Smoke and flames and screams. Levits found himself on the bridge of the ship screaming into the com-link. "Abandon ship! Abandon ship!"
What the hell had happened? He had been farting around when he should have been on the bridge. He had thought they were safe; he hadn't realized they were in any danger until they'd been hit. They'd spit back a long stream of return fire on the alien ship, but it was too little too late. One of the hits had caused a fire, and that fire was running through the ship unchecked because for some reason the extinguishing system wasn't working. He got hit full in the face with the smell of burning flesh and when he rounded the corner he stepped on the corpse of one of his friends.
It was all over now, they were all going to die, and it was his fault. His fault because he had been lax. His fault because he hadn't given the order to evacuate till it was too late, and his fault that he didn't go down with the ship.
Levits woke up screaming and was glad to see RJ sitting on the bed beside him. She must have shaken him awake. He drew a deep, shuddering breath and let it out. "What are you doing here?" he asked when his mind cleared. "Is something wrong with the ship? Who's at the helm?"
"Relax. Nothing's wrong with the ship, and Poley is at the helm," RJ said. She rubbed a hand down his shoulder. "Everyone's asleep. I felt your distress. Must have been one hell of a dream."
"You wouldn't understand," Levits said.
"No, of course not. That's why I was awake when everyone else was asleep. I have my own horrors, Levits."
"Yes, but nothing that has ever happened . . . None of it has been your fault," Levits said as he sat up in bed.
RJ laughed, although definitely not amused. "I wish I could convince myself of that. Everyone has their what if's, Levits. What if I'd done that instead of this, or this instead of that? If only I'd paid more attention, if only I'd gone forward instead of backwards. If I'd been faster, smarter, more alert. If only the fucking bedroom door hadn't been closed. If only I hadn't let David leave," RJ said. "I'm sure whatever you think you have done was no more your fault."
He nodded. She really did understand.
She smiled at him then. "So, I've been thinking about what you said . . ."
"I'm sorry, RJ. Really sorry," Levits said.
"No, you were right. The only ironic part is that you're no better than I am. I wasn't the only one who pulled back that night, you know, and I'm not the only one who spends the day sitting around mentally licking my wounds."
"All right, I'll accept that. So I guess the question is what are we going to do about it?"
"Poley seems to think I'm moody because of PMS. I personally think it has a hell of a lot more to do with sexual tension," she said.
"I've only had sex – besides with myself – six times in the last three years," Levits announced.
"Well that would give you about six up on me," RJ said.
"Are you serious?" Levits asked in disbelief.
"Would anyone joke about a thing like that?" RJ took a deep breath and looked around. "You know that we have chemistry."
"Yes, of course we do, that's why we spend so much time biting each other's heads off," Levits said. "Do we have to analyze it, RJ?"
"No." RJ pushed him back onto the bed and moved to lie on top of him. Her lips came down on his, and passion flared. Before he knew what had happened they were naked and engaging in the most satisfying and amazing sex of his life. Then she had orgasm, and he felt his limbs being pulled apart. He looked down at his ultimate pain, and his dick was gone.
Levits woke up screaming. His door opened, and RJ stuck her head in. "You OK, Levits?"
"Stay away from me! Just stay away!"
RJ shrugged and walked away. Levits looked at the clock; it was time for his shift. He remembered that was another thing he hated about space flight – no concept of day or night.
"Levits, get in here!" RJ ordered abruptly. Obviously something was terribly wrong.
Levits pulled on his pants and ran down the hall without his shirt and shoes. He found RJ in David's room. David was curled up in the middle of his bed crying.
"What's wrong with him?" Levits asked.
"We're all going to fall!" David cried. "We're all going to fall, and there's nothing to land on. You just float out there, forever, like the living dead!"
"Shit!" Levits exclaimed.
He looked at RJ, and together they said, "Space sickness."
RJ sent Levits to get Topaz and a sedative. She sat down beside David and stroked his back.
"It's all right, David. No one's going to fall. You just have to calm down. This sometimes happens to first time spacers. You should have told someone how you felt; we could have given you something that would help."
"My stomach. No matter how much I eat, it feels empty," David cried.
Topaz ran with the pocket medic, struck a pose, and yelled, "Oh, no! It's space madness!'
"Don't flake out on me now, Old Man, I need your help," RJ said in an agitated tone.
"I was just trying to add a little levity to the situation. Besides, do you know how long I have waited to say . . . Oh no it's space madness!" Seeing that no one was laughing, Topaz held the pocket medic over David's arm, and it gave him a shot of sedative. A few minutes later David was asleep.
"I'm sorry, RJ, I should have seen this coming. He's been acting strangely for a couple of days now," Topaz said.
"He always acts like that. How was anyone supposed to know?" Levits asked. RJ gave him a dirty look and he shrugged. "What?"
RJ ignored him. "He's too far gone now for a space sickness shot to work."
"It would probably do more harm than good at this point," Topaz agreed.
"Yeah, but you won't know unless you try it," Levits said with a crooked grin. When both RJ and Topaz glared at him he just shrugged and smiled broader. "Just trying to help."
"We're going to have to keep him sedated for the rest of the trip," RJ said.
"That's three days, RJ," Topaz said in disbelief. "It's not healthy to keep someone sedated for three days. Even with the new drugs with the stabilizing feature and IV fluids there is still some dehydration, and after being completely shut down for that long there is a risk of bladder infection not to mention an impaction. I'm telling you right now I'm not doing any turd spelunking when he can't take a dump."
"Topaz," Levits started. "Have you ever seen what happens to someone with space sickness?"
"You know I haven't, smart-ass," Topaz said. "But I've read about it."
"I've seen it," RJ said. "We don't have a choice."
Janad didn't think she could answer even one more question about her planet. RJ and her weird brother were relentless. How much does it rain? What is the plant life like? What kind of animals? Questions about their government. Questions about their religion. How much did they sleep? What did they eat? Where did the Reliance ships land when and if they landed? Did they have a spaceport on the planet's surface? Did they have a satellite docking station or one on a moon or did the ships always land on the planet?
Some of the things they asked her she flat didn't have an answer for, in fact she didn't even know what they were talking about half of the time. While RJ and Poley kept asking questions about her planet and the way they lived, weapons, fighting styles and such. Topaz bombarded her with questions about her family tree. What color were her ancestors? Was everyone the same color? What were the traditions about their ancestry?
At one point, tired of all the questions, she snapped at them, "How would I know, I'm not a priest!"
"The priests know the origins of your race?"
"They know everything; they talk to the gods," she said.
"Your King?"
"And the others -- those that breathe the clouds into the sky," Janad said. "The ones who give us light and water."
Topaz looked confused.
For her things were much easier than things were for these people. They never seemed to be happy with her answers; they always wanted to know why and how. No answer ever seemed to be good enough for them. A simple answer didn't seem to satisfy them at all. She didn't understand them completely, however she did know that they took the same information she had and came to conclusions she had never even thought of before.
She was purposely avoiding them now. She walked down the hall away from their voices, walking as lightly as she could and munching on a protein bar.
Stupid questions all the time. I feel like my brain will explode. I have to stay away from them; they aren't leaving anything in my brain. They are taking everything out.
She walked past David's room. The door was open, and she looked in. He was asleep, no wait a minute he looked . . . dead! She crept in the room walked up to him and watched him closely. She could see his chest moving with his breathing, and she started to breathe again herself. He didn't move, though. It was the way he was laying; he just didn't look right. She sat on the bed and poked at his shoulder lightly. He didn't move, so she poked him a little harder. He still didn't move, so she punched at his shoulder. When he still didn't wake up, she drew back her fist to hit him hard.
"What the hell are you doing?" RJ said as she grabbed Janad's fist in mid swing.
Janad was scared; no one had ever snuck up on her before. She was a hunter, a warrior, no one should be able to do what RJ had just done. RJ jerked her up off the bed with a single motion. Janad's natural instinct over-rode her good sense, and she punched RJ in the face with her other hand. RJ easily grabbed hold of her other wrist and held it, too.
"Well, you're fast. I'll give you that," RJ said. "I asked you a question."
Janad worked at not looking as scared as she felt. RJ's face seemed none the worse for wear, meanwhile her hand hurt like hell. Punching her was like punching a rock. She made Janad almost as uneasy as her creepy brother Poley did. They weren't right – either of them.
"I was the hell checking him to see if he was all right. He's in a coma or something," Janad said.
RJ let Janad go giving her a look that let her know she'd better not try anything. She turned her back on Janad, which really pissed Janad off. Obviously RJ saw her as no threat at all. She who had lived through two wars and brought home much game didn't frighten this abomination of flesh in the slightest.
RJ sat down on the bed beside David and started to pet his head, moving the hair away from his face. "He's sick," RJ said by way of explanation.
"What's wrong with him?" Janad asked. After all the questions they had asked her she wasn't really satisfied anymore with such a simple answer.
RJ was silent and for a minute. Janad thought RJ was just going to ignore her question. Finally she spoke. "He has the space sickness. We should have medicated him for it before we left Earth. At the very least we should have noticed and medicated him before he got really sick. Now we have to give him something to keep him asleep until we get to the surface of your planet. A few days on solid ground and he should be fine," RJ said.
"How will we get to the surface of my planet?" Janad asked.
"It just so happens that we're still fighting about that," RJ said. She turned to Janad and smiled, the first smile Janad had seen on her face since they had crashed through the ceiling onto the floor. When she smiled Janad didn't find her nearly as terrifying. "Come on, Topaz has decided to cook; it should be interesting if nothing else." RJ got up and started for the door. Janad followed reluctantly.
"Are you going to ask me more questions?" Janad asked wearily, and she heard RJ laugh for the first time.
"I guess we have sort of bombarded you, but you have to see where we're coming from. We don't know anything about you, your people or your planet. There are only a few of us. If we are going to succeed we are going to have to know as much as possible. Knowledge is power and our most important weapon. But I'll tell you what, while we're eating dinner we'll try not to ask you any questions."
"Then I'll come," they started down the hall. "What's wrong with your arm?" Janad asked.
RJ looked down at her right arm, which was jerking a little bit more than usual. Most of the time she didn't even notice it. If she was using it for a specific purpose it stopped; it was only when she relaxed that it started ticking. "It's nerve damage."
"Doesn't it bother you?" Janad asked.
"Not really. I've been this way all my life. My father made a mistake when he was making me, and this happened," RJ answered.
"What do you mean when your father made you?" Janad asked with a confused look on her face.
RJ laughed. "Now who's asking too many questions?"
Topaz had made some sort of soup from what he had found in the galley. It looked funny but was surprisingly good.
"I'm used to cooking with fresh vegetables from my garden, but when in space. . ." He laughed and shrugged.
Janad noticed that Poley was not present and presumed that he was flying the ship.
"So . . . how do you propose that we get to the surface of the planet?" Levits asked.
"The same way we got from Earth to the moon," Topaz said. "The girl said they transported them up to this ship. So we simply dock at whatever temporary station they've set in space . . ."
"More," Janad said holding out her bowl.
"All right, Oliver," Topaz said with a laugh as he ladled soup into her bowl. "Any way, as I was saying. We get back in the crate, let them unload us, and they teleport us down to the surface of the planet."
"And of course the Reliance is so stupid that they're not going to even notice that there is no crew!" Levits shook his head in disbelief. "They won't even wonder where the twenty-five men who are supposed to be on this ship are."
"Oops!" Topaz said with a laugh. "I hadn't thought of that."
"More," Janad said, holding out her empty bowl again.
Topaz looked into the empty bowl and then filled it with soup again. "Do you have a hollow leg?"
"I don't know," Janad answered, shoveling the food in her mouth again.
"We have to find a decent spot to land the ship away from everything. This ship's not really meant for landing on a planet, so it has to be someplace nice and clear with lots of room for error. From what I've learned about the ship it seems that it only has emergency landing gear, and that doesn't look like it's ever been tested outside the docking station. We don't want to be stuck on that planet with a crippled ship and no way to get off," Levits said thoughtfully.
"That planet is denser than Earth," RJ said matter-of-factly.
"So?" Levits asked with a shrug.
"So, the gravitational pull is stronger," RJ said. "If no large crafts land on Earth because of the fuel necessary to reach escape velocity . . ."
Levits understood now. "If we land on the planet's surface we might not have enough fuel to even make escape velocity much less go anywhere else. We'd definitely be stuck on the planet. OK, so what's your big plan? Kill every Reliance man on the docking satellite and take over with one of our men in a coma and a primitive girl with a bag full of rocks?"
"I don't have any rocks," Janad said in a confused tone.
"Actually, I was thinking we could take one of the skiffs," RJ said. "There are actually two on the ship."
Topaz laughed at the look on Levits' face, and even Levits started to smile.
He shrugged. "I guess if I had checked things out a little more thoroughly I would have known we were carrying skiffs. It's not standard equipment for this vessel."
"I'm assuming they were taking them to the satellite. They probably use them to shuffle the transport stations and personnel around the planet," RJ said.
Levits nodded; that made sense.
"But what do we do with this ship, RJ?" Topaz asked. "When it doesn't make its delivery the Reliance is going to know it's missing. They're going to look for it."
"Especially with all that gold metal," Janad said shaking her head.
"Gold!" the other three exclaimed.
"Yeah, there's a bunch of it. I saw them put it in a room with a thick door that wouldn't open," Janad informed them as she finished off her bowl of soup.
Janad wished she hadn't said anything. They didn't even let her finish eating. They immediately made her take them to where the gold metal was hidden in a supply closet behind a fake wall.
"Did you see what the combination was?" RJ asked.
Janad shook her head no.
"Screw it," Levits pulled his side arm.
"No!" RJ screamed as he fired. "Hit the deck!"
Janad didn't have to be told twice. She hit the floor beside RJ and watched as Levits danced around as the laser blast hit the safe and started to bounce around the room before dying in Topaz's left side.
"Ouch!" Topaz screamed. He gave Levits a heated look.
"Sorry, Old Man," Levits said with a shrug.
Janad jumped up at the same time RJ did. She went to Topaz to help him while RJ, ignoring the older man's pain, started yelling at Levits.
"Levits! You idiot! Do you really think they would go to all this trouble to hide their shipment from potential pirates and then not put a laser reflecting force field over it?" RJ shoved him in the shoulder, and he stumbled back a step. Levits righted himself and shoved her back, which caused no reaction in her what so ever.
"Are you all right?" Janad asked Topaz. She was worried about him. The ray seemed to have gone right through him and the wound was smoking on both sides. His "comrades" seemed to be completely unconcerned.
"I'll be fine. However it could use a cleaning," he said.
"We need to take him to the sick place," Janad said in a panic.
"Yeah, you go ahead. We're busy here," RJ said waving her hand in the air dismissively.
Janad helped Topaz to the sick bay. He sat on the table, and she went to get the things she had seen Poley clean David's wound with. Topaz took off his shirt; she could see the pain etched into his face.
"I can't believe that your friends are so unconcerned about you. They are very cold."
Topaz laughed as she started to clean the wound. "Are you worried about me, Janad?" he asked.
"Why wouldn't I be? I've seen men die from less," she said.
Topaz laughed again. "Great bedside manner you've got there. Don't worry about me, Janad." As she started to get the stuff to dress the wound he added, "and don't dress my wound. Just watch." He pointed at the wound, and she watched in amazement as it started to close. In seconds his skin was completely healed. Janad thought she now knew what these beings were.
"You're all gods!" she gasped.
"No, Janad, not gods. Although you can call me that if you like." Topaz smiled broadly at her. "I took a potion. That potion has made my cells regenerate themselves whenever they are damaged. That doesn't make me a god. It just makes me the end product of an experiment, and that's really all Poley and RJ are, too. Levits and David are normal just like you. The proof of that is that David is so sick right now. Everything has a logical explanation, just like I can tell you right now without fear of contradiction that your King is not a deity, and that whatever is making light and bringing water to your homes and belching out clouds is more of machine than god."
Janad thought about it for a minute then shook her head.
"No, you're wrong."
"Don't you understand, Janad? There are no such thing as gods," Topaz said.
"But the people, my people, believe in these gods, and therefore they have power. That power makes them gods," Janad concluded with finality.
"Well, I'll be damned," Topaz said appreciatively. "That's pretty sophisticated reasoning for someone who's supposed to be a primitive."
"You have powers, and therefore you must be gods," Janad said on a final note.
Topaz sighed. "I take back what I said."
Levits had taken Poley's place on the bridge, and Poley was trying to figure out how to turn off the force field around the gold when Topaz walked back in.
"You all right?" RJ asked, hardly looking up from where she was looking over Poley's shoulder.
"Fine as a fiddle," Topaz said. "I'm afraid your caviler attitude about my injuries upset Janad. But now that she sees what I already knew – that I am a god – she has gone back to the mess hall to eat. She's a very good eater that girl."
"So, you're a god?" RJ asked with a smile.
"Actually she thinks we're all gods. I think we'll be hard pressed to prove otherwise to her," Topaz said. "I rather like the girl; she grows on you after awhile."
"He'd like anyone who thought he was a god," RJ said to her brother.
Poley smiled and nodded absently and added, "I have the force field off."
"Well, duh!" RJ said. She could feel the slight electric charge in the air when it had been on. The absence of that charge was obvious to her.
Poley put his ear to the safe and started to turn the tumbler.
"Funny," Topaz said. "All this high-tech shit, and it all comes down to a simple combination lock. The same kind we had on our school lockers when I was a boy."
In a matter of minutes Poley turned the handle and opened the door.
"Holy shit!" Topaz exclaimed.
"I guess the price of slaves has gotten really high," RJ said. "There's got to be . . ."
"One thousand, five hundred sixty-three pounds," Poley said.
Topaz shook his head in disbelief. "That's worth . . ."
"Seventy-five million, four hundred and eighty thousand credits," Poley said. "Too bad it's radioactive."
"Radioactive!" Topaz and RJ screamed in unison. RJ ran over, slammed the door closed and locked it.
"That would mean this fucking gold is from the planet Stashes. They found a vein of gold there right on top of a shit load of plutonium," RJ said thoughtfully.
"The safe is lead-lined that's why no radiation leak showed on any systems check," Poley said.
"Freaking Reliance," RJ hissed. "Are there no depths to which they won't sink? They're trading soldiers for radioactive gold and cheap textiles."
"And think about this," Topaz said. "What do primitives do with gold?"
"They wear it," RJ answered, eyes widening as the realization struck her.
Topaz nodded.
"We've got to stop them," RJ said with conviction.
It took them several hours to fish all their things from the river in the dark. Their reed boat was in tattered ruins and beyond repair.
We could build another boat, Haldeed signed, then hung some more of their wet things on a bush to dry.
"No, I think it's a sign that we should walk inland," Taleed said.
A sign from the gods? Haldeed signed not without a healthy helping of sarcasm.
"Gods!" Taleed made a hissing noise as he picked up a rock with his toes and slung it into the water. "I do not believe my father is a god, Haldeed. I know for a certainty that I am not. Nor do I believe that whatever the priests hide in their caves is a god. If there were true gods, they would not show themselves, but would stay out of sight. They would make the world work, not order men to be maimed or wars to be fought. If they chose to meddle in men's lives, why would they not make things perfect? Why would they keep our planet barren, order us to have as many children as we can, and then order up wars? I say that if there are gods, then they care not for man one way or the other. I certainly don't believe that the priests speak their will. I'll tell you better than that – I do not believe that my father believes it – or even that the priests do."
Careful do not anger the gods, Taleed, Haldeed warned.
"We have already angered my father, Haldeed. False gods have no power," Taleed declared.
We were nearly drowned in the river, Haldeed reminded him.
"No god made a waterfall appear on the river. It has always been there. How can our failure to pay attention be considered godly power manifesting itself? Furthermore we didn't drown," Taleed said.
I almost did, and your power saved me, Haldeed said signing in an excited way.
"Don't be ridiculous, Haldeed." Taleed said. "I simply used my head. I sucked air into my lungs, and then I breathed it into yours."
You truly don't believe in the gods? Haldeed asked.
"I very truly don't," Taleed answered.
Their things hadn't quite dried when it started to rain. Taleed saw the look Haldeed gave him and frowned hard. "This is not punishment from the gods, Haldeed. It's just a little rain. Surely a god would be more creative than this. Getting wet is less like a punishment and more of an annoyance"
If you say so, Haldeed said and continued to pack their wet gear into their backpacks.
They walked down the river till they found a well-used path. This they knew would lead them to a village. But they wouldn't stop there, oh no. If the royal guards came down the river looking for them, they would of course look in the town closest to the river. So they would continue to travel inland. They knew the further they got away from the river the better off they would be. The rain was coming down hard, and the river would come over its banks soon. In fact, it wasn't rare to look up after a storm up stream and see a wall of water coming at you. That's the way it was here – weeks, sometimes even months, without rain – and then torrential downpours that could last just as long.
They walked a little faster as the sound of the river got louder. It was still dark, so they walked around the back side of the village and continued on up the road before walking into the thick underbrush and making camp. They were soaked. Their tent and their bedrolls were soaked. What little food they had left was wet. It was raining too hard and it was too dark to look for more. Cold and wet and hungry, they crawled into their tent and tried to sleep.
It rained all through the daylight hours. Haldeed got out and foraged for food in the down pour, giving up any notion that the rain would slow up soon. No way of making a fire and all he found was some carotte root. It came up easy, and he simply left it hanging in a small bush until the rain had washed it clean. It didn't take long.
Haldeed held the root for Taleed to eat. Taleed chewed the horrible tasting root and made a decision. "OK, Haldeed. I've had it. Ours is neither a moderate nor a very forgiving world, and neither you nor I have ever been taught how to survive in it. I say we get up this very minute and walk up the road. At the very next village we come to we will find lodging, buy ourselves a good hot meal, take a good hot bath and sleep in a warm dry bed." Before he had finished speaking Haldeed had dropped the root and started packing.
It was the middle of the night when they came to the small village of Are'ne. The inn, however, took them in at once. They had a backpack full of bercer-roc and that bought hospitality even when someone might not feel like giving it. The huge rock tub in their room was filled with hot running water fed by reed pipes from the temple. They bathed together, each one relishing in the warmth of the water and the feeling of being really clean for the first time in days. Two bowls of steaming legume soup were brought to them and they practically inhaled them. Then feeling warmed inside and out, and dry for the first time in two days they crawled into bed and went to sleep.
Levits felt like he was the one who needed to be heavily sedated. He was circling one of the six moons of the planet trying to find a safe place to land, when there really weren't any. Finally he found a suitable crater and started to descend towards it, trying to ignore RJ and Topaz's constant chatter.
"So, riddle me this. It's a huge planet, and they are living on a very small part of it – no way are they crowded. So, why have they picked the most inhospitable place on the planet to inhabit?" Topaz asked.
"The oceans, while teaming with life, are constantly in turmoil spawning literally hundreds of hurricanes and causing erratic weather patterns across the planet's surface. Then there are the several thousand active volcanoes which dot the planet's surface. Topographically it may appear that they have picked the most inhospitable region, but, in truth, they have probably populated the only truly habitable spot available," RJ answered.
"Would you both shut up!" When there was silence Levites took a deep breath. "I just don't know . . ."
"You're doing fine," RJ said. "It's easy."
"If it's so easy then you do it," he snapped back. He drew a deep cleansing breath. They didn't understand what they were asking him to do. As he had explained to them this ship hadn't been meant to actually land. It was meant to go from one space station to another and be tethered up. The troops would be off loaded onto the station then sent into smaller, faster ships to do battle either in the air or on a planet's surface. It was a pack animal, and as such it was never meant to do such delicate maneuvers as landing on a specific crater of a specific moon. He wouldn't have felt so bad landing on a planet. In a ship like this the crew could easily survive a minor crash. That is, on an inhabited planet with things like food and air. Not so crashing on a freaking moon made of rock with no breathable atmosphere. Here anything less than a perfect landing could mean disaster – even death. The only plus was that there was less gravity.
He slowed the ship still more and lowered it slowly down onto the surface of the moon without so much as a bad shake. Once he had successfully settled the ship on its landing gear he set the stabilizers, retracted the gear and anchored the ship. Only when he had checked all his readouts and knew for certain he had executed a safe landing and secure anchorage did he start to breathe again.
"See? I knew you could do it," RJ said smugly.
Levits turned on her, madder than hell. "You know what, RJ? Everything is not some big freaking joke. Do you have any idea how much I hate being responsible for all of you?" He unbuckled himself, jumped up and stormed off the bridge.
"Wow! Who shit in his cereal?" RJ asked of no one in particular.
"I think you did," Topaz told RJ in a scolding tone. "You might try being a little more sympathetic. You know that was damn hard to do, and you know he was worried about doing it."
RJ shrugged; she supposed she could be more sympathetic. After all she knew he wasn't thrilled about being in space, and she knew how he felt about being in a position of authority, still . . . "He's got to get over it sometime."
"Physician, heal thyself," Topaz mumbled.
RJ pretended not to know what he meant and ignored him. She checked to make sure that all communication links with the Reliance were completely closed and that the ship's cloaking device had been activated. Now they would just have to hope that the Reliance wouldn't do a thorough reconnaissance of the planet's moons when looking for their missing ship.
Working in their favor was a strange planetary phenomenon. Beta 4 periodically radiated anomalous but powerful magnetic pulses. These pulses affected the planet and space immediately surrounding the planet, causing transmissions and other signals to either bounce or fluctuate erratically. Communication and locating devices were functional but not reliably so. Scans might indicate objects where there was nothing, and it was just as likely that things that were there might not show up. If the Reliance wanted to find the ship, they would have to send out a manned reconnaissance vessel to actually look for it. Not only was that improbable without some indication of an explosion, but it was a big moon, and after all, the ship was cloaked. It would be difficult if not impossible for the Reliance to find them in this particular location.
Everyone but David had been on the bridge strapped in just in case there were any problems. David had been strapped to his bed. RJ unbuckled her own belt and stood up. She stretched as if she had just woken up from a nap. "I'm going to go un-strap David."
She left the bridge and started down the hall for David's room. When she walked in the door she took a double take. The straps were broken, the IV was dripping on the floor, and David was gone.
"Oh shit!" she trumpeted, and within seconds the others were at her side.
Topaz looked in the room and visibly shrank. "Oops," he said.
"Oops!" RJ slapped a hand to her forehead. "Freaking oops! He had advanced space sickness, you forgot to sedate him, and you're saying oops!"
"Sorry?" Topaz added with a shrug.
"Great!" Levits looked at RJ. "What now, Great Leader?"
RJ temporarily forgot about the task at hand. "Why are you so pissy with me lately? If you didn't want to go this badly, you should have stayed on earth. I told you I didn't want you here . . ."
"And I told you why that wasn't an option, but you weren't listening. You never listen to anyone unless they're saying what you want to hear!" Levits screamed back. "We all had to come because – like it or not – you need us. You couldn't do it on your own. You'd screw it up, and we'd have the Reliance breathing down our throats again."
RJ shoved him, and he hit the wall.
"You know what you are? You're a freaking bully!" Levits pushed away from the wall and got right in her face. "Pushing everyone around. Knowing they can't push back."
RJ looked like she was close to shoving him through a wall. The truth really did hurt, and as a general rule if you hurt RJ, she hurt you.
"Wow!" Topaz screamed holding up his hands. "If you two could just put this pissing contest on hold, one of our crew is wandering around the ship in a psychotic daze."
RJ took a deep breath and glared at Levits who glared right back. "All right." RJ said taking a deep breath. "Topaz, you and Poley and the girl . . ."
"I have a name," Janad protested.
RJ gritted her teeth. "You guys go that way. Levits and I will go this way."
Topaz gave her a strange look, which she ignored. She was not going to try to explain the logic behind this division. It should be obvious.
Just then a crashing and banging began in the direction of the mess hall, so the splitting up became irrelevant and they all ran to the mess hall instead. They followed a trail of David's torn clothing down the hallway. When they reached the room they found David standing buck naked in the middle of one of the tables with a stack of pans in his hands. When he saw them he started laughing, and then he started hurling pans at them. One of his arms hung funny. No doubt it had been pulled out of socket when he'd broken his restraints.
"Ow! That's got tah hurt," Levits said making a face as he looked at the arm. He jumped out of the way of a flying pot just in the nick of time.
"Go away! All of you go away! You're trying to kill me!" he screamed. Drool ran down his face and dripped off his chin. "Doesn't matter. We're all going to die anyway, but I'm going to kill all of you first. Take this and this." He started throwing pans again. When he ran out of pans he squatted and literally shit in the middle of the table.
"God!" Levits said pulling a face. "So much for worrying about an impaction."
Then David reached down and grabbed the fresh turd.
"Oh no!" RJ yelled as she realized what he was about to do. She ran forward and jumped through the air grabbing him. They both landed on the floor, but unfortunately, that just seemed to help David to sling crap all over all of them and the room.
"Shit!" Levits screamed, unable to do anything but stand with his hands out looking down at himself.
"Precisely," Poley agreed.
Topaz ran up and gave the squirming man a shot with the pocket medic. RJ got off of David only when he was still. She put her foot on his shoulder, grabbed his filthy hand and pulled his arm back into socket. She looked down at her shirt and chain, which were covered in shit, and then turned to glare at Topaz.
"Sorry," Topaz said again. "Guess this gives an all new meaning to 'mess hall'."
"I'm fucking covered in shit!" Levits stated the obvious at his usual high decimal range. "God! This just gets better and better." He stomped off in the direction of the showers. RJ picked David up and followed Levits.
"He's more trouble than he's worth," Levits said to RJ over his shoulder.
Right then RJ was inclined to agree with him. She knew that David couldn't control what he was doing, but there was something about having human feces slung all over you that just made it impossible to look at the big picture. It was funny; blood didn't bother her, but shit was another matter completely.
The showers were communal. She cleaned David off then lay him down on a bench and covered him with some towels. She went back to the showers and stepped in with all her clothes on, trying to rinse as much off them as she could.
"If I didn't already hate the bastard I'd hate him now," Levits said standing beside her in the shower rubbing the soap against his nude body hard and fast working up a huge amount of lather.
RJ was silent. She stripped her chain and clothes off and stepped into the shower stream. She held her hand out to Levits, and he handed her the soap grudgingly. He watched as she lathered up. He smiled in spite of himself. Looking at her he almost forgot all about the whole shit slinging incident. He noticed she was scrubbing herself every bit as hard as he was, so obviously she was just as creeped out.
She handed the soap back to him and their hands touched. Their eyes met. He quickly took the soap and looked away. "I had a dream the other day – or night – or whatever it was."
"You did?" RJ asked conversationally.
There was something about being in a shower naked with someone after having turds thrown all over you that sort of washed all other inhibitions aside. "Yes," Levits continued, "I dreamt that you and I were making love."
RJ laughed. "Really? Was I any good?"
"Very good, right up until you pulled my penis off," he said.
"Well, that's a hell of a finale," RJ laughed.
"Remember the other day when I brought up that thing you and I said we were never going to talk about again?" Levits asked.
"You mean about us almost having sex," RJ said.
"That would be it," Levits answered.
Before he could finish what he wanted to say, RJ said, "I once did body detail. The bodies had been left to sit in the rain and then the sun for about a week. The flesh was swollen, putrid, and full of fluids. It slipped when you tried to grab a body. Some of the bodies would just come apart when you went to pick them up. I don't think I felt as dirty then as I do right now," RJ said.
"Nothing quite like human excrement, is there? I realize he has space sickness and all, but of all the things to do, Gee . . .od! this has got to be tops . . ." He realized then what she had done. Once again she had successfully changed the subject. He looked over at her and smiled. "You almost succeeded."
"Not quite though, huh?" she said. She held her hand out and he handed her the soap again. "I'd rather not talk about it, Levits. That's usually what someone means when they say, let us make a pact to never speak of this again."
"Ah, but see, I'd rather we did, and since this wasn't something you did by yourself I think I have just as much right to talk about it as you have not to talk about it." he said. "Ever since it happened we have been at each other's throats, and since I had this dream I think I know why . . ."
"Because you're afraid I'll defrock you?" RJ asked with a crooked smile.
"Try not to make a joke for a few minutes. Please try to talk to me seriously and without getting angry," Levits said heavily.
"That's asking an awful lot," RJ said with a grin.
Levits shot her an angry look
"All right," RJ said reluctantly. "I guess we do need to talk, but do me this one little favor. Let's not have this conversation when we're in the shower naked washing dung off our bodies. Let me get clean, take care of David, and I'll meet you in your quarters."
Levits nodded silently, hoping that he didn't lose his nerve between now and then.
Janad and Poley had helped him clean the crap up out of the mess hall, and then they had headed for the showers. From the ease with which the girl stripped in front of them Topaz surmised that she, like his military friends Levits and RJ, was used to public bathing. While Poley had a fear of being immersed in water, he was used to showering to get clean. It was obvious from the way the girl was looking at Poley that she either didn't understand what he was or simply didn't care. Stewart had been living vicariously through the robot, and he had not only made him fully functional but had given him an inhumanly large shlong.
Topaz still didn't feel completely comfortable showering with other people, but he wanted the shit off, and he wanted it off now. The girl was beautiful, well muscled, and perfectly proportioned. Topaz didn't even try to act like he wasn't watching her. She looked up at him caught his eye and smiled.
"It doesn't bother you that I'm watching?" Topaz said.
"It would only bother me if you seemed displeased with what you saw," she said with a grin. "You have a pleasant body."
"Thanks." Topaz realized, not without embarrassment, that he had an erection. He hung a washcloth on it, and the girl laughed.
He deduced from her reaction that bathing was a time of playful interaction for her people.
"I can do that," Poley said proudly. He immediately got an erection and hung a bath towel on it.
"Show off," Topaz grunted.
Levits didn't know how she had managed it, but she was in his room before he was. She was dressed, but he was so used to seeing her in the chain that she might as well have been naked without it. She was just standing there waiting for him. Her arms were crossed across her chest; there was a cool expressionless look on her face. Obviously she wasn't going to make this easy.
Levits was instantly pissed off. "You haven't come here to talk," he accused. "You've come here to shut me up."
RJ glared at him and for a minute he was sure she was going to stomp out of the room. Then she uncrossed her arms and tried to look less severe, which judging from the look on her face must have caused her some sort of physical pain.
After a moment she gave up and just started yelling, "God damn it, Levits! How the hell would you like me to look? Would you like for me to look as uncomfortable as I feel right now? I don't want to talk about it. I thought I made that clear months ago."
"And so we haven't talked about it, and has that helped? No. In fact it has turned us into what we are today; two people who can't be in the same room without fighting. The tension between us has escalated to the point that everyone knows it's there. Even that alien girl knows that there is something between us. We act like people who hate each other, and I don't hate you, RJ. I never could."
"And I could never hate you, but how am I supposed to react when everything I say pisses you off?"
"Have you listened to the way you talk to me, RJ? Are you even aware of how you have been treating me? Like I'm your subordinate, like I'm completely inconsequential."
RJ thought about that for a minute. "I wouldn't talk to you that way if you'd quit contradicting me every time I open my mouth. You disagree with me before I've even had a chance to finish what I'm saying. If I say I'm hungry you jump up and yell, that you can't hear my stomach growling," she defended.
"I wouldn't disagree with you if you weren't such an arrogant bitch!"
"I wouldn't be such an arrogant bitch if you weren't such an ignorant asshole . . . Wait a minute!" RJ took a deep breath. "We're doing it again. Arguing over who's more to blame isn't going to fix anything."
Levits nodded his head in agreement, took a deep breath and tried to continue in a calmer manner. "This all started when you pulled away from me."
RJ sighed. "You see, now that's a big problem, because the way I see it you pulled away from me first."
Levits started to disagree loudly and then remembered his dream. In the dream he admitted that he had pulled away from her, too. He quickly analyzed his dream. When he realized what the dream really meant he admitted, although only to himself, that he was in fact the aggressor in their confrontations.
"Only in my head, RJ. I had a doubt, a doubt I would have overcome if you hadn't physically pulled away from me," Levits said. Then added, "So it was your fault."
"My fault! How is it my fault?" RJ said. "For me pulling away in your mind is the same as physical removal; it feels the same to me, maybe even worse."
"Admit that you've been screwing with my head for years. I don't know what you really want, and quite frankly I don't know if I can handle you sexually, or emotionally for that matter. You know how I felt about Sandy, and you know she didn't feel the same way about me. I don't really know how I feel about you, all I know is I don't want to wake up one morning and realize I've fallen in love with you and that you're in love with someone else. Especially if that someone else is David Grant."
RJ laughed, and was immediately less tense. "Levits I could never love David. I don't think that I ever really did. He was the first person besides Stewart that I was ever close to, and between you and me, my father wasn't the warmest guy in the world. I wanted to love David, and since I didn't really understand what love was then I thought that I did. I know better now." She took a deep breath. "I think it's obvious that the reason we are fighting all the time is because we aren't having sex. I admit it. I just haven't wanted to get that close, especially to someone I care about. I wanted to separate myself from everyone and everything, but you wouldn't stay behind, ya bastard, so since you're here bothering the hell out of me, we might as well at least be having sex."
"Once we leave the ship there's probably not going to be another chance for awhile," Levits said swallowing hard.
She made the first move, walking up to him and draping her arms around his neck. "If you're really worried about me shredding your manhood . . ."
"I'm not." He put his arms around her and pulled her to him. He brought his lips down on hers and she responded. "So can we close the door?"
"No, but I'll make sure you forget that it's open."
Topaz, Janad and Poley were in the rec-room. Poley and Topaz were trying to teach Janad how to play the complicated game of bottle caps.
"So you throw the bottle cap into the cup and that's it?" Janad said.
"You have to make it from the spot the last person made it from," Poley reminded.
"And if you miss you have to take a piece of your clothing off very slowly," Topaz said. Poley started to contradict him. "That's the space rules, Poley."
Janad nodded, and threw the cap in.
"Beginner's luck," Topaz assured her.
They all heard RJ's screams of ecstasy. Topaz looked at Poley and smiled. "Maybe they'll stop fighting now."
"I wouldn't bet on that," Poley said. He made his shot.
Levits walked into the rec-room looking disheveled and exhausted, and grinning from ear to ear. He didn't even seem to notice the fact that Topaz was sitting wearing nothing but a smile.
"So I see you lived through it," Topaz said.
Levits smiled stupidly his head lolling to one side. "So far."
"I'm so happy," Poley said.
"OK, whatever little tin dude," Levits laughed. He seemed to stop and think for a minute. "I wanted to tell you guys something, now what was it?" Levits seemed to be in deep thought. "Oh, yeah! I slept with RJ." He laughed, went to the drink machine, took out two bottles, unscrewed the caps and tossed them to Poley who caught them.
"It didn't sound like you were sleeping," Topaz said with a broad smile.
Levits just laughed, took his drinks and left.
"That was very primal," Poley said thoughtfully.
"How so?" Topaz asked.
"The male of the species foraging for food to feed the female and the ritual equivalent of pounding on his chest in the presence of the other males to let them know to stay away from what he now considers to be his female," Poley said.
"Very good observation, Poley," Topaz complemented.
Janad just shrugged, bored with all of it. She tossed one of her bottle caps at the cup, and she missed for only the third time. She had taken off both her boots already, so she took off her top slowly as previously instructed.
Topaz smiled.
"While your courtship behavior is more juvenile," Poley observed.
"Here's a clue for you Poley!" Topaz turned glaring at him. "You don't have to speak all your observations out loud." He jumped up, grabbed his pants off the floor and put them on quickly. "I have to go check on David." He left.
Poley shrugged and tossed his bottle cap. It went in the cup; it always did.
"Do you always hit it?" Janad asked.
"Yes," Poley said matter-of-factly.
"So why do you play?
"Because I like to win," he informed her.
He still made Janad uncomfortable, but she no longer feared him.
"What's wrong with you?" Janad asked.
"Nothing's wrong with me," Poley said in confusion. "I'm perfect."
"That's it!" Janad exclaimed.