Nara

by M. L. Buchman

  “No,” Ri struggled to her feet. “I have to get back to R1 and check in with, uh, Devra.” She pulled Bryce’s head toward her and after planting a light kiss on his lips, whispered into his ear.

  “Thanks.”

  Chapter 27

  18 January 1 A.A.

  “Captain?”

  “Come in, Mr. MacAndrews.” Devra Conrad yawned in his face, only belatedly covering her mouth. “Please excuse me. It has been a busy night. But you said it couldn’t wait.”

  Jaron nodded and slipped into her office. The clock on her desk showed five a.m., he’d completely lost track of time. He cleared his throat and considered apologizing, but then thought better of it.

  He still didn’t know how to ask the question. He and Robbie had discussed it once they had returned to her quarters. She’d even made a few interesting discoveries from the computer system using his biome leader password. She’d insisted it wasn’t critical. Once she was asleep, he slid out of her bed, called the Captain and traveled to R1 to meet with her.

  A pressure under his thumbnail brought his attention to the dirt lodged there. He used another fingernail to scrape the dirt out and then noticed he’d dropped it on the Captain’s ivory carpet. He glanced up quickly, but she was getting a cup of coffee. He moved his foot over the small brown patch.

  “Now, what is so crucial?” She settled into her chair and cradled her mug. Would she tell him the truth or would she hide it behind a professionally bland look?

  “Tell me about the bioengineering project. I think I have a right to know.” That hadn’t come out correctly, but it certainly elicited her full attention. She almost spilled her coffee down the front of her immaculate uniform.

  “After your reaction the last time and the consequences, I would think that you would want to be the last to know. But which project are you referring to?”

  “If I knew that I wouldn’t be here asking would I?” How people like this became ship’s commanders was beyond him. Maybe Samnal had been right in his thinking, if not his methods. You didn’t need to be a genius to order other people around.

  The Captain set aside her mug. She sat back and contemplated him. He watched her fingers tap together for twenty repetitions before she reached to her console. She inspected the screen carefully and then looked at him once more. He tried to guess what she was thinking, but her professional mask was back in place and Harold had more readable expressions.

  “Ovine wool enhancement for easier shearing. Dogwood resistance to some strain of rot we have not yet identified. And I see two recently abandoned projects: attempts to engineer the dolphins to a smaller environment, and a series of tests on replacing dogs with a cat/pig mix. Now, I know that this type of work is abhorrent to you, but they are carefully monitored by—”

  “No.” Jaron shifted in his seat. They hadn’t learned anything from the failure of the Arctic, but let that be on their own heads as long as they stayed away from his jungle. “It’s something else. Something big. Are you aware that every gene splicer dropped out of circulation forty-eight hours ago? And they’ve been seen, they aren’t among the disappeared. They just aren’t going to their labs. They are all going to the Icarus.”

  The Captain glanced at him as if he were telling fairy tales to a child too old for them.

  “What’s this about the Icarus?”

  “Oh please, Captain. Even up in my jungle I know that there is something going on there. ‘Something new,’ according to Ri Jeffers. Here it is only two levels below you and you claim not to know? I don’t buy that.”

  The Captain placed both of her hands on the desk.

  “I do not know, but you may be assured I will investigate. And, I shall keep you informed. Also, I have not forgotten your staff’s failure to report the loss of Mr. Kenman in a more timely fashion. We might have had a three-week head start had we known. I will assume your complete cooperation in the future.”

  Her face was so stern that he almost bought it. But the reason he left Robbie asleep in her bed was his sudden memory of where he’d seen Captain Turner’s name. It had taken only a moment to confirm that the man with all the smiles and the crushing grip was once Devra Conrad’s commander. Yet she continued to pretend to be in command. That meant whatever happened aboard the Icarus carried even greater import.

  You didn’t need to believe in conspiracies when you could point to them and see them as plain as a noonday sun.

  # # #

  Ri struck out at the hand that shook her shoulder, but only hit air. Turner was standing off to one side.

  “Get her up, Jackie. She has thirty seconds to appear in the lounge, clothed or not, or the Security Chief will wake up in the brig if I have to fabricate one myself. And if you are not bloody quick, you shall find your butt placed in an adjoining cell.”

  Captain Conrad’s voice brought her fully awake just as Jackson planted a cold washcloth over her face and rubbed it around despite her protests. He threw a towel in her direction and started cramming her feet into a fresh shipsuit.

  She pushed him away. “I can dress myself.”

  “Well, then do it.” He flashed one of his leers at her. “I like you in skin, but your Captain might feel otherwise.”

  She dragged the shipsuit on.

  “What am I doing here?”

  “Donnie found you asleep against the corridor wall not far from the outer hatch.”

  She’d passed out still wearing the suit stained with the blood of R4U and woken naked in Jackson’s bed. She really had to cut that out. As she stumbled into the lounge, the entire Icarus crew was waiting, but very much in the background of the fuming Captain.

  “The rest of you clear out.”

  No one moved and Jackson’s smile grew wider if possible.

  “Sorry, can’t help you with this insubordinate lot, Devra. Of course, since we started this as a team, perhaps we should answer it as a team. What do you think, troops?”

  Donnie spoke up. “We’re here. Get on with it.” Her statement was answered by nods from the entire crew. Ri relaxed a little, they were a good group to be with. Not afraid of tight places. Then she refocused on the Captain’s expression and snapped back to attention.

  “Damn it. Stop that, Commander Jeffers. Just tell me what is going on here. Simple words, remember I am only a lowly Captain. Not some high and mighty biologist like our Mr. MacAndrews.”

  Ri swallowed hard. “Jaron knows about this?”

  “Not knowing what ‘this’ is, I find it hard to be certain. But he certainly knows something that I do not. And my confession of that lack of knowledge is clearly some crime against his estimation of my minor intelligence. Now is the Icarus the site of some wild genetic research?”

  Ri glanced at Jackson and he just shrugged. It was her project after all, even if it was his crew’s idea. She quickly outlined the proposal of finding some way to tie mankind together into a bonded, interdependent society. Just as a global economy had finally brought an end to many wars, so might a similar process spare humanity itself.

  “We wanted to tell you. Would have in another day or so.”

  “How old is this project?”

  “Forty-eight hours.” Ri tried to read the Captain’s reaction, but no emotion showed. “The bioengineers were too afraid of Olias’ response. As was I. He has clearly stated his feelings about such projects in his less than gentle interviews with them after the Samnal fiasco.”

  Ri might as well have been talking to a wall for all she could see of the Captain’s reaction. They descended into the safe lab, all trooping together like a cadre hunting party. Ri had to count twice to convince herself that despite the early hour, every single researcher was at their station. Most positively blanched when they recognized the Captain suddenly in their midst.

  Bamker was overseeing the work inside the tank once again. He crossed to the window w
earing his envirosuit.

  “Ah, greetings Captain Conrad.” He was as unflappable as ever. “As you can see, we are maintaining full safety protocols. Now that we have the data and all of the subsidiary studies, we have been able to abandon several lines of stepwise testing. The second mapping project was incredibly thorough and intensely documented, though not always in the most positive fashions. It was studied as a weapon rather than a basis for life. But to see it revealed in all its magnificence. Why there isn’t a soul here that hasn’t dreamed of spending even an hour studying the genome data. It is fabulo—”

  “You have the genome?” The Captain stepped to the glass, but Bamker pointed at Ri. Captain Conrad’s gray eyes seemed to bore into her. Before Ri could speak, Devra nodded her head.

  “The message. From that last transmission. You unlocked it.”

  Ri barely dared nod. She hoped that the Captain didn’t pursue it any further. She really didn’t want to explain that they had the world leader’s clone aboard. Bryce needed his privacy if he was going to survive.

  The Captain started to laugh. She leaned against the clear plas wall of the tank and practically howled until she was holding her sides and tears were running down her cheeks. Ri checked with Jackson. He was smiling, but clearly didn’t get whatever the joke was. Even Bamker looked perplexed inside the bubble of his helmet.

  “Oh my,” the Captain wiped at her eyes. “I needed that. I shall simply tell Mr. Jaron MacAndrews that my security chief, commanded with protecting us, and without my knowledge I might add though he won’t believe me, is using the most feared technology in the history of the human race to make us all as friendly as housecats. That is certain to return me to his good graces.

  “Perhaps you did well to keep this from Olias. The image of the good Olias being kind and gentle was just too much for me at this hour.”

  Ri began to smile, but her commander’s face sobered between one heartbeat and the next.

  “What specifically are you hoping to achieve?”

  Ri wished to god she knew. Bamker spoke for her.

  “That is not easy to answer yet. Chief Jeffers’ concept was specific in goal if not methodology. I could tell you more in a few weeks, but at the moment my personal hope is bound up in telepathy.”

  “You’re joking? That pseudo-science. No one has ever successfully repeated those early tests.” Devra’s voice dripped with scorn.

  “True. Nonetheless there have been recorded occurrences that exceed all levels of probability. If we can isolate that capability and enhance it we could perhaps communicate with one another more accurately, then we could be more understanding of one another.

  “But we haven’t found such a thing in the genome data yet. It is too massive, and not indexed with such information in mind. And to make matters worse, we still have no idea how to induce the change should we determine to do so. Altering an egg is fairly straightforward for most gene sites. Well, that is perhaps an overstatement, but it is possible. In a grown being there would be over two billion pair changes per altered gene that must occur simultaneously to avoid rejection and false replication.

  “Those of us here in the tank are pursuing the mechanism, which is a purely technical puzzle. Those about you in the room are working on sifting through the data for a likely solution. My role is to eavesdrop on both teams.”

  The Captain glanced at Ri. All she could do was nod. It was further than she had ever evolved the idea, but it sounded good. Devra’s close inspection turned aside. For the first time since being awakened, she was aware of being able to breathe.

  “Well, Jackie. You were always the hotshot commander, what would you do?”

  Jackson moseyed across the room until he stood before Ri. She looked up into his brown eyes and his shining smile. While looking right at her, he answered the Captain.

  “Lock her up and throw away the key.”

  She resisted the urge to punch him in the gut as Donnie and Sicily started to protest. He ignored them and turned to face the Stellar’s Captain.

  “Or, if you believe those curves she made are real, as yesterday’s riot would indicate, and we really are that close to dying as a race—give her every last resource she needs and you keep the whole damn thing so quiet that hard-cases like MacAndrews and my brother never find out. The people of Stellar One are dying. Do you know why? I can tell you.”

  Ri glanced at Hank and Sicily, but they only shrugged.

  “They have no home. They are dying by twos and threes in brawls, in stupid accidents, in little arguments in dark corners that get out of hand and turn into riots. They are stuck in orbit around a dead planet with nowhere to go and they simply don’t care. There has to be a solution, and I haven’t heard a better one anywhere else. The men and women in this room have made their choice. Now you must make yours. Then…”

  Ri could see him grin at his former pilot. “We should leave these people in peace and go somewhere quiet together and get very, very drunk.”

  Chapter 28

  19 January 1 A.A.

  Bryce sat on the promontory reaching into the Arctic Ocean. Sunrise wasn’t far off and if Ri didn’t hurry she’d miss it. She’d joined him yesterday with news of the Captain’s tour of the Icarus and her decision to let the project continue. As they’d watched the sun rise she’d started discussing a problem of the prairie dogs all being sick in Savannah biome. He just wanted to see if there might be more behind their few brief kisses, but she was far too focused on the problem to even be aware of such a thing.

  With a sigh, he’d offered a few suggestions. They’d missed lunch and the sunset a few hours later while they’d been immersed in data at the lab’s console. It was early evening, full dark in the Arctic, when they’d uncovered the problem.

  Some chemist hadn’t paid attention when they manufactured the prairie dogs’ supplemental food mix. It had been amended with too many inerts. Over the last week, the more they ate, the less sustenance they received. The weaker they became, the more supplemental food they were given.

  Ri had rushed off and he’d gone to the bar. It had been a quiet crowd, but they drank long into the night and now it was nearly sunrise. He was tired and a little lightheaded from lack of sleep, but it was a good feeling. He’d feel even better if he knew how the small animals were doing.

  The sky was a radiant orange in the southeast when a shout from direction of the main lock answered his question. Ri was hopping and dancing toward him over the rocks waving her arms over her head. She flew up the face of the ledge and almost bowled him off the far side with an embrace.

  “You’re the best!” Her shout echoed off the ceiling momentarily shattering the Arctic illusion.

  “We saved them, gave them a laxative and a fresh food mix that biome leader Hammel and I oversaw personally. They started pooping and eating like crazy, just as happy as can be. You should see the little beasts running around.”

  She leaned back in his arms and howled at the ceiling again. She pushed his hood back as the first rays of light washed over her hair. She leaned in and kissed him. There was a shock as she ran her tongue across his teeth. Her breath was as sweet as the taste of spring on a late winter’s day. He slid one hand to cradle her head and pulled her closer with the other.

  Ri moved back without breaking the kiss and tore at the front of his coat. They fought down through the layers each was wearing until their bare chests were pressed together. There was no way to go further without freezing to death and all he could do was groan as she rubbed against him.

  Without warning, she leapt to her feet and sealed her coat over her still open shipsuit. Her look was wicked before she turned and scrambled down the rock face.

  He leapt after her and they chased each other like children among the boulders as they raced toward the lab. To his own ears, he sounded like a frustrated bear as she ducked clear and finally raced straight for the
door easily outdistancing his long, loping stride.

  The cold air raked through his throat as he roared out his frustration.

  She seemed to float as she danced over the colored lichens. At twenty meters to the door she shed her coat and by the time she reached the door, her shipsuit was peeled to the waist, her body steaming in the cold air. Her long, fine muscles clearly defined down the length of her narrow back. An ocean of black hair tantalizingly hid and revealed her bare shoulders.

  He crashed through the thermal seal only a few steps behind her. She had turned and he slammed into her and let his momentum carry them to the back wall. She wrapped herself around him and he pinned her to the plas wall.

  Ri beat on his shoulders as he took her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him in so tightly he wasn’t sure if he’d ever breathe anything but her smell again.

  The lab echoed with their cries until both were spent and they collapsed onto the bunk still intertwined, a tangle of flesh and clothes. She stayed wrapped around him alternately laughing and weeping. All he could do was hold on. Muscle after muscle let go until he was little more than a puddle of protoplasm tucked inside a loose shell of skin and bones.

  Her tears were the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted as he held her against him. As she quieted, he slowly rubbed her back, but soon even that was too much effort. He felt a blanket slide over his body.

  She tucked it around them and curled up with her head below his chin. Her soft, thick hair ran across his chest and down his shoulder.

  # # #

  Ri woke alone and looked about the darkened room. Red light flickered across the walls and ceiling. She moved and could feel a blanket against her bare skin. She pulled it tightly around her as she sat up.

  Bryce slept slouched down in one chair with crossed feet in the other. The firelight behind him gave him a warm, peaceful look. She looked for her shipsuit and found it folded neatly close at hand on a lab stool. Her coat hung next to Carla’s by the thermal shield.