Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4)

by Scott Rhine

  Red mumbled, “Great, for the next century, people will be watching this clip like that wipeout at the beginning of Wide World of Sports.”

  Lou was philosophical. “Hey, any crash you can roll away from is a good one.”

  Herk climbed into his pod first in regeneration mode. When there were no ill effects on the monitors, Risa programmed Yuki’s pod and climbed in her own. Once everyone was en route except Yuki, the nurse forced Mercy into bed. “Yuki will be returning tomorrow if Herk makes it through okay. Z didn’t want to risk more than one person in the experiment.”

  “Yuki volunteered to go first,” Mercy said.

  “Don’t make me tie you down, woman.”

  “That’s my line,” Lou said with a grin.

  “Then do your job, you lazy Englishman. A Frenchman would’ve had her in bed after dinner.”

  “Bah, the French cheat with wine,” he countered, chasing the nurse out and turning off the bedroom light.

  “I suppose no woman has ever been seduced by British cuisine.”

  He paused for a moment, floating in the control room next to her. “I’ve done wonders with Tandoori Chicken.”

  “That’s Indian, not British.”

  “We conquered them.”

  Sitting next to her husband in the receiving area to await the decontaminees, Pratibha said, “Tell that to Gandhi!”

  Lou held up his hands in surrender. “Even I can’t argue sex, food, politics, and religion at the same time.” Escorting Yvette to her guest room, he whispered, “Someone’s in a good mood.”

  “If the pod heals Herk, Auckland wants to go on the next mission to cure his hemoglobin condition. Besides, with the doctor and mayor both on call so much, they usually don’t get to spend this much time together. I’ll be behind the plate tomorrow to catch Yuki.”

  Lou said, “I hope it works. Mercy’s been praying and bugging the daylights out of Snowflake for hints.”

  Running his hand through his hair, the man looked like an underwear ad. Yvette had to shake herself to stop staring. Mercy was probably staring at his ass from the other side and thinking lustful thoughts. Empathy around women in love could be a dangerous thing. Auckland might even get lucky if Mercy kept broadcasting like this. Clearing her throat, Yvette asked, “Any new information?”

  Lou said, “Be sure to check Yuki’s memory when she gets back. Regeneration may bring more of it back.”

  Irrationally, Yvette glanced around looking for ways Snowflake could be spying. “Why?”

  “There’s weird things about her behavior we can’t explain. The other day, I took Mercy down to the orchard path to see the apple blossoms. We laid down some more tiles so her wheelchair could reach. It was the damnedest thing. The ladies saw this massive bumblebee, and Yuki went out of her gourd with panic. Mercy held the bee like one of her birds, pet it, and even gave it a kiss to reassure the woman. Yuki hyperventilated. She wouldn’t stop shouting about how the bees were out to get her. Auckland had to sedate her.”

  “Right. I’ll ask a few discreet questions,” Yvette promised.

  “You’re a dear,” he said, giving her a peck on the cheek before leaving.

  The nurse sighed at the thought of never having sex again, while her friend had a Norse god. For weeks, she had channeled her frustration into the hunt for the hidden Magi aboard the ship—with no luck there either. She’d checked every centimeter of Olympus and the tunnels. As a blind man, Lou couldn’t possibly have assembled the cutout warning. On a whim, she stopped him a few steps away. “Lou, you discuss philosophy with the others on the ship. Is anyone other than you a fan of Plato?”

  Lou answered on the bounce back to his room. “Just Z.”

  The answer staggered her.

  It fit. The commander was always quoting Sun Tzu and other classics to his students. Her secret ally was the husband of the biggest Magi proponent in the world. That explained the alias. If Red ever found out, she’d kick his butt.

  Excited in more than one way, Yvette couldn’t sleep. She refused to be a third wheel on Auckland’s date, so passing time with him was out. Yuki had switched her comm to ‘do not disturb’ in order to sleep. On duty, Park was a bundle of nerves as he waited for Yuki to come back to him. He radiated suppressed sexuality as well. Talking to him would make Yvette lonelier. Now that she knew Zeiss’ secret doubts, she had to steer clear of him too while Red was around. That left only Toby. She could sense his ache through the storage-room door. She couldn’t face him in that place, but she finally felt able to say some things to him.

  On the computer pad in her bed, Yvette wrote a letter to Toby—after all he had done. Even more bizarre was her inability to maintain the hate in the face of his daily penance. Damn that hormonal patient of hers. When it was complete, four pages and two hours later, she granted him permission to reply in writing, so long as he didn’t disclose their messages to anyone else. She signed the letter Persephone.

  ****

  Performing routine maintenance on the shuttle’s fuel distillery, Yuki was surprised to see the privacy light go on in her helmet. “Guys, I have a malfunction. I didn’t—”

  Snowflake spoke over her earpiece. “We needed to speak to you.”

  Flipping a latch to secure the airlock, she said, “You promised you wouldn’t touch us.”

  “We have an offer.”

  That’s never good, thought Yuki. These aliens were like the Yakuza—refusing was bad for the health. “Go ahead.”

  “Look on top of the launcher outside. Don’t take your helmet, or the others will see.”

  Paranoid, she faced the helmet away from her so that the computer didn’t see her movements. On the way into the cockpit, she grabbed the one-time pad cipher book and the special marker she would need to break a code. If there were more robots, she would write a message to the others. Above the shuttle, on the track to be hurled at Labyrinth, was a tea-colored cylinder about half a meter long. When she leaned forward to squint at the frills on one end, her breath caught. “Oh God, that’s an arm.”

  “That’s your arm, Yuki-Mercy-friend.” She could hear the computer over the cockpit speakers.

  She sat in the pilot’s chair to avoid hyperventilating. “How?”

  “You buried it. We used agrobots to retrieve and refreeze it within the hour.”

  “Why is it here?”

  “You need it if you wish to be fully restored. Without this appendage, your bone will grow as far as the elbow and stop. Even our tools have limits.”

  Become our tool, and we won’t destroy your only hope, thought Yuki. “What do you want in return?”

  “A few small things. First, pretend to forget everything about your encounter with the drones, and discourage others from pursuing them. Hiding the breadcrumbs you leave takes too much of my resources. Second, to prove you’re keeping your word, your new arm will have chips imbedded in the fingernails like Mother Mercy.”

  “I won’t betray my friends,” Yuki insisted, returning to the cargo section. On one side of the thin paper, not much bigger than a Post-It note, she wrote, ‘Yuki and Mercy bugged by Snowflake.’ To cover the sound, she said, “I’m not that person anymore.”

  “Silence is not treason. Third, you have not fully analyzed or explored the impact markings in the great lake.”

  “I can’t delete the data,” she protested, flipping the small sheet. On the other side, she scribbled, ‘Magi secrets in Meteoropolis.’ If she affixed her own name, no one would trust it. Remembering Yvette’s secret helper, she decided to sign the message Plato. “I can’t crack Sojiro’s encryption system to erase the puzzle either.”

  “Do not try. Merely avoid examining the data. Procrastinate and dissuade others from looking.”

  If she left the note visible to helmet or ship’s cameras, Ascension might mysteriously crash. Stuffing the entire code book and pen inside a switch box, she used a power tool to screw the box shut again. The switch wouldn’t work when they tried to power the device on, and
whoever repaired it should find her warning.

  “If I turn down your offer, you’ll throw my arm into space?”

  “It would be necessary to hide evidence of our discussion.”

  “You don’t think people would believe me?”

  “If we reset you completely to your baseline sample, you would theoretically have no memories after entering Sanctuary. We would try to be selective, but humans have never undergone this operation before. You would likely return to the traitor you once were, with pieces missing. Would your friend Park like that? Would you even speak to him . . . if you could still speak?”

  Yuki pushed the emergency transmission button on the wall. Feedback filled the room until she was forced to deactivate the channel back to Olympus.

  “We need you to choose,” said Snowflake.

  “I’ll do it,” said Yuki. Then I’ll hunt down your core so I can burn it out with this laser. You just threatened the wrong woman.

  As she retrieved her arm from outside, Yuki mourned the damage, dirt, and blood splatters. Her flesh had been ill-cared-for, and she could see fresh incisions where the tracking devices had probably been inserted.

  As she walked toward the waiting pod, Snowflake cautioned her, “Place it in its former position against your shoulder. Tell no one of our discussion.”

  Chapter 22 – Proof

  The next morning, Risa waited beside Yvette in the access tube to the showers. When Herk appeared in his Speedo, he held up his perfect, pale arms. “Look, the burn scars are gone, but I kept the tattoos.” He’d been worried about the Magi healing those scars as well. The couple hugged. Soon after, they left to get his gear and ran home to the Hollow for a celebration.

  The appointed hour for Yuki’s arrival passed with no news, Park poked his head in every fifteen minutes for the first few hours. Eventually, Yvette told him, “The indicator on the shower says she’s only one-third done. Auckland and I will take turns waiting until she arrives.”

  On the third day, Auckland was in the showers prepared to assist her. All Yvette heard was Yuki’s weakened plea for water. She had to be starving after all this time.

  Silent, Park paced, gripping a bundle of flowers and a muffin. He swayed a bit, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot.

  Yvette asked, “Are you feeling all right?”

  “Sorry. Lou kept saying another beer would help the anxiety.”

  “How many have you had?”

  “All of them.”

  “What are you afraid of?”

  “If she has her arm back, she might leave me for someone better. She’s amazing.”

  “Sit down before you fall down, you idiot.”

  Park did so. With nothing to burn off nervous energy, he ate the muffin and looked guiltily at the wrapper. Rolling her eyes, she pocketed the garbage so he wouldn’t have to leave to recycle it. To distract him, she asked about the rover.

  “Red already has the first three days of scouting preprogrammed with that team. They did soil samples first. Rachael needs to know about rock composition for building self-sustaining shelters. Toby wants to know about micro-orgasms.”

  “Organisms,” Yvette said, correcting the drunken drive designer.

  “Whatever. They can’t wait to go down to the planet surface. It’s all any of them talk about on the Iwo Jima team.”

  “Iwo Jima?”

  “The beachhead. Since Herk passed his physical today, he’ll be on for certain. He’s the one who named it. The whole construction team so far will be: Herk, Risa, Toby, Oleander, Nadia, Rachael, and Johnny. Red and Zeiss will deliver them and the camping supplies. We’re not sure of the details, but they’ll need to take several trips to unload everything.”

  “But we don’t even know where they’ll be breaking ground.”

  Park shrugged. “Z put Rachael in charge of planetfall. Once Lieutenant Eliezer knew the environment, she already had shopping lists for our storehouses and fabricators.”

  “Red said that scouting will take months.”

  “It will take that long to construct the tents and—”

  Yuki emerged from the shower, damp and glowing with joy. Her skin was flawless, and her left arm was completely restored. “What’s a girl have to do to get a bite to eat around here?” Tired but sparkling with happiness, her eyes met Park’s. He scooped her up and twirled her around, dropping the flowers in the process.

  When she could speak, Yuki said, “I missed you, too.”

  With a frantic edge to his voice, Park said, “Don’t leave me alone like that again.”

  She scanned his face and inhaled. “You’re drunk.”

  Yvette said, “And insecure about a woman who won’t commit.”

  The nearly naked Japanese woman stroked Park’s cheek. “Fine. You wore me down. I’ll take your damn name. Now let’s raid the pantry for a snack and then go back to our room.”

  “Give her plenty of clear fluids, broth and tea,” Yvette suggested.

  “Don’t you want your clothes?” Park asked as Yuki dragged him up the ladder.

  “Tomorrow.”

  The nurse shouted after them, “Merry Christmas!”

  Auckland emerged from the shower stall a moment later. “Miracles.”

  “The body was obvious. Any improvement in her memory?” asked Yvette.

  “No. If anything the wall of white, as she calls it, has become more solid. The mind protects itself from pain.”

  Or the Magi protect themselves from snooping, Yvette thought. What she said was, “You’re wiped out. Lie down in my bunk for an hour then head home to Pratibha with the good news. I’ll clean up here and file the paperwork.”

  “Thanks,” he said, taking her up on the offer.

  After completing all her duties, she still had several minutes left in her shift. When Yvette checked her e-mail, she found a long reply from Toby. In it, he reiterated his love for her. She read it three times: the first as his victim, the second as his potential therapist, and the third as the woman who had offered herself to him so long ago.

  It was the second role who replied to Toby in a chat window. If he was so eager to resume active duty on Labyrinth, he would need many therapy sessions to requalify. Since there were no other psychologists on board to help him, she would be willing to work with him to begin that process.

  “I don’t want to go,” he answered. “Zeus has forced me into the underworld.”

  “Why don’t you want to go? You’re an astronaut,” she asked.

  “You won’t be there.”

  “We can still speak,” Yvette wrote.

  “Can we?”

  “The others will need to know you’re staying balanced so you can take care of them. I owe that to the crew.”

  “Then I look forward to our talks,” he wrote, “for the crew’s sake.”

  ****

  Yuki and Park intended to have a wedding ceremony in the barn, but the bees in the ceiling bothered her too much. Instead, they opted to recite their vows on the saucer’s patio. With equipment for a possible landing hogging every available fabricator, Yuki had to make do with her golden kimono for the ceremony. She hid her left hand in her sleeve because the fingers on the repaired arm sometimes rippled like seaweed in the tide. Auckland cleared her for duty because the electrical disruption only happened under extreme emotional stress. With therapy, the doctor assured her that even this side effect should fade.

  Still, it took four weeks to coordinate all the schedules. The best man, on the shimmer-armor team, was working around the clock because the control circuits would turn to blue smoke almost at random.

  Referring to herself as a beach ball in a wheelchair, Mercy was the matron of honor. The doctors said she could safely deliver any day, whenever Stewart decided to arrive. In a formal kimono, Sojiro looked more dashing than the groom. Only Nadia failed to attend. The new couple spent most of Yuki’s hazard pay on thin wedding rings, as well as punch and cake for the reception. They had nothing left for gifts to each other or
even furniture. For that reason, the Herkemers made them a round, rattan chair, and the Zeisses purchased a large cushion for inside.

  Risa said, “We learned a lot about Yuki up in the shuttle bay. She’s not afraid of hard work, and she doesn’t give excuses. I respect that. We hope the two of you are happy together for long past this adventure.”

  Yuki bowed in thanks. Coming from Risa, that meant something. The team had accepted her just in time for her to become a spy again. She stared at the well manicured fingernails on her left hand and wondered how often the Magi listened. The gift of the Magi had been a sham, a weapon in disguise. Would history books call her the Trojan Whore? She grieved at how easy it had been for data about the meteor impacts to slip between the cracks in all the wedding excitement. No one suspected her of burying something they all needed to know. When she wiped away a small tear from her eye, everyone assumed it was out of gratitude.

  Sojiro presented the couple with a memory stick. “When Hurricane Nadia hit, one of the things Park lost was his personal data directory. He asked me to salvage what I could. It took me a while, but last night, I finally managed to recover some of the data. I’ll need the memory card back after you load it on your pad, but I think this is what you were looking for.”

  Park accepted the stick reverently and then ran from the patio into the saucer.

  “Where’s he going? The party’s not over yet,” Yuki demanded.

  “Give him a moment, and he’ll show you,” Sojiro told her.

  While they waited, several people complained that Toby had been hogging rover time to sample every new plant they encountered. “We’re covering half the terrain we could be,” Red griped.

  The nanobiologist defended himself. “When we land, you’ll all want to know what’s edible, and Johnny will want to know the plant nutritional values. A catalogue of half the plants, animals, and insects could take decades for the whole team. Getting everything would take several lifetimes. I’m also confirming the presence of minerals that Yuki only suspected. With all these volcanoes, obsidian could be a major resource like it was for the Mayans. By mapping this now, we’ll be able to live off the land sooner and relieve some of Sanctuary’s burden. Our goal is a self-sustaining, long-term observation post. Sometimes working slower now means we’ll be able to go faster later.”