Linnet looked up. The lenses protecting her albino eyes amplified their strange pale purple. “No reason. I like it that way.”
Headsets and enhanced lenses weren’t allowed to be worn inside the school rings of Feynman Orbital Station, but there was an exception for Linnet. A lot of exceptions were made for Linnet.
Rachel thoughtfully chewed a mouthful of lettuce and baby corn. “What about you, Amity?
Amity steadfastly looked down at her own salad, poking at small yellow pear tomatoes amid the ranch dressing swamp of lettuce. “Huh?”
“What about your AIDE? Why that model?” Rachel thwacked her own dark-skinned AIDE on top of her short tight curls. “Mine is made to look like me, but older.”
“It’s nothing,” Amity mumbled around a massive bite of salad.
Linnet turned to face Amity, her pale face almost as blank as her AIDE’s. “You’re lying.”
Una stopped a bite of spaghetti halfway to her mouth. Rachel looked down and started searching for something in her purse. Amity chewed very slowly as Linnet stared as unblinking as any android.
Amity swallowed and took a drink of seltzer. “You’ll think it’s dumb.”
Linnet reached across her AIDE and put a hand on Amity’s wrist. “You can tell us.” Her voice held command, not comfort.
“I had a brother who died before I was born. My mother thinks his spirit watches over me,” whispered Amity.
“That’s sweet,” said Rachel.
Linnet released Amity’s wrist.
No one spoke.
Una fiddled with the matte black rings that pierced the entire outer rim of her left ear, proof of her time in the outer rim colonies of the Milky Way. “Did you see what Bryce was wearing in Gym today?”
The obvious change of topic rung a little too loud even in the noisy middle school lunchroom.
Rachel swatted Una in the shoulder. “Shhhh!”
Una lowered her voice to a stage whisper. “He had these red knit shorts that just clung to his round little butt.” She pantomimed the shape of his derriere.
Rachel flailed an open hand against Una’s grey jumpsuit. “Stopitstopitstopit!”
Una grinned and brushed away Rachel’s hand. “I held the rope while he did his climb. Front. Row. Seat.”
“Can’t you go five minutes without thinking about boys?” Amity asked, still pushing tomatoes around her tray.
Una ran both hands through her short hair, leaving it sticking up at odd angles. “Jealous?”
“As if Bryce Caine has even noticed you exist.”
“Ha!” Una gestured at the rest of the lunchroom. “As if anyone doesn’t know who I am? It’s not like anyone else comes to school by military escort. None of these miner-trogs have seen combat. Not like me.” She pulled aside the collar of her jumpsuit showing the infamous blaster burn on her shoulder.
“Don’t use that word, Una,” Rachel whispered.
“Trog?”
“Shhhh!” hissed Rachel.
Una’s face crumpled into confusion. “What else would I call them?”
Amity gave up pretending to eat. “Asteroid miners? Colonists?”
“There are all kinds of colonists: Mudbugs, Satellite Sniffers, Floaters, Ice Queens, and Trogs.” Una shrugged. “Everyone knows who you’re talking about that way. It’s just easier. No one really believes trogs are—“
“Are colorless people who are practically blind from living in mining colonies all their lives?” asked Linnet in a tight, quiet voice.
All mirth drained out of Una’s face. “I didn’t mean—you’re not…”
“I was born on an asteroid mining colony to trog parents. Doesn’t that make me a trog, Una?” Linnet pushed aside her lunch tray.
“But your father owns the colonies! You’re an albino. It has nothing to do with asteroid mining.”
Linnet’s face showed no emotion. “Doesn’t it?”
Una’s cheeks flushed and she stared down at her noodles.
Linnet got up from the table and put her hand through the built-in handle on the shoulder of her AIDE’s jumpsuit. “You should see your face, Una. It finally matches your hair.”
Una looked up. Tears glinted in the corners of her eyes.
Linnet gave a humorless laugh. “I’m just messing with you.”
No one believed her.
Una poked at her pasta while Linnet followed her AIDE out of the lunchroom.
“Lin, wait up!” Rachel jumped up and rushed after Linnet, her own AIDE following in her wake.
“Smooth,” said Amity.
“I guess I should have let Linnet keep asking you ghost brother questions.” Una stood up and grabbed both her and Rachel’s trays.
“Shut up, Una.”
“What is your problem?” Una slammed the lid of the reclamation bin she’d dumped the lunch trays into.
Amity’s long dark hair sloshed over her shoulders as she flounced up into Una’s personal space. “My problem? You think you’re so special. Just because your father’s an Admiral doesn’t make you one.”
Una rolled her eyes and shoved Amity’s shoulder.
Amity’s AIDE reached out and grabbed Una’s wrist. “Your actions have been reported.”
Una jerked her hand away from the android, exhaling a disgusted breath. “You just can’t deal with Bryce being in my gym class and not yours.”
Amity flushed and shoved Una into the bins. Una’s grippy shoes slid on something spilled and she went down to the floor, hard. She slipped again trying to stand and her elbow hit the floor with a crack. Una groaned, rolling to her knees, cradling that elbow to her chest, a trickle of blood welled from where she’d bit her lip.
Una sent her finished homework to her father’s inbox for him to check. Only then did she change her school jumpsuit for an unadorned military one. She put on her headset and flopped down on her bed, automatically logging into all of her accounts. Linnet was still offline. Una scanned through the rest of her contacts. Rachel and Amity were offline too. That was weird, they usually did their homework after dinner and were always connected all afternoon. Una started to skim through the day’s posts from her classmates when she noticed Linnet had commented on one three minutes ago. A reply from Amity popped up as Una watched.
Her hands closed into fists and her teeth squeaked as she ground her molars. They’d set their statuses to invisible so she couldn’t message them directly. Una opened a “reply” window before closing it unsent. She’d seen the cruiser Tianjin in the Young Base docking ring on the way back from school. Tianjin had most recently been at Terran Lunar for repairs. That meant there was new media from Earth now available in the base media library. Media that wouldn’t reach the mining stations by transmission for several weeks.
Una searched the media database for “Station 8-675-309” and found six new episodes past the last transmission received. She grinned, took a screenshot of the title screen, posted: ‘Six new episodes!’ and promptly logged out of all of her communication programs before her friends could ask for a link-up.
There was a knock on her bedroom door. “Una?”
Una paused the vid and took off her headset. “Come in.”
Dad had taken off his jacket but not yet changed out of uniform. “You want to tell me what happened at school?”
Una was puzzled then remembered the injury report and rolled her eyes. “I shoved Amity and she shoved me back, I slipped on a spill and banged my elbow. It wasn’t anything. On Yuelao the teachers wouldn’t even have reported it.”
He sighed. “This isn’t Yuelao.”
“Clearly.”
He sat down next to her on the bed. “What’s wrong?”
An exasper
ated sigh burst from Una’s lips in a short burst of air. “Nothing. Just school stuff.”
“Are you being bullied?”
“No, Dad.” Una sat up. “Everything is fine. I just don’t have a tattle bot to report the others.”
“We can get you an AIDE if you want.”
Una scrunched up her face. “There’s nothing wrong with me.”
“Not every student with an AIDE has a health issue. They’re just part of how things work at this school.”
Una drew her knees up to her chest. “Can you still take that promotion so we can go back to Yuelao?”
“It doesn’t work like that.” Dad got up and paced the room. “When you turn down a full star promotion, they don’t exactly keep the position open.”
“I miss Yuelao.”
“It’s a war zone now.”
Una buried her head in her arms. “I know, but it’s still home.”
Dad ran his hands over his face and leaned heavily against the doorway. “It’s safer here.”
“Daaaaad. It isn’t like anyone is going to take me hostage twic— “
“No.” He straightened up, pointed at her, then forced his hand back to his side. “Look. This is our life now. Do you want an AIDE or not?”
Una raised her head to glower at him. “No.”
Una got to the lunchroom first and bypassed the bright blue and green automats that served up each child according to their dietary needs, restrictions, and tastes. Large fake windows lined one side of the room, providing simulated sunlight and what today was jungle scenery, probably filmed on Puieas. Una had been there once on leave with her father. She vividly remembered the taste of aebar fruit juice and was tempted to get in line for an automat to get some. But she already had her lunch. She sat down at the usual table and opened her satchel, extracting a heat-sealed bag and placing it on the table in front of her.
Amity walked away from an automat line followed by Rachel, both carrying salads. They stood waiting, AIDEs behind them, until Linnet was guided by her hoodie-wearing android to the table.
“You didn’t get lunch, Una,” said Linnet, sitting down with her AIDE across from Una.
Rachel and Amity sat to either side of Linnet, their AIDEs left standing to either side of the lunch table.
“I brought my lunch from home.” Una ripped open the bag and pulled out a second sealed bag.
“Oh?” Linnet guided her AIDE to sit down across from Una.
Una popped open the smaller bag. The faint odor of toasted seafood wafted across the table.
“Danger,” said Rachel’s AIDE. “Student Una’s lunch contains seafood.”
Una stuffed a handful of shrimp chips into her mouth and started chewing.
Rachel’s AIDE reached down and pulled Rachel off the bench and away from the table.
“You shouldn’t have those,” Amity said.
“Why?” asked Una, her mouth full of partially chewed chips. “They aren’t dangerous to me.” She pulled out a sandwich and started unwrapping it.
“Danger,” said Amity’s AIDE. “Student Una’s lunch contains peanut butter. Please move away from Student Una.”
Amity was already half-out of her seat by the time her AIDE started pulling her a safe distance from the table.
“AIDE Controller,” said Linnet. “Report Student Una for having peanut butter.”
“Student Una’s AIDE is not responding,” said the faceless android.
A grin spread across Una’s face. “You didn’t know? When we’re not in class the AIDEs are only connected to each other instead of the classroom network. No one is coming.”
Linnet turned to her AIDE. “Verify Student Una’s claim.”
“Authority comes from Teacher. Outside classrooms AIDEs are responsible for safety and discipline of their own charges.”
Una took a big bite of her sandwich. “See.”
“I order you to discipline her.” Linnet pointed a thin pale pink hand at Una.
“Highest protocol is to protect Linnet,” said the faceless android.
“So protect me.” Linnet gestured toward Una with both hands. “She is endangering my safety with airborne gluten particles.”
“No gluten has entered the perimeter around Linnet.”
Rachel and Amity tried to move forward, but their AIDEs held them back.
“The AIDEs are here to control you just as much as protect you,” said Una. “You should have opted out. You’re not in charge. You never have been.”
Una pulled the last item out of her bag; a small, flour-dusted yeast roll. She took a deep breath and blew across the top of the roll.
Time seemed to slow down. Flour hung in the air in a lazy cloud blowing across the table. Linnet’s AIDE reacted immediately, but it wasn’t fast enough. Flour hit Linnet in the face as she was drawing in a breath to yell. The faceless AIDE yanked her back from the table using the handle sewn into her school jumpsuit. The lunchroom seemed unnaturally quiet— then everything came rushing back.
Linnet coughed. Sputtered. Her AIDE administered an inhaler, but her coughing did not abate. Her coughing turned to wheezing. The AIDE rushed to sit Linnet down on the floor, its hood falling back, revealing a blank white, almost egg-like head. It unzipped its hoodie and pulled a treatment mask out of a hatch in its chest, attached to a clear plastic tube. It gently slipped the mask over Linnet’s face.
Una stared in horror. She scrambled backward off the bench, scrabbling to pick up everything off the table, dropping the yeast roll twice before managing to contain everything long enough to toss it into a reclamation bin. Tears burned down her face as she ran out of the lunchroom.
Amity rushed out into the hall after Una. The spiky red-haired girl was nowhere to be seen.
“We need to find Una,” Amity said to her AIDE who had followed.
“Student Una is a danger to Amity.”
“Una is my friend!”
“Student Una has peanut butter. Amity is allergic to peanut butter.”
“She didn’t even eat it!”
“Student Una is not a danger to Amity?”
“No. Una is my friend. We need to find her, ge-ge.” Amity lapsed into addressing her AIDE as elder brother. “Una has no AIDE.”
“Students are required to have AIDEs.” The AIDE’s dark, almost-human eyes stared at Amity.
“Una doesn’t require medical monitoring and doesn’t have to have an AIDE.”
“But who takes care of Student Una?”
Amity shrugged at her AIDE. “Una can take care of herself, I guess.”
The AIDE’s head tilted side to side as he seemed to consider this.
Amity and her AIDE found Una in the third quadrant girls’ bathroom sobbing. They were soon joined by Rachel, Rachel’s AIDE and Linnet riding piggyback on her faceless AIDE.
Rachel and Amity pulled Una out from under the sinks.
“I didn’t… I… I didn’t think…”
“Put her against the outer hull,” said Linnet, climbing down from her AIDE’s back.
Amity and Rachel pulled Una by the arms to the far wall of the bathroom. Linnet walked slowly, occasionally inhaling deeply off the treatment mask still over her face.
“I’m s-sorry,” sobbed Una. “I didn’t know it would do that. I was just trying to get your AIDE to take you away.”
“I guess now you know you’re not the genius you thought.” Linnet pulled a small folding knife out of her pocket and flipped it open.
Una’s eyes went wide, then she relaxed into Rachel and Amity’s grasp. “Just do it. I can take a stab wound. I’ve been shot.”
Linnet smiled. “No. I want you to know what it’s like.” She walked over to the bright red wall-mounted “Station Emergency” box and very carefully sliced through the seal, to open the box without setting off the alarm that would sound if the seal was pulled open instead.
> “How what feels, Lin?” asked Rachel, glancing toward the door and then again at Una.
Linnet folded away her knife and pulled out a stack of one meter emergency hull breach patch strips. “How it feels to have your lungs on fire. To suck in air again and again while feeling like you’re going to drown in a dry sea.” She pointed to the wall. “Her hands first.”
Rachel and Amity pressed Una’s wrists against the hull while Linnet pressed the strips of patching over Una’s forearms and smacked the ends hard against the wall activating the 2-part adhesive that foamed out around the edges and immediately hardened.
The two girls kicked Una’s feet back against the wall and stood on her toes as they pressed her back against the wall at the hip. Linnet pressed patches over Una’s lower thighs, sealing her tight against the wall.
Una tried to kick and thrash but she couldn’t do more than flail her trapped hands and thrash her head.
Linnet held up one last patch. “Close your eyes.”
Una refused at first, but as the patch came down against her skin, she closed them tight. Linnet slammed on the ends with her fist then tested the blindfold’s effectiveness by waving two middle fingers in Una’s face.
“Get it over with,” snarled Una. “We’re going to be late for class.”
“You can scream if you want to,” said Linnet unfolding her knife with a quiet click. “But you might not want to inhale too deeply.” She walked into one of the stalls and sliced through the supply tube for the self-cleaning system.
“Danger!” said Linnet’s AIDE, echoed by the other two. “Bleach leak detected. Leave the area at once.”
“Bleach?” asked Una. “Bleach isn’t going to hurt me.”
“Not for awhile. Someone will probably find you before there’s any permanent damage.” Linnet patted Una on the shoulder.
Amity and Rachel’s AIDEs were already bustling their charges out the door.
“Leave the area at once,” repeated Linnet’s AIDE. “Student 8908-094, you must leave.”
“Don’t worry about her,” said Linnet. “I’m sure her AIDE will be along soon. Just do your job.”
Bless Your Mechanical Heart Page 20