by Stone, Layla
“If you have any questions, just ask. The tube has an audio system that is linked to me. I can hear and answer anything you need.”
“Okay,” she said, excited to begin. Moving her right hand, she selected the blue circle, and the image changed.
Yelena saw a series of photos. Some were in black and white, others were in color, and four squares streamed video. She reached out for the colored pictures first. Using her hand, she swiped the air, and the images scrolled past.
The first set of pictures were of the outside of the planet. A large, brown glob surrounded by black space and a small red star to give it light. She didn’t recognize the first photo of the dry, cracked surface. As the pictures continued, she didn’t see much differential color. It looked like one big ball of clay that had dried up and cracked. But the crevices were massive, thousands of miles long.
As she flipped through the photos, she didn’t see anything that she recognized. She switched to the black and white photos and noticed that they were different. Flipping through those, it was like looking underground, seeing where the large cracks connected. In one image, she noticed that there was a large, curved space under the crevices. When she zoomed in, it made her pause. It looked just like a lab—tubes on each of the walls, stacked on top of each other.
Yelena searched for more photos and found three. She moved them together like a puzzle and was able to reconstruct exactly where everything would be. She even saw the entrance, the locking mechanism, and the main surgical room.
Yelena could picture it perfectly. She filled in the black and white parts with full color from her memories. She added the other people she remembered, and the red androids that cleaned and fed them and brought them in for their procedures.
She remembered the tink-tink-tink before they were fed. A single packet of liquid that tasted like melted wood and stayed in her stomach like a rock, but it’d filled her up for the day.
When she finished looking through all the images, she took off the glasses and stepped out. Expecting to see Ansel, she jumped when she saw the male with dark black hair and brilliant blue eyes she’d met earlier, sitting in the chair, watching her.
“Hi.”
Sci pointed to the medical bed. “There aren’t many seats, but I’d like to talk to you about what you saw.”
“Did I do something wrong?” If so, she couldn’t imagine what it was.
“No, you didn’t do anything wrong.” He pointed to the bed again. She moved, grabbing her Minky pad and wondering if he knew what she had been doing on it earlier. That fact that he was a telepath made her want to slap herself because, if he didn’t know before, he would now after she’d been thinking about it.
Thankfully, Sci didn’t bring up Decoud. “I was able to watch your mind as you looked through the photos. I have since transposed them for Ansel so that he can get a better visual of what to expect in the lab. He didn’t know about the androids and thought that information was very useful.”
She rubbed her thighs. “You’re welcome.”
“I also wanted to let you know that the images you saw are old. Pax and Ansel are on the planet heading into the lab. I wanted to know if I can project to you what they see so I can foresee any danger.”
“Why not send pods?”
“They stopped working. Ansel took planet samples and found a high level of magnetic interference. If they want to see the inside of the lab, they have to go down there themselves.”
A shameful part of her was pleased that she didn’t have to go down. After seeing those pictures, her memories had smashed back into her mind.
“I can hear your thoughts. You don’t have to do this.”
“I’ll do it.”
Sci sat forward. “Thank you.”
There was no need to thank her. After what he’d done during her surgery, she would do anything he needed.
Sci tapped his head and told her, “I’m connected to Ansel, so anything you think or say that is pertinent will go straight to him.”
Yelena looked at the male in awe. “It must be very useful to be telepathic.”
“It has its advantages,” he said.
Soon, Yelena saw images in her mind as if she were in an evo-suit repelling down a large rock wall. The double vision of the medical bay and her mind bothered her so she lay back and closed her eyes.
It was like being back in the virtual tube. Ansel’s eyes focused on his hands and his feet as he moved down the long rope. Once he was on the ground, he unfastened the connection between the belt and the growing cable. Pax held up a thumb.
Pax led the way. When Ansel was down, she watched as he came to the lab door. She remembered that door, recalled how it opened, but she didn’t know the code to get in. No matter. A moment later, the door opened like she remembered. Ansel pulled some vials from his pack, and she watched him take several samples.
Inside, she saw that the tubes had black burn marks all over them. Some of the containers were cracked, but the main surgical bed seemed in order, and the dual screens over the bed were still there. Yelena shivered, remembering what it had been like to be on that table.
“Are you okay, Yelena? You don’t have to stay.”
“I’m fine. Thank you.”
“You’re very polite.”
“I try to be,” she confessed.
In her mind, she continued watching Ansel since she saw the images through his mind. He took a moment to run a gloved finger across the top of a containment tube. When he lifted it, she saw a thick layer of dust on the digit.
“Do you think it’s abandoned?” she asked Sci, knowing he could see everything, too.
“Pax thinks so. Ansel thinks it could still work.”
The view changed from overlooking the feeding tubes to a door behind the containers. Ansel followed the black lines down the hall and then through a side door. Yelena had never seen this side of the lab before. The feeding tube led into a large room that was lined with hundreds if not thousands of lines.
Ansel followed the line to an air purifier. Yelena wondered why it looked so strange. “Can you tell Ansel to look at the gauge? I want to see what the composition is.”
As she spoke, Ansel glanced down. Then he squatted to get a better look at the device. “That’s odd,” she said to herself. “That’s not right.”
Sci must have understood what she was thinking because Ansel was moving back to the containers. He broke open one and took samples from inside the tube. Then he did it again to another and another farther down the way.
Just then, Pax came back. He moved his hand in a circle in the air.
“What does that mean?” Yelena asked.
“He walked the insides and says it’s time to move on,” Sci answered.
Ansel and Pax moved out of the containment room and into the laboratory. As soon as Yelena saw the table, her stomach filled with acid.
“Do you want to quit?”
“No. It’s fine.” She knew she was not there anymore. But it did make her sit up because she didn’t want to be on her back anymore. Keeping her eyes closed, she continued watching as they explored the space, and Ansel took samples.
Ansel peered over as Pax walked into another room. The Numan followed when he had collected all the samples he needed.
Inside the other room was an office. No Minky screens, but large, rectangular drawers. Pax was pulling out sheets of paper with writing on them. Ansel took one and held it out. Yelena didn’t recognize the words.
“It’s not in standard Federation. It’s a medical language that only Numans would know. It’s considered a dead language to the Federation.”
“Do you know what it says?”
“Yes, it’s a contract with a person named Ubrum who hired Veeda to make him three orange-scaled pets with white claws.”
Yelena opened her eyes and looked at Sci, not losing the images from Ansel but now more focused on the male in the room. “Someone hired her to make that?”
Sci nodded slowly. “And it says she used
three Terrans to complete the order.”
“Does it say where they are? Can we help them?”
Sci looked away for a second and then glanced back. “The contract was completed two hundred years ago. The Terrans would be dead by now.”
Terrans had a delicate lifespan. It reminded Yelena of Cami, but she pushed those thoughts away, not wanting to share them with the telepath. Closing her eyes, she watched Ansel look through several documents. A few were pictures of the experiments—some horrifying, others interesting and unique. But knowing that the people Veeda used were probably kidnapped like Yelena, she couldn’t see the beauty in it.
Sci’s voice entered her thoughts. “Ansel said all the contracts he’s reading are two hundred to three hundred years old. The lab must have been abandoned.”
“And the people Veeda kidnapped?”
Yelena knew the answer before Sci said, “Terrans mostly. Same as with your group.”
Yelena sat in the bed, trying to keep her mind clear, her thoughts off Cami, but it was difficult. Another ten minutes passed, then Sci stood up, and the image from her mind disappeared. “Pax and Ansel will be back soon. I’m going to see my wife.”
“Okay.”
As soon as he left, she picked up her Minky pad and pulled up the Terran picture she had saved. She felt an undercurrent of sorrow. So many Terrans had been taken, so many families broken.
When Ansel came back, she didn’t know how much time had passed. He was still in his evo-suit, same as Pax. They walked into a chemical solution wash. After that, they removed their suits. Thankfully, both were fully dressed.
Pax smiled at her, but he didn’t say anything before he announced, “I’m going to take a real shower in my room.” To Ansel, he said, “Don’t call the captain without me. I want to see the look on his face when he realizes I’m amazing.”
Ansel snorted. “I doubt he’s going to be happy that we left the ship.”
“But if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have found all the good recon information.”
“He’s still going to be pissed.”
“Eh, maybe,” Pax said.
When Pax left, Ansel told her, “The transporter has three berthing rooms. I will room with Pax so you have a private room to yourself.” He used his hands to explain the route. “The first room from when you leave medical and turn left is Pax’s and my room. The next is open. You can take that one. The final will be Sci and Sasha’s room.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And thank you for your help today. You brought some really good insight into the mission.”
The compliment gave her a great deal of validation. So much so that her insides warmed.
Ansel left the room, and the hum of the ship seeped into her bones. When no one came back into medical, she decided to find her room. Taking the route that Ansel had described, she strolled into her quarters. The door slid back, and she noted the dark contrast of the room. As soon as the doors slid shut, she smiled. Her natural night vision didn’t leave her without sight. It had been a very long time since she had been surrounded by the darkness.
Looking around the room, she could see both beds, as per normal for a berthing room. Two Minky screens, two cabinets, and two cleaners. Heading for the bed on the right, she lowered her pack, pulled it up, and looked for the zipper controller.
Her fingers ran across the small box. Pressing the button, the bag opened, and she saw that her possessions were still perfectly packed. Reaching past the water and nutrition bars, Yelena found her sleeping top and shorts. Pulling them out, she walked to the cleaner to wash up and change.
Before she slipped into bed, she secured her bag in the cabinet, hid her boots under the bed, and put her clothes from the day inside the washing cleaner.
Inside the bed, she pulled the blue blanket up to her shoulders and snuggled her face into the pillow.
A second later, her Minky pad pinged. She had to get out of bed, struggle to find the zipper controller again, and dig for the Minky pad. Checking the new message, she saw that it read:
Yelena,
Just finished the debrief about your mission. You better not leave the ship, or there will be consequences.
Commander Yon.
16
Help
Yelena could barely focus as she put together the images from the second planet. They looked too similar to her memories, and she was almost certain that this was the planet she’d been taken to.
Once more, Sci waited for her to finish compiling the photos and reviewing a few of the videos. To make matters worse, she was officially on Yon’s bad side.
Even though she knew Sci knew, he didn’t mention it. Instead, all he said was, “This is your planet, and it may be harder this time. Ansel and Pax don’t want you to suffer through this.”
It would be worse if she didn’t help. That’s why she was here in the first place. “I’ll be fine. Thank you.”
She closed her eyes as soon as she saw the large, yellow building in her mind. Ansel and Pax were headed directly to it. She sank back in her memories and remembered the door on the side of the building. The way it opened.
Pax and Ansel turned just then and followed the same path she saw. Inside, the same chains lined the floor, allowing thousands to line up back to back. There was a reddish-brown rust on the black links. Ansel took a sample. As he did, she could hear the clink-clank of the chains in her memories.
Pax and Ansel followed the path she knew down the back hall to a large cave. Once they passed the massive cavern, they entered the actual metal containment area lined with tubes. The tubes in this room were not cracked or black. The floors were clean, and it looked operational.
The surgery bed was still in the same place that Yelena remembered. Ansel moved from spot to spot until he found the office. He pulled out a sheet of paper, and Yelena couldn’t help but ask, “What does it say?”
Sci paused for only a few moments. “A contract to make a female look like someone else. Specifically, a three-year-old female.”
“Who would pay for that?”
Sci cleared his throat, and his voice sounded softer. “A parent who lost their child.”
Yelena felt the sorrow of the parent and immediately remembered that Veeda had kidnapped people for this. Which meant, she would have had to take someone’s child, which was simply unacceptable.
Yelena needed to ask, but she feared the answer. “Did she complete the contract?”
“She did.”
Yelena’s heart went out to the parents who’d lost their young one. The anguish of what they had to have gone through mingled with her hopelessness of losing Cami, and it tipped her over the edge of despair. She felt the prickling at the back of her neck.
Knowing what that meant, she shot open her eyes and hopped off the bed, needing to protect Sci from the floating yellow bursts that hung in the air. Not looking at Sci, she apologized.
“No need to apologize. It’s not like they can hurt me.” Before she could ask what he meant by that, she watched as the four illumia bursts moved in a single file all the way to the ejection shoot. Without having to touch anything, they were sucked in and out of the ship.
When she turned around, she had a new respect for Sci. “You can move things with your mind, too.”
He nodded.
She wondered if he would say something now about her internal battle. He didn’t. It was kind of him, but she wanted to explain. Instead, what came out was, “It’s just hard sometimes.” And that was all she could say before her neck prickled again. She knew more illumia were floating out of her neck.
It took several long breaths to tamp the sadness of losing her friend back down into the dark abyss so she could function.
The illumia hung around her as a protective shield.
Sci didn’t move them to the shoot. Instead, he said, “There is no one on this crew, or on this ship that has not suffered a great loss. Any of them would be willing to listen to what happened.”
<
br /> She pointed to the illumia around her. “But it wouldn’t be safe.”
“Then talk to me.”
“I can’t.” Because saying the words hurt her throat.
“You don’t need to use your mouth. I’m a telepath, remember?” His voice was softer than before.
She wasn’t ready to share, because nothing could fix what had happened. No one could bring Cami back. And no one could have stopped her from breaking proximity that horrible day. A second before she was going to thank Sci for the offer, the illumia was quickly pulled from around her and into the ejection shoot. Another second later, Sasha walked in.
Sci shot up from his seat and faced his wife.
Yelena plastered on a smile. It was fake but was still proper. “Hi, Sasha.”
Sasha moved directly to Sci and took his hand. They looked at each other for a moment, but no words were said. At least not out loud. Then Sasha sprinted to the side of the room, grabbed the sink, and threw up.
Sci followed her. As she was hunched over, he rubbed her back.
“Is she okay? Should I get something?” Yelena asked, moving from the bed. “She can use the bed.”
Sasha started to throw up again. When Sasha finished, she was on the ground, taking shallow breaths. Yelena moved close. “What can I do?”
“I’m fine,” Sasha said. “Just ate something bad.”
“That stuff in the galley is not good. You should stay away from the liquid nutrient drink.”
Sasha chuckled. “I learned that lesson a long time ago.”
Yelena scanned the room, found a clean rag, and took it to the pilot. As she handed it over, Sci took it instead of Sasha. Yelena noticed a single water packet floating in the air in their direction.
Yelena stood back, not wanting to get in the way of the water. As she backed up, her voice sounded odd even to her. “Are you sure there’s nothing I can do?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Stepping back to give them some room, Yelena noticed that the images in her mind were gone. She didn’t know what that meant. Ten minutes later, both Pax and Ansel rushed into medical and ran straight for the chemical showers.
