The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

Author:John Scalzi
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, pdf
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2017-03-23T09:08:35.254000+00:00

Chapter

10

“I have an itch,” Marce Claremont said to his sister.

“Where?” Vrenna asked.

“My entire head,” Marce replied.

As required, Marce had shaved his entire head short of eyebrows and eyelashes, and had been fitted with cultivated hair and a beard, each embedded in an epidermis-thin substrate of actual skin, which had been secured to his own with the use of a glue made from, or so the person applying it to his face told him, real human collagens. Next came the thumb pad, which made Marce feel like he had tape on his hand, against which he had to mightily fight the urge to pick it off. Then the contacts which changed his eye color and iris pattern, and which included holographic fake corneas that would give the illusion of depth to the fake retinal pattern.

“I can barely see out of these contacts, either.”

“It’s not a bad eye color for you, though,” Vrenna observed. “Maybe keep those in after you get on the ship.”

“You’re funny.”

The two of them were waiting on the elevator that would take Marce down to the lobby. The newly hired crew for the Yes, Sir were told to collect there in order for their papers to be processed and then to be bussed to port, to head to the ship. That was convenient for Marce, who could blend in with the rest of the new crew.

But it also meant that these were literally the last moments he would spend with his sister, possibly in his entire life.

“Tell Dad I’m sorry I didn’t get to say good-bye,” he said, to Vrenna.

“I will. He’ll understand. He won’t be happy, but he’ll understand. He’ll be okay.”

“And how about you? Are you going to be okay?”

Vrenna smiled. “I’m pretty good at being okay. If nothing else, I’m good at keeping busy. And the thing is, rumor has it that no matter what, everyone on End is going to be really busy soon. I have an agenda, anyway.”

“What’s on the agenda?”

“The first thing is to dangle Ghreni Nohamapetan off a building for kidnapping my brother.”

Marce laughed at this, and then the elevator bell dinged and the door opened.

Vrenna grabbed her brother in a fierce hug, gave him a peck on the cheek, and then pushed him, gently, into the elevator. “Go on,” she said. “Go tell the emperox everything. Save everyone if you can. And then come back.”

“I’ll try.”

“Love you, Marce,” Vrenna said, as the door started to close.

“Love you, Vrenna,” Marce said, just before it did.

Marce had twenty floors to get his emotions in check.

The elevator opened up to a couple dozen people milling about and three people in official House of Lagos crew uniforms. One of them looked over to Marce as the elevator opened up. “What the hell are you doing in the elevator?” she asked.

“I was looking for a bathroom,” Marce said.

“Well, there’s not one in there. Get out of that.”

Marce got out. The crew member held out her hand for his papers; he handed them over.

“Kristian Jansen,” she said, looking at them.

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