I tried to tell him what they were, but I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to fold my socks. And then I fainted.
When I came around I was lying in the medical bay in the infirmary. There were two armed guards outside my room, and various nurses, playing with tubes and wires. A mind mesh was attached to my skull and various drips were plugged into my arms. As I looked across the bed, Sam was sat beside me. As was the chancellor.
‘Report, Curator!’ he barked. ‘What are your release codes?’
The second pair of guards standing behind him tightened their lips. We knew each other, we all did, and I would have been equally revolted to see an injured curator being treated like this. It was a biometric lock plus code. I released it, and asked Sam to open the case so that I could see it was undamaged. We all looked at it in awe. It was a thing of beauty. As I leant forward to touch it, Alvarez snapped the box shut and took possession of it.
‘Sir, two Alphas died for that. I want their names to be recorded alongside its display card in the museum.’
‘Quantum Curator Salah, you are the disgraced leader in a botched mission. You are in no position to tell me to do anything.’ With that, he left the room with the case and the two guards. A further two remained at my door.
‘Are those two guards there for my protection or detention?’
‘Protection. But if you can bear the ignominy, I’m telling everyone they are for your detention. Something went badly wrong on this mission, and I need to find out what. You and Ramin are my only witnesses.’
‘What about Julius and the angel?’
‘The angel disappeared. They were kidnapped on arrival. Their kidnapper was killed and we have no trace of them.’
‘Fuck. But that means Paul had back-up. He hadn’t gone rogue.’
‘I need to know more. I’ve debriefed Ramin, and your Beta is in a medically induced coma until the medics are happy with his vitals. I need your version of the events.’
And so I told him the whole sorry mess as I saw it. As I finished Dr Giovanetti, the infirmary director, entered the room.
‘Okay Sam, I need her now.’
‘How bad is it?’ asked Sam.
‘Not bad at all actually, but how about I tell her first? Hmm?’ he muttered, smiling.
Well, that didn’t sound good. Especially as I felt fine. Well, groggy, and I kept wanting to fold socks, but other than that, fine. I was trying to block all thoughts of Clio from out of my mind. I would deal with my grief in private. Not here, with armed guards watching me and nurses coming to and fro, checking on my vitals.
As he got up to leave, Sam totally alarmed me by leaning over and giving me a huge hug. Then he left the room without saying a word. I watched him go then turned back to the Head of the Infirmary. That in itself wasn’t a good sign.
‘Am I dying?’
Dr Giovanetti laughed. ‘No, you’re fine. I just think you put Sam through the wringer. He cares about all of you, and losing two has been hellish for him. You had a very narrow escape.’
‘Is this about Stepping with Julius?’
‘Yes, you’ve had a few splicing issues.’
Oh crap. I looked at him in alarm and tried to assess my body. It all looked and felt normal.
‘What “issues”?’
He handed me a mirror, and as I looked into it a quizzical eyebrow and a blue iris peered back at me. They looked as surprised as I felt. My right eyebrow and iris were the same as normal. My left side were Julius’. I gently touched the new eyebrow, which felt thicker and bushier than my own smooth brows.
‘Man, my tweezers are going to be busy!’
‘That’s the spirit.’ He smiled at me kindly. ‘Now, we can do a graft and fix your eyebrow, but the iris is staying blue. We can sort out some contacts for you. You may also be experiencing some neural splicing?’
‘Is that the socks thing?’
He asked me to explain, and I told him that I kept feeling an urge to fold socks. I don’t even own any.
‘Okay. Let’s keep an eye on that. Any other odd thoughts or memories, jot them down. Hopefully, they will begin to fade. But it’s good to record and monitor these things so that we can learn from them.’
Which reminded me. ‘Am I now going to have to attend the college “Show and Tell” Circuit?’ I groaned when he grinned at me.
I couldn’t wait to tell Clio. Oh boy, she was going to rip the piss out of me...
And then the reality of the past few hours hit me like a plank in the face. I suddenly doubled up in the pain of my grief, and as I cried I remembered outrunning crocodiles with her, dancing at the local bar and cheering together at the end of rugby matches. Rugby matches wasn’t my memory, however, and I realised I was also experiencing Julius’ grief for Charlie. Waving the doctor away, I turned my face to the wall and tried to go to sleep.
#40 Neith – Alpha Earth
The following day I awoke with all sense of Step nausea gone. There was nothing to be done about my eye for now, and odd sock-related incidents were being monitored. I wanted to see Julius, not just to ask him about his socks thing, but because I wanted to be there when he woke up. He had a lot to take on board and I wanted to help him with it. After all, it was my fault he was here.
When I asked if I could see him, I was told he had been moved to another department and was still in a coma. I was still arguing with them when Sam arrived in full formal dress and told me that I
