“I think so... for now at least. Some of the others are starting to get worried. Being here. Like we’ve swapped the corporation for a monarchy but that it’s the same thing, in the long run.”
“They’re worried about being experimented on?” That was a fear that sat close to Stephanie’s heart.
“Or being sent on missions. Does it matter who you’re spying for, do you think?”
Stephanie nodded. “Everything matters.” She stifled a yawn.
“I should let you get some rest, you’re still gaining your strength.”
Stephanie’s eyes were already closing by the time Ellie left the room.
* * *
She startled awake, the sound of the door opening jarring her from a dream she was having.
A woman in a plain white uniform came into the room. She was holding a tray which she hooked on something near the bed that spun around and turned into a table. She helped Stephanie move to a sitting position.
“I’ll be back in an hour for the tray. Try and eat everything,” she said, turning to leave the room.
It wasn’t until after she was gone that Stephanie realized she hadn’t gotten anything when the woman touched her. No memories. Not even a whisper of emotion.
She froze, hand poised halfway to picking up her spoon.
What did it mean?
Were her powers gone? Was that why Maia and the killer were silent?
She frowned, trying to figure out what could have made them go away and how long it would last.
She ate, barely tasting the food, too busy trying to figure out how she would feel if they were gone forever.
Her spoon scraped against the bottom of the bowl. She glanced down. When had she finished it?
The door opened. Stephanie dropped her spoon and leaned back, glancing up in one motion, expecting to see the woman in the uniform.
Her mouth fell open in surprise.
“Ana?” She didn’t know why she hadn’t expected her. They were on her planet, after all.
She was dressed in a blue silk suit, blonde hair tied up in a neatly styled chignon. After seeing Ellie the day before, she wondered how she had ever thought that Ana looked like Caroline.
She moved into the room, coming to sit down on the armchair beside the bed. Her hair shone in the light from the window that may have been a view screen.
“We need to talk,” she said.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you everything,” Stephanie blurted out.
Ana shook her head. “I get it. It’s probably a hard conversation to have.”
Stephanie cleared her throat. “Thank you. For rescuing us. I don’t know how we’re going to repay you.”
“My father wants to organize a trade deal. Like indentured service.” She pursed her lips.
Stephanie felt the blood drain from her face.
“I’m against the idea, of course. It seems too much like taking advantage of refugees. Unfair.”
“What-” her voice broke. Stephanie swallowed. Tried again. “What do you think we should do?”
“There’s a moon I’ve been having terraformed. There’s only one Garnet Gate in the system, running between Cetus and there. It should be comfortably habitable in about fifty years.”
Stephanie frowned, trying to follow. What did a moon that wouldn’t be ready for anyone to live on for fifty years have to do with them?
“There are pockets that are more comfortable than others. Near the equator. The atmosphere is breathable. There’s water near the poles. Once the solar mirrors are up and the water is redistributed, it will be paradise.”
“In fifty years.”
“Yes,” Ana nodded.
“It sounds wonderful, but what does that have to do with me?”
“I’ve been thinking about the voting shares, once it’s inhabited. It doesn’t seem fair that I’ve put in all of the resources for terraforming and I’ll only get a twenty percent share, unless I actually settle there.”
“Okay...?”
“If everyone is willing to sign away half of their settler’s rights, I can organize a land package, with resources.”
Stephanie felt breathless. “We’d only have twenty-five percent of the voting shares? That doesn’t seem like much protection if you decide to change your mind.”
“I’m also willing to have an agreement set up, declaring your portion of the planet a private nation. You can draw up your own rules, laws, and create your own governing body, but any exported products will be sold to Cetus at a lower profit margin, say, a five percent markup on production costs.”
Stephanie was going to have a heart attack. It would solve everything. They wouldn’t have to live in fear of some government coming and taking them away, to be used for a war they didn’t believe in or experimented on to produce more of them.
“Do we have a deal?” Ana asked.
Yes! Her mind shouted. “We’d need military protection. And any research you got from the organization should be legally ours.”
Ana nodded. “I’m okay with that.”
“Okay.”
She stood up, clapping her hands together. “I’ll have the contracts drawn up. You can talk to your people about it. All things running well, it should be ready for you to sign tomorrow. I’ll have the habitat units dropped off and you can move in the day after that.” She turned to leave the room, business done.
“Ana?”
“Yes?” she hesitated near the doorway.
“What about us?”
She tilted her head to the side, affecting a confused expression. “Us?”
“You and me.” She held her breath, not quite sure what she was hoping Ana would say. Was it even possible, to go back to what they were?
“I don’t think that would work anymore. Given the circumstances.”
She left the room.
Stephanie let her breath go on a long sigh. She felt disappointed, but the pain she’d expected to twist through her gut at Ana’s rejection wasn’t there. Maybe Ivan was right. Maybe she never really loved her.
Chapter Forty-Six
The woman came to collect the tray.
“Excuse me,” Stephanie asked. “Can you show me where the others are?”
“Oh, they’re all off doing their own things now. But everyone will come together again around dinner time.”
“I’d like to see them.”
She nodded. “I’ll come and collect you at dinner time.”
“Thanks.”
She turned to check something on the console by the bed. “Looks like you’re done with this drip.”
“Can I ask you something about that?”
“Of course,” the woman said, disconnecting her.
“I had... I used to have a voice,” she waved a hand in the vicinity of her head.
“Ah. Yes, a standard anti-psychotic should have taken care of that.”
“Standard?” she frowned. “Why didn’t the corporation try that?”
“Oh, they did, years ago. But it cut off your abilities so they were looking into alternatives.”
“How do you know that?” Stephanie drew back.
“I may have had a tiny peek at the corporation’s records when they brought you in. It was quite helpful in developing a treatment plan.”
“Oh.”
“Is there anything else I can get for you?”
“Is Ivan here?”
She nodded. “I’ll let him know you’re awake.”
“Thanks.”
The woman left the room and Stephanie pushed herself out of bed. Her legs felt weak for a moment, her head swam. She gripped the bed for support until the feeling passed.
She made her way to the other door slowly, relieved when she got there and saw she’d guessed correctly. It was a bathroom.
She used the facilities and sanitized her hands. She stared at herself in the mirror. Dark shadows tinted the skin beneath her eyes. Her hair stuck up at odd angles, matted at the back from lying down for so long.
Her eyes looked different. Haunted. Lonely.
She swallowed around the lump in her throat.
Maia was gone.
The killer too, but Maia had been a part of her life for longer.
She wasn’t sure she knew who she was anymore, without her. She thought about asking the doctor to undo it. To give her the abilities back and the voices. She wondered if it would be possible to bring Maia back without getting worse. She still didn’t really know what parts of the last few years had been real.
She struggled to piece it together. Dr. Volkov was real... but not the Dr. Volkov she’d been talking to.
She wasn’t paranoid. The corporation was trying to kill her... or capture her. The killer was real. She had his suit.
She shook her head. Spencer Evans was just trying to get in her head with that, telling her they hadn’t sent an assassin. Just like she’d tried to get in his head when they’d last spoken. She wondered if he was dwelling on it as much as her.
Was it worth the risk though? They still didn’t know what had caused the Succubi to develop their symptoms, as far as she knew, having too many memories floating around in their heads seemed like a fair theory.
Would it be worth it? She wondered. Getting Maia back... it might mean she had to be really careful about who she touched, or how often. She wondered if she could go her entire life without touching someone ever again, if it meant she’d get to hear Maia’s voice again.
* * *
Ivan knocked on the door, feeling suddenly anxious. He’d met Ellie after her visit and she’d warned him that Stephanie wasn’t quite the same as she had been. That she’d been disoriented. That she’d flinched at small noises, like Ellie’s shoes on the floor. He slipped his shoes off at the door, moving into the room on sock-clad feet when she called for him to enter.
She rushed at him, falling into his arms, strands of her hair getting in his mouth. He turned his head and folded his arms around her.
She was shaking.
“Is it real?” she asked. Her voice was small, high-pitched, and uncertain.
He stroked her hair, trying to soothe her. “Is what real?”
“This? Are we really safe? I keep expecting to wake up.”
He leaned away, tilting his head to look her in the eyes. Ellie was right. There was something in her he hadn’t seen before, even when she was trying to end her life, back on his ship. She was vulnerable.
“It will get easier to believe,” he said.
“Did you hear about Caroline?” she asked.
He shook his head. “She wasn’t there.”
“No,” tears made her eyes shiny.
“Maybe she got away. We can send a message out, now that we’ve got somewhere safe. Maybe she’ll find us.”
“No, you don’t understand. She was there. The day we went in. There was a whole group of us being experimented on. I told them to run but Caroline was.... some of them were too far gone to save. They were completely brain dead. Whatever they were doing...” she shook her head.
He went back to patting her, moving his hand in circles that felt almost automated, detached from himself.
“Did you know the cure for the paranoia and hallucinations is actually really simple? They could have cured everyone years ago. But it hampers our abilities... All that suffering. Everything they put us through. They were just trying to minimize profit loss.”
“What happened to the others? The ones who couldn’t get away. They weren’t there when the soldiers went in.” Caroline wasn’t there.
“I... I thought it was the right thing at the time. I still do, actually. They’re dead.”
His breath came out in a hiss. The muscles in her shoulders tightened and she stared at him with those wide green eyes, as though she was waiting for him to hit her. Caroline was gone.
“I’m sorry,” tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”
He pulled her back into a hug, her tears soaking into the front of his shirt. He didn’t know how he felt. He hadn’t seen Caroline in so long, in a way, it was like nothing had changed. Guilt swamped him, immediately after the thought. She’d been suffering, in pain, dying inside, and he hadn’t been able to do anything about it. He hadn’t even been able to find her.
Now her sister was suffering because she had done something. She’d found Caroline and set her free, even if she hadn’t been able to save her.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, holding her tighter.
He was going to do better this time. Nothing was going to hurt her. Nobody was going to take her away.
Epilogue
Stephanie sat back on her heels and brushed the dirt off her hands. The early morning sun had broken over the horizon while she worked and she took a moment to drink in the sight of the colors streaking across the morning sky and shimmering over the bio-dome.
She breathed in slowly, the scent of mint hanging heavy on the air, the predawn gray faded to a pale orange glow. This was her favorite part of the day. The silence.
A bird sang, softly, in the distance and she smiled. They’d only gotten birds that year, but the population was growing at a steady rate, helping to spread seeds outside the dome.
She picked up her basket and went inside the small cabin. She put the days herbs and vegetables down on the large wooden table in the kitchen.
She crumbled the fresh mint into a pot and added hot water, inhaling the fragrance.
A moment later, the silence shattered. A baby was crying.
Stephanie put the cup down and went to the child’s room.
“Hey, little one,” she murmured, scooping her up in her arms. She wrinkled her nose.
“No wonder you’re crying. That’s a bad smell, even by your standards.” She took the baby to the changing station and cleaned her up.
“There, that’s better, isn’t it, Maia?” she said, smoothing a hand through the soft brown fuzz that covered her head. The baby cooed up at her, brown eyes twinkling.
“Mum, she woke me up again,” a little boy said, voice a sleepy whine. He stood in the doorway, rubbing his eyes.
“Well, you’d be late if she didn’t.”
He sighed, the weight of the world on his small shoulders. “Miss Ellie doesn’t like it when we’re late.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“I’ll get ready,” he turned to go, feet dragging.
“Carr,” she called after him.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t forget to clean your teeth.”
“I won’t.”
He slumped off down the hall and she shook her head. She didn’t know how the caregivers at the corporation had managed it, with so many of them. Two was enough.
“Let’s go wake up Daddy, okay?” she said, bouncing Maia on her hip. She giggled.
“I’m awake,” he grumbled, standing in the doorway. He kissed her on the cheek. “Is Carr up?”
“Yep, Maia woke him.”
He tickled the baby under the chin, his voice going up an octave as he spoke to her. “You’re getting louder every day, aren’t you?”
His voice returned to normal. “Please tell me we have coffee?”
“The shipment’s late,” she shook her head. “Again.”
“We really need to start growing the stuff.”
“It’s on the list....” she sighed. There were a lot of things on the list.
He patted her on the shoulder. “We’ll get there.”
She nodded. It was a slow process but they were getting there.
“Speaking of which, I should be getting ready for work,” she handed Maia over to him and turned to go to their bedroom.
She heard his voice, murmuring to Maia. “Mummy’s off building a world, isn’t that cool? And what does Daddy do all day? Takes care of you and studies over the coms.”
She bit her lip, stifling a laugh. He made it sound like she was the only one working to build Sanctuary.
About the Author
Tiffany Frost is a science fiction wr
iter from Australia. She studied creative writing at university before moving to Shanghai, where she currently lives with her husband. She loves creating stories that stem from a ‘what if’ premise. She’s a fangirl at heart and writes as her way of giving back to the genres she loves.
For more information about new releases, join the mailinglist at www.tiffanyfrost.com
Contents
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Rogue Memory Page 22