They Also Serve: A Jump Universe Novel Part 6

"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."

Ray had to put up with the doc's sour face for about five more seconds. Then Mary turned the three kids loose on Jerry, and no one can stay sour-faced while drowning in puppies. They wanted to know what did what, who did it, and how he would take away their headaches...all at once and in chorus. Ray hobbled off with Mary. He felt fine; that was all he needed to know. He came to a stop outside the hospital door. "Where's headquarters? My quarters?" He surveyed a collection of identical temporaries.

Mary pointed to the left. "Headquarters is across from the hospital. We've set up your quarters in the HQ, sir. If Matt can have his bunk next to the bridge, why should you have to commute?" Put that way, Ray couldn't argue. They covered the short distance to the HQ slowly. In the fields beyond the base, men and women hoed crops in the late-afternoon sun. On base, work parties moved about purposefully, if on missions Ray knew nothing about.

"Who's in charge?" Ray asked as he and Mary entered the orderly room.

"n.o.body" came as a happy bellow from a room marked Leading Chief. At its door in a moment stood Command Chief Barber of Second Chance. "Captain would have sent down his supply division head, but Ernie Nuu hired her away just before we left, so I'm trying to keep this lash-up in order while you're traipsing around, though how an enlisted swine is supposed to ride herd on marines, Doc, and middies is anyone's guess." Despite his complaints, the chief had done a great job of setting up the base and maintaining security. Now Ray needed more. "Mary, with the chief's help, can you command the whole base, security, ops, mining, and manufacturing for mules and workstations?" Ray asked. Mary grinned like a fox offered command of the chicken coop and called a meeting of the Ours, by d.a.m.n, Mining Consortium to get things going.

Jeff was incredulous. "Tiny miners that slip through the cracks in the rocks and extract minerals, molecule by molecule."

"Show me a place that's mineral-rich and I'll make us rich," Mary answered his challenge. Ray adjourned them to a command table that Mary quickly turned into a map of the surrounding area. Jeff's eyes got bigger as she added streams, roads, and 3-D elevation. "Show me the minerals," Mary said, making a shallow bow and inviting him to the map.

"This is the village. This is the base," Jeff muttered as he got his bearings, his finger roving the map. "Yeah, you cross that stream, then head up this one, branch off here..." He walked off three or four more finger lengths, then got low over the map and sighted off in one direction. "Yes, you can see the mountains between those two hills." He turned to Mary: "There. I was standing in that stream when your shuttle came over. My a.s.say kit was sparking every mineral that's worth digging."

Mary eyed the map. "So where did it wash into the river from?" Now Mary ran her fingers over the map, following streams uphill, then zoomed the map into an area. Jeff's eyes got even bigger. Mary took one hill, Ca.s.sie another.

"I got a major landslide here," Ca.s.sie observed. "Created a bit of a pond. Did you check below that?" she asked Jeff.

"I didn't even know that pond was there."

Mary followed several streams up her hill. She zoomed the board again, checking for scouring above the headwaters. Drawing a pen from the table's drawer, she circled areas of interest. "Calculate all areas circled. Add in all streambeds. Total area," she ordered.

She and Ca.s.sie examined the report. "You've got a lot more total land under erosion than my landslide area," Ca.s.sie agreed.

Mary tapped her hill. "I think we've found the source of all your goodies, Jeff. Tomorrow you run a check just below that wash while we thump that hill. I'll show you how we get the good stuff out without harming a blade of gra.s.s. Now go get your room back at the village inn."

Jeff looked none too happy to be ushered out, but he headed for the door. As he opened it, Dr. Isaacs barged in, face white as his lab coat. "Colonel, we need to talk."

Ray motioned the local out the door while the doctor made a beeline for the worktable. Mary stepped aside, surrendering the controls to the doctor without a word and went to check the door. She nodded; Jeff was gone. Ray had given away one secret today; he didn't want to try for two. Without preamble, the doctor converted the display from a mountain to a skull. The miners backed away. "Is this a private medical matter?" Ray asked.

"I wish to h.e.l.l I knew," Jerry answered. "Kat, I want you in on this." He waved at the young middie who had followed him in the door but hung back. "Colonel, under normal conditions I'd be dusting off my bedside manners and hunting for nice ways to say nasty words. You'll excuse me if I just bull into this?"

Ray felt the bottom drop out of his gut. He leaned on the table as the shock wave swept through him. He'd had doctors say that before. He was still alive, and if not kicking, at least hobbling. Mary motioned Ca.s.sie out. As the door closed, Ray swallowed hard. "What do you have for me?" in the voice an officer of the line cultivates for moments like this.

"d.a.m.ned if I know," the doctor shot back. "Keep that in mind." The doc paused, took a deep breath, and started slowly. "They saved your spine by giving you a c.o.c.ktail of drugs and viral stimulators to patch what was broken."

"They said it was something like mending a rope."

"Right out of the textbook on bedside manners," the doc nodded. "Close but not exact. Your cells had to grow new receptors at the break point, then new cells to connect them. You're growing cells your body never planned on. Did they warn you of the risk of inciting other cell growth?"

Ray glanced off for a moment, trying to recall what was at best fuzzy. "They may have. I wasn't paying much attention once they got past the place where they said I might walk again."

"Most people aren't. d.a.m.n tough to get informed consent in situations like that. Anyway, one of the rare side effects of your therapy is a sudden increase in tumors, usually benign."

"Cancer!" Kat breathed. "But that's easily cured," she said, to take the ancient death curse from the word.

"In any decent medical facility, a minor problem."

Ray saw where this was leading. "Do we have access to a decent medical facility?"

The doc took in a long breath. "No. Any s.h.i.+p personnel with a problem like that are dropped off at the nearest base and we pick them up two months later, cured."

"Another reason to wish we were home," Ray breathed.

"Except." The doc tapped the board, bringing up four skull scans. "Rose, David, and Jon all have tumors in the exact same place as you."

As Ray bent over the board, Kat quickly joined them at the display. Mary was beside him, a gentle hand resting on his elbow. Ready to catch him if his knees caved on him? Ray tried to process what had been thrown at him. Doc had given him a potential death sentence, then changed it...to what? Ray studied the four skull scans as if one of them weren't his, as if they were just terrain his troops had to maneuver over. Detach, Colonel, detach. You can feel later. There's something important here. Find it.

"The tumor ma.s.s is here," Doc was saying, "between the right and left lobes of the brain. There shouldn't be anything there." Ray focused on the four skulls, checking each. To his eye, they all looked the same.

"No way to tell from this if it's benign or malignant?"

"I ran the blood tests on all four of you. Didn't find anything malignant, but..."

"Keep talking, Doc," Ray ordered.

"There're fragments of virus in your blood. Kids', too. Again, we all have them, but this stuff isn't in our database. I'm still trying to put them together, do an ID."

Ray could think of nothing more to say. It was moments like these, at funerals and bedsides, that left him at a loss for words. "Let me know what you find" was so empty.

Doc headed for the door. "Mary, it's time to put the kids to bed. I'm keeping them in the clinic tonight."

"Excuse me, Colonel, I promised Rose I'd bunk with her tonight, just in case she needed to call her mom."

Ray ushered them out the door. Somewhere in the past hour or so, the HQ staff had left. Even the chief's light was off. The office with Ray's name on it had a door leading into a spartan bedroom with its own facilities and shower.

Someone had unpacked his kit; he couldn't even lose himself in the mindless duty of a.s.signing underwear to drawers. He settled in his bed and opened the shades. Thirty or forty yards away was the hospital. He found himself looking into windows, watching Mary and Kat wrestle three youngsters into an unfamiliar bedtime routine. He smiled, thinking of what it would be like to do that with Rita and their own little ones.

He'd had plenty of experience with young men and women, rifle-high and in hormone h.e.l.l. What would it be like to tackle one that was tiny and innocent and full of energy and didn't want to go to bed, thank you very much? Don't worry, Rita, I'll make it home soon. Real soon.

With Mary busy taking care of someone else, Ray found his pills and set them beside his bed with a gla.s.s of water. He doused the lights and settled into bed. With the blinds still open, he had a front-row seat to the bedtime production across the way. It was gentle distraction from a day full of things he could do nothing about.

He fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Mary had never put in time at a creche. As a qualified miner, she wasn't required. She was catching up fast on all that she'd missed, "Can I have a drink of water?" came from the darkened room for the umpteenth time. Kat had younger brothers and sisters; she'd warned Mary this could take a while.

"I'll handle this one," the young middie said. Mary was glad to let her.

"I've got your blood results" came from behind Mary. She turned. Doc Jerry, holding three pages of test results, absently scratched his bandaged elbow, showed where the third batch of blood had been drawn. Inspired by example, Mary rubbed her own bandage. Medical tests these days required little more than a pinp.r.i.c.k. Doc had found an ancient blood kit with a huge needle and gigantic blood holder and gone hunting for both Mary and Kat. He'd drawn enough blood to fuel a small stars.h.i.+p.

"Anything interesting?" Mary asked.

"Both you and Kat have virus fragments in your blood. Not much, but you and the colonel are in the same general range."