Chapter Eleven
~ Garrett ~
Hey, Tess. You haven’t been writing much these days. I figure you need a break, and you deserve one. I wish I had a good engineer besides Lark around. One who’d work for peanuts.
In fishing for one, I pulled out some oddballs. A German family fleeing death threats for insulting the Prophet Mohammed, some Irish programming group called the Dunkirk Five, a doctor from Pittsburgh who said she wanted to stop being treated like dirt, more Bermudans, more Americans, a couple of Africans even, and a time-share group. All of which is good news, since they’re bringing money, but not quite what I need.
The newbies are swarming around the main platforms. It’s amazing to see. Some of them are building their own places instead of staying in the main building, which bothers me. They’re not all hooked into the recycling system, especially the set of regular boats, so the water’s getting fouled. I wish I could make everyone cooperate, but I can’t. And you know, maybe I don’t need to be running everything. Maybe we can work something out.
Oh! I’ve got a new leg, too. See the photo. Between me, MIT contacts, Herr’s group, Valerie and Lark, we put together an advanced replacement. I’m a test case. It gives me a pins-and-needles feeling, but that should pass. Besides the power-leech system and waterproofing, there’s a free-rotating ankle like a squirrel’s and some other features. I’ve stared at this leg and had trouble thinking this is me, but why not? I can be whatever is physically possible. Not that I’m eager to get any more upgrades for a while. And really, I’m not here to revel in technology. There’s important work to do.
I hope you’re doing okay. Write back! We can talk about college and other things. I miss having you around.
Got to run off now, and try not to trip too much while waiting for the other leg to drop. There’s always something to distract me, but at least it’s not dull.
Go forth and conquer.
— G.
* * * *
He was on the computer with a young lawyer. Martin looked on. The associate said, “We can’t hold it off, sir. You have to show up in Maryland in twenty days to be deposed, interviewed, about whether society should let you continue.”
“When did my work become society’s business?”
“Everything is, sir. The plaintiffs are paying your travel expenses though.”
Garrett sighed. “Nice of them. How long will I need to be there? And why do they have to schlep me there and back again at God knows what carbon tax, instead of doing this by video?”
“We argued it’d be ‘undue hardship’ for you to leave, but the judge didn’t listen. It should only be a day of interviews, and my boss will attend.”
“I’m too busy for this.”
“Sorry, sir. You have no choice.”
Garrett got Martin to come in. “Any cards up your sleeve?”
“No, and I’m probably invited next.”
“He is,” said the lawyer.
“I guess I have to,” said Garrett. “But thanks.”
“Sir?” The associate stopped Garrett as he was about to end the call. “A lot of people want you to succeed. You’re doing something different.”
Garrett nodded.
He had a lot to think about while packing. The lawsuit was an amazing waste of time, money and paper designed to use intangible means to destroy him. Not to solve a problem, or to enforce a deal, but to tell him he was forbidden to run an honest business. Why couldn’t people work out their disputes by having a rational discussion, or the caffeine-fueled binge of engineers at midnight? He was doing an okay job of handling what disputes there’d been on Castor, but he didn’t think a judge could play engineer as well as Garrett could play judge.
“Hey, Lark,” he said into a headset. “Think with me a minute.”
“Aye!” Garrett fell into a little discussion he could barely follow, tracing the shape of the threats to Castor. They explored the case against him and how it might be attacked. When he visited he’d at least be able to see Tess again, stop by the old office, walk around the Inner Harbor, and get arrested.
“What?” said Lark, snapping out of the head-dive.
The possibility had leaped out at him. “If I set foot in Maryland I’ll be busted as a drug dealer and a pimp.” He called Eaton next.
Eaton’s voice radioed, “Fox, don’t go!”
“One step ahead of you. What exactly will happen if I do?”
“There’s talk of issuing a quick warrant, or grabbing you without one. If you stay on Castor there’s an excuse to pretend you’re untouchable, and you’re not. But the moment you’re in U.S. jurisdiction, hell, even while you’re in the air, you’ll be handcuffed for breaking a dozen U.S. laws.”
“I’m nowhere near the U.S.!”
“You’re a fellow citizen. The laws apply to you everywhere.”
Garrett smacked a wall, making his fist throb. “I’ve hurt no one who wasn’t a direct threat! All I want to do is work!”
“That’s no longer considered an admirable motive, Captain.”
“People have flocked here,” said Garrett. “We have investors, well-wishers, tourists, even a fan club. I get mail from Cuba asking if I’m married. There are people who understand what I’m doing.”
“They’re not the jackals in power.”
“What do I do? I can’t stay and I can’t go.”
“Stay,” said Eaton. “And hope no one comes in the night to grab you.”
Garrett paced and fumed when Eaton was off the line. Powerless. There was only one way, and he hated it. “Lark. Hear all that?”
“You had the line open, so yes. Sorry.”
“Never mind. I need to talk to Tess.”
“She’s not online. She hasn’t been, lately.”
“Regular phone, then.”
“She doesn’t answer, and her parents keep making excuses. It’s like they don’t want their daughter conspiring with an inhuman intelligence.”
Garrett looked around the empty office. “Where are you?”
“The lab.”
He went there and found Lark playing with a pair of white rats. They looked identical, each with a silvery-blue panel on its forehead in a kite shape. One lay on a bed of newspaper, while the other sat up and wiggled whiskers at Garrett.
“Stranger,” said a little voice from a speaker box.
“Friend,” corrected Lark. “Name is Garrett.”
“Okay,” said the speaker, and the rat returned to licking itself.
Garrett blinked. “So these are your experiments from Martin. What’s the term? ‘Awakened’ rats?”
“Steamboat Willie, there, is. The one laying down is Algernon, not what I asked for. Look.” The inert rat sat up and waved stiffly, then flopped again like a dropped toy. “It waved because I told it to. That one is a bioshell, a meat puppet. Most of its brain was removed.”
Garrett stared. It was a robot made of flesh! It looked identical to the other, yet the inert one gave him the creeps. “You have remote control over it?”
“Only over this one. It can’t even feed itself without my control, so I have to pay close attention. Willie acts on his own; there’s a little AI helping him.”
“Which do you like better?” he asked, looking back and forth.
“I don’t know,” said Lark. “I was hoping Tess would be here to see them. I don’t know how to decide.”
Tess. Right. “While you’re busy transcending biology, I need to make a phone call.”
“Maybe you can get through to her. I can’t.”
“I need your help. Can I get a secure commline, one where I can speak my mind and not have possibly-malevolent agencies listening in?”
“No. In fact there’s a chance our ‘friend’ Eaton has bugged even Castor’s internal lines, and that some of our tourists are spies.” Lark made the puppet rat shake the bars of a nearby cage. “If Tess were here we could scan everything thoroughly and make sure!”
Garrett felt the world close in on him. He didn’t feel like he could function if he had to add a layer of defense to every conversation, hedging his words to make sure he wouldn’t trigger some alarm. It was like being on a date with someone who had an imposing chaperone. ‘Go ahead, kids, have fun, but I’m watching.’ Like a spike through part of his mind, the part that he kept in other people’s heads. He sighed. “I think I know how Valerie feels now.”
“You could ask my version of Val if you want. Hey! How about my Tess-model?”
Garrett shivered at the thought of Lark’s internal ghost-gallery. “Not now. I want to ask a question to someone I trust. About something I really don’t want to do.”
One of the rats lay there. The other scuttled over to sniff him curiously and beg for cheese in English.
Garrett took a breath, and talked to Lark.
* * * *
Martin had agreed after long thought, and made sure that a band was playing Taps. The mournful sounds spread out by speaker across the ocean, and by radio and satellite around the world to anyone who cared. The hundreds of people on Castor looked up to the main platform, not knowing why Garrett stood on the highest roof.
Garrett did the work himself, as he’d done other awful things. He tugged on a wet, salt-encrusted rope and the American flag came down slowly, for him to fold it reverently into a box. The flagpole stood bare, an empty rod, and he felt an irrational fear of it now. Already he was filled with a mix of anger, shame and despair at what he was doing, and a need to get his pompous speech over with.
He spoke, and the words were broadcast. “I am an American by birth, and I came here with an American spirit, trying to create wealth and live on a frontier. I’d be happy to live my life and let people join me who want to. But I was told that I was out of line, that I couldn’t both obey the law and be out here. Some have been gentle in their objection, by putting enough regulations on me that I can’t comply. Others have told me that I can’t act without their permission, which they withhold. Still others came openly as thieves and murderers. I said to hell with all of them, and took advantage of the legal situation to bring in a new range of businesses. None of us were hurting anyone. We wanted to live in peace.
“I understand it’s necessary to have law and order of some kind, even laws I don’t agree with. But a government exists to protect people’s rights, and I’ve reached a point where I’m not getting its protection and if I stay with it, everything I’ve done will be destroyed. I won’t let that happen.
“So I’ve decided to leave. I, I renounce my citizenship! It’s the most American thing I can do. Taking care of myself and looking for peaceful, honest interaction with people. This station is no longer flying the official flag, even though I want it to fly again.”
And damn it, he did. He hated staring at the bare pole after all the times he’d looked up at it and seen the flag flying in the breeze. The pole was dead, soulless. He knew that was stupid, that he was talking about nothing but a tattered piece of cloth. But the wind was making his eyes water and he clutched the boxed flag to his heart, only reluctantly passing it down and trading it for another. Stupid, crazy, pointless pageantry. Why did he care? Garrett never cared when they made him recite the pledge in school; he laughed at cheesy war movies his parents showed him; he studied with Europeans and Asians and those guys had no problem leaving home. He looked at the new box and pulled out its contents.
“This is also an American flag!” It was an ugly yellow thing in an archaic design, showing a rattlesnake and the motto, Don’t tread on me. “I don’t know what way other people want to live, here or elsewhere. But I’m choosing to protect my own life and the opportunity that my work creates for people.”
The serpent flag fluttered against the noise of wind and his own echoing voice, and there came another sound from below. Garrett looked down, hardly able to see, and found that folks were clapping. People had gathered on the topdeck, a mix of Pilgrims, tourists, and others. More people in and around the station were looking up at him, or more likely, at the flag. The applause was scattered, with confusion on people’s faces, but he could see that some people shared his thinking.
Well then, that’s enough. The deed was done; he’d weaseled out of a bad situation. There’s no more he could say. Still he hesitated, longing to say it better, to feel like he wasn’t dishonoring his family and everyone else. He didn’t know how, and it hurt him not to know. The ignorance made him feel weak. If his dispute was force against force, he’d lose. And if someone could make a case for slapping irons on him, and all he had in his defense was a litany of complaints, a reasonable jury would side against him. He didn’t know what to do anymore, and that left him feeling like a criminal and a traitor for doing what he thought was right.
He climbed down and got mobbed by questions. Oh, hell, Martin had brought reporters in. Now that he was aware of them he stammered, trying again to explain why he’d done this, why he’d had to do it. He was pressed against the deckhouse wall with too many eyes on him.
“Give him some breathing space,” said a commanding voice. People turned to see the speaker, giving Garrett a break. Garrett could see who had caught their attention, the guy who was happy to speak in the absence of more blustering by Garrett.
Bradford Duke.
* * * *
~ Tess ~
It was a long vacation, or a dream. She only had to do what she was told. Homework, dance lessons, eating her vegetables, taking her pills. Mom and Dad said it was great to see her being content, even-keeled and not spending all her time with computers. She sat on the porch, staring vaguely at the sun and glancing at the textbook in her hands.
Mom came outside, with her breath making clouds in the early spring air. “I brought cocoa. Aren’t you cold?”
“I’m okay.”
“You should wear a jacket.” She left and returned with the one Tess had worn sometimes on Castor, then wrapped it over Tess’ shoulders with a hug. Tess shivered.
Mom was still there while Tess stared at the book. “I’ve been thinking,” Mom said. Tess waited. “Do you like being back here with us?”
“It’s okay.”
“Tess, come on. I’m your mother; don’t you want to argue?”
Tess’ thoughts kept dead-ending, like she could be having lofty ideas and plans but didn’t care enough to try. Why bother, when she was being cared for by people who loved her? She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You’ve been getting some calls and e-mails. How are you feeling about the stuff that happened to you? It’s okay if you’re still upset.”
Tess thought back, and those days at sea felt like they’d happened to someone else. She’d been thrilled, angry, terrified, running around doing things that had seemed important at the time. She could feel a little of how it’d been out there, like the faint crust of sea-salt under her fingers as they brushed the jacket. Now she was okay and safe, and it didn’t matter if she made mistakes. “I’m not really upset.”
“You should talk to your friends more. They’re worried about you.”
Really? She guessed they missed her. “If you think I should.”
“I want you to do what you want. There’s such a thing as being too cooperative.”
Tess wondered why Mom was giving her a hard time. Wasn’t everybody happy? She turned to look at her. Tess wasn’t frowning or anything, just watching in a world that felt dim and grey like a thick wool blanket.
Mom stared and took a step back, like she’d seen a ghost.
* * * *
For the next week Mom had her take a half-dose at dinner. The school gave out the morning drugs to a third or so of the kids at breakfast, under supervision so kids wouldn’t abuse them. Maybe the half-doses were a mistake, because classes kept getting duller and that feeling deepened into annoyance. Stupid, she kept scribbling in her paper notebook. The stupids mutated into doodles and circuit designs, carving out a little space from her feeling of I don’t give a damn. She daydreamed in class, seeing castles in the clouds outside the window.
With the dreams in her head and her brain feeling a little less wrapped in cotton, she tried skipping her morning dose on Friday. It wasn’t that she cared, so much as that she wondered what would happen, where that would take her. A teacher walked by to make sure she took her medication with her grape juice. But then Tess spat the pill into a napkin when no one but the black camera-domes was watching, as the pill was starting to turn to grit in her mouth. Some other kids did that too, she knew, because you could mix the pills with booze to get high or make a girl pass out. Not that the school knew that.
Tess wandered the halls between classes, reminiscing through years of school and getting mostly that grey, gritty feeling. The splotches of color on the walls looked like grade school projects, not high school work, but Tess had lost track of what got you a gold sticker here. On Castor the ‘grades’ were about whether stuff broke and people died, not whether you felt good. Tess stared at a hand-painted poster of dinosaurs and cavemen in the Hollow Earth. She saw paint splotches with no meaning to them.
“Junk,” she said, and tore a chunk out of it with one hand. The paper ripped like a bad walkway platform. She felt weird, lost in the school’s twisty little passages. A boy had seen her shred the poster, but he walked on by; enforcing the rules was someone else’s job. Tess felt a moment of fear, but the school’s machines wouldn’t react to her defacing stuff, only to people being too loud or moving suspiciously. She could probably walk right out the door or something without being caught. Again without caring whether it worked, Tess went to a dusty iron door and pushed. It didn’t budge; it was locked against unauthorized exit. Tess shrugged and went to class.
But an hour later, at recess, she was back at the door. It was pointless to be here; she could learn more at home. What right did anyone have to keep her here?
The door was shut against her, protecting her on behalf of unseen masters.
Irrationally Tess kicked the door, hating the thing for being in her way. She had no reason to be here; she should go home. She looked into an empty classroom, where a window opened for her. Stupid admins. Tess climbed out and walked away from the school. Outside, the sun blazed, giving a hint of spring that made her shade her eyes. She went to her little car and hopped in before anyone tried to stop her, with a grin on her face.
A red Sovereign veered into the lot, motors humming, and pulled into the space to her left. Tess paused, key in the ignition, so that she wouldn’t hit anyone. There was just the driver, and she was distracted on the phone.
Tess’ dulled eyes widened and she flung herself down to hide from Henweigh.
The counselor continued talking. “But if the legislature doesn’t understand that, we’ll have to go to Annapolis ourselves and get things under control.” Good, she was walking away, but then she went around to her right rear door and flung it open, denting Tess’ car. Tess winced and lay there while Henweigh leaned against the Sovereign and talked. “I’m flattered. Certainly I’ll volunteer for the party’s nomination.”
She wouldn’t shut up! Tess just had to stay down and keep quiet.
Not this time.
Henweigh was carried away with her grand plans on the phone.
Enough! The little car started with an electric whirr. Tess sat up with no indication she was doing anything wrong and pulled smoothly away from there. A frantic glance in the rear-view mirror showed Henweigh looking at Tess’ car with puzzlement. But then Henweigh got distracted by her scheming again. Tess circled away, out of there, with her car humming all the way home.
Mom and Dad were at work, so she let herself in. It was then that the fear hit her; she was a truant! You had to go to school. What was she thinking, sneaking out? Yeah, she could study here, but if she got caught, she’d get drugged again.
All the pent-up frustration burst out of her as she leaned against the kitchen counter and sobbed. She hadn’t felt anything, hadn’t thought anything except through a haze; and now that was gone, and she was pissed.
That felt better. Fire flowed in her veins.
She rummaged in her room for her computer to call Lark, but the local version was gone and the real one was way off on Castor. She had neglected him for so long! Would he even talk to her?
In her mind she heard, Of course I will, silly. I’ll always be with you in some form.
Tess leaned over her desk, eyes shut, thinking, Thank you.
Before she could call, she heard an engine outside, a big old gas-gulper. She peeked out a window and found a white van pulling into the driveway. School officials? Tess’ own car was outside for anyone to see. They’d find her; they’d drag her back!
Somebody got out, with a long coat and shades. Tess had seen her picture.
Tess threw open the door. “Valerie? What’re you doing here?”
Valerie Hayflick looked off-balance; she’d been about to leave a note. “I should ask you that. Why aren’t you at school?”
Tess didn’t feel guilty and Valerie wasn’t likely to turn her in, so she shrugged. “I quit.”
Valerie gave a laugh, then glanced over her shoulder and fell silent. Tess let her in and got her a soda. They sat facing each other across the kitchen table. Valerie pushed her sunglasses up. “Good to finally meet you. So, you’re the hacker.”
Tess stared at the table. “Not lately. I’m not anything.”
“Don’t say that! I know about your work. You’re brilliant.” She eyed Tess. “What’s going on?”
“You’re nosy, you know that?” She didn’t want to tell everything to Valerie, the one who’d enslaved her best friend. Tess had been weak and stupid. “I wasn’t in any shape to do anything, after the pirates came.”
“And now?”
Tess slapped hands on the table and leaned forward, full of words before she knew what she was saying. “I want to work! I want to feel like I’m achieving something and doing things that no one’s done before, not chained up and being a good little girl!” She blushed, angry at herself for leaving Castor. “And I want to be with Lark again.”
Valerie rolled the soda can between her hands. “I guess he misses you more than me.”
“You hurt him,” said Tess.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
Tess thought back to being Lark, running with Valerie through tunnels. “What, do you want us to forgive you? We don’t hate you.”
“I want to see him again. I’m not living up to my full potential. The three of us, think of what we could do if we could create anything we could imagine, if we weren’t so hemmed in.”
Tess’ eyes widened. “Are you offering me a job?”
“I came south to give a presentation on robotics to a couple of schools. In the process I wanted to check on you. I was planning to come back later.” She set her drink down a little too loudly, then pressed her hands against the table. Like Garrett’s they seemed always to be moving when not under control. She hesitated. “I’m thinking of taking a trip to Castor, very soon. Want to come?”
“But I’ve got school! I mean, I can’t leave.”
“You’re eighteen, right? You’re an adult.”
“I’m a kid,” said Tess.
She shrugged. “If you want to be. How’s that been working out?”
Tess glared at her. Valerie had a sneaky expression; she knew. “You’ve been spying on me?”
“I don’t spy!” snapped Valerie. “Your tribe told me. You’re part of a network of humans and AIs that apparently misses you.”
“Lark knows?” She’d hate for him to be worrying for her, or seeing how screwed up she’d been.
“By now, probably. Your group is acting like a living thing with its own knowledge and plans. It didn’t tell me everything, even though I got contacted by two actual humans and one of your mini-AIs.” Valerie paused. “Neither of us is quite allowed to leave the country, by the way. I’m a ‘national manpower asset’ forbidden to work elsewhere, which is a big reason I decided to take a vacation with some tools and hardware. From what I gather, you’re officially incompetent to travel without a permit, but you look capable of deciding for yourself.”
Tess sat there stunned. “So you’re offering...?”
“To whisk you away to a life of danger and adventure. If we can go before anyone notices, which won’t be long if you skipped school. I should warn you that if you come with me, we’ll be breaking the law and you might be horribly killed and/or arrested.”
“Like, right now?”
“Yes! Do you want to, or not?”
“What will we do if we make it there?”
Valerie smiled. “I don’t know. How high can you reach?”
* * * *
Left on the counter was a scrawled note:
Mom and Dad, I’m running away to sea again. This time it’s not for school credit, or community service or anything. It’s something I want to do. I’ll let you know when I get there. Don’t worry about me. I know you love me and want me safe and all that, but I felt dead here. I’ll be better there. See you.
—Tess, the Gadgeteer
* * * *
She took her cash, her computer, clothes, and little else. When she stepped from her bedroom she felt tugged back by the gravity of the junk she was leaving behind, but that’s all it was.
Valerie’s van was full of stuff too, but by the time Valerie hit the gas and started for the shore Tess had figured it out. Robot parts, a treasure hoard! Tess hugged a fancy multimeter she’d wished for a dozen times on Castor. There was hardly room for Tess amid the boxes. The van chugged along and she found what looked like the shell of a Lark-style body.
Valerie saw her inspecting it. “Try it on. Since you don’t have travel papers, if anyone asks, you’re my robot minion.”
“You’re serious?” said Tess. The boots weren’t designed for human feet and were too small, but she could tolerate them. What was worse than the pinching was the thought of wearing Lark, or some knock-off of him. They’d been in each other’s heads, but this was a new level of weirdness. The plastic pieces chafed all over and left gaps, but her dark clothes passed for a normal partition between them. She felt like some kind of mech-knight, which made her grin.
Valerie stopped at a light and looked back at her. She laughed at the improvised helmet, then fell silent; they were near the shore.
“Wait here,” said Valerie. Tess looked through the windshield at a house with a yacht docked there. The boat had probably cost more.
When Valerie returned, Tess climbed out of the van, holding a box. She imagined people watching and moved as a good clunky robot would move. The boat smelled of bleach that didn’t quite hide a sweet, heady plant smell. “You’re working with drug runners!”
“Ssh,” said Valerie. The boat’s crew was a pair of happy-go-lucky guys in surfer wear, who took cash from Valerie and helped unload the van.
Then they were all on the yacht, and Tess felt trapped. Stuck in a suit, on a boat of criminals, sneaking away from home. She felt like telling everybody to turn around and drop her off. When Valerie gave the word, Tess pulled off the stifling helmet and began stripping off the worst of the plastic armor. The drug runners promised to not say anything.
* * * *
Tess and Valerie huddled in the boat’s tiny cabin.
“Tell me how Lark has evolved from what I built.” Valerie pointed to the screen unfolded between them which was the latest version of the Sirius AI. Tess stared into it, using fingers to zoom and rotate.
“This version is boring,” Tess responded. “It does what it’s told.”
“You can see that from the diagrams? Then tell me what you did with yours.”
“Lark isn’t mine. He’s his own person. He learns with me.”
“Let me see the latest source, then.”
“I haven’t got it. Ask him.” They sat in silent thought. “Why do you care? You abandoned him.”
“I didn’t! I told you I had to change the AI. Sending ‘Lark’ out was my way of giving him a chance to live differently, and it looks like that experiment was a success. Now we can go beyond that code. Invent something even better.”
* * * *
Valerie shook Tess awake from uneasy dreams. “Quick!”
Tess sat up and banged her head. She yelped. “Pirates?”
“Coast Guard. Disguise yourself.”
Tess fell out of her bunk, tangled in sheets and clutching her skull. A voice in her head was saying ‘They’ll shoot us,’ but she and Lark told it No! and she was composed enough to stagger into the hold and put on the suit. She could hear the drug-men arguing outside.
“Okay, into the box. We don’t want you seen at all. If they open it, you’re a piece of hardware.” Valerie was hustling her towards a coffin-sized crate.
Tess shivered and climbed into the crate. When the wooden lid slammed down, she struggled to breathe in the sawdust darkness. People were moving around and talking outside, and Tess could only lay there, obedient, pretending to be an inert machine. Waiting to be told what to do. They’d shoot her...
Boots slammed nearby. Suddenly the box lid flew away and a man in uniform stared down at her mask. Tess lay still.
“Sir, look.”
“Cover me,” said another man, who peeked into the box. Tess had to breathe, and she told herself the officer couldn’t see her chest rise and fall inside the armor, but he’d notice and throw her back home and she’d never see Lark or Castor again.
The officer disappeared. “Well, Miss Hayflick. Are you exporting illegal software, besides leaving without an exit visa and breaking your travel restrictions?”
“That robot is a blank. There’s no software on it.”
“Then you won’t mind if we fire it up.”
“That’s not necessary,” Valerie protested, but the officer was looming over Tess, reaching down with a big grasping hand.
“No!” said Tess.
The officer scoffed. “Thought so. Get up and raise your hands.”
Tess stood, with her suit rattling and pinching her. One of the Guardsmen said, “Now let’s see who you really are!” and pulled off her mask.
“Just a kid!” said the officer. “Scan her.”
Another man shoved an eye-scanner at her face. After a long wait the officer looked at a screen and said, “Well, well. You three are under arrest for kidnapping.”
“They didn’t kidnap me!” The drug men and Valerie stood there sullenly with hands on their heads. There was hardly any space in the stifling hold. “I wanted to go.”
“Says here you were taken from school while mentally impaired,” the officer said.
“That’s not how it happened. Geez!” Tess felt sweat sliming its way down her armpits. “I wanted to get away from there, and Miss Hayflick offered to take me back to Castor.”
“Miss,” he checked his pad. “de Castille, that’s not really up to you.”
“Then what is?” Tess lowered her arms before she realized what she was doing. The gloves hurt too much and she pulled them off to let them clatter to the floor. Nobody shot her, anyway. “I’m an adult and a citizen and I say I want to go somewhere with people that offered me a ride! Who are you to tell me I can’t?”
“It’s for your own good, kid,” the man who pulled off her mask answered.
“The hell it is! I wasn’t feeling good, so people drugged me till I didn’t feel anything at all. I got told where to go, what to do, what to eat, what to wear, how to think, even! If all I get to do is follow orders from goons who think they’re protecting me, then why am I even alive? I may as well be a dumb robot!”
The Guardsmen didn’t answer. Tess blazed at them. “And how about Valerie here? She wants to leave the country. If you can chain someone up for that, then what have I got to look forward to? Stick me in a cage right now so I can get used to it. Hell, I go to school; why do I even need practice?”
The Guard officer glared at her, searching her face. “Watch your mouth. Why are you so up in arms, anyway? Take a breath and tell me without ranting.”
Tess stood there feeling naked in her armor. She was a girl far from home and in way over her head. A student with mediocre grades, behind on her college applications.
No, she thought, and felt a smile on her face as her fists clenched. We’re a genius engineer. “What I’m saying is, do I get to make my own decisions, or am I your pet?”
The officer stared at Tess for a long time before he responded. “I think we didn’t find anybody here.” He turned to the drug-men. “We’re onto you. Go and sin no more.”
The Guardsmen retreated, and the officer tapped Tess’ armored shoulder. “Keep yourself safe, miss.”
Tess gulped. No one else was going to do it. “I will.”
When the patrol boat was gone the others fell to cursing and arguing.
“Pigs!” shouted Valerie at the retreating boat.
Tess shot her a withering look. “Shut up, Val. Bad laws, good cops. We’re lucky we got one out of two.”