Starfish

But then he feels something moving, it's his own arm reaching out Shadow no you'll ruin everything but Shadow's not listening, she's crooning Don't get him mad, don't get him mad don't get him mad —

This is what you do.

The growl starts low in Brander's throat, rising, like a distant wave pushed higher and higher out of the sea as it rushes shoreward.

"…don't you Fucking TOUCH ME!"

And nothing goes dead fast enough.

* * *

It stings at first. Then he feels clotted blood break around his eyelid, sees a fuzzy line of red light. He tries to bring his hand to his face. It hurts.

Something cold and wet, soothing. More clots come away.

"Nnnnnn…"

Someone is poking at his eyes. He tries to struggle, but all he can do is move his head feebly from side to side. That hurts even more.

"Don't move."

Lenie's voice.

"Your right eyecap's damaged. It could be gouging your cornea."

He relents. Lenie's fingers push between lids that feel as puffy as pillows. There's a sudden pressure on his eyeball, a tug of suction. A slurping sound, and the feel of ragged edges dragged across his pupil.

The world goes dark. "Hang on," Lenie says. "I'll turn up the lights."

There's still a reddish tinge to everything, but at least he can see.

He's in his cubby. Lenie Clarke leans over him, a bit of glistening wet membrane in one hand.

"You were lucky. He'd have ripped your costochondrals if your implants hadn't been packed in behind them." She drops the ruined cap out of sight, picks up a cartridge of liquid skin. "As it is, he only broke a couple of ribs. Lots of bruises. Mild concussion, maybe, but you'll have to go to Medical to be sure. Oh, and I'm pretty sure he broke your cheekbone too."

She sounds as if she’s reading a grocery list.

“Why not — ” Warm salt floods his mouth. His tongue does some careful exploring; his teeth are still intact, at least. “ — in Medical, now?”

“It would have been a bitch getting you down the ladder. Brander wasn’t going to help. Everyone else is outside.” She sprays foam across his bicep. It pulls his skin as it dries.

“Not that they’d be any help,” she adds.

“Thanks…”

“I didn’t do anything. Just dragged you in here, basically.”

He wants desperately to touch her.

“What is it with you, Fischer?” she asks after a while. "Why don't you ever fight back?"

"Wouldn’t work."

"Are you kidding? You know how big you are? You could take Brander apart if you just stood up to him."

Shadow says it only makes things worse. You fight back, it only gets them madder.

"Shadow?" Lenie says.

"What?"

"You said —»

“Didn’t say anything…”

She watches him for a few moments.

"Okay," she says at last. She stands up. “I'll call up and send for a replacement."

“No. That’s okay.”

“You’re injured, Fischer."

Medical tutorials whisper inside his head. “We've got stuff downstairs."

"You still wouldn't be able to work for a week. More than twice that before you'd be fully healed."

"They planned for accidents. When they set up the schedules."

"And how are you going to keep clear of Brander until then?"

"I'll stay outside more," he says. "Please, Lenie."

She shakes her head. "You're crazy, Fischer." She turns to the hatch, undogs it. "None of my business, of course. I just don't think —»

Turns back.

“Do you like it down here?” she asks.

“What?”

“Do you get off, being down here?”

It should be a stupid question. Especially now. Somehow it isn’t.

“Sort of,” he says at last, realizing it for the first time.

She nods, blinking over white space. “Dopamine rush.”

“Dopa —?”

“They say we get hooked on it. Being down here. Being — scared, I guess.” She smiles faintly. “That’s the rumor, anyway.”

Fischer thinks about that. “Not so much I get off on it. More like, just used to it. You know?”

“Yeah.” She turns and pushes the hatch open. “For sure.”

* * *

There's this praying mantis a meter long, all black with chrome trim, hanging upside-down from the ceiling of the medical cubby. It's been sleeping up there ever since Fischer first arrived. Now it hovers over his face, jointed arms clicking and dipping like crazy articulated chopsticks. Every now and then one of its feelers winks red light, and Fischer can smell the scent of his own flesh cauterizing. It kind of bothers him. What's even worse is, he can't move his head. The neuroinduction field in the Med table has got him paralyzed from the neck up. He keeps wondering what would happen if the focus slipped, if that damping energy ended up pointing at his lungs. At his heart.

The mantis stops in midmotion, its antennae quivering. It keeps completely still for a few seconds. "Hello, er — Gerry, isn't it?" it says at last. "I'm Dr. Troyka."

It sounds like a woman.

"How are we doing here?" Fischer tries to answer, but his head and neck are still just so much dead meat. "No, don't try to answer," the mantis says, "Rhetorical question. I'm checking your readouts now."