"Petal, are you alright?"

  Petal was roused from her quasi-dream. Quill gently put her hands on her shoulders.

  "Are you hungry? You look so pale. How are you holding up, up here?"

  "I'm fine." Petal looked up at the metallic cable for a moment. Its height seemed infinite. "Actually, I'm better than fine. I feel - I feel really alive right now."

  "I felt pretty surreal for a while too. Now it's almost boring." Quill wiped a thin film of frost off her eye goggles. "What have you been thinking about? Are you trying to remember something?"

  "I've been remembering more and more things. My mother's memories - they're flooding me. It's really hard - them hitting me all at once. I'm trying to sort through them, but it's tough."

  "I may not know anything about Khoi, but make sure you find a way to keep yourself separate from her. You have to remember where she ends and you begin, Petal."

  "My name. Cynax told me my real name. My Khoi name. I remember it now too. It's Fatima."

  "Fa-ti-ma?" Quill said the name bit-by-bit.

  "My tattoo." Petal pointed to the geometric design stenciled under her eyelid. "That's what my tattoo means. Fatima."

  "It's beautiful."

  A tear streaked down from Petal's left eye, freezing once it came in contact with her goggles.

  "It means fire in the sea," Petal whispered. She lifted her goggles to peel the frozen tear off her face. "Do you like it?"

  "It's beautiful. But what should I call you from now on then? Petal or Fatima?"

  Petal hadn't considered this.

  "I don't-"

  "Crewman Fatima?"

  Petal almost jumped at the sound of Cynax's cold voice crackling directly into her brain. She jerked her head to the right and put her hand over her ear, to cover up the ear bud.

  "Yeh - yes? Cynax?"

  "Correct. I apologize for the sudden interruption, but you will begin your final approach to the Tear Drop momentarily."

  "Okay." Petal motioned to her ear so Quill would know she wasn't talking to herself. "What do I do once we get there?"

  "The shield surrounding your trellis will need to be lowered once you are close to the station. During that time period, you will experience rapid depressurization. Do not panic. Act quickly to open one of the maintenance hatches located on the underside of the Tear Drop. Once you are inside of the station and the air is repressurized, I will contact you with further instructions."

  "Okay. . .wait, how do I open the hatch?"

  "It will have an access pad located on top of it, similar to those you are familiar with from my Monitoring Station."

  Petal closed her eyes, trying to recall any embedded memories she might have of the Tear Drop which could be of aid in finding the hatch. She came up empty. One of her recently retrieved memories was blocking everything else out, grating on her subconscious.

  "Got it."

  "Excellent. Good lu-"

  "Wait."

  "Yes?"

  "You - you said you never talked to my father?"

  "Please repeat your question."

  "You told me you never met my father. Is that the truth?"

  "Your father never came to my Monitoring Station."

  "But you talked to him?"

  "Yes. . .during my shift in the Monitoring Station I communicated with hundreds of Consortium personnel - including your father. However, unlike your mother, your father never came to my Station."

  Petal waited for Cynax to continue but it didn't.

  "Okay. . ."

  "If you have no further inquiries, then I suggest you ready yourself for final ascent. Depressurization will commence momentarily."

  Once Cynax finished speaking, the device inside Petal's ear clicked off.

  She frowned.

  "What was that about your dad?" Quill cooed into Petal's free ear. She'd been expectantly listening in on half the conversation.

  "Nothing. Just a random memory I wanted to ask Cynax about. We're getting close to the Tear Drop. Cynax said that when we get up to it, the shield around us will switch off and all the air will be sucked out. Stay close. We'll have to get inside of the Tear Drop really quick so we can breathe again."

  The two girls set about readying their gear for their final approach. Quill jettisoned their excess provisions over the side of the trell, while Petal secured the nanite-kit to her clothes. After each of them finished, they looked up at what was left of the sky, searching the permanently twilit stratosphere for any sign of the mysterious Tear Drop.

  The trell was now five miles high. In the sky in front of it, a little above its base and off to the left, Quill could see an object hanging in the air. It looked like just a dot, but as the trell continued to hurtle toward it, it slowly crystallized into a giant, silver bubble.

  The trell soared closer toward the bubble. Quill saw that it wasn't a circle or an oval as it had first appeared. It had one bulbous end and one crimped end, mimicking the shape of a rain drop.

  Quill stared at the bubble, which she now guessed to be the Tear Drop. Its sleek, silver sides were polished and featureless like a mirror. Unlike the trell, the Tear Drop didn't have an anchoring cable or any perceivable means of thrust. Instead, it was able to float in the sky, high above the clouds, at the border between the blackness of space and the dusky, orangish-red stratosphere.

  Petal huddled next to Quill, holding her gloved hand.

  The trell was getting very close to the Tear Drop now, and the station had swelled in size from the shrinking distance. It was three hundred feet tall and a hundred feet wide at its center.

  "That's the Tear Drop? I thought it would look more like a ship. Or an airplane."

  "It looks like a weather balloon. An upside-down weather balloon," Quill mumbled. "How do we get inside? Is Cynax going to open a door for us?"

  "He said there'll be a hatch on the bottom of it that I can open. I can't believe we're doing this." Petal looked down at the sea, which was now so distant it looked like painted canvas. "This is incredible."

  The trell continued to swing up to the Tear Drop, but now at a much slower speed. The alien station loomed ever larger, blotting out most of the sky. Its sleek, silver sides were made of thousands of panes of one-way glass, like the exterior of a Khai Shen office building.

  When the trell closed to within fifty feet of the Tear Drop, it began to sink. The tethering cable that connected it to the sky went slack, lowering the trell until it was level with the bottom of the station.

  The barrier surrounding the trell switched off, and the whole platform was hit by a hurricane-force gust of jet stream.

  Petal braced herself against Quill. The surrounding temperature plummeted with the wind, becoming so cold she shivered.

  Quill held her breath. The wind flapped her Khoi jacket. She worried that if she exhaled, she'd never get another lungful of breathable air. She peered up at the Tear Drop which was now hovering three feet overhead. The trell began to pivot so the left half of it dangled directly under the station.

  Petal quickly crept her way over to the left side of the trell, crawling across the top of the platform on all fours so the wind couldn't blow her off it. Once she was under the Tear Drop, she gazed up at its underside.

  The convex bottom of the Tear Drop was dotted with hundreds of little, dim, white lights that flickered on and off in a soothing, hypnotic pattern. Between them were deep, canyon-like, black grooves that cut across the station's exterior. Next to one of the grooves, Petal saw the outline of a small, metal square. It had a gray access pad at its center.

  Petal crawled over to the edge of the trell, so she was directly under the little square and its access pad. She motioned for Quill to come closer while removing her gloves. She held her naked hand up to the pad and waited to see if the hatch would open. Her lungs cried out for air. She tried to let a little of her old breath seep out between her lips, but she coughed, and her entire breath was sucked out in an instant.

  Quill fumbled her way over to where Petal was perched, at the very tip of the trell. She was also holding her breath while fighting to keep her footing. As she approached Petal, her boots began to slide across the platform from the push of the wind, and she had to grab onto the girl's jacket to keep herself from slipping off it.

  Petal panicked. Her lungs were empty. She took one deep gasp of the thin air around the trell and then another. Neither satisfied her. The air felt empty in her lungs. She desperately jammed her hand against the access pad, over and over again, but nothing happed.

  Quill grabbed onto Petal more tightly to try to keep her from freaking out. While Petal kept her hand on the access pad, Quill pulled her face into hers and kissed Petal's lips, trying to exhale what was left of her breath into her mouth.

  Even in her panic, Petal was repulsed by the feeling of Quill kissing her. She went to pull away, but then reluctantly sucked Quill's hot breath in.

  The metal square above the girls made a piercing hiss. A puff of white air shot out from it. The left side of the square dropped down and a small hatch opened up behind it.

  Petal pulled away from Quill and poked her head into the open hatch.

  The hatch was set at a diagonal angle. Along the top of it was a steel-rung ladder which led into a gray passageway.

  Petal reached up and clung onto the first ladder rung with bare hands. She climbed it. Since the ladder was set on the ceiling of the sloping passageway, it was inverted and difficult to ascend. Her legs slipped off the rungs and she kicked wildly in the air, almost braining Quill while trying to regain her footing.

  Quill followed Petal up the ladder, two rungs behind, also struggling to maintain her grip. Once she was inside the passageway, the entrance hatch snapped shut and a new hatch at the top of the passage momentarily popped open.

  Pressurized air rushed into the passageway and a little strip of lights that lay on the floor switched on, illuminating the darkness.

  Both girls panted in the little tube, trying to catch their breath. Their arms shook from the strain of holding onto the inverted ladder. They carefully removed their goggles and hoods, now dripping with sweat from fear and the exertion.

  Quill felt like she might slip off the ladder any moment. If she did, she'd crash into the other side of the tube, and then slide down the slick wall, down to the hatch she'd used to enter. If that hatch opened when she hit it, she'd have another five mile fall until she hit ocean.

  "Are you okay?"

  "Yeah," Quill gasped, peeking up at Petal between the gray rungs. "Thank God that opened. We would have suffocated."

  "You kissed me."

  Quill's left foot began to slip off its rung, and she had to swing her entire body forward to keep herself on it.

  "I was trying to give you my breath. You looked like you were dying."

  "That's the second time I've been kissed. They've both been really weird kisses."

  "It wasn't a real kiss," Quill sniffed. Her hands felt like they were going to slip off the rung. She pressed her right foot against the opposite wall and tried to brace herself between it and the ladder. "Why is this ladder on the ceiling instead of the floor? I can barely hold onto it - let alone climb it!"

  Petal nimbly bound her way up the ladder. Her lighter weight and inhuman spryness made climbing much easier than it was for Quill. Quill tried to follow her, but only in fits and starts, as she continually lost her grip and her footing.

  While Quill struggled, Petal reached the hatch at the top of the ladder. This hatch was identical to the one on the station's exterior. It had the same access pad at its center. She put her hand up to it, and the hatch popped open.

  "Here, grab onto me." Petal climbed down a few rungs. She sat down on the ladder and held her hand out. "Take my hand so you don't fall."

  Quill's arms shook. She was completely out of energy. She peered up at Petal wild-eyed.

  "No. Just keep going. I'm too heavy. I'll pull you down with me."

  "No." Petal grabbed Quill's hood and yanked on it. "I'll pull you - just climb."

  Quill ascended more deliberately. Every time she reached a new rung, she'd wrap her legs around it for a few moments to get some rest, before moving onto a higher one. By using this slower method, she was able to reach the top of the ladder without exhausting herself or losing her balance.

  "You okay?" Petal chirped, now huddled under the top hatch.

  Quill nodded, too tired to speak. She tightened her thighs around the ladder and gazed upward.

  "What's next? What's up there?"

  "I dunno." Petal pushed the top hatch open and poked her head out.

  The hatch led into a very large, cylindrical room. The walls were thirty feet tall and made of corrugated, gray metal. The room seemed unfinished. Its interior was empty and the sides were lined with exposed metal slots that looked like I-beams. Ladder rungs spiraled across the walls in one continuous swirl that went all the way up to the ceiling. At the top of the spiraling rungs was another hatch.

  All throughout the empty, gray room were strange silver objects that were floating in the air. They looked like square balloons or pillows. These strange pillows struck against the walls and each other in random, lifeless movements.

  "What can you see?" Quill asked.

  "A big room. It's weird. Some kind of bags are floating around in it-"

  "Crewman Fatima."

  Petal twitched at the sound of Cynax's voice.

  "What is it?"

  "You are now inside of the Tear Drop, correct?"

  "Yeah. How can you tell?"

  "Your communication device relates your position."

  "We're inside. What do we do now?"

  "You should be standing on a ladder at the moment. It leads up from one of the maintenance hatches on the Tear Drop's exterior. Climb that ladder. It will lead you into a very large chamber."

  "I'm at the top of the ladder now - it's upside down. Now I'm in a big room that's full of weird, floating things. Silver bags. They're everywhere."

  "Excellent. Climb to the top of that chamber and access the door at its apex. That door will lead you to a narrow corridor that wraps around the circumference of the Tear Drop."

  "What do I do after that? Where's the computer?"

  "There are dozens of terminals inside of the Tear Drop which you could use to link me up to its central computer. However, most of them are located within the station's analytical labs. Those areas are likely contaminated with Aii. To avoid that hazard, stick to the corridor that wraps around the Tear Drop's circumference. It will lead you to the top of the Tear Drop. At the station's zenith, you will see a small biodome equipped with a golden terminal. Once you locate that terminal, place the emerald cube from the nanite-kit on top of its keypad. I will then contact you with further instructions."

  "Okay," Petal coughed. Sweat glistened on her forehead. "Got it."

  "There is one more thing. A warning. Stay as quiet as possible once you enter the interior of the station. Noise will trigger the Aii to wake up from hibernation. Keep any verbal communication with me or with your human companion to an absolute minimum."

  "We'll be quiet."

  "Excellent. Good luck then."

  The communication device clicked off.

  Petal stuck her head above the hatch one more time and scanned the room above, ogling the floating pillows. She then lowered herself down the ladder and let the hatch close.

  "Well? What did Cynax say?"

  "We're going to the top of the Tear Drop. Follow me. There's going to be a lot more climbing."

  "Great."

  "And you have to keep quiet."

  "Why?"

  "The Aii will wake up if we make too much noise. Once I open this hatch, we can't talk to each other."

  "Okay." Quill's throat went dry. "I'm ready. Open it."

  - 69-

  Quill leaned back on the rung and poked one of the silver pillows that were floating around the large, cylindrical room. She crinkled her nose as the pillow quivered from her touch. Its tinfoilish fabric dimpled where she'd put her finger to it. The strange pillow began to glide away from Quill, jostling up against another floating pillow before bouncing off the opposite wall and drifting back in her direction.

  What the hell are these things? Must be full of helium or something. . .

  Quill watched the collection of strange, floating bags glide aimlessly across the empty interior of the cylinder. She counted at least twenty pillows in the air above and below her spot on the wall.

 

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