by Ben Wolf
The only thing bothering Justin was that Carl Andridge himself had traveled across the galaxy to discuss this in person. Why not just schedule a video conference or have Bartholomew Morgan try to get something from Justin first? There had to be another reason why one of the galaxy’s richest men would travel to a dead planet like Ketarus-4 just for a conversation.
Still, corporate espionage made some semblance of sense. If it was as big of an issue as Carl intimated then perhaps it meant he really did have to be there.
“Well?” Carl nudged Justin’s leg with his fist. “Can you help us out?”
“All I can tell you is what I’ve already told security and HR.”
“I want to hear it straight from you, if you don’t mind.” Carl smiled again.
Justin hesitated, then he detailed everything he had observed, starting with initially seeing the teal light but ignoring it. He mentioned the androids’ strange behavior both in the kitchen and in his dorm room, and he progressed through his Sector 6 incident, then Keontae’s death—but he left out the part about taking the adrenalite pill just to be safe.
He progressed all the way through the Sector 13 incident that cost him his arm, including the ghost’s fleeting appearance. “And then I woke up here about an hour ago. Beyond that, I don’t know how else I can help you.”
“You did great. I have just one clarifying question, if I may.”
Justin shrugged. “Sure.”
Without looking toward Noby, Carl reached his hand back, and Noby set a handscreen in it.
Justin smirked. Smooth, just like in movies.
Carl tapped it to life and swiped, tapped, and swiped again. “Tell me, was this the man you saw?”
He flipped the handscreen around and showed it to Justin. An image of a man’s face filled the screen and rotated slowly. He recognized the ACM logo at the bottom and a numerical designation—a company employee designation for a mech operator, but no name. The man had dark hair, strong features, and a distinct scar running down the right side of his face.
Unquestionably, it was the ghost.
Justin nodded. “That’s him.”
“You’re certain? Beyond a shadow of a doubt?”
Justin nodded again. “That’s the guy I saw. I’d recognize him anywhere.”
“Great.” The screen went black, and Carl handed it back to Noby without looking again. “Well, Mr. Barclay, you’ve been incredibly helpful. I want to personally thank you for your service to our company and especially to your fellow workers. There’s no telling how many lives you saved thanks to your efforts in Sector 13 two days ago. You truly are a hero.”
A hero who got his best friend killed. Not really a hero at all. “Thanks.”
Carl nodded to Bartholomew Morgan, who stood and headed for the door. It whooshed open, and he tapped Gerhardt’s shoulder and whispered into his ear.
Carl refocused on Justin. “As I believe Ms. Dunham informed you, you are to be commended for your work on behalf of the company.”
Justin heard Carl’s words, but he watched Gerhardt, especially when Gerhardt turned and entered the room in Bartholomew Morgan’s place.
Carl extended his left hand toward Justin again, but not to shake it. Instead, he held something in his hand. “Thank you for all you’ve done, my friend.”
Justin looked away from Gerhardt and stared at the object. It was a potted plant. A Nebrandt plant. But not just any Nebrandt plant—this was one of Keontae’s Nebrandt plants. He recognized the pot, the stem, even the soil. It was one of the ones that hadn’t yet bloomed.
He took it from Carl with his left hand and examined it. “How did you…?
“I own the company, my friend. Opening your dormitory door was easy.” Carl smiled.
Then Gerhardt clamped a magnetic shackle to Justin’s left arm and connected it to the bedrail.
20
Justin bobbled the Nebrandt plant, and it fell out of his grasp. The pot shattered, and dirt scattered across the floor.
He stared down at the broken pot and then at the shackle around his wrist. “What the—”
Noby clamped another magnetic shackle onto Justin’s new prosthetic arm and connected it to the opposite bedrail.
Justin pulled at them both, but nothing happened. He glanced between Noby and Gerhardt. “What are you doing?”
Both Noby and Gerhardt stepped back, but Gerhardt smirked as he did.
Carl shook his head and sighed. “I’m sorry, Justin, but you gave us no choice.”
“What?” Justin gawked at him and strained against his shackles. The magnetic force coupling them to the bedrails strained his right shoulder, and he gave up quickly on that side. He kept pulling on the left side, though, until his strength gave out, and the magnets reset. He shouted, “What is this?”
Carl, Noby, and Gerhardt just stood there, watching him struggle.
“You’re too much of a liability.” Carl extracted a chrome tube from his inner coat pocket. A recorder of some sort? “And you just gave us everything we need to file both an insurance claim against the damages you’ve caused and to pursue legal recourse against you. I hate to say it, but you’re clearly deranged. Unhinged, even.”
Justin strained against the shackles again, but to no avail. “You lying bastard!”
“Even the most conservative court would find a way to send you to a sanitarium far away from this rock, perhaps for good.” Carl shook his head and chuckled. “Seeing ghosts? You might just be. Your reign of terror has come to an end, Mr. Barclay, or whoever you are. Enjoy your recovery period. When it ends, you’re getting shipped off-world for trial.”
“Are you kidding me?” Justin growled. “I told you the truth, and you do this to me?”
“You should’ve known better.” Carl shrugged. “And here I thought you were smart, too. Guess I was wrong.”
“You can’t do this. I’m not a spy. I’m just unlucky!”
“You’re either a spy, or you’re delusional. In either case, I have plenty of grounds to bring charges against you. So I encourage you to spill your secrets about how you breached our network well in advance of the trial. If you do, I may forgo pressing charges after all.”
“I didn’t do anything!” Justin glanced at Gerhardt. He’d find no help there. He tried Noby, but a man like Noby would never go against his boss, least of all for some no-name miner accused of espionage. He focused on Carl again. “I don’t know anything about networks or computers. I promise, I’m innocent!”
Carl grinned at him. “Even if you are, I don’t care.”
“Let me go, or I swear I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” Carl leaned in close again. “You have no power. No money. No connections. I have it all. I own 8.4 percent of the galaxy’s wealth, and you’re nothing but a Zhevalian mosquito buzzing around my head. An expensive mosquito, granted, but this is me swatting you.”
Justin glared at him.
Carl straightened up and smiled. “Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.”
“You won’t get away with this,” Justin said as Carl turned away.
Carl didn’t respond. He just walked out, and Noby followed him.
Gerhardt slung Justin a wink and a wave, and then he, too, turned and left.
The door slid shut, and Justin lay there, alone, unable to get up, and still processing what had just happened, but he couldn’t look past his rage.
He peered over the side of the bed and stared down at the remains of the Nebrandt plant on the floor. Despite the scattered dirt and the broken pot, the plant’s bud looked to be intact and still as colorful as ever.
If he could get down to it, perhaps he could salvage it, and it might still bloom. If he could get down to it.
But he couldn’t. No chance. Not while shackled to the bed, anyway.
“Dr. Handabi?” he called.
He got no response.
“Dr. Handabi?” he called again.
After Justin’s third shout, the door hissed open, but on
e of the medbay androids entered instead of Dr. Handabi. It headed over to his bedside and stopped, just staring at him.
“Where’s Dr. Handabi?” Justin asked.
“According to medbay protocol, Dr. Handabi is restricted from interacting with patients under formal investigation for infractions against the company, except in emergency situations. How may I assist you?”
Justin frowned. Bad poetry aside, it would’ve been nice to have an ally. But whatever. A stupid android could pick up a plant for him just as well. “I just need that plant on the floor cleaned up and put back into a cup or something along with the soil. I don’t want it to die.”
The android’s chrome face turned toward the Nebrandt plant. “According to medbay protocol, patients under formal investigation for infractions against the company are restricted from having any form of personal property in their possession.”
The android’s response confused Justin, because it immediately headed over to the closet in the corner of the room and opened it. When it pulled out a vacuum, Justin understood.
“No—don’t!” he shouted. “You can’t do that! It belonged to a friend of mine. It’s all I have left of him!”
“Regrettably, I must follow medbay protocols. This plant’s existence violates several of them, including that which I have already stated plus those protocols dictating the necessity for each examination room to maintain a sterile environment.”
The vacuum whirred to life, and the android approached the pile of dirt.
“No!” Justin yelled. “Leave it alone, you metal bastard!”
Despite Justin’s shouts, the android didn’t comply. It just stared at the edge of the spill and began sucking the dirt off the floor with the vacuum.
Justin kept shouting, begging. He strained against the magnetic shackles, but he only managed to pull them apart a few inches before they reset. His right shoulder burned from the strain.
“Please, don’t!” he pleaded. Tears streamed down his cheeks. He couldn’t fail Keontae again. “It’s all I have left of him!”
The android’s vacuum hit the main mass of the dirt from which the Nebrant plant itself protruded. Particles of black disappeared into the vacuum, and Justin could do nothing to stop it.
“Halt!”
The voice stalled the android, and it lifted the vacuum away from the dirt. It hadn’t gotten the Nebrandt plant.
Dr. Handabi stood in the doorway, scowling, and he pointed at the android. “Have you no compassion? Put the vacuum down, and leave us immediately.”
The android said, “Doctor, medbay protocol dictates that—”
“As head of this department, I am issuing a provisional override of your programming. Dr. Pradeep Handabi, ACM-1134 employee number 2874. Code 33317.”
The android immediately complied. It set the vacuum down on the floor and exited the room immediately.
“I am very sorry about that,” Dr. Handabi said to Justin. “As you were told, I cannot interact with you except in emergency situations, and that provisional order will expire momentarily. But as a doctor and as your friend, I could not bear your suffering when I could have so easily intervened.”
Justin sniffled and tried to wipe his tears away on his shoulders. It only partially worked. “Thank you.”
Dr. Handabi retrieved a Plastrex cup from a dispenser mounted next to the sink, scooped up most of the remainder of the dirt and the Nebrant plant, and dropped it into the cup. He positioned the plant so its bud appeared just above the rim of the cup. “Does it need any water?”
“Yes, absolutely. I haven’t tended to it for the last two days.” Justin huffed and shook his head. “Thank you.”
Dr. Handabi trickled a bit of water into the cup and then set it onto the counter next to the sink. “You are very welcome. But I am afraid that if I leave it here, the next android to come in will dispose of it, possibly while you are asleep. Would you like me to tend to it in my office instead? They will not touch it in there.”
Justin nodded. It was better than the alternative.
“Very well.” Dr. Handabi held the cup in his hand. “I am really sorry all this has happened to you, Mr. Barclay.”
“Justin.” He smiled. “Please, call me Justin. We’re friends, after all.”
Dr. Handabi’s lips curled to match Justin’s. Joy set his face aglow. “Yes. We are friends.”
They kept staring at each other until it got awkward for Justin. “You were saying?”
“Oh. Yes.” Dr. Handabi held up his index finger. “I am sorry you have endured all of this, and though I cannot formally speak with you anymore because of the company’s investigation, I assure you that all of my reports pertinent to your case will reflect the medical truth of your situation.”
Justin raised an eyebrow. “And that would be?”
“That you are innocent of any wrongdoing.”
Justin smiled. It wasn’t much, but against Carl Andridge, Justin would need all the help he could get. “Thanks, Doc.”
“Please, call me Pradeep. We are friends, are we not?”
“Yeah, of course. Will do.”
“I am afraid I must leave now. The android will come in and clean up the remainder of the dirt on the floor, but I will keep this secure for you.”
“I understand, Pradeep. Thank you again.”
Dr. Handabi nodded and headed out of the room.
The android returned and resumed its vacuuming, but Justin ignored it. Instead, he began to think about how he could escape from under the full weight of Carl Andridge and Andridge Copalion Mines.
He was innocent, and he’d find a way to make this right if it was the last thing he ever did.
Over the next twenty-four hours, as Dr. Handabi had promised, Justin’s new arm fully fused to his shoulder. Then the real pain began.
The androids moderated his medication rather than Dr. Handabi, but it only took the edge off. But Justin had experienced intense trauma. It was supposed to hurt.
He wished he wasn’t restrained to the bed. He wanted to test out his new arm, try to make sure it worked properly, but the magnetic shackles barely allowed him any range of motion. So far, he’d managed to make a fist and wiggle his fingers around, but not much more. Instead, he settled for the teasing sensation of rubbing the tips of his metal fingers together.
Late that night, Justin strained against the shackles on his right arm and grunted. Weren’t robotic limbs supposed to be a lot stronger than normal ones? He should be able to pull free of the magnetic shackles with no problems, shouldn’t he?
Instead, he only managed to separate them about the same as—if not less than—his fleshy left arm.
He gave up and leaned back in his bed. The digital clock in the room read 0000. Midnight. Maybe he should try to get some sleep.
He closed his eyes, but the whoosh of his door opened them again.
A solitary figure stood in the doorway, wreathed in shadows.
This late at night, the medbay was dark except for a few small lights on various units of machinery that glowed to indicate that they remained on. In Justin’s examination room, the overhead lights had darkened hours earlier, and the only light came from comparable machines and from the magnetic shackles whenever he tried to pull them apart.
As such, he couldn’t make out who had opened his door.
“Who’s there?” he whispered.
The figure didn’t answer.
He didn’t see white, glowing eyes, so that ruled out the medbay androids.
“Who’s there?” he asked again.
Still no response.
“I’m going to scream if you don’t answer.”
“Hold your tongue,” a feminine voice hissed. It came from the doorway, from the figure. Some sort of accent accompanied her words.
“Dr. Stielbard?” Justin ventured.
She stepped in, and the faint blue light from the machines in his room shined on her half-human face and glinted off the cyborg half. Rather than wearing her usual
white lab coat, she wore all black, making her nearly invisible in the low light.
She stood at the foot of his bed, and the door hissed shut behind her.
“What are you doing here?” he whispered.
At first, she didn’t answer. She just stood there, staring at him. It creeped Justin out.
“How does it feel?” she asked, her voice low.
Justin blinked in the darkness. “How does what feel?”
“To be incomplete. No longer whole.”
Fresh pain hit Justin’s shoulder. “Not good.”
“I have learned to accept this new way of life, but I do not enjoy being what I am,” she said. “What we are.”
“Cyborgs?”
She hesitated, then she nodded. “I despise that term. To me, it implies that I am less than human. That I am part slave, reliant upon this technology to survive.”
She paused, and Justin held his breath. He still had no idea why she was in there with him, at midnight, when he wasn’t allowed to have any visitors—especially any from the company. Did she just want to gripe about being a cyborg? And how had she gotten past the androids?
“But all humans rely upon technology to survive,” she continued. “It cleans our water. It preserves our food. It purifies our air. It ensures our safety. It provides us with shelter. And yes, it keeps us alive through medical prostheses. Technology is essential to mankind’s longevity in an infinite number of ways, yet people look down upon us because we are different. Because we are part-machine.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Do not apologize. You are one of us, now.”
“I mean, I’m sorry if I ever looked down on you before this happened.”
She tilted her head and drew nearer to him. “Please do not misunderstand me, Justin Barclay. It is not your pity that I seek.”
“Then what do you want?” Justin asked. “Why are you here?”
“I want what you want.”
“And what do you think I want?”
Dr. Stielbard leaned forward. “Justice.”