That wasn’t a good sign; it meant these were particularly bad memories that Viktor didn’t want to deal with. On the other hand, it might also mean that there was a connection to whatever was happening to Vic, since it would take a lot to shock someone who had grown up in a prison camp.
“Don’t worry,” Doc told him. “You are more than strong enough to open the memory door. Remember, nothing beyond can hurt you.”
“I remember,” Viktor answered in a hollow voice. “I’ve opened the door and I’m going into the mine. It’s dark and close in here. I’m hot and sweaty, swinging a pick. We can only go to certain parts of the mine; anyone who tries to go to the forbidden tunnels without orders is shot.
“My friend Oleg was sent to the forbidden tunnels. He was gone for about two weeks. When he came back he was sick and wasted. He’d been carrying a heavy black mineral from large chambers. All the guards wore heavy armor when they sent them there and didn’t go into the chambers.
“Oleg wouldn’t say anything else. He died the next night, but not before showing me a tiny sliver of the mineral that was stuck in his arm. I took it out and carried it with me for a while, but eventually I lost it. They cleared us all out of the camp a week later.”
“Thank you Viktor. Do you think you can remember what the mineral looked like?” Doc said.
“Yes, I can remember it.”
“I want you to focus on that image, bring it forward and imprint it in your mind so that you can recognize it immediately if you see it again. You’ll know it immediately whether you are in a trance or not.”
“I will know it if I see it again.”
“All right,” Doc told Viktor. “You are coming back to us now. All you remember of this experience is the appearance of the mineral. Follow my voice and come back out of the trance. You can open your eyes whenever you’re ready.”
Viktor blinked a couple of times, and then slowly opened his eyes all the way. “Was that it?
“That was it.” Doc rose to his feet. “Do you think you can follow me to the laboratory? I want you to take a look at something.”
“I would be glad to.” Viktor picked up his cane and levered himself to his feet. “ Lead the way.”
“Sure.” Doc gave him a second to lean on the cane and then led the way to the laboratory where he had another sample of the mineral taken from the suits. This one was in a lead-lined isolation box with a shutter covering a thick window made of leaded glass.
Although they had managed to get all the cylinders from Pennyworth, Doc had only brought the two weakest samples to the Republic State Building, leaving the other four in the Cibola warehouse under heavy shielding. Not for the first time, he wished he’d been able to bring more Archonate technology to Earth. Even a small scale portable mind with a full instrument package would be a tremendous benefit at times like this. For one thing, he’d know exactly what kind of radiation this mineral was putting out and exactly how to tailor shielding for it.
However, none of that mattered at the moment. What mattered now was finding Vic a cure and the first step was to see if the mineral Viktor had been mining was the same substance that Lyushkov used to power the suits.
Doc gestured everyone over to the far side of the laboratory, behind a set of leaded glass shields, while he and Viktor approached the isolation box sitting on a work bench at the far end of the room. As Viktor took his place in front of the box, Doc worked his way around behind the work bench.
“All right Viktor,” Doc said. “I’m going to open the shutter, and I want you to take a good look at the sample inside. I’ll give you no more than three seconds exposure before I close the shutter so let me know when you’re ready.”
Viktor nodded, and then move to where he had a good look at the shutter.
Doc turned on the light inside the box, counted to three, and opened the shutter.
“That’s it.” Viktor barely got the words out before collapsing in front of the bench.
Glass shattered on the far side of the room as Vic threw the shields aside and leaped to her cousin’s side. It was a good forty feet, but she covered the distance before Viktor hit the ground.
“Ming!” Vic yelled, cradling her cousin in her arms. “What’s the matter with Viktor?”
Doc slammed the shutter closed as Ming crossed the distance rather more sedately than Vic had. Within moments she had her hand on Victor’s wrist and was counting off pulse-beats under her breath.
“He should be fine,” Ming said. “His heartbeat’s good; no sign of the threadiness Vic had. Gus, take him to the infirmary; I’ll want to take another look at him in a few minutes.”
Gus took Viktor from Vic; who leaned against the work bench breathing heavily.
“What just happened?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Doc replied, “but I have a working hypothesis. If I’m right you can either absorb energy from this mineral passively, like when I exposed you to the mineral; or you can actively rip power from it, depleting its energy.”
“You’re saying I’m a rock vampire?” Vic shook her head. “That’s ridiculous.”
Gilly laughed. “I saw a German movie a few years ago; maybe you could star in the remake and call it Rocksferatu?”
“Ridiculous or not, it’s a closer summation than you might think.” Doc turned the isolation box so the shutter faced towards him. “If you would give me a moment?”
Taking a lead blanket, he laid it over the box and ducked his head underneath it. Flipping open the shutter, he took another look at the sample. As he had suspected, it was noticeably depleted, having lost perhaps a quarter of its active mass since he had brought it up here. After confirming the measurement, he pulled out his cylinder and checked that. Its sample had hardly lost any active mass.
“It looks like I was right,” Doc told Vic. “The first sample is hardly depleted at all, but when you dashed over to catch your cousin, you pulled a good quarter out of the sample in the box.”
“But wasn’t it behind lead shielding?”
“It was, but it looks like enough got through for you to make a connection. How did it feel when you saw Viktor drop?”
“Shock, then a rush of energy. It didn’t last long; it was more of a flash than a rush.” Vic’s breathing was better, though she still looked a little drawn. Moving away from the bench, she picked up her cousin’s cane and leaned on it as she talked.
“The tiredness started to hit me about half-way across the room but it wasn’t enough to stop me.”
“Good.” It sounded like his theory was correct. Vic had drawn energy from the sample; then when it was cut off, she’d turned to her internal reserves. Luckily, she hadn’t needed to draw on them too heavily, so she was still on her feet.
“I don’t know about you,”' Gilly said, “but I’m hungry. Let’s figure things out over lunch. Vic, you’re cooking.”
“Oh no she’s not,” Ming replied. “Your idea, you’re the one cooking. I want to enjoy my lunch.”
#
Vic was first at the table, followed shortly by Kehla who plopped herself down into her reinforced chair. The younger gorilla had been quiet the last few days, and Vic had barely seen her since before Viktor had arrived.
“It feels like I never see you anymore; how have things been?” Vic broke the silence.
“Good enough, I suppose. Just sometimes I feel like a third wheel around here.” Kehla poured herself a glass of fruit juice. “You and Gus have clear roles, and Gilly can always make himself useful. Ming’s a doctor, and I’m turning into the world’s hairiest housewife! I can only do so many crosswords before I go crazy.”
“Well, what did you want to do when you grew up?” Vic asked, pulling a bottle of Coke out of the ice bucket.
Kehla laughed, a surprisingly delicate chuckle for someone of her size.
“I didn’t have much of a choice. First I was supposed to be a brood mare for Gus after the Flame possessed him,” she said, referring to the alien fire spirit that had
ruled the city where she and Gus grew up. “Then, when Gus disappeared, I was going to be the next host.”
“That’s when you joined the resistance?” Vic swirled the Coke in her glass before setting it down on the table.
“Exactly,” Kehla slammed her fruit juice like it was straight whiskey. “I had a purpose and now I don’t!”
“Have you talked to Shard about it?” Vic turned in her chair to face Kehla.
“Why Shard?” Kehla poured herself more juice, slopping a little over the lip of her glass onto the table. “She’s even newer here than I am.”
“She’s also just found herself without a purpose. Maybe the two of you could help each other?”
“That might work.” Kehla pulled out her napkin and wiped up the spill she’d made.
“Besides, she’s in the same boat you were in back in the spring. The only one of her kind in a new city. Maybe you can help her get used to New York? Show her around?”
A pair of soft lips touched Vic’s cheek, and then Ming slid into her lap. “I’m going to have to stop calling you a hussy, you’re growing up. That was just the right thing to say.”
Vic wrapped an arm around Ming. “Thanks, honey.”
Kehla made a face. “Were Gus and I ever that bad?”
“Worse.” Vic stuck out her tongue. “Much worse. You gave all the other newlyweds a bad name.”
“I thought you were teenagers,” Ming added. “I couldn’t believe it when they told me how old you and Gus were.”
“Well, we do live longer than normal gorillas.”
“The Flame made a lot of changes,” Gus added, making his way to the table. “Sometimes I’m not even sure we’re really gorillas anymore. We have human voice boxes and larger thumbs, and we don’t interbreed.”
“Then why don’t you write a paper and propose a new species name?” Gilly had finally arrived with the food. He had put together a platter of roast beef sandwiches along with a large bowl of spinach salad.
“I might just do that,” Gus said. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“Why don’t we deal with Vic’s issues first?” Doc and Shard were the last to enter the room. “I think they’re a bit more urgent.”
“If you insist,” Vic said, letting Ming slip off her lap and into the seat beside her. She reached for a roast beef sandwich, making a face as Ming served her a plate of salad.
“I’m not a rabbit, honey.”
“But you need to eat more vegetables to build up your system. You all eat too much meat anyway.”
“She’s right,” Doc said, helping himself to a large serving of salad and a single small sandwich. “Humans do much better on a mostly vegetarian diet.”
“There’s lettuce in my sandwich,” Vic protested. “That counts.”
“Actually, it’s spinach.” Ming smiled sweetly. “It’s better for you.”
Vic couldn’t think of a witty retort, so she just tore a big bite out of her sandwich and started chewing. It wasn’t bad, even if Gilly seemed to have gone all-in on Ming’s spinach kick. At least he’d remembered the mustard and onions this time.
Vic polished off her sandwich, ignoring the conversation around her. She already had a plan: load up the ZL-38, get her cousin Viktor to navigate, and blast their way into the mine. After all, if you had a liberated German air destroyer with a full complement of five point nine inch guns, why not make use of it? As far as she was concerned, Bentley’s “there is no substitute for cubic inches” applied to more than just racing cars.
Picking up her fork, she gave her salad a dubious look. Trying to put it off at least a little longer, she turned to Doc. “When are we heading to Utica?”
He stopped eating, his fork half-way to his mouth. “Utica? Why would be going to Utica?”
“Isn’t that where you’re keeping the ZL-38? Or did you move it?” Vic explained patiently.
“The ZL-38? What are you talking about Vic?” Doc frowned, obviously not getting what she was talking about.
“Aren’t we going to take the ZL-38 to Siberia to recover the mineral?” Vic shrugged. “It’s more than big enough to carry everything we need and we can blast our way past anything that tries to stop us.”
She stabbed her fork authoritatively into her spinach salad. “Problem, solved.”
“Uh, no.” Doc replied. “We are not taking the ZL-38.”
Vic put her fork down. “I guess we could take Antipodes, but I still say we’ll miss the guns on ZL-38.”
“I don’t think you understand, Vic,” Doc said softly. “We’re flying Republic Air to San Francisco, and then first class to Yokohama aboard the Asama Maru. From there it’s a short trip to Dairen, where we can take the Trans-Siberian Railroad up to Irkutsk before striking out for the mine.”
“Can Viktor make that trip?” Vic asked. “The sea voyage would be easy on him, but will he really be able to reach the mine? An airship would be much easier on him.”
“He’s not going,” Ming said, pushing away her own empty salad bowl. “While he doesn’t have your unique reaction to the mineral, it did wipe him out and he’s going to be on bed rest for at least two months. Even an airship wouldn’t help him.”
“But I can fly us there much more quickly than Doc’s plan.”
“No, you can’t.” Ming turned and laid a hand along Vic’s cheek. “I love you, but as your doctor I can’t let you fly. We don’t know when your current dose is going to wear off, and we can’t have a pilot who’s going to collapse suddenly at the controls.”
“I’m grounded?” Vic dropped her fork. “What do you mean, I’m grounded?”
“I mean I’m not letting you take the stick of any aircraft until we can be sure your body won’t give out. You take enough risks already; I’m not going to let you take stupid ones.”
Vic’s world went as gray as spinach tasted. All the color and taste leached away into a dry leafy mess. Without conscious thought, she drizzled some more dressing over her salad and started mechanically forking it into her mouth. Why was she even going if she couldn’t do anything? Why was she even here?
“Ming thought it would be easier for you if we flew commercially to San Francisco, rather than having you watch me and Gilly fly.” Doc said, concern clear in his voice.
“That’s Gilly,” Vic tried to joke. “Always trying to steal my stick time.”
“I thought you didn’t like sticks?” Gilly said mildly.
Vic sighed. “You’re probably right.”
She ate a bit more of her salad. “If Viktor can’t go, who’s taking care of him? You’re not going to drop him off in a hospital are you?”
“No, I wouldn’t do that to him; he’s family.” Ming pushed Vic’s half-empty salad bowl away. “You don’t need to finish that if you don’t want to. I know that expression.”
“Thanks.” Vic tossed her fork into the salad bowl. “But who’s going to look after Viktor?”
“Gus and Kehla,” Ming said. “Shard, too; if she sticks around.”
“They aren’t coming?” How much had Doc and Ming planned without her? Vic wasn’t sure she liked being left out of the loop like that. Sure, Doc had his secrets, but she was usually the first to know. This was new.
“All three of them would stand out too much, and neither Kehla nor Shard know the languages. Your Mandarin is atrocious, but your Cantonese is pretty good. Doc seems to speak everything.,’
“Don’t forget, I also speak Russian.”
“Just don’t try to speak Japanese,” Gilly cut in. “You can’t order noodles without starting a fight.”
“It was an accident,” Vic protested. “He wanted me to be quiet and let a man order for me.”
“I would have ordered for you,” Doc said. “It wouldn’t have been a problem.”
“Not for you,” Vic retorted. “It was a problem for me.”
The memory still annoyed her. It had been her first trip back to the Far East since she had escaped the Bolsheviks, and she had only been twenty at
the time. She would never forget the look on the man’s face as he ignored her; his eyes sliding over her as if she was less than human. She had done a lot of growing up since the Revolution, but back then being ignored was the fastest way to bring back the Countess she’d been as a little girl.
Her heart rate picked up, and then the color washed away from the room. First Ming’s face went gray, and then the table seemed impossibly far away. The world went black and she reached for the table to hold herself upright but her fingers wouldn’t close. The last thing she remembered seeing was Ming’s wide-open mouth as she fell from her chair.
#
Doc padded softly into the infirmary where Vic and her cousin lay in their sickbeds. Both patients were asleep, and he was once again struck by how similar they looked. Even in sleep Vic’s face looked drawn, her cheekbones beginning to stand out. She twitched in her sleep, then her head lolled to the side and she began to snore softly.
“She’s been like that all night,” Ming said; setting down her brush and notebook beside an inkwell on the side table. “Pulse and respiration seem stable, though weak. Her temperature’s been fluctuating, too.”
“How’s he been?” Doc walked over to look at Viktor, who was lying on his side. He was even more gaunt than Vic, but he wasn’t as restless.
“He’s exhausted, but otherwise he’s doing well.” Ming sighed. “The exposure put him back but his prognosis hasn’t really changed. Lots of food, rest, and light exercise to start, and he should be back to normal in a couple of months.”
“You still think he could make the trip?” Doc asked.
Ming nodded. “I think so, the first couple of weeks we’d be on the ship so he could recover his strength before we reach Siberia.”
“It’s too risky.”
“Health-wise, it’s a bigger risk for Vic.” Ming reminded him.
“It’s not just health.” Doc rubbed his chin. “There are just too many unanswered questions. Her health may be worse, but I know I can trust her.
“How is she doing?”
“She woke up for a few minutes a couple of times.” Ming held up the chart hanging at the bottom of Vic’s bed. “She’s sleeping normally right now, and should be able to go in the morning.”
Giant Robots of Tunguska (Doc Vandal Adventures Book 4) Page 5