The Outback Stars (50 page)

“Jodenny,” Osherman said. “You'll never get home if you go with him.”

“Maybe not.” Jodenny reached out and took Myell's hand anyway.

*   *   *

After Osherman was gone, Jodenny buried herself in Myell's arms and asked, “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes,” Myell said.

At the first stop she vomited. At the second stop they lurched outside to a dimly lit world blanketed with sleet. A half-frozen creek barred their way to the Father Sphere a hundred meters away. They stomped across it, Jodenny's feet aching with cold. Wind whipped at their thin clothes. When they reached the Father, they had to dig at ice-crusted snow with their bare hands to get under the arch. Jodenny's hands and feet were numb by the time they reached the inside, which was also freezing cold.

“We're almost there,” Myell said, his teeth chattering.

A mistake. They had both made a mistake. She lay against him in the icy darkness, willing the end to come mercifully. She said, “Terry—”

“Don't give up now,” he insisted.

The next stop was filled with warm sunlight from a jagged, charred breach in the Sphere's side. Bones lay nearby, some of them burned and charred. They staggered back to a Child Sphere where the ground was covered with ash. Myell collapsed inside the ouroboros, his lips blue. Jodenny hammered at his chest.

“Goddamn it!” she yelled. “Wake up!”

He wasn't breathing. She did it for him, sweat rolling down her back, her arms and shoulders aching from the strain of doing compressions. Four minutes. Five—

Yellow light.

She thought she heard the hiss of a snake, but it was simply Myell as he gasped for air. Jodenny began to cry.

“They're back,” a man's voice said, and a light nearly blinded her. “Lieutenant Scott, Sergeant Myell, you're both under arrest.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Jodenny didn't see Myell for the next five days. Every day she asked about him and every day her handlers said, “He's fine, Lieutenant.” She suspected he was being held at the same secluded facility she was, but had no evidence and no way of finding out. Her room had a bed, a desk, and an adjoining head, but no deskgib, comm units, or media access. The wallvids showed her a picture of a deep, tranquil forest at the height of summer, with simulated sunrises and sunsets. The door locked and unlocked only when guards came to escort her to medical appointments or debriefings. Not interrogations, her handlers told her.
Debriefings.

“Please draw for us all the glyphs you saw on the ouroboros,” they asked, and she managed to sketch out a dozen or so. They showed her others, but she couldn't say for sure whether or not she'd seen them. Jodenny was also interviewed, extensively, about the worlds she had visited, and their formation of Spheres. More than once she was asked to recount the exact events that had taken her, Chiba, Myell, and Osherman on their journey.

“Tell us again why you decided to split up,” said one of her interrogators. None of them wore insignia or uniforms, and Jodenny wasn't sure if they were Team Space or some kind of ultrasecret civilian intelligence agency.

Jodenny said, “He wanted to keep going through the Sphere we'd been traveling through. Sergeant Myell and I didn't think we'd survive it.”

The interrogator consulted his gib. “Sergeant Myell had another idea. Based on information he received from a snake.”

The interrogator's voice was mild, his expression blank. Jodenny said, “If you bring him in here, you can ask him yourself.”

The interrogator didn't answer. He was about fifty years old, with short black hair and bright green eyes. He was physically fit, with the ramrod-straight posture of a military man. He said his name was Wolf, which seemed unlikely. He was in charge of the others—the woman with a heart-shaped face, the younger man with a scar on his cheek. She wondered if he had ever gone traveling through a Sphere, or if he knew what it was like to set foot on an utterly new world.

Wolf and his friends didn't seem seemed particularly interested in Chiba's fate, though they asked repeatedly about Osherman. Late at night, unable to sleep, she pictured him lost in the network, lurching from one Sphere to the next. She wondered what fate was waiting for her and Myell. Would they ever be allowed to leave this place, wherever it was? Would Team Space try to suppress their memories as they had after the
Yangtze
?

“I would like to see my lawyer,” she told Wolf on the third day.

“What is it you think you've done wrong?” he asked.

“I don't think I've done anything wrong. But I'm being kept here incommunicado against my consent, and I haven't been charged with anything. That violates the Seven Sisters Constitution.”

Wolf only said, “I see,” and went back to showing her pictures of different glyphs, asking if she recognized any from her travels.

Her hand had mostly healed up from the stinging shrub injury, though sometimes her fingers still tingled. The doctor who treated her was sure that the residual effects would fade.

“And the memory block?” Jodenny asked, letting her bitterness bleed through. “What about the effects from that?”

The doctor raised an eyebrow. “Your retrograde amnesia has been attributed to head injuries you received on the
Yangtze.
There's no record of a memory block.”

“I'm not surprised,” Jodenny said. “It was put in without my permission.”

“Hmm,” the doctor replied, but said no more.

On the fifth day Jodenny woke early, did sit-ups and push-ups, showered under a welcome spray of hot water, and dressed in the civilian clothes they had given her. Breakfast was delivered on a tray by a young woman. Afterward two guards escorted her down several flights of stairs to a long hallway of closed doors. The building itself, decorated in soothing shades of dark gray and blue, was quiet all around her. She was shown into a conference room where Myell was sitting with Wolf.

He looked well enough, though there were dark circles under his eyes. He stood up immediately, saying, “Lieutenant Scott,” and in his voice she heard her own emotions: enormous relief, along with apprehension about their current situation.

She sat next to him, but not so close as to actually press her leg against his. Wolf, his expression as carefully blank as ever, said, “Lieutenant, Sergeant, this morning marks the end of your debriefing. We're satisfied that that you're not holding back information about your experience. We're grateful for your full cooperation to date, and would like to extend an invitation for you to join our project.”

Looking perplexed, Myell asked, “Which project is that, sir?”

“You need to ask?” Wolf replied.

“Exploring the Wondjina Transportation System,” Jodenny said. “Finding out more about it.”

Myell said, “But it makes people sick. It wasn't made for human use.”

Wolf steepled his hands together on the tabletop. “Your security clearances have been updated and backdated to the day you left Kookaburra. You'll be signing your agreement to them shortly. What happened to you, and any information you've gained from that experience, is strictly classified. If you were to speak of it to others, the entire project would be jeopardized. If you stay here, with us, you'd be able to explore the matter more fully with like-minded researchers and explorers. It's a rare and precious opportunity.”

Jodenny sat back in her chair. The walls and overhead were smooth, but she imagined somewhere a camera was recording this session.

“Commander Osherman said we were somehow encoded,” she said. “All we have to do is step into a Sphere from now on and the system will activate.”

Wolf's expression gave nothing away. “Not exactly, but it's accurate enough that you should never attempt it. We'll be watching to make sure you don't.”

“You're not listening,” Myell said, to both of them. “It wasn't made for us to use. Who knows what might happen if you keep sending people through—not just to them, but to all of us.”

“So you believe,” Wolf replied, leading Jodenny to wonder what exactly had transpired during Myell's debriefings. Wolf continued. “If you join us, Sergeant, you'll be able to see firsthand what accomplishments we've made and how the system could benefit everyone in the Seven Sisters. If you choose not to participate, you'll be unable to tell anyone about your experience upon pain of court-martial or worse.”

Jodenny already knew what Myell's answer would be. As for herself, she was sorely tempted to say yes. Traveling among the stars, setting forth on new planets, maybe meeting the Wondjina themselves—she could happily sign up for a project such as that. But then she remembered Myell's heart stopping at the end, and his body lax in her arms.

“I want to return to regular duty,” she said. “I'm sure the
Aral Sea
's departed by now, but perhaps the
Alaska
has an open billet.”

“Two open billets,” Myell insisted.

“You'll never get another chance like this one,” Wolf warned.

Jodenny reached under the table and squeezed Myell's hand, surveillance cameras be damned. “We know that.”

“Let's hope you don't regret it,” Wolf said, rising to his feet.

“What happens now?” Myell asked.

“Once you sign your new clearances we'll notify Fleet that you're ready for active duty. I'll convey your request to return to ship duty, but nothing's guaranteed.”

Jodenny asked, “You're not going to erase our memories?”

Wolf's gaze narrowed. “I'm not sure why Commander Osherman told you that story, Lieutenant. As far as our doctors can tell, nothing of the sort was done to you by Team Space. Or, if it was, the chemical markers are no longer detectable.”

Jodenny pushed down a shiver. “Who else would want to block my memory of an ouroboros? And why?”

“I don't know. If your memory had been intact, we would have simply debriefed you, offered you the same deal we're offering you now, or sworn you to secrecy.”

Wolf left the conference room. The woman with the heart-shaped face came in with flatgibs for them to review and sign. Jodenny read through document after document that outlined her new security clearance and the penalties she faced if she violated its terms, including court-martial and life imprisonment. She would be bound to it for the rest of her life, even if she left Team Space and became a civilian. After she and Myell were done affixing their signatures, a guard took them down more stairs to a small self-service café and said, “If you'll wait here, someone will be with you shortly.”

The guard took up position at the door. Jodenny grabbed a cup of horchata and slid into a booth. Myell's coffee went untouched as he sat across from her and leaned forward intently.

“You're all right?” he asked. “Your hand?”

Jodenny wanted to laugh. “It's fine. You're the one who stopped breathing.”

“I don't remember much. Snow and ice, but nothing after that.”

“You're okay now?” she asked, and it wasn't so much a question as a reassurance. They were both alive and well, and would soon return to their professional lives. Though she was ridiculously happy just sitting with him, Jodenny had no idea what to do next about their relationship. She could resign her commission. He could leave Team Space at the end of his contract. Or they could both continue on active duty, and willingly violate fraternization rules.

“Things are going to work out,” Myell said, as if reading her mind. “Three months, and I'm free of Team Space.”

Jodenny clutched her cup. “You shouldn't have to give up your career. You deserve to be a chief, and Team Space needs people like you.”

Myell glanced toward the guard, who didn't appear to be listening to them. “I never figured myself for a career sailor. Whatever happens, for the next three months you're just another lieutenant and I'm just another sergeant. Easy, right?”

He smiled, but she could see that the effort was for her sake. Three months was manageable, she supposed, though it sounded like a lifetime. She was still mulling it over when another guard came to take them to their rooms, where fresh uniforms in correct sizes and with proper insignia had already been laid out. Twenty minutes later Jodenny was escorted to an underground parking facility, where Myell was standing outside a limousine-flit with tinted windows. He looked as uncomfortable in his uniform as she felt in hers.

“Our ride, apparently.” Myell held open the passenger door. “After you, Lieutenant.”

Jodenny slid into the cool, dark interior and was startled to find a three-star admiral sitting inside.

“Ma'am!” Jodenny said.

“So you're the infamous Lieutenant Scott,” Admiral Nilsen said flatly, and waited until Myell was seated beside Jodenny. “The equally infamous Sergeant Myell. How exciting for me to meet you both.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” Myell said, a little tentatively.

The car began moving. The windows made it impossible for Jodenny to see where, but her attention was in any case focused solely on the woman across from her.

“I'll be brief,” Nilsen said. “The
Aral Sea
hasn't left orbit. Her departure was delayed. Captain Umbundo is adamantly opposed to your returning onboard. The legal investigation into the smuggling ring is still ongoing, there have been several internal reassignments, no one has been able to locate Agent Ishikawa, and he has enough on his hands without you two adding to the mixture. Several of my staff have suggested I simply stick the two of you in the dullest, drabbest jobs possible, somewhere where you can't possibly cause any more trouble than you have already.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Jodenny said, her stomach churning.

Nilsen continued. “At the same time, it'll be less of a hassle for my office if you're far away from curious journalists. We've squelched most of the reports of you two disappearing in the middle of a Mother Sphere, but interest isn't going to die anytime soon.”