Starlaw (6 page)

“That's quite true,” Gemma maintained as she took off her gloves and bloody surgical apron before handing them to a nearby attendant for sterilization. “Unfortunately … our decontamination unit didn't see the similarities, only the differences, Commander. The decon-unit actually damaged alveoli in her lungs. That's what I was repairing.”

Gemma moved away from the incubation unit, and the presence of staff still cleaning and caring for Laurel. She crooked one finger and Darius bent to hear what she'd say.

“Sir … I had to add a third lobe to her left lung, move some veins and arteries around and reconstruct them. Primarily, I moved her heart to the back and center of her chest to accommodate the larger lung system.” She briefly glanced back and moved further away from Laurel's resting space while lowering her voice. “The thing is … I can't undo what I've done. Not without killing her. To put her back the way she was would cause her to strangle in our atmosphere, just like you saw. She couldn't diffuse our air for more than a short time … a couple of hours at most.” Gemma shrugged and shook her head in confusion. “I can run a thousand tests and never know exactly what the decontamination unit did. I really don't understand it since our atmosphere is so very close to Earth's. That being said … she'd be a medical miracle back on her home world. She could survive
there
with what I've done. In fact, her breathing there would be vastly improved. But once her chest was examined she'd never be left alone. I don't have to tell you that her current physical state would in no way resemble her former one. Any youngster with a basic knowledge of anatomy would know there was something very wrong with the placement of her chest organs!”

“But … you said she can survive this way … right?”

“Oh, yes, sir! She'll be fine. The prognosis is great. In fact, no one from an advanced civilization would question the procedure. But, like I've said, an
Earth
physician—”

He raised one hand to stop her. “This shouldn't have happened, Gemma! That decon-unit is supposed to protect us, not destroy the body tissue of other races!”

Gemma shrugged and shook her head. “Maybe someone higher up knows this is exactly why we shouldn't be engaging Earth citizens. But I stand by my decision to bring her aboard.”

“That'll be my problem—”

“You won't have to answer for it alone, sir. Whatever's said or done in regards to her presence, I'll be with you. It was as much my call as yours.”

He ran one hand through his hair. “I'm sorry to say her return to her home was always a moot point, despite this sudden turn of events.”

“Sir?”

“I had orders to categorically stay away from Earth once Goll was caught and restrained. I can't countermand them for any reason, not without risking serious consequences for the entire crew. The law in this regard is standard League code.”

Gemma snorted and sadly nodded. “I never really believed the admiral or any other official would give us permission to take her back, including the unusual circumstances. I just
hoped
I might make a case on her behalf.” She shrugged. “Not to dwell on the obvious but … she's not going to like it. I wouldn't.”

“I wonder if all Earthers would have been as damaged by our decontamination unit,” Darius mused.

“I don't know, Commander. We may never know. We're on our way home and that's the way things are.”

Gemma put one hand to the back of her neck and tilted her head left then right.

“You'd better get some rest. I'll stay with the woman,” Darius offered as he walked to the incu-unit and stood to one side.

“You've barely had enough sleep yourself, Commander.”

“Yes, but I've had
some
. When your patient comes out of this unit I fear you and your staff may need all the energy at your disposal. There'll be many questions to answer.”

“Aye, sir. The instruments on the unit should alert you to any problems. Call if you need me.”

“Good evening,” Darius uttered as he watched Gemma walk out of the med bay. He took one last look at the patient then settled back in a nearby examining chair to get some rest. Thoughts of home filled his mind. But then his contemplation turned to Goll.

Unspeakable loathing filled him. He tried to tamp down feelings of vengeance but it was no use. But for their prisoner's sire, life would have been vastly different.

There was a point when harboring such vengeance would have been unthinkable. Something told him that once Goll was dispatched, the emptiness wouldn't heal.

For the minutes the execution lasted he'd have some satisfaction. After that, he wasn't sure of anything.

“I'll watch you die like the blood-sucking, soulless bastard you are!” he whispered. “Any race that would take a child's life deserves the worst punishment.”

Bitterness filled him to the brim. It threatened to spill over and drive him to the prisoner section of the ship to do the deed now. It took everything he had to make himself stay right where he was. He mentally repeated his oath to watch the Earther.

No matter how he tried, sleep escaped. It'd been replaced by thoughts of the past, a past he couldn't undo.

His hands gripped the arms of his chair until his knuckles went white. For some reason, all his attention went back to the unit and the woman therein. At least one other on this ship would feel as he did. At least one more soul would have a reason to see Goll dead.

But to keep from making a victim of himself, destroying his family's historic reputation and all it stood for, he'd do his duty.

He dragged air into his lungs and reclined in the chair, trying to think about anything but the hole in his heart.

“Good morning, Commander. How was your rest?”

Darius blinked, shook his head, and sat up in the examining chair. “If your patient is recovering as expected, I'll welcome my own bed.”

Gemma stood by the incu-unit for a moment, examining its readings. “According to what I'm seeing she's progressing remarkably well. Much faster than I would have attributed to an Earther. But then, except for that damned chip I introduced and her injuries from the attack, I perceive she was in fine condition to begin with.”

Darius stood and stretched then he shook his hair back. I need a shower. Then I'll relieve Barst on the bridge. Call if you need me.” He strode from the space, leaving Gemma to do her job.

• • •

Laurel slowly opened her eyes. There was stiffness in her shoulder and a slight burning sensation in her left temple. She carefully sat up then blinked several times.

She was in some kind of hospital, but it wasn't like any trauma center she'd ever seen.

“Feeling a little better?”

She turned to see the
blue
woman at her side, bearing a mug of something whose steam indicated a hot beverage.

“Who and what the hell're you?” she rudely blurted, shaking her head slightly as if doing so would rid her mind of the Halloween entity in her company.

“I'm Gemma. And you're on board … I'd better let you come to your senses a little more before I unload
that
bomb.”

“Look, I know you're trying to help but something isn't right.”

“Oh?” Gemma said, looking her patient over in concern. “Any pain should diminish quickly. If you're experiencing discomfort in your temple that will shrink in a—”

“No,” Laurel interrupted, “that's not what I'm talking about. It's my eyes!”

“I don't understand. My equipment doesn't indicate anything is wrong with them.” Gemma glanced at her readings and shook her head in confusion.

“Well, something is
definitely
wrong. You're blue! And your eyes and ears are pointed. Now, tell me again there isn't something wrong.”

“Ohhhh,
that
.” Gemma smiled. “No, there's nothing wrong with your eyesight. My eyes and ears are pointed. As to being blue, I actually like to think of myself as a very attractive shade of teal.”

Laurel decided she was hallucinating. Or maybe she'd finally gone off the deep end. Police work did that to some people. “Look … let's start over.” She took a deep breath and tried to speak rationally. “My name is Laurel Blake. Everything's a little foggy right now, but I do know that I'm an officer with the San Diego PD. Other officers and I were trying to catch a murder suspect when we were attacked. I need to know what happened and where I am. Does my supervisor know what's happened? And where is my partner, Cory?”

“You don't remember what the commander told you?” Gemma slowly asked.

“Who is
the
c
ommander
?”

When the woman calling herself Gemma turned her head toward the door Laurel took a good long look at the creature that'd just entered. She automatically grabbed the sheets covering her body, jumped from her bed, and backed to the far wall. Her mouth went completely dry. Joining her and blue girl was a man with features and a build similar to that of a huge brown bear. Long brown hair fell straight back from his forehead. Larger and more muscular than any man she had ever seen, he looked as if he could cause some serious damage. Crazier still, bear man was wearing a black uniform and high, shiny riding boots. A weapon was strapped to his right side. If she'd seen this on television, she'd have laughed. But nothing about this situation was amusing.

“All right … I've had enough,” Laurel muttered. “I don't know who you people are, where I am, or what you think you're doing. I want some answers and I want 'em
now
!”

“Laurel, maybe you'd better sit down and I'll try to tell you whatever you want to know,” Gemma gently told her.

“Maybe I'd better come back another time,” bear man suggested, as he looked apologetically at Gemma.

“No, Barst. Laurel wants answers. She should have them.” Gemma put her attention back on her patient. “Laurel, you were hurt and we had to bring you here. You would have died if we hadn't.”

Blue girl walked to a large monitor and pushed a switch mounted on a keypad. A white barrier the size of the entire side of the wall lifted, and the black vastness of open space appeared.

Laurel gasped and felt her heart almost stop. Through the large window she saw stars, enhanced visions of planets and galaxies in the distance—just like those the telescope scenes always displayed on the internet. It felt as though she'd just walked onto the set of one of those science fiction TV shows where the wall wasn't a wall but an open view port, through the bulkhead of a spaceship.

“Okay … okay … this is some kind of joke, right? Somebody put you up to this, didn't they?” Laurel whispered as she dragged her gaze from the scenes of deep space and glanced from one creature to the other. Sadly, blue girl and bear man weren't smiling.

“I can assure you, it's no joke,” bear man solemnly told her.

“Laurel, sit down. Let us explain.” Gemma held out her hand in a gesture of comfort.

Laurel shook her head in denial. “People are looking for me. The PD will have officers crawling all over the city when I don't show up. Whatever you're doing, you'd
better
let me go. Holding a cop hostage can send you to the big house for the rest of your lives,” she warned in her most aggressive tone. “Depending on where you've taken me, you might even face the death penalty if you do anything to me. Is it worth all that?”

Bear man shook his head and looked at blue girl. “Big … house? Gemma, why isn't my communo-chip interpreting that colloquialism—”

“Prison!” Laurel shouted. “You can go to prison for abducting me.”

Bear man simply shook his head and left the space.

Gemma sat down in a chair and sighed loudly. “Primitives are always so difficult when they're confronted with something they don't understand. Let me try again.”

• • •

“Commander?”

From his seated position in the officer's bridge chair, Darius swiveled around to face Barst. “What is it? You should be getting some rest.”

“Commander, our … passenger … is awake and asking a lot of questions.”

Darius's brows rose. He shrugged and responded in an absent fashion. “I can imagine. But I wouldn't expect her to comprehend too much. From what our scientists have said, Earthers are quite backward. The best of them are only thought to use about ten percent of their brains. I'm sure Gemma will have her hands full, but she'll cope. I have every faith in her.” His gaze went back to the forward view port.

“I don't envy Gemma.”

“I'll stop by at the end of my shift,” Darius offered. “By then I might have a better idea of what to do with the woman.”

“What to do with her, sir?”

“Well … it's obvious we must take her back to Luster. We can't put her on some alien world after only just learning her people aren't the center of the universe. From what I hear, that's what they believe.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “It's just that … I'll have to find something for her to do. She can't make the whole trip wandering around aimlessly, can she? Seems prudent to keep her busy. Keep her mind off things … assuming that's remotely possible.”

Barst snorted then glanced at a nearby bulkhead monitor. “Sir, someone seems to have changed our heading home. We're still headed for Luster, but not by the course I laid in.”

Darius explained his actions so his second-in-command and best friend would understand. “If someone wants to free Goll, they won't expect us to navigate this new course.”

“You expect trouble?”

“There's no sense taking chances. I want him back on Luster to face charges and I'll do whatever it takes to see the job done.”

“And our new passenger? What will we say concerning her?” Barst asked.