Galileo (Battle of the Species) (45 page)

Meta
…

When Renn couldn’t take it anymore he would run to an empty stairwell, put his hands over his ears, and sob until the pain subsided. Then he’d wipe his face, take a deep breath, and continue on with his day, each day getting a little easier than the last.

Renn would every once in a while allow Desh to help; when Renn was having a hard time focusing on his studies and his mind would wander back to the girl with the big brown eyes. Desh would steer his mind back, so he could stop thinking about her for a moment, even if only to breathe.

***

Principal Lockrin had taken Meta's android and human bodies home to her parents on Temin. He informed them, as gently as an Olerian could, that their daughter had been murdered and her consciousness involuntarily inserted into an android.

Meta's consciousness was alive, somewhere between life and death. She could live forever in the body of an android, but could never live a normal life. She would never grow old, experience childbirth, get sick, or die. It was a matter of opinion whether living eternally as a ghost was heaven or hell. Some said it kept one from seeing God and was therefore hell; others said one would never have to experience death and was therefore heaven. Highly debatable, but neither Meta, nor her parents, were given the choice and so chose not to participate in the discussion.

If you had asked Meta, she would have told you she looked the same, felt the same and couldn’t even tell the difference, except that she no longer felt hungry or tired. All she felt was the frustration that she couldn't finish the school year with her friends, go to the dance, or see Renn.

She came close to calling him a couple times, but remembered that he had turned her off because he no longer saw her as Meta. Ironically, he somehow blamed her for her own murder. She cried whenever her parents left the room, wondering how she could miss him so much if she wasn't real, and wishing the salty tears running down her cheeks or the emotional pain she felt in her stomach counted for something. Wishing the android maker hadn't copied a human's burden like emotional pain.

***

The school dance was coming up and there was a bit of a social frenzy as everyone scrambled to get the date they wanted, hoping they wouldn’t get stuck with a species they’d be embarrassed to be seen with.

All of the human girls got together in the girls’ dorm one night and decided that Katie should ask Renn to the dance. They had all decided how she would ask him, writing it down so she would remember. The script was designed to make the process as easy for him as possible so he wouldn’t feel like it were a date or that he was betraying Meta in any way. It was the girls’ way of letting him know they were sorry for his loss and they were there if he needed friends.

Katie stumbled over her words and stuttered when she asked him, as if trying to remember what the next line was.

Renn listened to the rehearsed speech about how platonic friends make the best dates and could overhear the thoughts of the half-dozen girls listening behind the corner, making him smile from the innocence of it.

“I’d love to go, Katie,” Renn said, letting her off the hook.

Dylan and Joss walked past them, immersed in their own conversation about the dance.

“So, do you have a date for the dance?” Dylan asked.

“No, I’m not sure who I’m going with,” Joss replied.

“Kia’s going with Holly. Just so you know.”

“Good for him,” Joss said, pretending not to care.

“Yeah, I guess it doesn’t matter, considering he’s not into her anyway.”

“You think?” Joss asked.

“He’s Toran, Joss. Everyone knows Torans don’t date outside their species. You heard him in philosophy class; their species wouldn’t survive if they did.”

“So what’s your point?”

“My point is, maybe we should go together.”

“Are you even into me?” Joss asked.

Dylan thought about it a minute. “Well, no, not romantically.”

“Then why are you asking me?”

“I’m asking you because there’s no one on the ship I’m interested in and if I had to choose, I’d like to go with one of my three favorite girls. Now, since I don’t want Desh’s evil eye on me all night, I’m not about to ask Lux and God help the boy who does. I can’t ask Meta, because she’s back on Temin…” Dylan put up his hand to stop Joss from saying anything, whether she had planned to or not. “We all have our own way of dealing with what happened to Meta, and I choose to believe she’s still alive, in a different body. I don’t want to hear otherwise, everyone’s entitled to their own opinions, but it’s best to leave them to ourselves, at least for right now.”

           “Yeah,” Joss replied in a weakened voice.

           “Now, that leaves you. I may not be interested in you in a romantic way, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you and it doesn’t mean we can’t still have a lot of fun together. So…Joss…Will you be my date to the dance?”

           “How could I say no to that? Of course I will.” At that point, Joss’ eyes were starting to water.

           “Come here,” Dylan said, opening his arms so Joss could fall into him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up Meta.” They held each other a moment, not saying a word, both thinking about the friend they had lost.

***

Lux had been looking for Desh all day.  She tried to dismiss her gut feeling that he was avoiding her for some reason, either because he was too shy to ask, or too masculine to want to go to a dance. She finally found him walking down a hall with Etienne and asked if she could talk to him alone.

           “I’ll just…meet you at the dorm,” Etienne mumbled to Desh and continued walking.

           “So, are you going to ask me or are you going to make me do it?” Lux asked, with a coquettish grin.

           Desh looked down at the ground. “I already asked Shelly.”

           “…what?” Lux asked.

           “I’m going with Shelly,” Desh repeated, unable to look her in the eyes.

Lux shook her head. “Fine. I'll just ask Remi then.” She turned to walk away when an image popped in her head of her dancing with Remi while he stepped on her feet. Lux froze, then turned around and walked back up to Desh. “No, you know what, this isn't fine,” she said, fighting back tears. “Desh, if you like me, then ask me out, or kiss me, or do something! Otherwise stay out of my head and far away from me.”

Desh didn’t move, remaining to stare at the floor.

“Then stay away from me,” Lux said before walking away.

Desh looked up at the ceiling, trying to keep his eyes from watering. He walked down the hall towards the dorm and saw Renn walking towards him.

“Hey,” Renn said.

“Hey,” Desh replied, trying to avoid eye contact as he past him.

Renn stopped when Desh got closer.
What’s happened
? he asked.

Desh looked away, embarrassed that anyone would see him get emotional about a girl. He pushed the image of the conversation with Lux into Renn’s head so he didn’t have to explain.

Renn stared at his brother looking baffled.
Why would you go with Shelly?
Renn projected.
You hate Shel
…Then his faced relaxed, understanding.
Just because they went after Meta, doesn’t mean they’ll go after Lux
.

Doesn’t it
? Desh asked.
You know, I don’t even blame you for going after her. I would have gone after Lux, even if I had known it was a trap. I can’t do it. I can’t go through what you just went through. The entire school knows how I feel about Shelly, which makes her the safest girl on the ship.

I’m sorry,
was all Renn could say.

Yeah, me too,
Desh replied with overwhelming shame.

“Don’t do that!” Renn said. “Micah killed her, not you, not me. Him!”

Desh nodded and continued walking to the dorms, still feeling beaten down.

Renn stood there, feeling lost. He couldn’t do anything about Meta, so he went to the girls’ dorms and waited for Sally to request access.

“Go in, child,” she said to Renn.

Renn walked in and found Lux alone on her bed with tears streaming down her cheeks.

He took off his shoes and lay down beside her, not sure what he was going to say, but knowing how she felt.

She turned over, resting her head on his shoulder. “I don’t understand how he can be so mean,” Lux said in a sob.

“That's not it, Lux,” Renn said, thinking about his brother.

“Then what is it?” Lux asked.

“You're something enemies could use against him, but he stays away from you, which is why you're still alive and Meta isn't. Mindeerians may be soldiers, but it doesn't mean we don't fall in love and it doesn't mean we can't get hurt.”

“You think I hurt him?” Lux asked.

“Unless there's another reason why he looks suicidal, yeah. Just go easy on him, okay? He's just trying to protect you, that’s all.”

They lay there a while in silence, until Lux finally said, “I miss Meta.”

“Yeah…me too,” Renn replied, still finding it hard to breathe when he heard her name.

***

It was late in the evening when everyone had eaten and the students were resting in their rooms. One of the doors on the top floor of the boys’ dorm opened. It was in that doorway, where a tiny robot, only a foot tall, peeked around the corner of the fourth floor walkway to see if the coast was clear. It walked past two doors, carrying a rolled up hologram paper in its hand and looked up at Ava’s screen, sending a light up to communicate with the ship’s computer. Ava opened the door for the little automaton, allowing it to walk in.

The robot walked over to Dylan, looked up at him on the bed, and put its arm up, offering the hologram paper.

Dylan smiled at the tiny robot and took the note, unfolding it. He read it and looked over at Renn. “Hey, did Katie ask you to the dance?”

“Yeah, why?” Renn replied.

“Etienne wants to know if you got a thing for her.”

“I’m not even going to answer that,” Renn said, annoyed by the question.

“Yeah, I think Etienne likes her.”

“Well, tell him she’s all his, but she asked me to go and I can’t just renege.”

“Okay,” Dylan said, writing his response down on the back of the paper.

“Seriously, he’s like two rooms over. You could just walk over there,” Ivan said, looking up.

“Or you could video message him,” Rudy added.

“…email him.”           

“…call him.”

“And yet I choose to respond via automaton, thank you very much,” Dylan said folding the response and offering it to the robot. The robot looked at the paper and then up to Dylan’s robot, standing on his desk.

“Awww, you wanna play with your buddy, huh?” Dylan asked, smiling.

He grabbed his automaton and turned it on, setting it down next to Etienne’s bot. He handed the note to his robot.

The tiny robots looked at each other, looked at the door, and raced back to Etienne’s room, trying to push each other out of the way to get there first.

***

The students suffered through finals, mainly war simulations and strategy exams, requiring them to use everything they had learned throughout the year to fight wars that had yet to be fought.

It wasn’t until the night of the dance that everyone relaxed, looking forward to ending the school year and readying themselves for the upcoming break.
            For one night, the First Years could wear whatever they wanted to, not being limited to their class color. The humans wore classic tuxes, though Renn had spent the better part of a week sewing and dying a blue Prodlinhide suit for Leo since his white one was now starting to look worn and he would need a blue suit for the next year anyway.

Lux had asked Leo to the dance, knowing he was probably the only date she could go with that wouldn’t drive Desh crazy, considering he’d know that Leo would risk passing out if he touched her.

Leo was happy, not just because he was going with a friend, but because she was one of the prettiest girls in the school to boot, making him the envy of most of the First Year boys.

Lux started to pick up her thought blockers on her way out, and then grinned. She left them on her desk, wanting Desh to hear anything he wanted to hear.

Hologram lanterns illuminated dark corridors and stairways leading from the dorm rooms to the simulation room, while the students made their way to the dance. Ship-bots, dressed in hologram dress robes, took pictures of the couples arriving and dancing.

Kia had asked Holly to the dance out of convenience, since she was Shelly’s best friend and Shelly was going with Desh. Kia hadn’t quite thought it through enough and was regretting it while he sat at a table listening to her ramble on and on, cattily judging everyone’s date and what they were wearing.

“…and I was like, seriously, that dress might look cool on Linrovia, but it’s vile anywhere else in the Federation, and she was like ‘Nuh-uhn’…”

“Holly…Holly,” Kia interrupted.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about and so don’t care,” Kia said.

“Wh…ch…that’s so mean,” Holly said, pouting.
            Renn and Dylan made a beeline for the concert projector, punching in the best list they could come up with and most of the students in the room got up to dance, rocking out to The Pea Coats and Ozrot’s Destruction.
            Desh ignored Shelly, trying not to curl his lip when she’d put her hand on his arm. Towards the end of the evening Shelly and Holly, both being human, needed to go to the bathroom and left as a pair, causing Desh and Kia to look at each other with a sigh of relief.

She's really getting on my nerves, Brother
, Kia thought, staring at Desh.

Why'd you ask her then
? Desh asked.

What's the difference
? Kia said, looking around, unimpressed by the other options.

Desh kept staring at Lux, who was dancing with Leo, despite the two dancing a good few feet away from each other.

Renn sat next to Desh with a “Hey.”