That’s crazy. You’re only a dancer. You job is to dance and wait out the regime.
Four
I could get used to this.
Not only was Suzy headlining, and finally making decent money again, but she was growing closer and closer to Davell. Mornings were for practice, afternoons were for making love. After her show, they’d usually meet up for dinner, dancing, or more love making. It had been two full weeks of fun and pleasure, and it was easing her guilt and worry about leaving her mother and daughter behind.
It was also keeping her healthy appetite satisfied.
She took one last look in the mirror. Her makeup was perfect, and she was ready to dance, but it would be at least fifteen minutes until the curtains opened, so she sat on the large sofa placed along one wall of her new dressing room. She grabbed her tablet from the side table and navigated to one of her favorite sites.
Halfway into an article about the new salt cave Blue Star was adding to Quantum, there was a knock on the door. Suzy smiled to herself. Maybe Davell had sent her roses or dark, rich chocolates again. For all his law and order, he was a bit of a romantic.
It wasn’t a steward at the door. It was Nora, her connection, a maid who helped her get medicine and money back home. The two of them had made an agreement that they’d never been seen in the same place. On a ship as large as Quantum, it would be impossible to know everyone that worked or visited.
Nora was breaking the most important rule.
“Get in here, quickly,” Suzy whispered. She looked up and down the hallway of the pod, and breathed a small sigh of relief when it was empty. She grabbed the woman’s wrist and pulled her into the dressing room.
Nora’s husband was a crew member on a garbage freighter. He flew all over the place picking up trash, and then dumping it in the darkest reaches where it would bump against the edges of the galaxy for infinity. His route included Desprezível, and with Nora’s help and her husband’s position, Suzy had been able to get the money she made onboard to her family, for a price.
“What are you doing here, Nora?”
The woman, a tiny, gray-skinned person who reminded Suzy of the tiny, fluffy mice on Desprezível, looked at the floor.
“Why won’t you look at me?” Suzy kept her voice quiet, but she felt a wave of fear rising from the pit of her stomach. “What’s happened?”
Nora finally looked up at her and her small, black eyes told Suzy all she needed to know. “It’s bad, really bad.”
“Is Zara alive?” she asked.
“She’s alive, but her medicine was stolen. But for a few pills your mom had hidden, there’s nothing left. By next week, she’ll be without any.”
Next week?
Anger, fear and rage pounded in Amber’s chest. Zara was a blameless child, a six-year-old who’d been sick since birth. Without her pills, she’d die. And soon. She needed at least two every day, sometimes more.
“I have money. How much will it take?”
Nora shook her head. “Money won’t help. They’ve outlawed the pills. The families of the people who need them are so desperate that they’ve turned into criminals, stealing and robbing from each other like common thieves.”
One of the most important tenets of Desprevielian society was that neighbors should always help neighbors. Back before ZX and his henchmen came to the planet, most people never locked their doors. If your neighbor or your friend wasn’t at home when you needed to borrow a dram of SweetWine, it was perfectly acceptable to borrow it without even asking as long as you replaced it before sunset. Crime was low and community trust was high.
There was no limit to the reach of the new regime. They’d turned her people against each other. It was a sure way to maintain control without showing a lot of force.
“What could possibly be wrong with life-saving pills?” Suzy asked.
“ZX believes that anyone who needs medicine to survive is nothing but a drain on the society. If a person isn’t capable of work, ZX is content to let them die. In his estimation, the sick are weak and they’ll only degrade the gene pool. There are signs up, all over Festa, that read, ‘Freedom through work.’”
Suzy didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about politics; she’d been an average student who’d only been mildly interested in political science and history, like most Desprevielians. Now, she wished she and all the other people on her home planet, had paid closer attention.
“Five minutes till show time.” The stage manager’s voice boomed through the speaker beside Amber’s dressing table.
“What can we do?” Suzy asked.
“According to my husband, there’s nothing to be done. The conditions are getting worse and worse there. Soon, no one but the zealots and the imprisoned will remain. The resistance, such as it was, has completely crumbled.”
“But I have nowhere to send my family, no way to get them off Desprezível.”
“You did all you could, ma’am.”
Did I really do everything that I could to keep my family together and healthy?
“I just wanted you to know, so that when the news comes, it’s not a shock.”
“Two minutes until show time,” the stage manager said.
“I have to dance, I have to—”
“I’ll leave after the show is in full-swing,” Nora said. “No one will know I was here.” She reached out and took Amber’s manicured hand into her small, raw one. “I’m so very sorry.”
Suzy fought back the tears welling in the corners of her eyes. “Me, too, Nora. Me, too.”
On stage, Suzy was glad she’d memorized the show so well. She was able to dance her way through it without giving in to her emotions. Instead of her usual flirty banter with the folks in the front row, she’d performed by rote, giving the best she could under the circumstances. Her mind raced, darting back and forth between her home planet and the stage. By the time the curtain closed, Suzy was covered in sweat and she felt like she was going to be sick.
She rushed down the hall to her dressing room, hand over her mouth, praying she made it in time. Just as she reached her dressing room, the door opened and Davell was standing in front of her.
“Great show,” he said, reaching for her hand.
She shook her head and darted past him and into the small bathroom suite. Suzy fell on her knees in front of the toilet and vomited until her stomach was empty. She’d never felt so powerless. She’d never failed so miserably.
I should have stayed. At least we would’ve been together.
She had no idea how long she sat beside the toilet, her face pressed to the cool tile of the wall.
I have to get up. I have to do something.
Suzy forced herself to rise on legs still shaking with fear. After washing her face with cold water and dabbing it dry, she looked into the mirror mounted above the sink. Her skin was pale and her eyes wide.
“Are you okay in there?” Davell’s voice sounded strange coming through the door.
“Just not feeling well. I’ll be out in a second.”
“Take your time. I’ll be right here.”
She wished he wasn’t just outside the door. For the first time since they’d met, she wanted to be alone, without him. Explaining her situation to him would be difficult, emotional, and she wanted their relationship to remain fun and light, no strings attached.
I can’t bear the thought of telling him everything.
Another wave of nausea rolled over her and she swallowed hard, determined to pull herself together.
He can’t see me like this. I won’t let him.
After a series of deep breaths and another cool water wash of her face, Suzy was as ready as she was going to be. In order to get rid of him, she’d have to face him first.
“Sorry,” she said, slipping out into the dressing room. “It must have been something I ate.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, taking her hand and pulling her toward him. “We can see the ship doctor.”
She shook her head. “I d
on’t have a fever or anything.”
“But it could be something contagious, and Blue Star isn’t going to like it if you don’t choose voluntary quarantine.”
Life aboard Quantum came with some very specific, and stringent, rules. Chief among them were the rules governing illness. At the first sign, employees and passengers were required to visit sick bay where they would be examined and tested for any communicable disease. Employees were strongly advised to enter voluntary quarantine for at least five days, even if the tests came back clean. With all the stops, and people from all reaches of the galaxy coming aboard, it was possible that a new sickness, one the doctors weren’t even able to test for yet, was the culprit.
“No sick bay. I just told you. It was something I ate.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I’m sure.”
The way he raised one eyebrow told her that he wasn’t buying it. Like all Galactic Force officers, Davell was a man who played by the rules. It was going to be hard to get past him on this one.
“Just get checked out. If you’re sick with something like Rabbit Fever, everyone aboard could be sick, or dead, in only days.”
Rabbit Fever was the worst fear of space travelers. Carried by the various species of bunnies kept aboard ships for protein stores, the illness was quick, devastating and often fatal. Even if you contracted it and lived, the organism responsible often left the victim crippled. In order to prevent the bacteria that caused it from coming aboard, each passenger had to complete a medical exam, including blood work, before they entered the airlock between the dock and Quantum.
“It’s not Rabbit Fever.”
“How do you know?”
“I know.”
He moved to the door of her dressing room and blocked it. “You’re not leaving this room until you tell me what’s going on.”
Suzy had two choices: submit to a visit to the sick bay or come clean with Davell. While sick bay might be a good vacation, it would tie her hands even more tightly. On the other hand, while she thought Davell was trustworthy, he might not be. He might use what she told him against her somehow. After all, he made his living as a spy, and she was certain the Force trained them in deception.
Living under a zealous regime gave a girl serious trust issues.
“Can I rely on your discretion?”
He nodded, still leaning across the door. “Of course you can.”
“I’m not sick; I’m scared. It’s my daughter.”
His eyes went wide and he took a step back. “Daughter?”
She nodded. She should have told him about Zara, and, in her own defense, she’d planned to broach the subject several times, but somehow the moment always passed, leaving the secret unspoken.
“Her name is Zara and she’s zuckerkrank.”
At home, it wasn’t a common disease. Even though Desprezível was known as the pleasure planet, the people ate well and exercised to maintain their bodies. On other planets, where people ate processed foods and rarely exercised, it was more common. The pills allowed patients who suffered with the disease to regulate blood sugar, allowing them to live fairly normal lives.
“She’s back on Desprezível?”
Suzy couldn’t trust herself to do anything but nod. Tears were very close to the surface and she didn’t want to show him how upset she was.
“That’s serious. My sources tell me that ZX is planning to outlaw medicine of any kind and the Eiferer will enforce his order. ”
“They already are and neighbors are stealing from neighbors in order to keep their loved ones alive.”
Davell shook his head. “I knew this regime wasn’t above any tactic necessary to retain complete and total control.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know I needed to tell you.”
“I’ve been sending money home and my mother, who cares for Zara, has stockpiled months’ worth of pills, but they’ve been stolen, undoubtedly by a family who needs them just as much as we do.”
“How old is she?”
“Ten.”
“Has she been sick all of her life?”
“Yes, she was born zuckerkrank.”
“Oh, dear Gods.”
“I have no idea what to do.” Suzy hated the desperate tone of her voice.
“Meet me in my pod in an hour.”
He slipped through the door, leaving her alone in the dressing room.
Back in his pod, Davell locked the door behind him using his thumbprint. Just to be doubly sure that no one slipped inside while he was working, he slid the bed against the door. Convinced no one could enter without decent warning, he pushed the clothes in the closet to either side and opened the safe hidden on the back wall.
He retrieved the tablet and ionic charger and sat at the small desk. After plugging it in and powering up, he hoped his boss wasn’t in his office watching the activity log. He knew better than to bring the tablet along; he was breaking the most serious Galactic Force rule.
No government tech on vacation.
The rule was as familiar to him as his own name, but he was perfectly willing to break it for Amber. It was a distinct possibility that he’d lose his job for this little stunt, but he wasn’t going to let a child die of a treatable disease if he could stop it.
And let’s face it, you might be in a unique position to help.
He navigated to the protected file that held all his notes on the regime that had overtaken Desprezível and typed in the password. He crossed his fingers that the colonel hadn’t blocked his access while he was on leave. When the navigation screen popped up with his login on the top left, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he slugged back an energy cola and crossed his fingers that it would clear the SweetWine fog clouding his brain.
It only took a few minutes for his tablet to update. Because it had only been offline for weeks, he had hundreds of emails to sort through. After a series of annoying dings as each message loaded, he closed that app and launched the one that accepted reports from citizens of the galaxy in exchange for a few drabbles. While not all of the reports were reliable, he could usually glean quite a bit of information from them.
Nearly every one the Force had forwarded to him had Desprezível in the subject line.
Since the beginning of his forced vacation, a ton of new information had found its way into his inbox, and he was very glad. After scanning a few reports, he found one that was clear and concise.
After reading it twice, one thing was clear: they couldn’t get there from here. It was impossible to book a ship to Desprezível. With the air space locked down tight, the only vessels getting in and out were supply ships. Unless. . .
“Supply ships,” Davell muttered to himself. “Supply ships.”
If he’d learned one thing as an intelligence officer, it was that there was always a way. He just needed to be clever enough to find it.
Suzy had changed into her practice gear: loose pants, a hoodie and a baseball hat. She hoped the brim would hide the dark circles beneath her bloodshot eyes. She’d gone on a crying jag as soon as Davell left her dressing room, and she looked it. While there was a small flicker of hope deep in her chest, she seriously doubted that he’d be able to help her or Zara.
My daughter is dying and there isn’t a thing I can do to help her.
Desprezível was a lost cause, Suzy knew she had to come to terms with that, but it was so damn hard. In all likelihood, her daughter, the most precious jewel in her life, would be dead within weeks, if not days. She might already be gone. Her mother, the one person Suzy had always been able to depend upon, would be stuck on Desprezível, lost to her and crippled with grief.
Mama will be totally alone. Just like me.
Since she’d met Davell, she’d pushed all the pain and the worry to the back of her mind, concentrating on the next show, the next lovemaking session. For the first time since she’d left Despreviel, she’d been able to live without constant anxiety twisting her heart and mind
from the time she woke until the time she slept.
But now, the weight of it crushed her, like the whole galaxy rested squarely on her shoulders.
Walking down the hallway toward Davell’s chamber, Suzy passed a fligth of nurses. Always in groups of three, they constantly traversed Quantum looking for any sign of disease or sickness. Suzy dipped her head, determined not to make eye contact. While she knew she wasn’t sick, they might not see it that way. Nurses had the power to detain anyone aboard if they suspected illness.
And I look like hell.
She breathed a sigh of relief when they passed her with nothing more than a quiet greeting. Finally at Davell’s door, she knocked softly.
When he opened the door, his usual smile has been replaced by a look of concentration. He wore a pair of dark rimmed glasses, and even though she’d never seen him wear them, they suited him. Most people with less than perfect eye sight elected to have corrective surgery, but on some planets, like Revenault, some people still favored the old fashioned accessory.
“Come in,” he said. “We have a lot to discuss.”
Her heart hammered in her chest, but she stepped inside anyway. If there was anything she could do to help Zara and her mother, she was willing to give it a try.
The table was covered in notes he’d scribbled as he’d scrolled through the files on his tablet. Looking over the work he’d done following the blow-up of his relationship with Marissa, along with the new intel, everything was becoming clearer. While he had been poorly organized in the last few weeks he’d worked, he’d accomplished more than he’d realized. The file he’d built was impressive and comprehensive.
“Have a seat,” he said to Amber. “Get comfortable. There’s a lot we need to go over.”
He’d noticed that her performance was a little off, but he suspected that she was just tired. It wasn’t until he’d seen her in the dressing room that he’d realized something was terribly wrong. Her skin was pale and her eyes were bloodshot. She looked nothing like the woman in sequins, feathers and furs, the flirty dancer he’d fallen in love with that first night at Rick’s. It pained him to see her so worried and broken.
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