by Elin Wyn
“Let’s not jump to any conclusions yet,” Dr. Parr warned Zarik. “Right now, let’s work together to help this poor girl.”
Zarik looked over at me. I looked away, but not quickly enough. He knew I’d been watching them. He probably guessed that I’d heard everything they said.
When I risked another glance, he was still looking my way. Dr. Parr was saying something, but he clearly wasn’t listening, and neither was I.
When Dr. Parr said something that required an answer, Zarik finally looked away. A strange chill skittered over my skin that wasn’t entirely unpleasant. I pulled my blanket tighter around my shoulders. I looked down at my bony wrists and frowned. A little food would be nice right about now.
As if by magic, an alien carrying a covered tray entered the room and set it down by my bedside.
“What’s this?” I asked with a grin.
“Bedside service straight from the dining hall.” Zarik walked over with a grin, clearly pleased with himself.
“When did you order that?” The smells coming from the tray were mouthwatering.
“I punched it in on my comm unit.” He took off the tray lid with a flourish. A cloud of steam rose and curled in the air for a moment before disappearing. The tray held a variety of small dishes, most of them containing some kind of meat. I eyed the slice of chocolate cake.
“Eat slowly,” Dr. Parr advised. I looked at her like she was crazy. How could she expect me to slowly work my way through this buffet of delicacies? “Trust me. You haven’t had proper nutrition in who knows how long. I’m sure you want to stuff your face, but the moment you do, you’re going to throw it all back up.”
“Oh,” I said quietly. “Yeah, I don’t want that.”
“Try the soup first,” Zarik suggested. “It’s easiest on the stomach. Work your way up to the filet and chocolate cake.
“The chocolate cake is what I wanted to eat first,” I laughed.
“I could tell,” Zarik smirked. “You looked at it like it was the love of your life.”
“At this point, I’d say it is,” I joked. Zarik’s laugh was low and rumbling. The sound made me want to smile, so I did.
“It seems like you’re feeling better,” Zarik commented.
“Considering the state you found me in, I’d say anything afterward has been an improvement,” I replied.
I picked up the spoon and scooped up a generous mouthful of soup. It was thick with vegetables and meat. The moment the warm, savory broth touched my tongue, I let out a moan and closed my eyes. Zarik laughed.
“I take it you like the soup,” he said. I nodded and took in another large spoonful.
“Pace yourself,” Dr. Parr warned once more.
“I’m trying, but it’s hard,” I said between mouthfuls.
“Should I take the soup away, Doctor?” Zarik asked.
I brandished the spoon at him. “Careful, I’m armed,” I grumbled.
“Well, she’s certainly got spunk and a sense of humor,” Dr. Parr laughed. “Both of those will come in handy as we figure out what happened to you.”
I tried to smile at Dr. Parr, but some of that delicious soup went down the wrong pipe. I let out a sputtering cough and gasped for air.
“Okay, I’m taking this away from you now.” Zarik whisked the soup out of reach while I chugged the glass of water on the tray.
“It’s clearly for your own safety,” Zarik said when I gave him a withering glare. “And you’re not as scary as you think you are. The hospital bed doesn’t exactly give you a menacing air.”
“I’ve got some reports to file,” Dr. Parr announced. She put a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Hit the button next to your bed if you need me for anything.”
“Thank you,” I replied. When Dr. Parr left, I turned to Zarik. “Thank you, too.”
“Oh, I’m not a doctor,” Zarik replied. I furrowed my brow.
“I know. But you’re the one who brought me here,” I explained. “You also brought me food and made me laugh. You didn’t have to do either of those things.”
Zarik didn’t say anything. He opened his mouth like he was going to speak, then he closed it again.
“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to,” I shrugged. “I just wanted you to know that I’m grateful to you. You saved my life.”
He looked me in the eyes then. His expression wavered between bewilderment and something much softer that I couldn’t name.
Maybe I didn’t remember the name for that expression. However, I could see that he was fighting something inside him.
I didn’t know much about the alien races that now lived on my planet, but the ones we’d passed on our way to Dr. Parr’s office had seemed strangely militaristic. Expressing emotions might not be part of their culture or they didn’t do it the same way humans did.
Not wanting to make him uncomfortable, I just smiled.
“Did I butter you up enough to give me my soup back?” I asked.
He lips turned up, just a bit, as he handed me back the bowl.
Zarik
“I’d like to schedule an appointment with General Rouhr,” I told the young human secretary, Tobias. With a quick smile, he tapped his keyboard a few times and only then did he look up to me.
“A reason for the appointment?”
“It’s about the human female I retrieved. The general is aware of the situation.”
“Very well,” he nodded curtly. A few more taps on his keyboard, his eyes taking in whatever was on his computer screen, and then he gave me a bright smile. “You’re in luck. The general has a short opening in about twenty minutes. Will that work?”
“Yes. I’ll wait here.”
Taking a seat in an adjoining room, I tried to stop my mind from wandering as I waited. The situation with Miri was fragile, and I wanted to make sure I handled it perfectly.
If I wanted to regain my honor, I couldn’t fail at this job, especially after practically begging the general to let me handle it.
And Miri...she trusted me. Maybe.
As promised, Tobias came to get me after twenty minutes. With his polite smile and professional posture, he led me toward the general’s office and pushed the door open for me. Tobias had become the general’s right hand, but I had never gotten close to him the way other members of the strike teams had.
“Zarik.” General Rouhr sat up straighter when he saw me. “I wasn’t expecting you this morning. Did Tobias leave you waiting long?”
“No, sir,” I replied. “I wanted to keep you abreast of the situation with Miri -- the human female.”
“Is there anything to report?” General Rouhr asked.
“She’s with Dr. Parr. We’re monitoring her brain activity to see how her interaction with the Puppet Master’s serum affects her.”
“You don’t sound thrilled,” General Rouhr said with a slight smirk.
“I’m pleased that the human female will be kept here for observation,” I replied. “However, the potential cause of her memory loss doesn’t sit easily with me.”
“Oh?” General Rouhr asked.
“Sir, taking recent events into consideration, you must admit it’s suspicious,” I prompted.
“Do you know for certain that our new ally is involved?” General Rouhr asked.
“No,” I admitted after a pause.
“Then let’s not jump to conclusions just yet,” the general advised.
“Yes, sir.” I wanted to ask him what else he thought could cause such complete memory loss, but I held my tongue.
“I’m surprised at you.” General Rouhr leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. “It’s not like you to take such a personal interest in a case.”
“In fairness, this is the first case involving other people I’ve worked on in a while,” I reminded him. I’d been confined to engine rooms and workspaces, toiling away under the watchful, yet idiotic, Thribb.
“I would’ve taken you out of the engineering position long ago if I sus
pected you were going to handle it so well,” General Rouhr replied.
There wasn’t much about my situation that I liked.
Being the disgrace of the crew was not a position anyone would envy. However, General Rouhr always gave credit where credit was due and I respected him for it.
“If I didn’t handle it well, Miri would be completely alone,” I replied. “I couldn’t walk away. I’m determined to see this through until she can remember what happened to her."
“That’s very honorable of you,” General Rouhr replied. The word honorable sent a zing through my body.
“I’ll leave you to your work.” I nodded and ducked out of the office. I didn’t want the general to see my grin. However, my grin faltered when I thought of the human woman in my care.
She’d placed her trust in me, believing my intentions to be selfless. That wasn’t the case. When I first accepted this case, I saw her only as a way to regain my lost honor. I hadn’t expected Miri’s situation to be so intense.
There was no true reason why I couldn’t help her but also help myself.
If she got the care she needed, then where was the harm in me taking advantage of the situation to better my own life?
I was tired of tinkering with circuits in my out-of-the-way work areas. I longed to be back in action, doing what I was trained to do.
And who was Miri to me, really? She and I were strangers, despite the fact that she trusted me. It made no sense that she had the ability to swirl up guilt within me. I wasn’t lying to her, I wasn’t causing her harm.
There was no reason for me to feel guilty.
None at all.
Telling Miri that I took her case to help my situation wouldn’t do her any good, but it also wouldn’t do her any harm.
There was no reason for her to know.
With a firm shake of my head, I pushed away the nonsensical guilt. I tried to ignore the kernel of it that remained when I returned to my room. Sitting behind my desk, I turned on my old computer terminal and immediately got to work.
I wasn’t sure if more people like Miri had found their way into a government database, but I was going to find out.
Karzin insisted that the city officials log everything properly into the system, and that meant pretty much everything of interest that happened ended up in the system.
I started by going over the missing persons database once more, and I cross-referenced it with the clinical files from the hospital.
I hoped to find a link between cases of memory loss and persons that might have been missing, but finding a connection proved harder than I expected. Either I was looking at the problem the wrong way, or there simply wasn’t a connection to be made.
But there had to be.
I was sure of it.
There had been a spike in the number of missing persons, and that was shortly after contact with the Puppet Master was made.
I knew Karzin believed that was nothing but a coincidence, and that most people simply up and left, looking for better pastures, but I was pretty sure there was something else going on.
After all, Miri wasn’t a case of skipping town to look for a better job. There was something nefarious about her whole situation. Problem was, I couldn’t seem to figure out what it was.
After a couple of hours of staring at the computer screen, I finally called it quits. I pinched the bridge of my nose for a second, took a deep breath, and finally rose to my feet. Maybe if I saw Miri, I’d manage to get something out of her.
Leaving the room, I made my way to the hospital as quickly as I could. Always a busy place to be, I somehow managed to make my way into Miri’s room without having anyone stop me.
One deep breath and I stepped in.
“How is everything?” I asked, forcing an easy smile to my face.
Miri smiled faintly when she saw me. The tension that lingered in her eyes melted away.
She really did trust me.
It had been so long since someone looked at me with something other than doubt or outright malice.
I grabbed a chair and placed it next to her bed. Part of her blanket was twisted. Out of habit, I reached to fix it. Years of military training had instilled the desire to have everything neat and just so.
My finger brushed against the back of her hand. Her skin was colder than I expected it to be. I looked at her. My concern must’ve been obvious in my expression.
“My hands are always cold,” Miri shrugged. “It’s nothing to worry about.”
“Humans are supposed to be able to warm every part of their bodies automatically,” I frowned.
“Human bodies prioritize what needs to be warmed the most. Hands are low on that list,” Miri replied.
My instinct was to cover her hands with my own, but I restrained myself. I didn’t want to startle her with sudden contact.
She stared up at me. I stared back. I couldn’t speak, my brain couldn’t come up with anything to say. Eventually, I offered her a smile. When she smiled back, I felt something in me soften.
“Tests are back!”
Dr. Parr burst into the room. I retracted my hand and tore my gaze from her face.
“What can you tell us?” I asked.
Us.
Miri and I weren’t an us. I had to be more careful with my words.
Dr. Parr addressed Miri.
“The dose I gave you earlier had a positive effect on your brain,” Dr. Parr smiled.
“That’s good.” Miri looked from Dr. Parr to me. Her hopeful expression faded when she looked at me. I was scowling. “Isn’t that good?”
“It means that you were exposed to the Puppet Master’s memory-erasing gas,” I informed her.
Her eyes filled with worry. “What does that mean?”
“She might’ve been in one of the cities that was initially attacked,” Dr. Parr said to me.
“Do you have a way to check?” I asked.
“I kept records,” Dr. Parr replied. “I’ll go look through them.” She gave Miri one more reassuring smile before leaving us.
“That can’t be good,” Miri sighed.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because neither of you answered my question and then you started talking about me as if I weren’t here,” she said.
“Dr. Parr and I don’t want to cause unnecessary alarm.” Miri gave a dry laugh.
“I woke up in the forest with no memory and a new scar. There isn’t much you can tell me that will cause more alarm than that,” she said.
Well, that was likely true.
“When you put it that way,” I chuckled. “A few months ago, some human settlements were attacked. At the time, no one could figure out what was doing it. The attacker left minimal clues behind and none of the people who were present remembered anything.”
“You think I could’ve been there?” she asked. “With those vines you mentioned before?”
“You’ve been exposed to the memory-erasing gas, so it’s likely,” I answered.
“But you said that was months ago.” Her eyes widened with fear. “That would mean I’ve been wandering around for months doing who knows what! How could I have survived that?”
“You’re more resilient than you think,” I told her.
“It still doesn’t seem possible,” she insisted.
“All that matters is that you survived it,” I replied. “You don’t have to ask why you survived it. It’ll drive you crazy wondering why you survived something you probably shouldn’t have.”
“Sounds like you know what you’re talking about,” she prompted.
I froze. I didn’t want to bring up my past. If I did, I’d have to tell Miri about the disgrace that followed.
“I’m a soldier. Almost everyone in this building is a soldier. I’d say we all know what we’re talking about on that front,” I said smoothly.
“I suppose so,” Miri agreed.
We sat in silence for a few moments. Since I spent most of my time in solitude, I was used to silenc
e. Usually, when there was a silence between two people, there was pressure to fill it. I didn’t feel that pressure. Miri seemed content to sit quietly. I wondered what she was thinking about.
I was almost disappointed when Dr. Parr returned.
“I’m sure,” she nodded. “At least as sure as I can be. The records are a complete mess right now. Some have been lost during the war, some databases aren’t fully operational, and God knows what other issues the war has caused.”
“I see.” The doctor was right. The war had wreaked havoc on the planet’s administrative system, and it’d be a few years before everything was running smoothly again.
Still, I knew that a large quantity of records had survived the war. Apparently, some people did remember to make backups. “Did you run her fingerprints?”
“Yes, and not only that.” Smiling patiently, almost as if she was talking to a concerned parent, she continued. “I also took a DNA sample and tried to find a match on all available databases, but there was nothing. No match when it comes to facial recognition, either.”
“That’s odd.”
“Not really,” she shrugged. “Most surviving database and record indexes have to do with criminal records, and unless she was a criminal before…”
“Understood,” I breathed out. Even though it was frustrating, I couldn’t help but feel happy with the knowledge that Miri wasn’t a criminal. At least as far as the surviving records indicated.
“But if you want, you can check the records yourself,” Dr. Parr offered.
“No,” I sighed. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“If I wasn’t there, then where was I?” Miri’s voice wobbled as she spoke.
“We’re going to figure that out.” I laid a hand on her arm. “I’m not giving up. Dr. Parr isn’t giving up. Are you going to give up?”
Miri shook her head.
“Then it’s only a matter of time before we unravel this mystery.” My smile concealed my troubled thoughts.
If Miri hadn’t been caught up in the early attacks, that must mean the Puppet Master had attacked something we didn’t know about.
When the reports had filtered down, I had been skeptical about the news about the Puppet Master.
