Anna In The Garden

44

44

As they walked through the gardens, breaking weaving trails in the carpet of snow, Ken could do nothing but continue to stare towards Anna and her lumbering bot protector. To think that, until only a few hours ago, Anna had only seemed like a strange fiction within someone's dream would cause Ken to shake her head in disbelief for a long time to come.

To see her now, in the Real, almost seemed wrong, somehow. This Anna kept much of the girl whose dreams Ken had dived into, only now there appeared a greater strength, a greater calm, within the girl. She had an air of confidence that belied her twee exterior. A burning intelligence that seemed to radiate from her. Both the exact same girl and completely different, at the same time.

Reaching the tall, iron gates of the gardens, Anna turned back to Ken and Kontessa, a thin, but warm smile upon her lips. She looked first at Kontessa, reaching out with mittened hands and holding the hands of Kontessa. Standing on tip-toes, Anna kissed Tessa on both cheeks before releasing her hands.

"Ken." She looked sad. She looked happy.

"You're acting like you're saying goodbye." As Ken tried to understand where Anna could leave to, she saw Nursey, the bot, move to the gates, choosing one of the many keys on her, its, keychain and unlocked the padlocks wrapped around the bars.

"That's because I am." Turning her head, Anna watched Nursey open the gates and then stand aside, waiting. "Kontessa, you were right. I can't live in the Tether. Not only for my protection, but yours too. I'm still not certain of all my abilities. If I ever ..."

Her head bowed, mittened hands clasped together against her white furred coat. She had tears in her eyes again, both sad and happy tears, Ken surmised. Upon instinct, Ken stepped towards Anna, extending her arm to comfort her, but Anna stepped back, glancing again through the gates.

"You wouldn't. Whatever you're thinking you might do, you wouldn't. I know you." Not wanting to push Anna, Ken thrust her hands into the pockets of her jeans. "Still, there's not much further you can go from here. The surface of the Tether is never farther than two-and-a-half miles. Surely we can still visit you here?"

"I won't be here. But you can be. You and all the people like you who are starting to emerge up there." Anna's eyes flicked upwards, indicating the many thousands of miles above their heads and the thousands of people who might have alien-like abilities. "No-one knows about this place and, some day, you all might need somewhere to run to. A sanctuary."

"Okay, well I'm stumped." Laughing, Ken glanced towards Kontessa. Her sister had stepped away, giving Ken and Anna this moment. "Where can you go from here?"

"Out." As she spoke, a crack appeared in the air beyond the gates. "I don't know if they planned it this way, but the project showed my 'parents' leaving this way, just as my genetic ancestors left, millions of years ago. They went outside."

The crack widened in the air revealing a large door, metres thick, that swung open as though someone had oiled and maintained it that day. The gap widened and widened until Ken could see beyond the wall of the Tether. It was a huge gateway to the infernal, poisonous, death dealing world outside, where nothing existed that could not kill humans.

"It's a paradise." Kontessa had stepped forward, gripping Ken's arm, and whispered, almost breathless. "An absolute, deadly paradise."

And it was. Some kind of energy barrier kept the world outside at bay, but Ken felt astounded at the sight. The colours, the plant-life, the animals that Ken knew would devour her without hesitation. The blue skies, so much like the media she'd seen of the Earth-That-Was before they destroyed themselves. Brighter and more clean and clear than anything Ken remembered seeing before. It enticed her.

"You're part human. You could die out there." For the second time in a day, Ken could feel tears creeping from her eyes. She didn't mind.

"It'll recognise me. They will." Anna looked at Ken, chewing her lip, for a second. "Goodbye, Ken. I never had a friend before. Now I have two. We'll see each other again, in our dreams."

Without warning, Anna jumped forward wrapping her arms around Ken, gripping her so tight, Ken thought she'd never let go. After a second, Ken returned the embrace and then Kontessa joined them. They stood there in each others' arms for some time before Anna pulled away. She wiped her eyes with a mittened hand and gave a half-laugh before turning and walking towards the doorway, Nursey falling in behind her.

Kontessa held onto Ken's arm as they watched Anna walk out of the safety of the Tether, into the unknown beyond. Ken felt Tessa's head rest upon her shoulder and watched the great door close until they couldn't even tell a door had ever been there at all.

"I'm going to have to find out what tech they're using for that cloak." Sniffing, Ken rubbed the tears from her cheeks and then patted Kontessa's arm. "Come on. Let's go home."

-+-

The grime and the dirt of Goodfellow Sector never changed. In the weeks after Anna had left the Tether, Ken had returned to her home with new purpose and even the incessant fake rainfall from the busted filtration pipes couldn't dampen her resolve. She moved through the tight maze of Atunis Quarter, weaving in and out of the multitudes of people, their disparate clothing, or lack of it, didn't even register to her any more. She cared only about one thing.

Walking up to the booth, she rapped upon the plastic window, closing the door behind her, and waited for the lights inside to flicker on, revealing Arkady pottering about within his small shop area. He turned towards her, his mime mask mockery of a face hiding the machine. Pincer arms rose in mock surprise.

"Kenneth! So good to see you and ... is that colour in your hair?" The grotesque face leaned forward, noting the line of blonde hair that Ken had dyed into her own black strands. "You're almost human, now. I never thought I'd exist to see the day."

"Enough sweet talk, Arkady. What have you got?" She sat down on the spinning stool, drumming her hands upon the counter, her excitement difficult to hide.

"Oh, I miss the days when you would bring me utter filth to sell to filthy people." A pincer picked up a slate and flicked through until Arkady found what he needed. He threw the info to Ken and she began to process it. "Young boy, no older than you when we first met. Suddenly he's started making tech freak out in his presence. One of yours, possibly?"

"I'll check it out." She thought-transferred a sizeable amount to Arkady and he almost squealed as he registered acceptance. "Keep looking."

"What's it like?" Tapping a pincer hand against the plastic window, pointing towards Ken's head. "Working without an implant?"

"Freeing." Knocking her knuckles against the plastic in farewell, Ken spun on the seat and opened the door. "Thank you, Arkady. For everything."

Leaving Arkady's booth, she hunkered down into her leather jacket, the fake rain drops dribbling down her neck and under the collar. She connected to Thought-Scape as easy as blinking, no tech between her and the all encompassing, ever-present data stream, and appeared in Virt form in front of Kontessa.

"Kenny. You're lucky I'm not in class." Tessa had stopped jumping out of her wits when Ken appeared Virt. It had taken her a while to get used to it. "You've found one. I can tell."

"Young boy, up in Legba Sector. Seems like a likely candidate. I'm throwing you the dirt now. Look it over, let me know what you think. We need to protect these nu-humans." About to thought-switch out, she paused. "Love you, Sis. See you soon."

She didn't give Tessa time to reciprocate, instead, she returned back to Atunis Quarter where she saw a pair of Trace: Sinister troopers across the crowded street. Looking up, she saw the bare buttocks of a neon framed man towering above her, the ad shaking and bouncing his enormous ass for all to see.

With the barest flick of her mind, she painted a message across the bouncing buttocks: "Trace: Sinister sukz azz!". A caricature of a trooper with a gun up his butt accompanied the virt-graffiti.

It had the desired effect, causing the troopers to take notice of the ad instead of any of the people around them. Ken thought-switched her cloak over her face, becoming a new person for anyone with an implant, and walked through the continuous fake rain, chuckling to herself.