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.
I am in love with Aiko! I need one of my very own.
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