Read The Watchers: A Space Opera Novella for Free Online

Officer Wyer and skim in the general direction she thought Sumiko was. I stop when I hit the mass of police vehicles. They’re leading several homeless people into the back of a larger armored transporter. They ask each if they’ve seen Sumiko. A small, two foot, three-dimensional rendering of her, a petite Asian woman with long black hair, hums in the air as they climb into the back.
    I split my mind among the homeless group. They’ve seen her; the crying was annoying to some, reminded others of long-missed children, others were indifferent. But none gave her up— screw the police , is the universal thought.
    Where? Where is she? I pluck the image of the building she was in last night from their minds. I can almost hear Branden’s first terrified cries of life in their memories. I skim to the building, but she isn’t there. The cops are spread out in a line, pushing through—they have the area surrounded.
    I quest through the other buildings in huge gulps, looking for human thought, human life.
    Building one: Empty.
    Building two: Two homeless.
    Building three: One person.
    Building four: Empty.
    Building five: One sleeping, exhausted, with another. There .
    Sumiko is sleeping with Branden on her chest. She’s on the second floor, in an office of some kind, laid out on a soft black fabric couch. Branden sleeps with his ear to her chest, listening to her heartbeat. He’s confused: the sound is distant, quieter than it once was, but he’s comforted by its familiarity.
    Human thoughts enter the building, one floor below: the police.
    Sumiko, you must wake , I say into her mind.
    Her eyes fly open. She cradles Branden gingerly, while sitting up quickly and surveying the room. She almost speaks.
    Be quiet , I say. The police are on the first floor, they are sweeping the area. Outside this office there is a hallway that hugs the perimeter of the building. It leads to a stairway. Go there.
    Who are you ? she asks.
    A half-second pause. Karon . It’s out before I can stop myself. Now, go !
    She’s up and moving, too bewildered not to listen. Her thoughts a confusing mess of Karon, a voice in her head that does not sound like Karon, safety, and an intense worry of Branden crying and giving them away. She moves swiftly but gingerly, still recovering from giving birth. The bleeding has stopped, but pain is ever present, the threat of reopening wounds constant. But for Branden, she would endure.
    I split my mind and enter Branden. It’s a mash of stimuli, confusing, frightening. I do what I can to calm him. I replicate Sumiko’s heartbeat, dampen the other stimuli. It works, but my head starts to ache from too much splitting.
    Sumiko arrives at the stairwell.
    Go up two flights of stairs .
    She starts climbing.
    The police on the first floor are bored as they wait for the crawlers to catch up. If they do catch this mother, they won’t get any credit; that’ll go the lead Detective or the crawlers, as if foot soldiers had no place anymore.
    Crawlers ? I split again and let myself go deeper into one the policeman downstairs.
    Lee Delera. A man numb to Sumiko’s plight, a man pulled along by the forces of the world around him. Two hours and twelve minutes until his shift was over. Then he could meet up with his friends and immerse themselves in the virtual reality world of Kadara.
    The crawlers arrive, four of them. They came up to Lee’s knee, two spheroid balls stacked on top of one another with the top most ball smaller than the bottom one. Four spindly, whip-like legs descended down from the bottom ball, each moving so rapidly as to give the impression of mechanical spiders.
    They stop in front of Lee, awaiting his orders. Lee waves them away. The four shoot off, their legs a blur. Two hours and ten minutes until his shift is over.
    Sumiko steps off onto the fourth floor, a factory floor, unsure where to go next. Karon ? Where should I —
    There’s no time, those crawlers are coming. The fourth floor is a