by Mary Weber
And it would all eventually end up the same.
The hate came slow. Matching the sensation of the Delonese planet that’d been nudging her subconcious. As if their atmosphere up there was thickening. Edging into her veins like a trickle, then a flood. The anger of the entire space station as it finished moving its weapons into position. The desire to destroy these people who always, eventually, destroyed each other anyway. She let it weave through her head and work like a portal. With it came the sensation of having a piece of control. Even if it was slight, she was still stronger than those who’d done this.
With a flicker of relief, she reached out and wrapped her mind through and around every bit of Delonese metal in this stadium. In the weapons used, the support beams, the telescreens and expensive handscreens. She invaded them with her cerebral eye and watched their tech pathways and access codes one by one light up and come alive.
“Sofi,” Ambassador Danya said inside her head.
“Don’t talk to me,” she said through gritted teeth, and pushed farther out, to the satellites and space-walks. And then to Delon.
Their weapons. They were aimed at Earth.
Running through systems, she edged along the firewalls to find her way in. It took her all the time in the world and yet no time at all. Scanning, sorting, unraveling the streams that made up their technological glory. Playing with it as one would a puzzle to see just exactly how the pieces fit.
Until suddenly something clicked and her body connected, and she was staring into the planet’s core. Their people, their history, their memories. It all became hers. And even more terrifying and satisfying—their power.
She swallowed. I can do it.
Attack Delon and Earth, or shut it all off with one virus.
She seized up and gasped.
Delon’s reaction to her intrusion was surprisingly swift. Icy.
Its systems and people lashed back with electrical pulses of their own, working to cut her off and push her out, protecting themselves from what she was about to do. What she was capable of doing.
There was something infinitely satisfying in that. To have stirred the already infuriated hornet’s nest.
A hand touched her arm and she felt Miguel push whoever it was off, as the peacekeepers and politicians and security teams rushed past and around them. Yelling and trying to keep control of a world that was completely and unequivocally out of control. And of a people who were more obsessed with controlling others than themselves.
Danya’s voice stirred her mind. “Sofi, do you know how you’re able to connect with my planet? Or what they altered inside you as a child that causes that ability?”
Was she joking right now? Sofi tried to push her from her thoughts and lean into the planet core.
“Sofi—”
“Danya, I was only a freaking child. I have no idea.”
The Delonese woman mentally whispered, “Because I can feel what you’re doing. In my blood, I feel what you’re tempted to do, and I’m asking you not to. It’s not who you are. There are children. Do not bring this harm on them.”
The children.
Sofi peered up at the Colinade.
If she took down the tech woven through the stadium, thousands would die in those stands. If she took down the planet, everyone could die.
None of whom deserved it. Some of whom deserved it.
She blinked and took a breath.
Then leaned back. Swallowed. And suddenly noted the beat, beat, beat of Miguel’s steady heart pressed against her spine. Easing. Staying. Not saying a word. Like he’d been there for years in the bass of a song.
Sofi mentally disarmed Delon’s weapons with one blink, then retracted from the virtual firewall codes and pathways and released her hold on the planet and the tech inside the stadium—and tried to picture the faces of those watching her right now. Still young and innocent, full of trust and life and belief. Like little seeds of hope in a love-starved land.
You’re not finished yet.
“This is why I said—”
Sofi jumped at the voice. From somewhere behind them CEO Hart was yelling again, closer this time. She cringed as her heart shook. For what he’d done to her mother and family. She felt Miguel turn toward Hart, who was now stepping off the hoverelevator and stomping toward them across the landscape. “Hagamos esto.” Miguel rose, cracked his neck, and walked over to meet him. And punched him across the face.
Hart went down.
But his voice was still going. Up on the telescreens, as the audience suddenly quieted and slowed. The vids had turned back on, drawing interest over fear. And this one was clearly dishing out some solid gossip.
Sofi looked up at the screen to see Hart in private conversation with Inola on a vid dated yesterday. Confessing before the world outside the privacy of their CEO cabana terrace what more he was planning in betraying Earth’s children. Sofi smiled. He’d hid it with white noise—but Shilo’s mind had found a way through it.
The telescreen flashed to another scene, this one a vid conversation yesterday between Ethos and the guilty parties of the Delonese Project, including some indicting words from Ms. Gaines.
She swallowed. At least it was coming out. They were being seen for what they truly were.
The world knew.
The world knew.
“Thanks for the vid backup, Vic and Ranger,” she murmured.
“You got it, girl.”
She turned back to her brother and mother.
And felt the slightest tingling in her arm. Right where the arrow had swiped her.
Glancing down, she noted the bleeding had stopped and the wound wasn’t nearly as bad as it’d first felt. The wound was healing.
“Sofi—” Shilo’s tearstained hand was pointing at his leg doing the same.
She frowned.
“Do you know what they altered inside you?” Danya’s words whispered again.
She actually had no idea.
She placed her hand on the sand. And inhaled. Then shut her eyes to work her way back into the Delonese planet core—resisting the immediate rush of attack from their scanners. She reentered the Delonese history and memories and remedies, and sorted through them until she reached the series of files labeled “Snow.”
Nanobots.
Their blood held nanobots.
According to their data, in Delonese blood the nanobots had been created to serve as physiological support and to unify their species. No wonder they all looked and sounded and thought so much alike.
But in Shilo and Sofi . . .
The bots had activated into something wholly different.
They had melded to their brain and blood in a way that—
Sofi leaned against Shilo, tightened her closed eyes, and imagined the inside of her veins and brain and heart working overtime on that wound seeping blood. She found where the bots had been cut and unraveled through the violence and loss of too much fluid. And too many shorted connections.
And watched them repair.
Slouching, she began to follow the patterns. Triggering the nanobots to make more of themselves. Replicating fifty at a time until they were back on course and knew their place and what to fix.
Then she retracted from the planet. And looked up at Shilo with an expression of wonder. He cracked a smile on that tear-streaked face.
A ripple of thunder above them shattered the heavens, and the sky about split in half. Sofi and Shilo lurched as everyone around her jumped back and fell. A light the brightness of a mind-numbing explosion followed and spread across the entire area, bathing them all in white and blinding Sofi’s eyes for far too many seconds.
At the same time she could feel it. The tug. The pull. As if part of her brain and bones were being ripped from her skin and dragged beyond Earth’s atmosphere at the speed of light. There was screaming. So much screaming—as people around her were cowering in fear while she and Shi just stood there, gasping for air as every nerve in her body flexed and lit on fire.
Boom! The Earth shuddered, like a small quake rippling the atmosphere, and then the glare ended and the shaking stopped and the sky went back to blue. And Shilo was staring at her.
People were running, chaos already ensuing. She moved her gaze farther above them—to the spot just beyond the moon where the Delonese planet had sat for the past eleven years. Knowing what she’d find before she saw it.
Delon was gone. Disappeared through a wormhole.
Without a trace.
What have I done?
“Danya?” She reached out.
“I’m here. They left me behind.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not.”
A hand moved to Sofi’s and squeezed.
She looked down to find Shilo blinking at her.
“Sof, these are some wicked powers we’ve got,” he whispered.
As the vids of Ethos kept playing.
39
MIGUEL
One Week Later . . .
“Thank you all for your perspective shared here,” the United World Corporations attorney general said. “It is the decision of this Council to pursue criminal charges against Senator Finn, Corp 13’s CEO Hart, Corp 30’s vice president Ms. Gaines, and the security individuals involved—for acts of treason against the people of Earth.”
The round, wood-paneled room was packed with every single UWC leader, ambassador, senator, and advisor, and so quiet you could almost hear the very slight tap, tap, tapping of Claudius’s finger against his drink.
Miguel glanced over and smirked. Claudius was eager for his date with Vic—even if Miguel had no idea how the logistics of it actually worked.
“However,” the attorney general continued, “in regard to Sofi and Shilo Snow, Ambassadors Claudius, Danya, Miguel, and those of Corp 24, we find no reason to bring charges against them at this time. Instead, the recommendation of this forum is to express our gratitude at their assistance in uncovering the illegal activities that have taken place.”
Danya’s sigh of relief slipped out beside Miguel, along with most of the rest of the audience’s a second later.
Sofi and Shilo had spent the past three days being interviewed and investigated in this room, and most everyone seemed in agreement that the facts presented were the truth.
“But what of the Snows?” A senator from Eurasia lifted his hand without looking at either Shilo or Sofi. “What will be their involvement here on out, considering they can effectively shut down a good portion of our technology?”
“He does realize they just helped to save humanity, right?” Claudius said under his breath.
The UW attorney general stood. “Senator, thank you for your query, as it’s the very thing we’ve wrestled with this past week. And we will wrestle with it for many years to come.” He scanned the assembly’s faces. “However, I think we can all agree their benefit to us cannot be remotely underestimated. To have individuals who can detect and protect Earth from those who might not have our best interests in mind—that’s a defense system we couldn’t build if we tried.”
“I heartily agree,” said the senator. “But I think it worth acknowledging that they contain the potential for both help and danger. And a week of investigations isn’t nearly enough to explore those limits.”
“Don’t we all contain the potential for help and harm?” The attorney general gave a kindly grimace and spread his hands, provoking a chuckle from the assembly. “The fact is, Senator, we’re in a new era that started before the Delonese arrived—where people and technological breakthroughs are capable of near anything.”
From his seat four rows away, Miguel caught old Senator Kosame winking at him.
“All we can do is assure this Council we’ll be keeping an eye on Shilo and Sofi. Just like we are keeping an eye on the rest of humanity. With the encouragement that we all seek to become and behave as our best selves. Thank you. And with that, this Council is adjourned today.”
40
SOFI
“Sofiiiiiiii!”
Shrieks and hollers echoed through the black-lit, musicthumping hall as she and Shilo stepped into the main room of Mom’s Basement. The usual rainbow strobe lights and scrapp music blasted over her, pounding life back through Sofi’s bones.
She inhaled. The noise, the chilly air, the groups of gamers and fans around tables, amid telescreens and game teams—and the oxygen bar along the far wall.
These were her people. This was a piece of her home.
“And Shilo whaaaat? We’ve got them both here!” someone yelled. “How freaky are you two?” another howled.
The questions and comments came just as fast as the catcalls. “What was the planet like?”
“Where’d the Delonese disappear to?”
“Way to rock the free world, guys.”
Sofi smiled and ducked as they came to smack her shoulder, and Shilo spread his arms out to welcome hugs from the girls fawning over him. She snorted and kept walking.
“Hey, don’t be hating,” he mentally defended. “I’ve been stuck on an alien planet, wondering if I’d ever see humans again. I’m open to hugging. I’m a hugger. Let the people hug.”
“Uh-huh.” She smirked just as she caught sight of Ranger waving them down from one of the wall tables. She beckoned Shilo to extricate himself from the sea of love before flashing two fingers for a “number two” order from the bar waiter wearing his animated-skull apron.
“Hey, dude,” Ranger said the moment she reached him. He wrapped Sofi in a bear hug, then rapped Shi’s knuckles as the waiter brought over their buzz drinks and fries. The guy set down their food and smiled like he wanted to say something, but instead gave a shy shrug before sauntering back to the bar.
A quick blue flickering of the room’s strobe lights, and suddenly the FanFight music took over, causing the place to erupt in howls and cheers. Ranger jerked his chin at the giant telescreen where the image had changed to the Basement’s own gamer-created video announcement. “Nice timing. They’re about to start the tribute.”
Sofi stuck a fry in her mouth, then leaned her head on Shilo’s shoulder, bracing herself for the vid the gamers here made every FanFight season to privately honor the players who’d lost rather than won. Tonight’s would be all about her mother.
Sofi felt Shi sag beneath her chin, as if relaxing from his public persona back into her little brother.
Their mom’s face flashed on-screen as the music soared then dropped, and a voice came on. “This week we lost one of our own. A contributing creator of the FanFights and the mother of two of our best players.”
A muted cheer went up as faces looked kindly at Sofi and Shilo.
“But Inola Snow was much more than that,” the vid continued. “A powerful person in her own right, she was a woman who’d survived the loss of her first child—and used her grief to discover the cure for a multitude of cancers. She built Corp 30 and this city into what it is today. And, in recent days, managed to begin waking the world to the levels of poverty and trafficking that are taking place. And for that, we salute you, Inola Snow. May you live on in our hearts.”
Sofi peeked at Ranger. They hadn’t mentioned her mom’s involvement in allowing the child abductions or unethical testing.
“That was nice of him.” Shilo’s thoughts sounded as choked up as her throat suddenly felt.
The tribute continued through more music and a display of photos of Inola. One after the other, all pictures Sofi’d seen before, but somehow they felt richer this time. Clearer. And dearer. Forgiveness had a way of doing that. Of releasing the hold one’s actions had over the heart.
Even if trust wasn’t a filter she’d ever view her mother’s choices through.
The vid slowed upon one photo in particular. It was of her and Shilo and Inola playing at the farm in the dirt. It must�
�ve been on one of her mother’s visits because Shilo couldn’t have been more than three.
Sofi’s mind drifted back to the memory it brought back. A moment she’d never even known existed because it’d been bottled up with the rest.
They were making stick and dirt hospitals to care for the handful of worms Sofi had collected.
“Sofi, be gentle.” Her mother laughed.
“But we need to fix them, just like you leave to fix people, Mama.”
“I’m not sure they want to be fixed, Sofi.” Her mother smiled down on her. “I think they’d rather be loved. And sometimes loving someone means letting them go, to be as they are. For who they are.”
“Like we love you, Mama?” Shilo said.
Her mother’s eyes had blinked quick, then watered. And Sofi could see it so clearly—that expression of doubt. Of longing. Of being torn between two worlds.
Sofi blinked and refocused back on the lounge and the loud music surrounding them. What had changed between that moment and two years later when her mom had sent them to the Delonese? Or between that day and this past month, for that matter? Was it something big? Or was it simply the small choices her mother had made along the way?
One thing was certain—Sofi would never accept what her mother had done. But perhaps that wasn’t Sofi’s responsibility. Perhaps her job was to simply accept herself and the future she wanted. And to create that.
Forcing the warmth from her eyes, she cleared her throat. “Hey, Range. Thanks for taking care of my mom and all that. While I was on Delon.”
“She was a good person, Sof. A lot wrong with her—but some was done for good reasons, you know?”
Yeah. She knew.
She took another fry and held it while she searched out more words. “Thanks for the tribute to her,” she said after a moment. “It was kind of you.”
“It’s what I’d want.”
Sofi nodded and pushed the basket of fries at Shilo before patting Ranger’s hand and peering back at the tele that had returned to the news. Nadine was currently talking.