Shockball (12 page)

“You are
never
going to use me again!”

Just as I was preparing to follow through with a knee to his groin, something grabbed me and pulled me off him. It was one of the maintenance drones. I struggled wildly, but couldn’t free myself of the unyielding mechanical grip units.

“I’m going to kill you!” I shrieked at my creator. “Your days are numbered, I swear to God!”

“There is no God,” Joseph said in a distinctly raw, nasal tone. He grabbed a cloth and held it tightly against his nose as he turned away from me and addressed another waiting drone. “Bring in the prisoner now.”

The drone went to the lift panel, and opened it. Two more drones wheeled out, dragging a semiconscious man clamped between them. He was battered and bleeding from several small wounds.

I took a step forward, but Joseph grabbed me by the hair and spoke softly against my ear.

“You can save him, you know. Cooperate, and I will let him live.”

I made a low, helpless sound, then called to him. “Duncan.”

My husband slowly lifted his head. The pain in his eyes tore an invisible hole in my chest.

“Continue to resist,” my creator said, “and you can watch him bleed to death right here.”

I didn’t bother to look at Joseph when I said, “Fine. You win.”

CHAPTER FIVE

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Dancing with Christopher

J
oseph wouldn’t let me touch Reever. He treated my husband’s injuries, while I got to cool my heels in one of the clear-walled treatment rooms in his Research and Development lab. Trying to see what he did as he sterilized and sutured Reever’s wounds made me clench my fists. By the time he was done, blood stained the edges of my fingernails.

Joseph had one of the drones wheel Reever’s gurney into the adjoining treatment room, and lock him in. Then he came over to look in on me.

“You made the correct choice. We will begin the new trials tomorrow. Good night, Cherijo.”

“Is he all right? Was anything fractured? Let me take a look at him.”

“I will return in six hours. Sleep well.”

“Why don’t you answer me? What did you do to him?” I called after him as he left the lab. “Oh, you’re dead the minute you let me out of here.”

One of the drones trundled over to the clear wall. “No talking. Take your sleep interval now or you will be sedated.”

I had no doubt the drone would drug me if I kept shouting, so I stalked over to the medical berth that served as my bed, and flung myself on it. The interior lights dimmed as the drone made another pass in front of my cage. I wondered if it was going to sing me a lullaby.

Cherijo?

My mental walls snapped up as I saw Duncan lying on the other side of the plas wall, watching me. I pushed my berth over until it lay against the wall, like his.

“Are you okay?”

He shook his head and tapped his ear. The treatment rooms were soundproof—he couldn’t hear me.

I eased myself into the link, trying to clamp down on my hostility.
Hey. How are you feeling
?

I have had better days.

He was blocking most of his thoughts from me, too. From the sweat on his brow and the way he was breathing, I could tell he was in pain. Then I dug my hands into the berth mattress until linen tore.
He didn’t give you any analgesics
.

It doesn’t matter. I prefer to be clearheaded
. He pressed his hand against the wall.
Has he harmed you
?

No. I’m okay
. I matched the outline of his fingers with mine.
We’ve got some problems. The committee turned me over to him. Unconditionally. You should have stuck around. The only good part about it was seeing the look on Shropana’s face when they announced it
.

I would have liked that.

Where did you go when you snuck out of there? How did Joe catch you?

Reever shook his head.
I
didn’t escape. One of the guards infused me with a narcotic and removed me from the hearing. I woke up here
.

You mean he had you kidnapped?

Did you think I would leave without you?

No, I thought
— He knew exactly what I thought.
Yeah, I did
.

You have a very poor opinion of me.

I’m working on it. Duncan, he’s really crazy. Seriously deranged. He told me tonight that he wants to impregnate me with his own DNA.

My husband’s mental blocks fell away as his thoughts became elemental. Images of Joseph dying in various gruesome ways filled his mind.

Honey, have I ever told you I like the way you think?

He curled his hand against the plas, until his knuckles turned white.
We have to get you out of here
.

Us. Us out of here. Tomorrow he’ll start testing me again. It’ll give me a chance to get the layout of this place, maybe find a weapon or a way out. You’d better rest now. Those drones really did a number on you.

The drones did not inflict my injuries.

No, I could see that now, from the images of the beating he was remembering. The man who’d done it had taken prolonged, vicious pleasure in doing so.

Joseph did this to you
? It must have happened while I was dressing for dinner.

Yes.

One more reason for me to dismember him in his sleep. God, I’m sorry, Duncan
. I got up and started pacing.

You should sleep while you can.

I can’t. Not here.

He intensified the link, until he gained control of my body, and brought me back to the berth. He hadn’t taken me over like this since we’d left Catopsa, but I let it happen, and everything but the two of us dissolved away. Then we were transported to a very familiar place.

Now you can.

Show-off
. He’d created an illusion around us, to fool my mind into believing we were back on the
Perpetua
, in our bed. I couldn’t feel homicidal here.
You sure like watching me sleep
.

His mouth touched mine.
Just for tonight, beloved
.

Exactly six hours after Joseph left (five hours after I fell asleep with a luxurious sigh), a lab drone woke me up. Not the way Joe had sent Maggie in to shake me awake, when I was a kid. Instead the drone hit me with a shot of static discharge. Right in the upper arm.

“Ah!”

I jumped off the berth and collided with a wall, then saw the little hunk of junk at the panel.

“What the
hell
did you do that for?”

“It is 0500 hours, Dr. Cherijo, the scheduled time for your initial examination. You will remove your garments.”

“Go fuse yourself.” I turned and headed back to bed.

The lab drone trundled over to Reever’s treatment room. My husband was still asleep. “You will remove your garments or this specimen will be disciplined.”

Specimen. Disciplined
. Two of my creator’s favorite words.

“I’ll do it. Get away from him.” I forgot about going back to sleep and slipped the Lok-Teel out from under my tunic. I formed an image of it hiding under my pillow, and it obediently oozed out of sight. Then I went through the motions of stripping off my clothes as I edged toward the door.

The drone opened the panel. I kicked it over and bolted.

A second, more vicious discharge knocked me off my feet. I hit the floor, then lay there for a moment, gasping. The drone rolled over to stop beside me.

“Advisory: applied static discharges will increase in severity and duration with each unauthorized action.”

My hair was practically standing on end. “Now you tell me.”

“Stand and follow me, Doctor.”

The drone led me out to Central Analysis, and indicated a recently sterilized table. “Recline here, Doctor.”

“I’d prefer to stand.”

“Recline or receive further discipline.”

I wouldn’t be much good to Reever unconscious, so I reclined. As soon as my back hit the table, automatic restraints shot out of slots in the table and snapped around my wrists and ankles.

“Hey!” I jerked at the alloy cuffs. “I’ll cooperate, take these things off!”

“All input by Dr. Cherijo must have Dr. Joseph’s approval before the unit may comply with any directives.” The drone went to one of the consoles and activated something. “Please remain still as the scanner passes over you.”

I stopped fighting the restraints as a hot, white beam charted its way down the length of my body. Someone had been experimenting with thermal residual imaging—this felt much more intense than any scanner I’d ever used.

“No parasites or other corporeal infestations located.”

“Record and file,” Joseph said as he walked into the room.

I lifted mv head. “You think I’m carrying around body lice?” ‘

“How many times were you required to administer discipline to Dr. Cherijo?” he asked the drone.

“Twice, Dr. Joseph.”

He kept ignoring me as he went to the console. “Initiate fluids sampling sequence.”

Thin, hollow probes emerged from the table, and attacked me. One stabbed into my neck. Another in my arm. A third in between my legs.

I felt like shrieking, but clenched my teeth. “I would have been happy to voluntarily donate some blood and urine to the cause. All you had to do was give me a syrinpress and a cup.”

“You have clearly demonstrated your unwillingness to cooperate with me.” Joseph turned around. “My tests require sterile samples. The probes will not harm you.”

There were all kinds of harm. “If this is how you’re going to run things, I’ll fight you every step of the way.” That would almost certainly mess up his tests.

“What will happen if I agree to remove your restraints, and invite your cooperation?”

I felt like snarling. “I’ll be a good girl,
Daddy
.”

He pressed the keypad on the console, and the restraints slid away. I was tempted to run—who wouldn’t be?—but I had to do what Reever said.
The opportunity will come and we will escape
.

I just wished the opportunity would hurry up.

Joseph spent the next several hours performing various tests on me. Scans of every intensity and variety. More fluid samples, scrapings from my gums, snips of my hair. Two more probes tapped my bone marrow and spinal fluid.

I didn’t cooperate with him as much as I endured his proximity, and bit my tongue. By the time he handed me a plain patient gown to put on, I felt like I’d chewed off half of it.

“Is that it? Or do I have to run through a maze and find some cheese now?”

“Follow me.” He led me out of the Central Analysis and down a corridor to a small room containing a large console and one chair. “Sit down.”

When I did, the console screen blinked on. A series of questions appeared.

“Answer each of the queries.”

I read the first couple. “I did this before. For three days on K-2, for your League buddies.”

“These queries cover events which occurred
after
you left the colony on Kevarzangia Two.”

“What, didn’t Dhreen fill you in on all the details?” Dhreen, the Oenrallian who’d helped me leave Terra and escape Joseph, had been my friend—or so I’d thought. I’d depended on him, confided in him, even gone crazy and pulled him out of the wreckage of his crashed star vessel. All that time, he’d been reporting back to Joseph with details of everything I’d done.

Finding out Dhreen was my creator’s spy had broken my heart. If I ever saw him again, I planned to do the same to his face.

My creator ignored the question and walked to the door panel. “I will return for you in one hour.”

I turned back to the console. “Good thing I can type fast.”

The questions covered a hundred different topics; everything from what I preferred to program for my meals and how often I ate to how many times I’d had intercourse and with what type of life-form. There was no particular order to them, either. I amused myself by providing some creative answers.

Query: What three evening meal interval programs did you select most frequently while serving in space
? My answer— 1. Vegetarian lasagna. 2. Coq au vin. 3. Serada baked with shredded nyilophstian root.

Query: What form of contraceptive did you employ while entertaining a nonhuman partner
? My answer— I never entertained a nonhuman partner. I’d been too busy having orgies with dozens of them.

I chuckled and worked my way down the list, until I got toward the end. Then I stopped, and sat back.

Query: Have you become pregnant in the last two revolutions? If the response is affirmative, please list the date of delivery, gender of progeny, and inseminator’s name, age, and species of origin.

It stopped being funny. I tried to skip the query, but the screen wouldn’t let me bypass it.

Query: Have you become pregnant in the last two revolutions? If the response is affirmative…

I didn’t answer any more of the questions. The console beeped at me. I stared at it.

Query: Have you become pregnant…

My fist smashed into the screen, shattering it. Sparks flew. The console erupted into frantic beeping and flashing. The door panel behind me slid open.

“Why did you do that?” Joseph asked me.

“I got tired of typing.”

“You will repeat the exercise later.” He looked at my bleeding hand. “Come back to the lab with me so I can treat your wound.”

I cradled my throbbing knuckles as I got to my feet. “The day I need your help, the brain damage will be too extensive to merit saving me. I’ll do it myself.”

Reever watched me walk in, his eyes moving from my face to my hand, then to Joseph. If looks could kill, Joe would have been in a lot of itty-bitty pieces sprayed against one of the interior wall panels.