Wildcatter (25 page)

Choke… Gasp… “Yes.”

“Yes, let’s do that,” Hanna said. Her face was flushed as red as Betelgeuse and her fingers were hooked like claws. “Just on principle.”

It took a little while to get the wording right, but Control pulled some precedents from its archives and approved the final brief text. Crushed, JC appended his sig, and so did the others.

“Commodore,” Jordan said, “You are confined to quarters for reasons of health.” Several people nodded, as if to confirm that strangulation was a definite health hazard. “You may go now.”

Crushed, JC rose and crept out of the room. The captain moved to the head of the table.

“Control, I terminate this meeting and reverse its classification as the official wake. We will schedule a proper wake for tomorrow.” She stared hard at Seth. “What have you seen that the rest of us haven’t, Prospector?”

Seth grinned. No one else did, but he was feeling very good now.

“I’ve seen what Commodore Duddridge saw. As JC guessed, Duddridge had seen that Cacafuego did offer a hugely profitable discovery. You have just seen it start to pay off!

“Remember the first day we met, ma’am? We agreed that Ship’s Rules should specify monkeys not monks, because people always play sex games. We also agreed that power games are popular too. Well, both sorts of games depend on telling lies. In the last few days, I have found myself in several very embarrassing conversations.” He glanced around the table and saw that he had not been the only one.

“Eventually I realized that the mysterious infection was making it impossible for us to tell lies, even little everyday white lies. Duddridge talked with both Meredith and Mariko while they were infected. Meredith told me that he asked all sorts of personal questions.” Seth glanced at her. “So you answered them,
and
you insulted him to his face, even though he held your life in his hands?”

“When I get my hands on him,” she said, “Duddridge will be even dudder than he is now.”

“He was supposed to be planning how to rescue her from certain death,” Seth explained. “So what was he doing prying into her sex life? He had discovered that she could not refuse to reveal the most intimate details, as any normal person would, especially at a time like that. Of course, she had gone on record as saying that the centaurs were sentient, so he had an interest in making her sound irrational. But I think he had noticed what I noticed, that one of the signs of the prion infection was in an inability to lie. That would be disastrous for normal human relations.”

“Yes, you would miss that,” Jordan said drily.

“I have missed it,” he admitted, “these last few days. I was frightened we had all suffered permanent brain damage. But yesterday I discovered I had recovered my lying skill as my health returned.”

“That was when you told me Meredith wasn’t much of a lay?”

“I hate you, Jordan Spears.”

Jordan joined in the laughter. The mood of the meeting had made a dramatic about-turn. “Lying or not, keep talking.”

“The real brainwave came when Reese told us about the prion. A prion really isn’t living or dead, is it, Doctor?”

“No,” Reese said. “It’s an organic chemical. But it came from Cacafuego. ISLA will still claim it.”

“No,” Seth said. “You told us it is also terrestrial, a deviant form of one of our own brain proteins. Our brains did not originate on Cacafuego. You are one of the world’s foremost biologists. By the time we return to Earth, you will have worked out how to mis-fold it to recreate the protein, and you will have pinned down the antidote you mentioned. You will patent both for Greenhorn. You say that you found no antibodies in our blood, so there can be no buildup of resistance. If you need to try it out to see if it works again, I’ll volunteer for a second dose. Any discoveries you make regarding a human protein cannot be claimed by ISLA; they belong to Mighty Mite under the contract, and so to Greenhorn, and now we own a big chunk of Greenhorn.”

Faces all around the table were bright with hope, yet shadowed by doubt.

Jordan put the conflict into words: “You’re suggesting we profit by selling a biological weapon?”

“Oh no, ma’am. But think of all the police forces and security forces in the world. How much do you think they’ll be willing to pay for a safe, reliable, and reversible truth drug?”

Reese answered. “Plenty.” She eyed the captain. “But lovers might offer more.”

“Let’s stick to governments,” Hanna said. “Letting lovers have it would be much too dangerous.”

Space Heroes Wed

June 4, 2378: An estimated viewing audience of three billion people watched the celebrated spacers of
Golden Hind
tie the knot today at the Illimani Paradiso in La Paz, Bolivia, one year to the day after their return from exoplanet Cacafuego. Former Captain Jordan Spears and Prospectors Seth Broderick and Meredith Tsukuba exchanged vows in a three-way civil ceremony attended in person by only a few close family members and former crewmates.

Invitations specified nineteenth century costume. Plog star Broderick was appropriately dressed as Victorian explorer Henry Morton Stanley, the man who rescued Dr Livingstone, and the brides wore crinolines of white starsilk, topped with diamond tiaras.

The happy trio later left for an undisclosed destination, rumored to be either Mr. Broderick’s nuclear-powered yacht or his recently purchased castle in the Italian Alps.