by S. L. Viehl
My scanner showed an elevated level of arutanium in his blood, and hundreds of minute fragments of the alloy embedded in his shoulder and hips. I also found traces of it in his bones, teeth, and hair. “You should be dead, Games Master.”
He chuckled. “You’re reading the metal inside me, I take it.”
“Yes, and there is enough inside you to build a few drones.” I had never examined a living being with such levels of the poisonous alloy. “Your accident could not have caused it to leech into your bones.”
“That happened before I was flattened.” His blue eye gleamed. “I became immune to arutanium while I worked in the mines. Breathing in the dust all day does that to you, if it doesn’t kill you first.”
To build up that kind of resistance would have required an extended exposure under extreme working conditions, perhaps for years. “How often were you exposed to the ore dust?”
“For the entire length of my enslavement in the mines.” He closed his eye. “Or, to be more precise, five standard years, eight months, fourteen days, ten hours, and six minutes.”
I set my scanner aside and use my penlight to examine the crater where his other eye should have been. There were odd calluses around the edge of the smooth socket. I found more just like them on his temples and the bridge of his nose. “Do you wear something over your face on a frequent basis?”
“I use a welding shield when I work on the drednocs. “ His eye shifted as he studied my face. “Your eyes are dark blue. I had thought they were black, like your hair.”
I rolled him onto his side, and immediately wished that I hadn’t. So many healed lash marks crisscrossed his back that it appeared corrugated. A dozen small craters dotted the vicious scars indicated where chunks of his flesh had been torn out. Here and there were raised, shiny stripes that appeared to be healed burns.
He had been beaten, repeatedly, almost to death. I had never seen anything like it.
I tried three times to speak before the words came out of my mouth. “How was this done to you?”
“The mine guards favored pulse-spike whips,” Drefan said. “They’re ten feet long, made of flexible alloy cable, and barbed with four-pronged metal orbs. They can be programmed to deliver an adjustable charge through the length of the cable, if a slave deserves extra punishment.” He moved his shoulders. “I usually did.”
I blinked the tears out of my eyes and began to scan the length of his spine for nerve, tissue, and bone damage. “I thank you for explaining it to me.”
“I warned you that I wasn’t pretty,” Drefan said as I sniffed and checked the alignment of his cervical vertebrae. “Don’t cry, Cherijo.”
“I am not crying. I am only a little congested.” I rested a hand on his shoulder as I tried to control my emotions. “I was a field surgeon during a war. I have seen the violence that men can inflict on each other, but this . . .” I stopped and took in a shuddering breath. “Did they punish the ones responsible for abusing the miners?”
His voice went soft and flat. “Not enough.”
A week later I had finished the examinations at Mercy House, and had only one more to perform at Gamers. I had found no trace of the Odnallak or the skin thief among those I examined, and the days I spent working passed without incident. Cat told me that they had never gone so long without a colonist disappearing or a skin being found, something that was rapidly improving the mood around the domes.
“I’ve received dozens of signals requesting appointments to see you,” he added as he escorted me to the air lock on my way to Gamers one evening. “People think you’re doing something to keep the shifter from taking more skins.”
“If only I could take credit for that.” I took my case from him and shouldered it. “I hope you are correcting their assumptions.”
“I’ve tried.” He glanced at the drednoc waiting to take me across the access way. “I haven’t seen Reever since the raiders tried to grab your ship.”
I had been sharing my time between the two domes equally, but Drefan insisted I spend my nights at Gamers. Reever remained there to supervise repairs to the scout and practice in the sparring simulator, but despite the nights and days I spent there, we barely saw each other.
Reever was avoiding me.
My husband rose and left our rooms before I woke, and rarely returned until I fell asleep at night. I waited up for him, several times, hoping to talk and settle the argument over the chameleon cells and Marel. Reever simply left as soon as he saw that I was awake.
Now I offered Cat the same excuses I had been telling myself. “He has been busy working on the ship and practicing for the fight.”
Cat’s dark eyes narrowed. “What fight?”
“A simulation. It is something Drefan wishes him to do.” I wished I could confide in Cat. Still, Reever’s debt to Drefan was nearly settled. I would not jeopardize that. “I must go. I will return in the morning.”
The drednoc accompanied me through the access way to Gamers and left me at the air lock. I thought it was odd that the battle drone never used the same entrance as I did, but perhaps Drefan had it go to where he kept his other drones.
“Good evening, Cherijo,” Keel said as I came out of biodecon. The Chakacat had made a habit of meeting me whenever I returned from Mercy House. “Drefan wondered if you were able to finish the exams of Mercy’s staff.”
“I was.” I took out my datapad. “All I have left is Tya.” I looked up. “I have time to perform one more exam. You can send her to my lab now.”
“Now.” Keel looked uneasy. “That could be a problem.”
“Keel, Drefan wished me to examine his entire staff. Yet he continues to stall me when I ask to see Tya. If he does not wish me to check her, just say so.”
“It’s not that.” The Chakacat looked around before lowering its voice. “We keep her in a secured area, and Drefan doesn’t like to let her out often.”
“I can examine her there, if you wish,” I offered, mimicking its tone. “Only tell me first why we are whispering about her.”
“Drefan,” it said, as if that explained everything.
More of his games, no doubt. “Take me to her, Keel.”
The secured area turned out to be a modified detention unit, hidden in the back of one unused section of a storage area. Keel held me back as it opened the door panels.
“Inhibitor webbing,” it said, pointing to the energized mesh filling the entry. “Tya, I’m bringing the healer in to see you.”
No reply came from the dark room.
“I will need some lights,” I told the Chakacat as it deactivated the webbing and pulled it aside. Cool air washed over me as I entered and Keel enabled the cell’s overhead emitters.
The Hsktskt lay on two berths that had been welded together to accommodate her ten-foot-long body. She wore a thin white tunic and a modified skirt that covered her lower limbs and tail. Alloy restraints held down her other limbs. She appeared to be asleep.
“Stay here.” Keel moved a little closer. “Tya, the healer has come to check you.”
Two lids retracted from a yellow eye as big as my face. “It is not time to fight,” she said, her voice scraping out of her throat.
I saw the dryness of her skin and the dark depressions under her eyes and around her nostrils. “Why is she so thin and dehydrated?”
“I don’t know. She has food and water.” Keel gestured to a prep unit that had been installed in the cell. “Although, to be honest, I’ve never seen her using it.”
I went over to check the unit. “She’s not using it.” My skin shivered with delicious pleasure as frigid air poured down on me from an overhead vent. Such low temperatures could be lethal to Hsktskt. “This cell is too cold for her.”
“They think it controls me,” Tya said, and ripped the restraints from one arm, and then the other. With a few more jerks she was able to free herself and roll off the berth. I watched her rise and touch the back of her neck. “Like the straps. And the food.” She bent, shaking, an
d braced herself against one wall.
Her frame appeared very thin for a Hsktskt.
“Keel, get her some water. Now.” I put my medical case on the berth. “Sit down before you fall down, Centuron.”
Tya did so, and the berth creaked. “I have no rank, warm-blood. Did the cripple not tell you so?”
“The cripple does not talk a great deal about you.” I took out a scanner and passed it in front of her chest. She was at least seventy-five kilos lighter than she should have been, and her stomach and digestivesystem were completely empty, explaining the gauntness of her form. “Why are you starving yourself?”
Tya opened her mouth and displayed triple rows of sharp, serrated-edged teeth. “I don’t want that food.”
“I suppose I can install a feeding tube in your gullet.” I took a syrinpress, dialed up a massive dose of reptilian nutrients, and infused her with them. I looked over at Keel. “Have you programmed that unit for a Hsktskt diet?”
The Chakacat brought a server of water to me. “Yes. That’s all that’s on the menu.”
I offered Tya the server. When she didn’t move to take it, I said, “I can also start an IV, if you like.”
She took the server, drank the contents in one swallow, and handed it back to me. “Leave me.”
“I must examine you.” I glanced at Keel. “Would you wait outside, please?”
Agitation made the Chakacat’s whiskers twitch. “Healer, I do not think that is advisable.”
“If she intends to harm me,” I pointed out, “she will do it whether you are here or not.”
Tya lay back on the berth and closed her eyes. “The warm-blood is safe with me, little cat.”
“I’ll be just outside here if you need me, Healer.” Keel left with great reluctance.
As I scanned Tya, I studied her outward appearance. Even the Hsktskt rogues on Vtaga, who rarely had enough to eat, had not been so emaciated.
“Why do you not eat?” I asked her. Before she answered,I added, “If you will not tell me the truth, I will recommend to Drefan that we put you on a feeding tube.”
She didn’t look at me. “The food here is repulsive. “
“I agree, but for now there is no alternative to synth.” She didn’t respond to that. “My knowledge of Hsktskt cuisine is limited, but if you do not care for what is programmed on the prep unit, I can ask Keel to—”
“Vegetables.”
I frowned. “What about them?”
“I eat vegetables and fruit,” she said gruffly. “Not synpro.”
I had never heard of a Hsktskt who did not eat meat. “Did your former owner refuse to feed you protein?” She remained silent. “Very well, I will have Keel program the unit to provide fruits and vegetables.”
I continued the exam. Her scale coloration was unlike any I had seen on Vtaga, extremely plain, with none of the distinct shifts and whorls in the color patterns that represented Hsktskt bloodlines. She had far too many white scales as well; almost half of her body had no color at all.
I considered the few causes of such abnormalities. “Have you had dermal pigmentation therapy?”
“No.”
I saw no signs of scarring, burns, or skin grafts. Her hide was, in fact, in pristine condition for a femaleof her age. “Was one of your parents an albino?”
“No.”
I took a step back from the berth. “Why is your hide so white?”
Air snorted through her nostrils. “Because if it were black, I would be a Ghint-polyt.”
I checked the scanner’s display, and found her vitals to be textbook Hsktskt norm. Given her weight loss and dehydration, that seemed unlikely. She was certainly not a Ghint-polyt reptilian, or she would be mostly black and inarticulate.
“Drefan told me that Davidov sold you to him just before he quarantined Trellus,” I said. “Did you know of Alek’s plans to blockade the planet?”
“Alek,” she said, snapping her teeth over the name. “The scum that walks and talks like a male.” She sat up. “Why do you think he would confide in slave meat like me?”
“I thought perhaps you overheard something while you were on the Renko,” I said.
“Nothing you would wish to hear.” She studied me. “I have seen you before, with that Terran who moves like an arena slave. He is the one I am to fight.”
“Fight, yes, but not kill.”
She made a contemptuous sound. “If he steps onto the grid, I will make him wish he were dead. He is not like me. He has a choice. He is a fool for accepting the match.”
The self-loathing in her words startled me. “You do not want to fight him? Why?”
“Ask the cripple; this is his doing. My desires no longer matter, warm-blood.” Tya rolled over onto her side, presenting her back to me.
I wondered if Drefan was using the match between Tya and Reever for some other purpose. “Tya, if Drefan transmits the match between you and my husband to the rest of the colony, will Davidov be able to monitor the signal?” She didn’t answer. “He’s already monitoring every transmission from the colony. He would have to, in order to jam them.”
The Hsktskt said nothing, so I passed my scanner over the back side of her body. The display brought up the image of a foreign body lodged inside the back of her throat, just below her brain stem. “You have an implant in your neck. Is it a locator beacon?”
Tya rolled over to swat at my scanner, her claws missing it only by a fraction of an inch. “Leave me alone.”
I glanced down at the image. “It’s just under the surface of your hide. I can give you a local anesthetic and remove it now.”
“No.” Tya pushed herself off the berth and began circling the room. “He modified it with an extraction code that can be entered only from a device he carries.”
“I do not need a code to extract it.”
She gave me an impatient look. “If you or anyone tries to remove it without deactivating it first from Davidov’s remote, it will release a cache of poison. I will be dead before my body hits the floor.”
I didn’t have time to respond to this shocking revelation, for a moment later a familiar voice called to me from outside the detention cell.
“Doc, what the hell are you doing in here? I had to practically blast my way into this place to see you.” Mercy walked into the cell. “I know you’re busy finishing up, but Kohbi finally cocooned. Cat and I were worried that . . .” She stopped speaking and moving, and stared past me.
Keel came in and took hold of the female Terran’s arm. “It’s not what you think, Mercy.”
Wide, disbelieving eyes shifted toward the Chakacat. “Are you telling me that I’m imagining that Hsktskt over there?”
“No, but you don’t understand, she’s—”
“Mine.” Mercy shook off Keel as if it were an annoying insect and started toward the berth.
I stepped between her and Tya. “No, Mercy.”
“There is a Hsktskt lying on that berth behind you,” she said in a pleasant tone, “and I’m going to kill it. Give me a knife and get out of my way.”
“Let her come,” Tya said, sounding listless.
“See?” Mercy gestured. “She wants me over there. Step aside, Doc.”
“You can’t do this.” I put a hand against her shoulder. “She’s ill.”
“All the more reason to let me put her out of her misery.” She tried to push past me, glanced down at my hand, and laughed. “Cherijo, you are not seriouslythinking of keeping me from slitting her throat. Tell me you’re not that dense.”
“I would see you try, Terran,” Tya said.
“You,” I said to the Hsktskt, “shut up.” To Mercy I said, “She’s not a raider. She had nothing to do with the attack on Trellus. She’s too young.” When that didn’t get through, I added, “She’s nothing but a slave.”
Tya made a disgusted sound.
“In five seconds, she’s not going to be anything but a pile of young, dead slave.” Mercy again tried to shove me aside. “Look,
I get the whole oath thing. If you don’t want to watch, that’s fine. Step outside. I’ll tell Drefan you weren’t even here.”
“I would not go far,” Tya said to me as she sat up. “Your friend will shortly need your services.”
Mercy’s lips peeled back from her teeth. “Yeah, I hate mopping up lizard blood by myself.”
“I am not going to let you harm her.” I tried to think of a reason that Mercy would respond to. “She belongs to Drefan. He paid a great deal for her. She is his property.”
“I’ll reimburse him for his loss.” Mercy’s hands knotted. “I really don’t want to belt you, Doc, so I’m telling you, for the last time. Get out of my way.”
“This is boring.” Tya dropped back on the berth and pulled the thermal sheet over herself. “Wake me when someone wishes to fight.”
I took the syrinpress out of my tunic pocket and surreptitiously dialed up a dose of sedative. “Come out into the hall and talk with me for a moment, and then I’ll let you do as you wish.”
“No, you won’t. You’ll lock me out of here, and call Drefan, and have my ass hauled back to my dome.” Rage made her body and voice shake. “You’ll save her, just like you saved all the rest of them. Only this time no one is going to start a war, so really, what’s the . . .” She looked down as I infused her, and back up at me. Her eyes filled with astonishment. “You conniving bitch.”
“I’m sorry.” I caught her as she crumpled. “Keel, help me.”
Thirteen
Once I had summoned drones to take Mercy back to her dome, I left Keel to reprogram Tya’s prep unit and went to central control, where Drefan was monitoring several games in progress.
I did not bother with pleasantries. “Mercy knows about Tya. She came here to see me, and found me in the detention cell with her.”
Drefan rotated his glidechair to face me. “Mercy did not react well, I take it.”
“I had to sedate her to keep her from killing the Hsktskt.” My gaze shifted past him, to a screen showing Keel securing some inhibitor webbing. “But you already know that. Did you watch the entire confrontation?”
