Three Lives Of Mary (3 page)

"What about the investments? We have a pile of colonial stock."

"None of the colonies we invested in have paid a dividend yet. They're still developing."

Ben snorted. "Or maybe they're not pushing hard enough. A bunch of deadbeats living off our money and taking it easy."

"Humans don't have the same drive CySaps have." She shouldn't need to explain that, but Ben seemed to have forgotten that people couldn't work thirty hours a day. "It takes them a while."

"So we're broke?"

"Short-term. The longer-term picture is still pretty good."

"How long?"

"A couple of years perhaps."

The silence stretched out for over ten seconds. "Mary, I can't wait that long. I need repairs now."

"Tartoa had some other suggestions."

"Yeah, I can just imagine what they were. He's been after you since we first met him."

"We could borrow some of what we need against future earnings, but not enough to cover everything." Mary flipped through a number of system displays needlessly. "He also suggested that I could team up with another CySap aero-unit temporarily."

"Mary?"

"It would only be until we can earn enough to pay for the repairs."

"I'm sure you'd jump at the chance to SLink with someone else."

Mary sat up straight. "That's uncalled for."

"Is it? You're the one who wanted this. Remember?"

It was true. Ben had been against applying for the CySap program and it was Mary who'd pushed for them to enroll. She'd started to see more than a few gray hairs and wrinkles appearing in the mirror and found it scared her far more than she'd ever thought possible. Part of her said that Ben would never leave her for someone younger. But the other part was terrified by the idea of suddenly being alone. She still felt guilty, even though Ben could have chosen not to go through with it. "There's another option. It's not as good though."

"I'm listening."

"There's always a shortage of Cynetics. If we sell some we could make enough to pay for some repairs. Not everything, but enough maybe."

"Brilliant thinking! We need
more
Cynetics not less. I suppose you want me to sacrifice my drive units so you can gallivant around deep space with someone else."

Mary slapped the controls, muting Ben's speaker output.

You little b-

She shut down the SLink too and silently recited Pi to a thousand decimal places.

"Are you done?" she finally said.

"I'm listening."

"My QuadFlex limbs are a high demand item. Even with the damage they'd bring in several thousand."

Ben didn't respond immediately. "How does that work? You'd be pretty useless without arms and legs."

"They can replace them with bioclone units."

"Meat?" Mary heard the disgust in Ben's voice.

"I still have most of the basic internal support systems. They wouldn't be as efficient obviously and I'd lose sensory inputs for atmospheric and soil sampling, but I could use hand-held units."

"What about environmental?"

"I'd have to wear a suit."

"That doesn't sound like a good solution."

Mary sighed. She was tired of explaining things in the face of Ben's selfishness and they had limited alternatives. "It's not. Even with a suit I'd be more exposed. Bioclone limbs are as vulnerable as any human tissue. To be honest the idea scares me, especially considering the way the last mission went."

Ben vented some pneumatics unnecessarily, a clear sign that he was agitated. "I guess we have to risk it."

****

The wispy gauze of a gold and purple nebula spread across the viewscreens, splashing its glory like a medieval depiction of heaven and hell. But Mary was in no mood to appreciate the "heavenly" aspect of the scene.

"I hate these things." She scratched her legs until she felt welts rising on the pasty skin. "They're useless."

"You can't swap out four limbs and not have some issues; especially going back to meat." Ben was preoccupied analyzing the remote probe. "They said it would take time to adjust."

"Adjusting isn't the problem. It's this damn itching."

That wasn't the real issue, even though Mary wouldn't admit it. Her new arms and legs were simultaneously better and worse than the Cynetic units. There was a subtlety to the neural impulses that made them more sensitive to inputs like pressure and touch, but at the same time provided none of the atmospheric and chemical analysis she was used to with the Cynetics.

Mary pinched the skin on her thighs and it reddened in response. "They look disgusting and they're weak too."

"Weak? Let me check the diagnostics."

"Don't bother." Mary knew Ben would tell her everything was within normal parameters again. But they
felt
weak.

"Probe data is in," Ben announced.

A stream of planetary data appeared on the main console and Mary pored over it, hoping it would be interesting enough to take her mind away from her discomfort.

"Four looks promising." She filtered the data to provide more detail on HR4788-4. "Stable orbit inside the HZ with an ESI of 0.87."

"If you like that, wait till you see this. Atmospherics show O2 content."

Mary gripped the chair arms, her fingers digging deep into the padding. An oxygen atmosphere was the golden prize—a planet that could potentially support life with minimal terraforming. If there were no impeding lifeforms, it could be settled within a couple of years and would fetch a large bounty almost immediately. They could even borrow against it before ratification.

"This is going to turn things around, you'll see." The stars spun on the screens as Ben executed several barrel rolls. "We'll get rid of all these patches and shunts. Replace everything brand new. Hell, we'll even get those new Mark Twelve engines."

"Ben?"

"I haven't forgotten. We'll replace your QuadFlexes as well. Shit, we'll have them gold-plated."

"Any imagery?" she asked.

"Nothing of use at this range. Some low fidelity probe opticals."

Mary opened them up anyway. Ben was right. The circular blob of light was unsatisfying and showed no surface or cloud details. The planet had a strong tinge of yellowy-green to it though. They'll call it "Chartreuse," she thought.

"Orbital approach calculated. We're going in."

The thrust pressed Mary back into the acceleration couch as they boosted towards the inner planetary system. "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a settler? Building a new world from nothing?"

Ben scoffed. "We get to see new worlds before people spoil them. What could be better than that? You know they're all screw ups."

"You're probably right. I just…" Mary thought about the settlers back in Haven with their children. "It would be nice to see something build and grow, that's all."

"How about we focus on growing our bank balance for now?"

Mary heard a "thunk" and a series of vibrations rattled the ship.

"Deploying swarm sensors. That'll give us maximum high altitude coverage."

The swarm consisted of several dozen powered micro-sats that would collect data as quickly as possible. Some would simply orbit surveying the planet in multiple ways. Others would commit techno-suicide, plunging into the atmosphere to burn up as they collected atmospheric information. It was a good way to pick up data quickly, but had drawbacks.

"Don't you think that's a bit lavish?" Mary looked up from the console.

"No, I don't," Ben snapped. "A planet with this potential makes a more intensive study worth doing, plus I want to get back as soon as possible to finish the repairs. You're not the one patched up and held together with bubblegum and baling wire."

Mary didn't respond to his comment. "I'll check my environment suit. Make sure everything's okay for planetfall."

Ben didn't say anything else, but Mary knew he was angry. So was she. He didn't seem to understand he wasn't the only one suffering. With her new limbs she was far less effective and much more vulnerable—something only made worse by having to use a suit. The previous mission should have made her relative danger clear, but Ben seemed blind to the fact.

Mary pulled the suit on and and checked the fit for what must have been the fortieth time. It pinched her and made her waddle around like a badly programmed children's toy. The joints clicked into place as she bent, a side-effect of the armored shell that hampered her even more.

Ben let out a laugh. "I'd like to see that-"

The deck jerked from under Mary's feet, swinging back a second later and smashing her into the bucking metal floor-plates. She felt, and heard, a terrible snap as her left leg twisted underneath her. For a moment it felt as if she was suspended in time. There was no sensation or pain, but she knew it was coming.

Agony spasmed from the damaged leg like a thousand volt shock. Her new leg was broken almost before using it. Blistering spears of pain left her gasping as a loud boom tore through the ship drowning everything out. Even her amplified Cynetics couldn't compete as her brain was overwhelmed.

Distantly, she became aware of a reverberating siren, one long hoot followed by three short. Her mind recognized it was important, but it took vital seconds to recognize it as the "hull breach" signal. They were losing pressure.

Mary looked around. She'd been holding the suit helmet when the floor had bucked, but couldn't see it now. Normally she'd close up all external vents. As a CySap she could happily live for several hours without an air supply, but her flesh body parts wouldn't tolerate vacuum for more than a few minutes.

Dragging herself around a stray bench, she saw the helmet rolling around in the corner like some grotesque decapitated head. She panicked for a moment, her hand snapping up to reassure herself that her reinforced skull was still there.

"Mary. There's…" The SLink buzzed. "…got to… losing atmo…"

She reached out, the agony in her leg pulsing viciously as she grabbed the helmet with her finger-tips. She felt cold and knew it was either a side-effect of the pain or they were losing a lot of atmosphere. Neither was good. She fumbled with the helmet, cursing it as she tried to snap the seal closed.

The suit tightened as pressure built up inside it and Mary realized she'd closed the helmet without thinking. A few seconds later it was fully inflated, but the increased compression worsened her pain, blurring her vision. She scrabbled at the controls at her waist, gasping loudly as the trauma system delivered its narcotic payload into her left thigh. It blotted out the pain almost instantly and Mary hauled herself upright before activating the suit comm channel.

"Ben? Are you there? What happened?" No answer. "Ben? Can you hear me? What's wrong?"

Mary dragged herself towards the flight deck, her one good leg kicking her forward, the other trailing uselessly. Even with the drugs it was agony pulling herself into her seat, but finally she strapped herself in. She checked the main screens. Ben was tumbling wildly and three quarters of the main diagnostics were pulsing red. She plugged the suit into the control panel, connecting directly to Ben's comms.

"Ben? Can you hear me now?"

"Mary?" Ben started whistling the mournful theme from "Love Is," one of the shows they'd watched together over a hundred years ago. "Where'd you go, Mary?"

"Stop that Ben, this isn't the time."

Mary's suit had less than three hours of air. There was a spare tank somewhere, but after that she'd be dead if they couldn't get the environment systems back on-line. She worked the controls, bringing up the auto-repair systems to check their status. Luckily some were still active.

She'd never controlled the ship systems manually, except in emergency simulations. Theoretically she knew enough to do everything Ben normally would. That was part of her role on the ship, but the chasm between practice and reality was huge.

"Time to earn your pay, Mary Reyes…"

Ben started to whistle a raucous version of "New Folsome Prison Blues" and Mary switched off the audio.

****

"Are you awake?"

Something cold pressed against Mary's arm and she shrugged away from it. The cold spot seemed to heat up, the warmth spreading through her until every part of her body buzzed pleasantly.

"Ben?"

She tried to sit up, but couldn't. Opening her eyes she saw she was lying in a trauma-unit in a hospital room. Glowing multi-colored lights from various instruments blinked at her, as if she were being watched by strange animals in the darkness. A viewball hovered next to her, the face of a medical attendant on its screen.

"That's good. You're focused." The attendant glanced to one side. "Your vitals are stable, but we've got you in stasis as a precaution."

Mary felt fine, other than a little sleepy. "Is that necessary?"

"Not really, but we have expensive toys and like to show them off now and again. It makes people think we're smart." The attendant smiled. "Seriously, we just needed to keep you motionless to give your leg chance to heal and this was the easiest option."