He was studying us as much as we were studying him. I watched his eyes move from me to Em and that alone shocked me. No one had been able to see Em my entire life, but me.
He stood near the wreckage of the ship. In this area though, the car wasn’t a crushed tin can of metal—instead, it was intact with the people inside. I knew they were fake, which fell in line with what Em had said about the whole setup being fake.
“He’s pretty,” Em said, glancing back at me.
His brown eyes were hollow, the way mine were. An emptiness that seemed almost haunting. “Who are you?” It didn’t even sound like my voice when I asked.
“Aric.” His voice was strong and direct. He stood with his feet slightly apart, his shoulders back and that metal gleaming from his forearms.
“Where’d you come from?”
“I live here.”
“You live in here?”
He shook his head and slightly grinned. “I live in the Institute. Do you live here, too?”
I nodded, my heart beating faster than it ever had.
“What about you?” He directed his attention to Em.
“I’m stuck to her.” She glanced back at me. “So I’ve lived here with her for sixteen years.”
“Do you know why we’re here?” I asked.
“I do, I do!” Em raised her hand.
“You know why we’re here?” I hated that she kept things from me.
“Yep.” She moved closer to Aric, and I followed her. “I read in Professor Ahern’s emails that Aric is an alien subject in the program and he was found at this wreckage,” she pointed toward the model spaceship, “alive.”
Aric stepped forward and closed the gap a bit more. He squinted his eyes. “You’re the girl, the one who wouldn’t stop screaming.”
When he said it, I remembered. An instant from childhood that I’d thought was buried, back with all the rest of the days after the crash, full of hospital beds and tests.
The scientists had put me in with a strange boy not much older than I had been, metal shining on his skin just like the woman who had hurt me. He’d been so fiercely terrifying that I had practically screamed the building down. I’d screamed until they’d pulled me out of there, scared that he was doing something awful to me.
I’d never seen him again. Until now.
“That was you?” I looked at him closer. It could have been him, yet there was something about the innocence in his eyes that didn’t seem so terrifying. He didn’t seem normal, exactly, but he also didn’t seem like something to run screaming from. On my own, without Em’s coaxing, I took a step toward him.
What was I doing? He was still one of them. He belonged to that woman who hurt me, who gave me this implant, which was the cause of me living in a white-walled institution.
“Oh, ignore Jade.” Em moved closer to Aric, walking around him as though wanting to get a good look at him from every angle. “She doesn’t have any manners. Plus, she’s scared of you because you look like the people who put me into her. Well, you would, obviously, since they were your parents.”
“Em.”
“What? I’m just trying to make conversation. I mean, I bet that if the two of you tried, you could find all kinds of things to talk about. Being trapped in scientific research facilities, being experimented on, being orphans…”
“Em, shut up.” I shook my head. “I’m sorry; she’s not normally that tactless. Well, actually, she is, but since I’m the only one who can see her, it doesn’t normally matter.”
“It’s all right.” Aric looked over at her. “It’s nice to meet you, Em. You, too, Jade.”
I knew I had to ask. “What Em said, about us both being orphans…”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “My parents died in the crash. I can remember parts of it, not much.”
He seemed a lot less threatening when he put it like that, although there was still something strange about him. Maybe it was just that years of nightmares didn’t go away just because one of the nightmares in question happened to be in the same situation.
“They’ve tested you all these years, too?”
“Yes. But…” He trailed off and glanced down at the crash.
“But?” I asked.
“I’ve never felt as calm as I feel right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Usually, there’s this gnawing feeling deep in my gut. It gets so strong that it sends me into fits of rage and that’s when they sedate me. I’ve felt it from the moment…” he stopped and turned.
If I weren’t mistaken, I’d say he was going to cry, but he was an alien and I truly didn’t know how they cried and if it was the same way we did.
“From what moment?” I coaxed.
“Do you remember how scared you were the night they brought us here?”
“Yeah, I remember screaming.”
He chuckled. “You had some powerful lungs. But something drew me to you and I reached out and held your hand. Do you remember that?”
I closed my eyes and let my mind revisit that time in my life. A time when my normal existence as a three-year-old girl was thrown upside down. As I relived that dreadful night, I did remember that comfort I felt when someone took my hand. I just didn’t know it was him.
“I’ve felt this gnawing rage from the moment they separated us. And today is the first time it’s gone away.”
“What does that mean?”
He walked over broken pieces of the spaceship and his long legs had him standing in front of me before I could protest. I swallowed hard, my head tilted up and my eyes staring into his brown eyes. So much loss, so much pain and sorrow and hurt lingered behind those eyes. The same way it lingered behind mine.
He reached down and lifted my hand, lacing his fingers into mine. His hand was much larger, his fingers thicker and his skin was not quite as warm as mine was. A scream, a protest was lodged in my throat but once he locked our fingers tightly, images flashed across my mind. Stars. Planets. A ship built for traveling between them. Creatures like Aric. Vats of swirling, living metal. A whole world connected by silvery lines that seemed to make sense as I watched them.
The room we were in...it felt like I was expanding in that moment, everything I was spreading out to the limits of the make-believe outdoors that we were in, pushing up against those limits. That didn’t last, though, and I saw more images. Creatures that looked nothing like Aric, trampling over dead worlds. Something that looked like a silvery version of Em. Violence. Death. So much death.
Searing pain shot down my back and I screamed. I tried to pull back, but Aric’s grip was far stronger than I might have thought it would be. He seemed to realize what I wanted though, and let go, letting me stumble back toward the fake trees behind me. I couldn’t see Em for a moment, and then she seemed almost to coalesce back into existence. Only, there was something slightly different about her then. Something more.
Right then, I didn’t care. I ran to the door and pounded on it.
“Let me out. Please, let me out.”
Chapter Three
“What happened in there, Jade? You panicked?” Dr. Stevens sat calmly beside me on an old sofa that had been in the interview room for as long as I could remember.
Oddly, this time, Em wasn’t standing beside her, mocking the doctor’s every movement. Instead, she seemed to flicker almost in and out of focus on the far side of the room. The side with the cameras that let more scientists see into our room from next door.
“I…I’m not sure.” I shook my head, trying to brush away the last of the tears.
“It wasn’t just that you were afraid of Aric, was it?”
I shook my head.
“I know it’s hard, but we need you to try with this, Jade.”
“No, it’s…” How could I explain it? “Something happened when I touched his hand. I… I saw things.”
Em was suddenly beside me. “What did you go and tell her that for?”
“What kind of things?” Dr
. Stevens asked.
Em folded her arms. “Don’t say anything. If she wants to find out all about the Cerens, she can go and get herself implanted with the key and then touch one of them to pick up all the base memories in their metal. Though, not Aric’s. He’s ours.”
“What?” I stood up from the sofa, not sure what part of that worried me most. “What are you talking about, Em?”
“Em has something to say at this point?” Dr. Stevens had always encouraged me to talk about Em, both back when we’d all thought that she was imaginary and later, once we knew what she was. In fact, she’d always wanted me to talk about anything that was worrying me. It was important for understanding what was going on with me.
“She doesn’t want me to tell you what I saw.”
“Well, obviously.” Em stood there, her arms folded.
“That’s up to you, Jade. If you aren’t comfortable telling me…”
“No, it’s all right. Em’s just being weird. I saw…glimpses of things, I guess. Stars, planets. These creatures—”
“The Cerens,” Em supplied sulkily. “What’s the point in me telling you stuff if you don’t listen?”
“Em says they’re called the Cerens. Aric’s people. I saw other creatures, too.”
Em shrugged. “The Cerens call them the Devourers, although they call themselves the Karak. They aren’t exactly very nice. I’ll tell you about them later. Or I would, if you weren’t just going to blab it all.”
“I don’t blab, Em. Dr. Stevens might be able to help me if she has all the information.”
“Trust me, those people in there…” Em pointed to the darkened two-way glass, “They aren’t going to help you. They want you to help them.”
I turned and faced Dr. Stevens and ignored Em. “Aric comes from a planet called Cerens. There are these other creatures that the Cerens call the Devourers, but their real name is Karak.”
“I see.” She jotted down some notes. “You didn’t start seeing this until Aric touched your hand?”
“I think it has something to do with the metal implants. I felt a tingle up my spine, but as I continued to see the information flash before my eyes, a pain in my back grew excruciatingly miserable. At first, it was the same kind of tingle that I get when Em reads something on an electronic device.”
“How bad was the pain?”
“Bad.”
“Does Em know what that is or why it happened?”
“I think the metal on his arms are similar to Em.”
Em chimed in, “Hog-posh! They’re nothing like me. Well, okay, maybe a little, in a totally brainless, dumb jock kind of way that’s kind of cute when you think about it, but other than that, not at all.”
I wasn’t sure I understood any of that, and Em seemed to sense as much. She waved a hand, and a picture appeared in the air, slowly rotating. “Look, it’s simple. The Cerens were once a lot like you or us…or…oh geez, I don’t even know where I belong anymore. Anyway, their technology was advanced and a lot further along, and a lot quicker.”
Em was suddenly wearing glasses and gesturing with a long pointer at the image, like a tutor. I did my best not to laugh at her. It made me feel a little better, at least.
“In particular,” she went on, “they made significant advances in biotechnology and bio-metallurgy, discovering a kind of living metal that could make them faster, stronger, and able to connect directly to their other technology. They’re kind of symbiotic with it now. It helps them live longer and do more as a part of them. That doesn’t mean they’re all like me, though. I’m special.”
Em looked smug at that thought while I relayed to Dr. Stevens what she’d just said to me.
Dr. Stevens took notes and then glanced at that two-way glass—for some reason, I got an odd feeling inside my gut.
“That seems consistent with the results we’ve gotten from Startech, regarding the metal material in and around Aric’s arms. Yet, your implant is obviously different from his. Superior.”
Even though Dr. Stevens had obviously put in that part to make Em happy, it still worked pretty well.
Em grinned broadly. “That’s because I’m all about connection. I’m clever. I’m designed to know things.”
“And to say the first thing that comes into your head?”
“Just because you can’t do everything I can. Even I didn’t know about all the things I could do until just now.”
“When I touched Aric?”
“Exactly. I was able to take the data he sent you and store it away for another day. Watch this.”
Em walked up to the camera in the far corner and touched it. She seemed to pour into it like smoke. Although, somehow, her voice was still as though she was standing right next to me.
“I can see everything from in here. It’s great. Oh, computers. Hold on.”
“Em.”
“What? This won’t take long. Now, passwords, passwords. Let’s try…everything.”
I reeled slightly as about a thousand different words flashed through my mind in less than a second. Dr. Stevens actually caught my arm, helping me to sit down.
“Are you all right, Jade?”
“Yes.” Em must have been reading or searching for data because not only could I see a ton of words scrolling in my brain but also I could feel the tingle against my spine where the metal was.
“I’m fine. It’s just Em acting a bit…odd.”
“What is she doing?”
I didn’t want her to get in trouble, so I quickly responded with, “Nothing much.”
Dr. Stevens threw her right leg up and over her left one and sat prim and proper. “Is there anything else you’d like to discuss about your experience in the outdoor room?”
I hesitated, but I had to ask. “When I was back there, the implant started to feel differently.”
Dr. Stevens frowned. “May I look?”
I nodded and stood, letting her lift up the t-shirt I wore so that she could see the gleam of the implant on my back.
“This is…interesting.”
I tried to look round at my own back, twisting as far as I could. It didn’t work, of course. “What is it?”
“It’s subtle, but the configuration of the implant seems different. I don’t know if that means anything, though.”
Maybe it would explain how Em had left the room and why she was acting so peculiar. There was the fact that my spine was still tingling, which meant that Em was still seeping through the systems, collecting data.
“Jade, we’ve had a long day. I’m going to take you back to your room now.”
“Dr. Stevens?”
“Yes, Jade?”
“If Aric has been here as long as I have, why had you kept him away from me?”
Dr. Stevens once again quickly glanced at the two-way glass. “We weren’t sure what affect you would have on each other, especially when you two were brought in here after the accident and you were screaming.”
“Yes, I remember being scared, but then he touched my hand and the fear went away. You all saw that, didn’t you?”
“Uh, what are you getting at, Jade?”
“You kept him away from me, but now you’ve decided to let us interact. Why?”
She took a deep breath and tapped her index finger on her lips. “Startech wanted to see what would happen if you two were brought together.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s part of the process.”
“What process?”
“Their process, Jade.” And in those words, I recognized something. I was no longer just Dr. Stevens’ research project. She had to share me now, and she wasn’t happy about it.
She stood. “Come on, it’s time for you to get some rest before dinner tonight. You’re having your favorite: spaghetti.
I tried to smile and nod, but I couldn’t help but think the Institute was keeping something very important from me. Something I needed to know about their process.
She led the way back through the corridors. E
m still wasn’t back with us. What would happen if she was on the wrong side of my room’s door when they shut it? Would the Faraday cage lock her out? No, I knew better than that. The implant was with me. Always with me.
“Jade, did you like Aric when you met him? I don’t mean all the stuff with what you saw. I don’t mean being scared. I get all of that, but did you like him?” Dr. Stevens asked as we walked back to my room.
“I guess so. He seemed…okay. Will I see him again?”
“Yes. We’re hoping to learn more through your interaction with him.” She stopped, putting a hand on my arm. “A lot of things have changed around here, Jade.”
“I know about the Startech takeover.”
“But do you understand everything it means? It means we’re following Startech’s priorities with the research at the moment. They’re providing our funding now, and we have to do our best to make sure that they get what they want out of this arrangement.”
“What do they want?”
“For the program to be successful.”
“What makes it successful?” I asked.
“You’re full of questions today, Jade. I’m not sure, but when I find out, I’ll let you know. How’s that?”
“Okay.” I knew that had to be hard for her. She’d been working here my whole life. She’d been in charge for years. In many ways, I was closer to her than to the mother I only half-remembered in my dreams. “I’ll do whatever I need to do to help.”
“That’s good.” Dr. Stevens patted my shoulder. “Just…try to be nice to Aric if you can. This is new for him, too, and he’s scared in his own way, I’m sure.”
I nodded. For a moment, I tried to imagine what it would be like to be an alien on another planet. Then I felt bad for Aric because he had lost his parents in that crash just like I had. Not to mention that we both grew up here at the Institute with no other kids around to play with. He had metal in his body, too. Did he have someone like Em?
“I’ll try to be nice to him,” I promised. I would. Although I suspected that Em would try harder. Just the idea of someone else who could see her was a strange one. I guess it proved once and for all that I wasn’t crazy. Maybe if we found out enough, they might finally be able to remove the implant from my back. The thought of being disconnected from Em was rather odd, although I was always hoping they’d find a way.
HASH: Human Alien Species Hybrid Page 3