Endurance

by Richard Chizmar

  She stared at me for a long time. I didn’t know if she was deciding if I was serious, joking, or needed salt before serving.

  “Very well.” At last the rifle swung away from my throat. “One minute, Terran.”

  I wasted no time, but went straight to the nurses. They stared at me with the usual mixture of fear and disgust. Dchêm-os emerged from somewhere and jabbed a finger into my chest.

  “This, you told them to do!” she said, flinging an arm out and stamping her lower paws. “Mess, just look at this!”

  I produced a chipper smile and removed my headgear. “Shut up, Zel.” I scanned the faces of the other nurses. They were almost, but not quite, as scared as I was. “That big female with the attractive features over there says five prisoners are missing. She thinks one of you knows where they are. Want to guess how she’s going to determine that?” The group made a collective gasp. “Exactly. Someone talk to me. Right now.”

  A few of the nurses exchanged glances. One finally spoke. “We’d heard about them. No one knows what happened.”

  Dchêm-os assumed an instant, innocent expression, while her tail thumped with agitation against the deck.

  Another nurse cast a disgusted scowl at the Hsktskts. “The horrible beasts probably caught them in the corridors and ate them.”

  “Would you like to be the dessert course?” I didn’t wait for an answer, but turned to the first nurse who’d spoken. “How do you know they escaped?” She didn’t answer me. “Let me guess. Your people have already planned how to escape the Hsktskt, and these five took the first shot at it.”

  The nurse’s eyes rounded. Another let out a small whimper of distress.

  I stifled a groan. “Wonderful.”

  OverSeer FurreVa decided my time was up. A snakelike limb curled around my waist and hauled me back out of the group. She released me so abruptly that my legs slipped out from under me and I landed on my backside.

  “Enough of this.” Her troops surrounded the group, and the Hsktskt pointed to three of the nurses—one of whom had made the unpleasant joke. “Take them.”

  “OverSeer!” I struggled to my feet, yanked on my headgear, and reached out a hand to try to stop her. “Please, if you will wait, I—”

  The big female pressed a claw to the broad unit on her wrist. Instantly a powerful jolt ran up my left arm and into my chest.

  Not again.

  The deck rushed up to meet my face.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Sharp Instruments

  “Still, you keep.”

  Disgruntled, beady black eyes peered into mine. After riding waves of dizziness, I finally figured out I was lying on a berth in Medical. Not naked this time, but dressed in a slave tunic about four sizes too big for me. I reflexively moved my limbs, and felt severe muscle strain in my left forearm. A new support brace encircled my throbbing wrist.

  At least I didn’t get shot.

  A paw pressed down on my shoulder. Good spot—it was the only one that didn’t ache. “It, I mean!” Zella Dchêm-os gave me a look of intense dislike as she held me immobile and passed a scanner over me.

  My head was still muddled, but I recalled trying to help the nurses, and the subsequently brief confrontation with the Hsktskt OverSeer. “How much damage did she do?”

  “Finish first, will you let me?” She glanced over her shoulder. “For these readings, OverMaster HalaVar is waiting.”

  “Space Reever.” I grabbed the scanner. Plenty of contusions, but no broken bones. “He the only reason you’re not sticking me with a syrinpress?”

  Dchêm-os’s expression changed. “Trying to help us, I suppose you were.” She took the unit away from me.

  “Does this mean we’re going to be chums now?” I asked, and her vibrissae virtually stood on end. “That’s what I thought.” The vertigo got worse, and that had me worried. “Give me back that scanner.”

  “Wait.” Dchêm-os took hold of my arm, where the sleeve of my tunic had slid down. She yanked her headgear off, then mine. “To your PIC, what happened? A few hours ago, I just dressed it.”

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw the third-degree burns had disappeared, leaving a flat, barely perceptible stretch of new pink skin.

  I brought my arm down and shook the sleeve back into place. “I heal fast.” And was healing faster every day.

  “You, do?” She cast a glance to one side, then leaned forward and lowered her voice to a whisper. “The nurses who were taken, the beasts will maim. Make them reveal the location of the five escapees, they think it will.” Dchêm-os’s large incisors clattered together. “Until they are dead, that scar-faced one won’t stop—but nothing they know!”

  “Figures.” Pointless torture. One more thing to love about the Hsktskt.

  “Some of the prisoners, I’m being sent down to the Detainment Area to treat.” The nurse looked odd before she added, “To help the others, can you do anything?”

  I bet that hurt to ask. My respect for Zella increased by the moment.

  “Let’s see.” I held my hand out. “Help me up.” When she hesitated, I sighed. “C’mon, Zel. I can’t do anything from here.”

  The nurse didn’t argue with me. She simply yanked. For a moment my vision blurred, then I was in an upright position. Why was I so lightheaded?

  “To get them back, I’ll use you,” she said. “Only temporary, this—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I remember. You’ll still poison me the minute you get a chance, et cetera, et cetera. Save it.” I put my headgear on and swung my legs over the side of the berth.

  Reever appeared in front of me. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting up,” I said. And I did. For about three seconds. The room rocked wildly, and my knees weren’t up for the ride. I crumpled forward, just in time for Reever to catch me. “Put—me—down—”

  Reever turned to Dchêm-os. “I’ll take her to her quarters. Resume your duties.”

  The long night watching Shropana combined with the pain of my bruises had sapped me of whatever smacking ability I possessed. However, the dizziness seemed to be slowly receding. I hung limp and unresisting in Reever’s arms.

  My mouth still worked, though. “What’s the matter, get bored planning your next atrocity?”

  Reever said nothing. He was good at that.

  Okay, maybe I should do more than bait him. “Your pals trashed Medical looking for escaped prisoners. OverSeer FurreVa took three nurses into custody and is torturing them.”

  “I know.” He stepped into the lift with me.

  I curled my fingers into the front of his tunic, and gave it a pull. “You can have them released, right?” He remained silent and indifferent. I heaved out an impatient breath as the lift slid to a halt. “Let me rephrase. Get them released.”

  “No.” He stepped out and carried me down another corridor.

  I didn’t argue or struggle with him—now I had to do some planning. Reever stepped through a door panel and into my assigned quarters. While I’d been in Medical, someone had come in and straightened up. Shropana’s blood no longer stained the deck. Even the linens on my sleeping platform had been changed.

  He wouldn’t help me, so I needed to get rid of him.

  “I never knew the Hsktskt had”—I yawned—“maid service.” He placed me on the bed. “Nice job … you give her … a good tip?” I let my eyelids flutter, then faked falling asleep.

  Reever hovered by the sleeping platform for a minute. I couldn’t open my eyes and look at him. I was too busy pretending to breathe evenly and slowly. The subterfuge was harder to keep up than I thought. Especially with Reever close enough for me to smell.

  I barely controlled a flinch when his warm hand touched my head. Fingers threaded through my tangled hair, gently brushing it away from my face. The temptation to bite him, repeatedly, became almost irresistible. So did other, less noble impulses.

  No. Never. I’d rather contract Embekileen venereal disease first.

  The hand moved away, and I he
ard him sigh. “Sleep well, wife.” Some footsteps thudded across the deck. The door panel slid open and closed. He was gone.

  I sat up, dizzy and shaking with relief. “Dream on, stupid.” I got up, noticed the time, and automatically went to the prep unit. “Jenner? Hey, pal, time to …” I halted as I remembered that my cat was still back on Joren, and the familiar pang of loss made me catch my breath. “Okay. Time to get my act together.”

  Continual dizziness hampered my movements. What garments I found, courtesy of past occupants, were mostly sheer, feminine stuff that would fit an Amazon, a couple of Shropana’s old uniforms shoved back in a corner, and a plain black robe. Since I didn’t want to attract attention, I stayed in the too-large slave tunic and braided my hair out of my face.

  I snorted at my reflection. Prisoner Cherijo, prepared for the search-and-rescue mission. Right. I looked like a kid playing dress-up.

  Another surge of vertigo sent me back to the sleeping platform. Couldn’t pass out yet. I could sit for a few minutes, though. While I did, I took the precaution of rolling up some bed linens and making it look as though I was huddled under the top cover on the sleeping platform.

  Reever had left the console pass-protected, so I played with different combinations in an attempt to crack the protective codes he’d installed.

  “What magic word did you use, Reever? Fraud? Imposter? Villain?” I stopped, thought for a moment, then keyed in one word.

  Beloved.

  The security lockout disappeared.

  With a few taps on the keypad I found the deck and a section designated “Investigation and Interrogation.” The Hsktskt were practical creatures, so I was counting on them using the existing facilities for the same purposes.

  Once I got the nurses out, I couldn’t simply march them back over to Medical. No, I’d have to find a place to hide them.

  Before I left, I searched for some kind of weapon to take with me. There was nothing, no secret cache of pistols, no emitter units, not even an eating utensil. Maybe it was for the best. If things got rough, I still wasn’t sure if I could actually shoot or stab someone.

  I wasn’t trained to kill people. I healed them.

  What about Reever? that sly voice whispered inside my head.

  “He doesn’t qualify,” I said.

  I had taken the precaution of tucking a scanner in my pocket, which I now used to take a reading close to the door panel. Any life-forms within a three-meter radius would register on the thermal sensor. The corridor was empty. I was home free. I activated the panel.

  Nothing happened. Reever had locked me in.

  “For a telepathic linguist, the man has an incredibly bad memory.” I accessed the interior of the panel and crossed some wires. Dhreen had taught me how to do that. I’d used it to catch Reever playing Fond Memories in a Jorenian environome once, back on the Sunlace. I ignored the sharp stab of pain in my chest.

  Dhreen had pretended to be my friend while he spied for my creator. The Oenrallian’s betrayal ranked just below Reever’s on my never-to be-forgotten list.

  And still I missed him.

  The door panel slid open, and I stepped out into the open corridor. No one around. So far, so good. I had to go to level nineteen to get to the Interrogation Section. That was my whole plan. By the time I arrived, I’d have figured out a way to rescue the nurses.

  Sometime later, standing just outside the door panel to Interrogation, I still didn’t have a plan. But I could hear someone screaming and sobbing. A shame I hadn’t found some kind of weapon. Shooting one of those cold-blooded monsters in there suddenly appealed to me.

  Cold-blooded monsters …

  I checked the exterior panel, and had to swallow a whoop of delight. Hail to the Allied League, those Paragons of Miserly Habits. The environcontrols for Interrogation—and every other section on the deck—were external.

  I walked back down the corridor and accessed the main deck panel. Now, how had Dhreen said he’d fixed that problem with the nasty migrating organic cargo on the Bestshot? Oh, yeah. I input the setting and reinitiated the life-support system.

  The effect was a blast. Literally. Ice began to form on the corridor walls as super-cooled air flooded the deck. My breath puffed out in little white clouds while I shivered and hopped from one foot to the other. Oddly, the cold made me feel more alert and cleared away the last of that bizarre dizziness.

  Interrogation’s door panel slid open. Something big and sluggish crawled out onto the deck and, after a moment, collapsed.

  “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow,” I chanted as I stepped over the motionless Hsktskt and peered into the interior.

  The smell of blood and body fluids was sharp and pervasive. I saw the three nurses, restrained against one wall. Two were conscious, the third sagging and in very bad shape. Five more big lizards lay on their bellies in various stages of stupor. FurreVa lifted her scarred head and stared at me.

  Since she’d already gotten a good look at me, I waggled my fingers at her. “Hiya, Helen. I need my nurses back now.”

  “Kill … you …” The OverSeer slumped to the deck, unconscious.

  “Not today.” I stepped over her and went to the last nurse. Gently I lifted her head from where it hung limply over her chest, and checked for a pulse. She was alive, but in shock.

  “Nurse.” She’d been badly beaten, from the looks of the lacerations and bruises that disfigured her face. “Hey.” I gave her a small shake. The swollen eyes opened to slits. “Can you hear me?” She whimpered something. “Hang on. I’m going to get you out of here.”

  I went to the other two nurses and checked them, then went to the console and released the locking mechanisms securing them to the wall panel.

  “Help her,” I said, pointing to the third, and they took positions to steady her as I released the last of the locks. “Let’s go.”

  One stopped to pick up a pulse rifle one of the Hsktskt had dropped.

  “Leave it,” I told her.

  The blood on her face didn’t hide her astonishment. “But Doctor—”

  I shook my head. “We don’t need it,” I said, and made a grab for the badly injured nurse, who was staggering now. “Come on, help me.”

  Between the three of us we were able to carry the semiconscious nurse out of Interrogation. We walked into a tunnel of white ice. Snow fell so rapidly that the insensate Hsktskt on the deck was in danger of becoming buried in the powdery crystals.

  First I had to get the nurses somewhere reasonably safe to hide. “Where is the main Detainment Area?” I asked one of the ambulatory nurses.

  “Mid-deck, level eleven.”

  “Hang on.” I stopped by the main control console, and went to the panel to reverse the environcontrols.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Restoring the correct life-support settings,” I said, and reinstated the set points.

  “What for?” The other nurse sounded bitter. “Let the beasts freeze.”

  “They’re poikilothermic, it’ll kill them. No point in killing defenseless beings.” I leveled a look over my shoulder at her. “That’s the sort of thing they do. Right?”

  Neither answered me. The third nurse only groaned louder. I closed the panel and felt the immediate change in temperature. “Come on. We’ve got to get out of here before they wake up and start looking for us.”

  We went up six decks before the controls were overridden from Command and the lift stopped. One of the nurses managed to key the doors partially open, and the four of us squeezed through the gap into the corridor.

  On the deck above us, something large, in a hurry, and certainly not defenseless, ran toward the lift entrance.

  Me and my dumb rules.

  “We’ve got about a minute,” I said. “Hold on to her and run.”

  We ran. Behind us I could hear the lift activating, then the booming footsteps of our pursuers. The nurses were pale beneath their bruises, and quickly losing what breath they had. So was I.
/>   We reached Main Detention and saw a guard standing with his back to us. I raised a finger to my lips and gestured as to what I wanted them to do. The other women nodded.

  We crept up to the door panel and I hit the locking mechanism. The guard whirled around just as I jumped at him. We both went down.

  “I’m not going to stay in there for another millisecond!” I bellowed, pounding on him with both fists for good measure. “I want out! Now!”

  While I straddled the big monster, effectively blocking his view with my body, the two nurses carried the third through the open door panel into the Detainment Area.

  My playacting got me thrown back through the half-open door panel and into a group of League detainees. I landed on my back, my arms up over my head. Something fast and furry jumped on top of me.

  “Hey!” I said, and got a faceful of warm fur as it sat on me.

  “Be still,” a familiar voice murmured against my ear. Then, to someone else, “Hurry.” There was a whispered affirmative. The thing lying over my upper torso made a hnk-hnk sound. The only time I’d ever heard a noise like that was at the New Angeles zoo—

  There was a tiger sitting on top of me?

  The furry body shifted to one side, and two colorless slits peered into my face. The only other thing I saw were some fairly impressive fangs when it opened its mouth. “Cherijo.”

  “Oh, God. Alunthri.” I threw my arms around my friend and hugged it tightly. Alunthri was alive, safe. Too thin, and badly in need of cleansing, but I didn’t care. All the fear I’d been enduring since learning Reever had enslaved it dissolved. “Are you okay?”

  “I am well. And you?”

  Over the Chakacat’s slim shoulder, I saw Nurse Dchêm-os take a length of thermal insulating cloth and unwind it above us.

  “What’s that for?” I asked, afraid she might answer with “A noose.”

  “Your head, covering,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Here”—she prodded Alunthri aside and tugged me up enough to drape my head with the cloth—“your face hidden, keep.”