Reached

I’ve been here and that there was a time when I was gone. I try to move my hand. Do I succeed?
    “Cassia,” I say. “Can someone find Cassia?”
    No one answers me.
    Maybe Indie will do it,
I think, and then I remember.
    Indie’s gone.
    But I’ve come back.

CHAPTER 53
    XANDER
    W hen I open my eyes, the air ship fills the village circle. Cassia is tucked into my arms, holding on tight. Neither of us moves as the Pilot climbs out of his ship and stands almost exactly where I stood moments ago, over by the troughs.
    Colin strides forward into the circle. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asks, furious. “You almost destroyed part of the village. Why didn’t you go to the landing meadow?”
    “There’s not enough time for that,” the Pilot says. “The Provinces are falling apart and I need every minute I can get. Do you have a cure?”
    Colin doesn’t answer. The Pilot looks past Colin in the direction of the research lab. “Find Oker,” he says. “Let me talk to him.”
    “You can’t,” Leyna says. “He’s dead.”
    The Pilot swears. “How?”
    “We think it was a heart attack,” Colin says.
    Everyone looks over at me. They still think I’m responsible for what happened to Oker.
    “Then there’s no cure,” the Pilot says, his voice flat. “And no chance for one.” He starts back to the ship.
    “Oker left us a cure,” Leyna says. “We’re about to try it on the patients—”
    “I need a cure that works
now
,” the Pilot says, turning around. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to come back here again. This is the end. Do you understand?”
    “You mean—” Leyna begins.
    “There’s a faction in the Rising that wants to remove me from my position,” the Pilot says. “They’ve already taken control of the patient disconnections and the rations. If they succeed with my removal—which they will—I won’t have
any
access to ships or a way to get you to the Otherlands. We have to have a cure.
Now
.” The Pilot pauses. “The Rising has ordered disconnections of a certain percent of the still.”
    “What
is
the rate?” Cassia asks. She walks out into the village circle as if she has every right to be there. Leyna narrows her eyes at Cassia but lets her speak. “We projected that they’d start releasing around two percent of the still to preserve the maximum amount of life while still freeing up others to work.”
    “That’s where they began,” the Pilot says. “But they’ve increased it. They’re recommending twenty percent, with a further increase to come.”
    One in five.
Who would they pick to cut off first? The ones who went still early? Or later? What’s happening to Lei?
    “It’s too many,” Cassia says. “It’s not necessary.”
    “The algorithm assumed that people would be willing to help,” the Pilot says. “That they wouldn’t leave the still behind. And the Rising has released the sample storage. They’re giving out tissue samples to people if they’ll agree to let their loved ones be disconnected to save space.”
    “People aren’t actually agreeing to such a thing, are they?” Cassia asks.
    “Some are,” the Pilot says.
    “But they can’t bring anyone back,” Cassia says. “No one has that technology. Not the Society, not the Rising.”
    “The tubes have never been about bringing people back,” the Pilot says. “They’ve always been used to control the people who are here. So I’ll ask again.
Do you have a cure?
”
    “We need more time,” Leyna says. “Not much.”
    “There is no more time,” the Pilot says. “We’re getting low on food. People are running away from the Cities and into the Boroughs, where they attack those who are left, or they take off for the country, where they die of the mutation because we can’t get to them in time. We’re running out of the ingredients Oker recommended for inclusion in the fluid and medication bags, and none of the scientists in the Provinces has found a cure.”
    “There
is
a cure,” Cassia says. “Xander can show your pharmics how to make it.” She holds out a tube to the Pilot. She’s at the game table and she’s throwing down all her cards.
    For a second I think Leyna and Colin aren’t going to let Cassia get away with it, but neither of them says anything. Everyone watches to see what Cassia will do next.
    “How many people have you tried it on?” the Pilot asks, taking the cure from Cassia.
    “Only one,” Cassia says. “Ky. But we can make