A Strange Find: Part 2

I opened my eyes. And winced as my stomach growled. We’d all been too tired from the boat chase to fix dinner last night, so I hadn’t eaten. Judging by the fact that it was barely light out, hunger was the only thing keeping me awake. 

I disentangled myself from Benjy, Serga’s fat old cat, and sat up. He blinked at me accusingly and slipped out the door of the bedroom the three of us shared, stepping over a pile of dismantled tech and wires Giji had left on the floor. They’re the untidiest person I know, which is really saying something.

I followed the cat out of the bedroom, pulling on a sweater to fend off the pre-dawn chill. I closed the door behind me and turned on the lights in our little eat-in kitchen to their dimmest setting. If I was lucky, I could have breakfast ready by the time the others got up. I had just gotten a big pot of coffee steeping and started rummaging through the fridge when I heard the click of metal against the plastic floor tiles. 

I looked up to see Violet watching me. “Oh, hi. Did I wake you?”

She shook her head. “I was watching the sun rise. Are you making food?”

“Yep. Wanna help?” 

“I don’t know how.” 

“Well, if you don’t mind the smell, you can use your claws to snip up some of those herbs from the garden.” 

I jerked a thumb the tiny balcony beyond our apartment's sliding glass door. It’s covered in Serga’s potted plants. I have no idea how she gets them to grow so well up here, but they make a nice addition to the scarce food we can afford. 

“I’ll need some sage, which is the one with the really big fuzzy leaves that smells a little salty-musty.” 

Violet nodded. A few minutes later, she came back with a heaping handful of sage leaves.

I grinned. 

“Probably more than I need, but thank you. You can put the extra in that bag over there.”

We cooked in companionable silence, broken only by my occasional directions to Violet.

By the time the sun was fully up, I'd made some eggs with sage, onions, a bit of cheese, and a few synthetic protein chunks scrambled in. The protein didn't taste like much, but there was no way we were going to splurge on something like real meat right now. With the addition of some canned fruit on the side, it all made a pretty good meal. 

Soon after I'd set the table, Giji and Serga stumbled out of our communal bedroom. 

"Hey, breakfast!" Giji said with a grin. 

"Yep." I said, gesturing grandly. 

"You look like an ice princess when you do that. You know, with the hair and the smirk and everything." 

I rolled my eyes. "I wish. Maybe then I could freeze up your tech when you try to play pranks on me." 

"You wouldn't. I'm too adorable." Giji said, fluttering their lashes dramatically. 

I snorted good-naturedly. “Sure you are.” 

As we ate, I picked up my phone and scrolled through my social feed. 

“Anything interesting?” Serga asked. 

“Well, Siram K has a new album out, there’s been a bunch of religious groups boycotting VivaCorp’s genetic hybrid pets, and . . . Oh, holy crap.” 

“What?!” Everybody demanded, leaning over my shoulders to see. 

“That explosion we caused last night. It’s on the news.” I said softly.

Serga grabbed my phone to skim the article. I was still too shocked to stop her. 

“An unidentified terrorist group struck defunct testing facilities near Allegra last night, setting off a devastating explosion that killed over fifty local Allegran Lawkeepers.” Serga read out loud. “Many survivors are still badly wounded. The Lawkeepers have their best detectives on the case, but no leads have been found as of yet. Foul play by foreign powers is strongly suspected.” 

I heaved a sigh of relief. “Okay, they think it’s somebody else. We should be safe for now.” 

Serga nodded. “Yeah. We got lucky.”  

“You’re both missing the point!” Giji snapped. “There are fifty people dead because of us. Fifty people!!” 

“Because of us? More like because of her.” Serga said quietly, nodding towards Violet. 

The robot had gone to sit on the couch, huddled up under her wings. She must have heard us though, because she poked her head out. 

“I didn’t know the explosion would be so large.” She whispered. Her voice was shaky, like she was trying not to cry. “I’ve never done that before. I wasn’t trying to kill them.” 

I elbowed Serga. “See, she didn’t mean it, okay? So stop blaming her.” 

Giji nodded. “We’re all responsible for that, but trying to use any one of us as a scapegoat isn’t gonna help.” 

They went over to Violet and held out a hand. “C’mon. You’ve been wearing that old blanket since last night. Let’s go see if any of my clothes fit you.” 

Violet took their hand and let Giji pull her to her feet.

As they left the room, I turned to Serga. 

“What have you got against Violet? And don’t give me any crap about how you don’t. You’ve been twice as grouchy as usual last night and this morning.” 

Serga sighed. “You really want to know?” 

I nodded impatiently. 

“She scares me. I don’t think she’s evil or anything, but it’s pretty clear she doesn’t know her own strength. Any more flashy slip-ups like last night could really cost us, maybe get us killed.” 

“I know.” I said. “But we’ll find a way to help her get it under control. Giji can probably help with that, they’re the best technomancer we know. She’s part of the family now, just as much as they are.” 

Serga smacked her lips, thinking, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll help look out for her, and I’ll try to keep the grumpy comments to myself.” 

I leaned over in my seat and hugged her. “Thanks. Love you.” 

My big sister smiled and rolled her eyes. 

“Love you too. Now get off of me, sheesh.”