Chapter 2-1
2042 Words
Rain pattered against the window. The gloomy sky outside contrasted sharply with the yellow classroom walls. Being a Leyrian colony, Alios used the Leyrian education system. That meant no desks, just worktables with tablets or writing implements or art supplies. Whatever you happened to need at that particular moment.
Claire was hunched over with her elbows on one of those tables, her hands pressed to her cheeks. She stared dumbly at the SmartGlass screen where her teacher had given a math lesson.
Sitting in the corner, Sora looked up from her notes. “Claire?” she asked, peeking over the rims of her glasses. “Why haven’t you gone for lunch? Is everything all right?”
Claire grimaced and then gave her head a shake. “No,” she mumbled, forcing herself to stand up. “It’s not.”
She had been wondering how long it would take her teacher to notice that she hadn’t left with all the other students. Whatever Sora was doing must have been pretty damn distracting. Damn.
A funny idea occurred to her. If a telepath thought a swear word, did that count as saying it? She supposed it depended on whether or not the telepath was projecting.
thoughtThe thoughts of everyone else in this school were like a soft buzz in the back of her mind. That was what happened when her mental “volume knob” was just above its lowest setting. She could silence their thoughts completely – if she did, it would feel just like being an ordinary person – but the effect never seemed to last. She might get a few hours of quiet, but the buzz always returned. At some point, she would turn up the volume without realizing what she was doing. It was as if her mind had come to depend on that background noise.
“What is it, Claire?” Sora asked.
“Dad started preaching again,” she said automatically.
Her teacher scowled – whether it was because she didn’t like what Harry was doing or because she just didn’t want to talk about it, Claire couldn’t say – and set her tablet down on a nearby table. “You must be feeling angry with him.”
Sighing softly, Claire stared down at her own feet. “I’m angry with me,” she said. “He’s doing this for me, and I want him to stop.”
me,”“Why are you angry with yourself?”
“Because I got superpowers and everybody else got a big, fake religion that’s probably gonna piss off the real God. I can just imagine what Father Mark must think about all this.”
That look of concern on Sora’s face…Claire was pretty sure she knew what she would find if she looked into her teacher’s mind. “So much responsibility for someone so young.” Adults always thought that she was too young to handle all this. Maybe they were right, but she didn’t like being patronized.
Claire moved around the table, trailing her fingers over its wooden surface, keeping her eyes glued to the floor. “There are two people I can talk to about all this,” she said. “One is my mom – and she always finds an excuse to complain about Dad – and the other is you. You’re the only other person who knows what’s going on.”
“Weren’t you just complaining about your father?”
you“Yeah,” Claire said, nodding. “I was. I guess I want you to take his side. To tell me he’s doing the right thing.”
Sora sat on the table with her back to the window, clasping her hands in her lap. She grunted as she thought it over. “Whether it’s right or wrong,” she began, “he’s doing it for you. To keep you safe.”
“I’m not sure I need him to keep me safe.” Claire tapped the side of her head. “Superpowers, remember?”
“And your sister?”
“My sister is a freedom-fighter on a low-tech planet,” Claire replied. “It’s totally bad-a*s. Don’t ever tell her I said that.”
“What if you went to one of your father’s services?”
“Why would I do that?”
Sora answered her with a shrug. “To see that what he’s doing isn’t so bad,” she said. “He’s not hurting anyone, Claire. He’s just asking them to stop fighting with each other.”
Heaving out a breath, Claire nodded slowly. “Okay,” she muttered. “I’ll talk to Mom about it. If Dad’s gonna start a religion, we should probably support him. As long as it doesn’t involve me wearing one of those ugly, pastel dresses.”
“Pastel dresses?”
“You know, with the big square shoulder pads and the bow in my hair?” Clasping her hands demurely, Claire put on a blank expression. “Look at me. I am an obedient daughter.”
“I see…”
“It’s totally a thing. I saw a report on CBC one time.”
“Go talk to your mother, Claire. I’m sure it’ll help.”
Late autumn had come, and the leaves had fallen, leaving a forest of skeletal trees overlooking Lauren’s neighbourhood. Calisaro was located near the northern coast of the Peralan continent. Winters here were mild with snow coming rarely, if at all. For the most part, it was just cold, stinging rain.
Puddles had formed on a narrow road that ran between two sets of small, round houses. Every one of those homes had been constructed less than six months ago. Their domed roofs were designed to collect solar energy, but the sky had little to offer today. The city’s wind, tidal and geothermal systems would make up the difference.
Anna walked arm in arm with Jack on the sidewalk. The drizzle had let up, but the air still had a bite to it. An ugly day. But after several weeks aboard a starship, even bad weather was preferable to staying indoors. “So, how did you like the book?” she asked.
A grin lit up Jack’s face. “Oh, it was amazing!” he exclaimed. “That scene where Raylin is running through the walls? Epic!”
“I told you.”
“You told me.”
Closing her eyes, Anna leaned her head on his arm. “So, I’m thinking that we should go on a double date with Sun and Cassi.”
Jack squinted into the distance, trying to figure out where she was going with this. “You want to go on a date with my ex-girlfriend and her new girlfriend,” he said. “Did Drayvin upgrade the engines? Is the ship fueled by awkwardness now?”
“They’re the only other couple on the ship.”
“What about Corovin and Rajel?”
Anna scowled at the mere mention of Corovin’s name. “I hate that guy,” she hissed. “He’s such a condescending jerk. You’d think he’d show just a tiny bit of gratitude after we – you know – saved his life.”
saved his life.”Biting his lip, Jack nodded slowly. “He’s an acquired taste, no doubt,” he admitted. “But we’ve had other people who came to us with a bad attitude, and now, they’re valued members of the team.”
“True.”
They had reached Lauren’s house.
A stone path ran through the yellow grass to the front door. A curved, duroplastic awning shielded the porch from rainfall. Anna saw lights spilling out from the windows.
She felt herself relaxing just a little. After the craziness of the last few months, a quiet, family dinner sounded perfect. Well, perfect to her. She could already sense some of Jack’s tension. Seth found it perplexing. Nassai took comfort in the melding of thoughts and experience. The idea that humans might not feel at peace among their own kin was…well, alien to him. Even with Anna’s experiences to draw upon – she was somewhat of a misfit herself – Seth still couldn’t accept it.
Taking Jack’s hand, she led him up the path to the door. It opened before she could ring the bell, and Crystal poked her head out. Jack’s mother had a beautiful smile. “There you are! Come in! Come in!” she said, motioning them onward with her hand.
The door led into a living room where a curved sofa formed a semicircle around a glass table that supported a vase of flowers. The walls had been painted a light pastel-green. Lauren seemed to favour that colour.
Anna picked up the scent of food from the kitchen. Some kind of chicken dish, she suspected. A moment later, Lauren Hunter emerged in blue jeans and a purple t-shirt. She looked very much like her little brother: the same pale complexion, the same sharp blue eyes, the same dark, brown hair, though Lauren wore hers in a ponytail. “Good!” she said. “You made it!”
Steve came out of a room that he must have been using as an office. A tall and handsome man with olive skin and more than a little gray in his short, black hair, he wore a pair of thin glasses. “No more livestream?” he asked Jack.
“No more livestream.”
“Good!” Lauren said, descending the small ramp into the living room. These houses had been designed for refugees; sometimes refugees needed wheelchairs. “Now, we can talk about what’s really important.”
“And what’s that?” Jack inquired.
Lauren stood there with her hands on her hips, a stunned expression on her face. “Your wedding, dummy,” she said. “You two are still going through with that. Maybe we should start making plans.”
Oh no.
Oh no.Forcing a smile, Anna looked down at the floor. “Oh, it’s not a big deal,” she said. “We have plenty of time to sort that out.”
Crystal’s hand on her shoulder made her pause. She found sympathy in the other woman’s brown eyes. Sympathy and more than a little concern. “Anna, surely you have some idea about the kind of ceremony you’d like.”
some“Have you picked a date?” Lauren asked. “A location? Have you contacted caterers – or whatever the Leyrian equivalent is – to choose a dinner menu for the reception?”
“Have you decided on the colours?” Crystal added.
Anna spun on Jack and mouthed the words, “Weddings have colours?”
“Earth ones do,” he clarified.
“Oh dear,” Crystal said, taking Anna’s hand. Before she knew what was happening, Lauren had the other one, and they were both pulling her toward the dining room. “I can see we have a lot of work to do.”
a lotAnna glanced back over her shoulder, catching Jack’s eyes. “Help,” she squeaked.
Jack sat on his sister’s couch, feeling very, very anxious. He had been here for over ten minutes, and so far, no one had brought up the one subject he absolutely did not want to talk about: his evil twin.
verynotHis family knew about the doppelganger; everyone knew about the doppelganger. It was all over the news. He had been dreading this visit and had almost canceled despite his mother’s repeated reminders that she hadn’t seen him in over two months.
everyonePlans kept blossoming in his head, ideas for what he might do if someone brought up the subject. None of them were any good. He didn’t think he could get out of this one with a quick quip and a pop-culture reference.
Summer’s heart broke for him. His poor symbiont had been in a perpetual state of sadness ever since the day they saw that first broadcast of Jack 2.0 slaughtering people. She had gotten worse during his self-imposed isolation – Nassai had a hard time coping with loneliness – but her spirits had lifted somewhat when Anna finally convinced him to end his exile.
- Writer
