Mind Over Ship

by David Marusek

  No, not at all. Fred broke the connection but kept the map open and explored the spar. There were approximately a hundred dockworkers in his proxy’s patrol area off-loading six freighters. Pulling back a little, he saw dozens more freighters docked at the same spar. Fred studied the spar layout and then turned his attention to other sectors of the port. Finally, he pulled up the map of the passenger terminal wheel and told his sidekick to trace his usher path of the day before. The path appeared on his map, starting at the hub and taking a direct route through connecting gangways to Wheel Nancy. It was not as circuitous as the path he remembered. With a little more searching, Fred found a large area designated as a construction zone. If that was where he had met the donalds, it was nowhere near his alleged usher line.

  He called the station mentar back. Earth Girl, show me the route I took yesterday from customs to my quarters.

  Your map is already displaying it.

  That may be my programmed route, but show me the one I actually took.

  Sometimes a new facility can be disorienting, Specialist. According to my records, that is your actual route.

  Thank you, Fred said, not sure what to do next — file a formal complaint with Marcus? He decided to wait on that and continued his map tour. He found the donalds’ barracks. They were located across the port, along with the quarters of the other two Capias spacer types, the xiangs and aslams. Because their bodies were designed for life without gravity, they did not require housing in rez wheels, at what must have been considerable savings to their employers.

  A COUPLE OF hours of self-orientation later, Fred checked in with his proxy and piggybacked on its POV. It was floating outside a warehouse-sized decon bay that was receiving cargo from a megaton freighter docked to the spar. Large, bulky shipping shells, which must have weighed tons on Earth, were spewing out of the mouth of the cargo tunnel at an impressive rate. They hit a dampening field where they were slowed and aligned and where donald dockworkers in isolation suits snagged them with hand tractors to sort and stack in the bay. The donald crew performed this hazardous work with the prowess of dancers. Their small bodies were not only agile but strong, and the advantage of grasping feet and prehensile tail was plainly obvious. It was as though each donald possessed five strong arms.

  But though the donalds were hard workers, they mocked and insulted Fred’s proxy and its partner everywhere they went. And although russes were trained at the Russ Academy to let verbal abuse roll off them, what Fred saw and heard made his ears burn.

  And it cleared up his question about the proxy patrol. Subjected to that level of abuse, day in and day out, even a levelheaded russ would snap and strangle a few of the little devils. The proxy patrols were intended to prevent open warfare.

  As Fred watched through his proxy’s eyes, the proxy and its partner lingered at a viewport to watch a flight of cryocapsules hitting a capture field outside the spar. The capsules were shaped like three-meter chromium cigars, and they flashed in the hard sunlight like fireballs. They had been flung from an Oship in the Aria shipyard 150 kilometers away. The Oships were sending their biostatic colonists back to Earth. (Imagine their surprise, Fred thought, when they woke up, not on planet Mongo, but at the same place where they started.)

  Apparently the two russ proxies overstayed their welcome at the viewport, because a donald working the receiving station took umbrage. He swam over to them and floated before them until he had their attention. Then he unfastened the fly of his jumpsuit and let his penis dangle out. He looked down at it floating there in mock surprise.

  “Come on,” Fred’s proxy partner said. “We don’t have to watch this.”

  “Watch what?” Fred’s proxy said, more to the donald than to his partner. “That tiny little thing?”

  But the little thing didn’t stay tiny. It kept sliding out of the donald’s fly until it was an astonishing half-meter long. Watching from the forward post, Fred thought it was another donald tail trick, but it wasn’t his tail, and it couldn’t be natural. From the look of it, the donald’s penis had been split along its length into three separate cords, and each cord had been strung with large brass beads and braided together before being reattached to the uncircumcised head.

  But the weirdness didn’t stop there, and Fred’s proxy was mesmerized, as Fred was, when the fleshy rope began to stiffen. The individual cords bulged and strained against each other, making the brass beads pop out like rows of knuckles. Other donalds gathered around their brother to cheer him on as he used his tail to stroke this obscene macramé rope, faster and harder, thrusting and grunting, until it turned purple and looked ready to burst, and all the while aiming the sick thing at Fred’s proxy.

  Ah, proxy, Fred said. Why don’t we move along? The other proxy already had, and Fred’s turned to catch up with it to a chorus of taunts and jeers.

  THERE WAS NOTHING like a good list to ease the mind, and Fred’s morning list grew more imposing each day: wake up, open eyes, stare at ceiling, stretch and scratch, check DCO board, get up, make bed, change room to day setting, toilet, teeth, shower, shave, check for nose hair, comb . . .

  EXCUSE ME, SPECIALIST Londenstane, Earth Girl said, but what are you doing in this sector?

  “Orienteering.”

  But it’s not part of your duty.

  “I’m off duty. I like to know my surroundings. There’s no regulation against going for a swim, is there?”

  No, there’s no regulation against visiting other sectors. But be aware that sectors under construction or used as storage areas may contain hazards.

  “Thank you for your concern,” Fred replied. “Now that you mention it, I have come across areas where there appears to be no comlink coverage. The nodes are malfing or missing. That could be hazardous, and I wonder when they will be repaired. Here, I’ve marked a few of them on my map.” He squirted his data to the mentar. “Why not walk some turtle nodes over there in the meantime.”

  Earth Girl received the data with no comment, and Fred continued on his way. Not far from the donald rez sector, Fred found a large, unfinished area that was being used for storage. The hallways were jammed with construction material. So much so that Fred had difficulty shouldering his way through, and before long he broke into a sweat. When he reached a particular access hatch, he was consternated to find it stenciled with glyphs for NO EXIT and HARD VACUUM. He looked through the porthole and saw that it was, indeed, a space door. On his map, he was in a completely unexpected location.

  No matter, he took his bearings and set off again. After fifteen minutes of difficult progress, he rechecked his position, only to find himself even farther from his intended destination.

  Fred was dizzy with anger. Earth Girl was screwing with him again, and he decided to issue a formal grievance with Marcus as soon as he returned to his stateroom. But each time he checked his map, he was farther off course than before. Finally, he left the storage area and saw that it was his own error and not a prank by Earth Girl. Fred had lost the green “down” stripe behind all the construction material, and what he had assumed was the floor was actually the ceiling. Somewhere along the line he had gotten flipped over and was traveling upside down and backward.

  FRED PASSED AN open hatch and caught a glimpse of lights. He backtracked and looked in. It was a small observation blister that gave a stunning view of the Powell Canal.

  Fred entered the blister and marveled at the sight for some time. Then, when he realized that he was counting and recounting the number of trapezoidal windowpanes that made up the dome (fifteen plus a keystone pentagon), he knew it was time to go. But when he turned, there were three donalds between him and the open hatch.

  They floated freely, arms crossed, tails drifting aimlessly, and watched Fred with smug amusement. But Fred was in no mood for a repeat display of their penis art. He removed his standstill wand from his belt and snapped it open. “Move away from the hatch,” he told them. He didn’t expect them to comply, and they didn’t, so he set the wand to knock
out, its highest setting, and launched himself at them from the apex of the dome.

  They parted to make way for him, but two of them locked tails and, as Fred passed between them, hauled themselves together with great force and caught him in a pincer move that knocked the breath out of him. Fred’s visor cap flew off. Before he could recover, they bound his legs with one tail, his free arm with another, and grabbed his wand arm with four hands. Despite Fred’s furious struggle, they twisted his arm around to touch the wand to his own face. At the last moment he managed to thumb the wand off. Then they simply wrenched it from his hand.

  “You three are under arrest,” he gasped, “for assaulting an officer.” That brought sniggers and a punch to the face, followed by repeated vicious kicks and blows to the head. One strike after another, each causing lights to explode behind his eyes until he passed out.

  THERE WERE MUTTERING sounds, and when Fred opened his swollen eyes, a cheer went up. Through a bloody film, he saw that the observation blister was crowded with donalds. He couldn’t move. He was stretched spread-eagle against the bulkhead, his arms and legs bound by tails.

  An individual donald floated over to him. They were so damnably similar that without his visor he couldn’t ID him or any of them. A tail popped up in front of Fred’s face, this time holding Fred’s own omnitool. With impressive dexterity, the tail flipped open the plasma knife and ignited it. Then it brought the white-hot blade to within centimeters of Fred’s nose. Fred struggled for dear life, but he could not break the grip of their tails. The donald taunted him with the knife, passing it back and forth before his eyes. He singed Fred’s hair with it but did not burn him, despite the challenging roar of the others. Fred tried to stare the donald down, and the plasma knife did move away and out of sight. But then there was a sizzle and the odor of burnt cloth, and Fred struggled even harder. A warm finger of flesh explored his belly region. It slithered up his chest and throat and sprang out from under his collar. It wriggled in front of his face in a mocking little dance. The tail no longer held the plasma knife, and Fred lunged his head forward to try to bite it. But the tail easily dodged and slapped him. Then it withdrew back into his jumpsuit and returned to his belly. But it did not stop there. It slid under the elastic waistband of his briefs and coiled itself around his scrotum like a purse string. It tightened a little, enough to drain the blood from Fred’s face. The donalds hooted their approval.

  The tail tightened another notch, and Fred gasped. He clamped his mouth shut to keep from crying out. With exquisite control, the powerful appendage pulled and twisted Fred until a roar filled his head and everything went gray.

  FRED WOKE UP in a fetal ball of agony. He tried to piece together his situation, as he was trained to do, but he could not. The dull, throbbing pain in his crotch terrified him. He floated freely and passed out again.

  “I ASKED IF you’re injured.”

  Fred startled. There was a single man floating next to him. At first Fred took him for another donald — he had a tail — and Fred raised his arms in self-defense. But the man did not move against him. He was familiar, not a donald, but the russ type’s opposite number, a jay. The man was a jay, but smaller than the ones Fred had seen on Earth. And the tail.

  “Who are you?” Fred snapped.

  “Myr Sangri, special consultant to Aria Yachts on security matters. Should I call a medical team to assist you?”

  Fred needed a team, but he said, “Where are your friends?”

  “Who?”

  “You know damn well who I mean!”

  “’Fraid I don’t, Specialist. I was passing by when I saw you in here. Are you ill or on any meds?”

  Fred swallowed his anger and pain and kicked off toward the door. He arrested himself before leaving the blister and looked all around. “I want my cap and wand back.” He checked his belt. “And my sidekick.”

  The jay shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  FRED STOPPED SEVERAL times on his way back to Wheel Nancy to try to control the pain with breathing exercises. He passed out again, and when he awoke, Mando was there.

  “Aii, Londenstane, what has happened to you?”

  “I took a wrong turn.”

  “That is the truth. No, don’t move. Lie still, and I will pull you.” Fred did as he was told, and Mando towed him to a shuttle stop. They rode a car together back to the residential wheels. But instead of Wheel Nancy, Mando navigated the shuttle to the Admin Wheel where the clinic was located.

  “It was the donalds,” Fred said. “They assaulted me.”

  “Such foul creatures, no? But what were you doing over there?”

  “Exploring.”

  “Alone?” Before the word left his mouth, Mando seemed to realize what he was saying. Of course Fred was alone.

  But Fred let it pass. “What about you? Did Earth Girl send you to fetch me?”

  “No, I came on my own. There were pictures of you unconscious in a corridor. Everyone saw them.”

  “Did you see the attack?”

  “No, only you. I wondered why nobody was coming to help. A russ is down and no brothers come to help? So, I came myself.”

  The pain receded, but every jostle of the shuttle car revived it. Fred looked at his onetime friend and said, “Why? Why did you come?”

  Mando glanced away. “I apologize for my behavior before. Luisa says I am a dog. She says we owe you. Every evangeline and every russ married to one owes you. And it’s true. But you shouldn’t have lied to me on the ship.”

  “I know that now.”

  BOTH MARCUS AND Nicholas maintained a local mirror at Trailing Earth to eliminate the transmission lag. Fred floated in a regeneration tank in the port clinic, his second entankment in as many months. The two mentars were audio only. Earth Girl can ID them, Fred said. Subpoena it. And while you’re at it, sue it for not sending backup when it saw I was in trouble. It knew where I was. It contacted me shortly before the attack.

  Nicholas said, We reviewed that. It lost contact with you when you entered a blank area.

  It’s lying! And besides, why are there blank areas at all? Neither Nicholas nor Marcus replied, and Fred went on, Then depose that Sangri person. He was there. He must have seen something.

  Nicholas said, I could do that, or Marcus could, but I want to draw the big picture for you, Londenstane. Your recent irrational behavior jeopardizes not only your own employment, but that of every Applied People employee here. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s an uneasy truce in effect at Trailing Earth. If TECA determines that we are the ones at fault, that we are incapable of working in harmony with the Capias people, they will have grounds for nullifying our remaining contracts. That’s exactly what Capias wants, and that’s why the donalds are allowed to act in such a provocative manner. Your brother russes are sucking it up and pulling for the team, but you — you insist on initiating confrontation. I seriously advise you to rethink your behavior.

  WAKE UP, OPEN eyes, stare at ceiling, stare at ceiling, stare at ceiling.

  Memento Mori

  Though still morning in San Francisco, Andrea Tiekel had already returned to bed. She simply had no energy lately, a familiar harbinger of her new body’s premature decline. And her muscles burned like fire. How brief her springtimes.

  Rather than dwell on her aches and pains, Andrea buried herself in work and checked up on her projects.

  Zoranna Alblaitor seemed unable to recover from her series of little shocks. And though she was aggressive in her marketing, she had been unable to stanch the mass desertion of her customer base. Furthermore, her sidebob was still quite shaken up by the attack on her person. Andrea was satisfied that Alblaitor would crack completely in the next assault, which was already commencing.

  Ellen, meanwhile, had suffered a relapse since the odd incident at the fishpond. She was spending a lot of time in her hernandez tank, which was set to full privacy mode so that not even Lyra could see her. What exactly had transpired between Ellen and Meewee wasn’t cl
ear, but whatever it was tipped Meewee’s hand and, thereby, solved a mystery. The unknown second party of his nonsensical, pondside conversations was revealed to be a Cabinet backup that had eluded the probate court. It had very cleverly been hiding out in the natpac fish since Eleanor’s death; even E-P had missed it. But Ellen’s pondside reaction had forced Cabinet to abandon its ocean refuge and return to its contaminated old constellation. The new old Cabinet was so massively corrupted, it would take some time before it could sort itself out enough to pose a threat. And Meewee? Although they had failed to pref him, they had spooked him enough to drop out of sight altogether.

  Meanwhile, Ellen’s companion evangelines were showing the first signs of distress. Also, the little crisis that E-P had engineered at Dr. Rouselle’s hospital in Sierra Leone had succeeded in luring the doctor home, further isolating Ellen. Ellen, like Alblaitor, was primed for the next assault. Two birds with one stone.

  THE FARMSTEAD AT the heart of the Starke compound possessed its own little cemetery where generations of Bedfords and Fayettes were interred. Samson Harger Kodiak had been the first person buried there in over a century. The cemetery was situated on a small rise overlooking troutcorn fields and was bordered by a white picket fence.

  When the cart first appeared in the distance, Georgine sprang to her feet. But she sat back down on the bench and said, “I thought it was her.”

  Mary said, “She’s not coming.”

  “I already know that, Mary!”

  “I was only saying.”

  “You’re always only saying!”

  The sisters fell silent until the cart arrived. Then they rose to greet their visitors: a beautiful young woman, a tall young man, and a retrogirl. The visitors brought armloads of exotic flowers, and after introducing themselves to the evangelines, decorated Samson’s grave.