Revealing

<snip>
“That’s just it isn’t it? No matter what I do. I’ll always still be Her. Her genetic throwback.” Cass spat angrily, sinking up to her chin in the warm water as if she wanted to drown it all out.

“Yeah, I had a friend who used to say that too.” Jade said laughing.

“What?” Cass asked, snapping her head around to glare at Jade.

“Yeah. She was an identical twin. So, she had identical DNA to her sister, and she hated toe woman. She used to cry and moan endlessly about how she had this huge shadow to escape from because her sister was more successful. Worried endlessly about being a better person, more successful, if they had the same make-up or hair style. Turns out, she could never get over the fact her sister, even though they were identical genetically, was actually a different person.” Jade shrugged “I always felt sorry for her really.”
</snip>

Tiredly rubbing her face with her hands, Cass slowly shook her head.

This wasn’t how she’d envisaged this going.

In the first instance, she hadn’t counted on Jade being here, much less having stripped off and joined her in the hot tub; an intrusion which had left her feeling waspish and irritable when all she had wanted was to be alone.

South’s appearance had rattled her far more than she wanted to admit and had raised the very real possibility of another STCP incursion; so right now, she needed some headspace – some time on her own, to plot and scheme and to run and rerun her simulations. If the STCP really were on their way, she wanted to make damn sure that her defence contingencies had as few exploitable weaknesses, as humanly possible.

Letting her hands fall, Cass pulled her legs up, defensively, in front of her; her knees just visible below the surface of the bubbling water.

“I don’t need pity” she grumbled.

“That’s not what I meant” Jade said firmly “I’m just trying to make you see that you’re nothing like Brittany”

“Yeah, I already knew that”

“Oh” Jade seemed put out.

Cassandra’s expression softened with the realisation that she was being unfair.

“Brittany... Brittany’s ancient” she explained “By my estimate, I’d say that she’s at least ten thousand years old, probably more – There’s no way I could ever be like her.
“I’ve never ruled the galaxy like her. I haven’t cultured pan-dimensional civilisations up from single celled organisms. I don’t rule time – I’m not her”

Letting her legs slip back down into the depths of the pool, Cass leaned forward in the water; submerging in it, up to her chin “I’m just a snapshot of the woman who went on to do those things” she shrugged “You already know all this”

Jade nodded but said nothing. Being a doctor meant that you quickly learned to be a good listener.

“It’s my heritage that I struggle with” Cass said after a moments reflection “I’ve twenty months of me, teetering on top of nearly thirty years of her - and she’s so hard to get away from, when I see her reflected in almost every facet of myself”

“You’re being way too hard on yourself” Jade said gently.

“Urgh - Too much navel gazing” Cass grimaced and with a shake of her head, quickly looked away; leaving Jade with the sudden urge to give her a hug and tell her that everything was going to be okay, but given her current state of undress, she had to concede that it probably wasn't a great idea – Cass was prickly enough with physical contact at the best of times, so it wouldn’t do to provoke her.

“I just need more time”

“Time?”

“Yeah - time; time to be me” Cass gestured helplessly “Everyone else thinks that being stranded, three million years adrift from the rest of humanity is shit; but this is freedom.
“Brittany was a wanted woman when she turned up here” Cass held a hand up to count off on her fingers “Interpol, the Yakuza, Europol – you name it. The cadmium disaster was the best thing that ever happened to me – I escaped and got to leave it all behind. This is my shot at being me!”

“Only you would say that the extinction of the rest of humanity is a good thing” Jade laughed “So that’s what you’re worried about? - Britany coming back and taking you away from all this?”

Cass gave a short, humourless laugh “No – She’s going to kill us”

“What!? – Why?” Jade was aghast.

“We’ve been pushing our luck for far too long” Cass said dourly “We’ve torn holes through the continuum that’ll take hundreds of years for the STCP to fix”

“Can’t they just go back and stop that from happening?”

“That’d create another paradox” Cass explained “They loop and spread like infections unless you do them right. Standard containment procedure is to crack them open and kill the perpetrators”

"That hardly seems fair"

Cass snorted derisively "Who said anything about fair? The only reason we're been tolerated this long is because Brittany's existence is inextricably linked with the Dwarf"

"And you know this for certain?” Jade was struggling to contain her agitation “She's definitely going to kill us?"

“Yes...” Cass shifted uncomfortably "Maybe. I don't know” she sighed "I don't even know if the STCP are on the way for certain, but I do know that Brittany has plans and we've fucked with them"

Jade gave her a disapproving look for the language "What plans?"

"I’ve no idea, but I've seen the way she works. There'll be multifarious schemes across hundreds of thousands of years and we’ll have a part in them somewhere"

“What on earth for?”

“I've no idea why she does what she does” Cass shrugged “None of it makes sense. How she predicts or even tracks the effects of her manipulations throughout the centuries, is beyond me – I mean, The STCP are advanced, but even they don’t have access to the computational power you'd need for that”

“Wow” Jade blew out her cheeks “That’s...” she petered out, her eyes staring past Cass “What’s that?”

“The fuck!?” Cass twisted to look at the mote of light that had swirled into existence behind her “Shit” she rose from the bubbling waters “Something’s –”

The light winked out.

“Cass?” Jade had leaned to one side, to get a better view of the anomaly but with nothing more to see, her eyes slid, involuntarily, down the taut line her friends back. She shook herself “What was that?”

“I... I dunno” Cass seemed troubled as she slipped back down into the waters and turned to face her “Holly?” she raised her voice “What the fuck was that?”

“Dunno dude” the AI swam into view on the monitor on the other side of the room “I’m still working through the sensor data, but it looks like some sort of time gate”

“STCP?”

“Nah – the signature’s all wrong. This is something else”

“Fucks sake. Have we seen this anywhere before?”

“No, but I’m getting dozens of tiny, little gates, warping in, all over the place and then fizzling out again” Holly bobbed on the screen “Oh, hang on a minute...”

“What?” Cass half rose from the hot tub, leaving Jade craning her neck, trying hard to look elsewhere.

“Nah. It’s nothing” the AI smiled beatifically “They’ve stopped now”

“You twat”

“Cass!” Jade chided, scandalised by her friend’s language.

“Yeah, alright mum” Cass grumbled in mock-irritation as she sank back down into the pool. She raised her voice to address Holly again “Did anything come through those gates? – I'm thinking nanoswam seeds, bio-terminators or any other nasties”

“Not that I’ve found”

Mustering what she could of her dignity, Cass rose and splashed out of the pool to snatch up the towel she’d left on one of the chairs, nearby “We need to be sure” she said as she coiled it around her “I want to run an analysis on that sensor data”

“Probably best you groove on over” Holly nodded “In any case, Jay wants a word with you about performing a holographic resurrection”

“What!?” Jade snapped

“I think we’ve had our fill of holograms” Cass nodded.

“Well, Brett won’t bake his MDMA brownies unless we bring his assistant back”

“Whoa – Back it up. MDMA brownies?”

“Yeah” Holly nodded “Artemis is brewing a load of MDMA to bake into some cakes. The plan is to drug a tribe of Huzards and make them more open to handing over their land for the Vermin”

Cassandra’s mouth fell open “What!?”

“It’s a laugh, innit?” Holly smirked.

“Oh, for fucks sake – I’ll be with you in a minute” Cass scooped up her bag and clothes and hurried towards the washrooms.

Glancing back at Jade as she pushed the door open, she raised her eyebrows “We just passed the Bechdel test - Coming?”

“Um...” Jade shifted uncomfortably amid the bubbling waters “Have you got a spare towel?”


<tbc/>