The Mystery of the Solar Wind

by Lyz Russo

  ~

  Ailyss was on her stomach, on her bunk, reading, her left foot up in the air. These novels Paean had selected for Wolf were not bad at all; some space action thrillers, one murder mystery, one historical adventure… well, in a way they were all historical, being novels of course.

  She became aware of being watched. She lifted her head, glanced at the door…

  “Oh,” she said.

  “Ailyss,” Federi greeted her, entering the cabin, pulling the second bunk down out of the wall and sitting down on it cross-legged. He folded his hands and regarded her.

  The brunette stared at him. What did he want?

  “You’ve visited Wolf in the infirmary various times,” Federi came to the point.

  “Yes,” said Ailyss.

  “Why?”

  “He’s my colleague,” said Ailyss.

  “In that case, why do you feed him drugs?”

  “What?!”

  “We have video footage,” said Federi, “the night before Marsden and I got captured, you fed Wolf drugs.”

  Ailyss frowned. “Federi, nothing personal, but have you been drinking?”

  “That same night,” continued Federi, “I brought him his supper. He was so spaced out, he could hardly eat. He was only halfway coherent. And the next day he got really, really sick. What does that tell me?”

  “That he had jolly wound sepsis?” shot Ailyss. “Yes, I remember now! Hells! I gave him a codeine, he was in pain! And his medical team had just simply abandoned him!”

  “Let me see,” demanded Federi.

  Ailyss got off her bunk with a sigh. She opened the top drawer of her chest and reached inside, and pulled out a small bag of sugar-coated blue-green tablets. Federi reached for them.

  “Whoa,” said Ailyss with a smile. “Who says you’re not an addict?”

  Federi snatched her hand, bag and all, and held it in a firm clasp, holding her glare captive too. They sized each other up for several endless seconds. Then suddenly Ailyss yielded.

  “Go on, have a look,” she said, handing over the Spiffy bag.

  Federi tipped several of the small pills into his palm. He examined them, found the minute bar code imprinted in black on each. He nodded and tipped them back into their bag.

  “For headaches, I presume?”

  “Dysmenorrhoea,” said Ailyss unflinchingly. If the damned character was nosy enough to want to see her painkillers, he might as well know what they were for – and knock himself out on that knowledge.

  “Bit potent for that, nu?” probed Federi.

  “Hah! What do you know?” shot Ailyss, annoyed. “When last have you had your period?”

  Federi handed them back. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “Why am I under suspicion, if I may ask?” pushed Ailyss, surprised at his apology.

  “Everyone’s under suspicion,” said the Romany darkly.

  “Yes, but yet you did not go to Paean and ask her to prove that those horrible aspirin powders she feeds him are not in actuality purified cocaine,” she retorted.

  “How would you know that I didn’t? Maybe I did,” said Federi, his left eyebrow arched. Codeine was an opiate! It certainly explained why Wolf had been dazed that night! But the painkillers were legitimate, and they did indeed look exactly like what she had given Wolf.

  “You didn’t ask her,” smiled Ailyss. “And you didn’t examine Rhine Gold either, after that pub brawl, for possible connections to the Rebellion.”

  “You’re clued in,” commented Federi.

  “I’m just not completely blind, deaf and dumb,” shot Ailyss.

  Federi got up and stretched, from the tip of his sun-browned fingers to his white deck-sneakers. Ailyss summed him up. His sharp-cut features were undecipherable, laugh-lines not quite managing to balance out the warning in his black eyes. Shifty eyes, she thought. His purple decorated headscarf and Eastern European style waistcoat with the beads and embroidery, the ancient jeans and the flared sleeves of his shirt said gypsy, entertainer, harmless. His empty hands, stretching their artistic knuckles to the sky, said unarmed, peaceful. The gaudy getup didn’t fool her, never had. The man was extremely dangerous.

  She had her impression confirmed the next second. Federi smiled, that special glinty smile meant to convey a threat. Shark-tooth.

  “Neither,” he said softly, “am I. Ailyss, you seem to have a soft spot for Paean. Hang onto that. She’s a good kid. It might become your lifeline, one day!”

  Ailyss stared speechlessly at him as he left the cabin, her heart beating in her throat. She tried to return to the novel and found she couldn’t. Her entire body was shaking.