Elysium: Book Six of The Liminality

Chapter 13: Jacqueline

If I had known that freaking pod of mine would travel so far and long to reach my appointment with the Primentor, I never would have agreed to meet with her. The sheer number of herky-jerky stops and starts, abrupt turns and reversals aggravates the fuck out of me.

Even worse are the interminable pauses. There are times I feel like this is it. I'm stuck for good and will never get moving again.

Finally, I reach a place where the hatch begins to unseal by ripping open a slit in what had been a seamless lid. I can't wait to climb out. But then most of the lid reseals and only the tiniest of portholes opens up around my face. The rest of the lid comes thumping down, clamping tight against my chest and limbs, knocking the breath out of me.

"Let me outta here!" I gasp.

"I do apologize for the restraints," says an unseen female voice. She speaks English with an accent. French. "I understand your frustration, but these precautions are necessary for my security."

"I won't hurt you!"

"No. You will not."

"Why'd you bring me here?"

"In part, to make your acquaintance. You are an anomaly. I like to meet my anomalies. I am an anomaly myself."

She passes into my field of view. She is fully fleshed and dark-complexioned, her longish hair cinched with beads into three large tufts that stick out like the arms of a Mercedes symbol.

"This place sucks, you know?"

"I didn't ask you for a review."

"I'm just saying. If you want more people to come here—"

"We have no trouble recruiting souls. We recruited you, didn't we?"

"Under false pretenses. Fritz made it sound like this was a nice place to be."

"It is nice. Give it time. You are still adjusting to a new environment."

The Primentor is just standing there with a faint smile on her face, staring into my eyes. I have the sense that she is prying somewhere deep. How, I don't know. I can just tell by the way she is looking at me that she knows stuff about me now that she didn't before my pod arrived.

"I am Jacqueline, by the way. No titles, please. You can call me Jackie."

"So where are you from?"

"From?" She laughs. "Why would you ask such a thing? I am from here."

"I meant, in life."

She shrugs. "Trivia. What does it matter?"

"Just curious."

"That was such a long time ago. But if you must know I was born in Togo. Though, my father came from Cotes d'Ivoire. He was a trader. Back in the colonial days."

"Togo. That in Africa?"

She laughs. "Yes. Perhaps you are wondering how a black woman came to be the mother of your clan? The fact is, white boy, we share an ancestor. We share blood, or if you prefer, mitochondria. You do know about the mitochondria? Two hundred thousand years ago one woman passed down this jewel of her ovum to all of our clan. We are every color now, but we all derive from this one same African woman."

"Any chance you can get my pod to ease up on the squeezing?"

"Oh stop complaining. It is not that bad. No worse that the swaddling that a baby receive to keep them calm. I can feel what you are feeling. You can handle it."