Part 14 (1/2)
”The thought of flying free always was a turn-on,” Ray explained softly.
”Want to tell me what's going on here?”
”Got enough?”
”Yeah. Corpsman!” Doc shouted. ”Wrestle me up the kids.” A lab-coated a.s.sistant nodded silently and left. ”Okay, Colonel, what were you doing that made that little thing you shouldn't have get all red and yellow from use?”
Ray swung himself off the table and ambled over to watch his own scans. The first half minute was familiar territory. Then the dark ma.s.s that scared Ray just to look at warmed up, showing itself off boldly in reds, pinks, and yellows. Other parts of Ray's brain glowed in response to some stimuli from it. ”I'm remembering things I never did.”
”Recalling dreams?”
Ray shook his head. ”Too real. My dreams have a fuzziness around the edge. Nothing hazy here. I can read the writing on the walls, writing I've never seen before. I even understand the poetry. Understand all of its allusions and can call up more memories to back them up.” Ray tapped his head. ”These memories are as real as anything I've lived.”
Jerry leaned back, knuckling his eyes with both fists as if to clear them of sleep, exhaustion, unacceptance, all of the above. ”We've been trying to make data biostorage units. Every time we think they might be cost-effective, silicon comes up with a new growth spurt. And reading the data is slow.”
”I don't know about that. All I know is I've just failed to disprove the hypothesis I presented this morning. I've got to face some things I didn't want to even touch. Things I've been dismissing as dreams aren't dreams at all. Certain experiences I and the kids had were very real. This planet is crazy. Maybe even crazier than I thought. Now I've got to start figuring out what to do about it. Certainly before tonight.”
”Tonight?”
”Yeah. 'cause if I can't handle this crazy place by tonight, it's not going to let me sleep again. And Doc, I am tired.”
A shake of the head was all the medication Jerry gave.
Ray dropped in on Kat before leaving the hospital/research center. She was elbow-deep in correlating Lek's media and news dumps. ”My college news was more interesting than this. Recipes! They actually put recipes on the front page of one. Doesn't anything interesting ever happen around here?”
”Depends on what you consider interesting. Include a search on albinism.” Ray rubbed his temples for a moment. ”Pain management ought to cover headaches. Hallucinations, any other mental health issues.”
”I saw something flash by about whirling dervishes or some kind of mystics among the Covenanters.”
”Right. Mysticism. Witch-hunts. Those kinds of things.”
Ray left as the kids were herded into Med Bay One for tests. The morning had left them happily grubby. A sky eyes took off as Ray strode for Barber's office. Mary and the chief were head down over his station. They glanced up as Ray entered.
”Got a blimp due in by noon,” Barber said. ”Another by supper. They're loaded with ceramic feed and carbon bricks. You know anything about that?”
”I told San Paulo our help didn't come free. Steal a blimp while one's up here.”
”Any particular reason?” Mary asked.
”I may be bouncing a core sampling team all over the place.”
The chief leaned back in his chair. ”Colonel, I'm as good as any old soldier at working in the dark. And I can process bulls.h.i.+t into mushrooms like anybody else. But that don't mean I like it. Ready to talk?”
”Don't know. How good are you at listening?”
”As in can I swallow six impossible things before breakfast?” the chief asked. Ray nodded. ”Try me. I think I follow the cards you've put face up on the table. Can't help but think you've got a few up your sleeve you ain't talking about.”
Ray told them of the test Doc had just completed. ”He's checking the kids now. Asking them to remember about the Three. The scenes they saw in the cave.”
”Nice,” the chief said. ”Instead of buying all those case files in college, just load it into your head.”
”What made you think of school?” Ray asked.
”Don't know. Been dreaming about working on my masters.”
”In my dreams,” Ray said, ”I meet what's causing all this. Calls itself the Teacher. This whole planet was its school.”
Mary pursed her lips. ”If you could make jump points on the gross scale and modify cells at the micro, why not use an entire planet to teach your young? Or your old, for that matter? Heard the old adage you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Imagine what you could do with a planet for a cla.s.sroom.”
The chief snorted ruefully. ”I've served under some old mossbacks. Turkeys who hadn't learned a thing since they hatched. Could spout all the new management words: ”empowerment,” ”results-oriented,” ”shared visions.” Had the words but couldn't do a d.a.m.n thing with them. Couldn't change at the gut level. Me, I figured I'd outlive the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.”
Mary nodded. ”Met a few like those in the mines.”
”But what if everyone lives for hundreds, thousands of years?” Ray mused.
”Society either stagnates, or folks learn to change deep down, all through their lives. I know a few who did,” the chief agreed. ”Took a d.a.m.n painful boot in the a.s.s to get their attention, to make them really want to do things different.”
”A planet might do that,” Mary agreed.
”Be fun watching it in action,” the chief grinned.
Ray shook his head. ”Got a problem there. This thing thinks it knows all there is to know.”
”Oh, s.h.i.+t,” Barber breathed. ”I've known a few like that. A real pain. What makes you think that?”
”Maybe just a dream. Maybe the Teacher has figured out a way into my brain.” Ray tapped his forehead. ”You know, that thing in here Doc and I are working to understand. I think it puts me on the Teacher's net.”
”Which is why you ventured your guess this morning,” the chief said. Ray nodded. ”Okay, boss. What do you want from me?”
”Help Mary keep the base up. I'm not sure that when we tapped that hill, we didn't p.i.s.s the Teacher off big time.”
Barber shook his head. ”Unsmart of a student.”
”Got any good ideas why people have taken to rioting in the streets?” Mary asked.
”I d.a.m.n near was ready to riot last night in Refuge. All kinds of nasty feelings running around in my gut. No reason for them.” Mary pursed her lips. Ray shrugged and went on. ”Let me know what you're making with the feed metals you've got.” Ray stood. ”Start looking around the base for anything you're willing to melt down and recycle to a higher priority. Life's only going to get more interesting.”
His commlink interrupted him. ”Colonel, Kat here. You want to see what we've got over here.”
”On my way.”
Ray walked briskly back to the hospital. The kids were bouncing off the walls in Med Bay One, so their tests must be done. Doc was head down over his board.
”Any surprises?” Ray called.
”Just like yours,” Jerry answered without looking up. ”There's got to be a pattern here somewhere. h.e.l.l, we still don't have the human brain mapped, and now I've got more territory to confuse me.”
Kat and three other middies were keeping eight stations working full-time, hopping between chairs and chattering at light speed. ”Another just lit off,” ”I've got lots of movement but no action,” ”But why isn't any of this being reported?”
”What's happening?” Ray asked, settling into a seat that apparently was out of the musical-chair compet.i.tion.