looked for the clothing. Laeknar Saludalta was now examining Il’lyse’s lower belly. She pressed two fingers below the discolored spots that she found.

  “These Hulda’fi,” said Veran’uvia, “including the laeknar that works for them; how much genesis nectar do they handle?”

  “More than I remember,” Il’lyse said. “They make it in abundance. What I don’t know is where the unborn children are coming from.”

  “And these were your only two times receiving this procedure?”

  “Yes. The last time was back in mid-Andramane. What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “You’re a smart girl, Il’lyse. You’re also a victim of a crime, of a law that has been in place since our alliance formed. Genesis nectar shouldn’t be in production, anywhere; not after the scale on which we made it ourselves.”

  “I know that. I actually paid attention in history class, even though it wasn’t my subject.”

  “Did you skip out on biology as well? You were in a sex cult with so many boys. You committed the act more times than I care to know.”

  “Every one of those boys had their tubes tied or severed, or else Lord and Lady Tunderek would have had them killed. Lord Tunderek, himself, had his tied.”

  “I doubt that,” said Zoey. “You can ask Tonny when she gets here.”

  “What?”

  “Veran, what is this genesis nectar?”

  The laeknar said, “It’s the name of that substance that was in that cryogenic case. You remember it, I’m sure. It has been our theory, my grandfather’s and mine, that you had somehow been injected with an incomplete version of the genesis nectar before the malfunction with material transference. It fits. A procedure in Andramane would have been around the right time to see a batch made using Il’lyse’s unborn fetus.”

  “I was injected with—?”

  “With a sample of her D-N-Al, yes. That is my conclusion on the matter. I’m still uncertain of a couple of things, but now you know why you appeared on the Marslou looking like Il’lyse Thalassas over here instead of your old body. Now, you are certain that you have not been experiencing any seizures or mental breakdowns lately?”

  “Positive. What about the father? How did I not end up like him?”

  “I can only guess based upon the journal I had to pull a dozen strings for so that I could read it. No, before you ask, it’s not in any periodicals that you can find in public. I had to wave my family name around and sign more waivers for the one excerpt alone than I did to serve on the Mar
slou. The governments of the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance do not want for anyone to make more of it after the price in lives and freedom that Aelfs and Ginserei paid centuries ago. You can imagine the outrage and finger-pointing that arose when I returned the one sample of it. What I did read was that the genesis nectar requires a whole process of refinement in which the D-N-Al is carefully stripped down from the tissue sample after it is converted into a serum base. Seven times out of ten the dominant genes take longer to be dissolved, or else the mother and father go together. Judging by that my standing hypothesis is that your sister here outlasted the man who impregnated her.”