A New World

Layla gazed out over a world so full of color and life that it didn't seem real, as if it were only some artificial hologram in a game. The colors of this world were too bright and wild. Where were the muted shades of metal buildings? Where were the pale skies and the roads that fit together like the pieces of a puzzle? That was what made sense; this was chaos.

She stretched limbs that were sore from the long slumber. It was her only reminder that any time had passed since they left home. In her mind it was only a few hours ago that she was lying down in the cryogenic tube. Then the translucent lid was sliding shut, and there was the briefest feeling of coldness rushing through her veins before everything went dark. That had been two years ago.

The tower in which she stood loomed over the vast forest beneath them, so that green treetops and a heavy gray sky were all she could see. It looked like calamity and madness. There wasn’t order; there wasn’t a discernible pattern to the way this world was built. No, not built. Grown. Every so often strange birds would emerge from the canvas, squawking silently beyond the transparent dome.

She'd only just arrived here, and already she didn't like this planet. Merramis, the ship that brought them planetside, was rising like a balloon back into the sky, past the heavy clouds and back into the darkness of space. The world she'd come from, Alasta, didn't have any forests. It was a metal world, a world that made much more sense than this one.

A moment later the ship was gone; she turned her eyes away from the sky. A great winged creature had climbed to the top of the trees and seemed to be watching her. It looked deadly with its heavy black feathers and beak as red as blood. Layla wondered if it had any knowledge of how soon its world would be gone, taken apart mile by mile until everything was metal and man. That was the purpose of this colony, which her parents had volunteered for because father was a colonization enthusiast and thought it would be good to get away from Alasta.

Layla hated it. She wanted to go home. But if she told her parents so they would only think she was being childish, and they would tell her to give it a chance. They'd say that city ships were already on their way and in a few short years this place would be just like home. Like home, she’d reply. But not home.

“Layla,” father called. She turned away from the glass dome and saw her parents standing near an elevator that would take them down to the colony halls. Mat was holding mother's hand, seemingly unaware of what this journey meant. But he was only five and everything he cared about was in this room. Layla was twelve; she'd left behind her school, her friends, her entire world.

The elevator was a transparent cylinder, so that while it descended she could see the layers of forest gradually become denser, until all the light from the sky was gone and only iridescent blue lights along the glass allowed them to see. Vines were so thick in places that they were like walls, and just outside the elevator were strange eyes made visible by the reflection of the light. Layla hadn't often been afraid in her life, but understood immediately that the reason her heart was racing was because she was scared.

She told herself that this had been done a dozen times before on planets much more dangerous than this one. The colonies had advanced in that time and were better suited to the environment and any threats it posed. It helped a little, that knowledge, and repeating the words over and over inside her mind. Except for when she had finished, the fear was still there.

Then the elevator door opened and Layla was looking down a long white corridor full of metal doors, each identified by a series of three numbers. She allowed herself to fall behind her parents and began watching the people around her. From their faces she could tell that they were excited and eager and happy; if any of them were afraid, it was hidden so deep that not even a trace touched their surface.

The bits and pieces of conversations she overheard were about work and food and what they might’ve missed during their cold slumber. She wanted to ask what was wrong with them. This wasn't their world and they had no right to be here, and how could they not be afraid of the things out there? Even at twelve, she knew there were awful things that couldn't be kept out by walls or metal. People shouldn't be here.

Her mother called out to her and Layla realized they had found their door, the one marked by the numbers 616. Her parents were already complementing the contemporary design as she entered. They were saying how fancy it was, how high-tech it was, but as soon as the city ships arrived they would be upgrading to a real home. This was just temporary.

There were only a few furnishings, each one overwhelmingly white and pristine. A panel was built into the wall across from a sofa, and on it a pretty woman was welcoming them to the colony. She was talking about what to eat and what to do for entertainment and her voice droned on and on as Layla walked past the small white living room into a hall with a door on either side.

The doors opened on two small bedrooms, and hers was notably smaller than the other. Along the far wall was a bunk-bed she would have to share with Mat. There was an attached bathroom with a toilet, a sink, and a shower hardly big enough to turn around in. The only furnishing was a desk with a computer that would grant her access to kid's programs and whatever net content her parents didn't lock out. She wondered silently how she was supposed to live here for two long years.

They ate dinner mostly in silence. Her mother could see that she was unhappy, but when Layla refused to talk about it, she stopped asking. Father kept repeating that they would get used to the change, and Mat hardly seemed to notice that anything was different.

Afterward she went to lie down in bed, wanting nothing more than to close her eyes and sleep, but unable to. The walls were too white, the room too small and the air too artificial. Her father had said that the atmosphere on this planet was already breathable, so why put it through enough filters to make it like breathing on a ship? Perhaps it was to ease their transition onto this new world, to make it seem less strange.

Or perhaps it was because they didn't know what things were out there, organisms so small and microscopic that they could float right in through the vents and infect every person in these metal walls. Layla closed her eyes, but knew she wasn't going to fall asleep.

---

By the time morning came the fears of the night were gone. She'd somehow managed to fall asleep, and in so doing regained much of her energy and lost some of her doubt. Today was the first day of school, and Layla hoped to be reunited with one or two children from her life on Alasta. Certainly it was possible that someone she knew was here, and she could confide in them how afraid she was of this world and how even in spite of that fear, she hated that they were going to tear it apart and make everything that was alive and breathing a soulless replica of a hundred other worlds.

She and Mat ate breakfast with father, but he was quiet while reading over the colonization updates that were scrolling across the table. Every few minutes he would sigh or nod his head gently and then look at the children, but otherwise hardly seemed to notice that he wasn't alone. Mother was already in the upper levels of the city, preparing for more arrivals and planning the expansion that would eventually consume the whole world.

After breakfast she helped Mat get ready for school. They bid farewell to father, who looked up briefly from his reading, smiled and said, “Have fun. Make some new friends.” Then they left the apartment.

Although the city was little more than a series of connected cubes with hallways crisscrossing them, Layla had no difficulty understanding the maps that were placed on most walls. Simply touching a location on the map illuminated the walls so she could follow the light to her destination. This resulted in a rainbow of colors along the metal, and both she and Mat enjoyed it.

“I'll be here when you get out, okay? My classes are shorter, so we'll meet here and walk back together.” Mat nodded, then turned and stepped into his class. Layla's classroom was only a few doors down; she walked in and took a seat near the back. Although she'd always enjoyed school before, all she wanted now was to be ignored.

As the last of the children filed into the room, Layla sighed inwardly. There wasn't a single familiar face. A few kids seemed to know each other and were already forming groups. A girl sat down beside her; after a few seconds Layla looked at her. The girl was looking at her.

“I'm Sem,” she said.

“Layla.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too.”

“Do you know anyone here?” Layla shook her head, and Sem nodded. “Me either.”

The room suddenly went dark and a moment of fear gripped Layla. Seconds later a light flashed at the front of the room and a hologram was floating in the air, displaying this world, Uese. It was very similar to Earth, with arid deserts spanning thousands of square kilometers and lush tropical forests covering entire continents. They were in the middle of one such jungle, somewhere in the southern hemisphere.

After a few minutes of an automated voice explaining various data about Uese, the lights came on and the teacher entered the room. He was an older man who seemed reluctant to be here; a researcher, he explained, who sought to study this world, but had taken this position until the restrictions on open exploration were lifted. If his intent was to document the life here before it was all destroyed, Layla thought she could respect him, and maybe even learn something from him.

Mr. Seflim let class out early, so Layla decided to wait outside of Mat's classroom, and Sem offered to join her. They sat together on a bench, watching busy people pass by.

“Do you like it here, Sem?”

“No,” she said, looking around at the people. “This place is so different. Maybe when the city ships arrive and it feels more like home. You?”

Layla shook her head. “I don't think it'll ever feel like home. I can't picture Alasta, the world I came from, with so many trees. I think it was already dead by the time we found it. So it doesn't seem right to kill this world just to make it ours.” She wondered if Sem would understand, or just think she was strange. To lose her one and only friend on the first day would be hard; but Sem was nodding slowly when Layla looked over at her. Maybe it was only out of kindness, but she thought that was alright.

A few moments later Mat's class was let out, and together the three of them followed the lights on the wall to their district. Then Layla and Sem said goodbye, and Sem left to find her own apartment. Over dinner Mat talked about how much he enjoyed his classroom; how they were going to learn about all the different worlds that man had discovered and colonized.

Layla wasn't interested. She picked at her food and kept quiet until mother said she could be excused. Not ready for bed and not wanting to watch the kids' shows on the net, she decided to take a walk. At the end of their district was a large common room with elevators leading up to the spaceport. She touched it on the map and began following the lights that illuminated the wall.

She passed only a few people in the hallways, mostly couples hand-in-hand enjoying the evening calm. They didn’t pay her any mind and Layla responded in kind. By the time she reached the common room, there was no one else in sight. At the far end of the white room were several sets of large transparent doors, which offered a clear view directly out into the wild. For now they were closed and locked, but through them she could see that it was raining. Pouring, in fact. She got close to the doors and watched as raging winds blew the leaves around and the rain fell harder and harder. Within minutes streams were building up against the door.

Layla knew there was no reason to be afraid. These colonies were built to withstand torrential rains, and were positioned so that water would simply drain downhill around them. Yet in spite of that knowledge her chest tightened as the water level began to rise; it was as high as her ankles now, rushing against the door with such force that she could hear it through materials meant to dull sound.

Then the rain seemed to be letting up, and just as Layla was ready to breathe a sigh of relief, something caught her eye. Through the rain she could see a spot of far off darkness, shifting. She placed her hands against the glass, squinting to get a better look. There seemed to be a trail carved through the trees, a clear line of sight from the door deep into the forest where sporadic flashes of lightning briefly illuminated the path.

The rain continued shifting and changing, making it impossible to see what was moving, but she was sure it was coming closer. Then the rain let up a little more and the dark shape became clearer. It was running, sprinting through the water on all four limbs. It immediately called to mind the photos she'd seen of apes from when the Earth was alive, but this was larger. It was taller than the door and had limbs as thick as tree trunks.

Layla began backing away from the inner doors, hoping the creature would slow or turn away. But if it noticed any obstruction in its path, it showed no sign of it. It came at full speed and struck the outer doors with the whole force of its weight, shattering glass and metal and slamming against the inner door with a maddening, thundering sound. Layla shrieked. The glass of the inner doors cracked but didn't break.

She turned to run but the doors all around her were closing. Red lights were flashing along the walls and a siren was screaming somewhere nearby. She turned back toward the beast, and it was watching her. For a terrified moment their eyes locked and her heart was beating so loudly that she could feel the pain of it against her chest. Then the creature lifted one of its massive fists and began beating against the door. She stood still as stone.

The cracks in the glass were leaking water now, and with each blow more and more of it began rushing in, touching her feet and sending icy chills up her legs. It struck five, six, seven times, and with a final heavy blow the door shattered, sending shards of glass and a whole river of water into the room. It rose up to her ankles, and then her shins. The creature came into the room, cautiously, and stopped directly in front of Layla. It lowered its head until they were nearly eye-to-eye.

She looked away from it, not wanting to see a single detail of the terrible face. There were tears in her eyes and her body was shivering so badly that she could hardly draw in a breath. Her clothes were soaked through and her long black hair was matted to her face. The beast sniffed the air and the smell when it exhaled was unbearable. It may have only stood in front of her for a number of seconds, but to Layla it was like eternity. When it finally began backing away to return to the wild, uninterested, she realized she'd stopped breathing and began gasping for air. Water was still pouring into the room, and among the leaves and branches and debris that was rushing in, something stood out. On the surface of the water was a small translucent sphere.

It was floating through the broken doors from the outside, coming toward her. As it passed by, Layla reached out and grabbed it. It fit comfortably in her hand; its outside was covered by some kind of thick transparent shell, and within was a gold-colored liquid. Layla shook the sphere and the liquid shifted, but not in the way it should have. It moved slowly, strangely, almost separately from the motion of the sphere. It seemed to move intentionally. The outer shell was badly cracked, and she wondered if it was a seed or some kind of an egg. She gave it a squeeze and the shell broke apart, splitting in half and spilling the golden liquid into her cupped hand.

As the broken pieces of the sphere tumbled from her hand, they seemed to disintegrate into a white smoke. By the time they touched the water, only two small fragments remained. In another instant they were gone.

For a few brief seconds the golden liquid was pooled in the center of her palm. But before Layla could move to wash it off, it was gone. As though it had been absorbed into her skin. She ran her fingers along her palm in disbelief, not trusting what she saw. The skin felt the same. She didn't feel any different. Could it have been some kind of hallucination from a toxin in the air or water?

She thought it was possible. No one knew what kinds of poisons were out there, and how they might affect a person. Perhaps she had been exposed to something, or was only in shock from the sight of that beast so close to her.

Layla became aware of a sharp, loud noise and flashing lights. As the emergency doors closed and cut off the outside world, she realized all of this had happened in a matter of minutes. Vents opened in the walls and began flushing the water out, and soon after the doors all around her opened on a myriad of people dressed in protective clothing. They immediately rushed in and surrounded her. They began moving her and Layla was only semi-aware of it.

---

Hours later she was in a room that looked different from the rest of the colony. She hadn't been allowed to see her parents, and felt nearly as frightened now as she had before. Doctors had run a multitude of tests on everything from her blood to her urine. Far as she could tell, they'd all come back normal and the only thing left was to test her mind.

She was sitting at a table in a small black room, a stark contrast to the pure white of the rest of the colony. A female doctor in a white jacket sat across from her, scrolling through text displayed on a paper-thin screen. She seemed caught up in the work, and so every few minutes Layla would look down at her right hand, into which she'd seen that gold liquid seemingly disappear.

“Why do you keep looking at your hand, Layla?” She was paying attention. This was just another test. Layla considered telling the truth, but wasn't so naive that she believed this woman would dismiss it as imagination. If she thought it were true, they would lock her away to do more tests. If she thought it was a hallucination, the result would be the same. So she lied.

“I felt something against my hand, in the water. It felt strange.” The woman typed something into the screen, then looked at her.

“I'm here to help you, Layla. What you've been through must have been very scary. The camera in the elevator room caught some of it, including the indigenous life form that broke through the doors. It must have been terrifying, and I'm just here to make sure that you're dealing with it well.”

“I'm okay.” That was a lie, too. She was terrified, because despite every effort she couldn't convince herself she'd imagined that liquid seeping into her skin. That golden, airy gel that had pooled into a perfect circle. And if it had, what did that mean? Was she infected with some kind of disease that was undetectable by their tests? Was there an organism living inside of her right now, feeding off of her? Surely they would have seen that.

She told herself she was being foolish, childish. It helped a little.

“I was scared, but it's wearing off now. Can I go home and sleep, please?” The woman smiled.

“Of course. All of the doctors have said you're perfectly healthy, every bit the impressive young woman you were before today. You're very lucky, little miss Layla.” Except she wasn't lucky.

The woman typed a few more keys into her screen, then stood up and walked out of the room. Shortly after, her parents rushed in. Mother hugged her hard and let her tears run down Layla's skin, apologizing over and over again. Father looked relieved, but was mostly quiet except to say how worried they both were.

As she followed her parents through the hallways, Layla wondered how she could possibly sleep with the weight of what had happened heavy in her thoughts. When they got back to their apartment, mother tucked her into bed and said goodnight with more tears in her eyes. Father did something he rarely did, and kissed her goodnight. It was such small gestures that reminded her he cared, even if he didn't often show it. Mat was already asleep above her.

Her body and mind were exhausted, and almost immediately she realized sleep was going to come regardless of everything else. Layla closed her eyes.

---

She was having a nightmare, but it was a nightmare unlike any she could remember having before it. In this dream she was conscious, or something close to it. She understood that she was sleeping, but somehow was awake"not awake, but aware; aware that something was happening in her inner eye, if it could be called that.

She perceived a bright light in the distance of her mind. A light that was much too far away to touch, yet somehow close enough to comprehend. She wasn't looking at it, not through eyes, but simply through her awareness. She didn't exist except as an understanding that all of this was happening inside of her.

Then a sound came. It was like a voice stretched out and the pitch was so sharp that it stung her mind; Layla screamed and her voice rang out, but she knew it was only in her thoughts. Instead of fading away, the sharp voice turned into several more. The pitch of each was enough to make her cry out again, but she didn't.

Concentrating, Layla realized that there were words in the voices, even though they sounded strange and wrong, as if spoken by someone who had no knowledge of the language. They kept speaking them over and over, improving gradually each time until she could understand some of them: “Home. World. Sky. Water. Light. Death. Alasta.”

The words seemed to be coming from the light. She perceived something in it but it was as blurry and as unclear as the voices. Focusing on it was difficult, like straining her eyes to look at the sun star on a bright day.

It may have gone on for days or months or even years. In her dream, time was an impossible measure, and the feeling of progression was constantly changing. The words became clearer but the voices were still sharp and unpleasant, and with focus she could dull them out, so that it was almost quiet. Then she was left with only the light, whose presence was foreboding because she knew it didn't belong inside of her.

---

The following day mother kept her out of class and Layla didn't argue. The nightmares were still vivid in her mind, and although she had no knowledge of what they meant, she felt that it must have been connected to what had happened the day before. Mother remained in the apartment to watch over her but was mostly occupied with matters of work. Every hour or so she would walk by the door and look into Layla's bedroom to ask if she needed anything. She never did.

In the afternoon she got tired of lying in bed and decided to log into the universal network. Most of the content was locked out but her parents allowed her access to colony news; as she expected, the main story was about the storm and what measures were being taken to guarantee the structure of the colony wasn’t compromised again. There was only a single paragraph about a child who was exposed to the outside, but all reports suggested that no contamination was present.

She began typing on the keyboard, but stopped almost immediately. Her gaze shifted to her right hand, the hand that had held the strange golden liquid the day before. The skin seemed slightly discolored, from the tips of her fingers almost to her wrist. It was so subtle that she wondered if her mind was only playing tricks on her. Except when she moved it to get a better look, it was certainly different. The skin there was tinted, just slightly, the color of gold.

A chill ran along her spine and for an instant Layla thought of telling mother about what had happened, every single thing. She would believe it. She would take her to the doctors, and they would run tests and realize she was infected by something. Then they would lock her up, or amputate or ship her off-world. So she remained at the desk and continued typing, but only rarely looked away from her hand to see what was on the screen.

By evening father had returned home and there was hardly any mention of the previous day. Layla thought they were doing it on purpose to make her feel better and that was fine. Mat didn't know anything about it; perhaps they didn't want to worry him. Whatever the reason, she didn't feel like talking about it, and so said nothing to him.

Then she was in bed again. Father hadn't kissed her goodnight. She was looking at her hand but couldn't see it clearly in the dark. Mat was asleep, breathing slowly and measurably. She listened and let the sound of if draw her mind away from wakefulness. There was comfort in things that were steady and familiar. Layla drifted to sleep thinking about that.

---

It was another nightmare, if it could be called that. The landscape in her mind was so similar to the night before that for an instant Layla thought it might be the same. Then she became aware of subtle differences. The light was brighter than before, and somehow closer. No, it wasn't just light anymore. Someone was underneath the light, or behind or within it.

She looked human, but only vaguely. The shape of her face was more oval than it should have been, and all the curves of her body were softer and much more delicate. Her skin was as pale as the miners who spent their lives in the deep moons of Aegyss, except hers wasn’t a sickly or unnatural paleness like theirs. Her hair was as white as her skin, and where she was kneeling it flowed out behind her, somehow like water.

The last thing Layla noticed was her eyes. They were the brightest blue she could ever remember seeing. They were large, but not very much larger than her own. Somehow she could see clearly how pure they were, without the lines or the strokes of any person's eyes. That was the moment she realized this woman wasn't human.

“Hello, Layla.” The voice was soft and sweet, and spoken as if it were a child still unsure of how the sounds fit together. Layla recognized something of her own voice in the way it sounded.

“Who are you?” It was only a thought, yet somehow her voice echoed out of nowhere and into everything.

“You may call me Alasta, if it will ease your understanding.” For the first time Layla realized that this woman didn't have a mouth, and the words she was speaking existed in much the same way as her own. They were thoughts, then. They were hearing each other’s thoughts. Impossible as that seemed, Layla didn't question that it was real. “Your language was unfamiliar to me, but I've learned from your mind the meaning of your words, and from your thoughts how they must sound. Alasta was your home. A place of comfort, of safety. So I will use it in the hope you will feel safe.”

“Why are you here?” It seemed a foolish question when Layla was uncertain where or what here even was. But it made sense to ask it, as if it were the only question that needed asking.

“Because you took something of ours inside yourself. A machine, as you would call it. An organic machine which we placed there to watch over and study that world. It was meant to die when its shell was broken, but something unforeseen happened. It’s become a part of you.”

“What does that mean?” There was fear in her now, more than ever before. There was something inside of her that she didn't understand. Something that had already reached her brain and was unraveling her thoughts; perhaps even changing them.

“It means the machine has begun merging with you. It was designed to be self-sufficient, to repair itself on a cellular level so that it could survive for eons. It's changing your cells, redesigning them given the blueprints upon which it's built.”

“Then make it stop!” Her words echoed out and the world around them darkened from their force. Layla could hardly understand what was being said. Everything had suddenly become dark and terrible, blurred and confused.

“It cannot be done. This machine has no controls, no mind, nothing but instructions which it will follow until they are complete.”

“What does that mean?” It was very quiet now. The light was fading.

“It's morning now, Layla. Soon you will wake.”

“No...it's only been moments.”

“Our thoughts are not instantaneous, though they move between the stars many times faster than light. But I am far beyond the most distant place known by man, and hours have passed in your world. We will speak again, but now you will wake.”

---

Then her eyes were open, and Layla stared at the bed above her until the door opened and mother roused them both for the day to come. She hurried to the bathroom and shut the door. A few minutes of privacy was all she needed to prove to herself whether the dream was just a dream, or something more.

She stood in front of the mirror, shirt off, looking into the reflection of her eyes, too terrified to look down. Too afraid she knew what she would see. Then Mat was knocking on the door and Layla realized it had been several minutes already. She ripped her eyes away from the mirror and looked at her right arm. The skin was tinted gold, all of it, all the way up to her shoulder. She looked back into the mirror and realized it was even in the veins of her neck, though just barely.

The dream had been true, then. Suddenly her head was swimming and the world seemed to be shifting uncontrollably. Layla grabbed the sides of the sink to steady herself. Then she turned around and vomited silently into the toilet. Mat was banging on the door and mother's voice was coming in behind it. If they saw her like this, they'd know.

“I'm almost done,” she said. She flushed the toilet, dressed quickly and made herself look normal, then opened the door. Mother was waiting with a look of apprehension that was masking a deeper look of concern.

“Are you alright, El? You can stay home today if you'd like. We can go see the doctor, if there's anything wrong.”

“I'm fine. I was just getting ready.” Mother waited a moment longer before nodding and leaving her alone. Then Mat came out of the bathroom and they went to eat breakfast together. Father was at the table, reading. He glanced up at her and Layla realized mother had already voiced her concern to him. He didn't say anything.

Breakfast was waiting for her. Eggs sunny side up, a biscuit and ham; her favorite. But she didn't have an appetite. How could she eat? It would feed whatever was inside of her. Or maybe it didn't need food. The woman in her dream said it could survive for eons. How could that be possible without sustenance? It was artificial…but organic, alive.

Something had to feed it. She could ask. Then maybe there was a way to starve it, and maybe it would die.

That thought helped a little. Layla managed to eat a good portion before saying she was done. A few minutes later she and Mat were on their way to class, following familiar walls and crossing where she knew they should cross. Mostly people ignored her, but every now and again someone recognized her from photos or from that night, and gazed at her strangely. Mat didn't seem to notice. She left him at his class and walked to her own.

Sem was waiting, obviously aware of what had happened but careful not to question her too soon.

“Are you okay, Layla?”

“I'm fine, thanks. It was just scary, that's all.”

“I can't imagine.” Sem smiled reassuringly. “You didn't miss much yesterday. Mr. Seflim told us more about the world, about composition and vegetation and a little bit about the indigenous life. But I think he pretends to know more than he does. I overheard my parents talking. They said no one is really sure what's beyond the walls, out there.”

Layla thought that was a vast understatement. They had no business putting children on this world when it was unexplored. They had no business being here at all.

Mr. Seflim came in and immediately noticed Layla. He avoided confronting her outright about what had happened, but it was clear it was on his mind as he talked about the geographic makeup of the world, covering various mountain ranges, deserts and forests. Layla largely ignored the lesson, but perked up when he mentioned that Uese was strikingly similar to Earth.

For Layla Earth was like a place out of scripture. Though there were photos and holograms and texts that explored the birthplace of mankind in depth, there were precious few worlds that were anything like it. When man ascended to the stars, he left behind a dystopia, a ruined planet that was a mirror image of the governments and the wars that had marred humanity for so long.

What few people spoke of, but what Layla knew even from the few things she'd seen, was that nothing had really changed. Wars were still being waged in the dead of space on planets where billions were killed instead of millions. In escaping to the stars, man had guaranteed not only that he could live on forever, but that his hatred could as well.

By the time she finished thinking about Earth, war, and death, the class was over. Layla gathered her things and was ready to leave when Mr. Seflim called her over to his desk. She glanced at Sem and then approached him slowly, afraid that he somehow knew something no one else did.

“Layla, you were absent yesterday. We all know why. And you probably think I'm here to pick your brain about what you saw, but that's not the case. No, I want to talk about the fact that you barely paid any attention during today's class. Is the material boring for you?”

“I was listening.” It was a lie; she may as well have been somewhere else entirely. The only thing she could focus on was the organism working its way through her body.

“Good, then you won't mind a little quiz. What's the diameter of Uese?”

“Fourteen thousand, two-hundred thirty five kilometers at its equator.” The words were leaving her lips almost before he’d finished speaking, and she had no idea where they were coming from.

He paused a moment. “From pole to pole?”

“Thirteen thousand, nine-hundred seventy six kilometers.” Mr. Seflim looked surprised but not awed. Of course she could have been acting disinterested while still listening, but Layla knew better. His lecture had fallen on deaf ears, yet somehow she'd heard every word and without realizing it had stored away every piece of information.

It was changing her mind.

Layla tried to mask her fear but thought it was obvious anyway. Mr. Seflim either didn't notice or didn't care, because he turned away and began working on something else.

“Very well,” he added, without looking at her. “In the future please try to appear as attentive as you actually are.”

Layla left the room and found Sem waiting for her. Together they walked to Mat's class and waited for it to end.

“Everything alright?” Sem asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

“I'm fine. He wanted to make sure I was paying attention in class.”

“Oh.” They sat in silence for a moment. “I hear they're going to be sending out an exploratory unit pretty soon.”

At that moment children began rushing through the doorway. Layla breathed a sigh of relief because she didn't want to explain to her only friend that she had other things on her mind, and all she wanted was to be left alone.

“I'll see you in class, Sem.” She took Mat's hand and led him to their apartment without ever wondering which way to go.

That night she kept mostly to herself, ate dinner quickly and quietly and then went to her room. She thought about playing a game on the computer to distract herself but decided against it. She had to know if the woman from her dream would show up again, and if she could better explain what was happening.

So Layla laid in her bed and waited for sleep. At some point mother came in and tucked Mat in. She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep, but almost cried when she felt mother kiss her forehead. For an instant she wanted desperately to scream out that something was terribly wrong; then she would feel warm arms embracing her, and even father would be there to comfort her.

Except she thought about the tests they would run, and the scientists that would want to study her, and she kept perfectly silent until mother left the room. Only then did she weep gently, quiet enough so that Mat wouldn't hear, until she fell asleep.

---

The woman was there again, no closer than before but a little clearer, as if some kind of fog had lifted. There was no doubt now that whatever she was, it wasn't human. Her skin was too pale and her features too different. The differences were subtle, but seeing all of them together made it impossible not to notice how strange she was.

“Hello, Layla.”

“Hello.”

“Our time together is short. It will become longer as our connection strengthens, but for now we must be brief. What would you like to ask?” Her voice was more natural than before. Layla wondered if she’d been practicing.

“What's happening to me?”

“I'm not certain. The machine is changing. It was a messenger, communicating data about that world"Uese, your people have named it. Then, once it merged with you, it showed me your thoughts and your language, moments of your past. Now it is acting only as a channel of communication between us.

“I believe that in merging with your cells, it's altering itself. It's redesigning what it's meant to be based upon you. Right now this is occurring at a biological level, but our communication suggests that you have some degree of control over it. In time you may even be able to change yourself at the cellular level.” She said it as though it was what Layla wanted to hear, but she couldn't imagine being any more frightened.

“What if it keeps changing? What if I lose this connection to you?”

“If you want this connection to remain, it will. The machine has no mind, only instructions. Somehow those instructions are being created in a way I don't understand, by thoughts you may not even know you have.”

“Then why can't I will it to stop?”

Alasta was quiet, as if finally understanding. Perhaps without being able to feel what Layla was feeling, this woman had no knowledge of her mind, no idea how afraid she was. “It's too late. What you must understand is that your body is already changed, forever. No part of you is untouched by this machine, and it will continue to replicate until every cell has been replaced. I'm sorry, Layla.”

The words sounded dull and flat, as if the woman had no understanding of what it meant to be sorry. Layla wondered about that. Maybe her species never felt regret, or sorrow, or even anger. She wanted to ask but knew their time was coming to an end.

“I don't want to lose this connection,” Layla said. “I need your help, or else I'm alone.”

“I'll always remain. All you must do is dream.”

---

The following morning Layla was standing naked in front of the mirror. The light golden color had spread almost entirely across her chest, and was beginning to move down her left arm. Anyone else might still dismiss it, but for her it was like a horrendous scar, and it was all she could do not to weep.

She noticed something else too. Her right arm had lost the golden color, all the way to the elbow. The skin was back to its normal color, but she let herself hope for only an instant. No, it wasn't back to normal. The cells were adapting, mimicking exactly what her skin should look like. She realized then that not a single cell in that arm was hers anymore. They were all hybrids, artificial living organisms; perfect designs.

Layla wondered what would happen when her whole body was gone, replaced by them. Would her thoughts even be her own? Or would they become the thoughts of a trillion microscopic machines?

Those were the scariest thoughts of all; that she might lose herself entirely. That she could cease to exist even as her body becomes a perfect replica of herself. The irony filled her with cold dread.

Mat was knocking on the door. Layla hurriedly dressed and then went to eat breakfast. Today was a Saturday, and that meant there were no classes. Father would still go to work, but not mother.

“Layla,” mother said. “I'm taking Mat shopping with me. Would you like to come with us?” She shook her head. Mother frowned but said nothing.

After father went to work and mother left with Mat, Layla found herself alone and terribly bored. She wanted to look up nanotechnology on the net to see if anything might shed light on what was happening to her, but all the useful pieces of information were locked out. It would seem children had no use for such things. Eventually she gave up and just stared at her right arm, recalling her dream from the night before.

She ran a finger across the smooth desktop and watched each letter of the keypad briefly light up as it was touched. She let her mind wander, thinking of how else she might learn more about what was happening to her. As her finger continued to trace the letters, Layla stopped abruptly. She thought she felt something, like a spark of electricity at her fingertip. She rested her hand lightly on the keypad, and began to feel it again.

At first it was a tingling sensation. After a minute or so it felt like her skin was crawling, and as she lowered her head to find out why, she saw. The skin on her palm and fingers was moving, as if it were melting off the bones. Thin strands of it, no thicker than a fingernail, were melding with the surface of the desk. Layla jumped and moved to pull her hand back, but at that moment an image flashed through her mind and she stopped herself.

She closed her eyes and tried to recall it again. What she saw was an image that was wholly unfamiliar, yet she understood perfectly what it represented. She was looking at data, but not in the form it was generally displayed. In her mind's eye she was seeing the hidden parts of the net, not as written language or a visual representation, but as electrical signals. For an instant it was utter confusion, and then, without knowing how, she began interpreting it. She distinguished words from images and sounds; she saw how certain data could be manipulated to call other information. All of this she understood without meaning to, like there were two parts of her, an unconscious one which was unraveling and displaying the data while the part her conscious mind occupied was merely observing it.

It only took a moment for Layla to find the program her parents had setup to prevent unrestricted access to the net. After that it was just a matter of digging deeper into the code, finding the encrypted password, unencrypting and disabling it. When she opened her eyes, the monitor was displaying the information she had been trying to access earlier.

Only she didn’t need to see the information to read it. Everything was already in her mind; bytes of data were unraveled in fractions of a second, and that instant was all she required to understand and store it away. The monitor flashed images and text faster than anyone could hope to comprehend. There was a wealth of information on nanotechnology, and even some data regarding cellular reconstruction using microscopic machines. But it was nothing like what she was experiencing. This was theoretical knowledge, ideas and concepts that had never been tested or tried.

So she closed her eyes again. The encryption she read with ease. The firewalls she passed through without even understanding how, as if her body were on autopilot, digging deeper and deeper into the net. Eventually she reached a database belonging to the Interstellar Association of Colonization. She didn't know how long it took to get there, or when mother might return, and she didn't care.

The IAC had hundreds of programs designed to prevent unauthorized access, but she already saw how each could be tricked, disabled, or bypassed. When she opened her eyes there was a list of star systems displayed, with planets branching off of them and data regarding colonization efforts, population, and Terra classification. She looked quickly over each one, aware that they would be stored away in her mind without even a second glance.

Then Layla thought of something else, and began searching for the date of the first exploratory mission of Uese. In an instant she found it. Three days from now. In three days the doors would open and the first steps would be taken out onto the soil of this world. She would be watching.

Outside of the room she heard a door opening, and quickly severed whatever link was binding her to the computer. A moment later the screen was blank. Mother came in to check on her, and Layla told her she was fine.

That night she lay restlessly in bed, wondering at what had happened. Wondering for the first time what else she might be capable of. If her cells could learn and mimic and understand so rapidly, what was to prevent them from learning to emulate a different kind of substance? At first Layla was dizzy with the possibilities, and then she began to feel afraid.

She imagined herself becoming a part of the world, her whole body fading away into the earth like some kind of melting sculpture. Would there be anything left of her? If that happened, could she ever truly recreate herself? Or was that girl already gone forever?

She convinced herself that as long as she had her thoughts, she was herself. After all, the thing inside of her was changing itself to create a more perfect her. Already she could sense the differences in her mind and body; it was near midnight now and she felt no exhaustion, not even the faintest hint of sleep calling to her. Her mind was an endless series of questions being asked, and answers being provided. Most things she only had to look at to understand how they worked and how they might be duplicated or improved. The more advanced machines she could integrate with to examine their inner components, but only when there was no chance someone would see.

In the morning, before Mat awoke, she went to her computer. She let her hand rest on the keyboard and closed her eyes. This time it was instantaneous. Layla felt herself moving, but knew she wasn't. It was like an extension of her consciousness. It was a sensation of feeling the world moving around her; it was changing and becoming different.

Then she began to see things in her mind. Now even the deepest encoding was like a language she already knew but with a strange accent. Memories were being written and sent back and forth into space, not in the hundreds or thousands, but in millions of tiny pieces of information processed every second, from a thousand different terminals.

But that didn't interest her. Layla would have time for those later. For the moment she focused on what was happening just beneath her fingers. She began to study everything from the keyboard to the processor, reverse engineering each piece in her mind until she understood it intimately. She was only vaguely aware of seconds passing outside the border of her focus.

By the time she finished, the lights on the wall were fully illuminated. It was daybreak. Any moment now mother could open the door and see her. Would she suspect anything was amiss, if she did? Layla thought not, but didn't want to take any chances. She broke her concentration and retreated from that place.

For several minutes she merely sat, thinking. Then she heard mother's footsteps outside the door and knew it was time to get ready for class. She dressed quickly while mother came in to wake up Mat and get him ready. She knocked on the bathroom door and asked if Layla was okay.

“I'm fine. I'll be out shortly.” It was a lie, but not so significant a lie as it had been a few days before. She was still afraid...but now there was something else, too. Excitement.

She ate breakfast and ignored any conversation that came up, deftly redirecting the focus away from herself when mother spoke to her. Father didn't seem interested in anything but his news, as usual. She noticed mother glancing at her occasionally; without even meaning to, Layla could read the slight hint of concern on her face.

After breakfast she took Mat's hand and they walked together to class. There were people going about their business and Layla noticed them in a way she hadn't before. She became interested in what they were doing, and began noticing their subtle gestures and movements. A woman looked at a man and it was clear as day that she loathed him, despite the smile plastered on her face. Two men were shaking hands; both were distracted and their minds were elsewhere. Even from a distance, she saw it in the way they moved, the way their eyes were unfocused and how their expressions changed too quickly. A young man and woman were leaning against a wall; his hands were around her waist, and together they moved slowly the way a leaf might shift with the wind. The idea of sexual desire wasn’t something Layla had understood before, but watching them move together and seeing the way they looked at one another, she thought she understood it very well now.

She noticed something else too, while watching. She could focus her hearing. In the large spherical room where arrivals and departures were processed, Layla noticed a woman standing about a hundred feet off and speaking on her mobile. At first the surrounding noises completely drowned out her voice, but in a few short seconds Layla had isolated the woman's voice and could hear it as clearly as if they were right beside each other. All the other sounds became quieter.

She tried it with other sounds, each one easier than the last to locate and separate from other white noise. Within moments it was as if all of the sounds around her were on separate layers. She could hide them at will, hearing only what she chose to hear while remaining aware of everything.

Her mind was functioning as a unity of unconscious and conscious thoughts. Some things she knew without understanding how. She was aware of the people moving around her without ever looking at them.

“We're here, Layla.” She looked at Mat and let go of his hand. He walked into his classroom while she headed for her own. When she entered the room the other kids didn't pay much attention. Only Sem was watching as she came and sat down.

“Hey,” Sem said, trying too hard to sound nonchalant. Layla could sense the uncertainty in her voice and the way she avoided eye contact. What she didn't know was where it came from. What was Sem afraid of?

“Hi,” she replied.

“How are you feeling?” Layla looked at Sem, trying to read her expression and see whatever thoughts were behind her eyes. She couldn't. Soon, perhaps, but not just yet.

“I'm fine,” she answered.

“You just look a little off is all. Maybe it's nothing.” Layla nodded and turned her attention toward the front of the classroom. Mr. Seflim was preparing his lecture and trying too hard not to glance in her direction. She thought it was because of what had happened after the last class. She could have feigned ignorance and pretended not to know the answers. That would have been the wiser course. So she was still capable of acting foolishly.

That, at least, was human.