The Matsumoto Trilogy: Omnibus Edition

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  Ian’s father spoke in the same polished, charming tones as he had the only other time I had met him. He had traded his tux from that night into a white lab coat, but it didn’t make him any less of a predator.

  “Ambassador, I see you’re awake. Please let me welcome you.”

  “Overseer.” I tried to look calm, hoping that my tears hadn’t left any marks on my face. “What’s going on here? Are we on a space station?”

  His chuckle lifted goosebumps on my arms. “Of a sort.” He raised his eyebrows slightly, like he was daring me to do something.

  “A ship?” I said, speaking my worst fears out loud. A ship would be much harder for anyone to find.

  “Veritas III,” he said.

  That name didn’t appear on any space charts I’d studied, and it didn’t sound like somewhere that would be on Capricornia.

  “An orbital?” I ventured.

  Eads Mc Isaac smiled. I noted that his smile was exactly the same as his son’s and this one was easily interpreted as being pleased at my guess.

  “But nowhere near Capricornia,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

  “Of course not,” the Overseer said lightly. “I’m glad to see you are as intelligent as you were bred to be. We don’t accept inferior genetics here.”

  “I don’t particularly care what you accept or don’t accept,” I said. Genetics? What would that have to do with anything? I had to think…

  He smiled as serenely as a painted cupid.

  “Ms. Matsumoto, you have been raised to think your opinions matter, but today begins your disillusionment. You will quickly discover that your opinions do not matter. Your breeding makes no difference to your fate. Your education was a waste of time. Even the careful moral code you follow will not help you here.” He paused momentarily, “I have to admit I was surprised to discover some of your less published ethics. You certainly are a repressed clan, although that will play into our hands here on Veritas III.”

  I felt the blood draining out of my face. I was trying to think, but my thoughts were racing too quickly.

  “What are you talking about?” I stalled.

  “I thought the old sex before marriage taboo was a thing of the past, but not so for you Matsumotos, is it? That’s why your father was executed, correct? For being your father? How ironic.” His tone was still low and light. He reminded me of my Planetary Law Professor. It stood in stark contrast to the predatory light in his eyes.

  “Don’t talk to me about my father!” I demanded.

  “Or that lovely little decree against violence. Priceless. You really are defenseless in my hands,” he steepled his fingers beneath his chin like he was considering something, “Although I must admit that my favorite is that rule about obeying the Emperor. I’d like to make my family take that oath. It would make things so much easier.”

  “How does that have anything to do with why you’ve brought me here? You didn’t go to all this trouble just to discuss ethical practices.”

  “Of course not. I wouldn’t have brought you all the way out here for that. No, no. You are here, like I said, for your genetics. You see, Ms. Matsumoto, I am the Planetary Overseer of Capricornia and I do my job very, very well.” Here he became more sober.

  “When Capricornia was first founded it was founded by a group of scientists who were determined to build the perfect world. It was to be a world free of disease or genetic hiccups for both the humans that colonized it and the flora and fauna already here. We did a masterful job with the natural habitat. You’ve seen it, so you know that it really is gloriously beautiful. The whole world is like an eco-resort. I regret your stay on it was so short.” Here he looked sympathetic.

  “Our people were bred well, too. I’m sure you noticed how beautiful and accomplished they are. I’m very proud of our latest generation…they are nearly perfect. They have only one flaw. Unfortunately, it is the one flaw that really makes a difference and we caught it far too late. Every single person on our planet born after a certain date…everyone under the age of fifty-five… is functionally sterile. There is nothing else wrong with them, and there is nothing we can do about it. Our latest and greatest generation is, it would seem, our last. It’s done terrible things to morale, of course.”

  “I saw the scars in the land from burned buildings,” I said.

  “Yes,” he shook his head sadly, “Not everyone takes disillusionment well. When our people discovered that they would have no children or grandchildren to follow them, some of them took it very poorly. There were hideous crimes, killing rampages, small wars between gangs of rioters. Despair really brings out the worst in us all.”

  “Is that why they take such risks with their lives?”

  He smiled at me like a prize student, “Of course. Why worry about tomorrow, when there really is no tomorrow except to grow slowly older until you die. There are some, of course, who have chosen to live as if this doesn’t matter. They refuse to mention the dead and refuse to acknowledge the future.”

  “Your son.”

  “Yes,” his eyes held a deep sadness, “my son. Dear Ian tries to pretend that nothing is changed. He thinks we can still be normal planetary citizens. It’s such an unproductive thing to deny the truth. I know what is true. I have seen disillusionment and despair and come through to the other side. There is only one thing that an honest philosopher can do in the face of disillusionment. He must struggle to change what he sees. He must find some way to fix it.”

  His words echoed eerily in my head. They were almost exactly the same as Roman’s only days ago.

  “I am fixing my planet’s problem. And that brings us finally to why you are here. If I am going to produce children for my people I need healthy genetics – but not just any genetics. Your genetics have been tinkered with for generations. I’m sure you know that. As an added bonus they are royal. I have to admit that gave me a little thrill. The best of the best and all that.”

  “I haven’t seen any children on Capricornia,” I choked out.

  “No, you haven’t.” His tone was regretful. “It’s taken me a long time to get the support I needed for my project and the experiment has not been as…successful... as I hoped it would be. Not to worry, though Vera…I may call you that?... we won’t waste a single strand of your DNA.

  “We’ve already run a battery of tests on Denise and we’ve discovered that your amazing Matsumoto DNA is so strong that we may be able to synthesize some of what was done with it to actually cure the problem with our own people. I won’t bore you with the scientific details, but let me assure you it is a cure, Vera, not just a stop-gap.

  “It’s something none of us dared to dream was possible, although after combing the known galaxy I started to suspect that if a cure could be found anywhere it would be found in the Matsumotos. How lucky for me that I managed to get two of you. We’ve already used up all of Denise’s eggs in our testing, but then you came strolling onto my planet. Another Matsumoto female. It couldn’t be more perfect. I could have killed Martin Crovier for almost ruining it for us. At least Ian made himself useful and kept you alive. To think that a general’s son would reinterpret orders like that. Tsk. Tsk.”

  I gaped at him, only managing to shut my mouth and recollect myself after a long moment.

  “The Emperor will not be pleased when I get back to Blackwatch.” I guess I shared something in common with Ian. After all, most of me already knew I was never going back there.

  “I think you know how I would respond to that, Ms. Matsumoto. But I’ll indulge you. You won’t be leaving this facility…ever. And now I must leave. We have plenty to do to get ready for you. Please take good care of your health. If not for your own sake, then for your children. You know, there are people in Capricornia who don’t get to have children,” he said ironically. I didn’t see the humor.

  I rushed after him as he strode towards the door, grabbing his shoulder with one hand. The second I touched him he turned and flicked my arm with a whisker of plastic I hadn�
�t noticed. Whatever it was sent a jolt of electricity into my body and I collapsed to the floor jerking and writhing.

  “That was simply a warning, Vera,” Eads Mc Isaac said with a fatherly smile. “Please don’t touch me or any of the other scientists. We don’t want to have to sedate you more than absolutely necessary.”

  He turned to leave.

  “Wait!” I called between clenched teeth. He paused, his back still to me. I was struggling to get the words out, but I had to know. “Roman Aldrin…my guard.”

  “Oh he’s fine. He’s nothing without you and I’d hardly sink to want the genetics of a space-sucker anyhow. Our insertion team was silent. They spared both your guard and my foolish son and left silently with you. Another missing Matsumoto, such a shame. Your ship left our system four hours ago and he was on board.”

  And with that he left and I was alone.

  I sat on the cot, my knees pulled up to my chest and my arms wrapped around them, in a puddle of aqua satin. I gazed bleakly out at the empty window. Eads hadn’t said how quickly they could harvest what they needed from me or what they would do when they were done, but I was pretty sure I already knew. It looked like I had made one more person’s execution list. I had a real talent for that. I wondered what Roman would say about it. He usually had a smart comment or two up his sleeve.

  I also couldn’t help but wonder what Denise had done to pass the time. I was already going crazy with the long silences and fear of what was to come. It had been weeks since she went missing, and she’d probably spent the entire time either unconscious or in that glass-walled room. Waiting was not easy.

  Eight hours after my visit with Eads someone came with food. He walked in a slumped manner and looked like a technician. He wouldn’t speak a word to me, although one offhand motion at the guards following him made his warning clear enough. This was not an opportunity for escape. I sat obediently in one place and waited for them to leave before going to the collapsible tray. After all, even if I did escape, where would I go? I was on an orbital in the middle of space and my only allies were high tailing it out of the system.

  I slept fitfully that night, dreaming of Roman and Denise and Ian all rolled together. Eads turned out to be Nigel in disguise and I woke in a cold sweat when he shot Roman through the head with a flechette gun. Worry knotted my stomach. If Roman really was going back to New Greenland that could very well be what was waiting for him there. Nigel hadn’t promised him death if he failed, but the last few weeks had proved that he wasn’t exactly merciful when things didn’t go his way.

  THE EX-PACIFIST: 35

  THAT MORNING THEY STARTED TESTING me. A cadre of doctors and scientists paraded silently in and out of my room, always accompanied by black-coated guards and always silent in their duties except to ask me to roll up a sleeve to be stuck with a needle or stick out my tongue. Sometimes they would attach monitors to me or inject me with things that made my heart race and my mind fog over.I bided my time instead of fighting it. Eventually one of them would make a mistake that I could use to escape. I just had to be vigilant.

  When there was no one there testing me my mind wandered, drifting to what Eads had said and mulling over the problem his planet faced. I didn’t know how to solve it, but I knew that his way wasn’t the right way.

  The testing ended abruptly. I was still being fed regularly, but no one was drawing blood or sticking monitors to me anymore. It left me enough time to think and I thought a lot. At the end of another day I found myself pacing vigorously with a battle raging in my head.

  If Eads way wasn’t the right way, than what should he have done? What should any of us do when we’ve lost our entire world? Ian was in denial. Eads had become a devil. What other option was there? Maybe fixing it isn’t the answer, I thought to myself, none of this can be fixed. It has to be overcome. It didn’t make much sense, even to me, but it was somewhere to start.

  I paced myself to exhaustion and fell into a fitful steep.

  I awoke with a start, feeling fuzzy and uncertain. I blinked my eyes frantically, trying to clear the strange feeling in my head. What woke me up? I pulled myself up in the cot, running cold hands through my tangled hair and scrubbed my mouth with the back of my hand. I hadn’t seen a toothbrush in days and it was becoming obvious. If it was morning, then I had just four days left before the full power of Blackwatch descended on Capricornia. A toothbrush wouldn’t do anything about that. Tick tock.

  Search successful. Link acquired.

  My implant chirped at me in the exact same moment as the lights on the other side of the window flicked on and Eads Mc Isaac strode into my view accompanied by two armed guards dressed in black uniforms.

  “Ms. Matsumoto, I’m afraid our hospitality has come to an end.” He said it so kindly that I felt a surge of hope. They were setting me free!

  “Oh, now don’t look at me like that…or are you excited about your own death? I hadn’t expected you to turn suicidal so soon.”

  “Death?” I tried to keep my voice from shaking, like we were discussing the weather.

  “Certainly. We can’t have you wandering off with all of our secrets. It seems your guardian is part pit bull. He just won’t let this go. He’s returned with reinforcements, and of course it would be criminal to deny him. He’ll get what he wants…you. And then he and his posse,” he said the word with distain, “can trot on home. With you dead and the facility clear of any clues to what happened to you he can hardly stay.”

  “Roman!” I said and my mind called Roman!

  “The very one.”

  “Denise,” I said desperately, “Please.”

  “I’m sorry Vera, but while we’ll be able to take your eggs and retrieve the nanites we injected in you before we kill you, we’ll still need a live test subject... But not to worry. You won’t have to go back to your Emperor in disgrace. I’ll give you an honorable death right here and now.”

  The two guards with him were already beside me. I recognized them as the ones who had shadowed him on his first visit. One had a lantern shaped jaw and the other had a face as smooth and round as a baby’s. They held me down against the bed. I let out a shriek of frustration and despair, fighting against them.

  Hold on Vera, I’m coming! My eyes widened in shock. It was Roman! He had heard me! If our connection was back then he had to be really close. My heart sped with excitement.

  Roman! I yelled mentally, and it wasn’t a cry of fear or for help, it was sheer relief. He was ok. He was really still alive. I had never quite been able to believe Eads about that.

  “Stop fighting, Ambassador. It will do you no good.”

  “Killing me will start something that you don’t want, Overseer,” I said forcefully.

  “Oh, I hardly think so, Ms. Matsumoto. In fact, your cousin the Emperor will probably be glad that he doesn’t have to deal with this himself. I’m doing him a favour here. Now please, lie still. I’d like to do this as painlessly as possible.”

  “Painless? You’re taking my life!” I screamed, thrashing even harder.

  His face grew hard. “Fine, have it your way.” He turned to the nearest guard. “When you are finished take the last shuttle. Meet me on the ship.”

  His hurried step when he left told me that he was cutting it close. Come on Roman! I thought.

  The guards let go of me and for a moment I thought I was free, but then a slow smile spread over lantern-jaw’s face. The other simply looked sober, like he was doing a job and didn’t have to like it.

  I sprang away from them trying to escape, but lantern-jaw seized a handful of my hair and dashed me against the wall. My head hit and I saw stars, but I pulled myself up against the wall. I wasn’t going to give in so easily.

  I tried to make a break for it again, but a casual backhand from baby-face sent me sprawling. Lantern-jaw was looming over me as I tried to pull myself up again. His foot smacked down onto my hand and I felt the tiny bones in my fingers snap as they were caught between the floor and his foot. I
howled in agony, trying to pull my ruined hand in to the protection of my body.

  “Please!” Please I begged tears streaming down my face. This was worse than when I broke my ribs. My hand hurt so much. He eased up the pressure on my hand and I tried to snatch it back only to have him stomp again on it. I gave a choking wail.

  “Hurry it up, I’m getting nervous. We have to get her over to medical before we finish her,” baby-face said.

  “Too bad, I would have liked to take my time here,” lantern-jaw complained, letting up the pressure on my hand. I pulled it in to my chest, cradling it against me, sobbing and quivering on the frigid floor.

  It hurts so much, it hurts so much. My mind was flooded by the pain. I pulled myself up, thinking maybe I could fight them. It was a silly idea. One more casual backhand sent me sprawling again, this time my jaw ached bone deep. I gasped, my one good hand pulling up to my face to cradle my jaw.

  “Just grab her, ok? Overseer Mc Isaac won’t be coming for us if we get caught here.”

  The guard standing over me sighed and then I saw him moving so quick that I couldn’t even cringe in time. His first kick hit me right in the gut. I grunted – I had no air to scream with - but there wasn’t even time to move before the next one and the next. The pain was like a flood that filled every sense. I smelled blood and urine. A warm pool was spreading around me. It was horrible. I was dying. My last minutes were only pain and humiliation. And then it ended as quickly as it had begun. They must have remembered that they had to get me to medical alive. Eads wouldn’t be pleased if they had damaged what he needed.

  I was in too much pain to move, or even to look to see what they were doing. Blackness swirled around me, threatening to black out every thought. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. I was barely conscious.

  Vera, hold on.

  I couldn’t even think to answer. I felt a tear run down my face. I wanted so much to tell him how thankful I was that he was okay. I wanted so much to tell him that he shouldn’t risk himself, especially now that it was too late, but I couldn’t even think. I could only cry as my thoughts spun with my consciousness.