Embarkment 2577 Page 23

  Dashing past the guard, I ran for my life. A shot missed me, singing the wall right in front of me. No more stun settings; this time they were out to kill me.

  Right then, the ship rocked and I almost fell. Alarms blared and an artificial voice reported, “Shields are down, Captain.”

  Chaos. What was that? The door to the bridge, I couldn’t go there. Shouldn’t there be a lift or something?

  Adrenaline helped me regain my balance a split second before my captors, and I got a few more steps in before they fired. At the same time, the air shimmered around me, and being teleported away spared me the worst impact of the energy beam.

  *****

  When the world took on solid form again, I stared at a familiar room. Last time I saw the inside of John’s transporter room I thought Adam died in an explosion. Not a good memory. It was the last place I expected to be, but safe. My legs were spongy. Maybe it would be alright to sit down for a second.

  I heard a voice say, “She’s here, but someone shot her.”

  Both the voice and the room faded into darkness so quickly I didn’t understand what happened.

  The next time I opened my eyes, someone carried me. Only one person would do that, and the broad shoulder my head rested against confirmed the conclusion. “Adam…”

  If he was there, if he came for me, Eve’s plans for him were thwarted.

  A well-known sardonic voice answered, “Almost. You’ll have to make do with me.”

  John. The mistake made my cheeks heat. I wanted to tell him to put me down, I didn’t want to be carried by anyone but Adam under any circumstances, but I was short of breath and doubted my legs would carry me. It must be the aftereffects of being shot so many times in just a few days. Even at stun it surely messed up the nervous system.

  A door to the side slid open and he put me down in a reclining chair. Anya swaggered in behind us. “Alex, dearest, we’ve been so worried.”

  “What happened?”

  I reached for her hands and she squeezed mine. “We’ve been searching for days, tracking their warp signature. I finally got a lock on you, but couldn’t teleport you out with their shields up.”

  John stood to the side with his powerful arms crossed over his chest. “I didn’t want to attack them, but when you ran I had to.”

  Anya filled in. “You brought a blaster shot with you. Fried half the control room.”

  “But…”

  “You’re pale. Get some rest.”

  “Won’t they come after us?”

  John chuckled. “They won’t be going anywhere for a while.”

  A shower would be good, but I was so tired. Thinking was hard, but there was something important I needed to remember. “The Bell… Adam.”

  “The Bell had to answer a distress call.”

  This wasn’t right. The man who once swore he’d rather steal a shuttle and run away with me than have us separated wouldn’t just stay behind when my life was at stake. “Eve. It’s Eve. We have to warn them.”

  They exchanged a glance and John lifted an eyebrow. “Well, as little faith as I have in the Confederacy, it’s a big ship filled with them. They’ll be fine.” The corners of his mouth twitched, “As long as they don’t venture too close to any black holes, of course.”

  Anya smiled. “He’s right, sweetheart. You need to rest.”

  What weren’t they telling me?

  John flashed a smile, grabbed a blanket and swept it around me with surprising gentleness. He rested his hand on my head for a moment before straightening up, trying to regain his normal attitude. “She’s right. Getting shot fucks you up. I need a drink.”

  I’d already done so much sitting I shouldn’t need rest, but maybe he was right. I was too weak.

  When they left, I nodded off for a bit. Showering, changing clothes, and grabbing a bite to eat helped a little, but I still only felt marginally better. John and Anya were probably on the bridge, and I headed out into the long hallways.

  I arrived just in time to hear the end of a radio conversation. John waved me closer and handed me a bottle. Liquor might not be exactly what I needed, but why the hell not… He sounded impatient. “We’ve been trying to reach you for days. Do I need to come save you fools again?”

  A female voice on the other side answered after just a second’s hesitation. “We’re fine. Now.”

  Anya lifted her long dark hair over one shoulder and reached forward with a frown on her beautiful face. “What do you mean you’re fine now?”

  The anonymous voice answered, “We ran into some trouble, ma’am, but it’s been taken care of. I’m sure the Captain will brief you when you get here.”

  It was clear the woman operating the radio wouldn’t say anything more. Maybe Eve stood next to her with a gun to her head. Maybe it was Eve talking, mimicking someone else’s voice to keep us occupied.

  I sipped John’s booze and coughed as it burned its way to my stomach. We’d know soon enough, and for now, there wasn’t anything to do but wait.

  “How do you drink this?”

  He shrugged. “Give it a couple of years, you’ll get used to it.”

  Chapter Nine

  The way to the Bell seemed endless. Anya retreated to the computer to charge her mobile emitter and John disappeared into the bowels of the ship. I wanted to talk to my husband, but the workings of the radio were a mystery to me.

  When I couldn’t take the solitude anymore, I went to look for John. I found him deep down in the ship and heard him curse through the door. Did I really want to put myself through this? Sitting all alone wasn’t appealing, so probably…

  My father-in-law lay on his back under some equipment I couldn’t recognize. I saw a muscular but sweaty and dirty arm hit the machine with a wrench. “What are you doing?”

  He peeked out and flashed a smile. “Hey, Alex. Unexpected pleasure. This old hog won’t start.”

  “What does it do?”

  He scooted out, sat on the floor and watched me. “You don’t care what it does.”

  True. I should say something, give some explanation to why I was there, but I had nothing.

  “He wanted to come for you. Adam, I mean. He would have been court marshaled. I didn’t think you wanted that.”

  I sighed and sat on the floor next to him. I was tired to the bone, and my legs refused to keep standing.

  “What happened?”

  “I overheard the teleporter crew reporting they couldn’t find you. Adam found a trace of the ship’s warp drive, and Jones was about to go save you.”

  “Well, that’s awfully thoughtful of him.”

  “Yeah, someone snatching a person in his crew right under his nose… Then, there was this distress call from a colony, and he said as lovable as you are, three thousand people had priority over one. I might have made the same call.”

  It still didn’t explain why he came for me, and not Adam. “I see.”

  “Jones ordered Adam to the bridge, and he didn’t go. Things were getting pretty nasty.” He chuckled. “I shouted I would show their useless asses how to run a rescue operation and stormed out of there so he wouldn’t have a chance to do anything dumb. Luckily, I had Anya’s mobile emitter in my pocket.”

  “Luckily.” Yeah, he hadn’t planned that at all…

  He patted my arm with a hand that was big, dirty, and looked just like Adam’s. Just like Adam’s, but human. I wanted to rest my head on his shoulder and close my eyes, but that would hardly be appropriate. I resisted it for almost ten seconds. Why was I so tired?

  “Alex, you awake?”

  “Sure…”

  “Do you ever wonder what it would be like to leave?”

  What a strange question. Leave what? The Bell? Adam? Both? Did he have to sound so much like my husband? Except for John’s perpetual stubble they could be identical twins, one human and one artificial. “Yes. But I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  John laughed. “Of course it’s not, but I still sometimes want to do it just t
o see if I can. They’re almost hypnotizing, aren’t they?”

  That was a much more clear-sighted observation than I could have reached on my own. Both Adam and Anya were irresistible, larger than life, and neither John nor I could have walked away even if we wanted to. I couldn’t resist Adam any more than the ship could resist its engines, or a planet could break free from its sun and choose to go somewhere else.

  “Yes… Yes, they are. Do you ever wonder, I mean, you and I will grow old and they’ll be exactly the same.”

  He gave a lopsided grin. “If we live that long you and I will be old and gray and they will be young. It’ll be alright.”

  Was it that easy? Back on old Earth I often thought my friends’ families were growing complicated. People had so many children with different fathers and the extended families intertwined and grew so big it was difficult to remember who was related to who. They had nothing on us.

  “We’re a strange family, aren’t we?”

  “We are, but it doesn’t matter.”

  True. We all cared for each other, and in the end, wasn’t that what made a family?

  “I used to be a real womanizer. Can you believe that?”

  I didn’t expect anyone to be able to make me laugh the way I felt, but that did it. “Yes. Yes, I can. You can’t help yourself.”

  “I’ve been wanting to surprise her. Get her something. I can’t think of a single thing.”

  “Anya? She adores you. Get her anything, she’ll love it.”

  “Do you think she’d marry me?”

  “Of course she would.”

  “Her mobile emitter should be charged by now. I think I’ll go get laid.”

  The way he said it made me laugh. “I hope it works out for you.”

  “Usually does. I just turn on the old charm. C’mon, I’ll walk you to a room. You’re too pretty to sit on a dirty floor.”

  *****

  It seemed like a very long time before we reached the Bell. I rested, but didn’t feel a bit better. Every breath was hard work, and my heart raced. Once we docked, John watched me with a frown. “Do you want me to carry you to sickbay?”

  “No.”

  I followed him and Anya, doing my best to look healthy. I was tired of needing rescue and having people haul me around.

  When the heavy door opened, revealing the shuttle bay, I stopped and stared. Adam stood waiting, but he looked like something out of a nightmare.

  Now was a good time to show I cared for more than the outside. I got my feet moving to meet him and wrapped my arms around him. “What happened?”

  A little more than half of the flesh on his face was missing, and the jagged edge looked charred. I’d never seen his metal cranium before. It was a dull titanium, filled with small servo motors and wiring. His left eye was completely gone, and the dark socket where electronics and the covering eye should have been creeped me out.

  Most of his hair was missing, and the right arm had been stripped down to the metal structure with hydraulics and microchips.

  He held me, very carefully, and the embrace was strange. I wasn’t used to feeling cold, hard metal around my waist. “It looks worse than it is. Ima and Jia’Lyn are working on some parts and new skin.”

  Small diodes blinked when he spoke, and I pressed my hand against his metal cheek. “Eve?”

  “Yes… How are you? I’ve been worried.”

  Trying to avoid the question wouldn’t do me any good. “I don’t know. I’ve been better.”

  Complaining about my own adventure seemed petty when he missed vital parts.

  Anya placed a slender hand on my shoulder. “She’s been shot. She needs to go to sickbay. The sooner the better.”

  John interrupted the reunion. “What happened to the megalomaniac bitch?”

  Adam sounded troubled. “She lured us into a cloud of nanobots. They were small enough to get through the shields and rebuilt both the ship and themselves.”

  “The ship? This ship?”

  It looked like they did some work on him too.

  “It doesn’t matter. She’s dead.”

  Anya lifted her perfect eyebrows. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I disassembled her myself.”

  The wave of adrenaline from seeing Adam hurt was wearing off and my legs wanted to buckle under me. I was queasy and couldn’t breathe. My husband kept talking, but his voice seemed very far away.

  John rumbled, “Son, I’m no fan of the cat-doctor on this ship, but your wife needs to see her.”

  “Of course.”

  He had a hover-round, and sitting down in the little vehicle was a relief. I could barely hold my eyes open, but what I saw of the ship looked almost as bad as Adam; there were weird metallic constructions protruding from the walls.

  I wanted to go home, but it was out of my hands, and I was in sickbay in less than two minutes. It was crowded and Ima nodded towards a side room. At least I got to lie down while waiting. When Ima fussed around me I watched her through my lashes. Her tail whipped Adam’s behind. “Haven’t I told you to take care of her? There’s serious neurological damage and there will be a time when I can’t heal her anymore.”

  Pausing to stare at him, she snarled and showed her fangs. “You’re supposed to wear the entire uniform. Where’s your shirt, Commander?”

  He only had his tank top on, and now when she mentioned it, it was unlike him. “I know. I look like a horror movie. The sleeve gets stuck in the arm when I move.”

  Her expression softened. “Well, this will take a while. Go find something to do. I’ll call for you when she can leave.”

  Ima hated having people in her way, and Adam exceled at being in her way. I wanted to ask him to stay anyway, but I didn’t need to. He stood to the side and leaned against the wall. “Not this time.”

  “Fine.”

  She pulled a console down over me. It made my chest feel warm, and breathing came easier.

  “How many times were you shot, honey?”

  Funny how she could switch from angry to soothing in a split second. “Three.”

  My friend drummed her claws against the console. “I can’t fix this.”

  Adam straightened up. “What?”

  “Well, I can, but not right now. Those cursed nanobots modified most of my equipment. It’s useless. You need to get us to a station, Commander.”

  “Guys… I’m right here.” Being weak and dizzy didn’t mean I wanted them to talk over my head.

  Ima sighed. “Your artificial heart is damaged. I’ve stabilized it, but you need a replacement. Everything we have is as useful as scrap metal.”

  “My what?”

  Adam crossed the space between us with a couple of long steps and grabbed Ima’s white coat in his metallic fingers. “Why does my wife have an artificial heart?”

  She attempted to shake him off, but he didn’t let go. “Because hers was destroyed the first time you got her killed. I transferred all the memories and with normal use, this would have lasted a hundred years.”

  Air was hard to come by once again. All this excitement and horror didn’t agree with me. I gasped, “Why didn’t you tell me? And what memories?”

  This time Adam released her when she swatted his hand. “I didn’t tell you because you had amnesia and bigger problems. The human heart has memory tissue much like the human brain. It stores likes and dislikes.”

  “What else inside me isn’t me anymore?”

  “Not much… Liver, kidneys, most of your intestines were damaged by those primitive bullets. They all seem to work fine.”

  Great. Maybe I was more like my husband than I realized. She might give me an entirely new body and I’d never notice.

  Was I going to die? I was too afraid to ask.

  “I would like to keep you here, but we’re crowded and I know how stubborn you are, so you can go home. No physical activity. No unnecessary walking around. If you feel worse, call me at once.”

  Her gaze fell on Adam. “I will inform Blake we ha
ve a medical emergency. If it gets worse I can put her on life support or in cryo sleep, but I think we’d all prefer not to. Try to take care of her this time.”

  Adam swept me up in his arms. It was strange to feel his metal frame against my back. I murmured, “I’m sure I can walk out the door.”

  “I’m sure you can, but you don’t have to.”

  I watched his metal jaw and all the little motors that would normally allow him a facial expression. This would take some getting used to. Was I so shallow I only cared about his looks? Maybe not. Seeing a human’s skeleton would also creep me out.

  “You never see anyone but me being carried around this ship.”

  That made him smile too, in spite of all. It looked eerie with so much of his face missing. “That’s because no one else is you.”

  I rested my head against his shoulder and he murmured, “It can be our secret. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.”

  I whispered, “You’re so sweet,” and was surprised at his answer, “No, not really.”

  He put me down in the hover-round and I tried to get the focus off of me. “So… What happened to you?”

  “We can talk about that some other day. Are you sure you’re up to going home?”

  I really did not want him to leave me in sickbay. “Of course. Please take me home.”

  Worst case scenario, it would be filled with new robotic constructions courtesy of Eve. It didn’t matter; I still longed for home.

  Adam looked at me with his remaining eye and frowned. As much as I tried to breathe normally it was hard to hide just how difficult it was.

  *****

  Our rooms looked exactly like they always had. Not a trace of Eve or her minions. Adam put me down on the bed and took a seat on the edge. “Do you want me to ask John to keep you company?”

  Did I look that bad? John and I shared much just by being human. Adam would never admit he felt left out, but I still knew. Lately, John had been there for me so many times when Adam couldn’t, and offering to get him for me had to sting. “No.”

  I wanted to ask why he hadn’t come for me, but it seemed petty. He still looked doubtful and I reached for his hand, clutching metal fingers. They were cold and strange against my skin. I’d better get used to it… “I don’t know what time it is. Can you stay a little?”