Losing Mars (Saving Mars Series-3) (12 page)

Jessamyn’s brows pulled down and together. It disturbed her to hear Kipper referring to her body as if it were only a part—a dispensable part—of who she was.

“Surely there’s something medicinal you could take,” said Jessamyn, her voice soft.

Kipper stretched her neck to one side. “I’ve already taken it. Anything else will knock me unconscious.”

“Okay,” said Jessamyn, gazing nervously at her suffering captain. “Well, we should get you out of here, then.”

“I can’t leave,” said Kipper.

“What do you mean, you can’t leave? You do realize I’m here to rescue you, don’t you?” Jess felt her face flush with color. It sounded silly when she said it aloud.

“Jessamyn, I’m
chipped
. If I go anywhere, Ruchenko will know. Secures will be on me in no time.”

Jess stared at her captain. “So we take your chip out. Obviously.”

“Oh. Of course.” She frowned, touching the side of her head. “I think the bullet must be making me stupid.”

“You’ve had no reason to leave up until now.”

“Oh, I’ve thought plenty about …” Kipper shook her head. “Never mind. You’re right, of course. I need to remove the chip.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a scalpel.

“Hey,” cried Jess. “Not so fast. There should be something—some green gooey stuff—to stop you from feeling pain.”

“Right,” murmured Kipper. She opened another panel and removed a small med-patch, smearing it back and forth over her wrist. “That should do it.” She frowned as she examined her right wrist. “I’m right-handed. Would you do it?”

Jess nodded and swiftly located the bump of the scan chip. She took a deep breath and made a slice across Kipper’s wrist. “Whoa,” she said. “It shouldn’t bleed that much, should it?”

“You haven’t done this before?” asked Kipper.

Jess bit her lower lip and mopped up the pooling red with a cloth. Carefully, she inserted a pair of tweezers. She tried to be as steady-handed as Pavel, but her hand shook with nerves or from the coffee or from the sight of so much blood.

“Got it,” Jess said as she removed the chip.

Kipper winced briefly as Jess dabbed at the blood.

“Did I hurt you?” Jess asked.

The captain grunted a small laugh. “I’ve come a long way in my tolerance for pain, I can tell you.”

Jess sponged up as much blood as she could before reaching for a heat-healer.

“I wouldn’t mind a scar,” said Kipper, softly.

“Not smart,” said Jess, trying to remember how Pavel had passed the heat-healer over her own wrist. “You don’t want anyone wondering what you’ve done to get that scar. We have to get you out of here without anyone noticing.”

Kipper nodded but then her face folded into an uncertain frown. “I suppose … I don’t know Jessamyn. The children … someone wakes up most nights. If I’m gone …”

Jess wanted to say that they didn’t matter as much as
real
children. They were
Terran
. But she didn’t think that would go over well with Kipper.

“Contact someone who can cover for you,” Jess suggested. “Say you’re having so much pain you need to knock yourself unconscious.”

Kipper nodded and placed a call.

When she’d finished, she reached for the scan chip lying upon the steel tray. “This will transmit from my room. If I seal the door, it should give us ten hours lead time. They won’t come knocking until tomorrow morning. Later, if we’re lucky.”

Jess nodded. “Let’s do it.”

“Where is your transport?” asked Kipper. “You didn’t land the
Galleon
at the municipal hoverport, I take it?”

Jessamyn swallowed. She was going to have to explain that part sooner or later. “No,” she said, opting for
later
. “Let’s go.”

“I need to grab a few things,” said Kipper.

The captain (Jess couldn’t help thinking of her that way) retrieved a handful of items from her room, stuffing Jess’s pack with one set of med-patches, her own pack with another set. Kipper stared long and hard at a portable wafer, but left it behind in the end, reasoning that it could be used as a means of locating her whereabouts.

“You should go,” said Kipper. “Wait for me at the park until the relief nurse shows up.”

Jess, agreeing no good could come of her being spotted by a hospital employee, left the building. She hugged a thin coat tightly around her as a breath of wind murmured through the park, scattering leaves in its wake. The wind wasn’t cold, exactly, but it felt a lonely thing, brushing through the quiet town, and it chilled Jess. Half an hour passed and Jess remained alone with the breeze-tossed limbs of trees that towered above her, whispering their secrets to one another.

“
Hurry up, Kip
,” she mumbled into the darkness.

At last Jess descried a tiny figure running toward her. She prepared to flee or hide in case it wasn’t Kipper. The figure paused, lifted a hand to her temple. Kipper. In pain. Jess ran to her captain. The attack seemed to be lasting longer than the other one Jessamyn had observed.

“Try counting backwards,” Jessamyn whispered. “Or try to map out the route at the Academy from Astrometrics to the dean’s office.” These were the sorts of things that helped Ethan when panic struck him.

Kipper remained silent, but Jess could see from the deep furrows in her brow, the pale color of her face, that her captain suffered great pain.

“Try focusing on your—”

“
Shut it!
” Kipper gasped, cutting Jessamyn off mid-suggestion.

A few more seconds passed and Kipper raised herself from her hunched position. “Which way to the transport?” she asked.

“This way,” said Jessamyn. “I left it in an old quarry.”

Kipper’s brows drew together in a look Jess recognized, even though the facial features were altered. “The
quarry
?” asked the captain, disapproval in her tone. “You left the
Galleon
in the
quarry
?”

“No. Another ship. Smaller. With a tarp. Not exactly the right color—”

Kipper interrupted her. “But you’re saying you left our escape vehicle in the
quarry
?”

“What’s the big deal about the quarry?”

Kipper’s eyes rolled briefly heavenward. “Putting something in the quarry is the same as saying, ‘Hey, I don’t want this anymore.’ In fact, you’re supposed to pay a fee to the Family Vanyashin prior to disposing of items there.”

“How was I supposed to know that?” demanded Jessamyn.

The two stood, toe to toe, looking into one another’s eyes.

Kipper broke off first. “Oh, for the love of fuzzy slippers,” she muttered. “Let’s go check the quarry. Maybe the Family Vanyashin took the day off.”

But when they arrived, there was no sign of Renard’s tiny ship.

“They took the tarp, too, looks like,” said the captain. “So you show up to rescue me without a rescue vehicle.”

“I
had
a perfectly good rescue vehicle—”

“Well you don’t have one now.” The captain clutched her head once more in pain, but it passed swiftly this time. Jess stood to one side, fuming, thinking of what she’d like to do to whoever had stolen Renard’s ship.

When Kipper recovered, she spoke. “Okay, so here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to the home of a member of the Family Vanyashin—someone whose child I’ve cared for—and we’re apologizing for leaving your ship there without paying, and we’re explaining that we’re ready to pay the disposal fee and any other charges we might have incurred for our inconsiderate behavior.”

Jessamyn stared at the captain, her mouth falling slightly open.

“Yes, Jaarda, our
inconsiderate
behavior. And then we’ll offer to buy the ship back.
Hades and Aphrodite
, you brought credits, didn’t you?”

“I have a few fingers of tel—”

Kipper’s hand flew to Jessamyn’s mouth. For a moment, Jess thought the captain was slapping her. Then she realized Kipper was stopping her from speaking the word
tellurium
aloud.

“
Shizer!
Are you trying to get us mugged?” Kipper’s whisper came out in an angry hiss.

“I’m trying to get you safely out of here,” snapped Jess.

“You don’t know the first thing about life on this world,” murmured Kipper.

“I got all the way here, didn’t I?” demanded Jess. “And if you know so much, why haven’t you tried to escape?”

“What was the point?” Kipper shot back.

Jessamyn’s breath hitched and she felt her fists clench.
What was the point?
Where should she begin? “Find the rest of us, thwart the Terran government, contact Clan Wallace, go back and mess with the satellite controls some more—”

“I thought you were all dead,” Kipper said, cutting Jess off. “I thought all kinds of things.
None
of them included any of you still being here.”

The two walked in silence, Jessamyn trying to comprehend the enormity of the difference between how her mind and her captain’s mind worked.

“Every single day has been like … like …” Kipper paused, searching for the words. “Have you ever taken your helmet off inside an airlock that wasn’t functioning properly?”

Jess shook her head. It was an emergency every Marsian child trained for—noticing the signs that the air pressure or oxygen levels were deadly, responding quickly to survive the situation.

“I have,” said Kipper. “It happened a lot where I grew up. You end up with an incapacitating headache. This,” she said, tapping her skull, “Is a hundred times worse. Every day since they shot me—every waking day, at least—I’ve struggled with whether I should continue or … just give up.”

“I’m sorry,” murmured Jessamyn.

“Don’t be,” said Kipper, sounding irritated. Then she inhaled and breathed out slowly. “Forgive me. That was rude.”

Jessamyn remembered something about Squyres Station residents—how they suffered neither fools nor pity.

“Enough about my … challenges,” said Kipper, her voice softer. “Tell me about Mars. You said no one was starving. But if you’re here, who delivered the rations? Tell me everything.”

Jessamyn felt the demand for “everything” settle upon her shoulders like a heavy yoke. “There’s a lot to tell,” she said. “Harpreet and my brother were captured after you were shot. I tried to rescue them, but I failed. In the end, I followed my primary directive and took the food back with Crusty’s help.”

“Mars Colonial is safe,” murmured Kipper.

“For now,” agreed Jessamyn.

“And they sent you back for me and the others?”

“I … volunteered,” said Jess. That was going to be a very big conversation—one she didn’t feel like having now.

“I don’t know how you managed it, Jessamyn. Any of it. Escaping those security officers, flying home with only Crusty. Flying back here.”

“I had help escaping security,” said Jessamyn. “I wouldn’t have stood a chance if it weren’t for a Terran. Pavel Bouchard.” She wasn’t sure why she left off part of his name. No, that wasn’t right. She knew exactly why. He was nothing like his aunt.

“Friend of Brian Wallace’s?” asked Kipper.

“Friend of mine,” Jessamyn said.

The captain shook her head. “I’m taking bullets to the brain and you’re making friends with Terrans.”

“Oh, come on,” said Jess, her face flaming red.

“I was trying to make a joke,” Kipper replied quickly. “I’m … not skilled with humor. I apologize.”

Jess grunted her acceptance.

“Hold on,” said Kipper. “That name. Did you say
Bouchard
? Pavel Bouchard? A first-body?” asked Kipper. She pressed fingers to her head, but Jess couldn’t tell if she was in pain or trying to recall something.

“Yes,” replied Jessamyn. “Actually, his full name is—”

“Brezhnaya-Bouchard.” The captain spoke his name in a whisper. “The Chancellor’s missing nephew. Why would he help you?
Ares
, Jess—what did you promise in return?”

“Nothing,” replied Jessamyn, a scowl forming on her face. “He hates his aunt.”

“Oh,” said Kipper. “I see. And I apologize. Please continue.”

Swiftly, Jessamyn relayed the story she’d told to the Secretary General—how Pavel had helped her, how she’d attacked the Terran Chancellor. How she’d fled without Ethan. As she retold the story, it felt to her as if years and not months had passed since her first visit to Earth. Jess recounted her brief stay on Mars and explained that she’d soloed her return flight, but she kept back the essential facts of having stolen and crashed the
Galleon
. She would explain later, she told herself.

“And Harpreet and your brother are safe?” asked Kipper.

“Yes.” Jess explained the addition of Kazuko Zaifa and Brian Wallace to their coterie as they sought to carry out Mei Lo’s directive to give MCC control of the satellites.

“You mentioned my brother, Cavanaugh. Don’t think I didn’t notice,” said Kip, scowling as they approached the front door of a dwelling. “But that conversation will have to wait. We’re here. Be very careful what you say. In fact, don’t say anything, okay? Let me do the negotiating. I’ll say you’re my fourbodied grandmother who’s not mentally
all there
. We should be fine. This family trusts me. At least, I hope they do.”

25

NOTHING PERSONAL

Jessamyn followed behind Kipper when they were invited into the small home. Jess looked around and counted four children, all in their first-bodies. Two adults sat at a table barely large enough to hold what Jess took for wet rations. One of the two stood.

“Nurse Cassondra,” he said, holding his arms wide.

The two exchanged kisses—two upon either side of the face—and then Kipper turned to introduce Jessamyn.

“Ferenc, Maria, this is my grandmother.”

Jessamyn smiled and tried to look old and not-all-there.

“Her husband has left her, taking everything she had, and she’s come to Dunakeszi to find me.” Kipper scooted closer to the adults and dropped her voice lower. “Grandmother has made a terrible mistake. She left her transport in Direktor Vanya’s quarry, not understanding the nature of that location. ” She dropped her eyes. “I didn’t know who else to turn to.”