Endurance

by Richard Chizmar

  SrrokVar had me removed to the general holding cell, and left me there for an undeterminable amount of time. The Unohew male never returned, and the newly battered League female sat curled over and wept incoherently.

  I was furious. Sick. Frantic to find a way to prevent this animal imitating a physician from continuing his revolting work. I wasn’t going to sit there, stare at my footgear, and wonder how long it would take to die, like the others.

  No, I had to stop this madness. But how?

  The sight of two new prisoners being brought in snared my attention, especially when SrrokVar directed the centurons to manacle each on either side of me.

  Wonlee—and Gael Kelly.

  “Up your swiss, you caffler,” the Terran said as he fought the claws restraining him. Once the Hsktskt had departed, the rage faded from his narrow face and concerned green eyes met mine. “How’s the form, dote?”

  The ache in my back was nothing compared to the vile taste in my mouth. What was SrrokVar using on me? “The form hurts, Irishman. How did you two get thrown in here?”

  Wonlee’s spines grated against the restraints as he tested them. “Someone informed the beasts of our escape attempt.”

  “The Lieutenant here and I tried to do a flit to the surface. Snared rapid, we were,” Gael said. “Scabby thicks were already there, by God, waiting for us.” He shook his head sadly. “And after I warned your hardchaw friend here to whist—”

  “I had to tell my comrades, in the event we failed.” Won’s clawed feet tapped an impatient rhythm against the quasi-quartz floor. “They wouldn’t betray us.”

  “Someone did, boyo.” Gael banged his head back against the wall. “This place makes me want to bolt. What manner of mortaller are they inflicting on these poor knackers?”

  I wasn’t looking forward to telling him. For a moment, I closed my eyes and tried to think. Did Reever know I was here? Would he even care? “The one in charge is called SrrokVar. He’s torturing slaves and calling it research.”

  Wonlee made a strangled sound of frustration. “How do we get out of here?”

  I watched as guards reappeared and one of them came toward me. My stomach solidified into a cold, clenched knot as my restraints were released. “I wish I knew.”

  Most of the drugs in my system wore off over the next hours as SrrokVar conducted his first series of tolerance tests on me.

  The tests appeared deceptively mild at first. The Hsktskt compelled me to run the treadmill at various speeds, then stand in a tiny envirodome while the internal temperature went from arid to freezing. Uncomfortable, but not painful. Not until the guards removed the bonesetter and strapped my wrists into two small rings suspended from a grav-hoist. SrrokVar raised me a few feet off the floor, and my own weight put immediate, searing stress on my broken carpal bones.

  “Tell me about the Aksellans, Doctor.”

  “I’ve told you what I know.” I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, I thought, sweat pouring down my face. “By the way, are we nearly done? I’m rather tired of hanging around.”

  SrrokVar looked up from his console. “Humor as a pain-management device, Doctor?”

  “A nap”—I clenched my teeth against the strain—“works better.”

  He walked over and clamped two more restraints around my ankles. Apparently they were hooked up to some kind of winch, because they began pulling, and the rings around my wrists grew tighter. Something inside me made an audible pop. I screamed. Fresh pain expanded through my right leg.

  “Discouraging, these fragile joints of yours,” SrrokVar said as he scanned the knee and hip that now throbbed in unison. They hurt more than my broken wrist—not that I was going to tell him that. “Altogether very simple to dislocate.”

  “Is … two … enough?”

  “I’m not concerned with the number, Doctor.” He completed the scan and circled around me. “How they heal, however, is of great interest to me.”

  Knowing that didn’t make it easier to keep quiet. “You’re … a … maniac.” Blood welled from the inside of my cheek; I’d bitten through it trying not to shriek. Something else popped, and my vision narrowed abruptly. I’d pass out now, I thought, grateful for my body’s response to the unbearable abuse. My head sagged for a moment, then I choked as a splash of icy water hit me in the face.

  “You will remain conscious, Doctor.”

  “Don’t … think … so …”

  “I have the proper stimulants, once dousing you fails to work.”

  I shut out his face and voice, and pulled back deep within myself. He could keep me awake and all my senses working, but my mind didn’t have to stay connected with them. The dark, hidden place I’d fallen into once before beckoned, and I rushed to it, grateful for the respite.

  About time.

  Maggie’s voice drifted from the edge of that safe abyss, and I halted, wary of what that meant.

  Am I dead again?

  The sound of a faint snort. Get your skinny backside in here, Joey. Pronto.

  Eighteen years of obedience sent me hurtling into the nameless haven, and I tumbled down the long passage until I landed in the featureless blackness that held only the sense of the woman I’d thought of as my only mother.

  Maggie?

  You’re in big trouble, kiddo. C’mon, we’ve got some serious talking to do.

  The last two times we’d done this, I’d landed in the tavern district back on Terra, then my own bedroom. So when colors and sounds bloomed around me to form my Medtech freshman anatomy class, I wasn’t exactly surprised.

  What shocked me was seeing Maggie up in front of the empty classroom, instead of Professor Larson, who’d taught me to know and recognize every inch of the human body inside and out. She wore an educator’s tunic one size too small, and clattered over toward me on the high, thin-heeled footgear she’d always loved. The locket I’d given her for her last birthday gleamed around her neck.

  “Things are not looking good for you, baby,” she said as she pulled an illegal cigarette out of her breast pocket and lit it by bending over one of the Bunsen units. She drew the smoke in and released it with a long, slow sigh before smiling at me. “I’m glad you found your way here, though.”

  I put the student pack I was carrying on the nearest table and sat down on a stool. My nose wrinkled. “Is this where I get to spend eternity? Back in Medtech, listening to Professor Larson recite the number of muscles in the maxillary region?”

  Maggie coughed out a lungful of smoke, gave me an irritated glare, then stubbed out the cigarette. “Not according to the plan, Joey.”

  “Oh? And exactly what is this plan?”

  “For me to know, and you to find out.” She winked. “Now, let’s deal with the nasty situation at hand. How the hell did you end up with Dr. Mengele out there? Never mind, I already know. Time to make some tough choices, kiddo.”

  I heard distant, agonized screaming and knew it was coming from me. Not in any hurry to get back to that, I crossed my legs and regarded my surrogate mother patiently. “Such as?”

  “He’s going to find out he can’t kill you.” Maggie went over to the wall panel and activated the instructional display. A full Terran female anatomical chart appeared on the screen. “Look at all these weird names. Christ, how do you pronounce that one? And check the rest of this out. Who knew these people had all this junk packed under their skins?”

  “Maggie.” I waited until I had her attention. “Why can’t he kill me?”

  “Oh. Yeah.” She switched off the display and gave me another brilliant grin. “It’s the same reason those disgusting PIC burns keep healing up and disappearing.”

  “My immune system.”

  “You’ve got the motherlode when it comes to immune systems, baby. It’s what makes you immortal.”

  “Immortal.” Well, I was hallucinating, what did I expect? “Cute, Maggie. Nothing is immortal.”

  “You are. Think about it, Cherijo. Why didn’t you die on K-2? You contracted the core
virus from the cat-fellow Karas. What about while you were on the Sunlace? You died twice on Tonetka’s table. That’s not even counting the times you overdosed, got burned, stopped your heart, and took all that radiation, remember?”

  She’d told me before, during a dream I’d had on the Sunlace. You won’t die, baby. “So you’re saying I can’t die? Ever?”

  “Nope.”

  I sat in silence for long time. Then I asked her, “Does my fa—my creator know about this?”

  “Sure. Joseph tried to kill you a couple of times himself.” Maggie shook her head sadly. “I kept telling him it was hopeless, but did he listen to me? Noooooo …”

  “You didn’t try and stop him.” Why it didn’t anger me was a total mystery. I was too busy rearranging certain events over the last two years in an entirely new order. “I’d wondered how Joseph convinced the League to come after me when everything he’d done was illegal. He told them about this.”

  “You’re his blueprint for everlasting life, Joey. Which brings us to our other problem—if the lizards do figure out you can’t be killed, that would be bad.”

  Yes, it would. “So how do I get out of this?”

  “Duncan is coming for you.” Maggie shook her head. “Late, of course—he’s just discovered you’ve been taken—but he’ll come. You do whatever he says, Cherijo.”

  I laughed. “I don’t think so.”

  My former hired companion exploded with rage. “You want to let that animal out there torture you for weeks, months, years? Because that’s what will happen, Joey. He’ll keep you for as long as it takes to satisfy his curiosity—and that’s endless. You’d choose to live like that, just to spite the one man who can protect you?”

  “Some protector. He’s a traitor and a liar. He sold me out, Maggie.”

  “He’s all you got!”

  Now it was my turn. “What about you? Aren’t you ever going to tell me the truth about all this? Who I am? What did you and Joseph Grey Veil do to me?” I looked up at the screen, then back at her. “You won’t even tell me who you are. Are you my mother? My real mother?”

  “No, Joey. I’m not.” She went very still, and groped in her pocket for another cigarette. Her fingers remained hooked there, and for some reason my gaze stayed riveted to the sight. What was wrong with her hand?

  Then I saw. Saw what I’d never seen in all the years we’d spent together. It made me jolt off the stool and back away. “No. It’s some kind of trick.”

  With a sad smile she lifted her fingers—each with five articulated joints—to her face, and passed it over the care-worn, lined features. They smoothed out as her flesh took on an outlandish luminescence. Red-tinted curls straightened and darkened to black. Both ears receded into flat slits on either side of her elongating skull. Her brown eyes narrowed and tilted up at the corners toward her brows, which disappeared beneath an thin band of sparkling gems that stretched across her forehead.

  I’d never known anyone with such a serene, beautiful face. What I did know was this woman wasn’t human. She didn’t belong to any other species I’d ever encountered, either.

  The Maggie I had grown up loving wasn’t dead. She’d never existed. As I processed that, an irrational fury surged through me. I’d loved my surrogate mother. She’d been the only part of my life on Terra that I could bear to remember. Now she’d taken that away from me.

  “No tricks, Cherijo.” Her voice had transmuted from the familiar husky rasp to alien octaves. The sheer clarity made me cringe. It felt as though my head was stuck inside of a huge, multitonal chime as it rang. “This is who I am.”

  “You pretended to be human? Why? What world are you from?” The questions rushed out of me in an irate succession. “Why did you come to Terra? Why did you get involved with me?”

  “Duncan Reever is not your only protector. I waited centuries for your birth, Cherijo.” The terrible beauty of her voice deepened, and her features blurred back into the false visage of the woman who had stood back and let my creator try to kill me. “You have to go back now, Joey. He will come for you.”

  “No.” I resisted the urge to move back into reality. “Whoever you are, you owe me some answers. I have to know more.”

  “You will.”

  SrrokVar must have injected me with enough stimulant to keep an entire squad of League troops awake and aware. After my abrupt and unwilling trip back into reality, I discovered my body was on the brink of systemic overload. Nerve cells sent ceaseless trans-missions of the multiple afflictions I’d endured, and the pain pushed beyond anything I’d ever experienced. At the same time, my heart and blood pressure careened at levels that would have killed an ordinary human. Sweat and cold water coated every centimeter of my skin.

  It hurt to blink, so talking only upped the ante. “Aren’t … you … finished … yet?”

  SrrokVar’s eyelids peeled back in evident astonishment. “Why, Doctor, welcome back. I was certain you had retreated for the duration. Yes, I’m quite finished for today.”

  He lowered me back to the floor, where I added to the various stains on the mottled surface as the centurons released my limbs. SrrokVar had them place my broken body onto one of the exam tables, where he efficiently dealt with each dislocated joint. There were twenty of them altogether, including two veterbrae in my lower spine.

  “Your reactions were not as I expected in the high tolerance ranges.” The Hsktskt finished manipulating the last bone—my left femur back into the hip socket—and scanned me once more. “According to my data, tissue inflammation should not set in immediately. I am quite sure you will be able to stand and walk without support.”

  “Yipee.” I pushed my abused body from the table and landed on my feet. The floor seemed to rock under me for a moment as my violated joints screeched in protest. “We’ll have … to do this … again … sometime.”

  “After you’ve had time to think about the many variations I can use to gain information from you, we will.” SrrokVar gestured to the waiting centurons. “Take her back to the holding cell.”

  “Disregard that order.”

  I turned my head. Just as Maggie had predicted, Reever entered the central chamber, accompanied by more Hsktskt.

  He wasn’t pleased. “Why have you requisitioned this Terran without my authorization, Lord SrrokVar?”

  “I did not requisition her, OverMaster.” The Hsktskt set down his data pad with a distinct thump. “She was brought here to be interrogated over the disappearance of five slaves.”

  Colorless eyes narrowed under the bright lights as Reever studied me. “What have you learned?”

  Some protector he was.

  “Nothing yet. You are familiar with my methods, HalaVar.” The Hsktskt scientist beckoned to his personal guards. “This will take some time. Remove her.”

  “No.” Reever came at me and tugged me off to the side. “I will speak with her.”

  He knew. I clutched at him when my knees started to give out. Reever knew everything that was going on in here.

  Agree with whatever I say, Cherijo, and I can free you.

  What was he talking about? Free me? What about the others? I started to shake my head, but my neck was stiffening up and I could only turn it to one side. By then Reever was talking to the head monster again.

  “I have spoken with the OverLord and have his permission to take this one as my mate. Under the circumstances, the unity ritual will have to be held at once.”

  “What?” I gasped and staggered away from him.

  “She does not display a great deal of enthusiasm, HalaVar.” SrrokVar crossed the space between us and placed his claws around my jaw. Some of what I felt must have shown on my face, for SrrokVar dipped his head close to mine. “Does the prospect of coupling with the OverMaster appeal to you, Doctor?”

  I didn’t care what Maggie said, I wasn’t doing this. I’d rather take my chances and hope Noarr could find a way to free us. My eyes fell to the sidearm Reever wore. “No thanks … rather be … lab rat
.”

  “You will give your consent. Eventually.” The Hsktskt addressed Reever. “I’d prefer to continue my interrogation, but perhaps you’d allow a study of any resulting progeny. I believe the genetic enhancements would be somewhat diminished by the second generation, but a detailed analysis would still prove beneficial. Your species’ gestational period is three cycles, is it not?”

  “Yes.” Reever tried to take hold of me, but the Hsktskt refused to turn me loose.

  He had no problem with allowing the scaly sadist to experiment on a child. Not just any child. Our child. Nausea surged through me. At that very moment, whatever residual feelings I had for Duncan Reever died a swift, miserable death. It had to end, now. Maybe I couldn’t die easily, but I could try. I could kill him, too. Maybe by doing so I’d save an unborn child from living hell.

  Adrenaline poured into my veins as I made a grab for Reever’s weapon, and whipped it from his belt. “No more!” My hand shook as I raised it and fired directly at his chest.

  The pulse sent Reever flying into the traction rig. Before I could shoot myself, a huge limb knocked me aside and the weapon went flying. I remained conscious as one of the centurons snatched me up and shook me like a rag doll. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Reever slowly getting to his feet. Blood stained the front of his uniform, but he was alive, breathing, and staring at me with wide, colorless eyes.

  I’d failed. I hadn’t killed anyone.

  “Escort the OverMaster to the infirmary.” SrrokVar peered into my tear-filled eyes. “Attacking any member of the Faction requires an interval of discipline, Doctor.” To the centuron, he said, “Put her on the table.”

  I didn’t care what he did to me. He could use the thresher or yank more bones apart. Maybe Maggie was wrong and I would die. Maybe I should start praying for that.

  The sound of a beam activating made my blood run cold. I lifted my head and saw SrrokVar coming at me with the same kind of hand-laser FlatHead had used on me.