Mind Over Ship (14 page)

“Another Danish?” he said, refilling Fred’s cup.

“Another Danish would be ideal,” Fred said. “Maybe one with fruit this time.”

The waiter nodded and took a step back. But he did not set off at once with Fred’s order. Instead, he continued to look up and watch the sky through his spex. Fred looked up too but saw nothing out of place. The waiter’s gaze dropped slowly until he was looking down at Fred’s slate on the table. He drew a small aerosol canister from his apron and moved Fred’s slate aside, and after several more moments, squirted a dollop of red goo on the tabletop. The goo sizzled for a few seconds, and when it stopped the waiter mopped it up with his rag. He replaced Fred’s slate to its place and said, “A fruit Danish it is.” Even then, he scanned the airspace over Fred’s head as he went inside.

Fred was dumbfounded. He moved the slate aside and lowered his eyes to tabletop level. He found a tiny, blackened pit in the resin surface. He noticed other pits near it, dozens of them, stippling the surface of the table, some of them quite large. He noticed burn marks on the arms of his seat and tiny craters in the glassine floor of the deck. Even the sleeves of his new togs bore scorch marks.

Fred held his breath and looked up again into the intensely blue canopy-less sky. His to-do list no longer felt so urgent. He skipped the Danish, covered his head with his hands, and ducked indoors. He returned to his and Mary’s room, and instead of going out, he stayed in. He climbed into bed—the bed outside the null suite that they had not used. Fred pulled the covers over his head. It was not enough. He abandoned the bed and cycled back into the null suite.

When Mary arrived at the private station under the Starke Manse, she thought she was at the wrong house. Instead of russes and jerrys at the checkpoint, there were men of a type she’d never seen before. Handsome, compact men in gold-accented, yellow uniforms, not the brown and teal of Applied People. She swiped the post and tried to pass, but they stopped her politely.

“There must be some mistake,” she said. “I live here.”

“No mistake, myr,” one of them said. “Everyone gets scanned before entry.”

“You don’t understand; I’m Myr Starke’s personal companion.”

“Do you want access or not?” the man said cheerfully.

There was a chime, and Lyra appeared. “Hello, Mary,” she said. “Welcome back.”

“Lyra, what’s going on here? Who are these men?”

“These are guards from Capias World.”

“But what are they doing here?”

“Ellen has changed her services contractor. Capias World will be handling Starke security from now on.”

“They want to scan me.”

“I’m sorry, Mary, but you’ll have to submit to their rules, like everyone else, at least during the transition phase.”

UP ON THE ground floor, the marvels continued. Instead of Applied People janes and dorises, there was a Capias World variety of domestics.

Mary hurried to her own suite, concerned that it, too, might have changed allegiance during her absence. But all was the same as she had left it four days earlier. She shut the door and sat in her armchair. In a little while, the door chimed and announced Georgine.

“Let her in,” she said without getting up.

Georgine crossed the room and crouched next to her chair. “Mary, are you all right? How is Fred?”

“Fine, fine,” Mary said. “We’re fine. I’m just a little overwhelmed. What’s going on around here? Who are those people? Why are they here?”

“You should’ve let us know you were coming in today. I could’ve tried to prepare you. Ellen has gone off the deep end again. Everything was going well with the Protatter and extinguishing her mother delusion and all, but
then apparently a new one sprang up in its place, a fixed idea, as Dr. Lamprey called it. Now Ellen accepts that her mother is dead, but she wants to exact unholy revenge against her mother’s killers. Myr Tiekel from E-Pluribus is fanning the flames. She told Ellen it was Zoranna Alblaitor who killed Eleanor Starke.”

“Our Alblaitor? That makes no sense.”

“I know, but it didn’t stop Ellen from firing all Applied People iterants on the spot, here at the Manse and throughout the entire Starke Enterprises, and replacing them with these Capias people.

“Then Dr. Lamprey started talking about doing a more radical procedure to extinguish this new delusion and all memory of the crash, and she fired him too. Now there’s no physician, and the Capias nurses are in charge.”

“Didn’t Cabinet do anything?”

“No, it stayed out of it, and Lyra didn’t know what to do. Right now we’re trying to talk Dr. Rouselle into coming back, but she’s too busy running her new hospital. And on top of that, Ellen is depressed and hasn’t left her tank for two solid days, and the nusses won’t even let us talk to her.”

“The nusses?”

“The Capias nursing line.”

“They won’t even let you near her?”

Georgine shook her head.

“We’ll just see about that,” Mary said, rising from her armchair.

“NO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS allowed,” the nuss said, blocking the door to Ellen’s bedroom.

“We
are
authorized,” Mary said.

“Not according to my orders.”

Mary smiled in a dead-on imitation of a russ game face. “Myr Nuss, I am Mary Skarland. Have you ever heard of me?”

The nuss nodded tentatively.

These nusses weren’t as physically imposing as jennys, and Mary threw back her shoulders and declared, “Then you know what I’m capable of. You know that the last person who tried to keep me from assisting Myr Starke is rotting in his grave, a stick driven through his brain. And you know that I’d rather fight than talk and that if you don’t remove your person from my sight this very instant, I will walk right through you. Do you understand me, myr?”

The nuss gave way.

Inside the bedroom, the shades were drawn, and the hernandez tank
stood in shadow. A second nuss on duty turned to Mary and said, “What are you doing here?”

“As you were, Nurse,” Mary said and went around her to the tank. “Lights at full!” she commanded the room. “Window full wide!” The woman/baby floated, eyes closed, in the purplish medium like a medical curiosity. Mary rapped sharply on the tank, and Ellen’s eyelids fluttered. Mary continued to rap. At first Ellen stared blankly at her, but gradually her eyes focused, and she reached out her arms.

Mary said to the first nuss, “Myr Starke wants out!”

Wordlessly, the nuss pulled on a pair of foil gloves and climbed the ladder to the top of the tank, while the second nuss stood nearby with a receiving blanket.

“What are you waiting for?” Mary asked the nuss at the tank. “Reach in and pull her up.”

“Good patient care encourages the patient to swim to the top on their own,” the nuss replied. “Regeneration patients especially must make every effort to extend their abilities. Otherwise, they will not thrive.”

Mary harrumphed. “Get off the ladder,” she said. “I’ll do it.”

“What’s going on?” said a stern voice from the doorway. By the ribbons on her collar, Mary saw that it was the head nurse. “Sangita, I thought I told you not to let these persons in here. Sushi, get down off that ladder.”

The nuss scooted down from the tank and went to stand next to her colleague. The head nuss made a sweeping gesture to Mary and Georgine. “You two, leave Myr Starke’s quarters at once.”

“Oh, for crying out loud,” Mary said and went around the tank to climb the ladder.

“Get down from there this very instant,” roared the head nuss.

Mary had no gloves, but the regenerative syrup wasn’t nearly as nasty as the amber amnio syrup had been at the clinic, and she reached all the way in to her armpit. Even so, she only grazed the top of Ellen’s head. Then she snagged a lock of hair, and when she hauled her up and out, a security man at the foot of the tank tapped her leg with the business end of a standstill wand.

“Put her back,” he said politely, “and please come down from there.” He was the same type as the ones down in the private tube station, and he had a natural authority about him that made her want to obey, just like the russes did. There were two more of his type in the bedroom, and another was escorting Georgine out.

Mary said, “Step aside, Myr Capias, or you’ll likely cause an accident.”

The man removed his wand and held his arms out for the baby. “I know you mean well and don’t intend to hurt her, so let’s settle this amicably, shall we? No one gets hurt.”

Mary didn’t budge. “Someone always gets hurt, myr. It’s the law of nature. Lyra, are you recording all this?”

The young mentar appeared next to the tank. “Yes, Mary. I’m afraid I don’t have clear instructions in how to resolve the jurisdictional authority in this case, and Cabinet offers no guidance.”

“Sometimes you just have to play it by ear, Lyra, and do what seems best.” To the security officer she said, “I hope you’re aware that this is no ordinary client. This is Ellen Starke I hold in my arms, and if you don’t step back and allow me to climb down from this ladder with her safely, the viewing audience will have a chance to watch your incredibly poor judgment live around the globe. What do you think that will do for your Capias World’s reputation?”

The man needed only a moment to consider. He stepped back and gave Mary plenty of room to bring Ellen down. But when she tried to take her to the adjoining bathroom, he blocked their way.

“This ends now,” he said simply, and the head nuss stepped forward for Ellen.

“Lyra,” Mary said, “call Clarity and tell her to inset this into as many shows as she can with a live feed.”

“Inset what, Mary?”

“What you’re witnessing here in realtime.”

The mentar hesitated, then said, “Yes, Mary.”

But by then, Ellen was paying attention. “Enough!” she said from Mary’s arms. “Enough of this! Everyone out except Mary and Lyra.”

Reluctantly, the nusses and guards left the room and closed the door. “Well, hello there,” Mary said to the baby. “Nice of you to join us.”

Ellen began to fuss, and Mary sat on the edge of the bed and rocked her for a little while. When the mood passed, Mary said, “Ellen, tell Lyra that Cyndee, Georgine, and I are in charge over the new people.”

“All right, Mary.”

“And that includes the ones at the checkpoints. Lyra, did you hear that?”

The young mentar nodded.

“All right, then,” Mary said and got up and carried Ellen to the door. Georgine and the Capias staff were waiting in the hall. Mary handed
Ellen to the head nurse and said, “Give Myr Starke a bath, and don’t forget to shampoo her hair.”

The nurse took the baby and was about to reply, but the new orders streamed into her ears. She stifled a huff and said, “Yes, myr.”

Mary examined her own purple-stained clothes. “Georgine, you stay with Ellen. I’m going to get cleaned up myself.”

WHEN MARY RETURNED to Ellen’s bedroom in new clothes, the nusses were trying to cajole Ellen into eating a serving of strained fruit. Georgine was sitting in the corner and watching without comment.

“That’s all right,” Mary said. “You two can go now.”

“She hasn’t eaten,” one of them said.

“Perhaps your menu is unappealing. Now please take the cart and close the door behind you.”

The nusses left without complaint, and Ellen began to cry again. “I’m sorry, Mary,” she said. “I can’t help it.”

“Forget about it. Everyone’s entitled to a bad day now and then. If I had my own tank, I think I’d stay in it today myself.” She picked Ellen up and carried her to the large, hardly used bed. “In fact, why don’t we all spend the day in bed?” To Georgine’s surprise, Mary quickly undressed and climbed under the covers. She looked at Georgine with an expression that said,
Well?

Georgine undressed and got into bed beside her. They put Ellen between them and snuggled, and when they were all comfortable, Georgine said, “Welcome back, Mary. We missed you around here.” Ellen nodded her large head in agreement. “So, how’s Fred doing?”

“Fred’s fine. He has a lot of adjusting to do, but basically I think he’ll be fine.” The others watched her, waiting for more. “But I don’t want to talk about Fred today.”

“Then what should we talk about?”

“I don’t know. Let’s talk about you. How’s it going with your new jerry?”

“What jerry?”

“Norbert.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Norris? Norman? Normal? I know it starts with a ‘Nor.’ ”

“You must be thinking of some other sister, Mary. I would never go out with a jerry. They’re too full of themselves.”

“Then who are you seeing?”

“Who says I’m seeing anyone?”

“You must be. I’ve never known you to be alone for very long.”

Ellen followed the conversation back and forth, and when Georgine seemed reluctant to go on, she said, “Tell us.”

Georgine pursed her lips and furrowed her brow in a comic display of reluctance. “If I tell you guys, you have to promise not to tell anyone, and I mean
anyone
.”