SL Huang - Up and Coming - Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors

The gray blanket draped over his shoulders hid his body from her. He melted into the shadows like a specter. Night inside the temple gave her the creeps. She wondered if the Great Mother could see them sneaking around. Was it blasphemy to disobey the priests’ rules if they did it in the pursuit of truth? Was it a sin to seek answers for a friend?

Virgil seemed to sense her hesitation. His bright blue eyes glinted in the dim light radiating from the terraformed walls around them. She imagined this was what it felt like to be underwater, to be surrounded. What kind of world had this been when people could swim in the oceans without fear of acid burns or poisonous worms? What kind of world could it be if people would stop sorting each other?

“You’re worried,” Virgil said.

“I’m scared.”

“No, not you. Not Avi the fearless, the great defier of nuns.” He smirked, but his eyes didn’t reflect the humor in his voice.

Avi took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes at him, feigning a strength she didn’t feel. “Shut up, let’s go.”

He took her hand back in his and gave it a squeeze. This time, instead of the jolt of electricity she usually felt at their touch, she felt warmth reach out and wrap around her, as if he’d pulled her close and covered her shoulders with his blanket as well. She felt protected.

At the end of the hall they turned left and found the door to a brightly-lit room. The door was closed, but white light shone out from below the door and through a small window.

“They must have everything turned on high,” Virgil said.

“That’s not high, that’s solar flare high.”

He reached out for the door but a spark arced between his hand and the knob. Blue light snapped in the air and singed his skin.

Avi grabbed his hand and inspected it, leaning close. She could smell his flesh, and the skin on his hand had a black mark. It looked like a branch of a tree or a bolt of lightning. She traced it with her finger and Virgil’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t pull away. “It hurts?”

He nodded, mouth set hard.

“It’s kind of beautiful though.”

He let out a breath and tilted his head. “You never stop saying things that surprise me.”

“That’s why you like me so much.”

“One of the many reasons.” His smile heated its way through her and she looked away. The memory of their stolen kiss warmed her lips and she wished, not for the first time, that they had met out in the city, as normal people instead of in the temple, sorted and coded to spec.

She dropped his hand and reached for the door.

“Wait.” He reached for her, but she placed her hand on the knob without issue.

“It must be the metal in your skin,” she said, and if Virgil could blush under all those layers of woven iron, she was sure he was doing it now.

She opened the door and stopped, unable to step inside the room. The glare blinded her for a moment, but as she adjusted, the white on white features of the room came into focus. The room was circular. Tack stations and tekmods were lined up around the edge. In the middle, a thick column of white and translucent wires with blue light racing through them hung from the ceiling. At the base of the column was a ring of chairs.

Virgil stepped close behind her as she took in the faces of the Teks seated around the column of wire and tek. They had ports connected to the cog implants on the sides of their heads, the black veins exposed thanks to the careful shaving of the hair around them.

A 6ix sat in front of them, his metallic ocular implant pulsing with deep blue light as the wires connected to his head mirrored the syncopated rhythm.

Virgil dropped the blanket covering his shoulders and stepped into the room. His white tunic blended into the glaring light and his skin seemed to shimmer, the light so strong it picked up on the weave of metal running through his flesh.

He moved as if in a daze, his feet floating forward, carrying him closer.

She wanted to stop him, to call him back, but the room stole her voice just as it had stolen the souls of those sitting before them.

Virgil walked through the room, his eyes resting on each Tek as he approached them. A 6ix, a 3hree, an 8ight, another 3hree. Directly across from where Avi stood transfixed, he stopped. A noise choked out from him, not a cry, not a word. Something else more horrible than anything she had ever heard.

Her feet moved her forward. She raced toward him, wanting to take away whatever pain raced through his body. As she neared, she realized what he was looking at.

Nelson sat rigid in a metal chair, his head shaved, wires attached to the black veins running along the right side. More wires were attached at the base of his skull. His already pale flesh shone in the pulsing blue light running along the conduits connecting him to the other Teks and the tree of wires and technology running up to the ceiling.

“What is this?” she whispered. There was no reason to be quiet, no one else would be here at this time of night, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak any louder. It seemed disrespectful, like screaming at the dead.

“This is 3Spek.” Virgil pointed to Nelson’s open eyes. The blue irises had rolled back in his head; only the very edge showed beneath his eyelid. The white vacancy of his gaze filled her with dread.

“That’s not 3Spek. It’s on servers. Storage Tek.”

Virgil shook his head and placed one large hand on Nelson’s shoulder. “Let’s get him out of here.”

She thought she heard him sniff, but didn’t say anything. She bit the inside of her cheek and stepped toward Nelson’s slack face. She ran one hand over his head, searching for other wires. Around the back, the thick conduit was attached to a port at the top of his spine. The flesh around it was red and swollen.

“This is new. Someone just put this in.”

Virgil kept one hand on Nelson’s shoulder and peered around at where she pointed. “Can you unplug it?”

“I don’t know. What if it ports into his nervous system? I mean, what happens if we unplug him without knowing what we’re doing?” Her voice rose as the possible ramifications washed over her. “He could end up braindead, or worse.”

“What’s worse than this?” Virgil wrapped his fist around the collection of wires running into Nelson’s spine and pulled. One by one they slipped out with a squelch, wires moving through muscle and flesh.

Nelson’s back arched, his head tilted back, and when the last wire unplugged, he gave out a loud sigh.

“Nelson?” Virgil hunched in front of his friend, searching the white eyes for a response.

Avi checked his pulse and peered into the now oozing port. Translucent yellow liquid globbed around the opening, thickening as it dripped down Nelson’s back, staining his white tunic.

Virgil grabbed the wires hooked into Nelson’s cog implants.

“Wait, that’s his brain. You can’t rip that out.”

“Why not? If it kills him, at least we know he’s really gone, not sitting here like this.”

One of Nelson’s arms twitched.

Then the other.

He took in a deep breath, followed by another.

And then the rest of the room’s occupants joined him. The collection of ported Teks gasped in unison. Their speed increased and the blue lights from the wires flickered so quickly they appeared to be flying through the air.

“Nelson? Can you hear me?” she asked.

“We have to do this now.”

“Nelson?” His irises flickered into view. Sad blue eyes stared at her and his mouth opened and closed without a sound.

Virgil pulled the wires connected to his cog implant and pulled.

Nelson’s body slumped forward.

Virgil stared, the wires still dangling from his hand. “Nelson?”