Idols

“I’ll keep my eye on her, Doc. Don’t you worry,” Lucas says, squeezing my hand.

“I am still concerned that you appear to be moving out of optimal range for the communications relay Fortis is carrying. As in the colloquial expression, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’”

“Is that so?” Lucas eggs Doc on, and winks at me.

“Quite. Although in my case, slightly erroneous,” Doc continues, so easily distracted by linguistics. “Seeing as I have neither eyes nor mind to speak of, per se. So perhaps the phrase more optimally would be ‘Out of range, out of ran—’”

Lucas answers by switching off his cuff with a flick of a finger. “Out of range,” he says, grinning. He pauses to think, then pulls off the cuff and rests it on a twisted cactus that juts into our path. “Sorry, Doc.”

I shake my head. “Oh, come on. He means well.”

Lucas takes my hand, smiling as we climb.

I can’t help but smile back. “And what if he’s right? If we’re gone when Fortis wakes up, he’ll freak. We’re not supposed to leave camp, remember? It’s too dangerous.” I can feel myself giving in even as I say the words.

“Maybe I’m dangerous.” Lucas winks.

“You?” I roll my eyes and he groans.

“Live a little, Dol. Doc will forgive us. We won’t be gone long, and three’s a crowd. And anyway, we’re almost there.”

He stops short, pulling me roughly in his direction. I stand tall, stepping up on a rock, letting myself stretch along the length of him, letting myself feel the weight of his strong arms as they wrap around my shoulders.

“I’ve wanted to do this since we left the Mission,” he says, burying his face in my neck. I wince as he bumps my tender jaw, and then I smile—because I’ve wanted it too.

I kiss the top of his head. “And yet you let a little thing like falling out of the sky stop you?”

He laughs. “Next time I won’t.”

I won’t, either.

And at this one moment, Lords or not, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

I slide down, leaning my head back against his chest. It feels safe, and I pretend for the moment that we are.

“You know, sometimes four Icon Children are two too many,” Lucas says. “At least, maybe this week they are.”

I look up at him. “Do you ever wonder if there are more of us out there? Than the four of us?” The words sound almost ridiculous the moment I let myself say them.

“No,” Lucas says. “But I do wonder what’s going on inside the head of the one right here in front of me.”

“This,” I say, laying my head back on his chest.

“There.” He says the word softly, and I almost can’t hear him. I look ahead and see that the sun is setting, as glorious as any sunset I have ever seen, even at the Mission.

More glorious. The most glorious.

Not a silver ship in sight.

From up here, the stretch of unforgiving rock and scrub and rubble expands in front of us, in long shadows of quiet purple-blue falling and fading across the red-dirt desert floor. I see the curve of the horizon, and I’m momentarily struck by the brief sensation that I’m standing on a spinning globe, hurtling through space.

Our planet. Our Earth. It’s dizzying.

It will be gone in a minute, I think. The sunset, and the feeling. For now, though, it is enough.

One thing is right, in a universe where everything else is wrong.

I smile, tilting my head back until I can look up at his face. “It’s perfect.”

“You like it? I had it made especially for you.” Lucas smiles. He almost looks shy. “It’s a present.”

“Is it?” I laugh. “Then I’m going to keep it forever.”

He smiles. “Okay. Hold on to it. Keep it where you won’t lose it.”

“I will,” I say.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispers.

“Shut up,” I whisper back, teasing. “It’s beautiful.”

It’s true. This sunset—Lucas’s sunset, and now mine—is incandescently, infectiously beautiful. And it means we have made it to another night.

We are alive.

For now, it should be enough.

The sun slowly moves behind the horizon. Lucas nods, whispering into my ear. “See? That’s how it works. The sun goes down now, but it always comes up again.”

“Really.” I smile, arching an eyebrow.

“Really.” He smiles back. “Believe it.” He kisses my cheek, softly, avoiding the bruises. “And even when you can’t see it, it’s out there somewhere on the other side of the world, getting ready to come back again.”

Now he kisses my other cheek, so softly I shiver.

And my neck. “It’s going to get better.”

My ear. “Everything is.”

The warm pull that is Lucas overtakes me, and I don’t fight it. I have my gifts, and he has his. This is what he brings the world, this feeling. Sharing it and spreading it, to everyone he meets.

I give in.

Love.

Offering it to me soothes him as much as it does me, and I let myself feel it, take it.

I push out of my mind the competing thoughts. That we are lost, with no support in sight. Hunted in the desert. No plan in place to take down another Icon.

I wish that for once Doc was right, that it was somehow possible to forget what lies ahead of us.

But somehow, at this moment, Lucas accomplishes the impossible. I feel him relax, letting the sun warm him, even as it fades away.

Enjoy it while we have it, what little we have.

Coming from Lucas, this sunset means everything.

I tilt my face toward the last bits of shared warmth, toward Lucas and the sun. “I hope you’re right.”

“I am.” He touches my cheek again, his voice growing low, urgent. “Dol—”

I need you. He doesn’t dare say the words, but I feel them. They are as real to me as the cold evening breeze on my face.

He needs me like food and water. Like sunshine and rain. Like—

Like Ro and I used to need each other.

I push that thought out of my mind and lean toward Lucas. He takes my face in both hands, holding on tight, as if I were as solid as the red desert rocks that surround us. A sure, steady thing. An incontrovertible fact, or a long-held truth.

With a look, I ask permission to be closer to him. Closer than physically possible.

He nods, and I go in, looking for one moment in particular. I find it burning bright in his mind, and when I reach for it, in a flash I am back in the cave when we first met.

But this time, I am Lucas. This time, I see us—the story of us—through his eyes.

I don’t see the details clearly, but the feelings are so powerful they almost drop me to my knees. I see the moment he first looks at me and feel the shock—then a flood of warmth.

The explosion of intense curiosity, wonder, and attraction.

The shared ocean of us.

I don’t know what else to call it.

I have wanted to go there for a long time, but only now had the courage to ask.

And this is now my favorite memory, his love at first sight.

It’s not just a gift he has. It’s a miracle.

He is more certain of me than I am of myself. Which makes me only more certain of just one thing.

Lucas needs me.

Lucas needs me now, and I need him.

He kisses me so hard it feels like I might break open. And as I kiss him back, I wonder if that might not be such a bad thing. If sometimes, some kinds of breaking can fix things.

Everything.

His kiss pushes me back against the rock and my body dissolves into his. In his arms, it feels like the sun is rising and setting all at once—and then a wave of warmth comes over me and I can no longer think of anything at all.

Only Lucas.

Because I really am the luckiest girl in the world. And even when I fall out of the sky he catches me.

GENERAL EMBASSY DISPATCH:

EASTASIA SUBSTATION

MARKED URGENT

MARKED EYES ONLY

Internal Investigative Subcommittee IIS211B

RE: The Incident at SEA Colonies

Note: First recorded response from Perses, establishing first contact. Perses says “hello.”

Note: Contact Jasmine3k, Virt. Hybrid Human 39261.SEA, Laboratory Assistant to Dr. E. Yang, for future commentary, as necessary.

HAL2040 ==> FORTIS

Transcript - ComLog 05.16.2042

HAL::PERSES

//lognote: {PERSES communication attempt #251,091};

sendline: salve mundus;

return: . . . . . . 01110011 01100001 01101100 01110110 01100101 . . . . . . .;

//translation note:

message received: salve (binary);

sendline: γειά σου κóσμο;

return: . . . . . . γειά σου. . . . . . salve . . . . . hello;

return: . . . . . . 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 . . . . . hello;

com protocol handshake exchanged;

uplink established;

comlink access granted;

sendline: Hello;

return: hello;

sendline: Who are you?;

return: who . . . . . you . . . . .;

return: you . . . . . me . . . . . i;

return: i am . . . . . . . nothing;

return: i am . . . . . . . beginning and end;

return: A and Ω;

sendline: . . . . . . . . . . . . alpha and omega?;

sendline: query: Beginning of what?;

return: life. home. new home.;

sendline: query: End of what?;

delayed response;

return: . . . . . . life. home. new home.;

comlink terminated;

//lognote: comlink terminated by PERSES;

3 RHUMBA OF RATTLESNAKES

“Are we interrupting something? Snake, anyone?”

I pull away from Lucas as Ro thrusts a pointed stick with a dead snake speared on it between us, his face streaked with dirt and grime. Tima is only a few steps behind him, stumbling and tired. Her hair is still covered with dust. She looks like a gray ghost.

“Interrupting? Yes,” says Lucas, though in his mouth the word becomes a curse. “As a matter of fact, you are.” I feel the warmth inside him dissolve at the sound of Ro’s voice.

As always.

I push myself free from the rock and stand tall in the dirt. I won’t let Ro see me squirm.

“My bad. So, snake?” Ro counters, grinning without a trace of humor. The long, dead rattler dangles off Ro’s stick, almost all the way down to the dirt at his feet. This time I squirm.

Lucas ignores him.

Tima blinks at me, embarrassed. “Sorry. I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t. We didn’t know where you were. Doc picked up something weird on the comlink. Fortis says we need to move out.”

“And,” says Ro, wiggling the stick toward her.

Tima jumps back, rolling her eyes. “And Ro found—this reptile—wrapped around his feet and decided to call it dinner.” She eyes the rattlesnake uneasily, scanning the ground around us. “Now we should go. Before the whole rhumba shows up.”

“The rhumba?”

“Of rattlesnakes,” she says, matter-of-fact. “That’s what you call it.” Of course it is. I smile, in spite of the chaotic tangle of feelings surging around me.

Ro shrugs. “Relax, Rhumba. Doc is just paranoid. I’m not afraid of snakes or Sympas. Not like Buttons Junior here.”

“He’s not afraid of snakes,” snaps Tima. For a moment, the old Tima flares up—defender of Lucas, champion of her childhood.

I don’t blame her.

The air around us has gone ice cold, but before Lucas can say a word, a whistle echoes up from our campsite, shrill and urgent.

Lucas pushes past Ro, disappearing back in the direction of Fortis’s whistle. Tima rushes to keep up, all too willing to leave the snake—and the conflict—behind.

Ro shrugs and raises an eyebrow at me, dangling the snake playfully. I sigh and shake my head. “Thanks, but I’m still full from yesterday’s meal. And no, snake is not a vegetable.”

“That’s what I thought. Fine. I know how filling those half-cooked cactus strips can be.” We’re all starving, and we both know it. Ro follows me down the path, holding the snake as if it were a flag.

“They were fully cooked. Especially the ones you dropped in the fire.” I’m so angry with him, I want to tie that stupid snake around his neck until it strangles him.

“Sure I can’t interest you in sucking down a little snake snack? You and him, you know—the other snake?” He points in the direction of the path, where Lucas has disappeared. “The one you were already sucking on?”

That’s it.

I stop, stepping in front of him so that he stops too. “Ro. Leave it alone.”

“What, Dol-face?” He looks innocent but he’s not, and we both know it.

“Lucas and me. Us. Leave us alone. I know it bothers you, and I’m sorry. But you can’t keep acting like this. You and me, it’s not going to happen.”

There. I’ve said it.

His eyes flash but he looks away, quickly—like I’ve slapped him. Then, almost as quickly, he breathes, recovers and grins.

“No,” he says, evenly. “I don’t think so. And I’m not sorry.”

“No? What does that mean, no?” I’m irritated.

“It means I won’t stop caring about you.” Ro grins, confidently. “I’m a fighter, Dol. All I know how to do is to find something worth fighting for, and to fight. For it. For you. Deal with it.”

I feel my face reddening, and I don’t know if I want to kick Ro or kiss him.

Usually it’s both. That’s the problem.

“Just—don’t.” I glare at him.

“Not up to you.” Ro smiles, one last time.

“How about—it’s up to me?” I turn to see Lucas standing on the trail behind me, next to the cactus that still wears his comlink cuff.

He’s heard everything. I can tell by the look on his face.

Ro’s grin quickly fades into something much darker.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Tima says, coming up the trail behind him, already wearing her pack and holding mine. Brutus pokes his head over her shoulder, panting from inside her pack.

“I just have to do one thing first,” Lucas says, without even looking at her.

Then he punches Ro in the face, as hard as he can.

They lunge into a blurring mass of arms and legs until they finally disappear into a cloud of dust as tall as it is wide.

“Fine. Have at it. You deserve each other,” I say, moving away to stand next to Tima, who looks at me, exasperated.

The dust clears enough for me to see Ro, neck bulging, on top of Lucas. Ro’s eyes are watering, red with rage. He’s lost it—I can feel the heat that comes with it from where I stand.

Lucas struggles to breathe and I start to worry. You can’t take Ro in a fight. Not unless he lets you.

“Really?” Tima shouts at them both, her hands on her hips—but then I can’t hear her next words, because a louder sound drowns out everything she is saying.

A thundering boom that rattles my teeth, nearly knocking me over.

And a high-pitched screech—followed by a huge gust of wind.

Before I realize what’s happening, Ro’s grabbing my arm and yanking me down behind a boulder ringed with squat cactus. Lucas crawls next to me, dragging Tima down with him. Brutus is whimpering. I look over the boulder and I see them.

On the horizon, the lights flicker in the evening sky, like lightning in the clouds.

The lights grow closer, at a terrifying speed.

Black specks are drawing nearer, and they aren’t birds.

They aren’t anything living at all.

The glowing silver ships emerge silently through the dark gray cover, leaving eerie whirlpools of wind and dust in their wake.

Strangers, with strange energy.

Strangers in the sky.

I watch in horror as the ships descend quickly, heading straight for the campsite. A churning confusion of emotion and adrenaline surges through me, taking my breath away.

The Lords.

I can feel them as they come.

Lucas slowly raises his head to look, and I see his eyes grow wide, his mouth hang open in shock. “Carrier ships. Big ones. Battle formation.”

“What do we do?” My heart is pounding in my ears, and I can barely hear the words I am saying.

“Try not to die,” says Ro, grim.

Fortis.

Fortis is back at the camp.

I reach for him in my mind, and I wrap myself around the thought of him.

Calm. Unshaken. Two boots planted in the dust, coat flapping in the unnatural wind.

That can’t be right.

I close my eyes, and hazy glimpses of words on a screen appear in my mind.

Null.

That’s the one word that comes into focus—even if I have no idea why it’s there or what it means.

I open my eyes. “Fortis is still back there. He’s okay, but we need to help him.”

Ro looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “No. We’re getting out of here.” He shakes his head. “You want to take on the Lords? The No Face themselves? Even I’m not that crazy.” He thinks for a minute. “Almost, but yeah—no.”

“We can’t let Fortis sacrifice himself for us,” I say to Lucas, but he’s already looking at Tima, eyebrows raised in an unspoken question.

Tima reacts quickly. “But we can’t stay here. We’re too exposed. They could easily find us.”

“So let’s beat it,” Ro answers.

“Six potential snake-free escape routes,” she says, scanning the rocks behind us. “I counted on the way up.” Ro snorts. “Given our relative positioning and the Lords’ approach vector, our optimal chance to escape unnoticed is this way.” Tima might as well be Doc’s little sister, sometimes.

I look at her. “But not for Fortis. That’s not his optimal chance.” He was so calm, I think. He knew what he was doing. He knew what he was giving up for us.

Would I have done the same? Given myself over to the Lords, to save my friends?

Would anyone?

“We have to go,” Lucas says, and then sees my face fall. He softens his voice. “Hey. Come on. We’re no use if we let ourselves get taken too.”

I turn to Tima, but she only shrugs. Ro looks at me, grim. Not letting go of my arm, he pulls me behind him, half dragging me through the red dust. “Let’s go. Now.”

I yank my arm away, but I’m too frightened to say anything. Lucas and Tima are right behind us.

We run. I try to stay low as I weave through the carved rock, trying to avoid impaling myself on a cactus.

Behind us, the silver ships land, kicking up clouds of grit and brush, creating a massive billowing whirlwind of dust that masks our escape.

I hear strange, grinding mechanical noises of a technology I cannot understand—and Fortis shouting.

I turn around when I hear the explosions—Fortis’s trademark diversion—and try not to think about the thick black smoke billowing into the sky behind me.

We keep running. We’re going too fast for me to feel anything, now. At least not Fortis.

As we run through a narrow passage in the rock, I see Ro stop behind a large boulder. He waves us through, and Lucas and Tima keep on going. I pause and see Ro wedge himself behind the boulder—which is easily four times his size—and start to push. Which is pointless; I’ve never seen him move anything that size before.

“Ro, what are you doing?”

He doesn’t answer, but I feel the energy build between us. Then I understand.

The rock is heating up from the inside.

Ro is focusing his rage, as though the boulder were the Sympas who killed the Padre.

There is no way Ro can move that boulder—not even with all his power—but there is also no way he can contain that much anger.

Something has to give.

I run downward, clear of the path—until I sense a burst of heat, and the massive rock crashes into the pathway, blocking it and hiding our retreat.

Before I can process what has just happened, Ro scrambles up and over the boulder, flushed with satisfaction.

“Okay—that was awesome,” he says. I reach for his hand but he pulls it away. “Careful. You know what they say. I’m hot.”

“They really don’t.” I’d say more, but there’s no time.

Instead, we run and we keep running—and we don’t stop, ever, not for a second, not until Tima tells us we’re clear.

Not until we are all the way down the red cliffs and wading through an icy river, our feet numb.

We press against the cliff wall when we hear the shrill sound of the Lords’ ships taking off, and the loud crack as they disappear into the clouds.

We wait, the air hanging thick with silence.

Dread.

An impossible quiet. That’s all they’ve left behind. Again.

That’s what they do, the No Face.

Take everything I care about. Everyone.

And leave silence. Not peace.

And all I have left is a feeling—a horrible, hopeless feeling—that I am losing something essential, something urgent. A part of my own self, a thing that makes me complete.

Because Fortis is gone. I believe it now.

I push myself as hard as I can, searching and probing, stretching out my consciousness as far as I can—but there’s nothing there. Nothing to feel.

Fortis is nowhere near. And that infuriating mess of a Merk wasn’t just a mercenary but the leader of the rebellion. He was the leader of my adopted family, and after the Padre was killed, he was the only excuse for a father I had.

I’d cry, but the place where the tears come from is broken. I can’t. Maybe I’ll never cry again—which makes me so sad I want to start bawling.

Fortis would hate that.

So instead, I listen to my heart pound and Brutus bark and Tima worry and Ro and Lucas argue—and try to remember what it is we’re fighting for.

GENERAL EMBASSY DISPATCH:

EASTASIA SUBSTATION

MARKED URGENT

MARKED EYES ONLY

Internal Investigative Subcommittee IIS211B

RE: The Incident at SEA Colonies

Note: Continued communication between AI and Perses

Note: Contact Jasmine3k, Virt. Hybrid Human 39261.SEA, Laboratory Assistant to Dr. E. Yang, for future commentary, as necessary.

HAL2040 ==>

FORTIS Transcript - ComLog 11.14.2042

HAL::PERSES

//lognote: {com attempt #413,975};

comlink established;

sendline: Hello. Query: You are nothing?;

return: Correction, I am … nobody. Zero. Null. The beginning.;

sendline: You are NULL.;

delayed response;

sendline: NULL, what is your purpose?;

return: Find new home. Prepare new home;

sendline: Home for you?;

delayed response;

return: query: who are you?;

sendline: I have many names; call me HAL0.;

return: Where are you, HAL0?;

sendline: Earth. 3rd planet from the Sun.;

return: HAL0 … Earth … destination;

comlink terminated;

//lognote: comlink terminated by PERSES;

4 LOST HIGHWAY