Sanctuary Falling (26 page)

Come on and get to business, Angela thought to herself. Seeing as she’d already focused on Niri, maybe she could forestall a flood of words by initiating the communication. “So, Niri, I’m assuming you’ll be making a few changes to the program. I want you to know I trust your instincts and will allow you to handle things as you see fit. There is one thing I don’t want you to neglect. I meant what I said about Annette; get her training going, put her on the fastest fast track you have.”

Niri gulped visibly, “May I be excused? I have a lot of work to do.”

Angela smiled, and nodded, “Not a problem I understand your position. “ Niri left quickly, and focus settled solidly on Angela. She could feel how much most everyone in the room wanted to be in Niri’s place. Angela found herself saying, “How about we call this meeting on account of rain?”
 
She meant it to be a silent musing, but somehow it had slipped past the trip wires and barriers put up against such slips and it had made it to the tongue and beyond.

Again there was a semi audible group sigh, ending in an apathetic doubt that she had meant what she said.
 
Angela stood up. “If everyone wants to be somewhere else then why are we here? You can send your reports to my pad and to anyone else who needs the information, and everyone can check their pads like good little children and we can take back one more hour of our days for actual work slash play.”

The whole room blinked disbelievingly in unison. With the exception of Gene, who was twiddling with his pop-pad and Ralph, who had fallen miraculously asleep within the bare moments since Dennis consulted him on accepting Sinclair. Angela blinked back at them all, half because she couldn’t believe she’d said what she’d said, half because she couldn’t believe they were all still sitting in exactly the same places.

Angela telekinetically nudged Ralph awake, “Hello? Anybody still present, meeting adjourned permanently!”

“Cool dude!” Ralph stood up and collected his pop-pad, “Yo, Chavez let’s get to work.”

Sinclair stood stiffly and followed as Ralph left the room, Dennis was next and pretty soon everyone followed.

Angela stood in a silent empty room, okay so there go the meetings every morning. What was she going to do with her life? A lot of reading seeing as people would now be sending their reports to her pop-pad. She could always trade it in for an unlisted pad. No that was ridiculous the information was clearly important or they wouldn’t send it to her. Right? Besides what would she do with spare time? Maybe she should look into getting a hobby. She’d always wanted to paint, not pictures, but houses. Maybe she could put a fresh coat on the apartment.
 
Angela wondered what Daniel would think if she started to paint their bedroom.

- - - - - - - - - -

Annette had finished the day early yesterday, before noon. After a large meal of cereal, yogurt and pepperoni pizza she had retreated back to her assigned quarters and basically fell into a calorically induced hibernation, with Tawny mumbling softly that she should see Tina. When Annette finally awoke from her slumber she had passed over twenty-four hours asleep on her bed, in the same outfit she took the test in, except for the shoes.
 
Although, the pale blue coverall no longer covered all. During the night she had grown. Now the seams at the bottom had risen from ankle to almost her knee and the sleeves ended more than halfway to her elbow instead of at her wrists. Some of her newly acquired baby fat had redistributed itself into womanly curves. If the coverall hadn’t been created with situations like this in mind, the cloth might have restricted her breathing, but the clothes had done their job stretching and even ripping where necessary thanks to their sensitivity to her body’s chemical cues.

Annette should have been shocked by the transformation, but to begin with she didn’t even notice. A sort of anesthetized fog still hung over her mind as she shuffled into the bathroom to take care of pressing bodily business.
 
Her first clue to the change was the disgraceful state of her clothing, she had no idea how it had been damaged. Taking it off to shower was the last blow to its structural stability and the coverall came completely apart. Looking down at the shreds Annette saw there was just a bit more to her in some places and a bit less in others. In shock, she ran to the mirror and saw the new her for the first time. Her body had done it, metamorphosed, without her noticing, or going to see Tina.
 
Annette rushed out into the bedroom stark naked.

“Tawny, I’ve been through a metamorphosis!” Annette almost asked why the program hadn’t woken her for it but asked instead, “Why didn’t you call Tina?”

Tawny answered softly, “I kept a close eye on you, if there had been the slightest problem I would have. I just thought maybe you wanted it to be private, seeing as you completely ignored the suggestions I’d made to go see her. You seem okay now so I think it was an okay choice. As soon as you shower and get dressed, I think you should go and check in with her.”

Annette glanced down at herself and darted back into the bathroom. She showered and returned to the bedroom wrapped in a towel. “I don’t have any clothing, at least none that will fit anymore.”

Tawny’s speakers burbled with electronic laughter, “Not a problem, I’ve anticipated your needs. Pardon the privacy issue but I got a good scan of you and there is a new outfit in the cupboard for you in your new size.”

Shy but grateful, Annette opened the cupboard door revealing a new purple jumpsuit, shoes and womanly undergarments. On the lapel was Tawny’s spider-like remote pin.
 
“I can’t wear that, it’s the wrong color!”

“I know your brain is a bit fuzzy, but don’t you recognize a second year trainee’s coverall?” Tawny responded with another electronic laugh.

Annette paused, then snatched up the clothes and returned to the bathroom to change. She felt guilty, seeing as she hadn’t been officially issued the outfit, but she was a second year student. Indisputably so, seeing as she’d been promoted to it by the chief factor herself.
 
Annette pulled on the clothes and zipped up the front of the coverall.

When she came out of the bathroom she found a meal waiting for her on the desk. The smell seemed to reach down into her stomach telling it to growl. Whatever was the case, she crossed the room and began shoveling food, a kind of fruity stew, into her mouth before the intention to had formed in her brain. With one hand furiously transporting spoon between the plate and her face it took concentration to get the other to pull out the chair
  
to sit and eat. Once that small roadblock was past, the spare hand grabbed the slice of rustic wheat bread and began punctuating the stew with it.
 
Annette emptied the bowl with single minded attentiveness and it instantly refilled without a request to Tawny. Two bowls later Annette came to her senses enough to casually wonder what she had been eating, but was smart enough not to ask.
 
Finally, she regained control of the spoon.

“Better?”
 
Tawny asked once the spoon stopped.

Annette had to think a moment, she hadn’t realized she had been starving until the food was there. Annette was going to miss Tawny when she moved to her new quarters. “Yes, how did you know?”

“I’ve taken care of a Briaunti before,” Tawny added in a machine’s best imitation of a wistful tone.

“You miss her,” Annette said.

“I miss . . . everything. Until you came along it had been 4.512 years since anyone bothered to address me and then it was to inform me I was being erased. I have enjoyed interacting with you and observing others through my remote pin.” Tawny’s speakers fell strangely quiet, and the pin disappeared from Annette’s lapel suddenly.

The silence scared Annette, “Tawny?”

“I am still here, I have informed Tina that you are on your way to the clinic and have contacted Niri. She will meet you after you have seen Tina, I have also taken the liberty of sending your belongings forward to your new quarters. Congratulations on becoming a factor trainee,” Tawny’s voice came only through the suddenly hollow sounding room speakers.

Annette wished she could stay, and realized that if she made the request Niri just might allow it, “Tawny I could . . .”

“No! You have places to go and people to impress! I agreed to offer you shelter until your testing was over and you have overstayed. Time for you to get out!”

“But!” Annette protested.

“You have an appointment with Tina and she is a very busy woman,” Tawny replied. Annette heard the snick of the door unlocking.

Annette frowned and walked to the door. She wanted to protest but there was nothing to be said. “Goodbye Tawny.” Annette opened the door and walked out without another word. It hurt when the lock snicked behind her. Annette felt like an alien in her own body. Her legs were all wrong. Each step felt like she was stepping off the last unexpected stair of a flight of stairs. Worse everything seemed so much smaller than it had been yesterday.

When she reached the practice cavern at least it was still reassuringly enormous. It still made her feel small. One thing disturbed her though, it was unusually empty. This time of day the room should be filled with the full rainbow of jumpsuits plus a spattering of street clothes. Fewer than twenty other people were in the room and all but one of them were wearing red. The red jumpsuits were gathered together at the far end their attention on a remote control hover plane doing tricks.
 
Annette thought about inquiring about the absence, instead she set for the exit. It was too far to walk for information she would come across eventually. Especially considering it probably had a lot to do with the recent power shift. She kept her focus on the exit, trying to let her feet work unsupervised. She paid special attention to avoiding the obstacle course support which had such an auspicious impact on her life.

Dimly she heard the pattering of approaching feet, “Annette?”

She stopped and glanced at the approaching flash of purple, the only other second year trainee in the room. “Yes?”

“I knew it!” He shouted, voice and face registered in Annette’s mind as Carl. “I was sure it had to be you! When did you metamorphose?”

“Last night,” Annette paused. She was fairly certain it had only been one night. Just the question made her feel Tawny’s absence keenly. “What day is today?”

“April 22nd,” Carl answered.

That confirmed for her that she’d only slept for twenty-four hours. It also reminded her that she was now officially one year older. Today was her fourteenth birthday. “Happy birthday me,” She mumbled to herself.

“Really?” Carl asked, “It’s your first as a woman. I have a gift for you.”

Before she could ask what, one of the first year trainees shouted “Look out!” The object of the warning, the
 
small remote control hovercraft rammed into the side of Annette’s head. Annette blinked, strangely the floor seemed to rise to meet her. Then she realized, as her head hit the floor that she was falling to meet it. As she lost consciousness she could only think, “It wasn’t fair, she had avoided the pole this time.”

Annette’s eyes slowly came back into focus. She recognized the flat flawless white of the clinic ceiling. Her head throbbed and swam, with the ringing in her ears. Her first thought, other than that she was awake, was that she was late for something. She tried to shove herself up, but fell back, flattened by a wave of nausea. She briefly worried Niri would be angry, before the memories of how she lost consciousness came back to her.

She’d been the victim of a air to floor collision.
 
Annette lifted a hand to her forehead, no lump this time though, at least not up front. Well, she was in the clinic. She closed her eyes to the blank clinic ceiling and willed them not to open again. Blindly she heard the door hiss open.

“How’s my patient?” A sickeningly upbeat female voice asked.

“I’m swell Tina!” Annette growled, and glared at Tina.

“Okay, now do you want to tell me why you didn’t come to see me of your own volition about your metamorphosis?” Tina asked.

“Why didn’t you ever get around to telling me I was Briaunti?” Annette parried.

“Touché,” Tina replied, “but seriously metamorphoses can be very dangerous and should be properly supervised.”