“Are they gone?” Romanof asked.
“Yes. Should I take your body someplace else to do the transfer?”
“No, it’s too risky. But we’d better wait a minute. Let’s make sure no one comes back to check on you. Walk around and pretend to study the bodies.”
After ten tocks of pretending to study the bodies, she decided no one was coming back to check on her, so now was as good a time as any to start the transfer process.
The room was empty except for the rows of donors and Angel tried not to think about them as she made her way to Romanof's body at the back. She wished there was someplace better hidden where she could do this. Out in the open like this left him so exposed.
Her gaze fell on a nearby body, one of the few covered by a drape. Plucking the drape off the body, she gasped at what she found beneath it.
“What’s wrong?” Romaonf buzzed urgently in her ear.
“No...nothing. Everything’s fine.” The appearance of the donor caught her off guard. A jagged incision running the length of the donor’s torso looked fresh. Blood was still congealing along the stitches.
“Organ donor,” she muttered, realizing what the stitches meant. She walked to another draped body and pulled back the cloth. It was the same. Maybe that was a good thing. She could hide Romanof under a drape. When the Harvesters came to program it, they wouldn't think to look for it under a drape - hopefully.
She looked around for an extra drape, but found none. She'd have to borrow one, but leaving a donor body exposed was sure to be noticed.
"I'm going to cover your body with a drape," she told Romanof. "But you're going to have company under there, okay?"
"Whatever. We're running out of time. Just start the transfer process and get the hell out of here."
“What? No. I’m not leaving you here unprotected.”
“Michels, that wasn’t a request. This room is too busy. We don’t know how long it will take for my life essence to re-assimilate. You can’t just wait here. It’s too risky. Return to the ship. I'll meet you there as soon as I can.”
She had no intention of leaving and by the time he realized she hadn't followed his orders, it would be too late. He would also discover that she wasn’t the boy he thought she was.
“Listen, before we do this, there’s something you should know about me,” she started.
“This is not the time for conversation.”
“I know. It’s just—“
“Later, Michels.”
“Okay, fine.” She took off the robe so she had easier access to her pockets. “I hope this works,” she muttered, removing the transfer disc from her back pocket.
Following Yanur’s instructions, she took the biopod from around her neck and placed it on top of the disc. Some technology, which she didn’t understand, held it there while she centered the whole thing over Romanof’s forehead. Before she pressed the button to start the process, she leaned over to examine the metallic collar still around Romanof’s neck. She looked for a way to remove it and found that it didn’t go all the way around, but just encircled the front half of his throat.
Feeling around the collar with her fingers, she found the outer surface smooth. There seemed to be no obvious locking mechanism or switch. On a whim, she gave it a tug.
It slid off easily in her hand.
Looking at the repulsive device for a moment, she tossed it to the floor.
It was time to start the transfer. Gazing at Romanof’s face, she had an attack of conscience. What if he didn’t survive?
No, he was a survivor and he would make it through this. She couldn't have said how she knew this about him. She just knew it.
She pressed the switch.
At first nothing happened. Then the top of the biopod slowly opened, emitting a slight hissing noise. The pulsating amber light inside the tube began to seep out and gather around Romanof’s body, starting with his head and spreading downward. It reminded Angel of the wispy fog hovering over the ocean’s surface at the cusp of a new day. Romanof’s body lay cocooned in an amber aura for a brief moment, then slowly seemed to absorb the light.
Once it was totally gone, Angel considered the best way to get the “parts” donor onto the same gurney with Romanof. In walking around to study the two bodies from all angles, she noticed a switch at the end of each gurney. When she pressed one, the gurney started to descend. Pressing the other half of the switch caused the gurney to rise.
Maybe moving the body wouldn't be that hard after all.
After raising the nearest donor nearly a meter, she pushed the gurney alongside Romanof’s gurney. Finding a similar switch on Romanof's gurney, she lowered his gurney until he was low enough that she could simply roll the organ donor's body onto Romanof's.
Once she was sure the second body wouldn't fall off, she covered them both with the drape and then adjusted the height to be even with the bodies around them. From across the room, she hoped it would be impossible to tell there were two bodies there.
Then she waited.
The process took a lot longer than she expected and the wait started playing havoc on her nerves. Her mind started imagining all the things that could go wrong, so when she heard the sound of a door opening in the outer room followed by footsteps, she first thought it was her imagination. Then she heard voices.
“I told you there was something wrong.” It sounded like the Harvester who'd asked her to leave. “The real Dr. Haun wouldn’t be down there. If Corporate finds out we have an intruder, don't think I'm going to the Re-cycler alone.”
The voices were drawing closer and Angel knew she was in trouble. Putting on the Harvester robe wasn't going to help her this time.
"The imposter could be hiding anywhere. Be sure to check under every gurney."
Angel looked around for a place to hide but she was surrounded by a room full of lifeless donor bodies - and one empty gurney.
Damn. The minute they saw it, they'd come to investigate. She had to hide it and only one idea came to mind. She began pulling off her clothes, bending close to Romanof’s head as she did. “If you can hear me – lay still. Someone’s coming.”
As soon as she'd shed all her clothes, she wadded them into a bundle with the Harvester's robe and stashed the whole thing under the drape with Romanof. Then she climbed on top of the empty gurney. Feeling horribly exposed and vulnerable, she forced herself to lay flat, just like the other donors in the room.
She shut her eyes when she heard the footsteps getting louder. Straining to catch every noise, she heard the men enter the room and walk down the aisles. So far she’d only heard the two voices. If things got bad, she could take them - maybe.
The footsteps drew closer. Closer. They were so close now.
Please don’t find Romanof. Please don’t find Romanof.
Her silent prayer became her mantra. The footsteps stopped between her and Romanof.
“Hey, take a look at this one,” said a second Harvester whose voice she didn't recognize. “Where's her collar?"
Collar? Then she remembered Romanof’s discarded one.
"Here it is.”
She concentrated on keeping her eyes shut and her breathing regular as cold metal slipped around her neck.
"Wait. Look at that," the first Harvester said.
Angel mentally braced herself to spring into action.
"What?"
"The number on the collar. This one belongs down the hall."
"Are you sure? With that dark hair, she doesn't match the profile."
"You want to help me move the gurney? Or would you rather explain to Dr. Haun why, despite the number on the collar, you thought it should stay here?"
When her gurney started to move, Angel forced herself to stay calm, all the while praying they didn't take her far.
They wheeled her through the outer room and through the doors. She heard a change in the pitch of wheels' vibration as they rolled her down the corridor. More quickly than she'd dared to hope, they paused while a door opened and she was soon pushed inside.
Angel imagined them steering her down one row and then up another before her gurney came to a final stop.
"This will do," the first Harvester said. "Let's go back and make sure none of the others were mis-filed."
Angel waited until the sound of their footsteps faded and even then, counted to ten to be safe.
Her first sense that something was horribly wrong came when she tried to open her eyes - and couldn't. Automatically she tried to raise her hand to her face, only it didn't move. When she tried to push herself into a sitting position, nothing happened.
She was paralyzed!
Her thoughts turned immediately to the collar. It was the only explanation for her condition. She had to get it off, but how?
A cry of frustration welled up in her throat where it lodged because she had no way to release it. She knew if she stayed in this room, she was in serious trouble.
Romanof!
When the transfer finished and he awoke, he would see she was missing and look for her.
Her hopes soared, then plummeted. He wouldn’t look. He’d ordered Michels to return to the ship. And even if he suspected that Michels had run into trouble and went looking for the pilot, he’d be looking for a man, not a woman.
Yanur could tell him the truth, but how soon before Romanof returned to the ship? Even then, there was no guarantee he'd come back for her. Worse yet, what if he ran into trouble and never returned to the ship?
She could be there a long, long time.
She should have been more panicked at the thought, but her mind and body were feeling strangely relaxed, almost numb. She tried to focus on her situation but found it impossible to form a coherent thought. When the darkness rose up to envelop her, she didn't even try to fight it.
Chapter 7
The first tendrils of consciousness for Nicoli were like wisps of fairyfog at early dawn on Beta Four, insubstantial and hard to grasp. As he became more alert, he noticed that his field of awareness was limited once again to his corporeal self and he breathed a sigh of relief. While he had enjoyed the almost omniscient awareness he’d had while interfacing with the ship’s computer, he wholeheartedly welcomed the limitations of his old body.
After the transfer was complete, he continued to lie where he was, eyes closed. Systematically, he flexed and relaxed muscles, satisfied that, despite a sluggishness which he had anticipated, everything seemed to be functioning. At least so far. It was time to rejoin the living.
He opened his eyes and saw...nothing.
He blinked several times, hoping to restore his vision, but to no avail. He felt as if he were lying in the center of a dark, cosmic void - all alone. He closed his eyes and fought the thin thread of fear trying to weave its way into his consciousness. It felt foreign and unwelcome. He struggled to reclaim the cold logic on which he’d built a reputation, a career, a life.
It would seem there were some prices to be paid for the out-of-body time he’d spent. He put himself through a series of mathematical exercises, forcing the emotional side of his brain into submission so he could think logically.
Concentrating, he opened his eyes again. This time, he realized his blindness was more a lack of light, not sight. Relieved, he tried to sit, but his body seemed heavier than he remembered and the weight of it pressed down upon him. He put a hand out to his side to push himself up, but pulled it back sharply when it hit an invisible barrier. When nothing further happened, he tentatively reached out again. This time, when his hand touched the barrier, he pushed at it experimentally. It gave easily.
On his next effort, he tried to grab at the barrier and succeeded in collecting a fistful of a heavy material. Then he realized that he was lying under some type of covering. Still clutching the material, he pulled down with all of his strength and felt the material shift. He released his grip and grabbed a new fistful, higher up, and pulled again. Again, it shifted. He repeated the process until the covering finally slipped to the floor.
Fresh air hit his face and he breathed it in with such welcomed relief that not even the sight of the dead man on top of him could dampen it.
A memory stirred. Just before starting the transfer, Michels had told him he'd have company beneath the drape. It was coming back to him, slowly.
Knowing he couldn't remain where he was, Nicoli began the cumbersome process of working his way out from beneath the body. It took some maneuvering, but he finally broke free and let himself fall to the floor. A wad of clothing landed beside him.