Like Them
Towards the center of the ship, in a circular room similar to the Cold Sleep Chamber where Vash and Knives spent many days, were the power plants that fueled the ship. The room was small, and crammed around the circumference of the room ten glass enclosures were secured in two neat rows. Each bulb housed a different "plant"; an artificially created biological powerhouse. Each plant bore a different use, some merely creating the fuel and energy for the ships, others the oxygen and light; some created the other components necessary to maintain the plant life in the Rec room.
A walkway led to one side of the room and Vash clung onto Rem's hand in uncertainty. Why were they here? The sleepers were on the other side of the ship, weren't they? Of course he knew that Rem wasn't their biological mother, but it was because their real mother couldn't take care of them. He assumed it was because she was one of the sleepers aboard the ship, one who couldn't stay awake during the journey. He was always slightly curious about the reason that they grew up much faster than the children in the videos he and Knives watched, but he assumed it was because they were in space. No other babies had been born in space, had they?
He and Knives spent very little time exploring this section. At least, Vash spent very little time here, although Knives seemed to be enthralled by the globes and their hidden occupants. The idea that anything lived in these things sent shivers down Vash's spine. He hated this room and the sterile glass globes. He hated the feeling they gave him. They were so foreign a design. So alien. He didn't want to be around these mysterious devices. At least with the sleepers he could look in at them and watch their angelic faces.
The walk ended in a locked door. Rem had never brought them this far. She had always told him it was a laboratory where only the ship's scientists were allowed to go during their hours awake. Rem had ventured in from time to time, but only to check that everything was in order, she said.
Vash's fingers felt sweaty in Rem's hand. With her other hand she pressed in the numbers on the keypad and then glanced over her shoulder at Knives. "I'll change it again. So don't go memorizing it like you did last time. She needs to be left alone."
Knives blushed and looked at his toes, "Sorry Rem."
Rem turned her attention to Vash. "Time goes by so fast now that you and Knives have been with me. It's been, what, eleven months now? I'm sorry I didn't bring you here sooner." She pressed the last button and the door slid open to reveal a darkened room. As Rem stepped in, Vash's fingers slid out of her hand and he didn't want to follow. It scared him because he remembered this place.
"Rem. I don't want to go in there." He took a step back but Knives had other plans for his twin. He set both hands on Vash's back and with one swift push, sent his brother skipping into the room. Into the darkness. Shivers went down his spine.
It was then that Rem turned on the lights to reveal a single glass orb attached to the side of the ship where a walkway brushed up next to it. The glass wasn't smooth and perfect as the others, there were various cuts, scratches, and repaired sections. Instruments with flashing lights and gauges were glued to the surface. Pieces of metal, wires, and tools lay scattered on the ground. Bottles and containers filled desks and shelves that were pushed up against the walls around the walkway. It looked as if someone had been searching for something and had never come back to clean up after themselves. The whole room looked panicked and that did nothing for Vash's nerves.
But none of this caught Vash's eyes as much as the woman inside the glass. This bulb wasn't opaque as many of them were in the huge chamber. This one was clear and the inner globe was unraveled. In fact, Vash was pretty sure he had never seen anything like this in the other globes. The inner part had always been a perfect sphere, connected with wires to the ship, but this. This was.
His eyes took in the features of the calmly sleeping woman on the other side of the glass. She was nearly colorless, white bleached flesh, naked and raw, thin and frail. Long fluffy strands of hair swept down her face and her back. Oh my. Her back?! What was that?
Before he knew it, Vash had pressed his hands up against the glass as he examined the hundreds of cherubic body parts that were attached to her back. Feet and arms, eyes, ears, backsides. All breathing, all moving independently of one another. The mass was connected to hundreds of wires and electrodes as if she were some kind of growth coming out of the machine. So this was a plant. A mass of parts that could separate and live on their own as others.
"You use her to make other plants, don't you?" Vash's eyes remained focused in horror at the sight in front of him. This creature. "You use her. Take her apart to grow new beings like her, don't you? That's why she's so huge." He looked up at her face and took a step back; the plant's eyes had opened. The white orbs looked at him without seeing and her arms moved. The appendages around her fluttered and Vash saw tiny wings like baby birds fluttering in response to the movement. Larger feathers swept the base of the bulb. She looked like a terrible angel of death.
He swung now to face Rem. "Why did you bring me here? To show me that I am one of these things attached to her? Did you just pluck us off like you do with the others?"
Rem held up her arms, seeking to explain, but Knives beat her to it. "No Vash, she's our mother. She gave birth to us like the animals in the video Rem showed us. But she couldn't take care of us, so Rem came and took care of us instead."
"So we really aren't human? We're one of those things?" Vash turned abruptly and pounded on the glass. All this time he had believed he was no different than the sleepers. All this time he had been led to believe he was a human. But now they were telling him he was one of these monsters? These feathered freaks? He pounded on the glass, unable to bring himself to hurt those near him, although the words were as much to them as to the plant within. "I hate you! It's no better than if we'd been plucked off you like an apple! What good is it that we can walk around if we aren't even human?" The plant made no response, only closed her eyes again.
Vash slid down the glass into a heap on the floor. "I want to be human, Rem. I want to be like you! Why couldn't you have just not told me?" Tears came out of his aqua eyes and he tried to fight them back.
Rem came to squat down beside him. "But Vash, you would have found out someday, so it's better you know." Tears came to her own eyes as she watched her adopted son. "No. That's not true. I'm sorry Vash. I didn't want to tell you. I wasn't going to. There really wasn't any need. See, you are human in nearly every way."
"But we aren't Rem," Knives added. He received a very angry look from two brown eyes and so he closed his mouth.
"The plants create life, Vash. No matter what we ask of them, they can make it. Sometimes even before we ask. But this one. She's special. The others are all her children. I think that one day she decided that her children should look like the humans around her. The angels that fluttered about taking care of her and her children. And so she took great care and that's how you and Knives were born."
"I. I don't understand, Rem." Vash rubbed his eyes and stood up, surprising Rem who fell to her butt with a yip. He sniffled and said, "I don't understand it, and I don't like it." He stomped past her out of the room and when he hit the hallway he broke into a run.
Knives started to go after him but Rem stopped him. "Let him be, Knives. It's a lot of information for your brother. Let him think this through on his own."
"You didn't leave me alone when I found out."
"Because I had to watch you every moment otherwise you would come in here every chance you got and disturb her rest! I know you think it's the best thing in the world to be one of them. But Vash isn't like you, Knives. He wants everything to stay the same." She trailed off, her eyes worried, "I hope he stays the same too. It would hurt me very much if this affects him in a bad way."
"Vash is strong," Knives said reluctantly. "He loves you too much to let it get to him." He smiled and gave Rem a hug. "I love you too."
"I love you too, Knives." Rem smiled distantly and took her adopted son's hand. "Come on, let's go make lunch. We'll make Vash's favorite and then you can go find him."
Knives nodded, "I know where he is, but Rem aren't donuts for breakfast?"
Rem laughed, "Today they will be for lunch." She took one last look at the plant sleeping in the orb behind them and whispered, "Thank you," as they left.
Towards the center of the ship, in a circular room similar to the Cold Sleep Chamber where Vash and Knives spent many days, were the power plants that fueled the ship. The room was small, and crammed around the circumference of the room ten glass enclosures were secured in two neat rows. Each bulb housed a different "plant"; an artificially created biological powerhouse. Each plant bore a different use, some merely creating the fuel and energy for the ships, others the oxygen and light; some created the other components necessary to maintain the plant life in the Rec room.
A walkway led to one side of the room and Vash clung onto Rem's hand in uncertainty. Why were they here? The sleepers were on the other side of the ship, weren't they? Of course he knew that Rem wasn't their biological mother, but it was because their real mother couldn't take care of them. He assumed it was because she was one of the sleepers aboard the ship, one who couldn't stay awake during the journey. He was always slightly curious about the reason that they grew up much faster than the children in the videos he and Knives watched, but he assumed it was because they were in space. No other babies had been born in space, had they?
He and Knives spent very little time exploring this section. At least, Vash spent very little time here, although Knives seemed to be enthralled by the globes and their hidden occupants. The idea that anything lived in these things sent shivers down Vash's spine. He hated this room and the sterile glass globes. He hated the feeling they gave him. They were so foreign a design. So alien. He didn't want to be around these mysterious devices. At least with the sleepers he could look in at them and watch their angelic faces.
The walk ended in a locked door. Rem had never brought them this far. She had always told him it was a laboratory where only the ship's scientists were allowed to go during their hours awake. Rem had ventured in from time to time, but only to check that everything was in order, she said.
Vash's fingers felt sweaty in Rem's hand. With her other hand she pressed in the numbers on the keypad and then glanced over her shoulder at Knives. "I'll change it again. So don't go memorizing it like you did last time. She needs to be left alone."
Knives blushed and looked at his toes, "Sorry Rem."
Rem turned her attention to Vash. "Time goes by so fast now that you and Knives have been with me. It's been, what, eleven months now? I'm sorry I didn't bring you here sooner." She pressed the last button and the door slid open to reveal a darkened room. As Rem stepped in, Vash's fingers slid out of her hand and he didn't want to follow. It scared him because he remembered this place.
"Rem. I don't want to go in there." He took a step back but Knives had other plans for his twin. He set both hands on Vash's back and with one swift push, sent his brother skipping into the room. Into the darkness. Shivers went down his spine.
It was then that Rem turned on the lights to reveal a single glass orb attached to the side of the ship where a walkway brushed up next to it. The glass wasn't smooth and perfect as the others, there were various cuts, scratches, and repaired sections. Instruments with flashing lights and gauges were glued to the surface. Pieces of metal, wires, and tools lay scattered on the ground. Bottles and containers filled desks and shelves that were pushed up against the walls around the walkway. It looked as if someone had been searching for something and had never come back to clean up after themselves. The whole room looked panicked and that did nothing for Vash's nerves.
But none of this caught Vash's eyes as much as the woman inside the glass. This bulb wasn't opaque as many of them were in the huge chamber. This one was clear and the inner globe was unraveled. In fact, Vash was pretty sure he had never seen anything like this in the other globes. The inner part had always been a perfect sphere, connected with wires to the ship, but this. This was.
His eyes took in the features of the calmly sleeping woman on the other side of the glass. She was nearly colorless, white bleached flesh, naked and raw, thin and frail. Long fluffy strands of hair swept down her face and her back. Oh my. Her back?! What was that?
Before he knew it, Vash had pressed his hands up against the glass as he examined the hundreds of cherubic body parts that were attached to her back. Feet and arms, eyes, ears, backsides. All breathing, all moving independently of one another. The mass was connected to hundreds of wires and electrodes as if she were some kind of growth coming out of the machine. So this was a plant. A mass of parts that could separate and live on their own as others.
"You use her to make other plants, don't you?" Vash's eyes remained focused in horror at the sight in front of him. This creature. "You use her. Take her apart to grow new beings like her, don't you? That's why she's so huge." He looked up at her face and took a step back; the plant's eyes had opened. The white orbs looked at him without seeing and her arms moved. The appendages around her fluttered and Vash saw tiny wings like baby birds fluttering in response to the movement. Larger feathers swept the base of the bulb. She looked like a terrible angel of death.
He swung now to face Rem. "Why did you bring me here? To show me that I am one of these things attached to her? Did you just pluck us off like you do with the others?"
Rem held up her arms, seeking to explain, but Knives beat her to it. "No Vash, she's our mother. She gave birth to us like the animals in the video Rem showed us. But she couldn't take care of us, so Rem came and took care of us instead."
"So we really aren't human? We're one of those things?" Vash turned abruptly and pounded on the glass. All this time he had believed he was no different than the sleepers. All this time he had been led to believe he was a human. But now they were telling him he was one of these monsters? These feathered freaks? He pounded on the glass, unable to bring himself to hurt those near him, although the words were as much to them as to the plant within. "I hate you! It's no better than if we'd been plucked off you like an apple! What good is it that we can walk around if we aren't even human?" The plant made no response, only closed her eyes again.
Vash slid down the glass into a heap on the floor. "I want to be human, Rem. I want to be like you! Why couldn't you have just not told me?" Tears came out of his aqua eyes and he tried to fight them back.
Rem came to squat down beside him. "But Vash, you would have found out someday, so it's better you know." Tears came to her own eyes as she watched her adopted son. "No. That's not true. I'm sorry Vash. I didn't want to tell you. I wasn't going to. There really wasn't any need. See, you are human in nearly every way."
"But we aren't Rem," Knives added. He received a very angry look from two brown eyes and so he closed his mouth.
"The plants create life, Vash. No matter what we ask of them, they can make it. Sometimes even before we ask. But this one. She's special. The others are all her children. I think that one day she decided that her children should look like the humans around her. The angels that fluttered about taking care of her and her children. And so she took great care and that's how you and Knives were born."
"I. I don't understand, Rem." Vash rubbed his eyes and stood up, surprising Rem who fell to her butt with a yip. He sniffled and said, "I don't understand it, and I don't like it." He stomped past her out of the room and when he hit the hallway he broke into a run.
Knives started to go after him but Rem stopped him. "Let him be, Knives. It's a lot of information for your brother. Let him think this through on his own."
"You didn't leave me alone when I found out."
"Because I had to watch you every moment otherwise you would come in here every chance you got and disturb her rest! I know you think it's the best thing in the world to be one of them. But Vash isn't like you, Knives. He wants everything to stay the same." She trailed off, her eyes worried, "I hope he stays the same too. It would hurt me very much if this affects him in a bad way."
"Vash is strong," Knives said reluctantly. "He loves you too much to let it get to him." He smiled and gave Rem a hug. "I love you too."
"I love you too, Knives." Rem smiled distantly and took her adopted son's hand. "Come on, let's go make lunch. We'll make Vash's favorite and then you can go find him."
Knives nodded, "I know where he is, but Rem aren't donuts for breakfast?"
Rem laughed, "Today they will be for lunch." She took one last look at the plant sleeping in the orb behind them and whispered, "Thank you," as they left.
