No Middle Ground (Spineward Sectors: Middleton's Pride)

by Caleb Wachter

  But it seemed that wherever she went, people behaved the same and treated her as an outsider—or worse, like some sort of freak who should be pitied.

  That thought nearly brought tears to her eyes—tears of anger, not sorrow—but she successfully fought against them as she finally arrived at the main door to sickbay.

  Entering the ship’s medical station, she saw Doctor Middleton standing beside the same boy from the shuttle ride which had brought her to the Pride of Prometheus. They made eye contact and the boy smiled at her as he spoke to the doctor, and Lu Bu noticed the two Lancers stationed nearby with their eyes pinned on the young man. Only after a second glance did Lu Bu realize the boy was wearing what looked like thick, metal gauntlets which were obviously some kind of elaborate handcuffs.

  It seemed the boy had just exited one of the many pieces of scanning equipment found in the ship’s sickbay, which was as well-appointed as any hospital Lu Bu had ever visited.

  She ignored the boy’s expression and strode purposefully toward the doctor, who she greeted after coming to a halt at a respectful distance, “I was wondering,” she began, and though she tried to do so she was unable to completely ignore the boy sitting on the sliding cot connected to the scanning device. Jutting her chin out, she continued, “I was wondering if Doctor Middleton has time for our meal?”

  The doctor looked up over her glasses and nodded. “I’ll just be a few minutes here.”

  Lu Bu nodded. “I will wait,” she said, making her way to a nearby chair and sitting as gently in it as she could manage. Finesse and delicacy had never been strong points for her; she was just as likely to smash a mirror in anger as to check herself with it.

  These thoughts only served to remind her how very unlike these other women she was. The doctor, with her pristine lab coat and perfectly arranged hair, conducted herself with a degree of composure which Lu Bu knew she would never exude.

  “It is good to hear you using first person pronouns,” the boy said in a raised, but measured, tone in Confederation Standard. “May I assume you have selected a name for yourself?”

  Lu Bu narrowed her eyes and did her best to pointedly ignore the boy while stealing occasional glances from the corner of her eye. His face was pleasant enough in appearance, and he was of medium build for her world—which was to say he stood several inches shorter than her.

  But his height was the least of his physical shortcomings; he seemed to have little, or no, regard for his own physical fitness. A sixteen year old boy should have wiry muscles, but this boy’s arms lacked definition. Thankfully he was not overweight, but it was painfully obvious that he had little athletic ability—and even less desire to remedy that particular flaw.

  The boy sighed. “I suppose your reluctance to speak with me is to be expected,” he continued in Confederation Standard. “I am a prisoner, after all,” he added with a pointed look at the Lancers.

  Lu Bu snorted derisively. “You left our home world with clean start,” she said evenly, “but you are only criminal. One cannot fight one’s nature.”

  The boy raised an eyebrow in amusement. “A strange sentiment to hear you express,” he quipped, and Lu Bu realized her faux pas as soon as he had rebuked her. Here she was, casting aspersion on another based on their past, rather than their present. “In any event, you are likely more correct than you know,” he sighed. “I am what I am and it seems nothing can change that.”

  “Enough chatter,” the nearest Lancer snapped, prompting the boy to raise his hands compliantly and bow his head. The Lancer gave Lu Bu a reprimanding look, and she felt herself redden beneath his gaze.

  Doctor Middleton returned bearing a data slate and gestured for the boy to take a seat on a nearby bed. He complied, and after a moment the doctor turned to the Lancers while pointing at the boy’s encased hands. “Your Captain has ordered me to perform a full physical and psychological profile on this man,” she said pointedly. “It will be nearly impossible for him to answer the standardized PSI battery with these on.”

  “Sorry, Doctor,” the first Lancer shook his head, “I have my orders from the Sergeant: the prisoner is to be treated as an imminent danger to the ship. The cuffs have to stay.”

  Doctor Middleton shook her head and rubbed the bridge of her nose, prompting Lu Bu to wonder why the older woman wore glasses at all. There were no vision impairments which were better treated with glasses than via state-of-the-art microsurgery—at least, none which she knew of.

  “There is more than one way to contain a threat, mister,” she said irritably as she pointed to a nearby window. “The hyperbaric chamber is completely isolated from the ship’s systems, and can be flooded with anesthetic gas if he becomes combative or self-destructive. I will have one of my assistants monitor him, and we will assume full responsibility if he misbehaves.” The Lancer looked hesitant, but the doctor placed a hand on her hip and shook her head condescendingly. “Or do I need to call the Captain and see if he approves?”

  The Lancer, still clearly torn, shook his head as he motioned for his partner to approach. The other Lancer pressed a sequence of buttons built into the gauntlets’ wrists and the portions covering the boy’s hands withdrew into the wrist sections, and Lu Bu found herself wincing at the sight of the boy’s fingers. They were slender and decidedly less than masculine in her view, and she heard herself snort faintly under her breath.

  “You have my thanks, Doctor,” the boy said, accepting the slate and glancing at it before sighing.

  “That test should take you a few hours to complete,” Doctor Middleton said, gesturing for the boy to enter the hyperbaric chamber. He did so with a gracious nod, and after he was inside she closed the hatch behind him. There was just enough room for him to sit up inside the cylindrical, pod-like device, and he leaned against the curved window as his fingers began to fly over the slate with a speed and grace which Lu Bu had never possessed.

  The doctor went to one of her subordinates and exchanged a few words before turning and gesturing toward Lu Bu. “Shall we?”

  Lu Bu nodded, and after leaving sickbay they headed down to the crew’s mess. A few minutes later, they each had a platter of food, which they took to one of the corner sections and sat down.

  “Duck…again,” Doctor Middleton said sourly as she ran her fork through the thigh section of her portion. “I’m glad for the fresh protein, but a little variety would be nice.”

  Lu Bu cocked her head slightly, knowing that on her world duck was one of the finer native protein sources. “Duck is very healthy; it is sign of much respect that you are supplied with so much from my home world.”

  Doctor Middleton sighed. “I suppose you’re right,” she agreed as she took a bite.

  The two women sat in silence for several minutes as they consumed their meal. When she was nearly half finished, Lu Bu asked, “What is ‘standardized PSI battery’?”

  The doctor looked up in confusion for a moment before realization dawned. “PSI stands for ‘Psychological, Social and Intellectual.’ It’s a comprehensive test designed to get an idea of how his mind works.”

  Lu Bu nodded knowingly. “On my world we have like this, it is man-da-to-ry,” she sounded the word out slowly, feeling herself flush with embarrassment as she did so.

  The doctor shook her head adamantly. “That was perfect, Bu,” she said firmly.

  “Thank you,” Lu Bu muttered graciously. “Why you no use his records from my world?” she asked after collecting herself.

  The doctor made as if to answer before hesitating. “They were…lost somewhere between your government and here,” she explained, clearly hiding something.

  Lu Bu was unconvinced but she also had no desire to linger on the subjects of the boy or her home world’s government, so she merely nodded as if satisfied. Silence hung between them as they continued their meal for several more minutes until they had finished their meal.

  Looking down at her shoulder pointedly, Lu Bu said, “My arm is better, Doctor. You are very ski
lled.”

  Doctor Middleton drank the last contents of her cup before shaking her head. “Your arm isn’t quite healed yet,” she chided, “but even I am surprised at how fast your body heals. It’s really quite remarkable…I just wish it hadn’t been injured in the first place.”

  Lu Bu shook her head defiantly. “It was this one’s fault,” she said quickly. “Sergeant Walter Joneson ordered Lu Bu to stand down and she disobeyed; punishment was necessary.”

  Doctor Middleton gave Lu Bu a look which had far too much pity in it for her liking. “Bu,” she said gently, further raising Lu Bu’s ire by treating her like some kind of frail child, “you don’t deserve to get hurt like that, no matter what they tell you.”

  Lu Bu took a deep, cleansing breath before leaning forward and searching for the proper words. “In my world,” Bu began after thinking of an appropriate example, “before one is finished with medical studies, one must subject one’s self to deadly disease and experience real treatment—as unidentified patient.”

  The doctor sighed. “I’ve heard of these types of practices,” she said bitterly. “I find them barbaric, to be honest.”

  “Why?” Lu Bu asked with honest curiosity. “If one not understand something, how can one…” she searched for the word, “how can doctor treat suffering if doctor not know suffering?”

  “Even if I concede that point,” Doctor Middleton said, “what does that have to do with you getting abused by men like Walter Joneson?”

  “This one—“ Lu Bu began.

  “No,” the doctor interrupted pointedly, “it’s ‘I’.”

  Flushing from the collar up, Lu Bu nodded shortly. “I was disrespectful and disobedient. How can team function without respect, and how can I become team member if I not understand respect?”

  Doctor Middleton looked about to argue, but just then a short, balding man who Lu Bu recognized as Chief Engineer Alfred Garibaldi strode into the mess hall and clapped his hands together in obvious anticipation. “All right, what have we got here—“ he began boisterously but stopped short as he approached the serving line. “Aww, c’mon guys,” he groaned, “duck again?!”

  “Be grateful for the fresh protein while we’ve got it, Chief,” said the man behind the counter. “Supply’s not likely to last more than another week, then it’s back to the standard rations.”

  “I hate duck, guys; the things give me the green creepers,” he quipped before leaning in conspiratorially and someone with average hearing would have been unable to distinguish his words from Lu Bu’s location. But her hearing, like so many other physical attributes she possessed, was far superior to what most considered ‘normal.’ “Haven’t you guys got some pasta or something back there?”

  “Sorry, Chief,” the server replied firmly.

  The Chief sighed, “What I wouldn’t give for some of grandpa’s bagna càuda right now.” With that, he accepted the platter and made his way to the opposite end of the mess hall, where he was thankfully quiet.

  “I understand that we’re different, Bu,” Doctor Middleton said after she, too, took note of the Chief’s obnoxious entrance, “but I want you to understand that you should be treated like everyone else.”

  Lu Bu cocked her head in surprise. “Lu Bu…I,” she corrected, “am not like ‘everyone else’.”

  “I don’t believe that for a second,” the doctor retorted with a hard edge to her voice that Lu Bu had never heard from the woman. “Everyone has different gifts and abilities, but those gifts shouldn’t define who we are if we don’t want them to.”

  Lu Bu wanted to retort, but she was simply unable to find the right words—which only served to increase her frustration as she warped and bent her thin, metal platter between her thick, powerful fingers.

  Clearly seeing her frustration, Doctor Middleton held up a hand. “I’m sorry if I offended you, Bu,” she said as she withdrew a data slate from her pocket and slid it across the table, “maybe you’d be interested in this?”

  Lu Bu reached out and snatched it from the doctor, only realizing she had done so in anger after already taking it in her hands. She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath as she set the slate down and bowed her head in apology. “I am sorry, Doctor.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” the other woman said warmly. “I couldn’t find the original language version in the ship’s library,” she said apologetically with a shake of her head. “I suppose these military types don’t much care for the classics.”

  Lu Bu silently reprimanded herself for her outburst before activating the slate and finding herself confused for several moments before realizing what she held in her hands and gasping involuntarily. “Doctor!” she exclaimed, her mood having reversed almost instantly. “Thank you!”

  “It was nothing,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand, “but that book is really quite large; it will probably take you a few months to finish it, especially since it’s not in your native language.”

  Lu Bu felt herself almost trembling with excitement. She could not believe that she actually had a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong, right there in her hands! This book had caused more upheaval and controversy on her world than any other, and was one of only one hundred eight works to have been officially banned by her government for its supposedly discordant effect on those who read it.

  She had actually chosen her own name from the pages of that book, since bits and pieces of the book’s content had been whispered among those of her generation, and Lu Bu sounded like someone with whom she could identify. But other than being a legendary warrior with a fiery temper, she knew very little about the man who had been named Lu Bu—a situation she was now determined, and able, to remedy!

  “Thank you, Doctor!” she gushed as she stood from the table with every intention of returning to her bunk so she could begin reading.

  “Not so fast,” Doctor Middleton said with obvious amusement. “I’d like to run another scan of your shoulder while I’ve got you.”

  “Of course,” Lu Bu nodded her head vigorously. She had never felt this excited in her entire life, and it was all she could do to keep from shrieking like one of those ridiculous girls attending a popular music concert.

  Feeling as though she was floating on a cloud, Lu Bu followed the doctor to the sickbay and flipped through the foreword of the book as she walked, stopping in her tracks at the first line and gaping in awe as she felt a chill wash over her body. “Long divided, must unite,” she muttered under her breath, “long united…must divide…”

  Those four words, spoken in two different arrangements, struck a chord somewhere deep within her and she began to understand why this book had been outlawed.

  She continued reading and barely noticed as she entered the sickbay, actually bumping into Doctor Middleton’s back as the other woman had inexplicably stopped in her tracks just inside the door.

  “Why did you take him out of the chamber?” Doctor Middleton asked irritably. “I haven’t even been gone twenty minutes.”

  The Lancer shrugged his shoulders as he handed her the data slate. “He said he was finished, so your assistant opened the chamber.”

  The doctor scowled and Lu Bu looked up from her slate to see Doctor Middleton’s eyebrows rise in unison as she flipped through the slate.

  “Is there anything else I can do for you, Doctor?” the young man asked respectfully, and Lu Bu saw that his hands were once again encased in the strange gauntlet-like bindings.

  Doctor Middleton was silent for several moments as she reviewed the slate’s contents before shaking her head. “I suppose not,” she said as she gave the boy an appraising look which put Lu Bu on her guard. “You can return him to his…cell,” she said with a wave to the Lancers as her eyes returned to the slate.

  “Thank you, Doctor,” the Lancer said before turning to the boy. “Come on,” he said, gesturing to the door, and the young man did as he was bidden. As he passed Lu Bu, the prisoner gave her a completely unsolicit
ed wink, which only served to infuriate her.

  Had it not been for the precious contents of the data slate she held in her hands, she might have smashed it over his presumptuous head.

  Chapter XVII: Disappointment

  “We’ve completed our scans of the planet, Captain, and the engineering teams have finished dismantling the communications equipment located on the colony,” Lieutenant Commander Jersey reported in his gravelly voice. “The orbital com-satellite has also been retrieved and is now stowed in the main cargo bay, per your orders.”

  “Thank you, XO,” Middleton said with a curt nod. It had been four days since their arrival in-system and subsequent attack by the enemy vessel, and Captain Middleton was ready to resume his duties. “Engineering,” he turned fractionally toward the crewman Garibaldi had assigned to the bridge, “prepare for disembarkation. We’ll make for the edge of the system before point transferring out of here.”

  “Yes, Captain,” reported the young woman before relaying his orders.

  “What’s our destination, Captain?” Jersey asked.

  Middleton made a last-minute check of his itinerary before forwarding it to the Navigator’s console. “Our mission is to patrol the border and seek out threats to Confederated interests,” he said in a slightly raised voice. “I’d say we’ve done a barely passable job of the first, and only slightly better at the second,” he said, fighting the bitterness which sought to suffuse his voice, “so it’s time we stopped moving around aimlessly like traffic enforcers and started acting like the honest-to-Murphy MSP that we are.” The corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk as he looked around the bridge at the expectant faces of his crew, “We’re going on a hunt.”

  “Orders received, Captain,” the Navigator reported. “Plotting our jump now.”

  “Good to hear, Captain,” Jersey said gruffly before turning to the rest of the bridge. “Secure from station-keeping and prepare to disembark!” he barked, a tad too loudly for Middleton’s liking but he made no mention of it when he saw the crew snap to their duties with a noticeably more confident spring in their strides.