“What?” Kerwen turned and saw what Syn saw. The sight ahead was beautiful. Each apple looked as if dipped in diamonds, glistening in the light. Those tucked into the tree appeared as galaxies, a thousand points of light, spinning around an ancient core. Kerwen’s mouth hung open, and she stepped forward under the closest tree, picking an apple from a branch and holding it up. “How did all these lights turn on?” She turned to Syn. “Did you do this?”
Syn’s mind raced, but she couldn’t think of an answer. “I—” As she spoke, a second series of lights snapped on—hundreds of white and violet lights floated out of the upper rafters and swarmed through the tops of the trees. Small drones spun around and about the upper limbs, clearing them of various debris. Their light added to the spectacle, and Syn felt as if she was surrounded by a thousand fireflies, all swimming in a coordinated ballet.
Syn started again, the truth spilling out of her. “Yes.” It felt wrong to lie in the midst of the silent, brilliant display.
Several of the drone lights dropped down and circled around the two girls. Kerwen giggled. “Wow. This is amazing.” She held the apple out to Syn as the firefly bots danced around. “How?”
Syn took the apple and held it out from her, fearful as if some snake might pop out from it. “You’re not mad?”
Kerwen raced off into the grove. “Look, oranges.”
Syn slid the apple into her pack and followed. “But—”
They raced through a pack of the firefly bots tending to an older tree and scattered the lights about them. One snagged in Kerwen’s hair and was pulled along with her, struggling to break free.
Kerwen picked an orange and ripped into the peel, tearing it off in huge chunks as the juice dripped onto her fingers. She took a huge bite and gave an audible, “Yum!” She held it out to Syn. “Try it.” Her mouth was full of pulp, and the words came out garbled. “We didn’t think these ones would ever make oranges. I kept watering ‘em but Neci always said it wasn’t warm enough. But look.” She held her hands out wide and spun around.
Syn took a bite of the orange, and the taste was better than Kerwen’s reaction had led her to hope. Sharp, sweet, and full of juice—the orange flooded her taste buds.
Kerwen stopped spinning and grabbed both of Syn’s shoulders. “How?”
Syn reached up and freed the firefly bot stuck in Kerwen’s halo of hair, letting it fly back to its friends. “I don’t know. But I know it’s me. Wherever I go, the ship turns on.”
“Woah!” Kerwen said, “Really? Not just the lights?”
Syn shook her head. “No. Everything. The doors. The consoles.”
“Why you? You’re one of us. We can’t get anything to turn on. Except the Jacobs. We can hotwire door panels. But nothing else. Our companions could but we took it for granted, and once we killed them—”
“What?” Syn stammered, “You killed them?”
Kerwen stepped back. “Neci hated them. She hates every machine. She kept telling us that Olorun was spying on us through them. That’s why no bots came in Zondon. She figured out that her companion was talking to Olorun and that was why her plans kept failing. So, she made us kill them.”
“You did it… willingly?”
“Stop! That’s not the point! You can make the ship work! That’s important. How? What do you do?”
“No. I’m not telling you until you tell me about your companions. What happened? How could you kill them?”
Kerwen sighed. “Fine.”
Neci had found a way to get us all together. Back then, we were in the upper settlements, hiding out from the humans still alive. They were insane. The world hadn’t been burned yet. The Madness had gripped everything though, and our Sisters kept dying.
Two different times we had tried to get rid of the remaining humans, but something had gone wrong. That’s when Neci had the idea.
She rounded us up and laid out her plan. “One by one, I’m going to send you each off on missions. When your companion isn’t paying attention, shut it off. They’re spying on us. They’re not helping us out. They’re keeping a watch on us for her.” She sneered every time she mentioned her. Olorun.
There were several that protested, but Neci pushed. “We’re Sisters. We’re flesh and blood. They’re bots. They’re machines. They’re more her than us. They’re always watching us, filming us, and talking to God above.”
Soon, she won everyone over. Some she had to go to privately and talk them into it, but ultimately, everyone gave in. Well, at least we thought. Everyone went out in one day with their companions and each Sister came back without. Some bragged about how they did it. Others wept. I knew then that some were lying. Some had told the plan to their companions and allowed the bots to flee and hide. Some found ways to stay in contact with theirs. None of those are still with us.
That night, Neci waited to kill hers when everyone was back. As it began to panic as the lack of companions mounted, Neci cornered him. His name was Puck. He pleaded with her, but instead of just hitting the off switch, she took a metal crowbar to him, bashing him over and over. I can remember her standing over Puck’s shattered corpse, wires and fluids spilling out, shouting, “I blinded God. I blinded her. She can’t see us. She can’t hear us. We’re free!”
Neci moved a lot faster with her plans after that.
“How did you do it?” Syn asked, orange juice still dripping from her chin.
Kerwen lowered her head. “I couldn’t do it the way Neci wanted. I just moved behind Squirrel—”
“Your companion was named Squirrel?”
Kerwen nodded, and the dazzling lights from the greenhouse and the firefly bots glinted off of the juice around her lips and the tear rolling down her cheek. “I just reached up and slid my finger across the off switch. He dropped to the ground, and I couldn’t move him. I wasn’t thinking about that part. We were in the middle of a courtyard, and he just slammed into the ground, and I think he’s still there. He hasn’t moved since.”
Syn gushed out, “The ship just turns on wherever I go. I can’t control it. At least, I can’t prevent it. I can tell it to turn off, and it usually does. Most of the time.”
Kerwen looked up. “Can you turn the machines off just by talking? Or back on?”
Syn tilted her head, unsure what Kerwen meant.
Kerwen said, “Can you turn the companions on? If we went to where Squirrel was, could you turn him back on? I’ve tried. It won’t work. Once I turned him off, that’s the last he responded to me.”
“You want to do that?”
Kerwen shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe. No. Maybe. I just hate not having that choice. Neci made that choice for us, and I’ve had to live with it. She’d kill me if she knew I even thought about it.” Kerwen took a step back, taking in the spectacle of lights. “It’s like a Christmas tree.”
Syn smiled, doing the same. “Ya. It is.”
“Wow, you’re just full of secrets. I think we’re quite similar.”
Syn shook her head, “We’re all similar.”
“No,” Kerwen looked at the oranges on the ground, picking up and tossing aside a rotten one. “Maybe at one time. Maybe when we all left the white room. But not now. They’re not like us.”
“Like us?”
Kerwen smiled and pulled a ripe orange from a branch, holding it up and examining it. “We’re still good. For the most part.” She dropped it in the bag looped across her back. “Let’s fill this up and get back. We don’t want Taji coming looking for us.”
Syn went back to the apple tree, filling her arms with fresh fruit. The two loaded up several bags until they were quite heavy, but not impossible to tote.