Summon (43 page)

She trained Howl to be able to open cupboards and
bring her things the moment she realised he was canny enough, and only recently
had her parents figured that out.

And they gave her hell about it.

Reading Creighton’s adrenaline levels to determine
him unapproachable, Howl sat at Kali’s feet.

Obsidian eyes with gold slits stared lovingly.

Dropping to her knees to give him a hug, she let
his silken muzzle rub her neck. His off-white coat was satiny smooth, and smelt
like cotton, as it had been coded to. Kali purposefully allowed him to keep his
sharp teeth because giving him a mouth full of blunt herbivore canines felt
cruel. In essence, he was a wolf, and loved to hunt. Curbing those urges
detracted the primal essence of what he was.

Rikard Loklear had been hesitant to allow her a
full wolf breed because the animal fell in the high-risk category. Wolves and
predatory big cats malfunctioned more often than any other kind of borg. Their
animal sides overrode the genetic suppressants keeping them docile, and there
had been occurrences of attacks on humans. By keeping Howl’s hunting and
tracking instincts, Kali had removed those suppressants, relying on Howl’s
connection to the family to keep him in line. Regardless of logical argument,
when Kali had seen him freshly birthed as a puppy, covered in embryonic fluid
and the metal alloy enhancements showing through his thin, hairless skin, she’d
known he had to be hers. Howl would never hurt her. He loved Kali as much as
she loved him, and that bond was the reason Rikard relented.

Howl’s genetic makeup remained unaltered; sparing
him a painful process that Kali feared would take more than natural instinct.
He would lose his soul. Kali believed steadfastly that FetchMe had souls. They
were alive no matter what convoluted arguments scientists used to push twisted
legislation, demanding the Alliance allow horrific experiments on discarded
companions.

Rumbling low in his throat, Howl nuzzled her, and
pushed forward until she fell onto her butt. Kali laughed and gave him a decent
rub, enjoying his heavy body. Howl was large for a wolf, and came up to Kali’s
waist when she stood. On hind legs, he easily rested his fore paws on her
shoulders, as tall as her.

Kali popped a kiss on Howl’s pink nose before
jumping up.

“To get a glass I have to travel all the way to the
cabinet behind you,” she said to Creighton eventually.

She omitted from the petulant statement she’d have
to open another cupboard door, and that she really didn’t want to.

Creighton’s gaze remained steady on hers. He wasn’t
budging. “The journey to the glass cabinet is littered with peril, but I insist
you get a glass.”

Kali made a show of marching past him.

Sensing her unease, Howl followed, but with a hand
gesture, he backed off. He lay by the window, head on his forepaws, stunning
eyes tracking her closely.

“Papa, would you like a fresh coffee?”

The last time she made coffee the machine had
exploded a little bit. Her parents – who may as well be jacked into IV
drips of the stuff – had mourned as if she’d murdered a family member
until a new one was installed.

Creighton winced at the suggestion. “No, thank you.
This cup is standard.” He glanced at his watch. “Can you hurry your father up?
Make sure he comes now and not five minutes from now.”

Nodding distractedly, Kali focused, and opened the
cabinet to get that damn glass. She quickly closed the door. Her hand remained
on the handle. She took a tentative step back, visualizing letting the handle
go, but her damn hand remained on the handle, tightened even. She willed
herself to let go, to ignore the need to open it again, but the pressure built
until strangulation would have been kinder. Closing her eyes on a sigh, she
opened the cabinet door and closed it. Again, she fought the urge, but no. She
opened the door again and closed it. After that third time, the tension eased,
and she was able to let go.

Then came the usual feeling of shame and
embarrassment for her inability to control her baser urges, a senseless need to
repeat certain actions in sets of three.

She slid the tumbler onto the tabletop and caught
Creighton studying her.

“Sure,” she mumbled in answer to his earlier
request.

Kali always felt like a disappointment. For all the
hard work Creighton put into helping her get past her condition, she never made
any real progress. He never judged and was never negative. His unwavering
support made it worse somehow. Too loyal to understand his daughter was a
nutcase.

Swiftly following the self-pity was relief he would
never give up, and wouldn’t turn from her because she was different. Her father
cared how she saw herself and worked tirelessly to understand the issue. In the
meantime, he pushed, and gave her the strength to fight it. If he hadn’t shown
such determination in her childhood, Kali would be worse than she was, barely
able to function.

As she walked past, she acknowledged what he’d done
by touching his hand. He grabbed it, and brought it up to press a comforting
kiss on it.

Kali adored him.

With a wiggle of her fingers to summon Howl, she
stepped out the kitchen into the brightly lit passageway that ran the length of
their domicile. She passed more arches leading to the central room, guest
quarters, utility units, and bedrooms.

There were few doors in the Loklear house because
of Kali’s compulsive disorder. Whenever she had to open a door of any kind she
had to repeat the action before she was able to move on with her life. Tragic.
That was not the only tic Kali had. New ones appeared and disappeared as she
grew and developed, but the doors were the most disruptive. It was controllable
at home. Her parents remodelled the house, and she was not constantly facing
barriers to enter rooms. Nevertheless, they wanted her to come to terms with
what affected her, and put everyday things behind cupboard doors, like normal
people. If she tried avoidance, her parents gently but firmly pushed her in the
right direction. Kali had been getting around the discomfort by allowing Howl
to grab most of stuff for her. After being caught red handed using the FetchMe,
they’d berated her on becoming dependant on the borg, and watched her more
carefully.

As she walked the length of her home, Kali took in
her lush surroundings and acknowledged she was privileged. She had phenomenal
parents, and lived on Earth ContinentOne, the birthplace of the Alliance where
the mantra was OEOP; one earth one people.

Treaty10 was passed in the late twentieth century.
Manufacturers were forced to limit the technological upgrades to both people
and land as long as it remained an economically viable option. For people with
less credit in the bank, limiting themselves to old Earth technology simply
wasn’t cost effective, and households that fell in the LoEco sectors lived in
high-rise domiciles not detached habitats. If Kali remembered her history
correctly, two super powers had actually resisted the treaty when first
inaugurated. Pressure had been applied, and the detached countries acquiesced,
rejoining the rest of the world under the Alliance. The land was divided into
quadrants, and adhered to Treaty10 barely a century after declaring
independence. Despite the political turnabout, the economy and standard of
living deteriorated exponentially. Those quadrants were now survival colonies,
living on the ragged edge of existence, barren. The land had been stripped to
make way for the machines. Once the machines were destroyed there was nothing left.
Most people emigrated. The hardcore stayed. Because of its greenery, brick, and
mortar structures, clean streets, and low crime rate, Quadrant2 on Earth had
become the place to live for all HiCaste families with credit to spare because
it was on Earth ContinentOne. Despite the global radioactive desolation caused
by world war five, Earth remained the most stable of the planets, and most able
to support Human life. Not that those who lived on the new planets humanity had
colonized had much of a choice. Space was limited on Earth. Unless you won the
Lotto, you had to fly to an out post and make the most of what you’d been
allotted. The alternate option was to move to the OutRim, wastelands supported
by synthesized oxygen and food, and riddled with pockets of deadly radiation.
There were SafeZones, but if you lived in the OutRim on a permanent basis, it
was a matter of time before you suffered radiation poisoning. The solution? Get
on a shuttle and move off Home World. Politicians and celebrities preferred
Quadrant1, the bustling capital city of Earth. Kali’s family unit preferred a
domicile to a single floor dwelling, no matter how luxurious the dwelling was.
The second quadrant was perfect. Her parents believed it was good enough for
them to live as their ancestors did, without machines supporting every facet of
their existence.

Safely cocooned within a family of wealth, and the
highest of HiEco class, Kali had everything, and was kept safely away from the
dregs of society.

She walked the hallway to Rickard’s study. Her hand
brushed the smooth white wall.

Her parents were the greatest in the universe.

3.

Hunger
woke him. Blue’s eyes opened and he was awake. There was no grogginess, no
yawing, or procrastination.

He stared at the blank wall opposite and listened
to the monotonous humming of his home. Blue threw away the blanket and rolled
out of bed. He dropped to the floor into position for his usual count of
push-ups. Arms burning, he shifted to his back and worked his abdominals, mind
churning with his schedule of the day.

Disconnected information fractured his
concentration and he fought to streamline his thoughts into clean lines.

His door beeped and opened with a soft mechanical
whoosh.

Bare feet slapped the cold floor, and a shadow
blocked the fluorescent light beaming in from the corridor. “Sunshine, Blue.”

“Caesar.”

“Will you be seeing her today?”

Blue finished his reps and stood to stretch.
Touching his toes, he enjoyed the rush of blood to his head and locked his
wrists around his calves. “It is likely.”

“You remember what we discussed.”

“Yes.”

“I will see you later then.”

Hypatia roused from her slumber and crowed loudly.
She flew across the room to land on Caesar’s shoulder where she would likely
remain for the remainder of the day, as programmed.

The door slid closed.

Straightening, Blue wondered if confessing his
obsession to Caesar had been the right thing to do. They kept nothing from each
other, but maybe he had crossed a boundary by revealing his strange feelings
and the recent changes in his attitude toward life.

Blue sat in front of his ComUni and swiped a finger
across the hovering symbol. The dark screen flickered on and the VirtuaPad
unfolded. He ran the programme that would keep his profile anonymous, and typed
words that had been swirling in his mind all night.

His breathing hitched and he paused. Later. He
would replenish later.

4.

Kali
knocked on the archway before popping her head around the bend. “Sunshine?”

Ash blonde hair wild, Rikard Loklear sat curled
over his ComUni. The hovering screen was black and covered in colourful bits of
code. He sort of muttered his own greeting in reply, but did not actually
register she was there.

Kali walked behind him, nosey, but ready to back
off if he commanded it.

She watched with daughterly pride as her father’s
long fingers nimbly streaked across the electric blue keyboard being
holographically beamed in front of him on the desk. To an observer greater than
five meters away it would seem as if he tapped the air.

“Ten minutes and I’ll be right with you.” His hand
shot out to pat Howl twice on the head before his fingers went back to work on
the VirtuaPad. “Did you enjoy the breakfast dumplings I smelt your father
creating for you?”

“I have yet to taste them. He wants you to come now
not five minutes from now.”

“Standard. I’ll come ten minutes from now.”

She scrunched her face, knowing ten minutes and the
sarcastic message would make Creighton pissed.

They would fight, and she hated that.

Distracted by the code, Kali figured if she pointed
out a mistake, he’d be pulled from his focus. She bit her lip. As usual, his
work was near flawless. It needed to be when you were a highly ranked security
officer for the Alliance.

Kali had been taught to be as masterly as he was,
maybe better in the future.

“Mistake,” she murmured and pointed it out to him
two rows from the top. “See here. This sequence won’t work in the mark-up
language you’re using. You probably need to redo this whole section. You don’t
have time to do that, and carrying on is a waste of time until you’ve corrected
the error.” She patted his shoulders. “Come now. Please?”

Flying fingers froze, and Rikard blinked at what
she pointed to. There was silence before the tension and disbelief vanished.
His expression shifted to pride. “Thanks, princess.” He rubbed his hands
tiredly over his whiskered cheeks.