“Put yourself in my place: Would you?”
“Hell, no!”
“As long as we understand each other.”
“The moment I have some definitive explanation for my current state, I’ll pass it on.”
Zack nodded. “Do you remember anything after the accident?”
She pressed a hand to her mouth. “Yes. I’d have to say I was dreaming. Long, crazy dreams that . . . actually, I do remember, sort of. I was floating or flying or just aware.” Then she forced a smile. “What I remember most, though, is being in that car with Rachel and Harley. Not, bam, an hour ago. But it feels like . . . it all happened yesterday.”
She rocked her head from side to side. “I’m digging the repair job on my neck. I’m guessing it was broken.”
“Among other things,” Zack said, barely able to utter the sentence. “How did you know you were on Keanu?”
“I just knew, the same way I opened my eyes and spoke English.”
“But you knew English before.”
“Fine. Come up with a better analogy. I just knew I was on Keanu, that I’d been killed and brought back.” She frowned, clearly searching for a way to describe it. “Think of it like a role in a play—I’m an actor who just knows her lines.”
“What else do you know? You knew you were on Keanu. Is there anybody else here? I mean, who did this to you?”
“When I ask myself that question, I hear or feel or download one word: Architects.”
“That’s all? Just Architects?”
“That’s the word in my head.” She was nearly naked now, sitting knees together, arms around them, swaths of the underlayer second skin still clinging to her.
“Is there something I can do for you . . . ?”
“You could start by calling me Megan. You were never much for using my name, did you ever realize that? But given the circumstances . . .”
He realized that she was correct. He’d almost never called her by her name. Rachel was often Rachel, yes. But Megan had always been honey or baby—
“Megan,” he said, “Mrs. Stewart . . .”
“Now you’re just being silly.”
“Megan . . .”
“Yes, Zachary.” That was what she’d called him most of the time.
“Nothing, just trying it on again.” He couldn’t help smiling. Even if this encounter turned out to be some insidious alien monkey trap, Zack was going to enjoy it to the extent he could.
“Oh.” She frowned. “Hey, I don’t suppose you have anything to eat.”
Zack was able to pry an energy stick out of his helmet stash. “There are only a couple of bites left.”
“Men, never thinking about food.” But she happily devoured it. “Remember that restaurant we went to in Los Angeles? Barsac?”
Another memory only he or Megan would know. “Yeah. Most money I’ve ever paid for a meal. But a good one.”
She waggled the last bite. “This is better. . . .”
“Well, you haven’t eaten in over two years. Talk about sharpening your appetite.” She laughed so hard she actually shuddered. “You must be cold.”
“Not really. The breeze is warm, kind of like Santa Anas.” She clapped her hands together, as if cleaning them off, another familiar Megan gesture. “You’re the one who must be uncomfortable. Take off that suit.” She saw the immediate look of confusion and reluctance on his face. “What now?”
“I’m not sure—about you or anything right now. Not hitting on all six. For example, I haven’t thought about my EVA partner for thirty minutes.”
“Where do you think he is?”
“She. Natalia Yorkina, one of the Brahma crew. And I just don’t know.” In fact, he’d tried calling Natalia on radio, and gotten nothing but static. For the first time in his astronaut career, Zack literally had no idea what action to take.
“Nothing?”
“Comm isn’t great in here.”
“Maybe she’s just exploring.”
Zack just shook his head. Set that matter aside. Again, look at the situation you are in. Consider “Megan’s” suggestion about your suit. He wasn’t going back to the surface any time soon. Why damage the suit, or waste energy hauling himself around in it? He reached for the first release—
“You also have that look on your face. That I’m-cooking-up-a-plan look.”
“I want to get you out of here. And I want to find Natalia.”
“What about the others?”
The others! Zack had been so focused on Megan, he’d forgotten about the other cells. “How many are there? Are you in some kind of contact with them?”
Megan held up her hand. “I don’t know, I don’t know. I just . . . woke up. But I hear . . .” She cocked her head—again, a familiar gesture—then suddenly took off toward the center of the Beehive.
“What?” Zack said, struggling to unzip and lever himself out of the suit. “What did you hear?” But Megan didn’t answer.
The extraction took almost ten minutes, a mark that would have been a record under ideal circumstances. By the time Zack had propped the suit against the nearest wall and hung the Snoopy cap around his neck, Megan was calling, “Over here!”
He found her quickly . . . cradling a girl-thing in her arms. “She was just . . .” She made soothing sounds that seemed to have no effect.
“Who is she?”
“How the hell should I know? She’s a girl, okay?”
Zack looked at the cluttered wall. There were more than he remembered. He could count two dozen now, most of them inert. But three were clearly active: one for Megan, one had probably belonged to the Konstantin-thing, one to this girl-thing.
A fourth cell also appeared to be active—at least Zack could detect a humanoid figure through the translucent wall.
It was shorter than him, not a child . . . in fact, it appeared to be an elderly woman lying on her side. Unlike the other figures, she was in a fetal crouch . . . osteoporosis?
But whereas the Konstantin-thing and Megan-thing had moved, this one lay frozen and still.
“What are you looking at?” Megan said, her voice sounding tired.
“Another one of whatever you are. But interrupted, I think.”
“You need to see what’s over to your right.”
“Oh, shit,” Zack said.
It was the Konstantin-thing, the one Natalia had been observing . . . obviously it had somehow gotten free. Just as obviously, someone or something had clubbed it to death.
“Who was he?” Megan said.
“Don’t you know?”
“No! Weren’t you listening? I’m getting jumbled images and occasional words... .”
“Sorry. This was a . . . a person from Natalia’s life.”
Zack shifted himself around, a move much easier now that he was out of the suit and clad in the long john–like undergarment. Had Natalia done this? Had she simply freaked out, or had the Konstantin-thing attacked her?
Suddenly even less certain of his judgment, he glanced at Megan, who was looking past him. “Company’s coming,” she said.
Four space-suited figures, three Brahma, one NASA, were headed their way.
Zack reached for his Snoopy cap.
“—for Zack, I think we can see you. Wave or something. Put your goddamn ears on!”
Uh-oh. Tea.
Worn-out garments are shed by the body. Worn-out bodies are shed by the dweller within the body. New bodies are donned by the dweller, like garments.
BHAGAVAD GITA II:22
“There,” Natalia said. In the strange low light of the Beehive, three human shapes—two adult-sized and one that was half their height—stood just out of easy reach. Tea was so shocked she almost stopped in her tracks. One was likely Zack—but who were these other figures? Especially the little one?
“Are those your vorvolakas?”
It reminded Tea of movies where explorers penetrated uncharted lands like central Africa or the Amazon jungle . . . the natives going about their inexplicable business.
“Don’t go near them!” Taj ordered. “Stay on mission!”
Tea agreed. She wanted to know Zack was safe.