Hospital Ship (The Rim Confederacy #5) (9 page)

"Yes, well, we'll leave the topic of forcing stimulants on employees 'til later but noted. Good, let's move along, shall we?" he said as he pointed at the patient directly to Tanner's right.

She nodded and straightened her collar with one hand as she smoothed down her bangs. Human, Tanner thought, middle-aged and used to better than what she had now, but he'd judge later.

"My name is Nancy—yes, I know, one name only—and I'm from Amasis, where I was a deputy minister of the interior; I ran departments with thousands of employees and budgets in the billions of credits. And yes, I'm not guilty as charged, and I am simply doing my ninety days of observation to prove my sanity so that at trial, I can roast the real embezzlers of the missing funds. Oh, and as you can probably tell, I'm not a happy camper here at all!" she said, her voice loud and flat, and she looked at the other patients in the group and toyed with her hair.

No one said anything at that, and judging by the seats, Tanner thought she had been the third speaker so far. And he was next.

"I can't wait to delve into that more at a later time," the group leader said and then turned his attention to Tanner, who stared back as he slurped the final dregs of his smoothie.

"Before I go—can I ask who you are," he said as he put down the plas-cup and looked at the leader.

Maddie interrupted right away. "Captain Scott, there is no need for us to go over this again—"

"Not a problem, Maddie, I got this," the man in yellow scrubs said.

"My introduction was made at the start of the group session, which I expect you'll say you missed as you were lost ... new ship and all. Yet you and I both know that a navy man is never lost on a ship. So I assume that you were just loath to attend, and you got here late. But enough on your tardiness, which yes, will be recorded in your file, Captain. My name is Doctor Lathan Trystan, and as you can probably tell, I'm a Tarvian who has been here in charge of groups for the Barony Psych Ward here for over ten years. I like what I do—and I'd like to think I'm good at it. And as you'll probably be able to judge for yourself over the next few months, I can help. If you let me ..." he said quietly, his large ears slightly bobbing when he spoke.

Tanner looked at him and then smiled.

"Fine, Doctor, then me—I am Tanner Scott, captain of the Barony ship the
Atlas
, and I'm here for my own ninety-day observation as it appears that one night after too many beers, I beat up and badly hurt eight Caliphate marines. One to eight—about the right numbers, in my navy. After this vacation, I'll be back in court, pay my fines, and then back in the captain's chair on the
Atlas
. So for me, this is just a time-out. That's all," he said as he picked back up his cup and slurped the final dregs of his smoothie. He stared at the group leader and said not a single word more as the Tarvian typed away on his tablet.

Moments later, he looked up and then nodded to Tanner.

"A fine start, Captain. Now, next, please ..." he said and the session went on.

Around the table, the introductions went; the table included a couple more people from Neres who had fallen into smuggling some kind of contraband and had been caught. That one got some nods from others at the table, and it made Tanner think that this was a known item.

There was a woman from Juno, who'd been on a cruise ship that was visiting Neres City, and she had gone stark raving mad when she'd landed and she was determined the city was guilty of some kind of climate poisoning of her body, and Tanner thought that no one got that one.

Another patient was from ITO and had been charged with some kind of union busting, which was odd, as Tanner knew there were no unions of miners over on ITO, and he thought it would be interesting to learn more.

There were more introductions, and Tanner listened and filed away his group members past and wondered if any of them were being honest or even close to being honest in their initial introductions, and he knew he'd probably never know.

Ninety days was enough time to do as a sentence. But not enough to find the truth ...

####

The smash of the petri dish hitting the far wall in the Secure lab was sharp, and Toombs didn't pay it a bit of attention. He had thrown it in a fit of anger as it was perfectly unaffected by the insertion of the latest virus trials—D-23 was dead too.

He stood by the tray in front of him and wondered if they'd ever find a successful growth strain, and then his training took over.

Of course, we will—via trial after trial after trial.

“That's what we do,” he said and sighed. He slid the tray back into the growth chamber and went to fetch the broom and dustpan to sweep up the broken shards of glass in the corner. Sweeping it up, he smiled since his fit of anger hadn't been seen by anyone else on the Ikarian virus team, which was a good thing. He slid a hand along the face of the wall there, and he could detect a few other teensy dents—each time a previous vaccine had failed, he'd thrown one of the telltale petri dishes at this same spot, and even when cleaned up, the tiny dents were noticeable. At least to him, and as the principal research scientist on the Ikarian virus team, it was a habit he was not proud of.

But then failing at this research would be a career limiting move too,
he thought and kept sweeping.

Once the mess was cleaned up, he went back over to the administration desk in the opposite corner of the labs, sat, and keyed in his administrative access code to get to the virus database.

"Stupid virus is what we should have called it," he said right out loud and grinned to himself. His red hair was something he had been ribbed about back when he'd been a grad student on his PhD campaign, but no one would ever say anything about red-headed anger to his face anymore.
Perks of the big job
, he thought, and he keyed in the final status of the D-23 vaccine as a FAIL. He saved the file and then clicked on D-24 to get the next set of vaccine items aligned and formulas planned.

The simple fact was, he well knew, that the vaccine they were mandated to develop would cause the patient who took it to not age.

The item that was the enemy in that simple equation was aging itself—a part of life for the known races populating the galaxy, and that was the issue. Any vaccine that was a biological preparation provided active acquired immunity to a disease—and in this case, the disease was age. The vaccines usually contained an agent that resembled the microorganisms that age was made from, and that was a large part of the issue, the identification of those microorganisms.

It was helpful in one respect, as they were working on the virus that had infected the Ikarians who were their test subjects. The virus lay dormant within the child as the host which was a Godsend—that allowed them to identify, with a degree of certainty, what the child developed as puberty set up those microorganisms to do and to react. How they reacted was the point of the entire set of tests within the D category.

Vaccines could be prophylactic which this one would need to be to prevent or ameliorate the effects of aging. A simple vaccination would hold back time.

Simple. Neat and so far beyond their abilities though they'd been at this for almost a year.

They'd veered off into DNA vaccine discovery, using the virus's own DNA to insert into the DNA the vaccine itself, which should have worked out by now. Some of the cells in the test animals' bodies had recognized the DNA proteins from the Ikarian virus—that much they had established. And if they recognized those DNA proteins, then they should mount an attack against those proteins and cells and express them. Because these cells lived for a very long time within the host, if the microorganisms of age were again encountered at a later time, they would be attacked instantly by the host's immune system. The big advantage of the DNA vaccine was that they would be easy to produce, store, and disburse.

But why they had not fought the virus by attacking it had been the question. One, he was sad to realize, that so far the answer had evaded them.

They had mounted their own testing and control on those test animals with a double-blind secure test, and they were assured their lab and tests were running the highest of standards.

Enough
, he thought,
that was just more evidence that their best efforts had yet to yield results. So back to the next series.

He watched as the various already identified microorganisms populated the graphs and the various Ikarian items were matched and set up to work off each other. The levels of testosterone and estrogen were carefully added to those various sections, and new DNA proteins were programmed for creation, and in an hour, they sat in front of his vaccine printer and he smiled. "Amazing how things work," he said to himself and input the details so the vaccines would be inserted into the petri dish hosts first thing tomorrow.

Notifying the team was next, which was a simple click on his console. Moments later, the team would be reading same.

He slid back in his chair and keyed in the Animal Test Lab video monitor. As he clicked the PURGE button, he watched as the large plas-screens slid down out of the ceiling and surrounded the racks of cages. Inside, the Garnuthian mice were going about their business and that, while unimportant, at least salved his guilt on this. "Nonsense," he said to himself, "this is just part of vaccine development."

Pressing the ENGAGE button on the screen, he noted the gentle hiss as the now sealed racks of cages were filled with the anesthetic, and within a few minutes, all the mice were dead. End of the D-23 was complete, and he vacated the closed cage area by pouring in the pure O
2
. He clicked the OFF button a few minutes later, and the screens slid back up and into their place in the ceiling.

Ward would need a few more minutes to clean up the labs in the morning, so he messaged him that and closed his console down.

Tomorrow would be another day and that would mean another start to new testing.

####

"Doctor Bassem, there is a priority EYES ONLY from the Caliphate, sir," the nurse at the station said and pointed to the small office off to the left of the backside of the large station. On the Caliphate ward on the Hospital Ship, the layouts were similar to other wards, and as usual, the nurses' station on each floor was the magnet for both staff and patients.

He nodded and said for her to feed it into the room's Ansible console and sat heavily in the chair. He quickly glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone else might be able to see the monitor. With the door closed, no one would be able to see the sender of the call. He tapped his fingers on the desk waiting for the call and knew it was not going to be a good one. But that was his cousin for sure.

As the monitor suddenly showed the royal crest of the head of state followed quickly by a fade to his cousin's face, he had to force a smile and nodded too.

"Good of you to call, Caliph," he said and dipped his head to show respect.

The Caliph was still reading something on his desk, held up a palm, and the call was on hold.

Figures, Kahil thought and he waited, still looking at the Caliph and still attentive.

No sense in getting on the boss's bad side before he even—

"Kahil, good of you to take my call," said Sharia al Dotsa, the Caliph of Neria, and he almost smiled himself.

Maybe I just thought that, as that's what I'd like to believe
, Kahil thought as he played with some coins in his lab coat pocket.

Change for a cold drink down at the Juice Bar on the main deck, he knew he'd get to use later.

"We have an issue that only you will be able to handle, my cousin," the Caliph said, "and it's pretty simple, I would think. Of course, the handling of this mission will be up to you—all I expect are results, my cousin," he said firmly.

"My Caliph, might I gently remind you that I am a doctor? I look after mostly injuries or diseases of our countrymen here in the Barony, and as such, the word 'mission' is so out of place in what I do that it's not even something I can countenance, Caliph," he said and he knew the tone of his voice was only a bit of an attempt to duck this. He felt good for only an instant as the Caliph's face darkened and his voice grew even harder.

"The fact that you are a doctor in the employ of the Barony is exactly what the Caliphate needs, cousin," he snapped back. "You are able to move throughout the Hospital Ship as you have often told me. You have the necessary nearness to the Barony Research facility that is there. You know who the chief scientists are, and you will proceed to accomplish this mission, else there will be serious consequences for you, cousin—and your family here too," the Caliph said.

Kahil shuddered. The family his cousin was referring to was his son and wife and grandkids, his mother still on Neria, and a whole selection of various other aunts and uncles and the like. He'd long ago stopped wondering if they all knew the Caliph used their wellbeing as a poker chip as he played them all the time.

"What is the mission that you need done—and I take it that I will be the agent you will be using?" he said.

"I need you to get me the Ikarian virus vaccine—the successful one only, of course.

Kahil's mouth dropped open, and he held up both hands with his palms up.

"My Caliph, that is ... that is the most important scientific discovery for the Barony—for the galaxy actually—and I would never be able to accomplish that task. Never. Not a single chance I can get that done for you—"

"Not for me, Kahil—for your family. You realize that they are what is at risk, yes?" the Caliph said, his voice silky and his smile sickening.

He nodded. "If you give me years, then maybe—but if you wish this done by a deadline, then you might as well pack all our relatives up and send them to the desert on Olbia. You do realize that the security is so strong on this single research item that it's not even discussed here socially?"

He hoped the Caliph wouldn't know he was lying. He'd overheard something in the cafeteria one day—if only he could remember who had been talking to whom, and that might be of some help.