Page 26 of Elanie & the Empath
“What’s my favorite color?”
He balked, and again with “Huh?”
“My favorite food?” I asked, stepping away from him. “My favorite drink? Book? Movie? What are yours? If we really loved each other, we’d know these things.”
“I knew you liked Mavis Valentine,” he pointed out with some hope. “That’s gotta count for something.”
“I’m sorry, Blake.” I wondered how I could end this without hurting his feelings. “But it’s not you, it’s me.”There, that sounded good.
“Yeah, well, fine.” He sniffled, then sagged down onto his bed. “But don’t come crawling back to me when you realize what a huge mistake you’ve made. Cuz Feather from work has already asked me out. Twice.And shelovedmy happleccino.”
“That’s great,” I said on my way to his door, meaning it. “I hope you and Feather are happy together. I really do.”
“Elanie, wait.” He scooped the bottles of lube off his nightstand, clutching them to his chest like they were some sort of hydrogel-based shield. “Um, what is your favorite color?”
Gathering my hair over my shoulder, I smiled. Because this question was easy to answer. “It’s blue.”
Lying on my bed,staring up at my ceiling, I felt different, changed, altered on some bionucleic level. Despite all my systems running nominally, despite the simulated gravity on the ship remaining constant, I felt weightless, warm, glowing like a mote of spacedust floating through a ray of real sunlight.
When Dr. Semson had asked me if I had reason for installing the hormone upgrade, I didn’t have an answer. I still didn’t now. But maybe it had something to do with this feeling, this lightness. This sense that my days weren’t destined to be identical. That I could have more. That my life couldbemore. That there was more to me, inside me, than I ever imagined. Even though I’d just walked away from my first-ever relationship, I couldn’t help but feel that this was the beginning of something, not the end.
I opened my eyes,and fear gripped me, freezing me in place, sticking my feet to the floor. Mybarefeet. I wasn’t in my bed. I wasn’t even in my pod. I was in the middle of the deck twelve hallway in my pajamas.
Alarms blared, my organic systems straining from overload. My neural interface sputtered and glitched like I’d just woken up from a full factory reset. According to my internal timing system, I’d fallen asleep three hours and thirty-two minutes ago. I had no memory of waking up, no clue how I’d gotten here or where I was going. All I had was a deep voice reverberating between my ears, a word from a dream I didn’t remember having.
Golgunda.
10.ELANIE
Sittingat the staff room table, waiting for morning meeting to start, I stared down at my hands. I’d never been tempted to bite my fingernails before. Never understood why non-bionics developed the habit. Until now.
“How was your night?” Sunny asked. She’d kept her voice low. I didn’t bother.
“I broke up with Blake.”
“You did?” Tig’s bulging eyes reminded me of the little stress doll Sunny had given me for Solstice. Something, at the moment, I wouldn’t mind having to squeeze.
“Oh, darling.” Sunny seemed genuinely upset. Which surprised me. I didn’t think she liked Blake. “Why?”
“Because she finally came to her senses,” Rax said with a smug grin. “Good riddance to that skinny little featherhead.”
When Morgath coughed “no chance” into his fist, Rax slugged his brother’s arm.
“Settle down,” Chan warned while Morgath cackled. “This isstilla staff meeting.” Despite his scolding, he steeredhis hoverchair closer to me and asked, “But really, why did you break up with Blake?”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t working out. I didn’t feel anything with him. There was no?—”
“Spark?” Sunny suggested, reaching for Freddie’s hand. When their fingers intertwined, my chest cinched tight.
“I think I need to be by myself for a while,” I said. “Relationships are so”—messy, hard, confusing—“inefficient.”
“Or maybe you just haven’t found the right partner yet,” Rax suggested. “Sometimes what you’re looking for is right across the table.”
Morgath’s snort earned him another dead arm.
Twisting the string of her hoodie between her fingers, Tig said, “Shoot, Elanie. I’m sorry. He was cute.”
When Rax grumbled, “Cute as a case of spacecups,” Morgath hissed a curse and Freddie covered his mouth with both hands.
