Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Ellie
Ellie hadn't ever expected Proteus to be so.
.. clingy wasn't the right word, but it was the one that kept popping up in her head.
He didn't like it when she talked to anyone other than him.
He didn't like that her attention had to wander from him to all the others.
The amount of times she'd had to calm him down in just two days was getting a little embarrassing.
For him, not for her. It was rather thrilling to know that she was the only one who could control this massive sea god, who was always one split second away from killing everyone and anyone who stood between her and him.
It probably wasn't normal to feel like that.
In fact, she knew it wasn't. She was supposed to be kind and thoughtful and guide their visitors through living here, and yet most of her attention was on Proteus as he learned how to share.
And that was what it was. At the core of his objections and disappointment in everything that was happening, was that he didn't want to share her. He wanted all of her attention for himself.
Eventually, on the second day, she asked him to go hunting again.
He'd put up an argument, but they were already running out of meat.
Most of the people here had actually brought items with them to grow food.
But food didn't grow quickly, even with grow lights.
So they would need supplemental nourishment.
Apparently, the undine who had come with them was the hunter who should have provided additional meat.
But he had quickly been chased out of the sea god's lair, and Ellie had a sneaky suspicion even further than that.
Proteus had muttered a few times about the stench that lingered long after the undine male had left.
"Please," she said, putting her hand on his arm and squeezing. "We have to make sure they stay, Proteus."
Which was a feat in itself. Proteus certainly did not make that job easy for her.
The humans weren't terrified of him, per say. But they were wary. They knew they were here to help, and no matter how hard helping was, they all had the same goal in mind. Saving the land so that they could use it.
Unfortunately, that was much easier said than done.
Proteus finally gave in, but his hand lingered on her ankle for a moment too long. "What do you wish then, Sisu?"
She twisted her lips to the side, trying to think of what food would be far enough away that it would take him a while to find it. "The tuna was tasty."
"Then tuna you shall have." He glared at the humans behind her, even though no one was paying attention to them. Or if they were, they were pretending very well that they weren't. "Take care of her, all of you. I expect her to be in one piece when I get back."
He sank under the water, disappearing without leaving even a ripple behind. Ellie found herself smiling at the place he'd left, like the dolt she was. It wasn't a good thing that he was so possessive of her. It should worry her.
But it didn't. Because she knew he was dealing with some strange emotions related to her.
She was doing the same.
As she turned, she caught the gaze of an engineer who was working on rebuilding what they thought might be a replicator. It would not give them more food, but it was definitely going to help with the computer parts they would need for many other pieces.
The engineer seemed to wince when she realized Ellie's eyes were on her, and then her gaze went right back to her work.
Ellie vaguely recognized that woman more than the others, and that was because the engineer had taken up a bunk next to Ellie.
She had dirty blonde hair that leaned more toward the brown side, and muscular forearms. Her entire body was muscular, in fact.
Far more than the man who worked with her, but that engineer was still a wiry kind of strong.
"What is it?" Ellie asked, but no one said a word back to her.
They all kept their gaze on their projects, ignoring that there was another person in the room with them at all. It was as if they were frightened of her. Like...
"Oh," she whispered.
They didn't want to talk to her if it was going to make Proteus angry. They'd already seen him attack one of the undine. A massive male like that was uniquely capable of surviving an attack, but a human certainly wouldn't.
No one wanted to take the risk of even talking to her, because it was likely that Proteus would have some kind of unreasonable reaction. This was a byproduct of his behavior that she hadn't anticipated.
Maybe it was one she should have thought of. After all, she'd been there watching with them.
But she knew Proteus better than anyone else in this room. She knew he worried for her safety, not that he was trying to make it harder for her to live here.
"I'll just..." She pointed at the room where they were all sharing their quarters. "If anyone needs me."
Ellie doubted anyone would. They all worked well together, clearly having done projects like this before.
The two engineers, a man and a woman, both worked together seamlessly, moving from piece to piece like clockwork.
The others were just as talented, all but one woman having another person to assist them.
The solo woman seemed to be the one pouring over the notes they’d found. She'd unlocked a section of the records in one of the computers and spent her days making notes after reading through them. Apparently, she was some kind of genius, but she hadn't said a word to Ellie since arriving.
None of them had. They'd all introduced themselves too quickly for her to catch their names, and they stuck to themselves. If she asked a question, they were quick to answer, but that was the only interaction she had with them.
Walking into the living quarters was suddenly stifling. All of their things filled the room. They'd moved the body of the woman who had died in here, dumping it outside like it didn't even deserve a burial at sea.
She'd overheard them talking about the "unsanitary conditions" and mentioning it was strange any human would live in quarters like these without trying to make it a home.
She had. She just... didn't know what a home looked like.
Her heart started hurting. It squeezed in her chest, thundering harder and then rapidly slowing down, making it hard for her to even breathe without worrying what was wrong with her. But being in here? It wasn't helping. Of that much she was certain.
Ellie headed back out into the antechamber, looking for the only person in this room who would always talk to her, no matter what Proteus was doing.
Pilot was on top of one of the computers, plugged into the mainframe as he did some other task asked by a person who shouldn't have mattered as much as her. Or at least... No, her thoughts were all scrambled.
They mattered. They mattered a great deal. Every single person here was doing work that she never could have done on her own, and it wasn't fair of her to even suggest that they weren’t. To even think of them as anything other than the intelligent people they were was cruel.
"Sorry," she muttered as she grabbed Pilot and unhooked him from the computer. "I need to borrow him for a few minutes."
"Hey!" the woman who was seated below him complained, but Ellie didn't have it in her to care right now. Tonight she would worry about whether or not they all hated her. Right now, she needed a friend.
Even if that friend was a droid who was programmed to agree with her.
She headed out into the other room that Proteus had revealed. She was lucky it wasn't hailing. At least today, a storm only loomed on the horizon, ominous clouds overhead making it seem like being out here was a bad idea, but there wasn't any rain just yet.
"Unhand me!" Pilot grumbled, his legs moving so quickly that he almost sliced her skin until she put him down. "I have work to do."
"I know. I only..." She started pacing in front of him. "I think everyone in there dislikes being around me."
"They don't have any opinion of you whatsoever. They are afraid of Proteus. Is that what you want to hear?" Pilot inched toward the door, wanting to open it and return to his work.
"Pilot, please." Ellie dropped onto her knees, so tired she could barely stand. "I just need a friend."
The droid waffled between what he wanted to do and what was the right thing to do. Heaving a mechanical sigh, he folded his legs beneath him and settled onto the sand to look at her. "What is it that you're afraid of? Does it matter if they like you?"
"Well, a bit. I'm living with them now, aren't I?"
"You are. But that doesn't mean they have any right to your time. If you don't like them, then who cares if they like you? You’ve won." He seemed a little proud of himself for that statement.
"Liking and not liking someone isn't about winning."
"Isn't it? Most of life is about winning."
"Pilot..." She should talk to a person about this and not a droid. "I want them to like me. I want to talk to them, and speak with other people like me."
The door hissed open, and a woman walked through. The engineer who had been looking at her, in fact. "Droid, go back to your work."
Ellie wanted to protest that he was supposed to stay with her. She needed him, even if this conversation wasn't going as well as she had hoped. But Pilot ran out the door so fast, she didn't get a moment to say a word.
She sighed, looking down at her hands in her lap. "I suppose I should head back in as well."
"They don't see you as a person," the engineer blurted.
The words hung between them. Not a person. Never had been. That was the issue, not Proteus. The problem with all the other people here was that she wasn't an actual human, and they could tell.
"Oh," she murmured. "I suppose that makes sense."
"It doesn't, actually. A clone isn't anything like the Original. I know that because I work with a lot of them." The woman crouched in the sand. "My name is Quinn. Nice to meet you, Ellie."
Quinn. She remembered the name now that it was said. When they'd all introduced themselves, Ellie had said it was a pretty name. One of the other engineers had snorted and said people in their roles didn't need pretty names, they just needed to be good at their jobs.
Licking her lips, she tried to start a conversation that she hoped might go somewhere. "You work with clones like me?"
"Not the same kind, obviously. Whoever your Original was, I haven't seen a clone that looks like you.
But that could have all sorts of reasons.
I helped wake up the first crew that came to Beta.
" Quinn shrugged. "The whole ordeal was traumatizing.
For them, for me, for everyone involved and probably generations to come.
We were told that your people would be like children.
You wouldn't know what was happening when you woke, and that you'd have to be taught how to speak, how to eat, maybe even how to breathe. "
Ellie winced. "No one knew that the Originals were waking us up?"
"The only person left alive from Tau was Alexia. I believe you met her when the others first arrived."
Ellie only gave her a blank stare. She knew Mira because the redhead had introduced herself. She didn't know any of the others who had shown up here.
Quinn held a hand over her head. "She's real tall."
"Ah, yes, she reacted like she knew me."
"She probably knew your Original. Worked with them all, as far as I know."
Ellie nodded. So she'd been right that Alexia was one of the personal guards of the Originals. Changed and manipulated like the clones were. "It's awful that you had to be there during that process. Waking is never all that comfortable, and I remember... Well, some of the clones screamed a lot."
"Most of them did, actually. I don't think there was a single one in Beta that didn't." Quinn shrugged.
"Listen, I'm just letting you know not to take it personally.
Most folks who had to deal with the clones weren't the ones in fancy offices like a lot of the people out there.
The other engineer, his name's Tim. He's also dealt with folks like you before. You can talk to him."
She nodded. "I just..."
Quinn waited. Patiently. It didn't feel like she was rushing Ellie's thoughts or that she was pressuring her to finish the conversation so she could get back to work. It just felt like two people talking about their day.
And that's what Ellie settled on. "I haven't ever felt like I belonged anywhere.
When I was awake in Tau, it was because they wanted me to work.
They trained me to be the person they wanted, and now that I've been given this second chance, I just want to feel like maybe I have friends.
Or not even friends, but people who see me as more than a tool.
People who recognize that I'm a person, too. "
"You are a person."
"Very few people see that." She blinked up at Quinn. "Even now, you're saying the rest of them still see me as a clone. Which I am. I recognize that. But... Well, I hope that maybe someday they'll look at me and just see Ellie."
Quinn seemed to freeze. Her face turned very red all of a sudden, and she stood abruptly. "I'll talk to them."
"Oh, that wasn't what I was asking—”
"I'll talk to them," Quinn repeated firmly. "Just give it some time, yeah? It'll take time."
Ellie watched her walk out of the room and listened as the door hissed shut behind her. It was a start, she supposed. At least someone had spoken to her as if she were real.
The beginnings of hope blossomed in her chest. She wanted to believe that these people might talk to her a bit more.
They didn't have to be her friends, just like she had told Quinn.
But maybe they would share a little of their own lives.
Just about their day or about what their days were like in their cities.
She wanted them to acknowledge that she was alive, and maybe helpful if they gave her a task to complete outside of her own duties.
Ellie just wanted a life. A normal human life. And they were the only ones who could give that to her.