6.i. Interlude

"The Earth looks so pretty today, Shadow. Isn't the crescent beautiful? With all the lights on the dark part. I want to go back there someday, 'cause I don't really remember anything about it. I want to sit in the grass under a tree and watch the birds fly and look at the clouds from below instead of the top.

"Grandfather says a lot of the people down there aren't happy and it'll be your job to cheer them up. I 'll help, if you'll let me. It's awful to think of anyone is such a beautiful place being miserable."

Shadow glanced away from the blues and whites of the planet beyond the window and up at the face of the girl next to him. The light reflecting from the planet gave a bluish tint to her hair and skin, and deepened the color of her eyes and her blue dress. He thought Maria was as beautiful as anything could possibly be on that planet. But she loved to look at the Earth and talk about it.

The first thing he clearly remembered was the sight of this girl bursting through the door with an armload of flowers and the most incredible delight on her face. He had reacted to the welcome automatically, returning her smile with one of his own. She had been very dedicated to her "big sister" role, showing him around their wing and then the ARK - Gerald had quickly realized that Shadow, as an intelligent person, could hardly be kept confined and isolated the way the Biolizard was, and had given Maria permission to introduce him to the research section and eventually the entire colony. He had cautioned her and Shadow both not to tell anyone that he was born on the ARK, and most people seemed to assume he was somehow linked to the other dokan that had come up to see Gerald previously. Shadow didn't go around in the public areas very often anyway, preferring to spend most of his time with Maria. Maria seemed to prefer his company as well.

"Why did you leave Earth, Maria?" he asked looking back at the world she loved. He had been told a lot of things, both before his awakening and in the months since, but that was something no one had mentioned. And he hadn't asked before because she seemed sad about it usually. "Did you just come here because of Professor Gerald?"

"No." She was very still for a moment, then turned to look at him. "I'm...I'm sick Shadow. I came up here because I can't live on Earth."

The hedgehog's red gaze jumped up to meet hers. He frowned, noting her atypical solemnity. But he didn't quite understand. "But...how are you sick? Ill people cough and sneeze and have fevers. You don't. Then they get well or go to the hospital to get made well. Or the sickbay, here." He still wasn't entirely sure why there were multiple words for the same thing or why some were specific to certain places.

"Or they die," said Maria quietly. She turned away from both the observation window and Shadow. "I'm not sick here because of the Heal Units, Shadow. Grandfather made them for me - they help everyone, of course; that's what he wants to do is help people, that's why he made you, too - but he started working on the Heal Units because of my disease. If I go back to Earth, unless he can find a cure first, I'll die."

Shadow was stunned. Death was only a concept to him, and not a terribly clear one at that; but he was certain that it was a terrible thing where people went away forever. And Maria was very sad about it so it truly must be something awful. "Then you mustn't go back there, Maria. I don't want you to die..." he tried to think of some alternative. "I'll go there myself and make people happy and you, you can stay here and, um...help me think how to do it." He looked up at the girl, offering a tentative smile that she couldn't see, as she still had her back to him. He lost the smile as he realized her breathing sounded funny. Was that because she was sick? Could she die here on the ARK as well? "Maria?"

Maria sniffled as she turned around finally. Shadow was shocked to see water leaking out of her eyes. "Maria," his voice nearly failed him in alarm, "what's wrong? Are you sick now?" He didn't like not knowing what was going on; he had awakened with a lot of knowledge but no real grasp of what he knew until he experienced it.

"It's okay Shadow," Maria offered a dim version of her smile, even through her eyes were turning red and still watering. "I'm always sick technic'ly, but I'm just sad right now. I want to go back to Earth so much, and I don't like having to think about being sick, 'cause it makes me cry. You won't tell Grandfather, will you? He worries so when I cry, or talk about being sick."

"I won't tell," answered Shadow automatically. Anything she asked of him, he would do. And he remembered about crying now, he'd just never seen it before; those were "tears" then, and the funny breathing would be "sobs"? "Don't cry, Maria, please. We won't talk about it anymore-"

"No, I need to talk about it sometimes, I think. But I can't talk about it to Grandfather. Or Mokie. I talk to Uncle Ivan sometimes when I can, but I'd really like if I could talk to you, since you're always here," she sniffed again, and rubbed her face with the heels of her hands. "But not right now. But you need to know, everyone else does. It's got a long official name but it's called NIDS for short, and as long as I use the Heal Units I really am okay. You can look it up and we can talk about it later. So don't worry about me Shadow; I won't go back to Earth until Grandfather figures out how to fix me for good." She offered a smile, but it was a pale imitation of her usual grin.

"I'm sure he will, Maria. Then we can both go to Earth and see everything." He sounded as positive as he could, and was rewarded with a proper Maria smile. Shadow looked back out at the planet hanging in space. He would definitely look up this NIDS on the computer, but he'd need to do it when Maria was not there. Or the Professor. He turned back to the girl as the watch on her wrist chirped. "You'd better go. You don't want to be late for school."

"No." She hugged Shadow briefly and skipped out the door. "Goodbye Shadow. "

He watched her skip out of the observation room. With a sigh he turned once more towards the giant window. He knew from Maria that he had been created to help people, and make them happy. Professor Gerald had confirmed that, but had also told Shadow, privately, that he had created the hedgehog for Maria's sake as well. But he had never explained any further than that. Shadow wasn't sure how he was supposed to make a whole planet of people happy - he knew how to make Maria happy, but some people, like the boy with the different-colored eyes, did not seem to like him, so how was he to make those people happy? He decided to see what his 'father' was up to, and if he could get on the computer.

Gerald had left a note that he was down with the Biolizard. Shadow had never seen it but was vaguely aware that it was in some way his predecessor. At least that meant he could get on the computer without the Professor asking what he was looking up. He entered the passwords the professor had given him and started looking for information on NIDS. He found a great deal, nearly all of it grim. Maria had been quite right about the Heal Units keeping her well, and also about her life depending on them. Shadow had noticed that Gerald would tense up when Maria stumbled or tripped, now he realized that either could be signs that the nerve damage had renewed. He also found Maria's actual medical records - Gerald technically ought not to have had those, but since he was researching the disease he had managed to talk the doctors into allowing him access. Shadow read about her near-fatal episode after her parents had died. He shivered, had she died then he would never have met her. He was aware that her parents had died, but she didn't talk about them much. Obviously she had loved them a great deal to neglect herself so; he knew how careful she was now about the Heal Units. He frowned and cleared the screen. Propping his face in his hands he reached out to feel the world, or at least the ARK.

He could dimly sense people moving around him, although the only things he could actually identify were the Gizoid, which burned like phosphorus to his sixth sense; the Biolizard, a massive but fainter presence; and the other Chaos lizards and rats in the lab, fainter yet - although more present than any of the humans. The latter creatures, he knew, were linked to him and the Biolizard in some way he had not yet been told. They were in the Project: Shadow lab. The Biolizard was of course down in her enclosure in the Deep Cavern. Shadow knew where both of those were and that they were to be kept secret from most of the people on the ARK. The Gizoid...the Gizoid was in a deep area of the ARK. Shadow opened his eyes and pulled up a map of the space colony on the computer. According to the map the Gizoid was in the midst of solid rock. The Project lab and the Biolizard's chambers were delineated in blue, which meant that they were only visible on computers with proper clearance; the public part of the space colony would not find any trace of them on their maps. Apparently there was something even more secret going on - or perhaps the map just needed updating. The Gizoid only left the lab in company of Maria or Gerald, which meant the Professor was probably there as well, for some reason.

Shadow logged off the computer and left the lab, heading for a hallway he knew would be empty this time of day. He was allowed free roam of the colony, although he usually stayed near the Professor's wing unless he was with Maria. He needed to think and he could think best when he was moving. He walked through the main corridors amid humans hurrying hither and yon on business of their own, then powered up his hover shoes with a thought and skated down the empty back passages. There was an entire loop of residential corridors that was almost guaranteed to be empty this time of day including a long slope that he enjoyed gliding down, and he could follow that path automatically while his mind was otherwise occupied. Maria had shown it to him, giggling over how much trouble she'd gotten into when she had first tried out her hoverskates in it, while it was being constructed. She liked watching him dash down the slope, and liked to race him, even though she couldn't begin to keep up. If Gerald wanted the hedgehog, he could find him here, it was the only place Shadow regularly went by himself. After one fast dash around the "Loop" he dropped to a more meditative pace and put his body on automatic while he thought about what he'd learned from Maria and the computer.