Requiem (22 page)

The glowing
forest canopy, the billows of water vapour, the peaking sunlight.
She'd never known such a world, had never searched beyond the walls
of her own mind, had never ventured past the limitations of the
vids she'd watched or the drugs she'd taken. She wondered if Earth
had once looked as beautiful.

'Where the hell
are they?' said Athene.

'Calm down.
It's only been a few minutes.'

'A few minutes?
I see you've adopted one of the worst of human habits, Sear. If
someone says they're going to arrive at a certain time, they should
arrive ten minutes prior not a second later. If they are not here
within five minutes we will be leaving.'

'They'll be
here soonish,' he said.

Athene turned
and walked back into the ship. Shortly after Sear could hear the
engines begin their warm up routine. The clicking of the metal, the
whirring of the fans, condensing into a loud, throbbing hum.

Sear remained
standing by the loading ramp where the last of the supplies was
carted in by one of the automated forklifts. Munitions had been
stored in the loading bay for transport to the cruiser which was
still waiting within the orbit of Saranture. Sear turned back to
the taxi stand as a cart pulled up. Belameir and Seline stepped
out.

'You're late,'
said Sear.

'Barely,' said
Belameir.

'Fifteen
seconds late is as good as fifteen minutes to Athene. You'd better
get on board, we're about to leave.'

Seline sat back
in the seat. Belameir was next to her. He looked relaxed,
comfortable, as he always did. She held her arms across her waist.
The ship pushed skyward. She grabbed hold of the arm rests.
Belameir looked across at her. He smiled and looked back out the
window. Seline's heart dropped a couple of beats as the austere sky
gave way to the darkness of space.

The ship
connected with the cruiser and was swallowed inside upon its
retracting platform. The hull was sealed once again and
re-pressurised. There was a red light flashing overhead, indicating
that it was unsafe to undo the safety harnesses. Seline could see
that Belameir had already undone his and was floating freely from
his seat, smiling at Seline. He was floating by the ceiling when
the cruiser began to move from Saranture's orbit. The accelerating
dropped him to the floor. He belly-flopped on the steel grates and
started writhing in windless pain. Seline shook her head, slightly
embarrassed by the stares of her Yurrick crew mates.

The warning
lights flicked off and the rest of the crew unbuckled from their
seats. Athene and Therin who had been seated in front of Seline
casually stepped over Belameir who was still recovering his breath
on the floor. Seline helped him up and they exited the ship through
the cargo-hold ramp with the others.

Tialus and
Athene were the only ones to remain in the hangar while the others
took the elevator to the crew quarters. Sear motioned for Seline
and Belameir to follow him. He led them down the hallway, just wide
enough for two people to pass. There was a doorway about every
three metres, each leading into its own thin, cramped room. In
every room it looked like the same two single beds, the same tall
lockers, the same work desk. The other crew members dispersed into
their respective quarters while Sear led Seline and Belameir to the
room at the end of the hall.

'These will be
your quarters,' he said, standing at the threshold.

'You mean I
have to share a room with her?' said Belameir. 'But she snores like
a fucking baboon.'

'I can only
imagine what that sounds like,' said Sear. 'But it's either here or
the cargo-hold.'

Belameir stood
thinking for a moment before Seline shoved him into the room,
walked past him and claimed her bed. The one slightly indented in
the wall and partially hidden by the large standing lockers at its
foot end. She threw her bag down on top of it. Belameir threw his
bag down on the space in between the two beds. Seline looked at
him, annoyed, then kicked the bag under his bed.

'You can use
the lifts at either end of the hall to take you up and down to the
other levels. The toilets and showers are one level down. The mess
hall is on level four. All meals are to be taken there. I will be
staying in the room three doors down the hall. I will be able to
give you a tour of the ship if you wish or you can explore it
freely in your own time. Keep in mind that training drills will
begin in two hours and fifteen minutes.'

'Training
drills? What kind of training drills?' Belameir imagined a
classroom filled with Yurrick, dressed up in spandex in a
co-ordinated upward facing dog position.

'Normally when
someone applies to join a first contact team,' said Sear, 'they
have to sit written exams and fitness tests. The type of test
usually depends what position you're applying for but in your case
the protocol is quite loose. Basic fitness is required to join but,
given the circumstances, we may have to take the time with you to
bring you up to standard.'

'I'm starting
to have second thoughts,' said Belameir.

'We don't
expect you to be able to run marathons... more like
decathlons.'

'Even if I was
touching cloth, I'd probably still run out of breath just running
to the toilet,' said Belameir.

'Then your
first training sessions will be spent dealing with your
incontinence. Diapers, I suggest, would suit you well.'

Belameir turned
to Seline with a worried look in his eyes.

'But before we
begin training,' said Sear, 'there will be an initial fitness test
for each of you. Seline, you're first. I'll give you a moment to
settle in first. You can find me in my quarters when you're ready'.
He abruptly turned and walked out of view down the hall.

As soon as Sear
had gone, Belameir closed the door and started to closely examine
the fixtures of the room. He opened the lockers and ran his hand
under the shelves and sides. He eyed every gap and crack he could
find.

'I don't trust
him,' he said.

'Sear? Why
not?'

'He's too calm.
You know who else is that calm all the time? Serial killers, that's
who. He's too cold and dead inside to project anything that even
resembles a legitimate emotional experience. He's probably gonna
skin you and wear you as a suit when you least expect it.'

'I don't think
I could expect it any less than I do right now, to be honest.'

'That's because
you're too naïve for your own good.'

Seline sighed.
'Not everyone is a serial killer, you know?'

'But anyone
could
be, and that's how they get you.' He tapped the side
of his head. 'Think about it.'

'Anyone?
Really? Even you?'

'
Especially
me. Have you learned nothing in all these
years?'

'I've learned
not to take anything you say seriously – ever. What are you doing
anyway?'

Belameir pulled
his head out from behind the lockers. 'I'm looking for bugs.'

'I think it's
pretty clean in here,' she said.

'Very funny. I
mean microphones and cameras.'

She passed up
the opportunity to play on Belameir's paranoia. It might actually
prove helpful where they were going. There was nothing else to the
room other than the two beds, the lockers, the single desk, and the
smell of cleaning products. She'd been sitting down for twenty
seconds and already she'd exhausted everything the room had to
offer. She stood up, reached into her bag and pulled out the copy
of
The Complete Sherlock Holmes.

'Here,' she
said, 'I'm sick of lugging this thing around.' She dropped the book
on Belameir's bed. She picked up her bag and slung it into the
locker that Belameir had left open.

'Thanks, Sel,'
he said. He was already flipping over the mattress on her bed and
running his fingers along the seams. She opened the door and left
him to his own devices.

Sear showed
Seline to the med-bay on the third floor where the Doctor was
waiting for her. She took a seat on one of the medical beds while
Sear waited outside the door.

'We're going to
test your strength. Sear told me that there's enough grip strength
in that arm of yours to break bones.' The Doctor looked out the
door to where Sear was waiting. 'Or at least fracture them. I've
tried to find a model number but from what I can see, it's a custom
job. The pistons and joints are huge. Are you aware of its limits,
Seline?'

She thought for
a moment. 'No not really. I mean I sometimes crush cans of beer
with it when I'm drinking.'

The Doctor
stared at her.

'Empty cans,'
she explained.

The Doctor
typed an entry on the computer console then took her hand in his
and closely scrutinised the joints and bracing. 'I imagine that,
with the right amount of concentration, you could snap a man's neck
with this thing.' He let go of her hand and sat back.

Seline looked
at her hand but said nothing.

'How often do
you exercise?'

She stifled a
laugh.

The Doctor made
another entry on the console. 'How many hours do you sleep in an
average week?'

'I have no
idea. Twenty Five? Fifty maybe.'

The Doctor
stared at her for a moment then tapped at the screen. 'I can't tell
if you're taking this seriously, Seline.'

'I can't really
tell either,' she said.

He typed
something down.

'Did you just
write that down?' she asked.

He looked up at
her again and shook his head.

'I can't tell
if
you're
taking this seriously, Doct- what is your name
anyway? I'm sure I heard Athene say it when I first came on
board.'

He tapped at
the display again.

'What are you
writing?' she asked.

'I have
written,' he stopped and looked up at her, 'that your mood has
improved noticeably since you departed from Earth and that the
anti-social aspects of your behaviour have already begun to
diminish somewhat.' He started typing again, narrating the words as
he wrote. 'Whether this is simply some kind of spontaneous
adaptation to your current circumstances or a normal aspect of your
personality and behaviour towards strangers and potential friends
remains to be seen.'

'… Why did you
write that?' Seline asked, crossing her arms over her stomach then
moving one of her hands across her cheek to try draw some of the
blush away. She glanced at where Sear was waiting.

The Doctor
continued typing and narrating. 'Patient continues to display signs
of self-conscious reactions to comments regarding her person and
behaviour. Unlikely to be deliberate. Initial causes of this
behaviour could be myriad; likely the result of environmental
stimuli during early years of life.'

Seline turned,
her hand still padding her cheek, to see Therin walk into the room.
'Would you stop flirting with the patients?' she said.

'If this is
flirting...' muttered Seline.

'Every question
serves a purpose,' said the Doctor.

'They should
serve the purposes of the patient and the crew; not whatever you
might have planned outside of that. God only knows what that could
be.'

'Why do you
always pick on me? Why not pick on Mercer? He seems like much lower
fruit. I am a doctor after all, I shouldn't have to put up with
this.'

'You're a
doctor?' she said, opening one of the drawers and pulling out one
of the larger scalpels. 'What do you need a scalpel for anyway when
the robot does most of your work?' she said walking from the room
as quickly as she had entered, casually twirling the scalpel
between her slender fingers.

'Why do
you
need to be aboard this vessel when a gnat does most of
your
work?' he yelled at her as she walked down the
hall.

Seline waited,
expecting some kind of explanation, some kind of indication of the
true nature of the Doctor and Therin's exchange but he simply
returned to business.

After
explaining that the components for the synthetic arm had been
acquired over the space of a month from spare parts traders on
Yarfor Station and that the arm itself had mostly been constructed
by herself and Belameir, Seline gave a brief description of her
habits and the minute details of her life at the request of the
Doctor; under the apparent 'authority' granted to him by the
Yurrick government.

'How many times
a day do you relieve yourself?'

A sigh. 'I
dunno. Five times. Ten if I'm nervous.'

'What is your
calorie intake per day?'

'Not a clue. I
don't even really know what a calorie is.'

'When was the
last time you consumed a hallucinogenic?'

Hesitation.
'Two weeks ago, maybe.'

'Have you
contracted any STDs in the past ten years?'

'None that I
know of...'

'Do you have
any known allergies?'

'No.'

Seline walked
out of the med-bay unsure of what she felt. She was surprised she'd
actually managed to pass a basic fitness test but seriously doubted
the relevance of most of the Doctor's questions. She was curious to
see how Belameir would fair, or rather how the Doctor would fair
with trying to extract any useful information from him.

Sear, who'd
waited by the door for the duration of her examination, then walked
her through the other rooms in the medical bay. He showed her the
core of the anti-matter engine bay at the rear of the ship and
walked her through the required codes and docking protocols. They
passed through the armoury and the training rooms. A shooting
range, a combat simulator, an exercise room then back into the lift
again.

Seline ran her
hand over the glassy texture of the wall as if noticing it for the
first time. She realised that she'd seen the same material lining
the walls and ceilings in the crew quarters and training rooms
they'd just passed through. She asked why the walls were covered in
green plastic.