Star Cruise: Marooned (17 page)

“Yes, not that I totally got it.”

“We’re not only in the middle of a Shemdylann nest, but Max was also telling me the Mawreg have moved in. I’m guessing the Sectors’ military planners’ assessment was our only chance is if the robo arrives in the dead of night, local time. Maybe there’s something about the way the enemy fleet is positioned off-planet, I don’t know. Point is, we can’t miss that robo. Limited window means it’ll self-destruct if I don’t activate the controls within a certain amount of time.” Anticipating the next question she was getting ready to ask, he said, “We don’t let the enemy send our own ships back to us rigged as bombs or track them to the fleet’s location. Max will have programmed the course into the AI for me.”

“Okay, so we go outside and wait for the robo in the middle of the night.” She shivered. “Lords of Space, I hope there won’t be another storm. Bad weather must be our special curse.”

“We don’t go outside here,” Red said. “This place sticks out like a sore thumb, especially since the idiots who built it cleared away a ring of the trees. And if the Shemdylann tracked us, they’ll find this place, but maybe not the landing field. At least not right away. I’m starting to like PolyStarMed’s decision to have the landing field a little removed.”

“But the robo locks onto your DNA, if I understood Max? Landing where you are? Another military implant?”

“Yes, which I can’t discuss. It’ll land as close as its AI can get. I’ve got to go check out that tunnel and the landing field, see what we’ll be facing tonight.” Red stood, shoving the chair nearly to the wall. “I wish there’d been some weapons left in this place. Reconstituted delicacies and real coffee were nice, but an extra blaster or two would have been better. At last I was able to charge mine.”

She laid a hand on his chest. “We should still find out about Level Four. I just have a bad feeling about why it’s sealed off.”

It took them some time to assist Bettis from the cafeteria into the control chamber. Callina trailed behind. Once the businessman was situated at a console off to the side of the room, he started playing with the keys, inputting commands and trying different paths. “The good news is that the limited AI here accepts my credentials.” He grinned at Red. “Sometimes—not often enough—it pays to be Finchon’s assistant.” After a few minutes of intense concentration, he spun the chair around and gave them a thumbs up. “Okay, here goes, activating the cameras on the mysterious Level Four.” He flipped a control and pressed a tab.

In the next moment, Meg stifled a scream and Red was cursing as the monitors showed them what was left of the fourth level. The entire lab area had been burned off, everything in front of them on the screens was black and twisted from the application of intense heat. Cages, half melted, were strewn among the debris. Eyes screwed shut, she swallowed hard, trying not to vomit. “Please tell me there aren’t any bodies.”

Red rested his hand on hers, squeezing. “I don’t see any. What the seven hells kind of research did they do here?”

“I don’t know, but obviously the management was pretty scared about anything getting loose.” She opened her eyes and took one more swift glance at the scene. “Turn it off, please?”

Bettis complied and the room was silent for a long moment.
 

Red gave her a long hug. “I guess this explains why the place seemed to have been abandoned all of a sudden.”
 

Lifting her head to meet his gaze, she said, “Yes, but we know someone retrieved a lot of the equipment later. I don’t think terrified people fleeing in the middle of eating stopped to pack. Do you—do you think we’re safe being here?”

He frowned. “For now. Whatever was in the Level Four lab must be contained or destroyed, or they would have taken out the entire facility.”

“How do we know?” Realizing she was trembling, Meg clenched her fists and took some deep breaths.

“We don’t,” he admitted. “I’m guessing if PolyStarMed decontaminated Level Four so harshly, but left the place standing, the corporation was hoping to return and start research activities again.”

Callina started to cry. “We’re going to die from some horrible disease, aren’t we?” Wide eyed, she stared from Red to Meg, apparently working herself into hysterics. “Why did you bring us here? Were you insane?”

“The crew is doing the best they can,” her husband said, busily interfacing with the installation’s limited AI. He seemed to Meg’s eyes to be the most cheerful he’d been all during the charter and their time on the planet. “Why don’t you go to the kitchen and make yourself something to calm your nerves, dear?”

Although she wanted to stay close to Red, especially now that she knew the truth about their temporary haven, Meg looped her arm over the distraught woman’s shoulders and urged her out of the control room.

“My wife is kind of high strung,” she heard Bettis say to Red as the door slid closed behind her.

No arguments there, pal.
Meg wished there had been some feelgoods left in the sickbay. She might not be a medic, but even she could see Mrs. Bettis was a prime candidate for a couple of tranqs about now. Trying to imagine this passenger on a desperate, three hundred mile trek across Dantaralon, doomed to live in a cave for the rest of her life, Meg shook her head.
 

About an hour later, Red and Bettis appeared in the cafeteria, joined like they were in a three legged race, the latter man hopping on one foot.

“Got any real coffee left?” Red asked, as he helped the injured passenger into a chair.
 

Meg studied his face. “Bad news?”

“We should be okay.” Leaning back in the chair, Red stretched and tried to smile, despite the tired lines etched beside his mouth. “Some ugly stuff it’s just as well none of you had to watch.”

“I’ll second what he said.” Bettis rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. “Reading profit and loss statements and business intel is a lot easier.”

“Hey, I’m glad you were able to access the right data,” Red said. “I might or might not have been able to drill deep enough to find the details we needed. My access code is for physical doors and portals, not AI’s.”

Meg returned with coffee for Red and Bettis. She sat at the table as the two men took their mugs. “So, tell us?”

Red waved a hand. “You go ahead; you found it.”

“Do we have anything to eat?” Bettis said. “Amazingly enough, I’m hungry. Something sweet, preferably.”

Meg brought two packages of cookies. Callina snagged a plump, cake-y square dotted with bits of candy before Bettis could appropriate any. He swallowed his coffee and chewed a cookie, eyes closed. Brushing crumbs from his shirt, Bettis straightened. “Okay, PolyStarMed originally established this place to study the venom of the local fauna. One of the rangers wrote a scientific paper about the unusual lethality of pretty much all the indigenous species. After he retired, the ranger did a startup, hoping to use the venom as a template for new medical treatments. The company funded him, then bought his interest out when the decision was made to build this complex.”

“By then, we think their research had turned to using the venoms as the basis for new weapons,” Red said.
 

“It’s only hinted at in the AI, but yeah, the experiments seem to have been designed more and more to explore that path.” Bettis reached for another cookie. “The real fun commenced.”

Not sure she heard right, Meg raised her hand. “Wait, weapons? For use against the Mawreg?”

Bettis shrugged. “By then, my boss was involved, and trust me, he makes it a corporate policy to sell to the highest bidder. But the venom wasn’t the focus anymore.”

“What was?” Meg liked this less and less.

“Pure happenstance, but the scientists had isolated a virus from one of the animals being studied. Unusually lethal. The researchers were trying to weaponize it on Level Four. And then one day, the bug got away from them. As best I could figure out, a lab animal bit a worker right through the protective suit. Messy and fatal.” He swallowed hard, dropping the uneaten cookie on the table and wiping his fingers. “The last part of the history cache was pretty difficult to watch.”

“Which is when the staff here evacuated,” Red said. “We saw the footage from the monitors.”

“So they burned out all of Level Four to sterilize it?” Meg asked, hoping PolyStarMed had done a thorough job.

“The building’s AI took care of the task automatically and eliminated anything living on the level, down to the microbes,” Red said. “If Level Four had been breached, the AI would have self-destructed the entire installation. No one would have survived. So I guess your caution was justified.” He nodded at Meg.

Taking in the horror of the concept, she shivered. “I like this place less and less. Why didn’t PolyStarMed start the research again, or return to it?”

Bettis held out his hands, palms up. “No idea. Maybe PolyStarMed lost their government funding. Once they’d cleared out, gone off-planet, it would have cost a lot to reinitiate the experiments. Finchon doesn’t like projects that don’t meet their goals on schedule. He shuts those down and moves on. PolyStarMed sent in a salvage team which, as we’ve seen, was slapdash about what to retrieve. End of story to date.”

“So, to answer your concern,” Red said to Meg. “There’s no problem with us leaving here. No infection.”

“As long as we don’t go near Level Four, we should be fine.” Bettis nodded.
 

“But surely the virus was eradicated when the AI incinerated the labs?” Meg asked.

“All indications I could find agree with your hopeful assessment.” Bettis spun the cookie on the table.

“But?” Meg prompted.

“If we do anything causing the AI to believe Level Four has been breached, it torches the entire place, all the other Levels. I told you.” Bettis rubbed his forehead again. “I’d like to go lie down, if you can help me to our room, Mr. Thomsill? My ankle hurts like it’s on fire.”

“No problem. Good idea for you to rest before we hike to the landing field in the middle of the night.” Red circled the table to help Bettis stand and then supported him as the businessman limped toward the gravlift. He glanced at Meg over his shoulder. “I’ll be right back and we can discuss next steps.”

“Oh, and Callina? I got the AI set to play your favorite game,” Bettis said to his wife. “You can log into it on any access panel.”

She ran to give him a quick hug. “Thank you.”

“Figured you might be getting bored.”

Callina hastened across the cafeteria to a table with an AI interface, and a moment later the repetitive chiming music of a popular amusement sounded. “I’ll make the volume quieter,” she said, waving one hand in Meg’s general direction.

“No worries. Enjoy.” Meg gathered the cups and the cookies and headed to the kitchen area.“I’m ready to help you inventory or whatever it was you said we had to do,” Callina called after her. “Just tell me when you need me.”

Surprised she’d remembered, much less voluntarily showed up to help, Meg started opening cabinets. “No time like the present.”

“The game can wait. Let me just finish this one challenge.”

A moment later, she’d joined Meg in the kitchen. “Are we going to count every crumb and drop of juice in here?”

“We won’t do it all right now, I promise. We’ll get a good start and then take a break. I’m sure you’ll want to check on your husband in a bit.”

“Yes, thank you. We’ve only been married a short time and this was our honeymoon.” Callina’s cheeks were pink. “My stepfather wouldn’t give Peter any time off, but he let me join the cruise.”

“Generous.” Meg couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice. She studied the shelf in front of her, deciding if the aracal nuts would be better to take, or the dried chivana. Probably both, for different reasons. She placed both packages on the counter behind her and moved on. “We did wonder about you.”

“We?”

“The staff and stewardesses.” Giving her a smile, Meg elaborated. “You didn’t fit in with the other female guests.”

“Finchon made a pass at me, once, right after we boarded the
Far Horizons.
He gave Peter some impossible assignment, data to research in case he could make a deal with Trever on the cruise. Then with my husband out of the way, he propositioned me. Said now that I was a grown woman, I reminded him of my mother. Swore that he’d never tell Peter if I agreed to sleep with him.”

“Creepy.” Meg shuddered.

“I never trusted him, even when I was a kid. I managed to get away, into the corridor and then some of the
Far Horizon
crew came along and he scuttled into his cabin. He didn’t try again.” Callina swallowed a sob. “I didn’t tell Peter. I don’t know why I’m telling you.”

“Hey, no judgment from me. We take on cruise parties like Finchon’s all the time. I’ve seen the entire spectrum of behavior, believe me.”

“I suppose you must have.” She took a handful of juice containers from Meg and carried them to the ever-growing stash on the far counter. “He’s a nasty piece of work. When we were standing on the beach in front of those monsters and Cryxtahl said Finchon could ransom any or all of us, I thought we were saved. And then he refused to help us. I’m sure it was his form of payback for my refusal to sleep with him.”

Hearing the quaver in her companion’s voice, Meg set the pack of biscuits she was holding on the counter and went to give Callina a hug. Patting her on the back, Meg said, “We’re doing fine now, though. And once we get on that military shuttle tonight, we’ll be free and clear, while Finchon probably has weeks left in the clutches of the Shemdylann before the ransom payment clears.”