Resist the Red Battlenaut (16 page)

 

"Testing," said Beauchamp, speaking into the glowing red holographic microphone floating in front of her mouth. "Testing, testing, one, two, three."

Scott gave her a thumbs-up from across the anteroom of the brig. Her voice was coming in with crystal clarity through the earpiece he was wearing. "Got it." He nodded and adjusted the way the earpiece was seated in his ear. "Loud and clear, Doctor." He walked over to join her by the cell door.

"Very good." Beauchamp handed him a thin silver wand, twenty centimeters long, with a spherical crystal on the end no bigger than the tip of his little finger. "Use this to scan him. It is already set to take the readings we need. However..." She handed over a tablet computer. "...you must use this to record your findings. Remember to type all data into the form, since the actual data from the wand will not likely be visible to anyone but you."

Scott nodded. This was why Beauchamp had paged him after he'd made his call to Bern--to gather medical data from Cairn. To anyone other than Scott, every sensor scan of Cairn looked perfectly blank, as if the cell in which he was imprisoned was empty.

"Take your time and capture all the data you can," said Beauchamp. "Remember, it is just as crucial that we study Cairn's physiology as the Red Battlenaut wreckage. We must confirm Trane's two-virus theory--or reject it and develop another."

"Right," said Scott. "There's just one thing I don't understand." He held up the diagnostic wand in one hand and the tablet in the other. "How am I supposed to type up the data if I don't have both hands free?"

Beauchamp's thick red lips curved upward in a smile that seemed tinged with pure pleasure. All her expressions had that same sensuous flavor. "Use your nose?" Though her voice was throaty, her laugh was a girlish giggle.

Scott raised the tablet and pretended to try to type with his nose--then shook his head. "That won't work."

"Here." She took the wand and tablet from him. "
Allez oop
." Still smiling, she plugged the skinny end of the wand into a jack on the top edge of the tablet, then handed it all back to him.

"Ah." Scott nodded. "Now
this
makes sense."

"Just point this at the subject and switch on the tablet." Beauchamp tapped the crystal on the tip of the wand. "The tablet is already programmed to run the desired tests in sequence. You will view the results in one window." She tapped the screen of the tablet with one glossy red nail. "You will retype the data in another window alongside it."

"Okay, fine," said Scott. "No problem."

Beauchamp's eyes glittered when she looked at him. "If there is a problem, simply excuse yourself, and you and I will iron it out."

"The only problem I can think of right now is the person on the other side of this door." He bobbed his head toward the cell. "I doubt he'll cooperate."

"Perhaps you could try a different approach." Beauchamp tipped her head to one side and narrowed her eyes. "Instead of trying to access sensitive information, see if you can engage him in small talk. Ask him about things that have nothing to do with the Reds--his life before he met them, his family, his home. Ignore his efforts to bait you. Just try to open a dialogue."

Scott shrugged. "I'll give it a try. But he really hates me."

Beauchamp clasped her hands behind her back and leaned forward with a smile and one raised eyebrow. "Perhaps his
true
feelings are more complex than that. Give him a chance to come around, Corporal Scott. He might surprise you."

 

*****

 

When Scott entered the cell, Cairn was on the floor doing push-ups. He wasn't breathing hard; maybe he'd just gotten started.

"Sol!" He barked out the word between reps. "Funny meeting...
you
here."

Scott sat down on the antigrav chair and placed the tablet on his lap. "What can I say?" He switched on the tablet and pointed the wand at Cairn. "I missed you."

"Plus you need to...run a medical exam...on me." Cairn smirked up at him. "Hence the...diagnostic wand."

"Nah," said Scott as the first test procedure booted up on the tablet. "This is our new Red Deprogrammer device. Guaranteed to change a Red into a Commonwealther at the press of a button."

"I'm starting to feel...more corrupt...and more boring...already." Cairn laughed as he continued his push-ups.

"So what've you been doing?" As Scott spoke, he watched a set of numbers appear on the tablet screen--Cairn's vital signs. Meanwhile, a form slid onto the screen beside the list of vitals, and a holographic keyboard popped up under the tablet when he squeezed the side. Using the keyboard, he tabbed through the form and typed in the numbers from the other side of the screen.

"I've been working out mostly." Cairn did two more pushups, then stopped and lowered his knees to the floor. "That and dreaming."

"About what?" said Scott.

"About you." Cairn snorted. "I've been dreaming about the look you'll have on your face when you get to Oberon and realize just how
bad
things have gotten and how there's nothing you can
do
about it."

"Thank God," said Scott. "I was afraid you might say you were dreaming about me in a
dirty
way."

"Nope." Cairn chuckled. "I never fantasize about jerk-offs who leave me for dead after I save their lives and everything."

"Good to hear." Scott finished typing up the vitals and tapped the screen, moving to the next test in the preprogrammed sequence. "Because the other thing would've been just too awkward."

Cairn lay back on the floor and started doing sit-ups. "So how far are we from Oberon now? A day and a half? A day?"

"Something like that." The new test analyzed the composition and condition of Cairn's microbiome--the cloud of microbes surrounding his body. A new customized form appeared, and Scott continued entering data as before. "Sounds like you can't wait to get there."

"Like I said...seeing the look on your face...will be sweet." Cairn sneered. "I've been waiting for
years
...for that. For seeing your spirit...utterly
crushed
...beyond repair."

"So you'll feel better when you get your payback?" Scott didn't look up from the tablet. "Will that finally fix things between us?

"How
could
it?" said Cairn. "I'll hate you for the rest of my
life
."

"Right." Scott kept typing. "For not coming to get you even though I thought you were dead."

Cairn sat up and stopped. "You knew." He gave Scott a look of absolute contempt. "Deep down, you knew. And you still did nothing."

"I saw you
fall
. And then
I
died." Scott met his gaze. "I was
dead
when they found me, remember? They used an experimental procedure to revive me, but I was still a
mess
. It took me over a
year
to recover." What a nightmare it had been. Bern had pulled strings to make the procedure happen and bring him back...but sometimes, he'd wished she hadn't. The word "agonizing" didn't begin to describe what he'd gone through.

But surviving it had toughened him. It had made him the man he was today.

Not that that held any water with Cairn. "Poor baby." He spit on the floor at Scott's feet and went back to doing sit-ups. "At least you weren't still...the captive of a sick bastard...who got off on
torturing
and
abusing
you."

"Well, if I'd known you were out there, I would have done everything I could to save you." Scott returned his attention to the tablet, where he typed the last of the microbiome data. As the next test started, he decided the conversation had gotten too volatile and tried reshaping it as Beauchamp had suggested. "So tell me, do you still have family on Tack?"

"Who the hell knows?" Cairn's voice was thick with anger. "I haven't had much...of a chance...to go look for them."

The new test, a subatomic scan, chugged along as Scott copied over the results. "Do you have any brothers or sisters? If you told me, I forget."

Cairn kept doing sit-ups. "Two brothers...and three sisters. I haven't seen them...since I was taken by Vore...back when I was six."

"I could look them up for you," said Scott. "Let you know where they are, at least."

Cairn paused. "Don't even try to
tell
me you haven't looked them up already. As soon as you realized who I was, you must've run a complete background check."

"Not me. Been a little busy." Scott raised his eyes from the tablet. "You're not the only thing on my to-do list, you know."

Cairn stared at him for a moment before resuming his exercise. "Don't bother with the family reunion. Those people won't even know who I am anymore."

"I don't know about that," said Scott. "What if they still love you after all? What if they want you back?"

"I'm nothing but a ghost," said Cairn. "Leave it alone, Sol."

"Whatever." Scott shrugged and finished the subatomic scan. "Believe it or not, I'm trying to help."

"Trying to
play
me...is more like it." Cairn did three more sit-ups and got to his feet. "Well, the palsy-walsy routine won't
work
with
me
. I'll
never
open up to you,
plang-hole
."

"Just making conversation," said Scott. "Plus, I'm curious. You and I never really got to know each other back in Iridess Chasm."

"No loss there." Cairn started doing jumping jacks.

Scott ran the next test and typed up the results as Cairn continued his workout. When he'd finished, he proceeded to test number five--a quantum scan designed to detect infiltration of dangerous bodies from parallel universes. "I don't know, Cairn. I think we could have been friends."

"Then you must have...suffered brain damage...when you died."

Scott ignored the remark. "You know what I remember?" He stopped typing. "I remember you breaking down in tears out in the Chasm, and me comforting you."

"You have a...vivid imagination," said Cairn.

"I also remember helping you climb Penitent Peak," said Scott. "I remember you holding on to my hand for dear life."

Suddenly, Cairn stopped doing jumping jacks and turned away from him. "Flux you." He grabbed a gray towel from the cot and wiped his face with it. "I was seven years old, and I'd been held captive for over a year. I'd have held on to
anyone
if I'd thought they could help me."

Scott opened his mouth to say something, then noticed a blinking readout on the tablet. The wand had picked up an abnormal quantum signature coming from Cairn.

Tapping a few controls on the tablet, Scott zeroed in on the signature. It was located in Cairn's head, around the middle of his brain.

Using the comm function on the tablet, Scott flashed a text message to Beauchamp, describing the finding. She texted him right back: SWITCH TO HOLOGRAPHIC TOMOGRAPHY SCAN OF THE BRAIN, TEST SEVEN IN THE SEQUENCE.

Scott jumped ahead two tests to the holographic tomography scan and switched it on. As he pointed the wand at the back of Cairn's head, the crystal on the tip of the wand glowed blue.

A moment later, an image of a human brain appeared on the tablet. Scott touched the screen, requesting a view of a midsagittal section; immediately, the brain split in half along the midline and the left side faded away, leaving the right.

There, in the center of the right midsagittal section of Cairn's brain, Scott saw a jagged, ruby red object with crystalline spines like the rays of a star.

"What the hell?" he said, frowning at the screen. As he watched, the object flared with light and vanished...then reappeared. It went on pulsating like that--brightening, vanishing, and reappearing--in a continuous cycle.

Cairn turned to look at him. "What is it?"

Scott wondered if he should keep it to himself--then decided full disclosure probably wouldn't make any difference. "There's something in your brain. Some kind of spiky red object."

"Does it keep fading in and out?" asked Cairn.

"Yes." Even as he said it, Scott could see the pulsation continue on the screen of the tablet.

"Congratulations," said Cairn. "You found my personal self-destruct mechanism." He tapped the side of his head and laughed. "Maybe you can tell me why it hasn't blown us all to kingdom come yet."

"Good question." Scott didn't mention that the cell had been triple-reinforced to block all known types of transmissions (except the security camera feed and the comm channel allowing him to text Beauchamp). "Tell me how it works, and maybe I can figure it out."

"It's a quantum bomb," said Cairn. "Powerful enough to destroy this entire ship. That's all you need to know."

Scott zoomed in on the midsagittal plane and tried using holographic tomography to pop up a view of the inside of the bomb. For some reason, all he could see under the bomb's jagged shell was a featureless blotch of gray. "How do you trigger this thing, did you say?"

"Wish upon a star." Cairn bugged his eyes and chuckled.

"Seriously," said Scott.

"I'll tell you this much." Cairn nodded and winked. "If I could get the damn thing to work, we wouldn't be standing here right now. I've been trying to trigger it since I got here."

"Well, thanks for giving it a shot," said Scott. "I appreciate the effort."

Cairn's expression darkened. "Any time."

Scott fired Beauchamp a text describing the bomb, and she wrote back immediately: RUN A COMPLETE BRAIN SCAN, TEST NUMBER 12. RECORD ELECTROMAGNETIC FREQUENCY AND FLUCTUATIONS.

Scott followed her instructions and put the new test in motion. A wave pattern appeared on the screen of the tablet, bordered by rows of statistics.

"Careful." Cairn stepped closer and folded his arms over his chest. "Don't want to accidentally set off the bomb now, do you?"

Scott shrugged and kept working. "I've been dead before. It's no big thing."

"No fear, huh?" Cairn nodded. "Maybe you'd make a great Red after all."

"Wow." Scott's tone was sarcastic. "You make me want to sign up on the spot."

"Why the hell not?" Cairn grinned. "You ought to consider it before the scudge starts hitting the fan."

Scott kept typing up data from the brain scan. "All I have to do is betray my comrades and commit treason against the Commonwealth I've sworn allegiance to, right?" He snorted. "Sounds appealing."

"You'd be on the winning side," said Cairn. "Plus which, you and I would be working together again. We'd be
friends
again."

"No kidding." Scott glanced up at him. "So you'd give up your vendetta just like that? No payback needed?"

"That's right." Cairn nodded. "If you switch sides, I'll let it all go. We'll have a fresh start, you and I."

Scott watched him a moment more before returning his eyes to the tablet. "I like the idea of us being friends again. Can't we do that without my betraying everything I stand for and care about?"

Cairn shook his head. "I've told you the terms. You have until we get to Oberon to accept them."

"Well, thanks for your generosity," said Scott. "I'll take it under advisement."

"You do that, Sol," said Cairn. "I'll be waiting."