The Deal (Koris)
“Flip that one so we can link it under,” Shay said. She was doing something weird with her trembling hands. Annily seemed to understand whatever it was she was trying to say, but Koris didn't have a clue.
“Like this?” He asked hesitantly, putting the desk on its side.
“Yes, like that,” Shay snapped, like he was stupid for not understanding her stupid shaky hand gestures.
Annily looked at him, and then at Shay. “Calm down,” she said.
“You want me to calm down?” Shay demanded. “How can anybody be calm at a time like this?”
Koris crossed his arms. “She's right, actually. We’re cooked, Ann.”
“We aren't dead yet!” Annily said hotly. “We just have to hold out. Until help comes.”
Shay’s shaky legs gave out and she fell, hitting the floor. “What if there is no help coming?” She whispered. “What if we're the only ones left alive on this whole ship? Just us and those metal things that killed Sharabi?”
Seeing her fear reactivated something in Koris. Maybe it was a big brother instinct he ignored until now.
“Then we’ll stay safe in here,” he said. “They won't get us through the barricade. It'll be okay.”
“What about food?” Shay whispered.
“We’ll figure it out,” Annily promised. “For now we have to add more stuff to the barricade.”
“I'll grab some of the desks from the back of the room,” Koris said. “Shay, maybe you should take a break.”
Her shoulders heaved. “...yeah,” she admitted. “I'm at my limit, at least for a while. Sorry I got snappy.”
“No problem.” He smiled at her. It was thin and half fake, but it was all he had right now. He didn't know Shay, but she was Annily's friend. She had gone out of her way to make Annily feel welcome when the colonists from Earth were all smushed together before even getting to board the Zariman. That made her alright in his book, even if she was all shaky and kind of loud and brash sometimes.
He went to the back of the classroom. It was very full, but nobody was sitting in the desks. A few people were clustered around Sumiru, Therine, and Kendra, messing around with some tablets. Trying to get communications up, probably. But most people were sitting in groups on the floor, huddled by the walls.
Except for one guy who looked about his age. He was sitting on top of a desk by the farthest wall, facing away from the rest of the room.
“Hey,” Koris said, putting one hand on the desk. “I'm gonna need this desk for the barricade in a minute or two. Could I trade you the desk for my globe light?” He held up the light.
The boy hummed, and spun around on the desk.
“You can have the desk,” his own voice said, “I don't need it.”
He was frozen. He couldn't move or think or breathe.
“Heh. Look at you, running on empty.” The person not-person who looked like him waved one hand around the room. “I could save them where you can't. All of them. You just have to want it.”
Koris tried to move his lips, make himself say something, but he couldn't. He was frozen inside as well, even though he wanted to run away screaming.
Whatever he was looking at, it was wrong down to the core. It was backwards or unreal in a way that defied existence. Except that it was here, in front of him, grinning with his own face.
"Hm. Maybe you didn't want it as much as I thought."
A hot flush of anger surged through him, melting away the terror and it's paralysis.
There was nothing he wanted more than to wake up from this nightmare. To see Flis, normal again, and hear Garanna’s baby-cooing. To hold both of them and Annily and have everyone and everything all arranged for when Mom and Dad came back to the dormizone. To finish his independent study project and then put it to use in Tau, and get to tell Crai 'I told you so' when his tilling device performed better than hers.
“Let's say, we shake on it?” The terrible unreal real thing jeered, wiggling it's fingers at him.
He could move. Anger had burned away the cold fear.
He nodded. "Save them."