Krys groaned again and reached for the controls. He wasn’t sure if this had turned into his best or his worse birthday ever.
Chapter 33
Lily heard noises in the distance. Down a hallway? Underwater? They were distorted as though they were muffled. Something beeped and she knew the shrill noise was muted. She tried to blink her eyes but all she could see was darkness.
Her chest squeezed as panic set in. Where was she? What happened to her? Was it an accident? Had the station’s walls been breached? Had something happened in her training booth? She thought back, trying to piece things together. The last thing she could recall was Palla’s warm smile filling her with confidence. Why was she smiling?
“You’ll be okay,” Palla had said.
She’d be okay. Okay from what? Or because of what? Did she ask for this to happen to her? She knew she was going to have the biomech interface implant installed tomorrow, but that was a day away. She’d called it a birthday present to herself and, as much as a joke people took it to be, it was true. There was nothing she wanted more.
All the training and education had filled her with one desire. One goal. To pilot a real biomech. Some of the other cadets in her classes understood her. The rest did it because they’d shown aptitude for it, not because they felt drawn towards it. For her, every practice run in the simulator fed the fire in her belly. Palla thought she was becoming obsessed, but her friend was also the first to boast that Lily was the best pilot in her class. In the history of the class, for that matter.
“Cadet Strain is awake.”
Lily tried to open her mouth and talk. She felt some sort of mask or restraint on her. Feeling that made her aware of the tubes in her mouth and nose. She stiffened and gagged on them. Her body jerked as she choked, twisting her against her restraints.
“She’s going to throw up!” someone shouted.
Hands grabbed her and pushed her down. Lily struggled. She had to get the tubes out! They were choking her and putting things in her body she wasn’t in control of. Maybe poison or something that would prevent her from being able to pilot a biomech. She twisted and writhed some more.
The mask against her face loosened, letting cool air tease her cheeks and lips. A moment later, the tubes in her mouth and her nose were yanked out, burning her throat and leaving her lip feeling fat and unnatural. She gasped and coughed but still couldn’t roll over and curl into a ball. She turned her head and hacked at the irritation in her throat.
“Cadet, relax. This is normal. Here, I have some frozen chips to help.”
Lily coughed again and shook her head when she felt something cold against her lips. She managed to rasp out, “What happened?”
“You had your implant installed,” the male voice said. “Memory loss up to a week is common—don’t be alarmed.”
A week! Lily jerked in the bed at his words. If she had her implant installed, that meant it was her birthday. She was seventeen. But her birthday was a day away still. Unless—had she forgotten an entire day?
The bit about the implant and blindness made sense, though. The interface was tied into the optic nerves as well as the central nervous system and other tertiary synapses. That way, she could see what the biomech saw. She didn’t realize that without the implant being online she wouldn’t be able to see. For that matter, she never knew the implants could be turned off.
Palla’s face floated through the darkness, telling her that she’d be okay. She gasped again. Palla had been with her. She remembered that much. In the pre-op room. Lily relaxed into the bed. There were a lot of holes but she hoped she could put them together. She licked her lips but her tongue was just as dry as they were.
“Chips?”
She nodded. A moment later, she felt one of the frozen chips against her lips. She opened her lips and sucked on it. It had a faint cherry taste to it and melted quickly. She swallowed and winced, but already it made her throat feel better.
“Why can’t I see?” she asked. Her voice was rough but she could do more than whisper now.
“The unit’s turned off,” the voice responded. “Don’t worry, though; they’ll activate it as soon as you’re out of recovery.”
Lily reached down to feel for a blanket. There was nothing on her but she did locate the tubes that were stuck in her arms. She reached for them and said, “Then get me out of here.”
“Cadet, you need to relax and let us do our job,” the man informed her. “I will tranq you and let you sleep it off otherwise.”
Lily hesitated. It wasn’t his threat that made her pause; it was his voice. “Karl?” she asked.
“No, not Karl. I’m Jax. Dr. Jax Kioch,” he said. “Here, have another chip. It’ll help.”
Lily accepted the chip and considered his voice. He sounded like Karl, one of the cadets in her class. It couldn’t be; there was no way Karl was qualified in biology and medicine, but the similarity was eerie.
He ran Lily through a series of tests, asking her questions and checking to make sure she could feel and react to everything. When he was finished, he grunted and said, “Congratulations, Cadet, you’re in excellent shape. Healing nicely and I see no reason why you can’t return to instruction after a couple more days of rest.”
“I’m ready now,” Lily said. “Just turn this on so I can see again.”
“Relax, they’ll do that soon,” he said with a chuckle. “And don’t worry, once it’s activated there’s no way to deactivate it, short of having it removed. And trust me, you don’t want to have it removed.”
Lily shook her head. “No, I don’t.”
He chuckled again and released the restraints holding her in bed. “Stay here. I see the technician coming now.”
Lily fished another chip out of the cup he handed her and sucked on it. Seconds passed before she heard a single sound of metal against metal. She turned her head to the right towards the noise and was reproached for it.
“Look ahead, Cadet,” Dr. Kioch said. “I’m going to remove the rest of the bandage.”
Lily did as she was told and felt the tugging as he unwrapped a bandage around her head. As it came off, she could hear the sounds more clearly. She found herself focusing on every little noise she heard since she couldn’t see anything.
“This was done a few hours ago?” a new, female voice asked. “Amazing.”
“I was told it had to be perfect,” Dr. Kioch said.
“Be careful,” the woman advised. “They’re going to expect this every time now.”
Jax chuckled, reminding Lily all over again of Karl. She nibbled on her lip and waited while she felt some featherlight touches on the side of her head just behind her temple. It was sore but not painful enough to bother her. “Any headache?” the doctor asked.
“No, I feel fine.”
“Amazing,” the woman repeated. “Cadet, I’m going to activate your implant. There’s no easy way to do this, but I want to warn you that it’s going to be a bit of a shock at first.”
Lily almost nodded but caught herself and held her head still. “I’m ready.”
“No, you’re not,” she responded. “On three, two, one—activating.”
Lily grunted as a searing white light slammed into her eyes. She squeezed her eyelids shut but it didn’t help. She cried out and squeezed the arms of the bed while her feet kicked back and forth on top of the small cot. In seconds that felt like an eternity, the white light began to pixelate and grow colorful. It seemed like random patterns at first until Lily realized that every tiny dot in her vision was cycling through colors.
She watched, amazed, as her entire field of view shifted colors, one after another. Millions of colors, she guessed, for each microscopic pixel in her vision. It was overwhelming to think of just how many combinations were possible. The scope of the resolution of human vision left her reeling as she tried to guess just how capable the human eye was.
The colors faded, leaving an open bay in a large recovery room. Workers moved behind a central workst
ation and a man who bore a striking resemblance to Karl was leaning over her and staring at her face. Lily gasped again. She could see!
“I take it by the smile and reactions of your pupils you’re seeing again?” Dr. Kioch asked.
“Yes,” Lily whispered. “Everything looks the same.”
“You’re plugged into a diagnostic station, not a vehicle,” the woman said from beside her.
Lily turned and looked at her. Unlike the doctor, the technician didn’t remind her of anyone. She wore the same uniform that everyone else did and a popular hairstyle, but that was it. Lily turned her attention to the diagnostic machine on the cart.
“Everything looks good,” the technician said. She smiled at Lily. “Better than good, to be honest with you. Optimal.”
Lily smiled back at her. “Thank you.”
The woman reached up and unplugged the thin cable that ran from the new port in the side of Lily’s head and coiled it back onto her cart. “You’re going to need to keep your hair short there. I recommend having it permanently depilated, but it’s up to you.”
Lily nodded. “Okay, I’ll look into it.”
The technician gave her another smile and a nod and then she pushed her cart back down the hallway to wherever she was needed next. Lily turned back to the doctor and saw him working on an infopad.
“I’ve notified the person responsible for you, Cadet. They should be here shortly. You may change and go as soon as they arrive,” he said. He turned to glance at her arm and grimaced. “Oh, and we’ll get those lines out of your arm too. Sorry about that.”
Lily smirked. “Do you have a brother? You remind me of another cadet I’ve been training with.”
He spared her a glance and shook his head. “No. No brothers.”
Lily nodded and leaned back while a nurse came over and pulled the lines from her arm. A healing agent was applied and in moments the holes and slight bruising around them was gone. She smiled and reached up to touch the port in her head. It felt weird. The same temperature as her head, but hard and funny. She could tap it and feel the pressure, but she didn’t feel where she tapped her fingers.
“Lil!”
Lily cranked her head to the side and saw Palla walking as fast as she could down the hall. She clutched a bundle under one arm that Lily hoped was her clothes. Lily raised a hand to wave and then was almost knocked off the small bed when Palla threw herself on her.
“I thought you said I was going to be okay?” Lily gasped.
Palla pulled herself off and grinned. “I did, but that doesn’t mean I’m not glad to see you. Besides, things happen sometimes, even with the best doctors and facilities.”
Lily’s head tilted for a moment but she let the odd remark slide. Maybe it made sense; she was a high-profile student. The highest, she supposed. President Ondalla would want to make sure she had the best treatment possible. “Those my clothes?”
“Oh! Yes, here you go. Get changed and I’ll get you back to our room. You’ve got the rest of the week off to recover.”
Lily frowned. “I don’t need it.”
“What? Of course you do. You can’t walk through the station dressed in a hospital tunic!”
Lily laughed. “I meant the week off. I’m ready to go back now.”
Palla frowned. “At least a couple of days.”
Lily nodded. “All right, two days.”
Palla grinned and turned to press a button. Holographic walls shimmered around them, granting her a minimal level of privacy to change. “Go ahead. Hospitals always give me the creeps.”
“Um, I can dress myself,” Lily said.
Palla started. “Oh! Right! Sorry. Um, let me know when you’re ready.”
Lily shook her head as Palla stepped through the illusory wall and glanced at the clothes left on the foot of her bed. She sat up slowly, testing herself, and grinned when she found she felt perfectly normal. She nodded and started tugging the flimsy open-sided tunic off. She ached to get her own comfortable uniform back on and get back to her normal routine.
Lily yawned in spite of her recent medically induced nap. She chuckled and had to admit that a day or two off might be nice after all. Except that would slow her down from getting some real biomech training. She frowned. There was nothing stopping her now except the next generation of simulator training. She had to finish that as fast as she could.
Lily sighed. Palla was going to be upset with her when she cut her two-day recovery to one.
Chapter 34
Krys looked over from the couch as the door opened and Shelby walked in. He could tell from the wrinkles around her eyes and the tension in her cheeks that something was bothering her. He set his infopad down and stood up at the same time she released the catch on her utility belt and placed it on the table.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She lifted her eyes to his and flared her nostrils as she let out a sigh. “These night cycles are hard for me to deal with,” she said.
Krys studied her a moment as she tried to smile. “I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t?”
“Well, I do,” he backtracked. “I mean I think there’s more to it.”
She sighed again and walked over to him. He pulled her into a hug and felt her melt into his grasp. “How can you be so perceptive?”
Krys smiled into her hair and pressed his lips against her head to kiss her. “You make it easy.”
She pulled her head back to look at him. A genuine smile lifted her lips. “I do? How’s that?”
Krys shrugged. “Like I need an excuse to look at you?”
She laughed and then kissed him on the lips. Krys felt her pressing harder against him and realized this wasn’t something casual and affectionate. He let her push him back until his legs hit the couch and then felt her give him a shove that showed she was stronger than she looked. Krys landed with a grunt and looked up in time to grunt again as she straddled his lap and continued where she’d left off.
Their relationship had grown since the incident with the blue dress. Over the year that had passed, Krys had finally worked up the nerve to tell her he liked her. That was all it took for Shelby. In no time, they spent every spare minute together, either at his place or hers. Sometimes she even made up excuses to visit him during the day. Inspections, she called them.
Through it all, and in spite of how much he enjoyed being with her, Krys was still holding back. He had promises he’d made and he went out of his way to keep them. His irregular drops at the irrigation pump continued and when he could, he left news for them. He had to scribble down what he could on clothing that he left for them using charcoal. They could wash it out; that way the clothing wasn’t ruined.
“What’s gotten into you?” Krys mumbled during a brief respite when her lips weren’t crushing his.
“Shut up,” she groaned. “I’ve been waiting too long for this! We can talk later.”
Krys shook his head and managed to push her back. “This isn’t like you,” he insisted.
Shelby stared at him, her eyes intense and angry for a moment. Then she closed them and let out a breath. When she opened them again, they sparkled with moisture. “I’m worried. No, not worried. Scared.”
“Scared? About what?”
“You,” she said.
Krys recoiled. “What? But you were just—”
“I want you, Krys,” she said. “And I wanted to forget everything and finally feel like I had you. I wanted to make you mine and let the world around us do whatever it wanted to for as long as it took.”
Krys’s lips moved a few times before he was able to make words come out of them. “I’m really confused.”
She sighed. “Do you know why I hate the night cycles here?”
“You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?”
She smirked. “No. I’m afraid of what’s in the dark.”
Krys was pretty sure she wasn’t talking about stubbing her toe on a rock or a chair or something so he asked, “Hu
h?”
Shelby stared at him, her eyes moving all over his face and then connecting with his again. He felt like he was being accused of something. Did she know about his friends in the woods? Had he screwed up somewhere and she found out?
“There’s been more attacks,” she said without breaking their gaze. “More people have died.”
Krys stiffened. “People here?”
She shook her head. “No, not yet. But we have a convoy headed to the starport with our production from the last light cycle on it.”
“Okay, um, so that’s got you worried? What about me? You said you were scared for me? Are you afraid I’ll be attacked when I go out into the fields to do maintenance or repairs?”
She shook her head and looked away from him. “I know, Krys.”
Krys felt his heart skip a beat in his chest. He stared at her as she looked back at him. A tear spilled and ran down her cheek and fell on the blue cloth covering her thigh. His breath caught in his throat as he realized she knew. She knew, and that meant he was in trouble. Real, serious, firing-squad level trouble.
“They’re my friends,” Krys said. “I have to help them!”
Tears fell from her right eye to join the left. “How could you do this to me?” she whispered.
“To you?” He blurted out. “I didn’t do anything to you! I helped my friends. They’re not hurting anyone. They aren’t raiding convoys or killing people. They’re trying to survive! They can’t turn themselves in—they’ll be killed! What else are they supposed to do?”
Krys saw the movement but didn’t react in time to block the slap that left his head ringing. When he blinked the colors out of his eyes, he saw her standing several feet away from him. He blinked again, wondering how she’d gotten off his lap so fast. He reached up to touch the hot side of his face and then looked at her. “You hit me!”
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