Shockball (8 page)

“League Scout Ship
Truman
. Is Dr. Cherijo Grey Veil on board?”

I wasn’t going to let them fire on my family again. “I’m here, you bastards.”

“You are ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded.”

“By whose authority?” Reever asked.

“By the authority of—”

Suddenly the
Sunlace
was firing on the biggest ship, and I was pounding on the console. “Xonea! No!”

The mercenaries returned fire, and we had to sit there helplessly and watch as two more levels sustained heavy damage.

“
Truman
. We will suspend the communications block for sixty seconds. You will advise your allies to stand down at once, or we will destroy all your vessels and the colony on the planet you orbit.”

My hands started to shake. There was no way the Meridae could defend themselves against that many ships. When I looked at Reever, he nodded. I pressed the console keypad again. “Xonea. Listen to me. We can’t fight them.” I relayed the mercenary’s threats, then added, “I invoke my Speaking.”

There was a brief silence, then Xonea acknowledged in a voice as cold as death, “As you wish, ClanSister.”

I shut down the signal, then opened one to the mercenaries. “This is Dr. Cherijo Torin. I surrender. Come and get me.” I shut down communications and turned to Reever. “Don’t look at me like that. Go down to the launch bay and take the shuttle back to the
Sunlace.”
I opened the storage compartment and took my disgruntled pet out. “Take Jenner with you.”

He only shook his head and did something that made the engines rumble.

I wasn’t going to lose him or Jenner. Not to mercenaries, not like this. “Duncan, don’t you dare.”

“They will pursue us. It will give Xonea time to transition.” He set coordinates, and powered up the engines.

“You really think they’re going to chase us if we run?”

“You are why they are here. Where you go, they will follow. Put your harness on.”

I put Jenner back in the compartment, which got me a couple of good scratches in the process, then pulled the rigging over my shoulders. “Don’t warn them. Just do it.”

“I will, as soon as we’re clear of the planet.”

For a few minutes Reever successfully dodged a continuous volley of pulse fire as he maneuvered the
Truman
out of orbit and away from the
Sunlace
and the
Perpetua
. As he predicted, the mercenaries followed us. I started digging my nails into my chair’s arm rests.

“When did you learn to fly like this?” I asked him as the ship went into yet another rolling maneuver.

“When I was on Terra.” He frowned as his fingers moved rapidly over the flight control panel. “I once entertained the idea of becoming a transport pilot.”

The mercenary ships were fanning out, trying to flank us on both sides. We were still too close to the planet to initiate the stardrive. “You never told me that.”

“You never asked.”

We both were jerked against our rigs as the flanking ships began firing at us from both sides. There was no way Reever could dodge the cross fire, so he did something completely unexpected. He cut the engines entirely, which made us drop back and under the pursuing ships.

“Good move,” I said, peering at the viewer. “Can you initiate the stardrive from here?” No answer. “Duncan?”

“I just tried to.” Reever sat back. “Cherijo, there is no stardrive on this vessel.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Of course there’s a stardrive. It’s a star vessel.”

“No, it’s not.” He calmly unfastened his rigging and stood up. “I believe the reason for that is about to present itself.”

The little drone I’d left down in Medical came through the helm door panel. “Simulation sequence complete. Dimensional grid shutdown in progress.”

I watched with wide eyes as the helm began to slowly dissolve. Equipment, consoles, even the view screen vanished. In a panic I grabbed Jenner and hauled him out of what I thought had been a storage compartment. It disappeared, too. Soon everything was gone, and we were left standing in a large, empty compartment lined with some kind of glowing, yellow mesh.

I thought of the thoracic training unit, the lack of odors, and groaned. “I don’t believe it. How could I be so stupid? It was all a simulation.”

“Yes.” Reever kicked aside Nine-Six-One, who had turned into a simple recording device on rollers, also covered with the glowing mesh. “We should exit this area now.”

We went out into the empty corridor. It, too, was lined with mesh. “The shuttle. We brought the shuttle over from the
Sunlace
. That’s real.”

“I doubt we can reach it. They’re probably on board by now.”

He was two for two, I thought, as I heard the thundering sound of many footsteps running toward us. “I knew Joe’s present would turn out to be a lemon.”

Reever turned and caught me in his arms. “Cherijo, whatever they say or do, don’t fight them.”

As it turned out, neither of us had a chance to fight anything. A small panel opened on the corridor wall beside me, and I turned a few seconds too late.

“Reever, look out—”

A bright, hot beam of energy burst over us. I fell to the floor, my vision already going dark. Just before I lost consciousness, I felt Reever’s arms close around me.

“Dr. Grey Veil.”

The voice was feminine. High-pitched. Cheerful. I wanted to slug whoever owned it.

“Can you hear me, Dr. Grey Veil?”

Certainly I could hear her. There was no way to avoid that kind of voice, other than puncturing my own eardrums. It acted like a parietal drill on my skull, drilling in to meet my huge, throbbing headache.

“It’s time for you to wake up now.”

Was she nuts? Some lunatic had beaten me, glued my eyelashes together, and lined my mouth with hundred-year-old waste. Every muscle I had felt torn and abused. Unless I got to return the favor, I wasn’t ever going to wake up again.

The
Truman.
Why aren’t I on the
Truman?

Recalling that made me force my sticky eyelids open. A smiling Terran female face floated above me, her features partially obscured by light gleaming off a surgical visor shield. Or her toothy smile. Either one could have produced all that mega-shine.

I could knock a few of those pretty white teeth out, I thought. See if that helped cut the glare.

Before I could take a swing, she slid the shield up and out of the way. “Good, you’re awake. I’m so glad. How are you feeling?”

She said that like she meant every word. I spotted the glittering, brand-new gold insignia on the collar of her trendy physician’s tunic, and went stiff.

Oh, God. They’d stuck me with Doctor Sunshine and Happiness.

“Don’t be afraid.” She patted me the way she would a shivering dog. “You’re safe now and doing just fine.”

Afraid? I was terrified. She was such a rookie, she still believed it actually mattered what she looked like. I started yelling—or tried to. “Where am I?”

My croak made her chipper smile become more sympathetic. “Poor thing,” she crooned, stroking my forehead. “Don’t remember a thing, do you?”

I remembered how to inflict severe head trauma. I took a deep breath to tell her that, and immediately started coughing. What was in my lungs? It felt and tasted like someone had poured laser rig coolant into them.

“Slow, shallow breaths now. We just took you off the machine, and you’re still transitioning.”

I didn’t transition—Jorenian ships did. Was I on one?

I looked around. Monitors, berth optics, a vitals array. Medical. I was in some kind of medical facility. Then I remembered I’d been captured by the League. Apparently now they were going to start experimenting on me.

Time to exit the premises.

She touched my face again with her soft hand. “Please, don’t try to move or speak, Doctor. You’ve been in sleep suspension for an entire cycle.”

“A
cycle
!” Where was Duncan? And Jenner? I yanked against my restraints and ignored the scraping sound of my voice. “Where’s my husband? Where’s my cat?” They had me strapped down tight. “Let me out of these things, you stupid twit!”

That dimmed the smile a few watts. “In due course, I will.” She picked up a chart and made some notations on it. Her short, honey-colored hair gleamed as she glanced over at me. I’m Dr. Lily Risen. Call me Lily. Please, don’t struggle. I’d hate to have to sedate you again.“

“Again?” Call-me-Lily hadn’t even run a scan on me yet. If she really was in charge of me, I was lucky to be alive. “Where am I?”

“You’re on board the L.T.F.
Stephenson
. We’ve just gone into orbit above Terra. Now, relax and try to stay calm while I take your vitals.”

“My vitals are fine. Where is my husband and my cat?”

She hesitated, then went over to a console and accessed it. “Linguist Reever and the animal were brought out of suspension yesterday and have been transferred to the detainment area.”

“You put my
cat
in
jail
?”

Doctor Sunshine walked back over to my berth. “Of course not. Once it was revived, the animal refused to be separated from Linguist Reever.” She rubbed her forearm, which I saw was bandaged.

Jenner
really
didn’t like strangers handling him. “He’s got some claws, doesn’t he?”

She gave me a prim frown. “Yes.”

That was my boy. “Are they all right?”

“Yes. We also discovered the most extraordinary form of mold on the ship—it appears to be ambulatory.”

Lord, they’d even found the Lok-Teel. “That also belongs to me. Where is it?”

“Right over there, in a specimen container. Now, here.” She leaned over me, holding a syrinpress. “No, don’t be afraid. I’m going to administer the last corrective to bring you all the way out of the suspension. It won’t hurt you.”

“What corrective?”

“They told me you’d be demanding,” Lily said as she infused me at the jugular. The sting of the drug spread through my neck, and made me arch against my bonds again. “I know it’s a little uncomfortable. But we’ll have you out of this chamber in a few minutes, and then you can see your father.” She smiled again, as if expecting me to sob or cheer or something.

No one had bothered to brief Dr. Risen about my relationship with my creator. Which, when I thought about it, was terrific.

“My father’s here? On this ship?” When she nodded, I let my lips curl up on both sides. “That’s great news. I can’t wait to see him. How about letting me up now?”

“Sure. Just remember, take it slow and easy.”

Oh, goody. Nobody had bothered to brief her about
anything
.

She released the straps holding me down. “You’re on your honor now. Please don’t try to escape. I’d hate to have to call security.”

Was there anything she didn’t hate to have to do?

“I won’t try to escape.” Try, hell, I was
going
to escape. I sat up, then pushed myself off the suspension unit. It took a minute to get my legs steady, so I took the time to study my surroundings.

They’d put me in a typical League medical bay. All the berths were empty, though, and Dr. Risen was the only med pro in sight. Excellent. One on one was a lot easier than one on twenty.

Even better, she’d also neglected to deactivate the console. She’d have used her password, and she just might be a Primary. Primary physicians had access to the entire database. Every bit of information I’d need was right there, waiting for me.

Now I just had to get rid of Sunshine.

I eyed the chart in her hands, then a dermal probe and syrinpress. All three were easily within my reach. Decisions, decisions.

“Are you the Primary here?”

“Yes. Look at me, please.” She held an optic scanner up and checked my eyes.

They were making airheads like her Primaries. Mother of All Houses. “First assignment, right?”

“Is it that obvious?” She even laughed pretty. “Yes, this is my first offworld assignment. Takes some getting used to, you know, working on a troop freighter, being around all these nonhumans.”

“Uh-huh.” There were barely discernible bags under the makeup she’d blotted around her sparkling brown eyes. Establish rapport, Cherijo. Lull her into thinking you’re the Sunshine and Happiness Patient. “Must have been pretty rough. You look a little tired.”

“You were a very naughty patient, Doctor.” She wagged a manicured fingernail at me. “I had to remain awake for the entire jaunt because of you.”

The chart. It was closest; the obvious choice. I moved my hands into position under it and locked my fingers together. “Why’s that?”

“Trying to keep you in suspension was really a challenge. You kept waking up, no matter how much sedation I—”

I hit the bottom of the chart as hard as I could with my joined hands. The edge flew up, smashed into her chin, and sent her staggering backward. Lily shrieked and grabbed her face, but by then I had retrieved the syrinpress, tackled her, and sat on top of her.

“No!” She sounded funny, and struggled as I calibrated the instrument for a hefty dose of Valumine, then pressed it against her jugular. “What are you… ?”

“Don’t you hate it, Lily, when someone infuses you with something and they won’t tell you what it is?” I smiled. “Have a nice nap.”

I got to my feet as soon as her eyes fluttered shut, and started stripping her down. Sunshine was a foot taller than me, so I had to roll under the hems of her sleeves and cuffs. I put the syrinpress and the dermal probe in the pockets of her lab coat. On the plus side, she had small feet, so her footgear almost fit me.

Once I was dressed, I dragged her over to the berth, heaved her up on it, and clapped her into the restraints. A strip torn from the berth linens made an adequate, if not quite fashionable, gag.

“Don’t go anywhere now.” I checked her vitals. Yeah, she’d be out for a couple of hours. Then I draped her to make it look like I was still in the berth, huddled under the linens.

At the console, I pulled up a schematic of the ship. According to the screen, Reever and Jenner were being held in a compartment two levels below me. I knew just where it was, since the
Stephenson
was the same class of League ship as the
Perpetua
, and the layouts were almost identical.