Kristine Rusch - The Recovery Man's Bargain

“They lost what they call original children,” she said. “They weren’t even sentient yet.”

He clenched his left fist. His right hand hurt too much to move.

“More excuses?” he asked.

“Those larvae divide.” Her eyes were bright. She had made these arguments before. “The genetic material is the same in all the subsequent larvae. Just because the originals were killed doesn’t mean the individuals are gone.”

For someone who was supposed to be smart, she didn’t seem to understand the flaws in her argument. He wondered if she would make that argument about human children.

Probably not, since she supposedly lived with a clone.

He said, “You’ll never understand the Gyonnese, will you?”

“Why, do you?”

He shook his head.

“You live among them, don’t you?” she said. “That’s your home, isn’t it? On the fringes of the Alliance.”

He had gone cold. He had never met anyone like her. Brilliant, but dead inside. He thought brilliant people were the most capable of empathy, but she was proving that theory wrong.

“I’m taking you to them,” he said. “This is all too fraught for me. Then I’m going back to non-living things. They don’t try to kill me.”

“Oh, they will,” she said. “That cargo hold of yours is deadly.”

“I don’t spend a lot of time there,” he said.

“It nearly killed me,” she said. “I kept some pills for the last of it. What happened to them?”

The cydoleen. He’d left the pills in her pocket. “They’re on you.”

“Maybe you can get me some medical help and let me take one. I’d like to keep improving. Unless you want me to die before the Gyonnese get me…?”

He sighed. Then he waved his good hand over a nearby console. “Computer, transfer the medical programs to the bridge.”

“They’re not designed for transfer,” the computer responded.

He cursed.

“You only need one of them,” she said. “Get whichever one has the capacity to touch. I need someone to set my nose.”

Stupid woman. All the medical persona touched. Otherwise they wouldn’t work properly.

“I can’t swallow otherwise,” she said.

“Send the expensive one,” he said to the computer. “And have the avatar appear in human form.”

“What about equipment?” the computer asked.

“Have a bot bring anything the avatar needs when the avatar asks. And do it quickly.”

The computer chirruped as it set about following his commands. Yu leaned toward Shindo, his face only centimeters from her battered one.

“I’m not doing this for you. I’m not helping you in any way. I’m getting my money, and I’m getting out of the human recovery business. If the Gyonnese kill you, fine. If they destroy the Disappeared programs, fine. If they exact revenge on Aleyd, fine. It’ll have nothing to do with me.”

“It’ll have everything to do with you,” she said. “Until you found me, this case was dead.”

He grinned. The look was mean. “I have news for you, lady. I didn’t find you. I just recovered you.”

She was frowning as he turned away. She hadn’t understood him. He went back to the console.

Then she moaned.

The Gyonnese had found her long before they hired him. Even if she went back, they would come after her again.

Her nightmare was just beginning.

And he couldn’t have been happier.

The rendezvous point was a closed science base on Io. The base looked like it had been abandoned a hundred years ago. Parts of the structure had fallen down. Other sections were scattered across Io’s surface, as if some giant wind had come and shaken the place apart.

The landing had been scary. It was the first time he’d tried to maneuver the ship into a port without benefit of a copilot or space traffic controllers.

But he managed it. When the ship touched the old-fashioned pad that showed he had landed safely by lighting up everything around him, he felt relieved.

He glanced over his shoulder at Rhonda Shindo. She was unconscious. He had kept the bubble around her and cut off the oxygen until she passed out. Then he had given her a shot of something that would make sure she stayed out until he was long gone.

He had packed her into a moving crate that looked like a cold sleep coffin. Her face was still a little bruised. There had been a lot of damage, apparently, or the nanobots he’d been using hadn’t functioned as well as he thought.

Her clothing also had blood on it, and was ripped along one side. He hadn’t thought to bring anything else for her, and he really didn’t want to change her unconscious form. So he left the ruined clothing on her, hoping that the Gyonnese didn’t know enough about humans to care that her clothing was seriously out of order.

He wished now that he’d gotten more than his expenses and the payment to Athenia up front. Normally, he would have contacted the Gyonnese, have the bots deliver her in that coffin, and then leave.

But he couldn’t do that. He had to make sure he’d get some payment, and this was the only way. He was afraid the Gyonnese would complain about her physical condition. Technically, he had not violated his agreement with them, but he’d worked with them enough in the past to know how picky they could be, and he worried about that bruised face.

He shut down all of the ship’s systems except the essential ones. Then he touched the frame of the coffin, activating its float mechanism. He sent it to the nearest downshaft and followed, feeling like he was walking to his own death.

He shook off the thought and went to the lower levels of the ship. The science station only had an environment in selected sections and since the landing pad was open to the atmosphere, he had to trust a corridor that automatically attached itself to the side doors.

Considering how old this place was and how damaged, he wasn’t going to do that. Instead, he was going to don one of the working environmental suits, let the coffin lead the way, and head out the cargo bay. He would wait until the suit let him know that the environment was suitable before he removed his helmet.

The coffin was already on the lowest bay level when he arrived. He opened a secret compartment off one of the corridors, removed his favorite suit, and put on a thick helmet with a mirrored visor.

According to his suit, the bay he walked through was as contaminated as the hold where he’d originally stashed Shindo. Maybe her face wasn’t healing because the bruises there weren’t caused by the broken nose. Maybe it wasn’t healing because of the contamination.

That was her problem now. He’d given her the pills. She could decide whether or not to take them.

He sighed, then opened the bay doors.

The lights were still on full, revealing a rusted, ruined port, filled with a lot of broken materials and destroyed ships. The landing pad looked like the only patch of ground that wasn’t covered with ruined equipment.

The coffin floated toward a sealed doorway. A green light rotated above it, theoretically telling him that everything was clear inside. He’d be able to breathe, he’d be able to stand without gravity boots, he would be warm enough.

Still, he tramped to the airlock doors, feeling like a giant in his suit. There was some Earth-level gravity here or his legs wouldn’t feel like they were glued to the floor with each step.

Everything felt right—and if he were in one of the lesser suits, he might pull off the helmet the moment the airlock doors opened.

But this suit still hadn’t cleared the area. It claimed that the oxygen, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide ratios were off. There was also another chemical that the suit didn’t have the sophistication to identify.