by Ben Wolf
Dr. Handabi raised a handscreen into view, and Justin’s breath caught in his throat. Maybe he would’ve been better off dying in that cavern after all.
“There’s the dumb bastard we all know and love,” a voice said from behind Dr. Handabi.
Justin’s eyes widened, and he gave a weak smile. He knew that voice.
Keontae’s brown head moved into view. “How’s it goin’, bro?”
Justin moaned again.
“I was just preparing to read him one of my poems.” Dr. Handabi smiled at Keontae.
“Oh.” Keontae raised his eyebrows and smirked at Justin. “I bet he’d love that.”
“I always prefer a larger audience.” Dr. Handabi tapped his handscreen. “Please, have a seat. I can read it for you as well.”
“Easy there, Doc.” Keontae held up his left hand. “I’m sure we’d all love to hear it, but right now, do you mind if I talk to JB alone?”
Dr. Handabi lowered the screen. “Of course not, though I doubt he can respond very well at the moment. In any case, I will be in the medbay’s common area.”
“Thanks.” The doors shut behind Dr. Handabi, and Keontae leaned close to Justin. “I’m sure that would’ve been fun.”
Justin groaned and managed to shake his head.
“I’m so glad you’re alright. I was worried when they told me about your accident.” Keontae held up his hands, then let them slap against his thighs. “But what the hell were you doin’ in the mine at 3am anyway?”
Justin swallowed, and it hurt his throat and his chest. He forced his mouth to form words and rasped, “I don’t know.”
“That’s all you got? You don’t know?” Keontae shook his head. “Everyone is freaked out, man. No one knows how you got in there. Security’s gonna come and ask you questions. Probably HR, too. I don’t know what’s gonna happen after that.”
“Sh—Shannon?” Justin eked out.
“Yeah, bro. She’s pissed too. You haven’t exactly maintained a low profile since you got here, so she knew exactly who got his stupid ass poisoned in Sector 6.” Keontae glared at him. “That whole sector’s supposed to be caved in. What were you thinkin’?”
Justin exhaled a sigh, and his chest burned. “Not a cave-in.”
“What’d you say?” Keontae leaned closer.
“Not…” Justin inhaled a slow breath, and it raked against his raw throat. “…a cave-in.”
Keontae reared back. “What do you mean?”
“Something… else.”
“Man, you’re trippin’ on somethin’. Pain pills, or I don’t know what. They said it’s a cave-in, and that’s all there is to it.” Keontae held up his hand. “Look, I’m goin’ to the spaceport tonight. Gonna see about havin’ a drink, maybe tryin’ to meet some ladies. You shoulda stayed safe, bro. You coulda come with me.”
“There’s… a green light man.”
“Damn right, I’ve got the green light. I appreciate your blessing, but I don’t need your permission.”
Justin closed his eyes. Haze still overwhelmed his mind, but Keontae was missing his point. “No. A green light man. He… saved me.”
Keontae’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“In the mine.” Justin swallowed again, and his throat stung all the way down. “He showed up and saved me.”
“Bro, I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about. You need to get some rest. If HR or security comes up in here askin’ questions, don’t go jabberin’ ‘bout some green light man who saved you in the mine. That’ll get you fired and institutionalized.”
Justin tried to speak again, but a wave of fatigue washed over him, and he moaned.
“Be easy, JB. I won’t be back until late tonight, but I’ll visit again tomorrow.”
Justin moaned again, and Keontae left with a wave.
The ensuing moment of solitude passed quickly with Dr. Handabi’s return. “I am very glad to be back. It is good to have a friend who cares for you, yes? And a doctor who cares for you enough to read you the poetry of his passionate heart.”
A whoosh sounded from outside the examination room, and Dr. Handabi looked back. Justin tried to look up as well, but his neck refused to comply.
“May I help you gentlemen?” Dr. Handabi walked out of Justin’s room to meet them.
“Do you mind leaving the medbay, Dr. Handabi?” a gruff male voice asked.
“May I ask why?”
“No, you may not.”
“I understand the ramifications of the incident and his involvement, but the patient is in no condition for questioning.”
Questioning? Justin squinted.
“He’s awake, so we’re going to question him,” the voice countered.
“He can barely form words, much less cohesive sentences. I must advise against this.”
“Are you going to leave the room, or do we have to remove you?”
Dr. Handabi looked back at Justin, his blue eyes full of apology, and he nodded. He walked out of Justin’s line of sight. The medbay door whooshed again, and then footsteps approached Justin’s bed. His heart rate accelerated as they drew nearer.
Two heads and torsos appeared in Justin’s field of vision. One was Stecker, and the other was some guy Justin had never seen before. He matched Stecker’s stocky build, only he was taller and had jet-black hair, arched eyebrows, and a black, manicured beard. Also like Stecker, he wore all black, only with a black suit coat overtop his black shirt.
“Justin Barclay,” the other man said. “My name is Laithe Gerhardt. I’m the Director of Security for ACM-1134. Mr. Stecker and I are here to discuss the incident in Sector 6 with you.”
Justin just stared at them. He couldn’t do much more than that anyway, for how weak he felt.
Stecker leaned in. “Don’t worry about this. It’s routine, son.”
“How did you get into the mine?” Gerhardt asked. “And why were you in there in the first place?”
Justin’s eyes narrowed. He’d been questioned by people in authority before. Gerhardt’s questions were meant to incriminate him more than to get actual information. He stayed quiet.
“It’s okay,” Stecker said. “We just need to know how you managed to get past our security.”
Justin frowned. Good cop, bad cop. Gerhardt would play it hard, and Stecker would try to extract info from him by playing it nice.
“I almost died,” Justin managed.
Stecker’s eyebrow rose. “We know. And we want to prevent any more accidents from happening.”
Justin shook his head. “Don’t feel good.”
“You need to tell us.” Gerhardt leaned closer to Justin. “Trust me, kid. It’s better to cooperate.”
“We’ll come back tomorrow. See if you’re feeling better,” Stecker said. “Director Gerhardt is right, though. We expect your cooperation on this. Rest up.”
Stecker walked away, but Gerhardt stuck around for a few extra seconds to glower at Justin. Then the medbay door whooshed, and Justin closed his eyes. Maybe if he kept them shut, Dr. Handabi wouldn’t read any poetry to him.
Sure enough, Justin heard Dr. Handabi’s footsteps enter Justin’s examination room, and after a moment of stillness, they shuffled out.
As he lay there, actual exhaustion began to put him to sleep, but then he heard the medbay door woosh open again. Lighter footsteps clacked into the medbay.
His voice flat, Dr. Handabi said, “Ms. Dunham, good day to you.”
Justin moaned. Why wouldn’t these people just leave him alone?
“Hello, Dr. Handabi,” Oafy’s recognizable voice replied. “Is he awake?”
“I am afraid not. Security just came and questioned him, and he fell asleep. I told them he is still too weak.”
Justin didn’t know why, but Dr. Handabi’s voice had lost its usual chipper color while he spoke to Oafy.
“I would appreciate the chance to speak with him when he is well enough to do so,” Oafy said.
“And I would prefer if you would wait until a
fter I have released him from my care.”
“We’ll see,” Oafy said. “I may need to speak with him sooner.”
“He is not in any condition to speak with you or anyone else right now.”
“I know. That’s not why I’m here, mostly.”
Dr. Handabi didn’t say anything.
Her voice low, Oafy said, “Look, Pradeep, I know you don’t like me right now, but I’m hopeful that we can change that.”
“You threw me under the hoverbus,” Dr. Handabi said. “I do not see how it is possible to restore a good working relationship between us.”
Justin’s eyes cracked open.
“It is precisely that topic which I wish to discuss,” Oafy continued. “Upon further review of the situation, HR has concluded that you were not at fault in the employee’s death.”
An employee had died? Justin’s hazy memory sparked with recognition. Shannon had said that someone had gotten injured in Sector 13 before he’d had his incident. Was that the employee who had died?
“I have maintained that position all along,” Dr. Handabi said.
“I’ve spoken with IT, and apparently the admin sub-network has not been functioning properly. It seems the data in Mr. Ross’s medical file was corrupted, and thus the information you had to work with was incomplete.”
“Again, as I have maintained all along, his file made no mention of any allergies to medicine,” Dr. Handabi said. “When the androids and I were treating his leg, the sedative we administered to calm him caused the reaction that killed him.”
Oh, God. That’s terrible.
“The androids have patient files in their systems, and none of them caught it,” Dr. Handabi continued. “But I always check the patient files myself as a failsafe against such instances, and it made no mention of any allergies of any—”
“Yes, Pradeep,” Oafy interrupted. “I know. As I said, it has since become clear that you were not at fault. All employee restrictions on you have been lifted, and all investigations into your practice here have been stopped. This was truly an accident.”
“That does little to undo the damage you have done to my reputation.”
Oafy sighed. “How do you propose we resolve that?”
“Put out a statement and an apology.”
“You know we can’t do that.”
Because it would be admitting culpability on some level. Justin would’ve huffed, but he lacked the energy to do so. Typical corporation. Always concerned about covering its own ass.
“But no one outside of HR and the executive Admin team knows anything about it,” Oafy continued.
“Word travels quickly.”
“I can’t help that.” Oafy added, “But your reputation will be restored in time. Not everyone has learned about what happened, and even fewer know the specifics. You can recover from this.”
Dr. Handabi remained silent for another long moment. “How about a salary increase, at least?”
Oafy sighed. “Have a nice day, Pradeep.”
Her footsteps clacked, the medbay door wooshed, and they clacked out.
As Justin closed his eyes again, he considered the ramifications of what he’d just heard. Someone had died in part because of the company’s network malfunctioning.
And he’d almost died because of seemingly the same types of issues—none of the cameras seemed to be working between the buffer zones and the mine, doors were open that shouldn’t have been open, and the security bots had been disabled.
Plus, Connie had said that someone had gone missing. If that were true then it added to the mystery of everything else.
Something was going on, and it had almost gotten Justin killed. Perhaps he shouldn’t have chosen ACM-1134 to start his new life after all.
By noon the next day, Justin had managed to get out of bed, so the androids removed the catheter—not a pleasant experience—and he pulled his medbay gown up and urinated on his own in the bathroom adjacent to his examination room. The IV and the oxygen mask stayed with him, though.
Though initially unsuccessful, he’d finally convinced Dr. Handabi not to share any more of his poetry. Justin claimed it was so good that it was overloading his still-recovering brain. In doing so, he’d earned himself some valuable peace and quiet.
As the afternoon loafed along, Justin awaited Keontae’s return, but Stecker and Gerhardt made good on their promise first. Now they stood in Justin’s examination room, scrutinizing him with their eyes and their words.
“How you even got inside that sector is a mystery, and how security got in to rescue you is another mystery,” Stecker said. “What I’m about to tell you stays in this room. You tell anyone else, and it’s your ass. Our surveillance equipment went down just before 3am and didn’t come back up until almost 0320. We don’t know what happened. We need you to fill in the blanks.”
Stecker’s admission confirmed Justin’s concerns. The tech at the mine was definitely glitching. One person had died as a result of it, and it had landed Justin in the medbay as well.
So far, Gerhardt hadn’t said anything. He just stood there with his arms folded, staring lasers at Justin.
“Look, son,” Stecker said. “I don’t want Director Gerhardt to have his way, here. He wants to terminate your employment right now and ship you back to whatever POS world you came from. He thinks you had something to do with our security breach, but I’m inclined to believe you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Justin hesitated, and the corners of Stecker’s mouth turned up in a grin.
“I didn’t take you for the expert hacker-type.” Stecker smiled. “No offense.”
Justin swallowed. It stung his raw throat. He rasped, “I’m not.”
“Good. Now we’re making some progress. How about you start from the beginning and explain how you ended up in a sealed-off sector in a sealed-off mine guarded by armed sentry bots?” Stecker asked.
Justin nodded. Stecker had been nothing but good to him thus far. And telling the truth might help clear Justin’s name from all of this. He didn’t want to lose his job. He started with seeing the green light the night before, and despite Keontae’s urgings to the contrary, Justin ended with seeing the glowing green man before he lost consciousness.
By the time Justin finished, Stecker just stood there, squinting at him with his brow furrowed, and Gerhardt stared at him with a do-you-really-think-I’m-that-stupid expression.
“So let me get this straight,” Gerhardt said. “You just walked right into the sector, through multiple sets of virtually impenetrable doors and past our sentry robots. And then, suddenly, the doors shut, warning lights flared, phichaloride gas started filling the sector, and you were rescued because a glowing green man opened the door just in time?”
Justin sighed. “I know how it sounds, but that’s what happened.”
“It’s a load of bullshit. That’s what it is.” Gerhardt leaned forward and grabbed the rails on either side of Justin’s bed. His bearded face drew within inches of Justin’s. “You’re either going to tell us what really happened, or I’ll make sure you never work in another copalion mine in this galaxy.”
Justin tried to recoil, but there was nowhere to go. He locked his eyes on Gerhardt’s and scowled. “I’m telling the truth.”
“How did you bypass our security?” Gerhardt snapped.
“I didn’t.”
“How did you disable the doors?”
“I didn’t.”
“The sentry bots. How’d you shut them down?”
“I didn’t do any of those things!” Justin shouted in Gerhardt’s face, and it burned his lungs. He gathered himself, took a slow, ragged breath, and said, “I saw a light, and I followed it. The doors were open. The bots were off. I was just following the light.”
Gerhardt shook his head. “I don’t buy it.”
“I don’t care if you buy it or not,” Justin countered. “It’s the truth. Glitches have been happening all over this mine since I got here. More glitc
hes happened that night, and I managed to get into the mine because of them, not because of anything I did.”
Gerhardt didn’t budge. “And then a little green man just happened to set you free. We gave up the search for intelligent alien life centuries ago. Little green men don’t exist.”
“He wasn’t like an alien. He was more like a—” Justin’s words caught in his throat. His mind jammed up with the reality of what he was about to say. Did he believe what Connie had told him a few days ago? He said quietly, “—a ghost.”
Gerhardt straightened up and gave a condescending laughed, shaking his head. “Because that’s so much more plausible. Are you kidding me?”
“That’s what he looked like, okay?” Justin yelled. “You asked me to tell you what happened. I told you. Why don’t the both of you just get the hell out of here?”
Gerhardt grabbed a fistful of Justin’s medbay gown and jerked him forward. The jolt racked Justin’s muscles with fresh pain. “You don’t get to tell me what to do, you little bastard.”
Stecker wedged his way between them. “Easy, boss. Kid’s worn out. We got enough for today.”
“If I so much as smell you in the vicinity of that sector again, I’ll have your job before you can even spritz yourself with deodorant.”
Justin’s eyes narrowed. Gerhardt’s analogy barely made sense, but Justin understood nonetheless. “I have no intention of going back in there.”
“You’d better not. I’ll lock you up for trespassing and extradite you back to the Coalition planets to face charges. That’s not to mention the civil suit ACM would level against you.”
Stecker stepped between them again and grabbed Gerhardt’s triceps with his hand. “He gets the point. Get some rest, kid. We’ll come back if we have any more questions.”
“And not a word of this to anyone. You didn’t see any damned ghost, and you sure as hell had better not see anything else.” Gerhardt yanked free of Stecker’s grip and stormed out of the examination room without looking back at Justin.
“Take it easy, kid.” Stecker gave Justin a nod then followed Gerhardt out of Justin’s medbay room.