Deviation (23 page)

"Hedric?" Myron asked, his eyes still on the MEDS screen.

"Still under," Jellison growled and shot a look at Freeman.

Kate understood then what the argument had been about. The Captain's body lay safe and secure in the navigator seat, unconscious. She praised God for that small mercy. Without thinking, she wiped her forearm over her mouth. Somehow she could still feel Hedric's lips on hers, urgent and pained and demanding. If desperation had a taste then she'd just encountered it.

"Freeman, take stock of our cargo," Myron relayed orders again, disregarding the contempt that Jellison continued to glare through the little space. "Keats, patch up and get to work. It'll be dark sooner than we'd like and the Femina will be hunting for us."

"Why would they do that?" Jellison snarled.

Myron turned from the controls and looked at her. "Because we have something they want."

"So give her to them," Jellison said.

"No," Myron stood up. "Jellison, take the Captain to his quarters and make sure he's comfortable. Keep him drugged."

Jellison looked like he was about to argue but Myron countered, the command in his voice clear. "And whatever you do, keep him away from Kate."

***

Fighting hard to battle his shock, David scowled at the holographic image in front of him. Just to make sure there wasn't a glitch in the system he made the computer scan his new sister-in-law for a third time. He'd been surprised enough when he'd gotten the blood sample from Matthew, but the idea that his staunch little brother had actually married this woman had him reeling.

What was the galaxy coming to? Matthew Borden was married?

A soft beep alerted him that the scan was complete. David cued on the command to review it and the hologram flicked out, replaced an instant later with the newest version.

Nothing had changed. The three-dimensional rendering of Reesa Borden's body showed no signs of robotics. Off to the left, he drew up an image of her DNA structure, allowing it to slowly curl just beside the hologram of the woman herself.

Unaltered human female DNA, he thought with a frown.

Had the Novo Femina created Reesa? Perhaps she was a clone. The H1N1 vaccine in the girls system seemed to suggest that she'd been dragged straight out of history. But then, all females who died of the Mavirus Carcinoma had been cremated. There wouldn't have been a base genetic code for a clone to be made.

David began to circle the hologram, ignoring the rest of the lab. His brother had sent three armed guards with Reesa for this evaluation, which annoyed him considerably but the puzzle in front of him was enough that he could forget them at present. The girl herself lay patiently inside the imaging capsule just beneath the hologram, so quiet that he imagined she might have dozed off.

They could have cloned her and then she caught the virus, he thought. The Community had not outlawed cloning, but the technology necessary for creating a clone was so expensive that only three facilities existed in the galaxy. The Novo Femina did not have the funds for such a project. And besides, if the Community had managed to successfully recreate a human he would have heard about it.

Every clone to date had come out insane. There was just something missing from the higher functions of the brain, some critical development that never came about during the incubation time, and the clones would simply attack.

"Are you going to scan me again?" Reesa asked, her voice muffled through the capsule. "Or have you come to the understanding that it's real?"

Startled, David glared down at the creamy-textured capsule. Such an impertinent woman. If she weren't married to his brother, he'd have sent her off to a Correctional Facility already. A month in a cell would remind her of her place.

One of the guards shifted in his peripheral view and David had to smother a scowl. It didn't matter if the man was a Loyalist or not, Matt paid his soldiers too well for insubordination to be a problem. These guards were under orders to maintain Reesa's safety and they all knew it. At present, there was nothing David could do about the woman's insufferable tongue.

Depressing the release button, David watched the hologram snap out and the capsule hissed open. He waited as she climbed out of the machine, noticing in spite of himself how the space suit clung to her slender form. Long legs and soft curves caught the halogen lights of the lab and for a brief moment his breath caught in his chest.

This was a real human female, and good heavens she was pretty.

For a blank moment he only stared, watching as she began to hide all that splendor under layers of robes. His mind groped for the Makeem teachings. He was a Loyalist, even if only on paper, and knew there was some reason women had to be subjugated. They were weak and vain, incapable of logical thought, he remembered.

But Reesa turned to face him and for all the suppleness he knew was under those robes, David could sense an iron resolve, a reservoir of strength untapped in her. Her eyes were so deep a blue that she seemed to carry the ocean with her. She gave him a tight-lipped frown and stared back, deliberately.

"Where did you come from?" He asked when he'd finally gathered his composure.

"Why don't you give it your best guess, Doctor." Reesa finished straightening her robes.

"Which cloning facility manufactured you?" Her answering scoff only confirmed the theory that she was not a clone, so he tried something else. "Did the Novo Femina breed you?"

She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Is that really the best you can come up with? The great David Borden falls back on 'breeding'?"

"Woman! By God, you will respond to me with respect." David unleashed his irritation, heedless of the guards still at the door. Pointing at the console where her DNA continued to spiral he practically shouted at her; "Now I want to know how an extinct species is standing in my lab!"

"Endangered," she had the gall to correct him. "There is one other unaltered human female standing somewhere on Mars."

"Real human females are extinct. Those select few who were not outright killed by the Mavirus Carcinoma died off centuries ago." David throttled back the impulse to smack her and managed a more civil tone. "Where did you come from?"

"2010." Her voice was light and mocking, and utterly honest.

Stunned, David rocked back on his heels as she turned and walked to the console. Every move she made was elegant, unselfconscious, as she flit a finger over the touchscreen. A new hologram began to take shape in the center of the diagnosing room. Two sets of DNA, he recognized them; one hers, another of a genetically altered female. And then in between them she drew up the Mavirus Carcinoma strain. Reesa paused for a moment, not looking at the holograms but at the screen in front of her.

David felt the hair on his arms prickle up. Cloning was impossible, he knew. And cloning would not have engrained so much independence into the woman. Her blatant disregard for propriety was something she had learned over time.

Time, he thought.

"As in, the year 2010?" He knew his voice sounded choked, but the incredulousness of the suggestion still had him reeling.

Back when wormhole travel had been relatively new the Community opened several studies on the nature of time. It was hoped that they could travel through it, discover the origins of the Mavirus Carcinoma and perhaps correct the course of history before the fall of womankind. The Makeem opposed this, of course, but with the Community holding all of the power they'd been unable to stop the studies.

David suspected that Loyalist spies sabotaged all of the laboratories dealing with time travel but there was no way to prove it. In the end, the Community gave up the projects after several hundred test subjects died in the attempt.

Theoretically time travel was possible. There was an obvious leap forward whenever a wormhole was used to go to and from Earth. Just like with magnets, scientists could predict how the travel worked, but could not fully explain
why
they worked. The leaps through wormholes were always forward, never backward, which seemed to suggest that this continuum through time was more like cutting across a field. The destination points were fixed, the path just altered.

"How?" He asked at last. "How did you do it?"

Reesa looked up from the console. She seemed distracted and puzzled and it took her a moment to realize what he'd asked. Shaking her head she said; "I didn't. Celeocia Prosser could answer you, though. She sent her son to fetch me."

David felt the name like a chunk of ice in his chest; Celeocia Prosser, High Priestess of the Novo Femina. He was so distracted by the implications that he barely noticed when Reesa leaned over the console again. She was focused on something in particular and he knew he should shoo her away from his private notes, but his mind could not move beyond his sudden fear.

General Erid was right, the Novo Femina really were planning something.

When he'd been asked to take on this project, David had been more intrigued with the challenge it presented than anything else. He was a Loyalist, but then, most people were these days. He wasn't fanatical about it, he just wanted to be left in peace with the puzzles of science in front of him. Erid's zeal always left David feeling scorched, like he'd been left under too hot water for too long, and it took some time for normalcy to return.

"Oh, David," Reesa whispered. "What have you done?"

Startled, he looked back at her. She slowly straightened from the console, her blue eyes wide with horror. David glanced down at the screen, ignoring the fact that she'd taken the liberty of using his first name. The console gave a list of components to the Mavirus and what corresponding part of the female genome it had attacked. What had undoubtedly caught her attention, however, was the split screen showing what parts of the Genetically Altered female needed to be targeted in order for the virus to be remade.

David met her gaze. He opened his mouth to explain it away but somehow couldn't. There were a number of excuses he had come up with to hide what the Makeem had really hired him to do, but he knew they wouldn't work on her. Reesa was many things - beautiful, irritating, and uncouth - but she was not a fool.

"Dromodus Varanidae : Martian Variation of the Komodo Dragon. Highly aggressive. Avoid if possible. Weakest point is just under the left armpit."
- ARC Basic Field Guide : Mars

For a dying woman Reesa felt peculiarly well. She thought that perhaps some part of her had already given up and so she was able to enjoy the unique situation she found herself in. After all, it was the dream of nearly every writer to stand in the pages of their own creation. Everything was brilliant and while she had gotten a few things wrong in her writing, it was fascinating nonetheless.

When Matthew had introduced her to the space suit, she'd reveled in the feel of his hands on her. It was probably selfish, indulging in his quiet affection but then, she was dying after all, and she deserved to be a little selfish. Matt was a sturdy sort and he was very logical. While he kissed her in the most amazing ways, she had no doubt that he understood her impending death.

"This is Io," Matt announced as he led her to the docking bay.

Reesa was startled into the present with his voice and even further shocked with what greeted her. Io was a ship; a beautiful, sleek, curvy ship that resembled the Lothogy in so many ways that she had to blink to focus on it. And to her consternation, Io was completely foreign to her. Reesa had never written about it. She'd never even dreamt about it.

Yet there it was, glinting cobalt in the halogens.

"Did you really think I would let the Lothogy be the only ship of its class?" Matt sent her a boyish and charming smile. "Io has been under construction for seven years now. She has all of the benefits of the Lothogy and then some."

He ducked under a fin-like wing, his palm grazing over its surface in an affectionate sort of touch. Reesa felt her lips part but could find no words. She should have seen this coming. Matthew Borden was far too prideful to allow the Lothogy to run around without competition. Of course he would have constructed such a ship.

But it was more than that. It wasn't a greedy pride like she would have written him out to be, it was an honest pride. He'd worked hard on this, on the planning and the construction. Just as hard as he'd worked on the practice field with the Fomorri, throwing everything he had into each exercise; just as hard as he worked on the Borden Company, giving his whole concentration to its success. Matthew Borden thought very little about the monetary aspect of his life, and more about the simple ambition to be the best he could be.

This, she thought as he made his way to her side, was the real Matthew Borden. And she couldn't help feeling ashamed for the way she'd painted him in her books. He was far more complicated than she'd imagined.

Reesa smiled a little when he collected her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. Her skin tingled with the contact and reality came back into focus. She made a mental note of how he felt against her hand, how he tucked her into his side and led her closer to the ship. She felt the light linen of his space suit, caught the scent of his soap and memorized it all.

She had to memorize it. She had to treasure it.

Because in less than twelve weeks the only thing she'd feel was the wracking pain of the Mavirus as it ate her alive.

"I've packed an emergency kit," David announced as he climbed the loading dock. He sent a scathing glare at his brother as he continued his rant. "She should stay here where I can run more tests, but if you insist on taking her with you then at least be prepared."

Reesa avoided David's glance, opting to stare at the floor as the two brothers fought. She was a little worried that Matt might change his mind and leave her with David. What she'd seen in his data file had painted a very clear picture for her. Human experimentation was unlawful, even among the Community, and when she'd written Mesa's discovery Reesa had figured that was possibly the worst of it.