Broker

Lillian stood over Snow, a momentary silence passing between the two of them. She stepped forward and knelt down, sitting across from her. Snow reached up and wiped her eyes, sniffing and looking away with a reddened face. Lillian tilted her head and tried to catch her gaze, “Hey,” She murmured, “Snow, what’s wrong?” She asked. Snow reached up and pulled her hood down a little more, pulling her knees to her chest with one arm while she slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Lillian sat patiently as the girl typed out a message.

She typed the message, then frowned and deleted it. She typed something else and made a frustrated face before erasing it again and throwing her head back in a show of frustration. She slumped a little bit where she was sitting before looking up at Lillian helplessly. Lillian just opened her arms and shifted back a bit to make room on her lap. Snow’s expression softened and she slipped up, sitting in Lillian’s lap and resting her head under her chin. Lillian reached up and stroked her head; Even Snow doesn’t know what to say. Whatever it is it must be serious.

Snow tapped away at her phone again, but this time it looked like she wasn’t using the texting app. Lillian glanced down and then felt the air shift a little as Snow tensed in her lap. Lillian tilted her head, worried, “Snow what’s going on?”

Just as she asked, a two-dimensional image appeared in the air in front of her. It flickered for a moment and seemed to collapse into itself before becoming legible. It was an image of Dr. Carter standing with his arms crossed, his expression was a little uncomfortable. He raised an eyebrow, “We’re recording?,” He sighed and scratched the back of his head, clicking his tongue before pausing and looking somewhere to the left of the camera, “Are you really sure about this?” He winced at whatever reaction he got and shrugged, “Alright fine.”

Where’s the sound coming from? Lillian thought before glancing down and noting that it was coming from Snow’s phone. I see. She looked back up and kept watching.

Dr. Carter crossed his arms, “Alright, so let's go over it again. Now I want to remind you for the millionth time that this is theoretical stuff, okay? Untested, what you’re doing is volunteering to be a guinea pig. You really get that, right? You understand how friggin crazy-” He winced again, the dark circles under his eyes twitching once before he slumped his shoulders, “Alright, alright! Damn,” He cleared his throat and looked at the camera. “A lot of our discussions down here have been about your ability and how it seems to interact with technology, specifically devices with computers in them.”

He crossed his arms, “What seems to be happening with your ability is you are using a computerized device as the focus for processing what basically amounts to a controlled interaction with light, sound, and some brainwaves,” He said and waved his hand, “That controlled interaction follows a prompt or some sort of logical expression that you put into your device,” He continued, “Problem is, your phone can only handle so much which explains the inconsistency and because of your injury your brain is struggling with the act of interpreting sound waves, I’m guessing a traumatic response but-” He hesitated, “Hey! I’m just being honest!” He said, holding up his hands. Lillian glanced down at Snow who nodded at the image. She wasn’t going to explain until the end, then.

He coughed into his fist, “Anyway! Somebody overheard Dr. Da-Som and I talking about his little pet project and got hung up on it,” He said with a frown before rolling his eyes, “The long and short is that he’s been working on a foundational piece of hardware for future cybernetic prosthetics. It’s based on a thorough examination of Miss Chernovna’s prosthetic eyes,” He said and glanced to the right for a moment before grumbling to himself and looking back at the camera, “With my help he’s designed and built a processing terminal that goes into the back of the head and attaches to the brain,” He pointed at the base of his neck.

He pursed his lips and shrugged, “It’s complete,” He trailed off, “Technically it’s ready for testing,” He frowned and crossed his arms, “You are not going to let up are you?” He groaned and shook his head, “And you want to put it in your head and use it as your new hardware to make your power work, that sum it up? You know it’ll require surgery, right?” He put his hands on his hips and his nostrils flared, “What did you think would happen? I just zap it into your-”

The image vanished and Snow settled back against Lillian’s chest. Lilian stared at the spot where the image had been for a moment. Snow shivered a little bit in her lap and Lillian wrapped her arms around her, taking a deep breath and releasing the soothing radiance of her ability. The young woman in her lap settled and leaned in closer, clinging to her shirt. “Second thoughts?” She asked only for Snow to shake her head vigorously. Lillian paused and went over the recording again, “...the surgery?”

There was a pause and then Snow nodded. She started tapping into her phone for a moment while Lillian held her. When she was done she gently pushed against Lillian’s arm and slipped out of her grip. The petite girl stood up and took a few steps back, leaning against the wall. Lillian smiled up at her, she was so pretty but her eyes were so sad. She felt her heart creak a little as the girl stared at her screen again, her thumb hanging over it. 

“You don’t need to tell me,” Lillian said.

Snow glanced at her and set her lips in a thin line before letting out a breath through her nostrils. She frowned and hit the screen with her thumb, pulling back to press herself against the wall. Multiple messages appeared. Now that she’d heard Dr. Carter’s explanation, she could see how each letter was a little different in font and each bubble was maybe a few shades a different color or slightly shaped differently. Why hadn’t I noticed before?

<”When I was little, before they put me into the system, I lived with my dad,”> Snow began, <”He was a drunk and blew all his money on women, but he had me to deal with. Apparently I was loud and bothered his guests.”> Snow crossed her arms and shrank a bit more into her hood as the messages kept coming. Lillian got to her feet, reading them with wide eyes.

<”He did things to me to keep me quiet at night,”> The next message said and Lillian looked up at Snow, the girl was running her fingers along a thin scar on her neck, looking down at the ground. <”Used drugs too, to put me under so I’d sleep a lot.”> Lillian clenched her fists as Snow looked down and tugged at the hem of her hoodie, squeezing it in a death grip. <”I know that Dr. Carter and Dr. Da-Som are good guys, they’re so nice to me, but I’m scared of going under again. The last time I went under I woke up in foster care,”> She added and reached up to tug on the short white and black hair on her head, <”They kept me like this till I was old enough to leave. I’m so scared Lil. But I want it so bad, if it works, I might be able to talk again. Even if it's just with my power.”>

Lillian felt a whole litany of emotions in that moment. Rage at Snow’s father, anger at the family that kept the abuse going, pride in Snow for still having the courage to want something like this despite how scary it was, and relief because there was something she could do to help. She let out a breath and rubbed the back of her neck as Snow looked up at her with those big pearlescent eyes. She straightened her shoulders and set her jaw, “Well, can I sit in with you?” She asked bluntly, “Hold your hand?”

Snow’s eyes went glassy, she sniffed, tears flooding down her cheeks, her expression turning from confusion to relief to grief to joy to frustration to sadness to happiness all in a matter of moments. Her arms fell to her sides and she just bawled, her mouth open in a silent wail as the tears flowed. Lillian walked over and pulled her up into her arms,  petite hands clinging to her shirt, back shaking, “I’ll be right there with you, okay? It’ll be alright,” Lillian said, “I’ve got you.”

–

Sonya frowned and crossed her arms in her bed, narrowing her eyes at the two men standing in front of her, “You want to what?” She asked, a bit of testiness getting into her tone. She felt this time she was fully justified in sounding a little pissed off about what the two men had explained to her. She looked between the two of them and her prosthetics swirled and clicked in her head as she examined every microexpression. Amos winced under her glare and Da-Som had his head hung down to his chest. She scowled and tilted her head, “You want to try explaining that to me again, boys?” She asked.

Amos tried to crack a joke, “Y’know this isn’t really the place for a board meeting,” He laughed nervously, “Maybe we should-”

“I made a promise to Carla to stay right where I am, so guess what I’m doing?” She retorted, “And after what I just heard, you two are going nowhere until I get more details. Explain.”

Amos held up his hands, “Lo-Look, Sonya, I don’t want to do anything. Snow overheard Da-som and I talking shop about the simulated technopathy patch,” He explained, “He’s been working hard on it, ya know? So we did a bit of shop talk while the girl was working on her own project and she hopped on it.”

Da-Som shifted on his feet, “I may have been a little overexcited about her interest, ma’am, and overshared,” He said sullenly.

“After that, Snow wouldn’t shut up about it, she figured it was the perfect solution to her problems. At first I thought that she was using her phone as a crutch but I really think she’s kicking her illusions through a processor. That’s why they seem to have a digital nature to them,” Amos explained quickly, “Look as far as she knows it’s just a platform for building new prosthetics.”

“Because that’s the intended purpose,” Da-Som quickly added.

“But it’s far more than that,” Sonya growled, “You guys are attempting to simulate a light-touched power, do you comprehend how risky that is? On top of that, you’re going to put it in a girl’s head!” She said with a frown, “A girl under my protection!”

The door opened to Da-Som’s left and Carla stepped in with two mugs. “Sonya, they wouldn’t be asking if they didn’t think it was worth pursuing, give them a chance,” Carla said gently even as she shot the two men a look. She walked over and extended a steaming mug filled with marshmallows to Sonya. Sonya gave her a brilliant smile and sipped at it, taking a deep breath while Carla settled in next to her, leaning against her shoulder. “At least I hope they thought it through before coming in at this time of night,” Carla added with an equally petulant frown.

Sonya rubbed her head and forced herself to relax before looking between the two of them with concern, “Guys, you’re working on this when you should be resting,” She said with a frown, “Da-som you barely escaped a bombing that killed a significant portion of your staff. I don’t even know how you’re functioning. The same goes for you, Amos.”

“The work takes my mind off of it,” Amos said with a frown, “A lot has changed because of that day, a whole lot.”

Sonya leaned forward and caught his eyes, holding his gaze, “Does that sound familiar to you now that you’ve said it out loud?” She asked, “Don’t you do what I did. You’re alive and you deserve some rest, Amos. You too Da-Som, you need to process what happened before you do anything this serious.”

Sonya sipped at her cocoa while the two men looked at one another and nodded, “Maybe it’ll give her a chance to reconsider,” Amos said to Da-som, “I kept warning her that it was dangerous.”

Sonya looked between the two of them before glancing at Carla who just sipped quietly, observing them in silence. She turned to them fully, “How fixated on this is Snow?”

“Extremely,” Amos said with a frown, crossing his arms, “She’s convinced this is what she needs to realize herself as a hero. She’s already voiced her intentions to sign with ASTA too,” He said, “I still stand on it being risky, what with the equipment we’re working with here at the camp.”

Sonya raised an eyebrow, “That’s your primary hangup?”

Amos shrugged, “Between Da-som and I, if we had top of the line equipment the chances of at least getting through the surgery are ninety-five percent,” He said with a small bit of smugness, “We just haven’t put one of these things in someone’s head yet,” He pointed out, “Theoretically it’ll replicate the same signals and functions that my brain releases when I use technopathy or what your brain uses when your eyes are operating. It should work but there’s a chance it’ll do fuck all and the whole venture will have been pointless.”

“What are the odds?” Carla cut in, finally joining in. Sonya glanced at her and Carla just gently gave her a nudge with her shoulder, “Of it actually working?”

Amos scratched his messy hair, “Eh, fifty fifty if I’m being generous, more like thirty percent,” He said with a frown, “Everythings in the right place and the simulated lab tests worked great but this is real life.”

Sonya nodded and cleared her throat, “Nurse, is it alright if I make a few business calls?” She asked, sitting up straight with her eyes closed in a dignified pose. A small smirk on her face.

Carla huffed out a breath and sat up straight as well, joining her, “I suppose I could allow it. Don’t go overboard.”

Sonya peeked an eye open and caught Amos gaping at her, she smirked at him, “I’ll make your equipment happen, Amos. You both get some rest and make sure you’re at the top of your game when it gets set up,” She said, “I want you to take good care of that young woman, she is precious, and not just to me.”

Amos and Da-Som stood up a bit straighter and nodded quickly, “Yes ma’am.”

She took another sip of her cocoa, “Now get the hell out of my bedroom, please? You’re interrupting my evening!” She barked and the two looked at one another, Amos grinned and they raced out. She clicked her tongue and watched the door shut behind them. She sipped her cocoa again and relaxed, “Man this is so good.”