Starbleached (7 page)

“Paige Jones told me he remembered.”

“We’d been playing mind-games with an Overseer for a month
by then. I don’t believe anything he said or did. Whatever he remembered, he
used to play with us.” Bryan shrugged, studying his hands. “He was a good kid.
Kept Mich sane. Kept his team on an even keel. And If I were in his shoes I’d
have a higher body count.”

“I don’t think you’d kill anyone.” She said.

He brushed her cheek. “You see people the way you want them
to be. It’s beautiful.”

“Sometimes I take the wrong view, you know. Decide something
is bad when it’s not. That’s not so beautiful.”

“No…but that will keep you alive longer.” He kissed her,
running his fingers through her hair. She leaned into it, letting it take her.
It was relief. Release. Beautiful.

And then Holton Station began to scream.

*****

Now:

Screaming babies. Screaming children. Adults holding their
heads, vomiting into buckets. The village hospital was a dirt floored shack,
dry boards keeping the swamp out. Good God, she thought. How was anyone alive
in this place at all?

“I’m going to need antibiotics,” she said. Several of the
ill had open, weeping sores. “Bandages, clean…” she turned to look up at the
Overseer. It was gone.

“He leaves.” A woman stood. “If he is not needed, or cannot
help. He stays away.” She was a tall, bony woman. Bird-like and old, hair still
red as a burning fire. She tied it back in an exquisite knitted shawl. A
slender, pale hand, knuckles thick with arthritis, was offered with the majesty
of an empress. “Galina Annakova.”

“Adrienne Parker. How many are sick?”

Dark eyes fixed on hers. “Two thirds of the village. It has
been this way since the last of our drugs were taken.”

“Taken? What drugs?” She felt the neck of the nearest child.
She was a pretty little thing, very blond. Her pulse was low, and sweat dripped
from her chin to the wooden table below.

“Amenoperithol. The new favorite antibiotic among Rim-World
black markets. It catches high price these days. Overseer gave us enough for
fifty years, but it was stolen. And he needs sample to make more.”

“Amenoperithol treats biological agents, not viral or
bacterial. You know what’s causing this?” Swollen lymph glands. The girl’s
fever was very high.

“Amoeba. Similar to Earth bug causes giardia. Only in later
stages this has overtone of Lassa.” She smiled at Adry’s sharp look. “I was
doctor, Dr. Parker.” The woman smiled. “Now I am just Galina.”

“The Overseers took it away, huh?” Adrienne asked, fishing
an antibiotic popper out of a pocket and holding it under the girl’s nose. The
child giggled fearlessly, and snapped it open on her own. Green-amber mist rose
around her nose and mouth, inhaled on a laugh. God bless children.

“I am trained in surgery with laser, not knife. I know no
drug older than Amenoperithol. I cannot sterilize a bandage without a
rad-field. Since we lost ours, many have died of sepsis.”

“I’m sure being dinner for an Overseer isn’t helping with
that. How many people has it killed?”

“None.”

Adrienne almost dropped the poppers. “Excuse me? It feeds on
you. On
you
.” She pointed at a scar under the old woman’s breast bone.

“I trade for clean water. I think it give us a bottle. It
give us a machine instead. All things need to live. And he feeds shallow. No
one dies.” Galina smiled. “He give us the enzyme for free. I do not think this
fair, so I give him the shirt and pants you wear. Value for value.”

Adry didn’t want to discuss this. It didn’t fit with her
accepted world view. “Here’s two more poppers. Give her one tomorrow, and one
the next day. And I’m going to see if I can’t get my hands on more...”

Movement from behind. Both women turned fast. The Overseer
was back, an alien box in its pale hands. The objects inside were oddly shaped,
but their function was obvious. Alien Amenoperithol poppers. She rolled her
eyes.

“Will it suit?” Galina asked. Her hands moved restlessly
over the child’s, almost possessively. The family resemblance was pretty
strong.

“It takes three of mine to clear up basic biological
infection.” She raised an eyebrow at the Overseer.

“These are chemically the same.”

“It should work, then. As long as nobody else gets sick.”
She turned to Galina. “It gave you a purification system, are you using it for
washing and cooking, or just drinking water?”

“Cooking, yes. But we should not use potable water for
washing. It is too valuable.”

“So are your lives. Dirty water gets in your mouth when you
bathe, the bug gets on your skin from your clothes. If you can’t use the
purification system for washing, at least boil the water before you use it.
Same goes for sterilizing bandages. Boil purified water, put the bandages in,
and keep them…” she trailed off. Where the bloody hell could someone store
bandages in this swamp?

“Sterile boxes,” Galina turned to the Overseer. “I am sure I
can find two donors, perhaps three, to trade for--”

“They are outside, with more medical supplies.” It looked to
Adrienne. “There is a limit to my leechery.”

“And you’re above trading medical supplies for bleeding folk
dry?” she said, sarcastically.

“I am,” It said, no tone in its voice at all.

Note to self: Overseers have the sense of humor of a
traumatized rock.
“How widespread is this disease?” She moved on to the
next patient. If it were this prevalent everywhere, all the antibiotic poppers
and sterilizers in the universe wouldn’t save these people from this nasty
little bug.

“Is not limited to this area, but no other village has a
problem this severe.”

“That…is really suggestive.” She closed her eyes, brain
working far too fast to be forgivable. The Overseer had begun to leave. Adry
grabbed its sleeve. “Don’t go anywhere. We need to talk.” She handed over
another three poppers to an old man in faded clothes. “Take the first now, the
next tomorrow, and the third on the next day, okay?”

Galina took the bowl of poppers. “I can distribute them, if
it is that simple.” Adry nodded, and the old Russian woman moved to the next
patient. She jerked her head at the door. “Go to him, Doctor. Solve our
problem.”

She went, moving like someone in half a dream. The Overseer
stood outside. Terrible and alien and…bizarrely, more than a little lost.
Stockholm
Syndrome,
Adry thought, and shook that stupidity off.

“What did you wish to discuss?” The Overseer asked.

“A trade.”

Then:

Alarms sounded throughout Holton. Adry had been through
enough drills to know what they meant. Medium pitch alarm, the station was
venting atmosphere. Compromised weapon systems were a high double blat. And
that low base rumble throbbing through her feet? Invasion. Invasion. Invasion.

The Overseers had found Holton Station.

“How did they know where to look?” she whispered to Bryan.

He took her by the arms and pulled her towards the office
door. “Come on. We have to get you out of here.” Only he didn’t use  the main
exit. He pulled her back to the service entrances. “It’s a faster shot to the
military sections this way.”

Where the ships that would carry them away were waiting.
“No,” She said. Cold shock was fading back into action. “Bryan, I have
patients. I have to organize the medbay evac. That’s part of my job.”

“They’re going to evacuate the station.”

“Exactly. I need to—”

“Get on a ship. That’s protocol. You’re a partner in my
research, Adry. Your survival is priority.” He closed the door and dragged her
through the hallway.

“What will you be doing?”

“I have to delete our research. It’s all backed up on the
evac ships, but we cannot leave anything here. Not one scrap of data. I have to
make sure we get it all.”

“You have your research, Bryan. I have my patients.” She
took her hand out of his. “I’ll meet you in the military hall, and we’ll go to
the evac ships together. But you have to let me do my job.”

He closed his eyes, drew her hands to his lips and breathed
in. He was almost shaking with the tension passing all around them. “Valkyrie.”
That grip of his almost hurt her hands. “Promise me you’re not going to get
killed,” He whispered to her fingers. “Please.”

“Still with that old world charm.”

Blue eyes darted up to hers. “Don’t you forget that retro
suitcase.” The world shook hard, the noise shattering. He smiled in a tight,
very un-Bryan way. “Time to go.”

*****

Now:

“The infection has to have a nearby source,” She said,
dryly. “It sounds like this village is in line with a plume. We have to clean
it up.”

“We?” It asked, sounding amused.

“You lose half your cattle otherwise.” She sighed, closing
her eyes against her next move. This was betrayal, through and through. But did
she have a choice? “Help me, and I’ll give you the Enzyme formula, and all the
help you need to synthesize it.”

“Just to save this village?”

“I saw a couple of the late stage folk. They’re bleeding out
through the rash. I don’t trust this thing to stay local.” Silence. The swamp
seemed to breathe around them. Soft mist rose through the air and shimmered in
the low sunlight. “You beat me,” She whispered. “I’m not strong enough to watch
people die.”

It hissed, but somehow this was not scary anymore. More like
a man whistling in surprise than a monster being nasty. “I expected you to run
when I left you alone.” It jerked its head at the thick water floating around.
“They’re smart enough not to drink, wash or cook in this. They cart the water
in from the only flowing source. There.” It pointed with one long, strange
finger.

She squinted and could just make it out, a few floating
weeds moving with more purpose than the rest. “I’ll need things. I don’t know
what I’ll find. You’re going to have to let me go ahead alone so you can put it
together.” It looked down at her, mouth open just enough to let her see the
light of its tongue. Disgusted, she fished a data pad out of her pocket and
tapped the formula into it, then passed it over. “You said you’d let me go if
you had it. Now, you have it.”

The monster looked at the handheld as if it had never seen
one before. And perhaps she were going blind, but it looked as if its alien
hand began to shake. It pocketed the device quickly and handed her one of its
own. “This is a communicator. When you find the source of infection, press the
button. I will bring you whatever you need. My word.”

She nodded, sucking in air like it was all about to fade.
“The man I loved made that.” She said, turning her eyes up to the blank
faceplate, the ugly lips below. “If you use it to break us, I’ll hunt you down
and make sure you die.”

“I would do the same,” The monster whispered, “If our roles
were reversed.”

She turned around and hiked through the village. It took all
her willpower not to look back.

*****

Then:

“Move!”

The warning came seconds before an explosion ripped through
med bay. Most of the patients had been cleared. Now Adry was deleting important
files. Vanishing large portions of data the Overseers didn’t need to see. But
the lobbing of a grenade into her workspace was not something she expected.
Only her intern’s quick movements saved her from being a splatter on the rad
field.

“They’re here.” He whispered, and she nodded. Everything
they could do was done. It was time to go. The first stun bolt came through her
unit’s door just as she and the intern slipped out the back into the service
halls.

They passed service elevators, emergency shafts, ventilation
modules. The water pipes had shattered before cutoff was enabled, and the hall
they chose was ankle deep in water. An alarm sounded as they passed under it.
It was a middle tone, triple blast. Oxy venting from battle damage was becoming
a problem. They had to get out soon.. The meeting place she and Bryan had
agreed on was just ahead. A few more steps and they’d be safe.

Sun bolts hit the bulkhead just ahead. “Down!” She shouted.
A bolt passed harmlessly over her head, and her vision fizzled with its
passage. “This way!” They took the next turn. Two more to the military hall.
We’re
going to make it,
she thought. They hit the doors hard, spilling into the
hallway. And her heart plummeted like a stone, because so many people were
running to the evac ships, but Bryan wasn’t one of them.

The Overseers were right behind them, seconds away from the
hall. If they lost the tunnel, Bryan and any other survivors in his branch of
the station wouldn’t get out. But there were survivors in the other side as
well, cut off by the Overseers but still alive.
Valkyrie
, she thought.
The
chooser of the slain.
She had seconds to decide. Footsteps were rushing
towards her, light human tapping, heavy alien thumps.
I have been here
before.

“Can we cut the access to this hall to that half of the
station?” She asked, pointing back the way they came.

“That button right there. But no one will be able to get out
once we do.”

People. Perhaps ten, perhaps a hundred, perhaps a thousand,
all trapped in that warren with no escape. Their lives, for the ten, hundred,
or thousand lives that happened to include Bryan. “I didn’t see anyone,” She
said. It was cold inside. It was all so cold. “Did you?”

The kid hit buttons. “I’ll cut locks to all the doors. They
won’t get in or out of this block. Go get him. I can’t guarantee you’ll make it
back if you don’t go now.”

She nodded, and sliding the last of their data files into
his hands. “If I’m not back in twenty, cut the doors and get this out.”