Authors: Cidney Swanson
Then she withdrew her hand, saying, “You could give me a lift to that motor pool two blocks away. Anything else—I’m afraid it wouldn’t be helpful. I can’t gamble my planet’s safety. And you’ve got your exam.”
Pavel’s lips pulled tight; she saw how his mind was torn.
“You’ve done all anyone could,” she said. “Thank you for everything.”
“Everything except the broken arm,” said Pavel, flushing.
“I’m sure you’ll be a great physician,” said Jessamyn.
The two climbed on Pavel’s bike, Jess as the passenger this time. She folded her cocooned arm awkwardly around his waist, catching it with her good arm. Her eyes pressed closed with the small heartbreak of holding so close that from which she must divide herself.
“Oh, hey,” said Pavel. “You can remove the cast this evening. Any time after 8:00 p.m. Until then, your left wrist won’t scan at all.”
Jessamyn laughed, a tiny sort of noise in the quiet flush of dawn. “You do realize that the last thing I need right now is for that chip to be readable? Double-chipping? Not good. Plus, my left chip could link me to the events here.”
“Oh. Yeah. So, nice coincidence, huh? If I had to injure you, at least I picked the correct arm.”
Jess recalled the words of Secretary General Mei Lo, millions of kilometers away:
I don’t believe in coincidences, Jessamyn.
“Some coincidence,” she murmured.
They reached the motor pool.
“The hoverport is right there at the hospital, by the way,” said Pavel. “You can rent just about anything.”
“Thank you. I won’t forget you, Pavel,” said Jessamyn. She leaned in, leaving a breath of a kiss upon his cheek, and was gone.
Pavel waited until he saw Jessamyn speeding away on a 300 series hover-bike. “What are you planning, Jess?” he muttered to himself. Then he turned his own bike around and headed for what he knew by rights should be the most important event of his life: his first-body exams. Except everything felt different now. The kiss of the girl from the ice planet burned on his cheek.
The Mars Colony had survived.
How was it even possible? But she’d said they were starving. A strange resolve began filtering its way through Pavel. For years, he’d thought he wanted to be a doctor, to help people. Apart from piloting, it was all he’d ever wanted.
But what if he could help those who lived on another planet?
With that dawning idea, Pavel formed a new plan for taking the test. He couldn’t answer questions the same way he would have done yesterday, the way that would lead him to become a physician. The solar system had shifted since he had met Jessamyn, and Pavel had shifted as well, tumbling wildly in its wake.
Chapter Twenty-Two
FLOOR TWELVE
Jessamyn sped toward New Kelen Hospital. The audio comm in her ear was clear of voices once more; she heard only whirring noises and periodic beeps, which meant her brother must be alone. She took that to be good. Already near central Budapest, it took her mere minutes to reach the hospital.
The task before her, instead of terrifying her, seemed to bring all emotions to a new level of calm. She’d broken the most important rule of the mission, however influenced by the drug, and yet the person who’d heard the truth had trusted her, had let her go. Pavel, far from turning her over to the authorities, had
helped
her. She felt as though she could take on a squadron of red-clad officers.
She recognized the cool and settled feeling in her belly. It was how she felt when flying into a dangerous situation. Where others panicked, Jessamyn’s mind cleared and her determination increased. She would rescue her brother, somehow, and take the Galleon back to Mars.
She found the employees’ parking lot and left her borrowed craft in a long row of similar vehicles. The morning air was warm and sweet-smelling and Jess found herself casting her eyes about, looking for the source of the scent. She saw scrubby plants with blooms of white and violet. A large sign informed her she was entering an herb garden. She saw a few yawning workers pausing several feet short of the building doors to scan their wrists, which caused a low gate to open for them. Like her, all wore black, and Jessamyn felt certain it must be in recognition of yesterday’s losses—the workers grieving the deaths of their fellows in London and Paris. Proceeding to the scanning station, Jess felt her heart begin to race.
This better work
, she thought, holding out her right wrist.
A red light flashed at the scan-site. The barrier remained in place.
Hades and Ares!
Pavel’s clearance must have expired today, after all.
The barrier was low and she could probably jump over it. But a wall of windows faced her, which meant someone could easily notice. She turned back, casually, hoping to make it look as though she’d changed her mind about going in for now.
She saw another woman seating herself upon a marble bench beside a low row of purple-spiked flowers.
“G’morning,” said the woman.
“G’morning,” said Jessamyn. She’d done well, pronouncing and intoning the greeting correctly.
“You volunteering today?” asked the seated woman.
“Yes,” replied Jessamyn.
“Thought so. They told me I couldn’t scan in until 6:00 a.m. on the dot,” said the woman. “I’m Dana. I’m new.”
Jess nodded, realizing the woman probably thought she was a regular. She decided not to offer her name.
Dana didn’t wait for it, addressing Jessamyn again. “I just felt like I had to do something, after watching the news all day yesterday. Anyway, retirement’s overrated.” She laughed.
Jess realized the woman was a fourbody, healthy and youthful, like herself.
“How’d you do that?” asked the woman, gesturing to Jessamyn’s cast.
“Hover-bike accident,” Jess replied. The lie came quickly, easily. Her belly purred, cool and ready for anything.
“New fourbody, huh?” The woman smiled, shaking her head. “You’ll learn. We all go a little crazy making the final transition. But your new body’s not indestructible.”
“Lesson learned,” said Jess, attempting light laughter. “Say, I wonder if you’d let me in on your scan? Mine won’t read through this.” She lifted her cast.
“Of course, honey,” said the woman. “Guess that’s a hint for me to get off my gorgeous young posterior.” She giggled.
Jess smiled and followed her, passing through the barrier without further problem. Her earpiece continued its whirs and beeps.
Jess passed a sign reading
New Volunteer Registration
and said goodbye to Dana.
Glancing rapidly about her surroundings, Jess moved as though confident of her destination. An alcove marked “clean gowns” caught her attention. Someone had taped a notice which read “Absolutely No Soiled Gowns” beside the alcove. She smiled. This was way too easy. She grabbed a clean gown and layered it over her black garb.
You look official,
she said to a reflection of herself as she passed a window on her way to the
physician’s only
bay of elevators.
She garnered a few stares, but no one spoke to her. As she approached the elevators, she slowed, allowing someone with a working chip to precede her. She took the time to read the descriptions of the floors, looking for something that would take her to …
Consciousness Transfer
. Floor Twelve.
As doctors entered and exited the elevator, Jess caught a scent so familiar, so
homelike.
Peroxide, she realized. They must use it for its hygienic value. Mars’s high levels of the chemical stood in the way of greenhouse success, according to her mother. It had been one of the things Pavel noticed in her blood. She felt a wave of homesickness.
Arms crossed, eyes to the floor so as to discourage interaction, Jessamyn gathered information about the hospital from her corner of the elevator. Unfortunately, it appeared she would have to ride up and down until someone scanned for the floor she wanted. Well, Pavel had said she had hours, encouraging her to wait until 2:00 p.m. She could wait. Unless she heard something in her ear that indicated action was required.
She took advantage of the empty elevator to examine the patches Pavel had slipped to her from his med kit, locating the two he’d said would awaken Ethan from stasis. She was going to need her brother’s hacking wizardry to get them out of the secured hospital. Ethan would know what to do, she told herself, although for a brief moment, she felt a twinge of longing for Harpreet and, yes, even for Kipper. Jess had never felt more alone.
No one had planned for a means of communication between raiders, who typically stayed together. Oh, she would have plenty of suggestions for the Academy board of directors when they reached home.
Ten minutes passed in the elevator. Twenty. No new sounds from Ethan’s location. Finally a group of men and women requested the twelfth floor.
They entered deep in discussion of yesterday’s tragic bombings. As Jessamyn listened, she realized they were discussing
Harpreet and Ethan
!
“One of them was a kid still in his original body,” said a graying doctor, “His age indicates he should have transferred two years ago.”
“Terrorists don’t follow the rules,” said a female physician. “Those extra years will go for a premium. How’s the reassignment going to be decided? Lottery?”
The graying doctor grunted. “I can tell you one thing: it won’t be anyone we know. Go ahead and enter the lottery if you want, but mark my words. It will be a business tycoon or politician, most likely.”
“What about the other one?” asked the woman.
“Arthritic, threebody age, only a few extra years, but also appears to have stayed in her first-body. With the arthritis, the extra years won’t have the appeal. My guess is they ship her off to the work-camp with no re-body at all. Completely off record, obviously.”
“Hmm,” intoned the woman.
A new group entered the elevator.
“It all comes down to security,” said the loudest of the new group. “You can’t let people wander around a hospital like they’d wander around a public park.”
One of the new women to enter the elevator stared at Jessamyn. Jess, trying to melt farther into her corner, avoided eye contact.
The elevator settled on floor twelve.
I’m coming, Ethan
. Her heart beat a little faster.
“Ma’am?” The woman who had been staring at Jessamyn spoke.
Jess ignored the question, hoping she addressing another physician.
“Ma’am,” said the woman, more firmly this time.
Three physicians remained in the elevator. Jess tried to exit, but they blocked her. Everyone stared at Jessamyn. Everyone who, moments ago, had been discussing hospital security.
Chapter Twenty-Three
IT WAS MADNESS
Pavel couldn’t rid his thoughts of the phrases repeating in his mind.
You shouldn’t have let her go. You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t have let her go.
What she hoped to do began to sound more and more impossible as he thought it through. It was madness. But Jess had something about her, some attitude, that made you believe she could do the impossible.
What if he followed her? Apart from asking for Lucca’s assistance, could he help, he wondered? What could he offer? He was a mere first-body with some piloting know-how and some medical know-how and no idea how to help someone steal a body from a hospital. And then there was the small problem of his exam. Exams weren’t reschedulable. Not even for Lucca Brezhnaya’s nephew. Not that he would accept that kind of favoritism. If there was one thing
always
true of Pavel, it was that he despised special treatment. Pavel loved liberty, fraternity, and equality: the three pillars upon which Terran government rested.
If he went back to help Jess, missing his exam, he’d be picked up off the street and re-bodied for a life in mining. It was whispered that was what happened to no-shows. This was the kind of rumor Lucca and her government would have encouraged to make sure eighteen-year-olds didn’t skip exams and try to pass themselves off as retired fourbodies. Not that you could pretend for long, thought Pavel. As soon as anyone scanned you, you’d be in deep
shize
.
Which Jessamyn would also be in if he tried to help by calling his aunt, he reluctantly admitted to himself. He knew Lucca too well. She wouldn’t care about Jess or Marsians—she would seek a way to turn the rediscovery of living Marsians into a Terran advantage. No, he had no way to help Jessamyn.
There was only one place for Pavel right now, however little he might like it. And that place was sitting at a screen answering approximately one-hundred sixty-nine questions to establish an apprenticeship match.
Pavel shook his head and gunned his bike engine.
Chapter Twenty-Four
CHIP SCAN
Jessamyn held her head high, glared imperiously at the three detaining her. Instinct told her playing
bold
like Kipper had done with the officers would pay off much better than trying to run. “Can I help you?” Jess asked. “Is there a problem?”
The woman’s lips pursed. “These elevators are reserved for physicians.”
“They always over-medicate fracture patients,” murmured one of the graying men to the other. “The ones in her age bracket whine a lot.”
Jess whipped her head his direction realizing the gown which she had taken for
doctor
-clothing must be
patient-
clothing. “There’s nothing wrong with my hearing, young man. And I assure you I am not over-medicated. I was informed this elevator would take me to floor twelve for cast removal.”
“You want the
second
floor. You should have been given an escort,” said the woman.
“I declined an escort,” said Jessamyn.
“I’ll take her to second-floor reception,” said the lab-coated man who’d been lecturing the others on security. “And I’ll give them a piece of my mind regarding wandering patients.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said Jessamyn.
But the doctor had already scanned the call button for floor two. He then placed a heavy hand upon Jessamyn’s shoulder as the doors slid silently shut. Jess felt all the folly of not bothering to confirm that she’d chosen the correct gown for her disguise.