Halcyon

by Demelza Carlton

  Galen nodded. "It's pretty rough, and I could probably do a lot better now, but it does the job. Nothing like as complex as this Complex here, though. I expect this place will keep me too busy to build toys like this. I'm the environmental engineer, so it's my job to make sure everything here works."

  "Not just yours. I met one of your Maintenance crew this morning. A very nice Meta." She grinned widely, then hastened to add, "Not that there's anything wrong with Human, of course, but..."

  That made the Human-looking woman a Meta, too, Galen guessed. He knew it was rude to ask, but he wanted to know what kind of creature she was. He worried that she was one of the ones who could read minds, even despite the implants all Humans wore to prevent that. He touched the scar behind his ear for reassurance. Of course it was still in place.

  The woman's eyes turned cold. "You'll pick up your accommodation and work assignment over there. Stay out of trouble, Human." She pushed his bag toward him and directed her attention to the next person in the queue.

  Galen received his accommodation assignment and everything else he needed from a man he was almost certain was Human, but he still wouldn't have bet a single S-Co on it. Not even with the fifty thousand S-Co he'd been given when he accepted this assignment. If he made it through the duration of this strange social experiment in the Complex, he'd use his government payoff to fund his own company, inventing things. But that was more than two years away. After he'd completed the mission he'd been working on for a decade.

  The Intra man cleared this throat.

  Galen realised he'd been daydreaming again. "Sorry, what did you say?" he asked.

  "That one's headed to your dome. Take that zipper to your apartment," the man said, waving him away.

  Galen squeezed into the packed cab. The door slid closed behind him and the vehicle took off.

  The trip was long enough for him to get a good look at his fellow travellers. A few Humans, a grey-skinned man whose attention was focussed solely on a particularly hypnotic girl who seemed too beautiful to be Human, and a large patch of dense mist that the others gave a wide berth. Peering closely into the fog, Galen thought he could discern a pair of eyes. He became certain of it when one of them winked at him.

  "He looks like he's never seen a ghost before," the fog remarked, thickening until Galen could make out four distinct figures, all of them laughing at him.

  He drew himself up. "Well, I haven't. I grew up on a Human planet and I was too young to fight in the war. There's lots of kids like me back home who have never met a Meta before. I figure if we're all going to be neighbours for a few years, I better get used to it, and quick."

  Somehow, his matter-of-fact statement managed to kill all conversation in the zipper as it sped through the Complex to what Galen recognised from his initial briefing as the Snow Dome.

  So he had been given his first choice, then. The cold dome where no Mer could swim, so he'd be safe from them. Maybe it was childish, but Galen didn't care. Being able to sleep safely at night without fear of attack meant a lot to him. After all, he still had occasional nightmares about waking up alone in his cabin on the Poseidon, his headphones in his ears, the music drowned out by the emergency sirens blaring the ship's death knell. He'd stumbled onto the lifeboat with nothing but the music player, and the hope that his parents would be waiting for him when he was rescued. A forlorn hope, for sure. He'd been the only survivor from the Poseidon, and to this day, he still didn't know why. Had Halcyon chosen not to kill him, because he was a child, while slaughtering everyone else? If so, she'd made a huge mistake that day. That child was now a man, and one who wouldn't let anything stand between him and vengeance for his parents' murder.

  The zipper announced his apartment number.

  Galen unclenched his fists and stepped out of the cab. It zoomed away, leaving him alone in the corridor outside his door. Outside what would be home for the next two years.

  Galen took a deep breath, palmed open the door, and stepped inside.

  Only to discover the apartment was already occupied.

  "...I repeat, restrict temperatures within all living spaces to a lower limit of two...no, make it five degrees above the freezing point of water. Anyone who wants lower temperatures than that will have to apply to Maintenance and only if appropriate insulation is fitted to all the apartment's pipework will it be allowed," the woman said. A floor-cleaning robot hummed around her feet, siphoning water off the floor.

  An electronic voice protested, "You do not have authorisation to impose controls on all living spaces, or this one. Resident number – "

  "Space that!" the woman snapped. "My authorisation is ALI-407102 Maintenance override. Stick that up your circuits and do as you're told."

  Galen liked her already.

  "Processing," the recorded voice replied. "Authorisation confirmed. Any further orders?"

  "Give me a damage report. How many apartments are affected by the burst pipes?"

  A pause, then the electronic voice said, "Just those on this side of the inner ring of this level. No other apartments had sub-zero temperatures for an extended period."

  The woman sighed, her shoulders relaxing along with her voice. "Good. I want temperatures matched to those in 407 until the ice has melted in all affected apartments, and I want floor cleaning robots activated in all of them. Get me every Maintenance worker we have in the Complex, and a load of replacement pipes. This is urgent."

  "Implementing orders now," the voice said.

  As if on command, Galen's communications device sounded an alert.

  The woman whirled around, so her surprised eyes met his. She wasn't more than a girl, really, despite her authoritative orders to the building management AI. Yet her dark eyes seemed to x-ray his soul, if he believed in such a thing.

  Galen tried to shake off the effect of her hypnotic stare. Did that make her a Meta like the Intra at the entrance? "How many apartments have burst pipes?"

  Her eyes widened for a moment. "Enough to keep me busy all day. Some idiot set these rooms to temperatures below freezing, without realising that some other idiot had forgotten to insulate the water pipes against freezing. Probably someone who'd never seen snow before, or what ice can do to pipes. My money's on a stupid ship-born Meta." Her brows drew so low they nearly met over the bridge of her nose.

  Hating Metas made her Human, then. Just a really pretty one. Galen blew out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. Human and his type and here. Whoever she was, he wanted her.

  "Aren't we supposed to be trying to get along?" Galen said. "You know, us and the Metas, now the war's over?"

  The girl snorted. "Oh, sure. The war's over and we live under a peace treaty, so we're not supposed to kill each other, but there was nothing in the treaty about banning stupidity. So I guess we'll just have to live with that."

  Galen laughed. She wasn't stupid, that was for sure. "I'm Galen," he said, extending a hand in greeting. "I'm supposed to be the environmental engineer responsible for the Complex, and while I don't think I've officially started work yet, I think your AI just conscripted me." He pointed at his right hand, which hid the chip implant that held his communication device. "I've changed a few pipes in my time. I did my apprenticeship on shipboard environmental systems. Nothing as state of the art as this place. Our ship was falling apart, cobbled together from spare parts and scrap metal in the first place. You'd replace one thing, only to find something else had fallen off while you were working. I can handle pipe replacements."

  Her cool fingers meshed with his as she shook his hand. Her eyes lit up. "So you're the genius engineer Lennox told me about. I thought you'd be older." Her mischievous grin did things to Galen's insides.

  "I'm twenty-four, and I've been working as an engineer for a decade. Plenty old enough to know what I'm doing," Galen snapped to hide the tumult inside. She couldn't be any older than he was. In fact, she looked younger. And she was a Maintenance worker, which made her his subordinate. "How many apartments need replacemen
t pipes?" he repeated.

  The girl lifted her eyes to the ceiling. "Answer him."

  "Fifty-two, not including the two already repaired," the electronic voice said.

  "Twenty-six each, then," the girl said. She flashed another impish grin. "How fast can you fix pipes, genius? Want to wager something on it? Loser has to make the winner dinner."

  How had she known he'd wanted to ask her to dinner? Galen shook his head. She hadn't. "You're on. One condition, though."

  She raised her eyebrows, waving for him to continue.

  "Tell me your name."

  She let out a peal of laughter. "Sure thing, Galen. I'm Allie, and it's good to have you on board. Genius or not, anyone who can fix pipes is a good man in my book." Allie winked. "I'll go left, and you go right. I already fixed the pipes in your next door neighbours' place. A wolverine shifter family. Good thing the ventilation's still working well."

  Galen watched her head down the corridor, unable to take his eyes off her.

  Allie glanced over her shoulder. "Staring at my arse won't win you your wager, genius. Nor will it get you any closer to getting your hands on it."

  Feeling his face grow hot, Galen turned away, but not before he heard her laughter ring out down the corridor. He had to win this wager, he swore. His reputation depended on it.

  And maybe more besides, he thought, envisioning what she looked like without her standard-issue coverall. One day he wanted to find out how well fantasy matched the reality.

  Allie hummed as she connected her final replacement pipe. She'd encountered a few new colonists during her repairs, but this apartment's occupants, like the people who'd move into the others in this ring, were probably still queueing up in the sun. She told the AI to make the temperatures comfortably cool in the apartments she'd worked on. Now the ice was melted and cleaned away, no one would ever know about the damage to their new homes.

  Well, except Galen and Lennox. And that shifter family who'd reported the ice in the first place.

  "How many pipes does Galen have left to fix, Beems?" Allie asked, unable to resist.

  "Three," the AI replied. "I do not understand your use of beams."

  "Beems," Allie repeated, spelling the word out. "Short for Building Management System. It's what I'll call you. It feels too impersonal just shouting at the walls without a name. Now you have a name, I can pretend you're another very helpful person in the next room."

  "Illogical sentiment," the AI said.

  Allie laughed merrily. "Yep. That's why you're an AI and I'm not. Don't ever change, Beems. Now, how long do you think it'll take Galen to finish work? I don't want to embarrass him by showing up early. The poor boy is supposed to be my superior. He should at least feel like it on occasion."

  "Forty-three minutes."

  Allie whistled. "That long? I wish I'd brought a book." She thought for a moment. "Can you bring up footage of the arrivals area on the main screen in here? The occupants of this apartment won't be here for an hour or so, right?"

  "The jetter carrying the sasquatches has not yet landed," the AI said. "The apartment will be vacant for an estimated six hours and twenty-six minutes."

  "Mine for the moment, then," Allie said, sanitising her hands before pulling out a ration bar. "Arrivals area, on screen."

  She sank down on the floor to watch the colonists oohing and aahing over their first glimpse of the Complex interior as they entered the Main City. Meta and Human alike looked just as awestruck. Maybe Lennox was right and their two peoples weren't as dissimilar as they appeared. That's why this huge social experiment had to work. Allie would do everything in her power to help it along. She craved peace more than even chocolate. Peace meant no more loved ones would die, and maybe, just maybe, she could let her crushed heart love again after so many losses.

  Even if there was no one left in the system for her, at least she'd have the satisfaction of knowing others could find love, and keep it. Take young Galen, for example. It was only a matter of time before he found the right girl and persuaded her to share his quarters. Then the two of them would work on repopulation like rabbits, the hopping creatures she'd seen someone unloading into one of the agricultural areas below.

  Lucky boy, to have such a future. Allie had no children, but now she had no partner to give them to her, so they seemed like even more of a tantalising dream than ever before. Never mind. There were plenty of children pouring into the Complex down below, she saw on her screen. Children who would be guaranteed employment as ambassadors when they left the Complex and reached adulthood. Quite the coup for their parents. Who wouldn't jump at the chance to secure their children's future with an opportunity like this?

  Allie saw so much hope in the Complex. Perhaps Metas and Humans truly could achieve peace in a place like this. And if they could do it here, they could do it anywhere. What price wouldn't she pay for peace, above and beyond the one she'd paid already?

  Allie wiped away a stray tear. There was no point crying over the past. She'd mourned long enough before the war ended. Now it was time to look to the future, and find out how Galen was going with his pipes.

  "What's the ETA on Galen getting back to his apartment, Beems?" Allie asked.

  "Minus four minutes. He appears to be smug."

  Allie rose. "Get a robot to clean up the crumbs, please, Beems." She left the apartment, striding along the corridor back to where Galen waited. The man did look smug, but his smirk widened into a genuine grin when he spotted her.

  "Looks like I beat you," he said cheerfully. "But my mother would never forgive me if I let a lady take me to dinner, especially on a first date. Shall we?" He waved open his door and gestured for her to go inside.

  Allie couldn't help laughing. She hadn't heard gallantry like this in a very long time.

  Galen's refrigerator turned out to contain very different rations to her limited kitchen. While she'd been given a week's worth of ration bars to sustain her until the shops and eateries opened in the Main City, he had frozen meals that could be reheated into something that actually resembled Human food. His apartment didn't have a window, and it was a lot smaller than hers, but there was space for a sofa and a tiny retractable table with two chairs where they sat to eat their meal.

  After two mouthfuls of her shrimp pasta, Allie heartily regretted requesting ration bars for the week. Galen's food actually tasted good. She might have to spend some of her S-Co in the restaurants after all. She hoped they opened soon. Maybe Galen would be willing to join her for dinner on occasion. The young engineer wasn't bad company at all.

  Galen couldn't remember ever talking so much in his life, yet Allie drank in every word while her honey-coloured eyes seemed to beg for more. Several times he had to tell himself he was imagining it. No woman had ever listened to him like this – not even his mother, and she'd loved him.

  Still the words spilled out. He told her about how he was orphaned at fourteen, but because he was already an apprentice engineer he'd been allowed to continue his studies at the engineering college, finishing his degree at eighteen. How the other graduates all went to war and didn't come back, while he was given a job in the terraforming lab, working on prototypes and new techniques that he inevitably found ways to improve. Then, when the war ended, he'd signed up for the Complex, after discovering that a lot of his inventions were being put to use in the domes. So while he hadn't designed the place, he knew all the technology intimately.

  Take their water supply, for instance. Unlike Emalo, the water planet that relied mostly on desalination for its drinking water supply, where he'd first been apprenticed, Lorn had a ready-made water supply from its fresh smokers, which is why they'd built the Complex on this very spot. Powerful freshwater springs bubbled up from the ground here, providing the entire population with more water than they'd ever need. Of course, they still recycled all their water within the Complex, to keep their pollutants from damaging the environment outside, but the treated wastewater was only used for irrigation, unlike on the c
olony ships, where they'd had to use it for everything.

  At that point, Galen's mind caught up with his mouth. "I'm sorry. I'm boring you. What possessed me to talk about plumbing to possibly the most beautiful woman I've ever met..." He turned red.

  Allie laughed softly and shook her head. "We've both spent half the day working on plumbing. Believe me, it's not boring at all, especially if it'll make my job easier. Now I know why they said you're a genius. You practically designed all the systems we use in the Complex. If I have trouble with anything, you know you're the first person I'll call."

  "Any time," he replied eagerly. "And not just for work, either. Anything you need. Just call and I'll be there." He'd barely known the woman a day and here he was, offering to do anything for her. But it felt right, somehow.

  "What about if I want someone to join me for dinner, so I don't have to eat alone?"

  Warm, honey eyes drew him inexorably in. Galen swallowed. Oh, he wanted in, all right. "Especially then."

  She dropped her gaze to the floor, as if what she saw in his eyes was too intense. "I'll remember. But on that note, I should probably go. I have no doubt half the Complex will have pressing maintenance issues tomorrow and we'll both need all the rest we can get. Thank you for a lovely evening, Galen. It's the best time I've had since...well, a while, anyway."

  She rose swiftly and was out the door before Galen could move. So much for a good night kiss.

  "Good night," he called as the door slid shut behind her.

  He disposed of the remains of dinner, then leaned against the counter. Allie was right – it had been a lovely evening, one of the best he'd had in a while. He'd never hit it off so well with a woman before. What a time to find someone so wonderful, though. Couldn't fate have waited until he'd found and dealt with Halcyon before it rewarded him with an introduction to Allie?

  His blood ran cold. What if Halcyon managed to attack the Complex before he found her...and Allie got hurt? He'd lost enough already. While she wasn't his yet, he still didn't want to lose the chance that one day she might be. He wouldn't give Halcyon the opportunity to hurt her. No, he'd strike first, however he could, Galen resolved.