Transcendent (9781311909442) (17 page)

She stared at him and nodded. She blinked
away a shimmer in her eyes and stood up. She cleared her throat and
asked, “As your commanding officer I have to ask you, did you know
anything about this?”

Krys continued to glare at her with fire and
venom in his eyes. He imagined himself in one of the biomechs while
she ran from him.

“Krys?”

“No!” he spat. “I don’t know anything.”

She watched a moment longer and nodded.
“You’re my only technician now. There’s no telling how long until a
replacement is sent for Lesk.”

“Lucky me,” he growled.

Shelby sighed and turned back to the door.
She put her hand on the button to open it but hesitated. She turned
and stared back at him and then was distracted by the display.

Krys followed her gaze and saw the biomech
match finishing and the display switching to a young girl being
interviewed. He was about to turn back when he stopped and gasped.
Sitting in a blue and white student uniform was Lily.

“Lily,” he whispered.

“You know her?”

Krys clamped his mouth shut but nodded
before he realized it. He ignored Shelby and watched Lily as the
short interview continued.

“Young Miss Lily Strain, congratulations on
being the youngest person to ever qualify for the biomech program
in the armored division. On your first try, no less! What were you
thinking when you went into that test? Were you scared?”

“I was,” she admitted with a reddening of
her cheeks. She picked her head up and looked at the camera. “But
then I remembered that I wasn’t just doing it for me. I was doing
it for my friends and my instructors. Really, for everyone else who
believed in me. I may be the one person you’re talking to, but it’s
a team effort.”

The announcer chuckled and put on an excited
expression. “Well, there you have it! So young and so wise already.
We’ve not seen the last of you, young Miss Strain! Or I suppose I
should be calling you Cadet Strain.”

Lily blushed again and nodded. “Thank you,”
she said before the display changed to something else.

Krys watched, hoping it would cut back to
Lily but the tournament went on now that the combatants had time to
leave the field for their thoughts on the match. Krys tuned them
out and turned back to Shelby. “Lily was my friend. As far as I
know, she and I are the only people from here who are still alive.
If Lily’s doing that, and I’m doing this, imagine how much was lost
when you came in here guns blazing.”

Shelby’s throat bulged as she swallowed. He
saw her nod once, briefly, and then turn back to the door. Without
turning back, she said in a soft voice, “You’re not right about
everything, Krys.”

“Oh yeah? Like what? You can’t lie to me.
I’ve been here and seen what people are like.”

“They like you,” Shelby said. “I like
you.”

“So?”

She turned her head to look at him and he
saw the glistening in her eyes that stole some of the heat from his
belly. “So maybe we’re doing our jobs. Maybe we’re following
orders. But some of us do care. I can’t change what happened, and I
can’t change what’s going to happen. But I do care, Krys.”

Krys opened and closed his mouth, at a loss
for words. It was ridiculous that she thought she couldn’t change
anything, but he had a hunch that wasn’t what she was trying to
tell him. Before he could figure out how to respond, she opened the
door and walked through it into the darkness outside. The door slid
shut, stealing his last chance to make amends.

He glanced down at the remains of his
uneaten dinner and pushed it away. Lesk was gone now, too—another
friend taken by the stupid war. At least he knew Lily was still
alive.

At the thought of Lily, Krys jerked his head
up to the display. He had to find out more about her! He jumped to
his feet and went to grab an infopad. He had some searching to
do.

Lily blinked as the high-powered lights
turned off and everyone started moving. Mr. Lindsey, the reporter
who had just interviewed her, clapped his hands and stood up. “Good
job, kid,” he said, dropping from his stage voice to a gruffer and
more casual one. “Keep it up and you’ll go far.”

She watched him turn away and head off the
stage where the interview had taken place. She’d suffered under
three hours of questions, albeit with breaks here and there to
touch up makeup or to give them a chance to have a drink or use the
restroom. The interview was going to be broken up into short
segments released at key times. Or so she’d been told.

She turned, not certain what to do, and was
about to stand up and head over to where Palla was waving to her
when she heard Mr. Lindsey’s voice. “I don’t care about how many
bits you can get out of this. Come on! She’s a stupid kid. Jenkings
gets a chance to talk to the biomech jocks, and I get a kid?”

He kept talking but he moved far enough away
she couldn’t make out his words. She turned, searching for him, but
couldn’t see where he’d gone.

“Lily!” Palla called out.

Lily turned and put on a smile that didn’t
match the empty pit in her belly. If Mr. Lindsey thought she was a
stupid kid, what were other people thinking? What was she,
really?

“Come on, Lil, we’ve got to get you
back.”

Lily stood up automatically. She kept her
fake smile on her face out of habit and nodded to the workers in
the studio as she moved to join Palla. Did Palla think she was a
stupid kid too? Stupid but lucky, maybe.

“You did awesome up there,” Palla chattered
as they walked past a table loaded with finger foods. Palla
snatched something and popped it in her mouth. Lily was so caught
up in her worries she didn’t even notice what it was her mentor had
chosen.

“Mentor?” Lily whispered aloud.

“What’s that?” Palla asked, turning to look
at her. “Are you okay, Lil? Too much light maybe? Do you need a
drink?”

Lily shook her head. “No, I just was
thinking out loud.”

“About what?”

Lily looked at her. “About you. And me, I
mean.”

Palla’s brow creased. “What about us?”

“Well, your mastery project kind of
disappeared, didn’t it? And I haven’t seen Kami and Trix in a while
now.”

“I still help them out when I can,” Palla
said. “I’ve been refocused on helping you, though.”

“So you’re not really my mentor anymore—more
like my assistant.”

“What? No! Of course, I can’t help you with
the army stuff, but your other classes I can still tutor you
in.”

Lily fixed her with a raised eyebrow.
“Really? Some of my instructors can’t even teach me course-relevant
material anymore.”

Palla frowned. “What are you saying? I’m not
dumb, you know.”

Lily shook her head. “No, I never meant
that. I…” She trailed off in a sigh. Frustrated, Lily blurted out,
“Do you think I’m a stupid kid?”

Palla gasped and pulled her to the side of
the hallway they were walking down to stop her. “What are you
talking about?”

“Well, do you?”

“Of course not!” the older girl snapped.
“You’re a genius, Lily. Off the charts kind of smart. Why would you
think that way at all?”

Palla waited. “Lily?”

Lily sighed. She didn’t want to get anyone
in trouble but she couldn’t stop thinking about it. “I heard
somebody say it. They weren’t talking to me, just about me.”

Palla grunted. “Okay, that makes sense.”

“It does?”

Palla smiled. “See, I can still be your
mentor after all!”

“Not if you don’t help me understand it,”
Lily pointed out.

“Well, people don’t always think with their
heads.”

“That’s helpful,” Lily said with a roll of
her eyes.

Palla grinned. “Stop it. I mean, in this
case, were they upset about something or did they just sound
mean?”

Lily frowned and thought back to the snippet
of conversation. “Upset, I guess.”

“Well, there you go. People get wrapped up
in things and lash out. They’re trying to gain control over a
situation. I know I’ve done it. Done it with you, in fact.”

“Oh,” Lily mumbled. She thought back to some
of their confrontations and nodded. “Yeah, okay. Me too.”

“See? You’re not a stupid kid. You’re
smarter than most of the people on this station. Definitely smarter
than whoever said that. He was just upset about something and
scared.”

“Scared?”

Palla nodded. “Scared of something he
couldn’t understand.”

Lily looked down at herself and then back
up. “What’s not to understand?”

“A pretty young girl like you with so much
potential who wants to get dirty and drive a giant robot?”

Lily shrugged. “So?”

Palla laughed. “Well, it takes some getting
used to. Pretty girls are expected to do something that keeps them
pretty, I guess.”

“Not where I come from. Everybody works and
you do whatever it is that needs to be done, not whatever you can
do that won’t chip a nail.”

Palla burst out laughing. When she gained
control of herself, she nodded. “That’s why people are scared. Your
ideas are so fresh and real they seem crazy.”

Lily stared at her. “You’re pretty—are you
afraid to get dirty?”

Palla smiled and shook her head. “No, I’m
not afraid of hard work. I’d rather not get dirty, but I’ll do what
I have to. Besides, I’m not that pretty.”

Lily ignored Palla’s attempt at a joke. “Are
you scared?”

“Scared? Of what?”

“Of me.”

“A little, maybe,” she admitted. “I mean I
was, but I’m not anymore. I didn’t understand you.”

“And now you do?”

Palla smiled. “Not entirely. But enough, I
think. I know your heart and your head’s in the right place. I
think we’ve become friends, Lily. I hope good friends?”

Lily nodded. “I hope so too. I could use a
friend. But be careful.”

“Careful? Why?”

“My last friends got shot.”

Palla winced. “I’m not worried. Besides,
you’re going to be a biomech pilot in no time. Nobody’s going to
mess with you or your friends when that happens!”

Lily felt the heat rush to her cheeks but
she smiled and nodded in spite of it. She hoped Palla was right,
and then maybe she could get the friend she missed the most back at
her side. She’d be able to protect him and make sure nothing bad
ever happened to them again.

Krys walked through the cold drizzle and
shivered. He had no right to complain; usually this far into the
night cycle, snow was falling instead of rain. There was a little
over a veek left until sunrise. Thirteen days, or maybe twelve now.
He’d lost track of time, trying to figure out what was wrong with
the tank.

He looked up from the ground as he
approached his tiny house and saw someone waiting outside, under
the tiny overhang that served as a porch. It wasn’t someone: it was
her. Shelby. No, not Shelby: Lieutenant Riggs.

“I forget to fix something?” Krys growled as
he walked up to her.

“Krys! That’s not—”

“Then what?” He stopped in front of her and
stood in the rain. “I’d like to go inside.”

She sighed and stepped out of the way. “Can
I come in?”

“Didn’t think I had a choice,” he said as he
stepped up and pressed his hand against the biometric panel beside
his door. It chirped and slid open to let him enter. He held it for
her without knowing why. She was the commander of the colony—her
print would open anything. Then again, his would do almost the same
thing since he’d been promoted to the colony’s resident technical
specialist.

Or as he referred to it after reading an
ancient text he found before the rebellion, a morlock. He kept the
machines running so the happy people in charge could live their
lives uninterrupted.

“You’re obviously still mad at me,” she
stated after she stepped in. Before Krys could give her the verbal
equivalent of a kick in the face, she continued. “Did you ever stop
and think about how I felt?”

Krys did stop. He stared at her and no
matter how much he’d wanted to hurt her, he found himself thinking
about her. About the woman in the armor who was hidden behind
reflective material. The woman who had seen him running and
terrified and instead of making her life easier by shooting him or
letting someone else shoot him, she’d hidden him and kept him
safe.

The same woman who had kept him out of sight
and busy while she had three other chances to ship him off Venus to
a reeducation center. She hadn’t told him about the two of the
three ships but he’d found out anyhow. Other people liked to talk
and Krys did a good job of asking the right questions or learning
when to not ask anything at all and listen instead.

“Why?” Krys asked her.

“Why should you ask me?”

He shook his head. “No, I mean why do you
help me?”

“Because you were just a kid in the wrong
place at the wrong time,” she began.

“I still am,” he said before he could stop
himself.

She shook her head. “No, this is your place.
And you’re not much of a kid anymore.”

He snorted. “I’m fifteen!”

She shrugged. “So? You act older than a lot
of people here do. And you’re smart. I see you watching and
learning. I ask myself sometimes if we captured you, or if you
captured us.”

Krys snorted again but didn’t respond. His
head was spinning now that he knew she was keeping her eye on him
and had noticed him trying to gather as much intelligence as he
could. He didn’t have any plans, but someday—hopefully someday
soon—he might. He jerked his head up to meet her eyes. “That’s why
you asked if I knew anything?”

She nodded.

“What if I had?”

She stared at him and then glanced away.
“You didn’t.”

“No, but what if I had?”

She turned her head back to him. “I have a
job to do, Krys. A job I don’t always like.”