She looked angry and got angrier by the minute as she waved what Fee guessed was a diagnostic tool over Fiona's legs and pelvis and then studied the handheld for the results. With her elf ears, she looked like a furious fairy godmother waving a wand. A fairy who could kick ass just as easily as cast a spell.
Fee hadn't had to take off her clothes for the examination, and as the wand came near her chest, she suddenly remembered the Krik's encryptor sitting snug inside her bra, under her left breast.
She couldn't help the sound of distress she made.
She didn't know what Jasa would do if she found it, but it was the one small secret Fee had, and she was keeping it.
The encryptor had been hard-won and it was hers.
Jasa stopped, gaze flying to Fee's face at her reaction, and Fee drew up her knees and looped her arms around them, shielding the top of her body.
“Sorry.”
That was the truth. Jasa had done nothing but help her, but she wasn't risking anyone taking away her one sure way out of most locked rooms.
“What is it?” Jasa stepped back.
“I just . . .” Fee actually shuddered in a breath.
This is what she'd been reduced to. A quivering wreck at the thought of something being taken from her, and yet, the feeling was genuine and so strong, she felt swept away by it.
She tightened her grip on her knees and bowed her head.
Breathe in. Breathe out. That's all she had to do.
Eventually she looked up, saw Jasa was working calmly at a large screen in the corner.
The doctor turned. “Better?”
Fee shook her head. No way was she continuing the examination until she'd had a chance to hide her encryptor.
Jasa sighed. “What would you like to do?”
There was only one answer to that question. “Have a shower.”
The doctor stared at her. “A shower?”
“I haven't been allowed one for over two months. It would be . . . good.”
Jasa grimaced. “Fiona, I was told that you had been ill-treated by your captors, and I've been looking at the evidence of that for the last five minutes, but I can't believe I didn't think to allow you to shower and dress in something clean and comfortable before your examination and I apologize.”
She moved to the door. “Follow me and I'll take you to your room, and make sure you have what you need. When you're ready to continue the examination, you can call me.”
Fee slid onto the floor, looked down at the thin silver wand lying on a tray near the table. “What does that thing do?”
Jasa sighed again. “I should have told you that, too. It's hard to remember that you aren't one of us. It's able to register damage at the cellular level, so it can develop a comprehensive picture of all injuries. Once I've examined your whole body, I can come up with a holistic approach to your recovery.”
Fee nodded. She looked straight into Jasa's azure eyes.
She could not regret keeping the encryptor secret, and she had been nervous about the silver wand and hadn't enjoyed being examined while she felt grimy.
She decided her conscience could cope.
She followed the doctor down two short passageways, one guard going ahead of them, the other watching the rear, and Fee wondered if they could possibly call any more attention to her.
She sighed in relief when Pila deemed her room safe and she and Jasa stepped in and closed the door behind them.
“It's placing a strain on you. The guards.” Jasa's lips twisted in sympathy. “It's better to be safe, though.”
Fee wanted to ask what the Grih officer had tried to do to Rose, but her words dried up on her tongue as she looked around the room.
It was about ten times bigger than her previous cell; bed, table, chairs and a bathroom all clean and neat.
“Here is the refreshment station.” Jasa said, and touched the wall.
It lit up in a circle, and two doors slid open in the middle to reveal a recessed cabinet.
“There is cold water and hot water,” Jasa pointed to the taps, “and you can make grinabo and tep-tep.” She strode to another wall, touched the side of it and another circular area lit up and opened to reveal shelves. “There are some clothes here for you, and some towels. Please make yourself comfortable, and when you're ready, we'll continue the examination.”
“Thank you.” Fee took a step toward the bathroom.
“Fiona.” Jasa was standing by the door. “You have a head injury, and initial results are that your hip has been severely bruised. Get clean and have something to drink, but then I have to look you over.”
There was a thread of steel in the doctor's voice.
Fiona turned. Looked Jasa straight in the eye and nodded.
An expression flashed across the doctor's face. It might have been respect, it might have been pity, and then Jasa hit the button beside the door and stepped out.
Fee waited until the doors closed again, her eyes on the guards with shockguns at the ready, standing watch.
Her encryptor wouldn't help get her past them, if she needed to, but one step at a time. She had her get-out-of-jail free card, and she was hanging on to it.
* * *
Hal stood in the empty med chamber, his hand raised to tap his earpiece to contact Jasa, when she walked back in.
She stepped inside, flicked her gaze in his direction, and then walked over to pick up her handheld.
Barely suppressed fury radiated from her, and he could see the jump of a vein in her neck.
He waited.
“There are more bruises on her than I saw on Chel after the Krik attack.” Her voice was low. “And it's not just the bruises, it's where they are. She had to be on the floor for some of them. Kicked when she was down.” She lifted the handheld, tapped the screen, and a diagnostic appeared on the wall. “See here?” Jasa pointed. “Two fine stick fractures in her arm, four weeks old, to judge by the healing. She's lucky her hip isn't fractured as well, but as it is, it's seriously bruised.”
“And her head?”
Jasa turned on him. “I haven't got there yet. Which is the next point. She's traumatized. She had some kind of episode while I was examining her. I was going to intervene, but she has obviously developed her own strategy for dealing with it——by the looks of it from long practice. She went through some breathing exercises, got herself under control, and I decided any interference from me might have simply added to her distress.”
Jasa leaned back against the counter that ran along the wall, and Hal didn't think he'd ever seen her so openly affected. “She asked if she could shower and change before we continued the examination. Such a simple thing, but I didn't think to offer it. I'm not used to dealing with someone who's gone through what she's had to face. And when she started crying over Rose McKenzie——”
Hal held up a hand to stop her, his pulse suddenly racing. “She knows Rose McKenzie?”
He tried to think of the consequences of that, but Jasa was shaking her head.
“Rose was abducted from the same place on Earth as Fiona. They've never met, but Fiona said there were repeated comms about Rose's disappearance, and appeals for people with information to come forward. It reminded her of what her own family would be going through.”
Jasa's words stopped him cold. No matter how interesting he found her, until now, Fiona Russell had signified an interruption to his mission and a logistical problem.
But none of it was her fault.
He needed to adjust his attitude where she was concerned, find a little empathy.
“I broke the news to Admiral Hoke about finding Fiona, and I'm waiting to hear back as to how we'll proceed, but most likely we'll be continuing on, delivering Councilor Vilk to Larga Ways as planned. So she'll be with us for a while.”
“How did Hoke take it?” Jasa asked.
Hal snorted. “Badly. Rose McKenzie didn't exactly land among us without a ripple. Her arrival caused a tidal wave of change. Hoke's worried about the impact Fiona will have. But t
he fact that she doesn't seem to come with a Class 5 battleship in tow like Rose did makes her a little less worrying.”
“The Tecran must have kept her sedated.” Jasa looked over at the image of Fiona on the screen again. “She has no memory of her abduction. The Garmman trader is all she knows.”
Hal had been thinking about that. “The Tecran who stole Rose McKenzie didn't sedate her, but then they had Doctor Fliap onboard, in charge of scientific research, and he seems to have been a sadist. If the Class 5 that took Fiona had someone with higher principles, then it makes sense they kept her in some kind of suspended state. What I don't understand is why they took her at all, and then why they handed her to the Garmman afterward. If the Tecran had gotten her off their hands by giving her to the Garmman a month ago, when it came out that Rose had usurped the Tecran's control of their Class 5, then I'd understand it. They wouldn't want someone on their ship who could free the thinking system running it. But they passed her off to the Garmman over a month before Rose freed Sazo.”
“Someone got nervous? They feared what they'd done would be discovered and they'd be charged with non-compliance of the Sentient Beings Agreement?” Jasa lifted her shoulders.
“They had no reason to fear that. Class 5s were kept from mainstream airspace, and the Tecran would light jump away rather than let anyone onto a Class 5. They should have felt safe enough.” Maybe they'd never know the reason. It was hardly likely they'd get the chance to ask.
There was a faint chime, and Jasa looked over at her handheld. “Time for me to check on Hadri and Mun. They're doing better. Almost as well as Chel. He should have stayed put though, instead of captaining the ship while you were chasing down the Krik.”
Hal acknowledged that with a shrug. “It was personal for him. He thought the Krik had killed Mun, and when he was shot down, he couldn't shield Hadri from attack. I told him to report to you now I'm back on board.”
Jasa's mouth thinned. “Well he hasn't. Call him to med chamber 3 and he can meet us there.”
“What about Fiona?” Hal realized he'd hoped to find the Earth woman here, study her a little more, and he was sorry to be leaving without seeing her.
“I think she'll be at least an hour. I gave her a warning not to take too long because of her head injury, but I bet she'll spend a while in the shower. I've instructed Pila to knock after thirty minutes, and go in if she doesn't answer, in case her concussion is worse than I thought.”
“You know, she got that injury because she approached the Krik, and asked them if they'd take her with them.” He was still trying to process that. Of everything that he'd seen and heard on the Garmman trader, that had made the biggest impression on him. That, and the hood Tak had made her wear.
The Garmman captain had tried to erase what she was, but in a way that spoke of contempt not just for her, but for the intelligence of his own crew.
Jasa regarded him with open-mouthed astonishment. “She actually thought they'd help her?”
“She didn't know anything about the Krik. And as you noted with her injuries, she wasn't exactly being well treated by the Garmman. She didn't think she had anything to lose.”
“It's no wonder she had a moment of panic on my table. How does she know we'll be any better?” Jasa's voice was quiet. “I don't know if I'm qualified to deal with her, Hal. She's outside of my experience.”
Hal lifted his shoulders. “She's outside everyone's experience. The only exception is the crew of the Barrist, the ship that found Rose McKenzie. And they're more than seven light jumps from our position, and we're going in the opposite direction.”
“You looked that up?” Jasa raised her eyebrows in surprise.
Hal nodded. “I was hoping we could pass Fiona off on them, but there's no way that's happening. Not until we get back to Battle Center headquarters.”
Jasa fiddled with her handheld. “I'll contact the Barrist's head of medical, perhaps he can help me work out a treatment for Fiona's injuries. Her bones and muscles are denser than ours, so I think her planet is larger than any of the four planets, has more gravity. Her injuries are less severe than they could have been because she could take more damage without breaking. And when she gets her strength back, I think she'll find our gravity allows her to jump higher than she's used to.”
Hal was relieved Jasa seemed calmer than she had been when she'd first walked in. “If we can get on with our mission of delivering Vilk, and then scoop up those Krik straight afterward, we'll have Fiona back at Battle Center very soon.”
That should be the extent of their excitement. After all, as he'd said earlier, unlike Rose, Fiona didn't come with a Class 5 battleship as part of the deal. She wouldn't have been fighting for survival on the Garmman trader if she had.
Rose McKenzie had not landed, cringing against a wall, into Grihan life. She'd brought a banned thinking system into the Grih fold, sparked a power shift in Battle Center, and stirred up the balance of power on the United Council.
Fiona Russell was hopefully going to be a lot less trouble.
7
Fee thought she'd feel more.
More relieved. More safe. More happy.
She looked down at herself, at the too long sleeves and trouser legs of the clothes she'd been given, and fought back tears.
She needed to find the core of steel that had kept her going these last months. But without someone to fight against, without the hatred for Tak and his officers that had fed her resistance and her determination, she was . . . done.
It was exhaustion, probably. And uncertainty.
There were undercurrents here she didn't understand.
Talk of Class 5s and Vilk waving his hand at her and calling her 'this' with barely suppressed panic. Like she was a whole huge set of problems, all on her own.
She hadn't expected anything when the Grih had stumbled on her, she'd just hoped that things would get a little better.
They'd gotten more than just a little better. She was clean, she'd had a cup of something delicious she couldn't remember the name of and when she got up the energy to leave the room, she'd get medical treatment.
The fact that her clothes were too big was nothing.
Nothing!
She sucked in a deep breath, and rolled up the sleeves and legs. The soft burgundy top and pants were so much nicer than the hard, scratchy uniform Tak had given her.
A polite chime sounded from the door and she froze, let her eyes go to her bed to double-check the encryptor was properly hidden.
Under the mattress was a cliché, but for now it was the best she had.
The chime sounded again, and she walked hesitantly forward. Jasa thought the fact that she had guards should reassure her. It didn't. It worried her.
Protecting her from some rogue Grihan officers didn't make sense, along with so many other things. But she'd work it out. She just needed to let Jasa patch her up, eat something, and get a good night's sleep without worrying about whether tomorrow would be the day someone got up the nerve to kill her.
Put that way, she'd come a long way since this morning.
Before she reached the door, it opened, and she stumbled to a stop in surprise.
Pila stood in the doorway, and he must have seen the shock on her face.
“Apologies. We had orders from the doctor to enter if you didn't answer because of your concussion.”
She gave a tight nod. “I was trying to get my uniform to fit.” She held out her arms.
Pila frowned, and Carmain stared at her from over his shoulder. “Doctor Jasa has asked us to take you back to the medical chamber.”
She had the sense they would have liked to have engaged her in conversation, but as she stepped out to join them in the passageway, the strange alien who'd been present during the interrogation of Tak and his officers approached, and they were suddenly all business.
“Liaison Officer Kwo.” Pila was polite, but he held his shockgun in both hands. Carmain had taken a position behind Fee, angling her body to
see down the passage in both direction.
Fee tried to work out if they were simply being protective or whether they thought Kwo was a genuine threat.
“Captain Vakeri is serious in his determination that this new orange is protected.” Kwo's voice sounded as if his words were being formed from a plucked, vibrating harp string.
The reference to orange again. Vakeri had called her an orange when he'd first found her.
Fee decided she must be misunderstanding the word, or had somehow gotten it wrong when she'd learned Grih from her handheld. Looking at Kwo's huge eyes, she very much doubted they saw colors the same way, anyway.
“You were here to see Fiona?” Carmain asked him. Like Pila, her voice was polite, but she didn't lower her weapon.
“I would like to make an appointment with her, yes. I need to submit a full report to the United Council, and her testimony would be useful.”
“Is Fiona all right?” Jasa's sharp, worried question turned everyone's attention in the doctor's direction. She had come up behind Kwo, and stopped, frowning at the sight of them, guns up and ready to rumble.
“I'm fine.” Fee decided it was time to remind them all she was standing right there, listening to them talk about her.
Jasa turned to Kwo. “What did you want with Fiona?”
“Just to talk to her. I pose no threat.” Kwo made a gesture with his hands that seemed to convey gross overreaction on Pila and Carmain's part.
“Well, you can't. Not until she's finished on the regeneration bed.”
Kwo gave a bow. “My apologies. I thought she was finished in the medical room.”
“She is right here, and can speak for herself.” Fee had kept her emotions locked down tight while she'd been on Tak's ship, and the habit was hard to break. Even to her own ears, she only sounded mildly annoyed.
Everyone looked at her, with varying degrees of surprise and embarrassment.
“Sorry, Fiona.” Jasa clasped her hands in front of her. “It's your choice, of course, but I'd urge you to allow me to heal you, before you do anything else.”
Fee looked over at Kwo. “What do you need from me, beyond what I already told you on Tak's ship? And who are you, exactly?” Everyone seemed to know all about her but she was in the dark about them.
Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2) Page 5
