Vitalis Omnibus (20 page)

“Like Aran said, there’s enough to go around, besides that, you guys saved our ass out there.”

Sharp chuckled. “Not being stupid again, are you?”

“What? I don’t think so.”

“You’re a pirate!” Kira spat at him. “You never cared for what other people had or did unless you could take it from them or use it to your advantage.”

Klous felt something snap in his brain. It wasn’t an epiphany but rather confusion threatening to make his knees buckle. “How does that make me different from you?”

Kira stared back at him, her expression stony for so long he thought the storm might pass before she so much as blinked. “Come on, let’s get under cover,” Sharp suggested.

“Wait, he’s right. I was like that. It’s complicated, but I’m not that person anymore. I can still do what she did, like make you cry like a baby, but Emily Bradford is gone.” Kira turned to look at her crew and then at Klous and his. “This place has a way of changing people, whether they want to or not. Even Tarn’s less of an asshole than he used to be.”

“Hey!” Tarn protested.

“She’s right,” Sharp silenced him. “Here I was figuring you was the one that sold us out, but the way you’ve been — the way we’ve all been down here had me doubting. Now we know it was Emily, but it looks like she’s already been taken care of.”

Kira’s eyes found Eric’s for a long moment until she bit her lip and smiled. He returned it, allowing her face to return to the blank mask of business Klous had become accustomed to on her. “Either we kill them now, if they’re going to be trouble, or we stick it out and see. Besides that, we’re light years outside of Coalition space, we may never see another person again.  If we want to survive as a species here we need as large a gene pool as we can get.”

Tarn’s mild scowl shifted slowly to a grin. “I like the way you’re thinking!” He said with a chuckle. “I learned to never volunteer for nothing in the Marines, but I’m willing to break that rule. I’ll set up the schedule for the breeding program!”

“Tarn!” Sharp snapped.

Klous snapped his jaw shut. He chuckled in spite of himself, but the chuckle died on his lips when he caught the cold glare Sasha gave him. “Yeah, well, we’re all stuck here together, maybe I don’t know much beyond running a ship but I know that if we work together we got a better chance than if we don’t.”

“Good enough for now,” Sharp said. “Now let’s get up there, we got work to do. Rain should be gone by morning then we can make Treetown big enough for all of us.”

“Best idea I heard yet,” Sasha muttered, moving past the rest of them to one of the vine ladders. “Let’s go Captain, I feel like a drowned rat and look worse. I need to get out of these wet clothes and get warmed up.”

The pirate Captain looked at her, then stumbled when a laughing Tarn clapped him on the shoulder. “She ain’t getting any warmer just standing there!”

Klous nodded and stumbled after her. “Maybe I could get used to a place like this,” he mumbled to himself, staring up after Sasha as she climbed ahead of him.

###

Part 3: Parasites

Chapter 1

“Jeremy?”

Jeremy Sinclair jerked himself out of his chair. He came to an uneasy imitation of standing at attention and realized he still held the hand held display with his daughter’s picture in his hand. In the doorway stood his new boss, Dr. Synnamon Rice. “Sorry Doctor, I was…um, did you need something?”

Dr. Rice’s eyes went to the flexible display panel in his hand. “May I?” She asked. Jeremy thought her voice seemed distant. Then again, it was also icy calm. Her very demeanor was the polar opposite that her spicy name implied. Even her black hair, streaked with grey, reflected an absolute no-nonsense personality with it being pulled tightly back into a bun.

Jeremy thought about denying her. Wasn’t it enough that he had given up everything in his life to come on the mission? Discovering a new planet was exciting. Even more so because this was the first in his lifetime. All the existing systems in the coalition had been settled nearly a dozen years before he’d been born. This one was far enough away even at full burn on the military transport, the
TCS Explorer
, it had taken years to get there.

It would be years to get back too, not counting the time he was stuck being Dr. Rice’s lab tech on the planet. He glanced at the picture again then sighed and handed it to her. “Her name’s Jasmine, she’s my daughter.”

“Oh,” Was all Rice said as she took it from him and looked at it. Jasmine was barely more than an infant but even so it was obvious something was wrong with her. She was smiling in the picture, proof of the innocence of youth. Tubes were attached to her belly and chest, providing a necessary exchange of fluids and nutrients.

“Spartan’s Syndrome,” Jeremy heard his words and wished he could have taken them back. They sounded lifeless and pathetic. Spartan’s was a genetic disorder discovered less than a hundred years ago. It was also something that had come about at the same time, due to improper shielding of some of the earlier jump stations. Jeremy’s father had been through enough hops between solar systems and had passed along the genetic damage to him. Jeremy’s ex-wife, Bleigh, had similar damage. Between the two of them the one and only child they had was doomed before it was born.

“I see,” Dr. Rice said. “I’m sorry, it must have been difficult. How long did she—“

Jeremy pulled the display back from her. “She didn’t!” He snapped. He took a deep breath and forced the tension out of his body. “I’m sorry. I mean she was doing good when we left. As good as can be expected. She’s near the upper end of those affected, with proper gene therapy it’s possible for her to lead a normal life.”

“That was close to nine years ago.” He was thankful she hadn’t pointed out the obvious, that nobody survived past their fifth year with Spartans without significant, and expensive, therapy.

“That’s why I’m here, Doctor,” Jeremy said. “All of my checks go to her therapy. There was no other way I could make enough to pay for it. I was just catching up on status updates that had been sent while we were enroute. I’ve got about three years worth remaining, but I can do that after we’re settled at the colony.”

Dr. Rice stared at him for a long moment. “I was saying, Mr. Sinclair, that the transport is leaving for the surface in four hours. I believe most of our equipment has been loaded but…I’m going to check and make sure nothing has been overlooked. I’ll expect you’ll want to review your own items as well?”

Jeremy nodded, not sure if he was believing his ears.

“Good, I’ll leave it to you to determine how much time that will take. I’ll see you on the transport.”

Dr. Rice turned and left. The door to his quarters shut behind her, sealing him in. Jeremy stared at the door until his brain started working again. “Maybe she’s not the cold fish I’d read about,” he mused aloud. With a shrug he turned back to the display on his desk and pulled up the next message. He smiled and fought to blink past the blurriness in his vision. Jasmine was six in the picture and looked like a normal girl, even if her gaze was distant and unfocused. Modern medicine couldn’t cure everything, but this was as close to a miracle as he’d ever dared to dream.

Chapter 2

“Listen up!”

Jeremy snapped his head up again, surprised by the harsh tone. The Coalition Marine who spoke was sitting in her chair and letting her serious gaze travel over all of the science crew. When her eyes touched his he felt a sudden urge to hide. She looked angry and he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it.

“My name is Lance Corporal Fiona Kate. I’m in charge of Fire Team Charlie. I’m also in charge of keeping you people out of our way. Orbital scans show an atmosphere rich in nitrogen, oxygen, and other trace elements that make it nice and breathable for humans. You do not need containment suits, but you will stay in this transport until you have clearance to leave. Do you understand?”

Jeremy glanced around and saw everyone staring at the Lance Corporal with expressions that he was sure mirrored what he was feeling.

“You people are supposed to be some of the smartest people out there, prove it by not doing anything stupid! Do you understand?” Lance Corporal Kate yelled at them.

Shocked into reaction, Jeremy found himself stiffening and responding, “Yes Lance Corporal!”

He noted that some of the others had responded as well but none quite like he had. Jeremy felt his cheeks warm in the cold interior of the transport, then the icy chill returned when he noticed the Marine staring intently at him. Her eyes dipped to the name sewn on his environmental suit. “You a Marine…Sinclair?”

“No Lance Corporal,” Jeremy said. “I was in the Navy.”

Lance Corporal Kate grunted and looked away from him. He felt Dr. Rice looking at him from her seat beside him.

“That’s not in your dossier,” She said low enough to keep anyone else from hearing.

He ignored her, forcing himself to continue staring straight ahead. His time in the Navy was of no interest or use to anyone, least of all him. “Good,” He said, refusing to speak any further on it. If she made an issue of it he’d do what he had to — it wasn’t like he had a choice to leave and find a new job! He was stuck with Rice and, he supposed, she was stuck with him.

The most recent image of a nine year old Jasmine filled his mind, soothing the added tension in his shoulders. For her he’d deal with his past if he must. The treatments had worked beyond his wildest hopes. She only needed annual checkups and minor gene sequencing to correct the minor alterations that took place. She would continue to need that the rest of her life, but with it she could lead a normal life free of handicap or prejudice.

“Sorry, I’m just not—“

The lighting shifted in the passenger bay to red, distracting and disrupting him. Within seconds the transport shuddered briefly, the inertial suppressors not reacting quick enough to the forces of atmospheric entry. The shuttle smoothed out after a heartbeat. Jeremy swallowed nervously even as he heard Dr. Rice let out a deep breath.

The next few minutes of the ride were quite in an eerie fashion. Everybody was looking around, both at one another and at no one. They were headed to a new planet where only a handful of other people had been before and, from the orbital scans done, little sign of those people could be found aside from the ruins of a spaceship.

Jeremy heard someone squawk as the shuttle was shaken again. It was suppressed as quickly as it started, but a new noise penetrated the strained sound of the ventilators. It was a whining noise that was slowly rising in pitch.

“Emergency Crash Protocol!”

Jeremy was moving even as his mind digested what he’d heard over the speakers in the passenger cabin. He tested his harness then started to reach overhead. He glanced to his right and saw Wesley Roberts, the assistant to Dr. Hall, staring blankly.

“Hey!” He snapped at the dazed veterinary technician. “Check your harness and cover your head!”

Wesley looked at him and nodded, then burst into action as the words filtered through. In seconds was fitting his helmet to his suit and then leaning forward to assume the ages-old crash position. Jeremy was again reaching for his own helmet when the keening noise hit a crescendo and metamorphosed into a sharp roar that made the shuttle tremble.

A new roaring noise replaced the previous one. Jeremy managed to twist the seals on his helmet in time to prevent depressurization. A hole in the wall on the opposite side of the shuttle showed a turbulent sky outside.  A strange thought slipped through his mind even as he processed the smoke and flames visible through the opening, ‘
Better sky than space.
’

The shuttle jerked again underneath him. It was a brutal strike that slammed him into his seat and forced his upper body to slam into the wall behind him. His head, protected by his helmet only marginally, met the wall with equal force.

Chapter 3

“On your feet Sinclair!”

Jeremy opened his eyes long enough to squeeze them shut against the harsh light that speared into his brain. He made a gagging noise and waved his arm weakly, trying to push away whoever was trying to torture him.

“Wake up, sailor!”

Her jerked, the words reaching into a deep part of his brain that reacted in spite of years of neglect. Squinting heavily he stared down at himself and saw he was wearing his environmental suit. In spots it was stained, some of it green, some brown, and some a reddish brown that looked less like dirt and more like—“

“Stand up, damn it Sinclair!”

He looked up and saw Lance Corporal Kate standing over him. She had a standard issue plasma rifle in hand. Her Marine combat uniform, part armor and part environmental suit, was scratched and stained much like his, except she had more of the reddish tinted stains on hers. The other thing he noted through his squinted vision was that the visor on her helmet was up, exposing her face to the atmosphere of the planet. He could understand why, the visor had cracks running along it.