Clone Earth : MELVIN

“I was over there. Why is she over here. What -” Farris’ voice melted away, his posture hunched and the low raspy voice took over. “The ship has moved. Took your eyes off of her for a minute and she tried to steal it.” He turned away from Ari as his back straightened his posture taller as it became the feminine voice’s turn to interject. “I knew she was trouble. You should have killed her that first moment. She sabotaged our ship.”

“NO!” Ari suddenly found her voice. “No stealing no sabotage. It was an accident.”

Farris spun around, but it wasn’t the kind eyes of the Farris that had taught her to fly. They felt hard and dark, the low voice took his turn, “An accident wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t allowed to be here.”

Her hands were up in defense, “I was trying to help. The sign over their said we needed to move, I thought - “

“You thought?” The higher voice advanced, “You should never have been allowed to think at all!”

Anger boiled inside Ari, she’d made it all this way and she wasn’t going to let this version of Farris kill her now. “I’ll fix it!” She yelled, arms at her side she tried to appear bigger than the man in front of her.

It worked.

He paused.

Disguising it the best she could, Ari pulled in a long shaky breath, “I already proved to you I can program anything and even though I don’t quiet understand your ship, I know I can fix this. I WILL fix this!”

With narrowed expression, Farris crossed his arms high on his chest and looked down his nose at the teenager. “How?”

“I don’t know, YET!” His posture didn’t change, so she continued. “I need Farris to tell me about the ship. I don’t know this model so - I don’t - I don’t recognize the broken part.”

Jaw tight the high voice visibly snarled before his shoulders relaxed and a more gentle but still irate Farris returned her gaze. “What part did you break?”

“It was in the ignition chamber, between both engines.” Ari stepped out of the way reveling the smoldering metal part on the ground. Eyes wide Farris rushed to it, his hands touching the now cooled metal along the rough scorched edge. Part of the piece was rounded, like a handle but it had gotten so hot that bowed upward in an awkward angle.

“This is the Starter Annex!” he said, he tone layered with disbelief, “It’s a part that never breaks. You destroyed it? How?”

“I don’t know, but it’s just an annex so I should be able to bypass it and directly connect -”

“No. You don’t bypass the Starter Annex. Theirs never been a need to, everything around it is replaceable but not it. IT doesn’t break.” He repeated visibly fighting off the urge to allow another voice to take over.

“Hold on,” Ari slid into his line of sight hoping to keep him from changing and killing her on the spot. She was also subconsciously scanning him for weapons. “If you’re sure I can’t by pass it, then I’ll get you another part.” She motioned behind him, “We are at the biggest salvage yard I’ve ever seen. They are sure to have a few of this exact part inside. We could use those extra credits and buy it.”

It was a desperate reach, but when Farris didn’t yell back her confidence started to return.

This could work.

“We don’t have it.” The gruff voice from behind the plastic window answered. He pushed the hunk of metal back through the exchange basket. Ari gaped at the window. On the other side, the man in a tattered cap with heavy protective glasses and sand colored overalls wipe the snot from his nose with the back of his greasy glove.

Ari recoiled, “You have to, I mean it’s a part that never breaks so out of all the ships that have been brought here surely there is still one in there.”

“No one ever needs it so they go in the melting pile,” He said coughing without covering his mouth. Ari’s face grimaced, thankful for the glass between them. He continued, “Besides it was tailored to your ships specifications and then discontinued, there is no replacement.”

Ari’s fists tightened at her side and her jaw clinched tight. She could feel the glare burning into her back and she didn’t need to hear the voice to know ‘she’ was there considering ways to murder Ari.

Or sell her for parts.

Even though she was grossed out by the man on the other side of the window, Ari rushed the window. “Look, there has to be someway to fix this. Without it we are stuck here.”

“Not to worry we can help. The rest of your ship is good for parts and that’s what we buy.” The man laughed at his own stupid joke.

Ari growled, and slammed both her fists into the plastic window.

“Okay, okay, sorry.” The man’s laughter settled into a chuckle, “If you want to have it rebuilt theirs a place in Tarkoy, but it’s pretty expensive and it could take weeks.”

“No people,” The low raspy voice of Farris said behind her.

“Any chance there’s a place that can do it faster and is less crowded?”

The man shrugged, “I guess if you find a transmutationist they can rebuild it in a matter of minutes. But you’ll still have to travel through Tarkoy to find one willing to help you.”

“Okay,” Ari said hope filling her again. “We’ll find one of those.”

“No. No. No.” Farris said as he turned and walked away. Excited to hear Farris’ actual voice, Ari meant to shoot that man a quick thank you but changed her mind as he again wiped snot from his face.

She ran to catch up to Farris. “It can be fixed! It sounds like a good plan. All I have to do is take the part to something called a - a” her brain blanked on the words.

“Transmutationist,” Farris finished for her.

“Yeah. And then he can fix it. Easy. I’ll use those extra credits and go find one I should be back in a few hours. Two days at the longest.”

Farris paused for a moment, a chill ran down Ari’s spine at the odd expression he looked at her with. “Do you even know what a Transmutationist is?”

She couldn’t even say the word, so there was no use lying. “No.”

His back straightened had his hand flipped up, “Stupid space trash I suspect you don’t even know what Magic is.”

Ari repeated the word in her brain, and for some reason it made her feel comfortable. It didn’t sound scary, not as scary as a person with bi-polar disorder and multiple personalities.

Ari Shrugged, “Isn’t magic in those stupid story books for kids?”

Farris’ shoulders hunched, the low voice said, “Magic is the ability to do unnatural things. They change matter, shift elements and some pretend to be doctors and mess with the human body.”

“Like healing wounds?” Ari said her voice practically dancing at the familiar idea. But she dialed it back when Farris’s cold gaze darkened. “Sounds helpful.” She swallowed.

“They kill more than they save.” He barked.

She had always wondered if Trevon wasn’t the only one in the universe who can do what he could. Apparently these people actually existed and they were here on Melvin.

Her heart leap at the idea of sharing this with him, but that would have to wait. Ari began picking that the dirt under her fingernails. She didn’t really have time to be distracted by Trevon. What needed to happen now was she needed to find one of these people that could manipulate matter and from the sound of it, Farris trusted normal humans more than he trust them.

So how were they supposed to get one to fix the ship …

“We’re not looking for one to heal us, we just need one that can fix metal, right?” Ari pointed out.

“They’re all dangerous.”

“I can find one.” She ran onto the ship, grabbed her duffle and shoved the hunk of metal inside of it. Running back out she saw Farris, arms folded standing as still as the broken ship. “I’ll take the public shuttle into Tarkoy and ask around there for a - a”

“-Transmutationist.”

Ari shook her head. It was an easy enough word, but she was still rattled from everything, “right. Transmutationist.”

“They can manipulate different matters. Such as Metal.” Farris explained in his own voice. “They won’t be easy to find, you can’t just go asking anyone about them.”

“Why not?”

Farris rolled his eyes, but his posture became more timid as he kicked a small pebble through the snow. His voice lowing to a mumbled whisper. “Planet Governments monitor chatter. Any mention of magic will be flagged as hostile. That man shouldn’t have been able to say anything.”

“Okay. So I’ll be careful. But I’ll find one and I’ll come back. I said I will fix this, and I will.” She didn’t expect a goodbye. She didn’t expect anything from Farris but still she waited. She was only 15 years old. She’d never constantly interacted well with anyone except Trevon and at brief moments, Farris. And here she was about to head into an entire city, on a planet she’d never been and convince someone to find a person with magic, that she barely knew anything about.

You’re going to die. The thought occurred to her.

Farris cursed through clinched teeth and all three voices began muttering so quickly Ari failed to keep track.

“Shut up!” Farris yelled at himself. “I’m going with her. I will not talk to people. And you,” He pointed at Ari. “You will not get me killed. If you’re about to die, I will run away and leave you.”

Eyes wide, Ari nodded, “But where are we going?”

“Kiev!” He barked.