Daughter of Mars #79 | (A Better Life Part 1)
Twelve stories below the surface of Mars, Risa strode through the front door of the Martian Liberation Front safehouse and offered a calm nod to Lancaster and Kali. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d chosen the ‘normal’ entrance when she wasn’t either furious or terrified. Kali kicked off the wall following, her expression a mixture of concern and curiosity. The woman’s dark skin had been a cause of distrust, as was her bloodthirsty reputation. Kali, or whatever her real name was, liked knives and swords as much as she hated cybernetic implants. No one questions her loyalty now that they have me to worry about. They should’ve chosen her for this shit. Risa looked at her hands. I bet they asked her first and she said no. That one’d been an assassin, and loved it. She let out a silent sigh. Maybe it’s better this way. Kali would’ve given the NewsNet exactly what they wanted.
“Hey.” Kali caught up and walked at her side. “You okay?”
“Fine why?” Risa slowed as she approached the end of the hallway.
The hallway ahead seemed too quiet. Silence could mean several things, none of them pleasant. Her ears caught the distant beep of the ‘sem announcing it had completed perpetrating another atrocity of cuisine.
Kali hefted her rifle up, balancing it one hand across her shoulder. Her Mars-red camouflage fatigues shed dust as she swiveled to peer down the hallway. “You don’t look pissed off enough to use the front door.”
Risa opened her mouth to say something, but her brain tripped and fell flat. Her teeth met with a click while she pondered her words. Anything she said to Kali would make it through the ranks within an hour. “I fucked up, broke the rule.”
“You got involved with someone?” Kali raised an eyebrow, her sympathy fading to interest. “It’s a bad rule, you know. What are we doing this for if not for the people we care about? Who is it?”
“Was.” Risa took a step.
Kali’s voice softened. “If you wanna talk…”
Risa paused. “Dunno. Maybe. I’ve got some murder to do first.”
“It isn’t Maris is it?” Kali laughed.
Risa glanced at her with the blank expression of a plastic-faced doll. “Depends on what he says.”
Lancaster coughed from the entrance twenty meters away. Kali blinked.
Flickering overhead lights tinted the plastisteel walls of the entry corridor blue. A few sparks crackled from where a bullet hit a wire bundle a few months ago. At least the Tunnel Rats learned their lesson. She rendered a limp salute at Kali and trudged on. Thirty meters later, she went right at a T intersection and headed through a section full of bunk pods before hooking left. A hallway later, she ignored another left turn to ‘Death Row’ and approached the circular railing overlooking the command area. The mineshaft kids gathered at the edge, peering down at the reason for the silence.
A mission briefing.
On the ground level, most of the MLF personnel had assembled in a circle around the rectangular holo-table. Garrison and Maris, flanked by Huang and Kendrick, stood at one narrow end as they went over the particulars of a surgical demolition job intended to sever a buried fiberoptic cable and blind a remote ACC outpost.
Kree sat at the far end of the table, staring at the flashy graphics hovering in front of her. One leg dangled, swinging her oversized lavender moon boot back and forth. Risa caught the eye of a few people as she descended the long, curving ramp. Shadows stretched from hoses crisscrossing the patch of bare rock floor at the bottom. She made no great effort to remain silent, but padded boots and the darkness created by the concentration of light at the tactical map made it easy to evade notice.
She slipped through the crowd and crept up behind Kree, hands on either side of the girl at the edge of the table. A few of the guys patted her on the shoulder and back, gestures of welcome.
Risa whispered at Kree’s ear. “What are they talking about?”
“Bombs,” muttered the girl. “Aren’t you listening?”
“I just got here.”
Kree fired an annoyed look back over her shoulder. Risa smiled. The girl’s expression went blank for two seconds before she started crying. Risa shifted her weight from leg to leg, not having expected such a reaction. The outburst silenced Maris’s explanation of how an infiltration team would force their way into the underground remnants of an abandoned colony site. All eyes turned to her; a few ‘welcome homes’ and ‘good to see you alives’ floated around.
“Shh. It’s okay.” Risa reached out to run a hand over Kree’s head, but the six-year-old abandoned the holo-table and clamped onto her. Sniveling and muffled wailing flooded Risa’s right ear. She slipped one arm under the little body attached to her chest, and patted the girl on the back with the other hand. “I’m back. I’m okay.”
Garrison smiled through the three-dimensional display of rock and tunnels. Maris glared, though whether he directed his ire at her for running off to Arden or at the child for interrupting him, she couldn’t tell. Risa continued whispering soothing words to Kree while locking eyes with him. Their tense exchange lasted a few seconds before Maris offered a resigned shake of the head. Risa walked away from the briefing, huddled over Kree as if to shield her. Discussion of an upcoming mission resumed after Maris cleared his throat, soon fading to background noise as she ascended the ramp and headed for her room on ‘Death Row.’
The door yielded to a nudge from her boot, revealing a nest of blankets and three dolls at the center of her bed. She sat on the edge with Kree in her lap, unsure how to reconcile the war in her head. This tiny person idolized her; as much as Risa wanted to protect her, she couldn’t bear the thought of growing too attached. She needs someone who isn’t going to run off and die. The thought of what losing another ‘mommy’ would do to her brought quiet tears.
Kree sniffled, and put her hand on Risa’s cheek. “Why are you crying?”
“Sometimes, the things I have to do are dangerous. I…” She had to look away from the wide blue eyes staring back at her. “I might not come home.” I could walk away. Take her and go somewhere the war can’t find us.
“You’re too fast to die. You ran faster than a bomb.” Kree crossed her arms, furrowing her eyebrows. “Why were you hiding?”
“I’m sorry I scared you.” Risa brushed Kree’s hair out of her face. “I had some things to deal with first.”
“I wasn’t scared. The angel told me you were okay.”
What? Risa grabbed the girl’s shoulders and stared into her eyes. “Raziel spoke to you?”
Kree’s emphatic nodding made her butt-length hair dance.
“You heard him?” Oh, no. I asked you to protect her.
Kree shook her head, mussing her hair even more. “No.” She pointed at the terminal on the desk for a few seconds before letting her arm fall limp. “Why’s an angel gotta use a Vidphone? He’s got magic.”
Risa hunted around until she unearthed a hairbrush in the pile of loose clothes on the floor. She sat on the bed and pulled Kree up to her lap, facing away. Kree seemed content to sit there while Risa pulled her fingers through the tangled mess to get the child’s hair closer to a state suitable for brushing.
“When Raziel talks to me, it hurts.” The last time I did this, I was eight and playing with a doll. She hesitated with doubt. Oh, how different could it be?
“Ow,” said Kree, sounding bored.
Risa froze. “Sorry.”
Each time she tried to pull the brush through the girl’s hair, she’d repeat the unenthusiastic declaration of pain. After the ninth stroke, Risa leaned around to look at a huge grin.
“You’re playing with me.”
Kree giggled.
Risa laughed for a few seconds before the urge to cry came out of nowhere. She’s already got me. Shit. Kree grabbed one of the dolls, pretending to brush its hair while Risa attempted to brush hers. Tangles worked out with each successive pass. Kree’s head tilted left or right whenever the brush snagged, but she didn’t make a sound.
“When Raziel talks in my head, it hurts. I bet he used the phone so he didn’t hurt you.”
“Okay.” Kree knocked the toes of her puffy lavender moon boots together.
Risa kept working the brush in even strokes, long after any trace of knots or snarls were gone. “What did he say?”
“He said you were sad ‘cause the boy you liked got hurt. An’ you got hurt, but it was only your speeware.” She moved the doll in a pantomime of claw fighting. “You’re not gonna die ‘cause you’re too good. You can beat alla emmenies.”
“There’s always someone bigger and better.” Risa drew Kree tight to her chest. Part of her felt like an overgrown child clinging to a doll for security; part of her wanted to shield the girl from all harm.
“I’ll pa-tect you. Garson’s teachin’ me how to shoot stuff.”
I’ll kill him. “What? Why?”
“He said a girl’s gotta pa-tect herself.” Kree gripped an imaginary gun in two hands. “Hol’ it in boaf hands like this.”
“You’re too little to play with guns.” Risa rocked her side to side. “Pointing a gun at someone can make them shoot you, even if they weren’t going to hurt you because you’re small.”
Kree frowned. “He didn’ give me a gun.”―she held her arms out, fingers splayed―“I don’t wanna gun. I want claws like you.”
Please, no. Risa kissed the back of Kree’s head. “You’d be happier without them.”
“Nuh-uh.” Kree closed her fists and flicked her fingers open making a pssht noise. “Claws!”
She squirmed around and attacked Risa’s ribs, tickling. The thick ballistic suit muted the sensation, though Risa fell to the side laughing anyway. Once she shrugged out of the harness holding her laser pistols, a full on battle ensued. Before long, they both lay gasping for breath between giggles. Too tired to continue, Kree curled up on her side next to Risa, who stared at the ceiling.
For almost a half hour, she hadn’t thought of Pavo.
The realization swelled a lump in her throat. Warm, rapid breaths washed over her neck from the grinning child beside her. Could I be happy? She opened her suit a little to let it breathe; sweat trapped between the dense material and her body made the air feel icy. Would Pavo still be alive if I’d not gone to Arden? Her fight with the C-Branch operator replayed in her head. No matter how she looked at it, she didn’t have a chance against someone with so much training and the same boosts she did. Every scenario she imagined at Pavo’s side ended the same way.
Risa closed her eyes and slid a hand up to hold Kree’s.
They’d have gotten us both.
Related posts:
Daughter of Mars #77 | (Breaking Eggs Part 1)Daughter of Mars #73 (Blind Wish part 3)Daughter of Mars #74 (Blind Wish part 4)
