So Long Been Dreaming Read Free

kilometers long separated their living quarters from the AI’s physical components and any other mission-critical equipment they might damage. At the end of the tether, Wayna and the rest of the downloads swung faster and faster. They were like sand in a bucket, centrifugal force mimicking gravity and gradually building up to the level they’d experience on Amend’s surface, in Jubilee.
    That was all they knew. All Dr Ops thought they needed to know.
    “Who said anything about an attack?” Robeson frowned.
    “No one.” Wayna was suddenly sorry she’d spoken. “All I mean is, his only motive in telling us anything was to prevent that from happening.” She spooned some nuggets onto her mashed potatoes and shoved them into her mouth so she wouldn’t say any more.
    “You think he’s lying?” Jawann asked. Wayna shook her head no.
    “He could if he wanted. How would we find out?”
    The slaw was too sweet; not enough contrast with the nuggets. Not peppery, like what Aunt Nono used to make.
    “Why would we want to find out? We’ll be on our own ground, in Jubilee, soon enough.” Four weeks. Twenty days by Psyche Moth ’s rationalized calendar.
    “With trustees to watch us all the time, everywhere we go, and this ship hanging in orbit right over our heads.” Robeson sounded as suspicious as Doe, Jawann as placatory as Wayna tried to be in their identical arguments. Thad usually came across as neutral, controlled, the way you could be out of your meat.
    “So? They’re not going to hurt us after they brought us all this way. At least, they won’t want to hurt our bodies.”
    Because their bodies came from, were copies of, the people against whom they’d rebelled. The rich. The politically powerful.
    But Wayna’s body was hers . No one else owned it, no matter who her clone’s cells had started off with. Hers, no matter how different it looked from the one she had been born with. How white.
    Hers to take care of. Early on in her training she’d decided that. How else could she be serious about her exercises? Why else would she bother?
    This was her body. She’d earned it.
    Jawann and Robeson were done; they’d started eating before her and now they were leaving. She swallowed quickly. “Wait – I wanted to ask – “ They stopped and she stood up to follow them, taking her half-full plate. “Either of you have any medical training?”
    They knew someone, a man called Unique, a nurse when he’d lived on Earth. Here he worked in the factory, quality control. Wayna would have to go back to her bunkroom until he got off and could come see her. She left Doe a message on the board by the cafeteria’s entrance, an apology. Face up on her bed, Wayna concentrated fiercely on the muscle groups she’d skipped earlier. A trustee came by to check on her and seemed satisfied to find her lying down, everything in line with her remote readings. He acted as if she should be flattered by the extra attention. “Dr Ops will be in touch first thing tomorrow,” he promised as he left.
    “Oooh, baby,” she said softly to herself, and went on with what she’d been doing.
    A little later, for no reason she knew of, she looked up at her doorway. The man that had held Robeson’s hand that morning stood there as if this was where he’d always been. “Hi. Do I have the right place? You’re Wayna?”
    “Unique?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Come on in.” She swung her feet to the floor and patted a place beside her on the bed. He sat closer than she’d expected, closer than she was used to. Maybe that meant he’d been born Hispanic or Middle Eastern. Or maybe not.
    “Robeson said you had some sort of problem to ask me about. So – of course I don’t have any equipment, but if I can help in any way, I will.”
    She told him what had happened, feeling foolish all of a sudden. There’d only been those three times, nothing more since seeing Dr Ops.
    “Lie on your stomach,” he said. Through the fabric, firm fingers pressed