Defy the Fates by Claudia Gray

Author:Claudia Gray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2019-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

A few hours later, she lies on a biobed in the Goshen hospital. Unlike the ones on the Persephone, this biobed is soft, with a cushy pillow, and a light cotton blanket has been wrapped around her. Soft afternoon light filters through the window, through which she can see the grassy meadows that skirt the city, the same meadows she and Esther ran through as children. She ought to feel swaddled, comforted, made whole.

Instead, she hears the murmurs of the physicians who don’t know what to make of her. Noemi catches only a word here and there:

“Unprecedented.”

“Irreversible.”

“Appalling.”

“Abomination.”

Thank God at least one of the doctors can handle what she’s become.

“This is amazing,” says Ephraim Dunaway, who hurried from the capital to her bedside in order to help. He’s one of the only physicians on Genesis who understands mech components at all. “This stuff goes beyond any bioengineering I’ve ever seen. Some of this is standard tech, but some of it—most of it, especially this cybernetic nervous system—this is a huge leap forward. It looks as organic as any other cells in the body. You couldn’t tell those parts were artificial if it weren’t for the accelerated functions.”

“In other words, we couldn’t tell the difference between a mech and a human?” The head doctor on Noemi’s team recoils. “This is Earth’s next conspiracy against us. While settlers keep showing up pretending to be desperate Vagabonds, playing on our sympathies—Earth could be putting newly engineered mechs in their ranks. Every offworlder must be considered suspect.”

Noemi feels sick, now more in her spirit than her body. “That’s not true,” she insists. “I’m the first person this has ever been done to. There aren’t any others. You can’t force out the Vagabonds—they need homes, they fought for you—”

“No political decisions will be made in this room,” the doctor replies, his eyes narrowed. “I’ll point out only that you have no way of knowing that you’re the only one.”

“Actually, I do, since the one and only person who can do this is Gillian Shearer, aka daughter of Burton Mansfield, also known as the would-be cult leader who’s currently running things on Haven.” For one moment Noemi wishes Abel had given her the Persephone and taken the starfighter for himself, only because then she could’ve showed these idiots more of the proof of where she’s been, and what was done.

Her heart aches at the thought of Abel, but she pushes it aside.

Showing the doctors proof wouldn’t have made a difference, because they aren’t even listening to her. “You’ll have to remain under observation,” says the suspicious doctor. His tone makes it sound less like they’re taking care of her, and more like she’s under arrest.

She never really felt like she belonged on Genesis—but now she’s more of an outcast than ever before.

As the other physicians file out, muttering among themselves, Ephraim stays beside her bed and takes her hand. He’s a large man—tall and muscular, someone she’d expect to have become a soldier rather than a healer. Yet his gentleness is as much a part of him as his warm brown eyes or dark skin.

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