SOMA (LGBT-scifi-romance)

Chapter Twelve: Gate to Cita Canis

Sector 06: Cita Avis

Jan. 23, 462 AC

The terraforming barriers that separated colony sectors were tinted blue. Cita Canis contained a massive metropolis, its facilities pushing to the edges of its barrier. Beyond the gate, Soma could already see buildings and artificial stars.

Their side of the gate was littered with spheres of corpses, their faces covered by sky fish digestive juices. A handful of crushed ships bobbed against the gate. Judging by the packs and supplies, these were survivors like Soma and Gemini—they just didn't make it past the fish. Soma fell upon the corpses, rooting through them for what remained of their water packets. He drank, and drank, then relieved himself a ways off with something akin to ecstasy. Afterwards, he pulled the bodies loose, closed their eyes, and counted to five out of respect, while Gemini hovered and glowered nearby.

They'd arrived early, and waited a day for the titanic gates to align. They listened to the deep resounding bellows of metal sliding into place.

Soma chewed his lower lip and looked up. The sky fish curled over the colony gate was the size of a small personal ship and many times larger than the juveniles kept by the humans. This one was Lamia-classed—covered from sucker to tail in glossy blue scales. A long dorsal sail. Four wing-like fins protruded from its underside. It wrapped its serpent body around the hatch, eyeless head swerving to detect encroachers.

"It's just a Lamia," Soma said. "Stay close."

"Why?" Gemini asked.

"Because Lamias aren't as temperamental as Behemoths, but they're still dangerous. The fish'll come close, smell that I'm human, and hopefully let us both through."

Gemini paused, functions shuffling in his face. "I can't. You go."

Soma's mouth dropped. "What? But we've come all this way..."

"You don't need a dirty, thrown-away syn to—"

"Don't!" Soma reeled back, stung. He grabbed Gemini's shoulder with his good hand and tried to shake him. He was about as effective as a moth batting against a rock. "There's nothing dirty about synthetics," Soma hissed.

"We'll be caught, and I'm not going back to Sanctuary." Gemini raised his gloved fists and bobbed backwards on his towline. His voice turned hoarse. "I saw it, when I was made. I saw what those Sanctuary workers do to us when we break."

"Listen. Gem, listen, Leanne is just beyond those gates." Soma swung a hand out to indicate the piles of synthetic corpses nearby. "I won't leave without you. And if we stay, the Man of Means wins." He swallowed: remembered a hospital cot and a girl who told him stories. "You belong to me now. As long as I'm alive, I won't let you be taken to Sanctuary. Do you trust me?"

Slowly, Gemini unfurled, with his lips sucked into his mouth. He nodded. Soma detached their towlines and wound the cables around his waist. He held the syn's massive arm, and together, they pushed towards the looming gate.

Soundlessly, the fish uncoiled and descended towards them.

Soma could feel Gemini shaking. Sweat soaked through his gloves. Soma held himself very still. Even so, he couldn't help his panicked breathing. He squeezed his eyes shut as the sky fish enveloped them. Images of the piles of synthetic corpses flitted, unwelcomed, through his head. Gemini growled low in his throat. The sky fish wound around Soma's shaking body and sniffed at him with its mucus-covered belly. Fish filaments tickled along Soma's side, brushing over the bruises and the awkward angle of his arm.

A flinch in Gemini's body was the only sign of the syn changing functions. Soma turned, alarmed. "Gem, don't!"

Aggression stained across Gemini's face. He roared and released Soma's hand, disappearing into the folds of fish coils.

"Gem?!" Soma shouted. "Gem, stop! Come back!" His words were swallowed by scales, by the slime against his mouth and face. A spike of fear shot up his spine, and his mind went blank as he felt the sky fish shift. "Ge—"

A stifled scream. A crunch.

Soma stopped for a moment, as the sky fish tightened around them. "Stop! Stop!" He clawed his way through the coils, to the bundled figure an arm's length from him. He thrust both his good and bad arms around Gem. "He's with me! He's..."

The sky fish gave one last squeeze and released them, leaving Soma with Gemini's limp form. Soma put his hand to Gemini's face, relieved to feel breath and movement behind his closed eyelids. However, the syn's face twisted, mouth open with ragged groans. "Gem," Soma whispered. "Gem, come on. The meeting point's just beyond those gates. We just have to get through and Leanne will find us. Wake up."

Dropping his plastic bags of water, Soma heaved. Gemini screamed as he was moved. Soma's heart squeezed as he propelled them towards Cita Canis. As he neared, the steel-gray gate opened—just a sliver in the looming metallic expanse—enough for Soma and Gemini to fit through.

Air rushed from Cita Canis: warm, filtered oxygen. Through his tears, Soma smelled the aroma of butter. They were through. They'd escaped Cita Avis, and the sky fish had let them go. Here was proof that Soma was human after all, though sometimes the idea nested like an alien in his mind.

"Help," Soma shouted as they barreled through the hatch. "Somebody help him! Please!"