by Scott Rhine
Taking great care, he measured out syringes full of everything he’d need for his revenge, based on current body weights. Cheerfully, he added a few other necessities. It was no different than packing for a holiday at the beach. He hid the ‘vacation’ bag in the luggage room.
As Mercy returned to camp, Toby was able to zoom in on her with the windows. Outside, Rachael stopped her. “Better check in with Auckland and take precautions.”
“You need to have topic sentences because I never know what you’re talking about,” Mercy replied, already irritated.
“Auckland found out that Sensei neutralized the time-released birth-control implants in our arms.”
Mercy had no such implant, but she understood the implication. “Given my choices, I’d rather sew myself shut.”
This made the dour Rachael laugh for the first time since Mercy joined the team. “How does his technique compare to Dr. Baa-tjies’?”
“Why all the sheep jokes?” asked Mercy.
“The guys tease Toby about his undergraduate paper on animal husbandry—genetically modified goats to be specific. He can’t tell us the specifics for security reasons, but I think he helped develop those goats that produce spider silk in their milk.”
“Ew.”
“That sounds a bit on the Frankenstein side, but Toby is extraordinarily gifted at laboratory bioscience. Now what happened with Lou?”
“Toby likes insects better than girls, but our pilot doesn’t like anybody but himself. Lou might consider giving me a poke if he can show his buddies naked pictures of me . . . and I don’t lose any important parts.”
“Oh. He told you about Yuki. Sensitivity isn’t why women go out with him. Maybe you could try again in a better setting.”
“Like what? Taping his mouth shut with one of the zero-g strips?” Mercy complained as she stormed inside.
Toby cocked his head as he listened. Whatever her flaws, the woman is a genius. That will be much better than duct tape and opens up whole new avenues to explore.
Chapter 24 – Tau Ceti System
Mercy took blood and vitals from Auckland as she complained to Yvette. “Men are useless idiots. I’ve been avoiding the lot of them.”
“Hey,” the doctor protested. “I’m a man.”
“You don’t count,” explained his nurse. “You’re getting married in a couple weeks. Pratibha’s going to cut yours off and put it into her purse for safekeeping.”
Pouting, Auckland said, “I could still be a threat until then.”
Shaking her head, Mercy said, “No. Even if you tried to ravage me, you’d have to stop to take a nap halfway through.”
“That’s not funny,” the doctor complained.
“Maybe if we strapped an oxygen mask on you,” Mercy teased.
“No,” Yvette reasoned. “You could just turn on a soccer game, and he’d get distracted.”
After the doctor growled, his nurse patted him on the head. “Relax. We know you’re safe. You’re in love with a beautiful, intelligent, slightly delusional woman.”
“Watch it,” he warned.
“You know she’ll snap out of it in a few weeks, but by then you’ll have her firmly in your clutches,” Yvette said.
“Yeah,” he said wistfully. “As long as you don’t inform her of my nefarious plan.”
Mercy said, “Sadly, we’re bound by patient-confidentiality rules and can’t warn her.”
“Keep it that way, and open the curtain on the side of the longhouse. Sonrisa gave me one of the first windows they built out of native sand. It’s a little bubbly and not exactly uniform, but I can finally see light.”
Blowing a raspberry, Mercy said, “I’m sick of rainbows and fluffy, white clouds. I’ll be so glad tomorrow when we have a real sun again—not that I’ll get to enjoy it because Yvette and I are heading up to the tin can as soon as we’re clear.”
Auckland’s eyes widened at the uncharacteristic outburst.
“You’re better off with the curtains drawn,” Mercy insisted. “It’s getting freaking colder every day. My feet freeze at night.”
“I was afraid of that,” mumbled the doctor.
“What?” Mercy demanded.
He glanced at his nurse. “Is it about that time of the month for the rest of you, too?”
Wincing at the indelicacy, Yvette slowly said, “Yes.”
Mercy responded, “No way. My cycles are super regular—twenty-eight days. I have another five before—”
Yvette shook her head no. “When you joined our little sisterhood, your period synchronized with ours. Yours may be a little shorter now. Sorry.”
“There are a number of options. Oleander runs to prevent hers. Nadia and Yuki had endometrial ablation—neither will have a period again, but they also won’t ever have children. Risa is taking a drug that prevents menses, but one of the side effects is increased body hair.”
“No meds. It’s too dangerous with my talent. I can’t even take most pain pills.”
Auckland shrugged. “Just use a tampon from your APK.”
“You expected me to use my weight allowance to bring a twenty-year supply of tampons?” Mercy roared. She didn’t even realize she had picked Auckland up by the lapels to shake him until Yvette was peeling her fingers off the poor man. “Sorry.”
“I’ll show you how to use a silicone insert. It’s kind of like a balloon. I’ll find the template in the storage area,” Yvette said, leaving the room.
“How soon till we can make our own normal pads and tampons?” Mercy asked.
“From cotton? That’s scheduled around the two-year mark,” Auckland noted, backing slowly toward the door. “Microweaving was Toby’s project. Maybe he’d raise the priority if you asked him . . . nicely.”
The fear in his face amused Mercy. Without Yvette present, she could speak frankly. “Are you trying to get me to give Toby another chance?”
“Maybe. In a few more days. Would that be so bad? It’s part of our charter to give people a second chance if they confess wrongdoing and work for the common good.”
Had she judged him too harshly? “I don’t know.”
“You only had one date. I heard about the insect incident and explained that he shouldn’t do that in front of other people.”
“I’m not good at flirting to get what I want.”
“Just wear a pair of Yvette’s shorts,” he suggested. “Toby will fall all over himself to help.”
“Ew.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I can’t get a read on him,” Mercy said. “I can feel things from everyone else with the Collective page when I’m within five meters. He’s like a lump of cold stone.”
“Not everyone has the same reaction to a page, just like not everyone will like a certain type of music. On average, women are twice as receptive to aural impressions as men. It all depends on your gifts and personality,” said Auckland. “We’re careful because extreme mismatches can cause cognitive dissonance, which can lead to a trip to Ward 8.”
“Toby can’t detect other Actives, even if he shakes your hand. What good is that?”
“He can tell who a person is, including their talent, just by examining their cells under a microscope. That’s how his sense manifests. I can detect symptoms of Fortune syndrome just by being in the same room. I also pick up anomalies in the Collective by touch.”
“Why couldn’t you spot Z’s problem?” asked Mercy.
“It wasn’t a sickness; rather, his symptoms were a normal reaction, like grief or being shell-shocked by an explosion. Look, Toby may not like to run the ball, but he’s a hell of goalie,” Auckland insisted.
“In English?”
Auckland replied, “Brazil wasn’t the first time your family was threatened. Someone mailed a bio-package to Mary. Red sent Toby in with the response team. He isolated everywhere the package had leaked in her apartment, identified the lab strain of the contagion, and helped track it back to the sender with some sort of bacterial
fingerprinting technique.”
“He did that for my family?”
“He did that for Red. She saved his life and his career. When he’s your goalie, girl, nothing gets by. He’s a bloody pit bull.”
“Right. So as long as you’re telling me all the man-secrets, what’s Lou’s problem?”
“Other than having the emotional maturity of a three-year-old?”
“Yeah.”
“If Lou were in charge of the team, Toby never would’ve qualified. Our esteemed biologist didn’t cross-train in anything, and he never finished his green belt because he was too worried about protecting his hands. He refused sword training as well, but Z signed a waiver for him.”
Mercy shrugged. “I could see that as a doctor.”
“I had the same issue, but I took Savate instead. I can kick the ball in from midfield without using my hands.”
“So Lou picks on him to make him fight back?”
“To prove that he can’t.”
“Sounds like a bully.”
“If you admit your faults and make an effort, Lou’s a pretty reasonable guy. He hates people who refuse to try.”
“I’ll stop by Toby’s office when I get a chance,” Mercy said with a sigh. “I won’t manufacture a reason. I’m going to be pretty busy with the planning committee getting ready for Tau Ceti. We’re choosing to linger there longer than it takes to reorient for the new jump so we can warm our biosphere back up. The large debris disk near planet E will make asteroids a constant threat, but we owe it to Earth to find out as much about it as possible. It’s the most Earthlike planet this close.”
Auckland was intrigued. “Could we land there with Ascension?”
“Although we could find somewhere in the right temperature range, we wouldn’t want to. The planet is about twice Earth’s diameter, with about four times the gravity. Ascension wouldn’t have enough fuel to leave. We might send one of our probes down, but Z wants to save those for later. We’ll see what the telescope shows on our flyby.” Walking to the door, Mercy said, “Thanks for the talk, doc. Three weeks left till the wedding. Are you nervous?”
“I’d use that stasis chamber myself if I could and have Yvette thaw me for the ceremony. I’m tired of waiting. I want to wake up and have it be Christmas.”
Mercy left wearing a smile.
****
Auckland warned Toby to expect a contrived visit from Mercy to give him his second-chance date. A few days into his ground shift, Toby heard a knock on his office door. The camp had doors now! “Come in,” he called, rustling through the papers on his desk.
Mercy limped inside, announcing, “We finally caught the culprit.”
Toby slipped his hand to the handle of his belt knife. “Pardon?” She was supposed to be in the command module with the wicked witch. The girl even had her hair done the same way as Yvette—the two braids that held her hair captive were tied loosely at the back in a bow. A single tug and it would all cascade down. They were all taunting him with what he couldn’t have.
She plopped onto the patient chair and said, “I was rummaging around in Olympus. Snowflake’s log showed me what you’d been doing with the windows. Brilliant. I never would’ve caught on.”
He clenched the handle of his belt knife as she propped her right leg up on the makeshift, crate-topped desk. Could he do it? That depended on how much she knew. He fished for information. “Did you find the technique useful?”
“Yes. I watched the compound from Olympus and spotted what we’ve all missed till now.”
He eased the blade out to his side, trying to appear casual. “Which is?”
“Lizards,” she said triumphantly. The absurdity of the statement caused him to falter until she asked, “Why do you have that knife out?”
He almost passed out from panic until he noticed the blood on her pant leg. “I . . . wanted to cut away the fabric so I could get a better look at your wound.”
“It’s not that deep. I just wanted to get a little peroxide.”
“Nonsense. Lizards can carry salmonella and a host of other diseases. You’ll need a couple of injections and maybe some stitches. I’ll need a good look.”
Mercy was barefoot, rather than wearing the heavy regulation boots. The sight of her petite ankle and arch made his heart beat faster. Frowning, she said, “Please, don’t cut these. I only have two pair.”
“You could make them into shorts . . . or you could just take them off.” He could see her weighing the options. “One doctor seeing your bare leg versus the entire camp. You choose.”
Making sure the door was barred, she slipped out of her pants, gasping in pain as she slid them over the tender injury.
He eyed her from the knees down—exquisite, like porcelain. He could see the crescent of teeth marks above her hamstring. “Any lower and you might have lost the ability to walk. Sit on the desk, and tell me about your brush with the wild while I fetch some gloves.”
“I saw the lizards moving in the long grass around camp,” she explained. Her sharp intake of breath as he applied the antiseptic reminded him of the sounds of passion. “I zoomed in on them with the windows like you did. They were heading for our bird coops, a whole tribe of enormous iguanas.”
“Why didn’t we see them before?” he asked to distract her from the pain.
“Because it got cold in here so soon, the lizards went into hibernation or estivation. Oh!” She made another coo as the needle thrust into her. Slowly pushing the plunger was almost sensual.
His voice cracked a little as he said, “And the moment the Tau Ceti sun warmed us again, they came out hungrier than ever.”
“Yep. So I ran down to the chicken yard.”
“Without even changing shoes. Why not simply tell Herk?”
“I did, but there were so many. They were coming after Strut, so I had to protect him.”
As he applied the gauze, he asked, “You took on a pack of predators bare-handed?”
“I had my spear, and they mainly eat the eggs.”
“Rachael will be pleased to know you’ve solved her problem.” The ecologist had been worrying about predators in the food chain equation for months. “Now get some rest while that leg heals. I want you to stay off your feet till the shutters close tonight.” He handed her an electronic reader pad.
Mercy was easily distracted, becoming quickly absorbed in a novel as she waited. She rubbed her feet idly to improve the circulation.
The feet weren’t as nice as Yvette’s, but he still had to bite the side of his thumb to avoid reacting. The adrenaline rushes and the success of his deception made him feel more alive than ever before. After drinking in her fit legs down to the swell of her behind for several long moments, Toby had to leave. The temptation was too much.
That evening, Mercy tracked Toby down in the mess hall, where he was experimenting with coffee analogues. After a sip, he proclaimed, “The chicory isn’t bad, the rest has heavy alkaloids. Ugh. It smelled decent.”
Fully dressed, Mercy said meekly, “Thank you. I wonder if I could impose on you again, this time with regards to materials-manufacturing priority.”
“Sit. Don’t open my work back up. Elevate that leg,” he said, fussing over her. “I can guess what you’re going to ask already.”
She arched an eyebrow. “I don’t think you can.”
“A crude prosthetic arm can be printed out of vegetable plastic if I bump the queue priorities.”
Mercy blinked. “For Yuki?”
“Of course. I knew you’d ask me at your first opportunity. But a more advanced arm—one that she’ll be happy with—will take years. First, Sojiro will need to generate the specifications.”
“Why him?”
“He has two synthetic fingers and carries the manufacturing guide for the entire Fortune medical-replacement catalog.”
“I never realized. They look so—”
“Real? That’s the idea, and what you should want for your friend. After we take extensive measurement
s and gather photographs of her original, before and after, he can design the replacement. Then Sonrisa gets involved to build the frame. Nadia will also need to supply some nanobatteries. Once that’s all completed, I can show you how to grow the synthetic skin grafts so it looks natural.”
Head lowered, she was humbled by what he was offering. “What can I do for you in return, doctor?”
The potential! What would this one do for a friend? Toby tried to remain smooth and magnanimous. “Don’t be ridiculous; this is my job. I just have so much of it right now.”
“I notice you have a lot of aerial printouts in your desk organizer.”
“Yes. Sojiro prints the photo, representing a file in Snowflake’s memory. I categorize and label each image. When I’m done, he renames the file for me.”
She blinked a few times, and her fingers tapped idly. “If you had naming authorization, you could do the labels yourself.”
“I thought only a planner could program Snowflake.”
“We’re pretty tight. Snowflake bends the rules for me.”
“It would make my job mapping plant genomes and planting schedules much easier. You could do such a thing?”
“Already done,” Mercy said.
“Impressive,” Toby said, when he meant ‘scary.’ To cover for his nervousness, he asked, “What’s the planning team doing now? Apart from the wedding I’m not invited to.”
She smiled. “Our next hurdle is the hop to Midway—we like that name better than the string of letters and numbers it had before. It’s about another three light-years away.”
“I have difficulty believing the math is a real roadblock to you.” He meant the plural ‘you,’ but Mercy blushed a little at the compliment.
“There are two possible jump points, and we’re working out the equations for each—the actual vector changes every microsecond. The cheapest hop comes out too close to the new sun. I’m lobbying against it, but Lou claims he can pull us out of the fire, no problem.”