by Isaac Hooke
Tane decided to buckle the empty harness on over his clothing rather than returning it to the pouch.
When he was done, he stood staring at the droid for several seconds before it seemed to understand he had no more items to hand over.
“Did you deposit all weapons from your personal storage device?” the droid asked.
“Yes,” Tane said. He had kept his personal shield generator inside the pouch since he didn’t consider that a weapon.
“Here is your collection receipt,” the droid said.
Tane received a sharing request and accepted. It was a file that contained the inventory of everything he had deposited.
He turned toward the security robots and one of them extended a hand: a red beam issued forth from the palm, scanning the pouch at Tane’s waist. He supposed now he’d find out whether the shield generator was allowed or not.
The beam cut out. The robots, apparently satisfied that he was unarmed, stepped aside.
Tane hurried past them and queried the HII—hospital information interface—for the status and room location of patient Tina Treetops.
The HII marked her room on the overhead map, but in place of status, all he got was “restricted.” She was located in a section of the ward that was shaded red and marked “no visitors.”
Tane made his way to her section anyway. Even so, the restricted status worried him enough that he reached into his storage belt and retrieved the shield generator, attaching it to his buckle. He left the shield inactive for the time being.
Along the way he stopped a nursing robot dressed in blue scrubs. “Hello, I’d like a prognosis on the patient I just took in. Miss Treetops.” He tried not to look at the robot directly, so as to keep his face hidden by the fringe of the hood as much as possible, but he couldn’t hide his features completely, not that close.
“And what is your relation to her?” the robot asked. The robot had a fully animated expressions visor, and from the mellifluous voice, identified as female.
“I’m her…” Tane was about to say brother, but he realized the name on his profile wouldn’t show up in whatever fictional family tree Sinive had. “I’m her best friend.”
“She only just arrived,” the robot said. “A prognosis will be forthcoming shortly.”
The robot started to leave.
“Really?” Tane said. “Then how come her status is listed as restricted? I think your doctors have already made a prognosis. She was in bad shape when I brought her in and warranted immediate medical attention.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t reveal anything further,” the robot said. “Doctor-patient confidentially.”
“Please,” Tane said. “You have to tell me.”
The nursing robot hesitated, perhaps hearing something in Tane’s voice that told the robot how important she was.
“Please,” Tane repeated.
“We’re not sure we can help her, Mister Orblast,” the nursing robot said slowly. “We’re unequipped to handle an infection of her magnitude. As such we’ve contacted the appropriate department of the TSN, who have arranged to retrieve her for further treatment.”
“What? Why?” Tane said. Maybe it was a mistake to bring her here.
“Standard protocol for an infection of this sort,” the robot said. “She is a danger to this hospital, and society in general.”
When the TSN arrived, no doubt their facial recognition algorithms would ID Sinive. But maybe it was better that way. Maybe they could treat her.
“Is she awake?” Tane said.
“Yes.”
“I have to see her.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible at the moment,” the nurse said. “Visitors are not allowed to her section. Please escort yourself off of the premises at your earliest convenience. If you attempt to penetrate that section without proper authorization, security droids will forcibly remove you from the hospital. Have a great day!”
The nursing robot waited, as if watching to see what direction Tane would go. He reluctantly retreated, intending to loop back around as soon as he was out of the robot’s sight. There would likely be security cameras around that he would have to avoid, too.
Damn it.
Tane rounded the bend, and then waited a few seconds there, standing out of view. There was no one else nearby, well, except for another nursing robot farther down the hallway, its back to him.
He peered around the bend. The first robot was nowhere to be found.
Tane returned to the hallway, following his original route toward the restricted section. He passed the intersection where he met the robot, and glanced both ways: no sign of anyone.
He continued past two more intersections, and took a right toward the restricted section. So far, so good.
The hallway soon opened into a glass-domed walkway that overlooked the floors above and below. He passed an open common room area, filled with seats for patients to rest outside of their rooms, but it was currently empty.
Leaving the glass viewing area behind, he reached a T intersection. Rounding the bend, his heart dropped when he saw the rifle-toting security robot standing guard in front of Sinive’s ward.
He decided to try his luck.
I’m just going to pretend I belong.
As Tane closed the ten meters to the robot, the mechanical being stepped into his path, blocking his way forward.
“Excuse me, but you’re not authorized to enter this area,” the robot said.
“Oh?” Tane told it, playing dumb. “But my friend is here."
“I’m sorry,” the robot said. “Please turn around. If you inquire at the front desk, the hospital can arrange to notify you when your friend is moved to a less restrictive ward.”
Tane ran a quick ID on the robot.
Name: HS-32 “Reginald”
Race: Robot.
Model: Scepter combat droid VI-9 Rev a.
Level: 7
Class: Security Consultant
Badge ID: 179347
“I’m going to talk to your superior about this,” Tane said.
“Go ahead,” the robot told him.
Though he couldn’t see its stats, he knew its Dexterity would be though the roof: its reflexes far faster than his own.
Another reason to pump up my own Dexterity levels sometime.
He had seen humans in videos on the Galnet with Dexterity so high they who could out-maneuver robots. He remembered watching a mixed martial arts broadcast between a man and a combat robot. The pair moved so fast that their bodies were essentially blurs, and the live feed had to be slowed down by a factor of five just so the audience could watch. In the end the robot lost—it started slowing down due to overheating and ineffective thermal conduction, whereas the human continued to pound the crap out of it. Apparently the fighter, covered in sweat, had collapsed moments after winning. The moral: Dexterity wasn’t a panacea. Not that Tane had any intention of ever engaging in a fistfight with a robot anyway.
He retreated, returning to the T intersection and rounding the bend. Well, so much for that. He couldn’t get by the robot. There was nothing he could do. He wasn’t sure how comfortable he was leaving Sinive in the hands of the TSN—assuming the nursing robot had been correct about the star navy coming for her. But as he had already concluded, Sinive needed treatment and he certainly couldn’t provide it himself.
When he passed near the empty common room area, he received a call notification on his HUD.
Who would be pinging me now?
He maximized the call window and saw the name Lyra Glorandriel. He wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or apprehensive. It seemed almost a little too coincidental that just when he dropped off Sinive at the hospital, the Volur would once again try to get involved. Almost as if she was spying on him somehow. But that was unlikely, of course: he had disabled positional sharing with her ID shortly after arriving back in this universe, so she wouldn’t know where he was.
Tane noticed an open door near the common room and when he
glanced inside he saw a small, empty conference area of sorts, replete with cupboards, a sink, a table, and a couple of chairs. He entered and partially shut the swinging door behind him, leaving it open a crack just in case the door had a locking mechanism he couldn’t open.
He took a seat and stared at Lyra’s name on his HUD for several seconds. The ringtone nagged in the background.
Do I really want her involved again?
But he was far too curious about what had happened to her, Jed and Nebb to turn down the call, so he finally accepted.
“Lyra,” Tane said. “I’m guessing you’re on this moon.” Otherwise he wouldn’t be engaged in a real-time conversation with her like this.
She spoke after a two second lag. “Close enough: we just entered orbit. Switching over to full encryption. Use the keys I gave you earlier.”
The video feed filled with random pixels, and the audio became white noise. Tane applied the necessary decryption key and then her image reappeared.
“You’re aboard the Red Grizzly?” Tane asked.
“I am,” Lyra replied, once again after two seconds. “We got here as fast as we could.”
“What happened back there?” Tane said. “In the Umbra?”
“We were forced to abandon you,” Lyra told him. “When the dwellers arrived in force, we took to the air and fled. The dwellers pursued us in their warships halfway across the moon, then seemed to lose interest, no doubt when they realized you weren’t aboard. Nebb kept the Red Grizzly close to the surface, not wanting to give any orbiting vessels an easy target while the drones completed repairs to the overflow vent. Eventually when I was rested enough I took us on the jump to Anteres. We entered the Rift without much difficulty, though we did see disturbing signs that the dwellers were gathering.”
“Gathering?” Tane said.
“Yes,” Lyra said. “Perhaps preparing for an invasion. There were hundreds of ships. After we passed back into our universe, the TSN impounded our vessel, and I informed their commanders of the news while in custody. Whether or not they actually do anything about it is another story entirely. In any case, I tried sending you a message before the Red Grizzly was impounded, but the TSN jammed our communications so I wasn’t able to. It took a lot of convincing to get the TSN to release us, and I had to call in a few favors, but finally after staying the night we were let go. We jumped to this system straightaway and entered orbit above the moon just a short while ago.”
“Okay then,” Tane said. “Welcome back, I guess. Though for someone who just made a jump, you certainly seem well-rested.”
“Nebb hired an interim jump specialist to handle the creation of the distortion tunnel,” Lyra said.
“Ah.”
“And what happened to you?” Lyra asked.
“I don’t know really,” Tane answered. “It’s all a blur.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “After the alien ship arrived, the streets filled with dwellers. They weren’t wearing environmental suits of any kind. And they shot at us. To kill. At one point other dwellers intervened and the two sides fought against each other. It’s like there are different alien factions. Some want me dead. Others alive.”
“Interesting,” Sinive said.
“Anyway,” Tane continued. “Sinive and I managed to avoid the aliens long enough to bump into a strange black lens that was just floating there in one of the town squares.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to tell her how the dark filaments from his body actually led him to that lens, so he decided to leave that out. “I accidentally touched the lens, and then a moment later we found ourselves back in this universe.”
Lyra seemed at a loss for words.
“Any idea what that lens was?” Tane pressed.
“A reservoir of Dark Essence,” Lyra said.
“Oh,” Tane said. “Well, we were being chased by kraals at the time, but when we got close to the lens, the kraals all ran away. Have you ever heard of something like that?”
“The lesser species fear the Dark Essence,” Lyra said. “It frightens them.”
“Why did it transport me here?” Tane said.
“I don’t know,” Lyra said.
“Okay, since I have you here, I might as well ask you something else that’s been on my mind,” Tane said. “I collected this pulsating crystal thing. A Dirac apparently it’s called. When I carried it back to this universe, I had a hard time letting it go. Any ideas why?”
Lyra shook her head. “I’m not sure… but one thing I know, those crystals are alive.”
“I knew it!” Tane said.
“Yes,” Lyra continued. “They’re somewhat equivalent to the plant life of this universe. Sentient, though entirely immobile. My guess is, the crystal sensed something in your nature it liked. Or maybe it just sought rescue from the kraals. Umbra explorers like to use them as bait, since the kraals are easily distracted by Diracs, especially if hungry. Though this is the first I’ve heard of a crystal communicating with a human in such a way.”
“All right,” Tane said. “One last thing.” He hesitated, unsure if he should tell her. Hell with it. “Did you know I could Siphon?”
She paused, as if stunned. “No. This is news to me.” He wasn’t sure he believed her. He hated not knowing who he could trust.
“Well I can,” Tane said. “I’ve got level one in the skill. And a few level zero Branchworks.”
Lyra nodded thoughtfully. “Where are you and Sinive now?”
“Sinive is sick,” Tane said.
Lyra seemed alarmed. “Sick?”
“I think she’s infected with microcrillia. I brought her to a hospital—”
“I was just going to say, don’t bring her to a hospital,” Lyra said. “The staff will alert the TSN. It’s standard procedure for hospitals to contact the star navy when microcrillia infection is detected.”
“Yeah, I found that out the hard way,” Tane said. “But I couldn’t treat her myself.”
“Neither can the TSN,” Lyra said.
“What are you saying?” Tane said. “They’re just going to let her die?”
“Essentially,” Lyra said. “In cases of microcrillia infection, the patient is isolated in a hyperbaric chamber and left alone until the infection runs its course.”
“A nurse I talked to told me she was awake,” Tane said.
“If that’s true, then she will be restrained,” Lyra said. “Microcrillia patients are… not themselves. But listen to me, I can help her. I can do what the TSN cannot, will not, do.”
“You’re not just saying that because you want me to give up my location?” Tane said.
“I can help,” Lyra said. “Trust me. Tell me where you are.” When he didn’t answer, she added: “You need me. She needs me.”
Tane wasn’t sure he wanted to involve the Volur just yet. He had been looking forward to a few days, if not weeks, of lying low. But if what Lyra told him was true, then he had no choice.
“You’re certain you can help her?” Tane asked.
“If the microcrillia haven’t spread too far, I can save her, yes,” Lyra replied.
Was she lying? He certainly couldn’t tell. Then again, he had heard about the fabled healing powers some Volur had. If supposed that if anyone could help Sinive, it would be her.
“Send me your coordinates and I’ll have Nebb bring us down to your position ASAP,” Lyra said.
Tane hesitated. “I thought the microcrillia couldn’t survive in our universe?”
“Not without the proper host environment, no,” Lyra said. “Sinive’s body is providing that environment.”
Tane pursed his lips. Well, here goes. “Okay. We’re at the Alexander de Graaf Hospital. Second floor, restricted emergency ward section. I’m sending my precise coordinates now.” And he did.
“Could you enable positional sharing with my ID?” she asked.
Tane frowned. “Well, I suppose if I’m going to agree to your help, I might as well go all out. I expect to receive your position in turn.”
&n
bsp; “Thank you,” Lyra said. “I’ve enabled my own positional sharing for your ID.”
Tane checked her location and got a report back indicating she was still in orbit.
“We’ll get there as soon as we can,” Lyra said. “If you’re able, try to move Sinive to a different room in the meantime, because if the TSN personnel arrive before we do, they’ll transport her to a secure holding facility, and it will be that much harder for us to get her out.”
“I’m not sure how extensive the patient tracking is here, but I’ll see what I can do,” Tane said. “By the way, didn’t you say that if she is awake, she’s probably restrained?”
“Yes,” Lyra said. “I never said it would be easy to move her.”
“Yeah,” Tane said. “Plus you haven’t seen what the security is like in this place.”
“If you can’t do it, then don’t,” Lyra said. “We’ll help you when we arrive. Above all else, I don’t want you to do anything to put yourself in danger.”
“I’ll keep you updated,” Tane said.
He disconnected, then left behind the small conference area. He fingered his shield belt, an inkling of a plan forming. He wasn’t sure he was going to go through with it.
He peeked around the bend of the T intersection, toward the security droid lingering down the hallway. He ducked from view immediately because he thought it was looking his way.
Don’t do anything to put myself in danger. She says it likes it’s the easiest thing in the world.
Lyra promised to help when she arrived, but in truth he wasn’t sure how much of that help he really wanted. Sure, if she could heal Sinive, he wanted that. But getting her out of the hospital? Tane could do it. A part of him wanted to prove to Lyra that he was capable of doing things for himself. That he accepted her help not because he needed it, but because he allowed it.
And he was starting to wonder, was the TSN really as bad as Lyra portrayed them? Maybe they were the good guys here. “They’ll never protect you from the aliens. They’ll never be able to help Sinive.” He was starting to wonder just how much of what the Volur said was true. It was seductive to believe that all he had to do was surrender to the TSN and everything would start going well in his life again. But then he remembered what his dad had told him.
