3rd World Products, Inc., Book 1

by Ed Howdershelt

  Ellen looked at me and giggled as I said, "Do it again once, Steph."

  The air whipped around us again just as the nose of the flitter entered the ship's atmospheric field. Ellen giggled again.

  "You know he knows, Ed."

  "There's a difference between knowing something is going on and having it stuffed up your nose, Ellen. You watch Gary closely and you'll see what I mean. Smells conjure images, and damned few brothers really want that sort of image of a sister knocking around in their heads."

  Sure enough, Gary's smiling demeanor changed dramatically as he got a whiff of what little of the event was left in the cabin. He looked first at Ellen, then at me, and then he saw the stained pilot's seat behind me.

  I won't say he actually glowered at Ellen or me, but his countenance froze and he stood very stiffly, formally, as he said, "Linda would like to see you both."

  Having said that, he simply turned and ringingly slapped the door panel to exit the bay without another word to either of us.

  I sat wearily down in the pilot's seat and said, "See?"

  Ellen was stunned. "But... He's known for months, Ed! We talked about it; how it might affect everything and ourselves and you."

  She turned to face me and keened, "He knew, damn it! He knew!"

  I looked up and could only think to say, "There's a difference, Ellen."

  She looked blankly at me for a moment, then her expression became enraged. Her voice began in a very low tone and rose in pitch until it hurt my ears.

  "Don't tell me it's different, Ed. He has no right! No right! I'd never dream of judging him this way..! He-has-no-right!"

  Ellen looked around in aggravated confusion for a moment, then looked as if she intended to follow Gary. I stood and stepped in her path.

  "It isn't exactly judgment, Ellen. Count to a thousand and hope he's doing the same. Don't go at him like this. It won't help. I know. I've been here before."

  Her rage seemed to focus on me as she succinctly said, "Out-of-my-way, Ed. He-has-no-right!"

  "It isn't a matter of having a right. It's a matter of having a sister, and why the hell are you so upset...?"

  I wasn't prepared and I freely admit it. One moment Ellen was glaring at me and the next I was lying on the floor. I heard my stunner rattle to a halt somewhere on the bay floor. It was a toss, not a strike, but the power behind it slammed me against the wall and to the floor at the far end of the bay.

  It also left me in agony for a moment and I had to check to see if my left arm and shoulder still worked. Something in my shoulder was rattling when I tried to move it and Ellen was out the bay door before I could even get to my feet.

  I reached to tap the comm button on my watch, but my watch was missing. Only some scrapes where it had been dragged off my arm remained, and realizing the scrapes were there made them burn like hell, of course.

  Ellen had slapped the door panel and was gone by the time I got to the door. I was about to slap the panel, too, when I realized the goddamned door wouldn't open again that day. The panel had collapsed into the wall in a mangled mess.

  "Elkor! Ellen's going after Gary and she is max-pissed! She put me on the floor, almost removed my arm, and smashed the door panel. Warn Gary. Can you stop her or at least slow her down?"

  "I'm aware of events, Ed. I can delay her once with fields, but she will override me by voice command. Correction. She has done so. I can't stop her."

  "If she's like this when she finds him... Can you stun her? Can you tell Gary to stun her if he has to?"

  There was no answer.

  "Elkor?"

  Aw, shit! The tin man's down and I'm locked in here and Ellen's gone psycho.

  "Stephanie! Can you open bays from the outside?"

  "In an emergency, I am programmed..."

  "Yes or no, lady! Quick answers!"

  "Yes, Ed."

  I jumped into the flitter and said, "Do it, then. Find Gary. Take me into the bay nearest him and... And I'll figure out what the hell to do when we get there."

  Stephanie began the usual slow backup out of the bay.

  "Steph, we don't have time for this. I want to be in the other bay as quickly as you can possibly get us there in one piece. Do it now."

  "Please sit down first, Ed. I cannot exceed this speed..."

  I slammed my butt into the pilot's seat and said, "I'm sitting! GO!"

  The field wrapped around me as we moved. I won't try to guess how few tenths of a second were involved, but flashing out of one bay and nosing into another at that speed was plain fucking scary. I sat absolutely still in a state of shock for a couple of seconds, then managed to get out of my seat.

  "Jesus, Steph!"

  "Is something wrong, Ed?"

  "Ah... Hah... Well... No, baby. We're fine, I think. Where's Gary?"

  "In his work room, Ed. I thought you might also like to know where..."

  The canopy was open enough to get out. "Yes! Where's Ellen?"

  "Three doors away from here, coming this direction."

  "Steph, can you extend your field through the doorway and across the hall?"

  "Yes, Ed."

  "Do it when I get into the hallway. No voice commands but mine, okay?"

  "Yes, Ed."

  "I mean it, Steph. You're my flitter. Nobody else orders you, you got that?"

  "Yes, Ed."

  "Thank you. Now tell Gary to get his butt out here. This is his problem, too."

  I ran out of the bay and stopped in the middle of the hallway.

  "Do it now, Steph. All the way to the other wall."

  She must have filled the doorway with that field as she pushed it across the hall. I was shoved backwards a couple of feet and couldn't so much as push a hand into that invisible wall.

  Ellen was about fifty feet away and approaching at a quick march. Her demeanor and expression hadn't changed. Gary was in deep shit.

  "Ellen, stop and talk to me, will you?"

  She didn't answer and kept marching straight for me. Her hair was flowing behind her and she looked like some kind of angry goddess.

  "Ellen..."

  "How did you get here, Ed?"

  "Ellen, stop. There's a field in front of you."

  "I turned Elkor off. There's no damned field."

  "There is, Ellen. I swear..."

  She hit the field at a marching pace and rebounded like a rag doll to land on her ass. There was a look of shock on her face.

  "Elkor!" she screamed. "Turn off this field! Now!"

  I said, "Elkor didn't do it. I did."

  Ellen ignored me and screamed, "Elkor!"

  "I'm telling you I did it, Ellen."

  When there was no response from Elkor she got up and walked to the field. While I couldn't even push my hand into it much, she was making a helluva dent in the other side of it. The shimmering effect outlined the forward half of her body as she strained to force herself through it, but it shoved her back.

  Ellen screamed her frustration and rage and tried again, but the field held as before. She stood staring at me for some moments, then screamed and threw herself against the field like a football player trying to break through a line.

  As the field threw her back, Gary stepped out of a doorway behind Ellen and aimed his stunner at her. Ellen stiffened as the jolt hit her, but she didn't go down. The second jolt put her on her knees, but her rage seemed to keep her upright. The third jolt closed her eyes and laid her out.

  I said, "Stephanie, drop the field, please."

  I couldn't tell if she had or not until I reached into the area where it had been and took another tentative step forward. Gary had walked over to Ellen and stood looking down at her. I joined him there.

  Gary said, "Wait here. I have to override her code to turn Elkor on."

  I nodded and he walked toward a doorway.

  "Hey, Gary."

  He turned and said, "Yes?"

  "Now you know what 'going ballistic' means."

  He glanced at Ellen, then conti
nued on his way.

  A few moments later a device that looked like a flying stick zipped down the hall in my direction. It stayed close to the ceiling enroute, then settled on the floor next to Ellen and unfolded itself sideways to form a flat surface like a stretcher. When I tried to touch it my finger encountered a soft resistance a couple of inches from the surface.

  Gary came back out and we shifted Ellen onto the litter, which then elevated to about three feet and remained near Gary as we walked.

  "What the hell happened, Gary? One minute she was happy and the next she was on her way to... Well, I don't know if she'd have killed you, but I think she would have pounded the crap out of you."

  He nodded. "You're right. She would have tried to. I received your warning, Ed. Thank you. I was prepared for her."

  Linda came running - running, no less - up to us looking very concerned.

  Gary said, "Ellen hasn't been taking her medication, Linda. The log shows none issued to her for the last week."

  I was trying to ease the ache in my shoulder as I asked, "What medication?"

  Linda said, "I'll tell you about it on the way, Ed. Let's go and let Gary handle things for now. I'll take you to a med room."

  "What's he going to do, Linda?"

  "He isn't going to hurt her, Ed. Now let's go. She's going to sleep for a day or more from this."

  "What the hell's the hurry and why can't I stick around to see what he's going to do to her?"

  Linda gave an exasperated shrug and said, "Fine. Watch, then, if it's all right with Gary."

  We followed Gary into the room. The litter was hovering motionless next to a console similar to a flitter's. Gary regarded the console screen for a moment, then sprayed something on Ellen's bicep and watched it disappear into her skin.

  He asked, "What do you know about genetics, Ed?"

  "Damned little. Some, but not much."

  "It might help you to know what's happening and why. Ellen and I and the others assigned to this mission were potential products before we were born, Ed. We were genetically engineered for all the best characteristics of intelligence, stamina, and marketable appearances."

  He paused to spray again, then said, "Amara used to be a prime source of agricultural goods and technical instruction. A severe climatic disaster drove us underground and ruined our position in agricultural commerce. Nobody wanted to attend classes on a world in the throes of an ice age. To avoid starvation and poverty we began leasing our knowledge and skills to other worlds."

  After watching the screen for a few moments, Gary continued, "We, the people of Amara, became our world's product, with top of the line genes and even a few enhancements of those genes. We receive intense training from early childhood. When you lease one of us you lease the very best."

  Gary grinned at me wryly and added, "The best in a field, that is. We're good-looking and smart and educated to suit the specific needs of planned missions to various worlds in order to make us even more rentable, but it seems that our designers don't spare much precious production time for training us to interact with others, and some of us have just one small defect that seems to pop up occasionally no matter how much they tinker with the gene pool."

  I said, "And Ellen has that tiny defect?"

  "Oh, yes, she does indeed. She's one of eight on this mission who have that defect. Are you familiar with bipolar disorder, as they call it on Earth?"

  "Vaguely. Highs and lows and not much in between. When it became a popular label for depression the pharmacies and psychs made a bundle off it. I understand there really are some people who have it among all the misdiagnosed cases."

  Gary chuckled. It irritated me, even though I'd been the one to cause it.

  He said, "Well, Ellen definitely has it. Keep her brain's serotonin and a few other things regulated and all's well. If she took no medication for a few days she'd likely fall into a deep depression. Upset her under those circumstances and you may get killed if she doesn't kill herself in despair."

  "Then why wasn't she taking her pills or whatever?"

  Gary said, "Not pills. Tiny patches, about like your timed-release patches. They adhere to the skin and completely dissolve into the body over about a week, then you put on a new one. She missed her last one, Ed. It would have been last Saturday, a day you two spent mostly in bed." He looked up from Ellen and added, "She told me why neither of you were available that day."

  Linda said, "Sex - or more specifically - orgasms, can produce elevated levels of serotonin. A bipolar getting an extra dose of serotonin from good sex will sometimes stick with it until he or she collapses. Other times they pull enough to get by for a while and come back for more as soon as possible. Did Ellen just sort of drift off into a deep sleep after sex on Saturday?"

  I looked at Ellen's unconscious form. "She did. She seemed to be able to have one right after the other for an hour or so, then she rolled over and slept for about ten hours straight."

  I turned to Linda and asked, "Why wasn't making sure she got her meds part of my job description, Linda?"

  Gary shook his head and answered the question.

  "Linda didn't know at the time. In twenty-one years Ellen has never skipped a patch that we know of and her medications are all recorded. We didn't anticipate her skipping any, Ed. They've always been part of her daily life."

  I looked down at Ellen's sleeping form and remembered her phenomenal strength. She seemed not to have injured herself, but I told Gary about the door panel and how she'd thrown me.

  Gary said, "Elkor, please check Ed and Ellen for damage."

  "Ellen is undamaged," said Elkor.

  A field popped into being over my head and shimmeringly descended along the contours of my body until it touched the floor. Elkor's report included slightly torn shoulder ligaments and some incidental muscle damage.

  Gary gave me a swipe on the arm with something cold and damp that tingled, and after a couple of moments told Elkor to proceed. A field descended over me again and I suddenly felt as if my shoulder and upper arm had a bone-deep - but painless - sunburn.

  Gary said, "Microbots are repairing the damage and forcing tissue growth. What they can't fix or replace with your own tissue they'll replace with themselves until new tissue forms on its own. As each bot determines that it is no longer needed, it allows itself to be eliminated."

  Elkor said, "I've found a few other things that need attention inside you, Ed. Shall I proceed to program the microbots for other repairs?"

  "Sure. Go for it. Check my left knee, while you're at it. Hey, if I stay in this field long enough, will I become twenty again?"

  "No, sorry," said Gary. "You may feel that way, though."

  "Then I'm in no hurry to move. Take your time, Elkor."

  "Ed, about an inch of each of your vas deferens tubes is missing. It was obviously done deliberately, so I thought I should ask before reconnecting them."

  Jesus! He could have un-fixed me by fixing me!

  I almost covered my crotch with my hands.

  "No, Elkor! Don't reconnect them. They're just fine the way they are."

  Linda thought it was funny, but Gary was looking at me oddly.

  The sunburn effect moved from place to place within me for a few more moments, then Elkor pronounced the job finished and told me that various further repairs would occur over the next few months. I didn't feel different, but my shoulder had ceased hurting.

  I thanked him, then asked, "You can grow Linda a new section of spine. How come you can't fix Ellen instead of just patching her?"

  Gary said, "It was tried. The additional organ tissue deteriorated within months until all that was left was the original underdeveloped organ. The next time we tried it the added tissue wouldn't function as well and began deterioration sooner than before. We don't know why and we're afraid further efforts may damage or incite deterioration of the original organ."

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ellen was going to be out for several hours. Linda suggested that w
e use the time to look for my watch and stunner and that it was her turn for a ride in my new flitter. I introduced her to Stephanie and watched her eyes get big when she heard the flitter's voice, then I saw her eyes narrow as she spotted the stain on the pilot's seat. We moved the flitter to the other bay to look for my watch and stunner. There was a slight bowing to the wall where I'd hit it.

  "Well, Ed, after what happened today, do you want to stay with Ellen or take another assignment?"

  "I'll keep her, thanks. She's no different from a diabetic. Make sure she gets her meds and she's fine. Skip meds and she isn't fine."

  "You do tend to simplify things, Ed. What if she's too embarrassed to stay with you? Ever think of that?"

  "No, I haven't. We got over the snake thing and this isn't any worse, but if she can't get past it there are others to watch her."

  "Just like that? Bye and see ya, Ellen?"

  I stopped to pick up my stunner and looked for my watch.

  "Bye and see ya would be about the only choice if she decided to switch guards, wouldn't it? What's to discuss about that?"

  I saw my watch underneath Stephanie.

  "Stephie, would you hoist yourself up about six feet for me?"

  She did so. I scooted under her and grabbed my watch, then looked up to see that the bottom of a flitter was as featureless as the floor and scooted back out.

  "Thanks, ma'am. Got it. You can let yourself down now."

  Linda smiled and shook her head.

  "You talk to some machines as if they were people. I can't do that."

  "If you believe that, you're probably right."

  I put my watch on before I remembered the scrapes on my arm, but when I didn't feel pain I looked and found no scrapes. I was really becoming fond of those microbots. My watch seemed to be working, too.

  "Is that a hint, Ed?"

  "Huh? Is what a hint?"

  "You're looking at your watch a lot. Getting tired of my chattering?"

  "Nope. Just looking for arm damage that used to be there and seeing if the watch works. Your time and mine match, so I guess it does."

  Linda stood looking at me for a time, then told the flitter to open its canopy. Stephanie ignored her command. Linda looked truly perplexed for a moment, then turned to me.