by IGMS
"Here goes nothing," Holly said as she inserted the syringe of untested antivenom into Dustin's arm.
Within half an hour his breathing began to improve. They injected Mirek and Jasmine. Blood pressures began climbing slowly toward normal. No sign of adverse reaction. Until a heart monitor screamed. She whirled, dizzy, toward the sound. There stood her gunman, pulling a bloody knife out of Mirek's chest. He flashed his dark smile and slashed at the tubes of the ventilator, leaving bloody gashes in the hose.
"You're not real!" she screamed.
"Tell that to your patient," the gunman replied.
"Elizabeth!" Holly's voice broke in past the horror. "This is real. Mirek's in arrest."
"No. It can't be." The figures on the screen danced before her eyes. Not arrest. Not quite. But dangerously close. She fumbled with the cardiostim calculations. "Is there a knife wound in his chest?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Is there? Just answer."
"No."
"Hook up the electrodes."
Something crashed behind her. The gunman had a baseball bat. He'd swung it across one of her lab tables, smashing her vials of antivenom into oblivion, knocking her precious moleculizer to the floor. She adjusted Mirek's electrostim controls and pushed to activate.
"Seventy percent normal," Holly reported after a few moments.
"Stay here. If his stats don't keep improving, do it again." Then she turned around. The gunman swung his bat at the wall screen, cracking its surface into a spiderweb of lines. "Get out of here!" Elizabeth yelled, ducking her head and charging him. She rammed him with her shoulder, knocking them both against the drug cabinet.
A crushing pain in her side stole her breath away. From somewhere in the hazy border of reality and illusion she heard her name, but she wasn't about to stop. She sunk her feet into the floor to steady herself, then punched the gunman right in the face. He grunted. Up went the bat. One swing would crush her skull. She grabbed his arms and let her entire weight fall straight down, pulling him with her. The bat thundered across the floor, out of reach. She took both fists to him now, pounding anywhere she could reach, shouting insults in language she didn't know she had, lungs about to explode. He climbed to his feet, moaning, and lurched toward the door.
"Go," she called as he slinked away. "Never show your face here again!"
The door hissed shut behind him. The world turned red, then faded into black.
The gentle arms of darkness began to loosen their grip. Voices, muffled. An impression of movement, somewhere to her side. She forced one eye to unglue itself. Then the other. Swirls of white and black slowly settled into the familiar patterns of the biolab.
"Elizabeth?" She turned her head toward the sound. There sat Edwin, a datapad dangling from his hand. "How do you feel?"
Awful. However, she wasn't about to admit it in front of her imaginary nemesis. She slowly scanned the room, but his tattooed eyebrow and silver gun were nowhere to be seen.
"Here." Edwin held a cup of water toward her.
She lifted a leaden hand, clumsily grabbed the cup, and drank until she was out of breath. "Where are the others?"
"They're still out there." He indicated the other room. "Except Mirek."
"What happened to him?" The world spun.
"Nothing. Says he wants to walk it off."
"Then it worked? The antivenom?"
Edwin nodded. "You're brilliant." Then he grinned. "And quite the boxer."
"So I really attacked a hallucination?" she groaned. "I thought maybe that was a dream."
"Quite real." He paused. "Well, at least your part was real."
"He felt so solid. I could write an entire article about it: "Tactile Hallucinations and the Power of the Human Brain."
"I'm sure you could. All I know is that your fist would fly, and then it would just stop, as if it had hit something good and hard. Remind me never to make you mad."
She scowled. "He stabbed Mirek and slashed his ventilator tube. Then he started smashing things. My poor moleculizer. Hey, it's not funny!"
"No." Edwin's face twisted with the effort not to laugh. "But I don't think he's going to bother you again, not after the beating you gave him."
"You're mocking me," she accused, but it didn't feel like mockery. She looked around again, warily. "How long have I been unconscious?"
"Nearly two days."
"What?"
"Holly harvested more antibodies last night -- a hardier batch this time. We made the second dose of antivenom ourselves, imitating what you'd done. Within hours, Mirek was up and restless. They're all much better now than two days ago."
"Two days?" She tried to sit up.
Edwin grabbed her by the shoulders and held her down.
"The arachnids," she pleaded. "They'll die without new blood."
Edwin grinned. "A nasty venom puts you out for two days, you get in a fist fight with a hallucination, and that's what worries you? The well-being of your poisoners?"
"I want to study them."
"Of course you do."
She tried to push his hands away so she could get up.
"That's why I put them back together with the rat," Edwin said. "And we've been feeding the whole mess an army's worth of game."
"You did that?"
He nodded.
"Just so I could study them?"
He shrugged. "The more we know about the local vermin, the better."
"It's going to be a ground-breaking report," she promised. She could almost see the words forming before her. She'd write about how their first human prey hadn't behaved quite as the creatures expected. Hadn't given over to fear. Hadn't run themselves to death So they'd had to sting another victim. Then another. How many would it have taken before they realized the flaw in their strategy and moved on to some other hapless animal? It was almost a shame they caught them so soon.
She'd do studies of the drabs' brains, to analyze how the neurotoxins affected species from different worlds. She might allow the arachnids to sting a bigger native mammal, then study that. She'd detail the consistency of the hallucinations, and the individualized manner of manifestation. She'd coin a term for this ingenious collaborative hunting system. The avenues of exploration stretched temptingly out before her.
If only she could share it all with her colleagues back home. The debates it would prompt! The world's best minds, coming together in that frenzy of academic excitement she missed so much.
"A fascinating report." She couldn't keep the mourning out of her voice. Earth felt very far away. "But what if no one ever reads it?"
"I will," Edwin said. "Every word." Then he bent down. His lips brushed her forehead for a moment. Nothing more. But the memory of home faded away, into the now-familiar white walls of the biolab -- her biolab -- and the face of a man who had saved a deadly, venomous, New Eden scorpion just for her.
Salt and Sand
by Kate O'Connor
Artwork by Anna Repp
* * *
The blood-orange sun was slumping towards the western horizon when the funeral boat came ashore, groaning in defeat as it crested onto the sand. Saesa had watched the boat throughout the day, tracking its slow progress in between settling her other visitors. The little boat had teased her, coming close and then drifting back out with the tide, but it had finally arrived.
Saesa held still, savoring the moment before she went to peel back flesh and crack bones to reveal this next visitor's story. Her pointed teeth ached with wanting and her mouth watered. There was a lifetime of thought and emotion that would be waiting just beneath the skin of the next corpse.
A board creaked and Saesa froze. There shouldn't be any noise. Funeral ships only brought one thing. The sound had been sharp and immediate - too sudden for Saesa's beach and the long line of empty vessels left by her day's work.
Something shifted just beyond the boat's railing. Before Saesa had time to react, a thin figure lurched upwards, sprawling over the rail and tumbling d
own onto the hot sand.
Saesa jumped back, her heart thundering in her chest. She had seen living people countless times in memories, but to have one in front of her was another matter entirely.
The figure moved, coughing and choking as it pushed itself up. Saesa stared. The woman was as gaunt as a corpse, but very much alive. Her face was pinched and pointed as she collapsed back onto the hot sand and lay still, breathing heavily. Her clothing was simple and filthy, faded to a colorless brown by long use. A sword hung from her belt.
Saesa skirted around her to the far side of the boat. Her throat ached with hunger. The woman's presence didn't change her need to get to the boat. Living memories and warm flesh wouldn't feed her. The boat could not have reached the island without another passenger.
She climbed over the side of the boat, sparing one more glance for the living woman. The woman remained still and oblivious to Saesa's presence. A soft tendril of memory beckoned to Saesa on the familiar smell of decay. It whispered sweetness and deep, raw yearning.
A girl lay towards the bow of the little boat, tucked carefully in a rough-worn horse blanket. The braids in her thick blonde hair were slightly crooked and her small hands were folded over a tiny, rust-spotted dagger.
Saesa settled beside the girl, brushing her round cheek with gentle fingers. She closed her eyes, hearing the sand stirring in the wind, the heartbeat of the constant waves echoed by the living woman's breath scarcely a boat-length away. Letting her own self drift, Saesa lifted the girl's hand to her mouth. The rot-softened skin was slick and yielding against her lips. She bit down, pointed teeth working until tepid, sluggish blood and splintery ivory bone released the first hints of the girl's memories.
Rin curled tight as a hard toe connected with her upper arm. Stupid city kids and their shoes. It was a glancing blow, but it stung. The three boys boxing her in were still shouting insults. She spat at them and they closed in once more.
Her desperate eyes settled on Tallis leaning against the wall of the gem merchant's shop as calmly as though she were watching the clouds pass by. Rin opened her mouth to call for help, but her mother's grey eyes met hers with all the warmth of winter stones. She snapped her jaw shut, twisting away from the next blow. Tallis's expression said everything. This was Rin's mess to deal with.
Rin forced herself to move, clawing and biting as she tried to get out from under the bigger boys. The silence that would come if Tallis decided she had embarrassed their mercenary band would be far worse than scrapes and bruises.
"Rin!" Garen's bellow was enough to make the boys pause, even from half a block down the road. She heaved herself up, taking advantage of their distraction to dig an elbow into a vulnerable thigh. The boy yelped and grabbed her hair. She swung her slender arms, shrieking in pain and frustration.
The hand in her hair let go abruptly and another latched on to the back of her tunic. She struggled harder. If they managed to pick her up, there wouldn't be much she could do. The fabric burned against her skin as she twisted as far as she could, digging her nails into the hand and bending the thumb back.
"Dammit, Rin! Pay attention to whether you're swinging at an ally or an enemy!" Garen shook her gently. She froze, the blood rushing to her cheeks making her face feel hot.
"Sorry, Garen." She looked around for her attackers. One of the boys was on his rump in a horse trough, dripping as he looked at Garen with huge, startled eyes. The other two had retreated to a safer distance.
"Don't worry about it, kid." He set her down, dusting off the back of her tunic with a few rough pats. "You're getting too old for this."
"Then you shouldn'ta saved me." She glared down at her bare toes, squinting hard against the shameful tears that were threatening. There was nothing worse than needing to be rescued. It would have been better if she had lost the fight. It might even have been better if she had run away. Scarcely daring to look, she glanced over towards the gem merchant's shop. Her heart dropped to her stomach and sat there like a lump of spoiled meat. Tallis was gone.
A keening wail broke Saesa out of her trance. She leapt backwards off of the boat as the sword point whistled past her nose. It smelled of steel and old blood.
Tallis was barely recognizable as the tall, cold woman she had seen in Rin's memory. Her grey eyes were hot and wild as she swung the sword again.
"Stay away!" The slender sword whipped out towards her, glinting golden in the light of the setting sun.
Saesa leapt nimbly away, scuttling up the bare trunk of a palm until she was high enough to avoid the sword's edge. Saesa looked hard at the weapon. Some of her visitors had known the feel of sharp metal too well. She didn't think it would kill her, but she didn't want to find out.
"Don't touch her." The woman stood unsteadily between Saesa and the boat, her fawn-brown hair flaming as brightly as the sword. In spite of the woman's obvious exhaustion, the point of the weapon was leveled unerringly at Saesa's chest.
"I must." Saesa's voice was as raspy as wind-blown sand. The words came from a long way away, from a thousand memories gathered like shells from countless bodies on the beach. She could not remember having ever spoken before. It made her throat feel strange and tight.
The woman's eyes turned inward as she drew herself up. "No."
"She is mine." Saesa clung to the trunk of the swaying tree, grasping for enough of the half-understood words to explain. "She is mine," she repeated in frustration. The dead that came had to be hers. Saesa existed to pass their memories back to the world.
The woman's grey eyes jerked up to meet hers. Saesa bared her pointed teeth in challenge as they stared at each other. Tallis's sun-reddened face paled and she stumbled back. "You're dani," she whispered.
Sensing an advantage in the woman's fear, Saesa slid easily back down to the sand. Dani missed the truth of her. She wasn't a demon and it wasn't just the corpses she wanted; it was the memories hiding in flesh and bone that drove her.
The woman backed away until she came up against the unforgiving bulk of the boat. The weight of it seemed to steady her and she met Saesa's eyes again. "You won't lay a finger on her." Her voice trembled and her knuckles were white on the sword hilt. "I'll kill you first."
The fading light in the west drew Saesa's eye. The memories she had already gathered swirled uneasily in her mind, nearly ready to be released. It was time to return to her nest to digest and let the memories she had gathered return to the world. Without their occupants, these boats and their worldly goods would crumble to sand in the darkness. The beach would be fresh and clean come morning, except for this woman and the girl.
Tallis took advantage of her distraction and lashed out again. With Rin's shame echoing in her mind, Saesa turned and ran.
Saesa huddled in her soft nest in the soaring canopy, shivering as she waited for the memories to settle in her mind and return to the heart of the world. Tallis's presence caused new and terrifying emotion. Saesa's waking eyes had seen what Rin had known and she had lost herself.
Saesa shook her head hard, sending her tangled black hair into her eyes. It couldn't be allowed to happen again. She had a duty to the dead who came to the island. Without her, their memories would be lost, drifting as ghosts until they faded to nothing.
Rin deserved better. All of Saesa's visitors did. She got to her feet. She would have to find another way to deal with Tallis.
When Saesa returned to the beach in the morning, Tallis had her shoulder to the bow of the boat, gaunt face bright red as she tried to push it back out to sea. It rocked a little in the pale sand before jolting forward a scant few inches.
Saesa watched from the safety of a flat rock, hands twisting in her lap. Other boats were coming ashore, begging for her attention, but she couldn't tear herself away. She didn't know if a boat could leave, but if this one did, she doubted it would ever return. Rin would be lost.
Tallis was relentless, still strong in spite of whatever ordeal had brought her to Saesa's island. Several times, Saesa moved forward. W
henever she shifted, Tallis's hand would drop to her sword. For the first time in an existence that had spanned eternity, Saesa was helpless. She wasn't strong enough to overpower Tallis and she couldn't bear to let Rin's memories be lost.
The boat left the shore in a rush. Saesa reached out into the emptiness between them, wanting to hold the tiny vessel back. For the first time since Saesa had returned to the beach, Tallis's proud face was triumphant as she threw herself over the railing and paddled hard against the waves.
The boat wallowed, looking for a moment as though it would break through the current. Saesa's heart leapt as the waves won, pushing the craft high up on the white sand once more. Tallis threw herself out of the boat again, shoving until she slid down to the sand, trembling with exhaustion.
"You will go nowhere without a sail." Saesa approached slowly. The woman seemed too tired to lift her sword, but that had been no guarantee before.
"Then I'll get one." Tallis got to her feet and marched on shaking legs towards the nearest of the other boats.
"Everything will turn to salt and sand without my desire for it to stay," Saesa said.
"Help me then." The relentless command in her weary voice forced Saesa to swallow down a snarl. She was neither a dog nor a soldier.
"No." Saesa raised her chin. Their eyes locked. She could see the woman gauging her resolve, looking for a weakness that would force Saesa's cooperation.
"There has to be a way." Tallis turned away.
"The dead come here to stay," Saesa said firmly.
"I'm not leaving her here to be eaten." Tallis's hand returned to her sword again. "I came to get her back." The woman's voice broke.