"It sounds like our Quamat friends might be busy on Ushtar."
"So we fear. The Ushtarans are a fairly placid people. They aren’t afraid to use weapons, but they aren’t equipped to deal with a full-blown revolt. We have sent a small battalion of Zaqaran warriors in case things get heated, but we would like you to investigate the deaths of Bulstrad and Namoro. As you say, it might lead to the Quamat."
Taza nodded. "At least we have a solid lead to work with this time."
“Act with discretion. Clear the air between the Ushtarans and the Chan. It is important that andamonium production be restored." His shoulder bulged and spasmed as though to highlight his point.
"You can hold out until then?"
"Don't worry," Wu said. "Our agents are in contact with prospective allies who may have a cure. Grimshaw should make it back in time."
Tarrig had provided a hard lead after all. Taza knew he would kick himself the whole way to wherever the North Star was going and back again if he didn’t check it out. His heart was torn at the thought of Zora. As hard as he had tried to forget about the damn woman, she always drew him back one way or another.
Who am I kidding? I haven’t really stopped thinking about her. How could he when she’d gotten into his head like no one else ever had.
"I’ll see the investigation through," he said before he could change his mind. "But then I’m out."
"That’s all we can ask for," Wu said, his face sagging somewhat.
"If traditional methods are all you have left, I’m one of the best…or at least I used to be."
"It’s why we chose you as keeper of the artifact."
Taza considered commenting on how terrible a decision that had been but decided against it. "You’ll need to tell me everything about Ushtar and Zora’s assignment."
"I’ve reached my limit here." Wu’s face dropped further. "I must return to the vats. Administrator Li will send the information you need."
"Don’t withhold anything."
"Of course," Wu moaned as he pointed to the door with an arm that looked like it might detach from his body at any second.
Taza gratefully accepted the offer to leave and bowed before returning to the corridor. He wondered whether Wu would even make it back to the machine from which he excreted, but thoughts of Zora pushed all other considerations out of his mind. Despite what her parting message had stated, it was possible he might see her again. Taza didn’t know how to feel about that.
One thing he did know. He needed something stronger than what was in the flask on his belt.
7
They Got Him
Clio averted her eyes as she approached the brig’s processing unit, hoping to avoid conversation with Lieutenant Wilfara. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with the grumpy-ass Zaqaran. They had butted heads during Clio’s previous visit, and she wished to avoid repeating the incident.
"I can’t let you through today without clearing it with my supervisor first, and comms are down for a security upgrade after the stunt your boyfriend pulled in the systems relay hub,” the red-crested security guard called from behind her surveillance terminal.
Clio glared at the Zaqaran and had to stop herself from launching over the terminal and grabbing the bitch by the throat. "No need, I’ve got the clearance I need right here."
She clenched her jaw and held the compad over the terminal, afraid it might snap between her fingers.
The red-crested security administrator snatched the device from Clio and ran her eyes over the display. Her shoulder sagged in disappointment as she snorted. "Fine. This gives you fifteen minutes. A minute longer and I’ll put you in one of those cells myself."
Wilfara muttered an unintelligible curse as she nodded to the two Zaqaran guarding the shielded archway. The looks in their eyes told Clio they’d rather be anywhere but on brig duty with the Lieutenant. They stepped aside and the shield fizzled into thin air.
Clio spat curses of her own as she passed under the arch. She expected Wilfara to put up more of a fight. She hurried along, eager not to give the Zaqaran time to change her mind.
The hairs on her neck stood on end as the shield buzzed back to life behind her.
Getting permission to visit Swigger had taken a great deal of convincing. After confirming the sharpshooter wasn’t contagious, Doctor Roshi finally relented and reduced his cell’s quarantine level. Then she had to get through Grimshaw and Omnion administration. She had been declined a visit the night before as Swigger was put under anaesthesia for a round of treatment.
Now that she was finally here, a knot twisted her guts. She took a deep breath and exhaled in an attempt to shake off the nerves. It made little difference if any.
Part of her felt she was to blame for his condition. Perhaps he had been infected while helping her on Colony 115. What if she had missed an opportunity to help him back then? She touched her chest, pained by the thought. He had always been there for her and the rest of the crew. Now most considered him a threat, a traitor. She hated how fickle they were, but at the same time couldn’t blame them. She still loved the fool, and she hated herself for wishing the Omnion had allowed her a blaster or a knife…just in case.
It’s still Swigger, she told herself. The parasite can only control him when he sleeps, and Andrews has found a drug to inhibit it even when he’s unconscious.
Clio paused in the brig walkway, steeling herself.
Pushing forward, she turned left at the end of the corridor and approached the white medical tent that had been erected around cell six. She nodded to the guard at the tent entrance and offered her compad for inspection. He gave the device a quick glance and pulled the flap aside. Clio ducked under the plastic and turned toward the humming barrier.
She took a moment to regard Swigger through the orange-tinted kinetic shield. He sat on his cot with his head buried between his knees. A drip-line and a tangle of other tubes and wires tethered his forearm to an array of medical equipment secured to the far-right wall.
Clio swiped her SIG and the kinetic barrier fizzled out of existence, long enough for her to step through. Swigger didn’t move. For a second, Clio suspected he might be dead, but she saw his back rising as he breathed.
She swallowed hard. "Hey, it’s me."
Swigger slowly lifted his head as though it required great effort. He opened his eyes and offered a half-smile, his facial muscles twitching. They had spent enough time at Sentinel bars for Clio to know what he looked like when inebriated. This was a whole other level.
His face looked even more hollow than the last time they’d met, his eyes sunken yellow orbs, his skin stretched and sickly.
"Clio…It’s good to see you." He spoke clearer than she’d expected, but his eyes seemed vacant as they darted about the entrance. "Where’s Booster?"
"He and Monkey Man are wrapped up in their project." She shrugged, avoiding talk about how difficult it had been to get clearance. "He’s been obsessed with whatever it is they’re workin on for months. Still won’t tell me what it is. I rarely see him these days. We’re both so busy…but I wanted to see how you’re doing."
Swigger lifted his orange gown to his neck, exposing his bandaged chest. "Still hurts if I try to breathe too deep. But the medic gave me more pain meds before you arrived. Other than that," he gestured to the lines in his arm, "I’m alive." He said it as though he wished he wasn’t.
The blaster wound looked clean and well-tended, probably a breeze for Andrews and Roshi compared to the parasite problem. "You’re a bit livelier than I expected." Her eyes looked at his forehead before she could stop herself.
Catching her, Swigger touched a finger to his temple. He pushed his back against the wall as though to move away from her. "You shouldn’t be in here. I don’t want you catching this…thing."
She tried not to appear distressed by his sudden change in demeanour. "Andrews and Roshi told me that it can’t spread from person to person that way. Only the creature that got away from Grimshaw can infect people."
Swigger looked at the medical tent beyond the orange barrier, his eye twitching. "Then why’s the tent still there?”
"They’ve reduced the quarantine level, but they left the tent as a precaution…" Clio sighed. "Even still, I had to argue with Roshi before he would let me return, so I’m not leaving already, especially since you can talk. I tried to come earlier, but they told me you were too tired." She offered a smile as she sat on the cot next to him.
Swigger tensed, and judging by the look of horror on his face, remained unconvinced. "Why did you even come, Clio? They’ve sent you to ask more questions, haven’t they? I’ve already told them everything I know…everything I can remember. I don’t know anything. I swear."
"No one sent me and I’m not here to ask questions." She gently placed her hand on his knee. "I want to make sure they’re taking care of you. That’s all."
He pulled his leg away. "How can you want to see me after everything I’ve done?"
"I wouldn’t call it everything you’ve done. The parasite made you do it. You didn’t know what it was making you do…In my books, that means it isn’t your fault. And what about all the Chits you took out on Colony 115…all the help you gave on the Chimera Project on the Sentinel? We wouldn’t have succeeded without you."
"None of that matters."
"Bullshit. It outweighs anything you believe you’ve done wrong." She did her best not to sound too forceful.
"I don’t know," Swigger said, his words slurring a little as the medication took its toll. He shifted and lowered his legs, seemingly relaxing a little. "I have memories from the times I communicated with Chimera, you know. They feel…broken, like when you try to recall a memory from when you were a kid. I’m not even sure when it all started, but I think it was a few weeks after we arrived on the Sentinel."
Clio considered changing the subject but decided to let Swigger carry on talking, hoping it would help. She shuffled onto the bed so that she kneeled before him. "I’m listening."
"I vaguely recall bits of what I did. Sending Chimera updates while we were still on the Sentinel…meeting with operatives at designated locations while I thought I was sleeping. I can’t recall details, but I know it happened. I would wake up thinking it was all a dream…a nightmare. But you know, deep down, part of me suspected they were real. They were so…vivid. I was too afraid to confront what that might mean…I should have said…What if—"
"Hush." Clio put a finger across his lips. "There’s no use in worrying about what may have been. You need to rest."
She drew away, staring into his eyes, and part of her couldn’t help but wonder if the parasite could see and hear her even as it lay waiting for its next opportunity to take control. The thought horrified her, yet part of her wanted to talk to it, threaten it, tell it how much she hated it, how she would find a way to make it suffer. Or, maybe Andrews’s drugs had neutralized it completely. The medication had done a rough enough number on Swigger. His eyes grew heavy even as they spoke.
"You’re right," Swigger said. "I’ve been too afraid to sleep for months. The tiredness isn’t helping matters."
"Maybe you should sleep." She looked at the cluster of wires connected to his left arm via a medical band. "I can ask Andrews to give you stronger meds."
"I can’t sleep…not when I know that thing will take over." He rubbed his eyes like a tired child.
Clio regarded the bruises on his arms. It had taken three guards to subdue him the last time the parasite took over. It had repeatedly thrown Swigger against the kinetic barrier, but there hadn’t been another incident since. "Andrews adjusted your dose. You can sleep soundly now."
"Yes," he mumbled. "I think I remember…she was here before, but I still don’t trust myself."
Clio decided to change tact by cheering Swigger up with a good memory they shared. Guilt reared its ugly head when she realized how hard she had to search. The events surrounding their relationship didn’t leave much room for happiness. She smiled as one small fun moment came to her. "Remember that one time you challenged the Varg warrior at Calypso?"
Swigger looked at her, unsure where she was going with the conversation. "I remember…vaguely. Didn’t he try to take my seat?"
"I think so. Come to think of it, I’m surprised either of us can recall anything from that night," she joked. "I had too much to drink, but you took shit-faced to a whole new level. Fortunately for you, the ever-charming Ensign Evans was on hand to save your sorry ass."
Swigger grinned. "What about that time the Yalore pulled a knife on you for slapping her jiggly face."
Clio laughed. "Bitch tried to steal my drink."
"That bitch almost gutted you. It was a good thing the ever-handsome Swigger was there to cover your sorry ass."
"Hey, I could have taken her."
"Taken her?" Swigger chuckled and winced in pain. "The Yalore didn’t have to do anything. You hit the floor like a wet sack the second you climbed out of your chair. I had to haul your ass out of there before SenSec got involved."
Clio was glad to see him smile. "Good times."
"Most of our time together has been spent fighting people. The Chits. Chimera. The Galactic Council. Hell, even during downtime we got into our fair share of scuffles." He sagged into the cot, more relaxed than dejected. "But we had some good times at Calypso, for sure."
"We did," she said, smiling.
"Clio…" Swigger’s mood suddenly shifted again. "I’m sorry."
"You don’t have to apologize."
"I do…I mean…All those times I was an asshole, especially back on the Sentinel. I was confused. The nightmares…and everything else. I didn’t mean to snap at you all those times or call your loyalty into question. I guess…I was projecting without even realizing it."
Clio leaned over and put her arms around Swigger, and gave him a gentle squeeze while trying not to hurt his chest. She stopped herself from recoiling at how frail he felt under his robes. "Don’t worry, Swigger. We’re both guilty on that front. I was a hot-headed bitch half the time. Let’s call it even and put it behind us."
"Okay," he whispered, squeezing her weakly in return.
She climbed off the bed and turned to face him. "Promise me you’ll get some rest. Roshi and Andrews need to run more tests if they’re going to help. You’ll be no good to them without sleep."
Swigger nodded and stifled a yawn. "Now that you mention it, I am feeling rather sleepy."
He stretched out on the cot, placed his head on the pillow, and closed his eyes.
Clio leaned down and pulled the thin sheet up to his neck. She watched him for a second before leaning in and kissing his forehead.
"Clio," he muttered without opening his eyes.
"Yes, Swigger?"
"Everything’s going to be alright, isn’t it?"
She stroked his cheek. "Of course. Andrews and Roshi will fix this soon. Everything will go back to normal before you know it. Now get some sleep."
His breathing had already slowed and he quickly drifted into a slumber.
Clio stepped away and smiled, glad she could help Swigger relax a little if nothing else.
Muffled shouts in the corridor drew her attention. She tried to get security on her SIG but no one answered. Gunfire rang out. She jumped, and instinctively reached for her blaster.
Her hand returned empty, and she cursed the Omnion’s rigid rules.
She leaned against the kinetic barrier, looking for signs of what was going on.
Lights flashed under the quarantine tent’s entrance.
"Brig lock-down in effect," the Orinmore’s computer announced indifferently. "All prisoners must remain in their cells."
"Computer, what’s going on?"
"Brig lock-down in effect," it repeated, ignoring her.
"Shit." She turned to Swigger. He was out cold despite the commotion. Whatever the medical staff had given him had taken effect.
It’s safe to say he’s not going anywhere.
Clio deac
tivated the barrier and slowly made her way to the edge of the medical tent. She cautiously peeled the entrance flap aside. The Zaqaran guard was nowhere to be seen.
Yellow sirens turned on the ceiling as the computer repeated the warning.
At the far end of the corridor, the interrogation room door melted open and closed and open again, as though stuck in a loop. She noticed the access panel had been reduced to a smoldering mess.
What the hell are those Zaqaran guards playing at?
She tentatively stepped into the open, pressing her back to the wall as she moved to the adjoining corridor.
Movement at the junction caught her eye. A scaled creature holding a Zaqaran security blaster appeared before her.
Light flashed.
Clio rolled into the empty cell as plasma punched black smears across the white walls.
Without her TEK, she was a sitting duck. Without a side-arm, she couldn’t return fire. She checked the cell for anything she could use as a makeshift weapon, but it had been stripped. The Zaqaran wouldn’t allow anything even remotely dangerous on the brig let alone inside a cell. They took security to the extreme.
An idea struck her. She quickly poked her head into the corridor. The Quamat advanced. His blaster discharged.
Clio ducked back inside. Sizzling energy narrowly missed her face.
She readied her SIG, and counted inside her head.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
She swiped her SIG’s controls. The cell’s kinetic barrier flickered into existence.
Flecks of red blood splattered the walls. The Quamat shrieked as the force flung him into the opposite wall. He slumped to the ground, his right arm ending in a bloody stump.
He glanced at Clio and vanished to the left, dragging a long, dark streak across the white panels.
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