Ascendant Unrest

by Matthew S. Cox

  “They are. Half of them I can’t breathe in, the rest I can’t walk in.” Maya mimed taking tiny, rapid steps. “Add heels, and I keep falling over.”

  “Ugh. Sorry.” Sarah leaned on the counter, arms crossed.

  “Yeah. I’d like to have some actual pajamas though. Soft pants with floppy, warm feet.” She popped a Hydra tray in and tugged at her nightdress. “Vanessa always gets me these super-thin silk things.”

  “Well, they are comfortable.”

  Maya shrugged. “As long as it’s not cold. And she’s too cheap to turn the heat up, so….”

  The house AI simulated a sigh. “Adjusting ambient temperature to seventy degrees.”

  Beep.

  “Wow, she’s splurging.” Maya looked at the un-hydrated tray and the one in the machine. “Do you want stir fry shrimp or Salisbury steak?”

  “What’s that? Sals berry?” Sarah pushed herself up off the table. “They put fruit on steak?”

  “It’s a fancy way to say ‘hamburger without a bun.’” Maya pulled the shrimp out of the Hydra and set it on the table.

  “I don’t care. I’ll have the burger if you don’t like it.”

  “It’s not bad. Just plain.” She popped the tray in and hit the button. Two minutes later, she pinched the tray and carried it over to the table. “Food’s food.” After a few seconds of staring, she frowned. “I miss Book’s burritos.”

  “Yeah. Me too.” Sarah tugged the shrimp closer and sniffed. “I never had shrimp. I might not like it.”

  After a nibble, she cringed and pushed it toward Maya. “It’s sweet. Fish shouldn’t be sweet.”

  Tears welled in Maya’s eyes. “I wish we could have cheese sandwiches.”

  Sarah swallowed hard. After opening and closing her mouth a few times, she nodded.

  They ate for a little while without talking, both dabbing at their eyes. Maya swung her feet back and forth while Sarah slumped over the table, head resting on her arm, staring sideways at her dinner. Wisps of steam from the meal tray floated up past her face.

  “I guess this isn’t so bad. I mean, sure, we’re kidnapped, but it’s kinda nice being clean and having real food.”

  Maya pushed shrimp, veggies, and rice around. “I don’t trust Vanessa.”

  “You think she’ll hurt us?”

  “I don’t know. Right now, she’s protecting me because if I die, those people can try to kill her and take over Ascendant. As long as I’m alive, they don’t get easy control.” She mulled while pushing an impaled shrimp like a plow through orange sauce and rice. “I don’t think she’s going to kill me. She knows keeping me here is more painful. But I think she could if she wanted to. She’d do anything to hold on to her power. I hate it here, but I’m scared of what she’ll do if I try to run away again.”

  Sarah looked around. “You really hate it here? It’s like we’re not even on the same planet anymore.”

  “I hate it less since I’m not alone.” Maya reached across the table.

  Sarah took her hand.

  “Sorry for getting you stuck here too.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “She’ll hurt you if I mess up. I don’t think we’re really safe here no matter how nice it is. I want to get out of here, but I don’t want people to get hurt.” Maya bowed her head, seasoning her dinner with a few tears. “I’m gonna stay and do whatever that bitch tells me to do. Maybe she’ll at least not kill you when she doesn’t need me anymore.”

  “How can you give up after all that stuff you said to the world? That was like so inspiring you made me cry. I heard you even made some blueberries cry.”

  Maya’s voice shook with fear. “You heard that woman! She’s going to kill everyone we know. It’s not worth it. I’m stuck. What’s the point?” She slouched, energy fading from her words. “I hoped that message would make more of a difference. Maybe I am just a little kid who thought I could make a wish and it would come true. But it didn’t come true; it died. I thought when people saw proof that Vanessa was the reason Fade made them sick, they’d arrest her and the Authority would stop being jerks and everything would change, but she lies. Vanessa lies and people believe her. Why?” Maya cried in earnest. “How can people listen to all her bullshit and not even question her? What can I do anyway? I may be smart, but I’m still only a little girl. I’m not strong. I can’t fight. I don’t have any weapons or training. If I don’t do what she wants, she could kill all our friends, everyone I care about. Even you. I don’t have a choice.”

  “Don’t give up. Please. When we got arrested, I thought they were gonna hurt us and treat us like trash like they did whenever they called a lockdown. When that blueberry made us get in the car, I thought we were being taken off to die.” Sarah shuddered. “I was wrong. I’m not even sure we got arrested anymore. It almost was like he wanted to help us. You did start change. That little drone thing? When they raided the building, they didn’t leave us all tied up again.”

  Maya shrugged. “I guess.”

  “Vanessa wouldn’t keep us here if she wasn’t scared. She’s like an end boss. You can’t beat her in one hit.”

  Maya giggled.

  They finished eating, tossed the trays in the bin, and relocated to the living room. Maya held up the blanket, and the girls cocooned themselves together on the sofa, watching cartoons. One episode ran into the next, and the warmth lulled her into a sense of contentment. She pondered the finer differences between being a child subject to parental rules compared to being in captivity.

  This is captivity. A parent would care.

  “Maya,” said the AI.

  She awoke, still burritoed in a blanket on the couch, her face mushed against Sarah’s shoulder. The TV screen showed black. Brighter sunlight than ought to be out at the hour she expected poured in the windows.

  “Mmm…” She squirmed.

  “Maya. Wake up,” said the AI. “You need to clean yourself up immediately. An aesthetic technician is on the way up to prepare you for the recording session.”

  A momentary urge to tell the AI what it could do with itself died at the tip of her brain as Sarah’s breathing tightened and relaxed the blanket wrapped around them. Defiance would only get people hurt, starting with her best friend. “Okay.”

  She extricated herself from the sofa and trudged down the hall to the bathroom to pee. As if on autopilot, she tapped the console to fill the bath, shirked off her nightdress, and reclined in the warm, soapy water. Maya lay for a little while, staring at the immaculate white drop ceiling, but couldn’t concoct a functional escape plan in a few minutes. With a resigned sigh, she scooted back and leaned her head into the hollow in the wall, where a mass of tiny articulated metal arms set to the task of washing her hair while she attended the rest of her body with a cloth. She finished cleaning herself, then relaxed and let the machine work, fighting the temptation to enjoy the massaging on her scalp while soaking in warm suds.

  The sudden start of the hot air dryer behind her startled her out of a catnap. Once the hair machine shut down, she reached a leg up and poked the drain button with a toe, allowing the tub to empty. When the last of the water vanished with a slurp, Maya climbed out of the tub, dried herself with a towel, and padded back to the bedroom. She pulled on a clean pair of underpants, frowning at them, remembering how the immaculate white cloth had once made her feel darker, as if that would make Vanessa like her more.

  Maya sat on the edge of the bed in only her underpants, swinging her feet. Minutes passed. The floral scent the machine put in her hair suffused the entire room. Her eyes half closed, she swayed, fighting the urge to flop backwards and pass out. A short while later, the front door opened and the AI voice spoke in the distance, too soft to make out what it said.

  “Maya?” asked a woman. “Hello? Oh, hi. You’re not Maya. Who are you?”

  A tiny murmur replied.

  “Hello, Sarah. Do you know where Maya is?”

  “She is in her room,” said the AI.

  “Down here?” The wom
an’s voice got louder. “Maya?”

  “Here,” said Maya.

  A thin, younger woman with long black hair and striking blue eyes peered around the doorway, smiled, and walked in. Skin even paler than Sarah’s, without a trace of freckle, glowed in the sunlight. The woman didn’t even look human, as white as a sheet of new paper. “Well hello, sweetie.” She hurried over. “I’m Amy.”

  “Hi.” Maya kept swinging her feet, her brain grinding on if everyone would be safer if she died.

  “I’ll be helping get you ready for the shoot today,” said Amy in an annoyingly cheerful tone.

  “Yes. I know what an aesthetic technician does. You look young. I’ve probably done this more than you have. Is this your first or second assignment?” She slid off the bed and stood, arms out. I’m a paper doll.

  “Aww. You’re adorable.” Amy smooched at the air by Maya’s cheek and headed to the closet. “Let’s see what we have to work with.”

  Maya rolled her eyes and huffed.

  “Morning,” mumbled Sarah as she walked in. She crossed the rug and sat on the bed.

  “Hey,” muttered Maya. “That woman makes you look tan.”

  Sarah managed a feeble smile. Not the laugh Maya had hoped for.

  A few minutes later, the continuous pleasant humming in the closet ceased. Amy emerged holding a bright purple dress with a metallic sheen. She held it against Maya’s front, appraising it. The design bared her left shoulder and hung past the right knee while staying short on the left.

  “Is that a pincher or a ‘can’t walk’ dress?” whispered Sarah.

  “I don’t remember wearing that one before but it looks like a pincher,” whispered Maya.

  “This should be perfect,” said Amy. “Your mother is going to be wearing blue.”

  She’s not my mother. “I hate high heels.”

  Amy blinked. “High heels? At your size? That’s cruel. Who’d put a girl your age in high heels?”

  Maya’s contempt for the young woman lessened somewhat. “Uhh, yeah. They always make me wear heels. Once, at a quarterly review presentation, they had me walking back and forth on the boardroom table holding up posters. You were just in the closet; didn’t you look down? All the shoes in there are high heels.”

  “Oh, that’s awful. Who approved that?” Amy shook her head. “You could’ve slipped and broken your neck. I’m not going to put you in heels.” She pulled a data pad out of her purse and read over something. “Perfect. We’re not doing any wide angles today, so it doesn’t matter what’s on your feet. No one will see below your waist. You could wear bunny slippers if you wanted to.”

  Maya’s expression remained a flat, blank stare. She twisted to look at Sarah. “This woman is more concerned about me than Vanessa.”

  “Aww. Your mother is a very busy woman. Sometimes parents in her position don’t have as much time to spend with their children as they’d like. You know, in the past, the rich and powerful always hired caretakers to look after their children and rarely spent time with them in person.”

  Maya frowned, glancing sideways at Sarah. And they had whipping boys—or girls. I mess up, she gets punished. She put on a Vanessa-esque false smile. “Looks pretty.”

  Amy pulled the gown over Maya’s head, adjusted it, spun her around, zipped up the back, spun her to face forward again, and adjusted it some more. “There. Now, for the rest.”

  Maya sighed, fidgeting at her left armpit. “Pincher.”

  Earrings, purple lip gloss, a little violet-glitter eye shadow, and a half hour of fussing with hair later, Amy grinned. “You are so pretty. I’m so jealous of your skin. You’ve got the perfect complexion for television. Not too dark, not too light. Me? I’m so pale I practically burn out display screens, and it’s murder finding good cosmetics. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Thanks,” droned Maya.

  Amy squatted to eye level and fussed at her bangs. “Let me see what sort of shoes you’ve got to work with.”

  “Can I skip shoes? Maybe if I don’t wear any, someone will kidnap me again and get me out of here.”

  Sarah stifled a laugh.

  “Oh, Maya.” Amy offered a sad sigh. “You have so much to be thankful for. There’s so many kids your age out there who have nothing.”

  Maya thought of the children living in plastiboard cartons with bits of carpet, plastic bags, or curtains for clothes, some without even that. When she’d run off to find Genna, one woman had fed her without hesitation, a strange child she’d never laid eyes on before. As soon as she remembered that family of Frags, she felt jealous of them despite their poverty. A scrap of carpet tied on as a loincloth with a power cable would be more comfortable than her present gown.

  She fidgeted at her left armpit but couldn’t get the fabric to stop digging in.

  “I’m forgetting something.” Amy glanced around in thought for a few seconds before a look of enlightenment hit her. She pulled a transparent tablet from her purse and handed it to Maya. “Here’s your script. They tell me that you’re an old pro at this, right? Hmm. I wonder if there’s anything we can accessorize you with.” She wandered into the closet.

  Maya looked down at glowing green letters floating within the plastic. The speechwriter wanted her to ramble about how the Brigade had abducted her and forced her to lie to make Vanessa and Ascendant look bad, while acting happy that she’d finally been rescued and brought home to her loving mother. “Oh. That’s why the AI didn’t wake me up in time to eat breakfast. It knew I’d throw up having to say this.”

  Sarah bit her lip.

  “Ironic,” muttered Maya.

  “What?” asked Amy, from the closet. “Did you say ‘ironic?’”

  Maya skimmed the bullshit again. “Yeah. Ugh.”

  “There’s nothing in there but tiny high heels and one pair of slippers,” called Amy.

  “I told you,” muttered Maya in a singsong tone.

  Amy emerged from the closet, one hand to her forehead in disbelief. “I didn’t think they even made stilettos that small. What is wrong with people?”

  “Told you,” said Maya.

  “What did you mean by ironic?” asked Amy, smiling.

  Is that word too complicated for you? Maya waved the tablet at her. “Oh, this whole script. It’s ironic because I’ve been kidnapped and I’m being forced to lie and say I was kidnapped and forced to lie.”

  “I’d laugh, but that’s awful,” muttered Sarah.

  “If I don’t say this stuff, Vanessa’s going to hurt you.” She frowned. “If I do say this, it could hurt a lot of people.”

  Sarah leaned forward and put a shaking hand on her arm. “I don’t wanna die, but if you think a lot of people are going to get hurt, i-it’s okay. M-maybe she’ll just do something cruel to me instead of killing me. I won’t be mad at you if you do what you think is right.”

  Amy hummed merrily to herself, smiling as she made a few touch-ups to Maya’s cosmetics. Maya shivered, feeling sicker and sicker. Her first and best friend had given her the okay to risk her life to spare the guilt of helping Vanessa go back to condemning the poor to a horrible death in the name of profit. The floating letters blurred into an indistinct patch of meaningless green luminescence.

  She sniffled, blinked away the urge to cry, and focused on the words. “I can’t put you in danger. If she’s going to hurt you in front of me, I’m going to cave in.”

  “You have to. Don’t let her win. I’m not more important than all those people.” Sarah slid off the bed, whispering at Maya’s ear, “Do it for Sam.”

  A pang like an icepick in the gut stalled her mind. Invoking Genna’s dead son filled her with a raging storm of regret, grief, and anger. So many people had died to defy Ascendant. She couldn’t give up on everyone. The half-grey face of five-year-old Ashley came to mind. Because of the Brigade, that girl’s death sentence had been revoked. Because of her video, the Authority had changed. But, Sarah was her best friend—no, more than best friend. They’d become family. C
ould she really put the lives of thousands of people she’d never seen over one person she loved like a sister?

  Before the explosion of tears could start, she thought about how much she hated Vanessa. If she cried now, her makeup would run and probably dribble on her dress. She’d get in trouble, and that would likely hurt Sarah.

  Standing up for Sam and all the people Vanessa had killed with Fade would hurt Sarah too, but at least it would mean something. She turned, grasped Sarah’s shoulder, and bowed her head.

  “Okay. For Sam.”

  24

  A Game of Dress-up

  Sitting once more on the living room sofa, Maya memorized only the opening few lines, having abandoned the idea of going off-script and saying the truth. After the damage she’d already caused to Ascendant with a video message, Vanessa would never approve a live feed. Though the woman had not been a product of custom genetic selection like Maya, she wasn’t an idiot. Any blurting would never make it to the broadcast. In fact, she probably expected Maya to try something like that.

  Anything she said that Vanessa didn’t approve of would stay in the room and result only in some manner of punishment. How loud would that witch make Sarah scream before Maya couldn’t take it anymore and she gave up? Faced with the horrible choice of putting Sarah at risk or throwing away everything the Brigade had accomplished, she could come up with only one good idea: act like she tried to give the speech and keep falling to pieces. Of course, they could have one of the android decoys recite those lines, or fake it with computer graphics—but the woman wanted to hurt Maya.

  Maybe if she kept crying, Vanessa would get frustrated and call it off to ‘give her time.’

  Or she could pull out a gun and put it to Sarah’s head.

  No, she might be a bitch, but she’s not stupid. She knows I’m only a little kid. Even she wouldn’t expect me to be able to smile and act happy with a gun pointed at my best friend’s face.

  Sarah, still in her pink nightdress, sat on the sofa beside her, shuffling her feet back and forth over the rug. Her slouched posture, downcast eyes, and shaking hands―as if she awaited severe punishment―reinforced Maya’s wimp-out decision to try stalling.