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I don’t believe that I could have barked at her I could have ordered her I could have pulled the gun on her She’d probably have done it anyway My foolish, stubborn girl I could have stopped her sory?"

"No"

I’ry either, but I forcethe and sing for days I don’t remember the last time I tasted one

When sleep comes, I let it take ht, and her breathing’s not slow enough for sleep, but she doesn’t speak, and neither do I

When I open , she’s awake too Maybe she didn’t sleep at all Maybe sleep is tooI can’t allow myself to think about that This isn’t my Lilac

We breakfast in silence I break the ration bar in half automatically and pass it to her, and she reaches out to take the other end of the piece so our fingers don’t touch She’s starting to look a little better--there’s a hint of color in her cheeks, and it see’s a little less I eat a little and she nibbles, and then we rise without speaking towhere we’re going

She clears her throat as we step across the streaht I’d seen the last of this dress I threay the pieces"

"Me too" I speak without thinking I can’t help but reply--I know she’s scared, and she’s trying "It’s what you’re wearing, when I think of you"

My memory throws up a quick flash of my parents’ house They showed that to me covered in flowers, the way I always re the dress? Because this is the ie preserved in my memory?

"Really?" She sounds faintly, briefly a into her voice: "I wonder if there are two of them, now"

"Don’t think about that" I say it quickly, but it’s too late We both are

The first room is bare, open to the eleh the twisted opening I’ve seen a hundred outpost entrances like this one--rooear if you don’t

An inner door opens into a larger roo equipht streah the blasted entrance At soes from the files scattered all around the floor I can see stacks of printouts, half intact Some have been dumped in trash cans, where the fire burned out before the documents dissolved completely into ash I wonder if they hold the answers to our questions about the mirror-s that have no place being here

"These could lead to a generator, or so above a bunch of cables that plunge down into the floor She crosses to a bank of circuit breakers on the wall, jerking open a s the switches For an instant I see her in the pod, stripping wires with her fingernails and hot-wiring our escape

I close e away This isn’t her Instead I lean down, pressing my cheek to the nearest computer bank With my eyes closed, I can feel the faintest of vibrations if I hold my breath

There’s still power here A knot of tension releases inside ht Power ahts above us flick on one by one, di disuse The walls and the far end of the roo patchy that looks like wallpaper for a moment, completely out of place Then ether we stare, unco Words and numbers cover the walls, incomprehensible equations and nonsensical half sentences They start orderly, in marker, scrawled in even lines across the walls But here and there they start to dip and slant crazily, the marker replaced by paint, until the words devolve into pictures crudely painted on by fingertips Figures of animals, trees--and men Handprints Here and there a swirl of blue stands out amid the earthy reds and browns, electric--always the sa outward The blue spirals are a focus, but I can ht as if sonize the same reds, blues, and yello dried on the lids of the paint cans in the shed, back e inspected the hovercraft

Paint dribbles down fros are orderly, al Clearly identifiable But overlaid on these e, ofGaudy criure’s throat Another is impaled by a thick slash of black paint, some kind of spear Red flames stream up from a bonfire laden with bodies

"They went mad," she whispers, fearful, and I shoveout to take her hand

I knohat she’s thinking--so about this planet sent the people stationed here insane If an entire station ofspecialists, researchers, and whoever else was posted here fell apart so coet a picture of why this place was abandoned Why the entire planet stands eotten I tear hts overhead We have to keep