Learning the Hard Way 2

by H. P. Caledon

  Prints... retinas... just how much did his body change when he morphed? How could he get to be four inches shorter?

  Keelan shook his head, deciding that those questions were to be answered later. He ran to the cockpit and checked the logs on everything that had to do with Mike and Andy. The logs said that Mike had been in a taxi with Andy, cleared by a guard from tower three, and driven to that very spot... time to go.

  Keelan double-checked everything and found a harness in the holding bay to strap Mike to the bed with. He then called in the window for departure and felt his palms grow even sweatier than during the landing of the prison transport. But it went smoother, and he plotted the course for Verion four—the only place he could really think of.

  He needed to think, so he entered Mike’s room and watched over him, calming his nerves by using his birthday present to make a new knife.

  “Where am I supposed to hide you while you get better, Mike? Unlike you, I don’t know anyone. You have family... you have a sister,” Keelan suddenly remembered. “But where. And what the hell is her name? Good reason for me to know more about you, huh?”

  Mike groaned and moved a bit.

  Keelan dropped his gear and knelt by the bed. “Mike?”

  “Only me. Only one man on Motáll. No backup,” Mike mumbled.

  “The hell you don’t have backup. Mike, you’re on our ship. We’re on our way to Verion four. You had surgery.” Keelan put his hand on Mike’s good shoulder and saw his eyes flutter halfway open. “Mike, it’s me, Keelan.”

  “Who? Only me on Motáll, no backup... just me.”

  Great, he doesn’t believe me!

  “Mr. Matthews. You’re at the hospital. We had to operate on your shoulder, and you’re going to be fine. We need to contact your next of kin. Who should we contact for you?”

  “Samantha Matthews, Kanakoon. Logistics manager on the freight docks.”

  “Thank you,” Keelan whispered and put his hand on his forehead. He was burning up, so Keelan changed the bandages that needed it plus the plastic and towels under Mike before he went to the cockpit and logged onto the lawmen’s network with Mike’s codes. It didn’t take long to find her. Just to be safe, in case his identity was known by more than just what seemed like every lawman in the Systems, Keelan changed to Andy again—with more ease than the first time.

  A pretty, blonde woman answered the VID.

  “Samantha Matthews?”

  “Yes?”

  “My name is Andy, and I’m a colleague of Mike. He was hurt on our last mission—”

  “Is he okay?”

  “Yes, he’s gonna be fine. I just promised to call and ask you if he could recuperate at your place for a week or so.”

  “Yes, of course. Is he here? Are you close?”

  “We’re on our way,” Keelan said, ended the call, and changed their heading to Kanakoon. That trip was almost three times as long as to Verion four, and it would take months if he didn’t star jump. He’d learned how, but he couldn’t do that with Mike strapped to a bed, injured. In their ship, a star jump felt like having the wind knocked out of you by a sledgehammer if you weren’t ready for it.

  Keelan felt his body tire and recognized the feeling as being in a shift. He focused on the bubbly sensation and let it take over. A few seconds later he looked at his hands, and they were his again.

  “Wow, you are so good at not changing. You once promised... but now you do it without it being the last fucking resort!”

  Keelan read what he could find on tending to wounds and almost collapsed from relief when he found that the best way to secure Mike was by putting him in cryo. That meant he could star jump and cut the length of the trip.

  He prepped the cryo-coffin, checked the tanks, and collected Mike.

  With Mike safely tucked in, Keelan began searching for a doctor on Kanakoon, thinking maybe Mike had his personal physician there. He wasn’t too happy about that, because the physician probably had to die afterward.

  Keelan searched the database for Mike’s physician and stuffed a cookie into his mouth as he pressed search. The result came up on the screen seconds later, and the cookie fell from Keelan’s gaping mouth, cracked in two from the impact with the console, and landed in his lap. He barely noticed, though. Instead, his focus was on a long list of mail between Mike and the Physician from Delta Zeich. There were even a few photos of the two of them together, where the physician almost smiled.

  “Is he the other prisoner?” Keelan finally exclaimed, unable to tear his eyes from the photos. “Tell me, just how well did the two of you get to know each other?”

  He moved forward and read the entirety of the emails they had sent to one another. Between the emails, there were a few from a lieutenant who’d suddenly become a lieutenant commander.

  Keelan looked at the addresses, and both the physician and the lieutenant were from Spec Edit twelve. When the lieutenant was promoted, they both changed to Spec Edit five.

  “I’m not an expert in ranks or anything, but from a lieutenant to a lieutenant commander is one hell of a promotion.”

  Something Mike had said resurfaced in Keelan’s mind.

  “With compliments from Spec Edit five’s new commanding officer, as a thank you for his help.” The more Keelan read, the more he thought that Mike and the Physician had become very close friends.

  “These are awesome choices you leave me with!” Keelan shouted. “Bounty hunters, military... the physician! You could have given me a heads-up!”

  Keelan got up and rubbed his head, frustrated. He noticed the cookie and cleaned it up before heading to the training room. There he worked the majority of his frustrations into the leather of the punching bag while cursing up a storm.

  Finally, too exhausted to be angry, he leaned his head against the bag and heaved for air.

  “A corpse onboard just isn’t good enough,” he whispered and left to take a shower.

  Once clear in the head again, he made a fresh cup of coffee and took a seat by the computer.

  “New mail... Dear Physician...”

  As soon as Keelan woke up the next morning, he ran to the cockpit to see if the physician had answered his mail. He hadn’t, which made Keelan restless. Restless enough to walk the ship with no particular aim in mind. He ended up in the holding bay, staring at Mike’s cryo-coffin. Had he misjudged the friendship between Mike and the Physician? Was the military hunting them now? Should he cut their signal and let them drift as a ghost ship?

  He decided against it, as he was pretty sure he couldn’t dismantle the necessary components without destroying something, and with a network as complicated as theirs and his lack of knowledge of both, he was inept, to say the least.

  He spent two whole days in his restless state, reading and watching the news from Motáll and every other corner of the Systems.

  And there was his picture. Big and colorful and accompanied by his rap sheet. That and a little too adventurous tale on what he’d done, could do, where he was probably staying at the moment, and what people should do if they saw him. The latter justified by laying out just how many lawmen he’d allegedly murdered. They weren’t far off.

  “Great! Now Ratkins is probably going to call!” Keelan turned off the VID and ran his fingers through his short hair.

  A beeping sound from the cockpit made him stop and look that way.

  “I hate it when I’m right! Maybe I should change into Mike? No, I’d need his blood, and for that, I’d have to reverse cryo.”

  Keelan went into the cockpit and turned off his cam before he let the call through. The physician thus stared at a dark screen on his end of the call.

  “Either you show yourself or I hang up.”

  “I’m a friend of Mike’s,” Keelan said. The physician didn’t look patient. “Are you alone? Is anyone watching this?”

  “No,” the physician said tiredly. Keelan activated his cam.

  “What happened?”

  “We got intercepted by a group
of lawmen, and one shot Mike. They were close to figuring out that he’d sprung me, so I had to take him from the hospital while still injured. He’s in cryo now. I didn’t think he’d want to go back to jail.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  “I looked for his physician. He said someone looked at what I damaged—”

  “I am Mike’s physician. Where are you?”

  “Where are you?”

  “I think you know that, Keelan.”

  “And you want me to give our position to the military.”

  “No, to me, but you’re right. I am on a military ship. But it’s either that or I have them lock onto you and then more people than I will be there.”

  “Can you treat him here?”

  “No, I’ll take him back to Spec Edit five.”

  “Can you fix a shoulder? They said it doesn’t work anymore.”

  “I can’t evaluate that from here.”

  “Okay. I’m taking him to Kanakoon. His little sister lives there—”

  “I know where it is. When do you land?”

  “Three weeks.”

  “Call me when you do, but do not take him out of cryo before I get there.”

  Keelan nodded, not sure whether he’d just dug his own grave. But Mike trusted the physician.

  How fucked up is that?

  The physician ended the call.

  Keelan tried to bury his thoughts in the plot of a book, but he couldn’t find any rest. He finally collected a pillow, a blanket, his book, and coffee, which he brought to the holding bay. He made himself comfortable on a seat next to Mike. There he managed to read—to the monotonous beeping indicating that the organism in the coffin was still alive.

  When landing on Kanakoon, Keelan used the same ID on himself that Mike had used on Motáll. He’d called the physician, who had promised to be there as soon as they landed. In the meantime, Keelan tried to keep his head occupied and not let his imagination run away with him. He packed a bag for himself and one for Mike and concealed a few weapons on his body—even a gun with child-friendly ammo.

  The VID in the cockpit beeped, and Keelan hurried to answer it. The physician tuned in at an odd angle.

  “I’m at your ramp.” The physician disconnected.

  Keelan snorted and ran for the ramp. As it lowered, Keelan saw that the physician had brought company. Two men were with him. Both were in uniform, and Keelan hoped he’d managed to school his expression in time. If not, he didn’t really care that much. Everybody knew by then that he really hated authorities.

  “Mike aired this idea to me,” the physician said and pointed to Keelan and the ship.

  “And, what did you say?”

  “That’s kind of irrelevant now, isn’t it? You’re here.”

  “And them?” Keelan nodded toward the two men.

  “They’re here to help move Mike. You don’t just haul around people who have just had surgery. If you want them to heal properly, that is. Close the ramp.”

  Keelan did, then followed the physician into the holding bay, where Keelan took a seat while the two men helped the physician wake Mike from cryo. The physician had a few syringes readied, and he injected Mike as soon as they could open the coffin. Then they moved Mike to a gurney so the physician had room to examine him.

  “Good thing you put him in cryo. He wouldn’t have survived without it. Get the transporter. We’re moving out now.”

  One of the soldiers left the ship, and Keelan collected the bags he’d packed. An hour later they parked in front of a townhouse.

  “Who goes first?” Keelan asked.

  “You do, you already spoke with her,” the physician said.

  “Well, not kinda... face to face.”

  The physician gestured to one of the soldiers, who left the transporter only to return half a minute later.

  “All clear.”

  They moved the gurney to the house where Samantha stood, looking lost.

  “No, he said a little... that Mike was only a little hurt. What is this? Who are you?” Samantha asked and looked at the physician, but the eyes she met made her back up into the house.

  “I’m Mike’s personal physician.” He walked past her, followed by the two men. Keelan shuffled in last, not too happy with the situation.

  “And you are?”

  “I fly with Mike,” Keelan said.

  “And this guy Andy?”

  “Shall we?” Keelan asked and stepped past the door so she could close it. Once she had, Keelan turned to face her. “Andy is dead because Andy shot Mike. Okay?”

  She did a mix between a nod and a shake of her head. Then she went to sit next to Mike and took his hand.

  “You said you’d take him to Spec Edit five,” Keelan whispered to the physician.

  “They’re on their way. We flew ahead. And I need to know something first. Something only Mike knows.”

  “Like what?”

  “This and that.” The physician got up and glared at Keelan who despite being several inches taller than the physician felt small. He stepped back and found a chair to sit in at a distance to give room. He really didn’t like that guy.

  The physician unwrapped Mike from the cover and bandages, and Samantha gasped loudly.

  “Samantha, maybe you should join me over here,” Keelan said while the physician looked up as if not understanding the reason for her reaction. She joined Keelan but kept her eye on what the three men were doing with Mike.

  “Why didn’t he tell me that Mike was hurt this badly?”

  “To not alarm you.”

  “And this isn’t alarming?”

  “Well, yeah... now. But the physician will take care of it.”

  “Is he really a physician?” she whispered and looked at Keelan with disbelief.

  Keelan smiled lopsidedly and nodded.

  “He should be a coroner instead, those patients don’t care.”

  The hours passed, and Samantha seemed too distant to do anything useful. Keelan had her occupy her mind by asking her to arrange for food and water, and they helped each other tend to the men tending to Mike.

  “Hello, Mike,” the physician said. “Welcome back to the living.”

  Keelan and Samantha bolted from their seats.

  “Sam?” Mike mumbled and blinked as if he had sand in his eyes.

  “Mike, how are you?”

  “Where am I?”

  “At my place,” she said softly and caressed his hair.

  “What? How? The bounty hunter... hospital?”

  “Andy’s dead,” Keelan said.

  “You didn’t follow protocol. You didn’t go back to the backup room.”

  “Yes, I did,” Keelan said. “But then I came back for you. They turned out to be a tad too clever. One of them knew Mathers, and now I’m all over the news.”

  Samantha snapped her head up and stared at Keelan until it finally seemed to hit her what he meant about that.

  “You’re the one who tried to kill Mike!” she bellowed and attacked him. Keelan was so surprised that he took several hits to the face, but he managed to keep his instincts from hitting back in check. Instead, he grabbed her wrists, spun her, and pinned her against his chest.

  “It is not a fight in the living room Mike needs from us right now,” Keelan said and bit down hard when she attacked his shins with her heel.

  “Stop!” the physician said and looked at her. She did. “Keelan, did you kill Andy?”

  “Yup,” Keelan said and dragged Samantha to another room. There he released her, but anger still flared in her eyes as she spun to face him.

  “You’re a murderer,” she sneered. “You tried to kill Mike!”

  “That one is complicated.”

  Samantha stopped and looked puzzled.

  “But you just saved his life?”

  “As I said, complicated.”

  “He never spoke of it. About Delta Zeich. Not to me.”

  “It’s not exactly a bedtime story... about the beauty of the F
rontiers and princesses.”

  She stared at him for a long time. “I want you out of my house,” she said quietly. “All of you. Especially that physician.”

  “That’s actually very understandable. He’ll take Mike back to a military ship.”

  “And you?”

  Keelan shrugged and left the room. On second thought, he made sure she did, too, because her calling the law was not optimal at the moment.

  Mike seemed clearer in the head as they joined them. “How did you persuade him to get me out?”

  “Persuasion,” Keelan said. “I’ll tell you everything... later. Right now, we need to figure something else out.”

  “Like what?” Samantha asked.

  “Something you’re not supposed to know about,” Keelan said.

  She glared at him defiantly.

  “Sam, he’s right, you shouldn’t know this,” Mike said.

  “He’s the one who almost killed you! And you want me to just leave?” she asked.

  Mike smiled awkwardly and tried to nod.

  “Fine!” she snapped and plopped down on a chair at the other end of the living room. The physician shooed the men away.

  “Mike, we have to split up so that I—”

  “Oh, you’re coming,” the physician declared, interrupting Keelan’s layout of a plan.

  “What?”

  “The lieutenant commander’s orders.”

  “Am I wearing a uniform?” Keelan sneered and got up. “Do I look like I take orders?”

  “You’ll take this one,” the physician said calmly. “For Mike’s sake.”

  “He already had me break one promise—”

  “To stay at the backup room?” Mike asked.

  “No, but a body onboard wasn’t enough for me. I promised you that I’d explain everything, but that will not happen while we’re on a damn military ship!”

  “Keelan, please,” Mike pleaded.

  Keelan sighed. “What’s gonna happen?”

  “He gets patched up by the state of the art medical treatment, and then the two of you have a chat with the lieutenant commander,” the physician said.

  “And then?”

  “That’s off my table.” The physician held a thingy against Mike’s shoulder that turned out to be able to show the inside of Mike’s shoulder. “Mike, you need to sleep some more. You’ll be administered an energy IV with a powerful sedative. When you wake up again, Lewis will be here.”