RJ ignored him. "He's too far gone now for a space sickness shot to work."
"It would probably do more harm than good at this point," Topaz agreed.
"Yeah, but you won't know unless you try it," Levits said with a crooked grin. When both RJ and Topaz glared at him he just shrugged and smiled broader. "Just trying to help."
"We're going to have to keep him sedated for the rest of the trip," RJ said.
"That's three
days
, RJ," Topaz said in disbelief. "It's not healthy to keep someone sedated for three days. Even with the new drugs with the stabilizing feature and IV fluids there is still some dehydration, and after being completely shut down for that long there is a risk of bladder infection not to mention an impaction. I'm telling you right now I'm not doing any turd spelunking when he can't take a dump."
"Topaz," Levits started. "Have you ever seen what happens to someone with space sickness?"
"You know I haven't, smart-ass," Topaz said. "But I've read about it."
"I've seen it," RJ said. "We don't have a choice."
Janad didn't think she could answer even one more question about her planet. RJ and her weird brother were relentless. How much does it rain? What is the plant life like? What kind of animals? Questions about their government. Questions about their religion. How much did they sleep? What did they eat? Where did the Reliance ships land when and if they landed? Did they have a spaceport on the planet's surface? Did they have a satellite docking station or one on a moon or did the ships always land on the planet?
Some of the things they asked her she flat didn't have an answer for, in fact she didn't even know what they were talking about half of the time. While RJ and Poley kept asking questions about her planet and the way they lived, weapons, fighting styles and such. Topaz bombarded her with questions about her family tree. What color were her ancestors? Was everyone the same color? What were the traditions about their ancestry?
At one point, tired of all the questions, she snapped at them, "How would I know, I'm not a priest!"
"The priests know the origins of your race?"
"They know everything; they talk to the gods," she said.
"Your King?"
"And the others -- those that breathe the clouds into the sky," Janad said. "The ones who give us light and water."
Topaz looked confused.
For her things were much easier than things were for these people. They never seemed to be happy with her answers; they always wanted to know why and how. No answer ever seemed to be good enough for them. A simple answer didn't seem to satisfy them at all. She didn't understand them completely, however she did know that they took the same information she had and came to conclusions she had never even thought of before.
She was purposely avoiding them now. She walked down the hall away from their voices, walking as lightly as she could and munching on a protein bar.
Stupid questions all the time. I feel like my brain will explode. I have to stay away from them; they aren't leaving anything in my brain. They are taking everything out.
She walked past David's room. The door was open, and she looked in. He was asleep, no wait a minute he looked
. . .
dead! She crept in the room walked up to him and watched him closely. She could see his chest moving with his breathing, and she started to breathe again herself. He didn't move, though. It was the way he was laying; he just didn't look right. She sat on the bed and poked at his shoulder lightly. He didn't move, so she poked him a little harder. He still didn't move, so she punched at his shoulder. When he still didn't wake up, she drew back her fist to hit him hard.
"What the hell are you doing?" RJ said as she grabbed Janad's fist in mid swing.
Janad was scared; no one had ever snuck up on her before. She was a hunter, a warrior, no one should be able to do what RJ had just done. RJ jerked her up off the bed with a single motion. Janad's natural instinct over-rode her good sense, and she punched RJ in the face with her other hand. RJ easily grabbed hold of her other wrist and held it, too.
"Well, you're fast. I'll give you that," RJ said. "I asked you a question."
Janad worked at not looking as scared as she felt. RJ's face seemed none the worse for wear, meanwhile her hand hurt like hell. Punching her was like punching a rock. She made Janad almost as uneasy as her creepy brother Poley did. They weren't right – either of them.
"I was the hell checking him to see if he was all right. He's in a coma or something," Janad said.
RJ let Janad go giving her a look that let her know she'd better not try anything. She turned her back on Janad, which really pissed Janad off. Obviously RJ saw her as no threat at all. She who had lived through two wars and brought home much game didn't frighten this abomination of flesh in the slightest.
RJ sat down on the bed beside David and started to pet his head, moving the hair away from his face. "He's sick," RJ said by way of explanation.
"What's wrong with him?" Janad asked. After all the questions they had asked her she wasn't really satisfied anymore with such a simple answer.
RJ was silent and for a minute. Janad thought RJ was just going to ignore her question. Finally she spoke. "He has the space sickness. We should have medicated him for it before we left Earth. At the very least we should have noticed and medicated him before he got really sick. Now we have to give him something to keep him asleep until we get to the surface of your planet. A few days on solid ground and he should be fine," RJ said.
"How will we get to the surface of my planet?" Janad asked.
"It just so happens that we're still fighting about that," RJ said. She turned to Janad and smiled, the first smile Janad had seen on her face since they had crashed through the ceiling onto the floor. When she smiled Janad didn't find her nearly as terrifying. "Come on, Topaz has decided to cook; it should be interesting if nothing else." RJ got up and started for the door. Janad followed reluctantly.
"Are you going to ask me more questions?" Janad asked wearily, and she heard RJ laugh for the first time.
"I guess we have sort of bombarded you, but you have to see where we're coming from. We don't know anything about you, your people or your planet. There are only a few of us. If we are going to succeed we are going to have to know as much as possible. Knowledge is power and our most important weapon. But I'll tell you what, while we're eating dinner we'll try not to ask you any questions."
"Then I'll come," they started down the hall. "What's wrong with your arm?" Janad asked.
RJ looked down at her right arm, which was jerking a little bit more than usual. Most of the time she didn't even notice it. If she was using it for a specific purpose it stopped; it was only when she relaxed that it started ticking. "It's nerve damage."
"Doesn't it bother you?" Janad asked.
"Not really. I've been this way all my life. My father made a mistake when he was making me, and this happened," RJ answered.
"What do you mean when your father made you?" Janad asked with a confused look on her face.
RJ laughed. "Now who's asking too many questions?"
Topaz had made some sort of soup from what he had found in the galley. It looked funny but was surprisingly good.
"I'm used to cooking with fresh vegetables from my garden, but when in space. . ." He laughed and shrugged.
Janad noticed that Poley was not present and presumed that he was flying the ship.
"So
. . .
how do you propose that we get to the surface of the planet?" Levits asked.
"The same way we got from Earth to the moon," Topaz said. "The girl said they transported them up to this ship. So we simply dock at whatever temporary station they've set in space
. . .
"
"More," Janad said holding out her bowl.
"All right, Oliver," Topaz said with a laugh as he ladled soup into her bowl. "Any way, as I was saying. We get back in the crate, let them unload us, and they teleport us down to the surface of the planet."
"And of course the Reliance is so stupid that they're not going to even notice that there is no crew!" Levits shook his head in disbelief. "They won't even wonder where the twenty-five men who are supposed to be on this ship are."
"Oops!" Topaz said with a laugh. "I hadn't thought of that."
"More," Janad said, holding out her empty bowl again.
Topaz looked into the empty bowl and then filled it with soup again. "Do you have a hollow leg?"
"I don't know," Janad answered, shoveling the food in her mouth again.
"We have to find a decent spot to land the ship away from everything. This ship's not really meant for landing on a planet, so it has to be someplace nice and clear with lots of room for error. From what I've learned about the ship it seems that it only has emergency landing gear, and that doesn't look like it's ever been tested outside the docking station. We don't want to be stuck on that planet with a crippled ship and no way to get off," Levits said thoughtfully.
"That planet is denser than Earth," RJ said matter-of-factly.
"So?" Levits asked with a shrug.
"So, the gravitational pull is stronger," RJ said. "If no large crafts land on Earth because of the fuel necessary to reach escape velocity
. . .
"
Levits understood now. "If we land on the planet's surface we might not have enough fuel to even make escape velocity much less go anywhere else. We'd definitely be stuck on the planet. OK, so what's your big plan? Kill every Reliance man on the docking satellite and take over with one of our men in a coma and a primitive girl with a bag full of rocks?"
"I don't have any rocks," Janad said in a confused tone.
"Actually, I was thinking we could take one of the skiffs," RJ said. "There are actually two on the ship."
Topaz laughed at the look on Levits' face, and even Levits started to smile.
He shrugged. "I guess if I had checked things out a little more thoroughly I would have known we were carrying skiffs. It's not standard equipment for this vessel."
"I'm assuming they were taking them to the satellite. They probably use them to shuffle the transport stations and personnel around the planet," RJ said.
Levits nodded; that made sense.
"But what do we do with this ship, RJ?" Topaz asked. "When it doesn't make its delivery the Reliance is going to know it's missing. They're going to look for it."
"Especially with all that gold metal," Janad said shaking her head.
"Gold!" the other three exclaimed.
"Yeah, there's a bunch of it. I saw them put it in a room with a thick door that wouldn't open," Janad informed them as she finished off her bowl of soup.
Janad wished she hadn't said anything. They didn't even let her finish eating. They immediately made her take them to where the gold metal was hidden in a supply closet behind a fake wall.
"Did you see what the combination was?" RJ asked.
Janad shook her head no.
"Screw it," Levits pulled his side arm.
"No!" RJ screamed as he fired. "Hit the deck!"
Janad didn't have to be told twice. She hit the floor beside RJ and watched as Levits danced around as the laser blast hit the safe and started to bounce around the room before dying in Topaz's left side.
"Ouch!" Topaz screamed. He gave Levits a heated look.
"Sorry, Old Man," Levits said with a shrug.
Janad jumped up at the same time RJ did. She went to Topaz to help him while RJ, ignoring the older man's pain, started yelling at Levits.
"Levits! You idiot! Do you really think they would go to all this trouble to hide their shipment from potential pirates and then not put a laser reflecting force field over it?" RJ shoved him in the shoulder, and he stumbled back a step. Levits righted himself and shoved her back, which caused no reaction in her what so ever.
"Are you all right?" Janad asked Topaz. She was worried about him. The ray seemed to have gone right through him and the wound was smoking on both sides. His "comrades" seemed to be completely unconcerned.
"I'll be fine. However it could use a cleaning," he said.
"We need to take him to the sick place," Janad said in a panic.
"Yeah, you go ahead. We're busy here," RJ said waving her hand in the air dismissively.
Janad helped Topaz to the sick bay. He sat on the table, and she went to get the things she had seen Poley clean David's wound with. Topaz took off his shirt; she could see the pain etched into his face.
"I can't believe that your friends are so unconcerned about you. They are very cold."
Topaz laughed as she started to clean the wound. "Are you worried about me, Janad?" he asked.
"Why wouldn't I be? I've seen men die from less," she said.