No More Lonesome Blue Rings Read online

I chose to think it was in surprise.

  Redding studied me. "Did you do that to one of them before?"

  I managed to nod.

  She set her jaw and turned back to Richard. "Here's the deal. We know how to hurt you. You've been human. You know we'll use it. We nuked our own species just to make a war shorter. You still know that, don't you? You're still human enough?"

  "Yes," Richard said quietly.

  "So, you're going to return all our people. You're going to expand our territory as you suggested. You're going to stay the hell away from us. I don't understand what she did, but I know you don't like it. And that's all I need to know. Sherry is a weapon, a living weapon, and we will use her at any excuse. Any excuse. Do you understand?"

  Richard nodded and turned to the Townie. They communed in silence for a moment, then Richard turned back to Redding. "It will be as you say. Your Townies will be restored to mortal Carnies within the next hour and returned to the place where they were taken from. Or the nearest open space, for the buildings you destroyed trying to stop us."

  The Townie vanished. Richard looked at me, then back at Redding. "Please," he said quietly. "Please care for her as I would."

  Redding studied Richard's face. "You have my word," she said quietly.

  Richard looked at me one last time, turned, and walked away.

  Redding watched him go for a breath, then turned to me. "You, ma'am," she said quietly, "have nukes in your guts." She raised her voice. "Get this woman to medical. And for God's sake, get her the medicine she needs so she can stand!"

  * * * * *

  They've never used me since.

  The rules are different here. Prions can't reproduce. Some genetic diseases are communicable to the Townies. I carry a genetic disease. The Townies have no experience with disease, let alone one that scrambles their genes.

  I'm well-treated. The Red Bands get better treatment too, with more caretakers and more recreation activities and better facilities. Specialists come through the new Portal to examine my genes, and other specialists come to examine prion disorders. It's one of my conditions for negotiating.

  I get what I want. And some days, I want to go to the border. Beyond the stones is Townie space. Within, Carnie. But in the space the stones themselves stand, that six-foot or so ribbon that represents the width of the stones themselves, the inside of the boundary...

  That's where Richard and I play cribbage. Or we kick a ball back and forth across the line. There's a twenty-foot gap in the fence, just for my ball. I'm probably the only person in any universe who plays kickball supervised by two machine-gun nests and with two dozen armored soldiers as escorts.

  I make myself expensive. Expensive enough that they'll want to replace me. And they're trying. One day, one of the prion researchers will uncover a cure and reverse my damage. Or, one other day, I won't be so important. They'll have other living weapons.

  One day, I will no longer need my tattoo.

  About the Author

  Michael Warren Lucas is a writer, computer engineer, and martial artist from Detroit, Michigan. You can find his Web site at www.michaelwarrenlucas.com and his fiction (including more stories about life in the universes beyond the Montague Portals) at all online bookstores.

  Under the name Michael W Lucas, he's written ten critically-acclaimed books on advanced computing.

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