Up and Coming: Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors

by Anthology

  “I always find you here,” he said.

  “You came.” She rolled toward him, forgetting everything that had happened since they were last together. For a moment in her early morning fog, she was just a girl in love with the boy she would be spending the rest of her life with.

  His eyes moved down her naked body but instead of the hunger she expected to find, all she saw was revulsion.

  “How can you stand it?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Having something inside of you. Can you feel it, moving in there like some kind of tapeworm?” His lips turned up in an ugly snarl.

  She placed a protective hand over her stomach and sat up. She felt strong like this. The world, the moon, the universe, all existed within her body. Her ancestors had known this power.

  “It’s just a child,” she said.

  “It’s a monster, Nila.”

  “It hasn’t done anything. It hasn’t even taken a breath. How can it be a monster?”

  “You have to undo this. Whatever happened to you there, I can forgive it. I can let all of it slip by us and move forward. But that thing is…I don’t even have the words.” Hate shone in his eyes, distorting his features until she didn’t even recognize him.

  “What they did to you is unforgiveable,” he went on. “To take you from us, to keep you from me, to hurt you, and then force you to endure…” He glared at her distended stomach again. “I’ve been so desperate to come see you, to hold you again. I missed you so much, Nila. Come home with me.”

  “How? My father told the doctor to operate, to take the baby from me.”

  “Of course! You can’t…you can’t keep it.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s not Sualwet. It’s not anything. You can’t pretend it’s a hatchling and raise it in the city with the other children.”

  “I knew that as soon as my father realized what happened to me. Adal, listen. We could run, just like we talked about.” She reached out for his hand, but he snatched it away.

  “Why?”

  “Because they’re going to cut me open!”

  “To get that thing out!”

  “Don’t yell at me. You don’t have any idea what it’s been like. What this feels like!”

  “I know, Nila. I know you’ve been through worse than most men who’ve been at the war front. I can’t even imagine what they did to you because when I do, I start seeing red and I can’t even think straight.” Finally, he took her hand.

  “Then you have to understand. I can’t do it. I can’t kill something that isn’t even alive yet.”

  “Why protect them?”

  “I’m not.”

  “You are. That thing is Erdlander.”

  “It’s not. It’s not Erdlander, and it’s not a thing. It’s just a baby.”

  Adal pulled his hand back, recoiling at the word. “Sualwets don’t have babies.”

  “We used to, many, many years ago.” She reached for him, dropping her body into the water to swim closer to him. “It’s not so impossible to believe.”

  “Why would you want some Erdlander’s bastard? Did you love him?”

  “It wasn’t like that. They told you what they did to me!”

  “If it was just some shot they gave you, some test they ran, you’d get rid of it. But if these barbarians had cut off your leg and put a fin there, you’d be begging the doctors to put you back right. I know you would. Why is this different?”

  His words rattled her resolve. He was right. She had resisted everything they did to her, every experiment, every test. She had longed to be home again, yet now she was so willing to give that very home up. For what? For some medical impossibility? Adaltan was all she’d ever wanted. She loved him, and she’d longed for their life together to start since the first moment he swam past her almost ten years ago.

  Almost as if in reply, the being within her rolled, pressing itself against her stomach, causing her flesh to undulate. She grinned, so proud that this life grew strong despite everything it had to overcome. But when she returned her attention to Adaltan, his face had paled to a shade of green.

  “Nilafay, it’s disgusting.”

  She knew, watching his horrified expression as the child squirmed and rolled and pushed against her body, that she would have to choose. She could have the life she’d always dreamed of, freedom and love, or she could have the child she’d never expected.

  The decision came surprisingly easily.

  “Adal, do you love me?”

  “With depths unknown.”

  “Then come with me. I know a place where we’ll be safe.”

  He backed away, the water pushing her back as he drifted farther. “I would go with you. If it was just us. But I can’t with that.” He pointed at her belly. “Don’t ask me to love another man’s…another species’s…child.”

  “But I do. I love it.”

  “More than you love me?”

  With tears in her eyes, she nodded.

  Adaltan’s image wavered in her vision, and then as quickly as he appeared, he drifted down into the sea, leaving Nilafay alone and more determined than ever to protect the life she’d been given.

  ***

  The noonday sun filtered through the clear water of the cove Nilafay now called home. Beneath the surface, she held her hatchling—no her child, as this strange, pink-skinned babe had never hatched. She sang songs from the distant Domed City and ran her fingers through her daughter’s swiftly growing shock of dark hair. The tresses drifted out in the water like tentacles reaching for the light.

  When the hottest part of the day passed, Nilafay carried her baby out of the water.“ What shall I call you, tiny creature?”

  The little girl cooed and kicked out with tiny toes.

  “It won’t do to call you ‘It’ or ‘Thing,’ will it? We’ll have to settle on a proper name, one that will carry you through life with your head held high.” Nilafay sat in the sand and held the squirming baby to her breast. Her daughter calmed quickly and gripped at her mother’s skin while settling into nursing.

  The air dried the water from Nilafay’s flesh, leaving her cool in the afternoon air, but the warmth of her child kept her comfortable. The last month had been anything but comfortable. Carrying the weight of the rapidly growing child had thrown off her gait and made swimming difficult. But still she had continued on, foraging for supplies she and her child would need once it was born.

  Now that she held the baby in her arms, the love she felt burst from her heart. Every trial she’d endured, every abandonment she suffered had been worth it. While others might only see abomination, Nilafay saw a bright future when she stared into the silver eyes of the child she’d borne. She hadn’t considered herself strong before, but now she knew what it meant to carry life, and that gave her the strength to overcome anything.

  A lifetime ago, she’d dreamed of freedom and adventure, of living far away from the rules of the Domed City. She’d wanted nothing more than to sleep in the open beneath the ruby moon. She had everything she’d thought she wanted and more.

  Despite what the Erdlanders had been done to her, she could never hate them, not really. They were the reason she had this gift. Vaughn had been a means to an end, her body a sacrifice in exchange for her freedom, but looking at the drowsy eyes of their daughter, she felt no regret. As time passed, she even harbored a kind of nostalgia for the time she’d spent with Vaughn. Given time, could they have actually come to care for one another? In another world, where the differences between their races held less importance, she might have even allowed herself to really love him.

  Her daughter drifted to sleep in her arms. “Sera,” she whispered, thinking fondly of her housefille who would never be allowed to have children of her own. “I think I’ll call you Serafay.”

  Nilafay looked up to the sky, no longer so enamored with the moons as she once was. Instead the glittering stars that spread across the open expanse caught her attention. Their light rained down on her, sp
arkling in her daughter’s silver eyes like moon dust.

  Avendui 5ive(Short story)

  by P.K. Tyler

  originally published by Windrift Books in The Cyborg Chronicles

  Two Weeks Ago

  Fifteen minutes into her first dig, Avendui 5ive fell to her knees, and her newly installed shin-plates shifted, threatening to reopen the healing wound holding them in place.

  Rina 5ive rolled her eyes. “Move it. You’re holding up the whole class.”

  Nineteen years old and barely out of Ecumenical School, Avi was going to die lying in the dirt. The dim light of the tunnel flickered in her vision as she grasped at her throat. “I can’t breathe.”

  Each breath she pulled in came faster and the dusty air filled her mouth, drying out her tongue before she could get the next lungful. She was drying out from the inside, her lungs filling with dirt and grime with each inhale, making it impossible to catch her breath.

  “Just calm down. It takes a moment to get used to it, but you’re fine.” Rina stood next to her, arms crossed but offering her no aid as she lay on the ground. Just like a Tek.

  The underground tunnel tilted on its side in her vision. The rest of the class stood around her, annoyed. Part of Avi was surprised they didn’t just leave her there and keep going on their trek below Mezna City. It’s not like she had any friends. Being an opinionated Tek didn’t win positive attention, and questions were discouraged. Teks did the work their series had been designed for, nothing more. No friends, no parents, no lovers. They may have been born people, as organic as any other, but the implants and coding they received had turned them into Teks. All function and form, no soul.

  But Avi was broken. Not just because she couldn’t breathe, she’d been broken long before that. No matter how she tried to hide it, she couldn’t help feeling lucky. Because what the other Teks denied themselves, she’d found. Love.

  And now, deep below the remains of Old Nuuk, Greenland, she was drowning in the dirt. As a 5ive, her series was tasked with tending the alien terraforming biotechnology that built the city. The streets, even the buildings, were a living, growing organism. Keeping it healthy meant keeping their home alive. The parasitic organism sent tendrils down through the layers of the Earth, seeking nutrients and minerals.

  Her only function in life was to untangle tendrils that became knotted together and drill for nutrient veins. Her enhancements were supposed to help her function in high CO2 concentrations.

  But the DNA and physical form alterations didn’t help Avi.

  Pain clenched down around her chest. Her carbon lung must be malfunctioning. The pain of it radiated down her arm and the tighter the vice became, the harder she struggled to catch her breath. “I can’t…”

  Black spots in Avi’s vision alternated with bright white flashes, and her entire body became heavy, as if engulfed in cryogel.

  The lights went out.

  ***

  “What do you mean I can’t see her?” Virgil 9ine roared at the massive Med-tek standing at the door of the 5ive Infirmary.

  The large man backed up. Surprise widened his eyes as Virgil stepped closer, towering over him. The external fastenings and implanted tack access of the average Tek was unimpressive when compared to the strands of iron-fiber laced throughout Virgil’s 9ine Series flesh. And Virgil was the epitome of a 9ine. He had always been big, and his body took to the DNA recoding and alien Mezna biological compounds naturally. His implants healed quickly and his eyes shone the brightest blue of any of the Teks. Right now, they shone through the narrow eyes of a very pissed-off man.

  Teks weren’t allowed to marry and weren’t supposed to pair off for more than the occasional release of sexual needs, but Avi had been there for him during the darkest times in his life, and he loved her more than he could imagine any species on any planet capable. All their hiding to keep from being discovered out of fear that one of them would be transferred out of Greenland meant nothing to him right now. Panic at knowing something had gone wrong in the tunnels and knowing she was here made him forget all the politics and rules. He had to know she was safe.

  The guard squared his shoulders. “Only Med-teks and Upper 5ives are permitted inside the 5ive Infirmary.”

  Virgil sneered and stepped closer still, the artificial light of the domed hall highlighting the patches of natural skin shining through the metal weave intertwined with his flesh. “I don’t think you understand. I’m going in there to see Avi and there isn’t much you can do about it.”

  “Don’t threaten him.” Avi’s weak voice came from further inside the infirmary.

  Virgil charged toward her voice and the Med-tek danced out of his way, disappearing down the hall.

  When Virgil saw her laid out on the infirmary bed, needles in her arms and wearing a white tunic instead of the black the 5ive Series usually wore, his panic doubled. “I heard you passed out.”

  “During our training.” She sighed and laid her head back on the pillow, black hair sticking out in a frizzy mess.

  “Did your carbon lung not filter the air correctly?” He stood a foot away from her bed. Now that he could see her for himself, he remembered what was at risk if anyone knew what they meant to each other. He wanted to reach out and run a finger down the black access bar that bisected every Tek’s chest. Worry seeped into his pores as he scanned her system.

  He’d tacked into the 3Spek information grid to pull up her medfile. The data scanned through his mind as he directed the search, finally pulling up her file and reading over it. He could skim the local drives without accessing the dataweave. Something they’d both sworn to never do. Not after Nelson.

  “The Med-teks can’t find anything wrong.” She smiled and reached out a hand. “Stop searching the files, I can tell what you’re doing even if you aren’t accessing the data threads. Aren’t you going to come give me a physical? Maybe some mouth-to-mouth?”

  Virgil frowned. “You aren’t funny.” He glanced around to see if anyone may have heard.

  “You mean to tell me you berated that poor Med-tek into letting you in and now you aren’t even going to say hello properly?”

  Virgil’s resolve crumbled. She’d charmed him, like he was the Serpent and she the beguiling Wasp. He came closer and sat on the very edge of the bed. When she reached for him, he scooped her up in his arms and held her as tight as he dared against his chest. Touching her, he could finally breathe again.

  “When I heard you were here, I panicked. Mother Goddess, Avi, I was so scared.”

  “I’m fine,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his impenetrable flesh.

  Despite having metal woven into his skin, Avi’s kisses felt like the softest breath of spring air. Virgil lowered his head into her hair and took a deep breath before releasing her.

  “So there’s nothing wrong with you?” Virgil placed a thick hand, engineered to hold heavy tools, on her stomach. The feather-shaped burn branded across the back reminded him of everything they had been through.

  “Nothing. They don’t know what happened. It was awful, though.”

  “Tell me.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, but none of the drills we did, none of the training in the basement tunnels, is anything like being down there. I don’t know if it’s the CO2 levels or not, but the earth, it smells. It’s damp and everything you touch flakes away, leaving a residue of grime against your skin. Dirt and grime. They’d always told us, so I knew what it would be like. I’d even touched organic dirt in the labs, but being down there, surrounded by nothing but roots and stone, it’s disgusting.”

  Avi’s heart sped up and her breath quickened.

  Virgil watched helplessly as her eyes darted around the room, dilated and fearful.

  “Avi, I’m right here. You’re okay.”

  “It’s so awful,” she cried.

  “Shhhh.” He pulled her back to his chest, this time not caring who saw. “I’ve got you. I’m right here.”
<
br />   6 Years Ago

  The cafeteria swam with young bodies, all eager to partake in the holy festivities on the Feast of the Living Mother, to celebrate the ancient arrival of the Mezna on Earth. All the Series 2wos, 6ixes, and even the secluded 9ines, intermingled.

  Twelve-year-old Virgil watched as the children in his series tried to make friends with the others. Usually the 9ines ate in the dorms, not even trying to socialize with the other Tek children. Virgil hated being separated from the others, but had always been too shy to try and approach any of the other Series’ kids.

  Virgil watched as his precocious bunkmate approached a short-haired 6ix, the skin around her ocular implant puckered and pink. “Hi, I’m Nelson.”

  Her one biological eye widened as she looked up, taking in Nelson’s size. She stepped back, panic on her face. Virgil could hear her breathing speed up, her pulse quicken, and her diaphragm contract. She was going to scream.

  Virgil stepped forward, hands up to calm her, but before he got there, another girl stepped up. “Hi, I’m Avendui, but you can call me Avi. You’re a 9ine, right?”

  Nelson’s face lit up as he held out his metal-laced hand shining in the light of the temple. “Yes. What gave it away?”

  “Don’t talk to him,” the first girl whispered as Avi laughed. The girl’s gaze swept to Virgil. “Sweet Mother! You’re even bigger!”

  Avi slapped her friend on the arm. “Don’t be so rude, Florence!”

  “They’re freaks,” she said, turning her back and walking away in a huff.

  Nelson’s face fell.

  Virgil liked Nelson. He was always the first to offer to help the younger 9ines when they moved into the bunkroom with the older kids and never minded taking the time to talk to someone. Virgil didn’t have any siblings, none of the Teks did. They had all been abandoned and taken in by the temple. But if he could pick one person to be his brother, it would be Nelson. It broke his heart to see anyone to be so cruel to him.

  “You aren’t a freak,” Virgil said, placing an adult-sized hand on his friend’s shoulder.

  “Of course you aren’t,” Avi said, her hands balled up in fists. Anger permeated her words as she whispered something Virgil himself had always thought but had never been brave enough to say. “It’s bad enough the people in the city treat us like slaves. We shouldn’t turn on each other.”