by Scott Rhine
Daisy paused as if she wanted to say more. Instead, she turned to the guard. “Get this visitor out of our sight.” People in intelligence services didn’t wear their ranks on their sleeves, but the guard obeyed her orders.
Reuben allowed himself to be escorted out of the hospital, even though he could have knocked the guard out with a sleeper hold. On the elevator ride, he ran over her words, searching for hidden clues.
****
While the newlyweds were wined and dined, Reuben spent his day removing damaged engines and support columns, leaving several holes in the precise array. He could move engines from elsewhere to minimize the gaps, but sometimes attach points were unavailable. Luckily, the Magi provisioned ships with twice the number of engines they needed to achieve jump. Because the sphere didn’t work well with imbalance, Roz agreed to sell the engines opposite the missing ones. The Llewellyns couldn’t take sides in the conflict, but they paid a premium to purchase the used Icarus generators from Deep 6. The proceeds could be used to repair struts and buy fuel at the next couple stops.
Since they couldn’t use interstellar banks, Kesh converted the excess credits into commodities that needed transportation anyway. He purchased vaccines, spray-on skin, and perishable drugs for longevity treatments. “Our ship’s advantage is speedy delivery in the ten-parsec range. For shorter hops with goods that can last, we have twice the fuel costs of a regular ship.”
The team brought Menelaus out of stasis to move the cargo.
Kesh tried to lease a shuttlecraft until the Convocation, but that was out of the question. Llewellyn family technology in the hands of suspected pirates would lead to all sorts of rumors.
Reuben spent hours in the silence of space, brooding over his dilemma. The longer he pondered, the more he felt Daisy might have been sympathetic to his plight. She wanted him to lower the number of patients burdening the ward. If he demonstrated his willingness to help and maturity, the family might let him visit with Ivy.
He would need to remove several good engines over the next few days to achieve balance, but first he would find a patient to help.
By the end of his long shift, lights were blinking out aboard the station as night fell in the artificial environment. The hospital would have minimal staff. All he would need to do to sneak in was fog the cameras in two places. In the airlock changing room, Reuben borrowed Max’s dart pistol, just in case someone interfered. He stuffed a few spare tranquilizer clips into his jacket pockets for good measure.
The only question was which patient to help. The obvious choice was the great grandmother.
Reuben forged a photo-only ID badge for a night-shift technician. Then he put the ship’s nanofabricator to work reproducing a lab coat bearing the hospital logo. During the four hours his disguise took to generate, he caught a nap. He would infiltrate at two in the morning, when they least expected.
****
Reuben crept through the brain-trauma ward, peeking in each room. Finding great grandma was harder than it sounded. On the third room, his entrance woke the middle-aged ewe in the guest chair. “Go back to sleep, ma’am. I’m just here to check the monitors.”
The ewe had curly hair with graying tips and pearls around her neck. “You were here earlier with that other doctor. She wanted you to help us.”
“Yes.” He tightened connections on the electroencephalogram and fiddled with a knob.
“Could you?”
Reuben took a deep breath. “Maybe. My methods are … unconventional, but I do have a degree from Anodyne.” He implied that it was in medicine, the specialty of the institution, and not computer science.
The ewe grabbed his lab coat. “We’re willing to try anything. We’re wealthy. Anything you need—”
He held up a hand. Her plea had changed everything. He couldn’t turn her away now. “Stop. I probably have more credits than you. This is about responsibility to my people.”
She wrinkled her forehead. “I’m Majoram. This is my niece, Blythe Gentle. Who are you?” The name Gentle meant she was a Dolittle, a deeper form of the CU talent that enabled communion with other mammals, even those not considered sentient.
Reuben sighed. “Nobody yet. You can call me Reuben. Before we begin, I have two rules. Don’t tell anyone what you see, and you need to trust me completely.” He could sense her fear fighting with her desperation, so he passed her the dart gun. “If you feel I’m threatening either of you, shoot me with a tranquilizer. Now, do you agree to my terms?”
Majoram seemed emboldened by the weapon. “Certainly. You’re going to start treating her tonight?”
“First I’ll see if Blythe’s a good candidate. She’s what, about eighteen?” The aunt nodded. The girl in the hospital gown in the bed had a pleasant, tawny color but probably only weighed forty kilograms. He concentrated on her smooth-faced innocence, which lacked her aunt’s faint mustache and sideburns. He couldn’t register conscious activity through the Collective Unconscious. “How long has she been in this coma?”
“Fourteen months. She was a snow-boarding instructor at our family resort and loves animals. The scarcity of her gift among our people was the only reason Laurelin took an interest.”
“What happened?”
“Last spring, she was rushing to help deliver a foal, so she took a shortcut. The ice on the pond was too thin to hold her. Because of the excitement at the barn, no one found her for a long time. The cold of the water helped preserve her, but the oxygen starvation … The doctor said even if Blythe wakes, she might never speak again due to the brain damage.”
Not if I can raise her IQ thirty points. “Nonsense. She just needs to reestablish a few neural paths. Her software is a little damaged. I think we could reboot her and get her running right.”
“Pardon?”
“My mother was an empath. If I can find your niece, I may be able to lead her out of the dark area.” Reuben shrugged off his jacket and lab coat. “To do that, you need to tell me stories about her while I hold her.”
“Who are you, really?”
“My father was Black Ram Diogenes.” Majoram gasped. “Don’t worry. Blythe’s virtue is safe. I’ve never been with a ewe, and I don’t intend to start tonight. Nothing will happen below the waist. However, skin contact is essential for success with my gift.”
He removed his shirt, gaining a look of admiration from the older ewe. Removing the stack of pillows, Reuben propped Blythe up and slid into bed behind her. Through the opening in the gown, her back touched his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
“Your aura is expanding to cover hers.”
“Shh. Tell me about her. Every detail.” He breathed in her scent as the aunt recounted the girl’s life at the ski lodge on Shangri-La. She loved butterflies and swimming in alpine lakes.
Reuben felt a tingle in his navel and spread the gown a little further apart. Her skin was flawless and her chest just beginning to develop. She had never known a man. She was tender, gentle, and vibrant. The doctors kept her athlete’s muscles stimulated electrically, but she continued to lose weight.
Majoram said, “I rocked her to sleep as a child when she had a fever. Wait. Her aura is changing colors, brightening.”
He closed his eyes. “She remembers. Sing us the song.”
Majoram did so in Mnamnabonian, in a pure alto he imagined his own mother might have used.
Suddenly, a night nurse came into the room. “What is the meaning of this?”
Instead of answering, Majoram shot the nurse twice with darts.
“Lock the door. Keep singing,” Reuben ordered. He could feel the girl slipping away and focused all his will and desire on her.
The aunt sang. Soon men were shouting questions at the door’s window.
Blythe groaned. Majoram sang louder.
Reuben slipped his hand under the front of her gown. The nipples were erect. Her breathing quickened. The EEG went wild.
Guards pounded on the door.
The girl began t
o struggle weakly, but he held her tightly, his forehead against the back of her skull. Reuben whispered, “Take from me what you need. I give it freely. Drink from that which we all share, child.”
“Stay back,” Majoram yelled. “He’s helping her.”
The door handle clicked and then burst open.
Reuben placed a hand on Blythe’s forehead. For Ivy.
Blythe asked, “Where am I?”
Reuben released the girl, and two stun bolts struck him a moment later.
Chapter 14 – Sleeping Beauty Aftermath
When Reuben woke in the hospital bed, he had no trace of the usual headache. Although, he did have the feverish, muzzy sensation indicating his own intellect was on loan. I guess ewes are painless. Who knew?
Wary guards stood at the door while Majoram stood toe-to-toe with Posy. “I authorized the treatment. You had no right interfering. You might have ruined everything.”
“He could have damaged her permanently.”
“More permanently than a vegetative state?” Majoram shouted.
A pretty, female Goat volunteer sat in Majoram’s former chair and asked Reuben, “How are you feeling?”
“Fine. Boosting someone always takes something out of me for a couple days.” He blinked. The woman in the uniform was Blythe. Damn. “Maybe you should get a detailed scan. See how well we’re repairing the damage.”
“I tried to leave the room, but being by your side feels like the sunshine.” Blythe smiled and clasped his hand.
Reuben felt a stirring in his groin. I’m a baaad man. “I can stay near you for a day or so until you have your confidence back, but one treatment should be all you need for a jump-start.”
“You!” Posy accused. “I told you to stay out of my ward.”
“No. You told me you had too many patients to talk to me. Your sister hinted that I should use my talents to lighten your load. So I did.”
Posy gaped open-mouthed for a moment.
Majoram knelt. “He’s a healer saint.”
Blythe bowed her head.
Embarrassed, Reuben put his shirt and suit jacket back on. The ammunition had been confiscated from his pocket.
Posy’s left eye twitched. “He’s a low-life, pornographic beast!”
Angry, Majoram rose. “We’ll be leaving your hospital then.”
“No. Blythe’s condition has to be studied. We could learn so much from her recovery,” Posy begged.
“Clearly, you have some species-discrimination issues.”
“I like Goats in general, just not that disgusting deviant.”
“This is one of the most decent men I’ve met. He’s well-groomed, educated, and chaste. I’m going to tell everyone how you’re treating the best Black Ram in a century.”
Reuben waved his hands. “No. That was one of my conditions. You can’t spread this around. Every time I boost a woman, I go through days of pain. Plus, I don’t have the official title.”
“Such modesty. This fine young man stays with my niece, or she leaves.”
As Posy struggled to refrain from profanity, Reuben turned to the guard. “Tell her sister Daisy I may be able to bring her great-grandmother back to coherency for a while. She knows what I want in return.”
Posy asked, “You can do that?”
“I’ll wake her just like Sleeping Beauty, sweetheart. A big, fat kiss.” In English, he leaned in and whispered, “It goes faster with tongue. I’ll bet granny slips me some back.”
The guards had to pry Posy’s fingers off his throat. “Monster!” Security carried her out.
Reuben pushed Blythe’s wheelchair to radiology for an exam. The hospital administrator came down in person to apologize for the assaults, offering luxury hotel accommodations. Reuben refused until they threw in meals. This was going to cost them.
Majoram made idle chitchat during the wait for a technician. Reuben revealed that he would be going home to Shangri-La next. Holding Blythe’s hand during the first scan, he shared some of his own childhood stories about the planet. When Majoram hinted about hitching a ride on his ship, he deferred. “Kesh is responsible for all that. I don’t know the weight allowance we have left.”
After a series of scans, Aunt Majoram asked, “Why does that nurse hate you?”
“I dated her sister, Ivy.”
“I see. Did you save this Ivy’s life, too?”
“I helped. My mentor, Max, did the surgery. Now that Ivy’s here, no one will let me see her.”
Daisy appeared at the door to the scanner room. “No information may be released on any matters of Laurelin security.”
“I just want to say good-bye. Maybe a kiss.”
“I have a counteroffer,” Daisy said crisply. “Having spoken to MI-23, I’m willing to accompany you to the Convocation as your bodyguard. I’d buy Ivy’s share of the partnership and take on her duties for that period.”
Reuben stared at her. Maybe she would let something slip when her sisters and employers couldn’t hear. “If you bought the shares from Ivy, then you’re saying she’s still alive?”
“Not necessarily. I could have purchased the rights from her heirs.”
No. She would be in agony for weeks if her linked triplet died. As long as Daisy could smile, Ivy was on the mend. “Why the sudden change of heart? What’s the catch?”
“The head of Posy’s department wants to film your boost procedure.”
“Sure,” Reuben replied. “You should also invite aura specialists to observe. Not everything will show up on the scans.”
“And we want you to try your trick on one other patient first to make sure it doesn’t cause synaptic damage.”
“Who’s the lucky woman?”
“An amnesia case.”
“An agent?” he asked.
Daisy’s eyes flicked to the civilian listening. “Not relevant.”
“After I see Blythe through her tests, I’m scheduled to remove engines from Deep 6 for a couple days.”
“Shiraz Ellison and our robots can handle that fine without you.”
He envisioned unbolting an Icarus engine, unplugging the power, and watching station robots carry the hardware away like ants harvesting a grain of wheat. Roz would need time to retune the system and change their outlaw drive signature. Reuben decided stalling might provide more opportunity to get what he wanted from the Llewellyns, as well as cost the hospital more in room service. “I need to recover for a couple days in between.”
“Understandable.”
“Deal,” Reuben said, shaking her hand. Her aura was similar to Ivy’s in the way the first buds of spring resembled the leaves of summer. Daisy felt cautious and reserved.
When the triplet left and Blythe was in the bathroom, Majoram said, “You loved her sister.”
Reuben sighed. “It doesn’t matter.”
She patted his back. “Sweetie, love always matters.”
****
Late that night, he stumbled into his penthouse hotel room, exhausted and just a little horny from spending the day with a young woman who idolized him. He had helped her during physical therapy and caught her when she stumbled. He had been so helpful that the hospital granted him a real access badge.
Having been gone from home for so long, Reuben ordered everything on the room-service menu. He received a slow parade of hot plates covered with metal lids.
While he waited for the silverware, dessert tray, and the enormous bill, he opened a bottle of scotch from the bar. Over the living-room media player, he fired up the latest pop album by his favorite Anodyne band and sang along. Two glasses and an air-guitar solo later, he heard the knock. Unlatching the door, Reuben said, “Put it all in the middle of the floor, and open them up.”
Fiona from the embassy leaned against his doorframe in an all-black clubbing outfit. It was tight and left just enough to the imagination. “Rather forward, don’t you think?” She sashayed over to sit on the sofa and crossed her nubile legs. “But whatever you say.”
Aroused
from watching her move, he closed the door. “Wh-what brings you here, Miss Fidelos?”
“Call me Fifi. It’s quick and easy, like me.”
He was losing IQ points by the second, and he didn’t have many to spare. His mind wanted to remain faithful to Ivy. What if this was a test? The timing was too convenient. “Who sent you?”
“MI-23 heard you’re still a virgin.”
Reuben wasn’t going to split hairs. As far as his talent was concerned, only contact with a member of his own species mattered. He slammed his glass down on the end table and stood behind the sofa. “Majoram has a big mouth.” Actually, anyone in the hospital room might have known.
“So it’s true!”
“None of your business.”
“You need to be activated,” she said, slipping off her shoes.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her legs. “If I refuse, I can’t be chosen as Black Ram. I’m safe from their interference.”
“Why refuse?” the receptionist said, walking around the leather furniture to face him. She traced her finger down his chest, undoing buttons. “You need to practice your talent, and we need to find out your level.” The scale for the ram ability was measured in powers of ten. A typical six could mesh with every Goat on a continent. An eight like Xerxes could tap the Collective unconscious of an entire planet and its moons. No ram under a three ranking would be considered worthy of elevation.
He pushed her hand away. “I don’t want my first time to be with a stranger.”
Fifi said in a sultry tone, “Touching the species collective for the first time is a rush.”
Once he did this with a ewe, he might not want to give up the experience. His level could be measured by the time he spent in a fugue state afterward, joined with the racial consciousness. On returning to normal, he would feel like a shadow of himself, incomplete and fumbling. “After plugging into the full matrix, Black Rams sometimes kill themselves due to withdrawal.”
Fifi turned around to snug her behind against him. “With only a few Mnamnabonians around, the group link won’t be as powerful. It’s safer here than anywhere else on your route.”
“Good point. I …” Reuben shook his head to clear it. “No! I don’t want to do this, and nothing you say can convince me.”