I lift my hand up again when she pulls away. It sort of hovers.
"Do you?" I pause. "Even hurt and angry...." Then shrug with a casualness I don't feel. "You've been alone too much as it is, Priscilla. Go ahead. Say whatever you feel, whatever you…
I look at her. "Now I tell you that I'm really sorry for what I did to you and... and that I'll find a way to make it right. Somehow."
The burden lifts and I feel the relief, and then the guilt. It seems wrong that I can purge my soul and my sick…
"Nothing!" I stand up, take a few steps toward her, holding out a hand but then dropping it. "It's not about you, Priscilla. It's nothing you did."
I've thought about this for a while. Why would they choose Pris? And I thought about their ability…
I swallow hard. I pull my arm away from the squeeze and stand, agitated. I don't deserve her sympathy. I shake my head again, denying her denial.
"I did do it, Pris. I did." I say it harshly the second time to stop the second denial I can hear f…
I look at her a moment.
Then she's... deciding to be naked? If this is a pass it's like the most unsubtle pass in the history of the universe. Of course, I am naked too...
I'm about to pursue that, but I feel the bleed... how miserable she is …
Seriously, what's with the nudity? Is this me? According to Tabitha it might be.
Of course I don't realize it until she's already hugging me. I shift awkwardly, my face heats. Other parts of me do too. Sure I hugged her before, but at least one o…
He nods sharply still listening. "Noble... Imperial Family? Bloody hell, it's Lady Bai."
His tone is that flat one you've heard military types take when things have just gotten immeasurably worse. The increasing tension of his jaw says that he's …
Allevard
Anolies? That void-sucking pig? He left the company a year ago. Took an offer somewhere else. It was all unexpected. I thought you knew, after Mel.
I can't help but smile, however weak it is, when she clearly doesn't believe me.
Sleep is... really tempting. But Gwen might have fled into the VR somewhere. And there is Pris... and I kind of owe her.
"VR." I say.
Xuan
The seam appears in the surface, the rectangular outline liquefying and melting out of the way as if an invisible hot knife were cutting through a surface made of butter.
Moving that out of the way shows you the ventilation shaft, it's bu…
Bai
Anolies takes your offhanded criticism with serenity and bends over your hand kissing the exactly appropriate spot with smooth and elegant manners so painstakingly correct they reveal themselves to be utterly bourgeois. He straightens again.
…
Will Gwen forgive me? Maybe... maybe.
Tabitha helps me into the tube. I feel the loss of her heat immediately. I have a little surge of claustrophobia as the tube closes over me. Then there's the doctor's voice asking what happened.
"It started.…
Even through the general feeling of awfulness something hollow blooms in my chest. I jerk my head from its rest on Tabitha's shoulder. "Gw...Gwen? Gwen? Stars... not Gwen! Dammit!"
Nadja sees it... them... too.
I feel the power flow out of me, pulling some vitality with it, and promptly get very dizzy. People say things... sounds like so much noise to me. Someone scrams.
"Got you, you murdering drokker!" I spit delirio…
It might mess up my thing if I lose concentration. The sickness is already working against me. I'm aware of things shifting in the class words being spoken, but the rhythm of my own and the power flowing through them are making everything else dista…
He smirks, slightly. "Corvus Mar, SID-Six, Sai."
TXR Special Investigations Division Section Six... Did you know they were real? How? How much do you know about them? Most employees in TXR joke about Section Six. It's something a friend of a frie…
Seeing it from the corner of my vision, I ignore the Navi message. Another reminder that most of them are hoping I'll die. Even the transplants, Temperance and her sycophants. Well, Nadja has hers coming too.
I return to glaring at Lucas, I shake…
I don't know. Self-flagellation maybe, a way to teach myself a lesson, to understand the consequences of what I've done in some kind of real way, instead of the intellectual 'good of the ship.' This is how Pris suffered because I wasn't willing to t…
Xuan
Jek doesn't respond. Either he's run into trouble, or the signals suppression technology is cutting you or him off. Either way it looks like you're on your own for the moment. Speaking of which, is there a plan B?
As for the panel, well t…
He raises a brow, smooths a hand over his stubbly chin.
Aye. But they aren't here now, Sai, and our window is small. No one likes to do the math, but in the larger scheme she's replaceable. You are not. Without you, xie might let her go anyway." …
I stare dully at the ring, wanting to cry but too exhausted. I wasted something precious. I look up to see Tabitha clean my mess and feel shame. I shake my head weakly in response to Tabitha's question, closing my eyes briefly at the touch of her ha…
I feel terrible. Exhausted. Still chilled. Trembling. Body aching. Pris certainly dealt with worse, though, didn't she. I drag myself to sit, propped up by the cool bathroom bulkhead next to the toilet. I think about getting up and washing out my m…
Somewhere in here I'm supposed to get a token from you, Tabitha, You know about it and it's cool but so far I'm not sure what it would be.
"Stomm..."
I push away from Tabitha suddenly and stumble towards the bathroom. Stumble because I'm dizzy tha…