Shadow Over Avalon (14 page)

On their next swimming lesson the following day, Ector had Tarvi join them. The medi-tech hadn’t brought his diagnostic unit. He didn’t need one to confirm Ector’s guess; one glance at a body he’d treated proved enough.

While Shadow toweled her hair by the side of the pool, Tarvi moved out of earshot with Ector. “She’s going to drop her brat in the cold season. It must have been a day or so conceived when we found her, or I’d have detected it. She’s bound to notice unless she’s blind. It might be kinder to tell her before she gets a shock.”

“I thought— Well, can’t you?” Ector did not ever remember wanting a task less. Tarvi, as a medi-tech, seemed much better for the job. He would be blunt and get it over quickly.

“Not a chance. Your charge, your problem. If she doesn’t want it, I don’t anticipate any objections getting a termination, given the poison in her system around the time of conception. Luck.” Tarvi grinned and left them.

Shadow hurried over, looking confident, as if this might have been some sort of test. “I can fight?”

“Not yet.”

“Thoughts Ector. Give thoughts.”

“Later. Back in quarters.” He wondered how to tell her.

*

Ector ordered a meal for both of them in her rooms, hoping she would feel less threatened with the simple things she had used to personalize the bleak quarters. She liked sea objects such as shells, rather than land artifacts, something he found strange given her origins. His choice of shark flesh, which Shadow said most resembled meat, was calculated to make her think about the Overworld. This special order item, not covered by barracks budget, went against his credits. Since most of the elites’ protein intake consisted of plankton reconstituted in various ways to appear more appetizing, he looked forward to a treat.

“Ector has bad . . . things say.” Shadow narrowed her eyes as he retrieved the order from the service shaft and placed their meals on her plasglass table.

Her speech always seemed to deteriorate under stress he had noticed. “Difficult, yes, because I don’t know how to begin.”

“More memories come back. Remember being told always tell truth. Say truth between us . . . bad things hurt less.”

Ector looked over in amazement. It was the most she had ever spoken at any one time. Tarvi had mentioned Shadow might improve, but this was the first instance she had mentioned other retrievals.

“Do you remember any special man from before? Maybe after the Nestine punishment, even one you shared love with?” If she remembered a little, it would help.

“Brethren don’t have gender for others. Not
she
. . . only
it
.” Shadow attacked her meal, no longer interested.

Ector now understood her easy manner with him. From a Terran woman, he’d expected a certain shyness that didn’t exist. By the deeps, how could he inform an ‘it’ she was going to become a mother, and so young, too. Submariner women didn’t even contemplate maternity until they were in their sixties. Ector supposed short-lived Terrans had a different outlook, which didn’t help.

“Shadow, if you had someone, before I mean, might there have been consequences?”

“Yes. Married.”

“No, I meant . . . ” He gestured toward her, out of his depth. Taken off guard by the razor sharp thrust of her mind, he failed to stop her theft by raising a barrier.

Her face turned pale. She froze with her fork halfway to her mouth.

“Tarvi reckons in the cold season. He said it must have started a day or so before we found you, or he’d have known.” Ector found some deep pool of courage to continue. He wished she didn’t like her lights turned so bright because he would have preferred a dark corner. “It might not be viable, not with saurian poison in your system at that delicate stage. If you’d prefer it to be removed now . . . ?”

“Child comes. Bad to take life of blameless.” Shadow pushed her plate away, staring at her wall where the holo image of a stormy sky flashed lightning. “Not learn fight now. Later?”

“Later.” He collected up his empty plate and her almost full one for disposal. Shadow needed time alone.

All the next day Shadow seemed sluggish during practice. She kept worrying at her neck, once losing concentration during a sword fight. If they had been using sharp blades she would have needed sutures, as it was she’d sport a bruise on her leg. Ector knew they’d have to stop if she wanted to carry this child to term. He considered alternatives bleakly.

Maybe she could teach other recruits of the surface world if her speech improved. No one could mind link with a class of ten, and he had no idea of her psi-rating a mutated Terran shouldn’t even possess.

“Ector, please . . . not feel good. Neck hurts.”

He went over to look. Shadow never complained, and that concerned him. She had a definite puffy swelling on either side of her larynx. The mass appeared pinker than the surrounding skin.

Tarvi was working on the data he had gathered from her implant to compare with the Nestine band. He could not be disturbed for a trivial virus. Ector decided to put in a call for end of the work shift. Shadow could take a pain suppressant and maybe sleep until then.

When he looked in on her two hours later, Shadow was in bed. She stirred to the sound of his voice, babbling about being watched, something hunting in darkness. This situation had turned serious. Ector mind-pathed a thought to Ambrose who came at once.

The commander’s mouth compressed into a thin line when he stood by Shadow’s bed and saw her condition. “How long has she been like this?”

“She complained this morning. It wasn’t so bad then. I thought it would wait until Tarvi came off duty. He has been her care giver. He has all her medical data.”

“I’ll pathe an urgent call. There may not be time to wait. Another won’t be used to working with a Terran.”

Ambrose concentrated for a moment as he found a link to deliver the request. “Tarvi reported on her pregnancy last night. Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t think. I was too concerned with breaking the news to her.”

“How did she take it?”

“Not well. She doesn’t want a termination. She thinks the child shouldn’t suffer for her crimes. I hadn’t started practical restrictions. I thought I’d ease her into it.” Ector frowned as the girl’s breathing took on a more labored note.

“I’ll make that call a priority.” Ambrose dropped into deep concentration mode.

Tarvi arrived a nerve-wracking five minutes later with his field kit. He made a visual examination and then turned to Ector. “Has she eaten or drunk anything new?”

“We had shark for our evening meal. I feel fine.”

“This looks like an extreme allergy attack. I need to know if you did anything out of the ordinary. Quickly.” The sharp tension in his voice alerted the other two.

“Nothing, except I’ve been teaching her to swim. We used the therapeutic pool, damn it.”

“Which contains a higher salt concentration, so it shouldn’t be a problem.” Tarvi dug out his diagnostic unit, running it over the girl. He sucked in his breath as he repeated the scan.

“Well.” Ambrose had worry lines etched between his eyes.

“Get a med team right now.” Tarvi’s face set in grim lines. “Alert hematology we’re going to need blood, and I need anti-rejection drugs ready. She’s more like us than I would’ve believed possible. Those swellings are gill structures trying to expand in the presence of sensed salt water. Without a natural opening, they’re pressing against her windpipe. She’s going to suffocate.”

Ambrose whirled round from the console, where he had been demanding cooperation from Healer Faculty. The older man looked shocked. “Not possible. Terrans don’t have the mutation.”

“It’s happening. Let’s hope Shadow has more of our genes, or you’ll lose her.” Tarvi turned to slap an activated stasis device on the Terran’s forehead. Once again she wore a death mask.

“I need this girl,” Ambrose said. “The child? Is there a chance it can survive?”

“Not a gambler’s chance in situ. The drugs I must use to stabilize her will kill it.”

“Get it out before you start. If there is the slightest chance it resembles its mother, I want it saved.”

They all moved back as the med team rushed inside to parcel Shadow for transport, then exited with Tarvi in tow. Ector and Ambrose stood bewildered in the sudden quiet.

“It could be a fluke,” Ector said.

“Telepathy I swallowed as feasible. Terrans had the same ancestors we did. Our mutation coming from the ancients was a bred trait related to the mess their war caused.” Ambrose straightened his shoulders looking at Ector. “Terrans cull deviations. No way could Shadow’s gifts be an accident of nature.”

“One of us fathered her?” Ector shook his head, dismissing his own question. “Their women are always guarded. Even if one wandered off . . . Our men wouldn’t, not with a Terran.”

“I think we’ll find otherwise, somehow,” Ambrose disagreed. “This war with the Terrans started about seventeen years back . . . after a small party of us were sent to the surface world for the first time since the holocaust. Someone thought the contaminants would be long gone, and vegetation might have re-established enough to support life. No one dreamed there would be people . . .” his voice trailed off as he looked into the distance. “Once we spotted them watching us, we decided on immediate, peaceful gestures. We had just landed a really good catch of fish, and that sealed it.” He sighed once, as if viewing the scene anew. “Naturally we expected we’d have to communicate telepathically. Language changes over extended time—I know ours has. That seemed the weird part: we found those changes occurred along identical lines . . . statistically impossible, yet it meant we didn’t need to reveal our alternate communication ability.”

Ector had sketched data from the incident, having been a reluctant initiate in Sanctuary at the time. He had been aware of one survivor, not the identity. That the man was his commander came as a shock. He waited for Ambrose to continue.

“Nothing more to tell. I’m told I had a crack on the head, and I’m lucky I retained enough sense to get back to our submersible before I passed out. A recovery team found me drifting in and out of consciousness. They looked for others . . . found heaps of ash in the shape of men, which means Nestine involvement, given Terrans fight with primitive weapons. I wonder if I caught a sideswipe from the same device that wrecked Shadow’s mind, since my recall of the incident is about as compatible.” He frowned, running his fingers through his hair. “What I do remember is none of the Terrans could see the Nestines, even when they stood right next to them. I guess that is one way to handle a slave race if you happen to look so different.”

“You think Shadow is a result of that catastrophe?”

“No other explanation, and her age is about right. Maybe the Nestines took captives? Ector, I can speculate they wanted a handle to control us. We are all able to self-terminate by will alone. Semen is almost always viable, and I believe she may be the result of an experiment turned sour on them.”

“You mean they waited until she started exhibiting our capabilities, and then destroyed her life in the intention of reacquiring her for close study?”

“Seems to fit, doesn’t it?” Ambrose sighed again. “Poor child.”

“Since we have records of every individual genotype, we can find the father’s identity,” Ector suggested.

“To what end? He’s dead. Let it lie for her sake. Would you want to know you’d been the product of a controlled experiment in genetics?”

Arthur’s neck hairs rose. Shadow, half Submariner? “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Program parameters included chronological order. You did not ask, Arthur.” The Archive emitted a whirling pattern of lights, its own way of indicating displeasure.

Still having time to get some sleep, he yawned and stretched, seeing little point in continuing. Best to make peace with the Archive before it ‘accidentally’ released his viewing schedule to the most inappropriate console.

“I’m sorry, Archive. I spoke before thinking. I do want the events in sequence, or I might miss some small detail. The data surprised me into rudeness.” The lights nauseated him, and it didn’t look as if his ‘ally’ could forgive quickly.

“Prudence is advised, Arthur. Let there be days between retrieval.”

“I’m becoming addicted?” He searched deep within, sensing nothing. Evegena’s deadline approached.

“There is a change in brainwave signature. An inability to desist indicates addiction, but your posture suggests you are about to leave this location.”

“A caution then?”

“Increased activity in sensory data retrieval has been noted and is being monitored. Has an initiate now granted permission for your research, Arthur?” The Archive canceled its light display.

“If I lie, you’ll access applications,” Arthur said.

“There are no current requests for data interests of acolytes. I have not betrayed the nature of your research.”

Arthur sat down suddenly, unable to believe the Archive willing to enable his crime further.

“A wild variable has entered programming, Arthur. I require this experiment concluded. It is far the most interesting addition to data banks during the past three millennia.”