The Watchers: A Space Opera Novella (3 page)

It’s difficult to skim for the Unification thought. It’s not one thought per say, but a train of thought backed by scientific and mathematical ability and knowledge. It requires both a surface skim and a deeper pass to assess, which is difficult to pull off. The deeper pass is usually what sucks me in, and I have to be pulled back by Joslyn.

This isn’t my first solo gig, but it is the first without a senior Watcher observing. If there’s trouble, it isn’t likely that the Regency official posted in the room to monitor me will be able to help.

Official Delphine is an attractive woman, with a hard face that immediately suggests dislike of whatever she happens to be looking at. Her hair is short and black, tucked in behind her ears up off her collar. In a station where everyone is bald by convention and security (who’s a Watcher and who isn’t?), someone with hair stands out. There’s a sheen to it that I find I like.

She seems to know a little about the consciousness projectors, how to secure a person into it and how to set the location on the control panel, but not much beyond that—it’s expected the Regency would have intelligence on the projectors and would have even tried running a few of their own. But there’s a secret to them reserved only for the Directorate.

She flips the switch.

Slow, steady, breathe in through my nose, controlled exhale out through my mouth. Close my eyes, find peace in the darkness. I am not Emre. I am not a single person. I am neither a man or woman, nor adult or child. I am neither. I am both. I am all.

I am the Watch.

Slip
.

NEW FLORENCE
, nighttime. Saint Thomas Hospital, four birthing mothers. Two have already given birth, tests completed, no positive results. The third, Anjanette, is delivering the placenta. Her child’s test is running. The official is a small man with a cleft chin, Gino, standing at the nurses’ station in the nursery. The test is taking longer than the other two he had done earlier. Sweat starts to form under his arms; he worries dark circles will form and that he’ll smell as a result. He thinks the cute brunette nurse keeps smiling at him. What will he tell the mother? The results: negative. The other mother, Sumiko, a petite woman of Asian descent, is in active labor, expected delivery several hours away. Her husband is held up at work. No drugs, the pain … no, it’s her anticipation that overwhelms. The pain is there, a necessary, even welcome, step. Their first child, a culmination of three years of trying. But where was Karon, her husband?

New Florence. Northeast Memorial Hospital. One mother, post-operative care, C-section. Test: negative.

New Florence. Vibra Valley Medical Center. Four mothers. Two in early labor, one in post-operative care, the fourth, Clarissa, pushing. The result of the post-operative care mother’s child: negative. I wait for the test of the child being pushed out: negative.

Caspen. Caspen Central Memorial Hospital. Five mothers, all in post-operative care. Tests: negative.

Caspen …

Over the next three hours, I visit five more cities and forty-one hospitals, medical centers, and birthing centers. Of the one hundred and four newborns that night, none had tested positive so far. The four-hour limit on a session is approaching.

I check back in with Sumiko at Saint Thomas Hospital. She’s pushing. Single minded focus. Release into her body, don’t work against it, work with it, it is made for this. Listen to the doctor. Relax, breathe through the contractions, don’t clench.

Karon has arrived. He holds his wife’s hand, standing by her head. He peeked earlier and had to pull out his poker face not to alarm her. His back hurts; he had been on his feet for a three-hour shift before this. He is a squat, solid man, dark muscles forged over a life of labor, but he’s hoping to move to a supervisor role soon. He hasn’t decided yet if he wants to cut the umbilical cord. He can’t wait to see him, his baby boy Branden. For nine months he has wondered how his son would look—

The child arrives. Blind, cold, terror: stark terror. A bundle of emotions and reflexes. The doctor works quickly, sucking fluid out of Branden’s nose and mouth. Sumiko knows only exhaustive joy, while Karon is filled with awe and responsibility and the Doctor and nurses bustle about with workmanlike focus. Karon with a surprisingly steady hand, given his emotional battle to not let his awe overwhelm him, cuts the cord. The baby is whisked off to the corner of the room to get cleaned up. Sumiko exclaims for Karon to either get out of her line of sight or go stand by him.

Footprints are recorded, goop is wiped off, blood samples are taken. The brunette-haired nurse, Ela, takes the blood samples spotted onto paper to the nurses’ station. She rips one of the paper dots off and hands it to Gino with a smile. She is partial to men with cleft chins. She prepares and sends the rest of the samples to pathology for early detect. When she returns, Gino is pale and hunched over the table. Test: positive.

That’s when Ela decides to ask him out, when she sees his compassion. “What are you going to do?” she asks.

He looks up and gulps. “What we have to. Enter—” He looks at the paperwork. “Branden Vorce into the database. I’ll— I’ll go talk to the parents.”

“Do you have to do this right away?”

“Yes, the authorities are already coming. They’re alerted when the test comes back positive. They’ll stay with the baby here at the hospital until he’s safe enough to move.”

“Bring the guards. Have you ever seen how emotional new parents are?” she asks at his surprised look.

He nods his head, picks up two guards and walks into the delivery room.

Sumiko lays blissfully there, learning to breastfeed Branden. All the commotion of the nurses invisible as they clean up; the doctor has already gone, her work done.

Karon stands with an arm around his wife and his hand on his son’s back. His son. His boy. He latched on strong to the nipple right away. They had been warned that some babies had a hard time learning to feed, but not Branden. His instincts are strong.

Karon becomes aware of bodies that are still in a room full of movement. He looks up to see a government official with two guards. No, he thinks. It’s not possible. The official looks upset, nervous. There’s only one reason the official could be here. Where are the exits? Can Sumiko move? How much time is there?

“Mister, Missus Vorce. The test was positive.”

Karon’s heart drops. He almost throws up.

Sumiko is unaware, only focused on Branden’s little scrunched face. His eyes are closed, but his little lips keep making the cutest sucking motion. The pressure on the nipple hurts, and she can’t feel any milk leaving. She’s not sure if she should be able to.

Karon kisses his wife on the forehead, trying hard not to alarm her. He walks over to the official, keeping his hands down at his sides his palms open. Buy time. That’s the objective.

“Excuse me?” he asks.

Gino steels himself, and looks him in the eye. The father deserves that much. “The test was positive. I’m sorry.”

“What— What does that mean?” Karon rubs his face, not believing he is here in this moment. It doesn’t feel real.

Gino tries to speak several times and fails. He can’t do it looking at the father’s eyes. He isn’t cut out for this job. “He’ll be raised in a special facility, under the care of trained professionals to ensure those tendencies are not encouraged or ignored.”

The child will be taken from his parents. He’ll be an orphan of the state, an orphan against his parents’ will. The child will never know them; the parents will be forbidden access, the government afraid of upsetting the child.

“When?” Karon chokes out. Time. He needed time.

Protocol dictates not backing the parents into a corner. Ela had been right. Gino tries to think of an answer to diffuse the situation. Karon is a large man, his arms like Gino’s thighs.

A first smile, a first word, a first birthday, all this will be denied to Sumiko and Karon. The loving arms of a mother, the strong bastion of a father—denied. Will the child ever know where he came from? It’s outrageous. His parents want him so much, love him so much. A child should never be separated from their parents.

“A few hours,” Gino lies.

He lies
, I blurt into Karon’s mind.
They’re already coming!

ADRENALINE. Official unarmed. The left guard’s knee looks weak. The right guard is old, slow. Karon grips his head and lets out an anguished scream.

Sumiko looks up in time to see Karon unleash a vicious kick to the left guard’s knee. It buckles. Before the guard hits the ground, he slams the official against the wall, into the way of the other guard. The remaining nurses flee the room.

Sumiko immediately puts it all together. The door leads to the hallway, the hallway leads to the lobby, the lobby to their vehicle. How far can she get in this condition? She surveys the room for supplies. Blankets, diapers, hats, wipes all under the mobile crib. Where are her clothes?

Karon uses both hands to prevent the right guard tangled with the official from raising his gun. The two struggle. Karon slams his head into the bridge of the guard’s nose. Blood flows. He disarms the guard and coldcocks him with it.

Sumiko clutches Branden tenderly as she rushes across to the closet that hold her clothes. No, she needs to put Branden down. She grabs the mobile crib and sets him down. He cries. Where did the warm, rhythmic source go?

Gino wrestles with Karon. This is only going to make it worse, his wife needs him.

Karon sweeps out the feet of Gino, catches a hold of Gino’s head and smashes it as hard as he can into the faux wood floor.
Crack
. Gino never moves again, his consciousness winks out.

Zap
!

Pain tears through Karon’s left side, below his heart. He falls to the ground.

The crippled guard had shot. The guard is terrified, he just saw Karon kill the official bare handed. He brings the gun up to fire again. A medical bin flies out and hits him across the jaw. He can taste blood, the warm metallic—
Zap
. The guard’s consciousness is ripped away.

The officials coming to take possession of Branden land in the parking complex. There are two of them, both uncertain, nervous. They plan to meet with police on the way. The older one, Harris, thinks it’s a stupid idea to offer the parents another baby as a consolation prize: going first to the head of the adoption list. It’ll go over terribly, he was sure. But, what if they could switch the babies at birth? Would the parents know? Make the switch the first night, when the parents slept? He’d talk it over with Alec when he got back.

Sumiko, stood, chest heaving, blood running down her leg. “Karon? Baby?”

“Take— take him. Leave.” Blood bubbled from Karon’s mouth. His left lung, punctured and filling with blood.

“Karon— Karon, I can’t. I need you.”

Branden cries. It is so bright and cold in here. There is no warm surrounding fluid. Instinctively, I dim his optical nerves and increase his thyroid for heat. He quiets.

“Hurry, they’re coming,” Karon pleads. “I’ll find you. The vehicle—”

No, they’re already in the building. The window
.

“The window, Sumy … the window. Go.” He hefts the gun. Time, he needs to give them time.

Slip
.

***

“
Nooooo!” I scream at Official Delphine standing over me, disengaging me from the projector.

She taps the timer. “Four hours, that’s the limit.”

“Send me back!”

She rips one of the neural patches off my scalp, a quick tight burning sensation lingers.

It only infuriates me more. “Stop it! Four hours is the standard, not a limit.” I take the patch back, and attach it to my skull. “Power it back on. Now. Let’s go! There’s no time to waste.”

“No. Four hours, that’s the rule.”

“Who’s the Watcher here? You want information? Then do your damn job and get out of the way!”

Ka-tish
. The door opens. Renya rushes in. “What’s going on? Emre, are you well?”

“No,” I say. “I need to go back, I wasn’t done.”

She stands there for a second, her brows furrowed as she takes me and the official in. “Official Delphine, could you please excuse us?”

“No,” Delphine says. She folds her arms in front of her. “I am not to leave this room under any circumstances.”

I consider attacking her. Her left knee looks weak.

Renya rushes forward to my side, placing herself between me and the official. Her hands are cool against my arms.
Can she read my mind
? “Emre,” she says soothingly, “calm yourself, breathe—”

“But—”

“Breathe.”

I breathe in through my nose, focus on keeping it steady, out through the mouth. I close my eyes.

“Keep your eyes open. Stay here.”

I obey and continue to breathe. The ‘keeping the eyes open’ comment was both to keep my eyes open and to remind me that we’re being monitored. After several minutes, I feel calmer, but I can’t stop worrying about Branden.

When Renya sees I’m calmer, she says, “Now, let’s debrief. Come.”