by Anne Harris

In a near-future Detroit, the living polymer industry has the city in its grip. While vat-divers struggle to organize, the GeneSys Corporation works on making human workers obsolete. An escaped mutant, a con-artist and a techno-geek team up to unravel corporate blackmail, deceit and murder. One thing is certain: the city and the world will never be the same once the latest R&D development is unleashed.

Chapter 9 — Shivers of Glass

One afternoon when Chango had gone down to Greektown to scan codes, Helix went on her own to Hyper’s house. “Helix,” he said in surprise, pushing the screen door open to let her in. “Where’s Chango?”

“She went to Greektown,” Helix said, stepping through the doorway.

“Oh.” Hyper raised his eyebrows meaningfully. “Codes.” He turned to his workshop. “Come on in,” he said over his shoulder. “I was just rewiring a telephone.”

Helix sat on a stool across from him as he dismantled an ancient push button phone. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this yet,” said, frowning down on it. When in doubt, take it apart.” His fingers jabbed the buttons idly, producing a ragged tune. “Hey.” He looked at her. “If I got three more of these, I could make you a musical instrument. A keyboard only you could play.”

Helix made a face. “I don’t think so.”

“No? Oh well,” he shrugged. “So what’s up?”

Helix lifted her shoulders to mimic his gesture and bit her upper lip. “If someone were to apply for a job, as a vatdiver, how would they go about it?”

“Someone wants a job as a vatdiver?” Hyper leaned forward, staring at her, grinning in amazement. “Are you sure?”

She nodded her head. Hyper’s eyebrows arched and he gazed at the ceiling with a long drawn out sigh. When he looked back at her it was with a quizzical expression. “Why do you want to dive?”

Helix opened her mouth, but she didn’t know what to say.

“You don’t know, do you? You just want to do it.”

She nodded and then shook her head. “It’s a job, that’s all. I need a job.”

“Uh-huh.” Hyper nodded faintly, and returned his attention to the telephone. “Well, if someone wanted to apply for a job in the vats, they’d have to place an application with personnel. Someone could do that either by going to the personnel office at GeneSys or by filing the application over the holonet.” His eyes slid across the table to his transceiver headset, and back to her. “You can use it, if you want.”

Helix sat in the bare, tiled examination room, clutching a flimsy paper gown about her. The air was chilly, and she shivered.

The door opened and a tall, white-coated figure entered. "Helix Martin?" he said, glancing at a mylar form on a clipboard.

"Yes," she shifted nervously on the examination table.

"Stand up please, and turn around."

Helix turned her back to him, and felt his hands exploring her shoulders, her back, her arms... "Candidate possesses obvious mutations; quadruple arms and overdevelopment of the canine molars," he murmured into his transceiver. "You can sit down again," he said to her.

She climbed back onto the examination table, and he fastened a monitor to her naked back. "Heart-rate slightly elevated," he said, gazing at the readout. "Are you nervous?" he asked her, smiling.

She nodded.

"There's no need to be, it's just a routine examination. I'm going to take some blood now, okay?"

She shrugged. "Okay."

He pricked her finger with a sharp tube that drew her blood up into it, set the tube in a labelled capsule, and handed her an empty beaker. "All I need now is a urine sample. There's a rest room down the hall. You can get dressed first. Just leave the sample on the shelf in the bathroom. The personnel clerk will be getting in touch with you in a few days."

"That's it?"

"That's it. Fill this, and you can go. Not as bad as you expected, huh?"

She shook her head, and after he left, scrambled gratefully into her clothes.

oOo

Chango pushed mashed potatoes around on her plate and wondered what could be taking Helix so long. She said she had to run an errand for Hyper, but she didn’t say what it was, and when Chango offered to go with her, she refused. For that matter, she hadn’t been able to get much out of Hyper about this errand either. He only mumbled something about machine parts and went back to his welding.

They were living with Hyper now. Mavi needed the pink room for Hugo. She and Helix made a bed for themselves among the cushions in the front room, and Chango made sure the door was locked.

“Hey,” said a voice beside her. Chango looked up from her demolished plate special to see Helix standing there, still wearing the raincoat, but unbuttoned now. It was a start.

“Hey, what took you so long? Have a seat.”

Helix sat down across from her, smiling widely, her fangs poking out from her lips.

“What’s got you so happy, huh?”

Helix shrugged, her eyes flickering uneasily over Chango’s face. “It’s a nice day out. And it’s good to see you.”

“Huh. I don’t know. You’ve got what I’d call a shit eating grin on you. You up to something?”

Helix shook her head slowly, then took one of Chango’s hands in hers, brought it to her mouth and started chewing lightly on her fingers.

“Hey, stop it. Not in here,” regretfully she pulled her hand back.

“No? Okay.” Helix folded her four hands primly on the table. “So what are we doing tonight?”

“Think you’re ready to go to the bar? There’s a band playing at Josa’s tonight.”

“Hmm.”

“I’ll be with you. And Hyper said he’s going.”

Helix nodded. “Okay.” And then, to Chango’s amazement, she took off her raincoat. “You were right you know,” she said. “People aren’t as bad as I thought they’d be.”

oOo

Chango clung to one of Helix’s hands and squirmed through the crowd at Josa’s. It was fine for her, she was good at slipping through crowds, but Helix kept getting caught on people. By the time they got to the bar, she’d had the best possible introduction to a fair percentage of the Vattown population, and was looking pretty panicky. “Sorry about that,” said Chango, “It’s kind of crowded.”

Helix shook her head, and laughed. “That was so weird!” she said, looking more like the victim of a roller coaster ride than a person actually terrified. She’d left her raincoat at Hyper’s, wearing just the green polysuit and a blue sylk swing tunic they found yesterday behind Clothzillion’s. Her color was high, her eyes sparkling. With a twinge of pride, Chango noticed that other people were staring at her too.

“People were all pushed up against me,” said Helix. “No one could really see me. But I felt them,” she leaned forward and ran a hand up Chango’s arm. “like I felt you.”

Chango’s eyes widened. This was a far cry from the person who’d fled in terror because Chango bumped into her in a casino. “I can’t believe how well you’re handling this!” she shouted as the band started up. “I didn’t think I’d get you in the door!”

“Hey kids!” it was Hyper, popping out of the crowd like a cork. He still had his transceiver on, with a projector lens screwed onto it so he could flash pictures up on the walls when he danced.

The Ply-Tones started playing Zinc Oxide, and Chango jumped off her stool. “I have to dance to this!” she said.

“Yeah!” Hyper nodded his head at the dark walls of the bar, “I’m with you, sister. What this place needs is a good light show.”

Chango shook her head, “We can’t leave Helix here alone!”

They glanced at Helix, who stood. “I’ll dance,” she said, her voice barely audible over the urgent beat of the music.

Hyper danced in a manic jitter, frantically switching channels, providing the bar’s denizens with visuals ranging from detergent commercials to open heart surgery. The images flashed and flickered on the walls as his head swayed to the music, but his efforts were in vain. Everybody within eyeshot was watching Helix.

She danced like a temple goddess, her arms waving, her skin glistening with the reflected colors of Hyper’s wall projections. Space formed around them as the other dancers slowed and backed away to watch her. When the song ended, they were surrounded by a ring of onlookers who burst into spontaneous applause. Helix stood in the middle of the circle, her eyes suddenly wide with surprise and fear. But then another song started, and her body seemed to take over from her mind, turning and swaying with the undulating rhythms of the music.

oOo

The set ended and Helix, out of breath and dizzy from dancing, followed Chango and Hyper back to the bar. Hyper ordered a round of drafts. With just the jukebox playing, the noise in the bar settled down to a dull roar. The door opened, and a discernable ripple ran through the place. The crowd parted to let a stately creature through. She walked with either indolent grace or extreme carefulness, Helix wasn’t sure which. She was upwards of seven feet tall, her hair — pure white and fine as spun glass — was swept up over her brows in an elaborate filigree of braids. Her skin was not so much white as it was transparent. She looked blue. Not the black blue of the night sky, but the softest, palest powder blue imaginable, and even from here, Helix could make out the tracery of veins across her face and hands. Accompanied by her bodyguard, she glided to the back of the bar and softly folded herself into a corner booth.

"The Doctor is in," muttered Chango.

"Who is that?" whispered Helix.

"Orielle," Chango told her. "They say if it weren't for her, there'd be no blast in Vattown. Of course that's not all she deals in."

People began to drift over to Orielle's table singly and in pairs. They'd sit with her for a time — you never actually saw the money or anything else, but in a little while they’d get up and another set of buyers took their place.

"I think they're getting up," said Hyper, sliding off his stool and nodding at the pair of divers at the booth.

"Hey, what are you doing?" asked Chango.

Hyper looked over his shoulder and grinned.

“You’re not buying anything from her, are you?” said Chango.

Hyper shrugged.

“Hyper, with your jumped up metabolism, you can’t afford to go messing around with her concoctions.”

“I’m just going to say ‘hi’. Don’t you want to meet her, Helix?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” said Helix.

“Then come on.”

Helix followed him to Orielle’s table, trailed reluctantly by Chango.

"Orielle, I want you to meet Helix, Helix, Orielle,” said Hyper.

The creature lifted her head, and turned towards them a face of finely drawn bones — all sharp edges and angular planes, her skin thin and translucent, like rice paper. And her eyes — red, hot, albino eyes. "I have heard so much about you," she said to Helix, dropping her eyes and waving her into the seat across from her. Her long, silver painted fingernails glittered and drew figures in the air.

Like dancers, Orielle’s hands moved across the table top, scooped up a small silver box, and then by some subtle motion, she held four ampules in her hand like slivers of ice, palest blue. "A little something of my own design,” she said, “I call it Shivers of Glass. It has a diazepam base note with highlights of ergoloid mesylate. A tad on the narcotic side but still I find it quite... exquisite.” She twirled an ampule between her fingers and broke it, throwing her head back and inhaling the evaporating liquid.

A moment passed with nothing more than bar noises to mark it. Orielle drew her head back down, her eyes glittering. There were still three ampules in her hand. “Would you like to try it?” she asked Helix.

Chango shook her head.

“No thanks,” said Helix. Orielle offered an ampule to Hyper, but he refused under Chango’s insistent glare. Orielle turned to Chango.

“No thanks,” she said.

“Ah that’s right, you’re the little pothead who doesn’t do drugs.”

Chango scowled, “What’s a little reefer? It’s mixed with tobacco anyway.”

“Oh and tobacco isn’t a drug?”

“No, and neither is pot in my opinion, they’re plants. The stuff you sell, it’s all synthesized chemicals. Man made substances the human body was never designed to handle.”

Orielle chuckled softly, “Whatever. Anyway, I haven’t seen your friend Benny here tonight. Tell him I’ve come into a quantity of blast in liquid form. If he’s interested I can give him a good price.”

Chango wrinkled her nose. “What would Benny want with liquid? He’s not a shooter.”

“Of course not. Some people like to make their own blends. He was into it a few years ago, so maybe he’d be interested now.”

“Maybe,” said Chango, “but I’m not doing your pushing for you. You want to sell him something, you talk to him.”

“She’s quite cantankerous, isn’t she?” Orielle said to Helix. “Is she taking good care of you?”

“Oh yeah,” said Helix, “She licks my teeth.”

For a moment, silence reigned, and then Orielle's face split apart, shattered and dissolved and reformed itself into laughter. Her voice pitched through the bar in earsplitting peals, and the crowd, perhaps in self-defense, raised their voices in whoops and shouts. She looked at Helix closely. “They say you are the strangest sport since I came along,” she said. “Some even have the umbrage to say you are stranger than I am. But-” she smiled a broad thin smile, like a crack in a windowpane “-I think they may be right. What ever shall I do?" She shook her head sadly.

"Why do you want to be the strangest?" asked Helix.

"Well, I must be something, mustn't I? Especially since I won't be anything for terribly long."

"It seems to me you're pretty accomplished without the goofy chromosomes," Helix said, nodding at the broken ampule laying on the table.

"Yes, but without the chromosomes, without the strangeness, I never would have had the initiative to do any of it. It wouldn't have mattered. Oh, how I pity those unfortunate creatures whose differences are invisible, and no less deadly,” she nodded at Hyper.

"You say creatures..."

"It is a more noble term than sport. Sport, as if we were someone else's amusement."

"Maybe we are," said Chango.

"Maybe some of us are," said Orielle with a pointed look. "I know I’m not. A creature is its own being. It exists on its own terms. Others may attempt to enslave it, but it will always thwart control. Haven't you seen the movies?"

Chango stood up. Helix glanced at her, and then at Orielle. “I guess we’re going to go now,” she said.

“Very well. It was nice to meet you. Just remember, Helix,” she leaned forward, her red eyes staring. “If you’re going to be a freak, you might as well be a freak show.”

oOo

Back at the bar Chango sipped at her beer, sullenly watching the conclusion of a transaction at Orielle’s table. Vonda stood up and walked towards the bar, staring at Helix. She walked right up to them, ignoring Chango as usual. “I don’t think you know what you’re doing,” she said to Helix, “so I’m going to tell you. Sports have no business vatdiving, and if you try it, you’re going to find that out.”

Chango felt as if someone had poured ice water over her. “What are you talking about, Vonda?”

Vonda glanced at her. “You don’t know?” She nodded her head at Helix. “She went in and took a physical today, and filled out an application.”

“What? That’s bullshit.” She turned to Helix, “You didn’t.”

Helix looked at her levelly, not smiling, not protesting. She spoke with a calm that reached into Chango and twisted her stomach. “I did. I need a job.”

“Don’t give me that crap,” said Vonda. “I’ve heard all about you. You don’t need a job. Your daddy works at the big office. He can get you a job. A better one than this, believe me. What are you doing down here anyway? Slumming? Go back where you belong.”

“You don’t know where I belong,” said Helix.

“Helix, you can’t dive,” said Chango choking on the words.

“Yes I can, and I will. Watch me.”

“I can’t believe this. We talked about it.” Chango took Helix’s upper hands in hers. “I told you how bad diving would be for you.”

“I know. I know you did, but-”

“But what then? Listen, don’t worry, if they accept your application, just tell them you changed your mind.”

“I’m not going to do that.”

Chango released her hands, staring at her. “Why?” she asked, because it was the only thing she could think to say.

“Because I haven’t changed my mind.”

“You’re going to wish you had,” said Vonda.

“She’s right,” said Chango.

Helix turned from her to Vonda, an odd impassive expression on her face. She looked at them both the same way, like obstacles. “You can say what you want,” said Helix, “but if they want to hire me, I’m taking the job.”

“Okay,” said Vonda. “Okay, but you’ve been warned. Remember that.”

“You can’t stop me from working.” Sudden anger glinted in her eyes.

“No,” said Vonda, stepping closer, “but we can make it hard for you, and we will.”

“Vonda. Vonda don’t worry. She won’t dive,” said Chango, moving to stand beside Helix.

Helix turned to her, and put both sets of hands on her shoulders. “Chango, I know you mean well, but this isn’t any of your business.”

“What?”

“Well it’s my business,” said Vonda, “The only business I and the other vatdivers have. And you working means one less job for somebody who needs one, who can really do it. You know they’ll pay you less, and classify you as temporary so they can get out of giving you health benefits. You’re just playing along with them. You’re helping them lower hiring standards. It’s a dangerous job, we depend on each other in there.”

Helix leaned towards her. “Then you’re going to have to depend on me.”

Vonda bared her teeth and stiff armed Helix in the chest. “I’m not depending on you. Not only are you a freak, you’re insane.”

“What she is,” said a voice made of crystal and rain, “is none of your fucking business, you little goon. All you need to know is that she is a far more fabulous creature than you could ever hope to be, even on your deathbed. Now why don’t you go croak off.” It was Orielle. She had materialized beside Helix as if made of vapor.

Vonda looked sullen now, instead of enraged. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“Why? Because you say so? What if I decide it does? What then? Would you like to shove me, too? Why don’t you just throw a punch? Go ahead, shatter my jaw.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Orielle.”

“No, I didn’t think so,” her mouth pointed in a wicked smile, and she turned to Helix and Chango and Hyper, encompassing them with a sweep of her gauze draped arm. “Shall we, children?” and she guided them through the slowly parting crowd of onlookers.

Outside the bar, Chango turned on Helix. “Vonda’s right, you are insane,” she said.

“Chango-” Helix touched her cheek, her hand was cool. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you I was applying. You would have tried to stop me.”

“Damn straight I would have. Forget all that crap Vonda laid on you. The reason you shouldn’t dive is because it will kill you.”

Helix shook her head. “I just don’t believe that.”

Chango looked up at the sky and laughed, “No, that’s right. I’m just making it all up!”

“Maybe she’ll be okay,” said Hyper.

Chango stared at him. “What? Are you nuts too?”

Hyper shrugged. “It’s her life, you know.”

She nodded. “Yeah, yeah.” She stared at Helix, and there were tears in her eyes. “I guess I’m the fool here. I thought maybe you had something to live for,” she said, and walked away.

oOo

They sprawled on blankets and cushions around the artifact: Orielle's 36" television set with laser disk drive.

"These old laser disks are much better in their original format. I can't even stand to watch the holographic ones. The framing is all wrong." she said, sliding a well-preserved disk into the slot with nimble fingers.

Helix gnawed at her lower lip with one of her fangs. She'd lived a goodly portion of her life in modest affluence, with pretty close to the latest in entertainment technology, but this, this was evidence of a different type of wealth altogether. A rare and highly specialized piece of equipment. Extremely expensive and of no practical use whatsoever. Just to find disks in playable condition would cost a small fortune. It was a remarkable achievement, this television set, a monument to disposable cash.

Orielle folded herself onto a cushion and reached beneath the coffee table for a lacquered box. It was glossy and black, inlaid with mother of pearl in abstract geometric shapes. She drew from it a glittering chrome blast pistol, its fittings and chamber rendered in curving lines like ripples of water. She fitted a white, ceramic capsule into the chamber and twisted it shut. “Would you like to go first?” she asked Helix, the gun resting in her outstretched palm like a pool of liquid metal.

Helix hesitated, and then lifted the thing in her lower left hand, cradled it, and slipped her index finger through the trigger guard. She opened her mouth and rested the muzzle gently against the roof of her mouth, squeezed the trigger and jerked her head back at the cold burst of gas against the roof of her mouth.

“Inhale,” said Hyper, but Helix gagged against the rush of pressure released gas, and coughed. In defeat she withdrew the pistol and wiped it on her sleeve. “Sorry,” she said, handing it back to Orielle. She felt a mild tingle at the base of her skull, nothing more.

“You have to be ready for it,” said Orielle. “Here, watch.” She replaced the spent cartridge with a new one and drew the barrel into her mouth. She exhaled deeply, and then pulled the trigger, breathing in at the same time. Her eyes closed momentarily and then she put another fresh cartridge into the pistol with automatic motions. When she handed it to Helix, her eyes were glistening and unfocused. “Now try it again,” she whispered.

Helix held the pistol in her hand. “What does it feel like?” she asked.

Orielle smiled and her eyes closed again, “Only one way to find out.”

This time when Helix squeezed the trigger she breathed in, and felt her sinuses flooded with icy gas. It made her eyes water, and she shook her head, and then shivered as the tingling at the base of her skull spread up and out, across her face and over her skin to the tips of her fingers and toes. She felt like a glass of water vibrating with the frequency of some distant chime. She saw a temple, gleaming white on a distant, sunlit mountaintop. Below, in the valley, a river flowed by.

When her eyes refocused, she was left with a lightness in her body. The chime still vibrated in her cells, thinning her physical form, turning her more into sound than flesh. Hyper was taking the cartridge into his mouth. She watched him release the gas and lean back, eyes closed.

His skin looked very fine and bright. She leaned closer, because she thought she could see gold in the hollows of his cheeks. Her face was inches from his when he opened his eyes — glittering with the reflection of the river. She could feel the sound emanating from his body, to ring against hers, and she leaned closer to sharpen the pitch, to touch his vibrating skin and tune her cells to his.

oOo

Chango climbed the steps to Hyper’s house in the bright morning sunshine and let herself in the front door. She knew right away the house was empty. If Hyper’d been home he’d be moving around somewhere, and if Hyper wasn’t home, Helix wouldn’t be here either. They’d spent the night then, at Orielle’s. Chango shook her head to try and rid herself of a headache. She’d gone to sleep on Mavi’s couch last night with a hard lump of anger in her stomach. It had climbed into her head while she slept. It was like a ball bearing rattling around in there, and every time it bounced off her skull, she thought of another angry, hurtful thing to say. She pulled one of Hyper’s bench stools into the archway, sat down, and waited.

They came up the stairs together, and as soon as she saw them, she knew they’d made love to each other. She’d been all ready to read Helix the riot act about diving, but this distracted her. It was an easier thing to be mad about than Helix’s inexplicable death wish. If there was anything she’d learned from Pele, it was how to throw a jealous fit.

“You slept together,” she said, as they stood in the doorway, staring at her owlishly. “My girl and my best friend.”

“You’re girl? Good gods!” exclaimed Hyper.

“Well, it was too late to leave,” said Helix.

“No, I mean you had sex.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah we did,” said Helix. “It was different than with you. What’s the matter?”

“Was it better?”

“What?”

“Chango please,” said Hyper.

She ignored him. “Was it better, Helix? Do you like him better?”

“I like both of you.”

Hyper spread his hands, “Can’t argue with that, can you? Don’t tell me Miss Free Love Michigan is going to claim ownership of her lover’s body.”

Chango put her face in her hands. “I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore.”

“The shoe hurts when it’s on the other foot, doesn’t it?” said Hyper. “But that’s not really what you’re upset about. I mean maybe you are, but what’s really bugging you is that Helix is going to be a vatdiver.”

“I can’t believe you support her in this. Don’t you care if she dies?”

“Of course I care,” Hyper approached her, and put his hand on her arm. “But let me show you something-”

“No!” Chango recoiled and jumped off the stool. She started gathering her clothes from the front room, stuffing them heedlessly in her back pack. “I don’t want any more explanations.” She turned to Helix. “You’re going to dive in the vats and you’re going to die.” She looked at Hyper, “And you’re helping her. Well, I’m not going to stick around and watch it happen. I’m out of here,” she said, and she left, banging the screen door shut behind her.

oOo

Helix arrived at the gates to the vat yard at a quarter to eight the next morning. About twenty vatdivers congregated on the street in loose clusters, talking amongst themselves. A tall, broad shouldered woman looked up as she approached the gate, and muttered something to her companions. They all darted glances at her, their conversation becoming more animated. "Must be crazy," Helix overheard as she passed, and "What makes her think she has the right?" She quickened her pace, entering the vat yard and searching among the domed vat houses for one labeled nine. Before long a security guard spotted her and ambled up. "Employees only, ma'am," he said.

"I am," she said, "that is, I will be. I'm here for orientation, Vat 9."

He looked at her dubiously, "What's your name?"

"Helix Martin," she told him.

He switched on his transceiver, scanned through a list of names, and found hers. "Okay," he shrugged, "It's the one over there, second from the end," he pointed to the opposite end of the yard.

"Thanks," she said, and made her way across the cloncrete towards it. Inside, the vat house was astir with end of shift activity. Divers filed towards the detox shower, a pair of porters went by, lugging a plasmic barrel marked "Grow Med. Batch 1234-9896," a supervisor shouted instructions to a team in he vat, her voice ringing clear above the general din and murmur of voices bouncing off the polished cloncrete floor and the glass dome above. It was bright inside, lit by halogens and the morning sky. A balcony ran along the second story, with catwalks connecting to the upper rim of the vat which filled most of the room.

An ample woman in white coveralls approached her, glancing at a clipboard. A badge above her left breast said April. "Helix Martin?" she eyed her impassively.

"Yes."

She nodded. "You're early. Come on, there's some forms for you to fill out."

Helix followed her to a small office on the ground floor, where a stoop-shouldered, smiling clerk handed her waivers and contractual agreements and tax forms, and she signed them. When she was done, April took her to the locker room. It seemed a vast sea of tile and steam, with rows upon rows of lockers, and divers in all stages of undress. April took her down one long aisle, a narrow bench running its length down the middle, to a locker at the far end, near the wall. "This is yours, number 302," she said and opened it. "Take off your coat, I have to measure you for a suit."

A small throng of divers hung out at the other end of the aisle with an expectant air. She glanced at April, who stared back with patient indifference. She swallowed and reached for the buttons of Hector's overcoat with trembling fingers. She adjusted her position to put as much of April between herself and the divers as possible, and slowly, with economical gestures, she unbuttoned her coat.

"Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na," someone sang the tune to The Stripper, and someone else hooted, and there was general laughter among the audience. Helix's face burned, and she stood there, her coat hanging open, her hair standing on end, sweat breaking out under her armpits and she glared at April, who pretended not to have heard anything.

"Well," she said, "C'mon, you can't dive unless you've got the gear."

There was silence as Helix removed the coat and hung it up in the locker. She turned back to face April and the divers again, her limbs revealed in the polyweave bodysuit and tunic she wore. April pursed her lips and whistled softly. "I don't know," she said, loudly, turning to one side so everyone could get a good view. "I don't know if we have a suit that'll fit you," she cast a winking, sidelong glance at the divers, who snickered. "Follow me, we'll have to see what we can do."

The vatdivers dispersed as they approached, wandering off in muttering clusters to the showers or their own lockers. April led her out of the locker room, back onto the vatfloor, and then to a room crowded with suits and tanks and face masks. With a sigh she began taking suits off the rack and holding them up to Helix, squinting and frowning. "They're supposed to be skin tight, but you're gonna have to take a larger size." She nodded her head, gazing at Helix's lower arms, "You'll have to keep them inside. Less'n you want to forfeit your first five paychecks for a custom job, that is," she added with a smirk. "and I'd recommend against it, seeing as how you may not live that long. Might as well spend the pay while you can."

Helix stared at her. April stared back, with blank, implacable hatred. "What do you care?" she asked, finally.

April shrugged, "Only that you're a damn fool on a suicide stunt, that you're liable to endanger my divers, and that you're keeping this job from someone who deserves it. I guess they're looking for cheap labor. They want to see how long you last, see? If it's long enough, and they can convince more of you to sign waivers on medical coverage and future compensation, why then, they've got fresh, cheap, labor to replace the rest of us with.”

Helix nodded with sudden comprehension, "You think I'm a scab."

April snorted, "Shit yeah. Ain't yah?"

She shrugged. "If I am, I don't mean to be. But I am going to dive. And you are going to show me how. Besides, if all of what you say is true, then I'll croak in a month and I'll be out of your hair. Right?"

April raised an eyebrow and a slow, sly smile slid across her mouth. She voiced a single crack of laughter, and shoved a suit at Helix, "Try it on, smart ass."

By the end of her shift Helix felt as if her suit had fused to her body, and her lower arms were painfully cramped. She trudged wearily to the locker room, found her locker and sank onto the bench. She unfastened the seals of her suit and extricated her aching arms. Propping her upper elbows on her knees, she let her lower arms dangle between her legs, her fingertips grazing the tile floor. They tingled with pins and needles, the pain increasing sharply as blood rushed in and circulation resumed.

Helix was blinking back tears when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned to see four vatdivers sauntering down the aisle towards her. “So how was your first day, sport?” said Vonda, a narrow, sarcastic smile across her face. She threw one leg over the bench and sat down, the others ranged themselves behind her, leaning against the lockers and smirking at one other.

“It was alright,” said Helix, sitting up and reaching for her clothes.

“Yeah? Is it everything you dreamed it would be?” said one of the others, a man with brown skin and dark hair curling on his chest.

“I hope so,” said Coral, still in her divesuit, the hood pulled down to reveal her straight dark hair. “‘Cause it’s going to cost her plenty.”

“Mmm-hmm. What would you give her, Vonda? Six months?” asked the fourth one, a fair-skinned guy with a broad face and blue eyes.

“Oh, if that long,” answered Vonda. Her eyes took in Helix's body with ravenous curiosity, “With a mutation like that, I’d say four months, tops.”

Helix fumbled for her bodysuit. She got the limp thing in her hands, only to realize that she still wore her dive suit over her legs, and she'd have to get completely undressed in order to get dressed, and she'd have to do that, apparently, with an audience. She clutched the body suit to her breasts and turned around, brandishing her lower arms. "Look," she said, "Get a good look, all of you, because next time, it won’t be a free show."

They glanced amongst each other, and giggled. “‘Fraid not, honey,” said the fair skinned man. “You’re on our dive team. We’re all going to be seeing a lot of each other.”

“If you stick around, that is,” added Coral.

“And I’d advise strongly against it,” said Vonda, standing and putting one hand on Helix’s shoulder, pushing her, gently but firmly into the locker behind her, “Because we don’t want you here, and we can make you not want to be here too.”

Helix stared into her hazel eyes and then laughed. “Fuck off.”

Vonda’s eyes flashed, and she tried to punch Helix in the stomach, but Helix caught her arm with her lower two, and grasping her fist, bent it back against the wrist. She gave it an extra twist before shoving her away hard with all of her arms. The bench hit Vonda on the back of the knees, forcing her to sit down suddenly, nearly falling backwards.

“What’s going on here?” said a new voice. It was Benny, down at the end of the aisle, his hands on his hips. At the sound of his voice, the others started drifting away, all except for Vonda, who still glared at her, nursing her wrist, daring her to tell him what happened.

“Vonda and her pals here were just welcoming me to GeneSys, that’s all. She was trying to teach me the secret vatdiver handshake, and I must have got it wrong.”

Benny stopped the others. “Wait a minute, since you guys haven’t been properly introduced, allow me. You already got Vonda’s name, and I think you know Coral. This is Val,” he gestured towards the blond guy, “and this is Claude. Everybody, this is Helix.”

“Helix?” said Claude, “her name is Helix? What a joke.”

“Yeah,” said Helix, “pretty hilarious.” She turned her back on them and got dressed.

“Don’t you guys have something to, you know, do?” Benny said, and she heard them walk away, their footsteps slapping against the tile floor.

When she turned around again, he was still standing there. “Sorry about that,” he said.

“Why should you be sorry? You didn’t do it.”

“No but, I could have warned you. Obviously they aren’t too happy about having you here.”

“Plenty of people warned me already, I don’t care. I’ve had worse.”

He shook his head at her and smiled. “This is really important to you, isn’t it?”

“Naw, Benny, it’s just kicks, can’t you tell? I’m sorry. Yes, it is, and I don’t know why.”