Endurance

by neetha Napew

  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 transmissions 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 p
leased. “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.

  “Yes, the OverCenturon’s report was most expansive,” the Hsktskt said as he tore the front of my runic open. “I will begin here, where the flesh is thinnest.”

  Helplessly I tried to beg, but there wasn’t any air left in my lungs to carry the sounds.

  Heat, burning into me. Pummeling hands ripping. Smoldering fabric tearing. No gloves on my hands. Black, charred tissue. White gleam of bone-

  SrrokVar etched something into my right breast, then forced an endotracheal tube into my throat when I wouldn’t breathe on my own. He took a moment to administer more stimulants, which prevented any hope of unconsciousness. The hand-laser’s beam trickled down my abdomen, melting through the layers of skin, branding a path from sternum to navel.

  Whatever pain receptors I had were so overloaded that they no longer functioned. Fear seized control and for a long period I was only aware of the stench and the soft puffs of breath from the Hsktskt’s partially open jaws.

  I realized dimly when it was over, when they took me from the table and stapled my limbs into some upright pylons just beyond the equipment. SrrokVar jabbered something, but I couldn’t make it out. I only roused briefly when I saw Gael and Wonlee dragged into the center chamber. I moaned something, tried to clear my head.

  SrrokVar removed the tube and waited until I breathed naturally before speaking. “HalaVar will be displeased, I fear, unless I gain your willing confession. Tell me what happened to the Aksellans, and I will release you.”

  “Drop... dead.”

  “Begin with the Terran.”

  He kept me awake and made me watch as he tortured my friend on the traction rig. Gael was tough, but even he couldn’t hold out against the merciless counterweights. In the end, he screamed and begged anyone to make it stop.

  “Well, Doctor?”

  Through Gael’s shouts of agony, I saw Wonlee staring at me, and the small shake of his head as they hooked him up to the grav-hoist.

  I couldn’t do this anymore. Noarr, forgive me. “Y-y-y-yes, I’ll tell you everything.”

  “Good.” He gestured to the guards to continue, then caught my incredulous gaze. “In the event you are considering deceiving me.”

  It was harder to hurt the Lieutenant. SrrokVar marveled over the flexibility of his infrastructures as the hoist and rings jerked and pulled at his limbs. Won never made a sound, even when the splintered end of one arm bone pushed out through his spiny flesh.

  “An amazing creature,” the Hsktskt said as the centurons hauled the two unconscious males from the chamber. “Now, give me the information I require.”

  Tears streamed down my face as I opened my mouth to explain what we’d done.

  “Lord SrrokVar.” A detachment of centurons surrounded me. “OverMaster HalaVar has directed we remove the Terran and place her in solitary confinement.”

  Despite SrrokVar’s protests, they took me from the crying chambers and through the main compound to the confinement area. I was lowered down into one of the pits, where I collapsed and stared at the hatch above me for hours.

  This particular pit was even wider and deeper than the last one, but lit from below with a soft, diffused glow. No handy escape tunnel hatch to be found this time, either. One of the guards lowered food and water twice a day to me, but I hoarded half of every nonperishable, just in case they decided to forget about me again. One of the water containers served as an awkward, though welcome, waste receptacle.

  Stimulants wear off eventually. In my case, it took three days. During the endless hours of forced wakefulness, I remained as still as I could and tried to rest. Tried to forget what I’d endured. And yet my eyes continued to return to the hatch, wondering when Reever or SrrokVar would send someone to take me back.

  On the third day I finally threw off the last of the drugs, and slept. Faceless voices whispering wordless wounds of comfort filled my dreams.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Arena Games

  I could have slept for a week, but judging from the number of ration caches dumped around me, it was more like two rotations. Hunger and a certain amount of nameless relief caused me to eat my way through three of them before remembering I was saving food. Reluctantly I put aside what wouldn’t spoil from the last cache and relieved my
pressing physical discomfort.

  “I could use a couple of blobs around here,” I muttered, and jumped when my voice echoed around me. Whoa. That hadn’t happened the last time I’d been in confinement. Though this pit was at least twice as deep, I decided, eyeing the distance to the hatch. Perhaps that explained the sound effects.

  As if answering my summons, one of the small fungi appeared, inching down the side of the pit.

  “Hi there.” The mold crawled over my leg. I reached over to stroke it-the satiny soft texture was irresistible-then opened the top of the waste container. “Hope you’re hungry.”

  Lok-Teel were always hungry. As if presented with a treat, the voracious fungus scurried over, enveloped the container and began absorbing the contents. For the first time I noticed it seemed to expand as it digested the waste products. When the slightly larger blob moved from the empty, sterilized container, and started toward my hoard of food, I yelped and grabbed the supplies to protect them.

  “Nope, sorry, this is mine.”

  Once more, it acted as if it understood me. For a moment it hesitated, then changed direction. The blob trundled over my leg and back up the wall. I watched it crawl up all the way to the top, then disappear out under the hatch.

  “What do you know? Smart mold.” I said it out loud, letting my head fall back against the quasi-quartz wall. It had to be intelligent, otherwise it would have crawled over me to get at the food. Interesting.

  A small sound pinged next to my ear, then another. Then a third. The trio of echoes sounded like words.

  “What?”

  “Know. It’s. Food.”

  I turned my face so that my ear was pressed against the cold surface. Not a sound. When I lifted my head, something vibrated between my cheek and the wall. “Hello?”

  Another series of pings. “Lo... can... hear?”

  I spoke without thinking. “Can you hear me?”

  The sound grew fainter. “Just... echo.”