Ion 417: Raiju (20 page)

"You're not going to put me through this machine without telling me what is wrong! Are you planning to try testing me here? I will ruin your machine if you try to use it on me!"

The man seemed frustrated and used the comm unit on the wall to make a request for something. He began pacing, stopping periodically to say something to the woman. Sometimes he turned and spoke to me, putting on a mask of sincerity. I wasn't about to smile at someone ready to put me through a tortuous testing process. I had enough energy to fry him if need be, but I needed Jun more.

Eventually Jun came running in the door of the room, sounding like she had run many kilometers. She greeted the man as she got her panting under control. They conversed for a few minutes before she turned to me. She smiled, but I could tell there was a great deal of concern behind that expression.

"Good morning, Ion. I must humbly apologize for my absence this morning. The doctor wants to take a picture of your shoulder and side. He is concerned they healed too fast and wants to see inside."

"It won't injure me?"

"He asks that you hold still so that it can work. You are healing better he tells me."

All it would do is allow them to view under the skin to ensure that the healing was proper. It didn't inspire confidence in its safety when they all left the room before energizing the machine. The machine was like a tunnel that the bed slid into. I could hear the big thing beginning to hum as I was getting moved into the scanning area. I had been inside other scanning machines that closed in on me, so I wasn't too frightened of this. Jun had promised that I wouldn't be hurt.

Suddenly the scanner started thumping, and I felt a surge building inside me. It wasn't that I was worried, but the charge was building on its own. I tried to shove it down, but every thump simply increased it. After several thumps the charge jumped to the machine. I could feel the sparks dancing along the inside of the tunnel. The humming whine of it died off to silence as the room darkened.

Jun helped translate as the doctor apologized for the machine breaking as they pulled me back out of it. While the scowling doctor went off in search of his repair crew, I took the opportunity to thank Jun for talking to me. With a wave of her hand she brushed my comments aside to tell me some news.

"I went home last night and tried looking up the name you gave me. I spent few hours looking to find out that Yoko dies twenty-one years ago. Why are you looking for her here? She drowned in Yellowstone Lake while here with her family."

"No, she was taken from here. Died about ten years ago."

Jun was shaking her head, "The news report said that she had disappeared from her family camp while they were vacationing, and it was suspected that either she had drowned in the lake or kidnapped by a seasonal employee that vanished the same day. They found her canoe broken on the lake shore. The search went on for two weeks without finding her body."

It was my turn to shake my head, "Kidnapped by someone else."

The doctor interrupted Jun's next words as he pushed into the room with another man behind him. Short words and pointing fingers sent the second man looking into the machine with a light. He then turned to Jun with more of his gruff directions. He only glanced at me a couple times as he waved a hand toward the door.

She didn't say anything more to me as she shoved my bed back out the door, turning opposite to the way we had come. She was pushing me along fast again, like when I had been brought here by the white coats. Two corridors and three turns later, she slowed. Her face twisted into a puzzled expression as we banged through doors into another room full of machines.

"It doesn't make any sense."

"Jun, what do you talk about?"

"The doctor. He wanted to do some tests on you, but then he said FBI were coming to talk to you. Then he said you had healed. How can you be healed?"

I don't think she knew all of the details. If they weren't even telling her the truth, what hope was there for me? That blood they had taken probably gave them a clue that I was different. Now they wanted to test me to find out just how different I was.

"Can you help me to use the sanitation chamber? I really need to go."

It was about the best excuse I could think of to get out of the restraints. Jun had been helpful so far, and I think she was being as honest as she could be with the information they were giving her. Whatever was going on didn't feel normal from the expressions she was giving them.

As soon as she unfastened the straps, I waved her back to stand on my own. She started to protest, but again I ignored her initial words and asked her if she could show me a map of where Yoko had lived. This puzzled her for a minute, so I was compelled to elaborate.

"She was my mother. I want to see where she lived."

From her pocket she pulled out a palm size device; A very nice comm unit that she called a cell phone. She touched the screen and manipulated it a bit. In a moment she had a tiny map display. It showed the large island chain to the far west of our location. I remembered that we had picked up signals from there with the right language, but Teyrn's notes showed that he hadn't made any stops there. She expanded the map to show the northern part of the large island.

"This is Miyagi Prefecture. You would know that if you were really from there."

"I'm from a bit further away."

"Why did you dye your skin and hair? How are you healed?"

It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't seen anyone with color even close to mine. There were browns and reds and pinks, but no greens at all -- such an obvious thing to have overlooked in my searching. Here I thought language was going to be my biggest give away that I didn't belong to this faction.

"Is green a problem? Who is FBI?"

"The doctor is supposed to come do some more tests before those special agents show up to take you away. Probably because they don't know who you are. There wasn't any ID in your purse. They're coming from Billings, but he called them a few hours ago. Probably only a half hour till they get here."

With her help, I found the bag of items they had removed from me stuffed into the bottom of the bed. My shirt had been discarded because of the damage it had received, but my pouch and belt were there along with my comm unit. It was smaller than hers, but didn't have any maps in it. From the pouch I pulled out several of the coins to hand to Jun.

"Here, and thank you. Also I apologize for this."

"Apologize? But I can't..."

I nodded and hit her with a jolt just large enough to make her unconscious. She had been very nice to me and I didn't like hurting her. I gently eased her limp form to the bed. Thinking that it might look better for her, I looped the straps around her wrists. She would hurt a little when she woke, and I only hoped that they wouldn't torture her to gain answers about me. The coins I had set in her hands were now lying on the floor, so I stuck them into one of her pockets.

I had to look through several doors to find something to replace the dress they had put on me. I would look too obvious with the rear opening it had. I found a white coat like the doctor had worn. I dropped the flimsy dress and traded it for the coat which wasn't much sturdier. Even in this coat, I was still going to be spotted easily. This just made me look like a faction official. There was a towel in the closet that I wrapped my hair in. That would help a little, but not for long. I climbed out the window, and crept along the bushes lining the building.

I didn't have any idea as to which way to go. Even if I did manage to find my way back to the forest, would the rangers be waiting for me? Or the bear? Either way, I had a long distance to travel. Time to call my friends for a little help.

"Captain Ion, What happened? I thought you were going to check in with us eleven point three hours ago,"

Lafiel questioned when I turned on the comm unit.

"Sorry, Lafiel. I ran into something called a bear grizzly. They transported me to a medical center that didn't even have bio beds. I managed to get away before the local faction officers came for me. At least I found out where to go now."

"Traxel's in one of his sleep cycles, but I can lift off to come get you."

"Not here. It's best if I meet you at an air transport facility. It would be less noticeable for the ship that way. Can you give me directions?"

I would meet them when it got dark. Now all I had to do was figure a way to travel about fifty kilometers before dark. The plaza next to me held hundreds of the small transports, but I had no way to make one of them work. All the ones I found were locked up.

Not far from the medical clinic I found a shop that sold clothes. It was much better than the shops on Rage. There were racks of shirts in front of the door, and all sorts of clothing inside, but I didn't dare enter such a confined area. I hid by the corner of the building watching how the bartering worked here. It didn't take long to notice which people were working the shop. I had watched the girl exchange clothing for the local currency and waited for her to come near me. I took a big chance on this one, and cornered her. I pointed to a shirt and a hat, and then I placed a coin in her hands. She stared at the coin for a moment. I was just getting worried she might reveal me when she ran over and removed a shirt from the display. It was blue, and of all things had a bear on the front of it.

She brought the shirt and a few hats to me. The third one seemed to fit my head well enough. I dropped the white doctor's coat and donned the shirt. Her face flashed red, and she turned her back. If they could change color so well, why was my skin a problem? As I pulled the shirt over my head I realized that my shoulder still hurt a great deal. It had mostly healed on the outside, but there were deeper injuries. I needed food too.

The hat worked well for stuffing my hair into it. That should help keep me from being so noticed. She then brought me a jacket to cover the shirt, and a cloth that she motioned to wrap around my neck. I placed a second coin in her hand and smiled. I know I paid way more than what the cost of the clothes were, but I needed to be hidden quickly.

The transportation was going to be more difficult. What do I do, walk up to someone and say, can you take me to 44.68 north of circumference by 111.1 west of meridian? They would likely just report me to the local faction authority.

The main road led somewhat in the direction I needed to travel. Watching the road I discovered that a large transport would arrive periodically, and release a lot of people. About a half hour later the people would return to the transport and depart. It seemed that they would come here merely to point imaging devices and buy clothing. The next one that arrived I boarded and found an open spot near the rear.

We had traveled for some time before one of the other passengers noticed me. They called out to the operator who halted the transport to confront me. He stood there trying to talk to me. He wasn't really shouting, merely trying to ask questions. I responded in Japanese, which met with a blank look. He tried another language that I didn't know either, so I tried Indigal on him. It wasn't very productive since neither of us could understand the other.

Finally he relented under the pressure of other travelers and the trip continued. A few of them kept looking at me. I began feeling very conspicuous, realizing just how much I stood out from them. I had to endure this for just a little longer in order to reach the air landing zone. Several times I just about demanded to be released due to turning the wrong direction, but it was merely the twisting of the road in mountainous terrain.

He finally stopped the large transport only a few kilometers from my goal. I still had a few hours before they would arrive with the ship. About this time is when I was regretting not eating the breakfast they had brought me. I had eaten yesterday morning, and then tried playing with that bear. The first meal I'd had since then was still sitting on a tray back in the hospital. As I descended the few steps to the ground from the transport, the operator lightly grabbed my arm. He tried talking to me once again, and pointed to a shaded sitting area. I had a feeling that he had called someone to come take me to the authorities. As soon as his attention was diverted, I ducked out of sight behind the building. Darkness should be here soon.

TOC

KYU

Lafiel called me as the ship dropped down, homing on my signal. The airport wasn't what I expected to see. All of the transports sitting there had long wings sticking out sideways for slow atmospheric flight. There wasn't a single orbital hopper anywhere in the bunch. The best spot that I could see to land was near the parked ones at the end of the runway strip.

The ball of fuzziness enveloping the corvette dropped down to the ground right before my eyes, looking almost like a cloud had fallen. I didn't wait for it to stop falling before I was already running to meet it, and passed right through into the clear spot where I could hop on the ramp just as it touched.

I didn't stop to enjoy the view, merely ran up the stairs headed for the common room. My shoulder was once again throbbing, and I wanted to have the bio bed check me over. I also wanted about four servings of gentreh salad; I was starving! Just as soon as they had touched down, Traxel was lifting again. I could feel the acceleration before I even reached the mid-level hatch. Panzo helped me get the bio bed set up between bites of the salad.

At least I knew that I could trust the bio bed to show me the truth about my shoulder. It displayed the bones, marking out points where the bear's teeth had chipped them a bit. My muscles had already re-grown considerably, but the bones would likely take a little time. There was nothing the automated system could do to make it heal any faster than it was. I heard the note of astonishment from Lafiel, praising the Terran doctors for fixing me up so well, especially when I'd told her they did it by hand too.