Another robot is close to me and it has a different hose. I am thinking I will be drinking more water, but this one sprays me in shower so hard it is knocking me back on ground. It is like raining all over my body, but pain is leaving me, and I am smiling, and suddenly, I am seeing vision of child in too-big shirt running down dirt road. The shirt is flapping like flag is wrapping around them, and there is water everywhere in this vision, and the child is shining with the rain. Suddenly, I am back in the desert and all around me is dead bodies, but I am feeling like it is raining on my body, and I am hearing sound, and it is me giggling and giggling and giggling.

CHAPTER

3

Without Céline in one of the window seats or in a desk chair, Ify’s private first-class cabin in the shuttle heading back to Alabast seems cavernous. Ify has shut the windows and adjusted the interior lighting for the perfect amount of brightness to keep her awake and focused on her work.