The Significant (53 page)

      
“I can’t shut her down, Michael.”

      
The doctor smiled, a mysterious glint in
his eyes.

      
“There it is,” he breathed.

      
“What?”

      
“There is the Golden Elite,” he said.
“And I don’t mean the A-Class prototype that was appointed from the Academy, I
mean the
Golden Elite
, the leader of
the planet, the one who knows how to play this bloody game of politics and
knows her strengths. You won’t shut down Venus because you know it can kill
you. And you don’t trust anyone else, not even Remus, to implement the changes
you want on this planet.” He reached forward and took her chin, smiling at her.
“That’s the fire. You know things have to change, you know how to change
things, and you have the confidence and trust in yourself that you are doing
right by the people of this planet, which is why you don’t trust anyone else to
lead this planet through that revolution.”

      
His smile widened.

      
“
Anything
is possible,” he breathed. “We’ll always stand behind you. If you want to find
a way to shut down Venus, and keep yourself alive, we will find a way.”

      
Isa stared at the doctor for a few
moments before clearing her throat and looking at her desk.

      
“Over there,” she said, “bottom left
drawer, there is a key secured to the back of the drawer. Take that key and
open the hatch on the floor under the desk.”

      
Dr. Busen obeyed, despite his confusion.
He found the key, inserted it into the small opening in the floor, and pushed
aside the covering of the hatch. In the floor were several electronic files and
drives, each marked with a number.

      
“Which one?”

      
“Number nine,” Isa said.

      
He sifted through the contents, finally
coming across a case marked with the number nine. He pulled it out, closed the
hatch, returned the key, and walked back to Isa. She tapped the case and looked
at the doctor seriously.

      
“This is absolutely never to connect to
any NCB chair, or any terminal,” she hissed. “This computer is wired outside of
Venus. It’s not connected to her at all.”

      
“How did you manage that?” Dr. Busen
hissed.

      
“It was not easy,” she said, “but the
information on there is vital.” She placed a hand over her heart. “If you want
to know anything about how this works,” she said, “then carefully look over all
that information.”

      
Dr. Busen stared at her, trying to figure
out what she was saying. His eyes shot wide when he realized what he was
holding in his hands.

      
“These are the notes—”

      
“From the very first Golden Elite
prototypes,” she completed with a nod. “All the failures, all the deaths,
everything before they finally figured out how to make it work, all the
information is in there.”

      
Dr. Busen looked down at the file,
feeling the weight of it in his hands.

      
“If you really want to help, look over
those and see if there is way to keep my heart beating once she’s shut down.”

      
Rayal walked into the kitchen of Isa’s
level at Anon Tower, following Tarah as the caretaker went to prepare something
light for the Golden Elite to eat. Isa had returned home early, pale, shaking,
and accompanied by both of her doctors and Remus. Paul told Tarah that Isa was
over exhausted and needed to rest and eat, trying not to worry the young
caretaker about the Golden Elite’s health.

      
Isa refused to rest, sitting in the
living room and working on her personal terminal. Tarah repeatedly asked if she
wanted something to eat, but the Golden Elite refused.

      
When Rayal returned to drop Kailynn off
at Anon Tower and saw Isa home so early, he knew something was wrong. There was
a look on the Elite’s face that worried him. Kailynn went forward immediately
and asked if everything was alright. Isa smiled and assured her she was fine
and she was just exhausted.

      
Even though it was clear Kailynn did not
believe the Golden Elite, she did not press and sat with the Golden Elite.

      
Tarah came out of the kitchen and asked
if they wanted anything, but they both refused.

      
Standing uselessly in the living room,
Rayal finally went into the kitchen after Tarah.

      
“Hey,” he greeted. She turned to him, her
face tired and dark circles under her eyes.

      
“Hey.”

      
“How are you holding up?”

      
“Isn’t it obvious?”

      
He nodded slowly, his eyes lowering to
the ground.

      
“She collapsed at the Syndicate,” Tarah
whispered. “She’s not eating, she hardly sleeps…” Tarah rubbed her forehead. “I
don’t know what to do…”

      
Her voice became choked and she turned
her eyes to her feet.

      
Rayal placed a hand on her shoulder.

      
“The most you can do is be there for her.
She’s very stubborn, you know this. You can’t do anything about her behavior,
but if you show her you care, and that you’re worried about her, that will be
enough.”

      
“I
am
worried, and I
do
care,” Tarah choked.
“I can’t just sit back and watch her do this. I feel like she’s going back to
the ways she was when—”

      
“She’s not,” Rayal assured quickly.
“She’s teetering on the edge of it, but she won’t do that again. We won’t let
her. This time, we know what to do when she starts acting like that. Things are
already different than they were five years ago. Plus, she has Kailynn, and
that has helped immensely.”

      
Tarah nodded, taking a deep breath and
slowly letting it out, her hand going over her mouth as her eyes became lost in
the floor.

      
Rayal squeezed her shoulder.

      
“Hey,” he said, ducking his head to look
her in the eye. “Remember what I told you when you started training as a
caretaker? You can’t take everything she does to heart.”

      
“I just don’t know how to help,” Tarah
hissed. “It’s so unfair, you know? She has done so much for me. I wouldn’t be
alive if it wasn’t for her. But…I can’t do anything to repay her for that.”

      
“Tarah,” Rayal caught her attention,
“having you alive and well is more than enough to repay her. You don’t
owe
her anything.”

      
“It’s not about owing her,” Tarah said.
“It’s about…doing something for her…about using this life she gave to me to do
something.”

      
Rayal took Tarah’s face in both hands,
forcing her to look at him.

      
“You are her caretaker. You are
responsible for her home and her safety. You feed her, because you know she
won’t eat unless the plate is shoved under her nose. You keep her company when
she needs it. You are doing something
amazing
with your life. You are helping the leader of a planet. That is nothing
meager.”

      
Tarah closed her eyes and sighed, shaking
her head.

      
“It’s not enough.”

      
Rayal smiled, grabbing her hand and
pulling her out of the kitchen.

      
“Rayal?” she gasped, confused.

      
They walked through the living room and
to the front door.

      
“We’ll be back,” Rayal called over his
shoulder to Isa and Kailynn.

      
He pulled the startled and confused Tarah
into the hallway toward the elevator.

      
“Where are we going?”

      
“Out,” Rayal said. “You have been cooped
up in there too long with your thoughts. You need to get out.”

      
“Then shouldn’t we get the car?” Tarah
asked, pointing to the opposite end of the hallway.

      
“No.”

      
Rayal stepped into the elevator, pulling
Tarah in and pressing the button to go to the lobby.

      
“Are we getting your car?” she asked, her
voice tight with nervousness.

      
Rayal turned to face her as the elevator
descended.

      
“I have been meaning to tell you this,
Tarah,” he said with a gentle grin. “You cannot care for Isa when you don’t
take care of yourself. You can’t let yourself go into that dark spiral of
thoughts, thinking that you owe Isa something or that you are not doing
enough.” He took her face again. “Your existence is enough.
You
are enough. Don’t think that you
need to be anything else to take care of Isa. And you can’t put yourself last,
because if you do, and she needs you, you won’t be able to help her because
you’ll have no energy left to give her.”

      
“Rayal,” Tarah said, “Isa is the leader
of the planet. Her problems are significantly more important than mine.”

      
“No, they’re not,” Rayal said strongly.
“There is no difference in your worth versus Isa’s.”

      
“Yes, there is,” Tarah said, laughing as
the doors to the elevator opened.

      
“No,” Rayal repeated. “There is no
difference, particularly not to me.”

      
Tarah was surprised by the statement.
Rayal walked out of the elevator, taking her hand once more. Tarah had always
felt that Isa was more important to Rayal than she. She had not felt jealous
about it, because she knew that Isa was the leader of Tiao, and that was the
highest position in the entire Altereye System. The statement that Rayal cared
about Tarah and Isa equally made her chest bloom with warmth.

      
However, that quickly changed to fear
when she saw they were approaching the doors of the building. The lobby was
empty, as usual, and the outside world was beaming with sunlight, but devoid of
people.

      
She stopped walking and pulled against
Rayal’s insistence.

      
“No, wait.”

      
“What is it?” Rayal asked

      
“We can’t go out there,” she said. “No
one walks anymore. It will look suspicious.”

      
Rayal smiled. “No one else is out there,
so no one will see,” he said. “You’re safe with me.”

      
She stared into his mismatched eyes. She
had always avoided looking at Rayal’s scarred eye, not wanting to make him
uncomfortable. Even though Rayal never told her how he received the injury, she
had watched the security tapes when she started training as a caretaker. For
months after seeing the footage, she thought about the violent fight that broke
out in the living room of Isa’s home between Rayal and Remus. But even after
part of his face had been destroyed, Rayal would not let the Silver Elite get
anywhere close to Isa. He stood between them, arms stretched out, face bleeding
profusely, trying to protect the Golden Elite.

      
Perhaps seeing the loyalty he had for Isa
was what made Tarah feel so safe with the former caretaker.

      
With a wobbly smile, she took his hand
and followed him into the sunlight.
 

      
She had been on the balcony on multiple
occasions, but there was something different about being at the base of Anon
Tower, staring up at the towering structure among the other sky scrapers in
Anon. The sun was bright and hot, but there was something about it that was
comforting.

      
Of course, that might have been the way
Rayal held her hand as they walked on the abandoned walkways between the
buildings, strolling away from Anon Tower.

      
Rayal turned to her, walking backward,
his hand never leaving hers.

      
“We have the entire city to ourselves,”
he joked. She smiled, her cheeks flushing. “Where do you want to go?”

      
“Anywhere,” she murmured. “As long as
you’re there.”

      
Rayal slowly stopped walking, his hand
tightening around Tarah’s.

      
“Tarah,” he started quietly, “you know
that I’ll be here for you. Always.”