‹I did not have full verification anyone would be there to answer and did not want to create false hope.›
Mike, the medic, took Juan from Austin and set him flat on the ground before plucking a handheld unit from his belt and passing it back and forth over his chest. “What happened to him?”
“The cat shot him with a dart from its tail,” said Sima before going into an explanation of the past few hours. At the point she described the animal grabbing Lissa, she broke down and cried.
“You’re a brave kid,” said Ruiz. “What’s this about a criminal record for theft?”
“Probably horsecrap,” said Winters. “You know how the EG gets. You’re orphans, right? Last minute add-ons.”
“Yes, sir.” Sima picked Lissa up. “A transport spilled. All I did was pick up food packets in the middle of the street and they grabbed me. I didn’t do anything wrong. The investigator said the charges were just a lie to get me on the ship, and they’d be dropped if I went.”
“Unbelievable.” Winters shook his head.
“W-what happened to the Progenitor? Is there anything left?” Sima tugged the blanket tighter around herself and Lissa.
“Soon after we transitioned into orbit, a meteorite struck us while they plotted a course for atmospheric entry. Fortunately, the rock was relatively small and didn’t cause too much damage. It hit near the starboard aft, triggering the automatic escape system for two aux pods and four primaries. Our pilots were amazing. The Progenitor will never fly again, but they brought it down safe.”
“That boat was designed as a one way trip anyway,” said Ruiz. “It’s the heart of the city we’re going to build over the next several generations.”
“Aux pods?” Sima decided to sit to stop her leg from burning. Lissa snuggled to her chest.
Ruiz shook her head. “Long-haul ships like the Progenitor have more stasis pods than they need for emergencies. The auxiliary ones are pretty tiny, about a quarter the size. The EGSF packed them at the last minute with a bunch of orphans.”
Austin, cradled in his blanket, stepped forward. “Nobody knew we were there. We’re invisible. No one’ll miss us.”
The medic gave Juan a few injections from small silver tubes. “He’s stable, but I’d like to get him back to the infirmary as soon as we can.” He looked at Sima. “Your beacon said the little girl’s seriously hurt, but she doesn’t look too bad.”
“Lissa’s lungs are in bad shape. Her parents made Pixie and she breathed the fumes. She also got bit by the cat.” Sima explained the bracelet’s scan showing she’d had tumors removed, but also how she got tired so fast and randomly stopped breathing sometimes in her sleep. “I got scratched on the leg, too. It burns.”
Mike scanned Lissa and continued onto Sima’s thigh. “The egg is good for skin regeneration, but you’ve both got underlying muscle damage. The kid’s bleeding internally from a punctured lung, but it’s nothing we can’t fix up once we get her into surgery.” He spent a few minutes fussing at Lissa’s back with another wand-like device, then plucked two small capsules from his belt and administered two injections.
“You’re safe now.” Winters looked them over. “You four are some tough kids. Exactly the kind of settlers we need. Come on… let’s get you back to the Nomad.”
The medic carried Juan. Despite the hell burning in her thigh, Sima insisted on carrying Lissa with Austin hovering close by her side. They walked, surrounded by soldiers, in the direction of a huge six-wheeled buggy. Each tire had to be nine feet tall, mounted to long flexible struts that suspended the main body high enough off the ground a person could pass under it without stooping.
She stifled a whimper each time she put weight on her left leg.
“Incredible job you did, Sima,” said Winters. “Looking after the little ones. I’d say you’re lucky, but I’m not so sure it was luck. Glad to have you with us. There’s plenty of pairings at the colony. We’ll get you set up with a proper family as soon as we can.”
She limped two steps to her right to put an arm around Austin and squeezed Lissa close. “I’ve already got one.”
“Yeah. She’s our mom,” said Austin.
Winters stopped and shook his head at her with a grin. “Fair enough, but you need a parent yourself for a few years yet.”
She allowed a soldier to carry Lissa up the Nomad’s boarding ladder. Once another man inside pulled the child inside, Sima grasped the ladder and put a foot on the first rung, before smiling at Winters. “I’ll think about it.”
Sima climbed. Her thigh muscles spasmed near the top, almost making her fall, but the armored man inside caught her. He lifted her off her feet and deposited her in a cushioned seat, which sapped all her energy. Weeks of sleeping on a metal floor made even the basic military padding feel like extravagance. The medic sat in the facing row in front of her and buckled Juan into the seat next to him. The boy managed a feeble wave to Sima. She let her head loll back against the cushion. Austin flopped next to her on the left. Lissa curled up against her right side, wrapping her little body around Sima’s arm. Three adoring faces smiled at her.
The cabin jostled as the Nomad backed up, turned around, and got underway.
“See?” She put an arm around Austin and leaned her head against Lissa’s. “I told you we’d be okay.”
33
Family
Sima opened her eyes to a ceiling of immaculate white with small recessed lights. The unusual sensation of a squishy gel mattress beneath her instead of the hard metal lifeboat floor as well as soft clothing and a blanket made her question reality. For a fleeting instant, she believed herself back in a detention cell having dreamed everything about a dangerous trip to another planet. It had been so real though… Had the EGSF hit her with some virtual reality simulation?
Anger, frustration, and heartbreak crashed together.
She sat up, about to scream, but at the sight of a much larger room than a detention cell, froze and stared. The Omnicomputer remained around her left wrist, and rather than a hot pink detainee jumpsuit, her only clothing consisted of a white garment that couldn’t quite decide if it wanted to be a tunic or a short dress, with nothing on under it. Cool air, an unfamiliar feeling, blew on her face from a vent in the ceiling.
A plain grey door stood a short distance past the foot of her bed. Left of it, a rectangular opaque black window blocked any view outside. Behind her, a silver band ran the width of the room, bright light shining out from the gap between it and the featureless wall. A small, square shower stall took up the inner corner on the left, next to a toilet.
Sima blinked, struggling to recall the past few hours. Vague memories of a quill cat trying to take Lissa flashed in her mind before something about soldiers and riding in that nomad vehicle. She remembered going through a large metal gate, driving past small buildings, and a bunch of armored people escorting her into a brightly lit room. People in white rushed Lissa off somewhere, and took Juan away too. It bothered her how urgently they’d whisked the tiny girl away, as if something had been very wrong with her. She’d tried to go after Lissa, fighting and screaming, but someone had given her an injection that made everything go all blurry and weird. Austin shouting about wanting to go wherever she went lingered at the edge of her memory.
“Where am I?”
The screen flickered on below her left wrist. ‹You are in the infirmary of the Progenitor colony. Please do not panic. You are not a prisoner, but you should remain here until someone comes to check on you.›
Unable to resist, Sima ran to the door to make sure she hadn’t been locked in. When it opened freely, she exhaled a sigh of relief and pushed it closed again.
“Where are the kids?”
‹I do not have specific information about their location or condition, however, they are also in the infirmary being tended to. For the first time in many years, you are safe. Please allow yourself to relax. Consider a nice warm shower?›
The urge to run to her kids kept her hand on the
door, but the infirmary did suggest at least some degree of safety. Sima eyed the stall, an enclosed chamber with three frosted transparent panels, and a lit-up control panel on wall inside. The last time she’d used a real shower unit like that had been before she ran away from home. For four years, sneaking into public bathrooms at night to sorta-bathe in the sinks had been her best option.
With a sigh, she wandered over to the shower unit and pulled the dress/tunic thing off, cringing at her lack of underwear. Not so much their absence, but since she didn’t remember changing, that meant someone else took them off her. While staring at herself, she realized her left thigh no longer hurt at all. She didn’t even have scars from where the quill cat had torn open her leg.
Oh. I guess I had surgery.
For the next twenty or so minutes, she luxuriated in a hot shower, going perhaps a bit crazy with the soap gel. Once the air-dry cycle finished, she stepped out into the freezing room, squeaked, and rushed into the white tunic-dress before crawling under the blankets again.
A knock came from the door soon after.
“Miss Nuvari?” asked a woman. “May I enter?”
“Sure,” said Sima.
The door opened, admitting a pale woman with silvery hair and a white jumpsuit. She didn’t look old, maybe early fifties, but still had a grandmotherly presence about her. “Good morning, dear. I’m Dr. Stinnett. You can call me Evelyn if you like.”
“Hi.”
Dr. Stinnett approached the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine. Little hungry.”
“Good. Good. I’ve been looking over your scan data, and everything checks out. I’m ready to sign off on your medical discharge.”
“Where are my kids?”
“You have children?” The woman’s eyebrows shot up. She tapped an Omnicomputer on her wrist, activating a screen about three times the size of Sima’s, and scrolled over pages of text and images. “There’s nothing in your file that indicates—”
“I haven’t had babies. Those kids you guys found me with are mine.”
“Oh.” Dr. Stinnett nodded. “I understand. Well, normally, we can’t discuss medical status with non-relatives…”
“They are my family.” Sima stared at her. “I’m their mother.”
“You are all still juveniles, however I do understand the kind of unique arrangement that can form between children put through such a stressful situation.” Dr. Stinnett offered a grandmotherly smile. “The boy, Austin, is in good shape. Lissa is still in recovery from major surgery, but we’re expecting her to pull through. Juan is doing well, but we are keeping him under observation since we are unfamiliar with the toxic agent he was exposed to.”
Sima raised her arm. “It’s venom. My Omni scanned it.”
“We know.” Dr. Stinnett clasped her hands in front of herself. “It already provided us with quite a bit of data from your exploration. Come then, I sense you’re eager to see them.”
“Yes.” Sima leapt out of bed.
After sending her back into the room to put on the little paper slippers that had been tucked under the bed, Dr. Stinnett led her out into the hall and past a dozen or more rooms, only about a quarter of which had black windows. The tint level varied, so Sima figured hers had been turned all the way dark for privacy. She gasped at the cold air-conditioning going under her tunic as she hurried along after the doctor around a corner, past a desk, and through a doorway into another hall. Dr. Stinnett stopped once they’d entered a well-furnished office with reddish-brown fake wood walls, matching desk, and a big window that offered a view out over the blue jungle.
A short woman much younger than the doctor with pretty almond-shaped eyes and a wide nose sat at the desk, reading the contents of a holographic display. Two gold rings kept her frizzy hair up in a fountain-like spray.
“Danielle? Are you ready for Miss Nuvari?” asked Dr. Stinnett.
“Oh, of course.” The woman looked up with a smile. “Hello, Sima. I’m Danielle Wade, and I’ll be helping you get settled in here.”
Sima fidgeted, uncomfortable with only a short tunic/dress in such modern surroundings, though it still beat being interviewed while wearing those EGSF undies. Still, the medical smock made her feel like a psych patient from a movie. Then again, she had spent weeks running around the jungle without clothes, so maybe they thought she’d gone nuts. How much of what happened did the Omni tell them?
“Please, Miss Nuvari. Have a seat.” Danielle gestured at one of two chairs facing her desk.
“Welcome to the colony.” Dr. Stinnett nodded farewell. “If you’ll excuse me then, I’ve more patients who still need my attention.”
Sima glanced back at the grey-haired woman, but didn’t say anything before the doctor breezed off down the hall. Mute, she padded across the office and sank into the seat, smoothing her tunic over her thighs.
“I’ve been looking over your record.” Danielle stood and walked to a cabinet on the far end of the room. “Quite impressive for a girl your age.”
“I’m not a criminal,” muttered Sima. “They made it up.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean that record. Yes, I know most of the older orphans they packed on the ship had falsified charges to justify their illegal incarceration. Don’t worry about that. With the exception of those facing serious crimes, we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s almost all hot air.” She pulled several plastic wrapped packets out of the cabinet and carried them over. “I’m sure you’ll like some actual clothing for a change.”
Sima took the bundles.
“There’s a bathroom there.” Danielle pointed at a door. “I can tell you’re a little embarrassed by that smock, so why don’t you go change before we start?”
“Okay.”
Sima hurried over to the indicated door and slipped past it into a bathroom that didn’t match the office, being quite plain and utilitarian. She tore open the plastic, unwrapping a light grey jumpsuit, socks, clean underwear, and a set of plain white sneakers. By the time she finished getting dressed, she felt like she’d traveled through time from prehistoric cavewoman back to modern day. Even if it made her look like a crewmember from a starship, she adored having real clothing.
I’m not an Outcast anymore! Or a tribal wild-thing.
Grinning, she stuffed the plastic in an ORC can and carried her wadded up hospital tunic out. If nothing else, it would be good to sleep in. She took a seat once more at the desk and bundled the tunic up in her lap.
“All right, Sima. We just need to go over some quick documentation and get you into the system to add you officially to the colony manifest. Every Citizen has a file, but the kids in your situation weren’t properly added.”
“Yeah. They threw us on the ship at the last minute. Speaking of kids, I want to see mine.”
“You have children?”
“Yes. Three of them. Austin, Lissa, and Juan.”
“Oh.” Danielle gave a slow nod. “Right. Don’t worry; they’re fine. You’ll all be placed with families.”
Sima glared and leaned forward, shouting, “They are my family. You’re not gonna give them away to someone else. I don’t care if I have to declare myself an adult and like get paired off to a husband or whatever. I want my kids back.”
“Whoa…” Danielle held her hands up. “Please calm down. Sima, you’re sixteen years old. You need to finish school. From the look of your record, you have quite a lot of school to catch up on. Academic work in and of itself will be a full time job for you. Taking care of children is a responsibility you neither need nor are capable of handling at this point in your life.”
“Bull,” shouted Sima. “What have I been doing for the past month?”
“You performed a remarkable job out there. But that is an extraordinary situation. You don’t need to sacrifice your future when there are better options. I’m sure we can work something out regarding a custody situation. Now, it says here that your education transcripts stop at fifth grade.”
Sima f
rowned. “I was in sixth grade, but didn’t finish it. Okay, whatever. I’ll go to school, but you’re not taking my kids away.”
“You still need to finish your education. Normally, kids at your age are required to take on a part time OT as well after completing an assessment evaluation. Of course, given the amount of schoolwork you need to catch up on, there’s a good chance that will be deferred so as not to cheat you out of your education.”
“I don’t care what an OT is. Where are my damn kids?”
Danielle forced a smile. “That’s an occupational task. Basically, a job. Everyone over the age of fifteen is required to take on some manner of work to keep the colony going.”
“I’m not going to do anything until I know what happened to my family.”
“Sima, there are 8,292 colonists here, plus about 250 undocumented extras. We are trying to sort the street children to proper families.”
“You read my file; you know what I went through to protect them.” Tears streaked down her cheeks. “I dealt with carnivorous plants, giant bugs, and a damned tiger. I held Lissa’s limp body in my arms, thinking she’d died.” She shivered and cried harder.
The woman kept quiet.
After a moment, Sima composed herself and shot a stern look across the desk. “I’m not gonna lose them to some damned stupid policy.”
Danielle looked at the monitor, perhaps only to dodge eye contact. “We can try to find an eligible couple who’d be open to the task of taking on four children, but I cannot guarantee that anyone would be willing.”
“So? Do some computer stuff and call me an adult. Assign them to me.”
“We can’t do that. You are still legally a child with an incomplete education and no ability to provide for them.”
Sima stood and leaned both hands on the desk, staring the woman in the eye. “I ran at a giant tiger with only an axe… twice! If you think I’m going to let a person take my children away, you’re making a mistake.”
“There’s no need for violence,” said Danielle. “Please, sit down. I promise I will do everything I can to keep you together. My role here is to be on your side.”
Out of Sight (Progenitor Book 1) Page 34