Chapter 17
JAY
It’s hard to detach myself from Hex and Xan. Especially with this new body that is more than ready to go for another round in a supply room, bed, or against a wall, but I need answers.
Xan is lucky he gives them to me while his words of love and reassurance are still ringing in my ears, or I might have derailed answer time with another shouty time.
But honestly, when it comes to shady things one is willing to do to the one they love (for the sake of love), I probably have him beat, anyway, so it wouldn’t be fair to shout at him for putting nanoparticles in me while I was sleeping.
Hex, however, definitely has me beat in the “keeping secrets for the sake of love” department. I can’t believe he was willing to work on a secret backup planet without telling the Council, striving tirelessly to improve human and NV relations every day that we would have been apart for seven years.
“And some of the humans in the domes really have no idea what’s happening right in front of their faces?” I ask, as we all sit with our legs stretched out of the open airlock, on the rocky ground, with me (obviously) in the middle between Xan and Hex.
“They think any terraforming that’s happening on this planet—and assistance with things like portals—is just a good will gesture from NVs,” Hex explains, as he picks up a dark rock, weighs it on his palm, then tosses it as far as he can throw.
He’s been doing that a lot, too anxious at this moment to not do something with his hands.
“They were announced in classified briefings as alien gifts that would help keep them safe, and bring a bit of the Earth to them, so they don’t get too homesick while they’re stationed here.
“Most of the scientists who came to Mars think their work—documenting how sustainable the terraforming is—is just a side project the governments of the world decided they could spare some change for, while the bulk of their budget goes to more dangerous research.”
“And none of them suspect that they’re actually working on the main project?” Xan asks, voicing a thought I had right along with him.
“Some do. Others are oblivious. But my friends, who Braxton is with as we speak, know everything already.”
“But,” I say, “Braxton doesn’t?”
“We will fill him in shortly,” Hex promises.
“I can’t believe I know more than Braxton,” I mumble to myself, perhaps a little too pleased that I learned everything right before he’ll get the full story too. But I’ve never felt so included in the stuff these three are engaged in when they’re not preoccupied with telling me what to do.
“Well, now that you know all there is to know,” Hex says, as the fifteenth rock goes soaring through the air, “you and your clever little mind can help us think of how we’re going to make what might have happened in seven years happen now.”
“I’ll get right on that, Captain,” I manage to say with a straight face.
“I am serious, Jay. I’m counting on you.”
“But what if I don’t want to be clever anymore and just want to get by on looks?” I wasn’t sure if that was an option for Human Jay, but apparently my hybrid form has what it takes.
Xan and Hex both ignore that comment as Hex tells Numbers we need a ride to the nearest research facility, now. The battered, bullet-shaped silver train arrives a few minutes later, wobbling on the tracks. The screech of metal on metal pierces through the air as it comes to a stop.
“That thing,” I say, “looks a bit unstable.”
“Stuff degrades quicker here with just bots to do a lot of the maintenance work,” Hex says. “They don’t have the manpower to keep everything nice and shiny and up to code.”
“So give them the gift of superior bots,” I suggest, as we get up to board the train.
“We can’t do too much here,” Hex argues. “The humans who don’t know what’s going on will be suspicious if NVs are that hands-on with this project.”
“Then stop hiding the truth from them so they can have the best of everything and get this shit done quicker,” I argue. “There: I just solved your seven-year timeline problem.”
“Oh, yes, why didn’t I think of that?” He’s pinching the bridge of his nose again as he gets on the train first, and opts to stand and lean against a pole, not taking one of the silver bench seats.
I stand with him as Xan sits and says, “I assume giving them what they need, to complete the project sooner, would probably alert the Council to the existence of this special project.”
Hex nods, and I sigh.
“Okay, new idea: we get what we need without the Council. I mean, the Deppoxyl System has to have a black market. Everyone has a black market.”
“We do,” Hex says, “but the Council could put me in prison if they discover I was using black-market tech to move this project along.”
“Argh! Fuck the Council.”
“It’s not their fault your people have made everything needlessly complicated,” Xan says.
“They’re not my people anymore—I’m a hybrid now,” I huff.
“They’ll always be half your people, as you well know, half-brat,” Hex mutters.
When the train surges forward, I don’t fight the force of it as it makes me knock against him, letting myself hit him harder than I had to. He glares at me and I just smirk. “Sorry.”
“Are those mine?” he asks, glancing down at his sleep shorts.
“Yeah, why?”
“Make sure you wash the stink of Braxton off them before you return them. His smell is all over you.” He sounds so jealous.
“Your smell could have been all over me too, but you just had to be the holdout who wouldn’t join with me,” I breathe in his ear. “I was hoping you would go first, but now you’ll go last.”
Hex growls at that and drops onto a bench just to get away from me.
Getting under each other’s skin like this was how we dealt with our sexual tension when I was Human Jay, and I guess we’re going to keep it up, until we can join and put it behind us.
God, I can’t wait to have his fat red givers—
“Welcome to the Otto Research Facility,” Numbers says, as the train lets us off in a tunnel, which must be underneath the facility. “Do not be alarmed by the windows and doors that don’t open. They are sealed for your safety.”
“Uh, Numbers,” I begin, “that is one of the creepiest things you could say to someone who is visiting a new place.”
“My apologies, Jaxus,” the AI replies, “but you should know, in the event of an emergency, this sealed-tight facility will be a very safe place, even if there is structural damage to the dome or the tunnel above it.”
“So this tunnel isn’t below the facility?”
“Right, the place is deeper underground,” Hex says. “Humans are safer from radiation that way, so we put the facility as far below the surface as we could.”
“But they shouldn’t have to worry about that with a dome built with our tech,” Xan says.
“They’re just being cautious,” Hex says. “You can’t expect them to fully trust technology that they themselves haven’t fully grasped. That’s part of what they’re doing here. Not just researching what our terraforming tech does to this planet, but also the stability and physics of the dome.”
“Hn,” Xan says, sounding amused for some reason. “I bet they’re having fun trying to figure out how those portals work.”
“As you might expect, we are amazed and a bit frightened by every discovery we have made thanks to your kind,” someone says behind us. “But I personally find it exciting how your tech has forced us to re-consider some of the fundamentals of science that we thought we knew.”
We look around just as white elevator doors close behind a Giver, who is wearing a lab coat and has goggles hanging around his neck.
He has black hair and pale gray skin. I search for his human companion until it hits me: He is alone.
He is the one who spoke. Unlike me, he got the Giver claws and full height, but he is not a full-blooded Giver.
He is a hybrid.