Transcendent (9781311909442) (18 page)

“Quit.”

She stopped and stared at him before she
shook her head. She let out a sad chuckle. “I can’t quit. Nobody
can. I could put in for a transfer or reassignment, but to do what?
This is what I’m best at.”

“What do you mean you can’t quit? Of course
you can!”

She shook her head. “This is our life. Our
world. Our everything, now. We’re part of something greater. Our
entire civilization. We each do our part and help us to become
more. If we don’t, if we refuse, then we’re betraying the people
around us. Instead of being part of the solution, we’re part of the
problem.”

Krys’s eyes kept stretching as she talked.
He couldn’t imagine how that was possible. To be forced to do
something he didn’t like or…or…or else.

“You keep this to yourself, all right?
Nobody else can ever know.”

“Know what?” he mumbled.

“Know that I think what happened here is
terrible. It made me sick to my stomach once I was alone and I
didn’t have to hold it together. Saving your life that day? That
was the only thing that got me through. But then I never heard
about you or saw you. I hoped, but I didn’t know. I nearly gave up
so many times, Krys. So many times I wanted it all to be over like
a bad dream I wouldn’t have to wake up from.”

Krys watched her as she spilled her soul to
him. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears and it made his chest and
throat tighten.

“Hope,” she whispered and then lifted her
head a little. “Hope kept me going. When they brought you in, I
dared to hope and then I recognized you. I made a difference. One
life. One small life. That was enough. That made all my nightmares
and guilt worth it.”

Krys swallowed and glanced around. It was
his house, more of a closet really, but he felt like a stranger.
“Um, thanks?” he offered.

She blinked and then laughed. “Thanks?” she
repeated before giggling some more. She wiped her eyes and smiled
at him. “You’re something else!”

“Well, I guess I don’t really know what to
say,” he admitted. “I mean, this entire colony reports to you, and
you’re telling me you broke the rules to help me out. It’s kind of
messed up.”

She nodded. “You have no idea. I keep
telling myself that if I had a brother, I’d want him to be like
you.”

“What about a sister?”

“None that I know about.”

“None that—what’s that supposed to mean? How
would you not know about them?”

Shelby frowned and nodded towards the table.
“You’ve put in a lot of hours today. Why don’t you have a seat and
let me fix you something?”

“You want to fix me something?” Krys
repeated.

She smiled. “Is that a bad thing?”

“I don’t—”

She held up a hand and then pointed at the
table. “Sit.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said and sat down.

She went through the cooler and picked out
some fresh vison meat and turned to the small modular cookbox
beside it. She put the meat on a plate and programmed the device.
She returned to the cooler and pulled out a pineapple and some
packaged asparagus. “The benefit of living on Venus is the fresh
food,” she said while preparing the meal.

Krys nodded, even though it was all he’d
ever known. He couldn’t imagine living somewhere were the only food
he had was processed, stale, or nearly synthetic with all the
preservatives and artificial ingredients. “So about that family?”
he asked.

She froze for a moment and then shrugged.
“No family,” she said.

“Why not? You had to at one point, didn’t
you? I mean, I get that in the rest of the colonized worlds, babies
are planned and conceived medically up in optimized labs, but you
had to have parents who wanted you.”

She turned and glanced back at him. A sad
smile flickered on her lips before she turned back to the cookbox.
It chirped to indicate the small steak had finished cooking. She
removed it and slid the vegetables in to prepare them separately
while the steak sat. “There is a price for making the human race
what it is today. A price that a lot of us are willing to pay.”

Krys watched her as she kept her back to
him. “Are? Or were? You seem to be having a lot of doubts.”

She sighed. “You’re way too young to be
asking these kinds of questions.”

“You started it. You said I act older than I
am.”

“Older than me,” she muttered.

Krys raised an eyebrow and wasn’t sure if he
was supposed to hear her or not. “What’s that mean?”

The cookbox chirped again, sparing her from
answering. She removed the vegetables and moved to put the meal on
the table in front of him. Sautéed asparagus, cubed pineapple, and
fresh vison steak that was still steaming. Krys was distracted by
the meal and felt his belly clench. He grabbed the silverware and,
with a quick glance at Shelby, he dug in.

“Remember, Krys, what we talk about stays
between us. No one else. Not now, not ever.”

Krys glanced at her and nodded. He turned
his attention back to his meal and cut another slice of meat free.
When he glanced up again a few minutes later, he saw that Shelby
had slipped out and left him alone. He paused and frowned. He had a
long list of bizarre interactions with her but this one was the
strangest yet. Was she really as confused and torn up as she
claimed, or was she trying to make him think she was so she could
pump him for information?

Krys frowned and glanced down at the
half-eaten steak. He supposed it didn’t matter as long as she could
cook a mean steak!

Without having crops or cattle to keep track
of, Lily lost track of time. She had the station clocks and her
day-to-day activities to keep her busy, but time passed by in a
blur. What free time she had, when she wasn’t being worked to the
point of physical and mental exhaustion, she spent dreaming about
what lie ahead of her.

Lily made her way back to her residence, a
room that she now shared with Palla on the third habitat ring, with
a spring in her step. She’d passed the last of her tests to proceed
to graduation of the armored division’s Basic Cadet Training.
Graduation from BCT would be held in two days. Then she could
finally get on with the Advanced Cadet Training, which in her case
meant biomech orientation and training.

She opened the door and walked in to see
Palla on the couch next to Kami. They looked up from Kami’s infopad
and saw her grinning at them. “Hi Kami!”

“Hey, uh, Lily. Wow, you look hot!”

Lily’s eyes widened. “Um, thanks?”

Palla burst out laughing. “She had her
physical exams today.”

Lily looked down at herself and realized
what Kami meant. Her blue and white singlet was soaked with sweat.
“Great, now my face is hot too,” she said to explain her blush.

“Oh, you thought I meant—” Kami stammered
before her own face turned red.

Palla laughed harder.

“Anyhow,” Lily said over her roommate’s
laughter. “Yes, I passed. I graduate and start ACT in two
days!”

“Cool,” Kami said. “I think. What’s
ACT?”

“Advanced Cadet Training,” Lily said before
turning and walking to the small kitchenette in their room. She
poured herself a cup of cool water and drained it before turning
back to them. “That’s when I start learning the fun stuff.”

Kami glanced at Palla, and Palla laughed
again. “Fun stuff like learning how to drive tanks and biomechs and
get shot at.”

“Ugh, no thanks!” Kami said. Her eyes bulged
and she added, “Great for you, though, I mean. It’s just not my
thing.”

Lily laughed at her reaction. “I get that a
lot,” she admitted. She looked at Palla and said, “Seems a lot of
people have trouble accepting that a girl would want to work this
hard.”

Palla caught her gaze. “Not just a girl, but
a pretty girl.”

Kami looked back and forth between the two
of them. “Am I missing something?”

Lily and Palla both laughed. “Private joke,”
Palla said. “Well, not private, just something we talked about
awhile ago.”

“Oh,” Kami said. She glanced at her infopad
and then back up at Lily. “It’s getting late. I should get
back.”

“You don’t need to leave,” Lily said. “I’ll
go hop in the shower and get cleaned up.”

“No, that’s not it,” Kami insisted. “Palla
helped me figure this stuff out, that’s all. If I’m going to get it
done, I need to find a quiet place. If I stay, I’ll end up talking
and losing track of time.”

“And you do stink,” Palla said with a
grin.

Lily gasped and Kami laughed.

“No you don’t!” Kami insisted. She wrinkled
her nose. “Well, at least I can’t smell you over here.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “I’m going to go try
on some of Palla’s clothes first.”

Palla leaped up from the couch. “No you’re
not!”

Kami giggled and grabbed her things before
she made her way to the door. “Thanks again, Palla,” she called
out.

“Anytime, sweetie!” Palla said over her
shoulder.

The door hissed shut and left the two young
misses alone. Lily turned away from the narrow closet and
grinned.

“Don’t even think about it!” Palla warned
her.

“Like I’d fit in anything you have.”

“Did you just call me fat?”

Lily snorted. “Fat? Hardly. I just don’t
measure up to you.”

Palla’s eyebrows rose and she shook her
head. “Now you’re hunting for compliments.”

“Not at all!” Lily gasped. She glanced down
at the patterns of sweat on her singlet and blushed. “I’m just
wondering when I’m going to, um—”

Palla shook her head and sighed. “Lily, stop
it. With all the exercise you’ve been doing the past six months, I
can’t believe you don’t eat ten thousand calories a day just to
stay awake!”

Lily nodded. “I know. I’ve read how it’s
supposed to work and I know I’m kind of an exception with all this
training.”

“Kind of? Lil, you’re an exception to every
rule!”

Lily laughed. “Gee, thanks.”

Palla grinned. “Get cleaned up—you do
stink.”

Lily held her arms out and grinned. “How
about a hug?”

Palla yelped and ran from her, back to the
main room of their residence. Lily laughed and turned to the
washroom. She peeled off her singlet and punched in the temperature
and pressure for the water before she started it and climbed into
the small shower stall. The warm water hit her skin and sent heat
sinking into her tired muscles. She groaned as her body started to
relax and let her know that it had just about had enough.

“Lil?”

Lily let out a scream and spun in the shower
to face the door. She slipped, but the small stall spared her from
falling and hurting herself. Her foot jammed against the corner of
one wall as her shoulders hit the opposite wall. Her knee smacked
against the door, pushing it open and showing Palla standing
outside.

“Oh!” Palla gulped as she stared at
Lily.

Lily stared back, eyes wide and heat
blossoming in her face and racing down her chest. She threw herself
forward and grabbed the shower door and yanked it back shut. Lily
stood there, breathing hard and listening. All she heard was the
water falling against her.

After several seconds passed without
anything, Lily forced herself to ask, “Um, Palla? You still out
there?”

The lack of a response left her nibbling her
lip. She turned back to the water and ducked her head under the
spray, rinsing her hair out quickly before working in the
restorative foam and washing the rest of the sweat and dirt from
her body. She finished in record time and shut the water off. Warm
air rushed in and circled around her to evaporate the water and
pull the humid air into the reclamation system. Once she was dry,
Lily hesitated with her hand centimeters from the door before
cracking it open and peering out. She saw only the small washroom
with the door closed to grant her privacy.

Lily let out a nervous breath and saw one of
her soft matching pair of purple shorts and tank tops, along with
her underwear. She felt the blood rush to her face and groaned
softly. She’d forgotten to bring clothes in, she was so caught up
in her daydreams. Palla had brought them in for her and then Lily
had screwed her thoughtful action up. Her sweaty singlet was even
tucked into the dirty laundry bin.

She hurried to get dressed and ran a brush
through her hair. She stood in front of the door and took a deep
breath before opening it and facing their shared bedroom. It was
empty save for the small beds against opposite walls. Lily clamped
her lips shut and was about to wonder where Palla could be when she
heard the vidcaster in the other room.

Lily found Palla sitting on the couch in her
own pair of pale yellow shorts and sleep shirt. She was watching a
news report. Lily cleared her throat and watched Palla jump. “Video
off,” Palla snapped.

“What were you watching?” Lily wondered.

“Just news, nothing exciting,” she said a
little too quickly for Lily’s taste.

“Palla, I’m sorry about that. I slipped
and—”

“No, don’t be,” Palla interrupted her. “I
shouldn’t have barged in like that. I noticed you didn’t grab any
clothes and wanted to spare you worrying. Guess I screwed that
up!”

Lily laughed. “Yeah, I guess. So, um, we’re
okay?”

“Lil, we’re both girls,” Palla said.

“Yeah, well, you are. I look more like a
boy.”

“Is that what’s got you upset?”

Lily shrugged. She walked over to the chair
and sat in it with her knees pulled up to her chest. “I hear the
other cadets at BCT. They laugh behind my back at me. I even had a
couple tell me they thought of me like a little brother.”

“There are girls in there, too, aren’t
there?”

She nodded. “Yeah, but they stopped being
interested in me months ago.”

“What? Why?”

Lily blushed and looked away. “They’re all
older. Eighteen or even nineteen, in a few cases.”