(teaser trailer for sequel)
The woman knelt.
Kissed her fingers and pressed them to the earth, the dry dust clinging when she withdrew.
The chill night was a blessing, soothing away the heat of the day and drying the tears at her cheeks.
"Susie?"
"Here, Lindsay," she answered the call, but where else would be she? Where else was there, for a mother mourning her child? Her youngest, her baby who had died with 'mommy' on her lips.
But she knew Lindsay understood. She was gentle when she helped Susie to her feet, rough when she turned her so she faced the camp instead of the grave. Forcing her to look at the tents and campfires, life instead of death.
They stood together, these two women who understood loss.
"Are we ready?" Susie asked.
Their tribe numbered a hundred strong now, with power enough between them to level a city. And tomorrow, tomorrow they could claim back what they were owed.
"They're ready. Are you?" Lindsay asked.
'Mommy. Mommy, it hurts.'
"We march at dawn," Susie said.
Fools
Idiot monkeys, drooling baboons incapable of grasping the simplest equations. The only real mystery was how they'd survived so long without his brilliance to guide them.
Even his other was the same, his little lesser self who thought himself clever for building a disruptor or two.
Insano held his prize up the light. He'd managed to save just one, leaving the rest to burn so Spoony wouldn't suspect what he'd done.
Desperation had given him the strength that night to reach up and push his other down. After that it had just been a matter of covering his tracks, twisting shared memories so Spoony remembered four where five had been.
Practice had made it easier, and now he could walk the halls at will while Linkara slept and Spoony dreamed. Such a relief, to be free of the man's control and his pathetic insistence that science should have a purpose, a direction beyond knowing what hadn't been known before.
Insano reached for a pipette and drew up a single, precious drop of Change.
It was time to play.
