Deep (13 page)

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161

Filed Under "Mehra"

All three men exchanged silent glances. Lawn watched them as she forced herself to remain still and quiet. She wanted to smile, knowing she had hit a nerve they thought they'd kept hidden. It was Brune who spoke first, but his nervousness was too evident.

"I'm afraid you're speaking nonsense, Officer Bascomb.

was destroyed."

"You're full of shit, and you know it," Lawn interrupted.

"Yes, the ship was destroyed, but not Deep." She stared directly into the captain's eyes, needing his reaction to her next words. "Not the man, Deep Mehra."

Yes!
Lawn nearly whooped for joy to see Brune's face flush and his eyes dilate like crazy.

Dr. Plegg stepped up to the plate. "Lawn, I'm afraid the psychological impact of the bonded connection you had with Deep, and his subsequent loss, has affected you more deeply than we originally believed." He looked at Millner. "Maybe we need to do more studies."

"Quit fucking with me!" Lawn snapped. She kept her hands clasped in her lap. It was either that or start swinging at all three men in anger.

"Did the ship tell you he was a real man?" Millner asked.

His face was also flushed, but Lawn got the impression his anger wasn't directed specifically at her.

162

She shook her head. "No, he didn't. I just pulled all the clues together until they started fitting."

"We're sorry to have to tell you this, but Deep is not and never has been a real person." Brune had regathered his wits enough to rejoin the argument. Or he thought he had.

"And you're a moron if you think I'm going to fall for your lies again."

"Officer Bascomb."

The coordinator crossed his arms over his chest and gave her his best stern father look. Lawn almost laughed.

"Officer Bascomb, what on earth makes you believe the ship was a real human being?"

"I didn't at first. But too many things didn't add up. Too many little things."

"Like what?" Millner insisted.

"Like the fact that he was too humanistic."

"The ship was sentient," Brune reiterated, as if constant repetition would sooner or later be accepted as the explanation for everything.

Lawn wasn't buying it. Never had, and never would.

"Sentience means the ship can think for itself," she said.

"Sentience doesn't mean emotional. Deep had...has...emotions. He can laugh, he can tease, he can joke, he can... He loved me. Don't you get it? He loved me!"

"The ship was created and ordered to bond with you," Dr.

Plegg reminded her.

Lawn nodded. "You're right. He did. He bonded to my DNA so he could read me medically, but not emotionally. You can never read someone emotionally. Not unless you're—"

163

Oh, God. Not unless you're psychic. Not unless you're
psychic!

Her eyes widened as another door opened to reveal more of the truth. Lawn stared at the three men, who could already read on her face what she was thinking.

"The rumors were true then?"

"What rumors?" asked Brune.

"We just...we just thought the stories that the Vogt ships were actually being run by people who were immensely gifted with psi abilities, we thought they were stories. You know, fabricated fantasies." She gave a little laugh. "But I argued that was a bit too absurd. I mean, how many people would you be able to find and train with that kind of power?"

Four.
A little voice in the back of her head supplied the answer.

They'd found four. That's why there were only four Vogt ships created. That was why there was no talk of more Vogt ships. Only the announcement that each Vogt would be refitted with a new crew member once the previous missions were deemed successful.

A warmth on her face told her she was crying, but Lawn ignored it. She stared up at the three men.

"The first two missions were successful. But when Deep blew up the ship, something happened to him, didn't it?

Something also blew up in his mind that you weren't expecting, that he wasn't expecting, and that's why you're trying to focus everything on me. You're making this thing out to be a big success story when the truth isthe truth is you're down to three ships now, aren't you? You're down to just 164

three people. Even if you build another ship to replace the Vogt ACE, you don't have anyone to run it, do you?"

Millner looked over at the doctor. "Maybe you need to extend Officer Bascomb's time off another week. Officer Bascomb, perhaps you need to check into the psychiatric ward over at the Bureau's clinic for further study. Apparently there have been some deeper psychological issues raised that we weren't aware of."

"Why? Are you afraid I'll go off ranting in public about the truth behind the Vogt ships?" She narrowed her eyes at all three men. "You don't have to worry, gentlemen. You have my word that will never happen. I will honor my contract, including the nondisclosure agreement, as long as you take me to him."

"As long as what?" Brune asked.

"Take me to him. Take me to Deep."

"Officer Bascomb."

"Are you trying to blackmail us?" Millner demanded harshly.

"No! You don't understand. You never will. I fell in love with Deep, and he loves me. Don't you get it?

He...loves...me."

She stood up suddenly, taking the three men aback.

"I have to see him. I have to touch him. I never had that chance onboard the Vogt. We were restricted not just by physical space, but in ways you could never understand or accept. I'm not crazy, and I'm definitely not schizoid. But I am more intelligent than you give me credit for because I found that one little hole in your otherwise perfect plan. I'm 165

right, aren't I? Deep is real. He's real, he's human, and he's somewhere here in the quad, isn't he?"

Dr. Plegg snorted. "Computer."

"No!" Millner swung on him. "I order you—"

"My rights as a physician can countermand any order you give me," the doctor snapped. "I have a patient in severe psychosis, and no way of bringing him out of it. If there's the least little hope her presence can make a difference, I'm willing to try. Computer, play introductory log Vogt ACE Dee Cee."

"Audio only, or with video?"

"Include video."

A viewscreen dropped down from the ceiling behind the desk. The room's lights dimmed automatically as the screen brightened. Lawn saw they were still in the coordinator's office, looking across the room from the angle of the desk.

Presently the door opened and a man walked in.

"Please. Sit." It was Millner's voice, directing the man to sit in the same chair Lawn was presently sitting in. Already her mind was whirling, threatening to black out on her. She fought to remain conscious, and to focus on the man and his voice.

"For the records, this is the introductory log for Vogt ACE

Dee Cee. Computer, note and tag."

"Confirmed. Noted and tagged."

"Please state name, statistics, employment, and current ranking," Millner instructed the man.

"My name is Deep Mehra. I am twenty-six years old, currently employed by the Galactic Enforcement Bureau as a 166

doctor of bioengineering, and newly assigned to the Vogt Project as a Level Six ranked Psi, enhanced."

From the moment the man entered the door, Lawn heard a soft whine in the room. The kind of whine a young puppy utters when he's alone and scared, and seeking his mother for solace. A heart-rending whine rising the depth of a lost soul.

The whine was coming from her. The instant the man introduced himself, and the sound of his beloved voice washed over her, tears flooded her eyes. They rolled unheeded down her cheeks and dripped unnoticed onto her uniform shirt as she reached out toward the screen.

"My name is Deep Mehra. I am twenty-six years old, currently employed by the Galactic Enforcement Bureau as a doctor of bioengineering, and newly assigned to the Vogt Project as a Level Six ranked Psi, enhanced."

Dearest God in heaven, thank you. Now help me. Please
help me!

It was man by the fountain. The man whose image she had made into the ship.

The image of Deep Mehra, and Deep the Vogt ship were all one and the same.

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167

Filed Under "Stasis"

"Come with me."

Dr. Plegg headed for the door, glancing back at her once to see if she was following. Lawn looked at the other two men, but Brune shook his head, letting her know they weren't going with them.

They entered the elevator, but this time they went up and exited out through the rear of the building. There was a walkway running from the honeycomb cylinder to the black basalt block. Lawn raised her eyebrows at the physician as they took another elevator, this time downward. Several floors. At one point she started to say something but Plegg signaled for silence. Lawn obeyed, afraid that any sign of disobedience on her part would kill any chance she had of seeing Deep.

By her estimate, the elevator descended at least a dozen or more floors although there were no numbers or markings on the panel inside the elevator car. Dr. Plegg merely plugged his finger into the DNA slot, gave a code number, and doors were closed.

The elevator opened up to a long, brightly lit hallway. On both sides of the corridor, doors were staggered far apart. As Lawn and the doctor walked down the slate floors, she got the feeling that they were the only people in the whole building.

"Where are we going?" she whispered.

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Plegg put a finger to his lips as they stopped before one of the unidentifiable doors. He inserted his finger into the DNA slot, and the lock clicked loudly.

It was another walkway, or rather, a catwalk, except the wall on one side appeared to be erected several feet away from a railing. The light inside was too dim to tell anything more.

"What I'm about to show you is known to less than a dozen people," Plegg whispered.

Very slowly, the lights began to rise, but they weren't white. They were greenish, as though she was gazing through an ultraviolet scope. The wall was a window, and through the window, a shape.

"Oh, dear God!"

It was a kind of tank. A very large tank filled with some kind of liquid, but Lawn doubted it was water. Maybe a gel.

Suspended inside the clear gel was a woman. She was wearing an air mask over her face, but Lawn could tell she was either asleep or unconscious. The woman was also naked except for wide, ribbonlike wrappings encircling her body.

Lawn blinked. She recognized those wrappings. Deep had worn the same exact mummylike bandages whenever he appeared to her until she'd requested he wear a uniform.

His uniform. Shit, why hadn't she recognized it before now? Deep wore one of the regimental dress uniforms, which as a scientist with level six clearance, he would own for formal occasions.

The woman within the tank moved her arm. It was barely perceptible, but Lawn noticed it.

169

"That's Dara, isn't it? Velderman's ship."

"Yes." They were speaking in whispers, as if they feared someone or some piece of equipment overhearing them.

Dara moved again, and her action was enough to have her whole body rotate inside her chamber. When she did, Lawn spotted several tubes attached to the woman's back.

"How long has she been in there?"

"In stasis? A little more than a month. Right now she's finalizing her connection with the ship. In another week, her human co-pilot will be indoctrinated, and his DNA will be fed to her."

Lawn knew exactly what he was talking about. "Why use real people?" she asked. "Didn't the research into sentient ships not pan out?"

She sensed his dejection. "We tried for years, for decades.

We never could get the level of intelligence we felt was imperative for such a dangerous job."

"Where did you get the idea for using a psi-enhanced person? Why the secrecy? Why lie to the public and make them believe the ships are artificially intelligent?"

"Because of funding. The Bureau would not fund any more experimental missions. If the Vogt program proved a failure, we were going to be ordered to go back to the two-person sentries, which have been the standard procedure for the past seventy years. And I don't have to explain to you how that program has fared."

Lawn nodded, not knowing if the physician noticed or not.

"But why psi enhanced?"

170

He snorted softly. "We were at the point where we were grasping at any straws, any possibility that might actually prove feasible." He took a noisy breath. "And we had Dr.

Mehra."

Lawn turned to face him. "Dr. Mehra? Deep?"

"It was his suggestion, and it eventually became his project."

"He became part of his own project?"

"And he hand-picked the other three psi candidates to be integrated into the other Vogt ships."

Dara moved again. This time she straightened up slightly.

To their surprise, she opened her eyes. A long silence followed as Lawn and the woman exchanged looks.

"You are Lawn." Dara's voice sounded relieved as it filtered through the small speakers in front of the window. Lawn moved closer to the wall panel but didn't touch it.

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Go to him." The woman's eyes slanted over to Dr. Plegg, then back to her. "Go to him."

"I am." Lawn started to say more, but Dara closed her eyes and moved away from the window. A touch on her arm drew her attention back to the doctor, who motioned for her to follow him.

"Come. This way."

"Now where?"

"I'm taking you to where Dr. Mehra is being held. But first there is something else I must show you."

They walked forward on the catwalk about twenty or thirty feet when Dr. Plegg stopped and made a motion toward the 171

wall. Like the first time, another pale green light came on, illuminating another tank exactly like the one Dara was in.

Except this tank was empty.

Lawn felt a sense of dread snake through her. "That was his tank," she stated without question.

"Yes." It was all he needed to say.

She studied the structure as she tried to imagine what it was like for Deep to be inside, where his body remained as weightless as if he was floating in space like she did. What was it like for him when he made love to her? How did he cope with the solitude? How did he exist?

"Dr. Plegg." She snagged his coat sleeve to detain him for a moment. The physician gave her a patient look. "Why are you trusting me with all this?" Lawn asked. "This is more than I need to know."

"No. You need to know all of it. Deep wanted it that way."

"What?"

"He sent specific orders to me, Captain Brune, and Coordinator Millner. He ordered that if you ever requested the truth, to give it to you. All of it." He laid a hand over hers clutching his sleeve and gave her fingers a little squeeze. "We knew from the beginning of your mission that you and Dr.

Mehra had a unique connection. That's why I'm praying you'll be able to help. Come with me. You'll understand when we get there."