I buried the bodies on Earth, in the middle of one of North America’s national parks. The one Dad had taken us to to go fishing that one time. Why he had to take us fishing is beyond me, but he said it was an important right of passage. So we went fishing. It was boring as hell but I’d do it again if I could get them all back.
-From the logs of Theseus Goodfellow
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Maggie stumbled back from Robin in shock, half falling onto the exam table. “Holy shit...” Now she really was going crazy! But from the looks of things, Robin was just as shocked as she was.
Robin stared down at his hands, his mouth slightly open. “I could feel you... I haven’t felt anyone since- since I died.”
“But how can you feel me? You’re a hologram! Holograms aren’t solid! Unless there’s some technology that you haven’t told me about yet?” Maggie sat down on the exam table, her heart pounding. Which really did nothing for the burning sensation in her chest, damnit it just made it worse.
“There’s no technology that would make a hologram solid, holograms are just- they’re just light bent into shape! I shouldn’t be able to feel anything, and you shouldn’t be able to feel me either!” Robins form flickered in his agitation, looking like a bad picture on an old TV screen. He took a deep breath (not that he needed to breath), and let it out slowly. As he breathed out his form steadied, the distracting flickering stopped, and he shrank down to his accustomed doll-sized form.
“Okay.” He said, pacing back and forth in the air. “Okay. It’s just another aspect of the Key we hadn’t discovered yet, it has to be that. Which means that it can be explained with science. Maybe the energy of it allows you to, I don’t know, feel light?”
“But I can’t feel the light in here like I can feel you! It’s just normal light.” Calm down, calm down it wasn’t that big a deal. Right? Just some weird fluke of technology.
“Is everything alright in here?” Tomas stepped into the exam room, holding a crystal datapad in one hand and a sealed cup of what smelled like coffee in the other. He looked over the shell-shocked pair, one dark eyebrow raising.
Maggie nearly jumped out of her skin, and Robin’s form flickered for a moment before steadying again. “Nothing! I mean, nothing is wrong Doctor, just something new we found out.” Robin spoke quickly, his gaze darting to Maggie then back to Sil’Vala Tomas.
“Something new? Do tell. Maggie, are you comfortable with Robin being in here for your exam” Tomas set his coffee into a clamp by the sink, taking a moment to wash his hands with water that carried the sharp scent of chemicals with it.
“I-I’m fine with that.” She had to pull herself together. At least the voices were quiet right now. As for being okay with Robin being here, it wasn’t like she was going to be naked. And he had been an almost constant companion for over a week now. She could trust him, right? She had to be able to trust someone here. “How much do you know about these Key things? Can you take it out?”
A look of discomfort crossed Tomas’s face, and he was silent a moment as he pulled out a scanner and a couple other tools. He set them carefully on a tray, letting it go so that it floated next to the exam table. “That is what I need to see. If it is progressing as they usually do there may still be hope, but I want to scan you first. Tell me about this new thing you two found out. It seems to have you both quite shaken.”
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Robin and Maggie looked at each other, as if asking the other for permission. It was Maggie who broke the silence, this was supposed to be her exam after all, and maybe if Doctor Tomas knew about it he could explain it. “I can... I can feel Robin. When he touched me, I could feel him.”
“And I could feel her.” Robin added. He slowly returned to his full size, a large, broad shouldered man with perpetually messy short hair.
Tomas looked at the pair of them, nodding to show he was listening. “I see.”
Maggie felt a twinge of annoyance. ‘I see’? That was all he had to say about it? “We’re not crazy!” She said firmly, almost trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince Tomas.
“I never said you were. Would you mind demonstrating as I run a scan?” He flicked on his scanner, releasing the small drone to circle around Maggie in what felt like a more thorough scan than the first time. She supposed he was breaking out all the fancy gadgets now that she had been on the station for a while.
“Do you mind Maggie? You can say no if you want.” Robin looked at her nervously, but held out a hand. Maggie stared at it for a moment, almost afraid to touch it. But she wanted to know what the hell was going on, wanted answers damnit!
“I don’t mind.” She took a deep breath, and reached out to touch his hand lightly. There was that cool tingle again, his strong fingers curling around hers to give a gentle squeeze. Her eyes darted up to Robin’s face, a blush forming on her own. “What does it feel like to you?”
Robin stared down at their linked hands. His thumb traced along the back of her hand, his fingers surprisingly soft. “Warm.” He finally whispered, his eyes raising to meet her gaze. “You feel warm.”
“You feel cool, and a little bit tingly. But also soft? Somehow?”
“Interesting.” Tomas looked at their joined hands, watching the slight movement of Maggie’s flesh as Robin rubbed the back of her hand. “And it isn’t even your hand that the Key was originally in.”
“Does that matter?” Maggie asked, looking at Tomas.
“It’s simply surprising. The Key is spreading through your body, starting from that hand. It often spreads using the blood stream as a conduite to the rest of a persons body. But you reached out to him with your other hand, which the Key shouldn’t have reached yet.”
“Is it spreading faster than normal then?” Robin looked at the diagram of Maggie as it started to update with data from the scanner drone. The blue that she was sure represented the progress of the Key had spread significantly, engulfing her right arm and spreading out through her chest. Was that why she had such awful heartburn?
Tomas held out a hand, the scanner drone floating back to him and dropping down into his palm. “It is.” He frowned as he studied the chart as well.
“What does that mean? Does that mean you- you can’t get it out?” Maggie stood up from the exam table, staring at the chart. The Key was spreading, taking over her body. What even would be left of Maggie to go back to Earth at this rate?
Tomas ran a hand along the diagram, tracing the blue that had spread across her chest and started down her other arm. “Do you see this blue? This is how much of your body has melded with the Key already. Perhaps I could have if I had removed your arm when you first came to us.... but now? It’s spread to your vital organs, including your heart. If I try to remove it, you’ll die.”
“You can’t die, we need you.” The voice whispered as Maggie stared at the diagram, feeling like the room was closing in on her. She couldn’t see Tomas or Robin, although she could still feel Robin’s hand in hers. She could just see that damn diagram. It really was taking her over. What if the voice was the Key? What if it just wanted to use her like a puppet?
“Maggie? Are you alright?” Robin asked gently. His voice sounded so far away, her heart was pounding so loud in her ears. She had to slow it down, if this thing spread through her blood then if her heart beat faster, didn’t that mean it would just spread faster? She didn’t want it to spread faster! She put her hand to her chest, gripping at the shirt she wore as burning pain shot through her. Calm down, she had to calm down.
“Maggie, can you hear us?” Doctor Tomas asked, moving to block her view of the diagram. She felt like she couldn’t get a breath in, the pain spreading up her neck and across her shoulders and arms. Somewhere, an alarm beeped insistantly.
“Maggie!” Robin’s voice was nearly drowned out by the roaring in her ears, and the room went dark.