Chapter 3: Of Grave Concern

When Alice arrived at the gates, her mother was frantically rushing out, Vermillion in a twisted and contorted position in her arms.

“Where have you been?” It would have come out as a shout, had she not been puffing so hard.

The words fought with one another to be the first out of Alice’s mouth, resulting in none landing a clean exit. “Well, I… wait, what do–“.

Her mother cut her off. “Just get in the car and drive!”

Alice couldn’t move. Her eyes met with Milly’s – they were bursting out of her face, stricken with horror, mouth open; her muscles and veins in permanent bulges. Her arms and legs were twisted and gnarled like an old willow. Was it the temporary glasses Geminal gave her?

“Lou! Now!” The back door opened with barely enough time for her mother to clamber into the backseat, Vermillion still in her arms.

Alice finally managed to break free. “…but, Ma, I haven’t been updated to drive across town to the Facilities?!” In fact, Alice wasn’t used to her mother ever asking her to drive. She gleaned the driver’s door open.

“We’re going to Geminal’s. Let’s go!” Her mother’s voice indicated this was not a topic of debate.

“Wait, what? Why Geminal’s? She needs a doctor!” cried Alice, demanding a debate regardless. This makes no sense. In what crazy world do you take a sick child to a backstreet robotics engineer for emergency medical care?

“Stop arguing and just do it!”

----//----

Geminal was standing waiting at the ready. Alice had barely stopped the car before her mother was bursting out. Geminal scooped Vermillion into his big bear arms.

By the time Alice entered, she caught just a glimpse of her mother disappearing through a door at the back of the store. Wait, where does that lead to? That’s the door that was always locked; always off limits. She rushed forwards through the cluttered aisles, trying to dodge the armoured clamour attempting in vein to slow her. As she reached the doorway, a strange glow of green and blue radiated outwards, almost like a mist. Even the door itself, which swung outwards, had a smooth metallic inner lining – a surface at odds with practically everything in the store – or with Geminal’s personality, for that matter.

Time slowed as she stepped into the doorway; the world changed in an instant: rays of light pierced through her retinas in dazzling arrays of purples and yellows, bending the misty greens and blues. A jarring pain shot up her spine, like the shock impact of landing on your feet after jumping from something high. She threw her arm across her face to shield from the light and pain, only for the rays to seemingly pass through regardless.

In a moment the pain lifted, and she could now see into the room. The walls were a hive of blinking activity, panels with buttons and screens, switches and holograms. Everything seemed shiny, including the two clean desks against one wall. Two large recliners sat in the centre of the room – one which Vermillion straddled awkwardly, her still-twisted body only half touching its contours. Cables and cords hung from the ceiling, or where a ceiling should have been. The room appeared to have no top, only darkness. Then Alice realised that the depth of the room itself was… indeterminable? She lowered her arm, realising that she was somehow seeing through it. How am I seeing? Geminal was hunched over Vermillion, attaching dangling cables to her head. And he looked… slimmer… and younger. He turned and looked at her.

“Loulou, grab my old Panoptes Corp satchel? It should be under my work bench.”

Alice snapped back into the present. The colours around her had returned to normal; Geminal looked his usual size and age. She stumbled back out of the doorway and into the store towards his work bench. It should be under the work bench? She vaguely remembered an old kit Geminal used to have. Maybe that was it? Panores… what?

Just as she was reaching the workbench, she tripped on some scrap metal and crashed spectacularly onto the dusty floor. Pain to her elbows and knees suggested she’d grazed at least a few spots, but her uninterrupted view now revealed the prize: the distinct “P” hexagonal logo on Geminal’s old bag presented itself. The logo gave off a strange ethereal glow – or aura – she’d never noticed before. What happened to me in there?

She dragged it out, and struggled to her feet: it was deceptively heavy. She waddled embarrassingly back to the room and inside. The floors were smooth, perhaps polished, or maybe metallic. As she went to drop the bag by Geminal’s side, he scooped it up with one hand, too busy to acknowledge her; his eyes remained fixed on her sister.

Alice followed his gaze. Vermillion was attached to more than a dozen cords and cables now, mostly to her head, but to other places Alice couldn’t make sense of. Her expression and body were still contorted; but rather than a look of horror, her face now looked more… knowing?

I don’t get any of this. She looked up at her mother: she sat dead still and tense, eyes transfixed on Vermillion, likely gleaning feedback through her glasses. Her mother, Paloma Belange, was kind and smart, but these traits tended to present in a somewhat diminished way: she’d become highly strung since Alice’s father had disappeared, and it belied her true nature. It was like she cared too much, and she had taken on some unseen burden which she had once shared only half the load of.

Geminal was muttering to himself. He had dug out some old tools from his satchel: scopes, clamps, and other mechanical devices. They looked at odds with this surrounding high-tech setting. Alice stopped to properly realise the room she was in. Unlike the rest of the store, this room was full of modern tech, and the kind she knew Geminal detested. She could see why it had been off-limits to her as a child, as the gods only know what this equipment was capable of being used for. But how long had it been here, and what did he use it for? She could now see the room was quite small, but the arrangement of chairs and desks in the room suggested it was setup for some particular purpose in mind.

“It’s no good. We’ll have to take her to the RNR.” Geminal started shoving tools back in his satchel, before pulling cords out.

“The Facility?” Interjected Alice. “Is it really that bad?” No one seemed to hear her.

“We’ll take my van”, said Geminal. “This way”.

Again, the room started to glow vibrantly and blur, similar to when Alice had first stepped in. The distances and space seemed to shift without shifting. A door began to open between panels, deceptively appearing – boldly – as though it had always been there. A new light streamed in now: angelically white, and blindingly so. Bright sunshine flooded the room, bending the former cerulean tones to pale by comparison. Reflexively, Alice raised her arm to shield her eyes, this time successfully. When she lowered it, Geminal was already out the door with Vermillion, her mother trailing behind. Alice pursued them outside, still confused and entirely unsure. She gleaned open the front passenger door of Geminal’s van and jumped in.

She hadn’t travelled much with Geminal; not since she was much younger. The van glided at dangerously tantalising speeds down the airways, passing the peaks of glassy buildings and leafy treetops. She dimmed the signals from her glasses; sensory messages flooding her thoughts. She looked up at Geminal. His eyes were locked on the airways ahead. He looked tense, and hunched slightly over the controls. Why had he looked younger and slimmer? Without breaking his focus, he reached a hand up to his shirt pocket and pulled out a folded note, barely visible between his two huge fingers.

“I know the doctor. Give her this.”

Alice took the note. It seemed life size again. As she started to unfold it, Geminal quickly interrupted.

“Don’t read it! They’re instructions for her.” He paused. At least, it seemed like he had more to say.

Alice looked ahead again, leaving the pause hanging. Instructions? What does that mean? And what kind of instructions could Geminal be giving to a doctor?

Geminal resumed in his soft, low rumble. “After you left this morning, I had an inkling this might be the case. I should have picked up on this sooner.”

“That what might be the case? Everyone is speaking cryptically. What’s going on?”

“I have worked with Dr Greenscape before. She is highly skilled. Ensure she gets the note, and do not say anything more to her, or anyone else.”

Alice stared at Geminal. Is it just me, or does Geminal sound… smarter?