Losianna walked up to the woman whimpering on the ground and calmly shot her again.
She wasn’t using stun.
The woman made no other sounds.
Now there was death and killing on both sides.
The thin gleaner girl’s eyes widened in her colorless face, making her look like an avenging ghost. Charlie saw no remorse on her face.
Cricket crouched, looking from Kyle to Losianna to Charlie. Charlie stayed still and kept a hand on the tongat to keep her still and safe. He’d almost lost her just yesterday, and Kyle could still be a threat.
He pointed his weapon at Kyle. “This one’s on stun.”
Kyle turned away, still holding his gun at his side, although now it wasn’t pointing at anyone in particular. “Shoot me, my friend,” he said. He stared down at the dead woman. “Do it.”
Losianna looked like she just might shoot him, but Charlie shook his head.
Kyle knelt by each of the people who had been with him. He looked over at Losianna with wide, cold eyes, his jaw quivering. “You killed them.”
She glanced at the grave. He followed her glance, and his eyes narrowed.
“No!” Charlie yelled. “No more killing.”
“What do you care for this one?” Amfi asked. “He’s stupid.”
Both Kyle and Losianna had the same look on their faces—determination, anger, loss. Betrayal. Shock. The look of someone ready to fight. It was worse than the look he’d seen on any of the smugglers he’d caught. A sad, scary look.
Charlie addressed both of them but kept his attention on Kyle. “He was my friend once. He doesn’t need to die. Humans shouldn’t kill humans because of the damned Next.” He addressed Kyle directly. “We worked together for two years. You were a good partner.”
Movement drew his attention toward the waterfall. Yi and Jason stepped out from behind the water and started toward them.
Amfi yelled, “Go back!”
Kyle raised his weapon and fired, his face crinkled in desperation. Cricket launched from her crouch and knocked Kyle onto his back. She stood over him, pinning him to the ground and looking toward Charlie for instruction.
He gestured stay to her.
Back at the waterfall, Jason fell in slow motion, his purple hair covering his face, one leg buckling.
Losianna raced toward Jason.
Kyle struggled to turn over, to point his weapon toward Cricket.
Toward Cricket. Kyle damned well knew better.
Charlie took careful aim and shot Kyle in the foot.
Cricket leapt aside.
Kyle dropped the gun and sat up, holding his foot. He looked up as Charlie walked over to him, pain and confusion in his face. “Why did you do that?”
Charlie adjusted the setting on his gun and shot him again in the foot, blood blooming from a small hole.
Kyle blanched but didn’t scream.
Charlie didn’t even feel sorry for him. “You might have just killed a friend.”
Kyle looked back up at him, panting, hate in his eyes. “I hope so.”
Charlie didn’t answer. He simply felt sad and empty and cold.
“I will kill you next time I see you,” Kyle said evenly. “I will wipe everyone who helps the robots off the face of this land we worked so hard to save.”
“So be it.” Charlie caught Amfi’s eye, and waved her over to his side.
She came, looking down at the wounded man with a blank expression on her face.
Charlie touched her shoulder. “I need to see about Jason. If I leave you a stunner, will you make sure he doesn’t move or call for help until I get everyone safely out here?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
He handed her the gun and touched her shoulder again for a moment. “Try not to kill him.”
Her mouth tightened. “We don’t kill people.”
He refrained from mentioning that Losianna had just killed two people and turned to follow after the girl.
Fear was clearly driving everyone mad. Maybe it was driving him mad, too.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
YI
Jason fell forward, onto his hands, his purple hair brushing the ground. As he fell, Yi split into different threads of action and thought. He headed for Jason, and also imagined Chrystal’s fall. Even though he had only seen it on video, her fall and Jason’s played side by side in his head. Both had been hit by a human, both shot with real weapons, but, in truth, by nothing more complex than ignorance.
He felt fear for Jason, sadness. Muted but deep. His brain kept going, seeing the parallels and prejudices between the two events.
Both Chrystal and Jason had been shot in the foot.
If Jason were human, he would be screaming. His foot dangled nearly free of the leg.
Yi grabbed him by the waist and pulled him backward behind the curtain of water. He’d enhanced his senses the moment he recognized danger, almost an autonomic reaction. He had merely thought to do it, not thought through the steps. Now the stream of water sang like a symphony in his ears, the water not a continuous, even fall but a series of ever-so-slightly separate streams of water each vibrating a tiny bit differently from the others, each drop making a unique noise as it hit his face or Jason’s. The water smelled of moss and coming winter, of cold and the sweet rotting leaves of fall.
Yi carried Jason the few steps to the door, walking backward so he wouldn’t miss any new threats.
Losianna raced past them and fumbled with the door controls. After three tries, she got the door open. “Come in! Hurry!”
Yi set Jason down carefully on the closest couch to the door. “I’m so sorry. How much does it hurt?”
Jason eyed his foot, nearly severed from his calf above the ankle. “I can’t quite turn all of the pain signals off.”
“Of course you can’t.”
Jason glared at him.
Charlie pelted into the room, followed by Cricket. He stopped when he saw Yi and Jason talking. A relieved smile, brief but broad, lit his face. “He’s alive. I’m so glad. He’s alive.” He knelt by Jason, looking into his gray-blue eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t do it,” Jason grimaced.
“I should have known they were there.”
“No.”
That wasn’t right. He should have expected trouble. He’d made a beginner’s mistake and people had died. He asked Jason, “Can you walk?”
“No.”
“Your repairbot. Do you have it?”
“It’s in our skimmer. It’s best to be together. I’ve been talking to . . . to the other Jason. Nona is waiting for us in Hope. She’s with Manny.”
The relief on Charlie’s face was enough to lighten Yi’s heart. “We have to stop by the stations before we go to town.”
“What are you going to do with Kyle?” Losianna asked, looking like she’d like to shoot him.
Charlie looked angry. “He’ll get help. His other people are surely nearby. We don’t have room for him, anyway.”
Yi thought about that. “You’re going to take Jason and leave Kyle? Take one of us with a broken foot and leave a man you shot in the foot?”
Charlie didn’t even hesitate. “Yes. He’s the one who shot you.” He glanced at Losianna. “Get whatever you need. We’ll be gone a few days.”
“I’ll stay here,” she said. “I’m used to being alone. Someone should watch the place.”
Jason looked at her with a faint, pained smile, really an almost pathetic smile. “I’d like to know you’re safe. Just for now. We’ll bring you back out here as soon as everything calms down.”
Losianna rocked back on her feet and stared at him for a long time, a funny little half-smile quirking her pale lips. “Okay. Give me a long minute.”
She touched his face, stood, and disappeared down a hallway.
Cricket moved over next to Jason and sat beside him.
Yi thought about options. They weren’t in a good spot. They’d saved Amfi, but most of the people on
Lym didn’t think much of the gleaners. They’d shot a ranger or an ex-ranger or whatever Kyle was considered now, and killed two of his followers. They’d destroyed Port Authority robots. It was going to be very hard to create any impression of this situation that would work in their favor.
Losianna came out with a stuffed rucksack and led the way to the skimmer. They picked up Amfi on the way and ended up just as crowded as they had been. More, since they had Losianna’s bag. Losianna couldn’t sit on Jason’s lap so she settled on Charlie’s, and both of them looked awkward.
Yi was glad he got to sit in the pilot’s seat. It was going to be a long flight to the station.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHARLIE
Yi landed the skimmer after sunset at Wilding Station. The runway was black, and the living habitats dark. A single bright, glaring light shone like a beacon from the dispatch room. The skimmer didn’t care if it was light or not, and probably the soulbots didn’t either, but Charlie dug a flashlight out of the handy-box and used it to make a path of dull yellow light for himself, Amfi, and Losianna. Yi came behind them, carrying Jason, with the repairbot scuttling along in last place.
Yi settled Jason in the chair that Jean Paul usually used. He went back for the little robot, which he set up right next to Jason, who apparently gave it a silent command; it started whirring and examining the soulbot’s intricate damaged ankle with extendable hands Charlie had never seen before. No surprise there. It was Next technology, after all. It would have been surprising if it didn’t do something unexpected.
Losianna started a fire and put on tea, all the while ogling the two soulbots. Amfi sat in Charlie’s chair with her leg up on a green and blue pillow in front of her. A night’s sleep and basic medicine had helped, but she had still limped on the way in from the skimmer. Charlie knelt next to her. “Are you okay?”
She looked through him, her wrinkled face sad. “Yes.”
“I’m going to go find Gerry and see if I can get some news.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“No. Rest.”
She reached for his hand. “I am rather tired.”
He could still see the loss of Davis in her eyes beneath the exhaustion. Damn Kyle and all of the other stupid, frightened people. Davis should never have died, or even been threatened.
He squeezed her paper-dry hand. “I’ll be back soon.”
She managed a thin smile of thanks.
He took Cricket. No one else on the entire station had a pet of any kind. Thus, Gerry knew he was coming long before he got there. She opened the door and waved him and Cricket in.
The dispatch room was comfortable, with chairs and couches and a small kitchen and smaller privy. The room had four workspaces, even though neither the station nor the dispatch function had needed that much staffing for decades. The colors were all purples and reds and golds, hues designed to keep people awake and alert.
Screens filled three walls. One showed a crowd of people putting out a fire in Manna Springs, the smoke a dark brown smudge against a blue sky. Another showed empty streets in another part of town, and a third was centered on the spaceport and the gleaming Wall behind it.
He stared at the Wall. It looked taller already.
Gerry looked half asleep even though it was only early evening. Her muddy-blond curls were limper than he’d ever seen them, and her pale skin paler. Even her green-gold eyes seemed drained of color, adding to his general impression that she had somehow shrunk. “Are you okay?”
“No one’s come to relieve me for twenty-four hours.” She smiled. “I could use some sleep.”
“I can stay for an hour. At least keep you company.”
“Thank you.” She was already drinking a cup of stim, and she went to her hotpot and poured him half of a cup. Probably all she had.
“Thanks. Tell me what happened?”
“The idiots burned down part of Manna Springs. Two hotels, six houses, and everything of Manny’s. The house and the gardens and all of it.”
The loss stunned him.
She panned around the compound on one of the screens, showing him the stark truth of it. His chest tightened. The garden had been decades in the making, and he and Manny had built Cricket’s shed by hand. Ash and rubble, now. “Was anyone hurt?”
She waved her hands at a written list on yet another wall screen, which was full of notes and pictures displayed in a semi-organized fashion by time. “One of the protestors twisted an ankle. A mile south of town, there was a fight that resulted in a concussion and a broken finger. There are twenty-one missing persons reports, but most of them probably just ran off, trying to get away from the fighting.” She looked over at him with the even eyes of a dispatcher. “Three people are reported dead. Two townspeople and a loader at the spaceport.”
“You know Manny got away?”
She blinked at him. “He’s in Hope. It’s a refuge.”
“I thought it was for people who want to be Next.”
“Apparently the Next protect anyone there.”
He leaned back in his seat. Her story and Yi’s matched. “Who’s in charge of the city?”
She shrugged. “Some dolts from the farms.”
“Hey!” he bristled.
“Sorry. Oh, and the Port has extended Martial Law. They’ve conscripted every ranger they can.”
That snapped him alert. “Was that a blanket order? Or just related to the rangers who went to town?”
She immediately understood the implications. “I don’t know. Jean Paul is caught up in it. He got tapped as soon as he and Nona got there.”
“Do you know where Nona is?”
She shook her head. A yawn escaped her.
Poor kid. Here she was, looking out for everyone else and no one was doing the same for her. “Can I get you a nighttime breakfast?”
She smiled with real gratitude. “Sure.”
He used the common mess to create a makeshift meal for Cricket. While the tongat ate, he washed up some fresh fruit and made Gerry toast with a protein spread on it. When he got back to the dispatch room with the plate of food, she was sound asleep on the couch, snoring softly. He stared at her for a long time, contemplating waking her up. But there was no room in the skimmer, and she wouldn’t leave her post anyway. She’d been working dispatch at Wilding Station for at least forty years, and it was her comfortable place, her competent place.
He put a cover over her breakfast to keep it for her and reset the screen that was showing the Wall to a blank notepad and typed a note out for her. “We’re going to Hope. You’re alone, and no one will relieve you. Take every other shift off. Please.”
He left the food and took Cricket for a short walk, moving quickly to give her a chance to stretch her legs. She hadn’t been able to move fast or far for quite a while, and he didn’t want the muscles in her legs to weaken.
Twice, he got Cricket to a big enough clear space that she was willing to lope ahead of him and back in big, testing circles. Seeing her run lifted his spirits in spite of the loss of what amounted to his second home. Even on three legs, Cricket was fast. When she started panting for water, he whistled her in and scratched her rump. “That’s great girl. Shall we?”
He hadn’t been gone an hour, but to his surprise the repairbot had scuttled off into a corner and shut down. Amfi had fallen asleep. Yi was nowhere to be seen. Jason’s foot looked fine, and Losianna was perched on the arm of his chair, talking to him in low flirtatious tones. Charlie was pretty sure he heard reciprocating notes in Jason’s voice. He chewed on his lower lip, wondering if he should let it bother him.
He’d seen Jason and Yi naked numerous times. They didn’t have any male body parts whatsoever. Losianna might be in for an unpleasant shock at some point. “Come on,” he said to her. “Let’s wake everyone up and go.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
NONA
Nona sat at a gleaming metal table in the crowded patio just outside of Hope’s Despair watching waitbots
wander between tables with trays full of drinks. Hope looked better to her now that she’d showered, slept, and eaten. Even her clothes were new; she’d found a shop that printed her up a pair of blue pants and a light gray shirt, both soft and pliable and made to her measurements.
She sipped at a sweet green drink Manny had bought her before he went in to lie down for an hour before dinner. It was ever-so-slightly laced with alcohol, which made it feel like a fitting tool to help her contemplate the conclusion she’d come to after her last conversation with him.
It pleased her that he expected so much competence from her.
Demanded might be a better word.
It would be hard to do what he suggested.
Lym seemed like the Deep: a highly capable civilization until you scratched at her with claws of fear. Then she fragmented into myriad dangers, many of them not very well thought out. People were fighting to get here, and the ones who succeeded were happy and frightened at once. It was very human to want to be right in the middle of the action, until you were.
The locals weren’t any smarter. Manny could have run Manna Springs better than whoever had burned him out of home and garden. This had been a revolution of reaction and fear, not one with a plan of any kind.
The first paroxysm of rebellion had been the same on the Deep, except it had failed there.
Were people were fighting each other because they couldn’t fight the Next?
And then there was Hope. Almost all of the beings around her were human, although there were a handful of soulbots like Yi and Jason. She spotted them easily; they were too beautiful.
Most people in Hope had come in from the stations and the cargo and merchant ships of the Glittering. In general, they were some of the strangest denizens of the Deep and beyond, people already willing to push the laws that defined humanity. Body art, colored skin, elongated limbs, robotic prosthesis. Exaggerated costuming such as strange glasses, metal clothing, working display screens painted on the backs of hands. It looked like someone had gone through the entire vast Glittering and plucked free the humans least willing to be human.
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