This isn’t real, thought Jolo. She’s a synth, but all the Jaylens he’d ever come across had perfect, platinum blond hair. He wondered if he should just move on and go hunt down the comm box.
“You said you’d never leave me. I thought you would come for me,” she said.
“I did come.”
“No. You came for the frog man, and you left me alone. You couldn’t tell us apart? You always were a little stiff, but I loved you and I thought you loved me.”
She turned her back on him and put her head in the corner and cried, her shoulders jerking up and down.
“You are a synth,” said Jolo and started to turn away, but she jumped up, her face red and wet. She wiped her nose on her sleeve. Then she banged her forehead on the concrete wall. She stumbled back, stunned, fell on the floor for a moment, her dirty hair covering her face. The she crawled to the door and stood up, inches from the glass. She pulled her hair back away from her face and there, on her forehead, was a gash. Blood streamed out and dripped down onto her face, her nose, into her mouth.
“Synths don’t bleed, Jolo.”
Jolo stepped back and stared at this girl through the window. “Jaylen?” he said.
She looked up and smiled, and another round of sobbing started. “I’m tired,” she cried. “I can’t go on any longer.” Then she fell on the floor and blood continued to pour from the cut on her forehead. He face started to go white and Jolo banged on the door.
“Jaylen! Get up!” he yelled. He had to help her. He slid the bolt lock open and put his hand on the door knob. He could open it from the outside.
“Don’t open that you fool!” Merthon yelled.
And Jolo stopped.
“But she’s hurt,” said Jolo.
“And you are a fool.”
Merthon quickly locked the door again.
“What do you see?” he said.
“I see Jaylen. The Jaylen.”
“You see what she wants you to see.”
“Do you believe its her, really her, the girl that was nothing more than an implanted dream in the mem chip in your head?”
“She’s going to die.”
Merthon sighed. “You have a good heart, Jolo. And that makes me so happy. I’ve never brought anyone back who was as far gone as you. Sometimes things don’t work out so well. Sometimes the person never comes back even though I can coax the body back. They look human but have lost their humanity. Not you.” And then he looked through the window at the girl. “But don’t let your humanness get you killed.”
He pressed a button on the wall. “Take off her arm at the shoulder.”
Suddenly a med bot came appeared and the girl jumped up and tried to defend herself. A red laser shot out of the small bot, burning a hole in the floor. Jolo started to push Merthon out of the way and go for the door, but was too late. The girl’s arm fell onto the floor. She didn’t scream or cry. She just sat against the wall, her breathing normal. The arm wasn’t bloody, and neither was the stump: hollow alacyte skeleton surrounded by synthetic flesh that had already started to repair itself.
Jolo moved away from the door and sat down. Merthon put his hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. The damn creature had us all fooled. She’s not like the ones on the harvester. This one’s an infiltrator. The blood is just a trick. She’s an upgraded model. We caught her taking down towers out near Arkos! She was looking for you. They probably sent a number of these models to each of the fringe planets.”
Jolo stood up, still unable to speak. He rubbed his eyes and gave Merthon a tired look.
“Here’s the silver lining in all of this,” said Merthon. “If you ever wondered if you were too much synth, then don’t. You act as stupid and emotional as any human I’ve ever known. I should have mentioned we had her. I need her for research. That’s all. Marco and Katy thought seeing her might upset you. They were fooled, too, Jolo. Just like you. The only one not fooled was George. And me, of course.”
“How did you catch her?”
“She killed two of Mantis’s men before she took several hits to the head with an energy rifle, which slowed her down enough.”
“Do we have a chance in this war?” said Jolo.
“I don’t know. But I never even had a chance to fight for Vellos. I’ll fight now for this planet. On Montag, my friend Jamis and I helped create these creatures. We tried to destroy them several times but couldn’t. The Emperor killed Jamis, but not before he added something to their physiology, something the BG would never find, but could be used to kill them.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, you are too valuable to die on this planet for nothing.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Bertha
Duval
22 days left
Jolo gingerly stepped out into the main hangar, his head full of hammers, and little knives stabbing at his sides. Merthon said the pain was a good sign and his body would heal fast. He needed to get out and see the bright blue sky. Tower buster crews came in, their hover craft covered in orange dust, reloading with zirk charges. Big pirate ships loyal to the cause brought in supplies freshly relieved from the Fed and the core world trading companies. And somehow George kept it all running smoothly.
Katy said good morning from behind but he waited for her to come
