“They still haven’t finished running all the diagnostic tests,” she pointed out.
Counselor Twa-zlan Kieg, a tall, thin Kaprinian with rare, bright orange eyes, rose to his feet, “We don’t need more tests.” His voice was bitter. “We know who is responsible for this.”
“No, we do not know,” Ka-were interrupted, giving Kieg a look that made him resume his seat. “There is no proof, just vague rumors.”
Jak wished he could sit down; his legs were getting tired. “Excuse me, but I don’t really understand what you’re talking about,” he said finally.
“It is believed that some of the Sclarians have been working on a sub-ionic disruption emitter. That is a compressed beam of sub-ions used to overload ionic fields of any kind including gravity generators on starships and our own dikes,” Led-franere explained. He would have continued detailing the specifications of the emitter but Ka-were raised a hand.
“I’m sure he has the general idea,” he said. “Ja-ka-thon, what we want from you is to keep your eyes open and your antennae straight. In your position you will have the opportunity to come into contact with a number of different people. You will report anything you find to Co-Lanen.”
“You want me to be a spy? Look, why would the Sclarians want to build such a thing? They don’t need weapons like that. They’re a relatively peaceful race,” Jak protested.
“They are ignorant tregells,” Counselor Kieg said with a sneer. “Your association with humans has made you weak.”
Jak smiled, “Tell that to my boss. She’s tough as a Cassopian linglebird and about as mean.”
“We don’t know any of the answers right now. Just keep alert,” Ka-were commanded. He glanced around, “Is there anything else we need to tell him?” No one said anything. “Very well, you are dismissed. Co-Lanen will be your contact for any further information.”
“Yes, sir,” Jak replied, following Co-Lanen out the door. She led him back toward the elevator in silence. His heart began to pound when she stepped through the doors with him.
Sucking in his breath, Jak reached over to press the button for the first floor. Her cool hand on his stopped him. As he turned his palm over to grasp her fingers,
Co-lanen pulled her hand back.
“Please don’t,” she said in a soft voice, avoiding his eyes.
Leaning against the back wall, Jak asked, “Many injuries in the flood?”
“So far two dead and fifty injured when the Delflie Court section collapsed. A few other injuries here and there. Three people are missing.”
“Need any help?”
“A Valerian Search and Rescue Team is on the way.”
“Which team, do you know?” Jak asked. He kept his eyes on her face but she wasn’t making eye contact.
“I believe it’s Bedden Gel’s team.”
Jak nodded. “Good. He’s the best. You’ll want to start mass vaccinations as soon as possible. You don’t want a phinotheria epidemic. I’ll see if we can get some of the Pasteur people down here.”
Co-Lanen finally looked at him and smiled. “ We would appreciate that.”
The elevator doors slid open.
Co-Lanen turned to him, whispered hastily, “I need to talk to you but not here. Meet me tomorrow night at seven, Halzen Court.” She stepped out.
“Why not tonight?”
“Can’t. Conferences tonight,” she hissed at him. “Be there please, Jak.”
The doors slid shut. Jak was left staring at the blank spot in front of him with his mouth open.
Chapter Thirteen
Aurelia had that satiated feeling of a job well done as she stepped into the elevator. The Aguanian would recover with full use of his tail. And she felt capable of talking to Chief Rekhaan for at least a few minutes.
The Pasteur’s control center looked back to normal except for the middle section of computers having its guts peered into by several engineers. Rekhaan left his post to greet her.
“We have 95 percent of our systems back on-line,” Rekhaan told her.
“What about communications?”
Shaking his head, Rekhaan replied, “We have local coverage only. From here to the planet.”
“I don’t like that.”
“I know.”
“Have you figured out what happened?”
Rekhaan sighed and sat down on the arm of his chair. “We have several theories but nothing is definite.”
“Like what?” Aurelia demanded.
“It had a number of similarities to Hanson’s Anomaly but we would all be dead if it were. There is some evidence that it originated from Jidal IV.”
“Meaning what?”
“It might not be a natural phenomenon.”
Aurelia’s comm-link beeped. It was a page for her to report to Governor Arnott’s office.
“Let me know what you find out, Rekhaan,” Aurelia instructed the chief. She headed in the direction of the space station.
What did Arnott want now? She could hardly wait for communications to get back on-line so she could talk to her scheduler and get out of here. Passing through the busy outer office, Aurelia paused in the doorway to Arnott’s office. A long table had been set up in the middle of the room. Around it sat Arnott, Renner Conlin, Captain Zelan, Althan Tahk, Dulan Aric, Arnott’s secretary, another Jidalian and two Sclarians. Aurelia felt a slight tic begin in her right eyelid.
“Come in and sit down, Doctor,” Arnott said, waving her inside.
The only seat left was one next to Zelan and across from one of the Sclarians. He was the skinniest Sclarian Aurelia had ever seen. He seemed to make up for his lack of girth by wearing jewelry. Flashy, red, green, and purple pseudo-Nova stones in varying sizes covered his nose and earlobes. A huge yellow brooch in the shape of two entwined Cellian snakes, that were supposed to be biting each other but merely looked like they were burping, ran diagonally across his chest, connecting two ends of a brown, furry cape from some creature that had gnawed holes in itself before giving up the ghost. Thick bracelets which appeared to have been cut out of three-hundred-year-old rusty tin cans ran the length of both his arms. He gave Aurelia a grin which revealed more stones set in his teeth.
Arnott started passing out computer hand terminals. “If you’ll press the A pad on your terminals, you’ll see the agenda for this meeting.”
Under the first Roman numeral on the screen, Aurelia read: Apology to Freighter Captains for Illegal Detention. She looked up and caught Arnott’s eye.
“I object,” Aurelia said. “this is an internal matter. There are people in this group who are not GEM Co. employees and therefore should not be privy to this meeting.”
“Your objection is duly noted, Doctor.” Arnott replied. He turned to Conlin. “I believe you have something to say about our first topic?”
Conlin leaned forward, his fat spilling onto the tabletop. “I’ve talked to the three captains who are still threatening to drop their contracts. Their version of what happened is this...”
As the arbiter droned on, describing the incident in the locking of the governor’s office, Aurelia pulled out her comm-link and typed in a page to Millie. She had a strong feeling she was going to need someone on her side.
“When I and Captain Zelan arrived,” Conlin continued, “the door was sealed. Dr. Aurelia and two of her subordinates were running around the halls. She was finally persuaded to unseal the door then left us to deal with the justifiably angry captains. I believe a formal, public apology from Dr. Aurelia is in order.”
Aurelia folded her hands in front of her to prevent them from throwing something at the fat head of the arbiter. “First of all,” she said looking into Conlin’s eyes until he dropped them. “The Dulan requested that I come to this office. When I arrived, he was under a barrage with no sign of Governor Arnott.”
“Harrumph,” escaped from the governor’s lips.
Ignoring him, Aurelia continued, “Under section 57A of the
company’s handbook,” she turned her head to glance briefly at Zelan, “You may look that one up, Captain, I have absolute authority under a full quarantine. I felt the situation was highly volatile and took the steps necessary to ensure that our investigation was not compromised and that it could be completed as quickly as possible.” That sounded good.
“I vote she doesn’t have to apologize,” spoke up the skinny Sclarian. He grinned again at Aurelia.
Aurelia glared back.
“I still question the wisdom of making this a full quarantine for a minor thing like box pox,” Zelan put in.
Aurelia rolled her eyes, “You’re still harping on that?”
“It is not minor to us,” said the Dulan, his residual gills beginning to flap.
“It just doesn’t make sense to shut down an entire space station for...”
Arnott cleared his throat. “The fact of the matter remains that we have some unhappy customers.”
“I vote she does have to apologize,” said the Sclarian.
Aurelia clenched her fingers tighter.
The door slid open to admit Millie, looking fresh and well rested. Smiling, she breezed in. “Hello, everyone. I’m sorry I’m late.”
Arnott and Conlin looked confused. Althan Tahk jumped up and offered her his seat. Millie accepted graciously with a smile and a “How are you feeling, Than?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” the Kaprinian replied.
Millie sat halfway down then got up again. “I could use a cup of kanic. Anyone else want one? Aurelia, I know you do.”
She didn’t but maybe she could dump it in Zelan’s lap.
Both Zelan and the Sclarian decided they wanted kanic. While Millie busied herself at the kanic dispenser and Tahk fetched another chair everyone else remained quiet.
“Here you are,” Millie said, putting a cup in front of Aurelia. Millie gave her a questioning look with two raised eyebrows.
Aurelia shook her head.
Nodding, Millie passed out the other cups and returned to her chair. “Now we can get back to business,” she said, flashing the governor a brilliant smile. “What were we talking about?”
“We were discussing the freighter captains who may be dropping their contracts with us due to being illegally detained in this office,” Arnott replied.
“Well it really was for their protection and ours,” Millie shot back.
Aurelia silently cheered. Millie could always be counted on.
“How do you figure?” Conlin asked.
“With that wemrat loose and all. It could have been carrying all sorts of diseases.” Millie had what Jak liked to call her head nurse expression on her face, similar to the expression teachers used with small children. “We’ve been through a number of quarantines like this and the best thing to do is control the situation as completely as possible. You can point out that they were not detained for very long and that the whole thing took less than twenty-four hours.”
Arnott and Conlin held a whispered conference for a few minutes.
“Very well,” the governor finally spoke to the group. “Are there any suggestions to rectify this problem?”
Aurelia glanced at Millie then leaned forward, turning her head toward Arnott, “I think a formal apology would be in order.”
Arnott scrunched his eyebrows together, “I thought you didn’t want to apologize?”
Putting her chin on her hand, Millie jumped in with an innocent, “Oh, I think GEM Co. should issue some kind of statement.”
“A statement from the governor’s office explaining the whole situation would definitely clear the air,” Aurelia added.
Millie nodded, “They’ll be expecting something from you.”
“But...I...”Arnott started to splutter.
Aurelia pressed on, “ Most people only recognize the governor’s name anyway.”
“They expect the man in charge to take full responsibility,” said Millie. “And rightly so. That’s why GEM Co. picks men like you, Governor.”
Arnott and Conlin had another whispered conference. The governor mopped at his sweating face with a handkerchief. “All right. We will issue a formal statement from this office. Arbiter Conlin will do what he can on an individual basis with each freighter captain. Let’s move on to the next item on the agenda.”
Conlin looked suitably martyred. A round of applause was apparently in order from his expression but no one clapped.
Millie gave a slight tip to her cup in Aurelia’s direction. Aurelia nodded her thanks. One round won. She took a sip of kanic. She didn’t like the sweet maple taste but the hot liquid was soothing to her nerves.
“As you all know our communications are down,” Arnott said. “We haven’t determined the cause yet but whatever it was burned out all the ion emitters in the communications center. Without those emitters we have communications only from here to Jidal IV. Gar, I believe you have something to say about this?” Arnott motioned to the skinny Sclarian seated across from Aurelia.
The Sclarian clambered to his feet with a loud jangle of jewelry. “I am Gar,” he said, smiling around at everyone.
Apparently that was all he had to say.
Captain Zelan rapped his knuckles on the table. “Do you have an emitter we can use?”
“Ah, an emitter, yes. Umhmmm. Very necessary objects. I was once on a mapping mission of the Quantani star system and we ran into an ion storm. Burnt that emitter into a little blob. I told Captain...”
“Are you saying you have an emitter or not?” Aurelia interrupted. She pressed her hand against her aching forehead.
“Have one? Oh, yes, we have quite a nice assortment.” He chuckled. “A hold full of ‘em. Well, not all emitters, roughly half, actually probably one box stuck somewhere. Don’t worry we’ll find them.”
“If it’s a matter of payment...” Conlin began.
“Payment!” Gar looked offended. “No, no, no, Arbiter. I wouldn’t think of taking any money, not from GEM Co. I remember one time being trapped on an outpost for three weeks, my shuttle was pretty well mangled and they rescued...”
“That’s very nice. I’m glad you got off,” Aurelia said, wishing he had stayed there. “When can we get the emitter?”
“Get the emitter? Bit of a problem, quite difficult, well, really you can’t.”
Millie threw a sympathetic glance at Aurelia then asked
Gar, “May I ask why?”
“I am Gar.” He paused.
Aurelia’s head was going to explode if he didn’t get on with it.
“What about the emitter!” Aurelia was not quite sure if she or someone else, perhaps everyone else, in the room, had shouted that.
“Being Gar means I’m second-in-command. I have no authority to release those emitters. Very sorry, well, slightly regretful, frankly who cares?”
“Where is your captain?” Conlin asked with a sly look at Arnott that made Aurelia wonder if he already knew the answer.
“My captain? In jail. I think, I heard possibly, in fact I know, you put him there, Doctor.” Gar looked very satisfied.
“I put...!” Aurelia began to protest then light dawned. “The guy with the wemrat. Can’t you just give us the emitter?”
“Can’t, orders, at least there’s a general policy against it, I just don’t want to. If you would release Captain Danin, I would be happy, well, willing to give it to you.” The bristles around his mouth quivered.
Feeling her face flush, Aurelia lost control of her tongue though she did manage not to shout by gritting her teeth together. “He broke the law, you little runt of a one-pig litter!”
Gar was the first Sclarian she had ever known to let an insult pass unnoticed. He smiled. “Then I guess you’ll have to wait until someone comes along with one, hang out for one, molder around is more like it.”
“Very well, Gar,” Aurelia gave up.
“Governor, I’m willing to drop charges on Captain Danin,” Aurelia
continued. All she wanted now was a new destination for the Pasteur, preferably millions of light years away from Davis.
Clearing his throat, Zelan interrupted. “Slight problem. The charges have already been filed with the I.G. Court on Mars. Captain Danin is on his way there on the Minotaur.”
Aurelia threw up her hands. “Since when did we get so efficient?”
Gar got to his feet, motioning to his companion who had sat silently the whole time. “It was nice meeting you all, well, interesting anyway, actually, quite boring. Good bye.”
“Hold it,” said Millie.
Gar folded his arms across his chest creating a small discordant symphony in the clash of bracelets.
“Let me talk to GEM Co’s security commander. I’m sure he can cut through the red tape for us,” Millie suggested.
Gar motioned to his companion and they both sat back down. “Very well. We will wait.”
Clearing her throat, Millie stuttered, “Ummmm, I’m going to need the...thing...the emitter so I can call the commander.”
Gar and the other Sclarian got up again. “We will return with the emitter.” They walked out.
“I’ve got patients to see to,” Aurelia announced, scrambling to her feet and out the door before Arnott or Conlin could say anything. Millie was right behind her.
When they were out of the governor’s wing and on the way back to the Pasteur, Aurelia blew out a breath of relief.
“Is it just me or was that all extremely odd?” Millie asked.
“It isn’t you,” Aurelia replied, as she tried to massage the tension from her neck.
“What was Althan Tahk and those Sclarians doing there for the first part of that meeting?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. And if Conlin and Tahk are supposed to be negotiating some kind of deal, why aren’t they doing it instead of meddling with station matters that Arnott should be handling?”
Millie shook her head. “I don’t know. Everything’s been kind of weird since we got to the station. Have you eaten,” Millie interrupted herself. “besides junk food that is?”
Millie always worried about people eating properly. They were nearing Davis’s commissary from which a delectable odor was emanating. She thought it was chicken soup but it was hard to tell with lingering fire foam dampening everything. Stomach rumbling, Aurelia recalled having eaten a Razo bar a long time ago.
Shadows In Still Water Page 9
