Zero Recall (23 page)

“How often does that
happen?”

Jer’ait glanced up,
scanning his face.  “Often.  Huouyt have a weakness to chemicals.  Our
constitutions are never constant, as with other species.  One day, a dose might
not be enough to achieve the desired effect, whereas on another day, half that
dose would kill us.  Even our self-prescriptions are mostly guesswork.”

The Human grunted.  “I
always wondered why they never let us drug enemy Huouyt.  Thought it was a
stupid bureaucratic thing.”

“It’s so that you don’t kill
them.”  Jer’ait left out the fact that, as an Eleventh Hjai with his
particular…idiosyncrasy…there were plenty of parties out there who would try to
take advantage of his helplessness.

The Human watched him for
some time.  Finally, he said, “I think I can help you.”

Jer’ait snorted.  “I did
not tell you the story so you could make false offers, Human.  I’d expect you
to kill everyone involved and I can tell if you’re lying to me.”

“I’m not offering to kill
anyone.  To hell with that.  I’m offering to set you up so you can drug
yourself.  Then I’ll stay and make sure no one adds to the mix.  Hell, I’ll
order some damned robots, let you program them yourself, if that would make you
feel better.”

Jer’ait frowned at Joe. 
“You can do that?”

He tapped the eight-pointed
star on his chest.  “Sometimes rank’s got a few perks.  I get the feeling if I
took a dump in the middle of the mess-hall, they’d laminate it.”

Jer’ait peered at the Human
for a moment before saying, “Why have you never moved past Prime?”

“Ask Phoenix.”  The Human’s
voice held uncontained bitterness. 

I did,
Jer’ait
thought. 
And what she said made no sense.
  Curiously, Jer’ait said,
“What does she have against you?”

“I don’t know.” 

Jer’ait was taken aback
by the sincerity in the Human’s voice.  “You mean you have no idea?”

The Human gave him a
sharp look.  “Do you?”

“There are rumors…”
Jer’ait said quickly, cursing himself for once again allowing the Human to get
the upper hand.

To his relief, Joe didn’t
follow up on his statement.  He sighed, instead.

“Mag never bothered to
tell me…just every promotion board I was ever nominated to stand before.”  Joe
shook his head.  “She was too young when we lost our groundmates on Kophat. 
It’s the only reason I can come up with that makes any sense.”

Jer’ait looked back at
the map.  “Arrange the operation.  I’ll get the chip.”

The Human actually gave
him a surprised look.  “I honestly wasn’t expecting you to say that.”  He gave
a huge, relieved sigh.  The pressure of holding together his groundteam, Jer’ait
decided, was beginning to show in the Human’s features. 
He actually wants
us all to live,
Jer’ait thought, more than a little stunned.  What kind of
alien cared about…aliens?  “I’ll go get that started now.”  Commander Zero
turned to go.

“But Joe,” Jer’ait
warned.

“Yeah?”

Jer’ait hesitated,
considering again how much trust he was putting in this alien he was tasked to
kill.  An alien that was, in all ways, weaker than any Huouyt in existence.  “Keep
them—” he swallowed, his voice cracking with unexpected fear of what he
intended to do.  Jer’ait looked away and gathered his composure, fighting
shame.  Once he had collected himself, he tried to appear bored and said, “Just
you and me in the room, understand?”

He felt the Human’s eyes
sharpen in a way Jer’ait did not like.  “It’s not about the drugs, is it?”

Jer’ait felt his breja
ripple once before he reined them in.  “Just us,” he said again.  “Or your team
will be down to four.”  Let him take that however he would.  Then, before the
Human could ask anything else—or deduce any more about his state of struggle
with the rest of Huouyt society, he left to gather the proper drugs.

#

Joe was watching
the robotic arm inject the Huouyt with a third small dose of the chemical of
his choice when a Ueshi in gray doctor’s garb overrode Joe’s lock and entered
the room.  Instantly, every tiny hair on Joe’s neck and arms stood on end. 

“We’re almost
finished,” Joe said, deliberately putting space between him and the Ueshi. 
“Shouldn’t be more than another ten tics, doc.”

“You shouldn’t
be in here,” the Ueshi snapped.  “I don’t know who you think you are.  This is
not
accepted procedure.  This operation is not registered.  The medicines were not
approved.  You
stole
that chip, Commander.  I tried to stall them, but
you need to go down to security right now and explain what’s going on.”

Joe eyes only
briefly passed over the Overseer circles before settling on the envelope he
carried with him.  “What’s that?”

“Medical
records,” the Ueshi said, tightening his arm over the envelope ever-so-slightly. 
“Be’shaar is highly sensitive to several different drugs.  Fatally so.”

“We know,” Joe
said.  “That’s why he’s dosing himself.”

The Ueshi seemed
to relax a bit.  “Go deal with the administrators.  I knew Be’shaar from
Eeloir.  I’ll watch over him.  He’d feel better to have me here when he wakes
up than some alien he barely knows.”  The Ueshi reached for Joe’s arm,
gesturing towards the door, but Joe quickly pulled it out of reach and stepped
back.

His eyes fell
back to the envelope under the Ueshi’s arm.  “Seems a little lumpy for a
medical record.  What else is in there?”

The Ueshi turned
to Joe, for the first time taking his eyes off of where Jer’ait lay helpless on
the table behind him.  “You will leave now, Human.  This matter does not
concern you.”  The anxiety was gone, replaced with cold threat.

Joe took another
step backwards, towards where Jer’ait lay helpless, and braced himself.  “Yeah,
it does.”

The Ueshi’s blue
eyes were startlingly empty as they fixed on Joe.  “Be’shaar was my patient on
Eeloir.  I know his metabolism best.  I’m here to watch over him.”

“Go ahead and
watch,” Joe said.  “I’m not moving from this table.”

A flash of
amusement crossed the Ueshi’s blue face and it stepped toward Joe.

Joe brought his
plasma pistol up and held it between them.  “Get out.  And quit the act.  We
both know you’re not Ueshi.”

Amusement
vanished, replaced once more with an unreadable mask.  “You would raise a gun
to a superior officer?”

“I didn’t know
Va’gans joined the army.  Aside from Be’shaar, of course.  But he’s a Peacemaker,
so he doesn’t count.”

“You think I’m
an
assassin
?”  The Ueshi’s little blue-green face showed perfect
surprise.

“Show me what’s
in the envelope.  Then we’ll decide.”

The Ueshi’s
head-crest fluttered in annoyance.  “I can have you thrown in the brig for
impudence.”

“Then do it.”

The Ueshi and
Joe locked gazes for several tics, watching each other in silence.

“Jer’ait’s
almost awake,” Joe said.  “I’m sure he’ll just
love
to see his old buddy
from Eeloir.”

The Ueshi cast
one more look at Jer’ait, then leveled his dead gaze back on Joe.  “You’ve been
marked.”

“Funny, I never
felt a thing.”

“You will,” the
Va’gan promised.

Then, in
silence, the Huouyt turned and exited the room.  Joe holstered his weapon
reluctantly.  He knew deep in his heart he should have shot the bastard.

“Joe?”  Behind
him, Jer’ait’s voice was groggy and disoriented.

Joe turned to
him, catching him when the Huouyt tumbled off the bed.  “How do you feel?”

“Fine.”  Jer’ait
tried to stand, obviously not wanting Joe to see his weakness.  He toppled
forward again and Joe threw his arm over his shoulder to hold him up.  “Need a
few more tics?”

The Huouyt
glanced at the door, then glanced at Joe, then nodded miserably.  He almost
seemed like a small child that had badly cut himself.  He acted scared.

“You want me to
wait outside, I can,” Joe said.  “If you need some time alone.”

Jer’ait nodded
silently, unable to meet Joe’s eyes.

Joe almost
turned to go.  Almost.  Instead, he dropped into a squat, so that he and the
Huouyt were eye-to-eye.  “There’s no shame in it.”

The Huouyt’s
head came up, his violet eye full of electricity.  “There
is.
” 
Jer’ait’s speech was slurred and he turned away in humiliation.

“No,” Joe said. 
He reached out and touched Jer’ait’s arm.  “You’re my groundmate.  You can
trust me.”

Jer’ait’s gaze
fell to where Joe touched his downy, cilia-covered skin.  Then he looked up at
Joe.  “Human, I could kill you in an instant, just as you are now.  You’d be
dead before you felt the prick.  Knowing this, knowing the power I have over
you, I cannot trust you.  Simply because you cannot trust me.”

Joe did not
remove his hand.  “Listen to me.  We’re gonna see each other in a lot of
awkward situations.  We’re gonna see each other battered and bloody, naked and
crying.  It’s what we do.  I don’t like it, since I always thought Huouyt were
evil bastards, but I’ve got to trust you.  You’re gonna have my back in the
tunnels.”  He laughed.  “Besides, Jer’ait.  If you’d wanted to kill me, you’d
have done it already.”

“Perhaps,”
Jer’ait said softly.  Then he stiffened, cocking his head at Joe.

“Yeah,” Joe
said.  “I know who you are.”

“The Jreet told
you.”

“Who else?” Joe
demanded.  “He was trying to bribe me into taking him back on the team.”

“I suppose it
was too much to expect for his Sentinel skills not to—” Jer’ait cocked his head
at Joe’s shirt.  “What happened to your chest, Commander?”

Joe glanced
down, then cursed inwardly.  He’d left the collar open to cope with the heat
inside the hospital room.  “A few scratches from Daviin.”

The openness the
Huouyt had showed him quickly slammed shut behind a look of steel.  Joe knew in
that moment that Jer’ait had pieced together what Daviin had done.

Sighing, he
opened his shirt, displaying the scabby symbol Daviin had carved into his
flesh.  “The furg wanted to play with my blood.”

“He bound to
you.”  Jer’ait’s steely gaze melted again, replaced with simple shock.  “As
your Sentinel.” 

“I didn’t know
what he was doing until it was too late,” Joe offered.

“Is he here
now?”  Jer’ait gave the room a wary look.

“No, he’s
outside in the hall somewhere, pacing like a nervous hen,” Joe replied.  “He
doesn’t like me being in here with you alone.”

Jer’ait’s look
hardened again.  “As well he shouldn’t.”  The Huouyt began to stand.

Joe held him in
place.  “Is there something you want to tell me about mysterious Huouyt doctors
visiting you while you’re out, Jer’ait?”

The Huouyt
jerked around to stare at him, horror oozing from its defective eye.  “You let
him attend me?”

“Hell, no,” Joe
said.  “I convinced him to leave.  Nicely.  With a gun.”

“How?” Jer’ait
snapped.  “Did he touch you?”

“No.  I’m not
stupid.”

Jer’ait’s gaze
sharpened.  “Did he carry anything with him?”

“Yup.  An
envelope.”

Jer’ait’s breja
rippled.  “And you’re
sure
he never touched me?”

“There was a
pissed off Congie with a plasma pistol standing between you and your enemies
the whole time.”  Joe squeezed his groundmate’s shoulder.  “Don’t worry.  I’ve
got your back.”

The Huouyt
lowered his head, saying nothing.

“So who was he?”
Joe demanded.  “Something going on I need to know about?”

“No,” Jer’ait
said abruptly.  He stood.

Joe tried to
help, but Jer’ait shook him off.  The openness was gone, replaced with the same
cold, hard indifference Joe had always seen.  “Thanks for your assistance,
Commander.  I will see you at the next briefing.”

“You jackass,”
Joe snapped.  “I just saved your life, you know that?”

“No you didn’t,”
Jer’ait said.  Then, seeing Joe’s face, he amended, “He wouldn’t have killed
me.”

“Well, he wasn’t
there to chat war stories,” Joe snapped.

“Goodbye,
Commander.”  Jer’ait turned to leave.

“How about
dinner?” Joe called after him.  “You’ve missed every single team chow.  The
others would like to get to know you.”

“No they
wouldn’t.”  Jer’ait walked to the door and left.

Daviin stuck his
head in immediately.  Locating Joe, he immediately seemed to calm.  “The Huouyt
did not look happy.  The surgery failed?”

“No,” Joe said. 
“I asked him to join us at chow.  Anyway, you might as well show up for dinner
tonight.  No more point in pretending you won’t be going down the tunnels with
us.  He knows what you did.”

“You told him?!”
Daviin roared.

“He saw the mark
you carved into my chest, thank you very much.”

“You mean you
didn’t cover it up?  Vara’s tek
,
Human, I
lied
for you.  That’s
at least four levels of hell for every syllable.”

“Good,” Joe
said.  “So you won’t have any problems doing it again.”

Daviin
stiffened.  “No, that’s not what that means.”

“We had a
visitor,” Joe said.  “I think it was a Huouyt.  The nasty kind.”

“Damn you, Joe!”
Daviin roared.  “I
knew
I shouldn’t have allowed you to ban me to the
outer hall.”

“The Huouyt was
here for Jer’ait, not for me.”

“But you stood
in his way,” Daviin growled.  “He would’ve killed you, too.”

“Probably.”  Joe
puzzled over Jer’ait a moment more, then sighed.  “Be at dinner tonight.  I
want you to regale them with the tale of how you finally made me crack like a
piji
shell.”

Daviin wrinkled
his scaly snout in distaste.  “A lie.”

Joe winked. 
“How’d you guess?”