Vale of Stars (21 page)

“You goddam bastard! What have you done to her?” Jene managed to choke out.

Tann felt his jaw for blood and, finding none, turned to the guard. “Take her to a cell for now. I want her to cool off.”

The guard hesitated. Tann raised his voice. “Now!”

“Sir, with all respect, you do not have authority here. Please stay out of this.” The guard spoke to Jene. “I’m going to let you up, Commissar. But I will still be here. If you try anything like that again, I’ll have to put you in a tank. Do you understand?” The guard spoke precisely, with respect due a Commissar, but also with firmness.

Jene mumbled something that passed for assent. The guard rose from astride her and took up position next to Tann again. Dolen helped Jene up while Kuarta watched impassively.

“I’ll ignore that,” Tann said calmly. “Let me finish. Yallia is under Dr. Onizaka’s care right now. She is being examined.”

“We know that,” Kuarta said, almost inaudibly. “You gave us your personal assurance that she would not be harmed. You asked us if we would stay here and wait for your return. We have done as you asked. Now it’s your turn. Take me to my daughter.”

“Very well. I have no intention of keeping you from her, Doctor. I just wanted to—”

“I’m sure you mean well, Mr. Tann,” Dolen said quickly, before Jene could respond. “We want to cooperate with you.”

Jene murmured something. Tann turned to her. “What was that?”

“I said I don’t believe you.”

“What don’t you believe?”

“The Commissar-General would not order all of this. I demand to see him.”

“As it happens, he wishes to see you, too, Commissar. Or would you prefer to see your granddaughter first?”

Jene hesitated. Kuarta spoke in the vacuum. “Ma, go to Newfield. Dolen and I will be fine.”

Jene nodded.

Tann spoke to the guard. “Presumably I am not overstepping my authority to request that additional guards accompany Commissar Halfner in light of her assault on me?”

The guard stared at him with not-quite-concealed loathing, then called for backup on her radio. Tann nodded in satisfaction, then gestured to the door. The party left the conference room, three of them for Dr. Onizaka’s lab, Jene to the administrative center of the planet.

*   *   *

Yallia scrambled to her feet and dashed towards the glass wall that kept her from her mother and father, who had just entered the room with Tann. She stirred up faint green eddies of gas in her wake. Dolen, too, ran to his side of the glass enclosure and pressed his hands up to hers. There was a thin section of vacuum between the panes as an extra layer of security in the unthinkable event of a breakdown in barrier integrity. Yallia was clearly shouting “Mommy! Daddy!” even though no sound came through the glass.

“What are you doing to her?” Kuarta said, turning to Onizaka.

Onizaka had begun to approach the parents, a half-smile on her lips that vanished immediately under Kuarta’s withering stare.

“She’s not in any pain or danger, Doctor.”

“What are you doing to her?” The question was repeated in the same frigid tone.

Onizaka looked at Tann, who nodded indifferently and studied the panel readout. Onizaka said, “She’s in Dome-normal atmosphere with an admixture of chlorine gas.”

“How much?”

“Right now, she’s at four hundred parts per million.”

Kuarta gasped. “Four hundred?”

“What? What does that mean?” Dolen said, his hands still pressed against the glass opposite Yallia’s.

“She’s breathing chlorine at almost three times lethal amounts,” Kuarta said over her shoulder.

“But she is showing absolutely no adverse effects. See for yourself,” Onizaka said, gesturing to the wall readout that Tann was idly examining. He moved off, hands behind his back, as Kuarta and Onizaka spoke in low tones about the data.

“She’s been in here for three hours?” Kuarta said, scrolling back through the experiment history.

“Yes, but she’s only been in this level of exposure for about twenty minutes.”

“And she’s given no signs of distress?”

“None at all. Oh, she said she’s hungry, but that’s almost certainly not test-related.”

“Have you fed her?” Dolen said from his position at the glass.

Onizaka looked at him. “We have. We gave her four hundred calories, give or take a few, and—”

Kuarta blurted out, “Ninety thousand milligrams of salt?” She turned from the readout on which the meal specifics were displayed.

“She wanted more, but I wanted to limit it at first.”

“Let me speak to her,” Kuarta said, glancing about her for the intercom switch.

Tann himself flicked the toggle from his place near the corner of the room. “Go ahead, Doctor. Professor. She can hear you.”

“Mommy?”

“Sweetie, are you all right?”

“I want to get out of here. I want to go home.”

“Soon, dear. Mommy will take you home soon.” Kuarta rose from where she was squatting and turned to Tann. “I want her out of there.”

“We’re not done with the testing,” Onizaka said.

“Yes, you are.”

Tann’s hands unclasped from behind him as he approached Kuarta. “Doctor, you don’t seem to understand. The girl behind the glass is more than just your daughter.”

“What?” This, suddenly, from Dolen.

“She’s a member of this colony, and a potentially dangerous one at that.” Tann’s eyes did not blink.

Kuarta matched his stare. “You know what happened to her.”

“Yes. And we know what happened in the Crèche.”

Kuarta’s eyes widened. “You’d use that to keep my daughter here?”

“I’d use anything in my power to keep a dangerous mutant out of the general population. I would invent facts if it suited me. Fortunately, I do not need to. The girl has provided me with reason enough.” He did not smile, exactly, but his expression changed subtly. He was satisfied.

There was silence for a moment, then Kuarta spoke again. Her voice was almost tender, even as a deep hatred for this misshapen man swelled in her. “I know what you did to her. I know what you did to me, to all the other Ship women twenty years ago when we arrived. And now it is affecting my daughter.”

Onizaka gasped. Kuarta ignored her. “You tell me she is a dangerous mutant. But you are responsible.”

Tann snorted. “You are irrational, Doctor. I am responsible? And to what do you refer when you say you know what I did to all shippie women twelve years ago?” Tann placed slight emphasis on the number, as if to reinforce the distinction between argie and shippie. “You are inventing conspiracies out of worry for your daughter.” He turned to Dolen. “Professor, can’t you speak to your wife? Assure her we have only the best interests of your daughter and the colony at heart.”

“My wife is her own person, Mr. Tann.”

Kuarta started at Dolen at this unexpected show of resistance.

Tann, too, was taken slightly aback. “Surely, you don’t believe her wild—”

“Why not? Because I’m argie, like you?”

Tann cocked his head slightly in affected surprise. “No, because I thought you more rational than your wife. Perhaps I misjudged you.” He loaded his voice with contempt, but Dolen did not rise to the bait. Kuarta stepped forward and addressed Tann.

“The evidence is clear. Yallia’s mutation cannot be a natural one.”

“Why not?” Tann looked at Onizaka. “Doctor? Can you rule out natural causes for the child’s mutation?”

Onizaka’s unease was clear. She started to speak, stopped, then finally mumbled, “Carll, maybe we should call Newfield.”

Tann scowled at her. “Why?”

Onizaka fumbled for a response. “Well, I.…”

“You want to consult with the Commissar-General? I can tell you what he will decide. Do you really suppose that the colony can take any course of action other than expulsion of all hybrid children?”

“Expulsion? To where?” Kuarta said.

“Outside, of course.” Into the stunned silence of the laboratory Tann continued, “The child is dangerous—the incident at the Crèche shows that clearly. You’ve told me that other children will soon manifest their mutations, posing an even greater threat to the colony. Furthermore, we cannot know if the mutation will not eventually make the oxygen atmosphere of the domes toxic to these children. With all these facts in mind, I see no alternative to expulsion from the colony.”

As Kuarta listened, she watched Dolen’s face change. In a sudden flash of insight in the deep recesses of her mind, she realized that her husband was receiving a far greater shock than she. Kuarta had lived her entire life suspicious of government—her mother’s involvement in politics served to strengthen her wariness, not diminish it—but Dolen had always believed implicitly in the goodness of all who served in administration. He was the perfect citizen—conscientious, loyal, blind to fault or malice in his government. Kuarta saw his almost childlike trust in appointed authority shattered by Tann’s words. She saw something twist and break inside of him as the lines on his once-soft face hardened almost imperceptibly, and Kuarta knew he would never be the same man again.

“You…why did you do this?” Dolen said, rising unsteadily from the glass barrier, using it to support his weight.

“You keep saying that,” Tann answered, turning to look at him. “I will put it down to grief and shock, but I assure you, I had nothing to do with this. It must have been something in your shippie genes.”

Kuarta reacted without thinking. She leapt at him. The attack was not precise; as she lashed out at him, she had no plan, no goal. She merely wanted to end the words and somehow smash this nightmare she knew Tann had created.

Tann easily sidestepped Kuarta’s charging body, producing a weapon from his pocket. He smoothly brought it to bear on Kuarta as she slammed against the glass a meter away from him.

“Get back, Doctor. You too, Professor,” he said, keeping his eyes on Kuarta. “I’d rather not use this on you. As you can see, it is not a paralyzer. Your deaths would be inconvenient to explain, though not impossible.”

Kuarta’s shoulders slumped. She and Dolen moved slowly away from Tann and his weapon.

Tann kept his gaze on Kuarta and Dolen and said to Onizaka over his shoulder, “Karin, call the constables. I think it’s time for the parents to go so you can finish your work.” He waited for a few seconds, and suddenly saw Kuarta’s eyes grow large as they spied movement to his left. Tann turned in alarm, only to receive a vicious blow to the face as Onizaka brought a heavy lab chair down on him. Tann crumpled to the ground with dull thud, the weapon flying from his hand to land a few feet from Dolen.

Dolen and Kuarta watched, frozen for a moment, as Onizaka raised the chair again and brought it crashing down on Tann’s supine body. Tann partially deflected the force of the blow with his arms, but one of the chair supports struck his face. Tann’s head cracked onto the floor of the lab and he lay still.

Onizaka raised the chair yet again, but Kuarta recovered her presence of mind fast enough to intervene. “Stop! Karin, leave him! You’ve done enough.”

Onizaka stared at Kuarta for a moment, her eyes wild, unseeing. Then she seemed to recover her wits and slowly lowered the chair. She stared down at Tann’s unmoving body. “You’d better get out of here,” she said quietly and pressed the cycle button on the chamber airlock. Blowers whirred to life, pumping the airlock to overpressure.

Dolen had scooped up the weapon and now turned on the intercom to Yallia’s chamber. Immediately, the sound of hysterical crying filled the air. Yallia was pressed up against the glass, red-faced and terrified.

“Dear, you need to come out now. Go to the door and go inside. There will be a little wind, but that’s okay. Just go into the little room over here,” Kuarta tapped the glass of the airlock outer door. Yallia hurried to the airlock and entered. Onizaka closed the door remotely when she was inside and checked the airlock gauge. “Only trace chlorine in the lock. About 20 ppm,” she said and opened the outer door.

A strong chlorine smell from Yallia’s clothes made the three adults blink as the girl rushed to her mother’s and father’s arms.

“I want to go home,” Yallia kept repeating.

Onizaka smiled faintly and moved to Dolen. She held her hand out for the weapon. Dolen placed it in her hand, and it disappeared into one of the lab coat’s pockets. “I’m sorry, Yallia,” she said.

Yallia blubbered for a few more seconds and turned a tear-streaked face to her. “For what?”

“Everything.” Onizaka looked at Tann. “I don’t know why I did it.”

Kuarta started at her, then looked stupidly at the overturned chair. “What?”

“You were right, of course. About the mutation. I was just trying…I thought I could make the colony better.”

Kuarta did not try to console her. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“And go where?” Dolen answered. “We can’t hide. Tann will regroup and organize a search. While I appreciate what you did for us, Doctor, it may prove futile.” All three adults stared at Tann’s body. It took a full twenty seconds before Dolen added quietly, “Maybe one of you should check to see if he’s alive.”

It was Onizaka who knelt down and pressed a hand to his neck. “Pulse steady. He probably has a concussion, maybe a fractured skull.”

“What about internal bleeding?” Kuarta asked, still clasping her daughter tightly.

“Can’t tell. I’ll have to get him to Valhalla Hospital.”

“Couldn’t you just treat him here?” Dolen asked.

“I wouldn’t chance it. This isn’t an operating room, Professor. He’ll need to go to the hospital.”

“Then what happens?” Dolen asked. No one answered.

“I want to go home,” Yallia said again and started crying anew. Kuarta and Dolen looked at each other, helplessly.

“Why not?” Kuarta said. “We can’t run, and it’s better than staying here. Maybe Ma will have some luck with Newfield,” she said, not believing her own words. Dolen hesitated a moment, then nodded.

So Kuarta and Dolen, because they could not think of anywhere else to go, took their daughter home, perhaps for the last time.

The trip home was uneventful: Tann’s swift action and secrecy in apprehending Yallia now worked to the Verdafners’ advantage. No constable stopped them as they took the wirebus back to New Chicago in the early morning. Yallia slept fitfully in her mother’s lap as the wirebus glided smoothly through the outskirts of Valhalla and into the transfer tube joining one Dome complex to another.