by Sean O'Brien
“Her own safety?”
“He has reason to believe that she is in danger from a growing anti-shippie movement. The girl will be taken to Valhalla Dome where she will be placed in protective custody.”
Jene’s face grew beet-red in apoplexy. “He can’t just order a little girl taken away from her family! He’s—”
Tann matched her fury with coolness. “The Commissar-General’s emergency powers are quite broad, as you know. Captain?” Tann directed the last remark to Dunbarston, who seemed to be in a trance.
“Commissar Halfner, please. We don’t want any trouble,” Dunbarston said.
“Then you shouldn’t have come here.” Jene tried to slam the door on them, but Dunbarston blocked it with his gauntleted hand. Jene hurried back past the still-stunned Dolen to the living room where she hugged her daughter and granddaughter with ferocity.
Dunbarston sighed and motioned to his officers to enter the house. They pushed past Dolen and surrounded the three females in the living room. For a moment, the officers simply stared at the sight—three generations of women huddled together against the authority they represented.
“Mommy, Gramma, you guys are squishing me!” Yallia’s muffled voice said from within their arms.
“Sorry, honey,” Kuarta said, and relaxed her grip slightly. She glared at the officers with almost feral hate.
The tableau was broken by Tann’s imperious voice. “Captain! Order your officers to—” He stopped when Dunbarston flashed him a look of loathing that far transcended simple aesthetic disgust. For an uncertain moment, Tann wondered if Dunbarston would falter, order his officers away.
“This is madness!” Dolen’s shrill voice said from the hallway. He strode to the living room and squatted down next to his wife, child, and mother-in-law. “You can’t win. We can go with her, I assume,” Dolen said, glancing at Dunbarston, who in turn looked at Tann.
“If you wish. But we must go now.”
Dolen spoke softly. “Come on, Kuarta, Jene. Let go. What are you trying to prove by resisting?”
“If they want my granddaughter, they’ll have to break my arms to get her,” Jene said through clenched teeth.
“What good will that do? You’ll have two broken arms and Yallia will still be in custody.”
“What’s custody, Daddy?” Yallia asked from the huddle. “Why are the police here?”
“I’ll know I did everything I could to save her,” Jene said.
“Let her go. We’ll be with her,” Dolen said again.
“Ma, he’s right. We can’t win here, now. Let’s save our resistance for a time when it can do some good.”
Jene looked at both her daughter and son-in-law. “Resistance to authority always does good, children.” But her grip loosened on Yallia.
Freed from the embrace of her family, Yallia looked with wide-eyed fear at the officers ranged around her. “Mommy, what is it?” she said, trying to burrow back into the cocoon.
The officers advanced and helped Kuarta and Yallia rise from the floor. “Let’s go, Doctor,” Tann said.
“Where are we going, Mommy?”
“For a ride, honey. Listen,” Kuarta said, taking Yallia by both shoulders and simultaneously shrugging off the guiding hand of one of the officers, “it’s very important that you try to stay calm. If you feel anything…happening inside you, you just tell me, okay?”
Yallia nodded, comprehension coming slowly. “You mean like at the Crèche?”
Kuarta quickly placed her finger over Yallia’s mouth. “Shhh. Yes, like at the Crèche. Hush, now.”
The officers escorted their charges down to their transport, while Carll Tann fingered the slim weapon in his pocket, watching Yallia carefully.
Chapter 10
“Release her immediately!” Newfield thundered at Tann as the latter spread his hands in front of him as if to deflect the force of his superior’s wrath. “You had no authority to order the New Chicago constabulary to take her from her house!”
Tann had come to Newfield’s office immediately after arriving in Valhalla with the Verdafners. They were under detention in the Valhalla constabulary now, and Tann did not want to think what the Valhalla police captain was going through trying to keep Commissar Halfner under control. First things first, though—he had to calm Newfield down. Tann had acted before speaking to him, using the formula that had worked so well for him during his career as advisor to the office of the Commissar-General: better to beg forgiveness than ask for permission.
“Sir, please listen to me. I know what I did was technically illegal—”
“Technically? It was wrong, Tann.”
“—but let me explain to you why I did it. If, after I’m through, you still don’t agree with my reasoning, I shall of course release the girl and furthermore submit to disciplinary action.”
Newfield held his fury visibly in check and folded his arms. “Go ahead.”
“Thank you. We had already agreed that there was a potential epidemic to deal with, and it appeared that this girl, Yallia Verdafner, was the key. After Dr. Onizaka studied the data you released to her, she found that the child was not just a genetic anomaly as I had feared, but was a functional mutant.” Tann paused to let the word sink in. Newfield blinked and his arms fell to his sides.
Tann pressed his advantage. “Somehow, this child has the ability to metabolize chlorine.”
Newfield shook his head slightly, as if to deny the data. “She can….” He wasn’t able to continue. “How did this happen?”
Tann scowled. “Dr. Onizaka is still working on that, sir. Her data is sketchy and very preliminary, but she is convinced that the girl is a danger to herself and others.”
“Danger? How so?”
“Dr. Onizaka feels that the girl can use the chlorine, along with other elements in her body, as a sort of catalyst for exothermic reactions.”
“Exothermic…heat producing?”
“Yes. It’s my belief that she caused the fire in the Crèche using her mutation. Onizaka concurs. I thought I’d best get her in custody quickly—what Onizaka could discover, so could others. Can you imagine what people would do to her if they suspected she was a dangerous mutant? I thought it best to act quickly, instead of wasting time taking the data to you and the whole government. I thought you would arrive at the same conclusion I did, sir, but I also believed that we had little time to waste.”
Newfield hesitated before answering. Tann could see the confusion in the man’s face—he was caught between fury at having been ignored and shock at the news of the mutation. When he spoke, his voice carried evidence of his ambivalence.
“Onizaka’s studying her now, I suppose?”
“No, sir. I did not want to proceed further without your authorization. Now that the situation is more secure, I mean. In addition, I’ve broken enough laws already.”
The joke had its intended effect. Newfield grinned slightly, and Tann knew once again he had won.
“All right. I see your point. I suppose I’ll have to convene the Assembly now to decide what is to be done.”
Tann said nothing, but scowled enough to prompt Newfield to ask, “What’s wrong now?”
“The girl’s grandmother. Commissar Halfner. She’ll make trouble, sir. If you convene the whole Assembly, Halfner will derail the government with wild accusations and charges—charges that, while false, will be uncomfortable for you to refute entirely.”
Newfield blew air out through his cheeks. Tann waited a calculated few seconds and asked, “What do you want me to do, sir?” He was confident he knew what his instructions would be.
“I want the girl examined by Dr. Onizaka. And I want you to send Commissar Halfner to me. I’ll straighten her out on this. No need for you to try to do it.”
“Thank you, sir.” Tann summoned up false relief. “Truthfully, I was hoping you’d say that. She respects you and will follow your lead. To her, I’m just a flunky. It’s a wonder I’ve been able to keep her in line as far a
s this.”
“Well. You’ll keep this quiet for now, Tann. I want no one but Onizaka in on this. Report back to me personally, later when you know more. At some point, I’ll have to convene the Assembly, but before then I want the situation secure. Understood?” Newfield spoke with a confident tone of command.
Tann listened with all the respect he could muster and nodded when his superior was finished. “Yes, sir. I’ll get back to you.” He bowed out of the office and headed to the constabulary.
“Yallia, I’m going to go ahead and increase the chlorine to three hundred p.p.m.,” Onizaka said without turning from the double-paned glass behind which Yallia Verdafner sat. The girl had been in the isolation room for the better part of the day, undergoing increasing levels of chlorine saturation. She had been breathing two hundred and seventy-five parts per million for a few hours now and had reported no discomfort, other than boredom. The faint green tinge of the air about her gave testimony to the lethal nature of the gas inside the cell.
“Doctor, when can I get out?” Yallia’s voice echoed in the chamber, even through the intercom.
Onizaka had stopped counting the number of times the girl had asked that question hours ago. Without turning from the atmosphere display, she answered, “Soon. Now take deep breaths, just like before.”
“Okay,” came the morose reply. “But I’m still hungry.”
Onizaka ignored this last comment and studied the various readouts on the display panel. So absorbed was she in her work that she did not hear the lab door open.
“Damn it, Karin, I told you to lock your door!” Tann growled.
Onizaka started when she heard him and turned her head to the door. “Oh, yes…sorry about that. I must have gone out and—”
“Keep it locked. I don’t want anyone in here. I also don’t want to post guards.” Tann looked at Yallia without waiting for a response to his order. He strode to the glass and switched off the intercom. “What have you learned?” The question was directed at Onizaka, although the advisor’s eyes were on the girl. She started back at him uncertainly.
“She’s breathing the chlorine,” Onizaka said simply.
“How much?”
“I just upped it to three hundred.”
Tann looked at Onizaka. “Three hundred?”
“Enough to kill both of us in about two breaths.”
Tann looked back at Yallia. “What about the fire?”
Onizaka sighed. “Her body is using the chlorine like we use oxygen, only more efficiently. Her respiratory and digestive systems have some kind of protective lining, like glass but more flexible, to protect them against the action of the chlorine. If she breathes chlorine, I think she is somehow able to keep it separate from the hydrogen she’s also breathing, and can kick them back out together, forming a sort of hydrochloric acid vapor. I’m not sure how she ignites it. Maybe she follows the stream with a sodium vapor somehow which reacts to the water vapor in the air.”
“What happens when she eats chlorine?”
Onizaka hesitated. “I haven’t done that to her. I wasn’t sure what it would do.”
Tann continued to stare at Yallia. “That’s rather the point of experimentation, isn’t it, Doctor?”
Yallia was mouthing something. Onizaka started hesitantly toward the intercom, looking at Tann. He watched the girl for a moment more, then nodded slightly. Onizaka turned on the intercom.
“Yes, Yallia?”
“Doctor Onizaka? I’m feeling hungry still.”
Tann looked at Onizaka. “You had best feed her, Doctor.” He stared at her to be certain she would understand. Onizaka wet her lips nervously, glanced at Tann, then back at Yallia, then back to Tann. She nodded.
“I’ll get you some food, dear,” she said.
Tann smiled and turned off the intercom again. “I’m going to see the family. I’m sure they’ve been causing trouble in the constabulary. Call me immediately if anything happens.” He glared one more time at the girl in the isolation booth and left.
Kuarta watched her mother and her husband pacing in the conference room and resisted the impulse to scream at them. Jene was still murmuring obscenities at the government, her rage sharpened by impotence. Dolen wandered aimlessly about the room, his hands busy with chair backs, the doorjamb, an irregularity on the wall, anything to keep them occupied.
A soft knock on the door startled all three of them. The door guard, a young woman with a girlish charm that even her severe Valhalla Constabulary uniform could not diminish, opened the door and entered. Carll Tann entered with her.
Jene went into action instantly. “Where is she?” She said it as she took three quick strides towards Tann, who did not shrink from her. The door guard put one of her arms up to keep Jene away from Tann, but Jene brushed it aside. “Get your hands off me!”
Dolen pulled Jene back from behind, grabbing her shoulders and using a considerable amount of strength. Jene shrugged off his hands but stepped back.
“Ma.” Kuarta said softly. She looked at Tann. “Are you taking us to see her?” She asked the question softly but with audible iron behind her words.
“I am. You should be made aware of some developments, first. She—”
He got no further. Jene snarled and lunged forward. The constable, caught by surprise, hesitated for an instant, thus allowing Jene to strike Tann once across the face with a half-closed fist. His head snapped sideways with the force of the blow, and he took a step to steady himself. The door guard tackled Jene and rolled on top of her, pinning her head to the ground and lifting her arms back. “Calm down, Commissar. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You goddam bastard! What have you done to her?” Jene managed to choke out.
Tann felt his jaw for blood and, finding none, turned to the guard. “Take her to a cell for now. I want her to cool off.”
The guard hesitated. Tann raised his voice. “Now!”
“Sir, with all respect, you do not have authority here. Please stay out of this.” The guard spoke to Jene. “I’m going to let you up, Commissar. But I will still be here. If you try anything like that again, I’ll have to put you in a tank. Do you understand?” The guard spoke precisely, with respect due a Commissar, but also with firmness.
Jene mumbled something that passed for assent. The guard rose from astride her and took up position next to Tann again. Dolen helped Jene up while Kuarta watched impassively.
“I’ll ignore that,” Tann said calmly. “Let me finish. Yallia is under Dr. Onizaka’s care right now. She is being examined.”
“We know that,” Kuarta said, almost inaudibly. “You gave us your personal assurance that she would not be harmed. You asked us if we would stay here and wait for your return. We have done as you asked. Now it’s your turn. Take me to my daughter.”
“Very well. I have no intention of keeping you from her, Doctor. I just wanted to—”
“I’m sure you mean well, Mr. Tann,” Dolen said quickly, before Jene could respond. “We want to cooperate with you.”
Jene murmured something. Tann turned to her. “What was that?”
“I said I don’t believe you.”
“What don’t you believe?”
“The Commissar-General would not order all of this. I demand to see him.”
“As it happens, he wishes to see you, too, Commissar. Or would you prefer to see your granddaughter first?”
Jene hesitated. Kuarta spoke in the vacuum. “Ma, go to Newfield. Dolen and I will be fine.”
Jene nodded.
Tann spoke to the guard. “Presumably I am not overstepping my authority to request that additional guards accompany Commissar Halfner in light of her assault on me?”
The guard stared at him with not-quite-concealed loathing, then called for backup on her radio. Tann nodded in satisfaction, then gestured to the door. The party left the conference room, three of them for Dr. Onizaka’s lab, Jene to the administrative center of the planet.
* * *
Yall
ia scrambled to her feet and dashed towards the glass wall that kept her from her mother and father, who had just entered the room with Tann. She stirred up faint green eddies of gas in her wake. Dolen, too, ran to his side of the glass enclosure and pressed his hands up to hers. There was a thin section of vacuum between the panes as an extra layer of security in the unthinkable event of a breakdown in barrier integrity. Yallia was clearly shouting “Mommy! Daddy!” even though no sound came through the glass.
“What are you doing to her?” Kuarta said, turning to Onizaka.
Onizaka had begun to approach the parents, a half-smile on her lips that vanished immediately under Kuarta’s withering stare.
“She’s not in any pain or danger, Doctor.”
“What are you doing to her?” The question was repeated in the same frigid tone.
Onizaka looked at Tann, who nodded indifferently and studied the panel readout. Onizaka said, “She’s in Dome-normal atmosphere with an admixture of chlorine gas.”
“How much?”
“Right now, she’s at four hundred parts per million.”
Kuarta gasped. “Four hundred?”
“What? What does that mean?” Dolen said, his hands still pressed against the glass opposite Yallia’s.
“She’s breathing chlorine at almost three times lethal amounts,” Kuarta said over her shoulder.
“But she is showing absolutely no adverse effects. See for yourself,” Onizaka said, gesturing to the wall readout that Tann was idly examining. He moved off, hands behind his back, as Kuarta and Onizaka spoke in low tones about the data.
“She’s been in here for three hours?” Kuarta said, scrolling back through the experiment history.
“Yes, but she’s only been in this level of exposure for about twenty minutes.”
“And she’s given no signs of distress?”
“None at all. Oh, she said she’s hungry, but that’s almost certainly not test-related.”
“Have you fed her?” Dolen said from his position at the glass.
Onizaka looked at him. “We have. We gave her four hundred calories, give or take a few, and—”
