SARAH SAT BY Ramsey’s bedside, her elbow on the bed and her head in her hand. It had been forty-eight hours since his surgery. He’d been moved out of intensive care six hours earlier. Seeing him for the first time after surgery in the ICU, it had been difficult to conceive how so many tubes and machines could be necessary for one man. She and Leroy had seen him first, since only two could visit at a time. They’d listened to the beep of the machine monitoring his heart and blood pressure and the whirring of the ventilator as it pumped oxygen in and out of his lungs. They’d only been able to stay fifteen minutes before Hannah and Declan saw him next.
Sarah did not want to leave the hospital, so Hannah had managed to secure two rooms at the hotel across the street, which catered to the families of patients. She and Sarah stayed in one room and Declan took the other. Leroy stayed the first night and each continued to take their turn to see Ramsey.
Thankfully, he’d remained fever-free and stable. They’d removed the breathing tube after the first twenty-four hours and reduced the sedation level, but he had not regained consciousness, so they’d kept him in ICU for another twenty-four hours. Because his vital signs remained strong and he showed no signs of infection, they’d then moved him to a private room, believing he would regain consciousness as he gained strength. The private room allowed all of them the ability to stay during visiting hours, and it also provided a window, chairs, and a private bathroom. Now, sitting down next to his bed, Sarah held Ramsey’s hand, watching him and wishing he would open his eyes. With the number of machines required now reduced, the area looked less imposing, although his IV hung nearby and his heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels continued to be constantly monitored. Sarah leaned her head and stretched her neck. Her eyes burned and her muscles ached. She’d slept little since they’d arrived at the hospital two days earlier.
The door opened, and Hannah entered, carrying two Styrofoam cups. “Here you go. I can’t promise it’s any good. There’s no telling how long it’s been sitting.”
“Thanks, Hannah,” said Sarah, taking the coffee. One of the benefits of being in a private room on a different floor was the family area. It contained a kitchenette with a microwave and refrigerator as well as a sitting room with a TV and magazines, and best of all, a coffee machine well stocked with cream and sugar.
Hannah sat in one of the extra chairs. She’d been questioned by the police the previous day, as had Sarah. Neither of them had said anything that would compromise who they were, but they provided as many details as the police could use to find Y, although they knew he would not be found.
“Heard from Declan and Leroy?” asked Sarah.
“No. Nothing.”
Sarah looked at the clock on the wall. “They’ve been meeting with the Council for almost three hours now. I wonder what they’ll decide.”
“I don’t know,” said Hannah. “I honestly don’t know what they can do.”
Sarah sighed and closed her tired eyes. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
Sarah turned and looked at Hannah. “How exactly am I expected to help you?”
Hannah’s fatigue was as evident as Sarah’s. “What do you mean?”
“You said there was a serum.”
“Oh, that.”
“Yes, that. What am I supposed to do?”
Hannah watched Sarah. She’d left these types of revelations to Ramsey, but now she saw that she would have to handle this one on her own. “The Council believes the serum still exists.”
“Still exists? How?”
“The ship carrying it went down years ago, but the serum was not found at the crash site. We believe the captain likely dumped and hid it before the ship went down in order to ensure it would not be found by humans.”
“Don’t you think finding the ship would have been the bigger problem?”
Hannah made a face as she took a sip of her stale coffee, but she continued. “Eudorans have a unique ability to remain concealed. She crashed, but she managed to put it down in a secluded area. She dumped everything that could further lead to our discovery had the ship been found.”
“She?”
“The captain of the ship was female. Her name was Varalika.”
“And if this serum is found, you think it’s still good?”
“No reason it wouldn’t be.”
“There’s no expiration date?”
Hannah smiled. “No. No expiration date.”
Sarah leaned forward in her seat, trying to find a more comfortable position to ease the ache from sitting for so long. “And what can I possibly do?”
Hannah glanced at Ramsey, wishing he would wake and answer that question. When he didn’t, she continued, “Varalika was a Red-Line, Sarah. Like you are.”
Sarah waited for Hannah to continue.
“Red-Lines have unique abilities that Gray-Lines do not. I think you know about some of those abilities from what you experienced during your Shift. Another ability they possessed was to encode mirrors and use them as communication devices. They were an easy way to transfer information without fear of it being easily discovered.”
“Mirrors? You mean like any mirror?”
“Yes. Any mirror. To a human or me, it’s just a handy way to check out your face, but to a Red-Line, it’s an effective and important tool.”
“And why is that important?”
“Because Varalika’s mirror was found near her body. We believe it contains the location of the serum. And we’re hoping you can read it.”
Sarah could only stare as she tried to take in what Hannah said. The room was quiet apart from the beeping of the machines.
“You want me to read a mirror?” It was all she could think to say.
“Yes.”
Sarah scrunched her eyes. “Hannah, maybe I’m confused, but nobody else could read it?”
“No. The Red-Lines in existence at the time all tried. None were successful. We assume she must have encoded it somehow.”
“Encoded it? But why would she do that?”
“I don’t know. She had to think fast. Her ship was going down. There’s no telling what she was thinking. Stressed and scared, she may have accidentally transferred information to the mirror that created the problem. Or maybe she intentionally coded it for one person’s eyes only. If that’s the case, then they never found that person.”
“Where is this mirror now?”
“The Council has it somewhere under lock and key, I’m sure.”
“And why am I the only remaining Red-Line? Except for Y.”
“Because the ship carried Gray-Line serum necessary for our survival. Once the ship went down, the Reds relinquished their remaining supply to us so that we could survive longer. Theirs was more potent, as I understand, so we’ve been able to stretch our reserves until these past few years. The Red-Lines died out soon after the crash. Only two survived.”
“The Red-Lines sacrificed themselves?”
“Yes. They had to. Gray-Lines did not know they were taking a serum. They still don’t, for that matter. Our host planet chose to keep it a secret. Only a select few knew. Red-Lines knew about the serum, though. So in order to prevent a crisis and keep us alive long enough to find or acquire more, they let themselves die.”
“That was noble of them.”
Hannah remembered Ramsey saying the same thing. “Yes, it was.”
“I’m afraid to ask, but how is it that I’m here?”
Hannah put her coffee down, unable to finish it. “That’s a long story.”
“I think we have some time to kill.”
Hannah stood and stretched. “Yes, I guess we do.” She bent over and touched her toes. “You should get up and move. It’ll help.”
“I will. But you haven’t answered my question.”
Hannah straightened. “Genetic testing.”
“What?”
Hannah reconsidered telling Sarah the rest, but she knew they’d gone too far now to stop. “Unbeknownst to her, your human mother, Sarah, married one of us, a Gray-Line. He was a genetic researcher. We’d been doing genetic testing for years with the hope that new Red-Lines could be born, but had little success. Your parents had been unable to conceive, so he suggested implanting your mother with Red-Line sperm. Your mother believed it was your father’s. She agreed to the procedure and she got pregnant. You are the result.”
Sarah did not conceal her shock. “I don’t believe it.”
“There were no other options. They couldn’t make more serum, and they’d lost contact with Eudora. They couldn’t expect more to arrive. So they did what they thought was the next best thing. Try to create a new Red-Line. One that might be able to read the mirror.”
“They created me?” Sarah looked bewildered.
“It’s not like you’re Frankenstein’s monster,” said Hannah, reading Sarah’s face and trying to downplay the news. “You’re the result of a combination of Red-Line and human DNA. You’re a one in a million shot that worked.”
Sarah focused on Hannah’s words, but she couldn’t process them. “I’m a lottery ticket?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way.”
“How would you put it?”
Just then, there was a knock on the door, and it opened. Leroy poked his head in, looked in the room, and walked in with Declan behind him.
“Nice room,” said Leroy.
“Better than the other one,” said Declan. He looked at the bed’s occupant. “How’s he doing?”
“Still unconscious,” said Hannah, glad for the interruption. She knew by Sarah’s reaction that the revelation of her origin had not been well received.
“What’s the matter?” asked Declan, his senses picking up on the emotion in the room. “Sarah?”
Sarah didn’t respond. She’d been holding Ramsey’s hand, but she released it. She sat stiffly in the chair.
“Hannah?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
From the opposite side of the bed, Leroy saw Sarah’s reaction, too. “What’s the problem?” he asked. “Other than waiting for our friend here to wake up from his beauty sleep.”
“I told her,” said Hannah, “about the serum. And the mirror. And where she came from.”
“What, you trying to put her in a coma, too?” asked Leroy.
“She asked, Leroy.”
“Sarah, you okay?” Declan could feel her turmoil, but he felt something else too, something he’d not felt in a while. “Sarah?”
Sarah continued to sit in her seat unmoving, but her face revealed her confusion. Her mind raced with the newfound information regarding her origin. Everything she’d been raised to believe had been a lie. She’d been an experiment. A test dummy. She’d been made to save another species about which she knew nothing. Then, when they’d needed her, they’d pulled her out of her life, telling her only what they’d needed to, hoping she could save them. And now she’d befriended them and cared for—maybe even loved—one of them, and if she couldn’t do what they needed, she would have to watch all of them die.
She felt her anger rise. She felt used, as if she were a pawn or a toy. She’d had no control over this since the day she’d been conceived. And now there was nowhere else for her to go. Tingles of electricity pulsed through her arms and legs, but she ignored them. Her stomach clenched as her disbelief fueled her outrage. She wanted to stand and scream, even though she knew none of the people in the room were to blame. They had been sucked into this just as she had been, but she couldn’t help herself. It was like a tidal wave of swirling energy was building within her and she couldn’t stop it.
“Uh…Hannah, go watch the door,” said Declan, feeling Sarah’s emotional hurricane.
“What? Why?”
Just then, a glass jar which was sitting on the movable tray table that sat flush against the wall shattered. It had been filled to the top with colorful candies, and a stick with a card attached had stuck out the top that read “Get Well Soon!” None of them had noticed it earlier. Now everyone jumped at the sound of the glass exploding and the small candies scattering everywhere.
Declan stepped forward and kneeled in front of Sarah, avoiding the rolling candy. He looked back at Hannah. “Now would not be a good time to be interrupted.”
Hannah moved fast. “Okay.” She headed to the door, opened it, and went to stand outside.
“I’ll help you,” said Leroy, following Hannah.
Declan faced Sarah again. “I need you to gain control, Sarah. Take some deep breaths.”
Sarah stood abruptly and pushed past him. “Don’t tell me what to do, Declan.”
“Do you realize what just happened? Your abilities are returning. I can feel them.”
“I bet that will make everyone happy, won’t it?”
Declan knew he had to calm her down, or he was going to have a hard time explaining to the hospital staff why John’s room suddenly collapsed in on itself.
“Listen, I know you’ve got a lot to process, but now is not the time. We’re in a hospital, Sarah. In public.”
“I don’t care!”
A sharp crack sounded. Declan looked toward the noise and stared, horrified to see a large fissure forming on the side of the window at the back of the room.
“Sarah.” He turned back to her. “Pull it together. You can’t lose it right now.”
“I’ll do whatever the hell I please, Declan. I’m sick and tired of everyone controlling me, of expecting something from me.” She paced at the foot of Ramsey’s bed. “But what should I expect? I’m nothing but a lab experiment. Created to fulfill a purpose. Right?”
“That’s not true.”
She looked at him. “Yes, it is.”
The tray table rolled across the room and slammed into Ramsey’s bed.
“Sarah, please…” said Declan.
“My father wasn’t even my real father!” The chair behind Declan slammed into the wall, flipped, and fell on its side. Sarah reached down and gripped the foot rail at Ramsey’s feet. “I’m such a fool.”
Declan said nothing, because everything he tried only made her angrier.
The door opened and Leroy poked his head in. “Nurse is coming. Hannah’s stalling her. Better hurry.” His gaze shot between Sarah and Declan. “Everything all right?”
“What do you think?” answered Declan.
Leroy looked around the room, taking in the chair, the window, and Sarah’s body language. “Okay,” he said, assessing the scene, “we’ll keep stalling.” His head disappeared again.
Sarah knew she had to rein it in, but the momentum carried her now and she felt the desire, the need, to lash out. She tried to redirect her energy, but she found herself wanting to break or throw something. She turned away from Declan, not wanting to inadvertently throw him. A small countertop stood in front of her with various containers of medical supplies sitting atop it. She felt the urge to shove it all off and smash it to the floor.
“Sarah, don’t,” said Declan, trying to break her focus.
Suddenly, the machine monitoring Ramsey’s heart began to beat erratically and an alarm sounded. Breaking from the pull of the emotional exchange between and around them, both Sarah and Declan turned toward the sound.
Staring back from the bed was Ramsey, his eyes open but unfocused. “You two think you could keep it down?” His voice cracked.
Just then, the door opened and a nurse walked in, with Hannah and Leroy right behind her. “I’m glad that you’re considering nursing school, Mr. Leroy,” she said, “but I don’t have time to discuss my career path with you. I have to make my rounds.” She stopped when she walked into the room, heard the alarm, saw broken glass and brightly colored candy littering the floor around an overturned chair and the room’s patient, previously comatose, staring up at her.
“Oh my,” she said.
They all stood unmoving as they took in the scene in front of them, until Declan finally broke the silence. “Nursing school?” he couldn’t help but ask.