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‘You want to be sedated again?’
I nodded. ‘But not as much as last time. Corina has an idea, but she needs me to be — well, she said “not in the way so much”.’
Tara laughed, and I wasn’t sure if I should be feeling a bit hurt about the way I was being shoved aside. ‘It’s worth a try,’ she said. ‘I’ll ask Megan if she’s happy to do it here in the lab.’
Megan turned out to be the lady who had looked after me and she reluctantly agreed. I was put in a comfortable chair while Corina was placed, out of her sheath, on a nearby workbench. A needle was stuck in the back of my hand and a white liquid squirted through it. Seconds later warm fuzz wrapped around my mind and I stopped paying attention things. I heard Corina whisper ‘Move over, my love.’ There was a vague pressure, and I somehow shifted sideways. I knew I could push back if I wanted to, but at the moment it didn’t seem important that I did.
‘So, does anybody have any idea what we need to do?’
Corina speaking with my voice sounded very strange, but it was important that she be able to speak without me mangling something she said. Tara seemed impressed straight away, and the other people in her team looked frightened. I relaxed to watch the show.
Within ten minutes I was out of my depth, which made it all the easier to ignore what was going on. They were talking about ‘ArrEff signalling’ and ‘amplitude modulation’ and ‘attenuation’, which meant as much to me as if they were speaking in Dagashi. But eventually the sedative wore off and Corina lost control of my speech. I could taste the disappointment in the room, and I was sure I heard someone suggest they drug me again.
‘We have plenty to work on,’ Tara said. ‘Let the boy get his head back together and we can resume at the same time tomorrow.’
‘You can’t keep doing this to him,’ Megan objected. ‘I won’t keep sedating him without a medical reason.’
Tara winked at me, or she might have meant it for Corina. ‘Let’s see what tomorrow brings.’
Tomorrow brought a new box of gadgetry, and smug looks from all of Tara’s people. They put Corina inside a coil of wire and babbled more nonsense at her.
‘What’s all this?’ I asked.
‘Surprise, I think,’ said Corina, but her voice wasn’t in my head, it was small and tinny and was coming from the box on the bench. ‘Oh, no. Is that what I sound like?’
‘Not to me,’ I said, but I wasn’t sure she was listening. She was talking to the techs, and they were fiddling with their box, and gradually her voice became clearer.
I tried, but it was hard for me to get as excited about it as Corina. Nobody had spoken to me all morning, and I was getting hungry. Figuring they could get on without me, I quietly headed for the door, hoping I could find a food ration somewhere. It took me a second to realise all the talking had stopped, and when I looked over my shoulder, they were all staring at me.
‘Where are we going?’ Corina asked.
‘Change of scenery?’ I suggested.
‘Don’t you think that’s a bit rude?’
‘Why?’ I knew I sounded grumpy, but I didn’t care. ‘You have lots of people to talk to here.’
‘And how am I supposed to listen? Or see? You are still my eyes and my ears, Jax. I need you, here.’
‘And I should do what?’ The conversation had been private up until then, but I said these words out loud. Everybody suddenly had a task they needed to be busy at, apart from Tara.
‘We should take a break. And after lunch, can somebody find Jax a book?’
At least they tried. It was difficult, though. They worked on one thing after another, first improving her voice, then rigging a false window Corina could cast pictures on like she did at home. It was gritty and grainy, and made me feel uncomfortable — especially when they asked her to show herself as Dagashi, not human. It picked the scabs off too many memories, and reminded me I still had to confront a number of realities.
They had been at it a week when Ward came by for a demonstration. I was also fairly sure that they had a trick up their collective sleeve. They were all edgy and excitable, like kids going out on their first scavenging run. And they had something on the bench, but covered with a cloth of some kind.
Ward strode in, Newton a few steps behind him, and everybody went silent. You could have walked on the tension. Ward made his way to a chair in the middle of the room, facing the window, and sat. It flickered into life and showed Dag-Corina in her room. A murmur rippled around the room, and I heard someone — Newton I thought — mutter, ‘Well, fuck.’
‘Good morning, Mr Ward. Would you prefer this form, or human?’
Ward pinched his bottom lip. ‘Which form do you consider truest to yourself?’
The window fuzzed, cleared, and Corina was in human form. As always, she was slightly different from the last time I had seen her, but she was still beautiful.
‘I see,’ said Ward. ‘And good morning to you. It is a pleasure to be able to speak to you directly, though I understand we still need the help of young Jax to speak to you.’
There was a rustle for excitement from the techs, and Corina’s face was taken over by her mischievous grin. She waved a hand in a grand gesture, pointing at the fabric-shrouded lump. Tara swept the cover off and made a noise that sounded like ‘TaaDah’.
I didn’t have a clue what it was. It was a box, taller than it was wide, with two shiny glass tubes at the top and mesh grilles on either side. ‘We can’t find a way for her to direct the vision yet,’ said Tara. ‘But we think we can give her sight and sound through this.’
Corina was nodding enthusiastically. Nobody asked me to, but I tapped the release stud on the halo. Her image in the window looked surprised, but not worried, and I twirled the now-shrunken halo around my fingers.
‘So can you hear me?’ Ward asked.
Corina nodded. ‘Not very clearly, but well enough.’
‘Wonderful. Do you remember I tried to have a conversation with you a while ago? About how one would normally expect a favour for a favour.’
‘Yes.’
‘I believe it’s time we thought about settling some of the accounts.’
I sat straighter in my chair. Here came the payoff, the ‘little favour’. I wished I hadn’t taken the halo off so I could talk privately to Corina, but she seemed happy enough with her new eyes and ears.
‘Of course. How can I help?’
‘We want you to get us into the Dagashi system, so we can access the dataweb,’ said Ward.
Two of the techs started whispering to each other, which earned them a sharp look from Tara. Corina looked thoughtful.
‘And—’ Newton began from the back of the room.
Ward looked over his shoulder. ‘Not the right time, Newton.’
‘Then when will be? You agreed.’ Newton stepped into the middle of the room, hands balled into fists. ‘Access to the dataweb, and a way to get into the Dag ship undetected.’
‘I said this wasn’t the time,’ Ward repeated. He didn’t raise his voice, but I wouldn’t have argued with him at that point. Newton glared down at him, jaw muscles twitching and bulging, and I edged to the side. Newton looked like he was going to launch himself at Ward, and I didn’t want to be in the way. But Ward didn’t move, and Newton gradually unwound himself, ending the encounter by unclenching his fists with a dismissive flick before going back to where he had been leaning against the wall.
A gentle, metallic cough from the thing on the bench broke the spell and everybody turned back to face Corina. ‘I will not give you information to get inside the vessel. I’m not sure I would be able to help you anyway, because I do not know how you would get access to the system from here. From what I have seen, your tech is not compatible.’
The room deflated, and Ward sighed. ‘I see.’ He turned to Tara. ‘Is there anything useful we can gain from this?’
Tara shrugged, and Ward rose to his feet. ‘Keep me apprised,’ he said.
Corina was looking confused. ‘I don’t understand. Why do you need access to the ship dataweb anyway? My copy is only a few days out of date.’
Ward eased gently back down onto his chair. ‘Are you saying you have a copy of their entire dataweb in there?’
‘Of course.’
I had to grin at the way Corina sounded like it was the most obvious thing ever.
‘Please excuse me,’ said Ward. ‘I had no idea you would be so well informed. Is your copy complete? Might there be areas you were not allowed access to?’
‘Why would they do that? We use a wide distribution multiple access storage model. Besides, they didn’t even know I was there. I was just another node. Some of it is encrypted, but I can still get into it.’ Her eye drifted upwards and she screwed her mouth up for a moment. ‘Probably.’
The conversation drifted into babble again. I gently tossed the halo onto the table beside me, picked up my book, and walked out of the room.
I wasn’t being petty, not really. Corina would either help them or not. If she said no, they would unplug her and let her power drain. I had already died with her once. I couldn’t do it again and there was nothing I could do to stop it. If she said yes, there would be endless hours of tech babble that made my head ache and my ears ring. While she was playing with her new friends, Corina barely spoke to me, so I wouldn’t be missed — and I knew I wasn’t needed. She had eyes and ears now.
I went to my room and threw myself onto the bed. It let out an alarming clank but I was past caring. I picked up one of the books I’d been loaned, but as soon as I opened it I lost interest. I’d had my nose in a book for most of a week now and I wanted a change. I dropped the book on my bed and made my way to the refectory.
‘Need any help?’ I asked, once I had pushed through the doors into the kitchen. I didn’t like to wander around too much. This was home to these people, and they didn’t trust me yet. I guessed they wouldn’t want me poking my nose around, looking like I was digging around in their secret places. A common area, like the refectory, seemed safe enough.
‘Like what?’ A man in a stained apron strode up to me and looked me over. I tried not to stare back. The last thing I wanted was to look pushy.
‘Anything. Fetching, carrying. I need something to do; something with my hands.’
‘You can do this washing up,’ laughed a voice from the other side of the kitchen. I stepped forward. ‘How do I do that?’
After I finished in the kitchen, one of the servers asked if I was up for helping shift some boxes in the store.
‘I’ll give it a go,’ I replied. ‘Might have to mind this though.’ As I mentioned it, my finger automatically touched the sore spot.
‘That what Newton did?’ The server, who told me his name was Andre, looked impressed. It seemed word moved fast around here.
I shook my head. ‘I was stupid enough to get tricked into a full sensory Mule ride. They didn’t tell me what they were going to do.’
‘What the hell d’you do that for?’
‘Food,’ I said. ‘The Dag were screwing around with my registration, so I had no credit and couldn’t work.’
Andre shook his head. ‘Man, I wouldn’t want to go back to that.’
To get to the store we travelled through parts of the complex I had never seen. It all looked much the same, the walls, floor and ceiling all bare concrete, and doors bare metal. Coloured ribbons of paint snaked along the walls, interspersed with numbers or meaningless collections of letters. Ceiling lights worked here and there, but in most places illumination came from strings of bulbs draped along the walls. There was a smell about the place. Nothing horrible, but as though the air had been used too often
The storage area was a huge space of interconnected rooms and metal shelves. We walked straight through the first two sections, crammed with tech and stuff I had no idea about. Then we passed through a section where the shelves were empty, but not that dusty, and I guessed this might be where they had already eaten their way through. Everywhere else was coated in dust so thick it was spooky. Not many cobwebs, though.
I couldn’t lift much, but I could trail along behind Andre with a rubber-wheeled truck while he loaded it with the stuff he needed. ‘How long have you been down here?’ I asked, then worried I’d been too pushy. ‘Sorry. If that’s secret or anything, you don’t have to-’
‘It’s cool. Unless they’re happy you’re one of us, you won’t be leaving to tell anybody outside.’
He was grinning, but I was still nervous. ‘So what was this place? Is it to do with the underground railroad?’
‘Hah! Anything but. This was some kind of hidey-hole where the bigheads from before the burning used to hide. Only the Dags dropped their floating city on them and broke the place. From what I was told there were bodies everywhere. Real ones, not the soot left behind by the Dags. They all had to be carried out and taken down the tunnels.’
‘Gross.’
‘Damn right. Glad I wasn’t recruited until well after that.’
We retraced our steps, pushing the boxes-laden trolley back to the kitchen. The route took us past the room where Corina was hooked up to the false window. She was deep in conversation with someone, so I didn’t butt in. When we got back to the kitchen I hung around to help with the next meal. I was curious to see what they did to food rations, but I never ever expected what I saw. They used real food. Stuff from tins and that had been dried out and preserved. I nearly threw up when I thought about it, and Andre must have seen me turn green.
‘Easy, kid. You ain't the first. Lots of the youngsters that get recruited have a problem with real food. Thing is, it's about as real as a ration block. What they used to do to this stuff before they canned it made it about as unnatural as you could get.’
I thought about it and decided since what I had eaten already hadn’t killed me or made me sick, then he was probably right.
I found a few more odd jobs, and every time I passed Corina’s room she was busy. The people kept changing, but the babble was just as incomprehensible. By the evening I was exhausted. When I went back to my room, I found the halo on my table. There was a scrap of paper underneath. Someone had left me a note. I could read books easily enough, but this was messy and took me a minute to figure out.
‘Don’t begrudge Corina her new friends. Every girl likes to be popular. Tara.’
I dropped the note onto the table and picked up the halo. A moment later I tossed that back on the table too. When I dropped onto the bed, I was asleep before I could undress.
The next morning I helped in the kitchen until breakfast was over. I couldn’t do the washing up, because Megan got annoyed when the water loosened the tape she had wrapped around my fingers. After, I limped to Corina’s new room. My toes was aching fiercely, probably from all the walking the day before, but Megan had told me it was my own fault and wouldn’t give me any extra pain killers.
People crowded the room, clustering so closely around Corina’s screen that I couldn’t see her. Tara spotted me hanging around the door.
‘Morning, Jax.’
‘Jax?’ In the false window, I could just see the top of Corina’s head came up and moved from side to side. It was like she was looking for me but was blind, and it sent a shiver down my arms. Then I saw the tubes on the marvellous gadget were pointing down at the bench. ‘Where were you last night?’
‘I was really tired,’ I said. ‘But I can see you’re busy.’
I stepped out of the doorway and walked off. There were quick footsteps behind me, then someone grabbed me and spun me around. It was Tara. Her hand clamped onto my arm like a vice, narrow bony fingers digging in so hard I was sure there would be bruises.
‘She worked all night, Jax. This isn’t just her debt she’s paying off, it’s yours too.’
‘I’m finding things to do.’
‘Have you told her? Thought not.’ Her eyes rolled. ‘Never ever thought I would be saying this about a machine. She misses you, Jax, and she will be hurt you didn’t speak to her then.’
‘I’m in the way,’ I said, then wished I hadn’t. Tara gave me a look I didn’t like much.
‘Maybe so, but don’t forget her.’ I nodded and Tara let go of my arm. She glared into my face a moment longer, then shook her head and turned away. The disappointment in her face made me angry, and I went to find someone who could give me work, to help me think of something else.
That night, I put the halo on. Tara’s words had rattled around in my head all day. I wasn’t mad at Corina, not really. I was pissed off that I was suddenly a spare part, and I had to admit that I didn’t like it not being just her and me. But I wasn’t mad at her. I worried she was angry with me, or I’d be interrupting her working with her new friends. I didn’t want a quick smile then be told to sit in the corner out of the way.
I lay back on the bed while I waited for the halo to connect, and before my head hit the pillow I was in Corina’s room. She was sitting on the couch, and more false windows hovered in the air in front of her; six of them all flickering with words and pictures, so fast I couldn’t make out a thing. I pressed my hand against the couch, to make sure I wouldn’t sink through to the floor, then sat next to her.
‘You working with your friends?’
She shook her head, but her eyes were still fixed on the windows in front of her. ‘No, Tara sent them all to bed after last night. Well, after last week, really. I didn’t know humans could go so long without sleep.’
‘So what’s this?’
‘I’m running some searches, condensing material, and translating it from Dagashi to English.’
‘You’re busy. I should leave you to work.’
‘No.’ For the first time she looked away from the windows and towards me. Her hand reached out to take mine, but they passed through each other. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered, and she blushed. ‘I wasn’t thinking. Please don’t go.’
‘I don’t want to disturb you. Are you going to be finished any time soon?’
She shook her head. ‘They are consuming this stuff as fast as I can produce it. At least I don’t need sleep.’ She tried to smile but it didn’t really work.
‘Then why do you want me here?’
‘It’s nice knowing you’re there. I miss you.’
I missed her too, but to say so would sound like I was echoing her.
‘I know this is boring for you,’ she said. ‘But for me it’s fun. Leave the halo on, please? I won’t disturb you.’
I smiled a difficult smile and said ‘Of course.’ The lounge faded away, and I turned over and tried to sleep.