C James - Dome Six

And it happened picking fucking vegetables . Lame.

Footsteps hurried down the hall. They stopped just outside and Tosh poked her head inside. She saw him lying there and rushed over.

“Owen, thank goodness!”

She practically fell on top of him and hugged him tightly. Byron came in just behind her and smiled.

“Hey Mom,” he said. “Byron, you want to get her off me?”

She laughed and pulled away, tears streaming down her face.

“I came to see you, but they said you’d been in an accident. How are you feeling?”

Owen raised his stump of a right arm and winced. “I’m a lefty now.”

Tosh gasped and clutched her chest. Owen figured someone had told her. “Oh my god! What happened?”

“I’ll give you the room,” the nurse said, and left.

“Get the damn doctor!” Tosh called after her.

He told the story to the best of his recollection, omitting the more visceral details. They both were horrified.

Tosh brightened. “It’s okay. They’ll bioprint you a new one.”

“There’s not enough Cytomatrix,” he said grimly. “Authority orders.”

“Well fuck her and fuck the Authority, too. There are other ways to get things in this godforsaken place.”

“Careful…” Byron cautioned, eyes darting about. Owen thought the same thing. Listeners.

“I don’t care. This is all because of your shitty Placement. And now this happens and there’s nothing they can do?!”

Byron put his hand on her shoulder. “Tosh, I know what you’re thinking, but don’t. We’ll figure something else out.”

She shrugged him off. “That’s exactly how they want you to react, Byron. His arm can be fixed. If we were Authority, you know damn well they’d already be on it. You know what’s gonna happen to him if he only has one arm? He’ll be mopping up the FPC with my brother.”

Byron nodded ruefully and said, “Sounds like you two have a lot to talk about. I’m gonna go check on Dee. Get better, okay?”

“Thanks for coming, Byron,” Owen said. “I really appreciate it.”

He smiled at both of them before walking out. “He’s just looking out for you,” Owen offered.

She sighed. “I know. I can be a bit much.”

The memory of being in Hideki’s unit when the guards burst through came flooding back. Owen panicked at the thought that the hospital workers might have confiscated Hideki’s device. Then he remembered he’d tucked it into a hole in his mattress. He imagined Authority goons rifling through the room he shared with Aaron, searching for it…

“Where’s Hideki?” he asked. “What did they do to him?”

She shook her head. “His hearing’s today. Elle said it doesn’t look good.”

“You talked to Elle?” That was quite surprising. As far as he knew, his mom and Elle hadn’t had any real exchange in 20 years.

She nodded. “Looks like I’ll be talking to her again.” He could tell there was more to the story but decided not to pry.

“About Dek?” he asked.

“About your arm. This isn’t right.”

“Whatever they think Dek did, it’s a lie. If anything, he’s trying to save everyone,” Owen said.

“What do you mean?”

Listeners would be all over the room. He motioned her to get close so he could whisper. She leaned her ear to his face, and he described what Hideki had been working on when the Authority found them. She didn’t quite seem to understand but the message was clear: The device might protect him from the Box.

She needed to get it to him.

“Aaron can show you,” he said, being careful not to be more specific.

“I’ll stop by when I can,” she said. “But Dek’s not my priority. You are.”

“Whatever’s going on, it’s bigger than you and me,” Owen said. “Promise me you’ll get it.”

“I’ll get everything we need,” she said. “I promise.”

She ran her fingers lovingly down his cheek then turned and strode for the door. She opened it and turned back to him.

“Don’t worry, O. I’ve got your back.”

“You mean my arm,” Owen said, smiling.

“That, too,” she said, and left.

Tosh was alone in the Authority waiting area, noting the pronounced lack of activity. She had only been in the Authority building a handful of times before, including the other day when she had her encounter with Downing and Elle. Considering all that had been happening, she expected more bustle.

Around 4:25, a young man appeared and led her down a long hallway past the Directorate offices, then through another set of doors into the Administrator’s area. On the wall behind a wide reception desk was a relief of the Dome Project seal, lit from above so its shadow stretched toward the floor. It depicted the sun breaking over stylized Domes with the motto, “Protect. Rebuild. Reclaim.” Below that in smaller lettering was “Dome Six, Est. 2083, Cytocorp, Inc.”

The assistant gestured toward an open door to the right.

“She’s expecting you,” he said, and she entered. He gently closed the door behind her.

Elle was seated at a large, utilitarian desk with three chairs in front of it. A darkened conference room sat off to the side and a massive metal Authority seal was inlaid into the floor near a window with a view of the Agora. Several works of unimaginative corporate art hung on the wall, but otherwise the room wasn’t as fancy as she imagined. Elle’s was a looking at an IDA tablet that she turned off and stowed in a drawer.

Elle comported herself with a sort of military crispness that made her seem every bit as official as she was. Her uniform was neat and clean, but she looked weary. She rose and smoothed her jacket.

“Thank you for seeing me,” Tosh said.

Even now, her impulse was to walk over to Elle and hug her, but she didn’t.

Elle came around to sit on the edge of her desk, her arms crossed. “I heard about Owen. How you holding up?”

“Let’s just say it hasn’t been my favorite year.”

“Are they managing his pain at least?”

“Not really. Something about a matrix shortage.”

“Unfortunately,” she said knowingly, “that’s one of many new realities.”

Tosh cocked an eyebrow. “Didn’t Cytocorp actually perfect large-scale bioprinting?”

Elle gave her a condescending look, the kind you might give a child who couldn’t understand how the world really worked. Her tone matched. “That may be, but we can’t exactly order more, can we?”

“He shouldn’t have been in the Towers in the first place.”

“IDA’s algorithm determines Placements, Tosh. We just enforce those decisions.”

Tosh rolled her eyes at the tired line and shook her head. “IDA got it wrong. He’s smart — he should never have been around those goons. Especially since Downing promised me he’d get Owen out of there.”

“What do you mean, ‘promised?’”

“In exchange for fixing IDA,” Tosh said.

“He wasn’t in a position to do that.”

“Not my problem.”

“I know you’re upset, and I understand. To see someone you care about in pain is the worst thing there is, but accidents happen. Maybe if we weren’t already stretched so thin—”

“What if you lost an arm? A leg? Would the doctors say there was nothing they could do?”

“If they were doing their job, yes.”

“Oh, gimme a break,” Tosh said. “You and I both know that’s not true.”

“Look, I know what you’re asking and I can’t. I wish I could.”

“Can’t? Or won’t?”

“We really are nearly out of matrix,” said Elle. “It would be irresponsible to use what little we have on Owen, and you know it.”

“In other words, you have no power at all,” Tosh said, angrily wiping away a tear.