Part 14 (1/2)
”Don't gas the lift! Don't gas the lift!”
The shouted commands, coming from a dosed-off area behind the fake walls, startled Nancia. She s.h.i.+fted views rapidly, cursing the quick and dirty remodeling job that had left large areas of her own interior cut off from her visual sensors.
Sev Bryley, white-faced, appeared from behind one of the puce-and-mauve pseudoboard walls. ”I'll get him out of the loading bay,” he snapped without so much as a glance towards Nancia's sensor unit. ”You can keep the sleepgas confined to that area?”
”Yes, but-”
”Don't have time for a mask.” Bryley was in the lift now, and Nancia could watch him on die agonizingly slow pa.s.sage down to the loading dock. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he took the deep, rapid breaths of clean air that would keep him going in the loading bay.
Nancia kept the lift door on three-quarter pressure, just enough to let Bryley squeeze through the flexible opening that shut behind him. At the same time she flushed the loading bay with the ventilation system on high power, replacing as much sleepgas as she could with dean air.
Sev's back and shoulders bulged awkwardly half through the lift door. Nancia released the flexible membrane just long enough to let him drag Caleb through into the lift. She kept the ventilation system on high for the long seconds of the ride back. By the time the lift was at cabin level, she could find no measurable trace of sleepgas in the air. But Sev had inhaled enough to make him slump against the wall, too woozy to carry himself and Caleb farther.
”Antidote... ?”
”In the corridor,” Nancia told him. ”In the c&rridorF She had no housekeeping servos within the lift itself.
Sev had to stagger forward, out of the lift, fetching up against the freshly painted corridor wall with a thump.
At least it was one of Nancia's true walls; only a few steps away from Sev was an opening from which the servos could dispense stimulants and medical aids. Sev took two gasping breaths of the dean air, reached into the shallow dish presented by the opening in the wall, grabbed a handful of ampules and crushed them under his nose.
”More,” he commanded.
”You've already exceeded the recommended dosage.”
”1 need a dear head now” Sev growled.
Was there more blood on Caleb's uniform? Impossible to tell what he'd been hit with, or how bad the damage was. Nancia sent another set of stim ampules to the servo tray. Sev broke these more cautiously, one at a time. After the third deep breath of pungent stimulant, he dropped the rest back in the tray. ”Medical supplies!”
”What?”
”I'll tell you when I know.” He was on his knees, blocking Nancia's view as he peeled back the front of Caleb's spoiled uniform. ”Something to stop bleed- ing ... there shouldn't be so much from a needier ...
ahh. The ...” he used a Vega slang term that was not in any of Nancia's vocabulary hedra. ”She loaded it with anticoagulant. And . . . other things, I think.
a.n.a.lyze?” He dropped a torn and b.l.o.o.d.y strip of doth into the servo tray. Nancia transferred it to the medical lab and replaced it with ampules of HyperClot which Sev injected directly into Caleb's veins.
”That*s stopped the bleeding,” he said finally, rising 162.
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to his feet. ”But I'm not happy about his color. Does that look like normal sleepgas pallor to you?”
”No.” The one word was all Nancia could manage.
”Me neither. Can you a.n.a.lyze what else was in the needier?”
”No. Organics of some sort, but it's too complex for me.” Concentrating on the technical problem helped to steady her voice. ”I haven't the facilities here. I am contacting Murasaki Base for Net access to medtechs.”
But Murasaki Base could suggest only that she transport Caleb to the nearest planet-based clinic as quickly as possible. If Fa.s.sa's needier had been loaded with Ganglicide - ”It wasn't Ganglicide,” Nancia said quickly. ”He'd be dead by now. Besides, no one would do such a thing.”
”You might be surprised,” said the infuriatingly calm managing brain of Murasaki Base. ”But I agree, probably not Ganglicide. There are, however, slower- acting nerve poisons which, untreated, can be just as fetal. From what you report of his convulsive reaction, I would suggest immediate medical treatment by someone experienced with nerve poisons and their antidotes.”
”Thanks very much,” Nancia snapped. Sev had wrapped Caleb in all the blankets he could collect, but nothing stopped Caleb's incessant nervous s.h.i.+vering.
And every once in a while his spine arched backward while he cried out in delirium. ”We came from Raz- mak Base in Bellatrix subs.p.a.ce. You're not seriously suggesting I take a man in this condition through Sin- gularity, are you?”
”There happens to be an excellent clinic on Bahati,1*
the Murasaki Base brain replied. ”If you were calm enough to check the Net records I'm transmitting, CN, you'd see that the a.s.sistant director there has a strong background in nerve poison research. With your permission, I will alert the Summerlands clinic to receive an emergency patient for the direct care of Dr.
Alpha bint Hezra-Fong.”
Time stopped. s.n.a.t.c.hes of conversation forgotten for nearly four years echoed in Nancia's memory. An gxbert in Gangliade therapy right there at the Summerlands dime.. * testing Ganglicide on unwitting sitbjects ... so far vane on BUssto they didn't even know what was happening to them..- She had the full conversations recorded and safely stored away. She didn't need them. Her own human memory was mercilessly replaying words she'd tried to forget Did she dare put Caleb in Alpha bint Hezra-Fong's hands?
Did she dare not take him to the clinic?
There was really no choice.
They were only a few minutes from Bahati, but the time seemed like hours to Nancia. She blessed the multiprocessing capability that allowed her to perform multiple tasks at once. While one bank of processors controlled the landing computations, Nancia a.s.signed two more to maintaining the comm link with Murasaki and opening a new link with Bahati. She reached the director of Summerlands and explained her require- ments while simultaneously a.s.similating Murasaki Base's calm instructions.
The combination of Fa.s.sa's arrest and Caleb's wounds presented a complex political problem. Nan- cia was almost grateful for the complications; they gave her something to think about during the endless minutes before touchdown.
Courier Service policy strictly prohibited the transport of prisoners on a brains.h.i.+p with no brawn.Nancia thought it was a silly policy, born of fears that were decades out of date. Earlier, less cleverly designed brains.h.i.+ps might have been vulnerable to pa.s.senger takeover, but she was well protected against any little 164.
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tricks that Fa.s.sa might come up with. The auxiliary synaptic circuits known as the Helva Modification would prevent any attempt to dose off her sensory contact with her own s.h.i.+p-body.
All the same, Murasaki Base informed Nancia, the regulations existed for good reason and it was not up to a brains.h.i.+p to pick and choose which Service regs she would obey.
”All right, all right.” Had Caleb twitched again? Sum- merlands Clinic personnel were standing by to collect him as soon as they landed. Bahati s.p.a.ceport was issu- ing final landing instructions. ”Ill hand Fa.s.sa del Parma over to Bahati authorities.”
”That you will not,” the Murasaki Base brain in- formed her. ”I've been in contact with CenDip while ' you were fussing over your brawn. The young lady is a political hot potato.”
”Awhat?”
”Sorry. Old Earth slang. Never thought about the literal meaning ... let's see, I think a potato is some kind of tuber, but why anybody would try to ignite one... oh, well.” Murasaki Base dismissed the intrigu- ing linguistic question for later consideration. ”What it means is that n.o.body really wants to handle her trial.
Well, you can see for yourself, can't you, Nancia? If you're going to try a High Families brat and send her to prison, you don't do it out on some nowhere world at the edge of the galaxy. You bring her back to Central and you are very, very careful that all procedures are followed. To the letter. CenDip has strict instructions that nothing is to go wrong with this case; there's a cer- tain highly placed authority who has taken a personal interest in stopping High Families corruption.”
”You can tell your highly placed authority to - ”
Nancia transmitted a burst of muddy tones and discor- dant high-pitched sounds.
”Can't,” said Murasaki Base rather smugly.
”Softsh.e.l.ls can't receive that kind of input Fortunately for them, I might add. Where did a nice brains.h.i.+p like you pick up that kind of language?”
Nancia landed at Bahati s.p.a.cefield as gently as a feather floating in the breeze. She opened her upper- level cabin doors and waited for the s.p.a.ceport workers to bring a floatube. They'd already been informed of the reason why she didn't want to open the lower doors; the equipment should have been ready and waiting-ah! There it was now.