Disclaimer in previous chapters. This is a direct continuation of the last chapter.
- . -
Sunjy reminded himself to take deep, slow breaths, trying to suck every molecule of oxygen from the thin air. He'd spent some time in high altitude areas during Miss Elizabeth's soul-searching phase, but it didn't even compare. He was pretty sure anything more than a few minutes in here would pretty much incapacitate him.
The unconscious bodies of the technicians behind him confirmed these suspicions. He was already getting lightheaded and right behind his eyes was beginning to ache.
Luckily, it didn't take long to initiate a maintenance sedation, and it was extremely fast-acting. A few commands and the drugs were administered, and the Plant responded almost immediately. He watched the power levels drop to ensure it was at a constant rate, and then he stepped over one of the fallen Plant technicians and headed back out of the control room, into the small corridor.
Air breezed in as he approached the doors, and he hurried through them, breathing deeply through his nose a few times to get a little more oxygen into his blood. He hung the next right, into the staging area, and located a cleansuit. They were designed for single-person application, though you usually had two technicians going in so it was a little easier to suit up. He frowned at it, eying the equipment and trying to determine what to put on first.
He was getting too old for this.
He began stepping into the suit, then hesitated. If the plan was to uninstall this Plant, it was because they didn't want the ship to have the power to follow them or threaten them, at least until they secured themselves a new one. But were they all going to wear the protective suits as they took the Plant . . . where? Back to one of the cities with an empty bulb? It would make driving the trucks, making fires, even sleeping extremely uncomfortable.
He looked at the suit again, and wondered if they were one-way. He sort of doubted it; whatever material blocked the harmful radiation of the Plant would probably block it whether it was on the inside or the outside of the suit. Why not just put the Plant in the suit, rather than everyone else?
Would she fit, with all those extra limbs and wings? He looked over the racks, locating the largest of the protective suits, and he grabbed it as well. Two of them should be sufficient, if he could just find a way to keep the break between them fastened closed.
Sunjy tapped the access panel and stepped into the bulb room as soon as the energy levels stabilized. Even a Plant sedated for maintenance gave off energy, and technically he was absorbing more than was recommended for a Plant technician, but he never hesitated. He'd probably absorbed twice again what he should have in his lifetime, and the worst complaint he had was that his skin was pretty much like leather now. And that was probably from the suns' radiation, not the Plants'.
And it was ridiculous to think he was going to be able to maneuver the Plant into both suits if he was in one of his own. The gloves didn't offer the dexterity to pull it off.
He circled around to the back of the bulb, climbing the short ladder to the landing just outside the maintenance entrance of the bulb. The hatch was closed, the indicator lights and meters keeping him apprised of the state of the Plant within. Everything looked clean; this Plant had gone down without a fight. Sometimes it took them longer to settle down; then again, this Plant was probably over a hundred years old. They'd taken good care of her, if she was truly from Earth as well.
Sunjy looked over the suits, arranging them in the only configuration that made sense. Most Plants had a full extra set of legs springing out of their backs, so it made sense that that pair of legs would go into the leg-holes of the second suit. That left the entire upper half and sleeves for everything else, which might fit. He knew he could remove some of that extra flesh, but he hadn't brought the right equipment and frankly, 'pruning' the Plants prior to extraction had always seemed a little on the barbaric side to him. He'd seen Vash the Stampede carry out four of them, and none of them had been 'pruned.'
Then again, while he did see a flurry of wings on those Plants, they hadn't seemed to have had enough mass. Perhaps they were able to shed it, or absorb it back into themselves? As of the last update Miss Elizabeth had given them, it was unlikely that the Stampede was going to be able to communicate with his sister Plant.
Oh well. They'd jerryrig it until he recovered enough to do whatever magic it was that he did.
The fronts of the protective suits were specialized zippers with thick panels of the protective fabric both in front of and behind, and he folded those back carefully. Ripping out the bottom of the zipper chain was relatively easy, and he tested the ability of the zipping mechanism to branch across to the two suits.
It was sloppy, and had holes, but for the most part it would do the trick. They could drape another suit over the Plant in the back of the jeep or other stolen vehicle, which would help prevent any stray energy from escaping, and once they had time to sit down he'd stitch something together. He'd had to learn a little tailoring, having protected Miss Elizabeth so long. He hadn't used the skill in quite some time. Doubtlessly Aaron would be highly amused to see him with a needle and thread.
Sunjy laid out the suit, hesitating as the material rustled oddly. Not that he expected it not to, but the pitch of the sound –
He froze, listening to the cooling bulb pinging occasionally, the hum of the lights, the vibrations still coming from the sedated Plant.
The door. He was sure of it.
And if it was Aaron or Miss Elizabeth, they would have called out by now.
Soundlessly the man backed down the ladder, glancing around the bulb room and drawing a borrowed pistol. Despite the fact that the bulb itself was not touching the ground, but rather attached to the wall, there was a plethora of equipment stored beneath it. He could try scurrying under it altogether, but there'd be nowhere to go if he were caught. He couldn't see through the bulb to the other side of the room, so he moved off to his right as quietly as possible.
If he were sneaking up on someone by the maintenance hatch, he'd approach from the left side. The tilt of the bulb in relation to the landing resulted in significantly less inobscured peripheral vision. He was probably dealing with one of the guards that had been loose in the corridor, and that also meant he was probably very lucky the air pressure hadn't plummeted as soon as the soldier had walked in.
He hooked around back to the door – no sign of entry. It was quiet and still. He still hadn't heard so much as a footstep, but seeing as he was able to move silently, it simply meant his opponent was equally skilled.
Or he was getting paranoid.
He moved around the bulb on the left, keeping the gun he'd helped himself to earlier close to his chest. There was no problem with using firearms around a bulb, except they'd shatter the bulb and then the Plant inside might react. Given that it had sedated so neatly, he sort of doubted the danger was any greater than getting cut by falling glass or absorbing a damaging dose of radiation.
Sunjy made it all the way around, back to the maintenance landing, and there was no sign of anyone.
He turned back the way he came, looking not only for bodies but for shadows.
There was nothing there.
He crouched, trying to look between the equipment under the bulb, see if he could spot a pair of feet. It was impossible to tell, though he shifted slightly to his right to get a better look.
"I was afraid we were going to just keep lapping each other."
Sunjy stood very slowly, letting his gun drop to his side. He turned his head slightly away from the bulb, to his left, and made out a shape.
"Drop the weapon, please."
He opened his hand and did so.
"And the other."
Damn.
He turned fully, showing the man both his hands before reaching into his grey uniform and removing the second pistol. This, too, he tossed, in the opposite direction of the first. No matter where he dodged he would still have access to a gun.
If the man noticed, he wasn't particularly concerned. He, too, had a standard-issue gun, and it was trained on Sunjy's head.
"My handheld won't work, as I removed my comm. device." He tilted his head slightly and shrugged. "Might I borrow yours?"
Shit. Giving him access to the network – full administrative access – was not good. Sunjy weighed his options. Give it to him and get shot. Get shot and then have him take it off his dead body. They sounded very much like the same option.
He said nothing, but he did unclip the small grey computer and toss it towards the man. He caught it expertly, without shifting the aim of his weapon, and nodded.
"I respect you," he said, in an assuring voice. "I do apologize for this."
"If you harm Elizabeth, I will come back from death to repay you for it," he responded.
The other man contemplated it, as though it were a serious threat he should take into consideration. After a moment, he replied slowly, "You know as well as I do that I don't have a choice now."
Sunjy took a slow, deep breath.
But the man didn't shoot him.
Instead, he began interacting with the PDA. After a long pause he seemed to come to a decision. "I will give you one chance to ask her to stand down. Choose your words carefully."
He watched the older, balding man's eyes shift to the PDA. He had no doubt he was still being watched, and so much as a twitch would be repaid in lead. Their conversation would be his only chance to go for a weapon, and his odds were terrible.
I'm so sorry, Miss Elizabeth. I'm afraid I am too old for this.
He watched Commander Gray study the PDA, or whatever it was displaying, before he smiled slightly. "Well done," he complimented. "But a little too reliant on technology. For a native of this planet, I'm surprised."
Sunjy remained silent, and after a moment Gray's eyes returned to him. "In fact, it's a little too surprising. Which of your party is responsible for this?" He raised the computer slightly, obviously indicating he was most curious about who had so brilliantly crippled his network.
Sunjy stared at him, keeping his eyes flat, and the commander's lips quirked. "You really are quite loyal to her. Why is that?"
He didn't shift his expression, and after a moment he got what he wanted – an almost dismissive glance back at the computer. That was it. That was his chance –
He'd said that he'd removed his comm. badge and that was why he couldn't use his own handheld. Was that because Miss Thompson had locked him out, or because they really didn't work if they didn't detect a user? Was that to prevent civilians from using the technology, and why they were all issued uniforms? And if he didn't have one –
It meant he was not able to be tracked by the ship. It meant he was freely moving around the ship.
And if he didn't signal to them that he was in danger, there was nothing to stop Gray from simply taking his comm. badge. He'd be tracked by the ship, but as Sunjy Rasse, and he'd continue to have administrative access to the network.
If he made an attempt for a weapon, he'd be shot. The vast majority of the grey dots representing crewmembers were flashing yellow, and they weren't dead, so it stood to reason that the flashing was the badge alerting the system that the wearer was in some kind of physical distress. That would certainly be a warning, and if so, it would need to happen before Gray took the badge from him.
Then again, if the commander was actually going to keep his word, she'd know damn well he'd been caught. And this plan, whatever it was, would probably work better if they could all freely move. Getting shot needlessly was stupid.
Letting Gray use him as leverage over Elizabeth was equally stupid.
He'd hesitated too long. The opportunity was gone. Gray tapped something else into the handheld, then held the computer up slightly. "Let's see if she answers," he murmured.
- . -
"Do you . . .?"
She took a calming breath, staring out the observation window. Staring at it. As though it might give her the answers.
Previous tests showed that, despite the fact she hadn't applied a psionic dampener since G-101B was captured, G-101A's telepathy was not being utilized. Then again, its condition had been all over the board. With no discernable Gate activity at this point, even with the sensors, she could assume that it no longer had any telepathic abilities.
But that was an assumption, based on the admittedly shortening amount of time the inhibiting drugs affected this Plant. She couldn't actually tell if it was using telepathy or not.
She couldn't tell anything at all.
Candice trailed off into silence, and Dr. Shrew frowned. But she didn't turn from the window. "Do I think the Plant locked us in? No. Even if it were capable, it would need to be lucid to comprehend the risk it faced, which it isn't."
She sighed. "Nor has it actually prevented us from carrying out that order," she added quietly.
And it wasn't just the door. Her equipment had stopped responding, her access to the data had been cut off, and her PDA was silent and unable to send messages. She was unable to alert anyone to the problem. As the observation deck faced both Observations One and Two, she could see that both doors were locked, though Two was unoccupied. The quarantine lights weren't flashing. The entire Infirmary was probably locked down, but without the quarantine alert going off through rest of the ship it was probable no one else knew about it yet.
Of course, it was possible the entire ship had been locked down, the production Plant was more than capable of doing so. There was no way for them to tell if this was a localized malfunction or a global one. Responsibly, she'd have to assume the former until the latter seemed likely. The Infirmary was not a place very many people visited during the average operating day, and with G-101B installed in its bulb under the watchful eye of Dr. Greer, there was very little reason for anyone to notice the Infirmary had been locked down for quite some time.
Her only real options for the culprits rested with Meryl Stryfe, Elizabeth Boulaise, and the ever-surprising Doc. Stryfe didn't seem to have the technical know-how, though Boulaise had been a pretty apt student. Doc had lived in a ship such as theirs for most of his life, and seemed the most likely to have masterminded this.
So they had somehow figured out the Plant they were so attached to was going to be destroyed, and they were trying every futile thing they could think of to stop it. Where did they think they could possibly go? The two women were the only mobile ones of their troop. Doc wasn't in any shape to be moving, let alone on his feet, and Thompson might have been capable of walking, but not understanding directions or motives. She'd slow them down far more awake than unconscious.
Not to mention G-101A wasn't in any condition to go anywhere. Nor had anyone entered its room. It lay on the examining table, absolutely still, the equipment that had been examining it reset to its default position over the Plant's feet.
It would only be a matter of time until it was discovered they couldn't be paged, and after that until someone noticed the rooms being locked. They were really in no danger, unless –
Dr. Shrew closed her eyes. There were two security guards in there with them. They were probably with Sam or, more likely, in the lounge. They were there to protect the staff from G-101A, which meant they were bored, but at least they would have the technical know-how – or the guns – required to get themselves free.
Before whoever had locked down the Infirmary found them, and armed themselves.
Unexpectedly, two chimes rang out in the room.
Dr. Shrew glanced down, then picked up her PDA curiously. The message had been a broadcast one, sent with first priority.
"Please go to sleep."
She glanced towards Candice to find the other girl staring at her in confusion. "Go to sleep," she murmured. "I guess we're going to be here awhile."
Please go to sleep. A simple concept, but with the correct syntax and a nod to common politeness. Far too complicated an idea for a Plant. The production Plant was not responsible for this.
Of course, if Doc were to send such a broadcast message – and if it was a broadcast message it went to all handhelds, not just the ones in the Infirmary – it meant the entire ship was either now aware of what he was doing, or the lockdown had affected the entire ship from the beginning.
Please go to sleep. A threat? Was he planning on knocking out the crew? She contemplated the amount of time they'd been locked in the room. Long enough to add some kind of anesthesia to the air handling system, and to knock out the filters? But such a plan would be unwise in the extreme. He'd be trapping himself in the pockets of unpoisoned air, so how would he get off the ship?
What if his goal was not to get off the ship?
What would be his goal?
If they knew G-101A was going to be destroyed in such a short time, why go to all the trouble to do it themselves? That made no sense. Obviously they did mean to get the Plant off the ship –
What if they were going for both Plants? G-101B as well? Extraction from the bulb would be child's play in its current condition.
But how would they subdue the crew between here and there?
Sound was an option as well. Frequency could be used to stun a human being, but god knew what other damage it would do on a ship made of metal. She wasn't sure the handhelds had the power to produce those frequencies, though, and not every crew member used one.
Perhaps it was just a manner of speech that she was unfamiliar with.
Shrew glanced back through the observation window, eyeing her patient. Perhaps Doc meant to use one of the Plants as a weapon, a solution to some of the problems he'd created? If they could do such extended damage to the ship from the outside, there was no doubt they could do the same or worse from the inside.
G101A couldn't, currently, so perhaps that was why no one had bothered to get it yet. G101B, on the other hand, if given enough stimulant, would come out of the coma. And since the inhibitors had been filtered out of its system, there was nothing to prevent it from unleashing the same devastating power it had done during its attack.
And what about her? Follow orders, or try to use the Plant to handle the current situation? If they meant to remove the Plant from the ship, all she had to do was hold its life hostage. She could at least stall them here, even if she couldn't stop them outright.
There was no way they could be allowed to leave with the Plant alive. That was certain. It was so unstable at this point it was a danger to every human on the planet. If its Gate was truly sealed, how long before feedback caused a massive explosion? What would the Plant's disposition be after it awoke? Would it ever be coherent again? Would it still be the more gentle of the twins?
Too many uncertainties. It couldn't be allowed to live.
She happened to be looking into the room, or she never would have noticed the light blink off. The door lock.
It was no longer engaged.
Dr. Shrew moved quickly to her console, taking inventory. She had run redundant shunts in the Plant, and two lines ran from the mechanical pump to the Plant. It was fully stocked with its normal inventory of stimulants, sedatives, inhibitors, and painkillers. The sedatives alone would slow respiration to fatal levels, mixing in the painkillers would only speed the process. She could only guess how long it would take to drain the drugs into the Plant, but less than ten seconds would probably be long enough to give a fatal dose.
And despite the fact that the wireless network was inoperable, she could still send the drugs to the Plant from the hardwired console.
The only thing that would prevent her from being able to administer the drugs would be a complete power failure, and in that case, the doors would unlock. Either was an acceptable outcome. Even if they were able to get the lines out of the Plant in time, with the doors unlocked the two guards would have an opportunity to prevent them from leaving the infirmary.
The twin doors in Observation One pulled open, and she sighed as a familiar form stepped through.
- . -
Elizabeth hurried through the large, empty chamber that separated the lift lobby from the cold generation room. There wasn't a soul moving on this level save a small dot labeled Carter, A. Unfortunately, there were about four people in the control room itself, and they'd have to be either moved or restrained. She wasn't sure she could do what needed to be done in five minutes or less.
Assuming everything went well, it would only take about three. But she'd been involved in enough projects to know you should plan twice as long as it would ideally take, and that was still an optimistic guess.
The doors opened for her, allowing her into the lab area before she went directly for the bulb. Aaron was in the staging room, for some reason – they could probably move the scientists there and depressurize it – but it might not be safe for them there.
The engineer cast around for another other door, a closet, anything – nothing. They could toss them back into the empty chamber, but it would take a long time to drop pressure there, and as that chamber also shared a wall with the hull, she wasn't sure how if it connected to a maintenance corridor that would have to be lessened as well.
That was bad planning – if the hull were compromised there, the people in this wing of the ship would be trapped. Then again, it was a cold generation room, which meant a prep room and secondary generation room. There was probably a way around the nose of the ship.
There had to be someplace to tuck those scientists. Then again, they didn't have much time to look. They could always tie them up.
She cast one last glance around the labs before she waved a hand in front of the sensor and opened the door to the staging room. Aaron was standing there, leaning casually on the wall with his normal, neutral expression. She smiled tightly, and he nodded.
"Plan changed."
"I gathered," he rumbled in that noncommittal tone of his. It was hard to tell if he approved or not. "What are we doing?"
"Lowering containment on this bulb. I'll need more than five minutes in the control room." She headed immediately to one of the storage bins in the room and started rifling through. It took a minute, but eventually she located a length of tubing, coiled neatly, and slung it over her shoulder.
"We could always put them in here."
"Not safe," she answered over her shoulder, heading out. There was no sound of him following, but she'd lived far too long with Sunjy to question whether or not he was right behind her. She usually wore high heels, and it was almost always her intent that they announce her arrival rather than hide it. The combat style boots she wore now seemed flat and wrong on her feet.
They did, however, have excellent traction. They also kept her feet warm, which was important on a cold metal ship made all the colder by the PSI shifts.
She tapped her PDA, bringing up the ship's structure and locating the control room. It was a simple command to increase air pressure in the room, and they entered as soon as pressure equalized.
She handed the coil of tubing to Aaron, who immediately unwound a length and headed for the technicians. Unsurprisingly, one of the unconscious was none other than Dr. David Greer, still in the bulb attitude chair. She didn't recognize the other three technicians, which meant it was another team – the point had been to make Knives a production Plant, hadn't it? Why would he switch out the team that actually had gotten the experience with Vash?
Slightly unnerved, she glanced at the console. Every light was dead; of course, she growled at herself, and eyed her PDA. Millie had written a routine to change the PSI in all the chambers, but she hadn't indicated how the consoles could be allowed access to the network.
And now was not the best time to ask her, lest she question why.
Elizabeth stared at the console for a moment before trying a reboot. Power was steady, but when it came back up it was as worthless as before. Elizabeth swore quietly and sent a quick message to the Infirmary console.
Please give me full control of the computers in the cold generation control room. I need it to uninstall Knives. – E
She waited impatiently, glancing at the dark bulb through the glass. Doc had said Knives was uninhibited but in a coma, and he'd been given a stimulant. Then again, the plan had also been to keep Knives in a coma even as they forced him to manifest into a fully-fledged Plant. Obviously they felt Vash being conscious had had a negative impact on efficiency.
Or they were terrified of what Knives would do, once they handed him exactly the kind of power he'd need to destroy them.
Then again, as strong as Vash had to have been to level July, and even stronger to blast a hole in the fifth moon, she really didn't know if they could overpower the bulb system. That was one thing the Earth humans that had designed the Plants had done well; designed the container to withstand many times the amount of energy that would be released within it. Then again, Plants defied physics as they knew them, so there was nothing saying the high levels of the more complex energies that Vash and probably Knives released wasn't the kind that could cause the bulbs to turn into blankets.
There was nothing saying a conscious Knives couldn't get himself out of a bulb.
But Vash couldn't.
Then again, Vash wouldn't be willing to go to the same lengths that Knives would.
Would he?
She'd seen what footage they'd had. How frantically he'd reacted, nearly breaking the bulb with his bare hand. An extremely high-tech piece of glass that could absorb kinetic energy, nearly broken by the force of Vash's blows against it. He had been desperate to get out of that bulb, and the most likely reason was that he knew once he succumbed, there would be no stopping his brother.
Vash had tried damn hard to get out of that bulb.
But he hadn't used his Plant abilities to do it. He'd done everything he could to avoid using them. Knives wouldn't be so polite.
There was no point in doubting what she was about to do.
The console blinked to life, and she immediately went over the readings. Very little in the way of Gate energy, but some. Knives was not inhibited, and was probably releasing the same amount of energy a humanoid Plant did on a normal basis. It was .02, which was extremely hard to detect, but it would be enough.
After all, once you lowered the inner bulb containment to .00, point oh two would be more than enough to break it.
And the safeguards Dr. Greer had been bright enough to place around the valve of the bulb would take care of the problem of leaving an intact Plant corpse behind.
Aaron grunted as he heaved Dr. Greer out of the chair, and she cast a glance behind her. The other three were neatly trussed and laid out on the far wall. One of them was starting to nod her head slightly, but the others were still out cold. They weren't a threat, and she had already noted the weapons Aaron had confiscated.
She turned back to the console. "Brace yourself," she warned him, and put her fingers on the slide meters that maintained containment in the inner bulb.
"Should the inner bulb reach a certain level of containment stress," Greer had said. Negative stress had to meet that criteria.
She pulled them down slowly to nothing, and squinted her eyes in anticipation of the explosion.
A second passed. Another.
"For what?" Aaron asked dryly.
"Shit," she muttered, glaring at the console. The numbers were exactly what she expected. Inner bulb containment had failed. Outer bulb containment was taking up the slack, so she lowered that to zero as well.
Nothing.
"So much for safeguards," she growled, and eyed the bulb again. The inner bulb could be accessed relatively easily, so she could just go in there and check to ensure someone didn't trip over something when they installed Knives – then again, she had little experience with laying explosives.
"Dr. Greer said the engineers installed explosives at the valve of the inner bulb, to incinerate the Plant should power levels exceed a certain point. Apparently it failed."
Aaron came to stand next to her, closing a pocketknife and tucking it into his back pocket. "I take it we're not uninstalling the Plant, then."
She smiled grimly. "He destroyed July. He wasn't the bomb, but he pushed the button."
Aaron said nothing, but headed immediately for the door. She glanced at him with an arched eyebrow, and he seemed to sense the look, because he turned back to her as he reached the doors.
"I assume you want me to double-check the explosives. You are going to wait to detonate until after I'm clear, right?"
"Don't blow yourself up," she retorted, raising the containment fields around both the inner and outer bulbs back to about twenty percent.
"W-what . . . are you doing?"
She glanced back at the speaker, the female technician. Her eyes were glassy but she was taking deep, slow breaths. So she'd figured it out. Hell, the sudden drop in pressure and the cold had likely tipped her off.
"Why isn't the team that worked with G-101A working this installation?"
The technician blinked a few times, then narrowed her eyes slightly. "You're the civilian engineer, aren't you."
"Answer my question," Elizabeth snapped, hoping a little authority would make the military woman respond without thinking.
"Answer mine," the other woman bit back. "How the hell did you do this?"
Oh, a feisty one. Maybe they'd deliberately kept her away from all the abrasive technicians while Gray tried to manipulate help out of her. Maybe this technician – the entire room, really – had been the team to originally work on Vash. After all, they didn't arrive until Vash had already been successfully installed and producing power. Maybe Greer had a different team to maintain the Plants, that she just hadn't run into because they didn't let her around the production Plant?
Elizabeth smiled coldly. "I'm sure your network technicians will be able to figure it out eventually."
The technician openly glared. "What are you doing?"
She turned dismissively, noting the other technicians – and Dr. Greer – were starting to stir. "Ending your project prematurely."
Aaron was now in the bulb room, and she watched his progress up the ladder to the maintenance landing. The console recorded his entrance into the outer bulb, and she watched the power levels. It was extremely doubtful that Knives would react to the intrusion, but it didn't hurt to keep an eye on him. A maintenance sedation now would probably kill him, if he were really already in a coma, but unfortunately it would make it a lot harder to break containment levels. Dead Plants didn't generate a lot of power.
"No!" the technician suddenly cried, and Elizabeth could hear the woman struggling with her bonds. "You're going to artificially blow containment!"
She felt a smile crossing her face, and after a moment she stopped fighting it. "Yes, I am," she admitted.
She was going to kill the man – he didn't deserve to be called a Plant – that had killed her parents. That had killed countless others. That had caused them all to be stuck on this rocky planet in the first place. Instant incineration was too kind a fate for such evil. She almost wished he was awake to be aware of it.
Vash would doubtlessly be disappointed in her.
Actually, Vash was probably going to be quite put out with her, she reflected as a light blinked, indicating the inner bulb had been opened. He wouldn't kill her, certainly, but he would be very sad.
They were exactly what Knives had apparently labeled them.
And if she thought about that long enough it would probably bother her. So she didn't.
"Stop!" the technician shouted, when she couldn't get free. "Are you insane?"
Elizabeth turned and glared coldly at the struggling woman. "Not as insane as someone that would knowingly experiment on someone as powerful as Knives! If ever there was a Plant that could break a bulb, it's this one!"
"It's the only healthy one left!" she retorted. "If you incinerate it, then any chance we have at breeding more-"
"Why would you want to?" Elizabeth couldn't keep the incredulousness out of her voice. "Would you put your own child into a bulb?"
The woman's face positively dripped scorn. "They're not people-"
"Say that after you've had dinner with one," she snapped, and glanced back at the console as it clicked, indicating the inner bulb had been secured again. It only took a few seconds for Aaron to back out of the inner bulb, and he was frowning. She hit the toggle switch that activated the intercom.
"Well?"
"Cut," he replied grimly. "It'll take me thirty minutes to re-wire this stuff. It's a no go."
Elizabeth blinked, taken aback. "By cut, you mean on purpose?"
He nodded once, then crossed his arms. He didn't have to ask.
Now what?
Her PDA chimed, and she reached for it unconsciously. A glance told her Sunjy was requesting a video conference. She closed her eyes, hoping against hope it was to tell her he'd successfully uninstalled the production Plant. Having to take Knives off the ship alive was bad enough, but if they wasted much more time –
She opened her eyes and tapped accept. Then she nearly dropped the handheld.
"You've broken the conditions of our contract, Miss Boulaise."
Shit.
The dead commander was alive and well. And using Sunjy's PDA, which meant –
She schooled her face instantly into her usual negotiating expression. "You're looking well for being dead, Commander Gray."
His lips quirked. "You noticed. I find it's easier to move about quietly without a tag."
"A bit harder to interact with the ship, though. Where is Sunjy?"
The commander actually smiled, looking for all the world like the kind, balding gentleman that had met them so congenially just days ago. "He's very concerned for your safety. You are to be commended for commanding such loyalty."
She didn't rise to the bait, and his smile faded a bit. "Your plan was quite good. A bit more advanced than I would have expected from you. Well done."
The praise was starting to unnerve her. If he had Sunjy's PDA, he could have done any manner of things – but he couldn't. He wasn't really any better than she was with the systems. He knew their capabilities, which she didn't, but he'd relied on Greer, Phillip, and Asoaurd to manipulate the displays and routines. He probably couldn't undo what Thompson had done, even though he had rights. He could have released a significant number of soldiers, though –
No, he couldn't have done that either. Surely Millie would have noticed if a series of rooms began to depressurize.
But then again, he'd just announced himself. Which probably meant Captain Faber was also alive and well. He'd fooled his comm. badge into thinking he was dead. They worked by proximity, which meant you could take off your uniform and take a shower without a problem, but if you moved a certain amount of distance from it –
But surely it would know you'd just left it in your quarters, and not alert the medical staff every time that happened? Perhaps he'd put or wrapped it in something that had simulated fading life signs rather than distance.
But without a badge the ship shouldn't respond to him at all. The doors shouldn't have opened for him. Sunjy's PDA should have shut dow-
Which meant Sunjy was still alive and well. If he were dead, the PDA would shut down to save power and prevent civilian users from accessing things they shouldn't be. It also would have alerted Millie just as the system had done for Faber and Gray.
"I'm glad you like it," she murmured. "Was there something you wanted, Commander?" Might as well get on with the asking her to stop by threatening Sunjy's life. Which she would do. If nothing else, Aaron could still shoot Knives and they'd pretend she hadn't been able to give him the order to stop before he did it.
No, on second thought they couldn't do that. Not with the five witnesses overhearing the conversation.
Bryan's face settled into the same look he'd worn during Knives' attack. "You've already given it to me," he admitted, a little wearily. "And you've long passed the point of negotiation."
"Don't," she responded immediately. "Don't even think about it." He studied her through the vid feed, and she let her eyes flash. "You start killing my people, I'll have no reason not to return the favor." She could do a lot of damage and he knew it. She could force Knives into a Last Run if she needed to, before he could get a sizable force to this side of the ship. Surely he wouldn't throw away an opportunity to avoid that -
"Of course you will," he replied after a time, unblinking. "You're not a killer, Ms. Boulaise. Your people are the larger threat."
The gunshot was muffled-sounding, but it still made her jump. Her view shifted from Gray's face to the ceiling, and seemed to pull away before the PDA landed with a thud on an unsteady surface.
"I promised your man I'd give him one chance to talk you down," his voice came over the speaker. The view of the ceiling kept shuddering, rising and falling unsteadily. "You have about a minute."
She stared at the PDA in shock.
He couldn't have. He just couldn't have –
There was a much deeper, muffled sound, she couldn't make it out but she would have recognized it in her sleep.
". . . Sunjy . . ."
He repeated the sound. It was guttural, she had no idea what he was saying. The ceiling was starting to shake a little more violently, as though the PDA were lying on the floor of a control room during a linked coupling failing.
Gray shot him. Sunjy had really been shot. Then Bryan had tossed the handheld onto him and just walked away.
Her hands were shaking so badly she nearly dropped the handheld, transfixed by the sight. He was across the ship, she couldn't get to him without running into someone. Thompson had locked all the doctors in the Infirmary, but they'd at least be able to respond, maybe save him –
"Go." The voice was finally intelligible. "Go."
"No!" She didn't dare close the communication, instead placing the PDA onto the console and using the messaging application there.
Sunjy's been shot. Escort Shrew t
" Elizabeth, what are you doing?" That came over a different speaker, and she blinked as she realized it was Aaron.
The intercom had been on. He'd heard the whole thing.
"Need to get him a doctor-"
" Elizabeth, that's what Gray wants." Aaron said it quickly. "He didn't negotiate with you because he knows you're not the one that took everything down."
She stared out the glass at him in shock. He was watching the observation window, his face deadly serious. "He knows it the same way I knew it. He's heading there right now to take out Doc. There's not enough time."
No. He couldn't have figured it out that fast. He just couldn't -
It didn't matter. They had to get Sunjy medical attention.
"G-go," the handheld repeated.
"No," she whispered. "No. I won't."
-to production Plant. – E
She sent the message, ignoring movement in her peripheral vision. All she could do was stare at the screen.
"Help's on the way," she assured it, and took a shaky breath. "Hang on."
"S-stup-id."
The ceiling was shaking less often.
The door opened, but she didn't pay any attention to it.
"Don't you dare, Sunjy." Her voice sounded all wrong, and she swallowed down a sob. "Don't you dare."
There was a hiss, that trailed off into a moan. Then another, but like the first few words, she couldn't make it out.
"No," she whispered.
The ceiling shuddered violently, seeming to grow closer before sliding dizzyingly sideways, ending in the joint of the wall and the grated floor.
Then the vid link disconnected.
- . -
Author's Notes: Please proceed to the next chapter for Author's Notes.