#Utopia synonym skin#
#Utopia synonym full#
#Utopia synonym windows#

Good to know some benefits come with being a hero. You wouldnвЂ™t be here even now if I hadnвЂ™t pulled strings. Hell, we wanted you to meet her, to come to the wedding, even if you didnвЂ™t want to opt into it, but it all took place during a security blackout. We make do, though unlike me, my wife doesnвЂ™t serve in the same units as herself. вЂњThings get complex enough when youвЂ™re sharing multiple bodies, so all of us married all of her. She nodded and lowered her hand from the glass.

She smiled at me, and it was a sad smile. I backed away from the glass and sat down hard on the bench that was the only furniture on my side. IвЂ™d been grimly determined to face my future solitude without giving into despair, but to see then how much IвЂ™d missed of the past, a past we could no longer shareвЂ¦ The sudden force of that knowledge hit me harder than the news of my altsвЂ™ deaths, a whole unit of my alts dying, and the one survivor hours away from her own extermination. I followed her gaze back to our twinned hands, noticed the plain gold ring on hers. вЂњWe need to talk,вЂќ she said and glanced to her left. People used to say that before they could sync souls directly.

#Utopia synonym windows#

My boyfriend Dave calls them soulful, and heвЂ™s right, insofar as theyвЂ™re windows to the soul. The glass could have been a magic mirror, opening onto some other world where the person staring back was a stranger. I wanted to embrace her, to comfort her, but I settled for what I could get. I stepped up to the glass and put my hand against hers, right against left. вЂњNope.вЂќ She shook her head, then grinned. вЂњAll in all, IвЂ™m glad you didnвЂ™t stop to run errands on the way over. Still, she looked better than she would an hour or two from now.

#Utopia synonym skin#

Her skin was ashen, and the circles under her eyes were dark, as if she hadnвЂ™t slept in days. Though sheвЂ™d pulled her hair back in the same ponytail I wore at the dojang, loose strands clung to her face and neck. Repair nanobots can only work so fast, and hers had double duty helping their brethren fight against the Hive. Her short hospital gown revealed dozens of half-healed scars on her arms, legs, and face. This made her smile, as IвЂ™d hoped it would. I made a show of taking her in, head to toe: a sick and dying soldierly version of myself. The one whoвЂ™d stayed safe at home, teaching military history and tae kwon do at the University of Chicago, unwilling to drop tenure for a chance to help save the human race. The only Teri Kang who hadnвЂ™t enlisted when the Hive invaded. My alt rose to her feet and put her hand against the glass. That left us alone, save for the hidden cameras we both knew were watching. The MPs stationed themselves outside the door, and the nurse made his exit. She moved as if her joints didnвЂ™t ache, as if she werenвЂ™t already running a fever, but I could tell. Hearing me enter, she raised her head and swiveled to face me.

#Utopia synonym full#

Right then, the anti-Hive nanobots theyвЂ™d pumped her full of were fighting a battle every bit as pitched as the one sheвЂ™d fought on Charon, one that would end for her the same way it had ended for the moon. I sometimes read like that, but only when sick or exhausted. SheвЂ™d propped her head in her hands, elbows on the gray metal surface. I found her sitting at a desk, reading a newsfeed it projected in the air. A smartglass wall separated me from the sterile chamber where the other Teri Kang would live out her last few hours. Well, the room next to it, since she was quarantined.

Not for the first time, I wondered if I had such courage lying latent within me.ДЇlanked by MPs, I followed a nurse down hallway after hallway till we arrived at my altвЂ™s room. A lot of G.I.s who got bitten went AWOL rather than face the certain death of returning to base. Under the circumstances, even coming home had been an act of courage. Soon the only other Teri Kang in the universe would lose her fight with that infection, and the army docs would euthanize her. Like it was a zombie plague or something.

ThatвЂ™s what the G.I.s called it when Hive nanobots infected you: being bitten. Before sheвЂ™d escaped the doomed moon - the moon sheвЂ™d given the order to destroy - sheвЂ™d been bitten. More than that, one whoвЂ™d become a hero, the only Teri Kang to survive the Battle of Charon.

Today for the first time IвЂ™d be meeting one whoвЂ™d seen combat. Two years before, IвЂ™d synced with a bunch of my alts home on leave after basic training. IвЂ™d never even been off-world, but I remembered those claustrophobic beige corridors. The army hospitalвЂ™s underground floors reminded me of Pluto Base, a place IвЂ™d never actually been.