Sarah left the scene of the accident, took a deep breath and walked hesitantly into Med-crew. She could feel her pulse quicken as she was hit by the heavy smell of antiseptic.
“You must be Sarah, welcome to Med-crew.” The doctor, having seen the humanoid enter, was thrilled at the chance of examining her and bustled her inside. “Come into my private office so we can talk. So glad you came. Please, take a seat; just move those packets onto my desk.” He beamed at her. “Are you feeling unwell?”
She caught his eager expression and suddenly felt light-headed. “No, no. Fine, thank you, never felt better, nothing wrong with me at all.” The doctor’s face fell. “But…” A glimmer of hope flared in his eyes. “I am a little worried about my companion, Monty.”
The doctor took a sheet of paper from a pile on his right and located a pen. “What seems to be the problem?”
“Well, he’s been sleeping a lot recently and that’s not normal for him. He usually just has his morning lie-in, mid-morning nap, afternoon siesta and then eight hours at night. But since coming here he’s started to sleep through the gaps and I’m getting worried.”
“I see. Is he advanced in years?”
“I’m not sure. I got him from an animal sanctuary, that’s where people take pets if they can’t look after them any more, and he was the same size then that he is now. That was quite a few years ago now.”
“So he could just be old?”
“There’s no grey on his fur; I wouldn’t really know.”
The doctor looked at her kindly. “I can’t treat the passage of time, I’m afraid. If I could I’d probably retire in a week. What I can do is give you an EpiPen of cadka. That will give him a boost if he seems abnormally sleepy. It’s only a small dose though, too much can over-excite the body. There are tests we can carry out to check his age if you wish.” He went over to a medicine cabinet and selected a small packaged item.
“Thank you. I don’t know what age Dobermans live to so that probably wouldn’t help me. I’ll keep it in mind though.”
“And how would you feel about some minor examinations? Nothing intrusive, I promise, but I confess to being somewhat curious as to whether the handover you experienced has caused any physical changes in your genetic make-up.”
She took in his eager expression. “I don’t think the handover really worked but if anything interesting happens I won’t forget that you’d like to run tests on me.”
“Thank you, I would really appreciate that!”
As she left holding the cadka she considered his offer of testing her. She didn’t mind him asking, curiosity was a human trait after all, but hell would have to host the next Christmas ice-skating spectacular before she actually agreed to anything like that.
On the way back to her pod, and starting to feel sleepy herself, she knew that she wasn’t going to risk her dog’s health by giving him the cadka. Funny how much of it there seemed to be going around recently. Her mind went back to Rayine’s comment about giving Derek more courage and she smiled.
She may have made one or two minor mistakes since coming onto the ship but at least she could do something right for someone. After all, Derek was bigger than Monty and it was only a small shot. What harm could it do?
Xander moved restlessly on the bed and threw back the covers to try and cool himself down. He slowly drifted off to sleep and in his mind he was back on the Gralic expedition.
It had been meant to be an exploratory mission and as such it had been decided that Xander could be trusted to lead it as his first command. With only two hundred personnel in the entire flotilla of ships there had been a relaxed, easy atmosphere. Booker had introduced himself on the first day – “reported for duty” seemed too formal a description - and he and Xander had formed an instant friendship. Over beer and late night conversations they had first discussed previous missions and then, as trust had been built up, concerns they shared about the voyage.
Two months in and they started to experience problems. Small things at first, thefts, damage to equipment and a fall in morale. Xander had entrusted it all to the Security Officer, Malcolm, an experienced member of the crew who was also Booker’s uncle. The crew became increasingly restless and when Malcolm suggested early morning runs through the ship the take-up had been high. One morning a member of security had knocked on Xander’s pod and told him that there was a security breach and he needed to come at once. As soon as his back was turned the crewman hit him over the head and knocked him unconscious. When he came to he was in one of the landing bays surrounded by the crew and Booker was leaning over him with his own black eye and bruising. Security had mutinied. The Chief of Security had been a Pirate and had encouraged the others to join him.
Xander turned over as the memories played on.
Together, he and Booker managed to work one of the vents free and organised the crew’s escape. Security had cameras everywhere and waited until most were through. Xander and Booker were last.
His eyes opened. He would not go back to that memory tonight.
Burying his head into the pillow he finally gave up on sleep and buzzed through to engineering. “What’s with the heat?”
A young voice that Xander recognised answered, “Sorry, sir, the only way we can prevent ice forming in the Control room is to modify the heating.”
“Is there anywhere on this ship that’s got a normal temperature reading?”
“Right now?”
“No, Fedka, in three weeks’ time! Of course I mean right now!”
“Uh, the Visitors’ section has the closest thing to normal.”
“Are there any pods free?”
“Pod eight looks clear.”
“Fine. If there are any emergencies then I’ll be in pod eight.” Xander pulled on some clothes and set off.
As he reached one of the cross paths in the corridor he passed Lingor running screaming in the other direction with a guinea pig hanging onto his back.
Six of the security crew ran past him after Lingor.
From his right he could see Garth in a strange orange uniform slowly approaching. Xander didn’t feel up to a chat but he was pleased to see that the little Lieutenant looked better and obviously, in view of the shaved head, had come to terms with his approaching baldness. He would have to have a word with Martyn at some stage to see if wearing what appeared to be a plain robe was part of his cultural dress. Otherwise, all things considered, Xander would have preferred he wore trousers. He felt that wandering around in what was basically a dress looked vaguely sissy. Xander moved off.
The Visitors’ section was silent and he made his way into pod eight without trouble. The cool white sheets beckoned welcomingly and he pulled off his tunic and lay down, closing his eyes with a satisfied sigh. He relaxed and got used to his surroundings, slowly becoming aware of the sound of talking from next door. There was a scream.
Without thinking Xander leaped off the bed, grabbed one of the lamps as a weapon, rushed out of the pod and used his clearance key card to open the door to pod seven.
“What’s happened? What’s going on?”
Sarah was playing tug of war with Monty to get something out of his mouth. When Xander burst in they turned and Monty used the element of surprise to grab the item and dash out onto the balcony with it.
“Damn it!”
“What was all that about?”
“He’s just playing up at the moment. He wouldn’t eat his dinner and now he’s pinched one of my tops.” She looked quizzically at the way Xander was still holding the lamp above his head. “It’s the T-shirt I was wearing when I came on the ship. I haven’t cleaned it yet so it still smells of home; I think we’re both a bit homesick right now. When he was a puppy he used to nick my slippers and have them in his basket at night; I think he must be regressing. Sorry, we didn’t mean to wake you up.”
Suddenly Xander felt rather exposed without his tunic and a bit foolish. He lowered the lamp and tried to ignore the feeling. After all, it was technical
ly his ship; he could do what he wanted. He wished he’d gone to the gym more recently and then wondered where that thought had come from. “At least you weren’t breaking anything.” He smiled. “Hey, your room is actually the right temperature! Did you know they’re still having problems with it down in engineering?” He moved over to the sofa, unwilling to go back out into the heat.
“Garet said that things were a bit unusual at the moment but since I haven’t done this before I don’t really have anything to compare it to.” She sat down next to him. “Are you all right? You look a bit tired.”
“I’ll survive. I’ll get one of Booker’s crew to have a look at this pod though because it’s a bit odd that this is the only place that’s normal.”
“Um, it might have something to do with a slight accident we had with the temperature gauge.”
“What kind of accident?” Xander turned his head to see the control panel. The panel was filled with darts from Emilio’s blowpipe. “Silly of me to ask really. They can check it out anyway.” He paused. With her face washed clean she had a small, vulnerable appearance. “I heard about the tea trolley, well done for getting one of the guinea pigs. I know I keep asking you this but are you really all right with everything that’s been happening?”
“You really want to know?”
“I really want to know.”
“I’m not sure how I am. I wanted to say something to you earlier but things have been busy and every time I tried to think of how to put it there wasn’t one way that made me sound like I was rational. I heard Rayine speak the other day, it hasn’t happened since but we definitely communicated.”
Xander took a deep breath. “It could be that this is the handover we’ve been expecting but it does seem that there are some, let’s call them unusual, things happening on the ship. You’re not the only one who is experiencing these phenomena. It may be that you could communicate with Rayine because of what happened with Sornath but some of the other crew have talked about hearing voices. At the moment I’m choosing to think of it as sensory deprivation because we’ve been up here for a long time.”
“But I’ve been here less than two weeks!”
“Is that all? It feels like longer.”
“Are you being sarcastic?”
“Sorry. Look, tomorrow the whole crew will be permitted to disembark onto one of the planets in this sector and everyone is getting off for some fresh air. We can’t do very much about the voices in your head while we’re up here, but once we get to Kaor we can really look at what’s happening. You can talk to the Cadovoans too. Ask them what’s normal and what isn’t.”
“I don’t think they’ll know.” As soon as she said it she knew it was a mistake.
“What?”
“Hmm?” Her face shut down.
“What did you just say?”
“I asked you if you were being sarcastic.”
“After that?”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“Yes, you did, you said you didn’t think the Cadovoan’s would know.”
“I’ve got this… feeling that I’ve had a conversation with some of them. I don’t remember actually having it but it’s not like I’ve dreamt them either.”
“And you didn’t feel the need to share that information?”
“On earth you would have had a legal responsibility to lock me up for my own safety. I have no idea what happens in space when someone starts to show signs of schizophrenia so no, I didn’t feel the need to share that information.”
Xander said nothing for a while and just looked at her. Eventually he got up to leave. “Hallucination is another side effect of sensory deprivation. Try and ignore it if you can, we’ll be back in Kaor soon and you’ll feel better. We’re too far out for communication through the usual means unfortunately. Don’t worry, this we can handle, but please keep me informed with anything else you feel might be important.” He smiled at her.
“Actually, there is one more thing if you’ve got a moment.”
“Sure.” He sat down again.
“It’s kind of the same thing that I tried to say a while ago but no one was listening.”
“Go on.”
“I’m not the right Visitor for the Gathering. No, please don’t interrupt! I didn’t ask to be here, I wasn’t voted in and I wasn’t chosen. When I was picked up I was on my way to do some shopping. It’s not like I kept it a secret, I told everyone on my very first evening but they thought I was being modest or a bit confused from the pick up. You got the wrong person. Sorry.”
“Are you telling me that you were picked up by mistake?”
“Sornath told me that if Earth didn’t have a Council then I must have been nominated by default so I just went with it after that.”
Xander put his head in his hands. “Garet was the one picking up the Visitors. I wonder if that was after he’d eaten his glasses? Oh Light! All this because Garet’s too vain to wear glasses? I’ll kill him, I’ll bloody kill him.” He got up and started pacing. “Fine. It doesn’t matter. We’ll be back at Kaor soon, you’ll probably be returned to Earth in a couple of months, safe with a few odd memories. All I can say is sorry.”
“Do you really think I belong on Earth now? Do you have any concept of what they’ll do to me when they find out what’s happened?”
“No one needs to find out, we’ll be discrete.”
“Apart from the fact that when you picked me up you changed the planet’s weather system, I’m not completely human anymore, don’t you understand that? I had a telepathic conversation with Rayine a while ago and Garet and Booker found that odd. If they find something strange do you want to have a guess how long it would take someone from Earth to get freaked out by it? It’s not something I’m going to be able to hide forever! I don’t want to go back anyway, I want to stay.”
“Well, you can’t.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not safe for someone like you. You have to understand. I’m sorry for the mix-up, it should never have happened but rest assured that for the remainder of your stay you will be kept secure. The visit to the planet tomorrow will be your last until we reach Kaor and you can be sent back to Earth again.”
“But…”
“Forgive me, I feel I’ve taken up enough of your evening. Goodnight.” Without a backwards glance he walked quickly out of her pod into the now chilled corridor.
As he left Sarah noticed a burn on Xander’s back that ran from the base of his neck to just above his trouser line. It was pink in places suggesting that healing was still taking its time. She was about to call out to him, to say something, but the words didn’t come.
Eight
Booker ambled into Med-crew and looked around curiously. Sickness was not something he had much time for and hadn’t visited the section on this voyage yet.
The beds were currently unoccupied and he could see nurses bustling around at the far end of the room in preparation for the shore leave. There was no sign of the doctor.
He confidently moved without being questioned, further into Med-crew and swiftly found himself in front of the medical cabinet. Booker had no patience for paperwork and on this occasion he thought he would save the good doctor both time and energy, and help himself to what he had come in for.
His clearance key card opened the cabinet without so much as a whisper of resistance. Rummaging around on a shelf among the pill bottles he came to the one he was looking for and pocketed it.
He was just leaving when a nurse approached.
Can I help you, sir?”
“No, I’m all right. We just had a report of a guinea pig on the loose in this area. I can’t find one but best not to tell the others, we don’t want to start a panic, do we?”
“No, sir…” Her voice wavered, “Are you sure we’re quite safe?”
Booker pretended to think about it, “Yes, I think so, but if you find anything missing you be sure to tell me about it first, OK? The safety of the ship depends on it.”
/> “Yes, sir, you can count on me, sir!”
The nurse rushed off, no doubt to tell her friends about the new top-secret information she was privy to. Booker grinned and felt the reassuring weight of the Cadka pills in his pocket. Brelt worked hard on this ship and he wasn’t going to judge her if she’d decided to hook up with an uncoordinated yet honest boy like Derek. If it was courage he needed then a 500 mg dose of courage was what he was going to give him.
Having spent the night cursing Xander, aliens, spaceships and alcohol, Sarah was in a surprisingly good mood when she answered Brelt’s knock on her door.
Brelt was wearing a small white flower on her tunic that complemented her shimmering skin perfectly. Without being told, Sarah instantly knew whose benefit it was for.
“I just came by to say that the ship is in position for us to go down for six hours of shore leave. I’m on my way to the landing bay if you’d like to come and share a bus?” Monty barged past Sarah and pushed his nose into Brelt’s hand for a stroke. She surreptitiously tried to wipe her hand as Sarah got her things together.
Sarah picked her rucksack up. “I suppose I won’t need much for six hours. It’s going to be nice to have a change of scenery, isn’t it?” Brelt, who had heard about Sarah’s previous planet visits, said nothing. “Monty, come over here please. There’s a good boy. OK, I think I’m ready.”
They made their way to the loading bay.
Xander was already there and was giving orders to people. He hoped that a few hours of normality on the ground would make his crew less jittery and start acting sensibly. As Garet walked in, Xander tried to remember that normal was relative.
“No, Garet, absolutely not, there is no way you’re going down to this planet in a shirt that looks like a five,year,old threw foliage at it. What happened to your uniforms?”
“They got chewed up.”
“Couldn’t you have borrowed someone else’s?” Garet looked down at his tentacles and calmly looked back at Xander. “Well, put one of the old uniforms on then. At least pretend to look professional!”
Space Hoppers - Dance of the Guinea Pigs Page 15
