Helix Read online

  “Are you sure that you want to see yourself? You were not…in one piece.”

  She winced. “I want to see what was left of me. I need to recognize that my body isn’t simply running around without me somewhere and you grew me for your own purposes.”

  He blinked at that. “Very well.”

  Nero let her go and crossed to one of the panels with a number on it. He ran his hand along the top, and it hissed open, extending outward with a glass column containing what were human remains.

  The skin tone was what told Harmony it was actually her. That and the tattoo on the inside of the right wrist that she got right before she left for the Alliance. Nothing else was really recognizable as a whole.

  “What did you use for tissue? This all looks pretty damaged to me.” She remained calm as she looked over the pieces of what had been her body.

  “Your heart was surprisingly strong. It contained viable cells, and with the help of some marrow from your left leg, I was able to get your pattern and begin restoration.”

  She swallowed and nodded. Her bald skull was lying there; the jacks that decorated her temple and forehead were still visible. That was the reason she shaved her head, her normal hair was so springy that it got in the way of the jacks.

  It had been a business decision to shave her head, but now, she wanted her hair back. If she didn’t need jacks on this world, she wanted her hair.

  “Have you seen enough?”

  She looked down at her inner wrist. “Do you have tattoo artists here? I feel naked without a memory of my world on me.”

  “I am sure we can find someone. Are you sure you want to mar your new shape?”

  “My body, not yours. I want to make sure it is marked as mine. It is important to my mental health and balance. I am in this body now. I need to make it my home.”

  “Fair enough. But do you need to mutilate it?”

  She gave him a long look. “Did you need to pierce each ear in nine places, wrap your hair in beads? I believe that those are cultural markers.”

  He coloured slightly. “They are. You are right. They were to make me feel more like me. My family wore the beads as status markers, and my people wore the long hair to denote availability. When I saw you were bald, I thought you were widowed. Is that the case?”

  She shook her head. “No. I had my hair removed so that the jacks in my head would not suffer interference. The hair of my race is quite resilient to compression and is difficult to control in situations like that.”

  “So, you would like it returned.”

  “Well, am I going to have to have jacks installed in my skull for any purpose?”

  “Um…no.”

  “Then, I would like hair again. I miss it. It is hard to handle until I can tie it back, but it is mine and I love it.”

  “I will add it to your aftercare.” Nero smiled slightly. “Are we done here?”

  “Yes. I am satisfied that that is me. Thank you for salvaging and transferring as much as you were able to.”

  “You are welcome. You are the first female to fall in over two decades. It was a bit of a shock, but you can expect many different courtships over the next few months.”

  “Great. What am I going to do here?”

  “We can run an aptitude scan in a few days. For now, let us go back to the restoration hall and get you settled into your quarters for the first week.”

  “What happens then?”

  “Then, you will be out in the general population. Enjoy both experiences for different reasons. Social society here can be a little surprising.” He grinned and offered his arm to escort her out of the storage area.

  She looked back at her body and watched the wall slowly absorb it again. “I am beginning to believe that nothing that I am looking at is precisely what I think it is.”

  “Good. That is an excellent start.”

  They paced out of the storage area, through the white marble halls, past the guard and out the door.

  Harmony was numb. She was dead but not. Her new body felt alive, felt normal, but it wasn’t going to age if she stayed on this world or comet or whatever. Her future stretched in front of her in an endless wave of uncertainty, and it was while her mind was reeling and her feet were simply walking her along with Nero at her side that she heard it.

  There was a voice singing to her, soothing her, telling her that everything would work out all right. She was not alone, she was meant to be where she was.

  “What is it? Are you feeling all right, Harmony?” Nero’s voice broke through the song.

  She blinked and stared at him, looking around for the source of the sound, but there was only the rift in the sky and the empty streets.

  “I think I need to rest. Seeing my body took more out of me than I had imagined.” She smiled weakly, and he nodded with understanding.

  They made their way back to the restoration centre, passing two men who nodded politely to him and ignored her. She didn’t care. The song was back, and it filled her thoughts.

  What the hell is singing to me?

  Chapter Three

  Harmony grimaced at her reflection. All the marks that had shown bits of her life were now gone. The scar she got from a dog bite at age three was gone, as was the portrait of her mother that had been tattooed on her shoulder.

  Her body was fresh and new, but there was something sad about it. It was like part of her had been taken away. The part that had shaped her character and made her the woman that was standing there now was gone.

  The metalwork was now an extension of her new self. She needed it for another three weeks, and then, she would be free of it.

  A knock on her door brought an end to her personal absorption. “Just a minute, Nero.”

  She opened the door and smiled at him. “What is it today?”

  He chuckled. “Hand-to-hand combat to get your body moving again. You did fine on the cardio yesterday. You need more muscle tone.”

  “Combat is the way to go?”

  “Well, I need my workout too.” He grinned.

  His hair was in one thick braid down his spine, glittering as they walked to the physical fitness centre. It was a five-minute walk in the medical sector of the city. For someone in her condition, being close to everything that she needed was a bonus.

  They started out easy, striking and circling then striking again. She got tired easily, but she kept going as her body started to ache with every impact.

  Nero watched her and called a halt. “That is a good start. Sit, drink some water and let your muscles relax.”

  Harmony sighed. “This is taking too long.”

  He laughed. “It is taking the exact time that it takes. Your species is a little softer than some and sturdier than others. Your body has to relearn its movements.”

  While she sat and drank water, he keyed up his exercise program.

  A solid hologram was generated, and Nero stepped toward the image of one of his own kind, turning his head from side to side before the chime rang that engaged the fighters.

  Harmony watched for a while before closing her eyes. Nero was moving so quickly that he blurred in her vision. He was fast, damned fast. She could only see a blur of scarlet as he and the generated opponent made contact and smacked the crap out of each other.

  She groaned, finished some more water and went to the terminal. She set it for body scan, and when it was done, it chirped its confirmation that it had an opponent scaled for her current physical status.

  She stepped into the sparring space, and the hologram that she faced was her own. “Aw, that sucks.”

  Harmony stepped toward it and saw it move awkwardly in response. “Okay, I get it.”

  She moved step by step and watched as the movements of her partner gradually took on more grace. It was an effective teaching tool, she had to admit. There was nothing like seeing that you were weak as a kitten and awkward as a drunk stork to make you try harder to control your own body.

  When she tired, she slowed, and
the moment she had energy, she moved again, going through the tai chi-like moves that Nero had spent the last three days teaching her.

  “That is an interesting pose.” He chuckled and wiped sweat from his forehead.

  She didn’t spare him more than a single glance.

  “I am going for precision in movement. Form will come later when my hands aren’t trembling.”

  He watched her for another half hour before he called a halt. “Enough for today. As your physician, I am ending your exertion.”

  She finished the pattern she had been working through and stood with her arms at her sides. Her heart thudded in her chest and her body gleamed with sweat, but she was proud of what she had been able to accomplish.

  Harmony took a step toward the water cooler, and she stumbled. She heard Nero curse, and he came to her side, supporting her on the way to the bench. He got her some water and watched as she drank it.

  “You didn’t eat this morning.”

  “I am not hungry.” It was a lie. When Nero wasn’t around, the few men who were still in the medical part of the city all joined her at breakfast and made her uncomfortable. They were under rules to leave her alone physically, but they did not hide their interest in getting her into their beds.

  “Well, you are obviously hungry now. We will go to the dispenser and get you a meal.”

  Once she was stable enough to walk, she wobbled alongside him with his arm around her waist. She wrinkled her nose. It wasn’t like her to be timid, but the men here were aggressive to the point of hostility. She had never been in a situation where the women were so dramatically outnumbered.

  “You are going to have to grow a thicker emotional skin, Harmony. They are going to pursue you.” Nero muttered it in her ear as they walked past a male who looked her over before he nodded politely to Nero.

  “I don’t want to be pursued. That implies that I am running and I hate running.”

  “You did fine on the machines.” His tone was wry.

  “You know what I mean. Why aren’t you like the others?”

  He blinked at her. “What do you mean?”

  “Why aren’t you slobbering after me?”

  “You are in my care. It would be inappropriate for me to abuse the attachment that you feel to me because I am your caretaker.”

  She made a face. “I rather think my attachment is currently to your body.”

  He was startled into laughing, but they had reached the dispensary. He slid his hands into the scanner and waited. The machine provided a meal suiting his current physical requirements.

  Harmony twisted her lips as she put her hands under the scanner. The tray that appeared was fully loaded, and when she moved it aside, another appeared.

  Nero raised a scarlet brow. “Not hungry?”

  “Shut up and pick a table.”

  He laughed and found a table nearby. She deposited her first tray and then returned for the second. “I don’t know how I am going to eat all of this.”

  “It would not have given it to you had you not been able to eat it. Now, eat.” He gestured with his eating prongs.

  The generator had given her a fork and spoon, just like it always did. It read not only her caloric requirements, but also her preferences and points of familiarity. In the four days since she had been popped out of the tank, she had only had one small dish of food that she could not stomach. It had not appeared on her tray again.

  She tucked into her meal, and she could feel the eyes on her from various parts of the room. Harmony stiffened her spine and glared at the men around her who were eyeing her with proprietary gazes. “Knock it off, gentlemen. I have weeks of recovery yet, and no one who has pursued me aggressively during my recuperation has any chance with me. Take the hint and wait.”

  Several men who had closed in on her during the previous day’s breakfast paled and looked at their companions in confusion.

  Nero grinned. “Well done, but what are you going to do when you are loose?”

  “If I refuse to run, I am going to have to fight. You have the rest of my acclimation time to get me into fighting shape.”

  “Oh, so now it is my responsibility? Well done again.” He raised his glass and winked.

  She laughed and poked at the fruit on her tray. “Well, you are my caretaker and so you must do your utmost on my behalf.”

  “You played that very neatly. Well done.”

  “Thank you. It is a different skill than what I am used to using, but I am getting good at it. Now, what do you think I will be assigned to do once I am free to run around the cities?”

  He shrugged and finished his meal. Nero sat back and flicked his braid over his shoulder. “I don’t know. You said you were a courier on the other side, so it could be something as prosaic as being a local pilot.”

  She nodded. “Twice now, I have seen a ship streak toward the rift and return clutching a broken vessel. What is that job?”

  He winced. “Catchers. They grab the fallen and try to get them to the ground in time for the retrievers to do their work. Once the retrievers have the fallen, they come to me.”

  “Retrievers?” This was news to her. She had not really thought much of how she had arrived in the tank other than her body being searched for viable DNA.

  “Retrievers create a seal on the exterior of the ship and go inside to find the fallen. If a citizen were to try and open the ship, the fallen inside would burst into flames the moment that the new atmosphere was introduced.”

  “Ouch. I remember lightning and then fire. I remember burning, but it felt like it was from the inside out.”

  He nodded. “Radiation. That is why the fallen have such a low success rate. Their bodies are torn to pieces by exposure, and it is a struggle against time to find something whole to build on.”

  “So, catchers, retrievers, restorer…what else?”

  “We have a number of trades, clothing, farming, that sort of thing. You don’t seem suited for that sort of thing.” His lips twisted in a smile.

  “How do I find out what I am going to be assigned to?”

  “We go to the selection tower and we wait. A display will show all assembled your assigned station. From there, you will get training, and then, you are on your own. You will live in your assigned situation for all eternity…or until you jump into one of the rivers. That might just kill you as well.”

  He spoke of suicide so casually that she could imagine it had passed his thoughts more than once.

  “How many restorers are there?”

  “Just one. We have never needed more. The success rate for viable DNA is less than one in twenty. It varies on the part of space that our rift appears in.”

  She rubbed her forehead. “I remember a gaseous storm, lightning and a bright light. My nav computer couldn’t see it. I tried to get away, but it grabbed me.”

  He blinked. “It reached out for you?”

  She nodded. “Yup. Now, tell me about the singing.”

  Harmony had never seen someone go from amused to horrified in an instant. She was going to have to get to the bottom of this.

  Chapter Four

  “You are hearing singing?” Nero spoke precisely.

  “Every moment that I relax, the song swirls in my thoughts.”

  He leaned forward and whispered. “How is it making you feel?”

  Harmony cocked her head and stacked empty plates on her tray. “At first, it was distracting, but now, I find it comforting. I like it. The songs are unfamiliar, but I know them all. It is very strange.”

  She smiled slightly and sat back. “It started that first day, during our walk, but I think I heard it while I was in the tank.”

  Harmony knew her face had taken on a dreamy cast, but it was how she felt when she thought about the song. It was more than music, it was the sound of a soul reaching out to hers and wrapping her in comfort.

  Finally, she noted the worry on Nero’s face. “What is wrong?”

  He looked around. “Not here. Are you do
ne?”

  Harmony looked down and her trays were empty. The dispenser had won again. “I am.”

  They cleared their table and set their trays in the mechanism once again. They disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

  They didn’t return to the restoration building. He took her to a library near the public square of the medical neighbourhood. Inside, they climbed several sets of stairs until they reached a room at the top.

  Within the room at the top of the library, there were thirty portraits, some old and two quite new.

  Windows gave them a view that looked out over the entire expanse of the city. Nero said softly, “This is the memorial to the song. Every man on those walls has heard that song, and it drove him mad within a year.”

  The song trilled in her mind, offering support.

  Harmony smiled, “I am not worried.”

  Nero leaned back against a solid space between windows. “Why aren’t you worried?”

  She walked toward him and pressed him flat to the wall, “Because my name is Harmony. Songs are in my blood and bone.”

  Before he could say anything else, she kissed him. To her surprise, the contact sent another note through the song. A dark note wrapped around the song, and though Nero hesitated for a moment, as he leaned forward to join her in the kiss, the second thread of melody intensified.

  She broke the kiss and the other music stopped. “You hear it too, don’t you?”

  He shrugged. “I do not hear the bright music, I hear the dark. It lets me know when a fallen is on the way and keeps me interested in life.”

  “All that from a sound in your mind?”

  “A little more than a sound. It is a feeling, an urgency that takes me over. It drives me when I would relax and keeps me roving forward when those around me fade.”

  She leaned against him, and he put his arms around her, stroking her spine. It was one of the only parts of her completely exposed.

  Harmony asked, “You once said that the city had a maximum population of twelve thousand or so. How many is it now?”