Part 40 (2/2)
She stopped.
t.i.tus swallowed hard. ”He's dead. Not dormant. Dead.”
”But how could you-”
”I know. A father knows. When there can be a revival, there's still a-connection. It's gone.”
He put a hand on her elbow, remembering all the times he'd helped other fathers rush to the aid of suddenly dormant children. There was no trace of that feeling in him. My first son is dead. ”H'lim blew up the convoy when it came close-”
”But why?”
”To keep those four men from getting to us, to keep the convoy from blowing up the Collector and putting the station at the mercy of the blockaders, and probably to distract Abbot as best he could without Influence to help me.”
”What do you mean without Influence?”
”He was so hurt from the sun, so exhausted from battling Abbot, he couldn't even divert the blockaders.”
”He's dead,” she whispered.
He stared at her, savoring the feel of her with all his senses. Her acceptance of the loss somehow let him accept it, too. And I'll never know what kind of science uses a math too difficult for computers.
”Yes, Inea, he's dead. Permanently, this time. Now come on. We've got to see if any of those men survived. There must be first aid supplies in this mess somewhere. And then we have to dispose of Abbot's body, make ourselves a sledge of some kind to carry extra air, and trek back to the station-unless we can fix the radio and signal for help. But meanwhile we have to concoct a plausible story we can both stick to, and see about disarming any compulsions Abbot left you. And we have to do all of those things before we both break down and cry, or run out of oxygen.”
t.i.tus laid Abbot's head down on the rocks and shards of console and promised he'd make his father proud, always, even when he disagreed with him.
Chapter twenty-four.
Two days later, exhausted and depleted, t.i.tus and Inea pa.s.sed the last of the painted smiles, the one at the Project Station border, and saluted it as they had all the others that marked the road home.
They were hauling the sledge they had fas.h.i.+oned from wall panels and wiring in order to carry the two injured blockaders they'd found among the wreckage H'lim had made of the caravan. One of them, they were pretty sure, was dead, but the other might still have a chance.
Leaning into the harness they used to pull the thing, they trudged back onto station territory, heads bowed, eyes to the ground. There were still three spare oxygen bottles next to the two lashed-down s.p.a.cesuits.
Inea staggered with exhaustion, and t.i.tus said, ”Don't stop. We may never get started again, and we might not be noticed for days.” Their suitphones wouldn't necessarily be heard this far away.
”Don't worry about me,” rasped Inea. ”I could go another day or two. But you must be starving.”
”Not-”
”t.i.tus!” The bull roar had an Israeli accent and a joy t.i.tus had heard only when a program ran on the first try.
”Inea!” came another voice. ”s.h.i.+mon, call the ambulance!”
Two suits were sprinting toward them out of the setting sun. t.i.tus could barely force his eyes toward the glare, but made out one form with a portable flood, and another with the whip antenna of a powerful transmitter waving over his helmet. Inea called, ”s.h.i.+mon! Ernie! Ernie Natches!” Her pull on the sledge increased and t.i.tus staggered, trying to keep up with her. But when they were closer, he was certain their rescuers were indeed his own lab's Israeli genius and Inea's electronics mentor.
Twice during their trek, they had seen flyers overhead, but had not known if they were friend or enemy, and so they'd hidden instead of signaling. Now, in a confused babble of questions, answers, and intensive debriefing that lasted through the four hours it took Biomed to clear them through into Carol Colby's office, they found out why they had seen no identifying markings.
Security had found Mirelle's body a few hours after H'lim and t.i.tus had left, and Colby got that news through to Earth. Public opinion of the alien in W. S. controlled territory had instantly turned about. A monster that could masquerade as a friend was worse than an overtly monstrous monster.
World Sovereignties had immediately capitulated with regard to the alien. Earth would no longer seek contact with anything from ”out there.”
As predicted, all the secessionist support had faded immediately when that proclamation was made. Rhetoric s.h.i.+fted to being ready in case the galaxy ever discovered Earth, and that meant a united Earth.
With the war over and World Sovereignties once again in control, secessionist insignia had already been eradicated, the bombers reconverted to freighters.
As Colby ushered t.i.tus and Inea into her office and installed them in two comfortable chairs before her desk, she said, ”I'm sorry to tell you the man you brought in, the one who they thought would survive, died a few minutes ago. He never regained consciousness.”
t.i.tus swallowed hard. At least there's no chance now that our story will be contradicted. Then he was instantly ashamed of the thought, and aching with new grieving. All that dying, and only we survived.
Inea buried her face in her hands. No amount of cold water had been able to subdue the puffiness from her long delayed cry._ ”It's no reflection on you,” Colby hastened to add as she seated herself and tilted her screen so she could read it and see them at the same time. ”You're still counted heroes. Ah! Here it comes! Biomed has issued you clean bill of health. No trace left of the hypnotic coercion that monster inflicted on you.”
Inea gasped, choked back a sob, then flung her head back, sniffed, and faced Colby. ”Even though I don't think he's a monster?”
”You haven't seen what he did to Dr. de Lisle.”
”He gave his life to save the Collector and the station's independence from the blockaders.”
”The war is over,” insisted Colby. ”It has been since the W. S. s.h.i.+ps came to meet the blockaders attacking the ”tainers and announced the cease-fire.”
”I understand,” said t.i.tus, ”that the ”tainers arrived safely, and on target.”
”Yes.” Colby seized the chance to change the subject as she tapped her keyboard. ”Your work was perfect, even if my ground crews didn't measure up. Here it is-some spectral grade solvent was sent to your lab. s.h.i.+mon found it there yesterday, but could find no requisition filed for it. n.o.body can figure out what you'd need solvent for-not in this quant.i.ty, anyway.”
Abruptly, he could taste the cloned blood, a vile deadness after Inea's living gift. But perhaps coming off this long a fast, it wouldn't be so bad. ”Oh, that solvent wasn't for me,” lied t.i.tus, meeting Inea's gaze. ”If it's what I think it is, it had to do with a project H'lim had in mind-or maybe Dr. Mihelich-or something H'lim wanted Mihelich to do. I don't recall. I'll look it up- ”Never mind. I'll just have it trucked down to storage.”
”Oh, no! Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. You have so much to do, and my department is going to be dead weight around here with the Project sc.r.a.pped. In fact, if s.p.a.ce exploration is to be abandoned, I may never get another job.” That hadn't occurred to him before.
”Don't worry. You're both accounted heroes and will be substantially rewarded for everything you've done. I've put you in for hazard pay for the time you spent in the alien's company, and there will be a decorating ceremony when we all return to Earth. Oh, and t.i.tus, a few days ago, the insurance payment on your house came through, full replacement value. You can have it rebuilt before you go home, or wait and supervise it all yourself.”
”Someone said the station would remain under quarantine indefinitely,” commented Inea, ”so we're stuck here.”
”Only five years,” answered Colby. ”It's to be announced in a few hours. A compromise was reached and some biotech people will be coming up to verify Dr. Mihelich's findings. Meanwhile, the nears.p.a.ce program is not being totally abandoned. After the furor dies down, there will be a drive to strengthen Earth's defenses and early-warning network, which is what t.i.tus's department was originally intended to do. You won't be out of work. That is, if you're still interested. Considering what that monster did to you two and Abbot, as well, no one would blame you if you-”
”Oh, no!” objected t.i.tus and Inea in unison.
Their carefully constructed story was turning into a spider web. They had declared that H'lim had used his power to take them to the Eighth, which was true. People a.s.sumed they had been held in thrall, as had Abbot. t.i.tus and Inea insisted that all H'lim had wanted was to go home, and the threat of not being able to call for rescue had driven him to desperation. That was true, too, and also true of Abbot for a different reason. The minor aberrations in Inea's and t.i.tus's physiological responses under questioning were attributed to the horror of their ordeal, so nothing more than a routine investigation was planned. Abbot's clandestine software had protected t.i.tus during the hypnotic deconditioning session, and now security was satisfied.
t.i.tus told Colby, ”Nonhuman people are out there.
Pretending they're not there won't protect Earth. Now more than ever, we have to learn about the galaxy, and about the principles that drove Kylyd. We just have to do it without attracting attention. Maybe, by our grandchildren's day, the galactic situation will have changed. Maybe there can be peaceful contact eventually. We have to hope and pray and prepare for any eventuality.”
Colby c.o.c.ked her head to one side, smiling. ”That's exactly what I told them, almost word for word. You know, you may end up with my job.”
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