wind spindle chapter 16

 

Kallo's insides were expanding, contracting, flipping

She was flipping.  She was falling.

She gasped awake, felt her ribs grind, her breastbone tear, gasped again from the pain, then the grind and tear again.  

She was falling.

She corrected her flight attitude, released her chute.  But too late.  She slammed into the first net, only just remembering to draw her hands and feet to her chest to prevent getting her limbs ripped off, then sinking, rolling into the second and third nets below, she began to slow down. And now she remembered where she was, where she was going.

Her chute was attempting to fold itself back onto the pack on her suit, but had caught in one of the upper nets.  Kallo dangled crookedly above another net until the chute finally released itself.  She fell again.

She opened her arms and legs, attempting to flatten out against one of the nets and stop the fall. Her toes caught in the net as the rest of her kept going; she felt her ankles give with a deep snick and a blaze of pain but now she was stopped, bouncing on the edge of one of the guard nets, looking down at the Bowl, hearing the strange repeated chorus of her own moans as if they were coming from someone else.

She panted. She vomited, moaning again.  She paused to try to breathe, looking down.

She was just a hundred meters or less above the central courtyard of the Bowl.  She had never really looked at it before and now, bouncing in a net just a short distance above, covered in vomit with every nerve screaming in pain, she had a perfect view.

 A web of pathways wove through the dwarf bristlecone forest.  Just visible around the edges of the forest, under cliff overhangs, the delicately carved spires and towers of New Petra were in shadow.  As she watched, the small figures of people walking on pathways came to a stop.  Then they scattered, leaving the forest pathways. Now different figures, all wearing bright white vests, rushed into the forest and converged around a small circular building.  Soon a balloon began expanding from an armature in the roof,  in a wider and wider spiral from the roof of the building as a cone of fabric rushed toward her. Soon it filled her view, billowing. The net beneath her began to sag and pull away. Echoes of an alarm reached her ears now, as the net slid away from under her.  After short fall into the deep cone she was rolling toward the center, her chest creaking, her ankles crackling as the cone deflated and she was eased by stages through a tube of fabric to the ground.

Kallo lay on her back. The fabric rippled away. Faces appeared overhead. Then the world went black.

 

Kallo woke again, staring into strange, two-tone ice blue eyes. She gasped, then groaned as her broken ribs flared awake.

"Why are you here?" 

Kallo took a breath to reply, wincing.  "Why do you care?"

"You followed Adelpho.  Why?"

Kallo looked at the woman standing over her.  She hadn't seen very many  people with dead grass-colored hair before.  The woman's hair was in a neat, tight bun. She was tiny, like Kallo, though much older.  Kallo's first thought was usually that she answered to no one but herself and her daddy. But those shimmering eyes promised terrible things.

"I had to come and tell you.” Kallo said to her,  “Dell betrayed us. Company One is here, they've been here for a long time I guess. And Dell's been working with them. I had to come and tell you because my daddy got hurt again, and the new grid isn't up yet, so we were flying communications missions but now everything is all messed up."

The strange-eyed woman was gone. Another face was looking down, a beautiful face with the darkest, smoothest skin she'd ever seen and enormous Earth-dark eyes.  The woman's voice was low and melodic, with that fancy Bowl accent.

"You're safe now."

Kallo felt the tiny wet slap of a patch on her neck, and the world went comfortingly black again.

 

Kallo woke calm and comforted.  Then she realized there was a warm animal under her arm, breathing rhythmically. 

She lifted her arm.  A red panda comfort bot blinked up at her, its white, thickly furred ears rotating.  In a soft feminine voice it said, "Do you have pain?"

"I'm not a baby."  Kallo shoved the bot off the bed; it gracefully slid to the floor, then turned and put its paws up on the edge of the bed to look at her with intelligent black eyes.  Kallo winced; her chest and ankles, in snug blue compression wrappings, were throbbing.

"You are in pain," it said, "But you could be kinder. Do you want some treatment?"  Kallo nodded.  The bot trotted from the room, the soft light from the windows gleaming on its fluffy red coat.

Kallo's stomach bunched.  It was just a bot, but she felt revulsion at herself for being so harsh to it. Her palm tingled with the memory of slapping Del; this time she winced without moving.

"Hey, bot!" she called out.

The bot trotted back in.

"What's your name?" Kallo asked.

"I am Aiko,"

"Aiko, I'm sorry.  You didn't do anything wrong and I shouldn't have treated you like that."

The bot jumped lightly back up on the bed, sitting and curling its long, thick ringed tail around its feet.  The delicate white markings on its face gave it a questioning, wistful expression.

"That's alright.  I'm not hurt.  And you woke in a strange place.  I've messaged the doctor that you're feeling discomfort."

Kallo swallowed.  "I am."

"I'm here just for you," said Aiko. "Bowl law states that I am exclusive to you for your stay, and may not disclose anything you say to me without your permission.  I can play music or read to you or chat with you, and I can call for help if you need.  I can do limited heat or cold massage, too. Or I can play games with you. Just call me and I'll come.  Or I can stay with you as long as you like."

"I need some time alone to think.  But please come back in a while."

"OK.  I'll see you in a while," Aiko once again trotted out.

Kallo flopped back on the bed, folding her arms over her face, and wincing at the movement.  She had to think what to do.  Del had punched her.  Punched her.  He had punched her.  He had knocked her into the canyon.  He could have killed her.  Kallo sobbed suddenly, thinking this; he did try to kill her.  The room reeled.

She sat up in bed, but stopped with a gasp.  He had broken her ribs.  And now what would he do?  If he was working with Company 1 then he might try to take the grid.  Take it away from her daddy, from her, from Mars.

Kallo tried to push the covers aside and cried out.  

A large figure drifted gracefully into the room, wearing a white robe and head wrap.  The doctor had very large hands, too, and spoke with a smooth feminine voice.

"I'm Dr. Haseya, Kallo.  May I give you a treatment?"

"I have to talk to my Daddy.  Now."

Haseya sat on a chair next to the bed.  "Let's get the pain down.  We are in communication with your father.  Alright?"

Kallo realized her nails were digging into her palms.  The pain was starting to make her shake.  "Yes."

The doctor's big hands moved swiftly and gently, stretching lines of tape along Kallo's body, then tapping a switch on the bedside table.  The tape began to vibrate in surges, shifting warm and cool in waves as the currents buzzed.  Kallo's muscles relaxed and the pain began to unravel.  She laid back in the bed.

"We'll stimulate theta waves for a few minutes, then a short nap to let your nervous system reach stasis.  Then breakfast, how would you like that?"  said the doctor.

Kallo nodded, remembered Dohna’s voice saying, “Manners,” and said, “Thank you, Doctor.” then she called out, "Aiko!"

The red panda bot jumped into the bed and snuggled next to Kallo, warming. “Would you like a song?” it said.  Kallo nodded.  A softly sung Tuuvan melody poured from Aiko’s mouth.  Kallo fell asleep.