Jelza’s eyes brim with barely repressed tears. Her voice balances delicately on a wire. “Please don’t do this. Not in front of—”
“I wonder where she is?” says the first enforcer, taking a step back from Jelza’s chair and pivoting … toward the locked door. A shadow passes quickly through the light beneath it. “What would she think about Mommy refusing to help the very people who gave her eternal life?” Heatshot rifle upraised, he stalks closer to the door. “Why don’t we ask her?”
Jelza screams. The second enforcer still has her by the collar, but she’s thrashing, kicking, her chair sliding across the floor. Ednit is full-blown shouting now, too, something about how this isn’t protocol, they cantalkabout this, but everything has rapidly escalated well beyond words or mimed signals through a windowpane. And Aspect recognizes this in the same instant I do.
Sprinting out of the shrubbery, Aspect throws their whole body headlong like a wrecking ball into the glass. Teeth gritted, trusty old heatshot pistol in hand, reactivating my helmet for maximum protection, I plunge through the scattering shards and into the fray.
The enforcers spin and open fire. In their panic, most of the shots miss, though several bounce off the edges of my armor, likely leaving mild burns beneath.
I hit the floor on one knee, pistol already raised and firing. I land a direct hit on one enforcer’s thigh, below his protective vest, and he collapses, shouting, his rifle skidding across the room. I catch it under my boot as I pivot to face the other enforcer. He swears, aiming to shoot me directly in the face, but Jelza is already upon him, leaping from behind into a stranglehold.
The enforcer wheezes. He beats his arms wildly about, to no avail, until Jelza fires an electric shock from her palms, causing him to collapse, unconscious, in an unruly heap. I wonder if my own Evolved body is programmed to do that. Total violation of my autonomy should really come with some fancy gadgets, at least.
Everything happened so quickly that Ednit is still rising from the ground, confusedly glancing between one wounded, disarmed enforcer and another who’s unconscious.
The wounded enforcer seems to be finding his footing. Eyes narrowed with fury, he fumbles for a heatshot pistol at his belt.
“Jelza, cover your ears!” I shout, already clapping both gloved hands over my own.
Jelza obeys, unlike Ednit, who raises his gun to fire. For an instant I’m afraid my instruction is going to get her killed, but Aspect responds immediately, head raised high as they emit a horrible screech.
Ednit’s knees buckle. He collapses, writhing. The wounded enforcer, too, falls to all fours, gasping like a water creature thrust into open air.
I wait a long moment to be certain Aspect is done, then remove my palms from my ears, reassessing my surroundings. Jelza drives the butt of the unconscious enforcer’s rifle into the conscious one’s head. “You stay away from my daughter”—she slams the rifle into his skull one extra time, for good measure, even though he’s already out cold—“you son of a bitch.”
I lunge for Ednit, pressing the muzzle of my heatshot pistol firmly to his wrinkled forehead. I always found his apparent age and experience comforting as my doctor. But now I know that those wrinkles are an illusion carved into a new, ageless body. How many sleep cycles has Ednit been alive? Tens of thousands? A million?
Aspect slides through the shattered glass to join us on the floor. They cross their arms, lightly nodding, apparently pleased with their handiwork.
Ednit’s breaths are deliberately measured, but I can see the stress in his trembling shoulders and fisted hands. “Welcome home, Kori,” he snarls.
I collapse my helmet again so he can see my eyes, no longer looking up at him in trained respect. Never cowering again. “Good to be back.” I turn to my new ally. “And a pleasure to meet you properly, Jelza.”
Jelza’s eyebrows lift. “How do you know my name?” Understanding passes across her visage. “Did we meet once before …? Outside his office?”
I nod stiffly. “I accessed a memory that was never meant for me. I’m sorry for the violation, truly. I—I didn’t know what it was,” I stammer. “So I hope you can forgive me.”
“We have an adversary in common,” Jelza says, resigned. She turns her stolen heatshot rifle on Ednit. “You should be ashamed of yourself, Doctor. Not even of what you’ve done. Just of the fact that you thought it had a chance in hell of ending well for you.”
The squeak of a door hinge. Light from the next room over floods this one. I turn to see a second-grade child standing in the doorway, clutching a doll to her chest, her ears covered by chunky pink noise-canceling headphones. Her eyes flood with tears.
“Mommy?” she says, too loud, clearly unable to hear herself through the headphones. “Mommy, are you okay?”
Jelza nearly drops her stolen heatshot rifle. I can see her legs physically fighting not to run to her daughter.
“Dawn, baby, Mommy is fine. I promise. But this is a bad man, and Mommy needs to talk to him about why he’s been bad.” Ednit audibly groans. “I need you to keep your headphones on and stay in your room for me,” Jelza instructs. “Can you do that, please?”
Lower lip quivering, Dawn drops her headphones to hang around her neck instead. “I’m scared, Mommy.”
Aspect takes a bold step forward. Amidst everything happening, I neglected to introduce them to Jelza at all. “Aspect—can feel—what tiny person—feels!” they proclaim, throwing their arms wide. “Aspect—go to room—and comfort—tiny person!”
Jelza looks at me in total disbelief. “Is that a mining mech?”
“Aspect—is an Aspect!”
I blow out a heavy breath. “They’re … a little more than a mining mech. Look, I don’t have time to explain now, but Aspect …cares… about other people. They can help Dawn calm down. They’ve done it for me more times than I can count, and I’m a lot older than she is.”
Jelza looks from me to Aspect and then back to me, clearly overwhelmed but knowing now is not the time to ask for clarity or question the only available babysitter.
