by S. L. Viehl
“I suppose.” When he frowned, I winked at him. “Gotcha back.”
* * *
I found the quarters Joe had prepared for me about an hour after we finished our meal. Reever gave me a proximity scanner and a pistol, the latter of which I promptly returned to him.
“If there are hostile life-forms on board—”
“Then you get to shoot them,” I finished for him. “And if you do shoot them, make sure you don’t hit anything important. Otherwise, you get to assist me in surgery again.”
He pocketed the weapon. “I will go with you.”
“You will go work on the computers while I take a look around,” I said in a firm, don’t-argue-with-me tone. “I’ll take the drone with me. Nine-Six-whatever your name is, you’ll protect me, right?”
The little drone immediately stepped between me and Reever. “Affirmative. Safeguard function activated. Step away from the doctor, Captain.”
I grinned. “You know, this little guy is starting to grow on me.”
Nine-Six-One dutifully protected my body and led the way as we walked through the Truman’s sixteen levels.
“Where’s Medical located?”
“Medical is located on level sixteen.”
Bottom of the ship. We were only on level eight. It figured.
When we passed through the two levels of crew quarters, the little drone stopped in front of one chamber located at the end of the last corridor.
“Notification. Dr. Joseph Grey Veil assigned this compartment to you, Dr. Torin. Would you care to inspect the rooms?”
“Not really. What’s in there?”
The drone had to process that for a minute. “Contents of compartment C-1, food preparation unit, entertainment unit, communications console, personal computer terminal console, utility storage unit, garment storage unit, sleeping platform, lavatory—”
“Discontinue inventory. I get the idea.” I looked at the closed panel again. “Is there anything in there that will harm or incapacitate me?”
“No such item is listed on the compartment inventory file, Dr. Torin.”
Okay, so maybe I was a little curious. “You go in first.”
Nine-Six-One directed a sensor stalk at the access panel, and the door panel slid silently open. He walked in, and after a moment, so did I.
I don’t know what I expected to see—maybe something sterile and utilitarian—but certainly not my old room back at The Grey Veils, the family mansion on Terra.
“God, this is … creepy.” I walked around, still in a state of total disbelief. Everything was there—my Parrish prints, my personal entertainment unit, my collection of archaic jazz discs, even the clothes I’d left behind, hanging in the garment unit.
I went over to a shelf where I had photoscans of Maggie and me when I was little. I picked one particular frame up and turned it over. I’d dropped the original a few years ago, and nicked the back of the case. There was no scratch on this one.
So he’d hung on to the originals and duplicated everything. But why? Joe didn’t make sentimental gestures. He didn’t do anything without a specific reason. Especially where I was concerned.
Why had the drone told me about this room? “Nine-Six-One, were you programmed by Joseph Grey Veil?”
“Negative.”
“Well, then who programmed you?”
“Full programming was scripted by Willa Cline Industries, auto-format download unit—”
“Never mind.” I went over to the utility unit and opened a door. My old medical case sat inside. Along with a pair of boots I’d forgotten to sterilize. There was still Terran soil caked in the treads.
It’s not the same. It’s simulated. The real boots are back on Terra. So is Joseph.
“Cherijo.”
I jumped, swiveled around, and yelled. “Will you stop doing that!”
My husband stood in the open doorway, and didn’t look a bit sorry for scaring ten years off my life. “These quarters are already occupied?”
“Yeah. By me. Back on Terra.” I swung my hand around. “Joe replicated everything that was in my old room.”
He studied the stark, colorless decor that had been the latest trend three years ago. “It is not very appealing.”
Three years ago.
“He hasn’t changed a thing since I left. I just realized that. Joe has the entire mansion redecorated every six months, and yet this room hasn’t been altered in the slightest degree. There’s even a copy of a pair of old muddy boots I left behind.” I didn’t know whether to be amused, or sick. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not sleeping here tonight.” Or ever. “How are things going with the computers?”
“It will take several hours for the core to ascertain there are no errors from initialization.” Reever held out his hand. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
He took me down another eight levels, to sixteen, where Medical was supposed to be located.
Level sixteen was Medical. The entire deck was one huge medical treatment facility.
“Only the best for Cherijo,” I muttered under my breath as I walked around. “Look at all this stuff, Reever. Diagnostic simulators, full medsysbank array, multispecies drug and plasma synthesizers, and if I’m not mistaken”—I opened a panel and looked into what had to be the most advanced surgical suite I’d ever seen—”yeah, there it is. My own personal paradise.”
Jenner padded in, and planted himself next to my ankle. Absently I picked him up and started stroking him.
Reever was busy fiddling with the database. “Your creator knows you very well.”
I closed the panel without going in. “My creator doesn’t know that I’d trade all this fancy tech in a heartbeat for a chance to be a FreeClinic trauma physician again.”
That seemed to surprise him. “You would return to Kevarzangia Two?”
“If it wouldn’t put the colony in danger, yeah, I would.” I picked up a new style of syrinpress I’d never seen before. “No chance of that, I’m afraid.”
A signal came in over the main console, and Reever acknowledged it.
It was Xonea. “ClanBrother, ClanSister, we are reading some minor fluctuations in the flightshield surrounding the Truman. Are you experiencing any power loss within the vessel?”
“No, Xonea.” Reever frowned. “Have you located the source of the fluctuations?”
“It appears to be coming from the stardrive. It would be best to run a simulation on it before we transfer your passengers.” The screen went blank for a moment, then Xonea’s face reappeared. Suddenly he wasn’t smiling anymore. “Our signal is being jammed. We are reading multiple vessels closing—”
The console went dead. Something smashed into the side of the Truman, sending me, Jenner, and Reever sprawling on the deck.
We ran back to the helm, and found our three ships were surrounded by a horde of star vessels in attack formation. No one was firing on anyone, from what we saw on the viewer, but the Perpetua was spinning out of control, showing huge, new gaps in its hull.
They wanted to be sure we couldn’t use it.
“Thank God we got everyone off,” I said as I went to the communications station and secured Jenner in a storage compartment next to the unit. He didn’t like that, naturally, but he’d have to yowl for now. “Truman to the Sunlace. Xonea, what’s your status?”
His signal came in, audio only. “We have sustained damage to the Command control and ship’s Operational, along with minor casualties on four levels. Are you and Reever unharmed?”
“Yes.” I looked at the viewer. “Where did all those ships come from?”
“We do not know. Even now they do not appear on our scanners. Salo speculates they are using some form of energy shunt to conceal their ships and stardrive functions.”
That was when our attackers overrode both our signals, and took control of communications.
“League Scout Ship Truman. Is Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil on board?”
I wasn’t going to let them fire on
my family again. “I’m here, you bastards.”
“You are ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded.”
“By whose authority?” Reever asked.
“By the authority of—”
Suddenly the Sunlace was firing on the biggest ship, and I was pounding on the console. “Xonea! No!”
The mercenaries returned fire, and we had to sit there helplessly and watch as two more levels sustained heavy damage.
“Truman. We will suspend the communications block for sixty seconds. You will advise your allies to stand down at once, or we will destroy all your vessels and the colony on the planet you orbit.”
My hands started to shake. There was no way the Meridae could defend themselves against that many ships. When I looked at Reever, he nodded. I pressed the console keypad again. “Xonea. Listen to me. We can’t fight them.” I relayed the mercenary’s threats, then added, “I invoke my Speaking.”
There was a brief silence, then Xonea acknowledged in a voice as cold as death, “As you wish, ClanSister.”
I shut down the signal, then opened one to the mercenaries. “This is Dr. Cherijo Torin. I surrender. Come and get me.” I shut down communications and turned to Reever. “Don’t look at me like that. Go down to the launch bay and take the shuttle back to the Sunlace.” I opened the storage compartment and took my disgruntled pet out. “Take Jenner with you.”
He only shook his head and did something that made the engines rumble.
I wasn’t going to lose him or Jenner. Not to mercenaries, not like this. “Duncan, don’t you dare.”
“They will pursue us. It will give Xonea time to transition.” He set coordinates, and powered up the engines.
“You really think they’re going to chase us if we run?”
“You are why they are here. Where you go, they will follow. Put your harness on.”
I put Jenner back in the compartment, which got me a couple of good scratches in the process, then pulled the rigging over my shoulders. “Don’t warn them. Just do it.”
“I will, as soon as we’re clear of the planet.”
For a few minutes Reever successfully dodged a continuous volley of pulse fire as he maneuvered the Truman out of orbit and away from the Sunlace and the Perpetua. As he predicted, the mercenaries followed us. I started digging my nails into my chair’s arm rests.
“When did you learn to fly like this?” I asked him as the ship went into yet another rolling maneuver.
“When I was on Terra.” He frowned as his fingers moved rapidly over the flight control panel. “I once entertained the idea of becoming a transport pilot.”
The mercenary ships were fanning out, trying to flank us on both sides. We were still too close to the planet to initiate the stardrive. “You never told me that.”
“You never asked.”
We both were jerked against our rigs as the flanking ships began firing at us from both sides. There was no way Reever could dodge the cross fire, so he did something completely unexpected. He cut the engines entirely, which made us drop back and under the pursuing ships.
“Good move,” I said, peering at the viewer. “Can you initiate the stardrive from here?” No answer. “Duncan?”
“I just tried to.” Reever sat back. “Cherijo, there is no stardrive on this vessel.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Of course there’s a stardrive. It’s a star vessel.”
“No, it’s not.” He calmly unfastened his rigging and stood up. “I believe the reason for that is about to present itself.”
The little drone I’d left down in Medical came through the helm door panel. “Simulation sequence complete. Dimensional grid shutdown in progress.”
I watched with wide eyes as the helm began to slowly dissolve. Equipment, consoles, even the view screen vanished. In a panic I grabbed Jenner and hauled him out of what I thought had been a storage compartment. It disappeared, too. Soon everything was gone, and we were left standing in a large, empty compartment lined with some kind of glowing, yellow mesh.
I thought of the thoracic training unit, the lack of odors, and groaned. “I don’t believe it. How could I be so stupid? It was all a simulation.”
“Yes.” Reever kicked aside Nine-Six-One, who had turned into a simple recording device on rollers, also covered with the glowing mesh. “We should exit this area now.”
We went out into the empty corridor. It, too, was lined with mesh. “The shuttle. We brought the shuttle over from the Sunlace. That’s real.”
“I doubt we can reach it. They’re probably on board by now.”
He was two for two, I thought, as I heard the thundering sound of many footsteps running toward us. “I knew Joe’s present would turn out to be a lemon.”
Reever turned and caught me in his arms. “Cherijo, whatever they say or do, don’t fight them.”
As it turned out, neither of us had a chance to fight anything. A small panel opened on the corridor wall beside me, and I turned a few seconds too late.
“Reever, look out—”
A bright, hot beam of energy burst over us. I fell to the floor, my vision already going dark. Just before I lost consciousness, I felt Reever’s arms close around me.
“Dr. Grey Veil.”
The voice was feminine. High-pitched. Cheerful. I wanted to slug whoever owned it.
“Can you hear me, Dr. Grey Veil?”
Certainly I could hear her. There was no way to avoid that kind of voice, other than puncturing my own eardrums. It acted like a parietal drill on my skull, drilling in to meet my huge, throbbing headache.
“It’s time for you to wake up now.”
Was she nuts? Some lunatic had beaten me, glued my eyelashes together, and lined my mouth with hundred-year-old waste. Every muscle I had felt torn and abused. Unless I got to return the favor, I wasn’t ever going to wake up again.
The Truman. Why aren’t I on the Truman?
Recalling that made me force my sticky eyelids open. A smiling Terran female face floated above me, her features partially obscured by light gleaming off a surgical visor shield. Or her toothy smile. Either one could have produced all that mega-shine.
I could knock a few of those pretty white teeth out, I thought. See if that helped cut the glare.
Before I could take a swing, she slid the shield up and out of the way. “Good, you’re awake. I’m so glad. How are you feeling?”
She said that like she meant every word. I spotted the glittering, brand-new gold insignia on the collar of her trendy physician’s tunic, and went stiff.
Oh, God. They’d stuck me with Doctor Sunshine and Happiness.
“Don’t be afraid.” She patted me the way she would a shivering dog. “You’re safe now and doing just fine.”
Afraid? I was terrified. She was such a rookie, she still believed it actually mattered what she looked like. I started yelling—or tried to. “Where am I?”
My croak made her chipper smile become more sympathetic. “Poor thing,” she crooned, stroking my forehead. “Don’t remember a thing, do you?”
I remembered how to inflict severe head trauma. I took a deep breath to tell her that, and immediately started coughing. What was in my lungs? It felt and tasted like someone had poured laser rig coolant into them.
“Slow, shallow breaths now. We just took you off the machine, and you’re still transitioning.”
I didn’t transition—Jorenian ships did. Was I on one?
I looked around. Monitors, berth optics, a vitals array. Medical. I was in some kind of medical facility. Then I remembered I’d been captured by the League. Apparently now they were going to start experimenting on me.
Time to exit the premises.
She touched my face again with her soft hand. “Please, don’t try to move or speak, Doctor. You’ve been in sleep suspension for an entire cycle.”
“A cycle?” Where was Duncan? And Jenner? I yanked against my restraints and ignored the scraping sound of my voice. “Where’s my h
usband? Where’s my cat?” They had me strapped down tight. “Let me out of these things, you stupid twit!”
That dimmed the smile a few watts. “In due course, I will.” She picked up a chart and made some notations on it. Her short, honey-colored hair gleamed as she glanced over at me. I’m Dr. Lily Risen. Call me Lily. Please, don’t struggle. I’d hate to have to sedate you again.”
“Again?” Call-me-Lily hadn’t even run a scan on me yet. If she really was in charge of me, I was lucky to be alive. “Where am I?”
“You’re on board the L.T.F. Stephenson. We’ve just gone into orbit above Terra. Now, relax and try to stay calm while I take your vitals.”
“My vitals are fine. Where is my husband and my cat?”
She hesitated, then went over to a console and accessed it. “Linguis Reever and the animal were brought out of suspension yesterday and have been transferred to the detainment area.”
“You put my cat in jail?”
Doctor Sunshine walked back over to my berth. “Of course not. Once it was revived, the animal refused to be separated from Linguist Reever.” She rubbed her forearm, which I saw was bandaged.
Jenner really didn’t like strangers handling him. “He’s got some claws, doesn’t he?”
She gave me a prim frown. “Yes.”
That was my boy. “Are they all right?”
“Yes. We also discovered the most extraordinary form of mold on the ship—it appears to be ambulatory.”
Lord, they’d even found the Lok-Teel. “That also belongs to me. Where is it?”
“Right over there, in a specimen container. Now, here.” She leaned over me, holding a syrinpress. “No, don’t be afraid. I’m going to administer the last corrective to bring you all the way out of the suspension. It won’t hurt you.”
“What corrective?”
“They told me you’d be demanding,” Lily said as she infused me at the jugular. The sting of the drug spread through my neck, and made me arch against my bonds again. “I know it’s a little uncomfortable. But we’ll have you out of this chamber in a few minutes, and then you can see your father.” She smiled again, as if expecting me to sob or cheer or something.
No one had bothered to brief Dr. Risen about my relationship with my creator. Which, when I thought about it, was terrific.
