Chapter 17

Jack

Spinning plates.

That's what it all felt like, Jack thought to himself as he dragged himself to the Fast Travel Station outside of his office. He was spinning several plates and every single one of them threatened to crash.

For one, Hyperion's latest obsession had had Jack working every hour around the sun. Tassiter, as well as the other shareholders, had watched Dahl's slow retreat from Pandora. But much to Jack's dismay, instead of seeing a chance to swoop in and try and take Dahl's place as a contender against Atlas, the Hyperion directors had looked towards Dahl's other assets — namely, Pandora's moon, Elpis. Jack had argued with them more than once that Elpis could wait, that Pandora was where the real opportunities were. Left unchecked, Atlas would finally be able to gain uncontested control of the planet, and that could only spell bad news for Hyperion and every other corporation.

"Opportunity? On that wasteland of a planet?" Tassiter had sneered. "Let Atlas have it. We've been over this, John, there's nothing there except psychopaths and convicts. But our readings for Elpis…"

Jack hit the Fast Travel keys far harder than was needed, lip curling as he recalled how his boss had verbally beaten him down, once again, in the middle of a pitch. It was no good. He needed more control of the company. There was a diamond on Pandora, under its piss-scented garbage-cloak. Atlas could see it, Jack'd give them that. But he could see it too. He had already seen it in ancient carvings, the power of Eridium, and tales of Sirens.

But he couldn't explore the planet, uncontested, without several layers of security and several bank accounts of resources at his back. He needed Hyperion. But he needed to be higher up the ladder.

Progress had been frustratingly slow. Eighteen years ago, a discovery and a creature had assured him he was special. It had chosen him to carry its power. A promise that paradise was hidden in the most unlikely of places — on Pandora. But no matter how hard he tried, Jack felt like his ankles were chained to the ground.

He would have kicked the Fast Travel had he not disappeared in that moment, reappearing in an instant inside their apartment. There, Jack's temper was soothed by two things: one, the smell of cooking wafting from the kitchen (had he skipped lunch? He'd definitely skipped breakfast. Jack couldn't recall). Two, the sound of his daughter playing in the living room, singing away to herself:

"Captain Bear, who is a bear, he is a bear, Captain Bear!"

Jack chucked his bag down at the foot of the Fast Travel Station to grab on his way out again in the morning and dragged his exhausted self into the main room. With one hand on the back of the sofa the man leapt over the back of it landed on the cushions. Angel turned at the sound, smiling up at her father.

"Hey Angel! Who's this guy?" Jack asked, looking with mild concern at the stuffed toy Thracian Tetrabear. It was a horrifying abomination of a teddy bear, with four arms, lime-green fur, and giant light-up eyes that bulged out of his head. Ideal for making sure a child would never ever want to visit Thracia.

"Captain Bear!" Angel beamed, holding out the ugly toy for her father to hold. "He eats crime!"

"Well, he must be eating a lot of crime with that big belly, huh?" Jack said, taking the bear from her and raising an eyebrow at it. It was then that something caught his eye on Angel's outstretched arm: swirling silver-blue patterns encapsulated the length of her arm, all the way across her hand to under her tee-shirt sleeve. Jack couldn't shake a sense of familiarity at the sight of them, though he was sure he had never seen those markings anywhere. "Angel, darling, what-what's that on your arm? Did…you do that?"

He searched the floor around Angel for a moment, but there were no markers or paints out. Angel shook her head, then stretched both her arms out, running a hand down the unusual markings.

"Blue! I don't know where it came from," she replied, then twisted her arm to look down the back of it too. "Do you think it's pretty?"

"Yeah, sweetheart, it's…it's real pretty." He wasn't sure why, but the sight of those markings made his blood run cold. Something was wrong, and he had no idea what. Jack set Captain Bear down on the floor next to Angel, then leaned back to call over to Megan, who was still in the kitchen preparing the family dinner: "—Hey, uh, honey? Can you get in here for a minute?!"

"Uuuh…yeah, sure, two seconds, just let me—" a clatter and a door closing interrupted Megan's words, then she appeared at the doorway. She smiled at Jack, jerking her head back in a nod. "—What's up?"

"Did…was this here this morning?" Jack asked, pointing at Angel. Megan smirked, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel.

"Ah, yeah, Jack, this has been here for a good few years now. That's your daughter, you see her sometimes when you're not working," his wife teased, heading back into the kitchen.

"N-no, goddammit Megan, I didn't mean—could you just get in here a sec?! There's something w…" Jack paused, not wanting to say "wrong" and upset Angel, "…there's something weird on Angel's arm."

Megan reappeared in the doorway, all jesting and joking erased from her expression. She came through into the living room, pausing as she spotted Angel's arm. Her eyes widened, but other than that, she didn't let on to Angel that something was amiss. Instead, she got down on her knees and took Angel's arm gently in her hands.

"Angel, what's this? Did you draw on your arm?" Megan asked, rubbing a thumb over one of the markings.

"Nope."

"Do you know when it showed up?"

"Ummm…I think the ECHO-cast did it," Angel thought aloud, gaze trailed over to the screen in the corner. "I wanted to watch Nebula Ninjas but I couldn't find the TV remote. So, I asked the TV to turn on and then there was blue!"

"Oh my god, you watched the new episode of Nebula Ninjas without me?" Jack blurted out, earning him an incredulous look from his wife. " Ah-hem, I mean, yeah, that…doesn't really explain anything."

Megan went back to examining Angel's arm.

"Does it hurt?"

"No. I'm okay."

Angel's answer didn't alleviate the frown from her mother's face, however. Jack was already pulling his ECHO-device from his pocket by the time Megan got to her feet again.

"Doctors. Got it," he said, tapping the screen to make the call.

Within a few hours the family was sitting in the waiting room of Helios' medical bay. The scent of disinfectant scorched in Jack's nostrils, reminding him of long-gone days of being patched up in Nurse Nina's medical hut after a fight or four at the mines. Angel was sitting in between her parents, swinging her legs back and forth as they waited to be called by the doctor.

"But Dad, I don't feel sick," Angel repeated for the umpteenth time. "Can we go home?"

"Not yet, darling. We just gotta check your arm is okay," Jack explained again.

"It doesn't hurt!"

"Well, not everything you go to the doctors for hurts. Sometimes its stuff that doesn't hurt that you that should worry ya."

"Jack, don't scare her," Megan interjected. "Angel, it's fine, we just want to see if the doctor knows where it came from."

Angel hummed to herself, then turned in her seat and started pulling at the cuff of Jack's jacket. He couldn't help the smile that played on his face as she did so.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking."

"Foooor?"

"Blue! I knew it! See, Dad has blue too!" Angel announced, pointing at Jack's wrist. "Dad, you have to see the doctor as well!"

"That's a tattoo," Jack chuckled, pulling the cuff of his jacket back down. "I know where that came from, sweetie."

"Do you?" Megan asked, smirking over to him with a knowing look twinkling in her eyes. "I remember there being a lot of alcohol involved…"

"Eh. I know where it came from in theory."

It was meant to be a romantic gesture: a stylised gear pattern surrounding his right wrist to symbolise Megan's skill in mechanics. Then had he ended up in a bush in the middle of the Hub with no recollection of how he had gotten there. A cleaner bot had to hoist him out by the ankle and shake him awake. It had been a good night.

"Is mine a tattoo?" Angel asked, inspecting her arm again.

"If it is, we'll be having some stern words, young lady," Megan laughed.

The family sat in silence for a little while, waiting anxiously for the doctor to call them through. Angel, however, did not deal with silence well. She turned to her father, letting her feet stop swinging:

"Can we go to Caramel Comet's after this?"

"If you're good."

"Can we go now?"

"No, you need to see the doctor."

Angel sulked, thrusting herself back into her chair with her arms folded. Her tantrum lasted all of three seconds before she sat up and asked.

"Can I have a candy bar while I wait? Pleaaaaase?"

Jack flicked his gaze over Angel's head to Megan. Megan shrugged, then nodded.

"Sure thing, kiddo. Wait here with Mommy."

Truth be told, Jack was happy to do something other than waiting. Sitting around didn't agree with him, much less when there might be something wrong with one of the few people he cared about. He walked out of the waiting room to the lobby out front, heading to the vending machine they had passed on the way in. He shoved his card into the machine, then typed in the code for Angel's favourite candy bar.

The machine ignored him but took his money for the trouble.

"Goddammit…" Jack grumbled, trying again. The vending machines were notoriously useless. Nine times out of ten, they had been repurposed several times in their lifecycles, from dispensing food and drinks to ammo and guns. After a while, the old hunks of junk tended to give up and declare an early digital retirement.

Once again, the machine ignored his request, charging his card in the process.

Jack's teeth clenched, his hands balled into fists. A booted foot struck out at the offending machine once, twice, three times as he ranted at it:

"Stupid…goddamn…piece of crap asshole!"

"What's a 'asshole'?"

What my stomach juuuust dropped out of, Jack thought, flinching at the sound of his daughter's voice. He turned around and there was Angel, standing in the middle of the lobby.

"Oh, Angel! Sweetheart, I'm sorry, I didn't see you standing there. Uh—don't say any of those words Daddy said, okay?"

"Okay," Angel nodded, heading over to Jack. She looked up at the vending machine, then back to her father. "Is the machine broken?"

"Yeah. Looks like no candy for us," Jack yanked his card out of the machine, slamming a fist against it one last time to remind it who it had crossed. Pocketing his card, he crouched down in front of Angel, putting a hand on her shoulder. " Hey—why don't you go back into the waiting room with mommy, darling? The doctor's gonna be here any minute, okay?"

Angel's attention was back on the vending machine though, a curious expression of calm concentration settling over her.

"I think I can fix it…"

Jack didn't get chance to question her. The markings on her arm grew bright, almost drowning the blue with a brilliant white. Instinct alone drew his hands from her shoulders, recoiling back in both confusion and fear as his little girl's eyes flooded with that same white light. He fell back onto the floor, helpless to figure out what the hell was happening to his daughter, mind thrown back to that day eighteen years ago when he had seen a glimmer of a vision from that strange ruin. That vision came back to him now, as fresh in renewed detail as it had all those years ago: the woman, a Siren he now realised, tattoos on her arms glowing purple; a great machine springing to life from the energy she dragged into her hands as an alien race died all around her. Her eyes ablaze, crystals pouring from the machine, they seemed impossibly alive with energy…

…As soon as it had started, it ended with a clatter — the vending machine clanked, shuddered, then began spitting out multiple candy bars into the bottom tray, overflowing and spilling them onto the floor.

"What…the hell did you just do, Angel?" Jack watched as the vending machine halted in sync with Angel turning back to face him. She looked nervous, worried, as if he might tell her off.

"I-I fixed it! See?" she said, picking up three candy bars. "One for you, one for me, and one for mommy! And…one for the doctor? And…the other guy in the waiting room?" she added, looking around at the vending machine's offerings.

Shaking, Jack pushed himself to sit up straight, shifting his knee underneath him.

"Okay…er…okay, right. Waiting room. Back to the waiting room," Jack stammered, getting to his feet and taking Angel's hand to lead her back into the medical wing. All the while, the disembodied voice from that fateful day echoed in his memory:

You cannot be a Siren. But…ust be…special in your bloodline…meone close to you will…carry my power until—!

"What I'm about to suggest may seem a little…unorthodox."

The doctor straightened up from his second examination of Angel's arm, facing Jack and Megan with a serious expression. Jack's eyes narrowed, spotting something in the doctor's face that he often saw in the Hyperion offices — a whisper of excitement in the eyes, betrayed in that slight glimmer. Usually for money. Or a promotion.

Usually after a good old back-stabbing.

"Wh-what is it? Is she okay?" Megan asked, on the edge of her seat, a second away from springing forward to embrace Angel no doubt.

"She's fine. Better than that. All of her vitals are perfect, and if I'm right…well, she's a very, very lucky girl!" The doctor smiled, though Jack was having none of it. "Of course, I'd like to run some more tests, really the chances of this are…well, they're basically mythological at this point! But everything's matching up so far, the markings, the sudden appearance…"

"You think she's a Siren," Jack finished for him, deflating the man's bold build-up. The doctor's eyes grew wide, then he frowned in irritation. Jack raised his eyebrows in silent beckoning.

"Y-yes…well, yes, that's…that's what it looks like," the doctor muttered, the wind stolen from his sails somewhat. He lifted Angel's arm up again, indicating to the markings on her skin. "Nothing is causing this. No bruising, no foreign material, nothing. As far as her body is concerned, there's nothing new in her blood or under her skin. It is as if these markings have been there since she was born. And, in a way, they have been. Sirens are…so astonishingly rare, the research is laughed out of most schools. Few bother to study them. But the common theory at the moment is a small number of people are born with the capability of hosting as Siren's power. But there are only six active powers in the whole universe. When a host dies, the power goes back out into the universe, seeking a new host. No one really knows how it chooses, or how long it takes…but once it does, the until-then invisible concentration of pigment under their skin darkens, signifying the power has come to them and they are now a Siren."

Megan looked at Jack then the doctor, shaking her head.

"I'm…sorry, a Siren. As in, Pandoran-myths-for-kids Siren?"

"I assure you it is not a story, Missus Bryant," the doctor countered. "I've seen only one other Siren my entire life. These are women of amazing power, truly wonders of the universe that few ever witness. Little Angel here is far from unhealthy, I assure you. But as I say, I would like to keep her here overnight to run some tests. Six out of, well, the entire population of the universe — I'm sure you understand there is some margin for error in my diagnosis at this stage."

"Oh, er…overnight? Is that really necessary?" Megan asked, and Jack could tell she was picking up the same sense of unease he was getting. Every nerve crackled under his skin, red flags cropping up all around the room. But Jack had been told over and over again to try and calm himself at times like these. That his emotions could get the better of him, make him lash out, see red where there wasn't any. Or, worse, that numbing fog would cloak his head, refusing to let him feel anything beyond the extremes that seemed to always be at war within him.

Jack let his eyeline drop downwards, looking at his feet, trying to remember whatever bullshit the nurse had told him years about grounding himself when all he wanted to do was punch this doctor in the face and take Angel home.

Calm down, he told himself. He's a doctor. He knows what's best. You're just freaking out.

Not that he'd let go of his paranoia entirely.

"I'll stay here," Jack offered as he patted Megan's thigh. "You go get some overnight stuff for Angel."

"You sure?"

"I got this."

Megan hesitated, but after a reassuring smile from Jack, she got to her feet.

"Alright…I'll not be long."

She walked by the bed that Angel was sitting on the edge of, and planted a light kiss on her forehead. "I'll be right back with some jammies and Captain Bear, okay? Dad's gonna be right here with you."

"O-Okay…" Angel stammered, starting to look nervous too. "Is something wrong? Am I okay?"

"You're gonna be fine, Starburst." Jack got to his feet too, firing a warning glare at the doctor before perching himself on the bed next to Angel. She clamped her arms around him, her whole frame trembling with nerves. "Hey, woah, what's up?"

"I wanna go home," Angel muttered, eyes sparkling with tears. "I don't wanna be a Siren."

"Listen…I know it's scary, Angel," Jack said. "But being a Siren? That means you're super-special. And you know what super-special people can do?"

"What?"

"They grow up to be heroes. That's why you're my little Starburst, right? 'Cause you're gonna burst onto the scene and change the whole freaking galaxy! People are gonna talk about their Guardian Angel, watching over the planet!" Jack gave her shoulders a squeeze, pulling her into a one-armed hug. "Keepin' everyone safe."

Angel sniffed, clinging to Jack's jacket but she peered up at him.

"…Okay…c-can we go home tomorrow though?"

"First thing tomorrow morning," Jack promised her, scowling a sideward glance to the doctor. "The doctor just wants to run some tests, 'cause Sirens are really special. They need to know a little bit more about you so they can tell us about anything we might need to look out for."

"Like what?"

"Oh, y'know…like er…well, like how Daddy has to have a glass of water every morning," Jack explained. In truth, Jack was taking his meds on a morning, but he had told Angel it was just a glass of water. He didn't want her, or indeed anyone else, thinking he was crazy. It was something he had struggled enough to accept himself, let alone having anyone else think it. A drop of blood in the water at Hyperion would bring the sharks swimming after all. "Maybe Sirens have to have extra vegetables at dinner?"

Angel gasped, a look of pure horror over her face.

"O-Or maybe Sirens need more marshmallows in their hot chocolate!" she protested. "It could be that too!"

Jack chuckled, patting her on the top of the head.

"Maybe! But the doctor is gonna tell us. So, can you be a brave girl? I'm gonna be right here with you, okay?"

Angel's bottom lip jutted, but she nodded.

"I'll be brave…"