The Hourglass (15 page)

“Finn!”

He held up a
hand to stop her. “It’s fine, just another one of those ‘accidents.’”

“I thought they
had stopped!”

Finn shrugged.
“They had, until now.”

“He’s getting a
bit more serious,” she said, alarmed. “I thought the Queen was meant to stop
the worst of it.”

“I think she
is,” said Finn. “This is still only minor stuff.” Sarah pulled a face,
indicating exactly what she thought of it being ‘minor stuff’. “And anyway, it’ll
still be worse if I do give in.” Sarah didn’t have anything to say to that. It
was true. “Besides,” he added, “only a few more days now and it’ll be decided
either way. Two more days after this one, right?”

Sarah nodded
numbly. “Two more days.”

Finn ran a hand
through his hair in what Sarah was beginning to realise was characteristic of
him whenever he felt overwhelmed. It made his hair stand up on end. It looked
good tousled, she thought.

“What?” said
Finn. Sarah blushed, realising that she had been staring.

“Ah, nothing.”
The bit of paper crinkled in her sock as she moved uncomfortably. “Oh wait,
yeah, I have something for you.” She made sure that nobody else was looking and
then reached down into her sock, pulling out the piece of paper. She passed it
to Finn under the conveyer belt. He glanced down quickly, grabbed it, and then
stuck it in the waistband of his pants. Sarah glimpsed a cord of muscle as he
lifted his shirt up and looked away quickly. She felt her heart beat funnily in
her chest. What was wrong with her?

“For me?” asked
Finn, as if she had given him a present, “you shouldn’t have.”

“I thought you
could use the practise,” said Sarah. “You must be a bit rusty by now.”

Finn turned up
his nose at her. “I’m an artist, Sarah.”

She snorted in
amusement. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Marland hurried
over to her as soon as the bell went to signal dinner. She had a grin plastered
across her face.

“I have news!”
she said gleefully.

“You found out
about the event?” asked Sarah, excited.

The grin slipped
slightly from Marland’s face. “Ah, no, but I did find out about why the Queen
hates the doctor.”

“Really?” asked
Sarah, intrigued.

“Yup.” The grin
faltered a little again. “It’s actually quite sad, really. Her brother was on
this ship before her. Apparently the whole family is rotten. He got in a fight
or was sick or something and was sent to the infirmary. When the Queen arrived
she expected to see her brother again and, I don’t know, have a happy family
reunion, or stab each other, whatever it is that family does. Only when she
gets here he is nowhere to be found. The doctor said he had volunteered to be a
guineapig. She doesn’t believe him. She claims black and blue that her brother
would never volunteer for anything, and if he was sent off to be a guineapig it
was done against his will. So she hates him and apparently has been trying all
sorts of tricks to get the doctor thrown off the ship.”

“That explains
the hatred all right,” said Sarah, interested. “A pity it probably won’t help
me.”

Gone

Sarah walked
through the doors of the infirmary only to find Holden wasn’t there.

“Where’s
Holden?” she asked Talbot and Dalton. Dalton’s eyes flickered nervously to the
cabinet behind Sarah and her stomach sank. She knew without having to turn
around that the doctor was standing behind her. He must have had one of the
cabinet doors open for her not to have seen him when she came in. That and she
was distracted by the conspicuously empty bed.

“He got
transferred to the mainland,” said Talbot. His voice was slightly higher
pitched than normal and he was making an obvious effort to keep his eyes on
Sarah. “One of the main hospitals there is taking him for further treatment.
Lucky bugger,” he added with an odd laugh that died quickly in his throat.

The voice of the
doctor appeared from behind her and Sarah finally turned around and made room
for him to easily pass by her. “Are you implying that I’m not doing a good job looking
after you, Talbot?” asked the doctor dryly.

“No, no not at
all,” squeaked Talbot. He coughed and his voice lowered again to nearer his
normal pitch. “It’s just he gets to be outside again,” he explained. “Or at the
very least have a window.” The doctor simply raised his eyebrows and didn’t
reply. He sat on the edge of Justin’s bed and started taking his vitals. “New
sheets today,” he told Sarah without looking up as she went to go get the mop
out of the cupboard. “You can mop later.”

They went
through the usual sheet-changing procedure and then Sarah got out her mop. She
was expecting Finn at any moment. He had been quizzing people over the last few
days about important dates on the ship or any details about the doctor’s
private life, like birth dates that maybe they could try for the safe’s code. He
had a small list and had encouraged her last night to just try some of them on
the off chance that it would work. Sarah had been impressed. She wanted a few
more numbers to try out, however, and as Finn had asked mostly the boys that he
thought he could trust she had worked up the nerve to approach the Queen and
ask for her list. At breakfast that morning a list of possible numbers had been
delivered to her. Sarah wished that she had thought to ask for this sooner. Finn
had volunteered to turn up to the infirmary and distract the doctor while she
tried them. As if her thoughts had brought him forward, Finn appeared in the
doorway. He was holding a hand to his torn ear, and fresh blood was trickling
though his fingers.

“Hey doc,” he
said as the doctor came out of his office. “I’d appreciate some of those pain
meds now.” The doctor walked over quickly and gestured towards a spare bed.
Finn sat down on it gratefully. As the doctor pried Finn’s hand away from his
ear Sarah slipped into the office unnoticed. Even Talbot and Dalton were watching
Finn with interest. She wondered if Finn had done anything extra to his ear and
if so how bad it was. She would find out later anyway. Hunkering down low, so
that she would not be easily visible if someone glanced towards the office
windows, she slid the fake cabinet drawer aside. The keypad stared back at her,
expectantly. With shaky fingers she drew the list out of her sock, where she
had stashed it, and entered in the first code. The light stayed red. Nothing.
She entered the second and hoped that there wasn’t a limit on the attempts. If
an alarm went out she would be screwed. The third number was also a bust as
well, but Sarah was relieved to see that there was no change to the safe, nor
was there any audible alarm. A silent alarm was of course a possibility, but
this was a prison ship. The status quo was old technology, or rather, no
technology. Money was better spent on the war effort. There were only three
more number combinations on the list. Apparently the ship ran on such a tight
schedule that there were hardly any significant dates in mind, and the doctor’s
past and personal details were a mystery to nearly everyone. She glanced out of
the window to see that the doctor had got out some suture material and was now
injecting Finn’s ear with anaesthetic. Sarah blinked. She hadn’t thought that
his ear was that bad yesterday. What had he done to it? Her legs were starting
to hurt from crouching down, which brought her attention back to the task at
hand. The last three numbers all failed. She spared another quick glance out of
the window and then desperately punched in some common combinations that people
are always advised never to use, but which they commonly do. She tried the
first six numbers in row, the numbers in reverse, she tried odd numbers and
even ones. She even tried the numerals that made up pi. It was useless. She
closed the fake drawer, stuffed the list back into her sock, made sure that she
hadn’t left anything else behind and slipped back into the main room. Finn, the
only person who seemed to notice her return, gave her a hopeful glance that
died almost as soon as he saw her expression. She understood the look of
despair and disappointment that swept across his face. Not only was their
future not looking great, but he had just maimed his own ear for nothing. Sarah
started tidying up the doctor’s equipment while he cleaned off the remaining
blood around Finn’s ear before he applied a bandage. There were two small, neat
stiches in place. It looked only slightly worse than yesterday. Sarah guessed
that he had picked the scab off so that it had bled again. She passed the
doctor a roll of tape that he was looking for.

“Oh, good work,
um, Sarah,” he said, oblivious to her absence just before.

Sarah forced a
smile in reply. She only had tomorrow now to retrieve the transfer document,
and she was fresh out of ideas.

Justin

That afternoon
two soldiers appeared at the infirmary door. Sarah nearly dropped what she was
holding when she saw them, and Talbot and Dalton stopped talking mid-sentence.
She had never seen Covenant soldiers on the ship before. The doctor strode out
of his room.

“Ladies,”
greeted the doctor.

“Doctor, um,”
the soldier’s eyes flickered down to a report she was holding. She was tall and
muscular and incredibly fit. “Doctor Stanton. We’re here to pick up Justin
Weatherall.”

“What?” said
Sarah loudly, forgetting herself. Everyone turned to look at her and she
blushed. The doctor turned back to face the soldiers.

“He’s here.” He
walked over to where Justin rocked, unfazed on the bed. “Handle him gently and
he won’t be any trouble. Make sure you hand him over to Doctor Spitle
personally.”

“Where are you
taking him?” asked Sarah, knowing that she shouldn’t draw attention to herself
in front of the soldiers but not caring.

“He’s going to
work on the farms,” replied the doctor shortly.

“But I thought
the farms weren’t accepting new people?”

“They do when I
recommend them,” said the doctor.

 “Will he be
able to work?” she asked.

“He shows
remarkable improvement when outside,” replied the doctor irritably, “being
outside on the farms should hopefully return him to his normal state. I decided
that the ship would only aggravate his condition.”

“He’s not going
to get experimented on?”

The doctor gave
her a confused look. “No, of course not.” He saw her disbelief and a look of
scientific acumen settled across his face. “He doesn’t react to stimuli
normally. He would be a terrible test subject,” he elaborated. “The farm is the
best solution for all involved.”

The two soldiers
stood Justin up. Once they realised that he would follow their guidance meekly
they relaxed a little and escorted him out, pausing to hand the doctor a
document as they passed. Sarah waited until the soldiers had exited the room
before she turned to face the doctor. She pictured how relaxed and happy Justin
had been as he had sun-baked on the deck on their second day. He would like
working on a farm. “Thank you.”

The doctor
blinked in surprise. “He is more use to society working the farms then taking
up resources on the boat,” he said, a bit embarrassed. He coughed and then
walked back into his office.  

Update Report

That night at
dinner the Queen sent over three of her girls to escort Sarah and Finn to her
table. One of the girls was Heather. She was grinning.

“What have you
guys done?” she asked, not bothering to hide the excitement from her voice.
“Because she is royally pissed off.”

“If she wanted
you to know, I’m sure she would have told you,” replied Sarah. She was too
stressed out to worry about being diplomatic or to deal with Heather.

Heather blinked
at her, stunned. “She trusts me.”

“If she trusted
you, you wouldn’t have to ask those questions.”

Heather’s face
turned a mottled shade of red. “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?”

Sarah didn’t
bother to reply. They had reached the Queen’s table by now. Heather pushed
Sarah forward from behind so that she stumbled the last couple of steps.

“Sit,” said the Queen
quietly. She didn’t need to be loud. She knew she had their attention.

They sat.

The Queen
motioned for the others to go away. They did so, Heather more slowly than the
others.
“Heather?” said the Queen.

“Yes?” said
Heather eagerly, turning back quickly.

“Piss off.”

Heather turned
scarlet and loped away. Sarah would have enjoyed her embarrassment if she
wasn’t feeling so terrified herself. The Queen was playing with a small steak
knife. Sarah wondered where she had got it from. She had only ever seen blunt,
plastic butter knives in the cafeteria, except for that one incident with the
shiv. A quick glance around the room only increased her fears. All of the
guards were conspicuously absent at their end of the cafeteria. They were up
the other end, their backs turned to what was happening. People had cleared out
from the surrounding tables.

“Sarah, Finn,
where are my transfer papers?” She said it politely, pleasantly. Sarah felt she
would have been less scared if she was yelling.

“We still have a
day,” said Finn.

“You have as
much time as I tell you.” The words were sharp. Finn flinched as if she had
slapped him.

“We have his
signature,” said Sarah, trying to save the situation as much as she could.

“What is the
point,” said the Queen delicately as she reached out and gently held Sarah’s
hand, “of having his signature,” she placed the tip of the knife in-between two
of Sarah’s knuckles, “if we have nothing to use it on?” She spun the knife
gently around so that the tip dug in enough to draw out a droplet of blood.
Sarah grimaced at the pain but didn’t draw her hand away. She knew it would be
worse if she did.

“Stop,” said
Finn, his hand hovering slightly off the table as if he wanted to swat the
knife away. “We’ll get you the papers.”

“And how will
you do that?” She dug the knife in a little deeper. Much to Sarah’s shame she
let out a little squeak. This time she tried to pull her hand back, but the Queen’s
hand tightened around hers, holding it steady and firm. The Queen’s strength
was surprising.

Finn ran a
desperate hand through his hair as he tried to think. “We’ll get him to open it
for us,” he said eventually.

“And how would
you do that?” repeated the Queen. Much to Sarah’s relief she didn’t twist the
knife in this time.

“Get me an
envelope,” said Finn. “I’ll write something on the outside. We’ll convince the
doctor that he needs to put it in his safe. Before he closes it we’ll distract
him, then use the distraction to get your papers out.”

“That’s a
terrible plan.” She twisted the knife. Sarah bit on her lip to stifle the yell.
She tasted blood.

“It’ll work,”
said Finn hurriedly, both hands slightly raised off the table. “I swear, it’ll
work.”

“Have you done
this before?”

“Yes,” replied
Finn sincerely, staring at her eyes.

The Queen
appraised him. After a moment the pressure of the knife disappeared and Sarah
was able to pull her hand away. She hugged it to her chest, careful of the
wound.

“Don’t
disappoint me,” said the Queen. She didn’t have to finish the rest of the
threat. They knew what would happen.