SOMA (LGBT-scifi-romance)

Chapter Twenty-Three: Escape

Sector 09: Cita Canis

Jan. 26, 462 AC

Soma cornered Mercury in the ivy tunnel after dinner. "I'm not going to kill anyone. I—"

Mercury silenced Soma with a wave. "Earlier today, you agreed he should be stopped. You agreed with Leanne."

"That," Soma spat, "that was not Leanne. Leanne is..." Leanne told stories. She spoke of the animals living free and abundant across Old Earth and how she wanted to take the syns there. Leanne was love. And the syns here enjoyed mutilating effigies of her cowardly sister. "Where is she, really? Is she..."

"She's not dead," Mercury said. "But she did burn, because of the same man who killed your family. Aren't you angry? Didn't you love Cain and Maria enough to give them justice?"

Soma paled and a white buzz filled his mind. For a moment, he couldn't believe what Mercury had said. He wasn't uncomfortable anymore. He was angry. "Of course I loved them," he said through gritted teeth. "I don't have to k-kill anyone to prove that." His chest heaved. With great difficulty, he kept his voice steady. "You helped Gem, so I want to help you. I'll help with self defense... with lots of other things, but not with this."

Mercury's functions flitted briefly to anger. Her dyed-gray eyebrows arched over her eyes. Her expression looked like Gem's—or Cain's—the moment they wanted to hurt someone. Soma tensed, hands fisting at his side.

After a moment, Mercury said, "I forget sometimes, that you are not synthetic." Her eyes glittered. In the dim light of the ivy tunnel, all the gray snakes in her hair looked venomous. "If you won't obey, then I have another job for you. Come."

Soma didn't feel at all relieved. "What job?"

Mercury didn't answer. She turned, all the metal sheets across her body clattering, and pushed off deeper into the ivy tunnel. Soma tugged the knot of his shift tighter around his waist and wished he'd brought his coat. He followed Mercury deep into Clutchstone, to the very last alcove of the ivy tunnel, with a clear view of Old Earth. Atmospheric winds hissed off the lunaroid. The iron clanged. All the festive voices from the main hollow seemed far away. There was a small metal hatch there, haphazardly soldered to the metal pillars. Mercury pressed her hand to the wall panel, and the hatch yawned open. A waft of gasoline stench pillowed up from the hatch, and strange metallic sounds echoed.

"Go in." The metal in Mercury's teeth glimmered. "Maybe you'll learn something."

"What's in...?"

"Go." Mercury's voice was hard as iron, crackling like the continents across Old Earth.

Soma pinched his eyes shut and pushed headfirst through the hatch. As soon as he was through, Mercury slid the hatch shut behind him. Soma heard the panel beep as he was locked in.

He was suspended in a net of humming wires. It was oddly cold. From the gaps in the iron walls, Soma could see long tapered spikes of aluminum reach into dark space, and the dead, red shadow of Old Earth overhead. He climbed through the wires, wincing at the occasional snap of electricity around him.

He broke out of the tangle and into open air, gasping. There was an enormous platform above him—as wide across as Soma was tall—nestled in the ceiling of robust wires. The nurse, Aster, was there, with a jagged metal cage strapped around her head. She removed her headpiece, letting it float beside her, and switched functions. "What are you doing here, squirt? This alcove is off limits."

Soma shivered, miserable. "I'm supposed to learn something. Mercury said she had a new job for me..."

Aster's eyebrows rose. "Here with me? Have you lost her favour already?"