“You can’t hold me here!”
“Yes, I can. I’m not letting anyone leave until testing is completely finished.”
“That’s stupid! There is no reason for us to stay here now!”
Aurelia shrugged, “Deal with it.” She left him sputtering in the middle of the airlock. Breathing in the fresh air of the station, Aurelia limped slowly to the control center. She sat down on the edge of the platform and massaged her leg. Rubbing her eyes, she wondered how much longer it was going to take to find a carrier. I think I’m going to die of either exhaustion or old age before that happens, she thought with a sigh then jumped as someone tapped her on the shoulder. “What?!” she asked sharply.
“Sorry, ma’am,” said one of the computer operators. “Dulan Aric has asked that you come to the station command office.”
“That’s all I need. Tell him I’m on my way.”
The command office was one level above the docking bay. When Aurelia entered, she saw a number of ships’ captains and traders of all species. The Jidalian Dulan, Aric, stood behind the command desk, facing them. The residual breathing gills on either side of his gray neck, flapped in agitation. His flabby gray digits gripped the back of the metal chair.
They all turned to look at Aurelia when the door opened. She noticed Governor Arnott was no where in evidence.
“What seems to be the problem?” she asked as she crossed the heavily carpeted floor and slid into the chair, scooting it forward and away from Aric’s hand. She ignored the grunting noise he made and folded one slim leg over the other.
The group of beings closed in on her. One particularly vicious-looking Raman with a deep scar across his dark face spoke up, “We want this quarantine lifted. Box pox is a stupid little disease and I want to leave now.”
“It is a terrible plague to us!” Aric said in a hissing voice, his long neck stretching out to its furthest extension. He snapped his beak as if for emphasis. “We will not have any of you spreading it around the rest of the galaxy.”
“I’ll spread whatever I feel like spreading,” an Awkanian freighter captain said angrily.
“Are you making a confession?” Aric demanded.
“Of course not, you gellet. You’ll know it if I ever bother having my revenge on you,” the captain replied. He looked at Aurelia and added,” or you Company bingeloes.”
Aurelia blinked but let the insult pass in silence.
“Perhaps the good doctor has some ulterior motive for keeping us here.”
Aurelia raised an eyebrow. She moved her head to see who had said that and saw the Sclarian captain of the ship she had scanned at the edge of the crowd. He must have just come in the office. He was baiting her but she wasn’t about to bite.
A girl with bright fire-red hair leaned forward and sneered at Aurelia, saying in an annoyingly snotty voice, “The Pasteur crew doesn’t even have the competence to stop box pox.”
Aurelia stood up so fast her chair slid into the wall. She fixed the girl with an icy stare. “This station will remain under quarantine until all testing is completed,” Aurelia announced. Ignoring the ensuing protests she walked out the door. Pausing in the hallway, she pressed her hand against the grid, “Computer, seal this room until further notice, quarantine order number four. Aurelia, authorization number 77321.”
A loud click reverberated throughout the hall.
Aurelia walked away. The wall that the door was set in was transparent and she imagined their faces pressed against the glass, but she didn’t bother looking back.
Halfway down the hallway, Aurelia caught a flash of something out of the corner of her eye. She stopped and looked up at the long, metal light fixture. She thought she had seen a black, furry tail. Now she could hear scratching against the metal. By stretching to her tiptoes, she managed to lift the box off the ceiling. Something screeched, hit the ground with a solid thump and took off running up the corridor. Swearing under her breath, Aurelia gave chase.
“Whoa, where’s the chocolate?!” Jak exclaimed as they nearly collided around the corner.
“Get out of my way! Did you see it?”
“See what?”
“The wemrat, you idiot!” She grabbed his arm, turning him the way she had just come. “Check that maintenance shaft right there. Don’t let it get away.”
Jak hurried to the opening to the shaft and started climbing, his boots clanging on the metal rungs. Aurelia frantically tore down all the light fixtures in the hall. The fifth one flushed out her quarry, a six-inch long wemrat from Matia VII with frightened luminescent orange eyes, a fat, furry brown body and black tail.
“Jak!” Aura yelled, swiping at the creature with the heavy box still in her hand. Screeching, the wemrat jumped up the wall, crawling through an air vent. She heard a yell from Jak and figured it was now traveling through the network of maintenance tunnels. Hobbling towards a shaft, Aurelia tripped on one of the fixtures she had thrown down and almost ran into Millie who had just turned the corner.
“What in heck...!”
“Wemrat. Get a net. Wait at Corridor C Junction H.”
Millie hurried to obey as Aurelia, gasping for breath, got up and pulled herself into the network of tunnels.
“Jak, where are you?” she called.
“Over here! I had it cornered but it faked me out.” Jak’s face looked unusually pink and he was breathing hard. He had his shirt off, using it as a net. The rest of his uniform was filthy, spacestations being notorious for not cleaning the shafts.
“All right. Let’s try to herd him toward Corridor C. Millie’s waiting to nab him.”
“Where are we now? I can’t figure these shafts out.”
“Next time read the blueprints.”
“That’s retentive. Like I really expected to be crawling around up here.”
“Just keep going straight. I’ll take this side branch and meet up with you.”
Jak nodded and both began crawling forward. Banging on the sides of the shafts as she went, Aurelia finally saw the little animal just ahead of her. It was close to an opening. Aurelia pushed herself forward with her toes and made a grab for it. It squeaked and went tumbling out of the hole. Aurelia followed headfirst with Jak on her heels.
Millie stood at the bottom just in the act of swinging a huge net on a pole.
“Did you get it?!”
“No! I missed!”
“Give me that!” Aurelia took the net and the three went charging toward the command office. The wemrat had given up attempts at hiding and was simply tearing down the hall trying to outrun its pursuers, but by now it was getting tired. All three of the wemrat hunters, seeing the animal falter, put on a burst of speed and dived for it, landing in a muddled mass of arms, legs and wemrat tail.
“I got it! I got it!” Jak crowed triumphantly, his hands clamped around the still struggling body of the creature now wrapped in his shirt.
“What is all this?”
They looked up into the stern, unsmiling face of Arbiter Renner Conlin. He had apparently tried to open the office door. They had landed at his feet.
Mentally groaning, Aurelia struggled to stand, trying to regain her dignity despite filthy clothes and hair flying around her shoulders. Captain Zelan leaned against the wall next to the arbiter. The smirk on his face made her furious.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” she said through tightly clamped teeth. She stepped between them and hit the grid, “Computer, unseal this door. Aurelia, 77321.”
The office door slid open, allowing a stream of angry people to pour out into the hall. Zelan and Conlin looked bewildered.
“This is an outrage, Doctor.” The Sclarian was the most vocal in his protests. “You had no right to lock us in. I’m going to your superiors!”
Aurelia got right in his face. “I.G. Treaty 556, Section 747.5 gives me martial law authority in any epidemic investigation. You were interfering in the performance of my duty. Furthermore, would you care t
o explain the presence of Matian wemrat on this facility?”
The Sclarian blinked. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” he blurted.
Aurelia waved at the now quiet lump in Jak’s hands. “We just caught a wemrat. Isn’t it yours?”
“I...I bought it from a legitimate dealer. For a pet for my son.” His laugh sounded nervous as he looked around at all the serious eyes focused on him. “You know kids. He opened its cage a few days ago, and it escaped. So who cares about a stupid little animal?”
“That stupid little animal can be a carrier for practically every known disease in the galaxy. It’s illegal to transport them off Matia.”
“But the man said...”
“There is no legitimate dealer in wemrats. I suspect you know that. I wondered how you were keeping those snakes out of all that rind-wheat. I’m placing you under arrest.” Aurelia turned to Zelan, ignoring the Sclarian’s protests. “I’d appreciate it if your security chief could handle this.”
Zelan nodded, but a look of disapproval remained on his face. Aurelia lifted her chin and limped down the hall, ignoring Conlin who opened his mouth as if to speak to her as she passed. She didn’t really care what the arbiter had to say anyway. Even though he was GEM Co.’s chief negotiator he had no real authority over personnel. Besides Meng would be on her side if any complaints were made. She hoped.
Chapter Six
The hallway erupted in a storm of accusations and threats, with Conlin bellowing for order above it all. Pulling his bundle closer to his chest, Jak pushed his way out of the crowd. He felt the warmth of a hand on his back and looked around to see Millie following close on his heels. Keeping his head down, he soon made it to the elevator.
“Whew,” said Millie in the sudden quiet as the doors slid shut. “Leave it to Aura to start a riot and walk away.”
“At least we’ve found the carrier. This little guy is probably full of germs.”
“You’ve had box pox haven’t you?”
“A long time ago. No worse than a few mosquito bites.” He yawned and shifted the wemrat which moved only slightly. He could feel its sides heaving as it breathed in and out. “What a lot of trouble for a six-inch fur ball.”
“We should have the cargo testing finished up in about half-an-hour,” Millie said, stepping out of the elevator as the door opened on the docking bay.
Jak stepped out and headed for the Pasteur’s airlock. “I’m going to take the wemrat to the lab,” he told Millie who nodded and stopped to talk to Zimbin.
The corridors of the hospital ship were empty and dimly-lighted with the ship on life-support power only. Jak hurried to the elevator which carried him two decks up from the airlock. The lab was a large, square facility divided into twenty sections which were fully stocked laboratories themselves, each one having its own special function. Just three sections in the center of the room were lit up as Jak entered.
“Rob, you in here?” Jak called, walking to the first lighted section.
Rob Keller came sliding into view as he shoved his seat out into the walkway. He had asked Jak earlier to be excused from cargo testing as he had some other work to do. He leaned his head back and looked up at Jak. “What can I do for you, boss?”
Jak held out his shirt, “Test this little critter for me.”
Keller’s eyebrows went skyward. “Uh, you may be real attached to that, sir, and I really hate to tell you this. But that’s a piece of cloth.”
Rolling his eyes, Jak shook his head, “No! It’s a wemrat, look.” Carefully, he pulled the shirt back to show him the animal’s head. The wemrat let out a shriek and jerked its body. Jak almost dropped it into Keller’s lap.
“Whoa!” Rob exclaimed, jumping up from his seat. “I got bit by one of those things once. Worst infection I ever had.”
“Not the cleanest animals in the galaxy,” Jak replied, and flipped the wemrat into an empty glass isolation tank on top of Keller’s desk. He yanked the shirt out from around it and slammed the lid. “Test it for raphrydia and anything else while you’re at it. When you’re done, clean it up, okay? I’m going to check on a couple of patients then I’ll be back.” Keller nodded but didn’t seem too thrilled with his task.
Jak took the elevator one level up to the patient wards. Most patients were seen in the big treatment bays that looked like hangar decks with row after row of cots with portable carts that carried all the standard equipment necessary for most procedures. When the Pasteur made a stop, patients were treated and released. Only those who needed extended care traveled with them. This trip only four patients inhabited the wards. Jak checked in briefly with the doctor on call, visited each patient and headed back to the lab. Just as he stepped back onto the elevator his comm-link beeped. Three green numbers blinked up at him from the tiny screen. Four, five, three His heart skipped a beat as usual, seeing those familiar figures. He tapped the button for the uppermost deck on the ship instead of the lab level. He would take this call in his quarters.
His room stood at the opposite end of the hall from Aurelia’s, both having corner rooms with large portholes. Several other doctors and crew members had the inner rooms. As his door slid shut behind him, he didn’t even take his usual look at the spectacular view of the orange globe that was Jidal IV, but hurried over to his desk which was built into the wall to the left. All of the furniture was built in, including the bed which looked like a wide shelf beneath the porthole. The open floor space was littered with last night’s dishes, three t-shirts, a couple of computer tabs and about a month’s worth of dirty socks.
Jak kicked some of it to either side so it couldn’t be seen from the monitor on his desk. He pulled his link off his belt, slicked his hair back quickly using the screen as a mirror then shoved the link into the slot for it on the computer. Waiting for the call to come through, he noticed the red light flashing on the keyboard. Paperwork piling up again, he thought with a grimace then promptly forgot about it as the monitor clicked on.
The screen showed a female Kaprinian sitting bolt upright in a square, black chair, her long blue hair pulled tightly back in a braid, her antennae set in two prim lines. The room was darkened behind her making it impossible to see anything of her surroundings. “You didn’t check in as soon as the Pasteur docked at Davis,” Co-lanen Kentala spoke rapidly in her soft, cool voice without preamble.
“I haven’t had time. We’ve been testing since we got here. Gedden,” Jak swore. He should have known she would be like this. She had acted exactly the same with every call in the last five years. He had no idea why he always hoped for something different. He drew in a breath and sat down in his chair with the back of it facing him.
“You need to check in with the Kaprinian Consulate as soon as you arrive,” Co-lanen directed.
“I know. Like I said I haven’t had a chance.”
See that you do so at the first opportunity,” Co-lanen abruptly signed off.
Jak stared at the blank screen. She hadn’t even asked how he was doing. Although the question had become quite perfunctory on her part these last few years at least she usually asked. Give it up, Rialus, he told himself and stood to his feet, pulling out his link and snapping it back on his belt. He still had work to do, so he shoved all thoughts of Co-lanen back to their usual spot in the back of his head and returned to the lab.
This time Jak almost ran into Keller who was on his way out. “Tried to call you but it was busy,” the man said. He jerked his thumb back toward his desk. “It’s carrying raphrydia all right. The great box pox mystery is solved.”
“Clean him up?” Jak asked.
Keller nodded, “All clear. Irradiated him from head to toe. His own mother wouldn’t know him now.”
“Thanks, Rob.” The tech nodded again and walked out the door. Jak moved on to the desk. The wemrat looked up at him from the isolation tank. Shaking his head, Jak tapped the glass. “You sure caused a lot of headaches.” He fought back a yawn. “I can’t ev
en tell you when I slept last.” At the sound of footsteps, Jak poked his head out of the enclosure. He found himself face to face with Althan Tahk, the Kosapi. He couldn’t quite control the quick flicker of his antennae. He knew the Kosapi had seen it as an evil grin split the Kaprinian’s face.
“What are you doing here?” Jak asked, forcing his voice to be calm and without anger.
“You like your human half don’t you?” Tahk asked the question as if he were actually curious to know the answer.
Jak struggled to keep himself from punching the stranger. Not a good idea, he warned himself. Although no weapons were visible, the Kosapi was probably carrying a small arsenal and probably didn’t need one anyway. “You are not supposed to be here, sir. If I have to I will call security.”
“Sir. I like that. You can continue to call me that. I was looking for that sweet little nurse, what is her name? Millie?”
“Stay away from Millie.”
“Oh? Got an eye on her yourself? The other one, the doctor, she’s not too bad either.”
“Touch either one of those ladies and this whole galaxy won’t be big enough to hide you.”
The Kosapi laughed in his face. His eyes darkened then and his voice dropped an octave lower. “Do not threaten me, kashen. Someday I will take the time to teach you your place.” He reached out with his thumb and index finger and flicked Jak’s antenna, sending a vibration of pain shooting down into his head. Jak just managed not to wince. Laughing, the Kosapi stepped back on the elevator.
“Gedden,” Jak swore out loud. He felt as if he were ten years old again and surrounded by all the older Kaprinian boys who used to pick on him. In fact, Co-lanen had been the only person in the whole school who had ever treated him with any respect at all. And now she seemed to want to distance herself from him as much as possible.
Shadows In Still Water Page 5