“Admirable,” Joe assessed. “Did you have a plan on how to do that, or did you just sort of wing it?”
“Oh, I knew right away what I wanted to do,” Erin said with confidence. “I wanted to be part of the team that risked their lives to save me.”
“Major Tom’s rescue team?” Joe guessed.
Erin nodded proudly. “Yup.”
“And they took you in, despite your recent recovery?” Joe asked.
Erin nodded again. “There was a lot of work that needed to be done and considering the situation, they had no interest in being picky with the volunteers, so yeah, when a skinny cripple came walking in on a pair of prosthetic legs, they didn’t even bat an eye when handing me the form.”
“Wait, there was a form?” Joe asked skeptically.
Erin chuckled. “Major Tom enjoyed having well thought out plans and maintaining a civil society. The forms may sound strange given the circumstances back then, but it was a fragment of civilization in a decaying society. I know it sounds stupid, but those simple pieces of paper made people feel like they were joining something official and important. You know, like it was a serious outfit dedicated to serious issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if my form was used as a fire starter an hour later, but it had the desired effect on me and I think it also had the desired effect on everyone else that joined before me. It made me feel like I was becoming part of something important and I think I really needed that at the time.”
“What did they have you do?” Joe asked with interest. “Was there an interview of some kind, or…?”
“Sort of,” Erin admitted with a bit of embarrassment. “When I signed up to Major Tom’s team, they took me without hesitation and only asked me what my skills were. I felt something like shame when I told the recruiter that I had only ever been a janitor before the incident and I was surprised when he nodded and said that was perfect. They needed more people to clear the debris from the corridors as well as someone familiar with the labyrinthine maintenance access tunnels. They found a place for me to belong within an hour and I was blown away by the positive reception I received. I mean… They really took me in and treated me like family without hesitation and… you know… I was the 20-day lone survivor and they wanted to know all about me. This is going to sound stupid, but some of them thought that my name was Hope and I don’t know… That made me feel good for some reason. What can I say? I’m a sucker for flattery.”
Joe smiled as he jotted down a few more notes and was about to ask another one of Doctor Singh’s questions when a coldly monotone voice came over the intercom and requested his immediate attention elsewhere. His eyes went wide and he looked at Erin with sympathy.
“Sorry, Erin. It sounds like an emergency. I have to cut this short,” he said with haste.
“No, not at all,” Erin said in understanding. “I get it, but hey… Thanks for sitting with me today. You’re a lot easier to talk to than the evil voice on the intercom just now. I appreciate it.”
Joe smiled and gave her a friendly nod. “Any time. Catch you later, Erin.”
Chapter 06 – Control and Dominance
Doctor Singh was at her desk with Nurse Joe Hisaishi sitting across from her. She was reviewing the interview that Joe had had with Erin over a recorded video feed that was taken by a hidden camera in the quarantine room. Joe was sweating bullets the second he heard himself give an astonishingly good impression of Doctor Singh’s voice on the recording and her dark eyes momentarily shot angry daggers at him. There was no mention of it, but Joe felt intimidated by her all the same.
“You are too friendly with the patient,” Doctor Singh accused.
“She wasn’t going to talk if I wasn’t,” Joe said weakly.
“She may have,” she shot back. “We have both dealt with sociopaths before and if you would have remained distant, then her ego may have gotten the better of her and we would have a clearer picture of her psyche. You blundered this opportunity I gave you and now we must proceed blindly.”
“I don’t think she’s lying, doc,” Joe said, defeated. “Her story feels too real and natural. She’s also quite charming and knows how to crack a joke. It’s been my experience that most charming psychos don’t know how to crack a proper joke.”
“Most,” Doctor Singh said sternly.
Joe grimaced and slumped his shoulders. “I don’t think she’s the cold-blooded killer that the media is making her out to be. She feels different to me.”
Doctor Singh nodded. “Yes, but Hector was the same way and he played his cards correctly until the restraints were off. We nearly let him walk out of this hospital and it wasn’t until I confronted him on the lies that Doctor Holtz missed that he finally lashed out. I will not permit such a mistake to be overlooked with Erin. My final judgment will not be based on thoughts and feelings, but with hard evidence. Do I make myself clear?” she asked sternly.
“Yeah…” Joe said with a sigh.
“Good, now listen. Whether she is trying to manipulate you or not, is irrelevant. She believes that you two have a connection of trust and we will use that to our advantage. Keep an ear out for her asking favors of you, no matter how small they may seem. They may be as simple as asking for a sip of water or adjusting her pillow. Those could very well be gradually elevating tests to see what you are willing to do for her and I want you to take note of them and document the events in your PDA.”
“Alright…” Joe said quietly.
“Joe…” Doctor Singh said patiently as a slightly soft expression crossed her face. “Do not forget that she may well be responsible for the genocide of an entire space colony. We still do not know if Erin Wilco is even her real name. For all we know, her story may sound natural and legitimate simply because she stole it from another. She is not your friend. She is an enemy until proven innocent and we must tread carefully around her.”
“I will be more careful from here on out, doc…” Joe said somberly.
“You have my thanks,” Doctor Singh said with a restored professional manner. “I know you mean well, Joe. Do not think that I don’t appreciate you or the sacrifices you are making. It takes a brave person to stand in the crosshairs of their convictions and I have nothing but respect for you. However, we still have a job to do and we must follow procedure.”
“Thank you, Doctor Singh, and I understand. I really do,” Joe said with a stiff demeanor.
“Good. Now get some rest. I’m leaving the quarantine up for a little longer. My outside sources mentioned something about a bomb being brought in once it is lifted. Security is looking into the claim as we speak.”
“Jesus…” Joe breathed. “I’ve never seen this much anger towards one convict before.”
“Me neither,” Doctor Singh agreed. “But Erin is clearly a special case and a part of me believes…”
“Believes what?” Joe asked.
Doctor Singh let out a long tired breath and leaned forward in her chair. “Keep this to yourself, but I have reasons to believe that people in high ranking positions may want her dead, not because she brought down Sky Base 10, but because she may be holding a secret about what was going on up there. With that said, I want you to be prepared for the worst.”
Joe understood the gravity of that statement in a heartbeat and he drew his fingers across his lips like a zipper. “I didn’t hear anything.”
“That’s good because I did not say anything and will not be held accountable for widespread panic. I will see you tomorrow. And please, if you call your family on the vid com, tell your son that his aunty Rohana misses him.”
Joe smiled and gave her a wink as he left. “I don’t know, he may think you’re going to spoil him again. Have a good night, doc.”
Doctor Singh cracked her first smile in days and soon went back to the work that consumed her soul day in and day out, Erin Wilco. She gazed at the computer screen displaying the somewhat illegal biometric scan of her patient. There was some sort of unknown pathogen that showed up on the display, but
for some reason once the blood was drawn away from Erin’s body, the pathogen would suddenly vanish. It made no sense and what made even less sense was that it swarmed and multiplied in her body, while at the same time appearing to be completely benign. Despite her rampant blood infection, Erin was healing well from her injuries and was not requiring any additional nutrients in her daily intake. In fact, she was gaining weight and becoming healthy. The real mystery though, was why she could not extract the pathogen within Erin’s bloodstream. It was like she could only extract healthy red blood without a single trace of the infection coming along with it. It was as if the infection was repelled by the syringe itself.
She went through the biometric scans of everyone that had come into contact with Erin, even herself, and saw no similar distortions in the displays. She knew that she was soon going to request scans of everyone once more and there was going to be an uproar and murmurs of mutiny within the quarantine again. She just hoped that the security staff would continue to be on her side if mutiny did, in fact, happen.
Feeling that any further study into Erin’s biology was useless at that moment, Doctor Singh decided that she would turn her attention back onto the psych evaluation. Along her way to Erin’s quarantined room, she grabbed herself a lukewarm coffee and downed the disgusting sludge in nearly one gulp. No amount of sugar could sweeten the putrid swill, but years of drinking it had made her numb to the deep bitterness that the coffee brought. She absently looked at the little Kyva Corp logo on the machine and had to wonder if there was some truth to what Erin had said during her interview with Joe. That in the event of a disaster, all the machines that took debit cards and PDA payments would still be working while everyone struggled for oxygen and water. She honestly wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. It was Dusk after all and nobody important gave a damn about the twilight moon or the people living on it.
Doctor Singh yawned as she approached the airlock door and the key master unlocked it for her.
“Do you ever sleep?” the guard asked with an amused expression.
“Once, back when I was a teenager. It was a waste of time, so I stopped doing it,” Doctor Singh said with a perfectly straight face.
“It has its benefits,” the doorman said.
“Who’s the doctor? Me or you?” she asked sharply.
The doorman let out a defeated laugh and let Doctor Singh walk by him without another word. Once she was through the little pressurized room, she opened the second door and entered Erin’s room. Erin was snoring softly and as the door closed behind Doctor Singh, it let out its usual little suck of air and it shocked Erin awake with a start. She began looking around confusedly until she saw Doctor Singh and let out a breath of relief.
“Bad dream?” Doctor Singh asked.
“Not sure,” Erin said groggily. “I was half asleep and I heard something that reminded me of a hull breach. I thought I was about to get spaced for a second there, but then I remembered where I was. Now I just feel like an idiot… Are you uhh… here to continue the psych evaluation?”
“Yes. Is this a bad time?” Doctor Singh asked.
Erin couldn’t tell if that was a joke or not, so she answered it as straight as she could. “I’m not exactly busy at the moment.”
“Excellent,” Doctor Singh said with an approving air. “I have reviewed your interview with Nurse Hisaishi and I would like to pick up where you left off with him. I believe you had found yourself a community to join in the form of some cleanup crew?”
Erin frowned. “You certainly know how to suck the romance out of my proudest moment.”
Doctor Singh raised a skeptical eyebrow and looked down at her clipboard. “Perhaps I misread the situation. Could you please elaborate on what it was you did on Major Tom’s team of volunteers?”
Erin opened her mouth and then closed it while looking angry as she shot Doctor Singh a venomous look. “Thanks to you, I can’t think of any other way to describe it without saying that it was a cleanup crew. That’s so… It felt like it was more than that, alright? My work was important to me and if you feel the need to demean me by calling me a space janitor, then do your worst. I’ve heard all the ridicule before.”
Doctor Singh rolled her eyes in a dismissive manner that perturbed Erin beyond measure. “I did not demean you or call you any names, Misses Wilco. I apologize for my use of terms when I called your community of friends a cleanup crew, now can we move past this please? This argument solves nothing.”
Erin glowered as she looked away from Doctor Singh. “Fine… I didn’t mean to jump up your ass like that. It’s just that people have been making fun of me for most of my adult life for picking up people’s trash and I’m really sick of it. It’s like they think that I don’t get it or something. I made bad choices and didn’t apply myself, and I don’t see why so many people feel the need to rub it in my face. Sky Base 10 was all about having a classist society and I was on the bottom rung for most of my life. The only good thing about the meltdown is that the whole classist system was destroyed in a fraction of a second and suddenly everyone wanted to play good neighbor.”
“Hold on, I haven’t turned on my listening device yet,” Doctor Singh pleaded.
“I don’t care,” Erin said shortly. “I was looking up by my IV earlier and it is a different color than normal. Are you guys pumping something new into me without my consent? Ever since Joe changed the bag, I’ve been feeling more and more irritated.”
“It is just your imagination,” Doctor Singh lied.
“Yeah, sure. Just like everything else, right? I’m just being paranoid and delusional, aren’t I?” Erin let out a small dry humorless laugh. “You think that you’re so damn smart, don’t you? Unfortunately for you, you’re more transparent than you think. I’ve had a finely tuned bullshit detector all my life and your act doesn’t fool me, doc. I have been playing nice, I have been submissive, and I have been courteous. You however, have been an underhanded snake pumping me full of agitators through my IV. I can feel it in my blood. You’re trying to elicit a reaction out of me to prove that I’m crazy because you don’t want my story to be true. You want to watch me get gassed just like everyone else. Fuck you, Singh.”
Doctor Singh was unmoved by the accusations and continued to write on her clipboard with a dull expression on her face. After a few moments of silence, she stopped rolling her pen in swooping letters and stared Erin down with a cold and heartless expression.
“I asked you if this was a good time and you lied to me. You have wasted my time and this opportunity to speak about your mental health to instead vent your delusions and frustrations and accuse me of malpractice. I do not fear your accusations, Misses Wilco, and I do not fear you. I told you that I am here to help you recover and nothing more. If you are unwilling to meet me halfway, then there is nothing I can do for you.”
Erin glared at Doctor Singh with a penetrating stare. “What did you slip into my IV?”
“Nothing,” Doctor Singh lied once more.
“Fucking hypocrite…” Erin accused. “You’re right, this was a waste of time. Just remember who lied first, Doctor Singh, and maybe tomorrow you can get off that high horse of yours and meet me halfway yourself. Or are you going to play the waiting game and let a few days go by before you come crawling back here to pick my brain? I was aboard Sky Base 10 for nearly four months after the incident. I watched good people tear each other apart over scraps of food and I was forced into makeshift cages several times like some goddamn prize. Your passive aggressive bullshit doesn’t even begin to faze me, but your lies… You test my intelligence and good nature with your blatant lies. I only have one request, Doctor Singh, and it is that I am treated like a human being with dignity before I am forced to suffocate in the gas chamber. If I cannot be given my most basic human rights on the eve of my death, then humanity has already lost and I’ll be glad to leave it all behind.”
Doctor Singh wordlessly jotted down the date and time on her clipboard and beside it s
he wrote the words, First attempt at dominance.
“I did not know that you were imprisoned during your time aboard Sky Base 10. Were you sexually assaulted when you were confined to the cages?” Doctor Singh asked with an impossible coldness.
“Fuck no!” Erin snapped. “I fought my way out before that shit ever happened. There were those who weren’t as lucky as I though. Ask some of the other female survivors. I’m sure they’ll give you all the juicy details you fucking monster.”
Doctor Singh jotted down an additional note beside the previous one. Rational despite chemical induced rage. “This conversation has been illuminating, Misses Wilco. I see now that this is, in fact, a bad time. I shall see you again tomorrow and hopefully you will be in a better mood,” Doctor Singh said in her cold, calm, calculating voice.
Chapter 07 – Erin’s Rangers
“How are you feeling today, Erin?” Joe asked as he wove some fresh bandages around Erin’s arms.
“A bit loopy,” Erin admitted. “You guys really need to stop pumping me full of drugs. It feels like my eyeballs are vibrating.”
“Doctor’s orders,” Joe said passively. “I hate to say this, but you’ve got a chemical imbalance. We’re trying to find the right treatment for you, but there was a mix up yesterday and it was entirely my fault. I meant to give you a liquid painkiller to help you cope with your burns, but I ended up putting someone else’s medication into your drip. The bags were on the same cart and labeled, but I was in such a rush… Look, I’m sorry, Erin. I messed up.”
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