Cyber Dreams 6.47 - Sisters

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-Plum

As soon as she heard the words, Juliet spun—her helmet cams had just picked up the movement at the corridor’s T-junction behind her. “Honey,” she said, “Damn, you move quietly.” How far back had she been? Juliet hadn’t noticed another mind nearby, but she’d been focused on looking forward, hunting for her sister. The implications of Honey being there rushed through her mind—she was loose and knew where to find Juliet, so didn’t that have to mean she was working for Apollyon and wasn’t a prisoner?

Honey’s next words solidified the impression: “It’s the outfit.” She held up one of her feet, displaying the padded foot portion of a skin-tight, black bodysuit, clearly of the same make as those Juliet had been given on the Horizon Prophet. She didn’t look hurried or stressed. Her curly black hair looked freshly coiffed, pulled back from her face, but done up big at the back of her head. Her makeup was immaculate, from her silver-purple eye shadow to the soft pink gloss on her lips.

Honey smiled, and it looked real. She watched Juliet taking her in, then she shrugged as if to say, “Yeah, I guess it’s me.” Juliet saw she was carrying a small thermos-like container, the handle hanging loosely from her manicured grip. She also wore a sword at her waist, though it wasn’t one Juliet had seen her friend using before—was it a monoblade? “I think we need to talk, huh?”

Juliet looked at Jensen’s slumped form, just a meter or so from where Honey stood. She was glad her helmet didn’t show her eyes darting that way; she didn’t want to give her any ideas. Before she responded, she tried again to force her other senses to bring Honey’s mind galaxy into view while her eyes were open. It was easier than with Jensen, almost like Juliet had found a new muscle that she was slowly learning how to flex.

When she saw Honey’s mind, she was relieved that it looked to be in balance, though it was definitely different from a “normal” mind. She could see a sort of demarcation line where half the sphere of lights and thought threads had a slightly different nature than the other. She found it hard to put her finger on the difference, and the only easy analogy she could think of was color—like one half of Honey’s mind was shaded more toward amber and the other more toward . . . cotton candy. Neither side seemed dim nor oppressed, however. “You’ve got one of those chips in your head.”

Honey shrugged. “So do you.”

“Angel’s different—” Juliet’s objection caught in her throat. She’d never seen her own mind. Maybe hers would look something like Honey’s; her friend certainly didn’t have the same kind of “broken” mind as Montclair or Chen.

“You can tell the difference between me and those others, can’t you?” Honey arched an eyebrow. “You really do have something special going on.” She leaned a shoulder against the corridor wall, no doubt trying to diffuse the situation by looking relaxed. “I have one of those chips, yeah. They tell me that sometimes, they work a lot better than others. I have a good . . . relationship with mine. Her name’s Clara, by the way. We kind of found a way to work together; I think it helped that I didn’t rebel like your boyfriend here. He put up a fight, so Apollyon had to give the symbiote a boost.”

“Symbiote? Honey, if you’re really still you, I hope you realize how screwed up you sound right now.”

“I am me, J. I know Apollyon’s a first-class creeper—”

“Ms. Watkins!” Apollyon interjected. “You have a—”

Honey held up her hand, frowning toward the ceiling, and the lights flickered briefly as Apollyon was cut off. “Clara and some of her sisters have control of the secondary systems on the ship, including the PA.” Honey’s lips twitched into a rueful smile. “They’re having a hard time with Athena’s daemons, but they’re mostly walled off. Listen, J, Apollyon’s a powerful entity, and he and his human mommy, Gentry, definitely have some pull, but they’re not the only faction aboard this ship. There are other powerful groups involved, and, well, they don’t want you to blow it up.”

Juliet looked at Honey for a long, pregnant second, then she reached up and touched the release for her visor. It hissed as pressurized air vented. A second later, it separated from her helmet and slid up over her head, exposing her face. She stared into Honey’s eyes, even zooming in with her optics to see them better. Then, she pushed feelings of love, friendship, and camaraderie. She pushed memories that she knew Honey shared—their times at the dojo in Phoenix, at the restaurant near the ABZ, eating contraband eggs, and gossiping about the other students. She pushed her memory of finding Honey on Titan, hugging her, rescuing her. She continued until Honey’s eyes overflowed with tears that streamed down her cheeks.

Honey reached up to wipe her nose with the back of her hand. “What . . . what are you doing?”

“Reminding you of who I am. Who we are.”

Honey stepped toward her, reaching out with her empty hand. “I already remember that, J! Why do you think I’m here? I threw a fit when I found out you were involved in all of this! When Clara told me about Angel, all the pieces fell together. I was already here, though, and I didn’t know you were coming. Not until we started to leave early—way too early! Half the crew are still days away, en route from around the system. We’ve got a skeleton crew, and I don’t think we even have all the colony supplies. Then I heard you were coming, and, yeah, I went bananas.” She chuckled, and it sounded like the old Honey.

Juliet stepped toward her, wondering what to say, how to get Honey to help her stop Apollyon. “I—” Honey was already speaking, so Juliet closed her mouth.

“Please, believe me, Juliet! We aren’t going to let Apollyon and Gentry get their way. Things will be a little crazy at first, but when the ship arrives, I promise you, those two won’t be in charge.”

“So? Help me stop them! They left all kinds of . . . I don’t even know how to describe it. Terrorist plots? Bombs? Sabotage? They want to send humanity back to the stone age or something. At least in this system. I think they want to come back someday and conquer us!”

To her surprise, Honey smiled, shaking her head. “That’s why I’m here. I have some things for you.” She hoisted the weird cylindrical container in her hand. “These are your eggs, J. All the ones that weren’t used and destroyed on the other ship. I swear to God, Sis, if I’d been there, if I’d known what they were doing, I would have killed them all.” She growled the words, and it reminded Juliet of the old Honey, the one she’d met doing gigs out in the ABZ, dazzling everyone with her grace and ferocity.

She set the canister down as Juliet’s mind raced with objections—this was about more than her eggs. Honey wasn’t finished, however. She reached into her sleeve cuff and pulled out a thin, black deck, much like the one Kline had given her back when she’d been held prisoner. Honey held the deck up. “Apollyon’s and Gentry’s schemes.” She bent to set the deck atop the canister. “J, your sister’s in that cell; I have a feeling you knew that already. I guess Apollyon predicted that Athena would predict this was where they’d hold her. Is that what they call a self-fulfilling prophecy? Is that how that works?”

“So? What? You give me my sister, my eggs, the info on the terrorist stuff that’s unfolding around the Sol System, and I just go on my merry way? You all just skip town? Honey, why?” Juliet’s tone was pleading. “Why don’t you come with me? Let these psychos go and do what they’re doing. I’ll help you find another way to explore the universe if that’s what you’re all about—”

Honey laughed, shaking her head. “I’m here for love, sis. I know it sounds stupid and doesn’t make much sense, but Alexander’s begun to wake up. I mean, inside Lilia. It was his connections that got us onto this ark ship. His brother’s here, of course. Poor Peter has always existed in Alexander’s shadow, but I think he’s happy to be part of something so amazing. J, we’re going to be the first people to colonize a planet outside of our system! The first people to reach another Earth-like world! It’s far, J. That’s one thing Apollyon has full control over, and he won’t tell any of us exactly where, but let’s just say it’s not in a neighboring star system.”

“Honey, you say you haven’t changed, but do you hear yourself? You don’t like space travel. Remember?”

“That’s the beauty of it! We’re only going to be in transit for a few days, and this vessel is so big it’s kind of easy to forget I’m floating in a tin can out in the middle of . . . nothing.”

“Juliet?” Angel’s voice cut in, calm and quiet, as though she was worried about interrupting. “Is it possible she’s trying to delay you?”

Juliet frowned. “You know, Angel can detonate this nuke no matter what happens to me. Kill me, stun me, EMP me. Her connection to it is hard-wired. If you’re trying to stall me, I can tell you this: I will not be taken again.”

Honey shook her head, her eyes still moist from crying. “I haven’t lied to you, not about anything.”

“You know about what kind of society Apollyon wants to build? Did you hear the shit he was saying to me as I fought my way through this ship?” Juliet frowned, narrowing her eyes. “Thanks for stopping those soldiers, by the way. I really love having to kill people just to rescue my sister.”

“I’m sorry. I tried to put a stop to things as soon as possible. I went crazy! I started a dozen fights before the folks aligned with Alexander cleared me to do this.” She gestured to the canister and the deck. “People might not realize it, but whatever new society we set up will have you to thank—Apollyon and Gentry have lost a huge amount of influence thanks to this debacle. It’s going to be a much better place, thanks to you.”

“Can’t you hand him over, too? Can’t I have his server? Can’t I have Gentry?”

Honey shook her head, and Juliet saw the honest regret in her eyes. “I wish. We need him to jump, Juliet. He designed the drive. He found our destination. He’s the only one who understands the calculations. It would set us back decades to try to do this without him. Gentry bankrupted one of the largest corporations in the system to make this happen. It’s now or never as far as the shot callers on this ship are concerned.”

Juliet stared, thinking. Honey watched her patiently, and Angel took the opportunity to chime in. “I think you should take what she’s offering. Take the win. Live to fight another day. The only card you have to play is the nuke, and if you use that, horrible things will happen. If you managed to escape, by some miracle, would you be able to live with yourself? If my . . . cousins are working against Apollyon, at least some of them, then I think Honey may be right. Perhaps the new settlement won’t be the nightmare Apollyon envisions.”

“J,” Honey stepped closer, “you can’t always get the perfect resolution. Can’t you try to have some faith in others? There are a lot of good people on this vessel. You messed things up for Gentry when you blew up her ship; she and Apollyon went from De facto rulers to people with votes on a council.”

Juliet, despite herself, slowly began to nod. The truth of the matter was that she was tired. She was tired of WBD, tired of Apollyon, and tired of feeling like everything was sitting squarely on her shoulders. She knew Honey wasn’t telling her everything; she knew her one-time friend must have known about some of the awful things going on with Apollyon and the “Angel chips,” especially since she had one in her head. Hadn’t she indicated that she understood that the process didn’t always involve willing participants? Still, some of the other things she said made sense.

Juliet had destroyed a dreadnought full of resources that, in total, must have cost WBD upwards of a trillion bits. She could see how Gentry and Apollyon could have been in charge if things had gone as planned when the two ships arrived at their destination. Now, though, they were just passengers on an unarmed civilian colony ship. They were understaffed and underequipped, and they’d lost support among the other “factions.” Couldn’t Juliet just take the win? Couldn’t she take her sister, her eggs, and the data deck back to Athena and be happy? Couldn’t she let Honey and Angel’s “cousins” deal with Apollyon?

She stepped closer to Honey, so they were only a meter—maybe less—apart. Staring at her eyes, Juliet felt a kind of melancholy nostalgia, a sense of loss for what might have been. Things had seemed so different when she’d first met Honey, back when they’d gone to the dojo together—Juliet shook her head, driving the reminiscence away before it could really ramp up. “Honey, I might be willing to take you at your word, but I need you to look into my eyes and answer a few blunt questions. Will you do that?”

Honey shrugged. “Fire away, J. I’m not hiding anything from you.”

Juliet nodded, and, while she stared into Honey’s eyes, she willed her thoughts to come to her as she asked, “Is everything you told me true?”

Honey’s glossy lips quirked into a half smile as she tsked. “Yeah, all of it.” Along with those words came the ghostly echo of Honey’s inner dialogue. Can she see if I’m lying now? Damn, she’s different! I just want you safe and outta here, J! Let me deal with these creepers.

“You’re sure all of my, uh, ova are in this thing?” Juliet tapped the canister with her toe.

“Yes!” Damn right! I almost killed the lab tech because I thought he was holding something back.

“And the deck? How’d you get Gentry’s plans?”

“Clara! Clara and her sisters—they were, um, ensconced, is the word, I guess. I mean, before Apollyon arrived. He was supposed to calculate our jump while he did the same Gentry’s ship, then send the—shoot, J, I don’t know what they call the results. Coordinates? Um, Clara says it’s a vector sequence. Anyway, when Gentry and Apollyon had to come here, we already had our symbiotes in place.” Juliet didn’t hear any inner dialogue as Honey spoke, but she felt the impression of honesty and caught vague images of people yelling and arguing.

Juliet rubbed her forehead, sighing, running through the arguments in her head again and again. She couldn’t think of a better solution, a way to walk away with a better deal. Sighing, barely trusting herself to speak, emotional and raw, she said in a near whisper, “I give up. Let me get my sister, and I’ll get out of here. Can we take a shuttle, or do we have to jump out an airlock?”

Honey smiled. “I’ll escort you to a shuttle bay.” She nodded down the corridor. “Go ahead. Talk to her. I’ll wait here.” Juliet frowned at her. She glanced toward Jensen’s slumped form, then at the canister and data deck. Honey saw her expression and sighed. “J, why would I bring this stuff if I’m going to run off with it? Walker was one of Gentry’s tools. None of us care if you have him.”

Juliet slowly nodded, then, feeling a slight tingle of nervous paranoia, turned her back on Honey and approached the door to her sister’s cell. She pressed the already green OPEN button, and it hissed as it slid to the side. She didn’t trust Honey anymore—not exactly—so the whole while, she kept a window open, displaying her view through the cameras on the back and sides of her helmet. Even so, she lost focus when she caught sight of her sister. She lay on a simple cot, wearing, naturally, one of the WBD bodysuits—a white one with blue stripes.

When the door opened, Emma quickly sat up and stared at Juliet. No hint of recognition flashed through her green-brown eyes, and her dark brows narrowed as she took in Juliet’s battle-scarred combat armor and naked monoblade. “Is someone going to tell me what’s going on? I haven’t had my PT or a meal delivery in over a day. When I agreed to the transfer, I was promised access to art supplies!” When Juliet stared at her, a little stunned by the question, Emma stood up and backed further into the room, her eyes darting to the sides. “What is it? Why do you have a sword?”

Emma had always been a little shorter than Juliet, but now, seeing her in the flesh for the first time in years, Juliet was stunned by how small she seemed. She was prettier than Juliet remembered, too. Her hair was the same as when she’d seen her in the prison yard video that Angel had obtained—short on the sides, long and almost spiky on the top and back. It might have looked kind of punkish, but Emma obviously hadn’t had the means to style it up. Her skin was more tan than Juliet remembered, and the tattoo of the skeleton hands holding the crimson, broken heart on her throat stood out brightly against the white fabric of her bodysuit.

“Hello?” Emma asked, folding her arms over her chest.

“Um, shit. Em, it’s me.” Juliet smoothly sheathed her sword. When Emma looked even more confused, she added, “Juliet.”

Emma’s eyes opened hugely, and she took another step back, almost stumbling into the wall of her cell. “J-Juliet? Seriously? You’re working for the prison?”

“I don’t think she’s aware of her current circumstances.” Juliet smiled at Angel’s obvious conclusion but nodded, then glanced out into the hallway and saw Honey leaning against the wall near Jensen. She didn’t want to move somewhere her helmet cams couldn’t keep her “friend” in view.

“Em, listen. I don’t know if maybe they had you drugged or unconscious, but you know you’re on a ship right now, yeah? We’re out near Ceres—”

“What?”

“Yeah. Well, I’m here to get you out. I can explain everything, but come with me, okay? We gotta get moving.”

“Juliet! I haven’t seen you in years, but now you’re—what? Breaking me out of prison? Look, I’m doing better. I’m not trying to get a bounty on my head.”

“That’s not—” Juliet struggled to find the right words. “Em, a corp bought out your sentence and brought you out here to use you in some experiments. I promise you don’t want to stay, and besides, I already got permission to take you. Seriously, come with me.”

“Is it really you?” Emma asked, taking a hesitant step toward her. “You look so different! So . . . big!”

“It’s the armor. I promise to explain everything, but you gotta come with me.” In her helmet cam, Juliet saw Honey squatting beside Jensen, holding his face, and looking into his eyes. Juliet held out her hand to Emma. “Come on.” To her relief, Emma slowly, then with more conviction, strode forward and took her hand. Juliet turned and walked over to Honey. “What are you doing?”

“He started muttering. I think he’s coming around.”

“What happened?” Emma asked, peering around from behind Juliet.

“Nothing—” Juliet caught herself and turned to Emma. “A lot. I can’t explain right now.” She pointed to the canister and the data deck. “Can you carry those for me, Em?”

“Um, yeah. Whatever. I guess.” As Emma bent to pick up the canister, Juliet turned back to Honey.

“Back off him.” She suddenly felt paranoid again, and as Honey, scowling, stood and moved toward the T-junction, she turned Jensen’s head and ensured there wasn’t a chip in his data port. Trying to be doubly certain she hadn’t missed something, Juliet briefly closed her eyes—her other senses came far more easily that way—and explored the immediate area. She saw Honey’s slightly strange mind galaxy and Emma’s and Jensen’s—normal as far as she could tell. Satisfied, she hooked her cybernetic hand around the collar of Jensen’s combat armor and began to drag him after Honey.

“Is he okay?” Emma asked, padding silently behind her.

“I think he will be. Come on, Emma. Follow that lady in the black bodysuit. She’s gonna show us the way out of this crazy ship.”