Explanations.
Gavin
The infirmary. Two weeks out of Zion and Nanu is already in her old bunk, wired with monitors and IV tubes. She sleeps, it seems, lying so still she could be carved from stone.
Pirate appears in the doorway. "You don't look surprised."
Gavin makes a wry expression. "It's something you'll learn quickly that Nanu spends a lot of time unconscious."
Pirate smiles. He looks across at Nanu.
"Captain's pretty upset about what happened."
"Trinity?" Gavin asks.
"Yeah."
"Well Nanu shouldn't have been left in there alone."
"Trinity did all she could – "
"Well that obviously wasn't enough." Anger flares like a struck match, too late Gavin tries to quench it.
"You don't blame the captain do you?" Pirate asks softly, raising his eyebrows.
He glares across at their replacement medic. "I don't know who I blame. But it's not something I'm just going to let blow over."
"No one expects you to. But it wasn't Trinity's fault."
Dislike begins to kindle.
Gavin looks back to the sleeping figure of Nanu. Why does she look so much older when asleep? She seems faded, washed out. Like she has before, after flying away from an agent's attack. Like she does when her mind is exhausted.
After a time, Pirate leaves.
Tank
He climbs down the ladder to the storeroom, the lowest part of the ship, right near the engine room. It's not the best of designs, since the warmth from the engines heats the water in its adjacent tanks. Although no bacteria can grow in the purified solution, drinking it warm doesn't enhance the taste.
One of the lids is off the drums now. Weird. Achi said she sealed them all up.
He measures the water level, then checks it against the tally of how many litres have been brought up to deck for drinking, mixing up slop, etcetera. There are several litres not accounted for.
Weird.
He takes a smaller canister off a hook on the ceiling to carry water up to the galley. As he dips it into the larger drum he pauses. Did he only imagine it or did something just move in that far corner?
Tank put the water down, and took a slow step in the direction of the movement. A shape behind a drum of dried food, a small crouching figure –
He is caught off guard as the body springs out of hiding and makes to run past him. He reaches out and scoops up –
Bobcat.
"BC? What in hell?"
Defeated, the little girl softens and leans against him. "Sorry Tak," she mumbles. She can't say his name properly.
"What are you doing here?"
She doesn't speak.
"I'd better get you to Trinity."
"No," she shakes her head, looking up at him with earnest brown eyes. "Infirmree."
"The infirmary?"
"Yes. Nanu."
How can she know that Nanu is there? "Alright then."
Weird.
Nanu
Tired. Tired and hurting so much she had gone beyond pain. There was just a curious white feeling in the back of her head.
Eyes open. A presence beyond her field of vision.
. . . I can't see you but I know you're there . . .
Gavin. By her side still.
. . . I'll hold you . . .
He had kept her together, stopped her from dissolving. But he had not done it alone.
Another presence. A humming, like a tuning fork in water. Like that pure voice that had joined with the others to call her back from fragmenting.
Nanu wants to turn her head but the command doesn't make it all the way.
The humming again.
A small voice. "Nanu."
Bobcat.
BC has the gift. Of course.
you came back.
you helped me BC. Nanu thinks, hoping the girl can hear her. thank you.
s'ok.
you're stronger than me. To hear Nanu's thought when Nanu has no strength left to project it, BC must be very powerful.
no. I'm just older.
Nanu blinks slowly. She catches an impression of years, faces, all of them lives well known and gifted but so many, so many. A three year old, with the wisdom of one who has survived through millennia. An old soul.
BC is lifted up by Tank so that she can kneel on the bunk and look down on Nanu. Her hair falls forward over her shoulders, like Trinity's. Concern is written clearly in her eyes.
thank you for saving my life and a wink is all Nanu can manage. She can't move any more than that, and the effort of forming coherent silent words in her head is streaking the white buzz with burgundy.
"You get better," whispers the little girl. She smiles sweetly down, a vision of quiet confidence and peace.
What is she doing on the ship anyway?
But then Nanu falls back into sleep, and does not think to ask.
Trinity
She's on her back, working on the dodgy plumbing system in the bathroom at the tail of the ship. Neo crouches beside her, passing her tools and rags as she needs them.
A spanner slips off the bolt she is turning and strikes her knuckle. Hard. She hisses in through her teeth.
"You okay?"
The skin is grazed, and Trinity sucks her finger in an effort to stop the hurt. She's been shot before, and not made a sound, but one little bump and –
"I'm fine."
His face appears, looking under the curve of the metal that arches above her. "You want a break?"
"Yeah, okay."
As she squirms out into the open, footsteps approach. Tank, carrying something. He sounds heavier than usual. After being on the same crew for at least ten years, Trinity knows his step well. He comes through the doorway and she sits up, wiping her hand over her mouth.
The something he's carrying is actually someone.
Neo opens his mouth, but hesitates, then closes it.
"I found her in the storeroom," Tank explains. "I guess she's the reason out water levels are low."
"I guess so," Trinity replies softly. For a moment no one speaks. BC just looks at her parents. Sad, she seems, and lonely.
When Trinity speaks it is a whisper. "You know you're too young to live on a ship Bobby."
"Yes."
Tank quietly puts her down, and steps away.
Neo protests, "We can't afford time to go back to Zion."
Trinity stays where she is, on her knees surrounded by wet rags, a spanner in one hand. She studies the little girl carefully, observing her as she would a reflection.
Their daughter. A hybrid of DNA and chromosomes, with a mind and personality and character all of her own. Something pure born of two artificial things.
She sees this child in a way she instinctively knows is different from normal mothers. In truth, Trinity is in awe of her daughter.
"Come here."
Obedience. Hands behind her back.
"You can be good BC. You can behave yourself, and keep out of our way when we're busy," these are statements, not questions. Bobcat affirms them with a small nod. Trinity puts down her tools and holds out her hands.
BC crosses the room and gives her mother a hug, the motion strangely dignified for someone so small. Her face presses into the woman's shoulder, and BC breathes in deeply, then whispers something so soft Trinity can feel rather than hear it.
Love you Mama.
Neo watches the exchange closely. When BC steps back, he glances at Trinity to confirm. She nods.
He grins, widely.
"Neo, this ship is not going to become a playground – "
But he's already piggybacking BC out of the room, swinging around the doorway and bouncing off up the hall. A little girl's laughter echoes back to them. And in the silence that follows, Tank hands Trinity the spanner.
She sighs and gets back to work.
***