Part 6 (1/2)
”When's that?” Ray asked, puzzled.
”You'll have to ask Kat and company,” the doctor growled.
”We started using it for specimen a.n.a.lysis, sir.” Kat eyed the floor, as if hunting for a crack to fall through.
”Doctor, you haven't started working on these children's problems?”
”I've only been down two days. I will not use diagnostic gear someone just used to dissect the latest stray something these mids.h.i.+pmen”-his nod indicated Kat-”dragged in.”
”Colonel, it's really important, what we're finding out.”
”More important than helping these kids?” Ray made it clear that would be hard to do.
”Sir, there's something weird with the evolution on this planet. We've been chasing it the week you've been gone, sir, and we still can't figure it out.” Kat ran out of words in the face of Ray's scowl.
”Please, Colonel, Doc, we can't stop now. Come and see.”
”Show me,” Ray said.
FIVE.
MATT HAD LAUGHED at how excitable the middies were when they had a new bone to gnaw on...and just about anything qualified as new to them. It had been funny on Wardhaven. Here, with all the other problems Ray had, he didn't need an out-of-control bunch of boffins freelancing on him. He followed Kat's parade down the hall to a large room where a dozen middies huddled over equipment or around lab tables lit by glaring lamps. Jars of specimens reeking of preservatives half-filled a wall of shelves.
”Kat, good!” a young man shouted from one dissection table. ”This thing has a heart in every segment. At least I think this muscle pumps what it uses for blood. Come take a look. Oh, hi, Colonel, you might want to see this, too.” The good doctor's scowl at the mess they had made of his medical unit was ignored; nothing but enthusiasm and excitement came from the youngsters.
Ray kept his face unreadable. When he came down on the doc's side he didn't wait the kids screaming he hadn't given them a fair hearing.
”You've cut up a woolly leg-legs!” Rose cried in nine-year-old outrage.
”We put it to sleep first,” the young man defended himself against the accusation of innocence. ”And we have to study it.”
Ray caught Mary's eye, nodded her toward the door with the little girl. Mary declined the order with a quick shake of her head. Rose clung to Kat, and Ray's Chief of Security's curiosity was clearly piqued.
So for the next hour Kat did her best to update Ray's academy biology course; most of what he heard went over his head.
Not all. The computer image of three skeletons side by side was impossible to forget. One was ours, skull perched on a backbone of vertebrates, rib cage dangling from our shoulders. Next to it was one with vertebrates, too, but long bones hung vertically from the shoulder, intersperced With four arms. The third skeleton featured three backbones, all long and looking like our leg bone. Studying the sockets of the hip and shoulder bone that allowed this version to twist gave Ray a headache; still, the middies insisted it was as flexible as ours, and its spinal column just as protected. The last of Kat's three evolutionary lines was the woolly leg-legs. Rose's terminology had been adopted and scientifically sanctified.
When the middies grew silent, Ray turned to Doc Isaacs. ”Could all these have evolved here?”
The young medical professional rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ”I don't know, Colonel. I've never heard of anything like this. A small number of exotics in a biota usually are imports. But three totally mixed. Is this sun unstable? Could these all be mutations? I'm no geologist, but until someone digs up a fossil record, I'd be reluctant to say they couldn't all be native to this planet. After all, it is a big universe.”
Kat frowned, but nodded. ”We don't know enough to draw a conclusion,” she said, pained to admit such a limit.
”And it's only going to get worse,” Ray sighed, and took over. ”Doc, we've got three kids who need thorough examinations. If we can solve their problems, we'll be well on our way to winning a lot of credit with the locals. As much as I hate to restrict you middies' play privileges, Doc's got first call on his diagnostic gear for Rose and her friends.”
”And you, Colonel,” the doc cut in.
”Me?”
”The meds that saved your backbone have side effects. I checked your records. You're several weeks overdue for a full workup. I'm putting you in line ahead of the kids. Middies, I want my diagnostic center back, and I want it back now.”
”All of it?” one squeaked.
Jerry took a deep breath, surveyed his appropriated domain like a monarch reclaiming his throne room, then let the air out through a quirky grin. He pointed to one corner. ”Clean up Bay One and I'll share the rest. For now. But if I need it, you're out of here, fast.”
”Yes,” ”Thanks,” and an argument from someone evicted from Bay One that they should have priority in Bay Three broke out immediately. Ray turned to leave, but Jerry nabbed his elbow.
”You're not going anywhere. You're my number one patient.”
Ray surrendered with as much grace as he could muster. At least this medical exam would not be invasive. He turned to Mary. ”Leave Rose with me. Go corral David and the other one.”
”You promised me my own telephone for my arm so I could call Mommy,” Rose reminded him as she sat down beside him. Kat surrendered her wrist unit. Ray showed the girl how to use it and helped her place her first call. Ms. San Paulo came on the line at the tenth buzz. Ray spent the next ten minutes smiling through a nine-year-old's perspective on the day, with few comments from Mom, while the doc and middies cleared the wreckage of several dissections. Ray put an end to the call only when Mary dragged David and a seven-year-old in from wherever they'd been playing. The dirty clothes and faces attested that they'd been having fun.
”Thank you for caring for Rose,” Henrietta finished.
”Everything's fine here,” Ray a.s.sured her. ”How are things at your end?”
”We had a fire at the archives this afternoon. Initial reports says it was a faulty electric wire.”
Ray nodded. ”I'll make sure Rose calls you about this time tomorrow,” Ray said and punched off. Mind elsewhere, he watched Rose slowly approach her two new playmates. ”I've never seen anyone else with white hair, except old people,” she said, twisting the hem of her dress in both hands.
”I hadn't either,” David answered back quickly.
Jerry took one look at both kids and growled, ”Mary, run those two through a dunk tank while I start on the Colonel.”
Mary left with all three kids in tow. Ray shed s.h.i.+rt, belt, and shoes and let them help him up onto the exam table. From practice, Ray's fingers rapidly adjusted the contours of the table, adding more back support and raising his legs...and the table's temperature. It was cold.
”Give me a minute to reset these systems. Lord, but the middies have hashed the setting.” Jerry provided a running commentary on youngsters who had no respect for the designed intent of systems. Ray cleared his mind, letting it wander. He'd learned the hard way that moments like these could easily turn to remembrances and regrets. Three evolutionary lines. Interesting, but for three hundred years the people of Santa Maria had pretty much ignored them. It was probably fascinating for the middies but of no relevance to the mission. Somebody wanted Ray dead. Not unusual in his old line of work, but a tad upsetting in his new job as amba.s.sador to these lost sheep. Maybe sheep wasn't the right metaphor. Sheep don't carry knives. Didn't cause fires. Around Ray, the scanner systems came alive. For long minutes, Ray hardly breathed.
”Let's redo that scan,” Jerry ordered, voice doctor-cold.
”Problem?” Ray asked.
”Just want to make sure the middies didn't louse things up,” Jerry said, words suddenly sterile medical efficiency, Ray fought to keep from s.h.i.+vering as ice traveled down his mending spine. The exam continued, the doctor consulting his techs in quick, quiet phrases. Ray tried to relax, but as the exam stretched, tension grew.
”Doc, how much longer?”
”I want to rerun a set. See if I've got it calibrated.”
Ray struggled up and slowly swung his legs off the table. ”Check it on the kids.” Ray could hear them playing tag noisily in the hall. ”You've had enough of my time.”
”Colonel, I'd like to-”
Ray cut him off. ”You know where I live. If you still aren't sure about your machine, I'll give you another half hour tomorrow. Now help me off this d.a.m.n table.”
”Yes, sir.”