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The Artifact was dark and cool except for small shafts of sunlight where the damage of the crash had pulled the enormous cube apart. There wasn't really a door to the outside so much as it was an opening. Hugh had told the other xBs not to repair it in hopes that they might wander out on their own.
Hugh knew he had to let them cross such thresholds in their own time, but it was tempting to encourage them to go forward. One morning he saw an xB move her boot into the sunlight and then draw back in sudden shock. Hugh knew part of healing was not being pushed or forced. The best he could do was to smile at her gently when he saw her later that day. He hoped she would see something in his smile that said Keep trying. It will be all right.
He focused on them because it helped him forget how close he'd come to dying. He had never had a problem walking the corridors alone before, but more than once he'd startled when he thought he'd seen her cruel and contemptuous face. If it hadn't been for Elnor…
"Is it all right to go outside?"
Hugh recognized the younger xB from when he showed Jean-Luc the xBs being treated by the Artifact's medical team. He remembered the young man had looked tentatively at himself in the mirror and then back at Hugh with tears rolling down his face. Hugh thought of himself at that age, something he hadn't considered in a long time.
"Of course," Hugh said, his heart lightening a little. "Do you want me to go with you?"
"Yes. Please."
"What's your name?"
"Six of Twelve." The young man did not meet his eyes.
"Was that your last designation?" Hugh said gently.
"It was my… first designation," he replied. His eyes widened as the light spilled across the floor.
"We had many designations," Hugh said. "I'm curious that you can remember back to your first."
The young man swallowed hard. "I didn't remember it until I was here. I remember all of them, somehow."
Hugh beckoned him to a side of the entrance that was still in the shade.
"You can look from here," he said. "Just for a start, if you like."
"No," Six said. "I've stood here many times. I want to go out."
Hugh noticed that at least several xBs, some with chosen names and some without, were watching them closely. He hoped that Six had not noticed in case it made him more nervous. But Six's eyes were fixed on the sand and Hugh noticed the young man was breathing heavily.
"You can take my hand," Hugh said. "I'd like to show you around."
To his surprise, Six grabbed Hugh's hand tightly. Hugh took a deep breath. He'd given up on this moment and he felt a glimmer of hope that it might now actually happen.
Hugh walked into the sunlight and Six took slow, stumbling steps at first but then he walked a little more carefully. Hugh didn't dare look back at the Artifact, but there was a tingling sensation along his spine with the knowledge that others might still be there. Perhaps not ready, perhaps on the verge? One at a time. That would be enough.
"There's a path down to the beach," Hugh said. "There, do you see the ocean?"
Six shaded his forehead from the sun with his hand. Hugh wondered if it was a muscle memory of Six's life before assimilation. A broad smile crossed Six's face, the first Hugh had ever seen. He let go of Hugh's hand and broke into a run. Sandpipers flew up from the nearby dunes as Six stumbled but then somehow kept his balance before stopping right at the shoreline.
When Hugh had finally caught up with him, Six was staring out at the horizon with a look of awe.
"This planet's name is Coppelius?" Six said.
"Yes," Hugh said.
Six repeated the planet's name several times aloud, elongating the syllables and when he turned to Hugh his smile was even bigger.
"Eli," he said. "I am Eli."
Hugh felt a lump in his throat and when he gripped Eli's shoulder this time the only tears shed were from Hugh himself.