Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4)

by Scott Rhine

  Red sat her back down. She whispered to her co-counsel, “Toby is deflecting on purpose. He’s struggling to hold back some admission, from the court or himself.” She asked the witness, “Why did you restrain her? What surprise would she spoil?”

  Zeiss shook his head violently and waved his arms to get the defendant to stop, to no effect.

  “I wanted to k-kill Lou-cifer over there.” He closed his eyes and clamped his hands to his head. Reliving the thoughts caused him to wail in pain.

  “But you didn’t,” Red pressed. “Why not?”

  “She said she’d sleep with me if I spared him.” Tears were streaming down his face. “We made a deal.”

  Noisily, Zeiss put his notepaper and computer pad away. She’d cracked Toby like a crab leg, and next she would pry out the meat.

  “You don’t call that duress?” asked Red, her tone deadly.

  “She loved me. She didn’t want me to have that stain. I loved her back.”

  “Yet you slept with Yuki soon after.”

  “Not pertinent to the crime,” Zeiss said. When his client ignored him, the commander walked toward the back of the improvised courtroom.

  Yvette turned to watch the new water wheel on the stream, a reminder that gravity couldn’t be stopped—at best one could redirect it.

  “I only tried to be unfaithful. I couldn’t. My body knew better. Then I made Yuki punish me for the attempt. We never had sex. I’ve never been with anyone other than Yvette. The happiest memory in my life was waking up beside her on our third day in that blasted cargo hold. The worst followed two minutes later when I realized my week of paradise was half over. The depression set in. I couldn’t sleep that night. I didn’t want it to end.”

  Yvette choked back an angry shriek. That had been her hell, and the man wanted people to feel sorry for him?

  Mercy had to lead her out to the stone corner where Zeiss stood.

  Red strolled up to the witness chair. “Was it worth it? Betraying your colleagues and your doctor’s oath?”

  Toby considered this. “For someone who stole a UN craft and started a war, you’re high and mighty about oaths and laws. If we’re ranking betrayals, mine doesn’t rate the death penalty.”

  “Argumentative,” said the head judge. “He’s leading you away from the question by baiting you, Red. The witness will answer the question as asked.”

  “You were all so easy to fool, I could have killed anyone, done anything, and everyone thanked me. It was easy and satisfying.” No remorse there. In TV dramas, when confronted, this was the “I’d do it again” ending. Everyone in the courtroom grew quiet at this admission.

  At last, Red spoke. “So the promise Yvette extracted was the only thing that saved us all.”

  “Nonsense. Only Lou was at risk.”

  “Did you have medication preformulated and measured to knock Mercy out?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “She was originally scheduled to work that shift, and she’d turned everyone against me.”

  Red leaned over until she was nose-to-nose with the accused. “Toby, you put someone you loved in a box. What would you have done to the people you hated and resented?”

  Mercy, whether from morning sickness or the revelation, retched. Yvette offered her a handkerchief, and Zeiss passed her a water bottle to rinse.

  “I visited Yvette every chance I got. I only put her in stasis because I knew that hiding my secret would hurt her.” He twisted sideways in agony. “Okay. I did it because I didn’t want to get caught. I didn’t want the week of fun to end.”

  “So you admit to imprisoning her for months against her will.”

  “Yes.”

  Yvette closed her eyes at the small victory.

  “Part of you had to know it was wrong. She wasn’t yours. She didn’t belong to you.”

  “Yes. I deserve to be punished for that.”

  Zeiss approached the bench as Red continued to hammer him. “You had sex with her after that?”

  Toby twitched.

  “Answer the question!” Red demanded.

  Zeiss whispered, “Gently, please. He can’t control it. Your mom had the same problem. She was admitted to an asylum for page-induced aphasia . . . twice.”

  “You can not use my personal information to vindicate this creep,” Red blasted.

  “Have a little patience. Nobody gave him a choice about this. We’re not allowed to ask Ethics recipients such personal questions.”

  “Boo freaking hoo. It’s a yes or no question. Did any part of you penetrate any part of her?”

  “Sometimes,” Toby compromised. “Mostly I told her my problems, and she made me feel better.”

  “Like your guilt about hurting her?”

  “Yes,” he admitted.

  “Did you let her sleep?”

  “I thought the chamber would help her rest.”

  “Tell us how the freezer functions,” Red ordered.

  Confident in an area of his expertise, the nanobiologist lectured. “When the aliens had us place Yuki in the chamber during her medical emergency, I observed that the stasis field dampens all bioelectric impulses, halting cell decay, bleeding, and thought. We don’t know how it works, but no actual cold is involved.”

  “So you knew that biologically and electrically, no time passed for Yuki when she was trapped in the chamber. The same had to be true for Yvette.”

  “Yes. I suppose. I didn’t put the two together.” His left eyelid developed a tic.

  “Because it would interfere with what you wanted. Sleep deprivation is a form of torture. You basically tortured her into having sex with you again.”

  “I-I wouldn’t say that.”

  “How would you define it?”

  He winced. Meekly, he said, “I tried to be nice to her. I fed her a few times. I even let her shower and did her nails.”

  Mercy whispered in Red’s ear. She in turn addressed the witness. “Speaking of nails, who scratched the letter R into your side?”

  “Yvette.”

  “Why?”

  He blinked several times. “You’d have to ask her.”

  “Why did you let her?”

  “I deserved the pain.”

  “Why?”

  He tried to dam his mouth shut, but blurted, “Because I hurt her after she escaped, so she wouldn’t warn Lou about the blinding. I bruised her mouth and right arm. I’d let someone beat me a hundred times to make up for that.”

  “Judge, let the record show admission to these charges as well, plus what he did to you.”

  “He’s somewhere in excess of thirty penal years already, but let’s focus on the rape charge for now.”

  “It wasn’t rape!” Toby insisted. “I wasn’t right in the head. I love her, and she knows that. She loved me back. She’s the only one who does.”

  “How do you know she loves you?”

  “We pair-bonded. You can’t force someone to do that against their will.”

  “You think she wanted to be with you for life in this twisted closet existence where she only woke to meet your needs? Or, did she infect you with Ethics in an effort to stop the abuse. In which scenario would she brand you with an R for rapist?”

  Toby doubled over in pain. “Somebody kill me,” he begged when he could talk again.

  “Proof of both his imbalance and regret,” Zeiss said, returning to the bench.

  “Do you wish to change your plea?” asked Lou.

  “Guilty,” replied the defendant.

  “Accepted.”

  Before Red could ask more questions, Zeiss prompted, “Sentencing, your honor?”

  “Evaluation will come first,” Lou said. “We’ll confine him in the Olympus storage area to sleep. It’s our only locked room. Dr. Baatjies, because of diminished capacity, the exact sentence length and terms of your service will be withheld until you are no longer a danger to yourself or others. Dr. Auckland, how long is that likely to take?”

  “We’ll
try drugs one at a time, starting with the antidepressants, because once he realizes what he’s done he’ll be suicidal. Each drug takes a minimum of two weeks to ramp up in his system before we can tell and then about the same to taper off. I can get him baseline functional with drugs in under a year. He won’t freak out every time we jump if we monitor his meds, but long term Yvette would need to help. He still needs rehabilitative counseling and help to integrate the Ethics page.”

  “Until Yvette agrees to and completes his treatment, Toby has no access to off-duty women. He can only visit women on duty with their consent, and then only with an armed third party present.”

  “This is outrageous. How can we function as a colony like this?” the mayor complained.

  “Better than if Yvette and I had ended up dead,” Lou said. “Next we’ll address reparations. Most of Yvette’s possessions were divided up when we thought she was dead. Further, Yvette can’t serve until she has healed. By contrast, as a doctor in high-risk zones, you will receive a luxurious allotment. To remedy this inequity, the court suggests giving her half your earnings and belongings, including insurance and death benefits.”

  Oleander placed a computer pad in front of Toby with a financial legal document displayed.

  “You’re not going to kill me?” asked Toby, sounding disappointed.

  “We can’t. You’re linked to someone we all love. If we killed you, she’d suffer.”

  “Will she ever forgive me?”

  “She might, eventually, if you demonstrate remorse and change. I won’t count on her ever touching you again, though.”

  Toby lowered his head. “I’m inextricably bound to the one woman in the world who hates me.”

  “Oh, I think we all do, Baatjies,” said Oleander.

  Chapter 6 – A Perfect Summer Day

  Two weeks under the iridescent sky passed rapidly for Yvette. At first, the daily rhythm of farm chores with Mercy felt more like a vacation than work. Then the stooping to plant more rice crops taxed her body. When her pregnant friend had to take one of her frequent breaks for fatigue and urination, Yvette asked, “How did all this get planted before we arrived?”

  “Sensei probably had robots do it, but now it’s our job,” Mercy answered.

  “Why?”

  “Maybe we needed to make one of the planners a food specialist, and the six we chose were all pilots and engineers.” Mercy shrugged. “I’ve also been reading about parenting, and they say you should never do something for a child that they can do for themselves.”

  The casual remark detonated something inside her like a land mine. Irrational anger flooded through Yvette. “Sensei is no parent of mine.”

  They worked the rest of that day in near silence.

  By the end of their time in subspace, Yvette had to collect the afternoon eggs because the smell of chicken manure or raw eggs made Mercy nauseous.

  On the first day in the new solar system, the two emerged from the cave together, and the glare of true sunlight beat down on them like a physical weight. “Do they have to get this close to the star?” Yvette moaned.

  “Unfortunately, yes,” said Mercy. “There aren’t any full planets in this system, so the nexus points are close to the fire. This blast is coming from just one open window. All the others are still shuttered. The biosphere is scheduled to heat up a little more each day. We’ll be able to open more shutters as we drift farther into space. Light cycles and temperatures will stabilize in about three weeks.”

  “What about the brutal sun for today?”

  “Not a problem; I grew up in the tropics. We just need hats. I’ll show you how to weave a straw hat out of saw grass or something.”

  “We’ll look like we belong on Little House on the Prairie.”

  “Better than sunstroke. Water-conservation measures kicked in today.”

  “Then you need to eat more fruit. Your body likes the vitamins, and it gives you extra fluids.”

  Mercy nodded. Gazing up at the new sky, she asked, “I wonder what they’re doing on Earth right now?”

  “I don’t know, but it probably involves lying, murdering, and stealing.”

  Taking her hand, Mercy whispered, “Are you having another bad day?”

  “No. I’m just wondering whether we’re doing the right thing, opening up the rest of the universe to our kind. We did everything we could to choose the best of the best for this mission, and we still brought the contamination with us.”

  “We’re not what we’re supposed to be yet, but we can get there.”

  The nurse held her tight, wanting to believe.

  ****

  After weeks of ranging to the far corners of Sanctuary for harvests, Mercy celebrated the removal of her hand bandage with a nap. Pregnancy and hard labor in the relentless heat had exhausted the young woman. Yvette suggested they hike the hills near the Hollow for a change of pace. The morning after their hike, Mercy woke her early at the women’s dormitory in the storage caves. Barefoot, she showed the nurse her red-spotted ankles. “I think its some kind of plant-induced rash. I’ve never been allergic to these things before.”

  “It’s the baby,” explained Yvette. “Your body is changing. You may heal more slowly as well. Stay here.” She retuned with a bottle of white goo and handed it to Mercy. “Squirt this on, let it soak for a few minutes, and then you can scrub off the plant oils.”

  The younger woman read the label. “They use this stuff for radioactive fallout.”

  “It has more mundane applications as well. Today we find some duty to keep you out of the weeds and me out of the heat. Maybe you could join your husband?”

  “No. He’s already in Olympus.”

  “An early day for him.”

  “Zeiss is an early riser. He needs someone to keep the telescope lens of the ship aimed at our next target, the Oblivion system, and my man has the smoothest touch on the controls. They’re getting as much information as they can before we arrive.”

  “About the planet the Magi want us to visit?” Yvette almost spit the term for the aliens.

  “Technically, it’s the fourth moon of the second planet. So far we know that planet B is a gas giant similar to Saturn. Sojiro already wants to name the parent planet Mongo after the home world of Ming the Merciless.”

  “I know this sort of thing excites you, but I’m still not ready to return to the command saucer.”

  “We could help Yuki in the barn,” Mercy suggested.

  The nurse was suspicious. Mercy kept trying to convince her to pray at the grotto, but Yvette was too angry—at Toby, the Magi, and God. “You mean chapel.”

  “No. They’re using it as a real barn for the upcoming winter. It has a roof now and should be cooler than the fields.”

  Reluctantly, Yvette agreed for her friend’s sake.

  They walked around the barn calling, but Yuki was nowhere to be found. Outside, bundles of mature grain were stacked in the sun to dry. Inside, the round, stone floor was flat and clean. From chest height up, the walls were lined with wide shelves, each labeled in white tape and neat, black calligraphy. Mercy hollered once into the structure, and Sojiro answered from a corner. He was dressed in striped, baggy, linen pants and a sleeveless, white T-shirt that would’ve been at home in The Great Gatsby. “She went to get more of my chalk from Olympus.”

  Mercy ran to hug him hello. He responded with theatrical cheek kisses, one on each side, but he kept his sooty-looking hands away from her clothes. “Careful, Momma Hen, I’m doing some charcoal sketching.”

  “You’ve decided on your first piece?” Mercy asked, excitedly. “Show us!”

  Yvette was jealous because the smallest surprise could cause her friend so much happiness.

  Sojiro led them to where he had his two-meter-tall smart-paper display of a photograph tacked to the wall. He was sketching his rendition of that giant image off to the right. “The theme is mythological representations of people in our party.”

  When Yvette circled to where she could
see the high-definition photo of the original sculpture, the breath squeezed out of her. A well-muscled, horned giant captured a fleeing, panicked woman from behind. The caption said, ‘The Rape of Persephone.’ In the sketch on the fresh plaster, the fleeing woman had her face. The picture could’ve been taken from her own nightmares. The Japanese artist had hit the nail on the head. She couldn’t take her eyes off it.

  “It’s rough. You don’t like it? I can change the angle. Or, I was also thinking of this one.” With a touch to the smart paper, the view changed to Apollo chasing Daphne with the same lustful intent. In this photo, the woman escaped by changing into a tree. “I love the original sculpture because the leaves are so fine that when you tap them, they ring like silver. They’re eternal yet fragile. That quality is hard to convey in a fresco.”

  Was she wooden and rooted in place now? Fragile? Or was she fighting tooth and nail against a malevolent god who forced her to imbibe part of his essence?

  The artist rambled on. “For you, Mercy, I have something really hot—Cupid and Psyche. Lou is the winged lover—you know, pilot and ladies’ man. She’s all innocent and cerebral.”

  “Wow,” Mercy said with a blush. “Is Cupid the blind one?”

  “Blindfolded sometimes,” said Sojiro. “He could only visit Psyche in her bedroom with the lights off. When she cheated to see his true form, he had to fly away. The gods made her perform feats like Hercules just to see that boy again, but she did every one of them because my girl was smart. Eventually, they had to make her immortal, too, so they could do it with the lights on in the middle of the Louvre. There’s a vent nearby so old ladies can cool off.”

  Mercy cleared her throat. “Are my kids going to be able to look at this?”

  “Girl, for centuries people are going to look at your drawing and say, ‘Damn, those two are in love.’ The magnetism between those faces makes you believe. I can shift it so that his wings cover most of your ‘naughty bits,’ as Lou would call them.” He turned the point of view slightly by moving his prosthetic fingers and thumb.

  “Lou probably has other names for them,” Yuki muttered as she stepped into the barn. The Japanese technician was wearing short-shorts, and her shirt had been trimmed to display her navel. The ‘Mary Ann’ outfit had started a trend among the women of the Hollow, whether to keep cool or maintain the attention of their men. Even Rachael wore her yoga outfit with tight, black pants and a look-at-me pink top. Johnny and Herk related the details of the contest so Lou could still make crude, appreciative comments. Mercy called these frequent drinking companions his seeing-eye dawgs.