Zero Recall (33 page)

Joe stepped inside and
shut the door softly behind him.  Then he whistled at what he saw. 

The Jreet’s body was laid
out on his back in a switchback fashion, cream-colored belly facing the
ceiling.  Hand-sized patches of scales had been shaved completely off, leaving
the bluish skin visible underneath. 

The fascinating thing was
that the Jreet had been restrained in that position, painful-looking clamps
squeezing his flesh and securing him to the floor.  The doctors had paid
special attention to his upper body.  Three heavy-duty titanium bands secured a
metal plate over his tek
.
  His enormous arms were each strapped down in
two places.  The Jreet had been muzzled, his head pinned to the ground.

Joe noticed the Jreet’s small
golden eyes following him as he entered.  He went over to Daviin’s head and
tugged at the muzzle.  It had been locked in place utilizing technology used to
restrain kreenit, requiring a special key.  Grunting, Joe got up, went over to
the operating table, and found a circular saw amongst the other tools.  He
returned to the Jreet’s head and used the saw to cut through the straps holding
his muzzle. 

“So,” Joe said, lowering
the saw and tugging the restraint from the Jreet’s head, “I take it you were a
little unreasonable?”

Daviin glared at him. 

“Seriously,” Joe said,
gesturing at the bands holding him to the floor.  “Is all this really
necessary?”

“The managing doctor was
a tekless Ueshi coward.  I swore to my ancestors’ souls if he removed my
scales, I’d kill him and seek out his spawn to eliminate his sniveling, furgish
line.”

“You must have been very
convincing.”  Joe motioned at the restraints with the saw.

Daviin’s yellow eyes
could have belonged to an angry raptor.

“Why haven’t they let you
out yet?” Joe asked, gesturing at the scarred patches of skin.  “You look
healed.”

“They have the courage of
farmed Takki,” Daviin snarled.

“You mean you threatened
them.”

“I told them the truth.”

“Which was?”

Daviin raised his voice
indignantly.  “As soon as I get out of here, I’m going to hunt down every
coward who was in the room when they drugged me and make them dance on my tek
before I break every bone in their feeble little bodies.”

“Huh.” 

Joe got up and replaced the
saw on the table.  Then he walked to the door.

“Where are you going?!”
Daviin cried behind him.

Joe turned back and
shrugged.  “I’ll let you sort it out with them.  I’m not gonna be responsible
for the deaths of an entire medic team.”

“You must free me!”
Daviin snapped.  “The fools plan to send me home!”

Joe turned folded his
arms, curious, now.  “They do?  Why?”

“I told you!” Daviin
snapped, his muscles constricting against the restraints, for a moment making
the straps look as if they would fail before the Jreet relaxed again in
frustration.  “The doctor was a tekless Ueshi who is terrified of Jreet.  I
swore an oath to kill him and all his sniveling assistants and all of their
worthless spawn.” 

“And you wonder why they
left you there.”

“Curse you to the hells, Human!”
Daviin snarled.  “A Jreet warrior does not need to have his scales removed for
‘sanitary reasons.’  They were being unreasonable!” 

“And you intend to hunt
them down for attempting to spare you an infection later.”

Daviin hesitated.  “I
gave my word.”

“You were drugged,” Joe
said.  “Unaware of what you were doing.”

“I was
fully
aware
of what I was doing!” Daviin snapped.  “Cowards like that should be executed at
birth lest their genes infect the rest of society!”

Joe uncrossed his arms and
turned to leave.

“But the drugs might have
distorted my perceptions,” Daviin added meekly.

Joe grinned, then wiped
it off his face before he turned back to face the Jreet.  Deadpan, he said,
“But you swore an oath.  Now you
have
to kill them.”

“I was intoxicated,”
Daviin snapped.  “I wasn’t in my right mind.”

“But a Jreet’s honor is
his soul.”

“Let me worry about my
honor, miserable Human wretch.”

“I don’t know…”  Joe gave
the titanium bands a dubious look.  “This might be considered an accessory to
murder.”

“
I’m not going to kill
the tekless Ueshi worm!
” Daviin roared, straining against the restraints. 
The fist-sized bolts driven into the ebony floor groaned, but held.

“Hmm,” Joe said, pausing
to consider.  “What about his assistants?  I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty
sure it’s the assistants that do the shaving.  The doctor just does the
cutting.”

“They,” Daviin gritted,
“Are safe.  From me.”

Joe went to the wall and
began going through the Jreet’s chart.

“What are you doing?”

Scrolling through the documents,
Joe said, “I’m checking to see if you’ve been medicated within the last few
hours.”

“I’m not drugged!”

Joe replaced the chart
and squatted down in front of the Jreet.  “So this is your oath?”  He watched
the Jreet, utterly serious, now.  “I know Jreet put a lot of stock in their
word, and I’d rather let them send you back to Vora than see you slaughter a
bunch of guys who were just trying to help.”

“I won’t kill them, Human,”
Daviin muttered, sounding miserable.  “I swear it.”

Since he didn’t have the
key, Joe went back to the table and retrieved the saw.  He started at the
Jreet’s upper body, sawing through the clamps one by one.  He had to change the
blade three times before he reached the Jreet’s arms and tek
.

“Ghosts of the Mothers,”
Joe whistled.  “These guys weren’t messing around.”

“They’re tekless Cu’it
slaves,” Daviin snarled, straining.

“Bones,” Joe muttered. 
He lowered the saw and stood.

“What are you doing?” 
The Jreet gave him an anxious glance.

“I ran out of blades,”
Joe said, going to the cupboard and searching for a replacement.

As he was digging through
the shelves, the door opened and a startled Ueshi in Congie doctor garb burst
in.  He was surrounded by six Ooreiki in biosuits carrying full tunnel-crawl
weaponry.  As soon as they saw the Jreet sitting up in its restraints, the
titanium plate no longer secured over its tek
,
they spread out and
dropped into crouches, their rifles aimed at Daviin’s body.

Daviin responded by
blinking out of existence.

“Don’t you dare fucking
fire goddamn it!” Joe snapped, jumping in front of them.  The Ooreiki did not
lower their rifles.  Their pupils were wide as they stared at the place where
Daviin had vanished, their
sudah
whipping frenzies in their necks.  They
thought they were going to die.  It would have been comical, had Joe not
thought they would start spraying the room with plasma at any second.

“You,” Joe said, jabbing
a finger at the tiny Ueshi huddled behind the Ooreiki grounders.  “You are the
doctor?”

“Yes,” the
cerulean-skinned physician whispered.  He was trembling, his aquamarine
headcrest rippling as his binocular blue eyes stared at the place where the
Jreet had disappeared.

“Give me the key,” Joe
snapped.

That got the doctor’s
attention.  “Are you insane?  He swore to
kill
me.”

“He’s not gonna kill
you,” Joe said.  He strode up, caught the black circular chip hanging from a
chain around the doctor’s neck and yanked it free.  Then he turned back to
Daviin.

“I can’t let you do
that,” the Ueshi said.  “I’m a Jreet Specialist, operated on Sentinels at
Koliinaat for thirty turns.  That Jreet is a rogue, probably a criminal who
survived to this age by avoiding others of his kind.  He has no groundteam, no
reason to be on Jeelsiht.  The last ground leader foolish enough to take him
into his team kicked him out and refused to take him back.  He’s violent,
deranged, uncontrollable—a danger to everyone around him.  The only reason he’s
still alive is the bureaucrats refused to let us kill him.  He threatened to
poison me and my medical team innumerable times, and since Congress won’t let
us kill him, our only option is to administer pacifying drugs until they can
arrange a safe way to transport him.”  The Ueshi held up an injection syringe
and tapped it.

Joe turned back and
frowned at the Ueshi.  “You
are
a Takki slavesoul, aren’t you?”

The Ueshi straightened. 
“I’m a Specialist of the Medical Corps.  Who are you?”  He glanced Joe up and
down.  “For that matter,
what
are you?”

Joe realized the
physicians had dressed him in unranked hospital garb after removing his
biosuit.  He blinked.  It was a wonder they hadn’t shot him already.

“I’m the furg that kicked
the Jreet off my groundteam.”

The Ueshi peered at him. 
“What are you doing here?”

The Ueshi hadn’t
connected the dots, but the Ooreiki had.  Slowly, they lowered their rifles,
their eyes tearing from the empty air where Daviin was and settling on Joe’s
face in unabashed awe.  Joe blushed and used that moment to walk over to the
Jreet.

“Why did you lower your
weapons?” the Ueshi demanded.  “Stop him!”

Joe swiped the chip over
the Jreet’s restraints and Daviin flashed back into existence arching twelve digs
in the air, his scarlet and cream magnificence spoiled only by the handful of
small blue bald patches where his scales had been shaven.

The Ueshi screamed.

Daviin began to slide
toward the doctor, ignoring the Ooreiki completely.

Joe held out a hand to
the Jreet’s cream-colored chest, stopping the huge creature momentarily.  “You
swore,” he said under his breath.

The Jreet flexed his huge
ruby fists as he glared at the Ueshi.  “I won’t kill him.”

Joe released his
groundmate.

When it was apparent that
Joe was not going to stop the Jreet, the Ueshi turned and ran.

Daviin lashed out,
lightning-fast, tearing the doctor from the ground and holding him off the
ground so that the Ueshi’s head-crest trembled against the ceiling.

“You,” Daviin said into
the blue-green creature’s small rubbery face, “never tended Sentinels.”  Then
he dropped the doctor amidst the stunned Ooreiki and pushed through them, to
the door. 

Joe jogged to keep up. 
“He didn’t?”

Daviin did not answer
him.

“He seemed to know his
stuff,” Joe said, still jogging.  “They told me you almost lost half your
body.”

Daviin glanced back at
him, taking a moment to scowl at the Ooreiki who had emerged from the room
after them before returning his attention to Joe.  “He never tended Sentinels.”

“How do you know?”

“Sentinels don’t require
surgery.  They either live or they die.”

“Huh.”  Joe glanced back
at the Ooreiki standing outside the room.  The Ueshi had not yet emerged. 
“Wonder where he learned, then.”

Daviin twisted back to
the hall before them.  “Where are we?  I’ve got a sense of direction like a
Takki’s got courage.”

“We’re in the war
hospital,” Joe replied.  “I think I could get us out, but I still haven’t
visited Jer’ait or Galek.”

Daviin turned back to
him.  “The Huouyt survived?”

“Yeah.  His sootbag
Overseer’s got Huouyt stationed six deep at his door, keeping everyone out. 
Probably a good thing, after the first time he went under, but it’s still
ridiculous.”

The Jreet flexed an arm
that dwarfed Joe’s body, then glanced down at him.  “You wish to see him?”

A smile formed on Joe’s
face.  “I do.”

CHAPTER 18:  The Trouble with One’s Peers

“I will not retire.”

The Overseer’s eyes were
perfect mirrors as they watched him, making Jer’ait acutely aware of his
deformity.  “We aren’t giving you a choice.  You’ve been out too long, child. 
You grow too complacent, showing your
natural
body, of all things.  You
bring shame to your family and you’re a danger to all Huouyt.”

“They sterilized me.  How
am I a danger?”  Jer’ait managed to keep the bitterness from his voice, but his
deformity betrayed him.

The other Huouyt gave him
a condescending smile.  “We’ve tolerated you until now, child, as you have
always kept yourself hidden in a pattern.  But now you brazenly flaunt your
weakness in the open.  You shame us all.  You degrade the Huouyt image as a
whole.”

“I will not retire.”

The Overseer’s body
tightened, but his eyes remained perfect mirrors.  “Then you shall disappear.”

Jer’ait sat up, water
sloshing around him.  “You wouldn’t be the first to try.”

Overseer Bev’kii gave him
a patronizing look, which was ruined somewhat when the Huouyt stepped carefully
out of Jer’ait’s reach.  “You think you are invincible, child, but how long can
you survive here without sustenance?  I have guards outside.  They will not let
you leave.”  He lowered his voice, his words oozing with contempt.  “Please. 
Accept your fate gracefully.  For all our sakes.”

“I will accept my fate
when my remains are returned to Va’ga and laid to rest amongst the heroes of
the past.”

“That will never be
allowed.”

“It isn’t your decision!”
Jer’ait snapped, losing control over his fury.  Immediately, he wished he
hadn’t.  Bev’kii radiated smug satisfaction, his perfect eyes utterly flat.

“Sleep well,” the
Overseer said.  “While you can.”  At that, he turned and left the room.

You furg,
Jer’ait
thought, slipping back down into his water. 
What have you done?

He’d declared war on his
own kind. 

Jer’ait had the urge to
climb out of his tank and accept Bev’kii’s offer before his fate was sealed. 
He’d committed suicide.  Not even the greatest assassin Va’ga had produced
could fight them all.