Vatican Ambassador (21 page)

It’s relatively dark inside the ship. BC climbs out of the airlock and looks around the “flasher’s” interior. Everything’s a utilitarian gun metal gray: the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. There are no portholes, no windows that BC can see. Lighting is provided by small round lamps overhead. They disappear off into dimness in each direction, making a dimly lit line of dots down the corridor ceiling’s center.
My eyes need to adjust. It’s so bright outside. You don’t realize how bright until you come
back inside. Huh, gravity again, too.

BC steadies himself against the wall as the ship lurches a little. His boots stop him short from sliding on the two non-slip strips that run parallel down the center of the corridor floor.

“We’re off,” Capituna says in his ear. Then she clicks off her helmet and secures it to a Velcro loop on the wall of a small cubby next to them. BC takes off his helmet and does the same.
It smells new. Like the Vatican mission smelled for a while after we rebuilt it. Everything looks
new. Maybe they just keep things very clean... My eyes are adjusting…. It really is dim in here...
I’m not the only thing here that’s not very bright, bada bing. Wonder what’s up with the mood
lighting? I’ll feel better as soon as I... now.

BC gets his glove off. His dart hand is free. His other glove is off soon after. He swivels his head around on his neck trying to work out a slight crick he got when the ship lurched earlier, and to see if there’s anyone else lurking in the shadows.

Anita Capituna takes off the rest of her EV Suit, and then attaches the suit to the wall next to her helmet with more handy Velcro loops. BC undoes his EV suit, too, and following her example uses the loops on the other wall to fasten down his suit below his helmet.

“This won’t take long at all,” she says. “It’s a very short trip to the lab. We’re almost there.”

BC looks at his EV suit.

“We won’t need those to get from this ship into the lab,” Capituna says, answering his unspoken question.

BC and Anita Capituna stand side by side in silence.

“Are we going to go sit down or something?” BC asks, feeling awkward. She laughs, “Oh no! It takes about two minutes. We’ll be docking at the lab in a minute,” she assures him.

“Nice ship,” BC says.

“Thank you.”

“So... Who are you guys again?” BC asks her.

“We’re The Project. We began as Van Kilner’s Transpace Project back in 2066,” she says, nearly reciting, and then breaks in on herself, “I haven’t been with it myself for that long, obviously,” she clarifies.

“The Transpace Project? Van Kilner? They developed the first Transpace Ships. Every school kid learns about that in history class... But that project ended years ago! I mean, the first Transpace ships came out, what, back in the eighties? Are you telling me
that
project is still ongoing? That it’s your ‘Project’?”

“The government...” she begins to answer him, but she stops. She puts her hand on the wall of the corridor. The airlock door opens again. A small corridor, brightly lit, is visible beyond the threshold.

“Go ahead. We’re here. I’ll catch up in a minute.”

Yeah. Right.

“No. I don’t think so,” BC says, staring at her.

“What?” she asks.

“I’m supposed to just walk into whatever this is by myself? I don’t think so. As a matter of fact, I think you’re going to lead the way for me. Kinda like a human shield, how ‘bout?”

She nods, “Fine, fine. But you know you’ve really got to work on these trust issues...”

“Right,” BC says. He stands there. Waiting.

She waits for a minute as well.

What, you wanna play stare down, honey? I don’t think so. Don’t play as dumb as your new
blonde hair might suggest you are...

“Oh, all right!” She huffs, then heads into the bright corridor. BC lets her get a couple of paces ahead, and then follows her.

“Oh good, you’re coming,” she calls back at him.

“Yup!” BC calls. As he gets close to her he says, “Gee, too bad you aren’t fatter.”

She stops, and he almost walks into her before he stops as well.

“What?!” she demands, taken off guard.

BC laughs. “You’d make a better human shield. If you were, you know, fatter. More for me to hide behind.”

She rolls her eyes. “You sure do know how to make a gal feel sexy,” she jokes. “Besides. There’s nothing to hide from!”

“Uh huh,” BC agrees, without conviction.

She sighs. “Let’s go. This corridor opens right onto the lab.” She walks up to the door at the end of the bright corridor, presses her hand against the wall to the side. She turns back to talk to BC as the door slides open.

“You see? No one’s here! There’s no one to shoot you, take you hostage, whatever you were anticipating in your fevered little bray...” Her eyes roll back in her head and she collapses into a heap on the floor in front of BC.

BC sees a tranq dart sticking in her shoulder. He looks up from her body in time to see someone through the doorway with a gun. A dart hits him in the shoulder.

BC blacks out.

BC can hear voices as he tries to wake up.

“…trying to gain his trust, and you shoot me! And then him! Way to go, brainiacs!”

Anita Capituna.... Nita Bendix! That’s right...

Betrayed...
Fuck! What was I even thinking! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

BC opens his eyes on unfocussed brightness.

“He’s awake!” someone shouts.

“BC!” Anita says anxiously, “I’m so sorry! I had no idea they were going to...”

“Fuck you,” BC spits out in a hoarse, forced whisper.

BC’s eyes begin to adjust. He’s lying on a plain white bed in a small blue walled room with no windows. Anita stands next to the bed, dressed in a plain white lab coat.

BC moves his hands, his legs, experimentally.

No restraints… Well, that’s something, anyway. Don’t feel too strong though... very weak...
not quite right yet... Huh, the wrist launcher is gone… What the hell was I doing, trusting her...

“Look,” she protests, “they weren’t supposed to, I mean, I had told them not to... I didn’t even think they were going to be here... shit.” After stopping and starting several times she pauses, looks him in the eye. “I’m sorry, BC. How are you feeling?”

BC ignores her. He tries to sit up. His brain feels like it’s moving at a slower rate than the rest of his head as he pulls himself up. It feels like his brain stops a second too late, crashing into the inside front of his skull when he sits up straight.

Oh, my head... what did they shoot me with?

“You might want to keep lying down for a few more minutes,” Anita says. “They injected you with an anti-reactive to counteract the sedatives in the dart, but you’re probably still feeling some of the sedatives’ effects. The anti-reactive itself is only just starting to take effect,” Anita informs him.

“Hey, gee, thanks,” BC says, lying back down. “I’m ever so, er, um, thankful. Yeah.” He closes his eyes. BC hears voices talking in whispers as he lies there with his eyes shut.
If I could only concentrate on them, it would probably be to my strategic advantage to know
what they’re saying... What are they saying? Can’t keep my thoughts in order… Can hardly keep
my head together... That murmuring is annoying... Who’s talking? My head hurts.... Not like those
other headaches, though... Starting to feel a little better...

After about fifteen minutes, BC opens his eyes again. He tries sitting up again. This time, his brain behaves and moves with the rest of his head.

Better… better… let’s see if I can get
them
off guard…

Anita Capituna is across the room with her back to BC, talking to two guys, like her, wearing a white lab coats, in a small circle: the source of the murmuring.

One of the guys is older, white-haired and balding, pale and thin framed. He towers over Capituna. The other is slight, short and dark complexioned. He gestures wildly with his hands as he tries to make his whispery point with the other two.

BC clears his throat. “Ahem.”

The three turn in unison.

“How about some explanations?!” BC says, trying to sound stronger than he feels. “You say you’ve got a shitload to tell me, so how ‘bout it?! Let’s go!” BC‘s shoulder throbs where the dart hit, “And let’s start with why you fucking shot me, huh?!”

“Okay, calm down, hothead!” the short guy says, his voice a little shrill, with a slight accent BC can’t place.

“It was fear, BC,” Anita says, cutting off the short guy. “
They
were afraid of you,” she says as she looks back and forth between the other two.

“We know all about you!” the short guy butts back in, “We know who you are! What you’ve done!

You’re a dangerous man! You were armed!”

“Yeah, just look at me,” BC says, and a wave of nausea washes over him. “And I’m feeling real fucking dangerous right now,” BC says. “Uh oh,” BC says, “Woah...”

“What?” the other three say in almost comical unison.

I’d laugh but...

“I gotta puke!” BC leans over the side of the bed and heaves up some nasty, bitter, yellow bile that splats across the floor.

Less than I thought I’d toss. Ugh. I hope that’s it.

“We pumped your stomach,” the short guy says. “Had to clear out the toxins. Sorry.”

BC leans back up to a sitting position and wipes off his mouth with the sleeve of the standard issue hospital gown he’s wearing. He’s suddenly sweating, drained and shaking.

“Thanks,” BC rasps. “Can I get a glass of water?”

They oblige his request. BC sips his water and analyzes his surroundings.
Half lab, half hospital room. Just the kinda place to keep a great big rat!

“Where am I?” he manages to ask.

“We’re in a lab complex on the other side of the Moon from Lunar Prime. We’re just where I said we were going, The Project base,” Anita says.

“Yeah,” BC says, voice still raspy, “I got that. You’re ‘The Project’ or something.”

The tall man speaks for the first time. “We are The Project,” he says in a soft but firm, deep voice. “We also called ourselves Kilner’s Kids, or even TP, as a joke. But we are The Project. The Transpace Project. Only now, we do more.”

“BC,” Anita says, “Meet Doctor Krishnavarti,” she nods at the short guy, “And Doctor Dundell,” she says, indicating the older, taller man. “Krish is the little guy, Dell is the tall one,” she says by way of introduction. “Dell is the one who shot us.”

“My apologies, sir,” Dell says to BC. “We... um, we were improvising, you see.”

“What’s with the we?” Krish says. “You pulled the trigger!” he protests to Dell. Dell looks down at Krish, “You thought it was a good idea,” he says in a quiet, measured tone of voice. Their voices echo inside of BC’s head.

“Right. Please shut up. Both of you,” BC asks. “Just don’t say anything for a minute.”

BC winces as a headache pounds at his temples.

Shit...
now
my head hurts!

The two men look at BC, silent and hurt.

BC closes his eyes. He opens them when he hears Anita make a strange noise. She’s trying not to giggle, suppressing a smile while the other two glare at him.

She thinks it’s funny? Huh... maybe it kinda is... Those two... well, now, at least it’s a little
quieter...

“Thank you,” BC says. He closes his eyes again and rubs his temples.

That’s some nasty shit they hit me with. Wonder if the pain is from the dart or the antidote?

BC cracks his eyes open a little. Squinting, he sees the three still standing there, watching him.
She is something else, man, and those two are almost comical. It would be funnier if they
hadn’t just done me some serious damage... still, hard to stay mad at ‘em when they act like
cartoon characters...

“BC?” Anita asks, to see if he’s awake. BC opens his eyes fully.

“Yeah?”

“We’re going to leave you alone a bit, to rest and get your strength back. Aren’t we, boys?”

The two men turn to her in unison with questioning looks.

“Why don’t we let the, ahem, good ‘father’ rest a little while?” Anita asks them. “When he’s ready, he can get freshened up, get dressed, and join us, so we can move this whole thing forward. You two have set my timetable back!” she chastises them again. “You know that, don’t you?”

“I am sorry, Anita,” Dell says, inclining his head a fraction of an inch.

“Sorry,” Krish chimes in.

“You should be more yourself in about an hour,” Anita says, turning to BC. “In fact, you should be starting to get better right about now. How are you? Are you feeling better?”

BC takes quick internal inventory.

“Yeah, a little. I guess,” BC admits.

“I just went through the same process you’re going through now,” Anita tells him. She glares at Krish and Dell, and then continues. “Unfortunately, these supposed geniuses waited until I was coherent before they started to help you recover. The toxins had permeated your system to a greater degree, so we had to use more anti toxin on you. You’ll be fine. It’s just going to take a little bit longer for the anti-reactive to do its work.”

Is she for real? Maybe I’m still out and just hallucinating, dreaming all this. Who the fuck is
this woman?

“Alright. Let’s go,” she says, turning and shepherding the other two scientists out the door ahead of her. She turns back and smiles at BC as she closes the door.

BC lies on the bed, alone in the room.

Shot by a couple of mad scientists from The Project… “Anita Capituna”, if that’s her real name,
talking about an alien source to the mystery sickness… There’s nothing to say she
isn’t
a UIN

agent, just working me.

Why did I follow her into this? Well, there is that ship, the “flasher”, there’s no way the UIN

has that… Damn. This is a lot to swallow. Plus... I really don’t like getting shot! Loss of control!

But I did ride on a flasher... didn’t I? Sure seemed like it...