Fate of Frailty Chapter 8

By Karen Hart

A half an hour later Rubedo found himself heading towards the nearest park, thankful that it was for the most part deserted due to the overcast weather. He made his way to the far end, towards the large wishing fountain, hoping for some further privacy. Thankfully, it too was abandoned.

Rubedo sat on the rim of the fountain, hugging his knees to his chest and trying to ignore the constant spray of water against his side. It'd come as a crushing blow to his ego, that realization that he would never change—was utterly unable to, to be honest. He'd somehow always managed to ignore his own appearance, seeing himself instead as the age he was meant to be. Now, though, he was left with a rather cold, hollow feeling inside.

What the hell am I going to do about this…?

---

A small yawn escaped Mary's lips as she pushed herself forward in the swing, feet kicking up small tufts of sand.

Shelley looked at her quizzically from where she sat on her own swing, though she was fairly motionless. "I thought you slept," the older sister commented quietly, violet eyes fixed on the blonde girl.

Mary slowed to a stop, and gave a half-hearted shrug. "Well, I did, sort've. I just couldn't stay asleep for too long. I'm kinda worried…" Her voice trailed off uncertainly and she looked away.

The violet-haired girl blinked at the admission, and grew quiet for a moment until she broke the silence with a soft "About?"

For a while Mary didn't answer, instead choosing to stare at a patch of ground, as though the bits of sand and dirt and grass could help her sort her thoughts. "I don't… Well…" She tried a few more times to put her thoughts to words. Finally, she settled on: "Are things gonna change?" She caught the surprised look on Shelley's face from the corner of her eye. "I mean, Gaignun's gonna be some fake guy's son, and he's gone to that Foundation place…" Again she trailed off.

"And you're not sure what's gonna happen to us, huh?" Shelley inquired softly. May nodded, still facing away. "Maybe we should talk to someone about this," she offered, and stood up. "Come on." With that she took her younger sister's hand, and helped her up.

"We'll talk to Helmer."

---

"You're certain?"

With a soft clank Gaignun set the thin soft drink can down on the low wall, and gave McCall a long look. What the older man had mentioned has surprised him greatly. Most people wouldn't be willing to hire someone that'd gone through "Life Recycling"—McCall, however, had insisted that the Foundation's current residents were fine with the idea.

"Damn right I am," Warren said, nodding his head for emphasis. "It's not like we can be picky anyway, given that things are gonna start booming here pretty soon."

Gaignun quirked an eyebrow. "How can you tell that?"

McCall gave a slight "humph" and grinned. "Well, I've worked on a dozen dock colonies in my time—Athens, Maria, you name it, I've probably been there—and there are a couple rather predictable series of events. One, a colony starts out booming, then the regulars are the only ones you get coming in, and then they stop being all that regular and business starts to die. When someone with my job starts calling everyone who comes to a colony by name, that's when he gets worried. So far, though, I don't recognize even half of the people that come here. I know it's only been a month," he added, raising a hand for forestall a comment from Gaignun, "but believe me, the Foundation's going to get really busy soon."

Gaignun thought the other man's reasoning over, and nodded. "I'll mention it when I get in touch with my father again."

"Glad to hear it. I'm sick of pulling overtime and I haven't even done any yet."

---

Perfect. Now he was cold and partially wet.

Rubedo stood up from where he'd been sitting, scowling as he realized the spray from the fountain had finally soaked through the right side of his clothes, another aggravating condition to deal with in what was already turning out to be a fairly hellish—at least for him—day. Son of a…

He flopped down on the grass, suddenly not caring. I wonder how Gaignun's doing right now. His thoughts turned towards his dark-haired brother, and the reason that they were, for the first time ever, separated by entire lightyears. Rubedo hoped that there'd be a solution to the imminent employee shortage on the Kukai Foundation, and that Gaignun would be home soon.

Heh, he thought, maybe they could use that uberhuman I ran into earlier. It was somewhat surprising that he could already think of that incident with what could be mistaken for humor. A moment later he sat bolt upright at that thought, and tried to reach through the link with Gaignun, with little success. He tried again, a sudden burst of youthful enthusiasm coloring his mental "tone". A frown marred his features when he realized that Gaignun was blocking him. He could tell that Gaignun was simply involved in a conversation and wanted to avoid distractions, but it was still unpleasant.

He decided to wait a few moments before trying again, practically buzzing with the desire to tell his brother about his idea. This time he was quieter, psychically "pressing" at the block to see if it was still there or not. It wasn't. Hey, Gaignun…

…Yes?

I know how the Foundation can forestall the employee shortage. Rubedo quickly explained the idea to his brother. Gaignun twitched mentally. What is it?

…Nothing. I'm just reeling from the coincidence.