“Chrys,” she says, a warning.
“Jess,” she says right back.
Laurel is the only one in the room laughing.
Arc leans over to whisper, “Chrys is used to this… half the time, she was the one who’d started it.”
She watches Jess for a long moment before turning back to Drift. “I don’t think my job has anything to do with it. Being their sister is a more likely reason. You said the Company wanted both of them for whatever reason. If they just wanted an Ardem… going to Earth might have been the easiest way to get one.”
Kimba stands, Drift steadying her as she says, “I’ll go let the CSS and the Agency know that they might need to figure out how to protect anyone else here or still on Earth. They have gene panels, so they’ll know if anyone’s related to you in the system.”
“Thank you.” Laurel adds, before anyone else does, “And I don’t think they’re going to kidnap our mother, but… just incase.” She flutters her hand vaguely in a way so similar to something Chrys does…
I look down at Chrys. She’s smaller here. She’s trying not to be seen. It’s so odd, I get lost watching her.
“Have you had any strange contact since you got here? Anyone trying to talk to you or get you away from them?”
“No.”
“They might think you died in the explosion.” Kimba’s gaze trails over Chrys and I hate that I know she’s cataloguing things the rest of us can’t see.
Drift hasn’t looked at her since we arrived… she’s too bright for his eyes, but Kimba’s physiology is better adapted to what she’s gotten of his mutation since they bonded.
The chaos of color is amusing to her, not abhorrent.
“Your medication,” Shock says quietly.
This time, Laurel and Jess both turn to look sharply at us.
“That was just a weird mix up at the pharmacy,” she says, but she isn’t sure.
“What kind of a mix up?” Andrea asks, handing her weeun to Strike and scooting forward. “I take three different medications and they’ve never screwed anything up. It’s one of the things that they boast about. They don’t make errors”
“They gave her kirocilicantephen.”
Everyone in the room looks at me like I’ve switched to a language no one else knows… except for Trench and Drift.
“They discontinued that decades ago,” Trench says.
“Yeah.” I nod. “But somehow, she got a bottle of it instead of what she was prescribed.”
They look at each other, and Jess says, “Do you guys want to clue the rest of the class in?”
“One of the scientists trying to figure out how to keep our species from going completely extinct created kirocilicantephen… It’s like Vitamin S, but it was removed fromthe market because it put the test subjects into…” Trench pauses to ask Kimba for the right word before he finishes. “It put them into a heat.”
No onelooks at Chrys after that.
“It killed a few of them,” Trench adds, glaring at the floor. “Most of the scientists wanted an answer… they didn’t always care what they needed to do to find it.”
“I’ll ask Tylen,” Drift says, looking uncomfortable.
No one asks, but I know… Tylen was the one who discovered humans were compatible. His methods were questionable too… but he didn’tkillanyone. And he was the one who got the drug removed from all testing. The least unethical man of the lot… which isn’t saying much.
“Did you get the filloum sample?” I ask Trench, and he shakes his head. “I thought it might be hard.”
“Why?”
“I met with Riann today. The CSS is unable to help with information on them… and we may want to be careful about who in the CSS we talk to. One of the founders may be involved in all of this.”
