There were already a lot of Mothers there, running in the door real fast. Jane 23 headed for the first one she saw, pulling 64 with her. The Mother swung her head down, looking at them without eyes.
‘We need help,’ Jane 23 said. She looked down at her arm, which was so so bloody, and everything went weird and black.
The next thing she knew, she was in the med ward.
There were stitches in her arm. And there were so many girls in the room with her, so many Janes. There was a lot of noise, and crying. Nobody was getting punished for crying, which was different. Maybe the Mothers were too busy fixing things to be angry about crying.
‘You’re all right, Jane 23,’ a Mother said, showing up real fast by her bed. She handed her a cup of water and another smaller cup with some medicine in it. ‘We fixed you.’
‘Is Sixty-four okay?’ Jane 23 asked.
The Mother went quiet. They did that when they were talking to the other Mothers without words. ‘We fixed her, too.’
Jane 23 felt real good at that, the most good she’d ever felt.
‘Take your medicine,’ the Mother said.
Jane crunched the medicine between her teeth. It had a bad, sharp taste, but she sat with it for a little bit before drinking some water and washing it away. She lay back down. The medicine started working real fast. She felt quiet and good, and didn’t need to cry at all. Everything was light and fluffy. Everything was okay.
She looked at the walls. The walls in the med ward were blue, a bright blue. A real different blue from the blue on the other side of the hole.
She wondered about that.
SIDRA
Sidra kept the kit’s eyes pointed at Pepper as they wound their way through the market streets, and wondered if she’d ever get used to this place. With every step there was something new to observe. She couldn’t help but pay attention, make note, file it away. Out in space, something new could be a meteoroid, a ship full of pirates, an engine fire. Here, it was just shopkeepers. Travellers. Musicians. Kids. And behind every one of them, there was another, and another – an infinity of harmless instances of something new. She knew that there was a big difference between a shopkeeper and a meteoroid, but her protocols didn’t, and they clawed at her. She didn’t know how to stop. She couldn’t stop.
In this way, she found, her coned vision had a silver lining: she had to turn the kit’s head to look at things. As long as she stayed focused on the back of Pepper’s head, she could ignore the endless, edgeless clutter. Mostly. Somewhat.
She followed Pepper down the ramp into the tech district – the caves – and the kit sighed in tandem with Sidra’s relief. Ceilings and walls, and an immediate drop in temperature. The kit was self-cooling, so overheating wasn’t an issue, but the market’s climate was warmer than the inside of a ship should be. She’d had an errant external temperature warning needling at her ever since they’d stepped off the Undersea. She was very glad to see it disappear.
A shaggy Laru man leaned against a wall near the entrance, his limb-like neck bent low as he watched people come and go. His yellow fur was braided from head to toe, and he idly flipped a pulse pistol around one of his prehensile paws. There was a large warning sign on the wall beside him, written in multiple languages.
THE FOLLOWING ITEMS CAN CAUSE HARM TO TECH, BOTS, AIs, MODDED SAPIENTS, AND SAPIENTS USING PERSONAL LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS. DO NOT BRING ANY OF THESE ITEMS INTO THE CAVES. IF ONE OR MORE OF THESE ITEMS IS IMPLANTED ONTO OR WITHIN YOUR BODY, DEACTIVATE IT BEFORE ENTERING.
Ghost patches (surface-penetrating ocular implants)
Hijacker or assassin bots
Hack dust (airborne code injectors)
Improperly sealed radioactive materials (if you’re not sure, don’t chance it)
Anything running on scrub fuel
Magnets
A handwritten message was scrawled beneath, in Klip:
Seriously, we are not fucking around.
And below that, a second message, in a different hand:
Why is this so hard to understand?
The Laru’s wide eyes crinkled as they approached. ‘Morning, Pepper,’ he said, bringing his face respectfully down to her level.
‘Hey, Nri,’ Pepper said with a casual, friendly nod. Her demeanour had changed the moment they’d entered this place. Up on the surface, she moved like she was on a mission – chin up, feet fast, never stumbling as she ducked through every pause in the sapient stream. But as soon as they’d reached the entrance ramp, something in Pepper let go. Her shoulders loosened, her pace slowed. She sauntered.
The caves were every bit as labyrinthine as the market, every bit as busy and loud. Garish lights and pixel displays flashed in a chaotic array, and the air was overflowing with voices and mechanical noise. But this place was easier for Sidra, just as Pepper and Blue’s home was easier, just as the Undersea was easier. Everything here was something new, too, but the walls told her protocols where to stop. She’d only been on Coriol for a little over a standard day, but already, she saw patterns in the places that were relatively comfortable for her.