Mutant Story

Home, as far as Luke Cavlan was concerned, was the small terraced
house occupied by the healing woman, Renatta Day. Years ago, following
the deaths of both his parents, Renatta had taken him in as a small boy
and brought him up amid her herbs and potions. Throughout the early
years of his childhood he'd thought the place full of magic and wonder;
he'd seen a lot of weird and wonderful happenings inside her door! When
Luke was in his teens, another refugee - a three-year old waif named
Marianne - had been left on her doorstep in a similar way. He never
said much to her, nor her to him. It was just the way it was between
them. As she grew older, Renatta began to train Marianne as an
apprentice-cum-maidservant, and that was as much as Luke knew about
her.

Having finished with matters at the Hall, Luke approached Renatta's
familiar door still smiling devilishly about Rico's clerk. Marianne
opened the door and invited him inside without him even having to
knock. She'd known he was coming; she could always sense him, even
before he'd turned into the street. He looked at her with a quizzical
frown for a moment, wondering, but didn't pass comment. "Good morning,
Patrol Leader. Welcome home" she said softly.

Marianne always spoke to him quietly, and with a lowered gaze he found
rather irritating. Luke didn't know quite what it was about the
maidservant that bothered him but something did; something he couldn't
quite put his finger on but then barely even recall when not in her
presence. Slender, with dark hair and eyes, she was quite a pretty
young thing in her way, but there was something about her that told him
she wasn't one to be messed with. She hadn't openly said so. Marianne
hardly said anything at all; at least not to him.

"Morning" he answered. As he brushed past her strange pictures came
flooding into her head; swarming one into the other. Marianne struggled
with the images still fresh in her mind from the last time they'd
touched. They were the same; they were always the same; and yet, as
ever, he just walked on by, blissfully unaware. Whilst pondering on the
confused images she'd seen in that latest involuntary scan she wondered
how it was that a man she'd known for so long could still be such a
stranger. She picked up his discarded black jacket in silence and
smoothed a hand across the weathered fabric with a feeling of
hopelessness and heavy longing. In that one scan she'd seen so much;
she wanted to tell him that she knew all about Anton and the stolen
rifle; that she knew his fears regarding lasers in the borderlands; but
instead, as always, she said nothing. Luke took a seat by the fireside
and watched the crackling flames equally ponderously, contemplating the
changing situation out in the borderlands. Anton's strange
disappearance troubled him - the whole scene out there worried him -
but the government didn't seem to share his concerns, no matter how
many times he voiced them via his reports to Patrol Command. "Where's
Renatta?" he asked, as Marianne hung his jacket up on a hook by the
door.

"She's tending a man over the other side of the City. She's been there
all night," she said quietly, in that infuriatingly shrinking way Luke
could never like her for.

"Must be something serious, then," he said absently.

"Yes" she said. For a while Marianne hovered around by the door and
Luke ignored her as though she'd gone out of the room. "Can I get you
anything?" she mumbled at last. "Er, something to eat?"

"No thanks" he said. As she went to remove his rifle from the table
beside him Luke stayed her hand, shaking his head, but at his touch
another flood of images shrieked though her. The force of it was
overwhelming. He heard her breath catch in her throat and frowned
again. "Are you alright -?"

"Er...yes...I'm..." she whispered, her head still reeling, but just as
Luke reached out to steady her Renatta came breezing in.

"It's a chilly 'un this morning! There's snow coming, you mark my
words!" she announced to no one in particular whilst she busily removed
several outer layers of clothing. "I must be getting old - my blood's
thinner than it was this time last year!" she complained. She looked
over to where Luke was sitting, noting he was there, but she said
nothing; spoke no words of welcome. Renatta wasn't the type of woman to
waste her breath on niceties and never had been. People normally knew
whether Renatta Day was pleased to see their faces without being
told.

Luke left Marianne to her troubles and grinned at the healing woman
with genuine affection. "You'll out-live us all, you old bag!" he
returned.

Renatta, with her greying flame-coloured hair and emerald-green eyes,
emptied her satchel of potions and powders onto her chopping table and
cackled at his words. "I'll certainly outlive you if you don't watch
your lip!" she told him, turning to her maidservant. She could see
there was something wrong - she hardly ever needed to be prompted when
it came to Marianne's troubles. "Happened again, has it?" she said
kindly. "Alright, we'll talk about it later, girl, not now". Marianne
nodded and then left the room, leaving Luke a mite bemused at her odd
behaviour.

"Your maidservant seems unwell today," he muttered as Renatta poured
him a cup of her herbal tea.

"She's well enough, lad," she said. "You just have an...odd effect on
her, that's all."

After taking a few hesitant sips of the steaming hot brew he laughed at
her answer. "If I scare her that much maybe I oughtta keep away."

"Humph...we'd never get rid o' you that easy!" she cackled back at him.
"Drink up and get to your bed now - I've got work to do."

Renatta rarely - if ever - asked him about his work or even how he was;
that was another of the things he liked her for. She knew him well
enough to know that he'd talk if he wanted to, and that if he didn't
she was wasting her time asking. Sometimes she'd look at him and wonder
what had happened to the small, frightened boy she'd found crying for
his mother on her doorstep one fateful morning all those years ago.
'He's grown and he lives in a different world,' she once said to
Marianne. 'A world we can never know, and wouldn't want to know even if
we had the choice.' Whatever memories he had of his life before were
always kept firmly locked away in his head, never given voice. She'd
never heard him talk about his parents; not once, in all the years
she'd known him.

A little later on, Marianne went back into Renatta's parlour-kitchen
and found some jobs to do. There was always work to be done, and she
knew she wasn't going to do it hiding away! As Luke finished his tea
and got to his feet he thanked Renatta and squeezed her shoulder
gently. Renatta knew he was smiling, and that his smile said he was
glad to be home, glad that everything was the same as he'd left it six
weeks before. He didn't say it and she didn't ask, but she knew all the
same.

That same morning a top-level meeting was taking place at Government
Centre, attended by a whole gamut of top brass, which included Elders,
Sect Leaders, and Patrol Commander Johann Rico. The agenda for the
meeting was varied and many things were up for discussion, not least of
which was the ever-present mutant menace all around them.

Rico had the floor, reading off patrol reports for their consumption,
as he'd done many times before. "...So as you can see, my Lords, if
Cavlan's reports are anything to go by mutant numbers are declining
across the borderlands," he was telling them. "He's right to question
why this is so. We have to make it our business to find out what's
going on out there, or pay the price for our ignorance"

A number around the table shifted uneasily. The very name inspired
dread in most of them. "They're still protecting him, then...?" one of
the Elders muttered.

"They know who he is, that's for sure" the Commander answered.

"They don't 'know' anything, Patrol Commander!" Sect Leader Lyal
Haversham retorted. "Where's their proof? All they have is a
name"

"And belief, Sir. If enough of them believe, they won't need proof," he
said

"I say we get rid of him like we did his father" Haversham glowered
darkly. "Let the blasted name die and have done with it!"

"We passed laws when he reached maturity to ensure the Cavlan line
couldn't be continued; to ensure the status quo," an Elder told them.
"We mustn't make the same mistake with Luke Cavlan as we did with his
father. We could never crush another uprising"

"True, my Lord" Rico agreed, which brought a disgruntled murmur from
Haversham.

Sect Leader Ochano cleared his throat and then leaned forward,
addressing no one specifically. "What's to be done then?" he asked.
"The hordes are obviously playing a waiting game - it could be a simple
matter of time before the whole blasted thing starts up again"

Rico spread his hands and shook his head slowly. "Matters of state are
your Lords' concern, not mine. You view Luke Cavlan as a threat, though
how much of a threat surely depends on how much mutant history you want
to believe. All their hokum about prophesies and Terran knows what
else! They drove Chivale Cavlan insane with it, and he was the most
level-headed man I ever knew!" he said, "As for Luke, well...we have
problems with that one now and then, as you know"

"The man's an insolent devil, Commander!" Haversham growled.

"And one of my most able Patrol Leaders, my Lord. If you want my
advice, Luke Cavlan isn't the most pressing matter; the situation out
in the borderlands ought to concern us most!"

"We must move on. We shall debate it another time, Johann." An Elder
interrupted.

"My Lords have said as much before and still the matter awaits your
deliberation" he answered wearily.

"Enough, Commander!" Haversham rebuked. "Time grows short and we're
barely halfway through the agenda - the subject is deferred!"

Rico had no choice but to yield, and not for the first time. He closed
his files and listened with scant interest to the next item for
discussion: Haversham's proposals for upgrading the d?cor in the upper
chambers of Government Centre...

The room was very quiet when Renatta sat Marianne down and listened,
yet again, to all the things that were troubling her. She waited
patiently until the words dried up and finally ceased, and then she
smiled. "Alright," she said. "You say these 'scans' of yours are
getting worse and that they come at you so quick and powerful they make
no sense at all. Tell me what you intend doing about it"

"I don't know..." Marianne blubbed unhappily.

"Tch - stop all that noise, girl!" Renatta scolded wearily - she could
try the healing woman's patience to breaking point at times! "Now
listen. It seems to me your main problem lies in the fact that you get
them all-too briefly and often without any warning. If you really do
care about Luke isn't it time you had the courage to say so, or at
least show him some signs of it?" she asked, but Marianne just kept
crying. "After all, how in the world can you hope to touch his heart if
you can't even touch his hand?" she persisted, in a manner she hoped
was kindly. In the end Renatta sighed and lifted Marianne's chin up so
she could see her face. "He thinks you're scared of him - hinted it
might be better if he didn't come round here at all. What d'you say to
that, then?"

"I'd say he was right - I am scared of him - but he mustn't stay away!
The scans are too important, I'm sure they are!" she said, clutching at
the old woman's hand.

"Then that's what you tell him"

"I...I can't...!" she blubbed again. "He'd laugh at me..."

"Marianne, I know your difficulty" Renatta sighed again. "Luke's a lot
older than you are and yes, he might even laugh, but that's a risk you
have to take. I suppose he can seem aloof - even bad tempered for no
reason at all - but he's just a man like any other. He wouldn't shun
your friendship if it was offered." Or at least Renatta hoped he
wouldn't; he wasn't the most predictable of people, she'd found.

"He's hardly aware I exist..."

"So whose fault is that, eh? The Border Patrol spend six to nine weeks
away from the City doing their duty to the Sect and when they return
Luke Cavlan chooses to spend any free time he has here; in this house.
You've been living with me for years and years, Marianne, and it seems
like you just don't know how to be friendly toward folk no matter who
they are. If you want to get any further you've got to make an effort,
haven't you?"

"Perhaps it's the way it was meant to be"

"Oh rubbish!" she scolded again. "Those things you see - the scans -
they must mean something. Something only you can discover. You've an
exceptional gift, Marianne...some call it 'the third eye', but in order
to put it to good use you have to be brave sometimes. When Luke wakes
up, offer to tell his fortune!" It was the only thing she could think
of at the time.

Later that morning, when they'd all eaten, Luke and Renatta sat facing
each other across the hearth, where the fire still crackled and her
ever-boiling pot of herbal tea still bubbled. He was telling her about
Rico's clerk and the memo from Patrol Command, and how there would
probably be another one waiting at the Hall reprimanding him for his
behaviour. "...And the stupid guy stood there for over an hour! Patrol
Command? They're a load of tossers running a fuckin' memo factory!" he
laughed humourlessly.

"So, you hate the place. What else is new?" she smiled, ignoring his
profanities. Over the years she'd grown used to his foul mouth; it was
part and parcel of the man he was.

Luke's grimace slipped slightly and he looked at her in silence for a
moment. "Y'know, that's the thing, Renatta. I don't hate the Hall. Or
Command. I don't even hate the damn moots anymore. I'm just weary of
it...bloody weary" he answered, rubbing his face with his
fingertips.

"You don't hate anything because you don't love anything, my lad"

"Is that so?" he returned, surprised.

"Aye, it is. Marianne told me that only last week"

Marianne, who'd been listening to their conversation as she worked at
the chopping board, froze at Renatta's words. Luke stared at her for a
few seconds, watching her already-flushed cheeks turning to bright
scarlet. "Well, I'm intrigued" he said at last. "What else do you tell
your mistress while I'm not here, maidservant?"

Renatta got to her feet stiffly and beckoned Marianne to sit in her
place. "I've got things to do. There - you've got his attention - he
knows you exist. Talk" she said, walking away. Marianne sat down facing
him very slowly and he watched her in amusement whilst her gaze shifted
nervously around the room.

"Well?" Luke asked at last. He tried to help with an encouraging smile,
but he doubted she even saw it.

"Renatta says I've got to read your fortune," she finally mumbled,
struggling to find her voice. The words sounded strange even to her; to
Luke Cavlan they sounded downright silly, but as far as Renatta was
concerned it didn't matter. Her maidservant needed to start somewhere,
and that was as good a place as any.

"Oh. Is that all?" he returned, obviously disappointed.

Renatta spoke from the other side of the room, where she'd been
watching Marianne and silently willing her on. "Some say our greatest
battles are fought within ourselves, Patrol Leader," she said with a
grin. "If that's true, Marianne's just triumphed in a struggle of epic
proportions"

Luke stared at her, nonplussed, and then returned his attention to
Marianne. "Congratulations" he said. When she didn't answer him,
however, Luke decided he'd had enough and started to get up. "Right,
well, this really has been fun, you two - let's do it again some time,
shall we?"

"Patrol Leader, please...? Don't go back to the Hall - not just yet.
Give me your hands first"

Luke noticed the very real desperation in her eyes and sat down again.
It was the first time he'd ever known her give him proper eye contact,
and he was quite taken aback by how uncomfortable it made him feel.
"All this just for a palm-reading? What's the big deal?" he asked.
Renatta had read his fortune often enough in the past; it wasn't
anything new. It was a load of old tosh in his opinion, but certainly
nothing new.

"I'm not sure, Sir...not yet" she answered softly.

Luke returned her steady gaze and then furrowed his brow at her. "Look,
Marianne, I don't have much time. I'm due back in less than half an
hour, so here - " He held both hands out to her. "Win your war," he
said. Marianne placed her hands gently and lightly onto his and closed
her eyes, trembling noticeably. On doing this she felt a rush of
confused images flood through her, their numbers so enormous that she
reeled. If she hadn't been seated she would've surely fallen over.
Renatta told him to take Marianne's hands in his and, when he did, her
trembling seemed to stop. The scan changed immediately; it slowed and
focussed in her mind and allowed her to take her first glimpse of
things that were already vaguely familiar. It was a revelation of all
her subconscious recollections.

"A secret...known to your father, but never passed on...I can see
burning...untimely death...a terrible deception. A figure is coming
from far away...shrouded in grey...the face is a mask" she whispered.
"See the air...the skies...Aquir?a...long, long ago ...truth is known
to the many...unheeded by the few. Mist surrounds the power...it shifts
and changes colour in the light...no face...no face...it has no...oh
no..." she whispered again, but her voice seemed much hoarser than
before. As the scan continued to unfold a feeling of real terror
gripped at Marianne and she began to struggle for breath. Renatta
decided it was time to end it.

"Let go of her, Luke," she murmured, which he did. Everything was very
quiet for a while.

"Er...well, that was a new one - I've never had my palm read by someone
with their eyes shut before!" he said, breaking the silence. "Not that
it made any sense, mind..."

"Don't mock the girl just because you can't understand whatever she's
seen! She's got the third eye! A lot of it has meaning beyond mere
words - to them that know where to look!" Renatta rebuked
sharply.

"Yeah, and you two give me the fuckin' heebie-jeebies so I'm going"
Luke returned, but his impatience made the old healing woman smile. He
filled up his water bottle from her pot of rainwater and stuffed his
pack with freshly baked suachi and then swiped up his rifle and jacket.
"I don't even know why I bother coming here - all I want is a bit of
peace and quiet and I get this!"

Luke slammed the door angrily on his way out while Marianne stared
after him in stricken silence, but Renatta's smile became a jolly
cackle. "He'll be back, girl, don't you worry! If the mutants don't get
him, he'll be back," she said.