“And that’s why I can see again,” Sarah murmured, her dark eyes glistened with fascination.
“Hmmm. I’d thought that’d had something to do with our gifts,” Sam said.
Elliot smiled at him. Sam got the impression that the technician considered him to be clever.
“Not directly, although yours gifts were provided to you based on your anticipated ability with the connection, as well as certain personality traits.”
“But Royce, our Control, was originally supposed to be a Finder, instead of Sam,” Sarah retorted. “Explain that.”
Francis scowled a little upon this revelation, and Elliot shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Sam thought it was interesting. Despite being here to help them, there were things that the technician was just as reluctant as Francis had been to share with them. The situation was a little different, however. While the temptation was there to push through or peek around Elliot’s paper thin walls, the way that he and Sarah had once done with Francis’s sturdier walls when they had first met, Sam couldn’t bring himself to do it. Unlike with Francis, Sam had faith in the fact that there was good reason for Elliot to hold things back, and Sam was sure it would come out eventually if he didn’t pry now. That was not the case with the Teller.
“I’m not going into detail today about what happened there. I’m already giving you a lot to absorb, and I think there are some things that you need to be ready for before I share them with you. You can trust me when I say that I don’t think that you are ready for that. The scholars never looked at you as people. They should have, but they didn’t. They have done things, many things that I think the majority of people in society at large would consider highly unethical, no matter what the ends or the objectives in all of this,” Elliot stated.
He paused, facing a dissatisfied stare from the Fixer. She was convinced that she could handle whatever he might have to tell them. The technician shifted in his chair again, and thumped his boots on the floor a little, in a nervous and unconscious attempt at a distraction. Sam decided to throw him a life line, and come to his rescue.
“Speaking of Finders, I believe that I found your hover today,” Sam mentioned. Elliot’s face brightened and he sat up, visibly relieved.
“Well – that is good news. I was more than a little concerned that we might be stuck here,” the technician exclaimed happily.
“Don’t get your hopes up just yet,” the boy warned. “It looks quite severely damaged and it’s resting on the rocks upside-down. To make matters worse, it’s located in the section of the beach that Royce and his Control friends have deemed ‘their’ territory.”
“Damage is repairable,” Elliot insisted. “As long as we can locate the proper tools, materials and other supplies, I’m quite certain that I can fix it. We may have to jury-rig a few things from some of the standard hovers on the island, but I can probably make it work. Righting it won’t be a problem either, with enough hands.”
“But that is a problem,” Sarah countered, pushing herself back from the table in frustration. She appeared to be attempting to avoid Francis’s gaze in the process, as if he would find what she was about to say offensive. “None of us can get close to the hover, other than Fiona, and running it is off limits, even for her, because of the Directives. You and Fiona won’t be able to flip something like that alone. You might be able to set up some sort of hoist, with pulleys, or maybe use some of the regular hovers for leverage, but it will be really awkward on those rocks.” Sarah was not sure where her ideas had come from, but they at least offered a partial solution.
“You leave that to me,” Elliot said. “If there’s a way of sorting this out, I’ll come up with it.”
Sam got the impression from the dishevelled man that he was not used to speaking with children, and that he was not sure how or if he should adjust his approach when dealing with them, compared to interacting with other adults.
Francis, who had remained silent since the beginning of the conversation, finally spoke up.
“All of this won’t matter if you can’t override the instructions embedded during the Gathering. You fix the hover, and Elliot and Fiona get to ride off without the rest of us. I really don’t think that was what you intended when you came here in the first place.”
“Not at all, Francis,” Elliot replied, with a wry smile. He pointed at the Languorite. “Our solution to that dilemma lies in its other functions, the ones that require activation.”
“What other functions?” Sam questioned, always the curious one.
“The gifts that you have aren’t exactly talents as the Directives would have you believe. They are tools as much for the scholars use as for your own benefit. They are not natural, unlike your ability with the connection. They are magical enhancements, used to highly exaggerate inherent traits that you possess and to warp them in order to simplify the scholars’ work.” Elliot placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward, hunching his shoulders as he did so.
“Like Nathan being their eyes,” Sam observed. “And Fiona their means of recording what happens for later use.”
“And Francis being their mouthpiece,” Sarah piped in.
The Teller had fallen silent again and watched the pair of not-so-little Littles with heightening suspicion. It was clear that he did not like the way that this conversation was going.
“Exactly,” the technician affirmed. “Sam here was intended to assure that you did not go without the necessities. I can guarantee you that there is enough food here on Fervor in stasis to keep you going for many years. I was never able to find out what end date they had planned for this experiment, the supposed Coming that was mentioned in their documentation, but my guess would be not for several more years in the future, if not longer.”
Sam did not want to imagine what sort of torture emerging from stasis would have been for them if their aging had been delayed to that extent.
“I was here to make sure that things remained in working order, including the subjects of the experiment themselves,” Sarah added, not trying to hide her disappointment. This knowledge, now verified, seemed to tarnish what she had once considered her silver lining, when everything else had seemed dark and gloomy.
“It’s not a bad thing, Sarah,” Elliot suggested. “You still have very useful abilities – it’s the compulsions associated with them that can prove to be problematic. I’m afraid I can’t remove one without the other, but the Languorite can strip you of those ‘talents’ if used properly, in theory. I’d like to guarantee success, if I was to try, but I’ve never had the opportunity to use it in practice. I wouldn’t want to make the attempt unless you deemed it necessary. You would lose some benefit if all went well, and if I got it wrong, the repercussions could be horrific.”
Sam did not want to give up his gift, even if it involved some compulsion. As far as he was concerned, the benefits far outweighed any deficit.
“I may be able to use it to eliminate any compulsions imposed on you by the Tellers as well,” the technician continued. “That much wasn’t clear. But when the time comes, it may be worth a try, despite the possible risks.”
Sam and Sarah agreed, but Francis said nothing. That was when Nathan appeared in the kitchen, bringing all conversation to an immediate end. He kept his eyes averted from them as required. He was still flinching from time to time in pain, and he looked dead tired.
“I’m s-sorry t-t-to interrupt, b-but I’m st-st-starving,” he spoke aloud only, not willing to drop his walls in order to speak through the connection openly. “F-Fiona hasn’t c-c-come out y-yet, has she?”
“No,” Francis replied, in a subdued manner.
“Allow me,” Elliot offered quietly. “It won’t be fancy, but it will be something.” He got to his feet and set about preparing a simple but edible meal, filling in for the Keeper. The rest of the conversation would have to wait for another time.
Hover
After Nathan had left the next morning, Sam tracked him down through the connect
ion and briefed him, to the best of his recollection, on everything that Elliot told them the evening before.
“Fiona should really be the one telling you all of this. She’s the one with the picture perfect memory,” Sam insisted. “I don’t know if she even listened in last night. It’s almost like she doesn’t want anything to do with us right now.”
“She still won’t talk to me,” the Watcher admitted sadly. “Are you sure that I haven’t done anything to upset her?”
“I can’t see what you could have possibly done. Our ‘new friend’ claims that she just needs time, and Sarah said that her compulsions will force her out soon enough. Just have a little patience, Nathan. She’ll come around and start acting like her old self again before you know it.” Sam hoped that what he was saying was right, and that he was not just riding on Sarah’s hopefulness.
“So this ‘new friend’ of yours says that he can take away our gifts with that thing? I can understand why you or Sarah or Francis might object to this, but look at what I have to put up with, and what do I really have to show for it? Why can’t he just take it away so that I don’t have to run my circuit anymore, or put up my walls like this? Do you know how frustrating it is, not being allowed to look at all of you? What if something goes wrong? How am I supposed to be there for you if I can’t even see what’s going on?” Nathan asked.
“Francis and I talked about this, because I suggested the same thing, but he said that that would be a terrible idea. It might make things easier on you, but the scholars will definitely send someone to investigate if they stop being able to see through you. They’ll assume that you’re dead, and they’ll want to know what happened to you,” Sam replied.
After their talk with Elliot, he had been as quick to come to the same conclusion as Nathan had, but the Teller had been equally quick to naysay his idea.
“Besides, our ‘new friend’ has to activate that function, and he has never actually used it on anyone before. You would be playing guinea pig, and where would it leave us if things went wrong?”
Sam did not mean to prey on Nathan’s protective impulse to dissuade him from this line of thought, but the Finder didn’t like the notion of the young man being the test subject for the Languorite’s untried functions, not until they were all ready to commit to the same thing.
“I’m not worried about me. I’d rather play guinea pig than let one of you suffer that fate. I can handle whatever he throws at me, but I don’t want to get us all in trouble. On the other hand, Francis said that they would be coming because of Royce. It has been almost a year since I threw him out of the house, Sam, and Francis reported the incident at the next Teller meeting. Where are they? I still see signs that Royce and his friends are out there. While we may have been the only house-family to exile our Control, the fact that Royce has allies suggests that we were not the only ones to have problems with our Control. What about their house-families? The scholars never came. I doubt they even care that we sent him packing. Francis can’t be sure that they’d come if I did this either,” Nathan remarked forcefully.
Sam had been thinking the same thing, too, at one point. When Royce had first left, Sam had been constantly watching over his shoulder, prepared to make himself scarce should the scholars make an appearance. After a while, the threat had become decidedly less likely, and until just recently it had been mostly forgotten.
“When Royce left the house, Francis said that they might come. He wasn’t sure,” Sam argued. “The scholars only valued the Controls so much, and it was possible that Royce had already served the better part of his function. But if you stop watching for them, if you get Elliot to take your gift away, Francis is sure that they will come. They’ll be blind without you. They’ll have no choice but to come and observe us first hand. What you do is much more important than anything Royce had to offer.”
Sam believed that for the most part, at least as far as the scholars were concerned. He was not so sure, on the other hand, that this was as true for their house-family’s situation in general. He was becoming more and more convinced that Francis required boundaries – boundaries that he no longer had with Royce gone.
Nathan went silent. Sam knew that he was frustrated and not quite himself. Things were chaotic enough in Nathan’s head to make Sam uncomfortable, and that had never happened before. The Watcher, for the most part, had a peaceful mind, and even when he was upset, his thoughts tended to be focussed on the particular thing that was bothering him. Sam was almost regretting that Elliot had come in some ways.
Eventually, the Watcher did think at him again.
“What about that hover? Did you need me to come down to that section of the beach, after I’m done my circuit? I don’t know how much good I can do you like this, but I’ll help in any way that I can,” he offered quietly.
“Not yet. We’ll be heading down to the shore with him, Sarah and me. We need to figure out what exactly has to be done first—what I may need to find and what Sarah might have to do to help him fix it. We’ll need your help only when it is time to right it, and we’ll let you know when that time comes. He may as well make the repairs that need to be made on the bottom of it, before we turn it over. It only makes sense,” Sam replied.
There was another pause from Nathan.
“Do you think that this is going to work, Sam, or are we crazy for even trying? What happens if we pull this off and get away from here? We’ve never known any other life, and if we do get away, will we always be running from them? What will we be running to? Maybe we should just forget this and stick with what we know. It hasn’t really been that bad has it? Aside from what happened with Royce, I liked the way that things were. I was happy. I thought we made a good family, and at least then Fiona would talk to me,” Nathan sighed.
“We’ve set things in motion that can’t be reversed, Nathan. You were happy, but the rest of us weren’t. I haven’t had a day without fear since Maria left, Sarah’s been in the dark until our ‘new friend’ came, and you can’t pretend that Fiona liked the way that things were. Francis had his off days, and even Royce had good reason for feeling cheated. He shouldn’t have taken it out on the rest of us, but they did rob him of something that they should have given back. If you would prefer to stay on Fervor, you don’t have to come with us when we go, but I want off this island, and I can almost guarantee that Sarah and Fiona will be coming with us.”
Sam was watching Sarah readying herself to go out with him and Elliot while he spoke with Nathan, and he could see Fiona’s closed door as well. She would be coming with them when they left, he thought, if she would ever come out of her room.
“I suppose there’s no way to go back to the way that things were. I don’t want to stay behind by myself, Sam. You all are my family now. I can’t imagine going on without you.” He hesitated. “I had better get back to my circuit now. When I’m done, I’ll keep working on trying to get some response out of Fiona,” the Watcher murmured. “Maybe if I’m persistent, she’ll finally let me in. Thanks for keeping me in the loop, little buddy. I really appreciate it.”
Sam broke away from his link with Nathan, and he joined Sarah and Elliot who were making their way towards the door. The three trudged down to the beach without a single word passing amongst them. Sam found himself staring at the hulking figure of Elliot as they walked, wondering what exactly had possessed a man like him to help them, aside from the fact that he was a latent himself. It might have been some sort of attempt at self-preservation, perhaps anxious at what might happen to him if he were discovered. But the scholars didn’t know his secret, and doing what he was doing now was much more likely to expose him than just keeping mum. Sam also wondered how exactly the large man had managed to get around the security systems he had told them about in his messages. At one point he had seemed convinced that it would be something beyond his ability. The curiosity was eating away at Sam, but he felt almost as intimidated by the technician as Francis did, and he did not dare to start asking those kinds of
questions.
Sarah gasped aloud as they reached the stretch of rocks and sand where Sam had found the hover. Nothing had changed— its silvery bullet-like form still upended precariously atop the rocks—but the dark-haired girl had not expected that it would look quite as mangled as it did. When Elliot saw it, his own expression fell as well. Viewing his reaction, Sam felt immediately disheartened.
“You can’t fix it then? It’s that bad?” the Finder mumbled.
Elliot advanced on the hover, leaving Sarah and Sam lingering at a distance. The pair wanted to follow him, but there was a greater discomfort in doing so than there was in hanging back and observing from afar. The technician knelt beside the damaged craft and started running his hands over its buckled sides, scrutinizing it intently. He groaned a little and frowned.
“That’s not a good sign,” Sarah whispered.
After a few moments, Elliot rose again and returned to them. He looked unhappy, but not completely forlorn.
“Should we forget leaving Fervor?” Sam demanded.
“Not yet, not without putting in a good attempt at repairing it,” Elliot stated gruffly. “It’s not impossible, just difficult without the proper tools or materials. A lot of the damage is cosmetic. That’s a good thing. As long as I can come up with a reasonable substitute for the siding, and find some basic tools, then I’m fairly certain that I can fix that. It’s the few areas where it has been damaged internally that worry me the most. Those will be harder to repair without the appropriate replacement parts. I might be able to alter standard hover parts to work, but these things can be finicky. This will probably take longer than I had originally anticipated. That is, if I can make it happen at all. I’m definitely going to need your help. Sarah, I know if we can make this work it will be because of your gift. We’ll have to get you close enough to the hover so that you can assist me in identifying everything that we need to fix this. Then we can make a list, and Sam and I can go out hunting for the parts, materials, and tools we need. If they are available, I know Sam will be able to help me find them.”
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