Path book 1 Jane

  I nodded. The Asari was simply drawn by curiosity mixed with some kind of strange, seemingly detached, scientific interest. This is how my dad Dakar looks at scans of my tissues after the next change.

  "So, now I'm sitting and I see a child in front of me, a seven-year-old human girl. However, according to the tests," she tapped her finger on the screen of the datapad, "Sitting in front of me is not a girl or a child at all, but an adult male Earthling! What do you say?"

  "What do you want me to say, Rien?" my heart thumped and sank down somewhere.

  "So you don't have an explanation?"

  "No".

  "You're hiding something, Zhenya — some kind of secret, something so incredible, amazing! It's a pity that the `embrace of eternity' is forbidden to spend with children, I really want to see your open mind!"

  I closed myself with a medium emotion shield, suppressed the growing panic and answered.

  "What you see will not please you, Teacher!" I rasped in a slightly hoarse voice. "Rien shuddered and stared at me like a rabbit at a boa constrictor. "There are secrets that can kill on their own, that can poison life so much that it becomes worse than death, and death becomes a release from the torment of knowledge and expectation. Do you still want to touch the mystery?"

  Rien swallowed and whispered.

  "Are you a Seer, Eugene?"

  "If it's important, then yes."

  "The goddess! How could I not have guessed! This explains a lot, but not everything. But... the Goddess!No, I don't want to know. You're right!" Rien jumped up and rushed to the door, pressed on the hologram and, without waiting for the door to open completely, jumped out.

  I went out to the blackboard screen, it was turned off, dark. I took a piece of chalk from the shelf and drew a bird cage, a large one that covered the entire board. Then she sat down on her desk, put her feet on the table and wrapped her arms around them. This world is a cage in which I am like a pet in a vivarium. But the animal is obliged to save the menagerie and all its inhabitants. The locals see right through me, and it's only by some miracle that I'm still free, and not in some kind of closed center near the famous Cerberus. Jackie Nod was abducted and kept like an animal in a cage for more than ten years... bitches! If I ever get to the Ghost, I'll fucking kill the goat, and my hand won't waver!

  She probably sat like that for an hour until Nain found me. She ran into the classroom, saw me sitting motionless, hugged me, hugged me tightly.

  "Are you all right, Eugene?"

  "It's okay, Nain, but your sister is not normal — that's what the tests say."

  "Forget about this mess, Eugene, let's go home. Ginny's already been waiting there."

  The next day, the homeroom teacher pretended that nothing had happened — as usual, she taught classes, handing out various tasks to us and monitoring their progress. Only at the end of the school day did she ask me to stay late. After waiting for everyone to leave, she came over, sat next to me, and took my hands in hers.

  "Zhenechka, I have adjusted the test results so that they are within the normal range. And please... if you need any help, just tell me, I'll help you in any way I can. You know, I'm a member of the colony's council, like your father, like Dakar and Reyan, like many respectable reasonable people, and I'll always help and cover for you in any way I can."

  She got up, went to the blackboard and asked in a low voice:

  "Is it that bad up ahead?"

  "Worse than you can imagine in your worst nightmare."

  "Tell me, do we have any hope? Is there a gap there?"

  "There is. There is always hope. The main thing is to believe that we can do it and fight."

  "So, we need to take action. I will raise the issue at the council. If there is a threat, we must try to remove it... or reduce losses. Don't say anything else, go home, Zhenya."

  The heat becomes unbearable, and Nain suggests going to the backwater to swim, maybe catch some mud crabs, if the fish are such a bummer. We roll up and stomp to the pool, and meanwhile I remember a conversation two years ago with my grandfather — I was lying at home on the bed, quietly whimpering from the cramping pain in my muscles. Nain was sitting next to me and stroking my head, flooding everything with sincere sympathy and pity. Over the past five years, pain has been my constant companion. As Dad Dakar says, "Your body is more flexible, faster, lighter and stronger than an ordinary person's, and it's already very noticeable, and pain is the price to pay for such opportunities. Be patient, my daughter-it should be over by the age of seventeen." By this time, human girls are ending their period of intense growth and maturation. Oh, the folder made me happy, it really encouraged me...

  Grandfather came into my room. He sat on the edge of the bed and asked:

  "Tell me, Eugene, where are you going? Why do you need all this? Is it related to your dreams? Did you see something there? Please answer me — I want to understand the reason for this obsession, granddaughter."

  "I won't tell you, Grandpa, this knowledge won't change anything — it will only poison your life. You, Grandma, parents, all of you."

  "Are we able to change something?"

  "No, Grandpa, nothing depends on us."

  "Something can be done anyway. Tell me what?"

  "Train us, Grandpa, as much as you can, and we will train with all our might. That's all we can do. We can't do anything else."

  "Tomorrow morning at the intersection, both of them. Let's start studying — I'll make up a schedule for both of you, I'll arrange with Tanris. We will teach you seriously, don't you agree?" We nodded. "Zhenya, no more amateur activities — you will strictly follow my recommendations, just like the recommendations of your father and Reyan. Do you agree?"

  "Yes, Grandfather."

  And then all Hell broke loose. And it continues to this day. Running, knife fighting, shooting with all types of weapons except heavy sniper rifles, unarmed fighting and biotic firing range. Tael teaches me how to hack all kinds of electronic systems, conduct a proper associative search on the extranet, crack data protection systems and locks. Granny — works with reasonable people, conducts a conversation correctly, imperceptibly extracting the necessary information from the speaker, teaches rhetoric and the ability to influence the interlocutor.

  I only made some adjustments, remembering that in the game my original could neither sing nor dance. In a previous life, I could play guitar and saxofon, plus an incomplete musical education. But, as they say, that was when it was... and I couldn't dance there either. I signed up for a ballroom dancing class with our Sveta. And she fulfilled the dream of her previous life — she learned to play the piano. Nain and Gina followed me, only Ginny plays the violin, and my sister plays the kattor, it's such a Turian accordion, with a bunch of little buttons under the claws, it sounds just like a regular one. Although Nain also learned to play the piano.

  Dancing didn't work out for me. Sveta taught me how to dance, but I do it mechanically, automatically. "You don't have a spark of a real dancer in you, Zhenya -you seem to dance beautifully, but without a soul, it's too mechanical and cold.", She told me. Well, okay, I'm dancing ... with a knife, though, I'm better at dancing — Master Toliyat is pleased, even praises sometimes.

  We're lying on a hot rock with Nain, looking at the holographs Ham sends me in my toolbox. They show Palaven, his friends in the training regiment, and himself in training armor. It is easy to distinguish it from the usual one — there are no distinctive part icons on it. In some of the photos, he's Tam — he's not as stocky, more graceful, with a narrow waist. Unlike Ham, he already has tattoos on his face. I asked my brother in a letter why he didn't have tattoos, and he replied that he was being trained as an intelligence agent. My brother will be a quiet man in the service of Hierarchy. And they don't get tattoos to make it harder to identify. According to legend, tattoos are applied only before the task with a special paint, which can then be washed off with a special compound. And Tam already has a whole pussy with tattoos on his right arm. The youngest is being trained in the Naval special forces, his grandfather's school has taken its toll. Both of them will arrive soon, but only for a month — an official annual vacation. How I've missed them all! When they arrive, we will prepare for the Young Talents competition.

  I, as befits a real hit woman, have been doing the favorite thing of all hit men all year.... Like what? That's right... plagiarism! I remembered good performers of my time and searched for them on the extranet, and if I didn't find them, I shamelessly used their work. She prepared six songs, wrote the score, and arranged the songs into parts. Denis and Alexey — guitarists and vocals, Ham — bass guitar and vocals, Tam — vocals, I — keyboards, sax and backing vocals, Nain — kattor and backing vocals, Vasil — drums, Gina — violin, Noverry — keyboards and backing vocals. That's our whole group, with the poetic name "Berry patch", in honor of our village. Oh, let's light up the competition!

  A bike flashed by in the hot haze at the limit of visibility. Gina noticed and offered to get dressed, in case someone flew in. I replied that I couldn't bring anyone I could be shy about-El with the youngsters, and Feron with his father on patrol. I don't give a damn about the rest of the colony's population. And they won't come here, there are places closer. Besides, the tan is worse in a swimsuit.

  "I don't understand you, Eugene.... Aren't you shy at all?"

  "No, why? Am I ugly? Or does my appearance shock someone? I look like an ordinary person, and I don't walk around the city center naked, but there's no one here but us. And if they come, then let them be shy, not me."

  "So you wouldn't undress in front of the guys, and we had to go get swimsuits?"

  "Right. It would be too much of a challenge for Al... why would you bully a guy?"

  "Do you like him at all?" The artist asked.

  "Just as a friend, nothing more."

  "I like him, he's so cute, his hair is so blond and his eyes are blue, and how he shoots an assault rifle...." Her friend speaks dreamily, and there's something so strange about her feelings....

  I got up on my elbows, and Nain turned around and stared at our artist — Ginny was sitting, staring absently into space. We looked at each other and laughed. Gina was very embarrassed.

  "What are you laughing at?" she asked, eliciting even more laughter from my sister and me. What are you laughing at? she asked, eliciting even more laughter from my sister and me.

  "You're a Batarian, Ginny! And Al is human," I said.

  "So what?!" my friend replied. "Does it really matter?"

  "You're right, Ginny, it doesn't matter at all... except that he's in love with Eugene", Nain said. Ginny just sighed heavily.

  Here's another damn problem....

Chapter 10.5 Al Hartman.