Black Dawn (22 page)

Captain Butler read the document once more. Some ‘customers’ gave a token to represent their obligation to return a Favor. Others
gave their signature and still others simply their word and a handshake.
Victoria, it seemed, liked to do things more formally. That was fine
with him. Whatever made them happy.

He laid the old fashioned paper on his desk, picked up a glass
that was sitting there, and leaned back in his chair. “For you, Coy Lamont,” he toasted quietly, and took a drink.

“
Durand to Byars!!” the excited voice woke Ceal from a fitful
sleep.
Shaking herself awake, she lifted the wrist com to her face.
“Byars. Go.”
“You need to come down here, Ceal,” Rose’s voice was
breathless.
Ceal could only imagine the worst. She threw her legs out of
bed and slipped on shoes. “I’m on the way.” She had started sleeping
in her work out clothes lately to be ready to run to Sick Bay on a moment’s notice. Like this. Her cabin was not far away but even so she
made it in record time. “Open!” she commanded the door and skidded
into the main exam room.
Rose was standing next to Coy’s bed, with her back to the
door. She turned around and at first all Ceal could see was her glistening eyes. And then she saw the smile. “Look,” she almost whispered
and stepped aside.
Coy was no longer lying flat on its back. It was turned on its
side, legs slightly drawn up. Its breathing was slow and deep. And on
its own.
“When..?” she began.
Rose knew what she was going to ask. “I was just about to do
my hourly check and the monitor alarms went off. It’s so quiet in here
all the time it just about gave me a heart attack. I ran in here and this is
what I found. I checked the oxygen first and it’s breathing on its own!
I’ve got the rest of the bed set up on back up, just in case.”
Ceal went over to the side of the bed. She automatically
looked at all the read outs, just as she had been doing for weeks now.
Then she looked down at the sleeping form. She knew it was too soon,
but she felt like she couldn’t wait to find out. Her stomach twitched
with nervousness as she said softly. “Coy?”
There was no response.
“Coy?” she said just a tiny bit louder.
“Mmmm,” came the groggy reply.
Ceal’s knees buckled in sheer relief and she sat abruptly on the
stool at the bedside.
“We should let it sleep for awhile,” Dr. Durand said reasonably.
She nodded. “You’re right, of course.” She looked up, returning Rose’ grin. “That would be the doctorly thing to do.”
Coy stirred and her attention was immediately riveted. “Ceal?”
the word came out slowly and a little slurred.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
Coy opened its eyes and stared at her for a few seconds. Then
it focused on the ceiling beyond her. “I’m on the
Nighthawk
.”
Ceal blinked in shock. Half of the time she didn’t know where
she was when she woke up in the morning. It had taken a few days to
adjust to seeing her cabin here instead of her usual one on the
Raven
.
To wake up from a coma and immediately recognize the
ceiling
of a
ship! Memory was not going to be problem. “Yes.” She answered.
Its eyes shut again. “And I feel like hell.”
Her grin changed to a more sympathetic smile. “I expect so.
Being dead for several weeks will do that to a person.”
It opened them again, momentarily puzzled. “Wha…?” Then
the puzzled look it had was gone. “Oh, yeah, that.” The puzzled look
came back. “So why am I talking to you?”
“We haven’t figured that one out yet. Our current theory is
that you’re just too stubborn to go down that easily.”
It sighed. “It doesn’t feel that easily. It feels like….I don’t
know what it feels like. Everything hurts.”
Happy to be able to do something positive at long last, Ceal
picked up the hypo. “I can help with that part at least.”
Coy frowned at her. “You know those don’t work on me.”
“This one will. It was made for you.” She checked the calibration. “That’s why you’re on the
Nighthawk
.” She reached for its arm.
“We went to Riga…”
Coy slapped the hypo out of her hand. “No!” it cried, then
collapsed with the effort of the sudden movement.
Rose stepped up closer and put her hand on Coy’s other arm in
gentle restraint while Ceal leaned over to pick up the instrument off of
the floor. “I know what you’re thinking, Commodore. We didn’t trust
them either. But every test we did came out all right.”
“No,” it repeated wearily. “I want nothing to do with anything
from there.”
“Okay,” Ceal soothed. “I’m sorry. Rest for now. It’s trite, but
it’s probably the best medicine for you right now anyway.”
It nodded. And settled into the pillow in a futile attempt to get
more comfortable. The two doctors watched it for a few more moments, then by mutual if unspoken agreement, turned to go into the lab
section of Sick Bay.
“I’ll need to talk to Butler as soon as possible,” the commodore called weakly after them.
“We’ll need to rendezvous with the Fleet first if you want face
to face. But we can talk about vid com in the morning.”
Coy nodded again, and fell asleep.

When it woke the next time, Rose Durand was sitting on the
stool. “Good morning. How are you feeling?” she asked in her best
bedside manner voice.

Coy mentally inventoried itself. Its muscles still ached, it was
stiff all over, felt nauseous, and its head hurt like crazy.
“Better,” it lied.
“Good,” she acknowledged the answer while not believing it
for a moment. “ We did do some more tests on that medication, to
try to ease
your fears. We did every test we could think of, and even invented a
few just for the occasion. We compared it to your original file, to your
former baseline record, to your present condition, everything we
could.”
Coy frowned. “And you found I’m being paranoid.”
“And we found you were right,” Rose took a breath. “If we
had given it to you…”
“If
I
had given it to you, you would be very dead.” Ceal came
into the room. Her face was pale and her eyes were red.
Coy looked away. It took a long breath, then let it out. “I know
they weren’t my parents, but they were my creators. I wonder how
many times they will kill me?” It looked at Ceal’s distraught face.
“And at the expense of my own friends. That’s more unforgivable
than the rest. It’s too bad you had to deal with them at all.” It gave a
small smile. “But I appreciate the effort. This was a long way to come
for …”
“Don’t you dare say ‘for one person’,” Ceal let mock anger
drive away her grief and guilt for now. “After everything you’ve done
for everyone in this Fleet. You should have seen them, Commodore. I
think every single person came to Sick Bay at one time or another. And
they left you…things.”
Coy’s brows drew down. “Things?”
Rose got up and went over to a rolling table. She pushed it up
next to the bed. “ We brought them for you to see. Pieces of themselves, we figured. Connections to you.”
Coy looked in amazement at the collection of items. It picked
them up one by one and studied each. Smiles, small shakes of the head
and even a tear or two accompanied the study. It knew. Looking at
each item, it knew who had brought each one and why. They were
right. They were all connected
Ceal pointed to the chess piece. “It started with this one.”
“Ah, Ben. He did so want a rematch.”
Rose blinked in surprise. “You know who they came from?”
Coy nodded. “Like you said. Points of connection. I tried to
forge them with everyone.” It looked apologetically at her. “Except for
you. I wronged you, Rose. I’m sorry.”
“Commodore, you don’t have to…”
“Yes, I do. I avoided you purposely. It was just too painful
thinking about the whole disaster where we met. I lost so much of myself there. But it was wrong to punish you for my mistakes. Maybe
we can start all over again.”
She smiled. “Thank you, Commodore. Maybe we can at that.”
She nodded at the table of items. “You know, I tried to think of something to put there to show what you did for me. You freed me from
slavery. I couldn’t think of a single thing to represent that.”
“So you know everybody’s gifts?” Ceal echoed Rose’s question.
Coy looked at the half of a sandwich sealed forever in plastic.
“Yes, Ceal. I do.

Butler walked into Sick Bay not knowing what he was going
to find. As soon as the
Nighthawk
had rendezvoused with the
Raven
,
Ceal had said that Lamont was awake and wanting to see him. More
than that she wouldn’t tell, saying that she didn’t want to bias his expectations. Preparation was not biasing he had told her. To no avail.

The Sick Bay door hissed shut behind him, but the person on
the bed didn’t respond to the noise. The bed was set up in a reclining
position, which was better than the flat on its back way Ken had seen it
last. It was also out of the formless gray pajamas from before and
wearing a standard Fleet issue black T-shirt. Which only accentuated
the paleness of its skin. Its body seemed so much thinner and its eyes
were underscored by dark rings. Its eyes were also closed.

Ken was deciding between shuffling his feet and clearing his
throat, and had just about chosen the throat clearing, when Coy’s eyes
opened. It looked at him blankly. “
Oh, great
,” he thought. “
Ceal was
right about its memory…”

“
Hello, Captain, been having fun with my fleet?” it said quietly, interrupting his inner monologue, and changing his opinion.
“Hello, yourself, Skipper,” he grinned. “You look….alive.”
Coy snorted. “So I’ve been told.” It waved weakly at a stool
near the bed. “Sit.”
He sat. And didn’t have a clue what to say next.
“I’ve read all your briefs and reports. I believe the last one
was from day before yesterday. I assume nothing has changed since
then?”
“The only change is I have Michaels’ newest report from the
training.”
Coy nodded. “I gather this Major Michaels was quite a find.”
“Yes, he was.” Which brought up the whole recruitment issue.
“And the fighters he brought in. Your notes indicated they
were working out as well.” Coy settled back against the pillow and
closed its eyes again.
“Michaels has reported some egos bumping into each other
during their training, but that’s pretty normal for fighter pilots. In fact
I think it’s a prerequisite for the job. Having an ego, that is.” He
paused and searched for words. “Sir, about the hiring I’ve done…”
“There are still some holes you plan on filling?”
He took a breath. Even he knew this was not the time or place
for arguments. But it did ask. “We need more support structure in every department, yes. ”
To his surprise, Coy nodded again. “It will be strange, though,
having to get to know members of the Fleet. But putting Knepp on the
bridge, that was a great idea. I can just hear Walter suggesting it. You
were right to go with it. You certainly needed an Exec under the circumstances.”
“
Every
ship needs an Exec. In fact I just hired a couple of people that I’m hoping will be able to fill those slots on the Rook and
Nighthawk…When they get done with their basic training I was going
to test them more specifically for officer qualifications.” Ken paused
for a second. “I, ah, know it’s not exactly how you did it…”
“You were the one in charge.”
“And now?”
Lamont opened its eyes again, but looked at the ceiling a moment before focusing back on Butler. “I’ve been thinking about that.
You seem to have a pretty good handle on the nuts and bolts end of
things. I’m thinking seriously about leaving you both where you are
for now and concentrating more on the Intelligence end with Vennefron, myself. I’m supposed to be good at that sort of thing. Tailor
made in fact if I understand things correctly now.”
“Now? You didn’t before?”
“I always knew that I was a commissioned product. And I
knew that the contract had fallen through. That’s why I left Riga in the
first place – not exactly with their permission, by the way. But the extent of the programming,” it paused and sighed, “I never knew all of it
until the end. It was like a cascade of information. Or a high speed
download. I take it someone thought I had a right to know why I was
dying. The destruct sequence triggered the cascade.”
“They
told
you they were killing you?”
“They told me…” Coy paused, trying to put into words all the
information. “I knew that I had not fulfilled my…purpose. I had been
designed for a specific use and I was not doing it.”
“Then why didn’t you destruct when your, what did you call it,
contract fell through?”
Coy hadn’t considered that. “I don’t know.”
Ken shook his head. “Must be weird to think the people that
went to all the trouble to make you would kill you.”
“I’m not the only member of the BlackFleet to have problems
with ‘family’, And like you said, I am alive. Although not nearly up
to speed. Which takes me back to running Intelligence for a while. I
can do that sitting down a lot easier than I can run the bridge or Tac
Room. Even now, and don’t tell Ceal, I’m working on some ideas
from memory. That at least is still intact.” It closed its eyes again.
“It’s going to be a little while, Ken, if even talking to you wears me
out.”
“Skipper, Tony and I can hold the fort for as long as you need
us to,” he took Coy’s weariness as his cue to leave and stood up. “I’ll
see that you get the updated reports.” Coy nodded its thanks with eyes
still closed. “Oh, and, Commodore?” Coy opened its eyes. “Welcome
back.”

When the
Talon
pilots received the word that Commodore
Lamont was alive and doing well, the Elite Corps had celebrated long
into the night. Michaels, though not actually participating in the party,
watched in wonder. He had often had senior officers that he had admired and a few he had liked. But he had never in his career ever
found someone who had inspired the kind of affection and loyalty he
was seeing. The night was filled with toasts to “Remember the time
when the Skipper said…” and “…and when it said I was in, I couldn’t
believe it!” or “No one ever took me seriously before the Skipper…”