REAP 23

by J J Perry

  Cyrus wanted to scream. “This is great! We have the finest medical care anywhere in the galaxy, and we can’t move a guy twenty fricking meters to get it! And you want me to catch a toolbox in an elevator shaft? This is turning out to be one helluva day!”

  “If you have a better solution, Cyrus, tell me,” Savanna said quietly.

  “I don’t, damn it.” He stood and turned toward Suresh and the two med-bots who were keeping him alive. “How much time do we have to get him down to Medical?”

  “The answer is best expressed as a probability,” Lola replied. “Leaving immediately, he has a 92 percent chance of reasonable recovery. This estimate drops roughly 2 percent for each minute delay, although the rate of change is nonlinear.”

  “Got it,” Cyrus said. He tapped his communicator. “What do you need me to do, Savanna?” She explained as she climbed back to the top. Cyrus went down to Engineering, passing Lucinda coming up the stairs, and entered the elevator shaft well below the car. Savanna tied the climbing rope to a support beam and dropped the coil to the top of the car. She rappelled down. She lowered the remainder of the line down the side of the car. Cyrus caught it and ran the end through a carabineer and then slid an ascender above him. He slowly put his weight on the rope and jacked himself up to the bottom of the car. The rope was next to the offending toolbox. He locked and stabilized and then placed both feet on the beam. As Savanna tapped the toolbox with a long pole, he pulled the car to reduce pressure. The box moved slowly down and to one side. In two minutes, it fell about a foot to Cyrus’s legs where he caught it before it fell another thirty feet or so. It was heavy. Cyrus unlocked and descended a few feet to a panel where he was able to exit. Savanna exited above him and climbed the rung ladder to the top. She manually restored power to the elevator motor and then pulled up the cord.

  “Cyrus, are you clear?” Her voice came through the small clip pinned to his chest.

  “Yes.”

  “Somebody, activate the elevator.”

  Raul answered, “Got it.” In a second, the motor started humming, and the elevator motor twitched slightly.

  “Get Parambi out of there,” Savanna commanded as she was trying to exit into the equipment bay. This had taken about eight minutes. In less than another minute, she saw the gurney glide into the waiting car. She bounded down the stairs to Medical. Jekyll and Zhivago were poised in the treatment area as the entourage entered.

  Zhivago confirmed that the diagnosis was skull fracture with a rapidly expanding blood clot compressing his brain. The upper part of his brain had started to compress his lower brain because of this pressure, a fatal event if not treated quickly. With remarkable efficiency, they cleaned and shaved his burned head. A couple of holes were drilled into his skull, releasing blood under pressure and buying precious minutes. They then cut and lifted a flap of crispy, weeping scalp, exposing a table of bone. Jekyll and Zhivago started sawing a perfect circle with precision. Suction. Intravenous fluid. Cautery. Anesthetic. Bursts of ultraviolet to sterilize as they went. Correction of oxygen, carbon dioxide, electrolytes. Monitoring and collection of urine flow. Heart rhythm. Burn care. The four robots worked rapidly as one, communicating data and timing in silence. Medical data from most of the planet for more than a century was in the main computer and available to them as fast as retrieval was possible. Soon, only the two multi-bots were needed. One of them could have done the procedure from that instant, but speed remained critical.

  Maricia had entered the adjacent bay and, under the direction of Ivanna, lay supine on a treatment table. The med-bots did not have the robust imaging capabilities possessed by the multis, so they used additional machines. There was a lump under the laceration. Imaging showed no evidence of fracture, but there was a hematoma, blood clot, in the tissue covering the bone. Within a few minutes, the collection of blood had been removed, and the bleeding stopped. The edges of the irregular gash were trimmed with a fine laser scalpel, the subcutaneous tissues brought together, and the perfectly clean and straight skin edges apposed and fastened together. A colored headband was applied, putting gentle pressure over the site while promoting healing and pain control. Lucinda helped her up and walked with her to a couple of chairs.

  5.3

  “Can you draw the curtain?”

  Lucinda did. Maricia slipped the bloody double-breasted tunic off. Her camisole also had some bloodstains where it had soaked through. “For the last hour or so,” Maricia started, “I’ve been thinking about a couple of things.”

  “Oh? And they would be?” Lucinda asked.

  She dabbed at the stains over her breasts with a cloth set with peroxide. “I’m sorry that I was so angry with you. The more we learn, the easier it is to see that what happened between you and Raul”—she paused—“what happened was not your fault. I’m sorry, Luc, for being a bitch.”

  “Everyone is made miserable in some way by Parambi.”

  “There is another thing. You said something upstairs. The timing of this meltdown is bothersome, too coincidental. It is like he knew something.” She stopped cleaning and looked at Lucinda.

  “Raul agrees. I was going to ask him to see if there was any way that Parambi could have eavesdropped on our conference.”

  “Great idea. Let’s go talk to him.” She donned a clean size two, fastened the connectors, and asked with a look if she looked OK.

  Lucinda nodded her approval. “We’ll need to take the lift. You are recovering, girlfriend.”

  Lucinda opened the curtain. Zhivago and Jekyll were imaging and assessing their patient, while Ivanna worked on separating burned clothing from skin. The women exited to the lift.

  The cleaning robot was at work in CAC. Blood, fire, hasty napalm, extinguisher, and other destruction had left a huge mess. It buzzed about as Savanna and Cyrus talked.

  “That was good thinking about the lift. I really didn’t think it would work.”

  “I didn’t think we had other good options. Besides, I wanted to hit you with a toolbox.”

  “You succeeded. I have the bruises to prove it.”

  “Good. I’m curious about Lucinda’s question of the timing of Parambi’s actions. Is there anything to that?” For twenty minutes, it seemed their relationship was back at where it had been before launch until she asked that question. Cyrus iced over.

  “Not that I know.”

  “It is too much of a coincidence. Anyway, do you want me to do anything?”

  “Not until I’m off shift.” He looked at her with a smile perhaps intended to be seductive. She only felt disgust and was surprised at her visceral response. The twenty-minute reprieve was clearly over for both of them.

  “I’m going to Medical to check on the injured.” With that, she went down the stairs. As she was passing the threshold to COM, she saw Lucinda and Maricia walking from the elevator toward the COM station. She detoured and followed them.

  “Hey, ladies,” she called out. They both turned.

  “You saved the day, Savanna,” Lucinda said. “Nice work. When did you learn to be an elevator repairman?”

  “All in a day’s work-around here. Mar, let me see your forehead.” Savanna lifted up the headband and inspected the fine surgical work for a couple of seconds. “Looks painful.”

  “The price of being spastic.”

  “Girls get knocked up in the dark.”

  “Ha.”

  “So what’s up?”

  “We came to ask Raul something,” Lucinda said.

  Savanna waited for more information. Nothing came. “Mind if I join you?”

  “Not at all,” Maricia said. They walked a few steps and found Raul, legs splayed and wearing a headset, unaware of their presence until they appeared in his visual field.

  He removed the headset and looked up from his chair. “This is a lot of estrogen,” he said with a smile. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” />
  “We are curious, hon,” Maricia said. “Is there any way that Suresh could have overheard our powwow?”

  “He has been locked out of the system. He could not have activated a mike or a camera.”

  “Can you check if our conversation was transmitted?” Lucinda asked.

  Raul thought for a moment then started tapping icons. “I can look through some of the logs. Let’s see. Nothing here. Nothing here,” muttering mostly to himself as he searched.

  “How is Parambi?” Savanna asked.

  “The bastard is still alive,” Lucinda responded, “pissing away our resources.”

  “This is his third neurosurgery in a fairly short time,” Maricia said. “Then there is the burn. He is not likely to recover very well.”

  “If he makes it to landing, he’ll make it hell on K-70, or whatever we call the place.” Lucinda said, her arm around Maricia’s waist.

  “I doubt he’ll make it thorough ultra-hibernation,” Maricia said.

  “What’s this?” Raul muttered. Well, well, well, Cyrus opened an audio channel from CAC just before the meeting using a—I bet he thought he could not be tracked by doing it that way. He is not a COM guy,” Raul bathed in self-satisfaction until the realization of what he discovered sunk in.

  There was silence until Savanna spoke. “So, Raul, what are you saying?”

  “Cyrus opened a mike. This allowed someone, Suresh, for example, to eavesdrop on the meeting.”

  “He could have heard and seen what was going on in the conference?” she asked.

  “He could not have seen anything. He potentially could have heard all of it.”

  “Can you tell if he was listening?” Lucinda asked.

  “Maybe,” Raul muttered as he spent another twenty seconds looking through data. “There was an open speaker in quarters. So, yeah, he was listening.”

  “What in the hell was Cyrus thinking?” Savanna thought aloud.

  “The idiot almost got me killed!”

  “I’ve had enough of this bull,” Raul said.

  “Let me talk to him before you all let him have it,” Savanna proposed.

  “Can we trust you?” Lucinda challenged. “I thought I could trust everyone when we took off. I am learning otherwise.”

  “He lied to me about this. If we all gang up against him, it may go poorly. He does not do well when cornered. If he has just a little warning, it might help. Just give me five minutes before you come upstairs. By the way, how much longer will Suresh be in surgery?”

  “At least an hour,” Maricia said. “He will be unconscious for several days.”

  “You have three minutes,” Lucinda said with poorly masked hostility.

  “There’s one more thing, Savanna, that you may want to know.”

  “Now what, Raul?”

  “I started looking into Suresh and his activities the past few days.”

  What he told them brought tears to all three. Then a resurgence of bitter anger filled the room.

  5.4

  Savanna left. Maricia and Lucinda sat and waited, talking very little and uncomfortably with Raul, tension in the air.

  CAC appeared empty. Savanna found Cyrus on a locator screen. He was in the bathroom. She sat in his chair. Three minutes later, he reentered the room.

  “Hey, babe.”

  “Don’t ‘hey babe’ me. I asked you about Parambi, and you said you had nothing to do with his come-apart.”

  “Can I have my chair back? I’m in the middle of a damage assessment.”

  “Well, what about Parambi?”

  “He is in surgery, and I am busy. My chair?”

  “In about one minute, a very angry crew is going to show up here. Raul found that you opened up a COM link so that Suresh could listen in on our meeting.”

  “OK, I did. I don’t think it is right to determine someone’s fate without their knowledge and consent.”

  “Suresh has a screw loose.”

  “You guys want to be judge and jury. I’m his only defense. What gives you the right to deprive him of liberty?”

  “It’s called completing the mission. It’s called self-preservation. Liberty? That was gone once we locked the door to this can and fired up the engine. Freedom is a myth. The only place it exists is inside your own thoughts.”

  “There goes that stupid pop philosophy again.”

  “You and your underdog mentality. It’s gotten real old, Cyrus.”

  “My family has taken the side of the weak, of the refugees and disempowered for generations. And we are the freest people on the planet.”

  “Oh, don’t start with that idiotic song and dance. The consequence of your little freedom of information act was the huge mess that Hugo over there is cleaning up plus the insecurity and loss of trust from all the crew and a really pissed-off wife. Not to mention the guy you thought you were looking out for may now be brain dead. Did you think this through, Cyrus?”

  “I was defending his rights. The rest of this is not my fault.”

  Savanna let out a long, audible sigh. “Listen to yourself, Cyrus. Surely, you do not believe what you just said. You don’t take any credit for the unintended consequences?”

  “He has rights. No one else seems to be interested in them.”

  “The consequences, Cy. What about them?”

  “The repercussion of not defending his rights is that no one has rights. He is a human being with an impairment.”

  “What? Too much money? Excessive intelligence? Impairment, shit, Cyrus. He is pure evil, and I don’t even believe in evil.”

  “He fell apart when Leila died.”

  “He killed her, you moron! He programmed the console to discharge as he watched her give Chen all the passion he thought he deserved.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Raul dug it up.”

  “You just made that up.”

  “No one even thought someone could be so twisted until now.”

  “You would say anything to make the point that you want Suresh neutralized.”

  “You’re hopeless, Cyrus. Worthless.”

  Hell flared up in his eyes, and he wound up to strike her. She made no move in defense—didn’t flinch. She had been through this drill before, though not since she was twelve. He hesitated and then slapped her across the face. “You have no right to speak to me like that, woman,” he yelled as if the statement ended with an epithet.

  There was sound at the entrance to CAC. Savanna stood up without touching her face on fire. She learned not to show weakness, not to bleed in the shark-infested water. She held up a hand like a traffic cop without looking in the direction of the lift, her eyes drilling into Cyrus’s skull, and spoke softly and in his face. “So the fact that you may have killed the man whose rights you claim to defend doesn’t bother you?”

  “I did not kill him. Lucinda did. Besides, at this point, it probably doesn’t matter.”

  “I’m not going to wallow in your damn depression. Cyrus, you will come to deeply regret what you did today. That you persist in denying your role and taking responsibility frankly pisses me off. Not to mention striking me in hate. I never expected to see any of this.”

  Her hand fell, and she stepped away from the chair. Raul, Maricia, and Lucinda approached. She then took a position behind them as they accosted Cyrus in his commander chair. ‘Cyrus’ meant king in Persian.

  “I found the COM portal to quarters that you attempted to camouflage, Cy,” Raul spoke loudly, his Spanish accent exaggerated, his arms in motion and a storm over his face. “I am the COM guy. You can’t hide that stuff from me.”

  “What were you thinking, Commander?” spat Lucinda. “That Parambi would write up objections and file a grievance with human resources? That he would get all warm and fuzzy and say, ‘Gosh, fellas, I love you guys. I wouldn’
t dream of misbehaving again.’ That he would restrict himself to quarters? You certainly had no idea that he would try to kill me again, did you?”

  “We have no right to sit in judgment of him. He should have been included in the meeting about his future.”

  “And we have a right and a responsibility,” Lucinda barked, “to objectively discuss his impairments out of his hearing and without fear of reprisal so that we can make decisions that are best for all parties and the mission.”

  “I disagree. I am the commander, and I made a decision that I felt was in the best interest of the mission and the rights of the crew.” He avoided all eye contact.

  “And how did that turn out for you, Cyrus?” Maricia asked pleasantly.

  “Using your extensive psychiatric knowledge and experience, we had a nice, smooth result with no unpleasant aftermath,” Lucinda added.

  “We are done here,” Cyrus bitterly claimed.

  Lucinda said, “Anybody else think we are finished?” No response. “It looks like we are still talking. Why did you do this without telling anyone but Suresh?”

  “I need to complete the damage assessment.”

  “I need a new commander,” countered Lucinda.

  Cyrus turned to face the console and started working on the screens. The angry mob surrounded him and kept peppering him with questions.

  Lucinda asked, “If you are so focused on rights, why did you ignore four of us to favor one?”

  Maricia added, “The command structure of this mission is not authoritarianism according to the rules and regs. It is by consensus building.” She looked back at Savanna, who was being silent. It was hard to tell that her left cheek was red until she looked close. The white of her eye was red, and a single tear edged from the lid stuttering down the cheek. She reached out and wiped it away, her face cringing in commiseration.