She presented this to Miller, who sighed.
“You know, having you in my office with this very question is like talking to Landry all over again. That was his biggest concern. Are there any side effects if you’re not fed on?”
“A little extra stress on the system. It speeds up the metabolism. A couple extra power bars and a nap takes care of it. It only lasts about six hours.”
“Okay. In that case, we’re going to give it to Alpha Team before they go on missions. Two, three doses a customer. How long would it take you to make enough?”
Twenty doses. “A day or so.” She closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck.
Shawn tossed the data pad onto the desk. “How are you holding up?”
“Well, we have new lines of research going, we have—”
“No, Adry. How are you holding up?”
Slowly, she crumpled back into the chair.
“I miss him.” She closed her eyes. Fingers on her neck, pens sketching circles on her legs and arms and middle. Sweet kisses in false sunlight. “He had this box of notes, paper notes, and somehow he got it to the evacuation bay before…” she stopped. “There’s handwritten notes on the margins. I’m finding his life between the lines of chemical composition.”
“We’re officially listing Bryan as KIA.” He turned a page over. “And Mich…MIA is a bit better. We’ve had a sighting on Foster, in one of the more isolated settlements. He traded a gun and a box of full spectrum antibiotics for an old beater of a transport ship, and he’s back in the wind.”
“Could he have contacted us if he wanted to?” Adry asked.
“Possibly. He knew our contact there. But a dozen Fangs showed up, and he booked when the Overseers began tossing the village.”
“Looking for him?”
“Looking for signs of resistance. They’re tolerating human norm villages because slaved people don’t breed well.”
“You think they’re looking for Mich.”
Shawn hesitated, then smiled. She hated that look. It meant he wouldn’t answer her question. “We lost a lot of people. Mich isn’t the only MIA we’re looking for, and he isn’t the only one we’ve found unharmed in Overseer territory.”
That wasn’t a real answer. Shawn knew something that he wasn’t spreading around base. But she decided not to push. She was too tired, too heartsick, and sometimes the general pushed back. “How many people got lost?”
“Right now? Two hundred thirty. Hopefully that’ll go down with the next report in. As for the brothers Landry…we’re going to hold Bryan’s funeral on Gaga. And we’re going to be loud about it. See if we can’t get Mich to come home.”
“Shawn…the only thing Mich would come back for is to spit on Bryan’s grave.”
“Well…we have to take what we can get.”
*****
Now:
The swamp was unbelievably nasty. Dank, heavy air. Strange trees with knobby knee roots poking out of fetid water. The sound of animals crashing away from the two of them. And this time there was no Overseer to drag her through the muck when she got bogged down. Mich didn’t even help as he motored on. His boots terminated at the knee, hers at mid calf. At least her hands weren’t bound this time. Her toes were swimming in the unimaginable contents of the swamp, and all she could think about was the illness in the guts of the Overseer’s village. Her feet were sharing space with it, now, rubbing elbows with the amoeba. She shuddered.
She felt guilt for leaving. Wasn’t that insane? Stockholm syndrome. She’d let the damned Overseer get to her. The murderous alien had shown…what, kindness in its self-interest? Concern for the lives of its cattle? She dodged a patch of slick green algae, felt the quicksand it hid suck at her boots. If it truly cared about the people it were eating, it would have left this place a long time ago.
Wouldn’t it?
“How’d you find me?” she asked, breathless from effort.
“Like I said, I heard an Overseer was offering trade. That’s rare. Usually they just take what they want. I figured it was worth checking out. And I really wanted to know how it got its sick hands on my brother’s gear.”
The words, why should you care, died on her lips. “You weren’t at the ceremony. I was looking for you, too. I wanted to say…” she trailed off. Say what? Fuck you for ditching your brother? Sorry I abandoned him, could you not look so happy about it? Not something you wanted to say to your mentally unstable rescuer while you were still mid rescue.
“I figured you guys were there, working the funeral and hoping you’d find me. Expecting me to actually bury the bastard was asking a little much.” He licked his lips, stepping around a fallen log. He seemed more than a little manic. “Bryan got everything, you know? He went to med school. I had to settle for the military. He got the girls. I took his leftovers. He got the brains and I got nothing, and the few good things I had, he took away from me.”
“You’re talking about Abrams and shooting your stepfather.”
“And you.” Mich turned around, looking at her with an intensity that disturbed her, deeply. “I wanted you and he knew it.” Mich took a step closer. “He targeted you and you went straight to him, arms wide open.”
“Mich…” How to say this nicely? “I like you. I loved Bryan.”
“You loved Bryan because he made you. That’s the way he works, sunshine. He makes you do what he wants you to, and you are just putty in the palms of his hands. Everyone was.” He was gesturing wildly. “It didn’t matter what I did. Only Dad ever saw through him. That’s why Bryan shot him.”
“He was protecting you.”
“Right.” Mich rolled his eyes.
“He was scared of what your stepfather would do—”
“He was jealous. Dad loved me more.”
“When an adult does what he did to you and Bryan, it’s not love. It’s—”
Mich punched her. Hard. She hit the mud and the wet and the leaves and felt blood flowing from her nose, her suddenly split lip. She looked up at him and saw the same man who had slammed her into the wall of the gazebo. “You don’t get it. And I don’t expect you to get it. You’re nothing more than my brother’s receptacle.”
Being thrown backwards must have jogged something loose, because she suddenly understood everything. Shawn Miller’s silence, his interest in finding Mich. Holton’s fall, Bryan’s destruction, even the attacks on the human worlds Mich left in his wake. God. She was so blind. Fingers closed over the Overseer device in her pocket. “No,” she said, sickly. “I’m more than that, aren’t I? I’m your ticket home.”
And she pressed the call button, hard.
*****
Then:
Holton glimmered around them, soft and beautiful and serene. Bryan poured a glass of wine. “See if that’s an improvement, love.”
She didn’t have to try it to know, though she did take a long, luxurious sip. “Belle Epoch. You shelled out.”
“Yes, I did. Whoever said Earth girls are easy didn’t have a wine snob for a girlfriend.”
“Hey, Gaga makes a very acceptable Riesling, and Foster’s ice wines were incredible. You should try their Vigonier.” She pronounced it right. Vigon-ay. “Petroni down in engineering has a bottle. He says he’s saving it for Foster’s liberation.”
“Sounds like that ought to be a beer.” Bryan sat down, grinning. “You have no idea how nice it is to have Holton. I grew up on Foster, with Mich. It wasn’t nearly this nice. Our fortress impenetrable.” He patted a chrome wall.
She frowned, setting the glass down. “Something’s been driving me nuts for weeks. Don’t people Jump way too close to the station? I thought you’d be more worried about accidental intersection.” A bad jump could leave a ship half in, half out of whatever it jumped to. There was an old story about a pilot jumping into the heart of a star, and vanishing forever. If that happened on Holton, they’d all be dead.
Bryan sobered. “We got to get close enough to come in on atmospherics. Otherwise it’s a s
ubspace trip, and that leaves one hell of a footprint behind.”
“Could an Overseer trace that back to Holton?” she asked.
“Only if they saw them arrive. And the track would only be detectible for a few seconds, so they’d need their instrumentation pointed in the right direction. It’d be like threading the needle with a string that only lasts a breath. But we don’t want to risk it.”
The waiter arrived, and they ordered. “It’s been a long time since I ate at a restaurant with silver service.” She said, after the salads arrived. The dressing was heavenly. “Why are we here?”
“You were talking with Paige Jones the other day.”
“Uh-oh.” She sighed.
“ ‘I feel like I’m just waiting for the axe to fall.’” Bryan quoted. “If you feel that way, why are you dating me?”
“I like you,” she said, heart sinking. “And I’d like to spend a few minutes with you if I can…even if that’s all I get.”
“Why think that?” He seemed hurt.
“You don’t stick with one girl, or two girls, or ten.” She set the champagne down. “Why bring it up? We were having such a good time.”
“Because that’s how I’ve been feeling the past few weeks. Waiting for you to get tired of me.”
“I’m not.” She said, blushing.
“Mich told me he wanted you the first day you were on station. He told me to back off. Said it was only fair that he have a shot. He’s probably a better bet for you. Less married to his work, more--”
She silenced him with a kiss, long and slow and enveloping. They parted, and she smiled contentedly. “Bryan, I hate to break it to you and your brother…but Mich never had a prayer.”
They kissed again, and Adry thought when they met, her lucky stars had formed a line. A perfectly straight, beautiful line.
“Marry me,” Bryan whispered.
Her inner space went supernova. “Dr. Landry. I never thought you’d ask.”
*****
Now:
It’d be like threading a needle with a string that only lasts a breath. Adry stood slowly, feeling adrenaline throb in her veins.
“You flew in a straight line after that fight with Bryan. You flew straight to a human world when everyone knew better.” Her heart beat hard against her chest. “You told them where to look. You sold Holton to the Overseers.”
Mich reached into his holster and pulled out the gun. “Too bad,” He sighed, and put a round in the chamber. “Now I have to find another way to get Miller to let me back in. I mean, I could live without the SF now, but the boss wants me back in and it’s not like I can tell him ‘Eat me.” The good humor left Mich’s face. “He will.”
“What did they give you?” she slid her hands through the muck, touching an algae covered rock. Just small enough to hide in the sleeve of her jacket.
“Bryan. But they were supposed to give me you, too.”
“That’s why it kidnapped me.” She said, calmly, slowly rising. “To get the enzyme and then hand me over to a fucking mass murderer.”
“I got nothing to do with the renegade or its plans. Our plan was, they hit the village you and Harris were taking Bryan’s masterpiece to. I rescue you and go home with open arms…except the renegade shot that in the ass. Now I have to come up with another one. Also…if you put it together, Miller already knows what I did. So you’re just going to vanish, and the universe’s going to move on. Same as it did for—”
Adry threw the rock.
It caught him on the temple, a beautiful arch that sent blood flying like rubies through the twilight gray. She dropped the things she’d been carrying and booked it, jamming the button on the Overseer’s com unit over and over again. Would it come for her? She could only pray that it would. Bullets whizzed past her head, splintering the trees nearby. Phosphorescent beetles glowed on the tree bark at eye level. One of them was turned to mush by a nine millimeter bullet. She slipped, got back up. Soon, she was going to die. Mich would find her, she—
“Here! Doctor!”
She turned. Galina stood at a twisting tree, her feet planted on firm ground. Adry didn’t need any more prompting than that. She reached for friendly hands and took them, let them pull her up onto safety.
“The Overseer said—”
“Just run.”
“Yes. To the village. This way.” Galina pointed down the path. Well worn, camouflaged by the swamp. Maybe Mich wouldn’t find it. Maybe--
A gunshot. Galina screamed, and there was red flowing down from her shoulder. Spurting, as if it were an artery hit. She collapsed, and Adrienne went with her. Galina was down for the count, her shoulder at a terrible angle. Adrienne couldn’t leave her, she was done with that. No more running from the broken bodies that needed her. Mich climbed onto the path, looking perturbed. She gulped for air. Galina’s life flowed out between her fingers.
“Bye-bye, Dr. Parker.” He shouted, pointing the gun. “It was nice…” he froze, lowering the gun as if it had been lit on fire.
The Overseer loomed behind them like some demonic entity. Its coat was mud splattered from the haste of its journey, and the black mask over its face couldn’t obscure the hateful sneer on its lips. “You.” It whispered.
“She’s part of the bargain that got you people Holton. She’s mine.” Mich’s voice rose in terror.
“I know you.” The monster breathed. It was as if something had hit the alien hard enough to hurt it. “I know your face. I…” and it turned to Adrienne, and then back to Mich. Confused and…no, no it couldn’t be frightened. Could it?
Mich surged forward, grabbing Adry’s hair and digging the gun into her temple. “She’s got the enzyme, and that’s what you want, right? You want the formula, and I want her. We’ll do this the easy way.” He twisted his fist in her hair, making her scream. “Tell it to him, and you’ll live long enough to get off this hell—”
The punch of an Overseer was hard enough to break bones, and Adry was pretty sure she heard two of Mich’s ribs give. He went sprawling, gun skittering off into the water. Blood dripped down his chin. Punctured lung. Adry felt vindicated. He looked up, dazed, as the Overseer stepped between the two of them.
“You…” its words seemed to come from across a huge gulf. “You gave them Holton.”
Them. The word resounded through Adrienne’s psyche. So did the shocky note in the alien voice. No, she thought. No, no, it wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible… Mich slowly crawled away, moving faster, then faster still. He pulled another gun from a holster and fired it twice, bullets going through the Overseer’s leathers. It didn’t seem to feel the strike to the shoulder. The lower shot made it grunt, but it didn’t stop coming. Mich fired at its head. Two bullets lodged in the face mask, finally making the Overseer pause , its vision blocked by broken carapace. Mich scrambled to his feet. Blood trickled down his lips and nose. He fired one more shot, getting the Overseer in the leg, and then ran as fast as his damaged body could carry him into the swamp.
Galina was bleeding out between Adry’s hands. The monster was breathing heavy, too. The torso shot must have hit something important. Blackish blood dripped across the moss. Black on green. A much better combination than the red spilling out of Galina.
It removed its ruined face mask and threw it to one side. The alien device was swallowed whole by the swamp.. Don’t turn, she willed it. Don’t show me. Don’t. Please. Don’t. Let my world continue as it was.
But prayers like that are never answered.
It turned.
*****
Then:
“What happened?” Adrienne had a hand to the bleeding soldier’s neck. Weak pulse. Weak breathing. Pale as hell. He was just barely here, hanging on by his fingernails.
“We went on a mission to Foster. Got a bead on a few POWs, we thought maybe we could break them out. Only they met us there. It’s like the fourth time we’ve gotten bad info from that contact.”
She ripped his shirt open and exposed a raw, ooz
ing wound in the center of his chest. “Oh my god.”
“He got fed on.” The team leader looked shaken.
“Okay. I need an IV and a crash cart prepped, I need—” she rattled off a long list of requirements, equipment, drugs that she’d found useful in treating first stage feedings. “How long was he fed on?”
“Half an hour.” The team leader said.
She stopped. “What?”
“It took us time to break in, we moved as fast as we could, but the thing started chewing on him before—”
“Was he on the enzyme?” Adry asked, her heart pounding even harder.
The team leader nodded.
“Okay.” She grabbed one of her nurses. “Get a scanner, get a nanite registrar.” She couldn’t help the excitement in her system. “And then call Shawn Miller. Tell him that the enzyme got tested and our man is still here. Okay?”
“Do you want to tell me what’s going on, Doc?” the soldier asked.
“First stage feeding only lasts one minute. Totally draining a body takes fifteen. You are absolutely sure he was fed on for thirty minutes?”
“Yes.”
She couldn’t help but grin. “Okay. If we can get your friend through this next hour, he should be okay. Get him to the ICU.” She said to her team. They nodded and rushed off, the soldier jogging after. Seconds later, her communicator beeped. Shawn Miller. She answered it.
“Adry, what the hell is going on?”
“Bryan’s legacy, sir. It works.”
*****
Now:
Blood from Galina’s shoulder spilled over Adry’s fingers. I can’t afford this, she thought. It’s going to kill her. But she couldn’t move. Galina might die, and for right now, this minute, it did not matter. Because the monster had turned to her without its mask, and the face it had hidden so long was Bryan’s.
Four eyes with off-white irises and milky pupils. Skin pale as snow white paper, shark teeth, high cheekbones, a nose with four slits for nostrils. How anything in that alien expression could be human was beyond her, but it was Bryan. The eyes were confused, she thought, but also horrified. He knew enough to know this moment was terrible.
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