Only Human (Themis Files, #3)(31)
Location: Assigned residence, Etyakt region
I thought I was done. They told me it was over, then it happened again. They said my visions would go away, that I’d stop getting them as I got older. I did. Then this happened. I was at the Aptakt market with Esok. We weren’t looking for anything in particular, just nosing around. Whoever found the weirdest object would win. We play that game often, but I suck at it. It’s not that I can’t find things, but even after four years—almost five, wow—I still don’t know about the everyday stuff. Imagine someone screaming: “Hey! Look at how crazy this is!” while holding a toothbrush. That’s usually me. That time, I knew exactly what I had found. My socks. I couldn’t figure out how my old socks—I was wearing them when we got here—ended up at the market. There were holes in both of them, and I threw them away, I don’t know, two, three years ago. Esok said there, the four of us were kind of…famous and that there was a market for just about anything having to do with us, but socks? Anyway, no way I could lose with that. The funniest thing, I thought, is that they weren’t here before. I come here pretty much every day, and I would have noticed my green socks. Someone had rummaged through our garbage, found my stinky socks. Maybe they changed hands a few times, but now, whoever owned them was either desperate enough for food to sell their prized possession or realized after a few years that socks weren’t everything they were cracked up to be. I was explaining what a sock is, to Esok—I thought that was funny as hell, she didn’t. That’s when I saw it.
Hundreds of giant robots, maybe more, walking together towards a city…It was confusing. I think it was here, in Osk. I saw the imperial palace…Hundreds more, a lot more, thousands of robots were waiting for them in line. They started fighting. More than I could count all firing at each other. It was hectic. So fast. Robots disappearing into thin air, reappearing behind the enemy. So many flashes of light, too bright to look at. It went on for a while, then it stopped.
It was quiet. The air was fresh, like morning. I was standing where the fight took place. Half the city was destroyed. Vaporized. Giant robots standing over the ruins. They were everywhere. I could see them in all directions, all the way to the horizon. I saw people running. I—They weren’t…They were Ekt, then human. Morphing superfast from one into the other. Flickering. The palace was still there. But for a moment I thought I saw a silhouette, a skyline. Tall buildings, not like here. Maybe New York or Chicago. There was a woman, she was clearly from Earth, so scared. Terrified. I was too. She was holding a baby in one arm, running, running as fast as she could away from the robot. She was coming towards me. She kept getting closer, and closer, until she ran inside me. I looked at my hands, my legs, and I was Ekt. Then it stopped.
Esok was in front of me, holding my shoulders. I could see her lips move, but there wasn’t any sound. It took a second or two for me to realize I was screaming at the top of my lungs. I heard my name, and I stopped screaming. There were…lots of people around us, everyone from the market, I guess. Esok told them I was experiencing the askat yetost—that’s what they call it, the visions. I was still scared of what I’d seen, mortified for making what must have been quite a scene in front of all these people. When they heard those two words, askat yetost, their faces changed. Suddenly, they were all smiles. All of them. Some just left, smiling. Others put their hands on me. You’re fine, girl. Don’t worry about it. That’s what it felt like. You’re one of us. A minute later, everyone was carrying on with their day. Business as usual.
Esok said no one knows when my visions will stop. They’ve never seen a human, let alone one that sees things like their kids do. But she says it has something to do with becoming a woman. If she means what I think she means—I don’t know anything about her…body, or anyone else’s here—the visions should have stopped two years ago. I don’t know. I’m hoping this is the last time I see things. It reminds me of school. Everyone staring at me. La Evita loca.
No soup kitchen for me today. I asked Esok to tell Ityets. I’m sure he’ll manage without me. I need to lie down for a while.
FILE NO. 2120
NEWS ARTICLE—LIZ MCCORMACK, REPORTER, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
Arena Gunmen were A2s
The coroner released his report today on the two armed men who opened fire inside the Tempe Arena, killing nine and injuring thirty-one before being gunned down by police. Both men scored A2 on the Bashir xenogenetic scale.
Gene Lundman and his son Patrick were both active members of the Council of Concerned Citizens. In the video they posted online minutes before the attack, they describe their imminent actions as retribution for the government’s failure to protect God’s children and their refusal to expand the encampment to all nonwhites in the United States.
Other advocacy groups have seized on the report to demand that A2s be required to at least register with state and local authorities so that they can be more closely monitored. The coroner’s report comes out just as a new government-sponsored study establishes a correlation between criminal behavior and higher scores on the Bashir scale.
The ACLU was quick to call the study a self-fulfilling prophecy, pointing out that the data used by the researchers came from camps where law enforcement is almost nonexistent, and simple things like attempting to communicate with the outside are considered criminal. They also argued that any measures aimed at restricting the rights of A2s are not only immoral but also impractical since A2s represent nearly 40 percent of the population.