The day eventually came when the noontime sun was no longer trying to broil us. The colony government messaged that everyone was allowed to reconnect their household communications to the wider net. I held off on pinging anyone, knowing the system would be overloaded with people checking up on relatives across the islands and continent. There had been no fatalities this year, at least not directly from the weather. That news, and the nearing end of lockdown, elevated everyone's mood.
It was still inhospitable outside during the day. But Jas and I were more than willing to head outside towards sunset and begin the task of cleaning up and powering the estate back on. We'd do anything for some fresh air.
The shielding had peeled off part of the greenhouse roof, breaking that corner's glass and letting in water. Jasha didn't see real damage inside, though. Just a few planters that needed draining. The garage, and almost every outbuilding on our small fields, came through unscathed. A swath of downed branches, stripped leaves, and small dunes of misplaced soil and sand everywhere were the worst of it. But that was still plenty of work.
Katiat contacted me the day after lockdown was finally cleared. "I'm on my way west," she said. "Would you mind if I stopped by?"
"I'd be glad! Are you flying?"
"Riding along with a friend. They aren't going the whole way to camp, though. I'll take the train from your stop."
"Alright. I'll meet you there."
She was still a couple hours away, judging by the coordinates of the call. I took a few moments to cool off in the shade of the garage, and went back to raking up the downed leaves and tossing them into the biofuel vat.
Soon enough it was time to walk up to the ring road. I rinsed my hair beneath one of the old wellheads stationed around the property. The water was an icy shock, and goosebumps broke out over my skin. Its relief lasted just long enough to hurry down the unshaded road towards the barn, and the southern coast train stop.
I thought I might relax in the coolness of Jasha's lab while I waited for Kat, and maybe to annoy myself looking up information about Markus DeBlays and the Roxi spaceport he wanted to revive. But the grin I got from my brother as I entered set me instantly alert.
"Didn't know you were out here," I said. "What are you doing?"
He sat on the floor, surrounded by boxes. "What does it look like I'm doing? Breaking down crates for the train. Ah!"
I’d shaken my dripping hair out on him. “Monster,” he called me idly.
“You’d better be careful,” I said. “Maybe I am.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Wanna study me under a scope?”
“I’m not interested in primitive man.”
I laughed at that. He always won the teasing. "Speaking of the train. Katiat's going to stop by here and catch it. She should be here pretty much anytime."
"It'll be good to see her." He tugged stubbornly, and the sides of a crate detached and finally folded down. He threw it on the pile of flattened ones behind him. "Is she going to stay long? Or leave tonight?"
"Probably tonight. I think she wants to get to her camp. Most of them are coming from the other side of Damor, and she can't talk to them as easily as, well..."
"Yeah," Jas said, still not looking up. "Why is she like that, by the way?"
"The tech thing?" I shrugged. "Some people just don't want to be connected."
"If she just wanted to live in the woods, I'd get it. Plenty of people like that here. But she's so outgoing."
"I know." I started to gather up the flattened boxes to carry towards the waystation. "I asked her once, years ago. She wouldn't talk about it."
"Maybe she had a bad reaction."
Some people did. The tech implants usually started with a simple tracker in infancy, and only become more complex after children were finished with their first education. But physical reactions did happen.
Sometimes mental ones, as well.
We carried the spare boxes outside, where they'd be loaded onto the train for return to the regional shipping warehouse. A quiet ping in my thoughts announced Kat's ride landing at the ring road, and Jas and I made our way down the debris-littered trail to greet her.
She was coming down the road towards us, wearing a cream-coloured jumpsuit with a blue short-sleeved blouse beneath it, and a large bag strapped across her back. She smiled and waved when she saw us, her blond hair blowing into her eyes. Quickly I wiped the box-grime off my hands, meaning to reach for hers, but she gave us both enthusiastic hugs instead.
"It's been years since I was here," she remarked, placing her bag down on a table in Jas's barn and looking around. "You've a proper lab now."
"It seems so," he said. "Be a pain to move it all to Damor in a few months. But yes, this has been a great space. Would you like something to drink?"
"That would be wonderful."
Jas stepped into the storeroom to find us refreshments. I watched him go, wondering what in the world had prompted that comment about moving.
"And you all?" Katiat said beside me. "Every year I wonder if you'll finally be blown away in the storms out here, but you seem to make it."
"I'm glad when it's over," I admitted. "But the house is solid."
She nodded. "We're obviously going to rebuild most of the camp. But it's designed that way. The city is fine. Fewer trees down than last year."
"Good."
Jasha came back in with a few juice drinks in his hand, and slid the dividing door shut with his foot. He gave one to Katiat and one to me, then sat on a stool at the table with us, opening his own drink with a flick. "So, Katiat," he began. "How did you like those new shelter flats?"
She put on an aggrieved face. "I've had worse. They did their best to keep social events going. But there wasn't anything to work on. I envied the tech artists there. I mostly sketched and slept, now I'm terribly out of shape. Camp will be a relief."
Jas nodded. "I missed being out here. Having room to spread out, make a mess."
"You have the neatest lab I've ever seen," I said. "What mess?"
This side of the barn was neat and well-organised, as his workspaces always were. He told me once that clutter made him afraid of himself when he worked, that he could only do the things he did -- only make the things he made -- when he was certain all the steps he took were pristine. In a way, I understood. For all that my lab's tables and shelves might look a wreck, nothing kept me from obeying the proper order of sequences for a flight.
Katiat got up from the table and put her empty drink container in the renewer. She idled around, examining various pieces of equipment. "What do you do with these?" she asked him.
"I test plants for possible medical uses," he added. "Among other things."
"Hmm," she said. "What's this?"
She'd picked up a vial he'd left out on the table. He didn't flinch, didn't show any outward sign of alarm. I have to give him credit. "It's a partially-synthesised chemical from my work this past year. Probably shouldn't open it."
Katiat gave him a look. "I wouldn't. Just curious. I don't know anything about chemistry." She set it back down on the table and peered instead into a scope he'd set up the previous week. I watched Jas watch her, interested to see how far he was letting her snoop.
(Was that what I think it was?) I asked him.
(Maybe.)
Suddenly the grin he'd given me when I'd entered the barn made sense.
(You know, a second set of eyes could help you,) I mused.
(Are you out of your mind? I don't know her as well as you do.)
(And I know her extremely well.) The idea was beginning to obsess me. (Tell her about it.)
Jasha was pinching the bridge of his nose, when Katiat turned back around. "No fair," she said. "Don't talk without me."
I grinned at my brother. "Do you remember when we visited your studio? Jas had a big idea."
"Vaguely," Kat said. She came back to the table and sat down. "What was it?"
I sat satisfied, having done my share of damage.
(Asshole,) Jas said to me. "I've been...there's been an idea in the back of my mind, a way to combine a few failed productions that I've tried before into one that works. And it did. But I found a better way to make the same chemical. And, well. We've been testing it out."
After a pause, her expression clouded. "You mean, taking it?"
"Yes. In addition to all the regular examinations," he hastened to add. "It's perfectly safe."
She looked from him to me, then back, clearly searching us for signs of derangement. "Aren't there official labs for this sort of thing?"
"Well, yes," I replied. "For official drugs."
"Ah." Now Kat smiled. "Back to that old hobby."
Jas shrugged, a bit embarrassed.
I felt bad for putting him on the spot. “I don’t mind helping," I said, stretching my arms. "What else am I good for this summer, besides soaking up pool water and alcohol. I’m skating dangerously close to embarrassing everyone with my wasted potential.” I yawned pointedly.
"Stop pretending you're a child," Kat said. "I've heard your ideas."
I was strangely pleased and annoyed at once. Jasha spoke up. "Don't let the boyish charm fool you," he said to her. "Jessyn's terrible."
"That's true," I nodded.
(You really want to do this?) Jas asked me. I looked at him.
He chased life, and I liked that. He chased the spark of it. Mapped the routes it took and dreamed of routing it down new paths, ones he created. I used to watch him at his homework experiments, imagining I could see the life in him as he made his careful decisions and notations.
She was the same.
"Anyway," I told her. "Jas wanted to know if you'd help us out. Keep an eye on things, while he plays with my brain."
Under the table, he stepped on my foot. Hard.
The silence that grew wasn't like any other ones. Each second seemed to build something around us all, containing us as we sat around the table. Jasha sipped his drink placidly.
In between the rustling of the wind in the nearby trees, the hum of insects and of the lab machinery drifted around us. It felt like a summer day, the quintessential summer day. And yet, I couldn't remember another one that felt this big, this detailed and fair.
"Alright," Kat said. "Show me how it's done."