She blinked and then laughed. “Thanks?” she repeated before giggling some more. She wiped her eyes and smiled at him. “You’re something else!”
“Well, I guess I don’t really know what to say,” he admitted. “I mean, this entire colony reports to you, and you’re telling me you broke the rules to help me out. It’s kind of messed up.”
She nodded. “You have no idea. I keep telling myself that if I had a brother, I’d want him to be like you.”
“What about a sister?”
“None that I know about.”
“None that—what’s that supposed to mean? How would you not know about them?”
Shelby frowned and nodded towards the table. “You’ve put in a lot of hours today. Why don’t you have a seat and let me fix you something?”
“You want to fix me something?” Krys repeated.
She smiled. “Is that a bad thing?”
“I don’t—”
She held up a hand and then pointed at the table. “Sit.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said and sat down.
She went through the cooler and picked out some fresh vison meat and turned to the small modular cookbox beside it. She put the meat on a plate and programmed the device. She returned to the cooler and pulled out a pineapple and some packaged asparagus. “The benefit of living on Venus is the fresh food,” she said while preparing the meal.
Krys nodded, even though it was all he’d ever known. He couldn’t imagine living somewhere were the only food he had was processed, stale, or nearly synthetic with all the preservatives and artificial ingredients. “So about that family?” he asked.
She froze for a moment and then shrugged. “No family,” she said.
“Why not? You had to at one point, didn’t you? I mean, I get that in the rest of the colonized worlds, babies are planned and conceived medically up in optimized labs, but you had to have parents who wanted you.”
She turned and glanced back at him. A sad smile flickered on her lips before she turned back to the cookbox. It chirped to indicate the small steak had finished cooking. She removed it and slid the vegetables in to prepare them separately while the steak sat. “There is a price for making the human race what it is today. A price that a lot of us are willing to pay.”
Krys watched her as she kept her back to him. “Are? Or were? You seem to be having a lot of doubts.”
She sighed. “You’re way too young to be asking these kinds of questions.”
“You started it. You said I act older than I am.”
“Older than me,” she muttered.
Krys raised an eyebrow and wasn’t sure if he was supposed to hear her or not. “What’s that mean?”
The cookbox chirped again, sparing her from answering. She removed the vegetables and moved to put the meal on the table in front of him. Sautéed asparagus, cubed pineapple, and fresh vison steak that was still steaming. Krys was distracted by the meal and felt his belly clench. He grabbed the silverware and, with a quick glance at Shelby, he dug in.
“Remember, Krys, what we talk about stays between us. No one else. Not now, not ever.”
Krys glanced at her and nodded. He turned his attention back to his meal and cut another slice of meat free. When he glanced up again a few minutes later, he saw that Shelby had slipped out and left him alone. He paused and frowned. He had a long list of bizarre interactions with her but this one was the strangest yet. Was she really as confused and torn up as she claimed, or was she trying to make him think she was so she could pump him for information?
Krys frowned and glanced down at the half-eaten steak. He supposed it didn’t matter as long as she could cook a mean steak!
Chapter 30
Without having crops or cattle to keep track of, Lily lost track of time. She had the station clocks and her day-to-day activities to keep her busy, but time passed by in a blur. What free time she had, when she wasn’t being worked to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, she spent dreaming about what lie ahead of her.
Lily made her way back to her residence, a room that she now shared with Palla on the third habitat ring, with a spring in her step. She’d passed the last of her tests to proceed to graduation of the armored division’s Basic Cadet Training. Graduation from BCT would be held in two days. Then she could finally get on with the Advanced Cadet Training, which in her case meant biomech orientation and training.
She opened the door and walked in to see Palla on the couch next to Kami. They looked up from Kami’s infopad and saw her grinning at them. “Hi Kami!”
“Hey, uh, Lily. Wow, you look hot!”
Lily’s eyes widened. “Um, thanks?”
Palla burst out laughing. “She had her physical exams today.”
Lily looked down at herself and realized what Kami meant. Her blue and white singlet was soaked with sweat. “Great, now my face is hot too,” she said to explain her blush.
“Oh, you thought I meant—” Kami stammered before her own face turned red.
Palla laughed harder.
“Anyhow,” Lily said over her roommate’s laughter. “Yes, I passed. I graduate and start ACT in two days!”
“Cool,” Kami said. “I think. What’s ACT?”
“Advanced Cadet Training,” Lily said before turning and walking to the small kitchenette in their room. She poured herself a cup of cool water and drained it before turning back to them. “That’s when I start learning the fun stuff.”
Kami glanced at Palla, and Palla laughed again. “Fun stuff like learning how to drive tanks and biomechs and get shot at.”
“Ugh, no thanks!” Kami said. Her eyes bulged and she added, “Great for you, though, I mean. It’s just not my thing.”
Lily laughed at her reaction. “I get that a lot,” she admitted. She looked at Palla and said, “Seems a lot of people have trouble accepting that a girl would want to work this hard.”
Palla caught her gaze. “Not just a girl, but a pretty girl.”
Kami looked back and forth between the two of them. “Am I missing something?”
Lily and Palla both laughed. “Private joke,” Palla said. “Well, not private, just something we talked about awhile ago.”
“Oh,” Kami said. She glanced at her infopad and then back up at Lily. “It’s getting late. I should get back.”
“You don’t need to leave,” Lily said. “I’ll go hop in the shower and get cleaned up.”
“No, that’s not it,” Kami insisted. “Palla helped me figure this stuff out, that’s all. If I’m going to get it done, I need to find a quiet place. If I stay, I’ll end up talking and losing track of time.”
“And you do stink,” Palla said with a grin.
Lily gasped and Kami laughed.
“No you don’t!” Kami insisted. She wrinkled her nose. “Well, at least I can’t smell you over here.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I’m going to go try on some of Palla’s clothes first.”
Palla leaped up from the couch. “No you’re not!”
Kami giggled and grabbed her things before she made her way to the door. “Thanks again, Palla,” she called out.
“Anytime, sweetie!” Palla said over her shoulder.
The door hissed shut and left the two young misses alone. Lily turned away from the narrow closet and grinned.
“Don’t even think about it!” Palla warned her.
“Like I’d fit in anything you have.”
“Did you just call me fat?”
Lily snorted. “Fat? Hardly. I just don’t measure up to you.”
Palla’s eyebrows rose and she shook her head. “Now you’re hunting for compliments.”
“Not at all!” Lily gasped. She glanced down at the patterns of sweat on her singlet and blushed. “I’m just wondering when I’m going to, um—”
Palla shook her head and sighed. “Lily, stop it. With all the exercise you’ve been doing the past six months, I can’t believe you don’t eat ten thousand calories a day just to stay awake!”
Lily nodded. “I know. I’ve read how it’s supposed to work and I know I’m kind of an exception with all this training.”
“Kind of? Lil, you’re an exception to every rule!”
Lily laughed. “Gee, thanks.”
Palla grinned. “Get cleaned up—you do stink.”
Lily held her arms out and grinned. “How about a hug?”
Palla yelped and ran from her, back to the main room of their residence. Lily laughed and turned to the washroom. She peeled off her singlet and punched in the temperature and pressure for the water before she started it and climbed into the small shower stall. The warm water hit her skin and sent heat sinking into her tired muscles. She groaned as her body started to relax and let her know that it had just about had enough.
“Lil?”
Lily let out a scream and spun in the shower to face the door. She slipped, but the small stall spared her from falling and hurting herself. Her foot jammed against the corner of one wall as her shoulders hit the opposite wall. Her knee smacked against the door, pushing it open and showing Palla standing outside.
“Oh!” Palla gulped as she stared at Lily.
Lily stared back, eyes wide and heat blossoming in her face and racing down her chest. She threw herself forward and grabbed the shower door and yanked it back shut. Lily stood there, breathing hard and listening. All she heard was the water falling against her.
After several seconds passed without anything, Lily forced herself to ask, “Um, Palla? You still out there?”
The lack of a response left her nibbling her lip. She turned back to the water and ducked her head under the spray, rinsing her hair out quickly before working in the restorative foam and washing the rest of the sweat and dirt from her body. She finished in record time and shut the water off. Warm air rushed in and circled around her to evaporate the water and pull the humid air into the reclamation system. Once she was dry, Lily hesitated with her hand centimeters from the door before cracking it open and peering out. She saw only the small washroom with the door closed to grant her privacy.
Lily let out a nervous breath and saw one of her soft matching pair of purple shorts and tank tops, along with her underwear. She felt the blood rush to her face and groaned softly. She’d forgotten to bring clothes in, she was so caught up in her daydreams. Palla had brought them in for her and then Lily had screwed her thoughtful action up. Her sweaty singlet was even tucked into the dirty laundry bin.
She hurried to get dressed and ran a brush through her hair. She stood in front of the door and took a deep breath before opening it and facing their shared bedroom. It was empty save for the small beds against opposite walls. Lily clamped her lips shut and was about to wonder where Palla could be when she heard the vidcaster in the other room.
Lily found Palla sitting on the couch in her own pair of pale yellow shorts and sleep shirt. She was watching a news report. Lily cleared her throat and watched Palla jump. “Video off,” Palla snapped.
“What were you watching?” Lily wondered.
“Just news, nothing exciting,” she said a little too quickly for Lily’s taste.
“Palla, I’m sorry about that. I slipped and—”
“No, don’t be,” Palla interrupted her. “I shouldn’t have barged in like that. I noticed you didn’t grab any clothes and wanted to spare you worrying. Guess I screwed that up!”
Lily laughed. “Yeah, I guess. So, um, we’re okay?”
“Lil, we’re both girls,” Palla said.
“Yeah, well, you are. I look more like a boy.”
“Is that what’s got you upset?”
Lily shrugged. She walked over to the chair and sat in it with her knees pulled up to her chest. “I hear the other cadets at BCT. They laugh behind my back at me. I even had a couple tell me they thought of me like a little brother.”
“There are girls in there, too, aren’t there?”
She nodded. “Yeah, but they stopped being interested in me months ago.”
“What? Why?”
Lily blushed and looked away. “They’re all older. Eighteen or even nineteen, in a few cases.”
“So they lost interest because you’re only fifteen?”
Lily looked up and shook her head.
“Then why?”
She shrugged again. “I don’t know.”
“Lily—”
“Tell me about yourself,” Lily blurted out. “I’m tired of everything always being about me. You’ve been my only friend for almost a year and I don’t know anything about you.”
Palla stared at her and shrugged. “What’s there to know? The important stuff I’ve told you.”
“What about your family? Did you have one? Were they, uh—”
“Killed?” Palla offered her a small smile. “I think so. I was sent to hide with all the other kids while the adults stayed to negotiate. Negotiations failed.”
Lily winced. “At least they had a chance to talk.”
Palla shook her head. “I don’t think so. Think about it—they had to strike hard and fast. If they didn’t, how could they do what they did?”
“You mean butcher innocents?”
Palla pressed her lips in a disapproving line. “I don’t think they were innocents. It was necessary, Lily. Horrible, but necessary. For people who wanted the old ways to return would have sown dissent. You know that from the history classes you’ve had.”
Lily nodded. A lot of the stories she’d heard didn’t match up with the stories Krys used to ramble on about, but she’d never paid enough attention to his stories to remember them. That didn’t matter, though; the day would come when she could get Krys at her side again. She’d stopped trying to find him for fear someone would wonder why and it might cause problems.
“One thing nobody’s really explained is where they all came from?”
“Where who came from? President Ondalla and his liberators?”
Lily wanted to snort at the thought of calling the people who killed her family and friends liberators. “Yes,” she managed to say.
Palla shook her head. “He worked in secret, gathering believers in his cause for many years. This didn’t just happen; people have known for years that our society was top-heavy and foolish. The one percent who lived off the back of the rest of humanity could only last as long as they could keep everyone else from realizing how used they were.”
Lily stared at her. “Just you? No brothers or sisters?”
Palla shook her head. “No. Just me. My parents didn’t have enough to purchase a second license.”
“So you were born in a lab?”
Palla nodded. “Most of us were. Leaving genetics to chance? That’s scary stuff!”
“Worked okay for me,” Lily pointed out.
“Don’t forget, you’re the exception to the rule.”
Lily nodded. “In every way.”
They lapsed into silence and Palla glanced up at the vidcaster on the wall. Lily followed her gaze and thought back to what had been on. The brief glimpse she’d seen reminded her of Venus.
“Feeling better?” Palla asked, jerking her out of her thoughts.
“Oh! Yes, I guess I am. Thanks,” Lily said.
Palla smiled. “Anything else I can do for you? Are you hungry? Need help studying?”
Lily raised an eyebrow, earning a laugh from Palla.
“Okay, if I need help studying, I’ll come to you.”
“I’m wiped out. The shower made me realize that before I flashed you. I think I’m going to crash. I’ve got tomorrow off and I intend to do as little as I can, for once.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” Palla agreed. “Oh, and Lil?”
Lily paused from where she’d risen from the chair. “Huh?”
“What I saw—in the bathroom? That was not a boy—that was a very pretty girl who will turn into a beautiful young woman any day now.”
“Yeah, that didn’t make me feel any more awkward,” Lily groaned.
Palla laughed.
She glanced down at the shadows revealed by the low neck on her sleep shirt and then looked up at Lily. She had a wry grin on her lips as she said, “Trust me, I was pretty shocked the day I woke up and realized I had breasts.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “They don’t grow overnight!”
“It felt like it to me. And besides, don’t you think it’s about time you were a late bloomer for something?”
Lily shook her head and waved behind her back at her as she walked into the bedroom and headed straight for her bed. Troubled or not, she was tired. Tired and, the more she thought about it, the more she realized she couldn’t wait for tomorrow. A full day off meant she could do some digging and read up on getting a head start on her biomech pilot training.
Taking time off? That could wait. She had a life to live. And she’d learned firsthand that life could end at any minute. She could rest when she was dead.
Chapter 31
Krys walked through the field with his satchel of tools in his hand. He could have taken a transporter but he figured they were overused enough as it was. That and he enjoyed the walk. It was a little over three veeks into a day cycle and the sun was warm and the ground dry. And the harvester that was supposed to be collecting the first crop of wheat was down with what sounded like a broken drive motor on one of the wheels.
Getting the wheel off and replacing the electric motor was a miserable job that would take a couple of hours. Krys wasn’t looking forward to the work, but he’d taken something his father had once told him to heart. It wasn’t about the work that was done; it was about how he did the work that mattered. He could fix one machine or a hundred and not be remembered for either. If he was happy with how he did it, then that was what would get him through the day.
President Ondalla might feel differently, but for all Krys cared President Ondalla could have one of the genetically modified Venerian corn cobs shoved up his—
Krys’s unkind thoughts were interrupted by a chirp from his phone. He glanced down at it and saw that Shelby was calling him. He smiled and answered it. “Hey, shouldn’t you be marching up and down main street or something?”
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