Damian’s brown eyes met my own. There was something about him which seemed strangely familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on it and didn’t plan to try to figure it out until I was alone. He reminded me of something.
“I haven’t sent them any information yet. When I do, it’ll be six months to a year until we hear from them. We’re on the outskirts here.”
Judge moved left until he hoisted himself onto the table next to me. “Don’t worry.”
“Would you like a tour?” Damian extended his hand toward the door. “Since you’re going to be with us for a bit, would you like to see where you’re going to live? We’re working out where to put you to sleep right now.”
I took a deep breath. “Artemis is here, right? I mean you said she’s safe in the pod here? So couldn’t I sleep there?”
“Oh,” Damian nodded fast. “We didn’t think about that. I mean, yes. That’ll work.”
“You’ll be alone. All alone.” Cash spoke from the back of the medical bay. “Our living stations are on the other side. “
I wiggled my bare toes. Before I went on any tour, I was going to need shoes. “I’m always alone. Don’t worry about that.”
He sucked in his breath. “Are there so many women on the other side of the black hole they let you be by yourself?”
“No one really lets me do anything. I do things because I do them. When my mother established herself over there, that was the kind of rule of law she put into play. It’s always the woman’s choice. Marriage. Work. Spiritual deprivation. Whatever happens, it’s her choice. The men have choices too. They can decide they don’t want to be in a marriage with one woman and multiple men. They can say no. Or the opposite. They can say they want that, and she only wants one on one. Or they can say no to it all. Some men like other men.” I rambled. I had to stop. “Anyway, everyone gets a choice, a say.”
Lewis looked at Damian. “Sounds like the old rebels. One woman, many men. Her choice. No politics, no fighting.”
Damian didn’t respond but his jaw hardened. After a moment, Judge jumped down. “Come on. Let’s show you around.”
“Can I do that without shoes?” I lifted a leg to show him.
“Oh,” He whirled toward Lewis. “Got any of those slippers from when we came out of hyperspace?”
“Yep. Sorry I didn’t think of it, Diana.” Lewis ran toward a cubby and pulled out white slippers. “These will do for now, and we’ll fire up the replicator tomorrow and make you sturdy real ones. Sound okay?”
A burst of speed came through the door, and Tall One, Sterling—I had to remember their names—appeared. “Did I miss everything? Hi, I’m Sterling Whitworth. I’m sorry we made you sick.”
“That’s okay.” His smile was infectious, as were his blue eyes. “Nice to meet you Sterling.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Damian Osborne.” Then now introduced Damian shifted uncomfortably. “I do have manners. I swear.”
Sterling punched him in the arm. “No, he doesn’t. Don’t believe him. Damian’s got no class at all. We’re all just total goofs here. Good thing we’ve got a purpose or we’d be of no use at all.”
They were big on those ideas—purpose and usefulness. I stored that information for another time, when I was alone. Lewis came over and knelt down, holding the shoes out in front of him. There was something so sweet about the gesture. I smiled at him, and his guarded eyes showed happiness for a second. I slipped my feet into the soft shoes. The whole exchange took seconds, and yet I felt like time slowed to a crawl where it was only the two of us in the universe.
I blinked rapidly. Had I hit my head?
Judge laced his fingers through mine. “Come on?”
“Sure.”
There were several kinds of people. Some of them were the type to hold hands; some of them weren’t. Other than my siblings, I was a not holding hands kind of a person. Yet I didn’t pull out of his touch. He’d been kind, and I thought it possible, considering his reaction to Damian’s proclamations, he might even let me leave in Artemis after we fixed her. I wasn’t sure. There was a lot left to figure out about my circumstances and the five guys I’d watched intently for months and didn’t know at all.
We rounded the corner, and I heard voices spark up behind me, although I couldn’t make out what they said. Whatever it was, the four others in the room were speaking passionately.
“So this is the main hallway. The whole pod is electronically maintained and controlled. Which means, of course, I maintain the electronics and the controls.” He shrugged and grinned.
The hallways were brightly lit, with something resembling plastic being used for walls. The floors and ceilings were metal. “This is really impressive. I grew up on Mars Space Station. To maintain something this size, they’d have five or six engineers.”
His eyes widened. “You grew up on a station? Wow. The stations on this side of the hole are not someplace anyone who isn’t breaking the law wants to be. I don’t think they have kids there.”
“I bet they do. I’ve never been anywhere—beautiful or horrible—that there weren’t children. The roughest ships have families. The most overrun places on Earth. People make families; they survive.” I was suddenly really uncomfortable that I’d spoken so freely. “But what do I know? I haven’t been on this side of the hole since I was five. Ignore me.”
He stopped walking. “You lived here? And then you went over there? And now you’re back?”
“Yes.”
“That’s so … amazing.” He tugged me further down the hallway. “We have everything you could want, I think. I mean, you’re a girl. We don’t really know girls. Women. Sorry.”
Other people got hung up on words carrying all these connotations. I’d never, ever be okay with hate speech. But that wasn’t what I was getting from Judge. He just seemed a little giddy to be showing off his place. I was lucky if I could form sentences. “Don’t worry.”
“Anyway, in here is the recreation facility. Game room. Gym. Entertainment center. Every six months to a year, Evander sends us new stuff to watch. Well, new to us. It’s old in the cluster of planets where there are more people. We try to spread it out. We watch movies on Friday. And then usually we can last till the new burst comes in.”
He walked me inside the room, and I almost flinched from the burst of color. Unlike the sterility of the hallway, the game room wasn’t one bland utilitarian bunch of nothing shades. I could tell they all spent actual time in here. He’d described the gym—and I recognized the equipment as being close to what I used—and the movie screen on the wall. There were video game consuls like the ones my ten-year-old brother Colin, Dane’s son, played on. There was also artwork all over the walls. Someone was a painter. A piano and, to my astonishment, a hot tub.
My mom had one in her bathroom on Mars Station. It was an excessive luxury for any space station, that all had to watch their power. My Uncle Wes insisted she have it, and he paid the extra credits for it by working eight extra hours a month on the station to facilitate the electricity the spa used up. How were they running it here?
I pointed to the water. “How do you run this?”
He scratched his head. “We’ve never used it. The idea is, I guess, to relax if you overdo it at the gym. What we’d have to do is pump in the water. That’s not a problem … with all of Orion’s ice. Filter it. Clean it. Add the requisite chemicals and draw power from another system. The manuals suggest food source area, but I’ve reworked things so many times these computers are really mine more than the company’s now—at least in how I think of them. I think the laundry facility is where I’d draw power.”
“I tried to draw power on Artemis to facilitate the hydroponics bay, and I ended up setting off an alarm and a minor smoke incident. I think that’s how the Zombies found me.”
He rocked on his feet. “Zombies? Is that what you call them? I could see that. Sure, old Earth literature. Pulp stuff. From before. Oh, but you’ve been to Earth. That’
s so cool. Anyhow, yeah, we call them the Infected. They did hear the sound. So did we. Our computers missed your landing—good job with the stealth—but the burst of sound triggered our security alert.”
Good to know. When I escaped and had to hide elsewhere, I’d keep that in mind. No alarms. No noise.
“This is a great room. I’m impressed. Evander must want you comfortable.”
He nodded fast. “We’re going to be out here for two decades at least. They have to keep us happy so the brains of the operation can keep doing their work and they don’t have to change the rest of us up too much. Retraining delays profit.”
This was such a different world. I was afraid it might open up and swallow me. “Right. Profit?”
“From the Infected? Oh, didn’t we say? That’s what we’re doing. Cash and Lewis are going to cure them.”
I’d never heard of a more worthwhile endeavor. Still, I wasn’t sure I understood. “How will that make profit for Evander?”
“Once they’re better, they’ll be customers. They’ll need to start from square one.” Judge looked over his shoulder. “Look, it’s better if we don’t talk about this part. Okay? Damian’s an incredible guy. We’ve all been together five years, and he lets a whole lot slide. He’s become like a brother to me. But, in addition to security, he and Sterling are both company men. We all are. But their sole purpose here is to protect the company’s investment in Cash and Lewis. I know this must be foreign. They’re all like my family now. Yet there’s always going to be this thing …”
I squeezed his hand. “I’m not going to make trouble.”
But I’d certainly stumbled into some. Leave it to Diana Mallory to walk away from one sort of politics into another entirely.
Chapter Four
The machine does what?
I followed Judge through the hallways, and certain things did start to become familiar. In a lot of ways, a computer was a computer. I fixed them regularly, and I figured I could help while I was here. The more easygoing I was, the less likely they were to discover I planned to get away as fast as I could.
I’d never had to manipulate anyone before, and now I had five souls to trick. I had no idea if I’d be any good at it.
They had a hydroponics bay, that Cooper would envy for its space, and an actual farming area where they had livestock—chickens, lambs, and cows. They’d been put in stasis during the trip to the planet. Someone had to take care of them.
“This is the weapons area. You have to have a code to get in. I can’t give that to you. Not unless Damian says …”
Every time Judge hedged on something, he wore such a look of guilt on his face I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. I didn’t want their weapons. “Don’t worry. I can’t imagine why I would need one here. You’ve all assured me I’m safe.” Except for the chance Evander would come and sell me. I pushed away the thought. They had to believe I was willing to go along …
“Right,” he brightened up, and we walked together in companionable silence. He pointed down the hall to the left. “That’s where Artemis is. And if you go past it, quite a distance, that’s where the Infected are kept. Come on; I’ll show you.”
He wasn’t kidding when he said it was quite a distance. We didn’t stop where they’d stored Artemis. I planned to get to Artemis as quickly as I could when my introduction to this new place finished. It took twenty minutes to reach the Infected. Once I got there, I could see them through a one-way mirror, but they couldn’t see us.
“They can smell us, though.” Judge’s statement caught my attention, and I watched as the thirty infected souls started pounding on walls as soon as we came close. “In five years, I haven’t gotten used to them.”
I couldn’t imagine ever being used to them either. “The Zombies came through the black hole on a ship. We don’t really understand how. Their ship had a homing device set to find the closest populated area. They got all the way to my family’s station on autopilot. They managed to bite three people before they were restrained. It was, unfortunately, a month before the security guards who’d been bitten showed signs. My Uncle, he’s one of the doctors on the station, he had almost decided to let them out of containment—the security people. Big giant mess. He’s working on a cure, too.”
Judge stared at me when I talked, and I lowered my eyes. I didn’t like being the center of attention in a crowd and avoided those kinds of places or scenes. I wasn’t asked to be on much. No one really wanted to talk to me, and I was better off for it. Still, the way Judge regarded me made me feel like I was on stage with all my clothes off. My cheeks heated up.
“Do I have something on my face?”
He rubbed his chin. “No. Why do you ask?”
“You’re staring at me.”
Judge laughed, a low sound. “Come on. You must be used to men staring at you. You’re gorgeous.”
“Oh.” I stepped away. The woman problem. “I’m nothing to look at really. Trust me. I’ve seen beautiful women. I was raised by one. I’m kind of small and uninspiring. I’m not looking for flattery either. I am good at seeing things as they are. It’s just you don’t see many women. So they all look good.”
He outright laughed, a loud bang of a sound that startled me into taking another step back. “No, don’t be afraid. I’m sorry. That’s ridiculous. I’ve seen beautiful women. Evander always has some they’re negotiating off in marriage. It’s been five years, but I’ve seen them. And the Ultra-System takes care of me. I’m safe to be around. I would never have hurt you before the US –ah, that’s what we call the Ultra System either. You’re safe. Even if you’re wrong about how beautiful you are.”
“Um.” I huffed out my breath. “Maybe you need glasses. Lewis said the medical machine isn’t good with eyes.”
“You’re funny, too.”
I was? I’d never thought so, and certainly no one in my life found me amusing. “What’s the US?” I needed to change the subject.
He held out his hand, and despite my moment of discomfort, I took it. “I’ll show you the holding room.”
It took us the same amount of time to get back from the Infected area to the center of the holding room. Six machines lined the walls. Five of them were space pods, like the ones I sent Asher off in. Thinking of him panged my heart. Emotional pain hurt me more than physical sometimes. I made myself examine the machines. Unlike the ones on Artemis, which didn’t work but that was a whole other problem, these had a rocket launcher on them. They could push off into orbit before they travelled through space. The residents here said something earlier about hyperspace. These must have been what they slept in. Five modules for the five guys. They’d been asleep for their long journey to the edge of their universe. And woken up here.
The final machine was something different. It almost looked like a bed with a lid. There was motor attached to it, so it was clearly not meant for travel. The letters U and S were on the front.
I pointed to it. “The Ultra-System?”
“Correct. I guess you guys don’t have anything like it. Look, um, our corporation doesn’t want us to go sexually mad. There are no women. The five of us are likely never to have a wife. We’re not high enough up. Damian could, but he didn’t take an assignment important enough for Evander to warrant that treatment. I guess if Cash and Lewis are successful, they might get one …”
I held up my hand. “You’re avoiding, right? You don’t want to tell me? This has something to do with sex.”
His cheeks got red. “Once a month, sometimes more if we need it, we each take a night in the US . The machine reads our likes, our dislikes, and it makes us a vivid dream where we have sex with a partner designed for our needs at that moment. It can change. The computer taps into our sexual fantasies right then. We experience the dream in first person. It satisfies us, and while we sleep, the machine also administers a hormone, a sort of alteration on melatonin, that keeps the urge at bay until we go back in the machine again. We have sensors on the back of our necks.” Ju
dge pointed to his. “If we get out of whack, Cash and Lewis can either order us into the machine or administer the drug themselves.”
I touched the side of the machine. “Does it work for women too?”
“I … I,” he cleared his throat. “Honestly, Diana, I have no idea. The subject has never come up. I’ll look it up.”
“I was just curious.”
On one hand, I was glad to know about the system. What a beautiful idea. Why make people go through deprivation? On the other, I wanted out of this conversation immediately.
“And obviously, these are the hyperspace pods you came in?”
“Yes.” He touched the side of one of them. “This one was mine. They’re really advanced. If the Zombies get out and we can’t contain them, the computer will sense the distress and literally magnetize us into the pods before knocking us out and sending us home.” He touched the back of his neck again. “The same device that monitors us would send us here. It’s like a giant magnet. We can’t control it. Boom. In here. Gas to knock us out. Launch.”
Wow. I touched his sleeping module. “That is some impressive tech.”
“That’s why Sterling and Damian busted through your door. The other companies would love this stuff, and they don’t have anything like it.”
Technology wasn’t proprietary where I lived. If someone had something, pretty soon we all had it. “Why can’t they invent it too?”
He leaned against his pod. “Because they don’t have me.”
The comm system turned on, and Damian’s voice travelled down to us. “Could you bring Diana to the dining room? We need to have a meeting.”
“Sure.” He replied and grinned at me. “Come on. Lewis cooked. He’s really good. Unlike when Sterling cooks, and then it’s a disaster.”
His easy grin did make me feel like all might be okay. But I wouldn’t—couldn’t—let my guard down. Judge was nice, and his background in engineering made me understand him completely. The others? I wasn’t sure, and even when I was, I still had to get out of here. My family would come for me. I didn’t belong on this side of the black hole.