by Hanna, K. T.
Dom smiles and glances over. “We’re pulling up to the farthest town and dumping ‘the goods’ as you call it. Farthest away and then work our way back methodically. We should get halfway home before we run out. We’ll have to head back and get the next batch from Kayde.”
“Two trips?” She raises her hands at the ceiling in a classic ‘why me’ gesture and laughs. “Two trips it is then. I guess we can’t expect Kayde to wave a wand and have it all magically appear.”
“Kayde has to process a lot,” Dom adds with a completely straight face.
Sai laughs. “You’re being mean to her. Why’re you mean to her?”
Dom blinks, his eyes flashing through rainbows again. “Because she’s…always around you.” He shrugs. “And she annoys me.”
“You get annoyed?” Sai speaks the words slowly, still stuck on the first part of the statement. “And she isn’t always around me.”
His eyes don’t leave her face. “No. Maybe she’s not. But you always seem close.”
Sai suddenly feels unsure of herself. Is he upset with her? “No one is closer to me than you, Dom.”
“What?” His eyes settle back on their sparkling silver, somehow luminescent as he focuses on her. If she watches them for long enough, they’ll hypnotize her, so she looks away.
“I said no one is closer to me than you.”
He grunts, and as she turns back, she sees a small smile playing at the corner of his mouth with none of the usual alien hints.
Sai smiles to herself and digs for a pair of sunglasses. The sun is far too bright even with the shielding. How on earth Mele manages not to turn to ashes is beyond her. Despite enjoying the relative companionship between them, there’s this distinct lack of control. After fidgeting for a bit, she finally blurts out, “So do we have a plan? Like what PCs, where do we go, are we doing this under the cover of nightfall or just kind of whenever we can sneak in and fill their filtration systems with goop?”
“Truthfully?”
“Preferably.”
“All of that. We’re going to visit PC 29 first and work our way down the chain. Some of their systems are accessible from the outside; many aren’t. If my experience in Central is anything to go by, we’ll need both of us for most of these. Either way, I’d feel safer with you to watch my back. Damascus will probably be patrolling the streets. There’s nothing safe about this mission.”
“Okay.” Sai blinks, taking in the list of everything to do. “Any reason why PC 29 first?”
He laughs and sets several dials on Mele into place before turning to face her. “It’s the most distant from Central. Take out the spider’s legs and it can’t move its body.”
“Still has snapping jaws, though.” She grins at him, ignoring his mimicry of rolling his eyes. Then a thought strikes her. “It’s not poison to those who have the dormant gene, right?”
Dom shakes his head. “It’s a type of relaxant. It’ll relieve just enough of the coercion to let them think for themselves. When it’s used in conjunction with a normal filter, the payload in it will disperse into the dome over time. It’s just like breathing. Besides, Kayde tested it on herself. She’s fine.”
“Is that annoying, too?”
Sai meant it as a joke, but Dom doesn’t miss a beat. “In a way. What if it had been poisonous and she’d died? Who was going to develop the counter-agent then?”
“Wow, you think in ways I wouldn’t even contemplate.”
“It’s why they give me all the best jobs.” Dom grins and shifts down a gear.
Sai watches as he guides Mele close to a rock cluster—or maybe it was once a farm dwelling. Too much time has passed to tell. People used to live out here on the plains, in cottages with fields of green and tractors to till them. She can’t even imagine a life where the sun isn’t lethal, where going outside in the daylight is tantamount to suicide. “Do you ever wonder if our planet will get back to where it was?”
Dom shakes his head. “I don’t worry about impossibilities. None of us should.”
“Why is it impossible?”
He looks at her for a good second or two. “The ozone layer is gone and the sun will never get any further away. Maybe one day it’ll explode. Which means one day even what we have now could be gone. But nothing out here will ever be green again—or at least not green and stay that way.”
Sai leans back in her chair and closes her eyes. She tries not to dwell on the way she wishes it was. “Do you think the dominos will be okay?”
“You did well,” Dom says instead of answering her question.
“No, I mean, did we help them?” She sits back up and focuses on him until he looks her way.
“In a way.” He shrugs at her and relaxes in his chair. “They want names, you know.”
“Say what?”
He chuckles. “They want names. They don’t want numbers anymore. And they want the right to fight for their own beliefs.”
“They have beliefs?” Sai can’t quite wrap her head around that.
Dom raises an eyebrow. “Do I not have beliefs and personality? What about abilities and a name?”
“Your name doesn’t count. It’s not exactly the most original thing in the world.”
“Neither is Sai, but they’re part of what defines us.” His eyes linger on hers just briefly.
“Touché.” She smiles. “So they want to be themselves, to find themselves? And what beliefs are these that would drive them to fight?”
“Much the same as our own. Idiots shouldn’t have any power.”
“Ah.” Sai stretches, trying to get comfortable. “I like them more and more each day.”
The sun is setting on the horizon when they finally make it. Sai blinks at the blood red tinge to the sky. “Is that a bad omen, do you think?” she asks half-heartedly. Just as she thought, Dom doesn’t answer but continues to transfer the cylindrical filtration containers to his backpack.
“We have about thirty minutes if we want to hit more PCs tonight.”
“How many?” She knows they can make it faster because of Mele but has no idea how long this whole process will take them.
“I’d prefer we make two more. That’ll make it three, and it’s only because these are closer together than others. Usually it’ll take us more time.”
Sai hefts her own bag with the tools they’ll need and flexes her arms and legs. The latter no longer feel foreign to her; they’re solid, strong, and reliable. “You said we’ll have to find a shaft?”
Dom nods. “It’s a strange shaft. I only found it when Bastian got captured. Not too easily accessible but doable. They’ve never been the smartest.”
Sai laughs. “You do realize the GNW didn’t actually build the PCs, right? They were here beforehand—they just happened to move into them when they cheated control off the, if you can believe it, even more corrupt government that went before.”
He glances at her. There’s a strange heat about him that’s not usually there. “You’ve been wanting to use that little speech for a very long time, haven’t you?”
“Yes, I have. I wanted a larger audience, but you’ll have to do.” Sai perks up at Dom’s smile. Maybe all the drama in her head will die down and leave her alone. Maybe his odd moods will abate. At least enough so she can enjoy herself while they sabotage the airways of one of her own people’s cities in an attempt to overthrow the government. Just another day at the office.
She groans softly. When she puts it that way, it’s a wonder she doesn’t have a panic attack and start screaming.
“Sai?”
Dom’s light touch against the small of her back is strangely comforting. Anyone else and she’d have jumped sky high or else punched them. “Sorry. Was lost in thought.”
He eyes her strangely for a minute and moves out. “Stay close. I’ll lead—we don’t need to be getting lost.”
The humor in his voice makes her bat at his back. If it wasn’t for their mission, she’d almost feel relaxed.
No one pay
s attention to them as they move through the darker side of the city. Buildings are in disrepair, and the dome covering everything has some tears in it, only haphazardly patched up, letting out precious air into the hostile atmosphere.
“Their filtration systems must be working overtime.” Sai lowers her voice so it’s just above a whisper, knowing Dom will hear her.
With a slight nod, he drops back a few steps to walk beside her. Still, no one looks at them. Everyone is off doing menial tasks, scrounging for drugs and food, or reveling in their deliberate obliviousness. Sai remembers hating it when she lived it, but somehow it’s become so much more understandable, knowing what she knows now.
“The domes are technically repaired with a transparent version of the white mesh that otherwise covers it. Light-canceling mesh wasn’t in this PC’s budget at the last check.” He shrugs. “The further they are from Central, the less say they have in everything. Don’t worry. Kayde knows. She has her hands in all of the databases. There’s no way she didn’t compensate for those PCs whose filtration systems are laboring. That’s why each canister is labeled. Once it’s in the air, the canister is programmed to output what’s needed to maintain the correct dilution for the six-month span she planned.”
“What happens if it malfunctions?” Sai blinks up at Dom, suddenly worried for the poor people around them. All of this is out of their control. Not only has the GNW appropriated their thoughts, but the Exiled are about to dump them in a sea full of confusion.
He pauses. “It would have to explode the filtration system to do these humans harm.”
Sai nods, and Dom pulls ahead again to scout out and locate the shaft they need. The view around them is fascinating. It’s been so long since Sai was in one of the PCs, way back five years ago now, when she demolished her entire block. She remembers the thoughts these people have and the things they go through. Having been in their place, her heart goes out to them, but if they are anything like her, pity is the last thing they need.
What they need is a detox, some decent food, clothes, and a job. In short, they just need someone to care. She wrinkles her nose at the smell, fully aware that at one point she thought all this was normal. After all, it’s where the majority dwell in most PCs.
Those who have, keep having, and those who struggle end up with nothing. Sometimes even less than that.
Her thoughts pass back to the parents who never wanted her or loved her. She regrets their deaths, but only because she never got the chance to tell them to get out of her life.
“Ouch.” She bumps face-first into Dom as he stands in the middle of an alley, the blocks on either side rising up into the flickering lights of the dome. “Give a girl some warning next time,” she mutters under her breath as she rubs her nose.
Dom glances over his shoulder. “I’ve been standing here for about ten seconds. What warning would you like next time?”
She sighs. There’s something about being out with Dom. He sets her on edge, and yet she always feels safe. It’s an odd feeling these days. She’s so used to being the one who keeps others safe now. “Yeah, I get it.”
A few steps more and she’s standing next to him, looking down through a rather large circular grate at a shaft that appears bottomless. “This is it?” she asks, her tone dubious.
He nods and takes her backpack off her, fishing inside. “You’ll need these.” He pulls out gloves with spikes on them. “You’re going to learn something today—if your new limbs have fully integrated, that is.” He grins slyly at her.
“Or what?” she asks suspiciously.
“Or I’ll be scraping you off the bottom of that pit. Wherever it is…” Dom’s nose wrinkles. “Or I could just leave you down there to rot. I don’t think they’d notice the smell around here.”
Sai scowls at him, forgetting every lesson Bastian ever taught her about schooling her features. “That’s really not nice.” He chuckles as he loosens the grate, and she steps uneasily from one foot to the other. “Seriously, though, Dom. What am I doing?”
“You just need to shape your feet a little sharper so you can dig in and gain a good foothold.” His tone is so matter-of-fact that she gapes at him.
“Say what?”
He frowns for a moment and holds out his hand to display. “Just sharpen the edges a little, so you can jab your foot into the mortar gaps and gain good hold.” His hand smooths at the side, and his fingertips become spikes with which to grip, just like the gloves he gave her.
“You want me to go barefoot?”
“Sai, you don’t have human feet anymore. Nothing is going to cut your feet or make your skin dry or do any of those things people worry about. I thought you would have realized it by now.”
Sai can feel her face flush. “Realized what?”
“The fact that most of your lower body can now be used as a weapon. It is a weapon. You are stronger than you ever were, and your legs and feet can be lethal if you want them to.” Dom stands and looks at her and then down to her feet. “Take your shoes off and trust me.”
Sai gulps, and her hands suddenly feel clammy, like she’ll slip off everything. Slowly undoing the buckles on her boots, she steps out of them and hugs herself, peering down at the strange skin-colored substance that now makes up a substantial part of her body.
“Extend your foot and just…visualize what it is you want it to be and exert your psionics toward it.” He sounds almost eager, like it’s something he’s been waiting to share with her.
She can’t help the small gasp that escapes her as her foot changes shape. “What…”
“See.” Dom smiles at her. The expression is full of understanding. Sai only wishes she could understand it, too. “Don’t try and walk on it like that, though. You just want to do this as your climbing. Don’t worry—I’ll have a lead rope on you. After this one you’ll take to it like a duck on water.”
“Doesn’t adrium sink?”
“Okay, then a bird to flight. Better?”
Sai smiles despite herself and her inner terror. Dom’s trying so hard to make her feel at ease, and here she is squandering time they don’t really have. “Couldn’t you have taught me this in Mele? I mean it was a long drive here…”
He blinks at her. “I hadn’t thought of it.”
There’s an oddly sad overtone to his words, and she takes pity on him, even though her nerves are skyrocketing. Practice would have helped. “Lead rope me, boss. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” As long as I don’t look down, I should be fine. There are some conversations better left in her head.
The stones that form the wall seem older than the rest of the city. There’s a dampness to them and a fine sliver of mold in places. Lowering herself into the shaft, with Dom waiting patiently above, she concentrates like he showed her and extends her foot. Her feet can feel the contours and exact patterns of the rocks, not to mention crevices and the detail in the moss, but they don’t feel wet or hurt. When she finds the right gap, she estimates the size of the spike she needs to mold. After several false-starts, she gets it right, and the foothold is secure.
Gingerly, she puts all her weight on it and repeats the process with the other leg. The hold with her hands is far less secure because the gloves, while fitting, still aren’t a part of her.
It doesn’t feel like she thought it would as she climbs down, slowly getting used to the action and reaction of thought and power exerted through her legs to form them differently. The sensations are slightly dull, and yet even more vibrant at the same time. The ability to morph her legs is sort of scary and a little exhilarating.
Explaining it is difficult, even to herself. This is what Dom feels all the time. That sudden realization makes a few things about him much clearer and understandable. But thinking in that vein scares her, too, because despite everything, he’s not quite human.
Her legs might be strong and made of an amazing material, but her upper body strength has never had to get used to climbing. Punching just isn’t the same thing. By the t
ime Dom shuffles past her to an odd opening emitting a rather loud whirr, she feels like her arms are going to fall off.
“Here.” He reaches out and takes her hand, guiding her to the tiny ledge. Sai knows she should probably be focusing on something else, but the huge ventilation fan a foot in front of her face is taking up all the logical space in her brain.
“That’s our way in?”
“That’s our way in. You up to phasing?”
“Kind of have to be, don’t I?” Her teeth are chattering, and it’s not from the cold. Sai is more nervous than she’s ever been in her life. In front of her there are whirling blades, and a step behind her lies a long fall to certain death, regardless of how amazing her legs might be.
“You can do this, Sai. I’ve seen you phase carrying a sick girl who is taller than you. If anyone can do this, you can.”
She smiles tightly and takes a deep breath, clinging to Dom’s reassurance. This mission is so outside of her comfort zone, it’s difficult to center herself. “We’re about to find out, aren’t we?” It’s not that she doesn’t think she can do it; it’s that she’s never phased while standing still before.
Looking behind herself, she steps to the edge and bends her knee, as if about to push off and race. A few deep breaths to center her mind and she phases. Everything moves in slow motion, and for a moment she thinks she’s clear. But the a fan blade catches on her heel just before the end of the phase and she rolls into the wall on the other side. Her breath comes in gasps, but she made it and immediately knows what she did wrong.
Dom reaches out a hand and helps her to her feet, an answering smile on his face. “You did it. Clipped your heel?”
“I misjudged the width, just by a fraction. As long as other ventilation fans are the same, I won’t do that again.” Surviving the phase gives her confidence she didn’t realize she was missing. “Where to now?”
Dom gazes into the dark beyond for a moment, a frown on his face. “The condition of these facilities is even worse than I’d been led to believe. Up there.” He points at a flickering light around knee height. “We need to make it through there.”