Shockball (13 page)

Expecting a fight over the hand, I was pleasantly surprised when Joseph backed off and let me fix it myself. Surprised until I noticed him making clinical observations of my one-handed dexterity with the scanner.

“Want to see me jump through hoops after this?”

Joseph had no sense of humor. “Your ability to leap is insignificant. I am conducting a scientific analysis of a transcendent achievement in genetics.”

“What did Thomas Love Peacock say? ‘I almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to exterminate the human race.’ ” I used a dermal probe to extract a couple of tiny plas shards from my knuckles.

“Peacock was a foolish man.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” I dropped the shards into a specimen container, so he could analyze them. He analyzed everything. “By the way, when did he meet you?”

My creator put down his datapad. “What is your prognosis?”

“I’ll never be able to play the violin again.” I flushed the lacerations, then activated the suture laser. As I sealed the deepest gash, Joseph placed a folded stack of garments on the table beside me.

“Change into these.”

I didn’t see Joseph standing there waiting until I finished dressing my hand. He had that weird look in his eyes again. Reever was pacing back and forth, the way he did only when he was extremely upset.

What was going on now?

“You want me to change.” I didn’t touch the clothes. “Leave and I will.”

“Your modesty is superfluous.”

“So is your face.”

He handed me a bunch of monitor leads. “Attach these as is appropriate for cardiovascular monitoring.”

“So now I run the maze and find the cheese.” I put them down beside the clothes. “I’ll put them on. As soon as you go.”

Joseph’s eyebrows rose. “Will sedation be required?”

“To put up with you? Plenty. Make it continuous.”

He went over to Reever’s treatment room, and addressed him for the first time. “How do you tolerate her flippancy?”

Reever said something in Hsktskt that I was fairly sure didn’t mean “let’s talk about it sometime,” then he hit the plas wall. Blood splattered in a wide arc as his knuckles split, and the panel cracked. My creator swiftly backed away.

Oh, Duncan
. My heart ached for him.

“Joe, you’d better leave and let me calm him down. I don’t think your drones could hold him right now, not even with all the static in their discharge units.”

“You have ten minutes.” Joseph gave my husband a filthy look, then retreated. I heard the sound of the access panel being secured as I went over to let Reever out. The minute I did, he was all over me.

“Did he hurt you?” He touched my face, my hair, then ran his hands over me. “What did he do to your hand?” He clasped it between his, getting his blood on my nice clean bandage. “I am going to take him apart one limb at a time.”

I stood on tiptoe to press my cheek against his. “He didn’t, I hit a console, and you’ll have to wait your turn.” His arms came around me, and we stood like that for a minute.

The drones refuse to give me any information. I can’t tolerate not knowing what is happening to you. Have you found a way out?

I shook my head.
The whole place is crawling with drone security. He never leaves us alone, did you notice
? I looked over at the maintenance unit sitting a few feet away. Its sensors were active. “Let me take a look at that hand now.”
You shouldn’t pick fights with plas walls, you know
.

He fingered the bandage wrapped around my knuckles.
Physician, heal thyself
.

Very funny.

After I took care of his hand, which was in worse shape than mine and required bonesetters, the maintenance unit made Reever stay in my cell. Three other units repaired the damage he’d done to his. I hooked up the monitor leads and changed my tunic for the lightweight shirt and trousers Joseph had given me.

As soon as I was finished dressing, my creator came back in, followed by four drones toting a funny-looking treadmill. It reminded me of the kind of equipment SrrokVar had used on me on Catopsa.

“What’s that for?”

“Test trials.” Joseph had the drones set it up and indicated I should climb on.

“What sort of test trials?”

“Cardiovascular status.”

I checked it over and noticed the vid screen positioned at the front, and two-way feeds. “What are you going to do? Make me watch vids of your lectures to see if I can run and nap at the same time?”

“It is time to begin now. Assume your position on the treadmill.”

I climbed on, and hooked myself up to the monitors. The lead cables were long enough that I wouldn’t get brought up short unless I fell off.

Joseph started the treadmill’s track at a slow pace. I walked. Nothing happened for a few minutes as he made some adjustments on his consoles. Then the track started to pick up speed, which forced me to trot.

The screen at the front of the unit flickered on, and I saw a vid of myself, stepping out of a junky-looking star vessel. It was the
Bestshot
, Dhreen’s old ship, which had been destroyed when he crashed on K-2. I smiled, remembering how shocked I’d been by the first alien world I’d ever seen. My smile faded as Dhreen joined me on the Transport platform.

“Wow, look, home movies. Did you pay that two-faced, orange-haired liar to make recordings of everything I did on his ship, too? Watching me cook must be enthralling.”

Joseph didn’t say anything. He was already engrossed in the readings from his console.

The track speed increased by increments, until I was running. The screen began showing a series of vids of my life on K-2.

There were the sparse, utilitarian rooms I had occupied in Colonial Housing. Scenes from that first night, when I’d come home to find Jenner gone, later returned by a giant, alien kitty cat who not only walked upright, but talked—my pal Alunthri.

My first couple of weeks had been rough, until I’d made some friends and had some good times. That was before the Core infiltrated the bodies of the colonists.

I ran in place, mesmerized by the recordings of patients I’d treated, meals I’d eaten, friends I’d made. Ana. Dr. mu Cheft. Lisette. Ecla, my flowery charge nurse. It made my heart twist. I hadn’t seen them in two years now.

But Joe had. He’d made sure I’d go to K-2—all part of his experiment on me—while I’d thought I’d made a clean getaway. I’d never noticed the tiny recording drones he’d sent to monitor me and document my activities.

“How did you camouflage the drones, Joe? Make them look like insects? Weave them in my clothes? What?”

“They were attached to some of your personal belongings. Whenever you moved, motion and heat detectors activated the track/record function.”

On the vid, a handsome, alien pilot appeared beside me outside the Trading Center, and I tripped and nearly fell.

It was
Kao
.

How dare he do this to me? It wasn’t an experiment anymore, it was some kind of sick, twisted game he wanted to play with my head. I looked away from the smiling image of my dead lover.

“Shut it down.”

He touched his console, and a mild discharge pulse hit me, making me stumble again. “Watch the screen and continue running.”

I jumped off the treadmill, and got a second, far nastier zap that made me drop to my knees. When I could unclench my jaw, I yelled, “
Shut it down
!”

Joe came to stand over me. “Get up and continue the test, or I will have the drones fracture the linguist’s other hand.”

I glanced over at the treatment room. Reever looked ready to do it himself on another wall. I couldn’t let this get to me. I was a big girl. I could handle it.

“Enjoy yourself, Doctor, because the payback for this is going to be colossal.”

I dragged myself up, waved and smiled at my husband, then climbed back on the treadmill. The track and the screen started up again, and I got to watch Kao and me eating at the Trade Center as I went from a walk to a steady run.

Thank you for saving me from hearing all of Paul’s EngTech tales for the fifteenth time. I would like to see you again, Healer Grey Veil. Perhaps we might share another meal
—
alone
?

I remembered how stunned I’d been, to be asked out on a date by an alien. Especially one as good-looking as the Jorenian pilot. What had I said?
If you can find me off duty. Until then, Kao Torin
.

Now the screen showed us saying good-bye to each other. His white eyes crinkled as he smiled down at me.
Walk within beauty
.

He’d given me that—a walk within beauty—and much more. As the scenes of our rather unorthodox courtship flashed on the screen, I ran faster, harder, as if doing that would help me escape the overwhelming regret and heart-shattering sense of failure.

I’d killed Kao, trying to save his life. He’d contracted the Core pathogen early on during the epidemic on K-2, and when he’d stopped breathing, I’d desperately infused him with my own blood. Without testing what would happen. My immunities had brought him back, but only for a little while. After wiping out the Core, my blood had poisoned Kao.

Which, combined with what I’d done on the
Sunlace
before we were captured, made me just as much of a monster as Joe.

Cherijo.

I slammed up every wall I had.
I’m okay, Reever
. No I wasn’t. I was running and weeping silently and almost hyperventilating.
He’s throwing more ammunition at me
.

Reever projected something into the link that made the pain go dim and quieted my thoughts.
Do you remember the Marine Province simulation you programmed in the environome on the
Sunlace?

The beach?

Yes
. He entered my mind, and for once didn’t complain about the walls.
Close your mind to what is happening. Summon the image of that shoreline
.

I did, and suddenly I was running down a long stretch of amber sand, right beside Reever. Bunches of scarlet flowers rustled with a melodic hum in the soft, salty breeze. I looked over at him.
How do you do this
?

Does it matter?

No, I guess not
. Anything was better than being on that treadmill.
How long can you sustain this… whatever it is
?

I don’t know
. He reached out, and took my hand.
I’ve never tried it for longer than an hour with you before
.

Can you do it again when he
— I cut that thought short.
Do we have to run
?

No
. He stopped, and so did I. On another level I was aware I was still running, back in the lab, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on me.

Good
. I pivoted toward the dark purple ocean, hopping over a cluster of feather-leafed grasses as I whooped and tore off my shirt and trousers.
Come on, Duncan! Last one in is a rotten egg
!

Reever was able to maintain the link between us for an undetermined amount of time, until something malfunctioned in the treadmill unit, and I was pulled off. I left my husband in the Marine Province illusion and returned to reality.

A reality filled with aching leg muscles, burning lungs, and a lab filled with smoke.

“Hey!” I coughed, stepped away from the motionless track, and waved my hands in front of my face. “What happened?”

Joseph was at the console, hammering on the envirocontrols. The air replacement units kicked on, and a few seconds later, the air cleared. He straightened and turned to me. “You burned out the motor on the treadmill.”

“Really?” I walked in a circle, trying to stretch out my cramped muscles. “Guess instruments of torture don’t hold up like they used to. Maybe if you return it, they’ll give you your credits back.”

He came over and ran a scanner over me. “Remarkable.” He paused to note the results on a chart, then repeated the scan. “Did you take up long-distance running after leaving Terra?”

“No. Why?”

“Because you just beat the world’s record for the forty kilometer by ten minutes.” He shut off the scanner and stared at me. “There is minimal muscle strain and elevated respiratory activity, but no significant increase in your blood pressure or heart rate.”

I shook some sweaty hair out of my eyes. “Your equipment must be malfunctioning. Look what happened to the treadmill.”

He came closer. “Apparently it is. We will repeat this test tomorrow.”

Reever was standing at the wall again, fists clenched. Joe was close enough for me to smell him. He still wore the same cologne, and too much of it, as always.

“I’d like to take a break and have a meal with my husband.”

“You will not be given the opportunity to have intercourse with him.”

As if I’d do that, where he could monitor everything. “I’ll try to restrain myself.”

I walked over to the only prep unit in sight, hoping Joe would take the hint and leave. He did. The maintenance unit trundled over to Reever’s treatment room and opened the door panel. When Reever would have walked out, it blocked his path.

“Wait here. Dr. Cherijo will bring your food to you.”

No utensils, which meant no chance of getting my hands on a knife to pass to Reever. There were only three things listed on the main menu: vegetarian lasa-gna, coq au vin, and serada baked with shredded nyi-lophstian root.

That’ll teach me to be a smart ass
. I prepared two trays, and carried them over to the room before I addressed the drone. “Get lost.”

“All input by Dr. Cherijo must have Dr. Joseph’s approval before the unit may comply with any directives.”

“At least get out of my way.”

I went in, and placed the trays on the table before turning to Reever. He was watching me closely, so I blocked most of my thoughts off behind a smooth, impenetrable mental barrier.

“I regret your creator reminded you of times best forgotten.”

I smiled sadly. “He’s just yanking my chain. Besides, I don’t want to forget Kao. He was very important to me.” Before he could react, I reached over and kissed him. “Don’t. You’re not competing with his memory. I loved him, and I love you.”