The Outback Stars

by Sandra McDonald

  “Jodenny,” he said, as if trying the name out for size. “Kay. Where did you get the name Kay from, anyway?”

  “Jodenny Katherine Scott. Katherine comes from my mother.”

  “Is she still alive?” Myell asked.

  “No. Both my parents died when I was an infant.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She had never known them. Had never had anyone like that to love and lose. But his mother had killed herself when he was just a child, and his father had drank himself to death afterward.

  “We’re going to get out of here,” she told Myell. “There’s not going to be any death today.”

  “I know,” he said, but there was little conviction to his voice. She checked her watch. An hour had passed since he’d started opening crates. If the bridge hadn’t noticed by now, they might not notice at all. How long did it take radiation sickness to kick in?

  “Terry, I never thanked you for being on my side from day one.”

  “All part of the job, ma’am.” He reached out and patted her gloved hand clumsily.

  Her eyelids grated like sandpaper. She needed rest in a desperate way, but feared running out of oxygen while asleep.

  “Hear that?” Myell asked drowsily some time later. “Drums.”

  She heard nothing. “Talk to me. What was it like, growing up on Baiame?”

  “Like hell,” he said. “Can’t you hear them? I’m not delirious, I swear it.”

  The hatch opened, spilling light into the module. Help had finally come.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  The first rad tech who saw Jodenny yelped in alarm. “Jesus! What the hell—”

  “I’m Lieutenant Scott,” she said. “This is Sergeant Myell. We were trapped and left to die here by Commander Osherman, Lieutenant Quenger, and Chief Chiba. Notify Security and the officer of the day. The source of the radiation leak is some opened crates on level thirty-eight. And there’s a dead body up in the observation module.” Jodenny powered past the techs with Myell in tow. “We’ll be in the access ring.”

  Gravity pulled her to her knees the minute she tried to step past the hatch. Myell wasn’t much stronger but they managed to sit upright and started stripping off their helmets and EV suits. They slumped to the deck when they were done.

  “You would think they’d put sofas out here.” Myell rubbed the sides of his head with both fists. His hair stuck up in spikes, and he smelled as rank as she did.

  “How do you feel?” she asked him.

  “Happy to be alive. You?”

  “Happy,” she agreed.

  They were alone, the rad techs still in the tower, no one else yet arrived. The loss of heat from the suit made Jodenny cold all over. Myell must have been cold too, but instead of looking for a blanket he leaned in close. His eyes were dark and wide.

  “Kay,” he said.

  She would have replied but his mouth was on hers now in a clumsy, fumbling kiss, and though his lips were cold they were also soft, and faintly salty, and for about ten blessed seconds she forgot about everything. So many weeks of waiting. So much longing, pent-up, on both their parts. She hadn’t known how hungry she’d been for him. Myell was a strong kisser, not shy at all, but when she tried to pull him down to the deck he groaned and broke away.

  “Not in public,” he said.

  “I’ll resign,” she said.

  “No.” Myell brushed her hair back from her face and let his hand fall away as two medics from Emergency Services appeared. Within moments the medics were scanning them for radiation exposure.

  “Christ,” one said, which didn’t sound encouraging at all.

  “We’ve got to get you both to Decon, Lieutenant,” the other medic said.

  Jodenny replied, “Not until the OOD shows up. You could go, Sergeant.”

  “No thanks, Lieutenant. I’ll wait with you.”

  The Officer of the Day was Lieutenant Hasonovic from Drive. By the time he arrived, Jodenny and Myell were sitting on the medical litters with thermal blankets around their shoulders. Myell’s face had started to turn red and Jodenny felt so tired she could barely stay awake, but they’d both taken their first doses of radvax.

  “Record my statement on your gib.” Jodenny waited for Hasonovic to turn it on. “Sergeant Myell and I were inspecting the DCS when we were assaulted by Commander Osherman, Lieutenant Quenger, and Sergeant Chiba. We discovered the corpse of Commander Matsuda in the observation module and with no other way of establishing a link to the Aral Sea, triggered a radiation leak to alert the bridge of our presence.”

  Jodenny paused. “Anything else, Sergeant?”

  Myell blinked owlishly. “That sounds like everything.”

  “Okay. End of statement.” Jodenny turned to the ES techs. “We’re ready to go.”

  “Wait!” Hasonovic followed them down the passage. “Did you say corpse?”

  The nearest decontamination station was at the civilian hospital in T11. Jodenny lost track of Myell there, although she was sure he wasn’t far. A female nurse with blunt black hair helped her shower and dress in Sick Berth pajamas. A second dose of radvax followed, and then she was put to bed in a small room. The doctor who came to talk to her was a tall, gangly woman with a wide face.

  “I’m Dr. Genslar, and you’re extraordinarily lucky.” She ran a fast-tissue repairer over Jodenny’s cheek, which was covered with a large bruise from hitting the deck when she was mazered. “Without those radvaxes, you’d be vomiting up your intestines right about now.”

  “That’s nice.” Jodenny closed her eyes. “How’s Sergeant Myell?”

  “He’ll live a fine, productive life.” Dr. Genslar studied her gib. “You’ve got visitors out there, but I told them to come back in about eight hours.”

  Jodenny closed her eyes. “Make it ten.”

  Sometime later a nurse woke her up for a third dose of radvax. Still half asleep, Jodenny inspected the pillow to see if any of her hair had fallen out. She probed her teeth with her tongue. None seemed loose. Maybe it was too soon, or maybe it wouldn’t happen at all. She went back to sleep and dreamed of floating in the darkness, listening to Myell over the comm as he said he was opening up more smartcrates. When she woke the next time, voices were arguing nearby.

  “How long is she going to be out?” Al-Banna asked.

  Dr. Genslar answered, “As long as it takes, Commander. Those two took in mighty high doses. Any further exposure and those radvaxes wouldn’t have done shit.”

  The voices retreated.

  Although sleep was still an inviting option, Jodenny forced herself to focus on the medical equipment around her. She disengaged the dermal packs delivering saline to her body. The head was a few inviting feet away, and she considered it a good sign when the room stayed steady while she used it. The deck was cold beneath her feet, but she found a robe hanging in the closet and wrapped it over her pajamas before going in search of Myell.

  A few meters past her room there was a nurse’s station. The nurse on duty had her back to Jodenny as she answered a ping. Jodenny shuffled to the next room, which was empty, and to the one after that, in which Myell lay sleeping. She touched his face, kissed him to make sure he was still breathing, and returned to her own bed in hopes of catching a few more hours of rest.

  The next time she woke, she had a headache but was definitely in the mood for breakfast. Dr. Genslar came before the food did and asked, “Ready to return to full duty?”

  “Not really.”

  “Good. You’re not Superwoman. You’re going to be dragging your feet for the next few days.”

  “Am I released?”

  Dr. Genslar consulted her gib. “If you can eat and keep it down, I’ll consider it. Do you have your story straight?”

  “Which story?”

  “The story about how you and that handsome sergeant wound up in the tower together. I’ve heard a few theories already, none of them flattering.”

  Jodenny’s cheeks heated up. “I told the OOD what happen
ed.”

  “And you’ve got burns on your skin that look like mazer marks,” Dr. Genslar said agreeably. “Doesn’t stop people from gossiping anyway. So who do you want to talk to first? The list keeps growing. Commander Larrean, Commander Al-Banna, Commander Picariello, Lieutenant Commander Vu, Chaplain Mow, Dr. Ng—”

  “Sergeant Myell.”

  Myell shuffled in while she was eating breakfast, and from the slightly wary look on his face she guessed Genslar had mentioned the gossip to him, too. Or perhaps in the unforgiving hospital light he saw the obstacles in front of them more clearly. Maybe the ordeal in the tower had driven him to a place he hadn’t intended to go, and here was where he corrected his path.

  “Hi,” she said, her throat dry.

  “Hi.” He came closer to the bed but didn’t reach for her hand. “You look better.”

  Jodenny studied his eyes. “So do you.”

  “You look—” Myell glanced around. “Gorgeous in those pajamas.”

  Jodenny couldn’t help but smile. Myell pushed aside her breakfast tray and kissed her. She felt the tiny shock again, the thrill of the forbidden mixed with his solid, undeniable presence. His hair was scruffy between her fingers, his hands firm on her shoulders.

  When they broke apart, Myell sat on the edge of Jodenny’s bed and said, “Dr. Genslar says people are talking about our romantic tryst gone wrong.”

  “People are idiots.”

  “I think we should deny everything.”

  “Me, too.” Jodenny squeezed his hand. “But whatever you hear, whatever the next few days bring, remember that we have a date. Minutiae.”

  “Cairo Delight,” he said. “What about your career?”

  She didn’t have an answer for that. It seemed foolish to risk everything she had and everything she’d worked for just for the sake of romance. Yet for the first time in her career she understood why people did, in fact, break the rules that kept them apart.

  “One day at a time,” she said. “Can you forward the data you recorded on your server to Security so they’ll have the proof that Chiba and Quenger attacked us?”

  “I already did.”

  He leaned forward for another kiss but a nurse appeared at the door and said, “Lieutenant Commander Vu’s here to see you, Lieutenant. You ready for visitors?”

  Myell mouthed, “No.”

  Jodenny squeezed his hand again. “Yes. Send her in.”

  “I’ll be back in my cold, lonely bed,” Myell said, and rose.

  “Wait.” Jodenny kissed him before he left. She intended to use that kiss—and the one before, and their first one on the deck of the access ring—to fortify herself for the trials to come. In fact, she intended to store up a warehouse full of those kisses for future emergencies.

  Vu came in, her face a tight mask of worry. She wrapped Jodenny in a hug and said, “You scared everyone half to death! Are you all right? You didn’t show up for quarters, and neither did Myell. You didn’t answer your pings … people were speculating. The message boards are going wild.”

  “I bet. What are the rumors now?”

  “You two somehow got trapped in T18 and discovered Matsuda’s body. Jesus, to think of him there all this time—I mean, I didn’t like him so much, but still. What happened?”

  Jodenny repeated what she’d told the duty officer. Vu didn’t look convinced.

  “And so you were down there, the two of you together, nothing else going on, and someone attacked you?”

  “I saw them. Osherman, Quenger, and Chiba.” And the minute she got her hands on Osherman, she was going to strip the skin from his body with a rusty knife. Then she’d really hurt him.

  “Jesus,” Vu said.

  Jodenny’s next visitor was Picariello. He did not hug her. He pinned her with his blue-and-brown gaze and said, “This is a mess.”

  She had combed her hair and moved to a chair. Dr. Genslar had been right—fatigue drained her energy all the way to her bones. “Did you get the data Sergeant Myell sent?”

  “We got it,” Picariello said. “Voices of the men who attacked you and maybe killed Commander Matsuda, though that’s a big question mark. Data analysis should confirm their identities. What happened after you were attacked?”

  “First tell me where Osherman, Ishikawa, Quenger, and Chiba are.”

  Picariello grimaced. “Ishikawa’s onboard, according to Core, but no one’s been able to physically locate her. The others left the ship on the first shuttle yesterday morning.”

  “They escaped? No one stopped them?”

  “Stopped them for what? When you and Myell missed morning quarters your ensign notified us, but no one suspected foul play.”

  Jodenny wanted to hit him. “How can you say that? You know Chiba’s animosity toward Myell. The minute we disappeared, you should have been questioning him.”

  “Don’t presume to tell me my job, Lieutenant,” he warned.

  That official tone was back, the one she so despised. She needed time to think. “I don’t feel so good—” she said, and staggered from the chair into the head. With the door half closed she stuck her finger down her throat. Breakfast blueberries stained the toilet bowl.

  “Do you need help?” Picariello asked from outside the door.

  “I think—” Jodenny interrupted the words to retch again. “Maybe.”

  Picariello left. When the nurse came to check on her Jodenny allowed herself to be put back to bed and asked for all her visitors to be turned away. When she was alone, she pinged Myell and updated him. She asked, “Did you happen to record the night when Osherman and Ishikawa told us they worked for the IG?”

  “You bet.”

  “Good. I’m going to get a lawyer down here to help us. Now might be a strategic time to throw up, faint, do something dramatic. Delay until we can figure out how to proceed.”

  “No problem at all,” he said.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  “Lieutenant! It’s nice to hear from you again.”

  “Thank you, Holland,” Jodenny said to the borrowed gib in her lap. “Can you get me Chaplain Mow?”

  Chaplain Mow was delighted that she was awake and worried when asked to name the best lawyer in the Legal Services office. A few minutes later Jodenny reached Lieutenant Commander Cheddie. Notoriety helped: he had seen the missing persons alert and agreed to drop what he was doing to come over to the hospital. He appeared fifteen minutes later, a thin man with freckles and a sad excuse for a mustache.

  He asked, “Am I going to be working with you or Sergeant Myell?”

  “Both of us.”

  “Then let’s start with your side of the story first.”

  Jodenny began with Myell’s accident and moved on to their inspection of the slots, the discovery of the master chip, Osherman and Ishikawa’s revelations, and most of the ordeal in T18. Cheddie made only occasional notes in his gib. When she told him about Myell’s recorded data, his eyes brightened considerably. She finished and waited for his response.

  “Why do you think you’re going to need legal counsel?” he asked.

  “Because Osherman said he was working for the Inspector General, but he participated in the attack on us. Ishikawa supposedly works for the IG too, and she even saved Myell’s life a few weeks ago, but no one can find her.” Jodenny fingered the edge of her bedsheet. “If they’re not who they said they were, I don’t want to be blamed for believing them. There are also too many rumors going on about me and Myell, and I want those stopped. And if anyone wants to make trouble out of the fact we opened those radioactive containers, it was my decision.”

  “I don’t think anyone will object to that,” Cheddie said. “What about Matsuda?”

  “What about him?”

  “Maybe you killed him.”

  “He’s been dead since before I checked onboard.”

  “Maybe Myell killed him.”

  “He had nothing to do with it!”

  “You only say that because you’re lovers.”

  J
odenny glared at him. “Sergeant Myell and I have not been involved in a sexual relationship.”

  “You were using the cargo holds for your romantic rendezvous. A lieutenant and her sergeant. People will eat it up.”

  “You can leave now,” Jodenny said.

  “I’m simply preparing you for what people are saying.” Cheddie made another note on his gib. “I have a friend who works in the forensics lab. Are you aware that Sergeant Myell’s fingerprints are on the identification card that Commander Matsuda was carrying?”

  “Of course they’re on it,” Jodenny said. “He pulled it out of Matsuda’s pocket when we were inspecting the corpse.”

  “You’re sure? I thought you were wearing EV suits.”

  “Have you ever seen the gloves on an EV suit? Too bulky for fine work. He took one glove off.” At least, she thought he had. He must have.

  “I’m just saying,” Cheddie said. “They want, they could make an argument that his prints are on it because he helped kill Matsuda. There might be some way to date them, but still, it could be tricky.”

  “As sure as I am sitting here, I’m telling you Myell had nothing to do with Matsuda’s death. If you can’t believe that, you shouldn’t defend us.”

  “Belief has nothing to do with defense, Lieutenant. I’ll go talk to him, see what he says.”

  “Do you really think we have anything to worry about?”

  “Right now? No. You’re the heroic victims of a vicious assault. You also discovered a murder victim and uncovered a smuggling ring. You didn’t report anything, but you believed Lieutenant Commander Osherman, who may or may not be an IG agent.”

  “How could he work for the IG and leave us to die?”

  “Maybe he intended to tip someone off to your location and wasn’t able to,” Cheddie said. “Maybe he did get the word out, but it was ignored or overlooked. Unfortunately, heroism aside, you’re also the bringer of bad news, which is going to work against you. Data should have caught the dingo problems, and Core is going to come under as much scrutiny as Supply. Some unhappy people will try to discredit you by alluding to your relationship with Sergeant Myell, your professional capabilities, and your conduct since you came onboard.”