by R. A. Rock
“We also stop fighting. We stick to being friends.”
I sighed at the thought.
God, I needed this woman so bad.
“For how long?” she said, looking unhappy, too.
“Until we both get our shit together.”
“How will we know when that happens?”
She searched my eyes as if I had the answers there.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I think we’ll know when it happens.”
“Fuck, Red. That’s going to be hard.”
I closed my eyes, burning for her.
“It already is, Tanaka. It already is.”
Fixed
Chad
After a while, Yumi fell asleep against my chest and soon my head was dropping, too. When I woke up, I was back in my own bedroom in New Winnipeg. I wondered if I had dreamed it all but when I looked up I saw Grace looming over me. The little clock on the mantle was chiming seven o’clock.
“Okay, that’s the weirdest call out, I’ve ever had,” she said. “How did you two end up like that?
I blew out my breath, staring up at the top of my canopy bed.
“Yumi totally freaked when some guards came after us intending to use lethal force. Apparently she sometimes has panic attacks in small spaces — from before she came to us. She tried to squeeze past me. It didn’t work.”
“No kidding,” Grace said, shaking her head. “You can tell us all about it when we’re together. For now, I left her sleeping in her bed.”
She sat down next to me on the covers.
“What the hell’s going on with you two?” she said, her eyes pained. I felt bad. She had to deal with all the fall out from our messed up relationship because she was close to both Yumi and me.
“I don’t know, Gracie,” I said, putting my hands to my head, which was aching from all the stress. “We decided tonight that we wouldn’t try to reconcile again until we both got our shit together.”
“Both?” Grace said, surprised.
“Yumi isn’t the only problem in the relationship, Grace,” I said.
“Finally, you admit it.”
“Oh come on. I’ve said so before.”
“Nuh uh,” she said, shaking her head firmly back and forth, her unruly curls shaking with it. “Maybe you guys do have a chance if the Almighty Chad is admitting that he’s not perfect.”
I sighed.
“Anyway. So, hopefully there won’t be anymore drama for a while.”
“I’m not holding my breath,” Grace said, a look of resignation on her face. “So, did you find out anything?”
“Not really,” I said. “We got stuck before we could see the brick. Shiv has the adamantium?”
“Yes, and he’s set up a makeshift lab in my room.”
“That’s great. And thanks, Grace.”
“No problem,” she said, getting up with a yawn. “I’m going back to bed.”
“Yeah, me too. I didn’t got much sleep tonight.”
She left and I immediately drifted off.
***
Chad
In the morning after Boxing Day, the five of us gathered in Gracie’s room for a meeting about our situation. As I walked in, I stopped short. I had never seen Shiv like this.
He had black circles under his eyes like he hadn’t slept in days. His shirt was untucked and his hair was a mess, as if he had run his fingers through it repeatedly.
Shiv is ridiculously good looking and is always well put together. Seeing him like this freaked me out.
“Shiv, man. What the hell’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” he said, looking confused. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m almost done.”
“He’s been working around the clock to fix the bracelets. As you know, they’ve noticed the stuff is missing and it’s only a matter of time till they trace it back to him. We need to escape. Soon,” Grace filled us in. “But Shiv is being anal…”
“Meticulous,” he held up one pointer finger, correcting her. “Responsible. Careful.”
“About making sure that they’re properly fixed and that they aren’t going to harm our ante-prefrontal cortexes again. He’s not sure he can make them bug free, but he’s adamant that we won’t damage our brains because of the time travel.”
“Amen to that,” Audrey said, clasping her hands in a prayer position. “I hate not having my powers.”
“Exactly,” Shiv said. “It feels weird. Like losing a limb.”
I pressed my lips together.
“Oh shit, Chad, I’m sorry. As soon as we’re back, we’ll figure out something to get your powers back. There are some great minds at The Alliance. I’m sure we’ll be able to figure it out. And as soon as these little guys are fixed,” he pointed to the bracelets on the table where he was working. “We’ll get back to Matt and Nessa’s and time travel back home.”
We all smiled at this thought.
Finally things were getting back on track.
“Well, we’ll let you get back to it, then,” I said, then scrunched up my nose, giving a sniff as I examined at him. He reeked of body odour.
“And maybe you should take a shower and a nap before you go back to work. You’ll have a fresh head and be able to think more clearly when you start up again.”
And hopefully more than his head would be freshened up.
Shiv scowled and smelled his armpit.
“Oh God,” he said, in distaste. “Okay. Shower and nap. Then I’m back on it till they’re ready. We need to get out of here as soon as possible.”
At that moment there was a sharp rap at the door.
Who could it be? We were all here.
Our eyes met in consternation. Shiv waved us all behind the door and opened it a crack.
“Can I help you?” he said.
“We’re looking for Chad Dvorski,” an officious voice said. “He’s wanted in the mayor’s office. Ms. Thompson wishes to speak with him.”
“Oh, sure, well, if I see him, I’ll let him know,” Shiv said.
“Thank you,” the man said as Shiv shut the door again.
We heard his footsteps go down the hall. And there was loud, impatient knocking from the section of the hallway where the women had their rooms.
“What do you think that’s about?” Grace said, eyeing me.
“Booty call?” Shiv said, giving me a you owe us an explanation face.
“No, it’s probably because I didn’t want her booty, that she’s calling me to her office,” I said, scowling at the thought.
“You teased the mayor of the city?” Grace said, in dismay. “Messed around with her and then rejected her? You did fool around with her, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” I said, wincing.
“And then wouldn’t go all the way?”
“I changed my mind,” I defended myself, not looking at Yumi.
“Not good for us, Chad,” Grace said.
“Yeah, you would have done better to have left well enough alone,” Shiv pointed out, unnecessarily, I thought.
“Okay, okay, I know. I’ll try to do some damage control. Maybe she’ll be satisfied with an excuse and a promise of more down the road.”
“Just don’t get us kicked out before I can finish these.”
“Please,” Grace added.
“He won’t get us kicked out,” Yumi defended me. “You know he’s the golden boy. He just has to smile at her and imply that she’ll be getting some soon and she’ll forgive him.”
“Good point,” Shiv said, heading for his bathroom. “Excuse me, people. I need a shower. You all should take advantage of the facilities, too, while you still can,” he tossed over his shoulder as he went into the small room. “If I can get these done, we should leave tonight.”
We all scattered to our rooms and I decided that a shower wouldn’t be bad idea before I eventually gave in and went to see Natasha. As I stood under the warm water and let it run down my face and chest, I thought about how to approach her. Yumi had made it sound so easy. But I was
afraid that it would take more than a smile to appease a woman scorned.
And if I couldn’t work my magic on her this time, we might no longer be guests of New Winnipeg, but once again official prisoners.
Execution
Chad
After the shower, I putzed around in my room for a while, avoiding what I knew I needed to do. I could handle conflict now, but I still hated it. My stomach was twisted into knots and I couldn’t seem to settle down.
While I had been wearing the Victorian loaners, my own clothes had been laundered and returned to my room. I put on my own pants and shirt, feeling more like myself in them, and prepared to go see Natasha. I ran my hands through my wet curls, then gave up trying to make them do what I wanted. I planned to be on my game and figure out a way for us to stay as long as Shiv needed to in order to fix the bracelets.
This meeting was really important — one of the most important diplomatic missions I had ever been assigned. Because if we got kicked out before the bracelets were fixed, who knew if we would ever be able to fix them? Getting to the other cities that might have what we needed was only half the battle, then there were hostile people, dangerous places like The Wastelands, and the difficulties of actually finding the stuff. And that was supposing the cities were even still there.
It wasn’t guaranteed that we would have a setup like this where he could fix them ever again. So, I had to be a smooth talker. I had to convince her that we were harmless.
“Chad!”
It was Gracie’s mental shout.
I stumbled out of the room, running down the hall, and burst through her door. She was in tears on her bed.
“What’s wrong?” I said, going to her and wrapping my arms around her. There was the smell of soldered metal hanging in the air, from Shiv’s work on the bracelets I assumed, though I had no idea what he was doing with the things. But when I looked around, there wasn’t any sign of the makeshift lab.
“They took Shiv.”
“What?”
Oh no. This was bad.
“I managed to teleport the stuff before they saw it, but they suspect him of being the one who took the things from the lab. They tied him up and took him away right in front of me. They’re holding him somewhere. Probably the same storage room from before.”
“God damn it. We’re so close.”
“That’s all you care about?” Grace said, pushing me away from her. “What about him?”
“They’re not going to hurt him,” I said. “Don’t worry about that. We have to find where he is, untie him, and get him the stuff so he can finish.”
Grace straightened, then wiped her tears away.
“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Well, think about it, Kinetic,” I said, with a grin. “Because you’re the only one who can do that without raising suspicion. Maybe you can even break the lock on the door so they can’t get in.”
“Chad, you’re so brilliant sometimes it’s annoying,” my sister said, giving me a hug.
“Well, you find out where he is and bring his lab to him. I’m going to talk to Natasha to plead our case. I’ll see if I can get Shiv released. Or maybe not, if they won’t bother him in there.”
“Okay,” Grace said and she stood up.
“Have you seen Yumi?”
“Not this morning.”
“I’ll stop by and check on her before I go,” I said. “And I’ll keep you posted,” I added telepathically.
“Good luck,” Grace said.
I shook my head.
“Not this time, Grace,” I said. “I don’t need luck. This is going to be pure skill.”
“Cocky,” she shook her finger at me.
“Confident,” I countered.
She gave me another hug and I went across the hall and knocked on Yumi’s door. She opened it immediately and I noticed that somehow she looked softer. Not as hard as she used to. And I wondered again at her transformation.
“Chad, hey.”
“Did you hear about Shiv?”
“Well, I heard Gracie’s mental shout and I might have been listening in.”
“So you know.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think it’s a good plan?”
“Well, we need those bracelets, don’t we?”
“We do.”
The conversation felt stilted. But whatever. We were only friends, nothing more. I had to remind myself of our deal to get our own stuff sorted.
“I’m going to see Natasha now.”
“I know.”
“Okay, then.”
“If you need back up, let me know,” she said.
“Sure.”
“Though, of course, you won’t,” she said.
And she wasn’t even being sarcastic. She meant it.
“That’s kind of cocky, don’t you think?” I said, with a smile.
She shook her head.
“Confident.
I laughed out loud, then.
“See you.”
***
Chad
The time I had to wait to see Natasha seemed artificial. Designed to make me sweat. But I wasn’t sweating. At all. This place seemed to always be at the perfect temperature. Someone ought to tell them that they should vary their environment, or they may get sick.
Space stations always get colder at night and warm up during the day to mimic life on a planet. There is also seasonal variance in the temperature and lighting. And there’s a random weather generator that makes it hotter or colder based on the season.
Human beings are meant to have variety in their environment. If they don’t, they get weak and ill. I thought about telling her this, but figured it probably wouldn’t come up. And she likely wouldn’t listen to me anyway.
Finally I was shown in. Jeff closed the door with a forbidding click and stayed in the room, his hand on his gun. I ignored him. Natasha stood up and reached out to shake my hand, acting as if I had never had said hand on her boob.
“Chad, I’m glad you could come,” she said, sitting down and indicating the chair across from her desk for me. “You’re a hard guy to track down.”
“I was napping,” I said with what I hoped was a neutral smile. “I sleep like the dead.”
“Oh? How convenient,” she said.
Convenient? That was a weird thing to say.
“You’re looking well, Natasha. What was it you needed to talk to me about?” I said, deciding a compliment rarely goes wrong. I geared up my arguments to convince her to let us stay as guests another couple days.
“Do I?” she said, giving me an enchanting smile right back.
Well, actually, it looked more like the smile of a snake about to strike. Do snakes smile?
“Why thank you, Chad.” She touched her golden bouncy curls that gave her an air of innocence that was completely false. “That’s good. I always like to look my best when I give the order for an execution.”
An execution?
What the fuck?
Locked up
Chad
It was a cheerful morning in New Winnipeg when Natasha announced that she had given the order for my death. That seemed a little harsh, considering all I had done was not have sex with her. But maybe I had misunderstood. She couldn’t have meant my execution.
“Did she just say execution?” Yumi’s voice was too loud in my mind.
“Tanaka,” I snapped. “Control your volume.”
“Sorry.”
And when her voice came back it was softer.
“Who’s being executed?”
“Who’s being executed?” I said, repeating Yumi’s mental question and trying to maintain my composure.
“Well, I considered killing all of you. I should have just done that in the first place instead of allowing you to seduce me.”
Seduce her? More like she had seduced me.
I no longer made any pretext of friendliness.
“Who is to be executed?” I repeated, my voice hard.
&nb
sp; “Shiv,” she said. “And you.”
“What? Why?”
Her face got hard.
“We don’t like thieves,” she said. “Shiv stole crucial computer components and tools. It’s not like we can just get more of them either, so it’s a capital offence.”
“Shiv stole?” I said, at my most skeptical. “I don’t believe it. Where’s your proof?”
“Well…” She wouldn’t meet my eyes. “We don’t actually have proof yet.”
“Excuse me? You’re going to kill my friend because you think he stole your crap? Shiv is an engineer and a scientist. He’s not a thief.”
“He’s hidden the items somewhere. We just have to find them.”
“So some of your scientists misplace some stuff and now you’re going to kill someone? Seems a little much,” I said. “I thought you people were civilized. Doesn’t he even get a trial?”
“Well… our citizens do. But he’s not one of our citizens.”
“Oh, well that makes it okay to just kill someone, then.”
My derisive tone and smart ass comments seemed to get to her finally and she cracked, losing her temper.
“Shiv is the only one who could have stolen those parts and tools,” she said, standing up and raising her voice. “And he will be punished for it.”
I stood up too and put my hands flat on the smooth wood of her desk, leaning forward to get in her face.
“Shiv did not steal,” I said, with all the conviction of knowing that I was telling her the absolute truth. She blinked in surprise as she realized that I was being completely honest. And I was.
It was Gracie, Yumi, and I that had stolen the shit. Not Shiv.
“Well, I thank you for your statement in defence of your friend, but I don’t believe you.”
She was lying. She did believe me. And she was confused.
“Oh, and I suppose I should inquire what I am being executed for?”
She blushed.
“Sex outside of marriage is not allowed in our city.”
“So you told me. And?”
“And you engaged in sexual actions with someone you weren’t married to.”