Hella

by David Gerrold

  “What’s going on—?”

  “There are booger-jacks in the caves!”

  “There’s no such thing—”

  “The kids saw them—”

  “They didn’t see anything. They’re hysterical—”

  “They must have seen something—”

  “Somebody must have done something to them—”

  “Were they kidnapped?”

  “We’ll find out—”

  And a few shouts of, “It’s all right! You’re safe now! You’re safe!”

  We weren’t, but we were the only ones who knew that.

  * * *

  —

  Executive Med-Bay isn’t much different, just a little smaller. There isn’t a lot of extra room on the exec levels. Not yet anyway. Coordinator Layton had announced an expansion of the section. He said it would be necessary to increase the administrative staff before the new colonists landed. But the work hadn’t started yet. He was still reorganizing things.

  But the exec Med-Bay was big enough for us. We took up three of the six med-beds. Nobody else was in the section, just us and Doctor Rhee and one of her nurses. His name was Jolly. He was tall and skinny and hardly ever talked.

  After she finished scanning each of us, she shooed him out. “Go to the caf. Get sandwiches and fruit juice. Charge it to Med-Bay.” She came over to my bed and parked herself in a convenient chair.

  “All right, Kyle,” she said. “What’s going on?”

  I looked across to Charles and J’mee. Should I tell her?

  “Don’t look at them,” she said. “I’m asking you.”

  “I—I can’t tell you. I don’t know. I mean—” I stopped.

  She took my hand in hers. She turned it face up as if she intended to examine it, but she held my hand so I could clearly see what she was doing. With her index finger, she drew an X across my palm.

  “Kyle, whatever it is, you’re safe now.” She drew another X.

  It took me a second.

  Oh. Right.

  Captain Skyler said that only two people at Winterland knew the truth. It made sense that Doctor Rhee would be one of them. But what if she wasn’t?

  I looked up at the ceiling, at the walls around us, then back to Doctor Rhee—my way of asking if someone might be listening.

  She nodded. Yes, someone might be.

  I still wasn’t sure. Nobody had told us about Doctor Rhee. Maybe in all the excitement, but no—

  Or maybe she wasn’t in the right place to help, so we weren’t supposed to take the risk—

  I couldn’t figure it out. Not without the noise. “I don’t want to talk to anyone,” I said. “Only Captain Boynton.”

  “Not your mom?”

  “Yes, my mom. But Captain Boynton too. Where is he?”

  “He’s with the searchers. A lot of people have been looking for you. All three of you.” She added, “But everybody knows you’re safe now. The searchers are coming back, but it might be a while. Some of them went pretty deep. So I thought you might want to talk to me first.” She folded my fingers over and squeezed my hand.

  “I don’t think there’s anything to tell—”

  “All right, have it your way. But there will have to be an investigation, probably a big public investigation. It looks like you violated the safeties. You put Charles and J’mee in danger. A lot of people are going to want to know what you did and why. You’d better be prepared for that.”

  I gulped and nodded. I didn’t know if she was serious or saying it for the cameras. I thought I was doing pretty well, but without the noise I had no way of checking. I wanted everybody to know everything, but without the noise, I was on my own.

  Doctor Rhee softened her tone. “Kyle, I have to ask you. Does this have anything to do with your—with the procedure?”

  I shook my head. “No. Yes. Maybe a little. But not really. I mean—I don’t know what I mean.” I didn’t want the conversation to continue. I was afraid I might say something I shouldn’t.

  J’mee must have realized what was happening because she started shrieking again. “Where are we?! What’s happening?! I want to go home?! Where’s my Daddy?! Don’t let them get us!”

  Doctor Rhee straightened immediately, grabbed something from the supply cabinet and strode right up to J’mee. “Knock it off, kid. I don’t want to sedate you, and you don’t want a reputation as a hysteric.” She held up an injector, and J’mee shut up in mid-shriek.

  “I thought so.” Doctor Rhee looked around at the three of us. “All right, I get it. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  At least, I think that’s what she intended to say. Before she could finish the sentence, three men came pushing into the room, one of them shouting and shoving Jolly out of the way. He was protesting, “You can’t come in here—” but they ignored him. All of them were big, but the shouting man was the biggest. He was very angry and very loud. “Where’s my daughter?! What are you people doing here? Letting children get lost, running around in caves with who knows what kinds of monsters?” J’mee’s dad. He glanced around the room as if looking for someone to attack, but when he saw J’mee, he stopped.

  He went immediately to her bedside. “Are you all right? What do you mean, disappearing like that? I told you not to hang around with these people! If that little freak-boy touched you in any way—”

  “Daddy! He’s my friend. Chigger too.”

  “Is that what they want you to say? Come on, I’ll take you home—” He bent to scoop her up—

  “No! No! We have to stay together!” She pushed him away.

  He whirled on Doctor Rhee. “What the hell is going on here?”

  “I think I can explain.” She was still holding the sedative injector.

  “You’d better,” J’mee’s dad demanded. He glanced at the injector in her hand. “What’s that for?”

  “It’s for you if you don’t stop yelling. This child is in shock, and I’m not releasing her. She doesn’t leave until I say so.” She pointed to the two bodyguards. “You two, wait outside. And don’t let anyone in.” They looked to J’mee’s dad. He nodded and they left. After the door closed behind them, Doctor Rhee pointed to a chair. “You’d better sit down.” After he did she handed the sedative injector to Jolly. “J’mee, do you want to tell your father what’s going on?”

  J’mee nodded reluctantly. She sat up straighter. “Daddy—? Will you let me tell you the whole story? Do you promise not to interrupt? Stinky promise?”

  “What’s a stinky promise?”

  She showed him. He made a face. “That’s silly.”

  “Daddy, this is very important.”

  “Fine. Stinky promise.”

  J’mee took a breath. “Daddy, I know that you and Mister Layton have been making plans—”

  “Coordinator Layton,” he corrected.

  “You promised not to interrupt—”

  “Fine. Go on.”

  “He’s not the Coordinator. I mean, he shouldn’t be. I know that you’ve been making plans with him, but, well—I don’t think you should. you shouldn’t have anything at all to do with him.”

  “Sweetheart, I know you mean well, but there’s a lot you don’t understand. This is grownup business—”

  “So is this, Daddy. And stop interrupting. Mister Layton crashed the lifter. I mean, he arranged it. He wanted to kill Captain Skyler and Madam Coordinator and everyone, so he could become Coordinator—”

  “J’mee, you’re too smart to believe those silly stories—”

  “Daddy, shut up! Please!”

  He started to rise. “J’mee, I’m your father. Or have you forgotten? Hanging around with these—these menials?! You will not talk to me like that. We’ll finish this conversation only after you remember your manners.” He made as if to leave—

  “Da
ddy! They’re still alive! They weren’t on the lifter. And there’s evidence that proves that Layton did it. His whole family—almost. Marley confessed! There’s a video!”

  For a moment, he hesitated.

  “Daddy, they’re alive. I saw them.”

  “Where?” he demanded.

  “I can’t tell you. I mean, I won’t tell you where they are. Not until the video is broadcast.”

  “Sweetheart, listen to me. Videos can be faked. Whatever these people are trying to do—”

  “Daddy, everybody’s going to know what happened. If you knew about the crash, and you don’t say something first—”

  “That’s not going to happen! Whoever you saw, whatever they said, it’s a lie. You’re too young to understand. There’s too much at stake. There are selfish people everywhere who want to stop us from having a good life here—”

  “Daddy! No! You’re not listening!”

  “I’ve heard all I need to. You’re hysterical, and I’m taking you out of here—” He bent to pick her up. She tried to push him away—

  Doctor Rhee pushed him back. She stepped between them, holding her hand out sideways. Jolly slapped the injector into her hand and she held it up right in front of the big man’s eyes, really close. “Step back, sir! She’s not going anywhere with you. She’s my patient. She’s under my supervision. She’s not leaving here until I discharge her.” Before he could speak, she added one more thing, “And you really do not want to piss me off.”

  Whoever J’mee’s dad had been on Earth, he wasn’t used to people getting in his face, not like this. But nobody argued with Doctor Rhee. Or any member of the med-staff. It wasn’t healthy.

  He didn’t back down. “I can have you suspended—”

  “I doubt it, but do you really want to go without health maintenance?” She met his angry stare with polite calm. “While your body is still trying to adjust to this planet?”

  That stopped him. He stepped back.

  “You haven’t heard the last of this.”

  “Neither have you. I suggest you think long and hard before you do anything stupid. Your daughter is trying to save you from being held as an accomplice to a criminal conspiracy.”

  “You believe her? Or are you part of it too?”

  “The question is whether or not you believe her. She’s your daughter.”

  J’mee’s dad didn’t answer. He glowered at Doctor Rhee, decided he had nothing else to say, and stormed out of the Med-Bay.

  Doctor Rhee turned around and looked at us. “Well, this is going to be interesting. You three stay here. Jolly, watch them. I have some calls to make.” She handed him the sedative injector and stepped into the next room, but she left the door open so she could peer out at us from time to time. I don’t know if we were supposed to hear what she was saying. Probably. Or she would have closed the door. We looked at each other in silence and listened hard.

  “Yes, they’re here. They’re safe. But I don’t know for how long. How soon can you get here? Isn’t there anyone? Yes, I know it’s a secured level, but—all right, see what you can do. I’ll think of something.”

  After a bit, she came out and looked at us. “Well, it’s about to get interesting around here. Now, let’s see if I understand this. The lifter was sabotaged. Layton ordered it. But they’re alive anyway. And Marley confessed. And there’s a video to prove it. Is that all?”

  “Um—” We looked to each other. We didn’t want to say anything about HARLIE. “Um, pretty much. Yes.”

  “Do you have the video?”

  Charles started to answer. “We—uh, kinda.”

  “We’re supposed to give it to Captain Boynton,” I said.

  “That’s going to be a problem.”

  “Huh?”

  Doctor Rhee didn’t look happy. “Coordinator Layton has assigned him a pair of bodyguards. They’re not to leave his side.”

  “But he doesn’t need—oh.”

  “Uh-huh. That’s right. Anything you want to tell him, you might as well tell Layton at the same time.”

  “So it’s up to us, isn’t it?”

  Charles nodded. “Yep.”

  We all looked at each other. None of us said anything for a minute.

  “So, I guess we’ll have to—”

  Before anyone could finish a sentence, the door whooshed open. This time it was the two big men who’d come in with J’mee’s dad. They both looked angry and one of them held a stun-club and pointed it at Doctor Rhee. “Get out of the way.”

  Doctor Rhee looked to Jolly, shrugged, and they both stepped back.

  The one without the club turned to J’mee. “Where’s the video? The video you told your dad about?”

  She folded her arms and shook her head.

  He turned to Charles, then me. “Which one of you has it?”

  The other one waved his club and said, “Don’t bother. Just search them.”

  It didn’t take long, but they were thorough. They found all but three of the decoy chips that Captain Skyler had given us. They tossed them onto a table, with all of our other belongings too. Including the monkey. It flopped on the table, lifeless.

  “Is that it?” asked the one.

  “Doesn’t matter. Take it all.”

  I shouted. “Please, sir—not my monkey! Please—”

  The man with the club grabbed the monkey and held it up by one arm, as if it might be dangerous. He frowned at it suspiciously.

  “It was a present,” I said. “It’s all I have.”

  Doctor Rhee spoke up. “Jack! That’s his binky. It’s his emotional support.”

  Jack shook his head. “Julie, I have my orders.”

  “Yes, we all have orders. Mine is to protect the health of every human being on this planet. And that includes their mental health. Look at the damn thing—it’s broken. But it’s important to the boy. You can see that for yourself.” And then she lowered her voice even more. “Jack, you know Kyle. You know his family. And you know his situation—his condition. You know what he’s been through.”

  Jack hesitated.

  Doctor Rhee stepped forward, intense now. “Jack, you have to know what this means to him. You have a kid of your own.”

  “Aw, come on, Julie—don’t go there.”

  “If you take that toy, you know what’s going to happen—it’ll end up shoved into some closet somewhere. Nobody will remember where. And he’ll never get it back. And he’ll have a whole new set of betrayals to deal with. It’s hard enough for him already. Why do you want to make it harder?”

  “I’m not a monster, Julie—”

  “Then stop acting like one.” And then she stepped back and looked at both of the men. “I gotta ask you this. This isn’t about the monkey anymore. It’s about you. You know what’s going on. Do you really want to make any more enemies—more than you already have?”

  “Oh, the hell with it, already!” Jack threw the monkey at me. It bounced off the bed and onto the floor. “Keep the damn thing.” He scooped up all the decoy chips and shoved them into a carry bag. He looked to Doctor Rhee. “You’re the last one who should be talking about enemies, Julie. Things are going to be a lot different around here.”

  And then he left. Both of them left.

  * * *

  —

  Doctor Rhee came over to me, picked up the monkey from the floor and pushed it into my arms. “I hope that was worth it,” she said.

  I looked to Charles and J’mee. “We have to do this ourselves, don’t we?” They both nodded their agreement.

  Doctor Rhee said, “Whatever it is you’re thinking of doing—”

  “I’m not thinking of anything,” said J’mee. “We’ve lost. Game over. I quit.” She pushed herself up. “I’m going home. Charles, Kyle, are you coming?”

  “Huh? What?”

&
nbsp; “Come on!” she said. “I’m hungry. I’m tired. I want to sleep in my own bed tonight. They took all the chips. Nobody’s going to believe us. So I don’t care if the things in the caves eat them all. I’m done.”

  “J’mee—?” Charles looked upset. I didn’t understand either.

  “I’m done. We’re done. Like the song says, kiss today goodbye and point me toward tomorrow.”

  Oh. Right. Kiss today goodbye and point me toward tomorrow. That was our agreed-on code. Follow my lead. Play along.

  Doctor Rhee stared at us, J’mee to Charles to me. “All right. Fine. But I’m going to walk you home.” She explained, “I want to make sure you get there safely. We don’t need any more excitement. Jolly, hold the fort. If anyone asks where I am, tell them you don’t know.”

  It wasn’t far from the executive Med-Bay. J’mee’s dad had a suite close to the Council rooms. Doctor Rhee pretended to be leading us there. We passed a few people in the corridor, but aside from a couple of curious stares, no one tried to stop us. J’mee waved to Troy at reception, Doctor Rhee reassured him that we were all under her supervision, and he buzzed us through.

  As soon as we entered the suite, I stopped to stare. These rooms were spacious. Charles and J’mee took it for granted, maybe that’s how big rooms were on Earth, but the only things small on Hella are the living spaces. Most apartments at Winterland are cozy, which is a polite word for tight. There was enough room here for six apartments. It wasn’t fair.

  J’mee must have seen me frowning. She said, “Coordinator Layton cleared this space for us. I think they had to move some offices. Wait here. I want to make sure we’re alone.” She left us for a moment while she searched through all the other rooms. Other rooms! This was a lot to think about. I went over to the window and stared out at the distant cinder cones. One of the farthest ones was smoking, not badly though.