Part 48 (1/2)

Dana answered, ”Administration, we've called our own medical team. We're not opening up till it arrives.”

”We have authority to examine your casualty!”

Tori said, ”This is Starcaptain Lamonica. Stuff your authority up your nose.”

Dana rubbed his arm. He had forgotten all about the slave mark. He walked to the bunk. ”Zed?” he said.

”Uh.”

”How do I get this tattoo off my arm?”

”Gel. Sai. Will. Know.” He lifted his head to stare at Dana. ”Need.” His face spasmed. ”Water.”

Dana brought him a cup of water, and held it to Zed's lips so that the handless man could drink it.

A woman's voice said, ”_Lamia_, this is Sai Thomas. Sorry it took me so long; first they had to find me and then they had to wake me up. You have a patient for me?”

”Ja. Narayan,” said Zed.

Dana said, ”We do, Medic. Is Ja Narayan with you?”

”Ja's coming from home.”

Dana looked at Zed, who nodded. ”I guess we can open up.”

Tori released the doorseal. People swarmed in. They were not familiar with stars.h.i.+ps. They climbed up awkwardly over the doorlip, not knowing what the ceiling bar was for. Tori Lamonica simply pointed toward the bunk. Zed said, ”h.e.l.lo, Sai.” The woman saw his hands and drew her breath in sharply. Then she started giving orders. The team stuck a needle in Zed's arm and attached a tube and bottle to it. They coated his hands with white foam. They slapped gel ampules on his neck and both his arms. They brought in a stretcher and put him on it.

One medic left the s.h.i.+p and came back. She approached the Hypers. ”One of you needs a slave tattoo removed?” she inquired.

Dana tried to roll up his sleeve and discovered that he still had the pressure suit on. He took it off. The medic spread gel from a tube over the tattoo. It was cool. She said, ”Let it harden. In about six hours you can peel it off and the tattoo will be gone. With your skin pigmentation, there should be no scar.”

A long hand reached over the doorlip. A rangy body leaped for the ceiling bar. Dana stared at the stranger who swung himself onto _Lamia_ like a rope uncoiling. A voice said in his mind, _So you're Dana Ikoro. Thank you for taking care of my friend. I'm Chief Pilot Orion_. Dana opened his mouth and then closed it. He turned to Tori. ”Chief Pilot Orion: this is Starcaptain Tori Lamonica.”

Tori held her hand out. The tall man did not take it, but suddenly she smiled.

With quick steps, Orion went to Zed's bunk and loomed at the backs of the laboring medics.

The medics muttered at each other, and formed into a procession directed by Sai Thomas. They were taking Zed through the door. Tam Orion stopped them by standing in the doorway. ”Please move,” said Sai Thomas.

”Wait.” Zed had opened his eyes. ”Tam.” Orion folded his thighs until his face was on a level with Zed's head.

”Hurt?”

Zed breathed out. ”Not. Too. Bad.”

”Help?”

”Nothing. You. Can. Do.”

Sai Thomas said roughly, ”The faster we get you to the Clinic, Zed, the sooner Ja can get to work on your hands.”

”Yes,” said Zed. He glanced at Tori Lamonica. ”Tools,” he said. ”Replace.

Proper.”

Tam Orion made a gesture of a.s.sent and stood aside. ”_Did you understand that_?” he said. ”_Zed's asked me to replace the equipment you lost effecting his rescue_.”

d.a.m.n him, Dana thought, we want nothing from him! But his answer did not seem to reach Orion at all, and Lamonica, predictably, was accepting the offer with delight.

”_Have a good trip home, Captains_,” the chief pilot said. He swung out of the s.h.i.+p. Dana watched the medics maneuver Zed's stretcher. The smell of the foam and of burned flesh lingered in the cabin. A Landingport mechanic delivered a heap of tools through the door, and went away. Dana munched on a food bar. His head was cotton. He returned to the navigator's chair and stared at the numbers bouncing on the compscreens. ”I want to make a direct-line call.”

Tori was watching the numbers. ”Don't let it take too long. I want to get out of here.”

He called Rhani. She answered instantly. ”You look like I feel,” he said.

There was little color in her face; it was the white of dried bone.

He said, ”Darien Riis was a cop, pointed at Zed by Michel A-Rae. He decided he could break you if he could take Zed away. Darien killed Jo Leiakanawa and blew up the Net. She had strong anti-slavery feelings. Zed shot her with a cutting laser. He's at the Abanat Clinic in the care of a medic named Sai Thomas and a surgeon named Narayan. I'm leaving on _Lamia_.”

She said, ”They called from LandingPort Station. They told me he was alive.” Her eyes were dark with exhaustion. ”I'm grateful to you.”

”We had an agreement.”

She reached to him, touched the screen, and drew the hand back. Her shoulders straightened. ”Good-bye, Starcaptain.”

Inexplicably, it hurt that she should choose to call him that. He wondered what her waiting had been like. LandingPort Station would have told her that the Net was gone, blown to dust. Now she knew that she had Zed back again; Dana wondered what she thought of the price. ”Rhani -- ”

Her voice wavered. ”Starcaptain?”

”Please don't call me that.”

Her face came a little closer to the screen; he could see her weeping.

”Goodbye, Dana. Go away now. Don't come back to Chabad. I wish you good fortune.

Live on a green and pleasant world with a lover who treats you better than this one.” She switched off. Dana rested his head against the chair back. He felt as if someone had just punched him in the heart.

Tori shook him roughly. ”Go lie down.”

He pointed at the controls. ”What about ...?”

”Sweet mother, you think I can't fly this s.h.i.+p by myself? Get into a bunk.”

”Where are we going?”

”To Nexus. Where else? Unless there's somewhere you want me to stop.”

Dana considered Pellin. It was a green and pleasant world. His family would be pleased to see him. But he was not ready to go world-bound. ”Nexus.”

”Go lie down.”