Unnaturals (7 page)

The machine screeched, its light blinked fast—fast, faster, faster—it shook in Meliora's hands. Then, its lights faded.

Mel fell to the ground. From there, she stared at the still metal. She knew that, like Great-Granddad Nicolas and young Nicolas' computer, the medstat wouldn't wake again.

The man was suddenly very close to her and put his arms around her.

"I helped it die," she sobbed against his chest, while he clumsily patted her hair. "I broke it so that I would fix what
you've
done—so that you wouldn't break me—it didn't want to die!"

"Oh, so you think you know what machines
want
now?" Eryn again. "They want nothing, fool. But
you
do—and obviously you want to be unnatural. There is punishment for this."

"What punishment?"

"It is all right, Mel." The man frowned at Eryn. "Doctor Eryn, stop that, please."

Eryn grinned. "Appease her all you want, Theodore, but she's not yours only. They're all mine, as you well know. Even though she won't be a real doctor."

No doctor?

"Here." Doctor Eryn thrust something into Meliora's hands. It was a box that had been on the table in the office. "Bandages. Antiseptic pads. True, we left you no food or drink, but we left you those. You couldn't even figure out how to use them. You have read old articles, all right, but obviously not the doctoring ones, or at least you didn't care to remember them. You would rather tamper with machines, instead."

"But you can be another type of doctor, Mel," the man said. "You can be, like me, a Doctor of Computers. I am Doctor Theodore 0x12A15308, by the way. My interweb address is TheoData."

"Humph," Eryn said. "Whyever this is also called a
doctor.
"

Eryn must be the man's boss. He nodded at her words respectfully, then proceeded to ignore her. "You had several options to heal yourself, Mel. You chose to do it through a machine. This past softlights period, and even now, with the medstat, you demonstrated that you can, if you want, come work for LucastanComputerEnterprises, Inc. After training, of course."

"I can come sell cherry computers in the mall instead of being a doctor?" It didn't sound very attractive.

The man laughed. His laughter was soft and warm. "Oh, no, Mel. You can come do the real stuff."

"Humph," Eryn said again. "Regardless, you'll have to pass through me, too, girl. A Doctor of Computers is a Level 2 job, just like a real doctor. You'll need skills that everyone at Level 2 needs, no matter their position—inept as you are in acquiring them. Oh, and by the way, do send a message to your mother, I am tired of messaging her for you."

Mel did, and Mom answered.

Mel looked straight at Doctor Eryn. "Is this a message from my real mom?"

"Yes, Mel," Theodore said.

Eryn laughed. "Yes. For now."

"Doctor Eryn," Mel said. "I hate you."

Eryn laughed again.

Mel sent a new message. Mom replied that she'd begun to worry when Mel hadn't written for two hours, but two messages had made her happy again.

Happiness is important, Mel my dear, don't forget.

I won't forget, Mom,
Mel wrote. She meant it.

The computer was shaking in her hands, and she knew that she'd never, ever again neglect to message Mom like she'd done in Annabella. She'd never allow others to take her away from Mom—or take Mom away from her.

Academy

They told her to board the first brightlights train to southern Lucasta on the next day.

"Which train exactly?" Meliora asked. "There are ten different train tracks, which means ten possible routes to the south, and that number of routes is only if you don't change the train and track on the way."

Theodore roared with laughter. "Observational precision! This is exactly what we need!"

Really? Was this a good thing? A few days ago, Mel would have kept that knowledge to herself. No one remembered train tracks and train routes. They just hopped on a train, any train, inserted their money card in the slot and pressed the button on the screen for where they wanted to go. They received the information for times and transfers on their computers and, if they got lost, there were always the train employees to press the buttons for them, and the LucastanTransport, Inc. feed.

"Humph," Eryn said again, the ugly crooked smile back on her face. "It is unnatural, girl. Never forget that—UN-NA-TU-RAL. But figure out which train it is, since you're such a know-it-all."

They left her. When she got home, she hugged Mom so hard that Mom's breathing stopped. Mel put her on a soft armchair, and the medstat rushed to her. Mom had become pale, but the medstat fixed her up.

"It is all right, Mel, my dear." Mom laughed. "This, of all things, is not unnatural, you know? HarrySteR4539 just messaged me, saying that if, at my age, I didn't have such weakness spells,
that
would be unnatural."

"He might be wrong, Mom," Mel said quietly.

"Oh, dear, why would he be wrong!? Mom is not unnatural, dear, certainly!" Increased heartbeat. The medstat hovered close.

"No, Mommy, of course not. You're as natural as could be." Mel patted her hand. Mom smiled, her eyes jumping between Mel, the screen and the walls as usual. She hadn't messaged for about half a minute now, so she started messaging again.

"Have fun, my love," Mom said when Mel was about to leave. "Be happy."

"I don't know when I will be back home, Mom."

Just write to me, Mel, all right?
That was a message, and Mom was humming, eyes jumping between her many virtual screens.

***

Mel rode her bike to ten different train stations. She bought a ticket everywhere, and everywhere she pressed the destination button for the most southern train station she knew. Indeed, there was more than one. There were four, you could draw a line through them if you had a giant stylus. Mel had had a stylus in the early days of school. They used to teach children to draw in those days, when it wasn't yet clear whether or not the hummie interfaces would take off, but by the time Mel was eight the drawing interfaces had disappeared completely.

Mel selected the most central station of the four. After she had ten different tickets, she compared the ten sets of instructions on her computer.

Yes. One particular train was dominant in all of them. Just to be sure, she rode her bike to the train stations again and bought tickets to the other southern destinations.

Same train, appearing in thirty-six of the forty routes. At brightlights, Mel took it.

When it reached the most central southern station, Mel remained in her seat. She never had. People never did. You got off where the ticket told you to. If you wanted to travel again, you bought a new ticket and obeyed its instructions.

Two people, lingering after the rest, looked at her strangely. She looked back at them, and the girl looked quickly away, while the boy kept her eyes for another moment.

I... Well... @Meliora12535, can you please tell me why you're not getting off?
It was a message from the girl, who was still humming.

The boy looked at the girl. Mel had a feeling that he'd received a similar message. The girl wouldn't look at them. Her eyes were jumping around just like Mom's, just like everyone's. But she hadn't gotten off the train, and she could match Mel's address with her face many minutes after Mel had introduced herself.

"You will both be doctors of some sort, won't you, @Adelaide4253 and @Ivan529?" Mel said.

Ivan looked at her again and nodded.

Yes,
Adelaide wrote.
So, what do we do from here? They only told me to take train 42145 to the south.

"Same with me," Ivan said.

"They didn't tell me which exact train to take," Mel said quietly.

The girl was humming and twitching. The boy returned Meliora's gaze and also looked at Adelaide, then looked away out of politeness. He certainly had ACD, Mel thought, perhaps even stronger than hers. Not only could he watch something for a long time, but he also talked with few words.

I should perhaps get off,
Adelaide wrote in a shared message to Meliora and Ivan.
See you later.

"Don't," Meliora said. "We don't get off, any of us. They wanted us to catch a particular train. Stay here."

A minute later, the train took off to the south.

***

Fifteen minutes later, the train entered the intercity semi-darkness. Five minutes after that, Mel watched Adelaide and Ivan sit closer together, both hunched, pale, watching the bare walls outside with wide eyes. So, if they had been to another city at all, they had slept. But why was Mel surprised at all? Everyone slept.

Mel sat on the fluffy red seat across from the two and watched them and the bare walls outside.

Adelaide had even forgotten to hum. Mel wondered how the girl would take it when she remembered and noticed the intermittent interweb connection. Mel herself was glad she'd messaged Mom while the train had stood motionless in the station.

Minutes passed, and the interweb connection was very bad. Mom would be worrying by now.

"How can they!" Mel jumped from her seat, startling the others into jumping from theirs. "They don't have the right to worry her again!" She strolled down the isle between the rows of seats.

The train must have a computer, too, like the door and window at the doctor's office—like anything—and Mel had had enough of others harming her through the machines.

She strode into the next empty wagon, and the next. The wagon where she, Ivan, and Adelaide had traveled had remained semi-lit, but these wagons had a much lower intensity of light. It was too dark, darker than softlights time, darker than Great-Granddad Nicolas' house—darker than anything. But Mel wasn't afraid. Not at all!

Meliora, where are you, what are you doing?
A message from Adelaide. The interweb must be working again. Mel stopped and sent a message to Mom.

Meliora, come back.
That from Ivan.

Why?
she wrote to her two new friends.

Because this is where the light is.

A message with no sender. Mel could not even reply. The train wheels stopped clattering, and she went back because the interweb was working again.

The moment she entered the lit wagon, she was slapped so hard that she spat blood again.

"Doctor Eryn, please, what is this about?" An indignant voice—the boy, Ivan.

Eryn slapped him, too.

"You don't argue with my actions. Ever. Any of you. Is that clear?"

Mel watched the shock on the others' faces. The same as hers yesterday, probably. People didn't slap you. People didn't order you, people were
nice.

Mel stepped towards Eryn. She slapped the doctor so hard that Eryn's glasses fell from her nose.

"Ah," Eryn said calmly after she'd wiped her cheek and lips with a laced white handkerchief and picked up her glasses, while Mel stood aside, her hands suddenly shaking.

"Adelaide and Ivan, you two have had enough darkness for now. This is the first part of your education. The rest of it starts half an hour from now. Meliora, your education, it seems, must be a bit different."

***

Eryn had them exit the train right there, between the stone walls, then touched her hand to a door. The place they entered looked like a mall. It had no windows, but the lights inside were bright. The corridors were big, and the rooms were glass-walled.

But not all of them.

Eryn brought Mel to a room that looked normal-walled from the outside. She pushed Mel in, and Mel wasn't surprised to hear the door click locked behind her.

The light was even weaker than that of the unlit wagons. There was no water, no food, no windows, and the door had no interface. At least not on the inside of the room.

There wasn't even a bed or soft carpet. There was no interweb, either.

Every night, the medstat at home gave Meliora a little pill for good sleep. The machines gave it to everyone. It was called
the pill for good sleep,
just like fifty years ago something was called
the pill against nightmares
.

It must be the reason she'd never seen this room, this darkness, this silence.

She'd thought the world silent when Nicolas had stopped the interweb in the mall. It hadn't been. There had been people there with her, living, breathing people.

Mel tried to find computers she could open, but to no end.

She tried to message Mom through the disconnected, lonely computer in her hands—no use again.

She stomped her feet, she shouted, she hit the walls with fists, she cried huddled in the corner—nothing.

Hours passed before the door opened. Mel stepped out, and her computer beeped.

Doctor Eryn stood in the corridor, watching her. Mel had 182 messages from her mom.

Mel... Mel... Mel...
was the last one. Many of the others were in the same style. While Meliora was reading them, another message came in.

Mel,
it said.
Oh, Mel! Don't tell me that you, like him, have left forever!

Mel's knees bent by themselves. She was crying. The tears rolled down no matter how much she hated them or wanted to stop them, while she hummed her message to Mom.

It is all right, Mom. That doctoring work turned out to be involved with other cities. Remember the sleeper trains, Mom? I can't send messages while I sleep.

Then, a new message:
I love you, Mom. I love you more than anything! I will never, ever leave you!

Mel got up from the floor. She raised a hand, the tears still falling.

"I wouldn't advise you to," Doctor Eryn said. "You don't want her to stop receiving messages for longer, do you—certainly longer than a ride in a sleeper train. Or two rides. Or four."

Mel let her hand drop.

Eryn shrugged. "You're free to leave, if you so wish. If you do, you get a normal job, if you care to get one at all. You message your mother, you find a mate, all that stuff. But if you want to be a doctor, of anything, you do as I say, or face the consequences."