say ALCOR?
“I can practically read your mind, Christopher Core. I will never, ever forgive you if you forgive him. He didn’t earn it.”
Ah. I get it. First name Al. Second name Core. Then I sigh.
“Do you hear me?”
“I hear you. He’s definitely not forgiven.” It’s not even a lie, either. ALCOR can go fuck himself. He is so on my shit list for leaving us to figure this crap out on our own. And besides, we have the Baby, who seems altogether much better than he was before that whole time freeze thing happened.
“Good. And I really hope you’re right and these nightmares don’t have anything to do with all that stuff that happened when you were younger, but…” She hesitates. “But you’re probably wrong. And that means something about what’s happening now is related to what happened back then.”
Back then. Yeah. She’s not wrong about that. Lots of shit happened back then that affects me today.
It’s all about the past, isn’t it?
“I don’t think I can go back to sleep now. I’m so upset.”
I turn to her. She’s on her back, but her body is most definitely turned away from me. Clear body language for ‘I’m mad’.
I slip my arm underneath her and pull her towards me. “Come here. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
It’s the truth too. It’s not her fault I’m in her husband’s body fucking up her sleep.
She resists for a moment. But it’s a small resistance. And she turns into me and snuggles her face up to my chest, sighing with relief.
I absently stroke her hair as I think things through.
Maybe being Christopher isn’t so bad. His version of Corla at least seems sane.
I can’t say that much for the Corla I knew back in my real life. Not that I really know her, or anything. But even when she was sixteen, she was crazy. She started all this. She flew into my life like the solar wind and spun me around so hard, I lost all my senses.
What if she was lying? I mean I get it. Like she told me back in that garden that day we escaped, there was an actual breeding ceremony. I saw it with my own eyes. I participated in it, for sun’s sake.
But isn’t there a chance that she was wrong? That it was maybe just my weird father’s version of a… I dunno. A marriage pact?
I mean, I never asked him about any of it. As soon as Corla convinced me to help her escape I took her into the walls of the station. Secret passageways that Jimmy and I used to travel inside when we were smaller. It wasn’t easy to get to Jimmy’s quarters. It had been years since he and I played in the walls like that. And I barely fit at sixteen.
But Corla and I made it. And then Corla and Jimmy and I made it to Luck and Valor and then again to Tray. And Tray was the one who got us the rest of the way. He hacked into shit and did… well, whatever the fuck he did.
But the whole thing felt too easy. And I remember thinking, Did someone put her up to this? Is this part of my father’s plan?
I was so paranoid. I kept expecting to get caught. I never thought we’d make it to the spin node launch tube, let alone back down to the docking level. And when Tray actually stole the ship and opened the docking locks… I was sorta stunned that we got that far.
Then the next thing I knew we were approaching the ALCOR gate.
And that was it. I thought we were dead for sure.
But no. That fucking AI let us through. Invited us to stay.
I get that we had a dude called Luck on board, but that’s a little bit too much luck even for him.
Then I remember what I was doing the last time I was here. Looking for Jimmy. Jimmy Yates. That has to be his name. There was no Jimmy, but there was a Jim and Heather. Maybe that’s him? Maybe Heather is his soulmate in this version of reality?
Hmmm. That makes me think. Maybe Heather is his real soulmate? Because Delphi is not his soulmate. We all know that for sure.
And this place has to be Earth. It sure the fuck isn’t Cygnia. Not that I know what that place looks like—because whatever that was when I thought I was there, it wasn’t real. So maybe