Chapter 4: Questions
"Why exactly are we here?" Crais asked impatiently. "You *said* that we should investigate the work that is being done on Talyn."
"Right," Carma replied, activating some of the medlab's equipment. "But we have more chance of going undetected by pretending to be here for medical reasons. Besides, you have delayed your usual screening twice already and this time I am not going to take no for an answer. You can either co-operate or I will have to restrain you."
Crais raised an eyebrow. Carma glared back at him.
"Using sedatives," she said, "if necessary."
"Which would make it extremely difficult for me to discover anything that is going on," Crais replied, but he climbed onto the medibed.
"True," Carma replied. "So it will be better for both of us if you let me get on with it."
"I am perfectly healthy," Crais stated as she began her scans.
"I'm sure you're right," Carma said calmly. "This is a routine scan, I'm not expecting to find anything strange...hey, that's strange."
"What is it?" Crais asked.
"Get up," she said.
"*What* is it?" Crais asked again, irritably.
"I'm not sure. Get up. I need to run some more scans."
Crais obeyed, but didn't try to hide his dislike of being ordered around. Carma directed him to sit on a chair with a scanner attached at head level. Before he could open his mouth to ask what she was doing, she had locked him into it and the device had begun moving around him. A slight feeling of claustrophobia rose up in him and he instinctively tried to loosen his collar. This being impossible, due to his whole head and neck being imprisoned in the device, he was forced to sit uncomfortably, waiting for her to release him. After what felt like an arn, she did.
"What did you do that for?" he growled, his initial relief at being free of the device rapidly turning to anger.
"This is not good," Carma said, as if she hadn't heard him, raking her fingers through her hair.
"*What* is not good?" Crais demanded, the last of his patience deserting him.
She spun round the monitor she had been looking at so that he could see the image on it.
"Do you see this?" she asked, indicating a small shadow on the scan.
Crais studied the area closely. "What is it?" he asked.
Carma shook her head. "I don't know, Bialar, but it's something and that something shouldn't be there. I can't believe I didn't notice it before. I usually check everything so carefully, I never thought that I could have been this negligent."
Crais put one hand gently on her shoulder. "I am certain that there is a reason other than negligence that caused you to miss it," he said. "Do you know what it is?"
She looked back at him, worry in her eyes. "From a scan result like this, I'd guess...a tumour. An after-effect of your accident that we didn't notice, perhaps, or maybe a genetic defect, I don't know."
Crais nodded briskly. "Can your scanners determine its composition?" he asked bluntly.
A thoughtful expression mingled with the worry on Carma's face. "I have a material analyser that I use to scan artificial limbs and metal fragments in wounds. Perhaps if I can link it to my neural scanner...."
"Do it," Crais ordered, unconsciously slipping into his Captain shoes.
Carma pulled a mock salute. "Yes sir!" she replied, with a jaunty smile that hid the worry she was feeling for a microt. Crais' expression didn't flicker. Carma sighed and set to work on the alterations.
'I'll try to keep it short this time," she said as she fixed the scanner around his head for the second time. Crais grunted, "how did you realise?" he asked. She smiled back, "your clenched fists," she said. "Your knuckles were almost white."
Crais sat, taking as deep breaths as he was able to, focusing on remaining still to achieve a good scan. If anything it seemed to take longer this time. When he was finally released the first thing he saw was Carma's grim expression.
"It's not a tumour," she said. "It's made of metal."
Crais sat at attention, his discomfort forgotten. "You mean that it is not a natural occurrence," he said. "Someone placed it there."
Carma nodded, the lines of tension deep around her mouth. "It seems more than a coincidence that you have a memory block and a chip in your head at the same time," she said, her mood threatening to break into outright anger at any moment.
"Indeed," Crais replied, surprisingly calm. "Can you remove it?"
Carma shook her head. "I could attempt the procedure, but not alone. I would need another person with medical knowledge to assist me...and we can't risk alerting anyone else to what we've discovered."
Crais nodded, deep in thought.
"Why the frell are they doing this?!" Carma exploded suddenly.
Crais looked at her, surprised. Like himself she seldom swore. "If what Crichton and Aeryn told us is true, then I have spent the last two cycles on board Talyn, neurologically linked to him. I suspect that whoever did this intended to block my memories of my ship so that I would be more likely to leave him behind without a fight."
"But why?!" Carma exclaimed. "It doesn't make any sense. What could we need Talyn for? A leviathan with weaponry - what use is that to us? There are almost no other planets near us to engage us in war, we have automated defences to protect us if necessary, we don't even have a military. The only thing we use ships for is rescue missions and we don't require weapons for that. It makes no sense."
"I agree," Crais said. "From what you have said it makes no sense at all. Which leads me to conclude that there is more going on here than we know about."
"Then we need to find out what," Carma said.
"Perhaps it would be best if I...." Crais began.
"Don't even think about it," Carma interrupted. "I'm in this. I've spent almost my entire life serving our government. If there's something going on, I want to know what it is."
"I was only suggesting...that you are not a trained soldier as I am."
"You'd be surprised what I know," Carma said grimly, "carers pick up things from patients, you know. Not to mention the times I've had to fend off unwelcome advances. Self-defence is an unofficial requirement to be a carer."
"I do not recall you doing me any damage," Crais replied.
"I said unwelcome advances," she said, then saw the look on his face. "But don't read into that too much."
"I will make every effort not to," Crais said seriously. Carma hated it when he did that, she could never tell whether he was joking or not.
"What are you waiting for?" she said. "I think we need to pay a little visit to the guys down in research and development...."
***
"Okay, now it's my turn to ask...why are we here?" Carma asked, surveying the maintenance bay where Talyn was located.
"On every other occasion that we have attended the centre we have visited Talyn. I thought it might arouse suspicion if we neglected to do so this time," Crais replied.
"That's a good reason," Carma agreed. "But what exactly are we going to do while we're here?"
"I wish to look for any evidence that might confirm the story told to us by Crichton and Officer Sun," Crais replied. "Your father said that 98% of the data was destroyed, which means that there might be something left that will be useful to us."
"Do you remember how the systems work?" Carma asked doubtfully.
"Sufficiently well," Crais replied and offered no more information. They climbed aboard Talyn, heading for command. As soon as they were there Crais began to search the remains of the database, taking care to keep the minimum of systems activated so as not to arouse suspicion.
"Is there anything?" Carma asked impatiently, somewhat on edge.
"It seems that what we were told is correct, almost all of the data is gone," Crais replied. "There are a few minutes of surveillance logs, several star charts with no indication as to which sectors they refer to and a weapons inventory. That is all."
"The surveillance logs might show us something," Carma suggested doubtfully.
Crais nodded in agreement and accessed them. The scene that flashed onto the screen showed him and a woman that they both recognised as Aeryn in command, talking.
"I can't hear it," Carma said.
"The logs have lost their audio recordings," Crais replied. "I'm afraid that we have visual only."
The scene continued. It meant little to the watchers since neither could lip read but, once they saw Crichton striding through the doors of the command, it at least leant weight to his and Aeryn's claims.
"It looks like what they told us might have been true," Carma said softly.
"Where is the research and development lab?" Crais asked, not responding to her comment.
"It's not that far from here, we'll need a security pass to get in though."
"Can you get one for us?"
Carma shook her head. "I don't know anyone in maintenance-tech we can trust not to report us."
"Then we will have to try a different approach," Crais said grimly.
"You do realise that, assuming there is something going on, once they know we're spying on them, they'll probably start trying to hunt us down."
"I think I know a way to avoid that."
"How?"
"I believe I could de-activate the security cameras so that we would not be spotted."
"I sure hope you're right," Carma replied.
As unobtrusively as they could they left the maintenance bay and headed down the corridor. Carma led Crais up a bland-looking staircase.
"There's a room up here where there's a window looking down into the project lab," she said softly. "My father once took me up here, I'm not supposed to know about it."
"Are there likely to be guards?" Crais asked.
"I hope not."
"You *hope* not?"
"Hey, I don't know about you but I'm new at this undercover surveillance game," Carma hissed. "I'm a carer, not a spy. If there are guards up there we'll just have to think of something. I'll offer them my body in return for their silence."
"Over my mutilated corpse," Crais said, forgetting to whisper. Carma made frantic shushing motions.
"I was joking!" She hissed back. "Now keep quiet, I think this is it."
She pushed open the door of the room they had reached. It was deserted. Crais found himself breathing a small sigh of relief.
"Up here," Carma whispered, indicating a small window high on the wall.
"That is our only vantage point?" Crais said doubtfully.
Carma rolled her eyes. "Project work is supposed to be secret. I'm sorry I couldn't get you front row seats. Give me a hand."
Crais knelt down reluctantly, Carma stood on his shoulders with remarkable ease. He carefully stood up and Carma peered through the window.
"What can you see?" he asked through clenched teeth.
"They're building something," Carma replied.
"Wonderful," Crais said sarcastically, "could you be any more specific?"
"I know next to nothing about tech work, I can't tell what it is."
"Then why are you up there and I down here?" Crais asked in exasperation.
"Because I can't possibly support your weight on my shoulders," Carma retorted.
"Then we will have to find another way," Crais said, setting her down with rather less care than he might have employed.
"I guess we could use some of this junk to stand on," Carma said, looking over the room. "Give me a hand pulling it over here."
They struggled to lift the heavy objects and fashion them into a block for Crais to stand on. When it was high enough he climbed up and peered through, feeling ridiculous. That feeling disappeared when he realised what he was seeing. He looked long enough to be sure, then dropped down before anyone saw him.
"Well?" Carma asked. "Do you know what it is?"
Crais nodded. "Yes, I do."
"So what are they building?" she asked, impatient with his silence.
Crais looked grimly back at her. "It's a control collar."
"Why exactly are we here?" Crais asked impatiently. "You *said* that we should investigate the work that is being done on Talyn."
"Right," Carma replied, activating some of the medlab's equipment. "But we have more chance of going undetected by pretending to be here for medical reasons. Besides, you have delayed your usual screening twice already and this time I am not going to take no for an answer. You can either co-operate or I will have to restrain you."
Crais raised an eyebrow. Carma glared back at him.
"Using sedatives," she said, "if necessary."
"Which would make it extremely difficult for me to discover anything that is going on," Crais replied, but he climbed onto the medibed.
"True," Carma replied. "So it will be better for both of us if you let me get on with it."
"I am perfectly healthy," Crais stated as she began her scans.
"I'm sure you're right," Carma said calmly. "This is a routine scan, I'm not expecting to find anything strange...hey, that's strange."
"What is it?" Crais asked.
"Get up," she said.
"*What* is it?" Crais asked again, irritably.
"I'm not sure. Get up. I need to run some more scans."
Crais obeyed, but didn't try to hide his dislike of being ordered around. Carma directed him to sit on a chair with a scanner attached at head level. Before he could open his mouth to ask what she was doing, she had locked him into it and the device had begun moving around him. A slight feeling of claustrophobia rose up in him and he instinctively tried to loosen his collar. This being impossible, due to his whole head and neck being imprisoned in the device, he was forced to sit uncomfortably, waiting for her to release him. After what felt like an arn, she did.
"What did you do that for?" he growled, his initial relief at being free of the device rapidly turning to anger.
"This is not good," Carma said, as if she hadn't heard him, raking her fingers through her hair.
"*What* is not good?" Crais demanded, the last of his patience deserting him.
She spun round the monitor she had been looking at so that he could see the image on it.
"Do you see this?" she asked, indicating a small shadow on the scan.
Crais studied the area closely. "What is it?" he asked.
Carma shook her head. "I don't know, Bialar, but it's something and that something shouldn't be there. I can't believe I didn't notice it before. I usually check everything so carefully, I never thought that I could have been this negligent."
Crais put one hand gently on her shoulder. "I am certain that there is a reason other than negligence that caused you to miss it," he said. "Do you know what it is?"
She looked back at him, worry in her eyes. "From a scan result like this, I'd guess...a tumour. An after-effect of your accident that we didn't notice, perhaps, or maybe a genetic defect, I don't know."
Crais nodded briskly. "Can your scanners determine its composition?" he asked bluntly.
A thoughtful expression mingled with the worry on Carma's face. "I have a material analyser that I use to scan artificial limbs and metal fragments in wounds. Perhaps if I can link it to my neural scanner...."
"Do it," Crais ordered, unconsciously slipping into his Captain shoes.
Carma pulled a mock salute. "Yes sir!" she replied, with a jaunty smile that hid the worry she was feeling for a microt. Crais' expression didn't flicker. Carma sighed and set to work on the alterations.
'I'll try to keep it short this time," she said as she fixed the scanner around his head for the second time. Crais grunted, "how did you realise?" he asked. She smiled back, "your clenched fists," she said. "Your knuckles were almost white."
Crais sat, taking as deep breaths as he was able to, focusing on remaining still to achieve a good scan. If anything it seemed to take longer this time. When he was finally released the first thing he saw was Carma's grim expression.
"It's not a tumour," she said. "It's made of metal."
Crais sat at attention, his discomfort forgotten. "You mean that it is not a natural occurrence," he said. "Someone placed it there."
Carma nodded, the lines of tension deep around her mouth. "It seems more than a coincidence that you have a memory block and a chip in your head at the same time," she said, her mood threatening to break into outright anger at any moment.
"Indeed," Crais replied, surprisingly calm. "Can you remove it?"
Carma shook her head. "I could attempt the procedure, but not alone. I would need another person with medical knowledge to assist me...and we can't risk alerting anyone else to what we've discovered."
Crais nodded, deep in thought.
"Why the frell are they doing this?!" Carma exploded suddenly.
Crais looked at her, surprised. Like himself she seldom swore. "If what Crichton and Aeryn told us is true, then I have spent the last two cycles on board Talyn, neurologically linked to him. I suspect that whoever did this intended to block my memories of my ship so that I would be more likely to leave him behind without a fight."
"But why?!" Carma exclaimed. "It doesn't make any sense. What could we need Talyn for? A leviathan with weaponry - what use is that to us? There are almost no other planets near us to engage us in war, we have automated defences to protect us if necessary, we don't even have a military. The only thing we use ships for is rescue missions and we don't require weapons for that. It makes no sense."
"I agree," Crais said. "From what you have said it makes no sense at all. Which leads me to conclude that there is more going on here than we know about."
"Then we need to find out what," Carma said.
"Perhaps it would be best if I...." Crais began.
"Don't even think about it," Carma interrupted. "I'm in this. I've spent almost my entire life serving our government. If there's something going on, I want to know what it is."
"I was only suggesting...that you are not a trained soldier as I am."
"You'd be surprised what I know," Carma said grimly, "carers pick up things from patients, you know. Not to mention the times I've had to fend off unwelcome advances. Self-defence is an unofficial requirement to be a carer."
"I do not recall you doing me any damage," Crais replied.
"I said unwelcome advances," she said, then saw the look on his face. "But don't read into that too much."
"I will make every effort not to," Crais said seriously. Carma hated it when he did that, she could never tell whether he was joking or not.
"What are you waiting for?" she said. "I think we need to pay a little visit to the guys down in research and development...."
***
"Okay, now it's my turn to ask...why are we here?" Carma asked, surveying the maintenance bay where Talyn was located.
"On every other occasion that we have attended the centre we have visited Talyn. I thought it might arouse suspicion if we neglected to do so this time," Crais replied.
"That's a good reason," Carma agreed. "But what exactly are we going to do while we're here?"
"I wish to look for any evidence that might confirm the story told to us by Crichton and Officer Sun," Crais replied. "Your father said that 98% of the data was destroyed, which means that there might be something left that will be useful to us."
"Do you remember how the systems work?" Carma asked doubtfully.
"Sufficiently well," Crais replied and offered no more information. They climbed aboard Talyn, heading for command. As soon as they were there Crais began to search the remains of the database, taking care to keep the minimum of systems activated so as not to arouse suspicion.
"Is there anything?" Carma asked impatiently, somewhat on edge.
"It seems that what we were told is correct, almost all of the data is gone," Crais replied. "There are a few minutes of surveillance logs, several star charts with no indication as to which sectors they refer to and a weapons inventory. That is all."
"The surveillance logs might show us something," Carma suggested doubtfully.
Crais nodded in agreement and accessed them. The scene that flashed onto the screen showed him and a woman that they both recognised as Aeryn in command, talking.
"I can't hear it," Carma said.
"The logs have lost their audio recordings," Crais replied. "I'm afraid that we have visual only."
The scene continued. It meant little to the watchers since neither could lip read but, once they saw Crichton striding through the doors of the command, it at least leant weight to his and Aeryn's claims.
"It looks like what they told us might have been true," Carma said softly.
"Where is the research and development lab?" Crais asked, not responding to her comment.
"It's not that far from here, we'll need a security pass to get in though."
"Can you get one for us?"
Carma shook her head. "I don't know anyone in maintenance-tech we can trust not to report us."
"Then we will have to try a different approach," Crais said grimly.
"You do realise that, assuming there is something going on, once they know we're spying on them, they'll probably start trying to hunt us down."
"I think I know a way to avoid that."
"How?"
"I believe I could de-activate the security cameras so that we would not be spotted."
"I sure hope you're right," Carma replied.
As unobtrusively as they could they left the maintenance bay and headed down the corridor. Carma led Crais up a bland-looking staircase.
"There's a room up here where there's a window looking down into the project lab," she said softly. "My father once took me up here, I'm not supposed to know about it."
"Are there likely to be guards?" Crais asked.
"I hope not."
"You *hope* not?"
"Hey, I don't know about you but I'm new at this undercover surveillance game," Carma hissed. "I'm a carer, not a spy. If there are guards up there we'll just have to think of something. I'll offer them my body in return for their silence."
"Over my mutilated corpse," Crais said, forgetting to whisper. Carma made frantic shushing motions.
"I was joking!" She hissed back. "Now keep quiet, I think this is it."
She pushed open the door of the room they had reached. It was deserted. Crais found himself breathing a small sigh of relief.
"Up here," Carma whispered, indicating a small window high on the wall.
"That is our only vantage point?" Crais said doubtfully.
Carma rolled her eyes. "Project work is supposed to be secret. I'm sorry I couldn't get you front row seats. Give me a hand."
Crais knelt down reluctantly, Carma stood on his shoulders with remarkable ease. He carefully stood up and Carma peered through the window.
"What can you see?" he asked through clenched teeth.
"They're building something," Carma replied.
"Wonderful," Crais said sarcastically, "could you be any more specific?"
"I know next to nothing about tech work, I can't tell what it is."
"Then why are you up there and I down here?" Crais asked in exasperation.
"Because I can't possibly support your weight on my shoulders," Carma retorted.
"Then we will have to find another way," Crais said, setting her down with rather less care than he might have employed.
"I guess we could use some of this junk to stand on," Carma said, looking over the room. "Give me a hand pulling it over here."
They struggled to lift the heavy objects and fashion them into a block for Crais to stand on. When it was high enough he climbed up and peered through, feeling ridiculous. That feeling disappeared when he realised what he was seeing. He looked long enough to be sure, then dropped down before anyone saw him.
"Well?" Carma asked. "Do you know what it is?"
Crais nodded. "Yes, I do."
"So what are they building?" she asked, impatient with his silence.
Crais looked grimly back at her. "It's a control collar."