Home: Interstellar: Merchant Princess

by Strong, Ray

  He zoomed into the region near the lumbar plexus and the damaged nerves just above narrow rods that appeared to be staples in the rear of her pelvis. “Hmmm. Healing nicely. See here,” he said and pointed to an orange region with white fibers running in all directions and an angry red area in the center. “Raise your leg.”

  Meriel complied, and a few of the white fibers lit up along with the center red area. “See there?” he said. “That’s where we need to work now.”

  He waved his fingers near the console icons. “Here’s an archive from last week,” he said, and a similar holo came up, but the red region now extended well outside the field of view. “Lots of progress here, see?” He switched back to the real-time display. “We’ve got your gross motor skills back, but we want the fast twitch and fine motor skills engaged. Until that red area disappears, we want you exercising. We want blood in there to help you heal and your nerves to keep signaling that region.”

  The doctor stopped tapping on his link, and the holo disappeared. He waved his hand for her to sit down and looked at Meriel. “Your whole body must relearn how to work together. It’s smart, but it needs time. Twenty years ago, you’d be in a suit or wheelchair for the rest of your life. Now you’ve got the choice of a full recovery. You made the right choice. Stick with it awhile longer.” He reached into a drawer along the wall and removed a small tube. “This is for the rash on your forearms,” he said and pursed his lips. “Now, what about the scar? Did you make a decision?”

  Meriel looked down and rubbed her hand along the long scar that crossed her body, the scar from that first attack on the Princess. “I’m not sure anymore, Doc.”

  The doctor nodded. “I understand. It’s part of you. Take your time. Anything else?”

  “Yeah, how do you do a kata with forearm crutches?” she asked and held them up. “I look ridiculous. What can I do to speed this up?”

  “Exercise,” the doctor said and tapped the medallion on her necklace. He smiled. “And pray.”

  The doctor left, and Meriel stood near the large window that looked out to a view of Haven. Her experience of planets was limited to burned-out husks and frozen shells that maintained human life only with grit and technical genius. She still could not believe it and tried to imagine life on the surface.

  “Hey, Chief,” Meriel heard from the door to the clinic and turned to see Molly walking toward her.

  “I’m writing a letter of commendation for Ferrell for his family,” Molly said. “You were with him. What can I say?”

  “Sorry, did he actually do anything except die?” Meriel asked with a sneer. “I must have missed the commendable part.”

  “I just want to say something nice to his family.”

  Meriel sighed. Ferrell’s interrogation of her on the Tiger was still fresh and painful, especially the memory of him asking if she was OK, and her saying, “No.” Ferrell had just ignored her as if all of the pain in her past and the agony of dredging it up in detail meant nothing to him—as if he dissected a butterfly while it still twitched.

  “Permission to be candid, ma’am?” Meriel said.

  “Granted.”

  “Tell his family that I’ll piss on his corpse.”

  Molly frowned. “My, you’re grumpy this morning. Got something more to say?”

  Meriel looked at her, confused; she was sure that Ferrell had told Molly everything. “He didn’t tell you?”

  “About what?”

  “He drugged me. That shit drugged me to get inside my head—without my permission.”

  Molly shook her head. “I warned him that I’d kick him off the Tiger if he tried something like that. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “There wasn’t time. And then it didn’t matter,” Meriel said and looked away.

  “Did he tell you why?”

  “He said I was off the meds and dangerous, especially around equipment.”

  “Well, you are pretty scary sometimes, girl. Were you off the meds?”

  Meriel looked down at her hands and pressed her lips together. She felt guilty about her repeated lies. “Yeah, but I really don’t need them.”

  “How long have you been off?”

  “Nearly seven years.”

  Molly nodded. “And you qualified for eighteen ratings and a logistics-five during that period. Yup, seven years would do it.”

  “You know something, Molly. What is it?”

  “The passengers said that Ferrell mentioned something about BioLuna to a black-suit.”

  Meriel sneered. “Maybe he guarded the passengers rather than protected them.”

  “I don’t think so. One of the mothers said they shot him as he raised his weapon. She gave me a vid. I’ve got it here.” Molly pulled out her link and played the vid.

  The vid displayed Ferrell’s profile. With a nervous voice he said, “Please. I’m Dr. Patrick Ferrell. BioLuna will vouch for me and the passengers. General Khanag knows this.”

  Molly stopped the vid. “What do you make of it?”

  “They knew him, Molly. Khanag’s people knew him. He worked for BioLuna, and he knew BioLuna partnered with the archtrope.”

  “Jeez. So what do I tell his family?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he wasn’t one of the bad guys, but he helped the really bad people. Oh, right, that makes him corrupt. Let’s see now, corrupt and unethical and unscrupulous. And, oh yeah, he died saving his own skin. Did I miss something virtuous there that you want to tell his family?” she said and went back to her training.

  “I’ll write up a formal complaint against him, Chief.”

  “Why bother?” Meriel asked with tears on her cheeks. “He’s dead.”

  “Legal action against BioLuna.”

  Meriel shrugged and struggled with her crutches to maneuver over to a bench by the window and sat down. She threw the crutches down in frustration and looked out the window.

  Molly walked over to her, picked up the crutches, and leaned them against the wall within Meriel’s reach. “You hid her in plain sight,” she said.

  “Who?” Meriel asked. She thought that Molly might be talking about Elizabeth.

  “I got a message from Jeff Conklin,” Molly said. “Jeff said the Liu Yang is on the impound dock at Enterprise with a hull breach and never flew. The Liu Yang is your ship, the Princess, no?”

  Meriel nodded.

  “I’m sorry, dear,” Molly said and put her hand on Meriel’s shoulder. Meriel said nothing, but another tear rolled down her cheek.

  “May I interrupt?” John asked as he entered the clinic and walked toward them. He noticed Meriel wiping the tears from her eyes.

  “Greetings, Pilot Smith,” Molly said. “Excuse me, please, I’m on duty. Ms. Hope, I’ll consider what you said. Good day to you both.”

  “You OK?” John asked when Molly had turned the corner.

  “Yeah,” Meriel said. “Molly just reminded me what a total scumbag Ferrell was.” She returned her gaze out the window to Haven.

  “It’s gorgeous, huh?” John said.

  Meriel nodded but wondered what he meant. “There’s a lot of brown down there.”

  “More dirt than water, but even the vegetation looks brown from up here,” John said. “It’s hard to see the cultivated areas anyway. The settlements are those dots by the sea.”

  “What are the little white spots?”

  “Clouds,” John said as he sat next to her. He tapped the window ledge, and a wireframe overlay appeared around the features of Haven below them. “Nowhere near as many as on Earth. Lack of rain is one of our major problems. The water cycle returns through ground water, and there is very little surface runoff.” He tapped on the window, and the view zoomed closer. “See those long, white, oval shapes near the sea there?”

  Meriel nodded.

  “Those are cloud plumes from hyperbolic cooling towers and evaporation ponds. They humidify the air and cut the dust, at least downwind. It may take a hundred years to get a regional water cycle going, maybe decad
es before the dust storms and mud rains stop.”

  “It rains?” Meriel asked with a surprised smile.

  “A little. We can’t let it rain too much, though. The native animals get their water from plants and aquifers. They’d drown in a puddle.”

  “Where are the domes?” she asked.

  John moved his fingers along the window and the closeup view panned east to show the interconnected hemispheres of domed habitats.

  Meriel smiled. “They look like soap bubbles.”

  John nodded. “There are only a few. We’ve lived in habitats for generations, and some still fear living outside. These were built as protection from the dust storms, but most of us live out in the open.”

  “Really, you can walk around without suits?”

  “Yup. Jira-1 is just a little less UV and a bit more IR than Sol. Great for crops. We only need goggles for the dust storms. The big dome is the capital at Stewardville.” He panned farther east past rectangular areas of green. “Those are the farms.”

  “The clouds don’t reach that far,” she said.

  John nodded. “Right. It’s all subsurface drip irrigation.” He panned a bit farther to the east. “This is the Johnston valley, where we fought off BioLuna and the mercenaries.” He paused, and sadness marred his face for a moment. Then he zoomed in to an assortment of shapes and green areas. “And that’s our compound there.”

  “I think my mom would have liked it here,” she said but frowned.

  John looked at her and took her hand. “What about you?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I feel in control in space, prepared for anything, kinda.”

  “Haven is safer than the Tiger.”

  Meriel nodded. “I’ve been dreaming about Home since I was a kid. But this is real, and it’s all so new,” she said, wondering if she could ever trust a sky to keep her alive.

  “What about us, M? You’ve been distant.”

  Meriel looked down. “It still hurts, John.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was only trying to help.”

  “That’s what hurts, John. You didn’t trust me.

  “You weren’t honest with me, M.”

  “How could I have told you I’ve been breaking the law for a decade and thousands of violations of court orders? And then aiding and abetting an escaped suspect and a stowaway? They’d kick you off the Tiger and arrest you if they ever thought you knew any of that. You wouldn’t see your girls for years.” She still didn’t tell him the worst—a security breach on Enterprise that could put him away for life if he knew. “I haven’t been a good girl, John. It’s dangerous for you to hang around me.”

  “You didn’t trust me. You kept all that from me.”

  “I told you everything but the stuff that could get you shipped off to a mining colony.”

  John nodded. “And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you more about Haven. Everyone on Haven is afraid that immigrants will overwhelm us,” John said. “It’s not resource rich like Earth still is, and the ecosystem is fragile. No one thinks that those coddled people on Earth or the stations can survive here. Farming is nothing at all like spacing.”

  Meriel thought of the hydroponics and agri on Enterprise. “They might surprise you.”

  “You can understand why we need to be careful.”

  “Sure, John, but the word is out, and it’s not up to you anymore. You just can’t shoot people if they get here.”

  John looked up “Hmmm.”

  Meriel hit him in the shoulder. “You wouldn’t.”

  “No. But some would. They’d rather have sheep than people.”

  Meriel shrugged. “You told me everything, John. I just couldn’t believe it. I’ve been hearing horror stories of the low-grav hellholes that people populate, and I thought you were putting a good face on a wreck.” Like I’ve been doing with the Princess, she thought. “I guess I didn’t really believe that what my mom was looking for was real, and I thought if I told you all I knew, you’d think I was stupid or crazy.”

  John smiled. “Liz wasn’t afraid.”

  “Yeah, she’s like that.”

  “I didn’t make the connection either,” John said.

  Meriel took John’s hand. “But I didn’t tell you everything. John, I’m sorry I wasn’t honest, but I was trying to protect you.

  John smiled. “I don’t need protection. I thought I was protecting you.”

  Maybe you don’t know how bad these guys really are, she thought.

  “Maybe if we had fewer secrets, we’d be able to trust each other more,” he said.

  Meriel nodded and leaned into John, and he took her into his arms. “Yeah, maybe.”

  In the window behind them the blue and orange bands of the gas giant, Thor, rose over the edge of Haven and illuminated them in the light reflected from Jira-1.

  ***

  Molly returned to her ready room on the Tiger, where she found the captain busy with paperwork.

  “Looks like Doc Griffin’s replacement was BioLuna’s doing,” Molly said. “Ferrell was their man. My mistake.”

  The captain nodded. “A risk of command. Send an e-mail to Jeff on the Jolly Roger and ask him about the status of his ship’s doctor. He may be a plant as well. And let’s tell the chief investigator about this.”

  Molly turned to go, but her husband caught her hand. “Molly, keep the Tiger fueled and ready to undock. We may have to leave on short notice.”

  “What’s up.”

  “I don’t think they’re through with Meriel—or with us,” the captain said. “Haven has been invaded twice, and they got to us. I don’t know what else they can do. Let’s be prepared.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  ***

  Meriel’s forearm crutches had rubbed her arms raw by the time she reached Elizabeth’s cabin. LeHavre station was cramped so that an eighth around LeHavre torus’s arc was the closest they could billet her sister. Their station was small as stations go, but it was still a long way to walk.

  She raised her hand to knock on the door but saw the door was partially open and heard her sister’s voice.

  “No way,” Elizabeth said.

  “I want us back together again, Liz, like it was.” That was Tommy’s voice.

  “Damn it, shithead, we were kids. I told you not to complicate it,” Elizabeth said.

  Meriel’s heart sank. Had her sister lost their dream of getting the kids together on the Princess?

  “It wasn’t that long ago, Liz, and we weren’t kids. I’m not just some station overnighter.”

  “Whatever we had, it’s over,” Elizabeth said.

  “Not for me.”

  “Drop it, Tommy. I don’t want to be dragging your heart around the galaxy.” Elizabeth sighed and lowered her voice. “It was my birthday, Tommy,” she said and inhaled slowly. “You know I have a hard time sleeping on my birthday.”

  Tommy did not answer for a while. “I know, Liz. Sorry. All of us have a hard time on your birthday.”

  “Just drop it, OK?”

  “Ahem,” Meriel said and walked through the doorway. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.” Elizabeth had Tommy’s image on the wall, and both of them frowned.

  “Hey, Sis,” Elizabeth said. “Tommy’s doing a flyby.”

  “Hi, M,” Tommy said.

  “Good to see you. You’re not gonna dock?” Meriel asked.

  “Troopers have us in tow. We’re off to…well, they won’t tell us.”

  “Did you bring your whole ship?”

  “Yeah, that’s something, huh? BioInc has a contract for us, and the manager said it’s worth changing routes.”

  “So when are you stopping in?”

  “Don’t know. But the troopers said they’ll let us know.” They heard mumbling behind Tommy, he turned to listen and then turned back to them. “Gotta go now. See ya soon,” Tommy said, and the projection disappeared.

  “Something you want to talk about?” Meriel asked and sat.

  “Absolutely not,” El
izabeth said. “How did the vidcon go with Becky and Sandy?” she asked, referring to John’s girls.

  “They’re dolls,” Meriel said, “just darlings. Their nanny was there, too. Maddie is her name, a real sweetheart.”

  “You don’t look happy about it. You think John’s got something going with the nanny?”

  Meriel smiled. “She must be sixty years old, Liz.”

  “Oops. Then what’s bugging you?”

  “The girls make me nervous.”

  “How come?”

  “I’m a spacer,” Meriel said. “They may be looking for a full-time mom. I don’t want to break their hearts.”

  “Uh-huh. Be careful, there, about whose heart you don’t want to break,” Elizabeth said then looked down. “M, I think I know why the ePod ejected.”

  “Why?”

  “Mom did it,” Elizabeth said. “To stop the pirates—or whoever—from looking for us.”

  “No, ePods need someone on board ’em to launch.”

  Elizabeth nodded. “That’s how Mom was wounded. She was trying to convince an uncooperative pirate that he needed a trip.”

  “They would have blown up the ePod.”

  “Sure. But it worked. They stopped looking for us,” Elizabeth said, and they hugged each other. “Incoming, Sis. Looks like a ship has synched with the beacon.”

  Elizabeth waved her link to display the message on the wall.

  APB–General Subedei Khanag (AKA Steven Chen) and associates in Draconian League ET/2187:134:7.10

  Detain subject on charges of criminal piracy, murder, and terrorism. Charges filed Lander Station, ET/2187:134:6.4.

  Space Troopers, Lander Station.

  “Here’s another,” Elizabeth said and displayed the bulletin.

  IGB news wire ET/ 2187:121:10.10

  For immediate release. Merchant Ship Tiger attacked by men under the command of General Khanag associated with the Archtrope of Calliope. See Space Troopers Lander Station for sample physical evidence and redacted interviews. Criminal charges to be filed on Lander Station.

  General Khanag also implicated in ET 2177 attack on family trader Princess. Physical evidence ibid.